Dubs, Craiger, a fashionably late Sharms, and Wonger welcomed back one of our favourites, former Canadian international and MLS on Apple host Kaylyn Kyle, for a proper sit-down. They got into the AFCON mess, early MLS season reads, coaches feeling the heat, and why the Whitecaps might be the deepest squad in the league.

The AFCON Situation

A lot of people walked away from the Morocco news not feeling good, including Kaylyn.

“As a player, you don’t want to win in that magnitude. Like does Morocco now organize an open top bus tour? No. Like if you’re a Moroccan player and you get the call being like you guys officially won the tournament, like no player wants that.”

“And you don’t want to lose like that either. No one wants to have an incredible tournament tarnished. So I feel bad for the Moroccan players because Moroccan players don’t want this phone call.”

“I know a couple players that played in the tournament and I’ve followed their social media to see if they’ve posted anything and they haven’t. That tells you everything you need to know.”

Early MLS Season: Who Do We Actually Believe?

Four match days in and Kaylyn’s already seeing a bigger picture story start to form, and it’s not the one most people are telling.

“I feel like the West is stronger than the East this year. And I think there’s like eight MLS teams that have kind of pulled away from the rest because it’s the teams that go out and spend the big money, buy the big DPs, and really make use of their roster restrictions in a great way.”

The team she’s most excited about? NYCFC.

“Pascal Jansen, I said it last year as well, he’s a top two manager in the league for me and I think we just never really spoke about it because it was a young and up and coming team. You move Nicolás Fernández into your number nine, he’s not a number nine, he’s better on the wing, and he’s got four goals this season. And I think if they can go out in the transfer and maybe get one or two more players, this is a team that’s going to be contending for MLS Supporters Shield or even knocking off the big dogs of Inter Miami in the East.”

On Philadelphia’s struggles, she wasn’t having the narrative that it’s on the coach.

“The Philadelphia Union lost some massive players. You lose Kai Wagner, you lose Tai Baribo who’s now killing it at DC United, you lose Quinn Sullivan to ACL. I don’t think this is Bradley Cardell’s fault. This is what they do. They bring players up through the academy, develop them and sell them on, and then they don’t spend the money to revamp the team. So I don’t know what we’re yelling at.”

And the LA Galaxy swing? Sharp observation.

“That’s a Supporters Shield winning Philadelphia Union from last year who are now the LA Galaxy. They were the wooden spoon of last season and quite frankly you only lost Gastón Brugman in the midfield and then Riqui Puig to an ACL injury. You lose one or two players and it completely derails where your season could go. That’s kind of the beauty of MLS because you never know what’s going to happen.”

MLS Coaches on the Hot Seat

Kaylyn didn’t shy away from naming names. First up, Phil Neville at Portland Timbers.

“The last two and a half weeks he’s been going at his players where this isn’t Manchester United back in the 80s and 90s where you have your top stars where you can have a little bit of a pop at them. Like this is a Portland Timbers side where you lose Evander, arguably one of the best number 10s in the league. You can’t put this on your players in MLS because of the roster restrictions. They’re only going to change one and that’s most likely going to be the coach.”

“I really love Phil as a human and as a person and I know he puts in the work and the effort and the playing philosophy, but you’re starting to see the shift in Major League Soccer where managers aren’t given a year or two years to bounce back.”

Pat Noonan at Cincinnati also got a mention, though the Concacaf Champions Cup gave him a brief reprieve.

“It’s not a pop at Pat Noonan because I think he’s a fantastic manager, but with the amount of money that Cincinnati’s paid in transfers with their backline, it’s been really poor results the later part of last season and going into this year. The CCC result kind of took him off that hot seat a little bit.”

Brian Schmetzer Is More Underrated Than You Think

The Vancouver Whitecaps‘ loss to Seattle kicked off one of the better tangents of the conversation, with Kaylyn giving Schmetzer his flowers in the most Kaylyn Kyle way possible.

“Brian Schmetzer to me is always a headscratcher. Like I feel like he is like a professor nerd. Like your best friend next door. But then he comes out with these tactical adjustments in-game and I’m like, what? Like you look like my uncle that I would go for coffee with and talk about science.”

“Is he one of the most underrated coaches in Major League Soccer that we don’t give enough credit to? Seattle never missed. I can’t remember the last time I’ve looked at a Seattle roster and I’m like, ooh, they’re a bit short in a centre midfield position.”

Jesper Sørensen and Why Vancouver’s Depth Is Terrifying

If Schmetzer is underrated, Kaylyn thinks Jesper Sørensen at Vancouver might be the most transformative coaching story in the league right now.

“I voted him coach of the year last year. The ability to get results in multiple different competitions with multiple different injuries at the same time, it’s the thing in MLS because of the roster restrictions. Sebastian Berhalter and Andrés Cubas are the two best midfield pairings in Major League Soccer right now. I think they have a better midfield than LAFC.”

And the front line depth isn’t even at full strength yet.

“Ryan Gauld is injured, he’s not even back yet. Like I can’t even imagine this team when that man’s back.”

On Stephen Eustáquio and Nicolás Fernández doing damage for LAFC, Kaylyn was happy to take credit for calling it.

“I said Eustáquio will be the game changer for LAFC to play a different brand of football because they were so frustrating to watch the last two years. As a midfielder you know this, everything was just over your head. But then Eustáquio, even Nicolás Fernández when he came in and scored a brace the last game, it’s just nice to see our Canadians doing really really well.”