3rd Degree the Podcast #342

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Third Degree the Third Degree NEP Podcast. [00:00:14] Speaker B: Third Degree the Third Degree NAP Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree NAPS Podcast. [00:00:22] Speaker A: Third Degree the Third Degree NERD Podcast. This the penultimate episode of Third Degree, the podcast for 2025 has been brought to you by you and people like you, the listeners of this podcast who joined us on patreon.com third degree if you like our work in the soccer community, why not join us patreon.com third degree now, on with the show. [00:00:45] Speaker B: Well, hello there, DFW soccer curious. Welcome to third degree, the podcast once again. With his lovely beard and coif haircut, it is Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:58] Speaker C: I believe you mean receding haircut. [00:01:00] Speaker B: We're all part of the same. Well, no, no, Buzz isn't. And there he is, your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of thirddegree.net and original soccer influencer with still all of his hair. Buzz. Carrot. Coming, Buzz. [00:01:17] Speaker A: I will actually point out that this is the first time that Dan's hair on the top of his head has been shorter than his beard. [00:01:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I got the winter trim. [00:01:24] Speaker A: His beard is longer than with the trim after the trim. Yeah, his beard is longer than his hair. [00:01:29] Speaker C: Yeah. I didn't want to get confused for a Santa in person. It just gets awkward when little kids come up and try and jump in your lap. [00:01:35] Speaker B: You had an official office business meeting or something, didn't you? [00:01:42] Speaker C: I had a couple. Yeah, a couple new suits and some. Some business. [00:01:46] Speaker B: And how money would you pay to see Dan Crook in a suit? [00:01:52] Speaker A: None. I'll just look at his Twitter. [00:01:56] Speaker B: Okay. [00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I was just thinking about that. I don't even know where my suits are or if I even have one still. It's been a decade since I needed one. [00:02:04] Speaker B: A natty suit. Excellent. Well, everybody's doing well. Hopefully. We got a little bit to talk about. I. You know, I always think, oh, this is going to take 20 minutes and here we will be an hour and 20 minutes later. But I think the big news of the day is Dante Seeley. [00:02:22] Speaker A: No, I mean, that's what we're talking about. Yeah. [00:02:26] Speaker B: The rapids paying $2 million for Dante Seely. If that is true. Yes, is. What in the world is happening? I don't know. I don't understand it. Yeah, but I also paid like $10 for packing tape today, so maybe that's a sign of the times. No, the actual news is that Dallas has signed one of its first new roster players for the 26th season, and it is the Israeli U21 player, Ben Yamin. From Tel Aviv. He is going to count as a U22 buzz. Is that correct? [00:03:07] Speaker A: Yep, that's correct. Yeah. Look, there's. There's some interesting or confusing if you like, things about this signing, you know, like all the time. The YouTube video looks fun. Okay, great. You know, hard to judge until we see him in person. [00:03:22] Speaker B: Do not trust YouTube videos. [00:03:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the thing is like, you never know. He's. He was in Division 2 doing great things. They. They got promoted partially because of him. So he's been in division one. [00:03:32] Speaker C: Okay. [00:03:33] Speaker A: The confusing things come in the first flavors. A. That's now the fifth U22 initiative player. You could only have four in their case. That's also the tenth international. So that's a problem if you're trying to sign anybody else not from the United States anyway. Also, this is a position that Paxton Palm plays now. Either if. If Palm calls could put. And we need a player to come in and take his spot or the organization does not. We, you know. Okay, then why are you paying Paxton that money either way? It doesn't make any sense. It's also the same spot where you have Diego Garcia and essentially Kaik and Ramiro and Christian Capis and probably Patrick Delgado. You know, it's like this is a place where this club produces pipelines of these guys. So that's weird, but, you know, like always, okay, we'll see what happens when he comes in, if he's any good or not. And that's the question will be at the end. It's just not something that was obviously a need. So it leans into this idea of like just getting a pile of players and throwing them out there and go, cool, good luck with that. So, you know, hopefully he'll come good and be a decent player. [00:04:40] Speaker B: Was there any transfer fee pricing or anything mentioned? [00:04:45] Speaker A: There was not, but it was a transfer, so I would imagine that there would be some. [00:04:49] Speaker C: There was an early report that was 1.6 plus a 15. [00:04:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Never mentions in the official languages. So we'll just have to take that report as what it is. Unless. [00:05:02] Speaker B: What about the unofficial languages? [00:05:05] Speaker A: Well, you know, that's it. I mean there is no. There's no language at all from FC Dallas. The. What Dan gave you was the unofficial. The idea that maybe it was 1.6. [00:05:13] Speaker C: So. [00:05:15] Speaker A: With the cell on. So that seems a little high. But then again, Kai went was four. So you know, that also seemed quite high. [00:05:22] Speaker B: So, you know, it was high. [00:05:24] Speaker A: Yeah. At least this one didn't double at the last second like Kaik did. So you know that number is given he's a U22 initiative, that number makes sense because the whole point of that program is to pay more upfront in a transfer fee. He'll have a low salary and a low cap impact. The idea is that he would come good and you would sell him. So far none of the usual way to use they've done have come good and been sold. The closest one that's being valuable probably is Patrickson. I guess Kai's still a little too young maybe to really be considered possibly for sale. [00:05:56] Speaker B: But I mean, yeah, I mean this to me my read on it, it just screams it's another typical Dallas football factory purchase hoping that they can convert a guy and sell him for a profit. And it's more about that than actually making the team better. If he turns out to be a guy that's good on the field and makes the team better, that's just gravy to it. But where's your, where's the buzz o meter on this particular fellow? [00:06:22] Speaker A: I you know this is a, this is the kind of signing that's so hard to know because it's impossible for me to judge the league he's in. It's not a league I can watch enough of to know the quality. I will say that like they've had a not amazing track record of players from this particular area in league or neighboring leagues or whatever. You know you have show who looked pretty good until he got sick. Israel. Yeah, yeah, well or. Or anyone anywhere sort of in the the other players they've had that have come from non major European countries that have come from these side countries. Is that the wrong word to use? I mean look at in a Soli having come out of. Damn. God. Where did he come out of? The Czech Republic? Is that where he came out of Anasali playing? I don't remember Romanian. Non like Romanian. I know he's Romanian but like the point being that like if it's so far signings from not South America or not major European leagues have not been great. The hit record there has been kind of wishy washy. So you know, well I'm just gonna have to just sort of be like middle of the road like I guess a five in terms of excitement until I actually see him play. [00:07:33] Speaker B: So I want to ask this question because it's going to come back to something we talked about last week about the press conference when, when they were talking about adjusting the team or making purchases. Did they give any hint that this was a type of guy they were going to sign or a position they were going to fill as they saw as a position of need. [00:07:54] Speaker A: Well, they specifically mentioned midfielders and forwards, so, you know, that's open to interpretation. [00:08:00] Speaker B: Of what I thought maybe we had caught them in a hint that they could be lying about other things. [00:08:06] Speaker A: No, no, I think, I think that there's some implications that other midfielders are forwards may also come, you know, that this won't be the only move of the winter. So, you know. No, they were pretty open that, you know, pretty broad in their description of what kind of player they might be going after. [00:08:24] Speaker B: So how many center midfielders does this team have now? [00:08:27] Speaker A: Well, not enough because I think they're going to get one more. But that's a different kind of player. It's a different kind of central midfielder. Not specifically the guys that will play the double pivot. It almost feels like there's one too many. But again, there's so many of them that are risk, you know, so this. [00:08:46] Speaker B: Guy'S an eight or a six. [00:08:47] Speaker A: Eight. It's box to box. Eight. But, you know, you can you put Paxton Palm in that group. Like, how good is he really? How healthy is he really? Romero, a year older? How much is he going to be worth? Kaika, you're older, but have we, have we seen enough progression? You know, Diego Garcia, I'm excited about him, but, you know, Quill hasn't played him a ton yet. I mean, so there's like, there's bodies there, passion. Delgado, can he play as that deep? Sort of eight maybe, and not so much as a 10. Like. So there's lots of questions about who. Who is your definitive answer in the midfield other than Christian Capis, we all feel really good about. So, like, it almost certainly is Christian Capis and one of the rest of those people most of the time it would feel like to me, since he's. [00:09:26] Speaker C: Played a lot of left mid, I can't wait until they try to convert him to a left wing back. [00:09:34] Speaker A: You're speaking of Ben Yaman, the new signing, Ben Yamin. Oh, did I do it wrong, Binyamin? [00:09:41] Speaker C: Well, we don't do pronunciations. Come on, guys. [00:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm making an effort, Dan, and I think you failed to notice. Notice that. All right, so he'll be here for preseason whenever that starts after the first of the year. Check that one off. So in the great. In the great conversation about whether or not Andre Zenada was just telling a big fat lie about the fact that they were happy, perfectly happy with their collection of center backs for next season, which caused all of us to choke on our cigarettes. We see this rumor that Henry Kessler, the center back from St. Louis, and I think he also played for the Revolution as a free agent. [00:10:34] Speaker A: Yep. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Posted of a picture on Instagram of the Frisco City hall or something like that. [00:10:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And more pics today. Today he was at the Galleria and. And Waterburger. So he's definitely teasing us with all things North Texas. [00:10:49] Speaker B: So does that mean he wants to be. So. So what's the situation? Is he. I think I read somewhere else he's shopping. Like he's out. He's out essentially flirting with different MLS clubs, including his. His current club, Saint. Saint Louis. [00:11:03] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, you know, he's. He got. They let him go to free agency because his current deal was either on an expensive option or out. I can't remember which one it was. And there's, you know, five or six teams that he's talking to. You're talking about a player who is notably good at, for a center back, at dribbling and passing, which is something that obviously is really interesting. Domestic player, you know, was a former generation Adidas player. He's 27. So prima career. There's a lot to like. And to be fair to Zenata, we told everybody in advance that, like, you cannot take them. What they say is definitive gospel. And as Dan and I were talking about before we went on the podcast, before we went on the air, he didn't. What he actually said was, we're happy with our center backs. That's probably true. But if a guy like this guy calls, it's worth it to talk to him. He's good enough. So maybe you weren't out looking for one and one just sort of is falling in your lap, potentially being Kessler. So I'm not going to roast so not a completely that he was lying 100% because I think that's slightly disingenuous. But Peter, you're absolutely right. As we always say, you can't 100% take it as a definitive line in the sand. When they say things like they do that they're happy with their center backs. So, you know, that's where we are on that one. [00:12:15] Speaker B: My interest in Mr. Kessler is from his famous moment with the Revolution, which is really one of the great clips in MLS video history, which is late in the game, I think they have the lead, he runs and he absolutely murders a ball out of the stadium and on the run because it's right near the touchline as his opponent is going to go grab the ball, the extra ball to throw in. He grabs it and throws that ball into the stands and then turned around and runs away. Great stuff. So Mr. Kessler, I'm in. If you're interested in Dallas, Dan, I. [00:12:54] Speaker A: Don'T know if you'd agree with me. I would consider him an upgrade over since he's a right footed guy over either Ibiaga or Abubakar as your right center back. [00:13:02] Speaker C: I mean especially in possession. [00:13:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's the thing we talk about with this team, right. They want center backs who can pass out. They will wants to be able to build out rapidly but build out and obviously that would allow you to put shockmore outside. Right. So I can totally understand why Dallas would take his call and be interested. They haven't admitted that they have. [00:13:21] Speaker B: Why would you sign him? [00:13:22] Speaker A: I know. Why would you? Well, the thing would be the price. Like he was on 1.3 so in St. Louis so like but now he's free. So it'll what will determine like what you're gonna get. What he would cost would be what he would cost for other teams that are going to be bidding. Now Dallas has a ton of gam so you can, you could basically sign him for effectively zero on your cap for this season. And then Ibiaga, theoretically his contract is 7,800k would come off at the end of next year and then you could allow Kessler to come up. He is in the prime of his career. So like to me there's no question if this is real that you try and get this guy. Even if you were happy with your center backs, you still try and get this guy. If he comes to you like this. [00:14:01] Speaker B: Is he urigit good? [00:14:04] Speaker A: No, but he's good. He's got some different kind of qualities than IRA a little bit. But you know he's in the same style in the sense that like he can dribble around an attacker who's pressing, he can pass out of the back. Those are nice attributes. [00:14:17] Speaker B: How much is Ira on? What's his salary? [00:14:21] Speaker A: Like 3 or 400k. Like really cheap, which is amazing. But he had a buy price. Well he, he, he got part of his buy price. You know, I'm sure I would bet that IR's salary will go up pretty significantly each season that you keep him. I bet he had a backloaded sort of deal because of the front upfront buy. You know that's. But that we won't know that until the MSPA over the next couple of Years. [00:14:42] Speaker C: Okay. [00:14:43] Speaker A: So, you know, but sometimes it is. You get paid what you negotiated for. It's not necessarily the team's fault that you took a low number. But you know, at the same time, Kessler's probably not going to get what he got before because he's had a little bit of an injury the last couple of seasons, maybe hasn't played that. St. Louis went pretty bad defensively last year, partially because he was hurt. So I doubt that 1.3 is out there waiting for him again. [00:15:07] Speaker B: I'm so glad we were talking about this because something happened over the weekend that made me laugh out loud. And it, I was like, oh, I gotta ask Buzz and Dan this question. So over the weekend this ridiculous rumor ran around that Sergio Ramos, who is leaving Monterey, the famous Real Madrid center back and so dirty. And so there was a rumor that Manchester United was considered considering signing him in the January window. And that turned out to be silly news, at least so far. But then it dawned on me. What about Sergio Ramos in Dallas now, now work with me here. Yeah, I realize he's old, I realize he's a trouble. He's got a bit of a reputation, but he is a Mexican superstar. I mean a Latino, not Mexican, Latino superstar in that, in, in Dan's rolling his eyes like he disagrees with me here. He is a notable name player, Dan. How about that? Let me, let me phrase this in a way that I, we can find some common ground on. Yeah, he is, that would be of interest and a interesting marketing tool for this team. And he's still a reasonably good center back and probably a. Would not be terrible in our league. [00:16:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the, as you mentioned, the age at 39 would be a tiny bit worrisome. But he does keep himself in great shape. He has a famous name. Google says he was getting paid 4 million last year, which even from in Monterey, that's, you know, that, that's too much for a guy who's 39. You know, if those are two big ifs for me, if the coach felt, look at tape scouting him, that looking like he still has something to offer and if you could get a reasonable number. I don't want a DP center back. If you could get him, you know, down under, you know, a mill so you could tam him in, you could probably talk me into it. You know, I, I'm, I'm a big one on guys that can play multiple years. So like if you're going to make me pick, I would actually rather have Kessler for like three years. Than I would Sergio Ramas for one year. But. Okay, all right. You know, I, I don't immediately hate the idea of Sergio Ramos. [00:17:36] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm not, I'm not recommending it or saying that's what I want them to do. It just dawned on me it's an interesting idea from a lot of different angles from the on field and off field angles. [00:17:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know enough about whether he would be appealing to the Latino market or not. I really don't. I mean I obviously I know who he is and I know that he's played in Spain for a long time and he did go to Mexico, but that doesn't actually mean he was popular there or, or excited. [00:18:01] Speaker C: So one, one thing about that and this actually, this is kind of on, on Peter's point about the stadium, they're already selling it out. So who is that to appeal to? [00:18:17] Speaker A: Yeah, fair. Yeah, one season. [00:18:21] Speaker B: I think my problem is though, Dan, Selling out an 11,000seat stadium doesn't mean that when it turns into a 20,000 seat stadium, it's going to sell out then. And there's a, there's a. And you, you understand this just as well as anybody else. There's a level of responsibility. Well, I'm not going to. That's not the right word. There's a level of work that they probably need to continue to do in terms of creating interest and excitement about this club so that when the new stadium is done or the new version of the stadium is done and open that they don't find it difficult selling 20,000 seats 16 times a year, 18 times a year, whatever the number is. [00:19:03] Speaker C: No, for sure. I think there's a scenario where they back themselves into a corner though. You sign a, you know, a World cup winner for a season, he goes, Musa gets sold. Suddenly you've got two. [00:19:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:19] Speaker C: Superstar level players that you need to find to maintain that momentum to then sell those 20,000 it. [00:19:28] Speaker B: No, that's a fair point. Yeah, that's actually a really interesting point. That there is a whole lot of things that they have to consider and balance between now and then. But I also think part of that is that they've got to continue to figure out a way to make people interested in the team while they're in the middle of doing all this work. [00:19:48] Speaker C: Sergio Rama's train show. Don't even need to sign him. Then save yourself 4 million. [00:19:56] Speaker A: Speaking of Musa, I saw my first report of a team in France trying to buy him today, but it was not from a source. I Thought worth sharing, but it's the first time I've seen it. So it was Paris fc. I think I was. I think that kind of junk will start heating up here over the next year, you know. But it wasn't from somebody I felt worth repeating. [00:20:19] Speaker B: Especially if he gets call call ups to their remaining friendlies between now and the World cup as well too. [00:20:25] Speaker A: Plays in the World Cup? Yeah. [00:20:26] Speaker B: Not just plays in the World Cup. I mean if you know. But yeah. Okay, so that's interesting. Any other news or rumors or any other movement Buzz on. On the Buzz's birdies running around out there talking about any other players? [00:20:43] Speaker A: Yeah, well, let me. Let me. Let me first mention something. I wanted to get in on the. The young. Let me see if I can get it right. Ben. Ben Yamin. [00:20:53] Speaker B: Ben Yamin. [00:20:54] Speaker A: Benyamin. Gosh. Benyamin. I'll work on it. Benyamin was that this is the first contract announced by FC Dallas with the new calendars. His deal runs through the 2829 season and then he has options through the 3031 season. So it's the first time. It's. It's just interesting. The first change in language of the new contract links. So that's kind of cool. [00:21:17] Speaker B: Sorry. Just hearing the word 2031. [00:21:21] Speaker A: I know. [00:21:21] Speaker B: Seems so Jetsons. [00:21:23] Speaker A: Just bonkers. Yeah. Doesn't feel like it's that long but then I'm really old so. Yeah. So rumors. Well, we've said all along that they needed a 10 and I do hear chatter that they're actively in the market for that. I'm actually a little surprised that maybe we haven't seen a leak about someone they might be talking to or people's they're talking like. Because usually we see like this winter the Benjamin is the first player we saw linked to the club and it was true. We haven't seen any other players. Usually there's eight or nine players that get linked and we get one real one. So I'm surprised there hasn't been more number one. But I do think that they are actively after the 10 and I hear they're after the 10. So you know, hopefully that was one of the players that they met when they said we're close on a couple of players. Hopefully Benjamin was the first one. I'm struggling with that name and hopefully this other guy will be the second one because I don't think he meant Kessler. I think Kessler is falling into their lap if they. I really are talking to him or not. So people I know around the team were like what? When I brought it up and so people, they were looking at it on his, on his thing. We're trying to find out how real that was. So I think that's probably about it though. The 10 and then this guy is probably going to be it. Other than kids, you know, I hear some movement on kids, but that'll be when we, at the end of the podcast we'll talk about North Texas and I'll throw a couple things in there for that. But you know, with SE Dallas I really think it's all about that, the playmaker, the fulcrum, you know. Yeah. And then you have to ask yourself questions about you know, in the system they're in at that point maybe you need like a reserve striker but that's not something that would be earth moving and maybe you can even just use a draft pick on that. That's not, you know, you just need a third guy for in case of injuries or call ups or you know, especially when you have Anderson, Julio and you have Sarver. You know, it's not like. [00:23:26] Speaker B: So you mentioned earlier when you were mentioned Ben Yamin, the fact that he's going to take up an international slot. [00:23:31] Speaker A: Right. [00:23:33] Speaker B: So if they are out looking for A and I. And excuse me, if you said this, I'm assuming this 10 would end up being the second DP on the team. [00:23:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's what I understand. [00:23:44] Speaker B: Okay, so what are they going to do? I mean most DPS are international players. [00:23:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:52] Speaker B: More times than not. [00:23:54] Speaker A: Yep. [00:23:56] Speaker B: So who. Let's run through the list of the current international players they have. Would they either A have to go out and trade for an international or buy an international slot or B is there somebody currently international slot use that they could open up? I'm assuming Anasali is probably the player that actually helps clear out a few of things. [00:24:15] Speaker A: They'll just sign Geo ran out. It'll be fine. Well, that's the thing is that this, this young Israeli midfielder Benjamin is a U22 initiative and they now have five. So they have to get rid of one and those guys are all internationals so getting rid of one of those guys is going to get rid of an international spot. [00:24:35] Speaker B: All right, so let's run through those. [00:24:36] Speaker A: Okay, sure. So just from the top of my list, this is not an order of importance. Deedson Lucius Dietzen, the Haitian winger is 1. Paxton Delgado 2. Giovanni Jesus 3. Kaikas 4. Pater Musa 5 again not in order of importance. Ramiro 6. Anasali 7. Irigide 8. Alvaro Augusto 9. And this new player is 10. [00:25:05] Speaker B: So getting rid of Anasali solves two problems. It clears up U22 and an international slide. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Yeah, which is why I wrote that one of the priorities this winter was getting rid of him. But you know, you could also say something like, well, what if it. What if the talk about Giovanni being doing gangbusters for the last two months turns out to be slightly disingenuous and a chance to try and sell him by telling everybody how great he looks? [00:25:28] Speaker B: Or to your point, it could be an in league trade or buy or purchase, and it's an American, could be. [00:25:35] Speaker A: Or anyone with a green card. It's also true that any one of those guys could have gotten a green card in the last four months, you know, that we just don't know. Yeah, yeah, like, you know, like, like last year. Martin Paul was a big surprise when he came back with a green card last season. So, you know, someone that's been here for a bit, you know, like a Giovanni who's been here for three years already or, you know, any number of those players on that list could have been really excited about. I mean, I loses D10 will be very difficult for him to get a green card because he's from Haiti, which is not my opinion. It's just the way the world is right this minute. You know, we have to admit that. So. But the rest of these guys, there's no reason why any one of them, you know, Kaiko Amiro probably weren't here long enough, but Patrick's been here long enough and as saw, he's certainly been here long enough, you know, although he did leave on alone for a bit, you know, so it's very possible that there will be some adjustments. We're just counting based on as things are as we know them, you know, as long as we learn information later, that changes these things. So. And yes, they could just trade for another slot, but they already have 10, which is already two more than normal, two more than the baseline. So really getting a third one would be kind of silly, but throw an extra one. [00:26:48] Speaker B: Using real world logic and thinking and reason. Is there a player who you would go, oh my gosh, I am. That's the guy I wanted you to get for this position. [00:27:04] Speaker A: Oh, I really, off the top of my head, don't have anybody, you know, I, I don't. I wouldn't hate the idea of trying Glad from Vancouver since, you know, coming back from injury, he didn't get back into the lineup. You know, they may have a little bit of cat problem. So I don't. I believe he's Scottish Dan. Is that right? Glad, Isn't he Scottish? [00:27:29] Speaker C: Ryan Gold. [00:27:30] Speaker A: Oh, golly. I left it. Glad is the center back. Sorry, Gold. Yes, that's who I meant. [00:27:36] Speaker C: Yes, he is a sweaty sock. [00:27:41] Speaker A: Glad is. Is the RSL center back. I got those names mixed up. My bad. Ryan golden is. That's an internal to the league guy that I don't hate the idea of. If again, like their scouting of him in the playoffs and such was that they felt like he. He could produce, then I would buy that. But that I don't think he's domestic, so that doesn't help that problem. Outside of that, you're looking outside the country and then there's 10, 000 players out there. You know, you. I think I would lean in towards South America just because that's where Zenana buys things, you know. So that's about all I can do for you at this point. [00:28:15] Speaker B: All right. That's only, only slightly disappointing. I was really hoping you were going to pull out a big flashy name for me to get excited about. [00:28:23] Speaker A: I mean, you know, Giorna. I don't really have anybody from you. Okay. [00:28:31] Speaker C: All right. [00:28:32] Speaker B: Anything else? FC Dallas focus that we'd like to talk about or discuss? [00:28:37] Speaker A: Well, just to sort of mix it in with North Texas sc because that's related. It's like I'm. I'm getting nibbles that some people are, you know, coming and joining and sometimes I wonder if the people telling these things aren't just hoping that that's what's happening versus what's actually happening. But I did put out my list of homegrown college targets, and I think they'll probably go for at least one, if not two of those guys, you know, and, but that's about it. Anything else past the 10 and maybe this out of nowhere. Kessler, I think it's. I don't think that was in the cards necessarily. So after that I think it's not. That's all the big moves. I think anything else would be bottom and other roster moves. [00:29:15] Speaker C: Okay. [00:29:16] Speaker A: Not to disappoint you, but I don't like. Why would you. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Oh, Buzz. My, my. My expectation levels are set relatively medium right now, so. [00:29:26] Speaker A: Yeah, well, they, they, they. They don't need a wing because they're not playing with wings. They're playing a three five two. They're sat at wing back on one side, the other. So that, that. But. So that might be the only thing that you would. Would be Want to look at would be like, do I need to get a right wing back because of Giovanni and Newman? Or has this miracle center back come out of nowhere and all of a sudden I can just put shockmore back out there? I mean, that. [00:29:49] Speaker B: Really. [00:29:49] Speaker A: That's it. They just got an eight, which was. You know, I might have been more interested in a six, but they went for an eight, so. Okay. You know, I think it is. At this point, it is what it is. Right. I mean, there's only four open spots left, and two of those are maybe. Maybe one of those is on the supplemental roster, you know, and we already know that one of them is going to be. Or we're pretty sure one of them is going to be this DP10. So there's not a lot of room left. [00:30:12] Speaker B: All right. Camp opens the win. [00:30:15] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. Have they said. We think it's February 10th. Ish. Okay, I'm sorry. January 10th. Ish. Excuse me. [00:30:24] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. It was right after this February. [00:30:26] Speaker C: Right. [00:30:27] Speaker B: And by the way, this last weekend was Paxton's wedding and Cabo. [00:30:31] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:30:32] Speaker B: Good for him. [00:30:32] Speaker A: Exciting. [00:30:33] Speaker B: So he got that knocked out. [00:30:35] Speaker A: Hopefully didn't get hurt. [00:30:37] Speaker B: Hopefully not. All right, so the other thing before we get off the burn real quick is I started this joking about the fact that in the news today was Dante Sealey getting moved for an insane amount of money. But the other thing that I saw today, that I just made my head spin is the fact that one Justin Che is back floating around and has apparently signed a deal to play for Red Bull New York. Red Bull. Not. Not Salzburg or Leipzig. [00:31:14] Speaker A: Oh, is that done? I just thought he was linked to them. [00:31:16] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I'm seeing now that it is a done deal and that he will be back in the league playing with Red Bull. And, you know, I. I remember going back and forth and being very frustrated with that young man because he was a guy who was determined to go to Europe, even when we all knew it was the worst possible path for him based on what we knew about his skill sets, his abilities, his. His readiness levels. It was a. It was a weird deal. We were all very frustrated at a time when Dallas needed a center back and he shot, showed some promise that he decided to skip town, and yet he did. And then he kind of disappeared off the face of the earth. And now here he is, back playing in Major League Soccer next season. [00:32:00] Speaker A: Yeah, his path has been fascinating. I. I don't think there's much chance he would come back to Dallas. He burned bridges a little Bit here on his way out, you know, to, to be a little bit fair to him. He had gone to Germany every summer when he has as a kid and trained over there and spoke German and has some German ancestry. But he really wanted to get over there fast and, and carried himself like he didn't need to be in Dallas and that's kind of what burned his bridges a little bit. But yeah, it didn't work out for him and now he's coming back so, you know, good luck to him. In New York they have a new coach up there too, the younger Beasley. So it, it'll be good for him to play under a demanding. I assume Michael Bradley would be. I said Beasley, I meant Bradley. Michael Bradley will be a demanding coach. I would imagine so. For effort, you know. [00:32:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it was, I'm wondering, I'm curious how humbling his European experience has. Has what it's done to him, if at all. Maybe not, I don't know. [00:33:01] Speaker A: I don't know. His, his, his dad still coaches for FC Dallas ecnl as far as I know. His brother jumped over to a youth club in Europe somewhere, but I don't know where at this point. It is, was what it is. He did not perform all that well here before he left. I mean he showed promise but he never fulfilled that promise here. [00:33:20] Speaker C: So. [00:33:21] Speaker B: Well, I, I, maybe I'm wrong and correct me if I'm wrong, I always felt like when he was playing for Dallas he played like a player who didn't want to be here. [00:33:29] Speaker A: Yeah, eventually he did. In the original days he didn't. One of the reasons why they signed him on the academy was because, you know, they, he was aggressive about wanting to be with the cat with the North Texas and FC Dallas he wanted to sign and they liked that and they signed him. But then after that, after he played well for North Texas and then he went to Byron on that loan. [00:33:49] Speaker B: Right. He was one of the players in the loan group. [00:33:51] Speaker A: Not the loan. No. He went to the winter training. [00:33:54] Speaker B: The winter training group. Right. [00:33:55] Speaker A: He's the player that killed the Byron agreement because Bayern wanted to buy him and Dallas said no because they sold Chris Richards for too little money. And so they said, well this time we're not going to do sell you for the same cheap money. If you want him, you got to pay whatever it was. And Byron was like, why do we have this deal with you then? And so they canceled the deal and went somewhere else and now they have a deal with LAFC that I've never seen anything come out of either. So you know that. I don't know whether that part is why people in Dallas are not super excited about him or not or not, whether it's just his general attitude. But you know, it did not go well when he left here and it was the turning down of that deal that made him mad and sort of that's one reason why he was aggressively trying to get out and took that deal to go to, I want to say, Hoffenheim. Is that right? [00:34:42] Speaker B: Something like that, yeah. [00:34:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:43] Speaker B: Well, just remember everybody in the Rhine, it is your responsibility if Red Bull comes to Frisco next year to boo him every time he touches the ball. Do I have that right, Dan? [00:34:57] Speaker C: Yeah. I look forward to a very Americanized Dallas reject. Dallas reject. Hello. Hello. [00:35:06] Speaker B: All right, all right, let's move on. Big weekend for Dallas. Trinity out at the Cotton bowl as one. Lexi Misimo scored her first goal back since her long time off. Good for her. [00:35:22] Speaker A: Yeah, she did. She did one sub and then one start and scored. So it's exciting that Carolina, what was in second place and probably had more of the chances, but Dallas's defense played pretty tight, kept him out. Keeper played a couple, made a couple nice saves. You know, Mismo got a, got a good goal and they held on after that. There was, there was one sequence where Riley Foster made like six or seven straight saves and it seemed like because it was one of those poke, poke, poke, poke, poke, where the ball just wasn't going in like, you know, crap goal as the men of Blazers guy would say. But they managed to hold him out. It was chaos in the moment, but huge win. Tourney's up to fourth place now on 19 points and they have their last game before the break is at 2:30 on Saturday against the first place Team Lex can see. So that's a big heat check on how good Trinity really is playing the second place team and the first place team back to back to close out the winter, winter part of the season, fall part of the season, if you will. So I would expect Trinity to make a couple moves in the winter break because they're going to lose at least one of their academy players, maybe two. You know, they'll probably have some players that they bought or signed that are not working out. You know, they'll probably try and pick up some people that will come out of the NWSL or come out of college. You know, there's no cause draft, it's all free agents, you know. So I would expect some changes. [00:36:45] Speaker C: I think they're actually set to Keep all the academy players because they've only got a couple this year. [00:36:51] Speaker A: Oh, I thought more and see they're both leaving. Maybe I was wrong about that. [00:36:56] Speaker C: Celie is not leaving in the winter. She'll be. She'll be staying through the whole season. And I think more was this. [00:37:05] Speaker A: I thought someone told me Moore was leaving for spring ball for usc but. [00:37:08] Speaker C: Maybe is a bit of a different one because she's not local. So I think that's up in the air. [00:37:16] Speaker A: They're playing pretty well. So it's a fun game you got if you get a chance to go out this. I'm going to try and go out this weekend and watch that. So it. It'll guess a really good team. Really good test. They need to figure out how to get Amber Wisner back into midfield. That's. That's a problem. Still having to use her at center back. [00:37:35] Speaker B: What was attendance like this weekend? [00:37:37] Speaker C: 2500. [00:37:39] Speaker A: No good. Yeah. About on pace. They need to get back over three grand really. But I don't know what to tell anybody about where they are. They're pretty flat right now. That mid 2000s hasn't really moved over much. [00:37:53] Speaker B: Another talking about the Cotton bowl and attendance and so forth leads us into the conversation about the event that Atletico Dallas held Saturday, ironically right after the Trinity game. And some of the news and announcements that they've made. And something very interesting came out of that which was that they have acquired a building in Exposition Park. Now I'm just going to say this because I thought this was very funny. Was this last week when I asked you guys where Expo park was? [00:38:27] Speaker A: Is when you asked me? Yeah. [00:38:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Because I. I knew I had heard the name Expo park or Exposition park before, but I thought that was down in Trinity Groves and. No. And the whole. No, it's actually the little area on the far east end of Deep Ellum between Deep Ellum and Fair park right there kind of by where City Footsall is and the group of flags and the multi. I think it's like five point intersection. All of that stuff was funny because you know who else didn't know where Exposition park was? Is that Andy Swift. [00:39:02] Speaker A: Oh. [00:39:03] Speaker B: Because we were talking about it on Saturday and he was like where's Exposition Park? And I was like I'm glad you asked because I didn't know either. I've lived here my entire life and I didn't know where it was. So. But anyway, the point being all this is that they announced that they are a corporate acquiring an existing building that they will turn into a destination restaurant bar and also have a small sided field attached to so you can play. And they intend it to be a pre game, pre and post game gathering point. And they describe it as a 10 minute walk from Fair park. [00:39:46] Speaker A: Which I. [00:39:47] Speaker B: Think sounds right if I'm thinking about it. [00:39:50] Speaker C: It's directly across the road. It's opposite the dart stop. [00:39:55] Speaker A: The mock ups of the place look fantastic. I'll put it as the COVID of this podcast. You know, it's fun. It's like the venue looked great, the idea looks great. I think this is tremendous. [00:40:07] Speaker B: The best thing I saw out of the photos from the event was the giant banner they had hanging on the wall that says Atletico plays for Dallas. [00:40:15] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:40:16] Speaker B: I thought that was fart and fantastic phrasing. I really, really like that. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Yeah. My only, my only tiny bitty nitpick of the mock up is that the, the right end of the field has no wall and there are people with eating and drinking tables right behind the net. So that'll be fun. When balls compliant off of the field at 60 miles an hour, I'm sure there will be a wall there. In reality a net or something, but a net. Yeah. I mean what a cool venue. Like to be able to come and have. You know what it reminds me of, Peter? This is how old school you and I are. Is the, the little bar next to the cotton mill when we would go after the games and dur would be there and a player or two would be there and you could hang out with them and talk to them and have a beer with them after the game. This reminds me of that in terms of launching and get yourself in the community and, and being there for your fans and I'm sure they'll have, you know, meet and greets with players and all kinds of stuff that. I'm putting more words in their mouth there. I'm just assuming they're going to. I mean why wouldn't you, you know, and then especially post game, maybe not before the game, but post game you can. And the location is perfect for the Cotton Bowl. So super awesome man saying about that. [00:41:26] Speaker C: That banner, the Atletico plays for Dallas. We've obviously said a couple times that they kind of jumped the gun on the announcement. I want him to own the bit. Change that banner to say athletic. Atletico will play for Dallas. But like make it red crayon like the run sheet. And then, and then as it gets closer it gets faded and faded and faded and eventually it's hey, Athletico plays for Dallas. [00:41:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I I mean, look, I, I think there have been some things that they've done to modify and change and course correct some of the messaging and the way that they launch this thing that have been smart. I mean they clearly have started to figure out or really try to hone in on what their audience is going to be. And I am very curious to find out what their, what the long term plan is for the club. I, I, my, my guess is, is that they are determined to figure out a way to make the Cotton bowl their long term home. Because there's just so many reasons to try to figure out that as a solution from a cost expense, a cost point of view. [00:42:36] Speaker C: If the city's gonna basically give it for free. [00:42:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly. [00:42:40] Speaker A: I would definitely say midterm solution long term makes me think, you know, 20 years, I don't know that that would be case, but you know, like one to seven, eight, even 10 years I would buy. [00:42:50] Speaker B: But here's the question I have for you, Buzz. If you can get 12, 10, 12, 15,000 people in the Cotton bowl and you can make that a functionally operating, profitable business, why would you put yourself under the gun to build your own facility and the, and the massive amount of expense and hassle that comes with that? [00:43:13] Speaker A: Well, the same reason the Hunts did. The question would be the long term viability and revenue control. I mean there is a, there is a optics question of 15,000 people in the Cotton bowl. But the other is how long does the city let you have full revenue control of that venue? And that doesn't include just your games. Right. That becomes other things that you bring into your stadium, whether they be, you know, other events or concerts or whatever it's going to be. [00:43:37] Speaker B: Yeah, right. [00:43:38] Speaker A: Like, you know, you want to have every, every and I'm going to use the word minor league owner here because we're still talking about soccer. Every owner of a soccer team in the Metroplex that I've talked to talks about the idea of revenue control that like it's not just as simple as I need a place to play. It's about all those revenue streams. Like remember, broadcasting is not the bell cow for soccer yet. It's about tickets, merch, drinks in stadium advertising, all that stuff. Parking. Remember it was free parking at Toyota in the early days to get until it got sold and got sold out and that went away. So like, you know, that idea of control of all that still really matters now again, do I want to spend $250 million of my own money? No. We've talked about the fact that these two guys that own Atletico are not those kinds of. They're not billionaires. Right. They're going to have to get partners. They're going to have to get a city involved. So mid, short to mid run, in my opinion, combo makes a lot of sense because you're at least going to have the city work with you. As Dan mentioned, like, the city's working with Trinity, but remember, the city of Dallas is working with both of those teams off the court with things like MoneyGram going to Athletico and the Wings practice facility, which is planned to incorporate Trinity at some point. You know, I mean, they want to keep those teams, so they don't want them to run off to Frisco or McKin, you know, or Mesquite or G or Mesquite or whatever. So like short to midterm Como makes a ton of sense. Long term, it makes much more sense to be in your own venue that you can control. That's what really matters in that level. [00:45:13] Speaker C: I think to your point earlier, you mentioned profitability. That, that is a, that is a very foreign term in soccer. The, the number of teams that are truly profitable. You could, you know, you could count on your fingers and toes. [00:45:27] Speaker B: True, right. Yeah. [00:45:29] Speaker A: I think us works different, though, for that. [00:45:31] Speaker B: It does, but I think in terms of, of losing the least amount of money and growing the value, because that ultimately is really what they're trying to do, is grow the value so they can sell it and make money from the sale of it versus annual revenue. So that's, that's, that is of interest to me. And so the idea that they are going to go out of their way to get into real estate, to acquire a building, to build, to create something, because, you know, I'm going to keep saying this until everybody else buys into it and starts saying it too. The whole point of, the only way this works for mostly Athletico, but this applies to Trinity as well, is you've got to make going to the Cotton bowl cool again. It's got. You've got to make it 1960, when everybody wanted to go to Fair park to watch the Dallas Cowboys in the Cotton bowl or go to the Cotton bowl for the Texas OU game. That's if those two teams, if those two organizations can figure out a way to make a substantial number of people want to go do and have that experience. Experience, then they've won this battle. And if part of that is buying this building and creating this destination point, that's a really interesting idea. I, I would have thought you would have tried to have done something inside the Fair park grounds, but if you can't do that, maybe immediately adjacent to it is the next best thing. [00:46:52] Speaker A: Yeah, the city's not going to go for that. But I don't think it's a coincidence that. Look at the actions of Trinity and Athletico. Both of them are concentrating on training grounds and, and offices for their team and those kinds of in like the bar and restaurant in this case. But we know, we know athletic goals also looking at training facilities. They're putting all that first because they know the Cotton Ball is a good situation for them to the short to midterm. Right. You know, they'll worry about a stadium much further down the line. They have these much more short term survivable issues at hand. You know, they want to have facilities for themselves to train for their academy to train. You can, you can have it out for games on the weekends and other people to borrow and rent and that's again a revenue stream for you. And that's true. Both of those clubs, Trinity's trying to get the same thing going with at the Wings facility. So, you know, you can see where the short term priorities are with these two clubs that feel like the city of Dallas is working with them in a positive way at the Cotton bowl for the bigger venue. [00:47:48] Speaker B: Man, so much Runway. [00:47:50] Speaker A: It's so different, isn't it? So different than when we 20, 30 years ago now when the Dallas city of Dallas was not all that friendly to the Dallas Burn. I mean, they let him rent it, but it wasn't like they weren't, they didn't have that partner feel. I don't think that the city of Dallas does now. It doesn't feel the same to me. Maybe I'm crazy about that. But there's a reason why the Hunts ran off to South Lake and then tried to go to McKinnon, eventually went to Frisco right away. You know, they weren't getting the same treatment from the city of Dallas. [00:48:20] Speaker B: Yeah, working with the city on the Cotton bowl is not like becoming a tenant at Choctaw or anything like that. It's a very, it's. It's different animals. It's a very different animal. And the requirements of your responsibilities differ greatly. The expense that you have to put in is bigger than it is at those places, etc. Etc. So. Or different than those places. So we'll see. I mean, we've got an entire. What are we still 18 months out from this thing being an actual kick a ball kind of thing? [00:48:55] Speaker A: No, that'll be February next year. Not two months from now, but a year from now, basically. [00:49:00] Speaker B: So 16 months out, maybe 6, 13 months. 14 months out. Something like that. Yeah. [00:49:06] Speaker A: Because they have. The USL has not done anything about changing their calendar. So it'll be. It'll be February of 2027. Yeah, yeah. [00:49:14] Speaker B: As a USL Championship team. [00:49:18] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. Because the Athletico is definitely starting in the DSO. They tell us they're definitely starting in the ESL championship in 20, 2027. [00:49:25] Speaker B: Yep. Okay. [00:49:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. One thing they will have to get sorted is the field. That field right now is atrocious. [00:49:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:31] Speaker A: I don't know. They resurfaced it like a. Like three weeks ago. And it is not sunk in. If you look at the pictures I posted from the Trinity game, you can see chunks of sand kicking up behind the girls as they're. Sorry, ladies. As they're running. [00:49:43] Speaker C: Then you get that fun part of Dallas Parks Department taking over the running of the cotton ball recently. So it's going to look like Moss Park. [00:49:51] Speaker B: Yeah, man. That would be a massive comedown. Because for those who do not know, back in the burn days, the cotton ball playing surface was considered to probably be the finest soccer surface in the country. [00:50:08] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:08] Speaker B: And it was absolutely a putting green. It was perfect. It was. [00:50:14] Speaker C: I. I was talking to Paul Scott, who is the. He was actually. He ran the line for the very first Alice Byrne game. He, you know, did MLS carpet overs. I think he was a FIFA official. And I asked him about that. I was like, you know, everyone always. Everyone around here always says the cotton ball was like the best surface. Like, no, legitimately, I. I've been on every MLS stadium up until 2016, from 20, from 1996. Best surface by a country mile. [00:50:46] Speaker B: Oh, it was. You wanted to just lay down on it and take a nap. It was so perfect. [00:50:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it was amazing. [00:50:54] Speaker B: It was shockingly good. And it was even good after the Texas OU game. That's how good it was. It was such a good field that even after college football, the State fair crap that went on with it, it was still ideal and great in every way. So any North Texas SC stuff that we didn't get to buzz? [00:51:15] Speaker A: No, I mentioned it. Just. Yeah, there's being a couple of moves related to, like, ex players from the club. You know, things like, oh, here, this guy's come back. I hear that guy's coming back. And I just always want to put a grain of salt on that because I'm not sure if people are just hoping those guys are coming Back or they really are coming back. That's, you know, a weird place to be. [00:51:36] Speaker B: But just real quick, I don't. Because I don't think there's any amateur stuff to talk about, is there? [00:51:44] Speaker A: No. [00:51:45] Speaker B: Okay. A couple of the different facilities around town, Crossbar and Spectrum have been hosting these small sided tournaments with considerable cash prizes at the end of them. And both of them have been doing an interesting job in sharing that stuff like highlight clips and stuff on social media. And I just wanted to compliment them because it's really cool. It really shows the community, the, the community of the sport in our area and people. The number of people that are showing up for these games. The crossbar one up in Denton, they were actually having paid attendance and there was like a line of people at the gate to go in to go watch this tournament be played. Played. Essentially they're. And it was for them was a qualifying 7v7. Because you're obviously looking for players to build a local TNT team for next year's 7v7 tournament out in Carolina. That was really cool. And then the other night, I don't know if you happened, anybody else happened to notice this. During the Dallas Cowboy game on NBC, there was a return from commercial shot. It looked like a small drone was flying around inside a indoor soccer facility. That was Crossbar up in Richardson, right off of Central and Arapaho I think it is, which was kind of cool to see. It was like I did the whole Leo DiCaprio, hey, look, I know that meme right there in real life, I did that. I've, I've been in there before. I know what that is. So I thought that was cool that that got included on the Cowboy game. [00:53:24] Speaker A: That is cool. [00:53:25] Speaker B: And I think I've said this before, I'm going to say it again because you guys know I love kits and branding and all this stuff. The coolest thing that is going on in amateur Sunday League soccer in Dallas is all of the teams have a logo, they all have a brand. They've all taken the time to create this stuff for their teams. Many of them have social media accounts that post clips from their games, hype videos and a lot of the logos and a lot of the kits are really, really good. I, I think the DSA Dallas Soccer alliance could do a way better job of promoting the fact that they're all of their teams. Like not all, but the vast majority of their teams go way out of their way to create a brand for their club. And that's something that never happened back in the Day with the old NTPSA when it had 5, 000 players and you know, however many almost hundred teams there were across five age groups and multiple divisions, it just, we didn't have that back then. So to see all these clubs put all the effort into creating a brand I think is great. [00:54:36] Speaker C: I think it's, it's funny, you know, I'm like, I remember one of, one of my teams way back when, you know, we were, we were all techie creatures, creative idiots. So for shits and giggles, you know, we, we had a full brand and website and all of, all the, you know, tried to give it the professional look just, just kind of for fun. Now it's like, you know, one of the upsides for Generative AI is like the league I play in now, everyone's got a logo. Everyone's. [00:55:04] Speaker B: It's crazy, isn't it? [00:55:06] Speaker C: No, no one, no. None of the people that do graphic design have like really had to have a hand in it. I think I vectored ours for our jerseys. But you know, it's, it's all prompts, it's all kind of just, it adds that element like you say, just wasn't there. [00:55:22] Speaker B: And some of it's really good. [00:55:24] Speaker A: Speaking of cool, local brands for SC won the upsl again as they do almost every season. You know, one of the top amateur brands in town. [00:55:34] Speaker B: Good for those guys. [00:55:35] Speaker A: They're lifting more trophies as they always do. And one more tiny thing on FC Dallas News. I was just perusing the site to make sure we didn't miss anything after the last podcast. Peter Dallas traded up for the third overall pick. We haven't talked about that on this particular podcast since it happened. So Dallas now has three first round picks and a third round pick. So like they like those first round picks. And by going up the third, like that's a player that will hit and stick. I mean that's like Farrington. Is that. [00:56:01] Speaker B: Is that because they need to restock North Texas? [00:56:05] Speaker A: Well, in part. But the third overall pick is not a guy that will be with North Texas. The third overall pick is going to be an mls. You don't go that high and not have that player be on your first team. [00:56:13] Speaker C: Okay. [00:56:14] Speaker A: You know those later two first round picks. [00:56:16] Speaker B: Any good center backs in the draft this year? [00:56:19] Speaker A: Yeah, of course, you know there's the. The most value in the draft is going to be either in center backs or goalie or probably, you know, wide wing like Sarver. You know, you're not looking for a 10. You're not probably looking for a nine fair. She's a rare example of an MLS quality striker coming out. You know, maybe it's maybe like a holding mid kind of guy. You can get that kind of value in there. So, you know, you can really augment your dudes in. In that way by. By getting a piece that can turn into a, you know, quality like Orion Hollingshead, you know, or a Farrington, you know, we don't know about Sarver yet, but you know, guys that can compete at. At the. At the MLS level and put a burn. A lot of minutes for you at the number three overall pick if you hit. [00:57:05] Speaker B: All right, and to close it up, any chance we've heard anything else about the new home shirt kit coming out? [00:57:13] Speaker C: It will have sleeves of some variety. [00:57:16] Speaker B: God damn it. [00:57:17] Speaker A: Well, we did. We did learn what template it was, Dan. I would. We did learn that, but that's not Earth's shaking, so. [00:57:23] Speaker C: Which is same as the World cup with the. The big stripes and the holographic Adidas. [00:57:32] Speaker B: Logo, not the trifoil. [00:57:34] Speaker C: But this year is very. That. I mean, that's possible. This year is going to be a little bit different. They always get a authentic cut, similar to the elite teams, but they never get the same, like the fabric, the technology. This time they will actually get the new Climical plus, which is going to be the really expensive jerseys at the World cup, not the ones that are in, like, JD Sport and. And dicks. [00:58:06] Speaker B: All right. And I assume that's going to be announced or revealed at the cocktails and cleats eventually, that they sent out the invitations for last week usually. [00:58:18] Speaker A: Yep. [00:58:18] Speaker B: Okay, Very good. All right. I got nothing else. [00:58:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that's about it. [00:58:24] Speaker B: Okay. [00:58:25] Speaker A: No podcast next week because of the Christmas holidays or Jewish holidays or Festivus. [00:58:35] Speaker B: The holidays. [00:58:36] Speaker A: Kwanzaa. Yeah, I just stood up open with all. When I said. I said Christmas. And then I felt like I had to be inclusive. This the penultimate episode of 3rd Degree. The podcast for 2025 has been brought to you by you and people like you, the listeners of this podcast who joined us on patreon.com third degree if you like our work and the soccer community, why not join us patreon.com third degree we hope you've enjoyed the podcast. [00:59:01] Speaker B: All right, well, then, happy holidays to the two of you. [00:59:06] Speaker A: And you as well, Peter. Dan. [00:59:07] Speaker B: Dan, thank you. [00:59:09] Speaker C: Thank you. And boxy days in general. Yeah, Boxing Day. Best idea. [00:59:14] Speaker B: And buzz. Thank you. [00:59:16] Speaker A: Oh, you're welcome, man. Thanks for being here. [00:59:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And happy holidays. Much love. Big hugs to you DFW Soccer Curious. We will speak to you in a couple of weeks on another episode of 3rd Degree the podcast Better hope for. [00:59:32] Speaker A: A center back as a present. 3rd degree the 3rd degree NE podcast. [00:59:37] Speaker B: 3Rd degree the 3rd degree Nest degree. [00:59:45] Speaker A: Nest 3rd degree the 3rd degree. Sam.