Hello and welcome everybody to the Total Soccer Show. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and on today's

Americans in Action edition of the show, we're going to be taking a deeper look at six players

in the USM&T pool to determine what these players are good at, what they're bad at, and what

their ideal roles could be or should be for the U.S. men's national team. Also this week, we're going to have a list of questions. There'll be a Champions League preview and a She Believes preview slash NWSL chat with Steph Yang. That will be later in the week. Today, it's Americans in Action. To do so, I'm joined by two gentlemen up first. Joe Lowry,

Joe, thank you for being here, my friend. Of course, Taylor. Good to be back. Yeah, man. Now, Joe,

I know you've been spending some time breaking down MLS Intra League moves, I believe was the specific

category. Which one of those moves that you wrote about has been your favorite or the most

interesting for whatever reason?

Sure. Yeah, the MLS season is getting closer and closer, which is kind of blowing my mind.

So these conversations are getting more and more relevant. Taylor, to your point, it was a busy off season and has been a busy off season for players moving from one team in MLS to another team in MLS.

And I just had a piece published for The Athletic about those moves, or at least a lot of the ones that caught my eye or a lot of the bigger names. Two, I'm going to cheat and do two. That released it out to me. Polariola from D.C. United to FC Dallas. This one stands out for a couple reasons. One, $2 million in general allocation money, which is a record breaking trade. And And I believe that record had already been broken at least once, if not twice in this offseason alone. That's happening as more and more gam is infused into these teams with the CBA and with blah, blah, go listen to allocation disorder for all that stuff. All that to say, Paul Eriola moving to Dallas, it's interesting for that reason that lots of money involved here, but also because Nico Estevez has a chance to really shape this Dallas team. Ariola on one side, potentially Jesus Ferreira as a nine, and then Alan Velasco, who's a record-breaking incoming transfer from outside Major League Soccer for Dallas potentially on the other wing. Maybe it's shown on that side, there's talent there in Dallas, and I'm interested to see how they use it.

The other move, Maxime Craypo, goalkeeper Canadian International.

He was one of the best shot stoppers in MLS last year for the Vancouver White Caps,

traded to LAAFC, and that's huge for Steve Chorundolo in this LafC team.

They allowed last year under Bob Bradley a ton more goals than expected.

So based on FB rep's post-shot expected goals stat, they allowed five goals more than they should have.

Cray Poe saved almost eight goals more than he should have for Vancouver last year.

You smash those two things together, and LASC just improved a whole lot in that goalkeeper spot, Taylor.

Overall, Joe, for LASC, we will introduce our other co-host, but I have questions. For LAFC, I think when we last talked about them or when I last talked about them, I had some concerns about what they were doing, about some of the players that they were letting go. Are you feeling better about their roster build thus far if you're giving it a thumbs up, a thumbs down, or a thumbs medium?

Where are you tending to point that thumb? I do like a lot of the moves they've made this offseason to replace some of the talent that's left this group. So you lose Edward Atuesta. They bring in Kelan Acosta in that six spot. I assume he's going to do playing the six, but I don't really know. I don't think it cost as a perfect player, and we've talked about that plenty in the past.

And hey, maybe we'll talk about it on an Americans in Action show at some point over the next month or so. But he does have range defensively. He can cover ground. He can press. And it sounds like Steve Chorundalo is going to be wanting a lot of that from his midfield group. So I do like aspects of that move for L-AFC. Craig Poe, I think, is a brilliant signing, maybe the best signing or the most impactful signing of the entire offseason. And then Franco Escobar is another player that I wrote about in that article for The Athletic. He is a guy who can play right back. He did that for Tata Martino Atlanta United. He's done that for Newell's old boys in Argentina or he can play as a as a centerback potentially on the right side of a back

three he's so skilled on the ball, tons of mobility, really aggressive as a player can press. I love that signing for LAFC, and I do appreciate some of the moves they've made to replace and supplement the roster they already have. Joe, three good answers. Unfortunately, you said you would give two, so I am taking off five points for your answer. We're on points now. It's a new system. And you didn't mention Albert Rusnak. So while you go deal with angry messages from Seattle fans, I will introduce our other co-host, the USMNT's newest biggest fan in Scotland. It's Graham Ruthven. Hi, Graham. Hello, Taylor. How are you?

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