3rd Degree the Podcast #233

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Um, yeah. OOH. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree nap, I guess. Third degree nap. Podcast. [00:00:25] Speaker B: Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90. [00:00:28] Speaker A: Com. [00:00:29] Speaker B: MLS decision day is here. Soccer 90 Dot has the deals to make sure you're outfitted and ready to go. Starting on Friday, May 20. Get 40% off on all MLS apparel. Man, that's 40%. That's fantastic. That includes FC Dallas Gear, jersey scarves, tees, hats and more. The sale ends on Sunday. So it's decision day sale. 40% off? That's ridiculous. And then all their merchandise still get 20% off. When you use code third Degree at checkout, some exclusions do apply. [00:00:57] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas curious fan. Welcome to episode number two three 3233 of Third Degree, the podcast. Hi, I'm Peter, and we are once again without the very social butterfly like Dan Crook, who is I don't even know where Dan is. He's probably just busy being Dan. So that means it is your hero. My hero, everybody's. Hero. Editor and founder of third degree Net and the OG Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:31] Speaker B: Hi, Peter. I have a small story to tell you. I've been ruined. I've been ruined. You've been root? Yeah. Someone, and I won't say their name just in case they don't want their name out there, gave me tickets to sit in the upper deck of the hall of Fame suites down there at the south end of the stadium. In the upper level? [00:01:55] Speaker A: No, I don't even think I've been up there. [00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, let's just say that those seats up there have ruined me. Not because of the viewing angle, because of the seat. It has a six inch cushion on it and it's about four inches wider than all the seats in the rest of the stadium. And it's about four inches deeper than all the seats in the rest of the stadium. They are magnificent. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Have you contacted your ticket representative to move your season tickets for next season? [00:02:27] Speaker B: I am thinking about it. [00:02:29] Speaker A: Really? [00:02:29] Speaker B: The viewing angle is terrible, but the seating is so much better for a. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Person like me that I don't understand what that means. Buzz, what do you mean, a person like you? [00:02:39] Speaker B: It means I don't weigh 100 pounds, Peter. [00:02:41] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Well, I don't either. [00:02:43] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you would really like it, I'm telling you. [00:02:47] Speaker A: Okay, so it's a cushioned, bigger seat. [00:02:50] Speaker B: It's a bigger, wider, deeper cushioned. And right behind you is like a bar and food area with hardly anybody in it because it serves just that upper deck. [00:02:59] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:03:00] Speaker B: It is so sweet and so nice. And I was really jealous sitting there, except the viewing angle is wrong for me, so I actually won't ever sit there. [00:03:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think you could give me a barca lounger and I don't know if I'd sit in the end zone to watch a soccer match. I just can't do that well. [00:03:17] Speaker B: They're trying to get people to sit there because that seat is phenomenal and I'm ruined. [00:03:23] Speaker A: Does it make me a bad FC Dallas fan if I admit to you that after all this time, I still have yet to walk through the hall of Fame? [00:03:32] Speaker B: It doesn't make you a bad FC Dallas fan, but I'm surprised by that because I thought as a soccer guy, I thought you would have checked it. [00:03:38] Speaker A: Out by know it's not for any particular reason. I just haven't done it. I don't know, I would think that I would have by now, too, but I haven't. [00:03:47] Speaker B: I will say that this experience idea where it has these things which I think are probably tailored for a younger audience, where you kick a ball and you can put yourself in a picture with a pro game. Like, you pretend like you're heading it and they insert you in. [00:04:01] Speaker A: Do you get to stick your head through a hole and pretend to be Paxton Palmicle for a photo? [00:04:07] Speaker B: No, you can get a picture with Paxton Palmer. That way you're in the picture, you put yourself in the wall. Like, that kind of stuff doesn't appeal to me personally, but I understand why the kids like it. But once you get through that part and you get into the actual exhibits, man, they got some really cool stuff in there. [00:04:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm sure they do. And I'm sure at one point, I think the story goes, I tried to go once during a game day, only to find out it's closed during game day, which makes zero sense to me, but I'm sure there's perfectly good reasons why they don't open it on game day. But no, I haven't been and I only thought about that when you said it was where you said you sat, and I assume you have to go through that to get to those. [00:04:49] Speaker B: Side. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Who did you get tickets from? [00:04:54] Speaker B: You know, I know people. [00:04:55] Speaker A: I know you do? [00:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:57] Speaker A: Fancy pants. [00:04:58] Speaker B: What I would say to you, Peter, about the hall of Fame is that next time you have a visitor in town that is a soccer know, not even on a game day, just be like, hey, you might think this is cool, because they would I think hundreds of years of history is cool stuff in there. I mean, it's not a full blown museum. It's just 30, 40, 50 little exhibits, maybe, depending on what you count as an exhibit. Some of them are just like inlated in the floor in the bar kind of section. But they got World Cups trophies. They got yeah. [00:05:27] Speaker A: We'Re trying to get Lars into town. [00:05:30] Speaker B: Yes. There you go. [00:05:31] Speaker A: Soon. And I wonder if that's something Lars would be into, maybe. [00:05:37] Speaker B: I would think so. Soccer guy, right? [00:05:38] Speaker A: Oh, total soccer guy, but I just don't know what his level? I mean, he's Norwegian, that lives in London. I don't know what his interest in American soccer history. [00:05:49] Speaker B: Like, they have, like, a jersey from the World Cup down in Brazil when US. Finished third. They have, like, a winner's medal or participants medal from the first ever World Cup. And they have a British cap when they actually gave out caps. I mean, they got some cool, historic stuff. [00:06:03] Speaker A: I do think it's a problem that the most comfortable seats in the stadium are in a really crummy viewing point. You'd think that the best seats, physical seats in the house would be in the most expensive, best angled position, best position to watch the game from. [00:06:22] Speaker B: Well, I imagine that it's an upsell to try and get you to buy the tickets back there. I'm sure that's what the thinking is. And maybe the suites above us all are back on a seat, too. [00:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe, man. [00:06:33] Speaker B: It's nice. [00:06:34] Speaker A: All right, well, I didn't intend for this episode Buzz, to kick off with Buzz's seat advice at the stadium. What I really wanted to start off with is the news that we got today. We're recording this on Wednesday. It is time for the annual MLS salary output, the data dump. [00:06:53] Speaker B: Well, this is the update dump. [00:06:54] Speaker A: This is the update dump. The one for the second half of the year that's got everybody's head spinning over the messy dollars. But can we all just take a moment to just appreciate and honor and recognize the fact that Oscar Perea is a gosh darn real life wizard? [00:07:10] Speaker B: Isn't he? [00:07:11] Speaker A: Unbelievable. The lowest salary wage bill in the has, aren't they? Second in the Eastern Conference, I believe. Barely have I think they have barely one person making over a million bucks or something. Ridiculous. And that's like the goalkeeper. I think I'm saying that correctly. I mean, it's unreal, the return Orlando owners are getting out of Oscar Pereira down there. And it also just reminds us of what we all knew over the course of time here in Dallas is that dude just continued to make lemonade out of lemons of a roster, and he's doing it again in Orlando, maybe even more so now than he was when he was here in Dallas. [00:08:00] Speaker B: Yeah, they have one guy over a million, and he's only over a million based on incentives and stuff. Not on base salary. He's only 700 base salary. They got one guy at nine and one guy at 840, and then they got a bunch of dude, a couple of dudes at six something. Dallas probably has probably eight or nine guys more expensive than most of this roster. The highest guy on the roster. That's ridiculous. [00:08:24] Speaker A: So my question is, if you put Perea on a club that actually spent money and I'm not talking about mean is it weird to think that he would just immediately put together an MLS winning? [00:08:40] Speaker B: Don't you'd have to think so? It's probably a reason he's allowed himself to become a free agent at the end of the. [00:08:49] Speaker A: He'S he's out of contract. Yeah. Which has also obviously spurned a lot of conversation that we've had on the discord of late about that exact thing as it relates to nico based on some of not on some on all of the results of late, which we'll get into in just a second. [00:09:09] Speaker B: Well, I can't imagine that Oscar Prey won't have multiple bidders at this mean. Why would he not from MLS teams? Like there's got to be five or six teams looking for a coach come know. And if you're a coach like this, you don't let yourself get in this situation unless you're considering a move or listen, I don't speak for the man or you want something specific from your team, I'm not going to free up with you unless you give me XYZ. He learned that in Dallas, so it won't surprise me to see him stay, but it also won't surprise me to see that the minute they're eliminated, here comes five offers for people to think they're going to get. [00:09:47] Speaker A: I mean one of those big spending mean could you imagine him at one of the two La galaxy clubs? [00:09:54] Speaker B: Well, give some credit to Moozy Too who was here and went there with Know or went there and then hired Oscar, whichever one you want to he's he's part of putting this roster together with relatively low and finding talent at numbers that are remarkable. [00:10:10] Speaker A: So what are the open positions in the league now and what are the likely ones at the end of the season? So, Minnesota's open DC. DC. Colorado. [00:10:24] Speaker B: Is Montreal open? I don't really remember. La. Might be open. [00:10:29] Speaker A: Would Vanny be out in La. Possibly, yeah. God, could you oh, I am so frightened of the idea of Oscar Pera being the coach of the Galaxy. [00:10:38] Speaker B: I know Austin was they thought about it, but they're saying they're keeping their guy for I mean if Dallas misses. [00:10:46] Speaker A: I mean we've talked, but the guy that's at Wolf's boss is very making sure everybody knows that he's been around the block and he knows what a good coach looks like. So he's thrown his credentials down on the desk. Yeah. So this will be fascinating to see where Oscar ends up. I can't imagine he's staying in Orlando, not without assurances. [00:11:10] Speaker B: He had a quote the other day that they trust their ownership, which I think was an implication of, okay, we're Annie up now. [00:11:17] Speaker A: Wait because I'm so far behind on this. None of the other like the new San Diego club doesn't start next year, does it? [00:11:24] Speaker B: I don't think it's next year. [00:11:26] Speaker A: I think they got the year after. [00:11:28] Speaker B: I can't remember what's that if there's one coming next year or not. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Wow. We'll just have to keep our eye on that because I just now am remembering that Oscar's out of contract because I was so dizzied by the realization that he's got Orlando performing as well as he does on such tiny amount of dollars. It's funny. Lionel Messi alone what is that number? Hold on. Okay. And what is their total wage bill? [00:12:01] Speaker B: Oh gosh, I don't know. I didn't add it up. I mean his base is twelve, but like all the other ways he makes compensation. Just inside the league it's 20. And that doesn't include Apple and no Adidas. [00:12:11] Speaker A: No. So Lionel Messi alone is making twice as much money as Orlando City's entire wage bill. They're at 9.6. He's making over 20 million just in pure dollars alone, not including any of the other ancillary crap they've given him. That's unbelievable. Two X Perez entire wage. Bill yeah. [00:12:37] Speaker B: And if you're San Diego and you've coming in in 2025 and you know that Oscar coached at Cholos in Tijuana. [00:12:45] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. [00:12:47] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm just saying. [00:12:49] Speaker A: No, if you want to throw your. [00:12:51] Speaker B: Checkbook down I'm just saying. [00:12:53] Speaker A: Yeah, because I don't know what Red Bull's coaching situation is like. I'm not sure. Charlotte's probably okay. [00:13:02] Speaker B: I was not prepared to have this dialogue about who's available. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Sorry, I didn't mean to throw it. [00:13:06] Speaker B: No, no, it's OK. I just hadn't really thought about it. NYCFC. [00:13:09] Speaker A: Portland. To Portland. [00:13:11] Speaker B: Chicago might be available. [00:13:12] Speaker A: Portland. Right in Portland. Out of manager, didn't they? They fired Savare Ray say. They haven't replaced him, have they? [00:13:18] Speaker B: I don't know man. Again. I wasn't. [00:13:20] Speaker A: And the revolution? [00:13:22] Speaker B: Yeah, revolution have an interim coach. Yeah, that was a job that might be available. He played there even for five minutes. [00:13:27] Speaker A: Good for Oscar. [00:13:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:13:30] Speaker A: Good for Oscar. So of course when you start looking and realizing at all these numbers and stuff that came out today and while you're distracted by the miracle that is Oscar Perea, you do begin to realize that Dallas once again sits pretty squarely dead center in the pack buzz at 14.7 million in terms of spending. And again, just to make sure everybody understands, if you don't understand how this works, all of these numbers are calculated based on some a little bit of guesswork, but everybody's working off the same set of guesses. So I think we all feel like these are all fairly accurate and at least consistent from top to bottom on how they're built. So you get a real sense of who's spending what relative to other clubs. I think that's the best way to say it, right? [00:14:17] Speaker B: Yeah. If there's an inaccuracy it's only just like a failed reporting to the PA that comes in late. I think there's an example of that here with Dallas. We'll talk about in a know it could be things like that. They're all within a correct ballpark of where they're supposed to be what counts as like a bonus or a guaranteed comp. And the other thing to remember that's important, it's not even important to talk about. Why is that? To understand that these aren't 100% the cap numbers. Cap numbers are very different than some of these because they can include things like your buy price or bonuses or things like that. So they give us a loose guideline, a framework to talk about the general composition of these clubs and where they are in terms of compared to each other with a single source of information. So it's quality in that regard. [00:14:59] Speaker A: Any surprises out of the numbers for Dallas specifically for you? [00:15:03] Speaker B: Well, the important one to talk about is that we were pretty harsh on the Legit extension when it first got reported in the first salary dump because it had this number that was still a million dollars. And it's been a constant thing of conversation is why in the world would you extend a guy and not for a reduced number? Why would you do it at the same number he was already on? That makes no sense at all, particularly when you talk about a guy that's 30 years old. Well, there's been an adjustment now, so now his base, Lizzo stood at $700,000 instead of what was basically a million dollars. So that's $300,000 difference. Well, okay, now that's a number that makes sense in terms of an extension. So whoever had reported it or not reported it or whatever, hopefully this is now the correct information. And now Sebastian Legit's salary makes a whole lot more sense and it's much more palpatable except for the fact that. [00:15:48] Speaker A: He'S been terrible and hurt for most. [00:15:50] Speaker B: Of the yeah, yeah. The actual execution of what happened to him and the injuries and all that stuff is different than actually the conversation you have when the deal is done. Does the deal make sense? And it didn't make sense. Well, now it does make sense. The fact of the matter still is that he didn't play very well this season, he's been hurt a bunch, but that's a different conversation. That's different than saying what a stupid contract. Now you're saying, oh, it's a shame that happened because the contract is now not a stupid contract. Now it makes sense. [00:16:15] Speaker A: I see. [00:16:16] Speaker B: So the other ones to talk about are Yara Mindy is reported at 300,000, which is a steal. Well, don't get too excited because that's a prorated half season. So really he's on a $600,000 deal. That's still a steal. You have to assume that more than likely the number for next year because it's an option, they have to pick up the option. It probably will be higher than that, but anything sort of a million to me on that guy is a steal. So I'm happy to have him at 600,000 for a full season, or if it goes up to seven or eight, whatever, no problem. That's Fakundo money, just to put that in perspective. Right. So that's fine. Also on a half season number is Eugene ANSA is on 200K, which for half, so that's 400. Again, that makes him exactly the same player as OBrion in salary. So that's obvious what's happening there. And then Fraser is the last one, the new kid from the new Canadian kid is on 130. Good value, good solid number, bottom of the roster piece. That's very normal. That's less than people like Tuamasi get. That's basically like what a high priced homegrown gets who hardly plays. So that's good value money there. That's kind of where junka probably well, that's actually more than junka gets, amazingly, which just shows how good Junko's contract is. So those are the four that are different from earlier in the year. We always have that information on third degree. You can always go look it up there. So those are all pretty normal prices. Era mini, good price, legit, better price. It all makes more sense now that that number has been corrected. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Sorry, I was looking at the numbers, and I apologize if you mentioned this pause at 300,000. Seems pretty ridiculous. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Yeah, we knew that already, though. We knew that that was a steal of a value. That's phenomenal value. Yeah, that'll be the thing that you'll have to adjust if you want to try and keep him, because you're going to have to pay him more money to get him stick around. Now, that is pretty much what they pay keepers around here. We've not really had a keeper get paid much more than you know. You can look at Jimmy's number, for example, for comparison, but nonetheless, the way he's performing, you'll almost certainly have to give him an extension to get him to agree to stay, because somebody will come around and offer him more money the way he's playing some European team, probably. So you'll have to adjust that, I would imagine. [00:18:32] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. Anything else? [00:18:36] Speaker B: The salaries are going to come up more as we get into the offseason. We talk about who we want to keep and who we don't want to keep, and the value of things like roster slots. And you can kind of consider sometimes these numbers of that's a starter money, that's backup money. Like Nikosi, by the way, is on backup money. You can look at what Ibiaga's deal is. That's the base of starter money. So, obviously, in my opinion, there needs to be adjustment. Even though Nakosi, I think, just got a new extension recently. It was when he was a backup. You'll have to make an adjustment there. He's on 240. That's too low for him. So it all is part of the process. Giovanni is an interesting number because he's one of those U 22 initiatives. So his cap hits only 250,000, which is actually what he gets paid. So that's weird. I was expecting him to get paid more than that, but maybe there's an escalator there because he has a long term deal. I mean, it goes out to like, 2026 or something. So we'll get into these numbers more as we talk about roster building in the winter. [00:19:33] Speaker A: Well, I think one of the other things that comes out of what was released today in the mix of all the messy stuff is some clarity around how miami was able to do this insane rebuild in the middle of the season and literally jump their salary wage bill. I think it's 118% from one month to the other. And the athletic wrote a really good article today because this goes back to the conversation that you, Dan, and I were having back at the time, which is how is Miami pulling this off and why isn't every other club in the league, specifically Dallas, doing something similar when they clearly have all these roster issues? And I do think there's some clarity as to the reality that miami and Chris Henderson essentially just made a bunch of maneuvers that a, probably most owners aren't willing to do and b, I just think took a level of creativity everybody else just wasn't capable of. I mean, I don't see anything in the Miami stuff so far that looks like they did anything that was way out of bounds of the rules. In other words. [00:20:42] Speaker B: No, they set themselves up for multiple years to be able to do all that stuff and they were able to jettison DPS to make room for messi. And you can look at busquettes and Jordi alba, those numbers are numbers you can buy down with tam and GAM. Right. They're both technically DPS, I'm sure, but you can make them not be DPS. Like if you wanted to go out and get another DP, you could with this know, all these guys are bought down by Tam GAM, and the bottom line is they're convincing people to play for less than they could get other places. Majority alban a million. I mean, that dude could get more than that somewhere else if he wanted. [00:21:14] Speaker A: Well, I think one of the things I read today is that that's bolstered by the fact that he got a bunch of cash from Barcelona for walking away. [00:21:23] Speaker B: Sure. [00:21:23] Speaker A: So he's essentially living off his Barcelona money and this is just what he uses to buy dinner at night in Miami, I guess, for the season. [00:21:30] Speaker B: And it's helpful if you're trying to get guys in under certain numbers. Hey, you get to play with messi. Oh, that's true. Okay, yes, I will take 500,000. You know what I mean? That's a negotiating value there. [00:21:41] Speaker A: Sure. But I think the conversation that we're going to end up having when it becomes the offseason and we're all going to keep an eye on this is what's the temperature at the headquarters and with the ownership group to suddenly accelerate spending dramatically. Because there's so much interest in all of this stuff going on, especially in the lead up to the World Cup here in 2006, and which owners are going to go along and if in fact, there's an agreement that we're going to do this, who's going along with it and who's not? [00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah, you'll see, of course that the salary cap will continue to inch up, but you'll see more and more teams if Miami is successful, particularly on the field, but off the field, you'll see more and more guys thinking, man, you know, I could do that. I could do this. And across the board, of course, messi will make everybody else's revenue go be. There'll be revenue streams that will work like they haven't before for teams across the league. And so maybe owners willing to spend more, there'll just be a slow evolution of the league and continue up this direction. And it may be that the Hunts may drop back down towards the bottom in terms of being able to keep up with the salary as other teams begin to escalate. It'll be something to really watch over the next few years. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Yeah, except here's the problem. When you bring this up to Clark Hunt he's going to pull out this folded piece of paper in his wallet with this chart on it and he's going to point to the fact that at the bottom of the spend are orlando City in second, Montreal, which is a playoff team, and St. Louis City, which won the Western Conference in its debut season, and the Philadelphia Union Vancouver White Cat. I mean, it's just pretty ridiculous how the level of performance is capable for teams that aren't spending. Although, to be fair, the only team really in that list that is of note are St. Louis and Orlando City at 9.6 and 11.1 on a total. [00:23:36] Speaker B: It brings you back to the discussion that what matters is talent evaluation. [00:23:40] Speaker A: Yes. [00:23:40] Speaker B: It does not spend. So, like, if you can't hit on all your signings, you're not going to be good. [00:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:47] Speaker B: And here we are. [00:23:49] Speaker A: Yeah. There goes Toronto FCD. [00:23:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And FC. Dallas is where they should be. [00:23:54] Speaker A: And the Galaxy and Chicago and Austin and all these teams that didn't make the playoffs that are in the top of the spend. [00:24:03] Speaker B: There's a value to spending money, but if you're not good at identifying how to spend it, it doesn't matter how much you spend. Like we just talked about Orlando and Moosey and Oscar spending it in a way to give them a second place in the east team. If you gave them a whole bullet of money, I'm sure those guys would still be very good at talent identification. How many times has Oscar drafted a forward now out of college that's become. [00:24:26] Speaker A: A and here's the here's the funny part out of all of this buzz is that for all of the differences that people point out about how MLS is run compared to the rest of the global soccer entity, that truism holds true in all of those other leagues, too. It's not how much you spend, it's how you spend. [00:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [00:24:49] Speaker A: It's crazy. [00:24:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:50] Speaker A: Fascinating stuff. Okay, well, of course, as mentioned, a lot of this conversation about Oscar and what's going to happen with his future was discussed at length inside Buzz's discord for those of you curious who participate in the discord by being a patreon of buzz. And frankly, if you're not doing that, it makes me question just how curious you really are. But that's a different conversation for another day. But of course, that did bring us back to the whole point of why that conversation was taking place in the first place, was because on Saturday's result, the penultimate game of the season, the final home game of the season, not super well attended, I might note. Dallas won. Colorado Rapids. Nemesis Bogey Team One. [00:25:43] Speaker B: Boring. Man, that was a tough game to watch. [00:25:47] Speaker A: Did you almost fall asleep in your comfy hair? [00:25:51] Speaker B: Well, the comfy chair wasn't the Colorado game, but I did almost fall asleep in my chair. Yeah, it was a boring you know, I was cuddled up with my better half heavy jackets on and my little ski cap because it was cold for my Texas butt. So, yeah, it was a little bit of a snore fest. [00:26:12] Speaker A: Is there anything more maddening and frustrating for a fan than when you get to a game of this level importance, this opportunity to lock in a playoff space and you end up with a result like this and the coach comes out and admits publicly, oh yeah, the team wasn't mentally ready. How in the world does that happen? I don't understand it. [00:26:34] Speaker B: Well, I talked to him about it today because I noticed that the last two games he's mentioned he didn't think they were mentally up for it. And we kind of just had a further conversation about it. And he thinks it's mostly due to the pressure of the moment. Anxiety, frustration. It's hard to really put your finger on exactly what it was, but he seemed to think it was more about the pressure of the moment being this feeling like the whole world's on their shoulders, trying to get this point and get in, and it's not going the way they want it to go and that kind of thing. So that being said, in terms of the possession, the domination of possession, there's two straight teams that have come in here and played a low block, which of course is a problem for them. I think that they had plenty of opportunities to get balls into the box, but the delivery of those balls was not very good and Jesus wasn't in there. So that's a problem that they got to solve and figure out. And overall, it just led to a very boring game because basically it was another case where the opposition had no interest in the ball. So Dallas just kind of worked the ball around as long as they could. And without Yara Mindy in the game, they didn't really have anybody that could break a team down with the ball on the ground, which is the thing he does that nobody else can do. And they were left with Jesus lobbing in an. Extraordinary number of crosses from your number nine nobody to nobody, and other people, too, are guilty of the crosses. If you look at Jesus's numbers and you're like, if you thought that was your ten or if he was your eight or if he was your right wing, you'd be like, that is a staggeringly good game. He was amazing, except that he's not playing that position, and there's a frustration there. It just was a really rough game, and they did not get so they set up chances that could have led to scoring opportunities but didn't. So if you look at shots on target, it was really bad. Shots on goal, really bad. Xg really bad. But he felt like Coach did that up until that part was good. It's just the final bit. And that final bit has been a problem around here for years, and the low block has been a problem. We've been talking about this for a long time now, multiple coaches with the same problems. So you just got to keep going. You just got to keep fighting and hope that you can, at this point, hope you can get in. [00:29:11] Speaker A: It is very weird and unusual and frustrating because I think we've talked about it here on this podcast before, and I certainly have talked about it with Andy on the radio show, which is I do begin to wonder. At what point Clark and Dan look at each other as this season plays out and take note of the fact that after literally an entire lifetime of being the laughingstock of the league when it comes to attendance and you've finally broken through that wall and regularly packing the place that now you're starting. At least I'm getting the sense that drone shows ain't cutting it anymore. And the fact that you're missing this opportunity of all of these people that you got to come out to the game and have maybe been not super excited about what they saw on the field, and now that there's a game at the end of the season, you can't even that's frustrating me. And it just makes me wonder, going back to the other thing that we were just talking about, which is where does Nico's, how hot is his seat at this point if they don't make the playoffs, or even if they do make the playoffs and just go out. [00:30:22] Speaker B: And it depends on what you value. I think you're right that the attendance has not been good in the latter half of the summer going into the fall, but that trend is usual, right? School starts up, football starts up, all those things, but nonetheless, they failed to capitalize on what was happening in the first half of the season and before all the injuries. I think Dallas was a lot more entertaining through the first third of the season, maybe in the first half of the season, than they were in the back half of the season. Part of that, of course, is that goals are fun, scoring is fun and scoring is not great on this team. The way they play to kind of stifle a game and keep the scoring low both directions is also not particularly fun. They don't play a very sexy brand of football. So like if you're a casual fan that doesn't really know what you're looking at, you can see that they're not scoring and they're not winning. So that's kind of boring. And then if you're a fan that doesn't know what you're looking at, you just watch them play. It's not sexy, it's not exciting, it's not fun. The entertainment value is low as a product, which is not to say that's not what they want though, right? Remember when coach they brought in this coach Clark and Dan sat there and said the playoffs is the minimum. We can't bleed goals like this. Our defense should be better. They literally hired this guy to be defensive and to get in the playoffs. So do they care about entertainment value? Do they think that long term standings not standings, long term attendance is related to something other than performance on the. [00:31:48] Speaker A: They maybe they feel like bits, like drone shows are what drive attendance. And maybe that's true. I don't know. All I remember when I was at the Miami game, not only was it an amazing atmosphere and a night I will never forget for the rest of my life, dallas actually played entertaining soccer that night. They were like a different team. Now, I don't know if that's the messi effect or the crowd effect, but not just stylistically but attitude wise and everything, dallas played like an attacking team and that made me happy because that's the kind of thing that I want to see this team do. And ever since then it's been like a completely different group of people on the field. [00:32:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think that that was alan also was an eight. A very attacking mindset coming out of midfield. I don't know. The coach liked that, though. That's the weird thing that's going to make me not like is I know it is. The thing is here's the thing, though. I talked to Dan Hunt today and he said that they're far, far and away ahead of season tickets compared to any other season they've had and you compared to last year. So they're ecstatic about where they are in terms of selling and perception of the fan base and season tickets and expectations to be in the seats. So like you and I talk about the product being boring and we see the little tail off here at the end of the season. I don't think that they see that. [00:33:10] Speaker A: All right, but you know what, hold on sidebar. I would love to see a chart of sales of season tickets starting from the messy game to today. [00:33:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:20] Speaker A: And I'd like to see is that a consistent has that amazing run of season ticket sales, which is going to translate to maybe their highest number ever in club history. Is that something that all happened the majority of in the week or week after the Miami game? Or is that a consistent run spread out from that date to today? And I'm going to guess it's the former, not the latter. [00:33:46] Speaker B: I would guess that too. [00:33:47] Speaker A: And I'm starting to wonder how many people are like, wait, I bought season tickets for this. [00:33:53] Speaker B: Well, we do hear stories of people saying that they're not going to renew because it is boring again. Okay, that's the thing. [00:33:59] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the flip side of this is I have to admit the level of surprise. I am surprised at the number of people that I have a seen in your discord, b that I have seen on social media that does not include Facebook, by the way and C that I know personally that have all said they are not renewing their season tickets for next year because they just don't like watching this team. [00:34:23] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I think what the team would tell you, and I would tell you this too, is that people that are complaining make a lot more noise than people that are happy. So I'm sure that they would say that if they see a 70% grousing ratio on social media, they're probably used to that and that what they would point to internally would be, how are we doing in sales? But I totally agree with you that I'm sure there was a massive Miami bump and it's been tailed off a little bit. So that's the thing is without being more in their heads and knowing what they play the most value on, it's hard for me to say whether how hot Nico's seat is. The conversations I've had with them in the luncheon from a month and a half ago, they were like, we've got our coach. We've got our TD. We're really excited about the direction this thing is heading, all that kind of and we've also shown before on this channel the history of the Hunts being embarrassed by something and firing a guy. Morrow was after that. La Debacle Clark was after he got knocked out of the playoffs in the first round for the second straight year even though he had the best team in the they they have panic pulled the trigger. Not panic. That's the wrong word. They've embarrassment pulled the trigger a couple of times, which is an emotional reaction. So if this thing goes horribly south this weekend and they miss the playoffs and it's this great massive collapse, then maybe they'll get emotional and do something. But then look back at the way Oscar's team collapsed in. Was that 2017 when they went on all in the Champions League and it didn't work and it fell apart, but then they didn't fire him because they loved Oscar. So that's the thing is how do they feel about Nico up until, like, a couple of weeks ago? Has it changed? And I don't know that it will have changed. That's the thing is I can't really say that it will know if they miss the playoffs by a goal differential and they're four points out of second place and yet they miss and they had all these injuries like come. [00:36:24] Speaker A: I mean, yeah. The only other mitigating thing about that idea of them deciding now's the time to pull the trigger and get rid of Nico. Pending, for whatever reason, they don't make the playoffs. Or they make it and get blown out. In one game or whatever, is this idea of the Jesus Fred that's dangling out there, which is if Jesus is going to go in the winter and you're going to have to have a team without Jesus, in other words, essentially rebuilding this roster, is now not the time to also do that with a new coach? [00:37:03] Speaker B: It might be. And maybe this is because Oscar's out there if his guy calls. But also, think of it this way, though, too, though. This coach can go into there and say, okay, without Jesus, dudes, we've been without Jesus for two months now and I didn't lose a game. Right? [00:37:22] Speaker A: Yes. [00:37:23] Speaker B: Just saying. [00:37:24] Speaker A: Okay, but here's what I'm going to say to him, because I wrote this down, because I went back and looked. I was going to say, oh, I know you haven't lost a game, but do you realize that since the start of June, june, which feels like an age ago, you've only won four games? You've played 17 games. You've won four of them. You've lost five of them, and the rest of them are ties. Eight of those are ties. [00:37:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm not saying that he's not on the hot seat. I'm just saying that I can't tell if he is. [00:37:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:50] Speaker B: No possible to get in the owner's heads on this one. [00:37:54] Speaker A: I think there's a lot of things to have questions about. None of this feels very solid. And you can make arguments either way that he's in a perfectly safe position or man, his ass is on fire. You could make those arguments in both directions and be completely wrong about it, I'm sure, at this point. [00:38:15] Speaker B: I mean, with Lucci, we saw a three season trend going the wrong direction, and I don't know that that was Lucci's fault necessarily, which is a whole nother conversation about what goes on other than the coach. But then before that, Oscar mutually parted ways to try some other things. Shellis basically was like, yeah, I think I'm kind of done right. When was the last time they actually fired a coach? [00:38:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:38] Speaker B: Morrow true. That was over a decade ago. That was that 15 years ago. Without looking, that was like seven. [00:38:46] Speaker A: So can I ask the other question? Which is the one that is the one person who I feel like totally skates on criticism out of all of this, which is Andre Zanata. [00:38:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:57] Speaker A: Why isn't he on the hot seat? [00:38:59] Speaker B: Well, because of Peppy money. Right. [00:39:03] Speaker A: Anybody could have sold Pepe. That's not like a magic trick. [00:39:07] Speaker B: No, but listen, this guy's reputation coming in was a guy that was able to make revenue by buying and selling. That was his mo. That was his reputation. And that's basically why they hired him, was to do that, was to try and capitalize on the monetary academy. Yet also remember that he got was it Palmaris? He got to the or is it Grimio? He got to like the Copa Liberdroyce final. So the dude has been able to make it work. I'm not saying he's doing that here, but he has been making the revenue here, which is what they wanted. I would have said for sure that man, I was really starting to beginning to question stuff. Well, then he had that really great offseason when they hired Nico. They made three or four great moves that all hit. Okay, well, maybe it's not so bad. Well, then this year didn't really work that greatly, but except that what did they do? They went and got Ibiaga. Well, that's worked out. They got yaramindi. Well, that looks pretty good. ANSA is not so great, but that's still two out of three. Frazier looks like a cheap good value. Junka looks like a cheap good value. So, like the last two years, while Jimenez stinks, you can still look at the numbers on Jimenez. Remember, he's basically free this year. So you rolled the dice on a free guy. Maybe it'll make it work, maybe it won't. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't like giving credit to somebody for roster. No, I don't care if he's free. If he's not producing anything, it doesn't make any difference what he cost. I mean, I guess it does. I guess if he's super expensive, it does. But if he's not helping on the. [00:40:40] Speaker B: Field didn't we just have a conversation about Orlando and finding value at low prices? [00:40:45] Speaker A: Yeah, but those guys are actually producing. [00:40:47] Speaker B: You don't think Sam Duke is producing? [00:40:49] Speaker A: Oh, no, I'm talking specifically about Jimenez. I'm sorry, as related to Jimenez? [00:40:53] Speaker B: Yeah, jimenez is junk. That was a roll of the dice and they felt like they wanted to get rid of Brandon. [00:40:57] Speaker A: Yeah, but that seems like such a critical position to just be a dismissive roll of the dice. [00:41:03] Speaker B: Yeah, well, they wanted a veteran body. I think they didn't estimate how Jesus was going to be out as long as he was. Milado hasn't really paid off. I'm not saying it's 100%. I'm just saying that I think the last two years have probably done enough for Zanata. That not me, that his owners. Like where he's at and like the know there's some good things that he's done the last two years that look pretty can't. Up until two years ago, I was really worried. Other than making the big money off the Academy guys. All of his moves seem to not be paying off, and there's still some guys are looking to clear out of here. So it'll be interesting, in my opinion, they're looking to clear out of it. It'll be interesting to see what happens this winter when you may have some more opportunity to do some things, and we'll see how he does, because there have been some big misses, too, because you have to look at him. The biggest issue for a guy like Kemper, and he's not 100% responsible for it, but the Grezo to Tiago Santos, to Facundo slide was rough and probably is the reason Lucci got fired in the end. [00:42:03] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely was. [00:42:06] Speaker B: There are definitely some things you don't like, but there are some deals that I think have made sense to me. I was pretty annoyed about the legit thing until we got this updated number, and now I'm like, oh, now, see, that's fine. You know what I mean? There's always context to all these things, and I don't think what's happening here is enough that they're like clean house fire, don't I don't see it. [00:42:28] Speaker A: Okay, well, that does lead us to decision day, which is this Saturday. It's not Sunday. It's Saturday. And Dallas obviously has to go to La. To play the Galaxy, which has a pretty salty home record, at least of late, I believe I'm correct in saying is that not right? Isn't La been fairly good at home of late? [00:42:52] Speaker B: I think that sounds right. I think they've had a couple of. [00:42:54] Speaker A: Good results, I'm looking right now. So their home run recently, they tied against Salt Lake, they tied Portland, they beat Minnesota, tied St. Louis tied oh, this is working out perfectly for Dallas. All we need is a point. So since they're undefeated, yet they have a roll of ties. [00:43:16] Speaker B: Yeah, they're about the same as Dallas at home. But, yeah, no, a point won't get it done. [00:43:20] Speaker A: Oh, it won't? [00:43:21] Speaker B: No, you got to win. [00:43:24] Speaker A: Right? You do have to win. Yeah. [00:43:26] Speaker B: I mean, depending on what else happens, a point is not a guarantee. [00:43:29] Speaker A: No, that's true, because just to remind everybody, kansas City and Minnesota, which are two points behind San Jose and Dallas at 10th and 11th, play each other in Kansas City at the exact same time, a winner of either. If either one of those teams win, what you're hoping for is a draw, right? [00:43:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:47] Speaker A: Okay. But if either one of those teams win, the problem for Dallas is that if Dallas doesn't win and only gets a draw, both of those teams actually beat Dallas on the first league tiebreaker, which is total numbers of wins to. [00:44:02] Speaker B: Try and make it as short as possible. Kansas City and Minnesota are right behind you, and if they tie you're in, that's the easiest way to think of that. And if you win, you're so basically, like, other than that, you need to keep two people behind. So like if one of the teams behind you wins, that's know, if you get a point it gets a lot easier. If you get a tie, then you only have to have one of like five different possible things happen. And, you're know, if Portland were to lose, if San Jose were to lose, if Sporting in Minnesota tie, if you get a point it gets a whole lot easier. But you could still miss. The bottom line is winning you're in. Just take care of your business and it's done. They're in one of these situations where even if they tie or lose, they can still get in because the other people need to do things to pass you right. The other Sporting in Minnesota and San Jose are all in the position of we need Dallas to not do good so we can pass them. They're where we have been many times before and Dallas is in the good position of being slightly ahead of all those teams. So they don't need a lot to go right, they just need a little bit to go right and they'll be in there's like 20 different scenarios so it's hard to go through them all. Basically, it's just stay ahead of other people. That's the short version. [00:45:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Just so people know and have been paying attention, la galaxy have not been on the best run of late. They last won a game back in late September against Minnesota at home. And since then they've went on the road, tied in Austin, three three tied Portland at home, three three. Lost to Seattle in Seattle, lost to Minnesota and Minnesota and tied Salt Lake. The crazy part about that run, Buzz, is that in that run of games they scored four goals. Three goals, three goals, one goal, two goals, two goals. [00:46:09] Speaker B: Well, this comes down to Dallas defense, doesn't it? Because that's a there's a note on Dallas that effectively if the other team scores, loses, you know, pretty much. So you're going to have to go out to La and get them and shut them down. [00:46:21] Speaker A: Basically, Dallas has run about that same time. They have allowed one goal, one goal, one goal, one goal, zero, one and one. And they've essentially, other than the real Salt Lake game, scored the same amount of goals as their opponent. [00:46:38] Speaker B: That's the thing is Dallas's defense is pretty dang good. Yeah. The offense is the problem. So in a lot of ways that's the thing. It's like if you need a team to go on the road and get a point and close down the other team, this is it. Dallas is your team. This is what they you I am. [00:46:56] Speaker A: Just now realizing I didn't realize this. I'm going to ask you this question, Buzz. Maybe you've already noticed this. When was the last time Dallas played the Galaxy? [00:47:06] Speaker B: Oh, it's way early in the season, isn't it? Back like in May or something. [00:47:09] Speaker A: It's the first game of the season. They started and ended the season with the Gal. Yeah. At Dallas. They lost to Dallas three one was their first game of the season. [00:47:24] Speaker B: Yeah. This current Dallas ain't scoring three, not. [00:47:27] Speaker A: The way they're playing. Good Lord. All right, so that leads me to this question. What do you think he's going to do for a lineup? [00:47:36] Speaker B: Well, here's the problem. [00:47:39] Speaker A: Is this something you learned in training today? Is this the injury report? [00:47:43] Speaker B: It is. [00:47:44] Speaker A: Is this the bummer report? [00:47:45] Speaker B: It is. [00:47:46] Speaker A: Oh, no, wait, let's see. No, just go ahead and tell. [00:47:50] Speaker B: Okay, so Fakundo was nowhere to be seen, which means that he's been out for two weeks, basically. [00:47:56] Speaker A: Is he on the injury list? [00:47:58] Speaker B: He was questionable last week, so I'm not buying questionable. If he was still missing today, that means that it's worse than I think and that he's letting on. So I would not count on Fakundo at all being available. I'm assuming they'll probably list him as questionable, but I'm going to call him way more than that because as far as I know, it's now over two weeks since he's even trained at all. And then the other side of the coin that is not really exciting is that Yara Mindy, who was trained today, walked out of the session with the trainer having a conversation. So I'm going to call him unlikely. Unlikely or questionable or whatever you want. [00:48:39] Speaker A: Unlikely sounds more polite and pleasant. [00:48:43] Speaker B: So what matters in all that conversation is that effectively we're looking at the exact same situation we were last week, which is both those guys are at best questionable. And I don't think you can assume they're going to play. I think you have to assume they're both not going to play, which means that you're looking at Frazier Paxton again. Well, if you're trying to get the game to be zeros, that's fine. Fraser's fine. If you're trying to break down a low block, fraser is not Know coach. Of course, when I asked Know, I asked about this particular shape not having IRA Mendy, because you don't have anybody that can basically double line break, which is what you need against a low block. When you're playing this with the hole, there's no ten, right? Because Jesus is up front and Oberon is up front, so there's this hole and Iramundi is the only person that can pass through that hole. So without him that doesn't work and you have to go wide. You have to fire all these balls in the box, which is what you saw against Colorado until IRA Midi came in and then he changed the whole thing immediately. Right. Which is why I said, oh, should have brought him in ten minutes ago. So the same thing is true. You're going to be looking at the same thing, basically. [00:49:52] Speaker A: Do we know what Ilara's injury is? Is it like muscular? [00:49:57] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:49:58] Speaker A: Feelings? [00:49:59] Speaker B: I don't know. Yeah, it's not his feelings. Not that know, a little too chilly. [00:50:05] Speaker A: For him lately for his liking. [00:50:07] Speaker B: Too cold? No. So if you talk about the rest of it, it's all pretty obvious. Farfan Nakosi ibiaga imito masi. Those are givens at this point. Fraser Paxton, I'm assuming it's the same sort of four four two again. Now, let me be very clear. We talk about a four four two all the time. This coach doesn't think of things the way we think of things. And this is a segue. But like, for example, I was talking to him about a four three three once, and he called up four three three. He called it a 2323 because two three defensively is what I call the Nico W. I've referred to that right where the six is there and the outside backs are stepped up. He called that a two three. Well, in my mind, that's a back four with a six. This is the idea, again, of modern coaches don't talk about shapes. They talk about occupation of space. So this four four two is going to exist in his mind. It's the same shape they play all the time. Which is also funny because he and I have had a conversation recently about how you want to play pretty consistently the same way, so that people aren't confused about it. And yet we look at the game and we see different formations all the time, because it's not about that. It's about occupation of space. That's the so he's it'll be the same. Frazier Paxton more than likely, it seems setup with Velasco sort of on that left side, left wing, where he can come outside, he can come inside and occupy the hole. OBrion will be in the channel, more than likely with Jesus, also with Jesus, the freedom to move in, move out, occupy that hole. Ariel on the right, same thing. Outside, inside, occupying that hole. So they're playing the same way they play all the time. How you define exactly where these guys are playing is not written in stone, is the deal. Now, in my opinion, I thought they were way better when Velasco was clearly occupying a center spot, playing as an eight, like a double eight. [00:52:06] Speaker A: Look, Buzz, you don't have to qualify it as your opinion. It's actually a fact. They were playing better. He was playing in the center. Just don't feel like you have to. [00:52:16] Speaker B: All right, sometimes I feel like it's necessary because I'll say things like that. People are like, no, it was way better than, okay, whatever, but it's your podcast. [00:52:23] Speaker A: You do whatever the hell you want and say whatever the hell you then. [00:52:27] Speaker B: You know, the coach didn't obviously agree know in his mind, Velasco as this wing outside thing with the freedom to come in there is effectively the same thing. It's about occupation of, you know, what matters more is the opposition choosing to play or choosing to be a low block like both San Jose and Colorado have done. So that'll be the thing that'll dictate the most how this game looks is if La tries to play and La does want to try and play, usually they're usually a team that wants to get at you. [00:53:00] Speaker A: They got nothing to lose. [00:53:01] Speaker B: They got puig who's a baller and a know. They got dudes that are going to want to come and get at it. Right. So if the game opens up and La wants to play that actually will benefit. It's teams that low block that cause them immense, immense amounts of know. So you can look for the same kind of attempt to play against La that you saw the last several games, I'm pretty sure by what I've been witnessing. So whether or not it's effective or not will depend on what. [00:53:33] Speaker A: You want to do. You want to predict what you think the outcome is going to be a tie. [00:53:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I really do think it will be. [00:53:43] Speaker A: That would make the most sense in the scheme of things. [00:53:47] Speaker B: This team is really good about keeping the game really close and really tight. Whether you like that or not is not what we're talking about. That's what it is. So it's going to be a one goal game pretty much whether it's 10 or one one or whatever. The question will become can the difference maker for Dallas which at this point is just Jesus and maybe a little bit of Alan. Like last game Allen was the difference maker with his free kick and he rose to the occasion, had a great amazing free kick. Can one of those two guys do something to win this game because I'm pretty sure you're not going to have Aaron mindy to do it. Bernie is still going to be with the believe. So that really leaves you just Alan or Jesus. Can one of those guys do something to win this game or not? And I'm going to say that they're not both going to. So that means a tie, like a one one tie. You get a goal out of one of those guys and that'll be about it. [00:54:40] Speaker A: So what you're then counting on is Kansas City and Minnesota drawing against each other and it's at Kansas City and if you want to just kind of since we've been doing comparisons of form, kansas City has had a they haven't won two games in a row since probably six, eight weeks ago. They've been trading win loss, win loss. But at home their run of late is they beat Houston a few weeks ago. Two one they lost to Nashville at home, the game before that. But they did have a pair of back to back home wins against San Jose and St. Louis of all know, probably beginning of September. I think that is when that was, end of August early. You know they got everything to play for and pulling off a win. Against Minnesota, who obviously fired their coach a few weeks ago, feels like that's very likely to happen. I mean, if you were going to put money on them, them winning that game is probably a safe bet. [00:55:41] Speaker B: Well, if Dallas does indeed tie, there's actually three different things that could happen that could still get them in. If Portland loses to Houston, Dallas will be in. If San Jose loses or ties Austin, then Dallas will be in. And if Sporting and Minnesota tie each other, Dallas is in. So there's three ways if you tie, there's three ways you're still getting in if any of those three scenarios happen, because Dallas, again, is not bottom. Dallas is 8th, right. So there's three teams behind them. So all you need is basically like one of those scenarios to happen and it'll be enough teams behind you that you'll be in. So the tie is not the end of the world. Dallas doesn't have to do all the work here. They just have to do a little bit of work or win and it's over. [00:56:24] Speaker A: Can I just be the contrarian and say sure. It'd be really neat to go into the playoffs with a win. [00:56:31] Speaker B: It would be super awesome. [00:56:34] Speaker A: It'd be nice not to back into the playoffs. [00:56:37] Speaker B: Well, I predicted two weeks ago that it would be tie tie and miss, that Portland will win, San Jose will win, and then either Sporting or Minnesota will win and Dallas will tie and miss. That's my prediction. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Are you sticking with that? [00:56:53] Speaker B: No, I think somebody is going to screw up between those three think. I think the game will be a tie just because that's what this team does. But then I think one of those things will not know houston's going to do you a favor or Austin's going to do you a favor or you call it Lucci if you want. [00:57:10] Speaker A: Yeah, because I can't imagine San Jose not getting a result against Wayward Austin. [00:57:16] Speaker B: Well, it's the Know, they have the same problem that Dallas does. You're playing a team that are fighting for Know. Wolf's keeping his job, so you guarantee that he's going to gut that team or at least put a big turnover on it. And so he's going to be standing out, locker room going, you want to be here next year? Let's go. So they're going to come out fighting. Lucci's fighting for the Know so he'll want to pull the shoot and screw it. Know, Portland's got an interim coach. They're all playing for that. Miles Joseph trying to show that they're actually a good team, fire their coach even though they're in 7th place. They've really rebounded and Houston's got it all wrapped up, so they're not going to play very hard. So Portland is probably going to win. I mean, they've set themselves up. It'll be a fun decision day, I'll tell you that. [00:58:01] Speaker A: Boy, will it. There's an early slot of games at 530. I think. And then the other games happen at yeah, they start at five. Sorry, they start at five and the second slate starts at eight. So Dallas is at 08:00. [00:58:16] Speaker B: You know what Dallas usually does when we write them off going to La. Is that they roll out a big result and beat La. Three nothing. [00:58:23] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. [00:58:24] Speaker B: They've done that twice that I can remember once in the playoffs back in like 99. The other time was the open cup game where they went out and shredded. I think it was a cup game with under shells. They went out and did that. [00:58:36] Speaker A: No, the playoff game was the game that just absolutely blew my hair back because it was the most unexpected result in the club's history and was a fantastic result. [00:58:45] Speaker B: Was that in 2010? Was that part of the run? [00:58:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that was part of the run to MLS Cup. And it is funny going back to the Colorado tie of last weekend. It is weird how teams just that team Colorado is this team's bogey team. No question. I mean, you can just always assume when you really need like if it's in the middle of June or at the beginning of the season, a Colorado game. [00:59:14] Speaker B: You blow them. [00:59:14] Speaker A: Yeah. But when the game actually means something, whether it be counting you getting into the playoffs or in the playoffs, colorado is always going to trip this club up. Just no question about it. [00:59:26] Speaker B: Somebody on Twitter was like, I don't want to hear about no bogey team. I was like, but they are. [00:59:29] Speaker A: They are. They just absolutely it's it's frustrating like that. Okay. [00:59:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:37] Speaker A: Let's move through the run sheet. We talked about the salary stuff. Anything else from training that you saw today? Any good news, buzz, anybody hitting bangers at practice that make us feel hopeful for the game? [00:59:52] Speaker B: Well, it is training, but they were working on some offensive sets that look pretty and but again, training is training games, game. I watched practice and felt pretty good about what I was seeing. A couple of North Texas guys were in camp. It was fun to watch guys like Dylan Lacey or Diego Garcia who just got back from the U 17 team. Mulatto was back. My boy Malachi Molina was there, malachi, as you like to call him, pondeka, who's coming up for North Texas and been really good lately. He was up. Oh, Sebastian Legit was there. Yeah, Sebastian Legit was outside cutting, running cones, flags, kicking, occasional ball. So he's got to be close to. [01:00:36] Speaker A: Return just in case they make the playoffs. [01:00:38] Speaker B: Just in case they make the playoffs. It looks like Sebastian legit. Knock on. [01:00:41] Speaker A: Was he wearing his engagement ring? [01:00:42] Speaker B: I do not look, but he was in full uniform and he was in really good spirits and so he must be close to know. I don't think it'll be this, you know, next so or maybe a game I don't know. So that's cool. I mean, that's a nice, good piece. Good player. He was getting better before he got hurt, so that's a positive win that he's back. [01:01:03] Speaker A: Buzz, when I post Becky G engagement ring updates in the discord, does that annoy no, no, it's not my bag. [01:01:11] Speaker B: But I know people care about yeah, yeah. [01:01:16] Speaker A: For those not paying attention, becky G appeared on an NPR Tiny Desk episode without her engagement ring. [01:01:24] Speaker B: She did have a ring on that finger, though, did she not? [01:01:28] Speaker A: Yes, she appeared to, but it was absolutely not the giant solitaire diamond engagement ring that she showed off a lot to the media post engagement. [01:01:40] Speaker B: Well, my wife will sometimes not wear the bangles out when she's somewhere doing. [01:01:44] Speaker A: Whatever the glitter that you've draped her with. [01:01:49] Speaker B: I mean, glitter is relative. Everything's relative. [01:01:51] Speaker A: I'm not Sebastian Jett. [01:01:52] Speaker B: She's not but, you know, there's still real versus fake. [01:01:57] Speaker A: She's Amy C. She's not Becky G. [01:02:00] Speaker B: I mean, does your wife occasionally not wear her fancy jewelry when she's going someplace public there might know. [01:02:06] Speaker A: She has no fancy jewelry. [01:02:08] Speaker B: Fair. That's true. Should have known. [01:02:10] Speaker A: I refuse to give it to her. [01:02:12] Speaker B: All the money's in the car and Corgis. [01:02:16] Speaker A: That's right. The Corgis got all of our money. Goes to Corgis. For sure. All right. Anything else that we need to cover today, Buzz, in this episode? [01:02:26] Speaker B: Yes. The Dallas Cup has a new director of operations. Yeah, Frank Philo, who's been there for years, by the way. So the reason it's important and it's interesting is because, A, I love the Dallas Cup, but to me, this feels like a change in structure in the sense that Frank is not now like the he's not filling the position that was vacated. He's now director of operations. He's running all the tournaments and all that stuff. Which leads me to believe maybe there's now a division of duties where there'll be somebody hired to do the big brand buys, buy ins and big team recruiting and the international stuff, the broadcasting. There'd be a person who's more of a businessy CEO to go with Frank, who reports directly to the according to the information directly to the board of directors. So it feels like a different kind of take for me on the Dallas Cup. So if you're a Dallas Cup guy, I think it's fascinating. And I am the Dallas Cup guy. I love the Dallas Cup. So it'll be interesting to see how it all works out, what comes to fruition. [01:03:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:03:40] Speaker B: And he goes to me when I text him and ask him, what the hell's going so who? [01:03:44] Speaker A: Philo? [01:03:44] Speaker B: No. [01:03:45] Speaker A: Andy. Oh, Andy. Yeah. Well, that means one of two things I can share with you, Buzz. It either, A, means that you've asked him a question he is unable to answer for legal or appropriate reasons, or B, that means he's like in, I don't know, Belize. Belize, yes. Or El Salvador or some CONCACAF nation trying to screw together a CONCACAF nations league match with baling wire and duct tape. [01:04:18] Speaker B: It is the international window. [01:04:19] Speaker A: So I will yeah, I'm 99% sure because he's with me this weekend to do the show. We have a show this weekend, but he was out of town last weekend and I think he had to fly out. I think he was back in Jamaica. Yeah, it's crazy. [01:04:37] Speaker B: Well, I'm sure you know Frank. I've known Frank for years. [01:04:39] Speaker A: Yes. [01:04:40] Speaker B: Great dude. He played for the sidekicks way back in the day, which I didn't know, so that's cool. [01:04:44] Speaker A: He has a son, doesn't he? David Philo. [01:04:47] Speaker B: I have not met his son. I don't know that. But I know know he's been carrying a lot of heavy load over there since Andy left, so credit to him. He's going to have this increased role and increased title, and he's a good guy to run their operations. Perfect for that job. Which leads me to believe that there needs to be a Andy Swift style international man of mystery to run some of the other things which are really important for that tournament. [01:05:15] Speaker A: Can I share Kit talk with you real quick? So I am now the proud owner of a Venezia third jersey from this season. The navy blue and white horizontal hooped, long sleeve with the red collar, and it is marvelous. [01:05:38] Speaker B: Yeah, it is beautiful. You shared a picture of that. [01:05:40] Speaker A: I look like a guy when I wear it. I look like I should be paddling a gondola around the canals because that's what the whole idea of it is modeled after. But it is really nice. A friend of mine went to a Venezia game last week. He was actually at the game that both Tanner and Busio scored at, by the way. [01:05:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:59] Speaker A: And I got a video of Tanner scoring that goal. It was great. And I was like, please, if you go, please get me a jersey. And this is what he brought back. [01:06:07] Speaker B: Busio needs to move on from there. He's regressing there. That's not a good place for him. [01:06:11] Speaker A: My friend who has a soccer brain in which I respect very greatly. His comment was, first off, and I thought this was interesting, he was shocked at the lack of quality overall at Sari B, the Sari B level. Now, again, this was Venezia versus Parma, I think it was, but he was surprised at the overall level, and his judgment was that both Busio and Tanner both could clearly be playing at higher levels. They were two of the better players out on the field that day, tanner specifically. And his comment was Busio struggles with the physical nature of that league, which apparently he was surprised how physical it was. Tanner essentially just schluffs it all off like water off the Duck's back because he's bigger than everybody else. [01:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah. I would assume without having watched any of it, that MLS is better than. [01:07:00] Speaker A: That probably, I would guess. [01:07:03] Speaker B: You know, I'm not going to say MLS is better than you know, I am going to say that they're better than league two in that country. [01:07:12] Speaker A: Well, there may be individuals across the league that are better than a lot of individuals in MLS, but if you were just going to do an overall league comparison yeah. I would think MLS is probably better than sarah b. Yeah. [01:07:25] Speaker B: MLS is weird in that sometimes they have a more middle of the pack across the board than other leagues that might have a really great team and then some really crap, so but as a collective league, I think MLS is better than almost everybody else's. Second division is going to be worse than MLS. [01:07:42] Speaker A: Yeah. I hate making these comparisons because they're so complicated to do, and there's so many kind of contextual things that you can't really get into without really making it. Everybody tired head nuance is not allowed on the internet. That's true. [01:07:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:59] Speaker A: It's hyperbole, because I realize I just said MLS is better than like I can start the stopwatch now when somebody's going to give me a load of crap about that because maybe I don't even know if I really believe it or not, but anyway all right. There you go. All right, now. Anything else, sir? [01:08:19] Speaker B: I don't think so. I mean, that was a good amount. [01:08:21] Speaker A: Of stuff for a drab one one draw. [01:08:26] Speaker B: Yeah. Did you see Velasco's free kick? [01:08:30] Speaker A: I did, yeah. [01:08:31] Speaker B: How good was that? It was nice, right? [01:08:32] Speaker A: It was fantastic. Yes. I don't know. It was the only goal of the game for them. [01:08:42] Speaker B: Well, let's just look ahead a tiny bit. As long as the team is still in, we'll keep covering the team for this season and talk about who they're matched up against and who they're going to do this, that and the other. And then once they are eliminated, which will be before MLS Cup, I assure you, then we'll get into all the offseason shenanigans about who stays, who goes. Coach, stay. Coach, go. [01:09:05] Speaker A: Oh, you mean like every other year? [01:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, like every other year. Every once in a while, people will say, how come you guys don't talk about x, y, and z? It's like, because we got a long winter. We got to hold that stuff for the winter, man. Can't do it all right now. [01:09:18] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. All right. Well, there we go. Saturday night, 08:00 p.m. Local time on the apple TV. Plus, it is decision day. Your boys there, curious, have to get the three points they really need to pull a win out of their butt for the first time in quite some time. [01:09:37] Speaker B: Yeah, they really do. I'm not going to hope for it, though, because it's probably not going to happen. [01:09:43] Speaker A: Last win was september 21, and it was on the road at salt lake, so okay, so less than a month ago yeah. Had it even been a month. What is everybody so down about? Yeah, and they haven't lost since then. [01:09:57] Speaker B: Piece of cake. [01:09:59] Speaker A: They got five really exquisite draws since then. They've played five games, scored four goals and allowed four goals. [01:10:09] Speaker B: I think if Jesus will play with a little more discipline, that this thing will be fine. If he'll go wandering on the field less. [01:10:18] Speaker A: I appreciate your attempt to end this podcast on a positive note. [01:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah, trying to keep it real. Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90. Com. MLS decision day is here. And Soccer 90 Dot has the deals to make sure you're outfitted and ready to go. Starting on Friday the 20th, get 40% off on all MLS Apparel. 40%? That's incredible. That includes Fcdl's gift course. Jersey Scarves Tees Hats MLS sale this weekend. It ends Sunday. Hurry up and take advantage of this man. 40%? That's ridiculous. Of course, if you want non MLS stuff, you can still get 20% off with the code third degree at checkout. Some exclusions do apply. [01:10:56] Speaker A: Thank you, Buzz. You're the best, my friend. [01:10:59] Speaker B: Thank you for being here, Peter. [01:11:00] Speaker A: As always, I love to do this. And thank you. FC Dallas. Curious fan. We will speak to you next week after decision day, hopefully with a playoff game on the horizon. On another episode of Third Degree, the podcast where's Dan can third degree the third degree. Never get third degree. Never get third degree. Never get third degree. Never cared. Om.