3rd Degree the Podcast #312

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Third Degree. [00:00:11] Speaker C: The Third Degree NE Podcast. [00:00:14] Speaker B: Third Degree. The Third Degree N Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree N Podcast. Third Degree. Third Degree Third Degree. [00:00:26] Speaker A: The podcast is brought to you by the El Matador watch party. That's this weekend, May 24th at 2:00pm p.m. as your hometown club, FC Dallas, travels up north to take on the Seattle Sounders. The watch party is at the Scarlet Pumpernickel in downtown Dallas. They have the whole second floor reserve, big TVs, full sound, own bartender, amazing food. There's plenty of parking in the area. Best of all, the Scarlet Pumpernickel is only two blocks from the Akin Street DART station. So get on down there, Support the road dogs. They head up to Seattle SC Dallas, your hometown club, the El Matador Watch Party. [00:00:58] Speaker B: Well, hello there, DFW area soccer lovin and curious fan. You welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast looking mighty fine today. There's Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:11] Speaker C: Heidi Ho. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Sorry about Luton Town. [00:01:16] Speaker C: I mean, that's every week, right? It's just sorry that they exist at this point. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Just think of all the fun you'll have when you get promoted and next season back into the championship. [00:01:29] Speaker C: I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. We, you know, it's like, oh, yeah, playoffs will be fun. That'd be cool. Yeah. [00:01:36] Speaker B: And gallivanting across this fine nation is your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer. Live from a posh hotel in some fine American Midwest city, it is Buzz Carrick. Literally. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:53] Speaker A: Yes, from my Hampton Inn in Columbus, Ohio. So posh. So, so bougie. [00:01:59] Speaker B: Yeah, so bougie. [00:02:01] Speaker A: So bougie. [00:02:02] Speaker B: Well, that's a pretty fluffy looking robe you're wearing there. [00:02:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:06] Speaker B: Is that the only thing you have on during the podcast? [00:02:09] Speaker A: Hence the tight shot of the camera. [00:02:10] Speaker B: Just all that chest hair flowing out. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Yep, yep. [00:02:16] Speaker B: Wait, what's. What's hairier, your chest or Dan's chin? [00:02:21] Speaker A: Don't dance chin? By far. Yeah, not even close. [00:02:25] Speaker B: Should I say we do have much to talk about? Somebody got a win this week for the first time. And talk about the little team from Sherman here in a little bit. Dallas Trinity was off, but we've got much to preview as the fate of their season is definitely in the balance. Other stuff, but we will start with that. The Texas Darby happened on Saturday. Delayed weather. And I'm going to admit up front that because of the delayed weather, I ended up watching something else and putting off watching the game. And I have not seen it. I'm kind of glad that I haven't. I have a feeling I can tell you exactly how the game went down. But Buzz, since you did watch it. [00:03:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:12] Speaker B: I'm gonna let you bear the burden of sharing the good and bad and all of them. [00:03:16] Speaker A: Well, I honestly, I felt a bit of like Quill did in his post gamer. He was, you know, he's an emotional dude. He really gets upset when they don't win. But he didn't had a whole lot of really negative to say because he felt like they played. This goes back to the Oscar Prey idea. That's not just to throw out the goals. He said they thought that they had a couple things that went really nicely in terms of their overall play. But at the end of the day, he also harped hard on like, you have to have these warrior mentalities and not lose concentration when it counts most and get up goals like you did. And, and I agree with that in general terms. You know, I, my. In my three things, I talked about some of the positives I saw that I think they can take forward from this game. You know, there's different kinds of losses. There's a 05 loss of San Diego when you. It's worthless. And then, then you have a game like this, which you don't want to lose to arrival, obviously. And you, you talk about winning cultures, et cetera, like that. But at the same time, I thought there were multiple components in the first half I thought were really positive. And I thought you could take forward from them and build on them. As we've been talking all season about, this is the first year of a rebuild and they've been trying to figure out how to play even in this loss. I think they're finally starting to get some answers on how to play. Hmm. [00:04:28] Speaker B: It's an interesting and very positive take for a team that only has one win in their last seven. And that win came against watered down Miam, who clearly aren't the team everybody thought they were. [00:04:39] Speaker A: Well, you know, one of the things I try to do is not get emotional about things. I try and keep it analytical. And so, like, even when the team is not playing very well, we look for ways they can improve. We think, okay, what went wrong? What could go right? How do we get things better on the field? How does the coach react? What's he going to change? So some of my takeaways from this game were like that, yes, at the end of the day, you got to get results. And that's what that's the only thing that matters is did you score more goals than them. But when you want to try and figure out, like you're a bad team, how do we get better? There's something to take away from it too. [00:05:10] Speaker B: Dan, I'm going to turn to you for cussing and fussing and emotion. [00:05:15] Speaker C: Oh, that's tough. [00:05:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that was a really stupid idea on my part. No, come on, throw a good old fashioned English hissy fit for me, for goodness sakes. [00:05:29] Speaker C: What a load of bollocks. Anyway, really good first half. You know, Quil said, came into the presser and said, you know, absolutely dominating up until the first goal. Yeah, yeah, 100%. The big problem was they just weren't creating anything. The best chance for the first 80 minutes or. Sorry, the only shot on target for the first 80 minutes came from their own half. They just really struggled, you know, in the press conference. Talked a lot about moments, warriorhood, talked a lot about switching off on the Glynn's goal, not. Not closing down. Didn't really have a whole lot of problem with that. The problem I had with was they just weren't. They weren't connecting going forward. Everything was. Was very narrow. It was kind of a bit. It was very mishmash. The switch to. The switch to the back three at the end, I think really did all three center backs of the service because you effectively had. He was playing on the right. Lala Sabubika and Asazi Irigido playing as fullbacks. So Assazi naturally gets torched for the second goal by Griffin Dorsey. I mean, I guess at that point they're kind of throwing at the wall and hoping something sticks going forward, but it just didn't feel like that was. That was the answer. Is that a hissy fit enough? [00:07:02] Speaker B: No, not really. I was looking for some good old fashioned cussing, but I guess that's what I'm gonna get out of here. [00:07:07] Speaker C: A family show. [00:07:09] Speaker B: It is the Texas Derby, guys. I mean, I mean, this game means a lot to people and the team continues to be winless at home. And I'm thinking that this has to be some sort of near or close. I know it's got to be a club record, but what's the. I mean, for a non expansion league team in the history of mls, what is the longest winless streak at home to start a season? This has got to be close to it, doesn't it? I mean, LA right now, I. Maybe he's already exceeded it because obviously they haven't won a game all season. [00:07:46] Speaker A: You Know, I think it's hard to get, you know, to dig too deep a hole and bury this team when at the same time they're doing this absolutely abysmal home thing. They actually. They set a club record for wins on the road. So it's like you. It's really difficult to look at the same and think it's utter trash. There's. There's quality at times. You know, obviously, well, for whatever reason, they can't. Something mental that's not working at home. But there are other times when you think this team's done stuff on the road that no team for this club's ever done. You know, the season's not even halfway over yet, so it's like, you know, the. The first goal that McGlynn scored was an absolute individual cracker from 40 yards out. And maybe if Paz plays, that's not going in. I mean, it was a hell of a shot. And Cody's a pretty decent stop shopper, so that's probably a little bit unfair to say that. But, you know, there wasn't a. When a guy's that far out, you're not expecting him to shoot, and maybe he's not closed down like he should have been, but they got a guy who's not very mobile in midfield and a guy who's 19 years old in midfield, and they're on a double pivot instead of that three we'd seen across before. So, look, there's still deficiencies in this team, and that's why I didn't get, you know, I'm not crazy upset about it because, like, we. The. Things are a problem have been on. [00:08:59] Speaker B: A problem all along. Yeah, well, okay, you know, well, so that's new. That's what I'm trying to figure out and sort out from you, Buzz, is because you have taken stance of trying to be positive about this and how things are going to get corrected. But yeah, it does feel like that now for however many games they've played. We've been talking about the same general problem, which is the team just has no ability to move the ball downfield and. And create chances on any regular basis. And I know everybody hated this team last year, but I think this team's just as bad as last year's team, just in a kind of slightly different flavor. [00:09:34] Speaker C: Well, there's a. There is a slight parallel. We. We obviously complained about Jesus Ferreira coming in so deep to. To try and get involved in playing, and that was exactly what Lucho did. The only difference is he kind of got a little Bit more involved than. Than Jesus, where Jesus would, you know, make the pass and then stay at midfield. [00:09:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. If you want to talk about the two things that I felt were mostly positive, one was the switch to the 4. 3. Sorry, 4, 2, 3. 1. The thing quill has wanted to play all along, and the reason that's a positive is because Lucio Costa was more integrated and more involved in the play than he's been basically all year. Now. He still made mistakes where he had a sitter, he should have scored and that probably had an XG of about 5 and he missed it. And then he had some passes to no. 1, like, so. But then he also had a lot of really high aggressive duels and progressive dribbles. And so, like, he did a lot of positive things, but the final third is still not there. So, like, if you're looking for an improvement, he was more involved in the build and more integrated, and that helped a little bit through the midfield. The other is because you switched to that shape, you have more width. Now, granted, Padrina was playing a bit of a full swing, but he was wider than ever before. And for the first 20 minutes or so, it was like it has been lately, where they're going all up the left side, up the left side, up the left side. And all of a sudden there was a switch that happened, and it was like the light came on. They were like, oh, yeah, there's another half of the field we can play in. And so they opened it up, and all of a sudden the play is across the side to side, across the whole field, and now there's space, and now it's open. And so for the, you know, the bulk of the first half and maybe even the start of the second half, up until Houston scored, they played like a full wide game. And they actually ended up with more attacking on the whole game down the right than they did on the left. And so that was really nice to see. Now Shaq Moore needs to be out hugging the line and creating full width. You know, especially when you have a false swing in front of you. And Pedrinho, you know, recognize that and adjust where your lines are. You know, if Julio's on that side like he has been usually, then more could play more in underneath because Julio plays wider. Right. So you need to make an adjustment. Again, not everybody always sees these things on the field. Sometimes you wonder where these guys have been doing for the last 20 years of their lives. But, you know, nonetheless, those are two positive progress, two things we've been complaining about Took a step forward and got better. So, like, if we're, we're talking about how, how this team's going to turn around, how this is going to improve, climbing stand. You see moments like this. Okay, yeah, Dan's correct. They didn't create a lot of chances. Still, the, the final bit wasn't there. Musa looks really rusty, but still nice to have him back. He played half the game. It looked better with him than it did with Farrington. So, you know, again, it's not, it's not a good team yet. We all predicted this team would fight for the bottom of the playoffs, you know, not be wooden spoon, which is exactly where it is. It's right outside the playoffs. They make some improvements and climb back in. That's exactly where we thought they were. [00:12:21] Speaker B: So, so what you're telling me is that after 30 years, I, day one Dallas fan should be pleased about baby steps? [00:12:30] Speaker A: I didn't say you should be pleased about it. You should be mad that the team never does anything. I'm just saying that like in, in the context of this season, if we're hoping the team's going to get better, you know, the problem is, is that you got rid of some pieces. You got some rid of pieces that didn't really fit and weren't really working, that are some big, valuable, important pieces, and he brought in some other ones that also don't really work really well. So it's like, you know, you got Delgado, who's not even playing anymore. That was a buy, a relatively large buy. Yet $5 million you spend on Lucha Costa, that doesn't fit the way the coach wanted to play, you know, so you only have one wing when you need two. It's like, you know, you have no backup outside backs. You have one backup center back or missing a start. You know, so it's the same we've been talking about since November of last year. [00:13:17] Speaker B: I know. And I, I'm curious as to where all of those Zenata supporters and front office supporters who are all, you know, talking up a storm about what a great window it was and what a great roster this is really starting to shape up to be. I haven't heard out of those people in the last few weeks. I. I know. Look, it's possible this all changes. They go into the transfer window in the summer and they make some acquisitions. This league is silly. [00:13:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:13:45] Speaker B: We've all been watching this league a long time. We all know this is going to go one of two ways. This is, this is. I mean, especially if you look at the schedule coming up, they could bury themselves in the next four weeks, by the way. They could fall out of Open cup. They could absolutely tank in terms of the position. The only thing that's really surviving them at this point is there are some clubs, unexpectedly, that are even worse. St. Louis, the Galaxy, Kansas City, all those three stories are even worse. Only slightly worse, but they are worse. So the other way is that this does this normal MLS thing where a team kind of sputters to start the season and then something kind of clicks and they kind of make a run at the end of the season. So maybe I'll just take a nap until August or September and let me know what's going on. [00:14:37] Speaker C: Can I be the defender for the. There's a. Not had a good window, people, because. [00:14:42] Speaker A: Oh, my go. Yeah. [00:14:43] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yes, please. [00:14:45] Speaker C: Yes, he had. He did have a very good window. You know, it's. It's a big, important rebuild. You dumped a lot of salary, a lot of. A lot of flexibility with contracts, the initial window. And this, you know, this is going to be a rebuild over several windows over, you know, a couple of years. It's a great start. You brought in Asazi Regida. You brought in, on paper, a defensive midfielder that's won Copa Limitedores in. In Ramiro. You know, he's been. He's been okay. He's been so. So he's not the most mobile in a system that's maybe required him to be, I think, on the board. [00:15:34] Speaker A: Seems more mobile. [00:15:35] Speaker C: Well, yeah, you know, funny. Funny enough. I like Peter Lucene. I think he's fantastic on the ball, with the ball at his feet. [00:15:43] Speaker B: Okay, but hold on, Dan. I want to. No, I want to. I want to dig into this a little bit, because I think you're onto something in defending him, because you know what? Getting rid of Ferreira and getting rid of those other contracts that they needed to get rid of and getting all that money for Velasco, all. I agree with you. Those are all great things. But at the end of the day, when you. When you cleared all that space, now your responsibility is to properly use that space for new and better things. And I've yet to see anything better. Now I get it. Lucho Costa becomes available in the league, and you have an option to buy him, and you talk Dan hunt into spending 5 million of the bucks that are sitting in his wallet. You probably weren't anticipating that Lucha would stink, which he has so far. But I also think that's a byproduct of everything else they haven't yet done, which is improve this roster. Because the additions they've brought in I think are up for debate as to how the quality of them. [00:16:45] Speaker C: But that's it, that, that's the first window. You know, if, if they don't have a good summer window, it's a bust. You know, if they don't have a good win next year or this, this off season, it's a bust. But it's an important first step to absolutely clear the deck to generate that allocation money to generate that cap space, roster space space with international slots to allow you to actually have a rebuild. Because every time we've talked about a rebuild, it's been band Aid fixes. It's still been, you know, it's still been your Paul Ariels and your Jesus Ferreiras and you know, before that your Matt Hedges and, and whoever else who, you know, my hedge is one, you know, is, is obviously the, the modern day goat for FC Dallas, but it's those sort of bold moves that, that made like, you know, in 2014, those sort of bold moves what made the 2016 double winning season. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Okay. [00:17:54] Speaker C: If you don't stick your neck out, then we're just going to be complaining. Oh, Jesus is still playing like, but he's now in his late 20s or. [00:18:02] Speaker B: You know, I feel like I'm, maybe I'm having revisionist history, but I feel like the pushback that I got personally when I questioned some of this stuff and the quality of the roster, which was this isn't a rebuild, the joke was, oh, we're going to do a rebuild while we're rebuilding the stadium. And there was a subset of people that took great offense of that. Oh, no, we brought in Lucha Acosta, we got Leo Chu, we got Julio Anderson, we got all these guys that, you know, we got the new French center back and we brought a Boba car and Shaq Moore is a big upgrade. And, and people were trying to line out how all of these additions in the winter window made this team significantly better than last year's team. And I don't think that's necessarily showed itself yet. So maybe I'm, maybe I'm remembering it wrong. [00:18:50] Speaker A: Sorry, I was going to say, Peter, you and I and Dan all were having discussions about a wooden spoon until they got Lucha Costa. [00:18:58] Speaker B: Right. [00:18:58] Speaker A: And so then we said, okay, now that bumps you up to where you're fighting for the bottom of the playoffs. So I, you know, I, I don't know who outside this podcast is telling you something different, but I think we. [00:19:08] Speaker B: Were all go read my Twitter thread. [00:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah. So, like, I, you know, sometimes. Well, you know, let's try to keep it in house, I guess, in the sense that, like, you know, we all saw this as the first step, and some of the moves have worked. Like, I was excited about Anderson, Julio more than I think you guys were. Shaq Moore, to me, hasn't really panned out very much, you know, but Nolan looks like a nice piece for the future. Obviously, Irrigate is a massive hit, you know, and we knew the other center back was a problem. Right. And maybe there has to be some money cleared at that position before there's some more. I don't know. They're sitting on a 2dp4u22 initiative method, and yet we know one of those guys probably maybe is going to get sold. Maybe even two of them. That'd be nice, right? And then you could actually do something. So, you know, they still have some misses to clear out. You know, some guys that look like they're okay, but you'd like to think you can do better. Obviously, PAX are coming back. Legit coming back could both be really nice additions. So, like, there is some mobility that can happen this summer. Even before you talk about, can you go out and get something and you have a nice window. Okay, so this is. This is why, like, when I look ahead to what's coming this summer, I say, okay, I'd like to look at that 4231. Let's see some more of that. What else can you do with that? Ramiro being a foot slow is a question. Kaik being 19 is a question. But then maybe Paxton's in one of those spots, you know, maybe Legit's in one of the other. Legit used to be a winger. Maybe he could be that other winger you're missing, you know, or maybe Diego Costa can. Gosh dang it. That's a. What is with that? Maybe Lucho Costa can as a false swing. And maybe Legit's more of a 10 for you. I don't know. We're going to see Quill trying to figure those things out. But, you know, at some point, I get tired of just ripping the same things over and over again, and I start looking for what's next. Like, what can you use to do something different with? Because otherwise we're just going to sit here and rip them for the exact same crap. Rip them forward for four months. [00:20:53] Speaker B: Well, yeah, but if they keep doing the stupid, same stupid thing and. And putting out the same poor Results. It is what it is, Buzz. [00:21:01] Speaker A: Yeah, but you just get bored of it after a while. Oh yeah, you know I get bored of talking about it. It's like. Yeah, we know, we know we can't do that. We know that the center back options other than Ira Gide get spun like tops like on the, the Dorfy Dorsey goal. If you're getting he doesn't fall down. Maybe he's got recovery pace and could say save that but the other two guys got spun like tops and had no clue how to close that guy down and get within a three feet of him before he got that shot off. Three yards of him even, you know just, he just lined it up at will because nobody could close him. So you know at some point you just. He gets hard to beating dead horses. [00:21:34] Speaker C: Yeah, it's almost like we're in a holding pattern until, until the next window because you know you could have. All right, hopefully show doesn't get picked up because why would you. So you've got roster space there. Obviously Leo Chu was a, was a make weight in the Jesus Ferreira trade to with the intention of selling to Brazil. They are shopping them obviously. Can they make something happen there? If they do Great. That's a U22 roster spot. That's I think he's an international and importantly that's, that's money. You know they've got to give Quill the tools to, to go to work ultimately and it's yeah, we're just really sitting around in a way waiting for that time to come choose. [00:22:24] Speaker A: She's not an international by the way. He's got a green card. [00:22:27] Speaker B: Are we ever I have we all come to the conclusion we're not going to see him play in a Dallas shirt again. [00:22:33] Speaker A: I, I, I'll, I'll say if he doesn't play it won't surprise me. I'm not going to unequivocally say he will will or won't play but it certainly wouldn't shock me if he never plays again. [00:22:42] Speaker C: Break in case of emergency. [00:22:44] Speaker A: Yeah, you know at this point like if he's not in your plans you might as well play things people like Petrino or Bernie just to see work on development still, you know or at some point you like Tar Scott just left the North Texas game hurt so it won't be him. But you know at some point you try other pieces and see what happens, see what sticks. But you know I, like I said I think with some progress of the 4231. I think there's a way. Okay. No, we like that. Let's see if. Let's go take that further, see how that goes. See what develops out of that. [00:23:13] Speaker C: Okay. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Well, it's going to get brutal here. I feel like Dallas just came off a three game straight road trip thing, but that's what they're about to face now. This one's pretty brutal. Obviously they got to get on a plane and go play Red Bull in the Open cup on Wednesday. The games at 6:30. So they fly from Dallas to the east coast and then they gotta fly, I'm assuming they'll go from New York all the way to Seattle. So there's the next flight and they play Seattle Saturday afternoon at 2 and then they come home. Excuse me. And then after that they've got a game on Wednesday in Cincinnati. So assumably they come back to Dallas and then they got to fly to Cincinnati and then they got a game after that on Saturday against Philadelphia. So in this stretch run they play an open cup game on the road against Red Bull. Then they got to go play the 6th place team all the way on the other side of the country and then travel and play the first place team or second place team, I forget. Well, they play the first and second east coast teams essentially on a Wednesday, Saturday back to back, both on the road at home. So it's a, it's a brutal, brutal stretch coming up for Dallas. [00:24:28] Speaker C: Yes, they are flying from New York to Seattle. Effectively they're going to leave tomorrow. So we're obviously on the Monday. They're going to leave tomorrow. They're going to get back Sunday I believe have Monday and then leave Tuesday for Cincinnati. [00:24:48] Speaker A: So you know, they got to go on the road. [00:24:50] Speaker C: Yeah, the next week and a bit they're going to have two days home. [00:24:54] Speaker A: Remember Seattle too is the place where they have never won in the regular season. I believe they have one playoff one all time. [00:24:59] Speaker C: The last time they won in New York, as Mark Fishkin just told me in the Last hour was 2006. [00:25:08] Speaker B: Shout out to Mark Fishkin. Another original by the way. [00:25:11] Speaker C: Yeah, he said hello by the way. Buzz. [00:25:14] Speaker A: Oh, thank you. Yeah, he. He asked if one of us could come on and what about me? And I, I told him Peter hates you and don't. He said yeah that. Screw that guy. And obviously I was in a car. So I was more than happy to give him Dan's name. And Dan filled in. That was good. [00:25:30] Speaker B: Dan's way better fill in than me. [00:25:32] Speaker A: I admit that You've got the accent, man. It's got cachet. Legit. [00:25:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I. No doubt. [00:25:38] Speaker A: So what are we going to brand the FC Cincinnati game? Is that the Lucho Casa bowl or the Evander vs. Lucha? [00:25:45] Speaker C: I believe that's Hell is actually real. [00:25:48] Speaker A: Hell is actually real. Yeah. Keep in mind the Seattle game, you'll be playing without Lucho Acosta. A he's on a yellow card. [00:25:55] Speaker B: So watch this team spring to life and score like six in Seattle. What happens then? Okay, I'm knowing all of the situations going on with this team, Buzz. You know, between the Open cup game on Wednesday, the Seattle game on the following Saturday. I mean, it's essentially a Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday. Schedule for the next two weeks. [00:26:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:16] Speaker B: How does Quill even begin to manage all that manpower for those games? [00:26:20] Speaker A: Well, the first thing is, is your Open cup is still your best shot to do anything. So I'm sure he's all in on the Open Cup. Like the Open cup will be your 100% best lineup you have available in New York. Lucha won't be suspended for that one. So I imagine it'll look very similar to what you just did. 4, 2, 3, 1. You know, I don't think I, I. In fact, I would doubt there'd be any changes. I don't think PAX is up for a full start. But Moussa can go past halftime. Yeah, you know, more like a 60 minute thing, you know. [00:26:52] Speaker B: So Musa was a, a plan substitute at the halftime. Yeah, that was a winner or anything like that. A minute restriction? [00:26:58] Speaker A: No, usually we see a minute guy go in at halftime, but instead he went out halftime. But, you know, whatever. So we're expecting 60 out of him, but otherwise it's like. I don't, I don't think you would change anything. I mean, that really is your best group. You know, PAX is not ready to start. So you're going to have Romero and Kaik. You know, unless you're going to put Paxton in the starting line and then pull him at halftime. But this is an Open cup game. When you're trying to win, like win at all costs. I think he'll just use Paxton as a sub with the idea that maybe Paxton at Seattle, although it is turf, so maybe not. But you know, when you're looking at New York, you're going to go all in. Hope and pause is healthy and not sick anymore. And because that's the one you got to win no matter what. And then you can. When you go to Seattle, you can. You're not going to have Lucho constantly and try something Different. You maybe just put Padrino into the middle and see if there's another wing available. Do you give PAX in a start, even though it's turf? You know, you could try something a little bit different with a shake up. You could maybe play three at the back and see how that goes, you know, like. Because people are gonna have a really high expectation going into Seattle after a midweek cup game, you know, so without Lucio Costa. So you can maybe try like a double front, like a Musa Farrington together kind of things. Like what that happens. [00:28:10] Speaker B: Or. [00:28:11] Speaker A: Or maybe Farrington on that other wing with Pedrinho inside. Maybe that's an idea. So some of that may depend a lot on what happens in New York, but I think that would be the emphasis. You know, you're all in on the Cup. [00:28:21] Speaker C: It would be very surprising with Paxton to go from 20 minutes to a. To a full start. [00:28:27] Speaker A: No, but we just saw him give a guy for a full start, but with the idea that you're gonna yank him at 45, so. [00:28:33] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Other than it's coming off a. A calf injury that they thought was going to be a week originally, not 14 months out. [00:28:41] Speaker A: No, sure. But, you know, whether you bring him on and a half or start him and pull him in half, you know, from 20 minutes, I'd like to see him go to 45. So you could do it whichever way you want. Maybe you don't want to do it in Seattle on the turf. That's on my hesitation. I don't know. [00:28:55] Speaker B: I'm laughing because Paxton was one of the Zoomer players that told us they didn't care what the surface was. They grew up on turf, and now we're wanting to protect him from the term. [00:29:04] Speaker A: Well, I always want to protect people from turf, but that's not. You know, he may feel different about it. [00:29:08] Speaker C: Well, also, I mean, it depends what kind of turf, like if it's Portland's, is. Is a different kind in Seattle's. [00:29:14] Speaker A: Right. I mean, you probably figure you can't run, you know, Ramiro 90 minutes for like four straight games with midweeks. Right. So you got to put somebody else in there a bit. You know, if you want to go with that formation, it's got to have to be Paxton or maybe shows in there with Kaika, and that's a little weird. You know, how does Delgado factor in? So I think all those decisions will get made after you get through the cup game, where you're going to be 100% in on the cup game. [00:29:39] Speaker C: Okay, so what I think Quill did say five finals or four finals, whatever it was. So he's, you know, all in on the warriorhead of the Cup. Like you say, it's their best chance to win. [00:29:50] Speaker A: I mean, last cup game we saw Lucho not get rested. We saw Musa knock whoever else who got urged in and get rested. So, like, they're definitely taking the cup seriously. [00:29:58] Speaker B: I am interested to see how this goes because obviously being a good road team this year or a solid road team this year is their best bet at this point to collect things and. But man, both of those road games are brutal. A place you've never won at before. Have they ever played in Cincinnati? Is this their first game ever in Cincinnati? I think it is. [00:30:19] Speaker A: I don't think they've played it more than one couple of times. [00:30:21] Speaker B: I think they've played them in Dallas, but I don't think they've played Cincinnati. You know what, I've got it right here. Yeah, they've played both the games in Dallas. [00:30:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, that's a game that'll be interesting because Lucho will be wanting to do really, really well, obviously. So that's kind of like one of those games where you can maybe toss out the records in the sense that, like, there might be guys, something to play, prove in that game. The opposite is true of Seattle. Of course you're going to have guys like you can have Jesus wanting to do really well. Paul obviously won't be playing, but, you know, Seattle's an interesting team and that's a very, very difficult place for Dallas to play. We'll find out exactly how good Dallas is on the road, won't we? Because this is a very, as you say, very difficult stretch, even when you click Philadelphia back home. And at the end of that thing. That's tough, man. Brutal. That's a brutal maybe. Goodness gracious. [00:31:11] Speaker B: It's going to tell us a lot about the team. [00:31:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't. I don't think we want. I don't think it's going to tell us anything we don't already know, though. I think you're going to be looking at the exact same team that you are now. A team we're outside the playoffs. [00:31:22] Speaker C: I think the, the cup game may kind of clue us in on a few things. They've not really been on the front foot too much. You know, even in terms of playing out of possession, they're not, not. They're not pressuring players. I heard a thing Tom Burger said it was like teams are averaging something like 12, 12 or 15 passes between pressures from FC Dallas, which, you know, early on we kind of talked about, okay, playing out of possession but pressing winning the ball back and getting upfield that they're not doing that right now. New York similarly do not want the ball of the, oh, I wrote the stat down and now I don't have it in front of me. They have won once this season holding more than 50 possession. That was a 21 win against Toronto. They just, yeah, they had like 60 something percent possession against New York City and, you know, absolutely got walloped. So, you know, can they, can they be on the front foot and force the initiative and make New York have the ball? Do they kind of recede and dick around with. With possession they don't want? [00:32:39] Speaker A: Yeah. One of the great limitations of this team, of course, is that the midfield doesn't have a lot of progression ability, doesn't have a lot of possession ability. You know, you're looking at the double pure sixes in there with Kaik and Romero, at least the way Romero plays for this team. And then Acosta, who's even in this new shape, new shapes of relative term in the 4, 2, 3, 1. Acosta plays really high and doesn't want to come back. So there's not a lot of ability to play through the middle in this team. Until guys start getting healthy like Paxton legit, or you find some other pieces to bring into this team, it's going to be the way it is. You know, you're. You're left very one dimensional, which is why it's so important to have that width, to have more play all the way out on the width being, you know, and maybe that'll be one change is that Pedrinho doesn't look super great when he starts. He looks a lot better when he comes in late. So maybe there's a chance someone else plays on the wing. I don't know who it would be. The only person I think it's done halfway eastern is Farrington, which is not to say a lot because Bernie has, you know, he didn't score last time. [00:33:41] Speaker C: He started, but, you know, actually, just think about it. It kind of surprised me, playing fairly, inverted wings, that they don't switch more, you know, drag. You have the opposition fallback, drag him inside, drag him outside, kind of don't let him settle into a defensive rhythm. That was just a random thought. [00:34:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:08] Speaker B: Buzz, if you could fix one position on this roster with a change, what would it be? [00:34:15] Speaker A: Technical director was the second. It's the second center. [00:34:19] Speaker B: It's not the roster. Dan, you'd still. You. You'd go second center. But you think that's the main problem with this team is this? [00:34:27] Speaker A: I do. Because you know that they have to play with such a defensive mentality in midfield because the center backs are not that great, you know, and you. [00:34:36] Speaker B: Sorry, it's not a. It's. It's not a. It's not a midfielder that can help progress the ball. [00:34:40] Speaker A: Well, you have Paxton and Legit that are both hurt. Those are both million doll. So it's like, I don't. If the thing is fixed passing, make them healthy. Okay. I guess that could be it. But, like, I'm anticipating that Legit packs are both going to be able to provide guys. You're paying a million dollars a season. That's a pretty big, important player. Those are well into the DP money. Those guys need to be massive factors. If they're not, the end of the season, decisions will be made. Right. That's it. Bottom line. Right. So that's not something that I want to fix right this minute. I know that Ibiaga and Abubakar are not good enough. I know so. And they hasn't been in a couple seasons. And Ibia, in my opinion, never has been. So, you know, I would like to add a nice wing, but I don't think that that's. I think Farrington could be that wing if you would just give him a consistent run in that wing and have him play wide and not have him play like, you know, nine. So, like, to me, the first thing I want to fix is center back. [00:35:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I think you're spot on now because I think even the midfielders that are playing right now, they do have it in them. They are, you know, both good on the ball, but when you are. When you are tracking that deep, when you are playing a very deep double pivot, you're not progress. You're not carrying the ball as much as you're just playing the short pass out wide and cross. Kind of hoping for the best. [00:36:07] Speaker B: Okay. [00:36:08] Speaker A: Yep. [00:36:10] Speaker B: All right. So Wednesday, open cup at Red Bull and then Saturday in dreaded Saint, Excuse me, Seattle. That is an afternoon game, by the way, so 2pm local time for that. The other thing I noticed. I've noticed, you know, this is all very predictable and buzz, you were so smart to talk about how at the beginning of the season we, when we saw the tarps over the seats, that I was like, man, that annoys me. And I feel stupid to let tarps annoy me. And I couldn't figure out why. And you were the one that pointed out that that's probably some sort of weird trauma that we're all dealing with from being Cotton bowl goers or hall of Fame people that you had to deal with it when the hall of Fame building stuff was going on and the COVID games. Yeah, that's good point. Good shout, Dan. And so like, tarps are like this thing that just freaks us all out and some of us out. And. And I had. And I kind of knew that when they put tarps up that a. A lot of people would see this and not know what's going on and think it's some sort of attendance joke again or. Or whatever it is. And so we'd end up spending a lot of time trying to explain ourselves why our club isn't as bad at getting people to come to games as it appears they did. But that message clearly hasn't been communicated very well by the league, by the club or anybody because it just. As the season has gone by, the number of questions gets louder and louder. And I thought this weekend was hilarious when somebody who I didn't know until they revealed themselves to me on Twitter went out and bought the URL. Why the tarps.com and had it redirect to Dallas's Toyota Stadium project website. [00:37:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's. [00:37:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Matt. Oh, is he. Is he a discord member? [00:38:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Patreon.com lost their degree. [00:38:04] Speaker B: Fantastic. My. A tip of my cat and a fist pump to Matt because I think that's very, very funny. Why the tarps.com on the broadcast. [00:38:13] Speaker C: They need to. They need to pan the camera up occasionally so that you can see that that side of the stadium is entirely missing now. And you can just see the trees through. [00:38:25] Speaker B: I didn't realize they had. So if they torn down the entire. All the buildings and everything on the east side. [00:38:30] Speaker C: The middle section. The middle. [00:38:32] Speaker B: So where the gate was. [00:38:34] Speaker C: Yeah. Because the north end of it is still. That's still ops. That's. That's gonna be, you know, that's the link down to the tunnel. That's where all the CCTV is, where all the audio is, wherever. Where everything runs out of. So that's going to be most likely the last thing standing. You've got the admin office on that side. You've obviously got the team store on that side. And then weirdly, going towards the south side, there's. There's just a toilet block that's kind of open. And now they've tarped the side of it where you can see all the standpipes. [00:39:07] Speaker B: Dan, do you ever get a chance. [00:39:09] Speaker A: To talk to the players after games? Yes. [00:39:12] Speaker B: Okay. I'm curious if you'd be up for asking. I don't know if after games are the right time. I'm really curious if part of what's going on with this home run is a side effect of the. The kind of goofy atmosphere issue that's going on because of the stadium reconstruction. And is. Is that having an impact on player performance? [00:39:34] Speaker C: I mean, it wouldn't be surprising. Was it Michael Bradley that always used to say he hated playing at Toyota Stadium? Not because it was a bad place to play, but there was such a. A. It was such a. An unengaged, a disengaged crowd for the most part. It just made it difficult. It almost sucked the energy off the field. So, yeah, taking, taking half of the out and the sound from the supporter section doesn't really bounce around where it's just some tops and open space opposite that. Yeah, you can totally see that. [00:40:09] Speaker B: Be curious how the players feel about that. It would probably be difficult for them to be honest about it if in fact they felt like it was a. A problem. [00:40:17] Speaker C: So we'll wait till someone gets traded and awesome then. [00:40:21] Speaker B: Okay, we can ask Leo Chu when they sell him back to Brazil. All right. By the way, just on a side note, congratulations to Chris Richards, who won the FA cup this weekend with Crystal palace, which is a huge achievement. And every time I get really moody and grumpy about the fact that for 30 years I've been waiting for FC Dallas to win something. Here comes Crystal palace, who finally WINS Something after 119 years, which seems like an impossibly long time for generations of fans to have wait for something of substance to come their way. So the scenes at Wembley this weekend were fantastic. I don't know if you guys have watched all some of the videos that have people. There's a video of a dad with his three sons and somebody shooting it just kind of randomly behind. And you could just. The dad looks like he is about to melt as they're waiting for the final whistle. Remember, There was like 10 extra minutes added to the game and you can just see him waiting for the final whistle. And when it finally blows, the way that he gathers his children around him, some of them are as big as he is and hugs them, is just. It's just awesome. It's so good. And I'm so happy for all the palace fans out there. [00:41:35] Speaker C: They had to wait over a century to win the Open Cup. FC Dallas did it twice in 30 years. [00:41:40] Speaker A: I know it's about to point out that they've won it twice. [00:41:44] Speaker B: Well, you know all I'm worried about, I'm only, I'm only worried about MLS cup, but that's just me. But the reason why I bring up Chris Richards is because I believe obviously he's the first FC Dallas academy product to play in an FA cup final and now win it. But it dawned on me as we were watching the game and by the way, Chris had a tremendous performance in the game. Fat mob had him listed as the second best field player for palace in the game. I thought he was really solid. But I dawned on me is Chris Richards not the first MLS Academy product, any academy in MLS to win an FA cup or play in an FA cup final? And I think he is because Kristen Pulisic didn't come from an MLS academy. Tim Howard is from a time way before MLS academies. There was somebody else we talked about on the kick around the other day that predated all this is too or didn't come up. So I think in fact he may be the first MLS Academy player to play in an FA cup final and win an FA cup. And I think that's fart and cool. [00:42:53] Speaker A: That Aaronson get there with leads. Am I, am I crazy? [00:42:56] Speaker B: Not the final. [00:42:57] Speaker C: Zach Stefan, I mean he wouldn't have played but he would have been on the roster with. [00:43:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:05] Speaker B: And then to that point, Matt Turner was on Palace's team yesterday or this weekend, but he didn't play. So I don't know. And he came up through the Red Bull system, didn't he? [00:43:15] Speaker C: Maybe. [00:43:17] Speaker B: Was it New England? He came up through one of those systems. [00:43:21] Speaker C: Yeah, he was drafted by the England, I think. [00:43:23] Speaker B: Yeah. But he didn't play in the game and I don't think Zach Sefton. Zach Stefan played in an FA cup final. I don't know, it's just, it's really cool. You know, this is part of the experience of being part of a young league. So yeah, very excellent stuff. Okay, let us move on in the run sheet and let's see next up, Dallas Trinity didn't play last weekend. Their season is very much in L balance, boys. They got two games left. Do we know what. Do they have a magic number that we need to think about here? [00:43:56] Speaker C: No, I mean they. Yeah, I mean there's not so much a magic number. They. They're in fourth right now on 40 points. Brooklyn FC is two points behind them. Fort Lauderdale is a on 37 and. [00:44:10] Speaker B: They have a game in ham on Brooklyn too, by the way. [00:44:12] Speaker C: Well, they also play away at Fort Lauderdale. So Fort Lauderdale wins. They're both on 40 points. Brooklyn kind of not super relevant. They've had one win since the, since the spring season started. They've had. It's been a complete show there. So you can to some degree disregard them. But yeah, it's gonna be between, it seems between Dallas and Fort Lauderdale for that fourth spot. [00:44:46] Speaker B: Spot. [00:44:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Which makes this next game for them absolutely massive because that's a, you know, a six pointer in that sense. And then Trinity finishes with Carolina Ascent who already lifted the shield. So maybe they'll be resting people and so maybe you hoping you can get some points there. But the bottom line is if you take care of for Lauderdale on the 24th this next weekend, then you should be in pretty good shape. You know, you all because that's the team that you're worried about and you can basically eliminate them. I think if you beat them straight up on like that. [00:45:13] Speaker B: Yeah, if they beat them, that would put them on 43. Brooklyn only has one game left. Dallas has two fort now Fort Lauderdale has three games left. They're on 25 games. So by beating. So their max number is 46. Dallas's max number is also 46. Brooklyn can only get to 41. [00:45:36] Speaker A: So yeah, so this weekend's a must win really because if you don't win this one then Fort Lotto is going to be control their own fate basically. [00:45:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:45:44] Speaker C: And the good thing is, you know, they win this week. They've got the game in hand over Spokane and Tampa. That immediately puts them second and you know, lick him hopeful to then get the win against Carolina at home and, and get at least home advantage in that first round. [00:46:08] Speaker B: All right. And in the little Texans, Darby NTSC got a late night win over Houston 22 to 1. [00:46:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that game got delayed two or three times and ended up kicking off like at 10:30 at night at Choctaw. Sam Sarver with a PK and then Diego Garcia with an absolute banger of a goal for the win. You know, a guy who had a really great game. So like, you know, you love seeing him having gotten a taste of first team action, going back and doing really well down there is really great. You want to see him take that step like that. So that's really good. Bummer. Tark Scott went off in the first half with an apparent injury. You don't like seeing that. [00:46:48] Speaker B: But do we know what it is? [00:46:50] Speaker A: Have we heard? No, no, I Don't know what it is. Also shout out Nico Montoya, who's the most recent academy keeper who's been signed. He got his first, first start, first game for North Texas and net. And so that's nice to see that. See young pro players progression through. He's the next guy in line of these, you know, pro potential since he signed a pro contract with North Texas. You know, a guy who's at least a. A guy who will be in the mix for the next couple years with that team and maybe even up to the first team at some point. [00:47:20] Speaker B: And then lo and behold, the big winner of this episode is Texoma SC as they got their very first win in club history over Union Omaha, one of the best brands in American soccer, by the way. Two, one win. Congratulations to Texoma. [00:47:39] Speaker A: Finally off the Schneider. They started a different keeper and he did a nice job. So Asante. And who got the other goal? Spangler. So nice, nice couple of nice goals and they held on and it's nice to see them the last four or five games they've actually improved and they haven't given up on the season, which is sometimes when you haven't won all year, it can be really easy just to sort of mail it in. But they keep fighting and that's really, really great to see them finally get a win and get off that zero streak. [00:48:10] Speaker C: I think Corey had said on Discord, I mean, you know, I've seen bits of the games. Haven't seen it ton of them. But an inquiry had said they, they'd moved away from trying to dominate possession, which seems to suit them pretty well. So good to see against, you know, uni and Omaha a quality side. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Not this year that. [00:48:34] Speaker C: Well, no, but I mean they, they won it last year, didn't they? [00:48:39] Speaker A: They did. But then this year they've only got one win themselves. [00:48:43] Speaker B: They got Galaxy. Itis. [00:48:45] Speaker C: Yeah, they're. They're level with. With taxidermy. [00:48:48] Speaker A: Yeah, they are now. So that was a, that was a basement dollar game, but you know, be you're supposed to be, right? I mean, how many times have we said that? So they got Greenville triumph this weekend, so hopefully they can continue to their improvement and look, they're not going to make the playoffs, but you want to see them, you know, get things going in the right direction and, and get some fans going into those games and keep that thing moving. [00:49:11] Speaker B: All right, boys. Anything else? [00:49:14] Speaker C: League 2, I guess Denton lost their first game. They played Little Rock who, who'd won that division. Little Rock now hosts McKin on Wednesday before McKin hosts Denton at Rompo Stadium. So another Little Texas derby. [00:49:34] Speaker B: All right, well, that'll be the first time those teams have played against each other. [00:49:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:49:38] Speaker B: How much do we know about the McKinney roster? Anything? [00:49:43] Speaker A: I've seen them announced players, but I haven't dug into it yet, so. [00:49:45] Speaker C: Yeah, just Brian Reynolds, brother. [00:49:47] Speaker B: Right, right. Okay, now, have they played a game yet? [00:49:52] Speaker C: No. Wednesday is their first game. [00:49:54] Speaker B: And who do they play? [00:49:55] Speaker C: Little Rock. [00:49:56] Speaker B: Oh, okay. That's the Little Rock game. Okay, got it. All right. Wow. That's a way. Welcome to the league, kids. [00:50:02] Speaker C: Yeah, that. That away is not a fun way to start. Yeah. [00:50:06] Speaker B: Good Lord. All right. Excellent. All right. Somebody strangling a cat. [00:50:10] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:12] Speaker B: Cat. Dan's cat. I think it crawled out from behind his beard. [00:50:18] Speaker C: It's possible. It's very possible. [00:50:23] Speaker B: All right, Buzz, when are you back in town? [00:50:25] Speaker A: Oh, another day or two. Maybe Wednesday or Thursday. [00:50:28] Speaker B: Are you slow rolling it? You doing some sightseeing? [00:50:31] Speaker A: Only in the sense that, like, we're going near the place where my wife grew up and went to college. And so we're gonna do a little mini tour of Amy's life and check out a couple of things. You know how that goes. [00:50:47] Speaker B: Oh, no. What are you gonna do? And she says, that's where I had my first kiss and that's where I went on my first date. [00:50:52] Speaker A: And I'll say, hey, that's cool. She married me, so. [00:50:55] Speaker B: All right. [00:50:56] Speaker A: She picked the winner at the end, right? [00:50:59] Speaker B: That's my guy. Excellent. Okay, Dan, what do you got going on? Just work. [00:51:10] Speaker C: I get to have a weekend at the in laws and ship some furniture. Yay. [00:51:20] Speaker B: That sounds exciting. All right, well, everybody enjoy Open cup on Wednesday in Seattle on Saturday. Let's go. [00:51:29] Speaker A: Love the Open Cup. [00:51:30] Speaker B: I know you do love the Open. [00:51:32] Speaker A: I do. I really do. It's got history. [00:51:34] Speaker B: It does have. [00:51:35] Speaker A: I know you. I know you're a screw history guy, but I love history. [00:51:38] Speaker B: I'm not a screw history guy. [00:51:40] Speaker A: That was last week. Remember we had the whole nobody cares about history, but, oh, tradition. Screw tradition. [00:51:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's a different deal. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by the El Matador watch party. That's this weekend, May 24th, at 2pm as your hometown club, FC Dallas, travels up north to take on the Seattle Sounders. The watch party is at the Scarlet Pumpernickel in downtown Dallas. They have the whole second floor reserve, big TVs, full sound, own bartender, amazing food. There's plenty of parking in the area. Best of all, Scarlet Pumpernickel is only two blocks from the A street dart station. So get on down there. Support the road dogs. They head up to Seattle SE Dallas, your hometown club, the El Matador watch party. [00:52:21] Speaker B: Well, very good, boys. Well, we did it. Not very look under an hour. How did we do that? [00:52:26] Speaker A: Well, we didn't talk about Newcastle finishing the Champions League spots. [00:52:31] Speaker B: That's still up in the air, bud. [00:52:32] Speaker A: I know it is. I know it is. [00:52:33] Speaker B: That's very much up in the air for sure. Okay, very good. Well, anything else? All right, just last. Last chance, Dan. Buzz, no. All right. Thank you, Dan. [00:52:45] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:52:46] Speaker B: Thank you, Buzz. [00:52:47] Speaker A: You're welcome. [00:52:48] Speaker B: And thank you, DFW soccer. Curious person you will speak to you next week with all kinds of points and progression and tournaments. On the next episode of the Third degree, the podcast Happy Travels. Third Degree the Third Degree Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree NEP Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree NE Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree Near Podcast. [00:53:26] Speaker A: Sam.