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TABLE TALK: The 2024 Philadelphia Union and MLS Season! · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know we recorded
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this podcast episode on Monday February twelve, twenty twenty four. By the time
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you hear this, some things may have changed here there, but we hope
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you enjoy the show. All right, everybody, you're listening to Table Talk
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here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports
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podcast show in the world, over ten and a half years strong. We
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hope you enjoy this particular table Talk show an episode that we're going to be
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getting into. I'm really looking forward to bring it on. One of our
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good friends of the podcast. He filled in for the guys during the Philadelphia
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Eagle season many times when we were doing our Eagles postgame podcast shows. We're
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certainly going to bring on in just a second. But on this particular episode,
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we're gonna be getting into the Philadelphia Union. Yes, Major League Soccer.
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The season is right around the corner. The twenty twenty four season is
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gonna be starting before we know it. Really, what's gonna be happening with
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this Philadelphia Union team really at a crossroads. I think you know, they
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certainly fell short of winning the MLS Cup last year. So what's in store
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for this team? We're gonna get right to it. We got a great
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guest, so let's do it. Joining us from Philadelphia soccernow dot com.
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You heard his voice a lot this past Eagles season. He did a decent
1:37
amount of our Eagles postgame podcast shows with us, as I mentioned on the
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intro, and we love having him on. But we're gonna get into this
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Philadelphia Union team some MLS season a discussion here. We've got the one and
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only Josh Schuster. Buddy, how you doing? But man, good to
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see you. Hey, Jeff, I'm great. We're not gonna talk about
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the disappointing ees, no, so we get to talk about another team that
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we'll probably eventually disappoint us anywhey, oh gosh, exactly. The change a
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pace, It's nice, exactly, And I wonder if that's really what we
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need to kind of maybe condition our brains at at this point with regard to
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the Union, because like, I feel like this team and following them as
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I hit my microphone here is really at a crossroads. I mean, kind
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of finally hitting their ceiling in twenty twenty three, I think, and I
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think conventional wisdom really told us that the next step for this team was to
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you know, potentially win the MLS Cup, and we thought that that was
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a possibility for twenty twenty three. Of course that didn't happen. Maybe that
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was a like a harsh expectation the trajectory of this team. I mean,
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they were on an upward trend from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty two, and
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I guess the only way for that upward trajectory to continue was for them to
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actually win the Cup this past year, and of course we know they failed
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to do that, and now they're in somewhat a flux heading into twenty twenty
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four. Josh, I mean, could be a changing of the guard for
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this team perhaps next season. And I guess the real question is can the
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front office keep the core of this team together while adding some new talent to
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stay competitive in two thousand and you know twenty four And that that was a
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question that we were asking ourselves this off season. And you know, we're
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kind of seeing them running it back with some players here and there. They've
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lost some talent, which we're gonna be talking about in a little bit here.
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But I don't know, I feel like this team. It's like it's
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on a seesaw right now, and I think it could really go either way.
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Yeah. So I think one of the important things that we have to
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say from the very beginning is that the Philadelphia Union ownership model is that of
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the Tampa Bay Rays. They get players, they buy low on them,
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and then they sell them yep, and it drives everybody crazy. And I'll
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be honest, I could not believe this offseason that they actually retained players,
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yes, because that is not what they do. I think part of last
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year why I count it as a disappointment is simply because it was disappointing from
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the offseason. They let forwards go, which they desperately The one thing this
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team has never been able to do since Sebastian Latou is have a forward,
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a striker that is able to just put the ball in the net. It
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sounds easier than it is and Godsdog does a great job of it from the
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midfield, but they just don't have this forward. They can't seem to develop
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one. Kranz has been great, but they need something else. And so
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I think this year it's kind of a holding pattern in terms of reasonable expectations.
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I don't know that this is an MLS Cup team. I think that
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this is a team that should make the playoffs. I think that this is
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a team that could make a run, but the conference finals may be the
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end of it for them. But we'll see, will we will see.
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And I guess to get into the first storyline that I wanted to talk to
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you about, Josh, I guess it's one of the biggest stories of the
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Union's off season that recently just came out was that Aleandro Abdoya is going to
5:13
be coming back to the Union on a one year deal, but he's also
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going to be working in the front office as well as the player development in
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front office specialists. It's an interesting role that MLS now has for front offices
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throughout the league. So I'm wondering, what what is this one year contract
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inevitably going to do for this team here in twenty twenty four. What does
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it symbolize for you? Yeah, I make no bones about it. I
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am a huge Bedoya supporter. In fact, that is a part of my
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exer Twitter handle because I love them because, by the way, I think
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that a fly at Fly guy, Josh ninety one, But Bedoya supporter.
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Correct, that's your direct Yes, correct, that's my name. YEP.
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A lot of the people who have an issue with Alahama Badoya are people who
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just look at stats and they don't look at what he does out on the
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pitch. And the only issue I have with this is I would rather have
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seen him get a one year deal rather than a front office deal, more
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of a player coach kind of deal, because he is I've said it all
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along when I host the postmatch shows over on Twitter for Philadelphia Soccer. Now
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I say it all the time. He is Jim Curtin's coach out on the
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pitch and everyone looks to him, and so I was getting really nervous they
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didn't have a deal with him. I am really glad that they brought him
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back, and I think if he chooses to be in a front office moving
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forward, he is brilliant, people love to be around him, and I'll
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equate it to Danny Brier. I think he's very similar to Danny Brier.
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People love him, people love to be around him, and he is extremely
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intelligent and he knows what he's doing, and so I think from that aspect
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it will be good. I'm also excited that we may get a kind of
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final farewell tour here, which will be nice. Well, I going back
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to what you just said, I wonder if this position with the front office
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could potentially be a precursor for him possibly doing some coaching in the future because
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of the relationship that he has with Curtin. Perhaps you know, they're looking
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forward and saying to themselves, let's see how he interacts with the front office
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personnel, Let's see how he manifests relationships, Let's see how he develops relationships
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here. And I'm wondering if that's actually part of this and that this Philadelphia
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Union Front Office is actually being strategic about this in terms of looking at the
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long term future of where this organization is going to be going. Josh,
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Yeah, I will say we can have a whole separate Jim Curtain discussion,
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because we probably should at some point. But Ernest Tanner, it's kind of
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like the GM is the easiest way to be able to explain it. But
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this GM is in charge of scouting, bringing players in everything like that,
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probably more involved than any other GM. And if there's one person for Bedoya
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to learn from, it's Ernest Tanner. Yeah. And I always say,
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the union, they may not want to pay players, but they better back
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up the truck and pay Ernest Tanner because he continues to find highly successful players.
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I just had mentioned Caranza earlier. He was on his way out in
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Miami. He wasn't getting playing time, he wasn't doing anything, and Ernest
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Tanner saw the potential and they brought him in and he worked with Curtain and
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it all worked out. But I'm excited to see what could happen with Bedoya
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partnering up with Ernest Tanner and seeing what happens. Absolutely absolutely all right.
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Well, moving along here, Josh, there are a few outgoing players from
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last season now to this season that I've really wanted to tell Andres Perea,
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Richard OData, Brandon Craig, Joe Bendick. The team is certainly going to
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be losing some talent here, especially with Perea, And I'm wondering what is
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your biggest concern when it comes to these outgoing players as we talked about earlier,
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you know, and like I said, it's kind I feel like the
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season is like a seesaw. It's going to be going either either way,
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I think, and they are losing some talent here, What does the loss
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of this talent inevitably do for this team or don't do for this team?
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Well, I think, Jeff, this is kind of where we see things
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differently. I don't really see them, especially in off season's previous, really
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losing much talent. Okay, I kind of view it actually almost as a
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positive. You know, I've always liked Perea, but for whatever reason,
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Jim Curtin just doesn't want to give him time. Yeah, And if you're
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not going to give him time, then don't don't pay the salary. And
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so I don't view that as loss. And if I don't ever have to
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see Brandon Craig again and for the Union, I will be happy. To
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me it's one of those He's one of those players that Jim Curtin just had
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this love affair with. It's kind of like John Twittorella with Nick Delaurier.
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You just look at it and go, he's not a good player. He's
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just not. But he does what the coach wants, and so the coach
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is just going to keep putting him out there. And so I don't really
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view anything this offseason. Now, if we were talking about losing Wagner,
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we're talking about losing God's Dog, and we're talking about losing Beadoya as well.
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Those three. Then you and I could be having the conversation of how
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in the world are they going to replace all of this so on and so
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forth. But I'm not too worried. They didn't bring anybody in really,
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but they also didn't lose any key people, which is kind of the first
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time I can see that. And I'm interesting what Kurtain's gonna do having almost
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the same roster for two consecutives years without losing a key piece. There were
11:03
some questions about Keith Wagner, correct, I mean there were some questions about
11:07
him, and from my understanding too, and I wonder if this translates to
11:09
the rest of the team or even to the coaching staff. It's my understanding
11:13
that he's like had like five different agents over the course of the past few
11:18
years. You know, might not be the easiest guy in the world to
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work with and get along with, you know, off off the field.
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So it's good that he is going to be coming back. I would I
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would venture to say you're happy about that as well. You know, some
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of the guys that they were able to keep, and I think that I
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think it's going to be good for this team long, you know, at
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least this season here in twenty twenty four. Yeah, Kaive Agner is an
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interesting situation. Yeah, he was suspended at the end of last year for
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racial slurs. He has gone through a lot of agents. He is probably
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too talented to be playing in the MLS. But sometimes your personality will drive
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you to be in a place where people don't want you, people don't want
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to work for you. And I'm not saying that I know for a fact
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that he's a jerk, but the evidence is kind of there, with multiple
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different years and clubs, and especially what you were suspended for. I wouldn't
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say that I'm necessarily excited he's back. I'm okay that he's back, but
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really the suspension kind of kind of gave me pause, and so I would
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have been okay if they sold him. But I think that suspension is the
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only reason why he's back with the Union, because I do know that there
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were European clubs that were hot on his tail, and then immediately after that
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happened, it quieted down real quick. Yep, absolutely, that's what's going
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to happen. I mean, it happens in sports in general. Moving along
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here, though, Josh, you know, last year this team, they
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had a fifteen to ten to nine record with a plus sixteen gold differential,
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fifty seven goals scored, forty one goals against, and they were bumped to
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the fourth place to fourth place in the East on decision Day. So,
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as we've been talking about, retooling wasn't much of a thing really this offseason.
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They there were some surprises here and there for sure. So what does
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that say about the team in the organization in terms of just where they're at
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from a competitive standpoint? As we look at this season, we look at
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other teams too that certainly made some waves, and we're going to get to,
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you know, some of the most improved MLS teams in clubs that lost
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some talent too. But what does this offseason really say about this Philadelphia Union
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team and just really where they're at from a competitiveness standpoint? I think it
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says that this is a Jim Curtin here. I want to be the guy
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that is the first one to put it out there, but I know they
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just signed Jim Kurtin not that long ago to an extension. Yeah, but
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I wonder a lot, and I say this often. I am a Jim
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Curtin defender. He won me over a couple of years in I swore they
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would never get past the first round with him as manager. Well he did
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it. The trouble I have is I wonder if it's the Andy Reid effect,
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where I don't think Eagles fans we would say Andy Reid was a bad
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coach here, but it was definitely time to move on. Just neither neither
14:28
team nor Andy Reid I think was going to reach their full potential in Philadelphia
14:35
and stay stayed. Yeh, it got stale. But my caveat with the
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Union is be careful what you wish for. I know a lot of people
14:46
want Jim Kurtin out. What other manager is going to be able to have
14:50
the Union in the playoffs almost every single year with ownership continually selling off your
14:56
best players. So every year you are missing two to three of your top
15:01
players because they've been sold off, and they only invested in the youth,
15:05
so you aren't going to see any benefits immediately. So I really think this
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is a Jim Curtain year because I could see them because he's bringing back the
15:18
same roster. I can see them being at the top of the Eastern Conference,
15:20
right alongside Corombus. Yeah, but at the same time, I can
15:24
also see things being stale and they missed the playoffs. And now we're having
15:28
a Jim Curtin conversation. So to me, twenty twenty four is the year
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of Jim Curtain. Let's see what happens. I think it's interesting correlating it
15:35
with Andy Reid and his tenure in Philadelphia with the Eagles, Josh, because
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interestingly enough, I was actually talking to my wife last night as we're watching
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the Super Bowl, you know, She's like, you know, why really
15:46
did Andy Reid leave? And like I just said to you, I said,
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things got stale after a while. That's what happens. However, something
15:52
I've said on this podcast a number of times over the ten and a half
15:56
years that we've been doing this show is that what Andy Reid did for the
16:00
Philadelphia Eagles organization and franchise overall was that he kept the team and organization relevant
16:07
year after year. Of course, they didn't get to the NFC Championship Game
16:11
every year. They of course only got to the Super Bowl once during his
16:14
tenure, but the relevancy of the Philadelphia Eagles. That trajectory continued to not
16:19
only go up and yes at plateaued at times here and there, But the
16:22
Philadelphia Eagles brand was always a relevant brand in the NFL. They weren't at
16:29
the bottom of the barrel like some Detroit Lions organization or the Cleveland Browns.
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The relevancy of the team was important as well, even though it wasn't necessarily
16:38
able to get him to the Promised Land, but the relevancy was so very
16:42
important. I think there's something to be said for Jim Curtin and for the
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front office continuing on this trajectory that the Union are on. Yeah, But
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to me, the big difference between Andy Reid and Jim Curtin is simple investment
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of owners. There you go. Every LORI provided Andy Reid with just about
17:03
everything possible. Howie Roseman put together a competitive roster every year. It's not
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like Laurie and Roseman decided we're going to trade away everyone and see what you
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can do next year, right right, No, that's not what happened with
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the Union. That's exactly what happens. I'm sure Jim Curtin just walks in
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each day and says, Okay, who am I going to have to play
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this week because they may be sold off. Yeah, so that's the big
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difference. But I think you're absolutely right. It becomes stale. And I
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hope we're not reaching out with Jim Curtain because I am really afraid if he
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goes to a club that is willing to invest, I'm afraid of what could
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happen. Yeah, all right, well again we are talking to Josh Schuster
17:49
folks from Philadelphia soccernow dot com. Check out everything they're doing over there,
17:55
a great great reporting on the Philadelphia Union. And you also get on the
18:00
interwebs after each game as well, correct Josh. Yeah, So I do
18:06
my best to try to go live from X or Twitter, whatever you want
18:10
to call it, from the whatever the speaking thing is. That way we
18:15
can interact together. We can talk. I kind of give my thoughts in
18:18
the beginning and then put out some questions, so do some positive, some
18:22
negatives, and three questions and really we have a great time together. We've
18:26
built a nice little community, so you're always welcome to join us for that.
18:30
We also have a newsletter that goes out pretty often that you can sign
18:33
up for and Matt Ralph does a great job with that. Awesome and again
18:37
at fly Guy Josh ninety one on Twitter slash x, give him a follow
18:42
and check out those postmatch shows that they do. They're great. They're great,
18:48
Josh is great. All the guys over there at Philadelphia Soccer Now dot
18:52
com are fantastic. So let's get into some overall MLS talk here, because
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some clubs improved, some clubs did not improve here, and let's get into
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some of them as well. In terms of the club that is most improved
19:08
this season in Major League Soccer, who do you think that is? Josh,
19:14
So, I think there's two answers to this. The first is keep
19:18
an eye on the Columbus Crew. They won it All last year. They
19:22
have the chance to be the for the first time in a decade. Back
19:27
to back winners, may be adding a fourth MLS Cup, which puts them
19:32
in kind of elite category for the MLS. And they didn't really lose a
19:36
whole lot. Their manager is very very good, especially with developing young talent,
19:42
so keep an eye on them. But the other one is Colorado.
19:48
Colorado Rapids added three key people, Haalovich, Bines and Stepan Zach Stephan is
19:56
the US goalkeeper, so they have added some serious talent. In fact,
20:02
Zach Stephan left where he was playing in Europe specifically to come over to play
20:07
in the MLS to grow the game. So they had kind of a bumpy
20:11
year last year. It was kind of surprising, unexpected, but they definitely
20:15
added a large influx of talent, and so we'll see what happens with them,
20:19
all right, very good, very good. And I guess to close
20:23
us out here too, which Major League soccer club? Who do you think
20:26
lost the most in terms of talent during this offseason and things maybe be a
20:32
little rough for them here in twenty twenty four. Yeah, So I have
20:37
two answers again because I can never seem to get this one. The first
20:41
is Toronto. They were horrible last year. They were terrible. They only
20:49
brought in one player and they lost nine. I looked it up. They
20:55
lost they really they chose not to bring back a lot of people. I
20:59
can't blame them. At the same time, it's like you only brought in
21:02
one person and he's not even like he's not really spectacular. So I think
21:07
they're in for a long season in Toronto, and the other one is Miami.
21:14
I was actually gonna I was gonna ask you, I was gonna ask
21:17
you if it was gonna be Miami here. Yeah, So Miami brought in
21:21
one of my all time favorite Liverpool players, Luis Suarez, and so I'm
21:26
still trying to deal with that. But they Miami has had a putrid preseason.
21:34
Now. I don't put a lot of stock in preseason, right,
21:37
but sometimes you get dream teams and things don't work. We know all too
21:42
well as Eagles fans, don't we, right, And so yeah, I'm
21:48
really curious what Miami is going to look like this year. It looked for
21:52
a while like when Messi arrived, he was single handedly gonna bring them from
21:56
the bottom into the playoffs. It didn't happen, Right, Messi's only one
22:00
person, and with the way the MLS is structured, he can only bring
22:04
in so many of his buddies. So I'm keeping an eye on Miami.
22:08
They may not be the club that lost the most, but they may turn
22:12
out to be disappointing, simply because I think there's unrealistic expectations there. Right
22:17
now, I don't know if he's so darn good, he's so darn good
22:22
that we know. I mean, of course we all know he is so
22:25
good, and it just seems that he could potentially and single handedly, not
22:30
necessarily get them to the Promised Land, but get them like like I said,
22:34
not to wear they're winning the MLS Cup or anything like that, but
22:37
really have a great postseason showing. I think we'll see, yeah, you
22:42
know, right now, Miami outside of Messi and Beckham who owns them,
22:48
which, by the way, was a brilliant move on his part when he
22:51
came over. He's worked into his contract to be able to buy the rights
22:56
to an MLS club. Yeah, almost nothing, and they are worth a
23:00
ton of money. So good job on him. But part of it is
23:03
the way that Messi came over. With MLS structure, you can only pay
23:07
people a certain amount, so you have to work with others in order to
23:11
reach whatever it is they want to be paid. It'll be interesting to see
23:15
if Miami can get into relevancy outside of well, I guess now Suarez,
23:19
Messi and Beckham, But we'll see what happens, all right, Very good
23:26
again. Josh Schuster from philadelphiasoccernow dot Com at flag Eye Josh ninety one on
23:32
Twitter slash X Buddy, it was great seeing you, great talking to you,
23:36
loved talking Union with you. Come back join us on the pod.
23:38
I'd love to have you back on my friend. Sounds good, Jeff any
23:42
time. It's gonna be an interesting season for sure, and again many thanks
23:48
to Josh for jumping on the pod there to talk about this Union team,
23:52
some MLS storylines for sure, and Lennon and I actually on this coming weeks
23:56
show that's gonna be dropping on Thursday morning, we're gonna be talking a little
24:00
bit more about the Union as well, So very much looking forward to that
24:04
conversation, looking forward to this Union twenty twenty four season. But that's gonna
24:10
do it for us here on table Talk. Make sure you are following us
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on threads. If you are on threads, yes, at Philadelphia Sports Table,
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you can follow me at mister jeff Warren. Yes, we are still
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on Twitter slash x. At Philadelphia PST you can follow me at Jeffrey Underscore
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