3rd Degree the Podcast #250

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Um, yeah. Ooh. Third degree the third degree nap, I guess. Third degree the third degree nap, I guess. Third degree nap, I guess. Third Degree Nap podcast third degree the. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90 Dot comics for the vast collection of FC Dallas Premier League and us national team gear, jerseys, hatscars, tees and beyond. Soccer 90 has all you need now. Enjoy exclusive 20% discount in store with third degree the podcast, not just online in store code. Third degree listeners of this podcast get 20% off. Man, what a deal that is. Make sure to check that out. 20% off. Some exclusions do apply. Well, hello, FC Dallas curious fans. As you can tell, this is not Peter. My name is Buzz. I'm the founder and editor of third Degree and third degree, the podcast. This is episode number 250, which is a big one. It's a nice one on the way to hopefully bigger and better things. Let me just take a minute to say that while Peter and Dan both would have liked to have been here, Peter had some personal business that prevented him from being here. And Dan, well, let's just say that you may have noticed that Luke Combs is out on tour. And I'll just say that you've never seen Dan and Luke combs in the same room at the same time and let it go at that. So I'm here by myself, which means that you might get a little more of a clunky and a little more unprofessional podcast without Peter and his dulcet tones keeping us going. But I will do my best to go through the plethora of news this week and try and talk about those things. I may have to stop and gather my thoughts from time to time, but I'll try and edit all those spaces out and hopefully make for you guys an enjoyable podcast, even though it might be a little bit shorter than what you might get if there were more of us here to talk. There is, however, a lot going on, so let's go through that stuff. All right, so first, a small correction. I said last time that Jesus Jimenez's new team was in the third division. It's not. It's in the first division in Greece, which makes me feel a lot better about Jesus Jimenez and Santiago Mescar and Brassana all ending up there. It does make me feel better, but that's a small correction. I just guessed and joked that it was the third division last time. I didn't know the answer to that. Okay, so what else is going on in the news? I wrote a small article about the basics of a three four three. Now, if you're a coach or a guy that played for many, many years and are technically advanced, you probably will know everything that's in there already. But for the big portion of our audience, there'll be some or all of it that will be brand new to you and it'll help explain why the coach has gone the direction he's gone. I'm not going to break it down again in this particular space. Maybe as the season goes on we might talk about it a bit more, but for now, I will just point you to that article. I think it's pretty decent. It's not too long, just has some visual guides, some visual aids to help you get through the basics of the formation so you know what you're looking at as the season starts. We're not 100% sure, of course, that we are going to see three four three from Dallas, but it looks like we more than likely are since they played it every game so far in the spring with one game to go against DC. Hopefully we'll see that actually be the case because otherwise they wasted a lot of time and we'll have a lot more to say about it, I'm sure as we go forward in the season, other small news items. The Super League, which is the USL's new ladies league that's coming, has been awarded d one status. The DFW team was still listed. They have doubled down that that team is coming. What's somewhat unique about that league is it's going to play on the international schedule, so they're going to start this fall and play a 24 to 25 season. So they'll still have a fall winter spring right to the start of summer season, which aligns with both the european season and the academic school year for students. So that's an interesting move by them and we'll see if it works and how it changes things for them compared to other teams in this country. All right, next, let's see. FC Dallas and the city of Mansfield are doing a deal on a development of some training fields and academy youth type training fields, a mixed use facility down there. Mixed use usually means residential and commercial as well, and a multi use stadium of which FC Dallas will be involved in the design process and the bringing of youth and international tournaments to that complex. So based on all the words in the press releases, it sounds like you're talking about a MoneyGram type facility with a, I assume it doesn't say specifically smallish stadium involved when you're talking about a thing that's mixed use residential, commercial fields for kids and a stadium. The stadium won't be very big. Not many people know that the original plans for MoneyGram included a. I think it was a 5000 seat stadium. So why would FCD Dallas get involved in this deal? Well, one, they've had great success with MoneyGram, so they're probably very happy to replicate that project. But also, they really need a stadium for North Texas. Now, why do I say this is for North Texas? Because the hunts are about to spend $150,000,000 or more on their stadium in Toyota Stadium in Frisco. We know they're making that investment. We know that that plant is moving forward. So FC Dallas is not leaving Frisco. This stadium is for something else. This stadium is, in fact, I believe, for North Texas SC. Among other things. It is a multi use stadium. It's not exclusively for North Texas SC, but a stadium along the lines of 5000 right now is perfect size for them. If it's a 10,000 seater, that's a little big right this minute, but it's not nearly as bad as Choctaw. And the other thing of note in this news endeavor is that the company that's involved with the day to day operations of this stadium is the same one that runs Choctaw. So there's lots of familiarity here and relationship building here. This makes perfect sense. And that stadium in Mansfield is listed to start in 2026, which is the last season that North Texas soccer club will be at Choctaw. So the alignment is there for all that. Speaking of North Texas SC, their new schedule for the season is out. So you can go and check that schedule out if you want to come and hang out with me in Arlington and watch North Texas games. Because I go to all those home games. I love going to those games. I enjoy them quite a bit. It's a little more in my wheelhouse in terms of development and player pathway. I enjoy the environment there and the smaller feel of it quite a bit. Which is not to say that I don't love seat Alice in those games, too, but I really, really enjoy the North Texas stuff. Plus, it's right now quite close to my house. And even in Mansfield, it'll be so close to my house. Okay, I'm just going to keep burning through these topics. Next up, FC Dallas was quite busy this week. They dropped the news of a deal with Benfica. A deal replacing the Bayern Munich relationship for academy development and player development and coach training and that kind of thing. A deal which replaces the Tigris deal, which replaced the cap deal. This is the kind of deal that Dallas has done for years, years and years and years. These are not about first team players. Everyone always wants it to be about the first team player. And yes, Dallas just did a deal with Benfica to bring one of their first team players here and maybe this is part of greasing the wheels to get that player moved on. Maybe. But these kinds of deals are not about first team players. You can't look at this deal and think, great, we're going to get a first team player from Benfica to come to Dallas every year. That's not going to happen. It's not what this is for. This is about academy. So this is about coaching methods, exchanging of ideas, coaches going across, talking about how they conduct programs and such. Ben Vegas got a phenomenal youth academy, outstanding youth academy. There's plenty to be learned from them and I'm sure vice versa. They will look at Alice as a place that players have been developed to and look at their ideas as well. Will we see players go back and forth on the youth level? I don't know. I don't know if we'll see the kind of training where Dallas will take some players over and have them train with Benfica like they did with Bayern Munich. I know that Dallas did not particularly like the way those kinds of things would turn the heads of their players and they would often have trouble with players when they would come back, but not often. That's a little strong. They would occasionally have trouble with players when they came back. But taking players outside of their comfort zone and into familiar environments is very important. So I think you'll see some of that both ways. Actually, I imagine Benfica younger teams might come here from time to time. Maybe they'll come play in some tournaments, Dallas cup perhaps. Maybe you'll see Benfica join in some other things like GA cup or tournaments that MLS is running through this relationship. Maybe you'll see Dallas go send a team or two over to play in something Benfica is involved with, like they did at the Byron Munich campus tournament every year. We don't know 100% the details of this deal yet. The language sounds great. It sounds like exactly the kind of deal that the Dallas had before with Byron. So you shouldn't expect very much difference. So is this good for Dallas? I think it could be. The trick is for Dallas in some ways is that the Hunts have quality and looking for a way to sell players from their academy through north Texas, perhaps through a partner club, perhaps to some of the middle tiers of Europe. Not everything has to be about a $3 million sale to Bayern Munich or $20 million sale to Roma. Sometimes it can be about middle tier guys, guys that want to take a european challenge that maybe aren't good enough for MLS. There's a gap there. There's people that could have gone from the FCL academy that didn't make the MLS team and have made their way in Europe. So how do you facilitate those moves? How do you make profit from those moves? It can be done and you need a partner that is more on your level. And Vica is closer to Dallas than Bayern Munich is and has a great track record and money to be able to do things if they need to. So I feel really optimistic about this deal, about this exchange. The one small thing that made me hesitate a little bit about this deal is that when FCD Dallas announced it at their press conference, the person that was there at the press conference is the Benfica's representative here in the US. It's their us development head. And it wasn't people from Benfica. It wasn't the head of the Benfica academy or their vp of development overall, that did raise a small eyebrow for me that they weren't here for that, but they did have an article about it on their website and some photos. So it is a legit thing and people are talking about it and I think the details of it will be telling. You want the deal to be beneficial for both clubs because you want them to want to stay in it. I think if there's an expectation that from either team that you're going to get a first team player out of it all the time, that's not what this should be for. This should be about becoming better academies and turning your academies into better academies and still continuing to beat among the great academies in the world, which is the idea. So stay tuned. Over time, we'll see if we like this deal a year or two years from now. Like, I think I like it today. Okay, what's next on my list of news? A quick one. Miami apparently is in cap trouble again and needs to dump some salary. And there's a list of couple players that may or may not be available floating around the Internet. I would call them about Campana. I know that Dallas just signed a striker and I know they just signed a rookie, Logan Farrington, who is interesting. But I would call about Campana right this minute and I would find a way to add him if you can. I don't know what you got to do to do that. I don't know whether it means you got to cut somebody or trade somebody or do whatever you would have to do. The salary is not that expensive. It's only a couple hundred thousand more than Eugene Ansa, for example. But I would take Kampala off their hands in a heartbeat. Now, I don't know if that clears enough capital for them, but when you hear about things like this, I would do Colin, and that's all I really want to say about it. I don't think it's likely, but I would sure go after that guy. I know they're getting better, Musa, but doesn't hurt having a second guy around that could play that role and be a positive force for your team. All right, next up, there are some new MLS rules for this year that I think it's important to at least talk about a little bit so you guys have some basic understanding of what they're going to be. One of them is quite simple. The clocks this year are going to inside the stadium are going to run past 45 at halftime and run past 90 at the end of the game. So like when they hold up that five minutes of stoppage time, the clock will go past 90. It'll keep running up so you can watch it and know that it's going to go to about 95. Now, of course, time can continue to be added, so there is that, but I'm really excited to see it continue clicking up and I won't need to grab my phone and start running a stopwatch to know how far we end over time. Small rule change, but I like it. Number two, there's going to be in stadium announcements of VAR rulings. There's not a lot of clarification yet on exactly how it's going to work and what level of explanation they will have. I believe it probably just will be what was under review and which way they ruled, and that's about it. And it'll be up to those of us in the stands to understand it or the tv broadcasters to explain it. But it's nice to hear at least an attempt to get some level explanation for people. That'll be good. And there's a couple of rules they tested in MLS next pro, one of which is that if a player is down on the ground for more than 15 seconds, the referee will bring on the medical crew who are then to take the player off the field immediately, and then the player has to stay off the field and get treatment while they continue to play. Basically, it's the explanation. Get the player off the field so the game can continue and then the other one is the timed substitution rule where the player has 10 seconds to leave the field to play. And if you don't leave the field to play fast enough, then the incoming player will have to wait for a minute while the game resumes. They'll have to wait for a minute on the sideline. So this is to make you get off the field in a hurry and not lolly gag and delay the game and fart around. If you're the player stopping out, you have to jog off the field. And they tested that in MLX next pro and they must have liked it because they even had a stat in their rule change that says something like 95 96% I think it is, of the substitutes were completed in 10 seconds or less. So it is an effective rule, that particular one. And so you can look for those rule changes coming next season to a Major League Soccer field near you. Okay, one more. Let's see what else we got. I did have one person reach out to me about my stance on the true brand hats and how dumb I thought it was. I just wanted to follow it up quickly. I had several people mention that they thought I was right because their kids can't get hats. And that's in the end, a lot of the things are for is for kids and their kids can't get them. One person sent me a note that said, the Texas Rangers do do a ticket promotion with their true brand hats. You can only get them with special tickets. So that is a good piece of information. But what I will say is that the Texas Rangers are not FC Dallas. Texas Rangers are not brand building. Texas Rangers have an established brand and have for a long, long time. They've always been pretty much the highest attended team in Dallas because of the massive number of games. They're coming off a World Series win. Yes, they did it last year, but they were good last year when they did. Can you can see how the hat and all the cool merch that the Rangers use all the time to drive ticket sales for particular games. That stuff's all great and it works for the Rangers. But death seat alice is not the Rangers. FC Dallas is in a world where they're trying to brand build and trying to build a name. There will be people that will look at the Rangers and not have any. Like for example, when the Rangers are doing that FC Dallas collab jersey. I'm sure there'll be lots of people that are like what? There's a soccer team in Arlington in Texas, in north Texas. It's not in Arlington, but you know, what? I mean, I misspoke there, but I just wanted to follow that up and say that while the Rangers do do a special ticket thing, I think those clubs are in very different places and it's not a good comparison. Okay, Kit talk. Two things. First, of course, cocktails, ecclesiastes tomorrow for FC Dallas. I know people that have seen the real thing, and they say that our mock ups are really close. So close enough that if you expect to see anything different than what we did as a mockup, you're going to be disappointed because it's going to be just like the mockup. And then the other jersey, soccer jersey kick Nerd talk is that the Dow psychics are doing a jersey this Thursday night. And if you're hearing this tomorrow, doesn't give you a whole lot of time, but it's a jersey collab with optic gaming. Kind of a cool looking jersey. So if you're looking for a rare, super rare one off jersey that'll be different from anything else out there, there's one for you. That's the one to get that will be in limited quantities and will be pretty damn unique if you can get your hands on one, if you're into that game. All right, that's at about 20 minutes of podcast. I don't really have much else to talk about. There was a lot of news items, but there wasn't a lot to go super deep on most of them. Most of them were just like, here's what's going on. Here's the details we're going to see this weekend, the final game against DC United. That will be the last chance to get your official warm up in place for FC Dallas. They are having an inter squad scrimmage on Saturday between, presumably the people that won't play for FC Dallas against DC United and some section of cross section of North Texas soccer club. But DC is the big final tune up. You want to maintain your rhythm of playing every Saturday. You're going to want to run your first team out as long as you can for 90 minutes. So let's talk about what to look for really quick. Dallas's colombian holding mid that they signed. Sorry, Ecuadorian. Ecuadorian holding mid that they signed is in town finally with the team. I don't know if he'll be cleared to play or not. I seriously doubt that he would walk in and play for the first team against DC United this quickly. You definitely could see him walk in and play for North Texas. And the inner squad scrimmage this quickly. I believe that inner squad scrimmage may even be immediately after the DC game. Don't quote me on that, but if you stick around you might get to see it, perhaps. As far as I know, Petter Musa is not in town yet. I believe he's actually getting married before he comes over sometime this next week and he still has to hold out for his visa, so you won't see him against DC. Hopefully he'll get here by the start of the season, but if not, I'm sure it'll be a week or two later. So the big question, of course, as you watch the DC game is, is the team in a three four three? We're expecting that they will be because of all the scrimmages they play this spring have been. So I don't know why it would not be now. When does Jesus Ferreira come back? We don't know that yet. I don't think it's going to be this DC United game. We'll pass some homicoli back again, unknown. He and Jesus did not go to Europe, so we don't know what their capabilities are or their status is. So who's going to start? You might be looking at the real important questions will be Farrington versus AnsA at the nine. Presumably Paul Ariola underneath is one of the tens and I'm going to guess Sebastian legit is the other. Yara, Mindy and Fraser, presumably because as the double six eight combo, because Paxton will probably still be out, certainly hasn't been training with the team and prior scrimmages. Has Dante Seeley won the left wing back job? Massive question. Is Ima Tuamasi 100% at right back or will it be Herbert Indelay going in that game? Do you try and use Ema and push? His fitness rate seems clear. It's Sam Junka, Nicosia Tafari and Sebastian Nibiaga across the back with Martin Paws and goal and Jimmy Bauer behind. I has reported before and I still am confident my sources are correct and that Antonio career will go on loan. When is that happening? So we're kind of in the final stages of the preseason, final tune ups, final pieces, trying to get guys healthy. What kind of team will dallas feel on opening day? All that will be on display against DC United and hopefully some people will report back or there'll be a stream or there'll be a feed or some way to watch the game if you're not going there in person with a ticket. And if you are, let us know because I will be working, so I will not be able to see it. Third degree the podcast has been brought to you by Soccer 90. Com. Explore the Vats collection of the FCD, Premier League and national team gear, jerseys, hats, scars, and tees. Soccer 90s got all of it, and you can get it on discount now. Not just online, but in store too. 20% off. Just tell them at the counter code. Third degree same code for the website. 20% off. Man, what a great partnership that is. They got all the gear you can want. 20% off code third degree online in person. Some exclusions may apply. All right, that's about it for today's podcast. I know it's a bit shorter than some, but people probably wanted without having someone to bounce ideas back and forth with and answer questions with, I'm kind of left trying to stream of consciousness all these news items. Hopefully you guys enjoy it. I'm sure we will have some final reactions to the DC game and to the start of the season and whatever news items scdls may drop this week because there were a bunch this last week, and we will catch you next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. Somebody come podcast with me, please. [00:23:40] Speaker A: Third degree the third degree Ned podcast. Third degree never cared. Nam.