3rd Degree the Podcast #272

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:04] Speaker B: Ooh. [00:00:05] Speaker C: Mm hmm. [00:00:08] Speaker A: Oh. Third degree. The third degree. Napkin. Third degree. The third degree. Napocast third degree. The third degree. Nepochet third degree. The third degree. Napodcast third degree. [00:00:26] Speaker B: The podcast is brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm for wills, trust, probates, and business law. Or visit lindstromlawfirm.com for a free consultation. [00:00:38] Speaker C: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to another episode. This one numbered 272 of third degree, the podcast. I'm Peter. Joined by. First off, our favorite beardish Englishman, Bangers and mash fan, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:56] Speaker D: Do love some bangers and mash, but not as much as beans on toast. That is the top echelon of british culinary delights. [00:01:06] Speaker C: I'll have to come over and you'll have to make it for me sometime. And your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero. Editor, founder, Thirddegree.net original soccer influencer and checking in from somewhere in this amazing country with dodgy Internet connection. Buzz carrot. Come in, Buzz. Literally. [00:01:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I think technically I'm in Montana, but I'm not 100% sure that that's the case. And I'm sitting at an rv park, so you may hear trucks drive by or dogs bark or people come over and say hello in the middle and ask me if I'm doing what I'm doing. So we'll see how it goes. [00:01:43] Speaker C: All right. Yes. Well, we're going to give this the good old college try because your Internet connection is shady at best, and we're going to try to work through this so that we can get it over with and actually get an episode put together. So, guys, when we did the last episode, we were coming off of back to back losses to Kansas City. But here we are, how fortunes turn so quickly. Two fantastic performances under Peter Luxe and 20 over LA at home. And then last night's three one bashing of the broccoli. It's fun. Winning is fun, Buzz. [00:02:20] Speaker B: Yeah, winning is fun. You can see it in the players. You know, they're having fun. You can tell that the fans are having fun. You know, scoring goals is fun, even if you don't win them all. Scoring goals is more fun. So things are, things are looking up in terms of positivity around the team, and I'm sure everyone feels good about the direction things are going. [00:02:40] Speaker C: How much of winning two games at home versus losing two games on the road is just that, home. Playing on the road versus playing at home? [00:02:51] Speaker B: Oh, a lot. Yeah, probably. Probably most of it, actually. You know, you saw a team like LA Galaxy, who handled Dallas pretty easily in their place a little while back, and then they come to Dallas and struggle mightily. You know, they were tired, but so was Dallas. So I think everybody knows that the home field advantage and MLS is worth about 75%, you know, and it's clear that, you know, and on their turf they have a pretty demanding home field advantage, but they're going to need that if they're going to actually make a run at this thing. The math is plausible, it's not likely, but, you know, it's going to take, probably winning all their home games. So they're going to feel good about that part and then they can. If they can figure out how to do something on the road, maybe they'll give us a chance. [00:03:36] Speaker C: Dan, you've been one of the guys that's been entrusted with going to the post game press conferences and talking to the guys in the locker room. What is. Has there been a significant shift in the vibe within the ranks since Peter took over? [00:03:52] Speaker D: It's kind of hard to say because they've been winning more. Winning breeds a happier locker room, right. And just the two coaches, they're kind of chalk and cheese. And how they approach things looks. Son's very passionate when he talks, very kind of upbeat and taking those messages, whereas. Yeah, Nico Estevez, I think there was always a reluctance, a hesitancy when he, when he spoke, which kind of translated to the kind of football where it was like, you know, try not to lose, try to grind out the points, whereas, you know, I think Luxon would take a win and a couple of losses to get three points over three draws. [00:04:35] Speaker C: Interesting. So, Buzz, there was a conversation going on in your discord earlier today about what? Why, knowing what we know now with Peter playing this kind of like, let, let the guys off the leash style, what, what was the mental thinking on Estevez's part? I mean, do we have any more thoughts? I mean, we've talked about this endlessly, but what is really the difference in the mental thinking, not the actual tactics itself. But why are these two guys operating this exact same group of guys in totally different ways and getting totally different results? [00:05:14] Speaker B: Well, in a way, it is a vaguely tactical thing, but it has to do with freedom of expression. Coach Nico Savos was a very rigid defensive system, very disciplined system. Requiring guys to be in certain parts of the field and cover certain parts of the field is giving guys freedom to express themselves and freedom to go forward and freedom to try things other side. Of course, they do give up more goals because of that. But people like to play. They like to try and play. Nobody wants to sit back and play super defensive all the time. That's not fun, you know, and honestly think, you know, familiarity with playing forward, the back two, it's not that it's a change of system that works better in general terms through the back is perfectly fine system, but if you're not familiar with it, not comfortable with it, you feel like you're being forced into it. And players have been forced into roles they don't really do. That also could create a really negative mentality for you in a really negative space and a really negative way of playing. You know, everything has changed for the better under Peter Lake. Sane in the sense of like, what players like and do and feel comfortable with and they feel free with and it really is expressing itself and the way they play. And plus, two, there's, you know, you do have players that are, that are new every season and so it takes some time to get together and we're seeing guys come to life at mid season and some of that may just be their personal development as much as it is the coaching change. [00:06:32] Speaker C: So, buzz, it's like I said, it's fun to win. Is there any kind of continued growth or development in the quality of what Peter has got this team doing versus Esteban in terms of tactics and style? And I'm going to ask the same question asked you last week. How much of it is a change in tactics and how much of it is just simply guys playing good, well, up to snuff and as expected? [00:06:57] Speaker B: Well, I think the change in tactic that's, that's helped a lot is the, is it really comes back to what the, the answer was partially in the previous question, which is this willingness to play, this willingness to be free and let guys try things. You know, when guys think the coach has the confidence to express themselves and guys have the confidence to go at people and attempt things, you know, they're going to feel good about themselves. You know, the way this coach is using flexible shapes for certain players, like guys that are experienced and know what they're doing are allowed to play differently than guys that are, you know, more undeveloped and not as perhaps soccer savvy. But it's, it's not just that, too, because he also is letting guys like Logan Farrington, who are coming into his own play a really progressive, adaptable, flexible game. So I think across the board, you know, it's not necessary. Other than the giant shift more to a back four than a back three, the way they're playing is not all that different. You know, it's. It still has a vertical component that wasn't there before, but they was still this. This. This desire to take advantage of mistakes and counter, not counter attack, but transition quickly. It still is about high percentage shooting on goal. That's so really important. So, you know, it's still the same set of players. So it's mostly about, I think, confidence and being comfortable and people buying in and being willing to express and play in a. In a way. And if you're talking about, like, how you get a team that goes from not performing well, you know, with the same group of players, it's almost always gonna be about mentality, really. Cause you didn't flip a switch and all of a sudden guys are great. That's not how that works. [00:08:37] Speaker D: Last night, Peter Laksan's talking after the game, and one of the things he said was about kind of bringing things back to the FC Dallas style, trying to find guys in better positions. He talked about kind of the adaptation, allowing players to breathe a little bit and kind of learn to read the game better. I'd asked him about kind of the passiveness in much of the. Of the Austin game. That was kind of his take as, you know, they were trying things. They just weren't necessarily succeeding in those, but they were kind of. Their read of the situation was to drop back a little bit, absorb that pressure, kind of harkening back to, I guess, his time playing for FC Dallas and coaching under Oscar Pereira as well. [00:09:21] Speaker C: Well, whatever it is, it's more entertaining to watch. And we've talked about this a lot, that what we're getting now, whether it ends up making a run to the playoffs or not, is really not important. It's just, it's more entertaining. It's not boring, and the team has a little bit of fun to them, and I think that's great. Let's. As fun as it is to kind of give Austin a pat on the head and send them back down I 35. The big win of this particular episode is the win over the Galaxy, which were a team that were on a really good run in the league, and Dallas Buzz. I think you probably have quite a different. Quite a set of things you want to talk about when it comes specifically to beating and actually, you know, shutting La out at home. 20 zero. [00:10:07] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, the. That's a team that's incredibly offensively explosive. You know, Luxane even rotated a little bit. You know, Areola didn't start that game. You know, it's. It was. It was really interesting to see. You know, it's hard to really specifically target what happened tactically, that changed. You know, Dallas didn't particularly play a very different system than they played before. They're using this. This outside back flexibility, you know, where in that game, you know, Jungkook got a start at left center back and Tuamasi was on the right, you know, and, and Tuamasi slid back into that back, outside back and then he slid forward in the midfield and there's. Jukin would occasionally, occasionally do the same thing on the other side, even though he was more of a center back than an outside back. So that flexibility is really exciting, you know, but the biggest thing really was Yara Mindy being able to mostly contain Puig. I mean, that's. That's a player that's explosively talented and can, can really just rip teams apart, you know, and if you can, you can contain him and you can contain pencil and you can contain peck, who has that ability to cut in from the wing and is so dangerous. I mean, they got some really explosive, awesome players. And in order to contain that team while not playing in the Niko Estevez sit back defensive shell and while playing in a way where you got opportunities and playing in a way where you were able to score goals, and that's really exciting, you know, that's. That's. It's such a different belief and mentality in this team that they were able to do that, you know? Yes, again, part of it is home field advantage, but it's not all that, you know, the. Every single game so far under coach Luxaine, particularly the last three or four, there's been a dramatic shift in the second half, you know, something he's doing in the locker room, whether it be a tactical shift or whether it's just a motivational shift, you know, this team really is coming out and performing in the second half, and it's been their nature to be that way all season anyway. But to see him do it again and again, again under this coach is really exciting. [00:12:12] Speaker C: What must. I would love to. Let me put it this way, I'd love to be a fly on the Estebas household wall as he watches these games and must wonder what he. I just. I can't imagine what he must be thinking as he watches all of this. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Well, the biggest one for me is he must think that he should have not done the back three. I mean, I honestly wonder if. If he had played a back four at the beginning of the season, if the comfort level would have been there, you know, would they have won a couple more games? Would that. Would those few points have been enough for him to not lose his gig? His utter belief that that was absolutely the very best way to go, I think, in the end, cost him his job. And so that might be his biggest regret. Not. Not that he wants to change the way he coaches or his. The way he believes the team should play, but that. That tactical shift that just put his team in such a bad way at the start of the season in the end, you know, because one or two games really might have made a difference, you know? Cause you'd have been looking at being just a point or two out of the playoffs and really feel like you had a shot versus, like, where you were when he got cam, which was like ten or twelve. I think it was at the time, off top of my head. So that's probably the biggest thing I bet he's doing, is sitting back and thinking, maybe that was the wrong. Then again, maybe he's just got completely self believed he did the right thing. So it's so hard to say. [00:13:33] Speaker C: Honestly, I think one of the biggest things to come out of this is the lesson about the danger of draws. You know, I think sometimes people get lulled into a sense of getting a draw on the road is a good thing. And Daniel. And who is it that said you can draw yourself to death? What is it? Was. Maybe it was El Jefe. That was his whose it was. Yeah. And. And that's such a really smart thing because that one point, the difference, you know, one win is better than. Than two draws. And what I think, in my observation is, and maybe, Dan, yours is the same, is that Luxane's willingness to let this team try to score goals and, boy, have they scored goals. I think I'm counting, what is it, 19 league goals? And I think it's 21 if you count the Open cup game since he's taken over. And his willingness to let this team score goals has paid off, yet they also tend to allow a lot of goals. It's just working out for him. And I think that's the big difference between grinding out ties and actually letting the team try to win. [00:14:41] Speaker D: Sure, I think Garrett Meltzer put the thing out, said it was averaging 2.4 goals per game. That's a solid return for any team, let alone one that, you know, a month ago, they have no shot at the playoffs whatsoever. It's, you know, and I think, you know, you know, when you play right, it's. It's easier to kind of pick yourself up in a game where you concede a goal to go two two than it is, you know, conceding 10 in the first, I don't know, 20 minutes. It's just, you know, you've got that boost. You know, you can go forward, you believe you can kind of get it done. It's not. Okay. Well, we got to grind the rest this out for the rest of the game. And, you know, the rules right now in MLS, it. It doesn't favor playing for a draw on the road. The first tiebreaker is most wins, right. [00:15:34] Speaker C: It is interesting because I thought last night's Austin game was a good reflection so far of the Peter era where, you know, the goal, the team goes ahead, scores a goal, and then immediately turns and turns around and gives up the goal to end up one one and everything, you know, the highs and lows, but then continues to fight and gets the. The great opportunity, the PK, which we'll talk about that whole deal here in a few minutes. Ariel, is that. Yeah, that really good goal to start off with. Really nice sequence, very direct play. Open. I loved it. All of that was great. And then, of course, just six minutes later, just the worst calamity of defending I have seen in quite some time. I still haven't figured out how all of those guys got that so wrong. And Zardes is standing wide open, by the way, that was a really nice finish by Zardes to tie at one one, but then the team just kept doing its thing and working to try to win the game and got the PK and made it two one. We'll talk more about that incident here in a little bit, but that's just as a good summary, I think, of, of the change in attitude buzz, and. And that is a lot that that alone is worth getting up and watching the team, I suppose. [00:16:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Listen, we talked a while back about how this was a team of dudes, and it still is, for the most part. You know, we talked a lot about game after game we were watching. There's just some guys out there playing, and a lot of those guys are mostly still playing the same way they were always playing. Like, of the dudes, the only one that really has elevated himself is seeking and sibling who has great belief from this coach when he didn't, from the previous coach, despite that coach being the one who sort of found him. But the other thing that has happened is that some guys that you don't want to be dudes. Paul Areola is playing the best soccer of this season, I think Sebastian Leggette, playing his best soccer of his time here in Dallas, Logan Farrington has become this incredible catalyst of. Of movement up front that's tearing apart the defenses in a Jason Christ kind of way. Patter Moussa is a center channel striker, but the balls are coming into him in a little more space than they were before. You know, the guys that we've been talking about this all year, special players, need to elevate in order to win games on MLS. And the Dallas special players, not the ones that were hurt, of course, but the ones that have been playing, hadn't been doing that until Bucksayne took over and down. He convinced them to do it. Did they have self belief, or did they just decide to do it after they got their bad play, got their coach fired? Man, it's hard to say. But, you know, when you have. When you have guys that are supposed to be better doing better things, they can bring the whole team along with them. And all of a sudden, the dudes are finishing out games and getting wins. It's exciting to see it happen. [00:18:23] Speaker C: All right, Dan, you were there last night. Why don't you tell everybody the behind the scenes story of the red card incident and the penalty kick and all that stuff and what actually went down or what you learned after the game. [00:18:34] Speaker D: Yeah, so we were talking with Coase in locker room after the game, you know, once the. [00:18:41] Speaker C: Wait, wait. Did you just call him Kose? [00:18:43] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:18:44] Speaker C: Are you, like, on nickname level term with him now? [00:18:47] Speaker D: No, that's what people call Nkosi Tafaro. [00:18:51] Speaker C: Okay. I'm just saying, you know, it just seemed very casual. [00:18:55] Speaker D: I will call him Mister Tafari. I guess it would be Mister Burgess. But he doesn't go by Burgess. Yep. Anyway, you know, obviously media. Speaking of Inkosi Tafari after the game, you know, recorders go off because, you know, you're not getting quotes anymore. Actually, no. I'd asked him about the incident after he kind of brushed it off. He's like, you know, what if they came to run at me? I don't know why. I play the game. I finish the game, I go home. That's it. The most Nicosa Tafari answer you can give to a guy aggressively chasing you halfway across the field. Then he starts talking about the penalty, and they earn the penalty. Owen wolf kind of clumsily handles, and Julio Casca is going up to Tomus as he's waiting to take the kick, and he's saying some very, very vulgar things about his mother. And Drew sees kind of following up with are. You're gonna miss it, you're gonna shank it, whatever else. Something in Spanish, I guess. Nkosi Tafaride retorted in Spanish, obviously, the first kick save, Steven comes off the line. Drusi and Cascante kind of, you know, go off at him again. They do again when the retake's about to happen, Musa immediately runs up to, I think it was Drusi celebrates in his face. There is a brilliant still. I think FC Dallas used it for the score graphic where Tafari is jumping in the air, doing the moose thing in. Yeah. Either Drusi. I think it was Drusi's face. Just absolutely marvelous. [00:20:45] Speaker C: Yeah. The picture of Tafari doing the moose horns, neener Neener thing is so childish and wonderful and awesome. It's the highlight of the season, frankly, so far. [00:20:57] Speaker D: So then he runs back to the half while the other players are celebrating. Obviously, the Austin players follow Tafaro, and you've got cascante on a yellow at this point. So I think. I think he said he was trying to bait him a little bit, see if he could get him the second yellow. And then he just sees a hand appear through this crowd of players. He didn't see Drusi, but then the hand comes and grips him around the neck, and he just says, you'd better just take that armband off. You're done. And then promptly drops to the floor. Absolute king behavior. [00:21:34] Speaker C: That is great. Yes. And I. Let me just side comment. I thought it was really telling and also entertaining that Drew see knew that he was actually the assailant and allowed his teammate to get sent off. He didn't even say a word. He let his teammate get sent off on his behalf and just sat and waited to see if VAR would pick up on it. And of course it did. [00:21:57] Speaker D: If you're Josh Wolfenheid, which one of those two would you prefer to see sent off? [00:22:02] Speaker C: Sure, I'm with you. I get it. I just. I wonder how constant they felt about that, thinking that he suddenly had to take the long walk on somebody else's behalf for something he didn't do. I'd be. I don't know how I'd feel about that. [00:22:17] Speaker D: Supposedly he'd actually got back into the locker room. He started and was kind of taking a breather before getting showered and changed, and. And they had to send someone back in to get him because that much. [00:22:30] Speaker C: Time on tv, you could actually see. And then Steve, actually, Steve and Owen commented on this, that he, they were like, wow, the Austin assistant coach or trainer is literally sprinting 150 yards to go get Castante back. Hopefully, he hasn't undressed and already in the shower. So that was all very, very funny and entertaining. [00:22:52] Speaker D: I will say this about the, you know, that incident and then everything after you've both been down in those locker rooms. Right. It's one long hallway. The FC Dallas players actually walk past the away locker rooms to leave the stadium. They. They had a set of fire doors down the middle. It's the first time I've ever seen them close. Security would not let anyone go in between, really. [00:23:15] Speaker C: Ah, proper derby, Dan. [00:23:20] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah. You know, the players are up for it. There is, you know, there is some genuine hatred on. On their side. [00:23:35] Speaker C: Yes, it was fun. It was that look. [00:23:39] Speaker D: But if. If you want to call it. If you want to call it a rivalry from day one, it's not a rivalry from day one. You have to build some hate. And if that's the hate, if that's the Dema Covalenko breaking legs moment, cool. Great. Call it a rivalry. [00:23:53] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a good point. Maybe that's the. This is the kind of game that actually develops some emotion between these two teams, because it really hasn't been much of anything up until this point. I don't care about that stupid trophy. Austin can gladly just take that home as a consolation prize as far as I'm concerned. So I, you know, I. Last night was great, and this is not a good season. It's not been a fun season, but those are the kind of moments that, you know, you'll look back on and, you know, maybe. Maybe Buzz. Does that. Is that list quality? Is that. Is that. Is that moment deserving of being on the list? [00:24:30] Speaker B: No. No, because the list is the bad things, not good things. [00:24:34] Speaker C: Oh, okay. I don't know. [00:24:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:36] Speaker C: Moose antler Neener. Neener is pretty farting hilarious in my book. [00:24:40] Speaker D: Can I give you two quick updates on that game? [00:24:44] Speaker C: Yes. [00:24:45] Speaker D: So pet Amusa was sick most of the week. You may have seen Instagram, a couple of players called it flew game. He was not in the best of ways after the game, but I think that was his fifth booking of the season. So he actually gets to miss New England. Anyway, Iyara Mendy has been carrying an ankle injury for a few weeks. They gave him a little fitness test before the warm up. They decided against playing him. So the initial lineup went in with Ariela, knew that there was a good chance he would have to play that more advanced role. And to Massey, come back into the team. But they only kind of confirmed it two minutes before the warm ups actually happened. That's why it was such a late rush with it. [00:25:34] Speaker C: But any word long term on Laura Mendy's ankle? [00:25:40] Speaker D: I want to say he said, I asked him about it. I want to say he said he'd be good to go Saturday. But let me double check. Before you quote me on that, would. [00:25:49] Speaker C: You write it down? [00:25:51] Speaker D: No, I have a transcript from the press conference. [00:25:54] Speaker C: Oh, okay. [00:25:56] Speaker B: Wow, journalism. [00:25:57] Speaker D: Yeah, it was. We have another game, very important game on Saturday. So that was, it was just fine to rest and be ready for New England. And on the subject arrest. Oh, that was me saying on the subject arrest. But yeah, he should be good for Saturday. [00:26:15] Speaker C: All right. Very good. Yeah. Six huge points. It puts Dallas, ironically, a point behind Austin at and also a point behind the playoffs. Austin is in 10th, just out of the playoffs on goal differential behind Minnesota. And Dallas is a point behind both of those teams. Although ironically, believe it or not, I can't believe I'm saying this, Dallas actually has a better goal differential than Minnesota or Austin. They're at minus three and minus nine respectively. Dallas is up to minus one on goal. How bad had goal differential gotten with this team at one point? It was. It was what? Are they down? Were they down to like minus ten at one point? I don't remember. I thought it was worse than. [00:27:00] Speaker D: Can I give you an even more mind blowing stat? [00:27:02] Speaker C: Oh, yes, please do. [00:27:04] Speaker D: Right. Train wreck of a season. Right? Even to this point off the playoffs. You know, not, not wonderful. FC Dallas has the joint second best home record in the Western Conference. [00:27:17] Speaker C: Wow. That is remarkable. [00:27:19] Speaker D: One win behind LAFC. [00:27:22] Speaker C: Okay, so somebody asked this question on the discord yesterday and I don't know the answer to this. Has an MLS team ever made it to the playoffs without a single road win? [00:27:36] Speaker B: I don't think so. Because you receive, Davis was talking about there's only like four teams that have ever had a season with no win or something like that. I mean, it's a very limited number of win. Yeah, it's like a. He said that it's a list of like the worst teams of all time. I didn't go look up what it was, but I remember him talking about it being an absolute nightmare. So it's like I can't imagine it to. Anybody has done it. [00:27:57] Speaker C: Yeah. It would be really, it would be almost unbelievable to think that Dallas somehow manages the rest of this way. And Buzz, you tweeted out some numbers about this. I'll let you get into it. But the idea that Dallas qualifies for the playoffs without winning a road game, which they have a lot of coming up, just seems very improbable. [00:28:15] Speaker B: Yeah, you probably need, you know, approximately 44 points. Now, of course, there's a little bit of variance there. Maybe it's 43 or maybe if there could be a crazy alignment where it's more like 42. But, you know, without fail, like the last three or four seasons, if you go back and look, that's been the mark for the, the Western Conference. And if you look at Dallas's remaining home games, they, they need 15 more points basically to get that number, give or take. And they have ten games left, but only four of those games are at home. And consider that you're at home. You have Colorado, who's your bogey team and is pretty good. LAFC, who's really good. Orlando, you know, Oscar great, awesome, sporting Kansas City on the last game of the season. Well, they would love to wreck your season. So those are not four easy wins and you pretty much got to get them. You know, every one of those you drop is a win. You got to get on the road and you already probably need a win on the road and you're going to have to. This weekend of the Revs is a shot. And then you go to DC, you go to Vancouver. That's a long way to go. You go to RSL, we'll forget that. Maybe you go to San Jose and then you also got to go to Portland. So listen, if they can pull it off, they'll have well earned it because that is not going to be easy. Just those four home games alone are a whip. I mean, you could easily lose all four of those home games, to be honest. Colorado, LAFC, Orlando and sporting on the last game of the season. Sporting, I mean, that's, they could be right there with you for that spot and they love to ruin your season and so does Colorado. So LAFC is not at the end, it's in the middle. So they'll still be playing hard. So like, look, is it doable? Sure. Is this team playing great? Absolutely. If they do it, they're going to really have earned it and, and they've done so far. What they got to do is win the home games they've had so far. And so if you just keep doing that, take them one game at a time and see what happens. Go up there to the Revs who are reeling with injuries in a horrible season and see if you can get a win there and check that off your list and give yourself a chance. What else can you do but give yourself a chance? [00:30:18] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. And the way they've been playing that, that seems like the best path to doing that. Now also throwing the, throwing this into the mixed yesterday or the day before, Alan Velasco posted on Instagram a picture him and full kit wanker with some sort of hopeful line of emojis. And it does beg. The question is, does anybody have any idea on what the timeline is for Velasco's return to this team? [00:30:45] Speaker B: Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I've been training for various scheduling reasons or whatever. And I honestly we don't know, you know, because look, when you're talking about the final stages of an ACL like Giovanni, Jesus should have been ahead of him by about two months, right? And we haven't seen Giovanni back yet, right. He should have been June probably an hour halfway through July. Now, Alan, we should have been maybe, you know, late July or sometime in August possibly, but we just don't know, you know, you know, can you have like the word was that Giovanni had some scar tissue cleanup or whatever. You know what happens when Alan gets out there the first time it cuts hard and pops a piece of scar tissue. You know, you just don't know. I don't think you can count on, you know when that's going to come. You know, you just have to accept if it happens, it happens, you know, and it'll be an added bonus. Consider like getting a player in the window if you will that you weren't expecting. So you know, maybe, maybe with Leagues cup around the corner maybe the best choice is just to leave him out of league's cup no matter what and hope that he'll come back for the, you know, basically a month from now. August 20 I think is the next time not including this New England game. Next time I have a league game. So maybe that's hopeful target cross our fingers. [00:32:01] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, well that's an interesting thought. I mean I have, I think we all agreed from the onset our hope for anything out of Velasco was pretty limited for this season or I Giovanni, or Giovanni as well just because coming off ACLs is tough. What I do think is interesting is, you know, the timeline on Jesus Ferreira's return to this team and how that impacts the roster because Farrington is playing so well. But the one player I do want to take a minute to talk about, and you mentioned this earlier, buzz is a guy who, you know, I was pretty much done with. I just. And I'm. And I. And while I said I'm. My. My opinion of him hasn't changed dramatically, but I have appreciated how much better he's played is in sibling and I don't know what has clicked with him, but he has played better. Now. At the end of the Austin game last night, he went reverted back to being a turnover machine. But by and large, he has been one of the pieces to this that has helped Laksane, you know, garner a lot of points. [00:33:07] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of that is just confidence from the coach, but a big chunk of it is that they're putting him in a different position under coach Peter. He's playing in the high Alan Velasco underneath ten role where when he makes a turnover there, it doesn't hurt the team. Last night he tried to kill the team late in the game right before that last goal with a. With a horrible dribble into three players kind of moment that would have just resulted in a turnover and then times passed and really killed him in this particular moment. It didn't. And they happen to get a goal immediately afterwards. But that's the main difference. It's like where he's still the same player he was, but now they have some confidence in him and that by moving him higher up the field, some of the passes that before were not really doing much, but maybe Lincoln out of the back a little are now getting guys going over the top on the onset miss, for example, and the tournament aren't hurting near as bad. [00:33:57] Speaker C: All right, so let's talk about some other player stuff. It is the transfer window and everybody is poking Dan Hunt with a stick saying, come on, do something. And lo and behold, it does appear that they are about to do something. But everybody prepare yourself not to be too overwhelmed as the player that they have been linked to is a 25 year old player from Angola named Manuel Kafumanga. And he goes by the name show and he's playing, yes, boys and girls, in the israeli league. [00:34:35] Speaker B: I went and looked at his pathway and I want to see if you recognize the names of any of these clubs. Okay, the first one is Lille, the french team Lille B specifically. Right. Okay, how about if we link that with Boa Vista, the next place he was at? How about if we link in the club Ludo Gordz. Does that name mean thing to you guys? [00:35:01] Speaker D: Hell yeah. If you Google bavarian bulgarian butcher. [00:35:05] Speaker B: Yeah. If you google that and FC Dallas, you get Anton Ned Yalkov sale. So to me, some of these same sort of teams sniffing around again and again makes me feel like this is sort of a. There's some relationships here, there's some. Some connections here that are kind of coming to like, you know, hey, I'm in a world of need for a midfielder. Hook a brother up and give me a guy. And here was a guy. So, you know, you lose Ethan Fraser for, you know, two months or whatever it is, Liam Frazier and two months and holy crap, I'm running out of mids. No holding mids. Nolan Norris is going to the U 20 championship. What am I going to do? You know what I'll call my dudes. And I think, you know, sometimes when you see these same clubs popping up in the background again and again with various. I mean, if you look at just those three names alone, you can think back of four or five different players from this club that have had some sort of connection or something with some of those names. And it's a small world sometimes. [00:36:09] Speaker C: Yeah, it's. It's weird. And I. Again, I always. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse with this joke, but this is an entire planet of soccer players and I can't figure out why. [00:36:19] Speaker B: For a. [00:36:20] Speaker C: For, for a guy who apparently has all these amazing south american contacts, how you going to surface a defensive mid or a mid a center midfielder from the israeli league? Like, it was funny. I was watching ANSA play last night and I don't know, he may be the nicest man in the entire world, but I swear Dallas found him in the DFW area, players looking for a team Facebook group and signed him from there because that guy is awful. His decision making is poor everything about that guy. And so when I. And maybe that's not fair to put that on this dude, but it does make you wonder what kind of quality they think they're going to get when they just sign another guy from the israeli league. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Well, the thing is, is that Maccabee paid €1.2 million for him, according to transfer market. So if they're letting him out of his deal like a year later, you know, of a for or is Dallas paying a multi million or even a million or whatever they're paying for this guy, you know, granted, the best we have to go on is maybe like a YouTube video or whatever. So hopefully someone scouted him. But like, obviously a big factor here is going to be what they paid to get them. And like I said, with those list of clubs, maybe this is a favor kind of deal with something coming back. I mean, bows them money on who hell knows, right. So this is a guy that's so off the radar that is. It's like until we see him train or play, it's like we're going to have no idea what Dallas is getting here, granted, is a position they're desperate for bodies in. I just hope that they're not going to handcuff themselves here going forward past the end of this season with this guy. If he turns out to stink, you know, they already got a couple bodies in that spot I that are just sort of mediocre to begin with, you know, or hurt. And you have no idea if they're ever going to be the same. So hopefully they're not throwing money at something that's going to really kill them. [00:38:18] Speaker C: Well, I guess the question I have is, is this guy markedly better than Carl Sante? [00:38:24] Speaker B: Man, who knows? My problem with Carl Sante is that as a holding mid, I never really thought he was going to make it to MLS. And they started playing him as a center back and I got really excited. I had multiple conversations with Nico Sevez about how, man, this guy's a center back. Might have something. This will be kind of fun. And when they sign in, coach was like, yeah, this will be good. We're going to use him as a center back. And every game he's played since then, he's been a holding mid. I'm like, that's not a dude that I was excited about in MLS is holding mid. So I assume this guy must be better than Carl Santa as a holding mid. [00:38:57] Speaker C: I'd hope so. I mean, I don't know, he better be. Makes you wonder. Yeah. Lord, what a. What a weird signing if that is, in fact, how it plays out. And I does bother me when the guy has the nickname show and that's what he goes by. And the idea that we're gonna have a guy wearing a Dallas shirt with just the word show on the back. [00:39:21] Speaker D: Hey, we had Tesha. [00:39:24] Speaker C: Yeah, but he didn't get to use tesho, remember? [00:39:26] Speaker B: Fair? Yeah. [00:39:28] Speaker C: Seeing a guy wearing a Dallas shirt with the word show on the back is just gonna probably make my old man self bonkers. [00:39:35] Speaker D: Are you gonna yell at clouds? [00:39:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I may go yell at clouds. [00:39:39] Speaker D: Well, if it's any consolation, earlier in the year he did play against Fiorentina. He did get sent off in that game. So, you know, do we know how. [00:39:52] Speaker C: Big he is or anything? Is he a little dude? A big dude? Has anybody seen any video of it? [00:39:58] Speaker D: He is 511. [00:40:00] Speaker C: Okay. Fair height. [00:40:02] Speaker B: That's all right. [00:40:03] Speaker D: I mean, yeah, I mean, you know, obviously they didn't anticipate Liam Frazier going down and being out for the season. So if this is a rush signing, you know, I mean, he is. He is playing constantly for, for Makavi, Haifa. He is a 90 minutes every game, six for the angolan national team. Is it a sexy sign in? No, but I mean, nor was Liam Frazier. [00:40:31] Speaker C: Did he play in the African cup of Nations? [00:40:34] Speaker D: He did. He played. He started four of the five games for them. [00:40:40] Speaker B: I like it a lot better if it's alone. [00:40:43] Speaker D: Supposedly it is alone. [00:40:45] Speaker C: Okay, that makes me feel better, too. [00:40:47] Speaker D: Because Jose Oliveris had tweeted something out earlier about loan. I think it was a loan to buy announced after the New England game. [00:40:58] Speaker C: Okay, well, all this suspicion and assumption that he sucks is hopefully I'm wrong and show manual kafumana turns out to be exactly what we needed to finish out the season. Let's see the other big news this week. We got today the new roster rules. MLS roster rules finally came out today. We did learn prior to this that the second buyout that we had heard rumored to be as part of this new slate of rules did not happen. So you won't be able to buy out Paxton's contract or Velasquez. You know, whatever. We can't do two in one season. But there are some changes. I guess they're less byzantine. Buzz, I don't know. I think we there. There's one deal in there where there's an every team gets to have a path. It's like choose your own adventure book, except in the MLS rules. And it's very, very clear to me which of these two Dan Hunt's gonna walk down. [00:42:01] Speaker B: Oh, I swear, Clark Hunt wrote this rule. Listen, the short of it is that you can either have three DP's and three U 22 initiatives, or you can have two DP's, four U 22 initiatives and $2 million in buy down money. And you guys know how much the hunts like to buy down those guys and get like, rather than having 115 million dollars DP, they like to have eight $1 million DP's. So that rule, like, if you follow that, that rule and you, and you use the two four setup for what you can assume is going to be for FC Dallas, you can look at the roster right now, the ones you can't buy down Musa or Ferreira, but you can buy down like you already are polyureola. And you can buy down Pacs and you can buy down legit. Those are the other three. And then one there's a question mark is Alan Velasco, you know, can you buy him down? And you can. You know, the reason you wouldn't want to was because the. The deep, the young DP counts less than a. Than a full DP. But if by buying him down, you basically means he's not a DP, and thus you get $2 million in your pocket and you get an extra U 22 slot. So why wouldn't you do that then? So you can just see, like, if you go look at the money for SC Dallas, you can see that their roster is basically set up. We'll look at the salaries and you can see that it's set up to take advantage of the two four version, you know, and this is how this club likes to operate anyway, with all these buy downs. So while they haven't said officially we can all pretty much guess which way they're going to go, you know, because this is the way they like to do business. They'd rather get these younger guys and see if they can develop and sell, you know, that's the plan. So I'll be stunned if it's not any version but the two versus four. [00:43:56] Speaker C: All right, well, we'll see how that plays out. So these all take. These all start this window, correct? Is that what I am to understand? [00:44:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's a. And there's a pro rated, you know, value of this, that and the other thing based on half season. Like, the details of that are not worth digging. Digging into, really, in a consequential way. [00:44:17] Speaker C: Okay, awesome. All right, so, looking forward, Dallas does travel to New England this weekend. As Buzz and or Dan mentioned, the revolution are a mess. They have a lot of injury issues. It's an insane. In fact, that may be. I don't know if you guys saw that list from the other day. That's one of the worst lists I've seen in some time. And that's remarkable for this league before. They get into league's cup on the 27th, starting off with the road trip to St. Louis, and then Juarez comes to Dallas on the 31st. And then obviously the break, depending on how Dallas does, they may have some time off to heal up or whatever, or maybe progress for far into the tournament. The messy list tournament, I guess, is what we're assuming is going to happen at this point with his ankle injury, doesn't pick back up until that game against DC on the 24th. Anything else that we want to get into before we wrap this thing up, since we're dealing with the Internet issues. [00:45:16] Speaker D: I think the only thing that came to mind for me was Dallas Trinity continuing to sign players, just. They announced Cioma Ibergagu the other day, former Real Madrid, Houston Dash, Orlando Pride, Arsenal, Tottenham, you name it. She's played there from Capel, capped by England, us youth national team player. Sat out for a little bit with some. Some health issues and good to see her back playing. And honestly, that's, to me, that's by far and away their biggest sign in today. [00:45:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I saw a video of them at training today. Do you know where they're training at? Because I couldn't identify where that field was. [00:45:56] Speaker D: I don't. They actually had some interesting. They had some social media people kind of shadowing FC Dallas people to kind of, you know, figure out the game day logistics and all that. So it'd be interesting to see kind of what they do. But no, I couldn't identify where they were training. [00:46:14] Speaker C: All right, when's their first game? August. What? [00:46:18] Speaker D: August 18. They're away to somebody and then they're home. September 7, I think, for DC power. [00:46:26] Speaker C: DC Power. All right, very good. All right, Buzz. Well, I hope the vacation, the walkabout with the family is going well, sir. [00:46:35] Speaker B: Swimmingly. Yeah, of course. [00:46:37] Speaker C: All right. Where are you headed, by the way? [00:46:41] Speaker B: Same place as always. Northern Idaho, where my wife's family has a place up there, a cabin on a lake. [00:46:46] Speaker C: What didn't I see during the trip that you were in Arkansas? [00:46:50] Speaker B: Yes, well, my wife was working in for a camp in Rockford, Illinois. So I cut Easton up a little bit to Rockford, Illinois, picked her up, and then we went across. I stopped by field of dreams, took a picture there, and then we were. Now we're going across Wyoming and Montana to. Up to where her family's got a place. [00:47:09] Speaker C: All right, very good. That is excellent. I don't think I've got anything else I want to mention. I'm trying to make sure. Look at my notes. No, I think it all looks good. All right. Well, boys, congratulations on the win. Feels good. We'll see how things roll. And thank you so much, Dan. Great to talk to you, as always. [00:47:30] Speaker D: Thank you. And likewise. [00:47:32] Speaker C: And buzz, I appreciate you making the effort. Hopefully editing this doesn't turn, isn't your demise. [00:47:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I may be sitting here for hours trying to get this thing cut together, but hopefully we can get it up for everybody tonight. [00:47:45] Speaker C: Oh, hey, just real quick, because this is related. We did also hear the devastating and heartbreaking news today that Zach Crane of D magazine unexpectedly died on Monday. He was found dead in his home. And that's important to FC Dallas fans because Zack is one of the media members locally who did put out effort in covering this team for D magazine. So condolences to everybody at D magazine, Zach's family and all of his friends, many of which are people I know. It was totally out of the blue, unexpected and a real tragedy. So rest in peace. Zach Crane Third Degree the podcast is. [00:48:26] Speaker B: Brought to you by the Lindstrom law firm for Wills Trust, probates and business law. Call 469 515 25 59 or visit lindstromlaw firm.com for a free consultation. [00:48:37] Speaker C: Thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fans, enjoy the win. Enjoy the ride. Let's see how this goes and we will talk to you next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast Kingdom. [00:48:51] Speaker A: Third degree the third degree nepochet third degree the third degree nap, I guess, third degree nap, I guess, third degree third degree nap, I guess.