Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Ooh, ooh. Third degree.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: The third degree nap, I.
[00:00:16] Speaker C: Guess.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Third degree. The third degree napa third degree. I really do love the beaver.
Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious. Welcome to episode 281 of Third Degree, the podcast. He is our special co host today, the birthday boy, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: Hello. That was yesterday. Or if someone's listening on Friday, two.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: Days ago, it's essentially your birthday.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Oh, every day.
[00:00:52] Speaker A: You're the baby of the podcast.
[00:00:56] Speaker C: I am the least old fart of.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: All right, everybody wants to know, what did Dan Crook do for his birthday?
Did you just stare lovingly at the renderings of the new Lewton stadium?
[00:01:10] Speaker C: I aged and ached and had a few drinks. Yeah.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Did you buy yourself a special birthday treat?
[00:01:21] Speaker C: No, I have a wife for that.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Did she buy you a special birthday treat?
[00:01:25] Speaker C: She did, I guess. I also bought a car a couple of weeks ago. That's probably.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Wait, what?
You bought a car?
[00:01:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: What kind of car did you buy?
[00:01:37] Speaker C: BMW.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Sweet. Man.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: Buzz, I'm paying Dan too much money.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: You are paying Dan too much money. Goodness gracious. Well, happy birthday, Dan.
[00:01:48] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: We're very happy for you. And there is your hero. My hero. Everybody's hero. Editor, founder of Thirddegree.net, and the original soccer influencer himself, buzzed Kerik. Come in, Buzz. It's not your birthday.
[00:02:00] Speaker B: It is not. Not till November, but happy birthday, Dan.
[00:02:05] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: All right, so I am pleased to announce today is a victory pod because since we last spoke, Dallas hosted LAFC, who were prepping for their big Open cup final appearance and subsequent win with an appearance in Frisco where your burn beat up on LAFC. Three to one. Go, team, go, Buzz.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah, this was a weird game for me because I actually thought that they played much worse than they did the week before, even though they scored goals, you know, and prevented goals. And it was. This actually was a really good reminder of this game that that's all that matters, right? All that other stuff about XG this and percent of that and goal added this or whatever. All that matters is you score more than them. And, you know, Dallas had a, you know, for this current version of them, a decent 17 shots. But, you know, and seven are on net, which is a good at not 50%, you know, but it's a goodish total. You know, when this team gets, you know, seven, eight, nine shots on net and makes the other keeper make saves, they tend to get some goals. And then our more Gonzalez, of all people, shut down Kai Camero, who's one of the. Excuse me, Kai Kamara, who's one of the great scorers in league history, and Olivier Giroud, of all people. And, you know, but then you can look at other stats like, you know, only 46% possession at home. You know, LAFC obviously controlled that, you know, if XG is your thing. Dallas only had a 1.4, so they outscored that by more than double. Right. So only six aerial duel duels. One. So they got control in that area. They only got three crosses in. 53% of their shots came from outside the box. So, like, in all these metrics that ordinarily are not good for Dallas, they didn't do very good. But then they scored and they won. That's all it matters.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: You just said something that gave me an idea for next year's marketing tagline.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: You.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: You know, they've got afterburner this year. Next year, I think they should try out good ish.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Good ish? Yeah, dude plus. That's what I'm gonna call it. Dude plus is the name good ish.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Good ish in big, bold letters on the side of a building in downtown Dallas with everybody looking with very stern face.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I was thinking about this. I was watching the game, you know, Petter Moussa cost, you know, ballpark, whatever, ten mil.
Alan Velasco love having him back, starting this great. He was what, like eight, nine or whatever, you know, ballpark ten ish, whatever. A little less than that. We know that Jesus Pereira has had offers that, you know, in that neighborhood that the team didn't take, even if it was to Russia or whatever. So your whole front line, and this is remarkable, are like $10 million players, right? So you would expect those guys, at that rate of money, to be able to score goals. And so when those guys are not being dudes or when they're healthy, things go better in the midfield's light in that kind of caliber of player other than your men, who's 34 or 35 or whatever he is now. And so, you know, sometimes they can't control the middle of the field.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: It is pretty. It is pretty remarkable to think that that's the first time those three players have been on the field starting for the first time ever. And it looked like that for very long stretches of the game. Because, if we're all being honest, I'm sure I'm not alone in sitting in the stadium thinking to myself, wow, LAFC's b team is essentially just as good as our starting team.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much. That's, you know, they. They rotated a fair bit. You know, they. They kept out some of their better players till later in the game, so their dudes are better than our dudes if you want to go that route. But, you know, home field matters. And La, as Dan pointed out last week, hadn't scored, hadn't won in a while. And the biggest takeaway for me watching, I knew. I know you mean Peter by their second team, but I was watching Jesus and Petter Musa, and I don't like some of the body language I'm seeing there. Dan, I don't know if you agree with this, but I looked this up. Just a second. I looked this up. In Musa's 15 goals, Jesus Ferrer did not, has not assisted a single one of them. Musa has one assist to Ferreira. So, like, there's a weird vibe there, Dan, what do you think?
[00:06:19] Speaker C: All right, so Musa goes off on 38 minutes, right? Goes off without that bang on the knee.
How shit was Ferreira before Musa went off fairly? Yeah, he missed an open goal. He missed another set to the point where Musa broke. Like, you know, he had that turnover and just went, fuck it, I'll have it myself, because everyone else is inept, unfortunately. He then goes down injured. But then suddenly, Ferreira, rather than, like, trying to score when there's easier passes around, is just like, okay, I'm going to turn into this amazing assist machine. Like, why couldn't that happen before Moussa.
[00:07:04] Speaker A: Went off, I. I wondered how many other people took note of when Moosa scored that really nice goal. Jesus was standing off to his right, insisting that he get the pass to shoot the ball himself that he didn't get, and then subsequently only kind of celebrated and took his slow ass time walking over to Musa to kind of, like, give him a pat on the back when everybody else was running over to celebrate.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that's kind of what I mean by the body language. And look, you know, none of us are in the locker room. We can't really know how those two guys get on. But I just. And I think the way I put it in my three things was that, you know, we've had guys here that didn't necessarily get along. Like, I don't think anybody got along with Errol Graziani, but he and Christ made a great combo because Christ was such a facilitator, and they really tore it up together. And I'm like. I look at Jesus and his line breaking ability, and Moose is pretty good at assisting, too. He's not as good as Jesus, but he's not bad at it. It's like, those guys ought to be dialing each other up like crazy. And I just watched them, you know, reluctantly pass it to each other. And Dan's right. I mean, Jesus had an amazing game once Musa went out. I mean, he had seven shot creating actions. That's ridiculous. Progressive passes. Progressive carries. Like, he had most of the XG on the day, you know, he had, he had twelve progressive passes, which is receptions, excuse me. Which means that he's getting into all those danger spots and breaking lines and doing all that stuff. Most of that happened after Musa went out of the game. And so, look, I can't, I can't verify any of this. I just, when I watch those two guys together, it makes my brain hurt a little bit.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: Is, you know, is it a function of Jesus was the big fish and now moose is the big fish and Jesus doesn't know how to handle that or what is it?
[00:08:49] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't. I don't know Jesus well enough to know the answer to that question. You know, we have talked about both of those guys are a bit, you know, demonstratively negative in their body language. They both throw their arms around a bit, they will grouch in their facial expression a little bit. You know, they're similar that way.
Maybe they just grind against each other a little bit in that capacity. I don't, you know, it's not a, it's not a problem I'm worried about right this minute. Heavily. It just, it just bothers me a little bit. And as the season is winding down, it'll become more of a thing to really think about. You know, maybe don't worry about today, but we're going to have to worry about it eventually.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I, you know, just go back and watch the goals and the highlight and watch how everybody celebrates the Delgado goal and the Farrington goal and watch Jesus. If I remember correctly, Jesus seems way more excited about those, which, by the way, takes me to the second goal with Delgado because I was sitting, I don't know, 30 yards away from Jesus when he had the ball over there on the right hand side at the beginning of the sequence. And he, he elects to cross the ball all the way over to the other side of the field instead of just rolling the ball in front of Logan Farrington, who's running in on goal. And I almost yelled. I almost yelled at him. I was so mad. Now, of course, it turns into a goal, so what the hell do I know? I'm just an idiot. But it was a really weird selection at the time. I don't know if anybody else has noticed this. He's got, like, Logan Farrington running in on goal. All he has to do is play one of those perfect Rick taste weighted balls right in front of him, and instead he crossed it all the way over to. Was it Areola? I don't remember who it is. It was, it was a really weird choice on his part.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, the, the modern thing often is about those, you know, when you, when you overload and the defense shifts to follow you, you get that big switch. But I don't remember the Logan run specifically. Dan, do you remember that moment?
[00:10:42] Speaker C: I'm actually watching it right now. I think Logan was offside, but he.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: Wasn'T offside when he had the. I mean, yes, he eventually was, but I think K series had the opportunity to play that ball well, advance of Logan being offside. Am I wrong about that?
[00:10:56] Speaker C: Well, I mean, I'm looking at, I mean, it's kind of a crappy angle, but it looks like he's ahead of the last defender as the ball comes in.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: Well, I was, I was pretty much in line with Jesus when it had, when he had, when he received the ball. And to me, he looked like he was onside, but maybe, maybe he, again, Jesus knows what he's doing. I don't, I just, it was just, I don't know. It was funny.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: No, I mean, it looks like such a weird I. Time to switch play, but. Yeah, like you say, it worked.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: It worked. Yeah. And it's funny because Matt Doyle pulled that clip out and talked about how beautiful Luxain ball is. And, you know, this is a common thing that we keep seeing within, at least at the, you know, mls media level, which is this kind of continuous selective picking of highlights to talk about how beautiful the team is playing of late.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: And I.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: And then today, Buzz, we'll get, we can talk about this now or get more into it later, but Bogart tweeted out that sources are telling him that loose Luxane is essentially in the driver's seat for the job. Shocker of all shockers.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, we might as well give it a sniff now. I mean, I think that that's true in the, you know, I have not heard from anyone I know of anybody interviewing for this job.
You know, the reading of my tea leaves, I think that they are 100% sticking with what they said, which was that Luxane had a chance to win this job. And until he's officially eliminated, I think they will give him that opportunity.
I think that it's still very, very difficult for Dallas to make this thing. And if they do, then I'll probably get it. But if they don't have, I think then it. I think he'll still be a candidate. It just won't be a foregone conclusion. I think at that point, they will interview some other people because it's kind of a slap in the face if you're saying. And you're. You're walking off your training field, and here comes just to pick a name out there, Eric Quill walking across the parking lot, going into his interview, and you've got five games left. You know what I mean? So, like. And certainly when another coach is in the building interview, and he more than likely would hear about it from his friends on in the organization, Luxembourg. So I actually believe that the hunts will respect the Hudson and Zenada will respect that he gets a chance to win it mojo, and that while they'll be collecting names and collecting resumes, they won't fly somebody in for a chat until he's officially not won it, you know, because then once he doesn't win, it doesn't get to the playoffs, then you can quite fairly say, we gave you the shot to take it for yourself. You know, you're still a candidate, and we're going to interview and some other people, you know. So I don't. I don't read too much into that at this point, frankly.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Not that Bogard doesn't know his stuff. I mean, I'm not saying that. I mean, but I'm sure bogus. Right. That looks. Hannah is the leading candidate at this point. It's his to lose, frankly.
[00:13:52] Speaker A: We can talk more about that here a little bit. Let's focus back on the game. Were you surprised Velasco started?
[00:13:59] Speaker B: No.
[00:13:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: After they gave him. He came in just before halftime, the previous game. So after that, 45 minutes. Great. You bump it up, you start him, and you let him go. 60, and he came off.
68 was it. And so I went in thinking, 60, 65, I want him off. And I even tweeted at 65, okay, let's get him off. And then 60, 80 came off. So that was very standard. I would expect him to start the rest of the way pending there being like a heavy workload or something, or him getting a, you know, a bang or whatever.
You know, there's questions to be asked about the front group, but they don't need to be asked until the winter.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: You know, any review or observations about how well he played or didn't play or what you did or didn't get out of him.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, it's not for Velasco right now. It's not about stats. It's about what he looks like to your eye, for me.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: To my eye, yeah, I know.
[00:14:52] Speaker B: Yeah. And I see every week it's visible every week. His burst is better. His quickness is better. Like when he makes that cut back into the middle, which everyone knows he's doing. You know, the first couple of games he would do it and the guy would clearly have it blocked. And Alan was so frustrated. You could see him like he was almost trying to pump fake and he was like, this is not happening. He wouldn't even shoot. Well, now he's actually getting across and he's almost ahead of those guys. And so, you know, give him a few more weeks or even like six more months and he'll be great. So it's like, you know, he's still not. In my eyes, he's still not 100%. But, you know, the return of his form is coming so fast. It really is amazing. Particularly when you balance the fact that Giovanni Jesus is nowhere to be seen and was blew out his knee like two months before Allen.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: It's crazy when you see them on the field together.
Do you think that this is the right formation to get the most out of those three players? Assuming. Assuming they're here next year?
[00:15:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Is it them playing in a front three or is it putting Jesus and Musa as a front two and and Allen behind them?
[00:16:02] Speaker B: It's hard to really know.
You know, I.
Jesus so wants to play as an awe striker and come back, you know, this shape which uses the double ten effectively underneath the striker.
It really is about as good as you can get for those two guys because they're both, you know, Alan's playing slightly deeper than Jesus, you know, and it kind of is really like the way those three guys are playing now. Is the rest of the formation ideal? Is a different question, but because you could easily make it more like a three, five two if you wanted, you know, and in some ways the way Alan comes back, it kind of isn't is at moments. But then the same thing is true of Jesus when he comes back. What you don't want is both of those guys to be high and wide. That's problematic. And that happens when Paul Erlo's on the right. He wants to come underneath and all of a sudden one of those guys has to go high on wide on the right. That's not good. So, Dan, what do you think? Danny, is this how you unlock those three guys?
[00:17:06] Speaker C: I genuinely have no idea. I guess for me to see kind of what, what Velasco wants to be hedgesthem, you know, before the injury, he was looking more like an eight.
Does he want to, does he want to kind of be that wide guy and come inside slightly for Velasquez? Sorry, arreola. Does he want to play higher? Does he want to drop back? It's going to be interesting to see how they choose to manage his comeback and kind of how he, how he wants to play himself. One thing that Peter Luxan said after the game was that he effectively has a free role. All they've asked for him is to be aware of his defensive duties, but his runs, how he plays an attacking role is entirely up to him.
[00:17:57] Speaker A: You know, it's weird just in watching the game in person. The reason why I asked this question is that I know in the, in the formation, they're supposed to. At least my impression is there, you know, at least one of them supposed to play kind of tucked in underneath, but it never ever felt like that. And in fact, what I get, what I. And I don't know if this is by design. Jesus consistently is just kind of hanging himself out in space, way out by the touchline and not involved in the game. And it. And there were stretches of the game where I felt like, and this is even before, after Musa went off, that I just felt like it's. It's almost as if the team plays without Jesus for weird, long stretches of the game because he's just kind of dangling. I don't know if he's waiting for the ball to get turned over and Dallas to transition to him quickly and he's in space or what's going on, but it's just. It seems really weird. Oddly set up to me.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: Yeah, he likes to go walk about and look for holes and look for spaces. And a lot of times when you're, you're playing in a three, four, three or you're playing with wing backs, a lot of those spaces will appear in those holes in front of the wingbacks. And usually you want the wing backs to occupy those spaces. But on the other hand, as I said when we were talking about Jesus is he had a whole lot of progressive receptions, which is the idea that he's getting into positions where guys are finding him and he's creating from the, from those positions, he's creating line breaks and progressive plays and shot creating actions and he's getting a lot of XG. So, like, when Alan tends to be more underneath. It's actually okay for Jesus to go drifting around a little bit. Now if he camps out wide, uh, it's a big problem. But you want, you want him to be, um, drifting so that the defense loses track of him. Um, and that's okay. Now you could do it with a more disciplined, you know, center channel, second center channel guy. You could do that, you know, like, um, because Jason definitely, Jason Christ definitely played it more centrally than that, than Jesus Ferrer does. But you know, I would agree with you that there are often times where I wish he would be a little tighter to play more direct combos, but so far it's not, it's not bothering me that what he's doing. I'm okay with that part. It's the part where he's not necessarily getting the ball back to Musa as I might like him to. You know, he tends to want to look at SC. Dallas in general stinks at dribbling at people. They're the one, they're one of the worst two or three teams in the league in terms of their ability to dribble one on one and go at a defender and go by that defender, be a defender with the ball at their feet.
And this game, for example, LAFC, who was actually not very good at it either, was like seven of ten in that category. And I think I, Dallas was equally as bad.
They were three of eleven. So like, you know, there's, there's not going to be a lot of situation where a guy's picking it up wide and running at the defense. That doesn't happen. It's going to be these little combos, you know, and, and if you're going to create 17 shots with that group, that means that you're doing a good enough job with that. It's okay. What haze is doing, doing.
[00:21:12] Speaker A: The other thing I noticed is it was interesting because obviously Musa, by the way, does anybody know what the status of Musa is?
[00:21:19] Speaker B: It.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Well, the reason why I ask is because I really do love the beaver. Logan Farrington is such a fun player to watch and it sometimes it's really amazing to think that the dude is just right out of college and was a draft player. I mean, think of all the people that this team has brought in from, not the draft, you know, from other countries or other clubs or et cetera, et cetera, and have just had no impact on this team. And here comes Logan Farrington from Oregon State and man, he scored a nice goal. He did a really nice move after he first came on in the box it was. I thought about it a lot after the game and it's just a really, really. He's probably. He has to be one of the best draft picks this club's ever made.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: Yeah. I was trying to think about that question the other day, and one of the only other ones that's probably in the ballpark is Ryan, Hong said. Yeah. Graphic.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: You know, after Ryan took his, you know, year and a half off or whatever it was then, he was quite impactful pretty quickly.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: But was that before he broke his neck trying to rescue somebody in a car accident on ice in Tanzania?
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Right. Okay.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: With cond, he did a mission, if you remember, he and his brother went and built the church.
And that's the reason why, if other people have not heard this particular story about Ryan, is that he made it known to people in the draft that he was going to do that. And so he slid down to the second round.
And the funny roundabout story is that the Eric Alexander that they protected in the draft over Dax McCarthy a million years ago is what got them. Ryan Holling said eventually through a sequence of events, which is a weird story, too, but that's why Ryan slid into the second round. He was an absolute steal where they got him knowing he would be out for a bit. But the team shared a thing today. Logan Farrington is like third in MLS per 90 minutes with gold creating action. That's a conversation, actually, that needs to.
Right now he is a rookie. The load they're giving him is fine, but with that kind of ability and his price tag versus the price tag of the three guys in the front, when you're in a cap league, that's a conversation. At some point you have to start having. It's like, okay, is someone of these three guys that's worth $10 million now expendable because I have a dude making 80k? That's amazing. But that's not a conversation for today. For today, you just are really excited about how great he is and that when a guy does get a knock, he can come in at the nine or at one of these off positions and be really effective.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: In the showrun notes you as describing the game is some good. And we've talked about good. You also have written down here some bad.
[00:24:21] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mentioned the chemistry. I mentioned the dribbling that they're not particularly good at. I mentioned all the, you know, stats in the middle of the park that they were not particularly good at. The thing that was the most, that's the most annoying five days later is Yara Mindy's yellow card, which now gets him, sets him out for.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Man, he was so mad at himself when he committed that foul.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: He was, he was. And he probably felt it was a little ticky tacky and was pretty upset with the referee for getting him on such a moment.
[00:24:52] Speaker A: But solid yellow all day long.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: I thought that while I thought it was great that Omar Gonzalez played really well, I'm annoyed that we need a 34 year old playing or 35 year old starting against Kai Kamara and Olivia Drew, you know, but if you were gonna. That's a guy who knew Kamara as well as anybody, so they put him in there. He did a good job. But I like, I don't like that how old the defense is. So, like, we covered most of the bad and all that stuff.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Other than Patterson, Delgado was absolute ass except for his goal.
I was sitting near, but somebody, he's like, when he scored, he goes, is that the man? She's like, no, that dude's been ass except for the goal.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: No, he was terrible.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I was so rusty.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: Were you surprised he started?
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Yes. Were you not? I was. I was. I thought for sure, the way legit has been playing.
Sure.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: They put legit on out there.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Under. Yeah, under Luke saying legit has been amazing. And even he'd been amazing when they were playing him deeper, as they had done, you know, for many, several games when. I mean, you probably have to. Again, this coming up, don't you? Put him in there. But, you know, especially given the way Doug Delgado proceeded to play badly. I mean, you know, maybe in training, Delgado had done really well and he wanted to reward him or something, I guess. I don't know. I was. I was really shocked he started over legit.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: Well, with the win, Dallas now takes itself to 10th place. They are five points behind Minnesota.
[00:26:26] Speaker B: Five. Yeah. So it's very simple.
[00:26:28] Speaker A: Last play in game spot.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Yeah. There are five points back, and they both have four games to play. So it really is very simple. You have to be two wins better than Minnesota over those four games. So if Minnesota wins three games, you're out. So in the meantime, though, like, if. If Minnesota goes oh, and four, and you go two and two, you're in, you get the spot. So Dallas has Orlando at home, at San Jose at Portland, and then Kansas City at home, and Minnesota has Colorado salt at RSL at Vancouver, and then versus St. Louis at home. So theirs is tougher than Dallas's, but five point lead is big, and they have a two win lead. That's. That's the tough.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: Well, it's also each, each team has a home and a two home, two away. And obviously, the shortcoming for Dallas is having to go on the road twice. So to your point, they've got a, they've got a best Minnesota by two games, and it may be those two road games that end up screwing it up for Dallas.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, if Dallas wins their two home games, which, you know, Orlando is good, so that's not going to be easy. And Kansas City, last game of the year, would just love nothing more to knock you out. So those are not necessarily easy home wins. Dallas does have a great home record, though. So really you have to think that they're going to feel like they're going to have to go to San Jose and Portland and either win one or, or get some points in both because, you know, the chances that Minnesota is going, oh, and four, I think, are small. Kansas, you know, they might not go. They're not going to go four and four, probably. But if they get, if they get two plus a point, I think it's over. So it's a thin, thin margin for error. Yeah.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: Is there a magic number at this point? Has anybody calculated the magic number yet?
[00:28:06] Speaker B: I mean, I meant five points. That's it. I mean, it's like if, if, if it gets to where Dallas can't get, you know, six points more than Minnesota, they're out. So that's the number.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: Well, Minnesota is one four of their last three of their last four and four last six. And the two losses were at home to Cincinnati and at home to Seattle.
[00:28:31] Speaker B: Two really hot, good teams. And Minnesota themselves is really hot. So that's, that's part of the problem, is that they're playing really, really well.
[00:28:37] Speaker A: Now, the three, the three wins came against non playoff teams in San Jose, St. Louis and Kansas City, but they were all road wins.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: So there you go.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: It's just very, very difficult to do.
[00:28:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: It's not possible, but it's just very tough. It's. It has been very tough for a while, even saying that. And the door doors not closed. Like, Dallas can't get eliminated yet, so, you know, it'd probably be a couple weeks before they actually get eliminated, but maybe.
[00:29:03] Speaker A: All right, so Saturday is the return of the kingdom.
Poppy.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Poppy's home. Oscars back with Orlando, who I think are in fifth place in the east. I think that's correct. Yeah, they are. And by the way, they've got a pretty salty road record of six, six and three.
There are no slouches on the road.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: I was watching Dallas play this weekend and I was thinking about Orlando and more sports are going to think about Oscar and I, because I was looking at the shots, you know, the Dallas had 17 shots or whatever. You remember under Oscar with Maxi Ritchie they would have 25, 30 shots. But Maxi was so off target that he wouldn't hardly score even with that, like these high, high volumes of shots. He needed high volumes of shots. And then I was thinking about Musa, who scores, who gets like three shots, two on goal and then scores, you know, and I'm like, imagine if Poppy could have had a guy like Musa during his, you know, 2016, 2015 to 2018 sort of run. I mean, just to think about how amazing the team would have been.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: I will believe this to the day I die. If, if Dan Hunt had given Oscar Perea in that offseason a player like Petter Moussa instead of Cobra, he'd still be the manager here today.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: Yeah, probably.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: Or at least he would have stayed several more seasons until, you know, and they would have had success. But it was when he shows up with, hey, look who I got you as your striker this year. I think Oscar went, okay, I'm going to go do something else.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: Oscar really wanted that mexican challenge and I think he would have done that eventually, but not getting a nine was a big part of what he eventually was.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And now look, Orlando started really poorly this season. But man, have they rallied. They've almost had a Seattle like rally this year. In fact, they have won eight of their last twelve games.
Now, they did lose to Columbus. Yeah. They are dating back to their win against Chicago at home back in June. They have won eight of twelve and have won three of their last four. Now, their last game on the road to Columbus was a loss and I.
[00:31:11] Speaker B: Think there was some controversy around that.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: I think there was some controversy around that game. I don't remember off the top of my head. But anyway, they're coming in here hot and Oscar is going to want his points and it's going to be an interesting one for sure.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: Yeah, as Dan said, moose is back. I don't know why you would start anything but Allen and Jesus at this point. You know, I mean, you can talk about Logan but he's not getting paid millions of dollars and the other guys are. And that gets you starting.
You know, the question is midfield. I mean, he's out presumably shows back. So show needs to six at that point. You know, how much creative you need something creative surpassing in there. So I would again play legit over Delgado, especially because Delgado was asked. But, you know, we'll see what Luxane will do. That's a position, that's a question. Otherwise, I think it's a, you know, Roan is obvious, Ariel left will be obvious, and he's made his bed basically with Farfan and Ibiaga. The only question was, was Nikosi arrested or was he benched? And does Omar keep that spot? You know, it's.
I don't know what to say about that choice. I mean, I would play Nikousi with Ibiya in the middle, but, you know, there's something to be said for Omar's organizational ability and, you know, shape control being better than ibiogas or nicosis, so.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: Well, and I don't mean to bum anybody out, but, and I don't remember what it is off the top of my head and I probably should have looked it up before we started recording. Maybe Dan knows it, but the record this team has when alarm Endy is not on the field is pretty crummy.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not, it's not good.
You know, that the, he's such a pivotal player. You know, he, he has an average game and it's still extraordinary, you know, and you really notice him when he's missing and, and you can look at his numbers you like, I didn't play all that well. Then you look at his numbers and they're just immense. He just does so much work in there, connecting and linking when he. That they don't have him. It's a big problem. That's why I think it's so vital that whoever's going to be in there next to more than likely show is going to have to have the ability to carry a lot of that passing load on that linking load. And while Dogato's got some nice abilities bursting forward to overload when he goes forward, he doesn't have that basic, I don't think, progressive link of play like Sebastian Leggette does.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: So, and then the other observation, something that dawned on me as we were sitting down in our seats watching pregame. Anybody got any idea what they're going to when. When the new stadium is completed and they open the 2028 season? Or maybe this will happen before then because the north end will come down. What's going to happen to the shield?
[00:33:49] Speaker B: I don't know. I mean, I don't hate the idea of the large lit up logo. I wouldn't mind seeing it hung somewhere, you know, on the. In the north, you know, corner or something. If they can figure out a place to put it, but honestly, I have no idea. They may not even thought of that.
[00:34:03] Speaker A: Did, because I don't remember seeing it in the renderings related to that. Did they, did they show any detail of what they're going to do with the Lamar statue?
[00:34:13] Speaker B: Dan, did you see any. Did they talk about that at the meeting you were at? Lamar statue?
[00:34:18] Speaker C: No.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: You know, the pictures I've seen, like, the, the changes in the north end zone don't really involve tearing up, like, the, the north buildings or the north gates or the north plaza there. It's like it's all on the stage and closer that the changes are happening. So I'm assuming that Lamar statue will stay there and I'm assuming that somehow you could incorporate a. I mean, really, that shield exists to fill the space. That's the stage. We all know that.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:44] Speaker B: So whether they would keep it, I mean, it's. Of the things they've made up, that's actually, for me, one of the more decent ones. You know, I don't know that I need the lighting of the shield thing, but the fact that it lights up when they score and stuff is kind.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: Of fun and blows flames out and smoke and stuff. Yeah, sure. Who doesn't love a little production value for sure.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: But keep in mind they're going to add a bunch of led lights and stuff, too. So, I mean, in the three years until it's finished, you might as well keep doing the shield, honestly.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: And then I was having a conversation with the people I went to the game with, and they were not super familiar with the, with the plans. And I was showing them some of the pictures and stuff, and the gentleman I was with was looking and he was like, so what are they going to do on the north? And I said, they're going to put a safe, safe standing area for, you know, fan groups and stuff. And he looked at me and he said, and how many seats is that going to be?
And I said, 3400.
And he turned around and he looked over at the, the wedge, the Rhine, and he asked me how many seats that was. And I said, dan, and I hope I got. I was at least somewhere correct. It's like 400 people. Correct.
[00:35:51] Speaker C: About 450.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Okay, 450. And he looked at me and he goes, so they're going to get 3400 people a week to come fill in that space, that big new space. And I just said, I guess so. I don't, I don't know. And I thought that was a really interesting question.
[00:36:10] Speaker B: What I will say, without knowing the answer to the question, though. What I will say is they'll more than likely funnel the supporters into one swath of it and that those seats are, excuse me, safe standing seats are often slightly cheaper than other parts. I imagine people will opt for that.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: I'm going to officially start calling them teets now.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
Sorry, I'm not a professional radio person.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: No, it was funny.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, I think, I think that that section will fill up more than we think it will just because it'll be a relatively bargain viable seed. And some people will like the safe standing, even if they don't want to be in the supporters group, they'll want to be near it, you know, or have some of that same. Well, that's vibe.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: That's what got me wondering. And again, this could all be, this could all change between now and by the time they build it out. But, you know, because they're dividing it an upper section and a lower section. The lower section is the part that pushes in and reveals a stage. I wondered if the top section may not be true safe standing and be more of a season ticket holder area and the lower section would be the safe standing with the fan, you know.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: With the supporters groups. Yeah, well, I kind of feel like that's a thing that could be pushed back in terms of decision points, you know, because we know that, like, that north end zone hasn't been specified as like, that's gonna be one of the first things done. Right. So it might be, you know, it could change between now and then is what I'm saying.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: Well, let me say, let me, I'll, I'll say this as somebody who is constantly demanding this team have ambition. If in fact that is a full 3400, you know, stant safe standing area, then I would say that is extremely ambitious and I'm proud of them for having that level of ambition to try to have 3400 people in the supporters group section week in and week out.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Well, I would say that the wonder wall in Minnesota is not one entire single supporters section and like Austin's safe standing in their end zone is not one entire supporters section.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: It's not?
[00:38:10] Speaker B: No. It has three or four pockets that are supporters groups and then it has just in general people that like the safe standing and are fans of the club. It's not one unified supporters group.
Right. I mean.
[00:38:22] Speaker A: Oh no. When I, when I was there watching the game, I thought it was just a big supporters group section that they had put together.
[00:38:28] Speaker C: Well, I mean, it's one section, but it's. Yeah, supporters groups regular. I mean, same as how the beer garden used to be.
[00:38:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't mean it would be just, yeah, I don't mean it would just be one group. I know. I realized it'll be made up of different supporters groups. Yeah, I just assumed it was all considered a supporter group section, all priced the same. Instead of it being, hey, you've got an assigned seat because you're a seasoned ticket holder.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: It probably is. But think of it this way. If the stadium's still going to hold roughly 20,000 people, right, it's, it's been close to sell out 80%. At some point it was like 95% butts and seats. And now maybe it's more like 80 or 75. Like that means that those seats, people are going to want to be buying seats. So at some point it's like all we got left is safe standing or what's the cheapest ticket? It's the safe standing.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: And if you watch Austin, they'll be like one pocket over here has a couple of banners and a couple of drums and another pocket over here has some different banners. There's still, you know, of the 5000 people in their supporters, quote unquote section safe standing, only like two or three pockets of them of maybe a thousand people are actually in supporters clubs. The rest of them are just fans who like to make noise and stand up. Right. So, I mean, I don't think it would be hard for Dallas to sell those tickets at all if the same sold out. Same sold out.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: Well, it's interesting to keep an eye on how all of this goes and the reaction to the stadium and everything. The vibe overall. When I was there on Saturday night, Washington people were really excited about the, uh, you know, the redesign and everything. The, I would say that based on just kind of my very unscientific surveying of different places, like your discord was pretty positive in terms of renewal. There are other outlets online that are the opposite direction. I would say I'm running about 50 50 overall on people who were saying they're going to re up their tickets next year with the price increases and the reduction of the stadium. But the general reaction to the designs was overwhelmingly positive.
[00:40:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the people that have had the most negative 100% people love the designs. People that have had the most negative reaction about the season ticket thing are the ones ive talked to that had been getting renewal discounts for several years. And then because of this new situation, the renewal discounts are going away depending on where you were sitting and how many renewal discounts you had, you might be looking at a 60% ticket in price increase. And so people that are getting hammered like that are like, oh, my God, no way am I doing a 60% increase, whereas other people might only be looking at a few dollars increase per game. You know, so it's, the people's mileage varies on how annoyed they are about how this is the huge, biggest price increase of all time versus like, it's just a couple of bucks, you know?
[00:41:12] Speaker A: So I don't know if you mind sharing this buzz, but you've, you said on the previous episode that you think you've been priced out and you may not renew your tickets. What was the increase in your ticket?
[00:41:22] Speaker B: Oh, I didn't even ask.
Oh, you know, the, the ticket had gone up enough from the last year to this year that my, it was already the amount of time I can go and how full the place is getting, which makes it less comfortable for me to go.
And I don't necessarily mean physically.
[00:41:45] Speaker A: I know what you mean.
[00:41:46] Speaker B: Yeah. So I had decided, like, the cost per enjoyment ratio for me had gotten too steep in general. And that was before I knew specifically what the increase was going to be. You know, I knew there was going to be an increase and I knew that it was more than I was going to want to do because the price was already more than I was wanting to do again. So my decision was as much about circumstance. And I knew that, like, once they were talking about reducing capacity, I knew it was going to be even worse. You know, that's, that parts for me. So that's, that's why, yeah, it's less about the price than it is the experience.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Well, before we move on to other stuff, as we said, Bogart was reporting today that sources are telling him that Lexane is in the driver's seat for the job. And it made me wonder about that statement is, I mean, I can see a scenario where they win three of four games and still don't qualify. And they're like, man, it was so close and he made the team so much entertaining, so much more entertaining. And we were just so bad beforehand that they, you know, they use that as the justification to offer him the job full time. But what if he loses three of four or all four games and the team just kind of putzes out for the rest of the season?
[00:43:06] Speaker B: Well, if he doesn't get in, and, Dan, you can go here in a second. If he doesn't get in, I think that opens the door to all the other candidates and then it'll just be a case of him selling himself versus everybody else that it's applying. You know, he'll have to interview, he'll have to provide. You know, here's what I was doing. Here's what I want to do. Here's what I need you to give me all the things anybody else interviewing will do. If he doesn't get in, you know, and I don't think it matters whether he putzes in or not. If he doesn't get in, it opens the door. The better he does, the more it helps him. But I think the only way he's a dead solid hundred percent lock is if he gets in.
[00:43:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
I think the big thing for him is going to be the commitment to the academy and the pipeline, the cheaper source of talent, the hunt way.
I don't know how exactly how much results are going to play into it. It was, you know, kind of, to start with kind of position behind the eight ball. But yeah, sputtering into the. To the post season would certainly help his, his case and maybe make, well, okay, I guess in part where this is kind of something that came up in discord, right? It was the, the news that San Jose had spoken to, you know, four coaches, Bruce Arena, Robin Fraser, Gio Savares and Greg Burhalter. But as you'd pointed out, Buzz speaking to a coach could just be a call to an agent of, hey, we have a job. Is he interested? This is the pay. No. Okay. We won't waste your time any further, which is obviously going to be a factor in the FC Dallas job as well. So how he does versus what the demands are of any other candidates that they may potentially prefer.
[00:45:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Part of what I was saying about why I think nobody else is interviewed is that Bogart is hooked in enough that whoever he talked to, which probably Zanada, that said, oh, it's. Right now it's just Luxane, you know. Okay. That's because he's getting this opportunity. Right. So that's why I think in part that if he doesn't get in that list, all of a sudden becomes other people and more than just look, saint.
[00:45:27] Speaker A: I have no idea. And you just said this and it popped in my head and I don't know if we're qualified to ask this. To answer this question, do any of either of you think Zenada wants Luxane to be the manager, the next manager?
[00:45:45] Speaker B: Gosh, I honestly have no idea.
[00:45:47] Speaker C: He knows him. That's, that's kind of a good start.
[00:45:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't find Zenada to be particularly chatty and forthcoming. He, like, if I corner him, he'll talk to me.
But he doesn't really like Klavijo was. He could not stop talking. The guy would just run and run and run and run and tell you everything under the sun.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: He'd come find you.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And he would. He would hunt me down and all you guys down. You know that. And Sonata goes and stands on a part of the field where I can't get to him.
So I don't really know him very well. I don't really know what he thinks about stuff. You know, there are a lot of other coaches that will see me and come over and we can have conversations about, you know, how's it going? What are they doing? What do you feel about this? What's your philosophy? And none of it is. I'm not recording any of it. It's just conversations about things.
Zana's not that way. You know, luxe was that way when he was an assistant, but only to a tiny little extent. He wouldn't. He wouldn't talk to me about the team or players or tactics. He would just sort of talk to me, but only about nothing important.
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:47:04] Speaker B: It's one of the reasons why I really don't have a firm grasp on him as a coach is because he never has really shared that kind of stuff with me. I don't know whether he just doesn't want to or wants to keep it tight to his vest. It's certainly his prerogative. He doesn't need to talk to me at all if he doesn't want to.
So I don't. I don't really know how those guys relationships is.
Peter, in my experience, gets along with everybody, but I don't know that he's really tight and close with anybody. It's kind of a weird. So maybe John gall, apparently, of all people. So it's one of my. I'm not going to say reservations, but one of my hesitations about Luxain is I really have a very poor handle on him as a coach. Like what he likes and what he wants. I really have to just go on what I see on the field.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: Well, I'm not. I would tell you, I don't even know. In watching however many games he's managed, I could tell you what, how good of a manager he is. I know the team is playing better, but they're also giving up a ton of goals. And, you know, they really crapped out in the two tournaments he was assigned to try to. You know, find some success in. And, I mean, I have no real sense of his qualities as a manager, especially watching him on the sideline.
He's.
He's kind of like the. The middleman between Lucci and Nico in terms of how little or too much demonstrative he is, you know what I mean?
[00:48:39] Speaker B: That's funny. I was, I was watching an interview with Pep Guardiola the other day, and they asked him, like, how much he communicates to, like, players. And like, you know, do they hear him? How? He said, none. They can't hear me at all. Like, he says, I'm up there gesturing for me so that I feel better. It's like they can't hear me, they can't see me. They're gonna ignore me anyway, he said, and I always thought, I thought to myself about, granted, he's in a much bigger, louder environment than FC Dallas is, but still, like, left C Dallas games can be loud enough that it's like, who are you yelling at? It's like the only other can hear you. It's the guy 5ft away and they have to wave him. Overdose. Come over here so I can talk to you. You know what I mean?
[00:49:14] Speaker A: So it's like, yeah, those, those games back in the day when Lucci and the stadium wasn't very full, and you're like getting an earful, all you could hear is Lucci just screaming and yelling and instructing. And I know it was interesting. Yeah, I don't know. I honestly don't know what. What to make out of all this. And I. What I. But if what I will say is what I find most fascinating out of this entire scenario is the overwhelming kind of collective sense of, I don't know what the right word is, that the fan base just seems resolved that this is the kind of guy that they're going to end up with.
[00:49:53] Speaker B: Well, I told you that's our fault. But, you know, I think. I think, you know, if you've been.
[00:49:58] Speaker A: Around, I take no blame in this buzz. This is not my fault.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: If you've been around the club for five minutes, you've seen the history of con coach. They have, you know, that they fired the guy and said, you know, make the playoffs or bust, and he's gotten them, you know, to the line. So people are like, you know, it's good enough, it's entertaining. I get it. I mean, I know why they're that way. You know, it's the history of, you know, actions speak louder than words. You can say all kinds of amazing things, but what you are judged on at the end of the day is your actions. So, like, the history of the way they've done things is pretty clear for 20 years that they've been, 25 years that they've been running the ship ish. You know, they've done the same thing over and over and over again. So why would you expect something?
[00:50:43] Speaker A: Well, and we can even use just the last two hirings because they're the most recent that, you know, take up the post Oscar period of Dan Hunt coming out and insisting that he talked to all of these amazingly qualified people, you know, managers that had coached in Champions League and World cup and were international stars, and yet he chose to hire a guy with zero experience instead. And, yeah, I mean, it is, I mean, you're right. Actions do speak louder than words.
[00:51:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And franchises have personalities. It doesn't matter. You can change the owner, you can change the GM's and the coaches and they don't change. Like, you can pick any sport you want. And the same, almost always the same teams are crap year after year after decade after decade. And I, FC Dallas is an established what it is. It is never going to change. This is what it is. It's not going to be LAFC. It's not going to be Atlanta. It just is what it is, you know, and you could have some Cuban could buy the team and it wouldn't change.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Well, what's interesting is if San Jose does somehow finagle a way of nabbing one of those four guys, I don't think it'll be Burhalter that's going to Chicago. Right, exactly. But if he, if he's able, you know, cause, oh, by the way, the other person that's out in the marketplace is Bob Bradley.
[00:52:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I know you're a big Bradley fan.
[00:52:03] Speaker A: I am a Bradley fan. That's a guy with a track record and knows this league extremely well. He knows the american player and has a style and all of those things. And there's a lot to the story about what happened in Toronto and there's a lot of, to the story what happened in stay back and all of that. I think you'd be in a fantastic addition to this club.
I'm just not one. I, look, I'll end it here. I just don't, I don't think hiring somebody to learn on the job for the fifth time when it, the prior five times got you absolutely zero is the smart move. But I know it's probably going to happen.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: Yeah, probably. Probably. Yeah. The thing I would say about in general, the idea of a Bruce arena or a boss Bradley is we, and we've talked about all these things before, is, a, the money and b, the fact that there's an established owner president and GM technical director. Sorry, not GM soccer operations guy. A secondary technical director, like they have as an established style. They have established kind of player. They go at. They have established a rep. And would a guy like Bruce or Bob Bradley, would they want to come and step into that with those. With those.
I'm not gonna say limitations with those, with that atmosphere, with that setup, you know, and that's where I don't know that you could get one of them.
[00:53:27] Speaker A: My favorite, even if they were my favorite reply to me on Twitter about this, was my request if I'd be happy with the compromise of hiring Michael Bradley for his first managerial gig.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: Man, if Michael Bradley had a few more years coaching, I would absolutely take a run on my Michael Bradley.
He's the kind of player like Kyle Beckerman who I think would be a spectacular coach because the position he played.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:51] Speaker B: And the way he played, you know, I don't think it's today, but, you know, like, so, like, today you hire Michael Bradley. I go, get out of here. But, like, couple more assistant jobs, maybe get ahead, maybe get a MLS knucks pro head coach run. Absolutely. I put Michael Bradley in a. In a spot.
[00:54:07] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:08] Speaker B: You know, like Chris Armis. Same position, right?
[00:54:11] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I mean, but he's got a lot of experience.
[00:54:15] Speaker B: No, I know, but the kind of person that makes a good coach.
[00:54:19] Speaker A: Oh, I see what you're saying.
[00:54:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:54:21] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:22] Speaker B: Like a yarn. Mini, like, if yara mini walked into the office tomorrow and was like, hey, you know what? I'm done playing, but I want to put my hat in the ring to be a head coach for your team right now. Would you consider it?
Damn right I would.
[00:54:34] Speaker A: Okay, well, let's play this game. Let's play this game. If Michael Bradley was interested in the FC Dallas job, the d. What's your. What's the difference between him and Luxane to you?
[00:54:47] Speaker B: Well, Luxane's been an assistant coach at a high level for a decade.
[00:54:51] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:54:51] Speaker B: You know, Michael Bradley's been assistant coach for his dad for five minutes. You know, it's not a snack. Yeah, okay. But like, you know, like, if you want to go crazy, names Dan. Is it. Is it Dela Russo? That was an. It's been an assistant in Houston and a couple other places that coached in the USL that used to play here. Like a guy like that, that's been, you know, ten years out of his playing days that has, you know, a decade of being, like, look, saying has a decade of being a first team assistant in MLS, you know, or in USL. Like, those kinds of guys are ready for a shot. Michael Bradley is not ready for a shot. I'm just saying that Michael Bradley is the kind of guy that I would definitely keep an eye on because he has the things that make a good coach at some point.
[00:55:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:35] Speaker B: You know, well, Yara Mindy has such incredible experience at the highest, highest level that, like, in a sense, like Pep Guardiola, like within a year or two, you know, he's ready for these amazing jobs and like, why not give him a start at a place that most people from his level would consider like a small team where you would start your career if you're that kind of player, you know?
[00:55:57] Speaker A: Well, we're going to find out. We got four games left, starting with Poppy and Orlando coming to town this weekend at Toyota Stadium at 730. We got to wrap this up because the cowboy game is going to start here soon.
Since we last talked, Dallas Trinity has played another game. This was a road game in Brooklyn and boy, that looked like a much different team than. Than what I had seen previously.
[00:56:21] Speaker B: I saw a real quick comment on them because I want to talk about their training session. I went to a little bit too. Like, the comment on the game was one of the things that has worried me a little bit about their defense was pace and I wasn't really sure how so far they had stacked up well against other teams in the league. Well, not that one. Brooklyn had pace and they couldn't deal with it. Particular.
George was just crushing them.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I was kind of surprised at the different and the different of level between Trinity and Brooke, Dallas and Brooklyn. And it was almost as if it was almost reminiscent of the Dallas, the first Dallas Tampa game except in reverse.
[00:57:00] Speaker B: Yeah, well, Dallas is missing their, their, one of their center back leaders, which again, like, like the other Dallas team injuries are really killing them. And then Weinbrenner and then the, the other wing, Broussard is missing, which meant they may move their striker out. And then they took one of their better midfielders and moved Daniel Senna, moved her up. It just caused a whole ripple effect and really hurt their team with those couple of players hurting. And then they tried their other goalkeeper who is, you know, been in competition, the coach says, and had a good week or whatever and they wanted to give her a run and that didn't necessarily work great either.
You know, tough on, live on the road is tough. And they ran into what looks like a really good team. So they definitely were off the mark for sure.
[00:57:39] Speaker A: Okay, so you did go to, I saw the video. You went to training. Where was it? At Green Hill.
[00:57:43] Speaker B: That was at Hockaday, which, if you've never been to Hockaday, is a very nice campus.
[00:57:48] Speaker A: Yeah. They just redid all of those athletic facilities within the last, I'd say 18 months. And it looked. Looks amazing.
[00:57:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it is amazing. So the training, it reminded me so much of the early days of the Dallas burn at Green Hill. The difference is that the security there at Hockaday is considerably tighter now. That could just be a symptom of the day we live in rather than what it was when the Dallas burn started 30 years ago.
But the other part was the same. Like, there's a coach and then one or two assistants, there's one equipment guy, there's one goalie coach. You know, the thing that was super weird to me was that the technical director, the general manager, Chris, whose name I can't remember off the top of my head, right in the second, Petra Selley. Thank you.
He still thinks he's a coach because he's out there looking like Dave Durr, wearing athletic shorts and a t shirt and soccer cleats, kicking the ball around. And I'm like, that's not what GM's and TD's do. Those guys show up in their not a suit, but they're business casual. Maybe they have a notepad and write a couple of things down. You know what I mean? Like, so it really struck me how early, early days this is. And I don't mean this to be super negative, but the thing that really hit me was they're not running a franchise, they're running a team.
And that's okay. Like, all they have is like the ownership level and then they have the coach and technical staff and that's pretty much it, right? It's a team. And so the GM is out there kicking balls around.
It's not like, it's not a, it's not a criticism. It's just an observation of where they are in their life cycle as a franchise. That, and it was just really hit home to me. And it gave me these 30 year flashbacks to the earliest days of the burnout that green Hill with, you know, Durin and his assistants, a couple of citizens running around, you know, and there wasn't even a PR guy when I first went out there. At least this time they had these two outside the firm PR guys that let you laugh at this is they, they basically just took the cowboys training rules for media and just applied them. I was like, I was like, this ain't the Cowboys like, oh, no, we had to start somewhere.
[00:59:54] Speaker A: Well, the game they were supposed to play next has been postponed due to the hurricane. So their next game I think is October 6 or something like that.
[01:00:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:02] Speaker A: Get Spokane by Spokane. So, yeah, interesting stuff. Okay, let's see. You have written something down about North Texas.
[01:00:12] Speaker B: Yeah. They clinched the top seed in the Western Conference. They have home field advantage all the way to the final and they still have a really good shot to be the number one overall seed. So they would host the final if they get all the way there.
[01:00:23] Speaker A: Okay. And they made a signing as well.
[01:00:26] Speaker B: Yeah, they signed the, the guy that was the number one guy on our academy signing list, Daniel Barron is his name. He's the last 2006 that I was interested in.
He's a younger guy so he would have had one more year in the academy but he has, you know, been with them full time already played like 14 games. He's not a guy that will jump up to MLS anytime soon but he's a really nice, very direct, very fast player with a like six two striker, winger. So he's got some stuff I like, some tenacity, some bullheadedness, some aggressiveness. All good.
[01:00:58] Speaker A: And how old is he, did you say?
[01:00:59] Speaker B: Well, he's still a senior in high school. He hasn't graduated. He doesn't graduate high school until May. So he's, you know, 1718 like something like that. He's, he's a younger player in the year 2006, you know, like a November December maybe. I don't remember exactly. But, you know he broke in early this year like he had a really great Dallas cup and right after that they brought him in. He, and he got in and the games and was somewhat effective. Mostly he's the bench player but he got a few starts. You know, he's not one. He's not like Anthony Ramirez who already got his emergency signing with the first team and I would imagine will be a full time member of the squad next year. Or Charles, God has already played. He's not progressive as those two guys but want to keep an eye on over the next couple of years.
[01:01:33] Speaker A: What do you, what do you think that deal looks like in terms of.
[01:01:36] Speaker B: Money for a guy like that? It depends on whether his deal is a straight North Texas deal where it could be as little as like, you know, a grand or two a month, like a semi pro kind of thing. But like, I think because they've, they've announced his signing with like four games left and they haven't mentioned next season. So I'm pretty sure that he's probably gonna end up being one of these hybrid deal guys. So, you know, complete guesswork. It probably is around 40k for now at North Texas. Maybe, you know, heading towards a regular homegrown eventually when he gets bumped up, which would be your 75, 85 or whatever, the minimum is now for that bottom of the roster.
[01:02:16] Speaker A: But in him doing this, he's now essentially decided not, he can't play college ball.
[01:02:23] Speaker B: Well, I think in the Nil era that's not as true because there's, there's been guys that have played for North Texas that are now in college playing.
[01:02:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:02:33] Speaker B: So I don't. I'm not an NCAA qualified expert. I would have said this signing cost him his college days, but like, I'm telling you, there's a couple of guys that have come through some of these lower level teams that are now in college. Like there's a, there's a kid playing at Creighton, there's a kid at Rio Grande Valley that played for North Texas. You know, it's just so. I'm not. I'm not a college legal expert enough to tell you, but ordinarily this means he's given up his NCA. It depends on whether he has an agent or not. Maybe. I don't. I don't know, Peter. I.
[01:03:07] Speaker A: Look, guy, the quarterback at Vegas essentially decided to redshirt this season because he was promised $100,000 of nil money and didn't get it. So he's decided he's not going to play for the team after a 30 start. This is such a new and weird time.
[01:03:24] Speaker B: I know, I read about that. And he has an agent or something.
[01:03:27] Speaker A: Yes. He's got an agent. Yes.
[01:03:28] Speaker B: So, like, I don't think anymore that, like, having an agent assigned, I guess MLS next pro kills your college career.
[01:03:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Unless the agent has to dig into that. Unless the agent has something specifically to do just with nil dollars and not with, you know, signing with another baby.
[01:03:44] Speaker B: And I don't.
[01:03:45] Speaker A: But I don't know, the whole transfer portal thing makes my head spin and makes me want to shake my fist at clouds.
[01:03:51] Speaker B: But yeah, I need to talk to some people because I. Because people have always told me that the minute you do this, you've given up your chance at a scholarship. But then I see these kids that have, that I know have been paid that are in college. So I'm like, okay, maybe they're playing for free. I don't know anymore. It's too complicated. I just deal with what happens.
[01:04:13] Speaker A: Well, very good. All right. Well, hopefully things will go well this weekend for the burn against Orlando, and maybe we'll all get to say hello to Poppy while he's in town. It'd be good to see him again.
[01:04:24] Speaker B: That'd be nice. Yeah.
[01:04:26] Speaker A: Dan. Happy birthday, my friend. I hope you had a good one and a good year. 38th year.
[01:04:34] Speaker C: It was a good one.
[01:04:35] Speaker A: All right. Excellent buzz. Thank you, sir.
[01:04:39] Speaker B: Oh, you're welcome. And thanks for being here, as always, to herd the cats through this maze.
[01:04:44] Speaker A: We'll figure it out together. We will make this work week in and week out, one way or the other.
All right, well, thank you, guys and thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fan. We will speak to you next week on another episode of third degree, the podcast the third degree nap, I guess.
Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess.
Third degree. The third degree nap, I guess.
[01:05:13] Speaker B: Third degree. Third degree nap.
[01:05:16] Speaker A: I can.
