3rd Degree the Podcast #258

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Ooh. Ooh. Third degree the third degree net podcast third degree the third degree napa third degree the third degree napkins third degree. [00:00:23] Speaker B: The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree the podcast is brought to you by soccernighter.com. Comma, your source for our last day to Alice us national team at international Gear shop. All the latest us men's national team gear, including the new home and away jerseys, pre match tops and [email protected]. And as a third degree listener, you get 20% off both in store and online with the code third degree. So use code third degree soccernighty.com in person, whichever one you want. Some exclusions may apply. Third view the podcast is also brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm. For wills, trust, probates and business law, call 469-515-2559 that's 469-515-2559 or visit leinsterlawfirm.com for a free consultation. [00:01:07] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to episode 258, two five eight of third degree the podcast. Howdy tis me, Peter know Dan again this week. Very busy growing a beard, we're told, and that means it's just me and the original editor, founder of Third Degree, the podcast, and mister soccer influencer himself, Buzz Kerik. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:38] Speaker B: Peter, I don't know how more beautiful or bushy big the Dan's beard can get. I mean, things already got it's almost Social Security number. [00:01:44] Speaker A: It does. It's pretty crazy. And it's. It's not a link thing. It's a density thing. [00:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, he ain't playing around with that thing. [00:01:54] Speaker A: No, I'm sure he, like, puts his car keys in there when he's at work or the grocery store or something. Yeah, something like that. He may have, like, a small hedgehog nesting in there. [00:02:05] Speaker B: Probably. Probably a squirrel more than a hedgehog. Well, yeah. [00:02:07] Speaker A: Okay. [00:02:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:09] Speaker A: Well, we miss you, Dan. Come back soon. Okay? Buzz, where are we on the burn temperature scale? After the donut draw up in St. Louis, which I think. I think we're all going to go. Phew. And if we just want to be positive about it. Wow. We are so lucky to have Martin paws on this team. [00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I think I'm looking forward to the start of the regular season next month now that we've got all this pre season stuff out of the way. Yes. Listen, honestly, if Martin Paws doesn't have, doesn't tie his career, MLS career high with seven saves, that's a butt kicking by. [00:02:53] Speaker A: Good Lord St. Louis. [00:02:55] Speaker B: Why is my brain not working. St. Louis. I was about to say Seattle, like, no, that's the next game by St. Louis as an s team. That's how befuddled I am by this whole thing. Now, there's some positives, you know, I think we could talk about one or two positives, but, you know, if. If Martin. [00:03:11] Speaker A: How dare you? [00:03:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I voted for Martin Prosser player of the week, and he made team of the week on a, you know, a team that's horrible right now. So that's, you know, that shows you how good everybody around the league thought he was and recognized with his performance, you know, and that's opposite Berkey, too, who was also good, you know, and that's the. For Berkey to have been good, that meant Dallas must have gotten into him a little bit. So that is the small positive which we'll come back to. But in the meantime, it's like, you know, I know coach wants to talk about getting a point and positivity and how they did this and that and the other thing, but it's like, man, when a team you're playing has 20, which stat machine, you look at 26 or 27 shots, which, by the way, I looked it up, that's the most shots by an opponent in the Nico Estevez era. So that's great. You know, if they don't shoot it, like at a 25% clip on goal, you know, and if pause doesn't have seven saves, which is a remarkable performance, that's a slaughtering. So it's hard to get too excited about it. [00:04:13] Speaker A: Well, there was just I. The whole team, by and large, was just pretty poor. And St. Louis is a team that likes to insert their will upon you, but they have not had a good start to the season themselves. And as good as pause was, man, there was some really poor finishing on. On St. Louis's part two that plays. Plays into this. I think the other big talking point out of this game was the surprise in the starting eleven that Tafari was not in the starting eleven. And the. The explanation given to us was that he wasn't in his best moment. I think Steve Davis tweeted out and. [00:04:55] Speaker B: I. Yeah, that's the language a coach used. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And I is. And then Steve wrote a really interesting, interesting article a couple days later where you know Steve and you know, somebody who's relatively close to the team. Like Steve says, look, there's nothing about this. It's just Niko playing the long game, and I guess he's insinuating that means it's a rest thing. Like, we just don't want to wear him out. And I, and I don't know, man, something just smells odd about this. [00:05:25] Speaker B: No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go a different way than what that conjunction with what Steve wrote. I think, you know, every, every coach has different language they use. Oscar used to say, you gotta have everybody rolling in the same direction, you know, pulling in the same direction however you wanna. He would say it different ways, different times. But it's the same principle, the idea that, like, everyone's got to be on board. And so to me, you know, like, for a player to not be in a good moment, that doesn't necessarily mean, you know, form. Maybe it does, maybe it means form, but, you know, form is related to confidence. It's related into belief. It's related into mentality. It's related into being on the same page as everybody else. And I think in this game, we saw a whole lot of, like, some fight from FC Dallas, right? There was some, there was some clapping of hands together. There was some, like, yeah, let's go. Come on. You know, that kind of stuff. I can't tell you that. The week before last week, on the Wednesday when I was there, when practice ended, Nicosi was the first person walking off the field, and he was by himself. And he had his, you know, grimacing kind of face and a level of, you know, discontent, expressing. [00:06:36] Speaker A: When was this? [00:06:37] Speaker B: This was the Wednesday before. [00:06:38] Speaker A: Ah, okay. [00:06:39] Speaker B: A week ago, basically. You know, at that point, did he know he would be sad? Is that mentality that way he was expressing himself on that day? Was that part of why he got sat? You know, because that's what, to me, this is, he got sat for a game. You know, there's a, if you look back at all the goals, there were some moments when, you know, he has not done well, and some of the goals have come from guys that he was supposed to be covering. You know, if his, at the beginning of the season, he was very vocal and very much calling people out, and then that has tailed off a little bit as he's kind of lost, you know, maybe lost some belief that they, you know, or has recognized that there's pieces missing and how, and how much trouble they're in. So, you know, reading all that stuff was how I took it to mean this idea that, like, that he was in a. He was in a bad way or he was in a bad moment, that that's kind of what it meant, you know, and it's like, you know what? And the idea that you're going to sit him for a game to help the long play is a recognition that, yeah, in pure terms, he's a better player right now than Omar Gonzalez is, but I need to give him a kick in the tish. I gotta wake him up a little bit. You know, I'm gonna sit in for a game and it's gonna be like, okay, are you gonna be with us or not? You know, that's the way I took it all. It's possible I'm wrong, I'm not in the locker room, but, you know, the way the team sort of responded a little bit in terms of fighting together and the way that, you know, both Steve and coach said, you know, it's going to be a. There was direct quotes from Nico that Steve had where he says, it's just going to be a thing, a game, you know, and people. And Steve even had some mention of somebody saying that was hope they work it out. And Steve said, there's nothing to work out. It's like, it's just coach player, you know, trying to get his player going. And in the press conference today, Niko even said that he still thinks Nikosi can be a much better defender than he is, you know, that he's got some things he needs to work out. You know, it's on the mental side of the game, you know, that'll. To make himself even better. So putting all together, I think this is just a, I'm hoping one game benching, you know, because while Omar played pretty well, I don't think giving up 27 shots is ideal. And I think there's a more. Obviously, it's more than just the one guy, though, that leads to that level of shots. And I think we should talk about some of that, some of that stuff. But yeah, we will get into that expecting, you know, I. To me, this was a one game benching, you know, well, and if Nicosia responds how he should respond, or one hopes he will respond. And again, we're taking a. We're doing a lot of speculating here because we're not inside the locker room. These are hard to call sometimes, but that's what I see. And how quickly he's back will tell us a lot. I think, in fact, yeah, it's the. [00:09:21] Speaker A: Idea that you're setting the guy for the long haul and. And the sense that it had something to do with saving his legs. And maybe I'm reading into that, maybe that's not what Steve was inferring. It seems weird to me this. This does. In fact, I'm with you, Buzz. I think this feels like a coach trying to make a statement with a guy, and ultimately, we'll see how this plays itself out. I mean, it's just a function of time. Does he start this weekend? And if he does this start this weekend, how well does he play? How does he respond? Does he not start this weekend? And clearly, if he doesn't start, then there's something else going on that we're. That somebody's going to have to explain to us at some point. So everybody's just gonna have to sit tight. We've. Look, we've been watching this team a long time. We've seen these things happen before. If I. If I. If I wasn't lazy enough to. If I had been. Let me put it this way, if I had put a little more thought into it, I probably could conjure up four or five other scenarios like this over the last 30 years where somebody got sat because attitude issue or not playing well, form issues or something like that. I'm sure you could probably do one off the top of your head, Buzz. [00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, you can. You know, you can look back at, um, Gratiani dir. Threw. Threw him out of practice, you know, and didn't start him. And I'm sure probably Chad Dearing also. Those are two very strong willed players. I can't specifically think of Chad being bench, but I know that there were some definition conflicts at certain times between him and Durr Shellis and at the end with the defender. Huh. [00:10:50] Speaker A: Daniel Hernandez. [00:10:51] Speaker B: No. Oh, well, yeah, Daniel Hernandez. That was after Daniel retired to become a coach. No, the national team guy in 2010 when they had a falling out and he was suspended for, like, the final. Heath Pierce. [00:11:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:03] Speaker B: So, you know, he and shells definitely had a falling out, and Heath Pierce definitely was sat. [00:11:08] Speaker A: Zimmerman. [00:11:09] Speaker B: Oscar. Yeah, Oscar and Zimmerman, for sure. Or even that left back that they brought in that Oscar hated so much. He was like, after, like, a week, he was like, get rid of this guy. This guy's awful. You know, and then he got. Never came back. Um, yeah. You know, so there definitely have been situations like that, for sure. You know, I think one of the things to understand about Coach Niko is that he's always publicly 99% positive he's very, very unlikely to rip a guy or say, this guy's crap, or that was a. You know, you can. You have to go read between the lines and see when he says things like, about, like, a goal, like, we didn't know he had a bad moment we did this, that wasn't so great. You know, when you talk about players on the roster, he'll say, you know, everybody that's on the roster we think can help us, which is co speak for, like, we got rid of the bums we didn't have before, but there's still guys that aren't really ready. So, you know, when you're talking about a coach who's never going to really blast a guy, for him to say that a guy's not in his best moment is pretty telling, to be honest. [00:12:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. It's weird. And again, we could probably dig into this a whole lot more, but I think the best way to handle this is just keep an eye on it and see what happens over the course of the next game. Game or two, we'll learn a whole lot more. In fact, there one of two things happens. It continues to get worse and we all start asking a whole lot more questions, either about the coach or Nikosi or B, Nikosi comes out and has a great game and we all forget about it. [00:12:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Keep in mind, too, that on a bad team, you know, coach is trying to keep a hold of the locker room, keep a hold of the team, and if he thought, you know, again, we're doing a lot of conjecturing. If he thought that Nikosi being a very vocal guy, a very strong willed guy, a very outspoken guy, if you thought Nicosi was going against him a little bit, again, this comes back to Oscar's idea of, you gotta have everybody rolling in the same direction. You know, maybe it was like, hey, I'm still the coach here, you're not starting, you know, and so again, we're pulling a lot of things out of thin air, trying to make understand what's happened. But, you know, this is the idea. When things happen with this team and that there's no, and there's no clear and obvious explanation, we're left sometimes trying to figure out the best we can with the evidence we have. And as you say, what happens next will be very telling in terms of, like, both what was the problem to begin with and which direction it's going to go. [00:13:25] Speaker A: Third degree, your prime source for speculation. [00:13:29] Speaker B: It is a podcast, after all. Let's call it educated guesses or spot speculation, you know? [00:13:35] Speaker A: Okay. All right. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Sometimes we know things we can't talk about, huh? [00:13:39] Speaker A: What? I just did the. I just did the weird dog look they give you when they don't understand what's going on. Yeah. Okay, I'm gonna. That looks like a very hot third rail. I'm not going to touch it. [00:13:52] Speaker B: Yeah, don't touch that. [00:13:54] Speaker A: So. So let's just talk about how crappy the team in general is, because, good grief, watching this team is just. It's painful to watch. But I don't know how this team went from two seasons ago being really exciting to watch to last season being just really boring to watch to this season just being really bad. [00:14:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, to give you an indication of bad in this. In this game, both of these teams, here's the one little positivity of the whole thing is both these teams had a roughly about the same xg. It was just under two for both of them. If that's your jam, the xg jam. And first, you know, they both got kind of shut out. But looking at the other team, looking at St. Louis, to have this, they had a 1.9 xg, and they didn't score any goals. So in a way, like, to hold, that's effectively two. To hold a team with the next g of two to zero is, you know, performing above that level, you're doing a better job of stifling things than the other team did, you know? And you're giving yourself some positivity there. And that, again, comes to me, back to pause. You know, that. That number, that being of almost two goals better than the XG is one of the best performances on our Niko, too. So that's, to me, that reads as a resiliency. I don't give up ness. So I like that. Um, and then on the other end, for Dallas to have gotten, you know, close to that kind of XG also means that something was at least clicking a little bit. Now, they shot at a much better, like 50% shot on target to. To, uh, shot ratio, which we always talk about is really, really important for this team because this is not a low. This is not a high volume shot team. So a good 50% rate is really good for them. That's really positive. And I think you can look at the blossoming, if you will, craziness that the fact is that Eugene Ansa, of all people, is most meshing with Petter Moussa. And, like, that combo looks like the best combo we've seen all season, which is crazy. Now, these, you won third spot. That's not. But, you know, maybe that's a spot for Jesus or whatever, you know, and you. Sometimes you have to take what little victories you can. And maybe it's the fact that both guys are, you know, at least somewhat used to like a different level, different kind of league. Maybe they're recognizing how to play with each other a little better with this kind of high striker system that people here maybe are not used to. Yeah. The other young wingers Dallas has only know how to do that. Jesus. Maybe doesn't really know how to do that. So it's interesting to watch. [00:16:21] Speaker A: Yeah. I didn't have Ansa meshing with Musa on my bingo card season, so. [00:16:26] Speaker B: I know, right? [00:16:27] Speaker A: That is a good one. [00:16:29] Speaker B: But it's pretty clear that's what's happening to me. I mean, those two guys look better together and more on the same page than anybody else does. That's played in that underneath role with answer there, you know, and at times it rotated. That was an interesting twist. Was like Ansa took multiple turns, like up high, even with him, and turned it into a, you know, the typical three, five two. Look where you have the tenant underneath. In this last game. It was legit, you know, as the ten underneath with two guys up above. Again, another option that might look good with Jesus and some of those possibilities. [00:16:57] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think the most disconcerting part of this game is the reality that with Paxton out for the year and Alara Mendy out for this particular game, and we'll talk more about him in a minute, is what they're left with, the leftover options in the middle of the field. It's just a gaping wound. It's just. It's really, really poor. And a better team, which there are many of in this league, than St. Louis. Probably just crush this team nine times out of ten. Dallas again, because of pause and some poor Seattle finishing. I mean, Seattle, St. Louis finishing. I got really fortunate in this particular one, but the middle of the field is a significant, significant ongoing, long term problem. [00:17:42] Speaker B: I'll go further than that. You know, I have in front of me the team from this game, and let's just talk about it for a second. Yes, Moose is a $10 million player, but he needs a little service. That's fine. That's a good player. It's a new player. We're excited about that. Eugene Otza was the other guy. He's from the israeli league, right? [00:18:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:01] Speaker B: Which is. And he's getting paid like Obrien got paid. He's getting paid like a backup number. So that's like a roster piece kind of backup piece. That's like a key guy. Right. The other guy was legit, who's now over 30, and it's not really a ten. You know, he was always a wing or like a wide mid or like a deeper. You know, like he's sort of playing in this particular game. He's sort of playing out of position. He was really terrible last year. You're hoping he can have a rebound. At best, he's like, let's not say he's a reclamation project, but he's a little bit of a. Hoping he can find his form back project. Right? So again, not a top in, like sweet. Locked in. Great piece right now. Right? Okay. Areola played wing back. Again, not his spot. Right. You're putting a guy in a weird thing, trying to get him to a weird job. A guy had a horrible season last year, a captain, a good leader and all that stuff, but, you know, out of sorts. Not standard, not normal. Right? Okay. Across the middle. Delgado, a U 22 player, he's 20 years old, he's got like one cap with his national team. Again, supposed to be a project. Supposed to be an idea that you're going to build around the guy, and yet he's having to start right away out the gate. Frazier, he was playing in like he got cut by him on the seams before this. He's a canadian fringe international. He's been playing in low level Europe. Right? Again, not a dude you're building around Dante Seeley, a homegrown who Dallas tried to loan off to PSV and got rejected. And now he's back and he's playing at the beginning of the year almost, because there was nobody else. And at best, he's a project ibi aga. How many times we talked about this? He never had started only one season in his life, had he? And he started more MLS games than 15. He's a journeyman backup or a USL player. Right? Omar, 35. Sam Junka is a career roster filler, kind of. I love Sam Junka, but he is not a frontline center back starting 20 games. Okay, pause is great. So you got two dudes out of this eleven that are supposed to be like, a substantial frontline MLS starter. It's literally a team of backups. Plus Paul Areola playing out of position. [00:20:07] Speaker A: Oh, Buzz, you know what that reminded me of? [00:20:09] Speaker B: Well, it's a miracle. It was zero to zero. [00:20:11] Speaker A: Well, that reminded me in high school when I turned into a paper and I did such a poor job of doing the work that the teacher sat down with me after class and went through error by error with me and essentially just humiliated me to death. That's awful, Buzz. That's. [00:20:30] Speaker B: I know. [00:20:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I was just concerned about the two center mids, but you're right. The whole thing, the whole thing is, and here's what I think is most problematic, is. Yeah, you can say, well, guys, they've, they've got injuries, but let's start putting the injured pieces back into place and let's see what the, how many changes you end up with. You end up essentially with Jesus for legit maybe. Probably. [00:20:57] Speaker B: Yeah. If we're talking this game. [00:20:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the next one. And again, you can't count Paxton because he's done for the year. I don't think that's, you know, so far fan goes in for Junka, does he? [00:21:10] Speaker B: Farfan has not played a single game all year. [00:21:12] Speaker A: Okay. [00:21:12] Speaker B: He goes when he was healthy. [00:21:13] Speaker A: Right. And who else is injured that I'm. [00:21:16] Speaker B: Forgetting, Yara Mindy is going to come. [00:21:17] Speaker A: Back for either, obviously. Okay, so that's the big one is Elia Mendy. I mean, obviously Paxton is a big miss, but now he's gone for the entire season. I'm just pointing out that when the guys that will be coming back are healthy, you still have. Now the other two pieces are the most are the ones that really are what are going to hinge this season on, which is Velasco and Giovanni. Jesus, if those guys are. Even if there's any chance either one. [00:21:47] Speaker B: Of those dudes come back, this four out of those five names are million dollar players and one of them is your U 22 initiative. He paid a lot to get right. So it's like, you know, you got, you got mauers on the bench. Is a long term, is a 35 year old, like in the dying days career great dude, but, you know, he's not going to lift you up. Okay, Nicos, he comes back. That's nice, Bern. Bernie's a nice piece, we think, but in this system, he's a mess because he has no idea what to do. Tumasi's a, you know, journeyman, solid outside back, but not sparkling. [00:22:20] Speaker A: Converted attacker. He's not, he's not even a natural defender. [00:22:23] Speaker B: Right. That's just a, that's a, you know, nice guy, good piece, but not, not like going to change anything. Segi, come on. Carl Santa, who I have an interesting future for, but not there yet. Andalay, come on. He's played like three games. Fairyton is a cool draft pick, but seems to be losing out to people like legit and Ansa and then Sully, who can't get off the even into the first team bench if he's, if we're not missing like 18 pieces. So, you know, it's just like, people wonder why this team's at the bottom of the league. It's, it's, it's not just the injuries. The same as it always. I know, I hate to be this dark, but, I mean, how many times have we sat here in this podcast, Peter, over the years or the website or whatever, and talked about the fact that if you, if you hold pat in this league, you're going to get passed up. You cannot, you cannot just sit on what you have, you know? And they do change things, but the pieces they've brought in are like, they move out a high paid veteran for like a, like a project or a journeyman. Like, God, we're going to plug in. It's like none of these things are like, you know, where are the, you know, Farrington's a good draft pick, but, like, there's been really hardly any others going back to Nicosie, like, set, what, seven years ago now? Where's the homegrowns that are missing? You know, where's these, the U 22 initiatives have not come through. You know, Giovanni's hurt, so maybe he would have. But solly so far is like, whatever, you know, it's, it's not good. Yeah. It's like if, if you just stayed 100% healthy, your big time players could have carried you into the top half of the Western Conference, which is what we predicted in the year. We should have factored in injuries, though. We didn't, you know, so we played. [00:23:58] Speaker A: The same risks the team did. [00:24:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:00] Speaker A: I also want to point out that, you know, the, the reality is that they knew going into the season two of their key critical starters were coming off ACL injuries, and they did essentially nothing to cover for those guys. And, you know, I keep hearing that the club and insists that they're going to be back this season. Now, they may be back in terms of, they may get time, but you can't, you can't assume or trust that either one of those guys is going to be up to speed coming off an ACL. And I thought, well, what was kind of interesting this week is the club put out some new content, which is. What is it, the road to recovery. Alan's Allen's thing. You know, it's so they, if you haven't seen it yet, they put out like a three minute video on social events. [00:24:47] Speaker B: Well done. [00:24:48] Speaker A: Back in town yet. Very well done and all this. But what's interesting is in the three minute deal, an interview with the club's own trainer says, yeah, this is basically a year long project, and if I'm remembering correctly, Alan Velasco went out like at the first leg of the first round of the playoffs. [00:25:08] Speaker B: I think it was, yeah, nine. Nine months. If you get. If you're really quick healer, nine months is. You can come back from that, which is August. [00:25:17] Speaker A: Have you seen the video of Alan? Have you seen that scar on his knee? [00:25:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:24] Speaker A: It doesn't look like he's kid. He's, he's anywhere close to being ready to play anytime soon. Bless his heart and I hope miracle upon miracles he is. But I, I just don't know how you put a season together and, and work off the assumption that Alan Velasco is playing at any level for you in the 24 season. I just. I don't think that's fair to your fans. I don't think that's fair to Alan. I don't think that's fair to the rest of the team. That's just really, really poor roster management in my eyes. [00:25:52] Speaker B: Yeah. We have to alter our expectations because I think having seen Vancouver earlier than you see or having watched a little of LA or Salt Lake or the teams that LAFC, you expect to be good. You know, think about the FC Dallas roster and who on this roster would you expect to walk into another MLS team and be a surefire lock starter? I mean, pause on like most of them, but there's still probably four or five teams he would not. And then. [00:26:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, this is always a fascinating exercise. [00:26:21] Speaker B: Right. Would Musa walk into every other team in the league and start. Not everyone for sure. [00:26:27] Speaker A: Many of them, but not probably half would be fair. [00:26:30] Speaker B: Two thirds maybe even. Yeah, Mandy, if he's healthy, probably. But that's about it. Jesus, if Jesus was healthy, Jesus probably would too. It's still only four people out of. Because I don't think Paxton would not. Not on half. Yeah, I would have said last year, coming into this year, I would have expected it would have been about 80% of the teams he would. But I don't know about based on his waste playing this year. [00:26:58] Speaker A: You know something? I also thought about this whole tafari thing, which is if, if the contention is he's not playing very well, well, can I just wonder how much of that is him being asked to play in a three man back line after I think for the majority of his career playing as a one and a two possible. [00:27:17] Speaker B: I just think it's probably more about. That's why I think it's more about something else. It's not necessarily about his play or it is about his play, but in a way that's not like. It's not that he doesn't understand. I think it's about intensity, you know, because coach, last week we talked about intensity. We saw some intensity in this game. Like, when I talked to him last week, coming out of the game before he was. He talked about how nobody won any duels. And I even told a story about Musa when I said he was my man of the match because he won 50% of his aerial duels. And, like, the next best person was Imattu Amasi. It's like that all tells you how, you know, that they're like, they're getting just beat to these crosses. It's not like they're not challenging them, they're just getting beat to them. And so that's mentality. That's like, that's like where? And that's, to me, that's when he came back around to the idea that Nikosi was in a bad spot. That all resonated with me, the fact he's not winning these duels. And so that's where I think he is at. I don't think it's the adjustments of the three. I think it's just, you got to be a warrior and be out there. Just, you know, this coach loves. We've talked about this all time, right? This coach loves warriors more than he loves, you know, pretty boys. He likes these guys that are just going to fight and claw and scratch and kill people to win. [00:28:25] Speaker A: Isaiah Parker's a pretty boy. [00:28:27] Speaker B: I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, like, think of. Think about, like, even Martin paws. Like, he, you know, the. The game before, Martin Paws hadn't been great. And I'm sure he probably said something to him because after this game, he talked about in the press conference, he talked about how paws was. Did what he needed to do, was the pause of old. It's a man. If you're asking your guy, like, seven saves night, you're not going to get very far. But, yes, pause was amazing. [00:28:48] Speaker A: So, well, look, you always getting a point on the road is always good, no matter how you do it, especially when you're in bad shape and bad form. And you'd only had one point in five games and you were already teetering on the. On the edge of having the worst start to a season in a club's history that's been around for almost 30 years. So, look, you got out with the point. You get to move on to the next game and hope things get better and people get healthier. So let's feel good about that, considering. [00:29:18] Speaker B: We were worried about, we were having conversations about is the coach losing the team? Is he losing the locker room? For them to show some grit and heart means to me that he hasn't yet. So that's my positive takeaway in terms of like, the state we're in right now. I mean, if you want the coach out, then you probably didn't, weren't happy about that. They did showed some fight resiliency, but they did. And that's a good thing. If you're talking about trying to win one game at a time, which is what you're going to be doing at this point. [00:29:41] Speaker A: Well, as with anything that happens with the burn, luck is never on its side. And here comes the Seattle Sounders, who started at an even worse clip than Dallas, yet just turned around and dropped another MLS team, five nothing the other day. And I will repeat what I put on Twitter here. I can't tell you how fucking pissed off I am about how good those Seattle kits are. They are so perfect. [00:30:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:10] Speaker A: Gosh, I love those Seattle kits so very much. God, they're so good. And I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. [00:30:16] Speaker B: To my very definitely the best in MLS this season. And it's gotta be up there for best all time. It is spectacularly good. [00:30:22] Speaker A: Easily a top three all time MLS kit. [00:30:25] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. [00:30:26] Speaker A: And if they. If they make the stupid decision to get away from this colorway of this new green and this new blue. [00:30:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:34] Speaker A: Boo on Seattle, that would be a terrible. It's such a good look. And it's so much better than the neon colors. [00:30:41] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Rave green or whatever that was. [00:30:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:30:46] Speaker A: So I guess I should be saying, since I don't like Seattle, I hope they go back to the crappy colors. [00:30:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you can admire a good kid, even if it's not your team. Just like I can admire how Manchester United kits are always friggin amazing, even though I hate them. [00:30:59] Speaker A: So, Buzz, you did not go to practice on Wednesday because of the weather. So you did go to practice today and. [00:31:05] Speaker B: No, I did not today. Oh, oh, you got a press conference today? [00:31:08] Speaker A: You had a press conference and you got to. [00:31:10] Speaker B: I can't go on Thursdays. Thursdays are blocked, right? Yep. [00:31:13] Speaker A: So what did you learn in Niko's press conference today? [00:31:16] Speaker B: Well, some of the stuff I already mentioned, but he confirmed what I had tweeted earlier in the day that I had heard that Armini has been training with the team since Sunday, which is the day after the last game when they start working with the guys that didn't play, you know, so he was back in, and Coach says that if Yarmini comes through the rest of the week unscathed, which is always important, first week back, that he will be, you know, available for a selection. So that's good. Same with Marco Farfan, because Marco Farfan, remember late, he was supposed to be eligible, and then late last week he had some kind of head injury that didn't give out a lot of specifics. I assume he just got knocked or something, or maybe had a minor, you know, concussion protocol situation or something. [00:31:58] Speaker A: So he felt like bad attitude, apparently. [00:32:00] Speaker B: No, no, it was. [00:32:01] Speaker A: It was. [00:32:01] Speaker B: It was on the injury report as being actually hurt. So he also was back in training, and if he comes through the rest of the week, he'll be available as well. Jesus Ferreira, on the other hand, is out, is not trained. Coach said Jesus will rejoin training this Sunday, which, you know, he always says that, but, you know, okay, this Sunday we'll see. And I. [00:32:24] Speaker A: What, the third week in a row he's been out? [00:32:27] Speaker B: Oh, God. No, he hasn't. He's played one game. [00:32:31] Speaker A: I mean, he's played more than one game this season, hasn't he? [00:32:35] Speaker B: I don't think so. Hold on. So you're right. It's three games. So still, he's been out since March 16 was the last game you played a month? [00:32:46] Speaker A: Wow. [00:32:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:32:47] Speaker A: Okay. [00:32:47] Speaker B: So I asked coach specifically about Jesus, and I said, you know, given how important he is and given the lengthening timeframe that we don't even know he's gonna return, I said, you know, do you have any reservations about the way the guys have handled this injury? And he said that the deal is that Jesus got a hamstring injury. I think probably everybody will remember that. That's what it is. He said where it is on the hamstring is high near the end of the muscle, near where it attaches. So he said, just the tip. Just the tip. So I am not a doctor, but Niko said on the conference call, he said that because of that, they have to be more careful because it's really easy to re injury it re injury to re aggravate it. So some good English speaks on this podcast, so that's why they've been particularly careful. So I'm going to take him as a word of that, because, you know, they can't. [00:33:35] Speaker A: What else are you going to do? [00:33:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's HIPAA rules that the doctor's not going to tell me shit because he's HIPAA and all that stuff. So, you know, only a team spokesman can say what they can and that's what he said. The only person could tell me would be Jesus. But I'm going to assume that coach is not lying, that this is truly the case. And if that's true, then okay, good job. You know, hopefully that means that Jesus will be really actually 100% healthy and get over this. Now we're worried, of course, because, you know, all the inter core is all connected and to go from the abductor problem to now the Samsung problem to me, you know, leg bone connected to hip bone, all that stuff. So hopefully we don't see this continue to linger with Jesus and it gets better. So we'll see, fingers crossed. Because they need him bad, you know. [00:34:14] Speaker A: Yes, they, well, they not, not only do they need Jesus, they need good Jesus, they need the guy to be healthy. And you know, per the podcast last week, that the downturn in this team coincides with his Gold cup injury. [00:34:29] Speaker B: Yes. Three goals since the Gold cup in regular season play. [00:34:32] Speaker A: Yes. And so, you know, good on you, Mister Ferreira, for getting healthy, but when you get healthy, we need you to actually start producing. So. [00:34:44] Speaker B: To be completely fair, he has one playoff goal and one leagues cup goal also. So all comps is five. But it's fine league play. It's three. [00:34:52] Speaker A: Farfan. When Farfan comes back, does he start as a center back or does he start as a winger? [00:34:58] Speaker B: I don't know that he starts because he was healthy before he had this head injury and he wasn't starting. So, you know, like for whatever reason, coach seems to love Dante Seeley quite a bit, probably because in order to play wingback properly, you have to have a offensive component as we saw against, I think. [00:35:15] Speaker A: But on this team, you kind of need to have a defensive component as a, probably as more primary skill set on this. [00:35:21] Speaker B: Well, you can't, you can't leave the frontline isolated. You got to create the offensive width or the thing falls apart. But you know, again, you should have some defensive. I wish I could merge them together, to be honest. Like far fan is the better defensive wing back. So he could be a left center back, but he's a little shorter than Junka. Junk is the more complete two way player because you remember Junca played Wayne last year even, right? So like for me, Junka is the one that I want to see playing wing back because he can do both of those things. Like if you had a real left center back, you could put Juncker at wingback and it would really help, you know, or if you felt Omar was good enough, you could put Omar in the middle, put Nicosia left center back, and then put junk out there wide. You know, whatever you had to do to me to put junk out wide is a good idea, particularly when you're not doing really good in the back right now. You know, again, you really need a left center back. You actually need two center backs more than you have right now, not just one, but that's a roster building and stuff. Anyway, I would love to see Joka get a start at left wing back. I don't know that far fame is a good enough attacking winger to solve whatever it is, because, like, yes, his work rate is great and his defensive resiliency is great. Does he do enough in the final third to make their defense stay wide and cover you, or can they give up and go tight? That's the real question. So, you know, whether he can press Dante seely enough and get that spot enough. You know, there were not a lot of signs that that was happening before he hurt his head this last week. I thought it was more likely he'd have been in for junka this last week than it would have been. He would have been in for Sealy. So, you know, it's just what happens when you don't actually have real wingbacks, right? You don't have Netland or Reynolds or, you know, dest, all of them. You know, those guys are great wingbacks. Kobe, Jones in the day. [00:37:12] Speaker A: Let's talk about Dante here a little bit, because obviously we went into this season knowing that he was going to get his run. We're six, six games into the season, and I think on the balance, especially after that horrible miss opportunity to take a one goal, to take the lead. [00:37:29] Speaker B: In the Lord, that was a bad miss. [00:37:31] Speaker A: You know, I mean, look, the ball flashes in. I, you know, that happens at some level, but he's got to finish that at this level. And that was along with everything else with him that we all, I think we're all identifying that we get frustrated with. If he turns the goals and when he gets his few opportunities, then suddenly you're willing to probably forgive some of the other stuff, but. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Right. [00:37:57] Speaker A: I don't know. Buzz, where are you on the Dante Seely experience? [00:38:02] Speaker B: Man, I watched. I watched that game and I watched Dante running around and I said to myself, man, for a fast player, he is really slow. [00:38:12] Speaker A: He's a loper. [00:38:13] Speaker B: Yeah, he doesn't run. [00:38:14] Speaker A: He's not fast. He's not slow. He just doesn't. [00:38:17] Speaker B: He just doesn't run. [00:38:18] Speaker A: He doesn't exert himself. [00:38:20] Speaker B: I know. The thing is that people have been talking to him about that kind of thing since he was. As long as I've known him since he was 15. I assume they have because we've been talking about that, about him since he was 15. I can't imagine that they're not telling him more than we are. [00:38:36] Speaker A: Well, that kind of, you know, I got to say that that somewhat. What's the right word? Hearing you say that this has been a problem dating back to him prior to him going to Psville is a bit relieving because a part of me wonders if this is the story of a kid who thought he got his big break to go to Europe, was rejected and is now back here at home having to play. And what we're seeing is a reflection of a guy that just, you know, is bummed out that he blew his chance. [00:39:07] Speaker B: No. Cause he does work hard in training. I don't think he's got that kind of mentality. He just, his whole career, as much as I've ever seen him, he, he's known that he's a talented player. Player. And he knows he has skill, so he just kind of waits for. He's always just been better than everybody else and he always has just been able to do whatever he wanted when he wanted to. So he just kind of drifts around in games. Like, even in academy, even in North Texas. I'm like, man, why aren't you dominating this game? You're just drifting in and out of this game and having moments. He's always been this way. And I think he's finally, you know, certainly PSV was and MLS might be too. It's a level where you can't do that. Eventually you have to play. You know, you have to bring it. And he's not, he's not, you know, he has, he just has these moments where he just is jogging around behind people and you see him start to almost start to spread. Think it's, nah, it's not worth it. And then he doesn't, and you're like, oh, my God, dude, just please bust it. You know? But no, I honestly like things that, with the way he plays, frustration so much, I cannot believe he still starts. But, you know, if you look into the stats and if you're a stats coach, it's like, you know, short of Paul Areola, who bizarrely has the best attacking numbers on this team, Dante Sealy has the next best things. Like, in terms of shot creation actions and. And. And key passes and duels won and offensively and, like, taking on players. Like, I don't have him in front of me, but last time I looked him up, which was like a week ago, he was number two in almost every category home. Beyond Paul Areola now, everything's relative. Of course, if he was on a really good team, his numbers would be way down the list. But he's not a really good team. So it's like, if you put Farfett in there, he would be worse in probably every offensive category. It's just so annoying that Dante doesn't do more than he does, you know, you expect him to just rip people all the time. I'll tell you a story. I was the stalls cup. It just happened. There's this kid who plays for the United teams. His name is Daniel Barron and he's from Chicago, I think, or Milwaukee or something. He's recently been a polish U 18, and he came back, you know, after a game between the Dallas cup, he came back and he did what he has always done against better teams than I've ever seen him against. And he is very direct and he's very quick and he goes at people hard, but he doesn't quit. Like, he gets to the. If he. If he goes. If he goes at you and you keep up, he goes at you again in one run, even. I'm talking about. He'll go again and again and again. He'll never give up. And he gets all the way to the end line and he has two inches of space left, and he doesn't get up, give up, and he'll get the ball back across the box, like nine out of ten times. He goes at somebody. The guy is fearless and relentless, and he goes at people hard the whole game. It's the complete opposite of watching. Dante Sealy and Daniel Barron in the Dallas cup was the most decisive player Dallas had. And he took them all the way to the final game before they lost. You know, he immediately got a north Texas soccer club opportunity, came off the bench in the very next game, and this week he was in first team training. If you have the right mentality, if you have that this coach wants, which is this never quit, never stop mentality, you can do great things. If Dante had that mentality, Dante would have made it at PSV and he wouldn't be back here. But he doesn't. Right. You know, and it's a shame, and I wish he did, and I don't know what it's going to take to wake him up because he's so talented. I mean, you saw those free kicks that he did in the spring training, and he almost had another one in this game. Free kick, goal. Berky made a great save to stop it. You know, Dante telegraphed it a little bit. It was a nice free kick. You know, break yourself, make a really great save. And. [00:42:39] Speaker A: Yeah, by the way, Dante. Dante Seeley. And the free kick is one of the weird, quiet curiosities out of this early season that I don't think we've dug into enough yet. [00:42:49] Speaker B: I mean, Moose had deferred to him, so they clearly know that he has it in his bag. [00:42:53] Speaker A: Yeah. This come from. Yeah, he just needs to convert one. [00:42:57] Speaker B: He does. And he got some in the spring. But, you know, like, if he had the same mentality as this kid Baron, it's just like, oh, my gosh, the sky would be the limit. But it's like, I don't. I don't know that he does, and I wish it would wake him up. Every time I watch him play, I wish it would wake up and he doesn't. [00:43:12] Speaker A: All right, well, those amazing looking kits. Yes. The sounders are in town this weekend, and I'm just going to go ahead and ask you to predict the lineup for Dallas. [00:43:24] Speaker B: Well, first, as you see there last game, that when they won 50, Rui Diaz had two. Morris scored, Roald Dan scored. It's like, it's. The guys that have carried them forever have woken up, you know? [00:43:35] Speaker A: Did you see the pat, have you seen the passing sequence video? [00:43:38] Speaker B: No, I don't want to. I don't want to see it. [00:43:40] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:43:41] Speaker B: I mean, it was. [00:43:42] Speaker A: It was so top notch. Typical Seattle. Get the ball and a 20 passing sequence that goes from one. I think everybody on their team touched the ball at least once and it went from their end of the field out wide back to their. I mean, it just. The whole thing, it's. Go find it. It's somewhere on the Internet. [00:43:59] Speaker B: Speaker zero. I'm sure my boy Joe Paolo was involved in that. He was so good. [00:44:03] Speaker A: Yes. It's frightening. [00:44:04] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, so, lineup this weekend. Well, whack. I just whacked it up. Well, this is a tough one. You know, the question becomes like, yes, I think Omar Gonzalez played pretty well, but I think you almost have to go to Nakosi because if you really did bench him from his mentality or something like that, you can't then, like, discard him. You have to, like, go, you know what? You need to sit a game and then come back and show us what you have. Well, you got to let him come back and show you. Like, if you just throw him out now, then he's gonna be done. So you pretty much got to bring him back. So then the question just becomes, for the, you know, did Omar play well enough to stay on the field against Seattle? And do you put safari as left center back, for example? And I think there's a chance, and again, I didn't go to practice, but I'm going to say there's a chance that you might, because rui Diaz is in the middle for them. Right, with rusnak otherneath. But rui Diaz is not blistering rude as is like, 500 years old, right. So it might actually make sense. [00:45:11] Speaker A: Rui Diaz is 500. How old is Omar? [00:45:13] Speaker B: Yeah, 600. Okay, so I'm just saying that, like, it's not like it's, you know, a blistering fast, like, over, you know, over the top, gonna make you run them down the field. Rude as is 33 it, right. It's actually more of a. It's like going up against fish, you know, or like chichirito, right. A savvy striker, not a blistering striker. So, okay. I'm almost tempted to say, leave Omar in the middle and put Nicosia left center back, because that's where Roldan is on that side and Morris is on the other side, or vice versa. And so either one of those guys might be coming at you, you know, instead of, like, let Nakosi deal with one of those guys and keep Yabiyaga on the other side. I'm tempted now. You know, if Niko's like him, he normally is, then Nicosia come back in the middle, and it'll be Ibiaga, Nikosi, junka. I'm just really tempted to go Ibiyaga, Omar Tafari and see what happens, because, you know, then you can put junk out wide, and then the other Roldan is outside back, you know, and Vargas is over that way. So, you know, you can kind of, like, have. All of a sudden, I have a little more experience, you know, now you want to dictate at home, though, so probably it's still going to be Dante. I just. I can't get out of my mind that I thought that Omar actually played fairly well, you know, in terms of organization. [00:46:41] Speaker A: Well, that doesn't surprise me. He was. Look, there was a time in a day where Omar Gonzalez was a really, really good center back. It's just that he's got a lot of miles and age on him. So he's not very fast, and you can't count on him for a bunch of games in a row because he's going to wear out. [00:46:55] Speaker B: Yeah, like, like, if you were going against Kai Kamara or somebody like that, I'd be like, never mind. But Rui Diaz, I actually kind of like this idea, maybe so you guys can flip a coin there, those listeners, and see what you think, which one you might like it to be. Um, so cross the. You know, whether that means you can kick Dante out and bring out junk over there, I don't know. It'll be one or the other, I'm sure. Um, and I'm gonna say, with Dante, you know, even though it could be juga. And then you go across the middle. Yarn Mindy is the big question. Like, how confident are you that yarn Mindy is healthy, 100% healthy. Do you, can he go 45 minutes? Probably. Is he only good for 30? If he's only good for 30, he comes off the bench. But if he can go 45, because remember, they even played him when he was kind of banged up that first game with a 45 minutes limit. So would they try that again? Because you don't want to get behind. You really need to control this game early, because if you get behind, you're in trouble. So I think. I think they're going to be really tempted to play Yarmindy from the get go if he's healthy. I mean, if he's not, it's Fraser and Delgado, and that's whatever, you know, is what it is. Um, so I think the chance it'll be yar, mindy and Frazier, I think. [00:48:11] Speaker A: Delgado hasn't beaten Fraser out yet. [00:48:13] Speaker B: He has his moments, but then he has his bad moments, too. He's just really young. Fraser's more reliable, you know, but it could go either way, honestly. I mean, the army is. The real trick is like, can he go? So I'm gonna say that they'll start him and let him go 45 like they did before, because they know how important he is and, you know, how important is to stay ahead of them. And Roostek is pretty savvy, you know, and then the other side will be at home. I think it'll be to a mossy. I really don't think. Oh, let me think about that a second. It might actually be Areola again, because, you know, again, they have. They have some nice wings on both sides, and Ariela did a pretty good job, I thought, at wingback. So it wouldn't surprise me if that's that's on the cards again. And then believe it or not, Musa of course is a lock, but so is, I think, Eugene Ansa, I can't believe it. And then he has some decisions to make about legit versus, you know, that that's the only thing would it make. I understand seeking assembling hasn't been in training either, so he must be hurt. So he's not a choice at the six. You know, Norris isn't really either. So I think you kind of, you kind of have to decide like did legit do good enough as that other ten to keep Paul a right wing back? And I think he probably, probably did because they, you know, like I said, they almost had an XGA two, so that's pretty decent, really. So I think they'll try that again. And legit gives you that ability to do that little flip flop, that little two one switcheroo up there and keep Paul at wing back. So I think that's where you're at. Pause, of course is a no brainer. So. [00:49:50] Speaker A: Okay. [00:49:52] Speaker B: Because for far fan back doesn't really do much for you and Jesus is not back. So that's all you got. [00:49:59] Speaker A: So I got a question for you because there's been a lot of discourse in the last week or so about other MLS clubs doing a really good job of integrating kids from their MLS next team and their academies. There's been, you know, obviously Philadelphia comes to mind, Columbus comes to mind and I'm sure there's some others that I'm not thinking of. And then obviously people turn and look in Dallas and go, what in the world is going on? And we all know that the large part of that is Nico and Niko's hesitancy and lack of desire to play the kids, per se. But I'm interested in your perspective because I consider you the expert here. Is there in fact, if in fact Niko is just being stubborn, are there kids in the system right now that are good enough that should be getting time in the end, the starting senior team? [00:50:56] Speaker B: Well, if Tarik Scott hadn't had his double knee, I think he would have been in the mix. And I think that the kid they just signed, Carl Santa, the haitian center back, I think he will be by the end of the season. I think he'll be in the mix. I think he's got potential center back. There's a kid at North Texas now named Diego Garcia. I think we've probably talked about him before. [00:51:22] Speaker A: Sure we have. [00:51:22] Speaker B: He's from El Paso locomotive and Dallas signed him. He had made his senior USL debut as an amateur player, just like Seattle does with North Texas, you know. So they signed him as a pro out of that academy. So he. I don't think by rule he can be a homegrown, even though he's been here for a year or more and he's actually played academy games. I think because he was already a pro, he can't be a homegrown. So that, honestly, to me is the holdup on him because he's a very special player. He's going to be an exciting player. I think he's in first team training from time to time. I've talked to coach Nico about him. He loves the kid, but the fact is that he can't have that protected homegrown roster spot. So it's a little harder for them to get him in. You have to give him a full. And his position is he's a. An eight slash, ten. He's like, he's like legit, um, if you will, that kind of player. He could play as a ten, he could play as a deep eight, maybe even a little false wing, but he's a really good player. I think not. Not the early part of this year, because of the fact that the roster is difficult and figuring out how to get him into it. You would have to sacrifice somebody on the senior developmental roster. I know you. I know we hate this roster shit. You'd have to get rid of somebody like Omar or Korcha or. Who else is on that thing. Jimmy mowers on that. [00:52:53] Speaker A: I'm just asking. Don't worry about the roster part. I'm just asking a more generalized question, like Nolan Norris, for example, or. [00:53:00] Speaker B: Well, Norris. You've seen Norris? [00:53:02] Speaker A: Well, no, but I'm. Yeah, but what I'm asking you, buzz, in your mind, in your. Your opinion, are there kids that should be getting more time that just simply aren't, and they're good enough to be getting that. [00:53:14] Speaker B: There's nobody right now that's good enough to come up and help FC Dallas right this minute. It's all about the future. There's this kid, Pedrino, who's been hurt. He had compartment syndrome. They had to do that on him, if you know what that is. That's what. They sliced the muscle right on your leg. Branch had it. When your leg gets constricted, right? So, you know, there's some projects in north Texas, there's nobody there that's like beating down the door, other than maybe Diego Garcia is the closest. Um, and then in the academy, I'm telling you, I really like this kid, Daniel Barron, but that's a ways away. And then you're going down to like the. Then you get into like some really silly stuff. So the only answer to close up is, um, the kid they just signed, Carl Santa. And then, you know, Nolan, um, Nolan was captain of the 19s recently. You know, he was in that tournament of Morocco. You know, he. He is really smart player. He's a phenomenal passer. It's just a matter of coach, you know, like. Like in a way. I almost can't believe they signed Delgado as a U 22 initiative. No, he's not U 20 initiative. I'm sorry. He's just alone. I almost couldn't believe that they signed Delgado in the very spot that, like, Nolan plays. It's like, dude, just play Nolan. Right? It's like, why? [00:54:31] Speaker A: Because that's a guy they can turn around and make money off of. [00:54:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess. I guess so is Nolan. But I mean, you know, probably not. [00:54:40] Speaker A: As easily as a south american player. [00:54:42] Speaker B: Well, that guy's on loan, so they have to buy him first. But that's a fair point. We'll come back to that part. You know, I just. Sometimes I don't understand the things they do. Like the whole idea of like, signing a guy on loan that plays in the exact spot like your brightest prospect that you currently have plays in. It's just bizarre to me. But they did, you know, and here we are. I mean, I get it on Tark Scott because Tark Scott's out. Been out for a year. And this year is, as we've said, love the kid. And I'm sure everyone around him is saying no, no, he's ready. Yeah, he's ready. But he's not the same. You got to get. He's going to take another year before be back. It's how it is. That's. That's again the stupid thing with Giovanni and Allen. It's like, I'll be back in August, sure, but then it takes another year before he's really back. You know? We all know every time. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Well, the good news. This weekend, 730 Seattle comes to town. Dallas, we now officially know will be wearing their blue afterburner. [00:55:34] Speaker B: Love it. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Set. We've only seen once. All sorts. [00:55:36] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. So good. It would look so much better. [00:55:43] Speaker A: Than wearing the white one over and over again. [00:55:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought it was funny. The social media account said that we're wearing the kit, not the red kit because it ain't red. [00:55:55] Speaker A: If you know, you know. [00:55:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Super glad it's back. You know, put it with white shorts, but, you know, whatever. That's never going to happen. [00:56:01] Speaker A: All right, so that's what's happening this weekend. Other big news this week is the rumor that was broken, I think first by the athletic and other people that. So, by the way, earlier this week, all the MLs bigwigs got together out in LA. What also just probably not by coincidence happened this weekend was the lawsuit with relevant had an update. Where relevant let FIFA out of that lawsuit. And on the day that got announced, the big man from FIFA himself, infantino. Infantino, was with all the MLS leaders and I still don't think that's a coincidence. [00:56:40] Speaker B: No way. [00:56:41] Speaker A: And out of that came the rumor that the roster rules are undergoing a significant amount of change as early as this summer window, which seems ridiculous. And wheels off mid season. Yes. A minute. Yes. Oh, my gosh. [00:56:58] Speaker B: Well, given who reported that, people like Carlisle confirming and stuff. I mean, I'm. It's real. So. [00:57:02] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. [00:57:02] Speaker B: Yeah. They have specific rules, rules on athletics. I was like, yeah, so you talk about how that affects Dallas maybe. [00:57:09] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I mean, how much. I mean, look, there's, the quick read is, is there's a lot of opportunity to improve your team very quickly now. And at the same time it screams, here are all the other loopholes that will allow the, the older owners that don't want to spend a ton of money to continue not to spend a ton of money. [00:57:29] Speaker B: Oh, Clark Hunt clearly wrote these. Yeah. There's no question in my mind that Clark wrote this. Yeah. So number one, it's two buyouts per season, which lets you get out of a bad contract more than you were. So that's good. [00:57:41] Speaker A: Clark did not write that rule. [00:57:43] Speaker B: He, he might have because that way you can actually get rid of the contract, you know, move on. But the other part, maybe that one didn't, but the other parts he did, clearly, in my mind, because the biggest change is with, has to do with DP's and U 22 initiative players. They've made it like now that instead of, it's basically like you just get six and you can have three and three or you can have two and four. And if you only have two DP's, you can take a big chunk of money and you can convert it into gam if you want instead. [00:58:13] Speaker A: Rest of your roster. [00:58:14] Speaker B: Rest of your roster. Funny money. And the reason that matters for Dallas is because they almost never have players that are over that have to be a DP limit, which is like 1.6 million. So even Jesus is at that line. Which means that every DP they have can be bought down to not being a DP. So that lets them get out of having DP's and having more of these U 22 guys, which will get paid less, but you pay more to get them. And that doesn't go in your cap. And then you can sell them to make money. That's the key part. Right? So that's, you know, like we haven't seen Moose's contract yet. His probably will be over the threshold. But Jesus and all and Paul and Alan are all right at that threshold. Not a coincidence. Okay, so that's important. Right? [00:59:03] Speaker A: Well, hold on, before you move on, because I want to make sure we clarify something. Because the way you said it made it so you. There are six, but you can't have six DP's. It's still a limit of three DP's. [00:59:14] Speaker B: It's three and three. Or it's two, two and four. [00:59:16] Speaker A: Okay, see, but you can't also have six U 22s. [00:59:19] Speaker B: No, but you get that chunk. Like if you have one less DP, you get a chunk of money. Now, listen, it's not in stone. Could change. But, you know, you have these young DP's and shit. I'm sure there's some other minutiae in here that we're not aware of yet. But at its core, you can either go three and three or two and four. And if you go two and four, you get a chunk of money. But the reason we care about the two and four at Dallas is because they're set up to take advantage of that. The two and four. [00:59:48] Speaker A: How? Okay, when you say they're set up to take advantage of that. [00:59:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:52] Speaker A: In what way will they take advantage of that? [00:59:54] Speaker B: Well, because they have the DP's that don't have this number over 1.6 million. They can have more U 22 players who are designed to buy low and sell high. You get more Giovanni's, you get more enes's, you get more. [01:00:14] Speaker A: You know, can I tell you, I'm not very excited already. Well, that's what we're gonna end up getting. [01:00:19] Speaker B: It doesn't. It may not help you on the field, but if you're trying to make money and you have a TD like Zanada and you're about you to hunts, you care about making money. That's why I say Clark Hunt wrote these. Right. [01:00:34] Speaker A: It. Well, also me. While meanwhile, also making it easier for the Miamis, Seattle's and La's. Of the world. [01:00:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:42] Speaker A: To bolster their rosters in other ways that actually improve their product on the field. [01:00:47] Speaker B: The way it would help Dallas on the field is that if they do the two and four, they get this chunk of funny money that you can get more of your Paula areolas and your Paxton's and your legit's and these, these guys that make, you know, under a million dollars. So they're above the DP line, but they're way under the max line. So you can get to where Dallas could carry like six or seven of these guys like they always like to do. Right? Your reto zieglers, your, your facundos, your, those kind of guys were all over the DP line, but low enough that they would be bought down so it would allow them to carry more of those guys and make more of their general roster, theoretically stronger. Right. [01:01:31] Speaker A: Okay. [01:01:31] Speaker B: Help them with depth and width rather than peak, high salary. Does that make sense? [01:01:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:38] Speaker B: Sounds like the hunts, doesn't it? Yeah, I know, I know. Okay, so the next part that sounds like the hunts to me is that they've changed the amount of funny money you can earn by selling and loaning players out. Again. Does that sound like the hunts? [01:01:56] Speaker A: Sure. [01:01:56] Speaker B: So if you sell off your Reynolds is and your testman's and your whatever else is and your Jesus's, you now get more funny money back to do things with. Okay. And it even more sounds like the hunts when you combine that rule with the new, you can have as many homegrowns as you want rule. So Dallas could sign ten homegrowns and loan out eight of them to all kinds of places you could think of, Benfica, USL, whatever, and make money on them and put that money into your pocket and into your funny money pile. So again, sounds to me like Clark hunt wrote that rule. [01:02:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:39] Speaker B: So, you know, they're making the rules more flexible, but also giving teams that don't go spend big money on players more small money to mess with or. [01:02:52] Speaker A: Avenues to affect their little piles of. [01:02:56] Speaker B: The money to do little things with. If you're the Clark, you know, while, while loosening some of these stringent C's on the other things for your Miami's. [01:03:06] Speaker A: And I will, and I will make the suggestion that this is cleverly written in a manner that a club with a good technical director and a savvy front office staff could build an effective roster with these rules. Think of Columbus. I mean, it's not like Columbus is blowing out, you know, Garth in Atlanta. Yeah, well, Atlanta's got a lot of money to play with, but there are clubs that are smart, like real Salt Lake, Columbus. I'm probably forgetting a bunch of Vancouver, Portland maybe, you know, that are going to figure out ways to do this and so we can, we can joke about how Clark Hunt wrote a lot of these. The problem is, I don't know if they've got somebody in the front office to capitalize on it the other way that I believe other clubs will. That's the, that's the TBD in this deal. [01:03:58] Speaker B: The difference for me is that I think there are some clubs that'll take advantage of all these loopholes to try and focus only on making their team better. Whereas, as seen Dallas under the owners we have will use part of this or all of it to try and make the team sustainably profitable and survive for another 40 years. And not necessarily when you end the most cup. [01:04:18] Speaker A: You just said out loud what I was thinking in my way. [01:04:20] Speaker B: I know. I was trying to get to it for you. I knew what you were going at. [01:04:23] Speaker A: Well, I was trying not to be so blunt about it, but. Yes, exactly. [01:04:29] Speaker B: Yeah. That's what it looks like to me. [01:04:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:33] Speaker B: Because remember, above all else, the hunts care about sustainability. [01:04:36] Speaker A: Yes, well, that's fine. But I, and I appreciate wanting to be stable and, and run a good, smart business. I've never begrudged them for wanting to do that. But I also think that there are ways to do that and put a good product on the field. And I. Look, we talked about this last year when things started going south. I think the most maddening and frustrating aspect about what is going on right now with Dallas is the fact that for, is that they are in this awful, this awful product on the field right when it feels like they finally, after 26 years of being the butt of the butt of the joke of attendance in this league, finally got over that hump. They've sold out every game this season, I think, and they'll probably sell out again this weekend. And now what's, what's going on? They got an absolute crap team on the field. And that just, that breaks my heart in some ways. That's really frustrating. [01:05:36] Speaker B: I do wonder whether it'll hurt the attendance. You know, you, Peter, you and I, you and I had this conversation when the Hunts took over this team in late 2002, going into 2003. It's like, yes, this is the best thing that could happen. The Hunts saved this franchise. It would have been folded, but it's also the worst thing because they're always going to be about sustainability and they're not going to. They're not going to, and they claim they are, but actions are what define you, not your words. They don't show the desire to consistently win on the field. They show desire to be pretty good most of the time. Those are two very different things, you know, and they show more desire to be sustainable and invest in things that get them long term sustainability. Stadium, academy, you know, and they're going to do it again here. We've talked about it. So it's. It's a curse and a blessing at the same time. It is what it is, and they're waiting for their moment of luck like they almost went in 2010, reinforcing their beliefs, and maybe they're waiting for their Mahomes to come out. You know, they had it and they sold them for 20. [01:06:35] Speaker A: We said it last week, 2010, 2016 were anomalies. They were the exception to the rule, just in the same way I believe that this year is an exception to the rule. You know, they're not, they're not historically as bad as they have been this season, but they are historically not as good as they were in 2016. The water will find its level after a certain amount of time. We're just going to deal where it's just in a drought and it'll get better. [01:07:02] Speaker B: Well, and they, they have enough talent to be that above average team. They always are. The question is, like, can they get all that talent healthy in time to save this coach's job, or is it going to keep going bad with the injuries and keep going south and is he going to get fired? You know, that's where, you know, even if it all got healthy, they're not going to win MLS cup, but at least it'll be a more enjoyable season. [01:07:22] Speaker A: And I'm glad you said that because, and I don't mean to, I don't know how long we've been recording, but I don't mean to drag this out too much longer. But that then opens up the entire can of worms that I thought about earlier this week when I saw sounder at heart, posted an article about the status of Brian Smetzer in Seattle and how hot his seat was. And it dawned on me. It was like, look, Niko's probably not going to make it through this season. I mean, I still very much believe he probably is one of the three hottest seats in MLS at this moment. [01:07:56] Speaker B: Oh, fair. [01:07:57] Speaker A: But when he goes and let's just, well, let's play. Let's play this as, as politely as we can, just working hypothetically that Nico gets sacked this season. The, the reality is, is that even if Bruce arena is out there, and let's say in some world, Brian Smetzer is out available, Dallas is never getting either one of those guys or anybody at that level, even if you work under the assumption that any of them would want to take this job because it tends to be a lower paying job, the roster right now is an utter disaster. The Hunts, the entire time they've owned this team, have they ever hired a well established veteran manager? [01:08:40] Speaker B: No. [01:08:40] Speaker A: Ever? Once? [01:08:41] Speaker B: No. You know, the people that know, you know, around the water cooler tell us that generally speaking, this is one of the lowest paid edge coaching jobs in the league, and it always has been. [01:08:50] Speaker A: Yes. [01:08:51] Speaker B: And they didn't hire jeffreys. They came in after that. And since then, they've hired a former assistant, given his first head coaching job, and clark, former assistant, given his first head coaching job in Morrow, their family soccer mentor they've known for 30 years, who had never coached, never coach team, pro team. Right. [01:09:14] Speaker A: And Shellis. [01:09:15] Speaker B: And Shellis. Oscar's the only one. When they went out and got him after he had left academy, he had coached two seasons, and they had to basically money whip him to get him, you know, but if it hadn't been somebody they believed in heart and soul because he'd been here for 30 years, I don't think they would have done it. Lucci first said coaching job. First job. Coaching adults. [01:09:36] Speaker A: Yes. [01:09:37] Speaker B: Right. [01:09:37] Speaker A: And he wasn't even coaching at the time they hired him. He's running the academy. [01:09:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And now Niko, first head coaching job. So even if they were to get rid of him, which I don't think that it would necessarily will, you're talking about a club that will not. You're not going to get Jesse Marsh. You're not getting, you know, you're not going to get mesh schmetzer. You're going to get something like, they always hire, they always, they always talk about, oh, we have these international names calling. And I know for a fact that at times they've interviewed people that are like, that would be great. None of them are ever going to take it because of the fact that you have to deal with Dan Hunt on a daily basis. You have to deal with the teeny that they already have, who's going to be doing all that stuff. You're not going to have any control over that. And the jobs not gonna pay very well. So, you know, I wouldn't be in a hurry to fire Niko. [01:10:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:27] Speaker B: The bigger question is like, if you lose to Seattle at home, will he be fired? That's the question. Will he or won't he be? I think if he hadn't got that point, maybe that's enough to help save him if he loses Seattle. Because if you lose Seattle at home, I don't know that you're going to hold on to your job. [01:10:43] Speaker A: Well, no matter when it happens. Do you have a, like, if somebody just said, buzz, you got to put $100 on a bet of who they hire to replace him? Is it Lucene, who, by the way, has never been a manager before? [01:10:56] Speaker B: You want to, you want to make the bet now, or do you want to wait and see what happens with the coach? Because I have a name. I have speaker two. [01:11:01] Speaker A: No, I do. Let's just call it now. Look, Niko's not surviving this season, okay? I just, I. There's. I just have no sense that this, this. Oh, well, maybe that's too harsh. Maybe I should apologize for saying that. Let's just work under the assumption that Niko gets sacked this season. Who's the guy? They were. [01:11:20] Speaker B: Fine conversation. [01:11:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, just for shits. [01:11:23] Speaker B: And I'm going to give you a name that I think is 100% realistic, both in who they might get and who would take it. Okay? Eric Quill. [01:11:36] Speaker A: Whoa. [01:11:36] Speaker B: The only coach to ever win a championship at this club, period. [01:11:44] Speaker A: That's awesome. [01:11:46] Speaker B: Right? Knows the club probably would take it, knowing the club would be willing to take it, the money, because it would be his first MLS job. [01:11:54] Speaker A: You don't even know where Eric Quill is right now. [01:11:56] Speaker B: He's coaching New Mexico United. [01:11:58] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. [01:11:59] Speaker B: He went, he went from North Texas to go work for in Columbus to work for Porter for a season. Then Porter got fired because he wanted to improve his resume for head coaching. And so after the porter got fired in Columbus, came up as a coach for New Mexico United last year. [01:12:15] Speaker A: Is Caleb Porter working somewhere? [01:12:18] Speaker B: New England. New England. [01:12:19] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. He went to New England. That's right. Yeah. [01:12:21] Speaker B: So that's my out on a flyer, a guy that would actually take the job. Now, look, if it ever comes down to it, I actually have a list of people I think are legitimate candidates who will consider the job, and we'll do that, but we'll stop with the park cart too far ahead of the horse in terms of Niko getting fired. But, yeah, since you asked, that's my name. [01:12:38] Speaker A: Yeah. I think the main other reason why I thought about bringing this up was, is because obviously, there's been more than a fair share of the Niko out brigade. Out. [01:12:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that's fair. [01:12:48] Speaker A: Which is fair and not necessarily something I agree or disagree with. I just want everybody to take a minute and consider what happens if and when Niko gets fired. Because you don't have an ownership group that's going to go around and hire and replace him with somebody probably even equally as experienced as Niko, who, by the way, doesn't have a ton of experience and in terms of. In the scheme of things. And it's not like they're going to go out and hire some veteran big dollar name that's out on the market at this particular and that particular moment. [01:13:21] Speaker B: No, you're not going to get special. You're not going to get Mars, you're not going to get. They're not going to go money whip Oscar unless Oscar gets fired. They're not going to get Oscar. Even if you get fired, you might not get them. Because if I want too much money. So you're looking at names like you mentioned, leseen. Yeah, that'll be on the short list. Chu Rivera, the nine uniting coach here, he'd be on the short list. I think Quill will be on the short list. Michelle. No, Michelle would probably be the next North Texas coach. You'd have to look at, you know, assistance for other teams, you know, the people that have been successful, like who's Will Wilford, Nancy's top assistant, maybe, or other teams that are doing well, you know, a guy like, who's trundle's top guy, you know, or who's Vancouver's second coach, things like that. Guys that might be looking for their first head job. That's what you're looking at. [01:14:14] Speaker A: You know, guys, where's Hugo Perez these days? Because that's a guy I would kill to have. [01:14:19] Speaker B: I think they've interviewed Hugo Perez before. I think. I'm pretty sure they have got it. They didn't give it to him. You know, is he not cosine, El Salvador anymore? I don't know. [01:14:29] Speaker A: Maybe. [01:14:29] Speaker B: I think he's still coaching El Salvador. Okay, possibly, you know, could you include, like, Zarko, who's had some success, you know, in other countries, you know, Lionel Alvarez? I don't think they would. That he would want too much money. You know? What would they even. Because he would be. It would be about him at that point. [01:14:55] Speaker A: We could go round and round. I don't want to get too down on the weeds here. [01:15:00] Speaker B: I mean, you know, I'm just saying that, like, you're right. That like, careful as you ask for, because that's what. Unless you like those names, you know, you're just that much anti Nico, then, yeah. You could move within to that neck of the woods. I guess so. [01:15:14] Speaker A: All right, Buzz. Well, I guess we'll see how this weekend plays out. Seattle 730, Saturday. Is it a theme night this week that I'm unaware of? [01:15:22] Speaker B: Oh, yes, it's military appreciation night. [01:15:25] Speaker A: Oh, I salute you. [01:15:26] Speaker B: Buzz, what do you think? Would you. Would. Do you think Nico gets fired if he loses his game? [01:15:31] Speaker A: I think it depends on how he loses this. I mean, if they get trucked, like Seattle trucked? [01:15:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Good point. [01:15:38] Speaker A: Vancouver last. Was it Vancouver. [01:15:40] Speaker B: It was too much. You all. They got it beat him five nothing. Yeah, they get smoked five nothing here in Dallas. You're probably right. That would be it. [01:15:46] Speaker A: Yeah. If it's a close to one late win kind of thing or whatever. Dallas, maybe not. Yeah. Yeah. You know, somebody stands on their head. But I think the point got him a little room. [01:15:57] Speaker B: The point got him a little room, I think. Yeah, but I think you're right. [01:16:00] Speaker A: Yeah, they get trucked. Yeah. Let's see. [01:16:03] Speaker B: Yeah. The hunts. I. Because I think. Dude, I say this last week, you know, we've always said the hunts are really patient and they wait, but often it happens when they get embarrassed. But then I was thinking, like, well, this actually is going back to, like, the middle of last year, so it's not just the start of this season. Really. You're talking about since April of last year that it's been bad, so it isn't. It is a long time they have been patient. [01:16:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:16:24] Speaker B: So, you know, it wouldn't shock me that as you. As you suggest, actually, that's a. Probably a good call that if they get trucked, they would in fact, probably make a move. [01:16:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:16:33] Speaker B: I don't know, man. I don't know. [01:16:35] Speaker A: Hmm. All right, Buzz. Thank you very much, my friend. [01:16:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you for being here, man. I appreciate it. [01:16:42] Speaker A: Dan's a busy dude, man. [01:16:44] Speaker B: I know. [01:16:44] Speaker A: He's got so many. He's got like eight jobs in the fire. [01:16:48] Speaker B: Like five more than me. [01:16:50] Speaker A: Like, high quality beard products are not inexpensive, buzz. It's like. It's like having five children, I suspect. Although I know the bombs and shampoos and all that stuff and the trimming. Can you imagine the. The gear you got to buy to keep that thing in shape? [01:17:06] Speaker B: How many razor blades does he go through for his trimmer? I don't know. [01:17:11] Speaker A: I'm sure it's like. It's like some sort of commercial grade whacker type device? Yeah, something like that. [01:17:16] Speaker B: Third degree the podcast has been brought to you by soccer 90 dot, your one stop shop for FC Dallas national teams gear, international club gear. They got all the latest us stuff, jerseys, tops, tees, jackets. They got it all. As a third degree listener, you get 20% off discount in store or online. Both places code third degree 20% off code third degree, soccer 90 dot. Some exclusions do apply. Third degree the podcast is also brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm for Wills trust, probates and business law. Call 469-515-2559 that's 469-515-2559 or visit the lonesomelaw firm.com for a free consultation. [01:17:56] Speaker A: All right, well, come on back, Dan. Buzz, thanks again and thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Keep the faith, everybody. We will speak to you next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast Goburn. Third degree the third degree nepot third degree the third degree nepot. The third degree never again third degree. [01:18:22] Speaker B: Third degree never again.