3rd Degree the Podcast #311

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree Ned podcast 3rd degree the 3rd degree N podcast 3rd degree the 3rd Degree N podcast 3rd degree 3rd degree 3rd degree. [00:00:26] Speaker A: The podcast is brought to you by listeners like you. If you enjoy Third Degree, the podcast, or any of our coverage on thirddegree.net or our social media work, why don't you want to say patreon.com thirddegree give us a little support, whatever level. You might like to lend a helping hand. If you join us at the Three Amigos level, you can join our terrific Discord community and all the great fans there. Third degree.netpatreon.com third degree thanks again for your support. [00:00:51] Speaker B: Well, hello there, DFW area soccer curious human being. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. Today on the production, we've got a couple of FC Dallas games to talk about. Dallas Trinity's big oopsie and how much that's going to impact their playoff chances. And also, Texoma was back in action versus a recent FC Dallas foe. We'll get to all of that here in just a few minutes. But there he is, first off, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:25] Speaker C: Hello. [00:01:26] Speaker B: Hello to you, too. And your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of thirddegree.net and the original so soccer influencer himself, it is, Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Hey, Peter. See you mixing the Curious back in like people like that. I guess. [00:01:44] Speaker B: I guess it's just gonna have to stick. Yeah, we gotta land on some. I don't want to workshop it forever, Buzz. [00:01:50] Speaker A: You're gonna change it up every week. [00:01:52] Speaker B: No, I think. I think that's it. I think I. I thought about it a lot while I was running around, and I think we'll. We'll leave the Curious in, because that's funny to me, and we'll just broaden the curiosity to the full Dallas Fort Worth pro soccer spectrum. [00:02:09] Speaker A: The full spectrum. Yeah. I'm with you. [00:02:11] Speaker B: Yes. How about them apples? All right. Very good, boys. Well, as predicted, we. Or as mentioned, we've got lots of action to talk about. First off, two FC Dallas games, the Open cup win over Av Alta, and the very frustrating home draw against Real Salt Lake. Buzz, let's talk about the Open cup game first as Dallas went on to win that one. Although I think it was frustrating in its own kind of way, wasn't it? [00:02:42] Speaker A: Oh, well, wait. What do you think? What did you think it was frustrating? [00:02:44] Speaker B: Well, based on now, I. I should say this. I didn't see the game. I just think I read the reviews and watched Some highlights. I. I was under the impression that maybe Dallas could play a little better and be a little bit. But maybe I just didn't see it and I don't. That's why you should tell everybody how the game just don't listen to me. [00:03:04] Speaker A: Well, you know, three, one win. I. I think there, you know, a little bit of rotation. Not very aggressive. Quill, obviously, I think, you know, based on the people that played, is taking the cup pretty seriously. You know, he could have rested Lucha Acosta and didn't. Could have rested and didn't. Could have rested Romero and didn't. Although Romero's going to have the weekend off. But we talked about the idea of playing the same way you want to play on the weekend, you know, so you can sort of get used to the. The way you're going to play. Interestingly, Ibiaka was sick and so Lawless Abubakar got to start and look pretty good. So good, in fact, that I thought he should start on the weekend. And Bernie Camigo was in for Anderson. Julio and Bernie played, you know, fairly well, I think, and it probably ended up being why he started on the weekend. Not that we'll get to that game in a bit, but I think the real revolution of that game was the. The Lucho Costa issue sort of seems to continue. Even though, you know, it looked better against a team like that, a team like avialta, who's a USL1 team. You know, there was still a lot of times where. [00:04:16] Speaker B: I hope so. Yeah, there was USL 1 team. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Right. There were still a lot of times though that, you know, Lucha would get the ball and he would just sort of dribble forward. Except against this team, of course. He was able to beat a couple of people, but those, you know, there wasn't a lot of like interconnected passing up in the front. You know, the. The ball. The one thing I did like about that game is that the ball from FC Dallas was moving very sharply and very quickly. But again, granted, there's more space at this level against this kind of team. So, you know, I think it basically was a they took care of business kind of night, did what they had to do to get a win against a not very good team with a little bit of rotation. [00:04:58] Speaker B: Oh, yes. And they had a bit of a scare in the goal. They did give up, by the way. [00:05:01] Speaker A: Yeah, Michael Collode got the start and he got caught, you know, out and they scored about a 60 yard goal. You know, he does play a very high line colode. He comes way out like that. I've not seen him get caught that way before, but, you know, probably a lesson learned there. And to play a little bit deeper, he was pretty solid other than that. You can really see the quality in his feet. And I thought it was really nice to see Diego Garcia get a run out. Who's the, you know, one for the future? He's still only 18 years old, so no, not a real rush on him, but, you know, is a kid that you want to start to see get in the mix a little bit. So, you know, overall a pretty solid night, you know, but. But not like earth shakingly great. Just, you know, went about their business in a lot of ways. [00:05:47] Speaker B: Dan, that is Buzz's recap as Dallas now advances to play Red Bull in a, in a bit short period of time. And you got any observations or reactions to the game? [00:05:59] Speaker C: I mean, it's, it's kind of a, it's a tough one to judge, really. It's a potential banana skin. They won the game. Between the two games this week, they rotated through a lot of players. So, you know, some. A good number of players got some form of rest or other. Yeah, Collodi got his, his little scare position and maybe not really the big deal as much as how, how he kind of addressed the ball. It looked like he was just figured the shot was going wide and then realized, oh, I actually do have to chase that down now. Good to see Diego get, get his. His debut. You know, a year after we talked about how, how good he was in preseason, he. His face must have been hurt and he was trying so hard to talk through a smile. And Quill had a great quote afterwards where he said, I don't really care if he makes mistakes because the. How much he hustles to get behind the ball, something, something. And then he used the word warriorhood, which is a new one to me. [00:07:02] Speaker B: Yes, I saw that somewhere. Where do we need to break that word down and figure out what that means? [00:07:08] Speaker C: I mean, it was, that was all it was. It was like it's how hard he hustles to get back. He's just a, a worker. Like it doesn't matter too much if he's gonna turn the ball over because let's see what he said. Okay. Yeah. So if you look at what his response to turnovers was, nobody gets behind the ball harder and faster than he does. So that's his response. Mentality is top level. And that's why I don't worry about his mistakes because of the warrior hood behind it. [00:07:38] Speaker B: That's all they have a new shirt. [00:07:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Warriorhood. Yeah. You think about how to do that one. [00:07:44] Speaker C: I mean, you know, for an 18 year old kid to be like, hey, look, he's going to make mistakes. But like he, he's more than making up for it in his response. He's not letting his head drop. That's, that's incredible in itself, Buzz. [00:07:56] Speaker B: It should be in the old English font they've been using in their promo items with the weird fade on the first few letters warri. That render it almost unreadable more times than not. But that would be funny to me. [00:08:09] Speaker A: One other quick takeaway from that game actually too, is that in the second half, Romero went to right back and thus we answered that question of who the hell is going to play right back if they really need one. Except they did need one and it wasn't him because he was suspended in the next game. And then we got to see our first look at Kaik as a straight up six single pivot six. Because you know, they had him in there and it's the same formation but him in the middle in the, in the usual Romero spot. So those two things happen in the Open cup game that were at least noteworthy to, to write down. [00:08:41] Speaker C: Yeah, the fullbacks. That was interesting seeing team Ramirez, he played well at right back. Granted Division 1 up as Division 1 opposition, but was kind of like that John Terry style like, oh, sorry, Gary Neville style, like, I'm not gonna race past you, but I'm my, my position in my read on the game is so superior to just about anyone on the field that I'm. I'm gonna get in the right spots for it. [00:09:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Ramiro Norris, outside combination, outside back combination. Might be one of the slower ones we've seen. [00:09:14] Speaker C: I don't know. I think, I think Lalas and Nolan on Saturday had him. [00:09:19] Speaker A: Might have been slower. Yeah, yeah, might have been. Might have been. [00:09:22] Speaker B: Yeah. Romero, the brains versus brawn thing. All of us guys in the over 50 league talk about all the time. It's better to be smart than super fit. Okay, the other thing I was going to mention about the game. Oh, first off, Kaik finish, by the way, I thought that was nicely taken. His goal game, that was really. They said the attendance was I think either 48 or 4900. With either one. No. Oh, Dan's, Dan's shaking his head. Oh, Dan's shaking his head. [00:09:54] Speaker C: Nah, I wasn't even close to that. There may have been like 3,000 of the stadium tops. Yeah, the, the east side was Pretty empty, maybe. You know, if you say it's what, 20 people in a row? There were maybe like four people on each. [00:10:09] Speaker B: Yeah. I had this thing in my head that because the team did so, made so little effort to promote it and encourage people to go to be there for the game. What would have happened if 11,000 people showed up? Would they have had the staff to handle that in terms of concession and security and. [00:10:26] Speaker A: Probably not, because I'm sure they were. [00:10:28] Speaker C: Yeah, actually. Yeah. Because, you know, in the past when they had the full stadium, they just opened up the east side and it was minimal concessions. Yeah, they had the whole damn thing open as if it was an MLS game. [00:10:41] Speaker A: Any objection to FC Dallas claiming a certain number of sellouts in a row when one of the games in the middle of it was the Open cup game with 3000 people there? Does that bother you at all or do you think there's a fair to count home games? [00:10:54] Speaker B: I have given up on trying to police how any professional sports team or league counts, quote, unquote, sellouts. I think that is such a janky, loophole filled label that everybody gives themselves. I hate it. I mean, there hasn't been a true. I mean, you know, yes, there have been a string of sellouts, but when was the last time you went to an FC Dallas game and it looked like there was 99 to 100% of everybody there? And the last one I can think of is the Messi game. [00:11:24] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe a fourth of July game. Maybe, maybe, maybe. [00:11:28] Speaker B: I don't think I was at the last fourth of July game, but I just, you know, I just. It's how everybody does it. You remember all those times Houston were running around telling everybody they had a string of sellouts and we'd see it on television and the place wasn't even half full or like. [00:11:42] Speaker A: Well, to be fair too, the current 12,000 seat limit is easy. Is easy, quote, unquote, to sell out, you know. [00:11:47] Speaker B: Oh, sure. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Circumstances. So it's maybe a slightly, I think, jaded stat. [00:11:52] Speaker C: I think, if anything, we just, we learned how many season ticket holders there are on Wednesday. [00:11:59] Speaker B: H. Interesting. [00:11:59] Speaker C: I hadn't thought, because that is your tickets distributed, right? [00:12:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So Dallas does that, as I said. When is the game against Red Bull? [00:12:09] Speaker C: Wednesday 21st. [00:12:11] Speaker B: Okay. That's a big day because that's the day spurs and United play in the Europa League final. So. All right, so we'll preview that when we get closer to that. I guess that's next week. We'll do that at that time. So Saturday Dallas has a home game against Real Salt Lake. Don't forget, this is the team that got a red card against Dallas back at, at the previous time they met each other. And Dallas played a man advantage for what, 60 minutes of that game? [00:12:43] Speaker A: Yeah, 58, 60, something like that. [00:12:45] Speaker B: And that's chalked up is to one of the few wins of the season for the team. And so Salt Lake comes to town and has some. Let's talk about the, the starting lineup first. Buzz. [00:12:56] Speaker A: Yeah, a bit of confusion because you know the social media crew, the digital media crew for FC Dallas doesn't really get detailed information. They just look at the players that are listed and try and do something with it. So the fact that there were three center backs on the starting lineup, they drew it up as a 3, 4, 3, which is a formation quite fairly we saw two weeks ago. And so we were all like, there's no way Quill's going back to that after. How? Because it was the one we saw against San Diego. There was a debacle. That can't be right. Well, it turned out that it was a back four with Lawless Abubakar playing right back. And in the post game show, on the radio show for the team, we found out that Shaq Moore had some tightness in his hamstring, so was on the bench. But obviously was just as an emergency I suppose because they didn't want to start him and they really didn't want to put him in, which could have come up late in the game. In fact, Ramiro was suspended. So we got to see Kaik as the straight up six with show and Se. And then the other weird thing was that I guess because of Bernie's relatively good game in the Open Cup, Logan Feringer got dropped and Berman Arcamugo played up top. But that basically makes it a nine list formation because Bernie plays on the left and Anderson who plays on the right in this particular case, and Lucia Casa was most of the time sort of a false nine playing in the middle, especially defensively. Now those guys move around a lot up front of course, flip flopping sides and all that stuff, but it was basically a nineless formation. It did not work very well in that sense. They only had seven shots on target. Sorry, not on target. Only seven shots total and only two of them on target. And that's being up from the 58th minute on Dan with the red card. So there's still a pretty significant disconnect between the back to the front. Norris is the only really effective guy that can build out of the back. And so like they're heavily going out of the upper left and the other team knows that, so they're keying that side. Abubakar had like, just like Shaq Moore had huge swaths of the field all by himself over there on the right. And Abubakar is not really a vertical kind of player. Now in the middle of the week, I said Abu Car should start over Ibiaga. Well, he got the start, but it wasn't over Ibiaka. It was over Shaq Moore for the injury. So you end up with a lot of lump it up to the front to Acosta. And bizarrely, he seems to be limiting who he'll pass to. And maybe not even just him, maybe everybody, because Bernie only had 14 passes sent his way for a grand total of like 18, maybe 17 or 18 touches total. And then Peter Musa subbed into the game at like the 60th minute or 70th minute, maybe played 20 minutes. And he had just as many touches as Bernie the whole game. So clearly like, you know what, what Bernie does when he gets the wall is okay, but nobody wants to give him the wall. And maybe it's because he had three turnovers in those 18 touches, but he also had almost as many, you know, creative creations as Lucio Acosta did too, in that same amount of time. So you're getting kind of a hit or miss deal with him. And maybe that's why no one wants to pass on the ball. But if you're going to play without one of your players, you're sort of making yourself a man down, self inflicted by not using all nine, 11 of your players. So that was really weird to me to watch that happen in this game, watch how little Bernie was involved, you know, not from lack of being in the wrong spot or anything, just like no one passed it to him. It's really weird. [00:16:20] Speaker B: Dan, your observations. [00:16:25] Speaker C: Strangely narrow. Really struggled when rail Salt Lake started to press. Call did say one of his big adjustments that he, he liked personally was he'd gone from the 4312 to 4231. Just basically brought the eight back into like a narrow double pivot with Kaiko. Show was horrendous. Really the best part of the game. Oh, Diego Luna's goal was fantastic despite the whiffed clearance that kind of led to it. I can't remember who it was. I think it might have been Urikide, actually. But yeah, that effort was fantastic. Most important part obviously was, was Paxton. [00:17:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I was gonna mention that I'll save it to the last. Diego Luna's goal was top notch and that's the kind of stuff that he's capable of doing. And I'm sure Salt Lake fans are frustrated that they're not. They're not better. [00:17:32] Speaker C: They did really well to keep him quiet after that. The second half he was, you know, he was pushed out so far wide just because they gave him nothing in the middle. [00:17:43] Speaker B: I turned the. I was out of town and I happened to forget because of the time change difference that the game had started and I popped it on at about the 15th, 20th minute and I watched it through halftime and I thought first off I could not figure out what formation the team was playing for all the reasons you mentioned, Buzz, because what a weird midfield three that he's got in there between ensembling Kaike and show like that just feels like death to me. [00:18:09] Speaker A: Those guys all got bypassed considerably. [00:18:11] Speaker B: Like there's. Yeah. And then it's just more of man, look, I. I don't want to be that guy, but I'm gonna. I just think this team is terrible. I. They can't get the ball past midfield with any consistency. The Lucho Acosta problem is. It's more than a problem, Buzz. This is like a full on health crisis. It's bad. It's not, It's. You know, I was watch. I was reading through Doyle's top 20 thing today and Doyle's entry for FC Dallas just said I'm done trying to figure out what this team's trying to do. And I agree with him because I just. Yeah, I know everybody thinks this is better than Nico Ball and I'm sure in many ways for many people it is. But to me it's just another mediocre season that they may or may not. May or may not make the playoffs. And I don't see the pie pieces in. In this roster. That means this team's going to correct it and turn into some sort of playoff contender. Now all of that said, all of that was wiped away and I just felt nothing but happiness and joy and glee and the sports tier When Paxton Palm McCall stepped on the field and played really, really well for the short amount of time he was on the field. I just thought that was the best part. Every. Everything else was crap. But it doesn't make any difference because Paxton played again. [00:19:32] Speaker A: Yeah, Paxton's passing was phenomenal. Just when he came in, he instantly enlivened the game. He did his old thing. He always does. Where he sneaks up behind guys and pokes the ball away. He was doing that, you know, Trademark Paxton. Yeah, you know, just his command of the field and his presence in the field was so significant compared to ensembling in the middle. You know, granted they fade. They changed formations to a 4231 and. And they were up a man when he came in. So low pressure, you know, not. We shouldn't get carried away with the limited minutes. He got in a limited pressure situation. Like we were going to be really excited about what he's going to provide down the line but like over the next week or two, we shouldn't get carried away thinking like it's going to revolutionize the team. You know, there's basically from the back four, there's really not much ability to play out and Lucho Casa is not really connecting with anyone up front and there's really no connectivity through the middle. It's kind of a one dimensional team and it has been all year. You know, they really are desperate to get some eights in there like Paxton, like Sebastian Legette perhaps, you know, and get some connectivity and. And it'll be a fascinating question over the next month to watch those two guys versus show versus Delgado, who seems to be following really far down the bench, versus Siki versus Kike versus Romero, like who's going to get in there and who in the world and how the world is the front going to work? Because you could. Quill was raving about his favorite formation, the 4, 2, 3, 1 for the last part of the game. But again they were up a man. So like it looks amazing, great. But they still didn't score, they still didn't create a lot of chances and they still tied at home against the team behind them in the playoffs. Not the playoffs, in the standings. Excuse me. So like you're supposed to beat teams like that on your home field. You're supposed to beat a team on your home field when you're up a man. So they clearly have major problems and Quill is obviously really grasping at straws trying to figure out what to do. But what you're looking at is a team that wasn't built with a plan. It's just a bunch of players poured into a bag and tossed on the manager's desk. And he's got to try and figure out what to do with it. There's no cohesion, there's no clearly defined pieces that are supposed to play this, that way, that way that fits some sort of scheme. It's just a bunch of pieces put together in a bag. And it's like, it's not. It's no wonder it doesn't have any cohesive flow or shape or concept and that he has no idea what to do with them. [00:21:51] Speaker C: He was so close to saying, dudes, I was gonna say, actually, yeah, Quilted. Say that he feels like Paxton's gonna make it a completely different team with the quality he brings and linking up play from the midfield. So eventually, you've obviously. Yeah, I mean, you've obviously still got. You've still got to make that connection, Lucho, to. To better Musa, the wings, to better me. So however you want that to go. But, you know, obviously he's going to start factoring in a little bit more 10 minutes on Saturday. Maybe it's 20 next, maybe it's 30, and, you know, create those opportunities to get. Get in games late. [00:22:32] Speaker B: My other observation, and I saw this in the highlight when I went back to watch the highlights, and if you go watch the ones either the league or the team put out there, there's a moment where Lucho and Musa. Musa's on the field at this point, and they're at midfield, and Lucho. I think it's. Lucho makes a kind of a square ball that he. I think he thinks is supposed to go to Musa or somebody else. And it just is immediate turnover. And the reaction is absolutely zero effort from either Acosta or Moussa to chase back and help recover the ball. They both stand there and look with their thumbs up their ass and that. This is something I'm starting to see more and more out of different personalities on this team. And I think Quill's starting to have a problem with people acting. What's the. What's this favorite thing to call these. These players? [00:23:22] Speaker A: Dogs. [00:23:23] Speaker B: Dog. Yeah. Well, whatever that means. I'm not seeing out of some of these guys on the team. And it starts with Acosta, and I. I believe that's a problem for him moving forward. That. When I saw that in the highlight, that drove me nuts. I just thought, that's unacceptable. [00:23:37] Speaker C: Lucho was walking around from about 10 minutes in. In the second half especially. He kept trying to play this dummy to nobody. He tried to play one to Musa at one point, and Musa was 15 yards away, like 15 yards further back down the field because he'd actually started the play. It was just. It's getting silly. [00:23:55] Speaker B: So is that a. Is that a. Is that his reaction to having. Having to play three games in seven days? Like, is he pissed that he got asked to Play in the Open cup game. And so he's just taking that out on everybody. I mean, I don't know the guy. I mean. [00:24:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. [00:24:12] Speaker B: Either that or he's just really tired. [00:24:16] Speaker C: You know, things that I. I hear are very much team player. What you see on the field isn't necessarily what's. What's happening in his mind or in, you know, in the locker room. Hopefully, that's just his petulant. I mean, Musa, you know, Musa's demeanor is very miserable. So him walking around. Yeah, that totally fits. Is that, like, indicative of he's miserable? No, but, you know, hopefully. Hopefully Lucho's similar. It would be really nice if he balanced out some of those frustrating moments with a moment of brilliance. But, you know, this is what people in Cincinnati said to expect. [00:24:58] Speaker B: Oh, and DC too, by the way, Buzz, this team is. Got one home win under its belt to show for itself this season. Yeah, it does have a remarkable road record, and that is a tremendous credit, but it also makes zero sense. And I do. And look, I. At some point, if this continues, the question has to be asked, is this in any way, shape, or form tied to the fact that the stadium is half empty? On any particular. On every. Like, is the lack of an atmosphere in the stadium and the fact that more than half of it is essentially a construction zone or a car lot having an effect on the players in some way when they walk out. [00:25:41] Speaker A: I mean, it certainly can't help but think it would have some sort of effect. Maybe they need to book themselves into a hotel on home games. [00:25:48] Speaker B: What is that? [00:25:49] Speaker A: Riding a bus together. Like it's a road game. [00:25:51] Speaker B: Oh, make it feel like a road. I see. [00:25:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:53] Speaker C: I mean, that. That's kind of like what Lucci used to go on about, creating those adversities. [00:26:02] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. It just seems weird to me that this is how this season's playing out, and maybe it all flips. I mean, you know. [00:26:10] Speaker A: Well, I think. I think there's a certain amount of frustration, even from the coaches. You know, when you see Michelle get a red card for saying something to the ref. I mean, obviously he's not going to get a red card that early in a game and have that level of frustration in a game if he's not already frustrated for something else. And pretty much every cutaway they had of Quill was him being like, what the is going on, like, almost always in response to his own team and something they were doing and a choice that was being made or a pass that wasn't being made or was being made or something happening on the field. So there's, there's a clearly a level of frustration, especially at home. You know, when you go on the road, maybe you have, you feel like you have this up us against the world mentality and then you come home and you're not feeling like this comfort level that you think you should have, or maybe you think it's going to be easy. And it's never easy. Even home games are tough in this league sometimes, especially when your stadium is not full. So it'll be interesting to see how long, Peter, you're right. How long this continues. Whether this goes all season this way or not, it'll be fascinating. [00:27:14] Speaker B: I, I just, you know, through the month of April, Dallas scored, they had the one game against Miami on the road that they scored four goals. But the Atlanta game, the Seattle game, the Minnesota game, the San Diego game, this and the Salt Lake game, they scored either one goal or no goals. And it, I, I, you know, we'll see. I don't know, man. [00:27:41] Speaker A: Part of the problem here is that this game is tough to really get a good read on because, you know, up a man, you should be able to control the game and they didn't. So it's like is, I don't know whether we should look at it as a massive indictment. Did they become lackadaisical because they were up a man like, oh, this should be easy, you know, anytime you change the dynamic. Clearly Salt Lake was not running a really low block. They were running a mid block. And that probably led to the decision not to use Farrington as a nine, but they'll give Bernie a chance. But they didn't get behind him at all. And other than when Anderson Julio did it himself and had that amazing power run and move and beat the whole team and score. You know, he's one of the few guys playing well really. [00:28:22] Speaker B: And it may still be too early to ask this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Is this a roster construction problem? Is this a manager problem? Is it both? [00:28:34] Speaker A: I think it's a, I think it's a roster construction problem. You know, Quill is a first year MLS coach, right? He's had a little pro lead guy experience, but not as much as a lot of people. But the thing is, is that we all know the end of the coaching pool this team is running in, right? So it's like you have to understand like the kind of candidates that would take this job. So I don't think you can look at Quill and think this is a horrible, horrible situation with that coach. I think it's just about as good as you were going to get. Honestly, I was really excited about him and I still think he's a very good coach. I think that he's trying his best given all the pieces that don't fit together. You know, he's short of center back. Absolutely. In my opinion, a starting one. Right. His. Because of the injury, he has no backup right back. And the, and the, the high end fancy right back that they went and got him, which is a whole different discussion about whether you should spend money. Right back is just average, you know what I mean? Like this big, huge, amazing 10 they got turns out to not really be a 10. He's more of a striker than a 10. So that the 4231 kind of goes out the window. You know, he's only got one wing instead of two. So like he's just trying to glue pieces together. [00:29:45] Speaker B: But isn't the real core problem of this team is his options at midfield? [00:29:51] Speaker A: That's part of it too. [00:29:52] Speaker B: See, I think that's the bulk of it. I think the biggest problem with this team is that the reason why they can't get the ball past midfield is because they don't have the players to play through do that. So they're left trying to play the ball long and they're not good at that either. [00:30:04] Speaker A: So again, that's not coaching. That's roster construction. You know, I mean, Quill was hired. Think about when Quill was hired. How many of these players were either already on the roster or already being acquired before that guy's even getting here. [00:30:14] Speaker B: Right? [00:30:15] Speaker A: Right. I mean, like, how much impact did he have? Yes. Look, Quill's going to be part of the committee. We know that. But when did he become part of the committee? When did he get involved? This roster wasn't built by Quill. It was built by the committee. So you had to look at the committee like none of the pieces work together. Like the, the midfield, as you said, you know, you knew Paxton was hurt, so you shouldn't have built this team thinking Paxton's going to be our savior. [00:30:38] Speaker B: We. [00:30:38] Speaker A: We weren't even sure he was career was going to get saved, let alone that he would be the same player. We still don't know if he's gonna be the same player. [00:30:43] Speaker B: Right? [00:30:44] Speaker A: Right. Shows on loan and is just average anyway. Kaik is 19. Who the hell knows if that guy's going to be any good? Ramiro's a role player and is slower than dirt. Right. Sebastian Legette is in his 30s and gets hurt all the time these days. It's like none of those things are good, solid, great pieces. Maybe you thought Lucho Acosta was going to be this crazy, amazing central midfielder, but he's not. Maybe he could be if Quill wanted to put him in there, but then the guy doesn't play any defense, so that's pretty hard to do unless you play him as a forward like they're doing. So it's kind of a mess, man. Honestly, it's really amazing that they win as many games as they do on the road, given the fact that the roster. You seen what the roster translates into at home. It's the same roster on the road. It's just as bad, except they managed to scrap and fight and claw and get something. You know, if you could carry forward that scrap claw mentality, maybe you might be like sixth instead of 10th. But you're not going to be like a real contender with that. You know, you have to. You still have a lot of work to do on this roster to, to get. To get somewhere in terms of building. You know, this is year one of the new. You would think a new build of get the guys that are going to fit the way the coach wants to play, you know, and he was obviously relatively late into that process too. So even maybe this year he was just left with whatever. And I'm not sure this committee cares about building for what the coach actually wants because they surely didn't do it over the previous six years and the previous two coaches. [00:32:16] Speaker B: All right, so Dallas has Houston up next and that is here. It's on Saturday at 7:30 on the Apple TV. Dan, you got any Houston insight you'd like to share with everybody other than. [00:32:30] Speaker C: It sucks they actually haven't won a game on the road all season? The only team with a worse record than them is la. [00:32:39] Speaker B: It's the. With the immovable object versus the inevitable force, whatever that phrase is. [00:32:45] Speaker C: Suckable object and the shitty force. [00:32:48] Speaker B: Yeah, something like that. Yes. [00:32:53] Speaker C: They have got a game this Wednesday at home to Minnesota. So hopefully they get run into the ground and tire themselves out a little bit. [00:33:01] Speaker B: Dan. Dan. It's the Texas Derby. This is when you throw everything out the window. [00:33:06] Speaker C: Well, that's the good thing for F.C. dallas, right? You throw the form back out the window. Hopefully. You know, that dog mentality takes over in a. In a true rivalry game. [00:33:18] Speaker B: All right, okay, very good. So anything else you want to mention about Houston? Their Players, their formations, other than the fact that they've not had a good season either. And. And they got pounded into the ground by Seattle. Seattle this weekend. Seattle was bragging about that. Okay. [00:33:36] Speaker C: They're not. They're not worth the time. [00:33:38] Speaker B: Okay, Very good, Buzz. You want to talk about who you think Quill's gonna throw out there the next iter? [00:33:44] Speaker A: I do. Yeah. Yeah. [00:33:46] Speaker B: Experiment. [00:33:48] Speaker A: Yeah. The question will be. The biggest question is, is Shaq Moore going to be okay to go? [00:33:54] Speaker B: Do we know what the injury is? [00:33:56] Speaker A: It's a tightness in his hamstring. It wasn't enough to keep him out of the team, but they didn't want to play him if they could help it. You know, he was on the bench, so, like, in an emergency, they could have brought him in. They really. They really probably needed a guy late in the game because when they were up, a man they really could have used on offensive player in that spot. But. So we'll see if that can fly. You know, Romero will be back. So if. If Shaq Moore is having any kind of tenderness at all, then you could slot Romero in. At that right back spot. As we saw, that's perfectly legitimate. You know, I. I think in as long as you have this lucho casa problem, you kind of have to go with this, you know, this diamond four thing we've been talking about all year. And, you know, Kaike will be in the midfield. We know that. You know, maybe Romero, if. If more can go or. Or if he chooses to go with a boot car again, Ramiro probably is in there again. That se heel will go back to the bench, and then it's too early. Maybe legit is back on the bench, but you can't start him right away. No way. Should you start Paxton yet. You want to try and he got nine minutes in this game. Let's go to 10. 30 minutes. So bring him in at, you know, 60. Ish. [00:35:06] Speaker B: I was going to say 11, but 11. [00:35:08] Speaker A: Go from nine to 11. [00:35:09] Speaker B: Yes. [00:35:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:10] Speaker C: Okay. [00:35:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I do. [00:35:12] Speaker B: Four minutes the next week and then an additional eight minutes the game after that. [00:35:16] Speaker A: I'll give him 30 depending on the game. If the game is like super hackish, I might even not do it, but I'll give him 30, so he's not a starting option. So you're still looking at Kaike Romero show in the middle, unless you need to move Ramiro to right back. And then it's going to be seeking zebling again, probably because Legat won't be ready, you know, and really, the Front's gonna be what it is. Patter. Musa probably could start. He got more of a run, so maybe you could start him because he wasn't like. He was only out a couple of weeks. It wasn't like, crazy long that he was out, you know. So Julio and Acosta and. And Musa again. I mean, I don't think Willie Bernie played. I don't think he would go Bernie again. It would be Farrington if you needed to. So, like, there's not. It's not like overnight, all of a sudden, Quill has all these options. It's stuck with the same stuff he's had for like a month now. So he's got only has a one or two limited choices available to be making. And given that Shaq Moore has this little tenderness, he even has less options available perhaps. So it's not great. And the other thing to keep an eye on is we're probably due for secondary jersey at home again, right? [00:36:27] Speaker B: Oh, because they don't want to put orange versus red or. [00:36:30] Speaker A: Well, you know, we know we need to see the secondary jersey. Like, what. How many times is it? Seven times, nine times, whatever it is, right? It's been a couple of games since we've seen it. And if you're gonna go against orange, the. Orange versus the red or their other jersey is purple. So purple versus The. [00:36:48] Speaker C: They could play purple versus purple. [00:36:50] Speaker A: You could do purple versus purple. So let's just like, we might see the. The. The. The. The secondary jersey we hate versus Houston's primary orange in Toyota Stadium, which will be. [00:37:03] Speaker B: It's. I just give up. I give up. I give up. Throw a fuck. Tradition. Nobody gives a crap about tradition anymore, Buzz. I'm just saying that, like, tradition is for idiots. [00:37:13] Speaker A: Yes, I know. Why do we care? [00:37:15] Speaker B: By the way, there's a new shirt for you. Tradition is for tradition. [00:37:17] Speaker A: For idiots. [00:37:18] Speaker B: Yes. [00:37:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:37:19] Speaker B: I'm going to ask a question I've been thinking about for a while, but I've been trying to figure out how to ask this question without getting myself or you or anybody else in trouble. And I do mean this as a. Somebody genuinely curious about this. Do you think in his professional career, because I don't know how long he's been doing this, Lawless Abubakar has ever been approached by somebody on a coaching staff and they inquired about his willingness to reduce or cut off that giant thing on his head. [00:37:49] Speaker A: Oh, I'm sure. [00:37:50] Speaker B: Because if a player showed up at training and was overweight and was clearly impacting their pace or ability to run or their stride or their athleticism. You'd say something about it. [00:38:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:04] Speaker B: And I'm here to say, when I watch Lalas Abubakar play, and now that I've gotten to watch, I mean, when he was playing for another team, it was just kind of like this thing that I noticed and was like, what in the hell is that? That's weird and fascinating all at the same time. And now that I've watched him play a lot this season, or as much as we've been able to see him play, I swear it is. I'd be fascinated to know what he would look like as an athlete if he didn't have that. Whatever. I'm going to call it a burden, but it's not. I mean, it's obviously how he chooses to wear his hair. If he didn't have that. [00:38:41] Speaker A: You think it affects his play? [00:38:42] Speaker B: I think it affects his stride. I think just maybe it's an optical illusion. [00:38:49] Speaker A: But I am probably not as heavy as you think. I mean, Beckerman had the same thing for a long time. [00:38:53] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no, no. Beckerman did not have it all knotted in this kind of like one giant mat that Lawless has it in. [00:39:03] Speaker A: You think it's. You think it's not just tied up for the game? You think it's all matted together? [00:39:08] Speaker B: Well, when I saw it, I didn't know what it was for a long time, but when I saw it in person for the very first time, I was shocked to find out it's not like he has a hundred dreads that he is bound together. It's. He's had it up on his head for so long, it's all now grown into itself. At least that's what it looked like to me when I saw it. No matter what it is, it's so big on his head. I am. I am convinced it affects his ability to run at pace and his body movement. [00:39:38] Speaker A: Well, I think it's kind of strapped, and maybe you're right, but I. I just figure he's probably used to it by now. I can't think it maybe much, you. [00:39:45] Speaker B: Know, like sometimes when I watch him go up for headers and stuff, the way his. He plays it with his head, looks like. I don't know. And I just makes me wonder if a coach has ever come to him and go, hey, man, you ever thought about this? [00:39:58] Speaker A: Oh, I'm sure that people do. Well, yeah, I'm sure every year, probably coaches say, okay, look, come on, let's cut this thing off. Let's go. You know, but at the same time, you want to be sensitive to people's cultural, you know, desires and all that, you know, I mean. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I have no idea. I'm speaking out of my ass. This may be a religious thing, a cultural thing. It may not just be a hairstyle choice. It may be much more than that. And if that's the case, he's chosen to do that and have it impact, possibly his professional career. That, I guess that's his thing. And it's obviously not a big enough deal to keep people from signing him to professional contracts. So maybe. Again, I don't know what I'm talking about. It's just my observation as a fan. Watching him, it just looks very awkward, and I feel like it causes it. It creates some friction in his play that he probably doesn't need. [00:40:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know, man. Maybe we can ask him about it someday. [00:40:47] Speaker B: I've always felt that way about James Harden in that giant, stupid beard of his because he always looks so hot when he's playing, and that just looks so uncomfortable. [00:40:58] Speaker A: I remember him talking a bit Harden, talking about that when he was young. I mean, in the middle of his career. He said that he first did that because he thought he had a real baby face. And so he grew the beard to try and look older and more mature. And then after a certain amount of time, it became kind of his thing. And at some point, he was like, maybe I could kind of get rid of this now. It was, like, too late. But then it was like it was his trademark. [00:41:16] Speaker B: Okay. [00:41:16] Speaker A: And he was sort of stuck with it. So, you know. [00:41:18] Speaker B: All right. [00:41:19] Speaker A: I would imagine that hair is not that heavy and that, you know. But what do I know? [00:41:23] Speaker B: I mean, certainly, what do I know either? And anybody upset about my asking the question can write me an email or contact me directly. Leave Buzz and Dan out of it, okay? [00:41:31] Speaker C: I respect his culture. [00:41:37] Speaker B: I won't tell anybody what. What I just saw you do on the. On the webcam, Dan. I'll keep that between you and the three of us. [00:41:45] Speaker A: I honestly have not looked that closely at it. I actually thought it was a bunch of dreads tied up, but I. [00:41:49] Speaker C: You know, it shows you what I think. I think is because it's banded at the top. [00:41:53] Speaker B: Okay. It still looks very heavy and awkward. [00:41:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it does bounce around. I won't give you that, but I'm sure it does. I'm sure he doesn't even think about it anymore. [00:42:02] Speaker C: I mean, he's been playing with it like that for donkey's years at this point. [00:42:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so there's all your FC Dallas talk for the day. Unless there's something. Oh, the other thing that we should throw in here is the news, the self announcement that Alan Reed, the grounds person responsible for all the nice soccer fields both in the stadium and around the stadium, is leaving his post with FC Dallas to take a role with. Curious question mark over my head. The Dallas Cowboys. [00:42:33] Speaker A: Yeah. So I can't help but wonder, one. [00:42:36] Speaker B: Of two options who play on turf. [00:42:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, they have a grass field. So are they in the market to develop more grass fields for some reason the Cowboys. Unknown. Maybe they want to develop some local football, I don't know. Or is this a World cup thing? Is he going to be involved with the grass for the World cup for the next two, three years? [00:42:58] Speaker B: See, I would. I'm. See, the question I have about that is because that was the thing everybody's reaction was, this has to do with the World Cup. Well, then why would he be a Dallas employee? Because that's a FIFA thing. The field is installed by and managed. [00:43:12] Speaker A: By FIFA because it's an AT&T stadium. [00:43:15] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:43:16] Speaker A: I mean, like I said, like there's. I did have the thought that like I have. Someone told me the Cowboys have one grass field. [00:43:22] Speaker B: They do. It's outside. [00:43:23] Speaker A: Yeah. And maybe they want to develop more grass football fields for what some reason? Well know about. [00:43:30] Speaker B: I wondered if this is some, some sort of weird peek into what may be going on with the NFL and the Players association because obviously the Players association had been demanding grass fields even in some of the indoor facilities. And I begin, and I'm wondering if the Cowboys have been quietly discussing making the surface at AT&T a grass surface to kind of accommodate some sort of rule change or something that's coming up with the Players Association. [00:43:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. [00:44:01] Speaker B: I mean that seems ridiculous. [00:44:02] Speaker A: And I mean the important part is that, that this is a loss for FC Dallas. I think this guy's really good at growing grass. You know, there was the one bad season and he was very open and talking with both Dan and I about what happened that one really bad season. [00:44:15] Speaker B: Oh, I remember that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:44:17] Speaker A: Having to do with the amount of growing days that particular season. But you know, since then I think they've added lights, you know, and I've. Many of us have seen many times them using those lights and to increase the growing time out there, you know, overnight with that stuff. And, and the, the toilet seam has always been fantastic. And the amount of abuse that the Complex gets, you know, on a just incredible abuse. We got to be after week and those things hold up. So that dude, I think that dude really knows what he's doing. I mean, I'm not a grass expert. [00:44:45] Speaker B: But you know, I've always wanted the athletic when they do their player quiz and questionnaire every year. I've been dying for somebody to get them to include questions about surfaces across mls, like what is your favorite service, which is your least favorite surface, questions about turf versus grass, etc. Etc. I would love to know that because I've always been curious as to where Dallas's field stands in the hierarchy of MLS surfaces. And I mean, obviously the cotton ball used to be the king of all. [00:45:15] Speaker A: The best. Yeah, the best. [00:45:18] Speaker B: And I don't know where Toyota's stadium stands there. [00:45:20] Speaker A: Well, you just had to look at that San Diego field, you know, two weeks ago and how trash that thing was. [00:45:25] Speaker B: Yes. [00:45:25] Speaker A: And then compared to what you would see at, you know, particularly non football season, during football season, you know, there's some lines on it, but it relatively speaking holds up really well even in a football season. And that gets a remarkable credit to. Yeah. Allen and his crew. I mean, they did a great work over there. [00:45:40] Speaker B: Well, maybe we'll find out more. I find the fact that he's going to work for the Cowboys highly curious. I really would love some more context on that. I did. I can't imagine he left the role with FC Dallas to go manage one practice field out behind the star. That would say what? [00:45:54] Speaker A: The paycheck is very weird to me. Well, how much they buy the Cowboy money, man. [00:45:58] Speaker B: Cowboys don't pay their people a lot of money, Buzz. They're notoriously cheap on their. Oh, fair. Okay. [00:46:05] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe everything's relative. [00:46:07] Speaker C: Hey, quick, quick thing on FC Dallas I forgot about from the game on Saturday. Michelle gets sent off. They always have a coach up in the one of the analyst booths. So it used to be Ben Cross when he was here. Now it's Matt Watson. That red card comes out. Matt Watson sprints down to the bench. Michelle SP sprints up to the booth. They just do a real quick swap. It was, you know, a little bit of an interesting one. [00:46:35] Speaker B: All right, very good. There you go. So Dallas currently sits in what place? I'm. I don't have the 10th outside the playoffs, but it's all very compressed still. [00:46:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean we're still looking at a, you know, a Western Conference. That's the. The cell separated by, you know, eight points from right 14th to 6th is. [00:47:01] Speaker B: Eight points, you know, man, how much are we all quietly just sitting back and enjoying the fate of the reigning MLS champions, LA Galaxy. [00:47:10] Speaker A: Wow. [00:47:10] Speaker B: Who have lost. Who have not won a game in the first 11. They ended up losing a game in which their opponent had an XG of zero. And they got so stomped this weekend. Was it seven nothing? [00:47:24] Speaker C: Yep. [00:47:24] Speaker A: Seven nothing. Yeah. They tied the biggest margin ever in an MLS game code held by the Dallas Burn. 8:1 to the Galaxy. [00:47:35] Speaker B: To quote Mark Cuban. Oh, too bad. [00:47:38] Speaker A: Oh, too bad. You know what? I bet Atlanta United's really excited the Galaxy. I don't have a single win because it's. It's masking the fact that Atlanta United is in 14th. [00:47:48] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, the other thing about the Galaxy is that it all very much reflects how much Ricky Page was like. That was. He's the dude. He's that good. [00:47:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And that makes it even remarkable. More remarkable that they went into the year knowing that they were not going to have him, and they were cool with that and they didn't drive him. [00:48:08] Speaker B: Well, I. I think that. I think their roster situation and financial cap situation is so bad. Hey, look, they got an MLS cup out of it. I would. If Dallas. If the Hunts put all went all in, quote, unquote, not Jerry all in, but the rest of the world all in, and went out and won an f. An MLS cup, and then the team sucked like this the next season, I'd be totally fine with it. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Yeah, they had to do some things similar to what Dallas just did. I mean, Dallas just had to trim out all this stuff out of their cap, and they had to do the same thing, you know, and I really heard him. Dallas was able to sort of make a couple of moves and kind of rebound a little bit. But. But we'll see in the long run whether their method was more effective than Dallas's method, you know, and they got a cup out of, as you say. [00:48:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Their 11th cup, by the way. [00:48:52] Speaker A: Yeah, well, they won a lot when there was only 10 teams, but still, they did it and nobody else did. Bruce and Siggy, I mean. [00:48:59] Speaker B: All right, we'll move on to other subjects of DFW pro soccer as Dallas Trinity. Oh, no. Buzz, what happened to the girls against DC Power? That's. [00:49:11] Speaker A: They actually went up to nothing and let him come back. Three goals in the second half. Yeah, it's not good right now. Not good at all. Defensively, they're a mess. Amber Brooks had a pretty poor game, which is a. They're in trouble when that happens because she's their most important player, especially with Mismo out for the year. They're 13 and 1 in their last five, four points and they're dropping like a stone in the standings now. They had such a, they had such a separation that they're still third and they're still right now going to be in the playoffs. But they got two games left and if they don't, you know, Spokane is right there on 38 behind him and so is Brooklyn and Brooklyn had a really terrible second half too. So Brooklyn and Dallas are racing for that fourth spot to see who can hold on and, and get that, you know. And Fort Lauderdale has on 34, they're six points back so they would need to went out and have Trinity lose out, which is maybe not necessarily gonna happen. But you know, they got some work to do, man. They got to figure it out or they're going to fall out of the playoffs. [00:50:13] Speaker B: They really are because well, it would be, it would hard to be believe that one of the two top two teams at the break, one of the two may not make the playoffs. That's how crazy the second half of the season's been. [00:50:24] Speaker A: I. They just, they've got a bunch of good pieces and for whatever reason like the defense has through one a couple of injuries like really gone to pieces. Like they're not keeping, they're gone back to the beginning of the year when they were letting in too many goals. I think they've got to tighten that up and stop that bleeding or else it's going to be in trouble real quick. I mean they got Fort Lauderdale, who again is that team, you know, six points back trying to catch them. So that's a head to head game. That's huge. And then they've got Carolina Ascent for the last game of the year and that's the best team in the league. So you could easily, you know, lose out and be out of the playoffs. [00:51:02] Speaker C: I mean they got after that game they can't pass Carolina on points anymore. They can only finish level. Fort Lauderdale has two games in hand over Dallas. They're the only team that can actually finish ahead of Carolina now. [00:51:16] Speaker A: Oh my gosh. [00:51:17] Speaker C: So yeah, it's gone from playing for that regular season title and home advantage through the whole thing to yeah, hope gonna make it. Yeah, exactly. Spokane's looking really good right now. Brooklyn, you gotta just hope that that slide continues. You know, they've, they've made the coaching change. Things seem to be kind of writing. They got their first winner. The, the fall season, the spring season Sorry, the last week or the week before last. So, yeah, there's. There's a lot that can go on there. [00:51:53] Speaker A: I mean, Carolina's won five in a row, Tampa's 14 or 5, and Spokane's won three of five. And those are the teams right with them in the front. And Dallas is 13 and 14 points out of the last five. It's just the wheels have come off big time, and they were doing a lot of good work up until about a month ago, and the last month has been just awful. And it's hard to really put your finger on exactly what's gone wrong, except for the. Just they, They've got seven or eight girls out. Sorry, ladies, out. And it's just the pieces are not fitting together like they were. Maybe people are getting tired. Brooks looks like she's wearing out. Is this the heavy, heavy workload she's had to put in of playing 90 minutes every single game? [00:52:34] Speaker C: Looks like you might lose Deborah for a while or for the. For the remainder of know, she couldn't even put weight on her ankle when she came off. [00:52:43] Speaker B: All right, well, I. You guys happened to see the video, the mishmash video between them and Atletico. Atletico. [00:52:53] Speaker A: I didn't, but Dan did. [00:52:55] Speaker B: I won't. So I, you know, they had put out some Atletico merchandise for the Trinity players to spot and this, that and the other. But in the video, there's a moment where they have just the components, like the, The. The pregasis next to snake and wolf. And that's all that's on the screen. There's no words, there's no nothing. It's like if, if you were to just to see that and have no idea, no context, you'd never, ever in a billion years figure out these are a male and a female soccer club. [00:53:31] Speaker C: Now you'd be like, oh, it's music festival. Cool. [00:53:34] Speaker B: Right. What was the other thing I was gonna mention about Atletico? Oh. So they have been trying to build the story of the snake and the wolf. I saw. Was it you Buzz, that sent that to me? [00:53:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Yep. [00:53:53] Speaker B: They're trying. I, I still, you know, they went through a lot of effort to put that piece of information together, but they still, at the end of it, have not come up with the story as to why a wolf and a snake and why the two things are fighting against each other and why that is the brand of your club. [00:54:10] Speaker A: It didn't work for you. Their story. [00:54:12] Speaker B: You did. You. You thought the story. I mean, I know I'm not the. [00:54:15] Speaker A: One that has A problem with the brand? [00:54:17] Speaker B: Well, no, I'm asking you, if you listen to the story, did the story translate to you as to why those two things are in the badge and why they're looking angry, angrily at each other? [00:54:28] Speaker A: Well, I, at the end of the day, I think that they came up with a badge they liked and then came up so too, which is fine. You know, like, I, I'm not, I'm not worried about that. Like, I mean, to me, like, things grow on you. Right? Like, I think at the time they, they rebranded SC Dallas, people were like, that name is stupid. And I was like, no, it'll be fine. In 50 years, no one will care. I think the badge is stupid. So, like, to me, like, it looks like a cartoon. This one doesn't look like a cartoon. I like this one a lot better. But at least the cow, we understood why there was a cow because of Frisco or whatever like that. So why the two animals are sort of fighting? I don't know. Why is the cow looking to the right instead of the left? And they have sales logo? [00:55:13] Speaker B: Oh, I think we know the answer to that. [00:55:15] Speaker A: I mean, at some point. Yeah, some. [00:55:17] Speaker B: Have you met Clark Hunt? [00:55:18] Speaker A: Yeah, at some point, you know, you just do a thing you like and then like, you know, people like it. I think that's, for me, that's the. [00:55:24] Speaker B: Thing with this one is like, I don't really care why I fully confess and admit to getting stuck in on a point that makes probably nobody else on the planet Earth cares about. I can't imagine, because I, you know, in the video, the same video with the Trinity players, they did a close up of one of the screen prints of that logo on the shirt. And it's more of a vector, it's not all the full gradient. [00:55:48] Speaker C: And it looked multiple versions. Yeah. [00:55:50] Speaker B: And it looks really, really. I, I was like, okay, this is really cool. I like it. I just wish it had Atletico Dallas around it. Yeah, I wish it was incorporated into the badge and they weren't just trying to leave it to Snake Wolf for. [00:56:04] Speaker A: Me that the one embossed logo is the one that doesn't hit. And I think that, you know, when we're two years or not two years anymore, a year and a half from them playing. [00:56:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:12] Speaker A: I imagine there'll be some evolution in terms of their use of that logo as, as they try it and like get it out to the public. Just like FC Dallas has migrated towards the Shieldless Bull, we see that a lot more in their branding than we did. I mean, it was like a decade or 15 years with that brand before we saw that. Just the Bullhead without the shield on it. So I. I'm not too worried about it. I'm with you. I know what you're talking about. But like, at the end of the day, it's not something that bothers me. [00:56:41] Speaker B: Yeah. I hadn't actually thought about it until I saw the video. So they got me to talk about it, so kudos to them. [00:56:47] Speaker A: So it works. [00:56:47] Speaker B: I've been played. [00:56:48] Speaker A: No such thing as. Yeah, I've been. [00:56:51] Speaker B: I've been sports watched. [00:56:53] Speaker C: I think the thing that goes against them is USL is home to so many absolute killer brands that if you are just. Okay, you stick out like a sore thumb. [00:57:07] Speaker B: Well. Or you just don't get noticed at all. [00:57:10] Speaker C: That. Yeah, all that. [00:57:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I, I think I. I think I like that it's not comic. [00:57:17] Speaker B: I agree. [00:57:17] Speaker A: Or silly that it's pretty serious. And so I like the tone of it a lot. You know, I don't. I don't. You know, I think there's a couple of things that happen along the way that maybe could have had it go slightly different direction. Maybe it would have been better. [00:57:31] Speaker B: But I, I love the heraldry. I love the artistry. I even like both. I like all the different versions as. As pieces of art. I just want. If you're gonna go so dramatic as to put those two images in conflict with each other, I wish you had just come up with a compelling story behind it that helped connect it to the community. [00:57:49] Speaker C: Are you saying as dramatic as a certain HBO drama series? [00:57:54] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. [00:57:58] Speaker A: Maybe. [00:57:58] Speaker B: Maybe what will happen is they'll. They'll be really creative and they'll come up with a YouTube short of the Game of Thrones clan that you. That got edited onto the cutting room floor. And it'll be some story behind that that they decided to adopt and. And turn it into a Starks versus. [00:58:18] Speaker A: I don't know who the snakes are in Game of Thrones. Starks versus. [00:58:21] Speaker C: Oh, there was Red Viper. [00:58:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Dorne. Yeah. All right. [00:58:24] Speaker B: Yeah, all right. [00:58:25] Speaker A: Fair. [00:58:25] Speaker B: Well, God bless them all. We got a lot of time. As you said, Buzz before, that actually is a thing. Although I will say somebody was. Wrote an article. Axios Dallas actually mentioned them in a. In a mention the other day and they said that they are going to be playing in the championship. And I wondered, has. Has Valentine or any of those guys ever put any kind of clarity on the situation with USL Premier and what their. What their plans are? [00:58:53] Speaker A: No, because USL Premier doesn't have clarity yet. Like until USL Premier says, like I don't think there's any expectations that USL Premiere is happening in 2027. It's going to be in 2028 at the earliest. So Dallas Athletico Dallas is launching in 2027. So they're going to be in the championship. I mean it seems. [00:59:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:12] Speaker A: For 2027. And then we'll see when we get like an official clarity, an official launch and official. Like here's what. We don't even know if it's USL Premiere, it's USL something. [00:59:22] Speaker B: Well, that's what we just call it because that makes the most sense. [00:59:24] Speaker C: But. [00:59:25] Speaker A: Right. We don't know what teams are in it. We don't know what year it's going to start playing. You know, like until there's some answers on that. Okay, then, then Athletico Dallas and I'm not speaking for them, but that's what it will. It'll be is that at that point they'll probably make some announcement because I'm sure there'll be some rule because probably half the teams are going to come out of the USL championship. So it's not like you're going to promote just two teams or whatever. You're going to pull like six or something out of the USL Championship. So it's like if they started U.S. championships, that's what perfectly fine and normal. I'm sure the idea will be that they'll be ready. I would guess that they'll be ready to go to. Because this is dfw, right. Top four media market in the nation. If the USL premiere is happening, I'm sure the Dallas team is going to want to be in it. I'm sure USL will want a Dallas team in it. This is a massive, massive media market and the population center, Texas in Dallas in particular. [01:00:15] Speaker B: Did it ever dawn on anybody that if Garland debuts in a Stadium with 15,000 people that in its debut season it could have higher attendance than FC Dallas? [01:00:28] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. [01:00:30] Speaker B: Assuming because the stadium obviously will still be under construction at that point. [01:00:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean they'll open. If they open with a 15,000 seat stadium. Yeah. They'll be bigger stadium than FC Dallas in 2027. [01:00:41] Speaker B: All right. North Texas hasn't played since the second. They've got Houston themselves up on Sunday. Anything you want to mention about that Buzz? [01:00:48] Speaker A: Not. [01:00:48] Speaker B: Not really. [01:00:50] Speaker A: You know, John Gall definitely is prioritizing wins, you know, and prioritizing defense. They have a bunch of kids that have gone down to play in various MLS next, you know, academy stuff. Because they've got some this big flex tournament this weekend and they're going to have the, the playoffs coming up soon about a month from now. So you're, you're going to maybe in about a month, month and a half you're going to start seeing a turnover in that roster as kids that are seniors in high school have started heading off to college. So there'll be some mid season tweaking and changing as always happens and a new sort of crop of kids coming in and so that's, that's ahead a little bit but right now nothing much going on with them except just trying to keep playing, trying to get towards the top of the standings. [01:01:38] Speaker B: And featuring their third tie in their last four games Texoma went out to California and got a nil nil Dr. Out in Cali against AV Alta. The same team FC Dallas defeated midweek in the open Cup. [01:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah, they got a cool scouting quick scouting report on the team they were going to play on the weekend. I'm sure to be fair to them like they still haven't won a game. But this, this graphic was on the broadcast of their first four games. They were 040 with a minus 10 goal difference and their last four they actually tied 3 or 4 and their little has gone down to minus 2. So they are improving. It'll really help them if they can bring back Bran Padilla. His 25 day or 20 day contract, whatever it was ended. I think he was their most quality player. He's not their most important player but he's their most quality player. He's from a higher level than most of those guys. I think it would really behoove them to get him back if they can. He may be, he's keep in mind his day job quote unquote is he's the general manager of four zero. I don't know if people know that that's what he does for a living this these days. It's only been a like six months he's had that job but that's what he does. So you know, other than still play obviously he plays for 402. So they are improving and they got Union Omaha this weekend. And I think the most interesting thing is that some, some there's a web page that was circulated around where. [01:03:07] Speaker B: They'Re. [01:03:07] Speaker A: Looking for more investors. Texoma is. So it'll be interesting to see how that goes. You know if they're, if they need more money, maybe things aren't quite, you know they're drawing like 900 people maybe up there it's maybe not. And it's sort of dwindling a little bit as they haven't been able to get any wins. So all is not rosy for Texoma. But it'll be interesting to, you know, as always, it'll be fascinating for us to watch how that team evolves, and we really would like to see them get a win here at some point. [01:03:34] Speaker C: Actually, I bumped into Simon and Ben going into the game on Wednesday. Yeah. Chat to them for a bit. They said things are definitely on the field moving in the right direction. It feels like the roster is finally getting to a stage of completion. They had a long wait on quite a few visas. They just confirmed Luke McCormick last week, who they've been waiting on since March, I believe. Believe so, yeah. I mean, that was a good point for him. They. They definitely were up against it right up until AV Got. Got a red card in stoppage time or just before stoppage time. But yeah, I mean, they. They at least feel good about it. So hopefully things keep going in the right direction. [01:04:23] Speaker A: That's. That's a good point about the visas. They did have some guys that have just come in. Let's just say that visas are interesting right now. North Texas Soccer Club, same thing. They had a guy they signed Favor way back in February, just finally got here. His initial visa was declined. He had to go through the process again, I don't know how many times, but they finally got it cleared and he just showed up. So, you know, same thing happened to Texoma. They had some players that didn't get here until now, so they're. They're trying to put it all together and maybe they'll continue to improve. It'd be nice. They definitely have put a lot of effort into stop bleeding goals, and that's helped. And now they. If they. I think if they can get Padilla back, that'll really help them in terms of being able to create up front because of his ability. They have one really nice midfielder that I like. And then of course, Asante is like a thousand years old, but he can do some things. And they got a couple okay pieces there. And there was a loss. Losing Diego Pepe for second. The season was a blow. Obviously they were counting on him to be knocking some goals in, but hopefully they can get through these tough times that they're finding right now and keep going. And I've been enjoying this Jaegermeister cup they've been playing in too. [01:05:36] Speaker B: All right, boys. Anything else you want to discuss? Debate? [01:05:41] Speaker C: Yeah, a little bit like MPSL started back up this past weekend, Fort Worth for Caros got absolutely smashed at home by a brand new club, Oklahoma United. They now get to host West Texas Denton Diablo starts their season on Saturday at home to Little Rock Rangers who in Turn then host McKinney in their first game the following Wednesday. [01:06:12] Speaker A: 21St. Yeah, yep. McKinney's home openers against Denton. That actually might be fun on the 24th den that McKinney and the Chupacabra situation. And at that same level the people may have forgotten FC Dallas is going to field a U23 team they're calling it. It's at that same level for the first time ever. It's in this thing called league for clubs. They actually have a little website the leaf of clubs does and there are actually like four or five names on the SC Dallas roster. That's to me the fascinating bread and butter stuff. Like three of the five names are former academy players that are in college. So I'll be really wanting to watch that. [01:06:51] Speaker B: So would league of clubs fall below USL 2 and NPSL? [01:06:58] Speaker A: It is technically the same level. It's the same for unofficial division for college kids playing in the summer. It's brand new so people don't know about it. And one of the things that's the selling point is that they have lower operating costs and lower stadium requirements. So it's not then MPSL for example, a little more freedom, a little more pro club and like allowing people to get these teams together. So it'll be interesting to see what it feels like and what the games are like compared to like an NPSL or yourself, you game. I'm sure there'll be some differences. We'll have to see how it cooks. But it's the same in theory it's the same level. UPSL also likes to say at their level. But UPSL is a national amateur league. That's the league 40 was in and they now have gone up to. Oh crap, what did they go up to? Oh, league for clubs. Yeah, I think. [01:07:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Well I was. I've been. I've been trying to document the entire roster of clubs that are at least considered in some way shape or form professional through Division 4. And obviously I've got Vaccaros and McKinney and Denton in there but I'm like wait, do I need to start including all the league of club teams in there too? But that feels like slightly different things to me. [01:08:15] Speaker A: Well remember that most of these clubs are all populated by college kids, so they're not professionals, they're amateurs. You know, there is a version in NPSL where there are from time to time teams that are semi pro teams like Vaqueros originally were that way, like they would have the guys play for them and then guys go play for Sidekicks. And it wasn't college kids, it was like Rio Ramirez, it was Jamie Love Grove. Right. And like those teams, when they put together a US Open cup team, it's not the college kids. [01:08:43] Speaker B: Right. [01:08:44] Speaker A: Even though the. The college kids qualified them into the World Open Cup. [01:08:47] Speaker B: You know, what I'm saying is, is that it feels like there's an actual business being done with like the Diablos, Chupacabras and Vaqueros and FC Dallas's League of Clubs team just seems like a team they put together to let kids get games. And that feels like different things to me. [01:09:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it'll be very interesting to watch that. I think there's a mix of teams in that league for clubs that are. Some of them are former NPSL teams that have that vibe of like Hitch has got a couple of his teams in league for clubs out in California. It sort of depends on what's near you. So you're right. The SEL is U23. Team is just a thing kind of thrown together. They're probably going to train up there at Toyota, I imagine. And you know, and there's not really a whole organization other than FC Dallas. [01:09:27] Speaker C: This just the replacement for the UPSL team they had. [01:09:31] Speaker A: No, the UPSL team still exists. It's ups. The UPSL team for FC Dallas is. It's. It's kids. The. The U. The top academy teams have more than, you know, 15, 16 players. They have 25, sometimes even 30 players. So like any given week there might be 10 kids that are not playing. So they put them on the UPSL team or guys that are on the bench that aren't getting in those. That's who goes and plays in the UPSL game. And they'll do everything down to like U16 on those games and play in that league. [01:10:05] Speaker B: Well, I was a bit surprised because I was trying to fill this out and you guys had mentioned that there was a women's third division team. South Star. [01:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:13] Speaker B: And then I saw that the Vaqueros were promoting their own women's team playing out in Fort Worth. Because South Star is in Fort Worth. Well, that's not the same team. That is the Vicaras, which they debuted. This, I think is a new team as of this season. [01:10:27] Speaker A: It is. [01:10:28] Speaker B: And do you know that FC Dallas has a team in the WPSL Yeah, that was tough. I didn't, I didn't know that they. [01:10:34] Speaker C: Used to have two. [01:10:36] Speaker B: So there's actually three third division women's teams that I can think of in the Dallas area. [01:10:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:10:42] Speaker B: At least according to the, the WPSL website. [01:10:46] Speaker A: Yep. [01:10:47] Speaker C: Yeah. Then South Star will go into the Division 2 league when that starts up. [01:10:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I assume that to be the case. So. [01:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, you could make an argument about everything that's this Division 4 level NPSL, USL2 league for clubs, you know, the, the W thing, the women's thing. Like are those really professionals? Are they just sort of semi pro amateurs that get paid a couple of bucks? Like at some point you got to draw a line like for. I, like there were so many teams now that I started putting a line on, you know, below Division three, I included indoor because the indoor guys are like, you know, at least on some level professionals. More so than USL 2 or MPSL is, even if there's a little bit of crossover. But it's, you know. [01:11:28] Speaker B: See to me it has something to do with can you buy a ticket and go to the game or buy season tickets? [01:11:37] Speaker C: I mean the real definition is is it their full time job and are they training five days a week or just like twice? [01:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. All right, well, it's tough to say. Lots of options. How about that? All right, before we go, I just wanted to throw a shout out to our good old friend Jono. One time Inferno member, Dallas Burn fan, but has since long been relocated in Austin and now his allegiances are with Austin fc. But Jono knows the direct line to my heart because he sent me a blue sky message the other day that says Mirto Uzuni who is that big $13 million midfielder they signed from Albania for Austin. He said azuni is a $13 million TedX. [01:12:26] Speaker A: So you're all in? Well, yeah. [01:12:28] Speaker B: Here's the thing, you know everybody, the opinions on TED act tend to be not good. My love of TEDx comes from a place of heart and effort and so I have a feeling Jono is sliding his new Austin midfielder and denigrating him by saying he's a 13 million dollar TedX. I don't think he's complimenting him, but Jono will hear this and let me know if I'm wrong. [01:12:55] Speaker A: But it's no wonder you like Kaik man. [01:12:58] Speaker B: Kaike is a golden retriever puppy just running around the field with no direction. He's he just pure athlete and I feel bad for that kid because they're They've put him in a terrible situation and, you know, legit. And Paxton and everybody else can't come back fast enough because I, I, at this point, I don't think they're helping that young man grow his career. [01:13:21] Speaker A: This is what happens when you pay $4 million for a kid. I mean, is he, is he that much more ready to play than Diego Garcia? No, no. But, but he cost 4 million bucks, so he's playing. [01:13:32] Speaker B: I, but, you know, I mean, but that is so unfair to the player. [01:13:35] Speaker A: It is, but this is the reality of Major League Soccer. Like, think about that. Like, could, Could Quill drop Lucho Acosta? I mean, I'm sure that someone, if you ask them, they'll probably all say, oh, no, the coach can pick who he wants. Yeah, sure you can. Oh, Dan Hunt's office. It's like two doors down, and he's in there every day. Why is Lucho not playing? Right? [01:13:54] Speaker B: Oh, I'm sure, I'm sure. And you have to, I mean, and I don't know, I. He probably didn't need to play him in the Open cup game. [01:14:01] Speaker A: No, but I think that's as much about, like, Romero is going to be out, so we got to play him in there and get him, you know, that's what that was about, I'm sure. Yeah, well, it doesn't have another six. I mean, like, after him, who's going to be six? [01:14:12] Speaker B: I'd like to think that as, as not. Not well constructed. This team is there at least enough working parts to not have to play Lucho Acosta in a US Open cup game against the USL1 side. Side, who are like eighth in the league, by the way. [01:14:26] Speaker A: Oh, I thought you were talking about Kaikake. [01:14:28] Speaker B: No, I. Well, Kite. Yeah, you could leave Kaiki. I'm just saying, I. Anyway, Kaike may end up being a tremendous professional soccer player, but I think Dallas is doing him a tremendous disservice by making him play these minutes because he's not improving, and I think he's getting frustrated. And you could see the Kaiki that we, Kaike, that we saw in game one, that we all kind of giggled about, is you can see the wear and tear starting to show on it. [01:14:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's fair. Well, I think that's, that's probably why Romero will be back in there, I imagine, this weekend, pending, of course, Shaq Moore being able to play. And I'm with you. I was, I was actually really surprised Lucha Costa played in the Open Cup. I thought that was a perfect game to get him off, but I'm sure that goes trying to get him integrated still, you know, trying to figure out what the hell's going on. [01:15:14] Speaker C: Get getting Lucho off aside. Oh, Peter didn't react to that. I do wonder how much. [01:15:21] Speaker B: Oh, I took note of it. [01:15:23] Speaker C: I, I do wonder how much. And I, I did ask quotas, but he kind of stepped around it a little bit how much that 5 nil loss played into the approach to the game and players that maybe could have rested. But you wanted to see a response. [01:15:38] Speaker A: Out of the cup game. Yeah, yeah, that's fair. I mean, when you lose five, oh, you have to do lots of things to salvage it. [01:15:47] Speaker B: I just wanted Dan to absorb the the commentary of podcast Pervert instead of me once. [01:15:54] Speaker C: Okay, goody. [01:15:57] Speaker A: Third Degree, the podcast is brought to you by listeners like you. If you enjoy 3rd Degree, the podcast, or any of our coverage on 3rd Degree.net or our social media work, why not join [email protected] thirddegree give us a little support, whatever level you might like to lend a helping hand. If you join us at the Three Amigos level, you can join our cherub, terrific Discord community and all the great fans there. 3rd degree.netpatreon.com 3rd degree thanks again for your support. [01:16:21] Speaker B: All right, boys. Very good, Dan. Thank you so much, sir. [01:16:24] Speaker C: Thank you, Buzz. [01:16:26] Speaker B: Thank you, sir. [01:16:27] Speaker A: Yeah, man. Thanks for y' all to be here. [01:16:30] Speaker B: Big times next week. Open cup game and a game after that we'll get into. And thank you. DFW Area soccer. Curious human being. I'll figure it out. [01:16:43] Speaker A: Quality. [01:16:44] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll. We'll speak to you next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:16:49] Speaker C: Welcome back, Paxton. [01:16:51] Speaker B: Third degree the third degree third degree the third degree third degree the 3rd degree third degree the third degree neighbor. [01:17:06] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:17:06] Speaker B: By. [01:17:31] Speaker A: Sam.