3rd Degree the Podcast #290

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree NE pocket 3rd degree the 3rd degree Ne pocket 3rd degree the 3rd Degree Nerve podcast. 3rd degree the 3rd Degree NE. [00:00:26] Speaker A: Hold on. Some bunch of stuff's falling over in my office. [00:00:30] Speaker B: Well, hello there, FC Dallas curious fan. Welcome to another off season episode of third degree, the podcast. This one is titled. Is it 290. Is that correct, Buzz? [00:00:41] Speaker A: Yeah, 290. [00:00:42] Speaker B: God, I thought it was more than that. Okay, to episode 290 of Third Degree, the podcast. Unfortunately, the good Dan Crook is not here. I'm not sure why. Are we telling people why Dan Crook's not here? [00:00:53] Speaker A: Well, he's ill. I mean, we can say that under the weather. Okay, hopefully he's better soon. [00:00:58] Speaker B: All right. He didn't choke on his beard or anything, did he? [00:01:01] Speaker A: God, I hope not. That's why he's worked himself too hard. [00:01:03] Speaker B: Ye probably. So, everybody, when you kneel down by the bed and have your prayers, leave one for good old Dan too. And there he is, Your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, the good Buzz Kerik. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:22] Speaker A: Thanks for coming back. After a week off, we could get the band back together, you know. [00:01:26] Speaker B: Did we miss anything? [00:01:28] Speaker A: No, no, because they were there. We're all waiting around for the Eric Quill press conference. And then this week after, now that they've had that press conference, this week is a bunch of league activities and team activities, and we probably will see some action, even though we're not gonna have a podcast next week or on next Thursday. But we will get to all of it eventually. [00:01:46] Speaker B: It's okay to go on vacation for two reasons. One, the two reasons, Buzz, one is you deserve to go on vacation and enjoy yourself. And two, that actually causes things to happen. [00:01:55] Speaker A: It does. It does make things happen. And then when I come back, we'll have plenty to talk about afterwards rather than a week of nothing. [00:02:01] Speaker B: Yes. So as you mentioned, we were sitting around waiting for the official Eric Quill press conference that happened today. No, I have not watched it. Because, Buzz, after almost 30 years of watching this team, I feel like I've watched the exact same press conference more times than I can count. I'm going to predict that Dan and Clark talked about saying the right things and fitting in with the club vibe and. And all of those. All the right things that you want to hear on the day that you present a brand new manager. Like they've done for the last seven times before this. [00:02:41] Speaker A: Well, I think it sounds to me like you've seen it, like you watched it. That's what it is. That's what it always is, you know, and it's. [00:02:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn't watch it because I knew exactly what was going to go down. And that's. I'm. I could almost repeat it word for word. [00:02:57] Speaker A: Yeah, well, they say the same things, you know, they say the, you know, this pool of outstanding candidates, you know, interest from all over the world, and then they. [00:03:08] Speaker B: How much they appreciate the previous manager. [00:03:10] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, Peter. They love for. Peter was everywhere. Peter Lu was everywhere. And fair enough. That's all real. You know, they. They say the new. The new words that are coming out since the end of the Nico Estevez era is this. This thing that, you know, that MLS is this unique league and different league and how there's all these crazy rules, all of which is basically kind of true. And that plays into why they really are interested in MLS experience on some level, whether it be as a player or an assistant or whatever. So, you know, they. Putting some qualifiers on there. All these great candidates they have and they seem really excited. They've got their guy and there was a lot of genuine happiness on display and smiles. And I would like you to, if you can, at some point, Peter, I would like you to watch it because there's some other than things are being said. I think you'd have some comments about the whole thing in general, but we'll talk about that later after you've actually seen it. [00:04:10] Speaker B: Are you talking about production value issues? [00:04:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, not even just that, but like general issues along those lines where it's just. [00:04:19] Speaker B: I never count on this club to be able to put any kind of production value into anything because they don't give them the tools to do it. Anyway, let me, Let me. [00:04:29] Speaker A: Let me just start off the whole thing. But at the end they did some photo. So a photo session where they dug out one of Quill's jerseys from when he played for the Burn. And nobody ironed the jersey. Yeah, it's been in a box since 2004. [00:04:44] Speaker B: It probably was unwashed too. It probably smelled like Eric Quill circa 2006 or whatever it was. [00:04:51] Speaker A: So it looks like it's been in a box since 2004. So it's. [00:04:54] Speaker B: Did Dan Hunt bother to shave and shower before this press conference? [00:04:59] Speaker A: Yes. He had on a lovely tie. The only one wearing a tie. And then one little collar of corner of his collar was caught on top of his jacket instead of being tucked and did sort of stuck out like A did. He's our lovable Dan Hunt. We love him. [00:05:12] Speaker B: Yeah, he's our big old teddy bear. Did Clark actually dare to show up? [00:05:16] Speaker A: Yeah, he did. He did. He was there. He did the opening, you know, because he's the man. So he had the opening statements and he said, you know, some stuff at the top about how excited they all were. And listen, I know, you're right. A lot of the platitudes are the same. [00:05:32] Speaker B: They're excited about Nico and Lucci and Oscar and all those people. [00:05:38] Speaker A: They're always excited. But some of the key what we do when we watch these things is we look for the keywords, because the keywords sort of give us some sense of direction and we take some of those keywords. [00:05:49] Speaker B: Culture. [00:05:50] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, no, not that one. Everybody always says that. Everyone always says culture. Everyone says culture. [00:05:55] Speaker B: Attacking football. [00:05:56] Speaker A: Yeah, attacking football. You know, but we can get into some of the details. [00:06:00] Speaker B: Solid in the back. [00:06:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Because team defensive cohesion, you know, people. You're going to watch the team play and you're going to know they went to war. You know, all that kind of things. [00:06:10] Speaker B: Exciting football. [00:06:12] Speaker A: No, nobody said that. At least people said, get forward fast. [00:06:15] Speaker B: Not even Dallas won't even bother to say exciting football. [00:06:18] Speaker A: Dumber the ball. I mean, you know, your. Your miles may vary on what's exciting, but, you know, the things that were in there that were interesting were. You remember when we walked out of the Nico Estevez press conference in hire, we were like, man, is that the right guy? Because he didn't say the things that align with the club philosophy. Whereas this time we got the paradigms that align with the club philosophy, which is this. You know, we're going to play some youth. We got. They're excited about North Texas team and a couple of guys coming through for that. So, like, the. [00:06:49] Speaker B: Wait a second. Hold on a second. Yeah, because I got to be honest with you, I don't know what the club philosophy is in 20, 24, 25. I honest don't know what it is anymore. [00:06:58] Speaker A: Well, it got derailed over the last couple of years, but, you know, it's. They want to get back to that era. You know, Dan Hunt talked a lot about how their tradition of producing national team players from the academy, and I mean, they're definitely all back in. They're saying, you know, and so do we have to wait till we have to see actions to follow up these words? Well, of course we do, but, you know, when we see these words, we can say, okay, that's a new. So now we're going to talk about the team going forward as if we. What they said, they said this is the direction we're just going to go. Okay, what does that mean? And so we'll start talking about how this will all come out in the wash as we go forward. If you want to talk specifically about Eric Quill, you know, again, like, he's saying all the things that are Coach speaky and you've heard them all before, and if we can talk about the things that are different this time, you know, he talked about how when he left, he specifically went to the crew to play for a coach who had won an MLS cup, who has coached in a different system that had different player profiles. He was trying to, he. Eric was trying to expand his resume and his horizons in terms of being a coach. And then he talked about going to New Mexico because he wanted to be in charge somewhere and sort of run a whole organization at a pro level, you know, and be not where he was the second team goes, was the first team coach. And so he talked about those development pathways and how when he left, he, you know, told them being Dan, presumably most predominantly that, like, I'm going to go get all these resume things because I'm going to come back here someday and work for you and how much he wanted to do that. And I'll go a step further. And Eric Quill told me years ago, like when he actually left, he very specifically told me, and I'm assuming that he told me because he wanted me to tell the story someday. He didn't just tell Dan Hunt that he was going to come back here someday. He specifically said to him, you're going to hire me and I'm going to win you your first MLS Cup. And he said that when he left, to Dan's face. So it's that kind of mentality that, like that he sat there in that press conference and he said, I'm not afraid to say that we're here to win championships and all those kinds of things. So that's slightly different and I really appreciate that. And he talked about how when he was at New Mexico, he was still watching like every SC Dallas game and scouting SC Dallas, and he's very, very familiar with this roster already because he's been watching every single game for three years now. So that's all kind of exciting as far as that goes. This is a guy that. Who didn't just want any job, he specifically wanted this job. Like you remember when the Nico Esteves press conference happened. He said he Talked to Bear Halter about the couple of jobs that they were open. He was sort of interested in any one of them. And they kind of decided that maybe that Dallas might be an okay one. Whereas Quill was after this job specifically since he played here and came up as a coach here. And as he put it, they've invested in me twice previously and now they're investing me in a third time. And that means a lot to him. And he generally had a smile on his face. And so that part of it was a little bit different than what we experienced before. That felt more like Oscar coming home, you know, vibe than we sort of got even from Lucci, because Lucci was already in the org and was just moving up. Right. So it was. It's this guy coming back who has the bloodlines and all that stuff was kind of nice. That was. That made me feel good about the whole thing. [00:10:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, that's good. I'm glad to hear that you're. You've got a good. I don't mean to use this word this way. Buzz about the situation. That makes me happy to hear. I. Like I said, every time they hire a new manager, everybody gets excited about that guy and. [00:10:36] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:10:36] Speaker B: And wants to be. I feel like changes are coming and. And we talked a lot about who we wanted to get this job. You were. You personally, Buzz not only predicted a long time ago, this is what who end would end up getting the gig, but even when there were other bigger names available, you stuck by and said, no, this is the guy that I think I would like to see get the job, deserves the job and would do the job the best. So I, you know, when it comes to this stuff about this club, there are very few people that I trust and their instinct on. And you're probably at the top. No, not probably. You're at the top of that pile. So I think that he is, again, considering all of the limitations that are placed upon this club by the people that own it, he is without question, by a mile, the best option for them to have hired. [00:11:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:11:32] Speaker B: And so I am pleased that they made that decision. But you and I both know that they could have hired Emma Hayes, Pep Guardiola, Bruce arena and. And built and made an army of the best football managers in the world and brought them here as a collective. They were not going to get anywhere until they figure out their roster problems. And Andre Zenata in particular learns how to do his job well. [00:11:59] Speaker A: You know, I don't want to double back down onto that whole flexibility, you know, Thing that we came up in the end of season press conference that we both, we all were just like, you got to be kidding me. But you know, it's going to take, it's going to take someone like Eric, we hope, or even the new TD that's technically underneath Zenata, but maybe more directly involved with playoff, not, not with style of play or way of play, or maybe more directly involved with getting out and scouting and finding players than Zenata. Zana seems to be moving more into just the deal making part. You know, it's going to take somebody coming up, I think with some focus. And you, and you hear Eric talk and he talks about very specifically, like the style that he wants and very specifically the mentality that he wants. Now lots of guys do that, but he's particularly focused. It seems like there's, there's guys that you run into in the coaching ranks who sometimes you kind of are like, I don't really know what you're talking about. And then you meet guys that you meet up with and you're talking to them, you're like, oh, yeah, yeah, no, that's, yeah, let's go. And you get, you just get excited talking to them and you sort of think, man, this guy really gets it and understands it. And I suppose for everybody, that's different. But I can think of times in the past where like when we came out of the NICO press conference, we were like, boy, is that the right fit? And then we came out of the Lucci press conference, we were like, man, is it too early? I can think back to when Colin Clark got fired. Still one of the dumbest decisions they've ever made. And they hired Steve Morrow. And one of the first times I was talking to Steve Murrow, he's like, oh, you know, we were kind of trusting the wrong players. And I'm thinking to myself, man alive, you just went wire to wire, first place as the main assistant coach on that team. What do you mean? You guys trusted the wrong players? What are you talking about? You know, that was a team that needed a tweak, not an overhaul. So sometimes you just find guys that, you just believe that they have it, you know, and this. And for me, like, even when Eric first came here with North Texas, when I first started having conversations with him on a coaching level, obviously I've known him since 2004, it's just all the time. And maybe that just means like, did he agree with me? I mean, maybe, maybe I'm being that kind of arrogant. But at the same time, like, you believe guys and you watch the way they interact with players and you watch how players react to them. And so I feel very, very good about this hire and very, very good about this guy as opposed to when. I haven't really felt like this since Oscar got hired, to be honest. Was the last time. [00:14:29] Speaker B: Well, that's good. And hopefully it all translates. Again, it all comes down to how well the front office handles their business this offseason in terms of adding, dropping, changing Corre, the course of this club through its roster. Because the roster, you know, Buzz, the roster is a mess. [00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:51] Speaker B: The mess of a roster that existed, you know, for all of last season, which was, you know, close to being one of the worst seasons this club's ever had, has not changed very much. You have brought up and documented how it's going to be difficult for them to change it dramatically. And there's a likelihood it couldn't. It could be very similar in February to what it is at the end of last season. So they gotta, they gotta work that stuff out. [00:15:17] Speaker A: Yeah. Specifically in regard to that. And again, they can say one thing, but doing it is another question. You know, Zenata again today mentioned multiple center backs, which is correct. They need a starter and they need a death piece, at least if not more than that. And then he, he talked about this week being the expansion draft and the one day trade window and he said some things will happen with that. And then he started to say they're already lined up. And I don't think he really realized he wanted to say that. And he kind of was like, wish you watched it on the end. But now I'm now expecting some things to happen, you know, with his Monday's the one day trade day. So, you know, it seems to be like, you know, if you're talking about bringing. And he again talked about outside, they are to bring in these players they've got lined up. Players, plural. So you. We also on this podcast talked about the idea that the people they said they're still talking to that were on the team fill up their roster. So if you're also talking about these other pieces, something has to give. Either you're not getting all those guys you said you're still talking to or you're going to be jettisoning some other pieces some way or else you can't make these moves you're saying you're going to be making. So again, you're right. We have. They have to produce, they have to get guys that can get it done. They're saying they're going to, you know, and if, and if they get guys in whatever position they are, if they get guys that can produce like Patermusa has produced, you know, that went healthy, Alan Velasco's looked real. We, I like to show K Mana since he's come in, you know, if you continue to perform at that level, we're all really excited about what you're going to do now. If you give me more and as Solis, who don't look like they are up to it at this point, then we're going to have more issues. So lots of work to be done. You know, from Quill talking about a couple of guys at North Texas, how are they going to fit in this doubling down on the youth initiative? Like, you know, as always, you said it's going to take a little time to overwork. Lots of work to be done. And that's true. Like if you want to play like Quill wants to play, which is this high intensity system, you know, you're going to have to get guys that can run and move and there's a couple of old dudes around here who can't run a move. [00:17:32] Speaker B: Did they talk about any other pending changes like the staff and things like that? [00:17:38] Speaker A: Yeah, Quill didn't want to talk about his staff much other than he confirmed that Michelle Garbini will be joining his staff. [00:17:46] Speaker B: The Michelle? [00:17:47] Speaker A: Yeah, the Michelle. [00:17:48] Speaker B: Will he bring his left foot with him? [00:17:50] Speaker A: Well, I'm sure he will in practice. You know, that's the only name that he confirmed, which means that the North Texas job is now open. He did not mention any other coaches. I mean, I know that. I'm quite positive that Drew Keeshon, the goal here coach, is one of the best in the league. If not, the best will be kept around. Kevin Martinez, we know, is not coming back. [00:18:13] Speaker B: What about John Gall? [00:18:14] Speaker A: John Gall is the real question. They did not specifically mention John Gaul. We know from various people the organization is very high on him. The easy move is just put him back in charge of North Texas Soccer club. You know, the thing with Michelle is Michelle was, was Eric's assistant when Eric was at North Texas. So he obviously was like, that's the guy. I want him. So they've done him and he's over the finish line. And then he mentioned a couple other guys are not across the finish line yet. So can we assume John Gal will be on the staff? I mean, I, I, I would bet, you know, 100 bucks or whatever that John G. Will be with the organization whether it's on Quill staff or whether it's taking up the reins at North Texas again, which makes a lot of sense, except normally you don't go backwards. But you could see, I could see them saying to him, hey, we want you to have head coaching experience, not be Quill's assistant. You know, go coach pros, you know, because he was with the academy. And think about how many times we've said, you go, go to academy to assistant. You're not ready to be the first team guy. You need to coach guys as the main guy. And he only did four months or six months or whatever in North Texas, so not the end of the world if he takes over those reigns again. He's a great, he's really good, in my opinion, of progressing guys along the pathway. John G. Is and has done really well in the academy with that even and in the first half of last season with North Texas. So that's just, I mean, your guess is as good as mine where they'll put him. Hopefully it's something important because he's a pretty good coach. [00:19:35] Speaker B: So in the press conference, did they talk about anything unrelated to Quill, you know, specific to Quill? Like, did they talk about the stadium renovation or did they get into player acquisition at all in any detail? [00:19:50] Speaker A: No, no, they didn't. People tried to pin him down a little bit on tactics and he's, you know, he dodged that with the. We're still formulating how we want to play. [00:19:58] Speaker B: I don't know that. I don't know what players he's going to give me. [00:20:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, at least like he's not starting cold turkey like them. Him talking about having scouted every FC Dallas game, being very familiar with the roster. I, I got the impression he walked in with a list and said, you can get rid of these seven guys or whatever. You know, he already knew what he wanted. You know, I think the key words are, you know, the, the verticality and the aggressiveness both in winning the ball back fast, wanting to dominate the ball, wanting to get forward intact quickly. You know, he mentioned by name Peter Musa, Alan Vlasco, Bernie Kamungo, Bernie Shout Out. So, you know, that's going to be a big deal. You know, he was there and found Bernie in the first place. [00:20:42] Speaker B: Do you think Bernie's like the most excited, happy guy on the roster? [00:20:47] Speaker A: Gotta be. I mean, Nicosia Tafari played for him too when he was there in North Texas, but Bernie's gotta be the one that's gotta be jumping through for joy the minute he heard Eric was going to be the coach, that he's gotta be ecstatic. The only name that did not come up very much at all that I can think of was Jesus Ferreira. Surprisingly, no one mentioned which were any. [00:21:07] Speaker B: Of the players at the press conference. [00:21:09] Speaker A: I don't know. I wasn't there. I was watching on YouTube. [00:21:11] Speaker B: Okay. [00:21:11] Speaker A: So there could have been 10 of them there for all I know. And, you know, I was not one in the room, so I couldn't tell you that. [00:21:18] Speaker B: Would that be weird if none of the players attended it? [00:21:20] Speaker A: I mean, it would be a little. But it's certainly not all going to be there. I imagine some of the young people or people that he had a relationship might have been there. You know, they. They. Most of them have gone home, you know, for the holidays or for the. For the winter. So it has to be people that were in town. Certainly that could be Bernie, for example. [00:21:35] Speaker B: You know, Martin Paz has been gallivanting around Indonesia having a tropical vacation with his supermodel girlfriend on Instagram for the last few weeks. So that's been fun to follow. [00:21:52] Speaker A: All the American national park bits. I've seen him doing the famous whatever's Grand Canyons this is. And that's. So most people probably have gone, unless they live in town here. They probably are not around, obviously. [00:22:05] Speaker B: Right. [00:22:07] Speaker A: A lot of them do live here, but a lot of them went home or went to wherever, back to Europe, as you say, or so when. [00:22:12] Speaker B: Now that Quill's here. And obviously, as you mentioned, there's some roster stuff that happens between now and end of next week. Is it. When do they officially start getting back together? Is it not till after the first of the year? [00:22:26] Speaker A: I don't think that's been announced yet, but it'll probably be the second week of January. [00:22:30] Speaker B: Okay. [00:22:31] Speaker A: Because, you know, and different teams start at different times depending on whether you're in the CONCACAF Champions League or not. Obviously, FC Dallas is not in that, so it'll be. They'll have a later date. But, you know, basically they're going to start playing at the end of February, beginning of March. So you're going to have like six weeks. So that's like second week of January. So if I had to guess, I would bet like the weekend of like the 11th or the 10th or 11th maybe of January might be when they're getting back together. Okay. Somewhere in that week. [00:23:06] Speaker B: And speaking of players posting photos of vacation, I did see Velasco. Now, I don't know if these are current photos or not, but he appears to be back down in Argentina again. [00:23:18] Speaker A: Yeah. And I was told he went right away. [00:23:21] Speaker B: And then since we last did this, the, you know, the specter of him being traded or being bought by an Argentinian club, I think Boca came back up, reared its ugly head again. And that is there. I mean, are you hearing any noise? Is what's the latest on that whole deal? [00:23:38] Speaker A: Well, every six months that gets reported, you know, and it was reported again. It was also poo pooed again, you know, by various people. But, you know, when it comes up that often, it's very clear that someone is trying to get that deal to his agent. This is agent, I'm sure. You know, we see now fast he runs back home. The kid is definitely homesick all the time. You know, that's fine. I give it that he can do that, you know, and if the bottom line is, as long as he's under contract, unless the price is right for FC Dallas, they're not going to sell him. You know, it's like it's going to. [00:24:08] Speaker B: Have to be, but nobody's, nobody is going to give them anywhere close to what they paid for him. He's coming off an injury. He hasn't, he's been good, but he's not lived up to any of the expectations that, you know, they set for the fans. And he kind of set for himself from the first game. You know, it all kind of leveled out after that. [00:24:29] Speaker A: Yeah, if you look at his numbers for like his last season in Argentina, they were insane. And he doesn't know where near that year. I'm, I'm totally believing now that the MLS is harder than Argentina to play, because guys from here go back that get crap out here, go back down there and do really well. And Allen is not produced like he did now in terms of goals and assist. He is not, you know, and you're right like this minute, like, I'm sure if Boca were actually calling right now, they'd be like, oh, they gave you like 3 million form. And everyone would laugh because that's not happening. So they're gonna, he's gonna have to prove that he's back to where he was. And last season he was getting better as the season was ending, but he wasn't back to where he was when he first got here. So he's gonna have to prove some stuff if they're gonna get a price for him that will match what they value him or paid for him. Granted, as time goes on, if his contracts are running out, then you would take less if he's not performing and you're in the next to last window before he's free. So, you know, things could change, but that's not now. [00:25:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And when we talk about this roster being broken, one of the biggest problems with it is, is two of its biggest, most expensive attacking stars are two players who we all have this weird. And I'm just going to be polite about it, suspicion that neither one of them really want to be here in foreign and Velasco. [00:25:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's true. [00:25:51] Speaker B: And you can't. And neither one of them. In Jesus's case it's because how much his salary is. Nobody wants to take that on. And in Allen's case it's, well, we just spent eight, nine million dollars for you. We got to get something back for you. They're not easy to get rid of. [00:26:08] Speaker A: No, no they're not. And nor would you want to because if you're, if you're dumping one dp, you got to have your work cut out for you to upgrade that spot. I mean, it's one thing to sell Asus, it's another thing to say how do we price replace that in terms of pure value. Obviously when you have a luxury like Logan Farrington, then you don't have to place replace Jesus at the same position. You can replace him his DP with. Maybe you can use it at center back or I think you should use it as a six. If you're going to play the way Sorry Quill wants to play, you're going to need a six. Intense six, not like a casual six. [00:26:44] Speaker B: Right. [00:26:45] Speaker A: You know, like you're going to need a Carlos Grezzo or Daniel Hernandez, you know, that kind of. Probably even more rangy than Hannah as he wasn't a super range you by the time he was done. You know. The other thing to consider I think too is that if you think back to Quill's teams at North Texas, he, he used, you know, the two Rodriguez brothers. Both, both David and the, the older one. Good grief. Who's now, you know, with the battery in USL. But he used a playmaking 10ish kind of player underneath there. And really they only have Velasco in that kind of mold. You could probably use Leggett in there and then maybe if you want to, maybe that's the way you start the season with Vlaska wide until you figure out if Bernie's great again or not. Or maybe it's got to be, you know, they bring back Delgado to kind of use in that spot. They don't if you're not going to do Velasco in there, it's not necessarily a great fit. So, you know, I think that's probably part of what Quill was talking about. Maybe in the terms of, like, we're still trying to figure out how we're going to play is because they don't necessarily have the exact same pieces that he might ideally want that exactly fit the way he might ideally want to play. [00:27:54] Speaker B: Well, interesting stuff. I. You know, I guess the best way to do it is just assume for the hope for the best and wait for the new season to kick off here relatively soon. [00:28:05] Speaker A: Yeah. In the end of the day, when you walk away from these press conferences, you just have to sort of listen for the things that are. It's all coach speak, but you have to listen for these slight variances that give you a hint into the way you want to play. And there was. There was a relatively high amount of talk about intensity and winning the ball back and dominating the ball more and not like a casual, like, sit deep. I mean, everybody says defend as a team, you know, we're gonna fight, we're gonna, you know, be it. We're gonna. Cohesion, we're gonna all bond as a team. You know, like, those are things everybody says. So you just try and pick up on those key phrases. And it does not sound like it's going to be like a 5000 pass Lucci ball. It does not sound like it's going to be a low block, you know, waiting for the other team to turn it over. Like it's been the last couple years. So it's going to be different. It sounds like. So we'll. We'll see how Eric goes. [00:28:57] Speaker B: Well, I guess my question is, you probably better than anybody that I know, knows Quill's systems and setups and expectations from his players. [00:29:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:10] Speaker B: If nothing, you know, other than what we think may change in terms of the roster, obvious things like Dante Seeley not still being here or Omar and Gonzalez not resigning, those types of things. Could he make his system work with the players that are on the roster right now? [00:29:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. You know, it's. The real question. Is going to be. [00:29:34] Speaker B: Okay, wait a sec. Is. Is when make it work. Does that make them a playoff team, an MLS cup contender? [00:29:42] Speaker A: Oh, no, no, no. You're not going to be a Cup contender in year one. I think you can make the playoffs, though. [00:29:47] Speaker B: Well, God, I hope so. They let more people in than not. [00:29:50] Speaker A: If they don't, that would be real, really bad. There are Some things that he likes that, in my estimation of what he likes, which is this combination of real athleticism, like American style, verticality and pace. You know, he mentioned guys that have been here by name, you know, Tanner and Brian Reynolds, these American freaks of athleticism. Right. He likes that. But he also quite often likes. You remember, I told the story about he was a player that Ajax wanted. So, you know, soccer skill really does matter, too. You know, it's a combination of those two things. Again, his teams at North Texas were combinations of guys like Pepe up top and Reynolds on and Jogo on the outside in various versions of the teams. This flying wingers that Oscar sometimes had, but also these Rodriguez brothers who could, you know, dribble the ball around and beat people like that, of which Alan Vlasco fits that mold, that little quick, bursty, hidden guys on the dribble kind of thing. Loves a guy like Bernie Kamugo with that verticality, like, had sixes like, you may not remember this guy, a guy named Jata, who could cover sideline to sideline with massive range and crush people, you know, so it's a combination of some of the systems we've seen here before, probably most similar to Oscars in terms of its combination of verticality and ball skill. So, you know, it's. It's a real mix of kinds. The kinds of players that he's interested in. And so there are lots of pieces like that here. But then I would look at things. You know, you can look at any player and think to yourself, okay, if that guy's not really good with the ball or he's not really quick, or maybe he doesn't have the. This never say die mentality that Eric also likes. You know, it's like, are those guys going to be in the mix? You know, like, the big one probably is. Asir Mindy, does that guy have the. He has the engine. Like, he runs the most miles. Right. He has the ball skill, though. That's all really great, too. But does he have the range? You know, and you probably have to say to yourself of Kafumana as well, also in that same position, does he have the range? Like, so you can't really play. I don't think you can play a single pivot. Well, that's okay, because Quill mostly plays a double pivot more often than not. So, you know, some of those things all align. The real question is going to be like, who's going to be the. The playmaker? That's going to be like, it's not a pure 10 anymore. We all know that. But who's going to fill that position on the field? You know, he likes those wide wingers that are going to run at people. So you're probably looking at like a, A more traditional wide front three, like a 4, 2, 3, 1. And not, not those inverted wings that we saw the last year with Nico Estevez, when their wings weren't really wings, they were really sort of tens underneath. Right? So, you know, that's why I think Bernie will probably excel. He's probably going to want outside backs that can run the whole line. Having specifically mentioned Brian Reynolds today, you know, so, like, okay, does that, Does Marco Farfan fit that description? Not. Not really. You know, well, Juan might. Okay, no, maybe all of a sudden we really do want him back, because that is that vertical outside back that Quill is talking about, you know, so you, you can look at the pieces on the roster and, and if you've watched Quill enough, you can think back like, okay, there maybe there's maybe some interest has changed in whether we want this guy back or this guy not back. You know, like, I look at Delgado and I think, I don't know that that's a cool kind of player because he kind of drifts around in games. He does have that burst forward and get a goal thing, but he doesn't really have like that string pulling ten kind of vibe. Like, remember, we didn't know he was a 10 until Nico told us, right? So it's like, you know, there's some priorities may have changed on, you know, what players out of contract they care about and what players from North Texas they might care about. And, you know, and I think that they're not going to be thinking about super short term. Like, you know, obviously the goal is make the playoffs. That's the minimum. [00:34:00] Speaker B: Right? [00:34:00] Speaker A: They've said that bare minimum, make the playoffs. But I think they know that it's going to take a little bit to turn this roster over to make it fit for Quill, because he's different than Nico. It's a very different style than Nico for sure. So, yeah. [00:34:13] Speaker B: Bare minimum, make the playoffs. Reach for the stars, kids. [00:34:16] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's the minimum, not the maximum. Him. Look, we, we know there's no way you're competing for MLS cup with this roster as it is. [00:34:24] Speaker B: I know, I know you have a. [00:34:25] Speaker A: Lot of good, you have a couple of good starting pieces. So, like, to me, like, you look at this rash and you go, okay, imagine a guy like Quill is going to say, like, it's yes, you can overturn in this league quickly. I look at the Al Galaxy, you can go from nothing to the one of the best teams you can, but you have to be able to jettison pieces and bring in pieces. [00:34:45] Speaker B: So have you seen the Tweet back on December 1st that Tom Bogert related to this put out about the roster building of the Galaxy and how they turned this thing around? It's and he's right. And I'll just read it to you. It says, here's the roster evolution over the past three windows. It's a masterclass in roster building with crucial signings both big and small. And it goes through and it's, you know, it's all broken out by position and it. It's remarkable and you're exactly right. Yes, a team can very quickly an MLS go from worst to first, but you got to be one smart enough to know how to do it and to have owners willing to spend the money to do it. [00:35:28] Speaker A: Yeah. In this particular case, like you have to look, what matters the most are DPs and U22 initiatives. TAM signings. Those are the big impactful pieces. Right. If those pieces are just okay, your team's just going to be okay. And that's what Dallas is right now. So you have to look at those two pieces and you go, okay, how do we optimize our roster? Where are we? Where do we have redundancies? What kind of money can we purge? And let's say you decide that because I have Farrington, I can sell Jesus Ferreira and use that DP spot somewhere else. Okay. The great. That's the kind of way you could turn your roster over in a big way. Then you can look at, oh, we got. We're spending a bunch of money on Paul Areola, who's a right back or like a second choice wing at this point. Okay, how do I move that? Well, that one's tough. That's hard. Paul's a great guy and a great leader and he. If you have him around here, he'll be an awesome attribute for you for sure. But if you're talking about getting to compete with MLS cup, you know, that's a boatload of money that maybe could go, for example, to a stud central mid like you've got Alan Velasco. So now you need to support that. I mean, is your Armenia is going to be 35. You know, Kafumana is 25. Okay, maybe there's a piece that can go in there with Kafumana with show. Now you're Looking at center back. Can I use a TAM center back? Well, I already got a TAM center back in Ibaga, but I need like a starter grade and maybe then maybe IGA and Nicosia can compete for that second spot or something like that. So, you know, you have to be able to use money in a cap league in a wise manner in the sense of it has to produce. You have too many misses on the U22 initiatives, for example, have any of them hit? I mean, we kind of think Giovanni is a hit, but I'm now terrified that he actually is out even longer because of the fact they're interested in Ruan at all. Like, why would they have cared about that guy if they. If they. Giovanni wasn't a problem? So I'm really worried about right back in terms of what you're going to do. And if you can't afford to overspend on Ruan just because Giovanni might be out for a bit, you have to think bigger picture than that, because what happens if you give TAM money to Juan for the next three years when you. And then all of a sudden Giovanni's back, you're like, oop, stuck with that contract. You know what I mean? Like, that kind of pragmatism has to be taken into account. You can't just go all in next year. You got to go kind of in next year, but with an idea of like two seasons, probably because you. You can't turn like. Like when people are like, how did Miami turn it over so fast? Man, they set that up for three years knowing that Messi would come available and knowing that, like, everybody had to be free at that time so they could give the entire roster out if they needed to. You know, they clearly set that up way in advance. And this is not that case. This is not. [00:38:14] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you're correct. They did do that. But there's also another element to that is they have an owner that is willing to be created and spend out of his mind above and beyond, you know, what the cap allows for to. To put that kind of roster together now. [00:38:33] Speaker A: Yeah, you have. You have to be able to spend to buy out guys and also pay contracts. Like the Patam Musa contract is kind of exciting. That's a bigger one than we've seen in a while. They. The biggest one they've ever had was Frank O'Hara. We'll show you how that worked out. So you got to get it right, too. [00:38:50] Speaker B: I'm not suggesting the Hunts should. I know they would never do it, but I'm not suggesting they should go the inter Miami route. I'm just saying that, that that's how those things are done. I mean I don't never expect this team to be either one of the LA teams or New York or. [00:39:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:06] Speaker B: Or Miami. It's just not going to be. But. [00:39:08] Speaker A: And you know they're not going to because they sat in that press conference day and talked about youth out of me. [00:39:13] Speaker B: Yes. You know, and I, you know, I don't mean to be the total pessimist here, but I'm going to go ahead and put my pessimist Christmas hat back on. It's this also, this newfound romance back with the youth thing also coincides with them having a stadium that's going to be 50% closed for the next three seasons and all the lost revenue that comes with that. So you know, it's okay. I mean, I don't mean okay. That's a little too easy to. You know what I'm saying? [00:39:42] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that where. Well, I think the best we probably can hope for in terms of the hunt spending more money might be to actually keep a couple of these homerooms and not sell all of them. You know, I get that you're not going to be able to not sell Pepe for 20 million but like keep a testament, keep a Reynolds maybe. You know, like keep some of those guys, they've kept Jesus for a little bit. That's more of that kind of thing, you know. And then, then these great players you're producing will actually benefit your winning in the league a bit. Like we talk about IAX all the time, right. Like they, they sell all these crazy players for huge money. They also win championships along the way with them. That's what you want. You want to keep them for a little bit enough to get, get yourself a championship or two. With the understanding that when the 20, 30 million dollar player comes along, that one we can't afford not to sell. But the rest of them we're going to try and hold on to a little more and not sign, not sell so fast these guys for 500k or a million. You know what I mean? Like keep a Chris Richards for more than five minutes, you know what I mean? He never even made it on the first team roster. They. Because he signed mid season so they loaned him out and then by the time the window rolled around they sold him to Byron for like 3 million and regretted it for years. [00:40:54] Speaker B: Who is the. I can't believe I'm blanking on this, but this is also indicative of just how quickly These things come and go. What was the name of the other center back that incident? Insisted on going to Germany and they let him go and he's essentially disappeared. [00:41:09] Speaker A: Justin Shea. [00:41:10] Speaker B: Yes. What happened to that dude? Why isn't he back here playing center back for this team? [00:41:15] Speaker A: He's. As he. He signed in, they sold him to. Is it Westerlow and then Westerlo loaned him down to like Division 2 and then he got hurt. I mean, he's like, he's gone. He ain't kind of come back here. He didn't want to come back here. [00:41:29] Speaker B: What a waste. [00:41:31] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, the backstory on him was that he had family from Germany and gone there German and all that stuff. And you know, he got. He's the reason, I think that the Bayern deal died because he went to Germany and went to Bayern and he got his head turned and he's like, oh, I ain't coming back. You know what I mean? And that and Desi Dallas was sick of their players going over there and going, oh, we're not coming back. We never want to come back is like, you know, they got tired of that. So I think that's what killed the. In the end, that's what killed that deal because they refused to sell him to Byron for chump change like they did Richards. [00:42:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's all kind of reflective of the comments from Tim Howard and Landon Donovan about Giovanni Reyna on, I guess on their podcast talking about why everybody goofs on MLS but he'd be delanded. Makes a very good point. He'd play 300 games here if he was playing an MLS. Now, I know if Giovanni Reyna announced he was returning to MLS to play for NYC fc, the mind melting that would happen in US Soccer would be apocalyptic. But that could be the best thing possible for that kid. [00:42:40] Speaker A: I'm not certainly a GN expert, but how come that kid gets benched by every coach he plays for? I mean, some at some point doesn't. Doesn't. [00:42:48] Speaker B: Well, yeah, it's a meant. It's a. We all. I mean, anybody that knows he is a young guy who's easily injured, probably doesn't play hurt. Right. He's not willing to play when he's hurt, but he does get injured often and he's just kind of a. He's one of those good dudes. I mean. [00:43:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:08] Speaker B: Sometimes I think people forget the rap that was on Giovanni Reina as a youth player. [00:43:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember. [00:43:15] Speaker B: Yeah, well, of course we do because, you know, we're. We've all been around the block for a long time, but there's a lot of people who or pro Giovanni Reyna that didn't know anything about him when he was playing in the youth system and everybody hated his guts because he wouldn't pass the ball to anybody. [00:43:29] Speaker A: That's right. He would never. Would we talk about that one at the U17s? [00:43:32] Speaker B: Yes. [00:43:32] Speaker A: It's not going to pass the ball. [00:43:33] Speaker B: Yes. [00:43:34] Speaker A: Pebby, stop waving. He's not going to pass it to you. Right, exactly. [00:43:39] Speaker B: So yeah, it's. It's unfortunate that those kind of things happen. I don't know how we got all derailed on that. All right, anything else FC Dallas specific before we move on to the other topics? Hand that's a lot about nothing, to be honest with you. [00:43:55] Speaker A: No, I think it's all good stuff this talk radio, man. That's what we do. I think that Zenata flat out was starting to say or maybe even finish the thought that like they had some things queued up related to the expansion draft. You know, like I took that as, you know, a player move or two maybe on Monday in order to sort of like set themselves up going into the expansion draft on Wednesday. You know how that is sometimes, like you might, you might trade a guy with but. And then say, okay, no, don't take anybody else. We'll trade you this guy for nothing. And you give and you don't draft somebody from us, that kind of thing. So like I said, I now expect something to happen on Monday and that will of course set up like who you want to protect or not protect on Wednesday. You know, I think the list that I would put it together from my personal who I would protect will probably be different than the list the club will put together. But that'll be fun, you know, to think about over the next couple of days as we get closer to that. But really that's it. Like, you know, then you get into the stupid things like the actual free agency windows where you could actually resign your own guys like A.R. mindy, for example, and then the reentry stuff when the younger guys can get picked up and waiver. This is. And so in the next week you're going to see the potential for some small minutia to happen, you know, and I think really, but between now and let's say, Christmas ish, you're going to know whether guys are going to be coming get resigned or not. Because honestly, like I said, second week of January, you're probably looking at your camp opening, you know, other teams are already announcing guys. So, like, you're going to. You got to, basically. And if you take out Christmas, you basically have, what, four or five weeks to get all this stuff done, you know, including the college combine, including the super draft, because you're gonna. You know, you're gonna show up in that second week and be ready to go. So we're gonna see some stuff in the next week or two, I hope. If we don't see anything, I want to start to be worried, but we should see some stuff, you know, and remember last year, we were all about, where's the moves? Right? You can't. We've been saying for three years now, maybe even longer, maybe back to when Zenata got hired, where we see this slow sale of a best player replaced by somebody slightly worse again and again and again and again in the slow wearing down of the talent. And every single off season, we said, if you stand pat, you'll get passed by people in the league. And this team has gotten a little bit worse and a little bit. A little worse, a little bit worse. And then Nico Savage got here, and they went boom, boom, boom. And went and got three or four pieces. Yay. They got really good up to third or fourth in the west or whatever it was. And then they got worse and they got worse, and they were. You can't stand pat. You have to do some stuff. So, okay, let's do some stuff. Let's not stand pat. You know, just changing the coach is not like you said. You can't just change the coast and bring back the same 25 to 30 guys and expect it to get any better. [00:46:54] Speaker B: It's like, all right, well, we'll see you after Buzz gets back from vacation. Maybe everything will be different. Everything. All right. On Saturday on the radio show, we have two Trinity players coming on there. It's their last home game of this calendar year, and they wanted us. They asked us if we would help promote it. I said, of course. We'd love to help. So Sam Estrada and Sarah Henson are coming on. And, you know, I feel like this is a team that has drawn its way to third place. And I know they've played a game since we last talked, and they've got their game, obviously, on the 8th. And then. And then this is where we get to test out how this winter schedule works in the United States, too. [00:47:42] Speaker A: Yeah, they've got two games left in this fall window, and then they start playing again in February, on February 15th. That's when the spring section starts up, and they'll have Two games in February and four games in March. And so we're about to witness, you know, two games in December, about as cold as it gets here, and then a gap and then mid February as, as probably for us here in Dallas, things start to just start to crack a little bit in terms of getting warmer. Although still of course February can be pretty bad weather wise. But like, you know, Dallas honestly is probably an ideal market to play weather wise to play a schedule like the rest of the world does. The real place to watch it, of course, is for the northern teams of this league and see how they fare in this time of the year and how they're going to fare in mid February. You know, there is this gap this winter break. It's like it's, it's about, let's see, is it, is it a month? No, it's two months. It's about a two month break and that'll be kind of it. That's a big break. So that'll be interesting to see how the team sort of retool because that two month break is really aligned with when things like the NWSL or college has breaks. Right. Like the college season has just ended. The NDA cell season will just, in February will just be getting going. So there's kind of like this window to do stuff yet you're still playing this winter schedule. It's not like a two week break, it's a two month break. So it's gonna be fascinating to watch because MLS writers talking about this, they've thrown it out there to everybody. Oh, we're considering this usl and this is a USL league. They're looking at this too for all of their leagues. Like, should we change to the schedule? [00:49:22] Speaker B: So, man, that those games in February at the Cotton bowl are gonna be colder than a witch's tit. And you and I both know this. [00:49:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Well then I just watched the Buffaloes Bill play in Pittsburgh, Zeros play and like everyone's cool. Everyone's like, this is football, right? I mean, why not? [00:49:41] Speaker B: I guess Sam Mezza was named USL Super League Player of the month and Gracie Bryan was named to team of the month and Madison White was on the bench for team of the month. I think that's. I'm getting that correctly. [00:49:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like team of the week for MLS where you get a player, you get a couple guys on the bench. So USL Super League does of the month instead of of the week. So you know, Madison White had a couple pretty good, like two shutouts out of three games. So she made the bench and Sam Mezza, like we said, relatively in the season, because she plays a really pivotal, flashy sort of position, ball handler, assist maker, goal scorer, like underneath, you know, she's talented enough that she's going to be in the MVP conversation. We predicted that early. And she's delivering on that. She's a fantastic player. Not their best player, but you know, Mike, in the conversation and the last. [00:50:28] Speaker B: Thing I saw that you tweeted this out, because I didn't even know this was a thing. So, I mean, I know that the McKenna team, the Chupacabras, are launching next year. It is next year, right? [00:50:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Yes. [00:50:41] Speaker B: Okay. [00:50:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:50:42] Speaker B: And. And they announced the other day that they're going because I guess there was a lot of questions. I think we all assumed they were going to the NPSL, but no, they're going to. They're going to USL. I didn't even know there was a USL 2. [00:50:54] Speaker A: Yeah, that was actually my third assumption. I thought. My first guess was they would go to this new thing, this league of four clubs, and that NPSL would be the second choice because Denton and Vicaris are both in NPSL at that level. And Hitch is the one that explained this to me. At that level, travel costs are massive. So I was really surprised to see USL2. USL2 has been around for a long time. The team here with Texas United, do you remember that name? [00:51:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Was. Was it called something else before USL2? Is that the old UPSL? [00:51:24] Speaker A: No, UPSL. Something different that's still around. [00:51:27] Speaker B: Okay. [00:51:27] Speaker A: USL2 has been around for a long time. It's been. It even predates USL1 by a long. [00:51:33] Speaker B: Texas United was a USL2 team. [00:51:35] Speaker A: It was really okay. [00:51:37] Speaker B: I just hadn't been paying attention. All right. [00:51:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it's been around forever. Maybe even back to like last day. I'd have to. Look, don't quote. [00:51:45] Speaker B: I mean, here's the deal, Buzz. You and I know this UPSL, NPSL, League of Legends, USL 2. I threw in an arcane reference for you. I mean, they're all just glorified Sunday pub leagues. [00:52:03] Speaker A: Well, USL2 specifically is college kids only. It's like the Cape Cod League or like AA basketball where it's. It's something for college players to play. [00:52:14] Speaker B: On in the summer and not lose eligibility. [00:52:16] Speaker A: And not lose eligibility. [00:52:17] Speaker B: Although nil. I don't know if that even is a thing anymore. [00:52:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's weird. There's things that happening now in college soccer that are mystifying to me. I don't want to say any names but there's a guy that played under contract for North Texas who's now playing in college and I don't understand it but in NPSL you can have both kinds of teams. You can have teams that are college only but you can have teams like the Vicaris were when they had like Jamie Love Grove and some of the guys that are on the indoor teams were on the more semi pro. Ish. It has to be one or the other but you can do both in npsl so. [00:52:46] Speaker B: But this is why I'm confused. Why would you not put this team in the NPSL so it could compete against Fort Worth and Denton and Lubbock? I mean it just seems, I don't understand like you have the opportunity to build a network or a league of Texas based towns or city clubs and compete against each other but you've decided to take this one and didn't not even put it in the same league. That makes no sense to me. [00:53:13] Speaker A: I'll give you. I'll explain it even worse. Well, first of all there's some real cracks in the facade of the npsl. There's some real problems happening. [00:53:22] Speaker B: Oh yeah? Yeah. [00:53:23] Speaker A: I'm not an expert on it but I know that it's. They'll go teams are bailing on that league. [00:53:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I've heard all kinds of just horror story but I've heard horror stories about npsl. Upsl. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Sure. [00:53:33] Speaker B: You know. [00:53:33] Speaker A: Well UPSL is to lower level than that. To me UPSL is a national amateur league. It's fair. [00:53:38] Speaker B: Okay. [00:53:39] Speaker A: So I asked hitch specifically why USL 2 and I said that's a lot of travel costs. And he said yes, I consider it an investment in the travel costs. And then he said what he really liked was the regional style, the regional play of it. Which is weird because there's no teams in North Texas for him to have said that about. In fact, the league they stuck him in is the league that Texas United was in. And it's all teams from Louisiana and Mississippi in Arkansas. So it's like you're going to have to travel a couple of states over to play all the time. So what they tend to do is they go out and play two games in a weekend and then come back do like a Shreveport Louis, you know. [00:54:19] Speaker B: And you know how hard it's going to be to build a, a quality roster to get guys that would have the time and availability to show up and play consistently when you're traveling like that. [00:54:29] Speaker A: Well, you Texas United was the had the best record in the USL 2 like 2 years ago they got some really phenomenal talents because Dallas is a hotbed. [00:54:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:54:38] Speaker A: And people want to come home and play for their guys from here. Want to come home and play and stay at their parents house. Right. So they're able to do it. But you're still talking about a band van league. You're riding around in a bus or a van. So he's. And the weird thing is like they put him in that conference. There's actually teams in South Texas that are. There's a. There's a Texas south that has like some teams in USL 2 in it. Like so like why they put him back in this other league that I didn't work is like, I. Listen. There's some stuff there that I don't totally understand. What we're going to have to do is watch Denton and watch Vaqueros because Hitch has some fingers in all those pies. So stay tuned for what those other teams are going to do. So maybe that's a different landscape in a couple of months than it is today. [00:55:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Don't get my me started on Hitchcock having his fingers. That's the shadiest thing. I will not. Shady is not the right word. It just seems weird. I don't. [00:55:30] Speaker A: I think of it as an economy of scale where like you're grouping all these teams under one so partially under some. One business structure and you're saving yourself some money that way. Like he saved himself a lot of money by doing all the kits. Like his little shop there does all the kits for those teams. So he's parlayed all that into like in a hitch way of like this hand scratches that hand. You know what I mean? Like that makes. [00:55:53] Speaker B: That makes sense. That makes sense from a business standpoint, but it makes zero sense from a competitive standpoint for all the obvious reasons. You know, having one person as an owner in multiple teams that are competing against each other just is weird. And well, they're in different leagues and. [00:56:10] Speaker A: They play different teams. Like this is only. This is his only USL 2 team. [00:56:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:15] Speaker A: And one of his teams in California is in the league for clubs and several others are in npsl and they're all run independently as near as I can tell. So it's not like what's going on with the Outlaws, which is this whole different balli whack over there. [00:56:28] Speaker B: All right. Anything else? Buzzard. [00:56:31] Speaker A: Oh, goodness. The. The academies are having one of their big tournaments this weekend. It's called MLS Next Fest. Doesn't matter what it's called. It's all the MLS next this names are all stupid. The academy names are stupid and listening. Pro stupid name. But the tournament, it's a big one. You know, where they bring in some foreign clubs. Like one of the Dallas is playing like Barcelona, like the real Barcelona on one of their teams. And anyway they play a bunch of high level games in a short period of time, like a cup tournament. You know, big scouting for college scouts, big scouting for pro scouts, international scouts is a big boondoggle of soccer ness that's out in California this weekend. These are games that really matter. When you're smoking some team from nowhere, like nine to one, nobody cares. But when you're playing Barcelona and it's one to one now we care. Right? [00:57:20] Speaker B: Right. [00:57:21] Speaker A: So these are big, huge games this weekend. And coming out of the backside of it, I'll have my, my winter signing watch list for everybody from the academy. [00:57:29] Speaker B: All right, well Buzz, enjoy your vacation. There will be no pod next week. No, but that's good. Like we said, that means things will actually happen inside Football Club. Dallas News will break and we'll put it out on the socials and maybe on the website and all that stuff. [00:57:46] Speaker A: So yeah, that actually gives us like there's, there's five or six days that are going to involve player movement over the next week and a half. And like we'll come out of the back of that with the next podcast on the 19th and we'll bundle it all up into one big, hopefully juicy episode of movement and not a whole lot of nothing. [00:58:02] Speaker B: All right, Kick ass. [00:58:03] Speaker A: That'll be worth talking about too, if they do nothing, I guess. [00:58:06] Speaker B: Well, I hope Dan's feeling better. I hope you have a fantastic trip coming up and with pictures and stories to tell when you come back. And we'll be a couple and so in a couple weeks, we'll, we'll talk to you then, man. But yep, all right, very good and thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fans, those of you who continue to be curious. You are the brave ones. We will speak to you in a couple of weeks on another episode episode of Third Degree. The podcast get better Soon. [00:58:32] Speaker A: Dan. [00:58:39] Speaker B: Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree never.