3rd Degree the Podcast #261

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Red lights on, Dan. [00:00:01] Speaker B: Is your red light on? [00:00:03] Speaker C: You know, not today. You know, some things needed a rest. Recover. Tighten that. Good stuff. [00:00:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Ooh. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Ooh. [00:00:21] Speaker B: The third degree napcat. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree. [00:00:29] Speaker A: The third degree nap, I guess. [00:00:32] Speaker B: Third degree. The third degree. Now podcast third degree. [00:00:36] Speaker A: The podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90 Dot, your source for all your Estee Dallas US national team and international club gear. Check out the new national team gear that's arrived just in time for Copa America in euro 2024. Argentina, France, Germany, Brazil, all the big guns are in stock now. As a third degree listener, get 20% off in store or online with the code third degree just mentioned that at checkout or use it online, soccernoni.com. Some exclusions may apply. This episode of Third Degree of the podcast is also brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm for wills, trust, probates, and business law. Call 469-515-2559 or visit lindstromwfirm.com for a free consultation. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. I am told that this is numbered 261 and it's a victory podcast. Woohoo. As Dallas beats Houston two to nothing. And we'll talk more about that here in a little bit. But first, the trio is together. Myself, Peter, and there he is, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:41] Speaker C: Oh, hey, how's it going? [00:01:43] Speaker B: I suppose it's going just fine. Thank you for asking. And your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero. Editor, founder, thirddegree.net, the original soccer influencer himself. And live from somewhere in sunny Florida, the great buzz Kerik. Literally come in. Buzz. [00:02:02] Speaker A: Hello from Key West, Florida, the. [00:02:04] Speaker B: Oh, the most southern point of the United States of America. [00:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah, we went by there just yesterday, in fact. And today. [00:02:14] Speaker B: How much partying have you done? Wait, we. Is Amy with you? [00:02:18] Speaker A: Yeah, she's here. [00:02:19] Speaker B: Are y'all. Are y'all swinging? [00:02:21] Speaker A: Oh, no. Okay. It's Key west, after all. Yeah, I passed a couple houses with pineapples out front, though, so I've learned. [00:02:28] Speaker C: Were they upside down? [00:02:29] Speaker A: Oh, is that. The thing is, I gotta go see, I see. I'm not even dialed in on the code. [00:02:33] Speaker B: I think it's Adirondack chairs and upside down pineapples. [00:02:37] Speaker A: Upside down pineapples. I didn't know it was upside down. All right. [00:02:40] Speaker C: I always wondered how you said that. Not the pineapples, the Addron dark part. [00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Adirondack chairs. Yeah. Excellent. I finally taught Dan something for once. [00:02:50] Speaker A: Yes. [00:02:51] Speaker C: I learned an english word. [00:02:56] Speaker B: Well, listen to how happy and gleeful the three of us are today, because Dallas to Houston, zero. Dallas gets its first win in a very long time at a much needed time, and it probably just double sweet that it is the true Texas Darby that it happens in, but it comes with a but buzz. Should we just ignore the butt and not talk about the but? [00:03:21] Speaker A: No, I think you have to admit the butt is there. [00:03:25] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Houston got a red card five minutes in and played 85 minutes a man down, and Dallas scored just twice. But even a butt has a butt. It a win is a win is a win, and maybe this gets the team off the snide. [00:03:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Certainly when you're playing a rival and when you're as bad as Dallas has been, you know it's a win. No matter what, you get to win at all costs. You know, the red card makes it hard to do a lot of deep analytics or anything, but nonetheless, you know, in the end of the day, you have to play the game and you have to actually win. There have been times where this club has not managed to do that despite being up of a man the whole time. And certainly it's a team like Houston, which is a very defensive team. They're structured a lot like Dallas in a lot of ways in terms of the defensive first mentality. So two goals is positive. You know, a good XG to go with those two goals is a positive. So given the struggles club's had, you can't. You can't be anything about positive in terms of like, is there things we can take away here? Oh, yeah, there's some good things we can take away from. We shouldn't go overboard, but we should enjoy the moment for what it is. [00:04:31] Speaker C: Is there one thing we can add? The red card even is a good thing for FC Dallas, because finally, a good wing back run, if you ignore the man in the center who played Marco onside to begin with because he was too lazy to look across a line, but still positive. [00:04:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say, Buzz. I think the question that is fairly up for asking is if Dante Seeley had been playing left wing back in that exact same moment, would that scenario have taken place? [00:05:05] Speaker A: It's possible, because Dante's forte, or his desire is to get forward. You know, it's not that hard that he hasn't been doing, not that it's been colossal, but at least he has been getting forward somewhat. It's the defense he hasn't been doing. The difference in him and Farfan is that Farfan brought a two way game instead of a one way game, you know, and that's. That's the significant positive for Dallas going forward is that when you have a wing back, they play both ways, because this, the way Dallas plays it, you have to have them play both ways. [00:05:32] Speaker B: So. Yeah, yeah, well, but see, I'm wondering, and going back and watching this, if Dante had been playing that position, would he have started so far deep in his own defending half and not been maybe more up in midfield, which would have attracted a defender in the first place? [00:05:47] Speaker A: Yeah, very possible. You know, I also don't know if he would have necessarily been moving full speed that fast. You know, he. Dante can be late to read the game sometimes and react in a positive. [00:05:59] Speaker C: Way, be that central for it to be denial of a goal scoring opportunity either. [00:06:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that's potentially fair, too. So I'm quite sure that you're correct that if it had been Dante, the circumstances would not have been exactly the same and it probably would not have resulted in a red card. But, you know, that it's not that they got a red card. That's a good thing. The good thing is that the player was that they had in that spot, finally was a player that can play both ways. That's far more important than the individual red card in this game that it's. It's a such an important element that they've been missing on the left side. [00:06:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it's probably unfair to Dante to poke on him on this. And it's even more unfair not to highlight the smart play, by far fan who we finally got to see play. Is this his first minutes of the season? [00:06:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:41] Speaker B: So literally his first touch of the ball, he ends up creating this advantage for his team. [00:06:45] Speaker A: Yeah, it's close to the first touch. And look, to be fair, when Marco. Yeah, we knew. We knew Dante Seeley was going to need to learn to play defense, and it has not been going as well as we thought. I did not know that Markovar van had as much offensive game as he displayed in this game. I knew Sam Junka had that. We've seen that from Sam Jungkook. We had not seen it from far fans. So it was really pleasant to see him provide a two way game. And even if it's not scintillating, it's at least threatening enough that the defense had to respond to it. And that. And that having the defense respond to that outside channel. And for the very beginning, when we talked about this formation, we talked about how the Wingbacks have to become the outside channel and that forward v that you create, that all these modern teams create. And Dante see, Lee hadn't been doing that and Farfett did. And that's the difference. [00:07:28] Speaker B: So not to be going, what's the phrase I'm looking for? Not to. Not to dwell on the past, but knowing what we know after this game and seeing Marco Farfan show some offensive gusto, where was that last season? [00:07:47] Speaker A: That's an outstanding question because he's never really demonstrated that before. [00:07:50] Speaker B: Is that because he was told not to do it? [00:07:53] Speaker A: It's very possible. I have talked to the various outside backs on this team enough to know that this coach obviously preaches a heavily defensive game and heavy defensive responsibility game and that that is the priority. And so both Farfan on that side and Tuomasi or anyone else on the other side knows that they have to give the dispenser defensive responsibility first. So it's very possible that we haven't seen as much offense out of Tuamazi under this coach as we saw when he was in USL. Or have we seen any from far fans? Very possible. They just didn't know they were supposed to. Or didn't. Or they knew they weren't supposed to. And so now in this shape, they know they're supposed to. So maybe we'll see some of that more. Hopefully we'll see more out of EMA. [00:08:34] Speaker C: It's interesting. So I think. I think you or someone else mentioned Marco's qualities as a wing back. That was a bit unexpected discord and it. I don't know why. It just came to mind at the time. Do you remember when he first signed and, you know, we go back and look at clips from LA and Portland. He was really good at port in Portland, getting forward and pinging crosses in and we just, just never forgot about that. Yeah, well, we never saw it, so why would you remember it? [00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, fair, I guess the, the, the question does. I mean, it's. I'm appreciating the fact that we got to see him for the first time and he played as well as he did and he, you know, helped the team out instantaneously. But the reality is the first five to 45 minutes goes by and in fact another ten minutes goes by and Dallas was obviously the more dominant team and had some chances, but it took them a full, another, you know, half and ten minutes to score, finally break Houston down and score. And in that amount of time it still feels and looks like a very broken team in many ways. Buzz. [00:09:49] Speaker A: Yeah. There's still a lot of things that we don't like, you know, even, for example, I'll use one of the stats from the game that drove me crazy, which was a really positive, you would think on the surface, 24 or 25 shots to two for Houston, which just shows you the dominance that occurs when you are up a man. But FCL has only got five of those on goal, so that that left them with 24 shots. With the next year just over two, it was the highest xg of the year. Don't get me wrong, that's nice. But remember how we've talked all along about how this team has to be efficient and that five, only five shots on goal out of 24 is not very efficient at all and so that's a red flag. But, you know, again, we're still looking at a team that's like, we still haven't seen all the pieces, you know, we still know Fraser's more of a defensive first midfielder. We still know that emo on the right is not giving so far as enough offenses. We'd like to see him do. We know that he's capable of in the past? We know that, you know, they started Delgado as one of the wings who's a defensive midfielder, you know, order to create that box around midfield, which was a very effective technique, but it's not going to get you a lot of creative inlet sort of passes, you know, same with polyol, is not playing that great, is still doing more than most other people. So there's just not a high caliber team cooking on all levels right now, you know, so, which is, but, you know, again, when you, when you have this red card, it's super hard to go super deep on that list because everything is so out of whack. But it definitely is a team that's still trying to find itself. [00:11:17] Speaker B: So what do you ch is far fan being pulled at halftime a reflection of the fact that they weren't creating or weren't successful in scoring a goal in the first half and thought they needed something else or was he on a minutes restriction? [00:11:30] Speaker A: I'm assuming it's a minute restriction because he had just come back from the concussion, you know, and right before that he had the, the back. It's not a stress fracture. He had a little tiny little crack and, you know, so it's, I'm sure part of the reason he hadn't played it this year was because he wasn't quite fit, you know, because he had been out before that with, with some kind of groin. The problem, I think it was so, you know, there's there's lots of reasons why you keep him on a minute restriction of just 45 minutes. I don't think that he was pulled for bad play and by any stretch of imagination because I think he played really well. But at the same time, coach is also trying to get other guys going and we know he's trying to get other guys going. So, you know, it's, it's, it's not always going to be as straightforward as just minute restrictions, you know, so, I mean, some of the guys that want, that have came in in the second half are the guys that he desperately wants to get going. Whether it be Kamungo, whether it be Logan Farrington, you know, it's. I don't think, I don't think we should take it as an diamond of far fan. I wasn't yet, but I'm pretty sure it's a minute restriction. [00:12:38] Speaker B: Yeah, no, and I wasn't. I wasn't trying to imply that it was he was moved or pulled because of his performance. I thought maybe he was pulled because they wanted somebody even more attacking minded when you're playing with a man advantage. That, that made sense to me, too. I didn't know if it was more about that or more about a minutes restriction. That's what I was trying to figure. [00:12:58] Speaker A: I would think, well, they hadn't scored at that point, so maybe they wanted to go more offensive. But at the same time, it's like he also is desperate to get Kamungo going, so it might just be more about, here's another chance for me to get that guy in and when they're going to be a man up and he's going to feel really good about it, you know, I even talked about the chance I thought he might start Kamun go to try and bring some offense to the outside of the field and make Houston have to spread their midfield a little bit because they play pretty narrow. So I'm sure that was all part of the tactic. You know, I haven't had a chance to talk to him about it because I'm out of town, but I can't, you know, it's all in there. It's all part of it. [00:13:31] Speaker B: Dan, were you as confused as I was when you saw Patrickson starting in the left forward position in this game, at least according to the way that the team drew it up in their pre game list? [00:13:45] Speaker C: Yeah, I get the idea of playing him in that kind of box four, but the way they drew up, it was almost like, yeah, he's playing as an inside forward, which just didn't seem like it should play to his strengths. [00:13:56] Speaker B: He's playing Velasco's spot. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Yeah, he really was. [00:14:02] Speaker B: What was everybody's takeaway from his performance there? [00:14:06] Speaker A: I thought it was okay, you know, he's not in there to try and spring people and yet he still had three key passes, you know, which is a pass that generates a shot. So he's a young player and he has the ability to pass a little bit, you know, but I don't think that he was in there for that. I think he was in there to crowd, you know, by far the strength of the Houston team is that midfield with. I know Hector her didn't start, but they still had Coco, they still had art tour. So, you know, that you needed to corral that. I think that's why they went with him over some of the other choices they could have in that moment. You know, the defensive, this mind of this coach is, you know, you could have put in Bernie in that spot. You could have put in seeking in that spot and just both those guys are not 100% capable defensive, responsible players where Doggotto is much more locked in on that kind of thing. [00:14:51] Speaker B: Okay. Moosa had obviously a big night for Moussa. He scored, he had several shots. I, you know, Dan Buzz, you want to throw out any hot sports opinions on where Petter Moussa is at this point with. I think he's on his, on three goals for the season. [00:15:10] Speaker A: I think he's on a really good pace. I like where he's at, you know, I like that there hasn't been any sign of letdown from him, even when he was clearly frustrated. I was really excited about the early sort of interesting stuff that was happening between him and Jesus. Clearly they need a lot more time together, but there were flashes in that play that I thought was really exciting. You know, I think that the, the nice thing about Musa is he's so distracting from. For the defenders and for the center backs. He criers so much attention. Like when he makes those little runs through the middle, like two or three players will track him and go with him, you know, so he's fighting against multiple double teams all time, you know, so I like, I like. Where is that, given all the factors of what's going on with this team, frankly? [00:15:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we've had so many years without, like typical high nine play, the run. I mean, for the goal. I can't think of too many nines in, in recent years that are going to actually pull that wide, get space on the defender and cross it, you know, and put it across the keeper successfully. Plenty are going to get it as close to the byline as possible and just try and smash it out of play. And then the, there was a run late on through the midfield, defender took him down, took a yellow card, and that's just the kind of run where, you know, you had a, you would have a maxi Iruti or Jesus or someone who's, who's back in a defensive third or at the halfway line, not kind of making those progressive runs to put FC Dallas in a position of success. [00:16:49] Speaker B: So we haven't really talked about the back three, which was Junka Tafari, who returned in a starting position in Ibiyaga. And it's hard to judge their performance in this game because obviously Houston was struggling with playing a man down. But before Dallas scored, it wasn't like Houston didn't have a couple of opportunities in their left winger. I don't know how you pronounce his last name, Alvi you. Is that how you pronounce it, Buzz? Do you know? [00:17:20] Speaker A: I don't know. [00:17:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, he's speedy and quick and he almost had a really good opportunity. And I guess the point is what I'm trying to ask. I just, I continue to be very, very concerned about this back, the, this team's defensive skill sets and, and until they scored and took the lead, I. There was a very. I think we all probably had a very fair concern that Dallas was still going to somehow figure out a way to give up a goal even though they had a man advantage. [00:17:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I did in a macro sense of like, Dallas occasionally flubs games like this. I feel like, you know, where they don't, they're supposed to win or that they, they know with the main advantage they should win or they think they're going to win and they don't just do enough to get it done. But I never really felt like Houston threatened all that much, honestly. I mean, they had a few shots, but I didn't really feel like they were that dangerous. The Dallas back three was acceptable. I'm not going to go much more than that. You know, it'd be obvious. End up being a lot of people's man. [00:18:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Man of the match. Yeah. [00:18:26] Speaker A: And he made team of the week, but that's, that's skewed because of the goal. You know, you give him a lot of credit for getting forward on the goal. It's a nice goal, but, you know, how do you play other than that? I thought all three of those guys were relatively good, you know, stable, calm. Pause was fine. You know, I don't, I don't. You know, having far fan is a more defensive mindset on one side and two of us a more defensive mindset on the other side. I really felt like they had that under control, you know? [00:18:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I found a weird, interesting start there. FC Dallas only had one successful tackle in their defensive third and that was Liam Frazier. [00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Again, I want to be positive about the fact that they won, but my big takeaway from the game was, is that I. I do think that when you're at home, your team is playing with a man advantage for 85 minutes. It's weird to say, but for there is a part of me that would have expected a even better result out of this and, and I think there is still some pretty clear signs, buzz, that this team has a lot of work to do. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Well, you know, we, we talked about them playing this, putting this defensive box around midfield, you know, and Delgado was in there and not a creative player, a far fan who is not necessarily a creative player, but did a much, much nicer job than we expected, you know, to Obamacy. We've, we've, we've talked about how he is not as offensive as he used to be, you know, because of this preaching of the defense they put on him when, when Bernie. Bernie came in and he did some nice things, but he's still out of sorts. He's not really creating and Paul's not really creating. So it's actually stunning that they had a 24 volume, 24 shots. That's incredible. But we know we do red flag the idea that it wasn't efficient, which is really important with this team, you know, in terms of the back. I thought that for the most part, they actually did a really nice job passing out of the back. But that's because Houston is not a high press team and they're certainly down a man. They're not a high press team. So, like, okay, great. I love it. This is. That's been a bad area for this team. It's like being able to get it out of the back. Well, of course they were able to get out of the back, but, you know, you still gotta like seeing, you know, guys like Jungkook and Nikosi passing it in like a 93% clip. And that's really nice, you know, and of course, Yara Mindy's over 90% and Ariel is over 90%. You know, it's just there, they just were not under a lot of pressure, you know, and this is a team that this year when they have not been under pressure, I think it looks better. You know, they start where this year they're not handling well. Teams that press them, you know, they're not. They. The week before was just the week before. We were talking about how awful they looked against Colorado in the first half when they could, they couldn't even get out of the back at all and they were trying to go a little more vertical. So obviously, you know, one game doesn't turn the season around. So we just take these small positive moments, you know, the addition of far fan, the continued phenomenal play of Yara Mindy, who's just a breathtaking player and went 90 minutes in this one as he stretches minute load, Asus getting back and even though he got 30 on a minute restriction, it's still nice. You know, when your season was as bad as it was, where all we were talking about who the next coach was going to be, you know, for them to have gotten a win and see some positive ideas, you know, hopefully they can carry that forward and hopefully we can see this team move into a positive direction, you know, because it could real quickly go south again. And we keep you back talking about who the next coach is going to be. [00:21:44] Speaker C: One player you mentioned was ima Tumasi. Look, you know, I only saw the seven minute pilots package because Apple did away with that nice 15 minutes condensed version, but Ima Tumasi had some pretty nice numbers for a wing back. So I just wondered, you know, obviously numbers only tell part of the story, right? So I wondered kind of what your, your take on how he played was. [00:22:11] Speaker A: I thought it was better than it has been in terms of a two way contribution, you know, but again, how much of that was just them being down a man and him feeling free? How much of it is coach who has been telling Tuomasi and Farfan to be defensive first or defensive only for two years now, is now telling them to be two way players. You know, sometimes we don't get enough necessary information out of the locker room to know for sure. So I do think that Emma tried to do more and got forward more than we've ever seen him get forward before. He doesn't look like, you know, a van. Vancouver is excellent wingbacks or Columbus or something like that, but, um, you know, it's a real positive, uh, I thought it was a positive improvement for him over the, what we'd seen earlier this year. The biggest thing for him, though, was like, because he came out of the spring, in my opinion, about ten pounds too heavy. He's dropped all that and he now it looks like he's supposed to look and his fitness is close to back to being completely game fit. He's a completely different player now than he was a month ago. So, um, you know, if they continue to field him in that role, I think it continue to improve that. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Right? Yeah. I was just going to say before you go on, before they went up before the, the red card, I was starting to get frustrated with to Amasi because he turned the ball over deep in Dallas's half at least twice, if not three times, and he looked like he was really struggling. His game improved greatly when Houston kind of took their foot off the pedal after the red card. So I, my sense about tuamasi at this point is still very much TBD when they're having to play even handed and all of that. [00:23:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know that that's. I think that's perfectly fair. The thing about duo, his biggest thing, detriment this year, the thing that's going to hold him back the most is Paul Ariel's $1.7 million salary because you can't really, as a coach and a technical director, have a dude making that kind of money sitting around not playing. [00:24:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. So. But Paul also has a. Paul also has a mindset that emma just doesn't have, which is, you know, somebody feeds the ball to, to Amasi out wide and his first instinct is to play the ball backwards. He just never seems to want to capitalize on the space that is afforded him in the attacking half of the field. He never seems to want to take on his defender. And I really drives me nuts. [00:24:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a shame because he wasn't like that in San Antonio. And, you know, it's, it's not Santa Austin. And I think that they've coached it out of him, which is a shame. But, you know, at the same time, Paul obviously has played at a much significant higher level, but then he's not as good defensively as, as he may is. So, you know, the bottom line is that when you're talking about a player getting that paid that kind of money, when, when you get some other healthier guys back, the coach is still going to want to try very to his very best to get Paul on the field. And you're also going to have Giovanni coming back even before Alan Blasco coming back. So it's. Giomaster is also going to have to compete with Giovanni, too. So that's actually one of the most crowded positions on the field, because don't forget, you also even have Herbert Endele, who started the only game that Desi Dallas has won 1111 this year. So. And it's as the clock, the fastest speed of any FC Dallas player this season. So, you know, they still got him working his way up, too. So it's one of the most crowded positions on the entire roster. That right wing back spot. [00:25:32] Speaker B: It is interesting that Dallas wins a game, 20 nothing, and Martin Paz makes zero saves. Forced to make zero saves. [00:25:41] Speaker A: I'm okay with that. [00:25:44] Speaker C: Indonesian citizen Martin Paz. [00:25:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Wait, so he. I thought that it was off. [00:25:51] Speaker A: Well, he went through with the citizenship. We've heard, you know, her tale that him playing for them is off, but he obviously went through with still the citizenship. [00:25:59] Speaker B: But didn't we also hear, if you are a dutch citizen, if you get other citizenships, you have to renounce your dutch citizenship? Or is that. But am I. [00:26:09] Speaker C: There's certain exceptions to that. [00:26:11] Speaker B: Ah, okay. [00:26:12] Speaker C: And I think because his mother, grandmother. Oh, grandma. I think that. Yeah. The immediate family thing is one of the exceptions. [00:26:21] Speaker A: Yeah. His grandmother was born in the West Indies. It was west or East? I don't know. Whichever one it is. [00:26:26] Speaker C: Dutch East Indies. [00:26:27] Speaker A: Yeah, Dutch East Indies. [00:26:28] Speaker C: West Indies is. [00:26:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:30] Speaker C: Bermuda. [00:26:34] Speaker B: I only smoke in the mid to late afternoons. [00:26:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:38] Speaker B: And sometimes in the early mid evenings, it's an old Steve bark. [00:26:43] Speaker C: Or in Key west. Just all the time. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Right. Very good. All right. So, anything else about the big win over Houston? The dynamite? Well. Oh, wait. Yes. There is something else we have to talk about. The kid assignment. [00:27:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:02] Speaker B: Look, I understand that there are a certain group of people that when in the past, Dallas has played in their red and Houston has played in their orange, that there has been some concerns of people's ability to make on television the difference between those two. Although Dallas always wears a dark colored pant. I. You know, but I'm not. I'm also not colorblind, so maybe I'm not the right person to talk about this, but with Dallas's new afterburner kit, that is a navy blue kit with navy blue shorts, there is no reason why they couldn't have both worn their primary kits on Saturday night. [00:27:44] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, my only is, my. My only assumption, and I hope this is true, is that we know that there is a certain number of games required for them to wear their white jersey at home. [00:27:56] Speaker B: They've already had to have eclipsed that guarantee. [00:27:58] Speaker A: I know that. That's the thing is, like, the only thing I can come up with is, like, there must be something about later in the season that they were forced to go white at home, like the first three or four games or something. And I haven't looked at it. I can't possibly tell you what it is, but it's mind boggling that we've only seen the blue jersey twice this year. And we're not gonna see it again this weekend either. Cause Toronto wears the red, the dark thing at home. So Dallas will be in all white again. [00:28:24] Speaker B: Yeah. I saw somebody online say they. They had posted that promotional item about Jesus racking up appearances for the club or something, some sort of mark, and it was him and his afterburner jersey. And somebody said, you know, something about that just struck me as weird. And I realized it was the first time I'd ever seen Jesus wearing that jersey. Cause he's never worn it in a game. [00:28:45] Speaker A: Yeah, well, they, they, they always wear the road kit at home. Like once early to try and get you to buy some, you know. [00:28:55] Speaker B: Right. [00:28:56] Speaker A: You're gonna see nothing a lot. And then, then I think it's like. I think it's literally like half the home games, they have to wear this other sponsor because I. Dual sponsorship thing, it's. If it's not half, it's close to half. And then. So you start looking at teams and it's like, you know, later in the year or whatever. I'm sure somebody made some calculation. I certainly hope they didn't just for whatever reason, decide, like, we're going to wear the white one, a whole bunch for some reason. I can't possibly understand what it was, and I doubt anyone will tell us, but it's mind blogging how often it's been. [00:29:25] Speaker C: I just wish the league was like, I think Spain and the Premier League and the Football league have it, but you're only allowed to wear the awake at home, like, a certain number of times. [00:29:38] Speaker A: I'm sure if we sat down with a schedule and looked at the other team's jerseys, I did it earlier in the year. [00:29:44] Speaker C: We did it on discord. [00:29:46] Speaker A: Yeah, there'd be. There'd be cases where it was like, oh, I want to wear my blue at home. But the other team has two versions of a blue Jersey, so you're screwed. So you got to wear the white. Like, if you played San Jose or Montreal or Vancouver or whoever you can come up with after that, you can assume probably that both versions of their light and they're dark jersey or blue. And so you're like, well, it was. [00:30:07] Speaker C: One of the games they played in the blue kit. [00:30:10] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm sure that's why you end up with being forced to wear it more than you would think. This early is just some happenstance of schedule, I'm assuming. Otherwise, I don't understand at all what. [00:30:24] Speaker C: What should wear the away kit at home against Orlando later in the season to make Orlando wear purple. [00:30:31] Speaker A: Maybe they, maybe they hate the blue, the one that they've designed. You know, it's always possible that, like, they had this grand idea and then Adidas made it and they said, well, that sucks. Let's. [00:30:45] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe that's, maybe they've all come to the same conclusion that the rest of us have. [00:30:49] Speaker A: It's not an FC. [00:30:50] Speaker B: Cool kid, but it's not a Dallas shirt. [00:30:52] Speaker C: No, I've got it. I've got it. They're waiting until later in the season to figure out what the fuck the afterburner is. [00:31:02] Speaker B: Yes, I will share with you guys in the last couple of weeks, at least twice, if not three times, in completely independent conversations out of the blues, somebody has said to me, hey, I saw this billboard driving around, what does afterburner mean? [00:31:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:19] Speaker B: And I go look at it. I go, I have no idea. And two of the three said, does it mean, is it them trying to get away from the burn identity? And I said, oh, they left. They, they ran away from the burn identity 20 years ago and then they tried to capture it again last year. And now I, maybe I, but I think they, I think they did. I just tried to tell them, I think they did some deal with the Air Force and, yeah, it's a lean. [00:31:42] Speaker A: Into the burn and then they, up with the Air Force. They haven't really made it quite clear enough that the overall arching thing is the Air Force thing, the military thing, because, like, your casual fan didn't catch all that. Like, your hardcore fans know what, know it, know what the campaign is, but your casual fans, like, what does that do with Dallas? [00:32:00] Speaker B: Well, I told, I told each one of these people is a lead in that actually, Dallas is the fastest team in the league. [00:32:06] Speaker A: Oh, that's funny because none of. [00:32:11] Speaker B: That just seems like a very funny answer to me. It would also make, I guess it would make sense if in fact, it was true, but it is not. I also think the other observation I had about this team is the, and I know we've talked about this, but it was pretty, uh, interesting is just how much older this team is. I mean, Dallas historically, over the last, I don't know, ten years, has been pretty famous in MLS for being one of the younger outfits in the league. But it suddenly now feels like this team is very old. [00:32:41] Speaker A: It is just compared to itself because it's actually just still middle of the pack in terms of average. But, you know, it just has really key players that skew old, and a couple of them skew really old, like Mindy and. And Omar Gonzalez are way older than we're used to seeing. And in general, we're not seeing any teenagers, really on the team. I mean, they have them. They're just not. They're down with North Texas. They're not with the first team. So that's why it feels older than it's ever felt before. [00:33:06] Speaker B: Okay. [00:33:07] Speaker A: Because, you know, this coach was adamant about the. I don't want all these players I can't use. So they kind of have. They stacked the developmental roster with people that are old, like Omar and Jimmy Maurer. So, you know, that there's no really room for these homegrown signings on the first team roster, really anymore. They're not making the bench. They're not making, like, Sally's 1819 is not making the bench. You know, all the homegrowns that are in high school, in high school are not making the bench. So that's why it feels like that. [00:33:36] Speaker B: Well, Buzz, since you are in aforementioned, Florida, there is no training report today on this particular episode, but we do have two games to preview because between now and the next time we do an episode of this podcast, Dallas will play, have played a league game and a US open cup game. Let's start off with the Saturday night's game against Toronto up in the good north. Yes. And as Buzz mentioned earlier, Dallas will wear the white burn jerseys again. [00:34:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Solid white shorts, too. Yeah. Not even the black shorts. [00:34:07] Speaker B: Oy vey. Toronto, by the way, is in fourth in the east. [00:34:13] Speaker A: Yeah. They turn their team around quick, didn't they? [00:34:15] Speaker B: They did. Well, they got a lot of money put in that thing. Somebody better turn that thing around pretty quick. [00:34:20] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, good coaching helps, I think. You know, in a lot of ways. You can't. When you have a group that you start that performs pretty well, you kind of have to let those guys ride a little bit. With the caveat that injuries are still a factor. Like, obviously Jesus can't go 90, but I do think that's the key. The one key is like, jesus, you'll want to, you know, as long as he came through the game unscathed, comes through training unscathed, you'll want to try and increase his minute load up to maybe like 55 60, which means he kind of. He needs to start. He's too important a player. So, like, ordinarily you might say to your guys, hey, eleven, that did a great job. You guys are in again. Well, that ain't going to be the case this time because he's too important. So your first question is, how do you get him in? And that's pretty obvious. You take Delgado out and you put Jesus in. That's easy. But then everybody else, I actually think will be the same because we talked about the two way game far fans going to give you. We talked about Emma playing pretty well defensively and trying to bring a little showing a little bit better. You've got your three center backs that played solidly, you know, like there's no one pressing those guys to get back in the game. I don't think Omar, you know, was fine, but he wasn't like, oh, yeah, keep him and move to coasting ground or whatever. You know, your army and Frazier is your best combo. I really think that it's basically the same eleven with just Jesus in there instead of Delgado, you know, because coach is going to want that defensive merchant ality on the road like he always does. That's why I'll be far fan and to a mossy. In my opinion, that's the only swing would be potentially would like would you put Paul Ariela back and wing back and bring in somebody like a Bernie or whatever that has done a couple of decent performances off the bench. Now, it's one of those underneath players, but this coach with his on the road grind mentality that he has, I don't think he will. I think it's the same thing with just Asus starting of Patrickson. So that one's pretty simple, I think. [00:36:12] Speaker B: Okay. [00:36:13] Speaker A: I mean, can you guys think of anybody on the roster that you feel like is really banging the door down like that needs to be in the lineup? There's not really anybody, you know? [00:36:20] Speaker B: No. And I. And again, I think that's part of the problem of doing this. You know, I think we want as a podcast to come in here, be positive about everything and the team won and fair enough, but I. I'm. That wasn't the type of win that instilled a ton of confidence or made me feel like a lot of things are fixed or corrected. And it's not like a lot of these injured players are coming back. Jesus coming back is great for this team. And obviously it can't. He probably won't make it worse. But, you know, Jesus has got to go back to being Jesus, not, not post Gold Cup Jesus. [00:36:58] Speaker A: Yeah. I think what's most important for this coach in terms of getting this team going in the right direction and keeping his job, you know, is like, you have to get the small positives that you found. You have to keep them going in the right direction. And that means getting Jesus back and integrated. That means, you know, far fan probably being in there and being a stabilizing force. You know, maybe there's some pieces you can move around here and there that have to do with matchups when you feel like you have different circumstances, but then you also have to campfire against this coach's nature, which is going to be the defensive versus mindset on the road. And then you look at the guys that are available, it's like Farrington seeking sibling Carl Sante, Bernie Kamungo. Like, if Delgado doesn't start, is he in over Frasier? No. It's like none of those guys are knocking the door down saying, start me. Start me with their actions and with their play. You know, you have some pieces on the bench that you feel like you want to develop over time. None of them are like, let's go. You know, so it's like, it really is. A lot of times these things are pretty obvious, I think, in terms of how the, the formation that you'll see out on the field from any given week to week based on who's healthy more than anything else. [00:38:05] Speaker B: It's interesting, as you go through the roster like that, that reminds me of a conversation that was taking place in your discord. And by the way, I'll take this moment to remind everybody listening to this free pod, that if you want to participate in a good group of burn fans and the true curious, give buzz a couple bucks every month and I'll give you access to his discord. And there was, there was a conversation going on about the hot seats around the league, and there were some Dallas fans giggling over the fact that Oscar Parea and Gary Smith in Nashville were being listed as even hotter seats than Niko. And I think there may be an argument about that because those are teams with very high expectations and considerably better rosters than Dallas does. And while Dallas may not be performing even as well as they are, I just think maybe if, in fact, Niko's seat isn't as hot, that may be just a reflection of everybody's, where everybody's expectations are set for this team. Considering the roster, I think at this. [00:39:10] Speaker A: Point the only 100% agree with all that. I think you're exactly on point that there probably are hotter jobs. Certainly Lucci's hot seat is probably hotter than Nico's. I think the only x factors you have at this point are, again, health, right? It is legit healthy because he's been pretty solid. So like, you could play him in multiple spots, you could bring him in for Fraser, you can bring him in and play next to Yara Mendy, but that's on the road. I might like a little more of that Fraser Steele. You could bring him in instead of Paul up top, play him with Jesus and Musa, and then Paul could be that wing back. But then again, might. Would this coach want the more the defensive Mossy wingback over Paul on the road in Toronto? Maybe Paul has some savvy, some experience that might come in handy there instead. And really that's about it. Other than possibly Eugene Ansa, would you, could you put Ansa up top next to Musa and Jesus, a little more underneath them? Possibly? So those are maybe some small x factors, but I really think with the way the team performed last game, you kind of need to let those guys ride a little a game or two and see what happens, you know, and other than bringing in Jesus, so. And I. And I agree with your assessment that, that, you know, there are other teams that are underperforming. You know, just as we were talking about how we thought Oscar had rided the ship in Orlando, he went and lost to Toronto at home. So, you know, Toronto is playing really well, too, and that's going to be a very tough place to go play. You know, it's. I would not feel at all good about, in fact, about Seals going in there with any chance to get much of a result, given how good Toronto's been, frankly. [00:40:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it is interesting that in fourth, Toronto has not been a high scoring team. They've only scored eleven goals, they've allowed 13. So their goal differential, even despite being a top four team, the east is a negative two, but they've only lost the one game at home, so it'll be a good test. You know, traveling in MLS is always a bad starting point for any team. Not many teams travel well and get results. So, you know, hey, isn't it funny. [00:41:09] Speaker A: How, you know that their goal differential is not that different from Dallas? They're at minus two instead of minus three. [00:41:14] Speaker B: Right. [00:41:14] Speaker A: It's like, you know, sometimes results aren't necessarily about the volume of what you're doing, it's about. About how it matches up with what you're doing, like who you played, when your goals come, you know, that kind of thing. Toronto got results and Dallas doesn't. Houston and Dallas are very similar in the way they played. Houston's got results in, Dallas hasn't. So it's not always necessarily just how you play or how well you're performing. It's how you actually manage the game and get goals that don't get goals and when they come, can make a vast difference. [00:41:40] Speaker B: So then the following Tuesday, Dallas comes back to Frisco and plays in their US Open cup game. And I got to tell you, it's really weird. And I don't. And I am, I don't know if this is a Dallas thing, I don't know if this is an MLS thing, and I don't know if this is a byproduct of all the MLS versus open cup drama that took place in the offseason, but the club is not making a lot of effort to promote that particular game. If you go to the website, it's in the schedule. But there's the, the graphics for the games that are coming up are the Toronto game and the Austin game. And I've seen some people online talk about how some of the promotional stuff, they're getting an email from the club if their season ticket holders doesn't even talk about the Open cup game. And so I, I don't really have a sense buzz as to where this club's head is at with the open cup these days. [00:42:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I think you're, you might be right about the league not wanting to make a big deal about the Open cup because of their whole shenanigans going on with that, which is a shame. But I also think that FC Dallas has always struggled massively to get anybody at all to come out of watch the Open cup games that they may have just gone in a given up mode. Like, why should we spend money marketing that thing when no one's going to come anyway? [00:42:54] Speaker B: But why, why did they stop playing open cup games in other locations around Dallas Fort Worth? Like, when they played those games at SMU? They were a blast. [00:43:03] Speaker A: I honestly think they forgot. Oh, because the pandemic happened and then we went like two years without an open cup and when we came back, everyone was like, oh, yeah, we forgot. We used to do that. And part of it, too, is, again, it's the cost of like, having a game set up and run at those other facilities, I think. I'm not really sure why, but honestly, like, when we first brought it up, they were some people, a lot of people were like, oh, they used to. [00:43:27] Speaker B: Do that, I was like, oh, my gosh. Back in the Dallas burn days, remember when they used to play at, like, a high school? They played a couple games at highs like a Duncanville one year, and God. [00:43:38] Speaker A: I have to pull the Panther stadium. [00:43:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. What was the other one? There was one over in east Dallas they played in one year. And didn't they play an open cup game at UT? Ut, Dallas up in Richardson off of Campbell? [00:43:53] Speaker A: I don't remember that one. I remember they played multiple at SMU. Of course. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:57] Speaker A: Right before the pandemic. The last two, three years, they've done that little. [00:44:01] Speaker B: All those fields that are in front of the university on Campbell between Central. [00:44:07] Speaker A: And Preston, they didn't play an open cup game there. The. That's where the Miami FC game versus Dallas Roma. Dallas Roma game. When they knocked off the. And went deep into the cup. That's what they played their game. [00:44:23] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, but way back in the. Yeah, but way back in the late. In the nineties, in the early years, the open cup games were definitely played at various high schools around Dallas Fort Worth. [00:44:35] Speaker C: I like that. When they did the SMU and then they did Tcu. Before that, I was waiting to do the UNT one just to complete it. I do wonder how much of it has to do with the fact that now they have to have everything streamed so Toyota Stadium has that built in at no cost. [00:44:55] Speaker A: That's true. They wouldn't have to do a setup there. That could. That's fair. [00:44:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:00] Speaker C: And I think they've got to have a bit of an enhanced setup compared to previous years as well. [00:45:05] Speaker A: I don't know about that. [00:45:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's probably a really good shot. I just thought it was easier for them to hold it at Texas. Excuse me, at Toyota Stadium, than farm it out and have to do all the, you know, the hoo ha to get it played someplace else in town. I just. I'm with you, buzz on Tuesday night. Like, what do you, like, put it over and under and what you think the attendance of the Memphis game will be? [00:45:29] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. [00:45:30] Speaker C: They're also charging full price for that. It's not a discount rate like open cup normally is. [00:45:34] Speaker B: What? [00:45:36] Speaker C: Yeah, it's full leak prices. But they. I did get a sales email the other day that was, if you buy a full cup open, a full price open cup ticket, you'll get, like, a free Austin ticket or heavily discounted. [00:45:51] Speaker B: Oh, well, I. That makes no sense. Why would you sell open cup tickets at a league cut at a league price. [00:45:58] Speaker A: I don't. I don't know what they are. So, I mean, so the attendance is going to be terrible. It'll be less than 5000. It'll be like two to 1000 people at most. [00:46:05] Speaker B: So is there. Is. I mean, this all sounds very conspiratorial, but is that an effort to try to just point out to everybody who was unhappy with MLS's attitude about the open cut just to say, look, nobody comes to these games anyway? [00:46:18] Speaker A: It certainly could be. Certainly. [00:46:21] Speaker C: Honestly, it's probably just cockiness. Oh, we've had all these sellouts in a row. We can do it. [00:46:27] Speaker B: Will there be 5000 people there Tuesday night? [00:46:30] Speaker C: No, no, there'll be maybe one and a half at tops. [00:46:33] Speaker B: What will they announce? [00:46:35] Speaker A: 70 00. [00:46:36] Speaker C: 19,900. [00:46:41] Speaker B: Awesome. [00:46:42] Speaker A: Peter, let's go. Old school Dallas cup for you. 2001. Old Panther Field in Duncanville when the Seattle Sounders select beat the burn, which is a PDL team, beat the burn, three two. With the great Billy sleath kicking the snot out of Chad dearing all over the field. Do you remember that game? [00:46:58] Speaker B: What year was that? [00:46:59] Speaker A: That would have been 2001. 2000. Yeah. It was an absolute smashing. Yeah. Billy Seeth got an MLS contract out of that game. If you remember, he signed with Chicago, I think. [00:47:13] Speaker B: Yes. Crazy. Good lord. [00:47:17] Speaker A: That was a fourth division team. Effectively. That's like playing Texas United or the Vaqueros or Denton. And losing. [00:47:25] Speaker B: Poor Chad came back from his vaunted Germany Bundesliga career and ended it playing at Southlake on the turf. Poor guy. Oyve, those were the days. All right, so anything else about the open cup game worth? I mean, you think. What do you think they're going to throw out there? Wizard? [00:47:45] Speaker A: Well, first, let's celebrate. Night pickering coming home, a great FC Dallas academy product who signed for Memphis. 901. He's the guy that Luci used to bring to first team training all time. He's a nine kick ass name. Yeah. Night Pickering. He's. He's got a great name. A phenomenal goal puncher. All he does is score goals. So he's coming home. Hopefully they start him because I can't wait to see him. I haven't seen him play in a couple of years, obviously since before he left. [00:48:09] Speaker B: When did he leave Birmingham and go to Memphis? [00:48:12] Speaker A: That's. You're confusing him with Matthew Corcoran, who was at Birmingham. Pickering signs straight with Memphis. [00:48:20] Speaker B: Okay, then I am getting that backwards. [00:48:21] Speaker A: Okay. Corcoran is the one that was. That I raved about is one of the best. Memphis. I've ever seen come through this academy and he left to go to Birmingham. [00:48:30] Speaker B: Tim Howard is part owner of Memphis. [00:48:32] Speaker C: I believe Emerson Hindman's there too. [00:48:36] Speaker A: That's true. I forgot about that. [00:48:38] Speaker B: Wow. [00:48:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So you might see some ex Dallas connections for sure. Maybe Emerson play too. That'd be cool. [00:48:45] Speaker B: Former bur. Former cherries. Great. Emerson Hindman. [00:48:49] Speaker A: So this, this. It's tough to gauge how. What you're going to see in an open game because I went back and looked at last year's game and that was against Nashville. So the coach is a lot more likely to run out like a full team because it's against Nashville. So against the USLC team, when he's trying to save his butt in the league, does he really want to invest a lot of energy or playing time in this game? Like, for example, there's no way in hell he'll start. Jesus. I don't think, you know, trying to get back from this hamstring problem. I would probably assume he won't start. Yara Mindy. In fact, I would assume he won't start most of his normal eleven. [00:49:24] Speaker B: He's got Austin cup, and just a. [00:49:26] Speaker A: Few days later, I would assume that he'll roll relatively close to a, what I would call a second eleven because, you know, he has guys in that group that he's still trying to coach up and develop. Like Farrington, Comungo Seeley, Herbert Endelay. Like, all those are obvious guys. Carl Sande, they just signed. So, you know, I think you can look at like, basically a second group. Like Nolan Norris would be great. Delgado, who started a bunch of first team games, would be great. Omar in there, Jimmy Maureen, goal. Corsa in that, like, basically it'll be pretty much straight across the board, in my opinion, a second team game. I'm going to make one prediction for a North Texas call up for this game. I'm going to predict that they bring up Diego Garcia and start him. Daniel, you know who he is? Of course. He's this kid from El Paso that they. They signed from El Paso. [00:50:16] Speaker B: Even I know who he is. [00:50:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, he did had a great preseason. [00:50:22] Speaker B: He. [00:50:22] Speaker A: They took him to Spain and they took Pedrino to Spain also. But then Pedrino had the compartment surgery, so he just got back. But Garcia is one of, if not North Texas best player, so I think that. I think he'll be the one exception. And otherwise, other than maybe like one or two other bodies, possibly, I think you'll pretty much see your second eleven choice. Because those are all guys that he's trying to develop, and this is a really good opportunity to play them and give them some minutes, you know, with the possible exception of somebody like, maybe Omar doesn't need the minutes, so maybe you might, you know, stick with nicosi or something. Or, you know, maybe you want to give far fan a little more minutes and try and push his fitness a little bit. So maybe you could use him, possibly. [00:51:00] Speaker B: So are you guys with me? That compartment syndrome surgery is the silliest sounding surgery known to mankind. [00:51:09] Speaker A: At first I heard about it, I thought you're out of your. That's crazy. But people, your brand of Sarvania had it, too, if I remember correctly. Dan, is that. Am I not losing my mind on that one? I think Brandon had it. [00:51:18] Speaker C: I believe so. [00:51:19] Speaker A: Yeah. It's. It happens more often than you would think. You know, it's people that have it swear by it. So. Although it's probably tough to get through once. Painful to get through, but imagine once you do, it's good. Yeah, it sound. It sounds like. You got to be kidding. Why would you do that? But apparently it's a bit. It really works, you know, I just. [00:51:38] Speaker B: Kind of wish they had called it something other than compartment. [00:51:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, that just sounds compartment syndrome or whatever that is. [00:51:44] Speaker B: Yeah, it sounds like something you'd get from crate and barrel or the container store. [00:51:48] Speaker A: I mean, I would explain it, but if anyone doesn't know what that is, just go Google it. You know, you'll. You'll see what it is. [00:51:53] Speaker B: Be careful. You may end up in the dark web. Okay, so that game against Memphis 730 up in Frisco on Tuesday and then Dallas hosts Austin the following Saturday. [00:52:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I just can't see coach going all in on 100%, like starting eleven and like, go win the cup just because he's got bigger fry. I mean, so. But there's still. It'll still be mostly FC Dallas players, I think. I think you'll only see them one or two. [00:52:23] Speaker C: It's interesting how the Memphis season is almost a mirror image of FC Dallas's won the first game, went without a win. In their case, they lost five in a row and then just won the. [00:52:36] Speaker B: Last game with a man advantage by chance. [00:52:41] Speaker C: They don't know. They didn't, but I don't know what happened. Birmingham Legion just crapped a bed, apparently. [00:52:47] Speaker B: Okay. All right. Well, hey, look at us. I was trying to think anything else I wanted to talk about or ask you guys about, but I can't think anything off top of my head. [00:53:00] Speaker A: Well, looking at this roster from Memphis, they got Tyler, Derek too. They got a couple like former MLS players on this team. Other than Emerson Hyman, of course, they played in the Premier League. That's incredible. Off heart because he's, he's not even 30 yet. It's amazing how like what happened there. [00:53:14] Speaker B: It's crazy, man. There are just things that happened in my life that just remind me how old I am all of a sudden because I clearly remember Emerson Hyndman being the kid that buzz you and I used to talk about, which was, so everybody knows Emerson is the grandson of Shellis Hyman, who was the coach at the time. And for those who are relatively new to this team, there was a very well known ongoing scenario that was taking place at training where Shellis would invite Emerson to come train with the first team. And Buzz, I'm sure you can tell the stories about how that there was a, there was a not, there was not a small percentage of the starting of the senior team that was not happy about that. [00:54:01] Speaker A: He was twelve years old. [00:54:02] Speaker B: Yes. [00:54:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I will say in his defense at twelve years old he could keep up with training. He, they would put him in like the drills and the like the first half of training, they wouldn't put him in the scrimmages. But I'm sure there are some people didn't like it because if you're a grown ass man playing professional football, you don't like to turn around and have some twelve year old in the jewels. [00:54:21] Speaker B: With you and you're not going to crack the kid. [00:54:23] Speaker A: No, no, no, not a twelve year old. But you know, he, he stuck around in training and by the time he, we last, you know, Michelle's was still here. You know, he was quite, you know, five or six years older at that point. He was 1617. He really could keep up. He was phenomenal by that point. [00:54:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So you know, when he left Dallas, where did he go overseas? Because he didn't go straight to Bournemouth, he went somewhere else, didn't he? [00:54:45] Speaker C: Fulham. [00:54:47] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. [00:54:49] Speaker C: He played Dallas cup for Fulham, didn't he? [00:54:51] Speaker B: That, yeah, I think you're right, Dan. [00:54:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I'd have to google that one, but that sounds right to me. Yeah, yeah. [00:54:59] Speaker B: Emerson back in the day was the kid, it was really crazy because this is all pre academy and everything like that. Emerson was the kid who was playing on a Dallas youth team and the local media would like do stories about and have video of him juggling the ball in his back. Oh, he was like that yeah, and then he left. He was kind of like the original Dallas homegrown without being a Dallas homegrown, if that makes any sense. And fascinating story. And the fact that he's now his career has gone by so much that he's playing on a USL championship team and coming back to play in Dallas all feels very full circle. [00:55:34] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, he. I think technically he played for FC Dallas's youth club for like a season or something. And then he went to Fulham in 2011. [00:55:42] Speaker B: Wasn't he a texan? Didn't he play for Dallas Texans prior to that, though? [00:55:46] Speaker A: Probably because I'm sure Shell snows what's his name over there. I mean, you remember before Dallas started their academy, Texans was the shit. I mean, that those guys, pro after pro after pro. Yeah, out of that academy. I mean, just an amazing club up until Dallas stole all their thunder. So, you know, that's a whole different story. But, you know, I'm pretty sure you're right. I believe he did play for Texans. It's not mentioned in his Wikipedia, but. [00:56:09] Speaker B: I wasn't a solar. Or was he a solar player? [00:56:12] Speaker A: He might have been. It was. [00:56:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, fascinating stuff. It'll be interesting to see all of those guys back in Dallas playing. Hopefully it'll be an entertaining game and probably would be if Dallas. Well, I don't know. Entertaining. It'll be. [00:56:27] Speaker A: Well, I always find them entertaining. [00:56:30] Speaker B: It won't be. It'll be thrilling to see. Especially if Dallas throws out their b. [00:56:34] Speaker A: Team, you know, because any team that comes in here, a USL championship team, everybody on that team, like, oh, here's my shot. You know, like it's them. It's a Super bowl. It's a chance to prove, like, I'm better than. I'm as good as an MLS player. Maybe an MLS team will see me. Maybe I'll also see me. I'm just as good as these guys. And so they always play out of their minds. [00:56:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:51] Speaker A: And so it's always a very competitive game. Dallas doesn't only wins, what, half of these things against these lower division teams? I swear, you know. [00:57:01] Speaker B: Well, I don't know if I've told you guys, but my plans have been solidified. My wife and I are going to be in LA in late May, early June for the back to back LA games. [00:57:12] Speaker A: Are you doing the double? [00:57:13] Speaker B: We're doing the double. Yeah. [00:57:15] Speaker A: Somebody else told me that, too. I'm so jealous. [00:57:17] Speaker B: And we're going to Disneyland. Yes. [00:57:22] Speaker A: Some more jealous of the double. [00:57:24] Speaker B: If any of the curious are also going to be at the games. Please let me know. It'll be fun to bump into everybody out in Hololens. How? [00:57:32] Speaker A: A third degree picture outside the arena. [00:57:35] Speaker B: Okay, I'll just take a. I don't. [00:57:37] Speaker A: Like selfies, but I still wanted to go. I have to work like two days later. [00:57:42] Speaker B: Why can't you go, Buzz? Come on, Buzz. [00:57:45] Speaker A: I was gonna. I was gonna rv it. I was gonna take my trailer out there. I had a whole thing and. [00:57:49] Speaker B: Okay, can I make a suggestion? You and Dan Rv out to LA to get me there. No, you can, Buzz, if you really wanted to. [00:57:59] Speaker A: I'd have to park my rv in LA for a week and a half. I'm not doing that. [00:58:02] Speaker B: Okay. [00:58:03] Speaker A: I'm leaving my truck in my rv in LA for a week. [00:58:06] Speaker B: Crap. All right, Dan, why don't you come to LA? [00:58:10] Speaker C: I don't think my work schedule would allow it, unfortunately. Or money. [00:58:15] Speaker B: Don't either one of you guys get vacation? [00:58:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, Peter, I'm in Key west right now. [00:58:20] Speaker B: Oh, right. Forgot I was. [00:58:24] Speaker C: I was in the UK a couple of months ago. [00:58:26] Speaker B: Right. Whatever. [00:58:28] Speaker C: Soccer games to watch. [00:58:29] Speaker A: Could go to Idaho in three weeks. In three months. [00:58:32] Speaker B: Hmm. Okay. [00:58:34] Speaker A: I'll look into it. Maybe I can pull the pull together. [00:58:37] Speaker B: Mickey Mouse ears for everybody. [00:58:39] Speaker A: I'm not going to Disneyland. [00:58:41] Speaker B: You don't want to go to Disneyland. [00:58:42] Speaker A: I just wanted Disney like four months ago. [00:58:44] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:58:45] Speaker A: In Florida. [00:58:46] Speaker B: That's right. All right, well, I haven't been for. I think the last time I went to Disneyland in LA, I went with my grandfather and I was probably like nine years old. [00:58:56] Speaker A: Amy took me a few years ago. [00:58:58] Speaker B: Yeah. When? [00:58:58] Speaker A: That was maybe a decade ago. [00:59:00] Speaker B: I'm looking forward to it. I want to see what all the new Jim jams about. All right, well, anything else that we need to discuss about good old football club, Dallas burn? [00:59:13] Speaker A: Not really. I don't. You know, North Texas is undefeated, which is fun. [00:59:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Hall of fame stuffs this weekend. [00:59:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think. [00:59:23] Speaker B: Oh, will you? [00:59:24] Speaker C: I will. [00:59:25] Speaker B: All right. Yeah. Andy. Andy has to skip the show this weekend because he's doing all the hall of Fame rigmarole, so they're going to. [00:59:34] Speaker C: Stream it on Peacock this year. [00:59:35] Speaker B: I saw that. What are they doing that for? Like, what are they streaming? The actual ceremony of inducting people into the hall of Fame? [00:59:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:59:44] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:59:45] Speaker A: Hey, more power to them. [00:59:47] Speaker B: I don't think. I know. I think. I think. I don't remember. I know I've read the press release that says who is getting inducted, but I don't remember off the top of my head. Is Tim Howard one of them? [00:59:58] Speaker C: Tim Howard is one of them. [01:00:00] Speaker B: Okay. Wait. How. [01:00:01] Speaker C: It is honestly, the only one I've heard of. [01:00:03] Speaker B: Oh, okay. I'm trying to think if I could remember any. How many are there total? [01:00:10] Speaker C: Four, plus media one. [01:00:13] Speaker B: Do you know any. Any of them? Buzz off the top of your head. [01:00:16] Speaker A: No cheating idea. [01:00:18] Speaker B: Okay. All right. [01:00:20] Speaker C: I got the press release from us soccer earlier. So it is Tim Howard, Francisco Marcos, Josh McKinney, and Tisha Ventura. [01:00:32] Speaker A: Veteran. [01:00:33] Speaker B: Veteran. Yeah. [01:00:35] Speaker A: She's a good player. [01:00:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Dan, if you're going, I'm just gonna give you a piece of advice. If you're gonna interview Tim Howard and you're gonna be anywhere near him, wear your sunglasses. [01:00:45] Speaker C: Take singles. Wear your sunglasses. [01:00:48] Speaker B: He's got the whitest teeth of any human being you've ever. [01:00:52] Speaker A: Right. [01:00:52] Speaker C: Okay. [01:00:53] Speaker A: I thought you said he was going to cuss at you. [01:00:55] Speaker B: It's like 32 led flashlights in his mouth, shining right at your face. It's insane. [01:01:02] Speaker C: They do kind of, like, a weird mix zone in the press conference room for that, so I'll keep that in mind. I'll weigh, like, two pairs of sunglasses just to be on the safe side. [01:01:11] Speaker B: He is a super nice guy to interview, and those are the most fantastic teeth I've ever seen in my life. Probably. Yeah, I'm sure. Probably so. And he's huge, too, by the way. Some mountain of a human being. All right, well, anything else, and we'll shop. [01:01:32] Speaker A: I'm just going to stick with my hot take that. They don't. They still ignore the top tier professional league in this country way too much. In terms of hall of Fame. They don't give anybody credit for having played in this league. In terms of getting in there, it's just men's national team members, and that's it. They don't give a shit about this league at all. And that sucks. [01:01:48] Speaker B: Wow. There is a hot sports opinion. If there's somebody that has not been inducted into the hall of fame, that is. That would fall into the category of satisfying what you're complaining about. Who would that be? [01:01:58] Speaker A: Well, they finally put in Marco echevery, and that was, like, 24 years ago. So, like, there's a whole bandwidth of people that have done amazing things in this league that aren't in there. I mean, like, is Roy Lassiter in there? I don't think so. Is he? No, he's like. He was like. He might be because he played for the national team, but, like, I mean, obviously, one for me is. I'm biased as hell, of course, on this one is Jason Christ, but he did some immaculate stuff. But then you can get into guys like Jaime Moreno, or you can get into guys that have just done incredible things in this league, that are out of this league now, that are not getting any recognition at all. I think it's ridiculous. [01:02:31] Speaker C: Ted, just for shits and giggles, just shits and giggles, can we go through the. The final, the finalists that were actually voted on? [01:02:42] Speaker A: Sure. [01:02:43] Speaker C: And get. Yes. No. Chris Aarons. Yes or no? [01:02:48] Speaker A: I don't know who Chris Aarons is. [01:02:50] Speaker C: Okay. There you go. Kyle Beckerman. [01:02:53] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. For me. [01:02:56] Speaker B: Yeah. How long has he been out of the league? [01:02:59] Speaker C: Long enough to be eligible. [01:03:01] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say yes. [01:03:05] Speaker C: Oh, he was on his first year of eligibility. [01:03:07] Speaker A: Oh. Chris Aarons is a, you know, paralympic player. [01:03:13] Speaker B: Ah. [01:03:14] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. [01:03:17] Speaker C: Me. [01:03:18] Speaker B: Who? What? [01:03:19] Speaker C: Laurie Chillopy. [01:03:20] Speaker B: Oh, I guess. [01:03:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess. [01:03:22] Speaker A: Let me. [01:03:22] Speaker C: Let me just go through the MLs. Dro de Rosario. [01:03:28] Speaker B: Hell, yes. [01:03:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [01:03:30] Speaker C: Ad. [01:03:31] Speaker A: No. Hell no. [01:03:32] Speaker B: No. [01:03:33] Speaker C: Henri. [01:03:34] Speaker A: No. I mean, not for his part in major soccer. No. [01:03:38] Speaker B: I mean, if it's. If it's the US soccer hall of Fame, does Thierry Henri deserve to be in it for his brief spell at Red Bull? And I. As. No. Part of me that says. Well, I mean, I don't know, dude. I mean, there's. There's a marketing part of it, too, but. Okay. No. So who's. I'm sorry, who was next? [01:03:58] Speaker C: Stuart Holden. [01:04:01] Speaker B: No. [01:04:01] Speaker C: Tim Howard. [01:04:02] Speaker B: Yes, but here. Wait, does Tim Howard get in? But hold on. Does Tim Howard get in because of his national team stuff or because of his MLS stuff? It's absolutely his national team stuff. And his is the rest of his career. Not because he played in MLS. [01:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, but I would have given it to him for what he did in MLS. That's what I'm saying. Like, the only guys that are getting. [01:04:22] Speaker B: In do anything in MLS buzz. [01:04:24] Speaker A: How many years? [01:04:25] Speaker B: Three, maybe. [01:04:27] Speaker C: Well, he started, but he was a crap Colorado. [01:04:33] Speaker B: No, wait, that's right. That's right. He did start at Metro. Start. That's where I originally. That's the first time I interviewed him. At the cotton bowl. [01:04:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And then. And then the rapids, you know. Okay, that's borderline. But it still underlines my point that he's got, in part, right. No one's getting. [01:04:48] Speaker B: I'm enjoying this game. [01:04:49] Speaker A: Go. [01:04:49] Speaker B: Keep going, Dan. [01:04:51] Speaker C: See, Jermaine Jones is there. That's national team Shelri Joseph. [01:04:57] Speaker B: That's an interesting one. [01:05:01] Speaker A: I don't think he was helping. [01:05:02] Speaker B: He's close I mean, there's a weird fine line, Dan, where there are so few kind of outstanding names that you recall from the past that you'd almost say yes to anybody because we've done such a poor job of doing this. Does that make sense, Buzz? [01:05:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:05:18] Speaker C: Okay, let's, let's go for the real, the real MLS. Long, longer term. Nick Romando. [01:05:25] Speaker B: Yes. [01:05:26] Speaker C: Hundred percent, right. [01:05:28] Speaker B: Yes. [01:05:29] Speaker C: Carlos Ruiz. [01:05:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Yes. [01:05:35] Speaker A: He led the league in scoring. Like, he was such a character. [01:05:38] Speaker B: I mean he was the, he was easily the most hateable dude in the league every year, even when he was playing for your own team. [01:05:47] Speaker C: Chris Amis. [01:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:49] Speaker A: Yes. Eddie Lewis. Eddie Lewis. Borderline probably. [01:05:53] Speaker B: No. [01:05:53] Speaker C: Clint Mathis. [01:05:54] Speaker A: Yes, 100%. Yes, 100%. [01:05:56] Speaker C: Tiny sonny, Donna Beth. [01:05:59] Speaker A: Eddie's not in, but close. So those are both borderline for me. [01:06:04] Speaker C: That's really it for MLS. [01:06:06] Speaker B: Goes interesting. [01:06:09] Speaker A: I'm just, but like we just listed off like five dudes in five minutes that should be in there for me as the locks that aren't even really getting like 12% of the votes and. [01:06:18] Speaker C: That'S not even the, just the eligible. That was just the finalists. Like, you know, Jordan and all them people have gone through and said, yeah, these guys are, you know, these are our picks. [01:06:30] Speaker A: Yeah. I still think it holds true. The bottom line is that nobody gets in there if they're not a significant contributor to the US men's national team. They, like I said, they finally put in Echeveria who was like the MVP of this league for like six straight seasons and won four out of six titles or whatever in the first whatever it was. I'm throwing numbers on the air, but. [01:06:46] Speaker B: Would you, would you put Valderrama in US soccer hall of Fame? [01:06:51] Speaker A: No player long enough. But I would put, like I said, I would put Jason Kreiss and because when he, at one point he was the leading score of the league all time, I think he was the first player to 100. He was, you know, he was a substantial massive part of this league for like a decade and to me that's enough. You know, he's got several records that have never been broken. [01:07:13] Speaker B: Okay. [01:07:16] Speaker A: Like first american born MVP, 1st 15 and 15 player in the league, first player to score for two franchises. That record will never be broken. I'm saying the guy was, and he's just a tip of the iceberg for like, there's a whole bunch of players. He's probably even like 15th on the list of guys that deserve it for him. [01:07:32] Speaker B: You need to go get a pina colada, Buzz. [01:07:35] Speaker A: I have one today. I'm just saying that, like, I don't think MLS gets enough respect out of the people that are voting for the hall of Fame. They only vote for national team players. It doesn't. [01:07:44] Speaker C: I'm looking at the. The eligibility list for the veteran vote, which means they've fallen off their player eligibility. So, I mean, there's. Yeah, there's so many MLS players that you would say, you know, even if they weren't, like, nailed on, you know, for contributions to domestic soccer. Guys like Jeff Cunningham, like Frankie Hadrik, Kevin Hartman, I guess you could say Dom Kinnear as a player and a Lexi. [01:08:13] Speaker A: Chris. [01:08:13] Speaker B: Alexi Lawless, Jason. [01:08:15] Speaker C: Christ. [01:08:16] Speaker B: I don't think he is. He is in. [01:08:18] Speaker A: No, he should be. [01:08:19] Speaker B: If he isn't, he is in the hall of fame. But Dan, I think. [01:08:23] Speaker C: Yes. Let's take a look. [01:08:26] Speaker B: He may have been put in before it came to Dallas. That's why we don't recall it. If he is in. [01:08:31] Speaker C: He was elected in 2006. [01:08:33] Speaker B: Yes. So before the hall of fame was here. [01:08:35] Speaker C: So Ronnie O'Brien's eligible. Josh Wolfe. [01:08:40] Speaker A: Well, that's a no. Still. I mean, I love Ronnie, but that's a no. [01:08:42] Speaker C: Taylor swellman. [01:08:43] Speaker B: If I saw. Next time I see Ronnie, I'm gonna ask him if he thinks he should be in the US soccer Hall of Fame, and he may not stop laughing for about 37 hours. [01:08:55] Speaker A: Put it to a fanboy view. I mean, when your Time magazine century, why would you bother putting the US soccer thing? [01:09:03] Speaker B: Oh, that is such a great Dallas story. [01:09:06] Speaker A: Yes. [01:09:07] Speaker C: Can be really funny, is when David Beckham, who fell off the player vote, is on the veteran vote, eventually gets elected on the builder vote for into Miami. [01:09:17] Speaker A: Yeah, well, he could get it on the builder vote for Eliot. [01:09:21] Speaker B: By the way, I got us. Andy and I had this conversation. Who was it? Andy, and I don't remember who it was that had this conversation the other day. I honestly have to just stop and tip my cap because I can't believe Messi played on the turf at Gillette Field and scored those banger goals, by the way. I just. He has showed up and he's done it. He's. He's comm. He's. I mean, dude, he showed up and he's playing and he's banging goals and making magic and he's being the best player in the world, making the league look stupid. Exactly what they wanted him to do. He's not. He's not wussing out and feigning. I don't want to play on different surfaces. And I just feel like he deserves a shout out for that. [01:10:07] Speaker C: So you're saying he would in fact have done it on a cold Tuesday in Stoke on Trend. [01:10:12] Speaker B: Yes. If he could do it on a cold Saturday night on the turf outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Yes, absolutely. [01:10:23] Speaker A: I enjoyed the funny bit the other day where he was at a, I think it was an NBA game, and they did the requisite, oh, Leon Messi's here with the graphic and everything, and they show him and he's sitting with Busquets and Jordi Alba. And nobody says shit about busquets about Alba. [01:10:36] Speaker C: You see, Florentino Perez was at Mavs. [01:10:38] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, because Luca. [01:10:41] Speaker C: But then he appeared at the Austin game too, by the way. [01:10:46] Speaker B: For those not paying attention, Miami leads the league and goals scored on 26 goals. The nearest team close to them is Portland. Of all teams with 20 who are in 11th place, by the way. Oh, no, I'm sorry, la. I'm sorry, the galaxy of 21. I missed that. But 26 goals is ridiculous. [01:11:09] Speaker A: In eleven games, only Portland's given up more. Oh, no. San Jose, 25. [01:11:16] Speaker B: Nicely done, boys. Excellent stuff. Good fun stuff there at the end. I love that. I love me game. All right, well, Dan, you got anything else you want to throw in there? Nah. Alright, Buzz, would you like to treat to everybody, sing us out with a Jimmy Buffett song? [01:11:35] Speaker A: No, I would not. You wouldn't want to hear me sing. But I will be at the open cup. [01:11:39] Speaker B: I would. [01:11:40] Speaker A: Everybody can come hang out at open cup game if they want. [01:11:43] Speaker B: Would you like to tell everybody where you'll be sitting so they can come. [01:11:45] Speaker A: Sit with you in the stands? There'll be like 100 people that'll be easy to find. Me. Yeah. I'll be the one man spreading over like six seats because they can't. [01:11:54] Speaker B: Gross. [01:11:59] Speaker A: Awesome. [01:11:59] Speaker B: Well, buzz, have fun. When are you back? Uh, from Florida? [01:12:02] Speaker A: Well, I'm gonna finish wasting away in Margaritaville here today and tomorrow and then I'll be back Monday. [01:12:09] Speaker B: Like, what, what are you covering down there? [01:12:12] Speaker A: Some football. It's called ot seven. It's high school seven on seven football. [01:12:17] Speaker B: Good lord, is that actually broadcast on a network kind of thing? [01:12:23] Speaker A: Well, I live with this way. You know how much ratings MLS gets. Yeah, this is like ten times that, so. [01:12:29] Speaker B: Whoa. [01:12:30] Speaker A: Don't oh, my lord me at that crap because. [01:12:32] Speaker B: No, no, no, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not dissing it. I'm impressed. It's like I. Football is such a thing in this country that even seven v seven high school football gets somebody like buzz Kerik out covering it. I mean, it's how big of a deal it is. Please don't misunderstand my reaction. [01:12:48] Speaker A: Most of it's on. Most of it's on YouTube, which is, you know, believe it or not, there's lots of large productions on YouTube these days, but some of it is on NFL network, too. [01:12:54] Speaker C: Did you, uh, did you do the games in Dallas as well? Okay. I kept seeing. I got a press release for that for some weird reason. [01:13:03] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The Dallas sports commission put out some stuff about it to get people to come out, you know, watch. [01:13:08] Speaker B: All right. [01:13:09] Speaker A: It's a big deal. There's some big time players in this. [01:13:10] Speaker B: I'm sure there is. Yeah. The future NFLers third degree. [01:13:14] Speaker A: The podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90 Dot, your source for all your SC, Dallas US national team and international club gear. Check out the new national team gear that's arrived just in time for Copa America in euro 2024. Argentina, France, Germany, Brazil, all the big guns are in stock now. As a third degree listener, get 20% off in store or online with the code third degree. Just mention that at checkout or use it online. Soccernoni.com. Some exclusions may apply. This episode of third Degree of the podcast is also brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm for wills, trust, probates and business law. Call 469-515-2559 or visit lindstromlaw firm.com for a free consultation. [01:13:51] Speaker B: Well, Buzz, have fun down there. Tell Amy we all said hello. Watch out for the upside down pineapple. Or don't, whichever way you guys swing. Have fun. All right, guys. Thank you. FC Dallas curious fans. Let's go, team. And we will speak to you next week, hopefully with two big wins, on another episode of third degree, the podcast. [01:14:15] Speaker C: This is the winning feeling. [01:14:20] Speaker B: The third degree napa gas. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree. [01:14:28] Speaker A: The third degree nap, I guess. [01:14:31] Speaker B: Third degree. The third degree nap. I can.