Balogun’s Everton Move Collapses & The Americans Who Won the Transfer Window (Soccer 9/3)

0:00Hi, hello. Welcome to your favorite average to good podcasts. Call it what you want. I'm Jimmy Conrad alongside Charlie Davies and Tony Miola. And we have a very, very packed show for you today. We got Fuller and Baligan making moves, not making moves, making moves again, not making moves again. We'll get into that, of course, why you seeing it Monaco for the time being. So Gina Dest tells full of thanks, but I'm happy playing in this gym called the area of the VC. I'm not going to come to the primary league three. This is the third topic. We take stock of the Americans abroad and their moves, maybe giving some grades. That's what big tones likes to do. US soccer is going to shake things up on the sporting department side of things. We'll get into what that role entails. And if any of us are qualified to take it over, and then the US Open Cup welcomes back a full complement of MLS teams, their back, baby. I'm really excited about that one. We can get

1:04into that in a little bit. But first we got to talk about Baligan. So can I give you a timeline chuck? Okay, I just want to give you a timeline of events. So Monaco who need to sell players, by the way, I think that's important context. They need to move some money. Why do they need to sell? Jimmy? Well, because they have broken some financial fair play rules. And so they have to get underneath that. So there's some urgency to move some players with big salaries that have a lot of value and full of Baligan fits into that very well. So Monaco and Everton agree this. So we should say that we were all excited when her Baligan had some interest from primary league teams. Tottenham, Alston Villa, ends up with Everton. No problem. He could probably start there. Be a key guy. We're all excited. We talked about it on the last show. But issues arise. Erased. I can't speak English. I can't speak English. Issues arose during medical putting the deal into jeopardy. Okay, so Everton's attempts to sign Joshua Zerkecy was rejected by Manchester United. Then Everton returned to Baligan after there was some kind of issues with the medical. As I mentioned, they tried to renegotiate maybe

2:07a cheaper deal or different terms. Meanwhile, Monaco pulled the plug on Lamine Camara going to Chelsea. Okay, then Baligan decides not to sign for Everton, leaving the toffee with one recognized striker, Monaco now have both Baligan and Camara. Chelsea, 90 million pounds stays out of their pocket. Yes, it's crazy. It's a crazy turn of events. And now there are some windows that are open. He can still potentially go to markets that open Turkey still open Saudi Arabia, Scotland ends today, Portugal, Mexico and Brazil are kind of the windows of the show. I think it's also important to note, Jimmy, he doesn't have to go anywhere. It's it's correct. It's on him. As much as Monaco need the money and they're saying, Hey, you can go to all these other places. Great. I'd give him a thumbs up. Good for you. I'm not going anywhere. Yeah, right. I mean, I feel like we need to hear from Flow. I want to hear his side of things. We haven't heard him say anything. However,

3:10you're going to difficult position. Be course. Of course. You can't come out today. Yeah. Hey, by the way, I'm going to stay here and they're trying to force me out. And I'm going to stay because they need the money. And guys, if I don't play, it's on them. You can't you got to come out. You got to be quiet. You got to let your representatives do. I get it. But I don't feel like we're going to ever hear the full story until we get like a 360 comparison of this. However, Monaco sporting director Thiago Scuro said this yesterday, we still have other markets opened. I named a few of those for you, which we are having discussions about with different players, including Balo. Let's see what can still happen until Thursday because we still have markets that have the financial capacity to do something. Today, he's a Monaco player. There's a chance that he stays. On Everton, I was not there. We have to respect Balo's decision. We tried to do the work on the club side. We found solutions. The reality is that when Balo mentioned to us this feeling that he was not comfortable, he didn't want to sign. We didn't see ourselves in a position to push him. We had to respect his decision. Don'ts. This feels like a hot mess. Where it will work.

4:14No, it is. For one, I respect it. If from Monaco's situation, they probably put Balo on a flight and thought, okay, this deal is done basically. I'm going to go get a physical and we're going to sign all the papers. We've agreed to everything. I respect the fact that he, according to reports, just didn't feel comfortable with the way that it went down, the usage of his health to potentially negotiate another deal or a different deal with Monaco from Everton's standpoint. He said, I don't feel comfortable. The club could have pushed this through and said, you know what, he's passed the physical. He's done. We've done everything. We agreed to all the numbers and you agreed to personal terms with him and let's move forward. But they felt strongly enough to say, you know what, he didn't feel comfortable and he's walking away from this thing. So look, there's two sides to every story and then the truth, right? That lies in the middle and we'll find out. I'm sure down the road. But clearly, I have read some Everton posts from fans.

5:16Holy cow. They want everybody fight. Maybe if you go read, I'm not an Everton fan. I just watch Everton. I like the club in general. You know, all the years with Tim Howard. I watched them all they were. But my gosh, they are up in arms about what's happening with that club right now. But it's it's it's good. It's comedy, right? When you watch it. But I was really shocked by this deal. Really, really shocked. I think it's interesting and we're going to kind of lean on Morning Footy here because they had Dominic King, the Mercy Side Corresponder for the Telegraph, speaking on this failed medical. So let's hear from him and then we'll get Chuck. We'll get your thoughts on this. A lot of people are talking about this failed medical. Do we know what that failed medical entails? No, Nico. There's there's confidentiality on on medical issues with that when we're not privy to what's gone on. It's it's it's basically Dr. Patian Clare Client Confidentiality. They wouldn't put that detail out into the out into the public domain. They all that was all

6:20that was basically conveyed to us was the fact that there had been an issue. And the fact that flow aside the deal sheet, monoco-adside the deal sheet, there was no dispute from their side that the information that being put out was wrong. I think if because it happened so early in the night, I think it was about 7pm here when we first started to hear that the being an issue. If if it had been erroneous, I think it would have been corrected pretty swiftly, but there's no indication that exactly why it failed. It was just we we we told it was an issue. All right, so this is interesting. It's almost a reputation thing, right, Chuck? Because Balo and and and I'm going to use the nickname that the sporting director did, Balo and and monoco is saying he's fine. He's completely healthy and Everton's going, A, wait a second, there's a little something that we're seeing. And that's where this gray area comes in because maybe they're playing some chess here to maybe get a lower deal or potentially this is a reputation

7:21thing. I think for Balo again, in terms of how he comes out of this and what's said and what is it, you know, this gets really sticky. Really really sticky. Everton at the end of the day, they don't look good for this because it's it's a number of failures in terms of securing talent at the end of the window last minute dealings, but also trying to, you know, go behind a player's back to get Joshua Zerksay and thinking that people don't talk. These things will come out. And so a lot of people just made wrong decisions, the wrong choices. And ultimately, David Moises in the background, I'm like, get me a player. Get me a striker. Get me depth. Get me people who can challenge. And the club let down David Moises in this situation. No doubt. Yeah, I, I, I, I, what do, what do this means just in terms of well, Everton, they're struggling because they allowed Betta to go to

8:22Fiorantina who scored goals in the Premier League last year. Mostly assuming that Balo again's coming in and that was going to be a done deal to your point, tones that it looked like it. Yeah, get them on the plane and we're set. And it just didn't work out that way. So so from their perspective, this one hurts from Balogane. I think these just kind of have to do a little bit of a wait and see. I think being quite like you guys mentioned before is the smartest play for him. And, but I do, he hasn't played any games yet for Monaco. And then you have a kid who stepped up now, 21 year old, who is starting now from Felipe Luis, Paris Bruner, German player, 21 four, four, four games already the season four goals looking pretty good. Then you got Mika Beareth, who's got four, four games of season already got two goals. Obviously, if you have talent like like flow and others and, and Camaro when he comes back into the team, yeah, they're going to be, they're going to be competitive. But I do think it, it throws an interesting wrinkle here as in terms of how do you reintegrate someone that was already thinking about something else, tones. And I, you've got some experience in this space you've been around. Like, like, as a coach as well, like how do you marry all this,

9:26including the fact that there's still windows that are open. I wonder how this all plays out here in the next couple days. You know, I don't mean any disrespect to any of the other leagues, but honestly, I don't want to see Flow Baligan go from a potential Everton move into the Premier League to maybe Saudi Arabia. Now, if it's a money thing and he says, okay, this, like I get that part, like if he wants to play that at this point of his career, I don't, I don't get the sense that that's where we're at right now. Turkey would be, where Turkey would be an option, right? Two Champions League teams, if those guys came calling, but to reintegrate Jimmy to your point back into Monaco from a managerial standpoint, right? Everyone has, everyone has sort of ways that they look at guys that are out. Like, some, well, guys are injured, right? Some people say you got to come back and earn your spot, right? Some people say injuries don't make you lose your spot. When you get healthy, you come back in like, who knows how this is going to turn out for Flow in the end because he was in a pretty good

10:27situation scoring goals. Look what it did for him being at Monaco to get to the World Cup, to prepare him for the World Cup for the World Cup that he had. Yeah, this is a tricky situation for any club, especially a club that had, you know, 48 hours ago or whatever it was, 72 hours ago, like no one thought this was going to happen. He was not, he was not a part of their plans anymore, right? You're moving on from just like Everton was moving on, right? Because when you look at Everton, David Moe said in a press conference like a week ago, he said, we need players. And all of a sudden, he's losing players like he lost four players in the window, I think, and I picked up a couple in the end, Jack Relish, one of them, but like you prepare and then when things change like this, because as soon as these things happen, you have different ideas in your head. This is how I'm going to play the team. This is what my striker is going to look like. I'm assuming that David Moe's clearly new flow and said, this is a guy, well, we're finally going

11:27to get a guy that runs off the shoulder of players that can run in behind that will run in the channels. A little bit different than what he had for a couple of years with Dominic Calvert-Lewen before he left, right? Different profile. And now you change everything, Jimmy. You change the way you look at everything. So it's tough. And I hope this doesn't eventually just strip ball again of time playing. I think what's interesting about this whole situation is why they waited so long into the window to make this happen. Like why not have some of this urgency? Even 24 hours extra. I think what have maybe solved all this and cooled to anybody that was upset on either side of the fence. But do you think it would have solved ball again if he was, if he was kind of hurt? So you go to Mersey side and you go there and you take a physical home of a son, you start here in rumblings. Oh, your agent calls you. They say you have a medical problem. Think about it. You're like, I don't have a medical problem. What's wrong with me? There's nothing wrong with me. We don't know what it is, right? Could be, I don't know, you had to sniffles and they don't like that. Like we have no idea, but he knows. And then you get hurt by that. You're like, hold on here.

12:32I'm good. Like with another day of change to feelings, could someone have calmed them down or did he get to a point where he said, you know what? I don't trust this club. I don't trust these people. I don't want to be here for the next four or five years. Yeah. No, no, no, I mean, when you make a chance, I don't think it's reputation gets hurt at all from this being like, yeah, I'm with you. I came by the way, this wasn't what I thought it was going to be. And you know what, I respect players who feel like you feel something's off. And it feels suspect. I look back at one move I made. And that was in Denmark. I went from so show where my coach had already deem me surplus to requirements. He wanted to play the young players. He wasn't going to give me the time to acclimate. And so I go to, you know, this was me knowing I have to leave France. I'm looking for the right next spot. I thought, you know, I did well in MLS with DC night on that lone year that

13:32I was thinking, okay, I want to go back to Europe. I want to play in Europe. And so this Danish club comes out. I know where around us like we want Charlie, you know, the sporting director had had seen me play and in Sweden, that hammer being was a big fan of mine. So he was the one really pushing this with my agent. So I fly to Denmark and I get a tour of the club, get a tour of the training facility. And now I get to meet the coach, the manager. I haven't signed anything yet. Colin Todd was the manager. He had, you know, had played in the Premier League, had coached at Bolton and the Premier League. So he was a well-known commodity in England. And so I come to the office and he's like, so how are you doing? I say, yeah, good. He's like, where do you play? And at that point, I said, oh my God, this guy has no idea. He's never seen me play. He has no idea. But the sporting director was was so high on me going that I thought, you

14:36know what, at this stage, I want to get into a preseason. I got to get somewhere. I don't want to go back to France and train and basically be with the reserves the entire time that I'm going to bet on myself. Now, in retrospect, if I go back in time, I would have never made that move. I would have never made that move. But that's the decision that a lot of guys are forced with. It's like, you're everything is telling you, take this move, pressure, pressure, pressure. And if you had, you know, the right instincts or you felt the right instincts, but you didn't say anything, most players don't say anything. I'm proud of Balrogon for recognizing, you know what, something's off. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not going to go through this. Maybe it was a meeting for a conversation with David Moise that triggered him to go, what position do you play? Yeah, it was maybe like, what's your name? You're not a guaranteed starter in this team. You got to work yourself in. You know, yeah, you're going to be competitive. If it's something like that,

15:37you're like, whoa, I'm not leaving Monaco. By the way, Monaco, South, Southern France, what a destination of be living in, tax-free to come to England and all of a sudden say, uh, uh, somebody told him what had Jimmy. He had an upset stomach because somebody told him about the taxes in England. He's like, I'm going from free to 50% hell. No, no, no, I'm out. Chuck, Chuck, I'm bummed he didn't show off your quads when you went into that office and be like, where do you think I play, buddy? You know, I play on top of a striker. He goes, uh, I'm going to go right back or see you. Look at those quads. That's what they said. The floater like, man, you, you look like a good right back. Flo is a hell. Hell no. He said, hey, so you're, you're an attacking player. Where do you play? What? Oh, you're the red card guy during the World Cup. That, that's you. I heard something about that. Yeah. All right. Well, welcome to the squad. Uh, we know you're injured, but or whatever it is. You know, they're just making up stuff up

16:39this. Anyway, I agree with you that flow's reputation is not going to take a hit. I, I just hope that this kind of settles and he gets an opportunity to play and not get stuck in purgatory where we've seen it with some players. If Felipe Luis, the manager of Monaco is kind of maybe moved on or had different ideas about how he wants us to play. That gives me a little bit of pause. I assume that if there is some smoke or if there's some issues, so let's say over the next couple months, then he'll make a move in January, but I'm kind of curious how Monaco. Let's go back to them. I'm going to solve some of their financial problems because they still have to move a few players. Otherwise, I don't know what the punishments are. Maybe they get Doc points or whatever it is, but we'll know more about that as time progresses. Yes. Yes. Yes. Tell me if you're a player in Malignant, this move breaks down, but you go back to Monaco, you start scoring goals in Liga, everything's gone. You're going to find yourself in a better situation in my point of view. From my point of view, Everton, yeah, it's a good move because you're playing in the Premier League, but it's not the most beneficial for Foulare and Balagan. Again, I think he can find himself in a better situation

17:44where the club is, there's more substance within the club in terms of the quality around him. I say patience. Patience. Patience, yeah, I agree with you. Ultimately, if he gets hot again with Monaco, then maybe somebody comes in January that needs someone of his quality going into the champions like knockout rounds or whatever it is. Now we're talking about, wow, good thing he didn't sign with Everton five or six months ago. We'll see how this all plays out, but obviously, disappointed at the moment that it didn't work out and he didn't feel like it was a good fit for him because we're all excited to see him dominate in the Premier League if given the opportunity. A couple other players who didn't secure moves before Tuesday's deadline, one included Joe Scally. He's going to remain at Brutia Munchen-Gladbach. Gladbach's newly signed right back. Daky Hashioca got hospitalized after a collision in their RB-Lypesig game. They lost that one 3-0. Scally actually came in for him after he got hurt. Thankfully, he's fine. He had a significant injury, head injury, and he's been cleared. No spinal injury, no related concussion stuff. Hopefully,

18:48Hashioca can come back and play soon. However, that does get an impact Scally in his future. He's going to be staying with the club. Then, Serginio Desc, Citesis at the Top Big Tones, reportedly, air quotes around reportedly put that in all caps and bolts in italics. Rejected Foam's advances. They clearly saw his goal this past weekend where he was slulling through everybody and putting it in the back of the net. Would you like to see Serginio? At Foam, we would have had a national team outside back then going on at Foam there, with Jedi on one side and Serginio Desc on the other. The reportedly thing, you never know how is it a call to the agent? Is the agent? Did the agent call them? Who knows? You never know. I think, in general, Jimmy, I would have liked to have seen Serginio Desc move from the Dutch League. I feel like he's kind of maxed out there. He's still going to play well there. He's still going to be in Champions League. He's still going to continue

19:49to refine his game. We talk on this show all the time about challenges. I feel like he's one of those guys that would benefit, I think, from another challenge if that's what he's looking to do. I don't know about the reportedly. It sounds nice when you put it on the tweet and it becomes a story. But in general, I'd like to see him move. Yeah. I guess Ricardo Pepe is another Foam target as well. We'll see what happens with Ricardo Pepe. If you're Serginio Desc and you've played at Iax, you've played at Barça, you've played at Milan, and you go back to PSV, back to Holland, and to play for PSV in the Champions League. You're winning leagues. Now you're saying, I'm building my profile back up. I've been successful. I'm doing well in the World Cup. I'm doing well in Champions League. You want me to go to Foam? I get Foam playing in the Premier League. It's a jump up in week to week competition,

20:50playing in the Premier League being challenged. You're playing with Antioch Robinson. But in his mind, he's probably thinking, oh, hell no. I'm not leaving PSV in Champions League to go to Foam. It's a new project. Whether you believe in Arvaloa or not, they look like they're playing an exciting brand of football. It seems like they're creating chances. I think they are taking a step in a different direction in terms of how they're going to play. I think he would be excited to play in that type of system. However, he's probably thinking, I'm a Champions League level player. I'm not going to Foam. You know what? I have no issue with that. He's in a great position. He's a starting player who's getting a lot of chances at PSV and scoring goals or creating goals. He's playing in Champions League. Why leave that unless you're going to a real top destination?

21:55There's probably a list of only 20 clubs that he would want to move to. That would make sense. I'm not sold on Arvaloa either as a manager of Foam. They've played two games so far. The season lost three, two to Chelsea and one's here to Sunderland. They've had two losses. I'm going to give him some time, of course. It was just a big fan of Marco Silva, the manager of Foam, who left to go to Benfica. If Marco Silva was still there, okay, yes. Foam probably aren't going to get into Europe per se. Your points remain here, Chuck. I feel like there'd be a coach I trusted in coming into a situation where the identity felt more clear. Right now, I don't think that identity is clear. Under Peter Bosch at PSV, identity is very clear. His role is very defined. It gives him the freedom to be himself. I think we can see the best version of himself at PSV. I'm curious to see if he makes him move somewhere else. Obviously, the asks are going to be different, whether it's based on the team he's playing on, the team he's playing against, the league he's playing in. It would be nice to see him maybe take another adventure outside of the air to VC and see how he does. All right, we're going to take our first break of the show. When we come back,

22:57can we get in some notable midweek performances? We're going in some transfer window grades. We're going to have a lot of fun, like we always do here on your favorite average, a good podcast. All right, welcome back you to the show. I'm Conradinho, alongside Chuck Chasen-Chuck and Big Tones. We got some midweek performances to address first and foremost, Caleb Wiley. Remember him? scored his first goal, making his move for Preston North End and a 3-1 loss versus Bristol City. So a loss, but he is a score sheet. Luca Bombino from San Diego FC made a Stoke City debut in a 1-0 win for Stoke versus Norwich. Their first win of the season in the championship. Clearly, all due to Luca Bombino, so that's exciting. They were probably excited that Jack Lincoln was in the house. Matisse Albert started and completed match high five dribbles. Endortman's five zero win versus HBC Hamburg. And Aiden Morris scored an absolute

23:57peach of a goal this first in the championship this season in Middlesbrough. Was it a one-one draw versus Burnley? Assist the Burhalter. A nice little layoff at first time. And then Austin Trusty. He scored recorded a match high seven recoveries and seven clearances and a 3-0 win over Aberdeen for the Hoops, the mighty Hoops of Celtic. All right, so Chuck, as our resident attacker here, we didn't include Matisse Albert in Tuesday's discussion about uncapped players that we'd like to see in this month's USman's national team camp. Would you put him on that list? Would you include him in this camp just to get him a look? I would absolutely. Seventeen. He's he's starting to thrive coming into his own. He was one of the standouts in that USE 17 World Cup with Kevin Sullivan. He is he's a different type of player in the way that he approaches the attacking third and he's creative and he's a one-on-one type of dribbler.

24:59We need those players. We need those players who can create. And I want to see what he looks like. It'd be great to just get him in, get Pogetino familiar with him, see what he looks like alongside some of our top players in the pool. And this could be the start of seeing Matisse Albert, I think consistently around the USman's national team. I think too, if they're on the low, it's going to hate us, man. All these young guys, we keep wanting in national team camp. I know, I know. If they're going to have the 20 key camp. You guys keep stealing all my players, man. I'm going to have nobody in camp. No, that was a good team too. No, I wonder, then if there's going to be some type of combined, maybe full team in U23 camp, where or Trondola is definitely going to be in, if they're going to be calling in a lot of younger players to evaluate. Everybody in Atlanta, right? Get A, we got this brand new training facility. They built US soccer's headquarters. We got the field space. You know, we got everybody coming in. We can mix and match. Hey, Stevie, you take these guys

26:00as for this day. Actually, these guys are gone. You know, Puchotini, you might want to take a look at these guys. I think if you have the choice, if you're a younger player, you're always going to want to play with the full team. No doubt. I think Puchotino and his staff will be, it'll be smart to bring in the top tier talent that will be under 23 ready for that Olympic in Olympics in LA. But at the end of the day, you got to see what Kevin Solvkin do, Matisse Albert. These players who are the best at that younger age, I think they're ready to get a look. Don't you feel the same way? Yeah, I do. I do. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, go ahead. No, I was going to say, and I think it's important for them to see what it looks like, right? And even if they're not ready in September of 2026, you have this vision in your head. Okay, this is where I got to go. Right? Okay. Puch has to see them, but they also need to see this is,

27:03this is what it's going to look like when I come in, right? And this is what the level is. You know, and this is what the expectations are. So I think it's important for both sides. Yeah, but I would like to see him and sure and the loser is going to call us. I'm sure at some point and say stop stealing all my players, but I love if they get them on the together. Yeah, I love if they do this together, Jimmy, because I do love the idea of, hey, the 23s are over there. We're playing in 11v11 today for 40 minutes, two 20 minute halves. Let's bring a couple of those guys over and we need some bodies, right? Like I love that part of it. And hopefully they can they they will do some of that, but that's what that facility's there for, man. So let's take advantage of it. I mean, we always talk about kind of the coaches evaluating the players, but there's a peer to peer evaluation to check. You know, you've been in the camps and tones obviously you've been around and you're like, Holy, that kid can play or or there's something there, right? And that doesn't necessarily influence the coaches unless the coaches ask, of course. But more often than not, you're just like,

28:03I like that kid. There's something that they bring to the table that I think could really add to what we already have in place. So I think there's some my peer to peer respect and understanding, because I'm trying to remember somebody who came in or was there somebody that got a blue your mind early on that ended up coming good? Maybe they didn't end up coming good. Well, who did we ask about? We asked this question to a player, Jimmy, before the World Cup, like six months before, might have been, it might have been earlier than that, but they mentioned Burhoth, they were surprised about Burhoth, they're in his level. Like, so you get that, right? I can't remember who we asked. And I don't remember if it's here if it was on Morning Footy, but we asked, like, could someone surprise you and camp? And Burhoth, there was like the first thing that came out of their mouth. I thought that myself, well, that that's what you're talking about, right? You're talking about guys that go, man, I didn't know. Like, honestly, when you came to to Kansas City, I knew you were good in the air, right? You had a reputation, right? For being good at the air. But then when I'm playing behind, like, man, white man can jump, right? He can jump. He can get up there as time is really good, you know?

29:06Like, I didn't realize it. I think those are the moments you're talking about, right? Like, yeah, yeah, there's just like, yeah, you have an idea of what this player's going to be about, or he's young, and yeah, sure, he can dribble. But then all of a sudden, it's not just he can dribble, it's also when he releases, maybe that pass, when he can recognize that that second player's coming over and he's created space for somebody else. And then he makes that nice, makes the right decision in the right moments, you know? I mean, that's a hard thing to quantify all the time. But when you're playing with someone, if they're on your team or even if you're playing against them, when I play against Charlie the first time, again, I'm like, I knew this guy has massive quads. But what else does he bring to the table? And yeah, there's he in, I'll pretend that Charlie's not here, but he's so hard to defend. Like, if I go and he checks in, if I go, and he's just going to roll me, and when he rolls me, I'm not going to catch Chuck. And then if I, if I, if he goes the opposite way, and tries to send me into a channel, but then checks back into it, it's really hard for me to cover that ground as well. So Chuck was really always in control of those situations. We don't want to get too tight because you don't want to turn and dribble you, right? So yeah, it's like this really

30:09interesting space you have to find yourself in when you're playing against top players. When I played against Chuck, I was like, Oh, shit, this guy can do a lot of different things in a lot of different ways. And he knows he's in control of the situation. So how do I take a little bit of that control back and be just difficult to play against me? I remember I got I got close line once by Jimmy. I always my shirt was always pulled by Jimmy. Let's see. But those were those were things that dark arts defenders could do that. Yeah, essentially play with your mind and saying, okay, he one time he's coming full force. And I knew he would there were times where it took me a little while, but then I understood his game. And you know, of how he would put pressure on you and then drop off. Then he would he was one of those guys that would always communicate. So he'd be yelling for defensive midfielder to check their shoulder to drop. So he'd pretend like he's coming. Then he would drop and he'd hope that the guys of other guys would do the dirty work and then force me into you know, force players into like bad positions. And then of course, he's there to clean it up. But Jimmy

31:14was one of those players that was so organized. And he was always, you know, communicating that he would try to get teams to play in the air. That's when he would come alive. He's not that ball in the air. Secrets coming out. Here comes Jimmy. He loved the good aerial battle. Hey, I'm sure we also knew and I appreciate all the secrets coming out that that you knew right away too. We would talk about it before games like, hey, if you kick this person a couple times early in the game, they're not going to want to play the rest. And so you just go do that. The land in land and would fall into that sometimes. Like, hey, if you give land in a couple kicks, he just won't be as effective because he just doesn't want to be bothered to be. I'm not even taking straddles. I gotta get ballistic. Listen, not necessarily for the national team. I thought for the national team, whatever, but at the club level at times, there'd just be days where there were that many guys who could catch land and they kick them. No, no, that's the thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the he would make some unbelievable runs sometimes. And his teammates weren't good enough to find them in the ball. And I'm like,

32:15yeah, this is sucks to be you, buddy. And you'd be like, you know, F offer, whatever. Pretty funny. By the way, is that a real class jersey since your time? Yeah, yeah. This is my my right rookie year at San Jose class jersey. Oh, what a top. Yeah, it's nice. Yeah, that's it. What was your rookie year? Which year? 1999. 99, 30 year. It was on that squad at the time. Eddie Lewis was on the on the team with me, Richard Goff played for Scotland. Good, good, good couple of World Cup. He left like mid season. You had Mauricio Wright. Remember him played for Costa Rica. Yeah. Who's your goalkeeper? So I was with L. Our goalkeeper was Joe Cannon. Yeah, Joe Cannon by then was there. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we had Joe Cannon. Wade Barrett was on the team. Richard Mulroney. And yeah, he had this. I just saw we're on a Ronald Serrita's who's up top. Give a shout out to Ronald Serrita's. Never nobody. Nobody wore a pair of shorts like that guy. Always rocking the shorts.

33:18Yeah, we're getting in too much insider stuff here. Okay, so let's get into transfer window grades. So notable American transfers this summer. We're going to take a look at that. And let's we could do some some grades on everybody here. But we got Zebra Goso going to Crystal Palace. Max Arvston joining Rookas Puchtas and Sebastian Burhalter at Burrow, Luca Bambino to Stoke City, Jaclyn Glinn, Stoke City, Cole Campbell going to Elvarsburg. They're biggest signing the history of their club. They were in the fourth division in 2022. And now they're in the Bundesliga. That is crazy. It's kind of like Hoppinheim a little bit on their rise, you know, going from it. It's crazy. It's such a great story. And they love Cole Campbell. So and he scored in their first game. The beat by our lover, Cusin the first game. I mean, big, big story on that one. Keep your eye on that. Georanah going to Strasburg. Actually, let's let's start there. What what grade will we give Georanah on on this move? But he looked good this weekend. But he did. I'll go B plus. Okay. I'm going to say A A A from a player perspective. Because you're

34:23going somewhere where you weren't trusted. Played what 600 minutes or less for for a bunch and Gladbach last year. And now he's going into a team that that clearly valued him. He's wearing the number 10 shirt. They just sold Julio and Ciso, right? He's in the Premier League. So that that spot opens up that area of the field. And then they started him. And to your point Chuck, excuse me, Tony, he looked good this weekend. So I like the from his perspective. That's an A. Now from a club perspective, they're getting a young American three and a half million dollars. That seems like pretty good. So I guess a B plus A minus. I'd be in that same space. Yeah, I'm in the A two for the club. Yeah. Yeah. Three and a half million is really nothing in this day and age for a guy that's got potential. Now you got to draw the potential out of him, right? And that's probably what they were buying. They got a guy that they've heard so much about. They've seen I'm guessing they decided to give him as you said, the number 10 jurors he's playing right in the middle of the field. I think you got around 70 minutes or so this weekend. You can go online and see every one of his touches. Few giveaways, but like calm on the ball, playing in all parts of the field. I like to move from a Straussberg standpoint. A young team, you know,

35:27with a young manager and a team that likes to get forward. Where would they, I think they were in the semi finals of conference league last year. Maybe quarter finals. I don't remember exactly, but yeah, I like it for both. I like I'm in the A for both here. Hopefully this works out. Yeah, I agree with you. And again, we were excited. We talked about this on Tuesday. Can you just stack these games up now? Right? Like get a proper run of games so they can really develop the rapport of having him on the field and the trusts. Of course, that you can make stuff happen in tough moments. All right. Cole, no, no, Xavier Gozo, Chuck coming to you, going to Crystal Palace, 15 million. What do you like? Give me a great for like the club and and for the player. For Gozo, I think this is a, it doesn't get better to go into a Premier League club where you're, where you're going to play. So from real salt Lake to the Premier League, that's, that's an A. You, I don't want to say no matter what you take that, that chance, but

36:32that's a, that's a move that doesn't come around too often. And it goes to show what an incredible job salt Lake has done with development, but also, you know, himself putting all the work in to get to that level of where Premier League clubs are, are attracted by your growth and your potential. So that's an A for me. Plus, he's got an American there in Chris Richards to help him adapt and, and, you know, help him get acclimated phenomenal. It's a, it's a perfect situation. For the club, yeah, this is like, like all signings, it's a risk. But it's, it's a risk where you're saying, hey, we're going to develop them and, and get his value up. And, and then ultimately, that's what Christophe Hollis does is they sell their top end talent. So, um, yeah, I think probably a, probably a B plus in that situation as well. Because the, the only thing is normally a Premier League club, they're going to, when they take a risk like that, usually the player has already been involved with the, the first national team. Like we're talking about a player who,

37:35you know, has already shown he's, he's ready to produce and you've, you've already seen glimpses at the international level that, you know, this is a more of a 100 percent, you know, certainty that this guy can do it versus we're, we're really going to take a chance that he, you know, him coming here, we'll get him on the national team and take that next step. So, I do think this is a fantastic signing on both sides. Yeah. So I, I'm going to kind of a spoiler alert as I start to think through all the player side things. For me, they're all ace. You go into a place to either chase in your dream and try to realize that on an individual level or you go into a club where you're wanted and they have an idea and a vision for you and how you're going to fit into that. And so I, I guess I should probably stop asking that part because I feel like they're all going to be ace, right? In some capacity. No, no, but not, not necessarily Jimmy because like, let's take into example, Flare and Balligan. Had they moved sooner than the transfer window post right, right, right. As soon as that

38:37woke up ends, he's, his agent is out there making those moves. Boom, boom, boom. If he was at Aston Villa given that they did sell all he walk ins. They're playing Champions League. That, that is a massive plus going to Everton versus champ. That's fair. Okay. Yeah. Alligan. Yeah. There's a big difference from a player's perspective. So if he's going to a club that's in need of his position, they've spent 50 million, 40 million pounds. Yeah. Then he's most likely going to be the guy. And then it's on him to, you know, keep the spot and be consistent. But at the very end, even if he's not the guy, there's enough of a competition to go around that he's going to get his chance. Champions League Premier League. It's a phenomenal move. Everton, they just sowed Illuminum and Jai. That's a big chance creator for him. They're not in Champions League. They're probably going to be a little bit more gritty in the way that they play. Yeah. Yeah. No, we're near

39:38the same circumstances, right? So I'm just want to throw that. No, no, no, that's good context. Yeah. With Balligan in particular, right? Because he has different options and obviously one of our higher profile players. I guess I was kind of just thinking about the list that I named in terms of like the costs are very high for the club tones, right? And yeah, the players kind of get to, I mean, let's talk burrow then really quick for Americans. I guess the only one that maybe wouldn't be in a, maybe because I'm just not as familiar as to how they're going to utilize him yet is Rokos Puchtos. He's the one I'm most excited to see, Jimmy. Yeah, same, right? Because we just think it's a team as much with his club in Croatia. Like I know who Arthin is. I know who Berholtter is and obviously, you know, Aiden Morris being there. But Puchtos is a guy that some people were clamoring a year ago for him to get national team calls. Honestly, all we ever saw, at least I'm sorry, all I ever saw was really highlights when, when something happened. I don't watch that league. I don't even know if you can watch that league in the US, right? You probably can

40:39somehow. But now we're going to get to see him on CBS. And we're going to, you know, get to see him on a weekly basis and see how he develops and see we can measure him against some other American players. All be at a different position, right? But we can measure his level against and see him play. So I'm actually, I'm pretty excited to see him. I'm pretty excited to see if Jack McGlin and Bumbino who got some minutes. What's the term? Can he do it in stoke on a rainy Wednesday night? Like we're going to find out, right? We're going to, we're going to figure this thing out. But yeah, I mean, just seeing some of these guys make this move. I tried, I don't know, man, I tried to, tried to follow the Bundesliga this weekend. It's so hard now to follow the Bundesliga. I wanted to see Cole Campbell and how he did there. But hopefully his, you know, good start. Hopefully, like Geo, he could stack a couple of those games. Yeah. No, I'm excited about that. So here's the big question for everybody listening, watching. We appreciate your support as always and Chuck, you get to answer it first. Coming out of a home world cup this summer, was this an underwhelming transfer window?

41:45Because it didn't seem like anybody really capitalized from a, from an American perspective. I'm maybe making a big move, a big, big move. I guess a Baligan would be the kind of marquee name here that obviously we talked about that. But do you feel like maybe there was, or do you feel, this is how I went for you? Underwhelming, where are you on this? Underwhelming in the sense that there, there weren't any big, shiny moves, right? But if you're telling me, did I expect Milly Tillman to move in it after just one year at Birellovacus and after a big move? No, I didn't. So I, I expect him to have a big year coming out off of that world cup, successful world cup. Like the confidence is through the roof. They should be playing through him. And so I think, you know, it's more of a, okay, so, Genio desu could he have moved? Yes, but if the right move didn't materialize, then he's still in a great spot. So you're looking at Tyler Adams, you know, coach moves, Iroola goes to Liverpool, you know, some players are being taken out of Bournemouth. Does he stay?

42:47Does he go? He stays. New coach, let's see what it looks like. Not in a desperate place to move. Let's see, Flaren Baligan, I expected him to leave Monaco, but again, 13 goals. He came hot last year, came out in the, in the world cup. Everyone knows his name. So if he stays, this could be his opportunity to make a big move come January or next summer. It's underwhelming, but at the same time, maybe Antio Robinson's the one player I thought would have moved over the past two seasons. I think he deserves to take that next step. Again, he's in a new, exciting project under Arbolo, so maybe there's room after the season if he produces that injury issues are long gone. He was consistent this year. He makes that move, but he's also in a good spot. You're playing in the Premier League every week. You've been the team captain, so is it a parent that you have to leave?

43:51No, I don't think there's any move that you're saying, man, Christian set up Milan, Udus Moussa, now blanket West and signed a new deal recently. He wasn't going anywhere. Going down the line, was there an expectation to have these big shiny moves? I'm not so sure. So underwhelming, but I think from that world cup, do you feel like there would be like a World Cup bounce? Now, we can argue Alex Freeman, if he had made his move to Via Rial after the World Cup, as opposed to them saying, hey, this gets pretty talented. Let's get a hold of him early. That might have felt like a pretty big move, right? Orlando City to LaLiga. Could have maybe fallen into that category, but like I mentioned, it already got done prior to. But go ahead, don'ts. Yeah, he's the one that sticks out for me. Tillman, because only being there a year, so say he was still in the Netherlands prior to the World Cup and he had that World Cup, how much more were lever-cousing going to pay for him? There might have been other options, but they paid a lot of money for Tillman.

44:54I mean, that's a boatload of money for them. So I didn't expect him to move. You mentioned the rest of Christen, certainly I didn't expect to move. Although I think there's always going to be rumors around Christian all the time because he's an attacking player. Yeah, and Weston, as I mentioned, it may freeze maybe before the World Cup. There were ideas of him moving to Europe after the World Cup, but then just an okay World Cup. And obviously a big mistake that sticks out for people. Maybe could he have made a move? I mean, Berholtter went from six months to six months, sorry, prior to the World Cup, basically just getting to the national team, right? And then playing in every game in the World Cup and then making a move. That's, I get, it's two million in its middle, it's the championship, but that's still a significant rise in a year. We could see how it turns out. But yeah, Freeman's the one that I think, like, would there have been, he made so much noise at the World Cup positive noise at the World Cup that had he not

46:00signed that deal. How many options would there have been for him to play? Yeah, that's fair. Would there have been Premier League options that, you know, and only say Premier League because that's really where the big transfers are, right? That's why the guys are spending money. But all in all, I guess, I suppose, underwhelming from a number standpoint, but I don't know that I was expecting much more. Yeah, that's fair. I am excited, though, to see what this looks like at the end of the season where we could maybe revisit these transfers, like, oh, maybe, you know, G-O-Rainette, he's absolutely crushed it. And now, you know, there's bigger things going on, or the Burrow Boys have all been promoted. Now they're going to be in the Premier League, you know, Stoke City, somehow found their way off the bottom of the table. And now they're, you know, scratching into the playoff and maybe giving themselves a chance as well. I mean, that's, there's the early grades and what it could mean. And then actually what happened. So I'm curious to revisit this in, well, we got, we got eight months, nine months time. So we can come back to this at some point. Remind us everybody in the

47:00chat that we need to come back and have this conversation at the end of the year. All right, we're going to take our last break when we come back. US Soccer, they're going to restructure the sporting department. We'll get into that. And MLS returns to US Open Cup. And that is awesome news. Keep it right here. All right, welcome back into the stretch run of the show. We have some news from US Soccer, the restructuring and the sporting department to new executive positions will be created that focus on player development and the ecosystem of that player development. There'll be a director on the men's and boys side and a director on the women's and girls side and Reese and Pogetino and Emma Hayes. We're both involved in designing the new structure. From what I understand with with this role in particular for the for the sporting director kind of role, they're going to be talking with professional leagues and clubs here in this country, college programs, youth leagues and clubs are trying to align everybody to create an environment that creates a real strong pathway and a clear pathway. I can, I can feel the transparency from US Soccer and Chuck, you were, you were in Dallas

48:04this past weekend seeing all these entities come to the table and listen. We talked about listening and how important that is and trying to be creative to figure out a way that's going to best serve this country and our players in particular. This this this this role seems pretty important, right? But this is a national role. They're going to need foot soldiers. I'm sure in different regions, maybe in every state, right? The states that have maybe some more density and I have more players playing in those areas. But overall, this is a good start, I think, to continuing to hand off responsibility and to make sure we're all rowing about in the same direction, Charlie Davies. So my question to both of you, given that this role has to have a number of experiences, right? So do you feel that this the person who takes over this role has had to have a play called soccer? I would say at a minimum. Yes. I'll give you the MLS. Play NMLS. See? Not part of the job description by the way.

49:05Represent the country playing for the USman's national team. Do you think and then D do you think this person has has had to play in Europe? So they have a good understanding of of how Europe operates at the youth level all the way up to the senior team level. But also having those connections, right? So what where is your priority in terms of of those experiences? And then do you guys have any candidates that come to mind that would make this role a success? So I think it is a big role. Some of the things I'm looking at the job description on my phone because it was sent to me by US soccer in case we had any candidates. But none of those things are in it as you explain them, right? They touch on those things and they have a little bit with regards to soccer experience. But like playing is not a requirement, playing in college, having played in college or coach that the youth nets. Like you have to have

50:06a little bit of everything. I think those things are important in this description of this job. When I read the entire executive summary of how this job is three pages long, I don't know what's public, what's not public other than the fact that we know that this job is going to have some of those requirements, speaking to state associations, speaking to stakeholders, those things are important. But I don't want to ever lose sight of the fact. And I think we do this a little bit in US soccer, not a little bit, a lot of it in US soccer is we forget the football inside of it. And how important it is and how, but Jimmy, I think to your point, you touched on it, you kind of brushed over it. There's got to be some feet on the street. And those people have to be soccer people for me. Like you got to be able to speak the language when you go to the state associations, or you go to the regional, or you're going to go to Europe and talk to other clubs that are doing

51:09what you're trying to do, or other federations that are doing what you're trying to do. For me, absolutely. 100% has to have that in it. So Chuck, I think the more that you're experienced on the field, it's just going to provide value for the way that you can to now Tony's point, communicate to the people that you're speaking to. If you lack those experiences, I, I, not to say, again, you can't do the job. Being a good communicator, being a collaborator, having the adaptability and flexibility to, to say, hey, what one state needs is a lot different than what the other state needs. How do we kind of work with those particular states and whatever their pain points are and will help smooth that out to make it as fluid as possible? That's a skill that that, yes, you can learn on the field, but I don't think you necessarily had to play at a high level to, to have those types of things. But the more experience that you can say, hey, hey, I did play in Europe, I know what the players going through at this point. Hey, we have a 15 year old here who maybe has the opportunity. What's the best

52:12path? Like, to be able to answer that expertly, or at least have somebody on your team, like, whoever hired, whoever gets hired here, like Gucci, Gucci on you, who's going to be, I'm sure involved in some of this stuff, right? He's already in there with US soccer. He's got the experience. He could be someone that you could rely on if you didn't have his plan experience, right? So as long as you have some one, two multiple people on your team that can help you kind of answer some questions that you can't and you're open to that and are somewhat ego less and not being the one that has to solve all the problems and you can kind of spread out that responsibility. Then, yeah, I think that's a person that doesn't necessarily need to have plans. Yeah, but can you think of any people that help those those qualities? I mean, you brought up good Charlie Davies. Let's go. What's your name and the list? What is Gucci's role? You know, like, is it staying the same? I mean, he was brought to be number two under Crocker. So Crocker leaves. Now, Gucci was supposed to be learning from Crocker and sharpening everything that he's he's learning the game so far, right? He

53:15he's been a sporting director. You know, he's he's worked with the high schools like in education and I mean, Mount Verde Academy in Florida, he worked for Orlando City B. He's he's he's he's been in Europe in Belgium at forget the club royal for royal something. Just make it up. Then he works in for the US massage scene, by the way, his playing career speaks for itself. Right. So what are they doing with someone like that who's already in the system? You know, what it what's his long career? Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he was that. Give him a chance for the job. For sure, I would I mean, Gucci should be applying for the job or if he isn't, maybe they've given him something that's has as much prestige or or you know, he'll be part of that family of a responsibility. So yeah, I don't know. I'd be surprised if he wasn't being looked at unless they already had a designated role that he feels good about. Is we have to get we have to get Gucci on the show. He can

54:17explain. Yeah, I mean, another guy that I think of is like a leco eskin, Narian, you know, playing the league, played college, played, you know, played the youth national teams. Um, you know, has been in MLS now for a long time, also with the cosmos when he was running that for a while. So he's he's been around the scene for a long time. Like are are those the kind of profiles they're looking for? Are they looking for people who already in MLS jobs in, you know, technical director, sporting director roles? Hey, it sounds like he's running for office here. Come on, Chuck, just throw your name in the hat. I'm not throwing my name in the hat. What what I'm just trying to get a better understanding of what I get it. What that what that person is supposed to look like and what's a priority for that person is, is it playing experience and combined with being in, yeah, you're on mute tones. There's a lot of guys. There's a lot of guys that fit this description that I'm reading the qualifications other than some guys would be missing out on maybe having sat in with a bunch of stakeholders, you know, at the highest level type thing. So,

55:21but again, we got to get to I'm guessing that this this one here will eventually be will eventually be sort of a leadership role, but there will be it's it will use Jimmy's term. They'll be feet on the street like those are the guys that are going to be doing like the heavy lifting with regards to meetings and all of that stuff and and reporting, you know, back to whoever gets this role, but those guys would fit the role. There are other guys, Chuck, honestly, I'm looking at this. You could do this role. I would if they told me that I'm not I don't know that you want this role. I don't know that you'd petition for this role. You could do this role. You would be qualified for me to do this role. Jimmy would be qualified to to do this role. I don't know if that's where they would look at all, but the reality is it's it's not I think there's more I think there will eventually be more getting people on the same page rather than like developing something that's the world has never seen before. Yeah, like developing some structure that someone in the world

56:25is not doing, right? So politician, you got to be a politician. You're going to have well, I think you have to be in all of those, but not necessarily a politician. Somebody that people will gravitate to. So that's why they call them leaders, right? Leaders, you just you gravitate to you. Charlie walks in the room and says, Hey, look, this is what we're doing at the U9 level. It seems to be working around the country and you guys are doing it a little bit different. Let's do this. Let's try this and somebody's got to grab onto that and say, Yeah, you know what? I like what Charlie's selling here. Like, I don't know, you can call that a politician if you want or you can call being a good leader, right in the end. But we all, but growing in the same direction is where we got to go. That's what we got to go. All right, last thing is my favorite part of the show. We went into the very ends. My best news. I was so excited when I heard this. MLS is returning to the US Open Cup. All 27 US based teams are going to return to the tournament in 2027. Let's go. team fields. So you're going to have all the division one, two, three and 32 amateur teams that

57:26are going to qualify for it. MLS teams will enter into the round of 64. Roster sizes are going to expand from 18 to 20 players. They'll be at $1 million perse. I absolutely love this. I didn't like when they left MLS said that Don Garber came out and said that this is not, you know, the version I'm paraphrasing here of soccer that we want to see bolted ultimately for leaks cup. Obviously trying to bring that into the equation as well. I was adamant that they needed to stay. This is the competition that everybody can plan. I'm so excited about it. And this is great news. Now listen, I won the Open Cup with big tones. We did it together in 2004. So, oh, you might try to add relevance. You didn't know that I won that. Listen, let me tell you again, we want to somewhere back here. Back here. Yeah, what about rings back here, Chuck? I don't know if you have one or not. You don't have one. That's a shame. But, but I mean, we're trying to add more relevance to it. No, it's the most important competition we have in this country. And I'm so excited that every single club that's under the umbrella here in this country is going to be in. You're in my ring

58:28right here, Jim. I love it. What's that from college? No, I didn't. I called you there. A Patriot's ring. It's a graduation. Yeah, it's a graduation. Wait, a graduate from high school, Chuck. Anyway, that was it. I was excited about that. You know, we all know how we feel about this. Tones, you got to be thrilled as well. Are you excited about this news? Yeah, we were on air talking about this for the last two years, right? And the semi-finals are coming up. I think the 16th will be we'll be calling those games on the 16th. And yeah, we've said forever this competition everybody's got to be in, right? It's only only chance we have to do this in the country. I'm glad that they made this decision. Yep. And the open cup fun fact, everybody is on paramount plus the semi-finals of this one is going to be September 16th. And that is very exciting. So here's to see which teams are going to step up and make it happen. Chuck, final word on open cup. Where are you on this? Excited? What do you got? I'm pumped. I mean, let's start off with the simple

59:33fact that we've had inter Miami Houston and which Houston won in Miami. We've had Austin taking on Nashville, which Nashville won in Austin. We've had some incredible environments. This competition deserves that type of spotlight. And I think we've done an incredible job. All three of us of pushing why the US Open Cup matters and why it's such a great tournament. And you know, the fact that we get USL clubs and amateur clubs involved in seeing what this structure looks like and how we get more eyes around the country, around talent. Like it's a no-brainer. So I'm pumped that MLS has recognized this. I'm also excited that US Soccer in owning the US Open Cup said, all right, we have to make some adjustments here. We have to give teams flexibility because they are competing on all fronts, just like they do in Europe. Like the Premier League clubs playing in the FA Cup, they play youngsters too. Let's allow those

1:00:37MLS clubs to do that. That makes sense. So, pumped. We found a solution. This is our FA Cup. And I'm loving it that everybody's back in. Like I mentioned, again, Wednesday, September 16th, Open Cup semi-finals on Paramount Plus Columbus crew will be hosting Orlando City. And the Colorado Rapids will be hosting Saint Louis City. That is going to be pretty fun. And I'm excited to see which of those four teams emerges as the champion, as they book their ticket to the ConquerCaf Champions Cup as well. There's a lot of prestige there. Obviously, bonus money. We'll get into it more as things progress. But thanks for hanging out with us as always. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the games. We'll see you on the other side. Later. The NFL on CBS is back with an electrifying week one double header.

1:01:48The early slate features Josh Allen in the bills, taking on CJ Stroud in the Texans in Houston. Then it's a classic NFC North Battle as Jordan Love and the Packers visit the Vikings. It all kicks off at noon Eastern with the NFL today live in Minnesota. See you Sunday with the NFL on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.