3rd Degree the Podcast #305

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree Ned podcast. [00:00:13] Speaker A: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree N podcast 3rd degree the 3rd Degree N podcast 3rd degree 3rd degree 3rd degree the. [00:00:26] Speaker C: Podcast is brought to you by El Matador and the El Matador watch party for Atlanta versus FC Dallas. That's this weekend, April 5, 6:30pm Downtown Dallas at the Scarlet Pumpernickel. Come on down. They got the entire second floor reserved, all the big TVs, full sound, bartender, amazing food. Typically plenty of street parking, lots of grudges nearby. But of course the Scarlet Pumpernickel is just two blocks from the Akron Street DART station. So come on down to the Scarlet Pumpernickel. Enjoy it now. Matador supporting FC Dallas on the road at Atlanta United this weekend, 6:30pm well. [00:00:58] Speaker A: Hello there, FC Dallas curious fan. Welcome to another episod. This One is episode 305 of Third Degree, the podcast. He returns with My hat. It's Dan Crook. You stole my hat. [00:01:15] Speaker B: Guten tag, V. Gates. No, I did not. [00:01:19] Speaker A: We just happen to have the exact same hat. Is that what you're saying? [00:01:23] Speaker B: Yes, the same hat that Dallas Trinity sent every medium person in dfw. [00:01:28] Speaker A: Wait, I didn't get one. Wait, you're saying I wasn't special? [00:01:32] Speaker B: I bet your handwritten note is the same as mine. [00:01:36] Speaker A: I don't think I got a handwritten note. [00:01:38] Speaker C: I got a note, but I didn't get a hat. [00:01:42] Speaker A: Travis brought me the hat when we had the. When we had the two players on the show a few months ago. So it is a cool hat. And there is your hero, my hero, everybody's Hero, Editor, Founder, third degree.net and the original soccer influencer himself. But he doesn't have a hat. It's Buzz Carrot. Come in. [00:02:02] Speaker C: Oh no, they gave me a T shirt. [00:02:03] Speaker A: Oh, you got a T shirt. [00:02:04] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, got the T shirt. [00:02:06] Speaker C: Yeah, maybe. Maybe they listen when I said I don't wear hats. [00:02:08] Speaker A: Maybe, but you do wear hats. Oh, you wear a visor. You're a visor guy. [00:02:13] Speaker C: Or my. My 50 year old don't want to get cancer sun hat. I wear that one when I go out to like a. Okay, Academy game. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Right? [00:02:19] Speaker C: I do. I wear a hat in that scenario. But that's it though. [00:02:22] Speaker A: All right, well, look at us here, boys and girls. It's a victory podcast as Dallas hosted the worst team in the league in Sporting Kansas City and not only managed to come back from a 11 goal deficit to win the game 2 1, but they also finished Peter Vermese, who was sacked today as a matter of Recording this on Monday. So two days after the fact, he finally got the, the head chopped off that I think a lot of people were anticipating. Buzz, Dallas has 10 points. Things are looking good. Everybody. Your, your breakdown. I thought you had a, you were very positive toned in all this. And then I read Matt Doyle say that Dallas is getting all the gifts and that they're not very good. So who's right and who's wrong? [00:03:15] Speaker C: Well, it's probably something in the middle. Dallas has gotten some gifts, but not any more than anybody else, I don't think. But, you know, we do need to tap the brakes a little bit. If you look at Dallas's three wins, they beat the 13th in the West, Team Houston without any DPS that they have since signed. They beat 11th in the West, RSL, missing Diego Luna. They beat 15th in the West, Sporting Kansas City, who immediately fired their coach. And then they tied Colorado, who's fourth in the west. And they've lost to the fourth in the East, Chicago, the first in the West, Vancouver, and both those were at home for Dallas. So we could tap the brakes a little bit on this whole like, you know, oh, this is the best team in the west kind of talk. You know. [00:03:59] Speaker A: Wait, somebody said that? [00:04:00] Speaker C: No, I'm exaggerating, but, you know, people are getting excited and I'm sort of saying, okay, we attacked the brakes a little bit in the sense of like, this is a middle of the pack team still. Right. There are still deficiencies in the way they play and there were some talk of the deficiencies in my breakdown that are still there. There are also some positives there. There's some things going in the right direction, some things to be good at, feel good about, some things that are happening in a proper build direction. But they still got some work to do. They still have some pieces to figure out. They still have some technical ways to figure out how they're going to play and solve some issues they have. So, you know, it's. I think we're past, you know, is this a wooden spoon team? You know, into the conversation of is this team actually a playoff competitor? You know, are they going to be the sort of legit team in the playoffs or. I think we're still a long, long way from having any discussions at all that this team is looking to challenge for the top of the West. I don't think that's happening yet. When you, particularly when you, as I just did, you run through the teams who they lost to and beat, you know, it's not. They. They're Only beating bad teams. They're not beating anybody any good. [00:05:00] Speaker A: Dan, you were at the press conference. I'm assuming you went down to the locker room, talk some of the players. What's the, what's the general vibe after these games so far? [00:05:09] Speaker B: Oh, it was a good vibe after, after that one, the player, the players had music up incredibly loud. I got me on psych. I kind of waltzed in at the end and just talked to Martin Pars. But yeah, I mean, seemed pretty, pretty upbeat given the last couple of games after that start to the season. Quill himself definitely seems a little bit better. He did have a. There was a weird mishap on the press conference. Someone forgot to turn the microphone on on top of his, his usual habit of like, putting the microphone in his chest and talking over it. So I don't know how much, how much anyone that wasn't there actually caught. [00:05:54] Speaker C: None of it would be the answer to that question. None. Or the last answer of the whole thing. I got the last answer. That was it. [00:06:00] Speaker B: Yeah, but I mean, you know, a lot of talk about the, you know, it's always mentality, the importance of finding a way to win, growth in, in their mindset. Talked up Kansas City and, and Vermese. You know, we talked last week. They've, they've got an incredible attack. They just, they're not putting it together. So, yeah, I mean, it was, it's upbeat, but there's no running away and saying, oh, it's the best team in the world. [00:06:31] Speaker A: How do you, Dan, how do you feel how, how they're playing so far? [00:06:36] Speaker B: I mean, it's, it's, it's coming together. We're, you know, we're seeing Lucho Acosta start to kind of take charge of games, not just kind of drift out. Petousa is getting less frustrated. The back line is slowly trying to figure out, you know, when to go, when to stay, what each other are actually going to do. Hopefully, as, as the, that settles down more and especially with the, the sixth position that, you know, there'll be that little bit more consistency. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens with the, the eight, Delgado right now and then kind of, you know, how players come back as a show kind of picks up his involvement as he's got back into training and, you know, a hopeful Paxton Palmer Cole return soon. [00:07:30] Speaker A: Yeah. From your mouth to God's ears. All right, so, Buzz, I think the big highlight when we saw the starting 11 is that lo and behold, Nolan Norris finally got his first start and that was kind of fun to see. [00:07:43] Speaker C: Yeah, first it left back at first under Quill. So that's exciting, you know, for. There's a difference between players that, you know, are normal sort of players. For me personally and players I've been watching since he was 13 and admired since he was 13. He's always had a fascinating soccer brain and I think you can see moments of that even in this game when he makes passes that other guys don't even try. Now, was it a perfect performance? No, not. Not even close. But it was a solid performance for a guy making his first ever start at left back. And they clearly targeted him. They knew that that was his first game and they tried to go at him with a pacey player, which we all would have assumed might be a little bit of a problem for Nolan. He's not super fast and he did well. I think he reads the game defensively well enough that he took care of that assignment and kept a good tight space. He only passed that. I think it was about a 75 clip, which is a little low for an outside back. But he also had two progressive passes and. And I think it was three into the offensive third, which was more than anybody else on the defense had on the team. So, you know, some deficiencies there and some positives there is. Is he gonna now start every single game and Marco Fargo never plays again? No, of course not. But I think it was a good enough performance that you'll see some minutes for him going forward. I'm sure that the coach will now say there's a guy I can trust. And it's really important to get far fan some time off because Dallas has burned him out like three seasons in a row now by the last 10 games of the year. He drops off big time to show his performance. So it's really important that Nolan be able to play games over there and. And of course, at 20 years old or whatever he is. Exactly. Now I don't remember off the top of my head, but you know, it's. It's time for him to progress and start playing more and we want to see him evolve more. And. And I for one thought that was a really good first left back games is they've not trusted him as harder than the left back until now. [00:09:31] Speaker A: And unbelievably he did not get a yellow card. [00:09:36] Speaker C: He got one and did not get one. And then was it Quill that did? So that was his coach got one and he didn't. It was like, oh, wow, good job, Nolan. [00:09:44] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You're speaking to talking about wearing far fan out. It does make me wonder what are they going to do to try to limit Shaq Moore's minutes because now he's played every minute of every game so far. [00:09:56] Speaker C: Well, I've noticed that they're pushing hard with Newman at North Texas. They've even on the Friday games still sent him to play which basically like precludes him from being able to play again on Saturday. So obviously they're really pushing that scenario. So I would imagine that they would are hoping they can get him to up to enough speed that they can begin to give Shaq Moore a minute break too. Because that theoretically is supposed to be the thing. Remember they how excited they were when they drafted Newman. So we ought to be able to see him relatively soon. It would be really nice if they would do that too because they're, they're limiting the development of a couple other right backs they have coming through the system. By Newman needing to play at North Texas as much as he is, I'd like to see him more developed by getting first team minutes than the, than the minutes with North Texas. [00:10:40] Speaker A: And the opening goal was a byproduct of Shaq Moore turning off again at the far post. [00:10:45] Speaker C: Yeah, he's got a bad habit of drifting a little bit or losing focus on that outside wing. You know, he was about 10 yards too tight this time. Maybe trying to help. I'm not really sure. You know, obviously the, the relationship between him and Ibiaga is not there yet in that sense. Like if he thinks he needs to go help Ibiaga all the time or if he's. I don't know why he's switching off on that so much over there because that, that, that particular back post has been a problem now three or four times obviously. Hopefully something they're working on, but it continues to be an issue. I don't really have a solution for it other than those guys just got to play together more often and more has to understand his responsibilities on the back post a little better. And it may just be that like he's not a kid. Shaq Moore, he's 28 or 29. So it's like you're not going to change who he is. You just got to hope that he and IGA can get, you know, dialed in a little bit better and more on the same page there. [00:11:39] Speaker B: That one in particular was a little bit interesting because you know, Asazi Irigide's standing next to Nolan Norris. He's gone to support him Ibiaga's then tucked up to Asazi's guy and. And Shaq's come across to. To Ibiaga's mark and yeah, it seems like if they're gonna, if they're gonna get suckered out that way there, there must have. There should have surely been a discussion of like, you know, this is kind of our dispense our defensive responsibilities. These are your marks. Is it Zion or is it. Is it man to man? But you don't give Daniel saw we 10 yards of space in the box. He's, you know that's his 10th goal against FC Dallas in all competitions. Like he didn't need an invitation. [00:12:25] Speaker A: Is that the most goals by one player against Dallas that is actively playing? [00:12:29] Speaker B: It must be. [00:12:30] Speaker A: It has to be, right? [00:12:32] Speaker C: It certainly is. It was in the Kansas City notes that he was by far their number one scorer against Dallas. So. But as a proposition, I don't know but I'll probably. That's a lot by one guy. But. But you know, the Kansas City is because they play FC Dallas fairly often. Like Johnny Russell had a lot of goals against SE Dallas too. So like there's a couple guys that are. Have really killed them over the years from that one particular team. [00:12:54] Speaker A: Well, Dallas had been the. The game kind of started the way the previous game started where Dallas just continuously was pinned back in their own final third of the field and. And Kansas City was dominating the game and really had the run of everything. The goal is scored and then not unlike we have seen Dallas do this season is immediately just kind of find a very brief flare up of. I don't know what, I don't even know how to describe it. It just suddenly everything clicks for them in these very small moments. And before we know it, in a span of about 2 minutes they're up to 1 after being down by a goal. And both, you know, obviously the first goal is a tremendous gift by a bad back pass, but Dallas still has to finish it because if you go back and watch the goal, Moussa and Lucha Lucha Acosta are in the box by themselves with five Kansas City players and they still managed to score the goal. And the second one is the long ball to Legit who does a really good job of just kind of winning his duel and getting the ball in the box. And the Leo Chu finish who by the way, up until that point I had been making a lot of man, why is he starting this game again? I don't understand what Leo Chu is doing or why anybody's excited about him. But he scored the goal and it's two one and there you go. [00:14:10] Speaker C: Yeah, the. The grade on Josh to pounce on that back pass. That was the play that Doyle got Doyle fired up about gifts, but you know those. He and Musa then carry it in from midfield and managed to get there. Those guys are so dialed into each other, you know that there's the quote from Musa about looking up and seeing Lucho and knowing he instantly had to pass it because he had trust in the guy. That's really nice. And then the. The over the top from Oz to Legette was fantastic. And really on that play for me that this adjustment the last two games with this different shape which is freed legit up to. To charge forward. He's not getting. It's cost him a little bit of progressive passing, but he's popping up in the offensive box big time. And so his shot creating actions have gone up and obviously he had the assist on this one. That's a really exciting change that this tactic is allowed to happen. And you're right about you. I mean the guy's game was non existent other than that goal he had on FB ref. He had zero shot creating actions, zero goal creating actions. Which is funny because he scored zero progressive passes, one carry one for four on take ons, zero passes into the penalty box and three missed controls. It's like by any measure he was brutally bad, yet he scored. [00:15:18] Speaker B: So he was better last week when he was blowing out of his ass after 10 minutes. [00:15:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I look. And by the way, the way he took the goal was really calm and measured and he roofed it. He put it where he needed it. [00:15:30] Speaker B: To and honestly he. He wrong step. Three defenders, they're all crashing the box. He's the only one that reacted to that. So you know, fair play. [00:15:39] Speaker C: My hope is, is that we've seen him now two games playing this inside off striker and that that's not his bit. Like he's been a wide wing as far as I know like his whole career and certainly when he was in Seattle. So I'm hopeful that like he'll be a much more useful piece if they go back to a. A four through three wide wing scenario. But the last two games, you're right, Peter, the first one was better than this one because this game, other than the goal, I thought he was, you know, there's a reason why he got subbed earlier this game than he did the previous game. [00:16:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So Dan. I know, I know a lot of people, especially in Buzz's discord, got fired up over Matt Doyle talking about gifts and how many gifts Dallas has been handed this year. And you went back and kind of like sorted through all of that. Is Doyle right? Has Dallas been just getting a Christmas Day load of gifts? [00:16:25] Speaker B: No, no, that's rubbish. I had half an hour between meetings this morning, so I quickly jumped on YouTube and looked at every, every goal they've scored and conceded and I think it was like they've had like three gifts. I can't remember if that included the red card against RSL or not. But yeah, they've given, they've given away more than they've got back. So there's no way that there's, there's absolutely no way that Dallas is the team with the most gifts. Gifts given in, in mls. I can't remember who it is, but there's a team that's had four penalties in six games. Do you. That's, that's gifts. [00:17:06] Speaker C: You know, if you're not watching every FC Dallas game intimately, you know, it can be hard to just look at the stats and think this team is good because they play, for lack of a better comparison, like Nottingham Forest, you know, they, they sit way back in this block and they don't care about having the ball this game. Depending on which stat service you look at, they lost the possession battle. 60, 40 or 65, 35. I mean it was absolutely brutal. You know, they lost the shot battle, they lost the shots on goals battle. The only battle they won was XG and actual goals. Actual goals of course being the only stat that really matters. So the quality of their chances they're creating is still really good. They're putting themselves in good position and they're outscoring the opposition now. They kept, they kept sporting out of the box most of the time. The problem is, and I'm sure Daniel probably getting this, the problem is, is that this is not sustainable long term. This is a long term issue they're going to have to address because you can't get out possessed by such a massive amount and let the other team have all those shots and win games overall season really quite easily. [00:18:03] Speaker B: I was going to say, you know, mentioned like they, you know, they are getting shots off and scoring. I think the stat I saw was that actually they have the fewest shots on target per goal in league. So you know, the efficiency that we talked about a couple of years ago of like needing 12 plus shots for a goal, I mean, they're there, they're what, what we talked about a couple of years ago, it's Just they've really got to make the rest of it work. And, and also the volume of chances just isn't there now. Yeah, I mean I think they're, yeah, they're in like the bottom third for, for shots in the league. [00:18:40] Speaker C: It's the volume of the opposition that's worrying like, because you're not going to be able to keep everybody out of the box like you did Kansas City City consistently with that much possession loss and that much pass loss. I mean it was crazy. [00:18:51] Speaker A: So just my observation, especially in the second half is I understand the concept of not wanting the ball and, and, and trying to capitalize on other team's mistakes, but man, Buzz, if somebody out there has access to this stat, and I know they don't do it in any of the MLS sites or FBRAF or anything like that, but I'm sure one of the more, you know, pay for stat analysis provides this, which is turnovers, unforced turnovers, forced turnovers. I just don't know if I can remember a Dallas team that turns the ball over as in the amount, amount that this one does. Like they're just their inability to get out of their own half of the field has been a season long kind of traitor that is then capitalized by these kind of weird moments where they just suddenly start clicking as I said earlier and, and, and score a goal which is largely two guys. It's Moussa and Acosta. [00:19:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:19:53] Speaker A: And they seem completely dependent all that. So I, I just, it. This feels very, very this. You know, you and I talk about having a catalog of 30 seasons to kind of run through and make comparison things like that. And I'm having a really hard time pinpointing where I think this season is going to what category it's going to fall into. [00:20:13] Speaker C: Well, the, the closest we can get with the mis possessions and the, with the turnovers is that would be that to look at like their overall passing percentages. But fe ref does have miscontrols and dispossessions and Dallas is in right about the middle of the pack in those two stats in the league. I think that what's happening with Dallas in particular is that they have two really good guys that are really good on things like goals added and XGS and these, some of these advanced offensive metrics. And that's Peter Musa and, and Lucio Costa. So you're looking at two guys up front that are carrying the massive load for this team. You take those two guys out and the thing's going to be an absolute Mess. You know, we've what we've looked at two games without Anderson Julio, who's the other guy that has provided some things when he comes back, that'll obviously help quite a bit. So in some ways, if you're trying to think back to FC Dallas history, the offensively speaking, this team reminds me of 2010 where it was David or nothing, right? MVP like and, and, and Heath Pierce has talked about how this tactic was basically like everybody else plays defense, you get the ball and you kick it to David Ferreira. This is like that. Everybody plays defense. You get the ball, you kick it to Lucho Acosta. This is what's happening. So. And yet this Dallas team doesn't have 2010 defense, which is one of the all time great defense in the history of the league. So that's going to be the difference between these two teams is why this team won't be top of the table, it'll be middle of the pack because the defense is just not anywhere near good enough. But this is year one, so hopefully they're going to have all these things to work on and try and improve. You know, the, the limitation of this current formation. And again Anderson Julio will help. But right now because you're playing two guys right up the middle, Musa and, and Lucha Acosta and you don't have any more wings, right, because the, the third player, Liu Chu's done nothing. So you don't have any wings. Your only outlet is to those two guys, excuse me, right up the middle and long. You no longer have those wide outlets that are really helping you. And so the last two games Dallas is even more one conventional than they were before. But yet some things look better. Like Ramiro has this single pivot. He can now just stay at home and just sit in there. It actually has helped Dallas be better defensively by having that guy right in front of the center backs and not moving and they know where he's going to be, you know, and having, being able to have legit and the other eight actually burst forward and be the extra player and surprising people in transition and yet able to get back and park in next to Romero and stabilize that three in front of the the back. So work in progress. [00:22:38] Speaker A: So after. And it's way too early for me to ask this stupid question, but I'm going to ask it anyway after six games. Buzz, is this a playoff team? [00:22:46] Speaker C: Yeah, but you remember we, we all talked about our prediction in the preseason that we what do we all pick? 6th, 7th and 8th, the three of us for where we Finish. Those are playoff teams, not seven, eighth, ninth. Argument about whether that's playoffs or not aside. Six, seventh, eight is a play, is a playoff team. Right? That, that bandwidth. So yeah, I think it's a playoff team. I think it holds up like it is right now. You have some chances to get some guys healthier. You have some chances maybe to add something, but so does everybody else. [00:23:11] Speaker A: So where do you think the seeds of it getting improving in terms of some sort of rhythm and structure of, of building an attack that isn't just simply booting the ball along to one or two guys? Because that's what it feels like now, as you said, it's literally just figure out how to get the ball to Lucho and go from there. And that just that that's why I. [00:23:31] Speaker C: Made the Nottingham Forest convent comparison, because that's kind of the way. I mean, I don't watch farce a ton, but I've seen a little bit of this. [00:23:37] Speaker A: I think, I think, I think you're being, you're being very, very unkind to Nottingham Forest. They're third of the Premier League and the FA Cup. [00:23:47] Speaker C: Well, they're a much better defensive team than Dallas, but the idea is the same. That 30, 35% possession was what I was talking about. And then the verticality and get forward quickly. Obviously not even force is way better than NC Dallas. I'm just talking about the style. We're talking about styles, what we're talking about. So, you know, well, well, hold on. [00:24:04] Speaker A: I think that's okay. But see, Forest has something that Dallas doesn't. And even if you just kind of like equal out the quality of the players, Dallas doesn't have two guys that can play wide and attack. I mean it. Nottingham Forest isn't tied to one guy. They got three or four gu attack that they can depend on. [00:24:22] Speaker C: Right. [00:24:22] Speaker A: And, and, and that's where I think as I watch this, I get a little bit concerned because Patrick doesn't appear to be doing a ton of anything. You know, we had this really magic moment from Legette. Who is better when in. In moments. [00:24:38] Speaker C: Right. [00:24:38] Speaker A: But again, it's, it's. It all feels very disconnected and a little bit desperate. [00:24:43] Speaker C: That's the answer to the question of how you get better. You know, Quill, I think from listening to his, to him talk, I think he wants to play 4,000, 231. I don't think he wants to play the way he's playing now. He's doing that because of the profiles he has available. So the, the answer to that question is if you can get back to 4, 2, 3, 1, then you have two wings out wide. Maybe you have Lucha right underneath as a 10 like. But you only have one wing right now. You only have Anderson Julio and he was even gone for a couple weeks, right? So you get him back. There's one wing. You don't have another good wing like the all three guys you've tried or even four guys. Bernie, Leo Chu, Logan, Farrington, Pedrinho. None of those guys are performing like Anderson Julio is. So until you get that other wing sorted, it's going to be hard to go back to 4, 2, 3, 1, take off the 8 and bring on the extra wing. So until you get a player who can exceed Romero as the six, a guy who can play because like the way, the reason it's working with him as a six now is because he sits in there as that single. He's not required to run everywhere. And the other two guys drop in, right? You have to be able to have a guy in there in a double pivot that can cover sideline to sideline and have that other, that other 68 with him release forward. So that's how you get better like that. That six has to become. Now is that, Is that the new guy? Is that Kai? Is it show playing as a 6? I don't know what it is, but that's what's missing in terms of being able to go back to the other formation. It's the wing and the six. You know, if Paxton gets healthy, if show comes back and plays really well, or is a real six, if there's lots of ifs, lots of ifs still here, right? If, you know, if, if more can get his defense sorted out, if they can go out of center back and, and bring up and get an upgrade on Ibiaga, perhaps. I mean those are the ways you can get better and get forward. And I. But I really think most of all you're right because it. The current formation leaves those two guys, Lucho and Musa, on an island. I want to see this new formation with Anderson Julio instead of Leo Chu and see what that does. That might help a lot. And then we'll. We'll kind of go from there after that. I mean, not we, the coach will. But we'll talk about it and we'll see what we think about it. With Anderson Julio in there instead of Leo Chu. Might make a big difference. [00:26:51] Speaker A: You mentioned Kaik, who did get his debut. And I instantly, if he had just had black blacked out boots to go along with his tucked in shirt. I may have had an instant man crush. [00:27:06] Speaker B: Has the longest shorts in history. [00:27:10] Speaker A: No, I thought, you know, I thought he was wearing them a little high. They looked a little shorter. [00:27:15] Speaker B: They were very high. But I mean, it. It just seemed like he took some tracksuit pants and just like, just hemmed them. [00:27:22] Speaker C: It's like watching Michigan. [00:27:23] Speaker A: So did anybody have about 30 seconds into his debut? Holy crap, he's gonna get a red card really quick if he doesn't turn it down a few notches. [00:27:33] Speaker C: Yeah, it looks at me like a guy that was like, went out on the field and said, holy crap, this is fast. This is not what I'm used to. [00:27:41] Speaker A: He snapped into a tackle almost instantly and I thought, oh, okay, here we go. The kid is off. [00:27:48] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, for me, like a little, A little raw. I mean, obviously, like, we knew that was going to be somewhere honest, but probably more honest than I would have expected. Probably be a little longer before he's going to be ready to go than we maybe had hoped. You know, we're looking at a dose of Ramiro probably. Unless the only other six they have, really, no one's gonna be. Is now left back, obviously. So you're hoping that show can be sort of a passing left six. That's about it. Otherwise, I mean, you're. I don't know what you're gonna do because that kid's not gonna. I don't think that that kid will be ready based on the 20 minutes I saw or 10 minutes or whatever it was, you know, because maybe that's first game panic, but it definitely was like, holy crap, this is moving, you know? [00:28:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't see anything that was. I mean, I didn't. It wasn't Edwin Gyasi out there bad. It wasn't even bad. It was just, okay, he's clearly very young and yeah, you know, I will say the one thing that he did really well is his recovery pace. Like his, his willingness to hustle and cover a lot of ground in recovery was immediately noticeable. You know, give him some time. But I also think it's probably our responsibility to, you know, temper expectations. Yeah, Dallas is making a big deal about signing this guy, but there's a reason why he was playing in the league he was playing in, and he's just a kid. And if he suddenly showed up here and was Ms. Starting, mls, starting quality, that'd be the greatest scouting job of all time in the history of the league. And that's just not how this is going to go. [00:29:16] Speaker B: You Know, when players come into the league, there's obviously a transition period, but they're also leaning on their experience. That was his second top flight professional game ever. [00:29:25] Speaker A: I know. [00:29:26] Speaker B: You know, there's no experience to fall back on to say, okay, I've just got to adjust my pace a little bit. There's less time on the ball, the press is a little stronger. It's a whole new environment. [00:29:38] Speaker A: He was like an overly excited golden retriever puppy out there. [00:29:41] Speaker B: Yeah. You just needed some water there for him to jump into. It would have been great. [00:29:47] Speaker A: I'm sure he's going to be fantastic. All right. [00:29:50] Speaker C: Well, yeah, but the point is it won't be instantly. No, you're looking at that. You can be like, okay, let's give the kids some chance, give him some time. [00:29:56] Speaker A: But the problem is if Romero gets hurt, they don't have anybody to turn to. And I think that's the thing about this particular signing that is curious. Which is what, you know, the way they are presenting him as an addition to this club versus how we all realize the reality of how long it's going to take him to turn into being MLS starting quality. I feel like two very different things. While I'm, I'm hopeful he turns into a kick ass, you know, player, I just, it's, you know, the next Grazo, he's just not going to happen in the next few weeks or months. [00:30:32] Speaker C: Plus, we're used to a $4 million player being a guy who walks in and starts a Brian Acosta across. You know, that's the price tag of. That's. What was the top four signing of all time for FC Dallas? [00:30:43] Speaker A: Top five. Oh, yeah, for sure. [00:30:45] Speaker C: So, like, you know, that money and, and then the hype of him and the way they've been talking about it on the socials and whatnot, it's like, oh, this is gonna be great. Kids coming right in. And it's like I, you know, even PR guys were like, oh, yeah, this kid's gonna play. Right away. It's like, okay. [00:30:59] Speaker B: But I said, they said he'd get minutes right away, which he has. [00:31:02] Speaker C: Oh, I got more. Stronger than that. I got, you know. [00:31:05] Speaker B: Oh, no. Everyone I spoke to in the team was like, nice. He's not started. [00:31:10] Speaker C: There you go. [00:31:11] Speaker A: Well, he cost more than Ennis Solly. [00:31:14] Speaker B: So he's already done more. [00:31:19] Speaker C: Six touches more. Yeah. [00:31:21] Speaker B: And an acrobatic clearance. [00:31:24] Speaker A: I just, I hope, I hope tucking your shirt in becomes a team wide kind of bit. They all do. That's a good look. I like It. So Martin pause was back. Were you surprised he got the start, Buzz? [00:31:36] Speaker C: No. You asked me that last week and I said, no, no, put him right in. There's no question. Martin PA is top, you know, in the discussion for best keepers in this league. You know, top five. You know, top ten for sure. Top five. You know, the guys the broadcast were talking about too, like, what a great keeper he is. So, like. [00:31:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it was funny based on the conversation we had last week about Collode's willingness to come out and catch balls, there was a moment in, I think it was the first half where a cross came across the ball, the box, and. And instead of calling his center back off of it, he let him head it away out for a corner and. And Martin could have come out and just grabbed it and caught it and he didn't. I was. I was yelling at the tv. [00:32:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, his two weaknesses are his feet and crosses. So it's like, you know, he did. [00:32:20] Speaker B: Go for one in the second half, which was a little surprising. [00:32:23] Speaker A: Yes. He came out and punched one out for a throw in in the second half and I kind of gave a little fist pump there. [00:32:28] Speaker B: But actually I was talking to him after the game about all that, so time pending. I'll try and put something on the blog kind of about the, you know, how he prepared and, you know, got ready. Spending 50 hours on planes over the last couple of weeks. How he was able to. [00:32:46] Speaker A: Did he happen to by chance tell you how many miles he traveled? [00:32:50] Speaker B: I worked out to 24,000. [00:32:52] Speaker A: Goodness gracious. That is ridiculous. That's literally almost circumventing the globe in one trip. [00:33:00] Speaker C: That's half a gold status on American from one trip. [00:33:04] Speaker B: But the crazy part is you think about even. Even the qualifying games, you know, playing in on Australia and then in Indonesia. That's an eight hour flight in itself. [00:33:15] Speaker A: Yes. [00:33:15] Speaker B: And that's the short leg. [00:33:17] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:18] Speaker C: Wow. I didn't talk about that. [00:33:20] Speaker A: They were talking about. I was reading an article. Somebody wrote an article kind of adding up the players in the Premier League that traveled the most. And they were talking about how some of these players traveled over 20,000 miles because they were having, I guess Chris Wood, for example, had to go down to New Zealand and they had a game in. Not the Bahamas crap, whatever. Whatever other, you know, island nation they had to fly to. To Dan's Point. It was a ridiculous amount of miles those guys had to travel. And then of course, he ended up getting injured. But speaking of Nottingham Forest. But there you go. So, yeah, you know, it was nice to have pause back. And I did think he did a good job at the end of the game as Kansas City just kept dropping bombs in. And while Dallas was good at clearing a lot of it, there were a couple of moments there where pause was in the right place at the right time. So credit to him. [00:34:09] Speaker B: And the most important thing today, I saw that he's in a Home Depot advert discussing toilets. [00:34:17] Speaker A: Oh, boy. [00:34:23] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a huddle. Him, Alejandro Bedoya, Jordan Morris, and I can't remember who from Colorado. But huddling with this couple about their. [00:34:34] Speaker A: Choice of toilet, I could see Martin going home after that day in his hotel room on the WhatsApp, chatting with his supermodel supermodel girlfriend. Hey, I did a toilet commercial today in an American hardware, but he had. [00:34:50] Speaker B: A speaking line, so, you know, get that IMDb profile up. [00:34:54] Speaker A: Awesome. Super hot. So Dallas goes on to win the game two one. They're up to 10 points. I would you say they're in eighth, seventh place now, Buzz, in the west, did you say? [00:35:08] Speaker C: I didn't say. [00:35:09] Speaker A: I have a place. They're in seventh place with 10 points ahead of Los Angeles FC and tied with Portland on 10 points. But they're also a mere three points out of first place, which is ridiculous to think about. [00:35:27] Speaker B: I really like that you had to specify LAFC as opposed to the winless LA Galaxy. [00:35:34] Speaker A: Yeah. It is kind of crazy that we are six games into the season and there are five MLS teams. Toronto, Montreal, the Galaxy, Houston, Giggle, Snicker giggle, and Sporting Kansas City, all without a single win all season. That is quite bananas. Okay, so I guess the point is, is that, you know, Dallas has gotten the job done. They've come back from deficits. In fact, Dallas was very. I didn't know how to take this. The tweet the team put out about having more points collected from losing positions. Is that a good thing to brag about? I can't figure out if that's a good thing to brag about. [00:36:17] Speaker C: Well, they're all in on this, you know, warrior dogs mentality bit this year. This. [00:36:21] Speaker A: This whole too old, I don't get the dog thing. [00:36:24] Speaker C: I think it's just fighting the dog or something. You know, that whole fighting back, coming back. I mean, I. I like that mentality. [00:36:31] Speaker A: How about not going down a goal to start with? Isn't that a novel concept? [00:36:35] Speaker C: But we know the Dallas doesn't have a good defense. Defense is gonna be bad all year. So it's like, it's okay that actually. [00:36:41] Speaker A: Oh, so this is the club acknowledging that their defense sucks and they're gonna have to dog it to collect points this season. Is that what we're. Is that how we're doing this? [00:36:49] Speaker B: The job is to spin everything into a positive light. So. I mean. [00:36:54] Speaker A: Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, okay. [00:36:56] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, that, that does mean, wow, really crappy starts. But how many seasons have we talked about FC Dallas leading the table for most points lost from a winning position? So yeah, it's nice to be on the other side of that for once. [00:37:12] Speaker C: Well, certainly having the ability to come back from being in a losing position is a nice trait to have. Now if you could just stop being a losing position, it'd be really good. Just get that defense cleaned up. [00:37:22] Speaker B: Last year in those same losing positions it was, ah shit, this is going to be 4 nil now. It's world as a chance. Oh my God. [00:37:29] Speaker C: I look forward to the team having a better home record than road record. That'll be a thing when that happens. [00:37:34] Speaker A: Yeah, that is a. That is a quirky one for sure. All right, so Dallas, anything else about the Kansas City game? As we mentioned, Peter Vermes ended up getting sacked from Kansas City, which is a big deal in this league. He was the most. He was the manager that had been around the longest. And whether you like the guy or not or whether or not you, you know, you want to debate whether he looks like Herman Monster or Hellboy, it really isn't important to me. But he is an important figure in the history of this league, both as a player and a manager. And it's a pretty significant moment. I mean he's kind of their Tom Landry if you really think about it. [00:38:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:09] Speaker A: So you know them finally getting around to the point where they felt like they, I mean they hadn't won a game since last calendar year, I think. What are they on a 15 game losing stre streak, buzz or winless streak? [00:38:20] Speaker B: 13. [00:38:21] Speaker C: Yeah, it was long. [00:38:23] Speaker B: 13 games since September. [00:38:25] Speaker A: So I'm not a particular Peter Burmese fan or anything, but I also want to acknowledge his importance to that club into this league and I'm. It'll be interesting to see where he goes. [00:38:34] Speaker C: They were pretty good for a long time and they won a bunch of open cups with him in charge. [00:38:38] Speaker B: And they won the league too. Yeah, Can I give you a really important stat, please. Eric Quill was the. The player that Vermis assisted on his last scoreboard mention in his playing career. Eric Quill was also the guy that put the bullet in his management career. [00:39:01] Speaker A: I guess that's probably true. Quill can add that to his resume. So Dallas end up winning the game. As I said two one in front of a packed house at Toyota Stadium. By the way, was the I can't remember when we did the podcast last week with this before or after the stadium presentation? [00:39:22] Speaker B: As before. [00:39:24] Speaker A: So we haven't talked about the stadium presentation or the stadium doohickey they did event. All right. Not that anything great went on there. But anyway the project has begun tearing down. Will start soon. You know, there you go. We're underway. So next up for Dallas is a road trip to Atlanta to the Robots Anus. You all knew I was going to say it at 6:30 on the Apple TV. Dan, you are our official opponent previewer. [00:39:58] Speaker B: They're an interesting bunch. They actually just won their second game of the season on Saturday, come from behind 43 win at home to New York City. Other than that, it was a win against Montreal on opening day. They have only had one game so far this season where they've conceded fewer than two goals which was a goalless draw if New York Red Bulls so if FC Dallas scores a goal that's, you know, the odds are in their favor. Preseason Focus Obviously, Emmanuel Latte Lath, he's got five goals right now. He's the only player on more than one goal. He is kind of the, the beginning, end and middle of that team. Miguel Almiron returned. He's been kind of cast off to the right wing. They had a little bit of a weird moment I think half time they had to take off, barter slish from center midfield which made Ronnie Delia kind of shuffle the team and, and put Almiron back in that kind of familiar 10 spots. So they did then immediately concede two goals, but they also scored two goals. So yeah, it's gonna be. Yeah, I'll be interesting to see what they do how, how injuries do affect it because they haven't really had the laundry list of injuries that, you know, Vancouver had that Colorado have that Dallas has had to a degree. They also do. They do lead MLS in the most defensive errors recorded with eight in six games, which is an incredibly impressive number compared to FC Dallas's one. It's yes, it's, it's another one of those teams. So it's, it's gonna be a 43 one way or another. [00:41:55] Speaker A: It sounds like roller coaster season versus roller coaster season. [00:42:00] Speaker B: And they are a team, you know, they really get the ball down, run it into the box high. Well I say high scoring. They've Scored more and conceded more than FC Dallas, but they do, they're sort of top third in the league in, in shots, shots on target, all the kind of attacking stats other than actually putting the ball in the nets. So yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be a siege mentality, I guess for that backline. [00:42:31] Speaker C: This is a thing that to consider as we go forward over the course of the season is to never forget the sort of macro idea that to last year, Dallas was basically the right around on zero goal differential. And we talked about going into the season like if you want to be a playoff team, you need to get up to a positive like 8, 9, 10 and goal differential. So when you're talking about the volume of goals being really high, you know, both scored and allowed, just remember that context. Remember that over the course of the season, you know, it's okay that the team's giving up more goals as long as they keep scoring more goals. And if you look at these other teams you're playing against and you talk about Atlanta's done worse on both, well, their goal differential is worse than Dallas's. That's why they're a little bit lower in the stands in Dallas. This is so, you know, it's, It's a silly 10,000 foot stat, but it really can be quite telling over the course of a season. [00:43:13] Speaker B: What. [00:43:13] Speaker C: And since the goals is in the end of the day, the only thing that actually matters because that's how you win games, score goals. [00:43:18] Speaker A: So Buzz, are you anticipating we'll see any kind of different lineup this weekend? [00:43:23] Speaker C: Well, Anderson Julio, I think is an obvious one now that he's got his green card. Last week he got back, you know, Wednesday, Thursday, whatever it was. He only got like one day of training and that was deemed not enough. So he'll be in there, I would assume since Leo Chu's getting worse game by game, I, I think you want to keep the same tactic because it's, it's working for now, you know, and unless Anderson Julio coming back makes Quill think, oh, look, now I can go back to multiple wingers maybe, but you know, when you're on a, when you're on a multiple game win streak, I don't think you change that much. You kind of leave it the same other than the one guy, you know, maybe there's some question about who the other eight is. But you know, we haven't even seen Showcase even get a minute off the bench yet. Like, you know that terms of like that game fitness and getting him Back in action, like until he sort of. Until he sort of cracks the field at all, it's going to be probably difficult to predict that he's going to start, even though I keep wanting him to because I'm not the biggest Delgado fan. So, you know, Paxton's a ways away yet, so I don't think. And I don't think Diego Garcia is ready for that either. So not a lot of choices. I don't think from Kaik 16 minutes that he's ready to come in for Romero, you know, is it. Did Nolan do enough to keep left back? Probably not, you know, probably go back to Farfan there, I would think. [00:44:44] Speaker B: Well, I think as well, you. You've potentially got the matchup with Almiron, so you definitely want as much experience as you can get there. [00:44:50] Speaker C: Yeah, fair. So, you know, there really isn't. When you won a couple in a row, there's no, there's no cause as a coach that likes pushing for change, you know, I, we. I think that Quill really wants to go back to the other formation, but until you get your midfield sorted, until you get a second wing sorted, I really don't think there's any reason to. Particularly because your defense has allowed less goals in this shape too, with having Ramiro sitting in and having those eights dropping in, that part has worked, you know, so it's kind of in an if it ain't broke, don't fix it kind of vibe, you know, especially because it's getting those results on the road too, is this formation has worked. So, you know, I don't understand who that would be it for me. That'd be all I would change. [00:45:30] Speaker A: All right. Anything from you, Dan, in terms of anticipations of lineup or players? [00:45:37] Speaker B: No, I think. I think the team in US in some respect picks itself in the situation right now. So there's only those couple of talking points that Buzz had. [00:45:47] Speaker C: Dallas has used the second fewest players in the league. It was going into this game it was 18, so Nolan makes 19. So like quilts has talked a lot about wanting his positions all being competitions. That clearly isn't the case with this roster right now. He's pretty locked into what he, you know, first choice at this point, even though he would like to have it not be that way. It obviously is that way. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. A couple of other notes that I meant to mention about the Kansas City game, I looked it up because when I saw that Vermese had been fired, I thought, man, I feel like Dallas has been that team a lot in the history of this club. And so I did a little bit of research into the best of my count. Vermese now makes Dallas's count of four of being the opponent last faced up against the guy before he got sacked. And so I have it down is twice for Colorado. People don't remember this, but the Colorado manager back in 96 got fired on a bad run after playing Dallas. And then Australian was the other one. And then whoever was managing Orlando got the boot after playing Dallas. And now Peter Vermese because that was. [00:46:56] Speaker B: The weird streak is Armand was the last person to talk to Master only. And the Orlando coach at the time before they got fired, Oscar Pria away. [00:47:08] Speaker C: From Colorado, does that count as a 1, 2? [00:47:12] Speaker A: Maybe. I don't know. But here's the crazy part. Dallas is kind of middle of the pack on that. New England has been the opponent before. A guy gets fired seven times. [00:47:23] Speaker C: That's amazing. [00:47:24] Speaker A: Isn't that crazy? That is nuts. So that's a funny stat. The other thing that happened during the broadcast, I don't know if you guys picked up on it. I. The Mark Rogan Dino said something about. He was talking about a player and he said, yeah, he's in his second season wearing for the hoops. And I thought, wait, who is he talking about on Dallas? [00:47:44] Speaker C: I know. [00:47:45] Speaker A: And I was like, oh, crap, he's talking about Kansas City, who's now stolen and maximized the hoop design and now everybody considers them the hoops. He literally called Kansas City the hoops. [00:47:57] Speaker C: Well, that's funny because he's called SC Dallas hoops for years, even though they haven't worn them in a while. I know he just loves that nickname. [00:48:03] Speaker B: On the subject of jerseys and I like, we talked a lot about the color of the FC Dallas away jersey, where it's like blue or gray. That Kansas City jersey in person is not the blue that they've had for many, many years. No, it's really like. It's really pale and gray in person. [00:48:19] Speaker A: Huh. Well, it looks pretty blue on television. [00:48:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Pisses me off because it's oops. [00:48:25] Speaker B: Which is. I mean, that's the opposite of the FC Dallas one. It looks. It looks pretty blue in person, but on TV it just looks white. [00:48:31] Speaker A: I don't like them wearing the same color shorts as the shirt. I wish it was a darker. I wish it was the darker blue in the shorts in that kit. [00:48:39] Speaker B: That would be cool. [00:48:40] Speaker A: That would. I thought that's what they had prior to this. I didn't think they were wearing. [00:48:45] Speaker C: I Don't think so, huh? [00:48:47] Speaker A: All right, we'll do a little more kit talk before the end of the pod because there's lots of kit drama going on in that neck of the woods. [00:48:55] Speaker C: Before we run off on Sporting, we should mention that Azer Irgide had a really great game. Defensively, we kind of glossed over that. He was great outlet pass. Defensively he was a monster. Lots of people have noticed that. So you know, what a great sign. That's from a guy. We had no clue what he was going to bring. What a great signing. [00:49:12] Speaker A: I gotta say, I also feel like Ibby had a really solid game. Ibby got himself in some good positions, covered some ground, shielded some balls out. I don't think Shaq Moore had a particularly good game. Shaq Moore spent a lot of the game apologizing to his teammates. I stopped counting at the number of five of, of seeing him on TV throw his hand up. I'm sorry, I apologize. But I thought Ibby had a really strong game for Ibby, but IR is one of the best signings Zanata has made for this. [00:49:45] Speaker C: Oh yeah, yeah. There's no question. Yeah. Whoever did the in person scouting on that guy did a really great job. I mean some of the things that like on tape were a little bit alarming. Like the super aggressiveness of getting forward and chasing a striker and then and then hitting a guy. Like some of that stuff is still there, but it's not nearly as bad as it looked like it was going to be on tape. And mostly he contains himself and he usually gets back really quickly in a hurry when he does do that, so. And he actually had one really awesome run forward where he was, went out a couple different guys and got forward. [00:50:11] Speaker A: Until the defense, the last defenders touch. Yeah, got away from him. [00:50:15] Speaker C: Of course. [00:50:16] Speaker B: He's had that little run in him in just about every game so far. It's nice to see that little bit of link up play that it's not just all get it through Ramirez in hope, you know, the hope that he makes the pass. [00:50:27] Speaker C: We should also talk about how impressive Lucio Costa is with the 7575 Club. You know, that puts him in an insanely elite category. I looked at Bishop Christ, by the way, 74 assists. That's why he's not in that club. [00:50:39] Speaker A: Is that, is that what his career ended on was 74 regular season, 108. [00:50:43] Speaker C: Goals and 74 assists. So he's one goal off that club now that he's not, you know, hallmark for many other things. But he's probably at home going, oh, man, 11 assists. Yeah. Because I was like, where's Jason Christ on this list? Don't one go off? [00:50:56] Speaker B: I mean that's. That's a pretty cool list, right? Landon Donovan, Jaime Moreno, Dwayne De Rosario, Diego Valeri, Preky, Steve Ralston and. And amazing list. [00:51:08] Speaker C: Yeah. People probably don't know Steve Ralston. Man, that dude was an absolute peak of his game. National team player, like when MLS started. So he's off the radar for a lot of people, but the guy was an absolutely phenomenal player. [00:51:18] Speaker A: It was funny when Rogan, Dino and Heath were talking about that list and they mentioned the name Preky, it dawned on me the percentage of people watching this game that have no idea who Preky is and how awesome Preky was. [00:51:34] Speaker C: So good. [00:51:35] Speaker A: Dan, how familiar with Preky are you? [00:51:37] Speaker B: Okay, this is what I was gonna say for his soccer. Not massively. For the whole Jason Davis, where is Preky thing. He's missing a lot. [00:51:48] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Yes. The only thing I tell you is it was the most left footed mfer in the history of the sport. [00:51:55] Speaker B: And more than Messi. [00:51:56] Speaker A: Different. Oh my gosh. Yes. 10 times more left footed than Messi and you still couldn't stop him. You just. You. It was. Yeah, it was the most ridiculous skill set with one foot. It. It was really quite remarkable. And he was a. It's a lot of. He was maddening to watch and a lot of fun to watch all at the same time. So it was. [00:52:21] Speaker C: There was the indoor game, if I remember correct. It was a pro and indoor before MLS got going. And one of the great naturalized US national team players, really, it's like he's. [00:52:32] Speaker A: Gonna go to his left like you. It almost became. It almost made it almost. I think at one point the Inferno actually had a precky song that included just. Just cover his left or something like that. Dustin will remember that song. I don't remember what it was. [00:52:47] Speaker C: From so deep. Oh my gosh. [00:52:49] Speaker A: Yes. [00:52:49] Speaker C: Yeah, more so than there, Rosario. I'm just bombs from way outside. [00:52:54] Speaker A: Those are the good old days. All right, so Dallas, there you go. We talked that up really good. Let's see. Let's move on. Trinity had a chance to capitalize on their good run of late, but they went on the road to Carolina and got waffle stomped three nothing. [00:53:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Carolina was the team right above them in the standings. Unfortunately. I can tell you nothing about this game. And. But I have to say this. And that's because this is the single worst display of camera game. Camera work I have ever seen in my entire life. It was so bad, it made me sick. I had to turn it off. I was about to puke watching this. This thing. And listen, this is what I do. I am telling you, this was an absolutely brutal performance. And the worst part is, like, within, like, two seconds, I'm like, this person's never done this before. And I'm like, why is the director not talking to them and fixing it? Because it went on and on and on and on, them trying to figure out how to do it. [00:53:50] Speaker A: And it wasn't one of those AI cameras. No robot cameras. [00:53:54] Speaker C: You can tell by the way it's moving it's not AI and the way it adjusted, how it. Because if it was an AI camera, the. The, like, how wide it is would have stayed the same. It was like the first five minutes or so. It's like literally the entire field in one camera and like, 30 rows of stands, like, as wide as you can imagine. And all the drags are completely open. So the camera is not slowly sliding side to side. It's jerking and moving and going. That's off. And then so they're like, clearly, after, like, 10 minutes, spun, somebody finally says, no, you need to go tighter. So they zoom in to, like, a shot of, like, two people. And then they try and follow two people on the ball, like, super with. Without any ability or skill. And also the loose drag. So it's all jerking and moving with, like, I. After I. I could not watch it. It was so bad. And the problem, the thing that was making me the most disgusted mentally, despite the fact I wanted to puke, was that if you're directing a professional sport level, you have a meeting earlier in the day with your cameras to tell them how you want to shoot it. Right. Even if they've never done it before, you can explain it to them. And if they tell you like, I've never done it, which they would do, or within 10 seconds, or like, the little bit you might practice before the game, you'll be able to tell they never done it. So you immediately start coaching them. You don't let it go for 15, 20 minutes of puking everybody out is the worst I've ever seen. So I turned it off, so I couldn't even tell you how. Why eternity stunk. [00:55:14] Speaker B: Is that vista that produces all those. [00:55:17] Speaker C: Yes. So, like, possible. The director's not on site. I get all that, but there's still communication. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Higher buzz. [00:55:23] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, my God, it was so bad. Listen, I've directed games where the camera Guy's never done it before and you coach him in before the game and then instantly as the game starts you start tweaking and adjusting and you help them out and you fix it. You don't keep going with puke cam. It was so awful. [00:55:41] Speaker B: So what you're saying is it was filmed like a parent at a youth game just trying to focus solely on their child. [00:55:48] Speaker C: Yeah, or. Or uber wide to get the whole stadium. [00:55:51] Speaker B: Honestly that that could have actually been the case. [00:55:55] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean it's entirely possible. It's like some a team employee tried to step in and do it. Someone has never worked tv. Oh yeah, I could run a camera. No stop. So bad. [00:56:08] Speaker A: Well, they lost and it was a six pointer because as you said the team and front of them were. Was who they were playing. So that. That. That sucks. Says North Texas had a game and they dropped one and they were up three one. Buzz. What happened? [00:56:23] Speaker C: Late game meltdown. Listen. Well, here's a positive tar Scott had a brace. That's good. We like seeing that. I'm continue to be mystified by Anthony Ramirez as a six which is like playing Pedrinho as a six. I don't get it. You know there Ian Charles was out who's been playing center back for them and then explain playing six for them. So like an actual, an actual center back. So like they had to use a 17 year old who's not really a center back at center back. They defensively just broke down and some and they didn't really didn't have any defensive choices to come in because the other center backs are hurt and they don't really have any other defensive mids that were available to come in and sort of spell stuff. So they just could not. They couldn't do what S.E. dallas did. They couldn't hold them out. They couldn't keep it from coming back and tying the game up and then they end up losing the out. So some of this is of course just the pains of having young kids on your learning process and all that kind of stuff. Some of it is, you know, having a couple injuries really hurt him. So it's not. The simple fixes are basically just to get people back and get him in the right positions and I think that'll help a lot. But again it's never a. Not a learning moment from the game. And so the big takeaway of course is Tark's got brace. That's exciting. We want to see that guy get back to FC Dallas and scoring. Not scoring playing and hopefully scoring all Right. [00:57:36] Speaker A: Stop. Pause for a second because. Did you say they lost in the shootout? [00:57:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:57:42] Speaker A: What they're doing, they don't do ties in next pro, Peter. [00:57:45] Speaker C: They have not for three years. [00:57:47] Speaker A: Wait, do they do peak. Do they do 35 yard run up shootout? [00:57:51] Speaker C: No, sorry, it kicks from the spot. [00:57:53] Speaker A: Ah, come on. If you're gonna do. You at least gotta. You gotta do the run up, you gotta do the real. You can't call it a shootout if you're standing on the spot like a flower. Yeah, come on. [00:58:08] Speaker C: Well, they want to not have, they want to not have ties and they want to try and you know, they consider it good practice. [00:58:14] Speaker A: But the thing is it's like I. [00:58:15] Speaker C: Do remember seriously, because it's not, it's like it's not the game's not on the line. It's not a real goal. It's like afterwards and nobody cares. So it doesn't get, doesn't get taken seriously. [00:58:24] Speaker A: Do they change the point value if you lose or win and shootout? [00:58:27] Speaker C: Yeah, if you win the shootout you get an extra point. So it's like 3, 2, 1. Like hockey, you know, 3, 2, 1, 0. [00:58:32] Speaker A: Ah, okay. All right. So there you go. And then Tuxoma had their second game of the season. They're the new kids on the block. Everybody be nice to them. They lost to Westchester SC3 1. Is Westchester also an expansion USL1 team? [00:58:45] Speaker C: Yes. Yeah. And that was the game maybe you thought you could get. They got their. Texoma got their first ever goal. The tenants fell off down to about 1300 which is normal. Second game you expect it to drop off. 1300 is still more than I was expecting them to actually drop off. So that's pretty good. The. I think and I've now seen them play three times. I only watched the hots of this one, but this is the at least the third or, or fourth formation I've seen them run out including scrimmages. So they're obviously still trying to find themselves and find their team. They, they, they announced a whole lot of signings really late. So I don't think they have an identity yet. I think they know what they're doing yet and, and have figured themselves out yet. Diego Pepe was missing, but they did get their first goal. So. So their, their best midfielder got a red card at the end of the game. So that's not good. I think they, they may go on the road next, but they're still, they're struggling to put it all together. Expansion team. We'll give them time, but you Know, right now it's not. Not great. Not great up there yet. [00:59:42] Speaker A: I didn't know that there was a team up in Westchester county, which is the beautiful county just north of New York City. My wife and I lived in Westchester when we were working in New York City in the early 90s. That's just. [00:59:55] Speaker B: Just call it White Plains. [00:59:57] Speaker A: Well, they're playing in Mount Vernon. [01:00:01] Speaker C: Is that where the. The Mount Vernon is? Is that same place? [01:00:05] Speaker A: No, at the. It's a little. It's one of the quaint little towns in Westchester County. And they. They play at a place called the Stadium Memorial Field in Mount Vernon, which I think is a stadium for a college. That. That's up there. [01:00:21] Speaker B: And that's, of course, next to the beautifully named Takaho. [01:00:25] Speaker C: What? I don't know what that is. [01:00:26] Speaker B: That's. That's the city next to Mount Vernon. [01:00:29] Speaker C: Okay, there you go. [01:00:31] Speaker A: Spell that. [01:00:31] Speaker B: Today I learned literally the same as if you were to say tuck a ho. [01:00:37] Speaker A: I don't think that's how they pronounce it. [01:00:39] Speaker B: That doesn't matter. [01:00:41] Speaker A: I. I think if I remember correct. [01:00:43] Speaker B: The podcast, the pronunciations. [01:00:46] Speaker A: No, I agree. Yeah, absolutely. It's not. But in living there, I don't remember a Takaho. New York, they had some weird spelling, like Indian named towns up there with funny pronunciations and things like that. [01:01:00] Speaker B: My exposure up there was Connecticut with the aptly named Danbury. [01:01:05] Speaker A: Yes. All right. Anyway, I digress. Go back to the run sheet that Buzz has kindly written for us in red crayon. And I think we have ended. We have come to its completion. [01:01:21] Speaker B: That might be a controversially orange crayon. [01:01:25] Speaker A: Yes. Thank you, Dan. That was perfect. Seg to the final portion of tonight's podcast, which is Kit Talk. So I don't know how to go through this, Dan, because you're kind of the expert, but we have been running under the premise that MLS is going to have third jerseys for clubs this season. Dallas is one of them. We have an idea of what we think that third jersey looks like. And then, lo and behold, a couple of weeks ago, footy headlines, which is always kind of the leader in the clubhouse in terms of where people go to for their kit. Rumors started running around with the noise that not only is Dallas getting a kit in a color that is different from what we think it's going to be, but it's going to be here, like, tomorrow. And now they seem to be reversing course on that. So catch everybody up, please. [01:02:16] Speaker B: Well, yeah, they. They started saying a few things that didn't match up to two information that we'd heard mainly, yeah, playing in a color orange, having a burn themed jersey that has the horse and the bull which you know, doesn't really make my favorite. No, FC Dallas isn't very good at branding but even still that's, you know, they, they wouldn't do that. And yeah, they were adamant of this April 4th release date and this was, this was going to be the third kits. It started with five teams, it went up to 12. Now it's the whole league. Everything that, I mean everything. Everyone that I've spoken to has said, no, that's absolutely not happening. And they're really confused where the orange has come from. I did hear a theory that maybe, you know, they're getting, they're getting information from an Adidas source that's foreign and maybe they confused FC Dallas with Houston. [01:03:20] Speaker A: Okay. But here's the ointment. Here's the, the fly in the ointment which is last week on one of the. I don't remember which sporting good website it was going on sale is a new Dallas FC Dallas hat where the logo is essentially that brushes sands orange color. That footy headline was telling us the jersey is going to be in. [01:03:48] Speaker B: So yeah, I did see that and it really is, it does look orange. That is the jersey hook hat that they do every year. And that relates, that in theory relates to the away jersey. They not quite blue, not quite gray one. The other ones in the league are all a much closer match to the, the actual jersey. So yeah, I, I don't have an explanation for that. And the whole April 4 thing's really confusing because the, I mean the club have said it publicly. The third jersey they're getting, the burn themed third jersey is getting released in July. It's not coming out on April 4th. [01:04:33] Speaker A: It's been very confusing. [01:04:34] Speaker C: Dan, isn't that logo on that hat, that colorized logo that's on the new secondary that you were just talking about, isn't that where that's coming from? [01:04:41] Speaker B: It is. It just looks more like it's in orange and black. So I, I mean I saw it hanging on a peg in the locker room, so I didn't see it super up close to like see, oh yeah, that's supposed to be red and that's supposed to be blue. But yeah, I mean from, from the description the jersey hook, that's, that's what they do every year and it always relates to the, the jersey that they actually release for the season. [01:05:05] Speaker A: I'd like to think Somebody in the club is throwing a hissy fit of epic proportions that anything that is Dallas related is in the color orange. I mean, I can't assume. I mean, look, I'm going to hope and pray that nobody in the club greenlit for Adidas that they could sell anything Dallas branded in orange for all the obvious reasons and that Adidas just did it universally or unilaterally. [01:05:34] Speaker B: Next to Dan Hunt during the press conference, I should have turned to him and said, hey, what's this all about? [01:05:38] Speaker A: Yeah, you should have. [01:05:39] Speaker B: I didn't think about it. [01:05:40] Speaker A: Okay, gosh, you got to tell me when you're sitting next to Dan Hunt so I can feed you questions. You may never get another second. You may. After that, you may never get to sit next to Dan Hunt ever again. [01:05:50] Speaker B: But we, yeah, I'll be covering teximer at that rate. [01:05:55] Speaker C: I think a lot of this national stuff is not. Probably doesn't even get to an FC Dallas level for approval. Like these national product lines that are being put together by the league. You know, it's, it's not like. I think the only thing Dallas has any control over really is their kit or like stuff that they're producing just for themselves. These, these big. As Dan said, these, these, these lines where every team gets this particular hat related to their way. Jersey. I think once you design the jersey they go, okay, that goes here, that goes here. It goes on this hat. It goes on this jacket. Like the, the two way jacket. The same thing. [01:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah, but this has nothing to do with their current away jersey. [01:06:30] Speaker C: The hat does. That's what he was saying. [01:06:31] Speaker A: No, it's orange, it's not red. [01:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah but that could just be, you know, that it's, it's embroidered in the wrong colors. Effectively. It's still that colorized logo. It's not burn themed which we know the, you know, the, the third jersey will be that we know. 30 Headlines has said the, the orange one would be. So having the FC Dallas logo rather than the Burn jazz band leg, I wouldn't really make a ton of sense there. [01:06:59] Speaker A: I didn't like this episode of Kit Talk. [01:07:02] Speaker C: The answers you wanted. [01:07:04] Speaker A: This is. This isn't. This is not a good. [01:07:08] Speaker B: Did find out something interesting. [01:07:09] Speaker A: I'm going to leave. I'm only leaving one star in this episode. [01:07:12] Speaker B: Buzz, are you tipping your driver at least? I did find out one. One thing interesting, the third jerseys. So we've, we've worked on the assumption it's going to be every team gets one this season. It's actually half of the teams in the league gets one this season, half gets one next season. [01:07:30] Speaker C: I definitely had heard all of them from the beginning, but maybe, maybe it's been altered or maybe that was bad info. [01:07:35] Speaker A: So interesting. Okay, well. [01:07:40] Speaker C: Well, we know Dallas is getting one. That's all we care about in the end, right? [01:07:43] Speaker B: In July. [01:07:44] Speaker C: In July, yeah. Yeah, we know for sure. [01:07:46] Speaker B: Not in April, but yeah, you know, cocktails and cleats. Gina got up on the stage and said it. Heritage collection, which was the same line as last year, July. We know the season ticket holders, that. That is their. That is their every game attendance reward is going to be that jersey specifically. And that's why they haven't been given a jersey yet. So. [01:08:14] Speaker A: And before we go, we will. As mentioned earlier in this episode, they did have their official kickoff event for the stadium project, which included Dan Hunt saying that this will be the world's finest, smallest soccer specific stadium. Is that what he said? [01:08:36] Speaker B: He said that we're going to finest in Collin County? [01:08:39] Speaker A: No, he said world's finest, but then he defined it as smaller. Like he was trying to. Like this isn't like, we're not like going to try to compete with Old Trafford or, or Tottenham Stadium Fair. [01:08:51] Speaker B: It's. It's in a bit better nick than Old Trafford anyway, probably. [01:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah, you're right. I'm not gonna. That's a rundown. I mean, Old Trafford currently is kind of like the final days of Texas Stadium. I've been to both of those places in their old age and they're very similar vibes going on in terms of their state of condition. So that was going on. But I must admit I was duly impressed with the project manager from the architecture firm, or maybe it was the construction firm who literally rolled out with the, you know, he just went with it. He said, look, we are essentially going to rebuild, tear down and rebuild this around everybody while you guys go to games and you're not even going to notice. And I thought that was very brave. And we noticed. Very, yes. Very, very brave on his part to take that stance. [01:09:44] Speaker B: I think the best part from that was those golden sledgehammers they had. That was. That was pretty cool. That was way better than the golden spades they had for the hall of Fame construction. [01:09:54] Speaker A: Well, and because of the weather, they didn't get to do anything outside, so it was all inside. So they scrambled a whole bunch of people to come up and do a ceremonial seri. Ceremonial ball kick. [01:10:04] Speaker B: So I don't know if they ended up doing it or not, but the plan Was. And this was actually still up during the game. PR staff told me this originally there was going to be a big board of the, of Toyota Stadium as it is now. And then behind it, the new stadium. And the players would kick the ball at that. The old stadium would fall down and violin the new stadium. So, yeah, I think that's why they had that kind of weird, awkward ball kick where it just looked like, you know, Sebastian Legette was trying to take off the mayor's head. [01:10:41] Speaker A: And lest us not be labeled as just kicking FC Dallas in the balls when they do something silly, we also now have to tip our cap to McKenna Chupacabras, who last week posted a photo of their new jerseys, which, by the way, are a cool design. It's a black jersey with the kind of light blue and white claw marks on the sides. And I saw this small picture in my Twitter account of the shirt kind of on. I guess it's on a mannequin or something. And they've got the jersey sponsor there and that I thought, man, that jersey, yeah, Tupperware, which is a really cool new brewery in the McKinney area. You should go check it out. I was looking at this photo and I thought, what is going on with that shirt? Because like above the, above the logo, the white logo, it looked like there was a piece of black electrical tape above it. And I couldn't figure out what that was. And I zoomed in and lo and behold, not only was it a piece of tape, but it wasn't black tape. It was Scotch tape reflecting in the light, which was on the shirt, holding up a paper cutout of the Tufts brewery logo on the shirt. It wasn't actually on the shirt. It was a paper printout of the logo cut out and held with Scotch tape on the shirt. Now that's some janky ass shit right there. [01:12:09] Speaker B: I think the best part for me was, you know, their logo is kind of that interesting, like shield shape with a curved side. One side was cut absolutely immaculately. The other one, it clearly showed that the person cutting that piece of paper was very dominant with one hand over the other. [01:12:27] Speaker A: You were so excited to show off your new team jersey. You couldn't wait till you had the sponsor logo press screen printed on the shirt. [01:12:36] Speaker B: Here's the thing gets me like, they don't know someone with a cricket. Like, I mean, sure, I could have, I could have fired mine up and, and printed it for him. [01:12:46] Speaker C: Well, they must have seen the comments because at the, at the beer reveal, they, they had them up, posted without that on there, they took that down. [01:12:53] Speaker B: I'm sure Tops probably turned around and says, if you got to show our logo, you're going to do it properly. [01:12:58] Speaker A: Well, I just couldn't figure out why they didn't take the extra 13 seconds to just fold the Scotch tape over on itself and put it on the back of the piece of paper. Because if they had done that, we would have probably never known that they tried to show off a shirt with a paper sponsor logo on the front. [01:13:13] Speaker B: I think this just calls for a wider DFW soccer list. [01:13:19] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe now that we have. Yeah, I guess that is part of. [01:13:22] Speaker B: The question because then you could have the Dallas Roma Open cup fight that Buzz reported on years ago. [01:13:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a really good point. Speaking of which, Buzz, and this is 100% my fault, I admit. This is my bad. I owe everybody an apology. But it dawned on me the other day that we have not updated the list to include anything from 2024 because. [01:13:46] Speaker B: It was such a wonderful event for you. [01:13:50] Speaker A: And I would like to officially open the door for submissions from the pod listener, the good curious as to things that we should add to the list. The famous historical Dallas list for the year 2020, the season of 2024. Now remember, this isn't just the fact that they had a bad season or whatever. These are like the self owned moments that happened last season. Okay. [01:14:17] Speaker C: Okay. So absolutely crazy bad luck too. Or just weird, bizarre, hard to even predict, or hard even believe they were real screenwriters couldn't come up with it. [01:14:29] Speaker B: Just go and read the list for inspiration. [01:14:31] Speaker C: Yeah, true. [01:14:33] Speaker A: Yeah. If you kind of wonder what we're talking about, just go to third degree.net and scroll down to the curious history of the FC Dallas Burn and you'll see all 29 seasons or 28 seasons of of the list there for yourself. It's quite remarkable. But now maybe we can start one for the Chupacabras. [01:14:55] Speaker B: We'll have to hurry up to do one for Mesquite Outlaws. [01:14:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Clock's ticking on that team. [01:15:02] Speaker A: Very good. Okay, anything else, boys? We've prattled on way too long. [01:15:08] Speaker B: Speaking of Mesquite, the MASL season finished. They had four wins. Three of those came against Dallas Sidekicks. [01:15:15] Speaker A: How many wins did Dallas end up with? [01:15:17] Speaker B: Oh, no idea. [01:15:18] Speaker C: Not very many. They're not very good either. [01:15:21] Speaker A: Goodness gracious. How do either one of those teams stay in business? I mean, I know Mesquite's going away, isn't it? [01:15:29] Speaker C: Well, we think it is. It's not Official just. They. The. There's a complicated story with who. Who owns that team now and what it might mean in terms of going forward. [01:15:39] Speaker B: It's kind of like early days mls, they. They had two owners come in and kind of keep it afloat. [01:15:45] Speaker C: Yeah. Basically the owners of two other teams came in with a bunch of money to keep the team surviving for the season and then also bought a whole bunch of their players or traded away a whole bunch of the players to some of the other teams in the league. So there wasn't a whole lot left for the Texans to have on their roster. And. And they really don't have an owner anymore, so I don't think it's going to survive the end of the season. By the way, Dallas Psychics had six wins on the season, to answer your question. [01:16:05] Speaker A: That's nice to know. I don't think I've ever met anybody that's been to an Outlaws game and I once. Okay, good to me, you've been to an Outlaws game. [01:16:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I went to one just to sort of see what it was about. [01:16:17] Speaker A: Oh, okay. And I don't think I currently know anybody that goes to Sidekicks games. [01:16:23] Speaker C: Been to one of those two? [01:16:24] Speaker A: Well, I've been to a Sidekicks game, but I don't know anybody that's been to one anytime recently. [01:16:29] Speaker C: I went four years ago. [01:16:33] Speaker B: I. I saw you there four years ago. [01:16:35] Speaker C: Did you? Yeah. [01:16:36] Speaker A: Have. Dan, have you been to a Sidekicks game recently? [01:16:39] Speaker B: That. That last. [01:16:40] Speaker A: That was the last one. [01:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah, that was honestly the. The one and only. It's. I like sports and Allen sports and Allen is not at good times for me. [01:16:51] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, well, very good. [01:16:53] Speaker C: Third to be. The podcast is brought to you by El Matador in the El Matador watch party for Atlanta versus FC Dallas. That's this weekend, April 5th, 6:30pm in downtown Dallas at the Scarlet Pumpernickel. Come on down. They got the entire second floor reserved, all the big TVs, full sound, bartender, amazing food. Typically plenty of street parking, lots of grudges nearby, but of course, the Scarlet Pumpernickel is just two blocks from the Akron Street DART station. So come on down to the Scarlet Pumpernickel. Enjoy now, Matador supporting FCD on the road at Atlanta United this weekend, 6:30pm. [01:17:25] Speaker A: All right, boys, thank you very much, Dan. Thank you, Buzz. Thank you. And thank you, FC Dallas Curious fan. Let's see how it goes at the Robot's anus this weekend. [01:17:37] Speaker B: The Robo Rectum is open for business. [01:17:40] Speaker A: We'll talk to you next week on another episode of third degree, the podcast. [01:17:45] Speaker B: I missed my cue. [01:17:48] Speaker A: The third degree net podcast. Third degree the third degree net podcast. Third degree, the third degree net podcast. Third degree the third degree n podcast.