We need to talk about MLS.

⚽ Check out my reallygoodclothes shop for US Soccer fans reallygoodclothes.com/
👀 Read the substack newsletter: itscalledsoccer.substack.com/
👏 Join the Discord: / discord
Please reach out to [e-mail] for business inquiries.

[@ItsCalledSoccer]

Want the 'wake me up when it's world cup hat' I'm wearing? Get yours here: reallygoodclothes.com/products/wake-me-up-world-cup-dad-hat

[@starwarssatan5588]

Please make a "wake me up when gregg is fired"

[@rbfishcs123]

Jakey please make a 'Wake me up when phil neville is fired' hat

[@mdca8773]

Loving MLS parity this year... tons of surprises. Love the ref announcements, love the 2 minute sit out on injuries and love the 10 second sub rule.... some good MLS moves.... need to deal with TAM/GAM and expand overall spending limits and add spending floor.

[@ItsCalledSoccer]

Yes yes yes to all of that!

[@davidday2373]

MLS is adding TAM and giving teams roster/salary flexibility, announced a few weeks ago.

[@ronaldojohnny7774]

@@davidday2373 they announed it during the concacaf champions league when New England and Philly were eliminated badly during liga mx teams for the summer when they announced it for the summer putting it to a vote by MLS commioinser Don Garber. It has NOT been implemented yet as far as I known.

[@davidday2373]

@@ronaldojohnny7774 Yeah the "Board of Governors" have to vote on it. But that's the direction they're heading.

[@playedout148]

​@@ronaldojohnny7774MLS teams being trashed by Liga MX is a clear sign that the levels aren't good enough.

[@alessiofavilli1998]

Great Talk! My first time i listen this podcast...and i think i'll come back!! I'm italian and a Inter Miami fan...see you soon!!

[@ItsCalledSoccer]

grazi Alessio!

[@ThreeRunHomer]

As a Palace fan, I’m amused that Benteke is in the MLS and playing well. Good for him.

[@ItsCalledSoccer]

Pretty much the second best player in the league through 12 games behind Messi.

[@ThreeRunHomer]

@@ItsCalledSoccer He was rubbish at Palace, but so was Mateta until the new manager arrived.

[@HarveyWallbangers2]

@@ItsCalledSoccer Arango has been the second best player, and it's not particularly close.

[@Cicero82]

@@ThreeRunHomerthat’s because your team is rubbish.

[@ThreeRunHomer]

@@Cicero82 not anymore. Palace under Glasner have the second best record in the league.

[@SGE22-]

As a ATL fan I wish they would fire the entire coaching staff. Yall act like this is the first year the team has been bad like no bro this team hasn’t been good/Dominate since 2018!

[@alexbabinski7318]

As a crew fan, following the video you just posted a couple days ago, it was interesting yall havent mentioned how the crew have struggled to score goals this season. We have tied many games at home and dropped points in almost all of our matches. It's a weird storm, in my opinion, of squad rotation, apathy/expecting to win just by playing in Nancy's system (they havent seemed motivated to really IMPLEMENT it outside of CCL), and other teams figuring out how to defend it better. HIR was extremely disappointing coming off a week and a half of rest.

[@ItsCalledSoccer]

It’s hard to fit the middle pack into these conversations without making them 3 hours long but I will say regarding the Crew with the concacaf champions cup they wouldn’t have been focusing a ton on the league so far.

[@davidday2373]

I'm an LAFC supporter, im supposed to hate all things Galaxy but i gotta say... i like that Ricki Puig guy. That goal against us in the Rose Bowl last 4th of July... Class.

[@karljonasson8429]

Vermes should be on the hot seat list for sure. Sporting KC has just been plain depressing past the 60th minute this season and lately they have just started doing it earlier.

[@ItsCalledSoccer]

Fair but it’s kind of the same story as last year and they ended in playoffs. I think he’s fine.

[@DWill2022]

Noah Cobb was man handled by a former Prem Player...that was unfair from the start. Also its not GP the players are lazy with no pressure from the bench they only play in the last 20 minutes..

[@Ask-a-Rocket-Scientist]

I could not believe Barca let go of Puch. I thought he was magic.

[@k.p.8955]

I guess it's ok to use the benches clearing as the metaphor but it was away at Toronto so it wasn't a baseball stadium that night. As a NYCFC fan, I seriously doubt it was Cushing who punched anyone to set things off. It was a bizarre occurrence and I think we should all pull back and wait for factual details. I'm glad we got the win for sure. Let's keep it going. As a separate question, do you guys use the statistics for games as posted on the mls website or do you rely on a different source? For instance, expected goals.

[@ItsCalledSoccer]

Fair on the Toronto/NYCFC piece. And I use FotMob and fbref for the most part in terms of stats.

[@k.p.8955]

@@ItsCalledSoccer thx for the response 👍

[@k.p.8955]

@@ItsCalledSoccer Did you check out the MLS Disciplinary actions taken? It was mostly Toronto including John Herdman for irresponsible behavior. No Cushing. Also, literally nobody knows what happened in the tunnel at NYC yet. However, everyone is talking about it...haha.

[@r2dad282]

Nashville and SJ are cases #1 & 2 on how you win is as important as if you win.

[@davidday2373]

How do mean?

[@r2dad282]

@davidday2373 SJ clearly not winning. Are they exciting to watch, have a young team full of local kids so youth project takes time? No? How about TN. Defensive in nature, few goals scored, got rid of midfield, now just playing route 1. Fun to watch? Not really. If you're going to bunker and counterattack, you'd better score goals. Nope, not too much.

[@mrfacts6860]

🐐⚽️

[@youenjoy8468]

How do you live in Atlanta and only have been to one game this season? That is wild.

[@ItsCalledSoccer]

Tom is from Chattanooga, supports ATL, but lives at Penn State where he’s doing his doctorate.

[@GeoDaaLilTiko_Official]

Salt lake is impressively getting close to a second star on their kit

[@davidday2373]

I'm a LAFC supporter who currently lives in Utah, I don't know how to feel about Chicho Arango and RSL's success. Note: Diego Rossi, another former beloved LAFC player, beat us last year in the MLS Cup Final.

[@GeoDaaLilTiko_Official]

@@davidday2373 tbh they might have a major down fall at some point in the season when all the players start not playing well. PS, the main cause is Andes Gomez, or Chicho Arango are injured cause as you probably know they lost 4-2 to a USL CHAMPIONSHIP team and chicho and Julio were bunched, Chicho only played ten minutes

[@isaacgogna9856]

@@GeoDaaLilTiko_Officialthey weren’t the only benched players though. Half the starters were and some were replaced but 3rd string guys not even second string. I really wish Pablo made some subs earlier but I can see why that match wasn’t a priority. We are 1 injury away from regressing to the mean.

[@GeoDaaLilTiko_Official]

@@isaacgogna9856 yeah seriously

[@GeoDaaLilTiko_Official]

@@isaacgogna9856 Pablo should have put chicho and Julio at half time it was 3-1 at halftime chicho and Julio them both would easily score like 3 in the whole half. highly disappointing move by Pablo Mastroeni

[@user-xn4zv4po6r]

Hanya di Amerika sebagai tuan rumah Copa America yang masih tetap menjalankan reguler pertandingan . Selama MLS seperti mempunyai dunia sendiri akan susah MLS akan bersaing dengan tliga top lain nya ,dunia luar tahu MLS belakang ini karena kehadiran seoarang Messi . Setelah Messi tidak ada semua akan kembali lagi seperti dulu hanya menjadi kosumsi dalam negeri saja.

[@davidday2373]

I never watched Messi play before he came to MLS. If MLS grows to the level of the NHL in popularity (4th in the U.S.A.) then MLS would be among the top 5 leagues in the world of Soccer.

[@mrmr5580]

I did wonder why Portland hired Phil Neville, he was a gritty player, but as we saw at Miami, he's not a good manager

[@ItsCalledSoccer]

Yeah especially with the history and success of Portland... just felt wrong to hire an unproven manager in this moment.

[@mrmr5580]

@ItsCalledSoccer I just think they could've found a better option, I don't think he's capable of getting the best out of that squad, I'll be surprised if he lasts the season

[@rbfishcs123]

@@mrmr5580 It was just a rushed decision taken by an owner who has *ZERO* insight into day to day operations. Our leadership team in pdx is awful and it shows. Zero insights into recruiting, lets lockerroom issues go unchecked, and rushes to hiring bad coaches since Caleb porter left years ago.

[@mrmr5580]

@rbfishcs123 fair enough, I'll be honest I don't know the goings on with the Timbers, (im English, so i watch the MLS as a neutral) I just remember thinking "what are they doing?" When I heard Neville was brought in

[@rbfishcs123]

@@mrmr5580 Ah ok - fortunately becaues we're in the MLS, it is very difficult to have significant financial problems because there are lots of mechanisms in place to prevent clubs from going under. However, our mismanagement would be equivalent of QPR's fiasco during the Ecclestone & Briatore era. Owners who don't know shit about the sport making decisions that drastically change the landscape of the club for years after.

[@Packy8421]

I know that he Chicago Fire have been bad for the last 12 years and that's sort of assumed at this point. But that organization brought in about $20m in DPs with Shaqiri and Cuypers and they went over a month (which included 3 home games) without scoring a goal. Klopas is a glorified caretaker manager. You touched on NE, Portland, San Jose and Nashville but missed Chicago? Klopas has to get the sack first!

[@davidday2373]

Chicago Fire will sign Pulisic in 2027 or 28 and awaken a sleeping giant.

[@henryblue925]

Schmetzer needs to be on the hot seat. We should be challenging for top of the west and we sit 10th through 14 games...

[@henryblue925]

Also - schmetzer ball is so hard to watch, so when they're bad it's near impossible to watch

[@Reem.Ersheid]

1:14 New England revolution

[@colinreese]

Caleb Porter has been trotting out bizarre lineups, which has led to their bad record.

[@agn855]

That referee-thing is super annoying as its just a set up to prepare for commercial brakes. Wanna bet?

[@mheiseus]

Caleb Porter is a product of old MLS, with the influx of better coaches and players coming in, he's being exposed. He needs more time as a assistant.

[@acelionel44]

13:25 Inter Miami

[@lmgoat44trophiesnow]

second mvp in mls is injured MESSI

[@StephenJamieson]

Needs promotion relegation, from top to bottom unfication would make the culture here the US way more appealing. Give people incentive to compete and try to grow

[@davidday2373]

Never. Promotion-Relegation would retard the progress MLS has made. As MLS keeps getting better and better, it's only a matter of time when "star" players will be joining MLS in their prime.

[@davidday2373]

Players compete to get better and to win games AND to make more money. They move on, from team to team, they don't care about the team getting "prompted" (that's only in fans minds).

[@SortOfEggish]

yawn. Tired ass argument