The USMNT European Crossroads: Deconstructing CBS Sports Golazo's Season Preview

Hi, hello, welcome to your favorite average good podcast, Paul at which you want Jimmy Conrad alongside Charlie Davies and Tony Mjola and the 2026 World Cup is now officially a distant memory as three major European league seasons swing back into gear this weekend. We got league starting in Italy, England, and France. They're going to be preparing for nine to ten months season, playing in multiple competitions. So here are today's topics. Okay, we're going to talk about these players and storylines in Syria, the primary league in Liga, potential transfers involving Americans, what we liked and didn't like from this past weekend for the games that did get played. But most importantly, big tones, I want to talk about Charlie Davies being cancer-free or ten years. Congratulations, buddy. Thank you, guys. Never look better. Thank you, guys. Never look better, man. How was that feeling, getting to the 10-year mark? Uh, major. I didn't think I'd ever have to think about having cancer and then, you know, the worry that comes with it if it's going to come back or if it's going to pop up in a different spot. But, you know, after every year, and they always say the first two years are a key in assuring that there is no reoccurrence of the cancer. So, yeah, I mean, 10 years, it feels like it's a distant memory. But unfortunately, I think once you have cancer, you know, there's always that little, you know, a chance of it surprising you at some point in your life. So, I always use it just to think about, man, not knowing how much time you have left, just to enjoy everything every day, all the people you come in contact with every day. I get to work with you guys. I just try and remind myself to, you know, know about, know about what's important in life, you know, and try and make the most of it and get the most out of it. Did you have a mentor through this process? And was there a piece of advice? I'm sure that there might be some people that are going through something similar and what kind of helped you stay steady throughout? I've never had a mentor, but I feel like, you know, in conversations with people, you know, just for instance, Tony, right? Tony, the incredible career that he's had on off the field and being a father and some of the difficulties he's had to deal with. And then, you know, having a heart attack, he's bouncing back and, you know, you pick up things from the people that you interact with. And I think that's one of the gifts of life is sharing the adversity that we've all gone through because it all connects in some weird way. The difficulties that we all go through. And so you learn a little bit from everybody. And so it's not easy, you know, it's, we show up, we talk about soccer, you know, it's all fun and games, but, you know, a lot of people don't know what happens in the background. And it's the same in life. We go to, you know, go grocery shopping, we go to a mall, we go shopping, we go to restaurants, and people may, you know, come across as, hey, I'm having a good time and nothing's, you know, going on, but you don't know what's happening in their life and the people around them. So I think that's always been my therapy is just talking about it and talking about, you know, some of the difficulties that we have to endure. But yeah, it's, life is, is full of ups and downs, right? And I think we get a little bit stronger after we get, we get by some of those downs. Now, love that. It's amazing. You don't know, you don't know how many people you touch, you don't know how many people, you know, what you realize is how many other people are going through all the same stuff, you know, and, and this is like the outlet, right? Just talking about the game, as you said, and it's like one of those, it's the, like the pinch me moment during the day, right? Where you're like, man, I get to talk about this for an hour and get away from everything, but man, it's, I saw that post and you know me, if I saw it, it must have been prevalent because I'm not on social media all that much. And I was like, hell yeah, man. Chuck is good for 10 years, brother. That's, that's awesome. Man, I'm so happy for you. Yeah, we're thrilled for you, Chuck. And we are excited to talk about the game. So let's do that. And we're going to actually, Tony, I'm going to go to you because you're ultimately our expert, I would say. And, and, and Saria kicking off on Paramount Plus. We highly recommend everybody to tune in this weekend for the opening weekends. They're five Americans. We're going to watch Christian Pulisic and you to Smusa. We haven't set his name for a while at AC Milan. It looks like he's going to be staying. Ruben Ameriem is the new coach at Milan. And, and apparently he wants to keep Moosa there, that despite some interest from some other clubs, what's the McKinney Juventus? Can they do enough under Spaletti to to really contend for the Scadetto this year? In term of Milan are the heavy favorites to win it. They're even money to win it in Italy this year. You guys like five and a half to one for everybody that likes to splash a little cash. Milan's also about five and a half six to one to win the league, but going back to back Inter are the heavy favorites. Okay. Napli is another one. They're five to one. I think I just said that you've a Milan. And then we have Boussio's back with Venezia. What's cool about Gianluca Boussio is that he's now captain of the team. And I think he deserves it. He's got up and down with them a few times. This is the third time getting promoted to Saria. Can they stick around this time? They've been a Yo-Yo club going from A to B in consecutive seasons. And then he got Ben Hameen Kramaski from Parma just made his deal permanent from Inter Miami back in June. So we'll see how he continues to grow and thrive. He was injured at the back end of last season under Carlos Cuesta, who was did a pretty nice job with Parma last year, finishing 13th in his first season. Very young manager played or excuse me coach with Miguel Arteta. I guess the question for you then big tones is kind of an overall just so everybody that's kind of paying attention. Do you think Inter will win it again? And then which player, what's American player, are you keeping closest tabs on? You said something about five to one. I don't know what that all means for Milan. Just save your money. Yeah. Inter for sure I think are the favorites. They've made some big moves in the winter transfer window. And I think they're the best built team. They've been for a while. They've had the formula on how to conquer Saria. Even when Milan won Saria, even when Napoli won Saria a couple years ago now, I think the idea was that Inter was still the best team in the league, right? And with multiple competitions, falling apart two seasons ago, kind of at the end in the last month, they're there for sure. I think still the favorite for everybody. With regards to the players, Jimmy, look, we're going to talk about political year. Moose is an interesting story. Western McKinney is another guy we're going to talk about all season. I'm really interested in the Bucio thing. He's in the top five league now. I think he's over 24 or 25 years old. Two years ago when they, so they came up and then they got relegated immediately back down. I think people thought that he was going to find a home. There was rumors that all kinds of places are swallow and different places that he would be back in Saria. He stays with the club. They get promoted again. So he's gone through two promotions in a relegation with that club. He's been a stalwart from basically the time that he was there. I think it's a really, really interesting story. You think now when you're talking about the new cycle, I don't think you can discount. Just throw out Bucio here based on Pochotino and now coming back and thinking about rebuilding. He was thrown out of this cycle early. I don't think you can just throw him out of the midfield right now. We're in a wait and see with him. Kramaski is still a little bit younger. Got a little bit of time last year. Then got injured. We'll see what that looks like this year should get more time. I think the permanent move was already agreed on when he made the move from Inter Miami. They knew that this permanent move was an obligation to buy. I think he could be a really talented player as well. Bucio's the one I'm going to watch this year. Let's then talk. Let's bring it back a little bit, Chuck, because I feel like Saria is probably the most compelling league in the top five leagues in Europe. They have three different champions on the last five seasons. You could argue. Bundesliga's Bayern. You have PSG's league. Are you really think that? What's that? Bayern? No, Saria. Is it compelling? Yeah. I mean, it doesn't mean the levels as high as the other leagues at times. That's kind of where the conversation is. But I do feel like that it does feel, I think, Inter is a clear favorite this year. Compelling in terms of just not knowing who. Yeah. I mean, you have Inter who won the league last year, right? For me, they're the clear favorites. Clear favorites this year. They won the league last year by 11 points. Right. Right. I've probably finished second. Roma finished third. It's only highest in eight years. Yeah. Yeah. Roma who finished under Gasparini. So Roma's going to be in the conversation. Be hard to break down under Gasparini. Come on and says Fabregas. They finished fourth. It's going to be hard for that club, I think, in particular to hold on to Fabregas after the season and also to try to balance playing in Champions League and also trying to be competitive in Saria. That's a big, that's always a big challenge for the clubs that maybe don't have the same depth and budget. But I do think, but here's the big question. No Italian team made it past around a 16 of the Champions League last season. Napoli couldn't get it out of the group phase. Boto Glimp, baby, my squad from Norway took down Inter Milan over two legs. And so I guess that, I mean, Inter were in the Champions League final two seasons ago. So it's not like the drop-off has been good, but I just kind of wonder, you know, how the Italian, how Italian Calccio, the football comes back and how competitive they can be, not only in making their league compelling, but also in Europe. No, just I was interested in your take on compelling, because I mean, probably, you know, the Premier League, if you're looking at the Premier League, that also could be pretty compelling, given all of the the managerial changes, the player transfers, you know, there's no Puck Guardiola, there's no Jürgen Klopp, you know, that it just feels like this season, you know, our Tetta is really trying to put his firm grips on the trophy for a repeat given that Manchester City and that obviously it's just a community shield. It doesn't tell you too much, but Manchester City looks like they're going to go through some rough patches this season. But Syria, I guess from that standpoint, it's going to be really interesting who finishes second, third and fourth. I don't think Inter is going to be challenged this season. But could this be a redemption season for Rubin Amarum? I think that's Tony probably something that you're looking at, but when we're looking at Milan, the depth is not there in the squad. So when you're talking about Eunice Musa, I'm looking at the roster, I'm looking at the friendlies and how he's used players. Eunice Musa stands a really good chance to be part of the rotation. I do, I think he's going to start over a Rabio look at Mordrich, you know, I think Fofana is probably going to be sold. So after those two, I think he is the third best midfielder that they have, central midfielder. So given Mordrich's age, I think Eunice Musa will be given a handful of opportunities. And by the way, he only had four starts last year. So it looks like it'll be a better situation for him, staying at Milan versus going on loan to Atalato, which goes up there as probably one of the worst loan deals you could ever, you could ever select. Yeah, it's, so what's interesting about Eunice Musa, only 23 years old. So, so and it looks like that Emereem is, is yeah, yeah, I mean, he's still got plenty of room to grow. And when you've got to do something with that, I'll tell you that right now. He's got to do some grades, he's got to do something. He missed out on the opportunity to play alongside and learn from Luka Mordrich last year. And I hope that he has that opportunity this year and they don't loan him out and he gets to stick around because even if he's not playing as maybe as much as he wants, being around somewhat of that statue has accomplished so much and is so good at the game. I think it'll only help him grow as a player. So we'll see, I'm very curious about Eunice Musa as well. With regard to to Bustio, he actually said this in a quote about being captain. Yes, I'm the new captain. It's an honor and proud. I'll do everything I can to represent Venetia and this team. I never thought I'd have this role, but I'm ready to take it on 24 years old. That's phenomenal. Yeah, he started 37 to 38 league matches for Venetia and Sarah B last year. Seven goals for us. This obviously, this is going to be a big jump up. 17 caps for the USman's national team, most recently playing in November of 2024. So we'll see if he gets an opportunity to get called in. And I hope that I feel like he's warranted some consideration. At least bring him in. That's sorry. That's what I was saying. He just warrants consideration. You're playing in a top five leave. You're captaining aside. You're still 24 years old. It's a new cycle. You're looking at the center in the midfield with guys like Aid Morris and Sebastian Burhalter. And of course, we know Tyler Adams and his story. West McKinney's played a little bit higher under poach. I just think like it's a name that you have to consider. So if you're bringing in 36 guys to a camp, like I think he has to be in consideration. I'm not saying that he's a starter with that group. I just don't know that we can just he started, right? Or he played in Pochettino's first game. I'm seeing here, right? The Panama game back in October. And then that was it. Like I don't think we can just just say, you know what? He's not part of it right now. Let's see how he develops and what it looks like in the in the top league and what he does. He clearly has caught the eye of the manager to make him the captain. So I think it's pretty cool. I think it's a cool story. But so let's talk about the captain see a little bit because when you're in a game, let's use the Belgium game from the World Cup as an example. And the game's getting away from you. What do you need on the field? You need leaders. You need guys that know how to suffer a little bit and wrangle a game back under control. So if you're looking for those types of intangibles and someone of that age is being trusted to be a captain going into a top five league in Europe, I think yeah, you do need to look at him for a lot of differences. Obviously he can play and demonstrate that. But I think those intangibles are going to be important as we're team building, especially at the beginning of a World Cup cycle. Like you mentioned big times. I think that's a really good point. I suck Western McKenney Chuck before we move on to to Liga in France. He's just scored in the in the last friendly here for UVA. They won 2-0. They made Column Wani a permanent signing. So so they know they're going to have him up top Vlajivic is now gone. I think he went to Turkey. I yielded a really sharpened preseason. What's up? Ali Begivic. Karim Ali Begivic. That's right. He's been excellent as well. And so what do you think for this UVA team under Luciano Spaletti? Obviously he's a big fan of Weston. Trust him. Put some in good positions to have success and let them roam free, right? And it doesn't give him a hard time about it, which I think is important for for the way that Weston likes to play. What are you expecting from UVA and from Weston in particular this season? So so Weston started 32 games last year in Syria. Five goals, six assists. I expect him to have numbers around that with with in terms of goal contributions because Spaletti really loves him. High up the pitch. You know he was played as a false nine at times. Now I do think he'll be in the midfield and not playing striker, but he has the freedom to get forward. So I still see him scoring goals this year and around. I'd say five to eight goals, which is phenomenal. He had six assists. I still see him being involved in the final third. So he's going to be counted on. He's one of the players that Spaletti trusts and he's always one of the first names on the team sheet given his versatility and his commitment to to the team. So even talking to Weston like this is home for him. He doesn't he's not moving around Europe. This is this is home. If he leaves UVA, it's to come back to to Major League Soccer. So yeah, I love I love this for for Weston. He's count on. He's he's made it his second home. He knows everybody in and around the club. It's this is like one of those perfect matches, right? With an American player in Europe who's cut his teeth has kind of gone through the ups and downs and now has proved himself. So the fan base, the supporters, the team, and the administration all value what Weston McKinney brings. How far are we removed from them not giving him taking away his parking spot and taking away the first preseason. What's the first motivation now for Weston? Yeah, yeah, what's he going to do? He's got like no chip on his shoulder. Now he's going to be great because Spaletti trust him for sure. I know I was going to talk about a league on preview. I think we might need to save that for for the second break potentially, but but I did want to dig into Christian Pulisic a little bit with our Milan resident experts Tony Miola. Let's talk Christian Pulisic here because he had 15 goals in his first season with Milan 17 in a second, but only 10 last year in his third season with the club still hasn't scored for them in 2026. Last going in December of 2025. I kind of just want to speak big picture about your expectations for Christian this year under Amarim who who plays very similar to what we've been talking about or what we want with the national team and like that three four two one where you have a dual 10. You'll be one of the dual 10. So get to kind of floats. Amarim has already said he wants to kind of be on the left side cutting in on the right and finding those pockets of space between the lines very similar to what we saw. I think with Mauricio Pochettino as we started to shift into that. Obviously the numbers are the numbers and staying healthier, staying healthy. It was kind of the obvious stuff. I guess big time. But kind of what do you want to see a 27 years old now? Any areas that you'd like to see him kind of really cement his like I'm the guy in this area and you can trust me. Where are you at with Christian Pochettino season big tones? I think you want to see what we saw in the first half of the season last year right in the fall whereas where he got all his goals and where he was going into the winter break. We were talking talking about him potentially being the MVP of Cedia and deservedly so. He was as good as anybody. Yeah he was. I think under Ruben Amarim in that sort of counter attacking in that role that he wants to play that suits him really really well. I like the fact that it sort of is the same position that he's going to be asked to play with the national team we think right we think we found a way of playing under Pochettino that kind of suits the group but who knows it's a new cycle maybe wants to work on other things but I but ultimately it's just be healthy right like that's always that been the wish with Christian policy when he's healthy he's as good as anybody in that leak at creating and at scoring goals and it's just been you know unfortunate entry after unfortunate injury and that's the that's the hope I think he's got a home there and it stinks that he's not playing Champions League football but he is playing European football the timeline I just looked it up it's somewhere in August where what are we a little bit past halfway here in August so he should be coming back and back on the field soon so hopefully by October Jimmy he's like at a hundred percent right and he's he's cruising and we're seeing the Christian that we love watching play all right you guys heard it here from big tones all right here the first matches from Saria Saria and CBS sports are in this together paramount plus you can watch all the games this weekend on paramount plus you got entered the defending champs taken on Monsa at home I feel like Milan got a tough one away the Torino that is a tough place to to go away and get a result other big ones I mean Venezia hosting Como I think is going to be we've got Venezia twice on here so I've apparently played two games at the same time that's pretty awesome but yeah yeah no it's it's Venezia lichet it's you could tell that Venezia's the logo next to the Venezia that looks like it would an essay maybe it would an essay for yeah come on hey don't don't don't don't sweat at everybody just go to paramount plus to be able to pick the game of your choice that's all that really matters here the most open game it's not a lot to sesswell that's the most open game of the two teams that want to play yeah that would that could be a fun when intermons inter clearly going to dominate Napoli Genoa Genoa good side as well for us anone a promoted team yeah I would say out a lot to sesswell if you're going to pick one game if you just want to watch an open game it'd probably be out a lot to sesswell but of course match day one so who knows how to say what I you got to watch Milan per match day one you know that's you got to see how rumored yeah I got to see what a marines doing by the way with with the club switching formations and uh yeah we'll see we'll see if you can squeeze all the potential out of it and kind of redeem himself after uh not a great spell at Manchester United all right we're going to take our first break of the show when we come back we'll get into our other season preview so keep it right here all right welcome back into the show of conradinio alongside check chase and chuck chuck and big tones so listen i promised we teased a preview of lega i think this league in france is going to be compelling uh for different reasons because we got a couple players that are over there now we got ball again who's that modico we don't know for how long we're going to get into that full loan ball again he's got interest from premier league taught them a new castle in particular we'll talk about that we got mark my kenzie it to loose though it's been reporting you might be heading back to the philadelphia union in january so we'll get into that georena making the move for bruschie munching glad back to straw spurg brine rental did rent uh tanner tesmond how's he going to respond from being one of the more surprising cuts from the world cup roster for leone and then he got tim way at marse who has the captains arm band right now because they took it from pier hoi berk because he didn't want to go to new castle there's a lot to get get into there marse always always fireworks with that club in particular appears to you the heavy favorites to win this particular league not a big surprise olympic marse is at plus thirteen hundred thirteen to one monaco at plus eighteen hundred i think what's interesting about monaco is philippe lewis who who did an excellent job down in brazil and his eighteen months in charge he used to play for athletic home adrid i got it some time at Chelsea as well and has really shot off in like a cannon to to as a manager but hasn't found a job until now i think he's got some work to do with with monaco in particular somebody tries to challenge psg for the title i don't know where do you want to start chuckle come to you first what which player do you do you want to maybe dive into who who you can be keeping tabs on the season uh i guess naturally for learen balegan right and for me you know we saw the levels that he was able to produce with the usman sational team in this world cup and it's his movement his goal scoring um just being clinical but the technique that he possesses so finally it all clicked and the team understood his tendencies and vice versa so it'll be interesting to see because when you perform at the world cup in the way that he did you think that warrants a bigger move and for monaco who who you know are playing in the champions league it's a it's a it's a top club there aren't too many moves that you can make that would be worth it unless we're talking about you know you're we're talking about the the top 20 25 clubs in in world football right and so you know i've been looking at a number of places that would make sense from if he were to move but i would say patience there's there's no need to you know force a move uh or to end up in a place that doesn't make sense do you want to play Europa conference league didn't know and so i think that's probably one of the main factors when you're looking at monaco i got to be playing champions league football i i i was playing in a world cup and and i was one of the the players that you know i think took the world by storm but i need i need to level up in terms of getting back to playing in the champions league all right so the 25 year old balegan's 25 19 goals and 45 matches in all competitions last year i think it's most impressive where the ones he scored against psg obviously we could argue the best club team in the world so the two options that we're hearing the most spictones for balegan we'll get into this transfer kind of news right now is new castle who just lost her coach eddie how they lost a whole bunch of players not a great spot no tenoli but in transition anthony Gordon they they've signed they've signed a hundred and forty million dollars worth of players but four of those five signings are age 20 or under so i don't know if that's the best situation for him in particular they got a coach now who's coming in who's a red bull graduate right so he likes to play a certain style i actually think tottenham would be a better fit under reberto deserby but i don't know if that's going to happen as well they're talking about reportedly air quotes here for people not listening sixty million i think that could be a lot for for tottenham to want to pay for him but but uh... where do you think would be a good fit for him i taught him for sure i just think he'll get more of the ball see more of it and i think deserby's got a really nice job of organizing and setting up his teams to have success so i think you just get more service ultimately i have a good spot in my mind but i'll i'll okay okay don't go ahead tottenham's been one that's that we've spoken about the other one we spoke about early on was eventues to the way he fit there but of course uh you know you got to get back into champions league i i would say tottenham what new castle doesn't sound like the place for him right now you want to go somewhere he's going to get some service he's going to be in an attacking side i think deserby would love having him there and i and i just think if it is new castle there's still there's still an allure to the premier league right there's no denying that the money playing in the premier league new castle potentially being part of something with some young players as you said Jimmy coming in that you can be part of growing something like a new cycle there like there's got to be an allure to that too even though it doesn't seem like the best fit but i i'll be interested in charlie's uh you know team that he wants to talk about but tottenham would be if especially if that recharge and you know if all of that works out where he leaves i haven't even followed at the last week but um that that seems to be a logical spot all right and then let me let me get after once all right what's your team uh i was i was doing a deep dive across europe's top five leagues and you know you're you're looking at the champions league clubs because clearly that's where you want to play if if you reach a certain level so for fuller and valigan one club that comes to mind that i think would be a good fit is aston villa and aston villa because when i am ready plays and in the way that allie wask walkins is can can really go cold for a while and sometimes needs um to to come off the bench whether it's motivation whether it's he just loses form but there tends to be a need for a striker there because tamiya brim was brought in and didn't give you anything we saw what john de rand did a couple seasons ago at villa and he what he did with this time i feel like now that they're playing in champions like they just time yohan manzambi who's a fantastic player i absolutely loves everything about that swiss midfielder that there could be a great option for him um now because we we've heard about mika tatsai at via real potentially going to to barcelona or just rumor to be moving via real could be a great spot for for him as well i think la liga would suit him uh extremely well so a top club in in in the la liga um in playing in champions league like via real i think that could be a great spot for him by the way he'd be playing with his teammate freeman uh there roma daniel myland did a fantastic job i don't think daniel myland is a straight striker so given the fact that you know that's it another spot that you're playing in champions league gaspareini it could be a good spot for him as well um so those were the the clubs that i was thinking about because it's he's not going to buyer and barça interreal psg arsenal dorkman city united at that game with red napoli liverpool so if you're looking at you know the the top top league champions uh clubs that finished second he's not going to any of those i feel like um amongst those clubs that's probably what would turn his his head if if he were leaving monaco yeah it's gonna be really interesting and i feel like there's enough time here still what almost two weeks a little less than two weeks in this transfer window where if something doesn't happen or if a certain domino falls all you walkins actually just use that simvila as an example uh guy getting really strong interest from all helal in in saudi arabia so i feel like if you're an iamry and like okay well i can get balagin for the money we'll probably get from saudi arabia then no you get you'd get you you you probably could sell all you walkins for 70 80 to to saudi arabic because remember it's there's a inflated price whenever you're in saudi arabic because you know how much money they care so you could probably make a profit making that type of of sale of an alley walkins and and securing a florent balagin all right so let's just talk then a little bit about league uh much like the primary league there's like a there's a new look to a lot of a lot of teams in this this division here in france top division 12 clubs have changed their manager over the summer that's a lot so i'm kind of curious to see how it's going to go um and georena let's just yes new manager new team big tones 20 appearances last season with munchen gladbach 578 minutes one goal no assists this feels like last chance saloon for this guy right at least in europe i mean what do you what what what do we have any expectations for georena at this point is there any any standard or bar have you not have you not been proven wrong yet jenna where's the slander coming from when he when he came off the bench and he hit that robone uh the the trevella to scola go lasso what what was going to your mind initially where you are yeah i was like a strict yeah but what was brought up ends what's next right i mean i mean that ended up being our best game in the tournament so sadly that was probably our peak if we looked at on the balance of all the all the games but yeah when he came on he gets belgim in particular okay great we're down we need someone to step up and make plays especially on the attacking side of the ball and um yeah i didn't see that away i can't i can't put belgim on georena if i'm being no i'm not putting it on him i'm just saying it came into solve problems doing nothing or other things that were going on yeah we had 11 players about that nine players of nothing in that game and then no i know i know i know i know i know but um you say last chance saloon i i don't know i feel like we said that a couple times right about georena and last chance saloon is this is last move this has to be um his his time now to shine a young team um there's been clips of him um in his last preseason game that had been floating around the internet he looked okay there were moments where you could tell his touch you could tell his his uh spatial awareness all of that stuff there were also moments in there he looked a little bit slow on some place um and maybe that's just to just getting back into it whatever it is he needs to he needs to play well there are two guys for me and legal that i'll be watching this year watching all of them but two guys keeping and i he's one of them the other ones timothy way because i think timothy way i need to bounce back because his summer was not was not a great summer for timothy wayah um he needs to he needs to he needs to he needs to get his confidence back because he'd look like he was void of confidence throughout the entire summer for pochotino going into those those friendlies prior didn't look the same player didn't look the explosiveness didn't look the confidence didn't see it at the world cup and was it was it the paraguay game when policy came off right the substitution if i remember correctly was to bring Sebastian Burkhalter on at halftime instead of more of a like for like right would showed early on in the competition what pochotino is staff thought of timothy way or maybe didn't think of timothy wayah so i i think he needs to have a really good start to the season i'm looking forward to because he's a talented player there's no doubt we've seen we've seen it over the years i just think he lost his it lost his way a little bit in the summer yeah lots to get into with a lot of our players we'll circle back on on a few of the names including mark binkensi who uh a lot a lot of noise around him going back to the philadelphia union uh let's talk primarily and uh we have a couple players to watch in this one brennan's entire atoms say if it goes so Chris Richards Jedi Robinson has you rights of which players do you think chuck are going to benefit the most from new coaches you have pier sage a crystal palace after all of a glass on the left you got marco roza at born myth by the way they've been scoring so many goals in this pretty season a little bit different than i think under and donny ira ola who left for liverpool and then you get alvaro arbaloa at fullham and and uh i think there's going to be a drop off there i'll just raise my hand and start uh with marco sova leaving who who did a nice job of establishing a nice identity i didn't see enough with arbaloa with reaulma dred last year to to wonder what he's going to do with fullham uh chuck coming to you which which which player do you think will benefit the most from from a new coach or new situation or even a new season i think teller atoms i think teller atoms and marco russe was russe was in uh was at arby leipzig when tyler um he was at dormant he was at uh you know he's got the boondas liga background so he he knows teller atoms from his time there and i think just with the way he plays football i think teller atoms will will raise his profile in this born myth team um you know it's at him and out of scott those those the two big players in the midfield for born myth so if teller atoms i know you've been linked to a few teams uh ends up staying he's at the european there's not too many teams he can move on from uh at this stage that i think teller arms could benefit from from a new coach yeah it's gonna be interesting how about you big tones what are you saying yeah it's hard to when you say benefit like who knows what sage looks like right um who knows what a lot of these managers look like and arbaloa is the interesting one right because it wasn't a great sample size of riamadrid but i don't know who would have went in there and changed things the way they were right so we have to give them a little bit of time um antony robins has been rumored to united to new castle to a couple other teams um that have been swirling around for a couple of months um haji right going back to the premier getting into the premier league here with coventry for the first time um that's good then interesting but then they went and signed yeah i want you so he's yeah yeah who knows does he play out why do they only use him in that substitute role like they like they used them last year Brandon arson under daniel Farca is he gonna play came into preseason late they were here in the summer they played rexam sundaerlin and liverpool um i had two of their games they looked okay um they brought in the center back from bosnia and her to govina um her her her removage uh who looked really really good who i thought was outstanding at the world cup for them does that help that group and does he get enough playing time there he's also been rumored potentially because i think he's in the last year of his contract um you know does he stay at leads like i think there's more jimmy on the other side like there's probably more concern with players with new managers then the guy i mean atoms is the one that when you say who benefits the most i i suppose he's the guy that would benefit the most here but there's probably more concern with managers changing all right so so you mentioned leads let's talk Brendan arson three games so far in preseason three goal contributions to go on and assist just had an assistant the last one against augsburg playing right next to harry wilson how much do you think that's going to make a difference chuck and and maybe taking some pressure off of him having to be the guy that makes that final pass can be more of a connective tissue uh being wilson and dominant calvert luan who scored fourteen primarily goals last year so so i feel like he's like he's sandwiched between two really talented guys no i think his role is not going to change in terms of what it was last season he was still uh it looked much more comfortable in the attacking third he was making runs off for calvert luan so that that piece has helped him because now there's a number nine who can hold up two center backs who can create space for brand arson we can run off of i think harry wilson is a great uh experience midfielder so now you're talking about someone who um knows how to change the pace of the game and and can can finish but i think there'll be a good partnership between those two um not necessarily taking any burden off of a brand arson i think he's he's growing with confidence and and when he plays with confidence you can tell because he's he'll try things and some of them come off but some and some don't but he's uh he's got a great mentality um you know that's how he's been able to last this long in europe because he's he believes in himself he backs himself and he works his butt off so i i i think he's going to have a better season uh with leads this year given that he had success last year in in the premier league um he knows the players he's playing around especially uh calvert Lewin so i think he's gonna have a better season than he did last year i think he makes improvements yeah it's gonna be interesting i actually like some of the signings from leads to i think wilson's a good signing smart signing uh James trafford and goals only going to help solidify that um so yeah and then calvert Lewin's just a surprise you know 14 goals last year it came in right before the transfer window ended so it didn't get like a proper preseason i think it'll be flying this time around i'm just saying that because he's my fantasy team this year come on dominant calvert Lewin all right so let's talk uh uh uh uh big tones is there anybody you'd like to see move of the of our players you know jedi robinson you mentioned because we're full of that feel like somewhat in transition i don't know how how much thriving they're going to do this year i feel like they're going to be doing more surviving than thriving would you like to see jedi make a move even though he's getting close to 30 um is is is Tyler Adams maybe making a move he with there was a little bit of smoke around him going to new castle with them selling Bruno Guimarache to arsonal and and sondre tonali going to taught them maybe there's room there i don't know if you'd like to go play there because that looks like it's going to be a project as well um you know we already talked about again a little bit potentially coming Chris Richards now with la croix going to to cell c's going to a little bit more onus on him to be the guy for crystal palace uh what are your thoughts on on potentially guys making moves yeah i mean what i feel like we've been talking about anthony robinson every year about is he going to liverpool is he going to Manchester united um getting at his age right now if he's going to make a move i would think he's the guy uh that needs the move the most Tyler Adams is in a good spot although if he can get to one of the bigger clubs and they believe in him and he's playing all the time um i could understand that move Chris Richards he says in a good spot uh yes so i would if i had to pick one would be anthony robinson um to make a move and uh see him finally get to a place where he's at one of the bigger clubs and it's been united and new castle have been the the rumors for him and either of those i think would be uh certainly an upgrade i know the new castle situation is not great right now uh but it's still new castle still a big club um recently have wanted to put a trophy in the cabinet over the last two seasons um or three seasons now i guess so yeah i mean he would be he would be the guy i think the other ones are okay harrenson i think is in a decent spot it date they may get rid of pyro uh as well the center forward right it sounds like he might go so there's still going to need players in the attack not that he's going to be a like for like uh but they can't get rid of all your attacking players right so yeah robinson for me yeah chock you with with big tones on jett i Manchester united right now they got luke shaw who's kind of a walking injury and then you have dorgo who pretty much plays more as a winger than he does as an outside back i think he'd be a nice fit there especially and he got experience i know andy robinson but another experience defender in the primary leg left liver pool and enjoying Tottenham and he's going to help solidify that maybe not as an out and out starter every week but but someone you can trust and if you're playing in multiple competitions that goes a long way i'm all the way with tones i think into robinson has earned a move uh out outside of full him to an improved club a club that's competing in champions league i think he's ready for that um especially if you have maybe two options so you can rest him every now and then because of how much um miles he puts in those legs per game so i think that's something i'm looking forward to to the end of the season hoping that he gets a move secure as a move because he absolutely has earned it when he's healthy um man he's he's up there amongst the best left-backson in the world yeah he's just turned 29 years old and they're saying his transfer value currently is around 30 million that's nothing for the top clubs absolutely nothing all right we're going to take our next break our last break when we come back we're going to talk about some americans abroad and maybe some more transfer news because it's just that time of the season so don't go anywhere keep it right here ooh welcome back to the stretch run of call it what it is or call what you want you just call it whatever you want i'm Jimmy alongside Charles and uh Anthony or Antonio what is it? Antonio Antonio Antonio i love that Antonio i love that all right so we talked about it a little bit and now we're diving back in mark Mackenzie gonna be leaving to loose and being reported that he's leaving to lose now now i guess there was a middle ground there but he's gonna they didn't want to lose them right away so he's gonna go in January to the Philadelphia Union 27 years old 30 caps to the USman's national team started his career at the Philadelphia Union coming back and he's gonna get DP money so that's gonna be one of the rare centerbacks getting DP money shout out center back union absolute that tones do you like this move for a year has your been has your ever been a walkers Zimmerman i think that will work it all this was a DP for a little bit at a little time there's a DP centerback i feel like Toronto FC way back when they made some signings that they shouldn't have had a centerback that was a DP as well um i don't know miles robberts should be yeah that's that's Toronto FC's transfer yeah may sign in guys they shouldn't have all outside of Sebastian Jovinka what a signing that guy was absolutely uh amazing okay so so um there's two there's two questions to this mark Mackenzie do you like the move for him personally and then how do you think it impacts Philadelphia Union well it impacts the union i'll start there for sure um in the back right they bring in a a world cup better and a guy that's been in Europe for a couple years um it's certainly gonna make them better a guy that understands the union knows them as good as anybody does it the mark Mackenzie thing like is it is it a good move i can't tell you what a good move from mark Mackenzie is or not i i know the the idea is gonna be why does a mark Mackenzie stay in Europe and and go to another club or continue to play and play at the highest level and sometimes in the end um i hope mark Mackenzie if he makes this move i hope mark Mackenzie's the highest paid player ever i don't know what the union figures are i know they're a lower paying team um i hope he what's the term chuck the i hope he gets his bag right that's uh i hope he makes his money right and i i hope that i hope that he he gets whatever it is that he's looking for uh in this thing and i know it's not gonna look great to some people i don't think it's a terrible move um it's probably gonna settle him a little bit maybe his family is gonna be a little bit more settled he's back in america he's in front of pochettino weekend and week out like there's there's positives to it but i know there's gonna be i don't know the haters if you will right there inside i can't believe he's coming back and but all those people that say that when you see when you put that money in front of them chuck um and you say would you make this move all them haters will make the same move no doubt no doubt so it's a it's a it's a fantastic move from the union um you don't you don't and emalesce think about it how often do you get young experienced top level center backs in the league it not often it's a league that goes after the attacking talent not the defensive talent usually the defensive talent uh has a ways to go in terms of we're talking about competing around the world globally uh as a league for for top defenders so um you know part of me is like man i feel like mark the kensy could take another step you know and and push himself but i will never fault anyone when the bag is thrown at you and you can go home and you got a family for me um he's had an incredible career thus far you got to he got to play in a world cup he's got to play in europe um it's an incredible story i mean i remember mark the kensy as a young kid training with us and and getting his first professional contract out of wake force you know and uh same thing with Austin trusty these guys burn errands and they just started training with the first team they they they signed with the union and off they went so um i'll be the first one to stand up and and clap and and be proud of what they been able to accomplish and by the way he's only 27 years old so yeah he's coming he's coming back to win you know he wants to bring an emulus cup to to fill it off you yeah they also signed recently Ky Wagner who left and then now came back he's on dp money as well very rare to see a team uh have two dp's back oh man you're looking good man you gotta make it come back i gotta make it come back for sure only start lacing the mom start stretching uh right now i think what's interesting too from a development standpoint because fill it up the union at this point has been known as kind of uh develop them young and sell them on but they have an 18 year old center back who plays for the u.s. national team Neil Pierre who i think could learn a ton from having Ky Wagner on one side of them and mark the kensy on the other and uh that's taking to be there man no i know well especially Lucas Harrington making a big move um to to whole city you know it's going to be interesting to see how long we can keep all of our top young center backs but uh Neil Neil Pierre is going to be a player to watch for sure and kind of curious where his career goes but yeah moves moves for days here for the Philadelphia union pretty cool to see all right it's still a little bit of a weekend recap we had Riccardo Peppie score off of a Serginio desk assist you love to see it in psv's two one win versus excelsior Austin trusty scored the first goal of the season for Celtic i think it's the season or maybe it was the league cup where did they scored the league cup somebody have to correct me in our private chat four zero win for the hoops versus dundee united he's partnering in the center back line with Cameron Carter vickers ccv that was a leagues cup one on that Alex Freeman sub dawn in a two two draw for via real versus Rossine Santanteur uh don luca busia who talked about earlier provided the game winning assist for venezia in their three two win over Modesto in the Copa Italia Diego coach and recorded six saves in a one one draw versus michaelens in denmark workers bushcas provided the assist in a two one win versus gorka in koreaisha let's talk a little bit about Alex Freeman um big tone so on on you are you are we nervous that he didn't start that first game obviously coming off a tremendous world cup we want him to be the guy for us a via real or is it just because he just hasn't had a lot of preseason where should we net out as as a fan of the usman's national team and of Alex how concerned should we be about him not starting this first game yeah i i don't know how long he's been in preseason what the fitness looks like i'm not that concerned yet jimmy if we're you know five weeks into this thing and you're telling you're you're asking me this and we're seeing sort of the same result then maybe i'm a little bit concerned um yeah so so the guy in front of marina was via real is first choice right back for most of last season he did get a run Alex did at the at the end of last year uh they lost a game i think of three zero and then he couldn't really find his way back into the team but plenty of time of course are you concerned check it all is this a big deal a little deal no big whoop zero percent concerned um Alex Freeman showed he's he was one of the rising stars in the entire world cup everyone knows the quality as via real spent that type of money to get him for a reason so there's no reason to worry um again he's got a lot of these guys who play in the world cup they get extended breaks um i i think it's just a matter of time and and he'll be the starting right back for via real yeah i'm excited again his competition isn't an older competition he's a younger guy as well so i'm kind of curious to see how it's good competition that's why we want to send our guys right cut their teeth they got to earn it um you know what you know what i love is the fact that there are people who go you know if you have a new manager which we all know no matter who you are a new manager has to get an idea of who you are as a player and when they can trust you and build that confidence but to tell me that a world cup has no significance or the value that the club bought you has no significance on what if you're gonna get an opportunity or not is is mind boggling that's all i got to say you know like if you got a you know someone out there is thinking oh he played in a world cup where he was bought for 20 million uh a new manager he's not gonna he's not gonna care about that you you done lost your mind if you're ISG or city like the teams that spend just stupid money on players maybe you could make an argument for that but it's not as if those managers didn't watch the world cup it's not as if they they don't know the trajectory for Alex Freeman when they take the job right him but with concern level right now Jimmy I'm not not there as far as being concerned for Alex Freeman just yet okay so so here's another one we're gonna play a little game a big deal little deal no big what but kind of didn't maybe formalize it as much as I should have uh let's talk Kevin Sullivan go back to Philadelphia Union bags a brace of assists under Ryan Richter the interim manager maybe he'll get the full-time tag at some point here six appearances four in mls two and least cup 493 minutes for the kid one goal and two assists having some impact they had a tremendous performance on the weekend down to NYCFC and came back to to win that one three goals away from home to win that one three two uh it's tough we we always want to hype up the the youngsters here Chuck what do we do with this I mean we it's it's clear that he's making big plays he's being trusted and he's performing when he's being trusted I almost want to put him in cotton and just like let's just let him continue to develop let's not talk about him anymore but but but well how do we do that when he's playing this well kid doesn't need time yeah what are you talking about here Jimmy that kid no that's my Manchester City whoa no I get that I get that like no how no kid no kid no disrespect any of the other youth youth talented youth out there but when somebody's typing a match or but um what when we're talking about Academy Salvin yeah well we're talking about Kevin Sullivan this is a kid that was playing up multiple years in the youth national team okay he gets signed to go to Manchester City now of course at you know being a young teenager to go oh you know can he come in the MLS we saw it with front of you do then you need time by the way Philadelphia said we're gonna keep you with the Bethlehem steel the US the second the MLS two team that the Philadelphia didn't have that play in the US so you say okay this is a great great uh chance for him to build his strength and then it's it's confidence but also understanding at that next level we're talking if he was playing U 15 national team and all of a sudden he's playing with the U 18 national team you're going okay that's great but now you're talking about men fast quick stronger men how do you base basically figure out how can you do some of the things that you do extremely well at the youth level at the professional level and it's taking him time now he's ready we've seen it he's had glimpses but again it's being consistent his attitude and his mentality have never needed to to be questioned he is where he is because of how confident he is and how determined he is now we're talking about the ability part he's he's finally figured out a way to to be himself and creative and daring without taking away from the group from the team that he's playing with so play him continue to play I'm not saying I all I'm saying is like how do we protect him from the hype like can we just let him I want to talk about him of course I'm excited about how can you know how can you know it's hard to protect him from hype why would you need to no I well if he can handle it he can handle it and but if you get handle the the the lights and the kids being about the human being here not the player he's a creative player that he's not afraid of the hype though and he's going to Manchester City so I hear that he can't leave for two more years though I mean he turned 17 in September he's got some time where he can go and have you have you watched him play does he look like a kid that's afraid of like he's going no right and I get what you're saying the kid but he's actually Jimmy wants to keep over in the house until he's 25 no but he's actually for my daughter yes of course I'm at that mindset he's almost bringing it on to me like he's like give it to me like that's what I that's the sense I get I don't I've spoken to him once so I don't know him as a kid but yeah here I watch the interviews he doesn't seem to shy away from anything he gets tackled I will say when he gets tackled like he's a dribbler he's going to get tackled you can't fight everybody that tackles you right like you just at some point just just get up and go buddy the lacks no confidence at all he's not afraid to go after anybody the Ryan Richter the I guess he's the interim manager right he he's in a great spot because there's no pressure to play him right it because they fired the manager because they weren't doing well he's playing the young kid give him an opportunity by the way this might be the right time for Kevin Sullivan to be getting his starts not a year ago or so we can't blame anybody before this maybe this is the time that he was ready to get the starts so it's not like we can go and blame Bruce arena because he didn't play Shakira a year and a half ago the kid wasn't ready to play a year and a half ago now he's ready to play so you play him right you what you're seeing is a kid that's kind of grown into his skin and if you're okay with saying Kevin go do your thing I know you're going to make mistakes let's figure out what works what doesn't right now what you can do what you can do and you sit in your office with your coaching staff and go okay this is the information we've got to give Kevin we've got to give him this much leash just to to let him feel the game out a little bit I think he's in a really good spot right now I agree all right let's finish the show here with some big games this week we have Champions League qualifying that's happening and we got Leon so Tanner Testman will be part of that Celtic is also part of that so the Fenderbatch a Leon matchup is going to be fantastic these games are happening this week so today this is Tuesday you got Wednesday you'll have some other Champions League qualifying as well Celtic will take it on last can and Leon having to travel to Turkey against Fenderbatch is going to be a good one Dean of my Zoggrab as you can see there make Athens Boto glimps my my squad I love those guys we'll see if they can do the business as well so yes qualification playoffs for the Champions League tune in to Paramount Plus to catch all that and of course catch Saria on Paramount Plus and CBS Sports as well lots of happening we're back at it world cup is done European leagues are now kicking off the stretch run of MLS and USL is happening as well very exciting stuff NWSL as well and Photoshop time we have Ivis who came up with a with a Photoshop before we we go let's see what it looks like oh come on listen I do I do I do I do I do I do look like Maccamore a little bit I'm not going to lie um a little bit of a doppelganger there and especially when I do have my hair high and tight respect it cover of Rolling Stone like like I love seeing that well played that's not even a Photoshop it's like a side by side I thought wow that's it's pretty spot on I got it's pretty good give them that yeah I if for all you that that loved some movies back in the 80s I also look like Anthony Michael Hall or or for everybody it's a little bit younger I look like the guy from House that was the lead in that one yeah I got I got a couple doppelgangers out there but yeah that was pretty good Maccamore all right that's it call it in the show thanks for hanging out with us as always and we'll see you next week we're going to go back to two shows next week and back to Tuesday Thursdays next Tuesday Thursdays baby enjoy the Champions League vacation joy Saria and we'll see you on the other side of the weekend later Sunday the NFL on CBS is back with an electrifying week one double header the early slate features Josh Allen in the bills taking on CJ Stroud and the Texans in Houston then it's a classic NFC North Battle as Jordan Love and the Packers visit the Vikings it all kicks off at noon eastern with the NFL today live in Minnesota see you Sunday with the NFL on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus