Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
3rd Degree the 3rd Degree NEP podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree Nap podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd degree 3rd Degree.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The podcast is brought to you by El Matador and the El Matador Watch Party. This time it's FC Dallas at Minnesota United. That's on April 19th at 7:30pm Downtown Dallas at the Scarlet Pumpernickel. Everybody had such a great time last time on the second floor. The whole floor is reserved. Love the game on every tv, full sound, their own bartender, amazing food. There's plenty of parking down there, lots of garages. But most of all, the Scarlet pumpernickel is only two blocks from the Ackerd Street DART station. So get on down there. FC Dallas versus Minnesota, April 19th. Everybody's welcome. See you there. Siempre contigu.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Well, hello there, FC Dallas curious fan. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. This one is number 306 and steal yourself, dear curious, because Dan Crook is not here for this recording. He is elsewhere. It is top secret and it but I can share with you. It includes food stuff. I'll let you decide what that means. But you know who is here. Your hero, my hero, everybody else's hero, editor, founder of thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: So, Peter, I know it's not a victory podcast, but is there like a feel good because you got a point on the road podcast is that it's.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: A kissing your sister.
We've kissed.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Fair enough.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: The sister. As Dallas goes on the road and remains undef, which is quite, quite an amazing trick to turn after how bad they were on the road last season, Buzz, they go to Atlanta and get a draw one to one. And all I know is while I can't really, after seven games tell you too much about Dallas, I'm not really sure I have a really good handle on what this team is all about. What I can tell you are two things. One, I just watched them get a point on the road against a team that spent more money in one day in transfer fees than Dallas has in its entire 30 year.
And two, quietly, Uruguay Day is actually the best signing in this league so far this year.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Oh, the whole league?
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Yes, without question in my mind. I don't think he's getting anywhere near enough attention on the national scale. But tell me, who else has been signed this season to a team in MLS who's had the positive impact that Uruguay has had for Dallas?
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Well, Lucho Costa's pretty good.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: I Think he's a. I think he's. I think he's more important than Acosta, frankly.
[00:02:58] Speaker B: He might be. He might be. I mean, given. Given how bad Dallas's defense was the last few seasons. Yeah, certainly like bang for the buck. Amen. I mean, he's been absolutely tremendous. And, and I, I think we should. Rather than just say that like that it's a remarkable that Dallas has. Has this undefeated road record based on last year's road record. It's like just period, like, even if you're a good road team, to go undefeated on the road is ridiculous because we know that the road has an MLS is one of the strongest home field advantages in the whole world because traveled and yeah, all the various factors we've talked about many times, but yeah, absolutely.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: Any given season, in any given season, the number of teams with even a.500 record on the road, you could typically count on one hand.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: Yeah, usually that's a sign that you're one of the very best teams in the league that you have a.500 record on the road, let alone one where you haven't dropped a game. So it's, It's a remarkable start. Granted, it's a very small sample size. We shouldn't expect this to continue, but it keeps continuing and they're actually playing better on the road than they are at home. And it actually says something about their mental strength. I think that they keep doing it from giving up goals at the start of the game and rallying and coming back and not quitting. And that's. And that's when you come. When you want to talk about coaching and the effect of coaching in this league, that's the biggest way you can have an effect because you're not like you're going to coach up, you know, an entire roster of dudes into a MLS competitive winning team. When you have things like DP players that, that make your rast roster so out of whack in different ways, you know, but this kind of mentality change is huge. And a lot of the turnover on the roster probably too is helps. But you know, if, if, if Cole doesn't have that warrior mentality and it's such a different mentality then Lucia Gonzalez or. Or Nico Seva's had both those guys were, you know, Lucy was very preachy and Nico was very dry and very like tactically and cool's like, let's go. You know, I feel like I'm watching Braveheart every game with the speech. But yeah, it's. It makes for fun soccer when you have that kind of mentality, even if it's not sexy soccer, it's fun soccer.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: When you see guys compete like that, it's not sexy.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: No, no, it is.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: There's nothing, there's nothing even attractive about it. It's not sexy. But I, I will say this. We started the season after three games a bit concerned because the team, in three games, its first three games, gave up seven goals. But very quietly in its last four games have given up just three goals. And that is a tremendous improvement for a team that was just, you know, a leaky sieve all of last year. And again, I think a lot of this goes back to Uragide. And one of the big talking points I wanted to get into this on the show was the discussion about maybe we were wrong about Ibiaga all along.
And maybe some of Ibiaga's shortcomings had more to do with playing with Dafari or whoever he was partnered with at that particular time and less to do with his. I mean, look, I'm not saying he's the a great and I'm not even sure still he's a CB2 quality guy. But with Uruguay next to him, Iaga has been way better, at least visually. I don't know how it works out in terms of numbers or stats or any of the nerd stuff. Just the old man eyeball test. He looks like a different player.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Well, some of the improvements in, in the defensive ability has to do with the change in shape, which has mitigated some of the weaknesses that they have. I think you're correct that Ibiaga, when you, I mean, look, anybody, when you put him next to a better player, becomes better. That's almost always true. And I certainly think Ibiaga in particular is a player who thrives when he has to only be responsible for himself when he has to, only when he can be compact and somewhat of a stay at home kind of defender and not be the aggressor. Now they, they tried to let Nicosi Tafari be the aggressor when he was here, but sometimes he would get two up and leave Iaga exposed. But when UR does it, he gets back really quickly, he recovers quickly and doesn't quite get exposed. And you know, while Nikosi and he both had recovery pace, it definitely seems like Yagatti knows quite a bit more about what, how to play defense. And certainly I think also Shaq Moore has also improved defensively from the first game until now. Like he's gotten better every game and I think this last game, in fact was both he and both Moore and Ibiaga played their best defensive game in this last game since of this season. They both were much better than they had been all year long.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Well, while we're talking about the defense, we're now into the game two of the Nolan Norris experiment. And by the way, I think. I don't think this came out until after we did the last episode that. Oh, the, the compartment. Yeah, Farfans out for two months with the. The surgery to help with whatever injury had going on. And you actually discussed about that on your. One of your burn episodes, which was really educational. Did you. Did you consult your emergency room brother, doctor brother?
[00:08:13] Speaker B: I consulted Google.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: Well, compartment syndrome and this surgery is a surgery that happens. I'm not going to call it common, but I can remember that Pedrinho had it last year here when he was with North Texas. Brandon S. Had it season before he got traded. There's been multiple other guys, I'd probably say over the course of FC Dallas, I could probably come up with five or six different guys that have had it, which is, give or take, about the same number of people that have had sports hernias, roughly approximately. And there's two kinds of versions of the surgery. And I won't get too down into this, but there's acute compartment syndrome, which is what you were talking about when you and I discussed this, which is like an accident, some kind of emergency swelling and there's a really problem. We got to cut it quick.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Yeah, like car accident impact, like a.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Car accident or something like that. That's what most people that this happens to that you would know about it was for that kind of thing. Well, in an athlete you can have what's called chronic compartment syndrome, which has to do with like overwork and over development of your calf muscles, basically that the sleeve tightens up and it causes some blood loss and some pain and atrophy over an extended period of time. And so you can see that in this particular case they've mentioned that he had this going back to last year. And guys have played with this problem for a year or two before they've done anything about it. But over time it causes issues. And so you eventually want to get it worked out. And so in hindsight, obviously the last start for Nolan was pretty much a test like, okay, is he really ready or not? Because after they did it, you know, okay, let's go ahead and do the thing. And now they did it really quickly, so they probably already had it scheduled, but I guarantee you if Nolan would have crapped the bed, they probably would have canceled it and been, like, tried to figure out.
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Sorry, Marco, you gotta play with it. What's the name of the procedure? I forgot.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: I'll have to look real quick. I know that. I know what it solves is compartment syndrome.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: No, I know, but I'm the reason why I'm asking. I can't remember the name. It's like in.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: Fleegan flu again, right?
Fast. Oh, fasciotomy.
[00:10:06] Speaker A: Fasciotomy, yes. Do not, by the way, just pro tip to all of our visually sensitive, curious, do not Google fasciotomy, because the medical photos of what that actual procedure looks like is pretty gross.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: So, yeah, to put it in a layman's term, the muscle has a sheath around it, and the muscle outgrows the sheath and it tightens it and constricts it. So same as the guys cut their socks, this basically cuts the sheath. So. And it relieves that pressure. So it happens.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So just imagine the hole in the back of the sock. Now imagine that in your calf muscle.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: I mean, my, My. My wife has this, but she's not a professional athlete. Like, when she was in high school, she had a lot of problems with this, and her feet would go down when she would play and things like that. And so they talked about it with her, but not being a professional athlete, she was like, no, I'll just do numb speed.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: All right, well, that's what's going on. So anyway, the reason why we. We digress, we go from medical talk back to the original point at hand, which was Nolan Norris. We're now into game two of the young man, and I, I, I, I. I think we're feeling pretty good about the kid, man.
[00:11:16] Speaker B: I mean, just. Just on his. On the eye test, he took a step forward. And then you dig into the numbers, he took a step forward. He's doing great stuff, like he's bringing to the table. Go ahead.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Two games.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Two games.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Zero yellows.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: Zero yellows. Yeah, well, you know, natural position, comfort level, you know, and clearly knows how to do it because they're clearly. Every team he goes up against, they're clearly targeting him. They're sending fast players at him, and we know that, like, he's. That little bit of quickness is his issue, but he's using his soccer brain and dealing with it. If, as you say, Oz in the middle helps, of course, cover up some of that deficiency. So does having, you know, guys in the, in the midfield that can Cover but Nolan, the difference between Nolan and other guys are playing outside back. In this game alone, he had six progressive passes and three progressive carries. Four balls into the final third, three for three on tackles, three blocks, six discoveries, seven clearances. He outdid Shaq Moore in like every phase of the game. And yet he's this 19, 20. Was he 20 year old kid in his second game?
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: So it's the passing like again, he's not pristine. He does make mistakes. Like he's only at 80, like you'd like to. That came up like eight points from the previous game. So you'd like to see the pure passing come up more. But some of that failed passing is because he's trying things. He's making really progressive, really advancing passes, helping the team get out of the back and that's in the modern game, invaluable. And you know, I'm not going to go so far as to claim this is going to be a Wally Pip kind of thing, but the way the kids playing is like Farfrae is not going to walk right back in in another, you know, six weeks when he's back from this surgery. So I don't think.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: All right, so let's get into the game itself. I was, I was surprised when I turned the game on and boy howdy, the Robots anus was very empty at the start of the game. And I do think this is a reflection back to the original days of MLS when so many of the teams were playing in NFL stadiums.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: And even on a day that they had really good attendances of 20 or even 30, you know, not 30, but 20 something thousand, man, it just looks sparse and empty. And, and, and I think they tried to say they had 40 or 50,000 at that game this weekend.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Did you see it?
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Did you, did you ever see a final attendance number?
[00:13:36] Speaker B: I didn't see a number. I'm kind of trying to glance and see if I can find.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: I'm looking to see if I can find one too.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Yeah, 41, 42,000.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Okay, well, that may be true. Maybe it was half full, but I don't think so. And that is the downside of this, this deal where visually it's a, it's a real detriment. And I also want to point out just real quick before we get into the game, I don't know how I feel about this, but probably should be relieved that it appears that it's not Dallas's fault, that it is the actual MLS kit assigners that are allowing teams that are home One color. Let the opponent actually wear their primary color in their stadium, because that's what Dallas did. They wore their red.
Red kits.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: While Atlanta wore their light blue, which all seems completely Wonka Doodle.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: We had a laugh about that when they did it, too. And we were all like, wonder what their excuse was. It's probably the same thing trying to sell jerseys.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: So Dallas starts the game actually in the first couple of minutes. Musa has two really good opportunities, or fairly good opportunities. A little worm burner on the turf to start and a second shot. And then for a good 15, 16 minutes, the game really becomes All Atlanta. And I was curious, Buzz, because this. It kind of is a. A thing we're very commonly seeing with Quill's team, is that we don't want the ball. You can have the ball. We're just going to sit back here and do our thing and wait for our opportunity.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, this is. They did better this game than they have some previous games in terms of possession. They actually were, you know, around 40% rather than 35%, but it's still not great. But they don't even care. You know, Quill, in this postgame press conference talked about the mentality, the fight, like that. They came at us and we weathered the storm and then we rallied, you know, and like, again, he talks a lot. He doesn't talk like knickknack, like tactical stuff. He talks, always talks about mentality, about being worried about fighting. He really isn't stealing that in his team. And you're right, Atlanta came at him really early, and for the most part, they dealt with that. I mean, look at the whole game. They held Atlanta to 10 shots. I mean, if you hold Atlanta, which is a pretty good offensive team, you hold any team at home, you hold them to 10 shots. That's a pretty good game. You know, they. They even won the shot on gold battle, I believe. You know, 2 to 1. Dallas did. They didn't win the XG, but they won. You know, what matters, like you, if you're going to limit the opposition team at home to that little opportunity, that's a pretty good defensive performance.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: It is. And again, it's on the road. Atlanta has spent an epic F ton of money on players out there. My other observation is that latte laugh guy.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: It looks like they spent $22 million in a guy that's way too fast for the rest of the team.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: He's quick. Yeah. Can you outrun a team in soccer? Is that possible?
[00:16:22] Speaker A: You know it. Well, it had Flashbacks to the old Fabian Castillo problem, which was, remember the days when Fabius Castillo would get a ball and end up beating everybody out to the box so quickly, and then he'd play a square ball across the face of the goal to nobody or.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: He run out of room, right?
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Well, yeah, but, you know, play the square ball, but nobody could catch to him to try to put the ball in. And that's exactly what happened, I don't know, what, three times in the first 20 minutes of the game.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Yeah, Atlanta's definitely still trying to find their way. I mean, Almiron's playing in the middle instead of out in the wing, which may or may not be related to some injury problems, but they're definitely, you know, not winning games. Even though they have a bunch of high powered players and paid a lot of money, you know, they're still trying to figure it out. So I, you know, what they're going to look like in three or four months is not what they're going to look like now. They got to figure out how to use that guy, you know, and laugh like everybody else will have to figure out how to play with his team. Right. This is, that's part of why it takes five or six months to get used to a new league is your team. You got to figure out how to use you, you know, like different guys, different shapes, different tactics. He's got to figure out that nobody else can keep up with him, you know, and how to reign that in a little bit, probably.
[00:17:30] Speaker A: Well, all of that finally caught up to Dallas as the pressure broke when Araguide, who had a really good game overall, got caught trying to, you know, wrangle him in, had his arms around his waist, was pulling him back away from the ball. It's a penalty kick, you know, it just is what it is.
And, and in fact, you know, even though Amaran scored the PK and then immediately after Oz gave up a really bad ball, like the, right after the kickoff, he made a really bad pass that turned into another opportunity. But then I think he kind of settled from that point. But the question I was thinking about is you were mentioning how Atlanta isn't the team in time that they are today, because people will figure it out.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: But as you watch Eric Quill's team after seven games, do you have a sense that this is what the team is going to kind of look like for the next 31 games, or do you think you're going to see a lot of changes in what this is over the course of the season?
[00:18:28] Speaker B: Well, Not a lot. But we know for sure that he wants to play a different tactic and so that he also has some key pieces that are a little young, you know, Kai for sure. Norris obviously in this particular case. And he has a couple pieces that are a little old and he has a couple pieces that are coming back from injury still and he's still trying to find a couple pieces. So like there's. You could probably look at four or five things that are working great in the lineup and you can look at four or five things that aren't working so great. And so Quill will be trying to seek how to solve those issues and how to get to the formation he wants to play. So over time will evolve that way. Whereas Atlanta, I feel like it's more of a case like they know who their big guns are, they know who they're going to be. It's more of a question is you're getting all. They have a lot of new players. It's more about for them, I think, getting all those guys on the same page and getting already playing together, which is different than Quill's problem, which is more about problem solving related to your roster not being, you know, Dallas always has a really young or really old. There rarely are people in the middle. It's always extremes. Right. Because that's how you save a little money. Perhaps so.
And somebody like Leo Chu changes everything. And as good as he is, in a way he kind of limits your options of what you can do. So I think that with Quill, this team will in fact change quite a bit. Maybe not in personnel, but in terms of who's playing. I think over the course of the season it'll change a lot. And I think this scene will be actually be very different come mid summer. Maybe it'll be quite different than it is now.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Speaking of Leo Chu, in my notes at the 24th minute, I have him committing just an awful pass to kill a Dallas attack. And I was just curious. And that really. And then ended up causing an odd man counter for Atlanta. And. And just to point out it was Ibiaga that actually defended it really, really well to cut that off. And I thought that was a real highlight and probably part of the math that has me thinking about my mood about Abiaga. But yeah, I. I know why Leo Chu start. I think I understand why Leo Chu started in this particular game. But I'm curious how much longer you think that's going to continue.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: Not after this, I can't. I mean there's no way I Mean.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: You said that after last week, by the way.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: I know, I, I know, but the, the difference between last week, okay, that, that's a caveat. We could, we could get a little ahead of ourselves. But sometimes when you're the coach and you're winning and you've won two in a row and particular a guy scores the game winner for the sake of the locker room, you kind of have to leave that guy in sometimes, even if in the rest of the game he was terrible. But this is the second straight game where he was terrible and he has like in this one, he didn't score this time. Again, zero shot or goal creating actions, zero progressive passes, zero progressive carries, zero for one on take ons, zero key passes, zero passes into the final third or the box. So he's supposed to be this fast guy that can go at people, right? Nothing. He's not doing any of that. So you know, at some point, even if a guy's scoring, okay, we kind of got to leave you score, we'll leave you in, you know, the team's running these interviews where he's like, I'm so glad to be back. And then this game, second game in a row, he's worthless. And then didn't have the goal. So the quote comment in post game that Anderson Julio was just coming back from this quote long layoff, I'm like, dude, it's been like two weeks. I'm sure he was working out. So I would bet you that. Particularly based on how impactful Anderson Julio was coming in. I cannot fathom that Anderson Julio won't be starting the next game. I mean, it's just you could make the case, you could make the case that the team did really well again, you know, they got a point on the road. But I think you could also make a very clear case that the team wasn't very good until offensively until Quill made those, that three man sub and that changed everything. So you have to look at those guys as being like, you know, okay, because he specifically mentioned Kamungo and Julio's pace and how that made a difference, implying that like that pace was different from what he was getting. When Leo Chu should have some of that. He wasn't doing it so well.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: We got to halftime, Dallas was down a goal and my note is, is that this is a really boring game and it's not very good. And the. What was different about this half was that the. Dallas was a bit bereft of these kind of magic moments that turned that are the, the opportunities that Between Musa and Acosta create opportunity. And that didn't happen in the first half. And frankly, it didn't happen for a long stretch at the beginning of the second half either. And most of them were opportunities for Atlanta and Dallas doing a lot of scrambling in the box. And then in the 57th minute, Quill makes a triple substitution, which I thought was interesting and a pretty significant tactical change on the field.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: Yeah, this is the shift to his preferred formation. He calls it a 4, 2, 3, 1, which is, you know, tactics are fluid these days, but in its main transitional state, that's what it is. You can argue that it's when they. Because they play so much of a low block defensively and they wait. A lot of times they're waiting in a 4, 4, 2. But as they break out, it's not. And of course, as everybody gets forward, it's not. But that's the base idea is 4, 2, 3, 1.
The key out, the key, key components of it. The reason he hasn't been able to do it is this idea that he's talked about with these profiles he doesn't have. And specifically, that's like a second wing, effectively, because Anderson Julio has been producing and playing really well, so he's clearly one of the other ones. And then the other wing, Leo Chu, Bernie Camungo, Logan Farrington, for a different reason, you know, like the other Padrino, for a different reason, those wings aren't giving him that outside vertical threat that he needs on the other side. So that's part of what it will take, you know, time for this club to change, is he has to find somebody that can reliably produce on the other wing other than just Anderson Julio, in order to play this other shape. And the other part of it is that it's counterintuitive. But in Ramiro's case, him being in this, a single pivot is better, which is how they started the game, than a double pivot, because that they finished the game. And that's because the Romero is somewhat limited in his mobility. So when you play that double, which is what him and K towards the last third of the game, because you don't have those two eights that are coming and sitting outside of Romero, Romero has to run from the middle to the outside and cover all the time, which is what happens in a double pivot. And Kai, as we saw, can clearly do that mobility and Romero clearly can't. So that's why when he talks about he doesn't have the profiles to play this way yet, and why Things will change over time. As Kik develops or as show Kafumana comes back and gets healthy or whatever, it's going to be that he can play two sixes. Then you'll see him go to that. Two sixes in that extra wing will help him go to that double pivot, that 4, 2, 3, 1. Meanwhile, we're stuck with a single pivot because Ramiro can be bracketed by the eights and his limited mobility will be covered up. Does that make sense?
[00:25:30] Speaker A: It does.
[00:25:30] Speaker B: It's counterintuitive.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:25:32] Speaker B: You know, so that's what you saw towards the end of the game and you clearly saw it when Ramiro and Kaiki was in there. Ramiro still kind of really wasn't moving very much and Kaiki's looks like a gazelle next to him making these huge runs that Ramire just can't make.
[00:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, it's funny, Kai K. You've seen kind of 60 minutes, I guess, or plus or minus that in two appearances and I don't know if you're. I'm going to say it out loud, but I don't know if you'll agree with me. I maybe get made fun of for saying this. Do you know who he reminds me of?
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Who's that?
[00:26:05] Speaker A: Paxton. Palm call. Yeah, the, the way he covers ground, the way he gets stuck in his passing ability. I'm not saying he's like a dead on same guy. He's obvious taller and, and lankier than Paxton, but the style of play and some of the skill sets that I see out of him very early in a very limited kind of small sample size reminds me of a Paxton pal type player in the midfield.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how he progresses in.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: You think I'm wrong?
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah, oh, sure, sure. Certainly. I. The amount of ground he covers. Absolutely. You know, the, the, the trick with him is that like when I watch him, he, he kind of, what's. I'm not going to say overreaches, but he gets just a tiny bit carried away and he actually needs to dial himself in just a little bit. And I think that'll come with the more understanding, recognition of the pace of this play, the speed at which you're going to get closed down, how quickly you're going to run out of room at this level. I certainly know what you mean about his ranginess and then. And, you know, his willingness to hit people and things like that. So it's not a bad comparison and that certainly is a possibility of what could work out in the long run. I mean, I mentioned Show Cafe Mana just because it's been a year and a half since we've seen Paxton, but Paxton just as likely to be able to play that double pivot with him.
[00:27:28] Speaker A: Yeah, there's just a. Kaik has a cleverness to his passing that we've seen kind of flashed here and there that reminds me of Paxton.
And I don't know, that's just kind of how I was just kind of an epiphany I had when I saw him play.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: It's fair, it's fair. I just, I don't know. He's not as.
I mean, obviously he's not.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: He's not a short white guy. I get it. No, no, no.
[00:27:49] Speaker B: I meant the refinedness of his game. Like, he looks to me like a guy who's still trying to figure out how to play even in his own game. Whereas Paxton, even as an 18 year old, knew what he was doing, knew exactly what he had at the table.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: You know, so I, I know if, if he didn't already have a cool one name nickname in Kai, I would, I would suggest that we all call him the Puppy because that's kind of what he is out there. It's like a little puppy running around just all over the place. But yeah, you know, look, we've been very.
You and I and Dan and other people have been very cautious in getting too hyped about this kid who was not playing any first team soccer down in Brazil and the kind of mystery level signing that he was for the amount of money they paid for.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: Money.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it was, you know, it. And again, I still think the sample size is too much to make any judgments good or bad about the guy. But, you know, we kind of. It's like your old deal. You kind of watch a player and you throw some water on it and you kind of make it a judgment. And so far, you know, I kind of like what I see out of the kid.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And at that amount of money, they're gonna do everything they can to get him in there and get him playing.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Yeah, he absolutely has to pan out for the. For Dallas, Right?
[00:29:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, when it's the third or fourth, we haven't even decided which one it is. Biggest signing in your club history. Like it has to hit.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: This is not a club that can be throwing around that kind of money and not having it come through. Right. You know, he's not a DP, thankfully. You know, he's a U22 sign. A U22 initiative. They haven't had a good track record like that. But you know, it reminds me, you know, it reminds me of is Giovanni J. Zeus. And the first few or five games he had, we were like, well, there's something there. And then like as he played, he played into it and we were like like 10 games in, we were like, oh, great, this is gonna be a nice beat. Of course then, now he's been out for two years, but you know, that same sort of rawness of a young player where you're super excited about where it could go, you know, and the coach and the player have to get on the same page and get the mentality right and get the thinking right and, and, but all those signs are there that he has the ability to play at this level. So, you know, let's be really excited. It's like, but like, if you asked me right now, is he gonna start next game, I'd be like, oh, dude, there's no, I mean, I can't imagine that yet. He looks so raw and like, there's certainly not any like deep thinking tactical awareness like you would see from an era, I'm Indy, where he's making all these beautiful reads. You know, it's like he's obviously still just a 19 year old kid and over his head to a certain extent, you know, which is. No, which doesn't mean you can't be excited about him as a potential player in the long run. And again, that's a good reason why three, four months from now this team might look very different if that guy's played into the game and now has more of a more advanced understanding and feels comfortable in the team team and the speed of the league. So stay tuned on that one.
[00:30:27] Speaker A: Okay, so let's talk about the attack, which was not good in this game. And I, I still, again, this is a team very much that is dependent on magic moments. And it's two big stars in Musa and Acosta just kind of having a, a good combination either between themselves or individually and just kind of pulling it out of their ass.
And, and this game, unlike the others, had even less of that than normal.
But Dallas after the change, was still able to pull something off as Musa got two bites of the cherry, by the way, and ended up roofing one entire game.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: One.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for sure. And also a nice little pass in from Acosta. So, I mean, already the Costa. I mean, I'm wondering, I should have looked this up before we recorded this thing. Are Acosta and Musa leading the league in Combo goal scored.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: Oh, I wouldn't even know where to look that up.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: I wouldn't either. But have there been. Has there been another assist goal combination in the n. Because this is what. This is what, they're fourth, I would bet.
[00:31:33] Speaker B: Not because Lucho's got actually relatively low assist numbers on the season.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Yeah, but. But specifically with Musa, of Moose's goals this season, almost all of them have been assisted by Acosta. At least off the top of my head. Right.
[00:31:50] Speaker B: No, technically, Acosta has zero assists on the year.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Oh, that's right, because he's. They're gonna. They didn't give him an assist for this one because of the double bite of the cherry. Didn't he?
[00:32:00] Speaker B: Yeah. This would have been his first assist of the season. He didn't get it.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: Really?
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah. Technically, Musa has three assists, which is funny, and Acosta has none. But, you know, he's still. He's like.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: It's a crime.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: It is, but it's just. It's the nature of how Dallas's goals are coming. There's a lot of, like, bouncing around and balls that are coming off people.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: And various winning or winning defensive errors and the other team's half and capitalizing on it.
[00:32:24] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, it's. It's just. I mean, sometimes, like, the actual assist can be, like. I mean, a cost is still the fulcrum of the team. He still leads them in key passes and. And progressive passes and all these amazing metrics that are driving the boat and making it all happen. And his numbers are spectacular. You know, there's some numbers that we've never hardly seen here in Dallas, but, like, actual final assistance is not zero. So, you know, it's just a fluke of nature. But, yeah, I mean, those two guys are feeding off each other. And the bigger question there, of course, is, where's the other threat from? And the answer is Anderson Julio. He's the other. He's been. Remember, he's been missing for two, three games now, like. So that's why you have to have him. You have to have a third threat, because his mere presence on the field opens the defense and then allows Moussa and Acosta to have more space and do more things. Imagine if you had a second guy that could play like that and bring a dual threat on the other side. I mean, then it would be really opening up.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, there's so many different parts to that, and. Because one of my other observations about the team, and this is probably prior to the Julio insertion, is that this team is Good at creating opportunities when they win the ball in the other team's half of the field, when they have to start from their half of the field. This team is awful. I mean like as bad as I've ever seen at levels of Osval. They. They can't break a press very. They're bad at breaking a press, they're bad at carrying out of the back. They turn the ball over on just a way too many unforced errors. And I think the Julio, the Anderson Julio, part of that thing that you talk about Buzz, is true, but it also means it's just boot it long and hope he chases it down even more. So yeah, it's like the least sexy thing ever. But that's like using a tool. The. The only way you can use it. And maybe that's. He's a special screwdriver that way.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Yeah. This team is the, the prototypical. Like most goals are scored within like two touches, right? Because it's. You get it in their half when they make a mistake. It's modern football, right, Everybody. It's not a high press, but. But they still are capitalizing on mistakes. And you can tell when you're talking about the build out, look how quickly. Nolan Norris is clearly the best passer out of the back. Like the whole defense is not very good passers. Even Uruguay, who's better than some of the other guys they've had recently, coast was the best one before this year. Like last year, he was the best passer out of the back. Abiaga and Moore, strangely, Moore's a good crosser, but he's not a very good builder out of the back. Romero can't really receive a ball and turn and beat somebody on a dribble. He can progressive pass, he can't progressive dribble. So you're keying on him. Well, Jet's in there and Jack can do some of those things a little bit better than Ramiro, but he's also not. He's a player that looks much better when he crashes into the forward and gets into the box, which he can't do in a double. He can only do that when you're playing that single pivot with him and Delgado taking terms, crashing into the box. And neither Delgado nor legit are great line breaking progressors. So it's definitely true that they cannot build for bat out of the back for squat, which is why they have their really low possession. So why they don't care. They just sit back there until you make a mistake and they'll go at you at 90 miles an hour. That's the way this team wants to play. It's not a counterattack. It's not a team that's reliant on, you know, this full field sprint all the time because they, because Acosta and Musa are not particularly fast like Anderson Julio is. So, you know, it's, it's, it's definitely a quick breaking team, but really it's a capitalizing on mistakes team, which is why they don't care if you have the ball because they're waiting for you to make a mistake.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Well, we end up at a 11 final. Another good road result for Dallas, who again, I just have to say this out loud, remain undefeated on the road, which is quite a cool deal to say.
And it was a good look. Road wins or road points, any way you get them are good. It's not particularly sexy. I still don't know how to explain this team to anybody, but here they are in sixth place after seven games. And you know, it could be a lot worse.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: Oh yeah, that could be Houston.
It could be Houston or Kansas City or the Galaxy who are amazingly in last place.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: Or they could be Seattle.
[00:36:28] Speaker B: It could be Seattle. Oh my gosh.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Who come to town this weekend 7:30 at Toyota. Not Paul Areola, bless his heart, who is out for the season with the ACL injury, but you know who is coming back? Jesus Ferreira, who is not having a good run of it. And I, I.
Look, I know this is going to sound petty and catty and all of that, but I have somewhat enjoyed watching all the Seattle fans suddenly change their tone about Jesus and suddenly feels and reads very similar to all the things that we were reading from the curious and non curious alike about the last couple of seasons. Or as I like to call it post 23 Gold Cup. Jesus Ferreira.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: Exactly right. I don't know what happened to that Gold cup but man, that was, you know. I know what you mean. The fun of that is that all the people and it was not just Seattle, but it was definitely partially Seattle in terms of this trade happening and their fan base more specifically that were like, oh, Jesus is great. It's just FC Dallas that sucks. And it's like, no, no, it's like Jesus has not played well in a year and a half. Yes, good luck to you. And he can listen. We, we. I like Jesus. I want him to do well. I'm not, I'm not celebrating that he's not doing well. I'm celebrating people that dismiss FC Dallas, which is chronically happens all over this League. So, you know, he's, he's got seven games and five starts in league play alone and two assists. You know, he's just not, you know, and they're playing him a lot as a nine because Morris is hurt again. Right. I'm not mistaken in that. So he's playing as a 9.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: My favorite comment that I saw online about Jesus from a Seattle, I don't remember if it was a media member or just a fan, which was what exactly is he good at?
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Yeah, line breaking.
[00:38:20] Speaker A: And I really is.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: That's his thing.
[00:38:23] Speaker A: Join the club, kids. We, we, we, we, we understand you Seattle. We get it. Now I say all of that and I got to tell you, I'm really worried about Jesus having his world best game ever on Saturday night against Dallas. I mean, it would be, it's going to be fascinating. In fact, I'm actually thinking about going to the game this weekend because I almost want to see it in person. I want to see what Jesus does wearing green at Toyota Stadium or half Toyota Stadium.
[00:38:50] Speaker B: I mean, he's going to want to play really well in front of the fans. I hope everybody cheers him knowing that he doesn't deserve to be be booed by any stretch of imagination.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Okay, hold on, let's talk about this. Yeah, you can cheer him upon the lineups.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: But when the game starts, when the whistle blows, you treat him like any other opponent.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: Of course. I mean, I meant the lineup. When they walk out for the anthem and they go Jesus for air. And everybody goes, hey, right, that's what I mean.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: But as soon as he touches the ball, anytime Jesus has the ball, the booze begin. That's how this is done. Yeah, it must be the way that is. This is the way.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: I mean, I don't want him to score against FC Dallas, but I'll be fascinated to see what he does when he scores. Because you know, some people are like, I don't celebrate against my old team, but some guys are like, well, look.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: At me, you know, he'll probably be, well, his reaction will probably, by and large be how much he's offended by how the fans treat him. Right.
[00:39:45] Speaker B: They've been.
[00:39:46] Speaker A: Right.
But I again, I. Watching him play this weekend will just be, gosh, that's going to be fun to watch to see how good or bad he is in this game.
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I did see people comment that why is he trying to play right back? And I was like, oh my gosh, welcome to Hate system. Yeah.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:09] Speaker B: Love the kid, man. It's all mental. He's Just got to get his head on. He's got the game, he's just got to get his head on. Right. I don't know what's going on with him.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: Well, I, I, it could be that he's still dealing with the muscle stuff, right. Like he just is never going to be the same.
He's lost a little bit of pace and power and, and burst and his, and his game has just changed as he's gotten older and never really truly, I think dealt with whatever that, you know, abdominal injury he has is.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: Boy, I would hate for this to be like for his peak of his whole career to have been 2022. That would be awful.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be super disappointing and I certainly don't want him to have a bad run of it in Seattle. Overall, I certainly want him to suck on Saturday night.
But I, you know, I, I don't think it would be and I also, I also think it's somewhat of a reflection of the Dallas academy and the way that it grows products and you know, and things like that. So it would be, it would be, it would ultimately benefit Dallas for Jesus to succeed away from Dallas. He just doesn't have to do it this weekend.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: Right? That's fair. I'm a bit worried about Paul too, man. An ACL at 30 years old, that's going to be tough, you know, because he'll be, he'll be at 31 by the time he comes back, you know, and he'll be, he's a guy that's a smart enough soccer player that he could probably, you know, play on a somewhat limited 30 year old body. But can you do it on a 30 year old body that's coming off an ACL? You know, so you're talking about this season and next season maybe being really rough and at that point you're 32 and are they still keeping you around? So, you know, he says he's going to be back better than ever and if anybody can, it's Paul because he's got a great work ethic. But you know, I'm definitely worried about him in terms of his longevity of his career at this point.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: Yeah, a long term pay cut, significant pay cut and an ACL injury. Yeah, that probably hasn't played out the way he wanted it to.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: No.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: All right, so what are you looking for in terms of Dallas is starting 11 on Saturday?
[00:42:00] Speaker B: Well, like I said, I think it's, you know, the desire to change to the 4231 is there, but the personnel's not there yet. You know, even if you felt like Kaike was ready.
[00:42:12] Speaker A: You mean the puppy?
[00:42:14] Speaker B: The puppy. If the puppy was ready. I'm not sure the puppy and Ramiro is the combo to. For the puppy to be ready. I think. I think the. The combo needs to be somebody else also active, you know, a passing or a show when you get there. So I think as long as Ramiro is still expected to be starting, I would. I think you're gonna have to go with the Double eight. Look, on the other hand, I don't know that Paxton Delgado has been lighting the world on fire and legit on the road didn't look all that great. You know, so back home, maybe jealous would be a little better on the grass, but other so really only for me, I think I only expect Anderson Julio to be the change Julio and from Chu and otherwise I wouldn't change anything. You know, you can see how it plays out. And if early in the second half you feel, boy, I really need that mobility in there or something or I need that extra wing in there, it's just not working, then you could, you know, try and go to it. But Quilt talks a lot about the opposition being important, you know, in terms of like what the matchups are going to be and how you go out guys. But he doesn't sure seem to change it based on that. He talks about it, but then he doesn't really do it because like since.
Since he's realized that the. The Double eight helps Ramiro, that's all we've seen really until late in this game when he was trying to get it steal it on the road and went, for lack of a better word, went really offensive by sacrificing an 8 to bring on another wing. You know, are you willing to start the game that way at home where you haven't been quite as good?
That's a tough call. So for me it's just Anderson Julio in for Leo Chu and that would be all I would do. You know, at some point is show Cafe Mono going to play. Is Diego Garcia at some point gonna play? So you know Delgado and legit is it? Unless you think Kaike is ready. And I don't that that 30 minutes was nice, but that 30 minutes was. Wasn't ready to start. Not in my book. Yeah, it wasn't. You know, it just.
[00:44:09] Speaker A: It just dawned on me that there's a bit of a funny irony that Jesus is returning to Dallas for the first time the same week that Luke is coming back to play against Dallas with the Lakers on the same Week and that. Nuts.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: That is crazy.
[00:44:23] Speaker A: They're both equally significant, you know, on the sports.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: Same level.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: Sports media hierarchy, you know, it's right there. 1A and 1B.
[00:44:32] Speaker B: Nobody predicted Jesus would be traded.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: Buzz, when was. When was the last time Dallas beat Seattle?
[00:44:38] Speaker B: I didn't look that up. I know the answer. In Seattle, it's never.
Just tell me. I don't know what it is.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: It was Nov. 4, 2023, in the playoffs. The 3, 1 win in the playoffs. That's the last time. And I was trying to find the last time Dallas beat Seattle in a regular season game. That would be May 7, the year 2022. And they beat him in Dallas. Two, nothing.
[00:45:03] Speaker B: Well, that was the last time they were good.
I mean.
[00:45:09] Speaker A: Oh, good Lord. And the last time they beat him before that. June 1, 2019.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: There were 1, 3, 4, 5 games in between. Dallas wins. That's crazy.
[00:45:24] Speaker B: Well, right now, what's not working so well for Seattle is their defense. They're. They've given up 11 goals on the year, so they're at a minus three goal differential, which is, you know, right now, they're not as good as FC Dallas. On paper.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: Yeah, but it's Seattle, dude. Slow starts. I know that that's their bid.
[00:45:41] Speaker B: Well, I know, but we're talking about the Saturday. We're not talking about next November. Yeah, yeah. I'm sure they'll figure it out by the end of the year and be great. But, you know, this is as vulnerable coming into Dallas as Seattle has been. I mean, they're 03 and one on the road. They got one tie on the road and that's it. So they're not playing on the road. Well, Jesus is not playing well. Their team's kind of in disarray. The defense is not playing well. This is as vulnerable as Seattle ever is coming in here. So, like, this is. You have to think, if you're adjusting your mentality, this is a game. You have to think Dallas should win at home against Seattle. Right. You forget the fact that. Forget it's the name Seattle. Just look at their stats and their record and their injuries and think, oh, this is a game Dallas should win.
[00:46:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, they should. And they need to win it because Jesus is playing against them.
[00:46:31] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:46:33] Speaker A: Rub it in.
[00:46:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: All right, so there you go. Dallas and Seattle. The big return of Jesus ferreira on Saturday, 7:00, 7:30. Excuse me. @ Toyota Stadium. I have no idea if this is one of the theme nights or drone shows or giveaway nights or Whatever. I'm sure your ticket agent can tell you that through the club.
All right, just to finish out the pod, let's talk about a few other things that happened in the world of DFW football. Dallas Trinity jumped to the top of the table. Look at Trinity as they went to Lexington in some terrible weather and won three nothing. But I gotta tell you, Buzz, have you watched the highlights of this game? I watched the game that is that there, there are some mistakes by Lexington.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: That, I mean, that's professional soccer.
[00:47:24] Speaker A: I mean, I, I can watch better women's soccer out at Moss park on any given weekend than what Lexington was throwing at out there. That was, that was squeaky.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Yeah, well, they've already changed coaches, which I'll tell you how bad their season's going. Yeah, it's not good. And Dallas, Dallas did, didn't have Mimo, so they did it without their best player, best talent. Excuse me, not the best player. You know, so, like the new formation, they stuck with it, you know, put somebody in. Cameron Lancaster, what an addition she's been, you know, same time as M. She's been just as important as in terms of their getting better. Amber Brooks is still just their best player. Just such a smart, brainy, just controls the whole game. The Nielsen being healthier again really helps. So, I mean, Dallas is in great form. They've won four out of five. So they got Spokane Zephyrs up there this weekend, but, you know, Spokane's like in sixth place, so that's another winnable game for eternity on the road. So, you know, they need to just, they need to spend their time over the back quarter of the season here, just making sure you're healthy for the playoffs because they have a legit chance to compete for a title here in this first ever season. They're really good.
[00:48:32] Speaker A: Do you know what Misimo's injury is?
[00:48:35] Speaker B: They said illness. You remember she puked on the field like two games ago.
[00:48:39] Speaker A: Illness is vomit. That's what I mean.
[00:48:41] Speaker B: She had like the flu or got sick or something.
[00:48:43] Speaker A: Oh, I thought I saw she had a lower leg injury reported somewhere in the thing, and I wondered if she did.
[00:48:48] Speaker B: I missed that. I just knew she was sick and, you know, they subbed around. She threw up as long.
[00:48:52] Speaker A: I just, I, I, I think when I saw on Twitter their injury report, it said mimo, lower leg. And I wondered if you knew what that was about. Okay.
[00:49:01] Speaker B: No, I, I assume they were just holding out because of the sickness.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: All right, so they've got Spokane on Saturday and you can watch that on Peacock or if you have the the means, go to Spokane and see the game live. I'm sure they'd love a traveling fan or two. North Texas be Timbers two. Yep.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: North Texas is in sixth place. They got goals from Baron and Molina. You know, the game before their lineup was very odd and bizarre and put together in a really funny. I made a funny graphic by putting SC Dallas players in similar styles in the positions and everyone was like, what the hell, you know. But this lineup made a lot more sense. They actually had a six playing six. They had their center back back in Charles. So it was a good performance. They rested Sarver for some reason, I don't know what that was about, but he didn't start so which is interesting because he's probably their most dynamic attacking player. But they got Austin to this Friday, which is again they're playing before SC Dallas games. Throws me off because you have to commit. Like the biggest thing they're doing is they're committing to playing Enzo Newman, starting him on Fridays, which means he's not going to be on the bench for FC Dallas on Saturdays, which is weird. So you're going like it having this last two games now they've gone into the. Or at least the last game. They've gone into the game with no backup outside back and then presumably it'll happen again this weekend because he'll be.
[00:50:23] Speaker A: So if Nolan or Shaq goes down, who ends up playing one of those two roles?
[00:50:29] Speaker B: Who knows? I mean there's no outside back available on the bench. I mean it'll be, you know, a boubacar in the middle and maybe Alba would go right or I don't know, I mean put a wing back there. Maybe Romero would shift out and bring Kaik in the middle or something. Your guess is as good as mine. That's not something we've seen happen yet. But there's no. I mean assuming Enzo Newman plays for North Texas again like he did last game. Last game, no marker Farfrae, no Enzo on the bench. There was no backup outside back. So maybe, maybe Michael Collodi can play outside back. Bring him in.
[00:51:05] Speaker A: I don't know. Okay.
Yeah, got it. All right. And then let's see. Tex Oma lost again.
[00:51:17] Speaker B: Yeah. They're now 0 and 4 including a cup games.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: They're not good and the attendance is really dropped off from games.
[00:51:25] Speaker B: Well, you knew it was going to. I mean the cup game was. Game one was big and this dropped off the next two times. The they got a tough, tough spot coming up. They've had only home games until now.
[00:51:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: And they've lost all three. And now they're going to go for two games on the road. I think it is. And then their next home game is. You may not even know about this tournament, Peter. It's called the USL cup and it's a cup tournament between the all the levels of usl. So Texoma.
[00:51:53] Speaker A: That sounds like a great idea by the way. I've never heard of it, but I am fascinated by the concept.
[00:51:57] Speaker B: Yes, they play El Paso Locomotive, which is a USL championship team, is their next home game at the end of this month. It's Star wars night if that's your jam. But you're oh and 4, 0 and 3 in USL League One. And now you're gonna play Champions championship team.
[00:52:13] Speaker A: They're gonna get stomped and gonna get.
[00:52:15] Speaker B: I mean, I'm sure it's kind of.
[00:52:17] Speaker A: Like the EFL trophy. That's interesting. That's. It is a cool concept. Okay.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: That's very cool. And I. I don't remember exactly who all is in it. I don't think it's USL2, it's just USL1. You saw championship. But the idea is to carry this forward and have it be a thing even when you're in USL premiere or whatever we're gonna have coming next. So it's super cool. Obviously Texas not probably not real excited about the draw they've gotten this first time.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: Here's the thing, Buzz, and this is why, you know, with all the talk about promotion, relegation and everything, this is a perfect example of what I contend is the thing to keep an eye on, which is texoma is a USL 1 team, which is the third tier, playing in a small Texas town, not really even city. And it's the only product in town other than Austin College. Okay. And if they can't get a decent attendance to show up there when they're not playing. Well, you see where I'm going with this?
[00:53:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:13] Speaker A: Yeah. This is the reason why I think that there we.
There's a lot of evidence out there to tell us that we kind of understand how this works in American sports culture.
[00:53:24] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a. It's a fascinating question. I. You're right that like watching a USL championship team come in here and play in that high school stadium. I was just looking at their schedule because it's El Paso Loco Widows coming in here first and then in June, Phoenix Rising is coming in here playing and playing at Texas Stadium. So in the same USO Cup. So you're going to have these Teams that are used to these much bigger and different scenarios coming into this little bitty stadium. Obviously in the long run, Tex Homo plans on, plans on having their own venue. They're not going to be playing in the stadium permanently. That's what they say. We'll take them at their word on that.
But man, it's like right now, like the, the dichotomy between Texoma and the teams they're going to play in this USL cup is just massive. Oh sure, it's incredibly different.
[00:54:06] Speaker A: And it's not like Phoenix or El Paso are a draw. It's not going to necessarily make people in the Sherman, Texas area want to go to a Texoma game all of a sudden because they're playing Phoenix Rising. And that's not like, yeah, I think.
[00:54:19] Speaker B: The best team at this level draws like, you know, three or 4,000, you know, on average. So it's like, you know, are any of these USL 1 teams in markets that could sustain 15,000 plus C stadiums to go to play your way up to premiere? So like, as you say, that obstacle is always going to be in the way. Like is. Is the Sherman market anywhere near capable of surviving and having a team get all the way up to.
I mean, they're not even drawing enough grassroots level marketing, you know, enough awareness in that area just on their own in that league. They got to solidify. I mean, like, if they keep, if it keeps training like it is, it's going to get bad. But hopefully they can solidify and keep going in the community and get. Because if they can stabilize around a thousand a game, I mean, that wouldn't be the end of the world. I don't think it would be hard to really challenge at the top of the league and go to the championship with that, but you can probably sustain in USL1. It's an interesting question.
[00:55:12] Speaker A: The whole, that whole project, that whole promotion, relegation project is starts and ends with expectation setting and getting everybody to understand, yeah, we're going to do this. But that doesn't mean suddenly now this is bigger or more badass than anything else out there. This is, these are the kind of attendances you should be expecting at these tiers. Yeah, and promotion, relegation isn't suddenly going to run this up into some sort of stratosphere where it's competing against, you know, NFL turnout or anything like that, or even MLS turnout, to be honest with you. I just, it's just not gonna do that.
[00:55:44] Speaker B: There's so many questions about how it would work and how it's going to function and what the results will be and the impact will be. And we're just conjecturing on so many of them. But like at the end of the day we'll have to just wait and see what happens. Yeah, but you know, you can just look at the way Texoma is set up and, and, and compare it even to the best championship teams. You're like, it's a completely different game almost. And certainly if you're talking about a premier division one, whatever it is, you know, from mls, it's million years.
[00:56:09] Speaker A: Speaking of which, USL Dallas did an April Fool's bit with some sort of goofy brand reveal that was really, really bad in a funny way. But we are expecting to get their actual reveal of the brand. And I don't know and I don't know if they're doing this in little bits and pieces like they're going to tell us what the name of the club is first and then show us kits or a logo or something down the road and really kind of drag this out over a period of time. Or if they're just going to do a big logo brand dump in one fell swoop.
[00:56:42] Speaker B: They're having an event. I don't think I'm letting the catalog out of bag here. They're having an event in early May that's going to be name and logo.
I think since they're not going to start play till 2027, I would imagine jersey partner and jersey will come at a much, much later date. Probably well after they have a coach.
[00:57:00] Speaker A: You know who I want them to be their jersey supplier.
[00:57:02] Speaker B: Who?
[00:57:03] Speaker A: Charlie, The Mexican brand that does all those really kick ass Mexican.
[00:57:08] Speaker B: I'm only vaguely aware of them as a brand.
[00:57:10] Speaker A: Oh yeah, they, they do some sweet design stuff. That's who did the Oakland roots stuff that you like so much. Like. Oh, that is the stained glass stuff. That's a Charlie.
[00:57:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that roots is good. Yeah. Yep.
I was having a conjecture the other day that, that I was thinking about putting a bet down, not really literally but just metaphorically on who their first coach would be. And I have a. My, my, my out of the blue tattoo is.
[00:57:36] Speaker A: It's tattoo.
[00:57:37] Speaker B: No, this is, this is 100 pure conjecture on my part. But Caleb Porter might get fired by New England this year and he. I know you're going to think this weird but Caleb USL Dallas.
[00:57:49] Speaker A: Oh, that's right, I know. Yes.
[00:57:51] Speaker B: Brian Corcoran.
[00:57:52] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:57:52] Speaker B: He and Caleb Porter played on the USU 17 team together and their friends.
[00:57:57] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:57:58] Speaker B: So thus if Porter gets fired by New England, this is My early, early, early call out that Porter could end up being the coach here in a year and a half.
[00:58:08] Speaker A: That would be an interesting signing. Boy, that's a reach that would. That feels like that down for Caleb to come coach in Garland Texas for a U.S. well if you've get.
[00:58:17] Speaker B: If you've get five fired.
[00:58:19] Speaker A: Although it's premier, right? Yeah.
[00:58:21] Speaker B: Yeah. If they're going Division 1 if we.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: Don'T know they are.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: I mean we, we think we guessing they are. We're hoping they are but if they are. I mean if they're going to be the usual championship, probably not. But if they're going to be in this new USL premiere or whatever it's going to be. Kev for has been fired by two straight MLS teams. Yes, he's won a cup, but what's he done in a decade Might be looking for a gig.
[00:58:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:42] Speaker B: You know and if USL Dallas has got some money we think and fear and they've got it with TD who's buddies and friends and instantly familiar with him on a soccer level. Just made some sense to me if Porter got fired again because New England is terrible.
They're bad.
I'm not saying that I want Caleb quarter to come here and coach, but I'm just saying that that's my little fiverr bet a year and a half out.
[00:59:06] Speaker A: Interesting. All right, write it down everybody. Buzz is asking you to remember only if I'm right. Yeah, only.
[00:59:14] Speaker B: Only I'm not clipping this if it's not California. I'm only pivoting it if it's California. A year and a half an alcohol.
[00:59:20] Speaker A: Okay, real quick before we go, a little bit of kit talk as footy headlines continues to show off just how downhill that media outlet has turned. Because today they backtracked and said, oh, it's not going to be FC Dallas's third kit is not going to be that ridiculously named orange brushes sans thing that we told you about a few weeks ago. Oh, and oh, it's not coming out in April because that date that we told you has already come and gone now. And now we can reveal that it will be black and that's what they are saying and which matches the color that I think we've been saying we might be saying. And then maybe we kind of know.
[01:00:01] Speaker B: What the quite a while.
[01:00:04] Speaker A: Don't ever listen to footy headlines. Listen to Buzz.
[01:00:06] Speaker B: Not anymore. Yeah, Dan is the one, the magician. We get some stuff and Dan puts it together.
[01:00:12] Speaker A: When are you posting Dan's mock up?
[01:00:14] Speaker B: Shortly after Dan finishes it not the.
[01:00:17] Speaker A: Mock up that I've seen of it.
[01:00:19] Speaker B: No.
[01:00:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm talking in the future state when Dan does a mock up.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:24] Speaker A: When, when do you think we'll see it on the third degree.net site thing?
[01:00:28] Speaker B: I'm pushing for it soon because I, I, you know, footy headlines actually finally got close to the mark. So. So we should go pretty quick. I mean, when's it coming out? When did we say it was? In July.
[01:00:38] Speaker A: Right.
[01:00:38] Speaker B: July for the.
[01:00:39] Speaker A: July 4th.
[01:00:40] Speaker B: I mean that's a long. That's like three months off. Right. So that may be a little early to put it out.
[01:00:44] Speaker A: You know, a black shirt on July 4th.
[01:00:47] Speaker B: Oh, that's hot.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: It's hot. Hot.
[01:00:49] Speaker B: It is hot.
[01:00:49] Speaker A: Hot.
[01:00:50] Speaker B: It is hot. But you know, it's, it's such a better concept. Concept than the current secondary jersey, which is terrible. So, you know, true. I think people are gonna like it. It's good. The mock up that Dan has made is really good. Or is working on is really good.
[01:01:04] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:01:05] Speaker B: I've not seen it. I've not seen it the real thing. I've not seen the real thing. I've always seen Dan's maga.
[01:01:10] Speaker A: All right, well, Buzz, I think we've covered it all. Anything else you wanted to touch on? Any Academy Jim jam? Any?
[01:01:18] Speaker B: Well, I just put out the first roster for the Dallas Cup. The first, the start.
[01:01:23] Speaker A: Well, the Dallas cup is near.
[01:01:24] Speaker B: Yeah, Dallas cup and GA cup both start basically a week from now.
[01:01:28] Speaker A: So I was told that with GA cup being played elsewhere that there was some surprise that Dallas isn't putting their U19 team into the Dallas cup because MLS is requiring all of their clubs to put their U19 team into the GA Cup. So Dallas is now going to kind of like cobble a team together made out of North Texas and kids playing up.
[01:01:56] Speaker B: I guess it's not a surprise because I've been talking about that for six months. But the. You're sort of right. They don't have a 19 team anymore. MLS got rid of U19. They only have U18.
[01:02:08] Speaker A: Ah, okay.
[01:02:09] Speaker B: It's U18 plus.
You can have as many as five over age players if they're like December babies or guys that are having.
[01:02:18] Speaker A: What I'm saying is, is that Dallas's team isn't going to be in Dallas Cup. It's going to be in GA cup and Dallas is going to have to construct a second team to participate in Dallas cup supergroup.
[01:02:29] Speaker B: MLS changed their years of emphasis from U17 and U15 to U18 and U16.
That means that the top age group that was U19 was not a year that only FC Dallas and like two other teams had a U19 team. Nobody else. Unless Adam. So now Everybody has a U18 team and so everybody's U18 team is going to GA cup because this is a complete change. So Dallas no longer has a team that's the appropriate age group for the supergroup and their oldest team now goes to GA cup when before their oldest team did not. That's the big change.
[01:03:03] Speaker A: I see.
[01:03:04] Speaker B: So now Dallas has to come up with a team for the GA Cup. So I started for the Dallas cup. So you're right. It's. It's really weird.
[01:03:10] Speaker A: Are you going to all the Newcastle games?
[01:03:13] Speaker B: No, not all of them. I'll probably watch them a couple of them though. You know, I don't know anything about their 18 year old kids.
[01:03:19] Speaker A: It's Newcastle Buzz. I thought you'd show up with your shirt and support favorite Premier League club.
[01:03:24] Speaker B: No, no, I mean I'll go out and watch some of their games but you know I've seen Newcastle in person when they came here. That's. That was my big play. I. I remember when Michael Carrick was on West Ham's U19 team and they came to the Dallas cup and he was on the roster and a week before they came he got called up to Sam's first team and didn't come. I was like, I went down there to see if I could meet him and they were like no, we didn't bring him. I was like oh no.
[01:03:48] Speaker A: Broke little, poor little Buzz's heart.
[01:03:50] Speaker B: I did. I was sad. I. That was at Lake Islands. Yeah, it was a long time ago.
[01:03:54] Speaker A: All right, very good. We knocked it out pretty quickly. We don't have over talkative. Just blathering all the time. Dan Crook.
Yeah, the chatterbox never shuts up. I mean, good lord. That's an extra 25 minutes to every podcast alone. That.
[01:04:09] Speaker B: I mean it is that motor mouth third degree. The podcast is brought to you by El Matador and the El Matador Watch Party. This time it's FC Dallas at Minnesota United. And that's on April 19th at 7:30pm Downtown Dallas at the Scarlet Pumpernickel. Everybody had such a great time last time on the second floor. The whole floor is reserved. Love the game on every tv. Full sound, their own bartender, tender, amazing food. There's plenty of parking down there, lots of garages. But most of all, the Scarlet pumpernickel is only two blocks from the Akron Street DART station. So get on down there. FC Dallas versus Minnesota, April 19th. Everybody's welcome. See you there. Siempre contigu.
[01:04:47] Speaker A: Thank you, Buzz.
[01:04:48] Speaker B: Thank you, man. Thanks for being here.
[01:04:50] Speaker A: Yeah, always. And thank you, FC Dallas. Curious fan you. We will speak to you next week on another episode of 3rd Degree, the podcast.
Where's the Olen fans dot com? 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree N podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree n podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd degree n podcast 3rd Degree, the 3rd degree n podcast.
