3rd Degree the Podcast #347

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Third Degree the Third Degree NEP Podcast. [00:00:14] Speaker A: Third Degree the Third Degree Nap Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree Nap Podcast. [00:00:22] Speaker C: Third Degree the Third Degree Thunder Be. The podcast is brought to you by our wonderful listeners as we enter our 29th season of coverage of FC Dallas and now the greater pro soccer scene in North Texas. Perhaps you would think about joining us here and give us Some [email protected] thirddegree if you like what we do on the Internet, both podcast and website, and our general news coverage of soccer, why don't you join us? Patreon.com 3rd Degree thanks again for your support. [00:00:54] Speaker A: Well, hello there, DFW Soccer Curious. Welcome to another wintry chill episode of 3rd Degree, the Podcast. I almost forgot the name of this podcast because I do too many podcasts. I almost said one of the other many podcasts I'm a part of. Third Degree the podcast. [00:01:13] Speaker C: My favorite one, by the way. [00:01:16] Speaker A: There he is with a smiley face. It is Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:01:21] Speaker B: Hey. So are they all about soccer or is there a podcast about podcasts? [00:01:25] Speaker A: There is a podcast about podcasting about soccer. [00:01:32] Speaker B: Podcasts. That's Inception right there. [00:01:35] Speaker A: That's right. It's very meta. And your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder, thirddegree.net and the original and most important soccer influencer in all of the world, Buzz Caric. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Hey, fellas. Thanks for being here on this wintry weekend. Before we go, I just want to take a second and dedicate tonight's episode to Elizabeth Angle, who's the young lady that was killed in the sledding accident this weekend in North Dallas. She's a soccer player. She played for FC Dallas. She's a 2009 and a center back. I did not know her personally, but it's always tragic, of course, when you hear about the passing of somebody, but it particularly hits home when it's somebody that has has a connection to you. Like this young lady did with playing for SE Dallas. So this one is for her. [00:02:22] Speaker A: Tough news for sure. Thanks for bringing that up, Buzz. And this one's for you, young lady. All right, let's get into what we know about aforementioned FC Dallas as they are over on the other side of the globe playing games. They've played two games since we last, Buzz. So how you want to do this? You want to Jim, jam through the first one. Porta Mons. Port. Porta Monse. Porta Monse. [00:02:50] Speaker C: Dan, is that close quarter Monse. Yeah, the first game was four nothing. It was one nothing. Sorry. It was not One nothing at halftime. All four goals came in the second half. This was a bit of a mixed lineup situation. Now keep in mind that portmanence is in the second division in Portugal, so it's not a particularly high standard. So you ended up with, you know, what could be construed as sort of a starting defense and maybe a starting front line with a midfield that was a much younger sort of looking midfield in that first game. In the first half. In the second half they went to what is probably sort of a second team defense with a much more substantial midfield. But anyway, it's a pretty demonstrative win for nothing. I don't know that we can take a lot away from it. There's some of the key things are Michael Collodi getting the first knot in net, which is pretty big deal. Bernie Camungo has played on the right side at wing back twice. Herman Johansson the new wing back and Lewis, the new draft pick. Ricky Lewis, excuse me, have both played wing back on the left, which is interesting. And Lewis in particular has looked really the part the last couple of days. [00:04:05] Speaker A: So what is he inverting his wingers? Is that what he's trying to do? [00:04:09] Speaker C: Well, certainly Lewis is inverting, I think. I think Herman Johansson is also inverting and Bernie being a lefty is also inverting. So, you know, I don't remember. Oh, Sam Sarver is the other one. Dana. Sam Server, left footed. I can't remember. He's playing on the right. I think he's right footed. So it's not 100 inversion, but he's definitely looking at an inversion. You know, whether he's actually considering that as a tactic or whether it's just he wants to try that as some options early in the spring is hard to really say. But certainly Dan watching those inverted wing backs is something else. I mean, that's kind of a new development in the world game. I don't. You don't see that a lot yet anywhere, really. [00:04:49] Speaker B: Yeah, especially when you're going into formations that kind of pull away from having outright wingers. The old idea of having maybe an inverted winger where you would have an overlapping ram from a fullback. You've. You've kind of got to double up on that with the, the inverted full wing backs. [00:05:06] Speaker C: So anyway, that game was a pretty substantial domination. All four goals came in coming in the second half in particular. Ricky Lewis is really creating a lot of havoc on the left wing with, you know, multiple shot and assists and. [00:05:22] Speaker A: Things refresh everybody's memory of who Mr. Ricky Lewis is. [00:05:26] Speaker C: Lewis is the first overall draft pick, the first one they first traded up to go get. He is a generation Adidas signing. I believe he came out of his college as a freshman. Freshman or sophomore? Maybe it's a sophomore. I think, now I think about it, I think. I think Simmons is the freshman, but nonetheless very young, you know, 19, 20 years of age, something like that. Both of those guys are pretty quick. Lewis is particularly quick, and they're both very tall, very substantial players with good size. There's definitely a trend because Johansson also is quite tall. You know, Quill definitely likes, you know, skilled, of course, but also size, you know, physicality. So the signings they're making, the picks are making are all falling in line with the kind of players that Eric Will would want. [00:06:08] Speaker B: I think really the. The big thing's going to be the theme night for Ricky Lewis's headband. [00:06:15] Speaker A: Oh, he's a headband sport. [00:06:16] Speaker B: He's a headband guy. And. Yeah, really? Today he had a big FC Dallas logo on his headband. [00:06:22] Speaker A: What color was it, red or blue? [00:06:24] Speaker B: It was black. Okay. [00:06:27] Speaker A: So he's taking Collode's place. So it's not like a. It's not like a Rambo headband. It's like a basketball. Like. [00:06:35] Speaker B: Well, I mean, Jason Terry hold his dreads in place. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Ah, okay. [00:06:40] Speaker C: So he doesn't end up with an Abubakar situation, because that is a situation. [00:06:47] Speaker A: That hair. Is it? [00:06:48] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:06:50] Speaker A: All right. Anything else about that game that you guys want to talk about? [00:06:54] Speaker C: I mean, nothing really jumped out of me, you know, from the. The Clips and the. In the lineups. You know, Caleb Swan played a lot. The lack of Paxton Pamico at all is concerning. You know, that's Chris Capus looks the. Chris. Excuse me, Christian capus looks the part 100. So can we go back to the. [00:07:15] Speaker A: Paxton thing real quick? Because I remember Dan saying he saw Paxton at training and was really impressed with how good he looked. Right. Did I hear you say that correctly, Dan? [00:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah, he was. He was taking part when they had the couple of tour days. He was in both sessions and. All right, look good. Someone said something about he had a. Some tightness or something traveling, which, I mean, you know, they. What, they took two flights to get there, then they sat on a coach for three hours from Lisbon to. To near Pharaoh. So, yeah, I could. Could see it. I mean, could be just. He's had. He's had a pull or something, some tightness or something, and they're just choosing to be a little bit Cautious, but all right. [00:08:00] Speaker A: I wanted to throw in. Did I also read or hear from one of you two or some other place that he was one of the last in to or first to go out in the beep test? [00:08:12] Speaker C: Not that I'm aware of. I did not say that. [00:08:14] Speaker A: Oh, I swear I saw that somewhere. Maybe it was in your discord. [00:08:18] Speaker C: That's possible. [00:08:19] Speaker B: It's possible. [00:08:21] Speaker A: All right, well, let's not take that as factoid or anything, I swear. Because the reason why I'm noting it is because when I saw that you had mentioned that he didn't play in the first game at all, on the heels of Dan's reporting and then seeing somewhere that somebody said he had had not performed well in the. In the beep test, it made me worried. [00:08:41] Speaker C: Well, I certainly think we can be worried that he has now not played in either game. Obviously, that's, you know, as Dan mentioned, all that travel is problematic for somebody who's in his situation, but it still is a red flag. [00:08:54] Speaker A: I mean, especially in a league that is a lot of travel. [00:08:57] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, that's not a good signing, not a good sign. When a guy's had that much injury problem for the, you know, something as simple as travel could knock him out. But again, being very precautious is also fine. You know, it's. You haven't had him in two years, so it's not like not having him is going to be a big deal, you know. Yeah. You know, if you can figure out a way to get him through spring and actually get him usable, okay, that's a win. But, you know, not having him is a whatever at this point. You know, it's just, you know, it would have been nice, but, you know, good for Caleb Swan, who's getting a whole bunch of PT that he probably wasn't anticipating getting. You know, it does make me wonder about this, the travel idea that Swan is there at all because Diego Garcia is probably on the higher on the pecking order. You would have thought all the rest of the what we call off roster, homegrowns all got left with North Texas. So they specifically took Swan for a reason other than he's good. And it probably to me, I assume that it took him because they knew Paxton wasn't going to play or likely wasn't going to play. Now, that's just a guess, but, you know, for him to be there at all is. Was surprising. [00:09:59] Speaker A: But are you saying you're surprised they took Caleb instead of Diego? [00:10:03] Speaker C: No, Diego's there for that purpose. [00:10:05] Speaker A: Oh, he Is there? Yeah. [00:10:06] Speaker B: Okay. [00:10:07] Speaker A: Okay. I thought you said he wasn't there. Sorry. [00:10:08] Speaker C: No, no, I. I may have spoken too quickly, but yes, they're both there. But Caleb being what? You know, this brand new homegrown that hasn't even started every single game for. In a season for North Texas yet, I would not expect him to be with us at Dallas this season. Now he's playing quite well this spring. That's fine. But I would not have thought he would have gotten a travel at all. So it's. That's what was to me was an indicator that they knew or at least thought it was very likely that Paxton would not be able to go very much. [00:10:36] Speaker A: All right. Well, then they played again today and man, I was impressed because I wasn't aware of it. And then I got an email from the club announcing to me that they had beaten a sizable and noted and well known Scandinavian club 5 to 2. Beating Bronby 5 to 2 is quite impressive for a preseason. [00:10:55] Speaker C: Well, except that it was Bronby's U19 team, not their senior team. [00:11:01] Speaker A: Say what? [00:11:03] Speaker C: Bronby basically scheduled back to back games against RSL and FC Dallas and they played their first team against RSL and played their U19 team against FC Dallas. So it's 5, 2. [00:11:12] Speaker A: But it doesn't say that in the press release. [00:11:14] Speaker C: I know it don't. Doesn't. But it's true. [00:11:16] Speaker A: Okay. Hey, man, they can't control who they throw out there. They just scheduled Bronby. [00:11:21] Speaker C: Right, right. You can't. You can't control that. And you know, sometimes when that happens, you know, Dallas might play a younger sort of team or a U23 team or something, but they don't have enough guys over there for that. They did the same thing, which is where they split the team in half. They played 45 minutes with one group and 45 minutes with another group. So be very clear, they're still in the phase of building towards a more fit timeline. No one's playing more than 45 minutes. At the end of the day, it's probably okay that you play at a U19 team. There is a big picture discussion to have about that in a minute, but let's stick on the game for a second. Again, Cloudy got the start again with a defense that looks pretty much like it's probably starting at this point, which is unfortunate because in there and Shaq Moore over Nolan Norris. Ricky Lewis gets to start a left wing back. Again, Bernie was on the right, Capis. Romario in, Benjamin in midfield. By the way, Benjamin has got a motor and a half. The first half grouping was, you know they, they listed capis as the 10. That was not a double pivot with a 10. It was a single pivot. Romero and then two eights. Both Benjamin and, and Capis were getting forward, playing in a very flat shape and defensively and then Musa and Anderson, Julio up top which may or may not have pissed off Logan Farrington because it was one nothing in the halftime and they switched it all up and, and a trialist keeper came in, Mitch Butler who's out of Akan and you saw Abubakar and Alvaro and Norris. Sam Sarver was at wing back, Johansson was at the other wing back. A guy we expect to probably be a starter for what they paid for him. Kaik Swan again. Delgado is, is actually legit 10 this time. And Logan Farrington was up top with Simmons who's the other draft pick. And Farrington was on fire. He scored two goals in the first five minutes of that half and just was playing. He looks ready to go for the season. Ferrington does. [00:13:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I saw a flying side volley for one of them. [00:13:17] Speaker C: So I, you know, I think like while ostensibly that second group was a bit more of a on paper perhaps a second team but you know, Farrington's in there. Delgado hypothetically right now might be a year 10 so you don't have a DP yet. You know Johansson we would expect to be a starter. So you know it's not 100% of a second team. But they tore up whatever under 19 team was rolled out in the second half. I don't know how many changes Brahmi made but maybe they just got worn out by playing against professionals for 90 minutes so or just got, you know, tired because it was the second half and then Dallas rotated their whole team. Dan, did you have any takeaways from this, this, this game? [00:13:56] Speaker B: I, I didn't get to see it unfortunately. I did kind of catch up with cross coats after the game talking about, you know, the usual building relationships. All that really highlighted the first half. They should have been more clinical. Second half looked good but the two goals they conceded they, they were not happy about. So it's pre season right there. They're kind of building up slowly and it's. Yeah, we'll see what they do against Rail Salt Lake when it's more comparable competition. [00:14:32] Speaker C: Kai had a nice two footed tackle in the box to give up I believe was what they gave up the PK and then the other goal was just not type marking on that side. [00:14:43] Speaker A: Did I see in the Discord that somebody picked up a pirate stream of the video. So what's going on? Why aren't they showing these games? [00:14:53] Speaker C: Well, basically Bronze V TV put together a thing for their subscription so like you could pay the eight bucks and sign up and watch it that way. Somebody in our Discord did find a pirate stream and shared it in the Discord. I did not share it. I did not share it wide on social medias because A it's piracy and B, like sometimes that can be a bit problematic if you don't have really good security. But you know, some of us are able to watch that. You know, if you were in the Discord and saw that link posted, you could get in on watching. You know, I. It's a whole bigger question about why FC Dallas doesn't bother to put together streams. I, I get it. They want a certain amount of stuff, secrecy, you know, there is a cost to it, but it really isn't that much when someone else is doing it. All you got to do is ask them for the damn thing, you know, it's not that hard. I know they only send one person to handle all the PR and photos and video and all that stuff. Ryan did a great job. I get all that. But in a modern pro world, it should not be problematic to get a stream out of a facility, particularly when somebody else is producing it for you. All you got to do. The pirate channel showed you how easy it is in fact to do that. They even had their own graphics they added to it instead of the Brie graphics. So you know, given this is what I do for a living, I'm never going to buy this. It's too expensive or it's hard or we don't know how to do it kind of crap. It should be. It's actually really easy to be do to do it. [00:16:12] Speaker B: So I mean it may just be as simple as they didn't know for sure it was happening. And you know, then they've got to set up boxcast and geolock stuff so that Bronby can keep their subscription stuff, you know. [00:16:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it's not that hard. [00:16:28] Speaker A: So. So does a pirate stream set of graphics say things like FC Dallas and arg Brnd? [00:16:37] Speaker C: No. Funny enough though, at the start of the game it said whatever the bravi was and then it said salt Sal for the other team with the FC Dallas logo. So. And then when Dallas scored they realized that they didn't hadn't changed the sal to fcd and then they changed it. [00:16:51] Speaker A: So that was stupid. [00:16:53] Speaker B: About mls, you missed the obvious one being R. Ramiro. [00:16:58] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:17:00] Speaker A: No Kike with the two footed tackle for the pk. Make him walk the plank. [00:17:06] Speaker C: It was silent, but that's fine. Who cares? It was still lovely to have the. [00:17:11] Speaker A: Access to it all by myself. [00:17:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:14] Speaker B: Okay. To be fair, this the, the. The pirate stream probably had more viewers than if it went direct on the FC Dallas website. [00:17:22] Speaker C: Yeah, it's very possible probably. The other thing I found amazing was I saw people complaining about the betting line because, you know, finding out that it was going to be the U19 team for Bramby and how that should have changed the line and all this. Nobody that I know was complaining. I just saw complaints about it on Twitter, you know, related to FC Dallas people mentioned. I thought that was what a world we live in that somebody was betting on the nested house and then it turned out it was U19 team and how that mad they were and I screwed it all up or whatever. [00:17:49] Speaker B: So do they not realize how bang works? [00:17:53] Speaker C: I guess I don't know. Yeah, you know, I'm not. I don't bet. So I was like to me it was just made me laugh that people were, you know, getting upset or their bets were being placed on this game, you know. Shows the world we live in now, I guess. [00:18:06] Speaker A: How much of this is left before they head home. [00:18:09] Speaker B: They had him on Saturday. [00:18:11] Speaker C: Yeah. They have a gaming us RSL later in the week. Dan, off top of my head, let me see what do they. Is that game. Is it Thursday over there? [00:18:18] Speaker A: They play rsl. [00:18:19] Speaker C: They. [00:18:20] Speaker A: Okay, well that seems like a really long way to go to play an MLS team. [00:18:26] Speaker C: Well, it's, you know, let's see. RSL is on Friday, 5am Central Time. Sure. [00:18:32] Speaker A: Y' all for that Brondy Bronbies U16 team not available, I guess. [00:18:36] Speaker C: Well, you know, there are other teams over there. You know, it's what's interesting to me is that there have been times in the past where I've been on trips like this and the publicized games is not all the games that they'll end up playing. They'll end up playing these off games without, you know, against other teams that are around that aren't publicized or aren't part of quote unquote, part of the cup pickup games. I mean the first game wasn't part of the cup. Just the RSL and the brimming game are part of the Cup. Let's say when Dallas, when I won year one, when I was there, won the La Manga cup, you know, but they they played like four other teams and games that were not part of that cup, you know. So it's like we know about these three games and I'm always curious if there are other games happening that we're not made aware of, you know, but given the, the limited amount of playing time guys are getting and the limited number of trialists and such in camp, I, I'm kind of leading towards. They're not extra games happening at this point in time that this is really all they're playing is these three games. [00:19:31] Speaker B: Okay. [00:19:34] Speaker A: Any other exciting FC Dallas news or discussion we'd like to have? [00:19:38] Speaker C: Well, not particularly, but I think we should bring up the. The idea that this is not a particularly good spring so far. Not in terms of Dallas's performance. In terms of the opponents, you know, Puerto Minon say, I'm sure I'm butchering that hard, is a second division team. They're not very good. Dallas dominated them for nothing. Brnd. It's a U19 team. You should beat them handily. Like as Quill pointed out, you should not be giving up two goals to U19 team. You should be trashing U19 team. So these are not challenges, these are not difficult games. You don't know what you're going to get with rsl. They could roll out a bunch of kids. They could be mixing it up. You don't know. So like so far the quality of these two games are right. Is basically nothing. [00:20:23] Speaker A: So what do you want? Who do you want them to play? [00:20:25] Speaker C: I don't know. I would like them to play some teams that are Perhaps not a second division team or a 19 under 19 team. I'd like them to play some teams that are better. Well, Brony's first team would have been nice, of course. [00:20:36] Speaker A: Yeah, okay. That's what I'm saying. Maybe they had no idea they were going to end up playing their U19 team. Maybe they went into this assuming they were playing the full senior team. [00:20:44] Speaker C: It's possible. You know, I just. With, you know, somewhere along the line something has slipped through the cracks. In my opinion that these are the games you're getting so far now. You're going to get a good game probably against rsl, but like I just. If you just smoke everybody easily in the spring, it doesn't necessarily help you any. [00:21:00] Speaker B: But they're not. I mean that this is for fitness. Once they get back to Frisco, they play New York Red Bulls, they play Houston, they play Atlanta United. So they're going to get competitive games against teams that are in the same position, tuning up for the season. [00:21:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I know, I know. But just having been through many, many, many of these springs, I often feel like the seasons where they play a bunch of milquetoast teams and smash the crap out of them just don't help you get ready for the season, you know, I feel like those seasons don't usually go very well, you know, who do they play? [00:21:34] Speaker A: Well, let's. Okay, let's think about that. Who did they play last off season? [00:21:38] Speaker C: I. I don't have that information in front of me, but there was a season within the last two years where it did not go well when they played some really crap teams. We were. I, I remember talking about like, man, this is a great spring. This team looks amazing. And they sucked because they were smashing everybody. What's one of those teams all stunk? I'm just saying that like, yes, you think you're going to get a good game out of rsl, Red Bull, Dynamo and Atlanta United, but you don't know that they all might play scrub teams on you, you know, you don't have any guarantees. And so I just feel like there's a danger that they might, based on the first couple of games so far, that they're not going to get good enough games. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Last year they played Dinamoto, Blissey, Brndby, Houston, Tulsa and Atlanta. And the, and the Houston and Atlanta games in that case were both. They were split. They weren't like regular games. [00:22:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Then they got Houston and Atlanta again, you know, as part of this little, you know, preseason tournament that Houston and Dallas are doing together with it, they bring in other teams into the south, you know, which is I think what the Red Bull and the Atlanta games are. So, you know, I'm not, I'm not saying I want to burn the house down in terms of like, what. How they're doing it. I'm just saying that, you know, I'm a little bit concerned about the quality of the first two games, that's all. You know, on one hand you could say they're getting a lot chance to play a lot of high possession, rhythmic passing, you know, trying to get your flow going or whatever. You can, you can kind of cash it that way if you want, but I guess we'll see. [00:23:09] Speaker A: What I'm hearing, Dan, is Buzz already predicting Dallas not making the playoffs this season? [00:23:14] Speaker B: That's what it sounds like. I heard wooden spoon somewhere. [00:23:17] Speaker C: Yes, because those are the two choices. Memos cup or wooden spoon. Nothing in between is allowed to happen. [00:23:22] Speaker B: Relegation even. [00:23:24] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm Just saying that, like, I'm allowed to have micro concerns about things. [00:23:30] Speaker A: Okay. [00:23:30] Speaker C: A little concerned about the quality of my position so far. [00:23:33] Speaker A: And we have a right to poke at you about it. [00:23:35] Speaker C: Yeah, that's the fun part. [00:23:37] Speaker A: We're here to have fun, Buzz. [00:23:39] Speaker C: Are we, though? [00:23:40] Speaker A: There's not much to talk about, so let us have some fun. [00:23:43] Speaker C: Okay. All right. Before we move off FC Dallas, I actually have a question I want Dan to answer. And I'm gonna. He's gonna get blindsided. This. But it's not. I'm go p. It's not difficult. It was a. It's a question from a fan in the discord, Dan. [00:23:57] Speaker B: Oh, geez. [00:23:58] Speaker C: And it was. And they were asking about the relative length. [00:24:02] Speaker A: Seven inches. Sorry. [00:24:11] Speaker C: They were asking about the relative link of. Of the MLS preseason being six weeks, and they think it feels longer than most other sports. Pro football is three to four weeks, et cetera, et cetera. So, like, Dan, why is it. And I thought. I have some ideas too, but why is it, do you think that the MLS needs six weeks for preseason and they can't just go like four or three and go and play? [00:24:31] Speaker B: I mean, that's. That's soccer as a whole. It's not just mls. [00:24:35] Speaker C: Okay. [00:24:37] Speaker B: I mean, it's a ramp up. You know, you don't. Traditionally, you have two weeks without a ball, and then, you know, then you start getting into the. Trying different formations, different pairings, and start to really dial it in. And it kind of seems, you know, that that's not the way anymore. There's two weeks of running, but for sure, two weeks of sharpness, two weeks of building relationships and testing out different pairings. We haven't, you know, they haven't played a game that's like a straight up 90 minutes with limited substitutions, and they realistically won't until probably the Houston game on. On February 11th. So it's, you know, it's. It's just. They take it slow. [00:25:22] Speaker C: Yeah, I think. I think it's a combination from. For. For me, of the amount of running that we do as athletes in soccer relative to some of these other American sports, which are about sprint, stop, sprint, stop kind of sports. You know, basketball. That's true NFL football. That's certainly true American football. Soccer is, you know, 90 minutes of running. And so you can't. You have to start with. Even though people come into camp fit these days, you still have to start working up towards your 90 minute sort of fitness for people. And you have a whole team of people you want to try and get to that level of fitness because then you want to be able to have your entire squad running through the games where you're working on the, the tactical nuances and the things you're going to try and implement tactically before the season. You know, so those are two sort of separate things. There's a couple of weeks of the fitness part and then there's a, about four weeks or a month of your normal sort of preseason for other sports. And now other other sports, for example, might have, you know, pitches or catches are reporting or they have these offseason quarterback led workouts or whatever it is. And so for a soccer, it's not divided into two sections, it's divided. It's all one thing. And so that's why you get a little bit longer. And so we're about to hit. As the guys quite really pointed out, the game so far are more about fitness and more about just sort of becoming familiar with new people on your team. And you're about to hit this stretch of three to four games where you're actually trying to put together your actual lineup and get them ready tactically and dialed in before you're going to play. And then your final game is usually your, or maybe your next last game is your 100% final tune up or like, okay, this is replicating a real thing. And so that's why for me that the, the MLS season preseason is usually about six weeks. [00:26:59] Speaker B: We'll say, you know, rugby is probably the one that's a little bit more non stop sprinting and their preseason can be anywhere from 6 to 12 weeks. So it's. Yeah, yeah, dead on. It's, it's kind of hard when like, you know, basketball, you can rotate a team out of a game. American football, you can rotate a team out a game. Hockey, baseball don't even count for that. But yeah, you might be able to get away with subbing players after 45 minutes, but you can't really just say, okay, you're going to sit out and come back in like it's like it's indoor. [00:27:36] Speaker A: Is it not weird that the least physically demanding of all the sports has the longest, most ass draggy preseason in baseball? [00:27:44] Speaker C: Baseball? [00:27:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:27:46] Speaker C: Well, that's probably because baseball is the most sort of pure technique, you know, where you're, it's, it's, it's a really, a form and groove and things like that and an attrition and a grind, you know. [00:27:58] Speaker A: Yeah, they play like a mini pre, they play like a mini season with all the games they Play well, I think, I think. [00:28:04] Speaker C: I mean, I'm not a hardcore baseball guy, but I think they use a significant amount of your rotation with minor league players coming in and out and going through their whole system and, you know, I don't think their starters are playing 60 games. [00:28:15] Speaker A: Baseball mystifies me. [00:28:16] Speaker C: The baseball? Yeah. [00:28:19] Speaker B: One. One other thing. Just going back to Portugal for a second. Do you see the. The team had them nice little get together with Benfico during the week? [00:28:29] Speaker C: I saw the front office staff people do that. Yeah. Is that what you mean? [00:28:33] Speaker B: That's what I mean. Yeah. [00:28:33] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It'll be interesting to see. You know, so far, not a lot in terms of player or visibility to outsiders has seemed to come out of that Benfica things, but, you know, they. They seem to still be doing the front office stuff and the development stuff, so hopefully there's some good coming out of it. It's certainly not easy to spot from where we sit by any means before. [00:28:59] Speaker A: So is that it for you guys? For. [00:29:01] Speaker B: I think so. [00:29:02] Speaker A: All right, so before we go, I want. I was curious. I mentioned this to Andy on the radio show this weekend. So if you already know what I'm about to get into, just fast forward a couple of weeks seconds. Did you guys see the tweet from some person that asked Chat GPT to predict the next 50 MLS Cups? [00:29:24] Speaker C: I did see that, yeah. [00:29:29] Speaker A: And it turns out that all of us are going to end up dying MLS cupless because FC Dallas doesn't win a single one. [00:29:39] Speaker C: It did a lot of repeating of the same teams that are good right now. It was a lot of LAFC and FC Cincinnati and a little bit of Miami. And you know, well, the only thing. [00:29:46] Speaker A: That made me feel better about it was they also did the same thing for usl. And a team that has yet to hire a player or sign a coach or play a game or do anything was already predicted to win the 2035 edition of USL in Dallas. Atletico Dallas. [00:30:06] Speaker C: Nice. [00:30:06] Speaker B: I do like. I just. I just threw that into perplexity. And the first thing it said like, hey, look, we can talk about the near tier term. Miami, lafc, Columbus, Philly, Seattle, Vancouver and. [00:30:19] Speaker A: San Diego Dallas in that list anywhere in there. [00:30:21] Speaker B: It's all just for fun after that. Okay, let's see. FC Dallas, 2035-2029-2043-2058. [00:30:33] Speaker C: I feel good about 2035, 2070. [00:30:36] Speaker B: So FC Dallas gets its gold star. [00:30:40] Speaker A: Wait, is it. Are all those. All those years that Dallas has won MLS cup according to Perplexity Yeah. Interesting. [00:30:49] Speaker B: Yes, says Miami. Next year LAFC gets back the year after Columbus, Dallas, Seattle, Miami again. Galaxy return to some semblance of being useful. [00:31:01] Speaker C: That's going to be 50. [00:31:03] Speaker B: There's some San Diego wins in 2030. [00:31:05] Speaker A: There's some server farm that's just caught fire in the Midwest somewhere. [00:31:10] Speaker B: Vancouver finally gets one in 2042. [00:31:15] Speaker C: Oh, classic. [00:31:16] Speaker B: No, that's New York City. No, no Red Bulls, no Revolution. So FC Dallas gets to. To pretend to win something. [00:31:25] Speaker A: I felt bad for Atletico that they won't win a championship for almost 10 years. That feels like that's not a. A good start for them. They need to win something quickly. [00:31:36] Speaker C: If it was predicted USLC championship. [00:31:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:39] Speaker C: Probably not going to win one at all since theoretically they're not going to be in that. [00:31:43] Speaker B: We're mostly covering a team that hasn't won a championship in its 30 year existence. [00:31:49] Speaker A: No, I understand, but I. If you're coming into a market and you want to be competitive, you can't be, you know. [00:31:55] Speaker C: Well, Peter, that's because they're going to go up to Premiere, win a couple of titles, then get relegated back down and win a USLC championship in their 10th season and get promoted back. [00:32:05] Speaker A: That's the detail and all of that. Good Lord. Could you imagine the disinterest levels that would happen if they got relegated back down to championship? [00:32:15] Speaker C: I mean, there's gonna be some crazy stuff. I mean if program really happens in usl, there's going to be some crazy crap happening. You know, some. Some Tacoma fc, as you would say, Peter, will. Will win their way up to no buzz. [00:32:28] Speaker A: It's Texoma. Why would. God, don't be so stupid. [00:32:31] Speaker C: I know. You're so dumb. [00:32:33] Speaker A: I can't wait for Rodeo SC to get promoted to the Premier League. [00:32:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I just got perplexity to give me the story of FC Dallas's historic 2029 MLS cup winning season. And it immediately goes Quill stuck with an aggressive front foot. 433, 4000, 231 hybrid that emphasized pressing triggers and quick vertical transitions. [00:32:58] Speaker C: What year is this? [00:32:59] Speaker B: 2029. Let's see. [00:33:03] Speaker A: It's only three years away. Yeah. [00:33:04] Speaker C: Could still be here. Yeah. Yeah. [00:33:06] Speaker B: Oh, I know. I just. I just like the detail. It's. It's pretty fun. [00:33:09] Speaker C: It's fun. [00:33:09] Speaker A: That's new. New stadium. Hoodoo right there is what that is. [00:33:13] Speaker C: That is. Yeah. [00:33:16] Speaker A: New stadium. [00:33:17] Speaker B: They're talking about a payoff on the team, investing in supporter culture. That. That's never gonna happen. [00:33:23] Speaker C: Yeah. It was so real up Till that moment. [00:33:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:26] Speaker A: Especially in that new. Oh, never mind. All right, let's move on. Let's see. So next up on Buzz's world famous run sheet, written in red crayon, Dallas Trinity announced and revealed their new head coach. [00:33:44] Speaker C: Yeah, Nathan Thackery, who comes from the North Carolina FC system. He was a goalkeeper coach in their system. Some people we know out in that area tell us he's a good dude, a great guy, and a good hard worker. Dennis McCown, who's one of our contributors who does our lot of our Dallas tourney stuff, had a really nice post on the website with some quotes from players and coaches about. About Nathan Thackeray coming in. So he. He came in the day they announced him. He was already working, so he was there. And we'll see if he talked a lot about an evolution and not changing things dramatically because the team's pretty good so far. And he's got three new players that we talked about last week working into the team. And so it's English. He is English, as always. I'm a little bit bothered by the fact that we can't find a stupid coach in this country. They have to hire Brits all the time. But. And of that. [00:34:34] Speaker A: Stupid Brits. [00:34:35] Speaker C: Yeah. But, you know, at the same time, he does have a solid resume. You know, he's. If anything, he's going to be more like a Dave Durr goalkeeper coach who's become a head coach. So that doesn't stink if you're one of Dallas connection in the Cotton Bowl. Just some vibe check for you. [00:34:49] Speaker A: All right, that explains it because I The. From the video, he appears to be a rather sizable human being. So he's a former goalkeeper. Okay. [00:34:55] Speaker C: That even has some shots. I'm wearing goalie gloves in the. In training. So, you know, he's definitely of that mindset. [00:35:01] Speaker A: You know, I just thought he had really big hands. [00:35:04] Speaker C: Could be what Dan. [00:35:05] Speaker B: He was just keep him warm. [00:35:07] Speaker C: Keep him warm. Yeah, it could be cold. Yeah, for sure. So they open up play this weekend against Brooklyn, second half of the season, to be specific. Not open up play completely. I think they're in third. Dad. I forgot to look. You know, so we'll see how they integrate those new three players in. I still think they're a player short. I think they need a winger, which we didn't see happen. So we may need to check in on that, find out why that didn't happen. Because they're. They're a short one for sure. Unless they're just gonna let some of Those kids play out there on the wing, I guess or maybe miss them all go outside. But you know, because they lost two wingers in this winter. So they definitely two wingers that played a lot. And so they need to solve something, particularly on the right. A bibligo on the left is fine, but you know on the right they're gonna need a little something. [00:35:51] Speaker B: Okay. I thought you said a boober car on the left for a second. [00:35:54] Speaker C: That would be something. A booba car. [00:35:59] Speaker B: It's going to be really interesting to see. I don't know, the, the way they've got the fixtures coming up is so bizarre. You know, you start with the home game against Brooklyn and then straight away you're on a four game road trip, come back, play four games at home. How do you get any rhythm going? [00:36:20] Speaker C: That's a good question. [00:36:22] Speaker A: Yeah, that is curious. It makes you wonder what the state is this, is this all because of stadium obligations and other, you know, every place. Is there something coming up with the Cotton bowl that I'm forgetting that they would need to add? [00:36:34] Speaker C: I don't think so. They got the dash game in late February, friendly at the Cottonmole anyway, so. [00:36:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:41] Speaker C: Okay. You would have thought too that like with a lot of the northern cities probably having colder weather and snow that the Cotton Bowl, I mean certainly it can be cold in Dallas in the winter. We know that, we've just witnessed it. But like generally speaking, it's a fair bet that the January, February, March and the Cotton Ball is actually fairly nice. But yet Dallas going to be on the road through that stretch. They're going to come back home when it starts to get hotter. [00:37:04] Speaker A: So that marks the end of this episode as there's nothing else going on with anybody else than any of the other teams in the Dallas Fort Worth area. [00:37:13] Speaker C: Well, this is to. To my own horns for a second. I put together a list of all the players we have in camp for North Texas SC posted on the site, little bit, little bit of short bio on each guy. So you know kind of who they are, what, what their status is relative to favorite color sign or not sign. No, not phrase of colors. But you know, just if you, if you're interested in that team, I got a good rundown of everyone's there, including all the academy players that are there. So you know, it's, it's, it's, it's. If you're interested in development pathway at all, go check it out and see what, see what it says. They got a friendly coming up. I think they play 40 this weekend, perhaps. I don't know whether you can go see it or not. I don't remember whether it's open or not. [00:37:49] Speaker A: Mikey Delgado's team. [00:37:51] Speaker C: Yes, Buzz. [00:37:53] Speaker A: How are we going to get to know the players if we don't know what their favorite color is? [00:37:57] Speaker C: Well, if you think that matters, you're. You're welcome to investigate further. [00:38:02] Speaker A: Okay. [00:38:03] Speaker C: Actually, they have two games this week. They have. They're playing in the Thunder Ducks of Richland on Wednesday and then4.0 on Saturday. So 2. Good. [00:38:14] Speaker A: That would have been Quack fart. I should. The Thunder Duck would be whack. [00:38:19] Speaker C: There you go. Yeah. [00:38:23] Speaker A: Front Dirk is a Division 2 school and we. [00:38:27] Speaker C: And we actually got a. We have. We got. The regular season schedule for North Texas finally came out and they're starting. Unfortunately, they have to start with five of their home games at Choctaw still because the stadium won't be ready in time. As Peter, you predicted, they start with more road games than home games. But they do still have to play home games through May. Basically. May 30th is the first home. No, July 4th, 4th of July game. Jeff Flores is the first home game at the new stadium. [00:38:56] Speaker A: Yeah. The interesting timing of all that is going to be that that facility is in line to be selected as a training base camp for the World Cup. I mean, they're. They've been pushing Mansfield pretty hard. Is a really primo location because of the availability for privacy because it's so out of the way. So if in fact it gets picked by a national team, would that keep them from playing there? [00:39:24] Speaker C: I don't know. [00:39:25] Speaker B: Probably. Because, yeah, FIFA basically owns it for that. [00:39:30] Speaker A: Right, Exactly. That's kind of why I'm asking the question, which is will they even get to play at their new stadium until after the World Cup? You know, if somebody like, you know, Senegal or something picks it. [00:39:40] Speaker C: My prediction has been that no one will win. No Texas location will get picked for a World cup because of the weather is ass here for that time of year. [00:39:50] Speaker B: You know, I, I do wonder if the. The base cap. If the. The. The. So they said all along that, you know, it was going to be a summer start. I do wonder if they cleared June off anyway. Well, I guess the end of May and June so that they could have that availability through the round of 32 for a base camp. [00:40:13] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:14] Speaker A: Who knows? That's interesting since we really don't have anything else to talk about. Did you guys catch up on the news that the remodeling and upgrades to the Death Star for the World cup have started. In fact, they've gotten quite a bit of ways into modifying the stadium for the bigger field. Have you seen these images and everything? [00:40:37] Speaker C: Yeah. You shared that account of somebody who was doing little videos about that. [00:40:41] Speaker A: Yeah, a guy down in Houston totally woke me up. I had forgotten that the work had started and he, he was kind of a nerd about it and had found the name of the company actually doing the modification work, Precision Turf in terms of the field construction. And they've got a whole bunch of images and the one image that I thought was really fascinating is that. So they've been walling off those ground suites and filling in the lower section with like. It almost looks like they filled them with concrete. They didn't. What they did is they pre made forms that they just kind of stuck in the, in the cavity, the remaining cavity where once they put a wall up that would then, you know, keep you from going into the suite itself. But what's really interesting is if you go and look at some of the pictures for the most corner suites, they actually look like they're going to do that wall that off so they can actually square off the corners instead of rounding them for the purposes of the tournament. And I think that's pretty fascinating. So it's a. And they also, in the, in the copy, it confirms that the field 74.4 yards wide, 68 meters. So a proper width. [00:41:57] Speaker C: Nice. Good. So they can't save that for play around for gold Cups or whatever. [00:42:04] Speaker A: Look, here's what's going to happen from this. Assuming that the all these fields in these indoor stadiums turn out to be peaches and they play well and they hold up over the course of the tournament, the noise out of the NFL Players association is going to go through the roof. [00:42:24] Speaker C: Why is that? [00:42:25] Speaker A: Well, because they're all going to say why can't we have grass fields all the time in these stadiums? If you can grow it in here, why can't we have it all the time? [00:42:32] Speaker C: Yeah, good point. [00:42:33] Speaker A: I mean they're already squawking about it now as it is. Although half the ACL injuries and Achilles injuries this year were on grass surfaces in the NFL. [00:42:44] Speaker C: That reminds me, you know, we've talked a fair bit about the amount of ACL injuries that seem to be happening with FC Dallas's program top to bottom. You know, whether you include North Texas or the Academy. And, and I, I've tried to sort of. There's a lot of them going around in all sports these days. It seems to be an epidemic of them. But I tried to investigate a little bit by asking, you know, officially and unofficially, if there was sort of a program or anything that had done to try and curb that a little bit. And basically the answer I'm finding out is, is no. They just are. You know, they work the same sort of fitness programs they always have and try to keep everybody in good shape. I imagine that there's a certain amount of unpredictability of an ACL injury. You know, I. I don't. I don't know enough to be able to say if there's a, you know, overwork component at play for something like that, but it sure feels like we're in an era where there's a lot of them, particularly with SC Dallas. You know, each team's got two or three or four of them, from bestie Dallas to North Texas to the academies. You know, it's. It's hard to really, you know, put a finger on whether that's worse than normal or not. It just feels like it is. You know, like we had that epidemic of, you know, hernias and stuff back in the Oscar year and they actually put a program into place to deal with that. And it doesn't seem to be like there isn't one at this point from scdalls. [00:44:02] Speaker A: The other photo from the account that I thought was fascinating is the light, the grow lights mechanism. So when they did the Copa America here, they had a, you know, pretty fancy rig setup where they would lower lights from the ceiling down, but the lights were kind of basic looking. Whatever this new device is, that's going to be the grow lights, man. It looks like something out of a Star wars movie. It's quite impressive. So go check all that stuff out there on the. The kick around Twitter, Twitter account if you want to go look at all that stuff. So. And I also retweeted the guy's video that he had posted on social media that had done that initially got me going. All this because I had forgotten about it. So I think it's underscoreAP. Soccer is the account, which is a very complicated user name to share in a podcast. Well, I think that's going to do it, boys. I don't have anything else to talk about. [00:45:04] Speaker C: Yeah, a little light right now. With Trinity not having started back up and North Texas and FC Dallas only in camps, you know, there's not much going on in terms of how do. [00:45:13] Speaker A: We have 19 professional soccer teams around here and we've got 45 minutes of content Summer calendar. [00:45:20] Speaker C: And we can't watch the FC Dallas games, stupid. [00:45:24] Speaker A: All right? We don't have any rumor mongering or anything like that. Did you hear? Hey, what about the. The 10? [00:45:31] Speaker C: Nothing. There's nothing, man. [00:45:33] Speaker A: Buzz, you were falling down on the job, bro. [00:45:36] Speaker B: So actually, that. That perplexity thing about the did it predict 2029 season, it literally refers to the DP10 as DP10. [00:45:49] Speaker A: It's nice to know whoever they signed for their DP10 is still here in 2029. [00:45:54] Speaker B: Oh, it's just magic. It's on the field. Dallas played with controlled aggression, pressing in waves, but always with one eye on their fraught past and big knockout matches. The DP10 opened the scoring with a cold effort from the edge of the box after a homegrown winger drove the back line. [00:46:14] Speaker A: Does it happen to mention that Ibiaga is still playing center back in 2029? [00:46:19] Speaker B: Who knows, right, Ramiro? I mean, at that point, he's probably an assistant. [00:46:24] Speaker A: Okay. [00:46:25] Speaker C: Yep. [00:46:26] Speaker A: All right. Good stuff. I got nothing else. Dan, you got anything? [00:46:29] Speaker B: No, I never have. Never will. [00:46:31] Speaker A: That Husky Hives win last week. [00:46:34] Speaker B: Last week was our presentation week, so we just played friendlies. [00:46:37] Speaker A: Okay. [00:46:38] Speaker B: League starts tomorrow. [00:46:39] Speaker C: All right. [00:46:40] Speaker A: Did you win in the friendly? [00:46:42] Speaker B: I don't know. We played a bunch of games. It was just winners day on. [00:46:44] Speaker C: Oh, okay. [00:46:45] Speaker A: All right. [00:46:46] Speaker C: Well, we could throw out that Liam Verostek got a name to the USU17 team for Concaf qualifying. That's pretty cool. He's the one of the top players on my signing list from the academy right now. [00:46:58] Speaker A: It feels like a humble brag on your part. [00:47:01] Speaker C: Well, it's trying to reconnect it back to our coverage, but thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. [00:47:08] Speaker A: Excellent. Okay. Thank you, Buzz. Thank you, Dan. [00:47:11] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:47:12] Speaker A: Thank you, Buzz. [00:47:13] Speaker C: Thanks, man. Thanks for being here. [00:47:15] Speaker A: Thank you. [00:47:17] Speaker B: In a different order than usual. [00:47:18] Speaker A: Yeah, just trying to keep it going, man. I'm just trying to throw in a little spice here and there since such a boring time of year. [00:47:27] Speaker C: I'm sure you guys are both hyped that in a Sally immediately started for his club. His new club started. [00:47:32] Speaker B: As long as it wasn't Dallas, I don't really care where he started. [00:47:35] Speaker A: Wait, you know what? We should have mentioned this because I think this happened since we it did. What ended up we didn't do. We care so little about Ennis Soli that we didn't even throw that in on a such a low content day. We forgot to mention that he got sent packed off to Serbia. [00:47:51] Speaker C: He Got disrespected and even get the 99 back. It's not Serbia. [00:47:56] Speaker A: Where'd they ship him off to, Cutter? [00:47:58] Speaker C: The same team. [00:47:59] Speaker B: Saudi Arabia. Riyadh. [00:48:02] Speaker C: Sorry, I'll. Riyadh. Yep. But he played in the first game. I think he even started. So they put him right in. Yeah. [00:48:08] Speaker A: Oh, good Lord. All right. Well, congratulations, Ennis. [00:48:12] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it was up an international spot and that's all we really care about, so maybe they can actually. Yeah, but they were already over on U22, so it doesn't really open a spot. It just clears his contract, you know, so they won't be able to. You know, his loan only runs till June, so they won't be able to add him back in after that expires because unless they move somebody else. [00:48:33] Speaker A: How long is his contract? [00:48:35] Speaker C: Gosh, fairly long. [00:48:37] Speaker A: Of course it is. They're stuck with this guy for like, till 31. Will NS Solly be on the roster when they win MLS cup in 2020? [00:48:46] Speaker B: He's the DP10. [00:48:48] Speaker C: He signed through 27 with a 28 option, so. [00:48:53] Speaker A: He won't be there for the championship winning season. All right, well, I'm glad we got that thrown in there. I would have felt like high disrespect if we had failed to mention Ennis Soli in this episode. [00:49:07] Speaker C: Well, you know, the window, the transfer window is just now opening, so they have till the end of March to make something happen. So hopefully they'll get something going. Be nice. Third to Be the podcast is brought to you by our wonderful listeners as we enter our 29th season of coverage of FC Dallas and now the greater pro soccer scene in North Texas. Perhaps you would think about joining us here and give us Some [email protected] thirddegree if you like what we do on the Internet, both podcast and website, and our general news coverage of soccer, why don't you join us? Patreon.com thirddegree thanks again for your support. [00:49:45] Speaker A: All right, I'll try this dismount again. Thank you, Dan. [00:49:47] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:49:49] Speaker A: And thank you, Buzz. [00:49:50] Speaker C: Thanks, man. Thanks for being here on this wintry weekend. [00:49:54] Speaker A: My pleasure, sir. And thank you. You DFW Soccer Curious. We will speak to you again on a much more filled out and longer and more special episode of third degree, the podcast. [00:50:07] Speaker B: That's not a problem, I promise. Third degree, the third degree podcast. [00:50:14] Speaker A: Third degree the third degree podcast. Third degree, the third degree. [00:50:22] Speaker C: The third degree the third degree never. Careful, Sam.