MLS teams we're buying, selling! Plus: how did St. Louis get so good? | MLS Update

Taylor Rockwell (0:21)

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Total Soccer Show. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and it's Tuesday, which means it is time to talk some Major League Soccer. We will be taking a look back at the weekend that was. We're going to talk about some teams that we are buying and maybe also selling because we're all billionaires with that amount of money to spend. And we're going to be spotlighting the greatest team that Joe has ever seen, regardless of competition.

It's the city. Joe, are you excited for it?

Joseph Lowery (0:50)

You know, I could have like almost gotten on board of that in an MLS context, and then you went regardless of competition. And unfortunately, I will have to leave that take. I'll have to sell that take. It's a lot cheaper, not as much return on selling that take compared to selling an MLS franchise. But nonetheless, I am endlessly impressed with St. Louis and very excited to talk about them and many other things on today's show.

Taylor Rockwell (1:11)

Thank you for that, Joe. It now has me wondering, Jeff Rooter, is there a worst team you've ever had to cover? You've ever had to spend time writing about?

Joseph Lowery (1:18)

Oh, good question.

Taylor Rockwell (1:20)

In any way, shape or form? I have, I covered the old NASL, so.

Joseph Lowery (1:27)

Yes, we're going to leave it at that. We're going to leave it vague. Not even a specific team, just a grouping of teams in a point of time.

Taylor Rockwell (1:34)

I had this weird cottage industry start back in the NASL of like, Jeff heard when the club's about to die. And so there were like three or four different reports I put out in the NASL that was like, they're not paying their players on time. They don't have water. The team owner left and took 10 percent of the training field with him.

Like stuff like that, where you're just like, okay, of the training field, you just pull up this out. Do you remember that? It was Rio OKC. It's been 10 years. Yeah, they took part of the pitch. Like the owner was just like, no, I'm taking my field with me. Good luck.

But only part of it never heard the whole thing. Well, they only had a certain share of it. Of course, these things aren't just one owner. It's always a board. Right.

Joseph Lowery (2:13)

So wow.

Taylor Rockwell (2:14)

Take what's yours. Why?

Joseph Lowery (2:16)

Why are you? I swear you knew this a decade ago.

Taylor Rockwell (2:17)

It makes so much logical sense.

Joseph Lowery (2:19)

He took a percentage of the field.

Taylor Rockwell (2:23)

Yeah.

Joseph Lowery (2:23)

Wow. Yeah.

Taylor Rockwell (2:25)

It's a good way to control field tilt teams. If you're trying to figure out what it is, remove 10 percent of the pitch. And it's a lot harder for the opponent to pass in that third.

Joseph Lowery (2:32)

Oh, you're going to press I against this? No, you're not. No, there's no field up there.

Taylor Rockwell (2:35)

Not in that field, pal.

Joseph Lowery (2:37)

Yeah, exactly. Enjoy.

Taylor Rockwell (2:40)

It's like a wily coyote trap. For real.

Joseph Lowery (2:44)

There's no field up there anymore, we've painted it off.

Taylor Rockwell (2:46)

We've done the whole kind of free-flowing soccer. We've done positional play. I think it's time that we just modify the fields and increase like little pitfalls and booby traps and stuff across the field. Yeah. And the AGM meets Looney Tunes. Who says no?

Joseph Lowery (3:00)

The answer is done, Garth. This might be truly my favorite opening to an episode of the show that I've ever been a part of. This is unbelievable.

Taylor Rockwell (3:07)

All right, well, join us in segment four when we get into more ways to fix soccer involving cartoons. For now, Joe, let's talk St. Louis City.

Joseph Lowery (3:16)

Yeah.

Taylor Rockwell (3:17)

For people who maybe only watch the league for their team, have a general knowledge of the team, can you give us some background as to why we are talking about St. Louis, what it is they are doing, what makes them so notable at present?

Joseph Lowery (3:29)

Yeah, at the moment, they're the hottest team in Major League Soccer, which is impressive, given the Philadelphia Union exists and the Philadelphia Union are unbeaten since the World Cup break. But St. Louis are unbeaten for longer. There are 16 games unbeaten in league play. That comes after their 3-1 win over Toronto FC on Saturday.

As they've gone through league play, they've also qualified for the final of the US Open Cup. They will go to Columbus next month and play the final with a real chance to win it. They probably won't be favored in that game just because of home field advantage for the crew, but it'll be darn close. I bet if you look at the odds makers, because that's how good St. Louis City have been. They've been good at home. They've been good enough to get results on the road, which is not something we see from a lot of MLS teams. I mentioned that 16 games unbeaten street that they're on right now. They are four regular season games away from setting MLS all time record for consecutive results. So they need three to tie and four to be the single holder of that particular record. We don't see this happen in Major League Soccer. Like we see extended unbeaten runs in European play all the time, because there is still a large disparity between the best and the worst in the league. Even if that gap is narrowing, it seems like a bit in the Premier League, it still exists, at least relative to Major League Soccer. In MLS, there's so much parity that it is at times difficult to tell even the good teams are. Well, St. Louis have done our work for us because they have just continued to pick up result after result after result.