Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Okay, let's do this.
Yeah.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree Nepal cast.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree, Nepal cast 3rd degree the 3ad degree Nepal cast.
[00:00:24] Speaker C: 3Rd degree 3rd degree the podcast is brought to you by our fantastic and loyal listeners. Just like you. If you like our coverage here on third degree, the podcast on third degree.net on social media, we got all the pro teams, the metrics covered just for you. Why not join us patreon.com third degree give us the support.
On with the show.
[00:00:46] Speaker A: Well, hello there, DFW soccer curious person. You. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. He returns valiantly in a lovely shirt of many colors. It is Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Hello. You should see the matching pink shorts.
That sounded a bit off, actually. Let's not go with that.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: What, are you going to a Miami Vice party later on tonight?
[00:01:10] Speaker B: No, I just found a pair of shorts that matched.
[00:01:13] Speaker A: I dig it. It's a good uniform. Good look for you and your hero. My hero, Everybody's hero. Editor, founder, thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Carrick. Coming, Buzz.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: Hey, fellas. It feels good to have the whole crew here.
The whole crew is comforting.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: It is.
It's all good.
Buzz, we missed you last Monday at the media game.
[00:01:38] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, sorry. It's a long way for me to go up there.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: I think Dan and I collectively farted out. How many goals did we give up, Dan, between you and I?
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Well, I let in two bad ones. Win a winning goal, so.
[00:01:53] Speaker A: I didn't know Dan Crook played in goal.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: That's. That's. That's very recent. That's been like a. I hurt my leg, and then I was like, I want to still play.
So, yeah, it was.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: It's the. Pretty much the stereotypical game where a bunch of people run around their heads cut off, and then there are two former pros who just essentially decide to.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Take the game on the same team. Some fair.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: At one point, you know, Nacho Perea is terrorizing me. And then I look up on a transition and Nachos on my left, and coming straight at me is Kenny Cooper with the ball, like, okay, this sucks.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: I heard that Nacho was still a bit in pain from your slide tackle, though.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: I didn't touch Nacho.
I don't. I don't know.
I didn't touch Nacho. I. I slid in and took the ball away and dribbled off with it.
Did I touch him?
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Maybe one of the other times? Because you bodied him off the ball as well.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Well, that I did. Yes, you know I did.
I mean, at some point I'm just. I'm just.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Sorry.
[00:03:00] Speaker A: At some point I'm just tired of Nacho dragging to his right. And I know he's going to his right, but he's so much faster than me. I can't keep up with him, so. To use the tools that God gave you, Dan, you know that.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, definitely.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: You're a good English defender.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Oh, no, it was. It was nice. It was a nice warm up for my indoor game on Tuesday, actually.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: Well, one team beat the other nine to eight. I think it was Buzz. I will say that there was one woman playing in the tournament on our team. And I don't know how I've never seen anybody do this in a game before, but damn it, Dan. Am I exaggerating by saying she hit the crossbar five times?
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Yep. Sidney hit it five times.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Five times.
[00:03:42] Speaker C: I was gonna ask if that was Sydney. She's the only female media member I know around the team anymore.
[00:03:47] Speaker A: Out on the right, from the right, from dead on. I don't know how you hit the cross. I was like, at some point, Sidney, you know, it goes in the goal doesn't. Don't. I know it's like a fun game, but it really. We need some goals here, not crossbars.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: That was impressive.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: That was very impressive. Yes. Good times. So thank you to those that invited us to go. That was a lot of fun.
All right. Well, since we talked, things have happened around football club Dallas. We'll try to go in some sort of chronological order.
We kind of knew it was going to happen, but I think the day after the last episode, the Marco Far fan sail to Tigris took place.
That is done and dusted.
We actually saw pictures of him training with Tigris before the club announced it, which was pretty great.
[00:04:33] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: All right. So we ever get around, is it official is or not official, but is the generally accepted amount of $2 million for him correct?
[00:04:43] Speaker C: No. I mean, I suppose it could be, but the only place we've seen that number floated was from a account with a. On social media with a very small number of followers. So I. I have not seen any other numbers reported. So I. We don't have any idea how much it is. I mean, it's probably possible that is 2 million. I don't think it's going to be that that was what transfer market had is his value. But, you know, I would have expected something like 500 or maybe a million. I don't. I don't know that it would be too many. But, you know.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: You haven't heard a number, Dan.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: No, I haven't heard anything.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: All right, well, adios, Marcos. Thank you for all your efforts and time here. Hope you have fun in Mexico. Mexico.
[00:05:24] Speaker C: Well, it's important to talk about how this isn't about Marco Farfan. Like everyone likes Marco Farfan. Marco Farfan's a nice player. But when you're in a salary cap league and you have a guy that's later in his career who's making more money and then you have a couple of younger players that come along who can either already do the job at the same level or very close to the same level and are considerably cheaper and they're roster protected homegrowns, then you have to make a decision like this. It's just pure basic business of a salary cap league.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: So do you think, do you think they went out shopping Marco or did Tigris come to them and say, hey, we would really like to talk to you about this guy. And the idea of selling him came up.
[00:06:02] Speaker C: I think the Tigris probably came for him.
I, I already had planned this next winter to write that it was now time to sell Marco Far fan or trademark on fan because of Josh Torquato and Nolan Norris. Like that was going to be on my agenda for the winter.
You know, the reason you do it now, Like I don't think that anyone in the front office or anyone on their coaching staff wouldn't say that. Like right this minute you wouldn't be happy to have Marco Far Fan for the rest of this season in your purchase for the playoffs. But when the money comes you, you take advantage of it because this window is when more activity is going to happen with, because this is when more teams are doing things. You know, when you get to the winner, much, much less teams than you're looking at more league stuff, less availability and options and in a case like of a player like Mark and when you're probably planning to do something coming up, if someone comes in with actual money, you just go ahead and take the money because it's not like it would be a completely different, different conversation if he was a TAM player or a DB player or some like incredibly star making, game changing player. He's a really good player but Nolan Norris and Josh Toato are not that far behind him. You know, and even in some ways each of them has skills that might be like Nolan's a better passer than Marco already. So it's a, it's a very simple decision. It's nothing against Marco. Great guy, Fantastic guy. Great locker room guy. Great guy on your team. Works his tail off. They have run him into the ground for a couple of years. There is that, you know, and he has had a couple of knocks to the head. There is always that, you know, so you take advantage of the money in a cap league and this is how you do business, you know, it won't be the last guy that gets traded out because the somebody young comes along that's better or will be better eventually, you know, just because it's sourcap and.
[00:07:40] Speaker A: Dan, it was the return of the farewell video.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: It was. It was.
[00:07:45] Speaker C: I didn't watch it.
[00:07:46] Speaker B: I was, you know, I couldn't watch it. I couldn't bring myself to it.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: No, no.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: It's too teary. That.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: That is the. When was the last.
I felt like they stopped doing the farewell video at some point and now this was the first one to cut. Or maybe the player asked for a farewell video. Maybe that's what it is.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: It probably depends on whether the players around, like, if it happens in the winter, they might be at home or they might be on vacation or what if they're here in training camp when you're walking off. In training camp. On the training field, when they're walking off the field. Hey, do it real quick. We traded you do a thing real fast.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: But we didn't do. We didn't get it. Did we get a Jesus Ferrero goodbye video?
[00:08:25] Speaker C: I don't remember.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Did we get a Paul Areola goodbye?
[00:08:28] Speaker C: Those were in the winter, though.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: He would have been in San Diego.
[00:08:32] Speaker C: Oh, okay.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: With Jesus. I mean, did it really end as well as you'd want for something like that?
[00:08:38] Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know.
[00:08:39] Speaker C: And we didn't get a farewell video for the other guy.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: The other guy?
[00:08:45] Speaker C: Yeah. Lucha Acosta.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: I was surprised he put an Instagram thing up thanking him.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: Yes. What the good Dan and Buzz are referring to is the sale of Lucho Acosta to Fluminense down in Brazil.
The hilarity is nobody's talking about it yet. There are literal videos and photos of him in a Brazilian airport with a giant cart full of luggage, which is actually bigger than him.
That's how tiny he is.
I know, but still.
And it all seemed very ridiculous, but.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: And I've heard $3 million. I've heard $4 million.
I guess the question I had, and I think, Dan, you might know the answer to this, is I was trying to calculate how much Acosta has cost them because we know it was $5 million transfer fee. He was on a $4 million a year salary. I'm going to assume they've paid him half that already this season since we're past halfway. So they're in on $7 million on the guy.
Did they even get 50% of that back? Do we know how much? Or do. Or. The other question is, did they have to use a buyout? And he actually got all $4 million in and they're in $9 million.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Can't use a buyout on an external transfer.
Like you've sold the contract, the money's going to gone.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Wait, say that again.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Well, you don't you. So you can retain money on the cap, like trading in the league. If you've sold outside the league, it's. It's gone.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: It's done. Oh, because they got money for him. So they could have bought out his contract, but then he'd be on a free and he would just go to Fluminense.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that. That would just be pointless.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Got it. Okay. So they're in at least for 7 million on him.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: Yeah, like 7 million. If you think like it wasn't quite half the season. Half the year plus the 5 million cash transfer.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: We only have 10 games left. How is it not half the season?
[00:10:34] Speaker B: Well, half the year then.
[00:10:35] Speaker C: Whatever.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:37] Speaker B: Because I bought. Because it was what, February?
[00:10:40] Speaker C: They gone.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: I don't know.
[00:10:42] Speaker C: It was like a week before the season. It was really late.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: He played the entire first half of the season with him. Or more than for. Anyway, my point is I. I don't know how much they sold him for because I said three. I've sold four plus add ons. So what kind of wizardry did Zenata pull off?
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Surely Bogart's gonna be the reliable one, right? Because we think he's getting his info from Zenata anyway.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: But then that. Doesn't that also lead you to believe that maybe Zenata's inflating it maybe to make it sound better? Like I don't know if I want. I don't know if the club is the like the selling club that is having to sell off their star DPS in the first potential. The first possible window is. Doesn't want to try to make this as good as possible.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Maybe. I mean the league. The league trying to be a little bit more transparent with allocation money and stuff would make it pretty well, actually. No, I guess it wouldn't. Because you've got a maximum payout.
Maybe. Maybe. Who knows?
[00:11:37] Speaker C: Well, Bunker's probably talking to agents and Somebody at the league office too. So if he says 4 million with incentives, I, I can believe that that number was reported a lot of times. So I don't have any reason to doubt it.
You know, to get that back is incredible to me because like I was looking at the 5 million buyers that sunk cost because I didn't think there was anyone south of here that would have taken that salary. Maybe you could have some found somebody in Mexico to do it. Maybe you could have found somebody MLS to do it. But he also signed a new three year deal, so part of it may have been renegotiated to where, you know, whatever. He had one year remaining on his contract here and now he has a new three year contract. So they may have done some sort of extension of however much money he had left to make it work for him or something like that. I mean, who knows what. What they did down there fluming to make it all get under the wire but affordable. But the thing somebody said commented that like, we hardly even considered that like he could be sold to a foreign team because we thought it was highly unlikely that anyone could afford him. Well, it turns out the answer was somebody that was flush with club World cup money could afford him. And that was a couple of teams in South America, in Brazil particularly, that could do that. And obviously we knew some European teams could. So fantastic that Zenata was able to pull the trigger. I mean, that dude could sell an umbrella to a fish. I mean, it's ridiculous. You know, he's never going to get fired because of his ability to make money out of these situations and get, get money for guys that they would have had to have bought out, you know, this winter if it had gotten that far. You know, and the fact that we think, as Dan explained, we think they didn't have to use the buyout on this means that like you still have that buyout and like, I don't mean to harp on this, but I still think you should use it on Paxton now. You know, use before it expires. You have, you now have 10 days to use it.
You know, if you want to try and do something else this window or even try to do something this winter, I think it's, it's better to use it while you have it rather than next time. But it's a remarkable move to move out of Costa. And I think the team's instant reaction tells, tells you a lot. I mean, it's not like they held a party, but you can watch the reactions on the field and watch how everyone was Fighting and the positivity and, and even what I hear chatter in the background is everyone is quite pleased with the positivity of the locker room now, you know, and.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: Which is not to say Karim was a party after the game.
[00:13:50] Speaker C: Yeah. It's not to say that Lucho's a bad person. I don't mean that. But like he did not want to be here clearly by the end, you know, so, like that I. This stinks. I don't like it. When you're. His stature that permeates. Some guys will follow him in that mentality. And so you move that out and all of a sudden it's like a breath of fresh air. Everyone relaxes and takes a breath and you see the performance that you saw. Now, granted, Portland wasn't playing the greatest soccer in the world, but, you know, the, the, the reaction I think is telling in terms of the, the way the team all sort of galvanized together, I think.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: All right, so before we get into the game, I do want to broach this subject. I talked with Andy about this question on the show last weekend, and it is the following one.
I'm very torn about this because I personally have been one that has criticized the club for refusing to follow the fail fast theory. You know, try something out. If it doesn't work out, bail on it. And that's clearly what they did in this case.
And I do think there is credit deserved for that. But, but at the same time, I do wonder in kind of a weird. Even if I have to admit it's a somewhat hypocritical question, this thing went bad really badly, very quickly. This isn't like you went out and spent a lot of money on a guy and he, he dangled around the team for a few seasons or two seasons and then you had to move him on. This was so bad, so fast, that buzz, you were already calling it the Lucho Acosta problem, like three games into the season.
And the. They ended up having to sell him at their first possible opportunity and they spent a lot of money to get him and made a big deal out of getting him in the first place. So my question is as follows. If something that bad happened that fast, is there not some sort of responsibility on the experts, meaning your sporting director, your new technical director, your scouting department.
To know that maybe signing a headstrong guy who's gotten himself run out of his last two teams and marrying it with this relatively youngish kind of patchwork quilt roster and a rookie MLS coach probably wasn't a good idea from the jump. And they should have had the maturity or skill set to say, no, we're not going to go ahead and do that deal.
[00:16:16] Speaker C: Yeah, I. The first. I would. The red flag that in hindsight is easy to spot is that when he asked out of Cincinnati, he specifically said he wanted to go home to Argentina. Now, Brazil's not Argentina, but he didn't say, I want out of Cincinnati, I want to go to Dallas, or I want to go to Atlanta, or I want to go to New York. He said, I want to go back to Argentina. I want to go home.
Brazil's not Argentina, but it's a hell of a lot closer than Dallas. So, like, that should have been probably a bit of a red flag. But you would have assumed that they would have talked to him and Quill talked to him and Zanada talked to him. And I remember that press conference and they said, we've talked to him. He's buying into what we're doing.
So, like, they at least did that level of homework that they had conversations with him and he said, great, I'm in.
They tell us. I mean, I didn't talk to Lucho, but that's what they told us they did.
You know. Now, would you. Should you have asked a question? I've watched enough tape on him.
My coach, my td, my head of scouting, whatever. I know how we want to play. And there's a type of mismatch there.
Yeah, maybe. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe that there wasn't enough of a recognition, but maybe there also was a desperation to have.
You know, you're selling off Asus, You're. You're selling off Paul aola. You really need some kind of splash. You need to do something for the fans.
Okay, let's. Let's do this. Maybe it's not perfect. We think we can make it work. So there's a lot of ifs and buts in there. And I think you're right. Probably there definitely needs to be conservative criticism for how badly he didn't work.
At the same time, like we all thought, sure, go get him. And we've talked about the idea that if they hadn't. If they'd have passed on him, they'd be getting ripped. You know, that's. You gotta admit that. But so full credit for recognize the mistake finally and getting rid of him and getting rid of fast as possible. So, yeah, but. So win on that part, but loss on the part that it was so bad so fast. And. And to be fair, like, I didn't know it was going to be bad. It wasn't until I watched them try to get him in the team for the first 10 games and thought, this is a disaster. Like, what is going wrong?
[00:18:21] Speaker A: But, Buzz, we're just armchair quarterbacks.
[00:18:23] Speaker C: I know. That's the thing.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: We're not paid sporting directors, technical directors with, you know, CVs of major clubs from around the globe.
We don't get up in front of the press and talk about how you're Brazilian and you're used to dealing with guys like this, and you welcome bringing in these types of personalities into the team and then have to turn around and sell the guy six months later. I mean, a part of me wants to applaud them for doing this. Another part of me feels a bit annoyed by the reaction because I feel like we're celebrating the kid that accidentally burned down the school because he went to, you know, group therapy and learned that he shouldn't play with matches anymore.
[00:19:01] Speaker C: Yeah. And to be fair, like, people ask the question, are you sure this is a good idea? Are you sure you can handle this guy? Like, I went on, like, four podcasts, and I'm sure Dan did, too. And everyone I went on, they were like, boy, are you sure Dallas wants to.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: I know.
[00:19:15] Speaker C: And I'm like, I'm not. But they certainly are. They really believe this is going to work, you know, and. And we're all going to find out. And, well, boy, we did find out, like, real fast we found out because, you know, like, we started hearing bad stuff by, like, end of March. It was like we were already getting, like, this is a big problem.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: You know, I thought we could. I remember on this podcast, the three of us, two games in going, man, this is weird. They all just seem very focused on only giving him the ball, and he's not.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Doesn't have a lot to. To work with.
[00:19:47] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: This feels like a very weird fit.
Dan, where's you. Where's your head on all this?
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Part of it is they.
Well, you know, they'd been after him for a year, so he becomes available.
It's not often a former MLS MVP becomes available at a price you can afford. Right. So you kind of almost have to take the pun. Unfortunate situation that they're kind of doing this rebuild, and then suddenly the piece that you wanted to finish, the re. The. The old build becomes available.
It. You know, if they didn't take a stab at it and he gone somewhere else and played well, you know, it would have been, oh, the Hunts, they don't spend money that They've got no ambition, you know.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I admit I would. And I would have led that charge, probably.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: And yeah, yeah, I mean, unfortunate situation. Like, it's good that there was a reasonable outcome for everyone.
It's not seemingly that Danielson. Well, we've. We're not. We're not doing anything for another eight years or whatever it was because now we're a bit scarred from this. It seems to be, you know, business has moved on, funny enough, but by all accounts, so that I was like the one of the people who. That Lucho really respected there.
So.
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's good that they got out, you know, for all parties when they did before, Lucha's value was zero and his chances of getting a better deal was zero. You know, you could have like a Franco Hara situation where it was the team had to use the buyout and had to have that agreement of, hey, look, we're going to keep you on the payroll until you find another club to go for for free.
[00:21:38] Speaker C: I think my biggest criticism at this point of that window would be that.
Something I talked about at the time. So it's. I think it's fair to bring it up. And that was the idea that, like. Yeah, they offered. What was it, 12 million for Evander. Now, they lost out on that bid due to other circumstances or maybe even additional money that we're not aware of, but they went for Evander at 12.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Or a great conspiracy.
[00:22:01] Speaker C: Yeah. Theory that the league facilitated the whole thing. I'm with you on that. But like, the thing is, well, the.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: FC Dallas got a no from his team.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: Yeah. Fair. No, I'm not. I'm not arguing that. Like, they should have gone this, that, and the other to get a vendor. The point was that they bid 12 million for Evander. That shows you that there was an identified player and identified type of player that to them was worth 12 million, and they settled for Acosta at 5.
So one of my criticisms was, well, if you thought Acosta wasn't the $12 million guy, then don't. And you didn't get the $112 million guy. You were willing to spend $12 million. Why didn't you go get a different guy you think is worth 12 million? Why did you settle for the $5 million guy? That's 31. So at the time we talked about that. So I think it's fair to be critical of that, that they again, took like the second choice, the second tier, not quite what they wanted. Sometimes that's Worked is a second choice and is amazing. We love that idea. Let player. But like this time, like, you clearly thought another dude was worth twice as much money or more.
You buy your own offers. You've indicated that Lucha was not necessarily the same level of idea. Like, so, okay, you know, how about we get the $12 million guy? It's easy for me to spend somebody else's money, but it didn't work. Maybe because he's not a vander. He's not these guys now that you see in the league that are playing at this next level. What was son Peter, 30?
[00:23:30] Speaker A: Did they made it get him 26 and a half?
[00:23:32] Speaker C: 26 and a half. I mean, we, we've talked about this too. The, the league is changing, right? It's not the same league that the hunts saved 25 years ago. So like, are you going to play in that level? Then go play at that level. And don't mess around with another $5 million guy who may not be, you know, don't, don't try and tape over it with Legette, you know, for another season.
Not that we don't hate legit or anything, but you know what I'm saying. Yeah.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: Well, it is a whole curious thing and certainly all signs are pointing up because Dallas did have Portland in town this weekend and wow, third. Is it their third home win? Yeah, third home win of the season. It's been a bad season for home games. In fact, it was funny, I ran into somebody today that said, hey, I went to my first soccer game. I went out to FC Dallas and I got to watch them play. I think they played Portland. And I was like, you got, you, you got lucky.
You, you lucked out on the game that you got chosen to go to. And she said she had a really good time. So Dallas ends up winning that game. Was it two or three?
[00:24:41] Speaker B: Two.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: Two, two, nothing.
So I, I, I want to say I watched it on television. I didn't go to the game.
I thought getting the clean sheet may have been just as big as a deal of scoring two goals. Buzz.
[00:24:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, let's give some full credit to Michael Rambo, Karate Kid collode, for showing up. And on paper, he had three saves. One of them was pretty good. The other two, one of them was just, he caught the ball, whatever. But that's not the point. Like being a backup goalkeeper, a second choice goalkeeper is about your confidence and the team's confidence. Right. Because if you go in there all nervy, the, the whole defense is going to suffer from they're going to be worried about you. This clearly they were not. Clearly the whole team has a lot of confidence in Michael Collodi. Michael Colony is a very confident kid. He is not afraid of anything.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: Michael Collodi has a completely different vibe to how he plays that position from pause.
[00:25:39] Speaker C: Yeah, very different. His feet, by the way, are at least twice as good as pauses.
So like the ability to back pass and for guys to be able to not have to panic because they know they can backpack the to clothing reliably, they know that they can build out of the back look. That's not a big component of the cool team, don't get me wrong. But the ability to do that and be able to have him, you know, beat a guy on a dribble and play an escape pass, play a second line pass like that was, that is huge. Now I'm not going to claim that Michael Khloe should start over Martin Paz. There are other parts of his game that Martin Paz clearly is a better player. But you know, when it comes to like doing the second keeper's job, being in there, being confident, being a shot stopper when it was necessary, being a close in goal stopper when it was necessary, being able to relieve pressure when it was necessary, he was fantastic. Like, like he easily could have been the man of match in anybody's book. I, I mentioned my three things. He wasn't my man of match, but easily could have been. Even just with the three saves. I thought it was a tremendous display on his part.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: All right, I, I, I'm just going to ask this question. I'm not saying I'm suggesting there's more to it, but I am going to ask what exactly are pauses?
What's the word I'm looking for?
[00:26:45] Speaker C: Positive attributes that are better.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: Yeah, what are, what are, what are attributes does Martin have over Collode? Because when I watch Collode play, he comes out and punches balls. He'll come out and cont and contest for balls in the air, in the box.
He's better with his feet. So what? I haven't seen enough shot stopping.
Is that what it is? Is it all come down to shots?
[00:27:06] Speaker C: Those two things you listed Claudia's better at. But, but what pause can do is side to side lateral. Like on a hard driven long shot, like getting all the way to the post. He is 3 inches taller than code. And when you're going to the upper 90 or when you're going all the way to the post, that 3 inches really can matter. It's a big Deal that lateral acceleration and launch is there. Cody is a good shot stopper, like a blast that he can get to.
He's going to stop it. He's got pretty good get down, like, tight. Pause is also pretty good at that, you know, but there's the. There's those edges in those corners that pause can get to just a little bit better than Collodi. And those things are worth a boatload when it comes to actually keeping goals out. You know, the punches of the crosses, the clearing balls in the air. I wish boss was better at that. Claudia's better. He's better with his feet, you know, and those, again, those are why, if Paz was good at those things, he wouldn't be here. Right. Those are things that keeping him in mls. So, you know, Collode's got a really bright future, at least in MLS terms. He could play a decade easy, I think, in this league, if he chooses to. Can he go beyond this league? I have no idea. You know, keepers, so much about keeping is the brain and the experience and, like, if he plays enough and works enough, by the time he's 30, maybe somebody wants him in, you know, Belgium or middle Germany or something, who knows what? But, like, you know, he's definitely got a full career as a pro soccer keeper in front of him. Terrific job. All right.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: And just for anybody needing the context, the reason behind the Rambo Karate Kid headband was he had.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: But at a post in training, he has a pretty nasty gash above his eyebrow.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: Ah, okay.
[00:28:49] Speaker C: Yeah. So he probably. He probably wear that thing for maybe week or two, but it won't be around.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: Well, I mean, there's. I don't remember what you said after the game, but there's always that possibility, right? When players, like, break their hand and then they've got the. They've got tape on their hand for like the rest of their career because they scored a goal.
[00:29:08] Speaker C: He's going to keep it.
[00:29:09] Speaker A: Yeah, he may have to keep it. I don't know. It's kind of unique and not seen anybody do that before. And I kind of. I, I. When I first saw it, I went, okay, come on, what are you doing, kid? And then I found out that it was. There was a reason behind it. Now I want him to keep it because that's his brand.
[00:29:26] Speaker C: Well, there was a funny generational break on the nickname because I saw the black headband and I thought, oh, he's. I think he's Italian is okay. Rambo.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: John Rambo.
[00:29:34] Speaker C: Yeah. And he looks kind of like him because the hair, you know, and then everybody under the age of 40 was like, karate Kid. I was like, no, it's the wrong color.
It's not. It's white, it's black.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: But you know, Rambo was famous for his Adidas headband.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:29:49] Speaker C: Famous for his black headband. There's a bunch of Jeff's on the Twitter for it.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: If you two want a code headband. Apparently that came from Shields.
[00:30:01] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: It's gonna be a run.
[00:30:04] Speaker C: That would be good.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: Code headband night.
[00:30:06] Speaker C: Well, somebody called in our discord, called him the Code Kid. And I thought, well, that's actually pretty good.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: Yeah, the Code Kid. That is pretty good.
[00:30:12] Speaker C: A mix of the Karate Kid and Cody, you know.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: All right, well, let's move on to the rest of the game. Buzz the lineup, you know. Here we go. Post Lucho Acosta and post Pedrinho, who's been banished down to North Texas again.
What'd you think of the lineup?
[00:30:29] Speaker C: Well, interesting. You know, I wasn't 100% sure we were going to still see 3, 4, 3, but I was pretty confident because I like I've said all along that's about the center backs and not about Lucho. But you know, everybody else pretty much kept their spot except for Bernie Camingo got tried out at wing back, which was interesting. He has the physical profile to play that position. You know, he wouldn't obviously need to develop the defensive side of the game and understanding. But you know, when you have a relatively athletic, relatively ground covering center back on that side and Abubakar, you know, he can help cover up that a little bit.
They, you know, both sort of the balance of the wing backs, both getting forward more on one side and Kamuk on the other side was, was decent.
However, there's a really bizarre thing with Escade Alice this year, for whatever reason, they do not build to the right, they build to the left every time. If you look at the past drivers, this is big, huge thick build up the left side and like to shack more is a tiny little pass out of the back. Like they just don't go that way.
I don't know why.
Logan Ferrington played really good.
Romero played some really smart, excellent soccer was a good big part of the protecting of the back three that looked its best. It's looked all year frankly with Ergide in the middle.
Delgado looked completely lost.
I don't know what happened with him because like he had maybe it was at least two if not three excellent games since the last time he Put up a complete stinker.
So he did it again. Put up a complete stinker. That was one of the worst games he's played all year. And it wasn't just that he wasn't doing good things. It's like he didn't look like he knew where to go. I don't know whether it was because Bernie was throwing him off or whatever, but like he kept running the wrong way and out of the place. And I was like, what is he?
[00:32:16] Speaker A: I couldn't even figure out what position he was playing.
[00:32:19] Speaker C: Well, technically there it's the, it's this three, four, three with the two wings. Aren't. They're not line hugging wings. Are these false ten wings tucked in. So he's. Quill has been using a more vertically one in. In Julio or Logan and then more of a tennis one. That was Delgado mostly since they've changed his formation.
I was assuming that maybe that's going to be a Costa. If he ever gets back around and into good graces, they end up selling him. So maybe that idea will be off. But like he's been playing that half 10ish kind of thing that Logan's playing. But in this game he just was like, I don't know how you have two, three excellent, excellent games. So much that even the broadcasters were like, Quill told the story about. Quill said at the beginning of the year he couldn't stand Elgato and was yelling at him and tell him she sucked. And he goes, but now I love him. I think he's great. He's doing these wonderful things and like that's the way they'll go. Has been playing until this game when he was just an absolute disaster. So like to me, like I was what I was trying to watch the players and like, okay. Who seems to be like dialed in and happy and excited and playing and like, oh, maybe Delgado is the one guy who's like, man, Costa's not here. I'm gonna go run over here and just, you know, I don't know if that's the case, but it's true. I had that thought.
But yeah, one of the stinker from him. So. So much so that now I'm like, that opens the door I think for people. But Bernie was fascinating. That'll be the real question, like, does that continue or not? That'll be fun to see.
[00:33:45] Speaker A: What'd you think of the three man back line, Danny?
[00:33:49] Speaker B: And it worked well.
[00:33:53] Speaker A: The, you know, putting Ira Gide in the middle I think was the interesting change.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Having him as that kind of more stay at home rather than making him kind of the runner.
He's good in distribution, so having him in the middle just makes it easier to spread the ball out out to either side.
Definitely having Kaik engaged defensively. And please, please, Eric, never ever take the armband off Ramiro if that's how he's going to play. Because he was incredible at, at midfield, at right back. His one on one defending was just phenomenal and just got in the way of every ball.
No, I, I, I liked it. I liked, you know, Lalas obviously kind of got a little bit adventurous out wide.
Iaga didn't have the greatest game, but not terrible.
I don't know.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: He didn't cost him the game.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: No, no, no.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: So for Iaga, that's a good day.
[00:34:55] Speaker C: Yeah, huge.
[00:34:58] Speaker B: Let's not, let's not scapegoat him.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: Fair.
Yeah, it was an interesting performance, I would say.
Look, we're at, we're at that point of the season where you'll take whatever win, however you can get a win, especially for this team in 2025 at home.
[00:35:15] Speaker B: I think you know this, it was an entertaining game. It was a, it was a well contested game. It wasn't exactly a high quality game. It was kind of two not fantastic teams. But it is a game in the situation FC Dallas is in where they have to take advantage of, of those games and they've put themselves four points behind the playoffs now.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: Well, you're absolutely correct and somebody's going to point out that Dallas got gifted yet another goal with the opener with Musa when the keeper dropped the ball in front of him. I mean, part of that is just the pressure they're putting on. I mean, the fact that he's there is good, but Dallas has had their fair share of goals gifted to them this season, dating all the way back to the opener against Houston, if I remember correctly.
[00:36:03] Speaker C: Yeah, but you know that, that stuff, you know, evens out over the course of.
[00:36:07] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:36:08] Speaker C: You know, you're right. I think that both the, the pressure causes that mistake and then also to take advantage of the mistake. A lot of people would bone that. So like, you know, it's one thing to get a gift, it's another thing to open it and get it done.
[00:36:19] Speaker B: We see keepers drop that catch and just smother it all the time. If he's not on the keeper's toes. Well, not, not even on the keeper's toes because the keeper kind of bounces off him.
You know, if he's not fully on with the Pressure. If he lays off with the defender, then that goal doesn't happen. So.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: Yeah, so credit to them for being in those positions and capitalizing on other people's mistakes. That's a big part of this game.
But what I really wanted to talk about was where this team is moving forward, because as you watch this game, we're kind of back to that narrow. Now that we're done with worrying about the Lucha Acosta problem, we're back to having the conversation, or at least I'm back to having the conversation that we had early in the season, which is this team really struggles to get the ball past midfield.
[00:37:10] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:37:11] Speaker A: And create.
And, and, and so they seem now to just default to just booting it long and hoping somebody gets to it first. And more times than not, they don't. And they end up finding themselves in that awful cycle of clearing a ball or trying to play it long and then just being put back under pressure again.
[00:37:30] Speaker C: Yeah, clear. Quill's been pretty clear about bypassing midfield. You know, know, being a product of, like, the personality has, you know, I don't think anyone would question that, like, this team is still missing it has one DP and not three, you know, and. And of the U22 guys, only one of them is really playing at a decent level, and he just had a massive brain fart turret all over the field. So, you know, the. The high caliber Tams even aren't always delivering. So, like, you know, at some point you have to. We. We have to still talk about the roster build and still have to talk about the improvements that need to happen with this roster. You know, it's. There's not a question that, like, anyone remotely thinks this thing is done and this is the team and you're gonna climb to the MLS cup with this thing. It's like. No, come on, man. They. They know. We all know. So, like, the question is, with 10 days left, did they do enough scouting prior to getting distracted by me to move out of Costa? Like, I have no expectation that they'll replace the cost of this window, even though they probably were trying to maybe for the last month. Maybe.
I don't know. That's enough time. But you should have been working on whatever the other thing was. Are you going to a third DP or not? You know, how long have you been talking about a center back? I keep hearing they're scouting center backs. Okay.
You know, it's still.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: There's only a few of them around the entire Earth, Buzz. It's not like, you know, We've only.
[00:38:49] Speaker C: Been talking about this for years and they finally got one right about the time that we're like, you now need another one because you took so long, long. So, like, you know, and now you're.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Back to playing three in the back again.
[00:38:58] Speaker C: Yeah. And if you're playing three in the back, you. It's like I did a depth chart of my thing I did today showing that there's only five center backs, even if you count Nolan Norris, and you need two in each position.
So it's like, you know, it's like, come on, there's. There's clear holes that need to be addressed. Are they done? They have some. They have with Lucho out and Far Fan out, they have two open roster slots. They have a DP slot open. They have a couple international spots open. You know, 10 days left in the window. Is that it? Or are you going to save it all for the winter or something else going to happen?
[00:39:31] Speaker A: So it's funny you're even asking because I had just come to the. I had come to the conclusion that they're not making any more moves like this is it because there's only nine games left in the season.
[00:39:41] Speaker C: Yeah. But, you know, you have the window and you can make a move for next year, even if you don't think it's going to be impactful. Now, this is the window when more people are available.
Right. Summer window, primary window for everybody else. It's when everyone's been cut off their teams. So, like, you have till next Thursday, basically. I think it is the 21st, I believe, to execute stuff, you know, and even after that, if the person's a free agent, you could add them up until the. I think you can add them to the roster freeze date, you know, if they're a free agent. But, you know, this is. Again, again, if you need the money clear, Paxton, then you have the money, Right?
[00:40:21] Speaker A: All right, just real quick, since we're in transfer window talk, so you're saying to me, if they could get one player right now, one position player right now, you would get another center back before you would get a playmaking midfielder.
[00:40:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I would.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: Money no object.
[00:40:39] Speaker C: No, no, no, no. I don't want a DP center back. I want a TAM center back. A TAM center back is Ibiaga salary, which is twice what Urigiti makes.
So, like, you can get a really quality center back without having to be a DP. I mean, TAM can be up to. Is it 1.2 million, Dan, something like that. It's. Oh, you can go well over the DP line, almost twice the DP line and be able to buy them down.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: This is what I have Armand for.
[00:41:06] Speaker C: Yes, well, the. The remember that they have. They have just boatloads of Tam and GAM still. So, like, they have the ability to add a guy, you know, and not have him be a DP because you want to be the. The DP. You want the DP to be the 10, that kind of magical player. At the same time, like right now, Quill doesn't want. Doesn't want to play this shape. Quill wants to play another shape. So if you're going to add a guy now, it makes sense to add the center back and not alter everything about your entire team. You can worry about altering the rest of the team in the winter window, you know, when you. When you actually can go out and get. Maybe get your 10 to be able to play a 4231, you know, and you can maybe over the rest of the season, you can find out a lot about the guy Dson, like, how's he going to fit in?
How does Delgado fit in? How does Logan and fit on the field at the same time as Anderson? Julio, you have these questions that you can ask and try and get answers for.
Who the hell's gonna can do I have. Anyone else can play right back other than Shaq Moore and. And Newman, who's hurt, obviously, you know, or Giovanni, who's hurt, obviously, you know, where does Nolan fit into all this? Like, they have all these questions they need answers to for the long run that you can get them. And meanwhile, you can try and get to 42 points and see if you can squeak your way into the playoffs. So I would add one more player if I could, and the center back would be it. All right.
[00:42:23] Speaker B: The target allocation money ceiling is 1.743 million.
[00:42:29] Speaker C: Wow.
Yeah.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: Big number.
[00:42:31] Speaker C: That's a big number. That. That was why arola was at 1.7. So, like, that was. He was the guy you could tam down, but not what you actually leave as a dp. So, like, you can get a really nice center back and have him not be a dp, is what I'm saying. So that's what I'd like to see happen first.
[00:42:50] Speaker A: All right, well, let's see. So Dallas ends up winning at home, third, as I said, third win at home for the season. End up beating Portland 2 to nothing. Also, Lawless Abubakar with his first. That was his first goal for this team, correct?
[00:43:05] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: It was also the first Corner. They've scored all year.
[00:43:09] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Well, see whatever that thing is with his hair acted as a counterweight. Perfectly placed that ball the far post.
[00:43:17] Speaker B: After the game, he put the man of the match hat on.
[00:43:20] Speaker A: I saw that.
[00:43:21] Speaker B: That. That was magical. The. He. He did it once for the media and then while we were all talking to Romero, legit convinced him to kind of pose for a couple of times with it.
[00:43:34] Speaker A: I suddenly thought the thing on his head was pretty great. When I saw that photo, someone asked.
[00:43:40] Speaker B: Him what he was going to do with the hat before he put it on. He was like, I don't know, I have to cut a hole in it or something. Or just wait until I eventually cut my hair.
[00:43:49] Speaker C: Do they get to keep those hats? Is that a new one every game?
[00:43:51] Speaker B: Apparently.
[00:43:52] Speaker C: Oh, wow. Oh, cool. I know.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: That's good to know.
[00:43:54] Speaker C: I assumed it was the same hat.
[00:43:58] Speaker A: Well, don't look now, kids, but now the. Now the good guys have to go down to Broccoli Land and play Austin. And I'll be damned if Nico Estevez doesn't have Austin doing a little bit of good as they have only lost one once in their last seven games and that was a 20 loss at Seattle. They are coming off the 22 draw against Houston. Houston came back to draw that game and I'm sure they're unhappy about that. And that was also in.
In Austin. But they're also coming off back to back road wins against LA and dc so they've been scoring quite a bit of goals. Let's see, they scored two against DC, two against no. 4 against DC, two against LA and two against Houston. So they've been on a bit of a streak and Nico has this team cooking. And also Doyle posted a video from the Houston game where I think they were like on a 22 pass sequence before they scored and was very complimentary about how they were playing these days. So, Buzz, should the good guys be worried?
[00:45:05] Speaker C: Yeah, well, the playing. Austin's a throw the records out kind of game, you know, but the bigger picture, the more important question is, you know, what's. What's the mark that they need to now chase to hit the playoffs to get for that last spot. And San Jose and Colorado are the two teams right there. But if you specifically mentioned San Jose, 1.23 points per game, they're probably going to get to 42.
So Dallas needs 12 points still, is that right?
No. 14. 14. So even though they won, like this is the problem, the people have had you keep winning too.
So they're probably going to need 14 out of their last nine, so it's still going to need to win 50 of the games to get in.
[00:45:54] Speaker A: I was just going to say just so everybody knows, if you want to.
Feels like there's something to glom onto for hope between Colorado and San Jose.
Those two teams have combined for only three wins in their last seven games.
[00:46:10] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:46:10] Speaker A: Both those teams are really slumping.
[00:46:12] Speaker C: You have to hope that they fall off that rate. So you're pro. You still want to anticipate, though, you know, 40 at a minimum, probably 42 points will get you in. So 14 more.
Austin is a, as you say, on a hot streak, though, you know, going down there as an impeder down there is pretty tough.
There's two positions, I think, that are in question. Like, we know Paws probably is going to still be out since no one has any clue how long he'll be out with a hamstring.
Do you keep Bernie in at the wing back?
And then Delgado played. Did Delgado play bad enough to get dropped? Because ordinarily when you win, you keep everybody kind of going. Especially like in a case like this where it was like we sold off our very best player and these guys all rallied together and pulled together and got a big win at home.
So they all deserve to go again.
You know, that's the question was like, how to burn you defensively. I think you probably give them another chance, see how that goes. And then the big question is, is Anderson Julio going to take Delgado's spot? Because they, you know, you know, they're going to want Anderson Julio in the game eventually. And Delgado put up a stinker. So otherwise, I don't think there's any decisions to be make. Romero's not coming out of that spot. Kaik's not coming out of that spot.
You know, unless they burned up Shaq Moore and he got hurt. Like, Shaq Moore was down late. You know, they had to kind of walk him off the field a little bit, so. And they put Ramiro over there.
Like, is there something. Did Shagmore get hurt? Like, that'll be a real question because then what do you do? Do you try legit again? I don't legit. Can't go 90 anymore, I don't think. I think it's good for 30 or 60. So do you have to start Romero at wingback? And then who's in the midfield? Is it Capis?
So those are the underlying questions, like a week out. We don't know the answers to these questions, but those are the Questions we're working on and talking about over the course of this week.
[00:48:02] Speaker A: I'm glad you brought up Capis Christian because when they when Quill did him bad and dirty and stuck him out there in the wing two minutes after he got off the plane from Sweden or whatever it was and he about to melted like an ice cube out there, he put him in the middle of the field and moved Romero out to the right wing. And I thought Chris looked really solid in the middle of the field and I want to see more of that. He looks so natural in a Dallas shirt in the middle of the field like that. I really hope we get to see more of that moving forward.
[00:48:33] Speaker C: Yeah, you could probably include like you know he's a Quill guy so like you could probably include that on the list or questions for the last half of the season, back half of the season. Can he supplant Romero in terms of Quill's first 11 thinking going into the winter and is would he be comfortable with a Kappas Kaik combo and then Ramiro being more of that leader. You can move around and plug all the holes that we've talked about we all think was the idea behind him before show got sick. You know that's what he kind of what he was supposed to be.
So you know how you evaluate that position and him and Capus and Kaik, that trio even perhaps you know, going into the winter may determine like whether that's a spot you want to try and spend money or not. So that's a big question. Over 10 next nine games.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: Interesting. Well if you're just trying to keep tabs on Colorado and San Diego. Interesting.
San Jose, interestingly enough, Colorado and Dallas have to play each other again. So there's a big six pointer right there. The fourth game before the end of the season, San Jose has to play San Diego home and away twice.
Well not home in a way in in the final set of games they've got and they also have to play Austin home and away in the remainder of their schedule. Dallas has Austin both home and away and then but has a couple of difficult games in the fact that they have to go to Vancouver to end the season and I think that one could with Mr. Thomas Mueller.
Do you realize Dallas is going to get sun here this coming up here soon and they're going to get to play against Thomas Mueller before the end of the season. That's pretty great.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: So I'm still lost on that sales email that the the team sent out earlier today about if you wanted to see a Premier League legend in person like we haven't seen Becca, Frank Clampard, Steven Gerard, you know, I mean Crash, you know, Shaka, his love had an incredible 10 year Premier League career and played for FC Dallas. It seems a stupid line to put in an email.
[00:50:42] Speaker C: I was going to say that Thomas Mueller is a player that I have admired from far for so long. It's just mind boggling to me that he's in mls. It's just crazy.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: Well, how crazy is it that Thomas Mueller has joined a team in MLS and it's such a second, second issue story because sun has joined MLS and Sun is such a huge star that Thomas Mueller is an afterthought?
[00:51:04] Speaker B: Well, no, no, I mean, you know, sun just joined a kind of tier one celebrity team. Thomas Muller has gone to Vancouver.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: I, I would say if Thomas Mule, if Sun hadn't joined this week, there'd be more noise about Mueller joining mls. Even if it is just Vancouver.
[00:51:21] Speaker B: But that sort of just, it's, you know, you're never going to be a, a sign in for, for one of the LA or New York teams.
[00:51:30] Speaker C: Vancouver maybe sort of feels more European than a lot of the cities might. So he probably liked that about it, you know, good team too.
[00:51:37] Speaker A: Well, have you read, have you guys read that Chicago was in on him but he elected not to go to Chicago specifically because of the sizable German community and he didn't want to get bogged down into having to be, be the face of the German community kind of thing or be anonymous.
[00:51:52] Speaker B: Well, I mean it didn't really work out for Schweinsteiger, so.
[00:51:56] Speaker A: Yeah, true.
Crazy. So that's cool that we'll get to see both those players over the course of LAFC comes to town on the 23rd by the way, which is that other thing Dan helped me figure out, which is that's part of a three game roadie for son's introduction to Major League Soccer and the travel for that LA to Chicago to Boston to Dallas to LA constitutes more mile travel miles in one trip than he would collect in an entire season playing for spurs in the Premier League. Just the Premier League season, not all the Europeans. Isn't that ridiculous? Yeah, yeah, it is nuts. All right, so everybody keep your fingers crossed as Dallas has to go to Austin, face off against Nico.
I'm sure Nico's looking forward to that one and try to keep the season alive.
[00:52:49] Speaker B: I do think there's a little bit of an interesting thing though because you talked about like the, the run of form they're on, you know, and you think, right.
Houston is tied with Dallas in the, in the standings. D.C. is the worst team in the East, LA is the worst team in the West.
New England before that, pretty awful.
They haven't really, you know, they've, they've played Seattle, lost to Seattle, beat New York, New York, wasn't fantastic, beat Colorado. Colorado's pretty sure. Colorado is the only team that's in the, in the playoffs that they've, they've not got beat by in a minute. But it's like, do you get that kind of false sense of security? Oh, we're on a great run of form or is it a real confidence building run for them that they can then snowball into the game?
[00:53:41] Speaker A: I would say that the fact that of their four wins in this seven game stretch, three of them being wins on the road are pretty. Is kind of a big deal.
And drawing at home against New England and Houston is also interesting in its own way. But look, MLS is mls. Winning. Winning. Being on a good positive streak and only losing once in seven games, I think constitutes something to be concerned about. About. And let me put it this way, I'd rather have Austin's current run of form than Dallas's.
[00:54:14] Speaker B: Wow, this is interesting. They haven't beat a Western Conference team at home since April, since the.
[00:54:21] Speaker A: And Dallas is good on the road. So I think we have hope. All right, well that happens Saturday in Austin. Everybody tuned? I guess there. Is there a bunch of. Is there a bus going down?
[00:54:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:32] Speaker A: Good. That's great. Fans are always really good in Austin on those days. All right, let's move on to other things.
North Texas ended up playing and drawing this particular weekend buzz.
[00:54:46] Speaker C: Yeah, they played Austin. I don't know why they played Austin last weekend and then they're playing St. Louis City 2 on Saturday when Dallas is playing in Austin.
Okay. Anyway, they, they, they played Austin one to one and they won on pks. If you care about those mid season wins on pks, they're sitting sixth in the. Sorry, seventh in the west and top eight make the playoffs. So they're still in the playoffs.
They have eight games left, which is just a little bit less than Dallas does. FC Dallas does.
But more importantly, like there were more kids played in this game than there have been lately, which is nice. That's what I want to see. I want to see more of the young guys playing and I really like that. Caleb Swan scored his first goal for the club. That was cool.
Just an overall pretty quality performance by the young kids against a An awesome team, which is a rival team. So those games are always intense. So it was interesting to see Pedrinho go down and start. It was interesting to see Alvaro go down and start because they, they went down and started and played 90 minutes before the SC Dallas game. So, like, they were already written off. It's like, you're not really going to play. You're gonna. For the Seattle game the next day on Saturday. Saturday. So that's so one of the negatives I don't like about them playing the day before rather than the day after. SC Dallas is that you. You get to already determine some guys that are not going to play for you on the weekend. You know, like, Sam Sarver did not go because they wanted him obviously to be on the bench. He didn't get in, but like, once he didn't get in, like, oh, if they played Sunday, then he could have gone and played for North Texas. So it's kind of a weird that they play before instead of after, I think. But, you know, it's sort of, sort of counterproductive in terms of like, what, what that team is useful for. But, you know, still more academy guys coming through. I really liked that.
So a positive result for me, a positive improvement for me for North Texas sc. Good stuff.
[00:56:36] Speaker A: Dallas Trinity just two weeks away from the season. Man, it feels like they just finished that thing up. Buzz.
[00:56:42] Speaker C: I know, doesn't it?
[00:56:43] Speaker A: Yeah, it does.
[00:56:44] Speaker C: They. They open on August 23 against Bookan Zephyr at the Cotton Bowl.
They had media day at the Cotton bowl the day we're recording Monday today, which these days media day is more like the. The team does a lot of these photos and videos and, and then if they have some, some, you know, broadcast that needs to record interviews that are going to be used over the first half of the season, that kind of thing.
It's not as much for people like us because they bring the players in over the course of the whole day on a very rigid schedule. So, like, you have to sit there and wait the whole day if you want more than like one or two people that coincidentally might be right at the same time. So that's kind of an inconvenience. So I didn't go out there, but hopefully I'll get out to training and watch them play, talk to their coach sometime in the next week or so. That'd be cool.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: It's been a weird preseason. Like they, you know, they obviously went up northeast, played a few games, and then there was just. There was nothing on it.
[00:57:39] Speaker C: I think they have one more college scrimmage. But there was, you're right, there were no releases of who played or anything about. Like I didn't even know they played games until Charlie told me.
So that he's the one said, I think told me they have one more college game to go. I can't remember who it's against, but basically, you know, they're going in with a rebuilt defense, you know, almost all new except for one, maybe one start. Well, you count Henson too. She was on the left as late in the season, even though she's a new defender, to be fair. So Misimo posted a picture of herself running on a treadmill with the caption first full weight running.
That was about a week and a half ago. So that sounds. That sounds more behind schedule than I was kind of getting the vibe on. So let's, let's. Let's put tap the brakes a little bit on when we might be seeing Misimo back because that. That sounded behind schedule to me. But we'll see. Maybe it's an old picture. I don't know. I think it was about a week and a half ago. Okay. Anyway, right around the corner.
[00:58:42] Speaker A: Go Trinity and Texoma. Feels like they've cooled off a little bit.
[00:58:47] Speaker C: A little bit road game though, you know. But they did fall on the roads. FC Naples, which is the current employer of Breck Evans, former FC Dallas Academy and North Texas player.
Texoma, also still in eighth place, also still in the playoffs. They got the Chattanooga Red Wolves on Saturday here at home.
So if you're up in that neck of the woods, go check that out. That's always a fun time. They. They posted a funny bit about paid volunteer opportunities are available. So that was funny because the World cup did this volunteers wanted thing this week. So they kind of joked that pay a couple bucks to come volunteer for them.
[00:59:23] Speaker A: Because they ain't paying at the World cup, is they?
[00:59:25] Speaker C: No, I don't believe so.
[00:59:27] Speaker A: That's pure honor. Pure honor. Just something to do.
[00:59:32] Speaker B: Some of those you have to pay to volunteer, don't you?
[00:59:34] Speaker C: Do you for the World cup stuff?
[00:59:36] Speaker B: Maybe not the World cup, but some of those types of events. Yeah.
[00:59:40] Speaker A: They.
[00:59:40] Speaker B: They want people to paid.
[00:59:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Weird.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: Make sure you're serious for you are. Aren't there just for the food.
All right, well, I think we covered it all. Anything else you want to get into, Dan or. And. Or Buzz?
[00:59:54] Speaker C: Well, I thought the Athletico Dallas Pedicolas thing was kind of cool.
Part of their series they're doing on local businesses. But they, you know, they specifically said something about Pedicolas Brewery now being part of the family. So that sounds to me like maybe they're working on some sort of, you know, marketing connection with the brewery. And they had a whole bunch of stuff on the guy that's founded that how he's a big soccer.
[01:00:14] Speaker A: Yeah, Mike's a great. Yeah, Mike's a great guy and a really big soccer fan and they show a lot of games at their, at their place.
We've done a kick around thing there before. So I'm a big fan of Mike and Pedicolas.
I also want to, I'll also throw out there that Atletico married two of my favorite things in the whole world together. This past weekend in soccer and records over at Josie Records they did a promotional thing where they did their one on one tournament which I'm not really sure I understand the premise behind this, although it just appears to be like a one of those soccer juggling dudes clowning people with the ball. But they did it over at Josie Records and I love that place too. So I thought that was perfect for me and yet I didn't make it over there because I didn't. I don't think I knew about it. So my bad. That's on me. Raise my hand. My fault. But good idea.
[01:01:06] Speaker C: We talked about that tournament and you asked me where it was and I said I didn't know and it turned out it would be right where you would wanted to go more.
[01:01:12] Speaker A: So soccer, more records and push them all together. I love it.
All right, Dan, you got anything else?
[01:01:18] Speaker B: Nope. All good. All right.
[01:01:20] Speaker C: Third Degree the podcast is brought to you by our fantastic and loyal listeners just like you. If you like our coverage here on third degree the podcast on third degree.net on social media we got all the pro teams. The metrics cover just for you. Why not join us patreon.com third degree give us the support. Hope you enjoy. Enjoyed the show.
[01:01:38] Speaker A: Love the shirt. I want one just like it. And buzz. Anything else?
[01:01:43] Speaker C: Nothing new that I know of.
[01:01:45] Speaker A: All right, very good. Thank you to you both and thank you Dallas Fort Worth soccer curious person like yourself. We will be back and speak to you next week on another episode of 3rd Degree the podcast what's a mutant victory pod?
[01:02:02] Speaker B: The 3rd Degree.
[01:02:07] Speaker A: N podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree N podcast 3rd degree.
[01:02:14] Speaker C: The 3rd Degree N podcast.
[01:02:29] Speaker A: Sam.
