3rd Degree the Podcast #358

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Third Degree the Third Degree NEP Podcast 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 B: the podcast is brought to you by our wonderful supporters. Just like you, those that choose to help us out@our patreon.com 3rd degree if you're curious about FC Dallas, Dallas Trinity, I think 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 A: Well, hello there, DFW Soccer. Curious. Welcome to another episode. This one is numbered. We haven't done that in a while. By the way. 3:50 of third degree the podcast High Peter, Once again we are without Dan, who apparently is out celebrating still several days after the fact Luton Town's massive EFL trophy win over Stockport county at Wembley. So we may not see Dan for a while. But that does mean you still have your hero, my hero, everybody's hero, editor, founder of third degree.net and the original soccer influencing badass himself, Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:30] Speaker B: Peter, after last week's so awesome Dallas Fort Worth soccer is the best soccer in the world. Triple blowout, awesome win podcast. Yeah, this is not that. This did not go. [00:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm gonna be honest here. So I did not watch the game in real time. I was at a dinner and when I got home, I popped on my social media, as I occasionally do, and there I saw Buzz Carrick's instant reaction video. And it was from that video that I made the personal choice to not watch the entire game. But I did bring myself to watch the Apple TV condensed highlights package, which was so lame that I think the first highlight happened 16 minutes into the game. [00:02:24] Speaker B: I think I'm surprised the first highlight wasn't 60 minutes into the game. [00:02:29] Speaker A: I think they feel compelled to put at least something. It's kind of like that net cam replay where they had to do the replay of the ball that just dropped into the box because that was the only goal cam action a couple of [00:02:41] Speaker B: weeks ago we talked about. [00:02:43] Speaker A: So yeah, Buzz, sorry, Dan's not here. I didn't watch the entire game. You're going to have to do the heavy lifting, but man, that look like a snoozy snooze. [00:02:53] Speaker B: Well, it was definitely a very flat performance by FC Dallas. Quill even, you know, immediately talked about it. Like all the player quotes are talking about how they felt like it wasn't in their character. And they're usually known for coming out ready and all that stuff. You know, some people that we. That are in our discord or various other places actually talked about this game as a trap game because St. Louis's record wasn't so great and Dallas had played really well. And they were probably. Then you look ahead to, like, some tougher stretches coming up, and sure enough, okay, all right. Now, is it a trap game or not? I mean, I don't know. It sure look like it because Dallas stunk the bed. [00:03:27] Speaker A: Here's the thing. I. You know, trap games are an interesting concept for really good teams, but if. If that actually qualifies in anybody's definition as a trap game, I would say maybe Dallas shouldn't be open to the idea of allowing a trap game, because I don't think they're that good. They're better than I thought they were going to be, but I still don't think they're very good. [00:03:54] Speaker B: A trap game can occur when you think you're good. Right. So that's like, if you come off that DC performance and you're scoring four goals in a couple of games in a row and you. We had these. We had this talk about. Yeah, but they played a bunch of good teams, too, and they were keeping a really low, you know, XG allowed against and that kind of stuff. People were starting to feel really good. We talked about how excited we were about Moreno. Like, all the vibes were there. [00:04:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I get it. I just. I still don't know if I would have ever thought at this point of the season they qualified for a potential trap game. [00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that's fair. They don't really. But it sure felt like that kind of thing where they walked in thinking they were gonna the cat's meow and instead puked on the carpet. [00:04:38] Speaker A: Yeah, here's the thing. I was thinking about this because I, you know, everybody's gonna have a flat game and all of that. [00:04:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:04:45] Speaker A: And I'm just gonna say this out loud and I'm gonna. I'm gonna throw out this caveat to begin with because I realize I'm about to throw out a hypothesis that may drive some people nuts. But I'm gonna do it anyway because my 1. As I said, I only watched the highlights of the deal, and I've been to, I think, three home games this season, and you third game now where they have farted away points at a point where we all said at the beginning of the season, because of the way the schedule is structured, man, they got to collect all the points they can at home. And I Think if I'm doing my math right, they've collected from the last few home games a total of 3 points out of a possible 12 with the draws that they've collected at home. And I think. And I. And I'm just wondering out loud because upon watching on TV and being in the stadium, the vibe in that place is so dead. And just walking in, you remember I was. What was the player that used to talk about how they hated playing in Dallas because there was just zero atmosphere even when the place was relatively, you know, more than half full now said that. [00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:06:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm just, you know, my personal experience this season is, is that even when the team is playing fairly well and despite, you know, with the way it's set up, the. The atmosphere in that stadium is just brutal. And I'm beginning to wonder if maybe that's not being reflected a bit in the team's performances at home. [00:06:26] Speaker B: I think that was Walker's number man, specifically, is the incident you're referring to. Yeah, atmosphere. Look, I mean, the, the. The section of the stadium that's the supporters that are doing the banging and the drumming and all that stuff is pretty small compared to some other places. You know, the stage is on the. On the north end is not. Is completely empty, you know, for the. Other than some, you know, paraphernalia or whatever, hanging banners and such, you know, it's not. As a bowl, it should contain noise, but there's no roof, so there's nothing to hold the sound in. Hopefully the new roof will help with that some. I mean, it's. It's not a solid roof, so it may not. But, I mean, it may not as much as it would if it was solid, but at least it's going to help a little bit, I suppose. But in a way, this is a byproduct of the audience that S.E. dallas caters to, which is this Frisco suburban family and not the downtown urban core, hardcore young people. So that kind of is what it is. But I think you're probably right in the sense that we're in the grand macro scheme of things, it is harder for them to play and produce at home than. There's a reason why for the last, I don't know, 10 years, they've actually been fairly decent on the road relative to home, because they do pretty well on the road and they just. Not as good as at home, but still pretty close, particularly Quills teams. Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything you can do about it, and it's that way all the time. So it's like you can't, I don't think you can point to this one game and go, oh, this game was particularly bad because of it, because it's, it affects all the home games. But in this, in this particular case, it wasn't, it wasn't that the team just didn't really play very well. It was almost that there was a bit of a lethargy about the team, a bit of a little flatness, particularly in the offensive end. Now you could just say St. Louis played really well. Their defense was terrific. They had a couple players do fantastic job on particularly Farrington and Delgado. And it was until they brought on some subs, they brought on Santiago Moreno and Joaquin Valiante specifically. That livened it up a bit and the team played a little better. Now that all happened after it was already one to one, you know, deeds and salvage a bit. So like when I say that it got better when those subs came in, mainly that's looking at the metrics and looking at the stats and stuff that it look. And look at using the eye test, which is the most important thing. It looked better once they did all that, but they didn't turn it into points, they didn't turn it into goals. You know, just in general. The thing that we're going to said most of all was this problem we talk about all the time, which is shot percentage, right? This like, yes, they were a little low on shots for a home game. We want to see more like 15 and they had like 10. But the problem is the shots on target ratio. This is the number one thing for this team. Shots on target needs to be about 50 and it wasn't. They had, I think it was 2 out of 10. So that's not, that's not good enough. It's like, yes, you put, you put yourself in good opportunities. Your XG was fine. It was 1.16 something. So like on the, on the way to getting your two goals potentially. But the goal doesn't come because the shots on target ratio is poor. If you don't, if you don't put the shot on the frame, you cannot score. So it's like the end of the day. That's the problem. It's pretty simple. [00:09:33] Speaker A: Hold on a second. Hold on. Wait, I need to write that one down. [00:09:35] Speaker B: Yeah, write that one down. Right. If the ball is outside the frame, it's not gonna go in. [00:09:42] Speaker A: That may be the secret I've been missing all these years in my Sunday beer league. [00:09:46] Speaker B: I mean, we Joke about it. Like fcd. Right, Right. The way they play right now, they're not trying to out soccer you. They're trying to outscore you. And that includes playing good defense and scoring goals and the stuff in between. They almost don't care. Well, if you're going to play that way, when you get these shots, you need to put them on target. If you don't put, you know, you can't. They're not going to play the ball or they're not. They're not. Nico, they're not. Lucci's not here. We're not going to pass the ball around and create endless, endless opportunities and get. When. When Maxi Reedy was here, get 30 shots and only two of them will go on net. And those two would go in. You know, it's not like that anymore. [00:10:16] Speaker A: It's like, yeah, I'm just, you know, in the highlight. And again, I didn't watch the whole game, so if maybe the highlight package didn't represent this fairly, but, man, it looked like. I mean, my, my perception is St. Louis is really poor, is not a very good team, and their place in the standings, I think, reflects that. But, man, they really push Dallas around. And I was. And I'm curious as to what you thought about Quill's decision in his starting 11, because I was a bit surprised at who he selected. Like, I realized Bernie's hurt, but what happened to Johansson, what's going, I guess, you know, is Cap is just completely lost it. And you know, what. What do you think's going on with the, with the lineup? [00:10:59] Speaker B: Well, the Dietzen, I think Lucius Dietzen, who played for Bernie, I think that was an attempt to explore the idea. [00:11:06] Speaker A: Explain why you bought the guy in the first place. [00:11:08] Speaker B: Well, no, the fact that, like, the way Bernie plays brings you a specific element on that side. Like he's. It's not his defense, it's the things he does on the offensive end that are positive coming out of the back spot. We've talked a lot about, you know, in this way that Quill plays, this verticality, this rapid attack, the outside wing backs need to be able to run the field right? And so I think the attempt to put Deetson out there was to get the same sort of value from that position. And that part worked like he scored. Right? So that's. He gave you what Bernie gave you. Now, the difference is, is that Bernie, he looked like Bernie looked when Bernie first tried this, like two years ago. You know, Bernie has gotten better at 1v1 defending, but it's still not very good at team defending. Well, decent. Doesn't even know how to 1v1 defense. So he was bad in both ways. [00:11:54] Speaker A: He makes Bernie look like Mauricio out there. [00:11:56] Speaker B: Right. [00:11:57] Speaker A: Like, he's just terrible at that. [00:11:58] Speaker B: Yeah, but it's the, you know, it's day one of this idea. Not two years later. Like two years from now, he'll probably look, if, if he has to play it all the time, he'll look more like what Bernie does now. It's still not great defensively with Bernie, it's just okay. But the, the, they both bring an offensive value. You know, we, we talked a couple pods ago about how surprised Bernie's were way up there in terms of like chance creation and XG and all this danger he's creating. Right. So that was what they were doing. Like, if you just put Shaq Moore over there or Johansson over there, Shaq Moore, you're not going to get hardly any offense. He's not very good at offense at all anymore. And Johansson plays much better. They've tried it. He plays much better on the right than the left. He's not used to playing over there on the left side. So it's an attempt against perhaps what you consider not that great team to try it out and see if a decent thing is working. Like, can I just put him in for Bernie and, and sort of hold court that way. And I don't, I don't. I'm with you. I don't think it works. But, you know, that doesn't mean he won't be stuck doing it again because I think Johansson's fine. I think, you know, he got a little worn out. You know, they. But he played in this game, you know, came in and he looked like he always looks. So it's not. [00:13:05] Speaker A: So. Help me, help me understand. If, if you feel like you're playing a team where you can try things out, why throw on that midfield setup that you threw on there? Why Delgado? Why not Moreno yet? Why not Valiente? Does he not trust those guys yet, you think? [00:13:25] Speaker B: Who? Well, Moreno, I think, you know, he's building up the minutes since he got here the first game, he got, you know, five. In this game, he got, I don't know what it was, 15 maybe, something like that. He's obviously pushing him towards. He came in at the 67th minute, so, you know, close to something like 25 or 30, depending how extra time there was. I didn't, I didn't look that number up, you know, so obviously he's not ready to start Marino yet, but Valiente, I'm curious about. I. I think there's a certain something. Something to be said for, you know, they've brought in a couple of tens and they probably want to feel like Delgado should get a real run. And he is a big, physical dude, right? You know, he is a strong body. [00:14:03] Speaker A: He's Mr. Bojangles. [00:14:05] Speaker B: Yeah, he's Mr. Bojangles. So I, you know, at the end of the day, like, I think now, you know, before Delgado gets, you know, sent off to the hinterlands, they sort of wanted to probably give him a fair shot, is my to thinking, because you have to manage your locker room too. You can't have guys just utterly quit. So you have to give people opportunities, you know, and if you, if you have a game or two where you feel like, here's a chance, I could play Delgado, you play him. He did him for a couple of games. He had that amazing goal the previous week. So, okay, that kind of goal gets you a second run. Now, I thought the first week against Washington, I thought he. Despite the really great performance by the whole team, he didn't do very well. But the whole team was great and he scored a goal. So, okay, like, you even asked me, would you change anything with the 400 win? I said yes. But coaches don't do that. Coaches stick with what was, you know, the guys that won, you know, so injuries aside, he stuck, kind of stuck with the guys that won. And even though Delgado didn't play very well, I mean, now Delgado play that crap again. So I don't think it'll continue. I think Delgado will go out this week, but, you know, and. And then the. Otherwise in the midfield, you know, Ramiro is the guy, you know, and Kaik's done pretty well lately because of the press that Quill likes to bring, sometimes the intensity, you know, so. And Cap is. I think Capis has been fighting a knock because there was a game, he went out really early and then he had to sit. He was questionable, and he got to play it like. So they were going to hold him out, but then he had to play and there was all this stuff. Like there was a game a couple, maybe three weeks ago where Swan got held out of North Texas because they thought they might need him because Cavus was maybe couldn't go. So, like, I'm thinking Cavis is probably fighting through something. I'm not heard anything official. He's not on the injury list. But, you know, there were. There were times in that game where he would look like his normal self. And then there were times where he didn't. So it's just. He. I just think he's being bothered by something. But, you know, it's. It's. This is the grind part of the season. We're starting to get into it. You know, we're starting to see the times where some minutes will pile up on a guy or international supply alpha guy. So you're gonna have to be able to move some pieces in and out. We got the load coming up where the team's gonna have to play Wednesday games a couple of times, you know, so it's okay to move pieces in and out. And quote, talks a lot about how he's got more starters than 11, so, you know, trying different pieces. [00:16:20] Speaker A: Interesting. Just to clarify what I was talking about, so they've played through the season seven games. Five of those have been at home. Only two road games. God, that is weird. And so far, of the potential 15 points, they've not lost any games at home. So they are undefeated, but they are 2, 2, 3, and, oh, so they've won two. The Toronto and Houston game, and they've drawn the Nashville game, the San Diego game, and the St. Louis game. So that is a total of nine points out of the 15. And, man, that's just not a track that I think they can. They can sustain leading up to the World cup break because, man, that is a brutal, brutal stretch coming up, you know, with all those road games, yeah, [00:17:06] Speaker B: you can tie yourself to death and knock yourself right out of it. But as you point out, they are undefeated at home, whereas, you know, they've [00:17:12] Speaker A: only lost one game all year. [00:17:13] Speaker B: Yeah, Vancouver and San Jose have both lost at home, for example, you know, and Dallas is, again, doing pretty good on the road. The 11 0, which shows you that they're pretty resilient, you know, pretty good team, that if you can be above 500 on the road, you're always doing pretty good, you know, or even near 500. So I think it's really early. I think the fact that they're, you know, we. We're talking about them stumbling, you know, it is a heavier home load than some teams. But not, for example, Vancouver, who's played six at home and one on the road, you know, or LAFC's had four at home and three on the road. So, like, it's not. They're not the only ones that have a little bit of an imbalance. But I think, you know, being seventh, being on 12 points is kind of where we thought they were going to be, you know, this is, this is who this team is. Is this sort of middle of the pack? And the question is, can you be towards the top of the middle of the pack? Are you gonna be at the bottom of the middle of the pack? And, and I think they're, if they hold up like I think they're going to. Their road number is more likely will keep them towards the middle top of the pack which is, you know, something like 5, 6, 7 in the Sandy. This is where they are. So I think that like yes, there's a loss of some points at home, but I think that also that's just who this team is. You know, they're just not, they. Last year they weren't great at home. This year they're a little bit better but not colossal at home. So. And as you say, Peter, maybe it's the crowd, maybe it's the, maybe it's not fun to play there. [00:18:32] Speaker A: I, well, it just, you know, in the, in the games that I've been to this season, mice I just. The. There's just no atmosphere whatsoever and I just never get the sense that the, the team is getting any sort of, you know, connection with the fans. Even when the games are going well. I just, it just feel, I mean I just think it. And it's not any, it's, it's. It' self inflicted. It's the Hunt's fault for choosing to go this route and why they chose to play in the stadium for three seasons and all that is. I'm sure there's tons of justifiable, reasonable business decisions that were made to get to that point. But I do think it's having an impact on the game, on the team and, and this is not just this season. Go back and think about how bad they were last season when this project started. This is a sustained thing that I think you can start really drawing lines in the sand, you know, as to when it started and how long it continues to go on moving forward. And I just, I just wonder how much of this is going to continue through the season because I just don't think anybody, the, the team is getting anything out of the fans from it and not for a lack of the fans trying. By the way, I'm not putting this on the fans. [00:19:43] Speaker B: I think this is one of those things where at this point, you know, it kind of is what it is. You're just gonna have to deal with it. I don't think there's a way to overcome this. You know, we're a year and A half into like this three year thing and you just kind of like, you know what? It's just gonna have to grind. It's like it's. It's a thing. Like it's hot here or somewhere else, it's cold. You know, it's just a thing you got to deal with. So I, you know, it's not ideal, but, you know, Quill knew what he was getting into when he signed up for this thing, you know, so the players. So, you know, at some point you just have to recognize what it is. It's like a bad referee. You can't do anything about it. You just recognize what it is and deal with it, you know. So it's the same sort of thing. [00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I mean, I don't even know if it's a thing. I'm just asking the question because it, you know, watching. Watching the highlights, it really. And listening to just how quiet it seemed in the stadium, even in exciting moments, it just made me wonder if maybe this is part of why they seem to perform worse at home than they do on the road. And, you know, I. [00:20:46] Speaker B: Well, I think a big part of that, Peter too, is that, you know, the mics are almost all on the near side and the, the sound from the fans is going away. And then there's tarps all over the stands on the other side. So it's not bouncing back, it's getting muted by those tarps. You know, I just think like part of it, I think is just the broadcast being what it is. [00:21:03] Speaker A: You know, maybe I just. From being in the stadium a few times this season, I, I would tell you that the TV is, is not misrepresenting what's happening in the stadium. [00:21:14] Speaker B: Yeah, perhaps. Perhaps. Yeah, I. Oh, not perhaps. [00:21:18] Speaker A: I'm telling you, I've. I've been at the games. I've. I've experienced it. It's. It's a dead scene, man. It's like it's. There's just not enough people. There's no connection. And, and they just. And when the occasion comes and the team really clearly is kind of searching for that extra thing, it just doesn't happen. And I just think the stadium just kind of sucks all the life out of everybody. [00:21:41] Speaker B: Yeah, I think you're not wrong. I just don't have an answer for it. [00:21:45] Speaker A: Well, no, your answer that you gave earlier is right. It's just a thing. You got to work around it. And I don't know how you work around that because, you know, that whole connection with the fan things is such A big part of this sport. [00:21:56] Speaker B: You just have to deal with it is all. I mean, there's no. There's no fix for it for the. For a team or for a coach of our players. It's just have to be just to know that it's there and just sort of fight through it, you know, like. But I think like this game relative to other home games, the drop off and the flatness was different. And that's not like the atmosphere is the same all the time. It's not like the atmosphere was worse for this game. That doesn't explain the drop off in this game. That's a different problem. That was whatever it was that caused it. Yeah. Coach is gonna have to fix it because it wasn't there. And they all talked about it. They all knew, you know, and of course they probably are on the same page because I'm sure Quill talked to them and told them, you guys were terrible in the first half. But they knew they were, you know, and that doesn't help the atmosphere, obviously. [00:22:41] Speaker A: So let's talk about a couple of the. Or a few of the individual performances you gave Collode man of the match in your instant reaction video. When your goalie is man of the match, that's never a good thing in my mind. Just kind of as a general rule of soccer thumb 101. [00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I thought he made three or four really nice saves, really strong positional saves, ball coming at him and staying tall, you know, Ish. He's not very tall, but, you know. Yeah. And I think if he hadn't been on his game, showing more confidence, showing more resilience, looking better with the ball at his feet, like he knows he's comfortable again, you know, all those things were true. And if he hadn't been on his game, I think they would have lost that game. I think he earned them a tie. Colody did. [00:23:22] Speaker A: Oh, I wouldn't disagree with you. [00:23:23] Speaker B: Yeah. So that was why he was my man of the match. Now there were one or two other guys that were probably in that discussion, like Nolan Norris, for example, maybe Shock Moore from playing like multiple spots. His versatility, which I usually hate. But you know, in this case, it actually was a help. You know, there was some okay. Other performances, but I thought Cloudy was the one that stood out, that I was like, I'll take that every game. If you want to give me that every game. I'm perfectly happy with that. That'd be great, you know, so that was. He had a really strong game, you know, particularly compared to two weeks ago or a week ago, we were talking about, oh, God, does he have the yips or whatever? And that was like, yeah, looking good. So. [00:23:55] Speaker A: So, yeah. All right. Now, a player that did not have a good game was Beaver. [00:24:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Boy, that was one of his worst games we've seen in some time, if ever. Now, it's not all on him. You know, a couple of those guys for, at the, on the back line for St. Louis were particularly good, particularly the German center back whose name I don't ever in front of me was tremendous. [00:24:20] Speaker A: Gunter. [00:24:21] Speaker B: Gunter. Yeah, he was good. Logan was just terrible. You know, I, I don't. I don't necessarily put it on him because when the other defense plays really good, sometimes it just doesn't happen. And Delgado didn't help him any. But, you know, Farrington had only had 28 touches, which is a little low. You want a little more than that. But only one of those was in the box, and he only had one shot and it was off target. You know, he was one for four on dribbles. He had one cross and it missed, you know, and he's the one that blew the marking on the goal for St. Louis. So, you know, a really bad game by Logan. I don't know why. You know, he looked fine, he was moving fine. He didn't look out of sorts. He just was not compared to the two previous games where he's had these amazing touches and bringing the ball down and turning guys and making great decisions, he just couldn't get anywhere hardly near the game at all. It just wasn't good. Again, I'm not saying it's him for sure. He may have just run into somebody for the first time in a while that was better than him. Or maybe that Delgado, who also stunk the place up, just didn't get him enough. Get frames in the ball and get up positions. [00:25:27] Speaker A: So I'm curious, when the Montero gets into this team as a starter, is he coming in for Delgado? Is he coming in for Beaver? [00:25:38] Speaker B: Well, it depends. You know, there's. There's two ways this team plays, and with the front two strikers, the perfect Parrington, as everyone jokingly calls it, or they. They do this three, four, three, where they have two tens underneath. Now, in his, in his sound bites last week, Quill said that he thinks Moreno is best in that double 10 scenario. Which means that if that's going to be the choice, that means Ferrington would sit for that, which is exactly what happened when Moreno came in. [00:26:08] Speaker A: Why wouldn't Farrington Play off on the left and Reyno on the right alongside. [00:26:14] Speaker B: Well, I don't know, but that's what Eric Quill said. So that Farrington would sit. No, that he would play in a double 10, but that double 10 so far this year has always been Valiente and not Farrington. They lift Farrington to go double 10 instead of leaving, instead of letting. For last year, they let Farrington do that position on the right and that with position. But this year, so far, they have not done that. So it's. It's entirely possible that that could be the answer, that Farrington could stay on underneath with Moreno, but it would leave you a little light in terms of pure possession, because Farrington and Moreno both are not guys that are going to hold the ball and be like a possession kind of linking kind of play. You know, they both can do that, but they're not like a Valiante or a. Even Kaik a little bit when he was up there in that high position. Remember too, that some of that is about positioning, is about defense. Valiante's got a really high work rate, so does Kaik. So, you know, it's a. It's a question we'll find out. Like when they actually get to the point that Moreno is starting, you know, do they start him as a 10 by himself underneath Farrington and Musa? Or do they. Or do they put it, you know, as Quill suggested in his sound bite from last week, that he would be in the stubble 10 times scenario. And then the question is, is it Valiente, Is it Kaik in a pressing kind of mold? Is it Farrington in a more sort of cause chaos kind of way? You know, maybe it could be all of those things. Maybe it'll change game to game to game. Like when you have a situation like Quill has where he has multiple guys that can start at some of those spots. It's not every spot, but it's a few of those spots. And he may just mix it up from time to time or all the time. So maybe, maybe all of the above. [00:27:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And another player who I just continue to be really frustrated by, and I know he's very young and he got thrust into a weird situation by being brought up here and bought for a lot of money, but Kaik is. I love his enthusiasm, I love his energy, but he passed at a 70% completion rate and that is brutal for that position. [00:28:20] Speaker B: Playing deep is a six. Yeah, well, some of that is probably on him. Some of that is because the Delgado is the guy he's trying to Link through and who, who had a really bad game. Some of that is the Strikers doing a. The. Sorry, the center backs of St. Louis doing a really good job on the two FC Dallas strikers. Logan in particular. They were doing a really nice job of preventing the SEL Strikers from getting the ball at their feet. They were cutting out and attacking passes before they received them. And then it was hard for Dallas to get any sort of possession or even touches on their strikers up in attacking, dangerous positions. So some of it was just the way St. Louis played, some of it was the way Dallas played. But it definitely was true that it did not go very well. Yeah. Through that middle field. [00:29:08] Speaker A: Did anybody play well? [00:29:10] Speaker B: Norris played a lot. [00:29:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:13] Speaker B: Well, you know, the defense in general was pretty solid considering that you didn't have Bernie and Shaq. Moore had to play wing back again and not center back and Ibiaga's in there. Irigide, of course, was his usual. It wasn't like peak form like best of. One of the best defenders in the league, but it was fine. Nolan played quite well. As I mentioned, Nolan had 13 defensive actions, really good by him, 68 touches. Compare that to, you know, what Fairyton had, for example, like that led the team. 68 touches from Norris, 77% out of the back from Norris. You would like that to be higher. But he was not great on long balls. I think he's trying. He was one for nine on long balls. Part of that again was the way St. Louis was defending the Dallas Strikers. But I think Noel might be trying to do a little too much like the Kool Aid of Nolan's a great passer out of the back. So he's being really aggressive with these long outlet passes. But he also had eight balls into the final third. So, you know, his ability to pass an outlet is really, really important. I would like to see him just bring it back just a tiny bit, maybe not be quite so ambitious. So he's not one for eight or nine on those long balls like that. But. But otherwise he had a really, really good game. He was probably Dallas's best defender, particularly because he was on the side of Deetson. So he was having to do a lot of COVID up work, you know, covering up from decent. [00:30:27] Speaker A: Yeah, there was some things that St. Louis was doing tactically that I thought was interesting. I remember in the highlight package there's a moment early in the. About midway through the. The. The collection of moments I said that really weird Uruguay Day chases his mark all the way past midfield and then they bypass that and he gets caught way up field on a, on a direct play by them. And I was really curious as to. I don't know if you picked out any of that and if was St. Louis doing something unusual to Dallas that was causing them to play like that? [00:31:01] Speaker B: No, that, that sort of, you know, movement based striker trying to pull Irigidi out of positions. Everybody tries to do that to FC Dallas. I think, you know, he probably. Oz was just trying to. Was over pursuing a little bit because the team wasn't really playing very well. So he was probably trying to, you know, compensate and do a lot and try and make it all work. Particularly because like the midfield wasn't doing a great job. You know, Romero and Cavis and then Kaik and just in general we're not. Durkin and Elderman outplayed them pretty extensively, more alderman than Durkin, but they really struggled with that grouping for some reason. So I think the St. Louis choosing to play a really aggressive tight marking system where they tried to deny balls into feet and tried to eliminate Dallas's ability to get forward fast. It worked. And so people started overreaching I think in the second half of particular, trying to make things happen and it didn't always come off, you know. And when Delgado was basically contributing, in my opinion, effectively nothing. And that's the guy in that position you need to be able to link through. Right. So he was only 64 passing Delgado. Now we can live with that in a 10, that's not horrible as a 10. But you know, his, his ex assist or whatever was a point one which is not what you would want in terms of creating goal scoring. He had land one chance creation, two touches in the box, 0 for 1 on dribbles, 1 for 5 on crass crosses and zero defensive contributions. You know, this team's built around trying to get you to make a mistake and then get at you fast. If you're going to have any of your midfielders, it doesn't matter where it's the 10 or not right the modern year, you can't have a guy as a 10, just sort of staying around. He's got to work, he's got to play defense. And if you're going to have zero defensive contributions, that means you're not playing any defense. So that I think that was a big part of what was going on, going wrong. [00:32:48] Speaker A: My opinion, yeah, you know, Romero got hurt early in the game. I haven't heard or read anything about the extent of the injury or how long he is out for. [00:32:57] Speaker B: I got a little on that. [00:32:59] Speaker A: Okay, why don't you share that? [00:33:00] Speaker B: Yeah, basically. [00:33:01] Speaker A: Question. [00:33:02] Speaker B: Basically this, you know, he has the cut on his knee and then he had, he got some stitches on it, apparently, is what I'm hearing. But no actual like damage or injury, just stitches in the skin. So like, more than likely he's taping that up in training and he's gonna could play now. When we get to the lineup, we'll talk about whether that's the right idea or not. But effectively he's fine, just set some stitches. [00:33:24] Speaker A: I guess the question is based on the fact that clearly Kappas must not be in very good form, hence getting benched and, and not necessarily looking too snazzy when he did. Come on. And Kaik being Kaik, are they in trouble if Ramiro's out for a period of time? [00:33:40] Speaker B: No, I think it's okay because you remember, they don't really, they're not a high possession team that relies on extensive line breaking, you know, campuses. Of those guys, Cap is the one that can line break more than of the other two. So, like missing Ramiro is not going to hurt you. What you miss is his leadership, like his game reading and directing of traffic like that hurts you. But I think there are other guys that can fill in those shoes, you know. Now if you got Delgado in there, you probably really need Romero to help, you know, move him around. But if you go with somebody else in the next game, for example, I think it wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem to lose Romero. [00:34:17] Speaker A: Okay. And then I want to go back to Johansson not starting again this weekend. [00:34:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:24] Speaker A: And which obviously changes how the back three are lined up because now Shaq's not having to play center back. [00:34:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:34:30] Speaker A: Do we know any reason? Is he, do we know why or what's going on or. [00:34:34] Speaker B: I, I think he, I think, you know, once his, when he was on the international thing and his coach rested him because he wasn't, wasn't recovered and then he, you know, had to travel back and they gave him that game, first game off and then you have the DC game where they played really well and again it's the same sort of thing. You win four nothing. Good defense, good offense. Okay. Those guys are going to keep playing. So I, I, I think Johansson could have started this game, I imagine, you know, he brought him in in the 67th minute. So, you know, two thirds of the way through the game, basically. So I think that was a con, this particular game. I think that was a continuation of the, as you, Riley pointed out last week, like, you know, when you win that big, you just keep the whole team the same. Which basically did. Except for Bernie. Right. So, you know, I think it's happening. [00:35:19] Speaker A: What is Bernie's injury, by the way, do we know? [00:35:22] Speaker B: It's. It's muscular and it's obviously in the legs somewhere and it's muscular. Muscular. We have, we have some guesses, but they don't. They haven't said, they won't print. They don't. This particular technical staff will not put out information on injuries. Even people that are supposed to. Whose job it is is to collect that information and disseminate it to people. Even those guys don't know. They're like, they just don't tell us. So it's like, you know, I'm gonna guess it's something like a strained muscle or something and that he'll be out for a while. Which like Anderson, Julio, we're going to read as through the World cup, you know, probably. [00:35:57] Speaker A: So, you know, Garrett tweeted Bernie, who will be out for a while, quote, with a muscle injury. [00:36:05] Speaker B: So. [00:36:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:06] Speaker B: Right. Which is. That's all we got basically. So like for a while, to me that's why you try DSON is to see like, can I continue without. Can I continue without having to break my tactic? Everywhere else you try to keep it the same, same profile because there's no real backup over there. So you were trying. He was trying. I think Bill was trying to get. Move forward with somebody who played the same. So you don't have to change anything. You know, it didn't work that great. So. But then he scored, so maybe it's okay. We'll see what happens going forward. That's a good question. You know, Norris doing such a good job, he might be willing to keep going with it because they, they didn't lose that game because of Deetson. Right. I mean, that's not what was the problem. No, not lose. Sorry. Tie. They didn't tie that game because of decent. So I. I don't know that it would be a terrible idea to keep going with them there, you know. [00:36:53] Speaker A: Okay. [00:36:54] Speaker B: Possibly. We'll see. [00:36:56] Speaker A: All right. Dallas won St. Louis and the teener Tina Turner tribute kits, which by the way, I was. We talked about how this was best new versus worst new kit. [00:37:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:08] Speaker A: Game this is. This falls into the buzz's category of really what matters is what they look like at a distance. And they all just look like kind of weirdly weird yellow colored kits. They didn't. The whole gold LeMay effect. They were shooting for was nothing you could pick up from a distance. [00:37:27] Speaker B: Yeah, those kinds of effects are great if what you care about is, like, street wear, but if you care about what the jerseys look like from the top of the stands or on television, that's a terrible kid to design. You know, it's just a mustardy blob, you know, with some brown patches and stuff. [00:37:41] Speaker A: It's like, it's like French's mustard. [00:37:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:37:44] Speaker A: Yellow. [00:37:44] Speaker B: It's been left outside and dried and crusty in certain parts of it. Yeah, it's not. It's not great. [00:37:50] Speaker A: Not good. But the DNA kit, El Perfecto looked fantastic. All right, so the Galaxy are up next. [00:37:56] Speaker B: Yep. [00:37:57] Speaker A: What do we got to look forward to against the old gals? [00:38:00] Speaker B: Well, our, our old friend Evan Cerillo will be back. Always good to see him. You know, Johnny and Nelson, who hasn't been starting, was coming off the bench, it seems, in terms of their play. You know, again, this is a team that's below you in the standings. You should be able to beat them on your home field, whatever, blah, blah, blah. They don't score a ton of goals. They've had a little bit of disjointedness up front, but always on that right hand side. Their right hand side. Gabrielle Peek is super dangerous, but obviously they've lost Push. Yes, obviously they've lost Poosh for the season again, so you don't have to worry about that. But they still have enough danger, you know, that they can. And they've had some good defenders. I like your shot a fair bit, you know, and they've got some pace around the outside usually, whether it be Yamane or, or whoever comes over on that other side, too. His name Skips, but Pack is the one that scares me, like, because if that's the Deets inside, that's where decent would be. And Norris is going to be trying to cover for him. And Peck is super dangerous, particularly in terms of cutting into. Remember, cutting in on his left foot and scoring and, and doing bad things to people. [00:39:13] Speaker A: That's a weird way of saying it, but okay. They're coming off a 21 win on the road at Broccoli, so I don't know. They're on a road trip. [00:39:23] Speaker B: Yeah, they're on a road trip. I'm sure they'll go home between the games, but yeah. So, like, that comes down to the big. There's two now. Massive questions. I mean, I, I, obviously I would have this week. I would have been Delgado already, but they left him in. Okay, that was even worse. Surely he's gonna sit. So like, is it back to valiente as the 10 was Logan's poor performance because of the defense in Delgado or does he need a game off? You know, so that's where. How close is the Moreno to starting? So that's the real question. I think Valiant is back in and then it's Moreno versus Farrington. Where do you want to go with that? And that's a tough choice for Quill. I think probably with Moreno getting, you know, 25ish minutes, maybe it's not quite ready to start him. So maybe one more game, maybe come maybe bring him in at like 55 or maybe even at halftime and see like, you know, how far he can. Something like that. Halftime might be pushing. Maybe like a 55 on the mark might be more likely. And then the other side of the coin is do I stick Deetson out there and allow Shaq Moore to go back to center back and put Johansson back on the right or do I need like they finished the game? Do I need either more or you'll have some. One or the other to go over there and play in decent spot, you know, and part of me says, okay, you keep trying to see if you can play the same way because decent wasn't horrific. He was because he scored. Sometimes you have to reward somebody scoring and so you get to leave him in there. But at the same time, as I said, Gabrielle Peck is probably the most dangerous player they have right now. So that leads me to think maybe you might put a Shaq Moore over there on that side and let Ibiaga start again. Hasn't been terrible. You know, I can respect the Ibiaga's work rate. I don't necessarily want him to start all the time, but you know, a little stretch here while they're trying to figure things out, it's not going to be the end of the world. So I would hope that. I think he rolled the dice on keeping Dudeson out there and putting Shaq Moore back at center back with Johansson back on the right and just see if decent can improve, you know, isn't [00:41:29] Speaker A: this the kind of the fruition of a worry that you expressed at the beginning of the season, which was they didn't, they don't really have. I mean, Bernie first off isn't a wing back by his nature. So you already, the guy that you're starting is in the middle of figuring it out and you don't really have a natural replacement except for a couple of young players who you don't clearly feel like are ready to play on the regular. So that's. This really is just kind of the playing out of a real problem in the roster that you pointed out weeks ago. [00:41:58] Speaker B: Yeah, Josh Ricado obviously has played really well for North Texas other than the red card he got other day. But they obviously decided after he got absolutely wrecked last year in that one game he hasn't played since with the first team. So they obviously think he's not quite mature enough or something. So he's like he's out of the mix. And other than that there really is no, as you say, left wing back. Bernie's not a real left wing back. They drafted Ricky Lewis. They're looking at him obviously at that position in part, but they also keep playing him up front for North Texas all the time. They've also played him at right wing back. So like if you put him on the left, you're kind of putting him on the wrong side. He's more like a guy that you would put it behind Johansson. Right. So Enzo Newman is still coming back from injury. He's a more of a right sided guy than a left, but he can go left. He's obviously super raw and super young too, even though he's finally starting to get healthy. Giovanna Jesus, I mean he's in the team photo, but other than that I don't have any way to show you, tell you that she's part of this club. To be honest. He's on the roster. On paper he's in the picture, but I mean no one's seen him do anything in two years now. So that's not an option. You know, they're just kind of stuck. You know, there are some kids, I think they could be great wing backs at some point, but they're not even North Texas players yet. [00:43:12] Speaker A: So could Nolan play it? [00:43:14] Speaker B: You know, Nolan can play it and he can do the defensive side and he could be really good in terms of like a possession style getting forward. But you can't expect Nolan to be a run the line break, sprinting past people kind of thing. It's not his game. Nolan's game is in his brain and his feet, in his passing and it's good quality defensive work. It's not going to be tearing people apart sprinting up the field. So you just, you just have to adapt your tactics if you're going to put, you can do that, you can put him out there. But if you did that, you probably would go with more like a flex kind of thing where you would have a back three you know, you put Shaq Moore back over on the left center back spot and start Ibby and then put Nolan a left wing back and then you would flex and like your right wing back would go up and then that Nolan would sort of shift back and it would become a back four at times. You know, they did that last year a fair bit. They were flexing like that. But that's a change in what you're doing. Like, you know, seven games into. We want to be altering fundamentally the nature of the tactics of the. I don't think so. I think you want to not do that yet. If you're going to put Nolan out there. I think you would. It would be like, okay, no one's got to play the rest of the year out there. That would be a very different calculation. [00:44:22] Speaker A: Yeah. I think the thing for people listening to keep in mind if the team continues to struggle and left wing back is clearly an issue. Before everybody starts pointing fingers at the coach, let's remember this is how the Roth. This is the roster in which he was given. [00:44:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:39] Speaker A: To work with. Right. [00:44:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:40] Speaker A: And you don't really have any left wing backs to begin with. So he's kind of working with only a kitchen with no spoons or something. [00:44:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Johansson and Shaq Morgan both do it. They're both also clearly better on the right. I actually think also that at this point in Shaq's career that he's actually much better as a center back than a wing back. Like his play at wing back in this, this game in particular. He didn't hardly provide crap. [00:45:03] Speaker A: No. There was a point in the highlights where I was like, who? I don't. I like I didn't even see him for a long time in the game or notice him in the highlight package. [00:45:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, some of the people that have watched this game have listed Dallas as a back four, which it wasn't. But I think Shaq Moore probably without having looked at their average position, I would bet you Shaq Moore hung back quite a bit and they kind of did rotate a little bit over with Nolan cheating over to cover for decent who's flying, you know. So again like. But the idea of Shaq Moore being the long term answer wing back is not what you want either. Not he's a center back now. They've talked about that. You know, Johansen was brought here to bay the wing back. He's doing a pretty good job. He's not an all star, but he's pretty good when. Except for the fact that he's right now he's. We have yet to see him be a 90 minute player. I think he was getting close to it before he went off to the national team and kind of burned up a little bit. I'm hoping this is the game to finally get him back in there. Yeah. So I think, you know, I think for me like that that's the big question is like, okay, Johansson comes back in, so Shackmore's back at center back, you know, or with decent at left wing back. Or do I go ahead and put Shaq at left wing back and let it be. I'll go one more game. So, you know, it probably depends on how long you think Bernie's gonna be out, you know, like, are they probably, you know, a while? What does that mean? Like, you know, they, they're only gonna. [00:46:21] Speaker A: I think you're right. I think. I bet you don't see him again until after the World Cup. [00:46:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Because if I think, I think of the prognosis I saw was four to six weeks would either. Which would either bring him back with like two weeks left for the World cup or would take him to the World cup and then it would be a nice break and that'd be great. You can rebuild them and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, they're. I think they're probably looking at just getting through this stretch of. Was it 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 games before the World Cup. Right. Okay. Can Deeds and play seven games and keep it relatively the same. And I think they probably might try one more against la, particularly because of the pace that Peck brings on that side, you know, so you can either try and pin him back by having decent run up and down the field, or you can go really defensive and put your five back out there and put Shaq Moore over there on that side and bring it, keep it back in today. I don't have an answer for which one of those things. I think it'll be. [00:47:14] Speaker A: I think trying to ask Deets Dietzen to play that role with Peck on that side is just asking for trouble. [00:47:20] Speaker B: I know. That's kind of what my heart's at too. [00:47:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And I have a feeling like we're gonna get eight minutes into the game and he's gonna skin Deetson three times and we're all gonna go, why did they even. Why who, what kind of person actually tries this or asks. I would feel bad for Deetson, you know. [00:47:35] Speaker B: Yeah. My two thoughts on that are like, you know, what if he's gonna have to play? Like, if they know Bernie's gonna be out a long time, then they might be like, you know, we've got to try and develop this guy to play this way because we don't have Shackmore out there for three months, you know. But the other side of that coin is what if you could use Deetson in that role as like a late game attacking kind of vibe. Like go with Shaq Moore at the start and then if you need to bring some offense in, then you can bring Deetson in, in that role and let him go, you know, so that I'm, I'm leaning towards Shaq Moore over there and, and Ibiaga, who has been solid in this run of starts he's getting, you know, I, I think in terms of maximizing IBI album, in fact, I think it's okay to like bring him in and out. I don't want him to run like a whole bunch of games in a row, but if he does three or four and then they get a couple off, that's fine. That'll help him continue through the season and be More effective at 34 through the course of the whole season. Because you need to, you need him to be good Ibiaga. You do because you know, you need a, a guy who can be that spot, that fourth center back in this system, that extra starter, that late game piece adding in. You know, you gotta get him as be effective as you can. And I think that a way to do it would be to not have to use him forever, but a little bit of a stretch of three or four, I think it's okay. [00:48:47] Speaker A: Okay, so Dallas is seventh in the west, tied on points with Colorado, but behind them on goals scored. And that puts them six points behind first place Vancouver and six points ahead for next to last place was St. Louis. So smack dab in the middle on one point, seven point, 1.71 goals per game. LA up next this particular weekend. Very good. Any other SC Dallas stuff before we move on? [00:49:18] Speaker B: Yeah, just that I think when you look at the big macro picture, you know, the being on 12 points, being in the playoff picture, 15 goals for 10 against, it's like that's kind of what we thought is like a, a positive scenario. Yes. A little bit less points at home than you would like or probably would like. But again, this team under Quill performs pretty well on the road consistently. So it's not the end of the world for them to be where they are. You know, you're not going to go from that last playoff seed last year to like top two in the west in one season, it's just not going to happen. They got too many young pieces that haven't come through yet. They got too many open DP spots. I think they're in a good position. I'm really. I really feel positive about where they are in terms of the big season, you know, on a grand scheme of things. [00:49:57] Speaker A: Even if, Even if they sell Musa. [00:50:00] Speaker B: Well, that's, you know, that is what it is. That's. That changes things when it happens. I'm talking about like with the team as it is now. It's, you know, you can't assume that you're going to sell Musa. I don't think you have to plan for it. But at the same time, you move forward with what you have. In terms of Quill, Quill and his coaching in this team, that's a. The Musa problem is a problem for somebody else. Not. It's not Quill's problem. You know, he'll have ideas in the back of his head about what's. What he's going to do. And obviously that two strikers, sorry, the 210 system is. With Logan is. The nine is probably the most likely scenario since they got Moreno and they talked about him in that role anyway. So that's an easy, you know, easy first option if. If indeed Moose is sold. But let's just, you know, let's get to the World cup and see what happens. Okay. [00:50:46] Speaker A: All righty. Next up, Byrne Jr. They beat KC2 on the road and then came back and played them at home. [00:50:54] Speaker B: Buzzard. Yeah, they smoked Kansas City 2 on the road. A week ago. We talked about in the last pot, it was 4:1. It was decisive. Kansas City's terrible. And then they came back here and I guess because they thought they were really good, they let sporting hands, they play with them and they ended up tying 2 to 2, then 1 on PKS. Now, where did they play that game at Choctaw. That was. [00:51:13] Speaker A: Oh, so they're playing at Choctaw until the. Until Mansfield. [00:51:16] Speaker B: Okay, yeah, that was. In fact, they got one more game. No, they got more than that. They got three more games at Choctaw. So, you know, it's. It is. Was not a great performance. But this is part of this performance comes back to the idea that they played on Friday. They played before FC Dallas, so. FC Dallas. And you can tell, you can tell for. For a fact some of the injuries that they're fighting through because Caleb Swan, who's a central midfielder, was not. Was held out in case they needed him. That's related to Capus because at the time Ramiro and Kaik are fine. Right. So they, they keep him available because they need them if Cabas can't go for some reason. Ricky Lewis, who we've talked about is being used some as a wing back. He was kept out of North Texas in case they decided they need him. And Alvaro center back in case they decided they needed him on the bench. So like for North Texas, those three really, really good players that were pulled out of the team because they had to keep them as emergency backups just in case we need them for FC Dallas and showing where some of the injuries and worries are with FC Dallas. Right. [00:52:19] Speaker A: So yeah, but it sucks for those three guys because they went from playing a game, any game, to no game, nothing. [00:52:25] Speaker B: They got nothing. [00:52:26] Speaker A: They just sat on their ass for all weekend. [00:52:28] Speaker B: Yeah, they had to go out on Sunday and run around the field for an hour by themselves probably in order to get their fitness work in. [00:52:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I know they're getting paid and everything, but I'm sure that just drives [00:52:36] Speaker B: them and those are guys that you want to develop. So like this, this whole, this whole like northex Texas playing before FC Dallas is dumb. I don't know whose fault it is. It's probably a combination of the stadium availability and the league just spreading games out or whatever. But it sucks. It's dumb. So it hurt. It hurt. It doesn't hurt FC Dallas. It's a nice tool for FC Dallas to be able to have those guys when you play. It would be perfect if they could then play on Sunday, but they didn't games on Friday, so that hurt North Texas's setup. It was, you know, they were definitely missing some of their quality. But you know, some of the guys that are, they're carrying a lot of the load for them, you know, like a new nice and niece. Excuse me. God, I keep getting that right. We saw a bunch of kids, we saw some academy kids came in like Wigan came in and set it, who's technically signed, but it's still basically academy kid. And you know, it was like why Easterly got into the game, you know, it was just a flat, a bit of a flat performance, you know, because you're missing three players that would be at the top end of your talent setup that were gone, you know, and a 17 year old kid is playing center back because Alvaro Lagusta was not there. And, and you know, it's just in terms of, in terms of winning at North Texas, which I don't think matters, but the team thinks Matters, you know, the golf thinks matters. It was kind of lame. And for guys you want to see playing, they're not getting their play in time. So that part stinks. But some of that is one of those things where it is what it is. I just hate it and it makes me mad and I want to see him address it and fix it, you know, because they should always play after the first team not or you know, even the day of. You could play the same day because you would know within a couple hours before their first teams playing. You'd always run down a Mansfield and play, you know, or Arlington as the case may be today. [00:54:30] Speaker A: Right. All right, very good. Well, let's move on. By the way. Well, did you. What? [00:54:35] Speaker B: Just real, real quick about North Texas. They are in sixth place on nine points. They travel to Timbers 2 this next weekend. On Sunday they play after FC Dallas. So that's as it should be. Okay. [00:54:50] Speaker A: Speaking of other teams in town, Pegasus, Dallas, Trinity had to travel to Brooklyn and got curb stomped. [00:55:01] Speaker B: Yeah, this is like when teams would try to go to NYCFC and play on that postage stamp. Brooklyn's field is tiny. [00:55:09] Speaker A: Where are they playing those? [00:55:10] Speaker B: They're playing at a baseball stadium on. I think it's on Coney Island, I think. [00:55:14] Speaker A: Oh geez. [00:55:16] Speaker B: There's like roller coasters in the background and stuff. It feels really narrow. It's in the outfield of a baseball field, but basically. So it's super narrow. And Dallas plays with wings and a wide players and width and tries to open the field up so they can have their people in the middle do things. It did not work. It was absolutely horrible. I think they had one shot. Maybe Trinity did. It was one. It was one of the worst Trinity performances I've ever seen. It's really, really bad. And they weren't missing anybody. They, they, they did a. They did something. This is the first time we've seen this. They made some sort of mistake on their paperwork and the player that was supposed to start it right back all of a sudden was ineligible. And so they had to start. One of the players that was listed on the bench, your friend Cheeseman. Cheese. She had to start. She was perfectly reasonable player, perfectly good performance on her part. Not any worse than Guidry, who's the player that got knocked out. But I meant they have one less player on the bench because they had to use one of the bench. Got players in the 11 because Gidry was ruled ineligible for whatever reason. They didn't explain what happened. It was just a mistake. You know, whether they Filled out the sheet wrong or whether they got some sort of technicality or something, but it was something to do with the sheet. So a mistake was made. And that's the first time we've seen that with Trinity. It's happened. FC dials before. It does happen, but that was. That was fascinating. And otherwise just a really horrible performance. And I. And I'm gonna put most of it on that super narrow field. The problem is they now have to go back there in two weeks, so they're gonna have to figure it out or it's gonna really hurt them. [00:56:52] Speaker A: You got a misimo update. How she had. What was her story? [00:56:56] Speaker B: She played perfectly reasonably and did nothing with it. It's the same thing. You watch her play, and she's got touch and skill, and she makes some good passes. And sometimes the passes are to where her teammate should be, and they're not. Sometimes they're just all a little off the mark, you know, it's just like. It all looks perfectly reasonable and she looks perfectly talented, and it just does nothing. Just. Nothing works. It's just. She didn't create anything, you know, it's just a player, you know, and. And it's only a pro. If she was getting paid the same as everybody else, we wouldn't even care. It's the Fog. She's getting paid three times the next player and probably maybe as much as the bottom 20 players combined. And she does. In terms of the score sheet and winning you the game, nothing happens. And so it's. It's bad, you know, and it's not. I. I still can't tell you why. I still can't tell you if it's. She's limited from the injury. I can't tell you if it's the tactics. I can't tell you if her team. She's just. Her brain is at a whole higher level than everybody else's. And it's just. They cannot get on the same page. It's like. It all kind of looks like that, and so it's hard to really know. Maybe it's all of it. You know, I just. It's not. It's just not as good as it should be. That's all. You know? And so they're holding on to fourth place. And they got, you know, over the last five games they play, four of those five games are a team behind them in the standings, including this Brooklyn team. Again, they got to go back up there. They play Carolina this weekend. Who's the team right ahead of them in third place. So it's definitely like, okay, if you, if you think you deserve the playoffs, you should beat all these teams down the stretch. The problem is, is that as the 4C they're going to get the number one team who will based on form over the whole season. Jacksonville. They will stomp the crap out of Trinity. It won't matter. But still you want to try and get that playoff spot so. Because then you never know, I suppose you know what could happen. [00:58:46] Speaker A: You know, I was wondering about the Misimo thing, which is, is it misguided expectations? My impression on Lexi is that she is a product and a, and a player that has always played on really, really, really good teams. When she was at the club level, all of her teams were top notch, you know, national championship contending type. [00:59:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:09] Speaker A: Type teams. When she was at Texas, she was on a really, really good team with a lot of really good players. And I just wonder if what's happening here is that she's just not on a very good team and she's not good enough to single handedly do it in the same way that she was able to do things when she was on a team of, of players that were closer to her level. [00:59:32] Speaker B: Yeah, that may be it entirely. It's just that we look at the stats like in college over four seasons she had 64 assists and 56 goals. Just an astronomical number of points. She's the all time program career leader and that's Texas. That's not a chump program. That's a legit high end program and those are spectacular numbers. So you would think that, that that stuff would translate. She's a member of the U.S. national Team Program and the futures team. Right. They think enough of her as a, as a put her in these under 23 teams. You know, she is 23 years old. You know, so she's a little bit younger. You would think that over the next three or four years she would improve into her peak, you know, so you may be right that she's used to playing players way better than this. That's sometimes the thing that I, I, when I say things like maybe her thought processes are like at a much higher level and she keeps expecting people to do things and they're not doing them. And so she's not adapting to her teammates. But then, then again that's part of that is on them, part of that's on her coach and part of that's on her. Like if you're not adapting to the people that are in your team, part of that's on you. So like, again, I, I don't want to make it all about her or blame her. Like, I've tried really hard to say that I don't know that it's her fault. It's entirely possible it's the Oregon, the coach or whatever, you know, or the injury, you know, it's just, it's, it's just a giant mismatch. [01:00:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I, I, I don't think that the fact that she's making, you know, buku dollars compared to everybody else is the problem either, because I don't think that, I don't think the money they're giving Misimo is not being spent elsewhere in the team. It's not like they'd suddenly have a bunch of other better players if they didn't pay Misimo as much as they were paying her, probably. Right? So I, I just think that it's, it's just the fact that she is getting paid a lot and they, they are expending a lot of money to have her and she's, they're not getting their, their ROI on it whatsoever. [01:01:24] Speaker B: Yeah, but you, you can look at things like when Sam Beza was here for the first half of last season, right, And Ali Thornton scored enough goals with Mesa feeding her that she won the Golden Boot after Mezza left, she, her scoring dropped way off. And this season, of all the three strikers, they've played like, there's like one or two goals combined out of their strikers. They basically, their strikers are not scoring at all. Zero. So again, is that the system or is it because they, Mesa's gone and Mismo's in there. Or, or I mean, you know. Yeah, the thing about her being the highest paid player is just because like, if Jordan compared to the whole league, she's the Jordan in terms of the salary. So you go, oh, yeah, she may [01:02:05] Speaker A: be the highest paid player in the league. [01:02:07] Speaker B: Oh, I assume she is. Yeah. [01:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:10] Speaker B: So that, that's the only reason why we care about that. Is it like that means you should be Jordan and she's not, you know, so that's the reason we raise these questions because, like, the club's not going to pay that money forever if she's not going to help them win games, you know? [01:02:25] Speaker A: All right, so they have Carolina on Sunday at 4 and you can watch it on TV, go to whatever. So there you go. Next up on the list, nothing. We have no we, we have no rodeo talk. We have no Atletico talk. We got no what in the hell's going on with Fort Worth USL talk. [01:02:45] Speaker B: There's Nothing. Yeah, nothing going on with those teams. Yeah, I mean, none of them are playing, so it's hard to really talk about them every week when they don't have anything. We could do a little bit of shout out. There's. There's three kit. There's a. There's a US U15 thing happening and there's a U16 happening. And so there's three Dallas kids with the US U15s and U16s and there's two with Mexico's 15s and 16s for some of the same sort of things. The 15s are playing Mexico twice. The 16s are both groups are in a tournament down in Florida with England and Argentina also involved. So 5 kids from the 15s and 16s of FC Dallas are down involved in that. So that's cool. Good for them. [01:03:22] Speaker A: Okay, well, I don't think there's anything else to chit chat about, Buzz, unless you just want to talk about the weather up in the Pacific Northwest or some fine meal you had or. [01:03:30] Speaker B: I got nothing. [01:03:31] Speaker A: Okay. I. I really don't either. Any good TV you've watched lately or. [01:03:37] Speaker B: I'm reading a series of books that's really amazing about a guy named Dungeon Crawler Carl. It's nerdy stuff, but it is so funny. [01:03:45] Speaker A: Okay. [01:03:46] Speaker B: His sidekick, Princess Donut, who's a talking cat. It's so awesome. I'm telling you, there'll be some people listening that will know that. [01:03:53] Speaker A: You should probably tell everybody what the title of the book is. [01:03:56] Speaker B: Well, the first one is called Dungeon Crawler Carl, but then there's a whole bunch of them since then. I'm now on book five. It's. It's phenomenal. It's incredibly inventive and creative. It's really fun. If you like fantasy and comedy, it's like funny fantasy, if that helps. There's some nerdy talk for you. I highly recommend it for everybody out there. There'll be some people listening that'll know that book. I'm sure there is. For a TV show. [01:04:17] Speaker A: No doubt. I'm sure. I'm sure. Yes. 100% A positive. Somebody listening to this podcast, as nerdy as it is, we'll find somebody that knows about Dungeon Crawler Carl. [01:04:29] Speaker B: Carl. Yeah. Yeah. [01:04:30] Speaker A: Okay. Is it with Carl with a C or a K? [01:04:32] Speaker B: C, A R, L. Yeah. Okay. [01:04:34] Speaker A: Okay. [01:04:35] Speaker B: Very good. And Princess Donut, that's the important part. [01:04:38] Speaker A: Is it D O n U T? [01:04:40] Speaker B: Yeah. She's a cat. She talks. Okay. [01:04:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:04:45] Speaker B: Third degree. The podcast is brought to you by our wonderful, humble supporters Just like you. Those that choose to help us out@our patreon.com thirddegree if you're curious about FC Dallas Styles Trinity, I think O 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. [01:05:06] Speaker A: Very good. Well, Buzz, thank you so much. [01:05:08] Speaker B: Yeah, man, that was a tight one. Thanks for being here. [01:05:11] Speaker A: When we don't have Chitty Chatty Dan just, you know, cheating, chewing up all the. Sucking all the air out of the room all the time. [01:05:16] Speaker B: He brings a good flavor, though. I like the spice. [01:05:18] Speaker A: Oh, I. Look, I. I miss Dan and boy, did I want to have a. I wanted to see Dan state on the heels of winning silverware. [01:05:27] Speaker B: I was. [01:05:28] Speaker A: I was hoping we get semi inebriated crook. [01:05:31] Speaker B: Oh no. [01:05:32] Speaker A: On the podcast. [01:05:33] Speaker B: But not coming from work. He wouldn't. [01:05:35] Speaker A: Do you even think he went to work today? [01:05:37] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, of course. [01:05:38] Speaker A: Okay. [01:05:39] Speaker B: I think he's working right now, I guess. Why? He's not. [01:05:41] Speaker A: His underwear. Yeah, with like a. A fake EFL trophy made out of aluminum foil like you do in the stands and stuff. And his luten shirt. [01:05:51] Speaker B: Perfect. [01:05:51] Speaker A: Perfect. [01:05:52] Speaker B: Very good. [01:05:53] Speaker A: Okay. Thank you, bud. [01:05:55] Speaker B: Yeah, man, thanks. [01:05:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And hopefully Dan will be back next week. And thank you, DFW Soccer Curious. We will speak to you then on another episode of 3rd degree the podcast Go Hatters 3rd degree the 3rd degree Net podcast 3rd degree the 3rd degree NEP podcast. 3rd degree the 3rd degree Ned podcast. 3rd degree the 3dd degree near podcast. Sam.