3rd Degree the Podcast #314

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: 3Rd Degree the 3rd Degree NEP podcast. [00:00:13] Speaker C: 3Rd Degree the 3rd Degree Nap podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd degree 3rd Degree. [00:00:26] Speaker A: The podcast is brought to you by our wonderful listeners and audience. That's right. It's brought to you by you. You our fans who enjoy what we do on the podcast on our website, on social media. You can help us out by sharing what we do with all your friends, all your soccer loving pals across the metroplex and maybe even join us in our patreon patreon.com thirddegree and if you support at a high enough level, you can get in our discord where we even have a brand new ticket swap section for people to help each other out getting to see FC Dallas play. Thanks for your support. Hope you guys enjoy the podcast. [00:00:56] Speaker C: Well, hello there, DFW soccer curious person. You welcome to another episode of Third degree the podcast. He's. He looks a little bit sweepy, but he is here because he's dedicated. It is Dan Crook. [00:01:10] Speaker B: What's going on? [00:01:12] Speaker C: Oh, suddenly perks to life. [00:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah, caffeine kicked in. [00:01:16] Speaker C: Did you have an espresso before the recording of the podcast? [00:01:20] Speaker B: Just on an IV drip. [00:01:21] Speaker C: All right, excellent. And your hero, My hero, Everybody's hero. Editor, founder of thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzzard. [00:01:32] Speaker A: Peter, I thought about suggesting to you that you could say something like buy curious or something, but then I realized really it would be Sept. Curious as we're up to seven pro teams making our way towards Oct Curious here if the Fort Worth team comes in like I expected to. [00:01:46] Speaker C: Yeah, it was funny. Yeah, the, the Dallas observer wrote an article about all of the new teams in the area, but it. They didn't. They got down to Dallas Trinity and I guess the new Garland team that hasn't even started yet and that didn't even scratch the circle. I mean that doesn't include the Vaqueros or the Sidekicks or the Chupacabras or Diablos or any of this other stuff. Hell, I don't even think they mentioned North Texas soccer in the article, did they, Dan? [00:02:16] Speaker B: Well, I mean, it's about new clubs. It's a pretty decent cut off to, you know, just to call it professional and, you know, leave out the non professional. [00:02:25] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess. [00:02:26] Speaker A: Do they go with Texoma? Do they mention those guys? [00:02:29] Speaker C: I think they may have in the article. But you know, the funny thing is we, we talk about Chupacabras and Denton and Vaqueros is I'm assuming that's what you mean by non professional, quote unquote. [00:02:41] Speaker B: Yeah, like the semi pro, an amateur. [00:02:44] Speaker C: Yeah, but those are organizations, you know, selling season tickets and trying to grow a fan base. It's a little different than just like a Sunday. It's like the step up from Sunday league. And so it's almost the fact that it's a business trying to profit is what makes it different to me and why I would put it closer to what Trinity's trying to do or what Garland is going to end up trying to do, if that makes any sense. [00:03:10] Speaker A: I mean, when you consider that 4,100 people went to the last. The second Chupacabra game. Yeah, that's incredible. I mean, that's within shouting distance of what Trinity did. [00:03:20] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the crazy part is Trinity's playing in the Cotton bowl and you know, what's their season average this year? 35, something like that. [00:03:28] Speaker A: Over three, for sure. It may be approaching four. They had 5,800. The game, the season finale that I went to, you know, of course, in that cavern of statements, ridiculous. But that's a solid crowd. I mean, that's not. That's a very sustainable USL level crowd. You just. The venue is awful for it. We all know that. Everybody knows that. And speaking of all these other pro teams, I think we're probably the only ones talking about this Fort Worth team that's coming. This fort with USL team coming, you know, and we know enough details to know that it is indeed well down the path. And I'm actually surprised that it hasn't been announced, quite frankly, given the things we know about it so. [00:04:04] Speaker C: Well, the pod listener, the curious can make themselves look super smart in their circle of friends when the word finally does start to come down like, oh yeah, I heard about that. I've known about that for a year now. [00:04:15] Speaker A: Yeah, who doesn't know about that? [00:04:17] Speaker C: What kind of loser are you? Yeah, well, we do have a lot to talk today, obviously. We've got FC Dallas Stinker Poos to talk about. We've got Trinity's huge win to talk about and other things. And maybe as a bonus, I might throw in a personal TV recommendation that I have stumbled upon to both Dan and Buzz of the sci fi genre that I would share with you guys. [00:04:42] Speaker A: Okay. [00:04:42] Speaker C: Don't let me forget to do that. [00:04:43] Speaker A: If you do it. Yep. [00:04:45] Speaker C: Okay, Buzz. I was thinking about this because I was trying to figure out how we wanted to start this, but I thought I would start with MLS's Matt Doyle and his Weekly ranking of teams. This was the lengthy review of his 20 out of 30 teams. FC Dallas quote, They're a tough watch. I think that pretty much sums it up. Old buzzard. They go to Cincinnati, get a 3, 3 draw and then come home and draw against the Union. Two very, very tough teams. And I think you probably want to celebrate at any other time going to Cincinnati and getting a draw. But you do have to put an asterisk on that in that Cincinnati is in the middle of a four game winless streak, which includes the game after drawing Dallas losing at home to D.C. united. So I just don't know how much, you know, coloring you can put on drawing cincy at home in this particular run. [00:05:49] Speaker A: Well, first for Doyle, no notes. He's all right, he's on point. That's exactly right. You don't need to say anything else about him. They're one of the bottom teams in the league and it is not fun to watch. Well, I should say it's three quarters not fun to watch. You know, of those two games, the second half in Cincinnati was fun to watch. That's, I think the way the Quill would like the team to play. Granted, the other team is up a couple of goals at that point, you know, and as always with teams are up a couple goals, relax. And as you so rightly noted, Cincinnati is on a little bit of a rough streak, you know, so, you know, the takeaways from that game are my surprise that Quill went with the 4:2, 3, 1, the formation that he wants to play, despite the fact that we've talked over and over again about how it doesn't get good results. And so at, at halftime they switch, they bring on Padrino and they switch to the, the diamond four, I call it, Quill calls it four three one two. You know, they, they bring Pedrinho of all people into the midfield, which was a bit surprising. But obviously when you're down two goals, Pedrinho is a more aggressive attacker, catalyst, passer, that kind of thing. Petrino had a great second half. He unlocked that game or in that formation, unlocked that game. And he played really well. And we also saw Patterson, Delgado come in, not at halftime, but come in and make a really solid 30 minute run. Maybe the best soccer he's played all year. And he earned the start against Philadelphia from that performance. So, you know, hopefully the takeaways from the Cincinnati game are that there is some offensive ability on this team. And when you get the right tactic and the right shape and the right people, they can Compete, you know, they're not going to run away with anything. But, you know, when you catch the right team at the right moment, you can, you can get at them in the second half and, and the first half was some of the worst soccer they played all year. And then they, they proceeded to do that again against Philly, but that's a different game completely, and we'll talk about that one in a minute. [00:07:52] Speaker C: Dan, you got any thoughts on Philly? Excuse me. Cincy 3, Dallas 3. [00:07:56] Speaker B: Why the hell did I have to wait until they're two down to start playing? [00:08:01] Speaker A: It's a mystery. That's all you got? [00:08:06] Speaker C: How many times does that happen this year? [00:08:08] Speaker A: Man, it's a lot. I feel like, yeah, I'd have to. [00:08:11] Speaker B: Look, but no, I think there was obviously a lot of intrigue surrounding Lucho going back to Cincinnati. And the first goal was quite simply him just watching a marker go by and go unassisted in the box and swipe home a ball. [00:08:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I was, I was watching that play and I was thinking about Bernie as well, who I had my eye on, because I was making some mental notes about what I think is wrong with Bernie's game. And one of it is, was, is his part in that particular sequence, which starts with Lucho just kind of letting the guy go and not telling Bernie. He's kind of left him off for him to pick up and nobody does, but that's a different thing. I. Yeah, it was interesting. Maybe this is something that we all need to take Note of, of Mr. Lucho Acosta is his attitude about how he was treated in Cincinnati and kind of his after game comments about him talking about how he didn't feel like he deserved to be booed. And I'm thinking, dude, you kind of left in a weird way with those people. What did you think they were going to? I mean, I know you guys had some good times together, but you didn't exactly leave in a manner in which that would encourage anybody to want to give you anything but a hard time. [00:09:29] Speaker B: Also, one thing, in his defense, it wasn't that people booed. He said it was how much of it was booing. [00:09:38] Speaker C: Which that mean the fact it was. [00:09:40] Speaker A: Like 90 minutes of booing. It was the whole game. [00:09:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I guess, you know, if like Matt Hedges comes back to Dallas in with Austin, you kind of expect, you know, some applause before and after the game, 90 minutes of very nothing or straight up abuse, you know, and then goes back to all happy afterwards. So I don't know if maybe it Was that. But it sounded like there was. Man, there was some stuff of the security at Cincinnati. Maybe that was a bit weird between. With. With Lucho. But yeah, it didn't sound like the. The happiest return. And, you know, obviously you got to see the Cincinnati fan side. He. He wanted out and he bailed on him. [00:10:29] Speaker C: He flaked out. He. I mean, he essentially pulled a Castillo short of taking a plane trip to Turkey. [00:10:36] Speaker B: No, he. Well, in advance, he said he wanted out. That was a long running thing. And gave them plenty of time to react. They obviously end up with Evander Fabian. Castillo was due to play on a Saturday and on a Wednesday, got on a plane to Turkey. Sorry. On a Thursday morning, they found out he was in Turkey. No one knew about it. [00:10:53] Speaker C: Yes, but we all knew he wanted to go. That wasn't a secret. He had made it clear to everybody he wanted to go. So when he disappeared, maybe the manner in which he went about it. My, my point being is, is that I don't blame the Cincinnati fans for getting on his ass during the game. And I think he's being a little sensitive about it. [00:11:10] Speaker A: The only thing I could think of was that, you know, he had a falling out with Chris Albright, and he was pretty clear about that. And maybe he thought that the fans would take his side over Albright, which. [00:11:19] Speaker B: Is kind of like what happened with Evander in Portland. People recognized that. I can't even remember the guy's name now. It was a dipshit. And Evander was actually kind of right. [00:11:29] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, it all worked out in the end for the league. And I'm still convinced somewhere there's an untold story about how Lucho ends up in Dallas and Evander ends up in Philadelphia. Excuse me, in Cincinnati. And neither one of those teams had to go into a bidding war to get either of those players. I'm convinced there's a story behind that somewhere. [00:11:49] Speaker B: Oh, they must be, because all the talk early on was that there were a ton of potential bidders, but there wasn't. [00:11:56] Speaker C: It just turned out they ended up getting guys for the price we all kind of immediately assumed they'd get them for. [00:12:02] Speaker B: I mean, there's like a ton of people there, and it all just falls into line in a very odd way, like. Yeah, that sounds like a fascinating story. [00:12:10] Speaker A: Well, the only other. The only other team that went in for Evander was Dallas. And they obviously, you know, went in at 12 million or whatever and got beat out by Cincinnati for whatever reasons. [00:12:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm not even saying it's I'm not even saying it's a nefarious story. I just think it's a. I just think that's a. It's a byproduct of a single entity system and how those lines of communication can be open and help foster deals like this. [00:12:32] Speaker B: I think the only simple part of that was when Evander basically said under no circumstance did he want to come. [00:12:40] Speaker A: To Dallas, did he. Oh, I missed that. [00:12:43] Speaker C: I haven't heard that part of the story. Okay. [00:12:45] Speaker A: I don't blame him. I just to circle back to what Dan said about being down, you know, and we all know the value of scoring first and getting out ahead. For example, like when Dallas is leading at halftime, They've won like 23 straight games when that's happened, when they've been leading at halftime. And by comparison this year when Dallas has conceded, usually when you concede first that you're toast, but Dallas is actually has a two, five and four record. That means they've won two and tied four. So that's six games when they've conceded first and they've actually come back and tied or won, that's more than they've actually lost. So they have a better winning percentage. Like you know, to be above.500 and when you concede first is insane. So what it says about this team is hard to really fathom. Whether it's like they think they're better than they are, they relax for some reason at the start and can't get going. I don't know what it is, but there's clearly a problem with this club starting games. You know, to follow that up even further. They've only scored six goals in the first half, this is and 12 in the second half. So clearly there's a problem at the start of games, you know, whether it be home or away, you know. [00:13:48] Speaker C: Well, they're on a six game winless streak and in that six games they've collected three out of a possible 18 points and they've scored four goals. Three of those four goals came against Cincinnati. [00:13:58] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not good. That's not good. [00:14:02] Speaker B: There's so many switch off moments even in that one game. Constantly you had Bernie and Kai just could not get on the same page about who should go, who should track back who should stay. [00:14:15] Speaker C: That's so Bernie. [00:14:17] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean the pair of them. And then late on the the third Cincinnati goal, Mooser and Farrington couldn't figure out who was dropping back to the point where Lucho was the one making the recovery run. [00:14:32] Speaker C: The whole thing's a mess and it's not good. And it's not been good all season, really. I mean, I. I think we all kind of had an idea that this is what it's going to be and it's going to be a long season. Buzz. I mean, I don't know how much we want to differentiate. Differentiate the conversation between the two games. I do think there is something to the fact of watching this team play in the second half of the Philly game when they're down and they're having to fight back. And they do fight back, because if there' crumb of something that gives you reason to have hope or you want to root for these guys is that they continuously fight for results. And they did that in Cincinnati. And the ibbe header at the end of the game to tie it was a fun. That was a fun half. I love watching Shaq Moore just run the line all the way from end to end and get up in the attacking last 10 yards repeatedly and staying up there, even if the team's a little exposed in the back, you know, at this point, I'd just rather them do that all the time and just see what happens because the rest of it's just not. Is El no bueno. [00:15:37] Speaker A: Well, I think we have to talk about the Philly game on some level because the minute I minute I turned that game on and I didn't know the result, but I turned that game on and within the first five, ten minutes I was like, this looks like. And I did this in my three things I said this looks like an EPL game where a team that's like right at the promotional relegation line is playing one of the top three teams where they go into the game, they know they can't compete and they go into that, you know, eight, 10 guys behind the box, behind the ball, 11 guys behind the wall, you know, a complete bunker. And they just try and hope that, like they can release Anderson Julio and steal a goal, you know, and. [00:16:13] Speaker C: And doing that at home, doing that at home. [00:16:16] Speaker A: Now, it was clear to me way before the red card that this team was last going out there with a. We have no chance to win this game. We have no chance to compete in this game. So all we're going to do is try and fight and stagnate the game and hope that we get lucky. And if you look at the swings of the game and like the chances and the XG building or whatever, there's that one first half, Anderson, Julio chance. There's one chance where Acosta did something, you know, and then maybe there's one Julio breakaway in the second and that's it. It's like they were just trying that, that, that, that bunker mentality that you see in leagues that have these much more wide swings and talent levels. And they just like, to me, it was clear they thought they had no chance to compete in that game. But they don't quit. They keep, as you said, they keep playing and they keep. Like some teams in that situation, particularly as the season is half over, would start rolling over and they would start not competing and not trying. They would stop trying to come back against Cincinnati, you know, you never actually like sit down or anything, but you don't have that 100% compete, 100% effort that you saw in the second half of the City Cincinnati game. And really you saw down a man the whole game against Philly, like, you have to applaud. I think the battle, the fight, the warriorness, like Quill reaches his guys in that way, but they're just not that good. You know, when you're, you're missing a couple million dollar players, maybe that's enough to compete in this league, but probably not. There's just so many deficiencies on this team. Players that don't match the system, you know, it's just not good. But at least they care and they're trying. And so like, I'll stay invested as long as they stay invested. And even if it's not going to be entertaining soccer, it's kind of crazy. [00:17:58] Speaker B: That they've played the top three in the east and have a win in two draws against them. [00:18:04] Speaker A: That's the fight this team has. But then when you look against the west and you look again, they're not beating anybody. You know, it's not like it's not the Nico Estevez try and get draws on the road. This is not that. This is a team that's fighting and scrapping and pulling together, trying to get results, and they're just not getting results and they're not quitting, though. So, like, you know, we'll see what happens as the second half of the season is yet to be played. You know, maybe they can make a move or two. In the end of the day, there's still only two points out of the last playoff spot, and I'm counting 8, 9 as the playoff spot. I don't want to get into that argument. I'm just saying like a chance for an extra game. They're two points behind and they're, and they're only Four points behind like the seven spot. So you know, MLS is mls. It's still going to be like there's a shot if you can. You don't have to get that much better to get that playoff shot. But at the same time, this team is not very good. And you saw against Philly how far they are against Cincinnati, how far they are because those teams all rotated. Seattle rotated against Dallas. Like everyone they play now rotates against them because they're not any good. You know, it, it's just, it's going to be a long season. As we said back this winter. We said that, we all said this is going to be a long season and sure enough, it is. So. [00:19:16] Speaker C: Well, it was a brutal May, as we said, they went winless in May. June is a light workload because now they're out of open cup and they don't have anything else other than league games to play. They only have three league games. They get Kansas City, which was the last team other than a, you know, decimated or rotated Miami they beat. Then they have San Jose and San Diego, two California teams that are above them in the table. San Diego obviously now in second place in the West. And, and so I mean it's, it doesn't get much easier at this point for Dallas. And remember last time they played San Diego, they lost was the worst loss of the season. So it, it's, it's interesting run and the thing to talk about and we'll do this more next week when we get closer because obviously they're off for a week now with the international week is the realization that between injuries and suspensions and call ups, the players that Quill has available to him for the Kansas City game is super dodgy. [00:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:21] Speaker C: Starting at center back because he doesn't have three, no, two of his three capable, three capable starting center backs. I mean, who is he going to throw the Augusto kid in there? [00:20:36] Speaker A: Man, I don't know. [00:20:38] Speaker C: I, I urge is hurt and we don't know how badly he's hurt. [00:20:42] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I think it'll be, you know, a month or two, honestly, because it's hamstring. Right. That's what it looked like. [00:20:50] Speaker C: And, and Lawless is obviously at least a one game suspension for the double yellow, which is classically stupid. Lawless Abubakar. [00:20:58] Speaker A: Yeah, well, just when he was playing, he was out playing maybe the last month and then he does that. Watching Alvaro Augusto play for North Texas sc, I would not start him in an MLS game. I would shift Marco Farfan to center back or do Something crazy like put Delgado at center back. I think if you put Augusto in there, you're just going to get shredded. You know, if you had irrigated next to him with recovery pace, maybe it would work. You know, you're going to have Ibiagi in there who doesn't have that level of recovery pace. So I think it would be a disaster because he would be on the side more than likely with the left side, which is a little bit not his foot. I mean he's a righty guy, so maybe you'd want to play him on the right so he'd be more comfortable. So then it would he be between more and Ibiaga. And that's the recipe for disaster. So for me, Marco Farm has played center back. I would put Marco Farfet in there. And maybe Nolan will be back. I haven't looked because I wasn't planning on doing this yet this week. But maybe Nolan Norris will be back from his current U20 camp and he can play left and you can put Marco next to him or maybe something crazy like Patrick and Delgado, who's 5 10, but that's, you know, tall, ish. He's got a big enough body and strong enough. Maybe he could do it. But you know, it's. It's not really optimum. [00:22:13] Speaker C: So I guess my question about this is we knew this was a potential problem at the beginning of the season when they only really had three reasonable people to play two positions at center back. [00:22:26] Speaker A: Yes. [00:22:26] Speaker C: And we, we talked about this. Not, I mean everybody, I mean it's a. Where. I mean it was an obvious problem to anybody paying attention. And here we are 14, 15 games into the season and now you got to go into a game where you only have one of the three available to you and it's not even the one that you really would prefer to have. In fact, you sat him the last game. Just everybody take note of that. So I guess the question is then why did they go out and sign Augusto? Did they think he'd come to speed and be able to fill this hole, but if they don't use him and they put Far Fan in there, was that always their kind of backup 4th center back plan? [00:23:05] Speaker A: Well, I don't know about the backup plan we'd have to try and dig out of somebody. But it's definitely 100% of my opinion a mistake to not have four, four starter capable center backs in professional soccer. You want four, you want two guys competing in each position just for situations like this fifth guy. Absolutely. A young, developing Player now why is he on the FC Dallas roster? It's okay to have a fifth guy. That's that extra kind of guy. Like last year it was. Yeah. Thank you. I was, I was brain farting on the check kid met Cora and we saw him play a couple of games. I was like, that's what you want is a couple minutes here. The mistake in this current situation is not to have gotten him some minutes before. Now in an MLS game, like to have him come in blind without a single MLS minute and start would be a disaster. So number one mistake was you didn't have enough start or capable center backs on your roster. Number two mistake was that the fifth kid that you had, you didn't even get him any minute. Fourth kid at all. Fourth kid you had. Sorry, he's not the fifth kid, he's the fourth. You didn't get him any minutes at all. So he would at least feel somewhat, tiniest bit comfortable. So it's now going to be a mess and they're now going to have to do something with Marco Farfan. And maybe Marco Farfan was the plan all along, but Marco Farfan at center back's a really bad idea. He's only 5, 10. When you play him at center back, he gets blasted by guys on corners that are six foot three all the time. He gets wrecked. So it's like you're going to have to and fcd out stinks. That crosses already. We like Marco Farfan, but like this is not what should have been the solution. There should have been another center back on this roster. And we said that in December and we've said it should have been starter for like two years now. So it's not like this is news to anybody. [00:24:46] Speaker C: No, no. And in fact the real problem is when you ask if you were to ask them this question, there is no good answer. Like the answer is, well, we signed Augusto and he just isn't ready yet. Well, okay, duh. [00:25:00] Speaker A: They would say something about how they're comfortable with everybody they sign and how they like their roster. That's what they would say. But clearly we're pointing at all the holes and all the screw ups. And this is another one. [00:25:10] Speaker C: Well, here we are. You got to go to Kansas City and you don't have anybody to play your one of your two center back positions that anybody, if they're being honest with you, can feel good about. Yeah, I mean that's the shortcoming of the front office here that this is a problem. Yeah, congratulations. You totally kicked ass. You want a Gold star for your forehead for signing Uregate. Super great. Now your job is not done, sir. You've got more stuff to do. You needed a fourth center back and you gave us a second division Portuguese kid or kid playing in the second Portuguese division who is not MLS ready. [00:25:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm totally okay with that. Signing as the fifth guy. [00:25:50] Speaker C: Right? [00:25:50] Speaker A: Right. Yes. [00:25:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:25:52] Speaker A: It's like he's like a homegrown. He's like a young kid. You just pretend that he came up from the academy. That's what he is. You wouldn't start Alejandro Uzura in midfield in a game if you needed a center back. And everyone probably out there is probably like, who the hell is that? Well, he's a young home run. It's like Quill has one of the shortest rosters we've ever seen and that there's like seven or eight home runs that aren't. That he hasn't played enough or the club hasn't played enough or whatever. That he's comfortable putting in MLS games and particularly at center back. It's biting him in the butt. And we saw it happen at, you know, right back when. When Newman went out. You know, they have another guy right back homegrown. But there's. They could have activated him. I mean, doesn't. Malachi Molina is a homegrown. Right. He's on the North Texas roster. [00:26:37] Speaker C: Right. [00:26:38] Speaker A: So, like, you could have brought him up, but they're like, no, because he's not within miles of being ready for this first team, you know, so it's again, like all this versatility, all this talk about all these players and whatever. It's an incredibly short roster with lots of pieces that don't make sense, that don't fit together, and right now massively screwed that you don't have a center back. [00:26:56] Speaker C: Well, I was talking to a teammate of mine that I saw Sunday morning who actually went to the Dallas game, and he was talking about just how boring it was. And especially after the. And they said they left early, said the game was so bad that they just bailed shortly after halftime because it just wasn't any good. And I. I just, you know, I think that whole thing's a real problem moving forward for them because I don't know how. I don't know how they make this team better. Un. About to go sign, you know, three, four guys in the window. To make this team competitive, you need. [00:27:31] Speaker A: A starting grade center back. Even if IR comes back, your midfield is light, two or maybe even three starters. Now you can Cross your fingers and pray that Paxton, Pam, Sebastian, LeGette are two of the three. But Ramiro is too old and too immobile and Kaik is too young to be actually really any good. And then you need another legitimate wing. So if you had those four things at a TAM or DP level, then this team could all of a sudden be good. But you're not going to get them. You're not going to get them in one window. Maybe you're going to get them next winter or the summer after that. Granted, right? Season one of a build. I get it. Right. I get it. But don't tell us that, like, this is a playoff roster. Playoffs is making the minimum. Dude, you got gigantic, massive holes in this roster. And you have all year. We've pointed them out all year. And cross your fingers and hope that Legit and Paxton can make this team actually decent in the midfield. Because right now, the midfield's the worst part. [00:28:21] Speaker C: Dan, if Peter Moussa was playing on one of the better MLS teams, how many goals would he score in this league? I swear he's a really, really nice finisher. That one goal he scored against Cincinnati, the way he let that ball roll across him and he finished it and kind of almost roofed it was really, really a top notch finish and goal. And I just, I just wondered, man, there must be other MLS teams just wondering how they can get their pause on that guy. [00:28:48] Speaker B: Well, three of them are in a transfer window for the next week, so. [00:28:53] Speaker A: That's right. I totally forgot about the early transfer window. [00:28:59] Speaker B: If he's engaged, he's fantastic. It's just getting to that point because I feel like, you know, we obviously harp on, on Lucho about how he's a little bit away from the team during games and, you know, doesn't really get back on defense. But I think if anything, Moose is a worse offender for both. [00:29:22] Speaker A: Yeah, he might be. I would have subbed him at halftime against Philly. [00:29:26] Speaker C: Well, I, I mean, from. From Moose's point of view, I could see why he turns off period of the game, because I'm sure he must. There must be periods of time he's like, what in the world have I gotten myself into? I. It's just. It's weird. And you know what? Just so everybody knows, because I'm not sure everybody is aware of this, because I don't think we've talked about it on this podcast. The league MLS announced, what was it, 10 days ago, two weeks ago, that they were now creating a secondary transfer window exclusively to the three teams playing in the Club World cup, which means that Miami, Seattle, and now LAFC are able to sign and add players to their roster in this exclusive window. How long does it last? It opens this week and closes when? [00:30:13] Speaker B: First to the 10th. [00:30:15] Speaker C: Okay, so 10 days or 11 days to sign players because they're going to the Club World Cup. But here's the. Here's the crazy part. If you add a player, they can continue to play for that team into the MLS season for the rest of the season and into eternity. And none of the other teams have any access to this window. That's the craziest thing. It's so wonky. [00:30:41] Speaker A: I don't even know what to say about it. It's so weird. It's just. [00:30:45] Speaker B: It's weird. I mean, every. Every nation's done it, but every nation's also said every team can. Can use this window most. You know, most countries, I think. You know, there's been a lot of talk around Luton because Plymouth just signed a couple of players. No one else is doing that because ultimately pre season's the same in those. In a lot of those positions. Contracts still run to the end of June. Yeah. I don't know why they didn't just open the transfer window early instead of, you know, all right, let's say teams get back from the Club World cup, they resume at June 25th or 28th, whenever it is. So they've got a month until the transfer window opens. So why. Why give three teams that advantage? It seems strange. [00:31:31] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The MLS window doesn't open for everybody else until July 24th. So, like, why they can't just tack on a month and a half to the whole window and let everybody go early? I don't understand that part. [00:31:42] Speaker B: Especially when they left the. They leave the first window open for so long that nobody uses it into April anyway. [00:31:49] Speaker C: If you need to make it easy, just let everybody have the option to buy people in these 11 days. I mean, if. If it's. If it's a function of not wanting to leave a window open for too long of a time because of whatever that may deal. How that. The effect that may have on deal making. Just open the second window to everybody for 11 days. Limiting it to just the three teams seems so janky and weird. I don't get it. But anyway, I digress. Maybe somebody will come in and try to buy Musa from them for a whole bunch of money. [00:32:21] Speaker A: I mean, I doubt it. Yeah. Or Costa. I mean, you never know. Never know. [00:32:26] Speaker C: Well, I wouldn't like to lose Peter Musa, but The Acosta. I. I don't know. You know, that's the crazy part about this is that he. If, if, if Delgado or Delgado or any of the other Dallas midfielders. [00:32:48] Speaker A: Ramiro Kai. [00:32:49] Speaker C: Kaik Legit? No, no, the other one. The other Pauline. No. Padrino. Thank you. That's the name I couldn't come up with. If Padrino or Delgado came out and played is inconsistently turn the ball over at the rate that Lucho Acosta does and then some of the half assery that goes along with that, we would be all over that dude's ass. We would be criticizing them to no end. But because he's Lucho Acosta and he's got this MLS MVP award and he's got all this pedigree and stuff, I think he's got a little bit of a force field. Even from the three of us. I don't think we're criticizing him enough for the lack of production and quality of. And, and, and the real lack of quality of play that I think we all anticipated from him. [00:33:39] Speaker B: I think there's, there's a degree of. It is, you know, he's gonna start. So it's almost. What's the point? [00:33:44] Speaker A: I'm definitely. He's done. I agree with you, Dan. Like, he's a lock to get in there. I'm definitely disappointed by the level he has in terms of like the way he switches off when he turns the ball over. The, the amount of turnovers too. But we heard that a lot about that coming in. It's the switch off that bothers me. Remember when Quill raved about Diego Garcia who. How he would bust his ass when he made a mistake. Acosta doesn't do that. So that and the fact that he's like, it's such a diametrically bad fit for what Quote wants to do. It's like, yes, it's super exciting. Like, you know, I, on paper and the stuff, the highlights I had watched and the amount of Cincinnati I watched, I thought, yeah, great. Number 10. Like, he reminds me of David Ferreira in some ways. Like that bulldog put him right there in that 10, in that 4, 2, 3, 1. Man, he doesn't play like that. Not now. Over 90 minutes. Like, he. He starts high and drifts left and doesn't come back and play any defense at all, hardly. So it's like, man, that's a nightmare for Quill when he wants to play a certain way. So sure figure out a way to play that works. But they don't have the rest of the players to make it work. So it's. It's rough. And honestly, if someone would give you money for Acosta right now, I would take it. You know, even if it was like half the money, I would take it. [00:34:52] Speaker C: Well, Buzz, you were smart to start pointing out the quote unquote, Lucho Acosta problem. [00:34:57] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:58] Speaker C: Long before anybody else was, by the way. And it only seems now that people are starting to catch up with the fact that Quill really has a problem. Problem with, with him in his hands. And I don't know that there's a reasonable way out unless he just fundamentally starts playing the game differently than he has been for Dallas and probably was for Cincy or D.C. before that. That's just who he is. You know, I was thinking about this the other day, about the Abubakar double Yellow, which is, you know, players that transfer from team to team, especially ones that are established in the league, they by and large are the player they are. You know what you're getting when you get that player. So Seattle, we all knew. We knew what Seattle was getting in, Jesus. [00:35:40] Speaker A: Exactly right. [00:35:42] Speaker C: Seattle I don't think did, but you and I did. But we, we. When Lalas Abubakar comes to Dallas, we all kind of know what we're getting in that player. We've seen six seasons of it. He's a very highly mistake prone, bad decision guy. And, and that's what we got the other day out of him. We kind of knew what we were getting with Ibiaga when they got Ibiaga, when we kind of know where we got with Shaq Moore. You see where I'm going with this? It's like it's, it. I don't think it takes some sort of tactical genius or XO guy or stats person to tell you what you're getting in a player. You just got to kind of watch what their career is, because very rarely does a player go from MLS team to MLS team and suddenly convert and blossom or collapse into something completely different than they previously were. [00:36:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. And all those guys are why we talk about how it seems like there wasn't like a plan. Like those guys are all pieces that are brought together without any sort of concrete idea like this is how we're going to play. You know, it just doesn't really. It doesn't add up to anything in particular. It's all just pieces, you know, it's a. [00:36:49] Speaker C: And you know, Dallas is not unique in this. There are a lot of really mediocre teams in MLS right now. There are Very few really top level teams and it feels we're a Dallas podcast, so we're going to focus on them. But man, I, I feel like we could paint a lot out of 30 clubs. I feel like we could probably paint 20, 22 of them with a very similar brush. I mean, look, we're talking about a really, really bad team, but there are eight other teams with worse records than Dallas in Major League Soccer. 8, 8 out of 30 teams are worse than this team. And we think this team sucks. [00:37:26] Speaker A: Well, imagine if they didn't have this fight back mentality and this road record, how bad they would be like if they played on the road like they play at home this year would be down there with LA fighting for that wooden spin. Yeah, you know, it has a quality that keeps it ahead of those six or seven teams that also have bad rosters and back instructions. And that quality is that battleness that they have. You know, you better cross your fingers that it doesn't go away. [00:37:51] Speaker C: You know, what if this season continues to play out where Dallas ends up with only one home, maybe two home wins by the end of the season and they have a relatively good.500 or above road record, whether they make the players or not, would that qualify for an entry into the famous list? [00:38:12] Speaker A: I mean, it certainly would be mind bogglingly crazy. Yeah, I think it would have to go on the list. I think you might have to consider. [00:38:18] Speaker C: At least nominating it for the list and put it in front of the board. [00:38:21] Speaker A: Yeah. The fact even right now, the fact the season's half over and the road record is better than the home record is crazy. I mean, they're one, four and two at home. Right? One win, two ties. And on the road they're three, four and two, three wins and four ties. How does that happen? [00:38:39] Speaker B: You know the worst part? Both games against LA Galaxy come after the transfer window. [00:38:46] Speaker A: Oh. [00:38:47] Speaker B: So they could somehow figure out a way to become not dog. [00:38:53] Speaker A: I have a confession to make. [00:38:55] Speaker C: Oh. [00:38:55] Speaker A: Right now I am jealous of the LA Galaxy. And let me explain why. [00:39:01] Speaker B: Because they have five MLS Cups. [00:39:03] Speaker A: First was Peter. You like this. They went in and went after MLS cup. They went hard, they went all in and they, they went for MLS cup and they got it and they, and they sacrificed basically this season. But in the middle of this season when they were having one of the worst seasons of all time, they doubled down on Vanny because they know he's a good coach and they gave him the power to carry through this bad season. And let's look at the Way Dallas has worked for the last seven years with this, the playoffs is the minimum. As a coach here, had the luxury in the backing to really just completely sacrifice that first season and then build over a three year window to like peak out. No, they have. This playoff is the minimum and they have to instantly rebuild and instantly compete. And so they have no ability to play kids and to develop talent. They're forced to play older players. They're forced to try and compete for every point they can to make the playoffs and they can't take the time to have a two or three season development of a team to build towards something. And so that's why right now I'm jealous of the LA Galaxy, because they are doing that quite clearly and Dallas never has over the last seven years. The last guy that had that kind of weight and authority was Oscar Perea. There was clearly a multi season plan with him when he came in. [00:40:26] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:26] Speaker A: In Klibu and they have not done that since Zenata came here. And I think it's, I think it's a big handicap to why this team has not really competed the last seven year seasons now. [00:40:36] Speaker B: I mean it definitely made missing the playoffs in 2017 a lot easier knowing that you had a supporters shield and an open cup sitting in your back pocket. [00:40:45] Speaker A: Yeah. But even from the beginning with Oscar back in, what was it, 2014 or whatever when he came in that first season wasn't super great, but it's like everyone knew he was building towards something and putting the pieces together, you know. [00:40:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:55] Speaker A: And had the weight of the team behind him and they thought like what do we know about Quill and his contract? Like Oscar, they paid to go get him. We knew they loved him beyond everything. Like we don't even know Quill is a multi year deal. Not that I know of. [00:41:07] Speaker B: I'd hope so considering they paid to get him out of a contract. [00:41:10] Speaker A: I, I would hope so too but you know. [00:41:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm sure he does and I, you know, just to be fair, Buzz Galaxy are riding and do have a tremendous club history that they can, that they're playing with house money on sitting on an MLS cup and the fact that everybody knows that their best player is out for the season with an ACL injury that he received at the end of last year. So I do think those are the big differentiators between Dallas's ability to do that in la. But that's of their own making. I mean the reality is Dallas is who they are because of all of the things that they've done. To put themselves in this situation. There's a reason why the Galaxy are known to be the most successful club in MLS history and Dallas is one of the least successful original 10 teams in the. In the league's history. It just. And that's because of, you know, both the fact that previously, before the Hunts, there was no owner to kind of take care of it. And then after the hunts, they've run it in the manner in which they've chosen to run it. There's a part of me that really, you know. You know who I'm jealous of, Buzz? [00:42:14] Speaker A: Who's that? [00:42:15] Speaker C: I'm jealous of the people in the discord that I see and I in. I appreciate, continue to have a positive attitude because most of them, I believe I'm interpreting this right, are relatively new to this team and they still possess this level of interest and curiosity and hope because they're new to the league or the team and the whole experience and I got like jaded old man syndrome. This is like you 30 years of this, man. I know exactly how this story is going to play out. And, and, and, and we're just back in another one of this endless cycle of. All right, we fired a coach. Now we got a new coach. Now we're going to try to build something and that's only going to go so far because we're only capable of doing so much in terms of building a decent roster. I'm not even complaining about spend. I don't think this. The Hunts underspend. I just don't think they're any good at building a roster. I think that's the problem. They're bad at hiring the right people to help them put this team together in the right way in terms of coaching and front office staff. That's what they're bad at. So, and so I. We all know how this is going to go, but that's just the jaded old man in me. And so when I read your discord or read social media and I see people, people, you know, going, oh, we're gonna be good next week, or you know, we're building for something for the future, I kind of feel pen, you know, wistful for those days. [00:43:37] Speaker A: Yeah, we're a bunch of old bastards. [00:43:39] Speaker C: Yeah, that's how I, that's how I used to feel the day in the days after what's his face carved up Dallas and scored five goals against them. Cletus scored five goals for the Galaxy against. [00:43:51] Speaker B: Against Dallas back Jordy Eichel from the Simpsons. [00:43:55] Speaker C: That's right. Him it's pretty much the same person, except this one was really good at something. [00:44:00] Speaker A: Clint. Clint Mathis. [00:44:02] Speaker C: Clint Mathis. [00:44:03] Speaker A: I knew it was Clint. [00:44:04] Speaker C: Yeah. So it's not like back when Clint Mathis banged five against Dallas. Playing for the Galaxy in the next few days after, I was still thinking, all right, we, we can do this, guys. We can come back. Those were the days that I still had that energy and spirit. I'm jealous of those Dallas fans that still think something good's going to come out of this season. [00:44:22] Speaker A: Sitting in the Cotton bowl when it was 8 to 1 against the Galaxy. Yeah. Dominion scored an Olympico off the goal corner. Yeah. Let's go Dallas Burn. [00:44:31] Speaker B: Sometimes you've just got to manage your pain a little bit. I enjoyed the Philadelphia game. I watched the team that was struggling and with defending their absolute bollocks off against team that rested a lot of starters, but still so painful. [00:44:47] Speaker C: Dan's hometown teen has been relegated two seasons straight. [00:44:53] Speaker B: I mean, I remember as a kid sitting by the radio waiting to hear that Luton had been liquidated a few years later, going to a protest to try and stop them getting liquidated. [00:45:03] Speaker A: I'm totally with you, Dan. The reason I'm still here is because I grew up in an era with no league, no mls, no first division team. You know, we had nothing. [00:45:10] Speaker C: When Dan. Dan. When Buzz and I were little boys, there was a team here called the Dallas Tornado. We used to go to the co. We used to go to the Texas Stadium and watch them ply their trade on that awful, awful Astro Turf. [00:45:24] Speaker A: Oh, the hardest surface in the world. Yeah. [00:45:27] Speaker B: Pete, you're spoiled by your prawn sandwiches with Man United. [00:45:30] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. And then they disappeared and they went away and we had nothing. Well, we had. [00:45:35] Speaker A: The Sidekicks should have rebranded to the Tornado. Just saying. Just saying. [00:45:43] Speaker C: All right, well, anyway, let's move on. Dallas, as we said, are off for the weekend and don't play again until, what is it, the 12th against Kansas City in Kansas City week Saturday. [00:45:54] Speaker A: So. [00:45:55] Speaker C: The 14th. Yeah, sorry, the 14th. So we'll talk more about that game and preview it on next week's pod. All right. They did it. The girls did it. The women did it. Excuse me. Dallas Trinity got the win they must have had. They was a must win at the Cotton Bowl. Their final home game of the season against the first place Carolina Ascent win two to one and now are the third place seeded team going into the playoffs. What that means is, is no more home games unless they win this and the other team, lower seed Team win. They would have to. I don't remember who the other team is that, that may be. It's. It's Carolina plays Fort Lauderdale. So if Fort Lauderdale was to beat Carolina and Dallas, Dallas is to beat their opponent to Tampa, then they would host the final in the Cotton Bowl. [00:46:47] Speaker A: Yeah. So two, one win over the first place shield winning team, Carolina Ascent, who admittedly arrested some people, but they subbed them in in the second half. Allie Thornton scores. She's just bosses people up front. And she got the golden boot with her first goal. [00:47:02] Speaker C: That was a good finish, by the way. I saw that terrific player. [00:47:05] Speaker A: She went into this game against the other person that was tied with her who plays for Carolina and she outplayed her, scored the goal, won the golden boot. Fantastic. And then Chioma Abugo scored a terrific goal with an awesome couple of cutbacks. One individual goal that it turned out to eventually be the game winner because scent brought in all their big guns with like 20 minutes left and tried to win the game. And at that point, Amber Brooks was playing center back for Trinity as they tried to hold on, but they did hold on. 5,800 people at the Cotton Bowl. Terrific game. You're right, they're going to go on the road. They small, small, small chance that they'll host the championship if they get through and the fourth place team gets through. But that's not super likely to have both those things happen. But you know, great game, great atmosphere. It was fun time. [00:47:49] Speaker C: I, I'm interested in the fact that they've decided that in this debut season to make the playoffs, just one game knockouts. They're not two leg ties, just one game knockouts, winner take all kind of thing. That is, that is interesting. [00:48:01] Speaker B: We've talked about players that haven't been professionals or they've, you know, not been professionals that have played an extensive amount that are getting injured. So, you know, having that kind of shorter playoff format is probably just. [00:48:18] Speaker C: Yeah. And the other thing, did I see correctly that Amber Brooks played every minute of every game the entire season? [00:48:26] Speaker A: Yep. [00:48:27] Speaker C: As a midfielder slash center back as a six. Yeah, that is unbelievably impressive. [00:48:33] Speaker A: And about two thirds of it in a single pivot. You know, mostly they played a fourth, you know, her with a single with double eights. And then, then they got in Abaddon and played more of a double. But still, you know, just a phenomenal work rate in her. And some credit in this game to Paul McDonald, the coach. They played a back three for like two months since Misimo got Hurt and she rolled the dice on switching to a back four for the last game of the year. And it worked. Changed the shape, maybe caught Caroline off guard with that and they controlled the game and took it at home. So that was a really nice display by the team. Yeah. [00:49:08] Speaker C: By the way, amber Brooks is 34 years old. [00:49:12] Speaker A: Yeah. She's a baller. [00:49:13] Speaker B: She also come off a couple of seasons with a few injuries too, and. [00:49:18] Speaker C: That is really impressive. Congratulations to her. That is. Especially considering the number of injuries not just Dallas, but the entire league has been dealing with all season. I mean, I think that's one of the real talking points about the. This debut season of this league is just the reality of the. The consistency across all of the teams of just the injuries that they've been dealing with. [00:49:41] Speaker A: Well, she's been a pro for, you know, 14 years. [00:49:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:45] Speaker A: So, you know, knows how to take care of herself and knows how to take care of her body and get through a season. You know, she's an absolute warrior and physical, you know, smashes people and just as tough, you know, really tough. So, I mean, you know, whether that's an MVP player or not, it's hard to say your golden boot winner is not the mvp. But you know, for me, she's been the most important player on that team the whole season. You know, it's not glamorous being a six in the front of that defense has been just smashed with injuries. For her to be in there every minute and hold that thing together, it's just unbelievably remarkable. [00:50:17] Speaker C: She's all business. She came on the show early in the season. She was wonderfully nice and pleasant, but she had no time for my shenanigans. No, she was. [00:50:31] Speaker B: It's funny when you talk to him after the games because it's exactly like FC Dallas when you talk to some of the homegrowns and you know, the. They've had no media training, anything and it's all very dear in the headlights. And then you get Amber Brooks, who is, you know, US Women's national team, played for Bayern Munich. Played for, you know, anyone that's. Anyone in. In nwsl. So, yeah, like you say, complete business. Says all the right things, does all the right things. [00:51:01] Speaker A: I'll tell you. Crap. I'm getting old story. You guys know that my wife used to work for US Soccer as a. The team administrator, team manager for the youth programs. She had Amber when Amber was like a U17 or whatever. And now Amber's at the end of her career. I'm like, oh, my God, we're old. Had her when she was a baby kid, you know, coming. [00:51:21] Speaker C: It's really funny. Wow, that's crazy. Well, congratulations to Trinity. So that game again in Tampa is. I have it here somewhere. [00:51:30] Speaker A: June 7th. [00:51:31] Speaker C: June 7th. All right. Right. So it'll be on the peacock for everybody that wants to check that out. [00:51:36] Speaker A: Yeah, those two teams are pretty evenly matched. It's a one, one and two against each other, you know, and it'll come down to, like, who can piece together the healthiest team. You know, it's on the road. That's tough. But, you know, it's. It's a winnable game for Dallas. [00:51:48] Speaker C: Go you Pregasus. All right. North Texas hasn't played in a while. They've got St. Louis 2 on. Is it Wednesday? [00:51:56] Speaker A: Yeah, they got a midweek game. You know, there's not much to say about it other than they've climbed, like, second in the standing. So they've. They're getting some people back and they're getting some healthier bodies. And given the Dallas doesn't play. FC Dallas doesn't play for like a week and a half, they'll probably run Alvaro Gusto at center back. I would imagine that game just keep him working. And so if you want to get a glimpse of who might possibly be at center back for Dallas, you can watch that North Texas game on Wednesday. [00:52:20] Speaker C: Texoma has Richmond kickers on Saturday. Is that here or are they traveling for that? [00:52:26] Speaker A: Oh, I forgot to look away. [00:52:30] Speaker C: And. And you mentioned this earlier, it is impressive. The chupacabras had their second home game. Pulled almost 4, 200 people for that. They've had two really nice attendances so far this season. Let's be interesting to see how long that's. If they're able to sustain that. [00:52:45] Speaker A: Yeah, Hitchcock's teams are putting up some crazy numbers all over these lower division leagues. He really has figured out some super secret sauce on community interaction and involvement and getting people out to these games. It really is amazing. Like, he had. I think they had something like 5,000 out to his team in Lubbock, and then he had the Matadors, and then he had like 9,000 at a one of his team. He has in Annapolis. So whatever it is, man, it's working for him in that level. [00:53:12] Speaker B: So I think the McKinney thing's extra impressive because the other teams that you mentioned have nothing around. Yeah, McKinney, you've. You've got FC Dallas, you've got Dallas Trinity, you've got the Stars, you've Got the Mavs, you've got the Rangers, you've got every entertainment dollar going. So to. To still pull in. You know, that many people is at that level of soccer is, is incredible. [00:53:38] Speaker C: And so we had mentioned earlier this season that Dallas was throwing out a new non professional U23 team that was playing. Is it called League of Clubs? [00:53:48] Speaker A: Is that what it's called? The league? [00:53:49] Speaker C: Four clubs, league club, four clubs. [00:53:52] Speaker A: Yep. [00:53:54] Speaker C: Why are you laughing at me, Dan? [00:53:55] Speaker B: Because you said the league club for clubs. [00:53:58] Speaker C: Whatever. You know what I meant. This podcast is free. Nobody's paying for this. Okay? [00:54:06] Speaker B: We're paying with our time. [00:54:10] Speaker C: But I was surprised to find out Zach Lloyd is coaching this team. [00:54:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he is. You know, basically FCD House created a team that is equivalent to NPSL or, or USL2. This is a breakaway league from mostly NPSL. So far, some of the teams don't look that great. The Dallas team has won their two games so far by a score of 7 to 2 against the other two teams. But the fun part for aficionados of the academy or whatever is that this team is basically made up of 80% Ex Academy players. Guys that Dallas has led go to college. And that includes Santiago Ferreira, Jesus's little brother, Will Baker, who's been at Michigan, Eric and salinas was the SoCon player of the year. Goalkeeper, excuse me, Diego Hernandez, who I thought should have been a homegrown for like three or four years. You know, Mason Graham back from smu, like a. A bunch of like really talented college players that were on the cusp of, should they be a homegrown, could they be offered a straight North Texas deal? Maybe they're like, college has got more money for me. So these are guys right on the cusp of the town break for like, should they, can they be a pro or not? And they've got like a bunch of them to come back and I'll play for one team. So this would probably be one of the better teams at this level that you'll see. But the difference, as you quite rightly pointed out earlier earlier, Peter, is this is not like Chupacabras and it's not like Denton in that no one's out there building a brand, trying to get 4,000 people into the Dr. Pink field outside Toyota Stadium. In a lot of ways, this is almost like a Sunday league team. And then the sense that like they got Zach Lloyd, who's a friend of the franchise, already has, coaching here in town for a living. Hey, throw this team together. Here's 25 players play 10 games over the summer while they're all home visiting with their families. So they're with their families. So the costs are really low. Like, it's not the same in so many ways as Chupacabras or Denton Diablos, except that it's at the same level. So it's very different, but yet very the same. Does that make sense? [00:56:07] Speaker C: Zach's a busy man because he's got that team playing in the $77 million tournament. [00:56:14] Speaker A: He has a team in UPSL. That 1013 or whatever it is that he runs. [00:56:17] Speaker C: Well, that's the same. Yeah, that's the team that he's got in the TST Tournament. Tournament. Or at least that's what they're called, so. Or the sponsor or something. [00:56:23] Speaker A: It's what his club is related to. His ministries, I believe. But that name. But, you know, apparently a pretty decent coach, by all words, and certainly we know him to be a great guy. So. [00:56:33] Speaker C: Couple of other side notes on players. So Dallas announced today. FC Dallas announced today that Irby Endelay, his loan to Colorado had been canceled because I was surprised to find out. Did you know he had torn his ACL prior to this announcement? I didn't know this, or maybe I just missed it or we talked about it and I wasn't paying attention. [00:56:53] Speaker A: I think we talked about in the discord and maybe even on Twitter a little bit. But, yeah, we knew. Yeah, it's. [00:56:58] Speaker C: That's terrible. Too bad for the kid. Yeah. The other thing. [00:57:03] Speaker B: Break. [00:57:04] Speaker C: No, he can't see how that progresses. The other thing. That's why we're talking about it. Any other injury updates? Have we heard anything about Paxton or anybody else legit or anything like that? [00:57:16] Speaker A: Well, legit made their bench the other day, so he's ready to go. He just needs a chance to get into some minutes. Paxton. I'd be really. I'm really worried about Paxton. And I know that they're saying knee bruise or whatever, but he played a couple of games and then needed some time off. And that terrifies me in terms of, like, his ability to play. [00:57:35] Speaker B: There's definitely a load management issue there. I mean, the. The thing in New York. Right. Obviously they. They wanted him to play 25 minutes. Then there was an extra half an hour. On top of that, they had a sub available. If you knew he was only good for 25 minutes, you had the opportunity to only give him 25 minutes, even with extra time. So, yeah, I mean, that. That seems like a lot of work undone for. For something that. That could have been different. [00:58:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the obvious concern for Paxton, and I say this as president in standing of the non family member fan club, is that we all want Paxton to take the time he needs to get back so that we can get old Paxton back. But he also is a tremendous weight financially on the salary cap of this team. I mean, he's making essentially a million bucks a season and that is a lot of time wasted and a lot of production not happening for a guy that you're spending that level of dollars on. And I. And that's where I think this becomes a more interesting conversation about the future of Paxton and, and Dallas. [00:58:49] Speaker A: In a lot of ways, professional sports is a ruthless business and they've really gone quite a long time investing in this kid, you know, and there's going to be a point at which, you know, they'll have to cut bait here. I, you know, we're all hoping that it's sooner rather than later, but they have him through next season at. And it will bump. It'll be like a million one, a million two next year, you know, so it's not like it's going away. They're going to have. If he doesn't come back and start playing, they're going to have to make a really tough call this winter. That's a lot of money. And yet, like, because of all of the way that everyone feels about him at this club, it may be they may hang. Hang on to him longer than honestly, they really should. [00:59:33] Speaker C: And chapter 1996 of they should have listened to Buzz Carrick. [00:59:40] Speaker A: You gonna do this? Yeah. [00:59:41] Speaker C: Happened when Matthew Corcoran went out and balled out for Nashville the other day. Some of the passes that that kid is throwing out at the MLS level already are just wonderful. He had two. I mean, both of those passes leading to goals for Nashville were as bad as if. If a player for PSG had made either one of those passes, we would still be talking about it. And yes, Matthew Corcoran was in the Dallas system. Things didn't go Dallas's way. He left. He went the gojo route, decided to go apply his trade with the USL team instead, not sign with Dallas. And a few years later, he's playing for another MLS team. And being the baller that Buzz Carrick told everybody he was way back just a few years ago. [01:00:28] Speaker A: Well, his dad, Brian Corcoran, by the way, is the director of soccer operations for Atlantico Dallas. But you know, some people have told me that they maybe weren't super interested and super impressed with the Dallas organization in terms of, like, wanting to sign on here, I don't know about. I can't really verify that part. But what I will say is that, like, I raved about that kid. You guys know on this podcast, I raved about that kid. And every time I talked to lots and lots of people at FC Dallas, none of them were anywhere near as excited as I was. And when he left, they were all like, yeah, whatever, come on, man. That kid is one of the best ballers I have ever seen come through this academy. I don't know how they weren't offering just back in the truck up to get that kid signed. It's ridiculous to me. I know what they told me, and I don't buy it, you know? [01:01:18] Speaker C: Well, it also coincided with a really clogged midfield because, remember, this was. There was a previous generation of homegrowns already kind of filling up the roster at that point. There was Cervania and. And Edwin and Paxton and Jesus and I. And I'm sure in their head they thought they were doing the right thing. But the crazy part is, here we are. Matthew is now balling out for another MLS team, and the only player out of that group left with Dallas is a still trying to get his career back. Paxton Palmol. [01:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And the thing is, is, like, that he was 15 at the. Or even 14 when I started talking about him. [01:01:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:01:57] Speaker A: And he was a whole nother generation of players behind. He's just now, like 18 are going on 19. Right. So, like, you know, this idea that, like, you were worried about how clogged the first team was, it's like, who cares? And at the time you asked me, is there anyone in the entire academy that you're excited about? And I was like, yes, Matthew Corcoran. And I was like, he was the one guy I named out of the whole system. And they were like, yeah, whatever. I was like, oh, my God. You know, And I don't like to always do these, like, should have listened to me, should have told, you know, whatever. But, like, on this one, like, I will forever be like, you know, I don't know how you didn't think that kid was the best soccer brain and passing ability and with ball your feet that you've ever seen. Sure, he's not a track star, but he was plenty mobile enough. And he reads the game so far in advance. He's always in the right position, always in the right position. And he's a deep, flying, sitting six playmaker. The exact thing Dallas is desperate, beyond desperate for. And he's right now 18, 19 and bawling for Nashville. [01:03:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Dallas fans do not go watch his highlights in the game against NYC FC from the weekend. It'll make at the. Your best reaction is wincing. Your worst might be falling into a sobbing heap of sadness and frustration. [01:03:24] Speaker A: Yep. [01:03:26] Speaker C: All right, let me spin back. [01:03:28] Speaker A: I'm going to spin back to Herbert Indole's ACL injury for just a moment. [01:03:31] Speaker C: Okay. [01:03:32] Speaker A: The last two years, two and a half. Alan Velasco, acl. Giovanna Jesus. Same ACL twice, right? Enzo Newman, acl. Diego Pepe, Meniscus. But it's close. Tariq Scott, acl. Mcl, Combo Kakaskabin. You don't know who that is? That's a North Texas signed academy player, last two years, acl. [01:03:58] Speaker C: Thought you. Thought you cussed in Polish or something. [01:04:01] Speaker A: Yeah, Gianluca Canyon, can I can't pronounce it. Yeah, he's Italian. Argentine, North Texas SC signing from Argentina. He played like five games, did his ACL. That's nine ACLs in the last two and a half years at this club. [01:04:17] Speaker C: Is this bad? [01:04:18] Speaker A: I have no idea what that means, but that's a lot of ACLs in a very short window. You know, I would have counted like 5 or 6 ACLs in the history of this club that I can think of before now, so I don't know what it means. I'm like, when this new one happened with Indela, I was. I was putting him on the roster, was the AS hurt, and I started adding him up and I'm like, holy crap, that's a lot of ACLs. So. And I'm throwing in Diego Pappy's meniscus because that's, you know, pretty damn similar and it's not exactly the same. [01:04:48] Speaker B: You can add in Paxton's meniscus, then. [01:04:50] Speaker C: You got to throw in Paxton's meniscus. [01:04:52] Speaker A: Because to be fair, Pax's meniscus has been like a decade, but still, you know, relatively recently. You know, it's just. I. I don't know. I'm not a doctor. What the do I know? Excuse me, but that's a lot of that same injury all at once. And I don't know what it says about usage or. We've had a boatload of injuries the last couple years, and we know that Dallas did a whole lot of retooling on their medical staff. And maybe those things are related. Maybe heat or overwork or constantly being a team that has to fight, fight, fight, fight just to survive means that you're overworking, dudes. Like who sounds like you're a giddy who now has a blown hammy because you overworked him. So maybe ACLs are the same way, I don't know. But sometimes you, you add up these things with math and you go what is going on? [01:05:38] Speaker B: Some of it is the way that the game's going, obviously. [01:05:42] Speaker A: I mean yeah, could be very well. [01:05:44] Speaker B: When, when Oscar was here and and had the Bazan's. I'm trying to think not Hussima. Fabian Bazan used to talk about core and this kind of goes into the training stuff now. Yeah, every player had their individual load. They would set, you know, every, no one would do the same amount of reps in practice and it was all about the way that the game's going, verticality, the explosiveness, all of the fast twitch fiber movements which it's only ever increasing. So yeah, you've, you've got a style of play over the last, you know that that's trending more to pacey wingers and, and verticality and counter attacking and pressing even and that kind of is a recipe for that type of injury. [01:06:37] Speaker A: Yeah, just a thing I noticed. You know, I don't have an answer. [01:06:41] Speaker C: I think it's fair. I, I, I'm always really super leery about trying to spend too much time pointing fingers at injury stuff. But there are 10, I mean there was a trend with abdominal issues with this team at one point Noskerman pointed it out and, and made a big focus on trying to train against exactly that. And I don't remember if he had a lot of success or not, but he did. [01:07:06] Speaker A: He talked about there was a bunch of Herniers and core and he talked about all the kids of that generation were bad in that area and he. [01:07:12] Speaker C: Red Bull and video games. [01:07:15] Speaker A: That's exactly right. Oscar thought it was because kids these days don't go outside to play as much. That was his reason why he thought it was case. And so they implemented a heavy, heavy core strength program into the academy. They literally tried to circumvent it and I think for the most part it really worked. And Jesus and Paxton and some of those guys that were coming out, that generation was the generation he was talking about. And like the guys immediately a couple years behind him, there was a lot of them at the time. [01:07:39] Speaker C: All right, before we go real quick, I'm going to call an audible and do a quick moment of kit talk because while we were sitting here I saw this float across the social. We never did talk about the, the new US kits that Got showed by Nike. Now there's two, but the girls are getting both of them. In fact, they showed off the new white home jersey they wore against China the other day. Got any reaction to the new. I forgot the name of it. The Amazement kit or the one with. [01:08:07] Speaker A: The stars on it. [01:08:07] Speaker C: The ones with the stars kind of in it. What do you think of that? [01:08:10] Speaker A: That's. It's okay. It's fine. All right. Yeah, I like it with the blue shorts a Better than white. Yeah, I like to. [01:08:17] Speaker C: I like the star design. I think it's a cool little. It's a kind of an ode to the denim shirt in some weird way. [01:08:24] Speaker A: Yeah, Yeah. [01:08:24] Speaker C: I dig it. I'd like to see. I haven't seen it in person yet, but the reason why I brought it up is because they just are showing pictures of the guys for the men's team and the gold. You know, the Gold cup stuff that's coming up, getting their media photo pictures taken. And so the second shirt that the boys will wear, which is the blue with the lighter blue and red vertical stripes in this photo, they show off that the kit is also paired with navy blue shorts with a red trim and navy blue socks with red accents on it. What do you think? [01:08:55] Speaker A: I like this one better. I like it quite a bit. [01:08:57] Speaker C: I threw it in the. I threw it in the disc in the group chat. [01:09:01] Speaker A: That's why I'm looking at it. My only complaint is that I wish the pen strikes were a tiny bit more separated and further apart. But overall, I like this one better than the white one. I think this is pretty good. It's a good variety for the U.S. national team. Some way I'm seeing for. [01:09:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I guess they're just going to wear the standard white shirt they've been wearing for a while. What do you think of these, Dan? Or this one? [01:09:22] Speaker B: They're fine. [01:09:23] Speaker A: D.C. doesn't care much about U.S. jerseys, to be honest. [01:09:26] Speaker C: I know. I would say my reaction is this is the first time in a long while where I didn't hate, loathe at least one, if not both, of the kits that Nike threw out for the national teams. [01:09:37] Speaker A: Good point. [01:09:37] Speaker C: So we've made baby steps here. [01:09:39] Speaker B: I think international jerseys is one of those things where you have a. A look and an identity. [01:09:47] Speaker C: Don't. Here in the United States. [01:09:49] Speaker B: Well, that's it. I mean, even with the home jersey, it changes up so much and it's just kind of. All right, great. It's a generic blue. [01:09:56] Speaker A: It's vaguely all navy and vaguely all white. Those Are. That's the look. [01:10:00] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:10:02] Speaker A: With star red, white and blues, flaggy kind of whatever is. It's not particularly well defined, but that's the look. [01:10:09] Speaker C: And then at some point someday we're gonna get to see this new burn third jersey in June. When is the date? They're gonna show it off soon. [01:10:18] Speaker A: July 16th. [01:10:19] Speaker B: July. [01:10:20] Speaker C: Okay. Gee, if only some website he's leaked and showed it off before. [01:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Someone's still got to put watermarks on photos and add them to a story that's been written actually today on my lunch break. [01:10:36] Speaker A: Well, there's no game this week, so this. This might be a nice time. [01:10:40] Speaker C: If you want to send it to me, I'll throw the fucking watermarks on it for you, Dan. [01:10:46] Speaker B: That's great. I've got to do a branding project for a business. [01:10:50] Speaker C: Just shoot them over to me. I will gladly put some quality Dan Crook watermarks on those for you. So we get that third degree watermarks put up there and get that damn thing out into the Ethernet before somebody else does it to you. [01:11:05] Speaker B: Let's be honest, that ain't happening. [01:11:08] Speaker C: What's not happening? [01:11:09] Speaker B: I see the other stuff getting leaked, you know, it only happened because that one twerp wore a jersey that he was given he wasn't supposed to wear. [01:11:17] Speaker C: He called him a twerp. [01:11:19] Speaker A: The guy with 10 million followers? [01:11:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that guy for 10 million followers. [01:11:23] Speaker C: The 10 million follower twerp. [01:11:25] Speaker A: Maybe we should call him a turb and he might retweet us. That would get us a lot of action. [01:11:29] Speaker C: Do we really need more followers, Buzz? Yeah, I like the ones we have. [01:11:33] Speaker A: More Discord is good. [01:11:35] Speaker B: More people in Discord. [01:11:37] Speaker C: That sounds like a cash grab by you, Buzz. I mean, I'm gonna start wearing a. I'm gonna start wearing a third degree cash grab T shirt. [01:11:44] Speaker B: Just a QR code if you'll pay for it. [01:11:46] Speaker A: Sure, go ahead. Yeah. [01:11:50] Speaker C: All right. [01:11:51] Speaker A: TV show. [01:11:52] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, TV show. Yes. So I stumbled across this. The. The. The explanation caught my eye and I watched the six episodes on Netflix of the Eternaut. Are you aware of this show called the Eternaut? [01:12:07] Speaker A: Is that the Argentina snow thing? [01:12:09] Speaker C: Yes. So it turns out that it is a. It's based on a very well beloved 60s sci fi comic called El Eternata or something like that. And the story behind the author and the comic book itself is fascinating because the book came out and then there was a bunch of the. The Argentinian government was bad and he was quote unquote, disappeared. And by the Government. And so there's a whole backstory to this. Well, anyway, long story short, it is a Argentinian production and it is a kind of Netflix's version of Silo or Last of Us or, you know, end of times kind of thing. But it's a different twist. There's no kids in it. And it's, it's. It's very slow burn. I need you to know up front, because I didn't know this until literally one of the last. Until probably the last episode. It is. It ends on a cliffhanger because the intent is to have a second season. So if you're getting into the. If you're getting to, like, episode four and five and you're like, man, I have no idea how they're going to finish this up because they've only got two episodes left and they got a lot of stuff to cover. Well, it's because it. There's supposed to be a second season, but it is interesting and I dig it. It is subtitled, so if subtitles aren't for you, they've got the English dub, but that's too clowny to watch and listen to at the same time. But if you kind of like those things, it's got a good vibe, a good mood. The production quality is really good. The main actor in it in particular is really, really good. And it kind of goes in some weird ways. And there is a moment in the last episode, a visual that completely blew my mind because it's unlike anything I've ever seen in the sci fi before. That completely is one of those, like, holy crap, what am I looking at? That was really great. So it's called the Eternaut and it's on Netflix and there's six episodes. I gave it a solid B plus. [01:14:14] Speaker A: Nice. I still need to get through Silo. I've started that yet. [01:14:18] Speaker C: Not even season one? [01:14:19] Speaker A: No, no. I'm way behind. I'm excited for Star Trek Strange New Worlds, which is my favorite current Star Trek project. [01:14:26] Speaker C: All right. [01:14:27] Speaker A: I'm kind of leaving a lot of mysteries these days. A lot of detective shows. I like that. I like. I like problem solving and logic puzzles of solving mysteries. [01:14:35] Speaker C: Okay, well. [01:14:36] Speaker A: But I like sci fi, so on your recommendation, I'll give it a shot. [01:14:40] Speaker C: Silo is kind of both those things in some ways, and so is Etronaut. Eternut's got a very mysterious vibe of what in the F is going on here kind of thing. [01:14:47] Speaker A: Okay. [01:14:48] Speaker C: Yeah. All right. Dan, you look really, really bored. [01:14:52] Speaker A: Not a sci fi guy. [01:14:53] Speaker B: Sci fi just no. [01:14:55] Speaker C: Well, sorry. He likes swords and arrows and dragons and stuff like that. [01:15:00] Speaker A: We can talk about that too. Fantasy Wheel of Time got canceled. [01:15:03] Speaker B: Yay. [01:15:05] Speaker A: Show us trash, dude. [01:15:07] Speaker C: I didn't even bother with the second season. The first season. So stupid. [01:15:10] Speaker A: So bad. I mean, season three got way better and still was trash. [01:15:16] Speaker C: Okay. [01:15:17] Speaker A: Yeah, but I'm a Glenn, so I watched it. [01:15:19] Speaker C: Very good. Okay, so we did a little soccer talk, a little kit talk, a little TV talk. Dan, would you like to talk about anything? Any kind of talk you'd like to bring to the table? I want to give you your. [01:15:29] Speaker B: I think we've gone through everything. [01:15:31] Speaker C: Would you like nap talk? Would you like to do some nap talk? [01:15:35] Speaker B: No. [01:15:35] Speaker C: Okay. [01:15:37] Speaker A: Third Degree, the podcast is brought to you by our wonderful listeners and audience. That's right, it's brought to you by you, you, our fans, who enjoy what we do on the podcast, on our website, on social media. You can help us out by sharing what we do with all your friends, all your soccer loving pals across the metroplex, and maybe even join us in our patreon. Patreon.com. 3rd degree. And if you support a high enough level, you can get in our discord where we even have a brand new ticket swap section for people to help each other out getting to see FC Dallas play. Thanks for your support. [01:16:06] Speaker C: Well, thank you, Dan, for making time and joining us today. [01:16:09] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:16:10] Speaker C: It's always good to hang out. It was great. Thanks for coming by the Champions League final and hanging out during the watching party was good. [01:16:17] Speaker B: Whenever you're around the corner. [01:16:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Did you guys walk there? [01:16:21] Speaker B: No. [01:16:22] Speaker C: You could though, couldn't you? [01:16:23] Speaker B: Technically. [01:16:24] Speaker C: Okay. [01:16:25] Speaker B: I mean, I didn't want to walk through all the construction that's going on. [01:16:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't blame you. But thank you anyway for coming, but it was great to see you both and Buzz. Thank you, sir. [01:16:36] Speaker A: You're welcome. Thanks for being here. Had a great time at Trinity. [01:16:40] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:16:41] Speaker A: It's fun, man. [01:16:42] Speaker C: All right. Jump on the field, run around. [01:16:44] Speaker A: No, of course not. It's too far to walk down to the field at the Cotton Ball. Like once you're in, it's like you're way up. You come in at the top. Right. [01:16:51] Speaker C: All right, thank you guys both and thank you, DFW soccer curious type you. We will speak to you next week even without a stupid FC Dallas game on another episode. Third Degree podcast. [01:17:05] Speaker B: What do we do this weekend? [01:17:07] Speaker A: Watch Trinity probably. [01:17:08] Speaker C: Third Degree, the Third Degree podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree. Third Degree. The Third Degree. Third Degree. The Third Degree near podcast. [01:17:30] Speaker A: Sam.