3rd Degree the Podcast #291

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Third Degree the Third Degree Nep Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree Nap Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree Nap Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree. Well, hello there, FC Dallas Curious fan, welcome to another episode. This one two hundred and ninety one. But it may be so jam packed with stuff it may need 291 point something added to it of third degree, the podcast. Our good friend Dan is out for the holidays, so hopefully he will pick back up with us sometime after the good new year. So you're just stuck with the super originals. Myself and the good editor, founder of thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Carrick, back from Italy. How did. Ciao. Ciao, Ciao. Yeah, man, looks like you had a blast over there. [00:01:15] Speaker B: First ever Champions league game I've ever been to. That was cool. Yeah, Europa League game. That was cool. [00:01:20] Speaker A: But you got. You got to go to a Milan game after Pulisic got hurt. [00:01:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. I was so mad about that. And one of the games was against Venezia, so I missed Tanner being sold. Oh, yeah, I could have called him up and like, Tanner, come hang out. But. [00:01:38] Speaker A: So how great is the food? [00:01:40] Speaker B: Oh, the food is ridiculous. I mean, listen, at some point I'm like, I'm ready to eat something other than Italian food. But just the. The biggest difference overall was that I'm assuming because it's a smaller country in terms of distance that like every restaurant is what we call farm to table. Is every restaurant. Like, every restaurant is like fresh bread, fresh this, fresh that. Phenomenal. Ate some amazing pizza, Ate some average pizza, you know, but almost every meal was spectacular. I don't. I didn't have any complaints all along. And breakfast even would have nice fresh bread, which is always, you know, otherwise breakfast is breakfast with a nice bread. Morning was just phenomenal. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Yeah, well, my wife and I went before going. It was our. My first time in Italy. And I always thought, well, how good can the Italian food be? You know, Like, I've had. I think I've had some pretty good Italian food over here. And then you get there and you put your first bite in your mouth and you're like, holy crap, it's so much better. [00:02:36] Speaker B: Listen, I've never been to Italy either. But, you know, growing up, I thought good Italian food was Olive Garden. And then I went to, you know, lived in Boston for a bit, and those guys all laughed at me. And now I would now laugh back having been to Italy and be like, okay, listen, this is what it was really like. And you know, you Go in with the expectation that Italian food is heavy. Not really. You know, it's like. Unless you're getting something like lasagna, you know, it's. Most of the pastas and sauces are really light and fresh and the. And my wife got to try actual, like, vine ripened tomatoes and was blown away by that experience. Yeah, it's a phenomenal. [00:03:09] Speaker A: I can't recommend going to Italy enough for anybody, with or without the soccer. Just to go and see it all is pretty tremendous. [00:03:17] Speaker B: It's a. Yeah, I'm down. Down. Moving to Como. That kind of area seems nice. [00:03:22] Speaker A: I bet you are. [00:03:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that was pretty good, that part. Yeah. By the way, you talk about a tough ticket to get. My goodness. [00:03:32] Speaker A: Oh, Como. Yeah, Como. [00:03:34] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh, it is. [00:03:35] Speaker A: They are quite the. Quite the hot property these days. [00:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. [00:03:39] Speaker A: Well, we're glad that you had a good time, that you made it home safely and you're back here serving the curious. And of course, Buzz Carrick is undefeated in his ability and his superpower of leaving town to generate action within football club Dallas. And, boy, we got a lot to talk about. We've got signings, departures, we've got rumors, we've got schedules, we got lists of this and that. We got all kinds of stuff. So let's start off with the thing that happen. Happened just after you left a little over a week ago that got this whole thing really chugging along is when Sounder at Heart, which is kind of the Sounders version of third degree. [00:04:28] Speaker B: Yep. [00:04:30] Speaker A: Started running around with a rumor that Jesus Ferreira was going to be traded to the Sounders. And that got a lot of people talking. And then it was followed up a couple day or maybe two days later that they were also talking about acquiring Paul Areola. [00:04:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:49] Speaker A: And that got the world spinning, Buzz. [00:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah, it did. Now, the. The Jesus one at the time I checked in on that, and, you know, it was a little bit premature in the sense that, like, it wasn't close at that point, but it's continued since then, and obviously things are continuing to be talked in that. That capacity. So it's probably, you know, certainly it's fair to say that it's a lot closer than it was, you know, and. And the more this goes on, the more we hear that it's getting closer to happening. Now, I don't have any concrete details that I can add to the situation other than to say that, you know, the Campana trade today just smashed the bar for what it would take to get a player of similar caliber now, now, of course, Jesus is not as hot as Campana is, but you know, he's in a lot of ways. They're kind of in the same ballpark. So that bar was set higher? [00:05:41] Speaker A: Well, yeah, just, just to catch everybody up. Campana was sold, was traded to the Revolution from inter Miami for 2 million in GAM, I think it was, plus. [00:05:51] Speaker B: Oh no, it's. [00:05:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it's 2 million in GAM this year plus an international spot, more GAM next year and an additional year of an international. I mean it's a lot of stuff. [00:06:01] Speaker B: Yeah. And then like a 700 more possible based on Met. I mean it's huge. It's like, it's, it's double what Dallas played for Paul Ariela back when they got him a couple years ago. Anyway, that sets the bar higher. Like, hey, Jesus won't go draw that. But now I'm sure that probably puts a wrinkle in whatever was happening where they, they might be saying, hey, this is the caliber player we have, you know, and the whole thing is of course contingent on, as has been reported by other people, Jesus taking some kind of pay cut. And that of course is the hang up. That's not something Jesus is going to want to do, I would imagine. And we all know, and I confirmed this again, that, that Europe is the goal, not Seattle. So yes, it's still in play and still might happen. You know, maybe it was a lot closer to happening than it was before, but I would not expect it to happen tomorrow, you know, and it may not happen at all. I think Paul's a lot more likely. In fact, we've dug around a little bit and you know, there's some talk that Dallas has to eat a certain amount of salary and. But I think that would be accomplished and what I understand is that would be accomplished by using, you know, buyout mechanics or things like that. So it's not like Dallas is going to have a million dollar cap hit on from Paul because then what would be the point if you're, if you're gonna be paying down a million dollars anyway, you might as well keep the guy. [00:07:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:18] Speaker B: You know, because that's the problem is the million dollar buy down. It's not. Paul, Paul's fine. Paul's great. It's the, it's the buy down part, so you got to work out that part. And again, that one is also contingent on Paul taking a pickup. They don't want Paul at 1.7 million either. [00:07:32] Speaker A: Yeah, Paul. Yeah, Paul takes a. Yeah, let's, let's Break these into two conversations. Let's start with Jesus first, which is this is a guy that signed a big homegrown deal. Everybody kind of understood what that meant when he signed that deal in Dallas, which meant it was going to make it more difficult for him to go to Europe, and was largely contingent on him just performing as a professional athlete, scoring goals, showing himself playing well, and for the national team to really attack the interest of a club big enough to afford to pay the kind of salary that Dallas was paying him at $2.2 million, that's a very high salary anywhere in the world, not just the United States. So if Jesus. Let me. Let me also say this. I think the fact that here we are at the end of 2024, and the thing that we're talking about related to Jesus is him essentially being traded to go play on the turf. It's in Seattle. [00:08:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:08:28] Speaker A: Is largely an indicator of just how off the rails that kid's career has gone. Yeah. And he. And, and he is definitely not in a place that he probably thought he was going to be in. And I also think it is. However it ends up happening, if and assuming that it ends up happening, it is definitely time for Jesus to get out of mom and dad's house. Because he wants out. I think they want him out. I think it's a good time for them to part ways. So ultimately, if they make it happen, it, it, it. You kind of take all of those things and put them in the mix. It's an interesting situation, but it means that Jesus is going to have to take a pay cut that would drop him below the DP level. So DP next year is first off, you got to get your salary. What is it? Below 1.7 or something? 1 point? [00:09:25] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:09:26] Speaker A: No, no, I think. I don't know. I think it's like one point. I think 1.69 this year. I think that number goes up a little bit next year for him to then be eligible to be bought down below the DP number, which would then put him at just around $800,000. So he'd be taking like a 23% pay cut from this season to next. [00:09:47] Speaker B: Yeah, that. That line is something around 1.7 where you are then capable of being bought down, which is where Paul is, of course. So, you know, and Jesus has to. He has one year left on his current deal with an option. And that's the whole point is they're. They're asking him to take this pay cut so then they can buy him down. But this Is the thing is like, you know, Jesus, I'm sure is ready to try something new and try greener pastures and try the next thing of his career. I don't think he thought that was going to be Seattle. That's not what he had in mind when he said, you know, it's time for the next step or whatever. He hasn't said that publicly, but that's what we understand it to be. So that's, you know, you're asking a guy, a young guy who is. Was on an upward trajectory where he's played in the World cup and now all of a sudden he's taken massive pay cut to go to a team he was, you know, in the same league. So this is not what he wanted. And that's going to be the hurdle is making him buy in on that idea is not easy. [00:10:42] Speaker A: No. And so there's a couple of other things here. So the day that the rumor came out was the same day that Jesus and his girlfriend posted to Instagram that she's pregnant with his child. So there's that thing to throw in there. Yeah, there is the carrot in there for Jesus that they are playing in the club World cup next summer. [00:11:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a nice shop window. [00:11:04] Speaker A: Sure. Seattle could use him. And there's also a part of me that's kind of surprised that Seattle's even interested in Jesus and Paul in the first place like that. That to me, feels like a shift in ambition on their part. [00:11:19] Speaker B: Well, I think that they, you know, ran into the stuff that everybody does that's involved in these higher levels of this league. If you're in the concaf Champions League or whatever, that kind of thing. You have these extra workloads, you know, they. They're trying to carry forward with a group that's not super young anymore. You know, they're trying to. They're moving off from a piece or two, trying to get in the piece or two, you know, trying to extend this current run they're in, you know, so they're not looking to reload with like, more youngsters. They're looking for high power to replace the high power they're losing, you know, and they're a team that does things, has done things in a really positive way in terms of obviously managing their salary situation so that they can do things like this. But again, like, both of these deals take sacrifice by the player's part. So, like, they're counting on their ability to say, hey, we're Seattle. You get to come here and play in front of These huge crowds and compete at the highest level of this league. You know, that's something you never had before. So that they're counting on that appeal. That's a tough appeal. When you're, when you're talking to a guy who's 23 years old, you know, and maybe thinks he's got a long career ahead of himself, well, at least. [00:12:29] Speaker A: It'S a little bit closer to Russia. Sorry. [00:12:34] Speaker B: Well, don't forget he had that. He had a deal to Spain that fell through after the Russia one that was in this last summer. So, you know, like when you have back to back windows where you have a foreign European, for lack of a better word, deal lined up, you're not going to, then go, yeah, Seattle's fine. Right. So I'm not holding my breath on the, say, Zeus deal. [00:12:54] Speaker A: No. And it, it's. The whole thing is kind of odd. But here's my other concern. My other concern is that what happens when Jesus ends up playing for Dallas next year and he's a guy that clearly doesn't want to be here and at least, or maybe something happens in the off season, maybe finding out he's going to be a dad changes his perspective or something, and his desire to really help the club win something returns, his performance on the field improves. I don't know. [00:13:25] Speaker B: You know, we talked about that with Paul, remember? You know, there's five things that sort of count as, like these major stress, life stressors that can really alter everything about your life, and one of them is having a kid. So, you know, it's, it's certainly going to affect him in some way. You know, positive or negative, who knows? I mean, I'm sure everyone will tell you that having a baby is a positive. That doesn't mean it's not incredibly stressful. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Well, it's, it's a it. But here's the problem. It also is well known in soccer circles that having a baby puts a dent into a player's season because of all the lost sleep and everything. You know, I, I just found out the other day, you know, Martin Odegaard for Arsenal has just come back from injury and he has not been playing really well. In fact, there's been some games where people are like, what's going on? Is he still hurt? Turns out his girlfriend had a baby two weeks ago. [00:14:10] Speaker B: Well, that'll do it. [00:14:11] Speaker A: And so knowing that, you know, at some point next season, Jesus is going to be a new dad and dealing with all the out, you know, fallout from that is something moving and moving or whatever. [00:14:23] Speaker B: Changing jobs. [00:14:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's a lot, man. Yeah, that's a lot. [00:14:26] Speaker B: So we went through all that with, we went through all that when Paul Ariela came here. [00:14:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:31] Speaker B: And he changed jobs and he got married and he had a baby and it's like. And got dropped for the national team. Right. For the World Cup. He had like four or five stressfuls in his life that caused this season to go sideways. [00:14:41] Speaker A: So speaking of Paul, let's shift to that because that one to me is a really weird. Because I have to. Because the way this is going to have to happen is Paul who is before his guarantee, he qualifies for the buy down at his, his original non guarantee or whatever non extra salary. Like his base is 1 5. And then when you add everything else it's like 174. So for the purposes of meeting the rules of MLS, he's under the, the buy down limit. [00:15:16] Speaker B: Correct. [00:15:17] Speaker A: And so they can buy him down, but they need to get, they need him to take a pay cut below the TAM number which is the DP salary. Now this is also stupidly confusing and I apologize. I don't know if there's any way easily to explain this, but essentially Paul Areola in. There's two parts to this. Paul Areola ultimately is going to be being asked to take a 50 pay cut. He will go from 1.7 to down to about $800,000. But not this upcoming season because Seattle will pay whatever is just beneath the DP number at like 799. And then whatever is remaining from his contract, Dallas will buy out with their one time buyout clause. [00:16:07] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's the key for both of these guys too, Paul. And the similar to Jesus here is that they want to keep them. They're. Seattle doesn't want to do this for one season. They want Paul to resign past this next season. And that's where they want the, the lower salary to kick in. They're like, okay, we'll leave your 25 number at 1.7. Dallas will eat a million of that. And then, but beyond that, rather than picking up your 26 option, that's where we want you to have a new deal that's gonna, that's gonna be under that DP threshold, which is under the 700, 000. So you know, asking Paul to take damn near 50 pay cut. You know, when he's a young still in relative terms, he's a younger man, but he has a relatively new wife and a relatively new baby. He's not going to be Wanting to take million dollar pay cuts when he doesn't have to. But on the other side of the coin could be that after 25, whoever team, whatever team he is with, could just say, we're not picking up the option, good luck to you. And then he might be taking that pay cut anyway. So that's a more swallowable pill because of the fact that you can get Dallas to, you know, eat part of that salary and he won't lose money for this year. It's just that you, you know, he might actually be willing to take a new deal because it's like, okay, give me three years on the backside of that 700 and you got a deal because now I've got three years of security I wouldn't have otherwise. [00:17:28] Speaker A: So do we see the idea of the Hunts using their one time buyout on a million dollars as clever or cheap? [00:17:38] Speaker B: Well, it's clever because you theoretically are going to get some return for Paul if you, if you're doing this deal. Because if you just use your one time buyout on Paul by yourself, you'd be eating the whole 1.7 million. Not just a million, number one, which comes out of the Hunt's pockets, you know, so that's a half of the savings. And if you did it yourself, you would get nothing. Whereas now if you're going to do it with Seattle involved, you should in theory get something. I don't know what you're going to get. It might be a bag of balls, but you're going to get something. So, you know, in terms of the pure math, often these FC Dallas moves, we can understand them in math terms, they often make sense. You know, like both of these things make sense to me in terms of like how you're going to get out of these albatross contracts. You know, if you're in a club that is going into what seems to be complete rebuild mode, opposite of Seattle, who's like in just refresh, reload mode, Dallas is in a complete rebuild mode. Clearly they're trying to jettison their two biggest albatross contracts. So, you know, you look at the math, you look at how you accomplish them, you look at how you're going to try and get something in return. And in the case of Jesus, you should get a very, a huge return. Even if you, even if he does have to take a pay cut, you should get max value for him. [00:18:58] Speaker A: Well, here's the question though, Buzz, because you in particular, and we've talked about this on the podcast numerous times, for them to really make Any significant changes to their roster for the upcoming years. Getting rid of Paul was paramount and Jesus. Selling Jesus or whatever was a big deal. But if your exit strategy or the, or the escape hatch on Jesus comes with and Paul comes with a somewhat disappointing return. But you got rid of Jesus and Paul. [00:19:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Are you going to be that disappointed when you don't end up with, you know, a million 5 or 2 million in GAM or what, whatever it is. [00:19:40] Speaker B: Well, the, the, the, the return of Paul, the important part on Paul is not having to buy down his contract with your big huge pile of gaming, which is a limited resource if you think of it that way. The buyout is the hunt's pocket. That's an unlimited resource. I mean they wouldn't say that, but I say that it is. [00:19:58] Speaker A: Yes, it is. [00:19:58] Speaker B: Right? [00:19:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:59] Speaker B: So those are very different things. Those are very different piles of money. You know what I mean? So like if you can then get something for Paul, you know that you can. The real value is the, is the removing of this albatross buy down that you needed to do in terms of improving your team. So then if you can then also improve your team by trading a guy who is not going to be a starting winger here. Maybe it's a starting outside back at best. Even at 700k if post buy down, that's still really high for an outside back and at 1.7 is crazy high. So any kind of return for him once you clear that buy down is huge. And Jesus is more about getting maximum return because he's a homegrown. If you sold him, you get 100% return up to $3 million in GAM. So you could get this huge pile of money to go get guys if you sell Jesus, you know, there's no funny weird buy down having it happen with him though. He's just a dp. So like if you trade him, you get a big chunk of money to do stuff and you have an open DP spot. So that's why those two guys are very different in the optimization that you would get by moving them. And if you're going to do Jesus in the league, it needs to be a boatload of stuff because it needs to equalize in terms of pure game mechanics. It needs to equalize that $3 million you could have gotten by selling him for more. Anything more than $3 million. So you're going to need $3 million in GAM really to equal that, you know, or else you'll just turn around and sell them to that team in Spain again. For way less than you thought you're going to get. [00:21:33] Speaker A: Yeah, see, I think there's. We haven't even talked about the fact that the Hunts are considering trading him in conference, which feels very Saquon Barkley dangerous at this point because, you know, if you, if you throw him on Seattle and suddenly Jesus decides to start playing soccer well again, that's a, that's a force you're going to be dealing with, so we can talk about that in a second. But I think the biggest value for Dallas at this point is just getting Jesus in his $2.2 million off their books so they can spend it on other players. [00:22:06] Speaker B: Right. [00:22:07] Speaker A: So while I, I feel like everybody is going to be really disappointed if Dallas ends up getting back from Seattle something way less than what we thought they would ever get for Jesus when the time came to trade him, I'm not sure that Dallas doesn't end up winning just simply A, by getting him out of the locker room because it's pretty clear everybody's tired of each other, and B, they just dump his salary. And, and, and from then on, I think at this point, unfortunately, which is again indicative of just how sideways this whole thing has gone, you may just have to chalk this up to a, A, a win for the club and, and that would be it. [00:22:50] Speaker B: Well, the thing is, is I think that the coach, Eric Quill, has been here long enough now that he, if he really felt Jesus was going to be a huge asset for him, that he would have said something. He would have gotten in there and said, hey, forget that Jesus thing. I'm going to turn that kid around. I know him. I mean, he knows him. [00:23:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:07] Speaker B: You know, so it's like there's no question like he would, if he, if he really thought that was the answer, that he'd be in there saying, we're not getting rid of Jesus. He's a dp, that's fine. We're just going to go with him. It's just that the idea that, like, Jesus wants to go and you could, you can flip him into a massive pile of money if you do it correctly. So, like, one of the reasons why, beyond the fact that just you got to get Jesus to, to agree to this thing is that, you know, you're going to have to get real return because, you know, they've talked about the idea of like, they think they can get him and, and, and Moose on the same page and how great that'll be, etc. Etc. But at the end of the day, if you can get A big pile of money out of a guy that's honestly hasn't performed really in two years and really needs like a head cleaning, change of scenery, then you go ahead and do it, you know. And I'm sure Quill, Quill probably could handle it either way. Like if the guy is going to be back here, then you have a come to Jesus meeting on him. Joke intended, right? You sit down there with a coach, maybe, maybe even leave the TD and the, and the owner out of it and be like, hey, listen, you're here. Let's make the best of this. Let's go, let's shop window. You have a killer season and then you're going to get your move. You know what I mean? Like it's not optimum, but it's what you'd have to do. [00:24:22] Speaker A: I think my, my guess is that we've gotten this far in this deal that the Hunts and Quill and Zenada and whoever else the other new guy is that nobody seems to know who he is. They have all their fingers crossed, hoping Jesus is willing to take the, the lower salary deal to get him out of the building. I think everybody is tired. Jesus is a homegrown, he's going to be an all time great. But the, the personality conflict is real within the building, I believe. And I think they would love to get rid of him and his $2.2 million salary. So what I'm saying is, is that if the deal happens and it is announced and Dallas ends up getting like $750,000 in GAM out of the deal, I think everybody should take that as a win. [00:25:13] Speaker B: Well, you would have an open DP spot. [00:25:16] Speaker A: Open DP spot. You got 2.2 million bucks off the deal and you got a guy that doesn't want to be here out of the locker room. [00:25:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean I, I would really hope that you would get more than that because effectively you're selling him for less than a million. [00:25:30] Speaker A: But what's the market, Buzz? What is the market? Who. What other MLS clubs? Now maybe there's a. Maybe now that Seattle this rumors come out, other clubs have like, wait, we can get Jesus maybe. No, there's a. I don't think there is. [00:25:43] Speaker B: I think there's a worldwide market for him and I think that worldwide market is more than 700,000. [00:25:47] Speaker A: Well, so here's, that's why I think that, that. Okay, so this is where this gets interesting which is if Jesus is willing to go from 2.2 to 1.6 or 7 or whatever that number is take a 23% pay cut to go to Seattle. What percentage of pay cut is Jesus willing to take in reality, to make his move to Europe? Is he willing to take a 50% pay cut, a 60% pay cut? Because I think that's, you know, you and I both. Well, I mean, the other part of this, the other thing preventing him from moving to Europe is his form. Like, he's just not been very good for the last two years. [00:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah. But, you know, the last, you know, he had two offers, one for 12 million and one for. We don't know what in the last year. And his form stunk that whole time. So it's not like the landscape hasn't changed that much on him. You know, it's easy for him to say, I've been injured, you know, but I'm healthy now, and all that kind of stuff. And I'm sure that while the market isn't 12 million anymore, I'm sure the market is more than a million. So there's no question that, like, I. I feel very confident that at the point at which these trades started bouncing around, that his agent was probably working his tail off, because this is not what they want. [00:26:58] Speaker A: No. [00:26:58] Speaker B: And I imagine that this. If this deal does end up happening, it'll end up happening late. Like, it'll be all the way into, you know, mid January, when the windows actually open before you actually see this start to happen. Maybe even in training camp. [00:27:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:12] Speaker B: You know, like, if it's gonna. It wouldn't even shock me to see it happen at the last minute. And if it actually just comes down to this being the only option they can come up with, because I'm not. Still not convinced you're going to get him to take a pay cut. I mean, I'm not like, if you're talking pay cut of a million bucks, the dude's gonna be like, you know what? I can. I got a year left in Dallas. I'll just stay there for a million dollars, you know, because you can't. You can't really just say, hey, take a hike, kid. Here's your money. That's too much money. You know what I mean? Like, there's enough value in Jesus as a player. Even this last year when he was hurt a lot like that, there's still enough player there that you wouldn't just buy him out and just let him walk away, because then you get nothing. So you're not doing that. You know, I mean, you just have him. You just do your best to try and salvage it. [00:27:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I think this is all going to come down to A Jesus's appetite for taking a pay cut and B how badly Dallas wants him out of the team. [00:28:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm telling you, there's a completely different calculation made when, when you take a million dollar pay cut, you're like dude, my wife's pregnant, my girlfriend's pregnant than there was before that. So like, I mean, I don't listen, we don't know the guy well enough to even begin to guess what's going through his head. But I guarantee you as a new father that calculation changes. You know, so it's going to be a complicated situation and Dallas needs to not, don't be afraid to bring him back. Don't be afraid that you don't that Quill's a good enough man manager that he can handle the kid and get plenty of value out of him. You know, you may not get full DP value out of him, but you're going to be able to get plenty of value out of him. At this point, I think with one season left, you know, you know, you could, you don't want to necessarily let them walk away for free. So like you really don't want to have pick up that option for 26 if you can help it, you know. And don't forget that there's more money available for players in the summer window than there is the winter window for. [00:29:06] Speaker A: Man going I, I would love this club to have the $2.2 million and the DP spot. [00:29:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Versus a guy that I think is a relatively high personality and injury risk. [00:29:21] Speaker B: But don't assume that Dallas wouldn't switch to the 2DP4U22 metal model. [00:29:26] Speaker A: Okay. [00:29:27] Speaker B: That may be too much minutia for some people, but that's a legitimate we are talking about SC Dallas with a reduced stadium for three years. [00:29:35] Speaker A: Well, I think that's a, I, I, I do think what you've just touched on is something we'll get to a little bit later on, which is what I am inferring is the overall theme of what is about to transpire with this club as we move into the next three seasons. But we'll talk about there in so I'm sure by the, you know, there's a good chance that by the time somebody's listening this particular episode, the Paul deal has already happened. I, who knows, we could be talking about this for another few weeks before anything and any is settled about Paul and Jesus. But I would say this, let me just say this. It would be really weird when if when we sit down in the stadium or watch the first game at the end of February and we all have this collective shock and reeling of realization that Jesus and Paul are never wearing the Dallas jersey again, well, they both. [00:30:27] Speaker B: Could still be here. [00:30:28] Speaker A: Or they both could still be. Yes. [00:30:30] Speaker B: Let me just say that I think that Paul is far more likely to happen and far more likely to happen much quicker than Jesus. [00:30:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I agree. The other thing that happened, and it actually happened before the Jesus and Paul stuff happened, was the announcement that Dallas had re signed Alan Velasco to a contract extension that'll last from 25 through 28 with an option in 2029, which when I say out loud in public, sounds really fart and weird. So, Buzz, does this mean Alan Velasco is going to play in Dallas for the next four seasons? [00:31:08] Speaker B: No. [00:31:09] Speaker A: Does it mean that. Does it mean that Allen will even end up playing here next year? [00:31:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, next year probably, but it could mean it couldn't. You know, with a guy like him, you never know. You get an offer any minute for a guy like him. What this tells me is that he's got a really good agent who every single window, made some phone calls back to Argentina and got people down there to talk about how everyone's bringing him back and got Dallas to be like, well, we don't want him to go. We want to save him. Oh, better give him a new deal. So it's really smart agent work on. On Allen's hat behalf. A kid that everyone assumed this narrative that he really wanted to go home. Not so much, apparently. Four years plus one. That's a long contract, man. That. That's. That's. That's a. [00:31:58] Speaker A: But is this the. Is this the Reggie Cannon slash Brian Reynolds move that they talked those two kids into? [00:32:05] Speaker B: Possibly, you know, that it's. [00:32:08] Speaker A: Tell them, certainly tell everybody what that. That model is. [00:32:11] Speaker B: Right. Well, basically the idea is that part of what factors into how much a player costs to buy is how big their current contract is and how long it is. The longer it is, the more you have to pay, because then you get the player for a long time. The comparison here is like Jesus, who has one year and an option left, versus Alan, now has four years and an option left. So four. Allen's got much more value on the vine that you're buying when you buy him. So that's a. That's a move that happens. You see it all the time. A guy cuts a new deal right before he walks out the door because the price goes up for the player and for the team. And the reason why the player would do that would. Because that he gets a cut of the transfer. So it's fairly common. Now, in this particular case, I don't think coming off of an ACL injury, even with a. The smattering of relatively decent performances we saw, I don't think you're going to get a value offer for him. This window. You. You never know, but I just don't see it happening. I think, you know, next summer or next winter, far, far more likely, you know, and if he continues to play well, every season he plays well, that likelihood will go up. This is a guy who, when Dallas bought him the season before, he was worth like twice what Dallas paid because then Covid hit and that team became cash strapped and needed the money and they had to do the deal to get cash. So it's very likely that Dallas is holding out for, you know, 12, 13, 14 million at least in terms of getting money for him, for Allen, I don't think we'll get that right now, but it's great to see him invested in that heavily. And I think it means that they'll be efforting very seriously, very quickly to make him the center point of the team. If he wasn't already, he will be even more going forward because of this. [00:33:58] Speaker A: Well, it will be interesting to see as we move into the transfer window season in January, if we begin to, or if we continue to hear noise out of Brazil or. Yeah. Argentina, that, well, clubs are interested in buying him still. [00:34:12] Speaker B: Yeah. I think this deal probably prices him out of a return to Argentina. I don't. I don't think even Boke and River, I don't think they have the kind of money they would take laying around to bring him back now. You know, I think one of the reasons why people there were trumpeting this, this homesick agenda was trying to get his price down, you know, that he wanted out or whatever. And that obviously was not the case. And this obviously raises his price, so. Yeah. Well. [00:34:38] Speaker A: And then in the last few days, we've had a spate of signings and let me just say for the record, I, for one ma, as a Day one fan, am relieved that Dallas has gotten back to signing Brazilians with just one name. Because I was really tired of the getting a Brazilian not good enough to even deserve one name. You know, like the Tiago Santos and the Giovanni Jesus and the Facundo Quinones of the world. Yeah, come on, give me a Pedrinho or Romero. Any old day. As Dallas brings up Padrino from North Texas and out of nowhere they sign a midfielder in Romero. So. And then the other one, which we'll talk about as well, is signing the center back out of the Rapids, Lawless Abubakar, a guy who I can't tell you anything about because every time I watch him play, I get hypnotized by the beautiful chaos that is his hair. [00:35:41] Speaker B: Yeah, his hair is smashing. Yep. So see. All right, so Pedrinha, Pedrinho is. Had a really nice season for North Texas SC leading, you know, goal factor, player, scorer, assister, all around game decider kind of guy. He can be very hit or miss. If he's at a funk, emotional funk, he'll be a little tuned out. Like for example, the semi final. In the final he was absolute garbage. Except that he had the game winning goal in the final with a back heel that was just stunning. Excuse my language. But then, you know, for bulks of the season he would just be amazing. Like even when he, he got hurt, he had compartment surgery at the beginning of the year, if anyone doesn't know what that is. And later in the year he got hurt and he came back and he was only like 80 and he was like running around the game and hardly playing and you know, he was like, he looks terrible. He's making all these bad decisions. He had two goals and assist. You know, it's just like he's just a kind of mercurial, hot headed, you know, typical super talented player, attacking Brazilian type. Attacking Brazilian, Yeah. He is like, I think he's 20, so you know, he's not going to walk in and start at FC Dallas. You know, they, the Gary Melcher had a really nice bit today about sort of giving us some getting out in front of the narrative. Something FC Dallas is usually crap at in terms of telling us more about like what their plan is for these players, which I was really pleased to see. But Junior, we already knew this. You know, he's going to come in as a sort of reserve sort of player. You know, he has a similar profile to Alan Velasco. Your false swing, your ten. They've actually used him as a nine a little bit. You know, that kind of player. Exciting, interesting. Probably not going to be starting right away by any means. And then Ramiro is fascinating. This is the quintessential Zenata special, as we call it, played for Gramio and is it Corinthians? I think he also played for, you know, basically like some teams that Zenata worked at. He was at Gramio with Bresson, like they came out of the academy at the same time. Even somebody suggested to me that since Bresson sells a house here, that Ramiro probably would read it, which I thought was funny. So this guy is Mr. Versatility. So this is the quintessential player that they talked about being flexible and, and, and, and versatile because the guys played 400 games in the Brazilian first division, but has played 6, 8, 10, right wing, right mid, right back. He literally plays everywhere. And he's also about 5ft tall. [00:38:14] Speaker A: He's a Brazilian. Ryan Hollinghead. [00:38:16] Speaker B: Yeah, he's Richie Williams. So. But Brazilian. So like, you know, at his age, you know, 31. There's. 31. Yeah, there's probably a little bit left on the body. But you know, they, they talked about Meltzer, talked about him being a sort of versatile piece that you could put in a whole bunch of places. So that screamed to me, like, oh, this is your jackknife guy. That like, he's probably not going to be a lock starter, but like when you're missing a dude, he'll start at like five places. So he'll be a contention in a lot of spots for filling in roles and it lets you drop other guys that you might not have needed, basically. [00:38:57] Speaker A: So I think there was immediately a reaction to the idea that signing a guy like Romero means that he is alarmed replacement because obviously alarm's available out on the marketplace. There's been lots of noise that maybe he may end up in Austin with Nico, since Estebas was the one that brought him here in the first place. Is that likely to happen? Is Alara Mendy by all accounts gone? Or is there a chance that he'll remain 2? [00:39:26] Speaker B: I would have assumed so because it's a, it's. There's a little bit of a similar profile in terms of the kind of player they are. But again, credit to Garrett Melcher, who's flat out said in his piece that that's not the case, that the team is still post signing of this player. They are still actively in negotiations with the RMND trying to get him to come back. So it may be that some of the delay in terms of getting Ermini back, maybe in terms of like how much money are they going to have available? You know, so maybe some of these other moves have to happen first or maybe they're waiting to see, you know, that somebody might come in with this crazy offer, like, awesome. Because Yarmouth is a free agent in a worldwide sense, he is not a free agent in mls. Dallas owns his rights in mls. So if, for example, Austin wanted him, they would have to come in with an offer for his rights. Now, MLS rights are not usually worth what the player is worth if they're signed, but it would be something. So there's obviously some factors at play with the Aramindi in terms of like what, what it'll take to get him and how much Dallas might actually have also. Yeah, I mean, he was climbing a mountain last couple of days based on his Instagram, so he might not be paying attention at the minute, I swear to God. Like, he posted pictures of him and a friend climbing a mountain. It's like, that's awesome. So, you know, and I'm sure there's some agents involved there and all that kind of stuff, but so no, it's not out of the woods that they won't bring your Mindy back. So that's nice, I guess. [00:40:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And in classic Dallas style, the signing of a player that I think 99 of the soccer world knows nothing about. I mean, obviously if you watch the Brazilian League, people are going to know who Romero is. I have never seen him play. I'd never even heard of the dude, so I have no idea if he's any good. I was very shocked to find out, I think you mentioned this already, that he's five foot five. Yeah, that bothers me a little bit. [00:41:18] Speaker B: It's an ankle Biter FC short back in effect. [00:41:21] Speaker A: Boy, he is Richie Williams, isn't he? [00:41:23] Speaker B: He is, yeah. And you should watch the YouTube video I found. He's got his stumpy little legs. YouTube videos, I know, but it's fun because he has these stumpy little legs and he run, he runs around like his legs moving really quickly so he can run fast. You know, it's. He's got a quick little burst, but then he doesn't have any tie ins, run gate, you know, but he really does play all over the place and he seems pretty heady. So, you know, as. As a sort of depth piece can go, as a special can go. I don't. It's okay. You know, as always, the price is what matters. Like if they paid a boatload of money for him to sign him, then I don't like it at all. But if he's, you know, on 400K or something like, you know, it's less than Faku Made, then I'm cool. [00:42:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting, you know, he doesn't have a pedigree of Alara Mendy, but I would say it's a pedigree Equal to, maybe better than Facundo did when he got here. [00:42:13] Speaker B: No question. [00:42:14] Speaker A: Or. Yeah, Thiago Santos did when he got here. [00:42:18] Speaker B: So that's about part with Thiago's Santos. [00:42:20] Speaker A: I think that's fair. So I would be shocked to find out that he turns out to be a Garo level good or. [00:42:27] Speaker B: Oh, no way. [00:42:28] Speaker A: A Laura Mendy mental good. But he'd probably be an upgrade from. From Frasier. [00:42:34] Speaker B: Oh, certainly. Yeah. [00:42:35] Speaker A: And you'd like to think he'd be as good, if not better than show and shows here, so. [00:42:42] Speaker B: Well, show's got a little something. But that's going to be like shows obviously much younger and much less experienced. So, you know, there's going to be some comparable ability there because Romero, you would think, would have some wisdom and game experience that would allow him to play at higher level, you know, so I think it's a solid piece. Again, it's always. It comes down to the money, like, if you ever. Any deal can be stupid if the money is stupid, just like any deal can be of value if the money is right. So until we see some numbers from the pa, because that's the house will never tell us. [00:43:10] Speaker A: Yeah. So at this point, in terms of the midfield, you've got Velasco, you've got Alara Mendy still here, you've got show here, you've got Paxton, you know, assumedly is going to be here and play next year. You got Ramiro legit. Legit. [00:43:27] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:43:28] Speaker A: Yep, yep. [00:43:30] Speaker B: Nolan Norris. [00:43:31] Speaker A: Wow. Lots to consider. [00:43:33] Speaker B: So. And I still think you're gonna see Diego Garcia come up from North Texas. [00:43:36] Speaker A: Okay. [00:43:37] Speaker B: Very bright young player. Yeah. [00:43:39] Speaker A: Okay. So the big news that happened earlier today, we're recording this On Thursday the 19th, was the news that Dallas had finally signed a center back. Now, your mileage may vary. Buzz, you may be more excited about this than me. [00:43:55] Speaker B: I am. [00:43:56] Speaker A: But Lawless Abubakar is now a just gonna slot right in there with Tafari and Abiaga. [00:44:05] Speaker B: Yeah. So this is definitely a your miles may vary player for sure. Again, depending on what they're paying him. I'm going to feel very differently about this signing than I might. [00:44:16] Speaker A: What is that? What is that number? What's the line in the sand of a payment number that's going to, you know, put you over or beyond the point of being feeling good or bad about this signing? [00:44:26] Speaker B: Yeah, well, last year he was on like a high 600, right around 700,000, which is. Was just short of the DP line. So I. He. He is 29. And the, the skills have diminished a little. So it needs to be below that. It needs to be, you know, around somewhere between 5 to 600. If, if it's a number like that, a number of, like a. Not an Ibiaga number appropriate to Nicosi Tafari, then I'm okay with it here. The thing for me on Abubakar is I really like this player. I've always really liked this player, mainly because I would watch him play and I was like, he has this warrior mentality and just smashes people. I love that. So, like he's got an attitude and chip on his shoulder, which I think is fantastic, historically speaking. Now, last year he had hamstring problems twice and he had a concussion problem and he didn't play nearly as much as he usually does. The people in Colorado seem to think he was declining, I think. And I looked at pictures of him and some video of him last year and, and he was fat, carrying too much body weight. Now, is he carrying too much body weight because of the hamstring injuries or does it carry too much body weight, make him hamstrings have problems? Whatever the reason, whichever one came first. This particular coach we have here now, Eric Quill is not one to take that kind of physical overweightness lying down like this. This to me screams deciding where. Quill has been here long enough that he would have approved this or not. And I, I feel very confident saying that he would say, I can get this guy fit and straight and I will get him back to where he was was a year ago because he is 2029. He's got plenty left on. Should have plenty left on the tires for a good three seasons here. So this is a guy that I quite like in seasons prior to 2024. So as a, as a piece that you're going to be rotating in with these other center backs, then I'm. I think it's great. Now if you think this is your dead solid lock center back one carrying us to the cup, this is not that guy. So if they sign him thinking that and gave him a DP deal, then they're dumb. But I don't, I really hope that's not the case. So, again. Well, again, the money really is going to matter a lot on this one. But I think if, I think if Colton get this guy fit and healthy, I think you'll be surprised to have a good player in your hands. [00:46:55] Speaker A: He was the Rapids defender of the year, I think in 19 and 20, and then he. And then it kind of Went off the rails. From there he was. The Rapids were 7, 9, 7, 7 wins, 9 losses in one draw with him in, in games that he started and he did start the last six games. That weird six game losing streak that they ended the season with. He started in all of those games. I, look, I, I'm not as excited about this as you are. I'm hoping that this is. If he comes on and he signs and he's a backup, like if he's the new Omar Gonzalez, he's a huge upgrade over Omar. [00:47:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:41] Speaker A: But if they're bringing him on to be a starter, then I, I think this is another indicator along with other things that I think we have been hearing in the wind about, you know, the plans for this roster and, and some of the other stuff going on of kind of. Man, we were rebuilding a stadium and now we are rebuilding a team and, and we're not going to go spend a lot of money on a center back. We're just going to try to get a third or fourth guy that is kind of a plug in replacement if our two main guys happen to go down. And that's. And, and I swear he had a mistake of the year moment candidate last season, but I can't remember what it was for Colorado and I, and so I asked a friend of mine that is a Rapids fan and his response to me was really great. Human being, best of luck because he is, he is an on, off switch on the field. [00:48:37] Speaker B: Yeah, this is, this is definitely, as you say, a player that like, depending on what they think of him or how they're going to use him will greatly change whether we think this is a good deal or not. In a lot of ways I think of him just like Ibiaga, where I thought Ibiaga was a great third center back and they were like, no, this is the number one guy. I was like, oh, okay, that's, that's a problem. This is the same sort of thing. [00:48:57] Speaker A: And it kind of worked out that way, didn't it? [00:48:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it did right away. So like, if this is as you say, if this is just one piece of a lot of rotation, you know, and the price is right, you know, and, and again, some of my faith in this deal here has to do with the fact that I think Quill can do good things with this guy. You're right. If he's pretty. If he's replacing Omar, phenomenal signing, then, you know, if this is your new Retta Ziegler, this is a problem. Right. So a lot of, a lot of These deals that are happening right now are what I call roster maintenance deals. Right. It's a kid that came up from North Texas. It's a guy that can play in a bunch of different spots. Your new Ryan Hannes said your new versatile Brazilian, experienced leader, good locker room guy, it seems a new defender that could come in and fight and claw and battle and will challenge some people, you know, but not going to be super pricey. Like these are all basic building block kind of moves. These aren't sexy moves. And we just spent 20 minutes talking about Jesus and Paul and all the money and all the money they just put out today where all the new Gamma Tam for the year all just came out. So there's a big pile of money that's already there and a big pile of more money is coming. Can you free up these slots? Can you free up this ability to do some things? And then maybe you're going to see your sexy moves. Or as you suggest, maybe there aren't going to be sexy moves because this reduced stadium is going to reduce revenue by a fair bit. So we're kind of gonna have to see. Now, they did for sure say that this was just one center back move. They're definitely doing another one, at least one more. So we'll hope that we're gonna see, you know, this frontline cb, one organizational center back come in and then you might have four real center backs, which is crazy. And then we'll have to see what's going to happen with Jesus and Paul and those mechanics. Because, you know, your ability to do all kinds of exciting and amazing stuff will just go way through the roof if you make those two trades. Or your ability to just sit and sit and compile money and just try and not lose your shirt, depending on which way you want to go and how you think the Hunts are going to play it out. [00:51:10] Speaker A: How long do you think it takes Mr. Abubakar to cut all those dreads off when it hits August here in Texas? [00:51:18] Speaker B: Man, I've. I've thought that before of guys that I'm like, man, I can that with that hair when they come here and they just didn't, you know, didn't bat an eye. So. [00:51:25] Speaker A: I know I'm sure he's used to. [00:51:27] Speaker B: It by this point. [00:51:27] Speaker A: But that, that cat's braids is like an M.C. escher drawing. They're so piled high and it's out of the way and it's really hard looking and it looks heavy. [00:51:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:51:41] Speaker A: Like it pulls on his scalp when he's running I. That looks so uncomfortable. I. But it's also cool all at the same time. [00:51:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I never understood Beckerman's breads either, but you know, it's not my culture, so it's hard to say. But a lot of guys that I thought like, oh, I can't wait to see that guy shave his head. They never do, you know, Juan to hon never did. Alvarez never did. You know, Shady never did. [00:52:04] Speaker A: I don't know. Muhammad Salah cut all his hair off and I thought that was really weird. In fact, it was funny after playing, you know, after however many months of, of seeing him without all of his hair. And then I saw some footage of him from last year with that big old thing of hair and it's like, wow, that's really different. I. I love old Harry Salah. [00:52:23] Speaker B: That was, well, England. I mean, I remember watching the game and they were talking about how the game was terrible because it was so unbelievably hot. It was 70 degrees. [00:52:30] Speaker A: Yes. [00:52:31] Speaker B: I'm like you asked. You guys don't know for sure. [00:52:33] Speaker A: All right, so those are the signings. The other thing that happened is that Jimmy Maurer officially announced he was leaving, only to then take a heel turn and sign with the Dynamo. [00:52:44] Speaker B: Yeah, they gave him two years. So good for Jimmy. [00:52:47] Speaker A: Yeah, good for Jimmy. [00:52:49] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, obviously, will he be the starter there? I mean, they, they let their Clark go, so they have one other keeper on the roster. I don't know how good he is or not. He might be, you know, like whatever the narrative came from that Jimmy was retiring, I, I swear Jimmy was retiring like two years ago. And then they've talked him out of it twice, I thought, and I. So I bought in totally that he was going to be done again. No, no, he still wants to play. So he's got a new two year deal down there in Houston. So good luck. Good for him, man. I'm excited for him on a personal level. I mean, obviously I don't like he's playing for Houston, but that's not the first Dallas keeper to go to Houston, so. [00:53:28] Speaker A: So it's interesting because I wonder, you know, we haven't even talked about. You mentioned it, but we should talk more about the unbelievable turn of events that MLS has put together. A page showing how much GAM everybody has, which is like, I never thought that would happen. That's such a huge piece of progress in this league's history. But it also told us that Houston, interestingly has the least amount of gam out of any MLS club out there. And the one of the Houston independent sites. Bayou City Soccer did an interview with Onstad and I didn't. I had totally forgotten about this. And I don't even know if I knew this buzz. But he, the current GM of Dynamo, in an interview with them, said he talked about the trade. I don't even know how long ago it was with Red Bull for a permanent international slot quote cost them millions in GAM and it was the worst trade in MLS history. [00:54:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So to explain that a little bit, they traded away an international spot permanently. And so every year they start with one less international spot than everybody else. So in order to be able to do signings, they have to. Every year they have to go out and acquire an international spot from somebody. So they have to go spend over and over and over again. They have to go spend. To go get an extra international spot back with somebody because they traded one away forever. So that's what they did. [00:54:56] Speaker A: So I think it's hilarious that the Dynamo GM is referring to an old trade that was the worst in history. And was it Matt Jordan that made that trade? [00:55:04] Speaker B: I probably would have been, because he probably would have been GM or whoever did it. When Jordan was gone, I don't remember who did that deal, but that's what he was talking about. There's been some really bad trades in the lost history, man. [00:55:15] Speaker A: Yeah. So just real quick, it is interesting and. And running through the list of the. The GAM list, Dallas was at what, 4.2 million? [00:55:25] Speaker B: Is that what I read, give or take? Yeah. [00:55:27] Speaker A: Sixth most in the league, which was pretty high. And there were some teams with a lot of GAM out there that you wouldn't have expected. [00:55:35] Speaker B: Atlanta was number one. [00:55:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And they just got 6.5 to. Austin had 3.1. Cincinnati. Like, how does Cincinnati, after all that money they spent at 4.2, Dallas at 4.4. 8. 4.5. [00:55:52] Speaker B: If you sell players. If you sell players, you get chunks of money. So they sold what's his name to Mexico. Yeah, the US striker. [00:56:01] Speaker A: So when we talked about Campania going to Miami, now we know where New England got all that, because they had $5.6 million in GAM. And after that they still have 3.6, which is ridiculous. [00:56:14] Speaker B: They still have a lot. [00:56:16] Speaker A: Philly has 4.2. San Diego, because they're the new expansion team, has just over 5. St. Louis is 5.3. Wow. Interesting. Which really. And the Timbers have 2.7. Nashville only has 2.5. It is great to see the league finally got around to Expo and I don't. And again, this doesn't tell us everything we need to know. But, but this is a long way from, from where we have been for the first 30 years. [00:56:46] Speaker B: Well, it, it is and it isn't. I love the transparency of it. But it is also the kind of thing that kind of muddles the waters and confuses everybody because now everyone's worried about like where did it come from, where did it go? And it's like what really matters is how good you are using it. Right? If you're using it in a stupid way, in a wasteful way, that's where you have a problem. And that's like the thing Wasted was talking about is like they did a really dumb thing because it's costing them all this money. So it's not the amount of money, it's just that it's, it's relentless. So like and, and the Areola contract is a good example. Like you, you gave him this, this deal where you had to buy down his DP number over and over and over again. You know, you obviously thought he was going to be a full dp, but then you know that didn't work out. And so you've had four dps. Now Dallas has often all carried extra dps. They've always had four, five, six even one year. There was like seven guys that were technically dps, but they're always by small margin. They're not usually a million dollar buy downs like Areola is. So that's like that, that contract is particularly painful, you know. So again it's like, like when Toronto sent the striker Jimenez down to Dallas and paid like half of his salary. Like that's, they had to use GAM to do it. That's a terrible waste of gam. Or when, when Dallas picked up. A good way that you use it is when Dallas picked up Dom, Sydney LaRue's husband, Dom Dryer. Yeah, when they picked him up off of the trading pile and then immediately bought him out, they used their buy down. It was only like a 304, $400,000 contract buy down. It was no big deal, but they got a lot of stuff in it because the team he was with couldn't afford to buy his contract down. So they got a nice little move. It cost them nothing except money out of the hunt's pocket and they picked up some stuff for it. So that's a smart use of the mechanics. So in the end of the day it's, it's less about the pure value of the numbers than it is about having the ability to use it in a positive way. You can do more with less, and you can do less with more if you're not smart. [00:58:47] Speaker A: So the other thing that happened since you left is the expansion draft. The expansion draft took place. Dallas did not lose anybody. They put quite a number of players and dangled them out there. I think we were. I was pretty surprised Junka Junko was out there. And who else was on the list? That in Sibling. That's who I'm thinking of was on the list. [00:59:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:15] Speaker A: And Dallas ended up not losing any players out of that deal. [00:59:19] Speaker B: Yeah. You know what happened was because Dallas under Nico Steve had less homegrowns than usual than they have historically. They've usually had a bunch of players that are automatically protected. And so you would only have like six or seven players that would get exposed. Well, this time they had this whole boatload of like 15 to 16 players that was exposed. And you had very limited bandwidth of guys you had to protect. And unfortunately for them, they have two guys, one of which you wanted to keep show and one of which. Which you may not want to Delgado that were on loans. Well, you have to protect those guys. Guys. So that ate up two of the spots. A guy I would have exposed like in a solid I would have exposed. But they didn't, you know, and they didn't. They didn't expose. Expose Musa of course, or Kamungo Seeky got protected, which was surprising. I thought they would leave him exposed. They protected. [01:00:13] Speaker A: I thought in sibling was on the list. [01:00:14] Speaker B: No, he was protected. [01:00:15] Speaker A: Ah, okay, maybe I'm forgetting remembering that. [01:00:18] Speaker B: But they exposed Areola, you know, which you would think, oh my gosh, Paul, why'd you expose him? But you know, they just took a chance that San Diego wouldn't take him. Or maybe they were hoping they would take him, but they exposed legit. That was surprising. Giovanni J. Zeus they exposed. They probably let it known that he was hurt, I imagine to keep him from getting picked. You know, he's a U22 initiative. That should be a really enticing player for somebody. But you know, people probably shied away from him. From what we believe is the problem. [01:00:47] Speaker A: The Ennis Soli protection is a save face move, right? [01:00:51] Speaker B: I mean it's gotta be. Maybe you figured you paid for him, so you gotta, you know, like how you protect that guy and expose junket to me is crazy. How you expose J. Zeus when you protect Solly is to me is crazy. Legit. I mean, wouldn't you rather have legit? Even though he's got a 900k salary. He was the best player over the past two months of the season on the team. Right. I mean, under Legat. He was the under, Sorry, Luxon. He was the best player on the team. So some of those things really are part of why we think we're in this complete rebuilding mode. Because they were willing to let somebody take these guys that were like some of the best players. They had Yara Mindy, like they exposed Yara Mindy, but they still owned his rights. Like San Diego could have grabbed his rights if they wanted to. You know, those are amazing players. [01:01:37] Speaker A: Yeah. And the other one that's kind of surprising at this point is Ruan, who is still here. Nobody picked him up in the expansion draft. [01:01:47] Speaker B: Yeah, it's because it wouldn't change anything because he's out of contract and he's a complete worldwide free agent. MLS free agents. Like, if you pick him up, he's still a free agent. [01:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So is there any chance he stayed, do you think, Dallas, because of the mystery of Giovanni Jesus's health status, that Dallas may be willing to pay a little bit more than we'd like? [01:02:09] Speaker B: Well, that's the trick again. I think they're waiting to see how much money they have because I think they'd like to bring him back. I think he's a profile that would fit Quill's team very nicely. And I think that they probably would like to bring him back. He probably thinks this is my last contract, so it better count. So it may be one of those things that's going to take a little while because you got to see what kind of money you can come up with. If they're still after another center back, if we're still trying to get out from underneath Paul's contract, and maybe they're like, hey, we've got the 600k that you want or whatever it is, you know, we've got it for you. Just we gotta get these deals done first because the free agency window has been open for like two weeks now. It opened like on the 12th, I think it was. So we're into the second week of it. There's free agents signing everywhere. All. I mean, Dallas just signed a couple, right. So, you know, any minute you could see him sign with somebody else. So I imagine the clock is ticking. But, you know, you don't. You're not hearing all these stories about, oh, I hear, sign with this guy here, sign with that guy. So I feel like it's fairly confident that, you know, he didn't he hasn't been mentioned by FC Dallas very much, but they may be trying to play this one low key under the radar because, you know, they mentioned the Aramindi whose rights they hold. They didn't mention Ruan who's a complete free agent. So I'm kind of figuring my. My guess is that they're trying to keep it on the down low and trying to see if they can sneak it in at a decent price, you know, and just sort of need to get some of these other things over the line before they can. Probably the Paul one, notably probably so. [01:03:39] Speaker A: So, Buzz, my point of view is it's delightful to see Dallas make moves. I'm. It's kind of like, wow, okay, there's some actual stuff happening here, but none of it really blows me away. It's that I don't dislike any of the moves, but none of them are giving me a sense that Dallas is going to be a real contagion tender in 2025. And I'm curious what your point of view so far today because we really kind of have to wait till the whole thing settles out before you can make any definitive judgments on it. But that's just kind of where I'm sitting at. I'm curious where you're at so far. [01:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel the same way. That's what I meant about these deals are all roster maintenance deals. These are all balancing your squad. You know, we talked a lot about how poorly the roster was constructed last year. A lot of these are moves that'll try and help some of that. You know, if you really are replacing Omar with the Boubacar, for example, you're getting a utility knife guy in the midfield that could play some spots. You know, Pedrinho is a young talent coming up from North Texas. These are all basic simple moves. These are not. These are not moves that are supposed to get you excited. These are not moves that are supposed to be fun and crazy. It's like those are going to be dependent on like, if you want a DP level sexy player, you got to clear a dp. In this case, you got to clear two. Yeah. Because Paul's EP also. So even though they not technically he is though unofficially so, you know, you can't. You can't get the sexy in until you get some of the old busted out. So that's a. That's a Men in Black reference. [01:05:09] Speaker A: I got it. [01:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:11] Speaker A: And the other thing that happened today is that the schedule popped out of nowhere for the 2025 season. I. When was the Last time Dallas started a season with two road games. [01:05:24] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I. I'd have to go look, I don't really know, but I feel like it's been a while. [01:05:28] Speaker A: And they start on the road down in Houston against the Dynamo in February. The game still, I mean, good lord. This season starting early February 22nd. And then they have to travel. [01:05:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Same as last year. [01:05:40] Speaker A: Is that when it started, was February 22nd? [01:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Really? Yeah. [01:05:44] Speaker A: Okay. Last week in February and up in Colorado before they get to come home. And they play two home games consecutively. They go to Colorado on the 1st and then they host the Fire on the 8th and Vancouver on the 15th. [01:06:01] Speaker B: Did you see that, by the way, Love Brimstone cup game. Did you see the Chicago Fire is the awesome social media bit they did? No, for their schedule, they lit on fire something for every team that they're playing. So like to see how fast it would catch on fire and burn up. And the FC Dallas one was a cowboy hat and it was like 10, 10, no notes. I was like. It was really funny. It's well done. Well done on their part. Yeah. [01:06:21] Speaker A: All right, Very good. [01:06:22] Speaker B: There's some exciting trips on here. I mean, at Atlanta, at Inter Miami, at San Diego in May, and that's all cool stuff. At FC Cincinnati, where they've never been. [01:06:31] Speaker A: Oh, fun trips, man. That would be a fun trip to take to go see that stadium. I think that stadium is going to be awesome. [01:06:37] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a bunch of trips on here that I would have liked to do. They get New York, NYCFC in town here. Yeah. You know, you got some, you got some good ones, man. [01:06:47] Speaker A: They end the season. I always like to look and see what September lines up to be because that's always where the, the rubber hits the road. It is a pretty even split between home and away games. Away at St. Louis, home against Austin, home against Colorado, away at Portland, home against the Galaxy. And you end the season in Canada in Vancouver on the 18th of October. [01:07:14] Speaker B: I don't know whether this is an unofficial rule, but FC Dallas always gets the Galaxy late in the season. Like in the last couple of games of the year, they almost always get la. [01:07:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:24] Speaker B: Either home or way or both, as the case may be this. [01:07:26] Speaker A: And what month is always the worst month for FC Dallas? Buzz? [01:07:29] Speaker B: Oh, is it June or is it July? July, yeah. [01:07:33] Speaker A: So that's July this time in July. On the road in La. LAFC. On the road in San Jose, home against St. Louis, home against NYC FC. Oh, I'm sorry, You start the Month at home on the fourth against Minnesota. [01:07:48] Speaker B: That's the one national TV game. Yeah, that's on FS1. That game. Really? [01:07:52] Speaker A: That's the only one they get. Okay. [01:07:53] Speaker B: The only one that was in the release. I mean, maybe there's some other ones that'll get added, but that's. That's it so far. [01:07:57] Speaker A: So they have three, see one, they have three home games in the heat of July and they have in August, 1, 2. Only two in August. Portland and LAFC here and they go to Austin and to the Galaxy. Oh, hey, here it is. The same trip I took last year. Buzz. Yeah. Oh, no, no. One's a home game, one's an away game. They play LA's back to back. You don't get the LA double. So there you go. Okay. Interesting stuff you get. [01:08:31] Speaker B: You can have an LA San Jose double in July. [01:08:34] Speaker A: Yeah, you could do that. I think the trip. I think the most interesting one, you noted it. The. The road trip to Cincinnati, obviously going to Miami would be a lot of fun. [01:08:44] Speaker B: Yeah. San Diego. [01:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah, those would be cool. All right. [01:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah, only. Only one three straight road game stretch in April into May. That's. That's pretty good. [01:08:52] Speaker A: That is good. All right. [01:08:53] Speaker B: Just the ones. Pretty good division. [01:08:56] Speaker A: Buzz also did his Dave Campbell's Texas high school football player rankings for FC Dallas Academy players this week. Yes, that's out on the website. [01:09:08] Speaker B: It is it really. This particular window is a really weird one because of this shakeup where they had a lot of older players at North Texas. We didn't see a bunch of academy kids playing. Playing there, which. And that on top of the fact that they already had all these kids that they had signed. Like there was a few. Couple kids they signed that felt really weirdly early to me. And even from different teams that were outside the academy. So they kind of already have signed a lot for this window. So really this list could have been one guy, and that's Caleb Swan, who's a kid that is the best player in the 07s. He reads the game about a second ahead of everybody else. Just a phenomenal player. Big Paxton, Palm type player. He's going to Maryland. He accelerated his graduation. That kind of guy from high school. He's going. So he's going to Maryland in January. So if they're gonna have to do something, they gotta do it now or else he's gonna be gone. They're gonna miss him, and he's a very talented player. So everybody on the list after that has plenty of time to progress. Either you Know for the, in the spring here or in college or there are players that are further down the list and there's. We're already starting to sneak in some players from, you know, the 08s and 09s that are some really exciting players that are going to come up over the next couple years in the list. So even some, I think that'll be big time participants and maybe even full time stars with North Texas next year, even though they're only academy players. Because that team's going to change drastically that the North Texas team, it may be maybe all academy. [01:10:34] Speaker A: All right. Well, speaking of which, we finally figured out what was going on with Michelle and John Gall and who was going to coach. What that. [01:10:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean it's amazing that like I looked back and it was like the John Gall news broke after our last podcast. So we have to touch on it and that's that Michelle was obviously Quill's first call when he got the head coaching job because he wanted him on his staff. And so John G's taken back over in North Texas. I see. Which is a little bit weird. But this is an organization that thinks very highly of John Gall and he's. I think he's really good at personal progressing players, helping players progress through from amateur to professional. I think that's his bread and butter, what he's very best at. So I think, you know, it seems from his reaction, it's, it's that he's pleased with it. You know, it is important to have multifaceted things on his resume. On a coach's resume. You don't want to just be the USL next. It's not USL Next Pro coach or just be an assistant like Luk Song was just an MLS assistant. Consistent. You want to have variety. Like that's what Quill did when Quill left, you know, so good for John Gall that he's being kept in a really positive spot and he should do really great things with that team next year, help progress those kids along. [01:11:46] Speaker A: And this week was the groundbreaking at the new facility out in Mansfield, which is essentially Mansfield's getting what Moneygram was supposed to be when it was originally concepted, which was a bunch of fields and a stadium. The stadium at Moneygram was ditched at. I can't remember what part of it it somehow I don't remember the backstory on it, but there was supposed to be a 5,000 seat stadium at MoneyGram that went away. Yeah, but it will happen at Mansfield. In fact, I think it's a 7,000 seat stadium and north. [01:12:20] Speaker B: I had 10 in my head, but whatever. Same. [01:12:22] Speaker A: Yeah, bigger. And North Texas will move from Choctaw and Arlington out to Mansfield Field, and that will be all the way out there for 2026. [01:12:31] Speaker B: 2026. Yeah. The renderings look nice. Looks like it's a good situation. It's kind of far down on 360, but, you know, that's what they wanted was. [01:12:37] Speaker A: Well, it's. I mean, it's. Yeah. I mean, it's about as far away from Frisco as you can get and still be in the Metroplex. [01:12:43] Speaker B: I know. Yeah. Yeah. Further away from my house, which is a bummer. [01:12:47] Speaker A: Oh, is it really? It's further to Mansfield from Arlington than Frisco is. [01:12:52] Speaker B: No, the new stadium is further from my house and then Choctaw, which is like 5ft from my house. [01:12:57] Speaker A: Right. Okay. I was. But Mansfield's closer to you than Frisco is, correct? [01:13:01] Speaker B: Sure. [01:13:01] Speaker A: Okay. [01:13:02] Speaker B: But it's not closer than Choctaw, which I can walk to. [01:13:06] Speaker A: But it'd also be grass, right? [01:13:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it will be grass. It's a. It's a much better, more appropriate venue. It's going to be the right size for that team, and it's going to be grass. It's going to be a really nice situation, A complex with fields around it. FC Dallas is going to be involved in running that complex. I mean, for all we know, maybe they'll see some FC Dallas south or something. They'll start playing there. You know, it's going to be like Moneygram, as you said, with the stadium. So it's a good situation, to be fair. [01:13:33] Speaker A: Okay. Any other FC Dallas specific stuff you want to get into? Man, we've been cranking for almost an hour and a half. [01:13:38] Speaker B: Man, that's a lot. Yeah, it is. Yeah. I mean, there's. There's lots of stuff bubbling of more homegrowns to come, and maybe one that's already happened. You know, there's going to be some movement on various player fronts coming over the next Whatever, too. So we'll stay tuned. There's more to come. [01:13:55] Speaker A: And Dallas cup news, Newcastle Buzz is coming to town. [01:14:00] Speaker B: Yeah, sources told me that one early. [01:14:02] Speaker A: All right, quit it with the sources. Super hyped if everybody doesn't know Buzz's wife, Amy now works for Dallas Cup. So when. [01:14:10] Speaker B: Hey, she's a professional. She was not the one that gave me that, so wink, wink. My sources were right. The new guy sounds coming, so I'm super excited. And I track Frankfurt reupped. That's Cool. [01:14:23] Speaker A: Yes. So, speaking of new schedules, Tacoma XFC is. Got their schedule out. [01:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah. USL 1, they're gonna. They're apparently making their first player announcement this weekend. Their schedule's out. They're. They're also. Not only are they playing in their league, they're also playing in this Jaeger Meister Cup. I'm not sure if you're even aware of this, Peter. USL has a first division, second division cup that they play that's new this year. [01:14:51] Speaker A: Oh, I heard about that. [01:14:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Super cool. Last year it was only USL1, but now they've expanded to the USL Championship. So that's cool. That's fun. That's different. So I like the sound of that. So that team's ramping up. They're gonna get going here very shortly. [01:15:05] Speaker A: EFL trophy. [01:15:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:15:08] Speaker A: All right. [01:15:08] Speaker B: Very cool. [01:15:09] Speaker A: Very good. Dallas Trinity lost their last games to Brooklyn, which was their final game of the 2024. Yeah. For sure. Of the calendar year. And now they go into their winter break. Ally Thornton and Jenna Weinbrenner were both team of the month. [01:15:28] Speaker B: I like that winebrenner. She's good. [01:15:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:15:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:31] Speaker A: And we'll see. And when do they play their first game of the second half? [01:15:35] Speaker B: It's not until February. [01:15:36] Speaker A: February, yeah. [01:15:37] Speaker B: So, you know what's fascinating is that. [01:15:39] Speaker A: And they said, by the way, just at the. At the break, they're third in the league at this point. Is that right? [01:15:45] Speaker B: They might be second. [01:15:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:15:47] Speaker B: Okay. It's second or third anyway. They're at the top of the league. Ish. What's fascinating is that because their season aligns with the winter calendar. A great test of that. But also they have players that were loaned to them from NWSL teams, and everyone in their league does. The NWSL leagues are on a different calendar, so it's not assured that you're going to get all the players back. [01:16:10] Speaker A: Right. [01:16:10] Speaker B: For the second half of the season, including, like their right back. Dorsey was on loan from a club that then let her go and waived her. So she's no longer with that team to be loaned to Dallas. So how's that going to work? I guess they. Hopefully they'll just go sign her, but. Questions? Eyebrows raised. Sam Mezza is on loan from. Is it Portland? [01:16:31] Speaker A: No, no, I think she's Seattle. [01:16:34] Speaker B: Seattle. Whoever it is, she's one of their best players. Is she coming back? You know, like, there's. There's some fascinating. Who else is out of contract now from NWSL that might be out there? So, like, we could see a big change in the. In the roster of these USL super league teams because of the. The. This harmony in the calendar. Yeah, that will be fascinating from a technical perspective to watch how that all goes, comes down or learn something regardless of which way it goes. [01:17:01] Speaker A: I just looked it up. Trinity is in second on 23 points. Brooklyn is in first on 29. And just proving the point that tries will kill you. Brooklyn and Dallas have lost the same amount of games this season at three. But Brooklyn's only had two ties and Dallas has struggled with five. Dallas and Brooklyn are two teams of a total of four out of the eight with a winning record this season. Yeah, which is pretty ridiculous. [01:17:34] Speaker B: And I think Dallas had a lot of ties at the beginning of the year too, before they sort of got their offense straightened out and got it going. So they're shifted formation when the new coach came in, helped them get going in that regard. [01:17:46] Speaker A: Okay. Anything? Oh, good lord. Okay. [01:17:49] Speaker B: Yeah, man, that was a lot. I'm sure there was something we're forgetting. [01:17:53] Speaker A: What was the best game of the four you saw in Italy? [01:17:56] Speaker B: Not the Fiorentina game. They won 8, 8 to 9. [01:17:59] Speaker A: How awesome is that stadium? [01:18:01] Speaker B: Fiorentina? Yes, it's. Well, it may have been awesome in the past. Now it's a dump. It's all being torn apart. [01:18:08] Speaker A: Oh, okay. They weren't doing that when I was there. It was very art. Very art deco. [01:18:13] Speaker B: And yeah, it reminded me underneath of like the Yale ball, but like, they've. I guess at one point they had a track that they've torn out and like, they're tearing out one end zone. It's owned by the guy that owns the Cosmos brand. The guy that's like, yeah, one of the most hated people in u. S. Soccer apparently owns that team. The. The best game was probably the champions league game with Milan against Red Star. That was a really intense game. The. The funnest game was the. The best stadium was Uve Juventus stadium. That was a nice stadium. It's missing some stuff, but it's still one of the best. One we went to. San Siro is a dump. But, you know, the. The funnest thing about that game is that the second time I went to AC Milan, they. It was the 125th anniversary of their founding. [01:19:05] Speaker A: Please tell me you got one of the jerseys. [01:19:08] Speaker B: They were really, really expensive, so I did not. They are, by the way, phenomenal, but they were like 250 or something outside of the stadium, so I. I didn't get one, but phenomenal jersey but they started a kid who was 16. He was. He's a 2008 or 7 or 8, 16 years old. Started him at one of the wing spots, which was amazing. And then they started at left back. They started a 19 year old. And he is a phenomenal player. That dude I was so jealous of. Yeah, Milan. So that those two kids were. I mean, to see a kid that was 17, 16 years old start. He's only played like five times for their reserve team. And they started with this game and then the kid at left back was just phenomenal. I was loving that guy. And it's. It's funny to watch them. The Italian fans are so demonstrative and they. And they. They yell at those players and they're really hard on them. And sometimes they. I don't know what they're yelling about. Like, they're yelling at guys that. I'm like, that's your best player. Like, there was a guy in the second game that was the only player on their team that could take a dude on the dribble. And he was running by guys like crazy. Now a couple of his last balls didn't find somebody, so they're screaming at him and I'm like. And they finally took him off. And I was like, he's the only guy on your team that's going by anybody. And you took him off. It's really. And they were all hating on him really badly. It was really weird. But they get so in. The biggest difference between an MLS game and those games, it's not necessarily the number of people. It's the intensity. It's the intensity of the fandom. Like everybody is really, really, really into it and mad or excited or passionate or whatever they're doing. And then the fact that the. The no smoking thing is not even a vague guideline. The whole game, everybody around me is smoking and vaping. And then like halftime, it's like I went to a Pink Floyd show. It was just like smoke everywhere. And I was on this leg. I guess we don't follow. And they make a big thing about no smoking. No, baby. The beginning of the game, nobody cares. It was. [01:21:08] Speaker A: Buzz was sending pictures back to the group chat. It was like his knees jammed up in front of the chair, in front of him. How tight it was in the smoke. And I was like, yep, tiny space, crowded spaces and cigarette smoke. Welcome to Europe, Buzz. [01:21:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm too big for Europe, for sure, but not just me. Like, there was a guy was with us who's an English guy, but he's been in America for a long time. He's a coach, actually. His teams are up in Chicago. He's like. He's like six. Six. And so he. He was like. He. He just stood up the whole game. He didn't even try and sit down. It was just like, you know, and there's a bunch of guys on that trip that were. That were easily. I was nowhere near, like, the tall person. There was several guys bigger than me, and they were all going through that. It. But it's just, you know, it is what it is what it is. It's just, you know, and I tried to find souvenirs to buy and stuff, and I couldn't find it. Nobody had anything. And any kind of what I call, you know, real, man, American sizes, you know, they're all European sizes and tiny, you know, so. But, you know, whatever. Who cares? That wasn't the. The fun part was the experience and the going to some of those cool stadiums and the weather was so cold, but, you know, you just put on some, you know, ski jacket and go and have fun. So. So I had an absolute ball. It was awesome. [01:22:21] Speaker A: Great. Well, I'm glad you did. [01:22:23] Speaker B: And here's my big takeaway. You know, they say prego means you're welcome, so the prego spaghetti sauce here is your welcome sauce. And ragu means sauce, so ragu spaghetti sauce is sauce. Sauce. That's my big takeaway from going to Italy. [01:22:42] Speaker A: I'm glad you learned all that. Buzz while you're over there. [01:22:44] Speaker B: That's what I learned. [01:22:45] Speaker A: That's a big trip. I love that. Very good. All right, well, I think we did it. I think we've done enough damage for a week of podcasting. [01:22:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And by the way, just if anyone's interested, the company that did the tour for me was called Bravo. I linked them in my. Their socials and stuff, and they. They put together these tours, and they. They take care of everything. You know, it's bus, train, hotel. They got guides that know everything. Shelby around. Here's your tickets. Here's where meeting you as we're dropping you off. Go, go, go. You know, time off for tours of this or that. [01:23:18] Speaker A: Oh, I thought you went because of something related to Amy. [01:23:21] Speaker B: It was. It's. It's a. It came through. It's a connection that came through one of Amy's soccer jobs that got us into the group, but that's as we put together. It's a group called Bravo Sports Tours. It's related to. They do team tours and camps and such. Like that they, these foreign trips for teams and clubs and stuff. They also run these tours that are just like to go to games and things like that. These are some of the different packages they. So she got it. She got the contact through one of her soccer gigs and then we just did the bit, you know, this Italy thing that was lined up with the champions around the Champions League game and the Europa game and the. So it was fun. All right. It's great. [01:23:59] Speaker A: Kick ass. Good for you, man. [01:24:02] Speaker B: Thanks. [01:24:02] Speaker A: Glad you got to do it. All right, well, I have a feeling more is happening now. Are we doing podcasts the next two week or are we taking off until after January? [01:24:10] Speaker B: Let's see. Let's see. Well, next, next week would be the day after Christmas. So I guess I'll check with you and we'll see how it goes. We will for sure do the second. So next week maybe. We'll see. [01:24:24] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, I mean it, A lot of it is going to depend on if anything happen, if nothing happens. [01:24:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean it is Christmas and like I, I'm gonna have in laws here so I'm, I'm gonna say probably not doing one the day after Christmas, but if you and I get together and say we really need to, we can and we'll let everybody know. If not, it'll be the second jones. [01:24:41] Speaker A: In to do some burn talk. [01:24:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you know, some stuff goes down but you know, it's like the office, like everything came out yesterday, today and tomorrow, this being Thursday and then Friday should there'll be some more news because I guarantee you MLS office is going to be closed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So nothing's going to happen unless it happens tomorrow. You know, like, like the draft is tomorrow. So if we feel like we needed some draft talk, maybe you and I can knock out a quick draft, 30 minutes or something for on the 26th. Possibly. I suppose we'll let everybody know. [01:25:14] Speaker A: Right. Well, glad you're home, Buzz. Good talking to you. Good fun times and everybody. All right. And Dan, since we didn't get to talk to you, I hope Dan is having a good holiday season and we hope you FC Dallas Curious are having a good holiday season. Have a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. In case we don't talk to you until after the new year, but at some point somewhere down the road, whether sooner or later, we will talk to you next time on the next episode of 3rd Degree the podcast one name Brazilians 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree Ned podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree. [01:25:57] Speaker B: The. [01:25:57] Speaker A: 3Rd degree the 3rd Degree Nerd. [01:26:18] Speaker B: SA.