Arsenal & Chelsea LOSE, Inter COMEBACK, Real Madrid In Trouble! San Jose Earthquakes Get A Point!

Project 90 Soccer: Marco, we are live. Project ninety, the soccer podcast, all about soccer. My name is Antonio, and I'm here with as always with the red cap on and the black matching away with the red accent jersey, Sacramento Republic. Shout out to NorCal, Marco Antonio Munoz. Marco, how you doing this fine Monday afternoon?

Marco: My full governing as usual, man.

Project 90 Soccer: It's amazing.

Marco: No, I'm doing well. crazy, crazy under the weather this past couple of days. So

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: I'm finally getting back to the groove of things. So but I'm we're we're

Project 90 Soccer: I know. You

Marco: here. We're here, Project ninety. And I'm feeling good.

Project 90 Soccer: Look, man, it happens. Everyone gets sick. The weather changes. We missed a game. I got sick. It's like you passed it over through the ether of the world. I don't know. We had to skip San Jose earthquakes versus LAFC, which we're gonna touch on at the end of this episode. But what we're really looking at today is a few big upsets, right, in the EPL. another massive result in Spain, couple big results in the set I and we want to go over all these because Wow, things are getting shaken up here. Match day five. we're early in the season still. Now we're seeing some big results. Some unlikely teams are sort of sitting at the top of these tables. So I want to start right here with the EPL, Marco, and just go over these results real quick. Brentford taking down Chelsea, bro, three to zero. They're sitting in fourth place now, Brentford. Amazing result for them. Aston Villa three to two versus Tottenham. Same thing for Tottenham these days. Arsenal, bro. Potentially the biggest upset of the weekend. 3-0 to Brighton.

Marco: The biggest

Project 90 Soccer: To Brighton, bro, who, to their credit, they're sitting in third place right now in the EPL. That's massive result for them and really good start to the season for them. Everton winning 1-0 versus Ipswich. Newcastle, 2-1 versus Hole. Coventry, bro. Coventry City getting the dub versus Nottingham Forest. 1-0. First win of the seasons. Good for them. Liverpool. Beating Bournemouth 1-0. Crystal Palace League United 0-0. Man City, as always, getting a dub. 5-3. Crazy free kick from Enzo Fernandez. Really making a statement with Man City. And then Fulham, bro. And Man United. Your team, Man United, which we're going to touch on. One to one. But first, I want to start with Brighton versus Arsenal, bro. And look, I saw. Portions of this game. And one thing I have to say about Brighton, bro, is they press. They just press and they press and they press. And to me, they maybe possession-wise didn't dominate the game, but they pretty much owned Arsenal this game, bro. They put up a wall on defense. Arsenal could just not get in there and even get close to scoring. And then Brighton, bro, honestly, they had two great goals from outside of the box and To be completely honest, I put a lot of the blame on Arsenal because the balls that were played into these strikers, Gross scored the first goal. And it's like when he received the ball and turned, nobody pressed him. Like he had so much time to just turn. He looked up, took a touch, and it's like there was no pressure from Arsenal's defense. So I'd have to put down that this game is pretty much Arsenal's fault, bro. They fumbled the bag on this one. what did you see from this game? What do you think of this result for Brighton? And what do you think of this result for Arsenal, man? What do you think this means for them?

Marco: I'll tell you what, if it's at the end of the season. And they're you're in a title race, you do not want to play Brighton, and you do not want to play Brentford. Because

Project 90 Soccer: Mm.

Marco: boy, that will either nail the coffin or loosen, loosen some screws, and

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: so you can limp your way to the finish. But man, these are some dogs, these are some some needy gritty teams that are gonna fight for every single ball, every single inch of the pitch. And

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: to what you said, man, the biggest upset of the weekend, the biggest shocker of the weekend, they did play away. Right. So it would have been even more of a shocker if they were playing at home. But I'm just gonna chalk this game and and and just throw it to the side. It's just one of those games where you we're not gonna see too often from Arsenal. We gotta give them that.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: it's just one of those games with your point that issues in the defense and they just couldn't get going. And it's just one of those things where Brighton was playing at home, they had the fans behind them, and they just had the entire momentum and they're able to capitalize on the opportunities that they had. So Great, great win for them and hopefully to see them at the top of the table the next couple of months.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, I don't I don't see this as like a you know, it's obviously not a good loss for Arsenal, obviously, but they're a good team. Arsenal's quality. It's not there's no no mystery there. So it's just one of those games where Brighton came out, they were at home. They're a quality team. I think we're seeing that now. Obviously, they're sitting in third place in the Premier League after, you know, five, six games now. so it's serious, right? They're obviously a good team with a lot of quality and they can go against a team like Arsenal, granted it was at home and and get three points. So I think for both of them it's just gonna be about maintaining and for Brighton in particular, see how long they can kind of keep this sort of momentum going. I expect Arsenal though to bounce back now after this international break that is upon us. moving on though, Man City five to three versus Sunderland, bro. Ryan Shirky, Fernandez, Semenyo, Holland, all the names you're used to seeing. they're five games, five wins, bro. Fifteen points. They're sitting clear atop the Premier League right now. And it's not looking like they're stopping any time soon. Enzo Fernandez though, bro, what a free kick, right? Quality. I think it's really kind of coming down now to the point where we can admit that he is a pretty good player, right? He can get the sh he can get it done in a league like the Premier League. He's doing it every single week. It's you know, more so his attitude that people have a problem with, I think. But if anyone's gonna argue that he's a he's not a good player, I think they're just they're just kinda hating at this point. So what are you thinking about Man City and this result for them? Five

Marco: Yeah, yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: to three. Now three goals obviously conceded, right? So what do you what do you think about that?

Marco: I mean, look, on the Enzo part, I was one of those guys that kept saying it's too early, it's too early. And I just felt like it was a one of those things where like, let's just sell this guy and and make and make a bag, right? He gets a bag as well. But man, this guy's playing well since the moment he got there. He's he's he fights for every ball, he he has some assists already, he scored a goal over the weekend, and he just fits well with the system that's there. And most importantly for Man City is Arsenal lost this weekend. So which puts

Project 90 Soccer: Exactly.

Marco: him at the top of the table. But Sunderland, I'm expecting those dubs. but the goal against differential, then yeah, we still need to talk about that, right? Because you can't keep continue to get scored on as it gets closer in the title race because those that goal differential is gonna play a crucial part.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, we got a shout out Brian Bob Braby on Sunderland getting a hat trick, bro. So I mean this guy, he went out there with no fear whatsoever. Man City does not matter. The guy went out there, bagged a hat trick. And yeah, like you said, this is now we're starting to see a little separation in the table, right? Man City now sitting clear top, 15 points. Arsenal getting a loss, so it's kind of starting to create some separation there. So we'll see if Arsenal can now make up for that, maybe when they play Man City or if Man City maybe gets a loss moving forward. But now we have Brentford, bro. Another shock result beating Chelsea three to zero, bro. Brentford move into the top four, which is it's pretty wild to see Brentford up there and Brighton to be fair. But for Chelsea, man, defensive problems just continue. You know what I mean? They're letting goals in. They're not looking solid. They let go of some big players this summer. And it sort of looks like we've mentioned before, you know, wait until January, kind of to to maybe revamp their team a bit. They've made a lot of money this summer on the the sell the the sales of Cucurea and Fernandez. So I'm expecting them to kind of go in and use that money on the defense in particular, definitely the defense, and maybe get an attacker. But what do you think of Brentford going in there, dude? Getting three goals.

Marco: I definitely didn't see the three goals coming. And I definitely didn't see them leaving away with the with with a clean sheets. and obviously it's the it's not the London team you would think would be getting away, like I mentioned with those three points after after that game. But I don't know, man. We've been talking about it. I think Chelsea is is turning the page on on on what they're looking for. And and right now I think they're gonna sit with some of these. the these losses and some of these losses that we're not gonna expect. I think we're gonna see more of those come as the transfer window approaches. but yeah just I mean the defense issues, man, all these goals came in the second half. So that's

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: that's really concerning because who's to say that they can't lose future games the the way they lost the second half. So

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: I don't know man. I I don't have too much to touch on this one. I just see a lot of red flags as of right now and hopefully they're seeing them as well.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, they they have to be at this point. You know, Cole Palmer's obviously on the field. Credit to Brentford though, they kind of smothered them in the defense, man. They were they were really shutting down Palmer and Morgan Rogers and they weren't giving them any clear cut opportunities to really score a goal. So Brentford played a great game, but for a team like Chelsea who's used to winning, who's used to to competing for the title in the EPL, they're they're certainly and clearly not having a great start to the season by their standards. So We're gonna have to see what happens. And again, I think we're just gonna have to it's one of those things we're gonna have to wait until January where they can bolster up the squad a little bit. They're gonna have to make some changes because the way it's going right now, it's not looking good. And I I fully expect them to go in on the defense and bring in some defensive players to sort of bolster up that back line because it ain't it ain't working over there in for Chelsea. But fool bro. Look, man United fool And I just wanna say, look, with with this whole man united

Marco: It's not.

Project 90 Soccer: thing, man, I'm getting sick and tired. I'm getting sick and tired. We've seen all these other big teams have their down moments, right? But they always come back. Man United went down, bro, and it's like they have not come back. They have not come back, and they're always getting these scrappy results. They've brought in this player, that player, get rid of that guy, get a new coach, get this coach. And yet Man United still cannot seem to turn it around. And then all of a sudden, maybe they get one good result, maybe two good results. They have two games where it's like great play. Great link up, score some great goals. And then everyone's like, it looks things are turning around for Man United, but they're not turning around for Man United. Man United is Manchester fucking United. And they're playing Fulham here. And all respect to Fulham, but Man United should be going in there and dominating Fulham and absolutely

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: destroying Fulham. So I just feel like there's major problems at Manchester United that they have not figured the fuck out yet. They have not solved what the problem is. Despite bringing in big names, despite getting rid of big names, despite rotations in the squad, rotations from in managers, nothing seems to be getting them back on track to being one of like the elite teams in Europe, bro. And it started right here, Lisandro Martinez with an own goal. I mean, you saw this own goal and it was like in slow motion. It was like what what do you what in the fuck are you guys doing? What is going on with Manchester United, bro? To fool him, one of the not so strongest teams this season.

Marco: Yeah, for sure. I mean, look,

Project 90 Soccer: I mean, so what's going on, bro?

Marco: as a Man United fan, I can blame a bunch of people, but I'm not. I'm just what I'm gonna say is the consistency, right? We could we continue to have these issues because there's no patience, right? After Sir Alex Ferguson left, there has been no patience with any manager.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: people need to remember that when Sir Alex Ferguson took over the reins of Man United, he had he felt some hard times at the beginning as well. But the ownership team was able to be patient and they were able to weather the storm and here came the trophies. And I don't think right now that Man United, the ownership, the fans, the media, they're not allowing Man United to weather the storm. It's when the storm hits, let's make a change. When the storm hits, let's make a change. Okay.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: We're gonna get the hottest new manager, which was Ruben Amoron at the time. Young

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: manager. And what happened? He challenged players. He challenged the board. And as soon as he challenged the board and at that press conference, he was out. Right?

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: So we need consistency. I don't I'm not gonna scream at the top of my lungs, and hopefully nobody is to scream at the top of the lungs about firing Michael Carey because I'm already hearing about bring Conte in. But but

Project 90 Soccer: I've already heard it too, man. Yeah.

Marco: when you're in Manchester United, not only are you expected to win the Premier League and all these small domestic tournaments. You're expected to win European games and European titles. What does Contet know how to do? Not win European titles. I'll tell you that much. So

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: I think we stick with with with Michael Carrick and we look at what's actually happening. Anto, I see Bruno Fernandez tired. Maybe he had a long season. He had a great season last season.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: he wasn't the Bruno Fernandez we were expecting coming into the World Cup. We said that, right? So he looked tired. Defense, we still have a lot of issues in the defense. I mentioned it last pod. Midfield,

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: you you can stomach the midfield right now, right? But couple

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: of things, couple of things that I saw. You have Mbumo and and Cunha at times like like bumping heads,

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: getting in each other's way. So I think we need to address that problem and see who's really gonna play up top and Right now, I think our strengths are on our on our on our flanks, man. We gotta use embumo and just focus on on on that area because right now that's where a lot of the energy is coming from, even from the in the defense. When Luke Shaw's not playing, you get a

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: little bit a little bit more of energy with Drogu playing on playing on the left side, right? Yeah, you

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, yeah.

Marco: suffer a little yeah, you suffer a little bit on the defense, but you get a lot of that energy. So I think we just need to focus on on the attack on those sides. And understand and know that we're gonna struggle in in in the defense at times. But I'm here to tell you, let's let's not let's not cut the coach's head off. Let's let's

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: be patient. We're not even 10 games in. Let's see what the F this is about. And then if stuff still continues to happen in the next four or five weeks, then all right, yeah. Let's let's let's let's start looking at what we need to change. But right now, like I told you, man, we just this the squad is not there. The squad isn't. the the squad of Manchester United needs to to consistently

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: win games every three days. Because when you're playing

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: European football, you're playing every three days. And we and we'll touch on it when we touch about Como. Because it's a different story, bro. When you're just playing

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah.

Marco: the Premier League and you're qual you're disqualified from everything else. You your guys are rested. You can just focus on one game plan and you can sit a couple folks. Now you can't. Every three games every three days you need to make a decision.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, it's wild, bro. Just hearing already, already, who can we replace Michael Carrick with? And it's, you know, I'm just getting so sick and tired of of of hearing this bullshit because it's it's just Man United is not an elite team. They don't have an elite squad, bro. And Boumo's a great good player. Rashford's a good player. Fernandez was the best player in the Premier League last year. Mateus Cunha,

Marco: Tell this.

Project 90 Soccer: credit to Cunha, he had a great game, but It's not telemans, I mean you see these names and it's like how are they doing as bad as they are? But something something's not clicking, dude.

Marco: Tell you this. I went to a USL game, Sacramento Republic, on Sunday, right?

Project 90 Soccer: huh.

Marco: And attack, attack, attack, attack. Shots coming from all over the place. And I'm gonna attribute attribute the same thing for Manchester United. They were some shots. But just like in the USL game, they weren't quality shots. They were just shooting. So

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah.

Marco: when you're just shooting, like what are you really doing? What are you really creating? Are you shooting, expecting a rebound? Are you shooting, expecting a score a goal or or are you just shooting just to say you shot the ball? Because the

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: testic the statistics are gonna show one thing and the game, the the eyes, the eyes don't lie. What what you see is just I I don't want to say embarrassing, but like I mean it's bottom of the barrel right now for for the expectation that that that we have for Manchester United.

Project 90 Soccer: It's not good enough, bro. That's just the bottom line. They're they I mean, look, they got five points, bro. They're sitting in twelfth place. It's unacceptable, right? And I think a lot of Man United fans, unlike the Chelsea's or the Man Cities, you know, Man United in particular really gives me this vibe that all I ever hear them talk about is the treble in ninety nine, which fucking who cares at this point, bro? It was in nineteen ninety nine and then well when Ferdinand Vidich Ronaldo, G Sung it's like

Marco: Yeah. Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: bro, that shit's over. Like it's over. Like stop you you're like because you're so bad now you just keep referencing the glory days. Well that's not gonna change fuck

Marco: It's like

Project 90 Soccer: all right now.

Marco: it's like they're the cowboys of the Premier League. Hey, back in the nineties we were the shit.

Project 90 Soccer: Dude, yeah, dude. That's it. We were hella good. Remember when we won? And it's like, yeah, I mean that's great, but hey man, you're fucking you're sitting in fucking twelfth place right now, dude. I mean you got Ipswich Town above you, dog. Whole city. Like teams that should not be sitting above you.

Marco: And whole city, they lost.

Project 90 Soccer: They took it they took a dive, bro. They took a dive.

Marco: I think.

Project 90 Soccer: Everton sitting in seventh place. Liverpool up getting the one nil win. Sobasly getting a goal. They're in sixth place. It's kind of a mm, not not great, but not bad sort of position to be in this early on. So yeah, man, Man United though, it's just one of the saddest stories of the season, besides Tottenham, who's sitting in twentieth place. yeah.

Marco: I tell I tell you what though, you won't see them as low as you've seen Tottenham, I'll tell you that much. They'll get their shit together before they ever get that low. Tottenham

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, no.

Marco: is Tottenham for a reason. Sorry folks.

Project 90 Soccer: Hey, the truth is the truth, bro. They got two points. I you know what? Maybe that's the wake-up call they need, bro. Relegation. But moving on, we Sedia. Look, Sedia, there's a big upset. Maybe not a big upset, but we saw a team that was on fire. Como getting a loss to maybe not one of the strongest teams, Frozinona, right? two to zero. Other results, Monza two to one versus a good result for Monza. Bologna Torino one one. Udinese losing one to zero to Cagliari, who's sitting up top in the table right now. It's an impressive start of the season for them.

Marco: Love it, I love it.

Project 90 Soccer: And then Rome versus Inter, bro. The biggest, the biggest game of the weekend. One of the biggest one of the biggest

Marco: We're both wrong. We are both wrong.

Project 90 Soccer: games in Europe. We were both wrong. Two to two draw. That was an exciting game. We'll go over that. Lazio, dude, two to zero versus Venezia. Lazio seems to be turning it around a little bit, right? They weren't starting too strong. Napoli, one to one versus Fiorentina. Como Losing two to zero. Genoa losing to Parma, two to one. Good result for Parma. Juventus back on track, getting a two-zero win to Atalanta. And then Milan, bro, three zero versus Lecha. Dominant performance. we'll get into that. Pulosic, you know, getting his first start, scoring a beautiful goal, if you ask me.

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: but first I want to start with what I would call the biggest game in CETIA this weekend: Rome versus Inter. It was a battle of For first place and Roma going up, dude. They were up 2-0. Kone just putting him putting in the work. Dybala's just still the playmaker that we've always known him to be. The guy's fucking class on the field. Manukone getting two goals. Roma are two up. And then what happens, bro? The one guy we always reference as the comeback man, dude. The guy who just gets those late winners. Lautaro Martinez getting two goals, man. now. The thing about this game was they were both tied for first. Now they get a draw and they're still in the same position. So what do you see for this game? I'm not really surprised to see Inter Milan come back. It was in Rome. You know, I was expecting Roma to win because they were at home, but I'm really this this draw sort of feels fair, if you will.

Marco: Antho, as I was sitting on my couch, drinking some hot tea, taking some meds with a hundred degree, hundred point seven degree temperature, I was like, I'm gonna just

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: cozy up. This is a perfect time to watch this game and suffer. And

Project 90 Soccer: Damn.

Marco: Antho, I text you, I was like, this was a game of two halves, two different halves, two different games. Because

Project 90 Soccer: It was. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Marco: the first, the first half. It looked like Roma just they were the in the Olympico, they were just gonna get away from it. Cone, one of the best French midfielders out there. I'ma

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: just I'ma just say I think I think so. just get just getting getting the ball in the back of the net. Just he was just making it look easy. Because let me tell you, melons, bad game. Melons, bad game for you, bro. So definitely

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Marco: watch some watch some tape on everything you did bad because. Boy were you lackluster this game. But

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, he did not put on the way we we we would have expected him to the p from the previous, yeah.

Marco: But yeah, man. I was all over the place trying to trying to be be that creator and and just distribute the ball. The fans are behind the team, they go into the second half, and what does Inter do? Like I told you, that they know how to do. They have that experience, they know how to be down and come back. And as my daughter was passing and Loro Martinez scores, and she sits on the couch and she's watching the game with me, and here he does. Does it again, he scores again towards the end of the match in a tuh her. This is one of the few Argentinians I like.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. man, that's a big statement from Marco. Dude, that's a big statement, bro.

Marco: man, that guy, Interlegend forever. He doesn't

Project 90 Soccer: He's legit.

Marco: have to win anything else. He

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: can get you the ball in the back of the net when you need it. He's not doing this. He's not doing anything extra. He's there to play for the crest on the front of the jersey, not the name of the back. That

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah.

Marco: guy should have been born Italian, bro. That guy playing

Project 90 Soccer: man.

Marco: for the zurra would have been awesome.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: But going back to to the game, close game, two to two, the standings stay as they are, and I'm curious to see what the next matchup with these two is is is gonna be like.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, well the set yeah is for the taking right now, right? I have one question though for you. I just really think about this one. All right. Now is inters comeback like they have this comeback mentality where they're ne they never feel out of the game. They always feel like they can get points from it. Do you find that to be impressive or are they just making these games harder than they need to be for themselves?

Marco: So I I had this thought when I was watching the Arsenal game. They just made the game hard for themselves.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: the some of the commentators were crediting Kivu and

Project 90 Soccer: Uh-huh.

Marco: and adjustments. I didn't really see a whole lot of adjustments. A

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: lot of these subs came later on. I I just think it's one of those things where they're just making it hard on themselves. Because you can only come back from so many games, Antho. And

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: you can only come back from so many important games.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: So I definitely don't foresee this being something sustainable the rest of the season. So in th don't make it hard on yourself, Beba.

Project 90 Soccer: I agree, man. It's great that you can come back and win these games, but if you're gonna be doing that put in that position every single game, it's bound to go south at least once or twice when when it you know you don't want it to. So we're gonna have to see, man. Seti Astill wide open up top. Moving on though, Frozinana, two zero to Como. Do you think this for Como? I mean, they had the squad out, Nico Paws was there. do you think that this was like the reality check that Como needed?

Marco: Do you remember what you said about frozen on the last pot?

Project 90 Soccer: I r remind me, please.

Marco: That Frozenone is gonna be that squad that everyone's basically gonna beat.

Project 90 Soccer: man. We could cut that. We could we could cut that.

Marco: You're gonna have to go back, tune in. It was in other words, but when we're talking about teams and the teams are gonna struggle, it may not have been the last spot, it may have been the previous spot, but you said

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: Frosinone, Frante. You said Frosinone. But Como I got two

Project 90 Soccer: Didn't look too hot. Mm. Damn.

Marco: questions. Let me let me put it right back to you.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, okay.

Marco: Is Como at the end or out of their honeymoon stage? Or is Como now seeing the effects of playing European football every every few days.

Project 90 Soccer: I think I don't think it's so much the honeymoon stage because last season in SETI, I think they proved over the in you know the entirety of the season that they are legit, right? They're a good team. They deserve to be in the SETI, they have a lot of quality. But I do agree that I think the Champions League may be a little bit of a shock to their system in terms of volume because they're playing more games now. They have a lot of young players that. granted came from the the Barcelona Academies or Real Madrid Academies, you know, really good players, but they're they're still they're still gaining experience at the highest level, not only in just CETIA in terms of a domestic league, but now intern you know, European football champions league. So it's a lot to take on for a lot of young players who are not used to it. So it could be it could be a matter of fatigue. It could be a matter of just the the volume and the training and And just everything happening sort of all at once. Maybe the hype and sort of the pressure now that's being put on Como, maybe that's sort of getting to them a little bit. because it is Frosinone, right? Which credit to them. They they won two to zero. but imagine if this was a team like Rome or Milan or someone else, you know, and as the season now progresses and they play more Champions League games, they have some big ones come. I they're playing Barcelona, they're playing like really big teams in the Champions League. So I think I think for Como this season it's gonna be the real struggle for them is gonna be to juggle the Champions League with the set of and figure out how to rotate these players in order to get the most out of the team. And I think that's what we're seeing right now is Nico Paws is being relied on a lot. A lot,

Marco: A lot. A lot.

Project 90 Soccer: bro. And it's so early in the season already, and it's like can he sustain this for the entirety of the season?

Marco: Sure, because

Project 90 Soccer: G you know, granted, God forbid a guy like that gets hurt or has to miss a couple of weeks. It's gonna is it gonna throw the whole team out of whack? Because he's he's their central figure, right? He's their playmaker. He's the guy that the team sort of built around. So I think this is definitely a wake up call, reality check for Como. And it's gonna be interesting to see, you know, if the quality of their play drops or if they can kind of bounce back and just kind of get right back into the swing of things.

Marco: And hopefully they don't get another loss against with all due respect a team like Frosinone because

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: down the stretch, I'm a big down the stretch guy. I don't know if folks, if you guys already picked up on it, I keep talking about down the stretch.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: you're gonna look back and what and you're gonna say, I can't believe we lost against Frosinone. We needed those three points. Right?

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: And shout out to them. Right. I I was listening to the game. Sometimes I hear I like to listen to it on mute because or on Italian. Because man, sometimes these commentators are so biased. But

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: that one time we'll listen to it on English, they're like talking about like shout out to Frosinone because a lot of these players that they have on the squad are from the City at Bay, and I think their goalkeeper was someone that said at Chi at one point

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Marco: last year. So shout out to them. And those are the type of guys are they're fighting for their spot to stay in the city, not with Frosinone, but there's scouts all year long with from these teams. So they're also looking to move on to better clubs. So to close the loop on that, shout out to them. They got one

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: of the biggest wins early in the season. I don't think they can get a lot of these big wins, unfortunately, but Como, on to the next one.

Project 90 Soccer: On to the next one. we'll see what happens with them. But this last set ya game or second to last that we want to touch on, Milan, three to zero versus Lecce, bro. The long awaited return, Christian Pulisic, fourteenth minute, wonder goal, bro. Beautiful goal, amazing touch, amazing one time finish. I'm just happy to see it, right? He just got snubbed for the national team, which understandably so. There's a lot of young players that Pochentino brought in.

Marco: We can go down a whole different conversation with that one.

Project 90 Soccer: I think we'll make a sep we'll make a separate now for this international break and the national teams. But you know, pull a sick, amazing goal, coming in swinging, sort of bouncing back, getting his his fitness back and scoring a beautiful goal. And Adrian Rabio, dude, getting a goal. And then Diego Morea. And ironically, these are the three players that last week we were saying, these are the guys that need to play. They made the difference

Marco: Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: last game. Finally they're on the field. More was subbed on, but he came on, made another impact, and it's starting to become Very clear to me at least that this guy is a problem, right? This guy's like causing a lot of problems for the opposing teams. And for Lechebro, not not a great result, but it's Milan, man. So three to zero. This is the result you would expect. Three wins, two draws, eleven points. Pulisic, you know, can remaining and continues to be important for Milan. So what what do you think for this result? What do you think of this for Pulisic in particular and and just AC Milan in general?

Marco: I love it for Pulisek. I love it for for for for him and meaning he's not 100% back to form, but he's damn near 87, 90%. And having a a performance the way he did, that beautiful touch, that way he controlled that ball, that you're probably gonna get that one out of a hundred times in that small, small space. I think this is the type of game where he's telling Ruben Amorant, I need to start these games.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: I'm not an off the bench type of guy. You're not you can't utilize me at the hundred percent of my capacity off the bench. So I think this is one of these games where he demonstrated he needs to start. Rabio, we keep talking about it. Solid, solid performer every weekend, very few offdates. And more and

Project 90 Soccer: Very consistent.

Marco: and Moreya, yeah, very consistent. And Morella, the shitty poranto is he's he's coming off the bench scoring goals. Where Ruben Ever may just say, Hey, you know what? I need you off the bench. You're that spark that we're gonna need when we need a goal or we're losing and we need to come back. So that's

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: the shitty part on that aspect because he can I can definitely see him being used as that type of a weapon. is Tupinyan, I still don't understand what he's doing there. I have no idea. I saw him lost at times and and I hate it. And I hate that I'm talking about Stupinat because one of my my Latin folks, but I just don't see it. maybe Ruben Amor

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: is seeing something different. And lastly, a different lineup. Another one, Anton. I I think we're

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, another one.

Marco: I think we're gonna go the rest of the season seeing different lineups. What do think?

Project 90 Soccer: Probably I it's already the fifth game, dude, and everything changes all the time. Just keeps changing. And but I the thing is though, they're still undefeated in all technicalities.

Marco: Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: Milan's still undefeated, right? They're sitting right here in fifth place with eleven points. So Amber, you know, getting a lot of criticism for that, changing a lot, not starting this player, this and that. But at the end of the day, man, they're still undefeated. So I think I think for him i i after this weekend it became very clear how important Pulisic is. More is the real deal. Rabio is one of their most consistent players that needs to be on the field. He's he's just he's dominant in the midfield. He's really like important for Milan and their attack. And also defensively. And you know, Gonzalo Ramos, we were talking about, and you had mentioned how he's gonna go on a a goal scoring drought, which he has, right? He has. And but watching this game, I have to be honest and say he does a lot, he does a lot more than just score goals. I'm in complete honesty.

Marco: He had a he had a nice assist.

Project 90 Soccer: He had a great assist and he's dragging players all over the place, man. This guy's movement, he's a threat. He's obviously somebody that the defense really Yeah. Yeah,

Marco: Anto Anto

Project 90 Soccer: yeah, yeah.

Marco: seventy seventy five million fuck that you need to score goals.

Project 90 Soccer: You need to score goals. Ultimately, that that's the bottom line. I agree. I do agree. but he's creating opportunities for the other players around him as well. So you got you gotta you gotta look at that and say, okay, that's at least you're getting that, right? If he was one of those guys, wasn't even doing that, it's kind of just I mean, his hold up play was so good this weekend as well. Like he'd get the ball, hold hold the ball with his back to goal. So those things are great. Would we like to see more goals from him?

Marco: That very, very odd and bad comparison. When

Project 90 Soccer: Okay.

Marco: he was holding on to the ball at times, he didn't have the magic, he didn't have the pace, he didn't have the swag. But it reminded me a little bit of Dimitar Burbitov because he

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: used to just hold players and just hold on to the ball, waiting for somebody to make the run, and he just let go of it. So I saw a little bit of that. to your point, he did a lot. But Anto, I'ma just say, I mean, I c like I told you. You paid too much money for this guy. This guy needs

Project 90 Soccer: Seventy five. Mm-hmm.

Marco: to score goals. And who's to s who's who's to say that let's say Pulichic continues to start and score goals, and we see something different up top. And we see Ramos

Project 90 Soccer: You never know, yeah.

Marco: play that role that he played at PSG, play that role that he played for Portugal, where he's just an overpaid guy coming off the bench. I can see it happening.

Project 90 Soccer: I could, and you know what? Maybe all those coaches that used to bring him off the bench saw something that we don't, right? Maybe they see the fact that he's not a ninety minute player. His his strength comes from coming off the bench the last twenty minutes and just causing problems, being fresh, really putting the defense under pressure. Maybe that's his strength. You know what I mean? Maybe it is, and maybe that's where his role is going to change as this season goes on. But overall from Elon, that's a great result. Good to see Pulisik back on the board. Rabio doing his thing. And

Marco: Quick, quick, quick little quick little mention.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: Manyan is starting to struggle a little bit, Anto. He's

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: starting to make like very small mistakes. and I I don't have any clear examples that are coming to mind, but there was a couple of times where I was watching the game like, ooh, yeah. No like I I was

Project 90 Soccer: It's enough to notice.

Marco: getting kind of sketched out, like don't come out for this ball, type deal. So hopefully it doesn't get to that point to where he's making mistakes.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, that'd be all bad for Milan, bro. Their

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: attack their attack looks like it's pretty unlocked right now. So Manando, dude, I've thought that ever since he kinda I was like, I I don't I don't see him. I never really saw him as being the strongest of goalkeepers. But end of the day, that's who they're working with. But moving on, dude. Last game we want to cover for CETI. Juventus two to zero versus Atalanta. Conce Sal finally getting on the board, bro. That guy's like the heartbeat of their attack. Dude's like a little firecracker over there. And then Bremer, of all people, the defender getting the second goal, beating Atalanta two to zero, bro. So if we look at the table here, Juve sitting in seventh place now on ten points. Frosinone, bro. Frosinone is sitting in sixth place, ten points, ahead of Como, who's in eighth place, bro. Milan's in fifth. Cagliari's in fourth place with twelve points, which is very impressive, to be honest. Lazio now sitting in third. At 13th points. Inter and Roma also on 13 points. Roma, though, in first place because of goal difference. Inter above Lacho because of the same reason. So look, we got a three-way tie right here, essentially, for first, second, third place. All on 13. Cagliari's on 12. It's an interesting table to be looking at right now, man. I don't think I've seen these four teams at the top of Sedia, especially Cagliari, like probably ever in my

Marco: It's kinda it's kinda what we're seeing in the EPO right now.

Project 90 Soccer: Different bro. It's kind of exciting because we had mentioned at the beginning of all this that you know we don't we just don't want to see a season where it's the same old team up top, just absolutely

Marco: Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: blowing everyone out. And that is not what we're seeing at all across, to be honest, all these leagues except for now La Liga, which we'll get into here. but yeah, CEA we'll see we'll see how things play out there. But in La Liga, bro, just want to go over two games in particular Athletico Madrid beating Real Madrid. Two to one, bro. Grimaldo on the penalty. Jonathan David, the Canadian, bro, getting on the score sheet for Atletico. And then for Real Madrid, bro, an unlikely goal scorer. in particular because of all the attacking players they

Marco: Whittager.

Project 90 Soccer: have, bro. Antonio Rudiger. Houston was sent off, to be fair, right? But Atletico held on to the victory. And Barcelona got a lot of joy out of that. Now, with Real Madrid, man. We've seen some sort of fumbling sort of performances, not too convincing performances. And now we see here another a loss, essentially, right? Yeah, they had ten men, but it doesn't matter. This is Real Madrid, Super Squad, Mourinho in charge. Is this really are we really starting to see Real Madrid and what what they're all about this season? Is this kind of going to be the story of their season? Maybe some inconsistencies, maybe not so so as many dominant performances, maybe struggling against these bigger teams. What do you think?

Marco: I think Mbappe in these type of games he needs to show up. He was a bit lackluster, in my opinion. you can score as many goals as you want against El Che, but we you need to score against Atletico Madrid, you need to score

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: against Barcelona, you need to score against Sevilla, all these top tier c teams. You can't just show up to these games and not score. You're expected to score. You're arguably top five. Some people may say top three best player in the world.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: Until last season and this season, he's not a Bologna d'Or contender. Not at all. And then

Project 90 Soccer: I don't think so.

Marco: and then I still think they're having a culture issue, bro. You bring, you bring Mourinho, the killer of all cultures, right? Because you're gonna live Mourinho's culture and nothing else. I still think they're having a little bit of that, that, that identity issue, that that culture issue in inside those four walls that I can't speak on. I don't know exactly what's going on, but you can see it.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: can you can see it in in in on the pitch, the the way they react to things, the the way they they they're on the bench, the where the way they are with the coach, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So that's that's one thing. Another thing I want to talk about is Barcelona,

Project 90 Soccer: Uh-huh.

Marco: they're pulling away. They're they're they're off to the races.

Project 90 Soccer: They are, bro. They are.

Marco: And Rafinha and Le Mignamon

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Mm.

Marco: One and two. We can't say that with Real Madrid. You can't say that with Vinicius and Mbappe. Cause I'm gonna put Bellinem in a separate, separate, separate little corner on the

Project 90 Soccer: Category. Yeah.

Marco: field, separate category. Because he's balling his ass on, bro. He's fighting for every

Project 90 Soccer: He always.

Marco: ball. He's fighting the Atletico Madrid players. Right? He's arguably one of the best players on on the on the on the squad and on a and on a game basis. Maybe the best player. Right? On and on and off the pitch with with the international squad. So

Project 90 Soccer: Mm.

Marco: I can tell you straight up, man. Total that one and two dynamic duel way different than the one and two dynamic duel we have with Barcelona. So

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: one thing I want to point out. What does Mourinho do every time he goes to a club? What does he do when things start going wrong? I said this before.

Project 90 Soccer: Benches players.

Marco: He calls one person out. Because

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: he's going to deflect all the stuff and that's going on onto somebody else.

Project 90 Soccer: Okay.

Marco: He did it with Casillas. He did

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: it with Chavi Alonso at times. So, Anto, I'm gonna ask you this question. Who would he do? Who is he gonna do it to? Mbappe? Vinicius? And

Project 90 Soccer: I I'm gonna be complete I know I know who he should do it to.

Marco: and Embellinam? Because I can tell you who I think, and I think is gonna be Vini, because

Project 90 Soccer: Thank you.

Marco: Because he's just not the Vinnie that we know, the Vinnie that's the best in the world, the Vinnie that just rips it every single weekend because he didn't show it at the World Cup either, I'm telling us not forget.

Project 90 Soccer: He didn't. No. He's not the he's he's

Marco: So much to sit back, man.

Project 90 Soccer: he's not that dominant guy, bro. When you when you think of Real Madrid, Mbappe has turned up for some of these games. He scored the goal. He's Valverde's turned up. Like Jude Bellingham's you don't even gotta worry about him. Like you're gonna put him on the field, you know what you're getting. Okay. but with Vinny, Vinicius Jr., this guy he's got a huge ego on him, chip on his shoulder. Yeah, he's a great player, but we have not seen it. We've not seen the greatness from Vinny Jr., bro. And for him to be the number seven at Real Madrid to have these expectations on his shoulders, because quite frankly, he is a player of that caliber, but he has not been performing at that caliber. And and speaking of Barcelona, you get Rafinha Lamin. I mean, they're not having trouble scoring against all these teams in La Liga. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing. So what's the problem with with Vinny Jr.? Why is he not able to go at and do it and and be dominant on the wing and And be one of those players that can can arguably and confidently fight for the quote unquote best player in La Liga because he's not.

Marco: I'll tell you I'll tell you one though. Real Madrid should be happy. It was an embarrassment like it was last year. Remember when they got scored on what is it like five to one, five to two?

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, it was disgusting. It was bad.

Marco: You can't go to Atletico Madrid and not perform, man. Tell you that much. That's two years in a row. What's going on?

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. It's bad, bro. And you know what? Credit to Atletico 'cause they had a shaky start. A couple shaky games and moments, but they seem to be turning it around,

Marco: Yeah, shout out to them.

Project 90 Soccer: especially that post Alvarez drama that seemed to be taking over all the papers and everything. But Real Madrid, man, I'm very interested to see how if things even turn around, if they even finish in the top two, because right now they're sitting in fourth place behind Betis. Atletico Madrid's in second. And then Barcelona sitting in first, 21 points, perfect start to the season, seven games, seven wins. Let's just touch on this real quick. Beating Sevilla, who's a respectable team, three to one. Rafinha is that guy, bro. He is that guy, Marco. Three goals this game. This guy's on fire. Barcelona has 31 goals already. 31 goals, Marco, in seven games.

Marco: More more goals than you're gonna more goals than you're gonna see the top the bottom four teams score all season.

Project 90 Soccer: That's what I'm saying. It's the craziest stats to be looking at. Seven and twenty-one points, thirty-one goals scored, a twenty-four goal difference, plus twenty-four goal difference. La Mina Mall is a is just the kid's still not even twenty one. The guy came and buy a beer here, dude. And he's just he's on another dude. I'd buy

Marco: I I'll tell you what, I'll buy a beer, tell you that much.

Project 90 Soccer: I'll buy him a six pack of beer and then Rafinha, you know, people were kinda mm, maybe not. Not too on the fence about it, but he was giving the captain's armband. And you know what, man? Credit to him. The guy's really lived up to it. He's putting in goals. He's really carrying the team along with everyone else, but he's really putting in work, bro. Three goals. I I mean, I can't see anybody, anybody catching Barcelona this season at this point. They've been dominating teams. They haven't just been winning games. They haven't even been really conceding any goals, to be completely honest. They have How many five-zero games already? Like three of them. Now they're winning three to one against Sevilla. Hat tricks from Rafinha. tw 31 goals in the season. I mean, I don't think there's really much else to say about Barcelona at this

Marco: It's crazy.

Project 90 Soccer: point. It's crazy, dude. So Real Madrid, I think, is the big question mark for La Liga this year. Now, before we close out this episode, Marco, we always like to touch on our little our NorCal neighbors here in San Jose. Earthquakes and the ML Espero, they played LAFC. The game we were supposed to go to didn't happen, but it's okay because we saw I saw it on TV, man. And the earthquakes again, though. Sketchy start going down 2 0. Buanga and Sun. Human Sun, you know what I'm saying?

Marco: Doesn't surprise me.

Project 90 Soccer: Doing what he does, bro. Puts two goals in. But then the Quakes coming back, bro. Coming back. Preston Judd. It's good to see him on the score sheet again because he was on fire at the beginning of the season and post World Cup. Along with the entire Earthquakes team, sort of took a dive. But now seeing him get goals consistently back, game after game, it's a good sign for the Earthquakes and then unlikely goal scorer, right? Reed Roberts, center defender, also getting on the score sheet to help get a point for San Jose Earthquakes. I thought it was a good game though. I thought it was a decent performance. Timo Werner coming on. Louvin had a good game. Vieira started the game but came off. Yeah, Benji Kikanovich coming off. So the earthquakes seem to have seem to have Bruce Arena, I should say, seems to have his favorites in the team. But every time he makes subs, it seems to change the game up, right? It brings a new some new energy into the game. And I think overall for them though, it's just good to see them getting points again. Because for a second there it wasn't looking good. So they're still in the hunt. They're still in the hunt for this playoff position. They're doing well in the West. And getting a result against LAFC who's, in my opinion,

Marco: Awesome.

Project 90 Soccer: A little bit of a higher caliber team, especially in terms of MLS. It's a big result. It's a big result. So did you see anything for this game? Were you able to watch it? Do you have any any comments about the Quakes before we close out here?

Marco: Man, Levi Stadium. We had the tickets, but Marco had to get sick, man. It would have been such a treat to go watch them get that goal. 90th plus minutes.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: but but to your point, man, the way it was going, expected LAFC, they're they're they're gonna come and get the three points and go back home and grab a Big Mac on the way out. Or or a double double. Or a double

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Or or

Marco: double.

Project 90 Soccer: a a Love's burrito, our favorite.

Marco: Love Vicks Burrito. Yeah, you know we would have gone. But and

Project 90 Soccer: Shout out.

Marco: to my surprise, San Jose was able to get get one late. So shout out to them. guys that typically Judd, like your your point. He's he's getting back to the groove of things. But defenders scoring, we don't we don't see it too often. So

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: shout out to them. Big one point at home against a big, big team. And

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: it's just shout out to them, man.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, and I think for the Earthquakes, i I think there's a statistic on this. I don't know it off the top of my head, but they're they're one of the only teams in MLS who have multiple, like multiple goal scorers. I mean, they're getting goals from their defenders, from midfielders, forwards. Everyone and their mother right now, San Jose Earthquakes, are scoring goals for the team. So I think that's something that that can't be forgotten. That's a that's a huge

Marco: They need it.

Project 90 Soccer: they need it, bro, because that means you can get a win from just about anybody on the field. You don't have to rely on one player. And that tells other teams that we can't just we can't just expect their attackers or forwards to be the threat because their defenders are scoring. Munie has scored, Reed Roberts has now scored, all their midfielders have scored a goal this season, even their outside backs. So I think I think it's looking good for San Jose. I expect them to not finish first in the conference, but I do expect them to go on and qualify and get a spot in the playoffs. But Yeah, that's a little little wrap-up for the MLS, San Jose Earthquakes. We are moving into an international break, which we will go over and break down on some on a following episode, upcoming episode now. We have some Nations League and some CONCACAF games, so that'll be exciting to see. And shout out to USA, it's gonna be exciting. Kevin Sullivan, Julian Hall, a lot of new players in the team. Italy as well, a lot of new players in the team. We're gonna see a lot of new faces. Zidane taking taking control, Chavi. For the Netherlands. So there's a lot of new lot of new faces around for international soccer. Rafa Marquez.

Marco: Rafa Marquez from Mexico also, let's not forget.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, Rafa Marquez as well. So we're gonna break all that down in an upcoming episode. But this has been another episode of Project 90. If you enjoyed the episode, like and subscribe, turn on the notification bell, leave a comment, tell us what you like, what you don't like, what you want to hear from us. Project 90Soccer.com, find all of our links to our other platforms, Spotify. Apple, TikTok, we're posting clips. So yeah, get on that, man. Get on that and leave a comment, tell your friends, share the episode. Marco, any last words?

Marco: Love y'all. We out.

Project 90 Soccer: Love y'all. Peace.