3rd Degree the Podcast #286

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Third Degree the third degree. Ne Pocket. [00:00:13] Speaker A: Third Degree the third degree. Napa Guy. Third Degree the third degree Napa Guy. Third degree the third degree. Never care. Well, hello there, FC Dallas. Curious fan. Welcome to another episode of third Degree, the podcast. This one is number two hundred and eighty six. Two hundred and eighty six. Joining today is the good Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:40] Speaker B: Hello. Hello. [00:00:41] Speaker A: What in the world is going on. [00:00:43] Speaker B: With your Luton, Um, injuries. A coach that doesn't want to play soccer. Where do we go? [00:00:52] Speaker A: Oof. Oof. But you beat Watford and that's all that really matters, right? [00:00:56] Speaker B: That is the important one. [00:00:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I. I thought you'd say. And your hero, My hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of third degree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Kerik. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:08] Speaker C: Hey, guys. You can't tell, but right now I'm doing the meme with Rowan Atkinson where he's standing in a field looking at his watch, waiting for something to happen. [00:01:17] Speaker A: You're going to be waiting. [00:01:18] Speaker C: No, I feel like I am going to be waiting a bit. [00:01:22] Speaker A: This is our official annual awards, which feels really stupid this particular season to do, but we're gonna do it anyway because that's what we do. [00:01:33] Speaker B: Peter, that's not stupid. Stupid is having a Defender of the Year award and deciding that Reggie Cannon isn't eligible for it as a defender, but Victor Oyo could win it. [00:01:45] Speaker A: I forgot about that. Those are. [00:01:46] Speaker C: Yeah, that should be on the lines. Yeah, it ought to be. [00:01:50] Speaker A: I bet I could put a. I bet I could make some money on guessing who put that lineup together in the front office. All right, so we'll do those awards here in a little bit, but let's get around to some of the things that are banging around is topics of discussion. The big one is how long do you think we're going to go before they announce a manager? [00:02:15] Speaker C: Buzz, while that depends greatly on what the other two, who the other two candidates officially are. You know, we think or assume one of them is Eric Quill, whose team is in first place, finished in first place in the Western Conference with a seven point margin and his team plays their first playoff game on Sunday. So if he is one or the candidate, if that turns out he's the guy, then obviously they're going to have to wait for him to get eliminated from the playoffs. If it's Luxon who's going to be the head coach, I don't know why it wouldn't already be announced. If it's some other people that we don't know about, you know, it could be someone who's out of a job. And again, you wonder why it's not already ready to go since they said they started looking a month ago. If it's somebody who's an assistant on an MLS team, it's still playing or you know, you can think of other scenarios where it might take longer. So, you know, the longer it goes, the more it's not likely that it's losing Luxon or somebody else that's out of employment, out of a job currently, you know, and the guy. Because the guys that do have jobs, you know, I don't think they're offering the kind of money the Hunts are that you would bail on your team, you know, right in the middle of a playoff run. So. And I don't think so, I don't think if that, if it's a guy like that, I don't think, I think we're going to be waiting, you know. [00:03:39] Speaker A: Well, it is an interesting question of how long they wait and I think you're right. I mean, do they play a game where it ends up being luxon and they did end up waiting a month or so because when is the USLC championship game? I know they play their first round this week. I'm assuming the next round would be next week. So it's three, it's, it's three weeks off the championship game. I can't find a date for it. Not on their website at least. [00:04:05] Speaker C: It's November 23rd. [00:04:07] Speaker A: Okay. All right. [00:04:08] Speaker C: Yeah, so that's a week before, by the way, FC Dallas is required to announce their roster moves, which is November 27th, I think it is. So. Yeah, but it's also Thanksgiving, so it's hard to do any work like between the 23rd and the 27th. Tough to get any real work done. So we'll see. [00:04:29] Speaker A: Okay. Before we get to award stuff. And I'm clearly dodging it because it's just seems. Anyway. Do you want to do these questions first, Buzz? [00:04:40] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. [00:04:41] Speaker A: So from the Patreon, somebody asked the question if MLS changes the calendar to the FIFA calendar, which would be August through, you know, whatever. I think they said, what was it May or something like that. Would Dallas suddenly become a more attractive destination for players with an MLS and globally because now they're not playing in the brutal months of July and September. [00:05:06] Speaker C: Well, I think this one's obvious. I think it's a no brainer that it would be more appealing. You know, one of the things that probably is least appealing about playing In Dallas is the incredibly hot games. Not just the games, which you can handle a game. It's the training day to day that wears you out. I think it's the, you know, a couple of hours every morning. Despite the fact they train really early, relatively speaking, you know, it still reaches a hundred by the time they're finished training. And it can really wear you and beat you down. And you know, even if it's just in the mid to high 90s, it's pretty uncomfortable. I remember watching an APL game and they were talking about what once and they were talking, the communists were talking about the game was really poor and really lacked energy because it was super hot that day. And they, and they said what the temperature was in Celsius. So I googled it and it was like 75 degrees and they were talking about that was crazy hot and it really hurt the game. Well, that's, that's 20 degrees less than the bulk of FC Dallas games, so. Absolutely. Playing in a colder climate, cold in the winter would help FC Dallas for sure. [00:06:08] Speaker A: Yeah, probably. Just to remind everybody, the Rangers were nothing in baseball until they got a stadium that was enclosed and suddenly now had a bunch of people willing to take a lot of money to come play in Texas because they didn't have to play in the Texas heat. [00:06:22] Speaker C: So I think we should ask the resident brute about the heat. [00:06:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say it's kind of a twofold answer for domestic players. Absolutely massive difference. International players. Sure. It goes up from 0.1% chance to 0.2% chance. Because the reality still is Texas as a whole is just not really a consideration for most people. Right. You know, if you ask your average European player, oh, you know, what cities in, in the United States would you maybe want to live and play in? Dallas isn't going to feature on that list. And then someone might say, oh, what, what about Dallas? And like. Oh yeah, like the TV show. Wait, that's a real place. [00:07:05] Speaker A: Do you think people like Luka Doncic changes that at all though? [00:07:11] Speaker B: No, because basketball is not a mainstream sport in most of Europe. [00:07:16] Speaker A: Okay, interesting. Well, that leads into the second question. How was the Dallas market viewed? It's not a top tier destination like Miami or LA or New York City. What would Dallas need to be considered a second tier market within the MLS footprint? [00:07:37] Speaker C: Well, I think it probably is a second tier market. The Dallas is. I don't know that. I think that the, one of the biggest stumbling blocks for it being considered a larger market is, you know, the club itself which hasn't performed at a high enough level overall, isn't competing for championships, you know, by any, by much of a stretch. You know, it doesn't have the attractiveness of a New Yorker in LA to the average person, you know, or. But you know what, what it does have is an identity. Like, you know, when I've traveled abroad and people ask where I'm from, I usually say Texas is not the United States. And they, everybody knows where that is and they know who the Dallas Cowboys are, for example. So it does have a level of appeal. People know it as a major massive city. I, over the history of this club, most people that have come to play for FC Dallas from Europe, and this is true for a great many of the clubs, even New York and la, you know, they talk about the lifestyle difference, where they can go to a restaurant or a store and no one knows who they are and they get left alone. And so that appeal holds true for Dallas as it does for, even more so than it does for something like Miami or LA or New York. Now it doesn't hold true for Lionel Messi. But you know, you can, you can look back at any of the players that have come here, particularly they from Europe, particularly if they have families. They talk about being able to be normal and live a normal life. And when they're done playing, just like what happens with a lot of Texas Rangers players, people tend to stay here. You know, there's, there's been a lot of players that have stuck around this market even when they quit playing for FC Dallas. So I do think it is a second tier market already. Certainly it has. I think Dallas is a large major city, has a lot more appeal than a lot of the other, you know, mid market teams do. Like, you know, unless you're into skiing, real, you know, Salt Lake City is not going to necessarily appeal. People are going to look at, you know, unless you're into Prince, they're going to not look at Minneapolis as a great area. You know, I'm not talking about Americans, I'm talking about Europeans, you know, so we might know more about some of those markets than people from abroad. But people from abroad are going to know Dallas has got 7 million people in it and that it is a major market. [00:09:49] Speaker A: I would, I would point people to some of the annual NFL player survey stuff. And that always, I think, surprises people to find out despite the fact that they've won a lot of Super Bowls recently, the players that play for the Chiefs don't necessarily think the Hunts are the best owners. In terms of amenities and services and how they're treated. And I think that is somewhat mirrored. No, not somewhat. I think it's mirrored a lot here with the soccer team. You know, you can ask, you can talk to a lot of people in MLS circles from other clubs or within the front office or within the media. And the Dallas in general as a club and an operation is not considered highly within MLS circles and never has been since the Hunts took over. And you know, before that it was the redheaded stepchild because it was just a group of people fighting to stay stable and make the most out of. Out of a really bad situation. And they did that. So I, you know, I think you're right, Buzz. I think Dallas is a top. Could be, you know, near a top tier market. But I think it's the club itself that holds its, it's. It's its own stumbling block, really, is what it is. [00:11:02] Speaker C: Yeah, it's not the city, it's the club. You know, Cuban has this deal, I remember when he took over the Mavericks where he was talking about in a cap league, a lot of times clubs are going to have the same sort of money as other clubs when they're trying to get players. So he wanted to make sure his club had the very best of everything so that, you know, so that none of else would held him back. And he even said things like, I want to have the best towels in the league, like even, like that level of attention to detail. He wanted to be the best it could be because he didn't want to lose out for anything like that. The Hunts, however, run a very budget conscious organization. And I think you can, you know, look at any operation they run the chief seat, house, whatever it is, even the crew back in the day, you know, Kansas City in the early days when they ran that, you know, and it's their money and it's their right to do that and they choose to do that. But it does, your right does hold them back. Dallas doesn't have a great reputation for facilities or. I mean, the training fields are good, you know, and the grass usually is good. It's better at the Cotton bowl than it is here at Toyota Stadium because Toyota Stadium, they put too many other events in it, you know, but the, the offices aren't great and they don't, they don't just, they. You see other organizations in this league and newer owners and flashier owners with a lot of money who try to run these really high end, first class, top tier organizations and Dallas just doesn't do that. You know, and it's hard for, I think it's a little unfair sometimes for us to really bag the Hunts on that because it's not in their nature and it's not the way they've ever done anything. And when you remember, and I've repeated this story many times, Peter, and I know you remember this when we said when the Hunts took over this team, they saved this team, and when that was both the best thing to happen to the team, that it was safe, and also the worst thing to happen to the team because of the way the Hunts run teams. So we knew it was always going to be this way. So it's definitely true. I think that the quality and the reputation of the organization precedes them in terms of the value of people, the draw people coming here more than the absolute market does. But at the end of the day, you can look at like Mindy and Martin Paz, for example, both based on their Instagrams, have chosen to live in downtown Dallas and more of a modern environment and a high risk kind of environment down near the arena and down near where there's lots of things relatively speaking happening, you know, and so you can get a more, I don't know, urban metropolitan, probably not European, but closest to European life you're going to find. You can find it. And those guys almost all have money when they come here and they make a decent enough living even for us to Dallas, that there should be no problem for them to live a pretty good life. And so it is possible to have a very cosmopolitan, very urban life here in Dallas. You know, if you, if you know where, if you go to the right place. It's not all suburbs and park fences and playgrounds. [00:13:55] Speaker A: And I also think that it's appropriate to give the Hunts credit where it's due. You know, like you said, Buzz and saving the team to begin with, but also, you know, having. I know a lot of people that listen to this weren't around back at the day, but despite the location being one of the earliest clubs with a soccer specific stadium was a really, really big thing at the time. And the fact that they were able to put together an academy that has been very successful and they've put the money and effort into that is obviously a big part of it too. And obviously the upcoming changes to the stadium and the surrounding area should be huge. Yeah. Or all those things. Now, let's also be clear, that's all part of the business. That's all part of the bottom line that drives how the Hunt brothers run this operation. But those are also things that we as fans will get to enjoy or have been able to enjoy over the years. And that's part of what comes with the brothers owning the club. So it is what it is. And maybe at some point someday the stars will align and things will come together and we'll get our own Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes and they'll start winning championships to go along with all the rest of it. So we'll see. [00:15:08] Speaker C: One can hope. [00:15:10] Speaker A: Sure. There's. Hey man, there's always next year. [00:15:13] Speaker C: There is always next year. [00:15:14] Speaker A: All right, let's do the awards. There are three awards to give out. Newcomer, defender of the Year and mvp. And Dan, I'm gonna let you go first. We're gonna go in reverse order this year. Let's start with newcomer of the year, Dan Crook. Open your envelope please, sir. [00:15:35] Speaker B: It's an easy one. It's Logan Farrington. [00:15:37] Speaker A: You want to talk about why? [00:15:39] Speaker B: No. Because Buzz is going to agree and he'll give a pretty good rundown why. [00:15:44] Speaker A: Okay. [00:15:47] Speaker C: I'm not gonna agree. [00:15:49] Speaker B: Well, screw you. [00:15:50] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm gonna say the newcomer of the year is Peter Musa. [00:15:53] Speaker A: Okay. [00:15:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:15:55] Speaker A: All right, now I'm gonna listen to you guys argue about this. [00:15:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I actually forgot he came this season. [00:16:03] Speaker C: Yeah, he's new this season and put up what the greatest first year player season in club history with what it being 16 goals or 15, whichever one it was, you know, two goals or off of the. I think it was 16. Two goes off of the franchise single season, all time record. So for me, yeah, look, Logan Florida is a great player, but he's not meta. Moose is a new. Because it's not, it's not like young player of the year, it's newcomer of the year. [00:16:28] Speaker B: So I, I legitimately forgot about permissa. I am very much in off season form. [00:16:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I can. I can see that. So do you want to change your vote? [00:16:38] Speaker B: I'm gonna change my vote. [00:16:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:16:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:40] Speaker A: Well, obviously I think Musa makes the most sense and you know, it took him a bit of. It took him a few weeks to. To roll into form, but what he did, there's a lot of promise there and if there's a reason to kind of look at 25 and squint real hard and figure out how this thing's going to be better next season, he's probably the first thing you think about. So. All right. Defender of the year. I can't believe we're giving a defender of the year award this particular season. But Dan, I'm gonna let you give it a try again. Open your next envelope, please, sir. Who is Defender of the Year? [00:17:17] Speaker B: Okay, so I'm gonna go a little bit outside of the box after making fun of FC Dallas for ignoring a defender to give it to a midfielder. And I'm gonna say Asiya Yaramendi led the team in tackles, blocks, interceptions, recoveries. Really stopped a bad season from being a lot worse on the defensive side, let alone his. His passing ability and actually moving the ball forward. [00:17:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:48] Speaker C: Okay, Buzz, I'm gonna go with Martin Paws, who had the MLS save of the year and would have led the league in saves if he hadn't gotten hurt right before that last two games of the season, I think, you know, he continuously bailed out FC Dallas. He set his own personal career high for saves, and he consistently. Dallas led the league as a collective in the amount of saves per game. So their keepers in general, and they're. And Martin Paul specifically, just saved their bacon over and over and over again. So he's my Defender of the Year. And yes, we have named a goalkeeper Defender of the Year before. [00:18:23] Speaker A: Interesting. Okay, I think those are both very good arguments. MVP of the Year. [00:18:31] Speaker C: Did you want to break the tie, Peter, on Defender of the Year? [00:18:34] Speaker A: I don't want to give a Defender of the Year award. [00:18:37] Speaker C: Okay, you're going to pass? [00:18:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm going to pass on that one. [00:18:39] Speaker C: Okay. [00:18:40] Speaker A: I'll give you an mvp. [00:18:41] Speaker C: Okay. [00:18:42] Speaker A: Because. Yeah. So, Buzz, who is your MVP of the Season? [00:18:47] Speaker C: Well, it's also going to be Peter Musa. You know, he's at a spectacular season by every measure. He's done everything that was asked of him. He's, you know, occasionally on the field has a negative expression to him, but I think he backs it up with his play. When you score goals like he scores, you're allowed to occasionally express displeasure with the level of play of your teammates. And overall, he's been. He was the most important player in terms of actually winning games, which is putting the ball in the back of the net. So he's my MVP for the season. [00:19:22] Speaker A: I'm gonna. All right, I don't want to go last, so I'll go. I'll go next, and I'm gonna. And because if people can vote Lionel Messi as MVP of the league when he didn't play for, like, an entire half the season, I could do something wackadoodle, too. And I also know that traditionally Most Valuable Player is in reference to the player that played best. But I'm going to rename this as Most valuable person. And I mean value in terms of their impact on this particular season. And I'm going to award MVP to Dan Hunt because Dan Hunt is the one responsible for all of this. He hired Andre Zenata. He is the where the buck stops. The season sucked. So Dan Hunt is my MVP of the 2024 FC Dallas season. [00:20:11] Speaker C: Going with more of an impactful than a valuable or do you think it's valuable? [00:20:17] Speaker A: Well, the value is up to the eye of the beholder. [00:20:20] Speaker C: Your miles may vary, sure. [00:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Your mileage may vary. But I think if there was one person that impacted this season more than anybody else, it is the president and owner operator of said organization, Dan Hunt. Dan Crook, who is your mvp. [00:20:39] Speaker B: Well, after those spectacular shots fired, I'm also going to take a, a different take on value. And I'm gonna go with Martin Pars. Spectacular season aside, just the, you know, we talked about what makes Dallas a potential destination and growing the stature of the team and you know, the popularity, the buzz around the team due to, you know, an awful lot of Indonesian people definitely helps with that. Whether that converts into merchandise sales and hard money kind of depends on how smart FC Dallas wants to play. But I, I, yeah, I think other than signing the 202009 Barcelona champions winning team, which Miami has done, I don't think you're getting that kind of impact anywhere else. [00:21:35] Speaker A: I wonder, can people in Indonesia buy stuff from Soccer90 and have it shipped there? [00:21:41] Speaker C: Oh yeah, that's a worldwide company. Yeah. [00:21:44] Speaker A: All right. Well, I wonder, I'd love to know. I need to ask Andrew that question, the guy that runs the store, what the sale Indonesian sales have looked like. I bet that's an interesting story. [00:21:53] Speaker B: They had that little merch run sold out in like five minutes. [00:21:58] Speaker A: Of the Martin Paz stuff? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It, well, look, that's obviously played well for them and I would say, I think the I pause is really the player on the team that I enjoy, I have enjoyed the most and we've talked about this mostly because of his willingness to kind of live the lifestyle. Seeing him post photos of going to Stars games and Mavericks games is great. The day he wore the Dallas Trinity T shirt going to the stadium, I just, I love all of that. I wish more players kind of express themselves in, in kind of acclimating themselves to the Dallas Fort Worth lifestyle. I think that's been the coolest part of the Martin Paws experience for sure. [00:22:43] Speaker C: Turning back to some of those earlier topics, when guys like Paz or Yarmindi speak well of the club to you know other players they know or agents they know or you know, whoever you know, that can help with the reputation as well. [00:23:00] Speaker A: Very good. All right, Buzz, this week you also posted something new to the website and it was kind of, it's. It kind of mirrored the thing that you put together last season. Kind of give outlining what you thought was the strategy for improving the team or changing the team. And you've done that for the upcoming 2025 season. You want to talk about that a little bit? [00:23:23] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. So, you know, look, when you, when you need to get better, you obviously are going to look to change out components of your team and you can of course just do simple single player swaps. Like the example I used in the article is an arbitrary example because of the idea that the defense wants to get better. And we've been talking about center back for a long time. Okay. So if you want a better center back, what you can do is you could decline Sebastian DiBiaga's money and you could try and get a better player for the exact same money. So a one to one swap are. Those are very obvious and anyone can sit down with a roster and just try and figure out on their own all the many versions of that you could do. There's, you can have. There's many as 19 players, I think it was who Dallas could jettison this year by. Of the 36 players under contract, they can jettison 19 of them via declining an option or declining a buy or just not trying to resign them. [00:24:17] Speaker A: They'd be way under the cap then. [00:24:19] Speaker C: They will be waiting on the cap. Yeah, the, the issues that they have with the cap will be resolved. Just because some of the guys that you're not going to want will bring and, and already the homegrowns they've talked about coming up, that'll bring a lot of that into alignment. So you don't have to really actively save yourself from the cap in, in that sense. But they are up enough of it against the cap. There's not like a DP slot laying around not being used. Like all the DP slots are occupied. So beyond the single player swap, you could do like a two for one or a three for one kind of swap. Like you could cut, you know, Nicosi, Liam Frazier and Sam Junka and that gives you like 7 or 800,000 and you could bring in another player that's like the price of, of in the past, what would have been Reto Ziegler or a Jose Martinez, for example, like a European level center back. You create Enough cap room doing, getting rid of three or two or three players. Again, those are very simple. But the real albatross on this team, the real killer on this team is Paul Ariel's contract. Now Paul is a terrific asset. He's a great leader, great captain. Everyone at the club loves him. All the players love him, the coaches all love him. In a non cap league it'd be a no brainer that you would keep him. But in a cap league it's not a no brainer because he's not going to start that wing position, which is his natural position. You already have Alan Velasco, Jesus Ferrero, Logan Farrington, maybe even a Bernie if he's back in form, guys that would start ahead of him. Maybe even the way Sebastian Lindette's playing would be in there as a wing ahead of him. So you're, you're, you're using Polarila as an outside back. Putting $1.7 million at an outside back is a budget breaking salary. That's not how you structure salaries in mls. Outside backs don't make that kind of money. Not an mls. And on top of that, because they have three DPS already. I know this is all this magical MLS garbage roster talk, but Musa, Alan Velasco and Jesus Fre are their dps. Paul would be a DP based on his salary if they had an extra spot. But instead they spent a million dollars of the funny money of which they only get 5 million total. They're going to spend a million of it. You know, basically half of all their tam they're going to have on one player just to buy his salary down to make it fit inside the salary cap. If you get it down to 700, 000, basically. So you're, you're taking a big swipe out of your ability to do anything just by having him on the team, which they did this last year, you know, before they had Musa. And Paul was a dp. So he didn't require that buy down that he did this year. That's why they were the beginning of the year. We remember I talked about them being out of money. They had to kind of wait around to see if they could move anybody in there. Really didn't come up. You know, they move people to the IR instead to sort of create room, which is part of why they'll be in trouble when those got the IR players come back. That creates a part of their cap dilemma. All right. So it really would create a lot of capability to do things and improve your team if you Move out Areola's contract because of that 1 million it costs you to make it fit. So you're paying a 1.7 and then it's another million on top. So if you. The problem is he doesn't have a lot of trade value inside the league because of that salary. Everybody knows that salary. You only have it for one more year and then you could get out of it because it'll be after that is the option. So they might just be stuck eating it. Unless maybe San Diego, his hometown club that's coming in, would want it. Now that's a long shot. They're not going to want to spend that kind of money on that kind of salary either, unless they're interested in him as a dp. That's kind of not likely, you know, could you sell him to somewhere? I don't know where you could sell him outside of the league, except maybe Mexico, you know, because he played there and was pretty successful. But I don't know he's going to be 30 before the season starts. I don't know if anyone will want him at 30, you know, at the, at the mouth at that salary either. You know, that's a pretty steep salary for a lot of clubs. Mexico could probably handle it though. That's your best bet to sell. And then of course you could do the buyout. But the problem with the buyout is you probably want to sit on the buyout in case Paxton Pomical doesn't recover. And because then you'll want to, you might want to burn that even though you could. If he doesn't recover, you can just put him on a season ending IR again. So there'll be some calculations they'll have to make about whether it's worth it to buy him out or not. Just to clear that number or if you're going to rebuild anyway, do you just eat parole his number for the season and just say, you know what, he's a good leader, he'll be good part of this club. He's going to fight and battle and, and do everything we need him to do with that number and we'll just get through it and then we'll figure it out. So that's the middle solution, is try and clear that salary if you can. The big, big swing, though, the one that can make the most things, of course, is to sell a player for a lot of money. And that most likely would be one of your DP players. You don't really have anybody else on your team that's worth multiple millions of Dollars. Except maybe Martin Paz. I suppose if Indonesia club were to go, that guy's worth a bunch of money to us for some reason, but outside of that. Or maybe some European club will really like what he's playing. But then they have to deal with the Indonesia thing too. So basically the answer is, can you sell Musa or Velasco or Jesus for a lot of money? Well, you just got Musa for 10 million, so unless somebody comes in with like 20, that's not likely to happen. Suppose it could, but you know, it's not likely. Alan Vlasco is more likely since he only has he has less time on his contract. He does seem like he wants to go home to Argentina if he can go to Boca River. But he's a young DP and that is immense cap value. And so he would really have to command a high price for the Hunts to say, yeah, we're going to sell. And he won't do that because he's coming off of the acl. So in terms of selling Velasco, you're not going to get any value for him right this minute. You might get a whole lot of value for him in the middle of the next season if he proves that he's back, then you might have teams come calling. But that's a different question for a different time. So that leaves Jesus Ferreira. So if you sell Haste for Jesus Ferreira for, you know, I don't know, you're probably not getting that 13 he had lined up in Russia again because he had a really bad season. But you might get, you know, multiple millions. It might be even upward. Nor the 10, 7, 8, 9, who knows? Hard to say at this point, but if you do that, the first thing that happens is you clear a DP spot. So you could then go out and get a really, really nice player if you wanted. Or you could put Paul Ariel in that DP slot, which would then you would not need to use that $1 million buy down. So all of a sudden you have a bonus $1 million that you don't have to spend. When you sell a player of his value, you get to convert 90% of the money to use inside your organization. So like they did with Pepe, there would be a big influx of money and hopefully they could spend it on some things that would help improve the organization in general like they did with Post Pepe. They improved all kinds of things and we went on the record about it, talked on all different amazing things they did so you could do that. You can also convert 3 million of it into GAM. So not only would you could you get a million dollars by moving Paul's contract to a DP slot, you could pick out 4 million of money to use on other players. So you would go from the normal five that everybody gets, you would pop up to nine. So you'd almost double the amount of this money that you have overnight in terms of being able to rebuild your team. So between those two things, you know, whichever choice you want to make, you can either get a DP of some kind in that spot instead, or you could move Paul in there. Now, the reason why I'm talking about Jesus and willingness is that there's been two straight windows. It was this last summer window. There's also a move to Las Palmas, which is a Spanish club that almost happened, that died at the last second. So clearly whoever's working on his behalf is lining up deals each window. So I'm going to read that tea leaves as he wants to go. And I think in this case now, when he's only got one year left under contract, and then that's an option, the option is likely going to have a big escalator. That's how these contracts work. So you really want to move him soonish if you can. And really the reason you want to move him is because you have Logan Farrington. So Logan Farrington makes 70k and he has the same numbers basically as Jesus. Logan was four goals and eight assists and made almost the same number of starts as Jesus. It was six goals and six assists. So very similar numbers. And that the luxury that is Logan Farrington allows you to sell a really high pass player. And one of the principles of dealing in a cap league is doing that. And the last thing you could possibly do. And this is where you get into funny questions. I'm not sure how people are aware that MLS instituted two different roster models. You can have three DPS if you want and three U22 initiatives, or you can go to two DPS and four U22 initiatives, which are the kids like. And this, this club's case, it's in a Soli Giovanni Jesus are the two they have, you know, and if they were to buy Patrick, Patrick and Delgado, he probably would be a third. So if, if you don't get a new dp, if you sell Jesus, if you leave Paul like he was, you then get an extra U22 initiative, which is a kid. And, and your mileage can vary on whether that's worth anything, depending on since they got zero minutes out of them this year. But you get, you then get another $2 million in GAM so you can start piling up like obscene amounts of this funny money. Wish you can do things really actively in the market inside the league. That's. Remember, they got. They paid 2 million of that to get Paul in the first place. Or you can use it to buy down players you come in. Like you could buy some really hot, amazing, you know, guys that could be on this U22 initiative with some of that money, or you could use it to sign maybe to domestic players that would come back or something. So those are the two big massive swings that can give yourselves just absolute boatloads of cash. And cap freedom is either somehow moving Paul Carol's cap hit out or selling Jesus Ferreira. So those two things could really get you set up to where combined with some other 1v1 swaps, you really could completely overhaul your entire team in one season. So rather than having to grind through two or three seasons of rebuild because you're stuck with those contracts, if you could get out of them via sale or trade, you could then instantly accelerate you rebuild and have almost a completely rebuilt roster for next season. [00:34:32] Speaker A: It does though, unfortunately feel like the path of least resistance is making minor changes to the roster and just, you know, going back to what, you know, the squinting of. I think this is a good roster if we just get lucky on a certain. All these kind of things for 2025. [00:34:51] Speaker C: Yeah, it's very easy to see a scenario where they, they wholeheartedly believe that it was mostly an injury problem. You know, in the post game press conference, Zanada talked about how they feel, or maybe it was Hunt, one or the other. Was both of them for Vada for sure. For sure. Said he was looking forward to having Jesus and Velasco healthy with Musa. And I think it was, it may have been Dan Hunt that said that, you know, service was a big part of that. And they expect both those two guys to give Musa a lot of service, even though both those guys don't. So in the amount they were together at the end of the season. [00:35:22] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:22] Speaker C: But you can certainly see that they believe that. They didn't talk about improving the offense, they talked about improving the defense. You know, so you, you can. They've never had that. I can remember a DP center back and Areola is the first DP outside back. So like, they probably think they can make some decent swings, you know, like for example, if you, if you drop Eugene Ansa, that clears up a max salary slot. Okay. That allows you to bring in a Tam Gam player. So you could bring in a Tam kind of center back which again is like Reto Ziegler is like Jose Martinez. You know, your miles will vary on whether which one of those guys you like. And again, you have to trust them to hit it, hit on it. You know, we know that they had a player lined up this last summer window that failed physical rights. So they obviously are looking for a center back. So it's totally believable that they would feel that they can just do some trimming of roster money off the bottom and just bring in like one center back and then bring in oh, if we get the right coach, then we'll just coach everybody up and we'll bring up a few kids. And so you could basically looking at almost the exact same roster, trimming some guys that didn't play and adding maybe one center back. And then all of a sudden, you know, it's not the end of the world. If in terms of center back, if you were to add one center back and bring back Ab and Nicosi and so whatever new center back is then fighting with those other two guys for two of the two spots. Three guys, two spots, you know, every week, or if you wanted to go three to the back again, at least you would have three real center backs. You know, it's not the worst idea in the world in terms of defense. If Martin pauses on point, you know, I don't love the idea of carrying before on his current deal because it'll accelerate to a max salary contract almost certainly, you know, at his his age of 32, going on 33, I'd prefer to bring his number down. And we have seen them turn down players that are getting into this accelerated 30 year old contract, whether it be Michael Barrios or Matt Hedges, you know, or when Rets Ziegler wanted to re up and they were like, no, it's too much money, you know, so they have made that decision before. So you could easily see them trying to either pick up IB or try and reduce him and then go getting one center back and then just bringing everybody back and being like, hey, we're going to be great. We're going to buy Paction Delgado. That's going to our third U22 initiative and we're ready to go. This is a great team. So I can easily see that scenario. I don't think it says, I don't think it accelerates you to competing at the top of the league. That just gets you like into the playoffs, you know. So whether you like that or not is. [00:37:57] Speaker A: Well, it gets you into the playoffs. A, if you buy A, good. If the center back hits as it needs to, and B, everybody else stays healthy and C, stays healthy and plays well. [00:38:09] Speaker C: Yeah, if you get the same sort of offensive contribution next year that you did this year and you reduce your goals against by the center back hits and you drop 10 to 15 goals off your goals against, which is. That'd be huge. But let's say you can do it. All of a sudden your goal differential is like 15 positive and you're in the top half of the standings, but you're up like fourth, fifth, even maybe third in the standings. If you have that kind of margin. If you actually want to compete, you need to improve your offense too. You need to get everybody healthy and get some new pieces in. [00:38:40] Speaker A: Well, I know Dan Hunt was. He, he feigned that he was very adamant that the stadium construction wasn't going to impact the budget situation. But it seems almost impossible based on how the brothers operate this thing, that the loss of the obvious massive loss of revenue they're facing is somehow going to prevent them from making any significant, huge changes in how they go about business, at least in terms of spending more money than usual. That would, that would be the surprise. [00:39:12] Speaker C: Yeah. I wouldn't see them going out and signing a guy that's going to make 3 or 4 million, you know, above like the DP threshold. Like, his answer was, oh, we're defined by the salary cap. Well, you are and you aren't. You know, you can have a $10 million Messi makes 50 million a year. [00:39:28] Speaker A: Or whatever, makes more than the rest of the entire league. [00:39:31] Speaker C: Right. So it's like so to say, like, oh, it's only the cap that matters. No, no, it's not. I mean, you have an internal budget. You know, we know that. We know that the Hunts have never signed. Like, like Frank O'Hara was the first player that was like over 2 million. I think it was maybe he was even over three, you know, and now Moose is right around two. Those are the first time we ever had anybody played in that level of money. Yeah, I remember when the first time we had a player over a million was only a couple years ago. So they're not going to have $50 million Messi or even $10 million guy that Toronto has, you know, so, yeah, it's. There's no question. I don't think those kind of signs would have ever been in the cards anyway. So despite the fact he's not totally correct about that, he probably is correct that the cap's still going to be where they're going to operate. They operate at the cap. They don't operate beyond the cap. [00:40:19] Speaker A: You know, it's funny. I was going to talk about this, but you've kind of mentioned it. You know, the. All the rumors, the hot, big rumor mill running in MLS right now is the Neymar rumor. Because neymar bought a $65 million piece of property in Miami. And the idea that his deal runs out next summer in Saudi Arabia and maybe he's not super happy there and wants to move to Miami. And the idea of Messi and Neymar and all those other guys all playing Suarez, playing together is pretty hilarious, but it does. I mean, if I ever was given the opportunity to interview Dan Hunt again or have him on the radio show, the question I really want to know from him, and this would be difficult for him to answer honestly, is based on, you know, how his father runs teams and how his brother runs teams and how I think he personally would love to run this team but can't because it doesn't fit within the larger family structure. Is what, what is his emotional reaction to an Inter Miami or an LAFC or Cincinnati for that matter. These clubs that have come in and spent money that makes all of the older owners look really chintzy and cheap, or maybe when they're not, they're just trying to run businesses that don't lose a ton of money. And I wonder what his personal reaction. Does that make him angry? Does it frustrate him? Does it make him excited about the league? I dying to know what that answer is. [00:41:54] Speaker C: Yeah, it would be hard for that to predict that, you know, he has tried a little bit to, in his own way, make splashes like that. And I'll point back to Danielson, for example, when that player was significantly higher profile and dollar amount than they'd ever really had before. At that point, obviously, that was a crash and burn. But you could also look at Frank Ohara, where they. He became infatuated Frank Ohara when Pachuca stomped the tar out of FC Dallas in the Con C Champions League. Now, he didn't put on his big boy pants and go pay 7 million to get him, but he, you know, focused and fixated on that player and how great a player he was and waited around a couple years to get him. And they paid a little bit to get him out of his dealer early so they could get him for the start of the season. So, you know, in the time that they went out and money whipped Oscar out of Colorado to get him back. So occasionally he will, in a hunt budget context, have gone out and splashed that. Now, they're not going to do Ms. Messy 50 million. They're not doing that. But, you know, he's. He's definitely got more of that take a wild flyer with some cash than his dad does, than Clark does. [00:43:02] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. [00:43:03] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:04] Speaker A: But the, I mean, obviously the gap between Dallas and Miami is immense, and the gap between Dallas and AFC is immense. But there is, you know, there is a structure within the rules that would allow owners to go way, you know, some variation of above and beyond the salary cap as they feel comfortable in doing. [00:43:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:26] Speaker A: And, and one, the player has to want to play in that particular town, and two, the owner has to be willing to, you know, write a check and, and, and, and pay the piper to get those kind of players. And that's kind of what the difference has been between the Hunts and these other clubs. [00:43:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:43:45] Speaker A: And, and I just assume, again, maybe this is just me thinking too logically and there's more to this than. And that they'd be willing to share some other time, but with the tremendous loss of revenue and the massive expenses that are being added to do this new stadium thing, it would be shocking if they went out and did something out of the norm like that. [00:44:06] Speaker C: Well, remember, they spent $8 million of Pepe's money on Velasco. This is all in the last couple of seasons, and they just spent 10 million on Musa. You know, now maybe the Musa thing is part of the whole greater Benfica thing. It's hard to really know. You know, certainly some of the Reynolds money or the eventual Canon money showing up or the Tesla money showing, you know, was. Went into being able to afford Moosa. So they are willing to spend it if they can raise it. And it's. I, I don't think it's an odd timing that they're doubling back down on the academy when they realize that the only way they can. In. In the hunt world, the only way they can have the kind of cash they need to go get these players is by selling the players of their own. You know, and so I'm like, man, we better get some more players coming through here into the first team that we can sell for enough money to be able to do this. [00:44:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:55] Speaker C: You know, so I think there was, you know, they've tried this other little way of some older players and some veteran players, and it again, didn't work. It's the second time it didn't work. And so hopefully they've learned their lesson that the model that they can make work is when they can sell guys for 5, 20 million or whatever it is. You know, that's the only time they've really had success is when they're doing that stuff, when they're building from within with the academy in the Oscar era as well. [00:45:20] Speaker A: All right, well, I guess we'll see how things play out. We got a. Now, like you said at the beginning of the show, it's a waiting game at this point to see what they do first because, yeah, whoever they end up hiring as manager is going to play a massive part in all of this, I suspect. [00:45:38] Speaker C: So I really hope that they'll get a manager in place by the 27th, which is when all the movements start to have happen. You know, the thing is they've already done their exit interviews, so they've already notified players who are staying and who's going and what their plans are. And so the thing is that players start talking, particularly if they're mad. So often we see Dallas go ahead and put out these releases prior to the deadline just because as soon as they notify everybody, they usually go ahead and go because they don't want it to start to leak out. They want it to come from them. Right. So we might see that before the deadline. And obviously, the sooner you get a coach in, the better because they're making moves. Man, we've talked about this off the back of that press conference. They're moving ahead with a plan and they don't even care that the coach is involved with it at this point. You know, they have, they have a TD under Zenada. They have current interim coaches or guys or assistant coaches that I'm sure they're keeping and various scouts and guys in charge of college scouting. They're all moving forward with all the plans that they have in place. You know, they talked about how excited they were about who they targeted, the big signings they have targeted. So we'll see. I wish they had the coach first, but they don't. So they're moving. [00:46:52] Speaker A: You know, another league news. And I gotta say, I did not see this coming. [00:46:58] Speaker C: Oh, man. [00:46:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Nico Estevez is now the manager at Austin and the Nico Estevez Hot Air Oberon reunion is a Dallas Burn fever dream for sure. I. I don't know, man. This is the weirdest one. And I think the thing I like most about this is, is we're going to find out pretty quickly if Nico Steves is a actually a really good Manager or B, really shitty at taking at picking out job opportunities. [00:47:29] Speaker C: Well, he's really knowledgeable about the technical side, the X, Y's and Z's. What's fascinating about that thing is like, if you, if you. As Austin probably doesn't. Don't think too highly of FC Dallas, like, look how they came into the market and what they did in the market with the tenants, like in Dallas had never done that. They're probably like, look how awesome we are. If you think that the team you put together was great right out of the gate, look at all of our ability to get players awesome. And don't think much of Zenada, for example, then you probably looked at Nico Steve is like, dude, it wasn't him. Look at that roster. It's not what Nico Steves that was the problem, you know. And keep in mind that he was, you know, a Bear Halter assistant. And then Pooch came in and he's the one guy they kept around because he knows Pino. And as. As that guy's going to be the national team coach. Maybe that's a connection you like, you know, maybe you like his connections into Europe. He knows people all over Spain, you know, like, he goes to Europe. Like right now, I saw his Instagram post. He's in like Valencia or something, you know, which I think is where he's from. But, you know, he has lots of things that Josh Wolf didn't. So if you're looking for something different than Josh Wolf, maybe it's like, he's really brainy, he's really technical, he's got all these connections, you know, it wasn't his fault. That was a roster. He knew it was a crap roster. You know, maybe you think, wow, that guy's actually pretty good for the money. [00:48:51] Speaker A: We'll see. [00:48:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, surprise. Yeah. [00:48:53] Speaker A: I mean, they've got a. They've got a front office not everybody's in love. Love with right now either. And that could be. I can't quite figure out if the Austin situation is a really bad one or one that just needs the right people. And that thing could be, you know, really good. I mean, they've only had one good season and the other ones have all stunk. And so I'm. Look, I know Nico drove a lot of people nuts here, especially in the last 18 months of his time, but I never was quite sure if Nico Estebans was a really bad manager or a guy trying to save his job in a really, really bad situation. Just trying to grind out results. And if he has the parts to put something together. I might, I suspect he's act. There's actually a really good manager in there and in the right situation, he might thrive. And man, it would suck if it actually ended up being an Austin. [00:49:52] Speaker C: But yeah, you know, he, you know, you know, he can coach up a defense, you know, that, you know, you can probably look back to his first season when he came in here and he had, you know, in a lot of ways, a lot of the same team, you know, relatively healthy and it finished in third. So you're like, he can point to that as like, look, I can do it. If you can give me a healthy roster with some talent, I can get you, you know, to the top. And then the team has gotten worse over the last two years in my book, you know, and they perform worse. You know, the injuries have gotten worse, the towel pools gotten worse and the performance gotten worse. Dan, what about you? What did you think of Nico going to Austin? [00:50:29] Speaker B: I mean, it's obviously the first opportunity that comes up. It's convenient for him having been based in Frisco. It'll be a little bit interesting on both sides because Austin is going from a possession based defensive first, Greg Berhalter assistant to a possession based defensive first, Greg Bear Halter assistant. I think that the thing with them is how dysfunctional that club is from top to bottom. I mean, Barella side, they have, they have cycled through just about every position from top to bottom, from the cleaning lady to, you know, the assistant coaches several times in a couple of years. So, yeah, I mean, what, what they give him is going to be kind of interesting if they suddenly make it work. Great, Cool. Good for him. I think this is going to be the big test of is he a good coach or is he a good head coach? Because there's a ton of amazing coaches that they've forgotten, more than Pep Guardiola will ever know about soccer. But they just can't necessarily get the management side of it down. And so they're an assistant for life or they're a specialist coach for life. So, yeah, it'd be interesting to see kind of that. Some of the. I didn't read a ton of the opening comments, but there was some interesting stuff about, oh, they told me what I need to work on. I wouldn't feel too confident about, oh, yeah, we've hired him as a project. You know, if FC Dallas says, hey, we're, we're gonna hire Peter Lucine, Luke Song, sorry. These are the things he's got to work on. He has a project. Well, well, we wouldn't even need to speak on that podcast. Peter would just go on an hour and a half rant. [00:52:31] Speaker C: Well, they get that later this winter. [00:52:33] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe, maybe. Let's see what else. There's a Dallas Trinity game coming up this Saturday. [00:52:41] Speaker B: There is, yeah. They play Fort Lauderdale 4:00 at the Cotton Bowl. And fun part about that. Addison McCain is an. I think she played for FC Dallas as a youth. Actually she is with Fort Lauderdale. I think she was at one point top scorer in the league. So yeah, be good a good homecoming there and to you know, potentially see the team kind of bounce back and maybe bring a few players back after a couple of consecutive draws. So then you get that really fun part about the possible run from one game to another which Buzz is probably going to talk about. [00:53:22] Speaker A: Well, before we do that, I just wanted to mention real quick, I thought it was really cool that 20% of the roster for the U17 girls at the World cup that lost to North Korea. I guess it was. Last night in the semifinal were from the Dallas Fort Worth area. I thought that was great. I mean five of the 21 girls on there, it was. That was really cool. [00:53:44] Speaker B: Of the. Of the three players that played every minute, two of them were from Dallas. [00:53:49] Speaker A: Wow. Wow, that's great. This is a gold mine of talent for the women's game. And then Buzz, I know you're all excited about the playoff west final for North Texas. [00:54:04] Speaker C: Oh yeah. Well, they, they, they won the semifinal 4 to 1. The other team scored first and they proceeded to storm back and stomp them pretty decisively. Couple red cards. That's always a joy Below for North Texas that Tyson Rose was one of the red cards which is their left back. So he'll be out the next game and so will. You know, Isaiah Parker has been out for a couple months now and he was having a great season in the first half of the season which means that they're gonna have to do use a second tier outside back. His name is. Last name is Zane. I can't remember his first name on top of my head. So yeah, Abdul. Sonic. Thank you. One of the fascinating things about watching North Texas soccer co play if anybody goes go and I encourage you to go is that they have a very advanced tactic in the middle. They use a you depending on how you'd like to draw it up. It's. It's either a back three or it's a back four with a three, three, three in front of it. And Carl Sante plays either either or both the middle center back and the six on the team. And so he, as they move in and out of possession and move up and down the field, he flexes from the middle of a back three up into midfield. When they have the ball, they move higher into midfield and he takes on a 6 Persona and it's a very advanced move. There are some clubs that do the same similar thing, but they use an outside back. You see that a lot of times they're pro level. You see an outside back flex into a six. So they use their center back to do it. And it's just, it's on him reading when to do it. You know, when, when possession is turning over or when their team's high enough up in a good position, he's going up into that spot and then he gets back when they come out of position. So they're really, really talented. You know, there's one of the reasons it's so good is there's multiple guys that will be full time with FC Dallas next year on that squad, including you know, a couple guys that are homegrowns. You know, there's also three or four guys that have that I think will be signed that'll fill some of these bottom into the roster spots. Their best players. Diego Garcia, he's a really, really good player. 18 years old. Pedrinho is their best scoring contributor. You can watch NS Sali be a poor version of Alan Velasco. See if you think he's going to be worth anything. They've been playing Logan Farrington down there. I was a bit worried that he is. He was going to disrupt the flow of the play because he didn't play with them all year until the playoffs. But he does so much work off the ball that I think it makes up for whatever they lose. And not being familiar because he definitely is getting. Being impactful both in the overall game and on the score sheet. And so they're just dominating people. They have a legit shot to run the table and win the whole thing. But you know, the next home game is this weekend against obviously the remaining Western Conference team. This is Western Conference final will be good St. Louis. So it'll be a tough game but they're perfectly capable of winning limit. So I encourage everybody to go out to Arlington and see, you know, you could be looking at as many as 10 players that'll be in that game that'll be on the FCC Dallas roster. [00:57:03] Speaker B: Next year and the real sickos. Yeah, yeah, we'll catch Trinity at four game will Finish around six. They will make their way out the parking lot and head straight across to Arlington. [00:57:16] Speaker C: Yeah, Dan, who's. What's the younger Fuller's name? The one that plays for Trinity? [00:57:21] Speaker B: Camden. [00:57:22] Speaker C: Camden. She's like 16, right? Or something like that. [00:57:25] Speaker B: I think she might. I just turned 17. [00:57:27] Speaker C: Yeah, they put her in the last game. They subbed her in. She is electric. I. For 12 minutes of watching her, I was like, why is she not starting? She's. She covers so much ground and she's so quicker, much quicker than most of the players they have. I'm like, oh, my God. I would instantly be like, put her in the lineup, man, because she was fantastic. I mean, you know, when we watch that level, the level they are, you can see players that are, you know, towards the tail end of their career or they're just getting started, like Sam Meza, you know, who's a terrific on the ball. You know, this. This young Fuller was just so dynamic and so much. She brought so much energy and so she covered so much ground. She made them instantly better. I'm like, man, I don't know why she's not starting. Just a wonderful player to watch. And by the way, a decent crowd is ticking up. I think it got over a couple of thousand. If they would have announced three, I would have said, okay, so they're. They're making ground a little bit. And granted the parking situation. Situation is a nightmare, but they don't control that. So you just plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time to get over there if you're going, because you got to go through downtown, like at rush hour. [00:58:33] Speaker A: You know, I watched some of the U.S. north Korea game last night. I gotta say, I was pretty impressed with the decision making of the North Korean players. They. I mean, the US Players made a ton of really poor decisions, and I think that's. And I don't know how the. I know the Korea ended up winning the game one nothing. And I don't. I only saw like the last 20 minutes of the first half, I think. But I was. I was impressed with the level of smartness and tactical awareness that the North Korean players had. And they felt like in that 20 minutes, I watched the better team. And didn't. Didn't the U20s also recently, or didn't another women's team recently lose to 20s? Yeah, the used 20s. So I don't know what's going on in North Korea at the youth level. I don't know if it's ever going to translate to anything beyond that. But interesting what's going on there? [00:59:25] Speaker B: Oh, and Buzz, I was wrong. Camden Fuller just turned 16, so yeah, there you go. [00:59:31] Speaker C: Yeah, a lot of players keep an eye on her. I mean, she's not Jaden Shaw, but. [00:59:34] Speaker A: She'S exciting because I'm pretty sure Kennedy's only 17 and you know, she signed that deal with LA, so. [00:59:40] Speaker C: Yeah, she was one of the ones from Dallas that was in that game. Trinity Armstrong, I believe. Is that North Carolina now, but she. He's from Dallas. From FC Dallas, I think, right, Dan? [00:59:50] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, she was FC Dallas. Then went to IMG Academy. [00:59:53] Speaker C: Yeah. And Kara Gilmore, also from FC Dallas and then is another defender and she and the goalkeeper, Evan Osteen, I believe, also play for Trinity. Osteen is a solar girl. Cute goalkeeper, really a nice looking goalkeeper. So those are the four that were in the lineup in that particular game from Dallas. [01:00:10] Speaker B: The one I've been surprised with is Jordan Hardiman. Hasn't got a sniff in that defense and she has been fantastic for Dallas Trinity. [01:00:16] Speaker C: Yeah, it's amazing because she started, you know, what, three or four games was it. [01:00:21] Speaker B: Yeah, and she'd started every U17 game or she'd started the most out of the group up until I think she played the first game and then Gilmore took over. [01:00:34] Speaker C: Maybe she has a knock or something we don't know about or just some tightness or something, so it's hard to say. [01:00:39] Speaker B: She's been named to the bench every time. [01:00:43] Speaker C: Well, they lost, so maybe that was the wrong choice. [01:00:47] Speaker A: She has a center back maybe. All right, anything else, boys? [01:00:54] Speaker C: I don't know. We managed to make a full good podcast out of. Without much going on. [01:00:59] Speaker A: Dan. [01:00:59] Speaker B: No, no, that's been a long one. [01:01:01] Speaker A: All right, very good, Buzz. Last ch. Last call. [01:01:05] Speaker C: No, I got nothing else. I think I'll probably think of somewhere. [01:01:08] Speaker A: Very good. Well, maybe something will happen between now and the next episode, but we will. But thank you FC Dallas Curious fans for listening and we will talk to you again on a future episode of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:01:20] Speaker B: Let's go North Texas. [01:01:22] Speaker A: Third Degree, the Third Degree NE podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree.