Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Ooh.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Third Degree the Third Degree Nepaca.
Third Degree the Third Degree Nerve podcast.
Third Degree the Third Degree Nerves podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree Napa. Well, hello there, FC Dallas curious fans. Welcome to episode 287 of Third Degree, the Pot Podcast. There he is, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan.
[00:00:35] Speaker C: Oh, hey, that is me.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: It is you 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.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Hey, fellas. Happy to be here talking some soccer with y'all.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: All right, so we today, because obviously the season's over and there's not a lot of talk about. Today's big feature is our annual Q and A session where people are all the questions from the Discord Buzz.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: Yep. Yep.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: So if you want exclusive access to ask questions on this fancy podcast, you're gonna have to pay Buzz some money.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: Hell, yeah.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Monetize this bitch.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Well, we'll see how the winner goes. We maybe does for some content later in the year.
We'll see. Oh, yeah.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: So we'll run through some questions that Buzz has collected and answer those here coming up shortly. But I thought it would be interesting to discuss the news of the day, which I think caught everybody by surprise, which is the Philadelphia Union have parted ways with Jim Curtin and I. Man, everybody was freaked out about this. Now, I guess if you read some of the articles and stuff, this has been brewing for those. I guess those people who are union fans, like most of the people listening to this are Burn fans. Maybe they were had a sense that something was brewing in the front office. But this is big. This is a big deal and obviously is going to lead to a very obvious question. We can get into here in a second.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: It was a surprise, but he's obviously going to hit the market and he will not be unemployed for long. This is a guy that's going to be employed really quickly by somebody else.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: The three teams currently without a manager because since we last talked, Bruce arena is now once again employed as he got the job in San Jose.
And we can talk about that as well. But it's Atlanta, St. Louis and Dallas.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: And I'm assuming between now and the end of the year, other jobs will come open as well, don't you think?
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Not an mls, I wouldn't think, because anyone left playing is probably pretty happy with their coach.
Okay. And anyone. Anyone that's not playing would have already done something, I would have thought, if they wanted to do something.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: I wonder if maybe somebody gets Dumped out of the playoffs quickly or they don't end up finishing. Or maybe a manager's out of contract and decides he wants to go do something else.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: That's very possible. You know, guys could be wanting to do like Oscar did. Oscar really wanted to take a shot in Mexico. You know, there's always greener pastures out there, so there certainly could be something coming available. Nothing I'm expecting to be available, though. I mean, maybe. Maybe people that know their teams better than I do obviously would feel that way.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: But so obviously, the question we all got asked multiple times. Dan, how many times did you get asked this question today?
[00:03:32] Speaker C: Zero. I've spoken very little soccer today.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Oh, well, lucky you. The question obviously is, is there any chance that Curtain could end up being the next manager here in Dallas?
[00:03:44] Speaker B: Yeah, there's certainly a chance.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Oh, there's no chance?
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Yeah, no, there's a chance. Is it likely? No, there's a chance.
You know, there's. There's always a chance that, you know, he wanted out of his current gig because he has something already lined up and raring to go. And that thing, for all we know, could be S.C. dallas now do. I don't think it's likely. I think, you know, it's less than 5% chance that that's the case. But Dallas has been waiting around, conceivably. I mean, you remember at the end of the season press conference, at the time they had three finalists. And we have said in various places, like, the longer this takes for Dallas to make a move, the more it feels like it's not Luan who was sitting around waiting, and the more likely it's somebody who had a job. You know, and at the time we talked about that being some candidates that were currently in the playoffs for one league or another.
Never occurred to me to think, like, maybe it was a guy that was working for another team that was about to be out of a job.
So, you know, yeah, sure, it could be Curtain, but again, I'm with you. I mean, you say zero chance, I say it's less than 5%. Well, if it really was. Go ahead.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Oh, no, no. I'm just. I'm curious as to what even comprises the 5%, because I say there's zero chance. Because I. There. Is. There. There isn't a universe somebody of Curtin's quality would end up coming to this situation. He left a club because they weren't big spenders. And while Dallas is a bigger spender than Philly, there are other clubs that are available now that are documented well, big spenders that he could take over. And so that's. To me, the odds of Dan Hunt going from a guy that has continuously and repeatedly hired guys with zero management or zero ML head coaching experience to jumping to somebody like Jim Curtain just seems completely nonsense. It doesn't make any sense that that would happen at this point.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Well, the reason I think it's greater than zero is that, you know, if it were going to be the internal candidate, that's Luke son, and they have not pulled the trigger on that. So we think that's maybe not what's happening. So that means it's an outside the, the current house candidate. Well, once you go outside the house, you know, the last guy they hired was never worked for them at all. So like they've cracked the nut of, of trying people outside of the family. So like, certainly we think that Eric Quill is a very strong candidate, but we don't know for sure that he is one. And so then, you know, once you've opened up the door, you know, I think that there's an appeal to Dallas in the sense of the youth pathway is strong, something Curtin has success with. And yet Dallas does spend more than Philly. So like it's a, it's a different animal than Philly, but it's also one he's a little bit more used to. Whereas Atlanta, man, there, there ain't no homegrown really in Atlanta. It's all big time, huge fancy money. And that's not necessarily his B whack. I mean, if he goes in there and they, they get some big, huge guy coming in there, they've spent 10, $20 million on the guy. They're like, well, who the hell is this guy coaching me? You know, sometimes they, a club like that needs a name that people, the players are going to respect. And you maybe get some guys there that wouldn't respect that, that may not be a good fit for him. Now listen, I'm not saying it's likely it's Dallas. I'm just saying I don't think it's zero. I don't think that Curtin is. Well, I think that he, I do think that he'll be priced out of Dallas's range. I don't think, I don't imagine in Philly he was getting money that was outside Dallas's range. So I'm just not willing to say zero.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: He may have been making more money just because it's Philly, you know, lift on the east coast fair.
Yeah, I, it just seems like a Weird fit. And it seems unlikely somebody would leave a Philly situation just to hop into the fire that is Dallas. And we haven't even talked about the fact that the stadium is going to be half closed for three seasons and.
[00:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: And whatever complications come with that. We haven't talked about the Zenata element of it and having to come work with for Zenata and I just find it really unlikely. I mean, I would love it, trust me, if there was somebody left on the list that Dallas could hire and put in place. Jim Curtin would. Would be very near the very top of my list. I just don't want to get anybody's expectations.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: I did say it was very unlikely. I just didn't say. I'm saying it's not zero. Dan, where are you? Dan, are you. What do you think?
[00:08:07] Speaker C: I mean, it's technically not zero. It's also technically not zero that I wake up with $1 billion sitting next.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: Oh, it's higher chance than that. Come on.
[00:08:17] Speaker C: I don't know. I don't know.
You know, we obviously know some people with billion dollars that could lose that somehow. But that's besides the point.
No, I think it, it's kind of strange timing for him. Obviously. His thing is works really well with kids and in Philly they all get sold up. Dallas also get sold up when you have some. But Dallas is in a little bit of a dry streak with there. So you know, the whole homegrown revolution which you'd expect him to lead would be a couple of years off until you kind of get some true first team ready hand grains kind of coming through. And then. Yeah, it's the control aspect was the, the, the pay. Obviously, you know, he's going to be commanding a decent wage after the successes he's had and the money he's. Players he's coached have generated as well. You know, he's gonna. It wouldn't be shocking honestly after the whole Kevin Sullivan thing if he popped up in some city football group club.
[00:09:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I just, it makes me wonder. I mean it's kind of like the Oscar Perez situation. He was a guy who made lemonade out of lemons and did it repeatedly of a roster. And I would just, I just don't foresee a guy wanting to go to another roster filled with, okay, maybe not Lem, but it certainly, you know what I'm saying. I just don't know why he would want to do that.
[00:09:49] Speaker C: And more like key limes, they're small.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: Key lime, yeah, or whatever, you know, kind of fruit you're Kind of just middle about.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:56] Speaker A: So I don't know. It just. I. I'm still shocked that they've parted ways and I. It'll be interesting to see where he goes and what kind of successes he has. The Atlanta deal, I think you're. There's. You've got something going on there Buzz that maybe that isn't a good fit for him either. St. Louis screams Jim Curtin to me. Totally makes sense for him to go to a place like that.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: That's part of why I had greater than zero percent was that Dallas is one of three teams that might right now be able to make an offer on somebody of that caliber. You know. But I'm with you. I don't think. I think it's most likely St. Louis if it's an MLS club.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah. And then the other thing I. I'm still trying to wrap my brain around Bruce arena going to San Jose and, and the, and the setup of that deal because Chris Leach essentially has to be. Has to answer to Bruce arena, which is curious. A curious setup.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: And that would be. I mean, just so everybody understands, Chris Leach is.
He's kind of like the. Somewhere. A mix between Dan Hunt and Zenata in the. In the. In the San Jose setup and this. And Chris now is going to have to answer to the head coach manager, which is Chris Arena.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: So he was their GM and that guy got promoted above him. Not promoted good. The job above him.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, I don't know if Bruce was just desperate for a job or what, but that also is. He was out on the marketplace and it makes you wonder if Dan Hunt even gave Bruce the time of day to throw a call that way.
[00:11:30] Speaker B: Oh, no way.
Yeah. No way did they talk to Bruce Arena.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: Is that because he. Did they. Because Bruce wouldn't talk to them and like no way I'm going to go work for those guys. Or they just didn't think he was the right guy for the job.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: I'm sure he would have said no thanks to even a conversation because the. Dan Hunt and Zanada and the whole committee are entrenched and as you just saw, Bruce arena is not going anywhere without complete control. So like there would have been a non starter conversation.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: So that leads me to coming back to the home base and asking the question of what do we have any new sense on the timeline of what Dallas is doing? I mean, they obviously said they had three finalists, you know, Eric Quills in the middle of a playoff run that is going to last at least I think if I'm look. Because the dates for the USLC championship aren't established yet. Oh yeah, they are through the final. Because I can't find them on their website. It just says the next rounds are on these dates. And then there are no dates set for the next two for this conference.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Final or the final we talked about last night game. I think it's the 27th.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: Or right near Thanksgiving.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: Well, then they should put that on the stupid league website.
[00:12:39] Speaker B: Right, sorry. The 23rd. It's on Wikipedia. Okay, so 23rd.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Always. Good old Wikipedia. Yeah, so. Okay, so they've got at least another three weeks.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Yeah, but you know, if you're, if you're hiring a guy who's going to be on a playoff, is on a playoff team, you sometimes will see that announced before the playoffs are over and it's announced that he's going to finish out the run with his team. Or sometimes owners get mad enough, they're like, you know what? Take a hike mid playoffs. I mean, you've seen, you know, less than MLS than you see it in other sports. But these things do happen, you know.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: You think, you think Eric Quill would allow himself to get announced as a. Taking another job while his team's in the middle of a playoff run?
[00:13:22] Speaker B: You know, it depends on the factors. You know, I mean, if they got permission to talk to him, man, that.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: Would, I gotta be honest, if Eric Quell did that, I'd be really disappointed in Eric Quill and make me wonder if I actually want him coaching my team, because that would suck. That would be a shitty move.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Ah, it happens. You know, I, you know, I don't, I don't know what to say about it in this given situation. But you know, the, you see all the time guys that get hired for new jobs before the previous job is over and sometimes they'll put some in the thing, sometimes they get the coach, the owner tells them to walk, sometimes they try and keep it secret and it gets out anyway. You know, there's many examples of how it's all worked.
[00:14:02] Speaker A: I gotta say, man, if that actually happened, that would be really shitty on Quill's part because New Mexico went out of their way to sign him to a new deal, extend his deal, not just not that long ago. He takes him into a playoff run and you're presenting a scenario where Quill agrees to allow himself to be announced as taking another job for the next season while his team is in the middle of a playoff.
[00:14:27] Speaker C: Not sure. Zero percent Chance, Right. That's Jim Curtin to FC Dallas, us.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Well, look at it this way. If you, if you consider to step up. How many times have you heard of in the NFL a coordinator for a team who's going to be the head coach of somebody else and he finishes the playoffs. That's a step up. USL to MLS is a step up.
[00:14:46] Speaker A: It is.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: But not even an organization that's in direct competition like the NFL teams.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Leader of the team, dude, and they're going for a championship.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: Well, I, I, I think that you're overvaluing like the fact that people change jobs all the time.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: I'm not undervaluing that. I'm just saying allow, I mean, they could wait three weeks to make the announcement.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Yeah, and they might. I mean, there's been no set timeline from SC Dallas. They haven't stated that they're hiring a coach anytime soon.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Have they? Not that I'm aware of. No.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: I'm not aware of anything either. I didn't know if anybody had heard. Well, I didn't know if you'd heard a date or. You were the one that said, you were the one that brought up the idea that he could, he could get announced before the playoffs are over. That's why I was surprised.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: I think he could be, I think he could be.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Oh, that would suck. I'd be, I'd feel terrible for those, for the New Mexico fans. Imagine. Imagine. Okay, hold on, wait a sec. So FC Dallas is in the playoffs, one of the highest seating teams in the, for the MLS cup. And whoever the manager is, as they're approaching the conference finals of the playoffs, announces to the world that he is leaving to go take a job in insert whatever other high in Mexico. If Oscar had done that to Dallas.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Well, which is worse? To lie about it for three or four years, or three or four weeks or a month? To lie about it. No, no, I'm staying. I'm gonna be here. I'm your coach, we're all good. And then the day after the championship be like, F off, I'm out of here. Or is it better to be honest and open with your players in your fan base and say, hey, we got some, we got a job to finish here first. But then after that I'm going to go to the next level.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: I think there's a way of handling it that isn't, that isn't the same thing as lying. I think you could say my focus is here, my job is here and we'll discuss the future in the future.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: You don't think that's lying?
[00:16:35] Speaker A: No.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Your fan base. Oh, man. No. I think that's way worse. I'd rather you be honest. I'd always rather the people be honest.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: Well, I don't think anything about that statement is dishonest. It's like my focus is here. My job is to get this team through the championship and to win an MLS cup. And we'll talk about the future in the future.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: It's completely disingenuous. It's pretending like you're not leaving when you're leaving. When everybody knows you're leaving. Your players know you're leaving. Your owner knows you're leaving. All your fans know you're leaving. You pretend like you're not leaving.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Yeah. You and I disagree on this one.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Oh, completely.
[00:17:06] Speaker C: This is very impassioned for a hypothetical situation about someone we don't hired for a job. Yeah.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: So forget that it's Quill. Just pretend it's anybody in the playoffs. Right?
Well, any playoffs. Or an assistant in a playoffs. Anybody you would rather have the Estee Dallas just wait around and do nothing.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: I think about those. I think about those kids that are in college programs getting ready to go to a big bowl game, and the. And the coach announces that he's taking a gig and then he bails on them for the bowl game. And I always think that's the shittiest thing I could possibly imagine a college coach doing to a bunch of kids.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Well, being a Texas A and M baseball fan, I can assure you that it is not.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: It is not.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: Announcing ahead of time that you're leaving is not the shittiest thing. The shittiest thing is telling everybody that you're focused on the now and you love your team. You took this job to never leave. And then the day after the championship, signing a new contract and leaving.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Okay, but you, again, you're. You're painting a different scenario than I am. I'm not saying somebody is saying I'm not leaving. I'm saying somebody says, look, I'm not discussing. You just did. You said, somebody said, I'm not leaving. I got this job forever.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: That's not what I said. I said. What I said was that you get asked about it and you say, I took this job to be here forever. I'm focused on the moment. None of that says I'm not leaving. It says, I took this job to be here a long time. Which is true. You take a job to be there a long time. That's not a lie.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Yeah, right. Okay. All right. I'M very confused by this conversation, but whatever I think. I don't know if Quill is even interested in the Dallas job buzz. You may know better than anybod else because you know Eric. So I don't know what you know or don't know about his situation with the team or his opportunity. So I maybe you know something the rest of us don't know. I don't know.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Oh, I know in general terms that he would be interested in an FC Dallas job or any other MLS job. That doesn't mean that he's a candidate this time. He may think he has a championship run coming and he. You may be right. He may want to stay loyal to that franchise. He just extended his contract. I'm just saying that like, you know, I don't think that if they're not hiring looks on, then whoever they are hiring is busy and has a gig or is not available yet. So if they announce it anytime in the next two to three weeks, you know, are we just going to sit around and wait? That's. It's very possible.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Well, yeah, because I mean maybe this is me just being playing the stereotypical role of pessimistic asshole. But all signs to me indicate that they are just taking their time to essentially announce that Luxane is the new manager. I mean that to me is almost 95% certain what's going to happen.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I could totally believe that that's the case. Yeah.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: And for anybody that's asked them what are they waiting for? It's because they want to be able to say they went out and did some sort of extensive search. Like Dan Hunt says, every time they go out and hire a new guy that was in their closet.
[00:20:01] Speaker C: Oh, it also allows them to, you know, if someone does become available from the playoffs to go to, you know, to have buyers remorse, to not announce. Look, son. And then suddenly it's ah, shit, a really good coach game available and we've. Yeah, yeah.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah. It's a weird. It's a curious one, man. I don't. The whole thing is very. Look, I think the thing that drives me nuts is that San Jose is out there hiring the most experienced manager in MLS history and Jim Curtin is out in the universe available and Dallas is going to hire another guy who has zero MLS head coaching experience other than the few games he managed last year as an entry.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: What I just heard is a train wreck. Franchise just hired a control freak that's going to turn into a dumpster fire.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: Well, you couldn't pay me enough to not have to deal with Bruce Arena. I do not want that guy within a thousand miles of this franchise. Jim Kirk, I'm with you but the, you know that season ending press conference was two weeks ago and at the time they had, you know, three names to put in front of the owners and make a decision on. And that was two weeks ago. So in that time I would have expected them to make a decision. So if it's going to be Lu son, it ought to be real quick that they're making an announcement. I would bet by the end of this week if it's looks on.
[00:21:26] Speaker C: One thing to keep in mind is they've got a lot of stuff also going on. They've got the player decisions coming up before Thanksgiving.
Obviously they want North Texas SC to finish the season before they, you know, do anything and take any shine off those achievements. So you know, they've, they've got time on their side and well, the player.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Decisions have been done because I already know of people that are out. So it's not, you know.
[00:21:51] Speaker C: Yeah, but they haven't announced them and you know, FC Dallas, they love to announce stuff and then do one thing then another thing.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: That's fair.
That's fair.
Yeah.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: It all seems ridiculous because we all know what's going to happen.
The surprise. Look, I think we can all agree if, if there's going to be a surprise, the surprise will be that it's anybody other than Luxane.
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. I agree.
Yeah, that's the odds on favorite for sure.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: I've got a better surprise.
Eugene Ansar, five year contract.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: That would be a bigger surprise.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: No, actually in some ways that would not be a surprise.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: That only, only on 70k would I accept that.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: All right, you want to do questions now?
[00:22:38] Speaker B: You don't want to do North Texas or Trinity first?
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Oh sure, we could do those. Yeah. Let's start with North Texas. Go team, go.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Yeah, big championship game this weekend. They're playing Philadelphia Union 2. Which means, as Dan mentioned, that you get Kevin Sullivan, who's the kid who's the highest paid homegrown in league history. He's the one that's contract includes the transfer to Man City when he turns 18 because basically it was impossible for them to get him until he turned 18. So if you're interested in future quote unquote superstar US men's national team, you know, best player in the world kind of thing that then come out and watch that guy because he is fantastic.
[00:23:15] Speaker A: And the game is Saturday night.
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Yeah. 7:30. I believe he will play for Philly in like a 10 kind of spot. This is what we did last game.
North Texas SC will run out the exact same lineup they have every game in the playoffs. I'm quite sure, except for Tasha Rose will be back. He was the one that had a red card and missed last game and he obviously and quite clearly was missing. The kid that replaced him is nowhere near the actual quality of Rose. So that's a nice get back. The only real question will be, you know, do they. Are they going to do that flex center back 6th thing or not? They did not do it last game but then the team they played who's slipping out of my brain right the second St. Louis city has some really big nice strikers so they kept call Sante back as a real center back in a back three. But I think with Sullivan being the prize who's a, you know, a midfielder, that they'll probably go back to that flex situation. So should be an outstanding game. You can come out and watch Logan Farrington run around. He should be okay. He left last game with it when they got punched in the kidneys and kicked in the balls like six times each. He finally went out of the game. City tried to.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: He got assaulted during the game.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: Oh my God.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Yeah, like, like a dark alley kind of a beat up assault.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:29] Speaker C: They target him hard.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Yeah, he got knee, literally got knee in the balls twice. The referee was out of his death and was not, you know, didn't have eyes in the back of his head and the off ball linesman wasn't paying attention. The fourth was over sitting down, not watching. So they missed both of those ball knees to the balls that were clearly an obvious. And then there were multiple times where a guy ran over behind him and smashed him in the kidney right in the back. That happened three times and the third time it happened he dropped to the ground and didn't get back up and they end up subbing him out. So he only played like 10 minutes. That was all within the first 10 or 15 minutes.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Geez.
[00:25:04] Speaker B: This is a five off ball physical punches or knees.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: I would. It sounds like they were mad that they threw the ringer in the game.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: Well, yeah, they try to clearly try to take him out of the game. So they put in Tar Scott who's more mobile and he was able to run away with those guys. I mean not that Logan Frank is not mobile, but Tark is really mobile and so he was running, ran away from him the whole time and. And then they end up winning three nothing in overtime or I think it.
[00:25:26] Speaker C: Was so that the game by Michael Collodi was just phenomenal. He had like five world class saves to keep it at nil. Nil.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: Monster game from him, monster game from here.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Well, and here's the other thing. They're not playing. I feel terrible for, for Buzz because this entire season Buzz has been going to the stadium around the corner from his house. And now you got to trudge all the way up to Frisco. Cause they're playing the game in Frisco.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I had a whole soapbox thing about selling out, you know, betraying Arlington and this whole like, we're gonna build a team there and now you're gonna change surfaces for the championship. It turns out that it's. The stadium's not available, but yeah, so they don't their hands forced. But it's a chance for all the FC Dallas fans to come see what is the best team in the organization.
[00:26:13] Speaker A: All right, and then Dallas Trinity has played since we last talked.
[00:26:17] Speaker C: Yeah, they got a late win against Fort Lauderdale at the weekend. Celie Strawn, a month after turning 17, scored her first goal in a pro game. Really nice play. And I think it was like the 87th minute. Crashed the box on a rebound from an end. Not Enzi Broussard. Sierra Hinson shot that was saved.
Honestly, Trinity looked, you know, they were by far the better team.
It was a bit interesting. Two teams from hot environments, stuffy environments on a cold night or a coldish night, I should say. It just allowed a lot of little pockets of high pressing in the game. Made it kind of interesting.
North Dallas really camped out in the Fort Lord at O half for massive passages of the game. Just really struggled to penetrate into the box. It was a triple substitution. Second half really just kind of kicked things into gear. They got a little bit more mobile and. And yeah, came away with a win. They traveled to Lexington this weekend, much like last weekend where I did the double, went to Dallas. Trinity did all the media stuff after the game, got in the car, drove over to Ireland and got there just after kickoff.
This week they're going to precede the North Texas SC game. So you can always follow along on Peacock from Frisco and then enjoy a potential championship win.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Fantastic. Fun.
All right, anything else we want to talk about before we move into questions?
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Two Trinity players and their coach were named to the team of the month for U.S. cell Super League.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: What is the. What is the USL Super League playoff structure?
[00:28:06] Speaker B: Oh, fourth teams, I think make it, but that's not till like May.
[00:28:10] Speaker A: Oh, okay. All right.
[00:28:12] Speaker B: They play.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: Oh, that's right.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Duh, play.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: The European Council totally forgot that part.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: With apatura in the middle and a clasura. A little break.
[00:28:19] Speaker C: And speaking of Trinity players winning things, Evan Osteen got the Golden Glove at the Under 17 Women's World Cup. US got third place.
Kennedy Fuller won the Silver Boot. She's obviously crap. I can't remember who she's playing for in NWSL right now, but she's a.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: Solo kid, L.A. angel City.
[00:28:43] Speaker C: And then Trinity buyers sign him for San Diego. Join in. Jaden Shaw today.
That was. I didn't see that one coming. Weirdly.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: Well, the other one is the. Is it Massimo? Is that how you say her name? The other UT girl who's graduating.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:29:00] Speaker C: Like they need to. Yeah, that'd be interesting to see if they can kind of, you know, that was. That was the trio that drove Solar to the national championship. It'd be interesting to see if they can recreate that because San Diego is obviously not been in the best, best way this season.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: All right, let's move into questions. Let me pull up the page. So again, these come from Buzz's discord.
Let's see.
So some people have multiple questions. We'll take one from Gingi first. The question is what moves should we look for that would indicate that Dan Hunt or Zenata are serious about making this a top four team in the west next year?
[00:29:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I actually wrote a couple of bits about this on the website if you want a deeper dive. But the short answer is they. If they want to be serious about getting better, you know, one move is not really going to cut it. They have to first develop a pile of cash. So they really need to sell somebody first or not first as part of the process. They need to sell somebody probably one of your dps. And we. I've talked about in that space why that's Jesus Ferrera. And then once you do that, then you have some money. You can do multiple things. You know, the first of which is that they like they tried in the summer window. You need a center back if you're playing a back four. If you need a center back, if you're going to keep playing a back three, you probably need two center backs and then you probably want to do something else somewhere else. You probably need a midfielder. You know, you don't want to replace Jesus with a direct competition player because you have Logan Farrington. The whole thing about hazers being expendable is because Farrington is similar. So you want to do something in a different position, probably some sort of central midfielder, because your choices there are either Paxton, who's hurt all the time, or Yara Mendy, who's 35, will be 35 next season.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Have we.
You know, there's an option for MLS teams on how they want to do a setup between DP positions and under 20twos. Have they. Have they already been required to state which of the two they're going to pick?
[00:31:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes. You have to do that every season, though. So last this current season, they just finished. Obviously Dallas did 3 and 3, but they could change this winner. They could change to the other format if they wished. They don't have to say now. They don't have to say till later on. So, you know, obviously doing that, to do that, you would have to sell again, sell a dp, you know, to. To make that possible. And don't forget too that Paul Areola is also on a DP size contract. So, you know, what you do with an open DP spot is dependent on which direction you want to go. And so if you wanted to go 2 DPS and 4 U22s, then you would have to continue to buy down Paul's cap number like he is now.
But it is possible they could do that.
[00:31:51] Speaker A: Okay, let's see.
Question number two. Two, we'll take this question from Sam. If you had been the manager last season, how would you have handled the need to get more goals out of the team and deal with not having Velasco or Ferreira for large chunks of the season?
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Well, the first thing I would have done was put Alan Vlasco on a season ending IR and I would have opened up that DP spot so I could have gotten a highly impactful player. I would have also played a back four because this team is incredibly uncomfortable in a back three and is actually incredibly comfortable in a back four. More likely a 4. 3. 3, because that would fit better guys like Bernard Kamungo and you wouldn't have screwed him up. So the offense would have been much better and probably the defense would have been better too. So, Dan, I don't know if you want to throw in on this one as well.
[00:32:40] Speaker C: No, I think that's kind of the key to it is freeing up that spot, getting in place, say, an impactful player. Yes, it can be really difficult to work in a DP player when you've got a player returning. But hey, you can sell players, you can move stuff around. You can use buyouts for poor people to free up certain spots. You can also just bring in a loan that you know isn't going to be extended. There are players out there that have that possibility.
It really felt like they didn't really use enough imagination to a degree. And yeah, 100% back four always seems the most comfortable. We've complained for how many years now that there aren't enough center backs, so having putting three of those in the lineup just wasn't working. I know that Nico complained that he didn't have fullbacks, but yeah, that's all he has. He kind of did. I mean, the two of the starting center backs at the end of the season were fullbacks. They were not wingbacks.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: Yeah, there was a really long question in here that I'm going to paraphrase which is gets back to the original topic of this episode and asking the question on why we collectively are so high on Eric Quill being the head coach. And their reason for asking the question is is that Quill, like Luxane, does not have MLS head coaching experience and Luxane knows the system, youth system and the Hunts and Zenata and just wants a better understanding of why we would pick Eric Quill over Peter L. Saying sure.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: Well, the first thing I understand is that there there's a constraint on the kind of candidates that when we get around here because of the organization, the job, the money, etc. Etc. We've talked about it ad nauseam.
The second thing, why specifically Quill over lan Laan is a good alternative. He he I would be okay with him being a coach. Why I like Quill better is because Quill has won every place he's gone. He won a DA national championship coaching at a non MLS academy. He did it by finding Chris Richards and Chris Capis and coaching up young players and winning a championship with guys outside the MLS system. Then he came to North Texas and he used a bunch of academy players including starting Ricardo Pepe and starting a 16 year old actually was 15 at the time at left back and an 18 year old at right back and he used a bunch of academy players and he won the first ever USL1 championship. And then he knew that in order to get the next job in MLS he needed to be an MLS assistant. So he went to an MLS assistant and worked under Caleb Porter. Caleb Porter has won multiple MLS championships even though he got fired a year after that from Columbus. And now he's taken the next job in his path and he's the head coach and he has within a couple of seasons he has his team in first place with A good shot to win another championship. He hasn't done it yet, of course. So those are the reasons why inside the relative context of the kind of candid you can get for this club. I personally think Quill is a better pick than Luan, but they're both fine. Luxon is fine, just more excited about Quill. And let me. Let's be clear again. We don't actually know that Quill's a candidate. We just assume he is because of all the things we know about how the H Hunts hire people.
[00:35:58] Speaker A: Yeah, and I. The other thing is, is that I don't think there's. The gap between management experience between Quill and Luxane is like the Grand Canyon. Eric Quill may not have MLS head coaching experience, but he clearly has a lot of head coaching experience and has been doing it now for a while. The last team Peter Luxane managed was. What was it? The U14s?
[00:36:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: So I don't think there's.
Peter Luxane may have a much better player career and far more, you know, European and international and all that stuff, but when it comes to actually managing a team of players, there is no comparison in the resume between the two guys.
[00:36:43] Speaker C: I think there's a really good track record for Eric Quill, North Texas sc. You know, forget Pepe. Pepe was always on his tritter.
You had Tanner Testman kind of came out of nowhere. We knew he was, you know, we knew he was tall, fast, physical. All the things that should have gone into a great probate kind of fell off the radar a little bit. Edwin Cerrio came out of nowhere. Both of them, you know, kind of came to these positions playing under Eric Quill for North Texas sc, working with him in training every day.
You know, you can even look at guys like Brian Reynolds came through heavily, you know, working on the fullback position or fullback, wing back position in under Eric Quill. He's just got that, he's had a decent record. Even now people talking about Nikki Hernandez kind of playing up for, for New Mexico. He's just got that a reputation of, of coaching guys up who are there, but they're not, you know, they're not superstars and that's fine. We talk about Carl Sante, we talk about Nolan Norris, players who, younger players who are coming through, but it's, you know, they're just not that next level that's going to push you over the edge. Well, maybe he can take them and pull them up a couple of notches and make him into serviceable off the Bench players, you know, starters exactly like Edwin Surrey became when he, you know, kind of put his, what is it, 30, 40 game starting streak together.
[00:38:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I just think for of again, going back to Buzz's point about the limitations of what Dan Hunt historically is willing to pay and hire, unless there is some sort of MLS assistant or some name from some other country that we just have, you know, is going to end up surprising us. Quill to me, is the most clear top choice for the role. Just based on his relationship with the club and success here and success in other places. He's the one guy that while I'll be disappointed they didn't have more ambition and get somebody with even more experience, he'd be the guy I would feel is the best choice for. The limitations. That's just where I come from.
[00:38:59] Speaker B: Yeah, the limitations is the key.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the limit. Yeah, I totally, I totally agree.
[00:39:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:04] Speaker A: All right, let's do a fun one here. This is from Enrique, who asks what is Yalls best and worst kits and I get. Okay. So he wants to break this up into two eras of both the Burn era and the FC Dallas era.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Dan, you want to go first? You have this.
[00:39:22] Speaker C: I love a good bit of kit talk. So the greatest jersey in team history, period is the 1998, 1999 home show. The one that, the red one with the black, white and not avocado wasabi guacamole. Yeah, yeah. The, the, the horizontal stripes, the thin stripes that were kind of replicated on later kits with the nice kind of not floppy color, but the, the knits, the knit kind. Beautiful. Absolutely wonderful. Best.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: Then the home ones. The red one.
[00:39:55] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Yeah. Best in, best in franchise history. But you know, if we're breaking it down into burn and FC Dallas, that's, that's definitely burn worst. The 0304 away, the Athletica White one that just had a little bit of black on the under sleeves. It just looks like a crap T shirt with Radio Shack plastered on the back. FC Dallas. I love the 2016 home shirt. Obviously a sentimental value winning the double in it, but just the again, it's the pinstripes. It's the way they use multiple shades of red. I love the little color detail with the city of Dallas flag effect like kind of simplified on the back of it. And white shorts, white shorts were phenomenal. Less so next year when they put the red ones back and the team missed the playoffs for the FC Dallas worst. For me, it's that deconstructed Texas flag. I, I, it's a cool idea. It was just such a badly executed concept.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: I agree. Man. Dan, you and I have such similar tastes. I would agree with you. In fact, I. One of my greatest possessions of my life is that specific Byrne jersey. I have one of those. I love it.
I actually had two of them and I gave one of them to my godson for his college graduation. How awesome am I?
[00:41:09] Speaker B: Pretty awesome.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: The least favorite.
That's a hard one.
Yeah. Dan's right.
That white one from Athletica was pretty crummy.
[00:41:23] Speaker B: Pretty boring. Yeah.
[00:41:24] Speaker A: I wasn't also a big fan of the Tigris blue and yellow thing. I didn't. It just didn't make any sense to me. But that. I don't know if that counts for this.
And then my favorite FC Dallas jersey I think almost has to be the powder blue kit that they did as the away kit a couple of years ago.
Although Dan is also at the 2016 kind of different shades of red hooped jersey is fantastic. That is really, really good. My least favorite is the starry night bit shirt. I didn't like that at all. And that's only. And that barely edges out. The deconstructed flag shirt is my least favorite of all time. And my bonus one is the only time Dallas has ever had a third kit. The black athletic shirt which I. Which I also own one of those.
[00:42:13] Speaker C: Damn.
[00:42:14] Speaker B: Well, I agree with Peter on the SE Dallas part. The Ranger powder blue, what we call the tornado powder, the NATO kit. That's the best kid in club history.
Mostly because they can't get hoops right. The worst is the stars at night which just beats out the deconstructed flag. But the stars at night is worse because it's a gimmick. So we're all on the same board with that from Burn here I'm close to Dan. I don't like the burn word mark so I'm 97 red, big red horse. As with the black shorts, that's my burn era best. And the burn era worse is the white with the wasabi side panels because it's just a disgusting color as a primary color. The 2001 with the underneath wasabi strip which I think is just an awful looking piece.
[00:42:59] Speaker C: So funny thing about the forest Worth I agree about the the powder blue. My only thing was and what kind of ruined it for me and the only reason I didn't buy it is all the versions in the team stores had the sponsor so much smaller than the player shirts and it was wonky. None of them were put on straight they were either off to the side or they were at an angle. And it just.
[00:43:22] Speaker B: Let's just say supply chain issues were that time of year life.
[00:43:27] Speaker A: And I just realized. And I just realized based on what Buzz just said, I am incorrect. My favorite all time Burn jersey is not the 98, it is the 97. That is the one that I own because it does have the giant horse on it. I just got my ears screwed up. Dan, you are correct. That is a very, very nice shirt. It's just the original with the, with the big horse on it is the bomb.
[00:43:51] Speaker C: I just, I just like the. Where it went from the three stripes to the five. It just. I don't know, it looked a little 98.
[00:43:58] Speaker B: 99 is fantastic. I mean, it's right there.
[00:44:02] Speaker C: 1A, 1B.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: Yeah. The difference is just whether you like that logo or not.
[00:44:05] Speaker C: The point I was gonna make, actually. So the starry night. Yeah, weird. I like, I didn't actually hate the the bit. What I hated was it was the way it was supposed to look and the way it ended up looking were totally different because MLS went to the team and said, hey, this needs to be majority white. But the way that kit worked out, you know, it goes up for. It goes from white to dark blue. So you want the back to be dark blue, you want the sleeves to be dark blue, you want it to really graduate into a dark starry sky. And they were told not to do that. I would have loved to have seen the original concept that actually had that full execution because that would have looked cool.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: That would have been nice.
[00:44:44] Speaker A: That is the other one. I should have thrown this one in. The other bonus one is also a shirt that I actually own because somebody the. Whose roommate worked for Adidas back in the day gave this to me. Do you remember that I have a long sleeve prototype?
[00:44:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I do.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: It's gray and blue hooped from. Right. From the original FC Dallas years. That sure. It's awesome. Have you seen that? Have I ever shown that to you, Dan?
[00:45:12] Speaker C: I think you put a photo somewhere.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: I've got a photo. I'll send it to you. Yeah, it's. It's a prototype. When they were doing a wager z designs and showing them to Dallas, one of them was instead of gray and white, it was gray and blue. And this guy that I met found out I was a Dallas fan and he got a hold of it and gave it to me and it's awesome.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: What's funny is I have a couple of those prototypes too. They used to throw them into, like, the Adidas outlet store. So, like, somebody I knew came across two of them and grabbed them, and I have one of them. It's a prototype, too. It's really weird.
[00:45:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it's good stuff. All right.
Any other kit talk that we want to.
[00:45:51] Speaker C: I think the episode's done now. After that.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: No, you can go on with more questions.
[00:45:56] Speaker A: Okay, now I got to find a picture of that shirt because I need to. I need to send it so Dan can see it. Oh, here it is right here.
Let's see. Next question up on the list. What is the real. This is a weird question from Dennis, because I don't know if this might be fantasy stuff. Is there a real potential for MLS to be truly competitive at the global level, and what is needed to get there? Will we see it in the next five years?
[00:46:25] Speaker B: Yes, there is a chance to be truly competitive. No, you will not see it in five years. And the things that have to happen are, one, you have to align with a global calendar. Two, and by far the most important is you have to massively, massively increase your revenue to be able to for the best players in the world. And that has to do with continued growth to where MLS becomes one of the major sports properties in the United States. It requires big television money. You know, you're. You're talking about more like 20 to 50 years than you are five years. But, yes, it is very possible.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: Dan, you have any.
[00:47:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I wasn't.
That's. It's a difficult one, right. Because you've got all these Euro snubs, and I don't have to worry about offending them. They're obviously not listening to a podcast that talks about American domestic soccer.
The absolute on the domestic game and the.
How do you go forward? How do you reach that next level if. If there are a significant number of people that identify as soccer fans that are so against your product. So I think they could implement full promotion and relegation and these people would find a new excuse. But that. It seems kind of key to taking it to that next level. You can. You can raise the money internally. You can bring in the next level players and get the international viewership up. But the international opinion of MLS has probably been higher than the domestic opinion since 1996. I certainly remember watching it on TV and in the mid-90s.
So that kind of seems to stick in point. Which I don't know how you do that within the next five years.
[00:48:16] Speaker B: Well, you certainly don't do it in the next five years, but nothing. Everything changes. Like 100 years ago, the two big sports in the United States were baseball and horse racing. Until Even through the 70s, the NFL wasn't a big deal. And now the NFL is the biggest thing in the world. Where was the NBA until we got Magic and Bird? I'm just saying that like, you know, things change over time and it's a generational change to get to the point we are now. And it'll be another generational change before you can begin to talk about being at that level. Is it easy? No. But it is possible.
[00:48:46] Speaker A: Well, I also, I also think that there's this weird vacuum that we live in as Americans and that if the reality is that if you were to take MLS teams and put them in various and a sundry European leagues or even in South America, they would be far more competitive than I think people think they would be. I mean, look at, look at the team that Chelsea played today in the European Conference League. I mean that, that is a team made up of. I mean that is an incredibly low level team that Chelsea beat up on today, but were very successful in their domestic league in Europe. But I guarantee you most MLS teams would probably beat up on them too. Maybe not 8 nothing, but would probably have a good run at them. So I just don't think we as Americans and MLS fans give our teams enough credit for where they are in 2024 on the world stage. I, you know, I'm not saying mls, an MLS team, any of them would win the championship in England. I'm not saying they would be, you know, a top of the table team in the Bundesliga. But what I am saying is that you could drop them in a lot of leagues in other places in this world and they would definitely hold their own and they would win a lot of them too.
[00:50:06] Speaker C: You know, I think of myself as a bit of a nerd on obscure team logos and names and I have honestly never heard of that team before.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: Well, they're relatively new.
[00:50:18] Speaker C: Yeah. I say 2017.
[00:50:19] Speaker A: Yeah. And are they Armenian? Is that what they are?
[00:50:23] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:50:24] Speaker B: Play right over there by the Adriatic.
[00:50:26] Speaker A: Yeah, Noah.
They're a team called Noah. And I think they're from. What did I say?
[00:50:34] Speaker C: Armenia.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: Armenia. Yeah. And they're, you know, and in fact, one of their strikers is a guy that was playing, I think at NYC FC not too long ago. So.
Yeah. Anyway, my point is, is that I just think that we as America, I just don't think MLS fans give our teams enough credit.
[00:50:51] Speaker B: I agree.
[00:50:52] Speaker A: So there you go.
Next, the. Thank you, Dennis, for that question.
And okay. Here's a little revisionist questioning from Justin. If you could bring back any player who has played for either era of the club and put them on the 2025 squad, who would it be and why?
And assuming they would return at the age they were. So a 58 year old TedX is for instance.
[00:51:24] Speaker B: Yeah, he means that not now, like at the age they were when they played in the team.
[00:51:28] Speaker A: No, the great. Yes, the classic Daniel go first.
[00:51:32] Speaker C: Oh, okay. Yeah, I took that the other way around. So I mean. Yeah, take Oscar Pereira still now.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that's my answer too. Is Oscar Pereira.
[00:51:39] Speaker A: Oh really? See mine, mine almost immediately. Immediately is Lionel Alvarez because he's the holding mid that we've been dying for forever.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I wrote down Lionel and then I went up going with Oscar because Oscar was a back box to box guy and could get forward and assist and they lack service.
[00:51:59] Speaker C: So I went Oscar, he would kick the ever loving shit out of people, you know.
[00:52:04] Speaker B: Yeah. Hardest nose leader in the locker room. Everyone followed his lead for a decade, you know, heart of the team and all that stuff. I did follow up, by the way, with the idea that like if you met at the prime of their entire career, then the answer is of course either Hugo Perez or Lionel Alvarez, because both of those guys played at by far higher level than anyone else that's ever played here. But that's not when they played for the Burn. But if you, if you want to take a player in the prime of their entire career, not when they play with the Burn, then the answer is Hugo Sanchez or Lionel Alvarez, who both were played at such a spectacularly high level, far, far better than anything that's ever played.
[00:52:38] Speaker A: Could you imagine a prime of his career, Hugo Sanchez playing for this team in MLS?
That would be unbelievably fun.
[00:52:49] Speaker B: He would score 50, you know, two game, you know, I mean he played, he was the best striker in the world, probably, maybe even unquestionably for about a four or five year run at Real Madrid. You know, five straight scoring championships, you know, for just insane good.
[00:53:04] Speaker A: I think he is still considered the best player in CONCACAF history.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think there's any question.
[00:53:10] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a really, really good documentary, I think it's on YouTube about Hugo Sanchez. And if you haven't watched it, it's. It's something about, it's a, it's. It's something about strikers that scored goals with one touch or some one touch goals or something.
[00:53:30] Speaker B: I watched that. Yes.
[00:53:31] Speaker A: And it's really, really good. Somebody we'll have to find it and put up the link somewhere. It's fantastic. Yeah, that would be great.
Yeah. I'm surprised. Okay. Yeah, that would be pretty good. Those are. Those are good. It's funny to me, maybe we're just being old dudes that were recalling guys from the Burn era.
[00:53:47] Speaker B: Well, I consider David Ferreira. But you know, I. I incorporated the idea that Oscar was more of a leader that would bring the whole team together, whereas David was more of a. Just sort of an individual in a lot of ways. Not. Not a bad individual by any means. He was league mvp. Amazing player. But I chose Oscar for that reason.
[00:54:06] Speaker A: All right, well, let's take Oscar out of this and I'm going to change the rules. It has to be somebody after the Hunt takeover. So post FC Dallas rebrand and Oscar cannot be your choice. Who are you picking?
[00:54:20] Speaker B: Well, that's David Ferreira.
[00:54:21] Speaker A: Okay. Damn it.
[00:54:23] Speaker C: Okay, so are we going back to prime or in the F.C. dallas?
[00:54:28] Speaker A: No prime. Just in their prime.
[00:54:30] Speaker C: Luke son.
[00:54:32] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:54:33] Speaker C: Like his time. Atletico Madrid or psg serving up balls for Ronaldinho. Yeah, I'll take that all day.
[00:54:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good one too. I don't know. I.
Good Lord. Who is the Ecuadorian holding mid that we had that now was playing in San San Jose.
[00:54:53] Speaker C: What was his name?
[00:54:55] Speaker A: Oh, Grace. So yeah, Grace O back would. Because he was so good.
[00:54:59] Speaker B: Well, you can just even go with his FC Dallas form then, because that was the prime of his career when he was here. Yeah, I wouldn't say.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: All right, that's a fun question. Thank you, Justin, for that.
Let's see. Let's see. If Moussa and Ferreira are like oil and water and can't get along, who would you rather ship out and why? Is it Ferreira?
[00:55:22] Speaker B: Well, the. It's Ferreira because he doesn't want to be here. Yeah, he wants to move on. And Musa just got here. And also the other reason is. And this is not a shot at Jesus Ferreira, it's just that Jesus is a tweener.
He's harder to use effectively. He's either got to be a false nine or he's got to play like off of another guy, you know, in almost like a double, perhaps.
You know, Musa just got here and had one of the best rookie seasons we've ever seen. Not a rookie season, inaugural seasons we've ever seen. So that's why it's mainly. It still doesn't want to be here at St.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: El Chorizo asks, I assume you guys have hit up a decent number of MLS Stadiums. Just for pure game day experience, which teams would you recommend making it a point to see their stadium?
You guys go ahead. I've got some definite opinions about this.
[00:56:15] Speaker B: Well, for me, the far and away leader is Portland.
That's the best game day experience I've experienced and I've seen on tv. Is Portland particular to either walk or ride the subway to the stadium? You know, kind of come in when the supporters are coming in. So they're doing their march in under the stadium and it's bouncing and echoing and you know, enough time to watch the stadium fill in and they have the, the best TFO setup. You know, if you can, if you want to see FC Dallas play, that's fine. But even better, go there when Seattle's there and then that's the best game experience. Yep.
[00:56:46] Speaker A: Dan, you got any thoughts on this?
[00:56:48] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So I've got, I've got a really big important thought, actually. I completely forgot about Danielson in his prime. He was the world's most expensive player.
[00:56:56] Speaker A: Oh, that's a really good chance.
[00:56:58] Speaker B: Fair. That's fair.
[00:57:00] Speaker C: No, I, Yeah, I actually haven't taken in too many MLS stadiums, but I think top of my list is probably Red Bull Arena. I really enjoyed, granted, I went for a Western Conference playoff, semi final. Western Conference. That was actually the game after they beat FC Dallas.
That was a lot of fun. It was, you know, really good, really good build up. They had all the, they had the live balls outside, they had the big DJ trucks, all that, that cool stuff. It was, it was, it was a fun one.
[00:57:34] Speaker B: I want to go to lafc, Peter, because I know you've been there and so I like what I see on tv. I'd like to go there.
[00:57:40] Speaker A: Yeah, so I agree that back in the day, in the original years of mls, I think I had been to every MLS stadium with the exception of the Horseshoe where the Crew played. And I did ne. And I had never been to Gillette Stadium where the Revolution play, but I think I had been to all the other original MLS stadiums and now I don't get around as much. So I agree. Buzz. Portland is one I have been to. And I was lucky enough to go to a Portland Seattle game that day. And that is an amazing scene. And all the walk up and the conversion of that baseball facility into a soccer thing is really great. It is really, really feels European. It does. And I, and I would recommend that to anybody. And you know, just a few months ago I got to go to lafc and what I would tell you is that Is that is a, that is a level of big time that also feels like going to some of the stadiums I've been to in Europe that are new, shiny and big time. And it is, it's like old school European in Portland and new school, Big money, flashy amenities, big time at lafc. That thing, that thing's amazing. And their game day experience is off the charts cool. Like the opening stuff that happens before the game and all that is ridiculous. It's really, really cool. So those would be two places I would absolutely tell people to go check out games. And I got a long list of places I want to see games in mls, which includes. I'd love to go back and see the new Columbus Stadium, the new Cincinnati Stadium. I'd love to see the St. Louis Stadium and Toronto. I've been to Toronto. I was there for MLS Cup. Now that was prior to. That was more the bare bones Toronto Stadium. And I'd like to see Nashville Stadium as well. So. And I'd like to experience the Atlanta thing. I'd like to see what that thing's like when it's got, you know, 60,000 people in it. I think that would be an interesting experience as well.
[00:59:49] Speaker C: 60,000 people filling the roborectum.
[00:59:52] Speaker A: That's right.
The mechanical anus. I love it.
Thank you for that question too. That was fun. And let's see.
Jason Scott asks, what are the financial dynamics that drive the establishment of lower division soccer teams like McKenna and Texoma? With Trinity, it makes sense to move and grow women's soccer.
But I think we understand the question.
[01:00:21] Speaker B: So anyway, yeah, well, at the, you know, USO1 level, which is, you know, or which is what? North. Roughly the same levels. North Texas Soccer Club and what Tacoma is going to be, basically you have to think of those things like you think of minor league baseball. And so they run them on small budgets. And the key is, you know, being in the community and having a local appeal. You can have local sponsors, you know, you, you, you develop, you know, relationships with your local businesses, your local car dealers. You know, just like you would, you know, a double. A baseball team that's not in the Rangers pocket or like a rookie league team or, you know, a local AFL team.
Of course, there are guys at that level who just have a really deep love of the game and have insanely deep pockets and don't care. But, but you can look at the way Texoma is operating with all that local vibe and they have, they have these local business seminars where they're introducing you to all these different components of their team and breaking a lot of their own news in those things to make those guys all feel like they're insiders, you know, and part of a small community group at the USL Championship level. However, these guys are, that league is basically where MLS was when it was founded in terms of its cost. And I think it's actually probably even ahead of it in terms of its profitability. Those guys are not in that thing in the USL Championship for a charity. They're not in it to just because they like soccer. They're in it to run teams that are going to win some things that compete and make money. That league is different. That league is more like probably what I would assume it, you know, the league twos are in all the programs in the world. Those are legitimate, full professional, full blown organizations. You know, just because they're smaller that MLS teams doesn't mean that they're not just as highly competitive and highly intended to be a, you know, front tier, front page, front tier running franchise in just a little bit smaller markets than some of them. So that's the breakdown and the difference between those two, those levels.
[01:02:17] Speaker A: I think one of the things, and I know Andy and I are going to be talking about this soon on the radio show and I'm sure will, we'll discuss this a lot, is this pending sense that there is going to be way too much soccer to choose from in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Because the looming, the looming rumor about what's ever going to happen with the USLC team in Garland, the Fort Worth situation, the Donnie Nelson situation, the Dallas Trinity obviously has already launched it. It really is beginning to beg the question of is Dallas Ft. Worth capable or even interested in soccer enough to support all of these teams that appear to be trying to grab doll.
[01:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I totally agree with you, Peter. Actually there's. We're on the cusp of potentially having way too much because there's now three, you know, NPSL level teams. Again, the women's team is now, you know, it's just there's all of a sudden we went from one team to like seven teams in the space of a decade. And so they may need a reversal of some kind.
[01:03:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. And I know everybody talks about some sort of pyramid and promotion rally obligation, but there's just never happened. Well, there's just not a reality in which any of those teams can build fast enough to become an MLS team and having the supporting infrastructure to do that, no matter how good their team is it just doesn't work that way in this country.
[01:03:38] Speaker C: So I think, you know, talking about that kind of over saturation about. I was talking to someone the other day, there's a potential in the next few years. You've got Toyota Stadium, you've got the proposed infotainment, you know, sports and entertainment venue in Mansfield that FC Dallas is, is tied with a couple of stadiums in and around that kind of what north east Dallas area. There's going to be, you know, the potential that there were several small professional stadiums in a very, very small footprint in dfw.
[01:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it would be, it'll be interesting to see how all this shakes out. And everything that drives the success of a particular team is stadium driven and trying to put teams in football stadiums and I mean like high school or college football stadiums isn't going to cut it. It's going to have to be one of these deals where they are soccer dominant stadiums and, and they can drive profit from that and revenue from that. So it'll be weird. We'll, we'll see. I don't know.
Well, all the meanwhile, FC Dallas is rebuilding their stadium for the third time, it feels like.
[01:05:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it is the third time.
[01:05:03] Speaker A: All right, well, what else? Anything else, boys? I think we went through all the questions we wanted to talk about.
[01:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. I think it's all the ones that are good for now.
[01:05:13] Speaker A: Okay. Dan, you got anything else you want to throw out there?
[01:05:18] Speaker C: Can we just go back to Kit talk? That was fun.
[01:05:21] Speaker A: I do like Kit talk, but. So we'll end it with this Buzz. You have no insight on what the next kit is for next season which will replace the. It'll be the new away kit.
[01:05:32] Speaker B: Yeah, the Burn Baby Burn is going away, which is on sale for half off at Soccer 90.
[01:05:39] Speaker A: The wallpaper kit.
[01:05:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I don't, I don't have any tips or clues. I just, I, I've gotten to the point now where I accept that FC Dallas and their partnership with Adidas is absolutely terrible at kit execution. And so I now expect them all to suck. We don't get the one that would actually be really good. So I, I have, my expectation is it's going to be horrible and you know, hopefully it'll be tolerable horrible and not like this is the worst thing I've ever seen. Horrible.
[01:06:05] Speaker C: So tolerable. Horrible is such a wonderful phrase.
[01:06:10] Speaker B: I mean that's the current home one, right? It's tolerable horrible. Yeah.
[01:06:14] Speaker C: It's interesting because I mean I remember talking to Dan Hunt about this a few years back when they did the reunion kit and he was so adamant after the deconstructed Texas flag and then the reunion jersey, everything was going to be, you know, Dallas centric or Texas themed. And. And it's just never happened since.
[01:06:34] Speaker B: It's almost Dan. Like they don't have any consistency in their kit design theme pattern.
[01:06:41] Speaker C: I mean, it's Brandon as a whole. It's not even just, yeah, the kids.
[01:06:44] Speaker A: But yeah, a plan.
They don't have a plan.
[01:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I laid out a plan for them 20 years ago and they have not felt it.
[01:06:54] Speaker A: No.
[01:06:54] Speaker B: Can't help you.
[01:06:55] Speaker A: They most definitely have not followed the plan.
[01:06:58] Speaker B: No.
[01:06:59] Speaker A: All right, Very good. Knocked one out. Love it. Dan. Good stuff. Thank you, sir.
[01:07:05] Speaker C: Thank you, Buzz.
[01:07:06] Speaker A: I completely disagree with you on that thing. We debated, but I love you anyway, sir.
[01:07:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:07:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, we'll find out soon, won't we? And I mean, there should be some news coming. We would hope it's after the annex USL championship is over and maybe we got something to talk about. So we'll see.
[01:07:21] Speaker A: I suppose so. And thank you, FC Dallas Curious fan. We will speak to you again on another episode of 3rd degree the podcast White Shorts 3rd degree the 3rd degree Ne Pocket 3rd degree the 3rd degree Nest 3rd degree the 3rd degree Nerve podcast 3rd degree GRE.
