3rd Degree the Podcast #267

[00:00:00] Speaker A: But here in the club is never what I want. It's never what the coach wants. It's never what the director of scouting wants. It's a combination what the club wants. [00:00:09] Speaker B: It's. [00:00:09] Speaker A: We said we sit down. We always sit down with. This was with Lucci, this was with Nico, and this will be with Peter. [00:00:17] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:00:26] Speaker D: Third degree the third degree ner podcast. [00:00:30] Speaker C: Third degree the third degree Nepochet third degree the third degree Nap podcast third. [00:00:39] Speaker B: Degree the third degree Nap podcast third degree the podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90 Dot celebrate Pride month with the FC Dallas Pride pre matched jersey, available now in store and online. But buy before this weekend because the supply is limited. Also, of course, soccer nine. Economy is all the european stuff, cope America stuff, they got it all. And as a listener of third degree, the podcast, you get 20% off on your order, both in store or online. Use code third degree online, tell them we sent you on the podcast and get that discount. 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 lenstromlaw firm.com for a free consultation. [00:01:18] Speaker C: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to episode 267, by the way. Remember that number. It's going to become important here in a few minutes of third degree the podcast. Hello, it is me, Peter. And talking about the big news of the week alongside is, first off, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:40] Speaker D: Hello. Welcome to the new era. Do you feel the energy? [00:01:44] Speaker C: Yes, I feel the energy. Thank you for asking. And your hero. My hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of Thirddegree.net, and the original soccer influencer, Buzz Kerik. Coming, buzz. [00:01:58] Speaker B: Peter, man, I'm just like you. I'm fired up to talk about the. For the first 30 minutes of this podcast about the one one tie in Minnesota. Looking forward to that breakdown. [00:02:07] Speaker C: Well, I am a little punchy because I just watched the US tie, Brazil and the final friendly before the Copa, and that's probably the best I've seen the United States play in a really long time. And what a nice response to the opposite performance they had against Columbia the other day. Right? So we'll see how the Copa go for the United States here in the next few weeks. All right, Buzz. So, on the heels of the aforementioned absolutely morbid one one draw on Saturday up in Minnesota, a performance so bad, once I saw some of the visual graphic of the stats of it, I decided not to watch it because I didn't watch it live. That is a Dallas team featuring probably its most. The best lineup it could put out there, considering its injury situation versus essentially Minnesota's b team. The number of guys Minnesota rolled out there that had played less than 500 minutes this year was unbelievable. And. And just by all accounts, Buzz. Really a new low in terms of just boring awfulness from FC Dallas and Nico. [00:03:21] Speaker B: Yeah, it's interesting that this team insists on playing out of the back on the ground when they don't really have any great elite passers in the back. You know, six of the seven guys in the back are just, you know, average passers or worse. Only Armini's an above average passer and really, they have no midfield to speak of at all in terms of creating. So it's like you. You have these guys that, on paper, are some good strikers and there's just. They just can't get the ball. Dallas just can't get the ball up the field into those guys because they just don't have enough talent on the rest of the field in terms of playing the way they want to play, like they got. They have guys that could just boot it up there, but they don't do that. So you end up with one of the most boring games you've ever seen and from a Dallas perspective and an XG that is just absolutely minuscule and a number of shots that's very low. And it just really is a very flat, terrible performance. And, you know, not because of this single performance, because of the year long valuation we ended up with the news we ended up with. [00:04:19] Speaker C: So on Sunday, buried in the Sunday news drama, was that Lucci Gonzalez had been fired or. Excuse me, I was gonna say not. Sorry, I don't cut that out. Because the irony of all of that is, is that everything in the way that the club announced Nico Estebus's firing was essentially a carbon copy of three years ago when they fired Lucci down to the press release. Did you see the image, the screen grabs of the two? [00:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:53] Speaker C: Yes. Unbelievable. It was essentially the exact same press release. And then came the press conference, which I felt like at the end of, sounded and looked just like the press conference at the end after they fired Lucci three years ago. [00:05:09] Speaker B: Unbelievable. There's only one major difference, and we'll get to it in a minute. [00:05:13] Speaker C: Yes. So, anyway, the point being is that Nico Estevez was announced to have, uh. And by the way, it was, um. They made it sound like it was a mutual agreement to part ways. I don't remember the. The actual phrase used? It was. What was it, Dan? Do you remember off the top of. [00:05:30] Speaker D: Your head, I just called it a departure? [00:05:34] Speaker C: Yeah. What was the phrase? I'm gonna find it one more time. Just, uh, announce that. Yeah. Announce the departure of. It wasn't sacked or fired or whatever it was. It's the same thing they used last time. And it was very shady. [00:05:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Part ways, you know? [00:05:51] Speaker C: Yeah. And all of the niceties that come along with that. So, Dan, where were you when you found out that Niko had lost his job? [00:06:01] Speaker D: So I was writing an article that's gonna come out tomorrow, and I was really deep in it, and I had to go and check for an email from FC Dallas. I opened up my gmail account and I was like, that's weird. There's an FC Dallas email sitting there. And then I saw Nico Estevez has departed as head coach 30 minutes ago. And I was like, well, crap, I missed that one. [00:06:28] Speaker C: And buzz, of course something like this happens and you're out of town. [00:06:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's out of town and working. I was literally on the air when it happened. Yeah. If everyone wants more departures to happen or more moves to happen, just wait. Cause I'm gonna leave town in the middle of the next window. Lined it up perfectly within a couple of days, so everyone will be good. [00:06:48] Speaker C: It's like clockwork. It's science. Buzz goes out of town, things happen with FC Dallas. Yeah. So, guys, here's the thing, and we can get into all of the details about all of this stuff is. Is I just want to get back to a point that relates to the performance of this team, not just in the Minnesota game, but in the two games prior that I saw in LA in person. And all the other things, the. The losing the three goal lead against Salt Lake, and, I mean, the list of the season goes on and on. Do. Do either of you really believe that there is enough working parts on this team right now for this season to be salvaged in any way, shape or form? [00:07:29] Speaker D: Yeah. So they kind of talked about almost like a mini season. You know, I've got the Lamar hunt us Open cup quarterfinal. You've got at least two leagues cup games and a chance to get into that. Dan specified that there's, what, five? [00:07:47] Speaker B: Is it? [00:07:48] Speaker D: Five games, three quarter semi, three games left to effectively win the Open cup and get a Champions cup spot. So, salvageable in that sense? Yes. Salvageable in the sense of being competitive in MLS, getting a really good playoff spot and making a run? [00:08:11] Speaker C: No, I'm going to answer. I have a response, but I want to hear Buzz's thought first. [00:08:15] Speaker B: Sure. I think that if you, if you change formations and you play with more offensive players on the field and less pure defensive players, maybe, maybe bring in some fresh legs here and there, using some kids to give some guys some games off so you can play as a collective better over the stretch. I think you can make this team into a team that is as talented as the bottom two or three teams in the playoff picture. So that's like 8th or 9th in the, in the standings kind of talent level. The problem is that even, even with half the season left, you're already seven games out of the last playoff spot. Um, and most other teams in MLS don't just turn to garbage. You know, you have three teams between you and the last playoff spot, and then you have a couple of teams that are in that section of the playoff spots and, and getting ahead of all those teams is very, very difficult, even with half the season left. So I don't know that you can really salvage it. Even if you get to that last playoff spot, what are you really salvaging other than the bragging rush is saying, we made the playoffs again. It's not like you're going to have a team that's going to compete for the playoffs. [00:09:21] Speaker D: So it feels a little bit like Miami last year when they had, that was it, 14 games to go and they were like ten points off. They still missed the playoffs by nine points. I think it's going to be way more entertaining. I think it's going to be an attractive style of football, but temper your expectations for, for success. [00:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Generally speaking, we used to say that you had to get to like 50 something points. Roughly 50, 51, maybe 54, depending on the season, to be in the playoffs. Now we have nine teams, so maybe it's a tiny bit less than that. That's 40 points away, basically. So you'd have to have 40 points out of your last, you know, half of the season when Salt Lake City right now in first place only has 33 total. So you probably don't need to get 54. But, you know, what are you going. [00:10:08] Speaker D: To do this year it was 44 and 43. [00:10:11] Speaker B: You're going to, are you going to get 30 points out of the second half of the season when the best team in the west only got 33 out of the first half of the season? So, you know, the chance that you're actually going to be able to get into the playoffs despite the fact that they want to talk about teams that have rallied in the second half is just extraordinary. The math is just extraordinarily difficult. It's just very, almost impossible. The math is already, you know, should you try? Of course you should try. Will they be able to? I don't know. I think they're going to focus a lot on the league's cup and the US Open cup, frankly, and try and use that as the salvage this season kind of Balliwack and, you know, try and rearrange their schedule and play guys to get to field their besties for those, those tournaments. [00:10:51] Speaker C: You know, one of the things that I find frustrating about this and the reason why I asked the curious to take note of this episode number at 267 was this note. We, we did this exact same podcast on September 20 of 2021. That was 138 podcasts ago. And less than 1000 days ago was 993 days between firings of these two guys. That is not a long amount of time. And this team now is back at square one after two consecutive three season and out kind of runs with very low experience managers. And the only difference in my mind this time is that they didn't wait till the end of the season. And I do wonder if maybe the one maybe silver lining of this is they learn the lesson of waiting too long to fire Lucci by letting Niko Estevez go at this point versus dragging it out even further. [00:11:58] Speaker B: My complaint about that is that, you know, they're effectively giving Lucien a tryout in a sense of like, trying to give him the rest of the season to try and win now. I'm not sure that using the rest of the season to win now is actually the best idea for this club. It might have been a better idea to just go ahead and get on with whoever the next coach is and start building for that coach's run, not trying to salvage whatever's left in this run. [00:12:22] Speaker C: Well, do you think, is there, is there a chance that, a, they think that Lucene is a legitimate candidate, or b, do they maybe have somebody in mind that wouldn't be available till next season anyway? [00:12:35] Speaker B: Well, a, for sure, Lucene is 100% a legitimate candidate for, you know, of course, in the press conference they did the line about it's a global search. We're going to. We will be doing a search while he's coaching. We will get all these international candidates. Our job is a highly coveted job. It's not. None of those things are really true. They're only true because they claim they're true. You know, we're going to end up with the same candidates we always end up with. Here. So there are some candidates that are very viable. And I think because Lucene is getting the whole year, I think we can wait and talk about the most who might Candace might be as we go forward to some of these pockets in the future. But, you know, if they really are giving him a chance to try out, he has to play for the now. You know, he really does have to try and win them all. And that isn't necessarily the best thing is for, for this team. Sometimes the best thing for the team is to go one in 15. So you get the number one pick, you know, I mean, it's, it's, to use a Dallas Cowboys parlance, you know, in the case of SC Dallas, the number one pick isn't worth all that much. But I'm not sure that, like, going out and trying to get guys to fix this season is the right play. You know what I mean? The best play might be to go out and look for guys that are going to be for the next coach for the next three or four years. And that's hard to do if you don't have that coach in place, if you don't know who that is, like, you're gonna let loose scene. Let's say he's not the guy. Just hypothetically, you're gonna let loose scene have his input and into this, into this next window and pick players that are not for him. You know, it's just I'm not sure that trying to salvage season is the right play, but it's what they're doing. So let's go. Yeah. FC Dallas, I guess. [00:14:11] Speaker C: Yeah. I think there's an additional question in there that I. That I'm fascinated by this question, which is knowing that this club is going to be playing in a stadium for the next three seasons, all of 242-025-2026 and 2027 in a stadium that will functionally be at least half closed for three straight seasons, how much does that play into the type of person they hire for those seasons? Or alternatively or maybe in parallel, the type of person even interested in taking that job, considering you're having half, you know, you've got a stadium that's only half open. [00:14:59] Speaker B: I think that the kind of candidates that this team would attract anyway will not be affected by the fact that the stadium would be half open. You know what I mean? Like, we already know this is a, relatively speaking, not one of the higher pair jobs in the league. We know that, relatively speaking, people know that it's hot here. They know that you have the hunts aren't going to buy these 15, $30 million players. You know, that you have to have the pathway to the youth. Niko tried to ignore that. Look what it got him. You know, so people know what this job is. And so I don't, I don't think that the kind of candidates we've seen this club hire will care that this or, well, in the movie they care, but they won't consider that like a major deficit compared to the other things they have to fight through here. [00:15:43] Speaker C: Dan, are you, are you glad this has happened and happened now? [00:15:50] Speaker D: It makes the season more interesting. You know, obviously we build a rapport with Niko. It's never happy when you see coaches leave. It's kind of sad pulling out of the, the, after the press conference and I just see him walking out of the admin office, I guess, like, you know, getting his stuff. I was like, ah, ah, yeah, that sucks. But, yeah, I mean, I'm excited to see what, what comes of it, what, what the next steps are. For FC Dallas. It's a constant evolution. Right. [00:16:24] Speaker C: So, Buzz, what's your general reaction to the timing of Niko's firing? [00:16:30] Speaker B: It's certainly not surprising. You know, when you're, when you're having discussions about how close this season is to the worst season of all time, you know that something was inevitable. You're right. I mean, unless he'd had a complete reversal of fortune and there were no signs that that was going to happen because he was sticking to his guns and his insistence on the formation and maybe the insistence on the players he was picking were essentially what led to his downfall. So the timing of it for me is, you know, once you decide that he's not the guy, then great, go ahead and do it. I'm okay with that. I still think there are some significant problems happening at this club that have to be addressed that are gonna make it hard for somebody to turn this thing around really quickly. But the part that does bother me is the idea that I know that they want to give Lucene this tryout, but I actually wish they would just get on with it. Like I talked before, if it is going to be Lucine. I'm not anti Peter Lucene. I think he's a viable candidate. He is 100% one of the candidates. If you decide three or four or five weeks from now that he is the guy and then your other candidates aren't working out, just give him the full time job and go. And don't go through this next window without a guy on your staff as your head lead guy, don't go through this next windows the interim guy, don't go through the rest of this season with an interim guy because even if you are all in on both of the cups and so maybe regular season games are as important. Well, those are, those are great chances to play a bunch of young kids and see what you've got, you know, I mean, what a golden opportunity to be able to, with little risk, play guys that you're not 100% sure about and see if you can get something out of them, see if there is something viable there. But they have a fair number of these kids that have not gotten any minutes, you know, and you might as well take a look at them if you can. And so really there's a golden opportunity here if you really had your next coach that I kind of think they're wasting a little bit by sticking with an interim for the rest of the season. [00:18:17] Speaker C: My, my great nightmare is that we're about to find out that Niko Estevez isn't stupid and wasn't crazy and what he was really trying to do, as we've talked about multiple times, is the reason why he insisted his team play so negatively and so grind in such a grinding manner is because that was the only way they were ever going to get any kind of result and somebody else is going to step in here and try to play four in the back or, you know, something a little bit more forward footed and going to find out that this thing just really crumbles in just a different way. [00:18:55] Speaker D: Clearly the, the plot twist that's going to happen, is it Sarah Quill? And he just said, hey, let me win USL championship and then I'll come next season. [00:19:05] Speaker B: Well, well, one thing I will say about, generally speaking with coaches in the past, particularly guys that have become interims, if you go to another coach and say, hey, you know, could you get better results out of this team? Absolutely I can. Every coach believes that they can coach guys up. They always think that I'm going to come in there and you give me the exact same players and I will do better than the guy before. But you guys know how I feel. It's always about the players. So Peter Lucien has the exact same roster that Nico Sebast has. Peter Lucien can make a make some changes and make small differences. As I say, maybe you can be as good as three or four places in front of you. You can't make this team overnight as good as LAFC or Salt Lake City or Minnesota's is just by going rah rah guys, let's go. Let's show some energy. I mean, you have to, you know, it takes a, there's a reason why when a new coach is really named to be the head guy, they then we then talk about three or four season cycles, and it takes time to overturn and overhaul the roster and get the guys you want to play the way you want. You don't immediately walk in and become like a guy. So that's why, to me, like, why are we wasting time as a group with this let Peter win half a season kind of stuff? You know, if he's the guy, make him the guy. Let him go. Let's, let's start with the next thing. Why are we waiting and throwing away half a season? [00:20:20] Speaker C: Well, as a bonus feature of this particular episode, we've pulled some audio from the press conference with Dan Hunt and Andre Zenada because I think we all agree there was some really wonderful little Dan Hunt moments in this particular one and probably topped this particular answer, buzz. You know, we all know Dan tends to over promise and under deliver. That's pretty much his mo. But he also is one of the most hyperbolic people of all time. And I don't remember what the original question was that delivered this answer, Buzz, do you remember about the, his opinion on the roster? [00:20:58] Speaker B: Oh, somebody asked him if it was the best roster they've ever had. [00:21:01] Speaker C: Yes. So here was Dan's answer to that. I would think so. With a healthy Alan Velasco. Right. You know, we were unfortunate. If you look at the missing part of our salary cap for the first part of the season, Jesus, Allen Paxton, Sebastian Leggette. I mean, there was Giovanni. Yeah. Giovanni out. We've been missing a ton of our payroll and a lot of our most talented players. I think when we're 100% healthy, it's an incredibly talented roster. [00:21:34] Speaker B: Yeah. So here's the thing. If you're having a discussion with a record for the worst record of all time, there is no way in hell you have the most sounded roster you've ever had with any reasonable coach to be in that category. If it is true, doesn't matter how many injuries you have. [00:21:53] Speaker C: No, I completely agree with you. [00:21:55] Speaker D: One. One little caveat to it is the question came from, you said previously that you think this season is the most talented roster you've ever seen, FC Dallas. Do you still think that's true? [00:22:08] Speaker C: Yeah. And I believe we laughed at him to backtrack on. Well, we also giggled when he said it, when he answered that question that way the first time because even if everybody is healthy, it is one of the better rosters in this club's history. But I don't think it's the best in this club's history. [00:22:25] Speaker B: No, I kind of put it in the middle. I actually did a little digging. You want me to throw you out some couple of rosters? I have three candidates for best roster in club history. That's 1999 when. When Dur loaded up 2006, which is the wire to wire first place team under Colin Clark. And then 2016 oscars double winning season. So 99. Here's your front. Strikers. Christ, all time limitless. Great. Ariel Graciani, played for Ecuador. Donate Washington, who played for the United States. Mickey Trotman, who played for TNT. Bobby Ryan was a rookie and JJ Traez, who was a Colombian. They signed who I would have ahead of people like Anza already, you know, so that's five or six guys deep. Better midfield. Chad dearing, played in the World cup, won the first Americans play in Germany. Mark Seiden tell like a decade long us player. Brian Hayes, played for TNT. Oscar Rip player, played for Columbia in the Valderrama Lionel Alvarez era. Ted Eck, one of your guys. [00:23:19] Speaker C: Oh, the Goat. [00:23:20] Speaker B: Yeah, the goat. Yeah. Defense. Zarco played for El Salvador for years. Richard Fair, Eric Dade, an indoor superstar, played like 500 professional games. Paul Broome, Brandon Pollard, who was an Olympic team player for the United States. Mark Dodd, MLs keeper of the year. Matt Jordan was just coming into his prowess. They're good enough to unseat the MLS keeper of the year. Amazing team. Significantly better than this team we have right now. Okay? 2006, Colin Clark, wall wire to first place, right front. Two strikers, Carlos Riz and Kenny Cooper, played for the United States. Played for Guatemala, right? Roberto Mena played for Ecuador. Don Maduro, played for Ghana. That's four internationals. Fifth guy, Abe Thompson and that's the weakest part, going to the midfield. Richard Mulrooney played for the United States. Ramon Nunez played for Honduras in the World Cup. Ronnie O'Brien played for Ireland and Juventus. Miguel Saragossa, the brazilian Simo Vallacari, played for Finland. Dax McCarty, USA. Arturo Alvarez, USA. That's like seven internationals. Defense, Clarence Goodson, USA. Chris Bondi won the Herman. Greg Vanny played for the United States. Bobby Ryan was converting to back. Drew Moore played for the United States in gold. Dario Sala, big timekeeper. One of the better ones we've had here. Okay? 2016, Michael Barrios, Maxi Yaruti, Fabian Castillo, Mario Rosales, Carlos Ruiz again, substantial international players midfield. Carlos Grazo played in the World cup at 18, Mauro Diaz, one of the best players we've ever seen here. Kellen Acosta in his prime and then backed up by guys like Paxson and Victor Yolo and the defense in 2016. Hedges United States player Zimmerman United States player Ryan Holling said, one of the best outside backs we've ever seen. Zach Lloyd, who got into the United States team. Atiba Harris, who was a starter for his country men are Figueroa played for Honduras for a thousand times, Aubrey David played for TNT, Jesse Gonzalez and Chris Seitz in goal. So, like, there's those three teams right there are clearly way better than what Dallas is feeling right now. I just think in the end, Dan Hunt is confusing cost with actual talent because Alaska cost 8 million and Peter Musa cost 10 million and they're paying Jesus for a lot of money. Those three guys are impacts and a. [00:25:29] Speaker C: Lot of money and they spent a lot of money to get Areola and to get legit. [00:25:33] Speaker B: But all those guys are years away from either reaching their peak or they're past their peak, right? And those are just like. And then you look at the defense as a shambles. Other than Martin paws, you have four or five guys back there, none of whom are within light years of playing for a national team. The midfield, across the board, other than Yara Mendy, is light years from being key significant. I mean, Liam Frazier is the most big profile guy they have left after packs and going out, which is nuts. That's what you're comparing to some of these other teams Dallas has had. It's just not even close to being one of the best teams they've ever had. [00:26:06] Speaker C: And then Dan's other somewhat curious answer was, well, what do you need to change about how this team is playing? What has made this club so successful the last couple of years is being able to score enough goals and defend well. We've been one of the best defenses in the league and I think if we go back to our roots of defending well and creating chances will climb right back up the table. [00:26:32] Speaker B: Yeah, wait, describe Nico ball. [00:26:35] Speaker C: You just. Yeah, because remember the last time we were sitting here listening to you pontificate about your situation, you had a really shitty defense run by Lucci Gonzalez. That's why you hired Nico Estevez. And by the way, the really good defense that you're talking about is the hallmark of this team again, was Nico Estevez. [00:26:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, later on he talked about the XG and how they need to score goals and all that stuff, but literally, you know, hey, hold on 1 second. 1 second, yeah. [00:27:04] Speaker C: Gotta ask you guys a question. If you ask Dan Hunt to explain how XG works, do either one of you think he could do it correctly? [00:27:14] Speaker B: He called it like the. Like the. What did he say, dan? He called the marquee stat, or like the. He used a word for it. [00:27:22] Speaker C: This is the reason why I'm asking this question. [00:27:23] Speaker D: He called it the most telling statistic. [00:27:26] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. [00:27:28] Speaker C: Jesus Christ. [00:27:28] Speaker B: I don't think it's that telling at all. It's usable as a. As a macro, like, state of game kind of thing. And it really only works in a big picture, like, long term way. You know, it's like. I don't. I don't. I don't know that he gets it. So it's like, you know, when. When they hired Niko in the first place, it was all about, we got to build a defense, we got to build a defense, we got to build defense. And in this one, they doubled down with, well, we have a defense, we just need to keep it. But we seem to score more. I mean, I guess that's fundamentally true. I suppose. It really is. What you need to do is don't let them score and score more. So. Fair enough, I guess. [00:28:01] Speaker D: But that's like the old Bobby Rob's Bobby Robson quote about. Yeah, you'll win 100% of the games, that you score more than your opposition or whatever it is. [00:28:15] Speaker B: Basically, what's the goal today? What? To score more than them. That's what we're going to try and do. Yeah. [00:28:21] Speaker C: God, it was so crazy. Although I have to say, I thought Dan spoke better than I've seen him speak publicly in some time. He seemed like he had become kind of a grizzled veteran at this particular event. And Zenada didn't look as dear in the headlights as I remember him looking the last time he was sitting here having to sack now his second straight manager in his tenure. [00:28:46] Speaker B: If we look at, like, the macro level of what Dan Hunt said, it, I will buy into the macro thoughts as it wasn't trending in the right direction. That's true. They do need to create more chances and score more goals. That's also true. So he's right about those two things in a macro sense. I just thought it was particular funny that basically he described we need to play Neko ball as what they needed to do to win. So it's just ironic. [00:29:11] Speaker C: Yeah, I did. I actually pulled the numbers up on Zenada's time since he's been here. He essentially is running exactly at 500. [00:29:22] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, that gets you the playoffs. [00:29:24] Speaker C: He's had three. He's had three seasons with double digit wins, and he's about to get his fourth season with double digit losses since he's taken over is whatever title he has in this role. Speaking of Zenada, I think it was you, Buzz, or maybe somebody asked him to try to help answer the curious question of how in the world this roster got is goofed up as it did, knowing that the manager wanted to play a new formation. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that was me. I asked him if there was a disconnect between the 343 and the talent acquisition. Here's what he said. [00:29:59] Speaker A: Of course, we. We don't. Every player acquisition, every discussion we have, and every player we bring, we. We discuss with the coach and we have his. Yes. Before we sign the players and before we bring player X or player Z and Nikos, he mentioned to us the formations, the way he wanted to play with the formations, and we. Based on that to bring the players. I disagree. I think we have roster with options in all the positions where with enough talent to be played, even missing the players we are, which are players that are key. The only one that we were not expecting to miss this season was Paxton. This was the surprise we had this year. Allen and Giovanni, we knew we were not going to have them for the first semester, but still, the players we brought, the investment we made, and we believe we should be in a better place than we are right now. [00:31:08] Speaker B: This is where we're going to have to agree to disagree, because I don't think that that's true. Like, his evaluation of his roster and the place positions they can play and the way they can play is completely different than mine. I think their defense is deficient and they're lacking in multiple positions that are necessary to play this way that they want to play. Um, you know, and so that's, in the end of the day, sometimes it just comes down to different evaluations, and it's easy for me to say all that because I'm not the one that has a record out there of, like, what I've won and lost. I can only say that, like, we have all. Ever since we've been doing this, we always sort of. Here are the. We identify the problems, and some, when those problems occur, we go look. Yep, exactly what we said. And that happened again this season, this winter coming in, we identified what the problems were, and those problems have been exactly true and exactly visible on the field. And they're still telling us no. That so basically, in a way, he threw Niko under the bus here. Like he says, no, no, we're good enough. Our us is good enough. We have enough players. We have the right players. They should have been better than they were. Okay, that's the coach. So that question and another question I asked following up, I basically was giving him the chance to either take culpability or hang out the coach to dry. And he didn't do it directly, but he basically hung the coach out the dry. [00:32:19] Speaker C: Buzz. I'll ask Dan, could this roster as it stands right now, win USLC? [00:32:26] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:32:27] Speaker C: You think so? [00:32:28] Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, it's not comparatively not a great standard to MLS. Look at the players that quills brought into New Mexico, that are starting regularly, that couldn't get sniff at Dallas. That is the difference. You go back to that Tampa Bay game, yeah, they played out of their skins, but it wasn't exactly the moments that FC Dallas kind of got their heads out their asses. You could see there was a difference in quality just in terms of fitness, a clinical nature that sort of like. [00:33:07] Speaker C: Okay, buzz, you think they'd win USLC? [00:33:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:33:11] Speaker C: This current, not, not the roster with the missing. Not, not the roster with the missing pieces as it stands in this particular moment. [00:33:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I do really. I'm with Ben Olsen when he talked about the gap between those teams. You can lose a one off game. It happens. You know, we've seen across the board in many leagues around the world, you have giant, killer moments where some teams that's fourth division knocks off a Premier League team, you know, whatever crazy stuff happens, you know, but when you, when you get into the grind of a season, and this is why most leagues in the world don't count on playoffs, they count on the grind of the season, determine who the best team is, because that's the way it works in soccer, you know. So I think they would win the champions. Yeah. [00:33:48] Speaker C: Okay. Well, it'll be interesting to see how this team, if they're. What kind of improvements we see in terms of what they do with the ball once they get past midfield, because I will, I still contend, as I've been saying for, since last year, I. This team just does not look like one that knows what to do with the ball once they get past midfield. And I'm not convinced that is in large part just because of the quality of the players on the team and not all, everything to do with the coach. But I guess, yeah, we'll find out soon. [00:34:16] Speaker B: Well, what I would say to that would be that I definitely think it's about the quality of the players that were on the field. But I think if you used a different formation and you fielded more actual midfielders, that you wouldn't find that to be the case. You'd find that they would be better at knowing what to do with the ball. It wouldn't be, you know, again, they wouldn't climb to the top of the west. They would just relative, middle of the pack. Everything's relative. All that's still much better than USLC. You know, it would look like, you know, they would be up there with Portland and Colorado, and some of those teams are right in the middle, as they almost always are. FC Dallas right there in the middle of the west. That's where they would be. [00:34:51] Speaker C: So I thought it was interesting. Also, Zenada talked about getting players time that hadn't been given a lot of time in terms of younger players and which also felt like a shot at Lucci, you know what I mean? [00:35:14] Speaker B: Not so much because Lucci would play kids and bring them through. I think it's a shot at Niko. You know, like, look, we all sat here on this podcast and talked about when Niko was hired that it might be the wrong hire because of the club's DNA. Right? We were on the record about all that, and that turned out to be true. Like, his definition of what a kid is and the kids that he was willing to trust, there's only one or two of them, like in their low twenties, not the pathway that. I mean, one of the reasons North Texas soccer club is so good is because there's seven homegrowns down there playing, you know, and guys, and the guys that are the younger signings, not even homegrowns that are. That aren't playing for the first team because he refused to play them. So, you know, both Dan Hunt and Zanada and Lucene talked about that pathway. And Peter's answer to that was like, oh, yeah, we're definitely playing kids, you know, and going to play. It won't be every game, won't be right away, but, you know, they're absolutely returning back to that DNA because, again, we talked about this a bunch that. That homegrown ability to come through and provide roster pieces that are above average, that don't cost you anything because they're homegrown. So pivotal to how this team was relatively competitive into the middle or the top middle, top sort of section of the standings year after year. You quit doing that, it's not surprising your team fell off. [00:36:27] Speaker C: Well, it's also well, it's one of the things that made this team interesting and compelling to follow, because I think one of the weird things or side effects of the Niko Estebas era is that when they, when they put him in place, not only did he stop playing kids and the senior team stopped being a shop window, they also, I think, Buzz, it's not unfair to say they've allowed the academy to no longer be the best academy in this country, and there's been a significant fall off in that part of the club as well. And so over the course of the last couple of years, no, not couple, three to four years, all of the things that really made this team interesting has kind of gone out by the wayside. And I think that's really what this team and this organization needs to get back to, because what's also happened is that it's really exposed. The hunts as owners is just kind of a mid tier MLS organization because they don't have the financial ambition to go beyond that. And so that's what I. No matter who ends up taking this gig or whatever ends up happening, I hope they go back to that business model because that, to me, was fun to watch. This is really awful. [00:37:47] Speaker B: Well, it could turn out that like 99 to zero three was just like this insane bubble. But I don't, I don't really think it is. I mean, I look at these younger teams play in the academy and I see just boatloads of talent. The thing that's happened that's been the most problematic, that makes the FC Dallas academy look like it's no longer the best of the best, was that the, the moving of players up has stopped. The, the pushback of the current homegrowns down into north Texas has pushed any 19s or 17s back down into the academy. There's no academy kids playing for the North Texas right now. There's kids that have signed professional contracts that are hybrid deals, that are straight home north Texas deals as they come out of the 18s. That's not what I mean. I mean, the, the, um, uh, Michael Corcoran playing at 14 with north. That's what stopped. Or guys playing up. Even in a couple of class. Like, everyone is playing pretty much everyone, 90% of everyone, is playing in their actual real defined class all the way up and through down the academy. Well, the problem is for the truly elite players, they're now playing against people that they're better than, which is not what you want. You want them truly elite guys playing in skies that are better than them because that's how you get better. You, you take Leonard Messi at 18 and he plays for Barcelona. I mean that's of course a crazy operation. You know, maybe even at 16 when he first broke through, perhaps. But it's like that's the kind of idea that you want to have happening on that. That pipeline is completely stagnated. And that's why people are like, oh, FCL is not good anymore. [00:39:16] Speaker C: Right? [00:39:16] Speaker B: Because we don't. Well, it's not true. They, every single FC Dallas team qualified for the playoffs. I think they're one of a few teams that did that. They're, they're in the top rankings of win percentage across every single agent group, academy. They're still one of the elite three or four academies out there. It just doesn't look like it does four years ago when they have like twelve national team players playing for national teams. Right. Like over the last weekend like they did, you know. [00:39:40] Speaker C: So that leads us to the fact that the replacement is, as you've, we've said multiple times here, Peter Lucene, who I didn't realize how long he had been with the club. I didn't realize he'd been with a club more than ten years. That's ridiculous. That it was ten years ago. He came in here and essentially sat on the bench for most of his time as a player. [00:40:01] Speaker D: He sat on the physio table. [00:40:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay, fair. Yes. My favorite Peter Lucene story is that we all thought he was this awful, was this incredibly slow battleship of a player at the MLS level. And then we had a media game a few years ago and he came out there and he blew past me with the ball and just like I, there was no chance I was ever going to catch up with him. And it was one of those cold stone reminders of the difference between a professional player and some knucklehead like me that runs around a couple of times a week. [00:40:38] Speaker B: He was two or three years out of playing. He ran circles around all of us laughing and scored like seven goals in 20 minutes. It was, it was the biggest slap in the face of like, you idiots are so far removed from a real professional athlete. It's like, yes, unreal. [00:40:54] Speaker C: As I, as I'm struggling to try to do anything to get anywhere close to him, I'm thinking to him, holy crap, that's Peter Lew seen. He was like incredibly slow and he played mls. That's all I could think of. It was so bad, such a bad smack reality. Well anyway, he is the new manager and I thought, you know, I want to. I want to say this straight up. I thought his press conference, he spoke really well. I liked his attitude, I liked his vibe. I liked his energy. And I liked his answer. Buzz, to your question on what his style was. [00:41:27] Speaker B: I like to play. I like to play football. I like to play football. And when I say that I like to play. Football is a complete football. So I think that we can see a lot of things. We can see ball on the ground, we can see ball in the air is going to depend what the opponent is giving us. So it's very important that that game is a game of adjustment, too. So I want to help them to adjust. It's not just about the coach, it's about them to see and to read what is going on in the field. I want to make sure that the people are coming here with the family. They can see attractive football. [00:42:05] Speaker C: You tried, Buzz, to get him to explain to you what kind of changes he would make, and he wasn't giving up the ghost. [00:42:13] Speaker B: He literally said he's not going to give St. Louis any information for this weekend. [00:42:17] Speaker C: So what do you think he's going to do? [00:42:20] Speaker B: Well, he. He directly cited two coach influences and it was Carlos Bianchi, the argentine coach. [00:42:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:27] Speaker B: And a guy named Roland Corbus, who I looked him up, has been a coach, first team coach, pro coach in France for, you know, 5000 years, coached like 20 different clubs. And so, you know, not. Not having really watched those guys play our coach, I tried to dig around and find things about them, like articles about them or things that listed the kind of play they have. And they talked about things like individual responsibility leading to a collective quality. And specifically, both of them were mentioned as being preferences towards the four three three. Just various versions of 433, whether it be a single pivot or double pivot. And so I, for one, of course, hope that, that the Peter Mint is as much tactically, you know, in those formations, whether it be a double or a single or, or, or just even just, you know, I would be happy with the mentality and the individual responsibility part and the energy part as I would be with the tactics. Because obviously I think this team would be much better in the back. Four and a four three three is their most native natural formation for the roster they have. So he didn't want to commit so much tactical context, you know, he wouldn't really get into that. So hopefully, you know, next week, of course, we'll be able to have open training again and I'll be able to see and we'll obviously see against St. Louis what his preference is. And he did talk about adaptability and being able to recognize what you're against and change up against what you're up against. And that's a really nice quality too, if they have that. So, you know, you're right. That all signs, all. Everything he said was nice. I like that. He got really choked up when he talked about how when he first went to the academy as a coach, he coached u twelve and then for you and then u 13 and now he's the head coach. A couple of guys on that team are now in. His team were in training. He mentioned Tarek Scott and Anthony Ramirez and Nolan of course, too. But Nolan's out of town so he didn't mention him. But I thought it was kind of fun. Ten years later, those kids are now in his first pro team. [00:44:15] Speaker C: He's got Dan, what are your thoughts on Lucien and his shot at actually winning this gig? [00:44:22] Speaker D: I mean, if you look at his playing resume, it's phenomenal. Is play for some of the best teams in the world with some of the best players of all time. Part of the. The golden generation for France missing out on the World cup itself. But, you know, if he can translate that into coaching, which, you know, not everyone can, that'd be an amazing feat. And I think the things that he has done with the academy teams and being on the bench in MLS for what, four, five years now, that bodes pretty well because, you know, we've, with Lucci, we talked about he'd never even been on an MLS bench and suddenly he's thrust into that with, you know, with Niko it was kind of. He'd done a little bit with the crew, but it was more us national team, not so much day to day involvement. So you've got someone that kind of has been in the trenches for a few years. I will say though, my favorite thing was when Peter was talking about giving opportunities to young players and he listed a bunch of names and he didn't list Nolan. And I feel this kick from behind me. It was Buzz and then he whispers, but what about Nolan? [00:45:49] Speaker B: I think he didn't mention him because he's at the U 20 team, you know, captaining that team. It's out of sight, out of mind. He'd just come out of practice. Hopefully. Hopefully never get. I mean, Nolan was in his team as when he was his great 13 team that he had and no one was in there. So I'm sure he has good feelings about Nolan, too, but isn't part of the. [00:46:09] Speaker C: And maybe this is out of sight, to use your phrase. Buzz out of sight, out of mind. My perception is, is that there's a significant difference in quality in the young players available to the manager today versus the young player available to Oscar and or Lucci because the club has sold all their best players off by and large. [00:46:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:35] Speaker C: Is that true? Am I right? Is that. Is that perception correct? [00:46:40] Speaker B: I think that there's a little bit of misperception there. It is definitely true that they've sold off a lot of great players. I mean, if Tanner would have been here the last couple of years, if they hadn't burned out Thomas Roberts, you know, they had. They sold off Pepe. They've sold off Chris Richards. They sold off Justin Shea. Like, there would be some guys that would be. Other than Paxton. Jesus, that core, like 24 to eight to 20 survey cereal traded away. Sylvania traded away. I mean, there would be other guys if they hadn't gotten rid of them. All right? And then you remember, we've talked about this before, the O four year, for whatever reason, and Lucci even said it was across the whole Texas was this way. It was a down year other than Antonio, and we weren't even sure about him until late. There were no field players in that class. And then the class behind is Nolan Norris and Tarik Scott. And then Tark blew his knee out and Nolan's changing positions. So, you know, there are. So there. There are other pros in that class that have been signed in north Texas that they just haven't progressed through yet because the pipeline has stalled. And then you go to the classes behind that. Like, ordinarily, like, we should be talking about the O six s that are coming through. We should. We should have already seen a guy that's a U 17 now. Like, no U 17 in the current group has been, like, moved up to north Texas, even let alone FC Dallas. And that's Pepe signed as a U 17 for North Texas and then FC Dallas within the first season. So, like, you know, yes, none of those guys are peppy, but at the same time, like, they could have had ice stone as an O six. Right? So, like, they've missed on a couple of guys. They've had a couple guys get hurt. They had a bad class and then they sold off a bunch. So there's this little. There's this little gap. Absolutely. I think, as Dan Hunt mentioned, Dan Hunt said that he's got decades worth of talent in the academy. I really think that's true. I think that we've, how many times have we said this that if you can produce one or two players a year for out of your academy, that is phenomenal. That's like a world class academy. And we have, last year we have Tarek and Nolan and this next year coming up there'll be one or two more guys, you know, so it's just a question of. It's a question of refilling this gap that was created by selling and by a couple of misses. You know, I think they'll get there. Or it may just be that, as I said, 990 zero was the greatest generation in the history of anyone's academy. You know, I don't think it is, but I think that, you know, it's very good. Yeah. [00:49:10] Speaker C: So I was going through the official senior roster and I was trying to think of, well, who, who are some of these kids we want to see in line? And I got to admit there's like at least one or two. I don't even know who the, like, who is number 34? Alejandro Uzura. [00:49:32] Speaker B: Uzura was the best midfielder after Matthew Corcoran left. He was the best midfielder in that class and he bossed that team. He was the best player on that team. Since he has signed a homegrown contract. He's gotten hurt a bunch. So he's barely played for North Texas. So he's a. He's a very, very skinny kid, very thin. He needs to toughen up body wise, put on some muscle because he just gets wrecked and gets. Keeps getting hurt. You know, I think he's a talented player. You know, he had a hybrid deal. He signed one of those deals that starts in North Texas and transitions. So you know, they have this now you can have unlimited homegrown. So I actually thought it was. He was one of the guys I thought was appropriate to be signed. He was the best player in his class out of the academy. [00:50:16] Speaker C: Okay, so, but back to my point. What are these? What? Who have these kids? Should we expect Lucene to play? And I, and I, my first question is, should we expect niece Sally to start showing up and getting senior time or is he just a bust? [00:50:36] Speaker D: He did name check him. [00:50:38] Speaker B: Yeah, he name checks Ollie. He did mention specifically, solely, he mentioned Tark Scott, who's the leading score for north Texas. [00:50:45] Speaker C: I heard him say that. [00:50:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I mentioned Pondecka. Do you. Thomas Pondeck is. [00:50:49] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:50:50] Speaker B: Former futsal national team player that they found an open tryout. He. He's one of north Texas is better players. You mentioned Anthony Ramirez. Anthony Ramirez is on a hybrid deal. So Anthony Ramirez is not actually technically a homegrown yet. So he can't. You'd have to, quote unquote, sign him up to a homegrown deal or loan him up to a homegrown deal in order to actually play him, even though he mentioned him. He's. He's on. He's on the north Texas part of a hybrid deal, which there are some other guys that fall in that category, too. So the, the one I think you should watch for that he did not mention is Diego Garcia. But, of course, Diego Garcia is. Is not capable of being a homegrown. He's the kid from El Paso locomotive who everyone thinks very highly of. So he's. He's north Texas, his best player, despite the fact that Chuck Scott's only scorer, Diego Garcia is their best player. So he might be one for the next window, perhaps, because you'd have to do an actual transfer to get him up from your north Texas team. But, you know, of the guys that are down there now, that's probably it. That are, like, ready. There's some guys that, over the next couple seasons, will be worth discussing when we get there, but right now, those are the ones that are, you know, on the cusp. And, of course, Isaiah Parker is a generation Adidas player that's down there. But he has Marco Farfan and Sam junk ahead of him at left back. So, you know, he'll actually finally get a real chance because Nico Steffens is gone. But he's got a tough road even at that. [00:52:12] Speaker C: So coming up next. So Dallas has St. Louis in town this weekend on Saturday night. What I'm trying to figure out the best way to ask the order of this question. I guess we'll just start with buzz. What do you anticipate or what do you expect to see out of a. Lucene led Dallas on Saturday? [00:52:33] Speaker B: Well, they talked a lot about energy multiple times. I think I already said this, that that was the buzzword of the day. And we joke that these press conferences have buzzwords. Like, the first one was, it was. It's a process. And then the second year from Niko, it was mentality. Well, this time it was energy. They all mentioned that word over and over and over again, which is weird because basically that's the idea of, like, we're going to bring in a cheerleader and rob everybody up and we're going to be good. It doesn't work that way, not at a pro level. So past one or two games, you get a balance. You get a coach bounce for sure. Everyone will show up and play hard. All the players like Lucien. I think he definitely falls under the player coach category where everybody likes him, everybody respects his background. One of the interesting things about this scenario is actually that I've not seen. I've never seen him be a head coach. Like we joked that he has been in the trenches on the first team a bunch as an assistant. So he's seen MLS, but unlike Lucci, we saw lucci be a head coach in the academy. We saw Oscar be a head coach in an academy and then with Colorado, you know, we, we've seen some of these other guys be head coaches. Loose scene when he did u twelve s and u never saw him because I don't go that far down watching games. So I've never seen the man head coach. When he was in the system back then he played a four three three because Oscar's first team played a four three three. So we have no idea tactically what he prefers. We have no idea what he's like as a head coach on the bench. We want to see him be an assistant over there. So we're kind of on a blank slate. It's going to be fun for us to sort of learn about him, about how he coaches and how his tactics are, you know, his answer about we want. He wants to play good, total football. Well, that sounds fantastic, but how does that actually demonstrate on the field, you know, so we're going to all learn. I mean, my big hope of course, is we're going to see a back four because this team in a back three to me is a disaster. You know, the last two years when the defense was much better back four. Right. This year the defense has been bleeding back three. You know, maybe back three would be better if you had two great sixes in front of you, but you don't. [00:54:28] Speaker C: You know, maybe you had two really good center backs. [00:54:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, well, that's the thing is like, I never felt they replaced jam when he left, let alone like had an extra back for the back three. As good as Sam Junk has been, and he's been fantastic, you know, based on what the expectations for he was coming in, he might have outplayed Abiaga in a lot of ways that neither one of those guys should be your starting center back in a, in a system, you know, they should be playing on the bench, but Sam should maybe be filling in other places. More like a Ryan Holland said play everywhere kind of guy, you know? [00:55:00] Speaker C: So, Dan, I wonder from your perspective what does this do in terms of the level of pressure on the players? Does this potentially give them some reason to kind of, like, relax or play better? Because now they're not worried about. I mean, I think. I mean, does anybody really have any expectations for this season at this point? And I think that's kind of what I'm trying to figure out. [00:55:26] Speaker D: I think the pressure's gonna maintain on the players just because they're professional athletes. That's. That's how they go about their business. You know, you look at players like Legit and Areola, and maybe there's a pressure to succeed and kind of make themselves worthy of their contracts or put themselves in the shop window for a trade or, you know, something along those lines. Certainly some of the guys that had that good relationship with Nico, who had maybe played in the national team previously, you know, they're, you know, their messages on social media show that they've kind of, you know, they're feeling some of the blame for. For that, and they're going to naturally give themselves a little bit of pressure there. But, you know, a fresh start certainly does open things up. Everything seemed very happy, very jovial at training. A lot of the guys, you know, came over to buzz nine, said hi. Yeah, you know, new beginnings can be an enjoyable thing to be a part of. [00:56:38] Speaker B: There definitely will be some people that have been frozen out. They're going to feel like they now have a shot that they never had. [00:56:45] Speaker C: Okay, so to kind of wrap it up, Dan, what do. What do you think will happen moving forward for the rest of the season? What, like a pre. I don't mean a prediction, per se, but do you think this, the team plays better at this point, or do you think it's pretty much a different version of the same thing? [00:57:08] Speaker D: I think it'd be more expansive. You know, if you're an interim coach, you've got to impress and impress can be played terribly boring football and, and grab a bunch of draws, or it can be, hey, I. I died on my, you know, I lived and died by the sword. Won a few four three, lost a few four three. But it was entertaining as hell, and. And we gave it a go. Um, yeah, Peter. Teddy's, uh, you know, he's committed to a more beautiful football. Um, I think that that's. That's what you're going to see is. Is something a bit more appealing, a bit more attack minded. They've obviously given him the job, and they've talked about tightening up the defense, but, you know, in answer to the one of the questions I asked Dan Hunt said, peter will be laser focused on increasing xg. So if that's, if that's the remit he's been given, primarily they've got to play something a little bit better than bunker ball. [00:58:13] Speaker C: Buzz, what do you think's going to happen? [00:58:16] Speaker B: Well, I hope we can take him at his word, as Dan says that he's going to try and play more attacking. I'll be happy if they just stop being, make the defensive choice every time, that they'll be more adventurous and be more willing to try things. Give a little more freedom to try and get forward. All that would make me very happy if we play a little few more kids, see some, see some things. Like, look, the last however long, things have been going really, really poorly, and we saw the same formation all the time, and we almost always saw the same people all the time, minus health. You know, it's like at some point, like, try some different things. Like, we kept waiting for Nico to try different stuff, and he was so married to that sheep and so married to his defensive first players that he never tried anything and shook it up. So just give us a shake up. I'll be happy with that, honestly. You know, just try and open it up and play a little bit. You don't have to score boatloads of goals. I mean, I don't mind teams that are somewhat defensive. I'm okay with that. But try to play soccer, you know, and Lucene says he wants to play soccer. Great, then give us that and we'll be pretty happy. You know, particularly with a short window of half of a season when we're trying to judge him, we're trying to judge as a team moving in the right direction. You probably want to go crazy because you're going to have the same players. You just got to get them playing in a way that is more, more balanced, right, not defensive first a two a game, you know, and just try and play some good soccer and see what happens, you know, put guys in positions to improve the level of play. Don't have six defenders in midfield, you know, try and open it up a little bit, you know. Know, that pause is good so I can take a few risks, you know, maybe on the outside with some guys getting forward, finally, you know, we'll see. You know, I wish, I wish we knew a little more about Lucene's tactics, but I understand why he didn't want to talk about it. You know, hopefully we'll get some good stuff. [01:00:07] Speaker D: I think one of the things you just said there was perfect. You, you know, you can be more diff, you can be defensive, focus on that, but also play well. Nobody ever said that Oscar Pereira's style was boring, but he was happy to sit back and soak up everything and get you on the counter all day long. It wasn't just sit back and then, well, we'll pass it around in the midfield, and then we'll pass it back, and then we'll cough up possession, and then we'll defend some more. [01:00:34] Speaker B: I mean, we're about to go into the hottest part of the year, so I don't mind, like, a team that doesn't want to own the ball the whole time because that'll really wear you out in the heat. I don't mind a team that'll let the other team have the ball for good stretches. We all know that in the modern game, possession isn't as geared towards success as it used to be. There's a whole lot of really good teams that don't over possess the other team, and here it burns you out if you do anyway. So, you know, that's not the measuring stick for quality soccer. The quiz measuring for quality soccer is, you know, chance creation and diminishing for them and taking advantage of moments when they happen and being adventurous to try to play. And that's what I hope for, and I have no idea if we're going to get it or not. [01:01:11] Speaker C: Do you think they make any significant move in the transfer window? [01:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah, unfortunately. [01:01:19] Speaker C: Huh? [01:01:20] Speaker B: I said, yeah, unfortunately. I think they do. I think for sure that they'll go after a center back and they'll definitely try and replace Paxton. [01:01:29] Speaker C: But isn't that what we wanted them to do? [01:01:31] Speaker B: It is and it isn't. I hope that they replace Paxton without, with the understanding that Paxton will still be here. Right. You can't, you can't just go, you spend a whole boatload of money and then you run into this problem of, now I've got a whole boatload of money in the same player again. And if you go get a great center back, that's fine. My only problem with that is it better be a left footed center back. That's the answer for, like, the next four years. Well, that plays back into the idea that what if Laseen's not the coach, le scenes the coach right this minute, but, like, are you're going to go out and get, like, they remember what that prep, that quote I played. Three or four guys give their input, and then we come up with a list and the coach says, I want that one. Then I go try and get him. Well, are you going to go try and get the guy, leseen, once? And then what if it's not the. [01:02:17] Speaker C: Coach, but they need a left footed center back, no matter who the coach is? [01:02:20] Speaker B: I think that's true. I think that's true. But there's different styles of center backs and different profiles, and there's certain qualities, and there's different kinds of where they're from and what kind of game they have. You know, all that's a factor. You know, what if you get Reto Ziegler, a very intelligent but slow, you know, a foot center back, and all of a sudden the next coach you hire wants to play a track meet style, vertical, fast as hell, flying up down the field? I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm just saying, like, because Lucina is the interim, it won't kill me if they want to wait for any big, huge signings until next winter. The problem, of course, is the best players are more impactful. Players are likely to be available this window, because this is when everybody's doing all their moves. So it will not surprise me to see them go get a center back and or a big midfielder, both, you. [01:03:05] Speaker C: Know, what do you think we get out of Jesus Ferreira moving forward? [01:03:11] Speaker B: I don't know. You know, Jesus, I don't know how feels about Peter. I mean, hopefully he feels some culpability about Nico, but he didn't exactly tweet out anything about Nico or whatever. So I'd like. I'd like to see us get Jesus playing forward out of Jesus rather than wing back. If you take a look at the comedic heat map, he had last game, for example, which was hysterically funny. You know, if we'll seeing can figure out a way to get him to quit trying to be a midfielder or a center back or a wing back, that would be awesome. I'd be happy to get him to get Jesus try and be a striker. And it may be that the way to do that is to play a two striker system of some kind, you know, so Jesus knows he's a forward rather than when you put him in the wing and then somebody goes, like, outside in, all of a sudden he's like, oh, I better cover back at center back, you know? I mean, so it's like, in general. [01:03:58] Speaker D: I think it'll be interesting to see how he reacts, like, mentality wise, because he's been, you know, he's been a little bit mopey. All the players have always had a really good rapport with. With Lucien. When I did something on Cosi a couple years ago, he talked so much about the rapport the guys have of Lucien, how they're always joking about the different, you know, different teams, different players, different styles and stuff. Peter's own playing career as much as their own. And, you know, that span he had under Lucci where he was kind of like the passing coach and guys like Nkosi kind of picked up that. That side of their game. You talk about FC Dallas not being a particularly good passing team out the back. He's a pretty good guy to, you know, to be leading the charge in that sense. [01:04:51] Speaker C: Question hypothetical, because you're unlikely to set, find a buyer in the international market for Jesus right now at a. At a dollar value that you probably would want for him or are interested in buying him because he makes so much money. Would you be willing to trade him within the league? [01:05:15] Speaker B: That would depend on what I got back in return, of course. I mean, I'm not anti that idea. You know, it would always come to any trade. It would always come down to the volume return. You know, if we ended up with another 2003 LA Galaxy trade, I'd be livid, you know, but if we. If you end up with a good value move, you might want to remind. [01:05:34] Speaker C: Everybody what that trade was. [01:05:36] Speaker B: Specifically. It was Paul Broom and Ryan Suarez. And I'm one of the person. I can't remember who it was for easy, Ezra Hendrickson and who retired, like a year later. And, like, somebody else that played, like, you know, five games. It was like, it's one of the worst trades. I don't have it in front of me, but it's considered the worst trade in club history. Pretty much unanimously by people that have paid attention long enough. [01:06:05] Speaker C: Right. [01:06:05] Speaker B: It's an abysmal trade, but they traded, like three starters for one starter, who then retired. So, you know, at the time. A trade, by the way, approved by our good friend Andy Swift. But, you know, he, at the time, the coach was the tech manager, basically a tech generator, basically. So, like Andy to his, you know, credit in a way. [01:06:26] Speaker C: I can't wait to give him crap next time I see him. [01:06:29] Speaker B: He gave Jefferies the chance to try and salvage that season. I want to do this trade. Okay. I'm going to back you up because that was a league owned team at the time. Remember, transitioning to hunt on, but hunts weren't operating despite the fact they made South Lake happen. They weren't making the day to day decisions yet. Andy was still was so that trade is abysmal. And maybe if you, if you get Dan in on something here, I'll look it up over while we're talking. But, you know, so that's trade trades. Trades are fine if the value is there. [01:07:00] Speaker C: I just wonder, I think about Jesus and his opportunity and where his head is at and the fact that he hasn't found his international, you know, his move abroad move. He's lost his slot on the national team. I do regularly as I watch him play, I do begin to wonder where his brain is at, at all at this point. And if there is this idea that maybe Dallas could get a really good deal out of some team that's really taken a shot at MLS cup and maybe has an injured striker or attacker and needs a replacement, that he would be a really nifty opportunity for somebody and if Dallas would be willing to take that opportunity up and let him go, you know, and one of those change of scenery kind of opportunities for everybody that everybody kind of maximizes out of. I don't know. That's what also makes me wonder if we, to Dan's point, what we get out of him with the change of coach and a less negative grindy kind of team, uh, if he can actually bring something to the table. So, yeah, we'll see. All right, so St. Louis on Saturday we start the new energetic area, uh, era of the rest of this particular season. I have no idea what happens from here on out, but it can't get any worse. I think that's the. [01:08:20] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, we'll go with that. [01:08:24] Speaker C: I mean, really. I mean, I guess it could get a little worse, but I don't know if it could get really much worse or make it or give us more reasons to be more apathetic about this particular season. At least now there's something to pay attention to, right? [01:08:40] Speaker D: Well, I mean, even, you know, regardless of the results being terrible, this, you know, you've got the apple announcers calling out that the team and coaching staff because of the style being that, that boring. Um, you know, this year I've missed a lot of the away games. Just, just had some things on. Case in point, past weekend, I was at a wedding and I was like, okay, I missed the two LA games. I'm definitely gonna go back and watch this game. I'm gonna, even if I have to stay up through the night and watch it, I will do that. And then I heard how terribly dull it was and I was like, I am not gonna do that. Why would I do that? Why would I subject myself to that. [01:09:22] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. I mean, after seeing them play in the two LA games in person and then going back and considering watching, as I said earlier, watching the Minnesota game, I saw some of the stats tweeted out and I was like, why in the. Yes, exactly the same reaction, Dan. Why would I subject myself to that? I just. That's. Especially when you hear stories about how they're passing the ball backwards in the 87th minute. Just weird stuff. [01:09:48] Speaker D: And I just did find it funny. There was something that was tweeted out that you put in a discord, one of the. One of the types of heat maps about, you know, ball movement, attacking position and that. And it looked an awful lot like a penis that was inserting itself into the FC Dallas goal, not the opposition end. [01:10:15] Speaker B: Speaking of which, you want to hear that galaxy trademark? [01:10:17] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. [01:10:18] Speaker B: Okay, so Paul Broom, who was your left back, left wing back starter? [01:10:22] Speaker C: I think we need to give Dan a Rorschach chest, by the way. I just. Okay. [01:10:26] Speaker B: Center back rookie of the year candidate, center back right back starter, and Antonio Martinez, who was one of the CIS leader on the team. Those three guys were traded for Ezra Hendrickson, who at the end of the season signed with Charleston Battery in the USL instead of staying with Dallas, and Gavin Glinton, who played ten games for the burn before they had to do an injury buyout and then sat out of the game till 2006 and then joined the Charleston battery. So they stocked up the Charleston battery by giving away three starters. [01:10:53] Speaker C: Yep, I remember that. True. [01:10:54] Speaker B: Yeah. That's the worst trading club history. [01:10:57] Speaker C: Oh, Andy swift. Well, the other thing is, John, I thought now, this was the move that I was a little surprised by. I know John Gall and Peter Lucene are buddies because what I didn't know is that they had kind of arrived or they worked together initially, but after, you know, and I confess I've watched none of North Texas this year, but I am aware that they are undefeated and he's having a tremendous season with them. Are you surprised they moved him away from that to come do this assistant gig? [01:11:31] Speaker B: Not because. No, because. Well, in hindsight, no, because, Peter, when they said, who do you want on your staff? The first person he named was John Gallon. He started with that. He said, give me that guy. And then we all know that the MLS assistant job is regarded more highly than a MLS next pro head coach job. That's the order. You know, Quill went from MLS next Pro to MLS assistant and now he's a USL championship head coach. You know, John Gall's making a bet. Same thing. MLS next pro coach. I'm moving up to an MLS bench. That's better. So in hindsight that's fine. And the other part of that coin is that Michelle has been ready to be the North Texas coach for a bit now. He just has not had the licenses. But we've watched the way he's coached up 40 into the best team in Dallas. That's not a pro team, you know. And the work he's done with the North Texas has been exemplary. And on us, on the other side note is the best academy coach has now moved up to assistant on the North Texas team, a job, by the way, that he had before two years ago. But he's been. His name is Alex Aldous and he's been working in the US U 17 team as an assistant. So he was in danger of getting poached. So they've managed to keep him in the academy, I think, by the club, by keep. By moving him up to the North Texas assistant. So those are all quality coaching decisions in and of themselves. And I'm fine with all that. You know, the problem with North Texas is going to be if Lucene really does take, you know, four, five, six of these home runs back up to the first team, it's going to be a lot harder for North Texas to win all these games. So, you know, Michelle has work cut out for him. But it's good moves in general. [01:13:05] Speaker C: Okay, well, interesting. And then we also. Just. Because it is that time of year, the morrow Diaz argentinian club. Not Morrow Diaz. Good lord. What is going on with me today? [01:13:17] Speaker B: Well, I brought him up earlier. So that's why you had him in the brain. [01:13:19] Speaker C: Yes, I'm sorry. The Allen Velasco argentinian club flirting is in full effect now. Although I don't know why anybody would want to flirt with Alan Velasco with nobody having any idea of what work, what version of Alan anybody's about to get. [01:13:35] Speaker B: No, that's my fault. That's my fault that happened. [01:13:38] Speaker C: Why. [01:13:39] Speaker D: Wait, you injured Alan Velasco? [01:13:40] Speaker B: No, it's my fault. That link to Boca happened today because I. When we went, Dan and I went out to practice, I shot a five second clip of Alan Velasco doing ball work with cones and flags. And I put it on the Internet and some argentine news sources were like, alan's back. And so. And then 3 hours later, here came Allen Vlasco, Hboca junior s. So this is my fault that that happened? That that happened. [01:14:05] Speaker C: Damn you, buzz. [01:14:06] Speaker B: How did he look? You know, it looks like a guy, I'll tell you. This is, I'm gonna tell this story in danger of them getting mad at me. But Dan and I were walking behind Alan Velasco. And if you've ever done any kind of extensive physical exertion without having been in shape, like for, it happens to me, for example, when I go skiing. And at the end of the day, your legs are so blown out that they kind of quiver and vibrate as you walk. You know what I'm talking about? That blown out. Like, oh, my legs are so shot that my muscles go, oh, and they. [01:14:37] Speaker C: Get like that every, I feel like that every day. [01:14:40] Speaker B: Yeah, probably for you when you play soccer against 20 year olds. So Dan and I are walking behind Allen Blasco, and we're watching him walk, and the right leg is fine, left leg goes down, the whole thing quivers. Right leg goes down, fine, left leg goes down, the whole thing quivers. So he looked like a guy that had gone skiing for 10 hours when he just was out there for like 20 minutes. It just, it shows that how far he is. Even though he's now running and doing some cutting and doing some ball work, that leg is, you know, months from being ready to take a hit, to be out there cutting at a professional level. [01:15:14] Speaker D: And the atrophy in that left leg as well, like his calf is, his right calf is so much bigger than his left. And when you go back to, you know, speaking to Devil, Mauro Diaz, that was his problem as a young player. He put, he did a hamstring one leg. You know, he, one leg was overdeveloped, the other one was underdeveloped because of the way he came back from the injury. And that led to all those upper leg injuries that you had for several years before coming to FC Dallas and that FC Dallas. [01:15:45] Speaker B: And I'm sure the, like, if any real trainer or the club would be like, oh, you guys are making a big deal about it. But this is exactly why the last two months of an injury, when he, when you see these clips of him, you go, oh, look how close he is. No, he needs more time. Let's stop trying to push that guy back early. When we watch him out there and you're like, he's barely standing up still as he's walking off the field. You know, it's, it's like, let's not get ahead of ourselves in terms of his recovery just because he was kicking a ball. [01:16:12] Speaker C: And has anybody seen Geovain? Jesus. [01:16:17] Speaker B: Well, the word around the campfire is that he's ahead of Alan. I've been told that he had a little scar tissue cleanup, which is very, very normal. I have not seen him out of training in a month and a half, but that doesn't mean that he wasn't. That just means, like, my, I've been gone a bunch lately, so, like, the timing of me being a training, the time of him being outside has not coincided. For all I know, he's inside busting out, you know, 300 pound squats or whatever. So, you know, we can't speak to any, with any specifics beyond that. They tell me he's ahead of where Allen is. I'm actually expecting him from the initial timeframe. I expect him to be back this month in training sometime. So he was not out there today, but, you know, maybe over the next couple of weeks he will be, so. [01:16:58] Speaker D: Oh, that's. That's. That's a great new line. Oh, you were going Longtown time. Sorry. I was busting out 300 pound squat. [01:17:05] Speaker B: Yeah, he might have been. You never know. He's inside doing something, you know. [01:17:10] Speaker C: Well, I would just tell everybody, since most of, you know, Buzz, you and I are day one guys, that this is pretty normal for this club. I think Estevez was the club's 9th manager officially, and we're about to get our 10th manager, and this is just how this thing goes, and just buckle up and enjoy the rest of the season for. For what it is. I do have a nomination for the famous list that I would like to find out, because on Sunday, I've really debated whether or not this entire season qualifies as an entry for the list, and I think that's TBD. But I do wonder that on Sunday on the FC Dallas Reddit, on the heels of the firing and the awful performance in Minnesota, somebody from the sales team posted, buy your 2025 season tickets now. Lock in your rate posting. And it just felt really now is read the room who? Yeah. Does that qualify for the list? [01:18:25] Speaker B: No, Dan thinks it does ours. Two out of three, then. Yeah, go ahead. [01:18:30] Speaker C: I don't know if it should list. [01:18:31] Speaker B: But it's definitely on the read the room list as your list. Peter, you're the final judge. [01:18:37] Speaker C: I don't know. I. It's, you know, the list is filled of all sorts of, you know, either just bad luck that befell the team or facepalmy kind of moments of self inflicted awfulness or hilarity. And that just felt really. Maybe that's a recency bias thing. Maybe if I let it to for a few weeks, it won't seem as bad. [01:18:56] Speaker B: I don't think it's so bad. [01:18:57] Speaker D: It's. It's on that sort of level as the $9.11 ticket deal. [01:19:04] Speaker C: Fair. That's on the list. [01:19:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:07] Speaker D: Then that deserves to be on the list. But that's also a, you know, a global event. Historically. That's not on the list. It should. Fuck. Am I better? [01:19:17] Speaker C: Is the 911 sales promotion. [01:19:18] Speaker B: I think it's on the list. Yeah, hold on. [01:19:20] Speaker C: I'm looking. I got to look. Where is the list? Oh, there it is. The curious history. If you don't know, if you're listening to pod, you don't know, you should go to Buzz's website, thirddegree.net. and over on the right hand column, click on the entry called the Curious History of FC Dallas Burn, aka the list. And this is a year by year collection of the most stunning list of unfortunate incidents, self inflicted wounds. And every year has at least two. Some have seven or eight. [01:19:56] Speaker B: Yeah. You know how people read that list? They go, this can't be real. You guys have to have made this up. And it's like, yes, no, that was real. [01:20:02] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. It's my. And it's. It's my own personal project to put up here. [01:20:08] Speaker B: Well, 2004, it has nothing. I'm sorry. 2024. [01:20:11] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, no, I don't have 2024, because we haven't. Yeah, I. There was something earlier this year we talked about putting on the list, but I hadn't decided to do that. What was the year with the 911 promotion? [01:20:24] Speaker B: It's 2021. I'm seeing it. 911 deal. Yeah, it's the last item on 2021. Yep. [01:20:30] Speaker C: Oh, there it is. Next. Yeah. Entry fans are horrified when they receive an email from the ticket sales team offering a deal for $9.11 tickets for the home game against San Jose played on September 11. [01:20:43] Speaker D: Oh, because it was the 20th anniversary. [01:20:48] Speaker B: By the way, as I mentioned before, for those of you looking for the. The buzzkirk leavestown impact, the next window, transfer window opens July 18, and I think I'm leaving on, like, July 14. So I got it, like, lined up for everybody. I'll be gone, like, right exactly when that happens. So I'm sure the moves will be flying crazy. [01:21:09] Speaker D: Have you ever thought of changing the time if you walk about? [01:21:13] Speaker B: Well, the. The timing of the walkabout has to do with my other career, my real job. It doesn't have to do with Essie Dallas. [01:21:19] Speaker D: Focus on the important things. [01:21:21] Speaker B: Well, when I. When I get to the point where the FC house is all this left of my career, then I will change it up and it'll be probably go somewhere in the winter, not the summer. [01:21:30] Speaker C: But, you know, it just dawned on me. I need to remember to always come back to the list if I'm in a really bad sad or sour mood and I just need a pick me up, because every time I go to this list, I kind of flip through and just pick one to read and I'm like, oh, shit, I totally forgot about that. That's awesome. This time it was last year's the storm and the flying letter o that hit the fan in the head. [01:21:57] Speaker B: Peter, you mentioned, you know, you and I being here since 1996, and you remember, of course, I was in Boston in 96 working as a revolution, as a red hat, but I was still following the burn. That was still my team. And my first introduction to them as a team was they came to Boston and played, and both Hugo Sanchez and Leono Alvarez played that day. And of course, they're very physical and they're very gamesmanship. They're getting into it or whatever. And somebody, probably lawless, cleated Hugo Sanchez on the inside of his thigh so badly that, like, there were. You could clearly see, like, six stud marks and these blood trails running down from the marks. And he and Leon Alvarez were at midfield and Hugo was pulling up his shorts and Alvarez is gesturing to the crowd to look. Look at the bleeding as it, like, right there at midfield in front of, like, the whole crowd, like, egging on the whole stadium about this blood trail. I mean, admittedly, it was nasty. I've never seen a cleaning like it. But, you know, like, that was my intro to the Dallas burn at the time, was those two guys kicking the snot out of the revolution, beto Nevada for his. [01:23:00] Speaker D: And lawless here, I might need to edit your flying o thing just to say in our own Dan Crook got hit by a trash can. [01:23:10] Speaker C: Oh, we did hit by an o. No, Dan fan. Colt Stevens. [01:23:17] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. [01:23:17] Speaker C: Got hit by the letter o. Dan got hit by a trash can. Yeah, yeah. We haven't updated. There was something else that happened earlier this season we were going to throw in as a nomination for the 24. [01:23:29] Speaker B: That'll come up. Somebody will remember, I'm sure. It's just if it's deserving or, remember. [01:23:33] Speaker D: You could probably just search for the list in. In the discord. [01:23:37] Speaker C: Yeah, that. Yeah, that. Or it may just be replacing a center back with a center back when you're down a goal and eight minutes left in the game. I may just mean my fate. Personal favorite one, but. All right, boys. Well, here we go. A whole new era filled with energy and promise. [01:23:58] Speaker B: Well, in addition to this podcast dropping tomorrow, Dan has a fantastic article that he's going to have out tomorrow that everyone should read about Martin paws. And I've decided I'm going to drop a new t shirt I've been working on because since Peter Lusignan has a high ex dog factor, it feels appropriate to drop this shirt that I'm gonna drop. It's nothing to do with dogs, but it's kind of gritty, so I hope everybody likes it. [01:24:18] Speaker C: Did I tell you guys I actually talked to Martin Paz after the LAFC game? I introduced myself to him. [01:24:25] Speaker B: I saw the one where you were talking to him during the game, and lucky you didn't get tackled by security. I saw that picture. [01:24:31] Speaker C: No, what are you talking about? [01:24:32] Speaker B: The one at LAFC when you were like, he sat on the bench and you're over there talking to him like 2ft from coach in the middle of the game. That one. [01:24:40] Speaker C: I think you're just making stuff up now. [01:24:42] Speaker B: That was definitely in the middle of the game. Definitely. Definitely in the middle of the game. [01:24:46] Speaker C: No, it was after the game. [01:24:47] Speaker B: Nope, I denied that. [01:24:49] Speaker C: Oh. What are you doing? [01:24:51] Speaker B: I've spoken. You be more in trouble. Pizza. [01:24:58] Speaker C: Yeah, right. Well, um, anyway, so he was very nice, by the way, and he was short than I thought he would be. [01:25:04] Speaker B: Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by Soccer 90 Dot. Celebrate Pride month with the FC Dallas Pride prematch jersey, available now in store or online and buy before the match this weekend. Supply is limited, and remember, if you can use code third degree at checkout, you get 20% off, both in store and online. In store tells me sent us on third. Soccer 90 dot. It's code third degree. Some exclusions may apply. This week's episode of Third to read the podcast is on. Also brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm for Wills trust, probate and business law. Call 469-515-2559 or visit lindstromlawfirm.com for a free consultation. [01:25:39] Speaker C: Boys, here we go. Let's see how the rest of this plays out. Hope everybody enjoys the ride, Dan. Thank you, sir. [01:25:46] Speaker D: Thank you. I don't know how I'm gonna sleep tonight with all this energy from this new, energetic era of energy. I'm gonna go have a Celsius followed by a Red Bull and a monster and a bang energy and whatever other crap out there that's probably gonna give you a heart attack at the end. [01:26:06] Speaker C: Of the day and a few ed pills. [01:26:09] Speaker D: Oh, sorry, I just heard a few e and I was like oh, it's that kind of party. All right. [01:26:15] Speaker C: Buzz, thank you man. Appreciate you. [01:26:18] Speaker B: Oh, you're welcome. And I'm actually quite looking forward to this. Certainly the next short window as we try and figure out what people have seen is all about. [01:26:25] Speaker C: Boy, it will be at least it'll be interesting. [01:26:28] Speaker B: That probably fun if nothing else. [01:26:29] Speaker C: Yes, at least for the next few weeks it'll be interesting. We'll Tbd on the rest of the season and thank you FC Dallas. Curious fan. Stick with it. Here we go. We'll talk to you next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:26:44] Speaker D: Energy not energy drinks. That's New York Red Balls. [01:26:57] Speaker C: Third degree the third degree nepot. Third degree the third degree never cast.