Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Um, yeah.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Ooh.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Third degree.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: The third degree nap, I guess.
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Third degree nap, I guess.
Third degree nap podcast. Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by soccer 90 dot. That got everything you want for the Premier League, Syria, MLS, and of course, FcDalskier shop. Soccer 90 dot for all your jersey t shirts and more. And as third degree listener, you get 20% off your order when you use the code. Third degree checkout. That's 20% off soccer.com. Go. Third degree. Some exclusive supply.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to episode number 247 247 of third Degree, the podcast. Boy, what times we live in. Of fans of this club, I'm Peter alongside Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Howdy.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: How d, indeed. And your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero, editor, founder, and the original of third Degree net, Buzz Carrick.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Hello, gentlemen. Thank you for joining me in Florida for my little extravaganza.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Whatever. Rub it in. You're on vacation.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Just for a couple of days.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: It feels like you've been there for a week already.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Well, it was a couple of days drive down, and then I was there for two days, and I'm driving back.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Did you ride the teacups?
[00:01:35] Speaker B: No, I don't do teacups. Those are vomit city for me.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Space Mountain.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: I spent most of the day in the Star wars section, nerding out like the geek that I am.
I did not build a $250 lightsaber, though.
[00:01:50] Speaker A: Does it live up to the hype, the experience of it?
[00:01:52] Speaker B: The Star wars section does, yeah. It's phenomenal.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: Right?
[00:01:56] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: The extension of detail is you didn't.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: Do the hotel thing, though.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: No, just the Star wars section of their Hollywood park. It's basically a quarter of the thing. And the detail is just amazing. They have ships everywhere and built all the buildings in the cantina. It's just incredible.
It's like actually being in a Star wars movie, so it feels like, except for all the nerds walking around.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Hey, Danny drank the blue jar. Jar Banks milk.
[00:02:24] Speaker C: What the hell is that?
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Well, the one I drank, it's just like a blue slushy thing. It's not really milk.
It's like a cold.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: It looks like a medicine.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Daiquiri. It's like a daiquiri. You can get booze in it if you want, but it's just like a smoothie.
[00:02:41] Speaker C: I know jack shit about Star wars stuff. It's awfully boring. But I saw that picture, and all I could think is, oh, my God, it's the blue waffle. Meme. Come back.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Well, I hope you and the Amy are having fun in Disney. You're in world or land?
[00:03:02] Speaker B: World? Florida.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Okay. Oh, that's right, you're in Orlando. Okay.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Well, yeah, she's down there working ODP and so she had a day off. So I came down and we went to. She's a Star wars nerd.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: You. Did you text Poppy?
[00:03:14] Speaker B: No, because I didn't have time to do anything but hang out with her because she only had a day off and I'm only going to be there for like a day and a half and I was out.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:03:22] Speaker B: If I'd have been here for longer, I would have texted him, but I didn't want to spoil his preseason. He might not even be here. Well, I know he's in somewhere else.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: When do Dan and I get our gifts?
[00:03:32] Speaker B: It's in the mail. It'll be there.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Excellent.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Hopefully it doesn't get lost with the.
[00:03:37] Speaker C: Check and the next bottle of old majors bacon bourbon.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know where that went.
[00:03:45] Speaker A: Love it. Well, since we last talked, and I feel like last time we were all sitting here twiddling our thumbs going, all right, when is this thing going to kick off and do something? Well, boy howdy. Things have kicked off and it appears, credit to the club, in fairness to us, I feel like we did say in the last few weeks, be patient, the window hasn't opened. Don't assume anything.
It's okay to get bummed out that everybody else is making moves, but just hold on tight. And sure enough, things feel like they're moving about a little bit. But I have to say it was the Bogart mustache tweet last night that just sent my head into a tizzy that Jesus was. Jesus Frere was going to sign a deal to be sold for $13 million to Spartak Moscow. He wanted to go. He was negotiating terms. The club had agreed to sell him, but it was MLS that said no. And I had 100 questions about it and none of them were why did MLS block?
[00:04:57] Speaker B: I mean, I think it's pretty obvious why MLS blocked it, but first let.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Me just say no, that's not my question. I know why MLS blocked it.
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Yeah, well, let me just first say that. Not that Bogart needs my validation, but I definitely checked with Jesus's people and it's all real. This is all know. They did have the sale lined up. Jesus was really excited to go. He was negotiating terms, which I hear from other people were really good, involving things like after tax numbers and things like that, because it is Russia and all that stuff. And MLS did indeed block it and he's pissed. Jesus is pissed. As you can imagine, he really wanted this. So he's not mad at SC Dallas. SC Dallas is ready to sell him. He was gone. It happened over the last two weeks, this whole scenario. So if you want to ask the question, was Dallas after a nine because of this? No, they've been after a nine for a while. Apparently this is something that just came up recently and fell apart recently. So it is all legit. Go, Dan.
[00:06:04] Speaker C: You know the meme that's been made out of the scene from Goodfellas where our Rayliotta's character is just laughing hysterically with his funny mascara looking eyes. Yeah, I feel like that needs to be made with the caption. And then he said he actually wants to go to.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Feel like, I know everybody last night was freaked out and wanting to be mad at MLS for blocking this. And I'm not going to say that they are right or wrong to block it. I understand why they did. I'm not saying it's the right or wrong thing, but it seems like, duh, you don't do business with russian clubs.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Not right.
[00:06:51] Speaker A: Sure. And I know there's a story that their owner has some sort of financial blockage going on here in the United States. That's a whole side story to that. But I think the real question is at least question number one. There's two questions and it's like one a and one b, which is one a, what does it mean that Jesus was willing to go to Russia? And B, what does it mean that FC Dallas was willing to sell him to Russia?
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Well, I've been saying for a while that the sale price wasn't going to be 1212.5 mil. That was the hunt's price on Asus and obviously that's the case. 13 was going to get him out the door.
When you have a valuation on a player and somebody meets it, you sell them. That's the way this world works in soccer now, why Jesus would want it. I tried to put myself into his shoes and first I would say that Jesus is more like his dad being from Colombia, even though he was raised here, he's from there, and he has that warrior traveler mentality that his dad had where he's going to hop all over the globe chasing the game. And so I don't think that he would quite look at this like you, or I might look at it, who have raised our entire lives here in the United States. I think there's a small difference there. Secondly, we know how much he gets paid. And we also know, for example, like Weston McKinney at UVA has reportedly has an offer of 2.5 mil a season on the table. That's not that far out of reach for even FCD Dallas. So we've said before many times, there's only about five leagues in the world that can afford to give Jesus a raise if he moves. And a club like this is one if you're not worried about where the money is coming from or how it's going to get to you, which is a totally different question, there definitely was apparently a good race for him on the table. So the other thing is, right now they're banned from UAFA competitions, but you have to think about the fact that they probably won't be forever. One can assume probably things do change. So I'm sure Jesus looks at it like someone might look at any other club on the periphery of the big five or six, that you're not going to be in champions right away, but people might see you. And if you're looking for a club that can afford you, if you're not quite getting those offers from that big five or six, this is one that can. There are not very many that can, that are outside those leagues. So that's what I thought of when I was trying to put myself in his shoes, of why he'd be interested. That's what I came up with.
I didn't get enough information from his people to know if that's exactly right. But I do know he really wanted it. So the best I can do is try and put myself out there is like, think of it from your own personal perspective. If somebody offered you a boatload of money to go for Russia for a year or two, would you do it in your profession? And I'm 53, so I probably am not. But if I'm 22, I might be all, hell yeah, I'm going. Let's go.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Is Jesus married?
[00:09:44] Speaker B: No.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: So he doesn't have kids?
[00:09:47] Speaker B: No. I mean, as far as I know, he doesn't.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: He doesn't put them on Instagram or anything. It's not like I've been vows. Okay.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: No, that's an important part of it. Like, if he was married and kids, maybe that changes and that would make it even. I think my immediate reaction was, well, the only reason why he would want to do this is because it's the only european offer on the table or not. Yeah, I guess it is european offer on the table, even though it's Russia. But again, no UEFA games in there. And to be honest with you, Buzz, I don't think that's happening again anytime soon.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Probably not. I'm sure it's not. And we'll get into what's next here in a minute. But if you call the scallops and ask about Jesus, they're going to tell you where the base price is, where the negotiations start. And most clubs at that point, hang up because most people can't afford him.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: So my second question goes back to the front office side of this is, after the whole thing with Boa Vista and Reggie Cannon and never getting paid for that, why in the world would they even want to sniff around a deal that would include having to navigate those financial waters?
[00:10:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I have no idea on that one. I can't help you on the hunt side, as to what they were thinking.
[00:11:03] Speaker A: Can I be a conspiracy theorist here?
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Oh, sure, go ahead.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: That the hunt said, we don't want to do this deal, mls, will you please be the one to block it so that we don't have to be the bad guy in this?
[00:11:14] Speaker B: Well, that'd be sneaky as hell, but I suppose they could have.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Well, I mean, they may have honestly just played ball. I mean, not even asked MLS, but been like, well, okay, they're owned by a russian corporation that has sanctions against it. They can't use the swift payment system. So MLS owns the contract. Right. So MLS gets paid. They don't give us the money.
Yeah, we can definitely pass the buck. Not even admit it to MLS, that they wouldn't want to necessarily go through with it.
They're always talking about wanting to keep players happy, wanting to be that club that's not standing in the mean.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Well, they have a track record of mean. They've sold people off at their great detriment because the player asked for Costa.
[00:12:06] Speaker C: If he wants to.
Like you say, I don't know if it was, like, conspiracy, to the point of them asking MLS to be the bad guy. I mean, there was no way that transfer would ever go through. There's no way to pay for it. So, yeah, it's easy to not even have to go to MLS and say, beat a bad guy for us. Just know it's not going to happen.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: So, Buzz, what's your kind of, like, 30,000 foot overview of this particular story?
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Well, I think it demonstrates things that we've been talking about, that Jesus does have an ambition to take a step up to the next level, that it was going to be difficult for him because of what he gets paid. The hunts have a price they're willing to sell at. The longer Jesus stays here, the lower his price is because the shorter his contract will be. Amount he has left on his know there is a point of no return for FC Dallas in the sense of like if you let him become a free agent, he's almost certainly just going to bolt on his own because he doesn't have option years. I don't believe his contracts up, his contracts up and he's already indicated that he's ready for the next thing.
Now if you're Jesus and you want to look towards your future, it's one thing to say you're mad at the league, you're mad at the team, but you can't fold up ten and not play because there's no other offer out there like this right now. So you need to have another great season to try and bring in some offers for yourself. You can't just complain and walk out. You have nowhere to go because you can't be afforded by many other people. And if he continues to be hurt, referral to frequently and he may be hurt again, we don't know yet, it'll lower his price as well and no one will want to pay it. So he has no recourse at this point. Jesus does in terms of going forward with this deal. It's like once almost rejects it, it's over. They have no other option. There's nothing else on the table. So really all this deal does in the long term is confirm what we all thought about this, him and his team and the price and all that stuff, and sort of establish that MLS just not going to do business with Russia, apparently so this is not the first time they've rejected a move to Russia by somebody. And I agree with you, Peter. I thought it was weird that the hunts were willing to go ahead when they've already been burned by Boa. So why would you try somebody even riskier than that? Even though there are plenty of ways to funnel money around if you're a rich person. These conglomerates all own these businesses anyway.
The russian clubs all have conglomerate business operations set up in european countries like Germany and know so that they can move money in and out of, you know, there's ways around all that stuff that I'm not of course, that level of economics person, but I've talked to people about how it all would work and they said it's easily doable other than it most blocked it.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting to. It'll be interesting to keep an eye on how this affects Jesus's attitude, if at all. We'll get into the injury situation here in a little bit because I think there's some question marks about that. And the other part of it that I think is interesting ties into the second ongoing storyline with the club, which is their link to the croatian forward Petter Musa, and whether or not, if the Jesus move was related to that or not, because part of my interest in FcDals being willing to sell him is that, man, they can't just hire one guy if they sell Jesus. Now they've got two spots to fill.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: Well, some of the other spots, if you were going to get a nine, which is the plan, and Jesus wasn't going to be a nine, then some of those other spots Jesus was going to play can be filled by other people. I mean, they're not going to be as good as Jesus, but you got Bernie. If you're going to go with a wing, if you're going to go the three, four three. Look, you can use Areola, you can use legit, you can use multiple guys in that underneath sort of spot. There's lots of ways you could fill it in. None of them are as good as Jesus.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Right. But that's the problem, because if getting this Petter Musa guy was a move to improve the quality of the team getting him, but losing Jesus is kind of a wash at this point.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: At that point, well, you'd have an open DP spot. So you would fill the current open DP spot you have, you would fill with the new guy and then you'd have another one that would open up and so you'd have to try. And it probably would be. I mean, listen, the window just opened. The window hasn't opened yet. It opens like this week and it runs till like April. So you have like four months in the first window to do something. And the second window doesn't even roll around until like late July, August or whatever it is. I don't have it in front of know. So there's plenty of time to do something for that other.
I mean, obviously, if you lose Jesus's goal production, you're going to be hurting that. I'm sure they would try and move to get something that would fill some of that spot, or maybe not. Maybe they'll just be really happy with what they have. See what Bernie has to offer. You know how this is. Leave Ariola, DP.
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Remember, this was, what do we say at the beginning of this winner, right? This was an ambition test. Winner. And they've been passing the test in the sense like it looks like they went out and looks like they're going after the nine. Well, then if they lose Jesus, it's like, okay, are you not going to wash your hands and sit on it or are you going to be ambitious and go replace Jesus too? So I assume they'll think that at $13 million they can replace him or may cost you 13 to get this Musa guy. For all I know, his price seems to be relatively high since somebody else wants him as well.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Well, before I move on to Musa, Dan, any additional thoughts or observations about the.
[00:17:50] Speaker C: Really? I mean, it's a bizarre one for the player to want. Other than the monetary aspect, Russia is not the greatest shop window to a big league and especially not with such a delicate situation. It looks like it's going to carry on for a very long time.
Just kind of smacks the idea of wanting to get out of Dallas. And maybe that's because last year was a stagnant year and that leaves a bad taste in his mouth, maybe, who knows?
But yeah, that was a real surprise to see.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: We do hear chatter from time to time that this player or that player is unhappy with the level of ambition the hunt show.
That sound has rung for years for people to know people and that kind of thing. I've never had a player outright say that to me. But when you see guys like this that are like, yep, I'm ready to go, it's like that's part of it sometimes.
[00:18:46] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it just feels different. I mean, if it was Holland or Portugal or Spain, it's mean. Yeah, it just feels weird to me that you would want to move to a country that is clearly in the situation they are in. And some of the whole Brittany Griner thing, I mean, I don't know what the background on that is and I don't know if it's fair to bring that up, but it just feels like a weird place. I can't tell if that is a level of ambition, A-B-A level of desperation or c just not very good decision making.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: Well, I think it comes down to, for me, like, you can count the number of teams that can afford him and his salary leagues or teams and it's not very many.
So I think he's probably saw it as one that was ready and had.
[00:19:38] Speaker A: The money, but he knew that when he signed the deal with Dallas for almost 2 million.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: He did a year. He did, but it's a shorter deal. I think at the time it was only four. And he's going to come out of it at like 24. I think he's going to come out of it so he'll be pretty primed and free and prime his career and have value to get a really big contract. But he accelerated faster perhaps than he even expected. When you're banging at 18 and all of a sudden you're in the national team and maybe FC Dallas right now isn't good enough to get you in the national team if FC Dallas isn't very good.
That may be part of his thinking too. And really only there's not that many teams that a would want him and b can afford him. Both the buy and the salary is a short list right now.
[00:20:24] Speaker C: Sounds like you need someone better advising him.
[00:20:26] Speaker B: Honestly, maybe. I don't know. He's got a pretty good agency. It's not like it's a bad agency.
They'll have some juice now that the MLS block this one, the next one will be like, you damn well better approve this one.
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Hey, Dan, doesn't Spartech Moscow play on turf?
[00:20:46] Speaker C: Probably. I mean, it's Russia. A lot of it grows grass.
[00:20:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:54] Speaker C: It'S not the Russia of the, you know, when it was a real powerhouse, I mean, I looked at their salary structure and as an FC Dallas player, he would be one of their top five earners.
Yeah, I don't know. That just seems a baffling situation. And maybe it is. Maybe it's agent led. Honestly, maybe it's, hey, look, let's make this link that we know is never in a million years can actually happen, but it gets his name out there.
[00:21:27] Speaker B: Yeah, he's with Wasserman. It's a pretty strong.
And when you think about it too, like Bogart's article mentions that he reached out to Dallas on MLS for comment and hadn't heard back. Well, pretty clear if you're reaching out to those guys where the leak came from. Not specifically, of course. I don't actually know, but it's pretty clear to me that the leak probably came from someone at Wasserman or his agent directly or even, you know, to get this out and to show like a set the price for yourself. Show that you're ready to go, show that you're now mad at MLS and now you were going to want to go even more. That kind of thing. It's pretty clear why it's all happening.
[00:22:02] Speaker C: It all follows media day. Last week someone asked that question when he's thinking about moving to Europe and it was kind of one of those wishy washy when the time's right, I want to win some cups, I want to do this, I want to do that. But when the time's right, I'll know.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: What do you think the justified reaction or feeling for the curious should be about this, specifically towards pacers?
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Well, I don't think anything's changed in how we think about him, right? I mean, we all thought this was what he wanted in the middle to long term anyway, so it's not any different. If you get a chance to get what I'm hearing rumor was a big raise, you're going to get a caught of a $13 million sale price and you're going to get that quote unquote move to Europe that you've been after. It's hard to knock that on a guy, especially for a guy like Jesus where people are like, no, he's not worth the 18 or 20 that you're going to get for peppy. Some people are like, oh, he's not worth like seven or eight. Here's 13, you're going to go. So you don't blame a guy for that.
I don't. Anyway. I wouldn't think they would.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: Let's be honest, most of the fans, not even the fan base, I'm not even going to know this happened. It's only 1020 percent that care enough to know this even happened.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: I don't know, the whole thing just feels really weird, especially the front office part of it, like their willingness to sell him.
I don't know, the whole thing is just bizarre. All right, well then moving on to the other running storyline is the fact that Dallas has continuously been connected to this. Petar Musa, who is 25, Croatian, he's a forward, is currently playing for beneficia. He's not getting a ton of time at, but if you go and look at him on FBref, depending on which particular set of metrics you look at, there's reason to get excited. Except for the fact that he's just not played a lot lately since joining Betafika.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: I can't add anything particular specific like that. I know that FC Dallas is after this guy specifically, but we continue to see this is about the 7th or 8th different striker we've seen linked to the club and just last week confirmed for me that they are 100% after a nine. And I talked to Nico about the kind of nine they want. They want a guy that can play a more post up style. At the time he was talking to me about Jesus playing off of that player I don't know whether at that point he already knew about the deal being rejected because they were all in about Jesus playing these other positions and trying new formations and stuff. Like all last week when I was watching training, not all this week. It was one day and they were already discussing how it's going to work when they get a striker and pair him with Jesus and all these ideas, and for him to be all in on those ideas and they were working on it actively in training, it makes me think that maybe this thing already had been rejected at that point or he didn't even know about it, which would be even worse if Nego didn't know. I sure hope that's not the case. I'm not even going to guess that that's the case. I assumed that it had already been rejected and they were moving forward with Jesus being the guy. And that's the thing that's pretty clear, too, is that this going after a nine is independent of whether Jesus would have stayed or not. That's really important to understand that they're talking about trying to play a slightly different way. Not massively different way, just a slightly different way.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: Well, what's interesting about this particular rumor is the thing that Dan tweeted out before the Miami game at the cotton bowl. And Dan, would you share what Dan Hunt said to you?
[00:25:39] Speaker C: Yeah, he did a little availability with media.
It was the messy circus. Right. So you could count the number of people who actually go to FC Dallas games on two fingers. Two, which is a pretty good ratio. Yeah.
So somebody asked one of those fluff questions about if Miami hadn't signed Messi, would you have pulled the trigger on it?
Dan Hunt. It is Dan Hunt kind of waffle.
And then he uttered the phrase he previously said something about targets would come after the Miami game because that would be the benchmark for if the team can score goals and the team needs goal scorers.
He then uttered the words that they are potentially trying to bring in the largest dollar amount signing in team history, then cited Alan Belasco as the current mark, which we know to be seven to 8 million, say, yeah, Musa being valued in the range of eleven to 15 million, that would certainly match up with that statement.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: What's interesting to me about that whole situation is that if they're talking about spending that kind of money on a guy, up until now they've always said money has to come in in order to go out. But the Pepe money is almost all completely gone already. They used a whole big chunk of it on Velasco they used the parts they got internally.
Well, they gave a lot of raisins organization. They spent a lot of money across the organization and improved. A lot of things don't show.
[00:27:32] Speaker C: They bought a lot of raisins.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And Ariola's record. Gam transfer and bringing in legit. So this is money they're talking about. And everything I understand about both of these deals is that these things were independent, that they weren't using Jesus money to get this nine. They're after a nine. The Jesus was like a side thing. So they were looking to actually spend money of their own amount, their own pockets of a pretty high number. That's new. That's before that was the Nielsen or that was horror. They waited until they were like a million or they were free to go out and spend 13 million. That's new territory for the hunts. And that's kind of exciting, especially since if they still do it and they didn't sell Jesus, then that's really exciting.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Because it means they just wrote a I without question. And when I heard this, I didn't believe it when I first read it. I was like, there's no way they're about to spend this amount of money unless they sell somebody first. And I would assume the only player on the roster that's going to generate that level of income is Jesus. Unless maybe they felt like they could sell Velasco for what they paid for him and that kind of deal. So, yeah, I am 100% in agreement. It would be shocking if they got this guy and did not sell Jesus to help fund it because not only is he expensive, he's a prime of his age type player. I mean, he clearly has a pedigree going on and appears to be quite a player and would be a huge addition to this team. Whether or not he actually works out is to be determined. But man, it would be a seismic shift in how this club is run and everybody's perception about this thing. If they got this guy.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Well, they have said things about needing to respond to the new landscape and the messy change and all that stuff. I mean, they're aware the World cup is coming. I do think it's funny that this guy actually played at Bo Vista at one point. That's hysterical.
On loan.
[00:29:23] Speaker C: They can grumble about it together if.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: They sign know it's.
It's. It's a guy that is interesting and totally fits the profile of what coach said they were after. That higher, bigger body, that post up body. You and I have talked about this many times, Peter. And Dan has to of know the Blas Perez, right, the guy to occupy the space and let Jesus move around and off of him. We saw the formation that they played in the mining game, which we'll get to later, is designed for that. The things that they've worked on training are designed for that, particularly designed with Jesus for that. So it's obviously a goal for the spring that this is what they want to try and do. Jesus, the day I went to training, he didn't play nine for a single second. He played wing or off or underneath the whole time. And Ansa and Logan Farrington played nine the whole game, whole training session. So it's clearly a thing that this is what they're doing and it's exciting.
[00:30:18] Speaker C: Well, one thing to keep in mind as well, you talked about the change in landscape. Part of that change in landscape is you have to be that taken seriously team to get the messy know FCD locked into it last year. But I think they're away games this year. I want to say they're playing at least one of the LA teams.
If they want to have that extra income, they kind of have to speculate to accumulate.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Yeah, and all the rumors continue to swirl that. And by rumors, I mean people that we know that the hunts are circling the drain on this idea of putting another $150,000,000 into Toyota Stadium, and that that's happening soon.
Exactly when it's to be seen. But Dan Hunt told me two months ago, they're like, yeah, we're 100% doing that. Not that number. He didn't say that. But that's what we hear behind the scenes from people we know. So the hunts are looking to move and change things around.
Know, like we said, winner of ambition. Do you have it or not? And signs are showing that maybe they actually do have it.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: Well, it's interesting because obviously Musa is a player that's a bit in demand. There's lots of other associated rumors about him going to other european clubs looking for his services. So it's that idea of, does a guy that's playing in Europe want to stay in Europe? Does he want to come to the United States? He is only 25. How does that relate to his ability to get into his national team, et cetera, et cetera?
But we also have an entire planet of soccer players to go out and spend $13 million on. He's not like the only one out there.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: No. And that's what's important to understand, is there's been seven or eight strikers linked. The important thing is the number stratosphere in which we're talking about. We're talking about players that have been linked anywhere between, like 710, $13 million. They're in the upper stratosphere, like Alan Velasco money or more kind of level. They've been younger for the most part. The ones that had been 30 depth Dallas, as I told you last week, passed on the Orgiri guy, or however you say his name, for example. So they're targeting guys. Yeah, as we always say, if you hear about one guy, there was ten more that got talked about, discussed, you didn't hear about. And of the ten links you hear, only one of them or two of them are actually real, and only one of them might come to fruition. So again, don't fixate on this one guy, as you say, Peter. Just fixate on the idea that they are showing signs of life in a way that is important.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
Okay. Well, there have been signings, and the one that we've already talked about and don't really need to spend any time on is the Corsa signing. He's redone, and I guess that makes him center back number four.
[00:33:06] Speaker B: By the way, I got my hand slapped. It's Corcha. I've been saying it wrong. Corcha.
It has a little duly thing hanging off of it. Yeah.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Okay, well, good.
Duly noted.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: The other one was the surprise one today, although I don't think anybody knew who the player was. We just knew there was this type of player coming, and it's the most confusing first name ever. Patrickson Delgado. And he appears to be a young loan signing out of Ecuador. What do you know, Buzz?
[00:33:38] Speaker B: Well, he's a six from Ecuador, so he's not coming off a World cup like at the age of 20 like Grezo was. But he did come just off of a loan to ix. He didn't succeed at ix, but obviously IX is a great scouting group, so the fact they were at least interested makes me interested.
What I find particularly interesting is, and I can't tell you a whole bunch about this kid's game, but he has been in the Ecuador national team system and played games. I don't know if he has senior caps or youth caps or whatever, but he is a young project kind of six, and has played for Ajax, moved him around, tried him in different spots or whatever. But it's funny that if we go back to the article I wrote at the beginning of the winter of like, okay, how does this team actually getting better? And what we talked about was a nine or what I talked about was a nine. I talked about a center back. They went out and got Omar Gonzalez, not the centerback I meant, but whatever, they did it. And then I talked about the idea of bringing in a six. Now, they didn't bring in a high profile starter six, but they definitely brought in a guy who can compete and might be a depth. And the idea there is that you were using Asir er, Mendy as a six. He's not a pure six. You also would like to use him as an eight some, and you have Liam Frazier for that. But you probably needed another pure six, perhaps, and that's what this guy looks to be. Now, of course, Nolan Norris is still in the mix at this position, but know much younger and much raw and really isn't ready to help you a lot at the MLS level, short of an emergency. So this is the kind of player that the coach talked about all winter and Zanada did to this idea of making the bottom part of the roster be healthier, to actually help you in games and get through some of the weight of the season. We'll see if he's any good. Of course, there's an option to buy, which is nice. You like hearing that up, you know, fits perfectly into the idea of what this team needed to do to get better. We'll just have to find out if he's any good or.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Uh. But we've never heard of him before. You've not seen any tape on him or anything like that? We have no idea what we're really getting.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: I'm sure we could look on know. I just got into a hotel from driving all day, so I haven't got a chance to look yet. But I imagine we'll find some tape on YouTube. But none of that matters compared to when you see you. When you see him is what matters in person because people look different. Logan Ferrington is a good example. I did not like him at all on tape, and I liked him a lot more in.
You know, we'll see what he looks know, because sometimes tapes hard to know who they're going against. And it's all cut just to be the know. You don't see the low lights, you don't see the decision making know, so we'll reserve judgment. But I wouldn't think you'd walk in and start because that's what year, I mean, he's going to be doing. And even Fraser is more likely to start than this guy right out of the gate, obviously, because this kid's 20 years old, but it's the kind of south american prospect this club has done well with. Some, not every time, but it falls right in line with. It's not quite a U 22 initiative signing, but I really like this signing on paper is the fact that it's.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: A loan deal instead of just outright buying him. Does that signal anything to you in particular?
[00:36:40] Speaker B: Just that it's cheaper and it's easier to dump them. If it's not good. You're not stuck with them. If you buy them, then look at they are with mulatto right now because they did buy like and now they don't want them. Well, what can you do with them? You gotta try and figure something out. Whereas this gives you more options to pull the and without knowing what his buy price is, it could be that the buy price has got a trigger in it like you sometimes happens like pause had a trigger based on starts and his buy, if you remember. So we'll see whether the option is a trigger or an automatic, or what the price is, or if it's even any good. Or maybe this is just an emergency filler and the buy is fake. Sometimes they'll put a buy that's so ridiculous that no one's ever going to buy. You're really just borrowing a player for a year to rent a player. So only time will tell on that kind of stuff. When we see a salary and we find out eventually, maybe we might not never do what the buy is.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: Okay. We'll look forward to seeing what the kid's got in his bag. Hopefully we get to do that soon. All right, well, believe it or not, somehow, some way, the game against Messi at the cotton ball has been relegated to being the fourth topic. We talk about today's podcast, which just tells you how much nutty stuff has happened since the game on Monday. I intended to go, I had a ticket, stuff got in the way, and by the time I was available to leave the house, it was almost 05:00 and I thought, you know what? It's just going to be an absolute cluster f down there. I think I'm going to skip.
But the good Dan Crook did not. He was there in attendance. Rep in third degree. For you, the curious Dan, what are your overall observations of the late afternoon, early evening?
[00:38:22] Speaker C: God, I hate that stadium.
[00:38:26] Speaker A: Come on, man. It's the best.
[00:38:28] Speaker B: Funny. The best stadium.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: Okay?
It's an outdated stadium. I mean, the upgrades that they're eventually going to do are badly needed. But the organization of it being that whole argentine third party, whatever that's not the stadium's fault.
I mean, that's not. But some of the stuff was the parking passes. Weirdly, it was lot twelve a, which is the regular media lot. Normally you go in gate twelve, right, because that's the gate next to the parking lot. No, it was gate two, which was the general sale gate for everybody. So it took about half an hour just to get from the start of the parking to the actual point where the guy was like, I don't know why they put you in this line. Go this way.
So, yeah, that was fun.
I guess the stadium, when they pass on the details to FC Dallas to distribute, they never actually set a media entrance. So the security staff didn't even.
So it was kind of a nightmare that way.
There were team employees that were trying to figure out where to go because the stadium staff didn't even know.
Yeah, a lot of fun there. And then they didn't signpost where anything actually was because they have like three press boxes there.
So I got sent three different floors by stadium staff.
[00:40:03] Speaker B: You're going to see Dan watering that cavernous stadium, trying to.
[00:40:11] Speaker C: The elevators there are the slowest things and they stop at every single floor. So you press the button and you wait for ten minutes.
[00:40:22] Speaker A: Yeah, Dan. It's like Texas's version of the Coliseum. It's an ancient place that's been modified slightly. But none of the things that you're talking about, absent the slow elevators, is actually the stadium's fault. That's all the organizers and operations staff fault. Come on, man.
[00:40:39] Speaker C: The stadium staff should probably know. I mean, when it's the Gold cup, they have signs up everywhere, right? You go here, you go here, you're allowed here, you're not allowed.
That part of that is the stadium. It was just nightmare.
But onto the game itself and weirdly, press box food. Was Fletcher's corn dogs. Just one. That was an interesting lucky bastard.
[00:41:07] Speaker B: Suck.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: No, that was the highlight, honestly.
Really foggy, horrible, shitty day.
30,000 people in the stadium, potentially.
As far as the game itself, as a typical preseason game, a flurry of chances early on, including the goal, two minutes and 28 seconds in.
Really nice bit of play that you'd hope to see in the middle of the season. Iyara Mendy makes a nice interception, one times it to Liam Fraser. Fraser plays a fantastic ball into Paul Ariola with his first touch. And then Ariola finds Jesus off the shoulder of Noah Allen. Jesus kind of goes across. Jerry Callender really should have done better with the shot itself. Just kind of lower across the body. Pretty simple finish. Messi had that crazy Olympico attempt right on the 7th minute. Apparently he's never scored one in his professional career.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: I saw that.
[00:42:09] Speaker C: I was blown away the line and makes a fantastic scramble back.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I saw that. I thought he'd had to have scored at least one in his career. I was shocked that he had never done that before.
[00:42:19] Speaker C: Yeah, that was crazy. So that was obviously some of the mainstream media mark of it, who watched mascot, got to hold his hand and, oh, we've heard of this thing. It's called an Olympico.
We think it's to do with the Olympic games. We're not entirely sure. There may have been a gold medal involved. There may have been a soviet swimmer taking steroids. Who knows? Who knows?
Although that soviet swimmer may have also tried to sign Jesus Ferreira immediately after the game.
In terms of the game. Yeah, flurry of chances early on really lowed. And then once a lot of subs happened, picked up a little bit towards the end. Really nice thing about it was they played that modified three four three pinched in the wingers as kind of inside under forwards. Jesus Ferreira playing at the right wing. That was lovely. That plays just to his strengths because how many times have we seen he's dropped back, he's ran out wide, he's trying to play a ball into someone, and that someone is not him because that's where he should be.
Eugene Ansar started up as the nine. He seemed a little bit off. He was making kind of off decisions in terms of the direction, the runs he was choosing, the passes he was picking out.
But really nice interplay between Ariola and Ferreira. Second half, you had Logan Farrington up front. He kind of got the assignment. It was really nice to see the front three kind of switching around. It was giving the Miami defense some headaches. Obviously, defense is not the strong part of their game, Jordi Albert aside, but certainly giving them fits.
All evening, the nice, really big surprise was Diego Garcia.
It's Diego, right? Isn't it?
[00:44:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, good.
[00:44:21] Speaker C: That would have been really embarrassing.
Absolutely phenomenal. He was just so tenacious.
I think Farrington had himself a really strong game. Physical, fast. Just really kind of stood up well to defenders.
Other than that, just really a pretty standard preseason game. The media availability, very strange. It actually finished before the elevator got from the press box down, and I was able to walk around the stadium. So I didn't catch any of the comments, but they were probably fluff anyway, so, yeah, fun experience all around.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: Sounds like you had a splendid time. At the old girl.
Good for you. I have not watched the entire game. I've seen the highlights and stuff. And my big takeaway really, from the evening when it was actually happening that night, was watching how the local media just completely fumbles over itself trying to do anything related to Messi. All three local affiliates ran coverage of the game early in their broadcast that night. Like not even before it finished segment.
[00:45:36] Speaker C: I'm sorry, say before it had finished.
[00:45:38] Speaker A: No, meaning like at the 10:00 news that night, instead of it just being relegated to the sports segment, the sports guy came out and did a little bit about the game because Messi was in town and talked about it.
And just the maddening part of people who are not familiar with the cotton bowl in terms of media outside of Dallas showing pictures of how empty the stadium looks. And it's like, guys, there are 30,000 people there, by the way, Andy Swift, who intimately knows that stadium very well, confirmed with me by looking at the pictures. Yeah, that looks about 30,000 people, but because it holds 92,000 people, it looks really empty. And so when the Daily Mail or whatever writes an article and shows all the pictures and like, oh, what a horror show that Messi can only draw a tiny crowd in Dallas, it's like, yeah, dude, you don't really know what you're talking about.
[00:46:30] Speaker C: It's a little frustrating to see that because I saw, I think sport Bible did something and I wish they had a comment feature or a way that you can, because it was 30,000 people at 05:00 in the area that has the worst rush hour traffic in north Texas.
It was foggy by the end of the game. I couldn't see the people directly opposite in the stadium. It was that foggy driving down. I drove straight past downtown. I never saw a damn building.
[00:46:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, the weather was crappy all day. I mean, it had finally stopped raining by the time.
[00:47:03] Speaker C: Pissing down, too.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: Oh, during the game it was.
[00:47:06] Speaker C: Yeah. But this way I did like 1500 miles driving back and forth in the snow and ice last week. Right up and down, back and forth between Arkansas and here. My car was covered. My bright blue suv was light gray because of the amount of road salt and that weird beat treatment and stuff. I got back to my car, it was sparkling. So that was not the lightest rain in the world.
[00:47:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So I thought overall I was impressed. I didn't think 30,000 people were going to show up. I had put the over and under at 20,000.
[00:47:44] Speaker C: That's actually what stadium staff said they estimated that at 25,000. They had 65 originally up for sale because they killed a few rows around the front. And then I think the vip, they only did a handful of tickets.
[00:48:00] Speaker A: Well, thank you for that recap, Dan. Buzz, I know you've watched the game via the delay out there in Florida. What were your reactions to the game other than your instant reaction video you posted?
[00:48:11] Speaker B: Well, let's talk about the three four three.
As Dan mentioned, the difference between the failure of it last year when they did it, why it didn't work.
As dad talked about, it's the front line.
Dallas last year played a four three three so much that the wings being people like obrion or whoever else you're running out there at the time, Ariel, of various guys that even Velasco, at some point, they tend to play that high sort of three line. In the four three three, the width comes from those wings. Well, in a three four three, or as the team called it, a 5221, the width comes from the wing back and the very name of the position, a wing and a back. Both those guys are supposed to run up and down the field, which is why you see guys like Dante Seeley and Herbert Enzola, these young guys that were vertical, play that spot for coach Nico. And the number one thing is that those wings, as Dan said, they have to be inverted. Because if they play as traditional wings, the first thing they do is they cover up the backs and the second thing they do is they abandon the midfield and then you're outnumbered in the midfield all the time. So in the scam, they did it correctly where the wings were inside and underneath in the half spaces, as the Brits, I think, like to call them. And you're effectively making a box with the Aramindi and Fraser behind you, and you're playing off of your striker and you're allowing the width to come from those wingbacks. That's how it's supposed to execute, and that's really good. So it's nice to see them correctly execute a three four three, even if they don't use it all the time. It shows a the value of Jesus in that off position. You might end up seeing a four four two with him in that off position, or you might see a three four three with him playing like Velasco does, that inverted wing, that underneath position. So there's lots of options in the coaches up a coach's sleeve at this point for how you want to play with Jesus in those various formations, particularly now that you can execute the three four three correctly. So that's really exciting. And the second thing is to follow up on Diego Garcia. He's technically a North Texas SC player.
He cannot, I don't think, be a homegrown because he's from El Paso locomotive. He's not from their own academy. So he's ahead of, in my opinion, a couple of the homegrowns that have been added.
Ali Uzura is a homegrown that moved up from North Texas because he had a flex contract. So he's one of the hybrid guys, probably the first hybrid contract. So he was going to be a homegrown no matter what. So it's going to be harder for Diego to make the first team because of the fact that he's not.
Everything. I understand about the rules, he can't be a homegrown. But he did come in and he finished second in the beep test at the start of camp. And when I asked coach about that, he said, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Now, I'm sure coach has seen him before, but what he was saying was the kid came into camp and crushed it right out of the gate, showing that he really wanted to be there with that kind of performance and he was rewarded by that. And his play in camp being that first half sub in that position and then playing pretty well, and that's really telling. It tells you what they think of the kid. So could he be signed to FC Dallas? I think right now the numbers don't make sense. I actually, in my book, I had him down as one more year at North Texas, but I think you'll see him in FC Dallas training a lot. And I think that over the course of this season, depending on what happens with other bodies, they might end up needing a guy at some point eventually, and he would be the next guy that could come into that spot. It's a really bright prospect. He is only 17 and he's already looking like he can handle that level. So it's a very exciting player.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: Because we're talking about kind of the attacking end of the field and we talked a lot about Jesus earlier. Do we need to mention or update anybody on anything about his injury situation? Because he did leave the game with what appears to be a reoccurrence of his groin situation.
[00:51:50] Speaker C: That was a bit of an interesting one.
He took a free kick, went down holding the left side of his groin looked bad. They walked him off. Nolan started getting his warm up to come in. Three minutes passed with the team down to ten men. The thing that kind of stuck out for me is if his injury is that bad, he's straight down the tunnel getting treatment. He went back to the bench, which makes me think, all right, preseason, he's tight. Precaution more than anything. But obviously we have to wait until anyone can speak to someone.
[00:52:28] Speaker B: Yeah, it is possible he did not have surgery. It is possible, though. He could have popped some scar tissue. That does happen when you're in recovery mode. It really hurts.
[00:52:38] Speaker A: Painful?
[00:52:38] Speaker B: Well, yeah, it almost always happens, and it really hurts, but it's like once you're over the pain and it's fine, a little recovery and you're good to go. So cross our fingers. That's all it is. Of course, there's people panicking. They're like, oh, it's going out for a month or two. We'll see. Hopefully not. There's no official word yet. No unofficial word yet either. So we'll just have to wait and cross our fingers that it's not bad.
[00:52:59] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll find out Saturday, right?
[00:53:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:02] Speaker A: Buzz, I'm interested in your reaction to the Ford. I heard a lot of positive feedback. I saw a lot of positive feedback about Logan Farrington.
[00:53:12] Speaker B: I like him. I like him a lot better in person than I did on tape. I liked him in training because when I saw him in small space and for a guy that's a little bit taller, to look pretty good in small space is really exciting. He's pretty tidy with the ball and he moves really well. He knows how to play again, I don't think he's fast, but he reads the game really well and moves correctly, moves with good timing. That's a really important thing for coach Estevez. Even though we're talking about the idea of them getting a bigger body post up kind of nine, which this kid can do. Also, he still likes guys that move. You got to be able to move right and read the game right and react right. Dan talked about that interplay in the front three. Even when you have a guy who's going to be more of a center channel guy than Jesus, he's not a false nine. He still wants to be able to move, play, and interplay with each other. So there's some really good signs there.
I think that really quickly he'll be in the know. It has the potential to be in the mix. As much as Jimenez was assuming they're going to get another nine. If it's him and Ansa going head to head, I don't necessarily think there's a chance that he might not beat out Ansa the way Ansa played. If they're bringing in a DP, obviously that changes things. But I still think there's a very good chance that Logan could end up being the number two guy here, playing those late minutes, getting some starts here and there. We'll see if he can score. That's the key. If you can't put the ball in the net, nothing's going to happen. But the signs look really positive. I like what I see, which I'm really happy about because I did not like what I saw on the tape.
[00:54:37] Speaker C: So this was complete preseason overreaction or knee jerk reaction rather. But I kind of saw first year Tesho someone who can get wired, who can actually has hold up play in their such something that FC Dallas just has lacked so greatly. There was a really nice passage of play at the end, took the ball away in the defending box. Pedrino makes this fantastic run up the middle, finds Farrington down the side. Farrington is twisting and turning just trying to create that half yard of space like Franco Hara would do, which is a great asset. That's such a seasoned thing to do from a guy who's what, 22 plays beautiful ball low, driven into the box for Nolan Norris's run. How they didn't score on that player, I don't know, but I was just kind of see, I see rookie of the year Tesho, right?
[00:55:37] Speaker B: That's nice.
[00:55:38] Speaker A: Yeah. Hey, I'm curious the name that I've not heard anybody mention and I'm now just going. While Dan was talking, I was just looking at the list. Where was Kamungo?
[00:55:52] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:55:53] Speaker C: He was not rostered. So presumably get was he injured at.
[00:56:00] Speaker A: The national team camp?
[00:56:02] Speaker C: Didn't get a chance to ask anyone.
[00:56:04] Speaker B: Not that I noticed. But he played I think, didn't he?
And I don't think Nakosi started so they probably felt Nakosi was good to start.
[00:56:11] Speaker A: Nakosi didn't even play in that game.
[00:56:13] Speaker B: They not, I didn't watch.
[00:56:15] Speaker A: No.
[00:56:16] Speaker B: So Nakosi was fine. I'm sure that was it. I'm sure it was just coming back from that know and Ema. Apparently Dan thinks Nema had a knock because he wasn't listed either.
[00:56:24] Speaker C: Tuamasi and Ema was in the stadium.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: We should talk about Omar Gonzalez probably.
[00:56:30] Speaker C: Oh my God. He felt so at home.
[00:56:32] Speaker B: I know. Apparently.
I understand he's from Skyline.
[00:56:37] Speaker C: He looked at home in the.
[00:56:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, I thought Dan was making a joke about repeated storytelling and I thought.
[00:56:46] Speaker A: You'D forgotten he went to Skyline High school dude.
[00:56:48] Speaker B: I'm the one that shared pictures of him in FC Dallas training.
[00:56:50] Speaker A: I know, that's why you're such a good actor. You fool me.
[00:56:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Apparently he was trying to help somebody on the side of the highway and was involved with it.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: Okay, stop it.
[00:57:00] Speaker B: Yeah, but Dan discord only joke. Yeah. Okay.
[00:57:08] Speaker C: I liked what I saw. The fact that he absolutely blew past Suarez a couple of times was nice.
Who did Suarez race past? Which was kind of disturbing, man.
[00:57:22] Speaker A: You can hear Luis Suarez's knees on the broadcast.
[00:57:26] Speaker C: Yeah, but he sprinted past one of the absolute defenders in the first half.
[00:57:31] Speaker A: I didn't see.
[00:57:32] Speaker C: No, it was good.
Gonzalez, obviously very tall. He's that guy who's getting under crosses. He's clearing things.
Cosi started in the center in the first half, kind of pushed him out to the left. Good to see coast getting those reps in the left center back position because that's obviously been a point of concern. Someone that can play on the left there.
I liked what I saw. He was having good. There were good teaching moments with a couple of the younger players.
I don't know. I mean, is he center back two? No. Is he a viable center back three on that performance? Yes. A step up from Jose Martinez.
[00:58:13] Speaker B: I'm still annoyed because I wanted an upgrade at center back two and I wanted it'd be aga to be three, but on its surface I think Omar is a great guy. They're brought in again. That's not what the problem is.
[00:58:27] Speaker A: That's not the problem.
The problem is if Tafarai gets hurt, you're stuck with two guys at a collective age of almost 70 as your starting centerbacks. That's the problem.
[00:58:38] Speaker C: Or no one, at least one of them is quick.
[00:58:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Fair.
[00:58:42] Speaker A: I don't even think Sebastian is all that fast.
[00:58:46] Speaker B: He's fast enough.
[00:58:47] Speaker C: He is.
[00:58:47] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
Okay. Well, good stuff. I thought it was a good time. I thought it was great that the club got some exposure. I felt bad. Well, let me say this.
The story I was telling the other day to somebody was one. I'm not going to say who and I'm not going to say what channel, but one of the local affiliates was doing the highlights of the game during the sports segment and the lead anchor, lead sports anchor was showing the highlights and he showed the highlight of the messy shot and the pause save.
Now, the pause save is world class and it is absolutely the lead of that particular highlight. But this particular sportscaster's comment to that was. And Messi misses the shot and then they cut to the next thing and not did he say. He didn't even say the keeper made a great save, much less know what Martin Paz's name is. And that just reinforced to me how broken the relationship between this club and the local media is that when they get Messi to town, they barely can bring themselves to talk about Dallas or know the players names. All they can do is talk about Messi. And I get that part of it. But that really bothered me a lot in watching the coverage on Monday night.
[01:00:09] Speaker C: It was funny, I can't remember who it was now, but someone put a link into discord and it was a recap that was talking about, oh, Messi didn't score.
People came to see Messi. The other number ten scored. Someone who had the name Ferreira on his bags. You mean the Gold Cups top scorer? The guy who scored a shit ton of goals for the US national team?
[01:00:34] Speaker A: The guy Channel five did a package and they ended up interviewing some guy who claims to be part of El Matador, but then on television said, well, we're actually all Messi fans first, or something to that effect. And that was totally know the guys on my own radio station, the main Monday through Friday guys, when they brought up the game and talked about it.
It's really frustrating to see this club's inability to connect with local media and I don't get why it is so. Well, I do know why, but it's just frustrating that it's so broken.
[01:01:10] Speaker B: Well, that's why, Peter, I've been doing what I do.
[01:01:13] Speaker A: I know.
Thank God for Buzzard.
[01:01:18] Speaker B: I didn't mean it that way. But yeah, this is the frustration I've always saw and always have struggled with. So I was like, well, if no one's else is going to do it, we might as well do it ourselves.
[01:01:27] Speaker C: Feels like it's always getting worse.
When I first moved here, there were weekly appearances with George John and Stephen Keel and whoever else on a couple of channels and you could see the odd highlight on the news in the sports section. Now, outside of the kick around, does the team even exist?
[01:01:54] Speaker A: We don't even talk about the team very much anymore, but okay. Anyway, there you go. Well, at least it's a one nothing win for the good guys and starts off the preseason in a good way. And they can say they beat Messi. And Martin Paws has a fantastic save for his highlight, by the way. Let me just also say about paws, the longer he is here, the more I fall in love with that dude because he genuinely seems to care and have an interest in Dallas and our sports culture and our other teams, and he just continues to do things that really make me like the guy more. Not that I ever didn't like him, but he's really quickly climbing the charts of my all time favorite Dallas players.
Are you guys picking up on that, too?
[01:02:42] Speaker C: Yeah, he's a great guy.
[01:02:46] Speaker B: Yeah, he's a fantastic keeper. My own worry at this point is he's going to leave.
[01:02:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. I'm with you.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah. I hope. Know, I hope they can keep him for a while because he's really good. I mean, not that they don't have good guys coming through the system, because they do in Antonio, but Antonio is not paused. Not yet.
[01:03:02] Speaker A: All right, let's wrap this up because I know Buzz has something, a deadline, a hard stop here in just a few minutes. Other news guys playing with the u 20s. Buzz.
[01:03:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Tariq Scott, who we all know from his FC Dallas homegrownness, and malachi Molina, who's in north Texas signing at 16 years old. He's a right back converted winger. He's in the same mold as Brian Reynolds. I don't know if he's Brian Reynolds, but he's an exciting young player. I've been on for about three years now. Those two guys got called in the Jamaica U 20s. Molina was in their U 17 team. He was there, started every single game for them last year. So he's up two age groups basically now, and called into the 20 camp. And Scott, of course, was hurt last year, so this is his first, unfortunately. I feel bad for tark. They misspelled his name on the stupid social media, but in the roster they turned in, but everyone knew who it was. So those two guys are getting the Jamaica U 20 for the chemical calf championships, which are coming up, like, in February. So that's really exciting for him. There's obviously a shot that some of the FC Dallas guys maybe like antonio, possibly could be, I think, still in the U 20 team. Unless I've miscounted, because he was in their last prep. He may be too old now. I forgot to check that.
[01:04:20] Speaker C: Yeah, because him and Nico, he's still 1923.
[01:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Antonio is still 19 and he went to that pan Am games along with Nolan. I think Nolan's probably not in the u 20 team, but I think he's probably missed that. But Antonio was number two choice at the u 20s last year, so he should still be in that mix, too, even though there's not a call up yet for him. But anyway, exciting for those guys. That they're going to be in the concrete half championship, maybe.
[01:04:45] Speaker A: Yes. And it was very cool to see Bernie get a start for the national team on the game against Slovenia on Saturday. Unfortunately, he didn't have a very good.
It wasn't a great game for him. And it was also disappointing to not see Tafari get any time in the game. But I'm glad they made it back in one piece, especially with that.
[01:05:06] Speaker C: Was it the center back from Columbus who was absolute crap.
[01:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that's not a good sign that Kosi didn't get to play.
[01:05:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a weird deal. Makes me wonder what was up with. All know, the game overall was we were on the air when the game was on, so I didn't really see it, but was my back was to the tv. Andy was watching and Andy was like, yeah, this team looks completely.
This looks like a bunch of guys that have never played together. Which I guess essentially it was.
[01:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it is.
[01:05:33] Speaker A: All right, so next up for football club Dallas is they've got their game on Saturday versus New Mexico. And then, Buzz, they go to Spain. You have your invitation? You got your tickets? You going?
[01:05:44] Speaker B: No, I can't go this year.
[01:05:45] Speaker A: Dan, didn't you get invited to.
[01:05:47] Speaker C: That was me that got invited.
[01:05:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:50] Speaker C: There was a chance I was going to be in the UK after the weekend, so, yeah, they were like, hey, since you're in the neck of the woods, come along.
[01:06:00] Speaker A: Wait, Buzz, didn't you get invited, too?
[01:06:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I told you that last week.
[01:06:04] Speaker A: That's what I thought. Okay, you both got.
[01:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:07] Speaker A: Okay. I didn't get invited.
[01:06:09] Speaker B: Well, you don't get invited to anything, dude.
[01:06:11] Speaker A: I know.
[01:06:12] Speaker B: Well, no, you have to go to training to get invited.
[01:06:14] Speaker A: Well, no, we know why I didn't get, uh. All right, well, very good. Solid episode.
[01:06:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:06:22] Speaker B: Dan will be. I believe Dan will be at the new Mexico game. So we'll get some good coverage there.
[01:06:26] Speaker C: I will be.
[01:06:27] Speaker A: And then real quick to end this kit talk.
I don't have a good feeling about this, guys.
[01:06:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't either.
[01:06:35] Speaker A: Just so everybody knows, we have not released it. Dan has put together a mock up, and I'm not completely against the mock up. And when are we going to put that out, by the way, guys? Are we going mean?
[01:06:48] Speaker C: I got to finish it.
[01:06:49] Speaker B: Still Dan's schedule before cocktails and cleats. We need to do it before that.
[01:06:54] Speaker C: Well, that's well away.
[01:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:56] Speaker A: And just to prep everybody, I have shown the mockup to people who either have seen the actual Jersey or know people who have seen the jersey and showed it to them. And there is a common thread of, yeah, that's actually better than the real thing.
[01:07:16] Speaker C: The bits of the kit I have seen just. It looks like it's been thrown together.
[01:07:21] Speaker A: Well, let me say this. I have a feeling what we're going to end up with is something that is very subjective. It's going to be of a really interesting design.
[01:07:30] Speaker C: Flag jersey again.
[01:07:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think it's going to be a bit like that. I think it's just going to be some sort of interesting pattern or gradient or fade, and it's just going to be. Do you like that as a design idea? And I think some people are going to like it and some people aren't. You remember the last hoop jersey where all the hoops were kind of at the bottom of the jersey, like the.
[01:07:49] Speaker B: Watford shirt we call the river plate kit.
[01:07:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And I did not like that design, but a whole bunch of other people did. So maybe that's what this is going to be. But I'm just forewarning, everybody. Early indicators are, is that there's something really.
Well, you know what I'm saying?
[01:08:10] Speaker B: My expectations are so low that I'm hoping I might actually like it because my expectations are like, rock bottom at this point. Yeah, crossing my fingers would actually be better than that, but I'm not optimistic.
[01:08:21] Speaker A: That and the flame vomit wallpaper jersey in the same.
[01:08:25] Speaker B: Gosh.
[01:08:26] Speaker A: Oh, no. Okay, well, Dan, thank you for all your excellent coverage. Thanks for going to the game and giving everybody the overview of the Miami victory.
[01:08:36] Speaker C: Yeah, anytime. I'll torture myself at the cotton ball.
[01:08:41] Speaker A: All day and get paid. Corn dogs. Lucky dog.
[01:08:45] Speaker C: A corn dog.
[01:08:46] Speaker A: Okay. Acorn dog.
[01:08:47] Speaker B: Better than nothing. Third degree. The podcast has been brought to you by soccer 90. Com. They got everything you can want. Premier League, Syria, la Liga, MLS, all the european stuff, national teams, the sweet, sweet FC Dallas gear, hopefully soon, the new FC Dallas jersey. Soccer. 90. Com. As a third degree listener, you get 20% off when you use the code. Third degree at checkout, 20% off soccer 90. Com code, third degree. Some exclusions do apply.
[01:09:12] Speaker A: All right, buzz, have fun at Disney World. Say hello to Minnie for me.
[01:09:16] Speaker B: I already went. I'm on my way back.
[01:09:18] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[01:09:20] Speaker B: I'll be back in Dallas tomorrow night.
[01:09:22] Speaker A: All right, well, drive safe, my friend.
[01:09:24] Speaker C: Say hi to Bucky, then.
[01:09:25] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I don't do the Bucky's.
[01:09:28] Speaker A: Okay. And thank you, FC Dallas. Curious. We will talk to you next week on another episode of third degree, the podcast.
[01:09:36] Speaker B: Comrade Ferreira salute you.
[01:09:39] Speaker A: Third degree. The third degree never get third degree. The third degree never gets third degree.
[01:09:49] Speaker B: Never guess.
Third degree never care.
