3rd Degree the Podcast #263

[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, let's knock this mother out. As the great ll cool j once said, mama said knock you out. Here we go. Three, two, one. Yeah. [00:00:15] Speaker B: Ooh, ooh. Third degree the third degree napa third. [00:00:25] Speaker A: Degree the third degree nepochet third degree the third degree nerd pocket third degree. [00:00:34] Speaker B: The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree the podcast is brought to you by soccer 90. Dot your source for FC Dallas, us national team and international club gear. They got all the new stuff in for the national teams for Copa America and Euro 24. All the big guns. As a third degree listener, get 20% off your discount code in store. Simply mention third degree or online with the code third degree at checkout. 20% off. Some exclusions may apply. Third degree. The podcast is also brought to you by the Lindstermore law firm for Wills Trust, probates and business law. Called for 695-15-2559 or visit lindstromlawfirm.com for a free consultation. [00:01:10] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. This one numbered two six three, I am told. Hello, me, Peter. That there is the poor one out for Lewton, newly relegated Dan Crook. [00:01:31] Speaker C: There's still a chance. We just have to win seven nil and hope that Burnley beat Nottingham Forest 60. And then we're fine. [00:01:41] Speaker A: You'll be just fine. Man, I was rooting for the Hatters all season long. You know that, right, Dan? Yeah. [00:01:48] Speaker C: You know, it's harder to take. If we'd lost all 38 games, I don't think anyone would have cared. But it's the. [00:01:53] Speaker A: It's the hope that gets you right every time. All I know is that if there's any kind of shiny silver lining to this, is that hopefully it makes it easier for me to go to a game at Kenilworth Road sometime next season. So. [00:02:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Because it doesn't new stadiums happen in anytime soon. [00:02:11] Speaker A: Oh, really? Has it been delayed too? [00:02:15] Speaker C: It's been delayed for seven years. [00:02:18] Speaker A: One of those things. I get it. [00:02:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:21] Speaker A: All right. And then, of course, your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero. Editor, founder of Thirddegree.net, and the original soccer influencer, Buzz Kerik. Come in, Buzz. [00:02:34] Speaker B: Hey, fellas. I'd like to announce that there's a new member of my household. As of this week, Amy and I adopted a dog Monday from a shelter. So. Yeah. [00:02:46] Speaker A: Will a photo of said new puppy dog be the COVID art of this episode? [00:02:52] Speaker B: He might, if we can get a good picture. He's still got a giant cone on his head from his. [00:02:55] Speaker A: You know, the snip. [00:02:57] Speaker B: His snip, snip. So other than that, at some point, I'll get a picture of him and share it on the pot or whatever. [00:03:02] Speaker A: Come on. A good old cone of shame photo is not a bad way to introduce a dog to the world, you know? [00:03:06] Speaker B: I'll see what I can do. [00:03:08] Speaker A: What kind of dog is it? [00:03:09] Speaker B: An australian cattle dog, of course. [00:03:11] Speaker A: Of course. And what is its name? [00:03:14] Speaker B: Well, that is still in process. It has not been decided. [00:03:18] Speaker A: Okay, hold on. I feel like this is a contest for the curious. I think Buzz and Amy need to let the curious name the new third degree puppy dog. [00:03:27] Speaker B: Well, I've picked out what I want to call him, but Amy's not as convinced. [00:03:30] Speaker A: That means you need a tiebreaker, which is the curious. [00:03:33] Speaker B: Okay. [00:03:34] Speaker C: Specifically Patreon subscribers. [00:03:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. If you've. If you've paid money somewhere in the discord, we need to start a new channel that is come up with a nick name for Buzz's new dog. [00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Take suggestions. Fair. Okay. [00:03:50] Speaker A: No, they get. And then once we have a collection, the curious get to vote and decide on what it is. And you and Amy have to adhere to this. [00:03:57] Speaker B: I don't think we would let that happen. I think we're gonna pick the name boo boo. Yeah. Are you gonna put your next corgi up for Patreon renaming? [00:04:08] Speaker A: No, I don't get paid. I don't get anything from the Patreon. This is your bit. Nobody cares. And I, by the way, my two dogs are really old, and once they're gone, I think we're gonna go dogless for some. [00:04:17] Speaker B: Oh, that's it. No. [00:04:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:18] Speaker B: Corgis, though. [00:04:19] Speaker A: I know. I love a corgi. What color is. Is it a blue Merle? [00:04:26] Speaker B: Mostly blue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's got a little bit of red. A very raccoon looking face. So, like, the suggestions so far, like rocky or rocket. I'm going with trash panda. So I want to call him trash. So we're working on the names. [00:04:38] Speaker A: Dog names have to be two syllables, buzz. [00:04:41] Speaker B: Do they? [00:04:41] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. For training purposes. That's well documented. [00:04:44] Speaker B: Well, Rocky and Rocket are two. [00:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:04:48] Speaker C: So, anyway, more importantly, consider the nicknames that you will give the dog that are not its name. [00:04:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I'm not actually going to call him trash, but maybe panda. You know, we thought about Poe from kung fu panda, but that might be too short. [00:05:04] Speaker A: Can I. Can I make a topical, historic, two syllable suggestion that I think applies very well? Sure. [00:05:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:05:13] Speaker A: Ted Eck Tedec. [00:05:16] Speaker B: I don't think we're naming them dedicated. [00:05:18] Speaker A: Yeah. My wife has a dog name exercise to test if a dog name is good. You say the name in a loud, angry, scolding voice. So if the dog's name is Rocky, you go, Rocky. You see how that sounds? And sometimes it sounds really good, other times you're like, oh, no, that doesn't sound good when I'm angry. So, you know, ta da. See, that doesn't work very well. So. [00:05:44] Speaker B: No, that doesn't work. [00:05:44] Speaker A: So that's how you decide? [00:05:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that's how you decide. [00:05:49] Speaker C: This has been informative. [00:05:51] Speaker A: Well, you don't want it to be fluffy. You can't say fluffy. Sounds ridiculous. [00:05:55] Speaker B: No, it's not gonna be fluffy. [00:05:56] Speaker A: All right, well, welcome to the family. Unnamed new carrot dog. Third degree dog. [00:06:03] Speaker B: I call third degree. I guess that won't make it music at all. [00:06:07] Speaker C: Third degree the dog. [00:06:09] Speaker A: Just. How about just degree? [00:06:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, sure. Third degree the dog is the official name. [00:06:14] Speaker A: A secondary word mark or something, branding, going, yeah, degree. No, it doesn't work. I don't like that. Yeah, okay. All right. Well, we've done everything we can to avoid talking about the actual football team known as FC dude because it's one of those weird conversations, buzz as it is. FC dude. Two FC, bunch of other dudes won in a game that was not very exciting, but had two. Had it. One moment of capitalizing on opportunities handed to you and another actual quality soccer moment out of the good guys. And at least it's a win and we don't want to be too dismissive of it. Right? [00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, you know, in terms of the game, Dallas got dominated in every statistical category except the one that actually matters, which is goals. And, you know, the way this team likes to play and tends to play, which is relatively defensive and relatively sitting back, you know, with their little quick counters they like to do, you know, it sort of played into their hands. And we've talked all along about how the bulk of this team is a bunch of dudes and the guys that were special had not been being special. And until this game came along and Jesus and Peter Moussa both did things that were special and they got. They got goals. And that's how you win games of Major League Soccer. It's a prototypical example of what the difference between when your guys, your important guys, show up and play really well and when they don't, which is the previous couple of games, they had looked flat and passive and had nothing special at all in this game. All of a sudden they had two guys and so they won the game. [00:07:55] Speaker A: It's as simple as that. Winning the game. [00:07:58] Speaker B: It really is. [00:07:59] Speaker A: But, well, I'm just saying it is one of those deals where I don't want to be too lemon about this, sour pushed about this, but they won the game. But there are still all the other signs and indicators that there's a lot of problems with this team. [00:08:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Oscar used to say that when you're evaluating how you played, you have to ignore the actual goals because there's too many things that can cause a goal or be a fluke goal or can influence you not getting a goal. You have to analyze the play conceptually. And if you're trying to be entertaining and you're trying to sell tickets and you're trying to put a business on the field, this is not very pretty. But on the other hand, like walking out of the gate, a guy 10ft away from me is like, man, that's the best I've seen them play all season. And I'm thinking to myself, man, that was a horrible game. What are you watching? But they won. And the bottom line is, you know, winning cures a lot of ills. You know, now you have to be able to produce it game after game of game. That's the trick. Like, what were you doing that would lead you to do, to be able to do it again? And, you know, with this coach, obviously, you know, a certain point in the game, you're looking at seven defenders out there and one midfielder and a couple of attackers. And they did the things that they do well. Well, which is when Austin would make a mistake, they capitalized on the mistake, you know, and they were, they played quickly in transition and they're, they're two best players on the field at that moment. Pass to each other to get the second goal. And in the first goal, they did a little counter press off of a bad misplay from Musa. And coach, by the way, said that they came out in a four three three, which I didn't spot at all. And he credited that to how come Musa intercepted that pass? Because Austin wasn't expecting it. I don't, I didn't see a four three three out there myself, but I'll take him in his word at least, that they started that way. And the bottom line is like, both of those goals are prototypical goals that this club has produced over the last three years. You know, maybe it's a great idea that you make Asus captain because all of a sudden he feels more responsibility and he feels a little more dialed in. You know, of course we're not real happy to see Aramini go off the field at halftime, but you know, there are still so many things wrong with this team in terms of how the roster is built for shape that the team doesn't play and in terms of how, how many got, how many roster fillers they just have versus how many guys that are special that they have, some of whom are injured and out for a long time, some of whom are just underperforming. You know, there's still a lot of things going on. But when you need victories and you're desperate for victories and you get a victory, sometimes you just take it and say, you know what, we'll take that one. You know, can we do that? What got us that win? Can we capitalize on that? Can we do more things like that? Can Jesus and Musa be dialed in together and can we play tight defense? And they probably can do that. So we'll, they'll grind out. They're one point out of the playoffs, no. 1.1 spot off the playoffs now and they're going to continue to grind. This game will reinforce to this coach that the grind is working. [00:10:44] Speaker A: Here's the thing. We're going to have to take this season in the little bits of gold that we can get and, and, and just enjoy those for those moments as best we can. There's that, that's, that's how this season more than likely is going to play itself out. Because as you mentioned in this, the big problem is the, is the obvious elephant in the room that I suspect you're going to get more into when you start talking about what you saw at training today in terms of injuries. Yup. Which is the most critical player on this team going out at halftime again, we're not even ten games into the season and now I have a feeling, buzz, you're going to tell us that for the second time this season we're going to end up missing this most critical player for another extended period of time. [00:11:31] Speaker B: I don't know how extended it'll be, but yes, you're certainly going to be missing this player. And look, we've talked about how great Yar Mindy is, but we've also talked about how he's 34 and every time we talk about that, people are like, why are you complaining? These 34, he can still play well. This is why we're completing these 34. When you're in your thirties, recovery is slower, injuries happen more frequently. It's a fundamental rule of life that this starts to happen to you. There are exceptions. There are guys that are so insanely fit, freaks of nature. Cristiano Ronaldo is a great example of a guy that is so insanely fit that these kinds of fallouts don't happen to him. But to 99% of us in the world, these fall offs happen. To 99.9% of players these fall offs happen. And it's just. It's inevitable. You know, you can look at Areola as he gets really close to 30. Look at legit after he crossed over to 31, 32. It just happens. Credit, by the way, to Sebastian Ibiaka, who's remarkably, knock on wood, able to play game after game after game, despite the fact he's in his thirties now. So you just have to expect it, you have to know it and it's going to happen. You have to make it part of your plan and you have to have ways to get around it or solve it or know how you're going to get through it. The ones you can't count on are the guys that are in their mid twenties this is happening to. Yet if it happens so often that it becomes a trend, you also need to recognize that. And that's the combination of those things is what's really killing them. [00:12:56] Speaker A: Yes. And again, not to beat a dead horse. The problem is the backup plan was Paxton, palm, McCall, Liam Frazier and Delgado. [00:13:06] Speaker B: Yeah, look, you know, Delgado and Liam Frazier are solid sixes, but in this shape, you know, when. When you're playing four across the midfield and two of those guys are wing backs who are not particularly ball savvy. Dribblers, possessors, holders, line breakers, you know, those kinds of guys make it more important for your two guys in the middle to not be like pure ball winning sixes. They need to be able to be able to pass and connect and play out. And that's why the first tier plan was Yara, Mindy and Paxton together. You know, there wasn't going to be a pure six in there. And now we're seeing games where it's Frazier and Delgado together. You know, for Liam, Frazier is a much, much better passer when you are. I mean, he's in there because he's much more confident in terms of being able to combine and pass with people. So it is what it is at this point, we're just going to deal with it and the club's going to have to deal with it. [00:13:54] Speaker A: Do you have any opinions or thoughts about the fact that he started in sibling for a second time in a row? As one of the two tens. [00:14:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought about that. My thought on that is that he had a comment about Jesus has to remember that Jesus is a 9.5, you know, that he wants him to be up next to Musa a bunch, making those runs into the box and not playing as Jesus is often tending to do, deeper into midfield and dropping back where he almost is like a six or an eight. So when he plays a player in that third position of the front group, when he plays a guy over there like an Ansa or like a logo in Farrington, then Jesus tends to react more mid. Oh, I'm the ten, I'm going to drop in underneath. Whereas if he plays a guy like seeking in that other hole, that tells jesus subconsciously or consciously, oh yeah, I am the high guy. Seek is going to be underneath. So I think it's really important that they play a person in that position that's not an out and out striker. That is a guy who is a almost ten like midfielder, whether it be Areola or Leggette or Sikhi with both legit and Areola hurt. Seeki is a. In college was a high false wing or attacking midfielder. You know, he had Sikhi in this last game, had three muffed pass receptions and in three times he was dispossessed. That was six turnovers from him on those two categories and the next highest person had two. But because it was so high up the field, it doesn't hurt them as bad as it does when he does it at the top of the 18 yard box when he's playing, I guess a six or an eight. So, you know, I think that that adjustment, having that kind of player there, that that player of that nature makes Jesus be the higher player he needs to be and thus Asus plays better. And that way you also being seeking in this case, you can mitigate that turnover issue. [00:15:45] Speaker A: Well, I. It is interesting. I don't think Austin is a particularly good team. I was sitting here looking at their starting eleven and trying to pick out as much as we've picked apart Dallas's roster over the course of the year. I'm trying to figure out how many of these guys you would love to have to replace somebody in the Dallas roster. And obviously, I think some people are. There's maybe a couple of guys that stand out buzz, but I'm interested if there's anybody other than the obvious ones. And the reason why this is an interesting exercise is, again, because we've spent a lot of time picking on the Dallas Roster, but you know, MLS is a league of parity. And when I look at this, I go, oh, you know what? Austin's roster really, at least the eleven they threw out there as a starting eleven, isn't all that great after all. [00:16:34] Speaker B: Well, I would take ring right now. [00:16:38] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes sense. [00:16:39] Speaker B: You know, just because of the injury problems that they're having. I actually have been a fan of his for a long time and I actually think that this is one of those simple things that I, when I watched Austin, admittedly from afar, I watched them have that great first season when ring was a midfielder and then last year they made ring a center back and they were dogshit. [00:16:57] Speaker A: Right? [00:16:57] Speaker B: And then this year they've made him a central midfielder again. And prior to this game they were like, in what, fourth or fifth place? So, you know, Stuber can be solid and net, uh, Pereira has some stuff from time to time. I think he's a pretty good player. But, you know, that's the thing is like most of their dudes, uh, are just dudes like everybody else, right? And it's about the special guys. It's about Drew, see, being a good player for them. It's about ring in midfield being a good player for them. When he's on Diego Rubio is a pretty good player for them. Again, it's always about that. It's always about. Unless you're LAFC and you've got a whole bunch of guys, or if you saw Miami salary today where they have $41 million in salary and they got a whole bunch of special players, everybody else is a bunch of dudes and 4345 special players. And how good are your special players is everything in this league. [00:17:47] Speaker A: Hey, who's this? Jader? Obra O'Brien. [00:17:51] Speaker B: O'Brien? [00:17:52] Speaker A: Yeah. I've never seen this guy before. Who's this? [00:17:54] Speaker B: He looked exactly the same as he always did. [00:17:58] Speaker A: Cowbell. Always going to be Cowbell? [00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah, Cowbell going to be cowbell. You know, among dudes, you know, he is a great guy to have around your locker room. I don't have any. I never really had any complaints about him for what he was in, the price he was, you know, we talked about at the time how when they signed on, so that was, that was the death knell and Obrah, because he was going to take his spot in terms of roster build and functionality, you know, they made that choice. So it is. I mean, I. I was fine with Oberon for that, you know, off the bench, starting him as a problem. That's not good. [00:18:29] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Dallas to Austin, one, it's always fun to beat up on the broccoli, especially when they're starting to feel their oats again. [00:18:40] Speaker B: I believe they've never won in Dallas, if I, if I understand that correctly, could be wrong about that, but I think that's true. [00:18:45] Speaker A: Is that right? I think you're right, Buzz. [00:18:47] Speaker B: That's right. [00:18:47] Speaker A: Because they hadn't actually beaten Dallas in a game up until, was it, last season. [00:18:54] Speaker B: I mean, Dallas has had a lot of. Hey, yeah, the playoff game against them, and they've had some pretty decisive wins down in Austin, even. But, yeah, Dallas was three. Oh, and one going into that game at home. Yeah, 40 one. [00:19:11] Speaker A: Okay, well, there you go. The other thing that I thought we'd want to move into before we got into some of the other topics, uh, was training today, which then gets into the injury report, which obviously, rmendi is unfortunately a a, uh, a participant in. [00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah, your mindy will be out, um, seven to ten days. Coach told me so. He was actually outside doing some rehab and running. So I'll take him at his word that that's true because he wasn't completely shut down. You know, that if he's really quit that quickly back into the action outside, then that probably is correct. That seven to ten days, that keeps him out, though, for this weekend and likely the open cup game. I think legit. Sebastian Leggette is back in training, but Sebastian Leggette, coach says, will not start. He's pretty, usually pretty locked in coaches on this, you know, your first game back, you're not really going to start because they'll want to control his minutes. So likely like a 30, 35 minutes bow for him, I'm guessing, legit, which is a shame because they're really going to need him as they go forward here. Ariel was on the side also, but it's really close. But he'll, I'm told he'll return to training full time on Tuesday, so he won't be available this weekend. And then the other one, the new one that is a worry, is Liam Frazier is now out two to three weeks. Right. So no legit, no Ariel and no Fraser. No. No Paxton. Your only central midfielders available are Siki Delgado, Nolan Norris. Norris, Carl Sante. Those two of those four guys are going to have to start against Houston on the road against sector. [00:21:04] Speaker A: Man, I'd love to see Nolan Norris grunting around, kicking it, Hector Herrera's ankles. [00:21:09] Speaker B: I mean, it would be fun, but I'm. I'm sure it'll be. I mean, just because of the way this coach works, surely it's going to be Seki and Delgado in that double midfield road. [00:21:20] Speaker A: Well, who. Okay, yeah. [00:21:23] Speaker B: And then, because you'll end up having to use probably somebody like Ansa or Bernie as your other forward, which means, of course, that Jesus will do what Jesus does and drift back into midfield, you know, so that might not be horrible for this one, but, um, you know, I don't, as a general rule, I don't like that idea because of what we talked about, the way Jesus will automatically turn himself into a midfielder, you know. [00:21:44] Speaker A: What is Frazier's injury to be out for three weeks? [00:21:47] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know. I didn't think to ask. I think I was too busy picking up my jaw off the floor, realizing who was available, that I forgot to actually ask what his injury was. I think coach actually said, too. I think I'm adding the three in order just because nothing is, everything is always longer than they say it is going to be. So, you know, because he, on Wednesday, he said two weeks. Okay. Does that really mean, like, does he mean Wednesday, Thursday in two weeks? Or does he mean like the Monday after that? You know what I mean? So, you know, he did say it was worse than Ermindy, you know, so. Yeah. [00:22:21] Speaker A: When did he break that up in the game? [00:22:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. He was lumping around a little bit at the end, you know, I thought so. [00:22:29] Speaker A: Brutal, brutal, brutal. [00:22:31] Speaker B: I mean, you know, they trained on Tuesday, but he wasn't out there Tuesday. So, you know, I'm pretty sure he was out from the game, you know, but, you know, that's, that's your first five choices in those two positions are gone. So you're, you know, you could, there's no Velasco to put in there. You know, the next choice beyond those guys would be Pondeka, who hasn't played a minute with FC Dallas this year because he's, he was hurt for about a month and a half. So he's been, he's only been back with like three games from North Texas. He played really well at the end of last year and they signed him off of that. So, you know, unless you're going to do something crazy like, you know, Nolan Pondecko or, I don't know, Kamungo in central midfield or, you know, you guys can stretch just as I can to try and figure out who the heck Carl Sante, I think, is very viable as a six. Um, except that I don't like him there in the future. I like him there as I like him as a center back, I don't really want him to be a six, even though you could use him as six, but Nolan's supposed to be a six, so maybe it's time for Nolan to get a start. You know, he had a weekend off because he had five yellow cards in MLS next pro, so he should be fresh. You know, if Nolan and Delgado together looks more like Frasier and Delgado together and then you could keep seeking up high if you like that combination better, you know, whatever you think works better in that. But at this point, I don't think coach knows because I was watching training and he was rotating people in and out and trying different combinations, trying to figure out what the hell he's going to do. And they had like four players up from North Texas. [00:23:55] Speaker A: Maybe throw Peter Lucene in there as a center mid, just like the hell of it. [00:23:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Tanner Humphrey was up today. Ennis Solid. Nolan Norris was there, of course. Diego Garcia, Thomas von Deka. Those five guys came out from North Texas basically in order to try and fill up a roster because course is still out, you know, legit's back, but they didn't want to press him hard. So he was in and out of training, but he's just training full, full, you know, full speed and everything. So it's kind of a mess, man. You know, it's. Especially because they're getting hit all at once. Particular spot, those, those double midfield spot. You know, I'm not even sure if you wanted to rotate back out to a four three three if it would help you because then you wouldn't have the eights that you would need. I mean, you got plenty of sixes, but who's going to play as an eight, you know, you're still missing all those same people. So it's, it's rough. [00:24:42] Speaker A: You're, you're, you're getting even away from dudes. You're just getting down to the people that you would refer to as just do. [00:24:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's funny. Like, we were just complaining about the kids never get to come through anymore. Well, now there's so many injuries that. Here's. You're going to get some kids now. [00:24:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:55] Speaker B: So. [00:24:56] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I'm falling for that. Hey, if Norland's picking up yellows, why don't you go pick one up while you're kicking somebody from Houston? [00:25:02] Speaker B: Yeah, kick Hector back out of the game. That would good. Houston had a midweek game, too, so they'll be a little tired. And Herrera just came back from injury, so maybe they might even rotate him, possibly that would be exciting because he had a bomb of a goal in the last game. But you can just see the problems like, you know, and we know, we know this coach doesn't love the kids. So that's what makes me think that it'll be like Delgado Sikhi rather than Nolan, you know, so true. Time will tell. I mean, it's going to be an interesting question and everyone can play around with it. Try to figure out yourselves. How the heck do you put a team on the field when you're missing that many players from one spot? It's tough. [00:25:34] Speaker A: You know, Buzz, I wanted to ask this question because I feel like this is not something exclusive to Dallas or just even MLS teams in general, but the number of injuries of players this season and dating back to last season, just my, my perception is, is that it is greater than normal, like higher than normal. And I, and I wonder if you have any opinions as to if. Is that any sort of, what's the right word, indictment of this particular coaching staff and training staff, or is it just bad luck? A mixture of those things. [00:26:13] Speaker B: Well, you remember that the first season under Niko, they got really lucky, you know, or did really well with health and fitness and everybody was really healthy and they did really well in the standings as a result. I think that the injuries have been a little heavier the last season or two than you might like, and particularly it's been in some really important positions. But if you go look at the injury report for most of the teams in the league and most of them have, you know, 3456 guys out. I mean, Houston has four guys on there. Enter. Miami has six guys on there. Minnesota has five. Montreal has, good lord, eight. Nashville's got five. You know, so Orlando's got five. It's just, you know, surreal. Salt Lake has seven. You know, it just depends on your club. Like, Seattle and Portland are both getting wrecked with injuries. You know, it's just the nature of getting through the league. The trick is, is it important players or not? Are they long term or not? Is it all the same position or not? Those are things that really kill you. You know, you want to have. They remember they went out this year and they added a couple of depth pieces. You know, they brought Jimmy back at a really good number. They brought Omar Gonzalez in at a good number. They, they kept seeking, they kept courtyard when maybe we thought we would get some more kids in there or whatever, you know, in order to have these bodies available to get through some of these games. Well, this is gonna be one of those games. This is gonna be a body game. You know, if you want to get really crazy, you can think about maybe. Maybe you bring Omar as a center back and put Sam junk in the midfield. You know, he's a pretty versatile guy. You know, these are the kinds of things you have to do when you get these. These rut injuries like it is. So while it has been a little bit bigger than you would like, it's more about who it's been, you know, losing Velasco, losing Jesus, losing Yara, Mindy, like you are, you know, the packs in like you have a lot. It's. It's high played, important players that are the one that's really killing you. You know, if you lose Nolan Norris for three months, who cares? We love Nolan Norris. You lose trick Scott for a season. Of course we're worried about him long term, but what does that do to your first team? Nothing. Right. It's about who it is and what position they play. [00:28:26] Speaker A: So in Houston on Saturday at 730, and then they gotta hustle back and get on a plane and travel to Tampa Bay to play in the stadium, literally on the Bay of Tampa against the Rowdies in the US Open cup next round. And. And considering all of the injury situations and just having to play an open cup game on the road and. And all of the intangibles tied to that and the wackadoodle green and yellow hoop jerseys that'll cause you eye soreness. [00:28:59] Speaker B: Awesome brand. You know, Dallas was lucky enough not to have a midweek game this week because they're going to go Saturday, Tuesday. That's a quick turnaround when you're missing all these people. So, you know, between those two games, you're going to need to play some guys like Nolan Norris, like Carl Santel, you like Omar Gonzalez, probably some of, you know, maybe even some of these forwards. We don't see a lot of, like Bernie, maybe have to get a start in here somewhere, you know. Cause like you, if you're going to run like they did the previous time, they had the cup game where they kind of rotated a little bit out for. For Toronto in order to. To maximize the cup game. And remember, coach said that they're going to all in on the cup because they can win five games and win some silverware. So that probably put more emphasis on the cup than they will on Houston. Okay, so now are we rotating in Houston? Goodness. You know, it's going to be interesting to see and. But don't. Under South Tampa, they scored six goals in their last cup game against Birmingham and they have Aaron Guillen, who's a former FCL homegrown. He's their captain. They have Eddie Munjoma, you remember was a college home run a couple of years ago and they have Cal Jennings is a former draft pick under Lucci that they did not keep and I was furious about and he's been banging in goals ever since. So they got plenty of Dallas connections. It'll be a fun game. That's a tough place to play, you know, in a cup when they're going to be up for it and they're going to be going guns blaze and you're all banged up, you know, it's going to be a tough one. [00:30:19] Speaker A: Honestly, I wish we had time for a whole conversation about the MLS USL gap of quality and differences. Started by the was it the Ben Olson quote? I think it was after they lost in their game, but maybe we'll save that for another episode. Sure. Anything else from training today before we move on to other topics at the hand? [00:30:42] Speaker B: I don't really think so. I think that's about it. You know, it was pretty clear that he's searching for answers and trying to figure out what the heck he's going to do, you know, because I saw lots of rotations of personnel combinations trying to figure out can this guy go with that guy? You know, and he was moving bodies in and out quickly. You know, they were even doing situations where they were pulling the guy off and leaving the team shorthanded for a few minutes, you know, kind of that kind of reaction, which I think is probably a reaction in parts of the sub rule where you might have to play a man down for a minute, you know, or the injury thing, if you don't get up fast enough, you got to play down for a minute, you know, or those kinds of things. So I think I covered everything really, that happened. You know, talking to coach. I think what's his mood, by the. [00:31:27] Speaker A: Way, and his vibe, it's pretty good. [00:31:29] Speaker B: You know, he's definitely snappier than last year in terms of like, he'll get on a guy really quickly, much more quickly than last year. Well, he won't tolerate people clown around not paying attention, like he might have a little bit last year. So he's definitely tightened the screws some, but it's overall really positive. I mean, everybody still seems to be on the same page. I'm not seeing guys turn on each other. I'm not seeing guys ignore the coach yet. You know, we see the effort in the games, so like, the signs that he's losing the team don't seem to be there, you know, so that's. That's a positive. If you're in his corner, you know, it's still a good vibe. You know, the guys that were coming up from North Texas, and they're really happy to be there and competing. It was really nice to see Diego Garcia there, who. I'm a big fan of that kid. I think he's fantastic. So he's a player for the future, but, you know, for a team that's really struggling to win games, it's surprisingly a positive. Training sessions, you know, they're very active and very quick moving training sessions. They don't allow the gag around. They don't waste time, so they get it out of there quick. It was probably. It was pretty warm today up into the mid eighties, so that was nice to get. They moved fast at training. [00:32:38] Speaker A: All right, well, let's move on to the other piece of news. Breaking news at hand. The biannual ML MLS Players association salary list accidentally got leaked by the PA earlier today. And we've seen all the salaries, not just for Dallas, but for all the teams. I don't think there are any, like, immediate, like, shockers in terms of Dallas's salaries, buzz. [00:33:08] Speaker B: No, no. [00:33:09] Speaker A: I think everything was pretty. Pretty well known or assumed. [00:33:14] Speaker B: Well, Eugene Ansa jumped a little bit more than I was expecting. His base was what I thought when you doubled his number from last year, but his total was a little bit higher than I thought. But, you know, that starter money, man, he needs to be better than he is at that money. [00:33:27] Speaker A: Okay, well, hold on. [00:33:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:28] Speaker A: How in the world do we live in a world where Eugene Ansa is making almost $200,000 more a year than a Sir Alarimandi age? [00:33:40] Speaker B: I guess, you know, he's a forward instead of a mid. I don't know. That's a good question. It does, you know, that's one that jumps out at you that, like, maybe austeres. Maybe Eugene ans is a little overpaid or is a little underpaid, although he's not healthy. [00:33:53] Speaker A: Seer needs a better manager. [00:33:55] Speaker B: Yeah, well, he can't stay healthy, so maybe there weren't a lot of offers out there, you know, I mean, based on his talent, Osiri and Martin Paz are both vastly underpaid. So is nicosi Tafari. He's underpaid as well. But, you know, Eugene's money is about right for, like, a middling forward. You know, it's basically double what how do you obey? So he's got a pretty good agent. Also does. [00:34:19] Speaker A: And then you look at the difference between what Tafari is making and what Ibiaga is making, and that seems like totally backwards numbers. [00:34:27] Speaker B: Yeah, Tafari's got a bad deal. He's got a deal based on when he was a backup. He should have a deal based on the fact who he is now. You know, obviously, his next deal will be much better. It'll be the biggest deal of his career. You know, when he's 27, it'll be. Or 28, whatever it'll be at the time. [00:34:41] Speaker C: I mean, it's crazy. We're talking about Tafara being on a bad deal for him on a season where his salary went up nearly 45%. [00:34:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:53] Speaker C: I mean, that just shows, like. And, you know, how bad that initially was. [00:34:59] Speaker A: Yeah, that's crazy. Also probably sticking out like a sore thumb. Velasco and palm a call, both essentially million dollar players unavailable. That hurts when you only have $4 million players on your roster. [00:35:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think I'm going to circle back to my idea of that. They were positively offended that I even suggested that Alaska be put on the season iR because it would have opened up a DP spot and you could have added, you know, and we've. We've talked all season about how important it is to have your key guys performing, and they have a DP that's zero. So it's really killing them. And now they have a Tam player that's zero. And Aaron Ariel, they have a Tam player who's falling off, and legit's only been available for, like, three games, you know? So, again, this is what the difference between a good team and a bad team is, these things, you know? And to eat a $1.4 million, which $1.4 million salary on a guy just so he could feel good about his rehab is just obscene to me. I don't get it. [00:35:59] Speaker A: You know, and continuously, this season's greatest mystery, Ennis Sully on $345,000 for a kid that can't even make the 18 regularly for the. For the senior club is. Is somebody explained to me how this deal got done or what's going on or what kind of photos somebody has of somebody. [00:36:24] Speaker B: He's a U 22 initiative player, and the other U 22 initiative player is Giovanni Jesus. And they're on identical numbers, so, you know, it's only his performance that's a problem. The contract is appropriate for a U 22 initiative player. The problem is the mis evaluation and the fact that he's a project player that will take a couple of seasons to pay off. That's the why you don't like it. You know, the slot is appropriate, the performance is inappropriate. [00:36:53] Speaker A: Do you have any sense internally in the club buzz when you talk to people that they're like, yeah, we get it. We understand why everybody's got a big question mark over their head, but trust us, this kid's going to come good at some point. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Oh, I hear that. We understand why people are worried about it, but I do not get told this kid's going to come good. You know, I actually hear people, some people that are like, uh oh, you know, we'll see. It's up to the kid, man. He's going to have to do it because it's all. It's all on hand. Because even now in north Texas, he has moments that are interesting, but then he has switch offs that are awful. You know, it's about consistency, and he's much smaller than you would like. I mean, I know Steve Davis said he's not that small, man. He's tiny. He's like Paul Ariola size. He's a shrimp. So it's like, that matters in this league, man. Now, he's quick and bursty, but he's very. He's very much like a straight line guy. He's not a good, like, combination player, you know? Look, you got to call it like it is. I think they've misfired on this signing in two years. Will I be wrong? We'll see. But he does not look like a player that's going to develop into, like, if he was in the academy, I would not tell you to sign him if he was an FC Dallas Academy player. [00:38:06] Speaker A: Let's put it this way. I know you're a big fan of Tariq Scott. Yeah, I don't know. I have not seen Sally play because I don't watch north Texas, so I don't have a sense. I don't know how similar these two players are in terms of, uh, primary positions, but compare sully to Tariq, I. [00:38:26] Speaker B: Would take tark ten out of ten times. Tark is, um, Jeff Cunningham. That's how he plays, like. [00:38:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:33] Speaker B: So he's. He's a tall ish pacey, direct, decisive goal scorer. Plays a nine error wing. Sally is Colin Smith. You remember Colin Smith? [00:38:50] Speaker A: I had the. Rings a bell. [00:38:52] Speaker B: Yeah. He was the homegrown. That shouldn't. That I thought. Shouldn't have been a homegrown. They tried to make it outside. That's why when I see Sally I think man, make that guy an outside back. That's what I don't see, a player that I think is going to be a player. Now I could be wrong. Within the last three years or so they've made academy signings that I don't understand, that don't jive with my evaluation of players. They're about to sign another one. That doesn't jive with my evaluation of players. That doesn't mean that they're wrong. I think I got a pretty good eye. [00:39:21] Speaker A: You know, I often but over that course of time how often have you been right on your evaluation of those signings that you didn't think should have been signed? [00:39:30] Speaker B: Well I was right about Regic and Colin Smith. I was. I thought Nolan should be and I thought Turk Scott should be so that both of those look good so far, you know. So yeah, you know I tend to think my evaluations are pretty good so I'm guy watching a solid and I'm not seeing it now again. You know, I'll give him time. I'm not. It's like Cobra, right, for Cobra sucked and then seven months later all of a sudden he came. Good. So we'll see with this colleague he. [00:39:59] Speaker A: Is and then he wanted to go home. [00:40:00] Speaker B: They want to go home. But Sully is from Canada so it's not like he's going to want to go home. So he's a dogged player and he's aggressive and he fights and he claws but it's like I just don't see enough refinement as this league gets better. [00:40:11] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. You know anything else about the salary list that we want to discuss? [00:40:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a weird one but I think it's interesting in the greater context of where the league is going. Logan Farrington was a pre draft signing, a senior coming out of college, pre draft signing. Historically speaking those guys that were pre draft signings ended up having to be on the senior rosters because they would be getting 100, 5200 thousand dollars a year. They were getting longer term like three plus two kind of deals. Ferrington just got that college one plus one plus one plus 170 thousand dollars that like Nikosi did when he got drafted. So like he didn't get any larger benefit for being like the one senior that the league signed ahead of the draft. So to me that's an indication of a greater changing landscape involving the league and what they consider the draft be worth. So it's not noteworthy for Logan because he's one of the best senior forwards I've seen come out of college in like decades. In terms of how good he is coming right out of school. It's only fascinating in terms of the changing landscape of what they're paying a four year senior player. It just doesn't pay to play college soccer. Four years, man doesn't. Not if you want to be up in MLS. [00:41:21] Speaker A: Pro. I wanted to short. I wanted to sort the sheet real quick that you sent over because I wanted to look at something. Um, in terms of money, obviously Mister Messi at $20 million is number one. What was the other one? I was shocked to see Drew see is in the top five at 6.7. And I know he, I know he had that one baller season for Austin, but man, that seems like a lot of money for that cat. [00:41:55] Speaker B: He's very inconsistent, isn't he? Yeah. [00:41:58] Speaker C: Great assist the other day though. [00:42:00] Speaker B: I mean, when he's on, he is phenomenal, but then it's like half time he's not on. Yeah, it's like Reynoso in Minnesota Renault. So when he was on, was unstoppable, but then he doesn't come back. [00:42:12] Speaker A: Holy cow. Walker Zimmerman on 3.5. [00:42:17] Speaker B: Yeah, he. There's only two or three center backs that are on the can't buy them down DP level and Zimmerman's one of them. That's a very rare commodity. [00:42:26] Speaker A: Okay. [00:42:27] Speaker B: That, that thing. [00:42:29] Speaker A: Anything else about the list that we want to get into? [00:42:32] Speaker B: I didn't look at it. Other than Dallas. [00:42:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it just came out a little while ago. Yeah. [00:42:36] Speaker B: Dante Celia on 300,000 is a problem. [00:42:40] Speaker A: I was surprised. Emma Tuamasi Zeiss. He is. [00:42:43] Speaker B: That's. [00:42:44] Speaker A: That's 363. [00:42:45] Speaker B: That's. That's. You know, we'll look at far fan at 500. So 363 is like key player, you know, not, not full time legit starter, but that's kind of like in and out squad player. Whereas Dante Celia should be down by like Carrera and Delgado, you know, because he's developing. Sorry, Dan, go ahead. [00:43:04] Speaker C: Oh, no, I was just gonna say, you know what you expect from FC Dallas, right middle of the pack spending is up 10% year on year, couple of reductions. Jimmy Mauer took that kind of hybrid staff role. So he went down from 300 grand to under 100. And then Ahmet Kosher got bought back on a like $15,000 reduction from his previous contract. But good to see Paul Areola is not going up from last year, given his lack of production. [00:43:41] Speaker B: I guess my last comment would be that I thought Musa was going to be higher. [00:43:44] Speaker A: I did, too. And my other one is, is when they said that Omar gave the club a friendly deal. Holy cow, they did. I mean, 89 base and 114 tops. That's ridiculously low for a player of his. [00:43:58] Speaker B: He took a developmental roster money, which is like kid, you know, 18 year old kid money. Just, he wanted to play here, so. [00:44:06] Speaker A: You know, living the life, I'd say. [00:44:09] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I think he wanted to come home so, you know. [00:44:11] Speaker A: Yeah. And get paid 100 grand to sit on the bench for the most part. [00:44:15] Speaker B: We shouldn't sniff at 100 grand, right? I mean, that's great money for 99% of us, but, you know, in terms of big time soccer player with his resume, that's nothing. Yeah, for sure. [00:44:24] Speaker A: All right, let's move on. Since we last talked, the rumor that we discussed last week came true. Buzz attended the session. We now have a women's professional team here in the Dallas Fort Worth area playing at the Cotton bowl, and the branding was revealed. Dallas Trinity FC Buzz, you were there at the scene, and Dan, you've been following this all along. Let's, uh. What do you guys think? [00:44:51] Speaker B: I was surprised how many people were there. You know, I thought it was going to be kind of a small, like, media thing, but there was a couple hundred people down there downtown. You know, they had some free food and some scarf giveaway and there were some fans. You know, the brand is pretty good. I think it's a good color. It's the slot one doesn't get used in Texas. I don't think many, buddy. So I like it because it's maroon. The combination with the gold is good. I think I actually liked the scarf better because it was more maroon and tan than it was maroon and gold, like some of the other stuff. But Dan says that has to do with how you print scarves, their TD's that they announced there. They since announced them officially, but they announced them there and introduced them to everybody. So I don't know what they were, why they did that. But the GM, yeah, the GM, he's got a, he's got a resume of having coached Ut and SMU here in town. So he knows all the academy coaches and, and coached it. Notre Dame, you know, coached in the NW. Yeah, the red Star. So it was good, solid resume. So. [00:45:44] Speaker A: But he's not the manager. [00:45:45] Speaker B: No, he's going to hire a manager. I talked to Charlie Neal. Neil. Thank you, Charlie Neal. He seemed very intelligent, seemed to know exactly what he's talking about. Like, wasn't like struggling to come up with answers like, I would ask him question about, hey, what about this? And he'd be like, oh, yeah, here's that. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, he seemed dialed in, knew what he was talking about. They've got a good plan, it sounds like, in terms of incorporating the local academies and trying, getting involved with them, you know, so the struggle will be getting a team on the field. And one of the interesting questions for them they have to decide is that do they load up a full roster at the start of the season or do they wait because the NW cell will end, you know, like a month and a half into their season because they don't have a draft when the college season ends? Like, should they leave a little room so they can pick up out of contract NW cell players or some of these college kids that when their fall season ends, you know, do they leave a little room for that and maybe not go full roster start of the season? So that's a tough question for them to answer and that'll be the interesting thing to watch as they go forward, other than hiring a coach. So what do y'all think of the brand? [00:46:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I hate the logo, honestly, but most people seem to like it, so I'm happy to defer on that. Loved the color scheme. The name is great. Don't know why they used FC, but Trinity is a fantastic name. It's not a typical soccer name, which is nice. [00:47:08] Speaker A: No, I said this on the radio show on Saturday. The thing about the name that really struck me is that, like many of us, I've spent a lot of time in my life contemplating what I would name my soccer team when I won the lottery and put a team together. And I've come up with all different kind of ideas for a team in Dallas and Trinity never dawned on me, as ever, as an option. And I think it's actually a really interesting idea for a name. I also hate the performative use of FC in there. I think it sounds stupid. It also ruins their logo in many word, hurts their logo in many ways. But I'm a big fan of the color, color scheme. I think that's great. The other comment I had was, I appreciate the attempt to do something different, art artistically with a cliche use of a Pegasus in a Dallas brand. So instead of just the typical art deco version of a Pegasus, they tried to do something very different with it and then tried to tie it to the different tributaries that feed the Trinity and all of that. The unfortunate part of it is that when I first saw it, I wanted to know why the horse was pregnant, because that's what it makes it look like, is the horse is pregnant. So other than that, I like it. I got a ton of questions about the cotton ball, though, because all of the reports from people who are familiar with the, you know, offered to, you know, with some of the insides in this, is that the cotton bowl was not the plan. They had other. They had other options. I'd. I've heard that they were talking about playing at Choctaw Stadium. I had talked that. Heard that they had talked at other facilities, not in Dallas county. And so I wonder, because of the deal that the city council signed, essentially paying for Trinity's use of the cotton bowl for two years, how much of this is tied to an initiative within the city of Dallas to attract women's sporting professional teams? Because, remember, it's not. I don't think it's a coincidence that a week prior to the announcement of this, the city of Dallas announced that the Dallas Wings WNBA team is moving to downtown Dallas to play at the new convention center. [00:49:33] Speaker B: Oh, it's not a question at all, because the mayor was the first person that talked. And I took a picture of him, put it up online, and immediately, some spin doctor commented on my photo, calling him the sports mayor. And he proceeded to get up there and talk about their whole huge initiative of bringing pro teams to Dallas. And he talked about the wings. He talked about this one, and he said, and there's a couple. There's more to come. Like, he's got a whole agenda going in terms of, like, bringing pro teams to Dallas or back to Dallas. [00:50:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I've heard on more than one occasion there are people running around, yell, have, you know, making the suggestion that FC Dallas and the city of Dallas have had conversations of some shape, form or otherwise, believe it. But I've heard that story pissed around before. [00:50:20] Speaker B: Well, I will tell you that there was a very brief pause in the planning for the stadium, Renault, but I think that pause has now gone by, and they're back on track. It did cause them to reorder, I'm told, some of the, like, what parts gonna get knocked down first and when it's gonna happen. But I can't help it, Peter. But now that you say that, wonder if maybe the Dallas called and was like, hey, hold on. Can we do that? You know, I think we know enough about the lease that we know that, like, they can't move out of there because there's something about, you know, they have to provide another MLS team or the next highest thing. Like, it's really complicated now. [00:50:59] Speaker A: Well, there's nothing money couldn't resolve. Like, of course, absolutely. In any world, somebody could pay Frisco and the school district and whoever else associated enough money to get them to go. Yeah, that's okay. We'll just use this as a high school stadium and concert venue from here on forward. But it does make you wonder what's going on. I also find the use of the Cotton bowl for a soccer club, which obviously is going to go nowhere near close to maximizing the seating capacity, but also happening while the cotton ball is under construction, I find very unusual and janky, to use a favorite word of mine. [00:51:39] Speaker B: Yeah, they mentioned that. They said that they will just be using basically, like, half of the stadium and working around the construction. [00:51:45] Speaker A: Just half the field. [00:51:46] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I asked Charlie, too. I was like, do you see the cotton bulls as being a viable long term solution? And he said, well, the market's going to dictate that. He said, how good we do will tell us whether we can continue to use the cotton bowl. He said, probably in the long room. I'm paraphrasing, but revenue control is going to matter. They did look at Choctaw, they did look at the thing down in Mayence Field. You know, they're very all in, in Dallas in terms of, like, they're going to bring a training facility to Dallas City itself, you know. So I think that in the long run, if they do do something on their own, they don't. They'll want it to be sort of in Dallas. But, you know, I think they're keeping their minds open as they go into this process, it seems from my conversations with them. [00:52:27] Speaker A: So is, are you both of you of the same impression that I am? That I was a bit surprised at what I perceived to be a general, majority positive reaction to the brand, the reveal and playing at the cotton bowl. You know, in terms of reaction from the public. Did you guys pick up on that, too, or did you get a different. [00:52:53] Speaker C: I got the same exact vibe as when the fort Worth for carrots launched. Oh, yeah. What a really cool brand. It's so fresh, it's so different. It's a big alternative to FC Dallas, not in Frisco, but then no one showed up. [00:53:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:53:09] Speaker C: And, you know, they're talking about a 12,000 average attendance target, and I don't know. I mean, that, you know, that I hope they do really well. I just think that's really ambitious for a league that hasn't launched yet. [00:53:26] Speaker B: There definitely was a good vibe at the presentation. You know, lots of state leaders, lots of people there. The, the people that are in the cotton bull district, like that. Their city councilman was really pushing hard, apparently, for this thing. You know, I think the 12,000 has got to be the word. They kind of got to try and get to, like, if they're drawing like two or 3000, it's not going to work. You're not going to be able to compete. Division want to compete with NWSL, you're going to have to have 10,000 plus. So I understand that ambition. There's a lot of people that responded with, yeah, great, it's close by. I'm excited. I'm going to get tickets. I'm in, you know, we'll see. They're going to have to do it on them. [00:54:03] Speaker A: It was interesting. I got a lot of really positive reaction. And then I, last night was out at Spectrum at my Tuesday night beer league games, and a lot of the guys that I play with and from the other teams are all like, I can't believe they're playing in the cotton bowl. Who wants to sit in that place for. And I just thought, that's interesting reaction. It's like, where would you want them to play? And they said, there's 100 high schools, really nice high schools in this town. Why aren't we playing in an amoral, appropriately sized stadium? And I thought to myself, would you actually go watch that? Would you be more likely to go watch this team play at, like, high, like Highlands Stadium or, you know, Highland park or wherever in the Dallas specific area? You know, the. The stadium over on Hillcrest with Hillcrest High School or something like that, versus going to the cotton ball? And I honestly don't know. [00:54:58] Speaker C: Isn't it the same hypothetical as when people talk about FC Dallas and Frisco? [00:55:02] Speaker A: Ah. [00:55:03] Speaker C: You know, they'd get so much more attendance if they go. If they played in Dallas. Okay, but would you attend it because you don't attend in Frisco now. Well, no, I wouldn't, but someone else would. [00:55:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I think that you hit that you hit it on the head earlier when you talked about the city of Dallas taking on a lot of the costs. I think the cotton ball would not make sense if they had to pay for it all. [00:55:24] Speaker C: That's massive. Yeah. Because the cotton balls more expensive than Toyota Stadium. [00:55:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that probably sealed the deal for the Neil family boy. [00:55:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:32] Speaker A: Rhyme is that they don't have to pay for it, and it's probably a good holding thing until they can figure out if they got to build their own. Yeah, their own stadium. [00:55:42] Speaker B: Well, when I was talking to Charlie about their, you know, the process of how they ended up with a cotton bowl, you know, and he talked about some of the places they looked, and, like, I'm not going to go through them all, but, like, some of them, he like, well, that place has a track which we weren't interested in. That place has, you know, this kind of problem or that kind of problem. So they're well aware of all these economics and what they understand, you know, and I think. I don't think you can undersell the idea that, like, because we didn't hear squat about this, really, until all of a sudden they're in front of the city council, can we get this deal done? And they said at the me at the, at the presentation that this thing was a long time in the works. He said, like a year and a half they've been talking to the city of Dallas, and yet I know they were talking to all these other possible venues as a possible places to play. And really, the cotton bowl wasn't done until they got that support from the city. And without that, you know, they really wanted to be in Dallas. And you and I, Peter, you know, we. We've heard about some of these other stadiums that got proposed. It might still be where they go to places in the long term, but nobody wants to be in a high school stadium. That won't be it. But they looked at, like, they looked at SMU's football stadium. They looked at the. The soccer stadium. Whether SMU, which has the track, that's the one they. Now that I remember that he did say that they couldn't do that because the track, you know, it's. There's lots of places you could do it. None of them provide a first class professional vibe. And remember that they do have a d one status. They have to have a certain size stadium. They can't go play at a 1000 C stadium. [00:57:06] Speaker A: Well, Ford at SMU would have been an interesting option, but I don't think SMU can do that. I think they've got a. [00:57:13] Speaker B: Remember back, they have an event limit. [00:57:15] Speaker A: They have an event limit with the city of university parks, and they have. [00:57:18] Speaker B: A noise limit, and they have the number of fans limit, and they have a drinking on campus limit. You know, it's like, there's a whole bunch of reasons why all these. None of these things are going to work for them, you know, and would work for soccer. And some you, you just can't just say, I'll just go play at a high school, not division one. If you're in PSL. Yeah, play at a high school. Well, division one. [00:57:38] Speaker A: But to be clear, there's some pretty kick ass high school stadiums in north Texas that would qualify for division one. Sure. [00:57:44] Speaker B: Allen, you know, not Dallas. [00:57:47] Speaker A: Right? Dallas, yeah. I think that big stadium that the DISD plays in down is probably 15,000. [00:57:58] Speaker B: That might work. I don't know where that is. [00:58:00] Speaker A: I think it's down in south Dallas. The one that, like, South Oak Cliff and Skyline and all those teams play at. Yeah, the turf it is. Yeah. They're all turf. [00:58:10] Speaker B: Well, that doesn't work. [00:58:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess. But they were going to play at Choctaw. That's turf, too. They were. That was like number one on their list until city. [00:58:18] Speaker B: I approached them. Yeah. [00:58:20] Speaker A: Yeah. It was in their business plan, Buzz. [00:58:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:24] Speaker A: So I think it was. Anyway, my point being is I don't, I can't figure out if the cotton bowl is a good idea or a bad idea. You know, I love that venue. It rings true to me. I think it's an interesting idea. But remember when the burn played in the cotton bowl? It was a 76,000 seat facility. In 2024. It's a 92,000 seat facility. And the Bern used to pull, you know, on a regular basis, 15,000 people and it felt like an absolute, you know, Cavern. It's just gonna be. It'll be interesting to see how they make it work. And that doesn't even. We haven't even begun talking about the quality of the league in terms of players, because it, it is not an, it is not an infinite player pool of quality. And I think for a team that is, hasn't hired a manager and is still trying to find players and they're three months away from kicking off the season. It's going to be a, you know, Andy said this on, on the show when we were talking about this. When they finally got the green light to launch the burn, they were nine months out from the start of the MLS season and they. To put a team together, they don't even have that. They got three months to make this happen. [00:59:44] Speaker B: Well, they are, they are down the road some amount with a coach. He wouldn't tell me how far, but it wasn't ground zero. So hopefully they're going to have somebody now soon, because you're right, they got to put a team on the field in three months. So they don't have a single player or coach signed. So they're going to move quick, you know, and I'm with you, I have reservations about how much talent is going to be available. You know, you're going to see a lot of young players, I think, in the beginning because they can have five amateur players on their roster. They have special allocations for that. And that doesn't include college players though, because cosplayers would lose their eligibility. So it's going to be high school age kids. So you're going to see your, your Jaden Shaw's coming through with them, you know, which is why they're going to tap into some of these academies pretty aggressively, I think, because they'll want to get some of the very best players from solar and FC Dallas to come over there and play some of their games. [01:00:38] Speaker C: Well, one thing they've got to consider is they have to put an academy of their own together. So kind of tapping into those academies, making that, yeah, hey, play U 18, play U 19, come to us. You know, that's what they have to do. And in a less aggressive way than FC Dallas has historically done. [01:00:56] Speaker B: He clarified for me, Charlie did, that they have to field a team with their brand on it in a certain number of very specific tournaments. And so he wasn't sure that they were going to actually start a full blown academy out of the gate, that they just might borrow players for those particular tournaments and that they were working on that kind of, those kind of relationships to try and because I think they don't want to go scorched earth and do what Desi Dallas did and burn all those relationships. Yeah, they'd be better off pulling in a couple of girls for, you know, to play on their, in their games when they can and then pulling together a few for these little all star sort of teams, team ish moments, you know, rather than actually just going out score shirts and try competing with those academies. [01:01:32] Speaker C: The reality of that as well is, you know, the 12,000 attendance, maybe 40% of that is going to be people who are affiliated to those youth teams. So you don't want to piss them off. [01:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Boy, there are some lessons to be learned about how the hunts handled the existing youth culture and structure when they decided to shove their way into it all those many years ago. There are so many lessons to be learned from that and I'm sure the Neil family are highly familiar with that. So keep, keep an eye on it. I don't know. I am rooting for this. I think the branding is great. I love the idea. I think it's cool that there are now two professional women's teams in Dallas proper. I think that's going to be outstanding. But man, they've got a tremendous amount of lift they've got to do on liftoff and they've got an incredibly short Runway. And you do begin to wonder how much of the old adage about you only get to make one, the first impression one time is going to come into play when it comes to opening day or the first, you know, opening weeks of the season for this team. [01:02:44] Speaker C: And on a kind of a league level as well, you know, I've started, the player sign ins have started trickling through. Obviously, you know, the standard isn't NWSL. It's players who maybe are in the thirties and played like 2030 games or early twenties who filled in in the last World cup as amateur players or temporary signings. One player that interested me, and for a local perspective is Riley Mattingly Parker. Former solar striker, went to Alabama, was a MC Herman Trophy finalist. She was drafted by Angel City for whatever reason. Just. No, she wasn't drafted by Angel City. Sorry. I'm thinking of a different player that was. I can't remember where she went now, but just, just didn't necessarily work out for her with NWSL. She went on loan to Tigress last year. Her, you know, they do, the one on one contracts wasn't renewed. So kind of a player who really started to peak in college age, didn't get a lot of love from the US youth teams who could, who could do some decent stuff. And, you know, it's one of those local interest players which, you know, for me, Dallas, Trinity has to sign someone of a local interest, whether that's like a Trinity buyers or Lexi Massimo, or bring Madison Haley back over from Brighton, or just someone where there's some name value and that link, right, that someone playing for FC Dallas or Sting or DKSC or solar, they can see their progression into the semi pro and professional ranks. [01:04:33] Speaker A: Man, it's gonna be fascinating to watch this. And it is fun because it, you know, for those of us that were around in the, at the beginning of the burn, it does have that. A slightly familiar smell to it of being thrown together. All right, interesting. We'll go Trinity. Yay. What else do we want to talk to you before we shut this thing up? What? What is going on? Is somebody moving? [01:04:58] Speaker B: That's my dog. [01:04:59] Speaker A: Oh. [01:04:59] Speaker B: Trying to join the podcast. Say hello. You'll say hello. Yeah, he's trying to climb up onto the desk. [01:05:04] Speaker A: Aw. How old is the dog? [01:05:06] Speaker B: I actually don't know cuz he's from a pound. But he's. You know, he's been here three days and Amy just left to go to a showing and now he's a little apprehensive that she left. So she was coming over here looking for reassurement. So is. [01:05:18] Speaker A: But is it a puppy or is it an adult dog? [01:05:20] Speaker B: It's not a puppy. He's not a puppy. But I don't know how. He's somewhere between one and six, they said. I think it's probably closer to one or two. But not a puppy. So. But he's done. [01:05:30] Speaker C: Get that embark DNA test done. [01:05:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, we got a. We got a follow up wellness check on Monday with the vet. And so she's what she says all right. [01:05:38] Speaker A: Blue eyed. [01:05:39] Speaker B: Uh. The vet. No, I don't know what color her eyes are. Well, the dogs. [01:05:44] Speaker A: No. [01:05:47] Speaker B: The vets and Aggie. I make sure that. [01:05:49] Speaker A: Of course it's an aggie. [01:05:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:05:51] Speaker A: Duh. [01:05:51] Speaker B: Yeah. The other thing we want to talk about is I want to hear Dan talk about Texoma's new GM, TD, whatever he is. That's from Luton. [01:05:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Texoma FC named Adrian Forbes as the technical director. Bit of a surprise for me personally. Just announced his departure from Luton Town like a week or two prior as the head of player development in coaching. So a really fancy way of saying he oversees the academy as a player. Play for Norwich, Lewton, Blackpool. Swansea started his coaching career at Norwich with the academy, moved to Luton, worked his way up. You know, he was obviously instrumental in a few players that have played in the Premier League for both Norwich and Lewton over time. You know, seems. Seems a really good get as a. As a league one development area. Texas obviously trying to take advantage of the north of DFW and Oklahoma where it's, you know, not too much MLS attention. It'll be interesting to see, firstly, why. Why Texoma? [01:07:10] Speaker A: But that's. That's the question I would think everybody's answered. Why would you? I mean, I know Lewton, Dan. No offense isn't exactly, you know, la or anything. [01:07:21] Speaker C: Oh, no, it's a show. [01:07:22] Speaker A: But how in the world do you end up going. Leaving a Premier League club or Championship club to go GM a club playing in the american fifth tier, is it, Buzz? [01:07:33] Speaker B: No, third. Uso one. [01:07:35] Speaker A: Oh, it is USL one. Okay. Third tier. [01:07:37] Speaker B: Same as North Texas SC. [01:07:39] Speaker C: Yes. I. I mean, yeah, I mean, the first thing that I kind of thought of is, you know, if he's, you know, in a. In a senior role in the academy and kind of not pushing on to first team and maybe those opportunities just aren't there. So a change of scenery, I think he just got married in the last year, may just be, you know, opportunity, a bit of a change in lifestyle. You know, even if it's. Even if it's Sherman, it's still 45 minutes north of, an hour north, I guess, of the center of an 8 million population metropolitan area with a ton of stuff to do and crazy hot summers, which we english people really love until we actually experience them. No, I'm actually looking forward. I'm, you know, I think, I know Corey is, is our, is our person for Texas, but I definitely want to have a try it, maybe popping up there and having to sit down with Adrian and a chat about, you know, things between the two places as kind of a uniquely placed individual for that. [01:08:55] Speaker B: I was looking at the little presser they have and he has commented about fiverrs at Luton. It was going to take something special to get him away from there. And then he goes on to talk about the World cup coming here and how there's an expected explosion of growth. And he really bought into the project they're trying to put together. So a lot of your basic coaching talking points. But it's another spin back to the idea that there's an explosion going to come from this FIFA World cup that we're getting here. You know, people thinking there's a real opportunity. They sided that, too, with the city of Dallas, both the mayor and the Niels as they were talking about the Dallas Trinity project. We're talking about the explosion that they're expecting from the World cup and then the perhaps the World cup for the women that the US is after in the next cycle after that. So, you know, there's a lot of people looking at this window here from this next World cup over the next three or four years. It'll be fascinating to see how many of them get it right. [01:09:44] Speaker A: And when do they, when, when do they start, Tex? [01:09:48] Speaker B: Next season? There's going to start. They tell. They told us so. We'll see. And they claim that they're going to build a stadium of their own. Right now. They're using that college stadium that's right there off of, of the 75 as it goes up to Sherman. [01:09:59] Speaker C: I drove past Berkett Stadium the other day. It was pissing down with rain or I would have taken a photo to send to some looting. People say, hey, it's Adrian Forbes new home. [01:10:11] Speaker A: Interesting. [01:10:11] Speaker B: All right. [01:10:12] Speaker C: I'm just interested to know how that link happened. Like, was it somebody knew somebody? Seems very random, right? If you're, if you're a taxonomy, you're probably not. Ah, yeah. Luton Towns academy guy. We want him. And if you're Adrian Forbes, you're probably not like, yes, I want USL League one. I want Texoma specifically. [01:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to say that Texoma FC on the, on the soccer radar is a very, very, very light blip. Unless for some reason you listen to third degree, the podcast. Because I guarantee you if you were to take a survey in the general Dallas Fort Worth area of anybody, even in soccer circles about Texoma FC, it would be, man, it would gray it out extremely low. So how some dude in Luton, England found out about it as an opportunity is got to be a fantastic story. [01:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Maybe Dan can pride out of it if he gets to the interview. [01:11:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be great. All right, well, hey, look, new stuff. New shiny soccer stuff for us to be excited about. And it comes as a good time as our main soccer thing isn't so shiny currently. All right, well, here we go. We're going to have two games to talk about next week. Buzz Houston on Saturday and Tampa Bay in the Open cup on Tuesday. Anything else before we go? [01:11:39] Speaker B: Yeah. Quick shout out to Steel Cook, who's got an awesome name, and he had an assist today for the US U 15s in the tournament. What they're playing in, do we need. [01:11:46] Speaker A: To have a tournament for most kick ass FC Dallas Academy product names of all time? I think there you got Paxton Palmical, you got Knight Pickering, you got steel cook. Who else? There's another. There's another really kick ass kid's name that you've told me about before that I can't think of. [01:12:09] Speaker B: Hard to say. [01:12:10] Speaker A: I have to think about that. We may have to put a bracket together. [01:12:14] Speaker B: Cock a scabin is a pretty good one. [01:12:16] Speaker A: Julian I Stone isn't bad. [01:12:18] Speaker B: Julie I stone's pretty good. [01:12:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [01:12:21] Speaker B: There's the kid that just goes by Toro like he's Pele. [01:12:25] Speaker A: Oh, hell yeah. [01:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, he's a good defender. Yeah. [01:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:31] Speaker B: Wyatt Easterly is a pretty good one. That sounds very texan, doesn't it? [01:12:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that. Okay. All right. Anything else? [01:12:40] Speaker B: That's about it. I've. Well, is dry. [01:12:43] Speaker A: All right. [01:12:43] Speaker B: It's going crazy. [01:12:44] Speaker A: Go take care of your puppy dog, everybody go submit your names for Buzz's puppy dog in the podcast section of the discord. Everybody drop your puppy dog nickname suggestions, please, and then you'll be allowed to vote and be the deciding voters for Amy and Buzz somewhere at a date down the road. Dan, you got anything else? Sir, you're being awfully quiet. [01:13:14] Speaker C: Nah, don't agree. [01:13:16] Speaker B: The podcast is brought to you by soccernontad.com. Your source for FC Dallas, us national team in our national club year with Copa America and euro 24 coming up. Man, they got all the good stuff. All the big countries, all the big guns. Argentina, France, Germany, Brazil, and of course, the United States. Third degree listener, of course. 20% off. Discount in store. Just mention third degree at checkout or online code. Thirddegreesocnighty.com 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 or visit lindstromlaw firm.com for a free consultation. [01:13:53] Speaker A: All right, very good. Thank you, boys. It's always good to talk to you. Go, team. Go win. Go get some points. Go kick some open cup ass, and hopefully we'll have something good to talk about next week. Thanks. [01:14:05] Speaker C: Crush the orange. [01:14:06] Speaker A: Yeah, crush the orange, as they say. And we will speak to you next week, FC Dallas. Curious. On another episode of third degree, the podcast. [01:14:16] Speaker C: Keep the cannon. [01:14:18] Speaker A: Third degree. [01:14:20] Speaker B: The third degree. [01:14:20] Speaker A: Ned, podcast. The third degree never get third degree. [01:14:28] Speaker B: The third degree. Never get third degree. Third degree. Never cast. [01:15:10] Speaker A: You sounded like you're being wrestled by a bear, Buzz. [01:15:13] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. He's going crazy because Amy left. He's over there climbing on shit and knocking over lamps. So I'm gonna go.