Episode 356

March 31, 2026

01:18:30

3rd Degree the Podcast #356

Hosted by

Buzz Carrick Peter Welpton Dan Crooke
3rd Degree the Podcast #356
3rd Degree the Podcast
3rd Degree the Podcast #356

Mar 31 2026 | 01:18:30

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Show Notes

This week on 3rd Degree the Podcast, Dan Crooke is back to rejoin your other two hosts - Peter Welpton and Buzz Carrick. As FC Dallas had the week off, the Trio looks ahead to the game at DC United and going against old friends Lucas Bartlett and Brandon Servania. Santiago Moreno is official at FCD. How does he fit in? Could he play this weekend? What tactics might Coach Quill roll out? Seems like a good time for an FCD temperature check. 

Dallas Trinity has Tampa Sun on Tuesday, missing a couple of pieces on the back line, and your hosts felt the need to revisit the Missimo problem. 

North Texas SC is off for a 2nd week, this time due to the Dallas Cup, as some players will go down to join the U18 for the Super Group. Atletico Dallas is also taking part in the tourney for the first time.

And Rodeo SC launched their brand, Dan Crooke was on hand for the vibe check.

Music by Pappy Check.

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Episode Transcript

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Third Degree the Third Degree NEP Podcast. [00:00:14] Speaker C: Third Degree the Third Degree Nap Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree N Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree Third Degree [00:00:26] Speaker A: the podcast is brought to you by our wonderful supporters. Just like you, those that choose to help us out at our patreon.com third degree. If you're curious about FC Dallas, Dallas Trinity, Athleto, Dallas Rodeo SC, all the teams that are coming to Dallas playing professional soccer. We got you covered. Why don't throw away some support? It is greatly appreciated. Now on with the podcast. [00:00:47] Speaker C: Well, hello there, DFW Soccer Curious. Welcome to Third Degree, the podcast. On the panel today, your favorite English man, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:59] Speaker B: Hello. I am. I am both of those things. They're all three. Really. [00:01:02] Speaker C: Yes. Favorite English and man. [00:01:05] Speaker B: Yes. In that order. [00:01:07] Speaker C: Fair shout. Welcome back. After. Did you. Did the GoFundMe work out on getting your computer resurrected from last week? We tried to get. Remember your computer blew up and you couldn't do that. [00:01:21] Speaker B: There was smoke. There was. There were flames, there were leds. It was. It was a very strange time. [00:01:26] Speaker C: Well, I don't know if the GoFundMe that buzz and I tried to get started for you happened or not, but at least you're back. [00:01:33] Speaker B: This is news to me. Someone may be laundering money somewhere. [00:01:38] Speaker C: Speaking of laundering money, your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of third degree.net and the original soccer influencer himself. And the man you pay Patreon money to, Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. I was won. Laundering money. [00:01:51] Speaker A: Had to do with anything. [00:01:53] Speaker C: Oh, we know, sir, since you mysteriously absconds to the Pacific Northwest. [00:02:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it's not no mystery about it, just absconds. By the way, I was. I was looking just flipped over to the D.C. united web page just to see what was going on with them and. And I'm. I'm jealous of their ticket promo that they have splashed all across their page, big and huge. 25 bucks for a ticket against FC Dallas. And a beer. [00:02:19] Speaker B: Yeah, but is it $9 and 11 cents? [00:02:21] Speaker A: It's not nine hours, but 25 bucks for a ticket and beer sounds pretty good to me. It's a Heineken on the advertisement, but I suppose you probably get whatever it's not matching. Not a good 911 promo, that's for sure. [00:02:36] Speaker C: I love it with certain people of the. When the club takes shots right off the bat. Just strays. [00:02:41] Speaker A: Just. Yeah. [00:02:45] Speaker C: Goodness. Poor thing. This must be a fan support. This is we're supposed to be a pro team podcast for FC Dallas. But Dan, throwing darts right off the bat, good for you, buddy. [00:02:56] Speaker A: It's a call. It's a call like it is podcast. It's not necessarily. [00:03:00] Speaker C: Yes, well, you know, when you do a 911 ticket promo, you're gonna hear from it. That's gonna live into infamy for sure. 100%. Yes. All right, so we got lots to talk about today. Obviously, we're making rounds across what's happening in the Soc. Seen in North Texas, the Dallas cup has kicked off. The big event at the Cotton bowl was last night. And I think the really impressive news is they announced that they set a Dallas cup record for attendance for opening night at the Cotton Bowl. By the time the Botofogo Aston Villa game, which was the premier game of the evening happened, there were 26,000 people at the Cotton bowl for the Dallas Cup. And that is a record for the tournament in 47 years. And that is impressive. [00:03:51] Speaker A: Yeah, it certainly is. I mean that, that opening day is always tons of fun. There's always multiple good games. The parade of nations with all the teams coming through is obviously a blast. You know, the FC Dallas game against Fulham early before the parades was a really solid game. Two to two tie. You know, it's, it's just the pageantry of the Dallas cup was fantastic. The big, the big opening day at the com was always a lot of fun. I'm sorry I missed it, but you know, it's. It was always one of my funnest days of the year to go to that thing. [00:04:17] Speaker C: So on the radio show Saturday, Andy and I were talking about this. Obviously Andy Swift, my co host, used to be the executive director. I found it out on the weekend. Now he's a VP on the board. How hottie does that sound? Anyway, I asked Andy, you know, know it's easy to go to the supergroup games or the U19 games because those are the big flashy ones. But really the best part of Dallas cup is finding the stuff down the line. It isn't the most obvious. And his recommendation on the show Saturday was to go check out 1 of 2 or 3 younger group age teams from Brazil from an academy called the LAUX performance. So it's LA UX performance and I think they've got a team in U12, 13 and 14 14. And he said if you wanted to go check something out that was kind of different and really good because there's scouts in town checking out those kids specifically. That was his pick to click, as they would say. So there you go. Dallas cup in full effect for the next 10 days, which means we're going to get rain and some storms that's low. [00:05:29] Speaker A: Is that or it's 110 or 110? Yeah. Like my. One of my favorite things to do other than of course watching for FC Dallas Academy games at the Dallas cup is to pick out a team from a country that you never really seen much from. You know, whether it be something like a German club, which is, you know, while we see the Bundesliga here, we don't see it near as much as we do the Premier League. But you could go check out a team from an African country, you could go check out team from South America. You could check out a team from Asia, you know, or. Or just walk the complex and look for the games where the crowds are starting to pile up and people are screaming and cheering because it's going crazy. There are some intense games that happen out there. This is probably something that the club. The cup would probably consider a negative. But almost every year there's some kind of brawl on some game that'll happen with coaches or players or you know, wants that stuff. But you know, it, it. It's just the. The level of some of those games, particularly as you get into the tournament now we're talking about knockout and feelings get hot. You know, some of these clubs will come in rivals with each other to begin with. You know, you can just look for games with crowds around them and that can tell you like that's a great game or a great matchup or something's going on that can be spicy and it's a lot of fun. [00:06:42] Speaker B: My favorite spicy moment last year was doing a story for MPSL on referees. So just kind of hanging out with them, watching one of the games that's been refed by the. The crews that I'm kind of covering. And There is an under 17s game field over it's Northern Ireland schools select against either the Everton Football Academy or the Steven Gerrard Academy. One of the two Liverpool teams that are one of the. One of two of the 18, 000 Liverpool teams that seem to go to Dallas cup and it absolutely kicks off about three or four times. I think it's like four red cards. These two teams that are separated by a very small bit of water flew 4,000 miles to have a fight with each other. [00:07:34] Speaker A: Yeah, typical. [00:07:36] Speaker C: That's fantastic. [00:07:38] Speaker B: Could have saved on the airfare and just took the ferry across from Liverpool and [00:07:44] Speaker C: that's great. They started the referee homestay program back up again this year. I saw that, yeah, so a lot of fun and I got to, I got to retell the story of Howard Webb's spin around Dallas cup and when he showed up and he actually reft a game and the kids freaked out and I, and I, I hope to this day, however many years later down the road it is, that kid has that picture of Howard Webb showing him a yellow card is over his mantle or whatever it is because that's. That was a great moment. Okay. Dallas cup by the way, just for those who know, just because the games at the Cotton bowl require tickets or the games that are inside Toyota Stadium require a paid ticket, all of the games at the auxiliary fields up in Frisco at what used to be called Money grand but now it's called Dallas Soccer park and at Richland College are all free to attend. So don't feel like the barrier to entry is you have to pay to do something because yeah, it's good stuff. [00:08:44] Speaker A: Just a quick FC Dallas U19 Super Group update. I mentioned that they tied 2 to 2 against Fulham. I think I mentioned that in the first game Sam today. And Marlon Lesine scored for FC Dallas. They played again today and they tried tied 0 to 0. And the story is that apparently there was a red card For Dallas about 10 minutes into the game and there's a young kid named Aiden Jordan who's a keeper for the U18s. He played for North Texas the other day and had a really nice game. Apparently he stood on his head, made a whole bunch of saves and the other team hit the crossbar like five times or something. So that's one part of this. I don't know. [00:09:21] Speaker C: Dang it. Fc. Yeah, it sounds like a beer league team. I don't know if it's not. [00:09:25] Speaker A: It should be second. I should have asked that. The person told me the result. But the point was from an FC perspective, Aiden Jordan is the. Is a nice young keeper coming through. He's already played for North Texas. He's you know, 17, 18 years old wherever he is. So it's a guy that's on the pathway to keep an eye out. Had a really good game today and sort of rescued his team after they were down a card non man the whole most of the whole game and the hell on 00. So Dan, did you look up the [00:09:49] Speaker B: group they played Esport Club Agua Santa. [00:09:53] Speaker A: Yeah, from Brazil. Not a team I know, but there you go. [00:09:56] Speaker C: All right, I got a question and I'm glad you brought this up. I was going to bring it up later in the Episode. But since we're talking Dallas cup and FC Dallas in the group's super group. I saw the highlights of the game against Fulham and you mentioned Luxane's son who is on that team who took the pk. What is each of yours opinion about teenagers executing or attempting panenkas in supergroup games in the Cotton bowl against English opposition in probably one of the biggest [00:10:28] Speaker B: games against us always do it. We're. [00:10:36] Speaker C: Seriously like, I know he made it and all of that, but I would be pissed if I was the coach. [00:10:44] Speaker A: Well, that would depend some on how much freedom the coach gives them in PKs. Like if he's laid down, like, don't ever do that. Like I want you to go for this or that. [00:10:52] Speaker C: Well, yeah, obviously. [00:10:53] Speaker A: But at the same time, like Marlon looks on is Peter's older son. He's been a North Texas player for a year plus now and he. And along with a couple other North Texas players that went down, they're clearly way fitter than academy players because they all started with 90 minutes, the ones that are the North Texas players. So he probably looked to Marlon, I would imagine. Matias, sorry, who's the coach of the U19s, U18s technically. He probably told, told them, you know, hey, you're going to be like, well, not captain. You're going to be like the leader on the field. People are going to look to you because they know you play for North Texas. So he probably gave him a lot of freedom and, and looks on. Had a for. For what I think of him as a player. He had a pretty nice game. He had the, the PK goal, but he was pretty decent in midfield. He doesn't do a lot of defensive work, but that's fine. He's sort of playing acre type player, but I, I think it's probably okay. You know, he's. He's a kind of player who is kind of wants to be sort of stylish, wants to sort of be showy. Yeah, that's a good word. So that kind of PK fits in his paradigm. So I think you're gonna get that kind of thing with him as a player. [00:12:05] Speaker C: I guess trying to do a Panenka is fine until you F it up. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Yeah, that's all right. I mean the only thing that matters on a penalty is are you confident you're putting it away? Because if you're like, oh, you know, I'll try this, I don't think it'll come off. Don't bother. Just try talking it in the corner. Try going for power, do whatever you. You can miss one way or the other. If you're confident in it, go for it. [00:12:32] Speaker C: Yeah, the. The footage I saw was a bit wonky and from a weird angle, and it looked like he didn't take it very well, and it almost, like, confused the goalkeeper because of the. But maybe it was just the angle I saw the highlight from, but I guess he made it. I shouldn't fuss about it. It just seems like an odd thing for a teenager to be doing in a big game like that. But I wonder what. I wonder what Peter thought about it. [00:12:56] Speaker A: He probably loved it. The biggest takeaway from that game is Sam today, who's the. [00:13:00] Speaker C: Is that the hot shot that you. [00:13:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:02] Speaker C: Is that the big upper comer? Yeah. Okay. [00:13:04] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, he's not Benji Flowers, but he definitely is good enough that they signed him at 15 to a homegrown deal. He'll be a homegrown next year. So, like, he's on the second year of his hybrid thing. He's just now 16, playing in the United team bracket. [00:13:15] Speaker C: He's. [00:13:15] Speaker A: He's the best player in the game. And I'm including Fulton players on this. He was phenomenal. So it's like, that's a really exciting moment. He plays for North Texas as well. [00:13:22] Speaker C: Okay, very good. Everybody go out. Make at least one Dallas cup game somewhere near you. All right, let's move on to other things. Obviously, speaking of FC Dallas, they were off this past weekend, and they have to go to D.C. this weekend, and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But I do want to get into and follow up on the Santi Moreno situation. Did that get done and announced after we recorded last week? [00:13:48] Speaker A: Yes. [00:13:49] Speaker C: Or was that okay? So this is now official. That deal is done. Do you want to talk about the details of the deal? [00:13:55] Speaker A: No, because we. We kind of knew the details when it was. When we were talking about it last week. You know, it's. I thought what would be worth a little bit of discussion was maybe like a little bit deeper of a look into how he might try and fit into the tactics of the team, since, you know, he is probably coming relatively quickly. The. The team has confirmed, or at least they put out in their press release, so I'll take that as a confirm. They still has this green card, so that's really good. We weren't 100 sure whether that would be the case or not, because he left the country for a little bit, you know, now he's back and apparently still has it, so that's A real positive that we know that for sure. You know, we know for sure that he's a dp. Now. That's one of the details we found out, which is fine because they already had one open DP spot anyway. And if they work the money correctly in terms of how they do the loan, you know, if they end up buying him, they may have to keep him as a DP next year, too. But, you know, maybe the salaries can be done so it won't be forever that he'll be a dp. But it does tell you the level that they think he is, that they're willing to spend this kind of money to get him. So tactically, how he'd work into the team. Like, you could just use him like they use some of the other wings, like we've seen with Bernie. Of course, sometimes we see with Sarver where they try to use him as a wing back. That seems ridiculous if you're bringing in an EP to do that, to use a wingman, that seems dumb. So if you want to talk about how they're playing just in the context of this season, one option is to play him as one of the two strikers. You know, with a player like Musa, play him sort of as the off guy where Logan is now. You could play him in that spot. You know, to have three guys that can play striker is not a worst problem in the world. And the other idea is the thing that they've used the last two games, which is this 3, 4, 3. The quill seems super excited about this idea that the high sort of high press six that we called Kaik in that scenario. But you can, if Moreno has the qualities to be able to play that high spot and press like that. You could look at Moreno and Bucking Valley Entei as your two underneath guys and then either Farrington or Moose up top. So those are sort of the two most obvious versions of how you could get Moreno on the field. So you're talking about a guy that's a dp, he's going to be playing, right? I mean, Quill would probably try and ignore that, but sometimes, man, you can't. When you got that kind of money in a player he's going to play. [00:16:07] Speaker C: Is he here and available for this weekend? [00:16:10] Speaker A: Well, I doubt he'll be available this weekend because once they do all the paperwork and announcement, his certificate would need to clear his ITC thing, you know, he. I don't know. Dan, do you know, does he need a new visa if he has the green card? Or can you Just come back. [00:16:25] Speaker B: No, you can just come back. He basically. If he's away for a year, he forfeits it. Then he has to go through the whole thing. Otherwise, he's got his authorization to work, he's got everything he needs. [00:16:37] Speaker C: And he hasn't been gone a year, has he? [00:16:39] Speaker B: No, he was only gone like six months or something. [00:16:42] Speaker A: So theoretically, Peter, yeah, he could. If his ITC certificate clears through FIFA then, which usually only takes a day or two, then, yeah, he would be available. Then it would be down to the coach, how have I had him in training enough? You know, do I have. How's he fitting into the team? So, like, if I was just going to completely guess, it would be if he gets the whole certificate and he's cleared to play medically, if he passes physical, which you would have had to do to do the deal, then you would just put him on the bench and let him. Let him get a taste of everything, let him travel with the team, let him be on the bench. He's a good enough player that you could bring him in for like 10 minutes or something at the end and no one would be upset about it. So that's my assumption, is that. That if his certificate clears that he'll travel. It's pure gas work, because we don't know, but we'll see. [00:17:26] Speaker C: Okay. Hey, I just don't me, I haven't been paying attention. Did Musa play for Croatia the other day? [00:17:34] Speaker B: Yeah, he played 45 minutes. [00:17:35] Speaker C: How'd he do? [00:17:36] Speaker B: Supposedly hit the bar a couple times. That's really good. [00:17:39] Speaker C: Okay. I don't know if that's good or not. [00:17:43] Speaker A: Well, if you were to come off the bench, I suppose that depends on whether that. [00:17:46] Speaker C: No, I can't tell if I want him to perform well because then he'll get sold or if I want to be, you know, selfish. I mean, wish bad things. [00:17:56] Speaker A: Yeah, he's gonna make the team. I suppose it might depend on whether that was a last chance game or that was a this is I'm warming up my squad game. [00:18:04] Speaker B: So I don't know what he does against Brazil tomorrow. [00:18:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. [00:18:08] Speaker B: Where is that game that is being played in Orlando, I believe. [00:18:13] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah. [00:18:14] Speaker B: Wow. [00:18:14] Speaker C: Makes sense. Yeah. [00:18:16] Speaker A: That's fun. Good stuff. [00:18:18] Speaker C: Okay, so no other player conversations, but let's go ahead and talk about the fact that they do have a game coming up on Saturday at. Up in D.C. [00:18:30] Speaker A: yeah. Or, you know, they have a solid ish squad. They're getting better, you know, Shaun Johnson and goal. Our old friend Lucas Bartlett is one of Their defenders, I don't know a ton about how they play. I see Caden Clark came off the bench. [00:18:43] Speaker C: Lucas Bartlett, is that the old dude [00:18:45] Speaker A: they drafted who they drafted who was 26 and he's now captain. Yeah. [00:18:50] Speaker C: And now he's 37. No, he. Because he left here and went to what, St. Louis. [00:18:55] Speaker A: St. Louis. Yeah. But now he's with D.C. oh, yeah. He's hanging around the league. You know what, what it says to me about the. This is not a shot at Lucas Bartlett, but if you're gonna have Lucas Barlow be in your back line, you're probably not building out of the back, you're probably thumping it. You know, he's a good physical defender, particularly like one on one banging on a guy so like you can watch him try and smash Moussa or Farrington or whoever's going to be up front, but you're not going to expect them to go ticky tacky coming out of the back with Lucas Bartlett. So maybe that'll tell you a little bit of how they play that way. They have had. They got Caden Clark who's a pretty. Been a pretty solid player in MLS over the years. [00:19:29] Speaker B: So Brandon Sylvania. [00:19:31] Speaker A: Yeah. ARL from Brandon Sylvania has starting. [00:19:34] Speaker C: Okay. [00:19:35] Speaker A: Them as well. So they got a flavor through the middle of their team a little bit. I don't think Brandon's like a star for them, but I think he plays more often than not. [00:19:43] Speaker B: So he's a pretty consistent starter. [00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah. So I'm sure there'll be some. A couple of hugs here and there. Although there's not a lot of people left from when Brandon Savannah was here. You know, Paxton would have been the last one for sure. So maybe I don't know who's. Who's the longest serving, not seeky. But he's gone. You know, Jesus is gone, Paul's gone. So there's not really. Maybe anybody left. It really knows him other than coaches [00:20:05] Speaker C: possibly crazy how much time has flown by. And we're at that point, Drew, we'll know him. Yeah, we're at this weird point where we've all been following this for so long that the league is now littered with former like a cat. Not just guys that played for the team, but guys that came up through the academy. Like I was watching Edwin Cerrillo playing for the Galaxy the other day and I'm like, gosh, he is really good. I wish he was on my team. [00:20:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Campus would probably know him and so would Collode would probably know him. [00:20:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:20:35] Speaker A: In their academy Days. Yeah, just. Just glancing down the roster, trying to think of who else was here. That really is it, man. Nolan's too young. You know, Seeky would be it, I think. Yeah, it's a giant here anymore. So, yeah, those would be the two guys that might know him, and they're guys that have come back. [00:20:55] Speaker C: Eric know him. [00:20:57] Speaker A: Quill would. Yeah, yeah. [00:20:58] Speaker B: He played the first season for North Texas SC a little bit. [00:21:02] Speaker A: Okay. All right, so some familiarity there. But anyway, you know, a little bit of knowledge of DC probably and how they play, probably from in terms of the coaching staff and how knowing a player or two, that. That's always a little bit of a help. And it's not like it's a secret. Everyone's got lots of game on tape at this point. So for Dallas, I think you have to wonder, you know, you have this Musa Farrington problem in terms of the 11, because I caught a problem, because I'm gonna assume that, like Santiago Moreno is not heavy in your plans, you know, having just maybe been in town for a couple of days. So let's just talk about Moose and Ferrington. You know, those are two of your best players, your hottest players. You'd like to get them on the field at the same time. Which lends itself to the 5, 3, 2 that they started the season with. But they've now gone three straight games. No, excuse me, two straight games with this three, four, three. And Quill seems to really like it. This thing with Kai. Kai and along with Joaquin Valiente High, and only one of Musa or Farrington starting. So that becomes the biggest question. Which of those two tactics are you going to see? Are you gonna. You know, maybe with Musa going out and playing a couple games, maybe he might have traveled a little bit. Maybe he might be a little bit. Just a little bit tired, perhaps. So maybe he might go to Farrington. You know, some good questions there about the potential in terms of the tactics, because outside of that, I don't think there's a lot of choices like, you know, you know, you know, clothes starting, you know, Bernie starting, you know, it's going to be Irigide and Shaq Moore. There's the Nolan question with Ibiaga. That's the one question really, because then it's Ramiro Kappas, Kaik Valiente and either Moose or Farrington. So, you know, whether you want to go back to the two striker guys and play both Musa and Farrington sit Kaik is the real question, the real tactical choice decision to make. [00:22:46] Speaker C: Anyway, I was looking, doing a Little bit of prep and research and I was digging through some stats. I want to play a game with you guys. Now, this game is predicated on the idea first that neither one of you has spent any time looking at like fat mob or anything like that recently. Not today. Are you up to date on teams, on team stats? [00:23:07] Speaker A: No. [00:23:07] Speaker C: Let's play it anyway. All right. I was a little. This one surprised me. How many people on FC Dallas have scored a goal this season? [00:23:15] Speaker B: Two. Two? [00:23:17] Speaker A: Yeah. I think I. [00:23:17] Speaker C: Correct. Yeah, just Moose and Farrington. Nobody else. [00:23:22] Speaker B: And own goal. [00:23:24] Speaker C: Oh, fair. Always the threat of the own goal. [00:23:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:29] Speaker C: What is the leader in the clubhouse on assists? Don't cheat, Buzz. [00:23:35] Speaker A: Well, my guess is it's Johansson. [00:23:38] Speaker C: How many you think he has? [00:23:40] Speaker A: Well, I, I know that he's tied with Capus on. Is it key passes? I think it is. He's tied with. So I, I would say that probably the leader and assist maybe has two. [00:23:54] Speaker B: Ramire too? [00:23:56] Speaker C: No, there are six people tied with one. And Kamungo leads on X assist, expected assist. Actually him and Valiente Both are on 0.7. So there's. [00:24:10] Speaker B: There's two that have two hockey assists. If you go through like the way MLS does it. [00:24:16] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I'm not. I was reading off a fat mob, so. Which takes me to an interesting one now again, anytime you do any of these websites, you, you know, like transfer market and player values, it's. Your mileage may vary. Fought mob rating is another one where your. Your mileage may vary. Obviously the leader in the clubhouse for the team is peter with a 7.98. Who do you think is the second highest rated player over the course of the season on average for Dallas? [00:24:46] Speaker A: Well, since you're excited about. It's probably something bonkers like Bernie. [00:24:50] Speaker C: It is Bernard Camungo at 7.52 and Logan is behind them at 7, 3, 5. [00:24:57] Speaker A: Well, those things are swung by goals and assists pretty heavily. And Bernie has on paper two assists. If you're using the mls, you know the hockey assist and Valiente has two and Farrington has two. So, you know, like, you get into some of the stat metrics, you get into the goals added and you get into the XGs. And Bernie looks really good. You know, it's the eye test with his defensive issues that make us question, you know, what's going on over there. But we've talked a lot about the fact that he's doing enough good stuff offensively that he's going to keep his spot. So it's not surprising. It is a Bit surprising that he's number two and five rating, but it's not surprising that he's up in the top part of it. [00:25:35] Speaker C: Okay, the next stat. Let's see what was the one that caught me off guard? Most everything in here is obviously Musa and beaver, Moose and beaver. They're always one and two. Who do you think's number one in chances created, though? And I will tell you, it's not Peter Musa. [00:25:58] Speaker A: Well, no, he wouldn't create chances, not by himself. I mean, he would some. Well, it's either Farrington because he's up high or like I said, Capison Johansson are in high and key passes. So probably Johansson again from the wing. [00:26:12] Speaker C: Good. Buzz Carrick. Yes, it is the Swede with nine. Capis is on seven. But. But to. To combat your point, Peter Musa is tied for second with seven. So there you go. [00:26:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:27] Speaker C: Who do you think has the Best expected assist per 90 on the team? [00:26:32] Speaker A: Well, you said before you thought that. That Bernie had the highest exorcist. [00:26:39] Speaker C: He had the. That was actual assist. And then they. Yeah, this is expected. [00:26:45] Speaker B: Somebody that subbed in once. [00:26:47] Speaker C: It's Valiente, is it? With 0.24. Capus is second on 0.1. [00:26:53] Speaker A: I was going to say Capus, but valiant taste. Not surprising. He. He really has come on the last couple games, particularly the last one. I thought his is putting himself in really good positions because he's playing higher than Capisan Romero. You know, Kaik would be the one. Like if he continues to play that high spot. Will Kai come up in that situation? Because you really need somebody in that spot if you're going to play that high spot. You need to be able to get us some assists, get some key passes, not just press. [00:27:18] Speaker C: And last but not least, let's go with successful dribbles per 90. Who do you think number one is in that spot? [00:27:27] Speaker A: I'll guess Bernie again because he runs at people a lot. [00:27:31] Speaker C: Dan, you take a guess. [00:27:32] Speaker B: Successful. [00:27:35] Speaker A: Johansson's the other one. That would do it a lot to run at people. [00:27:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd go with Bernie probably. [00:27:41] Speaker C: It's The Beaver with 2.9 per game success. He's on a successful dribble percentage of 68.8. Bernie is second at 55.6 with 2.1 per 90. [00:27:55] Speaker A: He does go at people a fair bit. I wouldn't have thought of him as being. Doing it enough to. I guess successful is the key word. It's the high percentage of conversion that's the key. He probably go. He probably does less dribbles. Than Bernie, but converts at a higher rate than Bernie. I would guess it does show that he's playing a little bit deeper off Moussa. Most of the time he's going at people. [00:28:15] Speaker C: With the week off, I was just curious to kind of stop for a second and take both of your temperatures about where you are in terms of individual performances across the team. I mean, I. I think we're all obviously delighted about Peter Moose's performances, although we're also at the same time conflicted with. The better he plays, the more likely he goes. Yeah, conundrum we're all facing. Buzz, you started the season making a lot of noise and making a lot of predictions about Beaver and his season. I think you, so far you've been pretty spot on about that. [00:28:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I predicted he was going to break out and have a 10 plus. 10. 10 goals, 10 assists a season and that he would end up. Because I think Musa will be sold. I think he'll end up being your mvp, in fact. So I. I think he's playing really, really well. I mean, he's. Our. Our roster rankings is coming out again this week and he's climbing up there because he's. Even in the game when Musa didn't start, he was very much tremendous. So, yeah, I'm pretty. I feel pretty good about that prediction. [00:29:14] Speaker C: Dan, do you have anybody that you would like to highlight or comment or criticize a few games into the season? [00:29:22] Speaker B: No, not really. I think, you know the story the season so far has been Musa and Farrington. Obviously there was the disaster of Asazi Regiday getting a knock for a game, but they managed to soldier through it. So it's not the disaster it could be. [00:29:45] Speaker C: Dan, do you have a. Would you like. Well, could you. If I asked you to tell me who you think the best center midfielder has been this season, could you easily name one. Buzz is chomping at the bit. I could see Buzz chomping. [00:29:58] Speaker B: I mean, he wants to say Capis, obviously. [00:30:00] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, you want to say. But Cap has came off at halftime. The other day, a lot of people didn't think Cap has played very well in the previous game. [00:30:08] Speaker B: Oh, no, I'm saying Buzz wanted to say Cat. No, that's normally when Buzz is chomping at a bit, that means Cap is. [00:30:13] Speaker A: Well, I think it's pretty clear that he's been the best. He's best central midfielder. You know, there's. He's been carrying a knock for a couple games. So, like. Yeah, I will say that that last wasn't his best game in the last game. But he already talked about how he's leading the team and you know, key passes and he's an eight. Right. So there's a lot of. There's a relative high amount of positivity, I think, in terms of trajectory that people are going through. Valiente is coming along nicely. Some nice looking things there. Nolan's looking pretty good. When he, he came in, right? You're like, what's happening with Farrington, Ramiro? No change, no progression there. But he's 30, 000 years old, so that's understandable. Right? [00:30:52] Speaker C: He's not 30, 000 years old. Can I, can I tell you, Can I tell you who I think is my surprise? It's Shaq Moore as a center back. I think Shaq has been really, really surprisingly good for a position we're all very worried about. And I've been, I've been really, you know, he's not a. He doesn't fit the physical requirements you typically look for in our center back in terms of height. But I do think his experience and smarts have been helping him out a lot this year. So just wanted to give him some props for that. [00:31:25] Speaker A: Yeah, and he's basically playing, you know, the full 90 every time. The thing about Shaq Moore and at 511 and. And the thing about center backs in general is that we. What I think you'd like to see is a center back good enough that you can partner with your get in, you go back to a back four, right? It's like a lot of things are happening because they're stuck. Quill stuck playing this back three because his other two options at center back, which are mostly IRGIDE and more, aren't as good as. As. I'm sorry, not your getting. Excuse me, Ibiaga and more aren't as good as the Irgide. Nolan isn't really a center back. He's playing left center back in the back three. And that's fine. But like in a straight up back four, center back's not really his jam. He's more of a left back. So, you know, there's. He's. Quill is stuck with this three man center back setup because he doesn't have another ir. But in that context, yeah, Moore's been fantastic. He's stopped making sort of these overreaching mistakes where he gets caught out of position. That's the biggest thing is last year he kept trying to be sort of wing backy at times and we'll get caught up field Occasionally. So he's not doing that, which is great. He's playing more stay at home, playing more conservative, which is really good. We like N's progression over there too. That's looking really good. So those guys could compensate for Bernie being occasionally a defensive mess. We've seen Johansson occasionally be a defensive mess just once or twice, but, you know, sometimes it's a little bit worrisome. But, you know, both of those guys make up for with their offensive contribution. So, you know, it is what it is at this point are how. [00:32:57] Speaker C: Where is the, the third degree O meter on Johansson so far? [00:33:02] Speaker A: Well, I think he's pretty good. I think that there's a lot of growth that could happen. He's still not feeling fit. You can't. Can't really go 90 minutes. He, you know, occasionally makes defensive mistakes, especially when a guy who's really fast lines him up and runs at him for a long way. He can't really turn and burn, you know, like Bernie can get it catch. Catch a guy and keep going. He kind of has to be smarter about that. But he doesn't make a lot of big catastrophic positional mistakes usually. He did get caught last game in, in the five minute debacle of, you know, not just letting that guy run past him because they were running a relatively high line at that point. So, you know, I, I don't think he's an all star, but I think he's a solid MLS player. [00:33:47] Speaker C: Okay, Collode. Anybody want to comment on Collode? [00:33:52] Speaker A: He's fine. It's good. Okay, Dan, you know what I'm gonna say about Cody? [00:33:56] Speaker C: No. [00:33:56] Speaker B: I mean, I had a couple of mistakes, but I think he's for such a confidence position. He's, he's rebounded well from, from any stumble. [00:34:08] Speaker A: I had somebody the other day try and tell me his feet were terrible. I was like, dude, he's what his feet are why they got rid of paws. He's the best. Some of the best feet in MLS is a goalie. I mean, he's not Valiente. It's a school, it's a goalie. But still his feet are really good. [00:34:23] Speaker C: And then I'm gonna save my last one for the manager, Eric Quill. Anybody want to comment on Quill's performance this year? [00:34:30] Speaker A: He still occasionally gets a sub rom, but the t. The pre. The pre. Planned tactics are working really well. He's tried a couple of different formations. They both have worked out that switched to this high press and certain games has worked really well. He's making good Mostly good decisions in terms of who's playing, who's not playing. There is one thing that worries me a little. I. I feel like. No, I don't care about that. [00:34:51] Speaker C: It's going to swallow him. [00:34:53] Speaker A: No, I feel like this might be the shortest bench I've ever seen a coach run here because, you know, past. Past the starting group, whether it's Norris or Ibiaga, that's one of the other. That's fine. But is there a left wing back who can start? Is there a right wing back they can start? Is there another center back after more or your gday, other than Ibiaga? Norris? That's it, right? No Bibakar, no Alvaro, no wing back. Backups. You got Ramiro and Capis and you have Kaik. They can play the holding spot. That's it. So, like, basically, after Valiente, you're kind of out of really real heavy rotation, people. Delgado a little bit. Delgado's come into like all five games, but it's been like 10 or 15 minutes apiece. And that's basically it. [00:35:40] Speaker C: So. But you're not talking about players that make up the roster. You're talking about guys that he's electing to use the rotation. Yeah, yeah, right. [00:35:49] Speaker A: Like, we're seeing Ben Yamin get trash minutes. He's got 23 minutes. That doesn't count. That's not the rotation you've seen him play. Anderson, Julio's hurt, so he's not available. Deason's got in four games, decent, has 60 minutes. Right. [00:36:00] Speaker B: So that's 14 guys that have played over an hour's worth of football. [00:36:05] Speaker A: Right. So, like, what I'm saying is like. [00:36:07] Speaker C: Wait, hold on, say that again. Dan, you didn't say that very loudly. [00:36:10] Speaker B: Yeah, he's got 14 guys that have played more than an hour's worth of football three, five games. [00:36:16] Speaker A: So, like, his bench is. [00:36:18] Speaker C: I would love to compare that to the other MLS clubs. [00:36:21] Speaker A: Well, just think about, think about your. Just think back in terms of this club, in terms of like, coaches in the past, like, how many players, how often have we seen? Because if you're talking about that short of a bench, you're only talking about three players basically, that play beyond the starting 11, any meaningful minutes. And one of those is Delgado at 120 minutes. Right. You know, and one of those is including Norris, who has only started, started two games with Ibiaga starting, you know, more so four. You know, it's just. [00:36:54] Speaker C: Does he have a big dollar salary player that's not playing much at all? [00:36:58] Speaker A: Well, Anderson, Julio but that's because he's hurt, Right? [00:37:01] Speaker C: Obviously, injured players don't count. What is a booba car? [00:37:05] Speaker B: Julio, even before he was injured, he's only played 27 minutes. [00:37:09] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:37:10] Speaker A: Abubakar is on 5 or 600. [00:37:12] Speaker C: Wow, that's a lot of hair care. [00:37:15] Speaker B: You know, Ricky Lewis, Samsara Anderson, Julio Deedson are all among those players that have played less than an hour. They're all either going to play, you know, right wing back or forward. [00:37:31] Speaker A: So, officially, Abubakar last year was on with. With all comps. 445. So that probably is up over 500 now. So I said, yeah. So, you know, he's got a. He's got a bunch of young guys that you think maybe are interesting in the future. Possibly. Sarver, Lewis. Benjamin means a U22 guy. Dietzen is in the rotations, maybe, sort of almost. But that's really it. Swan. [00:37:55] Speaker C: Yeah, it's interesting because I feel like it wasn't that long ago we were all lamenting the fact that they had all these guys that were making close to a million dollars that weren't playing because they were hurt or whatever. Paxton, Sebastian, Paul. [00:38:08] Speaker B: Hey, who? [00:38:08] Speaker C: Jesus. Whatever it was, it was an incredible list of a lot of money just sitting around doing nothing other than ride the bike. [00:38:15] Speaker A: And as Sol's gone, he's out. [00:38:16] Speaker C: Out. [00:38:17] Speaker A: Right. On loan. He probably won't be back on the roster. Giovanni J. Zeus was a U22 guy making a relatively 300. 400. Whatever he was on. He's. I don't know what he is officially, but he ain't on the roster. Right. I mean, who knows whether that guy's ever gonna play again. I don't think he will. They bought out Paxton, you know, so [00:38:36] Speaker C: now we have one DP that we're about to lose and only two of our four U20 twos. [00:38:44] Speaker A: Yeah. Kaik. Benyamin, Delgado. Yeah, those three. [00:38:51] Speaker C: Okay. I thought. For some reason, I thought Solly still counted as one of our U22s. [00:38:57] Speaker A: He would if he comes back. [00:38:58] Speaker C: Back. Ah, okay. [00:38:59] Speaker A: But, you know, like, they don't. I mean, obviously, Santiago Moreno is going to go into that rotation, so that'll be one more. But, you know, this is about as short as a bench as I can think of in a long time, you know? [00:39:12] Speaker C: Got it. [00:39:13] Speaker A: So I don't know that that's a criticism of Quill. It's something he's dealing with. You know, it's more of a criticism of whoever built the roster. But Quill, obviously something we've talked before about is the gap, the gap between being not in terms of the coach's decision making and roster rotation and being in that group. That gap is hard to jump sometimes. Nolan is the one that's just now bridging it. You would have thought based on last year Delgado was in the rotation, but he sort of seems to be falling out or maybe trying to get back in it, but that's the bottom of it. Deason is trying to get in it, but really probably isn't. You know, I understand who they've been healthy would help. Of course he would be in it. But. [00:39:51] Speaker C: But right. [00:39:52] Speaker A: Not a lot, but he's definitely in it, you know, so it's just a, it's an interesting factoid or state of the team or whatever. So Quill's with a shorter bench qu doing a nice job, keeping everything going, keeping everything fresh. See what happens. [00:40:04] Speaker C: I would say, you know, the, the whole dogs thing I think is corny and cringy. But the point, the, the message he's trying to get across, I do think he's successful at, at creating a group of guys that have that kind of no quit mentality about them and come at you kind of aggressive mentality that, that, that is what he has been good at this year. That makes me like Eric Quill as the manager of this team because that's the, that's the kind of manager this really kind of odd fractured roster needs I think to try to build that sort of cohesion and togetherness and some of the parts kind of thing, if you know what I mean. [00:40:44] Speaker A: Sometimes, sometimes if you, if you need to outwork and out fight everybody, that's what you need when all things are equal. You know, you'd prefer that you just had a better roster and you can just outplay everybody. But that doesn't work when you're yeah, basically a mid table team or maybe even some might say worse than mid table team, that he's now coaching them up a couple of spots by keeping this fight alive and keeping this bonding alive and this stuff alive. So like he's doing a really nice job. You know, I think almost all that, that talk from him is for the locker room as much as anything. The fact that we're all in this together, we're all going to fight like hell together. You know, that's what I want is that fight, you know, at certain kinds of supporters too. But you know, at the end of the day it's what you do when you, you have a little bit less than maybe the top teams. In the league and you're playing against teams that have the exact same as you, you have to outwork them, you know, outside them. And that's. His teams had that last year too when they were getting all his points on the road is a good indicator of that. And they just, they wanted to replicate that at home and I think they're doing that this year. [00:41:42] Speaker C: Well, a big opportunity up in D.C. saturday. I think the game's at 6:30 Dallas time and will be available on the Apple TV and Dallas needs all the points they can get before the World Cup. So come on guys. [00:41:56] Speaker A: I was about to say the schedule says it's at 4:30 but then. [00:41:59] Speaker C: Oh, is it at 4:30? Is that not right? [00:42:00] Speaker A: Specific to. Not specific. [00:42:01] Speaker C: Oh, that's your two, that's you left coast libs time is what it is. [00:42:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:10] Speaker C: All right, very good. Let's move to Little Burn, which they're off again. What did MLS next take off the international break? [00:42:18] Speaker A: No, North Texas did because of Dallas Cup. Ah, I think that's why they'd always, they always seem to be off during Dallas cup and they always send players down during Dallas cup. [00:42:29] Speaker C: So. [00:42:29] Speaker A: Okay, I think that they do that on purpose. I don't think it's a coincidence. But we, we talked a little. What I want to talk about a little bit was what we talked about earlier when we talked about the Dallas cup, which is this idea that there were three or four players that started that first game from North Texas sc and there was a clear difference in the fitness of the guys that are full time pros, you know, versus the academy guys. The academy guys are all cramping up about 65, 70 and the North Texas guys were just blasted right through it. So it's like, you know, there is a fundamental difference between those two things. And so that's why you. These games are huge against really talented teams. I mean, playing against Fulham, those are guys that are gonna be in the Premier League. Not all of them, but a few of them probably will be at some point. So it's a really high level of talent, you know. So these games are a real challenge. There's a reason why Dallas steps aside for a minute and sends down some of those kids. They even sit down a couple of at least one homegrown that I know of to try and get some game time. So it's huge. And that really was. It was the observation that those North Texas guys were, were so clearly different than the academy guys who are really talented. But there's just a different level when you're a professional and you're training at a higher level, at a more intensity and for a longer time, it really shows off. [00:43:40] Speaker C: All right, Dallas Trinity, they are down to fourth. It says here on Buzz's thing they play Tampa Bay. Oh, we're recording this on Monday night. So they have a game against Tampa Bay tomorrow, Tuesday. [00:43:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Dennis did a nice preview on the website. And Peter, I have to tell you that for the first time in the history of forever, your guess about how to say someone's name was correct. Sydney Cheeseman. [00:44:09] Speaker C: In your face. [00:44:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And they call our Cheese and all that. You know, I thought it was chess, but it's cheese. So Cheeseman, there's no E. It should have been chess, but Laura Finn and Sydney Cheeseman, who's their other new center back, are both questionable. Cheeseman's got a concussion protocol. So you're back for maybe TBD on who's going to play fraternity. Dennis McCown did a great preview on. It's on the website right now for the game tomorrow. So the big macro thing is I really think it would be important to get both Flynn and Cheeseman back so that you can move Amber Wisner back into midfield and that would really help them, you know, push forward over the back half of the season if they can make that happen. Having Wisner in midfield alongside Stainbrook would be, I think, really good if we want to spin back for a minute to the Lexi Mimo elephant in the room. Peter, of not greatness. I. I thought I went and looked up a couple stats because I didn't want people to think I was just making this up, that I thought that she wasn't, you know, producing at a level requisite with her pay. And let's talk about Trinity at a macro level first. They have 24 goals on the year, which is six tied for six out of nine teams. [00:45:22] Speaker C: Okay. [00:45:24] Speaker A: They their shots. They have 226, which is eighth out of nine teams. If we go back to the offense, which is, you know, Misimo being a playmaker kind of thing, it's pretty telling that she's a part of big, should be the big engine of the offense. So in terms of goal scores, as players, Sealy Strong and Ally Thoron both have three, and then tied at two is a whole bunch of other players, including Mimo. So in terms of assists, Abubago and Bolt, who has been gone a While, Abubo has four and Bolt has three bugos in the top 10 in the whole league. And then Gidri, who's a Right back. Balata, who's a central mid, like a holding mid and Henson is a left back. Have two each. Misimo has one. So shots. Thornton, Abibago, Lancaster, Wisner, Bolt again has been gone for like two months. All are in double figures on shots. Misimo not to be seen. Chances created. Abiba Go 23, top 11th in the league. Henson, your left back. Lancaster, your right wing. Balata again a six. Thornton, the other striker. All in double figures. Misimo, not to be seen. So a deeper dive into the fact that she's missing from all these stats, all these drivers, all these things that should make the team go. So again, I don't know, 100 that it's her fault might be this injury recovery. It might be that the tactics just don't work for her. Perhaps it might be that for some reason maybe her teammates hate her. I mean, who knows what it is? But there's definitely a complete disconnect in terms of her exceptional ability because don't kid yourself, she's exceptional. She's in the U23 features team, which is where the national team develops our talent. You can watch clips of her play and at moments she just destroys people. But it's not helping them win, it's not helping them score goals. And I don't know enough about their internal tactics, deep diving. I mean, I can sit in the stands and watch and tell you what I see, but I don't know how she's not impacting the game. Dan, did you want to get in on that? [00:47:32] Speaker B: No, I think, you know, she's obviously played under all three coaches. All three coaches have tried to make her a central part of the team and just for one reason or another, hasn't really happened. Obviously they did heavily change the style, style around her presence with Pauline McDonald, you know, when, when Lexi got injured and Cameron Lancaster came in, you know, you, you saw an improvement. Even with Cameron kind of playing out a position in, in that role, you know, it obviously no one's saying that she's a bad player like you say, for sure U.S. national team recognition. And that's after coming back from the, you know, for people that don't know, when she was in the under 20s, she took a, a mental health break from the national team selection pool, which, you know, if you've seen their headlines with Ben White with England, that is extremely difficult to come back from. So she's earned that place back in, in selection in Nepal. Before signing for, for Trinity, you know, Man City were poking around a lot of larger teams in Europe at the very least. So there is obviously, you know, a very good prospect, a very good player there. It's just, you know, in what is really a second tier league. Why. Why is it not coming together? [00:49:18] Speaker C: Well, ultimately, I think the issue for her, and this is hard because, you know, she's young and this isn't her fault, is they're paying her an absorbing amount of money. [00:49:30] Speaker B: You know, it's a pressure that nobody needs. [00:49:31] Speaker C: Yeah. And I, and I, and, and I've heard a number of what they're paying her and it's an astonishing amount of money for USL sl. And you know, it's, it'll be interesting to see how much longer this goes on because the, the fate of the team, I mean unless the Neil family just has decided that this is worth, you know, that the expense. But I can't imagine how they can if they're not getting any production out of her. And they, and you got to put, you got to add on top of that all the time they paid her and she didn't play at all because she was hurt. So it feels weird kind of poking at somebody that's young and, and all of this stuff. And we all, you know, and I know people who know her personally and things like that and I. It's very sensitive and very odd. But if we're going to be fair and do this the right way, we have to have this conversation because if it was anybody else on the men's team or any of the other club teams, we'd all be having this conversation. Conversation that the highest paid player by a factor is just not producing. [00:50:37] Speaker A: And what. I don't think we're taking shots at her per se. We're questioning that. Like we're just pointing out that the, the salary and the lack of production and the level of talent are not aligning. Like this is a talented player. It's unquestionable. She's talented. So like we're just asking questions about what is going on. Why is it not working? Because it clearly isn't working, Dan. [00:50:58] Speaker B: No, absolutely. I think, you know, you can almost different situation obviously, but you can draw comparisons to Paxton Palmer Cult. We've, we had those same conversations about the, the value that comes back from a situation. And there's no great secret, we absolutely love Paxton to death. Very sad day when the buyout happened. But to objectively cover these soccer teams, that's. Are they getting the value? What's. What's best for the team? [00:51:33] Speaker C: Yeah, okay. I mean Trinity plays, as I said, Tampa Bay tomorrow You can check that out. It'll be on Peacock and I'm assuming it'll also be either on KFAA or wfaa plus one of the two. So you can check it out there. [00:51:49] Speaker A: Yeah, great deal that one. I love that. [00:51:51] Speaker C: Yeah, that is a good deal. Athletico Dallas, by the way, we. They're not doing, they haven't anything going on, but we were talking about Dallas cup earlier. This is the first year that I can think of that Athletico Dallas has teams playing in the Dallas Cup. I don't know what age groups or anything like that or how they're faring or whatever. But good to know that they're also participating in the crown jewel of Dallas. [00:52:14] Speaker A: Well, the, the club they merged with, Renegades, the pre solid club. So they have teams all over the level. You know, it's not FCLS Academy good, but you know, that's not what they were shooting for. This is the equivalent of their youth of SC Dallas youth, you know, in that sense. Ethical. Did announce the other day they're going to make an academy. But one of the things I think is kind of fun that's been reported to me is that the Athletico kids that are now wearing all the athletic gear, they have the Renegades patch, the name of their former club on their sleeve. So like the badge of that club on their sleeve. So they're showing a little respect to the, the history of the club they all were in. You know, they got their name changed. So I actually, I actually think that's cool that they're not just scorched earth just burning everything to the ground. They're actually showing some respect for the. What came before. [00:52:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:52:57] Speaker B: And it's, I mean obviously Renegades was, was a decent sized club. You know, it wasn't, it wasn't solar, it wasn't FC Dallas Academy, but it was, you know, they've obviously got enough to put out tens, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17s, 18s, 19s in boys and girls. [00:53:21] Speaker C: Whoa. Okay. [00:53:22] Speaker A: So plenty. [00:53:22] Speaker C: I didn't know they had gotten up to 18s and 19s yet, but good for them. [00:53:26] Speaker B: Yeah, they've. They've got I guess ecnlr RL teams that they're, they're putting out. [00:53:32] Speaker A: They made a really deep run I think at like 13s or 14s a couple years ago and Renegades. Yeah, every Dallas coach poached a couple of their players unsurprisingly. So that gets really good. We'll take him. [00:53:45] Speaker C: And that's how you make friends and influence people. All right, last but not least, clown. Since we last talked, the brand has been revealed. All of the stuff. No clowns in their logo, you know, Pegasus, clown, burn. [00:54:02] Speaker A: We got. [00:54:03] Speaker C: They got nicknames Snake and Wolf. It's just my bit. I don't. I don't know having a better one to come up with Clowns. My favorite one. So. And so that's what I'm sticking with. [00:54:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:15] Speaker C: Until somebody tells me everybody hates it. That never stopped me with Hunts. That. That didn't stop me with Huntsman. So there you go. All right. So Dan went to said party in the reveal. Dan, you are up for your book review report, sir. [00:54:33] Speaker B: It was surprisingly cold. They had a really cool venue, actually. The silos at Salina. Really? Oh, how do I even put it? Very, very, very Western. A lot of hats, a lot of boots. [00:54:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:48] Speaker C: Called Rodeo Dan. [00:54:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, they are. They are. No, it was. It was. I mean, they got Salina, right? It's. It's not. How do I even say? It's not like out there country. It's very metropolitan, Western. They are definitely that aesthetic in terms of the. The branding, in terms of the presentation. Everything that we saw, lots of. Lots of schmoozing, lots of community buy in. This is. This is going to sound way worse than it is. Um, but they are playing every trip, every cheap trick to the point where there's an orange splodge in the logo. Bobcat orange. Salina High School. You know, they are going for every small. How can we get this community to feel that we belong and that they belong in us? And, you know, it's very interesting to see the contrast from the approach that they took with Texoma. I think the Texoma brand was fantastic. It was made by. The brand itself, was developed by. I can't remember the fellow's name. Christopher something. He's a pretty prominent English designer for, like, for soccer brands. Instead, they went with a local chap. I think he's based out of Frisco. They said Salina, but he's from Salon originally. [00:56:21] Speaker A: He doesn't live there now. [00:56:22] Speaker B: Okay, okay. Yeah, they were definitely hitting on a lot of the. Yeah, you know, this is from. That's from Salina. The same people that said the same things about Texoma, you know, a little over a year ago. But, yeah, you've. You've kind of got a hit on that and say, hey, you know, with these people, there's. [00:56:43] Speaker A: This is. [00:56:43] Speaker B: We're part of your community. So it was. Yeah, it's interesting to see the. The contrast in. In how they're approaching. It's very non traditional soccer. It's very, you know that, that western theme as opposed to Texaima, which was very much. It's a soccer club and it just happens to be here with, with elements of the local area. [00:57:12] Speaker C: I. So what is. I'll start with Dan. What is your take and reaction to the logo and the branding and everything? [00:57:21] Speaker B: I actually really like the logo. Funny enough. It's. [00:57:24] Speaker C: It's a belt buckle, right? Is that. Is the shield kind of a weak. Okay. Classic cowboy belt buckle shape. [00:57:32] Speaker B: I think it treads the. So obviously something I've said before is the premise of a football badge is something that a kid can draw or someone can have tattooed. It's, you know, that's, that's your level of simplicity. Doesn't have to be like a one to one example. But you know, what makes FC Dallas work is anyone can draw that ball. What makes Man United work. Anyone can draw the Red Devil. I think they're kind of treading the line. There is a lot of detail in there, but as a shape you, you could totally do that. You could picture it very easily. [00:58:10] Speaker C: We should probably describe the logo. [00:58:12] Speaker B: We should. We should. Let me actually pull up then. [00:58:16] Speaker A: Well, it's. It's the shape of a belt buckle, but it's vertical instead of sideways. It's got our, you know, the western rope that Peter's predicting. You know, the trim around it. [00:58:25] Speaker C: It wasn't the font. Now they did. Now they did use the rope for, for a font for a third look for a word mark only. [00:58:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that looks really cool. [00:58:33] Speaker C: Okay. [00:58:33] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really good. You know, got a guy riding a bull in the middle. Just like a rodeo with it. With the rsc, you know, brand on it. [00:58:41] Speaker C: A bucking bull, by the way. [00:58:43] Speaker A: Bucking bowl. Yeah, you know, with, with the font they've been using the rodeo soccer club. It doesn't have the rope around the outside. Says Salina on there. Like after we talked about Athletic Dallas. Didn't say Athletic Dallas on the logo. Well, here's the. They got Salana right there on the logo for you. The Texas star above. Like even the shading. Like I'm really glad they kept the tans and the browns. That's great. But then the shading inside the thing is flavor of. It's like a. It's like a Texas flag turn vertically so that there's the. Oh, not. It's not blue, it's brown, but it's like the blue with stars at the top. And the two halves are there the one weird thing, as Dan mentioned, is a splotch of orange on the badge. To just bring in orange. I think it's an orange ball because there's lots of clips of bulls playing with these big orange balls. [00:59:25] Speaker B: It is, it's just funny because it's a very detailed One element is very detailed. The bull, the rider with the, you know, the tiny brand. And you can see the individual hairs and the tail and all this. And then rather than like a ball with any kind of shape, you know, [00:59:40] Speaker C: like the sun, you can't see panels, [00:59:42] Speaker B: you can't see anything. It's just a orange circle. [00:59:45] Speaker C: You know. I gotta say though, Dan, I, I was thinking the exact same thing. Like, why didn't they detail it out like a. A stereotypical orange polka dot soccer ball? But then I thought about it for a second and I, and. And there's a part of me that kind of. The more I look at it, the more I think it's an interesting idea that they just do this orange circle because it could be anything. It could be the ball that the bulls play with in the rodeo. It could be a soccer ball, it could be the sun. You know, sunsets in Salina is probably a big deal, but the fact that it's the. It's the high school or the school district's traditional orange. And for those who don't know, who are listening from out of town, Salina is 100% a high school football community. They have won nine state championships. They are one of the most dominant high school football programs in the state. Their girls soccer team has won state many times. They are a athletic community that has grown tremendously with the growth of the Dallas Fort Worth up north in the last 20 years. So I, I was with you when you initially said it, but the more that I see the logo and it is so different from the rest of it, I think it's kind of a cool element to put something so simple in the logo like that. [01:01:05] Speaker B: I just need. When the jerseys come out with the tans and browns, it needs to be the Caribou's of Colorado all over again. [01:01:15] Speaker C: You want the fringe and everything? [01:01:17] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. [01:01:19] Speaker C: Well, that is my favorite part, is that they stuck with browns like we. I've wanted a team to do brown for so long and the fact that it's a local team that's doing it, I'm curious to know if they go like a light brown for away, dark brown for home, or vice versa, or if brown's the primary and then there's something Completely different for the secondary. [01:01:44] Speaker B: This is. This kind of gets into the thing that McKinney Chupacabras have. Your colors that you've picked are not colors that a main manufacturer run. So with McKinney, they're. They're having to run a kit this year that's like a different green. It's not like they're kind of blue, teal. The only way around that is you get with someone like a Hummel who. Who can do like a sublimated print, and maybe you. You have, you know, unlimited color options. That comes with a cost, though. Now, they did partner with Hummel. They did have a fully sublimated jersey for Texoma with the. The whole Textoma map, which was, you know, a great feature to have. But I think when you look at the future, you know, maybe something changes and they end up being like a catalog customer of Adidas. Well, Adidas didn't do the burn green by the time FC Dallas did the Burn Baby Burn jersey. So they had that, like, awkward gold color that they had to deal with. You know, you've got. You might have those sort of things to contend with with the brand. [01:03:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:08] Speaker A: For those that haven't seen it, the brown and the orange are. It's Cleveland Brown's colors, you know, with. [01:03:13] Speaker C: Oh, that's. That's a great point. It is Cleveland brown colors. [01:03:17] Speaker A: So it's a palette that we know [01:03:18] Speaker C: works, but the orange is just the ball. There's no other orange in there. And to me, if they wanted to do something cool, their third kit could be orange because of Salina, like, that would be a really smart thing for them to do. [01:03:30] Speaker B: They. They had a good number of balloons in. In that orange that made it seem like it's more than just probably not [01:03:37] Speaker C: a lot of brown. Balloon manufacturers. [01:03:40] Speaker B: Oh, no. They had, like, custom printed balloons. Like, it was pretty cool. [01:03:42] Speaker A: I mean, if your main palette is like tan and sand and brown, like the orange again, the sunset Peter will. Can be used as all kinds of accents and pops and flares, and you could do tons of fun stuff. [01:03:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:55] Speaker A: And it. Change up your stuff all the time by the Using orange and strategic ways. It's a really good, well done design. [01:04:00] Speaker C: Yeah. Here's the other comment. So they also released a hype video. And the hype video is really well done. I thought it was weirdly almost identical to the original Atletico Dallas hype video where it's, you know, it looks. I guess they. Instead of it being a gravel pit, this time, it's a rodeo. What is that Corral thank you. [01:04:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:24] Speaker C: And so it's a kid playing soccer in the dirt by himself and then cowboys and bulls and all that stuff. It's very serious. And, and I, my concern is, is when you call yourself rodeo, I just haven't. My expectation of how you are self effacing and how you treat your brand is a little bit. Not snarkier. What's the right word? Just a little bit more self humored, if that makes any sense. And that. And the video came across to me as way too serious for something that calls itself rodeo. Yeah. Self deprecating in on the joke, kind of getting it kind of thing, you know what I'm saying? It just came across as like very, very serious. [01:05:11] Speaker A: I assume they use the same people because it was so similar to the athletic one. [01:05:15] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. What'd you think about that part, Dan? [01:05:20] Speaker B: Honestly, I was talking to a few people during that video. [01:05:24] Speaker A: So. [01:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's kind of hard because they. [01:05:26] Speaker A: Looking for a beer? [01:05:27] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I had one. No, actually I, I bumped into a good friend, Andrew that used to manage Soccer 90 and was kind of having a chat at the time. [01:05:38] Speaker A: Yeah, [01:05:40] Speaker B: no, I think I always find those sort of brand videos tough. And I say that as somebody who's made those. They're there to tell a story, but they never really do at that point. You just kind of want to see the logo itself. You want to see people's reaction, see it in different formats that can show you things. Like when we went to the Athletico Dallas 1 and you know, you got to see the LEGO imprint, you got to see it on a screen, you got to see it printed on flags and stuff. And it was kind of like you got to see the movement of it all. Watching, watching a video of some guys in protective gear in Rodeo covered in crosses didn't really do a whole lot for me. [01:06:29] Speaker C: Yeah, but you're, but I don't know if you're the audience, man. [01:06:33] Speaker B: I'm not. [01:06:33] Speaker C: They're looking for Salina residents and that is, I, I don't know how much roadie. [01:06:40] Speaker B: Well, anyway, I, I think the one, the one thing different between the athletic Codalis one and the Salina one was the Salina one. They knew exactly who they were targeting. There was no doubt about that. There was, you know, whatever number of residents in Salina, that's their audience. That's. That's what they're shooting for. And they're. Again, that's why, why I said they kind of went through the, they kind of resort to the Cheap tricks, The good stuff, the stuff that you really want to build an audience by telling them, hey, look, we're. We're a core part of your community. You need to be a part of ours. [01:07:14] Speaker A: Okay? [01:07:15] Speaker C: I like it. Overall, I'm. You know, when I first heard Rodeo, I rolled my eyes and I thought, this is silly. And the time has gone by. I bought into it. I think it's great, especially now that I know it's brown. But the graphic design lesson that I'm taking from this is interesting because I criticized the Atletico Dallas branding originally because they didn't have all of the elements when you're trying to establish a brand identity, which is the name of what you are and where you're related to, and Atletico Dallas did none of that. But here we are a year or so after that launch, and I have to admit, Wolf and Snake, I think, looks great. I know what it is. I know who it is. I don't know what percentage of people in Dallas know what it means, but after this amount of time, the fact that it doesn't say the word Dallas or Atletico Dallas or anything like that doesn't bother me as much. This has the city it's going to be based in. It's got the name of the club, it's got the visual identity of the bunk bucking bull and all of that. It's. I'll be interested to know where I'm at on it a year from now, because it's more of that stereotypical kind of brand identity, setting design. You know what I mean, Dan? [01:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah. I think Atletico is kind of like Dallas. Trinity has the same thing. It's a really cool fashion brand. Then you have to find the context to let you know it's a soccer brand club. This is a community soccer club. [01:08:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:08:48] Speaker B: Some of the merch they put out, they had. They had. They had an insane amount of merch, by the way, which actually Buzz has just put some of it in a group text. But they had. And again, cheap tricks. They had a whole stand that was branding hats and they knew their audience. Right. It was branding with the team's logos. It was branding with crosses, hearts, the state of Texas initials, you know, all the. If you go into a western store, the stuff that you're going to see, the staff kind of just rocking on their hats because it's like the, you know, the basic examples of. Of customization. They knew what their audience was and they kind of rolled out all the things for that. [01:09:35] Speaker C: Okay, well, congratulations to them. Good luck. When does that. They Kick off next season, Buzz. [01:09:42] Speaker A: Yes. [01:09:43] Speaker C: So they're kicking off in USL 1 the same year Atletico is kicking off in USL Championship. [01:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Texoma, you know, dropped down and they're continuing right away in USL 2. Rodeo wanted a year to sort of get all their ducks in a row. So they're kicking off next season in the USL1. [01:09:58] Speaker C: Okay. [01:09:59] Speaker A: Yeah. By the way, just to remind everybody, that's the same level Texas North Texas SC is the third division in the United States. So that. That will be one. When Athletical Dallas starts, that'll be one level below them and then it'll be two levels on. On paper when Athletico moves up to USL Premier, which is new, not quite [01:10:16] Speaker C: formed up yet, but somebody asked me this question the other day about the likelihood of the Burn getting players that we feel like, or they feel like are too good for MLS next pro, but not getting a lot of time with the senior team. [01:10:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:38] Speaker C: Loaned out to Atletico. [01:10:40] Speaker A: That's really possible. [01:10:42] Speaker C: Do you. Well, I'm curious, what do you think about the relationship? Do you think that's. [01:10:45] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Well, Brian Corcoran, who runs Athletico's soccer program, and Peter Luke Song are both on good relationship terms with FC Dallas's technical people. You know, Peter was their interim coach and while he didn't get the head job, it's not like they fired him. You know, his. Peter's kids to his sons both play for FC Dallas still. [01:11:07] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:08] Speaker A: You know, there's no. As far as I know, I've not heard of any bad blood and the people I've talked to on both ends have told me that everything's fine. [01:11:17] Speaker C: So that would be a really interesting new addition to the region is if. You know, I'm trying to think. I'm just going to pick out a name if Nolan Norris wouldn't be the right one. Diego Garcia suddenly started playing in championship because he's too good for. I don't know if that's the right one. Buzz, you could probably pick a better one out than me. That would be interesting to me. [01:11:40] Speaker A: Well, you know, remember because Brian and Peter both know this market. [01:11:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:11:46] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, their sons went through the academy. They're going to know some talent there. They're going to want a cherry pick that, you know, is not destined for FC Dallas and certainly initially when. When Alico comes in as a USL championship. Clearly that's a possibility. You know, maybe even for Seattle's first team players like you mentioned, Diego Garcia is a great example. Rather than going down like Alvaro Augusto, perhaps, who's goes down to North Texas and looks like crap because he doesn't want to be there. There's lots of possibilities now with Athletico not to speak for them in any capacity at all, but let's say they go up to a USL Premier level and now they're trying to be Division 1. Maybe then if they that you would think you would hope that level would be higher than the championship. Probably out of the gate. I doubt it's gonna be the same as Major League Soccer. Could there still be some possibility? Man, who knows how that's going to play out. Maybe there's a. It goes up even more so like. But this market can really use and FC Dallas for sure could really use a step between MLS next pro and the first team. If Athletico could provide some of that in year one or year two if they're still in the championship or even in year three if Premier comes around. Whenever it's going to come around. We don't know as a possibility the way USL Super League teams take and the USL players on loan because clearly right now, even though they're both Division one, they are not equivalent in terms of talent and money. You know, USL Champ, USL Premier is not going to be the same amount of talent and money as MLS are out of the gate. [01:13:07] Speaker B: No. [01:13:07] Speaker C: So it won't be probably for a long time. [01:13:10] Speaker A: And. And maybe even those teams that are relatively new might not be even as good as USL Championship teams the first year as they're trying to put their clubs together with players when the best players are all gonna be under contract. You know, those teams are going to form from scratch. I mean, Athletico is going to have a year ahead. They're going to have guys they're going to have signed that they're going to carry over. But like the teams are going to be new. Could be bad. You know, we'll see how that all comes together. [01:13:32] Speaker C: Okay. [01:13:32] Speaker A: It'll be fun to watch. I mean, hopefully they maintain. The only way I can think I feel like it goes south is if Athletico as an organization starts taking shots at FC Dallas. I don't think that they'll do that because we've talked before and this is just me saying this. The Hunts have billions. The guys that owns Atletico, they're awesome dudes. They do not have billions. Like, they cannot go head to head with the Hunts in a money shootout in terms of like if they piss them off, you know what I mean? So it would be better for everybody if they aim. Keep an amicable. Amicable relationship, particularly because they're in different leagues. You know, Athletico is going to have their hypothetical guns rivalries blazing at Fort Worth, not FC Dallas. You know what I mean? So that's. I think there's an opportunity for it should go both ways. And that's probably true of Fort Worth, too. They could also look to FC Dallas, possibly for town. You know, there's no reason why it couldn't be both. [01:14:22] Speaker C: Okay, Good stuff. Think we captured it well today. [01:14:28] Speaker A: By the way, looking at this rodeo merch site, their price point is much, much better than some of the other teams around here. They are speaking to me, my man. I'm about to go buy some merch. [01:14:40] Speaker C: Okay. [01:14:41] Speaker B: You mean you don't want a 200 Dallas trip? Yeah. [01:14:44] Speaker A: A hoodie does not need to be $120. These are much more in line with my pocketbook. [01:14:52] Speaker C: Excellent. All right. Well, Dan, welcome back. Thanks for returning, sir. It's good to speak with you. [01:14:57] Speaker B: Likewise. Always fun to talk. Some design stuff, too. [01:15:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Good times and buzz. [01:15:04] Speaker A: Yeah, brother. [01:15:05] Speaker C: Good talking to you. [01:15:06] Speaker A: Thanks, man. [01:15:08] Speaker C: How was. Oh, how's dirt track? Wow. [01:15:14] Speaker A: Goodness. [01:15:16] Speaker C: What? [01:15:17] Speaker A: It is a different world than the one I live in and I'm used to, but it was enjoyable. [01:15:22] Speaker C: You know, I don't understand their world, but I know they're part of mine. [01:15:28] Speaker A: It's a different, you know, everyone. Everyone was super friendly. Like, I. I went around, like, I had a little downtime here and there, and I talked to some people, like I was out eating my hot dog or whatever on my lunch break, and there were people around and chatting with them. They were all really nice, really friendly, and they all loved us because their sports going on. The thing we're doing is on FS1, so they're all crazy hyped about that. You know, I met that guy that owned the track. He couldn't have been nicer and more happy we were there. [01:15:52] Speaker C: So when does it air? [01:15:54] Speaker A: Tuesday. The series I'm doing is mostly Tuesday night. It's like a midweek series on FS1. This circuit has, you know, I don't know, 50 races over the course of the year, and six of them are on FS1. It's mostly like one a month on Tuesday or one or two of them on Wednesday maybe. So you'll be able to find it. If anyone cares. It's called high limit racing. You can watch my work. [01:16:17] Speaker C: So did you get the itch? [01:16:18] Speaker A: What's the itch? [01:16:19] Speaker C: Rubbing is racing. Did you get the. Oh, that's. Did you get the racing itch? [01:16:23] Speaker A: I did when I worked NASCAR for seven years. But the this kind of racing rubbing is not really racing because these cars are dirt track cars. They look more like open wheels. So, like, if they bang into each other, cars go flying. And one car did like seven or eight flips. Head over heels was crazy. So, all right, they don't usually rang into each other. This is not a rubbing or racing. This is dirt, mud flying. [01:16:45] Speaker B: So rubbing leads to banging. [01:16:47] Speaker A: Yep, yep. [01:16:49] Speaker C: That's just a. That's just a rule of life. [01:16:51] Speaker A: Third Degree, the podcast is brought to you by our wonderful supporters. Just like you, those that choose to help us [email protected] thirddegree if you're curious about FC Dallas, Dallas Trinity, I, Dallas Rodeo SC, all the teams that are coming to Dallas playing professional soccer, we got you covered. Why not throw us some support? It is greatly appreciated. Hope you enjoyed the show. Yeah, these cars have a lot of horsepower and they. And they're not very heavy. They fit, fly around the short track, and dirt goes everywhere. [01:17:20] Speaker C: Well, I'm glad you made it home safely. [01:17:22] Speaker A: Thanks, man. [01:17:23] Speaker C: Yeah. All right. Very good. Thanks, guys. I appreciate it and thank you. DFW Soccer. Curious. Go get yourself a curious shirt over on Buzz's store and we will talk to you next week on another episode of 3rd Degree, the podcast be still [01:17:38] Speaker A: going to the radio. [01:17:39] Speaker B: 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree podcast. [01:17:44] Speaker C: Degree the 3rd Degree 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree [01:17:51] Speaker A: 3rd degree the 3rd Degree never. [01:18:10] Speaker C: Sa.
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