Hello,

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Total Soccer show.

My name is Taylor Rockwell, and it's a Tuesday with my kids back in school.

It's a very exciting time to be alive.

Snow days are no more, but Joe days are here.

Hello, Athletico Madrid Joe.

I think that's Athletic Joe, Madrid, Lowry.

There we go.

That's the way to do it.

Mr. Lowry, how are you today?

I am great.

I'm jealous.

I think I would rather have a snow day than a Joe day, if I'm being totally honest.

I know that's me probably as a desert dweller.

I know Jeff's going to have a different take. I like Joe days. Like I get to be a part of them. That's always very special. But snow day sounds pretty unmatched. I would take one of those right about now. They're pretty fun. Jeff, do you, living in Minnesota get just sort of bored and used to like winter weather and snow? Is this just like an ever-present thing for you from, I don't know, October until I'm assuming May? Just about, yeah, it's part of the furniture, especially if you're good at snow sculptures.

I'm mostly just, like, sad about the idea that Joe would rather live in a snow globe than be

himself, but I guess if you've done the old Joe routine for years and years, why not try the

novel change.

Yeah, absolutely. Like, I've been there. I've done that. You know, just like Pitbull. Like, we've gone through that before. And I'm ready for a change. I wasn't picturing that my snow day was going to happen in a snow globe. That sounds mildly terrifying and deeply unsettling. So if that's the scenario that I'm ditching my original plan and I'm going back to being me. But otherwise, I mean, like, I'm just picturing Calvin and Hobbs, basically, when I think of snow days, because that's the closest reference point that I have. That sounds pretty idyllic. Maybe a bit, like, narcissistic also, but it sounds good. I'm into it. I would enjoy a Joe day. I feel like Joe celebrates his birthday right when he goes around and gets all the free stuff.

Make them work for me if one day of the year, you know?

Well, we are here to talk all things major league soccer. There has been quite a bit of activity. We're going to talk moves that have happened, moves that have not happened, moves that might happen, and try to get into the whole entire situation in Vancouver. No big deal. What could go wrong? Let's start off with Obid Vargas, shall we? Obid Vargas, moving to Athletico Madrid? Is this happening, Joe? Where are we in terms of the permanence, the likelihood of this move? It's done. So that I can say with absolute certainty, not from any inside info, but because both teams have posted about it. So that's good to see. Insider, Joe Lowry says it's done. I'm putting in work. You can quote me on that. It's done, by the way. That's pretty good. This is a huge move for Obed Vargas. I was thinking about this in the context of the biggest clubs that MLS players have moved to directly from MLS. And I think it's clearly in the top three of that, and probably not third. Alfonso Davies going from Vancouver to Bayern Munich is number one. And that Alfonso Davies has been so good for them for so long is just a delight. And MLS doesn't really have another story quite like that. The next one that's already happened that I think is probably in the top

three is John Durand, from the Chicago Fire to Aston Villa, where he was really good and going

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