3rd Degree the Podcast #242

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Is that the greatest Easter egg we could possibly imagine? Yeah. Ooh. Third degree, the third degree nap pocket. Third degree. The third degree Napa degree podcast. Third degree. Never get third degree. [00:00:32] Speaker B: The podcast is brought to you by soccer at 90. Com. Soccer 90 wants to give all listeners of third degree an exclusive Christmas special so you can get all those last minute gifts or even post Christmas gifts you want from now until the end of December. All listeners of third degree, the podcast get 30% off. That's 10% more than usual. 30% off. When you use the code thirdexmus at checkout. That's three rdxmas at checkout, 30% off your order. Soccer 90 cob code third xmas. Please allow three to four days for processing and shipping. So you don't order that like a day before Christmas and expect to get it. Some exclusions do apply. [00:01:10] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to episode number 242 of third degree, the podcast. I'm Peter and the whole group is here. First off, he loves him some Christmas. Dandy Dan Crook. Howdy Dan. [00:01:28] Speaker C: That's an interesting observation. Hi. [00:01:32] Speaker A: When you weren't here last time, we theorized that you hated Christmas in the holidays. I don't remember why, but it sounded good at the time, I think. [00:01:42] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't know. That's a strange one to theorize. [00:01:46] Speaker A: So you do love the holidays. You can confirm officially here in episode 242, you are pro Christmas holiday. [00:01:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I just hate the people. [00:01:55] Speaker A: Okay? It's easy to misunderstand. That. And your hero? My hero, everybody's hero. Our very own soccer Santa Claus editor, founder of Thirddegree. Net, and the original, by the way. Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:02:10] Speaker B: Hi, Peter and Anna. Happy holidays to both of you all. Merry Christmas. All that stuff. [00:02:15] Speaker A: Joyce Festivus, do we get to air grievances now? [00:02:20] Speaker B: No, that's next week. That's episode after Christmas 243. [00:02:23] Speaker C: I think with some of the news, we're going to wear some. [00:02:26] Speaker A: I have a feeling there's going to be some airing of grievances today. Buzzard. [00:02:30] Speaker B: There might be some, yeah. From Dan in particular. [00:02:34] Speaker A: Yeah, all kinds of noise and so forth to go on. And we have the world famous red crayon written run sheet, and this is at the very top. And frankly, I'd rather talk about abortion rights, gun laws, hell, promotion, relegation. Can we talk about something other than this ridiculous US Open Cup MLS controversy, please? [00:03:02] Speaker B: Well, I think I know what Dan's mostly going to say, but I just want to say two things really quickly, and that I think Dan's going to follow it up with something appropriate. The first is that like everybody else, I think MLS is the villain here. But that's not what I want to talk about. What I want to talk about is to me the irony that MLS basically was like we're going to play a bunch of reservists, a bunch of our second team and the weird thing to me is that the US Open cup or the US soccer committee or whatever it is that runs that thing, they determined a long time ago that MLS next pro teams could not be in the open cup because the fact they're the same club as FC Dallas. So then FC Dallas or MLS miraculously said we're going to send our MLS next pro groups and they were like no, you can't do that, dude. You guys literally said we can't play in next pro teams because they're the same team. So either the same team or not. So to me that's the irony of what's happening here that makes it all ridiculous and I'm sure Dan will back me up on this, is that what really matters here is that this is a power play money thing and that's all that matters. I say that because MLS told everybody they were doing this. If they really just wanted to do it, they could have just done without telling anybody because LAFC and other clubs have already done this where they brought up like 1012 guys from their next pro team and played them in the cup. It's already happened before. So you just could have sent north Texas a set of FC Dallas jerseys and sent them over there and no one would have said anything. So that's why, you know, it's a money grab power play. Go ahead, Dan. [00:04:37] Speaker C: Yeah, and that's what it's about. It's not about the players on the field. This is a shirt that they're know us soccer is trying to get the sponsorship deal. They're trying to get the next open cup broadcast after it kind of left ESPN. And a guy like Antonio Carrera in an FC Dallas jersey is a lot more appealing to a potential sponsor than Antonio Carrera in a North Texas SC jersey. It's the same jersey, the same manufacturer, same sponsor, same player name. Just that little MLS badge makes the difference there. But yeah, like you said, LAFC had twelve non rostered players in one of their games last year. Ricardo Pepe obviously played two games before he ever signed for FC Dallas. It's part and parcel of cups the world over. But there are Us soccer and FIFA rules that state that for division one sanctioning. You have to participate in a national cup. So it's going to be really interesting to see if UF soccer wants to put their big boy pants on and actually be the horse leading the cart and not let the cart lead the horse for once. [00:05:58] Speaker B: Well, I imagine we'll end up with a version where MLS teams will on paper be in this thing and they'll just be sending a lot more reservists to the games by whatever definition they want to determine us. Soccer does not put a lot of rules on you with who shows up, as long as it fits in your league's rules. Well, that's easy. MLS will just say, oh, here's our league rule for the Open cup. We can send reservists and they'll solve it and there'll be some behind the scenes discussions about money or whatever. It's not going to be, in the end a big deal, but it's become a massive deal in the public and MLS is full on Darth Vader here. Scorched earth. They don't give a crap. They knew that they would get pushback. There was an article from the Athletic today. They knew that the hardcore fans would go nuts. But they also know that there's a big chunk, maybe 70% of their fan base that doesn't even know what the Open cup is. And we find that to be true about FC Dallas. People all the time have no clue what the Open cup is and 100 people show up anyway. So it's only us hardcores that want to think it's important to honor the history of the game. And I'm sure eventually they'll get this figured out. It's just going to take some bullying by various parties until they do. [00:07:04] Speaker A: My only observation about all of this is that for an organization that is pretty famous for shooting itself in the foot with some that I am speaking specifically of Major League Soccer. Fair comment, Dan. So I will specify MLS is what I'm talking just, I feel like there's a part of this, that there's a shoe that's yet to drop or there's a part of this story or context that we haven't been told because there's just no way. The way that this was done and handled by MLS earlier this week and communicated, I guess it was late Friday when they announced it just screams of yeah, there's something else that we're doing in the background or we haven't told you yet, or this is some sort of agreement that we have with us soccer to try to muddle through this process. I don't know what that's going to be or how it's going to turn. Just I have a feeling we don't know the whole story. [00:08:07] Speaker B: Well I imagine the bigger story is just going to be to that MLS. Remember through soccer, United marketing used to have their fingers in all kinds of pies in the United States in terms of. [00:08:17] Speaker A: Well they were responsible for running the damn thing up until two years ago, right? [00:08:21] Speaker B: I'm sure that's what it is. It's like now that they don't run it and now they don't have their own sponsorship of it and that kind of thing they're not going to be as excited about it and so I'm sure there'll be some kind of money, big money smoking room kind of compromise here that'll end up getting the MLS teams in some version in it and whether it has to be like a split of the revenue or that's more amicable for MLS or some kind of shared sponsorship or maybe they can try and figure out how Apple TV can get know because that's the other part too is that USMA cup ain't on Apple tv and MLS doesn't want to be on something that's not Apple tv. [00:08:54] Speaker C: Wait, you mean there's a chance that revenue for Messi games might not go to Apple and that might not make MLS happy? Oh wow. It's like we just sussed it. [00:09:05] Speaker B: It's no coincidence that it just happened when Messi showed up in the open cup, right? Yeah. [00:09:09] Speaker A: I mean there's a bunch of ways you can poke holes or try to figure out what the conspiracy just at some point all of this is going to reveal itself in some shape or fashion. It's just the manner in which this started and got out was very clearly not a passing comment or a thrown out deal. This was a thought out plan that they decided to announce this in the manner they did on Friday and it seems so clumsy and so ridiculous even I am having a hard time believing that MLS is stupid enough to have done it this way unless there's some sort of longer game plan, that long game that they're playing that we just haven't been. We haven't seen yet. [00:09:51] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. MLS chose to come out guns blazing, set the town on fire. I mean they did this in the worst political way that they possibly could have. Right? They came out and made a humongous deal about it rather than just trying to backdoor it and make it a small deal. So they're doing it on purpose? It seems clear to me. We'll find out later what the end game is. You're right about that. [00:10:11] Speaker A: What would that purpose be? Why would you set yourself on fire like that? What's the winning position out of this for them? [00:10:19] Speaker C: Well, financial control. [00:10:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Money. Because how? Not enough of the fans of major league Soccer even know what this is or care. Only a very small percentage of it. So you're only risking a very small sort of established, ancient old guy that care about history. You're not wishing any of your casual fans. So there's very little risk here in terms of the league popping off about it. It's just a negotiating contact. They just came out swinging. Instead of trying to nuance it, they must have been. My assumption at this point is they must have tried nuanced backdoors and conversations and weren't getting anywhere. So they said, okay, screw you, then we're going scorched earth. So I'm sure that that's part of it. I think if you look at the schedule, you'll notice there's not a whole lot of midweek games. The cup website, the cup us, not the one that's the official one, but the unofficial one. They pointed out that those gaps are in the schedule there that fit quite nicely with the way the open cup structure works. Like, the schedule's kind of got the right stuff in it. A lot of it's during Copa America. So, again, I think that a lot of this is just. And I'm assuming they weren't getting a lot of reaction that they wanted from US soccer, and so they're trying to bully them. That's the bottom line, is they're trying to bully us soccer, or more specifically, the cup committee. [00:11:34] Speaker A: Into what, though? That's the part I don't get. [00:11:36] Speaker B: The money. Dan's right. Money, control, that kind of thing. Make it work for them, whatever that is. The whole idea that it's about young players getting chances, that's garbage. It's about money. It's about Apple tv. It's about messy. [00:11:48] Speaker A: That's all it is. Weird. [00:11:52] Speaker C: And that title sponsor they've been fishing for. [00:11:54] Speaker B: Yeah, that, too. [00:11:57] Speaker A: Well, it seems like everybody flipped their wig over something that. I wonder how. What? For all of the caterwalling and complaining, this all feels like, last year, this restaurant closed in my neighborhood, and the little neighborhood newsletter and newspaper wrote these articles talking about what a shame it was and how badly they had been done. And then you started asking and reading, and you're like, well, nobody went to the restaurant. Why are we surprised that it closed? Where's all this outrage coming from? And I just don't see why everybody's so freaked out when it's clear the percentage of people that really, truly care about the US Open cup, or at least claim to this week, probably haven't even been to a US open cup game. [00:12:44] Speaker B: Well, if you paid attention to Don garber the last couple of years, he's been talking about this for a while and he's said things like, the cup doesn't work for us. It's like nobody goes, nobody watches, we don't get anything out of it. It's just a responsibility that people have loaded onto us and gets us nothing. I'm paraphrasing him. That's what he's been saying for two years. They've been obviously been trying to get this to work in a certain way that they think helps them, and they obviously weren't getting it. So now they're going to go ham. And I'm sure that in the long run they'll get something worked out and they'll figure out how to make it fit and it'll be better and maybe it'll end up being basically next pro teams wearing SCL's jerseys. I don't know. But this is just the opening salvo of what shouldn't take all that long, probably because we only have when I think the MLS teams come in in April, I think it is. So you have a few months to get something sort of figured out before you push comes the shove. And us soccer did deny their claim. So at this point, MLS is kind of stuck having to do it. But yeah, it's April when they first come in, probably MLS teams. [00:13:50] Speaker A: It just makes me wonder if both sides of this aren't quietly in cahoots, just trying to raise noise and attention. Certainly this has been the plan all along, just to see what kind of reaction they would get out. [00:14:01] Speaker B: Well, that'd be amazing. Yeah, could be. [00:14:04] Speaker A: But you know what? It's not going to change how many people go to US open cup games. [00:14:08] Speaker B: No. There'll still be 100 people there. [00:14:09] Speaker A: Right? [00:14:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:14:10] Speaker A: And I say that as somebody whose entire fandom of this sport is tied specifically to the US Open cup. Right. [00:14:18] Speaker B: I love cub games. It's so fun to see them play teams. You don't know there's nobody there but me. I love it. It's my favorite thing. But everybody else doesn't feel that way. [00:14:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:27] Speaker C: I want them to go back to the touring, the college stadiums. That was always fun. Packing 2000 people in a place that holds 2000 rather than. [00:14:38] Speaker B: Yeah. The games at SMU were my favorite. [00:14:40] Speaker C: Yeah, the one at TCU is a lot of fun. [00:14:42] Speaker B: I did not make that one. I will admit. [00:14:44] Speaker A: I was at the game at SMU. That Dirk. And what's the canadian player? [00:14:53] Speaker B: Steve Nash. [00:14:53] Speaker A: Steve Nash showed up for. And that was the day I learned Steve Nash is actually a giant. He's not as giant as Dirk. [00:15:01] Speaker B: Yeah, Peter, you got to throw down, dude. You were at the Ooey Pooey US Open Cup 1997 championship. That burn won. That's your game. You were at. [00:15:12] Speaker A: That's right. I lied to my employer to manipulate my business, travel to Indianapolis so that I could be there that farting, frigid evening and almost broke in Indianapolis and then run around like an idiot with the flag when we won or not. We, the club won their first trophy. Yes. Well, I'm sure it'll all work out just fine. [00:15:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:34] Speaker A: Dan, you have anything else ranting about this you'd like to get off your chest, sir? [00:15:42] Speaker C: Not for public consumption. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, I bet not very good. The other big news of the day. So, Buzz, do you want to run in the order of this or of the run sheet or do you want to jump? All right. The other big news today is that I think, quietly, the social media director for FC Dallas has blessed us with evidence that the upcoming home kit reveal is going to be the dream kit of this podcast of the Blue and Red Hoops. [00:16:19] Speaker B: Is that how you took that? [00:16:22] Speaker A: If I'm just being hopeful and thinking, boy, that would be the most awesome Easter egg of all time, is in the video of their schedule announcement for FC Dallas. There's a video. It's like a Minecraft video game playing. While some of the players are reading the schedule and the character, the Minecraft character, at least part of the video, is wearing a navy blue and red hooped shirt. Is that the greatest Easter egg kit nerd thing we could possibly imagine? [00:16:58] Speaker B: I hope so. I just took it as Minecraft is like eight bit video, and you can only draw a hoop so much in so many ways. [00:17:07] Speaker A: That's not conspiratorial enough. [00:17:09] Speaker B: I know. I'm with you. I had never even thought of it as a tease that we're getting the dream kit. I'm excited now that you said that. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. [00:17:17] Speaker A: What do you think, Dan? [00:17:20] Speaker C: Exactly what Buzz says. Ryan just tried to draw the current jersey as best as possible in big blocky. I mean, that is one Pixel hoops. [00:17:32] Speaker B: Well, I didn't hear what Dan just said. Peter, I'm with you. [00:17:35] Speaker A: I think it's ruining my dream. [00:17:38] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:17:39] Speaker A: I'm with you. [00:17:40] Speaker C: That is the dream. But no, if they tried to drop it like that. [00:17:46] Speaker A: Wait a second. Has anybody got the video handy? Because what color shorts is that character? [00:17:52] Speaker B: It's not white. [00:17:52] Speaker A: I know. [00:17:53] Speaker C: There's actually a still of it. [00:17:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:55] Speaker A: It's what? [00:17:57] Speaker B: Blue. [00:17:57] Speaker C: There's a still of it. [00:17:59] Speaker A: Oh, okay. All right. Well, anyway, so the schedule got dropped today, and buzz, you probably paid way more attention to this than I did, so go ahead and throw it out there. [00:18:11] Speaker B: Well, I'm mostly going to give you some of the interesting sort of tidbits about it. I mean, a schedule is a schedule, right? So let's just talk about the stuff that matters. Interestingly, that the whole league is starting on February 21, which is the earliest they've ever started. And MLS cup is December 7. [00:18:27] Speaker A: Be so cold. [00:18:28] Speaker B: Yeah, and MLS cup is December 7. So that's almost like the real schedule. That's only like two months off now, depending on whether you're a playoff team or not. So that's better. That's good at stretching it out. There's seven drone shows at Toyota Stadium this year, which is incredible. That's not counting July 4. July 4 game is against Portland, but it's fireworks show. Like, traditionally, you're just getting drone shows for these seven other games, which is crazy. There's that many of them. That's almost too many, but they're fun. So whatever, that's fine. Dallas plays Austin three times. That's the team they get. You play everybody in your conference twice, and then you can get one or two other teams that you play an extra time. And they've chose to give an Austin to Dallas that they do not play Houston an extra time, just two against Houston, but three against Austin. The Eastern Conference teams they got are Montreal Red Bull, Toronto FC, FC, Cincinnati, New England, DC, and Orlando City. As we predicted, no inter Miami because they've played inter Miami two straight years. So that was almost a foregone conclusion that was going to happen. But it is nice to see Oscar coming back to Dallas. That'll be fun. With like four games left in the season and then the decision day, the last name of the year, the day that's like the nastiest day of the year is against sporting Kansas City, which is, of course, a nasty, nasty game. Always. They would love nothing more than to knock a team out one way or the other. Both clubs would. And then league's cup if you're into that the time off for it is July 21 to August 23 which is basically a month. So that gap still exists. Leagues cup is back and I actually enjoyed Leagues cup last year so I'm okay with that. And then the home away is pretty balanced. Nothing complain about there. 26 games on Saturday and only six games during the week. One of which is the July 4 game which is on a Thursday. So you see they've left lots of those midweeks open like I talked about to fit in things like an open copy if they have to play whole. This. This whole take of like MLS did this because a fixture congestion was a load of crap because they extended this season and they have very few midweek games. So that's how you know it's not about that really. It's not about the young players. It's not about the congestion. Going back to the open cup thing. It's about so the schedule is up there. You can go look at it. There's windows, some of the FIFA windows they play and some they don't. You can look and see which ones. Those are a bunch of games on Fox, 34 games on the Fox channels which is good. Keeping those alive as well as Apple TV. My season ticket rep hopefully I'm not breaking any news here told me that if you have a season ticket you will get the apple tv thing again. So that's cool. Hopefully he was right about that. [00:21:17] Speaker C: Sales materials okay good. [00:21:19] Speaker B: I didn't want to get in my trouble and MLS will play through Coppu America so they're not taking off for. [00:21:25] Speaker A: Pay. [00:21:26] Speaker B: That's pretty. Everything's pretty much everything on the schedule that's worth talking about through our podcast. If you wanted to drill down into it you can go look at the podcast on the website. We've got it all on there including the open cup where it fits in and that kind of stuff. [00:21:36] Speaker A: Any particular and obvious stretches of games that have you concerned or pleased? [00:21:43] Speaker B: Not really. It's pretty balanced actually. Like the stretch run in isn't too know. [00:21:51] Speaker A: It's hard to tell because this team is so parity driven. This league is so parity driven. You don't know how teams that were crappy last year. I mean Kansas City probably be awesome. This. [00:22:01] Speaker B: I mean back after the year they know. It just depends on how the standings even out right before your stretch run. You do have LAFC and Orlando City back to back but those are both at home so that helps that a little bit. You got FC Cincinnati earlier in the year at home. Here you got Montreal here. No one will care about that game. But you go to New York. I think Dallas hasn't traveled to New York for a game in a long, long time at Red Bulls, and I think they go at New England too. So those are some pretty tough road trips. But those are some teams at DC also. So some Upper east coast, if you will, if you call DC upper games that we haven't really seen a long time for Dallas. So that's kind of different. A little bit interesting. So that's about it, really. Dan, did you see anything in here jumped out at you? [00:22:51] Speaker C: No. Just not getting Chicago sucks. And it'd be nice if you're going to play three games for it to be Houston rather than Austin, but such is life. [00:23:03] Speaker B: There's a cool little at the Galaxy, at LAFC, back to back, like May 29, which is a Wednesday, June 1, Saturday. So if you were a fan and were like, you know what, I'm going to go to LA for four days and see two games, you could swing that. That's kind of cool. But that's funny, I think. But that's about it, really. [00:23:23] Speaker C: One takeaway. That new Seattle logo just looks crap. [00:23:27] Speaker A: You don't like it? No, why? [00:23:30] Speaker C: Because it looks like a generic FIFA can't buy the license, absolute trash thing. And they've changed the rave green to this weird shit color. [00:23:43] Speaker A: Okay. I did notice the change in the color, but I didn't know if that was something miscalibrated in the video. Is the green different? [00:23:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:53] Speaker A: Have they officially changed the green? [00:23:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:56] Speaker A: Is it lighter or darker? Because it looks lighter in the video. [00:23:59] Speaker C: That I saw, it's a lot lighter. It's kind of desaturated to a degree. When you see it next to Portland and Austin, it looks a bit minty. [00:24:11] Speaker B: Even the blue is a bit more muted and not as electric as it used to be. I think they're moving away from that 80s look more for a contemporary look. We'll get used to it. I'm sure it was jarring when you see it the first time to me. [00:24:24] Speaker C: But just looks like a step backwards. It's like round. Oh, we're modernizing by making it crap. [00:24:33] Speaker B: I like to always mention at this time that FC Dallas officially has the oldest logo in the league. That everybody else has rebranded or refreshed their logo since Dallas got their logo, which is crazy to me. [00:24:46] Speaker A: Well, that is weird to think that that thing is now the oldest version of a logo in the league. Yeah, that is ridiculous. [00:24:57] Speaker B: The revs were the only original team left and they redid their logo to that scripted r looking. [00:25:02] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. They were the last one. [00:25:04] Speaker B: And so Dallas is the next oldest team, which is weird. You would say DC or whatever, but DC refreshed theirs like three or four times. That's the thing is that even some of the teams that have the same brand have up fresh their brand and changed it. So it's know the Galaxy changed after. [00:25:21] Speaker C: FCD Dallas RSL Toronto and the Red bulls are kind of not too far. I mean, a few couple of years, but not too far behind. [00:25:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's crazy. [00:25:33] Speaker A: Hey Dan, if you were given the opportunity to refresh Dallas'crest, what would you change about it? [00:25:42] Speaker C: I think FC Dallas has one of the better logos in the league. I think if you were going to fully rebrand and go back to burn colors, that would be really cool. [00:25:55] Speaker A: No, just a refresh of the crest. [00:26:00] Speaker C: Probably take the 96 away or change the font of it. That's about it. [00:26:05] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay. [00:26:06] Speaker C: I actually think it's a pretty solid crest. I'm glad that was when they used design companies that specialize in things, not like the diabolical North Texas SC logo. [00:26:21] Speaker A: Well, that's why I asked if you were given the opportunity to do it. Not if they were given the opportunity. [00:26:27] Speaker C: And that awful addition they did for their 25th anniversary of MLS, which had gridiron markings and three different fonts in and all sorts of useless crap. [00:26:43] Speaker A: Okay, well, by the way, thank you for posting the image of the character in the video because now I'm more convinced than ever that that is the greatest kit hint Easter egg of all time. Yes. And it's going to be that. It's going to be a red shirt with navy blue hoops on it. It's going to be. And if it's not, we riot. [00:27:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:10] Speaker C: The gentleman who did the character listens to this podcast. He's giggling while listening. [00:27:17] Speaker B: Steve Davis tuned out a little while ago. [00:27:19] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Well, whoever that person is isn't giggling. They are fist pumping with the fact that they are proud of the fact that their Easter egg was discovered by the hardcore. By the. [00:27:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:27:35] Speaker A: Are you saying, you know that it's not going to be that, Dan? Is that what we're learning here in this episode? [00:27:40] Speaker C: No, absolutely. Just it would be such a weird Easter egg to place to have a simplified, almost identical FC Dallas jersey. As a teaser of the new FC. [00:27:55] Speaker A: Dallas jersey, I'm just looking at this picture and I'm sorry to go on about this because this is a podcast, but I will point out that the person that created this went so far as to do a cut out in one of the blue horizontal stripes where the crest would go. [00:28:11] Speaker B: I do see that. Yeah, you're right. [00:28:13] Speaker C: Presumably because that's just where you would put the crest, because it's. [00:28:19] Speaker A: I know, but if you were just goofing off and making up, trying to replicate what you already have, you probably would have just put a bunch of blue lines on there. But no, this person went to the fine detail of eliminating the spot where the sweet club crest goes. [00:28:36] Speaker B: I thought you were going to point out the silver trim on the shorts as a. [00:28:40] Speaker A: That's Tex Hooper's legs. He even went so far as to put Texas. Texas. Little birthmark on his forehead. The flame. [00:28:55] Speaker B: The birthmark. I see that. [00:28:57] Speaker C: The backwards l. Yeah, backwards red l. He's a learner. Driver. [00:29:02] Speaker A: Well, kudos to whoever created this for putting such a subtle Easter egg. I'm sorry we discovered it so quickly and made so much noise about it, but I am coming after you if you fail me. All right, so we've talked about the schedule. Anything else about the schedule? [00:29:20] Speaker B: No, that's it. That's not that. [00:29:22] Speaker A: All right, Dan, do you want to rant about the schedule? [00:29:26] Speaker C: Not right now. [00:29:27] Speaker A: Okay. Also this week, boy, it's been a busy week is the MLS draft took place and it appears this is where I get to say nice beaver. Yeah, because Dallas drafted not one. But what do you put out by that, Dan? [00:29:47] Speaker C: Wrong phrase to use there. [00:29:49] Speaker A: Why? They drafted two nice beavers. [00:29:53] Speaker B: They did. [00:29:54] Speaker C: Actually, Peter's put out for beavers. [00:29:58] Speaker A: It's the greatest word in the English language. It's the funniest word in the English language. [00:30:05] Speaker B: The funny thing is that they drafted two dudes from Oregon State and then a guy from SMU. It's like they only scouted one game. The NCAA quarterfinal between Oregon State and SMU. It's like that was the only game. [00:30:17] Speaker C: They watched and then they decided, yes, we will draft one of the defenders of the team that conceded seven goals. [00:30:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. They did. [00:30:29] Speaker A: What if we find out in like 30 years that that version of the story is actually correct? [00:30:35] Speaker B: Well, that'd be funny because they also drafted seeky out of Oregon State. It's like that's the only school they scout apparently. And they have side of the Dallas fort area or the only scanning they scouted this year was against S Andu because it was right down the road. So they were like, oh, let's just do that one. The salon team, they ever scout Oregon State? [00:30:51] Speaker A: We're going to get a behind the scenes video in like 20 years of Nico and what's his face sitting around having a beer talking. Remember that time we forgot about the draft and we decided just to go to a college game and draft people from the game we attended? [00:31:08] Speaker B: The funny thing about Seeky is that Nico actually watched the Oregon State to watch a different player and then he came back and said, forget that guy. I want definitely. Oregon State's been good for several years now and they're particularly very good this year. So it's not surprising that what became. [00:31:24] Speaker C: Of the guy he really wanted. [00:31:26] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I don't know who they were scouting. [00:31:31] Speaker A: So as every club does at the end of their draft is they tout the people that they drafted and talk about how quickly they feel like they'll make an impact in the team. In particular with Logan Farrington, a rather tall, lanky fellow who plays striker, I'm sure he's going to bang a bunch of goals in for the team this year. [00:31:50] Speaker B: Well, here, let's talk about it in two ways. The first is the long term project way, and then we'll talk about this season. So the important thing to understand here is that MLS as a collective league thought so highly of this guy that he was one of the seniors. They signed ahead of time. There were two of them this year, like when they announced the generation Adidas players. They always announced one or two or three or four seniors that they've signed in advance and this was one of the two. So that's why Dallas aggressively traded up in the draft to try and get him, because they think this guy is the cat's meow, that he was the best player in the draft, basically, in their opinion. So I looked at the tape and I watched the highlight video that they circled around the Internet of this guy scoring boatloads of goals and he scored 30 goals in college. He is a larger striker, as you mentioned. He's about 62. He is not, however, a post up nine. He moves a lot, which fits the Nico way they like strikers that move. Like if you watch that video, you won't see him standing in the box waiting for crosses even though he is capable of scoring a couple of headers because there are some headers in there. [00:32:58] Speaker A: But what kind of music is in the background of his video? [00:33:01] Speaker B: I mute that shit. I don't listen to that. [00:33:03] Speaker C: A few different ones. You got a bit of variety there. [00:33:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:07] Speaker A: I feel like you learn a lot about a player when you see what kind of music they allowed to be posted to their video. [00:33:13] Speaker B: I don't think he made this. I'm sure some agency made it for him. Okay. Anyway, he scores goals with both feet. He is a pretty good finisher. Very clinical. Can shoot from range and shoots in close. He does combine well because he has, like, seven assists this year on top of his goals. So again, he plays a movement based combination kind of striker, which fits the system. So if you're FC Dallas, this guy really is very much exactly the kind of player that the current coach likes. My only reservation from watching the tape is that the guys, when he got picked, they were like, oh, this guy's fast. I watch the tape and I don't see fast. He doesn't run by anybody. He's faster than Jesus Jimenez, but he's not faster than Jesus Jimenez. I watched that package. I'm like, I don't see fast at all. What are you talking about? I saw a really good player, but I don't see a fast player. So there's a little bit something about the way he runs that I find slightly off putting. He's a bit lumbering, and so I worry about that because this is a very physical and fast league, but he is a big about that gives you an idea that maybe they might like him for a guy that can develop. But let's talk about this season specifically, because they mentioned that he might be impactful this season. So I was thinking about that, and if you want to think about how you're building a team, and if you look at the way Dallas is constructed now, they do have Jesus. Amen. Is on the roster, who none of us want to have around here. But what role does he currently fill? The way they try to use him? I'm not saying he doesn't. I'm saying that the way they try to use him is they bring him in to play next to Jesus. Sometimes in a two striker system, they bring him in against a low block, maybe to go in there and try and fire some balls into him because he's a little bit taller. This guy's even taller than that. He does come in late in games now, Jesus amenities is what we're talking about. So, okay, can I foresee this guy in a pure 2024 roster terms, if Jesus is starting the bulk of the games? Can I see this guy as the dude that comes in to give me a two striker system? Does he come in when I want to play against a low block and go down there and post up a little bit and fire some balls in does he combine and move well? Yeah, that's true. He does all those things. So you can see in the roster build terms, this pick makes a whole lot of sense if you're buying out Jimenez. If you're not buying out Jimenez, then it doesn't. I don't know what you're doing. That's some different conversation. But you can see how there's a role for this guy in the way the team works because he is a different player than Jose Mulato, for example, who they already have on the roster, or the other draft picks they have, or other guys like Nansa or Tariq Scott or like that. So that's how his role will fit in the upcoming season, and we'll see how good he is when he gets here because I always judge people when they see him in person. It doesn't matter what the tape really looks like. [00:36:00] Speaker C: It's hard, right? Because we're watching clips and you're seeing things like, oh, he's got a really nice left foot on, know for a righty. Seemed really good against one on one defending had know, maybe not rapid rundown people pace, but kind of like in the same way they like to play that ball over the top and have Jesus or someone like an obrion or kumungo kind of just peel away. He had that separation speed. But it's against NCAA defenders, not exactly MLS pros. [00:36:34] Speaker B: Time space speed is different. [00:36:36] Speaker A: So a couple of things. Is it not possible that even if they don't buy out Jimenez, the reason why you draft this guy is because you need somebody that can actually score and run and cover ground even if Jimenez is still on the. [00:36:50] Speaker B: You know, at this point, we have to think Jimenez is worthless, right? So you almost can't include him in your plans. And so this guy fits in the plan in terms of the way this coach constructs his roster. So you can see the niche, you can see why it works and see why I want him. If you don't buy out Jimenez, you begin to get into questions about cap and roster size. Because you have to understand, I think it's important to understand that when I told you guys, and I should have said this at the time, that MLS signed him in advance, that like 99% sure means that he's probably going to be on the senior roster. That means he's not going to be cheap. That means that they had to pay a little bit more to get him. Now, universally, like all the comments I see, this guy's like the star in college. He's one of the best players out there, biggest upsides and all that stuff. I always want to wait to see him before I can agree with that or not. But there definitely is a way that you could see him be impactful this season. [00:37:37] Speaker A: All right, so this leads me, well, first off, and I'm sorry if you've already said this, where is he from? [00:37:42] Speaker B: Wisconsin. [00:37:43] Speaker A: And what club was he playing for? [00:37:46] Speaker B: He originally played Bavarians in high school and he scored like 100 goals or something in high school. And then he played for University of Wisconsin. Gosh damn. Which one was it? Milwaukee. And then transferred to Oregon State for his senior year. But he's been an all conference player at both places. He was the conference offensive player of the year for any youth national activity, none of that. [00:38:14] Speaker C: So he's on that radar player of the year too with Ventura county future. [00:38:18] Speaker B: That's right. [00:38:19] Speaker C: He won a championship with them. Joint top scorer this season. [00:38:23] Speaker B: He is half English, one of his parents is English and one's american, so he was born in the United States. He is american, but he has obviously a little bit. [00:38:30] Speaker A: G'day, mate. [00:38:31] Speaker B: English, now that's australian. Sorry, lord, dude. Obviously. I don't think somebody asked me, is this the 15 goals they're missing? No, of course it isn't. But it can be a positive piece, I think, for the team. [00:38:46] Speaker A: All right, so, Buzz, this is what anybody listening to this podcast really only cares about. Do you like the pick? [00:38:53] Speaker B: Not really, no. [00:38:58] Speaker A: I love you, Buzz. [00:38:59] Speaker B: I'm willing to concede that I could be entirely wrong, but I would have liked to see them get the very best center back on the table, particularly a left center back was a kid out of Washington I quite like the look of, or what they could have done. What somebody else like the center back I wanted the most was the guy that was an Atlanta United homegrown and signed him as a homegrown, and then a week later they traded him for a bunch of gam. I would have rather have them do that. That's the player I wanted was because for a college ten or nine or playmaker to actually make it, that's where teams spend crazy money. [00:39:38] Speaker A: Yeah, because that's the other part of this that we haven't discussed, at least, unless I just wasn't paying attention, is that Dallas didn't just draft this guy, they moved up to get him and gave up what, 300 grand in dam to get him. [00:39:50] Speaker B: 300, yeah. [00:39:51] Speaker A: Which seems like an incredibly large amount of money for a kid for a draft pick. [00:39:56] Speaker B: No, it's not. That's actually appropriate to move up that far. Remember, they got 600 for Edwin, so 300 to move up to that pick is actually appropriate if you look at old picks. But that is an investment that you're putting into the kid on top of what you're actually going to have to pay him. I mean, they definitely really are fired up for him. [00:40:15] Speaker A: So in terms of your level of how you feel about this is part of the reason why you don't like the pick is just because was a striker to begin with or the fact that they actually moved up to get him? [00:40:28] Speaker B: No, I don't mind moving up. Moving up is fine for me because anything past the first five or six, it's a crapshoot. So I'm on board. If you love a player to go up to and you think he's the cats, meow. And by MLS signing him, obviously a lot of people really wanted this guy. So I'm okay with that. I just would have liked the best center back available. Because centerback is a place where you can get Nicosia Tafari, you can get Matt Hedges, you can get MLS best level players. And there probably was a guy in the pool somewhere or even the guy that was a homegrown that could have been that. So that's part of it. And then also when I watch the tape, I hate to say this off of a tape because I really want to see him, but honestly, the way he runs bothers me a little bit. It's a little heavy footed, in my opinion. [00:41:09] Speaker A: Now, Graziani had a funny. [00:41:11] Speaker B: Did he did. And there are other players that are world class players that have funny runs. So I'm not saying that. That's like, oh, this guy's going to suck. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that I'm not like goo goo gaga crazy about this pick because of the position. You remember when they drafted Bartlett? We were like, man, great pick. Except for he's 26, that's a problem. So this is the same thing. Like if you lay out on paper what FCD Dallas like and you look at this guy, there's a lot of fit there and everyone's raving about him. Okay, that all sounds awesome. I wanted a center back and then I watch him run and I'm like, I don't see like a smooth, athletic dominant. I see a guy kind of lumbering around and knocking people over and scoring. If I'm wrong, I'm not saying he's bad. You just asked me if I love the pick. I don't love the pick. I'm okay. I'm just sort of meh on it. [00:42:03] Speaker A: You don't have to defend yourself. [00:42:05] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I do. I have to explain it all. [00:42:08] Speaker A: You're the expert. [00:42:09] Speaker B: No, not anymore. Not in college. And I haven't seen him in person. I'm going to ask me when I see him in camp again what I think of him, and I'll tell you, but good thing. And I said Cobra was dog shit, and he was for eight months, and then he wasn't. [00:42:23] Speaker C: On the plus side, there's been a few people who kind of rooted in the college game who said that he's better than Duncan Maguire was last year, and he went and scored 13 goals for Orlando. So if they can turn it around into something good or, hey, get to the end of the first year and maybe he looks promising but not quite what FC Dallas needs, they can flip him. [00:42:47] Speaker B: If this guy's that good, then you're looking at a shift to a four four two or putting Jesus at wing. If he's that good, we'll find out. Right. [00:42:55] Speaker A: Well, if they can't create the opportunities, it doesn't make any difference if they've got Lewandowski up to. They got to create the opportunities first. All right, round two. When you can draft one beaver, why not draft two beavers? Turner. Humphrey from Oregon. [00:43:13] Speaker C: His name is backwards. It should be Humphrey. Turner. Surname as a first name and a last name. [00:43:24] Speaker B: All right, so anything past the first round, you're drafting for North Texas. Really, this guy is a little bit of a project. If you just look at his resume, you don't see a lot of awards or acknowledgements or it's a little of a late developer. But then I watched the little videotape they put for him out there, and I like that one way better because it reminded me of Nicosa Tafare. He's a very rangy, athletic looking center back, but super raw. Doesn't really seem to know, like defensively, necessarily 100% what he's doing yet, but he's aggressive, like Nicosi. He goes at people defensively, he tries to cut them ball off, and he attempts these dribbles and passes out of the back. They got him. He's 64. He plays both inside center back and was either at like a right center back, in a back three, or even right back. It's hard to tell in a five second clips, but he reminded me a lot of Nikosi Tafari, the tape they had of Nikosi Tafari. Now, I don't think he's. [00:44:23] Speaker A: Does he have a nose ring. [00:44:25] Speaker B: I can't tell that detail from a videotape. The style of play is that same style of play. So I think, again, he fits the system. I think he's not as polished as Nikosi was, which you might think is crazy because Nikosi wasn't exactly highly polished, but this guy's just about as raw. But he played every game for one of the best teams in the NCAs this year. So there's some talent here for sure. Dallas was super excited that he fell to them in the second round. But I think you can make no mistake if you look at them when I get into the roster building, you see there may be is room for him on the first team, but I seriously doubt it. He's almost certainly going to have to take a North Texas deal and play a year in North Texas. So really, these last two picks are for North Texas. As much as anything right now. He's a project, definitely. [00:45:07] Speaker A: And where is he from originally? [00:45:10] Speaker B: I don't know off the top of my head. Let me click on the link and maybe Dan, did you watch the tape on him at all? [00:45:16] Speaker C: No, I didn't, but he's from Redlands, California. [00:45:19] Speaker A: California kid. [00:45:20] Speaker B: All right. Yeah. I should remember that because he played for UC Davis some, you know, he's definitely a California kid for sure. [00:45:27] Speaker A: All right. And that takes us to round three from the SMU product, Mads Westergren. [00:45:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, Mads is a player that for people around here will know. He's been a starter for SMU for quite a while. I did not watch him this year, but I've watched him in previous years. [00:45:43] Speaker A: Is he a Dallas kid? [00:45:45] Speaker B: No, he's from Denmark. He's not even an american, which is why he's available this late in the draft. If you compare his resume, for example, to Humphrey that they picked in the round before, you'll see what I mean. This kid is the conference defender of the year. He was an all conference player, like every single year. He was a Herbert for semifinalist. He was a first team all american this year. This is a Hallmark super resume player. But when you look at the. You. If you watch SME player, if you look at the tape of him, he's not rangy like Dallas seems to like. He's more of a stay know, keep it simple kind of defender, which is nothing wrong with. But, but the thing is, when you're picking in the third round, you're for sure picking for Texas. And there are honestly, there are teams that have in the past that have passed on picks in this round because they don't want to pay for the hotel room to bring the guy in to train. That's how much of a long shot the third round is. So this kid's from down the street. They've seen him play for a couple of years. Basically, they were like, we picked him, we're going to bring him in and see how he looks against our pros. Right. There was not like a yay, we got this guy, kind of. [00:46:50] Speaker A: Plus he's an international, right? [00:46:51] Speaker B: Right. That's the fact. He's from Denmark. He played for Bromby when he was a know. So there is something. But like, do you have the space for an international player? Is that really worth investing in? Does he really have the rangy kind of athletic game you're looking for? There is something to be said for having a sort of a stay at home, conservative defender when you have your nicosis or if this other kid ends up making it. I'm not saying that he was not good. He probably is good, but there's a reason why he was in the third, so I would not put a whole lot of expectations. If he sticks around and chooses to play here, he'll probably play a whole lot of games for North Texas next year and we'll see if he's actually any good. [00:47:30] Speaker A: Okay. So it dawned on me as we were sitting here talking about this. Could we do a quick review of Zanata's history in the MLS draft? [00:47:43] Speaker B: Well, Zanata doesn't have much to do with it. [00:47:45] Speaker A: Well, who is it that is responsible for that? [00:47:47] Speaker B: Well, up until now it was, you know, but Marco's spot has seemed to been filled by John Gall, who's the head of north Texas. He seems to have filled that role in terms of coaching. When Garrett Melser did a preview sort of story, there was a bunch of quotes from him in there about how they're going to look at the draft and this kind of thing and that kind of thing. And again, everything after the first round is more for North Texas. So, like in the draft room they have Denny, who's the North Texas GM, and then John Gall sitting there and their head scout is sitting there and Zanata sitting there and like, nico wasn't even here in there. Nico was over in Europe, I think, still. So he's probably on a zoom or something, but John Gaud took over recently in that role, probably so they have a scouting department that would have done all that. Zanata has very little to do with the draft. I'm sure he's there and I'm sure he goes, yeah, okay, let's pick that guy. But I doubt he's saying who they're picking. [00:48:41] Speaker A: Well, then let's just review it as a club over the last few years. Who is the standout draft pick? That I'm not thinking of? Is there one in the last two or three years? [00:48:51] Speaker B: Well, nakosi. [00:48:53] Speaker A: Okay. And then seeky, where was Nicosi draft? Was he a first round draft? [00:48:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. [00:48:59] Speaker A: Okay. [00:49:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, Bartlett's still in the league, even though he didn't work out here, because he's the wrong kind of player, but he's still in the. The thing about the draft is there really isn't a chance to be a game breaking player. You, if you really get lucky and hit it, you can do something crazy and you get a crazy player. But the fact that Dallas never has really hammered, it doesn't hit out of the park year after year after year is not surprising. If you can get a Matt Hedges and an Akosi in a decade, that's pretty damn good. I mean, Ryan Hollingshead was drafted, right? So Marco Falfan was not. He's a homegrown, but someone probably drafted Sam Junka at one. Not from. [00:49:43] Speaker A: Not here, but probably one to think about is Parker from last year. You obviously. [00:49:48] Speaker B: Years ago. [00:49:49] Speaker A: Yeah, two years ago. Sorry. You were really high on him and we've not seen anything from him. [00:49:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a disconnect with the coaching staff from the kind of player he is. That's a pick where Nico had just arrived. He'd literally been know like three weeks. And that included Christmas. So it's like. I don't think he had anything to do with that. That was the player that they used to like, which is the converting a wing to an outside back. They don't do that anymore. There's no Reynolds here. There's no Reggie Cannon here. Emma was that. But that was a long time ago. And they want defensive first guys. So they'd rather play Corsa at right back than they would play Colin Smith. Same thing, right? Gone. We are converting to outside. Don't. They don't like that. You know, Parker's cost them nothing because he's ga. But he was one of the most talented, like pure soccer skill players I've seen come out of the academy for a freshman. I'm sorry, out of college for a freshman. His skills were phenomenal. But he doesn't know how to play defense. And I think he tries too hard. And he has this red card problem. When he's here, he's trying to make a prove himself and he overdoes know. So they just need to trade him. It's just not. [00:50:56] Speaker A: And Dallas signed a homegrown again for the umpteenth time. [00:51:01] Speaker B: Well, they did. This is important to bring up now because effectively they stole a draft pick. This is a senior in college, homegrown signing. So this is like Eddie Munjoma or Jordan Kenne out of SMU, where you sign a guy rather than let him go into the draft pool. So he's Tark Scott's older brother, Malik Henry Scott. He came out of the academy, he was at Tulsa for four years and scored a boatload of goals. At Tulsa? Yeah, actually, more than the kid Ferrington scored in college. But he's a very athletic player. He has the best body control I've ever seen in the academy. Just about. He's probably going to be. He's a nine or a winger, but a bit of a project. He's a bit raw, like a Domaduro kind of rawness to him, his game. So he's not as refined as his brother, who's a more natural goal scorer. Tariq is. Malik's more of a, you know, still something worth looking into. It's a player that I was really excited that I was like, oh, I want them to grab him for North Texas. And they went ahead and signed him as a homegrown. But he has that, you know, that what I said about him being like, just stealing a draft pick because the deal he has is a one year deal and then a bunch of options. So it's like, Nakosi happened, they picked him, or it's like these homegrown signs that are seniors always get one plus one, plus one plus one. So short chance to prove himself. But I think it's great. It's a guy that I was like, oh, pick him in the third round. Well, instead they just signed him, got him out of the way early. So it's fine. Okay. It's a good move, actually. [00:52:27] Speaker A: And where was he at college? [00:52:29] Speaker B: Tulsa. [00:52:30] Speaker A: Tulsa? [00:52:30] Speaker B: Tulsa. Yeah. He's got some conference nods here and there. He got hurt a couple of times, which is a little bit of a knockback, but if you can get him healthy, he actually is the kind of raw athlete that is a good project player to try and develop at something like North Texas. He's 22, so short window, but you never know. [00:52:47] Speaker A: And the other thing, buzz, that happened since the last time we talked is you posted on social media that you're hearing something about Julian I stone's situation? [00:52:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Just that it's not going well. It's negative. [00:53:04] Speaker A: In terms of Dallas negotiating. [00:53:06] Speaker B: Yeah. In terms of FC Dallas. Right. Not in terms of his future, in terms of FC Dallas and everything I'm getting is domestic. So I don't know anything about where he might be going instead, but I know that he is actually still talking to them, that nothing is finalized from the people that are giving me this information. But I've had multiple people now telling me that it's not happening, it's not going well, but I don't think it's 100% over. I think there's still some movement, still some talking going on, but it's not looking super good for FC Dallas. The kid is. Just remember, like we talked in the pod before, Peter, how the homegrown deals have these defined salary structure, right? [00:53:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:47] Speaker B: And in the think, I just think they're not going to be. I think Dallas is not going to be able to compete when you have. It's not the same as Weston, but it's close to the same as western, where once the foreign teams come in with the money and the opportunity, it's. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Like this wouldn't be like he'd get a better offer to go play in USL championship. [00:54:04] Speaker B: Oh, hell. Like the skit is way too good for that. [00:54:07] Speaker A: So if he's not signing with Dallas, he's clearly signing somewhere outside of the country. Well, where else could he go? [00:54:16] Speaker B: Well, another MLS team could come in and for some reason have something better. It's hard to imagine that because of the way the leagues, the deals are structured, but theoretically somebody could be like, oh, Dallas will give you a million for his homegrown rights or something. I don't know. I don't think it's super likely, but I just wanted to say that because it is theoretically possible, but it's 99% that this is falling apart because he's got something better from a team outside the United States. [00:54:43] Speaker A: Well, I just find this part of the whole business model for Dallas and frankly for any MLS club fascinating. Just because you go through all of this hassle to grow this talent and yet you end up in this situation where you may end up getting absolutely nothing for them and you're fighting against the lifted skirt and perfume of playing for a club in Europe. I can't imagine being an 18 year old kid and your choices are stay at home and be the third keeper in Frisco or go somewhere overseas, exotic and get paid probably more money and live overseas. I mean, that just seems like the obvious choice to me. [00:55:26] Speaker B: Yeah, it's tough when the kids know that at 18 that are this caliber of player. And there have been others like Joe go was the same caliber thing. [00:55:34] Speaker A: Weston. [00:55:34] Speaker B: Weston, silly enough with Weston, what I've been told, what my understanding is that Dallas was going to let him go to college like Reggie, which was their mistake, because that's when Shalka came in, when he turned 18. And then by then they were out. Before they even knew they were in it, they were out. Dallas was right. But these kids that know that there's, and you'll believe me, the european teams tell them early. So if they're this talented, they like, for example, I know that there was a european scout that came to some, one of the big MLS tournaments to scout two players, Julian and one other guy. So these kids know early what kind of talent, caliber they are, what kind of conversation they're in. And so you have some of them, like Jogo, for example, who was like, like, okay, Dallas, if you want to sign me, I'll sign for a couple of years, but I'm going to be free at 18 because that's when the money is going to come and I'm going to go. And they were like, well, we want you past that. So he's like, okay, then never mind. And then you have other kids like Julian, who may or may not have been interested in the money in terms of being in high school. And he was happy to stay here with a really amazing goalkeeper coach like Drew Keisha and his relatively smart background that got him a ride at Duke, which is hard to turn down if you're not pretty damn smart. So accelerated his own graduation so that he could do that and still do that before he turned 18, and so he still was free. So it's hard to compete with all that because how do you offer a 16 year old kid something that's worth more than a Duke ride or a Duke education or worth what he's going to get when he does turn 18 and goes to Europe? It's really impossible. It's really difficult for these high end guys. That's why it's so important for them, Dallas, as a club, to emphasize that we will sell you. If you're peppy, we will sell you for 20 million. So it is possible to get them. You just have to really work on them from the early get go and make sure they understand the system. [00:57:23] Speaker A: If he doesn't sign with Dallas, what is the resolution in terms of a third keeper in north Texas. [00:57:30] Speaker B: Well, North Texas signed a keeper way before this, so they had a guy, and they also have a kid in the academy whose name is Nico Montoya, who's the next guy being groomed. I assume that he'll be the bench guy. If Julian doesn't come, he'll be the bench guy. With this other dude starting the games who's an 18 year old guy from Grimio. I think that's where they got him from. So those two guys will play the games in north Texas. The first team, it would mean if they don't get Julian, it means they have to go get a keeper. And I think, as we've said all along, likely they would just call back Jimmy Mauer and be like, hey, come back. Be the third guy. You want to come back for $200,000 and hang out and start your coaching career or whatever. I'll do that, yeah. Or if not, they'll just have to go out and find somebody. There's plenty of keepers out there. I'm sure there is one guy out of the academy that's available that I think would be worth a shot if Julian passes, and that's a guy named Michael Collodi. He went to Columbia for five years as a grad student. By the time he left, he's a very good. If you've, if you pay attention around here, you would have seen him in the Roja league and stuff like that. He's only 6ft tall, but he's a good shot, stopping, strong, very intelligent, very good leader. If you needed a keeper, I wouldn't mind a shot at him. Now, his numbers at Columbia aren't very good, but that's because Columbia is terrible. That's not his fault that his goals against is not great. His save percentage is quite high versus his lower goals against, bad goals against, because Columbia gets shelled all the time. But that's just a name I want to throw out. There is like, I don't even know if he wants to play soccer. Technically, he was in last year's draft and nobody picked him, even though he was going back to school. Once you're in a draft, you can't come back in a draft. So he wasn't in this year's draft. So he's out there as a free agent and he's come back and played around here, played, know, been in Dallas training every once in a while, played various scrimmage games and stuff. So they know him and have kept an eye on him. And he's worth a shout if they miss on Ione in terms, know, North Texas or something. Okay, maybe not right now, but maybe North Texas if he was interested. [00:59:33] Speaker A: Let's see. So we've done through. So I guess the thing that I'm annoyed by, Buzz, is the fact that all of these moves that we've seen for the club in terms of signings have all been pretty low grade and not very exciting. Now, if I step away from it and look at all of this from a macro level, I don't think there's any team in Major League soccer that so far has made any really significant move that I can think of off the top of my head. Like Gresel going to Miami I saw the other day is a likely thing to happen, and that seems like a pretty significant move for both him and Miami. The idea that he's going to Miami also makes me laugh, but it is that point of the year where we're all just going to have to be patient because until the window opens, you're probably not going to see anything. We're not going to get a really clear idea of what their ambition is since that's the thing we've been talking about the last few weeks. [01:00:34] Speaker B: Yeah, that's correct. Right now you're seeing MLS free agents move, and there have been a couple. So if Dallas was after some of those, they could have done one of those. And you're seeing MLS transfers that happen where the team that he was with before are happy to say, yes, you can go ahead and do the deal. Maybe we'll let you out a month early. So, like Forsberg with Red Bull, because I think that's even an inside the organization kind of move. You're seeing some, but you're correct that the window doesn't open until January. I don't know when it is. I haven't looked, but it'll be in January sometime and that's when you can actually do transfers. Now, if a player is out of contract already, maybe that could happen. But this is midseason for the european and most south american clubs, for example. So it's like you're probably not going to get moves until actually in January in terms of the bigger roster, big picture, you're right that they're only doing a lot of filler moves. And if you're counting the number of players they have, not including some of these draft picks, there really is not a lot of room left. There's room for the one center back we think is coming, right? And then they need a backup center back. So maybe one of those draft picks could make that backup center back spot and then they need a third keeper and that's it. Like if they do those three things, the roster is basically full. So after that, God, that'd be so depressing. All right. You can clearly see a window. Like if you sign a center back in January, maybe one of these picks makes it as the fifth center back and then you go get a third keeper, you're done. That's your roster done. So at that point you're like, ok, where's the ambition? Do you buy out Jimenez or not? Do you sell a player that we've seen these rumors about so and so was after this guy or that guy like Ariola. Ariola, yeah, sorry, Ariola Liga MX. Or is there some young player that maybe is in hot demand? Because remember there are carrion, Velasco and the carrying Giovanni hurt. So those extra guys are still here on the roster, right? So there really is, other than the center back, a backup center back and a third keeper. That's it. They're done. So then you have to get into questions of doing something to make room if you're going to have an ambition. So we're going to get through Christmas probably with the one sort of center back out there floating that we think they're going to need after getting rid of Jesus Martinez. And then it's like, at that point it's like, okay, what are you going to do? Is this it? Is this all there really is? And we're going to spend January, the first half of January, maybe even the back half of January after camp opens, waiting to see what they do. And it's entirely possible that that's it, that it's just those two or three pieces and they're done. [01:03:09] Speaker A: Merry Christmas. Curious? [01:03:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sorry, but that's true. I mean, it's like there's a whole lot of counting on legit and Ariola returning to form and Jesus being healthy, Paxton being know there's a lot of that happening here. If they don't do some know because everyone keeps pointing at Miami. How come Miami can do all this stuff and Dallas doesn't? Because they don't. Miami cuts dudes, buys guys out, trades guys off. Dallas is not doing that. That we can know they need to do those things to get better or they're just going to stamp. So we wait. We hope they're going to do that and try and get better, but right now they're not. [01:03:48] Speaker A: I feel like we need comic relief now, this episode. So, Dan, I'm going to ask you to say in your best English, tilt the word beaver. [01:04:02] Speaker C: Flappy tailed, furry, toothy thing. [01:04:06] Speaker A: Nice. Which is called a. [01:04:09] Speaker B: He's not going to say it. [01:04:10] Speaker C: I just said it. [01:04:11] Speaker A: No, come on, entertain me. [01:04:13] Speaker C: Well, no, maybe we have a different name for. [01:04:17] Speaker B: Know. [01:04:18] Speaker C: You call them pants, we call them. [01:04:20] Speaker A: Trousers, we call them cigarettes. [01:04:23] Speaker B: Woodchucks. [01:04:24] Speaker A: Woodchucks is all right. [01:04:27] Speaker B: I don't know. [01:04:29] Speaker C: Tin foil. [01:04:30] Speaker B: I know that's a big downer, Peter, but it's know. We need to see some evidence that they're attempting to do some of these. [01:04:37] Speaker A: We've, they've been signing kids into homegrown deals and this and that and the other. And we yet to see an impact player sign to the club. [01:04:47] Speaker B: Yeah, they've done the basic, simple, bottom of the roster business that you needed to do. They've done that fine. That's good. [01:04:54] Speaker A: Yes. And I'm not trying to be negative. I'm just trying to remind everybody, be patient. The time for them to make their move and show their ambition is not now. They're going to be ambitious. It'll happen next year. [01:05:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Remember, the windows are about incoming players. So, like, if a player is currently with another team, you cannot buy him until the window opens here, which will be sometime in January. So it's not a surprise that we haven't seen anything. If that's their move, if they're going to sign a free agent, they could have done that. If they're going to trade somebody, they could have done that. So if you want to sell somebody, you can do that. You can sell somebody as soon as the windows where you're going are open. And that could be. And there's literally hundreds of, like, in terms of Paul and league Mx, I don't know when the league MX window is. I don't know when the, like, if you're going to sell a guy to don't. Or sell a guy to South America, I don't know when those windows are because it's always about the incoming there for sure. If you want the impact moves to happen, you're going to have to wait, it seems, till January. So nobody panic. But that is the big question. It's like they've done the basic stuff. They've not done anything impactful yet. And so we're waiting. We'll be lots of waiting. Dribbling our thumbs. [01:06:10] Speaker A: Okay. And to end this particular episode, two things. One, Dan Foro advanced to the US Open cup. Am I reading that correctly? [01:06:20] Speaker B: No. [01:06:21] Speaker C: Well, they already had. It's the UPSL national playoffs. They're kind of into the. They're out of the Texas phase, and they're now into actual, the national bracket. Now they're waiting for a couple of other Texas teams to play a game this evening. Yeah, they're. They're kind of well on their way. They could match up potentially with Columbus Cruise development team. They're the first team through to the final four. [01:06:56] Speaker A: Isn't Tommy on that team? [01:06:58] Speaker B: No, that's a different team. Tommy's on Columbus cruise, too. [01:07:00] Speaker C: Under 19, sort of. [01:07:01] Speaker A: Oh, okay. All right. [01:07:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Dan was talking about a team like the FC Dallas Academy team that plays in UPSL. [01:07:08] Speaker A: No, he said Columbus Cruise. [01:07:10] Speaker B: Yes, Columbus's team, like the FCD Dallas academy team that plays in UPSL. [01:07:15] Speaker A: I see. Okay. I understand. Sorry. [01:07:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:18] Speaker A: Very good. And then what was the other thing I was going to ask? Oh, Dan. Yes. So knowing that we got this new kit Easter egg, when can we start getting mockups of what we think the jersey is going to? I mean, although we actually know now because we got the Easter egg, but let's just set that aside. When will we get the official Dan Crook mockups of next year's kit reveal? Like, I'm ready for this to start being a thing. [01:07:48] Speaker C: Well, that's normally something for the new year. So 2024. [01:07:52] Speaker A: Are you cooking on it already? [01:07:55] Speaker C: There's a couple of things in mind. [01:07:57] Speaker B: The cocktails and cleats thing, I think, is January 15, so that's when the real thing will be out. So it'll be before that. [01:08:03] Speaker A: Oh, so what, the actual jersey will be out for cocktails and cleats? [01:08:08] Speaker B: I think so. That's when they usually. [01:08:10] Speaker C: That's normally the actual reveal. [01:08:12] Speaker A: Okay. All right, well, don't let it. So does it look like what we saw in the video? The Easter egg in the video of the Minecraft character? [01:08:20] Speaker C: Don't have to figure that out. [01:08:22] Speaker A: Damn it. Frustrating. [01:08:25] Speaker C: I can tell you what the goalkeeper kits look like. They're terrible. [01:08:29] Speaker A: They all look the same. [01:08:31] Speaker C: No, these ones are bad. They look like the saved by the bell credits. [01:08:37] Speaker A: Oh, so they got, like, an 80s, all sorts of geometric designs and primary colors kind of thing? [01:08:46] Speaker C: Yes. [01:08:47] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay. Yipes. All right, well, very good. Well, I got nothing else, guys. Anything else we need to do here? [01:08:56] Speaker B: Just the indoor season started masl. So if you're into the outlaws or the kicks, that's their plan. So go see them at. I know. I know you're not. [01:09:04] Speaker A: All right, very good, Dan. Well, Merry Christmas to you, Dan Crook. [01:09:10] Speaker C: Have a proper crimbo. [01:09:12] Speaker A: And I hope you're feeling better. By the way, everybody should know that Dan Crook taped this episode while suffering from the debilitating virus known as Covid. [01:09:24] Speaker C: It's got a little bit of COVID brain going on today. [01:09:29] Speaker A: All right. You haven't vomited, have you? [01:09:32] Speaker B: No. [01:09:33] Speaker A: Okay. And you're not going to say the word beaver for me, are you? [01:09:37] Speaker C: Fine. Beaver. [01:09:38] Speaker A: Yes. I love it. There's your new open buzz, except it's. [01:09:45] Speaker C: Actually the close. [01:09:48] Speaker A: Third degree. [01:09:49] Speaker B: The podcast has been brought to you by soccer 90. Com. Soccer 90 wants to give all listeners of third degree an exclusive Christmas special so you can get that last minute gift or even an after Christmas gift. So from today till the end of the year, end of December, all listeners of third degree get 30% off with the code third Xmas at checkout. That's three rdxmas, 30% off special just for you. Soccer 90. Com use code third degree xmas. Please allow three to four days for processing. So don't order Christmas Eve and think you're getting it. And some exclusions do apply. [01:10:21] Speaker A: Well, Merry Christmas, Dan. [01:10:23] Speaker C: Merry Christmas to you, too. [01:10:25] Speaker A: And Merry Christmas, buzzard. [01:10:28] Speaker B: Oh, thank you, Peter. Be sure and be here next week for the airing of the grievances, okay? [01:10:33] Speaker A: Yes. And thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Can't tell you how much we appreciate you. We love doing this for you and with you, and we will speak to you next week. And another are we doing an episode next week between Christmas and New Year's? [01:10:50] Speaker B: Yes, we're the airing of the. [01:10:51] Speaker A: Okay, well, I didn't know a lot of people take that week off. It's a vacation week. Okay. [01:10:58] Speaker B: I mean, I'll be on the road, but we can still do something. All right, well, we'll play it by ear. How about that? [01:11:04] Speaker A: So we may do an episode next week. We may not, but we may do that again. And so have a great holiday season. All of you out there, thank you very much for listening, and we will talk to you eventually at some point, either late before the end of this year, or the very beginning of next year, on another episode of third degree, the podcast have a very curious Christmas. Third degree the third degree never podcast. Third degree. The third degree never podcast. Third degree never podcast. Third greedy.