3rd Degree the Podcast #335

[00:00:00] Speaker A: They outplayed us in every phase of the game. [00:00:02] Speaker B: They were obviously very motivated. And from what happened last week, they beat us. [00:00:06] Speaker A: We got humbled. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:12] Speaker A: Woo. [00:00:17] Speaker C: Third Degree, the Third Degree NE Podcast. [00:00:21] Speaker B: Third Degree, the Third Degree NEP Podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree N Podcast. Third Degree. [00:00:33] Speaker A: Third Degree the podcast is brought to you by our listeners, our wonderful supporters, people just like you. If you enjoy what we do here on 3rd Degree the podcast or on 3rd Degree.net or on social media, all reporting on professional soccer here in North Texas, why don't you join us on the Patreon and give us a little support to help bring you news about this beautiful game we all love. Once again, thanks for your support. [00:00:54] Speaker B: Well, hello there, DFW soccer. Curious. Welcome to Third Degree the podcast. He's here. Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:04] Speaker C: Hi. [00:01:05] Speaker B: Hello to you again and your hero. My hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder, thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer, Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:18] Speaker A: Hey, Peter. I'm not really sure what we're going to talk about since Dallas hasn't played their first playoff game yet. [00:01:22] Speaker B: Ha. Yes, Buzz, that was probably the most comprehensive beating seen this club take in 30 years. The original Burn fan himself, Dustin on your discord, actually had the audacity to say that that was worse than the 199881 loss. And Eric Quill was quoted after the game as talking like said they were, they outplayed us in every phase of the game. They beat us. We've got to be better. And we got humbled. Buzz, were you surprised by Vancouver 3 burn 0? [00:02:04] Speaker A: I think I was surprised that it was as comprehensive as it was because the people that have said that that was perhaps the worst loss or most comprehensive or most completely outplayed loss in franchise history, I think are correct. You know, the 8:1 game, they actually scored a goal, even if it was Damian with an Olympico off the corner. You know, the, the, the 81 game, there were lots of sort of individual moments where a mistake would happen and LA was just playing really well. This game was just complete front to back, you know, 100 domination of every possible phase. The only player that I think you can say something positive about is Michael Collodi. Everybody else on the team played subpar and played really poorly. And some of it is just because eventually, no matter how much work you've done with your team and your shape and your concept to try and make yourself be harder to beat, eventually you just run into a team sometimes that's just really, really good. And Vancouver is really, really good. And even missing pieces, they're just better than FC Dallas across the board in every way, in every phase. And part of it is the way that they play particularly, which we can break down here in a minute, really eats up Dallas. It causes Dallas problems because that was. That's the first time in my memory and I went back as far as FB ref had stats. The Dallas was held without a shot. Zero shots. Not shots on target, shots total. So people want to claim Bernie had a shot, but that shot was so off the mark that didn't register as a shot. So they had zero shots by whatever. [00:03:37] Speaker B: What does it get registered as? [00:03:39] Speaker A: I don't know. Not a shot, apparently. [00:03:41] Speaker B: Well, it wasn't a shot. It was an absolute. [00:03:43] Speaker A: I think they had one corner that is solely of all people got. Well, we talk about that too. [00:03:52] Speaker C: There was that weird Ibiaga attempt at header which was more of a back pass as well. [00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:59] Speaker B: Dan, where was you? What's your opinion about what you saw Saturday night? [00:04:04] Speaker C: I have no recollection of that. It was rough. I remember the last game they had no, they didn't record a shot technically. And it was a home goalless draw with Seattle which neither team recorded a shot. And it felt absolutely dead. This game felt like a. A middle school team playing against Man United. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it really did feel like it came down to just a better team, period. And I. Yeah, and it's one of those deals where I feel like maybe maybe the three of us should accept some guilt and that maybe we all got a little too excited in the aftermath of winning that game in Vancouver a week ago and not really taking the time to respect the reality that they played that game a man up and yet still could not get a hold of the ball. Didn't try to get a hold of the ball very much. And when they did try to get a hold of the ball, couldn't keep the ball and. And they were a Michael Collode headstand away from, you know, not winning that game. And maybe that was really the sign that we needed to know that the storm was coming. [00:05:19] Speaker C: I thought we were pretty fair about that. Like it wasn't a good performance. It was definitely a got away with one. [00:05:25] Speaker A: Yeah, we definitely talked about how them down a man out played Dallas in that game, you know, but it's like. [00:05:31] Speaker C: You go into the playoffs and it's almost like, you know, the form but kind of goes out the window and it's just like what happens can happen and. Yeah, well, it doesn't help when a team plays Scared for 90 minutes. [00:05:42] Speaker B: No. And, you know, that was one of the other things because as I was watching the game, just like, I don't know why, I was surprised at how bad Dallas looked and, and it was individual across. I mean, everybody other than Collode really had a poor game. Peter Musa was bad. And I'm sure there's some tactical reasons why I want to ask you about Quill's decisions in the lineup. But one of the things that I dug up after the game that I is, you know, I think two things can be true, Buzz. We can be really impressed and proud and complimentary of Eric Quill rescuing this team in the second half of the season while also probably needing to tap the brakes a little bit on this, on the reality and a bit of the miraculous nature in which this team ended up in the playoffs. Because not only did Eric Quill need to reshape this into something that collected, you know, a lot of points after week 22 of the season, which was the game at the, at the last of the four games where they lost the four home games in a row. [00:06:50] Speaker A: Right. [00:06:52] Speaker B: They also needed five other teams to completely collapse. And all of that actually happened this season. And I dug this up. So as of week 22, Dallas was behind Portland, Salt Lake, San Jose, Colorado and Houston. They were behind them anywhere from a point behind, I think it was Salt Lake, as many as 13 points behind Portland in week 22. And after that week, Dallas collected 23 of a total 39 points while Portland only collected 11. Salt Lake only collected 16. Sandy San Jose only collected 13, Colorado 15 and Houston a mere 11 points over that same spread of time. And maybe, just maybe it's that miraculous nature where maybe some of us probably are a little shell shocked at how ballast down how bad Dallas looked against a team of the quality of Vancouver. [00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah, Dallas effectively over that back stretch doubled everybody else that was ahead of them in points, give or, you know, and one of the things we've. We always talk about when you're sort of, as we had sort of said, dead and buried after week 22 when they only had five wins at that point, you know, we talked about the idea that it's not just that you have to turn your season around and play like 750 ball, which they did, it's that everybody else has to stop because usually that doesn't happen. Usually somebody else continues to play very well. It's the problem is not just how many points you need, that's how many points there's like five teams in front of you that all need to the bed and sure enough, they did. And by comparison, the 89 teams in the East Conference both have 53 points. So even with Dallas getting to 44, they'd have been, they'd have been way out of it by, I mean they actually would have been 10th. But yeah, to get to that 89 seed in the east, they would have no chance. So you know, it, it just goes to show you that like it was a confluence of. Yes, a full credit, right. 6, 2 and 5 after the, after the Lucho was sent out, you know, six wins in 12, the last 12 games. When they had five wins in the first 22. I mean, incredible turnaround. You know, Krill got all the guys, all the, all the rock, all the middle roster guys that we call dudes, right, the guys that are the bulk of your roster. He got all of them playing really well. He figured out a way to stop the bleeding, if you will. And if we want to put a real quick macro level bow on the season, if you compare this, this season to other SC Dallas seasons, things like wins, losses, ties, points, those are all pretty much middle or slightly above in terms of their rank in terms of all time seasons. But when you get down to goals four on 52, that's tied for the seventh best. So they have offense, but then goals against this 55, that's the fifth worst ever. And that gives you a minus three goal differential, which is the eighth worst ever. So it's the defense. So what happens is, is you figured out this way to, to change your tactic and clamp down the bleeding of the goals. Then you get up against a really, really good team on their home field. A team that set all kinds of franchising records for points and goals and scoring and was at the top two and met in almost every goal scoring metric in the league. And all of a sudden it wasn't good enough. Right? We're talking about your best defender making a mistake on every goal that happened, you know, and he still outplayed everybody in terms of the pure defensive game. So it is just a point where you just ran into one of the real contenders for MLS cup this year and one of the real good things for best team in the league this year. And they just are even short guys just so much better than FCD across the board. [00:10:39] Speaker B: All right, so either one of you up for answering this question? Because when I saw the starting lineup, I big question mark formed over my head. Did Eric Quill outthink himself here, Buzz. [00:10:54] Speaker A: I don't. I don't know that when you look at the lineup, to me it registered as a lineup that was made for a park it deep and hope to counterattack. And it very well may be that that's actually the best tactic to use against a team like Vancouver. But he didn't do himself any favors in the sense that it may have hurt his team's psyche. They may have thought, oh we. We can't. Coach doesn't think we can play against these guys because now we're going to bunker for the whole game and try to steal it. You know, and. And certainly in hindsight, and I'm as susceptible as this with anybody. I thought Sarver deserved to start. And this is not anti Sarver. It's just that I don't think any of us foresaw that the missing Patrick Delgado was going to be as absolutely massive as it was. You know, they. That put them down a man in midfield when they were already going to have possession problems. And it only made it worse because Delgado quietly is the guy that can help you line break and play through. And without him they could not. And that that particular aspect when they brought Pedrinho in, that particular aspect did improve. Now they still weren't very good at it and they still didn't play very well, but they did get a tiny bit better by having a guy that actually plays that spot. So I don't they better. I think they better hope that they can the Delgado gets healthy if they want to have a chance. Because I think without him they're toast because they don't have anybody else that can fill those shoes. [00:12:17] Speaker B: I just happen to see lower body or something. Description of. Of Delgado's injury, have we heard any detail as to what that is? [00:12:25] Speaker A: Well, you saw when he got hurt in that game, he was poking that. I don't know what you'd call that high quad. Not quite a hernia. The top of that muscle. He was sort of pressing on it. [00:12:35] Speaker B: Hip flexor. [00:12:36] Speaker A: Yeah, whatever that is right there at the top of his thigh. So that's not a good sign. The rumors around the campfire were that it was, you know, maybe not so great in terms of the. You know, there was Quill said something about. On. On the presser. I think that he was going to be out this game and they were hoping he would be optimistically be back for game two. And I'm not. You know, the vibe we hear is that that probably is not. That's a pretty optimistic stance. Like usual things are always worse with injuries with this team than they let on. So if I think it will take a minor miracle for Delgado to be back, but if he is okay, that that really helps a lot and that'll make a big difference. [00:13:13] Speaker B: Dan, I feel like if we're hinging our season on Patricson Delgado, we got bigger problems to fry. [00:13:19] Speaker C: It's pretty desperate enough. [00:13:21] Speaker A: I think the, the way Vancouver plays in particular really causes problems for Dallas. They, for lack of a better term, they do what I would. I would describe as a. As a certain kind of counter press, whether you want to call it, you know, the patented German gang, impressing all that stuff or whatever. But what they do is that particularly high. They play a very high line and when, if they're. One of their guys is turned over or loses the ball, they really, really quickly, within about half a second, they put pressure on you from at least one player and then they off. They will line them up. So like it'll be. It won't be just one guy, it'll be a second guy and a third guy. Because they do not want to let you establish possession on the ball and get comfortable. They want to immediately turn you back over. That's something Oscar used to do. Not even always attacking the ball. Sometimes, like when Dallas will win a ball off of a player, sometimes the, the. The Vancouver guy will just grab or bang or clutch. Sometimes it's a poke of the ball, sometimes it's a slide in. But it makes you really uncomfortable. Dallas not being a team that's good at playing out and building out, they don't play great soccer, quote, unquote. You remember on the road game, the game before when they actually won? Quill Weeby said Quill told him we got to bring on some guys that can play soccer. Same thing, right? They were, they just. This is just a case where the other team is better at soccer than Dallas. And so Dallas, it was impossible. Like every time somebody would get a ball, it would instantly get hit and the ball would be gone. They just could not even get a single pass together. And that's why it's so comprehensively bad. That's why there's zero shots. That's why it's 37% possession or whatever because of the, the tenacity that, that bang, bang, bang, bang that Vancouver does the second they turn it over. And I'll let you get a breath and not let you recover and not let you get anything going. [00:15:04] Speaker B: I think that that is a byproduct of something that we've Discussed off and on, which is being a team that has to deal with Texas summers, which is. A team like Vancouver can play that incessant press on top of you the second you receive the ball. And Dallas just simply can't. Because I don't think they're. That team is capable of getting to those levels of fitness because the summer is such a drain on you physically that you can't get that. I just don't think Dallas is ever able to get to that level of fitness. Now. Dallas has its own level of fitness. That is an advantage in those super hot summer days. But when you get into this scenario where you're indoors and you're in Canada and then. And the whitecaps can just blanket you like crazy and Dallas refused to do the same. Every time Burhalter got on top of the ball, there were people not within yards of him at times, and he was just allowed to play the ball wherever he wanted to, however he wanted to. And that, to me, was the biggest difference in the. Also, along with the fact that when Dallas finally got any kind of level of possession of all, they just looked scared or panicked to do something with it. And that. I mean, to Dan's point, that's what made the game look like kids versus men. [00:16:24] Speaker A: Yeah, there's just. In the back half of the Dallas scene, there's just not enough guys that are really good at soccer. You know, we talk about this all season. Like, early on, Quill tried to play out for the back all the time. And while Irgidde is a pretty good passer, Ibiaga's not. Abubakar. Car is not. Shaq Moore is not. Bernie is not. Bernie's gonna run by you, but that's it. He's not gonna dribble around. Spin. Capis is pretty good about his feet, but when Kaik's in there next to him, he really is not. He. If he has time and space, he is. But under pressure, he's not. Ramiro, you know, probably was at one point, but because he's a little bit slow of foot, it doesn't really work very well. You saw late in the game, he would try and turn with the ball, and the other there would just be a guy there like he can't get away from anybody and get space. So they just. They just had no ability to sort of play out and get out and relieve themselves. And so it's just. It was just smothering. Like back when Colin Clark was here, they used to employ somewhat of a similar tactic. Like they would try and turn you over. If they lost it, they would try and really instantly turn you over again. But because of the fact you can't do it around 90 minutes here in Texas, they would then drop off and go into a mid to low block. They would do it really quickly, but then that was it. There wasn't second guy, third guy, fourth guy like Vancouver does. And that's very different. And you're right, that doesn't fly in the heat. You know, now usually FC Dallas under Quill tries to capitalize on mistakes. How many times have we shown the, the, the charts where they, where they do get shots where they turn you over high and they try and get an opportunity. Like they don't immediately go into a low block. And that's kind of why I think this addition, this idea of like starting from a low block from the get go with Sarver and Anderson Julio as the choices, guys that are clearly designed to play vertical counterattack, that right away took you out of that high possession at all. And you never had a chance to try and get them and get at them in a hurry because Dallas doesn't build from the back all the way up and score. They turn you over high and then try and get on the goal really quick. And against Vancouver, they had no shot at that at all. [00:18:17] Speaker B: I'm just really curious. I know you said you thought he deserved the start, but I really am curious around the thinking of starting Sarver over Farrington. I just, I can't wrap my brain around that decision and that choice. [00:18:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think that I, in hindsight, I, I think I phrased it, I phrased that poorly. I think that Sarver still started for Delgado and Anderson, Julio started over Farrington. So to me, like, so what I, my assumption going in was Moose and Farrington are going to start and then, okay, who's gonna replace Delgado? Well, I think Sarver's deserves that opportunity knowing that both Farrington and Sarver are guys that will come back and mix it up a little bit. Right. Well, then we saw, instead of Farrington, we saw Anderson, Julio. And that's what threw me because that wasn't, that wasn't just like, oh, Sarver deserves to be on field for Delgado instead of Pedrinho. It was, oh, we've put on two guys that are going to be vertical and try and fly and counterattack. Yeah, that. And so that changed the whole tactic because before if you had Musa and Farrington, you would have had with Sarver. Sarver would have come back a little more and he would have sort of been in that Delgado role and you would have had two guys high. But they didn't do that because they brought in Anderson Julio. They took out the tenacity that never quit that Farrington has. And I think you saw at halftime, they realized that that was a mistake and they brought very demagogue on Dan. [00:19:36] Speaker B: I was thinking as we were getting towards the end of the game, it dawned on me that the team that we were seeing out there in many ways was a reflection of what this Dallas team was going to be and that we were picking apart in the preseason prior to the Lucho Acosta pre purchase and you know what I'm saying? And I was having a hard time. Like, I hate to do this, but I. No, I don't. Who was, who was the worst player on the field for Dallas Saturday night? I'm having a hard time making a decision as who actually was the worst for me. [00:20:15] Speaker C: I mean, there's two things, right, you can say, like consistently just did nothing or who had the, the biggest negative impacts for me. Sebastian Ibiaga had the worst game. I've probably seen him play. You know, the penalty, complete misread, does not react. Second goal. I think he just stand there and Shaq Moore has to try and cover. Or maybe that's the third goal. In any case, all three goals, he. [00:20:48] Speaker B: Was off the field for the third goal. [00:20:50] Speaker C: Oh, is it okay? Then there's second. Okay. Yeah, there were several. You know, there were a couple of the one on ones that Sabi had with Collodion. It was just Biaga just stands still or he takes a step the wrong direction. He just completely misreads a ball. They were killing him with that long ball through the middle. Like they didn't even have to go to the wings half the time. It was just. Okay, there's a giant hole in the middle of the defense there. Go for it. [00:21:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Can I throw out for nomination as worst player of the night, Kaik? [00:21:25] Speaker A: Yeah, he was up there for me. Yeah. [00:21:28] Speaker B: And I think the leader in the clubhouse for me is Anderson Julio. He was like a, he was bet. Not only was he not good, he just wasn't in the game. And that's why I thought his addition was really weird. Like, I guess I could see server out there, but I just, I don't understand not putting Farrington out there. [00:21:47] Speaker C: Do you know how many times Anderson Julio touched the ball in the 67 minutes he played? [00:21:52] Speaker B: I, I, is it less than 10? [00:21:55] Speaker C: Yes. It's nine. [00:21:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. That doesn't Surprise me at all. I, you know, Capus didn't have a good game. He was having a hard time passing the ball. Well, we talked about Uruguay Day who had some really bad moments and he and his two center back teammates really failed him on that second goal where he was forced to foul that guy. After, after, in fairness, that whole thing starts because Iraq misplays the initial defense tackling or trying to play the ball and it gets in behind. But Lawless just stands there and it's just like he's, he's frozen in time. [00:22:32] Speaker C: Let's cut across. It was a Biaga that stood still. [00:22:36] Speaker B: No, I, once they got into the top of the box like they, well, they both kind of stand there. But I thought Lawless could have come forward a little bit more and tried to help him some more. He was like he was trying to shield off in case the guy cut back to his left or something. It was very oddly played, but he was bad. I thought Shaq Moore really had a poor game. I, I, I, yeah, Peter Musa, Peter Musa was really poor all night long. [00:23:03] Speaker C: So someone in, in discord say that every time Peter Musa is out, his first game back is horrendous. [00:23:10] Speaker B: Interesting. I never thought about that. And to your point, Buzz, the only person that really kind of showed well for himself was Collodi, which is a interesting conversation that I'm sure we'll have a lot of in the coming weeks in the offseason. [00:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah, he had seven saves. Great job by him. You know, usually when, like if you give up three goals, usually you're not going to think the co. The keeper's going to be your man of the match. But he was, I mean it should have been way worse. I mean he had some outstanding saves and seven saves is a really high number that might be higher than POTS had all year. [00:23:38] Speaker C: It's pretty bad that like arguably your second best player was the guy that gave away the penalty. Yeah, so I, I did see, I was looking through the stats after the game just like you know, shell shock trainer, like get something out of it. And Michael Collodi had the third most touches among all FC Dallas players. That's how little of the ball they saw. [00:23:58] Speaker A: I don't find it surprising at all. You know, at the end of the day, this tactic was, I think it was an attempt to go back to the 3, 4, 3 that we saw at the end of last year, which is why computer, you said it's what we were talking about probably before Lucio Costa came in in the spring. Like what we were probably thinking was it looked like. And when you play that way, you really have to use the two wingers aren't wingers. Right. They're really tens underneath. It's like a. That's why you. You look at guys more like a Delgado or Pedrinho underneath there. If you're going to do that and you really have to get your wing backs flying, which Romero can't do. So that's a disconnect right there. Logan. Logan Farrington can. Can play that underneath kind of thing because he did it the back half of last year. Sarver doesn't though, you know, it's probably. He probably could, but he has not for North Texas or Dallas. So you're asking him to do something he's never done. At least not this year. He hasn't ever done it. Maybe he did it Indiana. I'm not aware of it. It so, you know, a bit of a, you know, grasping at straws again look with Delgado out. It's just funny that like that destroyed them because Pedrinho has been so bad when he's filled in on that role. Quill obviously didn't think Pedrino could do it or he would have because you're changing the whole tactic, which is always a mistake when you change the tactic when you just because you're missing one guy. [00:25:07] Speaker B: Yeah, right. I'm having a hard time envisioning a result much different this game with Delgado in the game because he's been such an on off player for the last several years. [00:25:17] Speaker C: Weeks. [00:25:17] Speaker A: Yeah. It just depends on which one you would have gotten. If you would have gotten Nightmare Delgado, it would have been exactly the same. He would have gone walkabout the whole. Spent the whole game over on the sidelines one or the other. But when he's on, he's in there. He would have been that third guy in there with, I mean, Kaika outmanned from the get go. And so they were having like a quad cover box on campus. Just having an extra guy in there in that triangle would have done wonders to relieve a little pressure. Now I'm not saying it would have solved anything because the real problem with Vancouver's press is the what they do to the center backs into your holding mids and that tightness in there. And one of those dudes is freaking Mueller. I mean, come on. Right? That's not fair. Kaik versus Mueller. Get out of here. Even Capis versus Mueller is ridiculous. So, you know, they were just mismatched an overmatch from the beginning and that's why we say that it was comprehensively one of the most complete and utter nominations we've ever seen. And it underlines how completely outmatched FC Dallas is in roster terms. They just are not anywhere near good enough to compete at the top of the league. [00:26:15] Speaker B: All right, so this is where I think we all get to sharpen our knives and our pitchforks and light our torches for the postseason. Anger fest that we have. Grump fest that we have. If I had. If, if I tell you now, I'm. I'm pulling these from the mid season roster report salary deal. We all know Dallas was about 12th in the league on just under $19 million in roster spent. Don't cheat. Neither one of you cheat. Have you cheated? Buzz, you have a smile on. [00:26:50] Speaker A: Don't. Look, I was about to look up the salaries because we're talking about. Don't. I stopped. [00:26:54] Speaker B: I'm gonna ask you how much? Now I don't know if this includes Mueller's salary or not. I'm gonna guess it doesn't. But I'm gonna ask you, where do you think Vancouver sits in that list? [00:27:06] Speaker A: I bet it's probably similar or lower to then FC House. I bet it's right about the same. [00:27:11] Speaker C: I'd say it's low because they've got a pretty young bottom of that roster, but they're like good players. [00:27:19] Speaker B: Yeah, Vancouver, at least at the point of this reporting, was it if Dallas was at 18, Dallas was at 18.9 or essentially 19. Vancouver was 21st with 15.7. [00:27:35] Speaker A: Well, I think you have. [00:27:37] Speaker B: Let's say they pay Mueller 3 million bucks. They're essentially equitable. But I'm telling you, even if dollar for dollar it's exactly the same. The quality on the field between Vancouver and Dallas is night and day. And by the way, they also have a new manager in Tech. That guy started with this club this year too. This is his first season. [00:27:57] Speaker A: Well consider that from the mid season numbers, AOS is gone, right? And even though he was a failed thing, that was a DP level player. So that's gone. Right? Whether you, whether you're paying him to be a DP or whether you're not paying him to be a DP, he wasn't really performing as a DP either way. So secondly, Paxton's 1.2 mil is being paid and he's basically a zero player. Now listen, he came back at the end. That's awesome. Great. We're excited for next season, all that, right? This season he's a zero, right? You've Also got both Ibiaga and Abubakar and Shaq Moore all on basically 700k which is a TAM level player. All of them perform. Yeah legit's basically been a zero this at least the back half of the season. So like yes you have a whole bunch of money in this FC Dallas team that either didn't perform or didn't play at all or just stinks. And that's not including like your three millions you've spent on not three million whatever. It was one point something on Solly who basically had never has never played for this club until now. You got given Jesus another U22. You paid a relatively good sum for who's not performing. You spent a whole load of money on cake and he's still 1920 so he's a long way from being any good. But they just got massive chunks of roster that are either really young or way too old or just not anywhere near good enough. So it's the bottom line is just like if you look when we when we do our next roster ranking I challenge anybody look on that dang thing and if you even if you don't agree with our roster rankings start at the top and go down and count for yourself how many true MLS starters are on the roster. Start counting see how many you come up with. I bet you won't get to 11. I bet you get maybe five and then you'll be out of bodies. [00:29:37] Speaker C: I bet you can I can I make the salary thing even more depressing. [00:29:42] Speaker A: Go. I love it. [00:29:43] Speaker C: Looking at Vancouver so this is excluding Thomas Muller because he wasn't there when they did the the May release of the top six earning players in Vancouver. All the players that make over a 900,000 three of them did not feature in the match day squad. One of them was on the bench coming back from an injury. [00:30:06] Speaker B: I think that's the crazy part of this story is Vancouver wasn't even close to being 100% and they just absolutely curb stomped Dallas and I and so much of that to me is all tied back to roster building and how poor this team is at roster construction. It is a miracle to it. Again this really goes back to the miracle of Quill Will getting this team in the playoffs to start with. [00:30:35] Speaker A: Oh yeah, yeah. By the way while we're on salaries I poked around outside of around here and I managed to find somebody who new salaries for Deetson and Campus. So this is not the MLSPA but this is my sources and I trust the source Deedson is on 326 base and Capus is on 250. So Capital Steel, that is a steel, you know, pending there being some buy numbers in there. I don't remember exactly what kind of how they got them, but those are two. I mean, given what Deets is doing, that's an overpay, but that's not, that's not. That's an easily palpable number. If he's just a role player next year and Cap is, he's playing, that's. [00:31:14] Speaker B: A bargain, I think. And this will be interesting to see how this plays out this weekend in the return leg up in Frisco, which is for those who listen to the podcast that aren't longtime soccer watchers relatively new to the game. Go back, either wait and see what happens on Saturday or go back and watch any particular 20 minute section of the game from last Saturday and just watch the body shape and how Vancouver players, their first touch, how they receive the ball, what they do once they receive the ball, and just compare that to any particular moment with the Dallas player. And you don't have to be a longtime soccer watcher expert to suddenly notice a stark difference in those qualities between the two teams. It was shocking. And the weird part was is Dallas didn't look this shaky a week ago in the exact same place. The mentality was weird, like something was bigger, was off with Dallas and maybe it was just playing with a man advantage was just enough to get him over the line a week ago. [00:32:23] Speaker C: But this fear in the reaction. Yeah, maybe you've given them a bloody nose, you know, like Thomas Millard had the quote in post game press conference where someone asked him, you know, does Dallas have a psychological advantage coming into next week? He's like, we outplayed him with 10 men for 80 minutes. Why would they have any confidence? [00:32:46] Speaker A: And the guy then asked the guy if he'd ever seen soccer before. I thought that was a little rough, but yeah, yeah, I was reminded watching this game, I was reminded of a game this spring. I think it was one of the games. Maybe it was one of the games from Europe or maybe it was towards, I can't remember. It's a game where we were able to see it. I don't remember why. And I remember there being a moment where the it was not going really well and they showed Eric Quill on the sideline and the expression on his face was like, Jesus, man, I need to get rid of every one of these guys. It's like a bunch of just like this look on his face, like, you know, do you Remember that, Dan? [00:33:20] Speaker C: I just remember being like, I think. [00:33:22] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe it was the game against. [00:33:24] Speaker C: Chicago, maybe the Vancouver home game. [00:33:28] Speaker A: I don't remember what game it was, to be fair. I just remember there was this moment where cooler look on his face like, oh my God, I'm in trouble. And you know, that proved to be true. And for the bulk of the season. [00:33:38] Speaker B: I just think as a general rule of thumb, when your own head coach in the halftime interview is quoted as saying, I need to get some guys out there that know how to play soccer. Yeah, I think that's always a really bad red flag. Like suddenly alarm bells should be going. [00:33:53] Speaker A: Off and he had to go to Norris and Garcia. [00:33:58] Speaker C: Especially when it's not, you know, it's not a mentality thing. It's like, technically those, these guys are crap. [00:34:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean I, you know, in the. It was crazy because we talked about this in a positive sense a week ago when he subbed in a 19, 20 and 18 year old. That was kind of cool. But could you imagine how we would have reacted to that had they lost that game or dropped the point? [00:34:22] Speaker A: Yeah, we would have talked about, you know, why coaches are, you know, 10 towards veteran players and why don't you go with legit? Why don't you go with, you know. [00:34:30] Speaker B: Or, or maybe this roster is so empty that's all he's got left to. [00:34:33] Speaker C: Put on the field. [00:34:34] Speaker A: I mean, that's what happened. That basically what's happening was all he's got right this game here they was all he had left was in a soli. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Okay, so let's stop right there. [00:34:41] Speaker A: Why can't you go to Jack? [00:34:45] Speaker B: How did the three, did the other two of you like stop and try to figure out what was going on when you realize, first off, I didn't even realize who it was because I didn't seen him in so long to. I like, like, what is Eric Will doing putting him on the field? Why? [00:35:02] Speaker C: I think his yellow card was Dallas's best moment of the game, to be totally honest. It was the first bit of fight. [00:35:09] Speaker A: Should have been read. [00:35:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not even sure that was fight as much as just a really shitty tackle. [00:35:14] Speaker C: Oh, it was. But he, you know, he, he was pissed. He went for, he, you know, chased him down and, and took him out from behind. I mean, that's the, the most aggression of a single player. [00:35:27] Speaker A: I, I had two thoughts about this. Look, this is a kid who, since the, the two years he's now been on the Dallas roster has not played a game An MLS game. So, like, the fact that he was making benches in the first place over guys like Deetson or Garcia, I was like, what does that say about the players that he made the bench in front of? Like, since he came back in June from his loan, he's played one game for North Texas and that's it. They didn't want him in North Texas. Nobody's playing him for SC Dallas. So he's on the bench at all. Made me really raise my eyebrows. And then when he came in, my first thought was, oh, Quill's in give up mode because he's just giving the kid a minute. Like, oh, you've worked hard all your kid. Here's 10 minutes. Whatever, go ahead. [00:36:05] Speaker B: Or is he put in Sonata's nose mode? [00:36:08] Speaker A: I mean, I guess maybe it's a swan song before he's get out of here. Or like. Or actually that's the best guy he has left. Like, that dude's out playing the guys that didn't make the bench, which is remarkable because Solly is slow and terrible. Like, when he first got here, his little burst in training made me think, oh, maybe there's a way that that little burst could come in handy in an MLS game. It doesn't. He can't get by an MLS level defender because the minute he runs into a guy, he gets. [00:36:32] Speaker B: He gets run over. He got shoved over three times in that game. [00:36:36] Speaker A: He's got one move and MLS defenders just step in front of him and cut him off. Like, Alan Vasco has the same move. Alan Vasco gets got goodbye guys and gets a shot off and Itali does not. So, like the fact that any solid came in the game, I was like, oh, game's over. Quill gave up. You know, he just gave the guy a curtain call, you know, because you could have easily brought in. Legette at that point was still on the bench. I believe Paxton was still on the bench. You know, you don't want to risk those guys getting hurt, I guess, you know. No. So, like, you know, clearly, like, I think the mindset had been set, set by the lineup, by the tactic. And I think it just, it. It was a circle, vicious circle that just fed in Dallas into play. Really negative. And then the way Vancouver played reinforced that we can't do. So it's good. The press conference with Quill afterwards, he was very defeated in his. The way his body language, you know, he. They tried to ask him about, like, is there anything positive you can take away from this? He was like, he's right. The Minute I can't. Like I had to look at the tape where it's too fresh right now. I got nothing basically, was what he was saying. I'm paraphrasing. [00:37:35] Speaker B: Well, that was 40 minutes of yuck. Now because this is Major League Soccer and it's so unstable that a team can win three nothing in a leg and Dallas could somehow finagle a 10 win on Saturday. Like Vancouver gets another red card or you know, a PK in a tightly contested game. And Dallas would still go through to a third indecisive game because there is no aggregate score there, no away home goals. Any of that. Jim Jam and Dallas could win a PK shootout. [00:38:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:38:07] Speaker B: In a draw and still end up getting to go to Vancouver. So Buzz, is there anything for anybody of the curious to hold on in. [00:38:17] Speaker A: The form of hope? Of course. I, I think you have to. As a coach, my suggestion would be to remember that you were playing three at the back in order to stop somebody else from scoring any goals. Goals and do the the version of that that most stops the goals. And I think that's Shaq Moore as a center back. Now, importantly, for whatever reason in this game, he put Shaq Moore on the right again instead of the left. And that bothers me because the best part of Shaq Moore as a left center back is that there are moments where you can sort of slide in a little and Bernie releases and you can free Bernie. But it only works if Shaq Moore's over there to sort of be your left ish back in that scenario. Right. So I think you have to bring that back because you have to have Bernie be somewhat effective, even though it's gonna be hard for him. He had a really bad game. So did everybody else. Everybody else had a bad game. Not just Bernie. It's not Paul and Bernie. But not having Shack more over there, I think really hurt that. So you got to bring that back. So then you have Romero at the wing back. Kaik got overmatched. You have to solve the Stillgato problem. So maybe you tried Virginia, but he's not very good. So you might try and figure out what can I do at home to get through this game with somebody that can do a Delgado job. Okay, what about legit and Paxton as a combo? You're not going to get 90 minutes out of either one. But maybe you can go half and half ish and put one of those guys in. Is that Delgado off wing slash 10 kind of position and actually get back to the thing that made you be an effective team most of the time. Get some ability in midfield. You know, if. If Kaik was so bad that you want to bring Romero into the middle also, then you have to try and find a wing back that's a little harder. You might end up having to try somebody like Abubakar over there, you know, or I don't know what. That's a much harder solve because there isn't really a right wing back. But I think. I think trying to find somebody that can fill dug out of shoes would go a long way to helping you get a little bit better and maybe get a little something going to midfield. [00:40:17] Speaker B: I want to. I want to go back to your comment about Shaq being on the right versus the left isn't all of that. And, and then also Bernie having a problem without Shaq behind him. All of that goes back to Ibiaga and his shortcomings because I'm sure Shaq is over there to try to help Ramiro cover up that speedy winger that Vancouver has on that side that was killing Romero all night. [00:40:38] Speaker A: 100 and. [00:40:40] Speaker B: And then now Ibiaga has to deal with or Bernie has to deal with Ibiaga behind him and that broken relationship between those two guys. So all of that comes down to the fact that Ibiaga, as we've been saying for a while now, is not probably the right guy for starting center back. [00:40:54] Speaker A: Yeah, either Ibia or Abubakar has to play well at right center back. And if you're going to try and have any chance. But remember, the thing is about this season is that, remember that the back three or back five as Eric quite clearly has called only they only do that because the defense is terrible and their center backs are terrible. So they're doing that to help that problem. You're not going to overnight in the playoffs all of a sudden be able to play a back four with two center backs and be effective. I mean, you could roll the dice that way and hope you get lucky and get through and play a back four. But it's changing your tactics now with like one game left in the playoffs is crazy. You might as well just go with what's been working in the last two months in its purest form. That's the overthink. And the thing was putting Shaq Moore over there. Just help Ramiro with Iaga is not glacially slow. He's fast enough to help Ramiro on that side. You know, if you're going to get through it at some point, you have to trust guys or give guys a chance to play. And if they can't do it, you're going to get beat anyway. You're not going to be able to magic your way past Vancouver. You're just going to have to be able to play your best game and hope it's good enough. And your best game is Shock Moore left center back and Romero at right wing back at this point now, if you still had Sam Junka, you could put Sam Junk at right wing back. That would help a lot, right? But you don't have that. You don't have us. Well, you put Legit over there. He's not as fast as that guy either. There's no right wing back available that's fast enough to cover those guys. Unless you do something bonkers like a booba car right back or some right wing back. But that's not really any better necessarily, I don't think. [00:42:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I just. I kind of wish they could put Kappas and Romero in the middle because Kaik is such a liability. At least he was in that particular game. Maybe Kaik has a better game in Dallas on Saturday night, but yikes. [00:42:42] Speaker A: I mean, at some point you, at some point if you're. If you don't want Romero out there, at some point you have to talk about something crazy because if you put Shaq Moore up there, then you take away your best center back and now you're really exposed in the back. Your second best center back. Sorry. Sorry. So then you have to think about things that are outside the box. Like could. Can Turcado play on the opposite side? Can Legit hold up enough to do it? Could Sam Sarver be a right wing back for one game? What about Kaik? He's pretty mobile and active. Could he run up and down for one game and defend out there? Put Ramire in the middle, put Kai got wide. I don't know. [00:43:12] Speaker B: Fetch. [00:43:13] Speaker A: I'm trying. You know what, what else are you gonna do? Like you don't want to put Logan back there or. No, you know, or, or Anderson Julio. But you know, at some point you got to see like where do I, where are my shortcomings that I. That are hard to solve, you know? And what do I. What's most important for me? Like Shockmore left center back is a big part of that. I know that left winger is really fast and really good. He's a Canadian international. He's super talented. But at some point you just gotta, you gotta dance with them that brung you right. Play with. Yeah, play. What was your best guys when your best run and it was those. It was Romero out there by himself. You know, Ramirez can be super defensive. That's fine. It is what it is. But you know. [00:43:54] Speaker B: Well, the game is not till 8:30 on Saturday night at the Toyota Stadium. Maybe it's the last game of the season, maybe it's not. I guess we'll find out then. But lo and behold, that was a stinker as Vancouver wins game one, three to nothing over the Burn. [00:44:12] Speaker A: Can I throw a bright light, a silver lining into that thing? Okay. It's such a stinker that. That will. That should. In any of this discussion that this team has a roster that can attend, that this whole. This is a playoff roster and that this is. We could be able to win and game. No, dude, you just. [00:44:30] Speaker B: I think, I think for the rank, I think for guy. For people like us that talk about this a lot, I think for the casual interloper, they'll just see they made the playoffs and for the front office, I can't tell you what they think about this. [00:44:46] Speaker A: That's fair. [00:44:46] Speaker B: You know, I. Honestly. Dan, can you. [00:44:51] Speaker C: No, I mean, we've obviously heard the quotes before about just making the playoffs. It's a lottery. You've got as good a chance as anyone else. Obviously that game showed you absolutely do not especially. Okay, let's say they, they do what Atlanta did last year to Miami. They, they get beat away. They get absolutely battered at home, but sneaker stoppage time winner and then magically win away. You're still on the road to lafc, to, you know, to sent probably San Diego in the, in the conference final. You're 100 on the road in MLS cup they have to have more quality than they. They showed. [00:45:34] Speaker A: I think there was an era when MLS was tighter when the difference between the top team and the worst team was a smaller gap. And you had MLS cup winners like the Colorado Rapids who were like the fifth team in the west and they bounced over to the Eastern Conference that one year that they did like the top eight in points and then they won on the road and there was. There was an upset on the other half of the bracket and all of a sudden the Rapids were in MLS cup final against SE Dallas. Like so it used to be the case that you could do that, but now we're getting to a point. I, I think we're getting to a point where the top teams are so much better. They have guys like Mueller and Son and, and Messi and these rosters that just comprehensively. [00:46:09] Speaker C: Game changers. [00:46:10] Speaker A: Yeah, game changers. On top of having Guys that are paying, they're playing for less to play with the Messi or the, you know, a comprehensively talented roster like Vancouver has or LAFC San Diego with all their youth internationals they've spotted in that nabbed early, just super talented, you know. [00:46:25] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, it's interesting and I'm. We'll obviously have much longer and more detailed conversations about 2026, but right before we recorded this, I was watching the Columbus Cincinnati game and the qualities of both those teams is so exponentially higher than Dallas in terms of how they play, the qualities of how those players play the ball, all of it is just better across the board. And Columbus is way down the roster list compared to Dallas. Cincinnati obviously is significantly higher. But Dallas couldn't hang with either one of those teams right now with all of its best players playing in its best form. They're just, they're like different categories of teams. And I do wonder as we move into. We've talked about this, a second season of the building project, the stadium project and all the revenue reductions they're getting there. If you kind of want a sign of what's going on with the club in this season, they have now lost two senior VP level employees and they've announced they are not replacing either one of those people with another senior VP level title. Now, at the end of the day, the amount of money both those people make is nothing compared to. But you get my point. Like, if they're not even going to bother to replace two senior VPs in their front office staff, I, I would take that as some sort of indicator that they're doing some sort of, you know, they're not going to be super outgoing in terms of spending on player quality next year and the year after that. [00:47:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not just the salary per se, it's the position. It's like, you know, they're divvying up the responsibilities of those people to people that wore their underlings. Yeah, right. You know, so like, you could say, oh, the next guy just got promoted. No, he didn't. You know, but in both of those departments, the next person did not get promoted. The next person just got all the work that the other person was doing, you know, or in the case of the, the second one, multiple people in those departments. So, you know, those are all capable people that have those jobs. But it just goes to show you that they're eliminating a whole rung on the, on the employment chart, you know. [00:48:29] Speaker C: In some ways, yeah, the marketing thing's kind of a classic FC Dallas Move, it's that you get rid of a. You know, you lose a vp, but then you promote a manager to a director, you lose a director, you promote a coordinator to a manager, you. You kind of have that internal hire that's. You hope that they've gained enough from it, but at the same time, you're like, you're paying. [00:48:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't, I don't want anybody to come away thinking this is in any way, shape or form a reduction of anybody that is still at the club and their role at the club. It's not. In fact, they're to Buzz's. [00:49:04] Speaker C: No, they're working. One of them, honestly, I think is a much better move super hard. [00:49:10] Speaker B: But I do wonder if it is some sort of larger indicator about where the, where the Hunts are in terms of how they view the current cycle the club is in because of the stadium project that's going on. Which is. And again, the reason why I focus on this so much is because when they announced the stadium project at the beginning of last season and when we started hearing what was going down and we were all like, wait a second, they're going to continue to play in this thing for three MLS seasons while they do this, and we got a lot of pushback that we were being overly negative and no, they're going to spend. And this isn't going to be a hindrance on how this team is going to progress in terms of a club and all those things. And it's all starting to play out exactly the way that we talked about. Not just us, other people, too, and kind of predicted before the season played out. And the only thing, the only thing that kind of changed anybody's opinion about that was the Lucho Acosta signing. And that absolutely, spectacularly blew up in everybody's face. [00:50:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And granted, that was money that came in from other places. You know, we've. We've said all along that the Hunts do have a willingness to spend money. They just don't spend it where other people do, or our fans might wish they were. Would they spend like. Yeah, they spend it on these gigantic stadium rentals. This is the third time now that they put big chunk of money into the venue. I, I applaud the investment into the venue. That's great. You know, the development of those fields out there, to have the youth academy, the, the development of the fields they run around town. Well, you know, Moneygram up until now, of course, but the other facilities, they've had the investment in the stadium down in Mansfield for the second Team. Right. Infrastructure, things like that, that's where they spend their money. They don't spend their money on splash on short, what they would perceive as a short term thing. Now you and I might say, and Dan might say that like investment in, you know, marketing is how you build your brand and how you get put butts in the seats and how you build your revenue. Well, the stadium rentals, a cap on revenue. So all of a sudden like the short term reins might be tightened up a little bit because they're going to be short in revenue for three years and probably this is 100, just my opinion, I'm guessing probably longer than three years now because we've already seen multiple times now there's been a hesitation or stoppage or delay in the construction that's happening now and we hear talk of rollbacks and what the whole thing was going to be. So we'll see how it develops because I don't think we're going to get what we, what we were showed on paper in the beginning and they were going to get less than that. [00:51:37] Speaker B: Now we were never going to get that. [00:51:39] Speaker A: Yeah, we always knew that. But yes, you know, is it going to be better? Absolutely. It's going to be light years better. It's going to be awesome. The game day experience is going to be incredible. Prices are going to be a lot higher too. I ain't going to be going that price. I'll just watch it on tv. [00:51:54] Speaker C: Well, one quick point about money and particularly on the plan budget it equating it to the, the two vice presidents that left and aren't like being like for like replaced. They were also people that job title was created specifically for them. There weren't vice presidents in those departments beforehand. Obviously we, we did see the Lucho spend. They did factually bid $12 million cash for Evander until his people said no, ain't coming to Dallas. So there's obviously there's been the money there. It's just now you're just hoping it continues. And honestly getting beat around by Vancouver might be one of those times that Clark Hunt picks up the TV remote and goes oh, I'd better invest a little bit and make it less embarrassing. [00:52:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that'll be a big test this winter is do they spend Lucho's money that that salary that the money they got back for him, does that money get spent? Does that salary slot get used or and do they go back to 3 DPS or do they stay on the 2 DPS and 4U22s? You know those are the things to watch. You know, they've done a decent job being at least middle of the pack in terms of overall sort of spend the last few years again. Again, a lot of it is misspend that we've outlined many, many times, we think. I think. But at the same time, like, okay, yeah, great move to sell. Sell Lucho. That's perfect. Exactly what you needed to do. Okay. The money's there, though. Are you going to use it? Like, have you got some lined up? Where's the center back you've needed for five years now that we've been talking about for five years? [00:53:31] Speaker B: Two center backs. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:53:33] Speaker B: Don't let them get. Don't let them off the hook when they try to point at Uruguay. While that's totally fair and a fantastic signing and a surprise and probably an MLS best 11 center back in this league at least maybe prior to Saturday night's game. [00:53:47] Speaker A: Yeah, not this year. Maybe next year. [00:53:49] Speaker B: You know that there that this team has needed a lot of center backs, not just one center back. And Iaga and Abubakar combined don't equal one quality center back. So don't let him get away with that one. [00:54:02] Speaker A: If only someone would have said that when they signed Abiaga in the first place. Oh, wait, yeah. [00:54:07] Speaker B: I think it's cliche to say the hunts are cheap because I don't think that's necessarily true. And the numbers haven't proven that out. I just don't think they've got the front office staff to spend it smartly very well. And obviously the results are the proof and pudding and all of that. I mean, the team just hasn't been very good since 2016. Just. It just hasn't. So, you know, the outlier was maybe Nico Esteban's first season and that kind of fell flat towards the end, too. So second season, was it the set. I thought it was his first season when they picked up Legette and Paul, wasn't that. Yeah, that was his first season. [00:54:46] Speaker C: That was the whole new era thing. [00:54:48] Speaker B: Yes, Buzz, it was the new era. Hold on, I'm looking back in 2022. The new era of 2022. [00:54:55] Speaker A: Right. It was. It was his. It's the first season. [00:54:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it was the year of Kellen. Oh, wait, that's a whole different thing. [00:55:01] Speaker A: Sorry, I forgot about that. [00:55:04] Speaker B: All right. Well, there you go. Hopefully everybody has their tickets warmed up and can be one of the. Oh, by the way, I just a couple of things. Other notes. Vancouver's kits, always great. All their kits are so good. The Only thing I wish. I still wish they had the brown kit, because that brown kit was kick ass when they had that. [00:55:22] Speaker A: One of the great kids in MLS history. Yeah. [00:55:24] Speaker B: 2. What a fantastic scene in that stadium. I mean, sold out, upper deck is open. They went out and spent the money to give everybody something they can wave. Man, that was proper. Up in Vancouver on Saturday night. I was really impressed by all of that. [00:55:43] Speaker A: Well, my. My favorite story that the broadcasters told was the one about how there's a documentary about the Vancouver mls. I'm sorry, North American Soccer League Cup. The super cup or whatever they called that thing when they beat. [00:55:58] Speaker C: Soccer ball. [00:55:59] Speaker A: Soccer ball. Soccer ball. Thank you. They beat Tornadoes, Dallas Tornado on the way to that thing. There's apparently, there's a documentary about it that came out this year, and apparently the story is that Mueller watched it on his plane flight to Canada. The very first time he came to the United States. Came to Canada. Excuse me. To meet with the team. He watched that documentary on the plane and was like, I'm in. Let's go. So that's a fun story. [00:56:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Soccer ball was. We were all. Yeah, we were young then. [00:56:23] Speaker C: Buzz. Yeah, I wasn't born then. [00:56:26] Speaker B: Okay. [00:56:28] Speaker A: Oh, my God. [00:56:30] Speaker C: One thing. The stadium looked really cool. What the hell was with those AR advertising boards that they were putting on? It looked like Microsoft paint. It wasn't like the NHL ones that have all the shading and like, you can, you know, everything. They were just flat. But they were curved at the same time. It looked. [00:56:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it was weird because I. I guess they were showing different ads in the stadium than what they were showing on TV through AR virtual boards. And that's why some of the players would tend to fuzz out as they got too close to the boards and stuff. I noticed that, too. I thought that was an interesting choice, maybe, because all the. Well, you know why it is? I bet? Because in the stadium, they're all Canadian focused ads, and for tv, they're American focused ads. [00:57:12] Speaker C: Every time they cut to, like a replay in the stadium, it was like a Continental Tires ad, which is an MLS sponsor. [00:57:20] Speaker B: Well, maybe the. In theory, yeah. [00:57:23] Speaker A: I imagine that they have a lot of national sponsors on those boards, but I think Peter's probably right that a bunch of them are Canadian sponsors, too. Local sponsors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:57:31] Speaker B: They were glitching and not great all the time. And maple syrup. Canada. Big, big maple syrup was advertising all the time. And. [00:57:40] Speaker A: Yeah, big syrup. [00:57:42] Speaker B: Canadian lumberjacks or axe handles or whatever. I don't know. Stick a cliche in There a stereotype for sure. All right, well, hopefully better things on Saturday night. Buzz, you want to do you want to predict a starting lineup for Saturday night? [00:58:01] Speaker A: Well, I think it's going to be super hard to predict because you're going back to like a holy crap, what do we do? I think but my suggestion would be what I kind of was when we were going through the whole thing was that you, I think you have to have Shaq Moore at left center back because that's your best defense and that makes Bernie be the best that Bernie can be, which is important. And then you have to have somebody on the at Rice center back who's quick enough to be to to play with Ramiro out wide. Caveat being that like if you really wanted to be ballsy, you would put Ramiro in the middle and make Kaik play wing back and just see what happens and roll the dice. But I think it's not quite roll the dice time. I think it's if you get back to your game, you will be. You'll give yourself a chance. So you got to go with either Abubakar Iaga at right center back and you really just have to hope that they have a good game and play well. You know, at some point you got to play who you have and that's who you have. And Romero being a right wing back usually is the best exam best shape because he's smart enough to play well with whoever's inside him in a defensive way. And then it has to be Musa and Farrington because Farrington's work rate and his chaos creating is super catalytic for them in terms of the way they want to turn you over high and get something going. You've got to have Farrington out there and then you have to try and solve the degato problem. The obvious easy, simple one is you just play Padrino, but I don't think he's been good enough. I would consider home game last, maybe last game of the season start either Paxton or legit. Not Paxton probably start legit. [00:59:38] Speaker B: Possible legit is just hurt worse than they're letting on and he can't actually play because I don't understand why he hasn't even subbed in for some of these games. [00:59:46] Speaker A: It's possible but he's not showing up like it's questionable or doubtful and I've not heard anything but for whatever reason you're right, he hasn't been playing. You know, Anasali is not usable in that spot. Deeds is not usable in that spot. Norris is not Usable in that spot. You could play maybe replace cake with Norris. Maybe he can pass a lot better than gate can. How you've solved the Delgado. Other than putting Operino and crossing your fingers, the only thing I can come up with is using a legit Paxton combo. Put Legit in to start the game, try and get through halftime, see if you can get 45, 50, 60 out of him, and then bring in Paxton for 30 and see if you're in the game. You know what I mean? Like, you've got to stop the bleeding in the back, go with your best set of defenders, try and get somebody on the field that can help you in the midfield. And you got to have Farrington. It's got to be Farrington. Like, I know people like server. Server can be like himself. That's fine. He can't solve any of your problems, you know, and taking Ferrison out is a mistake. So, you know, it's weird that it comes down to like so pivotally to Delgado and there is no other choice. Anthony Ramirez, it's not even. Hardly even starting for North Texas now. He must be hurt too, the way they cheat that by not giving out North Texas. He. He played in their playoff game, but, you know, he hasn't played for North FC Dallas, hardly at all, other than a debut here and there. You know, Diego Garcia doesn't help you in that position. He's a. He's a deep guy like Capis or Kaik, you know, other than rolling the dice on Norris in the midfield, I can't think, you know, for Kaik, which I don't think is necessarily the answer either. You know, that that's kind of where you're at. Go ahead, Dan. [01:01:16] Speaker C: I just. Yeah, I think I. I love the legit Paxton thing. I just. There's nowhere Paxton's rated for more than 15 minutes. So you've got to somehow get legit. Who hasn't played in God knows how long through. Through 75. [01:01:34] Speaker A: I. [01:01:34] Speaker C: There's got, you know, you would need some kind of intermediary for that. I don't know what. [01:01:40] Speaker A: That would be the only. The only other crazy idea I would have. And you'd have to be really desperate to try this would be to play Alvaro at right center back. Because he's got. He's pretty rangy and pretty physical, you know, and if. If he's between Irigide and Romero, like, given how limited his minutes have been since people have gotten more healthy, he must not be ready for that. But at least physically he could do it right Would it be worse than Abubakar or Iaga? I don't know. It may be a case where just like, you really have to hope that Iaga's experience holds up. You know, at the end of the day, this is the thing. They're just not good enough. [01:02:16] Speaker B: Can he play soccer? [01:02:20] Speaker A: I don't. I don't know. He doesn't. At North Texas, I mean, I would say put Noah Norris at left center back. He can play soccer. I know he can, but he doesn't solve your. I mean, he kind of could solve your problem of. Of more left center back where you could. Because he can slide wide and. And let fair. And let Bernie release. So maybe that's an idea. Maybe you put Nolan at left center back and shock more right center back. I mean, talk about flipping around your whole defense. [01:02:48] Speaker B: You might as well just go to four in the back. [01:02:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. Well, I mean, you could do that they late in the game, but again, you'd still end up with like, you still end up rolling the dice on two center backs that you're not sure can do it. I mean, we know Irigida can do it, but like, who's the other center back? You can put Shaq Moore in a back two center backs. I don't. I don't. Then you'd have Ramiro straight up one on one versus that guy on that side. It's like, even if. Even if you do that on goal three, where shockmore again gets beat on a long track of a guy like Shaq or he's running with the guy, but the dude is a half a step ahead of him. And that's what. That's the goal. Right. Shaq Moore doesn't make that. Doesn't win that run when he's playing right center back. Sorry, right back in the back four. Happened all the time in the first half of the season. Saw that goal 15 times, probably. [01:03:35] Speaker B: Yeah. That's an hour buzz. [01:03:38] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's a bad spot. Don't kid yourself, man. The chances are even winning this game are long, but. Oh, you know. Yeah, yeah. [01:03:48] Speaker B: You just hope they come out of this not embarrassed like they were Saturday night. [01:03:51] Speaker A: Right. Let's see. I mean, that's really all that. [01:03:53] Speaker B: I mean, if you. If you want to. I mean, it's okay. If you guys want to go into this hoping they win the game, great. I'm just telling you, you're probably better off just hoping they don't get. Get their ass kicked again. [01:04:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:04] Speaker C: It's the funny part, right? They've got fourth and fifth choice center backs, absolutely vulnerable at the back and we can't even talk about that because they can't get the ball up field, right? [01:04:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:04:15] Speaker A: Both those guys are better than most of the guys. Dallas is running center back. [01:04:20] Speaker B: All right. Saturday night, 8:30. [01:04:23] Speaker C: There you go. Prison was. I mean he's a midfielder, he's not even a defender, but he's not. Yeah, he's liability. [01:04:31] Speaker B: And speaking of bummer endings to the season, North Texas fell to san Jose again. 3 Nothing. Season over Buzz and the blood. Let the bloodletting begin. [01:04:42] Speaker A: Yeah, Scorch Earth. They have not announced it and I don't know if they will. They tend not to really do much press work down there at that level, but according to our sources, they, they essentially gutted everybody. All the players that were signed to second team contracts that had options were declined. All but one. I can't get a really straight answer on the one. That one is a player I really like Isaiah Kakush. I, I either got answers like, oh, because of the late season 20 ACL, it's complicated. And what that means, I don't know. Maybe there's an insurance complication or something or injury. But I mean, I don't know. I think that's a player worth re signing to a homegrown deal in my opinion. So I'm hoping that's what's happening happening. But that's just a pure guess on my part. All the rest of the guys there are out. It's basically like a clear house kind of thing. Now as part of that, if, if my sources are correct and I did have multiple sources on this, like, you know, they have another three or four guys that are going from hybrid to homegrown. They got some guys that are going to be on the first team roster like there'll be some more academy signing. So it looks like maybe potentially they're going fairly young next year, but the winter will tell us. We'll see what happens. Only a couple of guys really exceeded progression down there and, and played better than we sort of expected. We'll see. [01:05:56] Speaker B: Is the manfield facility supposed to be open in time for the start of their season? [01:06:00] Speaker A: Yes, they're doing one of those deals where I think they're starting with a relatively high number of road games at the beginning. I don't know exactly but the. What I've been told is that it will be ready for next season. [01:06:11] Speaker C: All right. [01:06:12] Speaker B: Texoma ended the season with a loss to Tormenta. 3 Nothing. They ended up in 12th place, not a good debut season for an expansion team. So maybe that's to be expected. [01:06:24] Speaker A: Minus 20 goal differential 2, which is worse than the league, even though they didn't finish worse than the standing. So like, that just shows you that, like when they were losing, they're getting blown out. So it's like they lose bad when they lose. [01:06:33] Speaker B: Do you think they overshot in terms of sticking themselves as a USL1 team? [01:06:39] Speaker A: You know, I don't know enough about their investor situation. I think they overshot in terms of thinking that that market had enough soccer fans to sustain a USL1 team. You know, that's pretty. [01:06:49] Speaker B: Yes. I think that's actually two parts. The off field overshooting and the on field overshooting. Like, did they really think they could put a competitive team on the field? [01:06:58] Speaker A: Oh, sure. [01:06:58] Speaker B: For USL1. [01:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, I mean, like there are teams that finished below them. The Richmond Kickers who've been around for the 30 years. I mean, there, you know, there's. It's certainly capable of an expansion team going out and signing some guys and getting some pieces. And granted, in the middle of the season they had a really nice run where they went like eight games without losing and they climbed themselves up into the playoffs, you know, so at some level they certainly had a team that could compete. It just didn't hold up, you know, for whatever reason, like, I'm not dialed in enough to tell you, like, in exactly what happened in terms of the. A couple injuries here, there maybe a couple of guys not progressing like they had hoped. The goalkeeper change was a big part of it. Maybe he didn't keep up that stance, although it sure looked like he did. But you know, again, they. When they would lose games, they would lose bad. But says to me something about mentality and maybe guys just got resigned to like there not being enough fans in the stands. I mean, they had some okay attendance, but not really much to look at in terms of like draw. It's a tough situation up there, you know. [01:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:54] Speaker A: Especially with the problem they had with the owner. Well, they had to fire the owner from his job part and there's a new guy filling his role from the ownership group, the other half of the ownership group. So, like, there's some weird stuff going on and I think. I think we're yet to hear exactly what is going down with that team in terms of the future. There's so much going on with Salina or whatever else is happening. So stay tuned on them. We'll see. [01:08:16] Speaker B: All right. Well, nothing really to talk about with Trinity as they are obviously off and don't have another game until the Nov. 2 against D.C. atletico. I don't have anything new about them and no news, well, no news in. [01:08:30] Speaker A: Athletico but you know, since last couple of weeks we've been getting this sort of blackout on Fort Worth and, and there's a little bit of like, you know, nudging around and poking around. We found that, you know, from, from people I've talked to. It sounds like that whole thing is still tracking. So like we don't, we don't have anything definitive to add but you know, the people that we do know that would know sort of have reassure us. Yeah. Oh yeah. Don't worry guys. You know, things are tracking. I don't have any more thing to add than that other than, you know, we feel pretty confident that that thing is still slowly taking steps down the line. It's. It's going to remain fascinating to see how it goes relative to athletic Dallas because of how different their launches have been when they're playing at the same time. It will be fascinating to watch. [01:09:14] Speaker B: I'm going to throw this out there. I probably shouldn't. But I'm just going to say it because I want the curious to have something positive to hold on to. A very good source unsolicited told me the other day that when the new FC Dallas home shirt is debuted next season, we will all be quote, extremely happy. [01:09:38] Speaker A: That's exciting. [01:09:39] Speaker B: I don't know what that means and that seems like a lot of hyperbole and over promise. So they better deliver. [01:09:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I had somebody definitively tell me that it's better than the Burn third kit. [01:09:51] Speaker C: The same. Whoa. [01:09:52] Speaker A: Which is. No, that's insane because that's a easy top three kit in club history and to be better than that, better than McDonald's. [01:10:02] Speaker B: I hate the bluish grayish whitish thing that they have for in a secondary shirt kit this year. But Saturday also reminded me how much I hate the gradient purple more blue than red thing that they wear these days for. For quote unquote home kit. So I'm, I'm ready for something that makes me proud and happy like the black Burn kit does. [01:10:26] Speaker A: I. I wouldn't mind our. The Dallas kit track. Excuse me. FC Dallas kit tracking a little more reddish, you know, more red. More red pants and red socks. More red in the top than blue. You know this. You ride the current version of the kit and it probably has been this way for a couple years because of the blue shorts and socks. It's had A lot of blue with like red accents. And I kind of want it to be the other way, really. More red with blue accents. So we'll see what, you know, with white obviously trim in some level. If it's yellow trim, that's rsl. White trim is what makes it FC Dallas. So we'll see what it's going to be. [01:11:01] Speaker B: Excellent. It can't be worse than the new Nike goalkeeper kits that we're seeing for the World Cup. Bad, awful, awful stuff. Dan, fix it. [01:11:12] Speaker C: It's a pretty solid throwback to the 93, 94 kits. They were just a kit then and it's a kick now. [01:11:19] Speaker A: Some of the versions, apparently every country is getting that same one that it's Adidas. And so some of them will look better than others. There's some that are actually worse than the US one, believe it or not. [01:11:27] Speaker C: Yeah. The Canada one just looks like someone threw up on it. [01:11:33] Speaker B: Maybe somebody spilled maple syrup on it. [01:11:36] Speaker A: Hey, by the way, we. We went fast on Dallas Trinity, but did you mention they were in sixth place on 10 points? [01:11:43] Speaker B: They didn't, no. [01:11:44] Speaker A: Yeah, we talked about this. That there's a weird disconnect in terms of the number of games of played. The whole league varies from seven games to 10 games played. So unfortunately on the standings they don't have a points for game standings. They should. So I made one real quick. And Dallas is actually. The Golden Girls. Love that nickname. The Golden Girls are fourth in points per game, so still one of the better teams in the league. 1.43 points per game ahead of Spokane. [01:12:10] Speaker B: Thank you for that additional note. The Neil family appreciates that bus. [01:12:16] Speaker A: Peter, when are you going to go to a Trinity game? [01:12:21] Speaker B: Now that. Now that Dallas's season is over, I have no more excuses. Will you go with me? [01:12:28] Speaker A: Yes. I'm working this weekend, so I can't the weekend after that. I'll be out of town. [01:12:36] Speaker B: Well, then I guess go by myself. [01:12:39] Speaker A: That I'm working. Yeah, you're gonna go by yourself. [01:12:40] Speaker C: Okay. [01:12:41] Speaker A: Well, you should go away. [01:12:42] Speaker B: Okay, I agree. I admit it. I haven't been yet. [01:12:45] Speaker A: Dan's attorney. [01:12:47] Speaker C: I'll be in the press box. [01:12:48] Speaker B: He won't come down and sit with me and hold my hand. [01:12:50] Speaker A: Oh, but the new press box bucks is nice. [01:12:53] Speaker C: Okay. All right. [01:12:55] Speaker B: Very good. Well, boys, thanks for slogging through that difficult episode of ick. [01:13:02] Speaker A: Negative but cathartic. [01:13:03] Speaker C: Oh, wow. I. I didn't realize we actually have a double header of soccer this weekend. That's nice. [01:13:10] Speaker B: Okay, very good. We go out on a high I. [01:13:12] Speaker C: Mean, the Saturday game's probably not so nice, but, you know, Sunday will be again. [01:13:18] Speaker B: All right, Very good. [01:13:20] Speaker A: Third Degree, the podcast is brought to you by our listeners, our wonderful supporters, people just like you. If you enjoy what we do here on third degree, the podcast, or on third degree.net or on social media, all reporting on professional soccer here in North Texas, why don't you join us on the Patreon and give us a little support to help bring you news about this beautiful game we all love. Once again, thanks for your support. [01:13:40] Speaker B: Dan. Thank you for joining us and all your thoughts and insights, the on and observations and findings. [01:13:46] Speaker C: Thank you, Buzz. [01:13:48] Speaker B: Excellent stuff. [01:13:49] Speaker A: Don't forget to fall back this weekend, fellas, on your clocks. [01:13:52] Speaker B: Yes, don't forget. [01:13:54] Speaker C: Come on, it's. Who actually changes clocks now? [01:13:58] Speaker A: Doesn't everybody? [01:13:59] Speaker C: Lites? [01:14:01] Speaker B: You don't have a bedside clock that you have to change? [01:14:04] Speaker A: I use my phone. [01:14:07] Speaker B: Still got my old GE special. Very good. Well, thank you. DFW Soccer. Curious. We love you. We really do, even in these difficult times. We will speak to you next week on another episode of 3rd Degree, the. [01:14:20] Speaker A: Podcast the pain will be over soon. [01:14:24] Speaker C: 3Rd Degree, the 3rd Degree net podcast. [01:14:28] Speaker B: 3Rd Degree the 3rd Degree net podcast. Third Degree the 3rd Degree pocket. 3rd Degree 3rd Degree nap pocket. [01:15:00] Speaker A: It.