3rd Degree the Podcast #244

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Um, yeah. Ooh. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree. The third degree never pocket third degree nap, I guess. Third degree. [00:00:23] Speaker B: Yeah. This season is to be dog shit, dude. Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by soccer nugget.com. They've got everything you can want in the soccer game. Premier league, Syria, MLS, all the FCD Dallas goodies. Shop Soccer 90 dot for all your jerseys, tees, scarves, and more. As third degree listeners, you. Yes, you receive 20% off extra on top of your order when you use the code third degree at checkout three R-D-E-G-R-E-E. Just like the website. Third degree is the code. 20% off soccer 90 dot with some exclusions to apply. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Well, hello there and happy new year to you, the FCD Dallas curious fan. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. Hi, it is me, Peter. Yes, all of us are here today, and official, there's a round of applause for the good buzz Carrick for doing this solo last week. Thank you for doing that. And then, of course, first off, the hatter himself, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:26] Speaker C: Oh, you're right. [00:01:28] Speaker A: Yep. Good. Did you have a good holiday? [00:01:30] Speaker C: I mean, I can't complain. Six points, you know? [00:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah. What was the best gift you received in the holiday? [00:01:38] Speaker C: It was actually a knife sharpener. [00:01:40] Speaker A: A knife sharpener. Yeah, I dig that. What kind of one? [00:01:46] Speaker C: Chefman. Some electric one for japanese and european style knives. [00:01:54] Speaker A: I like to find out that Dan Crook is into knives. Into cutlery. I dig kitchen knives especially. All right. If there's a murderous rampage with knives and sharped objects, we know who to go look to blame. [00:02:10] Speaker C: My cover now. [00:02:11] Speaker A: Sorry. Buzz will just edit that out. You're clean. [00:02:15] Speaker B: Don't worry about it. [00:02:16] Speaker A: And of course, your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero. Editor found a third degree net. Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:02:23] Speaker B: Hi, Peter. You might be surprised to learn that this is the beginning of the 6th year of third degree, the podcast. [00:02:30] Speaker A: Holy cow. We've been doing this for six years now. [00:02:33] Speaker B: Well, it was just starting year six. Last season was year five. You remember? We started late in one of the years, so the first year wasn't hardly a whole season. But this is now the 6th season of this podcast. But it shouldn't surprise you, since this is now year 27. Season 27 of third degree. Year six is almost pales in comparison. [00:02:50] Speaker A: It's crazy. Third degree has been together as long as I've been married. Yeah, that's crazy. [00:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah, and longer than Paxton's been alive. [00:03:01] Speaker A: Unbelievable. Stop it. Stop it. [00:03:07] Speaker B: Good lord, I'll always say that the rest of my life. [00:03:10] Speaker A: Gut punch. And what wonderful best Christmas gift did you get, Buzz? [00:03:16] Speaker B: Probably a Cowboys sweatshirt from my brother. Probably. That's pretty good. Although I always get some legos, which is because I'm a dork and those are fun too. [00:03:22] Speaker A: Legos are awesome. [00:03:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:24] Speaker A: Did you get a particular kit? [00:03:25] Speaker B: No, it's always, almost always something Star wars related. I think this one was a Boba Fett thing. I think. It's not very big, it's just a small one, but it's such a childhood endorphin of totally 100% very good. [00:03:39] Speaker A: Well, we don't have a lot to talk about because after last week, Buzz doing his bit solo and the week before that, there's just not been a lot of movement for the curious to chew on from little football club Dallas. Buzz. [00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah, there's not a lot of. Boy, really. It's a dull time, which is not anyone's know. The window doesn't open until the end of January for transfers coming in. I would have thought that they would have perhaps one or two things lined up, but the holiday also happened and the people that need to do a lot of these things are probably still involved in the seasons and I know there's a lot of jetted off to do some conferences and stuff right after the season ended. So it is what it is. I'm hoping that we're just going to have to wait and then we're going to see some stuff soon because camp does open players report on the 13th. I know that. And so camp should be that Monday probably for training. So what, the 15th? Maybe that they'll start training so they better get going. But again, the winter doesn't open until the 30th. I think it's the 30th something around the 30th, 30 January, late January, but then it runs till April. So there's no need to rush anybody in like the first camp I guess, other than you want them to get ready. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Why wouldn't MLS have their transfer window open at the beginning of January with everybody else? Do we know why that is? Why it's scheduled the way it is? [00:05:11] Speaker B: I mean, unofficially, it's designed to be the primary window for the season, so it's not where everybody else is in their secondary window. So that's one reason why they don't line up because the primary window is really long for most clubs, most leagues, and the secondary window is short, which is the January window for everybody else. It used to actually be, of course then this window used to be much later it used to be like March to June or something, but they've moved it up some because the last season or two they've been pushing forward at the beginning of the season. So last year was the first year they started in middle February and so it moved up to the end of January. And so this year with it season moving up like another week or two, I think it was. Maybe that'll move up another week or two. But it's designed to open, right. Like a month before your season and then run for the first three or four months. It should be earlier. But you're. [00:06:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Dan, am I missing something or wouldn't it make. I mean, I don't see the harm and I only see value in starting this window. If you're going to expand it, why not expand it to the beginning of January when everybody else is doing business too? [00:06:17] Speaker C: It's too sensible. [00:06:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure FIFA has a reason why. [00:06:23] Speaker A: It's, well, it's probably MLS's decision. It's not FIFA's decision. [00:06:28] Speaker B: I don't know. It's a, you know, I think that defines these things. I don't know. [00:06:33] Speaker A: Oh, I thought the leagues defined when their trading windows open and closed. [00:06:37] Speaker C: It's the leagues or the associations. One or the other. [00:06:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:41] Speaker B: Maybe it's us soccer, this labeling. I don't know enough about how that works, to be honest with you. Maybe it's something I'll try and dig into someday if I can figure out who the hell knows the answer to that question. [00:06:49] Speaker A: Well, then this leads me to my next question. Does USL have its own window? [00:06:55] Speaker B: I would assume it's the same as the MLS one. [00:06:58] Speaker A: I've never ever thought about this before, about when USL can sign and trade and move players around. I've never even thought about that. [00:07:05] Speaker B: Is the championship the same as the Premier League? [00:07:07] Speaker C: No, that's what I was about to say. The football league has a week different window than the Premier League. [00:07:15] Speaker A: Okay, there you go. [00:07:16] Speaker C: Well, sorry, it has a different loan window, the actual, the September 1 deadline, that sort of stuff. That's all the same. [00:07:28] Speaker A: I'd be interested in knowing that. It just makes sense to me. If they can make it up on their own, why not do business when everybody else is doing business? [00:07:36] Speaker B: I don't know. Christmas? [00:07:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. [00:07:40] Speaker B: I mean, generally speaking, the first window, the primary window, is longer than the secondary one. That's pretty much true for everybody. [00:07:46] Speaker A: No, I get that. [00:07:47] Speaker B: Yeah. It may be that they want to. Maybe they're waiting. Maybe they want it to be slightly later so they can sort of let the heavy hitters go at the front. [00:07:56] Speaker A: Of January, get the slop, and they. [00:07:58] Speaker B: Can slide in on the back end and then have then from till like April when you can almost get to the summer window, when everybody else gets to their end of season, you're almost going to be there in the MLS primary window. Maybe that's why they don't want to. [00:08:10] Speaker A: Do somebody smarter than me knows the answer to this question. [00:08:13] Speaker B: Man, I wouldn't even know who to ask. Maybe Andy knows. Ask Andy. [00:08:16] Speaker A: Actually, you know what? Andy probably does know this answer. I'll ask him on Saturday, if not beforehand. All right, well, since we don't have a lot to talk about, and it's unlikely that here on Thursday evening we're going to get any breaking news, we decided to kill some time with an annual favorite of this podcast that I've not participated in before. It's the great third degree speculation podcast, where we just ask ourselves silly questions and come up with speculative and somewhat silly. [00:08:45] Speaker B: Yeah, no one's keeping score here. This is a thing that Dan and I have done. When you're not around and we're trying to fill something, sometimes trying to fill time. [00:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I get it. [00:08:52] Speaker B: But I think it's fun one. So hopefully everybody enjoys it. [00:08:55] Speaker A: All right, I will just randomly pick for some of these pre done questions, and I'm going to start with this one. Who will be the next player sold from FCD Dallas? [00:09:10] Speaker B: Toughie. Well, it's not going to be Alan Velasco and it's not going to be Jesus Ferreira anymore. So I'm going to say Martin Paz is my answer because I think that he'll have a really good season this year. And so somebody will come sniffing around either in the middle or the end of this season and the end of next season, someone will offer the hunts too much money for him. [00:09:33] Speaker A: Interesting. You got a guess, Dan? [00:09:36] Speaker C: Actually, that's kind of what I had down. He's got a couple of roadblocks to getting a look at the national mean mainly equally young players that are very good. And mls may be a detraction on top of it to the coaches. So it may be a case of looking at, well, hold on. That's my goal. If I'm not achieving that, I want to put myself in the best position for it. [00:10:04] Speaker A: Yeah, good point. The other part about this question that I think is worth the conversation is if we had asked this question this time a year ago, obviously the two players that would have topped the list are Velasco and Jesus. And obviously Velasco is probably not likely because of his injury situation. But does it not reflect poorly on Jesus that he is now no longer considered a candidate for this question? [00:10:33] Speaker B: Well, I think the injury he had and the fall off a little bit at the end of last season hurt him a bit in this know. Part of the problem for Jesus is that he gets paid a pretty good amount of money here and also the hunts have a pretty high valuation on him. So that makes him hard for a lot of leagues to afford him. You're talking about really a top five league only that can afford. But this comes back to the idea. Martin pause too, is that this is a springboard for those kinds of leagues. The players can go from here to that level. So if you could have a really strong season, if you're up there as a goalkeeper of the year candidate or an MVP style candidate, people are going to notice you. And that brings me back around to the idea that another player to put on your list of potentially being sold is Giovanni Jesus. Because the whole idea behind U 22 initiatives is that you buy these young players that are a little more expensive and try and develop them to sell them on. That's the whole purpose of that. And the new kid, Ennis Sally, will be like that down the line a couple of seasons, but not so if Giovanni Jesus comes out and has a banger of a season or something, then he also would be in that list of potentials because that's the whole idea. The south american guys look at this as a stepping stone. A lot of times they're not looking to build a career here necessarily. [00:11:44] Speaker A: Yeah, you drove this in a completely different direction than I was wanting it to go in. I wanted it to become a conversation about the performance of Jesus last season and how much his situation has changed. We've always known that he's a high salary guy and was going to come at a great cost, but now with his, I think we can all agree, not great, 2023, it's really changed the dynamic. I mean, he could at this point become essentially an MLS lifer. Not that that's a bad thing. It's just not what I think we all had in mind for him. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah, if he would have reproduced 2022, he probably would be gone, but he didn't. He fell off. So 100%. And not just with FC Dallas. His national team wasn't quite as good as I think he or his people thought it would be. Some of that I'm going to put down to the injury struggles he didn't have a brutal injury, but he had a nagging injury that probably hurt him. And I definitely think that the fall off in terms of chance creation from FC Dallas, as they had so many major injuries in midfield, really hurt Jesus, too. But I'm pretty confident he's the kind of player that could bounce right back and have an absolutely phenomenal season. This time next year, we would talk about, is it twelve? Is it 15 million? If he has another mvp caliber season at the age of 23, people are going to be sold again at him. [00:13:01] Speaker A: Yeah, but he is starting to approach that age, that weird kind of awkward age, part of his career where, you know what I'm saying, the interest levels from overseas is going to start to change. Now, that doesn't mean he doesn't get interest from league MX or someplace in South America. The european aspect does suddenly start to change. [00:13:21] Speaker B: He needs a banger of a season if he's going to follow the trajectory that he and his people probably assumed that he would have. [00:13:27] Speaker A: And I do think a part of his ability to have a banger of a season is directly tied to this club getting the rest of its s figured out in terms of the team. [00:13:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:13:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. All right. Because it was big news today. Signing with Cincinnati was Miles Robertson, the Atlanta center back who was very much on everybody's list. And I think a lot of people wanted him to go to Europe, but he's not. He's staying in the league and probably getting a nice deal, but not the big dollar deal. I think everybody thought maybe he'd get, or maybe nobody assumed he would get a DP deal or I'm not really clear on how everybody felt about that. But he's not coming to Dallas. That's what we do know. He is going someplace else. And so the question is, will Dallas sign a center back and will that center back start more regular games than ibiaga? [00:14:22] Speaker B: Dan, why don't you go first on this one? [00:14:24] Speaker C: Sure. I think they will sign a center back. They're getting a little bit late in the offseason for how they've kind of liked to do business for those players that do get significant minutes, which makes me think maybe, for example, we're a month later than the time last year Ibiaga was signed in free agency, so they're not getting their number one or probably number two targets at this point. So it may be that kind of third, 4th choice. [00:15:02] Speaker B: I'm going to agree with Dan, actually. I think, yes, they will add a center back. They actually need to add two but they're going to add one for sure. And I actually think that given their track record for this, I think that, no, that player will not play more games than ibiago. I think in Akosi and Ibiago will both play more because I think the Sonic's not going to be as good as everybody wanted. [00:15:21] Speaker A: Oh, I totally. I think that's as predictable as sunrise at this point. I think if they're going to spend money, it's not going to be at center back. And I think they probably feel pretty solid in that as best as. You know what I'm saying. I think they like Ibiaga better than you and I do, or the three of us do. And they like Defari, obviously. So whoever they're going to sign is going to be an Ibiaga, equal or lesser. [00:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah, this will be a tam level signing, which is the money Martinez was on. That's vaguely neighborhood of that 700, 800, $900,000 player that will be bought down. So they're not a DP Martinez. You go back to Ziegler. If they were to hit like Reto Ziegler again, that'd be. That'd be great. Yeah, but then they've also had your Brissons, or know Martinez, for that matter. Just not great. Not a. [00:16:18] Speaker A: So didn't I see you retweet a rumor about a Columbia? Was it argentinian or colombian centerback? [00:16:27] Speaker B: I shared it. It was a colombian center back. Who plays for. I often. I share those things mostly out of fun. Remember that? We have no idea how many of them are real. I usually say it's about one out of ten. There's been no domestic confirmation of that. But it was the first time we saw a center back linked this winter, which is. [00:16:48] Speaker A: And he wasn't like 75 years old either. [00:16:51] Speaker B: No, it was actually, he's 28. He's right in the prime that you would like in this kind of signing. Like, you look at his numbers and the guy. I don't have his name in front of me. I apologize for that. It's the kind of sign that would fit this exactly. If it's real, if it turns out to be the thing. So we'll see. We'll find out the end of January. The difference is if a player is free or he's going to be free, you can go ahead and do it, which is why you're seeing moves happening. But if you're looking at a guy who's got a couple of years left, that one, you have to wait for the window, basically for it to happen. And Dallas doesn't like to go early and announce stuff till they're 100% ink dried anyway. They're very paranoid about that. [00:17:25] Speaker A: Okay. Because of a lot of the conversation that the curious have been having in your discord, Buzz. By the way, if you're listening to this podcast, you don't know about the discord, you can sign up for Buzz's Patreon and get access to the wonderful community of the curious, which always has great Dallas conversations about the team and everything else. I don't know, Buzz. They can just go to your Patreon page and do that. But there's been a lot of back and forth amongst the regulars in the discord about how this team is going to line up for next season. And one of the ones that I keep seeing is the idea that the draft pick, Logan Farrington, is going to play a big part in this season. And the idea know matching him up with Jesus up top. And so one of the questions here is an over under on regular season goals for Logan Farrington. And that will lead me into kind of a follow up question. [00:18:20] Speaker B: Okay, you want to ask the follow up now? [00:18:22] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I want to ask just why don't you do over and under first? [00:18:27] Speaker B: I'm going to say over under is like five or 4.55 would be over. I think that while I think this player is interesting, I don't think what I've seen on tape, and I will reserve the idea to change my mind if I want to see him in person. What I've seen on tape, I don't see a walk in and score 20 player. That's what I've seen. [00:18:49] Speaker A: Good Lord. [00:18:50] Speaker B: Right. Well, people are comparing him to the guy at Orlando who did that, who walked in and scored 20. They're saying he's the next version of that. I don't think that's what we have here. I think this is a player who, in my opinion, might get. He'll play, certainly, but I think if he gets five, I'll consider it a very successful season. And again, ask me again once I see him in training, maybe I'll be like, oh my God, never mind. I was an idiot. I'm just saying what I saw on tape. I see like a contributor, but not a 20 goal contributor. [00:19:17] Speaker A: You got an over under number, Dan? [00:19:20] Speaker C: I actually wrote down four, funnily enough. [00:19:23] Speaker A: Okay, there you go. [00:19:24] Speaker B: We're on the same page as them, basically. [00:19:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:26] Speaker C: This is interesting. [00:19:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:29] Speaker A: Well, because here's the thing. If we get into the start of the season and he is a regular contributor. Just take away whether or not he scores goals or not. That is a really alarming indicator about where the club is in terms of how it views the 24 season as a contender or not. [00:19:50] Speaker B: Yeah, the difference will be there's two contingencies there that would make a big difference. If he's starting every game and he's scoring 20 goals, that's different than if he starts every game and scores four or five. [00:20:02] Speaker A: Right. [00:20:03] Speaker B: That's the indictment. Because in order for him to do that, he's a very pure nine. So in order to do that, you have to move. I mean, he's not a high nine, but you have to move Jesus. So he better be real good if you're moving Jesus out to the. So that's, that's the contingency. [00:20:24] Speaker A: Because here's the problem, guys. Is we as a fan base or people that follow this club, we've all been so used to just a really crummy level of strikers at this club for the last however many years that the bar is really set low. I mean, you don't have to come into this team and score a metric f ton of goals to be a hero. Right. Because think back of who the last set of number nines were at this club. Outside of Jesus, it was Cobra. How many goals did he score for this club? [00:20:57] Speaker B: Not that many. [00:20:58] Speaker A: Okay, Colman. [00:21:00] Speaker B: Yeah, not that many. [00:21:01] Speaker A: Jimenez. [00:21:02] Speaker B: Frank O'Hara. [00:21:03] Speaker A: Frank O'Hara. [00:21:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:04] Speaker A: I mean, we could go through this list probably five or six, seven guys deep. And that's why there's a part of me that wonders that they're like, look, we've tried the go out of town and find somebody who supposedly got a good pedigree and supposed to be able to do this for us and have just said, screw it, let's go see if we can't get the best college player to bang in goals for us. [00:21:25] Speaker B: Yeah. For the record, Pepe had 13 and 21. In 2021, Frank O'Hara led the club with seven goals. In 2020, granted, shortened season. Before that, the leading scorer was Jesus when he was 18, which when he had, he had like eight goals and led the team in goals. And then Maxi, before the season for that, Maxi had eight and led the team in goals. And then for that Maxi had twelve. One season, blasphemy led the team when he had seven. One season, Michael Barrios led the team in goals. I mean, it's like there's been some ridiculous, some low numbers for leading the team in scoring. [00:21:58] Speaker A: You see my point? [00:21:59] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I do. Yeah. And I totally agree with you. If this guy's starting 30 games, if he starts 30 games and he's just, meh, at like five goals, ten goals, then that tells you how really bad the situation is. Now, again, if he's like the Orlando guy and bangs in 20 plus, that's a totally different equation. [00:22:17] Speaker A: Sure. [00:22:18] Speaker B: And we'll revisit and we'll eat all the Maya Coppolas that are necessary if it turns out the kid is amazing, because people are hyping the tar out of this kid. I can't remember the last time I've seen a pick hyped like this, and it's the third overall pick. So people are excited about this guy, not just as he Dallas. Like, people around the league, like draft people were going bonkers about this kid, like how hype he was. [00:22:38] Speaker A: Well, we'll see. I was only slightly aware of the story in Orlando with that guy, so hopefully, maybe that's true. I mean, he seems to be the vast exception to the rule. And maybe I'm forgetting my MLS history, at least recent history of strikers and forwards coming out of the draft and hitting a bunch of goals in their rookie season. [00:23:01] Speaker B: Well, Darryl Dicky is the other one, but again, that's Oscar picking, right? [00:23:05] Speaker A: Yeah. So maybe it's more about Oscar than anything else, but whatever. Okay, well, interesting. [00:23:11] Speaker B: Well, I should clarify that Maguire only had 13, not 20. But that's the point is, like, if a guy comes out and he's banging goals like crazy, well, then I'll be happy to say I was totally wrong, but I'm not seeing that in my book. [00:23:25] Speaker A: Hell, yeah. If Farrington shows up and hits 13 goals this season, that is an a plus draft pick and a huge win for this team, no matter how the season goes. [00:23:34] Speaker B: I mean, hell, if he gets five, that's a good contribution for a rookie. [00:23:40] Speaker A: But that's really the larger part of this question, which is if he's playing every game and only hits five goals, that's a real indictment on the club and the ownership and everybody running this thing. Wouldn't it be what the team needs is goals? [00:23:56] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Bernie will have more than mean, but Vasco didn't, and so. Yeah, okay, we'll see. [00:24:07] Speaker A: Let's see. Speaking of which, since we're talking about the position, Dan, your prediction? Will FC Dallas or specifically Clark Hunt write that painful check to buy out Jesus Jimenez? [00:24:20] Speaker C: Yes, but only if the $1,000 ticket level sells out for cocktails and cliqued so that they can afford it. [00:24:31] Speaker A: That would be a lot of people at the $1,000 tier at that event. So I'm guessing that means your actual answer is no. [00:24:40] Speaker C: Honestly, I don't know. So the dumbed wire buyout happened. I think it was the 10 January last year. [00:24:50] Speaker A: And how much does that. Do we know how much that cost them? [00:24:54] Speaker B: No, I think it was like $300,000. [00:24:56] Speaker A: It wasn't okay much. And who else have they bought out? [00:24:59] Speaker C: They haven't, but typically, like, Cincinnati has done one, Atlanta bought out Joseph Martinez. Miami did one. There's been a few around the league. I tend to be that from the time players report to that last week before the season starts, so there's a good window for it to happen. [00:25:19] Speaker A: Am I ridiculous? Didn't they buy out? Horror? [00:25:21] Speaker B: Yeah, they did. [00:25:22] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. How much did that cost them? [00:25:24] Speaker B: 3 million. [00:25:26] Speaker A: So what will Jimenez cost? What would Jimenez cost him to buy out? [00:25:31] Speaker B: 1.4. [00:25:33] Speaker A: This is a farting bargain. [00:25:35] Speaker B: And I think Dwyer, if I look at Dwyer's salary, I think his salary was actually higher than it wasn't. Three hundred k. I think it was higher than I think it was. Trying to think back to Orlando, what Orlando was paying him back in 2020. [00:25:46] Speaker A: How much money, speaking of spending money, how much money would you pay to be a fly on the wall the day that Dan and Clark have to sit down and fill out the paperwork to do another buyout of a failed forward? [00:25:59] Speaker B: The rough part is that Frank O'Hara, they thought they were going to do the mutual contract termination, but for whatever reason, the league said, no, you have to buy him. They, in the end, they had to. [00:26:10] Speaker A: Buy him out, and now they have to buy another guy out. [00:26:13] Speaker B: Well, I'm going to give my prediction. I'm going to predict that they don't. [00:26:16] Speaker A: You think they're keeping him? [00:26:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's horrible, but I think they're keeping him. [00:26:20] Speaker A: And that's because you don't think they're going to be able to find somebody else. And they're high on Farrington? [00:26:25] Speaker B: I think they're high on Farrington. And I think that other than know, they have a couple of home runs who haven't proven themselves yet, and they have Milato, who, while he scores a lot of goals at North Texas, has not necessarily done that at. He's a. He's a really young guy and probably will be looking to move. I would imagine they'll want to sell him on at some point. So my gut instinct right now is telling me that they're going to hold on to Jesus Cementez, because it's like the hunts will be like, well, why should we pay like a 1.51.6 million to get out of him when we might need that body halfway through the season for some reason? So they're not in a rush to do it. And my fear is actually that they're not going to because you haven't seen them do anything else. And it's making me, the tone of. [00:27:13] Speaker A: Your voice, I know, changed dramatically in the last minute. [00:27:17] Speaker B: I know, because it really bums me out because I think it's absolutely horrible if they don't buy them out, what they're going to do to themselves in terms of trying to win this season. And I'm afraid that's what's happening, because he's what they call he falls into this Tam category where his number, just like Paul Areolo, is a DP number. So because you have two young dps in Velasco who they won't put on the injured reserve for the season, and Jesus, you're not stuck using those guys. But because they're young dps, their cap number is way lower. So the only one you can buy down would be Areola or this know. And there's also these rumors that there was people from Mexico that were interested in Areola. So it's like if you roll around to the start of the season and you just leave them as a know. So that's what my prediction right now is. No, they're not going to buy him out. And I base a lot of that on his reaction. When I asked, he kind of was we? That's the tool we have at our available. [00:28:16] Speaker A: Did he grasp his pearls and gasp and say, buzzard? Why would we ever do such a thing? [00:28:22] Speaker B: Well, he gave a non answer, but that's fine. But it wasn't what he said. It's kind of how he said it. And the look on his face, like, almost like, oh, well, I guess we could do that. [00:28:34] Speaker A: We don't really want to. [00:28:35] Speaker B: I was like, oh, no. Oh, my mean, they were flabbergasted that I suggested they put Velasco on the season ending iR, but when they came down for Jimenez, they were like, oh, we hadn't really thought about that yet. I was like, oh, my God, really? [00:28:49] Speaker A: I just had this mental image of Zanata leaving that meeting and then running, sprinting up the stairs into Clark's office going, I got an. [00:29:00] Speaker B: I wish you saw the look on a coach's face when he was smiling. When I asked about know, okay, bummer question. Sorry. [00:29:10] Speaker A: Yeah, well, speaking. Well, I don't know if this is Bummer or not, but since you brought him up, will Paula Areola be here next season? And if he's not, yeah, if he's not, who will be the captain? [00:29:27] Speaker B: I'm going to say, yes, he'll be here, but the answer to, and I'll extrapolate that on a little bit. And I think what the hunts will want to move on from Paul Areola will make it where no one will want to pay enough for him. I don't think some mexican team is going to come in and go, here's 6 million. So I think he'll be here. And then the other side of that coin is, if he were to go, who would be captain? And I'll say Yara Mendy will be captain because you want somebody that's going to be almost lock starter, who everyone in the locker room will respect. And when he talks, everyone in the locker room will stop and listen. And I think that fits Yara Mindy, who speaks lots of languages and has lots of respect. And. [00:30:07] Speaker C: Yeah, I think more simplified, it's probably not going to want to move around with a fresh baby. [00:30:16] Speaker A: Interesting. I got a couple questions out of this. One is why not Jesus is captain. [00:30:24] Speaker B: Well, he's often captain now. Choice. Yeah. [00:30:27] Speaker A: Oh, is he? [00:30:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:29] Speaker A: Okay. [00:30:30] Speaker B: Well, when Paul was unavailable, Jesus was captain a lot. I just think that at the start of the season, if you're missing somebody, know, last year Ermine was new. He wasn't really here, but now he's been here for like six months. People saw how incredible he really is. He has this wealth of experience. Part of making Jesus captain is making him responsible, making him feel like he needs to step up for the team and all that stuff. Because he's a young guy and you want to try and focus him. But I think he would still be in the mix. But I think an overall captain, if you can name a guy like here's the captain, I think it would be our amendy. [00:31:01] Speaker A: And since we were talking about Ariola being sold, what do you think they have him valued at the club? Well, probably you said 6 million and I'm thinking that's effing nuts. There's no way, right? [00:31:15] Speaker B: Well, they paid 2 million in funny money to get him, so it's got to be above that. You are talking about a guy who was, or maybe still is on the fringe of the national team, even though. [00:31:25] Speaker A: He had appreciated quite a bit since then, hasn't he? [00:31:27] Speaker B: Well, he had a bad season, but the season before he was great. So it just depends. If teams are calling about him, they would know he's under contract. They're not calling to make him because he's going to be free. I don't think it would be 6 million. That's what I'm saying. I don't think someone would offer that. I think somebody might offer two or three and I don't know that they would bite on two. They might offer on three or four. They might bite because the money is different. Like the MLS funny money is not the same as the real money. You're not going to recoup that funny money. You would sell them. If you think you can use that money to get something, you know, his price will depend on what they need the money for. [00:32:05] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:06] Speaker B: If we believe them that they don't take money out of the club and I believe them, I think they don't do that because they're too rich. They don't need it. [00:32:11] Speaker A: Will they sign somebody of tam level or higher? DP or whatever? Somebody other than what we've already talked about at center? [00:32:20] Speaker C: Uh, other than. [00:32:22] Speaker B: Yep. [00:32:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:23] Speaker C: They'll sign a center midfielder because they just love signing tons of center midfielders, apparently. [00:32:28] Speaker A: But will it be a Tam type guy? [00:32:32] Speaker C: Let's say yes, just for shits and giggles. [00:32:34] Speaker A: Okay, buzz. [00:32:36] Speaker B: No, they will not. [00:32:39] Speaker C: There you disagree? [00:32:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that they're going to get a center back and then that's it. I think they're going to. [00:32:44] Speaker A: Good lord, this is going to be the crappiest season. [00:32:50] Speaker B: Usually when this time of year, there's lots of rumbling. I'm not getting any rumbling. Not names, but people are like, oh, here, they're looking at this, looking at that. [00:32:59] Speaker A: Well, we are only ten days out from camp starting too, right? [00:33:03] Speaker B: So I think that they will get the center back, complete the roster build, see how Ariola legit the new kid, see how all that goes, leaving themselves, the ability and the summer know. So I think this particular start of the season, I think, no, they're not going to sign anything else but a center back and that'll be it. [00:33:29] Speaker A: Whoa. Okay. Because another one of these questions that are on here is the question of how many regular season starts for Anisali. Which leads me to this whole thing that I've been thinking about for the last week or so, which is this confusing state of this club, which is Bernard Kamungo, this Anissali kid, the other kid that they signed. Isn't he brazilian? The one that came from the Barcelona Academy. [00:33:59] Speaker B: Oh, he's not signed to FC Dallas. [00:34:01] Speaker A: Oh, he's with North Texas. Okay. Logan, Farrington, all of this stuff, which is that feels like a lot of youth and a lot of inexperience. And I swear we've spent an inordinate amount of time on this podcast in particular, talking about how this coach doesn't like inexperienced, youthful players. [00:34:19] Speaker B: Yeah, he doesn't like teenagers. But, like, Kamungo is 22, the Farrington's 22. The kid from Barcelona who's Simon, North Texas, again, is 15. That's not what you're not getting. [00:34:30] Speaker A: How old is Sally? [00:34:31] Speaker B: Sally is 17, which is unusual. That's why my answer to this question, how many regular season starts for Sally? My answer is going to be less than five. Because you have to think of him as a high school homegrown, not a mid career 22, 23 year old guy. Even the guy that would, jumping from North Texas like Kamungo did and coach, even in the press conference when they signed him, tapped the brakes. He's like, this is not going to be an instant impact player. This is a player to develop and for the future. So I know he has caps already, but they only had one or two. Most of his stuff is youth stuff, so it's an exciting young player. But I imagine you won't see him very much this year. I don't think so. Less than five for me. [00:35:18] Speaker A: So, Dan, do you have an answer to that question? Dan? I guess. [00:35:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm about the same. I actually misread the question, so when I was writing notes, I said about a dozen thinking, including sub appearances, but, yeah. All right. It's exactly that. It's one for the future. International appearances are great. It's Romania. It's not really tier one nation. [00:35:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I think this is kind of the last of the what are they going to do about the roster? Kind of question that we'll get to. But based on your answers to these questions, buzz, this sounds almost exactly like the 2023 roster, with the exception of a new center back, a draft pick striker, and this kid, Anisali. That's it. [00:36:17] Speaker B: Yeah, they drafted a striker. They are replacing Martinez, we believe, with a center back. We haven't seen it yet. They replaced Fakundo with Mendy. They replaced Jadir Obrion with Ansa, Eugene Ansa. And that's. They added, they added Liam Frazier, basically, to replace Evelyn Cerrio. [00:36:40] Speaker A: Happy New Year, everybody. [00:36:41] Speaker B: That's pretty much it. Well, it's a process, Peter, I'm sure you've heard us say, yeah, no, this. [00:36:48] Speaker A: Is pretty much me. Let me put it this way. This feels very pre whatever year they sold Pepe. [00:36:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I think this feels like a. [00:37:00] Speaker A: Regression to the old, what we expected out of the club, not kind of where we started to feel very hopeful after all the deals that came after the sale of Pepe. [00:37:10] Speaker B: Yeah. The thing to understand, I think, is that coaching cycles go, like we talk, like four or five years is the cycle. So this is year three. The first couple of years are you turn the roster over from what you inherited to players that you like. Your foundation gets built, and so you get into the middle of the season three, maybe, is when you can make your big move going into the back end of season three or into season four. Usually your peak is either late season three or season four, when you make those big things happen. So, yeah, we got a pop because of the Pepe money allowed them to do things like go get Ariola and go get know. But other than that, basically we're just coming out of the basically turnover, the entire roster phase. There's almost hardly anybody left from before Nico got here. So this is where we are. And I think that the overall vibe I'm getting from everywhere around here is that basically, they're going to go into season with this, other than adding the center back, which they must do. [00:38:05] Speaker A: And that's just an assumption on our part, because it's such a necessity. [00:38:09] Speaker B: Well, it is an assumption, but they got rid of Facundo, but they have his replacement, and they got rid of Martinez. There's no. So, like, they need to replace that body, let alone. Right. And they got rid of Corsa, too. So that's actually two center backs you have to replace. So maybe bring back Corsa, but I'm not talking about being better or being talented. I'm just talking about the body. You have to replace the body. [00:38:32] Speaker A: And they haven't replaced body. [00:38:33] Speaker B: You haven't replaced Martinez's body or Corsa's body. So there's going to be a center back. [00:38:37] Speaker C: Wait, I've got it. I know who the next ham sign is going to be. [00:38:40] Speaker B: Oh, hit us. [00:38:41] Speaker C: A drone show. [00:38:43] Speaker B: A drone show. So we keep talking about a center back. Only because I can add one and one together. I subtracted Martinez. You've got to add somebody back. Waster structures have very specific, defined roles. You cannot go into a season with two center backs. You got to have at least four, and really you need five. So something's got to give there, just in terms of basic, fundamental math. And then you can start to talk about questions about how they actually can try and get better. And right now I think they're not. They're going to wait. [00:39:12] Speaker A: All right, next. And I think this question is very interesting when you really start to dig into it, which is who's going to get the most regular season starts as the six, the holding mid, Elara Mendy or Frazier. Dan, you're first on this one, I. [00:39:31] Speaker C: Think gives a little bit more flexibility to go in with two eight and try and get forward more. One thing the team lacks is a threat building out, and that's a way to do it. [00:39:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. It'll be Yaramindi, but I think it'll be closer than people think because there will be enough games. You don't want a Yaramindi to play 34 games because he's 34 and you got league's cup and you got open cup and all that crap, too. But in terms of regular season games, Fraser will be closer than you think because there'll be times where you want a more physical, harder hitting presence and maybe free up RM Indy to be at eight a little bit, to spell past them a little bit. So I think it'll be our Mindy, but it'll be like 20 to ten breakdown in terms of regular season. I think so. That's probably more than some people might expect for Fraser. [00:40:25] Speaker A: Oh, this is a dangerous question. Will Alan Velasco ever play for the burn again? [00:40:32] Speaker B: I'm going to say what I said that I was afraid of. I'm afraid that he does not because he's going to spend basically nine months living at home and then he won't want to come back. So I have no foundation for me to say this other than that. Other than he's a guy who got homesick and he's a young kid, and the minute he got hurt, he ran off back to Argentina. And you've said you agree, you think it's no big deal to have surgery down there. Cool, no big deal. But he immediately got out of here as fast as he could, pretty much. And I don't know that he's going to be back. So I'm very un optimistic about that one, Dan. Hopefully you're going to tell me I'm in. [00:41:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I think he does. No one's buying damaged goods. It's an ACL. He twisted his ankle and he'll be fine. Next week he'll be playing as he was before. Next week. They hunts, obviously have a valuation on him. They paid seven, 8 million. They wanted to hit the heights of that turn down 15 million bid from Atlanta United and he's too big a prospect to let go. I think personally, homesickness aside, he's a guy that wants to play for Argentina. He's not going to play for Argentina by kind of crying away and being banned by FIFA for however long if he doesn't want to go back to Frisco. [00:42:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I just remember what Castillo did and this guy really wants to play for Boca or River. [00:42:09] Speaker C: Well, the thing is with Castillo, he was fit, he was in the form of his life and someone was willing to pay the money. It's just FC Dallas wanted to hold out for more. [00:42:20] Speaker B: I certainly hope I'm wrong. [00:42:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I could see this ending both ways. My guess is, Buzz, is I'm leaning towards Dan, that he is going to play for Dallas again. I just don't know if we're going to. I don't know enough about him as a person or have a sense as to what his level of drive or determination is to get back at the level he was at when he arrived here. And I can see an ending where he shows back up and plays lights out. But I could also see a guy who just struggles with coming back from an ACL injury and we never really ever get to see the player we thought we got. [00:43:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:01] Speaker A: I don't know how this ends, but I don't either. Yeah. What a bummer, this podcast. I know. [00:43:07] Speaker B: Sorry, bro. [00:43:09] Speaker C: Just do the soccer night. You read now? [00:43:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Do the what? [00:43:12] Speaker B: Soccer. [00:43:13] Speaker C: Soccer. Read next. Steve, we're about to do kit talk. Don't worry, just go back to what you were doing. [00:43:21] Speaker A: Let's see. Oh, this is a great and joyful question. This one's filled with nothing but positive answers. How many regular season starts for the good old Paxton Palma? Call in 20, 24, 30. [00:43:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:36] Speaker A: Whoa. Okay, now you're cooking. [00:43:43] Speaker C: He's the bionic man now. I mean, he had 24, 26 last year. That first year, first proper year back from the surgery. Absolutely. Cooking at times. Yeah. I think Paxton is going to be the warrior in an otherwise dog shit season. [00:44:02] Speaker B: Okay, a regular season. I'm going to say 25, 26 because I think they'll rotate to Yara Mendy to eight a little bit legit. We'll play in eight a little bit. And plus Paxton will get into some other things like league cups and open cups, too. So they'll rotate him out some in a regular season. So I'm going to say 25, 26. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Okay. With the US camp call ups for January happening, probably by the time somebody listens to this podcast. Right? Any Dallas players going to be on the list? Buzz? [00:44:36] Speaker B: I'm going to go out on a limb and I'm going to predict just pulling them out of nowhere. Two, and I'm going to say Bernie and Nikosi are going to get a January camp call up. And I couldn't even tell you why other than I think young and exciting player in Bernie and a guy in Nikosi who's steadily, steadily, steadily improved to where he's a big physical product who needs to be now right on the outskirts of the national team. So those are my two. [00:45:07] Speaker C: That's the same I had. January camp is typically that time right where you kick the tires on some players that have kind of been on the outside looking in that have done well with Bernie, especially kind know more eyes on him ahead of the Olympics. [00:45:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say that. I'm pretty sure I read that the Olympic coach is going to be in this camp, so that'll be part of why Bernie will be there. [00:45:32] Speaker A: Okay. I think let's see any players from North Texas that will cross over to Dallas to the senior team, if I. [00:45:42] Speaker B: Want to say, like the next one, because it won't happen right here at the beginning of the season. I think that Tyshawn Rose is interesting. He's the left back from Boston College who wasn't even drafted. I think he got hurt at the end of last year, but he was really starting to show some stuff prior to last year. I think him or Carl Sante, who's the haitian six, the ball's a little too loose on him. So maybe, maybe not as confident about him, but I think Tayshawn Rose is pretty interesting. And then if I can give you a third name, just because I love to do this kind of thing. Jacob Garcia, who's the 17 year old kid from El Cop, Paso locomotive. I think he's another year in North Texas, but I think he's just as exciting as any homegrown they have. Even though. [00:46:23] Speaker A: What position is he? [00:46:24] Speaker B: He's an eight or a ten. Like he plays the same as legit, if you will, or Paxton plays that kind of role. I think he could be really good. He just got his first USU 17 cap last year. So that's camp. Excuse me, not cap, camp. So he's a player of interest. I think he's not there yet, but he's one for the future. And Rose, who's going to be 23 this year, if he has a gangbuster of a year at left back, it's always of good values if you can bring a guy in who's really cheap and really valuable as a depth piece, and you're not going to be able to keep Sam Junka on this super low contract forever. I know they got him an option for now, but at some point he's going to want a lot more money and that may not be fitting in depending on what you're doing with Marco fart fan or whatever. So Rose is interesting. Still to me. [00:47:17] Speaker A: Dan, next question. Do you think Sebastian legit has a redemption season in 2024? [00:47:25] Speaker C: Oh, boy. If he's with FC Dallas, I think a lot of the off field things that went on are behind him and that's conducive with having a much better season as long as he stays fit anyway. [00:47:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Buzz, do you have any sense as to whether or not he gets traded or sold or legit? Whatever? [00:47:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think so. I think they'll keep him. I don't think at him going on 31 that there's going to be a lot of people that will want to give you enough for him to make it worth it. Right now they need players in this particular position. With Allen out, he is the one that can play a more advanced, more attacking kind of role, more aggressive, get into the box kind of role. And in the end of last, not last season, the end of the previous season, he was doing really well. And then last season, once he kind of came through all his things, he started to show a little bit again. So I think they will just hold on him and hope that he can rally and do good things this year. [00:48:28] Speaker A: Okay, let's see. So one of the questions this is interesting to me is where you think the team will finish in the Open cup, but my question is, will they actually play in the Open cup? [00:48:41] Speaker B: I'm going to say that yes, they're going to play in the Open cup because I don't think us soccer is going to let them get away with that shenanigans. But I think they'll play up a lot of players from, as North Texas admits, that are allowed to, and I don't think they'll get very far. I think that despite the fact they claim to care about the Open cup, no one at FCD Dallas cares about the Open cup, even though it's got their dad's name on it. I don't think they care because the only person that cared was Oscar, and he's gone now. And I'm not saying this based on what they say, because they say they care. I'm saying it based on their behavior. They don't care about it. So I think they'll fall out in the first, maybe win one game, maybe second round crap out. [00:49:20] Speaker A: Dan, you got a prediction? [00:49:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:23] Speaker C: I mean, if they're in it, I think that's probably the best chance of silverware. So maybe they'll remember their dad's names on it. I don't know. [00:49:32] Speaker A: Okay. My prediction is that the US Open cup drama between the federation and the league is nowhere close to being over yet. And I think it gets messier before it gets resolved. [00:49:46] Speaker B: Okay. [00:49:47] Speaker A: Which will then lead us to the other thing, the far more important wank wank leagues cup. How's the team going to do in that this year, Dan? [00:49:56] Speaker C: They got Tigress in the groups, right? [00:49:59] Speaker B: Yep. [00:50:00] Speaker C: Out in the group. [00:50:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Honestly, I say the same thing because Tigris is really good. And that'll be right about the time Dallas is doing its midsummer swoon because of the heat. That's kind of what happens. So, yeah, I'm with Dan. I think they'll lose out in the group and won't advance out of the group. They're the number two seed in the group, basically, and they'll get a third tier team, which is quote unquote, the bottom sort of teams in MLS. But in MLS, the bottom sort of teams tend to get better pretty quick. I mean, look what Colorado is doing. So I think I'm with Dan. I think they'll fall out in the least in the group stage. [00:50:37] Speaker A: Wow, this is going to be a winner of a season. Let's see. Next one. Oh, Martin. This is a curious question to me. I don't know why. The question that's pre written is, will Martin Paws take the number one jersey? I'm assuming he doesn't have it now because he didn't want it, but now I realize, no, it's because Jimmy had it. Right? [00:51:04] Speaker B: Yeah, Jimmy had it. [00:51:05] Speaker A: So I'm assuming Jimmy's not coming back. Will pause, decide to take the number one? [00:51:13] Speaker B: I think, yes, he will. And I agree that Jimmy's not going to come back. I think Jimmy will be ready to move on to whatever, the next phase of his career, you know? So I'm going to say that, yes, pause. Will jump to the one jersey. [00:51:26] Speaker A: Dan. [00:51:27] Speaker C: Yeah. He had utrecht with Jimmy. I think if he does come back, it's probably not in a playing capacity. [00:51:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I'd love to have him back as a coach. Yeah, absolutely. [00:51:41] Speaker A: So this also leads to Buzz's favorite question on this list. And I'm surprised it wasn't on the top of the page, which is predict a Dallas player number change with the exception, obviously, of pause. [00:51:54] Speaker B: I'm going to predict that iyara Mendy will ask Farfan for the number four jersey and that Farfan will let him have it. [00:52:03] Speaker A: Because he doesn't want to get his ass kicked. [00:52:05] Speaker B: No, because like if you look at Farfan's number history, he doesn't really seem to have necessarily have a favorite. Now I will tell you that in the history of FC Dallas, number four is left back. So there are people that will say that it's a center back, all that stuff, but here at this club, it's a left back. So that aside though, Yara Mindy's entire branding of himself, his personal website, all of his social media handles, they're all so like that. He's known worldwide for his fan base, which is probably bigger than SC Dallas's as four. So I think he'll ask for it and I think Farfam will give it to him. [00:52:39] Speaker A: Man. Paul Broom is fist pumping somewhere listening to this episode. Chris Bondi and Chris Bondi too. [00:52:46] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. Martin, it's been four is left back here a lot. [00:52:53] Speaker A: All right, I've been kind of pedaling through the last of these questions and I'm saving the best question for last. [00:53:01] Speaker B: I got a bunch you haven't asked yet. [00:53:03] Speaker A: Yeah, but they're all kind of the same thing. And all right, here's an interesting one we didn't get to. If you, one of you guys could make one realistic, and realistic was put in italic national team signing, who would it be? [00:53:24] Speaker B: Well, like, realistic just meant that you have to sort of be able to justify it. Like, you can't say Pepe because you're not going to get him. Right? So I'll go first. And my realistic national team signing is James Sands, who currently plays for a, who is a six. That's very similar to Yara Mendy in how he plays. He's a little, not quite as good as progressive passer, but has a lot of the same qualities in terms of intercepts and game readings and is a nice young american player. So that's to me. And if you look up various valuations or whatever, he's on like two, 3 million or whatever, to me that feels realistic. So for me that's one. James Sands. [00:54:01] Speaker A: You got anybody, bud? [00:54:02] Speaker C: I thought his move to Rangers was permanent. I didn't realize that. [00:54:07] Speaker B: As far as I know, when I. [00:54:09] Speaker C: Looked at his New York City. Yeah, he's definitely back there. It got terminated in March. I just didn't. Oh, boy. Realistic. Us men's national teams. [00:54:21] Speaker A: You think about it for a second, Dan. I'm going to throw out my answer because it's at the front of my head and I don't want to forget it before it gets my turn. What about Johnny Cordozo, who's playing down in Brazil? [00:54:31] Speaker B: Yeah, he's certainly a quality player. I don't know enough about him to say whether I would like him over sans, but certainly he's a good player. [00:54:38] Speaker A: Oh, I think he's probably a better player than sans, and he's playing at a pretty high level in Brazil. [00:54:44] Speaker B: That's a great one. [00:54:45] Speaker A: It'd be an interesting. And he's a good six. It would be an interesting addition to this team. [00:54:51] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a good one. I didn't say Chris Richards. I felt that to be unrealistic. Or Cameron Carter Vickers, who would cost you like 15 million at this point. So I left out those kind of. [00:55:02] Speaker A: Well, I'm just trying to think of people that I think would want to come back and play in MLS because it's a step up or they don't. Not that playing in MLS is a step up from playing in Brazil. It seems like that is like he could make more money here probably than maybe he's making in Brazil. Possibly better exposure, et cetera, et cetera. [00:55:23] Speaker B: I think you could have said that Alexandejas is somewhat reasonable playing for club America. I mean, it's a good spot, but maybe he might like to come back. Yeah, but I'm sticking with James Sands. [00:55:33] Speaker A: That's my reason. All right, Dan, I'm sorry I jumped in front of you. [00:55:40] Speaker C: Yeah. I am drawing an absolute blank. I'm looking through players and I'm like, either. I don't see where they fit in or how FC Dallas fits in for them. [00:55:50] Speaker A: Okay, so you're not going to back me up on Johnny? [00:55:55] Speaker C: No. [00:55:56] Speaker A: Okay. Oh, well. All right, Buzz. And because everybody loves it when you do this, who do you think the next homegrown signing is going to be? [00:56:08] Speaker B: Well, I'm sticking with my. It's not going to be Julian I stone, even though they really wanted it to be. It's not going to be Kevin Bonilla, even though it should have been. I'm going to say it's the kid that they brought in from Flamingo FC. Dallas brought in. His name is Gabriel. Good Lord. Mendonza. It shouldn't be that hard to say. Gabriel Mendonza. He's we'll call him Bob going on 17. He's the one that's from the US but was raised in Brazil. He's an eight. He's really good. I think that he'll be the next one. [00:56:45] Speaker A: I could just see that that gets picked up and the kid comes and plays for the team and suddenly out of the rhine is the cheer. Bob. Bob. And he's so confused. [00:56:56] Speaker B: You should do that all the time. They would give guys american nicknames like little Joe Cow. Remember? [00:57:01] Speaker A: Oh yeah. Jose vodka. [00:57:03] Speaker B: Yeah. They call them by their americanized gringo name, even though there was a bit for a while at ScDLs. [00:57:10] Speaker A: All right, Buzz, before I get to the really good question, is there any other questions in here that I haven't asked that you really had an itch to answer? [00:57:21] Speaker B: The Liga MX one or the MLS cup one? [00:57:26] Speaker A: Well, those are just so depressing. [00:57:29] Speaker B: Or the breakout player. Or the leading scorer. [00:57:32] Speaker A: Okay, all right. Who's the leading scorer going to be this year? [00:57:36] Speaker B: Well, probably Asus. [00:57:38] Speaker C: Jesus. [00:57:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:39] Speaker A: Okay, and who's going to be the breakout player this year? [00:57:44] Speaker B: Dan, if you got one, go ahead. [00:57:47] Speaker C: I would have said it's cheating, but I would have said Liam Fraser. [00:57:53] Speaker A: Why is that? [00:57:55] Speaker C: You know, he wasn't like the full breakout player, but he had a pretty good couple of months since he got signed. [00:58:01] Speaker A: No, I agree. My feeling about him is very different today than it was after his first four or five appearances. And I'm quietly hopeful that he becomes a solid starter for this team because I think that improves Elara Mendy's ability to do something good for the team. But that's a different story. [00:58:19] Speaker B: I'm going to go with Eugene Ansa. [00:58:22] Speaker A: No farting way. [00:58:24] Speaker B: He's going to have the six month know. He's going to start more than you think and he'll score. [00:58:31] Speaker A: I know he's going to start more than I want him to, but his. [00:58:35] Speaker B: Numbers will be obrion. Like, he'll be like five, six, seven goals and five, six assists. That's my breakout. [00:58:43] Speaker A: Eugene, that's the depressing breakout. If coming in here and scoring six goals is a breakout season, that's a bummer. [00:58:50] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I don't think Ariel, for. [00:58:52] Speaker A: An international signing, I don't think the. [00:58:54] Speaker B: Rookie is going to do anything of that level. I don't think Ariel is going to rebound to that level. Velasco is out for the whole year. Kamungo. I'm not calling him a breakout because he already broke out. Nsalis Sally is too young. Dante Seeley for me is not doing it. Mulatto's not doing it. Paxton's been here. Tiki's not getting enough playing time to be a breakout player. [00:59:14] Speaker A: Dan who you got? Dan who pissed in Buzz's Cheerios. Before? [00:59:19] Speaker B: I'm just saying, Eugene Anson is going to be the breakout. [00:59:21] Speaker C: I think it was probably Andre Zanata. [00:59:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Did you get Cole for Christmas? Buzz? [00:59:26] Speaker B: No, I'm just calling it like I see it, my dude. [00:59:28] Speaker A: Okay. Because this is like, officially buzz the Grinch episode. [00:59:31] Speaker B: I know. I'm sorry to bring it down. [00:59:33] Speaker A: Good lord. Add up to me and Will. It's just, let's keep the good vibes going. Will Dallas ever win MLS cup? [00:59:44] Speaker B: Well, ever? Yes. In the next decade? No. [00:59:50] Speaker A: And I'll be like, on Social Security. [00:59:52] Speaker B: Peter, you tell me anything that you see that tells you this club will win MLS cup inside a decade. I would love to hear be, look. [01:00:02] Speaker A: It could just be some weird. I mean, it's the way that the hunts have ever won championships. It's just been a weird alignment of circumstance. The stars come together in a particular way for one particular trying to. I'm not trying to water down their success with the Chiefs and Mahomes because obviously a lot of other things had to happen. But the only reason why they've won two Super Bowls, and by the way, let's not forget it took them 50 years to get there. 50 years is because they made a really good choice and got Patrick Mahomes, who turned out to be a generational player. So maybe they get a generational player somewhere along the way and that changes things for them. But, no, I'm with you. It is what it is, man. They're kind of like the Minnesota Vikings of the MLS. [01:00:55] Speaker B: They did. His name was Peppy and they sold him for 20 million. [01:00:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And we all started to feel really good about stuff. [01:01:03] Speaker B: Everything is getting better, but that doesn't mean it's going to win an ML cup. [01:01:08] Speaker A: Average attendance this season. [01:01:10] Speaker B: Oh, Dan, you go first on this one. [01:01:14] Speaker C: I don't go down. It's not quite the height of the new era. [01:01:20] Speaker B: I'm going to say 19. [01:01:23] Speaker A: What was the final number this year? Do we know off that? Anybody know off the top of their head? [01:01:27] Speaker B: I don't know. [01:01:28] Speaker A: I think it was less than 19. [01:01:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Because 19 would be. [01:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah. 1996 is the actual full capacity number, so I think the full average was somewhere around 17, nine or 18 something. Buzz could be. [01:01:44] Speaker C: Average was 18. Two, eight, seven. [01:01:47] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. [01:01:49] Speaker B: I just think they're going to be a little bit better about maximizing their sales for these drone shows and events like that. I think they're going to continue to sort of make slow, incremental progress on this. I do. I think last year looked really great. [01:02:02] Speaker A: Even if the team sucks. [01:02:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that the team wasn't great last year. [01:02:09] Speaker A: Okay. [01:02:09] Speaker B: They were not very good. They were like, they're fighting to get in the playoffs. I think they're doing so many things right off the field that are moving them in a more relevant direction in the market. That market, remember, their whole market is not whole DFW. It's just that, like 30 to 45 miles. [01:02:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:26] Speaker B: So I think they're doing the good things. I think they're getting closer and closer all the time to being sold out all the time. So I'm saying 19. [01:02:32] Speaker A: All right. And here is the official best question of the speculation podcast. Good evening, Steve Davis. It is. What do you think the 2024 new home shirt for FC Dallas will look like? And I want Dan to go first because he's the official kit dude on this thing. [01:02:55] Speaker C: Right. I predict that it will be chartreuse. [01:03:03] Speaker A: That's a stupid answer. [01:03:06] Speaker C: I mean, it's in line with everything, right? [01:03:09] Speaker A: No, seriously, what do you think it'll look like? What kind of design will it have? [01:03:14] Speaker C: Okay, so far, the only MLS leaks have been the same template as 2023 with an updated collar, the Tiro 24 style that you can see for the Argentina jersey, Germany, Italy. It seems like that's not potentially not getting used in MLS. For some odd reason, goalkeeper jerseys look like they're the saved by the bell credits. It's probably going to be red. Yeah. That's really all I got. [01:03:56] Speaker A: Well, that's not what I was looking for. You got a pick, I guess. [01:04:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that it's going to be. FC Dallas likes to use promotional materials that tease out things. So I think that all the promotional stuff for 2024 is showing a sort of cloudy, reddish bluish. Obviously, we knew that the colors are going to be red and blue. The top has been predominantly red, and the bottoms have been predominantly blue. The sort of the cloudiness of these things make me think it's not going to be a hoop. It's going to be some kind of, I don't know, smoke filled amoebus. [01:04:38] Speaker A: Smoke filled? [01:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, like the kit the US had a couple years ago. That was some sort of know, liquidy looking thing. [01:04:46] Speaker A: You mean the Monica Lewinsky? [01:04:47] Speaker B: Yes. I wasn't going to call it that, but, yeah, that one. I just feel like, look, it seems clear to me that somebody at you. [01:04:55] Speaker A: Said milky, not me. [01:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Somebody at SC Dallas really doesn't like hoops. Because the best hoops are the clear, clean, awesome red and dark blue. They would look so good, and they won't do it. So it's clear to me that they don't like it. Somebody up there with authority, probably Clark, doesn't like that. So I think you're going to get some sort of amorphous, based on the little cloudy backgrounds that they're putting on everything, promotionally speaking, I think you're going to get some kind of. [01:05:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I would just tell everybody, I think if we've learned anything over the last several years, is that the modus apparandi, is that the marketing team makes graphics. And inside those graphics, we've learned over the years that hints or indicators of what the shirt design is going to look like come from that. I mean, we can go back the last, however many, what, seasons now, buzz? Four, five. [01:05:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's been a. [01:05:50] Speaker A: So far. You call it cloudy, I would call it kind of an ombre or a gradient. Although it's mostly red. There's some blue hidden in there. It makes me wonder if maybe the shirt is going to be like a red torso with blue sleeves or something with navy sleeves or what if we're going to get one of those numbers where it starts one color at the top and fades to a different color at the bottom? Or something like that. [01:06:20] Speaker B: You remember the reunion kit had that hash that we saw, and we thought, oh, that could look exactly like that. And Dan got so accurate that they actually thought it was a real picture. And then there was a time where the current kit, they have now, like, the little horizontal, hashy kind of lines. We saw those lines in stuff, like, in the background. So there's been three or four. Like, the ranger powder blue was showing up a little bit in some stuff here and there. Like, there was a t shirt that the soccer 90 had. Those kinds of hints are always out there. So the hints we're seeing now, you called it a gradient. It's kind of like, I called it a smoky looking, amorphous kind of thing. So that's leading us to this idea that maybe there'll become some kind of fade or gradient or a lack of. We're not seeing defined lines or edges or stripes or anything like that. So that's why we're kind of leaning that way. [01:07:16] Speaker C: So a fun thing is Adidas. Adidas has a. [01:07:23] Speaker A: It's okay to call it Adidas, Dan. [01:07:26] Speaker C: It's just wrong. Has a service called locker room. It used to be called my team. [01:07:34] Speaker A: Yeah. It's where you can create your own shirt thing. Yeah. [01:07:38] Speaker C: Currently, it's actually down. It has a kind of patty gradient pattern that is very much like the. It's very much like the kind of gradient blurry weirdness that the social media graphics have been using. Now, Adidas North America typically has a lot of autonomy on its designs, aside from the 2020 kit where it had those kind of like, staggered. [01:08:16] Speaker B: The river plate third kit one. [01:08:18] Speaker C: Exactly. [01:08:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:18] Speaker C: Aside from that being their previous year's river plate third kit, FCD Dallas has pretty much been bespoke every year. So whether they kind of use a pattern off of locker room, I don't necessarily know, but there's a big coincidence there. [01:08:39] Speaker A: Well, I always feel like they've gotten. I feel like over the years, the front office has gotten a lot better at keeping the lid on this. [01:08:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [01:08:50] Speaker A: Because we all know there used to be a time in a day where by this point, we'd all had seen the thing by now. Right. Like, we'd get a text from somebody going, hey, I saw this. Or somebody was at the photo shoot and took a picture and they sent it to somebody, and then they sent it to two friends, and by the time the end of the day came around, you and I had it on our phone. Right. But that hasn't happened in a long time. [01:09:15] Speaker B: They used to put it in Adidas catalog. [01:09:19] Speaker A: I used to run down. Yes. And I will tell you exactly how this used to happen. I used to make an annual pilgrimage to a certain soccer store in this town when I got a phone call that said, hey, the catalog is in. Would you like to come look at the pictures? And I'd drive there and go look at the pictures and take pictures of them with my phone, and I knew exactly what it looked like. That hasn't happened in a long time. And I do think it's pretty funny that the way we have, by and large, been able to figure out what the shirt is going to look like the last few years is from the club itself. [01:09:53] Speaker B: Yeah. It was worse when they would even do, like, the four or five little hints they would put out and the Dan would be like, oh, here's what it's going to look like. Yeah, have. Yeah, they've done a much better job locking it down. We never get squat anymore. [01:10:03] Speaker A: But no. [01:10:04] Speaker B: So fun to speculate and play around and do mockups and we'll see how close we get. [01:10:08] Speaker A: Well, just based on the schedule graphic and things like that and people listening to the pod. Just pay attention to the graphics that the team puts out. You'll probably pick up hints from there. That's the only thing the three of us are working off of at this point. I don't know anything else. [01:10:22] Speaker B: The last time we got a real great leak was the Ranger powder blue, and we got that leak so far in advance that we did that April Fool's joke. That wasn't April Fool's joke. That was actually our real prediction. [01:10:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. [01:10:36] Speaker B: That's fun. [01:10:36] Speaker A: All right, well, good times. Good times. Good times. Well, Dan, I will expect a fully done, almost completely accurate mockup in short order. [01:10:49] Speaker C: Actually, the MLS media day is coming up pretty soon. Let me remember. [01:10:56] Speaker B: Oh, maybe they'll be dumb and give us a hint from some of that. Like they usually do. [01:10:59] Speaker C: Yeah. So that's going to be on the 11th. What we normally see is the players are in their kits. They have a jacket over the shirt, but people are taking photos absolutely everywhere. Sometimes players even put stuff on their instagram. We get little clues that way. Yeah, that's very helpful. That's honestly how the white shorts in the 2016 season came out. [01:11:22] Speaker A: That's right. [01:11:22] Speaker C: They took white shorts by mistake. People liked Castillo wearing them. They stayed. [01:11:27] Speaker A: That's right. That was the best story. [01:11:30] Speaker C: And just to remind the FC Dallas, that was the last time you won trophies. [01:11:36] Speaker B: Yeah. White shorts. [01:11:38] Speaker A: White shorts. [01:11:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:39] Speaker A: The power of the white shorts. Without a doubt. [01:11:42] Speaker B: Okay, well, one of the reasons why I get on about the white shorts so much is that some of the great kits in the world have this pattern. And if you're not going to have a definitive branding, and this is my biggest hype in your kit, if you're just going to have whatever red and blue, year after year after year after year, use the pattern of the shorts and the socks to give yourself a branding. You can look at Chelsea's white socks that they wear with their blues, right? Or Manchester United's most famous example, red, white with the black socks, Mexico red, white and green. The green, sorry, with the white and the shorts and the red sock. So you can be iconic like that. By using the white shorts. The white shorts makes the darker jersey pop off. If you're not going to have any highlights or trims or whatever, it's going to be amorphous like that. Because when you look at SC Dallas now, you just get this splurge of dark red and black and it's hard to really see anything definable about that. That makes it an iconic kit. And if you bring the white kits in full time, white shorts in full time, it would make that kit be more iconic. [01:12:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think they're going to do it. [01:12:45] Speaker B: I know, but we can keep harping on it. [01:12:50] Speaker A: Okay, well, if we keep asking, maybe. [01:12:52] Speaker B: Someday they'll wake up and do things differently. [01:12:54] Speaker A: When have they ever done anything we asked them to do, bud? I mean they did in 27 season. [01:13:00] Speaker B: Hoops in the first place. [01:13:02] Speaker A: Yeah, and I'm not even sure that was you. [01:13:04] Speaker B: No. [01:13:08] Speaker C: I think a good way to ruin Buzz's mojo right now is another question. Will league of McKees and MLS ever merge? Absolutely not. FIFA will not allow it. [01:13:23] Speaker A: Oh, I completely disagree with this. [01:13:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I 100% agree. But we already have canadian teams and MLS. And FIFA loves money and league Ms and MLS together would make crazy money. [01:13:32] Speaker C: That's a little bit different. FIFA has come down and said no, that teams are never going to be permitted into other teams leagues. That's why they pulled the canadian teams out of, what was it, NASL before that went tits up. [01:13:46] Speaker B: I know, but we have canadian leagues teams now. [01:13:49] Speaker C: Not since then. [01:13:51] Speaker A: Sure. [01:13:51] Speaker B: We have Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. [01:13:54] Speaker C: They're not new since. Well, the same way if, let's say Wrexham went tits up, they would start again in the welsh league. They wouldn't be permitted to join as a new team in the english pyramid. [01:14:07] Speaker A: I understand your reasoning, Dan, but I am 100% convinced that not only will they merge, I think the announcement will somehow coincide with the 2026 World cup. Either just prior or after. They'll either announce it just prior, after it and it will happen. And I think that's part of what this whole leagues cup thing is. It's just the testing ground for making building that. There's just too many indicators and too many people on the inside that are all talking about all the noise that's been going on now for the better part of three or four years that it almost certainly is going to happen. [01:14:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the money, to me. [01:14:42] Speaker C: That'S like La Liga wanting to play a game in the US, like the Premier League wanting to play the 39th game in Asia. They want to do it, but there's a higher authority that's going to say absolutely not. [01:14:59] Speaker B: Yeah, they may. [01:15:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it's possible, but maybe you're right and part of me hopes you're right, but there's just too many signs indicating that this has been in the works for a very long time and it's going to happen. [01:15:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree with Peter again. Sometimes I agree with things and I hope I'm wrong. I don't know if I want this to happen or not. I just think it's going to. [01:15:25] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Well, anything else? Any other questions you guys would like to answer? [01:15:31] Speaker B: I think most of the rest of them are pretty small. The only one I wanted to touch on that you didn't touch on that I really wanted to talk about was the one about somebody might get loaned out or not. I'm actually really convinced that I think Antonio Carrera should be loaned Antonio. I think being here and being coached every day by Drew Keyshawn is amazing. Drew Keyshawn is, for my money, one of the best MLS coaches, soccer goalkeeper coaches in the league. I think being here and training with him is great. But I also think there's something to be said for taking a player that you value highly and challenging them. Just like they sent Jesus on loan, Brandon Sylvania on loan, ima Tuamasi on loan. They love to send guys on loans that they're trying to develop. And so I think it would be good to send Antonio Carrera somewhere for it doesn't even have to be a whole season. You could do like a ten or 15 game rip if you knew he was going to be able to. If somebody needed somebody for a short term, take him out of his comfort zone. Hell, send him to a second division team in Mexico, send him to Spain, send him to USL championship somewhere away from here, take him outside of his zone, put him in a pressure situation. This is how players get better, how they're stressed, how they improve. So I think it would be a great idea. You can find a second keeper, call Jimmy. He can sit on the bench for half a season. [01:16:49] Speaker A: Well, I think that is a good, solid episode of speculation. Yes, it was good times. All right. Well, hopefully by the time we do this episode next week, we will have more news or something to share. Maybe Buzz will be in a better mood and more of a race. [01:17:08] Speaker B: Start doing stuff. [01:17:10] Speaker A: All right. [01:17:13] Speaker B: All we do here is read the tea leaves and add one and one together and see what we see. And right now we see nothing other than a center back, which is the same thing as you get last year. Remember what we said last year, Peter? I know you remember this about how if you stand Pat, you get passed by and look what happened. [01:17:31] Speaker A: Oh, for sure. [01:17:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it feels like they're standing Pat again. [01:17:34] Speaker A: Yes. Look, I'm the pessimistic one on this podcast. I know exactly how this is going to play out. I'm just kind of weirded out that you seem to be even more pessimistic than I typically am in this situation. [01:17:48] Speaker B: Usually I'm hearing stuff by now and I'm not hearing anything making me the dark cloud. [01:17:53] Speaker A: All right, maybe Dan will do something funny or lighthearted to end this episode. Maybe. We haven't gotten an impersonation in a while now. You're good. Okay, I guess we're not getting one this time either. [01:18:08] Speaker C: But hey, just think. Send you what, probably twelve ish days until preseason starts. [01:18:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. [01:18:17] Speaker B: Just wait till they bring out a preseason schedule that is all domestic games against MLS teams and you hear me blow a gasket. [01:18:23] Speaker C: I was talking about training. [01:18:25] Speaker B: Oh, well, that's true. That starts in a week and a half, so that'll be fun. Yeah. [01:18:29] Speaker C: Weekend of Martin Luther King Day. [01:18:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that'll be good. We can tell you how shit Logan Farrington is or not. [01:18:36] Speaker A: Or how great he is. [01:18:37] Speaker C: Or they'll do what they did last year and close off the sessions and we can't. [01:18:41] Speaker B: Oh, that'll be good. That'll be great. I love that. That'll be awesome. Now, I will give them credit. I remember the beginning of the year. I was like, holy shit, are they really going to close training by the end of the year? They actually had opened it up more than they have in a couple of years. So I will give them credit for turning that around a little bit. They've gotten better about that. But Dan's right. [01:19:02] Speaker A: We'll see. Everybody's going to unsubscribe and stop listening to this podcast because it's such a bummer. [01:19:08] Speaker C: It's FC Dallas. That's a bummer. [01:19:11] Speaker B: We're lowering expectations that way your expectations will be exceeded and you'll feel positive about the season. [01:19:16] Speaker A: So the way that we should be framing this is that we're doing all the curious a favor. [01:19:21] Speaker B: Yes. [01:19:21] Speaker A: Right? Okay. [01:19:22] Speaker B: Because if we hype the season up and then they're just okay, everyone will be mad. So we're bringing it down so that when they're just okay, everyone will be like, yay, we made the playoffs, right. [01:19:31] Speaker A: Or if they're outstanding, right, everybody will be completely over the moon. [01:19:35] Speaker B: Right. [01:19:37] Speaker C: Just plan for the worst and hope for the best. [01:19:39] Speaker B: It's fine, man. [01:19:40] Speaker A: I can't wait for the preseason prediction episode. [01:19:43] Speaker B: Well, that'll be different because that'll be grounded in what we're actually seeing in training. So then we can be like, yeah, okay, one way or the other. Right now we have the caveat of not having seen them yet, so you never know. [01:19:58] Speaker A: Well, you got me really worried when you say Eugene Ansa is our breakout player of the season. My breakout player, I'm calling it. That's the darkest thing. That's like me saying. Making the joke that obrion was going to be leading scorer. I was kidding. You're being serious. [01:20:13] Speaker B: And he was number two. I am serious. [01:20:16] Speaker A: I know. That was the sad part about that is that he was the second best scorer on the team. [01:20:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:21] Speaker A: And also will be this year the best scorer. [01:20:25] Speaker B: Second best. [01:20:26] Speaker A: Oh, okay. All right. [01:20:31] Speaker B: Well, sorry, man. [01:20:32] Speaker A: I'm not going to sleep tonight. Dan, happy new year to you, my friend. [01:20:38] Speaker C: Happy new year. [01:20:40] Speaker A: Who do you have in the FA cup this weekend? [01:20:43] Speaker C: Bolton. [01:20:44] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [01:20:45] Speaker C: Haven't played them in 27 years. I think it is. [01:20:49] Speaker A: Is it on the road or at home? [01:20:53] Speaker B: Crap. [01:20:54] Speaker A: How do you not know the answer to this? [01:20:56] Speaker C: Because it's hard for me to buy tickets. Funnily enough, we're at home. [01:21:01] Speaker A: Okay. All right. Well, good luck there, Buzz. [01:21:05] Speaker B: Sunderland. At Sunderland. [01:21:07] Speaker A: That is a huge one. [01:21:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:10] Speaker A: And I would encourage everybody to go watch the outstanding five six minute documentary about that Derby called Twelve man, okay? It's on YouTube. Go look it up. Have you seen this? [01:21:22] Speaker B: No, I've never heard of it. [01:21:24] Speaker A: It's this wonderful footage of the fans all marching to the game back in 2014. Dan, are you familiar with it? [01:21:33] Speaker C: What is it? [01:21:34] Speaker A: Sorry? It's called 12th man. Have you never seen this? No. I'll send you both the link here. [01:21:41] Speaker B: In just a minute. [01:21:41] Speaker A: You guys can watch it. It's fantastic. It's awesome. And it'll make you never want to go because you're afraid you'll die in a riot. [01:21:49] Speaker C: And where's this? [01:21:50] Speaker A: Sorry, it's on YouTube. [01:21:52] Speaker C: No, what is it? [01:21:53] Speaker A: Do you even listen to what we're talking about while we're recording this podcast, sir? [01:21:58] Speaker C: I had a squirrel moment and started reading blue and stuff. [01:22:03] Speaker A: No, we were talking about the Sunderland Newcastle FA cup tie this weekend and there's a five, six minute long documentary that came out in 2014 called 12th man about those two teams and the fans all kind of walking to the stadium. I'll find it. I'll send it to you. [01:22:19] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, I just wouldn't get Sunderland as a shithole. [01:22:26] Speaker A: Says the guy from Luton. [01:22:29] Speaker C: Yeah, that's telling you, son. It's a terrible place. [01:22:31] Speaker A: Right, okay. Well, you described Luton once as a shithole too, so I don't know if they're kind of shithole or different shitholes. [01:22:40] Speaker C: Twice it's not an amazing place, but it's a damn site. Better than Sunderland and most of the northeast. [01:22:49] Speaker B: By the way. It's fun trying to watch Tom Bogart. Figure it out. YouTube. [01:22:53] Speaker A: Have you watched his stuff? [01:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah, two or three of them. [01:22:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:22:56] Speaker B: He definitely has no idea what he's doing, but it's funny. It's fun. [01:22:59] Speaker A: He's got good info though, right? [01:23:01] Speaker B: His info is amazing, but he does not know how to YouTube, so it's fun to watch him try and figure it out. He'll figure it out eventually. He's a smart guy. [01:23:07] Speaker A: Do a lot of info. [01:23:08] Speaker C: Okay, I'll try and watch. [01:23:12] Speaker A: The mustache is distracting, but that's just a current vibe and look thing. There's not much you can do with that. Okay. [01:23:20] Speaker C: Love Tommy scoops, though. [01:23:22] Speaker A: Say that again. [01:23:23] Speaker C: Love a bit of Tommy scoops, though. [01:23:25] Speaker A: Oh yeah, who doesn't? [01:23:27] Speaker B: Third degree the podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90. Com. They've got everything you can want in the soccer game. Jersey, tees, scarves. They've got every league, Premier League. Well, not every league. They got all the big leagues. Syria, MLS, FC Dallas gear. Get whatever hot team you're into. They're going to have it. Get that messy gear. Soccer 90. Com as a third degree listener, you get 20% off your order if you use the code third degree spelled just like the website. 20% off. Soccer 90. [01:23:53] Speaker A: Com. [01:23:53] Speaker B: Some exclusions do apply. [01:23:55] Speaker A: All right, well, thanks, guys. Happy new year to you both. [01:23:57] Speaker B: Thank you, man. Welcome. Season six of podcast. [01:24:01] Speaker A: Yes, for sure. And thank you, FC Dallas curious fans. Sorry about that. Hopefully we'll be in a better mood and have better, newer, funner, more exciting things to talk about next week on another episode of third degree, the podcast. [01:24:15] Speaker B: Just remember, it could be worse. [01:24:18] Speaker A: Third degree the third degree, never podcast. Third degree the third degree, never podcast. Third degree never podcast. Third degree, never podcast.