3rd Degree the Podcast #327

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. 3rd degree the 3rd degree Ned podcast. 3rd degree the 3rd Degree Net podcast. 3rd degree the 3nd degree N podcast. 3rd degree 3rd degree the podcast is. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Brought to you by our wonderful listeners who support us on Patreon patreon.com 3rd degree. If you like what we do on the web. You like what we do on this podcast, let's be honest, if you're here listening when SE Dallas didn't even have a game, then you're our audience. You're the people that make this thing work. And without you guys, this podcast and this website probably wouldn't even exist. So thank you for your support. Why not join [email protected] and enjoy the show. [00:01:02] Speaker A: Well, hello there, DFW soccer curious you welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. Once again, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:11] Speaker C: Hello. [00:01:13] Speaker A: Hello to you too. And your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Wonder if we could turn this into a song? Actually, I need to think about that. Editor founder of third degree.net hey, Papychek. And the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Carrot. Come in, Buzz. Man. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Peter, the Open still doesn't just flow, does it? It does. Not the same as the old FCD Al Scaras. [00:01:38] Speaker A: No, it doesn't. But these are new days. I was looking at. I was looking at the red crayon run sheet and there's just as much other non FC Dallas stuff than there as there is FC Dallas stuff on the list. [00:01:52] Speaker C: Is it a bigger audience or is it just the same people interested in. [00:01:56] Speaker B: More things Now I'm gonna pretend a bigger audience. [00:02:02] Speaker C: Millions of extra people. [00:02:05] Speaker B: There are 12 of us. Literally dozens. That's right. [00:02:08] Speaker A: I would estimate that it's approximately the same group of curious that we've had for the last several years. Maybe sprinkled in a new one here. [00:02:17] Speaker C: And there that just extra curious now. [00:02:19] Speaker A: Yeah, and churned out a couple who are dissatisfied customers. That's fine too, you know. [00:02:26] Speaker C: Congratulations on your new curiosities. That's good. [00:02:29] Speaker A: Yes. [00:02:30] Speaker C: Exploration of life and all that. [00:02:32] Speaker A: Absolutely. Very good. All right, well, let's see. So obviously this was a dead weekend for the burn. But that doesn't mean things didn't happen. Buzz, first off. Yeah, I had kind of forgotten about him, but Siki and Sebling has been loaned out to a club back in. [00:02:53] Speaker B: South Africa loan with a buy option. I actually had to bug somebody over at FC Dallas to find out that there is indeed a buy option. And the fact that the the loan is for like the entirety of their season sort of tells you you Know what the idea is behind this whole thing? It's till June of next year. So, yes, hypothetically, he could come back in the middle of next season, but it feels unlikely. It feels like this is the end of a chapter in that sense. If you're a sticky fan with that buy and him going home, I mean, they sell it. We're celebrating a player coming back to them, you know, from. I believe that's where he did his youth time. So their uniforms look like Brazil. That's fun. So good. Good for him that he's going to place that. They seem really excited for him. So I hope he gets to play a lot and does great things. [00:03:42] Speaker A: Didn't he go through the hassle of getting a green card? [00:03:45] Speaker B: He did have a green card, yeah. But, you know, sometimes your career takes you other places. So, you know, I. I would imagine that as out of the rotation as he is here, that they probably offered him around a little bit to see if anyone in the league would want him. And they must not have gotten an offer they liked because they've gone this route with a loan fee instead. [00:04:05] Speaker A: You know, so I. I'm curious. Well, I'm sure there are people listening who are curious beyond the normal curiosity levels about why Siki didn't work here. Because he seemed to guy that would easily become a fan favorite with kind of his energy and the way he played. It never did quite click with anybody. He were. He was coached under. [00:04:30] Speaker B: Well, he certainly has more success than he. In the last two coaches than he did under Quill. Maybe Peter Luan was the best he did, you know, when Peter used him high away from the. The problem for. For as I see it, the problem with Siki is when you play him in that deep role, he's good for one or two kind of pretty bad turnovers and pretty bad spots when he's in that position. If you play him high, you know, you can nullify that effect a little bit. You can, you can. And then he can be more of a useful player. But, you know, he is who he is at this point in his career. And when a new coach comes in, you know, he doesn't have the history with him, he doesn't have the experience with them. And while he's a really good roster player, you often hear Quill talk about mistakes and mental mistakes. Remember, you remember when he was raving about Diego Garcia, he said that he had no problem playing him, even though he would make mistakes, because he would really bust his butt and get back and recover and cover up those Mistakes. So, like, that's a lot of what he talks about is trust, faith. So my read is that he just sort of never really felt comfortable with Sikhi. So, you know, as you're turning over a roster and you're bringing in central midfielders, and at this point, this. At certain points this season, they were short central midfielders and we still never saw Sigi. So I'm not super optimistic that it ever would have changed for Quill. So sometimes it's just time, you know, Sometimes you just. If you've been employed for a place as long as he'd been here, you know, you never became a starter. It's like, why not try something else? Why not go somewhere where you can play, right? [00:06:04] Speaker A: And nobody wanted him in mls, at least for a trade. [00:06:07] Speaker B: So, yeah, and he is a guy that had value. He has great roster value because he works his butt off in training. He is a friendly guy, likable guy. Nobody doesn't like that guy. He doesn't complain that we know of. He doesn't complain in the media. He doesn't complain to other players. Maybe he complains to the coach in private, perhaps, but I don't. I don't think that's likely given his personality. So. Great roster piece. But, you know, at the end of the day, Quill is in the middle of churning over his roster. I mean, we've seen more outbound moves in the middle of the season than I can recall in some time with guys being sold or loaned or jettisoned, and I imagine that he's not done. So expect more, I think. [00:06:45] Speaker A: Dan, do you have a seeky story you'd like to share with the group? [00:06:49] Speaker C: Not particularly. I will say it seems a really good move if he's got. Got a goal of making the South Africa national team. [00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah, that's an interesting idea. [00:07:02] Speaker C: I thought about that play for the. The team that constantly wins the league. It's a good strategy. [00:07:08] Speaker A: All right, very good then. Buzz appears to have gotten tricked on the social medias this week. Yeah, somebody ball sacked Buzz by getting Buzz to report that Mr. Jesus, Giovanni Jesus is destined to come back soon. What happened there, Buzz? [00:07:33] Speaker B: Well, he shared a photo on his social media of himself in training and was like, you know, with celebratory kind of things. And I thought, oh, look, he's back in training. So I shared that picture and it turns out that that picture was old. It was like 2 years old. So I thought he was getting all hyped up that he was back coming back and training. And like, I Was like, oh my gosh, look, he's alive. He's actually doing things. Well, no, still not doing things. So Garrett Meltzer, because we, I had done that people were like well what is the deal with him? And so he went and got an update and the official update was quote, sometime next season. So sometime next season is not start of next season. That's so that's even worse than we thought. So it's like, you know, in a way my, my being suckered in by Giovanni posting a picture of himself because I was all hyped. I saw him training. You know, the gear looks the same. You can't tell the difference. The gear never changes. It's all black and gray and for every team in the league it's all the same. So it's like you know, telling you. [00:08:35] Speaker A: This team and their injury descriptions between far fans descript injury description of legs. Yeah, Paxton's never ending knee bruise and this here sometime next season is all very vague and very purposefully just trying to throw us all off some sort of scent that no, nobody really ultimately cares that much about and isn't going to change anybody's standings or win loss fortunes. But for some reason they seem to think this is really farting important. [00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, you know the. We knew he was on season ending IR for the whole year and was not going to be back this season but it was still nice I thought to like oh my gosh, look, he's back in training. Maybe he actually is going to be ready. No, so he won't be ready. So like there and remember they their other right back, other than Shaq Moore is Newman who also had an acl. So we don't know for sure when he's going to be back. Totally possible you're going into next season with still only Shaq Moore as you're right back and then obviously depending on what else you do, Romero might still factor in there. [00:09:39] Speaker A: Well, maybe we should. I, I mean I, I see why we tend to put value in players posting pictures to social media because who was the player that posted the picture of them going in for knee surgery and nobody. The club had yet to announce it yet. [00:09:53] Speaker B: I don't remember who that was. I do remember him. [00:09:55] Speaker A: Then was it Khed? [00:09:57] Speaker B: I don't remember who it was. I mean you could say anybody. I'd be like sure, that's you know, somebody definitely. [00:10:03] Speaker A: But that did happen, didn't it? [00:10:04] Speaker B: I want to say Brian Acosta did that. [00:10:09] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe I just remember. [00:10:11] Speaker B: I don't remember who it was they. [00:10:12] Speaker A: Posted it to their Instagram account and they had like, the surgery cap on and the. [00:10:16] Speaker B: Yeah, the whole bit. [00:10:18] Speaker A: We were like, wait, what's happening here? The club didn't want to say anything about was very. [00:10:24] Speaker B: Yeah, they're. They're definitely averse to any kind of thing that they think is. I don't know why you'd think an injury is a bad light. I mean, it's a bummer, but it doesn't make people look bad or anything other than, like. And it's. I'm not sure. Certainly in Giovanni's case, I mean, he's off of the year, so whatever. But still, like, he tricked me. He got me. I thought it was a fresh pick. I was so hyped, you know, because, you know, when. When he got hurt, he was starting to really show some stuff. And then. And it's obviously been like two years now. So, like, the chances of him coming good are just like Paxton. He's played about the same minutes as Paxton over the last two years. By the way, I should mention that with the window closed, Seals can no longer use their second buyout. So if you had any dreams of using the second buyout, now they've thrown that buyout down the trash. So if you're not going to need it, you're going to. You're going to have to use one of next year's, and then now you'll only have one. [00:11:13] Speaker A: So I wonder what the purpose of that is. Why they wouldn't buy him out. [00:11:17] Speaker B: You have to. It's the rule. Oh, why they wouldn't. [00:11:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Why wouldn't Dallas buy Pat? I mean, do they know something about Paxton's situation? We don't. And obviously I don't know anything definitive, but, yeah, based on the wind, as we say, it's kind of a bit of common knowledge that the thinking is, is that his injury had, you know. [00:11:38] Speaker B: Yeah. For him to have, you know, have apparently had some sort of something happen, you know, on the medical level since he re injured himself, you know, it's not like he just got that bruise and nothing happened. Like, you know, the word around. Is it something. They had to do something? So it's like, I don't know what, and they won't say what. But, you know, it's like when you've played 30 minutes in league in two years, it's like, why. Why do you keep paying that guy a million dollars? And. And again, I'll repeat, like, don't feel bad for Paxton because a buyout doesn't end his paycheck. He still gets all the money. It's like all it does is take the cap off. It off. [00:12:13] Speaker A: Yeah. But it also probably indicates that his career is over. And for a kid that was such a promising career, that would super duper suck. [00:12:20] Speaker C: I think there's a couple things of that, right, because you can look at the, the setback as, you know, very easily. And we had it with the. One of the Kelly kids. Oh, you used them wrong. This. That's ruined his career. All right, we're gonna see you now. Especially if the club's like, okay, we're gonna buy him out and basically end his career. The other side is they're not really gonna do a whole lot with, you know, just a roster spot. It's not like, you know, pay it. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Out over time versus. [00:12:58] Speaker C: Well, not even that. Just, you know, it's one thing if it's. Alan Velasco is a bad example because you wouldn't buy him out. You wanted to keep him for his, his value. But, you know, casting someone off to basically loan a. A generic roster piece for. For six months just isn't really gonna, you know, there's, there's not the, The. The great benefit to just kick him out the club. [00:13:24] Speaker B: The reason to do it now would have been that you only have two buyouts per season. And so, like, if. Since you didn't do it now, if you're going to do it this winter, you're going to need one of those two, and then that would limit your ability to use more than one after that. That's the reason. [00:13:39] Speaker C: You'd just be using it for the sake of using it, though. [00:13:42] Speaker B: If you need it, hopefully you're not using it at all. But, like, if you, if it turns out you're going to need multiple of them, then you might, you know, doesn't how good you feel about the players they've paid a lot of money to and they're going to have on this roster for years. [00:13:55] Speaker A: That buyout rule must be like eating glass to Clark Hunt. [00:14:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I don't feel optimistic that they would have needed two more. But at the same time, like, you know, if, if you know now that you're buying out packs in this winter, then you might as well have done it. Not because you're going to add a player for the six months or the three months that you have left. It's just that you only. It's a very, very limited mechanic. It's not a lot. You don't have a lot of these. You only have a few of Them. But at the end of the day, like Paxton's career is either over or it's not. Whether you buy him out or not doesn't change whether it's over or not, right? Either he's gonna be able to play again or he isn't. Has nothing to do with what his roster status is. You know, who's gonna pay him a lot of money or any money at all if he's a free agent right now? Nobody. They're going to want him to prove himself. He'll have to come in on trial pretty much, you know, I mean, like no one's going to just sign. I don't think anyone would just sign him. Blank check, you know, without having seen him at all. Only essay house might do that, you know, So I don't, I don't have any real solutions for how to handle it. But you know, a million dollar player, there's like, that's a, at least a TAM player. So you're looking at, you know, a full max salary slot. They only have one DP now. So like that's the slot that could be a dp or it could be a player of Paxton's caliber or a player of Irigati. Irigide's caliber. Irrigated is a TAM player. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, these are good players that Paxton's spot is being eating in your budget, you know, so if he's not playing next year, what are you doing? You know, you can pay him a million bucks to be on season ending IR again. I don't, you know, it's their money, I guess they can do what they want, so. [00:15:35] Speaker A: And from the whoop dee doo file, Dietzen has been called up for the Haitian national team and will miss this weekend's game. [00:15:44] Speaker B: Speaking of players that might need a buyout. Yeah, that's. [00:15:48] Speaker A: Are you ready to give an early your instant review on Deedson after what you've seen so far? [00:15:55] Speaker B: So far I've seen nothing that makes me think this is a good signing. Now it's only been 30 minutes. He's played as much as Paxton has. So I mean, we'll see what happens. But like the fact that he's not getting used, that'll tell you something. Now there's a, there's a fit problem with the tactics currently, so I'll, I'll give him that grace. [00:16:13] Speaker A: There's a what problem? [00:16:14] Speaker B: Fit. He doesn't fit the current shape, current tactics. [00:16:18] Speaker A: Well then why did they sign him if he doesn't fit the system? [00:16:22] Speaker B: Because they signed him for 18 million years. They didn't sign him for the next month and a half. He's got the longest contract in the club. They signed him for the next year and beyond. [00:16:31] Speaker A: What for the. The coach after Quill gets fired. [00:16:34] Speaker B: Maybe so. Maybe so. Well, you know, they don't buy players to fit the system. They buy players and they pile. Throw them in a pile and tell you to find a system. Yeah. [00:16:42] Speaker A: Hoping that they can turn around and sell them later on. [00:16:44] Speaker B: Of course they have bought a player that doesn't fit the current system. But we don't expect the 343 to survive past the season. At least I don't. Okay. So you know, if you go to a system that Quill would seems to prefer to use then he does fit the system. [00:16:57] Speaker A: And a couple of U20 call ups. [00:17:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Nolan Norris is with the Real U20 team. Diego Garcia is with the. What will be the U20 team for the next cycle. It's how they're having an ID camp that second group is. So they're both gone for this weekend is the important part of that conversation. So you know, between Deedson and those two guys, there's three and see he being gone. Those are four guys that are not available this weekend for your planning purposes. And I should mention in the Haitian talk that Carl Sante, who is still actually an FC Dallas player also got called up. Although he's on loan with Phoenix. But he is still on. [00:17:33] Speaker A: How's he doing? Does anybody know how he's doing for Phoenix? [00:17:35] Speaker B: I mean he basically starts all the time. Dan doesn't he like mostly at center back but occasionally as a six. And he's you know, heavy, heavy in the rotation. Unless he's getting called up for Haiti or you know, or they're rotating him out. He's mostly their center back for them. [00:17:46] Speaker C: I think he was captain for a spell too. [00:17:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So by all, by all accounts he's having a good season. So I don't know if he's in the cards to be brought back or not. You know, we'll see. [00:17:58] Speaker A: I wanted to bring this up because this bothered me today. I did not watch the league's cup final between Seattle and Miami. Now I obviously have gotten my fair share of the social media video clips of all the brouhaha that happened after the game. But that's not what I want to get into. I want to mention. I don't. I want to. I'm curious if I'm the only one of the three of us that was annoyed and bothered by the fact I want to make sure I say this right. I found myself annoyed and bummed out that Jesus Ferreira was winning trophies with it. With the club now that has won every trophy that you can win in North America. And all of the celebration going around how great Seattle is. I'm not disappointed for Jesus personally. I think that's great. I'm happy for him as a player. I'm glad he's finding success. But the fact that he's doing that with a club other than Dallas really, really bothered me this morning and I don't know why. And I'm curious if it had any kind of effect on either of you similarly. [00:19:09] Speaker B: Not in the least. [00:19:11] Speaker C: I mean he's different club. They put, you know, they put bad players around him. [00:19:16] Speaker A: Yeah, but doesn't that bother you? [00:19:18] Speaker B: It bothers me that FC Dallas is always kind of a mid table club. That bothers me. It doesn't bother me that Jesus went to a better place. [00:19:26] Speaker A: No, no. Again, I'm not bothered that Jesus went to a better place. I'm bothered by the fact that Jesus is winning trophies and he's not winning them with Dallas and he's winning them with F in Seattle and that Seattle is the one that got something out of Jesus and, and, and gets to celebrate with Jesus and we don't. [00:19:45] Speaker B: It doesn't bother me really. I think I came to terms with the fact that there's going to be very little winning of trophies around this club like a long time ago. [00:19:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's the part that's the, I think that's the part that bums me out is that we, that something like this happens and we all just, it all just kind of passes past us and like we like we're all just resolved to the fact that Dallas is always going to be somewhere between middle of the tier and suck and we're not, and, and we're not real really ever geared up for any, for greatness. [00:20:18] Speaker C: I think there's always an element with players leaving FC Dallas that they hit a point where they, they just need a change of scenery. Cereo did. Kellen Acosta did. Michael Barrios apparently did because he went to Colorado and started playing well. Jesus no different. [00:20:40] Speaker A: All right, well, I'm on the record as being bummed out by that. [00:20:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it's okay that you're bummed out. I mean you can feel that way. I just didn't. I'm more excited for Jesus. I mean, I would love to see the kid. I mean we've been watching him since he was 9. I'd love to see the kid get his form back and get back in the national team. I think that'd be great for him. Great for the national team if he's playing well enough. I won't give you that. Okay. You know, the I, the thing is, is that FC Dallas put themselves in a corner with the contract they gave him and the contracts they gave some other people. They had to cut out big, huge chunks of salary cap if they were ever going to try and improve the team. So understanding all of that, it doesn't bother me that that was what had to be sacrificed. They did it to themselves. So I don't, I don't have any sympathy for it, frankly. [00:21:27] Speaker A: All right, well, Saturday Dallas goes to St. Louis and you know, coming off a couple of good results, they've only lost once in their last six games, I think it is, or five games. Yeah. And the two last two draws against LAFC and, and Austin St. Louis on their hand is pretty, pretty bad. They're on a three game losing streak. Are we? I feel like we have stopped even wondering if Dallas is going to make the playoffs, although they're still pretty close to doing. I, I feel like typically at this point of a season we're all like, okay, let's do the math and let's run through the schedule and add up some points and find out what the possibilities are. And I feel like we just gave up on that weeks ago. [00:22:16] Speaker C: I think like five games into the season we were kind of, you know, resigned to the idea of, oh yeah, okay, so Lucho isn't going to pan out and this team is going to kind of struggle to make the playoffs. So let's just kind of focus somewhat what's gonna follow. [00:22:30] Speaker B: We were counting whether they were gonna be the worst team in the whole club history. It wasn't. We weren't forgetting about the place. You know, like, the thing is, is they've had a couple of home games and they've played pretty well and they've only gotten ties and you can tie yourself right out of the playoffs. We talked about how they needed to basically win. Half their games have left and since we've had that conversation, they haven't won any. On the other hand, like they're still on 30 points. So like if they can win this weekend, they would be within like three points of San Jose, but so is also Salt Lake and Houston and Colorado. And if Kansas City wins a couple of games, so are Kansas City. So like it's, it's not just that, like, they have to get ahead of San Jose. It's like, that's what we always talk about, the 42 points, because you got to get above all these teams in order to do it. So it remains true that they really probably need about 42 points. [00:23:15] Speaker A: So if they don't make the playoffs this year. When was the last time Dallas missed the playoffs in two consecutive seasons? [00:23:22] Speaker B: I would bet it was Shellis, but I'm gonna get that document out and I'll look. I think it's probably in Shell Simons. [00:23:28] Speaker A: It's been. [00:23:30] Speaker B: Yeah, let's see. [00:23:34] Speaker A: Sorry, I don't mean to keep giving you edit. [00:23:36] Speaker B: No, it's 2002 in a row. 2012, 2013. So chalice. Okay. Yeah. And that's when he resigned at the end of the thing, you know, but it's, this is different coaches, so it's not going to have the same hit, you know, and, and the thing is, is that they're sitting on 30 with, you know, if we're right or if I'm right, I guess I shouldn't lump you guys in on this. That they need 12 points in their remaining seven games. So that's four wins out of seven. So that's a lot to ask, probably to make it, you know, even with the schedule that has a couple of chances now. Stranger things have happened. Like, you know, you can have this. You can put together this incredible run. Like if, if Musa can stay healthy and Irigidic and still health, stay healthy. Like, you know, maybe they can put together this crazy 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Yeah, seven games. So, you know, you really need this St. Louis game bad. You need the Austin one, you need the Colorado one, you know, because the Galaxy are playing really well all of a sudden. You know, it's all in league's cup, but they don't have anything else to play for now. Now they're playing Spoiler. You know, it's a tall. Ask. It's a tall. So it's probably why we're not doing all that math is because we're not super optimistic that it's possible. [00:24:52] Speaker A: Yeah, no. This has been one of the most godforsaken seasons in this club's history. I, I, it's brutal. It's just so brutal. All right, so there you go. Saturday at St. Louis. [00:25:05] Speaker B: Should we talk about who we think. [00:25:06] Speaker A: Might play if you. Yes. If you'd like to spend podcast time doing that, go ahead. [00:25:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so. Well, it all hinges on whether Moose is back or not. If Mooses was Technically, on the bench last game, they want to risk him. So after a weekend off, I think it's pretty obvious that he will be back. So then you have the Giant Farrington question. Farrington's played really, really well. And when Delgado's on, he's played really, really well. But Anderson, Julio, when he was healthy earlier in the year, was arguably the most important player. He was so decisive in games. So you have three guys for two spots. That's a tough call. I don't, I don't know which one Quill would pick. If it was a different tactic, I would say it would be Julio and Farrington. But the way they're using those wings are not really wings, right? They're these false wings underneath tens a lot of the time. So that doesn't really fit Julio. So I wonder if it might not be back to Farrington on the Delgado. It's gonna be a fascinating short question then. Otherwise, I think it's pretty much self explanatory because if you watch the video, they did the scdna, which is a great series, by the way. The most recent one is on Campus's Homecoming, and there's a whole bunch of quotes from Eric Quill in there. And my takeaway was basically like, cap is not coming out of the lineup based on, you know, he doesn't say that, but the way he talks about Capus, I was like, oh, this is his guy. This dude's gonna be in there for now on. And so then you come down to questions like, you know, will Romero be in there with him? Will Kaik be in there with him? You know, if, if, if you're a Guine, you know, who had to sit out last game with that last second hammy problem, you know, is he back in or has he popped it and now he's done for this season or somewhere in between? We don't know the answer to that question. We won't find out if he's on the injured list until late on Friday, you know, and so if he is, they'll probably leave Shaq Moran as that third center back, which means Ramiro will be on the wing again as the wing back instead of Shaq Moore. And then Bernie, I'm sure he'll keep a spot and Claudia will keep a spot. So the, the big, big questions are how healthy is Musa and how healthy is irrigate? [00:27:16] Speaker C: So the line was he woke up, hamstring was tight, wasn't worth risking him. And obviously Musa played the last eight minutes of. Yeah, plus added time. So, yeah, they Were they were hopeful that he was working his way back. [00:27:36] Speaker B: But you know how hamstrings are like this late in the season when the hamstrings are issues because of workload, you know, and management like though both of those guys like even in that with Musa getting those nine minutes or in training since then when they try to bring a guy back, you don't know how a hamstring is going to react when it's a load management issue kind of thing. So like I, I don't think you could write those guys names in and pen. I'm obviously really hopeful that both those guys are going to be fine and they're both going to play. It's all going to be good. But those are the questions around which the whole thing pivots. [00:28:09] Speaker A: Well, I'm sure it'll be a thrilling sporting event for all to watch. [00:28:13] Speaker C: In the Burn jerseys though. [00:28:16] Speaker A: Oh, in St. Louis. In the Burn. Okay, now there's a reason to watch the game. Let's see. Let's move on, huh? [00:28:25] Speaker B: There was already a reason to watch the game. [00:28:27] Speaker A: What? Oh. Go team Dallas. Trinity are undefeated after two. Buzz. [00:28:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And this one was pretty, this one was pretty telling against Brooklyn because Deb Abadoom was sent back to Washington Spirit. We wondered how they were going to adapt and they basically shifted Balata back to her spot and brought in Sealy Strawn. So they basically kept the Lexi Misimo spot in the lineup. They put Silly Strong in it this time instead. And also missing in the back was Davidson was missing too. So they used Gidry, who's normally a left back who played right back in the first game. They put her at center back this time and they brought in Delaney who's a new player that I like really fast. So anyway they're. They're adapting the. The tactics for these missing pieces and these injuries and hopefully they'll. They'll be able to continue their form that. Now the real kicker is they don't play a home game for five straight games. It's two months. They don't have a next home games, not till November because of the State Fair. They. The only home ground they have between now and then is the friendly against Club America and which may or may not have a good crowd. We'll see how the Cotton Mole affects that. But they have an open house for the Cottonmole in September which people can go and check out the new renovated Cotton Moles. So it'll be a while before we see Trinity back here where everybody can go and watch them. Unless you want to go see the friendly, you know, a game that really matters. [00:29:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm curious, because when Atletico goes and plays the cotton ball, is this going to be a problem for them, too? Are they going to run into this annual deal where for two months they can't play in their home ground? [00:30:07] Speaker B: I would assume that they would. You know, their. Their season is going to be. Well, actually, we don't even know, like, if they're going to be in the USL Championship. That season is going to be like mls. But if we don't know what the super. The. The whatever Premier League season is going to look like. Right. I mean, for all we know, they might play summer, too, but, you know, they for sure, like, you have to dodge. I mean, part of this shutdown is for the ren. Finishing the renovations. It's not just that the cotton. [00:30:34] Speaker A: Oh, I thought this was the State Fair construction stuff. State Fair preparation stuff. [00:30:39] Speaker B: It is, but it's. That's. I don't think that's like two months. You know, some of it is just the finishing. The construction. [00:30:45] Speaker C: They need to get the construction finished for the OU Texas game. So that's the priority. Like, nothing happening in the stadium until. [00:30:54] Speaker B: Okay. All right. [00:30:55] Speaker A: So maybe this won't be as big a deal. [00:30:56] Speaker B: Well, there certainly will be some impact, but it won't be, you know. Do you remember the Dallas Burn having massive impact from the State Fair when you were. They were there? [00:31:05] Speaker A: No. I mean, I remember there being periods of time where they wouldn't play for like a week or two. But there was almost always a game during the cotton during the State Fair, wasn't there? [00:31:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I remember playing. I remember them playing during the State Fair. I thought it wasn't a lot, but, you know, it's. You probably just can't do it every single weekend or whatever. And certainly with the. With the construction, like, the thing's going to be done by. I think it's September 18th, Dan, that. That open house is. So it'll be done by then. [00:31:34] Speaker C: Yeah, there's a couple of. They're doing it in, like, sections. So Dallas Trinity's open day is. Is that day. They're gonna have some stuff, I think earlier in the day or a couple of days before. [00:31:48] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:31:49] Speaker C: All right. Well, yeah, that was very, very chippy game. Weirdly, Brooklyn had what, nine. Nine or ten yellow cards, if you include the bench. Coaches were absolutely farcical. Two yellow cards shown in stoppage time in the first half, and then an assistant coach gets a second yellow card two minutes into the second Half fouls all over the place. Dallas played a very aggressive press all over the field to try and counteract how Brooklyn wanted to break up the game. Amber Wisner at the back. My McCutchen playing the six as a result. Spoke to Chris Petrocelli after the game. He said that, you know, while it's a. Well, it's a good change in the moment, it's not necessarily like the, the position every week. You know, you may see Meer at the back, you may see Amber in midfield. Really enjoyed the way that City Straw played. It was, it wasn't the Lexi Massimo role. It was more of a Paxton Palmer car was a free eight. She got back. She was aggressive in the tackle. Really trying to spread play side to side. Really good to bring in Tamara Bolt quite a lot. The right side was. Aside from Bolt, actually the right side was kind of vacant because early on what was happening. Hinson took such a high line that they tucked in almost as a three back with hints and going more as a, as a wing back. [00:33:26] Speaker B: So yeah, you're right, they've often done that. That Henson overload tactics been pretty basic since Henson started playing left back. They do that all the time for them. [00:33:34] Speaker C: Yeah, it was, it was interesting seeing that especially early on. Henson was, you know, basically setting up at the halfway line. Kylie Delaney just tucking in as far as, as a right center backward. It was, it was interesting. Brooklyn had a player out in 30 yards of space at the time. Just could not hit the ball over to her. Especially with Dallas pressing. [00:33:55] Speaker B: Did you like McCutcheon in midfield? I mean she scored. I mean she had the goal, but. [00:33:59] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, you know, free header in the six yard box. You've. You've got to put that away. Yeah, I mean it was, it worked. I was a little concerned coming into it last year when whenever Amber Wiesner played center back, you lost so much in the midfield. So it was kind of nice to have Winnie see this drawn coming back as well and then and Admire obviously playing that little bit deeper six now. It was, it was, it was a. Yeah, it was interesting game. So yeah, coach had said, you know, especially with Hannah Davison out getting. Getting Amber in that back line was, was certainly something they were aiming for and just. Yeah, everyone I spoke to on the team was just like that. That wasn't soccer. That was just. It was something that happened. [00:34:50] Speaker A: Well, Dallas is the only. [00:34:54] Speaker C: Two win team. [00:34:55] Speaker A: Yeah, the only two win team. YeahS, that's the right way to say it as D.C. has four points. All right, very good. Well, congratulations to them. [00:35:03] Speaker B: Who do they have up next? Sporting Jacks, which is the new team in the league. Who actually Jacksonville. Yeah, they're off to a decent start. I have. I haven't watched some plays. I have no idea what they're about, but they've had a decent enough start. [00:35:16] Speaker A: I lived in Jacksonville in the early aughts for about four years and I was really pleasantly surprised at the soccer culture there. You know, they used to have the team in back in the NASL days and there was actually a really good scene down there. So it doesn't surprise me. They ended up with a USL team. [00:35:36] Speaker B: I had totally forgotten that the New England team had moved to Jacksonville. [00:35:39] Speaker A: Yeah, they were in Jacksonville. [00:35:41] Speaker B: I would not have come up with that. [00:35:43] Speaker C: It's been a bit weird to start that league. Yeah. Tampa bay winless after two games. Spokane 1 point. Carolina 1 point. Everyone was really hyped about Lexington since they signed. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Ah crap. [00:35:58] Speaker C: What's the name? Used to play for Dallas. Went to A M. Names escaped me. They made some really good signings in the off season. People were really hyped about it. They're a point after two games it's. And DC Power, four points from the two. And they were God awful last year. Yeah, and you know, Brooklyn towards the end of the year too, somewhere. [00:36:22] Speaker A: You know, we were talking about the fact that Trinity's first game also happened to be scheduled right up against the FC Dallas game even more problematically. I don't know if you saw this buzz, but Tampa Bay's season opener at home was scheduled literally at the same time as the Tampa Bay Rowdies playing. So USL did it to themselves. [00:36:44] Speaker B: Yeah, that's not necessarily a good idea. I think you'd work together with a little bit better than that. I mean, it's gonna get crowded around here. Like when you have two more USL teams come in, it's going to be. They already are running into problems with that because you know, I include Texoma in that and already North Texas SC tries to play at other times, but every once in a while they got to play the same day. So it's like it can be. There can be a log jam around here of teams all playing at the same time. [00:37:09] Speaker C: Yeah, always surprised. I don't kind of approach it the same way the WSL does in England, where it's more of a Sunday sport. So you've got your, you know, you've got kind of your Saturday and Sunday fix. [00:37:21] Speaker B: That's a good suggestion. [00:37:22] Speaker A: We'll have to see how it all plays out when everybody is up and running in the next couple of years. Speaking of North Texas, they got a road win this week. But before we get into that, I do want to mention that I keep seeing photographs of the new Mansfield construction project. Yeah, I guess Denny's been posting photos of him, glamour shots of him in front of the new construction, and it looks pretty damn good, I got to tell you. That looks like a cool little facility they're building down over there. [00:37:50] Speaker B: Over there. Yeah, it is a good looking facility. The renderings are terrific. I mean, it's very much in line with a lot of the stadiums you see around here these days in the United States for these teams that are not necessarily at the peak of the business. But, you know, it's a great little off top of my head. I want to say 7, 500, maybe even 10K. I think it's more like 7500 Stadium as a centerpiece of that place. So, you know, the stadium is just the first step. It's a whole development around there. And I believe there's some soccer fields that FC Dallas is going to manage, you know, some youth kind of fields, some event kind of fields. You know, there's a hotel in there. So I'm sure bringing teams in and turning it into a training place where you could bring your team in and stay there and train, that kind of thing is probably going to be on the cards too, like they do with, you know, Toyota or soccer complex as well. [00:38:33] Speaker A: So, you know. Yeah, they'll have some bandwidth available to them to manage some fields. [00:38:39] Speaker B: They will, in fact, actually have the. Have some bandwidth. I wondered if the Dallas cup might try and use that complex, but I think it's too far. [00:38:49] Speaker A: I think, man, that would be. [00:38:50] Speaker B: That would be a whole. I mean, it's way further than Toyota or Richland is from Moneygram Boy. [00:38:55] Speaker A: Is it? [00:38:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:38:57] Speaker A: All right, so the road win. Buzz, I'm sorry I got us off track. [00:39:00] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it's. It's a win at Ventura county, which is a pretty good team. That's got. That's the Galaxy 2, but it's called Ventura County. They have some really nice players. Dallas went on the road, got a clean sheet, one, nothing. Sam Cyber scored on a PK. They should have had another PK, but that's whatever. Anyway, he's on 16 goals, leads of the league. They were missing both Alvaro and CC were out at center back, so they put Essel back there, who I like better at center back, and they used Bulkley, who we haven't seen Much of but he played okay and but most importantly they had the midfield trio of Ali Uzura, Diego Garcia and Caleb Swan which are three, you know, 18 year old academy guys playing in midfield and while they didn't control possession, you know, just like I said House doesn't. They played really well. So you know, now that they've loaned Tarek Scott out, SC El has. So North Texas is a little short on strikers on nines so they have the guy Sagiri who I don't think all that much of and Chris Salazar is an academy kid and that's really about it unless they're going to move Sarver up to the nine. But so far they're not doing that. I think they like the idea of like a big physical striker sort of drawing attention because Gaul likes out physical everybody, you know, intimidate everybody with his big players. So instead of small players. So But Caleb saw in particular I thought had an absolutely phenomenal game. But then I, I really like that kid. I really like his game and I thought in this game everything his good qualities really showed up and it's not just me because the commentator kept. Couldn't stop talking about how good he was with. So that was cool. I love it when I see kids coming through doing well. [00:40:40] Speaker A: Texoma did not have a good game last week. [00:40:45] Speaker B: No, they got stomped three nothing. You know, they, they're still in the playoff hunt but they're just getting real hot and cold right now. They, they either you know fight and claw and get a point or a win or they kind of get down and then they fall apart. You know they're missing. Solomon Assante is like their former USL MVP they have on their team. He was about 87 years old but like when you know he's out for a while hurt. But they really miss I think his veteran leadership and like ability to like calm everybody down and keep it all composed. You know being on the field with him out, not on the field, it really hurts them. So they have Union Omaha this weekend. Oh and I failed to mention that North Texas actually has a back to back with Ventura county here on Saturday. So they play that home and away against that team that's to going kind of fun. They might be out for revenge. So. Okay. [00:41:31] Speaker A: And I saw this on the socials that Athletico Dallas has picked up somebody, an additional owner. [00:41:38] Speaker B: Yeah, Terence Murphy. He played football at Texas A and M and he was drafted by the packers and he was like A and M's at the time he left school. He was like their all Time yardage record leader, a couple of, you know, Big 12 first team and some kind of cause. Sporting News All American or something. But he got hurt with the packers as a rookie, and it turned out he had that narrow spinal column problem. So basically he had to retire and apparently went into the real estate business. He's been making a name for himself and owns a bunch of companies or something, so. Good on him. And he's the newest member of the group, and they did a whole thing down the cotton ball with him, and he was talking about how great it was to have played there at A M and now be, you know, back owning this part owner on this team. I don't. I have no idea. I'm gonna call him a minority owner. I have no idea how much he's invested. But, you know, I know that there have been other minority owners that they've added, so they're probably trying to bring in pieces to put together a little more substance for their group since they need to try and up things a little bit with a new hypothetical USL Premier League. So, mega strides doing things. [00:42:41] Speaker A: Is there any chance Atletico will attempt to do something in terms of formalizing a team well in advance of the. Of whatever their debut season is and maybe play in some sort of lower league or something just to try to get something going? [00:42:56] Speaker B: I don't think so, because the. The players that you would use for that are not the players that you would use past for us, you know, and you don't want to. You don't want to establish a level of soccer in people's minds that isn't the level of soccer you're actually going to play. You know, I. I think my anticipation is that sometime in the early part of next year, they'll hire a coach and they'll have somebody on board for nine months, you know, maybe even a whole year before they first play. Something like that would be my guess. And then they'll start probably this and this again, this part is, again, a guess. I. I'm sure they will start signing a player or two and leaving them on loan somewhere in 2026. You know what I mean? [00:43:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:40] Speaker B: And. Or with the idea that you'll come back to us in 2027, because if you wait until, you know, November of 2026, you're going to leave yourself really short bodies. You're going to need to be more proactive than that. So. And it'll also be fascinating what kind of deals they do in terms of length, because they'll know more than we will, obviously. About when the premier level is happening. So like if you go assign 30 players that are only USL Championship players and then for like five year deals, you're going to go move up a division and get wrecked. You're gonna have to think about those. It's gonna be a complicated process. So Brian Corcoran is their director of soccer. You know, he obviously is a very knowledgeable soccer guy, having played in some of the national team programs and things like that. So we'll see what happens with that. See what? Should I go? All right. [00:44:27] Speaker A: And then obviously we're at that time of year where some of the hopefuls, the Dreamers, get to play play in the Open Cup. And there's a couple of local teams. [00:44:36] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a bunch of local teams. So there are actually six local teams that are in US Open qualifying and through the randomness of draws, two of them were given a buy and those teams are Master Joga and Strikers dfw, which are team. Two teams in DSA that your, your buddies over there. Dallas Soccer Alliance, Peter. So that's two teams. The teams that are playing Denton Diablos through their younger team and Sporting North Texas, which is a team in UPSL, are playing each other on what they said September 14th and 4o. Our friends at 4o, arguably the best team in the city, not professional, are playing Dallas Athletico, which is the very confusing not Athletico Dallas team that we've talked about that are from the metrics Premier League. So that'll be interesting. Yeah, so it'll be fun. You know, every once in a while those teams have guys on them you've heard of. Then Diablos will be fascinating because they probably have to put that team together like because you know, their, their higher level team, if you will, is the team that plays in usl, which is the college kids teams. So like Denton Studios is the one that's in the Metroplex Premier League. So I don't know how that all is going to work with them, but they've done that kind of thing before so they experience at it. [00:45:52] Speaker A: And I was, I don't know if we've talked about this before, but Dallas Soccer alliance dsa, which is, you know, arguably the best amateur league in Dallas now, which plays, I'm not going to say most, but many of their games over at MoneyGram and a couple of other locations around town. The guy that owns that also owns Crossbar and and so forth, which is two locations. And the, one of the things they've got going on that I really, really admire and enjoy Is that every single team, whether it be an open division team, an over 30 team and over 40 team, have all put a lot of time, effort and thought and passion into their branding of each and every club. And it's really interesting to see go and look at not just like their logo they've created created, but most of the teams have put a lot of effort into their kits and a lot of them are really, really, really good. I've, I've taught the guy that owns the, I've, I've told the guy that owns DSA before he needs to do some social media, really showing off the collection and variety of kits that you can find in dsa. There's really some quite good ones, some that aren't so good, but some that are really good. But overall the thing that I really find great is how much in 2025, amateur teams are putting some effort in towards branding. Because back in the old NTPSA days, which used to be the largest amateur men's league in the United States here in Dallas, there were 5,000 players in it at one time, right? Most 90, I'd say 98% of the teams didn't even have a logo. It was like they had a name and they had kind of a kit and that was it. [00:47:42] Speaker B: Names like Deez Nuts or sure Beer League names. [00:47:46] Speaker A: I mean some of them were serious names and some of most of them were just made up names. But very few teams had a logo of any sort. And everybody's kits more times than not were some sort of mishmash of somewhat similar color schemes. So to see all of that more formalized at the level like DSA is doing, I think is pretty great. [00:48:08] Speaker B: Well, it'll be. Some of these matchups will be interesting because you've got UPSL sides against Metroplex, Premier sides versus DSA sides, you know, and, and while we, I would generally acknowledge four OSC is the best team around here for maybe three or four years since they won the national championship of upsl. You know, you still had teams like Rados, which came out of at the time ntpsa, you know, and made deep runs. Dallas Roma has made some deep runs out of ntpsa. So, you know, if one of these, you know, teams that's in the Premier League or dsa, if they can make a run and get into the actual opening round and make some noise like it'll go a long way to publicizing these leagues and, and the teams in them, you know, if you can draw. [00:48:49] Speaker A: Some attention like that cool stuff and as follow Up. Before we end this, I want to share that the father of Michael Collodi has has confirmed for us and answered our question as to whether or not there was any shot that the Collodes had family ties back to the Marshall Islands. He's. He has clarified that. No, in fact they do not. So don't anticipate any call ups for Mr. Collode to the new Marshall island national team. So thanks to him for. It's a shame for up for making that official. [00:49:22] Speaker B: Speaking of Collode, Paz posted a video of himself doing some rehab kind of work. I didn't know if that was posted for Indonesia or if that was posted for the FC Dallas fans who've been now maybe of Michael Collode and wanted to say don't forget about me. I'm out here. Maybe he's played so well, you know. [00:49:40] Speaker A: Maybe he put him on there for his supermodel girlfriend. [00:49:44] Speaker B: Yeah, possibly. Possibly. [00:49:47] Speaker A: I mean if my girlfriend was a supermodel, I'd be doing everything to let her know I'm trying to stay in shape, you know. [00:49:54] Speaker B: Fair. Fair. All right. [00:49:56] Speaker A: Anything else boys? Dan there's been in way too little Dan in this episode. I'm just going to say it because I'm the curious are going to be very disappointed. [00:50:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. [00:50:09] Speaker C: There was certain that really got me with that US Open cup stuff. The Diablos game kicks off at 4 5:15pm I have never heard such a random kickoff time on a local game. [00:50:25] Speaker A: Is it because they're probably playing at a facility that has game slots booked up. Where are they playing the game? [00:50:31] Speaker B: Alliance Park, Field two. [00:50:33] Speaker A: Where's Alliance Park? [00:50:34] Speaker C: Which one? [00:50:35] Speaker B: Fort Worth. [00:50:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm guarantee you that's because that's the open game time. The park facility rented it out to them for. [00:50:43] Speaker B: I bet. Well it's curious because Denton obviously is in Denton and sporting NTX is from Allen. So why are they playing in Fort Worth? It's probably just what they could get. Probably what they could get. [00:50:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:53] Speaker B: Well they do have to. They do have field standards for these open cup qualifiers. You can't just run out there at your down corner or whatever piece of grass you can find. [00:51:00] Speaker A: Yeah, you can't go to Moss Park. [00:51:02] Speaker B: No. Right. [00:51:05] Speaker C: Richland. [00:51:07] Speaker A: Yeah, Richland's got a good little field. Yeah. All right. [00:51:11] Speaker C: Seen many gonna open qualifier boy have we? [00:51:14] Speaker B: Yeah, old Panther Stadium. Huge. [00:51:18] Speaker A: Good stuff. Okay, that's all I got. Dan. You got any more? Okay, this is where I thank you for your time, sir. [00:51:27] Speaker C: Likewise. [00:51:28] Speaker A: Buzz, you got anything else? [00:51:30] Speaker B: No, we didn't have an FC gal scheme to talk about, so that was a bit shorter than a lot of them are, you know, But I think we saw a lot of good content in there, so hopefully everyone enjoyed the podcast. [00:51:39] Speaker A: Dan, do you have a joke? Maybe We've got to just to kind of push the hour limit. Do you have a joke you'd like to tell Layton? [00:51:47] Speaker C: Towns transfer window. [00:51:52] Speaker A: How's the first three weeks of the year? Four weeks of the season gone for town. That can't be good if Dan's having to look up the Hatter's record. [00:52:04] Speaker C: 12, 1212 points after six games, four wins, two losses. [00:52:09] Speaker A: All right, that's not bad. Where are you? What are you. Where are you in the table? [00:52:13] Speaker C: Seventh. [00:52:14] Speaker B: All right. [00:52:15] Speaker A: It's not terrible. [00:52:16] Speaker C: I mean, considering the team was like, you know, in the preseason, everyone's like, oh, my God, they've got the parachute payments. They're the richest team in the. In the division. They're gonna walk it. No. [00:52:25] Speaker A: When's the stadium open? [00:52:28] Speaker C: Your guess is as good as mine. [00:52:30] Speaker B: Okay. All right. [00:52:32] Speaker A: See, I got some extra Dan in the pods. [00:52:34] Speaker C: Sometime after Toyota Stadium will be finished. Let's go that way. [00:52:38] Speaker B: Oh, is it that far? [00:52:39] Speaker A: Man, that's impossible. [00:52:41] Speaker C: Right now. They're rerouting a river. [00:52:44] Speaker A: What? [00:52:45] Speaker B: Wow. [00:52:45] Speaker C: Yeah, there's a river that runs under the town center. [00:52:49] Speaker A: The river runs through it. [00:52:50] Speaker B: Yeah. How Dallas Trinity are you? [00:52:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty. [00:52:53] Speaker B: Pretty great. All right. [00:52:55] Speaker A: And Buzz, you got anything else? [00:52:57] Speaker B: No, other than, like, we put out our first Dallas Trinity and Athletico Dallas T shirt tributes on our stuff. So if you're into those two teams, we got a little something for you. Okay. Third Degree, the podcast is brought to you by our wonderful listeners who support us on Patreon. Patreon.com 3rd degree. If you like what we do on the web. You like what we do on this podcast, let's be honest. If you're here listening when SE Dallas didn't even have a game, then you're our audience. You're the people that make this thing work. And without you guys, this podcast and this website probably wouldn't even exist. So thank you for support. Why not join [email protected] and we'll see you again next week then. [00:53:35] Speaker A: This is where I say thank you to you both and thank you to the DFW soccer Curious. We will be back next week on another. Another episode of Third Degree, the podcast Third Degree, the Third Degree Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree Nepal Cast. Third Degree the Third Degree Third Degree the Third Degree Nail podcast, Sam.