Hey everyone,

Mason and I are putting in the work to grow this from a side project into a full-fledged business, and we genuinely appreciate your support. If you know of a company that might be a good fit to partner with the newsletter, or have any connections in the sports world who could be helpful, we’d love to connect. Thank you for being part of the journey🫶 

Now, to the footy!

• 🏆️ Leagues Cup Recap

• ➡️ More Big Transfers

• 🟢 Seattle Sounders are Rolling

• 💚 Vermont Green Go Undefeated

• ⚽️ Goal of the Week

• 😂 Meme of the Week

Leagues Cup Action

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the revised format of this tournament. I like how it’s solely Liga MX vs MLS during the group stage rather than inter-league play. It’s always fun to see how we match up against our Concacaf neighbors.

Here’s how the new format works: there are 18 teams from each league (MLS & Liga MX), and the top 4 teams in points from each league will advance to the quarterfinals. You can earn 1 point from a regulation draw, 2 points from a penalty shootout win, or 3 points from a regulation win. Every game that’s tied after regulation will go to PKs.

Through Tuesday night, MLS is 16W-13D-13L. Of the 13 tied games that went straight to penalties, MLS has won 5 of them. It’s been a fairly even tournament between the two leagues.

A few highlights from the tournament so far:

• The NY Red Bulls beat Chivas Guadalajara 1-0, then tied Monterrey 1-1. Youngsters Daniel Edelman and Julian Hall combined for a great goal against Monterrey.

• LA Galaxy beat Club Tijuana 5-2. Uhh, where has this been all year? Goal highlights here.

• Minnesota United held a Lucha Libre wrestling match outside their stadium before their 4-1 win over Queretaro. That’s awesome.

The group stage games wrap up on Thursday. Then the quarterfinals will start on August 19th.

More MLS Summer Transfers

The busy summer transfer window continues.

Toronto FC has acquired Djordje Mihailovic in a blockbuster cash trade for $8 million, shattering Colorado’s transfer record. After 2 rejected bids by Colorado, Mihailovic requested the transfer. I feel for Rapids fans. It’s history repeating itself. Their ownership has never truly invested in building out a championship team. They make modest moves only to offload them when a good deal comes knocking. If only Kroenke invested in this team like they do their other franchises.

For Toronto, they’ve torn the roster down to its studs this season after offloading multiple expensive DP signings. This is their first big move in the rebuild.

The Rapids did at least make one signing. English free agent Rob Holding joins on an 18-month deal after terminating his contract with Crystal Palace. He brings tons of center-back experience in the Premier League and is still only 29 years old.

The Portland Timbers have verbally agreed to sign Kristoffer Velde, the Norwegian winger moving from Olympiacos, for around $5 million. Velde fills the vacancy created by Jonathan Rodriquez’s season-ending injury and joins as one of Portland’s DPs. Here’s a sneak peek at the type of goal scorer they’re getting.

New England Revolution have brought back Matt Turner, who was officially acquired by Lyon, then immediately loaned out to the Revolution, marking a reunion where he’ll occupy a DP slot through 2026. A three-time MLS All-Star and 2021 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, Turner was one of, if not the top, goalkeepers when he was in MLS.

He arrives to shore up a Revolution side in need of veteran leadership. For Turner, who hasn’t played much now in 2 years, this is a shot to show he should be the starter at the World Cup.

LAFC has made one of the biggest signings in league history. South Korean and Tottenham star Son Heung-Min will join for a $26.5M fee. It’s the third time in the last 9 months that the league transfer fee record has been broken.

What a tremendous signing for LAFC and the league. The 33-year-old is still in top form with 7 goals and 10 assists in 2100 minutes last season. The LAFC attack is going to be scary good. Take a look at his Puskas-winning goal(Goal of the Year) from a few years back.

The Sounders are Rolling

Here comes the Seattle Sounders. Before we get into it, please take a moment to watch Pedro de la Vega’s goal from last week. It’s simply sensational. You won’t see a higher difficulty goal all season. Okay, now on to the nitty gritty.

Seattle delivered one of their biggest wins in club history last week. A complete dismantling of Mexican giants Cruz Azul. The 7-0 (goals highlights here)win is the largest margin of victory for an MLS team over a Liga MX opponent ever. This is the same Cruz Azul team that beat the Vancouver Whitecaps 5-0 in the Concacaf Champions Cup in May. It’s a Cruz Azul team that has spent over $40M on transfer fees just in the last year, compared to Seattle’s ~$18M total team salary cap. Cruz Azul isn’t some bottom-of-the-table Liga MX squad. They’re 14W-1L-9D in all competitions since mid-February.

After a scoreless first half, the barrage of goals began. Six different players found the back of the net, with Pedro de la Vega capping it off with his wonder goal. It’s not only the most lopsided win in Sounders history, but it’s also the most goals they’ve ever scored in a half.

In the past 182 minutes, Vega has 4 goals and 1 assist. He’s been the driving force behind the team’s 8 8-game unbeaten run and has finally proved to be the game-changing DP they hoped he’d be.

They followed it up with a 2-1 win over Santos Laguna in their second game. They’ll play Club Tijuana tonight to try and lock in one of the four MLS spots in the quarterfinals.

The Sounders always come into form around this time of year. The Leagues Cup trophy is the only North American hardware that the Sounders don’t have in their cabinet. That might change very soon.

Vermont Green Go Undefeated

The best story in American soccer over the past few weeks has been Vermont Green of USL League Two. The fourth division club playing in Burlington, Vermont, capped off an incredible undefeated regular season with a Championship on Saturday. They beat Ballard FC of Seattle 2-1 to claim their first title in club history. It also caps off a historic undefeated year where they went 11W-3D-0L.

Max Kissel, the same player who scored the University of Vermont title-winning goal in the NCAA Division 1 final late last year, scored the winner with his 91st-minute goal. Kissel will forever be a Vermont legend.

Lower-level soccer is alive and well in our country. The fan scenes in this game were phenomenal. Their “Welcome to the Berniebeu” Tifo was exquisite. The Virtue Field stadium, with a capacity of 2,600, sold out of tickets in the first 30 seconds of going live. Over 5,000 fans poured into and around the stadium. Some fans took extreme measures to get a glimpse of their semi-final game just days earlier.

This is exactly what lower-level soccer should look like — authentic and community-driven. It’s been quite a year for soccer the state of Vermont. I’m excited to continue watching the game grow up there.

Goal of the Week

We already showed you de la Vega’s beauty, so here’s another.

Meme of the Week

It’s quite a confusing tournament to wrap your head around.

Quick Hits

• Messi’s bodyguard banned from remaining Leagues Cup games after entering restricted area (Link)

• Lucho Acosta nearing an exit from FC Dallas 😲 (Link)

• US Soccer Collective Top 50 US prospects (Link)

• Tim Weah greeted by Olympique Marseille fans at the airport (Link)

• Charlotte FC signs left back Harry Toffolo from Nottingham Forest (Link)

• Portland Timbers sign midfielder Felipe Carballo on loan from Gremio(Link)

• Philadelphia Union signs forward Milan Iloski for $1 million(Link)

Thanks again, folks. Hope you enjoyed!

Max & Mason