3rd Degree the Podcast #301

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Third Degree. Yes indeed. What's up everybody? Pappy Check here. And I am back in the DFW trying to do this music thing. And the only people that I really need to connect with, intermingle with that I want to get to know are my fellow soccer sickos from Third Degree. Follow me on Instagram at Pappy Check or come see me play live on Thursdays in Bishop Arts District at Taco I Vino. It's good times. Come out and see me and I will play you the Third Degree theme live. Wouldn't that make your day? Speaking of that thing. Go ahead, Peter, Buzz and Dan. Without further ado, 30 podcast. [00:00:59] Speaker B: The podcast is brought to you by the Dallas Beer Guardians. Friday night is the biggest party of the year. To celebrate FC Dallas's home opener, the Dallas Beer Guardians are hosting their 24 hour tailgate and they're inviting out all the estee Dallas Curious. BBG taps the kegs at 7pm in the red lot on the southwest end of Toyota Stadium. And the beer keeps flowing all the way to kickoff on Saturday. Just look for the big tent. In addition to the always free beer, DBG will have free food from their executive chef, plenty of games and activities, and maybe even some surprise guests. If you can't join them for the 24 hour tailgate, you can always find DBG on x Instagram, Facebook, Reddit and Discord threads. Basically anywhere you can legally check out social content. Just search for Dallas Beer Guardians, third. [00:01:42] Speaker A: Degree, the third degree Ned podcast. Third degree the third degree Ned podcast. Third Degree the third degree Ned podcast. Third° third degree never. [00:01:58] Speaker C: Well, hello there, FC Dallas curious fan. Welcome to episode 301 on a new drop day of third degree, the podcast. Hi, it's me, Peter. And there he is, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:02:11] Speaker D: Hello, hello. [00:02:12] Speaker C: Are you feeling good, my friend? [00:02:14] Speaker D: I'm always feeling good. I'm just absolutely peachy. [00:02:17] Speaker C: You sound like so peachy. I can. I can feel the fuzz of your peachiness. [00:02:23] Speaker D: That's disgusting. [00:02:24] Speaker B: That is weird. [00:02:24] Speaker C: Sorry. And giggling in the background is your hero, my hero, everybody's hero, editor, founder of third degree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:02:37] Speaker B: Hey, fellas. I was very distracted by the idea that. Well, Dan's beard is really long, so I'm not sure where this fuzz is that you're. [00:02:44] Speaker C: You don't want to know. Buzz. Don't. [00:02:45] Speaker B: Don't stop. Just drop it. Stopped. And last stop. [00:02:48] Speaker C: Drop it. Don't go any further with that. [00:02:51] Speaker B: Drop it like it's hot. [00:02:53] Speaker C: Don't. Don't continue with that weird line of thinking that I started everybody on. [00:02:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:57] Speaker C: Well, look at us, Buzz. Two road games to start the season, four points as Dallas goes up to the altitude in Colorado to face off their nemesis. And I didn't even realize this until they mentioned at the beginning of the game. I can't believe we didn't say this in the last episode. Oh, by the way, yes, I should probably address the fact that we've made a decision to move the pod to the beginning of the week before I. I. You don't have to edit this, but I'm editing myself. Yeah, we've made the decision, Buzz, to move the pod to the beginning of the week for reasons I'm not sure why. [00:03:26] Speaker B: Well, by the time we were breaking the game down, it was like five days later, and it felt like it wasn't quite as on point and fresh. So we're going to try it earlier in the week. [00:03:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:03:35] Speaker B: And that way, like, because we had shifted to Friday, the gap between when we were arrogate and that next game was really tight. And so people were having to cram it in on Friday. And so this way, we'll give people actually a chance to listen to it over the next few days and we'll see how it goes. We'll see if we like this schedule better. The fact is that we have the freedom to do what we want. So if we decide we don't like this, we can change it up again. [00:03:55] Speaker C: I'm sure the curious will let you know. [00:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sure they will. I mean, so far, though, we raised the concept in the discord, and everyone seemed to think it was a great idea. So here we go on Tuesdays. [00:04:05] Speaker C: All right, Dan, are you happy with the change? That's what everybody really cares about, if you're happy. [00:04:10] Speaker D: Hmm. I mean, it doesn't really change anything for me, you know, Just gotta fit some time in. [00:04:16] Speaker C: Okay, well, I know you've got a very busy onlyfans channel schedule to adhere to, so we don't want to mess that up for you. [00:04:23] Speaker D: I've gotta be honest. I have never visited onlyfans of any variety. [00:04:29] Speaker B: Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Hey, hey. Don't give him a trademark violation right there, though. [00:04:37] Speaker C: Denial's not just a river in Egypt. Okay, here we go. So let me start over. So. So. Yes. Hey, look at us, Buzz. [00:04:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:44] Speaker C: Two games into the season, four points on two road games. To start off, this thing going up to Colorado, which, by the way, until they mentioned it at the beginning of the broadcast. Part two of that. I can't believe we didn't mention it on the last episode. That Dallas had not won in Colorado since like 2002 or some ridiculous amount of time. [00:05:06] Speaker B: I think it was since 2014, I think. Did we not mention that? I thought we mentioned it. [00:05:09] Speaker C: Did we. [00:05:11] Speaker B: We talked a lot about how hard it is to win there. Maybe we didn't specifically say was it. [00:05:14] Speaker C: And his. And I see 2014 even sounds more recent than the date they gave on the broadcast. [00:05:20] Speaker B: I honestly don't remember now. So it's been a long time. It's been a long time. [00:05:24] Speaker C: Yes. [00:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, the two games in five goals, four and four goals against. Well, hold on to your hats. It's going to be a roller coaster of a season that way. At the end of the day, the important thing is to remember is that what, what probably makes the most difference is the goal differential right at the end of the year. You want to be positive, make a plus 10 or so, you're probably looking at being in the playoffs. [00:05:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:44] Speaker B: Score more than you allow. It's not that hard. [00:05:46] Speaker C: I have a feeling that what we got on Saturday night in Colorado is going to be a kind of high level summary of how this season goes. [00:05:55] Speaker B: Well, the. On the post game press conference, coach Eric Will was intense. I mean, he was, I don't want to say fired up because he wasn't like celebrating, but he was definitely like, you know, and, and he talked quite, quite intensely about how happy he was about like the, the never say die and the comeback and the goals and the relationship between this. That nothing. And then he also quite clearly said we got to clean that up in the back. I mean, he knows that you can't allow three goals, you know, allowed and expect to win games, generally speaking. Right. I mean, we've seen this team for the last few years, anytime they give up two, you're like, it's over. But obviously this team can score a lot more, so you have more leeway in that regard. But you can't just keep bleeding goals all the time. Even though if you're scoring a lot, you got to clean that up for sure. [00:06:42] Speaker C: If he's being overly intense, I'm going to suggest. And we really do need to have a conversation about this Buzz. It's the Eric Quill hat. [00:06:50] Speaker B: It's the hat. You think it's the hat? Yeah. [00:06:52] Speaker C: He loves that hat, man. He wears. It's not just the hat, it's how he wears the hat. It's pulled all the way down over his eyes. You can. Like he's sh. Shifty or something. Like he's hiding something. I, I'm not quite sure what's going on there. [00:07:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that's not new. It may be a generational thing because it's a. It's like a trucker style, like flat, brimmed. And he wore the exact same style of hat in New Mexico. It was black instead of red. So, you know, it's just what he does. [00:07:18] Speaker C: It's his look. [00:07:19] Speaker B: Yeah, it's his look. I wondered if maybe he chose a red one so that when he's out on the training field, he's like, well, I'm wearing a red hat. Nobody else wear red, so everybody can see who I am. Maybe. But then he wears it on the sideline and, and when he was in New Mexico, he wore a black one on the sideline. So it wasn't the color choice in that case. So it's just his style. You know, I, I, I sculpt hats myself. Not that I wear very many hats. I mostly wear visors. But because I have plenty of hair, I don't have that problem. Follicle problem. [00:07:44] Speaker C: I'm so distracted by the Eric Quill hat. And I just wondering if he just decided at some point he wanted his own kind of Tom Landry thing. You remember the old Tom Landry hat? [00:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:55] Speaker C: So he just decided to go with this, and that's what he's sticking by. I'm not saying I don't like it. I just find it very, very distracting. [00:08:02] Speaker B: I think it's funny how much people talk about it, like, and even in the discord people talk about it, I'm like, it's just a hat. But it's like people. Maybe it's because of you. Maybe you. [00:08:10] Speaker C: Yeah, okay. Don't you remember Shellus Hyman's butter leather jacket that we all obsessed about? [00:08:15] Speaker B: For, like, three seasons, he wore that. [00:08:19] Speaker C: Ridiculous butter leather jacket, and we were all fascinated by it. [00:08:24] Speaker B: I'm trying to remember if there was a coach since Dave Durr that would wear a tie. He was the last one that would wear a tie on the sideline. I don't remember anybody else. [00:08:30] Speaker C: Yeah, Dave. Dave got a little dressed up on occasion. [00:08:34] Speaker B: He gave it up after a while. But in the beginning, for sure, he had a tie. [00:08:37] Speaker C: He had a tie on at the game. But at the Old Mill in that tie. [00:08:40] Speaker B: No, it was gone. Yeah. I'm not gonna tell you how many beers in that was. That was a little. Yeah, that's a Different story. [00:08:47] Speaker C: All right, so I think the big surprise was the lineup. Padrino getting the start. Buzz. [00:08:53] Speaker B: Okay, well, this is fascinating to me on three different levels. The first level is, to me, this is a markable change from Eric Quill at North Texas sc. There's a different mentality here in the sense of, like, before, I would have thought he would think about the development of the player. I don't want to yank a guy really fast. I'm going to help. He's my guy. I'm going to bring him along. Nope, you're out. So then the question becomes, okay, did he just yank him because he didn't play well? Did Pedrinho. [00:09:24] Speaker C: Is this Level two? [00:09:25] Speaker B: Is this Level two? So, like, is he pulled out for. Thank you for the sound effect. Is he pulled out because he didn't play well, which we all thought he was probably the weakest player in the 11. Was he pulled out because Pedrino just did really well? Or option number three. Ding. Did he pull him out because he's got three guys. And he specifically said in the post game press conference that it's three guys for one spot. It's Pedrinho, it's Bernie Camingo, and it's Logan Farrington. Three guys for that one spot. The other spot, he called it, I. E. The not Anderson Julio spot. So what do we find out this weekend? Is it Logan Frankton's turn? Is he going 1, 2, 3. Like, each guy gets a game and then we see. Or did he just yank Bernie and Pedrinho was the next best guy from training? Or is there some other factor like Logan's his backup nine or if Logan's really impactful off the bench. So there's lots of questions going forward about which one it's going to be. But I think it's absolutely fascinating that there is definitely a mentality change from when he was in North Texas, where I think he would have helped that young man along. Not now. Now about the results. And it's like, you're out, you know, Interesting. And it's the one position above all others that is clearly in real competition. He says everybody always says there's competition. And maybe some of these spots, like Lucho Acosta is not really in competition to not start, right? Well, Moose is not really in competition to not start, but lots of other guys are. [00:10:51] Speaker C: So, Dan, I'm interested in your thoughts on how well Pedrinho played. Cause I've got all these notes that starting off the game about how he missed the absolute sitter of a Header just five minutes in by what a nice cross by Shaq Moore. So early in the game, by the way, Pedrinho missing that just seemed like a super crime. But then I've got all these notes about Padrino. Always seems to just make the pass a little bit too late. Not always the right decision. He wasn't having a good game. But then he scores a goal in the 45th minute or, excuse me, 42nd minute, and suddenly now he's a goal scorer. And everybody's gonna talk about how Pedrinho. So I'm interested, Dan, how you thought he played. [00:11:29] Speaker D: Thought he grew into the game as much as anything and he pops up at the right place at the right time. It's. But yeah, there are a few. A few sloppy moments there. But I mean he's a guy who was playing in MLS next pro last year, so there's going to be that adaptation and then also to Quill style as well. [00:11:47] Speaker B: One of the things I find fascinating about the way Petunia played is I talked about this when the lineup came out is that he will play. When they showed him as being on the right, he ended up playing on the left. But he plays more as a false wing. And when that happens, that sort of opens up the wing for someone to come up and down and get forward. Coach Quill specifically talked about with Pedrinho the idea that he would get into the pocket and almost become another option as the 10, even when he's playing the wing because, and we'll talk about this a bit more with Acosta and Musa and how he wants them positioned. So I think you can look for going forward when Petrino is in there to watch him play. Yes, that wing, but also come underneath and be a second option as a 10. Confused defenses try and slide into that zone 14 that Dan loves to talk about so much and make some hay in there when maybe guys are paying more attention to Acosta and maybe losing track of Padrino would be something to watch for. [00:12:37] Speaker D: Well, in some ways it's kind of like Alan Velasco is positioning those same sort of inside runs to just allow him to slot underneath, which I mean, obviously we're going to talk about the position in other Costa and Musa like you said, but when they kind of get into that almost too up top shape, then it's just a kind of a nice transition point for him. [00:12:58] Speaker C: So Dallas gives up an early goal in the sixth minute. It, you know, was it a cross? Was it a shot? I actually had this exact same thing happen to me in My old man beer league on Sunday. I was trying to put in a killer left foot cross to my forward who was making a run to the spot. And lo and behold, it just comes off my foot wonky and is floating up in the air. And all of a sudden I hear their goalkeeper off the line go, oh shit. And it dropped in the far corner. And that's what Rosenberry did to pause, I think. I don't know if it got deflected. I don't know if pause. Just read it wrong. But Dallas was down one nothing pretty quickly and it just kind of felt like it was going to be one of those days. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Is that was the first goal of your career there, Peter? [00:13:39] Speaker C: No, no, no, no. In fact, I'm on a weird actually buzz, I'm on a weird streak right now of three goals that I didn't mean to score. [00:13:46] Speaker B: Oh, nice. [00:13:47] Speaker C: Yes. [00:13:47] Speaker D: All own goals. [00:13:49] Speaker C: No, they are goals in our favor. I just, that was not the intent was trying to do when they went in the net. Yeah, so. [00:13:57] Speaker B: So the, the thing about that goal from that side is that like you remember, I, I, I clearly remember talking about this on the podcast is the last time I could remember D. Colorado really making. Hey, I talked about how Keegan Rosenberry had been at right back and he was attacking the far fan Iaga gap a couple years ago and they had a great success with that. And I mentioned specifically that because FC Dallas is playing Urigade or Agide, excuse me, Uruguide at left center back, that that wouldn't be much of a problem. Well there, lo and behold, Rosenberg was on the left side, left back again, attacking the gap between Ibiaga and the outside back on that side's even more likely to get forward. And they made hay there in that gap. The whole all three goals came through that gap. So obviously that's the thing that's got to be fixed and addressed. As for that shot, you know, that's that kind of fluke flop like you catch a couple of guys out of position, all of a sudden it's floating in, it's flukish. I don't remember whether that one got deflected. The second one definitely got deflected. So, you know, some fluke it's hard to button say, oh, we got to button it up. Oh, such a fluid goal. Well, when all three goals come through the same gap, that's when you start to take note of what an issue might be. [00:15:06] Speaker C: Yeah, the whole first half up until the obvious turn of events was despairingly bad. Like I was really concerned about the team. They couldn't keep possession, they couldn't get out of their own half. I even made a note that after the first goal, they got down to the Colorado end and turned the ball over. And you could see Quill in the eighth minute having to like gesticulate and like urge them to get back. And I thought that was really weird that so early in a game he's having to like urge people to get back into position. And the game just was very much all Colorado. And in fact, of course, in the 39th minute, they score a second goal, which is started by a bad combination touch between Lucho and Moose, and Dallas gets caught in the transition and you know, they're suddenly down to nothing. And it feels like, well, this is not going to be good. [00:16:01] Speaker B: Well, it's not surprising perhaps that Quill has to tell everybody to get back. He has a very offensive team, so they may need reminders occasionally to get back, you know. And one of the things I know they've been working on is the difference between, you know, the quick counter press versus like real press and like a full blown, like up the field. That's not what they want. They want the counter press and then come back. So that's probably details and, and game understanding. Still, if he's working on the, the mistouch up front, that's not that big a deal. You know, again, through that gap, this is another deflected cross. You know, the guys in the middle, Ibiaga and Oz, lose track of the center forward and he splits the gap between those two guys. Again, kinks being worked out between two center backs. You know, the cross is a little bit wonky and not maybe not what everyone was expecting. Catch somebody off guard. So again, some flukiness, but, you know, it's the, it's the transition on catching them upfield and allowing them to the opposition into that gap again, that's dangerous. And that's where you got problems. You got to get back fast, got to recover fast. After you quick counter press. [00:17:03] Speaker C: And then weirdly I have a note that I just says there's a bullet point and it says Romero, question mark. Where is he? [00:17:11] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the same thing I had. Again, he got effectively bypassed in midfield and I mentioned in my breakdown he only had like, yeah, six touches or some. [00:17:21] Speaker C: Ridiculously. [00:17:22] Speaker B: Where'd it go? Hold on 33. [00:17:24] Speaker C: But he's played two games for this team and I honestly can't tell you if he's good, bad, amazing. [00:17:31] Speaker B: Sucks. [00:17:31] Speaker C: Rocks. I have no idea what the qualities of that dude is at this point. And it's weird. [00:17:37] Speaker B: Yeah, he's. He's doing some recovering and a little bit of defense, like a block and intercept. He puts himself in decent spots. I like the energy, I like the range. But only 33 touches, that's like half what Legit had. And five progressive passes. That's not bad. But then he didn't have any progressive carries at all and he didn't have any receptions. That means the guys out of the back are not. He's not offering line breaking receptions to people coming out of the back either. So there's massive amounts of. The team is going through legit. Legit had the most touches. 67. So everyone has comfortable feelings about legit faith in legit. So they're passing into legit or else maybe he's staying home more and being in the. Perhaps he's providing himself in the right line breaking opportunities. You know, this, this low level of touches and the inability and the lack of people passing to him is the kind of thing where if this was mid season, I'd be really, really worried about it. But remember, he only got healthy like five days before this season started. Right. And played like 30 minutes or something in one scrimmage. Also, you know, with Lucho Acosta being a big focus in there and Legit being a big focus in there, maybe it's understandable he's not seeing a lot of the ball. But basically I'm with you. He like he's playing in the game and it's almost impossible to tell he's there. I mean, not even like a good way. Impossible to tell where like it's always about like with Yara Mindy. Yara Mindy would be a little higher up the field and when they're. When the ball be turned over and their team would come out, he would instantly step forward and turn the playback. And it was clearly an obvious. And you could see it. I'm not seeing that with Ramiro now. At the same time like he often is in good spots in between marking those gaps and when he's in there, I'm not seeing missed tracked runners as much. So I don't. I'm not going to slam the guy at this point, but it's like he definitely isn't finding his place in the shape in the team and the tactic yet. And that's obviously a thing that they'll need to worry about. Part of it too is that no show Kafamana yet in training that we know of. I mean I know for sure he hadn't as of last week. So there's not a lot of choices in that spot. To be fair, I don't know what. [00:19:36] Speaker C: Illness that dude had or has or is still dealing with or whatever, but the fact that he's not even training with the team at this point is pretty frightening or at least says something. Yeah, so the whole first half was. I mean, this is the. This is the oddity of this game, Buzz, because for 42 minutes, Dallas was flat terrible. This is one of the worst performances we've seen out of the team in a long time and certainly was a change from what we had seen in Houston, at least in some parts. And then suddenly, in a flash, everything changed as Dallas finally began to connect passes down the field, keep possession, don't. Didn't do anything stupid. They were connecting passes, got all the way down the field, and lo and behold, Padrino gets to roof one in. And suddenly now it's 2:1. And the game changed right there in that particular moment. And I'm not even sure why. [00:20:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you wonder if maybe Colorado was feeling pretty good and they sort of let off the pedal, perhaps, or whether Dallas just sort of realized that, like, the fact I can't get my breath is just the way it's going to be. I have to run through this. Or maybe they just got angry enough, you know, it's hard to really say. [00:20:42] Speaker C: My other note in that was that Dallas finally won two duels out of that sequence. And in fact, it was Musa and Lucho who actually each won their duel to start that sequence. [00:20:52] Speaker B: Well, one of. One of my reasons I picked Costa as my man of the match was because I felt like the whole game, like the team was feeding off of his energy. Like when he would do something energetic or make a nice run or make a nice little play or a dribble pass, a guy like the whole team would go, yeah, they would, like, get all hyped up for a little bit. And I think late in that court that half, you're right that when he and Musa started doing some things, I think the team woke up and said, okay, we are going to be in this one, and realized that we can get some opportunities, you know, and, and get forward. When you have a talismanic player like that, I mean, Musa is a player that you. That everyone on the team recognizes as really good, but that's not the same as Lucho Acosta. Lucho Acosta, everybody recognizes this is a league MVP level player. He's going to carry Us, if we just go with him, we're all. We're going to be fine. And that's. I think that's probably a lot of what it was. [00:21:39] Speaker C: Yeah. And in fact, three minutes later, unbelievably. And I got my. I read my notes incorrectly. The. The winning of the tool duels was not the first goal. It was this second one where the ball gets played up. Moussa wins his duel, plays it back to Lucho. Lucho wins a duel and then plays forward. And that begins the moment, the highlight moment of this game, which is where Dallas fans finally got to see their very own Lucho Acosta type goal. And what a goal it was. And man. And suddenly now we went from thinking this is a wooden spoon type performance to in three minutes, now it's two. Two in. Game on. [00:22:15] Speaker B: Yeah. The first of those two goals was a really nice combination to involve, like everybody up the right side. You know, Moore was involved, Musa was involved. Anderson, Julio was involved. And the second goal was just beautiful. It was such an amazing combo with Musa and Acosta. And Acosta. And that burst that Acosta had was next level. And you can tell everybody was like, oh, God, this is going to be fun. [00:22:38] Speaker C: But the champion loft finish was just ridonkulous. [00:22:41] Speaker B: And the way they. The way they celebrated together and like looked at each other with big grins on their face, like those two guys, like being dialed in. It's so beautiful to see when you have a pair. [00:22:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:22:52] Speaker B: That's just feeding off each other like that. [00:22:55] Speaker C: Dan. So we get to halftime, it's two to. What were you thinking at that particular moment? Were you relieved, happy, freaked out, blown. [00:23:03] Speaker D: Away at that point? Yeah. Weird. Like, you know, you go from a road win to coming back from two behind and suddenly you're like, well, the hell this is. This is already better than anything last season. What's going on? This. We expected this real slow build and here they are running out the gates like it was an Oscar Pereira season. [00:23:25] Speaker C: Well, I. The second half starts and one of the things that I immediately was a little concerned by was that they didn't seem to be in any hurry to. To progress the game. Like immediately right off the bat, a ball goes out for a throw in. And far fans just kind of half assing it to go pick up the ball like there was no urgency. It was almost as if they were happy with the fact they had tied the game. And here they are to start the second. And I was a little concerned with the kind of the body language and the attitude with hey, look, it's two, two. Let's not be too hasty. Let's take our time to do things. And I was a little worried about that. Which also comes to this other part of the performance buzz that I'm really fascinated to hear from you about, which is this kind of phenomena of seeing Musa come drop further and further back into midfield to get involved in the play. And is that part of the problem that they're having in getting in the final third of the field? Because every time Moussa drops back and they kind of retain possession, there's nobody to play the ball to unless somebody carries it up there. [00:24:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that's part of it. I mean, Quill was very adamant that in the post game show that like, he wants Musa and Acosta to be much higher, like together as a tandem. And that's where that Pedrinho coming into the. The gap underneath is part of the game plan, you know, to try and. Because he wants coast to get high and play in combinations with Musa, that leaves a giant space there. So if you have Pedrinho, whichever side he's playing on, can drop in and fill that sort of a 10 roll. You know, if he's on the right, then More comes forward. If he's on the left, then Farfin will come forward. So you'll have a nice rotational setup that way. And you get into that modern, you know, that w. That everyone does up front where they have two guys and then playing off. So it's an exciting prospect to watch. And I, I think maybe because we've talked a lot the first two weeks about Dallas's struggle to get through the middle of the field, that legit is kind of doing some of it, but then Romero isn't. And they're, they're struggling to connect. They're having to go wide all the time. And Eric doesn't want to be a one trick pony. So I think that's why Moose is coming back. He's trying to come back and add an extra outlet, an extra line break, which nobody wants. So he quite clearly, you know, because I specifically asked Cool about that, that partnership, that coastal missive partnership, and he said that he loved how it's going, but they still want to be higher still. They want to get those guys, those two guys up the field where they belong, in the dangerous part of the field, and everybody else underneath serve them and get it up to them and fill in those, those. That gap. So it's a work in progress. I think it's okay that in the second game of the season, it's not flawless. You know, it's when you have a completely rebuilt team and a new coach. They probably didn't even get into these kind of tactics until deeper into the spring. And then Acosa only arrived a week before the season, or Amiro got healthy a week before the season. And, you know, maybe Legit's not even the starter in that deep position when if they get everybody healthy, maybe he is, maybe he isn't. You know, they're still not determined who's going to be the other wing other than Anderson Julio. So pieces are still in flux. So it's not a panic time yet that that's not ideally performing like you wanted to. [00:26:27] Speaker C: I have a note in here early in the second half, which was like the third time I had mentioned this, but he. He had done something bad in this moment. It was. I think he played a ball out really poorly. Was. Man, I hadn't seen him play in a really long time. And I know he's been with Colorado now for a bit, but Reggie Cannon is not very good anymore. And he. He on the. Padrino missed header just early in the game. He completely lost Padrino in that moment, and he lost Padrino on the goal that Padrino scored. And then I just thought he wasn't very good. I was really kind of surprised how shockingly not good Reggie Cannon look for Colorado. Did you. Did you pick up on that? [00:27:10] Speaker B: I thought he spent a lot of time really high. He didn't. I was expecting more of a, you know, end to end sort of running from him, and instead he. That he kind of was almost playing like a wing back and not coming back far enough really. So I didn't notice him being particularly poor, but admittedly I wasn't really focused. [00:27:28] Speaker C: On him, that is defending. [00:27:30] Speaker B: I mean, it just wasn't good. I didn't think. [00:27:31] Speaker C: I was surprised. [00:27:33] Speaker D: He was pretty good at progressing the ball, but, yeah, he just seemed a step behind everything. And I mean, the goal that was ruled out for offside was a perfect example of that. [00:27:43] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, that's right. I mean, if you. If you want to. Yeah, we'll. I'm sure we'll talk about that in a great detail, but if somebody was holding Logan on, it was Reggie holding, playing a little too deeply. All right, so we get the first subs of the game. Romero, who had been largely absent, goes off. Bernie comes on for Padrino and Siki and Sebling comes on for Romero and Asiki had one of those good moment, bad moment kind of games because really Right off in the 68th minute, it is Seeking sibling who steps up on a ball that Colorado is trying to play through and he wins the ball at midfield and then that starts an entire sequence and Musa ends up with the finish and Dallas is up 3 to 2. And of course everybody at that point is feeling good. [00:28:28] Speaker B: Well, I, I have to say that like in my post game, three things I mentioned that I didn't like that seeky sub at that moment because Dallas was leading 32 when he came in and of course they weren't. It was, it was actually still tied two two. I, I lost track of when Siki came in. He came in when the game was tied. So like I thought it was a bit of a indictment of a roster issue that like you don't trust Norris when you're leading to come in as a six and you don't have any other options. So you stuck playing seeky as a six. Well, they weren't leading, they were tied. And so somebody some. Once I realized that then okay, I understand that sub a little more because Tiki is a guy who can pinch forward and make a play and get you something going. So like if you're going for the win, I actually really like that sub because that's a guy putting in a more attacking body in for a more defensive body and you're going to go for it. You're gonna try and get forward and do something. And that, that is the positive negative of Siki is that yes, he has a good moment and he makes a great pinch and then Musa has that amazing patient striker finish where he's just waiting and waiting and waiting and inflicts it with his right foot early rather than letting it come all the way down and going left. He gets it early with the ride and catches everybody slightly off guard and gets it in. It's pure striker goal. So that's an actually fascinating goal and you're completely right that that's the two headed monster that is seeking sampling the good and the bad. Coming up shortly after that. [00:29:44] Speaker C: Yeah, because my next note is, is that oh my gosh, Dallas is playing so deep, which is probably because it's legit and seeky Playing the two holding, holding mid spots. And I said I literally have it feels like they're going to give up another goal. And sure enough, it's 72. There's a rapid goal and a lot of that is tied to seeking sebling in his bad moment, not following his man and who ran into the box and crossed it. [00:30:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's A I. That moment really bothers me because it almost looks like CBs, like Siki is struggling and can't move very quickly. He doesn't burst and follow the guy, he kind of just jogs after him. And I thought, well, that's not good. That guy just came into the game. Why is he jogging? But it's just, I think he just got caught flat footed and lost him and then was like, you know, because that definitely created the opening and. And the. One of the center backs tried to come to that to him and God plays it across to the wide open striker. So it's, you know, you can't have this. This is the difference between. Ramiro was in there when Siki was in there. Like Ramiro, you don't really notice him, but then you don't notice those untracked runners either. So, you know, it's. There's. There may be some stuff there that you would like to get out of Romero, but you definitely don't have those breakdowns either. So there's a. Is a. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, perhaps. And, and again, this is just another thing that's like, you got to clean some of these things up. You got to figure these things out and get them that, you know, your deep game, deep seat, see low block shape cleaned up nicely and solidly. And you can't have these kind of breakdowns late and throw away games, throw away points. So you should have that one. [00:31:09] Speaker C: So we're at three. Three and I. Dan, did you have any faith that they were going to leave it on the table and give it up or what you think was going to happen from there on? [00:31:22] Speaker D: I thought that was going to be another goal. I just didn't know which way really. [00:31:26] Speaker C: Okay, so I, I do want to point this out because I thought he had another. Really? And in the 76th minute I call him Ou. You call him Oz. Some people call him or a Gide, which is probably the right thing to say. Although Oz isn't part of any part of his name. That's why I'm confused by the Oz nickname. [00:31:48] Speaker B: Well, he's the great and powerful Oz. I just, I explained that like, oh, sa. So it's OSAs. [00:31:54] Speaker C: That's not. [00:31:55] Speaker B: And that's Oz. [00:31:56] Speaker C: No, that's. That's Osas. [00:31:58] Speaker B: No, well, I keep shortening it. I dropped the A and then I dropped the. So it's just, it comes. That's how nicknames are formed. [00:32:05] Speaker C: All right, all right. [00:32:07] Speaker D: You've lengthened Shire's name But shortened Asaziriki days name. [00:32:12] Speaker B: Well, it's because it's Uruguay. It's hard to say. Plus I like the great and powerful. [00:32:19] Speaker C: I was just gonna call him by his initials, but whatever. All right, well, anyway, I thought he had a really good game in the 76th minute. In particular he got caught having to track back with I think two Rapids players on him and he ended up winning that double duel. And man, I the immediate thought I had of that was if that had been Sebastian Legette or had been Martinez or even Tafari, I wondered if it would have ended up the same way it did. I just thought he really showed his quality in that particular moment. I don't know if either one of you remember what I'm talking about. [00:32:53] Speaker B: I do. That was a really good play. There were some other moments that I thought weren't so great. I didn't think this game was as good as the first game. You know, there. There was some problems with him and the spacing of Deaga and which guy was going to stay, which guy was going to go and which guy was going to. And got the. That's center forward getting a brace in between the two guys. Basically that's not a great sign. But overall I thought other than those couple of let down moments, I thought it was also still very good. There's still a lot to build on. He's still one of the best defensive signings they made in years. I should think this is as good as game one. But that moment you're talking about. Yes. Was very nice. And you're right, I don't think there's many other defenders on this team that would have solved that situation. [00:33:29] Speaker C: Okay, so here's the moment everybody, I'm sure has been waiting for. Not always my favorite thing to talk about, but in the 79th minute, Logan Farrington, I Man, I'm telling you, in another world that would have been a goal of the year consideration. Just because the run is so nice, the first touch is so nice and the finish is so nice and would have put the team up 4, 3 at that particular moment. But of course, as we all know now, the alignsman, the assistant, raises his flag, calls for offside, Vard looks at it and says there's no clear and obvious error and the goal is called back. I don't know how you guys want to discuss this. Do you want to bother with it? I have opinions about it. Dan, you did a little deep dive on the discord. If you'd like to explain to everybody. [00:34:12] Speaker D: What you found and saw, yeah, I saw someone at. Drawn a line of offside on the MLS subreddit and it wasn't very good. So I was like, okay, I wanna. [00:34:26] Speaker C: You know, wait, something on Reddit wasn't good. [00:34:30] Speaker D: Well, someone had just tilted the photo and then just drew a straight line and the straight line did not, did not represent anything on that field. So. Okay, well, you know, it's misleading. The photogrammetry guy on Twitter is no longer doing his thing. So I was like, you know, pulled up Photoshop and started plotting some lines just to kind of get an idea for how far it was. Because, you know, people were talking about, oh, such an egregious offside and, you know, completely unscientific way, but I think Logan's on by about a foot and a half if you kind of figure out where his shoulder is compared to Reggie Cannon's heel. But I think it's close enough that the, the Lionel is going to look, look down the line. He's going to see Bernie's shoulder close to Reggie. He's gonna see a whole blend of that weird blue gray. And if he's behind play because, you know, he's got to keep up with Farrington wholly possible. I could see, I could see a reason that he would think it appeared offside, especially with how, if he's, you know, judging by the two center backs, considering how far behind them Reggie was. I think the big thing for me was the whole premise when they brought in Var is offsides are supposed to be. If you're certain that's offside, there's not, you know, there's not like a set distance, but it's. Is it clear cut? Because otherwise you give the benefit of the doubt to the attacker and Var takes care of it. And that. That didn't happen well, unless he was. [00:36:06] Speaker C: Absolutely certain he was offside. I mean, maybe in that moment he really was convinced he didn't see Reggie at all and was 100% convinced. And that's the error. Right? [00:36:15] Speaker D: And then that's just kind of the unfortunate nature of it is there may not be the, the absolute definitive camera angle to, to call that a clear and obvious error. [00:36:27] Speaker B: You know, back a couple years ago when I was doing MLS broadcasts, I. They did a presentation at the beginning of the season to explain delayed offsides. When it came in, when VAR came in, and when they said that, like, you have to be absolutely clear, they didn't mean like, yeah, I'm very confident they meant like, it's got to be like 15 yards, like if it's within, you know, like, if, if it's within 10 yards, even sleeve the flag down because, because it's, it's, it's so, so much better to pull a golf goal back and say that's not a goal, you're off than it is to stop it and not get a goal that could have been, you know, the, the weight on those two things is skewed so heavily to the, you know, not denying a goal scoring opportunity by the referee that it's supposed to be blatantly not just like, oh, you're sure? No, it's got to be like half the field offsides before they're going to raise the flag and run a play. And that obviously over the last couple years, that's gone away and it's become tighter and tighter and tighter and they probably will need to be reminders, I'm sure this week for everybody of, to the referees, I'm just assuming of you better damn sure better be like 10 yards before you raise the flag. [00:37:32] Speaker C: I, I, you know, I, I think we all prefer how MLS handles clear and obvious error, for sure, specifically on offside versus how they draw lines in the Premier League and all that stuff. And, and you love it until this happens and then you don't love it. And I, and I do think that MLS's kind of application the way it was originally intended of applying this, hey, we're going to. Var is going to get intervened when there's a clear and obvious error is definitely one of those things that in theory works out in balance over the course of the season. And it dawned on me that this is maybe even karmic payback for as recently as a week ago, because go back and remember the winning goal for Dallas in Houston. Musa. [00:38:17] Speaker B: I. [00:38:17] Speaker C: We talked about it on the podcast. It was an incident with Musa and McGlynn. And you know, I've watched that several times. And so he kind of pulls him at the shoulder, McGlin goes down. And I'm thinking, if that had been happened, if, if that had happened in reverse and Houston had gone and scored the winning goal of the game, we all would have written sternly worded letters to the UIL and been really unhappy about it. So, you know, that is. But here's the deal. The referee didn't call the foul. Var watched it said, there's not a clear and obvious error there. So the goal stands. It worked out in Dallas's favorite, and I think that's what happens here. And it's kind of making up the point that those things tend to balance themselves out over the course of the season. In Dallas's case, it just appears to have happened in the first two weeks. [00:39:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean all venting is going to do is let us just, you know, it's not going to accomplish anything. It's more about just like do we agree or not with the call and we at some point you just kind of have to move on and you hope they do balance out. [00:39:11] Speaker C: Well, I agree that if you look at the still that everybody's looking at, it does appear that Reggie is holding leg Logan off. But as Dan has pointed out, the picture is somewhat deceiving because there is some distortion in that photo. It's not a perfect bunch of 90 degree angles and it, it's not, you know, it, it isn't. You couldn't 100% guarantee that Logan is on or off in that particular moment. The error is 100% with the Assistant raising the flag in way too tight a situation. And here's my guess. Whenever MLS holds their kind of weekly review, official referee review deal, they'll admit that this was wrong and the error was that the referee raised his flag too quickly and they'll account for that. And that's how I think this will play out. [00:39:57] Speaker D: When I did the pro referees, they did the briefing to media a few weeks ago and one of the things that came up was they, I think, I think it was Alan Kelly had really, really hammered home like the YouTube thing with Greg Barclay. The weekly video review thing is going to be a little bit more educational potentially this year. That's going to come out Friday or Saturday morning. So I'll be interesting to see if, if this incident will be on there. The, the one for week one. Every incident I think was from the Chicago Columbus game. So you know that they're not, they're not doing every incident by any means. [00:40:41] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I think they're doing the more, the more controversial ones and I think certainly this would qualify, right? [00:40:48] Speaker D: Oh, for sure. I mean it's a, it's a potential winning goal. [00:40:51] Speaker C: Yeah. So speaking of rules, something happens in the 84th minute. Now I'm trying to remember when it happened earlier in the game in which player but a Dallas player got fouled in the middle of the field at some point earlier in the game and had to come off and Dallas and a yellow card was shown, but not for the foul. It was shown for somebody kicking the ball away. And the Dallas player that had to come off the field then fell victim of the two minute rule like if you go down with an injury and a trainer has to come out and deal with you, you've got to go sit off for two minutes. And so Dallas had to play. I think it was the last couple minutes of the first half. [00:41:28] Speaker D: Yeah, it was. Cole Bassett kicked the ball out of play. [00:41:30] Speaker C: Right. Who was the player that got kicked? [00:41:33] Speaker D: Good question. [00:41:34] Speaker C: I don't remember. Whoever it was. So Dallas had to play the last minute or so, the game. Down a man. Well, in the 84th minute, far fan loses a duel, grabs his head, goes down. But when the replay happens, Far Fan didn't get hit in the head. And they stop play while Colorado has possession because they're claiming it's a head injury. And so now Far Fan, because he was faking it, at least according to what I, we can all see on the video replay, he goes down, he has to come off, and now Dallas has to play down a man for two minutes. So there's the pro and con of that rule that is specific to mls, by the way. [00:42:13] Speaker B: I actually really like that rule. You know, I, I, I, I know that there'll probably be a time when it'll bite Dallas in the butt and it'll probably bite other teams in the butt, but I'm okay with that rule. I don't, I don't like people on the ground that aren't hurt, you know, and it's hard for me to say that that's not who's hurt or not, but it's like, you know, if that rule can be at all effective in cleaning up some of that stuff, you know, I, I, I applaud it. You know, I don't, I definitely remember Far Fan dropping and holding his head. So they're like, oh, it's a head injury. Stop the play. You have to stop the play if it's a head injury. Well, yeah, Turns out he was faking, so maybe he'll get a stern talking to and a lord not won't get his Laurel and Hardy handshake or something. But, you know, definitely as a, as a concept, I'm not unhappy with that rule. The other, the other version of it is the get off in 10 seconds when you're subvert. I don't, I don't mind that one either. You know, I think those ideas are not terrible. [00:43:11] Speaker D: The, the player in stoppage time was Pet Musa. [00:43:14] Speaker C: Oh, that's right. It was Musa. Yeah. So the game kind of goes on. Dallas has, has to put up with a lot of pressure, and then ultimately Dallas has a really good opportunity themselves. It Takes a block by Stefan in the corner. If Dallas had scored that game, it would have been a really nice and outstanding goal. But we end up at kissing the sister 33 in Dallas with four points in two games. I also think Buzz somebody that should have been considered man of the match material because he's been really solid for two games. Here is Sebastian Legette. [00:43:49] Speaker B: Yeah, he's been doing the business. You know, he was my man of match of the last spring warm up game because he was the guy that was the most ready for the season. He was the most fit, he was the most in mid season form and he's carried that over. You know, he's been, I mean you could really say all last season, but really since middle of last season in particular, he's, you can argue he's been Dallas's best player. You know, he's carried that over to that level of performance over to this year. He's not because he's playing deeper, he's not ending up on the score sheet as much, but he's still very impactful. He, he had an absolutely terrific game. You know, I mentioned that he had the most touches because the team's playing through him. But you know, even from that deep he still had three shot creating actions and he's, and he had a nice defensive game too with two out of three on tackles. You don't think he was being a tackler, but he was doing it and enters four blocks. You know, I mean, so he's doing the business both ways. Credit to him because he's not a guy that you thought of as a defensive player. You know, probably being a double pivot helps but you know, you're not trying to exchange him, extend him too far. And all in all, just like the, the those two guys in the middle, Romero and Legit are doing a really nice job of holding the, a really good solid shape. Like if you look at the Dallas's average shape, it's not all wonky and out of position and guys aren't drifting where they need to be. And a lot of that really is probably down to them holding it all together in the middle. So I think a lot of credit to Legit early and the real key of course will be can he hold it up given his age, can you hold up over the course of the season? [00:45:12] Speaker C: Dan, I, my, my read after two games is I don't know how good Dallas is. I know they can look really good in moments, but there are long stretches of both of these games where I'm very concerned how this team is both progressing, the ball moving forward, and obviously some defending issues. I'm. Where is the Dano meter on Dallas at this point after two games? [00:45:34] Speaker D: I mean, it's just exciting. I'm just here for nothing predictable. You know, I can watch Lewton on a Saturday morning and know I'm going to be disappointed. I can watch FC Dallas in the evening and you know, it may be an absolute masterpiece. It may be a dumpster fire. I don't know. [00:45:53] Speaker C: And you don't care. You just love it. Either way. [00:45:56] Speaker D: We're here for entertainment. [00:45:59] Speaker C: Since I'm asking you a question, what do you. This is the first time we've seen the Inferno kit in all of its glory, or whatever adjective you'd like to insert there. You got a thought on the. On. On its look in action? [00:46:11] Speaker D: It's a bit boring in it. [00:46:14] Speaker C: Yeah, it is. It's. It's. You know what, it's kind of like that deal where you call a handyman and he's like, oh, I do plumbing and I also do electrical. And you're like, then you're probably not good at either one of those. Well, is it gray or is it blue? It's neither. And that's a problem. I don't know what color that kit is. [00:46:32] Speaker D: And it looked great with the, the Anthem jackets when I did the close ups and the. And the cameras actually picked up the blue. But yeah, other than that it was just white. [00:46:43] Speaker C: Yeah, it's just a light color. Also, I don't know what it was about the Apple production or the camera angles. [00:46:50] Speaker B: Don't get me started. [00:46:51] Speaker C: Well, no, I was just going to say at the beginning of the game when they were doing all the kind of the crowd shots and the atmosphere shots, I was like, man, Dick's Sporting Goods Stadium looks like the most janky ass high school thing going on in MLS. It's so MLS 1.0. And I realize Toyota Stadium isn't much better from that kind of like how it looks kind of thing compared to all the new stadiums in the league. But at least we know something's coming. I feel bad for Rapids fans because I think they're kind of stuck with that thing with that weird kind of like roof that's nothing but an aesthetic piece. It has no actual function to it. It's a. It's a. It's pretty janky looking. [00:47:29] Speaker B: Not much around there. I understand either. I haven't been to a game there yet. I need to do that at some point. But yeah, not. Not a great venue. But I mean, Denver doesn't suck. Been up in that neck of the woods. [00:47:39] Speaker C: So. Real quick, Buzz, any more rumors on the Kaik Brazilian six, the 19 year old? [00:47:46] Speaker B: No, but you know, when it progresses to the stage that Bogart's talking about it being in final negotiations, you know, I'm sure that's legit. I imagine at this point we won't hear anymore until a deal gets announced or. And if a deal doesn't happen, of course we'll never hear anything about it again. But nothing new on that front other than like we've had confirmation that that is how you say it. The Kaik is correct. Thank goodness. [00:48:12] Speaker C: Yeah. Somebody asked me about the. About it the other day and I. And. And they said, do you think this is a good thing or bad thing? And I said, well, you know, I don't really care how the Hunts spend their money. What I'm more worried about is what's. What's the point? What's the purpose of this addition to the roster? Is it. Is it added with the primary idea of him being like a quality addition to the roster is going to make a difference? Or are they doing this for business purposes? And that's the part I can't quite square in my head yet. Until we see him and see how much he plays, I just don't think we know. [00:48:42] Speaker B: It feels like business because of the fact that he hadn't debuted really or hadn't played much as Gramio, you know, Brazilian league is quality. So like that's not definitive. But like the fact that he's only 18, 19 years old and hasn't really broken into their first team is not. Is, you know, puts him on par with the Portuguese kid that they got from the U23 team, you know, for in Portugal. So it's not. It feels more like a guy that's for either the future or it's for business. And probably it's not going to make much of an impact this year. And then. So then you wonder about eating a U22 initiative. I mean, U22 initiatives are about development and we're almost certain that that's what it's going to be if it happens. [00:49:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:18] Speaker B: But you know, their tracker record with that is just not good. So it's like it makes us very nervous about using such a. So what could be such a good mechanic. But again, it's a high risk mechanic. It's the idea of the whole mechanic is designed to make an MLS a selling league where you're going to roll the dice on something and see if you can come up big. So it is a bit of a risky. [00:49:38] Speaker C: And it's a lot of money too. It's a lot of money. [00:49:42] Speaker B: That, that price, that's a top five deal all time for FC Dallas. So they better be confident. I will say that like, or until the new scout, the head of scouting, the new technical director, technically, since Andre Zenoda got promoted a little bit, you know, since he's come in and since we feel like he's gotten involved, we kind of like some of these new signs that are happening, this new direction that's happening. So I feel a little bit more confident than I would say a year ago, you know, or a year and a half ago when we were doing like that in a solid kind of deal and we were like, what in the world? So fingers crossed, we'll see. I mean, again, until he plays, what do we. [00:50:16] Speaker C: I mean, yeah, it's a, it's. It's a lot of money for a kid that is probably going to end up playing in North Texas. Especially when you have an. A very clear, glaring need at the same position that he supposedly plays. That's why I think they're bringing him in to actually play, because they think he can do it, because they need somebody in that position so badly. [00:50:36] Speaker B: I mean, the tape looked good, but it looks good against scrubs. So, you know, a lot of tapes look good at that level. And you know, highlight clips can all be like, everybody make great highlight clips. [00:50:44] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. [00:50:45] Speaker B: You know, I think you're right that if it does happen, he'll spend some time in North Texas. It won't. Hopefully it won't be a ton though, because U22 initiatives shouldn't be playing all that much at North Texas. But you probably have to do some. I think, I think that's not a question. [00:50:58] Speaker C: All right. Dallas has their first home game of the year coming up Saturday at 7:30. The fire. It's the Brimstone cup, kids. Is that still a thing by the way? [00:51:07] Speaker D: Yes. [00:51:07] Speaker C: Okay, Dan, what you going to tell us about the Fire? [00:51:12] Speaker D: A lot of goals come in one way or the other. First two games of the season last four, two against Columbus. They just drew two, two against D.C. united after D.C. had like a thing. It was fifth minute stoppage time, bicycle kick from the edge of the area. Absolutely ridiculous goal. But the key is they are scoring and they are conceding at a rapid rate. Which paired up with FC Dallas. Hey, we joke about those four, three games. This is gonna be a five, four game. [00:51:47] Speaker B: It's gonna be a roller coaster season man. Just hold on. [00:51:50] Speaker D: Yeah, but yeah, they've got Hugo Kuipers up front. Just got a brace against D.C. both of them came off corners. He's making a back post run right? So corners FC Dallas Aquila he's heel and with both of them he just crept in at the back post. So it's going to have to be no second balls. Just get it away. They've had an absolute shit ton of injuries. I think they had nine players out against D.C. they've really dipped into their MLS next pro side. As a result their midfield has been a little bit shaky. They are going to get Brian Gutierrez back from suspension. So that will relieve a lot of pressure on Kellen Acosta to not have to play as a two way midfielder. [00:52:32] Speaker C: Back to back weeks against former academy products. [00:52:36] Speaker D: Wow. So you know surely it's got to be Lucho versus actually it's a Costa versus a coaster. That's got to be your matchup, right? [00:52:47] Speaker B: Well it's a tale of two Costas. [00:52:49] Speaker D: The I think that the scary part for FC Dallas is FC Dallas obviously is. Has really struggled with that. In between space inside Shaq more outside of Romero and Sebastian Ibiaga the same half space with the opposite half space of what we talked about when it was Reto Ziegler at left center back. That is the exact spot that the new fella Jonathan Bamba just loves to attack and he is absolute quality. So they really need to be on their game. Whether that is pull, pull shack more back. Whether that is switch the center backs and have Origiday on that side so that you can kind of match pace. They've. They've got to make some adjustment. Conversely Chicago center backs are slower than dirt. Any ball over the top Moose is going to just race onto. Padrino is going to race on to Farrington's going to race onto. I'm trying to think who the slowest player on the team is but they would probably race onto it. [00:54:01] Speaker C: Yeah and they did bring Ibiaga. [00:54:04] Speaker D: Ibiaga's not the slowest. [00:54:05] Speaker B: No, he's not even close. [00:54:07] Speaker D: No. They did bring in Jack Elliott in in the off season from Philadelphia. Pretty impressive get center back but I don't know. They've been really bad in the air. They're playing that Greg Burholt assistant. They're trying to play out of the back and they are really struggling. [00:54:25] Speaker C: I forgot. [00:54:26] Speaker D: Well they had, they had a Houston level giveaway against, against Columbus. [00:54:32] Speaker C: They pulled a Houston good game for. [00:54:34] Speaker B: Counter pressing By Dallas. [00:54:36] Speaker D: Exactly, exactly. So. And weirdly for. For a center back pairing that is, I think they're both 6, 4. They can't win a header to save their lives. Peter Musa could have a field day. [00:54:51] Speaker B: Sounds very similar to. [00:54:52] Speaker C: Yeah, well, yeah, we'll see how it goes. It'll be fun. A season over. Plus it'll be interesting because this will be the first time everybody. Half the stadium is crammed over on the west half of the side and it will be staring. I'm interested to see how the league and the club has decided to set up camera positions. Are they going to shoot from east to west and show the people sitting in the stands? Is that what they're going to do? I don't know. [00:55:17] Speaker B: This year it should be the same because it's the west. Oh, it's the east side that's empty. [00:55:21] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. So what are they gonna do? And then you got the problem of the sun setting down on that side and you don't want to be shooting into the sun and. [00:55:30] Speaker B: Well, that's the problem with flipping it is that you can't. You're looking into the sun. And B. Toyota stadium is not pre fibered to that side. So you'd have to do long fiber runs around the stadium, which is not crazy expensive. But it does take like a lot of extra time and you have to hire people to do it. So you have to spend extra money to do it. And if that side's becoming a production or construction zone, construction zone, that means you'd have to take the stuff in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out every week. It wouldn't be like you could drop it in once and then not worry about it. You have to put it in and out every time. And that that cost would begin to add up. So I'm gonna bet you, without having seen it yet, I'm gonna bet you the cameras are still on the west side. And you're just gonna see and it's. [00:56:13] Speaker D: Just gonna look like the COVID games. [00:56:15] Speaker B: Yeah. And maybe they'll drape some of those stands or something. Or they'll. They'll probably have taping at the top that'll say like, you know, stay out because it's under construction. The lone construction worker will be over there. Yeah. [00:56:24] Speaker C: Maybe they've already bought the big video wall that they're gonna add to the stadium and they're gonna put it in front of where the east stands either are or aren't gonna be and they'll just run a video of people Fans in seats and. And we'll. [00:56:39] Speaker D: They'll fake it live video of the other side. [00:56:41] Speaker C: It's like Disney's Volume where they shoot all the Mandalorian and everything. [00:56:45] Speaker B: Cardboard cutouts in the sense. [00:56:46] Speaker C: Yeah, that would actually. Cardboard cutouts of people would be awesome. [00:56:52] Speaker B: The lone construction worker will be over there to get the balls. [00:56:54] Speaker C: All right, you got a prediction on a starting 11 buzz are we going to see? He's got to start Farrington at this point, right? He's got to give him his shot now. [00:57:00] Speaker B: Well, I would say that Farrington deserves a start because of how good he's been. And I did raise the idea earlier that maybe it's been a Bernie gets a game, Per gets a game and now Farrington gets a game. If their defense is slow, it would make more sense to play Farrington because he's more likely to go over the top. Rodrigueno is not really going to play over the top. So maybe you would make. Because Quill did insist that like some of those choices will be made based on matchups. So maybe it makes more sense to play fairings in and maybe it even makes more sense to go to Bernie, another over the top sort of player. But based on performance, I would leave Pedrinho in. I don't think he. Petrino played poor enough to get yanked if he does. [00:57:40] Speaker C: Very dodgy to me. Who was Bernie? Both. Even in his sub performance, I just didn't. I know there's something wrong. [00:57:47] Speaker B: I don't. I don't think Bernie really would be an option. So I think you. I would say ordinarily I would say Padrino played well enough to keep the spot, but there is that idea. Maybe I take a look at each guy as a starter and maybe Farrington would work better, you know, with some vertical component. You know, that way you would have Julio Musa and, and. And Logan going and then. And Lucho Casa can just be underneath a little bit. But then he also talked about wanting to get Lucho higher and then that brings back in Padrinho to come underneath. So this is going to be some tactical choices and we're going to learn something about our Quill as we're still learning about what his choices are in this new season, this new system, a new set of players, you know. [00:58:26] Speaker C: All right, Fire come to town. Home opener Saturday at 7:30. Hope everybody gets to go. I'm sure it'll be sold out, you know, hey, it's only 11, 500 people. The run sheet says buzz has quote some USL news. [00:58:41] Speaker B: Yeah, so I've been poking around on this for a while and you guys remember that Donnie Nelson owned the franchise rights for the Austin BOLD that he was. [00:58:50] Speaker C: He bought the rights to the BOLD and we thought he was going to put a team at the Keller facility. [00:58:55] Speaker B: Keller facility. We talked about how that political side of that one went dead and killed that sort of deal. But that had. Donnie had been re upping his rights. So I learned recently that someone has bought him out of those rights. So Donnie Nelson is out and somebody else has bought them. And I think that you will hear soon maybe something about a USL team in Fort Worth. I can't. I don't know what level it's going to be. I don't think USL1. I think it'll be higher than that because the Bulwars the USL Championship franchise rights, man. [00:59:26] Speaker C: I'm telling you usl, the headquarters of USL has to be thinking and dreaming of a world where they launch this new USL premiere with a Dallas team and a Fort Worth team. [00:59:40] Speaker B: It has to be possible. It's got to be legitly possible because you know, you don't, you don't buy those USL Championship rights and then go USL1. So it's at least USL Championship looking at coming in. And then you were like the, the, the USL Dallas guys were telling me they learned about the Premier League thing like a day or something or a week or something before they made their announcement. [01:00:01] Speaker C: Yeah. And I saw like they've said nobody. Yeah, I've even seen that they've worked. They were quoted as saying they were already thinking about moving the stadium up to 15,000. [01:00:09] Speaker B: I. Why wouldn't you? Right. Especially if they're, if they start making noise about pro rally. Even if you come in at uslc, why limit yourself if it only has to go like up a little bit. That extra 5,000 seats. Now all of a sudden I'm in contention. If we do go pro rail or I got two years before I'm playing, maybe I can make that move or whatever. And now there's this new factor over on Fort Worth. I don't know who it is. I just know somebody bought out Donnie Nelson and so it's somebody else. And I think that you'll hear the impression I was given was that you'll hear something in the. Now we're talking about timelines of franchises. So I don't mean like next month, I just mean like sometime in the next whatever behind the timeline of time curve that USL Dallas is on. Behind that curve. Something that. Going that way. And, and I'VE had people explain to me they're because all these USL teams coming in, I'm like, how's that all fitting in? And they've explained to me kind of about how you. But when you, when you hold the rights, you hold a zone. So that's what somebody has bought was they bought Donnie Nelson's rights to what is basically like the middle Fort Worth, as I understand it, which is basically like Keller down and there are even like someone could have like a way north or away south that they wanted to like Dick Soma has way north over Dallas, for example. [01:01:21] Speaker C: Right. Well, you know, throwing a team, a team in the championship in Garland is cool and I think that's going to be a lot of fun. But if USL Premier or Premiership, whatever they end up calling it, launches with a team in Fort Worth and a team in Dallas, now you've got my attention because now you've got the squeeze. Like using Dallas Fort Worth as a use case or a test case of MLS versus USL Premier. Now there's you a story now that's one to watch for. [01:01:52] Speaker B: Even if they only bring in one team, it'll be fascinating to watch out. Like if one of them's premier and one in USL Dallas States Championship, it'll be fascinating if they both come up or. Or it's the one. Dallas is up and Fort Worth is down. Whatever it is, the landscape is going to alter here completely. When you have a team coming in of that stature or two teams coming into that stature, it's going to be fascinating to watch how fan bases react, how markets react, how soccer awareness reacts. In this city, I mean, you know, for. This is. For later in the pop, it was even another fourth division team that came in today. [01:02:24] Speaker C: Yeah, you might as well mention that since we're here. [01:02:26] Speaker B: I mean, it's crazy. It's a team called Central Dallas fc. I've never heard of them. They're brand new. They're basically launching with this announcement and then they had a quote from their GM and their. And their president, who both appear to be employees on some level of BVB Dallas, what they call BVB North American International. So I'm not sure what kind of official relationship there is there. But anyway, it's a new. It's the same level again as Denton Diablos or McKinney Chupacabras for. With Vacara. So now we're going to have six teams at that level here in town. [01:02:59] Speaker C: But not even all in the same league. They're all playing in different leagues. [01:03:02] Speaker B: Three different leagues. Yeah, so that's a weird landscape too. [01:03:04] Speaker C: So where are they going to play? Do we know? [01:03:07] Speaker B: They didn't mention that. I mean, it's called Central Dallas, so I assume that means it's actually going to be in Dallas. I'm sure that's the bit is they're saying like, no, no, we're in Dallas. [01:03:14] Speaker D: Weirdly, the map that the league had had them north of FC Dallas. [01:03:21] Speaker B: Did they really in the picture? I didn't notice that. [01:03:24] Speaker D: But that, that may just be, you. [01:03:27] Speaker C: Know, somebody doesn't know what the Dallas area looks like. It just threw the logo. [01:03:31] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah, they've just popped a dot on there and. And that's. It could be because. Yeah, they didn't, they didn't announce a stadium of any kind and they're obviously brand new, so. [01:03:40] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, they have the FC Dallas. Mark is being smack on top of Dallas with the FC Revolution smack on top of Fort Worth. [01:03:46] Speaker D: Okay. [01:03:47] Speaker B: And then the FC Central being. I don't know what you call that. The DFW airport, maybe. I don't think it's a very accurate map. But, you know, I, I think BVB International, AKA BBB Dallas, I think think they're like in the Farmers Branch Ish era, maybe. [01:04:03] Speaker C: Yeah, well, yeah, they're all. Yeah, they're over at the. What used to be the old Blue Sky Carrollton facility is where they were headquartered with that. They've got some outdoor fields over there. The fields are terrible, but they have outdoor fields. And it's now toca. Those awful TOCA people that took over the Blue sky facility. [01:04:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't, I, you know, there's no mention of a stadium in the release. There's, you know, there's just talk about how it's a new team, we're real excited, blah, blah, blah. So there's no official relationship. I just. When I googled those two guys, one of them's the BBB director of. And the other one's one of their coaches. [01:04:37] Speaker C: So it's like, okay, all right, Dan. After having a week off, Dallas Trinity is back at it at the Cotton bowl with the hated Brooklyn fc, the best team in the league. [01:04:47] Speaker D: I mean, they, they were, they've, they've struggled since coming back from the break as well. [01:04:53] Speaker C: Did they lose a bunch of players too? [01:04:56] Speaker D: They actually didn't. They lost Taylor Smith, but she hadn't. [01:05:00] Speaker C: Really had to go back on tour. [01:05:03] Speaker B: Not Swift Smith. [01:05:05] Speaker D: Oh, Taylor Smith, the former US International from Fort Worth. [01:05:11] Speaker C: Not the, not the international pop superstar that has a billion dollar tour. No okay, sorry, go ahead. Damn. I didn't mean to bother. [01:05:19] Speaker D: Yeah, they've. They've had two games, Drew both. They drew against Tampa Bay, son. They drew against Lexington, who bottom of the league. So. Yeah, I don't know what's going on with. With them. They're having a little bit of chicken. Well, I mean, you say that, but Trinity have also had their issues. Drew of Tampa Bay son as well, lost to Spokane in a absolutely dire game. [01:05:43] Speaker B: The. [01:05:44] Speaker D: The whole top of the league's gone a bit. Funny. Fort Lauderdale is really the only team that's kind of come into it. They've played three games now because they had the extra week and they've. They've won all three. [01:05:56] Speaker C: Interesting. All right, well, that game's at 4:00 on Saturday out at the Cotton Bowl. [01:06:01] Speaker D: That is on Sunday. [01:06:02] Speaker C: I'm. Sunday. I'm sorry, I cannot read. It's Buzz's crayon writing on the run sheets. [01:06:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:08] Speaker C: Yes. All right. And when Neck. Oh, is this the weekend North Texas kicks off their defense of their championship? [01:06:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Choctaw Stadium on Sunday. It'll be interesting to see who comes down from the U19 team. Yeah, no, it really is. Yeah, it's a. It's a whole bunch of academy dudes. I mean, that's going to change a tiny bit here because you'll see some of the home runs, I think, kick down, but it's going to be really young ones like Tark Scott played in their final scrimmage and Daniel Barron, who's a homegrown with. On the FC Dallas roster. I think so I would imagine he and. And Scott and Sam Sarver, who's the third round. Sorry, the second round FC Dallas pick out of Indiana. He's the old man of that team. I imagine he'll be there and then probably. You know, the thing about being on Sunday, which is nice, like you could see anyone who doesn't play could go like maybe would we see Nolan Anthony Ramirez maybe would fill in as that 10. And that Lucho Acosta role you probably end up seeing. You know, some. A lot of their signings aren't here yet because of visas, so you'll see a lot of homegrowns and. Or even academy kids like Ali Zuro, who's a homegrown. Caleb Swan, a homegrown or on a hybrid deal. He's not as homegrown part yet. And you'll probably have to play your academy guys like Josh Torcato or Ian Charles in the back line with some of your other picks and, and the, the last one spot that'll be really fascinating will be do they send down Antonio Carrera or not? They signed that keeper J.D. harms out of Indiana, but Carreras as the third choice of FC Dallas, what's he gonna do is sit around, not play? I mean, he's kind of, he kind of grew out of that league like two years ago almost. So. But do you want him to sit around doing nothing or do you let him go down there and start some games? So that'll be fascinating from a, from a roster build development kind of perspective, how many guys go down and how many are not. And then of course they'll play some sort of variation of a 433 or 4231 or the other. Just rotate the middle field a little bit depending on you have a pure six or not. But some of the guys that they expect to fill some of these more mature international players are not going to be here yet. So you'll, you're starting the season with a fair bit of academy, it looks like. [01:08:09] Speaker C: Okay, so that kicks off on Sunday out at Choctaw. Did y'all see Charlotte's new post game celebratory man of the match bit they did with Wilfred Zaha after their, their big win? Dan, did you see this? [01:08:27] Speaker D: Absolutely not. [01:08:28] Speaker C: So what they do now is the man of the match is crowned like a king with a crown because, you know, that's part of their ser minty and all that. And then he walks up the steps in the middle of what appears to be their supporters group and then sits on a giant throne. [01:08:47] Speaker B: That's fun. That is fun. [01:08:51] Speaker C: And I'm thinking poor Wilfred Zaha, the same guy who started his career by going to Manchester United and getting accused of sleeping with the manager's wife. Oh, David Moyes. And now he's ending his career by getting crowned and getting to sit on a throne in the stands after a. [01:09:12] Speaker B: Man of the match before he embraces the fun of it, you know, and just be like, why not be like. [01:09:16] Speaker C: You know, it's pretty great stuff. [01:09:19] Speaker B: North Texas does the same black cowboy hat that S.E. dallas does. So that's obviously the club's bit at this point. [01:09:24] Speaker C: So bits are fun. [01:09:26] Speaker B: Bits are fun. [01:09:27] Speaker D: Some bits of fun, yeah. [01:09:29] Speaker C: The, the old branding of the leather was not fun. [01:09:32] Speaker B: That one didn't work so well. They were going for the Portland timber sawing vibes with that one. Didn't work very well. [01:09:41] Speaker D: Still say they should have just cut a brisket. [01:09:44] Speaker B: Give him a sandwich. [01:09:45] Speaker C: This is very self harmish. It just, it was not a good, not a good look by the decision makers of Dallas at the time. All right, well hopefully it's a good atmosphere and good crowd. I'm looking forward to see how they set the stadium up. Now that we've had that conversation, I have a feeling this will be a big talking point on the podcast next week of how they, how they, how they set the stadium up considering it's going to be half empty and what the vibe and this atmosphere in the scene's going to be like. So we'll, we'll see. [01:10:13] Speaker A: Third Degree. Yes indeed. What's up everybody? Pappy Check here and I am back in the DFW trying to do this music thing and the only people that I really need to connect with, intermingle with that I want to get to know are my fellow soccer sickos from Third Degree. Follow me on Instagram at Pappy Check or come see me play live on Thursdays in Bishop Arts District at Taco Eveno. It's good times. Come out and see me and I will play the third degree degree theme live. Wouldn't that make your day Third degree? [01:10:55] Speaker B: The podcast is brought to you by the Dallas Beer Guardians. Friday night is the biggest party of the year. To celebrate FC Dallas's home opener, the Dallas Beer Guardians are hosting their 24 hour tailgate and they're inviting out all the SC Dallas curious. BBG taps the kegs at 7pm in the red lot on the southwest end of Toyota Stadium and the beer keeps flowing all the way to kick off on Saturday. Just look for the big tent. In addition to the always free beer, DBG will have free food from their executive chef, plenty of games and activities, and maybe even some surprise guests if you can't join them for the 24 hour tailgate. You can always find DBG on X, Instagram, Facebook, Reddit and Discord threads. Basically anywhere you can legally check out social content. Just search for Dallas Beer Guardians. [01:11:35] Speaker C: All right, Dan, thank you so much. Good stuff my friend. [01:11:38] Speaker D: Thank you Buzz. [01:11:40] Speaker C: Happy four points to you sir. [01:11:42] Speaker B: Oh, thank you. I didn't know it was my birthday. [01:11:45] Speaker C: It's just four points. Just four points. [01:11:49] Speaker B: Hey, by the way, real fast on the player signing watch. I'm going camping for a couple of days. [01:11:53] Speaker C: So Chance, when are you going camping? [01:11:56] Speaker B: Leaving tomorrow morning. Gonna be gone until Thursday. So you got a two day window to get your signing done while I'm. [01:12:02] Speaker C: Kai is coming in. He'll be here by Wednesday afternoon. [01:12:06] Speaker B: Look for that announcement. Since I'm just write it down. [01:12:08] Speaker C: It's happening for sure. All right, Very good. All right, well, we'll all keep that on watch. We're officially on buzz on vacation. That means the signing's coming in or something's gonna happen. Watch and thank you. You FC Dallas Curious fanu. We will speak to you next week, hopefully with three points in pocket, on a next edition of Third Degree, the. [01:12:29] Speaker D: Podcast Bring Brimstone home. [01:12:33] Speaker A: Third Degree The Third Degree. Ned Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree. Nepa Third Degree the Third Degree. Nepa Third Degree the Third Degree.