3rd Degree the Podcast #339

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, hello FC Dallas Curious fan. Oh, I did it wrong, Arman. I did it wrong right out of the gate. [00:00:05] Speaker B: I'm drinking a non alcoholic beer while on on the set. [00:00:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:12] Speaker B: Woo. Third Degree the Third Degree NE podcast Third Degree the Third Degree N podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree NE Podcast. Third Degr. [00:00:34] Speaker A: Third Degree. The podcast is brought to you by people just like you, the wonderful supporters and listeners of this podcast and support us on Patreon patreon.com thirddegree if you like what we do on the Internet, whether it be this podcast, whether it be our website covering professional soccer, NFC Dallas, even though I work on social media, why not come join us to come support us? 3rd degree.net is the website patreon.com 3rd degree which is where you can support us. Thanks for listening. Enjoy the show. Well, hello DFW Pro soccer Curious fan. I am not Peter Welton. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Wow. [00:01:07] Speaker A: Crazy enough. [00:01:08] Speaker B: Crazy. [00:01:09] Speaker A: This is Buzz Carrick. I'm not gonna do Peter's thing that he says about me, but Peter and Dan are both gone today for this edition, the 339th episode of Third Degree, the podcast Peter. Today is actually his birthday. So happy birthday to Peter. He is on a trip with his lovely wife in which they. I'm not going to say much more about it other than to say that I think there's some soccer games involved. So when he comes back, I'm hopefully he's going to have some bonkers soccers watching stories to tell us and that'll be fun. Dan Crook, our lovable Englishman, is visiting with family, I believe in Arkansas of all places, probably his wife's family to celebrate the holidays. So he is not here either. And so instead I have gone to the bullpen to bring in the lefty, our, our awesome off the bench stat guy, cap guy, alumnus of third degree all around fantastic dude. Our friend Armand Kafai Amar. Welcome to the podcast. [00:02:08] Speaker B: So do I have to do the Peter thing where he goes, the original soccer influencer, your hero, my hero, everyone's hero. Buzz Carrick. Is that. [00:02:16] Speaker A: Oh, thank you. [00:02:17] Speaker B: I've been memorized. It's crazy. I didn't really. Yeah, I was like, how did he do it? And I just came off the tongue. Like it just. It's very natural. So. [00:02:24] Speaker A: Well, I should say welcome back to the podcast. You have obviously been here many times before. Thank you for filling in. This is a particularly delightful episode to bring you in because we're going to attack, talk some cap and we're going to talk roster moves and I think that's right in your wheelhouse. But I've been told that before we can start, we have to ask you about the Tanner Testman jersey story. About particularly the unboxing. [00:02:46] Speaker B: Oh, man, I got to go get it. Well, it's in the closet right now. [00:02:48] Speaker A: You can get an image of it of it later. Maybe we'll make that the thumbnail on the podcast. [00:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I sent it to the Discord. There's a website called, like, Matchborn Shirts and I won it on it. And it smells absolutely horrendous. I almost vomited when I first smelled it. We only played 15 minutes in that game because they had a someone sent off. So he was sacrificed in the result. They drew that game.00. But I really wanted Tarantin jersey. Honestly, he's been one of my favorite players to watch, you know, because, I mean, Buzz, we've both been around the team forever, right? Like, for people who don't know, I mean, I was covering the team in 2016, 2017, back when that academy was peaking at that time with Paxton, Tanner, Reggie. I mean, you can go down the list and just to get, you know, Tanner and his jersey and also, like, the way he's been playing, the way he's been playing for a national team. I love it. And the website's cool. The jerseys just smell horrendous because they're, they're literally. They don't, I don't know. [00:03:46] Speaker A: They don't wash them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, they don't wash them. [00:03:48] Speaker B: They like, do something. Get rid of the DNA on them, I guess. But like, they smell terrible. And even the I got a game issued Hellas Verona 1. It wasn't game more even that one smelled bad. And I was like, damn, they just threw it in the kid bag or something. It smells, it smells very possible, but like, it's, it's sick. I'm gonna figure out a way to frame it, put it somewhere in this glorious apartment. But I, I, I absolutely love it. I was trying to get the US one. No, that's not happening. Chief. Those are worth like 6, 700 bucks. [00:04:17] Speaker A: Well, I, I will never understand Armand. And you'll remember that Tanya's senior year, he was emerged as a dominant force and he went to the D A playoffs and was MVP of the playoffs. Just a phenomenal player. And FC Dallas was going to let him go to college. Yep, I, I am. It boggles my mind. They were gonna let him go to Clemson. And then thankfully for him, there was an injury among the players that play his same position on the first team. And so they needed a body for spring training and they're like, well, Tanner, come on in. And he was so good that they were like, okay, you're having a homeowner deal. I don't know how you come out of his academy days and not already have a homeowner deal on table. I don't understand it. I never will understand it. [00:04:56] Speaker B: I think he's one of the. Is this a weird thing I say? I think it's very like an underrated story from the FC Dallas Academy. Because this guy is gonna be like up. I mean there's a very real chance he's a starter for a national team going into World cup in 2026. I think that impressive in the midfield. I mean he's so calm on the ball, he's lanky, he's the like. In my opinion, you know, that question everyone asks is what happens in your best athletes play soccer? Like, you know. [00:05:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:05:21] Speaker B: I think he's one of the examples of that. [00:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah, the great story about him going to Clemson football camp and kicking like 50 yard field goals, 55 yard field goals. Left footed. He's not even a lefty. And the coach was really impressed. And you know, of course that was Sweeney's, his godfather. But they were like, oh, can I do it right footed. And he would turn around and was doing like 60, 65. Just like the guy is ridiculous. But anyway, let's not get too caught up in the time Testman love fest. So Armand, cap guy, you're the man to ask this question. Just how screwed is FC Dallas in cap terms for 2026? [00:05:57] Speaker B: Not screwed at all. Not screwed at all. I let people know they actually have plenty of room. So I've compiled a sheet and it's going to be available on my blog, Football Analytic Musings. I think I'm gonna release it actually in conjunction with this episode. So hopefully tomorrow it'll be, it'll be out. But in there we have a little estimate and I shared it with Buzz about, you know, the amount of cap space that, you know, FC Dallas has. And I know there's a big deal, especially from what I've seen about the Ibiaga, about taking the Ibiaga contract and putting it, I guess, applying it, extending it, whatever, exercising it. I can't think of the right word right there, guys. They have plenty of space to operate, they'll be fine. They have a little bit of a roster crunch when it comes to roster space. Like around three to four players in there. But when you look at how much space they actually have available. Depending on what model they have, they could have up to. And this is my estimation at around 5, around 5.5 million in cap space to work with, including a DP spot, which is not going to be that big of a cap hit because if you guys remember, the DP cap hit is around $803,000 towards the MLS salary cap. So Buzz, they have a lot of space to actually work with, just depending on what model they choose. To me, that's not even the main question. The main question, I think is something completely different. And it's not about cap space. It's about what is a vision for this club in the next two seasons. And I think this is something that I was kind of talking to you about and I think it's something that. I think before we even get into the cap stuff that we have to talk about that part first. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Okay, so what, what is that then? What is this structure you're talking about? This, this two year maybe. And we. Listen, I'm gonna guess that we talk a lot about these three four year coach cycles. This is year two for Quill. So years two and three are coming up. I assuming that's kind of where you're going with that. [00:07:51] Speaker B: I'm going a little bit different. This is a very unique environment that we're in. Buzz, what are. What's going to happen in 2027, 2028, the schedule change, that thing, schedule change. [00:08:00] Speaker A: World cup bounce, maybe a new TV deal in the works? [00:08:03] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of things that are happening that are going to be. They're going to shake up mls, right? Like this is a massive move to change the schedule and there's just going to be a lot of kind of decisions to make. Is FC Dallas going to be going all the way in this 2026 season or will they do something to where they're more in line ready to compete in 2027, 2028? This is, I think, the idea that they have to have because it all tracks back to one player. And what player am I talking about, Buzz is Peter Musa. Peter Musa is. I mean, we've talked about it. I've talked about it on Blue Sky. I know you guys have talked about it on the pod. He is, he. You could make an argument for Peter Musa for the MVP race. Now would he win MVP in your argument? No, but you could make an argument that he should be in the MVP race because without him, where is FC Dallas? I don't know, Buzz. I. I Do not know where he. [00:08:59] Speaker A: Is without terrible at the bottom. [00:09:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, there could be, like, wooden. Wooden spoon. But with how the saga of Peter Musa has gone where they've had two kind of years of him, now he's getting national team cops, now he's getting more attention. I know, I know. It seems like he's happy here in Dallas. I've actually, hilariously enough, seen him around, like, Mavericks games. Like, no one recognizes him, but he's just walking around with his wife at Maverick games on Saturday. It's really cool to see. I'm like, oh, that's Peter Moussa. That's awesome. Awesome to see him, like, embracing Dallas sports. But. But Buzz, let me ask you this. If you're going to sell him in the summer, where do you go from there? Because then you're building a team for a guy that's going to be gone in the summer, Right? Like, you can try all you want to keep the guy, but we know he has goals and aspirations. I know he has a young family as well, too. If he says, I want to go back to Europe in the summer, how do you build a team around Peter Musa knowing that he's going to be gone? Right. Like, that's the thing that worries me about this. Think of Cucho Hernandez. They only had two or three years of him in Columbus before they sold him to Batiste. [00:10:12] Speaker A: One of the fun things about Musa was when he first got here is he would post Instagram photos of himself, like, in line behind somebody wearing a Musa jersey. [00:10:22] Speaker B: I remember that. I remember that. [00:10:24] Speaker A: Yeah. And people have, often foreign players in particular, particularly ones that played in Europe, have really enjoyed coming here and just being able to just go to dinner and not people bothering them. So that there, there is an appeal to that. Obviously, you know, it moves this particular case not to. Not to get off the whole cap talk and model building for a second. You know, I think there's something to be said for him to stay with Dallas leading into the World cup, because the last thing I think you want to do is change your environment four months out, because then all of a sudden you're changing your playing time, you're changing the coaching, you're changing your comfort. [00:10:55] Speaker B: He doesn't need to. I mean, he's got. He got the goal, he got. He hit the post in their sec, in their second qualification match window. He doesn't need to leave. He's already on the radar. Yeah. [00:11:05] Speaker A: Too much. Too much risk for him to leave right now relative to making the World cup now after the World cup, totally different question. And that's what we'll come to at the time when we have to have that discussion because it will be a thing, particularly if he gets some games and has a good run, then for sure you'll have to worry. But you know, at the same time, FC Dallas in particular, but also NLS in general, selling league, this club. Selling club. You know, you have to have plans in place and we talk about that a lot. It's like, is there a plan? Well, there better be a plan because you're a selling club. There better be something in place. All right, so in the context of this cap number that you've said that they. We think that you. You think they have. I agree, around 5.5. I won't get that specific, but that's in the ballpark of where I kind of thought it would might be. But that doesn't include the idea of this model that you mentioned, which is the two designated players and the 4U22 initiative. So is that 2 million they would get from that Armand, included in your 5.5? [00:12:04] Speaker B: It is, that's correct. So it is included in there. If they go three plus three. And by the way, guys, this is also including the money that they're going to get. I think in the Jesus Ferreira deal, they're getting around 500k in 2026. That's included in this calculation as well. If they go three plus three, which they would have to get rid of one of the U22 players in that process, then they would have around, I think, 3.5 to $4 million. Again, these are estimates, the best that we can do with the publicly available data that we have. So it would be a little bit less and then that 2 million would push it to that 5.5 billion that I mentioned. If they do decide to go the two plus four model, which it seems like that is the preferred way to go about it for a lot of clubs with an mls. I mean, if you look at, I know Miami, if you look at the teams left in the playoffs, I know Miami is on a three plus three. But you know, Vancouver's on a two plus four right now. San Diego, who's playing as we're recording right now, is on a two plus four. Minnesota is also on two plus four as well too. So it like, there is no like proper way to build a roster, I'd probably say. But if I was a betting man, I would bet on Dallas to go to two plus four route just because it spreads that money all throughout the Roster and also Dallas isn't a team that is, they spend money, right? But it's not going to be a team that's going to spend big money on three designated players. Right? [00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah, the Dallas likes to have a bunch of players right below or right at right. Tiny bit above the TAM line. You know, we've talked, we joked maybe, maybe it was when Retro Ziegler was here. That's when the last time we sort of had this conversation was like at one point Dallas had seven DP players. Well, that's the idea of these funny money, this TAM and this game where you, you buy guys down that gets so far into the weeds of how roster capping works. What you understand is Dallas is a club where they don't want to pay Messi 50 million. They want to play like 10 guys right at the cap line. But, but in the context of that, that's why they like, we think they like the 24 better. Also. The U22 guys are more sellable. You know, you put a little money up front, there's not a big cap hit and you can sell them on for more. Theoretically. That's why they like that idea that leans into the way they build teams. And on top of that, you know, you, they, they've sold Lucho Acosta and got back most of what they paid to get him. But in the meantime, plenty of room to operate and plenty of room to get things done. As you mentioned, one of the things I want to do, Arman, is I would like to talk about the, the moves that FC Dallas made in the last week and a half, whenever it was that they finally put out the roster moves. I want to talk about each of them that was let go. If you don't have a strong opinion about them, you can just, you know, say whatever. But if you have, I'd like to talk a little bit about how they might impact the cap or the roster as we go forward. And some of them are pretty straightforward and some of them are much more complicated. [00:14:54] Speaker B: Right. [00:14:54] Speaker A: So let's, let's start with what we know about the one free agent. They have, Jacob Jackson, who is obviously the third goalkeeper. I hear Armand, that is very unlikely that he would return. I don't know if you have any thing to add on that or whether, whether you, what you think about him in general. [00:15:11] Speaker B: I mean, personally, if I was Jacob Jackson, I would definitely utilize this opportunity that I had to get interest in free agency. You have, he's a, he's. I think he's eligible to be a free agent, if I'm. If I remember. Yeah, that's a very. Keep in mind that's a hard thing to do in MLS. Like it's still like he requires years of service, etc. Etc. So if I'm Jacob Jackson I want to explore free agency. Martin Poss is there. Michael Collodi is that is in there as well. It's a really tough situation. Go find yourself a spot where you can compete for a starting spot. If I'm Jacob Jackson, I would not want to return either. [00:15:43] Speaker A: Yeah, we think it's very likely he'll go for a spot where he can at least be a two. Compete for a one, you know. [00:15:48] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:15:49] Speaker A: He should. He put enough stuff in the window shop that someone's going to take a look at him. [00:15:53] Speaker B: He was excellent. I mean. [00:15:54] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean and maybe as the world changes, maybe even a USL club could come in and say here's 3 or 400k which is probably a lot more than he would get here. So. All right, that's a pretty straightforward one. All right, let's do the. The Kleins first because they're a lot of those are pretty cut and dried. Herbert Indelay. [00:16:12] Speaker B: I may recover from the acl. No real opinion on that. [00:16:15] Speaker A: Just kind of just a guy that kind of ran out of time and opportunity here and the injury is going to kill him. Here's the big one, Sebastian Legette. [00:16:22] Speaker B: Not surprised by that move. I mean he kind of teetered off towards the end of his tenure and he was on a really big cap hit. I will say with the amount of money they have and they do have roster spots, I was a little surprised that they didn't kind of come back and say, hey, we'll give you like a Paul Aureola kind of type deal where you know, Ariel was offered less money to come back on like a. More of a guaranteed deal towards the end, maybe like for one or two years. Because I don't think legit would want that. Like would want an insane amount and I don't think he would command that much in like, you know, in the free agency or whatever mechanism he goes through. But at the current hit that he has, I also would have declined it as well. [00:17:01] Speaker A: Yeah, age number. The option would have been a certain thing. Obviously once you decline then he's free and I imagine he believes that there's. There's some, there'll be some opportunities for him. Places that he are would more likely to be obviously with as many teams on the west coast and California specifically if he doesn't pop up on one of those teams, I'll be amazed. I mean you know he's got, he's got history with lots of those coaches out that way. So I, I, I don't think we've seen the last of him as a professional player by any means. [00:17:31] Speaker B: I agree. [00:17:31] Speaker A: I just don't think it's, I don't. [00:17:32] Speaker B: Think we saw, I mean in the playoff game that he had a little life to give in the, in that game as well. So I mean I'm not saying he's going to be like a 90 minute like starter in and out but like you're going to need these rotational pieces and what we've seen MLS is I mean look at the Vancouver White Caps, right? Like they're a team that is they literally survived on nine men. Half their team was like in injured against Dallas specifically and they were able to advance. So you need those depth pieces. I wouldn't be surprised if a team picked them up for a pretty good amount. [00:18:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean look at some teams out west that are going to need to re rebuild mode. Ella Galaxy, San Jose, both probably could use a veteran, you know with which might come out on a really nice number and still have something to offer. Just, just my thought process on that and, and they for all we know Dallas did ask him if he made us in a smaller deal. He probably said you know what, I'm gonna take my chances and go hope to go west. All right. Number was this 1, 2, 3. Padrino. I was a bit surprised to see them decline Petrino to be fair. [00:18:28] Speaker B: I was shocked. Yeah, I was shocked. I mean there's mo, I mean they must just really just not, not like the guy in my opinion or something along those lines because he's on a supplemental roster so he's not affecting your cap at all. He was on such a low amount that he wouldn't have done anything. And if you actually look at a lot, a lot of the numbers, there was a Miami game that skewed this number strictly but if you look at from American soccer analysis his goals added, his number is actually one of the highest in the league. Now again that number is skewed from the Miami make game etc but like for like again even if you're a move that is still like at a decently fine amount like I, to me it just seems like a very low risk player to keep. Unless you really think he's just gonna jack with the locker room. That's the only way I can think of it. [00:19:13] Speaker A: Well I, I'm Not, I'm not personally upset because I thought he was a, he is a talented player. And Quill did talk about how he liked how when at the earlier part of the year he and Lucha were on the field together. But you know, I feel like if you did, when you did start him, you got about 80 minutes of meh and 20 minutes of exciting. But here's the thing. At the end of the day, as much as it seemed like Will kind of liked him, Padrino was right hand running man for the Lucho Acosta Revolution attempt to overthrow the king. So you know, he was in the doghouse for a bit and they let him out and let him back into the locker room and he did some good work over the back end of the season. But I think when you account for that part that, that attempting to overthrow the king part, I think that's where it bites you. And the interesting part was that he declined the MLS re entry process and I read that as I don't want to stay in the United States. [00:20:05] Speaker B: Yep. [00:20:05] Speaker A: How you took that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. All right. The fascinating. This one also caught me a little bit by surprise. Diego Pepe. Now before you answer him on a lot of people may not remember that Diego Pepe was signed as a homegrown and was loaned to Tex Hulman, which was the new USL1 team. That was an interesting attempt at a homegrown coming through. Not North Texas, but something different. I kind of thought they would, they would want to say like, okay, did that work? How did his development go? But no, declined him. And based on his play, to be fair, you know, very few stars in USL 1. I get it, you know, on the field I get it but like I'm still a little bit surprised that that was a cut so fast after one season. [00:20:48] Speaker B: I want to jump too far ahead, but I was surprised by a lot of the academy moves. Or I say academy moves but like the players that the homegrowns that were all cut to me, like I, I again I understand like if a player isn't performing, etc, but when I was looking through I was like really? These guys, like these guys, all, all of them aren't good enough to, to be on your MLS roster. Which, okay, totally fine. But I, I honestly when I was looking through the names of like these guys, I was like, really, like I, I was surprised to say the least. I mean ruthlessness is definitely a word to describe it for sure. But like you said, like again, these are so low risk players. They are, yeah, like and high and high Reward that. Okay, maybe they're not high reward, I guess in that instance, and you'd rather just cut bait and clear that room up for a better academy class. [00:21:42] Speaker A: You can always stash them in North Texas too. But I think, I think there's a macro level theme that'll run through these players and some of it is related to Eric Quill. You may know him well enough to know this Armand, that he is very much a guy who thinks after a bit like he will firmly have decided, that guy can help me, that guy can't help me, or he will never be able to help me. And when you're a developing coach, when you're the North Texas coach, it may not be your, your responsibility necessarily to say, okay, cut him. But when you're the first team coach and your only responsibility is winning. Yep, very much so, you can say, okay, I don't need that guy. You can get rid of him. He's never going to help me. And that never because that never for Eric will is, you know, maybe just one more season or maybe even half a season if it goes wrong. At best, maybe it's two or three some. I mean, how many coaches have lasted here past five years? [00:22:35] Speaker B: Like barely anyone. [00:22:37] Speaker A: Poppy. [00:22:37] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [00:22:38] Speaker A: I mean, Shellis I think was five off the top of my head. Der was five, I think. [00:22:42] Speaker B: I mean, Nico and Lucci were like two and a half, Two and a. [00:22:45] Speaker A: Half to three, whatever, to count it. Yeah. I mean, you know, granted Poppy won, so Poppy stuck around longer. So like it, it's either win or get myself deep into the supporter shield or in. Deep in the playoffs or I'm leaving. So, you know, ain't no time to mess around with kids necessarily. Although we want them to play kids. Don't be. Don't get us wrong. All right, moving on to the next one. Thomas Ponda. I mean, come on, if you can't start in USL championship, you're not going to be starting wrestling out. So moving on from him, still got brothers in the academy, I think right here's the one that caught me off guard. [00:23:18] Speaker B: Anthony Ramirez, that one caught me off guard as well too. I was. Again, these, again, some of these moves, again, when it comes to a salary cap perspective, I just want to like, from a. Just take step back from a cap perspective. None of those moves that you've mentioned outside of legit are actually impacting the cap. [00:23:36] Speaker A: Because there's zero impact on the cap. Yeah. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Yep. [00:23:40] Speaker A: Yeah. The thing with Ramirez is that he was on an interesting homegrown deal. He had One of those one plus one plus ones. He was always on sort of a short leash with the homegrown deal. Admittedly perhaps a player like, I think the kid is really talented. He's had boatload of Mexico youth, international call ups perhaps better suited for a league that's not quite the track meet that MLS is. I think Anthony Ramirez is a player that you're going to see catch on in the pro game, whether it's in USL or whether it's in Mexico or something like that. I think he's not done, I don't think. But again, you know, we've talked a lot about, I've talked a lot about Eric Quill as both a combination of extraordinary, extraordinary athlete, you know, multiple sports star and a really quality player skilled enough to be chased by Ajax when he was in high school. So you know he does care about pace, power, athleticism. [00:24:31] Speaker B: I mean he talks about it all, he talked about all the time, every time you heard him he was talking about like he wanted to play its athleticism and get forward etc and then that's when I guess a lot of us were caught off guard when the style of play, how it started off to begin with and then we saw it in the second half of the season with the athleticism, with that pace of play etc. So I mean you took the words out of my mouth right there, Buzz. [00:24:51] Speaker A: Yeah, Quill went through a lot of trying to figure out how to play with the pile of players that he was given this this year. All right, next one. This one. I kind of was hoping that they would keep Carl Sante, although I don't want to. I didn't want to keep him for the first team. I wanted to keep him from North Texas because I thought he would have been a great guy. Going into your new venue to sort of build your team around as your captain, your solid six in the middle. You know, once they didn't keep Aaron Nessel, once they didn't keep Aaron Nessel, I thought, you know, Carl Sante bring him back, put him right in the middle. Admittedly, Carl Sante is at least a USLC level player, probably some Phoenix probably wants to keep him. You know, I imagine there's a good money on the table for him so it's the right thing to do to let him go. But I would have been okay with keeping him around. [00:25:34] Speaker B: I would have too. And I feel like he was kind of done dirty a little bit as well with the whole transition to center back thing. Now back to a six and like the whole thing was just kind of just not good for the kids. I would say for his career. [00:25:48] Speaker A: Yeah, the best chance for him to make it to MLS would be as a center back. I think his touch is just a tiny bit too loose for central midfield in mls. That's, that's why he'll never, I don't think, get to the most level. All right, here's the big shocker. [00:26:00] Speaker B: Tark Scott again, this is another movie that just surprised me. I, I don't. Yeah, like again, the reason why I'm surprised by his move, guys and Buzz is because again, these are such low risk moves that it's like you must have, you must be like really excited about the academy crop coming through to just clear all this out. That's what it's saying to me, at least personally because again, these supplemental roster players. Yes. While you have a limit on how much you could have, etc, they're not going to be like you can. Again, if they have room, you can move up to the current roster and make room for your supplemental guys. So again, I was surprised by it Buzz again, because I actually like Target Scott and he's. I actually thought he was pretty good in the small appearances that we saw him play for the first team. [00:26:44] Speaker A: Yeah, this is a, this is a player that was the best attacking player out of the academy since Ricardo Pepe. This is the player that's the combination of pace, power, athleticism that I think Will likes. So I'm really surprised. Obviously the, the double acl MCL tear right out of the academy was killer. Just stole a year from him. The first year back he looked pretty good actually this year. Obviously took a step back in pure production terms. I don't know where his head was. He probably felt like Sam Sarver had come in and passed him, perhaps some things like that. But for whatever reason, they're not choosing to keep Tark Scott. And I think, I think for me this is the. One of the names so far that's the biggest bummer because I really think he was the best attacker product they have. And if, and I'm looking at my academy list right now and I don't know how far down I got to go to find another nine kind of player that can actually contribute and maybe get to the most level. I mean, granted when you're looking at a team that has a $12 million, maybe even a $20 million when the day is done, when they sell them and Peter Musa, you know he ain't going to get into the nine and you got Logan Ferington he ain't going to get in front of Logan Ferrington either. But you know, in my model they still need a third nine, you know, a reserve striker. So, you know, I, I don't see anybody on the horizon from North Texas SC is going to fill those shoes by any means or the academy. So a bit of a mystery for me, but obviously I think you're on the same page with that. And the last one is the one that makes me the saddest of the, the cuts. And that's Alejandro Urzua. I know you will know him, Armand, but most listeners probably will not. This is a young man who, when, when my favorite Matthew Corcoran left FC Dallas, Alejandro Azura became the best player in his class. Terrific midfielder, box to box, eight game controlling player. He just has had been decimated by a series of injuries. For the first three years he was a homegrown. Finally, finally, finally this year back half of the season he got healthy and he looked okay, he looked pretty solid at North Texas. However, solid doesn't get you to MLS when he's going into the option year of his homegrown deal and it's about to escalate to 152, 25, whatever it is, you know, maybe even has to be on the senior roster. Well, that's not happening for a kid that hasn't even locked down North Texas yet. So it was, it was bound to happen, we predicted would happen. But still a player that I think has some promise, I mean, isn't he just now like 18, 19? I'd have to look, but I was, I was sad to see this because it was been so decimated by injuries. [00:29:17] Speaker B: And I think, Buzz, you bring up a good plan about promise, right? I mean if I'm an MLS team, this is a very, these are very low risk players. I keep saying the word low risk. I feel like I've said like 15 times. But if you're an MLS team going through the reentry draft or whatever, you know, these are guys you could just pick up stash in your supplemental roster, loan them down to your MLS next pro team and just see what they got. You know, it's like there's nothing, you have nothing to lose. [00:29:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Azura is only 19, so you know, again, a kid I think is talented. We'll see where he goes next. You know, obviously right now he wasn't ready to help FC Dallas. And again for Quill, if you can't help me right now, there's no reason to keep me around. I get it. Especially when his number was escalating going into year four as a homegrown and no one even knows who he is yet. So. All right, into the option pickups. And the first one is the big one, the really big one, the steamy one, the one that everyone wants to argue about and talk about, and that is Sebastian Iaga. Arman, you. You mentioned it a little bit before. Where you at? Big picture on Iaga. [00:30:17] Speaker B: Okay, so hear me out with this. Cap wise, we're not seeing a big impact, right? Like, that's something we kind of talked about. [00:30:24] Speaker A: Well, he's right on the max salary line, right? You have to actually pay to buy. [00:30:27] Speaker B: Him down relative to the space that they have. I don't think it's that big of it. I don't think it's that big of a deal. Context, yes, it matters what they do with the formation, right? I don't mind Ibiaga or even Lawless Abubakar as your third or fourth center backs. I think that makes for amazing depth. Actually, if you think about it, if your 5 is Osadi, Uruguay, insert center back here, Sebastian Abiaga, Law Sububakar and Alvaro Augusto. So I mean that, that center back five buzz to me is really good. Like. And again, the thing is this, again, this comes back to another, I guess, more macro point. What is your system going into the 2026 season? We don't know, Right. Shaq Moore was playing left center back for a lot of. A lot of minutes, right. Is that going to be something that. That's going to happen again? There's a lot of unknowns. Again, with the amount of space that they have and with whatever system and flexibility that they need, I'm okay with it. I understand why people are a little upset about it. For me, again, it doesn't impact who they can sign or what they can sign, in my opinion. So I'm okay with it. That's just me personally, because we just don't know the team's plan is, which I don't know if it's a good or a bad thing. It seems like a bad thing that I just said that. [00:31:45] Speaker A: So here's my thing. On Iaga, in a. In a vacuum, great leader, workhorse, fantastic. [00:31:53] Speaker B: From what I've heard. [00:31:54] Speaker A: Great work ethic, keeps himself in great shape. Great in the locker room. As a. You're right. As a three or four, in a vacuum, fine. That's terrific. Here's my problem somewhere. A few years ago, FC Dallas, someone at FC Dallas watched Ibiaga play an MLS cup and thought we're gonna take away their best center back. But here's the thing. In his entire career, Sebastian Ibiaga was a backup or a USL player Prior to coming to FC Dallas, he had one season with 18 starts. All the way back in 2018. [00:32:31] Speaker B: Way. [00:32:31] Speaker A: Back when and before that, only USL Since. Since that one season of 18 starts, 11 starts, 2 starts, 8 starts, 3 starts, 12 starts. That is not a starter in MLS, that is a career backup. He because LAFC has players get hurt, he plays an MLS cup, somebody at SC Dallas loses their cookies and goes in way over, pays for a dude for three years. Now going into year four, starting him all the time. So credit to him that every coach that had him here would pick him to start. But you're talking about picking him to start among three players or maybe even two or one because there isn't anybody else. You're also talking about a team that in 2023, when he first got here, put up some pretty good defensive numbers. But 2024 and 2025 are two of the four worst, or maybe it's five worst goals against seasons in club history. 55 and 56 goals the last two seasons with IBBY as the primary number one starter. Well, number two this year so bad, not good enough. So bringing him back to me on that number, which is a starter number, starter salary, regardless of how much cap room you have, it's a starter salary you're paying him. Bringing him back to me is a bad idea in part because we saw towards the end when they were winning games, who else can play center back? Nolan Norris can play center back. Shaq Moore can play center back. Hey, by the way, what's the second position for Giovanni Jesus? Center back, center back. All of a sudden I don't need a third and a fourth loss of Boubacar Ibiaga center back. I got three center backs right there to only one of which is probably going to start well. I was like, get back. Two of them are probably going to start somewhere else, but if you need them, it's because you're going to three at the back. And then that gets a very different question. I also think that there's some homegrowns coming out of college that are worth signing to be your center back. Probably your fifth and I think Alvaro is ready to be a third or fourth center back. I think if you got that guy around, he's now turning 20 and move maybe 21. Whatever it is, you have a center. [00:34:42] Speaker B: Back log jam from what you're saying. Buzz Whoa. [00:34:45] Speaker A: We have a log jam of center backs underneath one and two. Therefore, for me, like, if. If I is only going to make like five or six starts, cross your fingers, you might as well give those five or six starts to Nolan Alvaro. Whatever. So that's from, like. So my complaints about Iaga only have to do with salary, management, roster management, and the crap that they've done in those two categories for the last seven years. [00:35:13] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I mean, I. With your point in saying. I agree with it, like, completely. It's just very complicated. Because you don't want to lose a good locker room guy. Right? That's the hardest part. I think that's fair. There's only one season because, I mean, on a team that's, you know, there's not. When you look at this team, there's not really crazy MLS experience. Right. Like, when you kind of look through it and Ibiaga is your experienced MLS guy. And to me, if, again, this, I think kind of goes back to a problem where there's no plan. We don't know the plan. Excuse me. There is a plan, but we don't know the plan. Right. So if they go back three, okay, this probably makes a little bit more sense than if they go back to. But we don't know what's going on. And personally, for me, I wouldn't take the back end of what happened in that last season. As you're like, this is the beautiful data point that we're going to use, etc. So that's. That's where I'm a little concerned by. [00:36:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I will be shocked if they're in a back three next year because it will mean. It will mean that they have failed to sign a center back. The only reason you stay back three is that you can't get a second center back. Second starting center back. And then of course, Ibiaga probably has to play 30 games, probably, which would be that. So, like, as an insurance policy. So if. If I tell myself, okay, his salary really is a backup number, and then the other half of what he's going to get paid is insurance policy. Okay, you can, you can sort of talk me into it. [00:36:43] Speaker B: I feel like I could talk you into keeping Aviaga pretty. [00:36:46] Speaker A: Like, as an insurance policy, I can. But the thing is, is, like, I don't want him to take minutes. I want. [00:36:51] Speaker B: If. [00:36:52] Speaker A: If there's going to be. If there's. If there's a starter brought in. That's the caveat. Then I don't want. I want Alvaro to take minutes. You know, maybe if you're playing Vancouver or lafc, maybe Abiaga's in, but if you're playing anybody else, let Alvaro get in there. I mean, like, otherwise, why do we even have Alvaro here? Like, at some point somewhere you got to play him. You know, there's no point. By the way, Ibiaga, this is his last option. So after this, it would have to be new. [00:37:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:20] Speaker A: And he is, he will, he'll be 34 in January. Armand. 34. 4. That's. Wow. Okay, next one up, that was the controversial one. Next one up is actually, you know what, slightly controversial as well. Anderson Julio. [00:37:38] Speaker B: I thought this was worse. [00:37:40] Speaker A: Do you. That's, I'm the opposite. I, I think I like Anderson Julio. I think picking him up's a great idea. [00:37:45] Speaker B: I personally don't think you need Anderson Julio in this mix. I think he is, he kind of what Peter and I, we kind of talked about the beginning of last season. I want to victory lap it, but, like, we saw exactly what happened. He's never been a career starter and you're paying him a tam salary. Again, you can afford all these things, so it's not going to impact your ability to make moves. But I do feel like there is kind of, I wouldn't say like a log jam, but like, again, Buzz, I, I, I've said this like four times, so, like, I apologize. But again, it depends on what system you use. Because if you go to this back three, which I know you said, you don't think they're going to do it. He doesn't fit. He doesn't fit. But if you go to the back four, he does fit well. [00:38:33] Speaker A: That's why he's a sign that they're not going to back three again. They'll be going. [00:38:37] Speaker B: You think? Or is it more just flexibility? [00:38:39] Speaker A: No, he's a sign. Well, it is. It is. Throw a bunch of players in a pile. But do remember, do you remember that Anderson Julio was the most important player, most impactful player. That's what we used to say of the first half of the season before he was mvp. We said he was the most impactful player on the team? Of course, they weren't winning, so that's, you know, here nor there. Also, he's 100% a quill style player. Power, pace, verticality. He's a winger that fits the quill way, the way he wants to play. Here's the big thing for me. What if you're pretty positive you can't keep Peter Musa after next summer? What if you're pretty positive that Farrington is going to be your nine in the back half of the season, then there's not such a log jam at wing and all of a sudden maybe it's pretty cool to keep Anderson Julia around. I'm just saying if you're planning that's fair. [00:39:30] Speaker B: That's fair. [00:39:30] Speaker A: Multiple year model. [00:39:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that part's fair because I don't think they'll keep better Musa pass this summer. So that's totally fair. And again, none of the. You'll have what Don Deetson, Lucius and the Anderson Julio with Logan Farrington. [00:39:45] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:46] Speaker B: Is that your friend? [00:39:47] Speaker A: Maybe there's a Sarver in the mix. Maybe there's a Bernie in the mix. Bernie again, Quill player like Pace, power dress. Right. [00:39:53] Speaker B: You know we saw him in the playoff. [00:39:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Huge 99 for the rescue. I couldn't believe you got in that playoff game. [00:40:01] Speaker B: I'll be honest with you, man. When he came in I was like, oh my God, this is. This is over. Like, oh, the game's over. [00:40:07] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a give up sub. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Yeah, that was a human. Human. Like what's the opposite of a hue, like a victory cigar? It's the opposite of that. [00:40:13] Speaker A: It's the white towel and Rocky, throw it in the white towel. Throw in the white towel and it's white towel solidly. Yeah. New nickname, White towel. That's fantastic. Yeah. Unbelievable. So you know these, as you said, two year thought process, right? The World cup interrupting things are going to change. Can you keep patter, Musa? I mean not to be doom and gloom, but this is the reality that we live in here with S.E. dallas. [00:40:38] Speaker B: Right. Well, that's what makes the. That's what makes the two years of Musa so disappointing because he knew this day is going to come. And again I'm. I don't know anything that they're going to sell Musa. I, I came on the summer and I was like, well if they sell Musa, like. And you guys are like, okay, calm down. But this one seems a lot more realistic, especially if he makes the roster. Especially with, you know, being two and a half years of on a team, etc, especially with Dallas being a selling club, all the signs make sense and you need to have an insurance policy for him. So I mean with Anderson Julio, I mean, we'll talk I think a little bit more about that later. But with Anderson Julio, I think you've talked. See, I think I've kind of talked into Ibiaga. You've talked me into Anderson Julio. So I think it's a fair Trade the next one. We only, we don't need any talking into. [00:41:21] Speaker A: Yeah, no. [00:41:21] Speaker B: All right. [00:41:22] Speaker A: The last one of the pickup is Nolan Norris. [00:41:25] Speaker B: How. How dare they pick up a great player. How dare they. [00:41:29] Speaker A: This is the player that gives me the happiest soccer brain smiles. Because this is the one of the players that when he was 13 years old and I saw him playing for the FCU 14 team and a lot of times when I watch and scout kids of that young of age, I don't really try and analyze them, I just watch. And in that first game that I watched him play like six times in the game and the way my brain kind of works is like not on the top level but subconsciously I'll be thinking about as the ball moves around, okay, this guy, it's the ball is going to go up the side and we're going to go in, we're going to. And the ball will come to him and he would do something that my brain wasn't ready for. And so like six times in that first game my brain went what? And I'm watching a 13 year old kid play and like he just lit my synapses on fire. And so since then I've been tracking him. I was a little worried that he wasn't going to be athletic enough to get all the way to mls, but I'm super excited he has and you can see that his soccer brain and his quality passing are. Look how good he looked in that last game. And there have been German teams after him. That's why they signed him in the first place. And that's why even like this winter there were German teams sniffing around. The kids got people after him, you know, so you know, for all we understand from what we hear, people we talk to, he's a big part of the plan. So obviously moving forward it's a no brainer that they picked him up. Even if it's just a settlement, it's like a year. But I think he's going to be, you know, obviously I think he goes into that next spring. On paper he's listed first. He's the first guy to get a chance at left back to will be there as well. And I think we'll see what happens. Based on the system, perhaps based on how he's playing, based on how Tarkato's playing. So we'll see. But so you're with me on Nolan Norris being the auto pickup. [00:43:09] Speaker B: I have a like an injury, not an idea. But like for me when I look at the U22 spots, I always think that an MLS team should keep one spot just for their academy player, just to kind of show a pathway to say, hey, you can be in this spot and we're not going to touch it unless it's going to be you. And those are players that actually we've seen a lot of success from for U22 initiative. I mean if you look through the list of FCLC 22s, they're really just hit, miss, hit, miss, hit miss, to be honest with you. But mostly with those homegrown guys. We know what you're getting right from, not only from on the field, but off the field. If Nolan has a really big year this upcoming year, I would, if I was a technical director and his 2026 goes well, I'd offer my U22 deal going to the 2027, 2028 year. You can do that. If it's your second contract, you can do that with those players. And that again brings FC Dallas back to this whole like, hey, our academy, like we value this heavily. But you can't do it right now just because he hasn't really proven proven. I think he's a great player from what I've heard and what I've seen from when I worked at the club. Everyone loved his soccer brain. It was just where can you fit him on the field? Was a big situation even when back when Nico Estez was coaches, where do you fit this guy on the field? How do we get him on there? It seems like we finally have found that. But again, he has to prove it across the season, right? Not just cross one or two games. So that's where I would wait. But if that happens, that natural path occurs. I think it's a big success for the club. I enjoy watching the one Norris play. That last game against Vancouver is outstanding and I agree with you 100. You should have the first shot. And what, how exciting is it that your left back competition potentially is two homegrowns in Josh Torquato and Nolan Norris? [00:44:48] Speaker A: And not to spoil it for everybody, but there's a. There's a line of like three or four amazing left backs behind them in the academy. I don't know what essay Dallas did because left backs are hard to find but there's a truckload of them coming which is compared to right back. There's not. Right back is only one or two, but left back is bizarre. It's crazy. We'll talk about that some other day. So Nolan has an option for 2027, so they can certainly keep him around as Long as they want to. It's interesting that you point out the U22 like that idea of making a home run. A U22 that didn't came about since Dallas brought through your. Your Paxtons, your Jesus, your Brian Reynolds. That's a new idea, a new version of that rule. Maybe Nolan Norris will be the first home run that gets a shot at that. That's a really interesting point. That's. I hadn't. I hadn't thought of that. So Arman, that's. That's quite good. All right, that's. That's it for the contract options and picks ups and free agents. Arman, I wrote a thing in the last week about what I think the path forward is for FC Dallas. The switch to the 4231 which is a double pivot. We've talked for a million years about signing the center back since Reto Ziegler left. I think you go for a 10, get underneath in that hole. Do you buy my plan for SC Dallas or do you like a different plan? [00:46:04] Speaker B: I buy your plan to switch the back four or whatever system Quill's comfortable with. I. If I was looking at the last few games, I know some, I know some people have mentioned that Dallas's points per game would be X. If you look at what Dallas, Dallas like what the situations that Dallas played, it took a lot of fortune to get Dallas to where they were. Right. Keep in mind you drop a couple points here and there. They're not in the playoffs. They don't get those games against Vancouver. And one of those games was when Jacob Jackson stood on his head against St. Louis. Right. [00:46:33] Speaker A: 12 saves. Yeah. [00:46:35] Speaker B: Another. A few of the other games were teams on short rest. Portland when they came in after leagues cup playing in Austin against Club America. Austin, who was looking forward in their game against Minnesota in the, in the open cup when Dallas played them at in Dallas or Frisco. And also there was a third when Portland played Vancouver midweek in Vancouver and then Dallas played Portland. They drew him two. Two. I'm not saying all those games would have turned against Dallas or even the Galaxy in that game in Frisco where the Galaxy just came off Campiones cup and Gabriel peck wasn't playing, etc. Etc. Now obviously we could say that the same things. Okay. What if Logan Farrington doesn't get sent off in the Galaxy second game. Right. But you had a lot of results go your way. So I personally wouldn't go the back three. It worked. It did its job. It bought you Time. Perfect. Now go. Now let's go to what you prefer. Eric Will. But Buzz, I kind of alluded to this earlier. I would look forward to 2027, 2028, and I would be very cautious with your build. So what does that mean? I'm not saying tank in 2026. No. There's no incentive for MLS team to tank. You should go for playoffs no matter what. But I would take my time finding that 10. And I would wait till the summer window. You might say, why would you do that? That's a weird thing to do. Why would you want to wait till the summer window? There's some. Why is MLS even moving the schedule? [00:47:54] Speaker A: Because some are World Cup. [00:47:55] Speaker B: Yeah, it's way more active. It's way more active and it has a lot more activity. You have a lot more variety to pick from it. But again, it depends on what Peter Musa wants. If Peter Musa comes to you and says, hey, I see myself staying in Dallas for the long term, I love it here, etc, even if you get big offer, I want to stay here. I want to renegotiate. That's a different story. I don't feel like that's the case with Peter Musa. I feel like he'll. There's a potential chance he'll want to go back to Europe again. I don't know anything about him. I'm just assuming if that's the case, we. It's going to be very hard to replace him. Right. Why not get a guy that. Why not wait till, you know that window, see what happens there and then implement a guy? Because, look, just tell Eric Quill and you have to give Eric Quill this. Just say you're going to be our coach in a 2027, 2028 season. These seasons are a mess. These seasons are a mess. You have a weird Sprint season in 2027 to make 14 games or what? Whatever. Who's going to remember that? Do you Remember who won MLS's back? [00:48:52] Speaker A: Nashville, Portland. [00:48:54] Speaker B: See, oh, remember Nashville got eliminated with Dallas because they had too many coveted cases. Yeah, but. Exactly. No one's gonna remember that sprint season. So if you think Peter Moose is going to leave, okay, get that center back that you want to build that relationship with Osage Irigide, but hold those spots, see what you have available and then go and then. Because when you got a guy this summer, it's not an instant hit. Buzz. Yeah, Chris Capis was an instant hit, but Don Deon, Lucius, who they spent a million dollars on what? He didn't do anything in his Second half of the year, when you look at guys like Wasim Abu Ali in Columbus, right, he didn't do anything and he was a DP for them as well. The impact players are Thomas Mueller and son, but those are the exception in MLS, not the norm. So to me, prepare for 2027, 2028, tell Eric Quill, you're going to be our guy, compete and, you know, bring in guys to help in this current roster stuff. You don't need to make a big, big move. But also, I think it's fair to say we want to see what we got. Let's build for the real MLS season this comp in 2027, 2028 and go from there. I know it's a really hard and difficult, like ask, I think it's a little bit different, but for me it's not tanking, it's not doing anything, but it's a reality situation with an uncertain future. Peter Musa, if Peter Musa leaves, how fast you're going to find a replacement, then you're stuck in this cycle all over again, right? [00:50:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:17] Speaker B: That's the whole issue with again the two years of Peter Musa. And to me, wait till 2027, like get the guys in summer of 2026, you give them a year to acclimate to the city, to the team, etc. And keep in mind, Buzz, in the summer window, they have what, seven straight away games. How hard is it going to be to acclimate a player to go play seven straightaway games? That to me is going to be very difficult. And yeah, kind of all those factors together is why I've kind of stumbled upon the, the point I, I have. Because who's going to remember what's going to happen that 2027 sprint season and 2027, 2028, you come with a bang, you have a good roster, your stadium will be hopefully full capacity by the second half of that year. Why not? [00:51:01] Speaker A: It'll be interesting too next summer. Because the World cup actually gives you sort of a. Without having looked at the windows yet, the World cup sort of gives you a summer training camp where you could even bring in a guy and have like a month of training camp to get him acclimated before that start of that second half of next season, you know, which might be an unusual situation. You know, Logan, get used to playing nine because Petter Moose will be gone, you know, and we'll move forward from there. [00:51:27] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. We don't know that Petter Moose is going to leave. Right? Like we don't know. [00:51:32] Speaker A: But around if. [00:51:33] Speaker B: But the guy, first off, the guy's been incredible. The guy. I wouldn't be surprised if other MLS teams were knocking on the door saying, hey, we want this guy. Why? Why would we take a risk on a guy like for example, Immanio Lotte Loth, no offense to him, but he had a one year acclimation period with Atlanta. He strokes. He got so fatigued. We, There's a guy in Peter Musa, okay, we'll offer Dallas 15 or $20 million. That's a profit on what they got. Why like again, does Dallas want to sell in league? I don't know. But again, it just. To me it seems like that Peter Musa, because he's playing so well and that's the only reason why is going to be on his way out in the history of Dallas is they don't retain these guys, they sell them and that's fine. That's how world football works. [00:52:14] Speaker A: It is how world football works. And you bring up the idea of getting players from other teams. I have a Major League Soccer fantasy GM move of trying to pride the Diego Luna out of our cell, which I know would never happen, but I still dream about it. [00:52:29] Speaker B: That's a, that's a crazy. I mean you, you've been dreaming about it for like a year now. It's a kind of a long dream. [00:52:33] Speaker A: I know. Make him a DP because that's the only way you get him out of rsl would be. [00:52:37] Speaker B: Only way would be dp and he's, he's such a fun, talented player, which, I mean, that'd be awesome if, if Dallas did that and that would show so much ambition and so much. I think that would put any narratives to rest of like, okay, this team doesn't care until the stadium is built. But again, I think if you're clear with your communication, which sometimes we haven't really heard that from the club at all. No, if you're clear with your communication and you under and you tell the fans, hey, this is what's going on and we're doing this to make sure that we're going to be good in the times that matter. I don't think anyone have a problem with it, to be honest with you. [00:53:13] Speaker A: Well, let me ask you this. One of the ideas, of course that we have kicked around Armand is rather than going for a 4, 2, 3, 1, which is the double pivot, which requires the 10, there is a case to be made for the way North Texas SC played under Quill back in the day when he won a championship and that is more of a pure 43 3, which is a single pivot with guys like Alafonse Jata, who was the Quill six at the time. [00:53:40] Speaker B: You are throwing some extreme throwbacks right now. Don't say Breck Evans too. [00:53:46] Speaker A: They would have Breck. Yeah, we can go, we can go get Breck Evans back from. Where's he at? [00:53:53] Speaker B: He's in, I think California now. I follow him on Instagram. Oh my God. Like. [00:53:56] Speaker A: Yeah, he's kicked around the USL for quite a while. But you know, Emino Almaguer is an eight. David Rodriguez is your other eight. And most importantly, Arturo Rodriguez was his left wing. A false swing right, and then either a Pepe or a Damus has a vertical nine up the middle. And the other wing was a more traditional wing. But that idea that like, oh, maybe, maybe instead of a 10, maybe. Maybe the idea of like a false wing, like a Alex Z kind of DP might work for Quill better. But then you have to talk about the idea of Kaik or Ramiro as a single pivot six. So do you like that idea at all? You know, or does. Or do you think I. I'm of the mind maybe that. That Ramiro's too slow for that and Kai's too young for that at this point to try it? [00:54:44] Speaker B: I do like that idea because the idea of two eights is very interesting to me. Like two ball winning kind of attacking eights. And I'm assuming you would say that that's Capis and Paxton in this. [00:54:56] Speaker A: Someone would. Someone would say that. Yeah. We're worried about Paxton, but. Yeah, yeah. [00:55:00] Speaker B: I mean, I wouldn't bank my future on Paxton. I love, I love the guy, but I wouldn't bank my future on him. I think you have other pieces that could fit there as well. I like that. I like the idea quite a bit. I. It's. It's going to be the idea of a full swinger though. This. Isn't that what they try to do with Alan Velasco? [00:55:20] Speaker A: It is. And they kind of did that with a Lucho at the first half of last season. Yeah, did it a little bit. And we've seen Delgado do it a bit towards the back half of this season, sort of. [00:55:28] Speaker B: To me, I think again, the more simple you keep it, the better. And I think the way we've. We saw the ideas of how Quill wanted to play in the second half of the year. The ideas, forget the formation. We want to press the hell out of you. We want to win the ball high. We want to go very progressive and forward direct with our play, etc. The. The bet honestly, if you think about it, the dual eight second distribute, that is honestly a gateway to get to that point, right? You have two guys distribute to these wings. You can do a track meet. You can have a track meet with these guys and also buzz the. Honestly, this is going to sound a little weird, but hear me out. The goal for FC Dallas, it should be to win games and to showcase Peter Musa, to make sure that he gets on a national team, to show to every. To show to future players. Look, this guy came from Benfico, which is a top team, came to mls, wasn't. Was kind of on the radar, but fell off the radar and now is leading, now is on the World cup roster. How amazing of an advertisement is that for your team? And Peter Musa excelled at being the guy. We saw it in the second half of the year. He was that guy. And all it takes is a small tweak to the formation and you can have a very similar system to what you had in the second half of the year. Right. Like again, find Peter Musa, find the head of him, find his feet, have those wings that go cut, cut the agony and play with pace. I don't think you're far off an idea at all. I think it's a totally fair point. [00:57:00] Speaker A: Yeah, you, you. You'd have to look at a Romero Kaik, one or the other being a single pivot. Then you get into capis and pass and you have a Diego Garcia is an 8. Obviously Patrick and Delgado can sort of figure in is that eight. You know, there are some bodies there that can fill those roles when you get into false swing kind of territory. Unless you're going to think of Logan Farrington as a false swing. They got rid of the other guys that can false swing, which is pre Dino and Anthony Ramirez and Lucho Acosta. They did of course keep. [00:57:28] Speaker B: I mean that's where you sign someone though, right? Like that's probably where you'd sign someone. [00:57:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that either you have to, I think with your DP either go for a 10 or a false swing. The, the center back does not need to be, in my opinion be a DP because I think you can get a TAM center back, you know, up to a Paxton ish million if you need to. With, especially with the cap room that you have. I think you can get a really quality. I mean, keep in mind, look at where Irgide's salary is. You know, his number is a TAM number because of his buy that you had to make to get him, you know, so like the salary for a top end center back, you know, doesn't have to be the same as Ibiaga's 750 or whatever he's getting, you know, you could pay him. [00:58:10] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:58:11] Speaker A: Makes twice what Oz does is amazing to me. [00:58:14] Speaker B: No, exactly. And I think the, the whole, the whole con you again a DP level center back again you don't need and actually sometimes they can handicap you a little bit when it comes to captain. Look at Walker Zimmerman. He thinks he's a fantastic player but for the last couple of years in Nashville he's bogged down their cap situation and finally had to kind of let him go to kind of open up their ability to spend a little bit more. So you don't need to spend big on a set on a center back. You can get a Tamil center back, have plenty of cap room left over by the way and be totally fine. So I agree with you. I would attack the center back. I think if you're right back, I think if your center back one, I think you have your goalkeeper competition. I think you also have your left back competition. I would also maybe look to get maybe another like Ramiro I think would struggle in the system. That's the thing where that's the only thing that I think makes it difficult as he is again a leader in the locker room and. And you want that guy, you want that presence. But it him and Kaik as a single six I think would lead to a lot of problems because Kaik is still very young and learning and growing as a player. So he's prone to mistakes. And Ramiro, when he makes the mistakes, he gets caught out with the most athletic players in the can't catch up tens and forwards. [00:59:30] Speaker A: Well, I think what Ramir was meant to be and I think you can look at his salary as a large indicator of this. He was meant to be a 12th man. A, a guy you can start at like six different positions when you need to in an emergency. Great. In your locker room gonna help the young kids, gonna coach em up. You know, that's the idea with him and that's what I think we want him to be. So I agree with you. One of the reasons why I didn't promote the idea of a single pivot Pure433 is that it then adds in. I think you're right. The idea that you need to go get a six I think because you know Kai would be your second choice and Romero would play lots of different places in various games. [01:00:05] Speaker B: And Kai, in my, in my opinion, Buzz, I mean, I think I came on the show and said this or maybe I said somewhere else. I was shocked they played so much and I don't think it was the idea of the club for him to play that much either. [01:00:14] Speaker A: Yeah, they were shocked too. That wasn't the plan for sure. [01:00:16] Speaker B: Exactly. So he got a lot of time to develop and grow, etc. But I would rather have maybe not a guy that's so much better than him, but a guy to compete with him. Right. An MLS vet or something to compete with them a little bit and put some pressure on him because you don't want to be comfortable either. You want to learn and grow that environment. [01:00:35] Speaker A: I would say that you could, in a worst case scenario, you could have Norris compete with him, but I don't think that's the answer either. I agree with you. You want a, you know, a journeyman, sort of 26, 27 year old veteran, you know, MLS 6:1 that you don't have to pay a lot of money for. You're not looking for a superstar. You're looking for a solid dude that you could plug in there and can play a lot of minutes for you, you know, when you need to. [01:00:57] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:00:58] Speaker A: All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put you on the spot and if you don't want to answer this, I'll edit it out. And that is. Look around, think about mls. Think about who hit the free agent market. Think about who might be available. Is there one player out there that speaks to you from another team in a somewhat realistic capacity? [01:01:16] Speaker B: Let me look at the, let me look at the free agent list. That's, that's, that's gonna be tough. I mean, there is like. The thing is, MLS freedoms is hilarious because you could get, there's a few guys you could get right, like with, with MLS for agency. Oh, that. The thing is, I think it's a play. I think there is gonna be players available from Cincinnati that you could potentially pick off Cincinnati cap kind right now because they're about to promote Miles Robinson to a third, to a third dp, which means they need a cut salary. I'm not saying sign Matt Mazga to a. A big deal, but you could if they, if they let him go, or teenage Hadebe if he wants to come on a lower deal, etc, or Kubo, who's basically a Swiss army knife when it comes to everything. Cincinnati will have guys that are going to have to let go from the, the available guys. [01:02:16] Speaker A: I'm gonna throw a couple names at you that have been promoted out there for one. Christian Espinosa. Espinosa with San Jose. Where they up the, Excuse me. Screwed up the, the filing and let him get become a free agent. Or a Hassani Dotson out of Minnesota United. Perhaps tempt your tummy there with any of those names. [01:02:37] Speaker B: I mean, Dotson, if he's available. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you definitely want to go for him as a six, right? Like, I think it'd be awesome to go for as a six. Yeah. Not out of contract Christian Espinoza, that one. He's a star. He's a, I mean he's been a fantastic player. [01:02:53] Speaker A: I mean, that's the false swing we're talking about, right? [01:02:55] Speaker B: He'd be the false swing. I, I still would want you to try someone else. I like him a lot. I think he's a fantastic player. I think there's better options out there, especially in the global transfer market. That can also be more of the FC Dallas way. [01:03:11] Speaker A: How about a. Sam Junka is a free agent? [01:03:13] Speaker B: I don't think you need him. [01:03:15] Speaker A: No. Yeah, yeah. [01:03:16] Speaker B: What about Joe Paulo from Seattle? [01:03:20] Speaker A: How old is Japan? How I love him as a 6. How old is he? [01:03:23] Speaker B: Yeah, he's old as hell, but he's, he's Brazilian and also he could be a mentor for Kaik. [01:03:29] Speaker A: You know, he actually is one of my favorite players over the last like six or seven years in MLS. He is our 34, but you know, you might be able to talk me into that if you're going single pivot. I could buy it. I could buy it. [01:03:44] Speaker B: Well, I got one year deal. One year deal. [01:03:46] Speaker A: One year deal. 1 year if we'll take it. Flipping through the list real quick, here's a, here's a weird one for you. He's not an option, but do you know anything about Curious Shelton with Kansas City Kyrie? [01:03:59] Speaker B: Sheldon was okay man. [01:04:00] Speaker A: Like, he was, you know that he's, he went to high school in Dallas. [01:04:04] Speaker B: Yes, someone mentioned it to me at some point. I, I is not surprised when you said that someone mentioned me at some point. He kind of was a wing back at one point. Like they kind of threw all over the place. Yeah, you don't need him like. [01:04:15] Speaker A: Well, he's not an option anyway. So it's just kind of brought it up because of the Dallas connection. That's sort of, sort of fun to throw that around. It bothers me that they, they put all these names of people that are under option as on the free agent list and it muddles up my scanning through here and makes it hard to find the players that I'm looking for. Okay, one last one I'll bring up. And I actually think it's probably a bad idea because he gets hurt all the time. But I really like Eric Williams Williamson. [01:04:45] Speaker B: I do too. [01:04:46] Speaker A: Back in the day, you know, with the seasons he's put together healthy have been pretty good but man, he just cannot keep it together in terms, I. [01:04:54] Speaker B: Mean then you'd have two center maids that have health problems. [01:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [01:04:58] Speaker B: You'd have pack. [01:04:58] Speaker A: Like I said, I don't think it's a good idea. But man, I still, I mean it's. [01:05:02] Speaker B: A fun idea because when he's. You're right. When he's on, he's on and he's fantastic. [01:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. All right. You brought up the redheaded elephant in the room, Paxton Pamol. Where are you on his. His health and putting faith. The club apparently putting faith in him or expecting him to be a 34 game starter? Well, not 34, probably 30 game starter in 2026. Are you buying that smoke? [01:05:32] Speaker B: No, they. He should. Again, you're asking a guy who hasn't played a full season in what, two or three years to jump in here and be. And be a guy that can just dive in and be a 30, 34 game starter. I hope that's not the idea. I hope it's maybe more. He's more 15, 16, 17. You need some balance in the midfield as well too. Again, this kind of, if you go your the way that you were thinking, Buzz, with the formation, I think this also allows for more competition in that area as well too. Because as much as I think we all respect Paxton, his story, his comeback, etc, I do not. First off, the way that the club handled his comeback to the first time was not great. It was bad. [01:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:20] Speaker B: Just to be really quite honest with you, it was pretty irresponsible from I think everyone at the club to put him in that situation. And again, it's not. I, I again would be. If I was Paxton, I'd be a little. Do I trust these guys? [01:06:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:35] Speaker B: Kind of situation, which I mean again it sounds like he does. So that's all fine if again, you have to be very cautious of this situation. I know Paxton's 25 years old, but his body is definitely older from what we understand. Look at a guy, I hate to make this comparison, but look at Anthony Davis for the Mavericks. Like look at that guy. He's just been consistently injured and people are like, oh, he's gonna be back or whatever. Just injuries happen to some guys consistently. It just, just sometimes that's how it is. If he's your guy for maybe 14, 15 game starter, you can mix him in. You have some competition in the middle. I'm totally cool with that. As a 38, 34 game starter. [01:07:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:07:13] Speaker B: I think it's very irresponsible to, to put pressure on him to be that guy. E2 also. [01:07:19] Speaker A: Okay, so in his nine seasons in MLS. Nine seasons in MLS, how many 30 plus start seasons. Don't look guess off top of your head. How many 30 plus start seasons has Paxton had in nine seasons? [01:07:35] Speaker B: It's like one or two. [01:07:36] Speaker A: One? [01:07:37] Speaker B: Yep. [01:07:38] Speaker A: How many, how many 20 plus start seasons has Paxton had In his nine seasons in MLS? [01:07:43] Speaker B: Like two or three. [01:07:46] Speaker A: Two. [01:07:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:07:47] Speaker A: He's had 120 game season and one 30 game season. [01:07:51] Speaker B: The idea of, the idea of Paxton being the 30, 34 game starter was that more the idea during a Lucci Gonzalez days. If anything like way back when, like. [01:08:01] Speaker A: Man, the whole back half of this season, people at the club have been telling me no, that's, that's, that's the plan. He's going to be. It's Paxton and campus in the middle. That's the combo. [01:08:11] Speaker B: I mean that's, I mean look, famous last words. They could totally prove me wrong like this. They could come back. We can come back next year. They're in the playoffs still and Paxton's playing 34 games. It is irresponsible in my opinion to put pressure on a kid or he's a grown man. Pressure on a man that has struggled with injuries. To be a 30, 34, you need a contingency plan regard in there. I get that's your vision. I get that's your idea. But you need another guy in there just to just again to put pressure off of him and let's see how it plays out. Right. Versus I think that's crazy buzz that they're coming to and say nope, that's the idea. I think that that's what's gonna like that's what we hope is a dream scenario. I mean isn't that everyone's dream scenario though? [01:08:58] Speaker A: Yeah, but the odds that it can happen are so long. I mean you're right compared to him too, man. [01:09:04] Speaker B: That's the thing that bothers me I think the most. [01:09:07] Speaker A: And we talk about that position. Right. You Christian Cap is obviously terrific signing, lovely addition. Right. We can probably include Passion Delgado in that conversation. [01:09:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:09:18] Speaker A: Including him. He's really more of a 10, we finally have realized. But he's not really a string pulling 10. He's kind of like this weird hybrid thing. So maybe he could be that guy, right? Kaik's not an eight. Maybe you can use Romero in there for a few games. Maybe as an 8. Maybe he can go for it a little bit. But, you know, and then you're like, what, Diego Garcia? Hey, look, let's give Diego Garcia plenty of playing time. Love that idea. Nolan. Nolan is an 8. I don't buy so much. Nolan is a 6. I can buy. Well, there's an 8. I'm not really buying that. And then that's it. At that point, you have to start talking about Caleb Swan, who's not ready. Caleb Swan maybe had the best season at North Texas. He ain't ready to start from Major League Soccer yet. He needs another season run in North Texas, you know, great player. I think eventually so do you. [01:10:06] Speaker B: Do you recall seeking, sabbling from loan and say, hey, this is your. You can come in the mix, boy. [01:10:12] Speaker A: You might have to. I mean, you know, that's my. That was kind of the point I was working towards is you probably, if you're going with a double pivot, you know, cabbage packs them together or. Or a single pivot with two eights packs, you probably need a body in there. Maybe, you know, I don't know if maybe, maybe between Patricson, Elgato, Ramiro and Diego Garcia, three guys and Paxton, you know, but then you're looking at. I need cap is to go 34 because like those other four guys together maybe make a. So like, you know, there's some risk factor here. When we talked about the way you're going to build this idea of getting a center back and the idea of getting a 10 or a false swing or whatever, we're skipping the midfield. And what I talked about with Peter and Dan was, man, it's hard to do everything in one year. Like, so year two, get the 10, get the center back, get that straight. And then maybe we look at midfield the next time. Maybe Kayak's a year older. Maybe passing is healthy and we're all in love with that. Maybe Derek Garcia has come through. You know, maybe then. Or maybe you had. That's when you had to go out. [01:11:16] Speaker B: And get the summer or something like that. I think that's. I think it's like either summer or 20, 27. I think that's totally fair to do that. [01:11:22] Speaker A: Going back to your idea of, like, don't do it all at once. You know step at a time, you. [01:11:26] Speaker B: Know so be piece by piece. And again people I Again the 2026 MLS season is such is going to be such a bizarre year. Not only in for the club but for MLS as a whole with this whole transition etc. Keep in mind that the season for Dallas is going to be even more bizarre because the weird they're going to be one of the teams not because of that their stam is in use for the World cup but they're going to have that weird road trip start of the second half of the year. It's going to be brutal straight off the straight off the World Cup. So it's going to be a really strange year for the club itself. You don't again you have to everything all at once again. Give your confidence in Eric Quill. Say you're going to be our guy. Let's get ready for 2027, 2028. Don't outwardly say those things but show it in your moves and also describe it to people as well. I mean be fair and be honest. You're still going to compete. You're still going to do those things. It's just I I the whole Paxton playing 30, 34 games thing. How can you say that with a straight face to like anybody right? Like I have a face of concern. Like if you're we could show his live. I'm just like why would you want to put so much pressure on that guy that you know he's going to push himself to do that best to do his best to do those things. It just bothers me because it's yeah. [01:12:43] Speaker A: It'S a crazy bet to make. [01:12:45] Speaker B: I would not make that bet personally. Would you? [01:12:48] Speaker A: All right. No, I would not. Okay. I think you hinted this is my last big question for you. I think you hinted at this earlier when you were talking about the model that best fits what SE Dallas is doing, the 24 model. Would you advise what is your personal feeling? You think it is best for them to stick with the two DPs and four U22s or do you think with this cap room they should go for a third DP in 2026? [01:13:14] Speaker B: They should stick with two plus four. I think we're starting to see a two plus four work because what ends up happening is you spread that gam across and you also have leftover allocation money as well too. And the key thing is because remember the money you get from the model you cannot roll over but you but when MLS team will do is apply that money first. The one that they can't roll over so then they have more money to roll over. People think there's going to be massive changes in 2027, 28 to the whole salary, the roster rolls. I think there will be big changes. I think there's going to. But I think GAM will still exist. So you still want to roll some over into that 2027, 2028. I think it will exist until 2030 something to be honest with you. They're not gonna just get rid of all that stuff. I think that no, the DP is still gonna exist. TAM won't exist, but GAM will exist in, in a more expanded way essentially. So you go two plus four, you keep your powder dry and those things and you can put the depth across the entire roster. Look, this isn't a team that is like one step away from being MLS cup contenders. Right? They are multiple steps away from being MLS cup contenders. [01:14:20] Speaker A: Yes. [01:14:21] Speaker B: So spread that across multiple bits of your roster. Use that. May you with the five. I have a. I've in the sheet that I'm gonna. It's gonna be posted. It says 5.9 million. Let's say it's all 5.9. It won't be, it'll be less. But let's say it all is. You can get two tamble players with that money buzz. You can get three. If you really want to push it. If you really want to figure it out, that's what you can get. TAM center back, you can then get a TAM center mid and you can also get a DP 7. A DP like false winger, false 10. And you're filling in those gaps perfectly while having room to again roll over later on. To me it's a no brainer to go two plus four and also just gives you flexibility to do more things. And the one move I would probably say that they probably should do is maybe clear up one of those U22 spots for another player to throw a dart throw on. I think you know what you have with 99. Like 99. Yeah. Giovanni J. Zeus. We don't know what this guy even has anymore. Right. [01:15:24] Speaker A: I mean it's been two years but at least he had something before it all happened, you know. And in worst case scenario you can injury what him ever again or use your second buyout on him. You know, if you use the first one on something else. I'm with you 100. You have to get in a sally off the books has to happen. [01:15:38] Speaker B: And look, it's not that he's impacting the cap or Anything again, his. His salary hits only 150. [01:15:43] Speaker A: No, no, it's about the slot. [01:15:45] Speaker B: Best about the slot. Exactly. Use that slot, use another dart throw for someone else, etc. And you know, if Giovanni Jesus isn't that guy, you can kind of go to that Nolan Norris idea that we kind of spoke about earlier on and the rules are in flux right now. Buzz. We don't know what the hell is going to happen in 2027, 2028 season. But with what we have right now, the two plus four model to me makes the most sense. The three plus three makes sense for Galaxy, LAFC, maybe even Seattle, some of those other teams, etc. Yeah, but Miami. Exactly. For summer I've heard the biggest team out of that mix. But. But for FC Dallas. And by the way, I want people to understand this and I think we're on the same page with this. Buzz, going three plus three versus two plus four doesn't mean you're a bad club for going two plus four over three plus three. It's just two different alternate ways to build a roster. Again, two teams in Western Conference semifinal, San Diego, Minnesota, both on two plus fours. [01:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The problem with the four, the two four here has been their lack of hit rate on the U22 part until very recently. Only with Delgado finally looking decent enough and Kaik looking decent enough. Have we really said this? Giovanni had glimpses but has been out injured so long. NSL is complete bus by the way. Don't forget the Innisali is an international slot and he is the nine out of 10 that they have currently available. You probably need slots nine and 10 for the TAM center back and the 10 that we were talking about. Probably, maybe not 100% but probably need it for that or maybe for another midfielder as we talked about. So you know, again, like you said, Sally is not about the salary, it's about the slots that are most important. Giovanna Jesus, this spring, huge for him. You have to make a decision. Can he actually help me? Because remember, Enzo Newman is still out. The other right back is still out with coming off that ACL that happened not at the beginning of the season, sort of somewhat into the season. Right. So you're going to need to find out this spring can Delgado actually play or not? Because if not, you have to do something at right back going into the season because they have a homegrown name, Malachi Molina. But he's not ready for mls so that can't be an option for you yet, you know, so they'll have to talk about that. That's one minor problem, but a problem you have to be aware of. All right, let's just real quickly look around the other teams that we care about. Dallas, Trinity, they don't play for another week against DC Power. It's basically like two weeks off. So we have nothing much to say about them. Athletico Dallas and Rodeo SC, they don't even play till 2027. North Texas, obviously it's all about what's happening with the first team currently, but then there'll be lots of talk about North Texas and the players that are. [01:18:15] Speaker B: Gonna have trials right now. Is that what they're doing? [01:18:17] Speaker A: Open tryouts right now? But, you know, the players that they've signed from open tryouts and their history have all been guys they've invited to the open tryout. Except for Maldonado was the only guy that was like a real fine in a tryout, but he's not with the team anymore and it was only around for like a year and a half. [01:18:32] Speaker B: So we need to find the next Bernie Camo. Yeah. [01:18:35] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Bernie was an invite, wasn't he? [01:18:38] Speaker B: So, I mean, it doesn't matter. Come on. [01:18:39] Speaker A: The narrative so was, yeah, they all have been, but, you know, they'll come up with somebody probably. I'm sure there'll be a, A good one and there's a couple of kids coming through. And, and up next, I'm gonna have my, my college targets. There's a. More of them than usual, perhaps for homegrown deals. [01:18:58] Speaker B: Okay. Hey, don't forget who was a, who was a college signing last year. That was a homegrown that played a big role in the season. [01:19:05] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The, the college signing. Yeah, that was, that was this year. Oh, two years ago. Oh, Texas for one year. Yeah. But the point is, is that the college homegrown signing is now effectively like a college draft pick was, you know, 20 years ago, where that's a guy for. Maybe we're stashing for one season and then we expect him to have some level of impact. They get those one plus one plus one deals like Logan Farrington has and like Mo Cody has. So this year there's a, There's a couple of guys that are going to be on my list. I'm going to wait till they're all eliminated from the playoffs and then I'll have that list for you. But one of the reasons why I think they actually need to make a little bit of room at the bottom of the roster is to fit in a couple of those guys. Of course, if they sign them, they'll be in North Texas and we'll, we'll talk about that if and when that all comes to fruition as well. The draft will come up sometime in December and the re entries and all that kind of garbage. And Peter and Dan will be back next week. But Arman, thank you for coming in and educating all the people on this amazing cap space that FC Dallas has. And we should all be hyped for three new dps. No, no, just one db. [01:20:11] Speaker B: And I'll have something on my blog, I think again tomorrow talking about FC Dallas again in conjunction with what we just spoke about. It'll be kind of same idea. So I mean if you want to listen or read it twice, I guess go ahead and do that. But I, but, but again, just kind of wrap a bow on everything. Don't be too concerned about FC Dallas's gap space. The, you know, the options they exercise aren't going to kill them that much. And honestly, it's all more dependent on what you're going to do with Peter Musa more than anything else. I would probably say one thing was really random. I know we're about to wrap up, but I mean I was looking at the supplemental roster. What football four guys that were. That were kind of college guys. Enzo Newman, Sam Sarver, Collodi and Farrington. I mean, yeah, it's. It's pretty, it's pretty incredible. See how Dallas uses a draft which is kind of back to relevance because the all in the rules changes they made etc. So I actually like the draft. I love it to be honest with you. Like I know. [01:21:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Consider that among those players, Enzo Newman with a knee injury. We really don't know the team team has there but Sam Sarver was a second round pick and we haven't had a second pick. Was he second round? [01:21:18] Speaker B: I think second round? Yeah, you know, 31 or 30, something like that. [01:21:22] Speaker A: 32, I just looked that up. He was 41. That's crazy. Like that is crazy value that deep into the draft for him to have hit is a terrific value. [01:21:32] Speaker B: Something fun. Go on ASA and look up and click MLS next pro and go to goals added or XG and look at Sam Sarver. He tops the list on. On both. Oh yeah, on both things. [01:21:43] Speaker A: Phenomenal numbers. Phenomenal season. You know he's. He's going to contribute next year. You know. Do we expect him to be a starter? No. You know, they're going to have Logan Farrington as a starter on one wing. They still got Julio, they still got Deetson. Who they paid money to get and they've given a huge long contract to. Not huge value, huge in length. You know there are other guys. Bernie Camingo still here, but Sam Sarver is going to be in the mix and his infectious work rate and mentality, 100% a quill guy, you know, different kind of quill guy. Quick in the short space, maybe not quite the track star, but still super quick and plays over Dynamic. Dynamic 100 a quill guy. And that in that sense, so going to be a contributor. Excited about that. So yeah, there's, there's going to be some value in the draft. Whether it's a guy that's came out of your system that you're going to pick and try and slide North Texas and maybe a later round, whatever it's going to be that you're going to grab at the first part of the draft. By the way, SC Dallas, two first round picks. They have a pick from Seattle for the first round from the Areola trade. The Ariela trade. [01:22:43] Speaker B: Yep. [01:22:44] Speaker A: So two first round picks and first round picks usually make the team. So that's going to be two guys probably on your sub roster. [01:22:51] Speaker B: Guys. Exactly. And we know that FC Dallas prioritizes the draft so like that's something that they really, really care about. And by the way, we haven't had a show since or you guys haven't had a show since World cup qualifying in it. Right. So congratulations, Deetson. Yeah, yeah, we haven't congratulated the guy. [01:23:07] Speaker A: Yeah, Haiti got in. That's. [01:23:09] Speaker B: I was so happy when Haiti got in. Yeah, like forgot. For those who don't know, they haven't been able to play in their home country in years because of political unrest. I mean you can read John Arnold stuff all about them. It's incredible. They're an automatic qualifier and he scored in. In that game, I'm pretty sure. Or in one of the games in that qualifying run. [01:23:28] Speaker A: So yeah, I scored the goal that got them in. Yeah, Acrossante too, by the way, who was just cut but was also on that Haiti roster and played a lot of games for them too. So FC Dallas, Haiti connection going strong in terms of. And super cool. Those guys are gonna be in the World Cup. You know, there is a word of caution that you will have to have of players that play through the World Cup. You know, it is slightly different than a European team where they play. They would play a whole season, then a World cup and a whole season for Dallas. It'll just be guys that are going to be. They're not going to get that summer off. They won't get that summer training camp that the other local guys will get, you know, the non World cup guys will get. But, you know, they'll be a little bit tired. Depending on how much they play. Coming out of the back of the World cup, we would expect Deetson to play a lot for Haiti. Musa, depending on A, does he make the roster and B, probably not the number one choice, but could still get some games, you know, here and there, you know, so it'll be exciting to watch them. It's fun to have some Dallas guys actually get in and give us a reason to watch certain games. Maybe we wouldn't care about if we didn't have a Dallas player in those games. I mean, Croatia we would care, but Haiti, we might not, you know, but. [01:24:33] Speaker B: I think, hey, I mean, I would. Yeah, I care about. I cared about Haiti, even about Crusher. [01:24:38] Speaker A: Because the jerseys, that's why I care about. They have the greatest jerseys. [01:24:42] Speaker B: I love everything about what this. Well, not the situation, but the story of Haiti is just. I mean, can you even write something like that? Like, that's just. [01:24:50] Speaker A: It's a great story. It's a great story for sure. I hope Jamaica gets in, too. They always have fun kids. [01:24:55] Speaker B: Oh. Yep. [01:24:55] Speaker A: The only team that without blue or the blue or red is not the thing that they. The flag is the only green and yellow and black. It's like the only country in the world doesn't have blue, red or white. [01:25:05] Speaker B: That's fair. I know that. [01:25:07] Speaker A: I think that's. I think that's what it is. I think it's the only country in the world whose flag doesn't have red, white, or blue in their flag. [01:25:12] Speaker B: I'm a fact check. I think you're right. [01:25:14] Speaker A: But that's green, black and yellow. Yeah, I believe that's the case. You're. You're listening to Flags around the world. [01:25:21] Speaker B: Flag 101. Damn. Yeah. [01:25:25] Speaker A: All right, I'm on. That is an hour half of nerd soccer content. Thank you for being here to work out our. Our nerd cap brain with me, you and me doing some analysis, doing some soccer talks and money talk. Appreciate you, man. [01:25:40] Speaker B: Appreciate you Buzz. And appreciate all the, you know, the curious. That's what Peter calls them. Right? [01:25:45] Speaker A: The curious. [01:25:46] Speaker B: Curious Peter, I'm odd this thing for your role, but maybe kind of, you know. [01:25:52] Speaker A: And we will add a link to Armand's blog so you guys can read his article he's going to have and delves into more specifics and his chart his fantastic chart about the FC Dallas CAP numbers. 3rd Degree the podcast is brought to you by people just like you, the wonderful supporters and listeners of this podcast and support us on Patreon. Patreon.com thirddegree if you like what we do on the Internet, whether it be this podcast, whether be our website covering professional, professional soccer, nfc, Dallas, even though I work on social media, why not come join us and come support us. Thirdegree.net is the website patreon.com third degree which is where you can support us. Thanks for listening. Happy Birthday, Peter Dan, I hope you enjoying your Thanksgiving and we will talk to everybody next week on the next edition of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:26:34] Speaker B: Dan, stop buying jerseys. 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