Hello,

Hello, and welcome to the Total Soccer Show.

My name is Taylor Rockwell, and on this week's MLS update, we are 17 weeks into the season, halfway there with only a lot of soccer still to be played.

But how has the season gone so far?

What have we gotten wrong and also less frequently right?

Which players, coaches, and teams have stood out? What have been the biggest surprises and best storylines? Will Joe ever acknowledge the greatness of St. Eric of Maxim? All that and much, much more on today's episode to talk it all out. I'm joined by the man who wrote this about Diego Luna back in February. Luna could be a fantastic change of pace option for Pochitino, but another eight-assist season is unlikely to vault him into the contention ahead of Geo Raina, Malit Thelman and Brendan Aronson, among others. If Luna has another level to hit, now is the perfect time to show it. Jeff Ruder, Luna has eight goals already, one more, and he's hit a new level. Is that how it works? That's, that's exactly

how it works. And it's, oh, that felt good to hear out loud because I thought that was Joe and I was like, oh, that's a great take. And then something, it was like, no, it's you. I think it was in your article about like 11 players, like poised for big things in this season. And they were 11 very smart selections. Nicely done, my friend. Thank you. Yeah, and that's such a fun concept. I think

Nixio and Gomez, like, poised for big things in this season. And they were 11 very smart selections. Nicely done, my friend.

Thank you. Yeah. And that's such a fun concept. I think Nixio and Gomez, like, tore his knee, like within two weeks. So that's maybe my one, but it's a centerback. And I was, I was openly in, like, chats with friends, like name a centerback you're excited about. And most of my chats kicked me out. So, you know, I had to do my own research at that point.

Yeah. Yeah. Between that and the discussion part of recording of which two players have the same

birthday, I feel like you and our, and our other co-host are in the weeds for sure. Rounding out

the crew is that man himself. The man who vancouver would be top of the west at this

point in the season let me just check to confirm where joe larry had them in his preseason

rankings oh joe oh no joe you did not have them uh near the top in the west joe you have

vancouver in the 11th but the galaxy certainly you had much lower in the table is that correct

well the vancouver one i just accidentally type out an extra one, right?

Like my keyboard's a little sticky. Oh, there it is. You know, sometimes it's like the S key. For me, it's the one key that just stuck. And that didn't get caught in the editing process. I've got to go out there and fire my editor. It's definitely not me. And the Galaxy one, yeah, there's no explanation for it.

I'm finishing third in the West.

And we were talking about this before recording. Both of these are pretty easy to see where I went wrong, and we'll talk about these things more on today's show, along with plenty of other teams that we haven't talked nearly as much about this year. But with the Galaxy, the mistake I made was very clear. It was underestimating how good Ricky Pooge is and how important he was to this team.

If I could retroactively go back and change my MVP vote from last year, which was Leonel Messi.

If there was anyone to change it to, it would be Ricky Pooge.

And it probably would be worth changing.

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