MLS is Back with Arman Kafai | Sunset SC Ep.10

All right, welcome into another episode of the Sunset Soccer Club.
I'm Tyler Kern and I'm proud to announce we've made it into the double diggies.
This is episode number 10 of the show.
Thank you so much for joining us here as we talk all things soccer.
Just talking about the things that you need to know to prepare you for the World Cup coming
up this summer here in North America.
We are 106 days away as we record this on Wednesday, February the 25th.
So thank you so much for joining us here for this episode of the program.
Coming up, we're going to talk to Armand Kaffai from football analytics musings.
He's going to talk to us about week one of the MLS season that took place this past weekend.
A lot of goals, a lot of fun, some really, really good games, some impressive performances
from some teams and a surprising one that we're going to talk about.
So you don't want to miss that conversation coming up later in the show.
But let's get to the kickoff where we're going to talk news and other things you need
to know to start your soccer weekend.
All right, this is the kickoff where we talk about news, notes, items from around the
soccer world.
First and foremost, there's obviously violence going on right now in Mexico and the United
States has our own concerns here at home when it comes to civil rights abuses.
And so there's been some talk just around concerns about the World Cup this summer.
Now FIFA has announced very, very recently this week that they don't have any concerns
about Mexico's ability to host the games that they are planned to host for the 2026 World
Cup.
This is a rapidly evolving situation due to the cartel violence going on right now in
Mexico.
And I think it feels very disingenuous to approach this from a soccer perspective, but
this is a soccer show.
But the violence is impacting people's lives.
It's impacting people's businesses and their ability to live their lives and that sort
of thing.
And so this probably isn't the best platform to discuss what's going on there from a larger
context.
But for somebody that has a lot of knowledge about this, go follow John Arnold and all
of the things that he writes about on getting conquercaft.
You can follow him at John Arnold FC on Instagram.
Just for more in-depth analysis on everything that's kind of going on there in Mexico.
He's lived in Mexico.
He's fluent in Spanish.
He's covered Mexican soccer for a very, very long time and so make sure to go check out
what John is talking about on his channels to get just a more full update.
But for right now, the update that we have is that FIFA and Mexican officials are both
saying that they are confident in Mexico's ability to safely host games coming up this summer.
More on the actual soccering side, Weston McKinney is rumored to be nearing a new contract
at Juventus.
This is a big deal.
He's out of contract this summer and we've kind of been talking a little bit about how
weird it would be if he left, but also just kind of what that would look like, where he
might go, especially as he's in the midst of a career year, really, for Juventus and
Fuluciono Spaletti, their manager that came in earlier this season, looks like he's
going to be staying in Turin at Juve, so that'll be interesting to follow.
I really hope to have his contract situation kind of wrapped up before we get to the World
Cup.
So the younger into the summer can be distractions, can be an extra thing on a player's mind, and
it's the kind of the last thing that you want heading into a World Cup summer.
We got good news on two different fronts for injuries for US men's national team players.
First, Tyler Adams made his return to the field for Bournemouth.
That's absolutely massive.
I mean, we're a few weeks away from the final kind of roster camp before the pre-World Cup
friendlies for the US men's national team, and so as Mauricio Pochettino is making
decisions about who he's going to call in, who he's not seeing a healthy Tyler Adams
on the field for Bournemouth is massive, it gives me a lot of hope that he could be called
into this March camp here in just a few weeks and be a part of those March friendlies, because
as we talked about pretty extensively on the show, I think it just gives you a data point
for who he can play next to most effectively on this team.
I think it is interesting that we don't have a clear picture of the US men's national
team's midfield, and how exactly it would set up if everybody is healthy, and so I am
fascinated to see how this might change things, does this mean a positional shift, kind
of having more players at your disposal, fascinated to see what Mauricio Pochettino does, but
having a healthy Tyler Adams who's playing again for Bournemouth as a massive deal as
is, Ricardo Pepe playing and scoring for PSV in his return following that broken arm
that he suffered in December, we talked about that a couple of different times as well.
Very, very good to see Ricardo Pepe back on the field for PSV, Indehoven, scoring against
Heronvin in the area of the busy.
Again, rumors for Ricardo Pepe being moved to Fulham in the summertime, that would certainly
be a fantastic move for him coming into the Premier League.
Anytime he's playing, he's scoring pretty regularly for PSV, and it's a crowded striker
field now for the U.S. men's national team.
You have Haji Wright scoring regularly in the championship, but you still have Fulham
Baligan who is scoring a ton in league oom right now in France for his side Monaco.
And then, I mean, you add Ricardo Pepe to that.
There are U.S. men's national team strikers scoring, kind of just all across Europe, and
so it's a great dilemma to have, it's wonderful to have a lot of guys that are all scoring
goals, but you wonder what that pecking order looks like now that Ricardo Pepe is healthy,
how to see a factor into that March camp window as well.
Does he get a call in?
Does he get some runs?
Does he get a start?
Something along those lines.
Just to kind of figure out what that striker pecking order is, is it Fulham Baligan at
the top?
If so, is it Pepe next?
Is it Haji Wright next?
How do they kind of fit together, I think, is a big question that needs answering along
with him in field?
And so, good problems to have from Mariso Pachitino, as it looks like people are getting
healthy and playing, distractions are being removed.
So, really, really hopeful that that stays the case for the next couple of weeks, heading
into those March friendlies, and once we get that March camp roster.
Okay, that's going to do it for the kickoff for this episode of the show.
Coming up next, we're going to talk to Armand Kaffai, so stick around, we're going to
talk all things Major League Soccer Week 1 when we get back right here on the Sunset Soccer
Club.
MLS is back in action this past weekend, and so joining us to talk about all of the action,
things that happened around our preeminent league here in North America, is Armand Kaffai.
He writes football analytics musings, you can follow him there, to get a really statistical
kind of look at Major League Soccer, as well as, I realized the other day, I was not paying
his close of attention as I used to, to like the different roster mechanisms that take
place in Major League Soccer as well, and so Armand covers that about as well as anybody
else.
We're just on the show now to talk about week 1 of the MLS season, Armand, thanks for
joining us, man.
Thanks, you caught me in my car again, so you guys get nice little view of the car.
The Tesla looks nice today, buddy, it looks very nice, I appreciate it, excited to be
on.
Well, thanks for joining us from your car, from anywhere, it's car combos with Armand,
we'll make it a regular thing, throughout the MLS season, just to kind of talk about
what's going on in the league, but week 1 is in the books for Major League Soccer, a
lot of wild results all over the place.
Armand, I kind of want you to take it where you would like to go, what was the most surprising
results of week 1 of the MLS season?
It has to be the Red Bulls, I mean, everyone did not expect this team to be that good.
Michael Bradley is a first year coach, she only coached half a year at MLS next pro with
Red Bull 2, but if you actually looked at their games with Red Bull 2, I surprisingly
watched the MLS next pro final, which I don't know why, but I did that.
It doesn't surprise me.
His games are wild ass, like you're talking about scores are 75, 74, just a really interesting
style of play, and when the lineups came up, you were looking, you were like, whoa, Eric
Chippewa maximum moting is not on the starting lineup for Julian Hall, what's going on
here?
They put on, look, in the end, if you look at the advanced numbers and stuff, it wasn't
as much of a beat down because Orlando could have pulled together a little bit in the second
half.
But my goodness, like the first 30 minutes, I was like, oh my God, what's happening?
This team is playing really fun soccer.
They're constantly attacking Rubo Cobb on Kate Kowell or causing havoc on the wings.
And Julian Hall is just popping up, they're scoring a brace.
They started with, I think, 3-17 year olds.
It reminded me, TK, because we both used to be involved with FC Dallas, we as a general
S&U were on the radio side, when FC Dallas was doing their whole youth thing, and they had
so much youth coming through the academies, that it was like, whoa, this is, I feel like
we've been kind of missing that MLS a little bit, but maybe I'm like wrong or something,
but like, until San Diego FC kind of came on this scene and started playing the USU-20
guys, we hadn't been really seeing 17, 16, 18, like all these guys.
Instead, we were seeing a lot of, like, kind of, you know, a little shift to an older
league as a league, I guess, want to, quote, quote, improve and kind of going away from
as much as a youth movement, but to see the Red Bulls play the way that they did with
Michael Bradley in his first, you know, game.
I was, I was stunned, TK, like, legit, how was stunned?
And it wasn't just the three teenagers, right?
Like, across the board, I mean, it was a bunch of 22 year olds and younger, and then a
Emil Forsberg, who's like 35, but like, I mean, Justin Chey popping up from wherever
the heck he's been in his career up until now.
You mentioned Kate Cowell wreaking havoc on the wings.
It was just, it was a really, really youthful, fun performance out of New York Red Bulls,
and I'm with you.
I genuinely did not see that coming from them.
Not even like remotely, because everyone's like, oh, what are they going to do?
The Red Bulls aren't really known as a talent factory, but they did win the MLS next
pro.
Like they won the cup against the Colorado Rapids, and it just was like so just out of left
field.
It was fun to watch.
And now I'm looking at the schedule, they play the revolution at 130 on Saturday.
I'm like, I want to watch that game now.
I'm interested to see what Michael Bradley brings to the table.
If I've heard really good things about Michael Bradley, like, I'm not surprised by that,
but I'm surprised that in the first game we saw it the way we did.
That's the thing.
And every time, if you were watching MLS 360, every time that it cuts to that game, it'd
be like, whoa, Red Bulls hit the post.
Rebels on the attack.
Oh, man, Kate Cowell is absolutely cooking.
Okay.
Like, did not expect that at all.
It felt like we looked at a lot of sort of, oh, are these guys tanking?
Like, what's going on here?
I've always seen with guys, but like, then you look like, oh, maybe they actually were
onto something there's, I was pleasantly surprised with the Red Bulls.
Totally surprised.
It's, uh, tanking New York Rebels, not realizing they're not in the NBA or something
like that.
But instead, no, they're awesome.
It's, uh, no, it was, it was really, really good to see, uh, at a New York Rebels.
I've been a, uh, long time Michael Bradley fan.
So that, that made me particularly happy, um, other amazing results from the weekend, uh,
what other teams that maybe stood out, who, who perhaps had, like, maybe the best win,
um, in week one of the, uh, the MLS regular season.
I really, really enjoyed Nashville's performance against the revolution.
I really enjoyed it.
I was, like, I know people say, I'm just saying, LAFC over Miami, like, that was a really
impressive result.
And that was, but Miami's still trying to figure out things.
And I think they'll be fine regardless of the LAFC.
I think LFC, we knew would be a top team.
Nashville's one of those teams that last year, I think we talked about a TK kind of in
the playoff run, how they were kind of like the analytic darlings because they had consistently
been having these amazing numbers and just weren't getting the results.
It was just a really bizarre circumstance, but I really liked the addition of Krishna
Spinoza.
I like, I love what their movements were.
I loved what a warm admiral did, uh, in their, in their, in their game, he, he was excellent
on the wing as well too, uh, Serge, I think is like, honestly, kind of underrated.
It's a really weird thing because if you listen to a lot of MLS previews, you're like,
Oh, Peter Muso is going to do this, this, this, and oh, we have Messi and oh, yeah,
go on.
And Serge gets lost in that and it's like, this guy has, it was excellent last year and
it was off to a great start this year, honey, Mukhtar as well.
I just, you know, TK went, we, we think of BJ Callahan.
We think of his kind of tenure when he was, uh, the U.S. assistant and however was like,
wow, this is a really fun, pretty soccer.
He's kind of continued that and he's completely shifted the way Nashville's played from
when they were under Gary Smith, which for those who don't know Gary Smith, he plays a
very kind of, I would say a little bit more towards anti football, whether it's sitting
back, looking to counter quickly, et cetera, we're going to be a low block and frustrate
you.
Others might call us Harambo, depending on what you, uh, uh, where an area you are, um,
but soccer, soccer terrorism, soccer terrorism, exactly, and it's like, but they've shifted
to like a team that builds out the back that has great passing patterns that is really
vibrant off the ball and, sure, some of the goals kind of look really making my house
when you look at it.
Oh, it bounced off this and this, but the movements leading up to the goals.
I thought we're really great.
And now they play, uh, FC Dallas this weekend, which I think is actually like low key, a
sneaky, interesting matchup with two of the best strikers in the league going against
each other.
I think that's going to be a really fun game.
I was really impressed by Nashville, TK, like it was just surprising, like how, like,
like, again, like I'm not looking for, oh, like I expect it to be good and they were
good.
It's easy to say, but like Nashville, like, if I was looking at them and based on their
form last year and some other things, I would probably pegged them as a legitimate contender
going into it.
And now they also drew Miami and the CCC as well too, after advancing and being a, uh,
dominating, I thought I'd go Ottawa and they're two legs.
So that's going to be even more fun serious to watch.
So for me, I'm impressed by Nashville, this, this week will be a really good test against
FC Dallas, who had a good victory over the weekend as well too.
So, uh, yeah, really impressed by what BJ Callahan is going to be building over there.
Looking ahead, even to that matchup, I felt like FC Dallas was kind of what we expected
right, Peter Musa scores, that totally makes sense, a little bit of a mess at the back,
which might come back to bite FC Dallas in a matchup against the team like Nashville that
has the attacking talent, like you mentioned, uh, looking ahead that, yeah, I think that
that one does look like a fun one.
Is that a, is that a proper assessment of the hometown team FC Dallas just, uh, yeah,
a good in the ways that we expected them to be good, uh, a little bit maybe messy in
defense.
It's Peter Musa bus for FC Dallas.
I mean, look, if you, if you, if you watched the game, Peter Musa vital role in all three
of the goals, right, uh, the first goal, uh, he's just, he's just causing havoc boom.
Second goal, he drops deep places, long ball over the top, again, causing havoc.
We're, uh, Toronto FC defender for my FC Dallas player, Walker Zimmerman almost runs into
his center back and Logan Farrington takes that in scores.
And the third goal is just great off ball movement by him to get them to get in the box.
He actually, if you watch it, he actually advances the ball, progresses the ball, the midfielder
camera, who it was exactly finds Musa, Musa then sprays it out wide.
Musa then comes back and said makes the run, heads it in.
Uh, like back line, they were shaky.
They were very shaky.
Um, I'm not surprised just based on the lineup that they have produced.
I mean, uh, you have a former, uh, outside back in Shaq Morris.
Now you're also your third center back.
You have Sebastian Ibiaga, who's been kind of shaky.
Um, and you have Ozaze Yurgide, who's great last year.
So you have all these three guys.
You have Michael Cody, who's his first year as a starter.
He had a great time ending the year last year, but that's a small sample size.
And we have to be careful to like over analyze small sample sizes, uh, and he did let out
a rebound that Toronto did end up bouncing on and scoring.
Um, I think what you're going to see from Dallas is a team that is going to be very direct
with the ball.
They want to go forward.
Uh, they want to be.
They're going to sit back.
They're going to freshen you, but they're going to go at you with speed going forward.
And I think a lot of that relies on Peter Musa and co and I think Peter Musa has a lot
to prove.
He wants to make the Croatian national team roster.
He keeps scoring goals.
He is at a, um, he's a little bit further, I guess, because he's plays an MLS.
And I'm like, he did get the call up, but that call up, if you remember, was all player
got hurt and he got caught, made the most of it.
So he has a lot to prove.
So I'm sure he's going to be going at people left and right, trying to score as many goals
as possible.
Him and Farrington up top with Musa at this level.
He's going to be there.
I'm going to outscore people and they're going to, I think, be asked to do so just with
how shake yet in the defenses.
I think you're not going to expect the prettiest soccer FC Dallas.
I think it will be very entertaining to watch.
I'm interested to see that contrasting.
It's a style like Nashville where you've kind of established his style with three really
good attacking players and a solid defense and a solid system that wants the ball.
How is that going to, how is that going to compare?
I actually.
I would probably peg it like on, like if you look at those Saturday games, it's like
the game I want to watch the most.
If you look at the rest of the games, I think it's, I think it's definitely up there compared
to some other games.
All the other good matchups are moved to Sunday night or on Sunday night, but on Saturday,
I think that's kind of your matchup of the week.
So definitely excited to see how that works out in the atota stadium.
I love it.
I love it, especially just having some entertaining soccer here locally is always a, always a good
thing.
It's better than, better than the altering soccer, that's for sure.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And we've, we've seen our fair share of that.
There were a couple of results just with kind of eye popping scorelines.
You mentioned Nashville beating in New England, four to one.
San Jose beating sporting Kansas City, three nil, San Diego taking out Montreal, five nil.
Many teams that you can just, from one week, look at and be like, I thought that team was
going to be bad and they are in fact bad.
Any teams like actually in trouble one weekend sporting Kansas City, I have no idea what they're
doing.
Well, I'll take it back.
It seems that they're kind of punting on this year.
I mean, it's, they barely have enough players to feel a roster.
So it's like, what's going on?
You have a coach in Rafa wiki who again, isn't going to complete preseason with all the
guys that he needs.
So like, how are you going to be good?
That's just the fact and they looked bad and it's not like, I don't think San Jose is
a well-beater of a team, but they got absolutely crushed.
I mean, the only bright side is that they played a little bit more of a youthful team, but
it seems like to me, it's going to be a very slow bill for David Lee.
I mean, David Lee is our new sporting director.
They brought from NYCFC, he replaces Peter Vermice who was there forever, right?
That was, if you talk SKC, you think of Peter Vermice even now, right?
And I just, I don't see it like, I don't see it working out for them right now.
I see it as a slow bill and it seems, they're the most evident team in my opinion that are
saying we're worried about 27, 28.
They're not making any moves, they, they, again, they barely have enough players to feel
a roster.
Rafa wiki had like, like, 18, 19 players in preseason.
How can you get cohesive idea to me?
I think the ownership changes playing a role in this, that, that, that changing hands
and maybe some, maybe a little bit of a slower move.
I think David Lee wants to build out his infrastructure.
I think that's one aspect too.
And yeah, it just seems like it's going to be a really slow bill from, but I think SKC
is going to be bad.
And I think if you're a Western conference team, you're looking at there, you're looking
at them, you're saying, we need six points every time we play with those guys at home
in a way.
So we'll see what happens, but I, they did not look good, man, in Montreal, I think we
all look so expected to be bad.
Like they have, they're like the island of misfit, like, players, like, I like the players
that they add, but like, it's just like a so random who they're adding, Brian Vera,
Efra Morales.
They got last year from Atlanta United, total avales, who they got from, you know, Miami
gets sent off again.
Like, how many red cards is guy going to get?
Um, I mean, everyone, they have no direction, no, I don't know what they're doing, but SKC,
I, I think is worse at the moment than what we saw in Montreal.
Well, it's also surprising, I think just for those of us who've watched the league for
a long time, just because for so long, Kansas City was just like a model organization that,
um, you could model for small market, yeah, and the team that, that's so successfully
rebranded and, and they were just consistently good, consistently in the playoffs.
And Peter Ramirez was just always there and you kind of just knew what you were going
to get out of supporting Kansas City every so often they challenge for a supporter shield
or for the top of the Western conference.
But for the most part, you knew, okay, they're going to be in that, you know, anywhere
from one to four in the Western conference and they're going to be, they're going to
be good.
And so it's, I think for those of us that have followed Major League soccer for a long
time, um, it's surprising to see where they are.
And I, I mean, I wonder in this particular kind of iteration of Major League soccer,
now a smaller market team, I suppose you should have to do it through savvy moves and
not like the gigantic big messy sized kind of contracts and, and that sort of thing.
But I think it'll just be interesting to watch how a team likes born in Kansas City rebuilds
after such a sustained period of success.
I think so too.
And I think I'm really fast and to see if you're new ownership injects more money into,
uh, into the club as well too.
I mean, don't forget.
I think it was Ronaldo who was linked with SKC like way back when like there is like
some weird, there was, there was some weird pull before he just had to go to Saudi Arabia.
So again, I wonder if that influence plays a role, they've even a little bit of my homes.
I mean, people do look at my homes and are like, Hey, like this guy is a superstar and
he built it all in Kansas City.
Like why, like, why can't, uh, why can't I, for example, um, I don't know if that's your
, I don't think SKC will get Ronaldo, but, uh, what, um, what I'll, I'll, I'll see you
Ronaldo holding up to like a barbecue joint in Kansas City and like, yeah, getting some
brats.
Yeah.
Like over there, like, it's, yeah, it's just, it's this fast thing because I like TK is a
really weird season for MLS teams, uh, and for the, uh, viewers, listeners who don't
know, MLS is switching, uh, schedules were right now they play from about February to
December.
They're going to switch and play from July, uh, to, I think it's May, uh, or April, May
or April.
And this flip means that this is the last year of MLS doing this, this, this, the format
the way it is.
So after this year, there'll be a sprint season for the first part of 2027 and then they'll
kick off the 2027, 2028 year.
You have to keep them to back your mind for an MLS team because you want the flexibility
when you switch in theory, switching the calendar will allow you to get better players
in the summer window, which will allow you to kick off the 2027, 2026 and with a bank.
And also, I think some team are trying to capitalize on the World Cup as well too, but
having open DP spots to where it's like, okay, if, you know, a player wants to come to
America after World Cup, well, we'll have a spot for him and we can capitalize that and
use that or marketing stuff and print from our club better, et cetera, et cetera.
So I think there's a lot of factors involved, which I don't really mind us to see if you're
punning to punning, but like, it's going to be bad for fans this year, I would say.
It's rough.
It's rough to see.
But that schedule shift is going to be very interesting to watch how teams navigated.
I think Dan Hunt said that FC Dallas was keeping a roster spot open.
Are they keeping a DP slot open or just a roster?
They're keeping a DP spot open.
Yep.
Interesting.
Very, very interesting.
That was a weird one.
That was a weird one.
I will say.
Why is that because, because FC Dallas isn't going to go get a World Cup caliber, you
know, flashback, like a World Cup caliber player.
It's that they put themselves in a situation where petermostos decision now impacts everything
they do.
If they hit on the 10 last year, which they tried to do to a costa, they missed for
whatever reason, that like, if they, because look, I like to have a DP of petermostos
thing.
It's about three to four years, nonetheless.
You're approaching your three.
You're in your three right now.
He is a great player that is bound to get European interest, even admitted, I think, that
he did get European interest in some capacity.
Now you're like, do we get a guy that matches with Moussa or are we going to have to tear
it all down if Moussa, if we get offered it, we can't remove, can't refuse from Moussa,
you know?
So they've kind of put themselves in that situation now where they've kind of tied
themselves to Moussa's future.
What's going to happen?
I don't know.
If you hit on Lucho, then you're going into year two of Lucho and Moussa, and maybe you're
coming off from the playoff run or something like that.
Maybe you can convince Moussa to stay at a, I don't know, but they've basically tied their
future and how the roster builds going with petermostos.
And I think that one is really, it's just kind of the culmination of all the roster
zones they made leading up to it.
Because Moussa's a guy on the fringe of his national team, right?
It's like Sam Sourge.
Sam Sourge plays for England, right?
He's not going to make the English national team, all to respect the Sam Sourge, could
have to have an incredible year and probably go back to Europe if you wanted to.
But Moussa is in the Croatian hunt, you know, like he's a good player.
He's got to get a history.
So that one's interesting.
I know they're saying what they say they are, but I feel like a lot of is also like that
and also how are they really making that much money with the renovations and having
a half open stadium?
I don't know.
Yeah, speaking of teams trying to capitalize on the World Cup bump, FC Dallas is going
to have a construction zone as their stadium.
When play resumes post-World Cup, which, it won't be open post-World Cup.
Oh my God.
It won't be open.
It's going to be in the world for the first nine games.
It's, it's own podcast episode, I think, in and of itself is just maybe the thoughts
about that kind of, that planning and kind of what went into that for FC Dallas.
But if we shift away from that a little bit, any other teams that could that stood out
in in week one of MLS action, I mean Seattle had a nice win over Colorado, but Colorado
was rough on the eyeballs as far as I could, as far as I could see.
But any other notable results or any other teams you want to highlight?
I think San Diego's legit again.
They had that big win against Pumas in the CCC.
They come out, they smash them on, and when they smashed Montreal, okay, they smashed
them.
Like they, they have a downtown man, whatever.
They still were playing their attractive, pretty football as they used to as they do.
I really like what San Diego is doing.
I think the other team that released it out, I mean, obviously I'd, I'd press LFC, I mean,
they looked outstanding and they're in their win against Miami.
Miami looked rough, but I mean, it is what it is like that's, that's kind of where you're
going to get.
I'm really interested to see the change of St. Louis city because they were just teamed
those super direct that one put long balls on top.
They got their coach Johan Demay, who comes from Wolfram Nancey's system at Columbus.
He wants the ball.
He wants to build out the back.
I want to see how St. Louis evolves.
I'm really, like, it may work.
It may be really bad.
I don't know, but I'm just interested to see that change because I've ever watched that
first game.
I was like, wow, they're not playing the way they normally do.
Oh, wait, this is their new normal.
Oh, this is kind of weird to watch.
So I'm definitely interested a little bit in what we see with St. Louis, but I think, I
guess that San Diego, man, I think they've built a pretty good culture there with Mikey
Vars, their coach and using these youth guys.
They told Chuck Luzano go away, basically, and they've been fine in the first three games
without them.
So pretty incredible to watch.
Absolutely incredible to watch.
I kind of love to see it from from San Diego saw rumor of Antoine Griezmann to Orlando.
You got any interest in that?
I would love that.
Antoine Griezmann is a great player.
Whenever you get a player like Antoine Griezmann to Orlando, that's like excellent.
Like, they need to fill out third DP spot and people are going to be like, well, they're
offense wasn't a big deal.
It was their defense.
It's like, okay, but do you hate fun?
Like, at that point, it's just like, it's just a fun move, you know?
Like, maybe tactically, maybe it doesn't work out.
Like, I was like, whatever, because the defense is way worse, who cares, man?
A guy that Griezmann, we seen it with son.
It just elevates your team to another level, right?
Was LFC bad before son?
No, no, they were good, but son and his presence brought everyone's A game up.
I think you're going to see the same thing with Griezmann and Griezmann.
If Griezmann joins Orlando City, I think you will see an elevation of everyone's game.
And look, people are always 34, whatever, blah, blah, blah.
He's 34 and good.
Like, he's good, he's good.
You put three years of him or however much he'll love his life.
You can go watch the NBA.
Like, these are great moves.
Like I would, like, again, people like I think sometimes who overanalyze these things
are like, sometimes when you just forget a good player, he will be good.
That's all it is to it.
I'm on team having fun.
I'm here for the vibes and, you know, messy, messy Griezmann.
All these guys going to be down in South Florida, which should be awesome.
So maybe they would ask you in Chicago.
Heck yeah, heck yeah.
Yeah, let's just do a Serie A revival here in the, or sorry, not Serie A, La Liga revival here in MLS.
I'm here for it.
I love it.
I love it.
They try playing game.
They try to play a game here.
So, oh, yeah, that's true.
We'll see if that ever ends up happening or if that gets caught up in legal limbo again.
Car conversations with Armand, talking MLS soccer here on the Sunset Soccer Club.
Armand, thanks for joining us.
We'll have you on throughout the season.
Keep chatting about MLS and make sure to go read anything Armand writes, football,
analytics, musings on substack, anything else Armand, anything else that we need to alert
the people of watch MLS is fun.
Watch MLS, watch MLS, there's some dumb things that happens, but it's really fun.
You don't need a special subscription this year.
You just need Apple TV plus.
So, which also gets you F1.
So, if you're a big F1 person, you get MLS automatically.
There you go.
MLS, F1 and vice person.
Heck yeah.
Armand, thanks for joining us, man.
Thank you guys.
All right, y'all, that's going to do it for this episode of the show.
Thank you so much for tuning in to this one episode 10 of the Sunset Soccer Club.
Really happy to have 10 episodes under our belt.
Thank you so much for riding with us, for sticking with us.
Again, this is a show that is just meant to share our love of soccer here.
It's near and dear to my heart and hopefully bring more people into the soccer
fold as we head into a World Cup summer.
It's such an exciting time.
If you enjoyed kind of everything going on with the Olympics the past few weeks,
I think the World Cup is going to be that on steroids here in the US.
And so it's going to be really, really incredible to see.
And what this show is aiming to do is just to help get you ready, get you excited,
and kind of feel that intense pride and passion that comes with a World Cup summer.
So that is coming up on the horizon.
If you enjoy the show, share it with some friends, tell some other people about it.
We would really, really love that.
We think soccer is for everybody and there's no wrong way to do soccer.
So have them come along, have them join the show.
We would really, really love to have you and share it, review it, all of those wonderful
things that helps us out a ton.
Thank you again for this episode.
We'll be back next week with another one.
But until then, I'm Tyler Kerr.
We'll see you again soon.