3rd Degree the Podcast #289

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Let's just work under the assumption that Nico gets sacked this season. [00:00:02] Speaker B: Who's the guy they replace for fun of the conversation? [00:00:04] Speaker A: Yeah, well, just for shits. [00:00:06] Speaker B: And I'm going to give you a name that I think is 100% realistic, both in who they might get and who would take it. Okay. Eric Quill. [00:00:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Third degree, the third degree ne podcast. [00:00:31] Speaker A: Third degree the third degree Napa. Third degree, the third degree Ne pocket. [00:00:39] Speaker B: Third degree, the third degree nerve pocket. [00:00:43] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas curious fan. Welcome to episode 289. And you're going to want to remember this one of Third Degree, the podcast. There he is, Delighted as always, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:57] Speaker C: Hello. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Listen to how delighted he is. And your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of third degree.net the original soccer influencer and totally back in the saddle, man. It's Buzz Kerik. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Peter, I wish I would have actually put down a bet back in April when we talked about Eric Quill being the next coach around here. [00:01:24] Speaker A: That's right. See, you're, you're. It's, it's, it's all coming up, Buzz, as far as I can tell, get carried away. So, yes, since we last spoke, the announcement has come. And first with those on the way out. Peter Lucine was not hired to be the manager. And in fact, Buzz Luxane. I should say not Peter Lucine. Peter Luxane is now. [00:01:50] Speaker C: It doesn't matter. [00:01:50] Speaker A: I guess that's true. I can go back to calling him Lucy. Nobody will give us. [00:01:54] Speaker B: Well, we called him Lucine to his face for 10 years. The insane thing. [00:01:58] Speaker A: So mad about that. Still, I'm glad he didn't get the job. Okay. I'm kidding. No, he is not just, not only the manager, he is out. [00:02:08] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I don't think that should come as a surprise. You know, when, when you make a play for the job, not just make yourself a candidate, but, but take over as the interim and they give you sort of a, you know, if you make the playoffs, you get the job kind of thing and then you don't. It's not surprising you're not going to stick around. You're not going to stick around where they've given somebody else the job that you were after and that you even had as the interim. You know, when you've seen previous interims here go from being a systems to interim, if they stuck around, they moved into other capacities. They became, you know, some sort of coaching guy for the academy or something. Or like Fruzzi is the Main example, who'd been here forever. So it's no shock at all that, you know, Peter probably would not want to stick around the place he got in his mind, probably passed over. But also, you don't want to have the guy who was the interim coach stick around to be one of these primary assistants for the guy who is the coach. You know, that's not how that works. So. And to be fair to Peter, like, you know, we know that Quill was a candidate here when Lucci got fired last time, and when he didn't get the job, Quill went out and got himself assistant to coach in MLS gig. And then he went and coached in USL championship. And that's what Peter needs to do now. Not specifically those two things for sure, but go get a job where you're ahead, guy, win some games, and who's to say in a couple years, three years, whatever it is here, that the next time there's a candidate, he wouldn't be right in there again, especially if he can add more to his resume. You know, they obviously really like him. They kept him around for over a decade as a player and a coach, and he was indeed a finalist for this gig and was the interim guy. So there's. You know, you don't burn any bridges. You. You go and think to yourself, I mean, if you do want to be a head coach in MLS or anywhere else, you can think yourself, okay, what do I add to make myself a more viable candidate to get the thing next time? You know, and that's how you do it. You don't burn those bridges. Keep those relationships going. [00:04:03] Speaker A: Well, it happened. I mean, it took forever. Although, Buzz, I thought it was great that you and Dan sourced out the actual dates of all the previous hire announcements. So I think based on the track record, we were now thinking we may not see anything until December. But it actually happened pretty quick. Because you were starting to hear rumors at one point, weren't you? Before the official word came, I guess. Who broke the news? [00:04:28] Speaker B: Somebody from espn, wasn't it? The Dallas Morning News. That. That at first, yeah. Cool. [00:04:34] Speaker A: Oh, no, the ESPN guy broke that loose. [00:04:37] Speaker B: Was out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nevis. Yeah. [00:04:41] Speaker C: Well, we need that. We knew all along he. He'd given that. Well, not an ultimatum. That's the wrong term. But, you know, he'd say, hey, if I don't get the job, I'm gone. [00:04:50] Speaker A: Oh, we did know that. [00:04:52] Speaker C: We'd heard whispers from a lot of people. [00:04:54] Speaker A: Oh, I did. I must have missed that. But that's good to Know, well, well. [00:04:58] Speaker B: You know, in terms of the timeline, we talked about how, you know, with the season ending, when it was, the fact that it didn't happen right away meant it wasn't going to be Luxon. And so it's not surprising. It took a little bit of time. And to be fair, Quill's not actually being introduced at a press conference until December 5th, which is sort of a matching timeline for the dates that Dan dug up and that I went and double checked and confirmed, you know, and put it into a tweet, you know, and put it out. So it is falling. Rotten line. I'm sure he has things to finish up where he was and the holidays, Thanksgiving holidays will come in the way too, and all it. Probably want to get some of his staff lined up too, before they put him out there and before he. People start asking him who's going to be on your staff? You know, the. The team took off when they added Quill to their coaches page. They removed Luxon and they left everybody else. So it looks like the club will continue to hold over some assistance like John Gall and Drew Key Shot specifically, which is not surprising at all. I think we predicted that and I imagine that Quill will bring in a guy or two of his own, so sort of flush that stuff out a. [00:05:59] Speaker C: Little bit, I guess. A quick update on that. Kevin Martinez said on social media that he's out. [00:06:06] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:06:08] Speaker C: That's not. [00:06:09] Speaker A: Who said who's out? [00:06:11] Speaker C: Kevin Martinez. He was one of the assistants that came in midway through last season. [00:06:17] Speaker B: Okay. He's a bit more of a performance kind of coach, strength and performance kind of coach that had been working with the academy guys and he. When. When Luxon took over as the interim, they sort of elevated him up to run some parts of training and keep working. Guys, in terms of not. Not a fitness guy, but what they call athletic performance guy more than straight soccer, if that makes any sense. [00:06:42] Speaker A: Yeah, well, he will be the club's ninth official, full officially appointed manager, if you. Especially now. It's. That's not counting Marco Farouzi, who was an interim twice and obviously Luxane, who was an interim after Estevez. [00:06:58] Speaker B: You know, funny enough, you know who else is an interim coach that they never mention is Ed Puscaric when. [00:07:04] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. [00:07:05] Speaker B: When Durr was left or was fired or whatever. Ed Puskar coached the Burn for like two months at the end of this, after the season was over, and ran them through some scrimmage games when he was trying to. Ed was trying to Put himself in position to get because he was one of Dur's assistants to get the job. And he won a couple of games, so he doesn't count as an interim coach because they weren't official league games. But he did coach them through some scrimmages, or friendlies, whatever you want to call them. It doesn't, you know, it's a weird technicality, but it's odd that he never gets brought up at all. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally forgot. And which is odd timing for you to mention that, because he got announced as the head coach of the Outlaws. [00:07:41] Speaker B: Who didn' fired Tattoo, apparently, of all people. [00:07:43] Speaker A: So. Boy, that sounds like a mess she stepped into. But anyway, yeah, Eric Quill, as Buzz accurately predicted way back in. What was the date of April? [00:07:53] Speaker B: April 12th on the podcast. [00:07:55] Speaker A: What episode number was that podcast? [00:07:59] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, I don't remember. It's. It's on April 12th. [00:08:02] Speaker A: Okay, April 12th. Where Buzz predicted Eric Quill would be the next manager. And in fact, he is. It has been officially announced and as Buzz says he will, there will be an official press conference and presentation of him. I'm sure it'll be a massive event with all the media there. Eric Quill will be presented formally to everybody at that time. [00:08:23] Speaker B: Podcast 258, by the way, I was looking while you were talking. [00:08:26] Speaker A: Very good. So Buzz, I think there's a whole bunch of different angles and ways to look at this. I guess the immediate question is why Eric Quill? [00:08:39] Speaker B: Well, I think a lot of the reasons are the reasons that we talked about why we thought he was a strong candidate from the get go. Familiarity with the organization, not just the first team having played here, but the ownership having played here. The system, the academy to North Texas because he coached North Texas to first team system. So well aware of the landscape and how it works and how it works at its best. A candidate and a thing that. That's a quality that hunts. Clearly. Really like the way they have consistently hired guys with that kind of knowledge. On top of that, he has documented experience progressing players from not only in the academy ranks, spotting talent, signing talent, progressing talent, but then also progressing it from academy to North Texas and from North Texas to the first team. He has done that. I understand he did that some at New Mexico as well. I'm not familiar with that team very much. But the gist was that he had found some guys that he brought in and developed up consistently. Has won, you know, won a DA national championship using Chris Richards and Chris Capis when he was in Houston. Texans which is not like, like doing it at, you know, not even Dallas Texans who have won championships in the past, but doing it some non MLS academy team and then winning again with, you know, again a mix of kids and pros at North Texas and then doing again, not a championship, but getting New Mexico into first place. So a lot of qualities that the Hunts on paper really like and sort of fits their paradigm as you and I and Dan have talked about a million times. Peter, a guy looking for his first MLS gig, right. So the price probably, I'm going to assume is not too high. A guy that's willing to take a circumstance like this team is to get the opportunity, you know, a guy that has a connection to the team and the Hunts have a comfort level with. And we've seen how they went out and got Oscar Freja and paid to get him out of his contract, which thing that they've reportedly done again is to buy out Quill's contract so he could get him this time. So when they, when they like a guy and feel comfortable with a guy, they'll go after him and go get him. And so this guy ticks all the Hunt boxes for a head coach. And so here we are. [00:11:05] Speaker A: Dan, you got a opinion or observation about this hire? [00:11:09] Speaker C: No, I mean, I think when, when he left, we kind of all said, you know, he's, he's going to be a first team coach in mls, hopefully with Dallas. And yeah, I mean, it's been kind of weird seeing some of the, the feed, some of the reaction on social media, but the number of people like, oh, this is just cheaping out and this is such a hunt spend hunt higher, sell the team, Sell team. It's like, who do you realistically want that's, you know, gonna, gonna fit the mold for this organization in the direction they want to take it in. [00:11:48] Speaker A: So let's touch on that a little bit, which is, you know, the Hunts now have hired seven head coaches for this club since they took it over in the early aughts. And this is the fourth straight after Oscar, that is somebody else put it this way on Twitter, which is a managerial project. Somebody that has no mls, you know, top tier management experience and some are slightly different than others. But I, it dawned on me when I went back and thought about this list of people they hired in that that's an interesting, if you think about it this way for the, for the Hunts, is that not a reflection of how they see this club themselves? That this is the type of person or personality or whatever bracket that you want to call that they seem to limit themselves to for this job. [00:12:50] Speaker B: Well, they believe in developing coaches as much as they do developing players. And they talk about that. They talk about the academy to North Texas for coaching, you know, and they use North Texas to develop. Look at how John Gall is now in the first team staff coming from the academy of North Texas. Look at what Michelle's done. You know, a little bit of academy, a little bit North Texas, you know, this is what they do. They operate this franchise like a small market owner does in other major sports where, you know, your small teams with small revenues don't go out and buy and hire 20 million dollar coaches. They get these guys who are looking for their first shot that are somebody else's coordinator, you know, or considered like a small college team, you know, who's to say whether that's the right way to go about it. But it is their team. So like what can you do? Like this is what they do, you know, like we would all have. I would not have loved it, but a lot of people would have loved, say, well, why don't you go after Bruce Arena? You know, that's just not the way the Hunts do business. [00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I feel like, I think it's fair for me personally to feel like I'm of two different minds about this. I wish the Hunts were more ambitious, but at the same time, knowing those limitations, I'm delighted that it's Eric Quill because he was absolutely the best option for the, you know, for the limitations that the Hunts put on this club and themselves for the hire. I mean, he clearly was the best option of anybody they were going to hire. Not somebody I would hire, if that makes sense. [00:14:14] Speaker B: Right. Like the minute Jim Curtin came available, we all said, boy, it'd be great if they would kick the tires on that. And we all, and you in particular immediately knew the chances of that happening were either zero or very, very, very small. Just because it's the kind of coach is going to demand a higher sort of platform and profile and control. That's not what this job is. So like, you know, do. Do certain people wish the Hunts don't own the team and wish that there was an owner like, like the mythical Mark Cuban with super deep pockets who could just go get out Pep Guardiola to come coach this team and like, yeah, I mean, I'm sure that would be fun, but we have to live we on. I particular try to live and cover this team in a sense of the way it really is and of the candidates Are that are available, you know, that we would know would be interested in this team. Aquila is an absolutely outstanding one. I mean he was in the mix as we said last time and then when he wasn't the guy he went out and improved his resume and make himself look even better. And this time he is the guy. So you know, I think there's a. There's a. I think people are going to like his style which we'll get into in a minute. But I agree with you, Peter. It's like do you dream of a greater ambition? Of course you do. Given the context, this is a great hire along the lines of Oscar and in the past that of guys that they knew and I put him up there too with, with Colin Clark also is. I think he's got a chance to be who he played for and has talked about how much he admired Clark's management style. Quill has. So I think you're going to. People are going to like who this guy is and what he's going to bring to the table so. [00:15:48] Speaker A: Because I'm guessing not a lot of people listening to the podcast paid attention to North Texas back when Quill is running the team until probably very late when they suddenly were winning a trophy. [00:15:59] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:16:00] Speaker A: What is his style? Is he a hard ass? Is he a players coach? Is. I guess there's kind of two part parts of it which like what is his personality and what is tactically his style? [00:16:10] Speaker B: Well, let's talk about personality first. He is a. He is demanding. You know, Quill having been able to play at an exceptionally high level, relatively speaking. You know, he was a professional in mls. He got, when he was a teenager he got offered a spot at ix. That's how good he was. And you know, being the early 90s and no one in the US really knowing much about it, his parents nipped that you're going out, you're not going to Amsterdam as a teenager in the bud pretty quick and he wound up going to Clemson and he was signed by MLS as a Project 40 player which is the pre runner for generation Adidas. So like it. After his freshman year at 18, basically he was signed and allocated which is an immense pressure in mls. He was, he was recruited. He's a spectacular athlete. He was a three sport recruited athlete for college and chose soccer over basketball and football and which tells you how good of an athlete he is. His game was built on a great deal of speed and pace. In fact he and I have joked about the fact that like he was so quick that An MLS medical staff were so poor back then, he basically ran himself into a whole bunch of injuries because it was all just sort of eye tests. They didn't really have things like load management and effort Trackers and these GPSers and all this data that they do now where they load manage everybody. So he's a combination of a believer in real soccer talent, but also what I would call the American athleticism. A big believer in pace, a big believer in some directness when necessary and getting over the top and getting at people aggressively. So he coaches very aggressively. He coaches for speed, he coaches for athleticism, but also with soccer and if you remember North Texas at all, you guys remember that he brought Pepe through, but he also brought through David Rodriguez who was a player that's been kicking around in the, in the Mexican League and some of the second tier leagues here is a bit of a slower guy, but compared to some of the speed burners, but was really great on the ball and talent. I could pull the strings and played him as a 10, yet a 15 year old left back jogo and an 18 year old right back in Kevin Bonilla. So you know, he, he will play young kids but he, and when he believes in talent and he believes in rangy, you know, fast moving, high twitch athletes. So you'll see a combination, I think of similar some, some ways I think to Oscar where Oscar had a combination of ball handling dribbles, dribblers like Diaz, Mario Diaz and then flying guys like Brian Reynolds. You know, you'll see a combination of those kinds of things. As for tactics at North Texas, he mostly played versions of 4, 3, 3, but primarily 4, 2, 3, 1. Now again, when he was at North Texas, that was the way Lucci was playing too. And the club was playing a lot that way, up and down the whole thing. But he's continued to play that way. That's the way New Mexico also played. It's double pivot, 4, 2, 3, 1. So I'm anticipating you'll see that kind of team with, you know, the, with the ability to collectively defend but then get forward in a hurry. When they get the ball, they don't mess around and ticky tack it too much. They want to be pretty dynamic getting up and getting forward. [00:19:29] Speaker A: That all is depending on whatever players he's given to. [00:19:33] Speaker B: Well, yes, of course that is the thing that he's going to have to deal with because this roster as we've talked about is pretty close to complete now. They have ways to do things and to change it up There are guys out of contract they can trade. Some guys, they can do whatever. This, that, and the other. So there are ways that he'll change it. But if you sit down and look at it, you can see that it's like 90% done with a couple of spots available to make a couple of changes. So he's mostly going to get a team, you know, not. Maybe not locked in, but a roster pretty much built. And so he'll. He'll have to deal the cards he's dealt, play with the cards he's dealt right now, but I would imagine over, you know, the rest of this window, which doesn't even open till January and then most of next season, he'll begin to, you know, influence the team in the sense of, like, telling them, okay, these are guys you can move on, whether it's a trade or just, you know, move them out of the picture so I can clear some space and do some other things. You can loan them down to North Texas or loan them out, and that clears some deck, and then we'll get in some guys I like, and he'll begin to influence the committee of which he'll be a part that determines who comes in here. And so it may take him a season or two, as it does with all coaches, to build the team into the team that looks like he wants to play. You know, most of the guys here are getting three years, really, before they get canned, but then again, they think this is a playoff roster. So he'll have to perform pretty quickly in terms of making this a winner out of this team. And there are some components here that you can win with, you know, that you can get yourself into the playoffs with. I think. I mean, we all know that if Luxon would have had that whole. That team for the whole season, you know, he would have gotten enough points to get in. You know, it was the first half of the season that was catastrophic. And I'm sure Quill will be able to do that. I imagine Quill will be able to do that, too. [00:21:15] Speaker A: You mentioned it a little earlier in this, and I saw that the club social media account tried to tell this story, although they didn't tell the entire story. But it's one of my favorite stories about Eric Quill. And I thought. And I know we've told it on the podcast before, but I'm guessing there are people listening today that may not have listened back then or listened before. And so I think it's worth telling this story about how Eric ended up managing for this club in the first place. [00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah, he, he was down as I mentioned, he would won a national championship at Houston Texans predominantly on the backs of Chris Richards and Chris Cappas. Although he also had a kid who plays at St. Louis now, Grady Easton, who was a center back for North Texas as well here. You guys may remember a year or two ago he came up here after Quill came up here. He came sort of with him and joined the academy and then moved to North Texas. But so Quill's coaching. Was there a question here by that? [00:22:07] Speaker A: No, I was just going to say for people who haven't picked up Chris Richards is the kid that's from the Dallas Academy that Buzz will tell the story but is currently playing for Crystal palace in the Premier League. For anybody? [00:22:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [00:22:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So the, the funny thing about Chris Richards is that he tried out from, he's from Alabama, he tried out for Lucci and Lucci didn't take him at the Deficit House Academy. And so he wanted to. Was trying to find a high level team to land on and somehow or another he got in touch with Quill and Quill let him come in on a couple of day tryout and Quill told the story down in Houston with Houston Texans and Quills. When I interviewed him when he took the North Texas job, he told this story that Richards came in and within like the first session of playing him, after the session Quill said you're. You play basketball, don't you? And he said yeah. He said you're a point guard, aren't you? And he said yeah. And Quill said I recognize the way you look for passes. And he said that Richards in particular disguised his passing really well and didn't make it obvious which direction he was going with his passing like a point guard would do. So he said he signed him right up right away to play. And then he also developed Chris Capis, who's a, I'm a huge fan of and has been playing in sort of the Norwegian leagues for a couple of years now. He's the one that the Houston Dynamo blocked Desi Dallas from signing because he was actually from Houston. That was a whole big, you know, territory rule situation which has been. The rules have been changed now probably partially because of the, that Chris. [00:23:35] Speaker A: The Capis rule. [00:23:36] Speaker B: Right, exactly. So he, he was playing, they had those two guys mainly as the pinnacles of his team and he got to the Final Four and I think he was playing against FC Dallas. Even if not, it was on, you know, right before them or something. And before the game he went to Lucci. And he said to Lucci, I have two players that you guys need to take. I. They've gone as far as they can go with me here at this team. They need a bigger team. They need pro environment. And so you should watch them when we play you or play next to you or whatever it was. And Lucci was like, okay. And so Quill then proceeded to win the national championship over two games out there, I think it was in California. And Lucci was like, you're absolutely right. And so within. Within the month, they were both in the FC Dallas Academy and training with the first team all the time. And that's when I first saw cabins and Richards with the first team. And after that one season with the FC Dallas Academy, they tried. They of course right away signed Richards and then tried to sign Cappas and were blocked. So Richards then went to on, because it was in the middle of the season that they signed him. They couldn't add him to the roster, so they. They sent him to Bayern Munich on a. On a loan for like four months. And then Byron bought him at the end of that thing. So he never actually played for FC Dallas. Richards didn't, but he was under contract. And then Cabbage went to. I can't remember who he went to. Somewhere in, maybe in Norway, I think, or Sweden. I remember where he went. And he's been kicking around those kind of leagues for a bit. So then when, when Lucci was hired for the first team gig, Eric called him to say, hey, congratulations, night job. And Lucci said, forget that, come coach North Texas. And he was like, oh, okay. So he. That's when Eric joined FC Dallas and of course, you know, had Richards a little bit, you know, in the North Texas team, had, you know, Cappas a little bit probably, I think, playing up as an amateur. And you know the stories, we all know that from there on with the development of Ricardo Pepe and as I mentioned, David. David Rodriguez and Jogo and all those guys coming through the North Texas and Tanner Testman and Brian Reynolds and. And even guys like Nicosia Tafari going down and playing for Eric when he was at North Texas. [00:25:48] Speaker A: Yeah, and I don't know, I mean, I'm assuming they still have their main house because his wife Susan is the coach at Episcopal School of Dallas, the women's team, the girls team. So I assume that, you know, he's got a home to come to in. [00:26:02] Speaker B: This area, you know, that she is a former US national team player and was like a teenager that went to a world cup and was like the first ever NWSL draft pick, I think, or something like that. And had a. Her career was derailed a little bit by injuries too. But I would keep an eye on some of their kids that might turn out to be. Because those are two spectacular athletes with some kids that play some footy. [00:26:27] Speaker C: Yeah. I didn't realize that the season had stayed in the area with esd because I was going to text Chris, Petra, Sally yesterday and say, hey, so Susan Bush Quill, great player, I'm sure you're aware. Quality coach, maybe make a good assistant. [00:26:47] Speaker A: I think she's also coaching on the side like a semi pro women's team. [00:26:53] Speaker C: She was coaching South Star. Yes, that FC and wpsl. [00:26:58] Speaker A: Yeah, that one. So. All right, well, cool. Well, Buzzy, you have. I guess that's all anybody listening to this podcast is coming here for. Buzz. Are you happy with this hire? [00:27:10] Speaker B: Yeah, this is a very good hire for me. This is, this is along the lines, as I said, of Oscar Pereja and Colin Clark in my estimation. I really admire Quill as a coach. I didn't really get in too super deep into his personality. He is, he can be incredibly demanding of players. He will a little bit like Shellace Hyman. He will tell you flat out if you stink. But he also is putting his arm around guys and building them up. He's a great combination of a guy that really cares about players and really wants to develop them as people and not just players, but at the same time can be really demanding and be like, listen, this is the pro game. This is not a kids game anymore. This is not academy. You know, we know he can develop guys because we've seen some of the very best golden generation of this club's academy come through under his coaching at North Texas, you know, so we know he has that game and we know that he can be very stern and very demanding and yank a guy out of a game in a hurry or be very critical of. Like this game requires athleticism. You have to be able to move. If you can't move, you cannot play at this level, you know. And so it'll be, it'll be interesting. I think, I think he'll shake things up over a season or two here. [00:28:31] Speaker A: Is there anybody on the team that you think will thrive under Eric Quill that maybe isn't currently or will go to another level? [00:28:41] Speaker B: It's hard to say. I, I think there are guys that you can. That I, that I could say, like that's a guy that he would probably like, like I think Nicosia Tafari will actually be a guy that he'll like because of how rangy and physical he is, you know, and how kind of when. When Nicosi has that attitude. I think Quill likes, like that a center back that doesn't hardly play at all so far, like a Carl Sante. I think as rangy as he is as a center back, I think who would like that? But then the way I'm sometimes critical of his touch in midfield, I think that's a thing Crip Quill would also be down on. I think Quill will like Tar Scott, like his verticality up top. I think he'll. That'll go a long way in his book. So, you know, it's really hard to say for sure until he gets his hands on him. But a lot of it is about mentality, too. So that's. That's a thing that Nico liked. You know, he liked those warriors. You know, we talked about that a bunch early on. I think Quill likes that tough mentality, too. So some of the guys that are here that have that mentality, well, that will cross over, too. I think most of the guys that I think like Quill wouldn't like that guy. I think most of those guys were just moved out recently, you know, in the cuts they made at the end of the season. [00:29:54] Speaker A: So I was about to ask you if there's anybody in danger because Quill's coming to town. [00:29:59] Speaker B: Yeah, that's super hard to predict, but I think, like, you know, guys that don't. Don't really move and cover ground, guys that are poor decision makers, guys that let the ball bounce away too much, you know? So, like, I don't mean to be too, so harsh on Omar Gonzalez, but Omar Gonzalez wasn't super mobile at these days. I think that probably would not have been something Quill would have loved so much. You know, I certainly don't mean to speak for him by any means. Obviously. I just, you know, in my experience of watching him coach and seeing the guys kind of guys he likes and doesn't like now, you don't. You don't have to be super fast, but you have to be mentally quick and active and responsive. You know, you can't just be passive. He doesn't seem to go for that kind of thing. Like, if you watch New Mexico play, like, if anybody tuned in to watch them play in their playoff run, you know, they go when they get it. They don't mess around. You know, they're pretty direct, and there's probably Going to be. Some people are probably going to say he's very American. And I don't think that's a terrible thing because, you know, one of the things that we're decent at is pairing that athleticism in our best national teams. For example, when we have that combination of the athleticism and the soccer ability. [00:31:05] Speaker A: Well, very good. He. It's all over. Everybody can stop watching the pot to boil. It is boiled over. The coach has been hired. It will be here on December 5th, officially. I don't know what else to anticipate between now and then. I know there's a bunch of like deadline dates for roster stuff between now and then, I would assume. [00:31:24] Speaker B: Yeah, there's like a one day trade window coming up and then some, some kind of, you know, some clearing waivers, kinds of drafts and stuff. I don't remember exactly when they are. I would imagine that they'll be having zoom calls and he'll be involved in all that stuff even if he's not here. And obviously when they have their committee approach, you know, it wouldn't 100 be his call anyway? It'll be Zanada, it'll be Dan Hunt, it'll be Hayden, it'll be Eric. You know, it would be their new td, it'll be their scouting department. All those people will be involved in those choices, not just Eric at this point. [00:31:56] Speaker A: Dan, you got any other things you want to add to this discussion? [00:32:01] Speaker C: No, I think the interesting thing's going to be his technical stuff. We obviously know John Goal took the step up. Michel just won the MLS next pro championship and he was Quill's assistant. They were very close when, when Eric Quill was here. [00:32:22] Speaker B: So. [00:32:22] Speaker C: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see kind of how that hierarchy develops, whether it is a case of, you know, Michelle stays with North Texas and defends that title or if, if Krill wants him on the bench for him again. [00:32:34] Speaker A: Hmm. Yeah, that will be interesting. Man does think Michelle ends up being an assistant coach for the senior team. That'll be quite a journey for that guy. [00:32:44] Speaker C: Well, and then if, if he does, is it. He and Goal are both assistants. What, What? You know, what's the variable? [00:32:52] Speaker A: Interesting. That's a good point. I hadn't thought about that. All right, well, I guess, I guess it's good. I guess everybody could be excited. I, I don't, it's a. I don't know how. I. My reaction to this is very weird. I mean, I'm happy that it's Eric Quill and I don't know. [00:33:11] Speaker C: I Honestly, can't think of anyone better for the job. Like, I. Yeah, I think I know a lot of people kind of fawned over Jim Curtin same way they are over Tata Martino. Well, we knew Curtain had got out of a situation. He didn't want to get back into the same situation that he wants to take that step up and be at a spending club. And Tata Martino is not a guy to develop a young roster like, you know, Dan Hunt says they want to kind of go back to doing. [00:33:41] Speaker B: You remember. You guys remember when Lucci was hired, we were like, hey, we love Lucci, but, man, that was a little early, right? And then Nico Steve has got hired, and we're like, well, okay, interesting resume. Comes from the national team, but is that the right guy for this club? So, like, the last few hires, we've been kind of like this one. I'm like, yep, nailed it. [00:34:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And I keep. And I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but this club is going to be dealing with a pretty significant issue with the stadium for three seasons. So it's not like the list of people looking to come take this job probably was extensive in terms of people with, like, you know, big names or giant resumes. [00:34:22] Speaker B: I'd be fascinated to learn who the third person was, because obviously who was the third person one and Quill's the other, and we have no idea who the third one was. Yeah, maybe we can find out someday. That'd be cool to know because it. I think you're right, Peter. Like, when people were like, oh, call Bruce Serena. I was like, bruce, Serena's not taking their call. It's like. And we even talked about, like, hey, kick the tires on Jim Curt. Would Jim Curtin actually have interviewed or would have been like, you know what? That's exactly. As Dan just said, that's exactly what I just got out of. No, thanks. You know what I mean? Like, Tatum, Martinez, no way that guy's going to look at the FC Dallas job as the springboard he wants. He'll go back, coach a team in Mexico or he'll get the. Go back to Atlanta, for all we know, or St. Louis or something. So it's like, it's, you know, it's. It's. There are guys that we admire that we would love to see come coach here. And just in the context of, again, dealing with the reality of this franchise and the owners and the way it functions, which is their right to function, the team, like they want to do, you know, and listen, we're the first to complain and call them out. You know, at the same time. We have to live in the world that. That they're. That they're coaching, that they're. They're setting up and hiring for coaches. And this is for giving all those parameters. And even without those parameters, I think this is a fantastic hire. [00:35:30] Speaker A: All right, well, we can stop worrying and guessing and speculating. It is done. Eric Quill, officially the ninth manager in this club's history, and the Hunts seventh higher for that position. Since we last talked, the other thing has also happened, which was the announcement of the USL championship side that will be launching in Garland. That press conference happened last year. That happened since we've. [00:35:57] Speaker B: Monday. Yeah, that happened on Monday. [00:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah, on Monday. Buzz, did you actually go to the event? [00:36:03] Speaker B: Yeah, Dan and I both did. [00:36:04] Speaker A: Sorry. [00:36:05] Speaker B: Funny enough, there were not a lot of media there, but it was like a who's who of Dallas area soccer people. I mean, there was a bunch of people from lots of clubs. Not FC Dallas, but like other clubs in town and from the Dallas cup and from youth. Look, like I saw a guy in a sting jacket. I saw. Apparently Hasan was there. I didn't see him, but apparently he was there or was going to be there. You know, it's like it was. [00:36:28] Speaker A: So what you're telling me is they've done this completely the opposite from the Hunts? [00:36:32] Speaker B: Yeah, actually, I. I had a conversation with the owner about the youth thing, and they were like, they're well aware of how Dallas did it and how scorched earth that is, and they don't want to make those mistakes. But he also gave a lot of credit to FC Dallas being like the pioneers of soccer in the market, and that if it weren't for them, all these other teams wouldn't be around, including them. So, you know, they're well aware of the hierarchy and the way things are working. But it's a pretty cool deal that the owner is the shortest answer of questions I've ever met. Like, in terms of an owner, like, if you ask an owner of Dan Hunt or Clark Hunt a question, they'll give you two or three minutes with lots of verb. Verbiage and explanations and all this kind of thing. You ask this guy a question, he just tells you the answer in, like, five words, and that's it. It's like, it's the shortest interview I've ever done. [00:37:21] Speaker A: And this is the Valentine guy? [00:37:22] Speaker B: This is the Valentine guy? Yeah. Like I said, you know, you're going to have a stadium. He was like, yes, we're working with the city. Is he gonna be ready for 2027? Yep, it'll be ready. And that was it. I was like, great, okay, so we've. [00:37:35] Speaker A: All, we, I mean, I, I don't, I think we've talked about this. We're aware that there is a stadium project and, and I think we've been kind of clued in on kind of ideas of where it's going to be. But they didn't give any of those specifics in the press conference. [00:37:48] Speaker B: No. Well, you and I have been talking about and hearing about something in Garland for about a year and it's changed several times the kind of chatter we're hearing. But they were very clear that there's something going. The city said they've been working on this since 2021. And the, and the Valentine, who's the owner of the team said he got involved in 2023. Basically he tried to buy the Vegas USL team and move it here. And USL said, no, no, no, we'll just, we're talking to Garland. Let's see what we can do there. So they, you know, they, they've been on this for a while and they've got two years before they're going to play. And part of that delay is because there's no interim thing happening. It's the, you know, that's the time they need to get the stadium going. So they did not announce any details of where it is or even like how the project will look. They said, you know, they're still dotting all the T's and crossing the eyes and all that kind of stuff before it's 100% announceable. But that's definitely what we're hearing. [00:38:44] Speaker C: I think one thing I liked was talking to a couple of them. USL went to them and said, hey, start 2026. And they're like, no, 27, we need the time we want. We don't want to rush this. You don't want it to be half assed. It's got to be right. [00:38:59] Speaker B: They already have more employees than Dallas Trinity for example, and they got two years to go. Man. [00:39:04] Speaker A: 27'S a long way off though. [00:39:07] Speaker B: Yeah, it's two seasons, you know, which is about right. He said they'll hire a coach. [00:39:14] Speaker A: Toyota stadium will be 2/3 done by then. [00:39:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, that's the thing is like this project has to go from zero, like a field of dirt to a completed project. And that's, you know, they don't have a workaround where they can, they can, you know, open part of it and close part of it. They got to build the whole thing which is about what Toyota Stadium took in the first place. So you know they're talking about a coach hire coming at the end of 25 or early 26. So you know, a year out basically from when they'll play and they're going to have a brand announcement later this year I think he said so May. May. There you go, May. And so like they're putting all their ducks in a proper row. It seems to be a well run organization from so far. You know, it feels very solid and very smartly done without any unrealistic views about time frame. So we'll see how it goes. You know they are jumping right into pretty much the backyard of FC Dallas. But as he said, there's 8 million people in this, in this metro area, so there's plenty of fans. [00:40:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we were talking about this. Steve Davis did the show last weekend the kick around to talk about his charity project and, and we were talking about this with Andy and just the idea that the same thing we talked about on the podcast last week, which is just the number of teams that are in the area and whether or not this market will support a Minor league soccer team in the numbers needed to sustain it. And I just don't know the answer to that as as much as I hate to say it, I don't either. [00:40:45] Speaker B: And it'll depend on their economics. And I think that's one reason why the stadium is so important. Like you know, we talk a lot about that revenue control. They're very aware of that. You know, they have to have the monetization. You know, nobody in this country on in soccer makes money off of tv. Even like the Apple TV deal which is much better than ever had before, doesn't prop up the league like other major massive leagues do with their crazy deals. It's all about the butts in the seats. Right? Which is why it's such a big deal that SC Dallas has bumped their tickets sold up like 5 or 6,000 over the last season that they have. You know, it's the butts in the seats, it's this merch, it's the food and beverages in the stadium. All that stuff is so huge for soccer in America. And that's true at that level. You know, the league requires, I think it's a 10,000 seat stadium. You know, they're going to have to get it to above 50% capacity on a pretty consistent basis I would think to be financially viable. We've seen a couple of MLS teams. We just talked about this, right? Memphis has given up their brand to their franchise, to a team in California because they couldn't get a viable stadium that had viable revenue streams for them. You know, it's just, it's such a massive piece and it's really obvious that these guys understand that, you know, the owner came from the oil business, so he's made, I understand, I'm told that he sold his company and he's got some money and this is what he wants to do with it. He wants to give back to the game. And he and the other owners, there's four of them technically, but there's two of them that are kind of the front runners. They all, they all played with or against each other in soccer here in the Metroplex. They all played in the Dallas cup, you know, and so they, they know this market and they know the grassroots soccer and hopefully they're going to have an understanding, I think, based on the conversations that with the, with how important the revenue is to get it right and to be a community relate, integrated team and the whole. Garland, the mayor and all those council was there and they all took all these pictures and they're obviously really fired up about it. So good luck to them. [00:42:40] Speaker A: I'm here officially stating that I hope that they make brown the main color of their colorway. [00:42:48] Speaker B: Brown. Okay. [00:42:49] Speaker A: I love brown. For some reason, Garland, I think that Garland owls the high school. I think brown is one of their color elements and for some reason it just, it makes me think of Garland and it's unusual color, not used well. And you can pair it with other ones and I think it would be. [00:43:08] Speaker B: Brown and powder blue is really good. [00:43:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that could be a cool color combo for them if they wanted to go with something different. But you know, they'll go with red and blue like everybody else does. [00:43:17] Speaker B: Like everybody else. [00:43:19] Speaker A: Although not to break into kit talk, did you guys see the kit announcement today for the new team they're launching up in Portland, Maine? [00:43:28] Speaker B: Oh, my God, it's so good. [00:43:29] Speaker A: Yeah. So if you haven't seen it, it's, it is hoops and it is navy blue with a nice forest green. [00:43:37] Speaker B: And L.L. bean sponsorship. It's L.L. [00:43:40] Speaker A: Bean sponsorship. [00:43:41] Speaker C: Main thing possible. [00:43:42] Speaker A: It is. And they're even going to offer a long sleeve version on the onset. And then the photo, they have a guy wearing it. It dawned on me because I don't think they're going to do this, but it would be so badass. He's wearing like lumberjack safety orange, like an L.L. [00:44:01] Speaker B: Bean catalog. [00:44:02] Speaker A: Like an L.L. bean catalog. And economy. How kick ass Wood or whatever. How badass would it be if they wore orange shorts with those shirts? [00:44:10] Speaker B: That would be cool. [00:44:10] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be awesome. [00:44:12] Speaker B: You certainly don't want to wear dark blue or dark green with that shirt. You want to wear something that pops, whether it be the orange or white. Like we always want to say. Like if you have a dark, dark top, like FC Dallas always does, you want to put white shorts with it to pop it off. And they never do. [00:44:24] Speaker A: No. [00:44:25] Speaker B: And it always looks muddy. [00:44:26] Speaker A: It's a sweet shirt. [00:44:28] Speaker B: It's really good. Yeah. [00:44:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Very, very good. All right. So that happened and. So nothing. I guess there's. This is one of those deals where now we all know about it. Now we're all just gonna have to sit around on our thumbs until it actually happens. [00:44:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Till May. Yeah. Yeah. [00:44:45] Speaker A: Right. [00:44:46] Speaker B: Well, the other thing that'll be fun is the Texoma guys were there and they're. They're starting play at beginning of this year, this next. I guess it'll definitely be March when the USL1 season kicks off. [00:44:57] Speaker A: That's a hall. [00:44:58] Speaker B: And they were. It is a hall, but they were. You know, I asked them about how they felt about it. They're really excited because they play at a different level. So they're really hoping for some synergy between the two clubs, you know, since they're not direct competition in terms of, like Sherman being up there, know, sort of in its own little area anyway. Although we. I consider it part of DFW in a lot of ways, but it is pretty far up there. But since they play in different levels, they. They can actually have some sort of partnerships there and get some things going. So have they. That'll be pretty cool. [00:45:28] Speaker A: Have they established what league the McKenna team's going to play in? Or do we just assume it's npsl? [00:45:34] Speaker B: Well, it's. It's going to be at that level, that NPSL level. The question is which league it'll be in. Like, one of Hitch's teams in California is in this league for clubs thing, this new thing. NPSL's got a lot of struggles right now. The other two teams here in town are NPSL, but then Tulsa, which is, you know, relatively close, is in this league for clubs. A lot of things that really matter at that level are what your closest teams are all going to be because travel costs are massively important at that. At that tier. So I would. Without knowing officially, I would bet that McKenna, Denton and Fort Worth will all decide Together where they're going to go. And it'll be based on like what will be the best for them in terms of actually having good teams to play against without being prohibitively expensive, like having to go to Mississippi to play versus having being able to go to, you know, Waco or Tulsa or whatever, you know. So that's what's going to decide in the end. And for specific example, Hitch's team in California is in Northern California and this new league that they're in has like 12 teams in like a two hour radius in Northern California. So it just makes complete sense and that'll be the determining factor. [00:46:44] Speaker A: All right. And then Trinity played last night down at the Cotton Ball, I think. Dan, did you go to that game? [00:46:51] Speaker C: I froze to death at that game. It was, it was a long night. Yeah, it was a pretty, pretty nothing game. There's like two shots on goal to one against Spokane. Yeah, that's no good. No, it was, it was pretty rough. Started off really high energy for the very start, a lot of high pressing and then I don't know if it was just the weather, but that game slowed down, just ground down to nothing. But spoke to coach after the game and she thought that Spokane was by far and away the better team and was really disappointed. But yeah, and they've got a short week so they, you know, they get to kind of write a few rungs at least I was by the way. [00:47:36] Speaker B: Let me jump in, Peter. I can tell Dan is English because they don't play for England. It's Spokane. It's not Spokane. [00:47:43] Speaker C: Same. [00:47:45] Speaker B: It's not Harry Kane's sister. [00:47:52] Speaker A: My perception was, is that Dallas was about to tie themselves to death and I was looking at the standings and sure enough they've drawn more games than they've won or lost, but they've actually there's other teams in the league that have drawn more games than they have. [00:48:09] Speaker C: Well, the first two weeks there was only one team that won a game. [00:48:14] Speaker A: Really? [00:48:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:16] Speaker A: Wow. [00:48:16] Speaker B: They have two games in hand on half the league too, which helps, you know. [00:48:19] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I mean third place, you know, a few games before the mid season break, six unbeaten. Yeah. They've also crucially they've had that massive long list of injuries and now they've just got three long term injuries out. They've got the players back from the U17 Women World Cup. You got a bunch of injured players returning. Yeah, things are, things are looking up. [00:48:44] Speaker B: My favorite two things from that game was that Dallas Trinity had a band, not like a rock Band, but like a high school band or something. I don't know where they got them, which was fun. [00:48:52] Speaker A: You know, I heard this now, Dan, did you. You got to witness this because this is going to be. Was that a good experience? [00:49:00] Speaker C: Okay, so let me, let me give you the full picture. So I eye rolled, I slapped my head, I groaned audibly. I believe instruments do not belong in a soccer stadium. It's all about the voices. And I was like, oh, great. This is going to be like the, you know, the Blue man group at FC Dallas or the old drum line where it's like play over the people that actually want to build an atmosphere. But, you know, very quickly, there were some people from, from the Dallas Beer Guardians at the game and they all coordinated really quickly and it was an awesome atmosphere. [00:49:39] Speaker A: You know, this is, I'm. I'm fascinated to hear this because I have quietly wondered for years if, if Dallas should ever consider inviting either on a regular or an occasional basis of one of the local high school bands to come play during Dallas games. [00:49:59] Speaker C: I wouldn't say during games. I would, you know, as an entertainment piece, before half time, after 100%, they had the drum line, the, the Mavs drum line for a long time. And it just suppressed everything. It was, I'm just, it just makes. [00:50:15] Speaker A: Me wonder if you could organize it to let them be kind of a leader and you know, during the game in terms of singing and everything like that. Because I always enjoyed the trombone stuff that was going on for a while in, in the, in the Beer garden, those two guys that used to play the trombone during the game. I always thought that was great. And it just made me wonder if a band, a high school band, because we've got so many great high school bands. [00:50:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:41] Speaker A: In the Dallas Fort Worth area, if that wouldn't be a unique kind of special thing that they could do here. [00:50:46] Speaker C: So the only problem you have there is like Jeff and Charlie, the guys with trombones. Jeff moved to South Carolina, I think it is. Charlie's still there. You know, they're long term fans. Like they, they knew every beat of everything. So bringing someone in from the outside, it's kind of like you, you know, you have to get on the same page very quickly. It's an atmosphere where you can't communicate, you can't hear what the other person's, you know, planning to do. I mean, you know, supporters groups I'm sure would try and make it work. It's just there's a lot more challenges to that than just turn up and it happens. [00:51:26] Speaker A: Well, while we were talking about this, I added it up and sure enough, there have been more draws across the eight teams in the USL Super League than there have been wins. [00:51:38] Speaker B: I would contend that team. Team defense is easier to bring together than team offense. And this is the early stages of a whole bunch of new teams. And so that's why it's that way. [00:51:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Interesting. [00:51:49] Speaker C: Peter, one thing you'll probably the thing you'd enjoy most from the game, the mascot, the Pregasys Boots. Twerks. [00:51:58] Speaker A: The furry what? [00:52:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:01] Speaker B: Did you say it? Twerks. [00:52:02] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. They were having a good old time in the stand. [00:52:07] Speaker A: Oh no. [00:52:08] Speaker B: So I have two more takeaways from that game. The second one is the. That the Dallas Trinity tried to give away pint glasses that are pretty cool looking but that the Cotton bowl quick quickly nipped that in the bud. So only a couple of them got handed out? [00:52:22] Speaker C: No, no, they all got handed out. They had. They were gonna give them on the way in. Park said, no, you can't do that. You can't just let people walk around with glass. So they had to do like a ticketing system and get them on the way out instead. [00:52:34] Speaker B: That's what I was gonna say was I assumed happened because I saw people had some. But it just made. It was funny that they sort of cotton ball had to put their thing down and say, no, no, you can't have a thousand people throwing glasses around inside the stands. Which is totally fair. You can't do that. And then the last thing is that the name the Trinity is catching on. I'm hearing everyone referring to as the Trinity or the Trinity fc. It seems to be becoming a well used, not really a nickname, but a phraseology for this club which is kind of interesting and different. [00:53:05] Speaker A: Yes, well, we Americans love to put the. Or the in front of everything. But that actually is grammatically correct the way Trinity is used in this case. Yeah. [00:53:15] Speaker B: So even the broadcast is called the Trinity, which was, I thought was cool. [00:53:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I like that. By the way, I also noticed this in looking at the standings in the USL Super League, there is exactly one team out of the eight with a winning record. That is Brooklyn, which was the best team I've seen so far at 7, 2 and 3. Carolina in second is 5, 6 and 1. Dallas in third at 4, 5 and 1. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that says, but. [00:53:44] Speaker B: Well, Tampa's at 500, they're 4, 4 and 3. Yeah. [00:53:50] Speaker C: Something really funny. So Dallas was the the highest scoring team for. For a long time. It's now Lexington who are dead last. [00:54:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:00] Speaker A: Oh my gosh, you're right. [00:54:01] Speaker B: Seven goals against. [00:54:03] Speaker A: That's crazy. How do you. You're the highest scoring team in the league and you've got the worst goal differential at minus 10. [00:54:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it's because you let in 27 goals. Oh boy, talk about track meet every time. [00:54:16] Speaker A: A new immature league, a startup league. [00:54:19] Speaker B: That's. [00:54:20] Speaker C: It's really fun so far. [00:54:22] Speaker A: Well, the game lasts for that game. [00:54:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:54:27] Speaker C: So I mean you know like you know the. When USL1 started. Other than North Texas crap. Who is it? South Georgia and Madison. Yeah, everyone was just dog and it was horrible to watch. [00:54:44] Speaker B: By the way, if you gave me the choice, I would move North Texas back to USL 1. 10 out of 10 times. [00:54:50] Speaker C: Oh, 100. [00:54:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:51] Speaker A: Well, very good. [00:54:52] Speaker C: That derby with Texoma would be fun. [00:54:54] Speaker B: Oh yeah, it would be. Yeah. It's just the teams in USL 1 are, have more variety and have more adults and those are things that would be great for development for fcdow. [00:55:05] Speaker A: Man, it would be awesome if you could get a third tier league that is just a Texas, the Texas Soccer league and every city, you know, gets to put a team in and they all, you know what I'm saying? That would be so much fun if they could pull that off. [00:55:19] Speaker B: Well, I think that with MLS next pro, I think that their hope is they can do that. They can get more independent teams and have these more like a regional kind of vibe like that. They don't right now. They're not getting enough of those regional teams. But that would be really good. The other thing, speaking of development, the other thing that would really be great around here is that if SC Dallas could actually have a positive relationship with this new team in Garland because they have a couple of players who are too good for North Texas soccer club and are not good enough for FC D yet. Not in large bulk of minutes. Yeah, like I'll use Antonio career as an example. Like if they resign Jimmy Ma and Jimmy Ma is still number two. It's like it's having Antonio sit around as the number three and not playing for North Texas because he's. He's already too good for that team. Would do. Would do nobody any good at all. And it would be so much. I mean that's, it'll be too late for him because it'll be two years from now. But you know, I really hope that they can make a positive relationship even though they Dallas might see them. FC Dallas might See them as competition. It would be such as an advantage if you have a team that close that you could work with them. It would be so good for both. [00:56:18] Speaker C: Teams in this country as well. It's just not a thing that you could have a player who could potentially train with the parent club briefly, take, you know, do a half session, whatever, go off to the lone club the same day, do a full training session and be available to play. You know, you think of. You think of, like, minor league baseball. It's like, yeah, we just flew a guy out halfway across the country. [00:56:39] Speaker B: Okay, well, there's a reason that the Rangers double A's in Frisco. They moved it there so that they could do that. It used to be in Oklahoma City, you know, they moved it even closer. [00:56:50] Speaker A: Well, big. It's a big week for Third Degree. All this stuff that's happened. [00:56:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:57] Speaker A: And Buzz. Buzz's Nostradamus, like, prediction came true. [00:57:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:03] Speaker A: Well, very good. Congratulations, Buzz. You got exactly what you wanted. [00:57:06] Speaker B: I did. I did. I think this is a good hire. Yeah, there have been some hires in the past that I have scratched my head at. Just like there's some signings that they've done from either the academy or from North Texas or even to the first team where I've scratched my head at. But this ain't one of those. This is one I think is quite good. And I'll, you know, if. If it turns out to not be good, I'll. I will admit that I was wrong, but I feel really good about this one. [00:57:31] Speaker A: All right, well, very good. Congratulations. Curious. You got yourself a manager. You guys can all stop worrying about it. But Dan, thank you very much, my friend. [00:57:42] Speaker C: Thank you, Buzz. [00:57:44] Speaker B: Oh, thanks for being here, both of y'all. I'm glad Dan was able to join us this week. [00:57:48] Speaker A: Yes, much better with Dan, for sure. And thank you, FC Dallas Curious fan. We will speak to you here again. Are we going to do one next week? [00:57:58] Speaker B: Oh, no, no. Yeah. In fact, we'll do the podcast after the Quill press conference. [00:58:05] Speaker A: Basically, we will speak to you in a couple of weeks on the next episode of 3rd Degree the Podcast. [00:58:11] Speaker C: New coach, new team, new era. [00:58:14] Speaker B: 3Rd Degree the 3rd Degree NE Podcast. [00:58:19] Speaker A: 3Rd Degree the 3rd degree NE Podcast. [00:58:23] Speaker B: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree NE Podcast. Third degree the 3rd degree N Podcast.