3rd Degree the Podcast #274

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Ooh. Mm hmm. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Oh. [00:00:09] Speaker A: Third degree. The third degree. [00:00:11] Speaker C: Ner pocket. [00:00:13] Speaker A: 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, probate and business law. Call 406 9515-2559 that's 469-515-2559 or visit lindstromlaw firm.com for a free consultation. [00:00:40] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fans. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. This is number 274, and look who's here. It's your favorite english man, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:54] Speaker C: How's it going? [00:00:56] Speaker A: Very good, sir. Thank you very much. And your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero. Editor, founder of Thirddegree.net, and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Kerik. Come. Oh, and he's back in town in person with a good Internet connection to boot. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I gotta say, fellas, this feels super weird, being back at a desk. [00:01:20] Speaker C: Being able to hear you. [00:01:21] Speaker A: Yes. You don't sound like a robot. [00:01:27] Speaker C: Oh, there we go. [00:01:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that felt better. Very good. Unfortunately, we had to take last week off because of Buzz's aforementioned bad Internet connection. But that was probably, in retrospect, a good thing, because unfortunately, since the last time we talked, the burn have fallen out of the league's cup and the most spectacular of ways, first losing at St. Louis, two to one, and then losing at home to FC Juarez, two to nothing, getting shut out to war as. And, boy, there's a whole list of weirdo stats to talk about that. But, Buzz. [00:02:10] Speaker B: Yes, sir. [00:02:10] Speaker A: I. My observation, especially as that Juarez game was going down, and I never liked to be one to intimate that maybe players have ulterior motives going on. But, man, you just had to wonder, with all the injuries and the number of games that team had played over the course of a very short period of time, if just somewhere in the back of their mind, a three week vacation, was it looking kind of as a. Well, that's not a bad kind of turnout if we don't win one of these games in advance in the tournament. [00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, you know, as. As soon as they realized that game was going to be hard, I think that this is highly possible that you almost couldn't help it. But the problem is, though, is that Peter Luxe needed these games that he needed, I think, good performances here, and he didn't get it. He got a decent showing versus St. Louis, but not a good showing concerning that. They're not very good. And he got a horrific showing as Juarez, one of the worst of the season for this team. And a lot of that was some really poor, to me, tactical choices he made the first time I felt like, what, WTF is he doing? And came at a really bad time. I mean, just, just before this, we were having conversations on here about, oh, he's doing all the right things to win this job. All you do is do is keep going and keep this level of performance going and then team right, then right into the wall, crap the bed, whatever analogy you want to say. And you're probably right that maybe you can't help but think, you know what? A rest would be good. Do some team some good. I mean, we watched those games with just an absolutely decimated lineup and he's being forced to start guys that shouldn't be starting, you know, and he's trying to piece it together the best he can, but he just ran out of steam and unfortunately, pedal Dixie ran out of steam. Right. Probably at a really, really bad time because now his owner is going to stew for a month on those horrible results before they play again. And that's not how you win jobs, leaving your owners stewing and angry for a month, even if you're resting. So this was not good. [00:04:22] Speaker A: Well, but Dan, isn't maybe that not a bad thing ultimately, if, if everybody's, if ever, if we all are in agreement that the number one thing we want to have happen is force the hands, the hunt's hand at hiring the right person for this job, if we find out that Petter Luxon cannot get these guys to perform against Juarez, maybe that's something we need to know, isn't it? [00:04:54] Speaker C: I think as much as anything you don't want to, I think when they had that early success, my initial thought after games was they're getting close to the playoff line. Suddenly you didn't see a remote possibility if they achieved that and then Dan Hunt's like, yeah, we did it. We're in the playoffs. That makes, basically makes us some of our scop winners. Well, then there's no, there's no urgency to not only look at is the coach the right coach, but are the players an actual true playoff challenging roster? [00:05:29] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:29] Speaker C: You know, it'd be such an easy cop out, I think, you know, two games ultimately isn't going to dictate, is Peter Luxon the best choices as coach, particularly not in such a weird setting as those early league cup games? Yeah, I mean, I just, yeah, I think take the positives out of it. Right. They, they get a couple of weeks rest to work on stuff. They actually get time to work with him because I think I tightened up the dates last week and he's had exactly one full week to work with the team on tactical things, not just recover game practice game, recover travel game. [00:06:14] Speaker A: But Buzz isn't, isn't, you know, the fact, you know, everybody kept talking about how there were all these games jam packed into a very short period of time and I kept thinking in the back of my head, you know, I feel like people shouldn't use that as an excuse or let them off the hook for that because it's not like we, they didn't know what the schedule was back in February. And, and really where they're at at this point is just a byproduct of exactly the thing that we've been talking about even before the season, which is, are you sure this roster is the one you want to run with? Because there's a lot of really questionable, uh, there's a lot of questions here, of course, as we've talked and beaten that dead horse multiple times, which is, you know, a lot of injury prone guys that have all turned out to be injured and not available. [00:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah, look, everyone, every team has this same schedule in a rough sense. You know, you have to play a lot of midweek games. That's the price of playing things like a league's cup, you know, and yes, that is the major problem. You know, there's multiple issues with this roster. You know, one is the too many guys that are hurt too much. You know, some are sort of a disconnect in terms of, like, the kind of roster they were building versus what the coach thought they were building, you know, and some of it is, is the overuse of old players versus the pipeline and that kind of thing. But, you know, it's, you have to, I think at this point you can't be thinking about, you know, what's next and what might be on a, on a roster overhaul. You have to be thinking about this coach compared to the last coach compared to a hypothetical coach. You know, is this the guy that can get the most out of this roster? And for a great deal of the time, we have seen him get a lot out of this roster. But granted, a lot of those games were at home and this team in particular is very, very poor on the road and a lot better at home. So it's really hard to say whether you feel right now, whether you feel that this is the guy or not or whether there might be something better out there. You can't even begin to start talking about how you're going to change the roster until you figure out who it's going to be, which is a real shame about being in this window without having your coach decided. There's, there's probably, you know, if we, if we compare particularly teams from south of here, whether it be Mexico or whether it be from South America, they really are have this ingrained system where the technical director or the director of soccer, whatever it's going to be at any given club, builds all these rosters and then they go out and get a coach, um, to coach that team up. And if you're not performing within a season, or sometimes even less than a season and a half a season or whatever, you're out the door. It's like, I got a good roster, you're going to coach this team up or you're going to be gone, and then they change coaches all the time. And I can't help but wonder if that's kind of not what is happening with FC Dallas right now in the sense that Zonata and whoever else at the club believes, like, we've got a great roster and we're just going to keep changes coaches until we find one that can win with this, you know, which is a very un american and un MLS way. We're used to having coaches have the majority of the power here, you know, and be able to get rid of TD's or often, or even be the TD themselves and for the most of the history of this league. So it's kind of a weird, I was gonna say way that's not quite right. It's kind of a weird different version. Like, even, for example, at this club, Shellis kind of picked his own TD, right? And then he also had a lot of say in Clavillo coming in and Convillo and Oscar worked more hand in hand. Well, it doesn't really feel that way anymore, does it, around here? So we're kind of in a weird spot in terms of. We almost doesn't limit ourselves with just discussion of, okay, is this the guy or not? You know, and because the club's not making any moves that we can tell and we know that they've tried or at least they want to make a move in terms of center back, but that doesn't seem to be happening. So I honestly don't know at this point. It's. It's such in limbo that it's almost. It's almost hard to really have a directed conversation about where they should go, what they should do, or how they should approach the back end of the season. [00:10:27] Speaker A: Well, it's. And it's weird because it feels like it was a million years ago that Dallas went into the league's cup on an undefeated streak of three games. They had beat the Galaxy 20. They beat Austin three one. They had gone on the road and gotten their first point against New England. Then they go to St. Louis again. They had not won a game on the road. St. Louis, say what you will, but he rolls out with a four four two and Carl Sunte in the middle. And I guess my number one question, Buzz, is, and this may be me just forgetting or whatever, because I'm prone to doing that these days, or not paying attention was alarm Indy injured or did they decide to give him a vacation or what's going on there? [00:11:11] Speaker B: Yeah, if I'm remembering correctly from the St. Louis game, he was 50% chance he could play coming into that game and they just. He just didn't make it, or they decided not to push it. And then for the FC Juarez game, if I remember correctly, he was cleared and was on the bench. I have it in front of me. Give me a second. I'm pretty sure he was on the bench, but they chose not to use him. He did not make the bench. So obviously those estimates that he was going to be 50 50 to make it to the St. Louis game or, and then the wars game obviously didn't come to fruition. But I will say that, like, there's been a lot of times this season in particular, where they vastly underestimated how long ago I was going to be out, at least in terms of what they telling the public and telling the media. So it's not surprising to me that they were like 50 50 St. Louis games going to play against wars, and then he didn't. That didn't happen. That's not surprising at all. That's the way it's been this year. On the other hand, like, I'm not at all upset that they didn't risk him because he is a bit old. And I don't know that putting him in that wars game would have made a whole, whole lot of difference. Maybe it would have because the team is vastly better when he's in there. But, you know, the decision might have been made by some point, like, look, we're going to have a chance to get everybody healthy after this gap. We might as well just wait on him too, you know, and that's particularly unhelpful. In terms of your chances to win because you're basically rolling out. And sibling Carl Sante, central midfield, neither one of which should be starting at Selton in particular. Like, I've already told the story before, like, the entire discussion with the staff before they signed him was that like, yeah, we really like him as a center back. He's going to be a center back and then he's played holding mid the whole time he's been signed with FC Dallas. So, you know, the idea that he's starting in these MLS or in league MX level games as a six when he wasn't even supposed to be a six, is really just tells you how bad it is, you know, and they're making emergency signings of my man, you know, Anthony Ramirez, who I'm ecstatic to see you get into games, but it's like that just shows you how awful the load is in central midfield, that those things are happening, you know, so it is forgivable in a lot of ways. But what, what isn't forgivable is, is, as you mentioned, the four four two against St. Louis, you know, is an adaptation. We, we've seen these flexing positions. At least they're using junka as the higher midfielder and far fan as the defender, which is better, you know, but that game sort of lost a lot of the flex that the team had been using. Cause, you know, they, they. It happened more up front with Paul getting up front and getting back, and they tried to give Emo a little bit more freedom, but that game didn't have the, what I have come to call the look, St. Flex in it. But the Juarez game did in the most bizarre choice of who put, which players flexed and who ended up at what position. That one was the one that was truly mystifying. But I, you know, just the paltry nation of the, of the lineup and the bench with all the limitations from injuries is just, it's just, it's just what can you do, honestly? [00:14:17] Speaker A: So I didn't. The St. Louis game I have not seen, and I was looking at some notes from the game. I don't know, Dan or Buzz, what you guys think about fat mob ratings, but I was surprised to see Carlos Sante was the second highest rated player behind Paul Areola in that game. Does that track with you, Buzz? [00:14:37] Speaker B: I think that he played. Played fairly well in the sense that, like, the minutes he's been playing Sante, he's. He's been playing a very simple game. He's not trying to over commit himself. He's not trying to play it too ambitious of a ball. He's keeping it simple and finding players around him, you know, so I think that's, that's probably fair. You know, he didn't, he didn't turn. You know, he's been susceptible as a six to, at North Texas, mostly to a little bit of a loose touch where the ball is bouncing away a little bit. And he kept that pretty clean and occasionally trying to make too ambitious of passes and them getting cut out and getting turned over and causing attacks the other way. Those are his two biggest issues that I worried about and why I didn't like him as a six coming up to MLS. I think those ability, those, his on ball ability, his passing ability look much better at a center back, relatively speaking, which is why I think there's a potential there in that, in that regard. So I thought he was okay against St. Louis. Against St. Louis. I thought the team put in a pretty decent, on the road, grinded out sort of performance. You know, they created twelve shots on the road, which is an okay percentage, but they didn't, they didn't get them in a good enough opportunity. They only got three of them on target. And that's where the. I mean, again and again and again we've talked about with this team, they can't afford these deep shots. You've got to get it in to good positions. Um, and that's where they, they failed in St. Louis. Their opportunities came late. Um, but they did, they did get some. And they, and they did a pretty good job against St. Louis, a team that's relatively speaking about in the same positions that they are. So that was always going to be a difficult one, you know, because it's a, it's a team with the same caliber. So it was a solid performance. Santa was okay. You know, that. That game, I thought Luxain did a nice job of using the pieces. He had to create that nice four four two look, you know, which, which puts Musa and Ferrington up high. It put a nice block of eight across the middle and let them kind of go mid to low block. You know, in the end of the day, they, they weren't able to get forward and get good enough opportunities for their guys up front. Those guys worked really hard and ran their butts off the two up front. They just couldn't get enough of the game to them. You know, if you look at that midfield, which is juncker, who's a really a defender, or wingback, probably Sante, who's we just talked about, should be a center back seeking Zeppelin, who's a decent enough, good midfielder and Areola is a decent, good midfielder. But still half of it is like not really guys that are going to be able to create and link and that puts you to disadvantage, you know, and you can see, and like if you looked at that game you could see where the difference, er, maybe would have made and that one in particular. But then you get to the Morris game and it really went sideways. [00:17:14] Speaker A: Well, yeah, that's kind of what I want to know because he changed the formation to a three five two essentially against Juarez, which makes me wonder, was that something that he thought he was doing to. To kind of react to how worse was going to play or was it trying to fix something that he thought was broken in the St. Louis game? [00:17:34] Speaker B: Well, it must have been to try and contain Juarez because he sat in the coast Safari, which I don't understand at all for Omar Gonzalez. The only thing I can think of, and I buy this conversation, if it's correct, is that Omar played in Mexico a whole bunch, you know, and so if you're, if you're going to have a guy, if you're going to arrest a guy for a dude that has a ton of experience playing against these kinds of players in this kind of team at this kind of game, you know, Omar, this is a good opportunity. You know, the thing that went sideways for him was that he used Marco Farfan as the left center back. When he had Nicosi, he could have brought in Omar and just sat far fan and played Nicosi as left center back. Because the, what the weird part was that the, the outside back flex that loose scene has done over and over and over again in this particular game, almost always he uses Areola to do it. Areola flexes to right back and then he flexes up into midfield or even wing because Paul's a very intelligent player who's a two way game and can get him down the whole field. But in this game he didn't do that. Areola was in the game but he didn't play that flex right back. Instead they used Jungkook on the left as the flex left back and seaking and settling was flexing from like the high ten in a. In a. In front of legit. And Carl Sante Tiki was moving from that spot to left midfield when they were with. When they didn't have the ball. So he became the wide left midfielder and Jukka became the left back and that Marco Farfan was the center back and Sebastian Ibi Haga was playing right back. And because Juarez had like 65% of the ball for like 80% of the game, that meant for the majority of the game, Sebastian DiBiago is playing right back. And since he doesn't know how to play right back, Omar Gonzalez was cheating over to his side of the field. Omar's average position is way over to the right side of the field. And that left Marco Farfett on an island against their number 29, what's his name? Zaldevar, their best striker, who immediately lost him and scored the one goal and they won the game. So how in the world you end up with a four four two styled in defense with junka as your left back, Marco Farvan as your center back next to Omar Gonzalez, and then Sebastian Biagas right back is beyond me. That's a. Just an absolute meltdown of a flex. You, if you wanted a flex with that group, then you flex Oreola back, and that way you keep Omar and Sebastian in the middle. And for the. For God's sake, just. If you really want to back three, just play safari and set. Marco Farfan. I just don't understand this. This is the first time I was just absolutely baffled by what was going on. I couldn't believe it. And it led directly to the goal. Directly to the. [00:20:12] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I mean, I saw. I saw most of this game, I saw the entire first half, and then I was so frustrated and bored, frankly, I turned it off. And then I decided to watch the last few minutes of it. The last. I think I watched like the last 15 minutes of the second half. And my. And my observation was tied one, tactically, all those things you just mentioned was Juarez was just running Dallas over. I was shocked to find out that Dallas actually had more possession than Juarez did. [00:20:43] Speaker B: That only happened at the end of the game, because when they were chasing it, but Dallas. [00:20:48] Speaker A: But Dallas could not create any opportunities and Juarez, or was just beating them to every ball. And it was just bad. I mean, again, this gets back to what I said originally, which was the team just didn't look like they had real, any real desire to get a result out of this game. And Juarez was having way too much ease doing what they wanted to do. And the part that really bothered me was going into this game, whereas is a pretty crummy league MX side. You know, they had not won a game all season. The last time they won a game was April of earlier this year, which is, you know, the end of their previous season. They had allowed, I think I'm saying this correctly, Buzz. They had allowed two goals per game dating back to. I'm looking at it right now, the last time. Yeah, dating back to last season, the game that they tied back in April. They had given up two goals every game since then and generally are not a very good team and I don't think had won on the road in a really long time. So to have all of that happen at home for Dallas, really, I just. That's probably in the history of the club. One of the more embarrassing and awful losses. I think it has to go down that way, doesn't it? [00:22:06] Speaker B: Well, basically, Juarez easily handled them. They just controlled the game through, like, Dallas made a whole bunch of subs at the 58th minute. So that's roughly 60. So through that mark, Juarez had the bulk, had more of the possession. There are. I know that the numbers are only showing that they had, you know, 52 to whatever, but it was much more through, like 60 minutes. It was much more lopsided than that. And the term Dallas basically was running out of ideas. They ended up. Dallas ended up with a flurry of late shots. They ended up with ten shots total and only four of them on goal. So same sort of thing. They really just watched in that game. It was like they ran out of ideas. Their only idea was when they get the ball, they would try and attack quickly and directly to try with Musso or Ferrind and try and catch, whereas out and get in on him. So that's like every time they would get it, they immediately go and they would. Then they would lose it. And Boris goes with the ball back and they just controlled the game. So Dallas spent the bulk of that game playing that back for. With ya. Get right back. And they just got. And it wasn't like, it wasn't like watching that game that it was like, oh, this is a hard fought game. Warriors controlled that game easily. They were not stressed. Like their, their main central midfielder was not even sweating. I was laughing my butt off watching him walk around, control the game without even get a sweat on. And it was like 100 degrees. [00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it was. They didn't score the second goal until the 83rd minute. And there was at no point in the second half did I ever think Dallas had a chance to tie this game. And by the way, Buzz, they. They had four shots on goal. Three of those were in the first half. They had one shot on goal the second half. Dallas. [00:23:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, it wasn't good. [00:23:39] Speaker A: So we could. It's a bad loss. They're out of the tournament, and now they've got this, this time off. And part of me makes me wonder, well, I guess the question everybody's wondering and we can just jump ahead to this part because that's all anybody at this point cares about, is every day you watch anything on the social, you see another MLS club making moves, some of which are making some massive moves and center backs are getting added to rosters. It feels like every single day. And other than this, gone. Is he from Uganda? I can't remember which, which country he's from, but the guy they got from the Israeli. Yeah. Is show they've got nothing going. By the way, when is that guy showing up? Has anybody heard if when he's going to join the club? [00:24:29] Speaker B: Well, somebody has suggested it might be hard for him to get here since he's trying to come from Israel, given the current climate of things that are happening maybe over there. So who knows? I mean, hopefully it's this window. Even the club was like the end of the day, they had a little thing about, oh, now it's time to rest and get healthy and hopefully the guy can show up and get involved. It's like, oh, my God, they don't even know. I mean, he's probably stuck waiting for his visa, right? You got to get your visa. So he probably, he can't come until he gets that. So he's probably stuck in Israel and he may have to go back to Angola, for all I know, to get it. That's not an easy visa get, I bet. So stay tuned, I guess. [00:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah. So I guess the point I'm trying to make is nobody has any confidence that anything's going to come out of this window. [00:25:16] Speaker B: No. [00:25:18] Speaker A: And specifically them buying, getting a quality center back. [00:25:22] Speaker B: I mean, you know, I think they, I think they were efforting one and we're trying to get one and then I. Something must have gone sideways because there's no way that they've been talking about this because, listen, Niko, Steph has brought it up like, within like a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season, like, we need a center back. So they've known since March that they needed a center back, you know, and we know enough things behind the scenes to know that they were trying. So, like, if some has something has gone wrong or whatever they thought they had, they didn't get or something. And so, because now they're running out of time and nothing's happened. So, like, I don't want to be flat out say, like, no, they just don't think they need one. No, I think they know, they need one. I think they've messed it up somehow. You know whose fault any of that is? As I have no idea. [00:26:14] Speaker A: I wonder if that's related at all to the job posting for a scouting intern that popped up on the interwebs. [00:26:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I suppose it could be. [00:26:23] Speaker A: What was the language in that buzz? There was very, very funny line that didn't, just didn't bode well for this point of the season. There was a line in the job description that said, I'm going to try to read it here. The scouting intern will play a critical role in our soccer scouting department. That's, I don't know. And that probably says a lot related to how we all feel about the progress on adding to the roster. [00:26:53] Speaker B: Maybe the critical role is sorting through all the emails they get from people wanting to play. [00:26:57] Speaker A: But here's the deal. It's, look, this is, center backs are not four leaf clovers. [00:27:03] Speaker B: No. [00:27:04] Speaker A: How many center backs have been signed in this window? And so far, four, five league. [00:27:11] Speaker B: Here's, there's a bunch. Here's the thing. Like, I can't tell you what went wrong. I just, I just can't even fathom that they're so bad at this that they just didn't even think they needed one. I can't. That can't be true. They have to have Zenata talked about. [00:27:30] Speaker A: Getting a center back at the, at the petter looks in announcement. [00:27:35] Speaker B: Right. So until they, until somebody. And look, they, maybe because there's such a small, I think, small department where it's Zanana and the new TD whose name I can't remember and maybe like a scout or two, like, it's a really small department of people that are involved. I don't think Dan Hunt gets involved until, and this is my impression, until late in any kind of process. So they're really good at keeping tight lid on stuff. So we don't get a lot of things here about what's going south when things don't happen. So until somebody like Bogart or some agent leaks like what happened, we're going to be at a loss. But something must have happened. There's no way that they're this in common. [00:28:15] Speaker A: Oh, yes. [00:28:16] Speaker B: I don't think that's. No, I don't think it's. [00:28:18] Speaker A: Do I need to not get one at all? [00:28:20] Speaker B: To not get one at all? Is, is not, is like there something, I can't believe something hasn't gone wrong that, like there must have been a failed hurdle or something or somebody tricked him at the last minute and got more money or, you know, I mean, these things happen, too. So, you know, somebody said he's coming and then in the last minute he's not. [00:28:38] Speaker A: I think obviously they know they need a center back. Their inability or failure to get a center back. I totally believe they're capable of being an of ineptitude of that. Yes, man. I mean, have you seen. Have you seen Eugene Ansa play? [00:28:54] Speaker B: I have. I have. Yeah. He's about the same as the other guy. [00:28:59] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, and the other thing, we talked if there, and I know, and I still haven't figured out if this is a silver lining or I. A kick in the balls. We got an anise Sully sighting out of the Juarez game. [00:29:13] Speaker B: Yeah, that was nice. Yeah. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Like, what's up with throwing that poor kid on for like ten minutes at the end of the game? And by the way, did you see what happened in his very first touch of the ball? [00:29:22] Speaker B: Oh, I don't even remember what it. What did he do? I don't remember. [00:29:25] Speaker A: He got trucked and tossed aside like a tissue. Piece of tissue paper. [00:29:29] Speaker B: I told you he was tiny. You know, people were like, I think even like, Steve Davis was like, oh, he's not that tiny, dude. He is tiny. He's like, small is the size of Pauly or the tiny. [00:29:38] Speaker A: Well, he. There was a smaller guy on Juarez, so that was playing in the midfield. [00:29:43] Speaker B: But, yeah, I mean, the league mvp is smaller, but that doesn't mean that small. [00:29:48] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a tiny little dude. And there was. He wasn't out there long enough to really get any sense as to what his qualities were. I just thought it was weird. If that was the moment they chose to debut an East Sully in a Dallas shirt. [00:30:01] Speaker B: I mean, why not at that point, you know, just put him on? Yeah, that signing, I mean, coach was right when that signing happened. Everyone was all hyped up. He was like, you guys all better tap the brakes on this. He went lying. You know that the kids 18, you have to think of him as like a homegrown, an 18 year old kid. You know, that's. That's the best you're going to get out of him right now. It'll be two or three seasons before he's really valuable. Probably. [00:30:22] Speaker A: Yeah, probably. [00:30:23] Speaker B: If at all. If at all. I mean, you know, how many kid size have we seen 18 year old kids need two or three seasons before they actually pay off? [00:30:31] Speaker A: You know, Dan, you've been awfully quiet. Do you have any hope at all that people sign it? Oh, I'm sorry. Just about the world in general, or I was looking maybe just more specifically to the club. [00:30:46] Speaker C: You know, it's difficult. Right. I follow two teams. Both are in desperate need of centre back, and both have decided, what the fuck is a centre back? No, it's awfully quiet. The whole coffee mana show thing, you know, using up an international roster spot, that kind of seems. I don't know, it seems like that's not an important role to get over. You know, some other positions that maybe you would want that international roster spot, because. Correct me if I'm wrong, Buzz, but that was the very last one they have. [00:31:26] Speaker B: Yeah, that was the 8th one. Yep. And the last senior Roger spot, too. [00:31:30] Speaker C: Yes. That's. That's not a good sign. That sounds like, oh, well, we didn't get a business done, but we can at least bring a body in. [00:31:37] Speaker B: It means if you do find a center back and almost certainly have to be an international center back, you know that you're going to have to make a move to make it happen, because, like, you can't. You can't add a. In a senior roster move. That means you got to get rid of one of your top 20 players, and you got to get rid of an international baseball, basically, you know, or acquire a spot somehow about the trade or whatever. It just means that you can do. [00:31:56] Speaker C: It, especially if that second buyout is now not happening. [00:32:00] Speaker B: The second buyout is not happening. That's correct. [00:32:02] Speaker C: So that whole backup plan cut Paxton getting back on another. On a deal another day when he's fit. You can't do that now. [00:32:11] Speaker B: Yep. Well, Paxton, I would have done that because Paxton's already on IR. He's already off the roster. [00:32:16] Speaker C: Well, I just mean, that was, like, one of the scenarios people were talking through is like, well, you know, you can always do something. Something. Something is now less available. [00:32:26] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, there are ways to make it happen. It just means that you're gonna have to expand some assets somehow. You're gonna have to get a guy off the roster somehow, and you have to find a way to get a national. [00:32:37] Speaker A: Well, you gotta be. You gotta have a front office that is both creative and ambitious. I mean, there are multiple teams in the league that are doing both of those things at a very high level, and I just don't. [00:32:50] Speaker B: LAFC is adding Giroux and Griezmann. [00:32:53] Speaker A: Well, I don't know if Griezmann's coming. Yes, I. Yeah, there's been a lot of additions at a very high level across of several teams. Not a lot of them. I mean, Dallas isn't the only team that's just sitting on their thumbs. [00:33:04] Speaker B: Yeah, certainly not. [00:33:05] Speaker A: That's true, to be fair, but it is frustrating. But I also. There's part of me that just thinks that maybe they've just given up on the season because they know they've got to find a new manager. I mean, this is the. Look, this is exactly the scenario that we predicted was going to happen as the season got worse and worse. And we knew that Niko Estevez was on a very short leash and likely to get canned, and we. And they clearly had no plan for what to do when they got rid of him. [00:33:37] Speaker B: Well, to me, that's why the show signing feels kind of weird, because it feels like it's a signing where Luxem went to the front office and said, you guys are. I'm getting destroyed in midfield. I need a player. This is awful. And they're like, great. Okay, here's a six, right? And that's like. And we're going to rent him for the rest of the season because it's easy to get out of that contract ten, nine games from now when the season ends, if you don't want him, you know, so it's just a rent a player if you want, you know, so it's. It's a. It feels like it's a. Shut up and leave me alone. I'm trying to work on next season, you know, here's a guy. Yeah, so, I mean, this is what it feels like. [00:34:17] Speaker A: Well, I mean, look, here's the reality. They've got two weeks plus before they have to go to DC and play up there and try to get points on the road. The rest of their schedule does not bode well for a playoff run. It just simply doesn't. They're all. It's. It's more road games than home games. They've got some difficult games to play, even the ones at home. And I, you know, I think this thing has been done and dusted for a while, although I think the front office and a few die hard fans have all held out hope that they would somehow make a magical playoff run. But that's all going to be tied to a couple of really key things. Allah Mendy getting back on the field and getting healthy. And the return. I'm assuming Jesus Ferreira is somewhere close to coming back. Does anybody have any idea what his status is? [00:35:05] Speaker B: Is. Yeah, they've said he's close. [00:35:09] Speaker A: Okay, I know, but listen, we've talked. [00:35:11] Speaker B: About that a bunch of times lately. Is that, like, you know, you can't. You can't. They've been overestimating how fast guys are going to be back. And there's, there's definitely circulating around the club this expectation that Jesus and Velasco are relatively close, and then after that is Delgado, possibly, you know, Fraser should be back sometime soon. You know, those kinds of things are what their people are saying. [00:35:36] Speaker A: So, so my question, I guess my general question to both of you is if everybody here, in a very short order, not necessarily by DC, but maybe by the beginning of September, they've got Velasco back, they've got a healthy Ferreira, they've got a healthy Alara, Mendy and Delgado, let's say, is there Frazier? Let's. Or even Frazier, do they have enough pieces to make a playoff front? [00:36:07] Speaker B: Oh, man, that is really. I want to hear what Dan thinks, too, but that is really, really hard because they only have four home games left, and it's Colorado who's pretty good, LAFC who's really good, Orlando and Poppy who's pretty good, and sporting Kansas City, who will love nothing more than to ruin FC Dallas's season at the end of the season that sporting Kinsey hates Dallas, they'll be happy to ruin it for you. You got to go on the road for five of those games. [00:36:36] Speaker A: DC, Vancouver, Salt Lake, San Jose and Portland. [00:36:41] Speaker B: That's not easy. That's not an easy road slate. I mean, DC is not that good, but Dallas has zero road wins in any comp. Oh, sorry. They have one. They have one road win in open cup play against the USL championship team. That's their one road win. And they won like 18 to 17, if I remember correctly. I think was the scoreline of that game. So, you know, at DC is not easy, even though they're not very good. Right. Vancouver, where's Vancouver at? Vancouver is. Oh, Jesus. Other in the west. They're fifth in the west. So that's. That's a loss at RSL. Christ. That's a loss at San Jose. Okay. They're terrible. So maybe you have a chance there and then at Portland, who's the team also fighting for the bottom of those playoff spots. And the thing is, right, remember, it's not about that. There are three points behind Minnesota for the last playoff spot. That's not what. It's not three points. You can't go, oh, they just need three points. That's not what it is. You got to get to 42 to 44 somewhere in that window. So they need something like 14 ish points out of those nine games, which is like, that's when every home game and then get another like half of a win somewhere. Right. So that's. Man, that is. That is not going to be easy. Even with all those bodies left. It's. They're going to. It's going to come down to the absolute wire and that's if they can win all their home games. You got to win all the rest of your home games pretty much. And then you got to try and get something on the road maybe you can buy. Since they got the one tie in New England, you could tie two road games and that'll get you a win, quote unquote, with three points. But man alive, that is a thin margin. And to expect a team that has played the whole season at a clip of roughly 500 to turn it up to like 700, man, it's. It's theoretically possible, but it's very, very difficult even with all those bodies coming back. Dan, are you with me on this? [00:38:49] Speaker C: I love your positivity. [00:38:51] Speaker B: I know, I know. [00:38:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:54] Speaker B: That is me being positive. [00:38:57] Speaker C: It's hard not to be doom and gloom, but you kind of have to be realistic. Like we talked about how far off the playoffs they were to begin with and, you know, they clawed back very well, put in some great form. You know, I think from, from the outset of the season there was a lot of talk about pin and people pinning their hopes on Alan Velasco coming back. Giovanni, Jesus, who's just seeing the inside of a gym. It's just. It feels like. It feels like Luton almost, you know. Oh, wow, it's happening. We're gonna stay up. We're gonna stay up. Oh, we did. No injuries. Start picking up your four. You know, your sudden good form teams figure out the little changes. They. They can plan for that. They can adapt. It kind of feels like unless something drastically happens during this break and let's say, you know, luxon hasn't had a lot of time to work with the team tactically to have those full weekly cycles. Unless something drastic happens, this, it's not going to be the success season. It's going to be that. Okay? This is the force rebuild. This is the start of a brand new cycle. [00:40:17] Speaker B: Look at it this way. Portland is in 8th and they're six points ahead of Dallas. Minnesota's in 9th and they're three points ahead. And Austin is in 10th and they're one point ahead. So you have to outplay two of those three teams just to get into the knockout, just to get to the 9th spot. [00:40:34] Speaker A: The knockout game. That's not even playoffs, technically, really. [00:40:37] Speaker B: And you got to outplay them by. I mean, Austin, you got to outplay by two points, but Minnesota or Portland, you got to outplay by four or seven points over nine games. And those are teams that are playing decent lately. Right. You got to effectively turn. You have to turn into, like, one of the top two or three teams in the west overnight in order to do this. You know, it's not. It's not. It's not just. We're three points out. [00:41:02] Speaker A: It's. [00:41:03] Speaker B: There are three other teams in the way. Kansas City on 24 points is probably out of it because they're six points behind you. And you could bring in Houston on 37 or Seattle on 37. Well, that means you got to outplay those two teams by eight if you want to get ahead of them in nine. Eight points in nine games. So it doesn't matter. Like, this idea that, like, they're close and they've done some good things. It's like you got to play monster soccer. Soccer to brit. To beat those team. Beat on more than two of those teams or just to. To beat two of those three teams to get in, since you're at the bottom of those four, you got to be the best one. And that's. That's why it's virtually impossible. So it's like. [00:41:45] Speaker C: We kind of saw it play out with Miami last year. You know, they. They had a great run at the playoffs, but they were so far behind. There's only so much you can play catch up. You've got. You know, you've got to not only win your games, but you've got a hope that the teams around you drop points to kind of get that net gain? [00:42:05] Speaker A: I don't know which team this is. Is this the team that went undefeated leading up to the league's cup? And, you know, beat La, which is the first place team, beat Austin, which is ahead of them, you know, in this playoff chase. All right? And you got a point, finally, under a coach on the road, uh, against the revolution. Or is this the team that absolutely crapped the bed against not only one of the worst teams in league MX, but one of a team even worse than you in the west, in the standings in St. Louis? And I just don't have a real grasp as to what this team is. And I. And I. That's why. Okay. [00:42:46] Speaker B: It's both because the first year, Niko Steves was here 2022. That team was remarkably healthy for the whole season, and they finished third in the west with 1.56 points per game. Right. And this year and the last year and last year, too, all banged up, they were not anywhere close to that, right. Right now they're at 1.2 points per game. So that's like, you know, yes, if you're 100% healthy and this team is all firing on peak form, then this team is capable of not the very top echelons. You're not going to be LAFC, you're not going to be RSL this season, right? But you're going to be. You could be very competitive. You're not going to be LA Galaxy this season. You're going to be in that very competitive next group of two or three clubs right under their very best. If you're 100% healthy and if everyone's informed of. So if you get Velasco back, if you get Jesus Ferreira back, if you get Delgado back, if you get Frazier back and show turns out to be decent, if you get all those bodies back and you get all those bodies performing at the top level, then, yes, this team is capable of being a playoff team, but they don't have that and they're not likely to get that because those guys. It is really hard to go from hurt to superstar overnight. Velasco is not going to come off of an ACL and be MVP. Jesus Ferrer is not going to have a poor season that he's having been missing for a month and a half and walk in and score a goal a game for nine games. Or if he does, they're going to be in the playoffs. Right. If all five of those guys come in and kill it, they'll be in, they'll make it. But the odds of that happening. So, yes, it's that team, but it's also like 80%. No way that's that tea. [00:44:30] Speaker A: They're probably at least as bad as the odds at the beginning of the season. When you looked at this roster, what are the odds that all these players will stay healthy and be available over the course of the season? [00:44:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, if you. If you sat down on paper and compared them to Colorado, through Kansas City, you know, Vancouver, Houston, Seattle, Portland, Minnesota, Austin, if you looked at those teams all healthy, they probably all are. It's a league of parity. Right? Those teams are all probably relatively the same on paper. Estee Dallas could probably be near the top of that stack if they had been healthy, but again, they're not. And, you know, the chances that they're going to get all that healthy and just crush it are just so. [00:45:09] Speaker A: Well, I guess that what the question is is, you know, what is in the planning stages for them to correct whatever their training, their inability to keep players healthy is. And B, you know, trying to reconsider the types of players they signed that may be less likely to be injured, whether that's because of some previous injury history or their age. [00:45:32] Speaker B: Yeah, stop signing old guys and guys to get hurt all the time. The. That's easy. The. The program, I can't answer because I'm not in the medical field, but there needs to be an absolutely top to bottom, 100% investigation into their medical staff and training staff. Training staff. I include all that under the same umbrella. You can even include, like, the doctors they use, the surgeons they use, the people that use for diagnosis, the physical fitness, strength and conditioning training regimens. Like, you got to look at the whole thing because this is now two straight seasons where the team is completely melted down because the amount of injuries they have, and it's all similar types of players that are being overworked. You know, there's a trend here that they should be able to work out and solve, and they may not have enough money to beat that problem. I don't know, but there have been teams here that have not had this problem. You know, I don't remember, you know, Oscar teams having. Oscar teams for a bit had a problem with young players having, you know, these torso things, but they put in a program to solve it. Colin Clark's teams, I don't remember them having these kinds of injuries. They had, like, room Maroney got an ACL, but that's. That's not the same as, like, all these. These cavalcade of injuries are having all. [00:46:39] Speaker A: These midfielders that are burning mostly muscular injuries. Really? [00:46:42] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, other than Giovanni and Allen, but you knew that coming in. Those guys haven't been injury prone other than their ACL. That's not the same thing. You know, that's not these wear and tear injuries that they're having all the time. So, you know, I still could look it back at Colin Cliffs Smith's, excuse me, Colin Clark's teams and how they were fitter than everybody else in the league and they outworked everybody else in the heat all the time, you know, and whereas I don't. I, you know, there's a million strategies you can use, and I honestly haven't felt like Dallas was out, was fitter than everybody else since the. Probably the Shellis era, maybe partway through the Oscar eradic. Like, sometimes Oscar seems really fit and other times they were really old. In 2017, for example, they got really old and crapped out and were terrible that he got rid of those guys. So, you know. [00:47:25] Speaker A: Well, the other side of the coin in terms of the transfer window is it does appear that the Martin paws move to Italy has fallen off by the wayside and maybe he is going to stick around for a while, which would all be a good thing. And which leads me to ask about how much you enjoyed seeing him at the Ranger game. FC Dallas night at the Ranger game earlier this week. [00:47:49] Speaker B: Yeah, that was cool. I mean, that little range, the little Ranger FC dollar is pretty sweet, man. I don't know if you've seen one. Those are. [00:47:55] Speaker A: No, I have not. [00:47:56] Speaker B: No, the numbers on the back are, like, embroidered. I mean, it's not. It's not like an iron on crap. It's a nice kid. They both went out and threw the ball, but him, Martin boss and Peter Moussa both went out there and threw the first pitch together. As you know, they both hold the. [00:48:11] Speaker A: Ball at the same time and throw. [00:48:13] Speaker B: It together like they both do at the same time. [00:48:15] Speaker A: Like siamese twins or something. Something. [00:48:17] Speaker B: Well, no two. Each had a ball. Yeah. But, you know, here's the two FC Dallas All Stars and half people. They were like, what? FC. What? Somebody told me that something. They said, fC Dallas. What's the f stand for? Oh, football club. They were like, what is that? Like a cowboys thing? You know, like, yes, yes. You know, there's a massive, massive part of the audience that has no idea what Epstein else is, even. [00:48:39] Speaker A: It's good to know that that same question is being asked all these years later, as it was originally back in 2000, 2003 or whatever it was. They. [00:48:46] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:47] Speaker A: When they debut the FC thing. Yes. [00:48:50] Speaker B: Oh, I never get over parents yelling go Fc. On sidelines of just the worst. [00:48:56] Speaker A: Frisco county. That was always my favorite is that it stood for Frisco county. [00:49:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Go Fc. [00:49:01] Speaker A: Okay, well, that's cool. [00:49:05] Speaker B: It was good. That was fun. That was a lot of fun. [00:49:07] Speaker A: Speaking of that, I did enjoy the mention that it was the anniversary. The 20th anniversary or night? Was it 20th or 18th? I can't. What anniversary is it of? Toyota Stadium slash Pizza Hut park. They did something. [00:49:24] Speaker B: Was it 20th? [00:49:24] Speaker C: 2005. Right. Especially. [00:49:26] Speaker A: Yeah, no, it's not 20th. We're like 18 or 19 years into it anyway. It's the anniversary of the stadium. [00:49:32] Speaker B: Whatever. [00:49:32] Speaker A: And it's insane to me that we are. That this thing has been around for so long that there are people that don't even remember the, like, what? Pizza Hut park originally looked like in the surroundings being so vacant back then versus what it is today as Toyota Stadium after its initial refurbished with the south end and the hall of Fame. And it hearkened back to me memorying on that opening day back in whatever year it was when they opened that stadium, and it was so far away from being done. Dan, you weren't living here yet, were you? [00:50:13] Speaker C: Not by a long shot. I was two years out of high school. [00:50:17] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. So when. When Pizza Hut park opened that year, I was still living in Florida at the time, and I flew in for the game, and I was shocked how unprepared that facility was for an event. Concession stands weren't finished. There's something. There's a. There's something about the parking lot wasn't finished or something, too. [00:50:40] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. They were just like. They were like dirt fields. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:44] Speaker B: It was so bad. [00:50:46] Speaker A: And. And the whole thing just was really. But the. The flip side of that was, is that all of us that had been waiting for so long, and we were so worried that the club was going to, you know, get dumped by the league. And after the McKinney deal had fallen through and especially after the south lake debacle, we were all so excited and so genuinely full of joy and proud of Pizza Hut Stadium. Pizza Hut park, when it opened, it was one of the best days ever. Back then, even though it was really in a bad state on opening day, we were all really, really excited. And that's what. That's what came flooding back in my memories when I remember who scored that day? No, I don't. [00:51:33] Speaker B: Fish had a brace. Ruiz had two. [00:51:36] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. Yes. Yeah. And they won that game, too, didn't they? [00:51:39] Speaker B: That was two to draw. [00:51:40] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:51:42] Speaker B: Bonus points, by the way, for the last goal scorer at Cotton bowl. [00:51:46] Speaker A: Are you asking me who it was? [00:51:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:51:48] Speaker A: You know, last goal scorer at the cotton ball, it was. [00:51:53] Speaker C: He snuck on the field off to the game. [00:51:56] Speaker B: It's Chris Bondi. [00:51:57] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Boy, that's a name I haven't heard in a million years. [00:52:00] Speaker B: Chris Bondi. [00:52:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:01] Speaker B: So coach at UConn, by the way. [00:52:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you remember? Yeah, I just the. I remember when the stadium opened, buzz, it was crazy. [00:52:08] Speaker B: Yeah. It's beautiful. I'll tell you a funny, in the early days of social media kind of story, I. Because it was Pizza Hut Park, I took a photo that I had of the stage, which is, you know, the metal, the red metal thing, and I photoshopped the pizza hut red roof from one of their restaurants. And I photoshopped it onto the top of that red awning, the red metal gang thing they have for the concerts. [00:52:33] Speaker A: Right. [00:52:33] Speaker B: And that photo made the rounds and people posted it on the Internet as, here's the new toy pizza hut park for Estee Dallas with my photoshopped pizza hut roof on it. And I had to, like, I had to email people and say, no, that's a fake photo. And I know because I made it. So I, like, you need to take that down. That's not correct. It doesn't have a pizza hut roof on it. [00:52:55] Speaker A: You know, the original. Yeah. The north end where they put this, the temporary seating and all of that. That was. Yeah. Crazy. [00:53:04] Speaker B: Yeah. I actually have a photo of the field with a sign coming soon. Dallas Burns Stadium. Back before they was even, they even broke ground. It was just an empty field with a sign in it. I should put that as the front of this. [00:53:17] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it was funny because the photo that the club posted was an aerial shot of the stadium with the fans on opening day. And it. Because it's an aerial shot, you can see how everything around it is just essentially cattle fields. And the tollway, there's no buildings around it. It's just like this giant, massive structure in the middle of nothing. And the number of people on your discord, they were like, oh, my God, what is that? Like, they didn't even know either. They didn't remember that it was in that state when they built it, or, B, just never knew that's what it looked like on opening day way back in the early odds. [00:53:53] Speaker B: It's funny how prophetic the city was and really the county and the school districts, and they knew that that area would not stay like that because, like, you know, when we first went up there, it lit. You know, Frisco was basically like the area down, just north of, like, where Ikea is, like, where the rough riders are. And then, like, nothing like the toll. It was just barren from there up. You know, the main downtown, sort of Frisco, the main street that is still there, of course, east of where the stadium is. You couldn't see that stuff from. From the tollway. So, like, the first time we ever. I remember this distinctly, like, the first time I ever went up there, you went past, like, the last thing on the tollway and you're like, where in the world are we going? Like, because you were up into the cattle fields of nothingness for like ten minutes before you came to where the stadium was going to be. And now it's surrounded by everything. It's crazy. [00:54:47] Speaker A: It is great. It is tremendously different. I mean, everything about that entire area is. Is exactly what they all thought it was going to turn out to be. I mean, so much has grown up since then, and there's more coming that. That kids park and the PGA stuff. And one of the things I most. [00:55:02] Speaker B: Remember by the early stadium was that they didn't paint the walls like the walls. Oh, that's cement, right? [00:55:06] Speaker A: Yeah. They weren't for a couple years they painted it. Yeah, that's right. [00:55:11] Speaker B: It should have been adobe. Like the upper part was. Speaking of which, I mean, when was. How have we not yet heard any news about this stadium renovation that, you know, all of our sources were telling us was going to begin this winter and we still have heard nothing. So I'm starting to get nervous about that whole thing. You know, politics is politics. [00:55:30] Speaker A: Well, you know, it's. The longer that gets drawn out, the more it makes me wonder if there's something else coming that portends, maybe. And I'm just going to make something up. I'm totally making this up. Another stadium somewhere else. Like, I know that's ridiculous. I'm just saying the longer they drag this out, it just opens the door for. The question is maybe something else is happening we're not aware of. [00:55:59] Speaker B: I mean, I don't remotely speak for the hunts by any means, but I don't think it's the hunts that have cold feet about building and renovating in Frisco. Right. I don't think they're the ones that are balking. If something is happening here that's making this thing fall apart, I don't think it's because of the hunts. I think it's going to be because of something else, you know? So, like, the only way that I think, and this is just my opinion, the only way your scenario happens is if basically, Frisco and the school district and the county have decided that they don't really want to throw more money at this thing. They don't not. They don't really care about SC Dallas so much, or they got so much. [00:56:33] Speaker A: Other thing, or somebody or something has happened financially to make it, make everybody to money, whip everybody into making a move. Like another city came in and said, we're going to do this and we're going to give you all this money to pay off Frisco and Collin county to leave. [00:56:52] Speaker B: I just don't see that. [00:56:53] Speaker A: No, I agree. I don't either. But again, it's. It's just one of a very few number of explanations as to why we've been hearing this noise about a massive reconstruction of the facility now for what feels like the last, what, eight months? [00:57:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, the last time I tried to ask somebody, they kind of mumbled. There's a lot of players here in terms of here being frisco. [00:57:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:18] Speaker B: It's not just the hunts, so, like, I'm sure, but still, like, you know, clocks ticking on what we thought was going to be a winter groundbreaking. You know, we already actually thought it was going to be midseason, and then they got moved back, and that's the winter groundbreaking. And now we're more like, well, and. [00:57:34] Speaker A: Here'S the other thought. Now that I think about it, if. If they already know that it's never going to be done anywhere near the World cup, what's the point in rushing it? [00:57:43] Speaker B: Fair. [00:57:44] Speaker A: So maybe that's what this is about. Maybe that's what it's about. Other things I wanted to talk about on my list of stuff, everybody throw out a real quick bedtime prayer for Ava hunt. Clark's one of Clark's daughters. She apparently was injured on a hike and required surgery of some point where she was posting. Everybody, thanks for well wishes on the socials. And People magazine even wrote an article about it. That's how I saw it, because, you know, I love to read my people magazine. [00:58:13] Speaker B: Yeah, no, you were talking about that earlier. [00:58:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And so we don't know what the injury is. It says, like, a deep wound, so I'm assuming she was hiking somewhere and fell down and jabbed a stick in her leg, maybe from femoral artery, and almost bled out to death or something. [00:58:31] Speaker B: No, let's not get carried away. [00:58:33] Speaker A: Well, if you're not going to tell me what happened, I'm going to make. I'm going to speculate. [00:58:38] Speaker B: Yeah, fair enough. [00:58:42] Speaker A: Let's see, unless Dan has a speculation as to what the injury is, he'd like to share with the group. [00:58:49] Speaker C: No, but let's not get Buzz sued. [00:58:52] Speaker B: Yeah, please don't. Yeah. All right, so I don't have any money anyway. [00:58:57] Speaker A: Fair enough. All right, so I think we've hit all the high notes of everything I wanted to talk about. Anything you want to talk about, Buzz, we haven't gotten to yet? [00:59:05] Speaker B: Uh, yeah, somebody else brought us up, and I can't remember who deserved credit for this. It probably was, like, 18 people, and I was just late to the party. But how cool was it that the U 20 team and the Olympic team were both captained by FC Dallas? Products. I thought that was awesome. Tanner Testman and Nolan Norris shout out to El Capitan's. Love it. That's awesome. Awesome. [00:59:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Tanner had a. Was the best player in the tournament for the United States. I was very proud of Nolan. But I'm also a little upset with him because he singularly could have ended that game before they gave up the tying goal. He should have. Should have done something better with a late clearance of the ball, but. [00:59:43] Speaker B: Well, maybe it's an opportunity to grow. [00:59:44] Speaker A: That's a lesson learned. But to your general point, yes, I agree with you. [00:59:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:48] Speaker B: And Tanner going to Fiorentina, I guess. [00:59:50] Speaker A: I was reading, I think Fiorentina his one. And what was the other one that was looking at him too? I can't remember off the top of my head. We'll see. [00:59:58] Speaker B: Well, I thought I saw a thing about that. They were leaning towards Ferntina, but man, whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm not reporting anything there. I just think it's. [01:00:04] Speaker A: Well, as the. As the podcast Fiorentina fan, I would love for that to happen. I would love for him to end. [01:00:11] Speaker B: Up so the enter was my team. I was already for that. [01:00:15] Speaker A: Okay. I don't think I have anything else. Dan, you got anything? You've been awfully quiet today, sir. [01:00:21] Speaker C: No, I've just really enjoyed like a week or two off soccer. It's been great. [01:00:26] Speaker A: I know you're upset about Lewton and the kit situation a little bit. [01:00:31] Speaker C: Still bit sore. [01:00:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that kit. What? Why don't you like the kit? The home kit that they're returning? [01:00:39] Speaker C: It's just not the best execution of what they were trying to do. I mean, I like it more than a lot of Lewton fans, oddly, but it's so the situation is, and this is something that here, this will make everyone feel better about. FC Dallas. So Lewton Town, their contract with Umbro ended at the end of 20 of the 23 24 season. They were supposedly in talks with Capa about moving to them. Apparently supposedly those talks broke down and at the last minute they kind of came crawling back to Umbro. Now, my impression is Umbro said, well, we don't have time to design you anything, so here's your existing kit, we'll make you some more and we're going to recolor one of your old ones and then maybe for your third shirt we'll do something. I think that the thing that bothered me more is it is the. And this is relatable to FC dollars. It is the spin of it. To come out a week before the season, say, hey, this kit that we've not been able to sell in months and months and months, we're going to now roll it over for your benefit? Well, no. If it was for fans benefit, it wouldn't still be listed as 23 24 on the team store, and it still wouldn't be unavailable to buy for several months on end. And it would have been start of the summer before the kids go on their summer holidays. And for people who know british people, we love wearing soccer jerseys just to say, hey, we're from here. Fuck off. It's just a bungled spin attempt. And I think with Lewton, there is definitely a notion of a League Two operation off the field that's just carried over in that. [01:02:31] Speaker A: I'm sorry, Dan. I know those. Both those things. The club and their kits are important to you. [01:02:36] Speaker C: It really is. [01:02:38] Speaker A: But did you guys take note of what the girls, the ladies, were wearing against Germany the other day? As best as I can tell, buzz and Dan, that kit combination for the United States women was a historic moment in us kit combinations. [01:02:57] Speaker B: I know you. [01:02:58] Speaker A: I did. Do you recall the, uh, a senior US team ever wearing white shirts, red shorts and white socks? [01:03:06] Speaker B: No. As you. As you quite rightly did the research and pointed out that we don't think that's ever happened before. That's amazing. [01:03:11] Speaker A: I can't find any evidence of it ever happening. And I think the reason why is, if we're all being honest, it looks a little too canadian. [01:03:20] Speaker B: It does. A little. [01:03:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a little too canadian, a little too close to Canada. But I did think it was kind of cool to see red shorts with the white and white like that the other day. I thought that was an interesting look, for sure. [01:03:33] Speaker C: Hell, yeah. Okay. [01:03:35] Speaker A: Kit history. Yeah. It's not the fact that they've worn red. They were wearing red shorts. They've done red shorts before. It's with the fact that it was with a white shirt and white socks. That's the. It's the combination that was. I think that's the first time we've ever seen the United States do that, at least since the advent of the women's team in the early nineties, is the best I can tell. All right. I don't have anything else to talk. [01:04:00] Speaker B: I got two things to say. First child, north Texas, first place again. They got a win against St. Louis and a tie against Austin. So they're back in first place, second overall in the power rankings. So that's a good team. You guys should go watch and play. I said all the time. But it's true. And also, there's been some reports that Boca juniors, again, is trying to buy Alan Vlasco and that FC Dallas won $7 million, which is how I know it's not true, because I. There's no way they're selling him for $7 million. There's got to be more than $7 million if they're selling them, because that's less than what they paid for him. So that's not. [01:04:32] Speaker A: Or maybe they've seen him train of late, and maybe they'll just take whatever they can get for him. [01:04:36] Speaker B: Maybe they're panicking. I'm going to get them. [01:04:41] Speaker A: And just real quick, I just thought about this. I hate to end podcasts on sad notes, but I do think at least. [01:04:47] Speaker B: Next. [01:04:47] Speaker A: Huh? [01:04:48] Speaker C: Lies. [01:04:49] Speaker A: Oh, I did want to mention the sad note that we heard last week, that the buzz kerik of the Dallas sidekicks. For all intents and purposes, Alan Bathrop is a great guy. He's a historian of the club. He has been. I mean, if there's anybody that knows something about the Dallas sidekicks, it's Allen. Sad story. His young son, his young teenage son. I think he was a teenager, he may have been only eleven, had cancer and passed away last week. And so our condolences and thoughts and love to Alan and his family and everybody. Have a real quick thought for him and his family, please, because he's a soccer nut just like the rest of us, and we all are very broken hearted for him. So. [01:05:35] Speaker B: Well said, local legend. [01:05:37] Speaker A: He is a local. I mean, he's been doing that way longer than you've been doing this. You know, that was a really heartbreaking news. So there you go. All right, boys, I have nothing else. Are we going to continue to do podcasts up until the return of the team on the 24th against DC United? [01:05:55] Speaker B: Yes. [01:05:55] Speaker A: All right. We shall deliver, whether there's content to be delivered or not. [01:06:00] Speaker B: I mean, if nothing else, we can talk about how bad everything is. [01:06:05] Speaker C: We're pretty good at that. [01:06:06] Speaker A: When does the window close? [01:06:08] Speaker B: One week. The 14th? Got a week. [01:06:10] Speaker A: We are good at that, Dan, aren't we? [01:06:12] Speaker B: So, I mean, next podcast, we can talk about how the window closed and what happened or not. So. [01:06:18] Speaker A: All right, let's. Before we go, let's make bets. Let's, let's, let's, let's put our, uh, let's put it on the line. By the time we do the next podcast, will Dallas have signed any other players? Dan? [01:06:32] Speaker C: No. [01:06:33] Speaker A: Buzz. [01:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah, muscle no. Yeah. Show is going to be it, but. [01:06:37] Speaker A: I'm going to say yes. And it is going to be a center back, but it's going to be equally and as spectacularly as disappointing as the kid they signed out of the israeli league. [01:06:51] Speaker B: I like Turner Humphrey. What are you talking about? It's no Texas player. [01:06:56] Speaker A: I know it's going to be something like that. It's going to be. It's going to be somebody that doesn't need a seat, you know, a senior. Right? [01:07:03] Speaker C: Does that count? [01:07:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:06] Speaker C: Ah, come on. I think I spend in the rules a little bit. [01:07:09] Speaker A: Oh, would it be if they sign somebody out of North Texas? [01:07:13] Speaker B: Well, how about this caveat? If it's an emergency signing, no, but if they do a full blown, like here's the first team contract, then we'll say that's a yes. [01:07:21] Speaker C: That's okay, we're all right. [01:07:23] Speaker B: But I'm still gonna say no. [01:07:24] Speaker A: How am I the optimists out of the group? [01:07:26] Speaker B: Yes. Dark days, my friend. [01:07:28] Speaker A: Dark days. [01:07:30] Speaker C: I feel like when you say they will sign someone but he will suck, that's not optimism. [01:07:38] Speaker A: So am I actually the less optimist? Am I the, am I the pessimist out of the group? [01:07:44] Speaker C: I think kicked Tex Hooper in the balls and then spat in his eye? [01:07:52] Speaker A: Awesome. I love it. All right, well, it was good talking to you guys again. Buzz, I'm glad you made it. How many miles did you put on your truck in this trip, my friend? [01:08:00] Speaker B: Oh gosh. [01:08:01] Speaker A: Was it, you posted it somewhere? [01:08:03] Speaker B: I did. [01:08:04] Speaker A: Was it sick? Was it 6700 miles? [01:08:08] Speaker B: Yeah, 6041 miles. [01:08:10] Speaker A: Oh, just over 6000 miles. [01:08:12] Speaker B: Yep. Six. [01:08:12] Speaker A: I don't think I put 6000 miles on my car this year. [01:08:16] Speaker B: That's just slightly more than above average for me. Sometimes. My longest one's 9000. [01:08:21] Speaker A: And you've had that truck not even three years yet. Correct. [01:08:26] Speaker B: It's three. It's three years old in July. So it's got 70,000 miles on it after three years. Well, remember that I drive for work. Yes. Like I've spent years, like commuting. [01:08:37] Speaker A: I know you were doing that regular weekly mysterious drive to somewhere in a long distance away that you never want to tell us where you were going. [01:08:46] Speaker B: That was in the train area 51, college sports and all other things, you know. And then I do these long trips. I mean, I do. I drive like nobody else that I know of drives like I do on these trips. I mean, I know people that'll do this once but they don't do it for twelve years. Like I've done. And even before I started going to northern Idaho, I used to do this all the time. I'd go on these long drives to other places. I mean, this year, like, I. I drove to Orlando to spend a day with my wife in Orlando. [01:09:14] Speaker A: You know, you love to drive. [01:09:16] Speaker B: Is this what I do? Yeah, I do love to drive. And I. I don't shy away from it. I enjoy the driving. I enjoy thinking of being away and getting my mind on stuff and centering myself, you know, things like that, and seeing. I'm a big explorer. I have an explorer vibe in my DNA, if you will. And I like to go places and see things, particularly things I've never seen. [01:09:39] Speaker A: So you're such an influencer. [01:09:42] Speaker C: If you want to dedicate a lot of time to listening to true current podcasts, there's nothing wrong with just doing that at home. [01:09:50] Speaker B: I actually don't listen to music because if I listen to an audiobook or a podcast, then my mind at some point will wander and I'll be like ten minutes later, I'll be like, okay, what did I miss? What are they talking about? How do I go back? [01:10:03] Speaker C: And that's why I can't listen to podcasts very often. It has to be driving, not working. Otherwise work does not happen. [01:10:11] Speaker B: Interesting. Even driving. I can't do that. [01:10:14] Speaker A: Interesting. Well, the point being is I'm glad you made it home safely. [01:10:19] Speaker B: Thanks. Me too. Me too. [01:10:20] Speaker A: Is your dog a good car? Dog? Did you find that out? [01:10:23] Speaker B: He is, yeah, he's pretty good. He's pretty good, yeah, he. He's a little interested in the cars going past and wants to bite them, but other than that, he travels really well. [01:10:35] Speaker A: That's. That's a problem on the highway. Buzz. [01:10:38] Speaker B: I. Yeah, it is. Was, you know, he learned not to do it, but he just still interested in them. And, uh, I actually, I'll tell a real quick story. I thought I. I thought I destroyed my truck. I, um. My wife was working in Rockford, and that's why I drove up towards Rockford to picked her up in the morning. We were. I. After I picked her up, I filled up with gas, and half a mile down the road, my car just cocks out completely. It slid. My truck totally dead. It'll. The electrics will fire and the car will turn over, but it won't fire, won't catch a. Oh, my God, this is a mess. I'm. I'm 1500 miles from home. I got to get roadside assistance. How. How long can I even get somebody before I can look at. Because I'm not like in a major city at that point. So I'm like, you know, Earl at the, at the car shack has got to look at this thing. It might take weeks. Thankfully I found a guy who was super kind and super nice and he took my, he hauled my truck in and my trailer, which is above and beyond the call of duty, and he started taking the thing apart and we found that there was four gallons of water in my tank of gas that I filled up. So out of 15 gallons, four gallons of it was water. [01:11:44] Speaker A: It was water from the gas station. [01:11:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I filled up from the gas station and I got eleven gallons of gas and four gallons of water out of the thing. And the reason it. What happens is, is like as you drive, it's all mixed up and as you drive down the road, the water settles out and then all you're getting is water, which won't of course, combust. So I thought I was screwed a thousand miles from home with this dog and a trailer and a truck that won't run. You know, and it's like this guy really helped me out up near Rockford and he, he drained out the, he found the problem, drained out all the gas. It took about 4 hours to get it all sorted out, but he got all sorted out. So I'm going to send the gas station bill for it. But you can imagine my panic in the moment. It was like 95 degrees on the side of the highway, stuck with a truck own run. It was awful. [01:12:31] Speaker A: That, that was a bad lesson is don't go on long road trips. Just get on a plane. [01:12:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, that's the. No, that's not fun. [01:12:38] Speaker C: So out of interest, was that the most expensive bottle of water you've ever bought? [01:12:42] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. A $1000 bottle of water, basically. Well, four gallons of water, so. [01:12:46] Speaker C: But yeah, still, on a totally unrelated note, you should subscribe to Patreon. [01:12:53] Speaker B: Yes. Speaking of $4,000. [01:12:56] Speaker A: Yeah, buzz needs more Patreon subscribers. [01:13:00] Speaker B: I really do. [01:13:01] Speaker A: All right. Very good. Well, the club's not trying to help you out on that, Buzz. The interest in the club and the performances isn't helping the Patreon effort, is it? [01:13:11] Speaker B: Yeah. No, no. I mean, sometimes you get weird reactions. Like one of the most listened to episodes we ever did was when Lucy got fired. That, like when we explained why he got fired and basically that that was like our most listened to episode ever. [01:13:24] Speaker A: So when they fired Niko, they could have just gone back and listened to the Lucy episode is what you're. [01:13:28] Speaker B: They could have because it was very similar. [01:13:30] Speaker C: I have secrets. [01:13:32] Speaker B: I haven't checked the numbers on the Nico a fire episode, but it might be pretty high too. [01:13:37] Speaker A: Very good. [01:13:37] Speaker B: Although I do, I do think, I do think, not to get into another topic, but I do think that, like, the Luigi fire firing caught us more off guard than the Niko one. We kind of, we kind of all felt the Nico almost coming. At least I did. [01:13:50] Speaker A: No, we all knew the Nico one and I thought, we all know the Lucci one was coming too. It just happened way too late. [01:13:56] Speaker B: Maybe that's what it was. It was getting so late in the season, people were like, oh my God. I don't. I just remember being a little bit more caught off guard by the Lucci one. [01:14:02] Speaker A: Yeah, because remember, we all thought Lucci was going to get fired and then they went on a good run and they were like, oh, now we can't fire him. And then they. Shit. They shut the bed towards the end of the season and then they fired him. [01:14:13] Speaker B: Right? I think. I think we probably figured at that point that he would finish the season, but then they didn't. You know, I think it was on vacation for that one too, if I remember correctly. [01:14:23] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know what? You went on vacation and the big signing didn't happen or the big ruckus didn't happen, so. [01:14:29] Speaker B: Yeah, show. Show. That's it. That's the big signing. [01:14:34] Speaker A: It would be the most Dallas thing ever if they signed a guy named show and he never shows up because they can't get. [01:14:41] Speaker B: That dude is MLS best eleven. Next year you come back and remember this exactly. [01:14:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I'll put my life savings on that. Never happened. Oh, all right. Very good, dad. Good to talk to you again. [01:14:54] Speaker C: Likewise and happy english football season eve. [01:14:59] Speaker A: Yeah, we have our, we have all our prediction episode of the kick around. [01:15:03] Speaker C: Coming up this weekend and plenty of loot in town. Six of the first five of the first six games are on Paramount plus. [01:15:10] Speaker A: Oh, good for you. Good for you. And buzz, it's great to have you back. As I said, blah, blah, blah. [01:15:16] Speaker B: Oh, thanks, man. I'm glad you guys are here and I sure hope you pick Newcastle to get relegated again because every time you do, they have a great season. [01:15:21] Speaker A: We haven't picked Newcastle to get relegated in years. [01:15:26] Speaker B: Oh, has it been years? [01:15:28] Speaker A: I bet it hasn't been years. It was absolutely. Prior to them getting bought by a nation state. Yes. However many years ago it was the country of Saudi Arabia acquired. [01:15:39] Speaker B: I won't talk about that. [01:15:40] Speaker A: Okay. [01:15:40] Speaker B: I'm a person like that. Didn't happen. [01:15:41] Speaker A: All right. [01:15:42] Speaker B: Amanda Shelby stolen the team. As far as I'm concerned, that she's. [01:15:45] Speaker A: Not even part of the club anymore. She's out. [01:15:47] Speaker B: La la. I'm not listening. Third degree, the podcast is 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 lindstromlaw firm.com for a free consultation. [01:16:06] Speaker A: And thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fan. We will speak to you next week on another episode of third degree, the podcast. [01:16:13] Speaker C: Think happy thoughts. [01:16:16] Speaker A: Third degree. The third degree napkins. Third degree. The third degree napkins. Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess. Third degree. Third degree nap, I guess.