3rd Degree the Podcast #245

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Buzz is confirmed. The red light is on. Dan is present. And here Buzz is present. I am present. Here we go. Three, two, one. Yeah. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess third degree. The third degree napa can third degree. Never guess third degree. Never guess third degree. [00:00:34] Speaker B: The podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90. Com. They've got everything from the Premier League, surrey, MLS, and of course, all that sweet FCD Al skier shop Soccer 90 dot for all your jerseys, tees and soccer needs third degree listeners, of course, get 20% off at checkout. We use the code third degree, 20% off code third degree soccer 90. Com. Some exclusions may apply. [00:00:56] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas Curious fan. Welcome to local fans of MLS club group therapy session also known as third Degree, the podcast. Hi, I'm Peter and here's Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:12] Speaker C: That was a very curious introduction. [00:01:16] Speaker A: I do feel like, Dan, that we are absolutely the lead group therapists in a large group therapy session when it comes to this club these days. [00:01:26] Speaker C: Oh, definitely. We pick people up and know, give them a few punches of reality and then put them back down gently. [00:01:32] Speaker A: And our lead therapist, you know him, you love him. My hero, your hero. Everybody's hero. Editor, founder, third degree. Net and the original Buzz Carrick. Come in, leader Buzz. [00:01:45] Speaker B: In fact, Peter, I would say that this podcast is so FCD Dallas Curious that of the three media people in the world who actively inquire and go watch training, two of them are on this podcast. [00:01:57] Speaker A: That's right. [00:01:58] Speaker C: Well, it would be two, but they keep screwing the schedule. [00:02:02] Speaker B: They do make it hard for you in the spring. [00:02:05] Speaker A: That feels like a really good segue into an item on the infamous crayon red run sheet, which is on here. And I'll just start here, which is the preseason schedule has been announced. Tickets have gone on sale for the messy game at the Cotton bowl. They are not breaking news. They are not inexpensive if you're not already a seasoned ticket holder. And I am curious as to how well they're selling. Has anybody heard anything about how good sales are going? [00:02:40] Speaker B: No, I've not heard anything. I know they had some new sort of ticket vehicle today for like groups or something. So maybe they're not getting the action they wanted, but they are pretty expensive for a preseason. [00:02:52] Speaker A: I think the cheapest one, if you're just buying them from the website, was what, 106? [00:02:57] Speaker B: I didn't look, honestly, because I got my season ticket one. But I know the real takeaway is that Dallas is getting absolutely scorched by everybody for these horrible prices. And it's not their fault. It's not FC Dallas event. [00:03:09] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:09] Speaker B: It's an outsider event. Yeah, it is price gouging by some promoter that's doing the whole intermia me tour. [00:03:15] Speaker A: Well, they must be paying them a butt chunk of money to do this tour considering they're touring them around five different continents or whatever it is. [00:03:27] Speaker C: A butt chunk, that's a new one. [00:03:29] Speaker B: And SCL might be doing it for basically like a game fee just because they want a game. It's nice to get. [00:03:34] Speaker A: It could be a game fee, but also the ability to resell the tickets as part of. I mean, they're clearly using this as a season ticket sales mechanism. But what they must be paying inner Miami to do this because between Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, El Salvador and then two locations in America. So no, just Dallas. The Kansas City game is the game that they talked about for Sporting Kansas City. Is that a regular MLS league game they're moving to Arrowhead or is that a preseason part of this preseason tour? [00:04:14] Speaker B: I think Kansas City is moving their regular season game to Arrowhead. I don't know about the preseason tour specifically. [00:04:22] Speaker C: Yeah, that's April 13. [00:04:24] Speaker A: Okay, so that's a league game they're moving to. Okay, excellent. [00:04:27] Speaker B: All right, well, yeah, they're not playing Casey in the preseason. [00:04:30] Speaker A: All right. So, yeah, four games in this preseason tour. If Barcelona made $5 million to come to the Cotton Bowl a couple of weeks ago, I have to assume there's some close number to that to accomplish. Getting messi to play Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia, that game alone, oh my gosh. Yeah. Is a big deal. [00:04:51] Speaker B: The one interesting game in that schedule is that Newell's is coming to Miami to play enter. So that's kind of fun because not FCD is fun, but it's fun for Messi to play his boyhood club. That's kind of cool. [00:05:03] Speaker A: Well, part of the reason why I wanted to start here is my frustration with reading through the preseason schedule and in the email that we got from the media relations department, it seemed like almost every single entry as to the calendar of events with the team in bold, sitting out there like the sorest thumb possible repeatedly was close to media. [00:05:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:31] Speaker A: And look, I just don't get it. I don't understand why this team that is so desperate for media attention is making it so farten impossible for anybody, whether it be YouTube or channel eight or anybody else, to cover this team with any sort of. It's just the weirdest thing. I don't get it. [00:05:55] Speaker B: I've tried to talk to some of the lower pr people about this kind of concept. And to be honest with you, the reason I made that joke about two of the three people that care are in this podcast is because that's true. Other than shout out John Arnold, Dan and I are the only ones that ever want to go to practice. There's rarely ever anybody that wants to go out there from the local media to shoot practice in spring training or anything. Maybe late in the season when things are going great, in a really strong season, they go out there, but then hardly ever other than that, and even then they just show up at the very end. They don't care about the actual thing. But I will say that as much as it pains Dan, of course, that the schedule that they've announced really is just this first week of training and the first part is physicals, and then they're going to go off to Wichita Falls and isolate. So I understand why that's closed. So basically, like there's just a couple of days in the middle that are open and then they go to Spain. So it isn't ideal. But honestly, they're only going to be here like a week and a half or a week or something before they leave. I'm told that after they get back from Spain that there will be more sessions available and even perhaps maybe a day for fans to go like an open to everybody, to the public kind of session. So it better get better. Because if this is like going to continue where we just have two days to watch the team of all spring, that's going to be horrible. I will say that of the games in Spain which have not been announced, I know that for sure that some of them are going to be streamed and the team is efforting, I'm told, to get even more beyond the ones that they know are already going to be streamed. So we may not get them all, but we're going to get some of them and that's good. And then the one game against enter, of course anybody can go. And then the closed door scrimmage against New Mexico media are allowed to go and Dan and I are going to go depending on what exactly time of day that game is being played. So we will get some more chances then. I think they've woken up a little that people want to see them, at least the scrimmages. So cross your fingers. And I will admit, though that I don't know why everything isn't wide open all the time. I'm with you. But then I just think people don't. [00:08:01] Speaker A: Care well, maybe they don't, but maybe they don't care because they don't think they can go because everything is always closed and they just gave up caring. But this is such a distance from where we used to be. Again, obviously this was a generation ago when you used to travel with the team on international trips in preseason, like to Chile and things like that. [00:08:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Admittedly the first time that I did that they asked me if I wanted to and I thought, wow, what a great idea. And then the first couple of times they facilitated made it easier and then after that I did it on my own. I did not inquire if I was going to try if I could go because I can't. I have conflicts from work. But I would have been curious if I could have. [00:08:41] Speaker A: Yes, I'm dying to know. If you had called them up and said, hey, I'm coming to Spain, can I cover the team while you're in Spain? What their answer would be, that's a good question. [00:08:51] Speaker B: If I was going to do that, I probably would start with the coach. Because if the coach said yes, then it's a lot easier for me to tell pr that coach said I could than it is to have them assume he would say no. [00:09:02] Speaker A: If you had gone around that department to the coach and done it that way, you probably would have had a car bomb installed in your. [00:09:10] Speaker B: No, come on. It would be interesting to see. I do know that in recent times when I have gone to places domestically, they do let me come to practice or they have let me come to practice. Granted, that was with Lucci, who I had a relationship with, but they don't any longer let me come to other things. Like a long time ago they used to let me come to team dinners or they would invite me or even some of the players would invite me to go out or whatever, but that stuff no longer happens. I'm perfectly fine with that, actually. It keeps the separation. That's no big, you know, Lucci was very open to that idea. But this coach I don't know as well. So we're not there yet. [00:09:50] Speaker A: All right, so there's preseason schedule talk. God bless their hearts. [00:09:54] Speaker B: Well, one thing I will throw in before you go ahead, Peter, is the Sebastian legit incident at a spanish club aside, I do still applaud the fact that they go to a foreign country and play teams not from like, I hate preseason. When you just play teams, you're going to play in MLS. I want the team to be challenged by players and tactics and coaches and teams that they don't know that outside the comfort zone. I think it's huge. So I applaud these trips, even though I can't do them anymore necessarily. [00:10:29] Speaker A: Isn't this always related to. There's like a group of teams internationally that all go to Spain at the same time and there's a selection of teams for them to play against. So how many games will they end up playing in Spain? [00:10:44] Speaker B: Well, it's hard to know, but what happens is that the other teams that have seasons that start now, which is some of the scandinavian countries, I can't remember exactly which ones. This is what happened when the teams will go to La Manga, Spain too. You run into these same teams, I think sometimes even like Dinamo Kiev was there one time, and it's things like Staybeck and these Norway teams, I think teams that have a schedule like the MLS does, they're on their. You can, you end up getting. Usually you get to play in some kind of manufactured fake little cup against a couple of teams, and then you can rally up three or four more scrimmages against teams that are in town there. And you get anywhere from five, maybe six games over the course of like a week and a half if you want them, you can place. You could play like every other day or sometimes even twice in a day. Like, if you have enough players with you that you can run two teams, you might play one team in the morning with your starters and one team in the afternoon with the reserves and things like that, your second group. So you get lots of games this way. And then every once in a while, of course, you end up someplace where there's another MLS team and so you can roll them into the mix, too. But I don't think that'll be the case here. Now this Dallas only goes to this one because of Nico Estevez, obviously is from the area and knows people. They haven't done this kind of thing since boy, Colin Clark was last coach. I don't remember Shellis going overseas with the club, I think. I can't remember for sure, but the Brazil, that's where they went with shells. They would go to Brazil and then they quit doing that. Basically, at some point in Lucci's era, they never did it. They stayed post and post, pandemic. They've stayed here until very recently. So good on them and go to Spain. [00:12:22] Speaker C: So this one is the Marbella football Center, which is what they went to last year. It's really massively expanding group. It's kind of the succession to places like Lamonga. So they're going to stay at a new facility this year, which is. Let me think, it's a little bit further down towards Acosta del Sol, so a lot of british tourists around, but fire Nord's just been there. PSV has just been there. Borussia Dortmund's just been there. The spanish national teams train there. So I think. Let me see. I did write down who's actually going to be there that I know of while they're there. So they've got Victoria pleasant, Tromzo, Sparta, Prague, some norwegian teams, I can't possibly say, malmo Hacken nor coping AIK. Seattle Sounders are going to be there. Vancouver Whitecaps are actually just left for a three week camp there today, but it's just this group of resorts, so they'll kind of travel up and down the southern coast of Spain. They've got four official friendlies and then, like Buzz said, they'll play some little training scrimmages and joint training sessions as well. [00:13:33] Speaker B: The one we know for sure is that the Alborg BK team has said that they think they're playing us in Dallas anyway. So that's one we know of. But other than that, we'll find out when they announce it all, of course. For sure. [00:13:47] Speaker A: All right, well, I guess that all. We're looking forward to it. And unbelievably, it starts in three days. [00:13:55] Speaker B: The messy game is on the twelveth camp 22nd. I'm sorry, it's twelve days from now, is what I meant to say. Medicals is Saturday performance testing, which is like, beep testing and stuff like that, jumping and all that garbage. [00:14:11] Speaker A: They're not going to let you do the beep test this year, Buzz. [00:14:14] Speaker B: Well, I never do it. I like fun to watch it. One of the most mind blowing beep test results I ever saw was Dax McCarty as a rookie won the beep test. That kid was a machine. Yeah. And then training starts on Monday and then it's open, I think, Tuesday and Wednesday. So I'm going to go back to back days because that'll be available and easy for me to do. And then we'll see that I'm going. [00:14:40] Speaker A: To annoy them and show up myself. [00:14:42] Speaker B: Yeah, you could. [00:14:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:44] Speaker B: Do you have a credential? If you don't have a credential, you can't show up. [00:14:47] Speaker A: Oh, no, sorry. Don't. [00:14:48] Speaker B: Yeah, my bad. [00:14:50] Speaker C: Just do it anyway. I want to try with the fence. [00:14:52] Speaker B: I'm sure you can request. [00:14:53] Speaker A: I'm going to show up anyway, see what happens. That'd be the. Oh, crap. Moment of the morning. [00:14:59] Speaker B: Let me know if you're going there so I can get my camera ready to videotape you being arrested for trying to get in the field. [00:15:05] Speaker A: But I'm Peter Welton. Do you not know who I am? Let me in. Let me in. All right. In other stellar and fun and exciting news, FC Dallas has signed a centerback. The long awaited filling of a position that we have all lamented and waited for with bated breath for what feels like forever. And lo and behold, they've signed a world class center back, and Omar Gonzalez from Skyline High school. [00:15:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:41] Speaker A: All right, buzz. [00:15:44] Speaker B: Okay, so listen, Omar is 35. I'll tell you a funny story about Omar. When he was coming out of Maryland, I asked Steve Morrow, who was the coach at the time, hey, are you guys going to draft Omar Gonzalez? And he was like, no, we think he's too slow. Which is funny. Steve Morrow said that. And then Omar proceeded to win 18 Virginian MLS Cups and be in the national league. I'm sure we all know exactly what kind of player Omar is. He's a very smart, very big, very intimidating, very physical player. He's not fast, I will grant him that, but he was plenty fast enough for Beasley soccer and had a spectacular career. Now that he's 35. So let's qualify this signing, and it is either a spectacular signing, sort of, or a horrible signing, and we'll tell you the difference. If this is a. We want him to start a bunch of games and be the third guy rotating between Nikosi Tafar and Sebas Ibiaga, then this is a horrible, horrible idea. The dude is not ready to, or still capable of being a frontline starter. He started 17 games the last two years, some of those for New England, some of those starts were not that great, especially in the first year of that, he was apparently better the second year. So if this is like last year when you grabbed somebody else's reserve and made him a starter, that's a terrible idea. On the other hand, if this is your fourth or fifth guy, and he's here along with Ahmed Corsa, as the other fourth or fifth guy, and one of these two guys might only play in an emergency. And if Omar comes through the year with five starts and seven appearances or ten appearances, that's great, that's fine. That's a great signing. The dude's got immense amounts of experience. I actually think he'd make a great academy coach, maybe next year, if he wants to do it. So if that's the plan, if he's centerback four or five, and this is just them following through on their statement that they wanted to have some depth on the roster to be able to survive some of these league cups or open cups or extra games or schedule load, then, yes, it makes a lot of sense. Remember that we don't think Nolan's a center back anymore. That isn't really a homegrown around who's a center back. They've drafted a couple of kids out of college that are sort of interesting, but those are projects to be developed. Those are not guys you want playing an MLS game. So it's either a pretty smart, I actually like it guy coming home signing, or it's absolutely horrific signing. And you can determine which of those two you think it is. [00:18:21] Speaker A: Well, this is a perfect example of what we've been talking about for the last several weeks, which is this season is all about the hunts showing their hand in terms of ambition. Because if, in fact, Gonzalez, who I really like, and I love the fact there's a guy from Dallas coming back here to finish off his career at the club, I think that's. But if, to your point, if he's just essentially a replacement for Martinez and it's a threesome of Omar to Farai and Sebastian, it absolutely is an indicator they're just not serious for 2024. [00:19:03] Speaker B: Yes. [00:19:06] Speaker A: I'm trying to be optimistic, Buzz. I'm really, Dan, I promise you, I'm trying really hard to be optimistic, and I'm giving the hunts in the front office the benefit of the doubt, and that there's another, younger, much higher quality centerback on the way to be announced before the start of the season. But history tells me, and all of my innate sense of how they do business, is that they're standing in their office going, okay, we got our fourth guy and the draft pick. We got our third guy and our draft picks, the fourth guy. And we'll bring back Corsa, too, and we're set. [00:19:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:45] Speaker C: I think the bigger thing for me, honestly, is the salary. He was on about 450 last year. That's not what you want to bring in. That would make him the twelveth highest paid player on the team. Center back three, center back four. I think he's kind of shown enough. Even the last year he started the last eight out eight of the last eleven games for New England. He's a serviceable player, obviously more mobile than Jose Martinez, who's still stuck, still at DFW trying to catch a flight. [00:20:25] Speaker A: Mommy, what's that statue in the gentway? [00:20:28] Speaker C: I threw a dollar and it didn't move. But yeah, I don't know. I'm interested to see how this plays out. I mean, it could be a great thing for the young players to have a veteran who's won his 3 million MLS Cups. He's won supporter Shield a bunch of times. He's won the Concord calf Champions League. Yeah, 50 caps and every other bell and whistle possible. [00:20:55] Speaker A: We all want to celebrate and enjoy this signing. The problem is that we're all waiting for something else and that we're all hoping this isn't it. Right. Because at the end of the day, if Omar ends up being the third guy, he's going to end up being the scapegoat for all of us being really pissed off about how preseason turned out. [00:21:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't mind him being the third guy as such, as long as there's someone young behind him who's going to challenge him for that spot. If the Westergren is as good as they think he is and six months in, he's suddenly challenging for a place in the 20 man roster. Now it's kind of like midseason last year, you sign Liam Frazier on his. Oh, that's a bit ropey. But then you add in iyaramendi as well and you're like, ok, that's great. We've got this really good, promising addition and a young guy who's coming in as well. Obviously the age is a little bit reversed there, but it's the. Okay, that's a good, solid piece where you can have some depth there, but you obviously want something to accent that and maybe step above it just to. [00:22:16] Speaker B: Go through on the money. Let's just talk about that. Ibiaga is on 500. That would be too much far. Fence 425. Both of those guys are. That's relatively speaking to starter defensive money, right? Nakosi is on 250, give or take. He needs a raise, quite frankly. Ima tuamasi is on 350, right? If you're bringing in Tuamasi, who started half the season, Giovanni Jesus is only like on 250, or he was. We'll see what happens next year. So that's the kind of neighborhood you have to be talking about. If you're talking about a fourth, 5th center back, which is, in my opinion, that's what this needs to be. He needs to be the fourth guy kicking Corsa down. If he is indeed is coming back to fifth. Well, you're not going to pay that guy 500,000. He's going to get paid 200,250. So the numbers will tell us a lot. And obviously when we see him in camp, it'll tell us a lot, but I can't imagine it's going to tell us everything depending on where this guy falls into the. [00:23:13] Speaker A: Yeah, we're not going to see the numbers until halfway through the season, though. That's part of the problem. [00:23:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I won't see those till may. I mean, either way, it's a big improvement over Martinez at 700,000 last year. [00:23:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's fair. [00:23:27] Speaker A: It's just such faint praise. And it doesn't solve the problem that we all know exists, does it, buzz? [00:23:34] Speaker B: No. There still needs to be a starter grade center back here because you don't want Ibiaga to be the main starter either. [00:23:41] Speaker A: No. [00:23:42] Speaker B: You want Tafari and somebody else. You want a lefty because Omar's a righty. Although all these guys can play on the left, that's fine, but that's not what you want. You want a lefty over there to play on the left. So they still should be a prime of career tam signing if there's not. This is, again, the idea. Peter, you brought it up a minute ago. The idea of ambition. It's like, is this a stand, pad and do nothing season, which means fall back and standings even more, or are you going to try and make your defense actually be better than it was? [00:24:05] Speaker A: All right, so I'm going to turn to the oracle. That is all. Things burn, which is you, bud. [00:24:10] Speaker B: Oh. [00:24:11] Speaker A: With this signing being made and announced and the way that they've celebrated it now, what is your running sense as to the likelihood that they will sign a tam level young prime of his career center back to this team? [00:24:25] Speaker B: I think they still will. There was a little noise about a guy down from millionaires. There's something there. I'm not with that guy. I think if they moved, that's not in the window. But I just cannot fathom that Omar is the answer at this position at 35, there's just no way now value to the franchise on the bench. Yes. Solving this issue that coach felt they had about not having enough bodies to get through these higher load at times. Yes, absolutely. A guy that can help educate a 22 year old center back like Corsa or whatever homegrowns you bring up from other teams for camps and train or whatever. A guy that maybe you could turn into a coach eventually. A great dude in the locker room, a leader, a guy that knows how to win. All those things are awesome to have on your roster. They're not awesome at 35 thinking he's going to be a starter. He wasn't a starter. He hasn't been a starter in this league for several years. So why you would think that he all of a sudden is going to be a starter at 35 is insane. At least Ibiaga was still below 30, or right at 30 when they brought him in and was a peak physical beast for LAFC and things like the MLS Cup. Omar, he did start down the stretch, but that's not the same thing as being a starter most of the year, and he hasn't done that in years. So for them to overturn their entire structure, to make that guy one of your three main starters, would be mind boggling to me. Of course, they've also boggled my mind before with some of the shit they've, you know, ask me again at the end of the month when the window opens, whether I still think this is a decent move with him at four and Corsa at five, since it appears maybe Corsa is coming back, which we'll get into later. [00:26:09] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I'll just kind of go there, I guess. He posted some photo of him on a plane. [00:26:14] Speaker B: Yeah. With an. [00:26:18] Speaker A: Course that we're talking about, by the way. [00:26:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good sign he's heading back to camp, probably, I would think. [00:26:24] Speaker A: All right, so, because we saw so little of that dude last year after he was kind of a surprise signing by the club, you saw him probably more than anybody else that isn't directly paid by the hunts. Do you have any sense, if he's got anything in his bag, he's raw, he's a project. [00:26:44] Speaker B: He's not going to be an all star, but he could be a serviceable roster piece if they work on him some. He's only, what, like 22 or something? I have to look at the roster dance. It's okay that he's not a frontline guy. Centerbacks come into the league, come into the play and into the lineup, like really late, right. Overall speaking. So it's not a guy that you're going to expect, like, in four years. He's going to be a starter like Nikosi. But consider he got into this team way younger than Nikosi did, for example. But also consider that they didn't pick up his option, so they are perfectly willing to leave him. He was already on a minimum contract. They're perfectly willing to let that minimum contract expire, and they just invite him back if they need him, knowing that probably no one else will pick him up. And the fact that no one else has picked him up, that he's not out there on some team that's probably a low level, low tier team somewhere else in the world shows you that he was waiting around for this, probably. And that's why we think he's coming back to camp. [00:27:48] Speaker A: Well, yeah, and also, I think the photo indicates he's somewhere in Europe at this moment, or he was flying back from somewhere in Europe, which tells me maybe he's out there looking for a job somewhere over there, too, and hasn't been picked up. [00:28:01] Speaker B: Yeah, he may have had some training stints. I mean, he was obviously, a year ago living there, so maybe he went to visit some friends or some family. He is from that. [00:28:10] Speaker A: Was he playing in the Czech Republic? [00:28:11] Speaker C: Croatia. [00:28:12] Speaker A: Croatia, yeah. [00:28:13] Speaker B: And has some ancestry from there. That's why he got there in the first place. He's from Arlington, obviously. So, I mean, if he's your fifth guy and he's a project, that's exactly what the fifth spot should be. I mean, you might someday make it be a homegrown. Or maybe, since he's out of contract, maybe he's going to be here in direct competition with Wester, Grant and Turner Humphrey, the two center backs. They know. And maybe only one of those guys is going to make the first team. And then Corsa will be out, and maybe the other guy gets a north Texas offer or vice versa. Or will. It remains to be seen who's going to get that fifth spot. But assuming Gonzalez is the fourth and not the third, which would be awful. [00:28:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. So, moving on to other things, and my request of the curious is just don't assume the worst. Let's hope that a hopeful center back signing is yet to come. They've got. [00:29:07] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. Plenty of time and the money's there available for that kind of signing. It shouldn't be a mean. I'm fully expecting. Know. We've been saying all along they needed to add two center backs. [00:29:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Maybe Omar is the fourth, and you sign a really good guy at three and a tam signing kind of guy, then this is a huge win for them. So that's why I don't want everybody to assume the worst. [00:29:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it was two for sure. Maybe three if you brought in one of these picks or Kent McCorsa back. So they needed this fourth guy. So let's hope that's really what this is. And the tam is still coming. We're crossing our fingers. Hopefully they're not digging a hole and filling it with shit and jumping. [00:29:50] Speaker C: So, is the nightmare scenario. Gonzalez center back three or Corsa center back three. [00:29:55] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Corsa, at this point, would probably be worse. Probably. But Corsa is a project. You don't expect him to be the guy now, Omar. If Omar is not for now, he's never right because he's 35, but you want him to be now insurance? Not now like the man. That's the difference. [00:30:16] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Moving on to the next topic of conversation. And this one, I feel, has all of the vibes of a future entry into the list, which is current quarterback Martin paws. In fact, this is not an onion headline. This isn't a toe poke news entry item. This is an actual thing that is happening. Appears to be in the process of getting his citizenship in Indonesia so that he can represent the indonesian national team moving forward. [00:30:52] Speaker B: Yeah, this first surfaced at the end of last season, and I thought it was just utter garbage. I couldn't fathom it being real. And apparently, it was apparently last October or something, or August, he went over there and first met with them, because just a day or two ago, he was back in Indonesia filling out the paperwork to do this naturalization. And ordinarily you might be like, what in the world? That sounds crazy. But the dude with him in the pictures that he himself. Pause. Posted on Instagram, is the head of the Indonesian Football association, among other things. He also, apparently, at one point, owned part of DC United and is apparently a sports minister in all phases of stuff and owns a bunch of businesses. He's one of these power brokers in Indonesia, but he's the head of their football association, and he's the one helping get this mean. It's not particularly newsworthy, except for he plays for FC Dallas. I couldn't fathom. I thought for sure he was close enough to the mix of the dutch national team that he would want to keep pushing and pushing for that and not do this indonesian thing. But there he was. The dude is an interesting cat, I'll tell you that. So it's going to be fascinating to see if it actually goes through. And if he actually does play for Indonesia, maybe the expanded World cup makes him think that he could actually get to one with them. He's not the only dutch player to do that, by the way, to sign with Indonesia. He's eligible for them because his grandmother was born in the Dutch East Indies, which at the time is now Indonesia, so that's how he's eligible, which is crazy. [00:32:23] Speaker C: They seem to be doing this whole kind of like El Salvador did in trying to recruit a lot of american players. They've got another guy from uterk there, someone from mean, it seems like maybe they had a push before the AFC Asian cup and he was just a little bit late to that. But they say, I think they get what, eight and a half places in the World cup next time around. So I mean, there's a slim chance they can do it. [00:32:54] Speaker B: I will say that vaguely. In a sense it's kind of like Brandon Sylvania has considered playing for Puerto Rico because his brother Jaden plays for Puerto Rico. So Brandon has not taken that up on that. Still hoping that he gets back to the US team, but that's an option for him. Slightly different because he doesn't have to change his citizenship. [00:33:11] Speaker C: Well, yeah, and with Brandon, I mean he's what, got 15 people ahead of him as midfielders in the national team. Paul Martin Pars maybe has four or five ahead of him, but they're also the same age or younger. They're guys that are going to kind of keep him shuttered out for the duration of the career. Maybe the odd camp look at, but not like anything significant unless their trajectories massively change. [00:33:44] Speaker A: Well, it all seems very weird because when you sit and think about. There was an item about this that came up that I find confusing, which is how this is going to work for a guy who is plying his club trade in Dallas, Texas and then being called up for national team games in Indonesia. And I did a quick search of flights from DFW to Jakarta and on average that travel time is 26 hours depending on how many stops you have to make, can be as long as 35 hours. And to me that's just one way. So your FIFA window is now going to be chewed up in two days of travel, of just being on a plane. Right? Yeah. That's going to make it almost impossible for him to make these trips without chewing in game time with Dallas, wouldn't it? [00:34:42] Speaker B: Well, it's like when Bernie went to the. Was just. Yeah, it's brutal. It can mean this is where you have to hope you have another good keeper on your team because it's possible he could lose games or if he gets called up to some Asian cup or in the midseason because MLS keeps playing, you could see him gone for like a month if he gets called. I don't know when that is. I'm just saying that at some point you can see that one of those tournaments happening in the summer like they all do and him being gone for a big chunk of mean in a way we've always said it's best for your club team in MLS, that you have guys that are on the very fringe of a national team, that they get called up once in a blue moon. So they're quite good, but maybe they're not that level where they're going to be gone all the time like we saw even with Jesus last year, which really hurt the team when he was gone. Big chunk of time. [00:35:32] Speaker A: Crazy. Well, yeah, I don't just. It's such a weird, goofy story. I don't know how this happens or why you'd want to do mean. I guess if you really wanted to play at an international level and you're never going to be able to do it for your normal country, I guess this is the next best thing. I guess. I don't know. [00:35:52] Speaker B: You'd have to be pretty convinced that you weren't going to play. Although there was a story that I read where his parents, parents and grandparents were all apparently ecstatic that he was honoring his grandmother doing this or whatever. So it's hard to know what's in a guy's heart. Maybe he just thinks it's really cool. [00:36:08] Speaker A: Okay, well, we'll keep everybody posted as that putters along. [00:36:13] Speaker B: Well, there is a red flag that has been brought up by a couple of people that. Listen, I'm not an immigration work permit expert, but people have mentioned to me that if he naturalizes to Indonesia, he could lose dutch citizenship. The Dutch don't love dual citizenship unless you're sort of born into. He has. If he loses his citizenship and becomes a citizen of Indonesia, he may have to redo his work permit. So keep an eye out on that. Causing a derailment at the beginning of the season. Now, I don't know enough about it to qualify, whether I think that's actually possible or not, but I know it does happen where it can be a problem. So something to watch for. [00:36:51] Speaker C: Hopefully it's just as simple as a change of status because it's on the US side rather than the dutch or indonesian side. [00:36:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I would hope so too. But the thing was, that idea was raised by a couple of people, so I thought it worth mentioning because how FC Dallas is with those work permits, not very good at it. [00:37:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know, man. That just seems like an awful lot of travel for some really crappy soccer. [00:37:15] Speaker B: Yeah, does to me too. But if it gets you into the World cup, it's not going to get. [00:37:20] Speaker A: The Metro World cup. They're not going to qualify for the World cup. [00:37:23] Speaker B: You don't think so? [00:37:24] Speaker A: No, I don't. [00:37:25] Speaker B: Know anything about asian qualifying? [00:37:28] Speaker A: Indonesia, they're one of those countries that are on record of. I swear, they're one of those countries that in my lifetime has lost games like 24 to nothing. [00:37:39] Speaker B: I mean, if they load up on a bunch of dutch dudes, I mean, I don't know. [00:37:42] Speaker A: Why not? Okay. [00:37:44] Speaker B: Yeah, could be crazy. Who knows? [00:37:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:47] Speaker C: Look at Qatar. They loaded up on all those Brazilians. [00:37:50] Speaker A: Well, they also got in for free. [00:37:53] Speaker C: Well, yeah, I don't mean the World Cup. I mean they made what, the quarterfinals of the Gold cup last time? They're the current Asian cup champions. [00:38:04] Speaker A: Yeah. What is the CONCAcAF nation that has been loading up on dutch players of late? Is it curacao? Curacao. [00:38:14] Speaker B: Look how good they got. [00:38:15] Speaker A: Well, they're not making a World cup. [00:38:17] Speaker B: They might. The expanded World cup. [00:38:20] Speaker A: No way. [00:38:21] Speaker B: You don't think when Mexico, the US and Canada all get in automatically and there's still like five more spots for cockercap, they might. I don't know. What do I know? I'm just saying. [00:38:31] Speaker A: No, I don't think so. [00:38:33] Speaker B: Well, people like Trinidad and Jamaica load up on british dudes and that seems to work for them. [00:38:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:40] Speaker C: I mean, it's also the level of player you get. A lot of the guys playing for Curacao are guys who were born in Curacao or Netherlands Antilles, and they're not particularly high level players in the dutch leagues. [00:38:57] Speaker A: Right. Well, all right. It is all very curious, very weird, and I look forward to its entry into the list at a future date. [00:39:05] Speaker B: Well, they do get eight spots and a possible 9th for the World Cup. Asia does. [00:39:09] Speaker A: The World cup is going to suck in the future. Here we go. Next up is the fact that. So did this happen? Did we talk about this Velasco thing on the last episode? [00:39:23] Speaker B: We talked about the idea that something about him, but really just the part I wanted to mention was that shortly after he was linked to Boca again, he tweeted out that he's doing really well and he's going to be great and he's like confident that he's going to be back and better than ever. I just thought it was funny timing because it was like a day or two days later and then that tweet happened. [00:39:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm trying to remember if we had had a conversation about the fact that it came out that it's an argentinian, clubs are interested in him. I think this has happened since the last episode and it felt like something a manager or an agent had sourced or had spun up. [00:40:04] Speaker B: I don't think it had come out because we were doing our speculation fun stuff, and I said my funny speculation was, they'll never come back. And I don't think we talked about specifics of. That's right. Because I retweeted the Boca thing with like, oh, hey, we were just talking about that. [00:40:19] Speaker A: Yes. Now. That's right. [00:40:20] Speaker B: And then he tweeted, oh, I'm coming back better than ever. [00:40:22] Speaker A: Yeah, of course he did. Goodness gracious, I'll get depressed. Yeah. Well, I don't know. I guess he may be for sale. If one of those two teams wants to take a flyer on him and pay the hunts what they want for him, then more power to him. If he wants to stay in Argentina, let him stay in Argentina. Nobody wants a dude that doesn't want to be here on their. [00:40:54] Speaker B: I don't have anything else to say about it. I agree with you. [00:40:56] Speaker A: Yes. All right, so the other news since we last talked, january call ups, Dan and Buzz hit it right on the head. Bernie and Nicosi both got call ups to the national team and are with the national team currently now. So exciting news for them. [00:41:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that's super cool. Awesome to see Bernie there because that's probably more about the U 23s than anything. Nakosi. Well deserved. I mean, it's terrific. I think everything about it is fantastic. Even though it's the fringe camp that's. Well, either one of those guys can make an impression and get in there. I think it's awesome to see those guys get an opportunity of recognition that way. [00:41:31] Speaker A: Okay, I'm just running through the different selections here on the run sheet. OKC Stadium. [00:41:38] Speaker B: Yes. The Oklahoma City energy. They're on hiatus because of their stadium situation was untenable. So they've announced a development for sort of the southeast corner of downtown. It's near Bricktown. I don't know if you know anything about Oklahoma City, but it's a big, nice looking, mixed use facility built around this stadium for them. So it's reached enough of a process that they did a news dump on it and it went out into all the Oklahoma City media. It's really nice looking venue. It's a nice looking renderings. It would be really great. That's a plenty big enough town for USL championship. It would be fantastic to have them back. It's not an area we cover, but it's pretty close. And that's a team that Dallas has had some relationships with in the sense of loaning players to them from time to time, and one that is actually really good for the soccer community, if we can get them back in. And it's a great little venue and it's an area that needs redevelopment in that corner. Basically it's a flat field at this point where some old stuff was knocked down. So it's a city know they need some city, um, money in there maybe, for all I know is some federal redevelopment for money. I don't know anything about the politics of it. I just know that it looked pretty cool and it'd be great to get them back. [00:42:49] Speaker A: Okay, well, that took us out of order with the FC Dallas stuff. I just didn't know what that was referring to. [00:42:55] Speaker B: We could bounce. It's good. [00:42:57] Speaker A: Okay. You like bouncing around? Sure, why not? Let's see. All right. Well, then, related to that, I did see this today. So the USL women's, are they calling it the Super League? [00:43:10] Speaker B: I think Dan knows a little more about that than I do. [00:43:13] Speaker C: Yes, the USLC plague. [00:43:15] Speaker A: I love that name. Okay, so we're getting a USL Super League team in DFW somewhere. [00:43:21] Speaker B: Well, when they announced the franchises for that league, they announced DFW and they have a little page on their website for it and then nothing happened. It was like a complete vacuum of noise. Three of the teams in that league have announced branding and some coaches. And Dallas for the first time, the Dallas franchise. I say Dallas. It could be in Fort Worth. We don't know. It's the metroplex. They put out some requests for a survey. They want people to answer questions about branding and soccer in Dallas as they try and put together their whole package. In particular, this one's got a lot of. I did. It has a lot of questions about what you think of when you think of Dallas and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's about 20 questions. So if you care about women's soccer, I'm interested. [00:44:00] Speaker A: What are the questions? [00:44:02] Speaker B: What do you think of when you think of Dallas? What's unique about here? What colors would you think? What would be a cool name? What questions? It's all kinds of things about Dallas and vibe and what you think of. It's all related to branding, but there's even like, who should our first player be? What should we name the team? They're clearly fishing for all kinds of information and they want to get your email to send you ticket stuff, I'm sure, because they have a thing about what do you want to be involved with? Tickets or sponsorship or are you a company? Are you a, know, Superfan? All this kind of stuff. So they're obviously moving forward on some league. What's important is this league is designed to compete with the NDAFL, the top women's league. This is not a lower division league. It's supposed to be a first division league. So we'll see what happens. I mean, USL runs good business models usually, so it's nice. [00:44:46] Speaker C: The problem is USL Historically does not launch things well. This was supposed to start in August of last year, and like you say, only three teams have coaches. Half the teams don't have branding, half the teams don't have stadiums. The only ones that do are owned by USL League one teams, USL Academy. That was a weird failed launch there. The second tier league, the USLW League, is being pretty dismal. So, yeah, hopefully it gets off the ground and it's just. Yeah, it's been a very slow start. [00:45:30] Speaker B: One of the questions, Peter, was, where should they play? And I was like, cotton bowl. [00:45:35] Speaker A: Well, it's funny. You said, what's the first thing that makes you think of the area or something? And everybody's going to say barbecue. And then that immediately made me think of them walking out on their debut in their new shirts versus the old barbecue jersey that we made up for the April Fool's joke however many years ago. For the burn or for FC Dallas. Do you remember those? [00:45:58] Speaker B: I do, yeah. [00:45:59] Speaker A: So the hoop, was it hoops made of sausage? [00:46:03] Speaker B: Well, I remember that. I remember that there was a barbecue. [00:46:08] Speaker A: Know, this was after they did that whatever jersey, and we made up some prank jerseys and passed them off as new designs. And one of them was barbecue, but I can't remember. Did we do, like, strips of brisket as hoops on those, Dan? [00:46:23] Speaker C: I had nothing to do with it. [00:46:25] Speaker B: I remember that, Peter, but I don't have it at the front of my brain to give you. [00:46:29] Speaker A: Damn it. I'm going to have to find those. Did I make those? [00:46:32] Speaker B: Somebody did. I probably have them saved somewhere. I'll look around. [00:46:35] Speaker A: Did I do that, Dan? Did I do that? Did I do that? Is that how I said that? [00:46:42] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I just thought it might have been. [00:46:45] Speaker A: Those were funny. We had, like, a blue bonnet jersey. We had a blue bonnet one. [00:46:49] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. [00:46:51] Speaker A: A barbecue one. Oh, here, I think I found them. Funny shirts. Yes. Barbecue. Yes. Hold on. I got to put it in the group chat. Hilarious. Terrible podcasting, but makes me laugh. Yeah, there it is, guys. Do you remember that one? [00:47:13] Speaker B: Like I said, I do, but. Oh, my God. [00:47:15] Speaker A: Yeah, there was that one. [00:47:17] Speaker B: I actually like the blue one. [00:47:19] Speaker A: And then there was this one. [00:47:20] Speaker B: I guess I have to put these on the podcast chip. Yeah. [00:47:22] Speaker A: You have to make these. Yeah. There were four shirts and we. [00:47:25] Speaker B: The caribou thing. Yeah. [00:47:27] Speaker A: This one. Yes. So we came up with four jerseys that we tried to pass off as real deals. One was the barbecue one. One was the blue bonnet one. One was the western wear shirt one. And the other one was the yellow rose of Texas one. And I could actually see the yellow rose of Texas one actually getting past Clark Hunt. [00:47:47] Speaker B: I will make a four x four image and put it on the podcast front page for the one. [00:47:53] Speaker A: It's awesome. That makes me laugh. [00:47:59] Speaker B: Yeah. I told him the tv show Dallas is what I think about when I think of Dallas. [00:48:02] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, okay. [00:48:04] Speaker B: Most of the questions were about Dallas, so obviously they're thinking more Dallas than other places. But you never know. [00:48:09] Speaker A: I'm getting the sense that Dan is offended by my mockups. [00:48:12] Speaker B: I don't think he'd like. [00:48:13] Speaker A: Yeah, no, Dan didn't like. Sorry. Never mind. [00:48:17] Speaker C: I was just waiting to talk about soccer. [00:48:22] Speaker B: Dan's joining Steve Davis on kit talk. All right. [00:48:25] Speaker A: Speaking of kits, they did roll out a new kit this week, and they seem very proud of it. It is a combo kit with the Texas Rangers. Texas Rangers FC Dallas kit night. Now, what I saw online, I'm guessing, was unfortunately filtered the wrong way because it was like I asked the question, was its Pantone color name really old yellow? Because it was such a dingy yellow colored shirt. That. That can't be right. Please tell me it's more of an off white. [00:48:59] Speaker B: Well, yeah. The original image that you saw was the one that's on the Texas Rangers website where they have all their jersey giveaways and they're selling the tickets. FC Dallas tweeted out another one that obviously is the one that they had taken a picture of that looks much better. That looks closer to the burn baby burn jersey than anything because it's essentially. [00:49:18] Speaker A: The burn baby burn jersey with the peagle over where the FC Dallas crest goes. And there was some other change to it. What else? [00:49:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, make no a. It's a Texas Rangers thing. Rangers are doing a whole series with all the clubs in town. Like, there's a hockey jersey night, which is already sold out, but there's a Cowboys one. [00:49:39] Speaker C: Well, the hockey one looks good. [00:49:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's sold out almost instantly. And then there's a Cowboys jersey one, as I said. And now there's an FC Dallas one. I think there's a basketball mavericks one. They're doing them with all the know. The company does the upside down Dallas hat there's a night for that. So the trick is you got to buy a ticket to the Rangers for that particular night. Then you get through that link and then you can get the jersey. So it's not like the whole stadium, it's just specifically. So I bought mine already. [00:50:03] Speaker C: Of course, the problem they've got is it's too close to the actual jersey. The jersey is off white already. Now it just looks like my dog pissed on it. And then they've got kind of like the fake Adidas elements. So it's kind of like just a bad knockoff. Like, the stars one looks really cool because that's not the stars colors. It's not anything remotely like the stars colors. It just looks like a winter classic hockey jersey. It's unfortunate. [00:50:34] Speaker B: Yeah, a little bit, but I still like it enough to get the tickets and go. [00:50:39] Speaker A: You can walk there from your house. [00:50:41] Speaker B: I probably will. [00:50:42] Speaker A: All right, well, we'll knock that one out. Good for them. And let's see, is there anything we want to update on what we do or don't know about the kits situation? I think our speculation on the gradient thing is the only thing that we've really kind of settled on is that I think we're convinced there's going to be a gradient in this kit of some sort. [00:51:05] Speaker B: Nothing. But that's continued. They're continuing to have that gradient look in their social media rollout. I called it kind of a smoky, sort of fade kind of look. You can call it whatever you want to, but sort of the backgrounds of the social medias all continue to be that way. So that's a pretty strong indicator that that's the track that they're on because they usually use the kit, as we've said before, the kit patterns and all their branding, even into the website a lot of times as the season launches. [00:51:35] Speaker A: Dan, you're the official mock up guest guy. Where are you at on this? [00:51:40] Speaker C: I'm very excited for tomorrow because typically we see from MLS media day some pictures of the guys in the new shorts and socks and tracksuit tops or know what the jacket's going to look like. But FC Dallas likes to switch around the colors of the shorts and socks, and I think that kind of helps you understand what the design is going to be because it changes different elements of it. [00:52:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, well, I guess we'll just kind of sit here and wait, twiddle our thumbs about that, and we'll keep everybody else posted. I don't know. Is there anything else we need to talk about, Buzz? [00:52:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, Jimmy Mauer also posted a pick flying back to that's hopefully that means he's going to be back in the team because they for sure need a third keeper since they're losing out on. [00:52:33] Speaker A: So all of them is going to be spending a substantial amount of time on a plane. [00:52:39] Speaker B: Yeah. More than likely, Antonio Correa will be involved in youth national team stuff. He was second or first choice in various teams he's been in with the youth national team, so he could lose time. You know, I think either to come back as a third keeper or as a coach, either one. The fact he's flying back to Dallas is good. He posted that on Instagram, so that's why I brought it up. And then the other thing is FC Dallas hired a scout named Enzo Jabali. I don't know anything about him other than he was involved in the Nsali deal, but he's been at FC Versailles as sporting director. He was a french media broadcaster consultant. He was at Rims as a scout and red Star Belgrade as a head scout, too. So he's been around Europe for quite a while, apparently. So Dallas, he started working for them back in October, he says, on social media, and that seems to be the case. [00:53:31] Speaker A: Is he moving to Dallas or does he live over in Europe? [00:53:34] Speaker B: I assume he's living in Europe because he's going to be their european scout. Basically, as near as I could tell from his social media. I don't think he's coming here. It's just interesting to see Dallas hire a first team scout full time over there like that, we think, and for him to be prominent enough that he has a transfer market page of all the places he's worked and he has a social media presence and he was announcing to everybody, hey, here's what I'm doing now. And people were responding to him. So he obviously has some level of not fame, but people are aware of him on some level, which is usually a good sign. Know he's got some skins on the know. [00:54:10] Speaker A: Yep, for sure. Okay. [00:54:12] Speaker B: I mean, considering two or three years ago, there almost was no scouting department at all to now know about. Not only is there a head scout here in the US, now there's now a scout in Europe. And we think there's one down in South America, too that's related to somebody on the coaching staff. [00:54:25] Speaker A: Well, I'm glad to know who I could celebrate or blame, depending on how the soli deal works out. Right now we got somebody we can poke at. [00:54:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And I was just reminded today when I was looking at the contract list that he has four years guaranteed and then an option for 2028. So that's the longest contract on the club right now, which tells you what they think of him. [00:54:50] Speaker A: I can't wait for Buzz's first reaction the first time he sees anise play. [00:54:56] Speaker B: Me, too. [00:54:56] Speaker A: Can't wait to see him, make him or break him. Yeah. Buzz is such an influence. He can make or break the career of a player for sure. [00:55:08] Speaker B: Yeah. No, stop it. [00:55:10] Speaker A: You know, it's. We'll spread like wildfire. Buzz says anise is amazing. [00:55:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Like when I said Cobra sucked, and then I was right. [00:55:21] Speaker A: You were right. Okay. Well, I was just about to ask you if you've ever been wrong about a player, and I immediately came to Isaiah Parker. [00:55:33] Speaker B: Well, I would say that I'm right about Isaiah Parker, but what we didn't anticipate was that he was the wrong player for this coach. I still think Isaiah Parker is very talented. I just think that the team is misusing him. And this coach, in a million years, would not be interested in a 19 year old kid swapping position. [00:55:53] Speaker A: Sell him? [00:55:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Why not? No, they should. They should trade him. Absolutely 100%. Because just right now, he's eating in a roster spot. There's no reason to have him here at all. Either sell him or loan him again. [00:56:05] Speaker A: Have you been wrong about. What's the wrongest you've ever been? That's a good English. What's the wrongest you've ever been about a Thomas? [00:56:12] Speaker B: Wrong in this? I mean, maybe you could say Thomas Roberts, who I still think is really good. I know there's teams looking at him, but I thought he would be much better than. [00:56:21] Speaker A: Where is he now? [00:56:22] Speaker B: Well, he was with Columbus crew, too, when they won the championship. And so I know that there are teams that are looking at know I have good connections to, um. I'm trying to think of who I really missed on bad. Oh, Ruben Luna. I thought Ruben Luna was going to be a star. That kid just absolutely destroyed academy games over and over and over again. He had all the tools you want, the internal drive, skillful, good body power, but he lacked that one burst step that meant in Michigan soccer. He couldn't quite separate from a center back and get that shot off. So that was a killer. I thought he had everything he needed to be great, and it just was not meant to be. Plus, jealous didn't love academy kids either, for that matter. That was my biggest miss. [00:57:15] Speaker A: The other thing that we should have mentioned is that all of Buzz's dreams about Funas Morris coming to play for Dallas evaporated into thin smoke this week because I guess he signed with who? [00:57:28] Speaker B: Pumas. Pumas moved from Monterey to pumas so bummer. But he's also in his thirty? S now so it actually died a long time ago. [00:57:37] Speaker A: Okay. All right, well, anything else, Buzz? [00:57:41] Speaker B: Yes, I got a couple more things. [00:57:43] Speaker A: Hold on, wait a second. Dan, you got anything else? No, Buzz, go ahead. [00:57:49] Speaker B: Yeah, so first off, Kevin Benilla was drafted by real Salt lake out of Portland this year when he, um, whatever it is, Mount west or west coast, whatever conference that is, defender of the year and they've actually signed him outright at the beginning of the season before they've even got to camp. He should have been a Dallas homegrown a long time ago. He started for North Texas in their championship run at right back when he was a U 19 in that first season opposite Jogo. They should have signed him right then and they didn't. And every year since then I've said you should have signed him and they didn't. And they've gotten guys like Carl Smith and Endelay and they're doing converting this and converting that. Did you had a phenomenal defender, a guy that was in USU 20 camp and was so good they had him stay around for the U 23 camp. The kid can play, he's phenomenal and Dallas for some reason doesn't want him and I don't know why and no one will tell me why that I've asked. So that sucks. But he signed with RSL and they're getting a great player that I think will probably be good for a decade. Yeah, and it sucks but know it was their player and they missed on him. Three guys from the Outlaws, David Ortiz, who's a former FCL academy player, Sebastian Mendez and Luis Morales are on the US futsal team as they get ready for the COncacaf futsal championships. That's kind of a big deal and then it's batshit nuts. But David Teshera and Blas Perez both now play for the sidekicks along with Bradley Valdez and Moises Hernandez. There's four ex FC Dallas players on their team, but the Tashira and Blas Perez part is the part. To me that's crazy. It's like FC Dallas 90, not 97 seven or something rocking over there with those guys. So that's just kind of crazy that both indoor teams making a little noise in different ways but interesting nonetheless. [00:59:37] Speaker A: Well that's good stuff and I will end with the best thing. I'm going to steal a Scott Van Pelt deal. The best thing I saw all day, the best amateur Sunday league in the DFW area is Dallas soccer alliance that plays some of their games over at MoneyGram. And in one of their open divisions is a team that refers to itself as Dallas burn. And yes, they wear the white 1997 with the giant, vomiting legged head Islamico logo jerseys as their jersey. It is glorious. [01:00:20] Speaker B: Still my favorite FC Dallas jersey. Really? [01:00:22] Speaker A: And the idea that a Sunday beer league team in 2023 is wearing 1997 Dallas burn shirts, it just brings a tear to my eye, I think it's so glorious. [01:00:37] Speaker B: That is glorious. I saw that pick, too, and I thought of you. It's a beautiful kit. That was so cool. [01:00:43] Speaker A: It's the best. [01:00:45] Speaker B: By the way, the MLS just sent around the list of players for media day, and Jesus Ferreira is representing FC Dallas at media day sandwich, right between Jordan Morris and Timupuki on the list. [01:00:57] Speaker A: Timupuki. [01:00:59] Speaker C: The funny one is the teams that couldn't source a player, so they're sending their coach. [01:01:04] Speaker B: I see Wilford. Nancy's there. Well, everybody wants to talk to Nancy Herzman from. [01:01:12] Speaker A: Huh? Okay. [01:01:14] Speaker B: Although Nagby's there. So Columbus Crew is. Just because they won. He's probably there, too. [01:01:18] Speaker C: Yeah, they've got Kucha Hernandez there, too. [01:01:20] Speaker B: Dean Smith from University of North Carolina. National championship winning coaches there, apparently for some reason. [01:01:27] Speaker A: Okay. [01:01:28] Speaker B: No, he just coaches different. Dean Smith. That's the joke about the Charlotte head coach. It's got the same name as the very Carolina grade. [01:01:35] Speaker A: Okay, well, Dan, thank you, sir. Good to talk to you, my friend. [01:01:39] Speaker C: Likewise, buzz. [01:01:42] Speaker A: Good stuff. Another successful podcast on the books, man. [01:01:46] Speaker B: It's nice to get back to the news window on the season. And next week we'll actually have, I believe, visual viewing of players to talk about as we record after open sessions. Exciting. [01:02:00] Speaker A: Assuming the sessions don't get canceled due to winter weather. [01:02:03] Speaker B: Winter weather or pushed around. And I'll be up there by myself. Or you get arrested trying to sneak in one or the other. [01:02:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm only going up there if the weather's nice. Yeah, fair enough. I ain't dodging the icy roads to make it up to Frisco just to get thrown out. [01:02:20] Speaker B: Because that's true. [01:02:21] Speaker A: Media pass. [01:02:22] Speaker B: I will say, pending blizzard conditions, I'm planning on going. Yeah, wouldn't that be. [01:02:28] Speaker A: We'll put buzz's actual, real concern and love of covering this club to the test next week, man. [01:02:34] Speaker B: I mean, I got a four x four, but an hour each way in that kind of blizzard on those highways. Man, no way. [01:02:40] Speaker A: Screw that. [01:02:42] Speaker B: Not in a blizzard. Yeah, not with these dumbass drivers we have around here. [01:02:46] Speaker C: I'm just going to go up to Frisco for the traditional opening of practice and sit at summer moon and cry into a coffee. [01:02:53] Speaker B: Yeah, pretend like you're at practice. [01:02:57] Speaker A: We'll fake it all. All right. Well, very good, guys. You the curious. Be patient. Just don't get too upset. Don't make any assumptions. There's plenty of time left for. I know a lot of other MLS clubs are making signings. Many of them are making really interesting and big name signings, or at least big dollar signings or club players with good pedigrees. Just don't assume the worst. Right, buzz man? [01:03:25] Speaker B: No, don't do know this club's track record mean. Look, remember now we're just talking about holding steady. If you replace Martinez with a guy that can play some. [01:03:39] Speaker A: Okay, no, stop. We've already talked about this. [01:03:41] Speaker B: We're just letting actually get better. No, we haven't talked about trying to get better. This is just filler. [01:03:48] Speaker A: I know. [01:03:49] Speaker B: It's a body. This is the body. That's what Omar was. It better be third degree. The podcast has been brought to you by soccer 90. Com. Everything you could want in the soccer game. Premier league, Syria, MLS, probably some La Liga man. Who knows what they got over there? They got everything. Jerseys, tees, scarves. Soccer 90 dot. As a third degree listener, you get 20% off your order when you use the code. Third degree at checkout. That's 20% off soccer 90. Com code third degree. Some exclusions may apply. [01:04:18] Speaker A: All right, there you go. Thanks for listening. FC Dallas curious. I'm trying. I'm really, really trying to make this thing positive for you guys. I'm pushing Dan and buzz as much as I can to be not negative nellies. I'm not getting very far. [01:04:33] Speaker B: I love that you're Mr. Sunshine all of a sudden. [01:04:36] Speaker A: Somebody's got to try to pump a little sunshine into this. [01:04:39] Speaker C: We'll actually have something to talk about next week. So that's where the positivity comes from. [01:04:44] Speaker A: All right. [01:04:45] Speaker C: Until then, it's just, what do we do? [01:04:49] Speaker A: I love it that Dan ends this thing. A positive ray of sunshine. Thank you, FC Dallas. Curious. We will speak to you next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:04:59] Speaker C: It's finally coming back. [01:05:01] Speaker A: Third degree. The third degree. Never podcast. Third degree. The third degree. Never get third degree. Never get third degree. Never there. Close.