3rd Degree the Podcast #252

[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. Com. Explore soccer 90s Dallas Burn collection featuring the latest burn gear from Mitchell and Ness, vintage tees, jackets and hoodies. You're going to love these new additions. Hurry. Limited stock available. And don't forget, third degree listeners, you get 20% off and use the code third degree at checkout soccernet.com. Some exclusions may apply. Third Degree the podcast is also brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm for Willstrust, probate and business law. Call 469-515-2559 that's 469-515-2559 or visit lindstromlawfirm.com for a free consultation. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. This one is numbered 252 and also a victory podcast as FC Dallas wins over San Jose in the 2024 season opener, two to one. And joining me, of course, is the normal duo of my very best FC Dallas soccer talking friends. First off, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:37] Speaker C: Hello. Hello. [00:01:39] Speaker A: You sound well. [00:01:41] Speaker C: Yeah, considering I've got Erling Harland PTSD. [00:01:45] Speaker A: Boy, do you. I read somewhere today that Luton was the only team left that they had played that he had not scored against. And so he blew five past him today. [00:01:55] Speaker C: Yeah, now we're the joint most scored against by him, but he still hasn't scored against us in the league. That's the main thing. [00:02:02] Speaker A: You got something to hold on to. Good for you. Your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero. There he is, the editor, founder of Third Degree. Net and the original soccer influencer, Buzz Carrick. Howdy, Buzz. Come in, Buzz. [00:02:17] Speaker B: Hi, fellas. I've been sitting here trying to think of something quippy to say and I got nothing. [00:02:21] Speaker A: Why don't you just go ahead and tell everybody what your sweet nickname for your wife is? [00:02:27] Speaker B: She doesn't have one. [00:02:29] Speaker A: Is it schnooker puddles? [00:02:31] Speaker B: No. I do occasionally call her Snake. [00:02:35] Speaker A: Just weird. [00:02:36] Speaker B: Well, she's really cold blooded, so it'll be 78 degrees inside the house in the summer and she'll still have on a sweatshirt and a blanket sitting on the sofa. I jokingly started calling her snake because. [00:02:47] Speaker A: That'S an awful marriage nickname. [00:02:49] Speaker B: Well, that's not a cutie pie nickname. That's just a let's go, snake when you get out of here. [00:02:56] Speaker A: Well, that wasn't the question. We want to know what you're is. [00:03:01] Speaker C: That how you celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Let's go make. [00:03:08] Speaker A: All right. [00:03:08] Speaker B: We're all. [00:03:09] Speaker A: We're all giggles, guys, because we've started the season on a high with a big win against a team that Dallas typically has some issues with. And it was a good night home game and we got to see the new formation in action. It scares the shit out of me, buzz, but why don't you just kind of run through it for everybody, please? [00:03:29] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you raised some valid points the week before and I think those points are all still very valid. It's definitely a work in progress. There definitely are some things that will need to get better. But again, it's game one and coach pointed out it was game one and he's not wrong about that. It's going to have some growing pains in this particular game. Some of the things we were worried about came absolutely to fruition. There are a couple of things that are going to get better probably right away, just because you can have different personnel available, but we'll see how it goes. I'm particularly curious to see how teams react to it when they see it a second time. When you sort of get to midseason and people have tape on you and then are going to be less surprised by what you're doing. That'll be really interesting to see how that shakes out. But overall, the key takeaway is that the coach wanted more offense this year and he got it. He got 22 shots on goal. So I think macro level, mission accomplished. It worked like it was intended. [00:04:28] Speaker A: Dan, were they two Martin paws saves away from disaster? [00:04:33] Speaker C: I mean, when are they not? Yeah, it's that gamble, right? You compromise defense a little bit for 21 shots, nine on target. That's four more than any game last season. One more shot on target than any game last season. There was something else that was more than any game last season, and I've completely forgotten what it was, but I actually weirdly had a chance to speak to Nico after the press conference because I bumped into him in the hallway and he was absolutely beaming about the attacking opportunities. I thought the way they pressed through the game was exactly kind of what you want to see out of that style. Certainly some issues with bulls in between Ibiaga and Endelay. Endele got caught up quite a bit, couldn't quite figure out receiving passes, where to let it run across his body. Obviously, we've all read the breakdown that Buzz did. We know exactly kind of the 80% effort of Dante Sealy and kind of where that's a work in progress. But, yeah, I mean, net result was good. [00:05:50] Speaker A: Okay, Buzz, did they play well? Did Dallas play well in this game? [00:05:54] Speaker B: No, because it's a first game, though, so it's okay that it's not fallace. And one of the things you can point to most directly, for example, would be the large volume of shots is really nice, but only nine of them, I think it was, were on target. Obviously, that's not as high percentage as you would like for a team that is traditionally a better finishing team. But then consider that one of the most clinical finishes they have. Jesus Ferreira was not in the game. The $10 million striker you have coming, who you would assume is going to be a pretty prolific shot on goal ratio kind of guy, also will help that. Just playing together more is going to help that. So there are some cracks that were not ideal, but nothing that was like, oh, my gosh, this is a huge ginormous problem. A couple of small things, but things that will work out, I think, over time via personnel or via just comfort level, working in a formation together. I wouldn't want to draw a real strong opinion about a formation from one game. You really need to run quite a few games in it before you really are going to be able to say whether this is a good idea or not in the long run. [00:07:01] Speaker A: Okay. But I think if we're all just being honest with ourselves, the glaring issue is the wingback position. [00:07:08] Speaker B: Yes. [00:07:09] Speaker A: And Dante Seeley and Endelay's issues, both being very young, very inexperienced players, I think a lot of that showed in the opener. It was great that Dante got the winner. That was fantastic. But leading up to that, there were clearly lots of issues with those two guys. So my question is, does Nico have an alternative for those positions that will give him what he wants to get out of Sealy and Endelay, and also maybe a little bit better defensive work as well. [00:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah, well, he and I talked a little bit today about how personnel might change in those roles when you go on the road. We talked a little bit about who you can use in those spots. And that guy could do this in a home game, the other guy may do this in a road game. So there will be some personnel issues like that. One of the key things about this that I sort of was watching happen, and I wasn't sure how much it was intended. And coach says that they're actually running a little bit of a hybrid back three in the sense, and this is actually a page out of the Oscar Pera playbook that when one of the wingbacks releases forward and attacks forward. The other one is supposed to not go, he's supposed to slide and it becomes a four, essentially. So we saw a lot more of indole doing that correctly where he was coming back and Junko was coming over and it was bouncing the shape when Seeley was going. Seeley did not do as good a job of getting back and being that guy on the outside and sliding and letting the whole thing slide the other way. When Andele went forward, now middlely, Endele went forward a lot less than of that. Some of the failures of that, and particularly the first goal, you can clearly see that happen where Sealy is up and you could say, and I did say that Sealy needed to have busted his tail to get back there. And Junka comes across late. Well, Junka was supposed to be coming across some in certain scenarios. And so whether Junka was expecting Cele to come back or whether Junka should have been over there earlier, it's hard to really say. Nobody is 100% fault on that first goal. Endele didn't track his guy all the way to the back post. Yara Mindy sort of overcompensated for Junga being out of shape and lost his track. So the two central mid guys weren't sitting deep enough on top of that shape. So it's not just the one guy that's not getting back necessarily. All those things are kinks that will get better over time as they get used to this idea, this fluid back three that they're playing. So 100% yes, there are issues with those two specific guys at outside back. Those are home guys that are both very offensive. You might see a very different set on the road and with time, hopefully across our fingers, it'll all get better. [00:10:06] Speaker A: But I don't know if you answered my question. [00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I tried to. [00:10:12] Speaker A: Do they on the roster right now have the right players to play this position correctly? I think maybe I didn't ask the question. [00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah, clearly. [00:10:23] Speaker A: Sorry. [00:10:24] Speaker B: Yeah, no, no, you did. I think I just didn't quite answer what you specifically were asking. Farfay being hurt doesn't help. Parker not being in the mix really doesn't help so effectively on the left side. You're stuck at this point with Sealy. I don't know that Farfan has the offensive game really to play that formation. Ideally his a lot more likely you'll see him on the know when you need a much more defensive mindset. I think there are some crazy options of people you could see at that spot down the that as guys get, so. But nothing right now on that side. On the other side, Emoto Maasi is the most balanced player that you have in terms of being physically fit and healthy, in a sense of like, he's cleared to play. He's not 90 minutes game fit. So right now it's almost interlay bit by default. The guy that has the ideal profile for that spot is Giovanni J. Zeus, but obviously he won't be out till midseason. And then again, I watched today, I watched Bernie try and play that spot again. So another guy, they're trying to adapt. So definitely 100% at this point, they do not have a refined, complete player at either wingback position. Everybody is either a project or is a guy that doesn't perfectly fit the profile in those positions at this stage of the season anyway. [00:11:39] Speaker A: Okay. Hence why the formation scares the shit out of me. [00:11:43] Speaker B: Yeah, and you raised that point last week, and that point is still true. It's still definitely true that it's not ideal. And I think that the hybridness of what they're doing is part of a reaction to that, that they know that particularly at home, when they use those two kids that are very offensive, that they need help behind sometimes and they need to adjust back. And again, the idea that one of them or the other needs to be getting back, neither one of them got back enough or early enough or got forward early enough. They both hesitated. They both weren't as proactive up and down. I mean, I said before to somebody, like, if you're not puking your guts out at 60 minutes, you're not playing wingback, right? You need to be moving up and down the field, up and down the field, up and down the field. You don't have to sprint the whole time. [00:12:25] Speaker A: It's such a demanding, oh, my gosh, physical and mental position. Know, to put two guys so young and count on them to do it, it just feels really risky. Here's a crazy idea. Once he's healthy, could Farfan play left center back and junka play wing back? [00:12:47] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe junka gets better. [00:12:51] Speaker A: Feel like he's, I feel like he's got a skill set to play that position. I guess that leaves you with a problem at center back. But that's also a larger question about the roster as it stands. Right? [00:13:02] Speaker B: Know, I think coach, if things aren't going the way he wants, eventually he'll try some other things. I mean, obviously, you could start Omar and put Nicosia left center back and then put junk outside. For example, if you really were trying to find some other, you know, there's other things you could try. I don't think that he's necessarily feeling. I mean, he was relatively happy with Sealy. Actually, when I asked him about him, I thought he would be a little more negative. [00:13:26] Speaker A: He did score the winning goal. It's probably hard to say anything negative about Dante. [00:13:30] Speaker B: Well, listen, Dante Sealy, his whole career has been a guy who's gotten away with 80% effort, but he's so skilled that he has a moment that does what he does and he scores a goal. That's his whole career. It's the reason why he's not a PSV anymore, though, right? So if you're looking at an MLS lifer, if he keeps playing like this, if he doesn't change his ways, you don't have to sprint the whole game, but you have to, at times recognize the moments that you do need to be 100% all out and not 80%. The fact that the central mid outran you as a wingback in distance covered to me is mind boggling. [00:14:05] Speaker A: Wait, say that again. [00:14:07] Speaker B: Yaramundi ran more distance than Sealy did. [00:14:12] Speaker A: Is that even possible? [00:14:13] Speaker B: They touted that 8. Whatever it was that Yar ran was the most on the team. [00:14:19] Speaker A: Elara, by the way, was fantastic. [00:14:21] Speaker B: He was. We'll come back to that. [00:14:23] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll come back. We're talking about young, inexperienced kids and my biggest shocking takeaway from this game. And you've been trying to prepare us for this for the last couple of weeks. That has to be the single most impressive debut of a draft pick in a Dallas jersey in the history of this club. I told Logan Farrington, yeah, I mean, the only thing he didn't do, Dan, that night was score a goal. [00:14:51] Speaker C: He snatched his chances a little bit. Got to speak to him after the know. Just said his big takeaway was, it's a lot different. In college. I thought his hold up play was fantastic. It was kind of like a lot what we saw in that into Miami friendly, just being able to make space to bring other people into play, whether it's holding up or turning the defender, trying to kind of pull them out of position and bring other players into the game. [00:15:23] Speaker A: How much did you love seeing a guy in his debut take a shot from the top of the box and put it on frame? That was great. I loved seeing that. That was fantastic. [00:15:36] Speaker C: Yeah. It's such a confidence position to see someone just come in off the draft and just be like, okay, yeah, cool. I'm replacing the two dps. Great. I'll go with it. [00:15:48] Speaker A: Cool. It is weird, buzz, that in one game we saw somebody play the nine position better as a rookie draft pick than the last $2 million veteran DP signings that were in that same position. [00:16:06] Speaker B: Yeah, but that's exactly what everybody who had watched him in college said about him, right? That he was a very smart player and knew how to play the position correctly. I don't think that that came across in the tape that I watched. Like as Dan and I both watched that tape of him. The Hawkins highlight. Know, it looks like a guy who could score college goals. What you couldn't see was the larger team concept stuff that he already knows how to do. And that's what, you know, a week ago when I was talking about, you know, at this is the most advanced player at this stage that they've ever drafted as a striker out of college. There have been guys that have become better eventually than he is right now, but who knows what he's going to look like in a year or two years. He may outpace all those guys. Jason Christ as a rookie compared to Jason Christ in year five was a very different animal. So it's exciting to have a player to be that well rounded, that well dialed in. Obviously, he's about to lose a lot of playing time, so we'll see how it goes. But it certainly is. Think of the minutes that. [00:17:07] Speaker A: Hold on, wait a second. He's about to lose a lot of playing time. Let me knock on some wood here first. [00:17:10] Speaker B: Yeah, knock on wood. But think of the minutes that we saw over the last several seasons between Frank O'Hara and Jesus Jimenez play. Think of the minutes that are available for the second choice striker and it's going to be hammer Ansa. And I think right now we all know who the choice is going to be. And so there's going to be plenty of minutes and plenty of opportunity for him to do good things. Things. Because I'm sure he'll, one hopes, understand the circumstances of what happens when a team buys a $10 million striker. And you're a rookie, you know what's going to happen. But that doesn't mean he's not going to compete. He seems to be a very level headed kid from what I've seen. [00:17:43] Speaker C: It's probably worth pointing out when we did watch that tape of him in college, a lot of what he was doing was dropping out wide, bringing other people into play. And that front three, being at the head of that is absolutely perfect because he can drop out left and Ariola can come inside oh, sorry. Outright I guess. No left. He can drift out wide. Kamunga come into it. It very much suits his style. Just like it. It's going to be really key for Jesus how he plays the nine too. Even though they're completely different profiles of nines. [00:18:19] Speaker A: It is crazy that this all happened without Jesus or makes. I obviously should make everybody excited to see where this thing could possibly go and improve from here. I also have a life goal now, Buzz, and that is to match you in giving a player a nickname that carries on to an international playing career. [00:18:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:46] Speaker A: And I have Logan's already queued up ready to go. [00:18:49] Speaker B: Oh, do you? There's a pretty good one floating already. What do you got? [00:18:51] Speaker A: What is the one that's floating around the Beaverine? Oh, well, I called him Beaver last week. Yeah, I was going to change it to Big Beaver. Big Beaver's pretty because he's a big dude, right? [00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah, Big Beaver. [00:19:04] Speaker A: And I just think Big Beaver is a good one and maybe I'd end up getting a big Beaver tattoo someday. [00:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it's one of those big brown Beaver if you're a Primus fan, right? Yeah. So the Beaverin was the combination of Wolverine and Beaver. Oh, because he didn't go to Michigan. [00:19:19] Speaker A: He's a Beaver and Logan for Wolverine. [00:19:21] Speaker B: Logan. [00:19:22] Speaker A: That is pretty good. I like beavering. [00:19:23] Speaker B: I did not come up with that. Somebody in our discord did. I have to figure out who did that so we can give him credit if it catches on. [00:19:28] Speaker A: I think I like Big Beaver better. [00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah, they both work. I'm still holding out for Moose and squirrel with a face and moves that do good things together. [00:19:38] Speaker A: Well, let's talk a little bit about Alara, who really showed his class. Look, here's the thing. There are aspects of this team and roster right now that I don't know if fragile is the right word, but there are clearly like the wingback position overall is an the, the lack of depth at center back is an alara. If Alara goes down or is out for any period of time, I think that really is going to change the team quite a bit. [00:20:13] Speaker B: Yeah, he does some things that nobody else really does in there. I'm hoping obviously players can learn from him. Interestingly, that stat that he ran the most distance and people were playing, that was a great thing at 8. Had two thoughts about that was one is I don't know that I want my 34 year old cinema to be running the most of my team. [00:20:31] Speaker A: But the other thing is that enjoy it in February. [00:20:34] Speaker B: Yeah. The other thing about that is twofold is one, is what Messi says, which is it's not like he was sprinting. Right. He's just moving and jogging. And in hindsight, actually, eight is actually low for your most moving player. Central mids often run well over ten, sometimes up to twelve or 13, depending on what team you're playing for. Like Nico cited to me a game he was watching the other day, I think it was Liverpool, where he said the two central mids ran 12. He talked about when he was at coaching in Spain way back when, when they had one of the teams he was with, he wasn't the head coach, but he was with a team when they ran, their midfielders ran like crazy and they won the league. And then after he had gone, he wasn't taking responsibility, he was just telling example from his own background. Those players had stopped running as much a few years later and the team fell quickly down the standings. And the point is, when you're in that central midfield world, you really do have to cover a lot of ground. Yeah, the double pivot helps that. And I think if you'll have er with Paxton. Paxton should do more of the running than era will because right now Fraser is doing more of the holding and era is doing more of the moving. So I think that'll balance out over time. But generally speaking, eight is not that high. So compared to these full field citrus do at the pro level. So it only bothered me that it's like, oh, he's 34, it's going to be 110 in a week and a half from now. I mean, it snowed today, but it's going to be 110 in two weeks. So I am slightly worried about it in that regard, but I'm obviously the ability. [00:22:06] Speaker A: Well, it didn't feel like he ran that much when you threw out that stat of him being the highest runner. I was blown away because if you had asked me to guess who it was, I would have never put him, or Fraser, for that matter. I just felt like they did a really good job of kind of staying in a particular set area. And I never got the sense that they were covering acres of ground like that, mostly. [00:22:29] Speaker B: But I noticed Yaramini getting forward quite a bit into zone 14. He was doing a lot of that. I think a lot of that was because Bernie was playing one of the tens and Bernie doesn't know how to ten yet on this team. So, like I talked about in our discord, where I talked about, there are adaptations that would have to be made because of Bernie and someone would need to fill that zone 14 position, that half space. Yarmini was clearly doing it. Now whether that was the plan or not, Yarmini recognized that that was a problem and he took care of it. Maybe he'll do a little bit less of that with these paired with the packs and maybe in the future or maybe he does need to continue to do that much. I mean, again, eight to ten is sort of. Eight is a little on the low side. You'd think it would be more like ten, actually. [00:23:10] Speaker A: All right. You brought up Bernie. Yeah, I was really disappointed in Bernie's performance and I was prepared for him to struggle in a position that really doesn't play to his strong suit. But I was really surprised at the. And I hate this is going to be probably unfair to describe it this way, but it was the thing that came to mind as it was going on in the game. He had a bit of obrion antics going on, complaining at the referee, sitting on the ground, not getting back up and getting on with it. And that was not something I remember ever seeing out of him before, which tells me he's frustrated with his role that he's been asked to do. [00:23:49] Speaker B: Well, it may not be the role. He's definitely frustrated that he doesn't know what to do with it. The game at this point, this is the way I see it when he's in that spot, the game is moving too fast for his understanding of that particular position. So it's like swirling around him and he's lost mentally. On the mental side now, he's still a good player, so he does some good things when he gets the ball. And he did have some. He had two for three take ons, I think like 910 duels. He still fought hard. He still battled, he still did some good stuff. I just felt really bad for him because he clearly was completely lost in terms of the tactical idea and was getting really frustrated and I think people recognize that. I don't think anyone will hold it against him. [00:24:31] Speaker A: So you surprised that he started over legit, couldn't legit play that position? [00:24:38] Speaker B: I think that. I think there's a calculation there that Bernie is a young guy who has a lot of upside that you think can really help you in the long run. And it's understandable that his profile right now doesn't fit any of the particular things that you're doing tactically. You need to figure out or have him learn at least a profile that can fit that thing or your team is going to suffer for it. You could go with legit because that would be better today. But you don't care about better today, you care about better at the end of the season. So that's why I think Bernie started and I think they'll continue to try and play Bernie in a couple of spots as they try and get him dialed in, because he's basically either been like a high over the top nine or like a wide slashing wing, and that's pretty much all he's ever done. So asking him to be this ten underneath or a wingback or whatever else you're going to try and do with him, he's going to be lost for a while. But you'll just have to growing pains it and they'll have to just put up with the growing pains for a while. So I thought it would be legit because I thought you'd want to try and go all in on winning game one. But I totally understand why they didn't. In hindsight, Dan, I think one thing. [00:25:48] Speaker C: With Legit as well is you've got, er, Amendi and Fraser starting Legit's your really only other high level midfielder. With Paxton out briefly, Norris obviously is between positions right now. [00:26:05] Speaker B: Siki wasn't there, too. [00:26:07] Speaker C: Yeah, Siki's obviously got his green card stuff going on, so the last thing you need is legit starting. Absolutely blowing out of his ass and then one of the two center mids goes down. [00:26:20] Speaker A: Yeah, good point. Hadn't thought about that. Dan, after game one, what is your comfort level with the three man back line? [00:26:33] Speaker C: Oh, we all like living dangerously, don't we? Yeah. It's not even the three man back line for me. It goes back to the wingbacks, as Buzz mentioned. Right. You had the whole thing of Sealy goes, Endele tucks in and obviously sitting up higher for the know. You definitely got a better visual of. [00:27:06] Speaker B: Know. [00:27:07] Speaker C: Endele did that pretty well when Tomasi came, was he was at home doing that. But there were a couple of times where a ball was just played over the top to. I can't remember the fella's name. Was it Kikanovic who absolutely roasted Ibiyaga just in that half space between where Endele should be if he's not caught upfield and where Ibiaga is now, you've got Tafarai, great pace, can recover well, you've got junko can pull over himself and kind of. That sounded wrong. He can tuck inside a bit further. That still sounded wrong. [00:27:46] Speaker A: Wow. [00:27:46] Speaker C: I'm two for two. He can cover. I don't know unless you had another really fast defender, which FCD Dallas hasn't really had since Walker Zimmerman before Tafari. I'm not really sure what the options are or if you just play a little deeper or is it just a case? You know, San Jose had one really quick player and a way to get the ball to him. Not everyone's going to do that. [00:28:15] Speaker A: I mean, Buzz isn't the way to attack Dallas, at least just on the first eyeball test, is to just plant somebody high in between whoever's playing right wing back and just. And just exploit that space, because that feels to me that's the softest spot right now. [00:28:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's where Christian Espinoza was for San Jose, but on the opposite, like Junka and Sealy, other than that first goal, for the most part, I think did okay with him. But that same idea on the other know, because Endolay is going to be really uncomfortable for a long time, and Ibiaga doesn't have the explosive recovery pace. He's relatively fast in the sense that he's not slow, but he's definitely not like bursty or quick or rangy anymore. Father times undefeated. [00:29:07] Speaker A: Well, I'm thinking of that late opportunity for San Jose that Martin had to make the amazing save on, where somebody just played a ball to a guy and he just ran past Ibiaga and. [00:29:18] Speaker B: Well, there's a factor there that we can save till we get to the training port or we can do it now. [00:29:24] Speaker A: Okay. What are you getting to the player that was not at training today? [00:29:29] Speaker B: Yep. [00:29:31] Speaker A: Well, go ahead. I guess we can do. Yeah. [00:29:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So Ibiaga, at the end of the game, had a calf issue, which is why those late runs he was getting. He's. He's basically has been out through today. He was out. He's being evaluated. Of course, coach did not seem real optimistic that he would be available this weekend, but there's a chance. But again, it's Wednesday already. You know how this coach is. If you can't go on Wednesday, you're probably not going to go on the weekend unless you're Aces Ferreira. Okay. So I think you could call Ibioga questionable for sure, and maybe he might be outright out for this game, and then we'll see what happens next week. So that was a little bit of a factor into why he was struggling, particularly late on those runs. But again, losing, coming up lame later in a game and breaking down later in a game as you're getting older, that's a part of it. That's a part of father time. Catching up with you, having Ibiagi play 90 minutes week after week after week is not good at all. [00:30:28] Speaker A: Right? [00:30:29] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it was bring chicken Omar Gonzalez in. [00:30:33] Speaker B: Yeah, right. [00:30:34] Speaker A: Well, we'll talk about that here. [00:30:36] Speaker B: We'll get there. [00:30:36] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Well, a fantastic goal. We didn't mention it, but the fantastic strike by Elara to open the scoring. [00:30:44] Speaker B: As he's being dragged down by the. [00:30:48] Speaker A: Office, I mean, every element of that was great. He's a fantastic fine in addition to the club, and we love having him on there. Anything else about the game in particular and the win that we should get into in terms of players or tactics or anything like that? [00:31:06] Speaker B: Well, I thought Nikosi Tafari was just, again, tremendous covering up for everybody leadership wise. I mean, the level he's at defensively compared to everybody else. Junka is serviceable. Maybe when he's 100% is serviceable. Nakosi Tafari is a different level. He's an elite defender and he showed it again. And he's an elite leader at this point, too. Just everything he's doing for me is just pure class at this point. And I think he really is in the conversations for some of the best center backs in the league. Honestly, I wish he would get more respect around the league than he does. [00:31:39] Speaker A: Was he on the Nations League call up list today? [00:31:43] Speaker B: No, I didn't think to look, he was in the camp cupcake, but, yeah, I knew that in current terms. [00:31:48] Speaker C: No, he wasn't. It was only Ferreira and Kamungo. [00:31:50] Speaker A: Okay. All right, well, that's disappointing. [00:31:54] Speaker C: With Tafari, there was a stat that kind of stuck out to me. Recoveries eramendi 14, Tafarai, 14. Next highest Sealy was six. [00:32:06] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. [00:32:11] Speaker C: Well, you say that, but the rest of the team combined for what, maybe 15 between them. Other than those three players, it's just the level of activity that you've got between and tafari there. [00:32:27] Speaker B: Yeah, incredible. [00:32:28] Speaker A: Interesting. All right, well, hey, look, win is a win. Three points are the same shape. No matter how you get them, they're still three points. And it was a good way to start the season. I will throw this out here real quickly and ask you guys for your reaction since we got to see them in person for the first time. I think those are really cool looking kits in a vacuum, but those are no way, shape or form a Dallas kit. [00:32:57] Speaker B: I still feel exactly the same as last time that I think it's a great jersey, but it's not an Essie Dallas jersey. I mean, some people think it is. [00:33:05] Speaker A: But, like, is it me or is it even more blue overall than we thought it was? [00:33:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I thought it looked more blue, less purple. It just looked like a two thirds blue jersey for the most part. [00:33:21] Speaker A: And when you throw the shorts and the socks in, it's like a totally a navy kit with a red accent. [00:33:27] Speaker B: Yeah. My favorite thing about it, actually, was when the whole team would be moving in an offensive direction. They're 100% solid blue, and then the team would transition. The whole team would turn back like a fish. The whole thing would go and they would all be red. That was my favorite thing about it. [00:33:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't like the back on that thing at all. [00:33:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, at least it's red. Look, I've said my bit. People aren't going to get sick of me talking about it, but it's like you didn't have a strong brand anyway in terms of your kit design, but you threw all that out the window and it's red and blue and white. I mean, I give you that. So I guess that's it. Day. [00:34:06] Speaker A: What was the percentage of people in the stands wearing it? [00:34:09] Speaker B: I did not notice it nearly. When they did the Ranger powder blue kit, it was clearly obvious that everybody went and bought it and immediately put it on. This one was not as obvious to me. But then it's just a blue kit with some blue and red kits, so it's like, there's a lot of blue and red kits in the building, so I didn't notice it at a high percentage. But admittedly, people had trouble picking up their season ticket holder kits or whatever, so maybe it'll be more next game. [00:34:35] Speaker A: Okay. [00:34:36] Speaker B: Again, it's a nice kit by itself, but that's the problem. By itself, it's a problem. [00:34:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:41] Speaker B: Mumble. Mumble, old man. [00:34:42] Speaker A: All right. Well, clouds, hopefully it gets better from here. We'll talk about the game against Montreal here in a second. You did go to training. You did mention that Ibiaga appears to be the guy that was missing and maybe missing this particular weekend. But really, Buzz, all anybody wants to know is, what's Buzz's first impression of the moose? [00:35:04] Speaker B: Do you remember when Cobra showed up here and I told you that the first session I watched, like five minutes in, I was like, oh, no. And then ten minutes in I was like, oh, no. And it was awful. And I told you guys on the pod, I was like, yeah, that was crap. The guy sucks. Remember that? [00:35:23] Speaker A: Oh, yes. [00:35:24] Speaker B: What's the opposite of that? Because that's what this is. [00:35:26] Speaker A: Yes. [00:35:30] Speaker B: Look, he's been here two days, but words like clinical, decisive, ruthless, affecting, it's all there. I mean, the complete package is there. Now, it could turn out that he's a total moron and sucks at soccer anyway. But in training, he's dynamic, obvious in terms of it's affecting the game around him. [00:35:57] Speaker A: He looks huge, tall, not like me. [00:36:02] Speaker B: He's just short of Omar Gonzalez in height. He is definitely not fat. Coach said that he was working with a personal trainer and personal coach before he came over and that he was taping the sessions and sending the session tapes to them so they could see what he was doing and knowing that he would be fit. So I talked to coach specifically and I said, can you start him this weekend? And he said, yes, I can. [00:36:30] Speaker A: Wow. [00:36:31] Speaker B: It'll just come down to how many minutes they think he can go. And do they think he's integrating with the team? And based on what I saw, I think the answer to the second part of that is yes. So then it'll just be like, okay, do I think I can get more than a half out of him? If I can get more than a half out of probably then he'll probably start. And if you can't, then you just bring him off the bench in the second half. So we'll see how it goes. [00:36:55] Speaker A: But, Dan, did you happen to go today, too? [00:36:59] Speaker C: I didn't. [00:37:00] Speaker A: Okay. Buzz, did he do anything or show any particular trait or skill set that surprised you or really caught your eye? [00:37:09] Speaker B: He's tidier on the ball than I think, based on the tape I saw, and it's quite understandable, perhaps that when he's playing for some of these top end of the portuguese league, that the space might be a little tighter than it is in MLS training. In the middle of the looked, the ball wasn't loose, the ball stuck with him fairly well. I really liked that because I was expecting a big, tall, lanky striker to be pretty loose with the ball, and he wasn't. So he's classier touch than I was anticipating. That was the thing that was surprised me the most. But everything that's on the tape is there in real life. So this is obviously a player that clearly is worth. I'm not going to say what they paid for him because that's hard to judge, but clearly it's a guy that knows that he's good, and everybody around him knows that he's good, and they can tell that he's good. And there was no. You can tell when players think a dude sucks. This was not that this had an aura, if you will, and I tried to get overly excited, but a lot of times when I see these foreign players come in within that first session, I'm like, at this time, I was like, oh, that's lovely. Yes, please do more of that. [00:38:25] Speaker A: That's gross talking like that, bud. [00:38:29] Speaker C: I do wonder how much it, you know, there's always the communication. Nico and the coaches can give him a plan to work know while he's in Croatia or in Portugal, wherever he was kind of based out of at the time. But he did get that week with the team in Spain. He is an EU national. He's able to work there. They were there, so there's no need for the ITC or the visa for him to train with the team. [00:38:59] Speaker B: Yeah, that probably was an invaluable know. Based on what I watched today, I did not see any questions with integration into the team. Coach is obviously thinking of those things at a much higher level than we do on this podcast or that we talk about in this podcast. So I'm fairly comfortable with the idea that you could start him right away. I even asked coach, I said, do you worry at all about, I don't know what you would call, like, player politics, that a guy could theoretically walk in and start, and he's like, no, because everyone in this team recognizes what this team paid to get him, recognizes what level he came from, and recognizes that he's coming here with the idea that he's going to be starting. Everybody knows that already, and so they all knew when he came in, it was going to be a big deal. And in this particular case, what matters is, do you live up to that expectation? That's what people react to negatively or. I think, you know, it's only been a couple of days, plus the time in Spain and the way everyone was treating him, it's pretty clear that he is living up to those expectations. To me, as a partial occasional observer, it seems clear that he is. [00:40:13] Speaker A: Well, it is all exciting. [00:40:15] Speaker B: It's very exciting, to be honest. [00:40:17] Speaker A: Shiny new. [00:40:19] Speaker B: And when you combine it with Jesus Ferreira being back full time in training, too, that's pretty exciting. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, so let's talk about that. What is the injury status of him and Paxton and anybody else we need to worry about before we start talking about starting eleven s for Saturday? [00:40:34] Speaker B: Sure. Well, Jesus is back, and so is Paxton in full time training. Paxton looks great. He always works really hard. Not fat at all. He looks terrific. Those photos the other day, the one that we were laughing about, was clearly misleading, but I knew that because I had seen him a month before. I was afraid that he had had some sort of setback and had sat around. I don't think so. He looks terrific. He's moving really well. Now, Paxton always works really hard in training, so he always looks really good compared to everybody else. You compare that to Jesus, for example, who's more of the rowing Hong's head school of training, which is like, I'm happy to be training, but don't ask me to do very much. I'm going to turn it on in the know. Which is not to say that he's lazy. Neither was Ryan, but they're not like Paxton, who runs through walls in training. So Jesus looks like Jesus always does. Funny enough, it's probably less likely that you'll see Paxton just because of the people that are available at those positions. What else is worth talking about in terms of injury? Ibiaga, I mentioned, is probably out. Corsia, as I mentioned, is out. He was running on the side doing rehab, but he's probably got two more weeks, at least, maybe three, before he'll be back. [00:41:44] Speaker A: So, question. [00:41:45] Speaker B: Uh huh. [00:41:46] Speaker A: If Ibiaga is out and Corcha is. [00:41:50] Speaker B: Yep. [00:41:51] Speaker A: What is the center back situation? [00:41:54] Speaker B: Well, today they called up Carl Sante from north Texas, who's a six, and he played centerback, which he does quite often. And, dan, you'll understand what this means. He had on fc to health gear. Oh, it's not north Texas gear. So one of the first signs that we use to know a player has been signed is that they change gear, that they get first team gear instead of north Texas gear. [00:42:22] Speaker A: That's right. I remember. [00:42:22] Speaker B: It's not definitive, but, like, for example, Michael Collodi, who's the north Texas keeper, was with the first team today. He's wearing north Texas gear. Carl sante was wearing Dal's gear. So I'm not saying anything. I'm just saying these are one of the signs that we use. So he was up and he played center back. Imitumasi played center back. So, like, that group was like, wait. [00:42:47] Speaker A: So is this a hint that possibly, if Dallas is thinking about adding depth at center back, this is their solution? [00:42:57] Speaker B: Well, it could be, because if you only need it short term, you can just bring a guy up for short term loan like they've done before with sending backs from that. [00:43:06] Speaker A: Yeah, but that's not what we want them to. [00:43:08] Speaker B: I'm just. I know, but that's what I want them to do is not what they're just too. I like to live in reality. [00:43:14] Speaker A: Is Carl Sante worth even having a discussion as a viable option at center back at MLS level? [00:43:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I like him better as a center back than I do a six. He'd be a death piece. He'd be like Corcha. You wouldn't be excited to see him start, but he's a 20 year old, 21 year old that starts for Haiti all the time. He's an international, plays in gold cups and stuff. He's got some potential. I like him better in the back because he can be a little less tidy back there and be fine. But like I said, emotomasi played center back could, as you've mentioned, Farfan could be an option at center back when he's healthy. [00:43:54] Speaker A: Farfan is still out, correct? [00:43:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I believe so. I'd have to look at my notes specifically, but I don't remember for sure where to put my notes. I'll find them here in a second. Yeah, listen, I mean, at this point, the front line is almost surely going to be Jonka Omar Gonzalez and Nikosi Tafare at back because I don't think he's going to be back. So those are going to be your starters and then behind that will be Ema Nolan Norris. Nolan Norris is an option there. Farfan if he's cleared, Carl Santa if they sign mean that's what you're looking know. None of them are ideal, and it underscores the idea we were talking about all spring, that they're missing a center back. Even once you put like you remember my whole thing about Jong as a center back that solved my roster build problem. But we've said quite clearly, if you're going to play three at the back, it's not just five, you need six. So they're still short of center back even when everybody's healthy. In my humble opinion, that's the case. So they're going to be basically down to no actual real center backs on the bench, as near as I could tell this weekend. [00:45:03] Speaker A: All right, well, it feels like this is a good time to seg into Buzz's prediction of a starting eleven versus Montreal. Brought to you by soccer 90. Com. [00:45:12] Speaker B: Yeah, well, pause is obviously in that. Like I just said, jonka, Omar Gonzalez will start in the middle because of his experience and Nakosi will be on the right. That helps you compensate for whatever you're going to do at right wing back. Left wing back will be Seeley. Really, there's no other option at this point. It's going to be Sealy until Farfetch gets cleared as maybe an option, but again, Farfetch might be more likely to happen on the road than at home. Right wing back. I think there's a good chance that they'll try Bernie at right wing back because it is a home game and I looked away, Montreal plays and Montreal lined up as a three four three also, which means that on the outside, there's not going to be like an outside back and a winger overload. It'll just be their wing back. So really you're talking about Bernie not having as much to do defensively and he can just run the line and probably try and attack from deep. So I think that's a very viable option this time instead of lay. Possibly. If I had to bet, I would think you might actually see the burning. Might not be a bad idea. [00:46:16] Speaker C: Their shape is quite a bit narrower as well, so that kind of gives them that little bit more. [00:46:23] Speaker B: Era. Mini is a lock. The other spot, I'm going to say, probably will be Fraser again. Just even though Paxton's healthy, it's like he's only been healthy and cleared for a week. I just said, of course that he looks great and he's really fit and if they want to put Paxton in, fantastic. But Frazier wasn't know and you might just give Paxton that little bit extra week because he is Paxton the front line. I'm going to roll the dice and say Musa starts. I think he looked good enough and I think he's fit enough that he'll go and then Paul will be back and I think they'll put Jesus right in there because he's Jesus. If you had another ten, that was like doing good things, like if Bernie had killed it, or if Alaska was healthy, or if legit was like super viable in that spot compared to Jesus, then you might say maybe okay, but I think there's no reason why you will go straight to. Yeah, the couple of points are Bernie versus NLA, right wing back, and I think it'll be Bernie just Paxton come back in. I think they stay with Fraser and I think Jesus walks right back in and I think Musa starts. So that's year eleven. [00:47:32] Speaker A: Montreal comes to Dallas on a second straight road game to start the season. They went to Orlando and got a nil nil draw, played a lot of defense, it appears. I have not seen the highlights, but looking at the stats, it does look like they probably sat back a lot of and probably obviously so Orlando is a pretty good team, so that's not a bad result for Montreal. Start a season is to go to Orlando and keep them off the scoreboard and get the point. So we'll see how that goes. All right, well, what else do we want to talk about? Oh, now here's the other thing I wanted to bring up today. So the NFL Players association released a survey about a whole set of different metrics. It's kind of like the player survey we get in MLS. And when it came to the Chiefs, Andy Reid, obviously, like a plus, coach Clark Hunt, last 30 seconds, savaged. He got an f minus. Like, I didn't even think f minus was a real thing. And then everybody was pointing out that this was related to the lack of amenities, training amenities, et cetera, et cetera. And it dawned on me to ask this question, if they were to survey MLS players, where would Dallas sit in the hierarchy of amenities and features and training equipment and stuff like that? And facilities? [00:49:08] Speaker B: Well, it's got a lot better. The last couple of years since Nico came in, he's made them do a bunch of stuff. It got way better. Like, they renovated all those locker rooms on the south end of the bought. They bought out that training facility nearby, that indoor training facility. They have a new weight room for the players that's down where whatever that medical thing that was on the first floor is gone. There's now a weight room there. [00:49:32] Speaker C: Ben Hogan's on there. [00:49:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So in terms of three years ago, it would have been near the know because you would have had the elevator stank problem and all that kind of things. But I think now it's probably mid table, and you can't undersell how good the complex is and how good the Dallas training field is because the grass here is phenomenal. That training pitch is the, and the playing surface here is pretty damn good. It ain't cotton bowl good, but it's pretty damn good. The funny thing about the whole Clark deal is that's like his own players are voting and. And then, of course, they immediately dropped some renderings of their renovated arrowhead they've got coming or whatever, which I thought was really funny. Whether it was in response to that or not or just a total coincidence, it still made me chuckle. [00:50:18] Speaker A: Yeah. I can't figure out in my head if Clark Hunt, being kind of the living robot that he is, reads that and has any emotional reaction to it or just thinks to himself, yeah, I get it, but it is what it is. [00:50:33] Speaker C: Probably looks at his two rings and says, I don't give a shit. [00:50:36] Speaker A: Right? Yeah, I don't know how to calculate that. [00:50:39] Speaker B: I just won three Super Bowls in five years, I don't care who needs good facilities. Yeah, I got a coach and a quarterback. That's all you need. The other thing I will throw in in terms of facilities is that most teams don't have their stuff at their stadium too. Like they have training complexes other places. Even if they have a new, brand new, amazing, cool, awesome training center, a lot of times, know, 2 hours away or an hour and a half away from where you're playing your games. Dallas has it all in one central location. That's all really well done and really so I don't think it would be elite, but I don't think it would be the bottom. I think it'd be the middle of the pack. There's some bad situations out there. Like I can't even imagine what the Rapids have. Do they even have a training know, they barely have a stadium at this. You know, look at what New York has. Do they have a training facility? They play in somebody else's stadium. What do they have? New York City. Right. [00:51:35] Speaker A: I think they're building a facility. [00:51:36] Speaker B: Well, yeah, but that ain't, you know, I don't think that Clark would be voted the worst owner in MLS. When you have guys that are out there doing. What are the quakes? [00:51:48] Speaker C: Well, the quakes have that new stadium. [00:51:50] Speaker B: They do. But have they done anything else? I don't know what any given situation is, but there have been some. Orlando was pretty bad until they hired know Miami's playing in know. I'm sure from the Miami owner we get a lot of big votes, but if you're talking about facilities, they're playing in that Fort Lauderdale stadium they built for their second team. They don't have their first team facility know. So I don't know the Clark would be bad. And especially when you roll in the idea that they're about to do just absolute complete Reno, the whole thing. So that'll make it even better. [00:52:22] Speaker A: I keep hearing about this vaunted renovation, but I'm not going to believe it till I actually start seeing shovels in the dirt and crap like that. [00:52:32] Speaker B: Well, based on the people I know in the stages that I understand that things are moving is that it might be midseason this year. You'll see shovels in the ground. [00:52:40] Speaker A: Well, they got to announce it first, right? [00:52:43] Speaker B: Not necessarily, but yeah, probably. [00:52:45] Speaker A: Okay. [00:52:46] Speaker C: You'll get a photo of a golden shovel in the ground. That's the announcement. [00:52:49] Speaker B: Yeah, probably. [00:52:51] Speaker A: All right. [00:52:52] Speaker B: It's definitely happening, though. Or at least they're spending all the money on all the parts that have to happen first. So they're in the middle of all the getting the plans done and that kind of. [00:53:03] Speaker A: And before we end, can we just take a quick second to throw a shout out to Edwin Serillo for sticking up in the face of the Barcelona trio, coming after him and sticking up strong, Dallas style. [00:53:16] Speaker B: Yeah, he did pretty good, and he stood up pretty tough. He did get beat for the. [00:53:20] Speaker A: Well, yes, and ultimately he got messied at the end, but he went, unbelievable. Yes, he very much got messied, but everybody gets messied. But I did enjoy seeing a Dallas kid stick up for himself in front of Messi himself. And I don't know. Have you read Edwin's quote about that incident? [00:53:44] Speaker B: No, not what do you. [00:53:45] Speaker A: That he said, whatever Messi said to me will stay with me forever, but I won't repeat paraphrasing. [00:53:52] Speaker B: That's nice. [00:53:52] Speaker C: You also said he kind of blacked out. [00:53:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, wouldn't you? [00:53:57] Speaker C: It was a really big moment for me. It was just the moment for him or something like that. The only thing I didn't like is someone asked him, oh, did you tell him, don't mess with Texas? And he said something like, well, I'm kind of, like, in LA now, so. From LA now. [00:54:15] Speaker A: All right, well, at least. He probably. At least was thinking it, right. That was a great scene. I love that. Okay, well, good first pod of the new season, boys. [00:54:28] Speaker B: Can I throw a couple of North Texas notes at you? [00:54:31] Speaker A: No. [00:54:31] Speaker B: Okay. [00:54:32] Speaker A: Nobody cares. [00:54:33] Speaker B: Well, you might care about these two. [00:54:35] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:54:37] Speaker B: Tark Scott's been doing really well with him. He looks really elite. I'm real excited. Know, coming off the double knee thing, that was obviously a mine would be. And he's been cutting dudes and tearing them up. [00:54:49] Speaker A: He's my coach, by the way. [00:54:50] Speaker B: Oh, is he? [00:54:52] Speaker A: At the media game last year? He was my coach. Oh, that's my manager. [00:54:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Very cool. He's a nice kid. And the second is that at this point, Ennis Sally is with North Texas. He's not in first team training, so temper expectations. Like I've been saying, in terms of think of him as a homegrown. He's a long way from being viable. I do think if he were to get in a game, like, his pace would catch guys napping, but I think it's a long way from him. [00:55:20] Speaker A: And they won this week, right? They beat Austin. [00:55:23] Speaker B: They beat Austin. They tied Houston. It's all scrimmages, so don't read too much. They got trials. They got dudes out there that you never heard of. And the one thing I will say about Sally, too, is that he did not make the FCD Dallas bench this game. And they had an open spot on the bench. They only had eight players instead of nine, so they could have kept him and put him on there. It's not like he got frozen out by somebody else being better. It's like they literally were like, it's better for you to go play with North Texas. [00:55:50] Speaker A: He's not being a punk, is he? [00:55:52] Speaker B: I don't know anything about that. I couldn't tell you. I just can tell you that big picture. I think he's not fitting in tactically and with the concepts. He is an 18 year old kid. He literally just turned 18. Remember, they had to wait before they could officially sign him. So I would temper expectations for how long it'll take for him to get fully integrated into the team. The first team since he's basically this week. He's been with them, as far as I know, with the second team the whole time since he traveled with them and they just got back. I think they played Saturday, Monday, and so they would have traveled back either Monday night or Tuesday. And he was an interesting training today. [00:56:36] Speaker C: Speaking of young offseason signings, what do you make of Patrickson Delgado? [00:56:44] Speaker B: So far, what I've seen, he looks up to speed in training. I did actually ask coach about him specifically today because I'm like, look, I've only seen him in a couple of drills here. What can you tell me about him? And he said he's great. He said he can really move and cover a ton of ground. Very physical, great athletic tools. Physical tools. So it sounds like an exciting player. Coach was really positive when he was talking about him, so I really have not seen him a lot in a full side, only like about 1015 minutes in a full drill, full field drill. That's not the same as seeing him in as a full game. So I can't really give you more than just like, my quick opinion is that he looks up for it. He looks up to the pace of the first team training. You can tell guys that aren't, they can't handle it. He's not looking timidated. He doesn't look nervous. He looks fine, especially when you're playing six. It's kind of a subtle position. It's hard to really get a good read without extended watching, but I think he's quite interesting. I don't think that he's going to be in the mix for a start anytime soon because that's a position that's going to be really bound into what you're trying to do tactically. And you've got Jaramindi, Frazier and Paxton all probably in those two spots ahead of him. But I think that it won't be long before you'll start to see him get in minutes. I would imagine that he's already ahead of Nolan in terms of the pecking order, mostly from experience, probably, so we'll see how it goes. Nolan's a brand new six where this kid's probably been a six for a long time, but positive impressions, if that helps. Not as like, holy crap, like it. [00:58:24] Speaker C: Was with Musa, but I completely forgot about him and I just clicked on when you said they ran short on the bench, I looked at who was on the bench, I was like, oh, yeah, Delgado was. [00:58:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. They were body short, which I was, oh, that's crazy. That they thought it's better to send Soli off with North Texas than it was to have him sit there, which know probably telling really quite so in preseason. [00:58:50] Speaker C: They definitely had a problem of where to put him. Yeah, they tried him in centre mid and that kind of advanced inside forward role. [00:59:00] Speaker A: Real quick before we end, guys, there was rumors, or at least reporting today, Jeff Carlisle, the Athletic. That open cup schedule is about to be announced and it looks like a limited number of MLS teams will participate. Dallas, at least in their reporting, is one of the teams that will be in the open cup this year. [00:59:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I can confirm that. I was tipped off to that today. And then I was told that the announcement wasn't coming out, so I was holding it and then, Carla, I went with it. So I can tell you that that is indeed true. The Dallas part, the limited team parts. Yes. And the Dallas will be in. Yes, I can tell you those two things now, how much. It's going to be straight se Dallas. What are the details of how much North Texas you can use? I don't know. I'm not privy to any of that. But there's some kind of announcement coming soonish this week probably, and Dallas will be playing in it. [00:59:50] Speaker C: First round is expected to be what, three weeks times two weeks time. So we'll get there pretty. [00:59:57] Speaker B: I mean, they got to establish the format for where you can play round one, so hopefully we'll know relatively soon. [01:00:04] Speaker A: Well, I look forward to all of these open cup games being overflowing sellouts. [01:00:09] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Dan, who's in locally, is Texas United in locally? Do you remember? [01:00:15] Speaker C: They should be because they have the. Yeah, they will be because of the record they had in League Two. [01:00:21] Speaker B: Yeah, they were second league, too. That's right. [01:00:23] Speaker C: Lubbock Matadors, I think, are supposed to be in this year. Not that that's local. [01:00:28] Speaker B: Did four old qualify in? I can't remember. I know they were close. I can't remember. I think they may have lost the last game, the final heart. [01:00:36] Speaker C: No, they got free. [01:00:37] Speaker B: Did they? Very good. I couldn't remember. We'll verify that. [01:00:41] Speaker A: All right. Well, there you go. That's everything we got. I think we emptied out the red crayon run sheet, Buzz. [01:00:49] Speaker B: Yeah, we did. We did. [01:00:51] Speaker A: All right. Well, very good, boys. Good first effort. Not Logan Farrington good. Pretty good. [01:01:00] Speaker B: Not 2 hours long like last week. [01:01:04] Speaker A: We had lots to talk about last. [01:01:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Third degree the podcast has been brought to you by soccer 90. Com. Explore soccer 90s Dallas Burn collection for all the latest Dallas burn gear from Mitchell and Ness. I've seen it. If that stuff is fantastic, benches, tees, jackets and hoodies, you're going to love this stuff. It's awesome. Limited stock available. And don't forget, as a third degree listener, you get 20% discount in store and online. Soccer 90. Com code third degree. Some exclusions may apply. Third degree the podcast was also brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm for Willstrust, probate and business law. Call 469-515-2559 that's 469-515-2559 or visit the lindstromlawfirm.com for a free consultation. [01:01:45] Speaker A: Well, great. All right, Dan, thank you very much, sir. [01:01:48] Speaker C: Thanks a lot. [01:01:48] Speaker A: Have a good one, Buzz. As always, captain, well done. [01:01:52] Speaker B: Pleasure. Thank you and thanks for being here to host for us. [01:01:55] Speaker A: Love to do it every week. And thank you, FCD Dallas curious fan. We will speak to you next week with hopefully three more points on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast feed. The Merce third degree. Never get third degree to third degree. Never get third degree. Never get third degree. Never care. Close. Sam.