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TABLE TALK: The Union Are On Fire! · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

• 0:29
  Speaker 1: The Philadelphia Union. in quite some time. Earlier this season,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: it seemed like a lost season. Now things have turned
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: around for this team, this organization, what they are doing
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: on the field within all of these matches.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: It really has been remarkable.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: And to discuss it with us this week, we've got
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: our good friend from PhiladelphiaSoccerNow.com, our good friend Josh Schuster. Buddy, man,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: thanks for jumping on here and discussing this union team.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Quite a phenomenon going on down there.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, something special is happening down in Chester.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: Absolutely. It's pretty wild.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: I don't know that I've ever seen an in-season transformation.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: As the union have done. I mean, this is just,
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: it's been remarkable.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: I'm talking, you said it right. Within Major League Soccer,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I can't remember the last time. And like I said,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: I've only been really kind of honing in on soccer
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: and MLS for the past couple of years. And I
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: don't remember a team ever doing what this team did.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: has actually been doing over these past few months here.
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I, I was meaning more towards in Philadelphia.
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: Sports, even across all the sports, but I can't remember
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: a team that for the first quarter of the season,
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: doesn't even know how to win. And then the second
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: quarter of the season, they don't know how to lose.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: It's I've, I've never, I've never seen it. I've never
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: seen a team fly out the standings. as fast as
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: the Union has.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: They played last night. Shut out. We're talking hat tricks.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: This is what we're seeing from the talent on this team,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: and we're certainly going to get into it. But Josh,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: it's a good segue from what you just said because
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: it's been a season of ups and downs. It's been
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: basically a tale of two halves of the season for
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: this Philadelphia Union team. So getting into it, I first
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: want to divvy this up into When they were completely
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: crapping the bed and now at this point where they
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: are suddenly seeing success.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: So let's go back a bit.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And first, what was happening with the union prior to
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the World Cup break where they were just at the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: bottom of the pit of the Eastern Conference and couldn't
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: win anything? I mean, was it effects of Bradley Carnell
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: when he was the coach of this team?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Just guys not being in a proper headspace? I mean.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: what was the reason and rationale from what you have
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: seen as to why they were faltering and just, again,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: at the bottom of the pit in the Eastern conference?
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Jeff, for me, when, when the union had brought Carnell in,
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: it was an interesting hire in the sense that they
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: had massively underperformed the year before. Um, the union relies
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: so much on their Academy, uh, to not just fill
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: out the roster, but really to fill those homegrown player
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: slots that each MLS team has. Just for quick roster building,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: there are only a certain amount of international players that
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: you can bring in.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: The MLS is featured mostly.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: Around the draft, and they call it general allocation money.
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: And so when you see a trade or a transfer,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: a lot of times it is for general allocation money,
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: gives them a little more freedom. But there's only a
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: certain amount of designated foreign roster spots.
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: Right, right. So saying all of that.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: I've seen a lot of people crapping on Carnell, and
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: I don't think that that's fair because when they brought
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: him in, he was the right coach for the time
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: because they had a very veteran-laden roster.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: And that has been Carnell's strength in the past. The
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: problem is after the success of last year, they decided
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: to sell everyone off and go with the major youth movement.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: And I guess maybe we can transition into the difference.
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: I had said the last time we were on, you know,
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: what's the point of having Kevin Sullivan on the team
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: if you're not going to play him? And he, I'm not,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying that he is the only reason for
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: this turnaround.
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: Right. Right.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: But what I am saying is I do think that
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: there's two main factors as to why they are playing
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: totally different now. The first is the young players are
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: getting a chance to play. Primarily we've been able to
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: see what Kevin Sullivan is able to do and he
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: He's incredible. I, there's a reason why he's already signed
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: to go to Manchester city when he's 18.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: There's a reason why now in the football world, he's
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: starting to be called a wonder kid because he's just.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: A 16 year old should not be.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: Able to be doing what he's doing, playing against players
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: in their twenties and thirties.
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: It's crazy.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: It just should not be happening. The other thing is
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: over the world cup break. Ownership showed something different and
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: you had kind of heard the rumblings of them regretting
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: selling everyone off.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: And when they brought back Kai Wagner, it's the same thing.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: And I'm going to equate it. You know, I, when
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: I come on, I like to equate it to American
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: sports that everybody's used to.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: There's a reason why certain teams who buy at the
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: trade deadline in baseball are it sends them on a run.
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: It is this.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Signal almost from ownership and the front office of we
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: believe in you. And I think that's what Kai Wagner did.
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: And it's more than that. And we'll get into this
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: in a little bit. But they also have spent money
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: to bring back in Mark McKenzie, who's coming in January.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: So when we get to the playoff questions.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, wait a minute. Spending money? Spending money?
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: Yes, I know. It's this crazy concept. But it's not.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: It's they aren't spending money stupidly. They're not going into
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: the third tier of Turkish soccer to try to find
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: the next whatever. Yeah, they're buying established players. And Kai
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: Wagner had basically told Birmingham City. I miss Philadelphia yeah
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: I want to go back what he essentially calls home
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: yeah um and his family is over the moon to
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: be back in Philadelphia um and Birmingham City is a
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: good soccer club yeah um they are going to be
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: fighting for promotion um and he wanted to come back
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: and McKenzie you know he's playing in the first tier
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: of French football so.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: Like this is not they aren't bringing in.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: And spending money foolishly, they're bringing in established players.
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: They're going to be very good for the MLS squad. Yeah.
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: And I also want to say, I should, sorry, wrap
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: up kind of this question.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: I think having Richter as the interim coach was the
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: right move because he knows the young players. He's seen
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: a lot of these players develop and, And I think
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: that also gives them confidence. The players are comfortable with
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: the manager who has seen them develop through all these years.
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: And I think Richter is putting them in more... positions.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: Jeff, it's kind of like, you know, you, you do
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: the politics thing. There are certain topics you are super
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: comfortable with and there's others that maybe not like that's
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: how it is for everybody. Right. And when you are
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: in that area and in that zone and able to
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: handle the questions that you're super comfortable with, your answers
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: are going to be wildly different than ones that maybe
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: you're not as confident on. And it's the same thing
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: on the pitch. They are in just a confident zone.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: That's a great analogy.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: And you have a there's a great segue here in
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: terms of Coach Richter, Coach Ryan Richter and in what
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: he's been able to do for this club. But I
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: do want to take a break here and we got
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to get into him and where this club is from
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: a mental perspective. So, folks, we're going to take a
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: break when we get back. More union talk coming your way.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: All right, folks, we are back and we are with
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: our good buddy. Let's get the overlay there.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: Correct.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: We're with our good buddy, Josh Huster from PhiladelphiaSoccerNow.com over
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: on the Twitter slash X at Fly Guy Josh 91.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: And before the break, Josh, you made such a good
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: point about Coach Ryan Richter and It's amazing that this
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: union team is now seventh in the Eastern Conference standings.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: They are one win away from reaching 500 on the season.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: And they could very well beat Kansas City in their
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: next match for sure. I mean, has this been more
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: of interim head coach Ryan Richter getting this club in
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: a good mental state, or is this more of the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: players just pushing themselves at this point and truly actually
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: developing here? What are your thoughts?
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: Maybe it's a little bit of both here.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I have, I have a lot of thoughts. Um, um,
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: I think it, I think in any sport– we've kind
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: of seen it with the Phillies.
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: When there's an interim that comes in, it kind of
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: kicks everybody into gear like, oh, shoot, we're not doing
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: our job. I personally think that there was something going
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: on between Carnell and the players.
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: OK.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: Because it's very rare that a manager– isn't even around
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: for a season and a half, especially after doing so
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: well the year before.
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: It is bizarre, yeah. And this isn't really any sport.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, in soccer, clubs tend to go through coaches
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: a little bit quicker, not so much in MLS, but
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: kind of like, you know, worldwide.
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: I think, and I'm going to bring up.
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: Manchester United because any time that I can crap on
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: Manchester United.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: I'm absolutely going to do it. Sounds good.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: They made the decision, and rightfully so, Their interim manager
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: last year got them in a Champions League place and
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: did great things. So they made him the head coach
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: this year, the head manager. And things haven't been.
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: Going very well.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: And I think there is some level of fear that
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: the same thing would happen with the union. But I
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: think a big difference is kind of a little bit
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: of what I was getting into earlier. But before the break, OK,
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: this is an individual who has seen these players develop
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: for a number of years. And so as he's seen
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: them develop over a number of years, he knows their strengths.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: He knows their weaknesses. He knows how to put them
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: in positions that really help.
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: Right, right. So I think that's kind of the main thing.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: That I've kind of noticed. It's not a big systematic change.
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: It's not. He's just playing the best players, and he
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: knows how to use them. Yeah.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: It's, I think, oh, I love when the kids get involved.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: All good, babe. All good, buddy.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah. All right.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: We're going to have a guest here.
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Well, let's see. You know what?
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: We love when the kids get involved here at the
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: PST podcast show for sure.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: This is Aiden, everybody. This is my youngest of three.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: But look, as we are as we're moving along here, because,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: you know, we're talking about the fact that there really
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: haven't been necessarily any systemic changes here.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: That we've seen on the field with this team.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: But the players in general that we need to continue watching,
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I really want to get into players who have been
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: surprising thus far and also players who also need to
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: step up if this team is inevitably going to possibly
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: make a run in the playoffs. And we'll get to
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: that part in a bit. But who has been really
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: surprising thus far on.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: This team that you have seen, Josh? What are your
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: thoughts here?
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: For me, it really starts with two players. The first
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: who I've talked about is Kevin Sullivan. I wasn't sure
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: how good he was because he wasn't being played. And
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: to me, you can't be a superstar if you're not playing.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: That's just kind of how it goes. But for me,
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: the second one is Filoski. He's been just absolutely amazing
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: and really doing incredible things in terms of scoring. One
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: thing I probably should have mentioned with the last question was, Jeff,
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: you had said that the Union are winning.
• 14:11
  Speaker 4: They're not just winning. They're dominating.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: They just had back-to-back 5-0 victories, which, I mean, their
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: other scores haven't necessarily shown how much they've dominated. Yeah.
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: But the last two, I mean, they are just.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Two matches ago, it was 5-0, I think, mostly because
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: of a red card. So they were playing with a
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: man up. But last night, they won 5-0 facing even squads.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: So I think that.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Defensively, they're on fire.
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: Right. And I think that....
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: Those two players have really driven the scoring. You know,
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: Sullivan has, has 11 assists, which is absolutely crazy. Especially
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: given that he's only started 16 matches.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: That's pretty crazy. But I think bringing back Kai Wagner,
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: I would say is probably the third.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: Because he has just brought stability to the back line.
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: And I think that is mostly what has been missing.
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: And I think that, bringing him back has brought something
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: out of Andre Blake.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: Now, Andre Blake has played a lot this year, which
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: is great.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: But he is back to the Andre Blake of a
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: couple of years ago. Yeah.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Where he is just playing out of his mind right now.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: I happen to look up his contract, Andre Blake's. I
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: actually love the contract that they gave him because there's
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: a couple of team options, which I think for somebody
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: who has as much experience as many matches played in
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: his career as Andre Blake has. And he's a surefire
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: when he, whenever he retires, he will go up in
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: the ring of honor.
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: But he's, he's getting up there in years.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: I think bringing back Kai Wagner has just really kind
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: of brought stability to that backend, but also a massive
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: confidence boost that.
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: For Andre Blake.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: I mean, if you look at the beginning of the season,
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: they had sold in the last two years, basically the
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: entire frontline. And so I don't blame him for how
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: he was playing at the beginning of the season. You
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: can't trust the people that are in front of you,
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: but bringing back five Wagner and bringing back in January,
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Mark McKenzie, I think will really only help him continue.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: This year. So I guess I gave you four players,
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: but yeah, no, that's great.
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: That's great. But you know, it's not a perfect unit.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Of course, you know, there are certainly players who I
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: think on this team have that ability to step it up.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Who do you think needs to really step up here
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: as they're in the home stretches are really looking towards
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the playoff picture here.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: To me, this was probably the hardest part of the
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: questions that you gave me ahead of time, because I,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: I really right now, I don't want to see anybody
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: change what they're doing. I think they are just.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: And I think, Jeff, it's a tale like you talked
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: about of two halves of the season so far, where
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: the last time I was on, I barely had anything
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: for the good to be able to talk about.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: I guess the players actually showing up and going on
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: the field is what we can celebrate right now.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: Right. And I had a long list for improvements this
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: time around. I don't. really have any, anybody.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: I think everybody's perfectly fitting into the roles that they're
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: supposed to have. Yeah.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: It's it's like you said, at the onset of this conversation,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: we have never seen anything like this in the world
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: of sports.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: We really haven't. It's so very bizarre.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, the union that they've qualified for round one,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Best of three series at this point. So to close
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: us out here, Josh, I mean, are they actually a
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: legit playoff team now? Or are they just kind of
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: riding some sort of hot streak at the moment?
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Where do you think this team goes from here?
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: Jeff, I think they're more than a legitimate playoff team.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: I think they're actually a contender for the championship. Oh
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: my God. I, my God, I think this is more
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: than a hot streak. This is in, um, the Phillies
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: in the month of August where they were.
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: Patient at the plate and the approach is different. And
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, it's going to be totally different this year.
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: And then, you know, you know, it's done.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: Um, I don't see how really the only weakness that
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: they have, and I don't even know if it's necessarily
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: a weakness at this point, is at a position where
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: Mark McKenzie is coming back to fill. They are just–
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: Ernst Tanner had a philosophy, and that philosophy worked for
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: a while for the union.
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: But MLS has changed. Yeah, absolutely.
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: And I'm not saying that the whole situation that happened
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: with him may have been the best outcome for the union,
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: but because of his success, you really couldn't move on
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: from him.
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: And I really think the MLS kind of passed Ernst
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: Tanner by because you have teams, pretty much every team
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: is spending money and you have players now worldwide who
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: who aren't just coming over for their retirement years anymore. Um,
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: you have some players worldwide that are coming in in
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: their 20s or so. And I'm saying all this because
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: I don't think the union are done. They have money
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: they can still spend.
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: And if they've already paid to bring back Kai Wagner,
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: they've already paid to bring in Mark McKenzie, I don't
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: see them stopping spending anymore.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: They got to do it smartly.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: They have to.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: But the reality is, is that they now have the
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: scoring that for so long we have talked about.
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: Right. How is this team going to score? They did.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Things that I never thought they were going to do
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: in terms of admitting mistakes and moving on from players
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: that weren't successful. So I'm saying all of this because
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: right now they have a manager who knows this team.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: They are a team that is playing, knowing that the
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: manager has confidence in them. They're spending money. They have
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: an Andre Blake who is in a resurgence and they,
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Andre Blake is still a very good goalkeeper. I don't
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: really see a weakness, especially with Kevin Sullivan. Now man,
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: the midfield, you know, him and his brother, I, I
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: don't see a weakness on this roster. And all I
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: know is if I'm in the Eastern conference, I am
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: not excited about facing the union. I'm just, I'm just
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: not because I don't know that there is another squad
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: that in the Eastern conference that is, especially when Mark
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: McKenzie comes over as complete at each level as the union,
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: but not only complete at each level, but playing with
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: as much confidence.
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: And having gelled as well as the union half.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: It's amazing to see what this team has done.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: They could absolutely make history in this Philly sports world
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: for sure. Again, folks, he is Josh Schuster from PhiladelphiaSoccerNow.com.
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: Always love having you on, buddy. And folks, you may
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: be hearing his voice a little bit more on our
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: Eagles postgame shows as well when Eric and Len are
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: unable to... do the recording of our Eagles postgame pods. Buddy,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: it was great talking to you about the union here. Let's,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: you know, let's continue to follow what this team is
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: going to do. I'd love to talk to you again
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: about the union.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: In the future.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: Sounds good, Jeff. Anytime.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: That's going to do it for us here on Table
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: Talk this week. Please share our podcast with your friends
• 22:25
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• 22:28
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• 22:32
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• 22:36
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• 22:40
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• 22:43
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• 22:48
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• 22:49
  Speaker 2: And over on Instagram as well. Take care and we'll
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: catch you next time.