In this episode of the Designated Players Podcast, the guys take a deep dive, and no we have not become an ocean podcast, if that's even a thing. We are taking a more detailed look into each team in MLS for the upcoming season, with a breakdown of nine teams per episode. The teams for round 1 are; NYCFC, LA Galaxy, Chicago Fire, Philadelphia Union, Minnesota United, FC Dallas, RBNY, LAFC, and finally Toronto FC.

For each team in the episode, and yes even for FC Dallas even if one host refuses to recognize their existence, we're looking at who is the coach, how did the team perform last season, our guess for most likely formation to be played, some key players, and who needs to have a good 2021. Some teams here that are poised for exciting years on paper and some just trying to rebound (some doing so unsuccessfully thus far). Make sure to let us know if you think they'll play a different formation, or if you think there are different players to watch for this year.

If your team was not in this episode don't be down like FCC, we'll be covering every team over the next few episodes, so make sure to tune in the next few weeks to listen for your team.

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The Designated Player's Podcast is back! In this episode we discuss all the coaching changes that have happened so far in the season for the western conference, as well as the western conference transfers that have been made (as of 2/28/2021). And don't worry, we gave grades so there's plenty of opportunity to tell us how we're wrong!

Starting with the coaching changes, we take a look at the two new coaches in the western conference. We briefly go through each of the coaches and talk about how we think they will fair in the league during their first season. For Vanney, there certainly is a lot of work to do, but for Wolff, there is a lot to be excited about.

Now it's time for the western conference MLS teams to take their seats and receive their grades for the window so far. Some of you... cough LAG cough... have not done well, while some of you, here's lookin at you Austin, have done superb. We would like to make it clear that we recorded this on 2/28/2021 and therefore not every transfer will have been taken into account when it comes to a team's grade. Feel free to let us know where we're wrong (and maybe if we were right, maybe).

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The Designated Player's Podcast is back! In this episode we discuss all the coaching changes that have happened so far in the season (as of 2/21/2021), as well as the eastern conference transfers that have been made. And don't worry, we gave grades so there's plenty of opportunity to tell us how we're wrong!

Starting with the coaching changes, we take a look at some familiar faces, as well as some new faces in the league. We briefly go through each new coach and talk about how we think they will fair in the league during their first season. We also make our pick for who will be the most and least successful coach in year 1, so let us know who are your picks.

Will all the eastern conference MLS teams please take your seats, we will be handing back grades from your last transfer window assessment. Some of you... cough NYCFC cough... have not done well, while some of you, here's lookin at you Columbus, have done superb. We would like to make it clear that we recorded this on 2/21/2021 and therefore not every transfer will have been taken into account when it comes to a team's grade. Feel free to let us know where we're wrong (and maybe if we were right, maybe).

Let us know your thoughts/comments on the episode! 

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In this episode of the Designated Player's Podcast, we have our final episode of the season! What better way to wrap it up than with one giant MLS quiz, testing our knowledge (or lack thereof) of the 2020 season. This season felt like a millennium  so let me be the first to say this was not an easy quiz. We also discuss the recent semifinal CCL game for LAFC, who now are set to face off with Tigres in the CCL final!

We start off by talking CCL, more specifically LAFC as they are now representing MLS as the last remaining team as they look to take down Tigres and become the first MLS team to win CCL. But first we talk about how they got there, and that's by defeating Club America in the semifinal despite going down a man before halftime. Make sure to have a listen because we want to know your thoughts on whether or not LAFC has a chance to win it all!

Next we tackle our MLS quiz of the 2020 season! This was not easy, and if you listen through and read the beginning of this sentence, you'll probably figure out who's writing this. We have questions from everything including, MLS regular season, MLS is Back, MLS Cup Playoffs, and CCL. Apologies ahead of time for the audio listeners as this is likely a very visual friendly part of the episode, so if you want to see that check us out on YouTube! Also, make sur you're playing along as well and let us know how you did. Could you get Adam's bad questions right? Probably not!

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone that has listened to our episodes throughout this season, whether you like us or not it was great to see that you guys continued to listen and hear from you. It's been quite the year for the league and our podcast and it was so much fun for all of us involved. We have many exciting things in the pipeline and things we can't wait to do next season with you all. We look forward to hopefully seeing you all come back next season and listen along again.

Thank you for a great first season!

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In this episode of the Designated Player's Podcast, the Columbus Crew are your 2020 MLS champions! Congratulations to Columbus and your fans, a well deserved victory and a very good cap on a very interesting and weird season. We break down the game for you in case you missed it or want to hear our take on everything that happened. We also talk about trade day in MLS! You know that part of the beautiful game where you trade an international slot for GAM and/or TAM, classic. We talk about all the deals, most of them coming from new expansion side Austin FC! Finally we make our picks for some weird "MLS end of season awards" that we made up!

2017 was the year of "Save the Crew". 2020 is the year of "Saved the Crew". Crazy to think that a few years ago they were on the cusp of a move to Austin, leaving Columbus with a giant MLS sized crater, and now we're talking about that same team as the champions of the league. Only in MLS! But they needed to take down one of the best teams of the decade, Seattle Sounders, to do it and we are here to break it down for you and tell you how they won, and why Seattle lost. 

GAM, TAM, stage one re-entry picks, international slots, 4th round SuperDraft picks; everything you could ask for in a soccer (football) league am I right? Well it's what you get in our loveable MLS and there was plenty of that recently especially with new side Austin FC joining the league. We break down all the deals, yes even the ones with no players involved, and tell you our thoughts on the moves.

Finally, we make our picks for some random "awards" that we made up because why not! Make sure if you listen this far that you tag us on social media and let us know what your pick would be for those awards because we would love to hear your thoughts!

Let us know your thoughts/comments on the episode! 

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In this episode of the Designated Player's Podcast, the holidays have come early, and big Greg has gifted us another exciting and young USMNT roster for the upcoming December camp! We break it down and tell you who we're excited to see and how we believe the team will line-up for the upcoming friendly. We also make sure to talk about the recent roster moves that a few of the teams in MLS has made. Finally we finish off with quick fire predictions as to who will win the remaining games in the conference semi-finals!

If the USMNT roster is like a song, then this call-up is basically the MLS remix of the last song. What does that confusing analogy mean? It means we've got more young stars in this camp, but this time they come from MLS as opposed to coming from European teams. Lots of first time players, a few young players with a cap or two, and a few "veterans" who have a handful of caps. We break down all the positions and take our best guess as to what formation we'll play based on the players that were called up.

Next we discuss the recent roster changes that were announced for a handful of teams. These roster changes included decisions on whether or not to extend player contracts another year, and included contracts that were expiring at the end of this year. Take a listen to see if there were any big moves made for this upcoming offseason.

Finally, before we can rap the show up, we make our picks for the upcoming (although maybe already finished) semi-final games in the western conference!

Let us know your thoughts/comments on the episode! 

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In this episode of the Designated Player's Podcast, aka the Rodrigo Schlegel Fan Club, the guys recap quite possibly the best first round of playoff games in MLS history. Things were wild from the first play-in game up until the last game before we recorded (Portland-Dallas for those wondering).  We talk about each of the games, and yes don't worry, we make sure to talk about the greatest PK shootout ever!

Here you go Nashville and New England, this is your invitation to the MLS Cup Playoffs, welcome and try not to leave too soon.  As we all predicted, New England and Nashville won their play-in games to officially make it to the playoffs, and it wouldn't be MLS without a 95th minute winner in the first game following the regular season.

Then we get into the game of the weekend, correction, the game of the year. NYCFC and Orlando faced off and with one of the most memorable games in history. If you missed out don't worry cause we'll break it all down for you and let you know what happened. Oh yeah there were also just casually a couple of stoppage time goals to tie the game, but no big deal. We make sure to catch you up on all your MLS action from over the weekend so make sure to tune in!

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In this episode of the Designated Player's Podcast, the guys make their picks for who will win their first round matchup in the MLS Cup Playoffs, as well as make their picks for the two eastern conference play-in games. Before any of that, we make sure to quickly recap the USMNT games from the last week.

THE GOLDEN GENERATION FOR THE USMNT?!?! Hopefully not because we want to have even more talent in the future, however this is still quite possibly the most talented group of young US players we've ever seen to date. We briefly talk about the two games from last week which included a 8 goal thriller victory over Panama. But before we get too onboard the hype train (here's looking at you Adam), we have to talk about the level of competition they faced. Make sure to listen to all we had to say regarding the new, exciting USMNT!

Predictions are back! Yes we know you've been missing our always spot on amazing, accurate predictions! Well wait no longer because we are here to bring you our picks for every first round matchup in the MLS playoffs. We begin by picking the two play-in game winners and then work our way down the eastern and western brackets. Some of these were not easy picks, which means you know we've got some exciting first round matchups to look forward to! Definitely take a listen to our picks and feel free to tell us how we're wrong, or maybe even right?

Finally, it wouldn't be a prediction episode without making a score prediction as well, so make sure to stay until the end if you want to hear exactly how we think each game will play out. Feel free to reach out and let us know your score predictions as well!

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In this episode of the Designated Player's Podcast, the guys take a look back at their predictions from the beginning of the season! This includes their bold takes, season standings, and their award winner predictions.

If there is one saving grace in this episode, it might have to be the bold predictions for us, cause while there are some bad, bad takes, there are some that are pretty spot on if not perfectly spot on!

Next we looked back at the standings predictions we made, way back in ye olden days (well at least it feels that long ago). Beginning with the east we break it down game by game and award points for close and spot on predictions, SPOILER, none of our eastern conference winner predictions even made the playoffs (big oof). Then we repeat the same point process for the western conference, spoiler, less of an oof than the east.

Finally, we take a look back at our award winner predictions. We mainly focus on looking at golden boot and golden gloves because those are the only awards confirmed as of right now, however you will still get to hear some of our other award picks, which we will likely revisit in the future.

Let us know your thoughts/comments on the episode! 

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In this episode of the Designated Player's Podcast, the guys talk about the recent announcement of the MLS 25 greatest! We make our picks for who should be picked out of the 137 players that are available for those spots. 

Before we make our picks, we analyze the list of 137 and see who we're surprised to see included and who is missing from the list. Certainly some surprising names both present and missing!

Finally we make our picks, but as we have done in the past we only look at the 2010's, meaning that we're not considering any seasons before 2010. With those standards in place, each of the hosts make their 25 (in no particular order), and you won't want to miss who we pick, certainly some controversial ones!

Let us know your thoughts/comments on the episode! 

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