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Thank you. Welcome to the Total Soccer Show and our latest check-in with the world of Major League Soccer.

There's almost exactly two months of the 2023 regular season remaining,

so we're taking a look at the runners and riders, the big player transactions,

and the storylines to keep an eye on.

My name's Ryan Bailey, joining me in what we're calling a terrific twosome today,

your friend of mine, Joe Lowry.

Hiya, Joe.

Hi, Ryan.

Quick question, who all is calling it a terrific twosome?

If there's more than just you, I'll probably get on board.

If this is something you're trying to start, I might

need a little convincing. I was trying to make fetch happen. Full disclosure here, Joe. All right. And we're off to a bad start. It was either that or gruesome, and I thought Terrific was a bit more positive. Terrific. Terrific is better. And Ryan, you know what? Your honesty is refreshing. I really do appreciate that. I'm on board, baby. Terrific Tucson. Taylor and Graham, you guys are going to have to form your own terrific twosome because we're the original one now. Boom roasted.

Indeed. Well, the other two members of the crew, Taylor feeling a bit under the weather today and Graham are not able to join us with scheduling today.

But Joe, we can have a lovely time talking about America's Premier Division of the Soccer. Are you excited? I'm excited. League MX, baby. Wait, no, I did all my prep on League Emackies. You did too, right? That's what we're talking about in America's Premier Division. I said, no. No, I'm excited. I'm excited. We're coming off of the Leaks Cup, which was, I maintain, a fantastic spectacle. Not perfect, as we've talked about multiple times, but genuinely very, very fun to the point where I was, I don't know that I was fully against it to begin with, but I was skeptical and I have been converted very, very heavily at this point. So I'm excited for next year's version. It's also presented now this weird jarring motion that I think a lot of folks who watch MLS are going through, where the league's cup final and the third place game were both on Saturday. We're recording on Tuesday, August 22nd. Those games were on Saturday. you blink and sort of like we talked about yesterday, you're trying to enjoy a little bit of a break before the action starts up again. And then there were maybe nine MLS games on Sunday, which was actually, Ryan, a light MLS slate thanks to, I'm not trying to make light of Hurricane Hillary, which postponed a couple of games in California, and Leaks Cup, which pushed other games around and back. So it's a very weird, jarring time to get back into Major League Soccer. The transfer window happened overlapping with Leagues Cup. So we've seen some new additions play, but, you know, not technically an MLS. And so we're in this weird space, but we're getting back into the regular season. I think it should be a fun remainder of the year.

There's usually more fireworks towards the end of these seasons,

and there are certainly in the middle, but maybe even towards the beginning as well.

So there's a lot to play for still, thanks to MLS, letting everybody and their mothers

...