3rd Degree the Podcast #351

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Third Degree, the Third Degree Nerd Podcast. [00:00:14] Speaker A: Third Degree, the Third Degree Nap Podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree Nap Podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree Ned Podcast. Well, hello there, DFW soccer. Curious. Welcome to yet another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. We're all here. It's a big one. The first pod of the new season, at least for football club Dallas. There he is, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:43] Speaker B: Hello. How are you doing? [00:00:46] Speaker A: I am well, thank you very much. And your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of thirddegree.net and the original soccer influencer himself. Live from Spokane, Washington, it's Buzz Carrick. Welcome, Buzz. [00:01:02] Speaker C: Fellas, you'll be shocked, shocked to hear that it is cold and raining here. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Have you adopted a pet moose yet? [00:01:12] Speaker C: No, no. We're gonna get a dog, but we just haven't done it yet, so you [00:01:15] Speaker A: should just give it. Will you at least name it Moose? Consider naming it Moose. [00:01:20] Speaker C: I might. I might. Okay. [00:01:21] Speaker A: Fantastic. Well, boys, it is a victory pod for football club Dallas as Toronto comes to town and Dallas gets the win. Burn three, Maple Leaf two. And my. My overall observation, Buzzard, is, man, all of the talking points that we kind of listed out in the weeks prior to the start of the season. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Yep. [00:01:48] Speaker A: I thought every single one of them. The good, the bad, the question, whatever. All of them were on display Saturday night in the opener. [00:01:56] Speaker C: Yeah, it. It went exactly as scripted. Not to make a joke, but, you know, we. We talked a lot about how the forwards were going to be good. We talked about how the midfield was going to be workman. Like, we were a little bit worried about the stability of the back. We thought that both the wing backs were going to be able to contribute some offensively and that clothy would be solid. And all those things happened in about the whole game. That's basically was it, you know, And Toronto was a bit of a mess coming in. We were missing some pieces. They're still trying to put their team together. They had a bit of a makeshift lineup, but, you know, Dallas performed exactly like we expected them to perform and probably the way their coaches expected them to perform, if we're being honest. [00:02:38] Speaker A: Yeah, let's. We'll get into the tactics and the minutia of the game itself in a second. I want to go first to Dan, who is actually at the the game, for some sights and sounds. First off, I want to credit Eric Quill for not only going with the big hat, but I also thought it was really polite of him to honor his opponent by wearing a Canada Goose Jacket on the sideline. [00:03:01] Speaker C: Did he? I didn't recognize that. It was a Canada goose jacket. [00:03:04] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know which one it was. I was trying to search it up because those, those jackets are not inexpensive, by the way. But I thought it was funny he was wearing a can of a Canada goose jacket because it was chilly that night. The tifo looked great. At least when I. When they set it up, Dan, on the other side, you could see it on camera. It kind of the anime style. Speaking of big giant hat. I thought that was pretty great. [00:03:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I unfortunately didn't see him lift it. So it was only when the staff took it over to the opposite side, I got to see it. I did see where. [00:03:36] Speaker A: Did they lift it over themselves over the Rhine or did they lift it into the raft? [00:03:41] Speaker B: Yeah, it would have been on the Rhine. Yeah. Um, they did a. Some people did a small one for Paxton as well, which was very nice after our heartbreak last week. [00:03:51] Speaker A: All right. And then the other thing that I saw noted and I, you know, I. I wondered if it was the quality of the image. Again. My favorite thing about the Apple TV deal going out from behind the paywall is the average rank and file American sports fan will get to see what a properly produced, native 1080p production can actually look like at home. There was something visually different. And then later on somebody pointed out that because of the new east side roof line, all the new lighting is in effect. Is that just on the east side shining or is there new lighting on both sides? [00:04:29] Speaker B: It's on the east side. It is very bright. It looks great. The players lined up for the anthems before the game and it was just like a dark line in front of them where the. The east side lights are that much stronger than the, you know, the two pylons on the west, so. [00:04:45] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:04:47] Speaker B: Yeah, Looks great. Unfortunately, when the field gets a little barren, it's probably going to do a little more exposing of the. The patches in the grass, but we live with that. [00:04:57] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting. What's the general atmosphere like now that you've been in the stadium with the new roof line and, you know, essentially a full house as much as a full house gets in 2026. [00:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it seems to hold the noise in certainly better, I think. You know, opening day is always a little bit funny. People are getting out of their preseason form themselves. It's cold, so we'll see how it goes the next couple of games. But really promising stuff so far. [00:05:28] Speaker A: Does it change the perspective of what the stadium Feels like. [00:05:33] Speaker B: Yes, actually feels like a stadium and not like a tiny Costco in the middle of a housing development, which is really, really pleasing. [00:05:43] Speaker A: All right, Excellent. I dig it. Well, of course, the other thing is, I don't know why I'm telling you guys this, because it was obvious to everybody the kits are even better in action than they are in photographs. They look fantastic on television. This actually was a great kit assignment matchup. I thought Toronto's away kits look really sharp and businesslike. They were really nice and this particular thing was really great, too. So. All right, let's talk about the game. I. It was an interesting performance, as we said at the Open. I thought it highlighted every single talking point we possibly could have listed throughout the deal. The one thing that I thought was interesting was Robin Frazier's failure to take the opportunity to push Dallas in their softest spot, which is building out of the back. The fact that Toronto did not press in this game, I thought was a huge factor in how well Dallas played because they were never asked to do the one thing they're not very good at. [00:06:42] Speaker C: Well, if you don't have the personnel to press, it's hard to impress. I mean, you have to play the way, you know, like they're still putting their team together, they're missing some. They're out there trying to get some big name guys. So they don't have, you know, all three dps? I don't think so. Like, I mean, who does? Apparently fairly common, I suppose. But you know, if, if you're not. If you're not having the personnel to press or you're not practicing press, if you're not planning to press all season, it's hard to really just turn on a press, you know, especially when it's early because pressing takes a lot of team coordination and work because, like, if you press and your other teammates read it wrong, you're in trouble. So, like, it's not something you can just turn on and off really quickly, at least not well. So I'm not surprised if that they weren't going to press necessarily. You know, the Dallas in particular, of course, plays very vertical. And part of that getting at you fast and getting over the top fast means that you can't play really high or they'll burn you over the top. And with Collode, they have a keeper who can play a good long ball. So when Iraqi, they can too, when he's back there. And probably the addition of Herman Johansson will mean that they'll be able to do that a little more on that side, although they didn't play very much to that side. So, you know, I. It probably is a thing where maybe they were a little nervous about what Dallas would do pinning them back. So maybe that's part of it too. You know, granted Toronto's coming off a pretty bad season last year and they're in complete rebuild. So what they're doing today may not be what they're doing in a couple weeks or even by the end of the season. [00:08:05] Speaker A: Dan, what's your overall reaction to Dallas's performance? [00:08:11] Speaker B: Solid start. They, they did what they needed to. They got, got the win. Definitely some places to improve upon the build out of the back. Bernie, bless him, had some hair raising moments. Johansson definitely is learning the league a little bit aggressive to start with. Kind of got played a bit by Mihailovic and Larreya, but on the going forward, I mean, his pace, unreal. You know, it was just ping a ball, let him chase it. And at one point they forced Larreya or Thompson into a really bad mistake that, that almost gave up a goal until he fouled them. [00:08:56] Speaker A: We'll come back to Johansson in a sec. Anything else about the game you want to you wanted to point out? [00:09:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it was nice to see Daniel Salwi not actually score against FC Dallas, even if he did directly contribute to [00:09:11] Speaker A: a goal he tried on his first touch of the ball. [00:09:15] Speaker B: I mean, when, you know, bringing on Raheem Edwards and shall we both FC Dallas killers at the same time was like, oh great, okay, this is, this is going to turn upside down. [00:09:26] Speaker A: So I thought one of the things that we talked about is this weird catch 22 situation that the front office is in, which is they have this team under one DP and they, and the, and the explanation they give us is they want to wait till the summer. But what they're not really talking about is part of that calculation is the problem of Peter Moose's situation. And Dallas needs to have a really strong start to start the season. They got to get the three points in these home games and that's by and large probably going to come from Peter Musa scoring goals. And every time he scores a goal, the likelihood of him joining the Croatian national team just goes up. And the likelihood of him scoring a goal against England in the game at Arlington State in AT&T on June 17 just goes up. Which means he probably won't be here for the second half of the season because the Hunt sold him for a kabillion jillion dollars. And there, lo and behold, he got a brace and he was great and he looks fantastic and that's exactly what this team needs at the same time. No, don't. Could you just not play that good maybe? [00:10:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Two goals and an assist. I mean, it's hard to complain about that level of performance. You know, I think part of it too is that Logan Ferington also had an excellent game. You know, he had a goal and assist. You know, didn't have the two, but had the one. Those two guys are just working really well together. They had some quotes the team did they put out where those guys are talking about how good friends they are off the field, how their profiles are similar. They both act off of and play well off of chaos. They both create chaos. They both take advantage of the space each other make. You know, it's an ideal combination in terms of two strikers. You know, traditionally when we think of a two striker system, we think of a high guy and an off guy. Well, both these guys can do both of those things and they move around and they switch and they take advantage of the gaps and it's exciting. And when you have, you know, outside wing backs who are both capable of getting forward and contributing offensively, the, the defense can't just single mindedly focus on your two strikers. You know, there's no 10 in that zone. But the midfield I thought actually did surprisingly well. [00:11:24] Speaker A: You moved on to midfield before I was finished talking about the two forward guys. Hold on, don't talk about midfield yet. I want to talk about the fact that he's playing essentially a 3, 5, 2, a 5, 3, 2, however you want to call it. But the two striker system we haven't seen in Dallas. And when was the last time we saw Dallas play with two strikers? [00:11:43] Speaker C: Well, for sure, Jason Christ and yeah, Graziani, Ariel Graziani. After that, Cooper and Cunningham. Cunningham, yeah, some, yeah. [00:11:57] Speaker A: Abe Thompson maybe. [00:11:58] Speaker C: But Cooper used to always like they would try and play him as a nine but he would always go way out on the wing. Thought he was like, he's messy. So you know, it's, it's hard to say the last time they really had a two striker system. It was almost always like, even if it wasn't by choice, it would end up being a single striker system. I can't remember the last real good off striker they had. It's been a long time. Yeah, it was maybe Bobby Ryan playing with somebody or Alexi Kroll playing with somebody like shortly after those 99 seed teams. [00:12:27] Speaker A: I thought there were moments early in the game where Musa was coming way far back to get the Ball. And I thought because historically we saw. Think of all the strikers in the last 15 years Dallas has had where we got frustrated. Jesus. The Panamanian guy whose name. [00:12:44] Speaker B: Blas. [00:12:44] Speaker A: Blas. Thank you, Blas. And a couple of other guys, Maxi Rudy would all abdicate playing the nine and come all the way back in the midfield. And we were like, well now there's nobody to get the ball to but here with Musa doing it. Farrington staying up high, I thought worked really, really well and caused all kinds of problems for Toronto's back line, including one Walker Zimmerman we're all familiar with. [00:13:09] Speaker B: Actually I asked Logan about that after the game. Just, you know, whether that was like a coach instruction kind of just part and parcel of not having, you know, that tenless shape. And he just said, you know, they've, they've been given a bit of freedom to read the game and find those pockets as they come and they were just naturally dropping back deeper. We saw quite a bit of defensive output from Mesa. I mean but the Logan's goal came from, from Moussa getting back defending and then just playing along board that Walker whiffed on. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah, the Beaver sitting down at least two Toronto goalkeepers and the defenders was pretty sweet. And the best part of that, if anybody's watching the replay, is Moose's reaction as he goes over to celebrate with Logan. It's really like, kid, you did it. That's exactly what you're capable of doing. Kind of body language, you know what I'm saying? It was, it was, it was pretty nice. There's a lot of promise there. I, I hope it doesn't get broken up anytime soon. That would stink. All right now, Buzz, let's go into the midfield. I think the, it was kind of exactly what we thought. It's not bad, it's not great. It's kind of mid. [00:14:23] Speaker C: Yeah, they're three workman like dudes, you know. You expected a good defensive showing. Capus of course is a box to box guy. He was passing in about an 86 clip, which is really good in a midfield triangle. He had three key passes which means that he's distributing really well. That's an eight like performance. He's not going to end up with like 18 assists because he's not a 10. It's not that kind of player, not playing that kind of role. Kaik surprisingly really good at an eight style linking play, which is what he was doing. He was over there on the right side. He also was at about 78% passing, which is, you know, a good 8% short of capus, but he's significantly more inexperienced than Capis and it's probably not as good in those tight spaces like campuses. Can't shield guys off yet and distribute quite well. But he had a key pass, so a little bit less of that, you know, getting forward than Capis, but still pretty solid for a guy who we think of as just a six. You know, Ramiro stayed at home, didn't go anywhere, didn't get adventurous, you know, move the ball around pretty well. Still has a little trouble tracking like a fast mid crashing out of the midfield. He can't keep up with those guys, as we saw on some of the most dangerous plays Toronto had. But, you know, for. For a midfield that was pretty simple in its capabilities in the sense of like, looking at it on paper, they really did a pretty good job of linking play for, especially because you're talking about a team that is not necessarily built to go through the middle and yet they were still able to. Whether it was picking up balls and playing them when they want them back or whether it was the, the, the bit of play they did get mostly up the left side between Bernie and including Capis on that side, coming, coming out of Shaq Moore at the left center back position. So, you know, they could use some more balance, they could use more connectivity out of Kaik. They could use a little more connectivity and play from Bibaga through Hermon Johnson, excuse me, Johansen and then. But other than that, you know, pretty stable. When you have such active movement from your strikers, it's okay to have some stability behind them. You know, we saw when Patterson come in, came in, it didn't change all that much. They didn't like unleash him as a tenant, his own 14 or anything. You know, he mostly played just like Hayek did, which was interesting. I thought maybe they would let him go a little more, but they kept him pretty stable. [00:16:34] Speaker A: I thought of the three midfielders, I thought Capis was the best. I didn't think Kaik had a very particularly good game. The eyeball test told me he was too easily dispossessed. He was probably better defensively than he was going forward. And Ramiro, maybe to his credit was. Had a quiet game. Like, he didn't. I didn't. I don't remember any. Anything particularly standout, problematic or good. So I, I don't know. Dan, what was your read on how those three guys played? [00:17:05] Speaker B: I think Kevin Ramiro alongside Kaik is nice because Ramiro can take the pace out of it. When Kaik gets frantic. Capis quality as always. Really enjoyed it, actually. When Ran Binyamin came in, he is an absolute terrier. Just going crazy on people is great. [00:17:29] Speaker C: One thing I think it's that they're doing with Ramiro staying so at home instead playing such a simple game. Part of it, I think is because of the freedom they're clearly giving your guide to just go wherever he wants. Because there was many times he popped up in the box trying to get forward and contribute almost like a playmaking center back or something weird like that. And Romero was the one that was tasked with staying put and being there in between the other two center backs. So lots of responsibility on Ramire to hold that shape together and not let it get too stretched at many points and try and keep guys in the proper positions when he can. So they're not asking him to do much offensively out of that spot. Probably just pass the ball to Capis or Kaik and see what happens. But, you know, it's okay to have a not so fast guy in there who's a really good communicator and leader and organizer when all you're asking him to do is sit there and not go anywhere. [00:18:19] Speaker B: You mentioned the irrigate. I kind of, you know, getting forward a bit. I wonder if that's going to be a common theme or if that's just Nashville. Does that with Walker Zimmerman counter it? Oh, not Nashville. Sorry. Everyone historically has done it with Walker Zimmerman. Toronto in this case. [00:18:33] Speaker A: Well, I also want to point out that it wasn't just Uraguide that did it. There was a tremendous opportunity created that Shaq Moore bombed up the field with the ball, just carried it up the field and it almost came off as a new element to the team's game that Eric has given license to those guys to take that opportunity if it presents itself. And I think accounted three of those two Eric days and one Shaq more where they clearly carried the ball deep into down the field. And that was a really interesting twist because it totally unbalances the other team. It kind of reminded me back to the old Chris Wilder Sheffield United days when they were in the championship and got into the premiership and they were playing that overlapping center back thing where one of their three center backs would come out and overlap wide. And it worked really, really well in the championship, not so well in the premiership. But maybe, maybe that's a new trick they'll. They'll use on the regular. I like that. [00:19:29] Speaker C: I don't want to see that a lot out of the Shaq Moore as the wide center back. Unless there's going to be some good recognition by Bernie Camungo that he can't go flying forward at the same time and leave that whole half of the field exposed. Or some good recognition by Ramiro or Capis, whoever, to cover back into that space. [00:19:44] Speaker A: Sure. [00:19:45] Speaker C: Keep a little bit of that shape even as you come across midfield. You don't want to just completely abandon both Bernie and Shaq Moore going forward and leaving, you know, everything behind. Cap is open. That's not a good idea. [00:19:54] Speaker A: All right, let's talk about the wing backs. And I was thinking about this earlier today. I don't even know the answer to this question. Are wing backs typically considered defenders or midfielders? [00:20:03] Speaker C: Both. That's why they're called wing backs. [00:20:06] Speaker A: Okay, but would you. [00:20:08] Speaker B: Defensive midfielders? [00:20:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, well, would you consider them? Would you. Okay, would you put. Would you put them in the group of midfielders or would you put them with the group of defenders? And I guess that's the difference between a 5, 3, 2 and a 5, 3, 5, 2. Right? [00:20:21] Speaker C: Well, you know, we usually call this thing at 3, 5, 2. And that's the implication that they're kind of midfielders. But Quill has certainly called it a 5, 3, 2. [00:20:29] Speaker A: It was 100% a 5, 3, 2 out of possession. [00:20:32] Speaker C: I've started drawing it up as a 5, 3, 2. I definitely think that they think of those two outside guys as outside backs. First defense, positionally. Because. Yeah, defenders first. Because remember, this formation was adapted to stop the bleeding in back. And part of that is having those guys back there and compressing that back line even more and tidying those spaces up and having a legit back five. That's why they also need to be guys who have the verticality to be able to release like Bernie and like Johansson is and be able to get forward and then become offensive minded. But, you know, they. It's all about that shape. The way FC Dallas sits back 80% of the time, they don't care much about possession. They're in that defensive shell, that five, three, two. Not quite a Christmas tree formation, but it's pretty damn close. And keeping that shape and keeping that tightness because you put think about back a year and a half ago or even two years ago, how many teams came in here and attacked those gaps between the center back and the outside back on both sides of all over and over and over and over again against teams. That's what this is about. It's about tightening that up so I think it's okay to think of those defenders first and the way Dallas is playing them. [00:21:37] Speaker A: Okay, Buzz, in your instant reaction video, the one thing that you brought up that I was somewhat surprised by was your pointing out and high praise of Johansson. I didn't think actually played very well. I, I, my takeaway from it was is that there's a lot more we need to see from the guy. It was his day game and I wasn't at the stadium so I didn't get to see a lot of him off the ball and everything. I, but when I did see him on the ball, I, I just didn't see much out of him. So I was surprised. You, you pointed, you made a big, you made a point to point or make a point to make him one of your three points. [00:22:14] Speaker C: Yeah, well, he was one of the three points because he's such a new player. But I, I broke it down a little bit more in my breakdown. Funny how that works. I think you have to look at and what I was interested in was the balance in his game and the positional soundness of his game. You know, Bernie is sloppy, he's all over the place. His, his offensive game is like a vertical. I'm just going to go defensively. He often doesn't really know where to be. He's, he doesn't keep the contact correctly, the shape's not there. Now Bernie had a fairly good defensive game in the sense that he had four tackles and three intercepts, but it's, it's done by effort. Whereas watching Johansson, he was defensively sound, positionally speaking, he did have the one turnover that led to, to the goal after some other people didn't do very well defensively. On the turnover he didn't have any, he only had like one defensive action, Johansson. But the balance on the other side of keeping of the offensive side too, being in the right position, providing outlets, providing connectivity. You know, the team played 40 to 20 something percent left to right, so they definitely weren't interested in going through Ibiaga and up to Johansson and Kaik. That's a triple group that maybe is not so awesome. You know, we were actually surprised a little bit that More was on the left and Ibiagua was on the right. Perhaps that's all part of it. So, you know, I think Johansson and my description of his game is a good game was it was in that sense was in the collective team positioning providing outlets, being where he's supposed to be, you know, with you guys. I think he could have done a lot More. And he can do a lot more. He was obviously lifted for minutes because he was a late arrival in the spring and is not necessarily 100% game fit. Game. [00:23:51] Speaker A: He looked a little leggy. [00:23:53] Speaker C: Yeah. Sharp. So, like, given all of that, just got here. Still learning the team, so learning the league. Going up against a guy who's a national team caliber outside back that can fly on the other side. I thought he had a good game. [00:24:05] Speaker A: Okay, Dan, I'm curious from you being at the game, if somebody said to you who had the better performance, Camungo or Johansson, who would you give the nod to? [00:24:17] Speaker B: Johansson, easily. I don't think he contributed a ton. I have a note for. In stoppage time. Bernie stop fucking around late in stoppage time. So, yeah, yeah, it felt like quit [00:24:39] Speaker A: making blind passes back into your own box. [00:24:43] Speaker C: Forwards. [00:24:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And there was a moment where he just completely forgot where he was. Coelo Coelho just stuck a ball in. In a massive gap in between Moore. [00:24:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:56] Speaker B: And Bernie Henry, Malik Henry, you know, got a nice easy run into the box. Luckily they scrambled it away, but you've gotta have a bit of defensive effort there. [00:25:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I thought the look of death Shaq Moore gave Bernie after the bad pass that Shaq had to go rescue the team and saved a goal was pretty telling. But I also want to point out that Bernie, again, this demonstrates his double edge sword nature, which he had really good moments in the game. He made some good decisions, he did some defensive work. But to your point, Buzz, it all feels like it's more about effort than coming naturally. You know what I mean? Like, it just. [00:25:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, and it's okay. Like, you know, he is what he is. Quill is playing him knowing that he's going to be chaotic both ends of the field and good ways and bad ways. But, you know, you have to give him credit for the fact that he ended up having two key passes and almost 90 passing. The shame is that of that other 10 passing, several of them are brutal, you know, and they're right to the other team and they almost give up goals. When you talk about where Shaq Moore looks at him like he was going to kill him, you know, it's defensive efforts are there, but a lot of it's emergency defending. You know, as a collective, the team had something like 27 clearances or something like that, which I feel is really high. A lot of sort of panic defending. Let's boot it out of there. So. And that was just the three center backs that had that 27. So you know, I. That's why Dan and I both, I think, feel like Johansson had a better game because Johansson knows what he's doing. He may not have been as impactful as the Bernie chaos can be in good and bad ways. And sometimes you just want a guy who can be out there and just do a really good job and keep it pretty basic. The granted, the one bad giveaway Johansson had led to a goal after some other people didn't do very good recovery either. So, you know, it's not. It wasn't ideal by Johansson. We're not going to walk in and go your best 11 off of that game. But compared to some of the guys we've had the last couple of years, like Giovanni J. Zeus or Enzo Newman, guys that have been incredibly raw and didn't know what they were doing, you know, even Shaq Moore, I thought this was a more cohesive performance than we got out of Shaq Moore over the last year and a half at times. Right back, right wing back. [00:27:08] Speaker A: Yeah. And I was thinking about this because I know there we're going to get to the back three here in a second is a lot of the concern that fans have expressed. We've talked about it on the podcast. Is the. Is Quill's choice to start Ibiaga or put Shaq, you know, take essentially Nolan Norris out and put Shaq Moore in that left center back position. And I. I'm curious if the reasoning ultimately Buzz comes down to he doesn't want to have to put Nolan Norris. The Nolan Norris experiment along with the Bernie Camungo experience on experience on the same side of the field. Being that they're both very young players and that double mix of all that youth and inexperience he's worried about. Do you think there's anything to that idea? [00:27:50] Speaker C: Yeah, very much so. I think. I think they were hoping Iaga would be better on that side because they did. They put Vivi over there most of spring training, if I'm. If I remember my paperwork correctly. But you know, Shaq Moore does a better job when they let Bernie release and that thing slides into a back four, which you may not see as much this year because Johansson also wants to release. So you may not see that slide quite as much. But. But Shaq Moore certainly is better at sort of. I don't know what you would call it, you know, recovery, defending or understanding Bernie or whatever it is, you know, more comfortable on that side than Iaga appears to be, which is a bit surprising. You'd think of Ibia's experience as a center back, he'd be more comfortable over there. But it doesn't appear that that's the case. Either way, I don't think, I don't think this is probably true of the whole team. I don't think that the 11 now is going to be the 11 at the end of the season. They have, they have a lot of young players they've bought with potential and they have a lot of young guys they're going to expect to get better. And right now they're going with a more veteran, more stable, more simplified group. You know, Ramiro's in there, Moore's in there, Ibiaga's in there. You know, it's, it's. Maybe there's some guys that'll get kaikas and experiences in there. Maybe there's some guys that'll get pushed out within half a season, within a couple of months, we'll see. Post World cup, it could change completely. So it's hard 100% to say across the board that like this is what Quill thinks will be the best 11 now versus the best 11 at the end of the year. I think those things could be very, very different. [00:29:24] Speaker A: So now getting into the back three, I think we've all talked about this as our biggest concern is that we've got, you know, Ergide, who we all agree is arguably good enough to, to possibly be an MLS best 11 quality center back. Shaq Moore is a guy who's never played the position before, at least not until late last season on the regular. It's not his natural position. And then you got Ibiaga, who now I think is driving me nuts cause he's got gray in his beard and I just don't know if we need that. Sorry, Dan. No, no offense taken, sir. [00:30:00] Speaker B: I've. I've got some brown in my beard at this point. [00:30:02] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. And I, you know, I. They had some good moments. They. But they clearly still look very, very messed up. I do think on the second goal, Toronto scored. They were let, let down a little bit by the midfield because Cap is caught a little forward. Romero is way off in the left, and then Kaik is standing in the middle of the field not marking anybody, just kind of like looking around, not knowing what to do. And they got a little bit overloaded for that goal. [00:30:30] Speaker C: But that's. I think that's when, when they're at their weakest, Peter, is when they get stretched, when they get caught with a guy forward that you don't expect. When, that, when Those three midfielders are not in the right position. If Ramiro's dragged out, if Cavus is caught up field, same thing with about along the back line. If, if Kamunga's caught way up. If Jack Morris caught out of position. Ibiaga is good for maybe a couple of gaffes a game. You know, like surely your is good at covering up but then the same time when you turn the ball around like we would expect center backs to be able to pass in about a 90% clip without any problem at all. And two of the three center backs were under 90%. They were in the 80s this time. You know, if you're a coach that wants to play out of the back, he doesn't want to do ticky tacky build it forever out of the back. But K wants to be able play out of the back. Part of the reason code is in there is because of his feet, right. He's, he's looking at guys who can connect and link. You got Capis in there, you got Kaik in there, double linkers in midfield. Right. He wants to have some of that component in the game, in the play. And they're just not as good out shock. Moore and Ibiaga are not great at passing out of the back. Moore's obviously better than Ibi or the players think they are because they certainly go to the left to Shaq Moore 100% more than they do to the right. And a lot of it is because they go through irrigated. Irrigated has massive amounts of touches and he's choosing to go left more than [00:31:52] Speaker B: he is right into that point. Shaq Moore 88, 42 successful passes, Ibiaga 90% but only 26 successful. [00:32:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:05] Speaker A: What was [00:32:08] Speaker B: IAGAS number 90 with 26 successful. Interesting. [00:32:13] Speaker C: Yeah, he was at 89 something. It rounds up to 90. [00:32:17] Speaker A: Okay. Well it was kind of the full expectation. Oh, goalkeeper. Real quick collode I thought was, I mean look, he does some things pause just doesn't do. His willingness to come out and punch balls, collect balls, his. A lot of that is really good. But I also at the same time think pause doesn't spill that ball in that second Toronto goal. I think he, he, he holds onto that. [00:32:41] Speaker C: That may be true. But Toronto had seven shots on target, so Clody had five saves. That's a pretty strong night. You know like a 5 save performance is a pretty good performance. You could argue that with going up by the MLS stats, Toronto had more XG than Dallas did. So you can argue that if, if Clodi doesn't have a pretty solid game shot stopping that. Dallas loses that game. [00:33:05] Speaker A: Oh, I don't disagree. I just. I. I could tell by the look on his face he was disappointed he didn't keep that ball that got. [00:33:10] Speaker C: Oh, you know, he definitely didn't. It didn't quite have the aura of confidence that he had at the end of last year when he was on fire. And he knew it. You know, he was a little bit, you know, first night jitters. Oh, I'm the guy now. Not no longer filling him. It's now me, you know. [00:33:22] Speaker B: Yeah, he had that little, like, mini spill he gathered a minute or so before. I mean, fortunately, first, you know. Yeah, I mean, he. He, you know, he got it out of his head. It was fine. It didn't, you know, I was a little concerned that they were just going to start peppering him from distance at that point and try and sort of beat his confidence down. But he. He came through the other side of it. [00:33:45] Speaker A: I was trying to think before, because Dan's got to go here in a little bit. I was trying to think in terms of, you know, this is what I want to talk about. The one player I was actually somewhat surprised to be impressed by was Deetson. I thought Dietzen played really well. [00:33:58] Speaker B: I thought he didn't until he took a shot. [00:34:01] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Until he. He. Brian accosted it. [00:34:08] Speaker B: I mean, that's what I mean. Every time I've seen him play for Haiti, that's kind of what you see. Yeah, he's great on the ball until he has to actually do something with it. [00:34:19] Speaker C: I think I was most pleased in terms of subs with Patricson Delgado because he's a guy who has a lot of frumpy body language sometimes. And for him to have lost. [00:34:29] Speaker A: You say, wait, did you say frumpy body language? [00:34:32] Speaker C: Yeah, he's a little, you know, so, like, for him to have lost that 10 job that he had over the stretch run when Dallas was really good, and then when he came in, I thought he carried himself really well. Like, he looked energetic. He looked like he was something to prove. Like, I'm go here. I'm coming in. I'm gonna do some stuff, you know, So I actually really liked that it would have been easy for him to pedrinho it and given us about 20% performance, you know, and. And so it's nice to see. I thought him come in and. And be ready to challenge and not just coast around. And maybe some of that also was feeding off of Binyamin. Means energy, which is probably going to be infectious. Or when you see that kid working like he does, he's like, oh, I better come out here and play. I better not bring it. [00:35:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought the. The Deetson thing was interesting because we talked about being concerned, them having a position for him in this formation, being a true winger type, at least the best we understand his. His skill sets. And so I thought he did a little bit of defensive work and worked hard, and I appreciated that out of the guy. For a guy that I think we've all wondered, where in the world is he going to fit into this thing? So. All right, let's talk about Quill real quick before we go. Dan, did. Did you go to the press conference afterwards and what did the man in the big hat have to say? [00:35:45] Speaker B: Oh, he was. [00:35:48] Speaker C: It was. [00:35:49] Speaker B: Seemed a little bit shorter than usual. He shrunk, Talked a lot about. No, not him. [00:35:56] Speaker C: Oh, the conference. [00:35:58] Speaker B: Happy with the bright star, early goal. Making it really important. Highlights, aggressive vertical play. The things you expect, see. [00:36:08] Speaker A: Did he call them dogs? [00:36:11] Speaker B: More than likely. I haven't really read it back, but [00:36:16] Speaker A: we need to keep account on how many times he calls his players dogs over the course. [00:36:20] Speaker C: It's gonna be a lot, dude. [00:36:21] Speaker B: Yeah, no, he seemed pretty happy with everything. I did ask him for an update on Capis. When he came off kind of late on, he just said it was just cramping. And Cap has just held his hands up and said, look, you know, if they're gonna. If they're gonna start to really come at us, I. I can't keep up. Fair enough. But no, he seemed happy. It was. You know how it is. He. It. The shorter he answers a question, the happier he is. He doesn't, like, dwell on it and makes sense. Just talked about the aggressiveness, where to go from here. There are obviously things to improve upon, lessons to learn, but they feel it. It was a solid start. [00:37:03] Speaker C: One little thing on Dietzen Peter that I should have thrown in when we were talking about him is, you know, he's a lefty, so they were using him. And there's a switch foot, you know, way out there on that side, which is kind of interesting because they didn't ask him to, like, go to the end of the end line and try and cross it. You know, they left him where he could go inside where he'd be more comfortable. [00:37:19] Speaker A: So they just didn't intend for him to hit it into section 102 or 100 and 122. [00:37:25] Speaker C: They said, as long as you don't do Brian Acosta. You'll be fine. [00:37:28] Speaker A: And then he did a. Brian Acosta [00:37:31] Speaker B: just remembered something. So you obviously talked about dogs. Daniel Esteva from CW33 mentioned that Qu had said, you know, this team are all dogs. Like, was today a proof of concept? And he said, hey, they are all dogs. I'd just like them to be more organized dogs. [00:37:51] Speaker C: Organized dogs. [00:37:52] Speaker A: Maybe at least two dogs referenced. [00:37:54] Speaker B: And Denny said, I've got 30 dogs. [00:37:57] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Three. Ding. How about we'll mark him with a wolf every time he says dogs? [00:38:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Only three. [00:38:06] Speaker A: Okay, excellent. Well, successful game one. In the books, we talk about this team needing wins, especially at home. They were not good at home last year, guys, and this was a good, solid win. I don't know how much you can take away. I don't know how to measure Toronto as a team at this point. They're clearly an unfinished product. Yeah, again, I thought the fact that they didn't press Dallas is going to be something to keep in mind when Dallas faces a team that does choose to press them and see how well they do there. But you know what, your job is to go out and get goals. And they got three of them. And it was. Was, you know, that's all you can ask for in MLS 2026. [00:38:47] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, I don't think this Toronto team is a finished product. I think as it is right now, it's not a very good team. But it is the game one, and people get fired up and come out and play hard in game one. And so for you to have had a home game where you didn't do very well last year, you won your home game and you're still trying to put yourself together, too. You got guys coming in on the last couple of weeks, so. And then you take it for what it is. Take it for a positive first step, positive home win and. And go from here. [00:39:12] Speaker A: Okay, the other thing real quick and Dan, I wanted to do this because I want your opportunity to say something before you got a split is the fact, since we did the last podcast, the news came down that the team did buy out Paxton's contract. No more Paxton Palma call. He is in technically available to anybody else to pick him up on the wire. Although he's not technically cleared to play yet medically, and I don't anticipate Paxton will ever play again based on, you know, talking to different people and kind of his attitude. I think he's pretty much decided he's going to hang them up. [00:39:52] Speaker B: I think, you know, this weekend was probably the first time in a decade that. Oh, plus or the first time in his adult life, let's put it that way. He hasn't had to worry about getting ready for something or training or what goes into his body or how he takes care of his body. He can enjoy just being a happily married man and whatever else. So good for him. You know, he's. He's made the money. I saw someone try to say, oh, he'll take a payday in like, UPSL or something. Got some real bad news for you about how UPSL pays. Yeah, no, I mean, it's. It's obviously, you know, it's. It's sad to see it end that way, but, you know, as long as. As long as his input was on the decision and he's in a good place, then that's all it really matters. [00:40:47] Speaker C: Yeah. It's hard to think that we've been, Peter, watching this kid for 10 years now. He's only now 26. [00:40:53] Speaker A: I know. [00:40:53] Speaker C: So, like, you know, on his salary, no one's going to pick him up this season, but the end of the season, he'll be out of contract. You know, if he were to continue to rehab and feel really good about himself in a couple of years, I mean, at 26, there's between four to six years left in a career if he were to choose to go that way. But I know that, you know, you and I have. Have enough contact with him and people that know him that we're not real confident that he wants to do that. But we're also not going to speak for him. We just think it's unlikely, given how much struggle he's had the last couple years, that he would go that route. But you never know, man. The kid is talented enough and he loves to play, you know that. So, like, it wouldn't shock me at all if a couple years down the road he's like, you know what? I feel really good. I'm going to come out and try and run around, see what happens. And nothing would stop that from being SC Dallas, you know, or some other team in the Metroplex or some other team anywhere else in the world. You felt like trying to lay some up and get out there. So, I mean, I'm not going to write it off completely. It's his call, but, you know, he was only 26 years old. [00:41:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I think obviously time heals all and, you know, your attitude about it may change. I just think at this particular time and place he's considered himself retired and he's happy with it. Now personally I'm crushed by the news. I think we all were pretty much assuming this was what was going to happen. But Paxton means a lot to us as fans because he's just kind of the perfect story of what this club is about. Growing your own products. You know I've told the story a thousand times. About the first time I ever heard of Paxton was when he was part of an all star team that my co host Andy Swift took to, I think it was Spain or Berlin for as part of Dallas cup. And he ended up winning MVP of that tournament. And that gave him the opportunity to go play in a legends short sighted game with all kinds of crazy world class big name stars. But the best part of the story is the guy managing Paxton's team was Andy's childhood hero Zico, who Andy's never met. And Andy was very annoyed that Paxton got to meet Zico before he did and then shortly thereafter Buzz, you used to just rave about him all the time as a 15 year old, 14 or whatever it was. And it was just. You had. You pegged him perfectly back in the day is that was the. That was going to be the next big thing. [00:43:09] Speaker C: Yeah. He was a member of the greatest FC Dallas academy team has ever lived. The one that won the Dallas cup supergroup. Only the second American team to ever do that. It's like a team of, of a caliber that's only comes around in the Metroplex every 10, maybe 15, 20 years. That team was absolutely loaded and Paxton was the fulcrum of that team. He was the driving force. He was the, you know, he may not have worn the armband every game but he was you know, the one that fed all the energy into the team and the team rallied around. He was such a bright, exciting player with this never say die energy and mentality, you know, not afraid of any kind of contact or to hit or get stuck in as you would say. Perhaps that contributed to his issues. [00:43:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that was a bit of it. Yeah. [00:43:51] Speaker C: But you know, such a vivacious kid like even at 15, 16, 17 years old age like he stood out on the field just from the way he carried himself, you know you could just see it just like you could see it with the first team. When you come out of the pitch it just enlivens the game. He was like that even 16 years, [00:44:08] Speaker B: I mean you know, saying about the way he carried himself, first time I spoke to him, he not long turned 16 I think and I'm just standing there like this. This kid doesn't sound like any teenager, let alone like school age. [00:44:22] Speaker A: Well, then you throw in the whole asking to talk to Bevan Ryan to get permission to wear Bobby's retired number, and that just melted all of us as fans like that. You couldn't have. You couldn't have drawn a better, more perfect, ideal player for the team. I mean, it was great. And that's why the end of the story is so heartbreaking. Because we. Nobody wanted it to end this way or I expected it to or ever imagined it would. [00:44:46] Speaker C: Well, you know, late on we began to think that this is how it was going to end. But, you know, certainly not in the early days. We didn't think, we thought Paxton would be around this club for another 10 years easy. You know, we thought he'd be playing [00:44:57] Speaker A: in this World Cup. [00:44:58] Speaker C: Yeah, we really did. And we thought he'd be in the national team and we thought he'd be a player that could play it. So he was 34, 35, 30, 36 even, you know, because a lot of his game is mental. You know, it is because he does have a quickness and a burst that would fade. But he's such a good positional player and tactical player too. It would have been able to play a long time if he wanted to. I'm personally fascinated because, you know, I care about numbers. What's going to happen with the 19, how they choose to carry that tradition forward of letting a homegrown wear it, whether they'll let somebody ask for it or whether they'll sign it or whether how it's going to go. [00:45:27] Speaker A: That shirt is heavy, man. [00:45:29] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a heavy shirt now. Yeah. For Bobby Ryan and Paxton Comicle to have worn it. That's not some chump you're going to give that thing to. It's going to have to be important. A player they consider important. I think it won't just be anybody that they wear it. [00:45:41] Speaker A: I don't, I don't imagine he's a great. And I'm hoping I can talk him into coming on the show. I'm dying to have him on the show. Maybe now. Do it. All right, Dan, I know you need to go. I'll let you. We'll let you go here. You can go do your other stuff. Thanks for doing carving out some time to talk about the opener with us and your on site storytelling. Thank you, sir. [00:46:03] Speaker B: Always fun to talk. See you later. [00:46:06] Speaker A: Through the miracle of digital audio workstation editing, Dan has left us. And joining us now for his debut on 3DTP. It is Dennis McGowan. Welcome, Dennis. [00:46:18] Speaker D: Hey, guys, thanks for having me. [00:46:21] Speaker A: Now, Dennis has been doing a lot of work for Buzz in terms of covering Trinity and other things. But the other more important part to Dennis's skill sets is he was one of the main organizers of the massive 24 hour tailgate party that led up to the game the other day. Dennis, thanks for doing that. It's looked like everybody had a tremendously good time. Why don't you share what went down at this year's edition? [00:46:44] Speaker D: Oh, man, this was probably the biggest and best that we've had in a very, very long time. Obviously, DBG's been running with this now for something like 15 or 16 years. Took it over from you guys in the Inferno. You can hear my voice is actually still a little hoarse. Course it was the way it's supposed to be. [00:47:00] Speaker A: That means you did good. [00:47:02] Speaker D: Exactly. Friday night was, you know, we, we got out there about 7 o', clock, got everything set up. We had a DJ show up and start getting the vibes going. CC's, which is a club sponsor, came out with about 150 pizzas, which was absolutely insane. It was way more pizza than we needed. But we were, we were eating on, you know, that was going all night. Uh, we had some fire pits going and we were, uh, finishing up the T4 that we had started, uh, much earlier, uh, in the month. We had, I think, week four that we were working on that. So a lot of work went into that, all the finishing touches, making sure that was ready to go. It did great, great work by those guys that did it. Stephen Gould and the, the guys that were working on that have just done amazing work, and we're looking to get a few more of those going this year too. But it was a great time. We had a bunch of people out Friday night. The Matador folks came out. Murga guys came out. A lot of folks from the club were there. Ryan figured, Garrett Meltzer, they were all there. Some of their audio video guys, some of their season ticket guys were just. They're all there just hanging out, right? It wasn't really a media presence, but they were there hanging out and just chilling and, you know, enjoying the party. Got to kick back a little bit with those guys. We did have some media out there. Eric Pressbel, Dallas Morning News came out there with Tom Fox. They covered it for a little bit. It was just a great vibe Friday night and, you know, we went all night. I am not one of these younger guys that are gonna camp out there all night. We had I think about a dozen guys camp out in tents. [00:48:31] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:48:32] Speaker D: They pitch tents. We. I think it was at least one guy out there with a camper. [00:48:36] Speaker A: You mean like actually pitch tense, not the other? [00:48:39] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not that. All right, look, I don't know what goes on inside those tents. [00:48:44] Speaker C: I. [00:48:44] Speaker A: You know, I. I had to buzz. I'm sorry. I just had to like. You threw it out there. I had to hit it. [00:48:52] Speaker C: It's Peter schtick. We get it. [00:48:55] Speaker D: But we had some guys set up there that camped out all night. I went and put my head down about 2 in the morning at a hotel and crashed out for a little while. Took a hot shower and woke up to Kenny Cooper asking me how many people there were there because he was coming over with donuts. [00:49:09] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:49:11] Speaker D: So, yeah, that's a tradition. Kenny brings out donuts every single year. It's Cooper family tradition. Brings the girls out, comes and hangs out for a little while. We. We gifted Kenny with one of our DBG jerseys this year with his name on it, which his youngest daughter immediately stole from him. [00:49:27] Speaker A: Well, they're both sweet, by the way. Those are. I saw the pictures of those the other day. They're really nice. Yeah. [00:49:31] Speaker C: Well done. [00:49:32] Speaker A: Kudos to that. [00:49:32] Speaker D: Yes, thank you. Thank you. It's. It was. It was a great time. Logan Farrington came by in the morning, had some cool coffee with us, and I think that needs to be a new tradition because that is two years in a. In a row. Logan came to the 24 hour tailgate, had coffee, and promptly scored a goal. [00:49:48] Speaker A: I think it's marked in stone. It has to happen, Dante. It has to be, for sure. Well, thanks again. It was a tremendous time. It's one of the better. You know, it's not like there's a ton of traditions, unfortunately, but those that the. The club has are great, and that's one of them. And how many years has that been going on now? [00:50:07] Speaker D: This is year 21. Yeah. DBG has been doing it for 15. The inferno started it when. When you guys moved up to Frisco. You guys were the ones that. That really got that going. I think it started mid season is what I've been told. And then at some point later on, it became the. The opening tradition. I'm just glad the weather held up. You know, it was cold, it was breezy, but it was nothing like last year. It was just pouring rain. It was raining buckets on us last year, and it was miserable. [00:50:32] Speaker C: So, yeah, something that helps that is the counter flip, because coming that Thing may be happening in like December. December? [00:50:38] Speaker A: No, in August. [00:50:40] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:50:40] Speaker C: Oh, you're right. [00:50:41] Speaker A: No, it'll start in August. [00:50:43] Speaker C: Oh, it'll be hot as hell. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:45] Speaker D: But it'll be nice at night. It'll be nice and cool at night. Hanging out. [00:50:47] Speaker A: More like a beach party. [00:50:48] Speaker C: Yeah, right. [00:50:50] Speaker A: Get some sand out there and everything. Well, that's great. Well, it's wonderful. Good stuff. I appreciate it. And just to show off all of his skill set, he's not just a party boy. He also, because we didn't get to do this with Dan, because Dan had to leave, believe Buzz assigned Dennis the task of previewing the next Dallas game against Nashville, which is Saturday up at the same place, Toyota Stadium at 7:30. So Dennis, tell us what you know about the ville. [00:51:14] Speaker D: They look really good this week. Four one over New England. Obviously it's New England, so take a pause there. Breathe a little bit. They're, they're not the, the best team in the world, but this game was over by halftime. Sam Surridge is, is the guy, right? He's going to be the Golden Boot contender he was at the end of last season. He was up there with them and he is going to be in the race and he's got some, some bodies around him. He's got some, some, some great help around him. Sorry, just getting down to my notes here a little bit. But he's got Christian Espinosa with him. Hani mukhtar is the 10 over there. [00:51:52] Speaker A: Fell into Espinosa. [00:51:54] Speaker C: Yeah, I love that story. Yeah, that's such a good story. [00:51:58] Speaker A: For those who don't know, essentially Espinosa was at San Jose and somebody in San Jose's front office forgot to essentially press the button on the renewal deal on his contract. Espinos. Espinos manager quietly figured out what was going on and essentially they just walked him over to the best offer he could get in the league and he got it in Nashville. [00:52:19] Speaker D: That's such an MLS story. [00:52:21] Speaker A: It is. If, if the league had its own, the list that would go on the list. [00:52:26] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, unquestionably. [00:52:30] Speaker A: Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Dennis. I just want to point that out to everybody because that's such a great, interesting, funny story. [00:52:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:36] Speaker D: So they're, they're coming off of, you know, like I said, big win at home to start the season over New England who is, is not in great shape. But this one was over like I said at halftime. And Surge is going to be deadly and I don't know if our back line is be able to hold up to it. But you know, 5, 4, 4, 3 is probably going to be result here one way or the other. I think you're going to see a lot of goals. I think the over is two and a half. I'm going to take the over right now. I think that would be early. Early money is on the over. [00:53:07] Speaker A: Okay. [00:53:08] Speaker D: So they've also got CONCACAF Champions League this week as well. They've got a mid. A midweek game. It is the back half of the. The other side. They're already up 2 nil and they're playing. Playing at home against Athletico Ottawa or Athletic Ottawa. Not a great team from the Canadian Premier League. So I don't expect them to put too much effort into that game. I'm sure they're going to look to load up for Dallas. But ahead of that they're also, you know, going to probably already be looking forward to their next round of Champions League, which will probably be Miami on the 18th. [00:53:44] Speaker A: Buzz is Ottawa the club. The former Dallas Academy product, kid, the forward that scored the goal in the crazy snow game that got all the. [00:53:53] Speaker C: Oh, David. [00:53:56] Speaker A: Because I'm assuming that was the game that qualified them for Champions League. [00:54:00] Speaker C: David Rodriguez, former academy player, former North Texas player. He was involved in the North Texas championship way back in. [00:54:07] Speaker A: That's right. [00:54:08] Speaker C: In 2019. He and his brother. Yeah, quality player. Just, you know, went to Mexico, was with Atletico San Luis for a long time. I think he actually still is. They've been loaning him around to places. Phoenix Rising, Austin and now I thought about Ottawa. So. [00:54:24] Speaker A: So is he still with. Is he still with Ottawa? [00:54:26] Speaker C: He. He. Yeah. Well, that's a good question. He's still on the books Athletico San Luis. So we'll see if he continues. I don't know if he's on the books of auto or not. I would have to dig into their actual game day roster, but he was. [00:54:40] Speaker A: I just saw Otto up there and it, it rang a bell and I just wanted to make sure that's who it was. All right. Any other Nashville notes, Dennis, you want to throw out at us? [00:54:49] Speaker D: Yeah, I think one really interesting bit here is that all of their shots were on target in this game. So I think they took. I think it was eight shots on target. Yeah, it was. It was eight of eight, so. Or nine of nine, something like that. [00:55:04] Speaker C: I can unequivocally tell you that will change because Brian Acosta A is a good for them to put one at Toyota Stadium into the second deck. You know, if he gets on the field we hope so. That'll be. [00:55:16] Speaker A: Whoa, whoa, whoa. That Brian Acosta is playing at Nashville? [00:55:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how much he's playing, but he's on the roster. [00:55:24] Speaker B: I don't. [00:55:25] Speaker D: I don't. I don't think he's gotten. Getting a lot of minutes, and I don't expect him to get a lot of minutes this week, but they might trot him out just to. [00:55:31] Speaker A: I hope they have windshield insurance on those Toyotas up on the stage. [00:55:34] Speaker C: The other Dallas connection is they have Matthew Corcoran, course, who you remember, Peter, years ago, I raved about in the Dallas Academy and left. He left greener pastures in his mind for other places. And he is the son of Brian Corcoran Athletico, Dallas's head of soccer operations. So there's lots of connections to the Dallas area from that young man. Very talented player. It's a shame that Dallas couldn't keep him because he's a phenomenal talent. [00:55:56] Speaker D: Definitely be all about bottling Sam Serge, though, for Dallas this week. [00:56:00] Speaker A: Well, who will that task fall to, Buzzard? [00:56:03] Speaker C: Well, I don't think this early in the season that you're likely to see any changes in the starting 11. Anyone who you might. You might talk about playing badly. I don't think there was anyone that played outright badly. There's nobody on the bench that you would think screaming out, you know, oh, start me, start me, start me. Like, you know, everywhere. They talk a lot about too deep. And maybe it's true that you have two players in every position you're willing to put in a game. Not the same thing as 2D. No, you're not going to start anybody over. Collodi right now. Sirwas doesn't have his visa yet, and Brooks Thompson just came and got here like, five minutes ago from the championship. USL championship. We know Nolan hasn't beat out Ibiaga. You're not mentioning your idea. You're not mentioned Shaq Moore. I seriously doubt you're benching Johansson. I thought he played pretty well and you want to push his minutes up. Anyway, Quill loves Bernie. Bernie's not getting benched. Not for Josh Torcado. You know, midfield, Christian Capus, Ramiro Kaik. Those guys all, like, great. But, like, did. Did somebody like a Patrick Delgado or a Ben Yamin, Ram Binyamin come in and make you think, oh, that's a guy I want starting? I mean, there's a reason why those other guys were starting. Quill's doing something specifically in midfield. Maybe there's a chance, but I don't think it's likely. And you're certainly not taking out Musa or Logan Farrington. So at this point this season I think it's a pretty much a lock. You're still in the phase of figuring out who we are. You're not quite in the phase of reacting, I don't think to other teams yet. You know, you're not into the phase of I've now been working with, I don't know, Nolan Norris for two months and now I'm ready to put him into a start over Iago or something like that. So I just don't see any major changes coming. You know, you're not no one's going to be tired. No one's going to be. I don't think anyone's be hurting the player we were maybe worried about Capus turned out that was a fine, no big deal, dan said after talking to Quill. So I'm pretty confident you'll see the same 11. I can't, I can't fathom a change happening. [00:58:00] Speaker A: I am interested because Torcato didn't even make the bench Saturday night but Ricky Lewis did. Is there a chance we finally, I mean he had such an outstanding preseason at least by all accords I didn't see it but is there a chance he upstart but at least get some time? [00:58:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I think you'd want to get him some minutes late in the game and you'd want to do it in a game where he could feel comfortable and not be panicking like you don't you want to do it when you have, you know, at least a two goal lead or a one goal lead and you feel like you're dominating the game so he doesn't come in and like craps himself because it's like holy cow, here comes hounding Muktar at me. So you know this game is maybe not an ideal one unless it's pretty comfortable late. But I, I think they will want to try and get him in at some point. It's not like they're unhappy with Bernie. Bernie can run all day and has lots of minutes but this guy was they were traded up really how to go get him and he's a generation Adidas player so also very young so no rush. But it does say something that he's he is the choice above Torcado already and Torcado is a homegrown who already played last year. [00:59:01] Speaker A: I've had more than one person who I respect know the game. Tell me Ricky Lewis is a Clear step above Bernie Camungo in talent and probably should be starting over him if he's going to play somebody that young over there. [00:59:14] Speaker C: Maybe. But part of it is that, I mean, certainly if you're going to talk about a young guy, yeah, I think he would be the call over to at this point. [00:59:22] Speaker A: But no, over Bernie. [00:59:24] Speaker C: I know, I know. But, you know, the same time Ricky Lewis, relatively speaking, just got here, you know, you're already breaking in a player on the other side. You know, are you ready to try and break in two wing backs at the same time? You know, maybe there's a reason as we go forward that Shock Moore is playing more on the left is because maybe you do want to try and get Ricky Lewis in there. But remember too, that Quill looks at Bernie Camungo as like that's the guy he discovered. He's gonna feel like a. Almost like a father figure type relationship with that kid. Like, he's my guy. So it's not as easy as just like dump him automatically. Oh, we drafted Ricky Lewis. Ricky Lewis needs some time for sure. You know, I. It may not be that long before you see some minutes out of him. I don't think that's unlikely. [01:00:09] Speaker A: One of these people wanted to make a bet with me that Ricky Lewis is starting in that position full time before the end of the season and ends up beating Bernie out by the [01:00:18] Speaker C: end of the season. I could believe that. I think that could be a positive. Very possible. You know, I just don't think it's. Get game two against Nashville. [01:00:24] Speaker A: Yep, makes sense. [01:00:25] Speaker C: Yeah, let's get him. Bring him on carefully and slowly and not. And not hurt his mentality by putting him in when he's not ready for. To handle, you know, Mukhtar or whoever else they got up top is going to. Or Sam Surge or he wouldn't be market Surge, but he certainly could run into some of those wings. Carlos Espinosa. Sorry, Christian Espinosa coming off the wing, too, would certainly be a handful. You don't want to subject him to that early on. [01:00:49] Speaker D: I think the first time you see Bernie really gassed out and really struggling, I think that's when you'll start to see Ricky get some more minutes, too. [01:00:57] Speaker A: Yeah, good point. Real quick, Dennis, since you were at the game, how many of the new shirts did you see in the stands versus the burn shirt or older shirts? Were they pretty popular? [01:01:08] Speaker D: The DNA kit, it was everywhere. Everywhere. At the tailgate all weekend. People were buying them up left and right. The store couldn't keep Them in stock it sounds like. [01:01:17] Speaker C: Again, sure, it's a home run man. [01:01:21] Speaker A: It is a total home run. All right. With a 3, 2 win. Dallas with the other results ends up in 5th based on goal differential plus 1. San Diego, Los Angeles or LAFC. San Jose and Seattle are in front of them on better goal differences. [01:01:38] Speaker D: Stop the count. [01:01:39] Speaker A: Yeah, right, exactly. And 100%. And then as we said earlier, Nashville on Saturday, 7:30 up at the stadium. Now Dennis again showing off all of his skill sets today. Party planner, FCD gamegoer and also our man, Buzz's man for all things Dallas, Trinity. So we will move to Pegasus now. And Dennis, why don't you tell us what happened this weekend with Trinity. [01:02:07] Speaker D: So this was something we had actually on at the tailgate. We had some TVs going and we were able to all settle down and watch this and you know, went home and watched it a little bit more tactically the next morning with a little more sobriety as well. But [01:02:22] Speaker A: you probably were glad you were drunk for this. [01:02:24] Speaker C: Little bit. Little bit. [01:02:25] Speaker D: This was, this was not the best performance by the Trinity so far this season by a long shot. If you saw the match preview we had up Friday morning, I had Sidney Studer as my defensive player to watch for Carolina. It turns out she wound up with a brace with two headed corners off of Jill Aguilera set pieces and those two were both of the deciding factor in the game here. It came out credit to you. Well I had her as a player to watch this as a defender, not a goal scorer. This was actually her first career brace and her first credit where you get it man. Sure, sure, I'll take it, I'll take it. [01:03:02] Speaker A: It's fine. [01:03:04] Speaker D: But Dallas snapped these six match unbeaten streak here and Carolina snapped their three game losing streak. So a little bit of a tale of two sides here going up against each other. They were both coming off a week off so you really can't even say that the unexpected cancellation caused a little bit of rust or anything else. Both teams were off and Dallas possessed the ball. They, they had the ball for. I think, I think it went 70, 30 way of Dallas or close to 80, 20 in the first half. But they just couldn't get out of their own way. They were pinned back pretty often. They were holding onto the ball pretty well around the back end but really just could not get forward. Philip Poole's team was just up there pressing the whole time. They were just in their face. Anytime they tried to go up the middle they were met with just complete shutdown they really couldn't get out wide on the wings. They just frankly really couldn't get out of their own way. There was a what looked like a goal early on. Lex Amissimo put one in off of a no look pass from Smart Guidry but it was called offside and that one came back and that was really the only bright spot as far as almost goals. There was a couple little later on when Bethany Boss came in for Ali Thornton. Ali Thornton has just not been able to recreate her her golden boot season so far. Not, not even getting close, just not a lot of finishing from her, not a lot of great service getting to her. Although you know Cam Lancaster had a few great passes in off the top but just weren't able to get there. But Boss had a great headed goal that rang or headed shot that rang off the post and kind of bounced back out. Chioma Ubungagu had a look at an almost wide open net and just whiffed a little bit. Just few inches away from greatness. This game could have really been great if they had gone just a few more shots on target or a couple bounce passes going their way but unfortunately didn't and the two set pieces were the difference maker for Carolina. [01:05:01] Speaker C: I think one of the problems that this team is having this year on the road Dennis is just they're so hot and cold. You see them with the 40 win at Fort Lauderdale and then they turn around with this kind of performance. I instantly think Heather Steinbachs have been a fantastic addition. I'm starting to wonder if maybe they need to bring Wisner back into the midfield to create a little more of a possession type game even more than they have because you we've talked about how Allie Thornton's not getting the services she needs and even if you bring in Boz up there, the same thing is true. She's not a player that's going to go hunting the ball. So like how do they, how do they find a way to get more balls into their strikers? Is an interesting question. You surely are not taking out Misimo and I think Lancaster's been playing pretty well and Uber Gago is a huge part of what all they do. So I'm not necessarily anti Winnie Balata but you know Wisner's got a pretty good vision that a few players on that team have from the level she's played at. So I don't know whether Denielson is just, you know, in the back has just not been able to get it done anymore or whether they just really think Balata's out playing her in terms of maybe putting Wisner up there. So I don't know what your thoughts are on that whole situation. [01:06:14] Speaker D: Yeah, I think the situation with Wisner is really interesting. Right. [01:06:16] Speaker B: They. [01:06:17] Speaker D: They moved her to the back line to try and reinforce that back line early in the season. And, you know, we thought we were going to see with Lauren Flynn coming in, who actually picked up a red card and won't be available for the next league match. So that's. That's another shot that we probably won't see Amber in midfield, at least for the Lexington match in two weeks. But, you know, you thought with Lauren Flynn coming in that we would see a little bit more forward action out of Wisner, but that doesn't seem to be the case. So, you know, does that mean Thackeray doesn't have any faith in or. Or not enough faith in what he's got as far as pieces on the bench there. Tbd. [01:06:55] Speaker A: How many games in is Thackery? Three. [01:06:58] Speaker D: This was four, I believe. [01:07:00] Speaker A: Do we. You guys have watched us way closer than I have. Is he made any substantial changes to what Petrocelli was doing, or is it essentially the same setup and style? [01:07:12] Speaker D: Well, the four new additions have been all under his watch. They all. Obviously, Petrocelli brought them in at the end of his tenure as coach there, but they were all four new additions for Thackeray. They never got to play under Petrocelli at all. [01:07:25] Speaker A: No. I mean, just the style of play. Like, tactically, are they doing anything different? [01:07:29] Speaker C: Well, Petrocelli said specifically he wanted a coach that was going to play the way he's been building the same and play the way he was already playing. And that's part of why it took a little bit longer, because he wanted to find somebody in tune with them. So it hasn't really changed dramatically. The tactics are basically the same. They just improve some bodies. It's. It's hard to really, you know, talk too much trash about the way they're playing because they are still in, I think, third place. So they're in the play with two games in hand. Yeah. Oh, wow. So, okay. You know, and there are teams like Spokane that have played, like, three or four more games than everybody else, and they're in, like, fourth, I think. So their. Dallas is in a pretty good position. Trinity is. But the road form is a little bit worrisome. You know, the four new additions have all looked pretty good. Stonbrook, for me, is just crazy good. They're Gonna have difficulties keeping a hold of her pastor. Run her alone. I think she's on loan alone. Runs out because you want to try and keep her as long as you can. Especially because Wisner is done at the end of the year. So you need to be thinking about what you're doing when Wisner is gone and another 10 games or whatever it is. So they're. They play a really attractive brand of football. Anybody would have recognized the basic 4, 2, 3, 1 they're playing. But they do a flex formation with hits it out of the left back who gets forward and overlaps and overloads. And Ubago can come inside and. And overload in the middle. So, like, it's exciting, fun football to watch, but when they don't have their finishing boots on, it goes sideways in a hurry and then they can't. They really struggle to like, get workman, like grind out goals. They just. They have to get better service into the box to those. Some of those strikers and get good scoring chances or they just. It falls apart, particularly on the road. [01:09:03] Speaker D: It's not like there's one outstanding goal scorer here. Not that there was last season either, right. Ali had the golden boot last year, but there were goals coming from everywhere. And if you look at two weeks ago when they were in Fort Lauderdale with the 4.0 win, though, there were four different goal scorers in that match too, right. So there's not anybody that's really standing out as a goal scorer. But when they're on the same page, they look really good. But it does seem like they have simplified, I think, the attack a little bit, which maybe they need to get it in gear again. And it feels like all the pieces are there, right? The engine's there, the transmission's there, the wheels are there. They just. They just got to get in the car and. And. And turn the key at this point. [01:09:41] Speaker C: May take some time playing together. Those are some new pieces, you know, that we're talking about, those additions in the last three or four games ago. [01:09:48] Speaker A: All right, so they've got the big hyped friendly coming up Saturday at 6pm at the Cotton bowl against the Houston Dash. So the intra league thing is happening and they're making a big deal out of. They're calling it. What. What are they. What are they calling it? [01:10:01] Speaker D: I45 showdown. [01:10:03] Speaker A: Yes, the i45 showdown. And then their next league game after [01:10:08] Speaker D: that is at D.C. on no, Lexington is the makeup game, I think, from the last one. [01:10:14] Speaker A: Okay, well, let's double check that because the it's Lexington. [01:10:17] Speaker C: Yeah. March 8th. [01:10:19] Speaker A: Oh, okay. So this, this schedule I'm looking at doesn't have that game in there. [01:10:24] Speaker D: Yeah, that was the one. That was the game that was scheduled for last week but was ultimately postponed because of the field conditions. [01:10:30] Speaker A: Right, right. All right, Very good, Peter. [01:10:32] Speaker C: We like to refer to that dash game as the Rolls downhill game. [01:10:37] Speaker A: What does that mean? [01:10:38] Speaker C: Because Houston's a toilet. [01:10:41] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Yipes. You're gonna get a. You're going to get some emails. That's buzz third degree.net b u, z z at the number 3rd. [01:10:52] Speaker C: Man, no one from Houston listens to this show. I go on Glenn Davis's show for people in Houston to hear me. [01:10:56] Speaker A: Would you say that on Glenn Davis's show? [01:10:58] Speaker C: I would not. Okay. [01:11:01] Speaker D: Unfortunately, Nathan Thackeray's wife is from Houston, so that's got some personal skin in this game, I think. [01:11:06] Speaker C: So is Eric Will his wife, for that matter. [01:11:10] Speaker A: True that. All right, so there you go. There's Pegasus. For this episode of the show Buzz, I. I'm looking forward to the North Texas SC season. I was at ticket stock Saturday and they had a booth there and lo and behold, in the booth at ticket stock, they were showing off the new North Texas shirt. And I think if you were to put a. A the North Texas red and blue hoop versus the FC Dallas red and blue hoop and you put it up for a vote, blind vote, would you take the logos off? [01:11:44] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:11:45] Speaker A: I think it'd be a much closer contest than we. Oh, maybe. [01:11:49] Speaker C: Guess that's good. [01:11:51] Speaker A: I mean, it's closer. It's closer to our original dream design. Buzz, is it. It doesn't have. It doesn't have the white pinstripe in between the blue and the red. It's just straight blue and red. [01:12:01] Speaker C: Well, you know, North Texas always gets, you know, relatively speaking, they get that off the rack kits and in terms of like, they're the club, club team template kind of thing. They're not boutique, you know, high end custom design kits like Seattle skits, but they still end up being usually pretty good. [01:12:17] Speaker A: Yeah, the shirt looks great. [01:12:19] Speaker C: Yeah. The away one that has the Mansfield blue and yellow sort of tribute from last season was pretty good. I actually liked it better than I liked some of the. The FC Dallas one, which is this one. Whatever. This fake blue off junk kit that they have right now is so terrible. The North Texas one is way better. So it's good to hear. Of course we'll be getting a kit. I just don't have it yet. So I Look forward to seeing it in person. Be good. [01:12:41] Speaker A: Watch. They'll pair it with white shorts and then we won't know what to do with ourselves. [01:12:44] Speaker C: That would be. So the academy will. I mean they won't use the North Texas one. They'll use the FC also one. But the academy almost always uses white shorts. With that kit. It looks amazing. [01:12:52] Speaker D: I think they had it paired with blue shorts for cocktails and cleats. They had it up on display. It does. It is a gorgeous kit. [01:12:59] Speaker A: Okay. [01:12:59] Speaker C: Yeah. With. With MLS releasing the reins on those kits around the league there actually is opportunities where you will play a team that uses a white top and a dark short in MLS and maybe we'll see that in MLS next pro as well. Maybe we'll get an opportunity to see some of these mismatches where Dallas might have to wear hoops with the white short. That would be pretty cool. Exciting if we see it. [01:13:21] Speaker A: All right, enough of the gym jam. What's going on with them as they get ready to start their season? [01:13:26] Speaker C: The other CP's open season openers on Sunday against Real Monarchs. It's. It's on the road. So I think it's at 4:30 central time. Is that game. Their lineup is not particularly set because they've been playing a bunch of scrimmage games including one they won 18 or nothing against a team they shouldn't have played. They. They've mostly been using like the school [01:13:48] Speaker A: of blind nuns to be what it was. [01:13:50] Speaker C: It was an academy team from another club. [01:13:53] Speaker D: Another like a high school level team. [01:13:55] Speaker B: Right? [01:13:55] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, yeah. So you. It's basically the U18 team of another academy team. Now there are. Sometimes you can get an Academy team, a U18 team that's really good and can compete. I mean North Texas will use north 18 year olds from their teams all the time. But that doesn't mean that like when you get your full blown North Texas where they send down five guys from FC Dallas that they're not going to cream a team like that and they did so you know they FC chum. Yeah. Well they. They didn't have all the guys down. They. But they had a few down and they had. Anyway they. It doesn't matter. That game was worthless. But they trimmed SMU that was much closer and that's the one where we probably got what is most likely going to be sort of lineup we're going to see and there really are like five guys coming down. We already talked about Turcado at left wing back who really would benefit from you know, another 30 games down there. Alvaro Agusto was down. Slade Starnes, who's the new draft, sorry, homegrown, out of college, out of smu. You know, an all American kind of player that they signed as a homegrown is from a senior. Contreras is a homegrown who was down. Diego Garcia, who shouldn't be down, he should go on loan, but he was down. Caleb Swan, who I'm okay with starting, another 30 games down there, was down. Simmons, their fourth overall draft pick, was down. Daniel Barron is another homegrown, was down. So like they rolled out this very heavy homegrown. Really actually FC Dallas player lineup. Well, I think that's what you're going to see this year. The club has put an emphasis on winning in North Texas. We don't say love that per se, but understandable when they're going into Mansfield, they want to build a new audience, they want to have some connectivity and they want to have, look at, look at these great young players we're going to have. How cool is that? These guys will be in MLS in a year or two. You know, one bright spot is that Enzo Newman, who's coming off the acl, did get into the game and get some minutes. So I, I think you're going to see a heavy FC Dallas component in the games this season as they try and win down there and try really good. And it's okay because Dallas has been signing all these extra homegrowns. They have four or five guys that can't even fit on the main FC Dallas roster. This is literally what it's for. So like a lack of foreign signings is actually quite good. We like that. We want chances for the homegrowns coming through. They still started a couple academy guys, so it's things are things. This is closer to what we think it should be at FC Dallas and North Texas, closer to a more pure pipeline. So I'm actually really excited about what this season is going to look like for North Texas SC as they try and compete and I want to see even more kids come through, of course. But you know, in the first half of the season it's fine if it's more of the home runs that are already signed getting those minutes. [01:16:30] Speaker A: So they have kind of the opposite of the senior team in terms of schedule, which is going to be a heavy front loaded road schedule before they open the stadium in April. [01:16:41] Speaker C: It's July 4th, I believe. [01:16:43] Speaker A: Not till July. Okay. [01:16:44] Speaker C: Yeah, I think they have five home games at Choctaw with the bulk of the Road games. And then they take a bit of a World cup break. League cup break. A little bit. Not as big, but a little bit. And then they come back July 4th against St. Louis City. Two is the first game at Mansfield. And then after that they've got almost all home games and only like four road games in the second half of the season. So that they only have those five home games in the first half. [01:17:12] Speaker A: So in lieu of the traditional Dallas FC Dallas July 4th home game, everybody can travel down to Mansfield for their. [01:17:21] Speaker D: That seems to be the new tradition angle that they're looking to go with there. [01:17:25] Speaker B: They. [01:17:25] Speaker D: They've talked about that in a few conferences I've been a part of. [01:17:29] Speaker B: Nice. [01:17:30] Speaker C: Maybe they'll have some fireworks and stuff too for Mansfield. That'll be fun for everybody. [01:17:34] Speaker A: A drone show. [01:17:38] Speaker D: I can. I can tell you with some authority that there is nobody happier than that, that the drone shows are going away than some of the stadium ops folks. [01:17:49] Speaker C: You know, the craziest thing related to the fireworks and drone shows is I remember the last time I was at one of the SC Dallas 4th of July game games. They got done before the baseball game did, but just barely. So you. We watched the fireworks on the drone show when I was heading south down to get on the. The 121 to go back towards, you know, Arlington, Fort Worth. The. Those fireworks and the drones were happening over the baseball stadium. People were literally stopped on like the tollway and on the ramps so they could watch, like just people road. It's insane. I was like, what are y' all doing? One of the most dangerous things I've ever seen. [01:18:26] Speaker A: Not smart. No, no, no. All right, well, good. Well, look forward to the start of their season. And then for the rest of the DFW area, not much else happening with Atletico. We haven't heard anything about Fort Worth usl. [01:18:39] Speaker C: Nothing new. No. [01:18:40] Speaker A: And Rodeo Clown show. [01:18:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:18:44] Speaker A: Which by the way, am I correct in hearing that their supporters group has officially announced that they're called the Rodeo Clowns? [01:18:50] Speaker D: Yeah, that is. That is correct. That's our. That's DBG's very own Holden Red Beard that is taking charge of that group. [01:18:58] Speaker C: And they have coveralls and everything. Like, they're really clowns. It's so good. [01:19:02] Speaker A: So I just want to. I want to share a story about my. So I am not in love with the name Rodeo, but I also appreciate the fact that in the modern day, that is the thing that's going to stick. And I was talking to. I don't. Who was I talking to at the ticket about this. And I was trying to explain about how suddenly all these teams were coming around. And I mentioned that there was a new team coming up that's going to play in Salina. It may have been George, because George lives up that way. And I said, yeah, they're called Rodeo Soccer Club. And he lit up and he's like, that's an awesome name. He loved it. [01:19:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:19:37] Speaker A: And since then, he's asked me two or three times about when they're going to start playing and everything. So you know what? Marketing works. Crazy names work. [01:19:46] Speaker C: They got a. They got their logo debut kind of party coming in March, and I think they have something queued up later this month, too, that we're supposed to hear about before it happens. So when we get news out of them, we'll. We'll cover it like we did Texoma. Same level. Same level as North Texas sc. [01:20:02] Speaker A: So I had a merch idea. Buzz. Yeah, Dennis, I'm sorry to bore you with this, but I'm. [01:20:07] Speaker D: No, this is great. [01:20:09] Speaker A: You know, we've. We've run with the FC Dallas Curious thing. [01:20:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:20:13] Speaker A: For the history. Right. Like, that's part of the original lore of the show and everything. And we used to. I think we may even still sell FC Dallas Cur Curious shirts. And I'm wondering now that we've kind of recognized the fact that they're not the only game in town, that we've got other clubs, should we maybe also sell a Pegasus Curious shirt or a Trinity Curious shirt? [01:20:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:20:36] Speaker A: Wolf and Snake Curious shirt. [01:20:38] Speaker C: Yeah. Because you want a Rodeo Curious shirt. [01:20:41] Speaker A: I do want to. Rodeo Curious shirt. Right. [01:20:44] Speaker C: Where you're going. [01:20:45] Speaker A: You see where I'm going? [01:20:46] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:20:47] Speaker A: Can we do that? And we'll. And we'll make it like the FC Dallas one is in the FC Dallas font. We could put it in the Athletico font or the Trinity font. And there's zero. There's zero chances that the Rodeo font isn't made out of last. You know, rope. [01:21:06] Speaker C: No, it's very Western, for sure. [01:21:08] Speaker A: It's gonna be rope. Totally rope and handkerchiefs. So. All right. [01:21:13] Speaker D: If your whole gimmick is a bit. You've got to just lean into it. [01:21:16] Speaker A: Right. [01:21:17] Speaker D: You can't take yourself too seriously. [01:21:18] Speaker C: We can absolutely do that bit. For sure. For sure. [01:21:20] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. We have a whole line of Curious shirts for everybody to go out and gobble up and buy. That'd be wonderful. All right, well, Dennis, anything else you want to tell every. Anybody we want to share or say [01:21:33] Speaker D: guardians will be Setting up shop this week, instead of our traditional tailgate, we're going to be trying out for the. The very first time. We're going to be doing our pre game party over at Rollertown and then marching to the match over there and meeting up with the rest of the supporters in front of the stadium just before the game. So if you're in the neighborhood and you want to come hang out, come on by to Rollertown. DBG members get $2 off points. [01:21:55] Speaker A: Kick ass. That's great news. And it's cool that you guys are getting involved with a local business. So good. Good for those guys for getting involved and good for you guys for getting them involved. So awesome stuff. All right, Dennis, you did great today. [01:22:08] Speaker C: I have something. Oh, well, if I had anything else. [01:22:11] Speaker A: Well, we're always talking about you, Buzz. It's. [01:22:14] Speaker C: I know. [01:22:15] Speaker A: Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, Buzz. [01:22:16] Speaker D: Are you moving again? [01:22:18] Speaker A: No, no. Did you get a job? [01:22:20] Speaker C: No, I've been here like three days, dude. [01:22:22] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Well, I don't know. [01:22:24] Speaker C: No, no. This is related to FC and actually everybody else. Just a reminder that the incoming window does not close until March 26th. So there's another month left that Dallas could add bodies at the beginning part of the season. Not likely because they're holding one spot for post World cup, but it would be true of any other clubs, too. It's a U.S. soccer window, not an MLS window. So. [01:22:48] Speaker A: You know, actually, I'm glad you brought this up because I meant to ask this when we talked about Paxton, because the side story about Paxton is by buying him out, my question is, why do you do it? Because you're going to pay him. Paxton's getting his money one way or the other. The reason to do it is because one, you. You free up the roster spot and two, you free up the. The money that he was chewing up in your. Your. [01:23:09] Speaker C: The max salary slot in your salary cap. Yeah. [01:23:13] Speaker A: So now the question is, are the Hunts interested in filling either or both of those things? [01:23:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, you remember that in their press conference right at the beginning of this last week. Right. Beginning of the season. You know, we talked about it last week. They mentioned they were holding a spot open for to be able to do something with the DP slot after the World Cup. Well, at the time, I looked at the roster and I was like, no, you're not. You don't have an open roster spot. Well, then three days later, they bought out Paxton. So literally, they bought him out to create this open roster spot and this open max salary spot that they could use on a DP after the World Cup. So that's the direct answer for why did they do that? It's so they can add a DP after the World Cup. They could do it now, but they don't obviously have somebody ready, so they got to go figure out who that's going to be. But, you know, Paxton was sacrificed to be able to do that, and you might as well do it now so you free up his money for the whole year and not just half the year. That makes sense. [01:24:07] Speaker A: Well, I hope people who listen to the pod for FCD stuff stuck to the very end for that, because that should have been. I should have remembered to put that stuff back at that stage section of the podcast. [01:24:17] Speaker C: Well, it's certainly something we can revisit as time goes on, you know, with the window open for another month, maybe people. It'll come up as a good topic now and then recover that. So. All right. [01:24:27] Speaker A: Very good. All right, Dennis, you got anything else? [01:24:29] Speaker D: Can I hit the whisper? [01:24:31] Speaker A: You can do that afterwards. That could be. You could fill the damn roll. Well done. You did great today, man. Buzz, thank you very much. I miss you. [01:24:40] Speaker C: Oh, thanks, man. It's only been four. Four or five days. You already visit. Feel so special. I do, guys. [01:24:47] Speaker B: All right. [01:24:48] Speaker A: And thank you. You DFW Soccer Curious. We appreciate it. And we will be back next week on a special and new edition of 3rd Degree, the podcast. [01:24:57] Speaker B: Subscribe to Only Dance.com 3rd Degree the [01:25:01] Speaker A: 3rd Degree Net podcast 3rd Degree, the 3rd Degree Net podcast. Sa.