ETERNAL TAM-NATION: LAFC Season Recap, US Open Cup Fall Out, and the MLS Roster Rule Controversy

Get a pregnancy test ready, because MLS failed to pull out of the US Open Cup! We covered EVERYTHING in this one. We wrapped up LAFC’s 2024 season, talked the lack of MLS roster rule changes, settled up on Bet It And Forget It, and spent a WHILE talking about MLS trying and failing to pull out of US Open Cup. Darren, Travis, and Vince recover from their covid and cover all the insane news that happened in this week in our last episode of 2023! I already regret the joke at the beginning of this.

00:12 Introduction and Welcome
01:03 Listener Mandated Banter
01:12 COVID Experiences and Recovery
05:09 Season Recap and Storylines
20:16 Roster Moves Discussion
34:16 Player Performance Trophies
37:08 Surprise Player of the Year
37:16 Under-appreciated Talent of the Year
40:25 Fan Moment of the Year
41:23 Most Forgettable Moment or Player of the Year
45:25 MLS Rule Changes Analysis
54:38 US Open Cup and MLS Controversy
01:08:07 Charity Donation and Season Wrap-up

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Hello and welcome to Happy Foot sadf foot your lafc gateway drug and the only lafc podcast with three covid positive hosts I’m Travis Hellwig I’m Vince LaRosa I’m Darren Miller Welcome to our 2023 lafc season wrapup and the first episode if the winter break before things heat up again for the 2024 season

That’s right it’s a period of time that can only be called MLS on ice Disney please sponsor us later in the show we’ll talk through the MLS rule changes the controversial US Open cup decision some news and notes and of course we’ll have our story lines and figure out what

To do with our beted and forget it money but first I I think we need a little pallet cleanser I think we need to give the people what they want after a really tough couple of weeks it’s time for listener mandated banter The Crowd Goes insane wow Darren Vince instead of how

You doing how you feeling we’re all we’re all sick with Co how you feeling this is the nasali podcast we’ve had it’s horrible I I’m hearing myself in my headphones and I’m like who is that it’s just not good Darren you’ve been living in that room for what 10 days a week

Well this is we this is day eight you do have a rest you do have a restroom in there right not just like a bucket and a sponge Lu yeah I’m the only one who took Pax loid I’ve been negative for four days it was in and out of me for five

Days it was like nothing I can’t recommend it enough I should take P Lo every day I had a like a video chat appointment with my doctor and I like I think that was the time when I was supposed supposed to play my symptoms up and instead I downplayed them and they

Were like well what’s the deal and I was like well I don’t have a fever I’m like just kind of congested and you know I just feel sick and they’re like well you don’t need pxel it I was like wait wait wait wait hold on let me start over you

Never tell your doctor the truth I think that’s a rule people don’t say always lie to your doctor who like who are the people that are like oh yeah two two drinks a week doc like that’s what you need to say every time yeah no never tell them how much you’re actually

Drink yeah well and my therapist is my primary care doctor literally like our entire media ecosystem is set up around that like every other commercial is a commercial for some kind of disease that I’ve never heard of why are they showing this to us because clearly they want you

To show up to your doctor and go you know what doc I think I have this and guess what I already know what I need for it it’s called blah blah blah yeah and I don’t care what it costs my insurance will pay for it don’t take it

If you’re allergic to it how would I know I’m allergic to it unless I’ve taken it yet doc give it to me now well Darren and I got it in Columbus Vince you just got it randomly so it must be going around going around I got

It out in the wild somehow uh it kind of swept through Cody’s tattoo shop so someone probably came from you know outside there yeah I really though yeah that’s what I want to say is I just I felt like you guys I I just felt left

Out because I didn’t get to go to Columbus uh I did not have to experience the misery firsthand and I just I needed some kind of proxy way to to get in on in on it and and this went beyond proxy I went out and just got it just went out

And got the misery you know if there’s one thing that we like to do on this show it’s be joined by Vince so I’m glad that you really satisfied that thoroughly here yeah and much like Happy Foot sadf foot you joined about halfway through like you’re you’re in you’re

With us now but at first you weren’t here but now you’re here you know yeah I feel yeah much like the season the season is is was much like quarantine it was much like having Co being stuck and being sick you know hey that’s a good way to Pivot to our season

Wrap-up storylines Darren if you want to take us away oh also I just want to say before we start we’re going to go into some detail talking about the rule changes and open cup and some of the other news this week but we have a patreon only exclusive interview coming

I don’t know exactly when it’s going to be released but it’s coming in the next couple couple of days with Andrew vasovski who was a former lawyer for Major League Soccer I don’t know exactly what his title is now he’s a sports lawyer he goes by the soccer lawyer he’s

Going to go indepth with us about the rule changes and the US Open cup controversy and how we got here and the conversation around it and the hysteria around it and who’s right who’s wrong and we’ll fight with him we’re very excited to have that conversation to

Give it to you but it’s only available for our friends of the foot over at patreon.com happppppy foot sadf foot so if you want to hear hear a more in-depth conversation check that interview out but if not if you just want to hear the tertiary three idiots talking about it

You’re in the right place baby take us away Darren well as a hardcore casual lafc fan which is how I’m branding myself now it’s updated for 2024 my love and dedication for the team runs deep but my time for stats tactics rumors hot takes and roster moves runs shallow I

Have a job a family even clothes that aren’t lafc related which I sometimes wear I was given a harsh reminder of my place in this world recently when I flew to close to the fandom Sun by going with Travis to Columbus Ohio for the MLS Cup

Finals and coming back with a fat l in a case of covid-19 but while I don’t have time for all those things I’m still hungry for it and luckily my good friend Travis has not only an addiction to lafc that Rivals only Denny boa’s addiction to goals but also nothing else really

Going on in his life to keep him from feeding that addiction with obsessive research and online trolling so each week this season Travis was kind enough to break down the story lines beneath the surface of every match for me and is here to do it again today to make sense

Of this whole season in a segment we call story Lines how long is this am I just going to be surprised oh no I don’t like your I don’t like your face Travis I don’t like What’s Happening Here o it’s the short one doesn’t that hurt not not just short it felt like even like you clipped it

Even you don’t know what you got Till It’s Gone People You Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone we’re not in the playoffs anymore we go back to the original storyline song Darren in peace Vince dce it’s been almost two weeks since we lost MLS Cup and boy or my tear

Ducks tired it was a brutal loss and it’s not that good that wasn’t that good you laughed way too hard at what is a fine joke in fact I thought it was oh okay you’re laughing because it sucks okay good we’re on the so good I I

Thought you were laughing because it was really good and I was like we’re not on the same page yeah I thought you had some kind of weird emotional part of D appreciate it so deeply because of how bad it is yeah I thought you cra I thought you cracked for a second there

But it’s also genuinely good that’s what I you know what I mean right it was a brutal loss and an uninspired Fired game and really just a genuinely sad way to end the season and I don’t mean sad in like the sports fan that was a sad

Performance way like I mean sad like I feel sad that this season ended with such a [ __ ] dud it hurts as a fan it made me feel like [ __ ] for quite a while also the co did that but mainly the game the game made me feel like [ __ ] we’re

Going to talk about some Obvious off season story lines and chat about him but first we haven’t really had a chance to talk since immediately after the game and I want to know how are you guys feeling about that MLS Cup loss two weeks removed from the final how are you

Feeling well Darren’s giddy he can’t he can’t help but laugh at jokes that’s how bad it hurt him I really loved that one it was like really the opposite of going out with a bang it was like it really like like you’re mentioning here it was so different than what it would have

Been like like if they put a good performance in and lost like it was just so shocking to the system to see them go out there and just be so thoroughly and just like not even give us any of the things that we look for as fans that we

Appreciated throughout the season I mean not any of the things we had keini Mario put a good game in banga was trying to do what he could while being covered by literally half the team like we got nothing like there was nothing there was

There was no like oh at least we got to see this it was not even off the field it wasn’t like at least we got to see that like like bringing the MLS Cup was like like that was like the cool thing that happened in the stadium like it was it

Was nothing man I just like yeah I I guess it makes me more hungry for the next season which I think is why a lot of us have been in kind of frenzy with all this offseason news breaking because it’s just like we’re still so hungry I

Just was going to say I feel jealous of the Philadelphia fans from last year like I know that game hurt but they got to see a really fun game even in a loss we traveled to Columbus Ohio and saw what was one of my least favorite lafc

Games to watch like it was just not pleasant it was it was uninspired we were thoroughly beaten I know that there was like 12 minutes at the end where we felt like we might be able to to bring it back but I don’t think any of us

Really thought that it was close there at the end Vince how do you feel about it well I mean just talking about the game itself yeah that that was the game like it was a poor performance what’s dri what has and this is not the rant

Part yet what has been driving me crazy a little bit is the people that keep saying like w wow our tactics were so bad ug again first of all where’s the ug in second what are you talking about like here’s the thing I guarantee you that Steve tundo and his coaching staff

Got together maybe they didn’t say this explicitly because they’re smarter than us and they already know these things but they sat there and said hm what have we been good at all year well basically we’ve been good at pretty much defending our box and then getting the ball to

Denny Wong and running at teams in transition what does Columbus do wow they like the ball a lot and in order to have the ball a lot they got to play a lot of passes which gives us a lot of opportunities to intercept the ball and

Do what give the ball to Denny bonga in transition and I get people saying like that was a bad tactical perspective but literally that’s what got you there like the fact that anyone’s telling me like well we should have played possession like we we we have a team that’s good

Enough to play possession but why why would you do that when you literally haven’t done that all season hasn’t gotten you there it hasn’t been effective so that drives me wild pretty much in any game that you can think that mattered like they played in somewhat a similar fashion and honestly the tactic

Of saying to a team that loves to have the ball okay you can have the ball but we’re gonna try to find a way to pick it off in in your in your you know way of playing and your intricate passes and we’re going to do what we do best is

Much smarter than saying huh you know we haven’t really been very good team with possession why don’t we try to outp possess the team that possesses the ball better than anybody in the entire league that got here based on possession I just don’t understand that and that was

That’s what drives me wild when people talk about tactics because they usually just say the word and then never tell me what they mean it’s become they just don’t like what the team did that that’s all that means it’s like I wish we did something different and that’s fine then

Just say hey I thought the team sucked today I then I would 100% agree with you honestly what I walked away from that final was man what a bad day to have almost everybody on your team have a bad game other than georgini and Jesus Mario

I I I know that a lot of he did have a bad game maybe that’s what a bad game from him looks like we don’t know right I I heard one conspiracy theory in my DM that I liked which is all of every like a bunch of members of 3252 got Co at

Columbus Darren and I were part of that and the conspiracy is that multiple members of AFC had covid and the team staff gave it from the players to to fans at gasworks the night before and that’s how everyone got it and so the reason lafc was so sluggish was that

Everyone had covid and we all got the Kell a Costa Co so that’s just something to think about now you got that specific strain yeah and that’s why it feels so sexy and stylish I want to do story lines a little bit differently today because it’s an offseason episode it

Feels like what am I’m gonna do is I’m going to basically make the story lines a question and then we’re going to have a conversation about it so the first one is an intellectual argument and it’s the one that you all see coming okay we’ve talked about it a lot already we’ve

Played 40 53 or 54 games I forget this season the most in MLS Cup history banga tied Vela for the most goals across all competitions this all despite mls’s Byzantine roster rules that that punish the champion we know the question that’s coming I think it’s worth asking now that we

Have not come away from the season with any real trophy the Western Conference Final does not count as a real trophy do you think this season should be considered a failure or a success Vince and this is where I will start my rant I’ve been thinking about this and let’s

Be fair lafc has given me a lot of chances to think about whether when you lose in a final is it success or failure and I’ve thought more and more about it and look if you are one of those just black and white fans are like either you

Win or you lose that’s it fine that’s fine I don’t even but I’ll say this to you if you are one of those fans why are you listening to us you got the score line what do you need the extra stuff for don’t come in my mentions and be

Like well bro they’re failures they lost that’s fine you’re black and white we’re we’re done here like get out like don’t even argue with me about it but if you are one of we need all the listeners we can get so tone that down a little B

Sorry sorry but but stick around for uh you know Darren and they’re they’re much better at this than I we do jokes too they do yeah they do jokes and they’re very good I’m I’m the guy that why the [ __ ] are you idiots listening stop listening you [ __ ] idiots what is I

Thinking no but but seriously if you try to if you try to put it all together and I I’m I was like trying to think about it and we talked about this a while back and Travis you made a really good point is like thank God the players don’t

Think this way because God how would they even roll out of bed in the morning like if they literally check their Twitter like I honestly how would they even get out of bed in the morning and so I thought more and more about it and

I get it look ultimately when you go to a final It’s All or Nothing Like that’s literally the definition of final that’s why they’re fun that’s why they’re engaging that’s why everybody watches that’s why for those 12 minutes when you thought that LFC maybe could tie it and

Sneak out of there we would have celebrated like we were the [ __ ] Kings of the world and wouldn’t have matter that we got our asses kicked for the other 78 minutes of the game but what I’m thinking here is and this comes back to the big game thing too every

Step along the way to get to a final you have to be literally successful right like you can’t falter one bit to reach a final people say we weren’t very good in that game no no no don’t go don’t go like Nuance on me after you were been

Black and white about winning and losing like they were successful through 99% of the season and then F faltered here yes ultimately they won’t come home with the trophy and emotionally you can be wrecked by that and you can say I really would have liked that but I have to say

Like you got to spend 99% of the time being excited about your team when 27 other teams had [ __ ] all and were just like this sucks so it can’t not be at least moderately successful I it’s just it’s one thing to not say you can’t I

Get it if you want to say it’s not a success that’s fine but I can’t say that you’re anywhere near a failure either I I think I think two things get conflated in this conversation and it’s the conversation around do we do we choke in big games and is this season a failure

And I think they’re different conversations cuz I think there an easier argument to make that we choke in big games I’m not saying I agree with that argument but I think there’s an easier argument to make but the idea that the whole season is a failure despite playing in three championships

That seems if you were like lafc is going to be around for 50 years and in 50 years people are going to look back at us being in the MLS Cup and they’re not going to go that season was a failure it might feel bad but in the

Hindsight of History this isn’t going to feel like a failure season at least to me Darren what do you think I think if we’re opening the door a Nuance it’s it was a moderately successful season exactly the way that you’re saying it like if you meet somebody on the street

And you talk and LFC comes up in conversation and they’re vaguely aware of the league they’re going to be like oh lafc yeah they had a pretty good season last season like they had a good season they’re a good team that’s how we will be considered ask like the people

In Charlotte if we had a good season right if we right that said that said if you’re looking at this relative to the opportunity that was in front of us and the quality of our roster and our staff that’s a little different because those are also different from the the playing

Field that other people are starting with not everybody else had an opportunity to win that much Hardware not everybody else had that roster and had the promise that our roster had so I think we underperformed so a maybe those are two different things too A lot of that needs

To be put in context too it’s like we under per formed also because of the rules that were put against us and the number of games we had would we have won the games in the summer if we didn’t have all of those Champions League games

And all of those leagues Cup games as well so it it’s wor and all that travel like I think that’s a very fair way to look at it Darren and this whole like the last couple weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about this thing that I read about last year called silver medalist

Syndrome they did a study after the Olympics and they found that on the whole bronze medalist and the Olympics happier than silver medalists because silver medalists will always just compare themselves against not getting the final thing I failed because I didn’t get the final thing and a bronze

Medalist will say hey I got here I did really hard I got a medal that’s crazy it’s crazy I got a medal but because they didn’t make that one last step where that they were just beaten by one person that one person that that failure is what they’re going to taste versus

We’re excited we got here like I bet if they ran the same study fans of a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs would be happier than the fans of LFC right now like it feels somewhat comparable uh it hurts to come in second

Place more than it does to succeed somewhat and I think we had a lot of silver metal syndrome all season long I want to move on just because I feel like we talked about that a lot this season I think we all know that it’s complicated

And we both feel we all feel somewhat the same way about it I think unless you want to comment on any of that FS no I I mean I agree with it and I I would bring it back to the fact that like MLS is set

Up this way right so again LFC was successful through most of the Season we got to have a lot of good times despite not maybe you know bringing home the silverware I just to your point like if you win MLS Cup yeah sure you celebrate

In that moment but if you had if you were in eighth place and you did it don’t you remember the six months of like just pain and horror that you went through no you sometimes forget it but to your point about the the syndrome like it’s I mean and and this is cliche

But it’s like it’s the journey dude like once you get there it’s the happiness just goes away after a little bit I would say I’d happily take an eighth Place season and the MLS Cup just saying just saying I do understand that it means longer paying for more extended

Periods of time but you’re you’re playing for the trophy you know all right so I want to move on to to some of the roster moves that lafc announced just a few days after MLS Cup because we haven’t had a chance to discuss these lafc this is the this is the press

Release that they put out LFC has exercised contract options on Mario Sanchez and Eric duas along with goalkeeper Abraham Romero meaning the those four players will be on the 2024 roster the club declined contract options on Christian Torres Danny christoo Julian gains Tony Leone a name

I will be sad to not say anymore Mohammad tayori uh that’s a name I haven’t said before denil Mado Diego Rosalez and goalkeepers John McCarthy and Elden yak poic yakap poic Maldonado and Cho will be eligible for the MLS re-entry draft process which I don’t understand and I

Refuseed to learn about like there’s the superdraft the draft re-entry process there’s allocation order and then on top of that there’s free agency I’m not going to learn about it and there’s better people to teach you about it maybe we’ll ask Andrew vasovski I don’t give a [ __ ] McCarthy is eligible for

Free agency entirely which is sad to me most importantly their statement said the club is in talks retain McCarthy Maldonado gains Leon Rosales as well as free agents Carlos Vel Diego Palos Kellen aasta and Max kpo and I just want to say out loud that last week there

Were also rumors that circulated that Denny banga wants to leave lafc and return to Europe because of Visa issues around his wife or his girlfriend I forget their relationship but Visa problems is how we lost blessing a thing that I want to remind everyone it’s a real problem that exists question for

The group of those players that we mentioned we’ll talk about the ones that that everyone wants to talk about Palos bangaa aosta cppo McCarthy who do you think of those will be on the roster next season uh Copo and maybe just Gro so last time we spoke Vince you were

Confident banga would come back have you lost that confidence a little bit no I mean and maybe this is just him posturing I will say the okay so the reports about the Visa stuff you can do a very easy search of his Instagram and see his wife in in Los Angeles with him

So that is incorrect um however she may not be able to get uh because the report that I saw specifically said she was not able to visit which she has visited now has she been able to secure uh you know a longterm stay that’s different and and

To your point about that being a problem that is an actual problem I I understand that but yeah he and players do this like they play koi because their agents tell them to or for whatever reason and look maybe his agent got to him said you’ve never scored more goals in your

Entire life it would be absolutely criminal for you even if you want to stay with lafc to to not say anything could happen because look I can get you more money at lafc so maybe but if there ever was a time for a team to maybe do something stupid and offer 15 million

For a soon to be 30-year-old it would be now Darren what do you think give me that list again banga Palos Vela aasta CPO and McCarthy yikes yeah I don’t know if I have anyone to add to that I I think it seems 5050 as to whether they’ll like

Work out something creative with AA I kind of almost don’t care either way like I kind of trust that everyone’s going to end up happy with whatever ends up working out and I’m just going to be cool with it like if it turns out like they all decided the best thing was for

Him to go on his way then that’s fine with me and if they found a way to make him happy and the team school with it with whatever contract they come both great happy to have him I I will say I’m pretty content for those and I made the

Comments about banga being somewhat cryptic those worried about Vel being cryptic he’s always been this way like the entire time he’s been at lafc like he’s very well trained probably by his agent so I don’t worry as much when Carlos says things like well you know

Both sides got to come he’s he said that every single time anything’s come out of that even when even when it was rumored he might go to Barcelona he was like well you know whatever happens happens like that’s just him so I don’t read too much into what Carlos says that and you

Know what this is true with every player in every sport because it’s right it’s it’s literally that there’s agents negotiating this it’s not the players having face-to-face conversations or at least not only partially that it’s a negot it’s a it’s a actual negotiation happening on in a different conversation

Than the one they’re having with the press and as someone who had are to get what what’s best for their clients yeah like you know I’ve had agents negotiate for me before and it’s they give you a bad offer to start and you’re like well I’m obviously not going to take that

[ __ ] offer so it’s like if they actually want to give me that offer of course we’re not GNA we’re we’re not going to end up working together you know like it is an actual negotiation and the way companies and people who when when companies deal with agents

They give you the worst possible offer because they know the agents are going to try to and diu and then they you end up meeting the Agents come back with like we want the most incredible offer and you meet somewhere in the middle so I imagine that’s happening for a lot of

Them I I want to quickly talk about McCarthy John McCarthy is a very important part of this team he had an incredible season with us I would say he maybe only had like one big mistake for a guy that was I wasn’t always so sure

On like he had he he he didn’t always look confident but he was really confident all season long I Sort of hope he doesn’t come back I think he deserves to start somewhere I think he’s proven that he can start I I mean I love him on

The team I really like him I want him to make a lot of money somewhere else he won MLS Cup MVP he makes not a lot of money here if you’ve ever seen what he makes I think he deserves I will be sad when he leaves I don’t want him here

Because I think he deserves better than playing backup for Max and I think we should bring Max back aosta is an interesting one I don’t know anything about a Costa’s situation Vince what do you know about how the team feels about aosta and how what his place is in the

Roster do you think he’s someone that is worth what he costs right now o that’s a good question worth what he C he does make quite a salary for a player in his position and especially when you consider the types of players that lafc has brought in they’ve brought in

Multiple players in a similar position to Kell aosta maybe not the exact same profile because it’s not the same profile matd bogush is not the same profile Tilman is closer but not quite but he’s also also kind of the only backup to Ilia now if you’re saying going forward that we feel comfortable

With the younger guys and we can also go out and find ala is still our guy we can go out and find a backup then yes Kellen might be too expensive of a guy to to one either be a backup or two be SL be sted to be phased out so that’s the

That’s the calculus that John thorington has to make and I think Kellen as a as a player who personally has expressed the desire to want to go to Europe at some point is either going to be saying it’s Europe or a big fat paycheck and lafc

Cannot give him a big fat paycheck they could probably give him around what he was making but not the money that would be you know worthy of passing up a possibility to go to Europe and that’s where I feel like for Kellen and kind of

In the way that you for John McCarthy I think that Kellen deserves the right to do that if he wants to if he wants to stay then those are kind of the terms that we would have them at but I wouldn’t begrudge them at all for either

Getting paid and or going to Europe yeah I feel like I feel like we talked about Palos before I think he’s gone we love Palos I don’t think he’s coming back I think he deserves to go to Europe he’s too good Vel is the big question mark I

Think I think banga it would suck if he goes but that means that LFC probably got a real [ __ ] huge paycheck for him so we’ll see B’s the big question mark this off season go ahead Darren these guys are free agents are they like Fielding other offers at this point

Right now sure I mean technically they could have done it so the way it actually works is in football World football you can actually field offers with six months remaining on your contract which I I think I brought up a couple episodes ago I always find it somewhat odd that especially a known

Quantity like Carlos Vela he technically could have been talking to clubs well into July like starting and and and not just talking to them he could even say hey guess what I found my next Club after this I’m going and it happens it doesn’t happen as often because teams don’t want to lose

Valuable I don’t really want to call them assets they don’t want to lose Valuable Personnel without getting any kind of compensation back for it but yeah they could have been talking so the in the background and there’s not there’s no rule against it now it still happens obviously outside the six months

Where like there’s dealings and and kind of shady stuff but they can be out in the open about it like yeah we’re actively talking to clubs uh about our next contract they give you that window to find your next deal and just to be clear too all of them are free agents

Besides Banga Banga is under contract but they’re people can buy him out of his contract basically if they they pay enough money okay couple of other things have dropped just some news and notes that want to get to really quickly dolo resigned on an extended contract along

With his entire coaching staff I think the three of us all agree incredibly happy that happened I know that there’s some Rogues that are not happy with Steve tundo I think that they’re dumb based on his record and how successful he’s been in this league and with this

Team anyone have anything to add about that or do we all agree that that was a good thing they’re dumb agreed like you’re losing your mind the guy won MLS Cup and then went to another one yeah he lost finals and I know you’re mad at him

But again tell me the tactics like like just say it like what are the tactics let’s say let’s talk about seven and one in the playoffs he’s only lost one playoff game in two seasons and we’ve played eight playoff games that’s pretty good for a for a first round Travis I’m

Mad that Maxim CPO had to have a good game in Seattle I’m mad about that and also the schedule dropped today pretty pretty close to when we recorded anything stand out to you guys in the schedule that you want to talk about a lot less travel a lot less travel I also

Just kind of expect that there’s going to be some changes as things go on and we’re not going to be doing the same CCL or CCC now dance and all these other tournaments and stuff but something’s going to come up I don’t know I’m used to I’m used to the schedule not meeting

Anything because it changes so much so maybe that won’t be the case this time I don’t know I I want to get both of your takes about we’re we’re going on two seasons in a row of el traffico not only twice at the Rose Bowl but both seasons

Now the Galaxy have an extra home game against against us I know that the rosebell is not Tech it’s not technically HomeField Advantage I don’t know many lafc fans that love going to those rosebell games I were I was texting with you guys earlier today I

Would consider not going to that game it was such a disaster logistically like not just the traffic getting in and out I don’t know if you remember Darren remember that line that was sort of like circling around and then once they opened the gates it turned into a clump

And it just was like it felt dangerous getting in and out of the stadium not from like a violent standpoint but from like a if someone Falls they can get like trampled like there was just something logistically off about the whole thing I don’t love being in the in

The open air it’s a cramp Stadium I just hate being there we’ve lost there twice now I I think I know there’s a history in that stadium for Los Angeles I think it’s a bad venue for soccer I don’t think the the sight lines are great I

Don’t know how you guys feeling about another traffico on the fourth of July I like tradition I like that it’s a big game I’m not I know I’ll probably end up [ __ ] going but I’m not excited about [ __ ] going to that game yeah it was a weird vibe there maybe they were underst

Staffed it was weird like I don’t remember seeing very much staff at all it’s just kind of like you guys are all here you just figure it out right you’ve been to a stadium before it’s also because they separate the fans so so harshly because they don’t want fights

That we were given like two entrances and so it was just you know 40,000 LFC fans clumping towards two entrances and then on top of that you have to get in and out it felt being more it felt more like being at a music festival than

Being at a soccer game yeah it’s just it’s always too much of a good thing with MLS right like they can’t just be like that was special right they’re like n now we do it until you never want to go there again and hopefully it’ll be

Better but it just it’s again they play three times every I guess that’s the thing now three times every season it’s like okay yeah so and and then there’s gonna be the CH well we’ll get to the open cup stuff but you know there’s always there’s always there’s literally

You can play like six times in a season and it just it’s too much of a good thing and I I it’s a double-edged sword too cuz it’s like we want to pack the rose B because you don’t want it to see like Galaxy fans run La you know like

You want you want to show up in force for LFC but boy do I [ __ ] hate that place I live so close to the Rose bow I really don’t want to go I’d rather drive to Carson okay I will say I definitely it’s a home game for the Galaxy and I

Definitely prefer going to the Rose bow to going to Dignity Health Sports Park I would say I disagree if only because I hate the legit it’s actually faster for me to get to Dignity Health Sports Park and back that it is for me to get to the Rose bowling back with that traffic

Living 10 minutes away and I think it’s cool we’re playing crew at home as a rematch for MLS Cup and I think that’ll be a fun game okay so I want to end story lines with the segment we’ll go through this somewhat quickly but as we

Know we weren’t able to win any trophies this year so I wanted us to hand out some trophies here on the show this is a format I stole directly from my friend Jason concepion who hosts an NBA podcast with sha Serrano called six trophies I highly recommend checking it out texted

Jason he said we could steal it so don’t [ __ ] at me okay so here we go I’m going to give you what they do is they present their trophies with one with one winner I’m going to give you the name of a trophy and we’re you’re gonna each

Give me who you think should win it and and a sentence why okay so we we’ll go through it quickly we all know banga was the MVP for this season who this season deserves the Diego Rossi Memorial second most valuable player trophy Darren second most valuable player Georgio

Keini I don’t know that I need an explanation for that one that was the easy one I went first so I took him wow I I would I would actually the MS Geor what do you want from me I would actually say the easy one is the most

Consistent player of the season is Diego palasio I mean he’s just a guy you can plug in I think there was other guys that at times maybe had a higher ceiling and where maybe were much more influential but like Diego was a guy that you just put him in there and you

Knew exactly what you were going to get from and in a season where where there was some fluctuations it was nice to have a guy that you knew exactly what you were going to get from him I’m going to say IL Sanchez I think we don’t talk

About El Sanchez nearly enough he’s so consistent despite his age similar to Georgio but a little less flashy he’s just right and there and a great leader I think Ila without Ila this season would have been a disaster next trophy there’s certain players you we all know

Can play well and then there’s other players that were somewhat shocked to remember they play so well who on the roster deserves the Mahala aoku Memorial oh [ __ ] he can do that surprise Player of the Year trophy Vince Darren’s face made it made made me feel like he wants

Me to go first I I mean this honest I mean would rather this be surprisingly bad okay I I mean no disrespect by this but all of a sudden when Ryan huling said at the very end of the season was like hey guys I could score goals again it has to be Ryan

Huling head because like he literally and he wasn’t having a bad year although there were some Shockers and I think Gran would admit that but towards the end of the year he was he was the man the absolute man so I’m going to go Ryan holling head Darren yeah I would agree

With h huling said for sure I’ll give it to Kik just from the flashes we saw I don’t feel like he really like filled up the stat sheet enough to earn a trophy like this but the the potential I think was a little more than we expected I’m a

Little disappointed that that’s all that ended up being there but I still think it’s there and I’m like still excited to watch him play and I I was kind of like with all the new guys who came in partway through the season I was just like we’ll see I don’t

Obviously like I don’t know who these guys are so he is the guy who was like oh this is great if he starts scoring like he’s going to be amazing so I still I want to give it I want to give it to the future of lafc Nathan ordaz a guy

Who came on and I think surprised us all by [ __ ] working his way into the rotation we played a bunch of young guys when we didn’t didn’t have the legs and he’s the only guy that stuck around I know he only had one goal on the season

But he is fun to watch it was really when he comes on there’s chaos it always he created danger whenever he came on I’m gonna give the oh [ __ ] he can do that surprise Player of the Year trophy to Nathan oraz we talked a lot about banga this year which player deserves

The Vince lorosa Memorial under appreciated Talent of the Year award Darren so this I would have given to Elia Sanchez I would say he’s more deserving of an award like this than that’s fair that’s fair what you said should I give it to someone else no I

Think it’s it’s Sanchez it’s IL it’s yeah but much for the same reasons as Travis you mentioned he he’s quietly behind the scenes the whole running the whole engine Vince uh who do you give the Vince L Roa Memorial under appreciated Talent of the Year trophy so

I was gonna give it to k a Costa because I feel like people don’t understand exactly what he does and I feel so much better especially as we saw him towards the end of the season and in the playoffs how much better that that Midfield worked with him in there but

Because it’s now named after me I’m going to go really crazy and I’m going to give it to Carlos Vela because everyone just dunks on Carlos all the time he’s like a great not what he used to be and it’s like yeah I get it he’s not scoring 34 goals who would imagine

That the best goal scoring season of all time he regressed from it but he’s still an incredible player and there’s a lot of things that he does that are important to the game it’s just we only ever think of Carlos in the sharpest moments and it’s like if he doesn’t

Carry his team to Victory then he’s garbage and that’s just not fair and I think that Carlos deserves a lot more credit for what he does on the field I thought about giving the oit he can do that award to Carlos for the game at home in the Western Conference vitals

Where he was sprinting wildly for for 90 minutes it I was like yeah I forgot he could run that fast he can’t normally he just wanted to score in what was maybe his last game can’t or won’t is different two different things yeah I mean Messi he did net out I think the

Level of appreciation did net out at underappreciated levels yeah yes I would give the trophy to John McCarthy for the reasons I said before I think he carried us through a long season then had the thankless job of giving the seat up despite doing really well he had a big

Mistake which gave the coach a reason to to give it back to the guy with a little bit more talent but outside of that big mistake he was a [ __ ] Workhorse and we couldn’t have done it without him and so I would like to give the Vince L Roa

Underappreciated Talent the year trophy to John McCarthy a man who we will also fire this offseason we all know that can can I add honor can I add an honorable mention to this sure yeah Palencia he didn’t play as much toward the end of the season so I think a lot of people

Forgot about him which only adds to why I think he should be an honorable mention here but mostly toward the beginning of the season when we were really having we were really thin on defense uh he came in and did everything that was asked of him and more

Consistently yeah I think bogush is is also a player who kind of fell out of our brains a little bit because he played not at all in the playoffs but he was someone when we weren’t playing he just didn’t fit tactically we needed the Midfield of Tilman and aosta and and

Elia but when he came in there his offense was incredible and I think he’s probably in the top three Talent on our team I think I’m so happy he will remain an LFC player and I do think we kind of forgot how good he is we all know a big

Part of the lafc experience is how fun the games are and how crazy the lafc fans are which fan or fan moment do you guys think deserved the smash styrofoam cooler fan moment of the Year trophy Vince I mean I hate to say this because he already gets like a ton of publicity

But at that Western Conference game the kid with the shirt off and the sombrero was literally one row over from Darren and I and I have to admit when we first saw one thing I oh it’s the kid again I was like it’s great I love the kid and

Then when I realized he was so close to us a little brushed with Fame like I actually felt it so I got to give it to him like he made me feel something and like that kid good for you dude you’ve made something out of nothing that’s

Also mine and I’m not going to change it that kid made made himself the Su he’s the Jack Nicholson of lafc I’m sorry Colin Hanks the shirtless kid with the sombreros carrying out the MLS Cup trophy next year oh I would love that so much far be it for me to withhold a

Trophy from some brero kid he is three out of three hell yeah you’re advancing in the American Idol version of this bit and finally the last trophy we felt a lot of sadness and hatred this year what player or moment deserves the Zlatan game winner I want to Eternal Sunshine

From my brain moment of the Year trophy Darren what do you want an Eternal Sunshine from your brain what player or moment okay so this can be on our team it actually could be it on any team it just anyone you want to get rid of or or

Moment you want to get rid of yeah it’s going to have to be Aaron long and I hate to do this I hate to single him out but thing about the season to you was Aaron long Jeff talk what are you doing here he like had nothing to do with the

Last couple games of the Season you can’t put this on him maybe I won’t give a well he didn’t have anything to do with the last couple games of the season because he sucked All Season put him in because keini and Mario were better that but that’s not that’s not a horrible

Thing yeah exactly that’s like that’s like being like hey oraz why can’t you play oh because Carlos V and Denny belonger in front of me what do you want I Darren made it Darren season would have described Maria that way sorry I don’t want to step on

This you go you run with this where are you going with this Dar I can give it to someone else if you want it’s locked in the zlat trophy is going to Aaron long thanks to Darren Vince who would you give the Zlatan game I can’t even finish

Explaining myself no we get it Vince go ahead can I yield my time back to Darren like we’re in the Senate I was excited that he was on the team and then he sucked all year I would like to forget that all right yes I agree it is that

Simple okay you’re just okay you’re just circling the drain now no I’m going to okay um I’m going to give it to um and look he’s had a lot of Sor you want to give me his highlight reel for the season uh well he did save a shot with

His ass while face down in the penalty area that’s pretty good could you do that I mean that didn’t even take SK have you seen does that take any skill it was cool that it happened complete coincidence Darren Darren Paulo Maldini one of the greatest Defenders of all

Time used to say if I have to tackle I’ve already lost and and so it’s all about positional sense and that’s just pure positional sense it didn’t even have to do anything didn’t even have to do anything no I’m gonna I’m gonna give

It to a guy I’m gonna give it to a guy that it’ll be no sweat to him because he’s done so many good things this season but I have to bring us all the way back to leg two of the cona Champions League final and then minute

Two a ball rolled to one Denny banga with a wide open net from about 10 yards out and he biffed it and if that goal goes in at the second minute at home when everything was just like on fire literally the stadium was so loud I think we have a very different outcome

To the Champions League final so I would like to forget I that that ever happened and we just got stomped and we didn’t have ever have a chance you just reminded me of something that I’m going to change what my trophy uh that I want an Eternal Sunshine for my brain

Is I I was I was going to give it to Ricky pu after payaso coming back and then scoring the game-winning G uh goal at the rose bow him winning the game for them was something that hurt really bad and I didn’t that sucked I wish that

That moment didn’t happen but what you just reminded me of Vince was Denny banga not passing to Carlos Vela against Miami at a game that we all were like this is the one this is the one we have to win and when they say we didn’t win

Big games I do hold that up there as a moment where our team got in its own [ __ ] way and we lost a big game on the biggest stage we’ve probably played on even though we’ve won MLS Cup those are our trophies so no one can say anymore we didn’t win any trophies

Plenty of people won trophies when we come back we’re gonna have a a nice fun levelheaded discussion about the MLS roster rules and the US Open cup changes and we’re back so Major League soccer announced a number of rule changes last week everyone was hoping this would include more roster

Flexibility in the form of another designated player slot or higher salary cap or something else that I’m not smart enough to know about but to cut to the chase here it didn’t so what wasn’t in here is probably much more significant than what was in here we’re going to get

What was in here out of the way with a little like a half game I’m going to say I’m going to I’m going to give you what the what the rule change was and you guys rapid fire we’re going to go through these and I need both of you

Guys to say I don’t care or if you care you say you care and as quickly as you possibly can explain what the significance of that is at least just to LFC you ready yes yep okay new competition initiatives off the- field treatment rule medical assessment and

Treatment for field in in a less pressurized environment I was almost I was almost gonna stop you before you finish don’t care less pressurized environment what does that even mean it’s it’s they have to get off the field faster I’m it’s I’m happy about it I don’t want to talk

About it great time substit rule substitute player has to exit the field within 10 seconds only reason I care is for a player like Georgio Kini like let’s say it was his last game and we wanted to cheer from him for like a whole minute is he going to get in

Trouble for taking 10 seconds just like go to the sideline and wave move on all right and Stadium V announcements now they’re going to announce the V decisions like football refs American football refs you care cool we get to boo louder now we know actually we know

Their names and what they sound like that’s true I actually do like that okay scoreboards and video boards like in this Stadium you’re going to know how much extra time there is cool keep going solid correction yeah opposing players with simultaneous head injuries clear to return have to re-enter the game at

Exactly the same time now simultaneous absolutely don’t care yeah I felt like that happened anyways here’s the roster changes that don’t include what we want when two gu when two guys Bonk their heads that’s a rule when people Bonk their heads together sorry go ahead when you Bonk you got to come

Back you gota you you went you hit the same spot in the air at the same time you got to hit the ground at the same time too they we were we were were like we I we hope they lift the salary cap to insane things they’re like we talked

About bonking for six months all right Discovery slot reduction Discovery slots are now five instead of seven the best part is I don’t know what that means no one knows like there it’s a secret list so like how would you ever know it’s like when

You claim like oh we we found this guy right yeah no like LFC sign like the story of LFC signing Carlos like he was on another team’s Discovery list the team was never ever I can’t remember remember exactly who it was but there was a team that like you would have

Laughed at him ever going there and again it’s secret so who for all we know there the same amount we don’t know could I be on a discovery list somewhere you could be hell yeah so you really could be Travis it’s it’s for the Tampa Bay muty as for transferring a designated

Player a portion of the transfer fees can now be gam and not just Tam this is for the conversation with Andrew we’re not getting fun Andrew is I don’t care or punch they still won’t care the it is kind of cool it hasn’t really been for

LFC but it is kind of could be kind of cool why go explain ex uh because generally like so LFC had so much money to do what they did last season because they transferred non DP players for more money than they brought them in that’s why they had all this extra money to

Like spread around normally if you do that with a DP like it says in the ruling you didn’t have that to spread around you could use it for like facilities and your Academy or you could just give it back to your owners now you can spread it around so that that was

The design great so if we if we sold Denny banga for a bunch we could use it on other players now fin yeah like but if you had done it last season 15 million you could just basically like oh there’s a new stand up Emo or you know

What I mean stupid stuff okay cool that is cool residency deadline to be considered a domestic player you have to be established stopping you already don’t care keep going they already kind of did it’s hard to keep reading when you realize you don’t care okay so

What’s missing here do you want to let’s let’s just just yell out all the things that should have been on there that that are missing oh we’ll be here for a day no well I mean the biggest thing for me I don’t I still I mean obviously adding

A DP is is like the sexiest thing but the thing for me is just remove the roster designations like just make it more open like we’ve talked about in the past if I want to have 11 starting players with all making $1 million 11 million which is not astronomical in

Terms of team salary I can’t do that because I have to slot them in as Tam gam DPS you know under 22 initiative so I I would say just open open that up and still within the confines of like you can’t spend a100 million do but like

Open that up more uh so that I don’t have to be forced into certain slots with certain players so I I think what you know I think we all if you’ve been on Twitter at all you’ve seen the discourse where people are very frustrated that almost no substantial

Changes were made they did raise the salary cap it was to the amount that they had decided with the players in the last CBA or whatever they call it in the MLS it it was that’s basically all that changed and these R changes I think what

Is interesting to me more so than the changes was the conversation around the changes and I think there was first there was the rage from from fans and I think that would happen no matter what they were never going to give us the the full open go crazy that we wanted

Because MLS is a conservative league and what they’ve done so far has worked they bring in billions of dollars despite being not I think even in the top 10 leagues in the world we’re pretty maybe we’re we’re close but like we’re we’re bringing in a lot of money and a league

In America has failed before and I think everyone’s a little skittish about that that said there was then a response from people within MLS media and I can say the same thing about the open cup and I I think this this is a larger discussion where kind of the people in power were

Like why did you idiots ever think anything was going to change like how could you believe that they would do anything differently and it’s like because there were people involved in the league saying [ __ ] Tata Martinez or Tata Martino in a in a [ __ ] post

Game said I heard that there’s G to be an extra DP slot that that’s not no one saying that people got excited about the extra DP slot because the Messi’s coach told us there might be an extra DP slot we there was so much Buzz or in all the

Media Outlets about a possible change in how we do this a simplification of this process as Vince wants or the ability to spend more money Steve chundo has been begging for it an expansion of the roster if we’re going to play this many games I think I think it is somewhat

Gross to me that there were people in the media that wanted to [ __ ] on people who are upset about this who just want the league to get better and they want their teams to get better who the hell was that Darren that’s my cat actually

It wasn’t on my Oh I thought it was a child it’s my cat he’s like hey what are you doing in here he almost actually said that in English know it’s terrifying I I just think it was gross to me that people were fighting back against fans wanting the league to be

Better I know that maybe people aren’t the most educated about how this process works that’s fine they’re fans don’t be dismissive of them for wanting it to be more like the simple version that they know in Europe I don’t know how do you guys feel about it sorry I’m not

Laughing at you the cat like continued the whole time you were raing and then literally you stopped and he just walked out he’s like I’m done that’s he’s really he like really Andrew vski was one of the people who said this sort of stuff he’s a your cat’s a big

Andrew visnovsky fan yeah well to be to be fair to to Andrew and so and I’ve been on the other end of that too like there are times when fans are a little bit too like they’re just like just just change it tomorrow it’s not a big deal

And it’s like well it still is a big deal but yeah we shouldn’t be I I I do understand a little bit you shouldn’t be antagonizing but like it does it does take more of a process than like you just do it tomorrow and I want to point

Out one more thing look Don Garber is not my buddy he’s he’s not like it’s not like I like him per se but everyone that thinks that this is all Don Garber is doing is delusional it’s just like any other sports commissioner yes he’s just doing the job

Of the owners there’s a reason why Roger Goodell is happy to be booed he makes like $50 million in a year he literally the owners say like hey bro you’re going to go out there and you’re going to take the hits for all the stuff that we do

I.E letting our players beat on women and TT and all that stuff and we’ll give you $50 million you cool with that he goes yeah yeah I am Don goer you know luckily MLS doesn’t have quite the extent of those problems but it’s a similar type of thing like he’s just

Doing what they’re asking him to do this guy does not I bet you he’s learned soccer on the Fly he did not come in as a soccer person he’s literally just saying like tell me what the pluses and minuses are and then tell me what to say

That’s all he does but he’s the soccer Dawn how does the soccer Dawn not know about soccer Don of soccer I mean he does you understand how that has multiple meetings amazing PR in terms of his Twitter name but Twitter’s dying anyways X or whatever you want to call

It so who cares all right I think we’ll get more in depth with Andrew if we want to move on to open cup okay let’s get to the good stuff here the US Open cup they dropped all that news on a Thursday and then at the end of the day on Friday

They decided that casually let’s drop one more thing at the end of the day here by the way pro teams are not going to play in next year’s US Open cup we now know that this is the first step in what was like a series of kind of snfo

At this point like they just haded to drop this news in this way and say it this way because they announced that pro teams are not going to do that and then US soccer has now well I believe the first thing this morning was like yes this announcement that you framed like a

Statement was a request and a proposal that we are denying and you’re not doing that uh but in the last four days or so there has been a whole frenzy around this that is definitely worth breaking down because well I don’t know I think maybe we should just start by stating

Why the cup is so important and what is at stake here do either of you want to take that the US Open cup is the oldest competition in the United States it’s over 100 years old it allows basically any team that registers to have the chance to play for the championship so

That means that you do not have to be a professional team within USL MLS n ASL anything you like you literally can just say hey me my buddies and that’s why some of the teams are like the book liners or the you know just random names

From back in like the 50s so it has history it’s gone on for forever MLS has been a part of it for only about a third of its history but has now basically like Turned its back on it so that’s why a lot of people are upset yeah so

They’re upset for good reason there’s also an interesting online discourse about this just like how you brought up with the roster changes Travis people were fired up yeah I I think like this is one where I almost take the opposite tack to what I did with with the the roster changes

Which I do agree that I think this was Dumb and I think MLS stepped in it the arguments that people were using for the open cup are maybe not arguments I buy I think the honest thing that people should say is we like the open cup we

Want it to keep existing we want MLS teams to be in it because it’s fun but when you’re saying that it’s used to grow the game that this is going to kill soccer in America that it is bad for MLS I actually don’t think any of those

Things are true I think it’s obviously smart for MLS to try to make more money that’s what they exist to do having more money keeps the league around it keeps the owners of the teams happy it keeps the teams in existence it makes them want to make the facilities nicer do I

Think capitalism is good no but I do think that it is a the US Open cup is not a tournament that MLS makes a lot of money on it’s not a tournament that the players like in fact the player Vince sent us a a link from earlier this year where the Players

Association the president said as much the players don’t want to be a part of this so while we enjoy this tournament because of the narrative around oh the Pittsburgh [ __ ] might beat might get to beat sport in Kansas City like yeah that’s that’s cool it’s cool when

That happens but it doesn’t happen that often and the idea that it grows the game I want to know what you mean by that because I like when you say that the Pittsburgh [ __ ] playing Sporting Kansas City grows the game do you honestly believe that Sporting

Kansas City going to a 2000 seat stadium in Pittsburgh that is on like a YouTube stream that you can barely watch with like a fixed camera do you think that that helps grow the game because are people coming out in Pittsburgh to see the stars of Sporting Kansas City like

It’s not like Messi’s on all the teams I don’t know it it just feels like I don’t know if you saw the US Open Cup this year guys no one goes to those games they don’t so as much as as we want to say that we love this tournament we’re

Not putting our money there like even the El traffico game was poorly attended at bimo it was it was a it was a somewhat empty Stadium and we didn’t know they were playing lafc 2 but like it was the worst attended El traffico I’ve ever seen was the B Mo El traffico

At at US Open cup I don’t know I like US Open cup I want it to exist I think the arguments for it are disingenuous yeah I mean the top line thing is this MLS messed up like you can’t you can’t pull out uh you can’t unilaterally pull out

Of the oldest tournament in the US you can’t it just show up and and surprise even the tournament itself would go like hey guys by the way we’re not doing this that’s totally wrong like the way they went about it completely wrong but to your point it’s broken and we can’t fix

Something unless we talk about it in the right ways and this growing the game and things like that it’s emotional language and I get it but it allows you to feel like you’re right without having to put put any evidence forward and that’s a problem because growing the game what

Again what does that mean and and how is it mutually exclusive so you’re telling me that if MLS doesn’t appear an open cup they’re not growing the game because what they want to do is have leagues cup well a growing minority is that is getting to reaching a level is Spanish

Speaking in this nation and so MLS wants to play League’s Cup games against Liga MX where by the way it is the number one supported league in this country it’s not the Premier League it’s not it’s not Syria so like and also they brought Messi like they are growing the

Game so you can’t tell me that they’ve absolutely turned their backs on it but yes did they go about it the wrong way should they be working with us open cup to make this better and bigger point that Sebastian Salazar had made on espand is this for the longest time the

Marketing of US Open cup which again we’re saying is broken has been controlled by some who’s controlled by MLS so MLS has some culpability in how much that is broken so for them to then just go hey we’re not together anymore it’s been a couple of years where you’ve

Been on your own and peace out you’re not doing what we what we thought that’s that’s wrong but I do think that there’s some actual things we need to talk about and a lot of things that we’re talking about are not the things that need to be

Fixed or changed to make get better yeah I I want to have that conversation I want to talk about like why it’s broken and how to fix it I do agree that like people ranting about like it was not the right thing to do and it’s like a

Shameful move and it’s like sorry this is a business that I would never expect them to make a choice because it’s the right thing to do I maybe I don’t think that makes me that cynical yeah like they’re just not going to do what’s like right it’s just not going to happen hate

To break it to you sports sports leagues AR aren’t altruistic I do literally the owner of every sports team is evil there is not a person who owns a sports team isn’t evil they’re billionaires they’re bad people they didn’t get their money by good reasons right so but I agree with all of

These people in like I think all of us agree with all of these people in the sense that we want the US Open to include MLS teams and be good just like everybody else does and I I I think we also all get that like MLS is in a

Position position to control how good it is so it sucks like I think we all agree that it sucks but yeah I I want to like understand the root of the business levers and buttons that are behind this that are making this what it is like I

Also think Travis you you mentioned like the attendance I do think the games on USL teams Turf I think those games are well attended I think those like by standards of USL like house for that venue when the MLS team comes to town I don’t know what

That necessar like I think that is a question of like what genuinely what do you mean when you say grow the game like it does grow the game in the sense that like it’s good for the game in America that that Pittsburgh team exists so we

Want them to be solvent do you mean one payday once a year for these teams and keep in mind the US is not the only play I know that lately and it’s been bad news and it doesn’t make me happy when team teams fold like there’s going to be

A new team in San Diego so the San Diego loyal tried to move on they can’t move on they’re folding by the way it happens all around the world it happens in Italy it happens in England it’s not mutually exclusive to this environment and to MLS

So it’s again you have to we have to be talking about the right things if we actually want to fix it and we can’t just say like well the way Europe does it is the right way they don’t always get it right either and and they

Stumbled into some of this and I think that’s where it becomes difficult for a lot of PE people is and the FA Cup comparison I’m like come on like what would happen if they decided to pull out of the fa like of the FA Cup is popular

People pay to go to those games and watch those games they’re they’re it’s like a wildly successful it’s actually something everybody loves no a lot of teams are actually wanting to not do that anymore though too because like no not from the team perspective I mean fans like they

Will like they will go to those games and watch those games look and I’m not saying this is right like Travis’s point about capitalism and and moral arguments these are all poignant and I’m not saying this is right but like just think about it this way soccer grew up in a

Time like almost pre-industrial time when literally yes it was a community-based thing and these European owners got to stumble into this community- based thing and harness that power while in America we have entertainment-based leagues and guess what Europe is jealous of us they’re actually going more towards what we have

They want to close off like the only reason promotion relegation exists is because it happened before they stumbled on the idea of of sports as entertainment if they could do it all over again I 100% guarantee you there would be no promotion relegation in Europe so don’t just look at them and

Give them the moral High Ground because you believe that it is the right way to do it these are all made up it’s all made up like and it’s not real no reason there should be 11 players on the field we made it up guys it’s all made up

Vince is like money doesn’t exist I well yeah I think the proper response is to be like okay the US Open cup is good let’s fix it so that it’s good like it’s a good idea and it’s an idea that we all want to be part of American soccer

Especially given that the history of it and the stakes of it and the story of it is something that is not only just good but like completely lacking otherwise in in our story so it shouldn’t be like MLS didn’t ruin it by this decision it was there’s a problem that needs to be

Solved so we should figure out how that problem gets solved two things and then I think we have to move on because we’re we’re running long today I I do want to say I do think it’s right that fans are fighting for this and I don’t mean to be

Dismissive with what I said earlier I I I think the arguments that they’re making are somewhat silly but I do think that they’re in the right they’re on the right side you know how the Democrats are really lame but that’s who we vote for that’s how I sort of feel in this

Situation it’s just like I still G to vote the same wayone else right I I agree that we should be in this tournament I just think we just need just say the truth which is that we wish it was better it isn’t good right now I like the idea of this tournament let’s

Make it work as opposed to if they if MLS makes this decision they’re destroying the league and themselves in soccer and America that’s stupid and the second thing I want to say is now with the ussf coming back and saying you’re not a part you can’t do this or whatever

There’s nothing stopping teams still from putting players who are legally on a roster on their US Open Cup teams so even though we can’t technically say it’s lafc to playing for lafc boy did lafc to play for lafc in the US Open cup yeah and if we if we hold like we’re

Gonna end up with MLS teams in this tournament with no MLS players on it or or close to no MLS players on it and I think people need to be prepared for that we didn’t win this fight it’s still going to happen it’s just going to be we

Can’t be honest about it now and that’s just what it’s gonna be there is one thing question real quick that I want to get into yeah I want to get into with Andrew there is one thing I I they mentioned on a morning Foo and gaso

There is a rule that wasn’t they did not change in the new rule update that or maybe they changed it I don’t know we need to ask Andrew about this there is a limit to how many moves you can make in both directions between your team and

MLS next pro teams that is also limiting the depth that you’re able to have on your roster that also impacts how disingenuous the argument of schedule congestion is because not only are you not allowing your teams to be deeper from the top but you’re also not allowing them to be more flexible and

Deeper from the bottom and so that’s affecting this as well because I don’t think you can necessarily that freely just put all the the mlx next Pro guys on your top tier team for the entire tournament and get away with it you can’t if you move them a certain number

Of times you eventually have to sign them to a First Team contract well let let’s let’s let’s keep talking about it with Andrew over on the patreon patreon.com happppppy footfoot if you want to hear a longer more deeply nerdy conversation when we come back bet it and remember It and we’re back now it’s time for a segment called bet it and forget it bet it and forget it every week this season we ended the show with a bet for that week’s game we made an outlandish prediction something that almost definitely would not happen but could

Have each week Travis and I put up $5 if no one hit the money rolled over to the next week eventually by the time someone’s weird prediction came true they could have won a good chunk of change and we did a couple of times but

The final pot grew to $150 and no one hit do we care about the last bets I don’t even remember who what any of our bets were I do know that none of them cashed in a game that I’ve already been working so hard to forget fully despite

Losing mine could have came true but it didn’t I bet that only former lafc players were G to score for the crew and that did not happen yeah okay yeah so we have $150 we’re going to donate it so Vince pointed out a charity that we

Think will be good so Darren and I are going to give $75 each right now to the Midnight Mission which is a homeless Services charity in skid row it’s been around since 1914 it’s a comprehensive homeless shelter and homeless services provider in Los Angeles and they they do both path to self-sufficiency programs

They do food banks they do homeless Sheltering it seems like they do a ton of stuff down in skid row and we thought that because we played this dumb game where we passed money back and forth all year it might be good to give it to a charity

That actually does good work and Jeff to can be the only one who ends up making any money off this Jeff if you want to show you’re a hero give your money to the Midnight Mission just like me and Darren so Darren right now we’re both

We’re yeah double it double it Jeff this inspires you at all I I will say check out the website it’s a great charity if this inspires you at all to give don’t just encourage Jeff talk to give um uh it’s at midnight mission.org if you want to Max match our $75 donations

That we’re sending over there it would be rad if you did or even if you just gave a little bit so Darren and I are going to donate by pre we both teed up our websites we have all the the stuff in we’re just going to press donate

Right now are you ready Darren I’m ready three two one press the button I pressed the but I forgot to tea up the the sound well we donated the we didn’t get the money I hate giving it to but at least it’s a good one let’s end

Our show there Vince Darren this is our last show for the year I just want to say happy holidays Merry Christmas happy Hanukkah happy New Year we’ll see you in the new year that’s our show our theme music was done by the insane team of James Valentine Nate Walcott and Louis

Palmer also want to say one holiday thank you to all of you for still being friends of the foot sticking around hanging out with us and still being listeners to the show it means a lot that you gave us such a special year when I think back on my year this

Podcast is genuinely my favorite thing I’ve done all year so I just want to say thank you to our listeners for for being a part of it and to Darren and Vince for making it so special and anyone who’s helped us along the way whether it be

With graphic design or video or just sharing our stuff it really means a lot so so thank you along with YouTube Twitter Instagram Tik Tok you can follow us on threads and if you made it this far in the episode and you want to become one of those patreons that you

Haven’t as a Christmas gift to us you can become a patreon for $5 a month at patreon.com foot sadot and you get that exclusive inter interview with Andrew we’re going to post someday soon I don’t know the exact date you can also pick up some haos safo inspired merch like this

Christmas sweater that says Holly at Happy Foot sadf footp pod.com any support goes a long way to keeping the show going and the community growing thanks again and we’ll see you in the new year baby I love you see you in 20224 I love by bye I love you bye next

Year I love that why why was this was why was is this our longest episode Bye