3rd Degree the Podcast #302

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Record button has been pressed. Yeah. [00:00:12] Speaker B: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree Ned podcast. [00:00:15] Speaker A: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree ned podcast 3rd degree the 3rd Degree Ned podcast 3rd degree 3rd degree 3rd degree the. [00:00:29] Speaker C: Podcast is brought to you by listeners like you. If you enjoy 3rd Degree the Podcast or 3rd Degree.net or any of our coverage of professional soccer in the DFW area on social media, why not join us and give us a little support though a $2 our way. And if you join at a high enough level, you can join our community on Discord and the fantastic followers of pro soccer and Third Degree. Thanks again. Hopefully you enjoy the podcast. [00:00:51] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas curious fan. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podc. On the panel today, as always, the good Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:03] Speaker B: Hello. Hello. What? Another victory? Never mind. [00:01:07] Speaker A: Hello. And your hero, My hero, everybody's hero, editor, founder all around good dude of thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Carrick. Coming, Buzz. [00:01:23] Speaker C: I have to tell you, Peter, watching FC Dallas play these days, I feel like Mike Myers in you've married an axe Murderer where he's like, stop this crazy world. It's like it's a roller coaster of ups and downs and goals galore. Watching this team play. [00:01:39] Speaker A: We told you, I'm not even going to take credit. You told everybody this was going to be a roller coaster season. [00:01:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:01:47] Speaker A: And certainly losing at home in the home debut against the Chicago. They hated Chicago Fire two to one is. Well, you know what, when you say it's going to be a roller coaster season, it doesn't always mean that the roller coaster ride, no matter how many ups and downs there are, it doesn't mean it's always going to end on a high like the previous two weeks. It may end on a really shitty curve or a lame drop or something. And that's kind of what they got on. [00:02:16] Speaker C: So there's going to be lots of ups and downs on this roller coaster this season for sure. [00:02:20] Speaker A: Now, before we get into the game itself, and by the way, we will talk about Trinity's big win over Brooklyn this weekend. North Texas got their start and a bunch of other things. And we'll also obviously get into the details of the Dallas game. But I, Dan, I'm going to turn to you because I'm really interested. Like, you know, last week we asked on the pod, or we, we kind of speculated on the pod what the setup of this stadium renovation was going to look like on television. And lo and behold, a few days later, we actually, I actually, somebody sent me A photo from the stadium that I. That they gave me permission to share. And it was what kind of what we talked about. Blue tarps over the seats, some signage at the top of the top of the tarps. The funniest line in there is the phrase coming soon. It seems. It seems being a little egregiously optimistic on soon, what that means. But I'm curious, Dan, how did. How did the renovation changes affect the overall atmosphere at the game? [00:03:26] Speaker B: The atmosphere was really good. It's difficult not to be. Chicago is one that the supporters groups get up for. You've got the 24 hour tailgate, which is kind of, you know, making its. Its bounce back after a few quiet years. Sounded. Sounded fantastic. It really did. It's a shame the last 10 minutes of the game didn't. Didn't really pay them back for that. It was just very, visually very strange. A lot of people in the stadium, the 11,004 strange number, spent a good portion of the game up on the concourse with the. That kind of sideways reign for most of the game. And then, yeah, it was just like the COVID games when there was only the few of us in the press box and just staring at some tarps. [00:04:21] Speaker A: I thought what was interesting that kind of surprised me is that on the east side, the sections would appear to be 122, 123 were not tarped off. So that kind of southeastern, southeastern most corner where I thought would be tarped off like everything else, because all the way to the other end at the north end of the east side, 131 and 132 by the video board was all tarped off, but the ones kind of underneath over there in the southeast corner were not. Is. Is that just maybe kind of a hint of how the progress of this deconstruction is going to happen? [00:05:02] Speaker B: The two blue sections in the corner were always going to be open. One of the red sections, I think it was 120, 22. [00:05:09] Speaker A: Must be 122. [00:05:10] Speaker B: The first one was due to be open. The second one wasn't until very recently. On the sales map they have, they still show both of those closed. I did ask after the game and for the whole season, the official number is 11,004. So whether that actually relates to either of those two sections being open for those games, that's anyone's guess. [00:05:34] Speaker A: Okay, I was just going to say this up front. Here's my rant that will surprise nobody. I really wish the league and I maybe even I kind of wish Dan Hunt would just put his Foot down and respect tradition. Because allowing Chicago to wear red in Frisco for Dallas's home game, ostensibly so you can sell shirts, is criminal. And I'm sure this is a league thing, and I get it, but I really wish the tradition of wearing your red jersey, your red kit at home, when your opponent wears the same color, a traditional, original MLS nemesis. I mean, you're playing essentially a cup game against them here, and you're allowing them to wear your primary color in your house. I think it just rubs me all the wrong kind of ways, and I. And if it's a league thing, I wish Dan Hunt would be courageous enough to stand up and go, no, we're not doing that. We can wear the new kits next week against Vancouver and do it then. But we're wearing red against Chicago because that's the right thing to do. [00:06:42] Speaker C: I actually assume that that's just them wanting to sell jerseys. [00:06:46] Speaker A: But is that a league thing or is that a Dallas thing? [00:06:49] Speaker B: It's part. I mean, I assume part of this shirt sponsorship now is you get to sponsor the first game as part of the package. And when you get to sponsor the game, the jersey your name is on is going to be worn. [00:07:02] Speaker C: You remember that they've done that. Now, I think it's effectively true that they do it every season because it's only noticeable every other season. And if you remember back to the first time they wore the Burn Baby Burn kit, It was against 3Al Salt Lake. And I distinctly remember being in the stands when Seattle scored first wearing the white Burn Baby Burn kit. And everybody around me was like, why is everyone cheering the assault? Like, discord. I was. And I had to explain to everybody, no, that's Dallas in white. RSLs in red. Clearly remember that. And I remember two years before that when they debuted the tornado kit, the powder blue kit. Like, I was like, we were. Same thing. We were like, oh, man, they're wearing that at home. And then, like, everybody in the stands was wearing it. And that's when we learned, like, oh, that's a huge seller already, like, in week one. So it's definitely been a thing for a long, long time. I bet you if you went back to any of the secondary kits for the last 15 years, you would find that they wore that an opening day. [00:07:59] Speaker A: I know, and I get it. I'm just saying it's this specific story where you're playing an opponent who wears your primary color in your stadium. And. And I. And it. RSL is not a major nemesis. Chicago is a traditional nemesis. Club to this team, and letting them wear red in Dallas just screams all sorts. Now, of course, the. The problem with my rant and my argument here is that Dallas's primary kit isn't even red anymore. It's essentially a navy kit with. With red accent colors on it. But you under. You see where I'm coming from. Everybody needs to agree with me. [00:08:35] Speaker C: Totally, totally. It's just that, you know, they didn't learn the lesson last time with Art Real Salt Lake. I mean, obviously, it's mandated by somebody, so it's either mandated by the league or Adidas. It could be an Adidas mandate that you have to wear the new kit the first home game, for all I know. I didn't look around the league, so. [00:08:49] Speaker A: I. Dan Hut would win everybody a lot of points if he just put out a statement saying, I don't care what the league or Adidas says. We're wearing red against Chicago in Toyota Stadium. That's right. Yes. Whatever. Come on, Dan, do it. [00:09:02] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:03] Speaker A: All right, real quick programming question. Obviously, a big part of tonight's this podcast episode's content is the Quill press conference that happened afterwards because it was rather interesting, and we got a lot of talk about that. Do you want to talk about that first, or do you want to talk. Go run through the game first, guys. [00:09:22] Speaker C: Oh, gosh. [00:09:25] Speaker A: I probably should have asked you this before you hit record, but I'm asking you here. [00:09:30] Speaker C: Why don't we do the game first? Because then his reaction to the game will make more sense. [00:09:34] Speaker A: Okay, maybe. [00:09:35] Speaker C: All right. I don't know. Yeah, you're the. You're the conductor here. You can. [00:09:39] Speaker A: I'm just. That's why I was a little confused. I just wanted to know. All right, so, Buzz, right off the bat, we kind of got the lineup we were hoping for with Logan Farrington getting his first start of the season. [00:09:49] Speaker C: Yeah, there was some, you know, verbiage from the team that. That Quill was quite adamant that it wasn't that anyone else had played badly, that it was just that Ferenson had done really well in training and done really well in his performances coming in, and obviously that's true. We. I think all of us felt like he outplayed the two people he subbed in for in the previous games. I'm sure there probably was also a feeling in the back of his head because he specifically, specifically has said that Logan, Bernie, and Padrini are all fighting for one spot, and he had. He'd seen the other two start, so maybe there's a. Well, you know what? It makes sense to give Logan a start. He's earned it, frankly, so. And did he played great. I mean, he played exactly like we expected him to. Again, he's not really a classic wing. He wants to kind of play off the other striker more inside, which is fine on the right because that's a Shaq Moore alley anyway. At least it should be. So I thought Logan Farrington was terrific. I thought he had a great game. I was actually surprised. We'll talk more about his sub later. But I was surprised he got subbed out because of how well I thought he was doing. I, you know, I thought he outplayed again. Outplay the other two guys he's competed with in that position. You know, as always, when he had a chance to score, he did, you know, he beat that other guy by an inch, but that's all that matters. And he gets to the ball and you score and you win. [00:11:06] Speaker A: Well, you're jumping ahead. We'll get there in time. We're going to run through this a bit in chronological order. [00:11:13] Speaker C: Did I wreck it? [00:11:14] Speaker A: You did, but that's okay. Don't you wrecked it. But they'll give us a chance to talk. It was so nice. We'll talk about it twice. [00:11:19] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:11:21] Speaker A: About eight minutes into the game, Urge plays a really nice switching ball out. To who? Andrew Anderson. Julio. And Julio's cross is a little premature and it goes to nobody. And I think this is going to get into a recurring conversation that we have about Julio Anderson and his final product. And because we've all. We were kind of forewarned from our friends in Salt Lake that this may be. Your mileage may vary on any given night. [00:11:47] Speaker C: Yeah. If he would have put away one of his chances, he would have been the man of the match and we'd be talking about how great he was. [00:11:53] Speaker A: Yep. [00:11:53] Speaker C: Because he was outstanding at every other phase of the game. His switch to Farrington was phenomenal. It was the set up, the goal, you know, like he's doing everything you could possibly ask except for finishing. And let's compare him, for example, to guys that have been of a at least similar genre, which would might be your Castillo or might be your Heder Obrion. Guys that are very vertical, very direct, even rolling. Lamar, if you like Anderson. Julio's doing. Yeah, no. Total opposite of Roland Ma Anderson. Julio is doing everything right other than the actual score, you know, and we saw a lot of goals he did put away in the spring and he has put some away on this season. So, you know, one Miss or two misses. Doesn't bother me that we knew that this is the kind of player he was. And I think you're going to have to put up with a little bit of this kind of thing. Just it's the nature of who he is. You know, if. If he could convert him at a really high rate, he wouldn't be here in MLS, would he? That's exactly 20 million if you gone, right? So this is his flaw. Everyone in MLS has a flaw. This is his flaw. You know, and sometime Eric will this season may live or die by Anderson. Julio's flaw. Like if Julio's putting them goal a game away, you're going to win a lot of games. [00:13:05] Speaker A: Okay, Buzz, write down a pause because for some reason your mic sounds. Just double check and make sure you're on your right correct mike input. [00:13:15] Speaker C: Okay. I think I disabled the other mic, so I will. But I will double check. [00:13:20] Speaker A: So as I continue through my notes, one of the things that I think any young player should do is watch Lucy. This is going to. This is a pro tip, kids. Watch Lucho Acosta, Lucha, Lucha Acosta play soccer because the best thing that he does is move after passing the ball. Pass and move, pass and move. And his movement after passing the ball is so smart and so good. It's really, really fun to watch, man. [00:13:48] Speaker C: I. You can make a long list of things he does really well, frankly, but that is a very good quality. You know, one of the things that, that makes him and Musa work so well is that you can see it in the plays that they've had accommodations to come off is that when he passes to Musa, you're right, he doesn't just stand there. He then makes a move. And Musa, because Musa is a want to lay it back off to you and work a give and go. He's always looking for that, which is why he has a few more assists than some other guys have had as. As a pure highline striker. So that partnership is not even remotely close to a thing I'm worried about on this team. Both of those guys are fantastic. And, and there's, there's. There's so many. Acosta was my man of the match in part because of his. The class that he shows and the times where he's reading the game around him and he's just one touch flicking stuff and it breaks the game open. Or he's picking the right moment to come back and check and track and nip a ball off a guy, you know, just really a phenomenal player. That's it's not just his ball ability, it's his mental ability that really sets him apart from everybody else. His will and his game reading that make him truly exceptional to me. [00:14:53] Speaker A: Well, in the 13th minute we thought we had a goal. We had. Speaking of Lucho and Moussa connecting. They did it again and Musa had a really easy tap in and then I thought it was weird that he didn't celebrate at all. And we eventually found out why he figured out quickly that he was offside and var disallowed the goal. Dan, was that the first time this season we've had a Dallas game where the referee did the announce the VAR decision announcement? Because I don't. I assume there probably was one the previous week on the Farrington disallowed goal, but I don't remember it. [00:15:24] Speaker B: No. Because it was never a VAR overturn. [00:15:29] Speaker A: Ah. [00:15:30] Speaker B: Which is also why it wasn't on the the pro referees guy who does the review show. It wasn't on there because it technically wasn't like an, you know, it didn't go to a full video review. It was a. It was a check. [00:15:46] Speaker A: Okay. All right, here next in my notes, minute 18 quote. Hey, look, I noticed something Ramiro did and that was a very nice sliding tackle to save a counter attack from happening. Really well done. I do think this is the point in the podcast where we have our. What I have a feeling is is going to be for the fourth for the forthcoming future our annual. Our. Our weekly discussion of the Ramiro Talk. [00:16:13] Speaker C: Well, I, I went into this game specifically watching him and tracking him because of this very conversation we've been having over and over. And it's not entirely his fault that he's getting bypassed because his work rate is exceptional. He covers a boatload of ground. Now he's a step slower than I would like, but his game reading is pretty good defensively. It's good defensively and because the problem for him is, is that because of Lucho Acosta's playing higher and higher and higher per Quill's instructions and his desires, Dallas has effectively become and they because they're not a possession team, they're often on defense and this current shape drops into a mid block or low block 442. So they're in a 4, 4, 2 a lot. So Ramiro and. And Sebastian Legette are getting outman three to two every time in midfield and if you're going to play a flat 442, both of those players in the middle really need to be two way players. It's very difficult to have one of those two guys be a pure six, which Romero clearly is in that kind of system. So now, because now Legit's on an island trying to do the linking and Legit's linking numbers aren't right in this particular game, we're not much better than Ramiro's because neither one of them are getting the ball because they're getting, you know, outmanned all the time. Like we would see last season, we would see a Ser Yaram indy with like 80, 90, 100 touches. And Ramiro and Legit are getting, you know, 30 to 50, depending on which guy you're talking about and which game you're talking about. So the tactic is not setting up to benefit those two guys. And Romero is often spending a boatload of time covering up for his two center backs who like to go wandering about and his two outside backs who both like to go wandering about. So I don't necessarily blame Romero for like that. He's not really seemed like he's involved in the game. He is involved in the game a bunch on defense, just in coverages and being in the right spot, but then he's not contributing at all going forward. And, and this is a question that's going to come down to tactics. You know, is Quill going to change the system up to help him to help Ramiro or to play a shape where they're not getting outnumbered all the time? Or is this what it's going to be and then they're just going to have to live with this and figure out how to get around it? Because right now it is what it is. And Ramirez is not a two way player. He's not a guy that's going to have lots of progressive passes or lots of line breaks or lots of dribbles. Progressive dribbles. He's just not that guy. You know, Legit has some of that, but not as much as, you know, as maybe Paxton would do, for example, if he was healthy. So there's going to be questions in that midfield for a while, I think. And so because there's no other options, really. [00:18:47] Speaker A: Well, it does. This is where I think I'm interested in getting into Quill's tactics and what he's trying to do here because I'm still not sure after three games, I quite understand what the plan is when they have the ball. I think I know what the plan is when they, when they're out of possession. But in possession, to me, my observation in watching the three games is that understandably the goal seems to be to get Lucho the ball, even if he's not in the best of positions to receive the ball. And. And that comes at the detriment of bypassing guys who are actually in good positions to receive the ball. That's the first part. The second part I have is this thing about Lucho going really high and Moussa coming back deeper. And it's almost as if they're trading positions. And. And all of. All of these things are my. My overall question for you, Buzz, is because you're so much more familiar with Quill's tactics than I am. Is what we're seeing in these three games a byproduct of the instruction of Eric Quill, or are they just a team still trying to figure themselves out? [00:19:54] Speaker C: No, I think it's instruction. Cool's never had a player like Lucho Casa before. You know, you can think back to his North Texas teams and what I watch of his New Mexico team. He's had good guys that were tens. You know, he's had a Diego Rodriguez or he's had a Arturo Rodriguez back when it was in North Texas, guys that could pull strings, you know, at New Mexico, the game I. A couple games I remember watching, he had a guy that's a playmaking 10, but he didn't have a guy like Lucio Casa. And he. So far, he's talking about wanting Acosta and Musa to play really high together as a pair, almost like Ariel Graziani, Jason Christ, if you will. And you remember when he talked about Pedrinho, one of the things he was excited about was Pedrinho dropping into that gap and becoming almost the playmaker underneath those two guys. Now, I think the goal is to use the pace of Anderson, Julio or Bernie Camungo or Logan Farrington to run off the outsides of those two guys and have them occupy the middle. And that's the style. That's what he wants to have happen. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work out that great when Bernie's been there, because Bernie's been terrible. And Padrino, of course, is a completely different player, is going to play a completely different way. But all those things, unless you let Padrino come underneath, they're going to leave you out, man in midfield. So I think it's a work in progress of him trying to figure out clearly, my best two players are Acosta and Musa. And I have to, you know, followed up by behind that by with a gap to Anderson, Julio and maybe Logan Farrington. And then it's like, now I Got to figure out what I'm going to do to make that the offense is not the problem. Frankly, the offense is mostly fine. If you're scoring a couple of goals a game, you should be winning. It's the defense is the problem. And so I. Some of that adaptation may be the idea that like, I've got to compress back, but I'm going to leave Acosta and Musa up there because those guys can score goals by themselves and now everybody else coming back and defend. And because I have some guys that can run, I'll then run forward out of that defensive shell. So, you know, that's why you're getting a bypassing of midfield. That's why it seems like the, the game plan entirely is to get it to Lucho Acosta, because really there's not that many other outlets because your wings are going to be so far back covering up with the defense along with the other guys in midfield. [00:22:05] Speaker A: The rest of my notes in the first half are this game is really boring. And the only moment of note is that we had a very, very rare referee call, which is the, in the very rare indirect free kick for dangerous play by playing the ball while you were on the ground. And that is the indirect free kick they got at the top of the box in the 40th minute that led to a. A Costa free kick and it didn't. Nothing turned out of it. But you don't see the indirect free kick for dangerous play very often in the game anymore these days. [00:22:39] Speaker C: I thought, no, you know, I, I had one other midfield, not midfield, first half note that I think was important to talk about and that's that they were clearly press triggering. Ibiaga particularly, they were press triggering when, when Uragide would pass to Ibiaga. They would come hard at Ibiaga's feet. [00:23:00] Speaker A: Gee, I wonder why. [00:23:01] Speaker C: In the counter press and in the 9th minute and then like in the 12th minute and then in the 18th minute, Ibiaga turned it over and gave the other team, you know, scoring chances and some of their very best scoring chances. You know, they dropped out of that a little bit. You know, when, when, when Dallas was finally able to get through the initial counter press, then they would drop out and give Dallas space to come forward. But that initial counter press was hitting. It'd be hard and he wouldn't get a lot of help because Shaq Moore's already trying to get way off the field like Shaq Moore does. And so, you know, they're coming on the press from the inside to make him try to find Shaq Moore. And most time the ball's getting caught under his feet. So clearly there was an identification early that that was going to be a trouble spot for Dallas, which is, yeah, true. [00:23:49] Speaker A: Play the ominous music foreshadowing Mark. [00:23:54] Speaker C: That one for the whole season maybe. [00:23:55] Speaker A: Well, at least for this particular review of a game. Yes, that'll come up a little bit later in our review. Second half, I have a minute 48. Farrington plays a very nice pass to Julio Anderson. Julio who has a really, really good one on one opportunity and he hits it right at the keeper. And my note is I have a feeling this is going to hurt and come back to haunt them at the end of the game. [00:24:21] Speaker C: Oh, we've all seen this a million times. Damn sure you have to like if you get a goal out of. Anderson only had one, two or three chances early. You know, from that up to that point, if he buries one or two of those, the game's over. [00:24:32] Speaker B: He's a less frustrating Fabian Castillo. [00:24:35] Speaker C: Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. [00:24:37] Speaker A: Okay, 57. Oh my gosh, it's a, it's a goal. Dallas gets a goal. And of course we just gave him, gave him some shit. So let's give him praise where it's due. Anderson Julio with a really nice switch of play. It was a really, really good pass by him. Logan chests it down and I thought the poor kid had just a little overplayed it, but I'll be darned if he didn't just kind of toe poke it between a defender and underneath the goalkeeper. And it rolled in and Dallas is ahead one nothing. And we got the swan dive by Logan for the celebration on the wets. On the wet slick surface. [00:25:14] Speaker C: Us. Well, he, he, he deserved that celebration. And give some love to Aaron Julio for the immaculate switch. You know, one of the Logan Farrington's best assets is his, his, I guess I'd call it his will, his desire to get to the ball. And he, it's not surprising that he got to that ball just barely before the outrushing keeper and center back and, and got a little lucky on them kind of running into each other. But that's the way he is. I mean the ball bounces his way because he is so tenacious. It's one of his best traits, the. [00:25:42] Speaker B: Most enjoyable traits, gotta say as well. I don't know how, how obvious it was on the tv, but that wind was brutal. So playing into that headwind that, that ball from Julio was perfect to just drop right in front Of Logan, it. [00:25:58] Speaker A: Was not as obvious. So I'm glad you shared that because that, that makes his play of the ball all the more impressive. [00:26:04] Speaker B: The wind was sideways in that classic north to south Frisco blow. [00:26:11] Speaker A: I dig it. All right. In minute 65, we didn't know how important this was going to be at the moment, but there is the sub. Farrington goes off. Patrick sings on more details about that to come. I have. [00:26:24] Speaker C: Well, I will say, Peter, that that definitely is a sub that made me scratch my head. And like when it happened, I was like, what in the world? [00:26:31] Speaker A: What do you think he was thinking when he made this up? [00:26:34] Speaker C: He ended up saying in the post game conference. What my assumption was was that Delgado is a player who can provide you a little possession with the ball at his feet, work through, dribble through some things, work through some things, pass you out of some situations and sort of add some composure of on the ball composure into your central midfield. It didn't work that way because that's not what it. He did. [00:26:56] Speaker A: He did nothing. [00:26:57] Speaker C: Yeah, that was kind of my. The only thing I could think of was like, well, you know, when, when you're trying to hold on to the ball maybe a little bit and deny Chicago a little bit, like, you bring in a guy like that and Farrington's more direct and more like he's not going to hold the ball as long. So that was really only. And we had been talking about Ramiro not being able to break lines and not. And they were struggling through the middle and Acosta's kind of going on walkabout looking for the ball. So I kind of was like, well, I guess that's what he's looking for. It's just. I thought that was a terrible idea because one of the. One of my favorite traits about Farrington is that his off ball activity is really, really high. You know, when he doesn't have it, he motors and he works and he presses and he disrupts and he causes chaos. It makes it very difficult for the other team to play. And I thought he still had plenty of energy and was still moving. It wasn't like he was lagging. So I was really like, oh, no, that's a terrible sub. [00:27:51] Speaker B: The worst part for me on the sub, I mean, obviously, you know, Logan had some more in the tank. Patrickson did a lot of walking around was Anderson. Julio kind of struggled to really get into the game. On the left hand side, Quill switched them over. You know, I was sorry. On the right hand side, Quill switched them over, you know, you got the goal out of that and then suddenly, you know, you, you. You're putting Julio back in a position where he's. He's not had that much luck to, to try and squeeze in Patrickson into an odd. Not quite a wide midfielder, not quite a center mid. Just kind of awkwardly between lines where he's watching players bypass on both sides. [00:28:37] Speaker C: Yeah, he obviously really wasn't sure what he was supposed to be doing positionally and was kind of drifting around and he being part of Patrick, Patrick's and Delgado. Yeah. Maybe part of his lack of commitment or lack of running, a lack of defensive effort is he wasn't really sure what to do because I doubt he's played left midfield very much. You know, so he's up the middle kind of guy. I mean, but at the same time, like, part of it too is you got to perform. You got to put in effort. When the rest of your team is busting your butt and you're over there kind of walking around, that's not going to be good. [00:29:06] Speaker B: So I just sent you, I mean, I just sent you both a clip a minute ago from when I just watched back the last half hour of the game. And it is the. It finishes 15 seconds before the second Chicago goal. Patrickson follows a guy back. He walks around for like 35 seconds. Romero has to hustle 25 yards to cover Patrick's space. As a guy goes out wide where you would want your left, mid, left wing. He's screaming at Patrickson to get up and actually cover his man. And then as I 35 seconds later, there he goes. And immediately from that, from not closing down, they switch from their right to the left wing. Bamba takes it in. Gutierrez has the shot. It comes out to Barroso and he taps in. [00:30:02] Speaker A: There goes Dan, ruining the order again, jumping ahead too fast. [00:30:07] Speaker B: Oh, sorry. [00:30:08] Speaker C: Let's go with the sub. It's okay. [00:30:10] Speaker A: I wonder what Bible verse Romero was yelling in Portuguese to Patrickson. [00:30:16] Speaker B: It was Jesus wept. [00:30:19] Speaker A: I have coming up after the prior to all of that, I have Julio hitting another one straight at the keeper. I have Musa misses a really good opportunity after a late and not good far fan pass into the box. And then I have a note in here about the 74th minute that Dallas suddenly kicks into a different gear and they're really pressing Chicago quite well. And they continuously are turning Chicago over in their own half and yet can't turn it into opportunities. And I remember talking about this a lot in like the 22 season with Nico, which was Dallas had this weird trait of being a team that just kept creating, getting opportunities to do something by turning teams over and then never turning it into actual dangerous opportunities opportunities. And that was going along a lot with Chicago. And then sure enough, here it comes. I, I have it written in my notes. In the 80th minute, it feels like Quill needs to make us a substitution because Chicago now suddenly has turned this game around. And there it was in the 82nd minute. Chicago gets their, gets their opening and tying goal when Far fan gets caught high a little bit and the ball comes across and Shackmore gets caught behind his mark and he taps it in from about six yards out. [00:31:38] Speaker C: Yeah, Shaq got caught up field a couple of times. Marco Farfan got caught up field a couple of times. You know, it's particularly like all three goals come through that have a component of the goal that comes through the Ibiaga more gap. It's that particular first goal from him is across into the box. You know how it is with Dallas. At least it wasn't high in the air, it was on the ground. But you know, if you don't, if you don't track your man, if you don't stay with your man, he's gonna have a wide open shot every time. [00:32:09] Speaker B: So I said it last week, Jonathan Bamber was going to have a lot of fun with that gap between Ibiaga and More, and he did three times. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Can we, can we start calling it like the, the Shaq Ibi gap? Like it's a geo. Like it's a geolocation. [00:32:24] Speaker B: The Continental Divide? [00:32:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:27] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, look, when you went and got Shaq Moore, you knew you were getting an offensive player and not a defensive player. So it should be. You should have known it was going to happen. But at the same time, like, you have to adapt your tactic for it. You have to know it's happening and you have to late in the game when you're trying to win and you're, and you have a very offensive coach and a very offensive system, their guys are going to get caught forward. So you live by the sword, die by the sword. [00:32:51] Speaker A: And then I have, then just a couple minutes later, Dallas has come completely run out of gas, the subs haven't come in, and Chicago scores their next goal to take a 21 lead. And it was pretty clear that the, the weird turn of, you know, turn of the game turning like it did this week is a reflection of how it turned for in Dallas's favor against Colorado the week before. At the end of the first half and, and it just, it all feels not good as Chicago ends up scoring that second goal. And I don't know, man, I was trying to figure out, I was going to describe the shot or the play, but it, it was such a mess and so frustrating to see them lose the grip of the game this way. [00:33:35] Speaker C: Buzz from like the 80th minute on Chicago, you know, out shoots and out opportunities. Dallas by like, you know, six to two. [00:33:44] Speaker B: Got the exact number. [00:33:46] Speaker C: There you go, Dan. [00:33:47] Speaker B: First 80 minutes, shots on target. FC Dallas five to two, last 10 minutes, Chicago five to one. [00:33:55] Speaker A: Okay, so yeah, this is the one where Chicago starts passing around Dallas a little bit. They play a ball in a guy turns and shoots it from the top of the box. I don't know, you know, do we need to talk about pauses pairing of this versus how he played it and then it drops to a Chicago player because far fan didn't catch up. He's a little out of position. He's not anticipating it. I didn't even know if he was, if he wasn't flat footed Buzz, if he was close enough to catch up to the guy before the guy just bangs it in that. And I think that guy's making his debut, MLS debut by the way. [00:34:28] Speaker C: I think it was too. Yeah, yeah. There's, there's multiple factors. Like you let that shot of that power come off from that far out. Like how's that guy not closed down? [00:34:37] Speaker A: Well, how about Ibi? Yeah, Ibiaga is like five yards off the guy. [00:34:41] Speaker C: Yeah. And that I think, I think that's the side where legit at that point is playing. And it's probably getting pretty gas. And maybe he's not closing down, you know, more again is probably caught out of position and not closing down like. So there's three or four guys over there that can deny that initial shot in. And then you're right, the moose, sorry, Martin Paz could pair that wider instead of directly to a guy, you know, or over the top or something. But you know, it was such a powerful shot. Maybe he didn't have a lot of choices. And then again, you know, people caught flat footed. It's just a case of late in the game. Dallas got, you know, for whatever reason, that last 20 minutes or so, nine or 20 minutes, 10 minutes or so, they became very passive, very static and maybe it's a reaction to, you know, this, the sub having come in and not having done what they wanted and now they're sitting deeper and deeper and deeper and they're just no longer getting forward and they became very negative. Remember, we talked a lot last couple years about you can be in a defensive posture that is heavily defensive and still be active and still be proactive and not be passive and sitting and waiting and not reacting to things rather than pre reacting to things. So it's just a meltdown in general. And then, you know, you got a couple more subs, but then it's too late. A couple more subs came in. [00:35:53] Speaker A: Well, then in 85th minute, Quill finally makes the subs he probably should have made 10 minutes earlier. And then in the. And then he also changes the formation to three in the back and then in the 90th minute and. Absolutely. I mean, for a guy that had a bad game, this was probably the worst part of the whole game, which was the completely unnecessary foul at the top of the box. And that's always going to be a penalty. I don't know why he barged into that guy. I don't know what he thought he was going to do there, but it was a ridiculous moment. And Chicago scores the PK and they're up 3 1. [00:36:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I was looking back at the. The sub patterns and trying to think about this game and I think we're gonna talk about that a little bit more when we do the quote. Quote. But he took off Farrington, Sebastian, Legend and Anderson, Julio, which I think you could have a conversation that though three of those, those three guys are in your top five players you have on your whole club. And he subbed them out. Granted, some of them are offensive players, but, you know, we just talk about this sometimes that you can't give up on offense. You have to be able to relieve pressure. You have to be able to hold the ball and get it and let your defense recover. And so you can't take off every offensive player you have, you know, the shock Moore at the tr. At the very end for Padrino, I'm assuming it's some sort of, you know, misbalanced formation that you're trying to get an extra offensive player on at the last ditch effort. But clearly it doesn't work because that's the side that. Where AB commits that foul is the side where Shaq Moore longer shock Moore no longer was. So is that a contributing factor that maybe thinks he needs to do more because Shaq Moore is not in there? I don't know. So it's, it's a, it's an awful breakdown at the end of the game for what was, for most of the game, a pretty solid performance through maybe 70 minutes. Or so you know, until. Even to the 80th minute. [00:37:43] Speaker A: I see. This is. Let me get through the rest of the game. We can have that conversation, because this is where. This is where I. I'm wondering what we're. What we're about to see for the rest of the season. 95th minute is the moment where Dallas is given a PK after VAR goes back and spots a handball. I don't remember anybody on the field in the moment complaining or calling for. Did Dallas at all in any way react to that moment, or is that something Var just dug up? [00:38:13] Speaker B: They just spotted it. [00:38:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. [00:38:15] Speaker C: It was correct call, though. [00:38:17] Speaker A: Yeah, but okay. And then Musa, man, I gotta say, I was not. I was not super delighted by Moose's body language and attitude towards taking this PK that ultimately ends up getting saved. [00:38:29] Speaker C: Not a good PK right down the middle. Remember, Musa always has bad body language, though. We talked about that last year. [00:38:35] Speaker B: That shot was pure frustration. [00:38:37] Speaker C: Yeah, you think so? [00:38:38] Speaker B: Like, so I. I. Saving the camera cut away. The second the referee blew the whistle, Musa grabbed the ball and stood at the penalty spot. So he had no doubt in his mind what it was. But obviously they didn't. Didn't appeal for it in the moment. But, yeah, it was a little bit surprising. You'd think, oh, okay, he's really eager to have it. And then, yeah, it was just that straight down the middle, hit it as hard as you can, get all pissed. [00:39:04] Speaker A: Off about it, and the guy got a kick save. And I. And just to, you know, rub dirt in the wound of having your PK saved is Mark Followell then announces to the world that that was Brady, the Chicago goalkeeper's first ever PK save in MLS. And I thought, okay, so he's probably, what, done one or two. No, he was previously. Oh, for 17. Ouch. [00:39:26] Speaker C: Yeah. @ the end of the game, they. Brady had six saves on the stats and they changed it to five later. But, you know, it did take a pretty strong keeper performance to keep Dallas out of the net, including that kick save on the pk, which was. He got lucky. He dragged his foot and Musa hit it right at him. I mean, like, if Musa puts out in the corner, it's not saved. [00:39:42] Speaker B: He's Scott Sterling. [00:39:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:44] Speaker A: Yeah, he did. All right, Buzz, I. And Dan, I'm. I'm really curious. We've watched three games. I. As I said earlier, I'm not really sure I understand what they're trying. What Quill's trying to do when they have possession of the ball, other than get the ball to Lucho. But I have a feeling that that is a game plan that is probably at this level in a league like this, too easily snuffed out by the rest of the league. And it's not like Dallas has played three of the better teams in the league yet. And I'm curious as to what you think portends for the rest of the season. [00:40:20] Speaker C: Well, it goes back to what we all predicted, right? None of us predicted that the Lucha Acosta deal was going to put Dallas into the top three in the West. We all talked about 6, 7, 8, and I think one of y'all even had them struggling to make the playoffs still. And some people have them still with a wooden spoon because this defense is terrible. They're going to let in a lot of goals. So the reason why I thought it was actually a relatively good performance was because they played a little more of a defensive stance and they managed to get through, you know, 70 minutes without giving up three goals like they had done on previous games. So it was, it was kind of going better than it had been before until it all fell apart. You know, when you went, when you went into the season saying you were going to fix the defense over the winter and you mainly got rid of pieces and you brought in one or two that are somewhat interesting, but it's like you haven't repaired what is fundamentally some problems with his defense and those, those problems still remain. And so when we get to the discussion about what kind of changes you can make for, for the next game, I think we have to have face some harsh realities because this defense is not good and it's not going to be good for a while and he's going to have to coach them into better and tactic them into better. I don't know how much of the. [00:41:35] Speaker A: Defensive problems is the fact that they don't have a true holding mid to kind of shield the front four shield in front of the four. [00:41:43] Speaker C: Well, I think they do. I think they have Ramirez, a true six. He's just not a great one. You know, he, he works his tail off and gets in the right position. What he's missing is the ability to play forward. That's the part of the six game he doesn't have. He's a one dimensional six is the. [00:41:58] Speaker B: Issue, you know, a little bit of mobility too. [00:42:01] Speaker C: Yeah, he's not quite as quick as you want, but he works really hard and he gets sideline to sideline and he is playing in a double pivot so he doesn't have to cover the whole Thing, you know, and legit's not a great defender in that position. But, you know, maybe legit won't be playing there if they can get a show, coffee, mana or packs and Pam healthy, you know. So like it's not, it's not a one problem defense. It's a, it's a, it's a five or six problem defense that needs to be addressed. And I don't know if the answers are on the roster. [00:42:29] Speaker A: Do either one of you feel like what you've seen from the Houston, Colorado and Chicago games is consistent from Dallas? Like, you feel like you've seen the same three kind of performances so far. They just, the outcomes are slightly different. I mean, they're one, one and one. [00:42:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I do. Defensively, I do. They look the same to me. You know, the, the same problems are occurring in every game. They're identifiable problems. You know, it's the same gap on the same side with the same couple people that are breaking down the same. One player looks really good and the rest of them don't look very good. So like it's, this is what you're going to have this season. Like, it's like none of these guys are kids that are going to have like a breakthrough all of a sudden. I get it. And the light comes on and wow, we're, now we're good. They're all established players. This is who they are. Yeah, right. The only, the only way to fix it is tactically or to make some sort of adjustments with personnel and they, I don't know that that's possible. [00:43:27] Speaker A: Well, and I also think that is part of why the signing of Kaike is such a, an interesting one because they spent a lot of money on a very young man who I, I, unless he turns out to be some amazing baller that we're just the rest of the world is unaware of, it's unlikely that he's going to come in and make any big difference. [00:43:46] Speaker C: It reminds me of when they sold Thiago Santos like a week before the season and they, they end up getting in Kenyon Fakindo. Yeah, Fako Fe. It's the same sort of way. Like I, I imagine like Luchi was like, what the hell? And I feel like in this case, Quill's like, man, I need a, I need a big time baller. Six. Great. We're gonna spend $4 million and get you a 19 year old. And he probably went in there and goes, what the hell? This is not what I meant. [00:44:15] Speaker A: Right. [00:44:16] Speaker C: You know, I mean, we have no Idea. Because that kind of conversation, they're never gonna admit to any of us or to anyone ever that they had that kind of conversation until years later, you know. [00:44:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Time will tell. We just gotta see the kid play and see if he gets on the field. [00:44:31] Speaker C: I mean, if he's as good as Uruguay is, then it'll be an amazing signing because we had no idea about Iraqi and that guy's the best defender they have. So this guy, you're like a 19 year old six, has never played for his first team. Are you out of your mind? And then he comes in and looks anywhere near that good, he'll be better than Romero. That'll be good. [00:44:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:44:48] Speaker C: So for sure. [00:44:49] Speaker A: Okay. Anything else about this particular game before we move on to the press conference? [00:44:53] Speaker C: I think I got all my P's and Q's out. [00:44:55] Speaker A: Okay. All right. So after the game, and this has been. There's been much discussion about this. Eris. Correct. Eric Quill did his press conference. Yes. The Eric Quill hat is still very much a thing. In fact, to the point where Dallas put out their behind the scenes video and did a sit down interview with Eric that was released in the days before the game. And in the sit down interview, there is the Eric Quatz, Eric Quill slightly too big hat pulled down over his eyes. It's such a bit. Great bit. I love it. And there it is in the press conference. And we're gonna play a little bit of the opening of it right here and talk about it. So here's the first little over minute of Eric's opening statement. [00:45:39] Speaker D: I'd first like to apologize to our fan base. They didn't deserve what happened tonight. And this is my responsibility. I've been tasked with leading this club on a mission. And as coaches, how we, how we can impact the game is with our decisions. And this, this game was on me. This, this, the turn of events was on me. The game was in control. And I can be better. I can be better. My decisions and, and I'll leave it at that. But I just want these fans to know how much I appreciate coming out a night like tonight. Weather, cold, rainy. They were there. Can feel their energy, feel their passion. And all I can, all I can hope is that they'll continue to support us and be here next week because I promise you this won't happen again. [00:46:59] Speaker A: All right, There is a lot to break apart and discuss in here. Now, Dan, you were in the room for this. And I want to make sure that I'm asking this question fairly and with somebody that was a on the spot observer, but from the YouTube video and now that I've actually listened to it without the video there, he. He sounds and looks like he actually got emotional during this. Am I reading that correctly? [00:47:29] Speaker B: No, I think you're spot on. He definitely, both in his words and his mannerisms were completely, you know, owning that and not not shying away from it either. I've definitely seen a ton of coaches that will, you know, they'll get through the press conference as quick as they can. They'll run back to the manager's office, and you will not see them. Eric was in the locker room. He was talking to players as media were doing their stuff. He's. He was very present in the moment and doing that after the whistle. Coaching, you know, even after the doors are open and it's no longer that kind of, you know, safe, secure space where they can kind of whatever. Whatever laundries there. [00:48:15] Speaker A: I really appreciate the emotion and the ownership and the honesty in it. It does. There's two parts to it that worry me for Eric, which is this is his first loss, and if this is your reaction in a loss like this, you don't have much room to go if something like this happens again. That's the first part and the second part. And again, I guess I think it depends on how you infer the context of what he's saying. He makes an awfully big promise there at the end Buzz that you really is probably almost impossible to keep because they're going to give up a lot. They're going to give up a lead in front of the fans again at some point before this season's over. [00:48:58] Speaker C: Yeah. And he. He has said that, you know, before that we will get the defense fixed. So I think, you know, there's. For me, there's multiple layers going on here in this conversation. As you say, super raw emotion. He's 100 taking culpability, and he is definitely partially responsible for the fall part. The tactical choices and Sabbath he made were not good. He got out. Coached at the end of the game by Greg Berhalter, who, by the way, is a great coach. [00:49:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:23] Speaker C: Yeah. So the other part of the thing, too, is a part I actually really like. This is leadership 101. When your guys screw up, you don't go out there and go, my guys screwed up. You go out there and say, I screwed up is on me. I will take it. Even if you only are 50% responsible, you're the leader. You take it. You take the bullet for the Team. [00:49:41] Speaker A: You can. You can see his wheel turning of. How do I say I Padrino was a traffic cone? [00:49:47] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:48] Speaker A: Without saying, Padrino was a traffic cone. [00:49:49] Speaker C: That's why I say that Delgado. Delgado was the worst player I've ever put on the field. [00:49:53] Speaker A: Not Pedrinho. Patrick's. [00:49:55] Speaker C: Patrick. [00:49:56] Speaker A: You can see the wheel turning in his head. That. That Patrick Sind. Delgado was a traffic cone. How do I say that without saying, oh, my God. [00:50:01] Speaker C: He so clearly wanted to go. The player I put in was absolute trash and will never play again. I'm fair. I'm sure that's not what he would have said, but something along those lines. That's what I wanted him to say, but he was never going to do that because that's Leadership 101. When you're the leader, you take responsibility for the whole thing. You. You eat it. You eat the shit sandwich and you protect your guys. And his locker room will appreciate that from him, and they will value him and respect him for doing that and not going out there and go, this dude sucked. This dude sucked, and this dude sucked. So go, Dan. [00:50:31] Speaker B: I think one thing, you've just got to kind of take him at his word. He came in and he said, you know, it wasn't promising. They'll never lose, that. They'll never give up a bad goal. They'll never throw away a result. It was. I made a mistake. I had. I made a change that didn't need to be made, that negatively impacted the game. Yeah, that's him learning from that mistake and holding his hands up to fans, media, to Dan Hunt. Dan Hunt was sitting right next to me. So, you know, that's. That's tough as well. You've just lost your first game in the job and. And your. Your president is sitting six feet away from you. [00:51:10] Speaker C: Yeah, he definitely took the heat in saying that. Like I took out Logan Farrington and I shouldn't. He clearly said that he then did not go on to say Patrick Delgado was trash. So he only took the key for the part that, like, I should have left Logan Frankton in longer. Dan, I'm sure you remember that part of the conversation. [00:51:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you know, you've said it before where soccer is. Soccer is one of the sports where the coach has the least direct impact. [00:51:36] Speaker C: Yep. [00:51:37] Speaker B: Had a very direct impact there. And that was. That was his, you know, in his own phrasing, that it was. It was like, needless meddling and fair play. I mean, I mean, those players should want to run through a wall for him now, if they didn't already. [00:51:52] Speaker A: Well, I think everybody should remember that while he does have managerial time and vastly more than the last couple of managers this club has hired, he's still a relatively inexperienced manager. I mean, especially, I mean just compared to Burhalter, for example. So it is what it is. I'm interested to see what happens as the season goes on. When they lose in worse circumstances or in worse ways or have more exciting wins. The emotions of Eric Quill in the hat will be fun. Fun to watch. Anything else about the game? Are you ready to move on and talk about what's up next? [00:52:31] Speaker C: I think that pretty much covers all the big. I mean that's a lot to unpack there in that game. I mean this, this is a game I think that we may talk about, you know, months down the line depending on what happens next. You know what I mean? Like to how the team reacts to this loss. We could be talking about this for a month or two from now. [00:52:48] Speaker A: All right, well, they get an opportunity to rectify the situation as first place Vancouver comes to town. Undefeated first place Vancouver comes to town on Saturday at 7:30. Dan, what can you tell us about the Whitecaps and what has their pants on fire? [00:53:05] Speaker B: They're pretty bloody good right now, aren't they? They are. They're unbeaten in five now in all competitions. Playing in Champions Cup. They had a draw at Monterey. Sorry, they had a draw against Monterey. Fortunately for FC Dallas, they go to Monterey on Wednesday. They are having a long road trip where they will come to Texas afterwards. This is obviously the first three win unbeaten start ever. Absolutely on fire. But they're struggling with injury. They've had four in the last couple weeks. Jaden Nelson had that amazing 3 assist 1 goal game against Portland in the home opener. He did his hamstring. They do expect him to travel for this, this two game stretch but you know, does that mean he's going to play or if he's going to factor much at all? Ryan Gold, huge part of their team. Their captain, he left the field with a left knee capsule sprain at the weekend so he's going to be out. Emmanuel Sabi, dealing with an ankle injury. Sam Adakbe, the left back dealing with a quad injury. They're going through the war and probably all four of those are down to their turf field as much as anything. But attacking wise. Phenomenal. 51 shots, 21 on target. Both lead leading numbers. If you want FC Dallas for comparison, it's 32 shots and 13 and that's with a you Know, a really good attacking performance from FC Dallas. They are a fairly high volume crossing team. They're averaging around 20 crosses a game. [00:54:49] Speaker C: Great. [00:54:50] Speaker B: Yeah, well, not only that, their, their aerial duel numbers are the league. All. The league is around 50%. They're at 66%. They are, they're putting up Kai Kamara, Christian Venteke numbers on crosses and corners. They've given up the fewest shots in the league. Fewer shots on target. Sorry. 6. FC Dallas has given up 15. They've. They've had the most corners. They are, they're cooking the, the big thing for them is going to be injuries. And you know, they, they drew the first leg in Vancouver against Monterrey. One all. They cannot afford to rest Brian White, especially now. You've, you've, you know, you've got Ryan Gord out as well. They've really got. If they want to take Champions cup seriously and push on to the quarterfinal, they have to throw everything at that game and that could really benefit FC Dallas. [00:55:52] Speaker A: It is interesting. I, I don't know this off top of my head and I could probably look it up, but I, I do wonder what the historical record for MLS clubs who have to travel for a Cup game and then follow it up with an away league game and I bet it's not a very good record. [00:56:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I would make the same bet. You know, they're probably going to have to rotate some coming in here. [00:56:14] Speaker A: Yep. All right. 7:30, Vancouver comes to town. I can't. When was the last time Vancouver came to Dallas? Did they play here last year? Got it. [00:56:21] Speaker B: Last year. They're in the Western Conference. They won here last year. [00:56:25] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. God, I don't know why it feels like it was so long ago. Okay, Buzz, why don't you tell us what the starting 11 is going to look like? Why don't you make that prediction? [00:56:33] Speaker C: Well, you know, there's quite a lot of pieces that are locked in place. Right. I mean like Peter Moose is not really being challenged. Lucho Casa is not being challenged. Anderson Julio is not being challenged. So you have the one wing position which will be, you know, the same guys, Farrington, Pedrinho and Bernie. But the way Farrington played, why wouldn't it be? Farrington? I played really well. So. The rest of it, however, is. [00:56:54] Speaker A: Wait, let me ask you, hold on real quick. Of Pedrinho, Camungo and Farrington in the three games, who do you think played the best? [00:57:02] Speaker C: Farrington. You know, look, we, we'd like to see some more versatility at midfield, but Show Kafumana, you know, may have rejoined training by now, but he's not going to be fit yet. Paxton's not healthy. Clearly. He doesn't trust Quilt, doesn't trust no Norris or he would have come in by now off the bench. You know, Ramirez was down with North Texas. He's not really viable. Garcia down North Texas, not really viable. So you're stuck with the whole, the two central midfields that you have. So then you look at the back line. Marco Farfan, there's no other left back. Right. Oz is your best center back. So he's playing. Are you gonna bench Sebastian Ibiaga? You're basically your captain. Are you gonna bench him for Lawless Abubakar? Is that God? [00:57:46] Speaker A: I hope not better. I don't know. [00:57:48] Speaker C: Shaq. People are excited about Newman. Enzo Newman is like a future guy, but he's like 20. Are you going to bench national team player Shaq Moore for Enzo Newman? No. Pause. Are you going to bench pause for collode? No. So nothing's changing in the back right back six. Unless you think you need a wake up call for Ibiaga and you're going to put Laws Abubakar in for a game. But like, what are the chances of that? I mean, maybe if you really, if you want to do it just to shake it up and just to prove a point or something. Because all your other choices, like the other center back they've got is 19 and has been here for like five minutes. That's not an answer. There is no other left back. I mean, really, it's probably Newman sort of as your other left back and that's. That's it. There's nobody else. So, like, if you want this defense to get better, you're gonna have to use the magic wand. You're gonna have to coach them up. And we know that coaching's not that big a deal. It's like it's gonna have to take some tactical adjustment or just gonna have to work out where I work everybody and drop our team, you know, so Quill's got his hands full. We're trying to write this thing. When there is no other personnel, there's no one on the bench that you go, oh, yeah, let's get that guy in and that'll solve the problem. Let's get that guy healthy and that'll solve the problem. I mean, maybe Paxton and maybe Kathumana, maybe those guys, when they get healthy and get in the team, maybe they knew there's some things to talk about in midfield, but at the back. What is there? Nothing. Did you guys have a name? [00:59:19] Speaker A: No. No. [00:59:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:59:20] Speaker A: You're asking the. [00:59:22] Speaker C: The choir. Reaching the choir. There's nobody else in on defense. This is what you have. It's not, you know, other than trying laws Abubakar. And he didn't look that great in preseason to me. They instantly dropped him as soon as they got Uruguide. Right. Instantly dropped him. So, you know, I. I don't know what to tell people in terms of like, this three goals a game thing is not likely to go away anytime soon. I don't think so. You're gonna have to outscore people by a boatload. I mean, maybe you'll get lucky in Vancouver. Will rotate everybody. But you remember the last time a team came in here and rotated everybody, it was the New York Red Bulls and they smoked Dallas 3. Nothing when they did that. So. Although, granted, that was like five years ago, but. [01:00:02] Speaker A: Yep. [01:00:03] Speaker C: So I'm not optimistic about there being any real changes. And I'm like, what can you change? [01:00:07] Speaker A: No, Dallas is 1, 1 and 1. They have four points and a goal differential of minus one, scoring six and giving up seven goals in three games. [01:00:17] Speaker C: No, I will say the one thing that, like, as good as I thought Logan Ferguson played. The idea that Pedrinho gave you that false swing that where he could come underneath and help in the midfield, maybe that can take. Maybe that has to take precedence over the fact that Logan Farrington maybe outplayed him. But that's. That might be an important chess piece to sort of give some cohesion in the middle. Maybe that's kind of a reach on my part, but I don't know what else you can do, man. [01:00:46] Speaker A: I gotta. The Pedrinho thing is interesting. Him scoring the goal kind of ruined my narrative, that I was worried that the game looked a little beyond him, this MLS level looked a little beyond him, and that in the rest of the game, in context. [01:00:59] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:01:01] Speaker A: From that first game. But, you know, let's see. Everybody, you know, everybody's got their debut going, so. All right, we will move on. Dallas Trinity had a big game against Brooklyn. Now, the last time I saw Brooklyn, that was a team of bruisers and they beat Dallas at the Cotton Bowl. Last year I was the best team in the league. Yeah. And I'm assuming what has happened to Brooklyn is they lost a ton of top quality players, either through getting recalled to the other teams or something happened. Because have they even won a game since the restart of the season as Dallas clobbered them six to Nothing. [01:01:40] Speaker B: Yeah, they, they've drawn a couple of games and they actually didn't really lose any players. [01:01:46] Speaker A: Really? So what is fundamentally happened to that team? Because they were clearly without. I mean, it wasn't even close how much better than everybody else they were in the league. Has everybody else just gotten better or did something. Did you notice anything Dan or Buzz? [01:02:00] Speaker B: I, I can't get my head around it. I mean, they lost Taylor Smith who played like, oh, she on tour now? [01:02:06] Speaker A: Did she go back on tour? [01:02:08] Speaker B: Don't remember where she went, but yeah, she, they, they did a mutual termination. She'd only played like Smith. [01:02:14] Speaker A: You know, I'm gonna keep making that. [01:02:18] Speaker C: Joke as long as I know you are. [01:02:20] Speaker B: Yeah, well, she don't play for him anymore, so you can't make it too much. [01:02:24] Speaker A: Okay. [01:02:26] Speaker B: No, I have no idea what's going on with him. [01:02:29] Speaker A: Okay. [01:02:29] Speaker B: It's so baffling. [01:02:31] Speaker A: Well, I haven't seen the game yet. Dallas scored a lot of goals. I mean, is six goals as many goals as they've scored is half as many goals they scored the first half of the season. It wasn't like Dallas was a prolific goal scoring up to this point. [01:02:47] Speaker B: Well, Dallas is the second. The highest or second highest goal scoring team in the league. [01:02:52] Speaker C: Yeah, but they weren't, they weren't six goals a game. It's like at one point they were getting a lot of ties, you remember, around. They were getting a lot of ties because they weren't getting goals in, but they, they got a little better. About that, I will say that. Like, I think from what I saw, I think they made a tactical shift to try and play and get more out of Massimo because they were in more of a clear 3, 5, 2 rather than a 3, 4, 3, making Massimo the underneath 10 and the classic 3, 5, 2, sort of set. And then Brooks, of course was back in midfield because they added a defender. They were able to bring Brooks back into midfield. And then on top of that, you know, the young lady next to them, Abby Dune, I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that correctly. She was pretty solid. And then when they. Huh. [01:03:38] Speaker B: Deborah. [01:03:39] Speaker C: Deborah. Thank you. Yeah, call her by your first name. And then when they brought in camera Lancaster, who's the kid from tcu, she really looked good to me. Really making some bursty runs and getting out of midfield and almost getting up next to Massimo and causing some overloads as they got out of the box and causing fits to Brooklyn. So the tactical adjustment to me was really outstanding to get to a Free up Massimo and give her take away her defensive responsibilities that she had when she was in a 3, 4, 3 and give her this straight up, you're Underneath Striker, Pure 10 kind of look that really worked well. And then of course just once you got them on their heels, they just relentlessly kept going and just piled on the goals. [01:04:21] Speaker B: One thing with Brooklyn as well as they play such an absurdly high line, like if you look at average position, the center backs are positioned more like defensive midfielders. So you've got Chermo Bivou down the left like absolutely getting in behind on the right. Especially after Celi Strawn came on. She's you know, tiny and rapid. Cameron Lancaster's running through the middle of him. Lexi is, you know, incredibly skillful player that's able to get up the middle. They, they just, you know, I think the, the sixth goal just really typified it. Everything was in behind, you know, low across the ground, easy tap in. [01:05:01] Speaker A: Well, I was just to the earlier question. The six goals represent 22% of all the goals that Dallas has scored this season. [01:05:08] Speaker C: There you go. [01:05:09] Speaker A: So big turn. Not like anybody has scored a ton of goals in this league. In fact, Dallas now leads the league on 27 goals total in goal scored. But six in a game will help you out. They sit in fourth place now on 27 points. Brooklyn, even though they have not yet to win since the start of the second half of the season, they are still in first on 31st, 31 points for Lauderdale, second on 28, tied with Carolina on 28 and Dallas in fourth. So who's up next for Trinity, Buzz? [01:05:43] Speaker B: I mean Dan, it's Lexington on the road. They start a three game road trip. I think one thing to that's really important with that the table right now, its top four goes to the playoffs and now they've got a four point cushion to Tampa underneath them. [01:05:57] Speaker A: All right, and so the road trip is how many games? [01:06:00] Speaker B: Three. They will have Lexington on Saturday. I'm trying to think who else it. [01:06:06] Speaker C: Is afterwards because Brooklyn and Carolina Ascent which are two of the top four with them. [01:06:11] Speaker B: So yeah, then the next time gain will be DC Power who think a bottom right. [01:06:16] Speaker A: They are. [01:06:17] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So this is a huge three games because two of them are teams that are, you know, those are six pointers. They're right in front of you in the standings. Those are big road games. [01:06:24] Speaker A: All right Buzz, before we go, we have the North Texas opener of the season, defending their MLS next pro championship. [01:06:33] Speaker C: Yeah, listen, not a good start as always. You know you're looking at a North Texas team that's been rebuilt as they are every year. You know that Dallas always reloads that thing and never sort of sits static. More players went down than I kind of was expecting. It's a lot of homegrowns going down, but Enzo Newman went down and played Garcia, Diego Garcia, Anthony Ramirez, Tarek Scott, you know, Michael Collode started in goal. Dallas's number two was in goal for them. That was a surprise. I. I wouldn't. I guess it's to keep him sort of sharp or whatever, because he's going to have to play for Pause at some point unless they get around to that game. And all of a sudden it's going to be Carrera for some reason, which is entirely possible because we don't know when Pause is going to get his first call up. But I will say that St. Louis City is a team that prioritizes size and power and pace, and they have a bunch of more mature players. And Dallas is playing a bunch of kids. They had, like, three academy kids basically starting, a couple of whom got exposed. But it's an intimidating team, and St. Louis was one of the best teams in the league last year. They returned like half that team. So that was a very, very tough test, which. But that's exactly what you want. Like, this is a developmental team, right? You want a tough test against guys that are bigger, stronger and more physical. When you're FC short, you FC ticky, tacky on the ball, passing around, you have to learn how to play against guys like this. Now in the Quill era, they're playing more vertical. Dallas is as a collective. I thought it was really odd that Dallas, the North Texas soccer club, did not play the same tactics that FC Dallas played. They played a 4, 3, 3, and they did not use the 4231. They did not use a double pivot when they should have because Ali Orzura, who's a 68 kind of player but was going to be the 6, got hurt at the last minute. And then Anthony Ramirez, who's a ball hawking 10, had to play as the 6. I don't know why you don't change that up and play a double pivot, do something different, try and rotate the midfield or something. But my guess is that they went to that game thinking, well, we worked on this setup for all week, so we're not going to change it at the last second. We'll just put in one guy. Maybe there's a mandate to get Ramirez in the Game because he's coming down. I'm not really sure, but did not go well. They got beat three nothing. So it'll be. It'll be on a macro level. The thing that'll be interesting to watch is, is, well, John G, who wants to win, how long will he play? These kids that he's trying that need development time before he starts playing to win. It'll be something to track and it'll be. See how long it is before the tactics really become more matched up with what Quill's doing, because they really didn't run the same sort of shape at all. The midfield was very different. Again, you know, a couple of academy kids that got exposed a little bit. But the thing is, is that you have to expect a certain amount of growing pains. Dallas has gone way younger with this team. Homegrowns and academy guys. This is not like last year. There's going to be some growing pains. It's going to be very difficult for them to win a lot of games because they're going to be really young. So you have to expect that some of these young kids are going to make mistakes, which is okay. It's how you learn from your mistakes and how you get better. This is how you progress, right? You want to see a reaction, you want to see a positive development from the negative situations. So, you know, it'll be. It'll be fun for us that, like, player progression, that like development stuff to watch this team this year because it'll be very different from last year. But if you enjoyed the winning last year, you're going to be fewer far between on some of that winning this year, I think. [01:10:01] Speaker A: Very good. We look forward to that new season and everything else. Anything else we need to discuss before we shut up shop for another successful episode? [01:10:12] Speaker C: Well, congrats to 4osc. They won the Texas cup, you know, so that's a kind of a big win for them. Local best amateur team probably in what. [01:10:21] Speaker A: Makes up the Texas Cup. [01:10:22] Speaker C: Well, I think it's an open cup. I think basically anyone in Texas can play in it. It's not like a league tournament, I believe. It's just. Just a pure open tournament. And they knocked off somebody from Houston, I think it was. But, you know, that basically means they're the best team in the state. Best amateur team in the state. So it's a congrats to them. It's a big win. Brand Padilla, who's a former should have been great MLS player for FC Dallas, but is not because he got hurt 18 billion times was their best player in that game, so. [01:10:48] Speaker A: Oh, I know what I was going to mention. I saw that he retweeted this Buzz, what is going on in Des moines with that USL 2 team that has. It looks like it's made up of nothing but X MLS players like Matt Hedges is signed for them. Dax McCarty is playing there. And I saw a name. I think there's like four or five other ex MLS players that have all signed up, that have all recently retired, that are all playing USL2 in Desmond, Iowa. [01:11:18] Speaker B: Well, they're not playing USL2. It's. It's purely for US Open cards. [01:11:23] Speaker C: Yeah. So the US Open 2 or the NPSL teams or whatever, when they get into the Open cup through qualification, when they're, when they have to play their first game, they don't have their teams for the summer yet. Those kids are all still in college, so Denton had to do this. Fort Worth is when they got in. Once they had to do it. You have to go out and get all these players. So rather than just sort of getting together a team of your Jamie Love groves like people have done here in Dallas, Des Moines goes out and signs a bunch of MLS retirees that all know each other. And it started with Sasha Clichen, like on a bet almost or a dare did it first. And so now he's bringing in all his examless player buddies to come in and play. And they. That's what they do. [01:12:01] Speaker B: It's kind of genius. I mean, you think they're USL League too, right? So they are 100% dependent on college kids in the summer. They don't have a team for us Open cup starting in March. So yeah, do it. Go out, you know, get those early rounds in, make a name. There were a couple of teams that would do that in, in England. Wembley FC did it one time where they had a bunch of old pros and had like a. An a 90s FA Cup All Stars team. You know, go through some qualifying rounds and lose. But it just gets the name out and makes it more intriguing to watch. [01:12:41] Speaker A: All right, well, I think that covers it for the day. Anything else, Buzz? [01:12:46] Speaker C: I don't really think there's a. You know, there's a lot going on in the city, but like, that's it in terms of like who's actively playing right now. I mean, I'm sure there's some other teams that are kicking around, but that's it. [01:12:58] Speaker A: Okay. [01:12:58] Speaker B: We're a week away. A week tomorrow. Recording us on Monday from Texoma and Fora in The Open Cup. Texoma's first proper game. [01:13:08] Speaker A: Ah, very good. All right. [01:13:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Right before they open their season. So that game's up in Texoma. [01:13:14] Speaker A: Their debut game is an Open cup game. Yeah, yeah, that feels backwards, but okay. [01:13:20] Speaker C: Well, good luck. They didn't have to qualify in. I mean, they're in USL1. That's a team where everyone's in. So they're in. So they're. This is their first game. [01:13:27] Speaker A: I know. It's just I feel bad for them that their very first game to play together is going to end up being a knockout tournament kind of thing. [01:13:35] Speaker C: That against. Against four. Oh, who just won the Texas Cup. Yeah, yeah. And Ricardo Pepe. Not R. Pepy. That'd be funny. Diego Pepe will be leading the line for Texoma. [01:13:45] Speaker A: All right, very good. [01:13:46] Speaker C: Third Degree, the podcast is brought to you by listeners like you. If you enjoy 3rd Degree the Podcast or 3rd Degree.net or any of our coverage of professional soccer in the DFW area on social media, why not join us and give us a little support though a $2 hour away. And if you join at a high enough level, you can join our community on Discord and the fantastic followers of pro soccer and Third Degree. Thanks again. Hope you enjoy the podcast. [01:14:09] Speaker A: All right. Thank you, Dan. Good stuff. Always good talking to you. [01:14:12] Speaker B: Thank you, sir. [01:14:13] Speaker A: Buzz, you're the best. Thank you, dude. [01:14:16] Speaker C: Thanks, man. Thanks for being here to keep us all in line. [01:14:18] Speaker A: That's what I try to do. You're like cats. And thank you, you FC Dallas Curious fan, you. We will speak to you next week, hopefully with three points in pocket on the next edition of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:14:33] Speaker B: Third Degree the Third Degree Podcast. [01:14:37] Speaker A: Third Degree the Third Degree Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree Third Degree the. [01:14:47] Speaker C: Third Degree N Podcast.