Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Ooh, ooh.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Third degree. The third degree nerd pocket.
Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess.
Third degree. The third degree napkins.
Third degree. I will be writing a very sternly worded letter to the UIL. Third degree nap I can.
[00:00:29] Speaker B: Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm. For wills, trust, probates and business law. Call 469-515-2559 that's 469-515-2559 or visit lindstrmlawfirm.com for a free consultation.
[00:00:43] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to episode 269. Nice of third degree, the podcast. Hi. It is me, Peter, and I am sad to report because he has yelled at his tv so much over those really bad three England performances. We do not have Dan Crook because he is without a voice.
So it just means it's the two originals. Your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder, Thirddegree.net, and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Kerik. Come in, Buzz.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: Hi, Peter here. I just assumed Dan was actually sick, not that he yelled himself horse watching England.
[00:01:26] Speaker A: Well, he just said he was all croaky and had no voice. I assumed it was because he was so mad at England for playing like that.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: That had not occurred to me.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Yeah, they are playing poorly, and his television's broken.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: Cause he threw something through the clips that you see. The guy at the party walks up in the Super bowl party and smashes his tv in front of like 100. Yeah.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Could you imagine being an english fan, having to put up with all that talent, playing like that? Good lord. It's bad enough when the United States plays like that. Could you imagine two layers deep of world class talent? You still play like crap.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Mike Rinshaw used to always say that soccer was a simple game. You know, if you have good players, just put them out there and let them play. You know they're going to be better most of the time, you know, you. You'll that country with as much talents as it has when it gets to the very end, of course you'll need to have a good quality tactical plan. But for most of the time, you can just have the best players. You know, just put them out there and let them do their thing. You know, don't get in the way as much as anything, you know, lots of coaches have said that before. I just got to stay out of the way. This guy's the best, you know? And while they don't have Messi on their team, they have a whole bunch of really, really good players. You know, you could easily look at their roster and think to yourself this make cases that they might have the best roster. So like just get out of the way, let them play.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: You know, it is the greatest soccer mystery I have ever known. Which is why can't Englund screw it together for a tournament? Yeah, well, you know what? They won the group. They're still in it. Let's see how it goes from here. Maybe they're, maybe they're playing possum.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Well, they're bracket shaping up to be the far easier half of the bracket too. If you looked at that like their half has got, you know, other than Italy, but then it's Switzerland, Slovakia, Romania, the Dutch, who are not playing very well, Austria and Turkey. Now some of those teams won their groups, but the other half has Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Belgium and Portugal. And they don't, they won't see those teams till the final, whichever one gets through. So they. They've gotten some good luck in their terms of the bracket, how it all worked out for them.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: I will. I am looking forward to Spain, Georgia, because people may hate me for saying this, but I. When I watch Georgia play, it feels like watching the old late nineties, early aughts Unes men's national team just with a lot more skill and talent.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: I've really enjoyed that. Some of the non traditional countries now have some players that are playing for very high level teams in professional soccer. So there. Those. Some of those non traditional countries are really good.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: And you see Austria winning their group or I think Romania winning their group. That's fun. You know, anytime you see a turnover in the expectations for me is enjoyable. So that, that's nice. That, that'll make some for fun. Knockout games.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Yes. Watching the euros has been fun. Watching the copas, like watching a really bad bar fight.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: A lot of it. I went to the peru. What was the open air? Was it Peru?
[00:04:20] Speaker A: It was Peru. And Chile.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: Chile. That game was one of the worst games I've watched. It was terrible in years. It was awful.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: And I said I watched academy games that are better, more entertaining soccer than that. It was brutally bad.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: But how about that grass field inside the Death Star? What? How crazy scene is that? It held up really well, but how about seeing sprinklers going off inside the desk? Isn't that weird? The whole scene is so weird.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Correct me if I'm wrong, Peter. It needs to come up a little and be a little bit wider. Right. Needs to be theoretically accommodate 75 yards.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: So it has. Yeah. What's yeah, so they'll. They'll add even more sand. So instead of ten inches of sand, they'll go like 15. And that'll allow them to go up and over the ground suites and floor those out. And then they'll have 75 yards. Actually, they'll be able to. I mean, they'll have so much width once they do that. Uh, they could put an 80 yard field out that wide field if they wanted to. But I suspect the final dimensions of the World cup field, this one currently is 70 by 110, which, by the way, most people don't know this. All of the fields in the Copa this year are all matching 70 by 110. They did that for a reason. And then for the World Cup, I suspect it'll end up being 75 by 115, but that's my guess.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, test of concept in terms of the grass holding and it being a playable surface, the one at ac and t has worked really well. And I believe, if I understand correctly, the other ones that haven't were the ones that were not laid far enough out in advance.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Well, not just that they weren't laid in advance, they are grass on top of turf, which is the least desirable way of doing it. So.
All right, well, there you go. What else do we want to talk about?
[00:06:01] Speaker B: Well, speaking of national teams.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So before we get into Dallas and the resettling back to earth of the Peter Lookson era and the visit to Chernobyl, we'll talk about that here in a little bit. I want to start off with this insane noise about Weston McKinney, because since we last talked, the Internet has come alive with this rumor. As everybody knows, Weston has been playing for Juventus. And Juventus had had an interest. Interest in selling him on. There was a pending deal to go to Villa. There had been just some discussions with Tottenham, but it's unclear.
The Villa deal, I think, has completely fallen through. Anything else in Europe is very much just noise in the wind. But what came forward that's got everybody freaked out is the idea is that FC Cincinnati is willing to pony up a whole bunch of cash in transfer fee to sign Westin and bring him to MLS. Not back to MLS, because Weston never played in MLS, but back to MLS.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Yeah. The first idea was some rumors that they were interested and then it was a question of when could they get him, and were they? And now there's even talks that, like, no, they're seriously trying to make a bid. And I'm going to let you talk about this, Peter, because the last thing that came out was that they were entering into talks with FC Dallas for his rights, which made us all go, what? What?
I know that you've been looking into this. What do you, what do you have on this?
[00:07:37] Speaker A: So before I get to that, let me also throw in that Nashville apparently has thrown their hat in the ring because they are supposed to be hiring BJ Callahan as their manager, and BJ wants to bring west into Nashville. So it doesn't make any difference, whatever other MLS club it is. When we read that somebody was, in theory, or at least by rumor, negotiating with Dallas for his rights, that threw up the biggest red flag since the inferno flag of greatness days, back of the burn. I mean, red flag. Red flag. Because it seems impossible to me that Weston McKinney would be coming to play in Major League Soccer and not end up wearing Dallas colors.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: And I asked the question.
I have to assume that Dan Hunt is going to make a matching or better offer to get him to come play in Dallas. If Weston wants to play in his hometown, that's a completely different subject. Right?
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Because Dallas has multiple midfield holes. He is a local hero. He should be playing in his hometown, assuming Weston wants to play in his hometown. Many pro athletes don't want to play in their hometown for a lot of reasons, and obviously that question is very much up for grabs because probably not. No, maybe. But I would think he'd have to. If he does end up playing for another MLS team, what is it? I mean, I don't know how I would feel. I know I'd be livid. I'd be absolutely out of my mind. Livid.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Yes, unquestionably. And I would imagine a large percentage of the fan base would be, particularly because there's one of the massive holes this team has is a cohesive midfield that can play with Ermindy, who's 34, and Paxton, who's always hurt. You know, if you could get a guy who's durable like McKinney is, and plays at a level that he plays at, you know, and he's your hometown hero and he came from your academy and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, he's absolutely perfect for so many things that are wrong with your team. So, like, for him to not come here, like they've talked, like, all of their strategy that they have as an organization stems from Weston McKinney. From the first miss they made on Weston McKinney, getting him out of the academy, they changed everything. All they do now is based on. Because they missed on that kid, you know? So for them, to then get a second bite at getting him and not choose to get him again for whatever reason would be just mind blowing in terms of, you know, fans sitting here watching like I don't understand at all, you know, when you're trying to tell me you have ambition to win a cup and then to not go for him, but, you know, we know how the hunts operate. I imagine that Weston's price is pretty high, so.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Oh, I'm sure the transfer fee is going to be huge. I'm sure the salary would be huge. Let me set aside the entire argument of whether or not Weston, for his own career, should be coming to play in Major League Soccer. That is a completely different debate. I'm not interested in having it now. I'm only having this discussion with buzz because it relates specifically to Dallas as a club and, and all that implies. The other part of this equation that we need to discuss is the fact that I reached out to the club and got a reply to the question of what exactly are Dallas's rights as they pertain to western McKinney. And the response I got back, which apparently comes directly from Andre Zenada, is that Dallas holds right of first refusal on him. Now if you go dig around in the byzantine page on MLS's website about roster rules, there is an individual category called right of first refusal alongside all other kinds of resources, other kinds of designations like discovery rights. Now some people have suggested that what Dallas has is a discovery right against him. And I'm going to tell you, I don't think that is what it is for two reasons. One, I would assume that if they held discovery rights, they would have called it that. I think they're calling it right. A few first refusal designation for a very specific reason. And that is as follows. If you read through the rules as I infer them, it clearly states that a player cannot be given a designated right design, can't be on somebody's discovery list if another club has first of right refusal. So first of right refusal or right of first refusal actually supersedes being on somebody's discovery list.
Yeah, and by, and I think I was calling a designated list, I meant discovery list.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:12:28] Speaker A: So, and you can have, I think, five people on your discovery list, but if you, if you have them as a first or right refusal and there's a whole list of rules as to how they, that qualifies and that. I'll get to that in a second, that means you don't have to put them on your discovery list. So I am interpreting the reason why Dallas is telling me that he had that their right is first of right refusal or right of first refusal on Weston is because they don't have him listed as a discovery player because they don't have to. Therefore saving one of their slots. Does that make sense?
[00:13:02] Speaker B: That makes all sense.
The, the question, and it actually isn't important. If, if FC Dallas says and MLs agrees and FC Cincinnati is talking to them or national's talking to them, that means everyone agrees the Dallas has right of first refusal. Why they do is a great mystery to me. I was not aware that an academy player automatically got that. You know, there, there are certainly rules about like what happens if a guy goes into the draft and, you know, you, you've not exercised your homegrown rights. Uh, and then like, cause there's a guy this last year that was drafted by real Salt Lake, that was a Dallas academy kid, that they had his homegrown rights on him and they just let him get drafted and he signed with real salt lake who drafted him. So it's like, you know, there, most of the time there's an expiration of these things.
Now listen, MLs rules are murky af, they're cloudy. Sometimes rules are the way they are just because they decide they could be. And it's very, it's entirely possible that when Wes McKinney missed, Dan and Clark said, you know what? We're getting that player back. I don't care what anybody says. If he comes back, we get him. And the rest of the owners were like, okay, sure. It's entirely possible that that's true.
[00:14:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: So we're just gonna have to take them with their word. I can't even begin to tell you what rule it is other than he played for their academy. That must be it.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: I can tell you because I just got an email back from the club asking for further explanation while we were sitting here recording. So you're getting this in real time because the question I asked was, wait a second. How does he qualify as right of first refusal player? Because the rule on the page says it has to be a player. That was, it has to be somebody who was once an MLS player.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Which Weston never was. Correct. So I am now being told, quote, right of first refusal also applies for homegrown players that were offered an MLS contract and rejected, ended up moving somewhere outside the league. Now, okay, that's interesting. Although Weston was western, Weston was never a homegrown player.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Yeah, well, unless that's more of a.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: General, like somebody coming out of their academy.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Yeah. They mean, they just mean an academy player that qualifies. So what they mean is that we all know that when Weston was in the academy, FC Dallas was at the time relatively content to let him go to college for a year like they did with Reggie Cannon. They had some level of dialogue with him. And if you, if you, if it's your league, you can claim that counts as negotiation. We're going to let you go to college for one year and then we're going to do this deal that, do the whatever. And then Schalke came in with a number that was one that MLS couldn't touch anyway. And then at that point FcDal said, oh, okay, here's the money now if you want to come now. So before, in the midst of all this back room, smoke filled stuff that's happening with Westin and contracts and going to Schalke, enough of an offer to satisfy this rule was clearly made by FC Dallas that they get his right of first refusal. So you know what? Fantastic for FC Dallas. That's great. You know, he's a free agent next summer. So if you need to wait a year and then he wants to come, awesome. You don't have to pay a transfer fee. You can get him because you have the rights. So that's, that's great for Dallas.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: Yes. So just to summarize, because that was a lot, and I probably confused people, Dallas does hold his rights in MLS. If another club wants or can come to an agreement with Weston to go play for them, they will then have to cut a deal with Dallas first to get his rights. And the reason why Dallas holds his rights is because of the right of first refusal rule which applies to Weston because he was a homegrown player within their academy system, offered an MLS contract and passed on it, you know, when he went to Schalke.
[00:16:44] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: And therefore is clearly all the definition you need as to how this, if in fact there's any truth to the idea that Weston's even considering playing an MLS next season, that is the guardrails in which all of this falls.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: So there you go. The way MLS works is possible. That rule exists for Weston. That was long enough ago that the hunts were probably mad they missed him.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Probably.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: They said, you know what we're making? And Clark leads. He's on the rules committee and he's a big power leader in MLS. So it's entirely possible this is the West McKinney rule.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: So let me, let me throw something else in here because somebody brought this up in my, to me either in your discord buzz or on Twitter. And this gets back to a question that I asked and brought up upon. What kind of person will they hire to end up who, what kind of person will they end up hiring to be the next manager of this club? Because they know the stadium is going to be under such levels of construction for the next three seasons. So would you go out and spend all of that money on Weston McKinney knowing that you're probably only going to be operating at half capacity during the entire time he's under contract with you?
[00:17:58] Speaker B: I mean, does that play into it? Maybe it does. Maybe it does. And that's the kind of financial decision that only somebody like the hunts can make because that's a multiple million dollar conversation.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:13] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's a. You know, maybe. Maybe if you're locking up west in the long term, maybe that helps you get through that low attendance time by having a greater ability to sell sponsorships or market your team or sell waitlist tickets. Maybe you feel like that's an investment that sets you up to pay off after the 2026 World Cup. I mean, there's. It's hard to think without sitting down with their own internal metrics and budgets and knowing, you know, how they're thinking about money and how they think about Weston. Maybe they feel he's declining in ability at 25, which would be. He should be hitting his peak, but some people think he's declining in talent. You know, I. It's. That's an impossible question to answer. I mean, I know how I would feel about it. I would say screw the money and get him because he's your guy. But, you know, I'm not Clark and Dunhunt. So you know what, what? They're going to want the other side of the coin. Peter would be like, if you're in a position where now two teams want him and he's a player of such huge stature and value, you own his MLS rights. That is a pretty penny. You better not trade that for 50k gam. If you give it up, it better be for something huge.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: It would have to be a record setting deal.
[00:19:21] Speaker B: I mean, a player of equal stature. You know, if it's FC Cincinnati. Oh, hey, we want western bikini. Great. Give us Miles Robinson. You know, I mean.
I mean, if you want lesson McKinney, you want. This is like. Yeah, I mean, messy, but it's like he's asmatic as a us player, short of Pulisic or Ray ran Giorna. Maybe. You know, I put him ahead of way in terms of hype, wouldn't you?
[00:19:46] Speaker A: Maybe I. Yeah, I guess it all depends on what position your particular team needs. But the value of Weston is because he's a local kid. He's from little elm. He grew up here. He was part of the academy. He, uh. Whether, you know, no matter how you feel about his choice to bypass Dallas and go straight to Germany, um, it. It's. It's just, I mean, seeing him play in the game at. At and t stadium the other day was really, really cool. So having him play for the burn would be unbelievably awesome, and it would be a watershed moment for this. It would mean so. And it would also really reset the bar for the hunt brothers.
[00:20:28] Speaker B: Oh, man. Would it?
[00:20:29] Speaker A: It would completely redefine how we see those two guys, especially considering all the other ancillary things we've talked about, the stadium changes, et cetera, et cetera. Now, before we get into too many other things, because other people have raised the point, well, how in the world would Dallas ever sign him? They have three DP's already, and I'm just going to. That's a very simple problem. It is. It goes back to Dan and Clark being ambitious enough and deciding to put on their inner Miami hat and being creative because it comes in one of essentially three forms. Right, Buzz? It comes in the form of buying out Velasco.
What is the buy or selling Jesus Ferreira. And then the third one also involves, oh, selling Velasco. Now, because Velasco is a U 22, the value against the. How you can replace him is limited. But that would mean they'd have to go and trade some other players, too.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Yeah, it gets complicated. One of the things that would benefit FC Dallas to do this mechanism would be you do, of course, have your one once a season buyout, which you could use on anyone on your roster. But there's also a discussion about some rules changes are coming this summer, one of which was going to be a second buyout. So a fourth DP or a fourth DP. We haven't seen these rules yet come in. It's just been reported by everybody that some were coming. Right. You know, but again, you can trade guys inside the league. You can sell guys you can like if you really want Weston, those are ways to make it happen. You know, you can make. That's. The details of it aren't what matter. What matters is the fact that a next summer he might be free. If you're willing to wait b, which is more hunt like b, he would have greater value here off the field than he might other places. So there's an added value to that. You know, it all comes down to how aggressive they want to be and how important they think he is. And I have to say, like, I, for the most part, I try very hard to leave emotion out of these things when I'm talking about players or analytics, but if Weston McKinney lines up for somebody else, I'm going to have a tear in my eye. It's like this. It would be so hard to swallow.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Oh, I'd be. I'd be buzz.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: I'm just gonna say it. I'll be furious.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I would be furious. And then I'm gonna be sad. It's gonna be the twelve stages of the Nile for me if he doesn't come, if he comes back and doesn't come here. But you know that in the end, we're gonna. If there's, there is, of course, a bigger discussion about whether he really would come, want to come back here, and that's a totally different discussion. We're just talking about what would happen if he decides he does.
[00:23:02] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: You know, and that's, you know, the offer to get. To get. To get to pry his rights out of my hands, the offer would just have to be obscene to get it, you know.
[00:23:12] Speaker A: Well, the problem is this is all still single entity and MLS. And if Weston wants to come play an MLS and Dallas and. And either a, he doesn't want to play in his hometown, or b, there are better offers on the table from other teams, which is the reason why this entire structure is in the, is here in the first place, is to keep MLS clubs from competing against each other financially for things like this. This is why this entire structure is in place to begin with. That's true.
If he ends up playing for somebody else in the league, the explanation we get from Dan and Clark Hunt as to why that transpired better be lengthy and satisfactory of the most transparent order. Otherwise, I will, I will be writing a very sternly worded letter to the uilt.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: And telling all Byrne fans to, to cease and desist, because that would be, that would be treacherous of the highest treachery of the highest order.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: You are right. Single entity. If he agrees to a deal with somebody else, well, then be. What do I always say about offseason moves? Be ruthless. Be. Be bastards. Fight tooth and nail to get as much as you possibly can for that asset that you have, that somebody else needs to get this done. Don't do it for 50k gam right.
Bleed them. Fight. Make the league force this thing. Make them. Make you do a Freddie Ado deal to get this done in your favor this time. In your favor. Yeah. Not the other way.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: Yeah. This has to be Herschel Walker to the Vikings.
[00:24:50] Speaker B: Kind of. Yeah.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Yeah, man.
Again, I. We're not talking about whether or not he should be coming to the league. I would like to think.
Right. Well, I just specifically, if in fact that's the path or the. Or the end result, just, you know, I don't know, man, that this whole thing is just this time.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: They've written a lot of it. Just all the same, man, that's a throwback they didn't last time. That's what. That's who they didn't get because of Freddie. I do, Marshall.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: I don't. I can't even begin to imagine what the entry into the list would be if fact Weston ends up playing for. It would be a separate Cincinnati or.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: Nashville or it would say 2025. And then there would be a whole new heading of western McKinney. Go somewhere else. That would be its own section.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: I mean, I can't imagine why Weston would want to go play in Cincinnati.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Or he comes home a lot. He comes here a lot.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Yeah, or Nashville. I mean, I know that maybe he. Maybe, I don't know the newness of those stadiums.
[00:25:57] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Cincinnati is really good, I'll give him that. But, you know, maybe you really likes Callahan. I suppose that could be it. You know, ordinarily you might say, oh, it's not, you know, it's not one of the LA teams or son of New York team. You know, Dallas should be able to compete with FCC.
You would hope.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: But how about this? How about this thought Weston goes, yeah, I'm interested, but I don't even know who your manager is. Yeah, and I don't want to come play for. I mean, Peter might be a nice guy, but I don't know if he's going to be a good manager.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: Well, since the hunts aren't going to pay attorney fee for him there, this is, this will be next summer for them if they're going to do it.
[00:26:32] Speaker A: So look, if they don't, if they don't get him this summer and he's available, they're never getting him. Because. Because Weston will end up signing a new deal and going somewhere else. Juventus is going to sell him to somebody, I assume.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Well, sure, eventually. But if he's out of contracts, he's out of contract. I mean, probably. Listen, that, that comes back to the idea of like, would he really come here? Well, he's going to have MLS. If he gets to be a free agent. Someone in Europe is going to want him.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:56] Speaker B: The odds of him actually coming to MLS are, what, like five or 10%? We're just speaking about hypothetical world in which he wants to come back.
[00:27:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
I'll. Let me put it this way. If Weston. If. If the hunts pony up the dough and make it happen and put Weston on this roster, I may go back and I may rebuy my season tickets. Oh, wow. That's how big of a deal that is. The trigger effect. You know? I'll put my money where my mouth is.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: I'm gonna clip that and send it to Dan hunt.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
Like he's accepting messages from us these days.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Yeah, he never has.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: All right, so anything else about the Westin McKinney thing that we haven't gotten into?
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Just a dream of?
[00:27:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Could you imagine him? Oh, I don't care if it comes at the cost of Velasco. I'm not even sure I care if it comes at the cost of Jesus Ferreira.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: What if it cost you Paxton?
[00:27:53] Speaker A: Well, I mean, here's the thing. I love Paxton greatly, but I don't know if I'm just being to your. To your use, your adage, being brutal.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:04] Speaker A: You know, Paxton may end up being a casualty out of this.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: We don't know. The reality is, we don't. I don't even know if Paxton's had his surgery yet.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: He must have by now, surely.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: I was.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: What am I guessing?
[00:28:20] Speaker A: Wait, no, I think we did hear he had it, didn't we? Didn't. Am I forgetting that we got a press release saying he had it?
[00:28:26] Speaker B: I don't remember, Peter, I'll be honest.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: Yeah. But we do know that what he had isn't just like a clean out. He had something that they're all just kind of keeping an eye on, and nobody really knows for sure what the end results going.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. It's. It's. It's a. It was a whole season out, and then it's just. We're not even 100% sure.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: It's just they're there. They feel really positive about it and hopeful about it. But we'll see, you know? But, you know, within the next two seasons, you could have packs of money. You could have legit money. You could have Areola money.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: You still have money, spot.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: You might if you sell Jesus, that's a big chunk of money. You could get Wesson into that slot if you sold off Alan, that should be a big check of money. You could put it into that slot. You probably can't sell Musa. You just got him. That might be too quick.
[00:29:06] Speaker A: But the point being is if Weston wants to come play in major league soccer, Dan and Clark Hunt have to make that happen and let him for him to come play in Dallas colors.
[00:29:13] Speaker B: Please make it happen. Please make it happen. All right, on with the show.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: We've prattled on about it long enough.
[00:29:21] Speaker B: I know it's fandom.
[00:29:23] Speaker A: It is. Okay, so since we last talked, Dallas went back to Seattle, as I called it earlier, Chernobyl. Because anytime something possibly could go wrong in Seattle, it absolutely does. And this may be the cherry on top of things going wrong, which is going up. Wow. In Seattle, with your brand new manager missing your best player and holding Seattle in a really awful soccer match buzz, it was not a good game overall for either team, really, to a two o lead. And in the 78th minute. Yeah, 78th minute, the meltdown began. And not only did you lose the lead, you lost the game in extra added time, three to two. And Petter looks and has his first L.
Yeah.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: For 70 minutes, I thought, boy, this guy's the greatest coach of all time. He's gone to Seattle with a subpar roster, and he's done some, you know, really amazing things in terms of, like how you play road soccer. Noted FC Dallas disliker Heath Pierce was raving about how Dallas is playing to manage a road game. You weather the early storm in both halves. You play to mitigate them. They're having more volumes of shots and possession than Dallas does, but that's always the case. Certainly, it's always the case for most everybody on the road, but all those shots are coming from distance. They're all far out. They're all, as the kids like to say, low XG or whatever. You know, you're managing the game perfectly when your limited chances are coming there. You have a pretty high rate of on goal accuracy, which is always a hallmark of the teams playing well. The rapid transition game has been augmented with, like, a verticalness that it was not existing before. Like, everything is going perfectly. Guys are getting one touch and scoring. You know, your draft pick comes in off the bench and he's playing great. Everything's going perfectly. And then they subbed in Dante Sealy, and it all died.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: Well, okay, I agree. Dante is the primary culprit in all of this, but there are ten other guys out on the field, Buzz. I mean, that's three goals you can't pin all three goals exclusively on Dante.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: Not exclusively, no. Not exclusively, no. But you know, the greater, the greater theme is that when you are leading a game against a team that's out possessing you and getting a higher volume of shots than you, and it's making you sit deeper and deeper and deeper, at some point you need to be able to relieve that pressure, you need to be able to allow your defense to catch a breath. You'd be able to reset the game, make. Make them drop way back and cycle out. There are lots of ways to do that. Donde Seeley does none of the things that do that. And they took, they put him in and took out a player that does all the things that you need to do that. Now, seeking sebling is not a game breaking player, but he is better at every cat capable category. You need than Dante Seeley to do that, right? And that's pretty much the only change they made. Fairrington for Jesus Ferrar was an even change. Right? The late game sub of taking off Delgado and putting on Omar Gonzalez, it shifted you also. This is also part of the culprit. It shifted you to a three four three, but it took off a player who's better at possession from one that is not as good a possession. And when you play a three four three, it pushes your outside backs up into midfield again. Players that aren't as good as possession and able to turn away and shield and break the pressure and relieve the pressure. So the two decisions that Luxain made in between the 70th minute and the 80th minute, those two decisions that bring on Seeley and then to bring on Omar and change formations, contributed directly to Seattle having their way with the game at that point. Now, yes, other decisions happen when people get tired, they make poor decisions. So this also is a symptom of not having enough roster, not having enough on the bench, that you're capable of bringing in the right kind of player, or enough enough players, like they only use three of five subs in a situation where people are getting tired, I hate five subs. Part of why, reason why I hate it is games like this. Because when teams get tired, when the less talented team got tired, the better team, you know, took advantage of it, right? So these are all symptoms of, you know, bad roster, not being there and able to help you out. The tactical decision that led to less possession and less of a ability to break the pressure, bringing on a player, that's the wrong kind of player that you did bring on, like all that contributed to this loss, you could even argue, of course, that lack of time with this coach, it is just the third game. Some of the things he want might not be in place yet. You might be playing half of a system in terms of understanding and knowledge and how to get out. And again, we've also seen this team all year long make poor decisions in pressure moments, particularly when you don't have your arm. Indy, your smartest player who could be out there directing traffic, telling you where to go, and his replacement is Liam Frazier, who's not anywhere near as capable, smart a player in terms of this kind of thing. So many mitigating factors led to the downfall. I just think the impetus was the Dante Sili Saab, which was the first sign of, like, this is going the wrong way fast.
[00:34:30] Speaker A: And what do you think it says about Luxon that he decided to put Seely on the field? Because I don't feel I. My feeling is we all look at this roster and go, yeah, that's the last guy I'm putting out there in this situation.
[00:34:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. My assumption is that the idea is that, see, Lee with his pace, because he's a direct, you know, player, is that the idea is that he will then get behind and make them sit deeper to deal with his speed, that he. That he can be a guy, that you can play out of him and he can get it. He can beat somebody to it and take it down to the corner, or he can take. Make them at least not be able to press this high line so much. That's my working assumption, and I haven't got a chance to ask about it yet, so. But the problem is, Cecilia doesn't do those two things. The only thing Dante does is stand around midfield and wait for somebody to play a ball out to him so that he can then turn and run at a defender. That's it. That's his one thing he does. If it. If the ball's not at his feet, he doesn't run 100%, either trying to get behind or trying to get back and defend. So, you know, it does make me wonder if maybe coach Nico Stephens is, you know, reliance on Celia over and over and over again. The other part of the season was perhaps at luxe insistence. Maybe. Maybe Peter's the one that thinks this kid's really good and had been pushing for him to get all the playing time they had at the beginning of the season, because, you know, the Nico on those way out the door mentioned that at the beginning of the year, he didn't have any wingbacks, he didn't have any outside backs, you know, because Marco Farfian was hurt. I'm like, what is Sam Joker? Is that guy. Nothing. Certainly there are. If you wanted a defensive outside back, there are other guys that could have done that other than Dante Seeley. I mean, he, Mutamasis played on the opposite side a fair amount. He played left wing in college. So it's like, you know, I just, I've never understood why they were him absolutely fascinated with Dante Sealy and his ability because he hasn't. I stood back. I understand the fascination with his ability because everyone can see the raw ability, but he doesn't deliver it on the field in games. And so why after a couple of games they haven't given up on that idea and they continue to go to him. Maybe it was been Peter all the time that was pushing for that.
[00:36:44] Speaker A: You mentioned that Heath Pierce was raving about the team's play as a road team, et cetera, et cetera. I found it frustrating. I didn't think the team was playing very well. I get the scenario and the game state and everything, but even Steve Davis and his substack this week wrote that when he was watching the game, he was starting to get a little concerned because he was beginning to see signs of the old, of the what this team has been all season.
And I felt the same way, too. And a lot of that probably continues to include the fact that Lara Mendy is not out on the field, Buzz. But, you know, two wins. Look, there's no shame in losing at Seattle. I think it's the manner in which this one go went down really sucks because it is Seattle, and Seattle is a team that is there to be had right now. I mean, they're just not the same team now. Certainly by the time the second half of the season happens, they'll rocket back up to top five or six in the, in the west.
But I just. My point is, is that no matter how this game ended up, I don't think the team was playing very well to that point. And I was, and I think that looms large as we watch this thing play out over the rest of the season.
[00:37:59] Speaker B: Oh, that's absolutely true. And I think, you know, the things that I was liking, I think, and he, Pierce was talking about directly was had to do with game management of like, how you play as an underdog on the road, you know, and like we talked about earlier, making Seattle take shots from distance, you know, using your strong goalkeeper to, you know, handle those that are relatively handleable, you know, keeping their chances to not high end. When you got chances, you went forward quickly and got them while they were still recovering. You got your limited chances on target. You finished well. You played little tight combos up front. You're like, you know, all that stuff was. Was. Was like a. Was like a written book of how you can beat a team that's better than you on the road. You know, it's. They did not play them. Let's be absolutely clear that Se Dallas, and no part of the game did they outplay Seattle. That's not the same thing. You know, you can win a game and be outplayed the whole way. It has to do with how you manage the game and how do you take your opportunities when they come. At the end of the day, Seattle has almost 60% possession, and Dallas has right around 40, just over 40% they own. Dallas only has eight shots on goal, but again, five of them are on target. Like, that's Dallas Hallmark. Right? Whereas Seattle has 26 shots and only nine of them are on target. They're just blasting from everywhere. None of them really have a very dangerous chance to succeed now, because they're such a high volume. They had more chances than Dallas did. But that's what we. That's what he was talking about, is that efficiency, and we've been talking about that honestly with this team for three years now. That efficiency of shots on target, the finish efficiency of their finishing, particularly Jesus Ferreira. This team is still the team Nico Estevez coached. It's still the team that has Nico. Steve's roster. Lucien has given them a little more freedom, but their roster is still one worse than almost everybody else they're playing, and they still can't play soccer with everybody else they're playing. So, you know, it's going to be. This is why I like. And even when Lucina won two straight, you and I on this podcast, and danielle, when last week, we all were like, look, don't go crazy. It's a long season. It's not going to last. This, you know, this team is not good enough.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: It's still a bunch of dudes.
[00:39:59] Speaker B: It's still a bunch of dudes, relatively speaking. You know, the special players are still mostly hurt, and maybe we're looking at two more guys being hurt.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to mention, because, you know, the thing that reared its ugly head was Jesus coming off early with some sort of. I'm assuming it. Have we heard anything specific as to what his injury is or how long he's out for?
[00:40:20] Speaker B: No, and we won't until, you know, the official roster comes out and they, and they put out the official, what's the word? Injury report. Because, a, they don't want to let everybody else know, b, this team already was a team currently that doesn't like to give out a lot of medical information based on loose scenes. Luke saying his behavior already, it seems very likely that he's even more tight lipped about that kind of stuff than everybody else is. So we're just going to be stuck waiting until we get the official entry list. But the way Jesus came off. Excuse me, came off, makes me very nervous that he's going to be, you know, in danger of missing this one. Musa looked like he was a little banged up, too, as he went off. You know, it's just we're going to have to wait and see on this one. We know, er, many will come back, but even if, even if, you know, we could, we could get out to training and be like, watching and be like, hey, coach, what's going on? This is one where I think they would play it pretty cut tight to the vest. Coach Nico used to always say, remember, how many times did he say, oh, it's not a big deal, and then like four weeks later be like, no, he's not. Three months, you know, and I was like, so we got to where we were no longer believing, like, what he was saying. I think. I kind of think that no matter what, we're going to be in the same boat with this one. Jesus is too important and moose is too important. Like, if you say to the fans, those guys are out for five months, you know, then everyone's going to like, it's going to hurt your ticket sales, it's going to hurt your attendance, it's going to hurt your ratings. It's like, other teams are going to be game planning. You have to make it ambiguous, at least to some extent, you know, and hope that maybe they'll be back in a couple of weeks or maybe they'll be back this weekend, you know, we'll find out.
Just the way the Jesus one happened made me really nervous. They're like, uh oh. That looked, that wasn't like, oh, I'm kind of limping. That was like mid running crap. Pull up. Touch. Oh, my gosh, my leg just blew. You know what I mean? So.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: And then on your discord the other day, several of your members were commenting that they went to the season ticket holder practice attendance Thingamajig and they were all reporting that multiple players weren't attending that or weren't practicing. So you know, I think Tafari was in that list. Jesus was in that list. Somebody else was in that list.
[00:42:37] Speaker B: Moosa, I think.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: Moosa. Yeah. So, yeah, I guess to be now. Cause remember, Dallas has Cincinnati in town Saturday. And then the July 4 game, Portland is in town. So two games between now and July 4.
[00:42:51] Speaker B: Well, in and of itself, that's not a total buzzkill because of the fact that, like you mentioned, there are three games next week. Also long fight to Seattle, also turf. All of this is why road is really tough in MLS, you know. So if you have a guy that has a knock, an extra day of rest doesn't hurt, you know, so guys that have played a lot of minutes, a little extra time doesn't hurt, you know, those. So, like, just missing, you know, a Tuesday or a Monday. I'm not. I'm not going to assume that means all that much particular for guys like, for Musa who, like, could play without any training at all, really, if you wanted to, you know, you know, pending them actually being healthy. So I'm afraid in this case, we're just gonna be left with a lot of question marks, even. Even with. I'm not calling them missing a day or two, a training definitive that people have said they witnessed. So I'm not. I won't panic about those two. Musa didn't look that bad at all. He just limited a little bit. Ferrer is the one that I'm a little more worried about, but I honestly think he's been playing with this problem for like a year and a half now. You know that they didn't do anything about it last winter in terms of surgery. They try to get it through holistically through it, and I think it's still there.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: Well, and I think it begats his other issues. I think the hamstring issue is probably a byproduct of his abdominal wall issue.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean. It's all connected, you know, hip bones connected to the leg bone and all that stuff. Like, most of the time you get a hamstring issue. It's either from, you know, overwork, again, possible asus because he plays so much, or b, you have some other problems making you move slightly different than you normally move or put a weight load differently or a muscle load differently, and that's how you get these problems.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: Hmm. Well, I guess we'll see. So, Cincinnati, Saturday night, 730, and then also 730 for Thursday night, then on the road, Sunday, July the 7th in Kansas City. And I suppose they'll just stick around for the open cup game the following Wednesday.
[00:44:45] Speaker B: I want to talk about the tactics a little bit, though, because we've seen use, like, four different formations now, and I think, um, the one I really, really liked was the 4141 with the Armini in that deep role.
I loved the way that worked. You know, he's the key to making that happen. You can't do that with anybody else. We saw in Seattle that coach Peter went with the double pivot to try and solve that missing player. But if he's back out there, I think that really lends itself to maximizing Dallas's talent, because, uh, Yarmind can just sit in there and dawn doesn't have to run quite as much, and he can distribute from that position by him sitting on top of the center backs. They feel a little more comfortable about his hips covering. And then you have in front of him, you have this line of four guys, and they're all basically the same kind of player. They're all the players that Dallas has a bunch of, too, which is these false wings slash tennis free eight kind of guys. You can go from Areola to Bernie if he's a little wider, to Jesus to Velasquez, obviously hurt, but he's key on that kind of thing. Delgado is one of those guys, and as Sully, who's not even with his team, is one of those kind of guys. They just have, like, ten guys, some more fit and viable at the first team level than others. But it allows you to have that line of four guys between Musa and Yara Mindy, and they can take turns crashing gaps and overlapping and overloading and passing into those holes. And all of a sudden, you have four playmakers, basically, in midfield ahead of a fifth playmaker, all of whom can play possession, all of whom can pass, all of whom can break lines, and all of them can free up Peter Musa, as we've discovered. Peter. Then when you get him on a little bit of a break or a little bit split of a gap, he looks really good that we've seen the last few games with him and that. So I love that formation, and I really hope with Yarmindy coming back, you know, if. If Musa's out, that's Farrington's the same player, stylistically, you put him right in there. That's no problem. In big picture, he's $10 million difference. But, you know, role wise is the same player. If Jesus is missing, if you play that same formation, you still have five or six guys that can slot into any of those spots. Again, not as good as Jesus, but can fill those same kinds of roles, even if it means moving Areola back up a line and not having it right back. You know, even Sam Junko could play one of those positions. I wouldn't put Liam Frazier in there, but I would put legit in there for sure in that capacity. So, like, Dallas has got a bunch of dudes that fit that profile. And so for me, that formation that he came up with, I think it was in the second game that he did that. I thought it was just so perfect for what he has. And this comes back to the idea, Peter, that we've been talking all along is like Nico Estevez was like, I'm playing 343. I don't care. And then he forced the roster he had into that shape and it was awful. And then that particular. Now, for me, this 4141 is a perfect example of a guy that said, what do I have and how do I maximize it? And that's what I want to see again. Certainly when you have your arm endy, I want to see that formation again. I think it would be fantastic.
[00:47:51] Speaker A: Well, looks and is very much on the clock to prove himself.
I don't know what the state of the Hunts manager hunt is, is at this point. I mean, I'm assuming at this, at this point, what they're doing is just kind of taking an assessment of Peter's performance as the manager and accepting resumes. I. Are they openly talking to anybody? I don't know. I mean, they haven't really said anything other than the press conference, and I doubt they will. So.
[00:48:22] Speaker B: Well, fielding resumes, absolutely. Evaluating Peter, absolutely. You know, because they're giving him so much time to finish the season effectively. It's his job to win. So if he wins it, if he does well enough, there might come a point where they just go, you know what? He's our guy, let's hire him. You know, or likely they'll just wait to the end of the season. So they have, they have a whole window coming up that they're going to try and get through with Pulik Sanders, their manager, you know, so it won't be before that, certainly, and I don't think it'll be for the end of the season anyway. Most of your candidates for this job, despite what they're going to say, the actual real candidates are going to be in other jobs till the end of the season and it's actually easier to get guys and you'll get a better talent pool applying. I think if you wait because there will be some guys that are like, you know, I'm fairly content. I'll just write out this season and then, and then I'll throw my hat in the ring or whatever. So I don't, I don't think you'll, you might see some interviews between now and the end of the season for nothing else, just to measure their current interim coach against those interviews because they'll be interviewing Peter almost every day, in a sense. So they'll want to, they'll want to talk to other people and sort of see how that feels relative to each other. And when the season ends, either they'll feel so good about Peter that they're going to hire him or they'll have, I think, at that point settled on who they might want and be ready to do a move, relatively speaking, towards the end of the season. And probably it's just going to come down to, because you know how they work the playoffs. If Luxe makes the playoffs, he'll probably get the job. If he doesn't, then it'll be our Corolla.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: Well, you know who's available?
[00:50:00] Speaker B: Lucy Lucci. It won't be Lucci.
I, 100%, and I mean this, I would call Luci today if I own this team and say, please come back and run the academy. And I would make him academy director in a heartbeat. Because Lucci, Lucci at his heart is a teacher. He was a teacher first. He taught school and then he became a coach. He is great with young people. He's great with developing. You know, he's great at having lots of different influences in his, with his academy coaches. I would hire him back in a hot second if he wanted to be academy director. I would even, even if I hadn't been planning on making a change, I would make a change just to bring him back because I think he's ideal for that job.
[00:50:38] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, I was thinking about this the other day, and I know we've talked about it in the time the hunts have owned this club, they've never hired with the exception of Oscar. Anybody with MLS head coaching experience.
They just, you know, everybody has been new to the role and we've seen how that plays out. And I think, to your point, Buzz, they're big. They're just sitting every night. Dan and Clark, when they do their bedtime prayers, you know, include the idea, please give us a reason to hire Peter as the, you know, get. Let him just make sniff the playoffs because then we have the when. Then we can just kind of fall back on our own or old habits and just hiring a guy that's not very well experienced.
[00:51:25] Speaker B: I mean, I think Zenada has a say in this as well. And I'm quite sure that making the playoffs is going to be the bare minimum because, you know, when they fired this coach, Nico Sevez, they literally sat in there and said, this roster is a playoff roster. This seems to be in the playoffs. We're firing him now because Lucien's job, excuse me, Lexain's job is to get this team in the playoffs. So I honestly think that's it. If he's in, I think he gets the job. If he doesn't, I think he doesn't. And then for me at that point, the candidates, and I'm going to do a list this next week of who some candidates might be. And you're right, it'll be the same kind of candidates they always have. Because the guys they've had success with, success with were either an assistant that was already on their team or somebody they had a relationship with. Like Hymen, who they had a relationship with, took him to MLS Cup Oscar Praya, who they had a relationship with, had been in the team, the academy. They know for like 15 years. They got him. You know, the one, the guy that they just went and got on somebody else's recommendation that they didn't know that they didn't have a relationship with failed miserably. So it'll reinforce them to go back to their old ways. So it's going to be somebody, as I've joked. I've joked seriously there, Quill. It'll be one of Oscar's former assistants. It'll be somebody like, that's a big time in the academy, like Chewie. Maybe, you know, it'll. It'll be somebody that they know that they love. Maybe there's a former player that's, I don't know, Chris Bondi's coaching uConn. Maybe they call him, you know, something like that. I don't know that they have great relationship with Bondi. That's just a pure out of air example. But, you know, you can see ways like that could happen.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: Well, I think Eric Quill kind of tops this list within the guardrails of how the hunts do business. And ironically, I think it was Doyle, Matt Doyle did an interview with him this week or something and was raving about Eric Quill and his performance in New Mexico and had really nice things to say about him and tactically and professionally and everything. So I would think Quill is leading that charge, or you would think he is topping the list, but you just never know. Esteb is always. To me, Buzz felt like this weird kind of middle ground between Zenada trying to get them to hire some sort of international manager and the hunts trying to keep a lid on the budget. And this was kind of the best of both scenarios for both those guys and how they ended up doing something that I think at the time they hire. We all went, well, this is a little different, but in reality it really wasn't really that different than anybody they hired before.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: Somebody, you know, they got recommended by people here and there or whatever, you know, and I mean, look, quilt tops the list because, you know, he was from familiar here with the system, won a championship in North Texas, knows how the pipeline works. Now proving, you know, did the bit in the MLS as an assistant with Caleb Porter, who's won in this league, although not where his current gig. But now he has his new Mexico team in first place in the Western Conference. You know, I'm 100% know that, believe that and know in my heart that Eric will be a good MLS manager. I think that's true.
[00:54:22] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:22] Speaker B: You know, Peter looks saying is starting to show me he's got a lot of quality too. You know? Are there a handful of guys that would also fit their criteria? Probably. And don't forget to that. The last time around there was these really, really strong rumors that Zenada had a buddy. There was a coach at like, I don't remember where it was, Palmares or Grammy or something that was like, oh, I heard a bunch of people tell me, not a bunch, maybe five or six sort of insidery type people tell me, oh, yeah, Zana is bringing his guy up here. That's who it's going to be. And I don't, I don't think I ever got locked down exactly who that was. But that's always a thing. Remember, Zazana is here in part because he has all those connections, you know, and if he could get a. If he could convince a really great south american coach that, oh, yeah, this would be a great job for you. And the hunts will go. Oh, yeah, again, that's a relationship. It's not a hunt relationship, but they seem by all evidence to love Zenato. So if Zenada has a guy that he super trusts, you know, maybe that's the play. Because, you know, he keeps saying, I given you this great roster, you're not winning with it, you know, for two coaches now. So maybe it's time to let him have a pick of the coach. Maybe the Hunts might think, I mean, I don't think so, but maybe the hunts think so.
[00:55:30] Speaker A: Well, I. All of that is TBD.
There are a lot of other things we got to worry about in the foreground are coming up before we get to that part, I suppose.
What else did I want to talk about or did you want to talk about?
[00:55:48] Speaker B: I need to just follow up a little bit on the Texas Outlaws thing from last week where they were in big trouble with the league. So they, the league put out a new letter today. The Outlaws have paid their deficit as they, I think was the terming they use in terms of like meeting their league obligations. So they have reinstated all their contracts for the Outlaws team. Now, the players I talked to today have indicated that the problems with their nonpayment and their non housing situation has not been solved. And that team, that league doesn't have a union. So I don't know what those guys are going to do. They're kind of hosed.
[00:56:23] Speaker A: Judge Judy.
[00:56:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I told him, I was like, I was like, man, do you guys not have a contract lawyer or something? What are you doing? You know, but, you know, those guys are all paid at the very bottom levels of pro soccer, so they probably can't afford any of that stuff. So their players are not going to get the fair shake here. But it looks like the Outlaws have salvaged with the league, their situation. So they will be playing on for sure this year, which I had already reported. But, you know, they seem to be back in good graces and that player, that situation is kind of resolved but also kind of not. So just an update as moving on.
[00:56:54] Speaker A: Goodness gracious. Okay. And you also put out your academy signing. Listen.
[00:57:00] Speaker B: Yeah, the summer list. The summer list. The summer list is less active than the winter because the winter is of course, setting up for the next season. But the summer is when the academies will change from one roster to the next. So guys that are graduating, you know, that are going to take a shot here at the end. This is why you get usually, like last year there was a whole bunch like five end of season signings for North Texas last year, so, which was really high for them. Usually it's much lower because usually you get your full homegrown activation in the winter and then your, some of your hybrids or your straight other kinds of deals now going through the fall. So I put the list out.
There's, there's some names on there that most people will know. There's a couple names people might not know. It's always a lot of fun to do and gets a lot of chatter going in the teams that you probably didn't dig into it. But, you know, there's. I put the first 2009 born kid made the list, which is amazing how old we are.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: 2009.
[00:58:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, the young guys on that list are zero sixes, 2000 sixes. And then that's the first zero nine to make the list.
[00:58:09] Speaker A: So stupid. Time is stupid. Buzz.
[00:58:12] Speaker B: Time is stupid. Yeah.
[00:58:13] Speaker A: Time is really, really stupid.
[00:58:15] Speaker B: Who listens to those olds? Nobody.
[00:58:18] Speaker A: Goodness gracious. Well, I'm sorry we didn't have Dan for this. I hope things get better for Dan and the euros and his voice comes back.
[00:58:28] Speaker B: Yeah. He might have had some good insight on them, the England team and certainly on Weston and how he comes back and stuff. That would have been.
[00:58:36] Speaker A: Hey, you know what, Buzz? I think it's time for a buzz and Amy, new puppy dog update.
[00:58:41] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, he's. He was over here chewing on his toy a minute ago, but he. He left the room. He went to a. He went to a manners boot camp. Got some manners. Manners. You know, training. Oh, we call it manners. You know, don't jump on the sofa.
[00:58:56] Speaker A: You're so woke.
[00:58:57] Speaker B: Yeah, no. Oh, it's not woke.
[00:59:00] Speaker A: It's just manners. It's dog training.
[00:59:03] Speaker B: Dog training, yeah, it's trying, you know, and some of that is us learning. I mean, I'm pretty good at that kind of stuff anyway. I've had dogs my whole life. But we were on a little bit of a timeframe because we're leaving for our annual trip. So, like, if you're excited about the next transfer window, I'm leaving like, five days before.
[00:59:17] Speaker A: So that's when, boy, that's when west is going to get signed.
[00:59:20] Speaker B: Oh, you know, it'll happen when one of my trips, either now or next summer, one or the other. So, you know, it. We had to get a little bit of accelerated training so we could take him in the. On the road trip and around Amy's family, who, some of whom are, you know, like my parents in their seventies or eighties. You got to be careful with him around with a dog. But, yeah, he's good. He's doing good.
[00:59:39] Speaker A: You named him raccoon?
[00:59:40] Speaker B: Rocky. Rocky after Rocky raccoon. Because he has a raccoon face. Yeah.
[00:59:43] Speaker A: Right. Okay.
[00:59:44] Speaker B: Yeah. My vote for traction.
[00:59:46] Speaker A: Is he house broken?
[00:59:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Yeah. He was housebroken when we got him.
[00:59:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:59:49] Speaker B: I mean, he was from a. He's a rescue. He's from the Fort Worth pound. Somebody had clearly had him enough. He wasn't fixed, but he knew. Sit and he was house broken, so we didn't have to do those. That very basic stuff. Just, you know, they won't. The pound won't release it all without fixing him, so they did that first, and then we got him a week later.
And then we've been working with him on a lot of the. The bad habits he has, you know, but we're getting taken care of. It's getting better.
[01:00:13] Speaker A: Does he watch Dallas games with you?
[01:00:16] Speaker B: Yeah, he sits at my feet some, you know, or sits with Amy if she's not in here, if she's working on her computer. He likes her better. Of course, they. Everyone likes, maybe better than me, including all the pets. So he's in there with her most of the time, yeah. It's okay. I'm used to it. My family likes her better than me. It's fair.
[01:00:30] Speaker A: Hey, because you never do this. You're terrible at self promotion. Buzz, you did post a picture of Amy wearing a jacket with the third degree bull logo on it.
[01:00:41] Speaker B: It's not a jacket. What is it? The merch company I use has what they call a hawaiian shirt coming. It's their newest product.
Instead of doing, like, a hawaiian pattern I did. I have two of them coming. One of them, they're more like fifties style bowling shirts the way I did them. Kind of like that button down look. One of them is gray and has the big, um, cool burn horse on the back, the one with the wing spread. And then the other one, they happen to have a. One. Their base fabrics happens to have one that looks just like one of the burn jerseys, the Defc Dallas jerseys. So I did that one, too, with this logo on the back. So it's going to be coming relatively soon. I'm probably going to. I'm trying to find some moment to make it, like, in honor of this, I'm rolling it out, like, if, you know, I don't know, the league's cup starts or they sign a player, I don't know, some moments, and make it like, oh, here comes the thing. You know, so it'll be out. You know, I put out that new logo that was super cool a couple weeks ago, which I think people have reacted to pretty well.
[01:01:43] Speaker A: When are you leaving to go on your trip?
[01:01:46] Speaker B: Roughly a week before the window starts. It's. I'm actually leaving.
Let's see. I'm leaving on the 12 July. Okay. The window opens on the 18th, six days later.
[01:01:56] Speaker A: All right. Well. Hmm.
[01:01:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:59] Speaker A: You got the new store and everything, you know.
[01:02:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Thanks. It's good.
[01:02:03] Speaker A: Make you some dough.
[01:02:04] Speaker B: Well, everyone that's been buying shirts talks about how great the shirts are. This new company seems really nice. Their customer service is really good so far, so I'm really pleased with it.
[01:02:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I'm going to switch from my store to theirs, too.
[01:02:14] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's, um. It's a. It's a. It's a website that's designed specifically for creators, so it has a lot of mechanics that are for that. I mean, you can even do it like a Patreon like thing through them if you want.
[01:02:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:02:26] Speaker B: But they're specifically tailored to people that have followings and audience spaces, and they'll. They can do digital merch. They can do. They got all kinds of really kind of cool, cutting edge ideas that they can work with you on. You know, I do pretty traditional stuff because I'm not like a musician or an artist or anything, so.
[01:02:43] Speaker A: Oh, you're an artist. Buzz, don't cut yourself short.
[01:02:46] Speaker B: I don't. I don't create, like, paintings or sculptures or little, you know, I don't. I don't create things to sell. I create a podcast, you know, and we do sell that in a sense of. In terms of the sponsorship or the patreon or. Yeah. So. But it's a great, great company so far, so you should get in there for sure.
[01:03:03] Speaker A: All right, thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Anything else you want to touch on?
[01:03:08] Speaker B: That's it, really. You know, the next academy season will roll around in August. So, you know, when we get to that point, and I can. If I can get official rosters, we'll do. I'll do my usual, you know, things on each team in the club. But other than that, we're just going to keep going with this season and see what we've seen. Gosh dang, it looks saying still has in store for us as we go forward, so.
[01:03:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:03:27] Speaker B: Third degree. The podcast has been brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm for Wills Trust, probate and business law. Call 469-515-2559 that's 469-515-2559 or visit lindstromlawfirm.com for a free consultation.
[01:03:41] Speaker A: Well, I might be going to the game this weekend. I don't know yet. So if I'm there and, you know, we'll hook up and say hello to all the people.
[01:03:50] Speaker B: I will.
[01:03:50] Speaker A: All right, very good. Well, thank you, Buzz. Good times.
[01:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks, man. Thanks for being here.
[01:03:55] Speaker A: All right, Dan, hope you're feeling better. Don't scream too much and thank you. FC Dallas Curious fan. We will be back next week with another episode of third Degree, the podcast. Get better Dan Weston come home third degree the third degree nerd podcast third degree the third degree never get.
[01:04:22] Speaker B: Third.
[01:04:22] Speaker A: Degree the third degree never can.
