3rd Degree the Podcast #295

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I remember reading this story and little did I know Buzz Carrick would become a friend and become somebody that was going to be in my life. And a few years later, so just things come full circle as I'm walking around the Kean University campus with the boys being like, dude, he played for. [00:00:16] Speaker B: FC Dallas and now Buzz Carrick's number one. And if you like FC Dallas or you're covered following some of the insanity. [00:00:22] Speaker A: That'S going on there, you should follow him. Yeah. [00:00:34] Speaker C: 3Rd Degree the 3rd Degree podcast 3rd. [00:00:39] Speaker A: Degree the 3rd Degree N podcast 3rd Degree NE podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd. [00:00:49] Speaker B: Degree 3rd Degree the podcast is brought to you by listeners like you. If you enjoy this podcast, if you enjoy our coverage at Third Degree, why don't you join us on our Patreon and give us a little support. If you do, you get a little extra content there. And if you join at the Three Amigos level, you get access to our wonderful community on our discord patreon.com thirddegree thanks again for all your support. [00:01:10] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas curious fan. Welcome to another episode, this one 295 of Third Degree the podcast. He is here again. It is the good Dan Crook. Howdy Dan. [00:01:23] Speaker C: Howdy Peter. [00:01:26] Speaker A: How d Dan indeed. And there's he goes, your hero, my hero, everybody's Hero, Editor, Founder, third degree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Carrot. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:38] Speaker B: Peter. So robotic until the very end there. Thank you for the flare up. [00:01:42] Speaker A: Well, I just, we got too much. I don't, you know, dwell just doing the repetitive opener thing. I don't have time for that today. We have way too much to talk about. This has turned into the most ridiculous off season of all time. They are clearly burning the fields as we speak, getting ready to. And the question is, are they going to replant the field? I'm assuming that is, I've come to this conclusion. Buzz, you can, you can be a, a fan who is extremely positive that they've got a new technical director and a new scout and there's new voices in the room with lots of pedigree and resumes and they're going to refill these positions and really reload this team even better than before and make a real run at MLS Cup. Or you could just be B, a worried fan like you just don't know what's going to happen. Or C, you could be like many people, very jaded and suspicious and doubtful that they are capable of replacing all of these people. I don't know where you land on in those categories, But I think all of them buzz, I think it's fair to say you could have any of the three positions and be completely justified. [00:02:50] Speaker B: Yeah, we went into this winner wondering if they were doing anything because, you know, they were talking to some people that they had had contracts run out or options decline, and then their roster was kind of full, and they've since gone, for lack of a better word, scorched earth. And they've. They've burned big chunks of the swaths through the roster, which is, hey, look, how many times have we sat here and said, be ruthless in the off season? This is the first time they've actually been as ruthless as we wanted them to be. And they're doing all the moves that they've done so far, except for one. All the moves they've done so far. I'm on board with 100. And I think, you know, they're doing the right things to set themselves up. And. And then. So now I'm just waiting, and I'm sure other fans are waiting for what's next, what's coming. There has to be a return. There has to be a second part of all this. And until we get that happening, so we see that happening, it's impossible to judge how they're doing. So, you know, whether you think, as a fan, you're out there sitting, whether you're excited or whether you're terrified may depend on how you believe, how good they are at getting in pieces. And sometimes their track record has been spotty. Sometimes your track record has been really great. So we wait. We wait and see what happens. [00:04:03] Speaker A: I'm probably doing this backwards because there was some significant movement in said roster we'll get to in a second. But, Dan, we haven't heard from you yet. Where are you on? I'm taking your temperature, sir. Bend over. [00:04:16] Speaker C: Oh. Can you at least lube it first? I mean, it's. It's. It's fun, it's exciting. It can be a flaming dumpster fire, but at least it's better than, well, nothing happened. It's a boring off season. [00:04:30] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. I mean, I was thinking was, when did. When did they announce the Musa signing? How far close to the season did we find out about Musa? [00:04:40] Speaker C: They were in Portugal at the time. [00:04:42] Speaker A: Right. So if I remember correctly, prior to them going to Portugal, we were like, this is the snooziest off season ever. [00:04:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:51] Speaker A: Am I remember? Is that correct? [00:04:52] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Nothing. Remember, we were talking a lot about, where are you really just going with the exact Same team. We're like, where's the moves? Where's the changes? Where's the get better? [00:05:01] Speaker C: Right. So it was February 1st, by the way. [00:05:04] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. And then the Musa thing happened and we went, wow, that is really unexpected. How are you going to support this dude? We saw how that played out. [00:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah. To be fair. To be Fair, that's February 1st is after that window opens this year, January 31st. So it's very likely, very possible, very plausible that come February 1st, here's going to be a signing or two or whatever it's going to be. You know, that's the thing, is we can't. They don't like to go early FC Dallas, they don't want to make waves, they don't want to risk anything, so they don't say squat until the window actually opens. [00:05:39] Speaker A: Yeah. It does feel, though, the league has progressed in terms of, you know, the Tom Bogaerts of the world and all the other outlets of the world that we eventually hear about things well in advance of them actually happening, and we haven't heard anything yet, and so let's just get around to it. So, since we last spoke on this particular podcast, the Alan Velasco sale did go official today, Thursday the 23rd. We all knew it was going to happen. He is gone. There's training videos of him. He looks like the happiest little Argentinian boy in all of the land. I've never seen that kid look so happy in his entire life. So good for him. The question I had about that buzz and reflecting on the Velasco thing is, man, Dallas and Dan Hunt got so far lucky that Boca. I mean, I don't know what Boca knows about this, that made them justify internally to spend 10, $12 million on him. But if Boca hadn't showed up, I, I, it. The, the long. The, the. The. The 35, 000 view of their purchase of Velasco was very, very much up in the air as to whether that was going to end up being a good deal or not. [00:06:54] Speaker B: Dallas's purchase mean. [00:06:55] Speaker A: Yes, because, you know, he spent a lot of money on him. He showed up, did one amazing. He did a messy thing on day one and a. Not what you, everybody else expected. And you know what I'm saying, like, 12 million for a kid that hadn't done much and blew out his knee is just a tremendous, tremendous stroke of luck. [00:07:15] Speaker B: Yeah. I actually think, of course, the new contract extension for him from FC Dallas was a big showing on their part that, like, yeah, we think this kid is the Guy we think he's gonna. And all the talk from all the blowhards is he's moving inside, he's going to be the 10, we're giving him the 10 jersey. Like he's, he's about to become the man here. And he seemed on board with that. I mean he signed that new deal, he knew he was going to be here for the next six years, whatever four plus two. So I think in the end, that investment that, that agreement amongst to show that Alan's the guy that almost lit Boca on fire, that actually made them become crazy, more interested in him than they even were. Like, they almost went like, oh crap. Really? They were probably waiting around for him to wash out, you know, and leave here on nothing. Instead they're like, damn, we better get him now before he moves inside. And trying to put myself in their shoes before he moves inside in Dallas and smokes the world on fire. And all of a sudden we're never getting him. He's going to Europe. And they probably figured there's a calculation here of what that kid will do in Argentina where he will probably fit the style a tiny bit more than he does here and probably will do amazing things. And they're, they're probably confident that, you know, and what's he now, 22 going on 23 in two years, they're going to flip him for 30 to, you know, Benfica or whatever, you know what I mean? So. [00:08:37] Speaker A: Or Atlanta United. [00:08:38] Speaker B: Atlanta United. So somebody in the most with money. So like, you know, they're making the same calculation that Dallas was making a kid worth investing in, you know, and if we have, he demonstrated at the end of the last season and he could have demonstrated this in practice too, but they did it in games. You know, he, he's coming back, he looks great. Rehabs on course, awesome. Let's invest him, let's do it, let's double down, you know. And then everyone else was like, oh, better get him. [00:09:03] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe it wasn't a luck thing. Maybe it was the master plan all along to sign him to a big deal and get Boca's juices flowing. And it worked in their favor. So if that was the plan, credit. [00:09:13] Speaker B: To them, FC now says that they got caught by surprise a bit and they weren't, they were expecting this deal to, to mute all that stuff. And I really think the total opposite happened and it made it blow up. And to be 100% fair, like the deal they got for Allen is a no brainer. You do that deal every time. You know, there's no question, 100%. [00:09:31] Speaker A: I completely agree with you. Now, the crazy part of this is it was an amazing day today, Thursday, because in the mix of all this actually happening, I think I'm correct in saying before the Allen deal got announced, was the official word that Nikosi Tafari is no longer a Dallas player. He has been traded to LAFC for the. I don't know, man. I don't know what to say about. I mean, I kind of know what to say about this, but I'm waiting for you, Buzz. Go. Go ahead, explain it there. [00:10:03] Speaker B: Okay. They traded him for a bag of balls. This is, you know, 2026 money and 2026 international spot. The amount of money they traded is kind of about the same as it takes to like flip up a pick in a couple picks in the first round of the draft. The international spots, decent. Dallas always needs those. But it's for next year. Okay, that's fine. This is. This is a major undersell for me. So here's the thing. On this deal, in general, regardless of how you personally evaluate Nikosi Tafari, I don't think he's significantly worse or better than Sebastian Ibiaga. You know, they both are prone to occasional mistakes. This is a league where people make mistakes. This is not a flawless league. And these guys, you know, one of them are flawless center backs, but one of them is 26 and entering the prime of his career. One of them is 33 and exiting way past the exit of the prime of his career. Right. One of them is a much better passer going forward than the other. And one of them has recovery pace and athleticism, and the other does not. And one of them is half as expensive as the other. So you must have a massive like of Ibiaga over Tafare in order to dump a player making half the money who's significantly younger. And make no mistake, this is a dump trade. They were TR shopping this guy since the end of the season. You know, there's been discussion that we've heard behind the scenes that he wasn't super happy with the money he was making and probably would not have re upped here, but they had him through 2026. So this is not an Evan Cerrillo contract running out. Get what you can move. This is a you got a year, two years left, and we're dumping you move. So what's the difference between these two players? And the answer is, from my perspective, because I don't think you can evaluate them that too differently is one of them makes waves and the other one does not. One of them is young, brash, has a culture you're not used to dealing with, has off field things, has protests, occasionally will shout back at a manager, will, will get upset and demonstrative and stand up for himself. And the other one is a quiet these by example kind of guy. So I read this 100% as a dump that two coaches in a row couldn't handle. And you know, this is not a guy that is easy to handle yet except by modern professional athletes standards. He's not that bad. He's pretty mild compared to like some players you see in other particular sports. So I just think this is almost a give up on a guy who could have been coached to a higher level by a coach who could handle him. And so that's why I'm upset with this deal. I try to judge every individual deal on its own specific metrics and for a team that's desperate for the center backs, especially center backs that can pass, he was the best center back you had in terms of passing and right there with the others in terms of his pure defending. So I'm not happy with this deal at all. At the end of the day, depending on what you get in to replace him, maybe it'll be all right. But here's my, my last thing about this trade. Look at his numbers in the league, right? Something like 115 games overall, five years of play at the, at the MLS level, basically a starter most all but the first season, maybe season and a half somewhere in there, give or take. What would that cost you to replace it? He's basically a boubacar but like 4 years younger. And abu carr was on 700k like what would it cost you in the league to go get a 26 year old center back with 100 games of MLS experience and then ask yourself, did they get good value on this deal? And I think the answer is no. [00:13:40] Speaker C: The problem you're going to have is, you know, for coming up on his fifth year, 100 plus games and turns 28 in what, a month's time. And last year all he did was rookie mistake, rookie mistake, rookie mistake. He's had four, he's played under four coaches if you include the interim coaches and all four have dropped him or four have said he's inconsistent, he doesn't get the tactics. You know, everyone has the same issues of him switching off. And I think a big thing is he, he does need the right coach, he does need the right environment. Eric Cool could have been that. I think Oscar Pereira absolutely would have been that. But I mean, obviously there was a point where Ghosts and FC Dallas, very similar to, you know, the Jesus Ferreira thing, had a mutual. Yeah, we're good. We're going to move on. They absolutely got underpaid. I find it really weird the whole. There is no return this year, it's all next year. Like you say, that is 100% a dump because they are now even worse in a position that they were light in anyway. Even if they don't see Tafari as a, as a CB1, they might see him as a three. But, yeah, there's, there's something that, that kind of has to give there because they're. Obviously, they found that they couldn't rely on him. [00:15:18] Speaker B: Sure. And if you have a player that has flaws and as you say, like, maybe a better coach can handle him, but yet he's still a guy that can compete at the Major League Soccer level. You look at three of the. Of the five seasons. His rookie year, he didn't play. That's understandable. But then the four of the next five, sorry, the next four years, all but one of them, he's effectively a starter. You know, he's. He's over 20 games started every time, you know, throw in. Most of the time it's actually over 25. So you throw in a couple suspensions, a couple injuries or whatever, and it sort of all fits in. But let's say you're right, he does make mistakes, and we don't want him as a starter. Okay, look, great, let's drop him down a third or fourth on the depth chart or whatever. Okay, then maybe the money makes sense. So now how. What would it cost you that you've gotten rid of him? What's it going to cost you to find a journeyman player that's going to have that kind of experience and burn, be able to burn 10, 12 starts for you? Last year they tried to get Omar Gonzalez to do that, and we saw how that turned out. I'm just saying that, like, the, the, the, the fact that you can't handle him isn't, shouldn't be reason to dump him when it's going to cost you a lot more to replace him. So, like that, to me, that's the failure. [00:16:26] Speaker A: Like, what confuses me is the, is the amount they were willing to sell him for, and is that A, an indication of how badly Dallas wanted him out of the locker room, or B, how the rest of the league values him as a player? Because I. Getting rid. I mean, look, I Get it? I mean, he's, he, he's had his issues here in Dallas. He's been, you know the fact that during to Dan's point, at least two or three of the managers doing really critical points of the season, he just sat on the bench because the coach didn't trust him. So something's going on there. So getting rid of him as well. But how could you only get $300,000 in gam for the dude? That's the part I can't figure out. [00:17:13] Speaker B: It's definitely that they want to get rid of him. It may also be that other people don't value him. But look who took him. It's not like, you know, Montreal or. Sorry, not Montreal, Vancouver or the Revs or teams in complete rebuild mode took him. LAFC took him. [00:17:29] Speaker A: Right, Right. [00:17:30] Speaker B: One of the powers of this league who saw a guy that they're like, dude, we can deal with anybody. Look, we got people on this roster that won't put up with that kind of shenanigans. We got coaches that can just play to the top of the game. Right. Forget that we see the value in the player and how cheap we're getting him. Great. If he's center back four or five for us, awesome. I mean, I'm putting words in their mouth, but it's not like he went to some chump team. He went to a really good team and a good franchise. [00:17:56] Speaker C: There's also the aspect with that is the same reason it makes Siki and sibling such a valuable roster piece or, you know, if a trade ever does happen with him for a team like L. A, like a Miami and Atlanta, someone like that, where, where trying to get under the cap is such a, such a feat. Having a guy who can sit on the bench, come in as a starter on 300 grand is. Is a godsend. [00:18:23] Speaker B: An American too. So no international spot. Yeah. So, you know, the guy's got value. So that's, you know, I. There's lots of reasons why they get rid of him, you know, and to them it's 100. Fine. I just think that this is the first move that's been to me a failure. I think you should be able to deal with this guy and had because. Just because of that immense value he does have for rosters, you should have either gotten more or been able to deal with him here in town. He's probably ecstatic. He probably can't believe his luck. That guy going out to la, he probably is over the moon. [00:18:53] Speaker C: I think that's the funny part is I can completely rationalize why they would get rid of him and not disagree. But like, 300 grand they don't get this year, an international spot that they don't get this year. Okay, maybe if they're kind of set on the idea of year one of a rebuild, we've got enough general allocation money, we've got enough international roster spots for what we're doing right now. Okay, maybe that is a smart move for next year and maybe they have had to take a little hit on what they could have got back if it was 20, 25 allocation money. But I don't know, like you say, it just feels like they've traded them for a bag of balls. To a degree. [00:19:34] Speaker A: There's a part of all of this that makes me feel like there's something we don't know or there's a lot more to this story than we're being told because it just doesn't add up. I mean, he wasn't an MLS all star by any stretch of the imagination. He wasn't even really a fringe national team player. I mean, I know he got the January call up last year, but did he even play in a game I don't like? I don't think he did. So he's not that level. I mean, he's kind of a B minus grade MLS player at best. So I. But even then, to Buzz's point, with his age and everything else, it just seems like not enough. And of course this is. It's like one of those other things. We're just worried he's going to end up going to a better team and suddenly start, you know, looking great. So. Yeah, although I'm. Although I keep saying that. And then I go back and think about it. How many times has another player left this club and gone to another MLS club and turned out to be an absolute all star? I don't think that's happened yet. [00:20:32] Speaker B: Well, Edwin just lifted MLS cup, but he. [00:20:34] Speaker A: But that's a better team that he didn't become. I don't think Edwin is quantifiably a world's better player in LA than he was in Dallas. He's just on a vastly better team. [00:20:44] Speaker B: No, none of these people have gone to other teams and been world beaters. I mean, Callum went to Colorado and he's been fine, but his best days were in Dallas. You know, Giant Nelson's been good for lafc, Walker Zimmerman. [00:20:55] Speaker C: But that was always going to happen. That was just him and Perea fell out. [00:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah, Walker may be the only one that really blossomed But Walker was so young when he left too, so he was. [00:21:07] Speaker C: He was always on that trajectory. [00:21:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So that's the big stunner, I guess. Cause I don't think any of us thought that was actually gonna actually take place. Because that now means Buzz, you know, a club that has been struggling to sign center backs, and we're all sitting here assuming that they're gonna sign. I mean, this. I mean, here's the thing. Two weeks from now, within the next two weeks, they could announce some sort of really impressive, highly pedigreed, heavy, you know, in his prime age, DP level, center back, and we'll forget about Nakosi TAF two minutes flat. [00:21:42] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, if you sign the right player. That's what I said. Like, if. If you get the right guys, we. A month from now, we'd be like, okay, never mind. Glad you traded Nicosi. This all makes sense. But, you know, you can only judge these things in the moment for their individual value. And this undervalued again. It's like everything else this winter, right? What's the payoff? What's the delivery? And that's what matters. [00:22:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think that's what's got everybody on pins and needles is now they're down to one dp, They've got to replace Allen. How are they going to do that now? So they've like, the list of things they needed to do is just getting exponentially larger, and we're getting closer and closer to the start of the season. But the question I wanted both of you guys to think about and answer is, what is the demarcation line for the. The pedigree or kind of player or center back Dallas could announce that is going to make people forget about Nikosi Tafari leaving? [00:22:36] Speaker B: Well, unfortunately, they need three center backs, so one. [00:22:39] Speaker A: But they're not gonna sign. But they're not gonna sign three CB ones. [00:22:42] Speaker B: No, no, no. The CB one. Right. I was gonna work on my way towards that. The CB one needs to be a player that can. That has played at a pretty significant level. This is not a spot that needs a U22 initiative player in it. You know, that could be the other third center back or whatever. This is a. This is a player that needs to be commanding and needs to make us forget about all these other center backs that they've. These journey men, veteran center backs that they've kicked around here. It has to be at least like a Reto Ziegler level of play. He can be a little bit older. That's okay, maybe a guy that has formerly played in a World cup, you know, this can't be a second division guy from some scrub team in South America. This can't be like some dude that's a reserve for a second tier team in Portugal or even second team in Benfica, you know, it can be a non starter for the first team, like Peter Musa from a club like Benfica or from a club from one of the top five leagues in the world. That's the kind of player he needs to be. Doesn't have to be a dp, but it needs to be a player that would be a DP in certain circumstances. These high value tam players, like the end of Reto Ziegler's run, he was approaching a million dollars a season. That kind of veteran leader, that kind of experience, that kind of quality. Now are you can MLS afford a guy that's like primal career like that, 27, 28? Probably not. So he's probably going to have to be more like 30 or maybe he's going to have to be really young, but really young can be the other guy. They need a leader who can step in there and people will immediately respect. They need an aer y of center backs where everyone's going to take notice. And they got to quiet the fan base down a little bit too. I mean, you hate, I hate the idea that like you would buy a guy just because you think the fan base is going to need something, but honestly, people are now like, like, what is going on level of like mood out there. [00:24:34] Speaker A: You don't really think they care about that though, do you, man? [00:24:38] Speaker B: I. Yeah, I think they do. Really, I think they do care about that a little bit, you know, because at the end of the day, you have to sell tickets. You know, they've. They've done all this amazing work the last since the pandemic with Jerome and the marketing department who has now left, you know, and like they're going to lose all that momentum. Like, there's a lot of people out there now talking about canceling tickets. Like, I have no faith in this team. They got to deliver something. It doesn't have to be John Stones, but it's got to be someone where people can point and go, okay, I know what that is. They can, they can wrap their emotion around it and say, okay, I buy this. I buy this guy as a dude who could step in, stop getting rejects from other teams, stop getting cast off, stop getting like guys from scrub teams you never heard of that are like, everyone's like, oh, it's going to be great and like, you're never going to play this level. It's got to be a guy who has done the goods before. [00:25:31] Speaker A: And indicators. I think both of you have said in our group chat that all indications are is that they intend to make an announcement likely after February 1, that they have their man. But we have no idea who this person is. [00:25:47] Speaker B: We have no idea who it is. I mean, it was Anati even today. Said two to three more signings. This window, right? Well, this winner runs till April, but you know it. And it is the opposite window from the mo from the European windows, you know, but it is, this is a thing that like everybody we know keeps saying, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming. Just wait, it's coming, you know, so we, we can, all we can do unless we can pull off a bogart and get like details, which I doubt I'll be able to do or we'll be able to do. But Dan, where are you in terms of what you want to get? See? Come in. [00:26:18] Speaker C: This is not what I want to see. This is the, this the fan question. So the. I think the average social media FC Dallas fan and not the average FC Dallas curious listener of this podcast would shut the hell up if they signed Matt Hedges back. Purely sentiment. No other reason. I'm looking at free agent center backs right now. And I don't know, I mean this as everyone you know with any pedigree is it's pretty old at this point. You could get Federico Fazio. His, his brother obviously played Richland and played locally. He's 37 though. You really want, you know, do you want to do that? Oh, there would be the FC Dallas Fans Facebook group. There would 100% be people that are like, marcello is free, Sergio Ramos is free. Yeah, Ramos combined, they qualify for a pension. But, you know. [00:27:17] Speaker A: Yeah, but that's okay, Dan. Now you're talking about the Facebook fan group is not a real place. [00:27:25] Speaker C: I agree. But we're talking about FC Dallas fans as a whole. Right? And as, as much as we love the curious. The curious and not the majority of FC Dallas fans that make all the noise. They are the educated ones. [00:27:38] Speaker B: So, Peter, would you take Sergio Ramos? [00:27:41] Speaker A: I, that would be an I, I, I haven't kept up with Sergio in his health situation after PSG because, you know, he was so injured there. I might get, I'm assuming he's done for, but that would be a really cool name to have and would grab a lot of attention. [00:28:03] Speaker B: But he played 28 games for Sevilla last year. [00:28:05] Speaker A: Oh, did he? [00:28:06] Speaker B: Yep. [00:28:07] Speaker A: Okay. That's not who. I mean, if that's who it ends up being. Not that it's going to be. I don't want anybody coming away from this episode going, oh, my God, they may actually sign Sergio Ross. [00:28:17] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. That's just pure. Whatever. [00:28:20] Speaker A: No, I. No, I'm. No. No. My answer now is no. I'm done with the over the hill, I'm. I'm headed into retirement guy. No matter who it is, I don't know. They need to sign a legitimate, in their prime or at the peak of their powers, quantifiably known entity to fill that role, and they've got to do it twice because they got to do it. They got to do it at center back, and they've got to do it in an attacking position, too. [00:28:50] Speaker C: You know, I wouldn't be mad if they took a punt at someone like Daniel Amati. He's. He was. He won the Premier League with Leicester. He's. He's only 30. Just turned 30 less just a month ago. Yeah, but as a guy with some pedigree, wouldn't cost a penny would, you know, he'd take up an international spot, but that would be. That would be a Reto Ziegler. [00:29:17] Speaker B: So, Dan, in a time machine last summer, the guy from your club almost came here with injury aside and failure to pass the physical aside, would that have been a player that would have met. You think our. [00:29:29] Speaker C: Oh, he'd be quality. Yeah. People would bitch because they hadn't heard of him, but he'd be quality. He's. He's, you know, gone to Auxerre and stayed mostly healthy. His knee did play up a little bit, and I think he just got sent off last week. But yeah, I mean, his. Yeah, he, he. Mls, the pace of play, I think he'd be absolutely screwed. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I think anybody. Anybody in and around the top five leagues in the world. I'm not saying guys that have been, you know, habitual starters in that level, but guys that have been, you know, a second choice at that level or that's still good enough for this league. MLS is not that level yet. I mean, MLS is better than almost every other league in the world. You know, it's somewhere right around maybe the bottom of the top 10 or slightly outside of that, depending on your mileage. But, like, go. We getting a player that played in USL here or in Venezuela or like, you know, Africa. [00:30:26] Speaker A: Go get me one of the better center backs out of League mx. [00:30:29] Speaker B: Yeah, there are teams that are in the bottom of those leagues or guys that are like floating around those leagues or maybe at the top of the championship that are going to be plenty good enough to come into MLS and be a stand up guy and that's the caliber player it needs to be if in fact you're going to make this team better. If you're not going to make this team better, just go get another Jose Antonio Martinez and who cares? Go get Bresson again and who cares? But if you're actually trying to be better, you got to deliver more than that. You got to give us at least a Reto Ziegler. At least. [00:30:56] Speaker A: But aren't we all under the impression that the whole point to having an Andre Zenada and his buddy that's now the technical director and that guy's buddy that's now the head of scouting and that friend, that friend, friend base of people that are now doing this, aren't they the ones that are supposed to have all these connections to South America? I mean, to me, and again, this is how I infer the situation. So it could be completely wrong. It has always felt like to me that we were being told that these guys have like a Rolodex of available players to call up from at their disposal when they need to fill a spot in Dallas. And it just hasn't felt like that that's ever turned out to be true. Or maybe that was just something I made up and that's never been the case. [00:31:42] Speaker B: Well, I would say that the, the guys they've gotten from South America that have been the younger ones, there's been a couple of those that have been okay given Jesus looked all right. Certainly Al Ver was pretty good. But the ones that have been the older, more veteran guys haven't really panned out. Like, you know, the, your Brissons for example, or your Facundo Quinones, right. Thiago Santos looked pretty, pretty good, but then they whipped around and sold him again really quick. So it's like if you can deliver a guy from one of those leagues down there that you can show us this is a big time guy, he's played in a bunch of Liberador games, he's lifted a trophy. Maybe, you know, show us and the fan base some sort of quality reason to think that this guy's a big time center back, then we'll believe you. And don't give us this guy who was third choice at some team you've never heard of. Right? So that's the balance you just described. Bresson I know I did. It's kind of what I was shooting for. [00:32:42] Speaker C: And his announcement went down like a fart in an elevator. [00:32:46] Speaker B: It did. And that's the thing, though. It's like, you know, the. The problem is, is that many of the South American leagues now are worse than mls, right? Look at the guys that have Left here. Frank O'Hara led the Argentine League in scoring. I'm not saying Boca Juniors is not a humongous thing. That's all I'm talking about. You know, there are guys and there are clubs down there that are so worth buying. People buy guys down there from immense amounts of money that Dallas can't afford. So, like getting a guy on the way up. Dallas can only afford those. The U22 guys, or maybe a rare Alan Flasko, which we already talked about. His team was desperate for money. Right. [00:33:20] Speaker C: I think South America is, at this point with. Compared to mls, is very much like a lot of the lower tier 2 European leagues. People will rave about Eredivisio for Ajax and psv. Are you telling me that Almere or Groningen would be a leading MLS club? [00:33:46] Speaker A: Well, I was watching the Manchester United Rangers game today and they were talking about the disparity in the. The salary, the wage bill between the two clubs. And, you know, they were talking about how much money United had spent. And then they mentioned the amount that Rangers spent and I thought, holy crap, I think FC Dallas spent more than than that on their roster. Last year. It was $15 million. So Dallas was at 12. I mean, so they're literally 3 million less than Rangers, which is, you know, a pretty significant club over in Europe. So it's not like they're that far apart. [00:34:24] Speaker C: I think you're overestimating the Scottish League. [00:34:27] Speaker A: No, I'm not. I'm just saying range. Not the Scottish League, but the. But the. But Rangers in particular, obviously they've been through their troubles of late. Dan, it just. It struck me as odd to hear the name Rangers and the same pay grade as FC Dallas. I hadn't. I did. I wasn't ready for that. [00:34:43] Speaker B: That was. That's a perfect example of a team that. Where you. If you could get a guy from Rangers, I would be ecstatic. If you can get Cameron Carter Vickers, I'm in. That's fantastic. [00:34:51] Speaker C: He's a Celtic. That is. That, that. [00:34:54] Speaker B: Well, it's the same thing. Celtic Rangers analogy, same pool. [00:34:59] Speaker A: You're gonna get a car bomb now, Buzz. [00:35:02] Speaker B: It's not the same team. But they're both from Glasgow. [00:35:05] Speaker A: Oh, no. [00:35:09] Speaker C: This has been fun while it lasted. [00:35:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Those two teams are of the caliber where you could get a player from there and we would all go, oh, that sounds terrific. But then if you go get a player from air would be like, what are you doing? Right, sure. [00:35:23] Speaker A: Yeah. I, I have no idea. I. It's definitely a situation where everybody just needs to sit tight and hold on to their pants and see what happens. But if you. As I admit I tend to be suspect to pessimistic that anything's good gonna come out of this and they're gonna announce players of note. I, you know, I get it. I totally get it. But I can also see why people are very positive. Look, they got money to spend and things like know man, just a bit of context for. [00:35:54] Speaker C: Well, Rangers in particular Celtic is kind of on another level of spend. Yianis Haji was linked with FC Dallas a few years ago and it was very much like the NS Ennis Sali who's going to be, you know, maybe he'll come good, probably won't. He is one of Rangers best players. Yeah, well, I mean it's not like, you know, Rangers in the 90s and the 2000s absolute A Power Rangers today are basically fighting for third place half the time. [00:36:28] Speaker A: Right? Yeah, yeah. Rangers went through a whole business thing several years. Didn't they get pushed down to the second division? [00:36:36] Speaker B: No, they technically liquidated that team. [00:36:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:37] Speaker C: They are not the same team. [00:36:39] Speaker A: It's not the same Rangers from. Yes, the old firm is not the same thing it used to be. No, but it's still a name and everybody knows it. And to their credit they're in the Europa League playing Manchester United at Old Trafford today. And I just. When I heard that they essentially spent the same as FC Dallas, I just thought that was very, very strange. Make no mistake, MLS clubs are spending money at a crazy rate compared to a lot. In fact, probably the majority of soccer clubs around the world, not the biggest leagues, but you know, there's a whole bunch of leagues out there and a whole bunch of clubs and MLS is up near the top towards spending these days and, and, and so we'll see what happens with Dallas which is why. [00:37:23] Speaker B: You can't be surprised if, if they go into the season with Abubakar Ibiaga as they're two center backs, people aren't going to be panicking and that's. [00:37:31] Speaker A: Well, absolutely wouldn't. Aren't you gonna panic? [00:37:34] Speaker B: Well, I don't know if I'll panic, but I'll definitely be expecting horrible play, horrible results. [00:37:39] Speaker A: Right. [00:37:39] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, that's. Those are not the two guys I thought should be starting at center back for this team. I don't think either one of those guys is still a starter, but I. [00:37:47] Speaker A: Do think that, you know, there. There is an argument to be made that if you're worried about the defense, you should also be worried about the attack, because they don't. Now that, you know, at the very, very. It feels like they have a plan for replacing and signing a big center back. It feels like now they don't have a plan in place for replacing Alan Velasco because according to them, they weren't anticipating selling him at this point. So how they're going to fix that, the attack part of the team is, in my mind, as big as a worry as the back end. [00:38:19] Speaker B: I don't think I'm with you on that. [00:38:21] Speaker C: They've at least got numbers up front. [00:38:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:38:24] Speaker A: Who. Who's. Who is creating? Who. Who is going to be the creative force on this team? [00:38:28] Speaker B: Well, who led that team? Who led this team in assists last year? [00:38:31] Speaker A: I don't remember off the top of my head. [00:38:33] Speaker C: Legit and Farrington. [00:38:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it was the tie between Legit and Farrington, both of whom are still here. [00:38:37] Speaker A: Yeah. But this was also a team that really, really struggled to create opportunities. I. I get that those guys led, but that also means, like, that's the shortest kid in the kindergarten, kind of. [00:38:47] Speaker B: Sure. But if they score the exact same amount of goals as last year, that's basically right in the middle of the pack. It was the goals against. It was a problem, which is why they're rebuilding the defense. I'm just. Listen, replacing Alan Vasco is important. You need DPS that can perform 100%. We've talked about that over and over and over again. But, like, you can do exactly what you did last year without Alan Velasco, because she did it last year without Alan Vlasco, and he didn't have any assists. Right. So, like, the offense is the same, except that Jesus didn't perform and you've replaced him with Anderson Julio, which I think is a. For the purposes of this team. And right now that's going to be better than Jesus was last year. We don't. Maybe if we play a formation where Bernie actually knows what he's doing, maybe Bernie comes back. Maybe Leo choose worth something. I just think that, like, I don't think the offense is totally screwed because they don't have Alan Velasco, who they didn't have last year. Yes, it's very Very important to have DPS that perform. They've got to get in the big picture, the long run. They've got to get a DP that performs. Maybe they even need two. [00:39:50] Speaker A: All right, so speaking of that, you mentioned this earlier that Zenata had said that players were coming in this window and that is a reference to Andre's. Andre Zenata or Zenoda. [00:40:00] Speaker B: Yep, whatever. [00:40:01] Speaker A: One Zenata. Zenota. Tomato. Tomato. Making an appearance and actually speaking at length on the brand spanking new FC Dallas official podcast hosted by our friends Ryan Garrett and Steve. And so he spoke for how long buzz on that thing? [00:40:20] Speaker B: It was over 30 minutes. Yeah. And it was the most sort of off the cuff and casual conversations I've ever heard him comment on. And Steve Davis said the same thing after the interview. He's like, that's the most I've ever heard the guy talk in my life. You know. [00:40:32] Speaker A: And the thing was, is the club played a. I thought this was a bit confusing because the club put a clip out on social media and it was Zenata or Zenoda, whatever, saying things like, we, we only want to sign guys with winning mentality. Now we want to sign guys with winning mentalities and that want to win championships. And it was weird because it made it sound like prior to this month, prior to that, they didn't worry about guys with winning mentalities or wanting to win championships. All those guys before then. Yeah, we just signed them because we like their hair color or something. No, now we're signing guys with winning attitudes and champ and. And grandeur of winning championship. [00:41:16] Speaker B: Yeah, that. It was kind of humorous that he said that they actually asked players that they're looking at like, have you won a championship or not? You know, and it's. Which made me laugh because you can just look it up. But like, you know, honestly, like, look, we're not in the business of trumpeting other podcasts, but like that 30 minutes uncut with Zenada Zenoda was the best I've ever heard him talk, like openly. Now there's still a lot of coach speak in there and he's really good about talking without saying anything substantive, but there were some pieces in there that you could grab onto. He very clearly said that like two or three players are coming this window and he differentiated this window from the next one because if it's a little bit longer and he talks about the different alignments of the, you know, the primary window versus secondary window in Europe, but you know, he specifically pointed out the areas of need, the center backs, the left backs, things like that. He talked about the. He talked about the specific process of how they find players and he talked about having two or three guys in mind for every spot on the field. Like, you know, when things happen, like you get a surprise sale and then he talks about what slows down the process and why it doesn't happen overnight. These are all good things I think people should hear if they're interested in this kind of process. It's actually a pretty decent interview. And he was quite frank about, you know, unfortunately not quite frank and not detail oriented about why they're going to. They didn't even mention Tafari at all. But he did talk about Allen and how that all came about. So there's a lot of pretty good stuff to chew on in that particular interview. So I would recommend it to everybody. [00:42:41] Speaker A: All right, well, everybody go do that. [00:42:46] Speaker B: Well, I will tell you also that they're. They're so short on bodies that they flew two academy kids over there today. Two guys from the U18 team. Ian Charles is a center back and Josh Torquetta, I think that's how you say it is a left back. So two very excellent players going to UCLA and Wake Forest respectively. If something else doesn't happen between now and next fall. [00:43:04] Speaker A: So those kids got pulled out of high school travel on a flight to Portugal to go train with their professional team. [00:43:10] Speaker C: Yes. [00:43:11] Speaker B: Someone jokes as they'll land at 6am and go train at like 8. So. But yeah, they. I mean, cool for them. Right. Super awesome though. So that's. But that tells you where they are on the bodies that they're missing. [00:43:20] Speaker A: Yeah, but I'm just thinking of those being those two kids. Can you imagine that phone call? [00:43:24] Speaker B: Oh, what a picture though. Yeah, right. [00:43:26] Speaker A: But I got a. I got a spelling test tomorrow. No, no, Tommy, you're getting on a plane and going to Portugal to play soccer for a few weeks. Good for them. Okay, so Alan is gone, Tafara is gone. Logan Farrington got a new fat contract. So what's the reasoning behind this one, Buzz? [00:43:45] Speaker B: Well, originally he's on a one plus one plus one plus one, which is kind of the rookie kind of contract. You know, basically they recognize that this is a player that they want to keep around long term. And again, part of. Not to be a cynic, part of what you sell a player for and what you get for them depends on how long their deal is and how much you pay them. So I'm all. I'm sure that Logan has got a raise. He's definitely gotten a security. They now have him under contract two years longer than they did before. So this is all basic, simple business, like, will he. Will his new pay raise be enough to push him over the line into the senior part of the roster? I don't know. We won't know that until we see the money. But it's a guy. This is how you do business. Like, you draft a guy and he's on this cheap, you know, minimum number on the whole roster for year after year after year. That's when you're going to get in trouble, where he's going to start looking around. You got to take care of him if you think he's important. And so they've done that. And so this is a really good move. Very basic move, very simple move, but just shows you you put value in him and put faith in him, and he will hopefully reward you on the field. [00:44:49] Speaker A: All right, Dan Buzz, am I forgetting other. Any other roster moves or rumors before we move on to other things? [00:44:57] Speaker B: Well, still no sign of AS here, Armindy, which is not really a roster move other than a sort of lack of how. [00:45:04] Speaker A: How critical do you feel like in either one of you can answer this question. Do you feel like signing him again is important to this season? [00:45:12] Speaker B: I don't know. I kind of feel like maybe they were waiting to see if they were going to get Delgado, you know, or kind of waiting to see what else they may come up with in midfield. Like, Zenoda raved about Romario today, you know, that he was with him when they won a championship and all this kind of stuff, and talked about he's a guy that raises everything in training up and that kind of stuff, which sounds a lot like what I would have said about Eream Indy, too. So they may just sort of be waiting for other pieces to fall, perhaps. I don't. I don't really know. Or else. Or else he's just being adamant that, like, no, I want two years, period. I'm not doing one plus one. I have no idea what the terms of the negotiating are, of course. So it sure seems like that is not really moving, you know, maybe they're waiting to see, like, if. If they can't get other things. It's like, at the last second, they'll be like, fine, break, bring him back, you know, I don't. I don't. I don't know. [00:46:00] Speaker A: All right, so they officially announced the game setup for while they're in Portugal. And how many of them there are there going to be? [00:46:07] Speaker B: Two, three, Two games while they're There. Yeah. Yep. [00:46:11] Speaker A: So just two this time. Don't they usually do three or four? [00:46:14] Speaker B: Well, they. They would often get games against where like, they would play the second group against like somebody else's U23 team or something. So there may be unofficial scrimmages happening that we're not privy to, but these are the two quote unquote games they're playing against Dinamo Tbilisi and Bromby, which is, of course the club that Justin Shea plays for. So that's fun. [00:46:35] Speaker C: It looked like they had a scrimmage today or yesterday, whatever, that whenever some photos came out and they had like the match socks and the shin pads in which they. They only really do when it's a. [00:46:46] Speaker A: Full scrimmage, but we don't know anything about it. [00:46:50] Speaker B: Well, it's a shame that they don't, you know, they have a guy there. I was. I would hope that they would do like some of the stuff that I used to do when I was going with the team and I would put out these scrimmages and these lineups and stuff, but they're not. So is what it is. [00:47:01] Speaker A: All right, well, anything before I get into kit talk, which I know everybody's excited about. Anything else about the team, specifically the roster, playoff, preseason, signings, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. [00:47:16] Speaker B: No, I think that's it. [00:47:18] Speaker A: Okay, so also, since we last spoke to you, a. I think it's a Twitch influencer video games mega star with 14,000,000,000, million followers who was doing a. Am I saying this correct? Buzz. He was doing a video showing off his new Trump speakers sneakers that he had bought from the new president. [00:47:44] Speaker C: He didn't buy them. They sent him. They sent. [00:47:48] Speaker A: So is he. So is Castro a big Trumper guy? [00:47:52] Speaker C: Apparently. I didn't know that. I've never seen any of his stuff before them. But I mean, he has like 3 million Twitch subscribers and 2 million YouTube subscribers. He's. He's a big deal. [00:48:04] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a local guy. He was also the one that kind of put the money behind the original Dallas team that got submitted into the TNT 7v7 tournament a couple of years ago. He's, you know, a big deal in that space where that may or may not be important, but he was wearing. In this video, he was wearing the new away kit that Dallas has yet to reveal. And I guess during the video he claims his phone was blowing up because whoever from FC Dallas gave him the shirt was trying to get him to take it off because clearly now they're going to be in Trouble. And I don't. I just. I assume there's a legal reason why Dallas would want him not to show this anymore and to pull the video down. I don't know why you would. [00:48:54] Speaker C: Just. Mls, huh? MLS wouldn't want him to show it off before the release. [00:49:00] Speaker A: Yeah, but he's already done it, so why wouldn't you just, you know, turn it into a win for you? I mean, you're not. It's not like you're known as being a club that sells a lot of merchandise. [00:49:11] Speaker C: They probably internally consider it a win, but they still have to Satisfy Adidas and MLS's wishes to not reveal it. [00:49:20] Speaker A: So just. I guess they're just saying, hey, pull it. Just to be. Yeah. Just to formally say, hey, we asked him to do it, at least. [00:49:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:27] Speaker A: Interesting. Well, Dan, we now have seen what appears to be a. I swear it was a training jersey from a couple of years ago. [00:49:37] Speaker C: You know, it's got some red on it at least. [00:49:40] Speaker A: Well, I think the trading jerseys have had red on them before. [00:49:44] Speaker C: Well, when they were red. Ever since they've been the gray ones that are across the league. They've not. [00:49:50] Speaker A: Okay, do you, like. You're the kit guy. You tell me. You tell everybody what the kit looks like and what you think of it. [00:49:56] Speaker C: Okay. So headline said. All right, let's preface it. We'd originally heard. It's white, it's light, it's gray, it's blue. It's all these different things. It is. It is a. Is very pale blue. In certain lights. It's going to look a little bit different. It's going to be very much like the 2005 away jersey. FC Dallas had that. That weird gray where if you put it in one light, it's absolutely blue. If you put it in another, it's. It's possibly just a dirty white T shirt. [00:50:29] Speaker A: I think I've got one of those in a drawer somewhere. [00:50:32] Speaker C: This is not the first design. We've heard a few times from different people that the Hunts paid for redesigns because the jersey was terrible. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Wait, this one or there was another jersey? [00:50:46] Speaker C: There was another one. The other one was described to as a. Appearing like a used feminine hygiene product. So you can kind of imagine the colors. [00:51:05] Speaker A: Well, okay. That would have been oddly appropriate. [00:51:08] Speaker C: Yeah. I think, you know the template they use in the Adidas tier 0 24. It's. It's what every team's got. It's the little horns that come up the side. It's the. The little spike thing on the back. It's all that fun stuff, Dave, it's not. It's not a horrible jersey. I don't remember the last really good. Aside from the powder blue one, which then weirdly got screwed up by some really bad execution on the sponsorship, there haven't really been a ton of absolutely killer away jerseys. The FC Dallas have had maybe the last two blue and white stripe ones. [00:51:47] Speaker A: Oh, the. The white and gray striped one was kick ass. [00:51:51] Speaker C: Oh, I mean. I mean, in recent times that was going, you know, that was nine years ago, sorry, 19 years ago at this point. [00:51:57] Speaker A: And they're going to wear gray shorts or the same color shorts and socks with it too? [00:52:02] Speaker C: That we don't know yet. But logically, the pale gray or pale blue, whatever you want to call it would make sense because that would be the light kit where they already have blue shorts for the home and I can't remember if it's blue or red socks, but there could also be a dark option. That would be great. They could honestly wear the home shorts with the away shirt. I think that's going to be kind of the key factor is what makes the kit. Because if it is just gray on gray on gray, it absolutely will look like a training kit. [00:52:37] Speaker B: The last time that they had that gray on gray look, they did have red socks with it back in like that. [00:52:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that looked cool. I actually liked that out. [00:52:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And we know last year, of course, when they had the Burn baby, Burn Away kit, they had a white, white, white option, but the preferred option was the black shorts, black socks. So hopefully this kit also has a preferred dark short option that you might see half the time. Remember that this kit will get worn at home, literally half the games at home, because of the split sponsorship problem. Oh, that's right. Of which the real solution, of course, is just to print a second set of home jerseys with the other sponsor on it. But they don't do that. Instead they wear the. [00:53:11] Speaker C: I don't think they're allowed to do that. [00:53:14] Speaker B: I mean, they must not be, because otherwise that's very basic, simple solution. But I don't know. I don't know who would prevent you from doing that. It seems silly to me, but anyway. [00:53:22] Speaker C: You'Ll see that that would be FIFA. [00:53:24] Speaker B: Okay, that seems even weirder to me that they would care. But anyway, that's. You'll see it a lot at home and you may even see it more than you'll see the afterburn one, which is the home one. Just like we did last year, we saw the Burn Baby Burn one more. Because you'll wear it both home and away. The secondary was weird. [00:53:41] Speaker A: Will this be the season with the worst combination of jerseys? Since when? [00:53:48] Speaker B: I mean, the Starry Night one for me is so bad it's hard to remember. [00:53:52] Speaker A: What was the, what was the alternative shirt to that? [00:53:55] Speaker C: That was the alternative. [00:53:57] Speaker A: Right. So what was the home, what was the primary then? [00:54:00] Speaker C: Did that overlap with the shitty Texas flag one? [00:54:03] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Starry Night and deconstructed Texas flag at the same time would have probably been 2018. Yeah, yeah, that was all time worst. [00:54:12] Speaker B: Because the one, the one when the Starry Night debuted is the pinstripe white, the red on red hoop with the pin white hoop across the front. 2017, that's a beautiful kit. Right. And then 2019 we saw the, the Iranian Tower kit, which Dan's mock up was so good that they actually thought it was a picture of the real thing and got started a witch hunt inside the club to figure out who leaked it, which I thought was really funny. So anyway, yeah, that was 2018 for me is the worst. But this one is mostly just boring and the whole thing will be redeemed by the fact that they get a third kit. So that'll be, you know, nice and fun. [00:54:51] Speaker A: When do we find out the, the background on the, on the home on this third kit? [00:54:55] Speaker C: Summer. [00:54:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's a summer drop and I'm getting conflicting info. Like I thought it was every team in the league, but somebody else said to me that they thought it was only 10, the 10 original teams. But I'm like, I don't. I think it's everybody because they're not going to not have Inter Miami have one and they're not going to not have the LA teams have one. [00:55:13] Speaker C: Inter Miami definitely is getting all three kits brand new this year. [00:55:18] Speaker B: So I'm assuming everybody gets all three, you know. Okay, so we'll see. [00:55:23] Speaker A: Yay, kit talk. Let's see what else on this list. So I guess the other interesting news in the area is that Dallas Trinity is running around telling everybody they're having a major announcement on. Is it Monday? [00:55:41] Speaker C: Yeah, Monday, 10:30. [00:55:42] Speaker A: And it's a player announcement. [00:55:45] Speaker C: It is. They put, they sent an email out, they put stuff on social media with a new player joining the team chat. So they are definitely hyping it up as a big one. [00:55:56] Speaker A: All right. Just to pull the curtain back a little bit, we all know who the player is. We're not supposed to say it's been embargoed. So we will, we will adhere to that and happily to do so. But I guess my question is, are you guys. When you, when you heard who the player was, what was your reaction? [00:56:18] Speaker B: Oh, I think it's fantastic. I think it's not as fantastic as they think it is, but I still think it's very fantastic. [00:56:24] Speaker A: Dan. [00:56:26] Speaker C: Yeah. In terms of playing quality, it's. It's a paradigm shifting signing in terms of marketability. Marketability. There are maybe five players on earth that would be that. And it's not one of those. [00:56:41] Speaker B: I agree with that. [00:56:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Interesting. Okay. Yeah, it's. I was kind of surprised because it's. This player is signing directly to them. It's not like it's a player being loaned back from an NWSL team. So I think that's. That's a big deal and I'm. I'm fascinated to see what level of reaction you get out of it. That's what I want to know. [00:57:04] Speaker B: Me too. It's a great get. It's just going to be not what I think, but. Yeah. [00:57:08] Speaker A: Yeah. I think people who are already fans of the team and going to games will be very, very excited. I think if you are not a follower of the league or women's soccer in general, it probably will. It'll go everybody. Those people's heads. [00:57:22] Speaker B: It's not going to move the general audience needle. [00:57:24] Speaker C: That's. That's kind of the hard part. They're going to have. [00:57:27] Speaker A: It's not Naomi Girma. Let me just put it that way. [00:57:30] Speaker C: Well, that wouldn't, you know, that, that wouldn't necessarily sell out the cotton ball. Right. Because you would have to be a women's soccer fan to know Naomi Girma. Therefore, you are probably already somewhat invested in Dallas Trinity. It's not the Cosmos signing Pele. Very few things are or Messi going to Inter Miami. Yeah. I mean, FC Dallas could sign one of the best US Prospects in history. And you know, they're still going to get the 11,000 they're going to get next year and only sell 4,000 jerseys and whatever else they. They do. [00:58:07] Speaker A: I, I think it's a great signing for them. I'm excited. I'm excited for them and happy and all good things. So we'll talk more about it certainly on next week's episode. The other thing is, is that the growing list of options for people eager to spend their discretionary dollars on soccer tickets continues to grow. We know that Garland is getting a USL championship ticket team, but now Denton Diablos has announced that they're moving to USL too. And it's interesting that in the, you know, the North Texas area, we pretty much have all of the top four tiers covered in with quite a. Quite an option to choose from. You know, pick whatever club you want to go support and you've got an option available to you. [00:58:56] Speaker B: Yeah, they're swapping from MPSL to USL2. VOs are staying in NPSL. The new McKinney team is going to USL2. [00:59:04] Speaker A: USL2 is Division 4 in the pyramid. Or 5. [00:59:09] Speaker B: 4. Anything past 3 is unofficial, but 4 is the same as USL2 NPSL. Those, those. Those summer league, semi pro ish kind of things, you know, for the Caros Denton Diablos. That same level. [00:59:22] Speaker A: Okay. [00:59:22] Speaker B: I would say it's the same level of play as the MISL Major Under Soccer League, give or take. Some of those players cross over from time to time. It's that kind of level. [00:59:30] Speaker A: All right, good for them. And then Tacoma announced their first player. And I have to admit, I was a little surprised that. [00:59:37] Speaker C: I hope it's not Tacoma. We don't cover them. [00:59:40] Speaker A: Oh, Texoma. Sorry, what am I saying? Texoma. Did I say Tacoma? [00:59:45] Speaker B: You know how many times I've typed Tacoma and have to go fix it? [00:59:48] Speaker A: I know. [00:59:49] Speaker B: Every time. Yeah. [00:59:51] Speaker A: So Texoma SC in Sherman, Texas announced their first player signing. And it's a Scottish goalkeeper, Mason McCready. [00:59:59] Speaker C: He's American. [01:00:01] Speaker A: Oh, he. Okay, well, they. Man, the announcement made. It really highlighted the fact he was coming from Patrick Thistle. And. [01:00:07] Speaker C: Yeah, he's played for Partick Thistle. He was part of their youth team. Was coming up through them. He was born in Pennsylvania. His dad played for the New England Patriots. For a hot minute, Peter, today I. [01:00:22] Speaker B: Learned that it's particle. [01:00:24] Speaker A: Yes, I know. [01:00:25] Speaker B: Not Patrick Thistle. I've been. I thought it's been Patrick Thistle for a thousand years. [01:00:29] Speaker A: No, I always got that confused because of the old Patrick shoes. [01:00:32] Speaker C: Okay, so we're gonna have a lesson. It's Worcestershire sauce. [01:00:39] Speaker A: Well, hold on. But I mean, Dan was the shoe brand Patrick. [01:00:43] Speaker C: The shoe brand was Patrick. Yeah. [01:00:45] Speaker A: Okay. [01:00:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:46] Speaker A: And that's why stupid Americans got Patrick and Partick Thistle backwards. Because the. [01:00:52] Speaker B: The. [01:00:52] Speaker A: The shoes were always Patrick. We called them correctly. [01:00:55] Speaker C: Yeah, that makes sense. [01:00:56] Speaker B: Today I learned. Thank you, Dan, for educating me. [01:00:58] Speaker A: Anytime on Partick or Worcestershire. [01:01:01] Speaker B: Partrick. I knew Worcestershire. [01:01:03] Speaker A: Okay. All right. [01:01:04] Speaker B: Just like I knew Worcester, Mass. Even though it's written Worchester. [01:01:08] Speaker C: If you ever want to confuse someone, go to. Oh, is it Berkshire and Connecticut, because we call it Berkshire. [01:01:16] Speaker A: How many curious listening to this podcast knew about Patrick Brand soccer shoes? [01:01:23] Speaker B: I mean, I did. [01:01:24] Speaker A: I don't know, I feel like that's a really. That's like a Gen X thing back in the day. [01:01:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's probably. You have to be old enough to know that one. Yeah. [01:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:32] Speaker C: There was a. It was a revival of Patrick in the early 2000s as a kit was there as well. Yeah, they had Wigan and a few others. [01:01:40] Speaker A: Correct me if I'm wrong, Dan. Patrick was like a cheap brand of shoe. [01:01:45] Speaker C: Oh, absolute shit. Yeah. [01:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like the shoes you bought at Walmart here in this, you know? [01:01:50] Speaker C: Yeah. Like you would have Gola or Patrick if. If you didn't play Sundays and you had no need for a pair of boots that would last more than three seconds. [01:02:01] Speaker B: So they're plastic. [01:02:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Patrick was the Huffy of soccer shoes. If you showed up at the park with Patrick's, you were getting laughed at. Here we go. Let's see. So we've talked about all the clubs in the lower divisions. Ntsc, North Texas preseason schedule has been announced. They got stuff going on. They've also signed another player. [01:02:24] Speaker B: Yeah, they signed a striker from San Lorenzo's reserve team. I watched some clips, video clips, and I'm not too excited, but whatever, he'll play there some. [01:02:35] Speaker A: You get a bad YouTube highlight video. [01:02:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I tell you something, like, if the YouTube video, Holly video is bad, it's not that great, but, you know, maybe we'll score some goals. [01:02:44] Speaker A: Yeah, but check out his name. It's Gianluca Cangiano. [01:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah, the name is awesome. From San Lorenzo. I mean, it sounds amazing. Argentine, Italian forward, total baller, right? Yeah, it sounds fantastic. But we'll see. See what he does. Okay, so these international signings for North Texas Soccer Club have never been worked for squat. Except for Pedrinho, the guy that they just elevated the first team. But I will tell you, I had heard, well in the middle of last season that he signed with that team with the idea in place that he would eventually sign with FC Dallas. It was like a placeholder deal. So I don't know that I'm too gonna. It's like when they have somebody come to the open trial, they go, look, we found the open tryout. You're like, dude, he played for the US Futsal team. Stop it. You know, same sort of thing. Anyway, preseason games for North Texas SC. They're playing 4 0, of course. Awesome. Houston Dynamo, Houston Christian, University, Richland College, Texoma. That'll be a fun game. And smu. So some of the teams are playing are teams that Dallas used to play. And the world has changed. A little bit. So now North Texas is going to play those teams which is much more appropriate and they'll struggle with some of those college teams because this year, from everything I'm understanding, this year is going to be very heavily academy influenced at North Texas sc. So they may struggle a little bit this year compared to last year. [01:03:57] Speaker A: Hmm. All right, let's see. And a bunch of local girls have been called up to U16s and 17s. [01:04:06] Speaker B: The quick list is from Solar. It's Evan Osteen, who I believe also played for Trinity. Goalkeeper Rihanna Mahone is a defender for Jordan Hill. And defender Caroline Swan, who of course is the sister of Caleb Swan who Dallas North Texas just signed. [01:04:20] Speaker A: Is she the one playing on a boys team? [01:04:22] Speaker B: She was. She finally reached a level where they basically were like, okay, it's time to focus on the girls game. But she played with the boys teams up and through U14, which is remarkable. She's now, I think she's a U15 technically. Even though this is a U16 team. She's now playing for the US on float. We're player from Sting Dallas, which is a while we've heard from them named Rachel Lawless Felarca, who is a, I don't know position he plays. But Kratz Sting Dallas to get some girl, girl in there. [01:04:48] Speaker A: So Buzz, in your experience, how often have you seen girls playing on boys teams up to what age group? [01:04:57] Speaker B: I've never seen it before. [01:04:58] Speaker A: Really? Like even at U9s and stuff like that. [01:05:01] Speaker B: I mean, I'm sure that at that level it does happen, but I've never seen it much past 12 or 13. If we're to get all the way up to like 14, 15 years old and still be doing it is really remarkable because the physicality starts to change, you know, in that. In those sort of age brackets. And by 15, you know, remember the U15 team from SC Dallas is the one that stomped the US Women's National Team. So like by that age to still be. I don't mean she's like on the team. She started for DKC's boys team. There you see an old boys team up through 14 or 15, whatever. It was exactly so remarkable. Real baller of a player. She's been in a US national team before. She's captain of the 17s I think it is. I think she's their captain in fact. So great player. Keep an eye on her. [01:05:45] Speaker A: Is she quietly better than Caleb? [01:05:47] Speaker B: I mean, in the context of what she plays on. Yes. I mean obviously in the real world no, but in the context of what she's accomplished, yes. The only player I can think of that could have maybe done the same thing probably would have been Jaden Shaw, who was that caliber of player, you know? [01:06:02] Speaker A: Right, right. [01:06:03] Speaker B: I think Caroline Swans is 6, so I actually think that Trinity should grab her because. Mostly because I want to see her learn from Amber Brooks, Trinity's outstanding six that's been in the fringe of the national team for years. So really exciting player, really good player, you know, will be boring to watch because she is a six, but really good. [01:06:23] Speaker A: Okay, let's see. Let's go back to kick tock for a second because. [01:06:30] Speaker C: Sorry, Steve. [01:06:32] Speaker A: Yeah, sorry, Steve. Steve, busy doing other things. Footy Headlines has put a photo out of all of the leaked MLS kits for this season. I buzz you like any of these? [01:06:47] Speaker B: I like the Kansas City one because it has hoops. [01:06:50] Speaker A: Kind of. Those are. Those are horizontal stripes. I wouldn't call those hoops. [01:06:56] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, you know, you're not getting full hoops anymore. [01:06:59] Speaker A: They don't even go around the sides anymore. [01:07:01] Speaker B: I know, I know. Nobody ever does anymore. I mean, it just doesn't happen. So, you know, it's. I'm okay with that. Whatever. So I like Miami's, strangely enough, because, you know, the. [01:07:13] Speaker A: The both of them are just one or the other. [01:07:16] Speaker B: The one that's the. The one that's. The vertical stripes, that's pink on pink. Vertical stripes. I like that one. You know, my. My biggest complaint about early Miami was that the pink was sort of, you know, washed out a little bit, and. But now it's like they've embraced the pinkness, if you will. So I actually quite like that one. None of the rest of them are, like, jogging my memory is something where I was like, oh, yay, that's awesome. [01:07:45] Speaker C: I like the LA Galaxy one, the picture Buzz. [01:07:48] Speaker A: I've put it up in the group chat so you can see it. Because my question is, if you like the Miami pink one, that means you like the Austin green one, because it's essentially the same kit, just in green versus pink. Because I gotta tell you, and nobody's gonna like this, I actually really like that shirt. Now, I will caveat that by saying I haven't seen the back of it, but from the front, I like the new Austin shirt. [01:08:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think the Atlanta action going back to five stripes again, rather than like 18 stripes, that's actually a pretty good move on their part. Most of the other ones are really, really boring. [01:08:22] Speaker A: What in the hell happened to the Cincinnati kid. [01:08:24] Speaker B: I don't know, maybe they're trying to play off a slash in their logo. I'm actually, you know, if you want to be Cincinnati and you want to have a brand identity, the slash is a good one. From around the world of soccer. [01:08:36] Speaker A: It looks like that looks like that looks like a fat tire run of orange. It's not even a slash. It's so wide. [01:08:43] Speaker B: The execution is not great. But if you want to take that branding element from your logo and run with it, okay, then I'm on board with that idea. Nashville's boring. St. Louis is boring. I like Orlando. That was nice. [01:08:55] Speaker C: Yeah, that was nice. I will say. But the Cincinnati one is. That is a mock up from a fan site and there is something that's really off about it because it has a really colorful Apple TV logo. And the Apple TV logo, the Apple TV logo is absolutely not colorful. So are they taking liberties of anything else or is that actually how it's going to look? Because that sash is at such a weird angle and such a weird thickness. Such a weird height actually. [01:09:26] Speaker A: That can't be right. [01:09:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, Adidas typically is gonna do really basic designs like the hidden stripes or, you know, the Chicago. The rumored Minnesota one is going to be a pattern they already have on file. The Chicago one is a patent they already already have on file. The only thing they're doing that kind of goes a little bit outside of that so far is the San Jose one, which is really just newspaper prints. So it would be really weird to have a whole tri color thing which is not something teams typically do because technically that's not actually it's four colors. Technically that's not allowed on a football shirt anymore. It seems a bit like if they do it, great, cool, more power to them. But it just seems a little bit too far outside of what Adidas North America normally does. [01:10:21] Speaker A: See, the Cincinnati thing can't be right because that looks like some 8 year old kid won a contest to design the next Cincinnati kit and this is what he drew. [01:10:31] Speaker B: Maybe you're right. Well, the San Jose one looks like streetwear instead of a jersey. The San Diego one is terrible, boring black. [01:10:37] Speaker A: Which one is. I'm looking for the San Jose one. [01:10:39] Speaker B: I don't even top right. [01:10:41] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Right. [01:10:42] Speaker B: San Diego's black. Chicago's is boring. Minnesota's is on brand. That's fine. Both the LA jerseys are terrible. Portland going black is interesting considering their away ones white. So they're going, they're not going have a green kit this year, apparently. [01:10:56] Speaker C: You don't like the Galaxy jersey? [01:10:58] Speaker B: No. [01:10:59] Speaker C: I mean, it's okay to be wrong occasionally, but this is pretty severe. [01:11:05] Speaker B: The jersey. Severely wrong. It is severely wrong. It's a really terrible. [01:11:09] Speaker C: It's a cool design. [01:11:10] Speaker A: Buzz, I think that Portland kit is just a very dark green. I think it will be green. Yeah, I think it's black. It's like a super dark forest green. [01:11:18] Speaker C: Yes, it's. They had it as a third shirt a few years ago. [01:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:22] Speaker B: So Dan, I do wonder if that LA jersey, that is the next Dallas jersey. Like if you take all the dark colors and made it white and left the reds red, that might be the next. Just speculating Dallas jersey. [01:11:35] Speaker C: They typically don't reuse the same pattern in the same league. I think the impression I get is that Leicester shirt they currently have where it's like I don't even remember. It's. The splotches are like yellow and pink and it's some other color. [01:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:51] Speaker C: But I could, I could see that in white with two tones of red. Looking like somebody just got assaulted with a machete in the shirt. [01:12:02] Speaker B: Yeah, easily could be. [01:12:05] Speaker A: All right, two more topics before we go. First off, Buzz, you know you mentioned last week you'd love it if Dallas used the brand new internal cash purchase of players on one Diego Luna. And boy, we got an eye full of that kid for the national team last night. Broken nose in the whole bit. That would be. I mean, there's no way Salt Lake selling him. [01:12:26] Speaker B: Oh, not now. [01:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah, but. Yeah, what a. What a what that would. That would be a nice replacement player. [01:12:33] Speaker B: I know you've liked him for a while, Peter, but I'm 100% with you. This is like a. I have such a soccer crush on this guy. I love this kid. This is like how I felt about Beckerman. Right where you stick him in the middle of your field, different position, but like this kind of ballsy player in the middle of your park. Just. I'm so jealous of this. This kid. Them having this kid. [01:12:53] Speaker A: I don't know if I've always said I liked him. I've always been curious about 18 year old kid with neck tattoos and what his life choices are like and all that stuff. But I gotta admit, he got his face busted open real good last night and immediately stepped back out on the field and put an absolutely stunning through ball in for the opening goal. So credit to him. [01:13:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:15] Speaker A: And then I love Pochettino after the game saying he had big balls. I just thought that was fantastic. [01:13:21] Speaker B: Phenomenal. It's a It's a transcendent moment for the kid because now everyone's aware of him. You know, his value is going to go way up just from this single moment. Moment, you know, RSL had just made him a U22 initiative player, you know, which is fun for a home American, you know, it came out of El Paso Locomotive. Not where he started. He was originally in somebody else's academy. I want to say San Jose, maybe. I'm not really sure who it was. [01:13:42] Speaker C: It was. He was with the Barcelona Arizona team. Money. [01:13:47] Speaker B: I think he was with an MLS team. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Just an absolute phenomenal player, you know, and. And one that, like, I think people are now going to be aware of. And this is the kind of moment that gets you, like, in a coach's mind. And yeah, San Jose Earthquakes, I was right. And then he went to Bar Academy and then he went to El Paso. So, like, this is the kind of player that gets you into coach of mine and it'd be hard to shake off. And it makes you wonder, like, why he was dropped by. Was it the U20 team that dropped him or the U23? Whichever one dropped him. It makes you wonder, like, what again? Like, it reminds me of Nicosi. Like, what, you couldn't handle the kid? Apparently. So I love that this kid's becoming like, you know, to the forefront of awareness of the league, of a guy who's a young, phenomenal talent if they can now hold on to him. [01:14:34] Speaker A: And then I saw you had an exchange online with Tom Bogart, and, you know, there's this whole thing going on that I'm really confused by, which is MLS has dumped their long standing podcast Extra Time, which I think ran for like 10, 11 seasons. And I'm. I'm completely baffled as to why that the end of that thing has taken place. I'm sure there's like a whole backstory to it because none of it makes any sense. So obviously Tom Bogert doesn't work for the league anymore. He works for some website I've never heard of before, but is still doing his thing. And he. And you were going back and forth with him about something, and it turns out he, like, you were an inspiration to him or something. [01:15:22] Speaker B: Well, no, it wasn't that. It was when he was in school. They had. I think he said it was a player on his team that was somehow ruled ineligible or something that played for his school. And everyone was looking him up or Googling him, and they found my story saying that FC Dallas had cut him that he was in camp with Shellis and that FC Dawson let him go. So Bogart was telling that story that like Buzz Carrick, you know, OG Dallas reporter was had that story way back in the day and I was like oh. And then they gave me a general nice thoughts and you know about the work we do here. So that was really cool. But that was the story. It was a guy that had been cut by Shellis in the preseason basically and that they were they on there when he was like a freshman or whatever walk around campus that they looked me up and he goes in lo years later I you know I talked to the guy we I know him and all that stuff and he thought it was funny. [01:16:12] Speaker A: Tom Boger is a as a young schooler going I want to be care someday. [01:16:17] Speaker C: I'm just shocked that you don't know. Give me sport. [01:16:22] Speaker A: There are so many of these pop up sports media websites. I. [01:16:27] Speaker C: No, no, they're not a popup. They've been around for donkeys years and they have like 120 million views readers a year and 25 million social media. [01:16:39] Speaker A: I, I literally had never heard of the website until I saw the. Until I saw him saying that's where he was going after leaving the Athletic. [01:16:50] Speaker C: That's wild. [01:16:51] Speaker A: Had never heard of givemesport.com Is it a UK based thing? [01:16:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:16:56] Speaker A: Ah, well maybe that's what it is since I don't live in the uk, Dan. [01:17:00] Speaker C: Ah, but your, your life is the Premier League. [01:17:04] Speaker A: Yeah, but I've never even heard that. I like. Yeah, I've never heard of it so I'm an idiot. Mark that. There you go. Okay, let's see. Let me go back to the list of stuff. I think we've covered everything. [01:17:18] Speaker B: Lads, man, it was a lot, a lot on there. [01:17:21] Speaker A: Yes, a lot. [01:17:22] Speaker C: For more Kit talk. [01:17:25] Speaker A: I wish. All right, well very good. I guess we'll. I, I don't know if we'll know anything else because the window doesn't open until two podcasts from now. And I'm. I think you're right, Buzz. I don't think nothing happens until after February 1st. [01:17:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so too. I mean that window's gonna open the day after we do our next pod, you know and it'll be hopefully Dallas is playing Bronbie that morning. So we will have hopefully between now and then we will have two games of information to talk out. Talk about whether we actually will get information those games or get a stream of those games or get some kind of FCS radio of Those games something hopefully we can have some information to chew on and maybe there'll be some players other than the CB one. The CB one. I think you're not going to hear about it until after February 1st. [01:18:11] Speaker A: Okay. All right. Very good. [01:18:13] Speaker C: I think I'm just excited to see the progress of Momo Sis and Enzo Newman. They seem to be the big hits in preseason so far. [01:18:23] Speaker A: Hey, guys, while we were recording this, Tom Bogart dropped that. The Dynamo are in advanced talks to sign center back Philippe and run Andrade from Flumen essay on loan. He's 22 and has made 27 appearances for Flumen AC's first team. [01:18:42] Speaker B: See, like that to me reads as a U22 initiative player. You know that if Dallas were to grab a guy like that for one of their center back spots, that would be terrific. That's not the CB1. CB1 needs to be a player of more substantial resume than that. 27 appearances for Fluminense is okay. [01:18:58] Speaker A: That's what I wanted to know. I want to know where the demarcation line of what level where we should get excited and forget about Tafari. [01:19:05] Speaker B: Well, you can be excited about a player like this, but you don't. That's not going to be a player that's going to make you go, oh, forget Tafari, forget Abubakar. Put that guy in 100% of the time. Right? I mean, that's like this guy is more like Giovanni J. Zeus, which you might be excited about if you're a fan of a young, interesting player. This is not a guy that's going to make your fan base shut up and everybody think you did the right moves. [01:19:27] Speaker A: Yep, Very good. All right, well, hey, look, we have been talking for two years about how wonky this roster is and it needed a big overhaul, so we're getting the overhaul. So, you know, again, as I said at the beginning, there is all different ways to feel about this at this point, but at the very least, just hold on tight. This season doesn't start for a month. A lot can still play out. So just sit tight. Right, Buzz? [01:19:55] Speaker B: Yeah, this is the thing. Like as I started the podcast, with every single move they've done up until this point, I up until Safari 100% believed needed to happen. And they think so far I needed to happen. Okay, fair enough. Now do the other part. Deliver on what you have set up. They've set it up, bring it home. And if they bring it home and it's all quality, then we'll be giving them all the credit in the world. If they fumble it and the other team picks it up, runs the other way, we'll say that too. [01:20:25] Speaker A: Sounds like a good place to stop. [01:20:27] Speaker B: Third Degree, the podcast is brought to you by listeners like you. If you enjoy the this podcast, if you enjoy our coverage at Third Degree, why don't you join us on our Patreon and give us a little support. If you do, you get a little extra content there. And if you join at the Three Amigos level, you get access to our wonderful community on our discord patreon.com third degree thanks again for all your support, Dan. [01:20:46] Speaker A: Thank you very much. Good talking to you, sir. [01:20:48] Speaker C: Likewise. [01:20:49] Speaker A: Fun kit talk tonight, huh? [01:20:51] Speaker C: Hell yeah. [01:20:52] Speaker A: Hell yeah. And you even got to say thank. Feminine hygiene product and Worcestershire sauce. Okay, never mind. Thanks, bud. And then thank you, Buzz. It's great talking to you, dude. [01:21:06] Speaker B: Yeah, y'all too. Can't wait for the rest of the kits. [01:21:09] Speaker A: Yes, for sure. And thank you. Thank you really seriously. The most to you, FC Dallas. Curious fan. We will speak to you next week in the middle of this amazing off season on the next episode of Third Degree, the Podcast Podcast. [01:21:22] Speaker C: Oh yes. A show Third Degree the Third Degree. [01:21:27] Speaker A: N Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree N Podcast Third de the Third Degree N Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree N Podcast.