3rd Degree the Podcast #308

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, hello there, DFW North Texas Curious. Wait, hold on. I thought about this. No, no. Yeah. Woo. [00:00:15] Speaker B: Ooh. [00:00:17] Speaker A: Third Degree, the Third Degree Net podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree Net Podcast. Third Degree to Third Degree Net Podcast. Third Degree. [00:00:33] Speaker B: Third Degree. The podcast is brought to you by listeners like you. If you enjoy 3rd Degree, the podcast, or any of our work@third degree.net or on social media, our coverage of all the professional teams in the Dallas area, including FC Dallas, why not support us on Patreon patreon.com 3rd degree. Contribute any amount you want. If you go up to the Three Amigos level, you can join our amazing Discord, the great community we're growing there. That's patreon.com stardew thanks again for your support. [00:01:00] Speaker A: Well, hello there, DFW North Texas Soccer curious fan. Welcome to Third Degree, the podcast. I'm trying out something new because it's not like there's too many teams just to be getting more all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. First off, there he is, the man with the beard and the star of his only Dan's account. It is Dan Crooked. Come in, Dan. [00:01:28] Speaker C: I'm still not quite sure about that joke. Even if the metro Curious are deny, deny, deny. [00:01:35] Speaker A: And your hero, my hero, everybody's Hero. Editor, Founder, third degree.net in the original soccer influencer, it is Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:46] Speaker B: Hey, fellas, how you doing? Denial is not just a river in Egypt. That's right. [00:01:52] Speaker A: Come on. Only Dan's is a really funny joke, and I think I stole it from somebody on the discord. [00:01:59] Speaker B: If OnlyDans.com was available, that would be fun. [00:02:02] Speaker A: Has anybody looked to see if only dan is onlydan.com is upstate is on. Is available. Because I may be willing to buy that URL. [00:02:11] Speaker B: Checking right now. [00:02:15] Speaker C: I just. [00:02:17] Speaker B: Oh, it. It is for sale, Peter. But it's $2,700. That's a good joke, but it ain't a 2700 joke. Yeah, yeah. [00:02:24] Speaker C: Come on, Peter, pony up. [00:02:26] Speaker B: This pot ain't that popular. [00:02:29] Speaker A: Well, let me put it this way. If we would like to crowdsource and fund onlydan.com we'll just open the opportunity now. We'll start a GoFundMe, whatever, and then we'll make everybody's Dan dreams come true. Okay, well, Buzz, just to be completely honest with everybody, I love the Curious very, very much, but I'd rather be watching the final episode of my rewatch of season one of andor with season two debuting tomorrow Tuesday, then talk about the current plight of One FC Dallas. Although they're undefeated on the road, that is good news. There's nothing, no shame about that. But they went to Minnesota. And I'm going to let you, for the next however many minutes you want, talk about all the good things about Dallas nil. Minnesota nil. [00:03:19] Speaker B: You want the good things? Okay. Well, I will admit first that the last two games have been very boring to watch. You know, boring aside, you have to love the results on the road. The undefeated on the road is insane. I mean that's a ridiculous stat. Ridiculous way of being given how hard it is to win and get results on the road in this league. So what was good about this game? Well, mainly just defense. That's about it. You know, the, the, the collective group defense played pretty well. Limited Minnesota to. Which is a pretty good attacking team to. Not a lot of chances. They were. All their post game stuff was lamenting how teams have figured out how to defend them or something or you know, that kind of talk. But you know, the, the primary goal over the winter, one of the primary goals was to try and repair the defense quite a bit around here. And Wasaza Yurigide has been a fabulous part of that. Shaq Moore has developed enough in terms of this system to solve the problems on the, on the right side between him and whoever the center back is. Ibiaga up until now. And then another positive would be Abubakar playing just about as good as a Ibiaga. It's nice to have a body, a guy playing up to a level, except he got hurt where you could actually rotate him in like that. And that's. And we're comfortable. And the Norton's great at left back. So that's it. That's the positives. The defense looks pretty good, but that's about it. That's going on. That is good, man. [00:04:40] Speaker A: Are we gonna put an over and under on the amount of time before the national MLS soccer meteorati start talking about Ira Gide in the same glowing terms that we have now for the last two months? [00:04:55] Speaker B: Well, I don't know what it will take. You know, the team has started. You can tell on social media the team is starting to push that narrative, you know, with their, the language they're using around some of the stuff they're putting out about him and his stats and that kinds of things. I think they obviously recognize what a great player they have in their hands. I have not seen a lot of national talk about him to be fair. But then part of that is the nature of S.C. dallas. You know the National League. Well, it's not. Well, you know, there definitely is coastal bias in sports, but, you know, in this particular case in mls, Dallas has not necessarily been a very relative team, impactful team, over the decades, you know. [00:05:34] Speaker A: And it's been a bit relevant, so. [00:05:37] Speaker B: That's not what I said. [00:05:38] Speaker A: You said relative. [00:05:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I meant relevant, impactful team. Very much in the last. Since Oscar left, really. So Dallas often gets ignored by the league, the league's publications, the podcasts, and things like that. So it's not surprising that you're not hearing a lot of talk about Ira Gide on a national perspective. So. And. And even as good as he is, we. We may never hear that. Just because. And if you're not going to be in the top third of the standings, you're not going to get much attention. If you're going to be in the middle to the bottom of the standings, you're not going to get much attention. [00:06:11] Speaker A: Dan, where's the Danometer on Minnesota? Donut, Dallas donut. [00:06:17] Speaker C: I think you go to a team that's unbeaten at home and come away with a point. I think that's. That's encouraging in itself. That's. Sorry, there's so much. Someone's really grinding some tiles. That's. That sounds awful. I shouldn't have said that. [00:06:33] Speaker A: Are you constructing a new only dance studio? [00:06:36] Speaker C: Allegedly, yeah. Made out of porcelain tile, I guess. Who knows? [00:06:41] Speaker A: A stark or white room. [00:06:44] Speaker C: Almost surgical. [00:06:46] Speaker A: All right, Buzz. Well, I think obviously the big news about this game was that Eric Quill decided to go into flop it around mode. Lots of changes in the lineup. He left Lucho Costa on the bench. As you said, Abubakar got a start. Lots of changes in Minnesota. [00:07:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I think Abubakar is as much about. I mean, post game. Cool. Talked about multiple factors. One was guys that had been playing pretty well in training, and he wanted to give him a chance. And I think that probably qualifies for Abubakar in terms of then getting Iaga some rest. [00:07:17] Speaker C: You don't. [00:07:17] Speaker B: You know, the guy's in his mid-30s. You got to be careful with that guy a little bit. Lucho Costa, he basically quotes that he went to him and told him, like, look, I want to arrest you a. Because, you know, it's a long season, but also in part because Dallas has become a team that basically their strategy is just booted up field to Acosta and Musa and Quill basically wanted to, like, make them have to play without Acosta and learn how to play without Acosta and figure out Other ways to get things done. Now, your miles will vary on whether that happened or not because it didn't really happen for the most part in terms of getting things done without Acosta. [00:07:52] Speaker A: Right. [00:07:52] Speaker B: You know, he, he came into the game and then had like, like 3/4 of all the XG they had in the whole game on like one play, which was like that one ball that came back to him from Miro. So, you know, the. Offensively it didn't really work very well. It wasn't very good. You know, I think probably of the changes, you know, the one that probably looked to me like it might have been a player just getting dropped for quality was probably Delgado. I think Show Cafe Mona outplayed him in the previous game and I think that he did more in this game show did than Patrick has all year. So, like, that's the one of the moves that felt like a benching to me. Benching might be a little harsh. The route the others were all about rest or injury. The Farrington for example, for pattern. Moose, of course, is just straight injury, so he'll have to play Ferrington. Well, as long as Moose is out, which might be more than we thought it was going to be. So we'll see. But you know, when you, when you have some changes, you know, and in part, if you want the changes to be, can we play without this guy? And the answer is pretty much no, not really. You might have to do some searching in terms of an analysis to try and figure out how in the world can we get playing in a positive way, you know, with somebody other than Lucio Acostic and some other people, figure out ways to get forward and get into dangerous spots. Because right now it's basically a one trick pony team. Like all they have, especially with Moose out, all they have is Acosta right now in terms of getting something going. And that's not good. [00:09:14] Speaker A: All right, so that's going to lead me into a question which I'm. Which is I'm kind of confused because Dallas is what, eighth, ninth place? I guess it is nice. It's kind of tight. Obviously it's super early in the season, only nine games into the season, and I tend to, I, I'm trying to figure out how I feel about this because in your discord and on social media, I see and have been seeing quite a bit of people still throwing a lot of shade, Nico Estevis's way about how he coached this team and how boring the team was back then and how bad and awful the Austin team looks while they're up in the charts and winning games and collecting points, but they're no fun to watch. So, Buzz, I, I did some math. I actually did some research for the podcast and, and this actually surprised me. Although the eyeball test kind of indicated this was the case. But the non penalty XG for Dallas in the last three games is 1.38. Combined, the last three games non penalty XGE is 0, 7.6 and 0.8. [00:10:24] Speaker B: It's not very good. [00:10:25] Speaker A: No. So that leads me into this other. I started digging some more and because this idea that Quill and what Quill is putting out there is a more entertaining team and I began to ask myself, do I think this is a more entertaining team than last year's or any of the Nico Esteban three seasons? And I'm not sure that it is anymore because man, I, I watch this team and I get incredibly frustrated just in a different way than I used to with Nico's teams. And, and I'm trying to not just stick to the eyeball test. Let me just kind of throw some numbers at you. So Nico Esteban, non penalty XG for the first nine games of 2022 was 1.28. In 23 it was 1.16. Last year it was 1.08. And this year, average. This is an average over the first nine games. Under Quill, it's only 1.13. So Quill's average non penalty XG and his first nine games is the third best out of the last four seasons. And so I do beg the question, and I'll ask you this question first. Dan, you can answer first. Is Eric Quills, FC Dallas more entertaining to watch than any of the Nico Esteban seasons? [00:11:48] Speaker C: I think so. [00:11:50] Speaker A: Really? [00:11:51] Speaker C: Yeah. Where's just purely style of play? I found that Nico's teams often played without any purpose. It was just dull as dishwater, especially towards the end, I think at least with cruel style. It's. It's engaging, it's counter attacking. It's. It's a little bit chaotic. It's. It's just. Yeah, it's entertaining. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Buzz, I think that the beginning of the season when in the preseason and the first few games when we were talking about how all the games were going to be 4 to 3 and Dallas had a lot of scoring punch, you know, they were giving up games, they had a lot of scoring punch. You know, the games were up and down. I thought those were pretty entertaining. But then, you know, the last, since they switched to this other formation basically and solidified Their defense, they've done it with Romero as the. Is the corner of this three across in front of their defense. And they sort of, once they did that, that kind of took some of the starch out of what legit was doing. It took off a winger and put on an eight. And by nature, that's going to make your team more simple. You know, more simple is the wrong word. More. Less vertical. Right? You're left with one wing playing a vertical way and one guy playing underneath in Lucho Costa, so you lose some verticality. And then since Jess got hurt, it's gotten worse. And now you're having, you know, two sixes out of the three players across the midfield, you know, and show Kaifaman has been there and either Patrick Delgado's been in there, who hasn't done squat, or now show who is coming back from a pretty devastating illness that we don't know what it was. So certainly over the last month, month and a half, you know, the. The back half of these first nine games, let's call it, you know, though, it's become very defensive and very boring and they've become very onedimensional. This very much like this booted up front to hoping Musa and Lucho can do it. So I think if you go back to the beginning of the year, if you go back to that three front, front, three underneath Musa, you know, two real wingers, then I think the games open up and become very exciting and very entertaining. But you give up a lot more goals, you know, and you got to try and outscore people. So it's kind of a balance. You know, Quill's obviously playing to solve the defensive issues that he has with certain. You know, again, when you remember when he changed formations, he talks about this new formation fits the profiles of the players he has better. He's trying to make a solid defense out of guys that don't quite fit the other the way he wanted to play. He has a roster that doesn't fit the way he wanted to play, which we've been talking about for like six or seven years here now in Dallas. [00:14:28] Speaker A: Right. [00:14:28] Speaker B: So. So hopefully with time, Quill can find a way to make the roster fit the way he actually wants to play, you know, or develop guys or buy guys or whatever it's going to take, because right now he doesn't. So he's trying to hodgepodge it together, and it makes for a very defensive team and a very not exciting team. When you. When you're missing a couple of pieces as the injuries are Piling up now too. [00:14:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So I, I was digging into the numbers even more because this really started to bother me because I, like everybody else, really dis. Had a big distaste for the Nico Estevis team last year, which, by the way, in the first nine games of the season, we were all talking about it leading into being maybe the, the most historically bad team in club history. [00:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah, it was on pace for that at one point. Yeah. [00:15:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, after the first nine games, the team had won two games. I think they had lost five and drawn two. I think they were two, five and two. But here's the crazy part. So while Dallas has a better record now and is undefeated on the road in terms of them being entertaining, do you realize that the current Eric quill team has 5 left goal, 5 less goal created actions after the first 9 games than last season's uber boring Nico Esteban team? [00:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I can believe it. I can believe it. Yeah, that's one of the fallacies of this current team is that they're managing a win with, with, with mysterious ways. You know, last year the, the ability for this team to come back, this, this Eric Quill team to come back is really remarkable. You know, I think last year, if we can think back to Nico's teams, especially early in the season, those teams were bleeding goals, if I remember correctly. And that was the big issue was the defense because, you know, when we got to the end of the year, that was all the conversation, right? Fix the defense, fix the defense, fix the defense. And it was the year before. If you go back to 2022, the good Nico season, it was because he had a good defense that first year. Right, right. Remember, they had a really low goals against that season. [00:16:21] Speaker A: So after nine games, they had given up 12 goals. Where's Dallas this season? [00:16:25] Speaker B: I feel like it's more than that. [00:16:27] Speaker A: Well, they only gave up last season 12 goals after nine games. [00:16:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I believe I'm looking up this season 11. [00:16:35] Speaker A: So, you know, effectively the same pretty much. [00:16:38] Speaker B: But, you know, it's the, the goals against, you know, is minus one. I mean, the goal differential right now is minus one, which is kind of where they finished the year. At the end of the year, I think I remember correctly, they were minus one or right at zero maybe. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:53] Speaker B: We talked about they needed to get 10 different. They need to be plus 10 in the goal differential if you want to improve. And right now they're not, you know, but they're getting results. And that's so. It's weird. [00:17:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And so I guess that's why I'm, I'm really trying to dig into this is this whole concept that, you know, everybody was bored by Nico's teams last year and Dan says he's more entertained by this. But when I watch this team, I'm incredibly frustrated in watching it because it's not, it's not a very good team at this point. I'm not saying it won't be by the end of the season and they'll find their way, but I, I'm, I'm curious about this idea that they're more entertaining to watch. I'm going to ask, I'm going to, I'm going to beg you to explain it more to me, Dan. Tell me what I'm missing. [00:17:32] Speaker C: Well, I think, you know, it goes. It's kind of in line with the Pep Guardiola, Barcelona teams. Remember how people got so incredibly frustrated with them because they were so dominant in possession, but it was possession without a purpose for the most part. And then, you know, he goes to Bayern Munich and suddenly it's oh, yeah, that's possession with purpose. There's entertainment. It doesn't necessarily have to be the best team in the world winning. I just think a lot of the Nico games ended up like that. That little Simpsons clip where they kind of just, yeah, oh my God, he's passed it again. Oh, he's passed it again. It was, it was just that there was, you know, you just nod off. I would, yeah, maybe this is just me as a leaping fan, I would rather just be entertained by an absolute shit show that goes nowhere than what can sometimes be technical brilliance, but doesn't actually produce anything of interest. [00:18:32] Speaker B: I think that the thing that people most find entertaining is chances. You don't have to score necessarily, but if you create chances, it'll be entertaining. And so for the first few games of the year, without looking, I would say Dallas created a lot more scoring chances in the first four or five games. And then they changed tactics and the chance creation has gone down. And like you talked about, that average xg non penalty xg being like the 1.13 that, you know, that feels about right. [00:18:58] Speaker A: So. [00:18:59] Speaker B: So it's like I have it right. [00:19:00] Speaker A: Here in front of me. In the Houston game, they created 12 scoring chances, right? Colorado 20, Chicago 26, Vancouver 10. Salt Lake 28. Sporting 11, Atlanta 16, Seattle 19, Minnesota 15. [00:19:19] Speaker B: I bet if you. Sorry, go ahead. [00:19:20] Speaker A: No, I was going to say because what I thought was interesting about the real Salt Lake game, that was one of their higher non penalty xg games at 1.4. But that is also I don't think very good for a team that was playing up a man for the majority of the game. [00:19:37] Speaker B: Well, no, that's a different question though. I like, I think if you, if you surveyed people on like what games this year were entertaining, I bet you those games where they have 20, 22 chances, scoring chances, people were like, that was a really fun game. And the game where they had 10 chances, people like, well that was really boring. I think that's what most people consider entertaining is like, you know, in the sense of like it's the difference between like a half court basketball game where they sort of pass it around and fire it up every once in a while and teams that are running up and down the court. Right. So getting up and down and getting opportunities, getting shots is exciting and fun. So the last few games, particularly the last couple of games, the shots have been like 10 or under. And that's not exciting and that's not fun. So you know, quills teams can be. And this is nothing to do with winning necessarily. I think if you go back to those earlier games in the season, they are some one's a good example because you're right, they were up a man the whole time. So they had way more chances than they had been since then. So like, since then you're like, oh, the games are really boring. So I think that's what it comes down to. [00:20:29] Speaker C: I think, you know, everyone gets a different level of enjoyment out of, out of the game. I really enjoyed the, the Minnesota game. It only produced seven shots on target between the two teams. But in terms of actual play in the middle, in the middle of the field, you know, FC Dallas had had Minnesota on the back foot for large pass. Then Minnesota would break and really put Dallas under pressure. There was a lot, you know, there was never any kind of long passages of possession. It was just kind of your interest was just constantly held rather than just, you know, a lull. Oh, there's a chance, a LOL chance. [00:21:06] Speaker A: Well, I don't know if this is going to make any point or add any gasoline to the fire, but you mentioned goal creation opportunities this season. In the first nine games the team has created 157 total. What do you think the total was after nine games and that terrible first nine games last year? [00:21:28] Speaker B: I bet it's pretty similar because you know those teams last year. I think in my probably incorrect memory, I feel like the early parts of last year was about really bad defense and so probably offensively these two Teams are probably fairly similar, I would bet this year to last year. That's my guess. [00:21:44] Speaker A: This year the team has created 157 scoring opportunities, goal creation opportunities. After the first nine games. Last year in the uber bad, super boring Nico Esteban team, it was 217. [00:22:00] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, I think that puts a capsule on this. The team this year, like, you know, last year's team was bad because of the defense and I think that you know that. But it was creating plenty of chances. This year's team, at the beginning of the year it had lots of changes, but the last month or so has really dried up in its chances, you know, so you can, I think for me that that's what makes an exciting game. I think Dan Clear has given you another example of like to him, you know, he finds this team more entertaining than Nico is just because of the style, the way they play, you know, and everyone's better is different in terms of what makes for an entertaining game. The last, the last two for me specifically, I have sat there and thought, boy, this game is really boring because Dallas can't get through the midfield and they can't get anything going. They can't get any offensive creation going. So that bores of tears me to tears. And the teams they've played against have done the same thing, right? I mean Seattle had a really poor game where they hardly created. They won, but they had a poor game where they hardly created any chances. Everyone was yelling about Jesus. Remember all their fans are mad about is this guy any good. Minnesota. After the game they're talking about how they can't ever figure out people figured out how to defend them and they can't get through and didn't get a lot of chance creation. So like these last two games have been particularly boring, you know, and, and for me. But obviously, you know, the way Dan and I look at the game is in terms of our enjoyment is slightly different. It's probably true for everybody. So, you know, that's why I think some people like this, this team in general better than Nico's team. We also of course only remember like the parts about Nico seems that sucked, which was the passing around, you know, it's not like it was Luchi ball with like 700 passes not going anywhere. You know, it still had a whole lot of passes. I think what I didn't like about Nico Ball the most was this defensive focus, this, like this rigid. This is where my unlikability of watching them play came in. They played a really, really rigid, defined defensive system. Everybody had a very specific roles and you weren't allowed to go forward, you weren't allowed to be adventurous. It's like, no, no, you got to keep those guys back. You got to have those outside backs on top of the defense. You got to have those two midfielders like nobody. Like there was no sense of adventure, no swashbuckling. We made that joke about it's a, you're coaching for a mid table team in Spain to try and get ties, you know, because you were trying to grind out everything. Whereas Quill's teams have a recklessness about them, they have an abandon about them, a willingness to just throw it to the winds and get forward. Now it hasn't been good. That's different than being, you know, having an openness and abilities and a desire to fly. It doesn't always work. It hasn't worked the last two games at all. You know, he'll obviously be searching for answers. If it keeps going this way, people are gonna start talking about how boring the team is. But I think at the end of the day, at the beginning of the year, we still remember like the four or five games that were fun, you. [00:24:44] Speaker A: Know, well, just to kind of put a bow on it. Austin is in second with 16 points, but they've only scored seven and only given up eight. They have a goal differential of negative one. Dallas and ninth on 12 points, have only scored 10 and given up 11 with a goal differential of one. [00:25:01] Speaker B: So that just goes to show you that. [00:25:03] Speaker A: Tomato. [00:25:04] Speaker B: Tomato, yeah. Nico Ball still Nico ball, seven goals, four versus like San Jose has 19 goals for. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Right? [00:25:11] Speaker B: I mean so like eight goals against versus San Jose's 17 goals again. So it just depends on what you want, you know. And Austin's Nico Ball, which can be boring as hell to watch, is getting them points. Everybody loved Nico Ball in 2022. [00:25:26] Speaker C: One thing, one thing to keep in mind about that, their version of Nico Ball is, isn't the three center backs, two stay at home fullbacks, which, you know, under the guise of wing backs, it's that kind of more, slightly more adventurous back four and actually a full midfield. So, you know, if it ends up for them like the, the first season did for Nico, you know, other than the playoff game in Austin where he kind of went back on all that, you know, more power to him. It's just, you know, people are going to people, you know, it kind of goes back on almost that you're only as good as your last game sort of phrase and fair, you know, his, his last 30 some games were fucking dull. [00:26:15] Speaker A: Yep. Boy, they were absolutely. A guy was trying to coach for his job and at the detriment of entertainment, and it didn't work, and it failed for everybody. [00:26:25] Speaker C: I think, you know, Lucy, ball got boring at times, but you had that high press element where, you know, you're out of possession and suddenly it's that counter press, try and get, get, get it back. Even if you end up recycling the ball all the way back to the defense, you're immediately going out and you're trying to win possession. You're not just sitting back and letting it happen. And that kind of felt like a real frustration with, with Nico. It was just, okay, lost possession. Well, we're gonna let whatever happens happen. Oh, we want it back now. No one's moving, so let's just sit here on it. [00:26:58] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Well, Buzz, how did you feel about Logan Farrington playing up top by himself? I think a lot of people have wanted to see Logan play this position, get his opportunity, get his ride, and he's gonna get it for a while. We'll talk about Moussa here in a minute, but. [00:27:13] Speaker B: Well, I had a chance to talk to Quill postgame about Farrington, and he kind of echoed some of the things I was thinking, which was like, you know, I thought his, his performance was pretty good. Quill said specifically that, you know, if I could start 12 players, Logan would be the 12th guy. And he's told him that, you know, he thinks he's going to play a high volume of minutes. But the bottom line is that Musa costs a lot of money, and there are some deficiencies in Logan's game compared to better Musa. You know, there are also some positives in his game compared to Peter Moussa, particularly his off ball energy and movement and action is just really, really high. He does a ton of work when he doesn't have the ball, and that's really nice. It can be effectious. I thought overall he had a really good game except for one thing, and that's the thing that's plugged him all the time. He had six miscontrolled passes where he fumbled the ball into his feet. Now, that's a problem that Musa occasionally has two, but six is too many. So they both need to clean that up. And Farrington probably knows he needs to clean that up, too. I would have liked to have seen him get more touches in the final third, Barrington. But I think a lot of that is about the team play and the team concept right in that game, not Logan Farrington. So in general, I thought he was pretty good. I mean, he, he, you know, of the amount of ball that he got, he did a. Got, you know, a shot or two off, got a couple good actions off of it. And you know, for, for guy filling in for Peter Musa, you know, that was a pretty solid performance. You know, I think where Dallas was deficient offensively wasn't because of him. It was because of the other two guys. [00:28:41] Speaker A: Kaik gets another start. How was the puppy dog in your mind on this evening? [00:28:46] Speaker B: Really good, actually. He's a tackling machine. You. Look, we've talked about this before. I don't, I don't like guys that have to tackle a lot, but he is super, super rangy and he had, I think he had five tackles and then he was five of six on challenges, which is when a guy tries to dribble past you, whether you deny that or not. It's not necessarily a tackle, obviously always, but it can be. And so he just, he gets in the way a lot. He doesn't. Because of his ranginess. He doesn't anticipate like, so he doesn't have really high intercepts or really high recoveries. He's okay recoveries, but he was not really high like ear man. He would have like 15, you know, know he's create and would have intercepts and turn. Turn plays back. So his deficiencies from Kai are the brain, the, the young player. I will say that, like, there's a point in the game where he and Ramiro flipped and Kai was in the middle and Romiro was sort of more on the right. I don't know whether that was a coaching call or whether they just did that. I really like that a lot. I would really like to see that going forward because I think ideally in terms of the way the season is going to grow, if you could have Kaike play into being that stay at home six in front of the back, his ranginess in there, even as a stay at home six, his ranginess in there would allow the two eights much more freedom. And while right now Ramiro is a better progressive passer than Kaik, so if you put Romero at more, a little more of an eight role, he may be able to get forward a little bit better with passing. That would open up, show a little bit, maybe more passing. And I think because that was in the second half and that's what Dallas was playing better, in my opinion. And if you're looking towards the rest of the season and if you're going to have a Paxton coming back or a legit getting healthy. If Kaik could develop into that destroying six there, then those eights could be really free. And maybe this system could really work with a pass in a legit show if they end up keeping them, you know, a Delgado, even maybe in the near term, possibly again. So I don't know whether the next game's the game for that, but I think I to see that late in the game I was like, oh, I really like that because. Because of his ranginess and because of his lack of ability to pass forward yet from Kaik Romero, believe it or not. Mirror can't dribble for. But he can pass better than Kaika can right now. So that flip roll I actually quite liked. Yep. [00:31:17] Speaker A: It was a weird game. I never thought. I never thought there was. I never felt like either team was going to win the game. It always felt like a scoreless draw. [00:31:26] Speaker B: Right. [00:31:26] Speaker A: Very, very, very boring game of soccer. Dan, you got any other thoughts about the game of Minnesota before we move on? [00:31:35] Speaker C: Noosa. Happy to get out. That was a point. [00:31:38] Speaker A: Okay. That's right. [00:31:39] Speaker B: Well, what did you guys think of show versus Delgado? Do you think that's a. Did you think show did better? [00:31:45] Speaker A: Yes, but that's not saying much. I think Delgado is such a miss again. I, I mean, I get. I get frustrated because I see, you know, people in your discord or people online complimenting players, and I just feel like it's a bit of. Yeah, but is that guy really MLS starting quality? And we've got a. And this team has a bunch of guys on it that I'm just not sure are starting players on better teams in. In the league. And I think Patricson Delgado is one of those guys. Maybe it's not fair to judge show yet because he's only been back for a couple of weeks, but I'm still not sure on him. I'm not even really sure how I feel about Romero yet, to be honest with you. Yeah, and Kaik has a whole bunch of interesting aspects to him, but man, he's also a kid. And you, you know, we. He's got a lot more to show and prove before I can really make any kind of real judgment on him. So is one better than the other? Probably, yes. But do I think any of them are good enough to make this a really competitive playoff type team? No, not really. Not yet. [00:32:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't disagree with that. I think the biggest complaint for me about Delgado is, at the end of the day, going to be what they paid for him. I think on the broadcast I heard the commentator say something about 2.5 million. I cannot find that number anywhere. That was what Ix turned down in terms of buying him, because 2.5 mil for me, for me, for Delgado is nuts. So I hope that price isn't right and I can't find a real price. So, you know, my opinion, whether Delgado is any good or not for this team is going to change a lot based on what he cost. Just like when they signed Kaik for four and we're like, holy crap, four million is a crazy amount of money for a 19 year old. You know, six for sure. Let alone a 19 year old with. [00:33:36] Speaker A: One senior team start in his life. [00:33:38] Speaker B: So like, you know, in the end of the day, I think that'll be a factor. I mean, coaches will always say it's not, but we all know that when the team pays a lot of money for a player, it's a factor in how much they're going to play. So I think there's going to be an agenda going forward about how we get Kaik in the games, you know, and that's why in a way, I hope that there's not an agenda with Delgado that he really wasn't 2.5 million, because that would be bad. I mean, that's an Anasali level money for a guy that's better than in a Sally, but not crazy better than in a Sally, which is something we'll have to worry about in another month or so, right? Two months. Another two months. [00:34:13] Speaker A: By the way, should mention it was Martin Paz's 100th MLS game and he got a clean sheet, so congratulations to him. Good stuff. [00:34:22] Speaker B: Sure feels fast, doesn't it? [00:34:24] Speaker A: Oh, it does. 100 games. That does absolutely feel pretty, pretty good. Okay, very good. So 00. Dallas down to ninth place. Minnesota still undefeated home. Dallas still undefeated on the road. And I don't want to, I don't want to disregard that or, or discount it in any way. That's a big deal. I mean, unfortunately it's bookended with the fact they've only won one game at home so far. [00:34:51] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. Imagine whether it be in the standings if they didn't have. Have that fabulous robe form. Yeah, they plan that the home form was in the road. [00:34:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay, so here's what gets interesting because the next opponent is Miami and they have to go to Miami. Now this game was originally scheduled for Saturday, but because Miami has a road game in Vancouver on Thursday, the game has been pushed to Sunday. And I, and I Don't know. Buzz, if you happened to pop on the Miami game the other day, Messi. Something's wrong physically with Messi. [00:35:28] Speaker B: Oh, is there? [00:35:29] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like the last 30 minutes of the game, he just stopped running all the way together. And every time he got the ball, he had. I watched him get dispossessed in a very un. Messy like way and then not even try to chase. And even Taylor Twelveman or whoever the color guy was at the time was like, man, something's up because he's not running. He hasn't moved. He's kind of standing in a Valderrama like 10 yard radius space and not doing anything. And as soon as the game was over, he went straight into the locker room. [00:36:02] Speaker B: My goodness. Maybe. Maybe we'll see enter without him. Maybe, maybe they'll arrest him. Since Dallas is, you know, ninth in the sandings, they might look at that as a team to get rest against. [00:36:10] Speaker A: Well and plus they've got the cup game on Thursday. [00:36:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. [00:36:14] Speaker A: So even if they do, if he plays on Thursday, I think the odds of him starting on Sunday are extremely low. [00:36:21] Speaker B: Oh yeah, that is, you're right. That's true. [00:36:23] Speaker A: Miami can look really good in amazing runs of play, by the way. [00:36:28] Speaker B: Well, they have a really good roster, Messi aside, because they have a whole bunch of players who took a lot less money to play there because of Messi. So like, and it's Miami and it's Miami. So they got dudes that are worth way more money playing on way less money just for that opportunity, you know, which I don't blame them for. [00:36:45] Speaker A: Dan, you got anything else you'd like to tell us about Miami as we get ready for Sunday? [00:36:50] Speaker C: Obviously they're the, the only unbeaten team in the league left, which is a fun one. So I was kind of just looking at some stuff. They've actually averaged 15 shots against per game over the last five games. They are not having the best of times defensively, but teams are just failing to capitalize on that. [00:37:16] Speaker A: They've only allowed six goals this season, which is pretty impressive for a team that we all think is. Deficiency is in defense. [00:37:23] Speaker C: Yeah, definitely. They're also. They've got a weird keeper situation. They've. They've already cycled through three goalkeepers this season. Wow. Obviously Drake Callender was kind of like the lockdown starter, but they've. They started with. What's his name, Oscar Starry. He got sent off and they've, yeah, just had a couple of issues. Really good, really good in the midfield. Sergio Busquets is just absolutely shutting everything down. They are second highest percentage of take ons against them resulting in a tackle. Second fewest progressive carries allowed, second fewest carries into the box allowed, second best tackle rate most defensive errors forced. They, they do absolutely nothing in the attack. In third, everything is, is middle third. It's purely, you know, that, that screen where Busquets takes over. But they did miss Federico Redondo with a hamstring injury at the weekend. So it'd be interesting to see how they manage his load if he's available for the next, well, three games, the two Vancouver games and the Dallas game in between. [00:38:40] Speaker A: I. The game, the game that I watched, I was super impressed with their young. I think he's a homegrown center back. Noah Allen, really impressive player. Not very big for a center back, but he's only 20 years old. I think he's only like 5, 9, 5, 10, whatever. Like kids. Pretty impressive. [00:39:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:02] Speaker C: 20 years old times 21 the day after the game. [00:39:06] Speaker A: Oh well. Happy birthday to Noah Wyo. No, no, Allen. Sorry. [00:39:10] Speaker B: He's out of their academy. Yeah, yeah, you're right. [00:39:13] Speaker C: Oh, and they have fafa Pico so we might get angry fafa again. [00:39:18] Speaker A: You know what, let me say this. I've watched this team a few times and every time I see fafa play, he actually looks really good. He. He's working his ass off. What slow feet, don't eat or whatever he used. He is living that one hard. And I, I've probably seen him play better in small little portions more for Miami than I think I can remember him ever playing here in Dallas or Houston or wherever else he's played. Probably helps when you're got Jordy Alba behind you, so that's fair. [00:39:50] Speaker C: I think it'll be interesting as well now that Santi Morales has made two appearances this season to say just to see a brief FC Dallas Academy player kind of. [00:40:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:03] Speaker C: Come back. [00:40:04] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. All right, well, that is Sunday, that game. And Buzz, what do you think Eric's going to try to do for a starting lineup? [00:40:14] Speaker B: Well, I think. [00:40:15] Speaker A: Well, hold on, before we do this, let's talk about the injury situation because I think that obviously leads into this. [00:40:21] Speaker B: Okay. [00:40:22] Speaker A: And the big question on everybody's mind is that now Leo Chu turned up injured. I think that was a surprise to us when the injury list came out. We weren't aware of that, were we? Do we. And does anybody know what the injury is? [00:40:34] Speaker B: We don't know. Something in the knee. It just says knee and I. When I Tried to find out like they, they, they didn't even have real info that was available anyway for exactly what it was that. We know Newman's an acl, but. [00:40:45] Speaker A: And he's done for the season, obviously. [00:40:47] Speaker B: I mean, they didn't say that. But if you do an ACL in April, you're not coming back, right, this year. I mean, that's actually gonna be a real question going forward is what they're going to do about. Because now they have no backup. [00:40:58] Speaker A: Right? [00:40:58] Speaker B: The minute there's no backup outside backs. [00:41:00] Speaker A: I noticed on the injury report they had far fan listed down is out and his injury listed as legs. Which seems like a really, really bad problem to have if you're a professional soccer player. [00:41:12] Speaker B: I'm disappointed that this current coaching staff andor training staff has decided to go with the lower body injury type injury reports. You know, I mean, like to say Newman just say knee. It's like, do we know it's an acl? It's like just say that. You know, legs. We know he had compartment. They even told us it was compartment syndrome operations. [00:41:32] Speaker A: So what was Abraham Lincoln's injury? Head. [00:41:35] Speaker B: Head. [00:41:39] Speaker A: Legs. I love the fact that it's plural. Legs. It's very funny. All right, so let's. All right, so legit, obviously is out. We knew they've been very forthright about him being out, but there's a great run of mystery about the status of one Peter Musa. And I think, well, you tell the story, Buzz. [00:41:56] Speaker B: Well, there was some word that like, it was like, oh, you know, it's precautionary. Like if the plants were today, he could go or whatever. But then I heard chatter behind the scenes that he would be out eight weeks. So like, you know what the official word is or the quasi official word is versus some chatter we're gonna see. I'm kind of getting the vibe that he's not playing this week either. I would be ecstatic for that vibe to be wrong, for that chatter to be wrong. But, you know, we're just gonna have to play it by ear, which is that simple though. It's Logan Ferrington or it's Musa. One or the other. You know, if it's Moose are great. If it's Ferrington, that's fine too. [00:42:28] Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean, there's a pretty significant difference between those. [00:42:31] Speaker B: No, but if he's talking about the lineup, it's like it's a. That's a no brainer. It's like one or the other. But, you know, if it's Moose is Available, he's playing. You know what I mean? So. But at the same time, like, if you're going to go to Miami, you know, you may not fancy your chances anyway, so, like, why rush it, you know, Let the kid play. So we'll just have to see what Moussa turns out at the end of the week, you know, and so go in and make your. Anyone out there who's a gambler, make your gambles appropriately not knowing who's going to play. [00:42:57] Speaker A: Man, I. When I saw that happen and I was on the side watching that game and watching them stretcher him over there, I thought. And watching him not be able to put any weight on it. I know we talked about this last week. I thought for sure he was out for two months solid. So when they said it was just a minor deal and it was just no big thing and he'd be back in a week or so, I was like, I. Man, that would shock me. [00:43:18] Speaker B: That did not look like an out of week injury to me either. But you know, like, when a guy has to get stretchered off on a sprained ankle, like, instantly. Not like I'm gonna run around for five minutes and now I gotta go out. No, no, like, he instantly was like, I'm out. So whatever, we'll. We'll see what happens on that. There's not so much transparency right now in injuries, so. [00:43:36] Speaker A: Well, I would. I would not surprise me to see him miss these road. These three road games and skip the Open cup game and maybe come back around, you know, May 10th for the salt Lake. [00:43:45] Speaker B: No way. You play with the Open cup game. [00:43:47] Speaker A: Or the Houston game, but. And if he's back before then, I think that'll be some. Some quick healing. [00:43:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:54] Speaker A: Based on my. [00:43:54] Speaker B: I would not play with the open game either way. [00:43:56] Speaker A: No. [00:43:57] Speaker B: All right. So Lucho Casa. I imagine we'll come back. I can't imagine that. Anderson. Julio is the only other real choice at this point. I mean, Leo Chu, even if it was healthy, it was been playing like ass. So you wouldn't put him in over Julio. I don't think Bernie's a mess still. Pedrinho was just okay in this game up in Minnesota. He didn't do very much. He didn't really have a lot of progressive play. At least he tried to go at some guys. I think he was like three for six maybe going at guys, but not a great game from him. So there's no reason why it won't be a cost on. Interesting. Julio again, the trick is in midfield, of course, Where I thought those three guys show Ramiro and Kaike last game was probably about the best set of three that you're going to get there with Legat still out for another month. You know, I, I, I am actually really tempted and would love to see them flip Kaik and Romero. Go ahead and do it. Let the kid play in. You know, let Romero be more progressive because he is more progressive. So I would love to see that flipped. But I'm not holding my breath. I think show outplayed Delgado. I would keep show in there, you know, if he, if he's, if he's perfectly fit. No, the back is obvious. Nolan and Moore, your only outside back ship available aide is your best player at this point. And then now Abubakar is hurt. Hurt is groin in the first half. So it's got to be Iaga and pause. So like you really don't have any choices, right? I mean with all the injuries you have, there's no choices to be made here unless you're going to rest guys and rotate and like, you know, decide that Ramiro Ramirez started every game and played a lot of minutes. Unless you're just gonna go, you know what, Diego Garcia, you're in. 18 year old Diego Garcia, go play against Messi and Busquets. Good luck, kid. Unless you're going to do that. Yeah, you know, you really don't have any choices. [00:45:47] Speaker A: Yeah. With Newman hurt, what is the fullback option? [00:45:50] Speaker B: Romero. You can't hear me shrugging because I have no idea. I mean, I don't, you know, you. [00:45:55] Speaker A: Have, there's not a North Texas kid. [00:45:57] Speaker B: Well, you got Malachi Molina, who's a very flying sort of Brian Reynolds genre outside back. But he's, he started like 10 games in his North Texas career. Like I, you know, that's like, that's taking it. The kids hasn't even graduated high school yet. You can throw them out there against Denver, Miami, you know. No, like, so if you need them like for a cup game or an emergency game, okay, sure. But like even in North Texas right now, Molina apparently like they don't do injury reports in North Texas. I have no idea why. Actually I do, but it's dumb. So I've heard that Molina actually has got a knock, so that wouldn't be a great choice. They've been starting a six at right back for that team because they don't have a right back because Molina's kind of banged up. All right, they've been starting at six at center back. So, but anyway, not to get too distracted like, they've had Diego Garcia up for, like, the last two games. I was hoping he's gonna get some minutes, but, like, what are you gonna do, start him? It's like Delgado got outplayed by Show. You're gonna put him in there. I mean, maybe. Maybe you go, Delgado, show and have a. Romero have a game off, but I don't think so. So there really are no decisions to be made in the lineup. The lineup makes itself. Unless you're going to do something crazy, like not play Lucho again, which doesn't make any sense. You know, I mean, if you guys have a suggestion for somebody you think could actually come in and help this team right now. Because I don't see anybody on the team. [00:47:17] Speaker A: No, I. That's why I'm asking you. You're the expert, not me. [00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:21] Speaker A: All right. Dallas travels. Remember, not Saturday, Sunday, it's an afternoon game on the Apple tv. Plus Dallas at Inter Miami, probably without Messi, at least for not a start. I'd be shocked if that. And that is at 4:00pm kickoff, 4:00pm all right, very good. Let's move on to other topics at hand. And we'll start with. As I look at the run sheet to make sure that I'm not missing. [00:47:48] Speaker C: Anything, the right crayon. Just follow the red crayon. [00:47:51] Speaker A: Let's see. Dallas Trinity got a 11 draw over for Lauderdale. This particular, they're in second place. The big news is that Misimo is out for the full season after telling us they were only out. She was only out for a couple of weeks. Now she's had foot surgery and she's done for the year or the season? [00:48:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, they tried to rehab it, and obviously it seems like it didn't work because they changed their mind and she's done for the season. You know, they said that she'll be back for next season, which starts in, like, August or September or something. So, remember, they're on the calendar. [00:48:27] Speaker A: Bummer. [00:48:28] Speaker B: Yep. So they're gonna have to try and figure out how to play without her. Like, they gotta replace her, and the system was built for her. So, like, they got to figure out who they can put in there. That's a good question. I think Dan's right that Cameron Lancaster probably is the choice. They did cyph Fort Lauderdale one one. Fort Lauderdale's in fourth place. So that was an important point, even though it was at home. They only have two home games left out of their. And three road games out of five. Five games left. Regular season, finish the top four you make the playoffs and they're still in second place, so they're still in a good position. But those top four teams are pretty tight after that. It drops off a bit. So like you just got to keep grinding and stay in the top four and hope you get a chance in the playoffs without missing. That's going to be tough. But they've had some couple other pieces they've added over the last month or so that have been a nice addition. So they're doing a good job picking up bodies and circulating that roster and put themselves in a good position. [00:49:20] Speaker A: Well, I mean, how many games did M actually play for this team? Five? [00:49:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, maybe that and honestly, three of them really weren't anything. [00:49:30] Speaker A: I mean, I, I, I think it's a blow for them to lose her because she's obviously a threat and a lot of hype and everything like that, but they've gotten to where they were this season, largely without her. [00:49:41] Speaker B: Yeah, but when they signed her, they rebuilt the shape and the tactic around her. [00:49:45] Speaker A: Okay. [00:49:46] Speaker B: Took up a couple of games to get it figured out and then once they got it figured out dialed in, they were flying and then now she's gone. So it's like, okay, do we, do we just try and replace her with a body? Remember, they let, they don't have Dan, who's the Portland girl? [00:50:00] Speaker C: Portland? [00:50:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:01] Speaker C: You mean Sam Mesa? [00:50:02] Speaker B: Sam Meza. Thank you. Oh, Seattle, Portland, whatever. Same thing. They don't have Sam Bez anymore. Who watched the previous. [00:50:09] Speaker A: You're gonna get a, you're gonna get some hate email Buzz. I'm sorry. [00:50:12] Speaker C: Yeah, she actually just signed for Seattle at the weekend. [00:50:15] Speaker B: She did, but like that's what I'm saying. Like Missima replaced Mesa. Mesa was the body, not the body. She's a better player than that. That was the person they brought in alone for the first half of the season until they got Misimo place. Right. So they put the teams built around that kind of. She was a slightly different player, but it was similar. So when they SW had missimo come, when they switched to a back three, they put her in and installed her as like the 10 and basically a three man midfield. They got that straightened out and then now she's gone. So now you got to figure out who can be a 10 in my team or do I change systems because they were, they were a 3, 4, 3 until they figured M out as a 3, 5, 2. And so that's the only thing. It's like, okay, I got five games left to figure out what the Hell, I'm doing and get in the playoffs and make some noise. So it's a tough, tough questions for the coach, but she's done a really nice job all year. That coach has. [00:50:58] Speaker C: I think honestly the bigger concern for them is health in the back. They've had so many issues in a defensive line of injuries. You've got Hannah Davison down, you know, just went off of injury. That's going to be a huge concern. She has a huge part of that backline and there is really not a lot in, in support. You know, they had Kiara Gilmour and Jordan Hardiman go off to college one year. Hudson went back from her loan. So they are, you know. Yeah, they just, they signed athlete Palomo last week. But yeah, they, they're an injury away from kind of the house of cars falling down. [00:51:42] Speaker B: It always feels like, yeah, dead roster. Well, we've heard that before. [00:51:47] Speaker A: All right, Lexington at the Cotton bowl. Next up. [00:51:51] Speaker C: Well, more Importantly, Ali Thornton. First player in USL Super League history to hit 10 goals. [00:51:58] Speaker A: Very nice. Dig it. All right, North Texas lost a game and have a game on Wednesday. [00:52:06] Speaker B: Yeah, they dropped a, they first came back to tie that game against Rapids 2 at 2 to 2, but then they give them a 92nd minute scramble. They do have a game on Wednesday against the Quakes reserves which is called the Town, but that's the last place team in the league. But they need a get well game because they got a bunch of guys either missing for Dallas cup or GA cup or guys that are injured and we don't know about but only find out later that oh, that guy's got a knock, that guy's got a knock. They're playing dudes out of position trying to patchwork something together. So that team is a bit of a mess right now. And plus they got guys that are getting called up for Dallas games even though they're not playing. You know, Diego Garcia was down there, now he's back up with the first team. Anthony Ramirez was down there, he's backing with the first team. So guys are traveling to Minnesota and then flying back the next day and playing on the day they fly back. Now that's the right way to do it in terms of like if I want a guy on the bench and doesn't play, then I'm going to get in minutes. But it's tough to fly back in the morning and then play in that evening. So they're a bit of a shake up right now, but they're still in fourth place. So they, they, they got a, you know, A game this week that they're going to have to try and patchwork it together again so hopefully they can get it goes. [00:53:12] Speaker A: Congratulations to Texoma as they got their very first point and they did it at Matt at forward Madison. So congratulations to them. That's a stunning shining moment in the young club's history. [00:53:26] Speaker B: Yeah, you'll love this. Bradilla came in and he's the one that got the goal, that got the tie, got him the point and the starting forward on the bench got two yellow cards in about five seconds on the bench and we'll be out again. Red got a yellow and then immediately. [00:53:43] Speaker A: Got another yellow while he was on the bench. [00:53:45] Speaker B: On the bench. Bang, bang. [00:53:47] Speaker A: What do you say to a referee? How stupid do you gotta be? [00:53:52] Speaker B: I don't know what he said but man, he got a quick, quick papa and he was out. So he'll be out next game. So probably our man Brad Padilla probably have to play about to start with them this next game coming up. So obviously he's very talented but he definitely is an MLS caliber talent that that just had his career come off the rails from all the injuries and we'll never be that level but now, but still is very talented for that group. [00:54:15] Speaker A: All right. They have a, A USL cup game, group stage game this weekend against El Paso. So I'll be interested hear what kind of turnout they have for that particular, that particular thing. I wanted to update everybody because this is some changes or updates has transpired since we talked about this last week. Obviously the story about the Highland park team having to forfeit the state fund final, there was lots of speculation about what the cause of that was. And initially word was is it had something to do with the time, you know, like the. The window of time for eligibility flipping later in the day than the game was being played. Well, subsequent to that we have been told I've been doing some investigation and learning about this and has also been supported by something that Bevan Ryan, the widow of Bobby Ryan and the father and the father, father, the mother of Jake Ryan who's actually on the team that it's even more obscure than that. It is almost unbelievably the player in question was ineligible because he was taking a class that at the state level is considered an honors course. But Highland Park ISD has a list of classes that they do not consider are honors courses that the state, state does and this is one of those classes. And what you should know is that if you're in an honors course you can get down to a 60, a grade of 60 and still be considered passing or eligible versus a regular class. So the difference between biology and AP biology is the 10 point swing in the grade. So the gist of it is, and this seems ridiculous, that if this same kid had been playing for another team and gotten the same grade in the same class, he would have been eligible. But because he was playing at Highland park and whatever standard they set for themselves, he's deemed ineligible. Now what's happened is, is on Thursday of last week, the parents, who were obviously very upset about this, went and met with the school board, the Highland Park School board, to urge them to file an appeal with the uil. Because I've been told by multiple people that these types of things get appealed all the time at uil. And UIL regularly overturns them because they understand kind of the wonkiness of the nature of these things. And there's a good chance Highland park would get it turned over and regain the championship. But the school board is sticking to their guns and refusing to do it. And do not be surprised if a lawsuit isn't coming and soon. [00:56:56] Speaker C: The moral of the story is money can't buy sense. [00:57:02] Speaker A: Well, here's the thing. I feel bad for all the kids and I do think it is ridiculous that the standard. And let me also say this, and kind of doing some talking to people and reporting on this, finding out the number of loopholes that school districts have created for themselves to allow students to play and not worry about becoming ineligible is horrifying. Like, I talked to one guy that told me there are school districts that put kids in honors classes because in that district, it's not a grade thing. If you're in an honors class, it's considered an exempt class. And because the state defers to whatever the district's rules are versus the state rule, school districts put kids in these honors classes that don't need to be in them because it doesn't make any difference if they get 100, a 70 or a 21, they still get to play because they're not ineligible because they're in an honors class. [00:58:04] Speaker B: Wow. [00:58:05] Speaker A: Isn't that crazy? [00:58:07] Speaker B: It's definitely crazy. [00:58:09] Speaker A: So anyway, I. I don't think we've heard the last of this, by the way. [00:58:13] Speaker B: No, I would bet not. Yeah, I bet not. [00:58:15] Speaker A: Just so everybody know Bevin Ryan, lawyer. [00:58:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:58:24] Speaker A: And the thing that she posted on Social about this very lawyer esque, let. [00:58:28] Speaker C: Me say that I think when your son assists, one of the goals probably becomes a bit more of a high priority. Too. [00:58:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And by the way, Jake went on to win a Dallas cup title this weekend and played. He's playing with Solar, not FC Dallas and he's playing for Solar and they won a Dallas cup title. And some really cool pictures of Bevin, Jake, his brother Andy Swift down on the field with Bobby's memorial sign up at the press box behind them in the background. Really, really cool stuff. So we'll see where that goes. Okay. I just want to throw that out there. I'm trying to think. Anything else we want to talk about tonight? Are we done? [00:59:11] Speaker B: I think that's about it. [00:59:13] Speaker C: They added another World cup team base camp. So DFW has 6 now, which is 3 more than any other city in the US Canada or Mexico. [00:59:27] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:59:29] Speaker B: I saw that FC Dallas replied to somebody on social media that they're going to put up a construct construction cam. It's live feed so people can check it out. [00:59:40] Speaker A: I gotta tell you, the scenes, the scenes of them starting to do demolition while a Dallas cup game is being played was pretty ridiculous, I hope. You know what, that could be a really interesting bit to do demolition during FC Dallas games. [00:59:56] Speaker B: That'd be cool. [00:59:56] Speaker A: That'd be kind of like the new Lone Star construction workers guy knocking down. [01:00:00] Speaker B: Crabber in the middle. [01:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah, why not? [01:00:02] Speaker B: Yeah, why not? It's like a dinner in a show. [01:00:06] Speaker A: Did everybody else cheer when you saw the advocare sign come down? [01:00:09] Speaker B: People enjoyed that clip. That was fun. [01:00:11] Speaker A: Yeah, pretty good. [01:00:12] Speaker B: Third Degree, the podcast is brought to you by listeners like you. If you enjoy 3rd Degree, the podcast or any of our work@third degree.net or on social media, our coverage of all the professional teams in the Dallas area, including us. Dallas. Why not support us on Patreon? Patreon.com thirddegree Contribute any amount you want. If you go up to the three amigos level, you can join our amazing discord, the great community. We're growing there. That's patreon.com third degree thanks again for your support. [01:00:39] Speaker A: All right, well, I think we've done it. Good stuff, guys. Dan, you got anything else? No. [01:00:46] Speaker C: Good. I think we're. I think we're all just a bit tired from Dallas cup, aren't we? [01:00:50] Speaker A: Yes, for sure. Well, I hope construction on your new only dance studio goes well. [01:00:55] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:00:57] Speaker A: Sounds like they're finished for the night. And Buzz, Hope Dallas cup was good to you, sir. [01:01:03] Speaker B: It's not bad. It wasn't the best one ever because the schedule but it was pretty good. [01:01:07] Speaker A: I hope it was better for you than it was Chad Dearing. All right, well, thank you, everybody. And thank you, North Texas, DFW area curious soccer fan. We will speak to you next week. Don't edit that out. Buzz. [01:01:22] Speaker B: Get to work on that. Yeah. [01:01:24] Speaker A: On the next episode of Third degree, the podcast. [01:01:27] Speaker C: Sorry, Chad, please don't sue. [01:01:30] Speaker A: Third degree, the third degree N podcast. Third degree, the third degree N podcast. Third degree, the third degree Ne Pocket ca.