3rd Degree the Podcast #241

[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. [00:00:25] Speaker B: Podcast third degree to podcast is brought to you by soccer 90. Com. It's the holiday season and soccer 90 dot has got you covered. They've got jerseys, the scars, the jackets, the cleats, the t shirts, at every club you could like, international clubs, national teams, FC Dallas, North Texas soccer club. They really do have it all. Third degree listeners using code third degree at checkout get 20% off soccer 90. Com code third degree. Some exclusions may apply. [00:00:51] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to another episode. This one is, in the numerical order place of 241. 241 of third degree, the podcast. Hi, I'm Peter. We are without Dan Crook today, but somehow we are with your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero. Editor, founder, third degree. Net, the original Buzz Kerik. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:17] Speaker B: Hi, Peter. Happy Hanukkah to those that celebrate. I'm sure Dan is just getting overloaded with work leading into the holidays because I'm sure all his things have to be taken care of well before he goes away or whatever. [00:01:29] Speaker A: Well, I just want the good curious person listening to this to know how dedicated Buzz is to this podcast and to them as a curious, because we are actually recording this while his beloved Newcastle are fighting for their Champions League lives. So instead of watching the second half of the Newcastle match, who are they playing? Oh, Milan. And Polisic just scored for Milan, which I didn't know, which you didn't see because you turned it off. No, Buzz wants to record his FC Dallas podcast instead. So kudos to the. [00:02:11] Speaker B: Thanks. Thanks, man. It's a gig economy. You got to do what you got to do. [00:02:17] Speaker A: All right, well, I don't know how much we have to talk about today, so this may be a short episode, but I say that and have a feeling we're going to end up going, wow, an hour blew by fast. [00:02:29] Speaker B: Yeah, usually when you say that, we end up with an hour plus. [00:02:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, well, let's see. So I think the first thing that I want to talk about is the release of names of how all the deals worked out across mls and what players are available, the free agent list, like, which was declined, what wasn't declined specifically for Dallas. And then what does that mean in terms of who's out there and available within the league for Dallas to consider to pick up? [00:02:56] Speaker B: Well, listen, MLS overcomplicates these things. You say the reason they do that is because they don't want free agency. They thought they actually were adamant for decades that they would never allow free agency, and they finally have given in on basically, like really old dudes. And they're not going to give in on young people because the whole idea is to keep the costs of doing this thing within reason. So young, young guys go through what's called a waiver draft, which is like every other league in the world. If a guy gets waived, NFL, NBA, whatever, there's a waiver draft. You can grab a guy in all these drafts. By the way, FC Dallas this year is picking 15th. That's where they ended up in the standings, basically right smack dab in the middle. And in between the waiver draft and being a complete free agent, by the way, Jimmy Mauer is the only complete free agent that FCD Dallas has is what they call the reentry draft. Now, there's a couple of versions of it. Who cares? What matters is that if you pick a guy in the reentry draft, you have to take his salary, as it was, basically, or with like, depending on which one you do. Maybe it's a little bit more than what it was. So you'll see that in the waiver draft, you might get league wide, you might get two guys grabbed in the reentry draft. The two versions of it, you might get six or seven each time. Not very much. Most people go through both of those processes and then end up, in a worldwide sense, being a free agent. Although in MLS terms, the rights revert back to the team. So basically, at the end of this window, Jimmy Mauer is 100% complete free and everybody else Dallas declined options on would revert back to them in MLS terms, in terms of them holding the rights. So if somebody wanted them, they could then trade for their rights. Now, that doesn't mean they're going to play for Dallas. It just means that if they come back to MLS, like I said, MLS makes this overly complicated and stupid. So the same people are gone as before. Fakundo, Martinez, Colin Smith is in the waiver know. Nothing really changes in terms of outbound players for Dallas based on any of these things. The only thing that's fun to talk about is, is there anybody on all these lists that you think your team might be interested in? So that's the fun part. [00:05:09] Speaker A: And of the other team's list, is there anybody in particular or people in particular that you think they should consider picking up? [00:05:16] Speaker B: Sure. Well, I have a couple. I'm sure that the team might have one or two more. But, like, for example, we talked about Kellen Acosta the other day. He's a free agent, so you can just bid for his services outright. So can anybody else. Now, he's of course, mentioned for years that he's interested in Europe, but money talks, so you never know. [00:05:34] Speaker A: I do wonder if Kellen's even too old now to get like a legitimate european deal unless he's willing to go to some secondary league. [00:05:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. No, more than likely you're right, because he is 28. I mean, if he's going now, it's a team that wants him. Just for now. There's no more like potential buy there. It's only in his current value. So you'd be looking at MLS and LAFC equivalency. So you're talking about championship or your Hollands or your Belgium's or something. Maybe lower Spain. I suppose you're not talking about, you know, so that's what you're competing with. And MLS montarily can compete with those, you know. Would Dallas get in there? Would he want to come to the house? I have no idea. But he's a name if we keep moving on, Miles Robinson, of course, in Atlanta, spectacular center back. Also, of course, talking about going to, you know, make a call, call him up, offer him DP money, see what happens. That's a great player. [00:06:35] Speaker A: If he was amenable to that, would you do a DP on Robinson? [00:06:39] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, absolutely. [00:06:40] Speaker A: All right. [00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Age and talent and ability. Yeah. Spectacular player, for sure. For me, for DP. And then you can get into guys like jurisdiction, mascara. Who's the Cincinnati center back? Technically, he plays for Wolves. They loaned him here for a year, so he is still under contract for Wolves. And MLS terms, the loan ended and so he's a free agent, technically, sort of in terms of MLS, but not really because he's under contract. But if Wolves is loaning him out last year, why wouldn't they loan him out again this year? Potentially. So that's a guy that interests me. He started 26 games for Cincinnati last year. And then you can look at some reserve guys, like, for me, maybe, like if you're keeping Jesus or if you're going after a different nine and you're buying out JJ Jimenez, right. You still need a body there. So maybe like Justin Renix from New England might be a nice young backup striker, perhaps. So there's bodies out there and there's guys on these lists that can fill roles for you. You could even do like, as we get into discussions of other positions, we could talk about, for example, if you want era Mendy to play some eight at certain know, do you want to just have Frazier as a six? Maybe you call Dax McCarty or Victor Uloa who both out of contract and hey, I need a guy to start five or six games maybe, or just mainly be a backup and a leader and help kids out and be on the bottom of my roster but get paid, you know what I mean? So there are some positions of lower roster need. And remember that there's a macro idea at play here that was brought up in the press conference and coach had already talked to me about anyway, that they want to broaden their depth in the bottom half of the roster to better be able to handle the workload of games with leagues, cup, open cup, run, play out, whatever you got with these larger loads of games that are coming. They made a mistake last year with all those injuries, so expect a little couple of veterans maybe somehow, and free HBC might be a way to do it. [00:08:30] Speaker A: Okay, so let's simplify this for the listener because there's a lot there and I think we could really get into a ton of minutiae if we tried to. So let's do it this way. Let's break it up by general positional places on the field. Are there a striker or strikers forward positions, whether they be wide or central, that you think would be a really keen option for Dallas to pick up other than somebody it may be different than somebody you already named off the pile. [00:09:02] Speaker B: Well, let's first talk about what's really important to understand. Clearly, I think everyone agrees that they need a center back having let Martinez go. Right. Even if you want Sebastian Nibiaga to be a starter, you still need a guy who can push him and Nicosi. So obviously they would go for a center back on some level. And after that. Sorry, go ahead. Did you have a question on that? [00:09:22] Speaker A: Well, no, I'm just trying to get that. Wait, so you want to go by what Dallas's positional needs are instead of just by position? [00:09:31] Speaker B: Yeah, because in order to get into forward versus wing, I wanted to lay out what the positions of need are first. Okay, so that's why I bring up the center back is very clear and obvious. And then after that the discussion gets into, okay, if you want to talk about how Dallas gets better and competes for next year, you have to add, I think, 15 goals and coaches said that they want to get better offensively. They need to get better, they need to score more, they need to get better with who they have, they need to get pieces. So then you have to decide, which way does Dallas go? Do they believe in Jesus as the nine or do they do what I suggested, which is that he doesn't necessarily always want to be a nine. So do you put him at wing or ten or something? And that decision has to be made because they're not going to IR, Alan Velasco. They've said that. Right. We hope they're going to buy out Jimenez. They better, really. You only have because you're stuck with Alan, because you have Paul Ariola as a DP. Because you have Jesus is a DP. Right. In order to do something really active and nice, really aggressive, you cleared Fakundo's money and you cleared Martinez's money. Well, we just said you need Martinez's money for a center back. So right this second, all you really have is Fakundo's money, which is basically one Tam player, not a big superstar. So that can't get you MLS Robinson, for example, but it might get you Kellen. Maybe some of them are just close to a million. Probably. Maybe Mikellen. So then that's what you have to sit there and think, okay, if I want to add 15 goals and I don't really have all that much money to move, how do I do that? And that's where you get into these ideas of, like, you can't do both a nine and a wing. Probably. You probably can figure out the money to go get one. So you have to decide, and in order to play this game, we have to decide, do they like Jesus as a nine or do they like him as a wing? And where could they move somebody out to make a move? Because then at that point you can start diving into, once you know what you want to do, you can start digging into these free agency lists. And to be fair, when you're talking about a goal scorer, like a wing or a nine, anyone that really makes you excited will not have ended up as a free agent. There's not going to be anybody in the free agent list that's going to get you 15 goals a year, I don't think. And I look through there and I certainly don't see anybody. So that's a long way of saying that when you want to talk about forward and wing, there aren't any in the free agency pool, you have to do something else, basically. Does that make sense to you? [00:12:09] Speaker A: It does. I was trying to make this simple. [00:12:12] Speaker B: Well, there is no simple answer. [00:12:15] Speaker A: Well, no, I think there is a simple answer, but I understand why you're trying to provide the context. The simple answer is there really isn't anybody in the pile that would really fit Dallas. In terms of forward. [00:12:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Not in terms of forward. I'm looking through the list of players that are being talked about as being quality free agents, and I don't see anybody. I mean, you're talking about like a dom Baji or Maxi Ruti. [00:12:44] Speaker A: Yeah. No, we've Bruin. [00:12:45] Speaker B: Right. None of these things. Diego Rubio from the Rapids, who was a DP. [00:12:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:12:52] Speaker B: Like, none of these things are making, you know, Corey Baird. Houston had a really nice year, but again, he's more of a wing off striker. Like a very similar profile to Jesus. Taller than Jesus, but same profile. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:05] Speaker B: So I like Corey Baird on an island. Do I like him when I already have Jesus? Not really. I either want the fafA. Pico's in here, right? There's a pure wing. That may be sort of interesting, but he already burned his bridges here. Joseph Martinez, do you really want to spend his money when he hasn't done squat in, like, three years now, after all those injuries he had no. You know what? [00:13:31] Speaker A: So, no, that's kind of why I asked the. Yeah. Okay, so now let's move to midfield. Is there anybody in the pile that you think fits a profile that would help Dallas? [00:13:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Kellen. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Okay. [00:13:44] Speaker B: Kellen's the. They're probably. If I were to really dig into these. Brian Acosta is out. Option to climb, but I don't want that know. There probably are some bodies in here. But for me, the one that makes the absolute most sense is Kellen. Acosta, until you get down, until, like, you know, depth pieces like Michael Barrios is available. But at his age, would you want that? [00:14:05] Speaker A: Man, there's a lot of. Been there, done that. [00:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah. There's Dax McCarthy, there's Victor Yelo. All these guys that are free agents are the ones who, like Jimmy Mauer, have been around a long time. They're kind of at the end of their career. [00:14:17] Speaker A: Hey, wait a second. Would you take Victor back? [00:14:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I would. [00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I would, too. [00:14:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I would. Yeah. Or Dax. Either one. I think there's a place on a roster for a low salary. Now, nobody get upset that I'm going to say 150 to 200,000 is a low salary. We're talking about professional athletes, right? That's a low salary for them. That's almost like a not quite reserved roster, but that's pretty close to it. And you're not going to play a lot of games. But I love you in my locker room. I love you for what you could teach to kids. I really only need you, like for the games where I need to start Frazier because I'm going to put your arm in as an eight and I need you on the bench to be a six to come in or if Fraser gets hurt, you're my second six. At that point, you got to cover your bases, cover your bets. So like a depth six makes a lot of sense to me. Or if you're 100% convinced the RMD is your six, maybe a depth eight. Because Sebastian, we've noticed, got hurt last year. He's already in his 30s. Paxton can't start 34 games. Velasco is out for the year, right. We're starting to run out of bodies at the eight. So if you've got, again, Callan can play eight, right? So can Dax, probably. You can dig into these jack prices available from Colorado. You can look at these guys and you can see bodies that could help me, but none of them are flash or exciting. And it's like, honestly, there's like season. Yeah, they're role player veterans that are late in their career and maybe they can help you a little bit. So that's what these free agents available really are. There's no big gigantic superstar free agent because MLS doesn't allow free agency like that. Unless you like a Nick Lidero who's like 34, or Carlos Vella, who you can't afford things like that. Does Kai Cameron do anything for you? He's like 38 or whatever he is. I'm just saying there are bodies there that can do something for you, but none of them are going to make you that 15 goals better. That's going to make you a better team rather than just a team that will survive. [00:16:12] Speaker A: Okay? And I know we mentioned Miles and a couple of other people already just to make sure we've covered it. Anybody in the back end? [00:16:20] Speaker B: I mean, do you like Omar Gonzalez at his. Other than. Other than Miles Robinson, who's prime age group, or you're some mascara who again, really belongs to Wolves? There's dudes like that all up and down this thing. Jan Greygoose is a player at Minnesota that looks pretty good from time to time. You can find Emmanuel Boateng, I think it's a left back, actually, which might not help you all that know. You can find guys that can solve problems for you, that can help you, but not someone that can make you better. And that's true all up and down the free agency list. [00:17:01] Speaker A: And I'm asking just because I want to make sure I cover it. But this is going to lead us into our next topic. We don't need to bother even looking at the goalkeeper list. Correct. [00:17:11] Speaker B: You might talk about that. Well, you want to go to the next topic? Because that'll tell you why you might. [00:17:16] Speaker A: Okay. Which is we mysteriously out of the blue. I think we've all known that Julian I. Stone's situation at Duke was a bit in question. I think we all kind of had an idea of what was going to happen in terms of him going pro, but out of the blue from nowhere, he announced on his Instagram account the other day that he is leaving Duke and quote, unquote, turning. [00:17:39] Speaker B: Yep. [00:17:39] Speaker A: Now, I read that and thought, oh, wow, this means he's going somewhere else other than Dallas. Because if he was going to Dallas, this would happen in conjunction with an announcement from Dallas, but that never came. But you're telling me that this actually means nothing and means something completely different? [00:17:58] Speaker B: Yes, it means something completely different because he has a responsibility to Duke. Duke's an elite program and they will need a goalkeeper if he's leaving. So if he never says anything, if Duke is out recruiting or Duke's looking in the portal, every single goalie they talk to is like, dude, you have I stone, you're insane. Why would I come to Duke? They needed to be able to tell recruits, portal or otherwise, that no leaving. Don't take our word for it. Here's his social media post that says he's leaving, but you and I and people like us have assumed he was only doing one and done at Duke for a long, long time. So this is not a surprise. It doesn't change anything in terms of could he come into FC Dallas or is he going to Europe? It doesn't answer that question either way. But what it does tell us is that it's one step closer to happening, whatever it is, because he wouldn't have done this if he didn't have some sort of tacit agreement, at least on the table with somebody. Because otherwise, you don't burn your bridge at Duke until you have to. Right? Even if they're telling us, hey, if you think you're going now, you say, no, I'm going to wait until it's 100% so we can assume that. Sorry, I'm sorry. [00:19:05] Speaker A: No, go ahead. I'm sorry, I'm interrupting you. Yeah, go ahead. [00:19:08] Speaker B: So we can assume that very clearly that he's coming pro one way or the other. Now, the time frame is everybody remembers he doesn't turn 18 until April. So the two things that could be happening are he's signing a homegrown deal with Dallas or he's going to do some sort of pre contract or whatever with a team in Europe to be able to go to that team in April, it'll be one of those two things. So if you're an FC Dallas fan and you want him to come here, then if we can just throw together sort of an elusive sort of timeline here. Let's assume this week MLS league offices are overwhelmed with reentry, drafts and waivers, this and other things that and all these contracts that are expiring. And then next week is the actual draft. They'll be overloaded with that, and then it's the holidays and then their short staff and FC Dallas will be closed, probably. So let's assume best case scenario, if he's coming to Dallas, you'd see some sort of contract, I'm going to guess probably start to happen in the first week of January. And so an announcement and the little pr stuff with the photos or whatever else, 1st, 2nd week of January. So if you're hoping he's coming here and you get to mid January and you don't see anything, that's when I think you start to worry that they're not going to get him. Is that that's sort of the process. And also in the meantime, if Dallas moves on a keeper in the free agency, bringing in a trialist, draft somebody, if you see some of that activity from Dallas as a keeper, that also will be a pretty strong indicator that they've missed on him. So those are the things we're going to wait for now. We're going to wait for those two signs to tell us either they're going to be an announcement of him, or you'll see Dallas dip into the keeper market and that'll tell you whether he's coming or not. [00:20:50] Speaker A: There's the, there's all the factual part of it. Now, I want buzz to do some speculation. So I'm thinking if I'm Julian Istone, the reality with Dallas is they've got a top notch keeper and Martin paws. I'm assuming Martin's here for at least another year, or et cetera, et cetera. [00:21:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I give her sick. [00:21:09] Speaker A: All right, then they've got Antonio Carrera, who obviously in his own right, is climbing up the ranks. I mean, he's been doing national team duty at the youth level now for a bit. [00:21:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:20] Speaker A: And is there a world where Julian I. Stone has leapt over Antonio as the next number two on this team? [00:21:27] Speaker B: No, he's too young. Okay. There's a world where he's the three and then he starts every game at North Texas and he's two. When Antonio, if San Antonio gets a call up to the Olympic team or another, somebody gets hurt. Yes, somebody gets hurt. That's the question, is there's no way you're getting him out of North Texas deal. So an absolute worst case scenario is that if you signed him and it turned out you didn't think he could play yet, then you would just stash him at North Texas on a loan and then you would go sign a third keeper. But having watched Julian play with North Texas, I don't think that's the case. I think you'd be fine with him as your third guy. And then the questions become, what do you do with put, if you put Julian in north Texas at every single game, which would be great for him to start there for two know, do you have Antonio just sit around and do nothing for a whole year while you're waiting for pause? Maybe. Maybe there's something to explore with Antonio in terms of a loan or something, but there's no scenario where I stone signs directly with North Texas, and there's no scenario where this season, I don't think Julian would walk in and be number two ahead of Antonio. Antonio is quite good. It may be that one of the more is worth more than the other long term, but right this minute, like, if I have to start a game today, it's Antonio. Antonio is 20 and Julian is 17. That's a big difference. It doesn't mean that in five years it might be flipped. Basically, it's pretty straightforward for FC Dallas if they want a keeper. In terms of, like, does Julian like FCD Dallas, would he consider FC Dallas? [00:22:59] Speaker A: Well, hold on. You're jumping ahead because I really want to look at this from Julian's point of view, which is reading the situation, I find this. This is one of my favorite, most. I'm most curious about processes because so many of us are new to all of know, young local kids putting themselves in a situation to become professional soccer players and the opportunity to either play for their hometown club or go someplace else. And I think his situation is super fascinating because it is a reality. It's kind of the Weston McKinney deal where this kid is so good, he may choose to go somewhere else in the world and Dallas may get nothing out of it. [00:23:40] Speaker B: Well, a little bit of this will be where, based on how good I think he. You know, most people don't know that homegrown deals are limited by the. Basically, it's like a box that you have to put them in that has a bottom end money and has a top end money. It's defined by the CBA. So, for example, if you want a homegrown, you can't pay them 5 million a year like you have to pay them in the parameters of this homegrown. If you want to pay them more than that, then they're a DP. You can do that. You can pay a 17 year old a DP money if you want. They'll think you're dumb, but you can do it. So there's a defined amount of money. That's the most that Dallas could pay somebody like Julian. So then the question becomes, okay, I can tell you for a fact, based on conversations I've had with him and his people, they love FC Dallas. There's no downside here for them in terms of FC Dallas. They love the club, they love Drew Keisha most of all, who's a phenomenal goalkeeper coach. The idea of the amount of games you would get with North Texas and the quality of the training are all outstanding. So consider that if you will, like a base, right? That's where you're starting at. And so if you're a european team that is interested, you have to come in and beat that. That's my read from have conversations with him and his people over the last couple of years. So the trick is, I think people probably overestimate how much a 17 year old going on 18 year old might get paid in terms of being like on a high academy or reserve first team kind of level by Dallas or. [00:25:10] Speaker A: By anybody in Europe. [00:25:11] Speaker B: In Europe. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Okay. [00:25:12] Speaker B: I think it's not as much as people might think it is. So that's what it'll come down to is does somebody from Europe value him enough to outpay SC Dallas? SC Dallas isn't a crazy number, but it's a pretty good number in terms of just homegrowns in general. [00:25:29] Speaker A: Do you know what that number is or can you have a ballpark of what that number? [00:25:33] Speaker B: Yeah, basically the minimum is the reserve minimum, which I think is like 68,000 this last year I think it was. And the maximum is up to like. I think it's like 125 maybe is the maximum. But it also has a structure. It has like year one, you're this number, year two, you're this number. Year three, you're this number. And then option you, if you look at the structures of the way that MLS rosters work, you can see the progression of the money if you go look at guys that are currently going through this, look at what Nolan's on, look at what a guy that's in his second year is long. Look at what a guy in his third year is on. So you can see what those monies, give or take, are. They can vary a little bit within that structure. What you can also change is whether you put North Texas years on the front end or not, which is out of the question for Julian. He's way too good for that. So you can ballpark these numbers and let's just call it, on average, one hundred k over a five year deal, basically. [00:26:36] Speaker A: Okay. So do you think I stone is good enough or has the potential to be good enough that some european team is willing to make him a deal that will exceed whatever Dallas is willing to put on the table? [00:26:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. I don't think, though, that that's the only factor. Let's say, for example, a turkish team comes in with 150,000 a year over five years. Would you take that? But you got to go live in Turkey and what's the coaching situation like? Do the checks clear? No offense to that particular club, but you can see many places where that kind of money won't equal in a player's mind, the opportunity with FC Dallas, the coaching, the security. I get to live in Dallas, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then on the other hand, there's the teams that could come in and might go, here's the same money, but we're Bayern Munich, and you're going to be on one of the greatest teams in the world. Now, I don't think that's particularly likely a Bayern Munich. I don't think he's that good. But somewhere between there is a balance of a team with a great program and a really nice coaching setup and a great opportunity with money that's equal to or better than scallops. And that's when you lose him. And I don't know if that's out there. I think it probably is out there. So I'm going to say, if I'm picking a guess right this minute, I'm going to go 50 50 that he's here versus not here. [00:28:02] Speaker A: That's just the crappiest answer. [00:28:04] Speaker B: I know. [00:28:05] Speaker A: I want you to speculate. [00:28:07] Speaker B: Well, the speculation is that there absolutely will be a team with more money than that. The question will be, is it more money and a good program or is it more money and it's a place I really don't want to go play football, which is a very different. [00:28:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. How many times have we seen kids go off somewhere that we're like, really? You want to. I mean the Fabian Castillo story is the best one, right? He ends up in Turkey and you're like are you sure that's the right place? [00:28:35] Speaker B: Or Reggie at Boa Vista, how great we thought that deal was like, it had the whole Leo connection and it was like you're going to be there a year, then you're going to go to France and that's a club that wants to sell. What a great opportunity. And that turned out to be a shit show because the owner changed and then they ran out of money and then now Reggie had to fight his way out through court and all this stuff and didn't get paid for like a year or whatever. So things can look good on paper and not be. So when you're 1718 years old this is a very important decision and money is not everything and he's got really smart people around him so it's going to be fascinating to watch. [00:29:09] Speaker A: It is because we've got several different iterations of this same thing. I mean if you think about the peppy situation, we all kind of knew on the onset that probably wasn't a great opportunity for Ricardo based on the club and the situation we all kind of went, is that going to work? Is that really, I mean, I know it's a ton of money and you kind of have to take it. It's a great deal for Dallas, but is it the right place for Ricardo? And it obviously turned out not to. [00:29:32] Speaker B: Be even in that case, that was even specifically about the way they played. [00:29:35] Speaker A: Right. [00:29:35] Speaker B: Pepe's not a guy that creates his own scoring opportunities. He needs assists and service and that team does not have that. And we were like, that's a bad fit. Well, PSB has that and look how good he is. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Right. And then let's alternatively look at Tanner Testman who ends up going to Venezia and we're all like, really? You really want to go? Okay. And that's turned out fantastic for Tanner. [00:29:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I even checked with him before they got relegated and he was, no, no, this is going to be great. The coach loves me. We go down, I'm going to be the man and he is the man. [00:30:03] Speaker A: He is. [00:30:04] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, there's now teams circling to buy him at the end of this. Know there's some italian. [00:30:09] Speaker A: Really? [00:30:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:10] Speaker A: I didn't know that. Lots and lots of fun. So Buzz Carrick has reported officially that Julian I. Stone is going to make a lot of money. [00:30:20] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, he will eventually and play. [00:30:23] Speaker A: Professional football as a goalkeeper somewhere on the planet of Earth. [00:30:28] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, compared to a normal 18 year old, he's going to make a lot of money. The next one will be the huge one. No matter where you go, do you progress over the next four years that the next deal is a banger? [00:30:39] Speaker A: So you're officially reporting that Julian Eyestone is not signing with a club on the right? [00:30:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that's correct. He will be playing. I mean, I'm not even reporting that. He's the one that said that. He said, I'm going pro. He's not clarified the moon. So I will add in the moon part. [00:30:57] Speaker A: You can confirm from your sources he's not playing on a planet or in a celestial body other than the planet Earth. [00:31:06] Speaker B: I feel strongly he's not going to Medellin. Feel like I'm safe and probably not SC Barcelona. Probably not. That club Bovis is probably out. [00:31:18] Speaker A: Yeah, probably a russian club. [00:31:20] Speaker B: Yeah, probably not. [00:31:21] Speaker A: Probably not a ukrainian club. [00:31:23] Speaker B: I would not go to Ukraine right now. That's probably pretty safe. All right, Turkey's probably out. I bet. [00:31:29] Speaker A: The other thing that has popped up, I think it came out today. The man with the mustache, Tom Bogart, reported that Liga MX teams are back poking around on Paul Ariola. [00:31:41] Speaker B: Can I be a cynical bastard for a minute? [00:31:44] Speaker A: I know exactly what you're going to say. [00:31:46] Speaker B: Let's say you're a club with a player that perhaps underperformed and you need to add 15 goals and you'd like to sell said player. Would it not behoove you to leak a hey, there's a bunch of mexican teams interested in my player, San Diego. Nudge, nudge, hint, hint, or whoever. You know, look, the price is going to be steep. He's going to league. [00:32:07] Speaker A: Oh, so you're. See, I was thinking maybe it was his agent that was poking this out. You're saying it may be Dallas? [00:32:15] Speaker B: The cynical bastard in me is suggesting that Dallas is leaking that you cynical in order to bastard. Because if you want to add 15. [00:32:23] Speaker A: Goals, it's probably coming from Paul. [00:32:25] Speaker B: Quite expensive. It's not coming from him even when he's in form. But he ain't 15. And you got Bernie and you got Alan. [00:32:32] Speaker A: Yeah, but then you have to subtract Paul's goals. Oh, I think he had two this last year. [00:32:38] Speaker B: But look back at his really great season two years ago. But again, that's now two years later, he's now approaching 30. It's like, maybe the prices could be really high for San Diego. They just signed their first player. [00:32:50] Speaker A: Going to be sweepy because he's going to be a daddy, maybe. [00:32:53] Speaker B: Really, league of MX teams are really coming in for him. If that's true, then you definitely leak it to up the price and make those teams compete against each other. Yeah, maybe it's the agent. Maybe it's the agent, but the cynic in me thinks maybe it was FCD. [00:33:05] Speaker A: We're in agreement, though. If somebody says, here's a fair stack of cash for Paul Ariola. Yeah. You sell him. [00:33:14] Speaker B: Yes. For all the reasons we just mentioned, you can love Paul Areola, but in the end, season is ruthless. If the money is right, then you do the deal. Because the value of even peak Paul Areola versus the amount of offense you're missing is the question, I need to do something or I'm going to be sitting here doing nothing. So that's kind of the expendable piece. I would say the same thing about legit. I bet you legit's expendable at 30 plus. [00:33:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:41] Speaker B: If somebody calls for legit, I'd be like, sure, Becky, B. Value, give me the money. Right? If you want to get better. If you don't want to get better, you don't give a shit, then fine, just sit here, do nothing. [00:33:53] Speaker A: Well, I know, and there is a very real possibility that in, I don't know, eight weeks time, we're having this conversation, and we're like, yeah, we're kind of in the same roster we were in eight weeks ago. Yeah. [00:34:06] Speaker B: If they don't buy out Jimenez to get themselves to move, if they don't move something like an Areola or legit, if they don't add anything in midfield, if they don't add a don't, or even if they do get a center back, that's like last year where they got Seva Sibiaga. We like that move, but like that by itself, we could be looking at the exact same team, basically. We could be. Hopefully we don't, but we could be. [00:34:31] Speaker A: Well, yeah, we've said this multiple times in the last few weeks. As it is every offseason, this is an opportunity for the hunts to kind of show us their hand in terms of ambition. [00:34:42] Speaker B: Yes. [00:34:42] Speaker A: And I feel like this is more so the offseason for doing that than it has been lately, just based on the fact that it's Nico's third season. [00:34:53] Speaker B: Well, the biggest reason is the Messi bounce, okay? Yeah, because the whole league is going to bounce up because of Messi, because everyone made more money. Everyone now looks at that and goes, crap, I better do some things. The whole league is going to take a bigger step than usual forward. There's some new rules coming that we don't know about yet. Don Garber said there's no fourth DP, but he did say there's some very specific rules that are going to get voted on in the owners committee like this week that will help the teams do blah, blah, blah. He didn't go into any details. So everybody out there is going to take a step, maybe even some big steps. So this year, even more than normal, if you stand pat, you're going to go backwards in a hurry. So they're going to have to do something or they're going to be in last place next year. [00:35:37] Speaker A: Okay. [00:35:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Not to bring everybody down, but basically that's where we're at. [00:35:42] Speaker A: Well, it's 100% on the hunts in the front office is to prove where their head is at. We can all sit here and run through all the free agent lists and dig through FB, ref and transfer market and dig up all the players you want. But at the end of the day, we're going to have a very clear sense as to how the hunt's attitude is about this. [00:36:09] Speaker B: Circle back to the highest paid players last year, right? Jesus is fine. Paul underperformed. Allen's basically out for the year. Jose Jimenez is trash. You want to get rid of him, legit is okay, but maybe you could upgrade there. Fakundo is gone, Paxton's fine, except he gets hurt a lot. Martinez is gone. And then the next one is Ibiaga. So those are your top ten paid players on the team. And you cannot compete if those players are not performing. And over half of them didn't perform. So if you don't fix that spot and they got rid of Fakundo, got rid of Martinez, right. So Alan's hurt, they got to get rid of Jimenez. And so then you have to start looking at what else can we do? Can we move Paul? Can we move legit? Can we do something to make this. Can we move Paxton? Well, you and I love Paxton. Let's be real about that. Let's be analytical for a know. You probably can't move Jesus because he's too important for you probably don't want to, right? You got to do something. Those are the only things really available to you to make your team, like, significantly better. Those positions have to hit, dps have to hit. And you're already going to have one DP that's valueless. Next are I'm telling you this offseason got nuts in a hurry. Like Allen getting hurt just really crushed them in terms of and Paul falling apart. They're in a bad shape if they don't do some stuff. [00:37:25] Speaker A: Honestly, I completely agree with you. I'm trying to find this thing that I had. There was something I had written down somewhere. [00:37:35] Speaker B: I mean, Ansa is not the answer. Eugene Ansa, right. We love era Mendy, but he's not going to get you 15 goals, right? Far fan. I mean obrion, even if you bring him back, you're going to lose six or seven goals right there too. That you don't have him back. Hopefully when you add somebody good, it's not a problem. But where in the world are you going to get 15 more goals out of this team you currently have now? Well, the answer you're going to go backwards. [00:37:59] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm trying to find this thing that I had dug up the other day and I noticed it on the heels of watching Columbus win MLS cup over the weekend. Actually that was a pretty good game, by the way. [00:38:09] Speaker B: It was a great game, wasn't it? [00:38:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Andy, the guy that co hosts the kick around with Andy Swift. [00:38:15] Speaker B: We all know who know I'm always. [00:38:17] Speaker A: I'm a radio guy. I'm always resetting. You have new. Sorry, that's just the broadcasting professional in me. Anyway, so Andy was at the game. Andy. It was first time Andy had been at the new stadium. He says it's great. He says it's really intimate on the inside. He was actually surprised how bare bones it is when you see it in person. He says he feels like q two feels like a more state of the art facility. [00:38:42] Speaker B: I was going to ask how it compared to Austin because I've been there. [00:38:45] Speaker A: But he says it's a nicer facility than Austin's because it's all enclosed and roofed. He said obviously in the game it was pouring rain. He says I was as dry as I could possibly be. [00:38:55] Speaker B: Nice. [00:38:55] Speaker A: And he said it's super loud because of the roof and he really enjoyed the facility and thought it was great. The game was fantastic. The thing I wanted to point out because this really blew me away and this is indicative of why I watched the Columbus team and I think everybody feels this way because Columbus was an incredibly fun team. Is it okay if we move on to something else? Buzz, I'm sorry from Ross. I want to move know watching Columbus play and really just be an insanely entertaining team to watch. What I was really struck by were all the numbers about how many goals they scored this year. I think the total numbers of goals they scored this year set an MLS record. I think it was across all competitions. Or they tied the total number of goals across all competitions in a season. It was like 82 or something crazy like that. And I was doing some math because I was also surprised by how many goals they had given up. [00:40:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:03] Speaker A: And they gave up. In this season. Columbus did 40, 46 goals, 46 league goals. And then I think, well, Dallas had a really good season. That's actually nine more than Dallas did. Dallas was at 37 and obviously Dallas was one of the lowest goals allowed all season. Seattle, I think was first at 32. But now juxtapose that with the fact that Dallas only scored 41 goals and Columbus in the league alone scored 67 goals. [00:40:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Plus 21 goal difference for them. [00:40:43] Speaker A: That, to me really quantifies what bothers me the most about this season for Dallas, which is this sense that when I watch Columbus play, that is a team that is out there playing to win the game. [00:40:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:59] Speaker A: Dallas always feels like they're playing not to lose under Nico specifically this season. Now, maybe that's a byproduct of injuries and I'm just trying to get the most. I'm trying to make lemonade out of lemons situation. I'm not sure that's the case. But man, I really would prefer to see Dallas get to an attitude and a spirit that we saw out of Columbus this season. [00:41:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree with that. That's where that needs to have 15 goals came from. Basically, their goal differential is four. And the elite teams in that conversation are St. Louis, Cincinnati, Columbus 17 1821. Orlando is at 16, Philly is at 16. This is goal differential, mind you, LAFC 15 goal differential and Dallas is at four. So if you want to be in that elite conversation of teams, it's not just that you have to have a good defense, you also have to have a good offense, or at least a balance between them two in a really highly positive manner. You could certainly be way, way worse, but that's where that comes from. And the proactiveness that you talk about. I think that the coach would like to play a much more possession oriented game and a much more proactive game. I think this season in particular, just really, he didn't have the bodies for it. I think you can look at last year's road record compared to this year's road record, I think, or maybe not record, maybe mentality like even more this year. On the road. They really went and like bunker and grind on the road compared to last year when they, I think, sometimes tried to play a little more. I think that he would like to be a little more positive. But for me, what it really reflects the idea is that Dallas too often for me, adapts for the other team. And there were lots of quotes by Columbus after the game about how we just play the way we play. We don't worry about the other team. That's where I want my team to be. I want to be a team that plays the way they want to play and then doesn't give a crap about what you do. We're going to do what we do because we're great at it. And that's what I'd like to see too often, that we're seeing Dallas change formations, change tactics, flip guys around. I mean, I don't mind tactical adaptation, but I don't like it where your whole game is like figuring out a way to stifle the other team rather than just here's what we do, try and stop. [00:43:07] Speaker A: It was a, it was a fun, entertaining MLS cup. It's also weird to see LAFC play so differently this season compared to last, which is another weird. [00:43:19] Speaker B: They need to. [00:43:20] Speaker A: Yeah, they do. They're still really good though, right? [00:43:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Let me throw an example of a good defensive team. That's what I'm talking about. Think of the way Oscar's teams played here and in Orlando. They're a more defensive team than some of these others we've talked about. But they just play the Oscar way. They play the same way all the time when he was here. Think about that. They never really adapted for other teams. They just did what Oscar wanted to do and they were good at it. And they won the sport of Shield once and tied for it once, right? It we're who we are, even though it was know it was still aggressive and that's what I want. You can be defensive as long as you don't necessarily just roll over for people. Be aggressive about it. [00:43:57] Speaker A: By the way, speaking of Oscar, the mustached one, Tom Bogart also has reported this week since we last spoke, that Oscar and crew are in line to sign a new deal to stay at Orlando. And that to me would be a bit of a. [00:44:14] Speaker B: I guess. I guess he likes the situation there or maybe they wanted something specifically. I'm surprised that no one has come in and tried to get him. Maybe the offer wasn't there or maybe that was the leverage he needed to get what he wanted. I was a little bit surprised, too, that they are not necessarily as locked in on moozy. They were still talking to Moosey, but weren't know who's the TD down there who came from Dallas sort of with Oscar or right before Oscar and then told them to hire Oscar or one or the other. So that seems to not quite be the partnership that I thought it might be. [00:44:44] Speaker A: Well, it just makes me wonder if the ownership has promised Oscar some sort of increase in spending. Remember, they were the lowest salary team in the league that finished and he also finished second in the east. Had a fantastic season. Yeah, go ahead. [00:45:01] Speaker B: You remember part of why he left here was that he never got Dallas to give him the spend to give him the nine he wanted. No, they gave him was. [00:45:08] Speaker A: Or was it Coleman? [00:45:09] Speaker B: Which one? Was it Coleman? [00:45:10] Speaker A: It was Coleman. That was like, are you serious? [00:45:12] Speaker B: There definitely was some noise from Oscar when he. I, I trust our ownership to give us what we. Something like that, like about a month ago. And maybe you're right. Maybe that was the thing. Like, I'm not resigning until you agree that you're going to let me buy some because I'm doing this on the worst, lowest roster in the team league. You're going to give me some assets and let me buy some people. And they've cleared a couple of DPS since then. They let Perega go, for example, who granted, it's like 34, but they're obviously setting themselves up. And you're probably right, Peter. That's a really good point that I bet he was like, I'm not resigning unless you agree. And that's probably what that trust line is for. Okay, I trust you. You better do this now. [00:45:50] Speaker A: Or maybe he just really likes Harry Potter world. [00:45:54] Speaker B: He might. Orlando is a great know. Hard to complain about that. They have a pretty good academy, too. [00:46:00] Speaker A: Oh, do they? I don't know anything about their academy. [00:46:02] Speaker B: Well, inner Miami, excuse me, has, you know, jumped them in terms of star power. Know, one of the reasons why they went after Moosey was because of the FC Dallas Academy. And one of the reasons why they went out after Oscar was because of the FC Dallas Academy. There's a lot of talent in California. Their academy is pretty good. I mean, it's not so far it hasn't paid off. Like Dallas, this has paid off, but they had to build it from, even though they already had an academy. When those guys got there, it wasn't any good. Their MLS next team at the time was like the worst team in that level. So it's like they'll take us some time, but they're definitely getting better. And winning some games in the inner Miami, of course, who's already really good because of their star power. [00:46:40] Speaker A: And then just the last thing, I don't think we have anything else to talk about. Did we? Please remind me. We did not last week, talk about a follow up to my fever dream about the old Texas stadium site. [00:46:53] Speaker B: We did not. [00:46:54] Speaker A: Okay, so for anybody that missed the episode, I literally had a dream that was, I think, built off the fact that I drove past this plot of land the other day, in the course of my day, and I had a dream about the idea of building a soccer stadium on the old location of Texas Stadium, which still is essentially an empty lot used as a staging place for highway development. It's all the gear and crap that are using, know, build roads and stuff, and I have no idea. I don't think there's any existing plan. Well, we all know in the last few weeks, Mark Cuban's announced that he's selling the Mavericks to the Sands corporation and the third richest woman in the world. Well, I think since the last time we talked, Buzz, I think D magazine put an article up pointing out that that same company and woman bought a plot of land directly across 114 from the old Texas stadium location to build, at least in theory, to build this casino facility that Cuban and she wants to build in the Dallas Fort Worth area if, in fact, betting becomes legal. And I just thought, man, that just makes it all the more perfect to put a soccer stadium across the street. [00:48:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's no coincidence that that land deal closed before the Mavericks sale. They. They were basically waiting for that land deal to close before they could announce the whole thing. And I'm sure that there's some confluence of hotels, potential sport books, maybe a music venue, a Mavericks training facility, maybe like a D league team playing there, or G League or whatever it's called now. Maybe even a Mavericks games if they don't like AAC long term, you can see the possibilities there and why the Mavericks have gotten in bed with him and why he sold things, like, everything but the team. Right. He sold the marketing and the broadcasting. And there's worries in his part about what's marketing, where's money going to come from if it's all streaming and not these big, huge money deals anymore? All that's not something he has to worry about anymore. Now, this person that's in the casino betting, entertainment business will worry about it. And if it lines up where FC Dallas someday needs a 70,000 seat stadium. And that place has still got a spot. That'd be amazing. [00:49:19] Speaker A: Well, I don't even know if they need a 70,000 seat stadium. [00:49:22] Speaker B: They don't right now. But this is a day we dream of. [00:49:25] Speaker A: Well, let me just say this, and this is all I want to put this up front. This is total 100% speculation on my part, and I'm dreaming it's total speculation, is this, which is every. For a long time, we've heard what feels like now for the last, at least two, if not three years, that there have been ongoing conversations about modifying the stadium in Frisco even further. And a lot of it was predicated on the idea of building some sort of facility on the east side that may have some sort of sporting or sports betting component to it, like a hotel, a casino, or something, doing something with the sore thumb that is the stage replacing the east side. And here we are, essentially, at the beginning of 2024. The World cup is going to be here before you know it. And I don't think there is enough time to do any of that anymore. [00:50:22] Speaker B: No. [00:50:22] Speaker A: Right. So here's where my speculation comes in. When I hear the story of cuban and this Vegas company and that rich woman spending all that money, and in theory, to build a place like that, it does get me to a place where I begin to wonder is the fact that they haven't yet done anything, they being the hunts, that they're considering other options that do not include Frisco, because there is a price to buy themselves out of that deal in Frisco with the school district and Collin County. I don't know what it is, but it just makes you wonder if, in fact, all of these rich people are starting to hedge their bets that betting is coming to Texas sooner than later. Maybe there is something to the idea that if they're going to put a sporting facility, a betting facility in Irving, across the street, that maybe that old Texas stadium location may be used for something like a stadium. I don't know. [00:51:27] Speaker B: Sure. [00:51:27] Speaker A: And the hunts are willing to partner on that. [00:51:30] Speaker B: Well, when we've talked for a while about the idea that whatever was going to happen at Frisco included sort of this idea of a hotel, of a music venue, of a sports book, that was always in the discussion. And when I talked to Dan Hunt two months ago, I think it was now, that was my literal question, was like, okay, time has run out in terms of having something done by the World cup. Are you still doing this? And he said, originally, the idea, of course, was to have something done by the World cup. But he said that doesn't change the fact that we're using the World cup as the impetus to do what we're going to do because we think that the business payoff with this explosion soccer will see from it is worth it. So again, at that time I was asking about Toyota Stadium and he answered about Toyota Stadium. But as you say, clark is no dummy. He's a billionaire for a reason. And so let's throw this in. When, if and when something starts to happen with the Mavericks, if you see things like a complex of youth soccer fields at that location, that would get my attention. Is it another moneygram? Is it something then, is Dallas interested? What if there's a 5000 seat outdoor stadium that North Texas SC could play in and have 20 youth fields and then we're partnering on that level? Is there a bigger outdoor. If details emerge that lead us to sort of hint that direction, that'll really perk my attention because that's a much better central location for either one of those two things. Like how long do you want to stay, for example, just to pick a business model? How long do you want to stay with north Texas at the state, at Choctaw in Arlington FC, Dallas really loves these youth field complexes. It's a revenue stream for them that they can run them like they run MoneyGram like they run, know, with the training fields on the outside. Because anything Dallas is doing is going to need to have that component. SC Dallas. I mean, so there are ideas there, Peter, in your favorite dream in terms of the way it is now that if we see these kinds of details, we'll really start paying attention to what the hell's going on over there because then that makes you go, oh, a lot of people know, for example, that the Rangers built a baseball youth complex and academy in west downtown Dallas. It's across the Trinity there. [00:53:53] Speaker A: I don't know if you've ever seen Trinity Groves. [00:53:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's west of Trinity Groves. It's between that and when. As you go sort of southwest back towards I 30, it's in there. I drove past it one time. I was like, what the hell? I didn't know about it. So those kinds of complexes matter for these pro teams. Now Cuban's talked about, hypothetically a model of almost bypassing college. He loves the FC Dallas youth model, where he wants the Mavericks to run youth club, like from ten years up all the way through to the first to the pro team. He loves that idea. How do you do that? Well, part of that would be some sort of complex and some sort of training center, some kind of small stadium for a G league team. There's a million ways you could pay this off over the next 20, 30, 40 years for Cuban. That'll be worth paying attention to, especially if you are FC Dallas. And you don't necessarily. I think in the end, though, Peter, that they're married to Frisco at this point. [00:54:42] Speaker A: I think so. But here, let me just throw something else out, because this was obvious to me when we were dealing with the Messi game, and this was one of the things I thought about as I was leaving that traffic disaster. The biggest problem for me with expanding the existing Toyota Stadium site to the point where you're including a hotel and a sports betting facility. And all of that is the well documented known problem of ingress and egress, of. I don't. I'm not an engineer by any stretch of the imagination, but I drive around Dallas a lot, and I don't know how you solve that problem. Like, I literally can't, in my head, figure out how you resolve the egress problem of Toyota Stadium. I don't know if there's an engineering solution for that. [00:55:37] Speaker B: Yeah, you can't make that stadium much bigger than it is in terms of. Because of the local all that's around it, really. And then getting on off the highway, it's already a mess, as you say. [00:55:46] Speaker A: So that's always what takes me back to this idea of, I wonder if they've gotten to a place because they've allowed all this time to go by, that they've got something else. I don't have a problem with it staying in Frisco, right. [00:55:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:00] Speaker A: They could build a new stadium in Frisco for all I care. Just something that's easier to get to in terms of coming off the tollway or wherever it is now. I don't know if that exists. But you see where I'm going with all of this. [00:56:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. [00:56:14] Speaker A: Okay. All right. [00:56:16] Speaker B: My biggest correlationary to that is that it's the hunts and the Chiefs still play at Arrowhead, and they don't strike me, based on their actions, as the kind of people that go, you know what? I'm dropping 2 billion into a facility. They just don't. They just upgrade and they pick it. They pick at it. Arrowhead literally is the same as it's been now since 72. [00:56:45] Speaker A: But if the word that we've been hearing that their dream is to do some sort of sports betting component, maybe they do what Cuban did. And they partner with one of these existing Las Vegas companies. [00:56:58] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe they kind of already been having this flirting with one of those companies as a sponsor for years. And choctaw, I'm not discounting what you're saying. I think it's as viable as just the hunts don't strike me as a team that has an ownership group that is that ambitious, visioned, ambitious and aggressive about their spend. They tend to be long and slow play of decades of incremental, tiny little improvements rather than, you know what? I'm going to build a $2 billion new NFL stadium with 300 luxury suites. They don't do that. [00:57:36] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's interesting. It just dawned on me that, man, all that we've been sitting here talking about what's going to happen with the second expansion of Toyota Stadium for a long time now, and, man, the World cup is right around the corner and we've run out of time for them to do that for the World cup. [00:57:55] Speaker B: In a hypothetical world. I absolutely love it. I think it's an amazing idea. It's just. It's the hunts. You know what? It's just. It doesn't feel like the hunts. It feels like Cuban, it feels like Jones. It doesn't feel like the. [00:58:13] Speaker A: You had a couple other things on the run sheet here. You wanted to congratulate somebody. [00:58:19] Speaker B: Yeah. There's a kid in the academy named Mason Grimm. He's a U 19. He's going to SMU. He scored the goal of the tournament. They had this little MLS next flex. It's called. It's a big scouting tournament. Dallas played really well. I think they went nine and three as a collective, so good performances. But he had the goal of the tournament. He scored from midfield against somebody. So congrats to Mason Grimm. It was a nice know. It was like the Cooper midfield know. Just blasted it. [00:58:43] Speaker A: That is cool. [00:58:44] Speaker B: The clips on Facebook and YouTube and whatever. I'm sure I tweeted it out. You can find it if you're interested in it, but congrats to him. [00:58:51] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. Okay, well, how are we done today? [00:58:55] Speaker B: Well, the last thing I mentioned was, do you want to talk about the idea, conceptually, of will Dallas sign a homegrown this winter? Last year we had Nolan and Tark Scott. [00:59:03] Speaker A: Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see that on the run sheet. [00:59:05] Speaker B: I threw that out with one. A little extra bottom. [00:59:09] Speaker A: Yes, of course. [00:59:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, again, it's about context, and I'm afraid that the short term answer is I think probably no, but I think it's important to talk about. Why, I think it's probably no, and one of the reasons is the kid that they just signed from Croatia. Sorry, Romania. Canadian is 17. Right. Effectively, that's your homegrown in a lot of ways, because that's a kid that's in high school, basically age. So that probably ate up a lot of it. And then you have to look at one other factor is, like I've been talking about, there was a little bit of a drought coming through the academy, and then we were going to hit this little bit of a bubble where there was a lot of kids that had potential and we're sort of hitting that. Nolan and Tarek Scott were the first sort of wave of that, and those are the two they picked last year. Well, this year you're getting into a group that had some interesting guys, but the thing is that they already actually signed them to North Texas. So they signed Malachi Molina, Alejandro Urza. They signed Dylan Lacey, who actually was a year older. They signed the kid from El Paso, Diego Garcia. So, like, that's where if you're looking for. How come they didn't sign any homegrowns from this group? Well, they did. They're just all on this hybrid kind of deal or had this potential future homegrown deal with North Texas. Because this is a continued case of this. Coach doesn't want kids. He doesn't want a 15 year old on his first team roster. So Dallas is really not interested in that. Super baby. Dante Seeley, Pax and palm oil. Jesus Ferrari, 16 years old. Brian Reynolds, 15 years old. They're not interested in that anymore. So if you're looking for there to be this signing and there isn't one, you're like, I don't understand. The Dallas Academy sucks. It's dead. No, it's just going through now. You know, this also would have been when Matthew Corcoran, remember the kid I was raving about that went to this is. This would have been his. Know, there's a couple of guys that are still, like, on the fringe that, again, might become North Texas players. So the process is still working. It's just we're in its current situation where Dallas doesn't want these Teenagers anymore on their first team. They barely played Nolan Tark Scott, if he hadn't gotten hurt, might have been in more in the mix. And there's nobody right this minute, there's nobody that has, like, that fringe of the first team vibe. Those dudes are at North Texas. Diego Garcia is the leader of that. Who had a really great season last year and is a 2006. He's the guy that's closest to making this crossover now that they passed on Hope Ave. And there's one more guy I want to talk about. I've been talking about Anthony Ramirez for years and years and years. Right? You remember that name? He's the kid that's been a mexican youth international, us youth international for years and years and years. He's a little bit younger, so he's still in the academy even though he's a 2005. The problem is they just signed this kid again, the romanian Canadian. Same position. They signed that kid from Barcelona where they traded for his homegrown rights from Chicago. Do you remember that? Yeah, same position. So as much as I like Anthony Ramirez. Alan Vlasco, same position as Anthony Ramirez. So they've signed three guys that play that same position. Well, I think that means that why would you go get a fourth know? It just doesn't make any sense to. I think, you know, a guy that I thought was going to be a homegrown for like three or four years now is not going to be. It's not. A kid I think is going to go to college. I'm sure he'll end up in Mexico or something and not with FC Dallas. Hopefully they're not going to regret missing on him in a couple of years. But they've obviously gone a different. That's a. Again, context is what matters and people are like, people will say, oh, academy sucks. Look, no homegrowns. Well, it's more complicated than know they're at North Texas instead. [01:02:58] Speaker A: Well, that is a FCD Dallas nerds dream episode. [01:03:04] Speaker B: It is. That was a very nerdy dream episode. That's what we do though, right? Isn't that our ballpark? [01:03:09] Speaker A: We super serve the FC Dallas curious buzz. That's what we do. [01:03:13] Speaker B: It's a massive market. It's a really good business plan to go. [01:03:17] Speaker A: We only failed to deliver any kind of information on kit stuff. [01:03:23] Speaker B: Yeah, man, I got nothing on kit stuff. [01:03:26] Speaker A: I don't either. [01:03:27] Speaker B: Yeah, they're doing a really good job with that. They better stay with a hoop. That's all I'm scared about. Even if you don't like it now, it's been there for 15 years. You got to accept it now. It's like it is what it is. Just do it for real, right? [01:03:40] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. We'll see. [01:03:42] Speaker B: Bye, Steve Davis. [01:03:44] Speaker A: All right. I don't have anything else. Buzz, would you like to know the result? Would you like to fate of your new castle. [01:03:51] Speaker B: I know. [01:03:52] Speaker A: Oh, you already know. [01:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Hey, let's give a shout out to Steve Davis for repping FCD Dallas gear on his trip to Europe, his annual soccer trip. [01:04:01] Speaker A: Oh yeah, to, to the. [01:04:03] Speaker B: He went to the Ted lasso bar and took a picture of himself all in Sdowski out in front of the Ted. [01:04:08] Speaker A: Oh, good for him. [01:04:08] Speaker B: That's fun. [01:04:09] Speaker A: That is great. [01:04:10] Speaker B: I'm jealous of those trips. So good. [01:04:12] Speaker A: Yeah, he and those guys are good guys. I bet they had a blast. I don't know what games they went to this season or this year. [01:04:19] Speaker B: I didn't look. I thought the Ted Lasso bar was pretty cool, though. I want to go there. [01:04:23] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Who wouldn't? That would be a lot of fun to go to Richmond. [01:04:26] Speaker B: And that place is going to be like, cheers. Now it'll be tourist trap. [01:04:30] Speaker A: That and the bar that's next to the racecourse ground in Wrexham. Both those places were either a hole in the wall or relatively nice tiny little pub. And now they are terrorist traps of the highest order. No doubt about it. [01:04:47] Speaker B: How many years, by the way, before the people of Wrexham are now pissed off that 50,000 people not from Wrexham are coming in every weekend and destroying their town and taking over their stadium? [01:05:00] Speaker A: It'd be interesting to talk to somebody and kind of get where the meter is on that already at this point. [01:05:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:06] Speaker A: Because I've been told by a couple of people that have been to games at Wrexham since the show has come on that it already is very much a significant percentage of people in the stands that are there because of the tv show and not because they're from. And. But I don't think it's gotten to the point where people like, there's a significant percentage of people in Wrexham that are annoyed by that yet because I think they're all still very much in the wow, this is amazing phase. But you're right, there's going to come a point where it becomes such a thing that it's like, okay, wait a second. It's like the Miami situation. Like, wait a second. You want us to pay how much to go to these games? [01:05:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:48] Speaker A: So we'll see. [01:05:50] Speaker B: I'm a cynic, I guess, that I was watching the most recent season and that's the first thought I had was like, I can see a day where all the old school fans are now standing outside the stadium like chunking bottles at all the tourists that are taking all the tickets. And now they hate the owners. [01:06:06] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, for sure. You can totally see that. [01:06:08] Speaker B: Careful what you ask for. Right? [01:06:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Sometimes success is a two edged sword. Look, there's nobody in Wrexham at this point that would go back. [01:06:22] Speaker B: No, but you can see a day that they'll be mad. [01:06:25] Speaker A: I mean, look, they're going to be playing in League one next season. It looks like at this point they're having such a good. No, no. I mean, if you're paying attention to the. They're. I think they're in first place in League two already. [01:06:40] Speaker B: Are they really? I noticed Knotts was doing really well. I thought, what a fun story that is, those two teams going up together. [01:06:45] Speaker A: So anyway. [01:06:46] Speaker B: Okay, well, I will tell you to bring that back to SC Dallas. Peter, I'm already that guy with, you know, this season where they're selling out all the time or they're full all the time. It actually annoys me. Like, I go to games now and I'm pissed off that I can't man spread and take up two or three seats and there's people around me I. [01:07:04] Speaker A: Don'T want to hear you talk about, man. [01:07:05] Speaker B: Well, you know what I mean? Like my big old fat ass covering. Like my arms are on the seats next to me and put my feet over the seat in front of me. I can't do that. And I have people that want to come around or have to listen to some yahoo say dumb stuff. [01:07:19] Speaker A: The aforementioned ingress and egress problem exacerbated by this. Yes, totally. [01:07:23] Speaker B: It's like I almost don't want to go to the games already, let alone, like, if they're actually sold out. [01:07:27] Speaker A: I'm such a. [01:07:30] Speaker B: I want to go back to post Covid when it was you and me and like five other people. I know it makes for terrible atmosphere, but. [01:07:37] Speaker A: Awful, awful thing to say, buzz. [01:07:40] Speaker B: I know. I'm probably going to end up watching all the games on my sofa. [01:07:42] Speaker A: You're so right. Yeah, I did it. This know. [01:07:47] Speaker B: I know. We'll have to see how it goes next year. I might have with his. [01:07:50] Speaker A: That Apple tv presentation is pretty damn good, my friend. [01:07:54] Speaker B: Save me an hour drive. Either way, Dan can sit in the press box. That's cool. I'll just stay. [01:08:00] Speaker A: I get to listen to Steve Davis and nod my head furiously at all the things he says. That I agree. [01:08:05] Speaker B: Right? Yeah. [01:08:08] Speaker A: Very good. All right. Well, listen, Buzz, thank you so much. What is going to happen between now and next week? What in the world would we possibly talk about next week? [01:08:17] Speaker B: Well, between now and then are the actual things like reintroduce drafts and free agent pickups and waiver drafts and the actual real draft will have happened. So, like, between now and then, we might actually have a couple of new players to talk about. And then who they are will tell us a whole bunch or what position they are, more than anything, what kind of player they are will tell us a whole bunch about which direction this thing might be turning or not. So that's kind of what we're waiting for, is the club to do some things. So we'll come up with something for a pod. I mean, we'll do one. Maybe it'll be ten minutes. This one went over an hour again. [01:08:51] Speaker A: I know that. [01:08:52] Speaker B: I don't know. Nerds. [01:08:53] Speaker A: Nerds. We are super nerds. [01:08:56] Speaker B: Third degree. The podcast has been brought to you by soccer 90. Com. Our partners over there have everything you could want for the holiday season. Get all the gifts for all your family, your friends, the jerseys, cleats, socks, t shirts, sweatshirts. Man, they probably even got sweatpants. Man, they got everything. [01:09:10] Speaker A: Shorts. [01:09:11] Speaker B: I know they got shorts. Special team shorts. If you're listening to this podcast, you can get 20% off with the code. Third degree at checkout three rdegree at soccer 90. Com. Some exclusions may apply. [01:09:24] Speaker A: Thanks, Buzz. Good times. [01:09:25] Speaker B: Thanks you, man. [01:09:26] Speaker A: Appreciate you being here any old time. Thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Yeah. We'll do this again next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:09:35] Speaker B: Merry Christmas, Dan. [01:09:36] Speaker A: Third degree, the third degree, never pocket. Third degree, the third degree, never get third degree. Never get third degree. [01:09:50] Speaker B: Third degree, never care. That's.