NextPod Soccer Podcast for October 27

Duane and James set-up the 2024 CanPL Final and talk u21 player of the year with CanPL.ca's Mitchell Tierney.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome to Next Pot, your weeklylook at North American soccer prospects and the
West. Next bro Campil and beyond. These are your homes, Dwayne Rode
and James Grossey, and welcome toNext Pot. I'm Dwayne Rowlands. Joining

(00:28):
me as always is James. Inormally pumpy breaks a little bit, not
pumpy breaks. Pump your ego iswhat I normally do here, James.
But but you're delightful, so we'lljust say that the delightful James. Grossy.
How you're doing, James, Dwayne, I always appreciate the uh,
the inflated ego, the ego boostthat at the start of the pods or

(00:49):
at leads too. But it's alwaysgood to tap those breaks a little bit,
just so I don't get too farahead of myself. I'm doing them
right, man. I figured itwould be a quiet week, you know.
TFC out of the playoffs, sothe season's over. Michael Brandley has
retired, so that was a littlebit of a a little bit of a
heads period at the end of lastweek. And c F Montreal as well
are missing out of the playoffs aftersome deadline day drama. But it's Canadian

(01:14):
soccer, so it wouldn't be anotherweek without some more madness to deal with.
We got the CPO Final this weekend, we had the MLS Next Pro
Final last weekend to keep an eyeon, so and then coming up of
course, we've got a slew ofinternational action that's going to keep us busy
into December. So just another weekin Canadian soccer, fair enough. Yeah,

(01:36):
Just as a housekeeping note here,folks, we are going to follow
the seventeen World Cup and these internationalevents at Canadian national team games both men
and women over the next month orso, and then we're going to take
a little pause in December. That'sgoing to set ourselves up for season two.
We're going to do a little bitof work behind the scenes to tidy
up some of the audio stuff andyou know, the boring stuff that makes

(01:59):
the podcast sound at a little better. For season two, we're going to
call it Season two of Next Pod, which will start back up in January,
so it'll be gone for a month, but it will help James and
I I make things a little bitbetter and and give us a bit of
a break too, because we all, you know, need a little break
after this this year of rapid fireCanadian soccer and a lot of losing here
in Toronto, which makes the restof the country happy. I'm sure so,

(02:22):
I'm glad you guys are happy outthere anyway. You said, yeah,
we got some news here. I'mAl's next, bro, it's done.
Done for the year. We havea second champion and it's Austin.
Tell us a little bit about it, James. Yeah. Austin FC two
defeated the defending champion Columbus Crew tothree to one in the final on Sunday.
It was I don't know if itwas a surprise per se. Austin

(02:44):
was one of the lower seeds inthe West, but they different some form
heading into the end of the seasonand really showed them in the playoffs knocking
off some of the higher seeds toearn their spot, and then in the
match. The first first half wasrelatively close. I think Columbus you could
say, had the better swim ofthe chances, but it took it took
an early penalty kick in in theforty ninth minute at the start of the

(03:05):
second half for the Crew to actuallyfind the go ahead goal. On the
night, it was a bit ofa soft penalty so you felt a little
bit for Austin. You know,it's always tough to come out from halftime
and give up a goal early,but you know, Austin got their own
penalty kick that was debatable in theseventieth minute to pull level and then added
two more in the next ten minutesto seal the result, and you know,

(03:29):
the celebrations postmatch. You could seewhat it meant to the young group
of guys and for a young franchiseas well in Austin to have that sort
of internal strength and have that sortof I don't know, organizational debt.
To put together a championship side atthe MLS Next Pro level in their second
season is just a sign of goodthings happening there. We had some nice

(03:52):
Canadian content, which is something we'realways interested in here. Mateo Bunbury started
and played sixty four minutes for Columbusand Salam as a Pharaoh went to full
ninety for Austin as he has somany times this season. So you know,
a pretty pretty entertaining ending to thesecond season of MLS Next Pro.
I think there's still a lot ofgrowing pains for that league as it sort

(04:14):
of sorts some things out and figuresout exactly how the best way to go
about things things will be going forward. But all in all, an entertaining
season and entertaining playoffs. Yeah,it's interesting Austin of course, a relatively
new team, and you know,for them to win a championship, even
to get into a playoff position isa pretty good accomplishment and speaks to them

(04:36):
maybe understanding the need to build thosestructures to avoid you know, and on
soccer today, Kevin and I usedto call it the allocation time bomb,
so you know, for those whodon't know, when and expansion teams come
into LS, they get a littleextra allocation money for the first three years,
which often when you look at thetrajectory of expansion teams and MLS,

(04:57):
they kind of fall off a cliffin year four. It's because they've lost
that a little bit of an advantagethat they had. So having a next
Pro program in place to sort ofcreate that movement that flow into your first
team is something that I think thatmoving forward, you're going to have to
see these expansion teams, you know, assuming MLS ever continues to expand,

(05:17):
which I think they're going to James, But that's a different conversation, but
nonetheless, we'll have a couple moreregardless, you're going to need to figure
that out. And you know,we saw Charlotte also pretty pretty strong this
year. Another young expansion team,Saint Louis, didn't do too bad either.
They actually came in a year before, which was something that was key
to building that depth. There.The other interesting thing I think it is

(05:39):
to talk about when you're looking atan MLS perspective here is Austin really had
a terrible season on the first teamlevel. They were expected, although not
by me. If you actually lookat my preseason predictions. I'm going to
pump my own ego here a littlebit. I had them other playoffs,
but not a lot of people did. They were very good last year,
of course, last year beat twentytwenty two, and this year they finished

(06:00):
out of the playoffs, which youknow, that's an accomplishment in MLS in
twenty twenty three, with nine teamsin each conference making the playoffs, which
is obscene, but nonetheless so sothis might take a little bit off,
a little bit of the pain awayfrom that and allow the Austin fans to
focus on something positive. The otherside of that finals. Of course,

(06:20):
Columbus second in a row that they'vebeen in they won the first One's got
a nice little thing going on therein Columbus, a small market team that
continues to punch above its It's whatyou'd expect. Its weight is when you
look at the resources it has.That's a story to continue to follow in
the MLS seasons moving forward. Butcongratulations obviously go to Austin. The MLS

(06:44):
next pod No Next Next Pro Championships. That's this podcast is actually you know,
a little link to it is thename, So there you go,
James, Yeah, we can.We can give them the next championship.
It's I'm not sure that's a thing, but it for for the next couple
of months until we have a newchampion to announce. I think your point,
your point about teams is sort ofhow teams are going to use this

(07:09):
second team in terms of setting themselvesup in the future is going to be
something that that's one of the fascinatingthings to watch about this level. You
know, we've seen you mentioned Charlotteand Charlotte and I was speaking to a
coach not too long ago and hewas sort of incredulous that that Charlotte was
rolling out a player that they paidone point five million dollars in transfer fee

(07:31):
to have come and play for theirsecond team. They brought in a goalkeeper,
Chaturo Doings unless I'm screwing that nameup terribly, who was at the
Lester City Academy and he's got jointinternational status with Canada, the US and
Nigeria. So that's one that's startedto keep an eye on. They brought
him in the middle of the season. So teams, we've seen teams use

(07:54):
a lot of possible ways of buildingthese rosters. There's a bunch of other
teams that have gone the academy heavy, and CFC and Vancouver for that fact,
are two of those teams that thathave gone younger purposely, even you
know, sacrificing perhaps the chance togo out there and compete for a trophy
in order to get younger and youngerguys more and more experience at this sort

(08:16):
of level. So seeing how teamsgo about about this kind of thing can
set them up to not only avoidthat expansion season dip that generally comes when
the allocation when he starts to turnit, but also how teams are going
to use this this asset in thefuture is going to be really neat to
watch. We're still only two yearsinto MLS Next Pro proper. Some teams

(08:39):
have more history at this level,but it's going to be a place where
a lot of experimentation happens, andI think that's I think that's sort of
appointment. Yeah. Absolutely. Youknow, it's interesting that when you mentioned
the high paid players coming over.When Next Pro was first put forward,

(09:00):
there were a lot of people thatspeculated that it might be a way for
the higher spending teams to sort ofcheat the cheat the system a little bit.
We haven't really seen that happening.I mean, Charlotte's Harley one of
the higher spending teams, but butI would think that there is something there.
There's no salary cap attached to touchedto the Next Pro teams that they

(09:22):
can bring guys in and look atthem. You can sort of speculate and
take bigger swings with guys to bringthem in at that second team level.
And you might see more of thatmoving forward, because you know, as
we know, working the cap isa key component to winning a Major league
soccer and if you can sort ofhide guys not so much high guys,
but trial guys without that risk.You know, let's bring it to Toronto

(09:46):
c for a second. These arehigh profile guys you're working to bring in
Senio into to s Park, meetinto the second team. But they took
a big swing, and when youmiss in a big swing in MLS,
well, you know, we sawwhat happen, right, So you can
take a bit of a bigger swin, bring them in, have a good
look at them, know whether theyfit your system, know whether they fit
your culture, and then perhaps bringthem up from there. It might be

(10:11):
a bit of a cheat code forcertain teams to look out moving forward.
It's not really a development issue,and the question we might have on a
show like this is whether that hurtsdevelopment, whether you should be saving Next
Pro to the kids. Probably,but it's also a league where you look
in the wins. So this isyour second team. It plays double that

(10:31):
dual role, right like, it'syour second team and it's a development team.
So we've got to kind of balancethat a little bit. But nonetheless,
interesting stuff, different approaches, differentways to build teams. We congratulate
to Austin. Austin, the championsof MLS Next Pro in twenty twenty three.
A few more news bits to getto before we throw to Mitchell Tarney,

(10:54):
who is the campl's digital content producer. He had joined James I wasn't
able to make it, but hejoined in a nice little conversation about the
under twenty one player of the yearin the CAMPL. We're going to throw
that next, but first we havea few little news items that we want
to swing by. Why before weget going, Yeah, just before I
hop into to further your sort ofconversation about the potential of bringing in players.

(11:18):
I think a candidate for that,if we're talking TFC would have been
ericson Guyardo, the guy who theybrought in and wasn't successful on that first
team roster. But if you canbring in that that couple of million dollars
and have him be a part ofyour system and see how he works day
to day, then you can youcan take those risks without saddling yourself or

(11:39):
using up a young DP spot onyour first team roster. So I just
wanted to add that as a asa little bit of further context news items.
Not a whole lot. These area little bit outdated because they were
they were on the rundown for thelast couple of weeks and then events ended
up pushing them aside. Thanks againto Rego Clark for coming on. It

(12:01):
was a fascinating conversation. But theToyota National Championships were held a few weeks
ago, and I just wanted togive a little shout out to the winners
at the U seventeen boys levels.It was Burnaby FC the U seventeen girls.
It was Edmonton BTBSC for the Ufifteen boys. No, sorry,
it was Burnaby Burnaby FC. You'regonna have to cut this a little bit,

(12:28):
man. That's okay, I gotI got a little bit lost in
my thing. So I will goback to just take a pause and then
come out of the go into theNational champion Yeah, just pause for five
seconds and then well we'll add itup. Thank you. I'll make a
note of it so I don't forgetat it. This is a couple of

(12:54):
weeks old, but the National Championshipswere played and I just wanted to give
a little shout out to the champions. Burnaby FC were the big winners on
the weekend, lifting the title forboth the U seventeen boys and the U
seventeen girls, so double champions forthat club out of British Columbia. Edmonton
BTBSC won the U fifteen Boys Championshipand CS Longay won the U fifteen Girls

(13:18):
championship. In the youth categories andin the senior amateurs, the College the
Challenge Cup went to West Ottawa SCand the Juwilee Cup who the women went
to holy Cross FC, who wontheir back to back championship that team out
of Newfoundland and Labrador. Next year'sToyota National Championships will take place in Surrey,
British Columbia for the amateur adult finalsand Cape Breton Nova, Scotia for

(13:41):
the U seventeens and in Quincy,West Ontario for the U fifteens. And
then the only other news bit thatI sort of wanted to get to is
we've been trapping those U twenty oneminutes all season and we didn't get a
chance to touch on those final numbers. So heading into that last weekend there
were only three teams that were atskim missing out and of course all three
minutes you got across the line.In that final match, Forge did it

(14:05):
pretty handily, and even Halifax andneeded a ton of minutes in their final
match got over that line and evenmade it across with thirty two extra minutes
to spare. So congratulations to boththose teams. And New York United,
the team that we were perhaps mostworried about early earlier on in the season
when we were looking at it,just managed to get across that line.

(14:26):
They ended up with six minutes tospare over the two thousand minutes that other
team is required. So it's alittle bit nerve wracking. There was an
injury right before halftime that made ita little bit more complicated, and you
know, Martin Ash cut it alittle bit close there. But in the
end, everybody gets across it andeverybody was. I was able to take
place in the playoffs, and that'sit. That's a positive thing. Maybe

(14:48):
they won't leave it so close nexttime because an injury happens in that final
game and suddenly you're maybe pulling cellinto this dance. That's a joke,
but maybe not that much of ajoke. Just just know you say to
West is hoping the hosting the underfifteen finals next year, that's if it's
the field I'm thinking of. WhennyWest is Trenton, by the way,
because Mikeros changed all the names twentyfive years ago. And don't get me

(15:11):
going on that. I guess Idid get going on a bit right now,
But anyway, it's the field thatI learned to play on. Played
for my first men's team out ofthat field for the Bellbell Olympicado Olympiaco Belleville.
Yeah, anyway, that's that's that'smy career. And then when I
say career, there's very much airquotes going on. James, very very
very much air quotes going on.All right, let's show to Mitchell.

(15:33):
Mitchell Tierney of the Campel dot Heis a conidgital content producer there and he
had a chat with James about undertwenty one players of the Year. Hello,

(15:58):
and welcome back to next part.I'm very pleased to be joined by
an old friend of mine, MitchellTierney, the digital content producer for KMPL
dot Ca. Mitchell, thanks somuch for joining us today. Yeah,
thanks so much for having me on. It's yeah, it's been a while
since we've tried him funny but alwayslove doing this, so glad we can
make that happen. Yeah, Mitchelland I go back to the Wake and

(16:21):
the Red days in the in thedark old days before the Canadian Premier League
even existed. So it's it's awesometo see old friends doing their thing in
the soccer world around here. Mitchell, we've been tracking the U twenty one
minutes all season. We've had alittle bit of fun debating whether or not
certain teams would make it across theline, but thankfully everybody did, and

(16:41):
you know, we've come to theend of the year. Finally is on
Saturday between Forge and Cavalry at TimHorton's Field, and award season will will
be you know, Award season isupon us and we will know by then
who the U twenty one Player ofthe Year is. We've got our three
nominees and so I wanted to haveyou on to sort of talk us through
all three of them, what you'veseen from them, what kind of players

(17:03):
they are, and give our listenersa bit of a sense of why these
three got the nod amongst all theplayers that were possible. So we'll go
from the youngest oldest. So Ithink we'll start with Vancouver James Cameron.
Yeah, I mean an eighteen yearold certainly with the name befitting of award
nominations. I think another certain JamesCameron's probably had a few in his time.

(17:26):
But I think what's maybe impressed mostabout this James Cameron is just,
you know, his ability to adaptto a new position as such a young
player, and so I think actuallygot beated with it. You know,
a few of his players throughout thisseason is maybe identify them as guys who
could play in different roles from whatthey're used to, and James coming up

(17:47):
was a bit more of a attackingplayer, but he played as a rightful
back this season primarily for the expansionside BANKERFC, and what was a very
young back line at times. Soit impresses that he was able to learn
the position so quickly, and youknow, showed for a young player,
really impressive physical capabilities going up againstyou know, some big attackers and was

(18:08):
up there in the league lead fortackles one. You know, a player
that had some really shining big momentsthis season. I think done more so
than maybe his late goal against theAthletic Guatawa and September and you know,
actually not be after the match wastalking about how he was impressed with the
fact that Cameron was even there inthe first place, not just finishing it

(18:29):
off, but to have the youknow, attacking sense in the work rate
too late in a match like that, to get up the field to counter
tech a little bit and be ina position to finish off the play.
It just kind of shows the goodanticipation he has. So there was,
Yeah, certainly a lot to likein what games Cameron did and getting stuck
in in so many different ways asa young player in a position that could

(18:49):
be you know, immensely challenging.Yeah, you could say it was a
titanic discovery by Vancouver he to bringthat young man in And I did you
say, the thing that that caughtmy eye the most was, you know,
as an eighteen year old coming intoprofessional football for the first time,
to have the kind of compete levelthat he had, especially in a player

(19:10):
so young, was was what whatwhat stood out the most for me?
I think in watching him him playfor Vancouver this season. Up next forges
Quasi Poku, a player we've hadour eyes on for quite a while.
Now, what do you see fromthat young man this season? Yeah,
I think just maybe a little bitmore polished both tactically and even technically the

(19:33):
B seed from from Poku and youknow, his first year in the league,
and yeah, a player who canplay anywhere down that left side,
whether that he is more attack blood, but did you know winger, wing
back, which is where he's primarilyplayed, and also even as a left
full back if you need him there. And that kind of flexibility is always
going to be helpful, especially whenyou're playing in a side like Fords that

(19:57):
you know plays with a lot offlexible but even during games in terms of
how different players will shift around,and you know for his future as well.
You had two goals and two assiststhis season, and I think mainly
just a player who's really excellent,excellent at progressing the ball, which is
you know, obviously a very importantthing in the modern game, especially for
those wide players. You know,whether he's dribbling the ball up the field,

(20:19):
he has a good ability to progressthe ball through crosses into dangerous areas
in the box. And he's reallygood at that cross that will just drop
right in front of the keeper toa striker and kind of leaves that point
blank chance with the keeper has justa second to react. We've seen that
a few times this season, andyou know that's been a good hamewark of
his improvement is playing balls like that, and it is a good passer as

(20:41):
well. He can he can playthose passes through the lines when he needs
to. You know, a playerwho obviously spent this offseason in Sweden traveling
with PK Hackend, which is obviouslya top team over there. So I
think there'll be more interest for Pokugoing on. And I think he's guay,
he's starting to really grow into hisown had a couple of maybe injury
interruptions and had a suspension towards thelatter half the season, but when he's

(21:04):
been available, you know, he'sbeen a starting player for a Forge team,
where that's certainly not easy to doas a youngster. So there's a
lot alike about his game this season. Yeah, I like that you bring
up the word polish because I thinkthat's that's exactly what we want to see
from young guys that come into thisleague and start to break into team lineups
and have a season or two toget their feet under them and to gain

(21:26):
some comfort and some confidence at thislevel. So Poku taking steps forward is
exactly what we want to see fromthese U twenty one players and then the
last nominee is I think he wasthe early runaway candidate with his exploits early
in the season. Mataloe Debrien fromValor FC picked up a bit of a
knock early that I think set himback. But what do you see from

(21:48):
Mateo this season? Yeah, whenhe was on the pitch, you know,
just one of those all action playerswho just brings it incredible energy and
kind of that game breaking ability whereverhe's a float on the pitch. You
know, again, it's it's alwaysimpressive when young players or any player can
learn a new position. He playedas a left back this season for large
stretches when you know Jordan Haynes wentdown to an injury himself earlier in the

(22:11):
year and thrived in those positions.And it was also great later in the
year when he finally got moved forwardto his more national position with the Hates
came back and you know, hisattacking numbers I think kind of benefited when
he was a bit further forward.But you know, he ended up second
in the league at interceptions despite appearingjust twenty times. He had three goals,
three assists, and you know he'sjust one of those really exciting young

(22:32):
attacking players who's capable of those gamebreaking moments. You know, I look
at a goalie scored against York backin June, where you know, he
drifts him for the top of thebox and just you know, smashes a
shot and he's got those front flipcelebrations. He has a little bit of
flaring confidence about him, and youknow, those are the elements of the
game that maybe you can't teach asmuch. So he's a player that maybe

(22:52):
as Valor kind of rebuilds, he'sone of those guys that you'd want to
build a team around because he's gotthat kind of excitement, dynamic ability to
his game. Yeah, definitely.He was a lot of fun to watch
this year. And here's hoping thatValor does put some pieces around him so
we can see them in the playoffsnext season. I thought it was it's

(23:14):
interesting to me that model, likefor young players, especially getting those minutes
on the pitch can be extra hard, and so having that flexibility to learn
a new position and to be availableto play extra positions to find those minutes
I think is so vitally important,and so it's cool to see that all
three of these guys have shown alittle bit of that flexibility. I'm a

(23:37):
little a little surprised that all threeof them are sort of left sided defender
attacker type things, but you know, I guess everybody loves a left sided
attacker, so it makes a certainamount of sense. Mitchell, I was
telling you before we started today thatI did a little bit of math,
So my numbers might be a littlebit off here, but I think thirty
eight players combines for over twenty twofour hundred U twenty one minutes this season.

(24:03):
If you throw in some of thesome of the John Anny lsc Loan
numbers that weren't eligible to count towardsthe team totals, then it pushes it
over twenty three thousand minutes. Andso there were a lot of young men
that got a taste of professional footballthis year. And you know, we
talked about the three that are thefinalists for the trophy, but I was
wondering if there were any guys thatthat you thought deserved a little bit of

(24:25):
a shoutout for their contributions this season. Yeah, I think a fair mber
like this. Maybe wasn't a groupof you twenty one where there was that
those kind of clear headed shoulders abovethe other type quality players, maybe other
than the three players who ended upbeing dominated for the award, But overall,
I think there's a lot of youngguys who showed some slashes of what

(24:45):
could really be exciting things moving forward. It will benefit from these experiences.
And then they kept the ground runningit twenty twenty four. So you know
a few guys who I think areworth matching you. You already mentioned John
n Lsu play the most minutes ofany U twenty one player this season,
even if only a thousand more eligibleas he's a lone player from CFO down.

(25:06):
But again I think maybe still lackingthat polish a little bit in the
final third. But you know,he was able to earn the trust of
Carlos Gonzalez this season and make twentystarts and six appearances off the bench,
which is really impressive for a playerwho's as young as he is, and
again really good chance creation numbers.Was able to get into those good positions
and be dangerous, just maybe finishingfinishing off those chances with that final ball

(25:32):
or that shot is kind of waslacking from his game, but a lot
to like about him going forward atsuch a young ability. And then obviously
you look at a team like Cavalryand they do such a good job of
kind of selling on their their youngplayers when they reached that you know,
top end, and we saw thatwith Gota Antoney. But Mile, I'll
ree the player who replaced him,brought him from Vancouver FC. You know,

(25:56):
was kind of a surprise when theysort of swapped him for Mickey Kintaba,
who was a really good player forthem. But you know, not
only did he provide those U twentyone minutes towards the end of the season,
he ended up being a pretty keyplayer and you know, dynamic on
the ball, not afraid to takeattackers on and ended up scoring twice this
year. So he's a guy thatI think we'll look at next years as
you know, really strongth for forgeto deem Caine always worth taking out with

(26:19):
an eighteen year old makes sixteen appearancesin the forged midfield and he looked really
solid and you know, has agood physical profile and I think will make
him an exciting player and they'll Gazdovyou know towards the end of the year.
You know, he has some shakymoments throughout the season, but towards
the end of the year really galedit in for you know, a twenty
year old goalkeeper, which is youknow, up there for the most difficult

(26:42):
positions for a young player to tobreak into, just because there's only one
of them, and you know,it's usually a senior player in the squad.
So for him to get those bigmatches and that confidence that he got
towards the end of the year witha fantastic playoff run, I think will
only benefit him more. You know, Bancouver, where were the leaders in

(27:02):
you twenty one minutes this year?So there's a number of guys who impressed,
but empty white, you know,going first overall the CPL used fours
draft and then coming in and playingcentral defender and a left footed central defender
at bat which is always an important, you know, thing to note because
there's not too many of them,and his quality playing the ball forward and
experience throughout the year, I thinkhe's one to watch. And then you
know you have to say TJ toheat and to hear these conversations. At

(27:26):
three goals and twenty appearances for asixteen year old breaking all the CPL records.
He's it again two thousand and seven, which will always make you feel
really old and you know has avery good chance and it probably should be
with you twenty or sorry, Useventeen's at the World Cup this summer.
So yeah, those are just afew of the guys. There's a few
more names I'm sure you could throwinto there as well, but a few

(27:48):
of the guys who have stood outthis year and who the next season will
again be you twenty one eligible andwill I think make an even bigger impact
in subsequent seasons. Yeah, Ithink you hit. You hit most of
the names that I would sort ofput up there as that next tier of
guys that had really strong seasons andI'm really curious to see. I thought

(28:08):
Gote for Cavalry was spectacular in thelittle moments that I saw from him,
and I'm happy for him to moveon, but a little bit sad we
aren't going to be seeing him weekendweekend anymore. For Toby Wildon Junior there,
I thought that the Halifax of ThomasSerraldo and Thiago Cumbra really kind of
grew throughout the season, but couldn'tquite find that same way to be you

(28:30):
know, reliable starters weekend week outfor Patrise guysher out there with Halifax.
So yeah, lots of lots ofpromising young talent and we'll be looking forward
to another season of tracking those Utwenty one minutes next year. Last one
before I let you go, Mitch, I know it's a very busy week
for you. Finals this weekend,Tim Morrinsfield Forge versus Cavalry, As if

(28:53):
there could be any other final toa CBL season, How are you feeling
about this one? What are youlooking at into it? Yeah, it's
really interesting one, obviously because itis the sixth meeting between the two sides
this season, and they match justa couple of weeks ago, and that
verse versus second match is part ofthis new CPL playoff format to obviously determine
that it would be Forged that wouldpost this final and advance to the finals.

(29:17):
So that in itself makes it intriguingin terms of just you know,
how the teams will line up withthis match tactically, whether they'll try something
different than they did in Calgary justa couple of weeks ago, or whether
they'll you know, roll out somethingnew, which I think they're both capable
of doing with the depth that's justoverall tactical mastery of the two sides.

(29:37):
But you know, it's a gamethat Forge has dominated so far in terms
of playoff matches. You know,they have five wins at one drop from
the six postseason meetings. So youknow, you think if if it goes
later on, or if they scorethe first goal or something like that happens,
you'd have to give the edge toForge because you know they are they

(30:00):
are so good in terms of themental advantage that they might might have in
a match like this. But youlook at the Cavalry side, who have
been kind of comfortable in those thoseclose games this season. They won eleven
to one goal matches in all competitions. They've also scored first twenty three or
twenty eight times, which is absurd. So if they can get early control
of this match, then you knowyou kind of favor them to make a

(30:23):
little new history and hold on inthe way they've been able to over the
last little bit. So yeah,again, perhaps the old history kind of
favors Forge and recent history Cavalry considerwhat they did this season and finishing thirteen
points higher in the standings and touse a Tommy Building junior you know quote,

(30:45):
we'll find out what new history lookslike as the North Star Shields supported
on Saturday. Awesome. Awesome.Yeah, we'll start with that coaches battle
line. All these two are veryfamiliar with each other. And then as
Tommy says, you know, newhistory is what we're all about here,
especially on this development podcast. SoMitchell Tierney canfield dots here. Thank you

(31:06):
so much for your time, appreciateyour insights absolutely, Thanks for me on

(31:27):
Welcome back, and thanks again andMitchell for joining James. Fun conversation,
They're good conversation under twenty one minutes. That's what it's all about on twenty
one Player of the Year. We'relooking forward to finding out who exactly that
is, James. Any final takeawayson that before we move on to maybe
have a little conversation about the finalitself. Yeah, I think just the

(31:47):
only thing I would add to theU twenty one minutes conversation that we've sort
of been tracking all years. Welike to have a little bit of fun
with whether teams are going to reachthat deadline, but it's not the goal
in itself. Isn't reaching those Utwenty one minute thresholds like that's a necessity,
but the impetus is to really givethese young men a chance to go
out there and show what they cando and maybe provide a little bit of

(32:10):
a nudge to teams that might preferto play it safe and get older,
more experienced players in those positions.And you know, as the three young
men were nominated for the final andso many of the others showed this season
that young players can can contribute inthis league. And the true test of
the value of this new twenty oneinitiative will be in what becomes of those

(32:34):
guys going forward in their career.So as much as we have fun track
in this and it's something to talkabout and stuff like that, it's really
about what happens down the road thatmatters most. Yeah, well, I
mean, ideally, you know,you're producing players consistently at an under twenty
one even younger level, and perhapseven selling them on at a certain point

(32:55):
to get some revenue coming in theleague. That's how this league becomes not
just surviving but thriving. Right,You need to produce those players. You
need to find those players, notjust you know, for the next generation
of Canadian national team players. That'dbe nice, but it's also for the
stability of these clubs in these communities, which is just equally important to growing
the game and keeping the game strongin this country. Where this game is

(33:17):
really strong in the Campel at leastis in Hamilton and in Calgary. It's
not every year that Calgary and Hamiltonplay in the final. In fact,
it's only the second time, butit does seem like it's always these two
teams, James, and once againis going to be these two teams.
Calgary won the regular season title,they got out there and played the this
would be the semi final against againstForge, and what do you know,

(33:40):
they ended up losing the opportunity tohost the final bye by losing it to
the lower seed, the number twoseed. But then they get some redemption
the next week beat Pacific and manageto book their spot for once again the
Canadian Classic when it comes to thecampl Forge v. Cavalry in the final.
And look, there are people outthere that that are going to be

(34:01):
upset. Maybe that it's always thesetwo teams seem to always be the top
two teams in this league. Pacifichas obviously win a championship there in respect
to them for that. But youknow, if you look at the points
totals, you look at the teamsthat always seem to be at the best,
it is these two teams, andone of these two teams more than
the other, right that being Forge, hosters of the final on Saturday.

(34:24):
I don't know where to start,but I guess I guess we'll start there.
Is it bad that it's these twoteams are so dominant? No,
I don't. I don't think so. I think you know, everyone's I
understand the frustration you sort of wantto league that that has the variability and
that these team's rise and fall.But I would caution everybody that you know,

(34:45):
we're five years into this into thisproject, and you know at least
two of those years where pandemic affectedin massive ways. And it doesn't surprise
me one bit that the two teamsthat we knew going into the start of
the first season of the Canadian CurrentLeague had that little bit of a head
start by having some institutional knowledge BobbySchmyriniatis coming over from Sigma A FC and

(35:07):
Tommy wildm Jr. In his CalgaryFoothills experience and staff and all that sort
of thing. It doesn't surprise meat all that those are still the teams
that seem to be able to putthings together most consistently season in, season
out, weekend week out. Ithink it speaks to what we see on

(35:28):
the pitch every weekend is one elementof what a successful club is. You
know, you have to have aplayers, you have to have a coach,
you have to find ways to getresults, and that's what that's what
we are watching when we see teamson the pitch. But there's a whole
other part which is about the organizationalexcellence that exists behind those teams. You
know, it goes through the coachingstaff, it goes to the support staff,

(35:50):
it goes to everything else involved inthe club, and that kind of
a footprint takes a lot of timeto build. And I think what we're
seeing to some extent with these twoteams constantly being above the rest, is
an expression of how much that needsto grow in some of the other places,
and an expression of how long thatkind of work can take, especially

(36:10):
when you're financially constrained. The waythat the Canadian Premier League inherently is so
I don't read too much into it. I think it's interesting that, you
know, if we go back totwenty eighteen and we're looking at how the
clubs are being set up, thoseare the same too that you would probably
have picked to be dominant sides headinginto those first couple of years. But

(36:32):
for me, it's more a measureof what it takes to build a successful
club than it is anything else.Yeah, look, I'm more worried about
the fact that Valor hasn't figured itout yet than the fact that we've had
two teams that have, right,Like, I mean, let's be blunted
about that. Vellor has really struggled, and it's more concerning to have teams
that are struggling to find a wayto produce talent and to get results.

(36:58):
We hope they can figure it outbecause ultimate really, if you look at
the campl season this year, itwas much closer, closer than usual and
four unt although they did end upgetting in second place and they have they
are going to host the final,but virtue of being Calgary in that first
semi final, they haven't had theclear path that they've had in past years.
They had to work to get backhere and if they do win it

(37:20):
on Saturday, they will be deservingchampions and I also think that it might
be a bit of a watershed forthem too. You look at some of
those players that have been around forthe full five years. There's a core
there that have been that that willhave won their third championship or fourth championship.
Part me, if they do winon Saturday, they might be starting
to look around and to move onat that point. Bobby has shown a

(37:42):
great ability to bring young guys inand get results in stats from young guys,
and I have no doubt that he'llcontinue to keep that program up.
But I think that the campl willso will continue to see some parody in
the next couple of years, whichis how it's designed, and that will
make a lot of people happy.You know. I love what happened in
Halifax this year. I did notthink Halifax had the base talent to compete

(38:05):
in the way that they did,but they showed that they were able to
get right up there and play withthat mid tier for sure. You know,
a little couple of bounces go theirway in that game against Pacific,
and maybe they have an opportunity toplay in a semifinal and they'll they'll grow
on that and they'll build on that. The other quick news bit out of
that, of course, is thatwith Calgary's win against Pacific in that semi

(38:28):
final, they do then assure whatare conky Cap Champions League participants are going
to be for Canada next year.Well, that combined with Montreal bailing out
of the MS playoffs, not thatI think the former impact we're going to
win MLS Cup, but there wasan opportunity perhaps to have a second MLS
team in there now. But withthe white Caps being the only team in

(38:49):
the MS playoffs and the other twospots guaranteed to go to the MPL finalists
and regular season champion, then youhave Calgary, Hamilton and the white Caps
in the Champions League next year forCanada. And we'll watch that when it
starts next year. And you know, we'll be cheering on this camp All
teams, I'll spe I'll let youspeak for yourself and whether you're cheering on

(39:10):
the white Caps, but we'll becheering on the Campiell teams anyway. Yeah,
you know, I am excited forwhat's going on at the white Caps
right and now, you know,for for a long time, they've sort
of been, you know, allthe way out on the West coast and
not really doing much to garner attention. But in the last eighteen months twenty

(39:31):
four months, they really sort ofstarted to turn some heads and started to
make some good organizational decisions. Ithink Vanny Sartini is a very good coach
and a heck of a character.And Vancouver's strung together as some results.
You know, back to back Canadianchampionships. You bring in Sam Outakubi,
you bring in Richie Lerea, You'rein the playoffs, You're challenging in the

(39:52):
West. There, They're I thinkit's fair to say they're the banner holders
right now for Canadian soccer and MLS. And so while I will not be
ruining them on in any kind ofpersonal way, I'll be hoping for them
to have a good run here andto make some history for themselves, because
you know, the healthier soccer isin every market across this country, the

(40:14):
better it is forever. Yeah,and look, you got two fullbacks that
they're are among the best in theleague on that team, like the White
Cops are done. Okay, it'sa tough drap for them in the playoffs.
This isn't an MLS show, soyou're not going to go deep in
this. But it's a tough drugagainst LAFC. We'll see if they get
through that then who knows? Right, the playoffs are weird in Major League
Soccer, and particularly weird this year. What are your thoughts in that two

(40:37):
out of three thing in the firstyear? Well, I guess they have
the play in round, but thefirst round proper, James, I haven't
asked you that this is a bitoff the Cup, but it's a bit
of a throwback to the early daysof MLS. A two out of three.
It's like this is like the NHLin nineteen seventy nine or something.
Yeah, I don't fully understand it, if I'm being honest, Like,
I understand the concept of the besttwo out of three, Like, but

(41:00):
what the impetus was to go froma straight two legged series into turning this
into this two teach me? Like, Yeah, you get some extra games,
some extra playoff games, some extraeyeballs on screens for that sort of
thing. So you know, maybethat's explanatory enough, but I'm curious how
it's gonna work out. I mean, if if you win your first two

(41:21):
games and you're waiting another week toplay the next round. Is that going?
You know, one of the thingswe talk about so much in playoffs
is once that rust starts to buildfor teams that end up getting a buy.
And so if you're sitting around whilethe other teams out there fighting and
scrapping for for ninety minutes, howthat's going to play out? I do

(41:42):
not know. So I'm curious tosee how it's gonna how it's gonna work,
and you know, we might havesome drama. I like the idea
of you know, I think Iwas reading somewhere there's no ties. Every
match is going to have a result, so it should be fascinating these analyst
cut playoffs. No matter no matterwhat you think going in, they're going
to be full of surprises. SoI'm excited for those games. Yeah,

(42:06):
there's penalties at the end of themif they're remain tides, so so you
get a winner or loss in everygame. You know, in the past
day in the NSL, they usedto have like points series first to six
points over three games. A bitdifferent, right, Look, it's there's
no wrong format as long as everyone'splaying the same format. I know,
people that are traditionalists are going tolook down their nose at anything that differs

(42:28):
what they do in Europe. Butwe're not in Europe. So we'll see
how it goes and we'll watch it. I'm a little excited to watch MLS
playoffs. I'm not gonna lie.I lost a lot of interest in momentum
and down the stretch in that leaguebecause of where I am and the sheer
weight of the TFC problem and howthey fix that. But but I'm looking

(42:51):
forward to seeing how it plays out, you know, especially with MESSI out
of them. I think of theleagues a little upset about that, but
it does make it for wide openand I think some of those teams that
maybe have learned in the past andto not overshoot themselves in the regular season
might be just lurking behind. Ilook at an LFC, I look at
a Philadelphia. Those are pretty goodteams to finalists last year. I know

(43:12):
Cincinnati will want to build on thatseason that they created, and it was
a damn good season and a goodstory in terms of how they turned around
from where they were. It's veryTFC like, right, Cincinnati and TFC
have a lot in common. Theywere both terrible off the gate and then
there rose up and become very verygood, and you know, hold on,
Cincinnati. It's going to be aninteresting ride if you continue to follow

(43:34):
us from here. But nonetheless,that's my thoughts on that, James,
that's my final thoughts on anything today. Do you have anything to wrap up
this week before I say goodbye insome awkward way as I usually do,
Yeah, just before we throw youknow, a couple more international games.
Yeah, We've got the women playingon Saturday in Montreal and on Tuesday in

(43:57):
Halifax against Brazil, so keep aneye out for those. We have a
little bit of coverage of that nextweek, I believe. And then further
on the horizon, we've learned theopponents for the men in the kunk CAAF
Nations League play in matches. I'mnot sure that what round is this,
like round three or something like that. They changed it up this year,
so I'm not sure exactly what itis, but regardless, the first leg
will be in Jamaica on November seventeenth, and then the second leg will be

(44:21):
at Bimo Field in Toronto on Novembertwenty first. And a little bit more
in our wheelhouse, Dwayne, thatU seventeen World Cup is on the horizon
and we played in Indonesia this year. I got a couple interviews in with
some TFC two players before they departedto join up with Canada, and you
know Rico Clark in the interview wedid with him. We got some pretty

(44:44):
thorough scouting reports on a couple ofthe young men from Vancouver Sarde that will
be joining up with Canada, andso we're going to be bringing you a
bunch of coverage on that. We'llsee how deep we can go. But
that all gets started on November tenth, when Canada phases off the in Spain
in the U seventeen World Cup,and then November thirteenth, a couple days

(45:05):
later, they'll face off against Uzbekistanand then wrap up the group stage on
November sixteenth against Mali. So nowMLS season lent the over TFC's rebuild has
already begun. Montreal are probably stilllooking their wounds over that late penalty kick
and from the New York Red Bulls. But just when you think things are
going to quiet down a little bit, the international soccer rises up on the

(45:27):
scene. So we'll have plenty moreto discuss when people join us. Next
week twin we will James, they'rein the quarterfinals of the Nations League,
because you know, you could alwaysa tournament when you start the quarterfinals.
But nonetheless we'll watch that with interest. It's more interesting that it's a colped
America qualifier. I think that that'smost of our attention is getting to be
able to play in the United Statesnext to next summer against the likes of

(45:50):
Brazil and Argentina and Chile and andyou know, Geraguay and other countries like
that. That's what Canada needs tobuild towards twenty twenty six. Also need
to coach, but lots of stuffto think about and to talk about in
the days they had. We're notgonna talk about anything else today though,
I'm just gonna say goodbye bye