3rd Degree the Podcast #360

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:00:09] Speaker B: Third Degree, the Third Degree Nerd podcast. [00:00:14] Speaker A: Third Degree, the third Degree Nap Podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree Nap Podcast. [00:00:22] Speaker C: Third Degree, the third Degree. [00:00:26] Speaker A: Well, hello there, DFW soccer. Curious. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. There he is, Dan Crook. Howdy, Dan. [00:00:37] Speaker B: Hey, how's it going? What's been happening this past week? [00:00:41] Speaker A: Oh, my God. What's happened to you? [00:00:43] Speaker B: You know, Luton's, like, nearly in the playoffs. All we have to do is pray for a miracle and it's. It's there. So, you know, like, life's gone crazy and exciting and. Yeah, caffeine. [00:00:55] Speaker A: Okay, well, this bodes well for the episode. There's your hero, my hero, Everybody's Hero. Editor, Founder, third degree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Caric. Come in, Pacific Northwest. [00:01:09] Speaker C: Hey, exciting episode number 360 today. We've now gone in a complete circle back to the beginning. And also, why is Dan wearing an El Salvador shirt? [00:01:20] Speaker B: Because it was cheap. [00:01:22] Speaker C: Okay, [00:01:24] Speaker B: $25 at Berlin. Can't knock that. [00:01:27] Speaker C: Yeah, fair enough. [00:01:29] Speaker A: Dig it. Well, boys, I hate to report that since we last talked football club, Dallas has played two games and lost two games, and the team has not won since that 400 win over D.C. quite some time ago. It's not a strong run for the team, Buzz. And I'm sure you probably want to start with the lost to Minnesota at home. Or would you like to just kick off the game you actually attended in person in the death trap that is known as Lumen Field? [00:02:07] Speaker C: Well, I think we can certainly talk about the contrast between them. You know, the Minnesota game was probably Dallas's attempt to play the best team they can pretty much these days. And then the Seattle game was an attempt to sort of rotate, particularly once Farrington and Musa both came up with some sort of issue. So, you know, you can't really lump the two games in together in terms of an analysis because they had such different lineups, such different groupings of players. The only way to really lump them in together is that Dallas didn't look very good in either one, and they lost both those games. And it really is amazing how far the team has come since that win against D.C. when they look so good and then. But when they play a team that can hold the ball and pass the ball around, they really just are out of luck. So they really struggle to get the ball and get anything going unless you can. Unless they can get the other team to make some turnovers. And that didn't really happen in one of these games. [00:03:06] Speaker A: It is Pretty reflective of just kind of the quality of the team that you play. Seattle and Minnesota are clearly superior teams to D.C. and I think that's something we talked about on the heels of such a dominating performance against dc. Was everybody hold on to your excitement pants? Because it is DC after all. And I think these two games kind of revealed itself, revealed that to us more clearly. How about that? [00:03:31] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. I mean, D.C. in particular is susceptible to the way Dallas plays and that D.C. is not very good at passing out of the back, and Dallas can take advantage of that when teams aren't good at that, but Seattle's really good at that, and apparently so is Minnesota. One of the things I was surprised by Minnesota is that they actually, probably because they were leading, they let Dallas have a lot of the possession and Minnesota basically played a low block. They basically did to Dallas what Dallas starts to do. Other teams as they sit back and then, you know, effectively countered. So neither one of those things worked very well for Dallas. I mean, they. Neither one of those games allowed them to do what they would want to do. Be one, because the other team didn't want the ball, the Minnesota game, and the second one, because Seattle was really good with the ball and kept the ball away. Even though Seattle rotated, the people they bring in are still very talented. So, you know, it's not. It's not a good stretch for FC Dallas. You know, they're. They're for. From. From a period of maybe a month ago when we felt like they were making some slow progression and they were improving. They've now gone to a period where since that DC game, they've plateaued and become stagnant and they're not getting any better, they're not having more success. And so it's. It's worrisome about the direction they're going to. [00:04:41] Speaker A: Dan, I think the. Well, what do you. What's your take on all this? Let's go there first. [00:04:48] Speaker B: Kind of like Buzz said, ran into two good teams. I think you could even go back to the Galaxy game and say, you know, did anyone. How many people really expected the performance that they even put in there? I think Seattle was not a horrible performance by any stretch of the imagination, especially with the. The lineup that they. They rolled out, resting a few players, the absence of Musa and Farrington. But we're definitely seeing the table get to that point where there is a leading pack, some dudes, which includes FC Dallas and some other teams that aren't going to feature in the playoffs. So as long as they stay the upper end of that, that Chase impact then kind of what we've been talking about since preseason. [00:05:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I, My observation is that I think this team is going to be fine over the course of the season. But fine means kind of maintaining its status quo over the last several seasons, which is, you know, hanging out somewhere near the Mendoza Line of playoffs or not. I don't think this team is or is even close to being a real contender. And I was mentioning, somebody was talking about how they love the Quill's cringy dog mentality. And I said, you know what? That kind of attitude and resiliency is great to have in a team, but it's almost kind of like table stakes. For a team to be good, you got to be resilient. You got to have that kind of attitude to you. But if it's your only thing, it's not going to win you much. And I kind of feel like that's the thing with this club right now, Buzz, is it might be willing to fight and be dogs. [00:06:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:06:39] Speaker A: But it's just not a very good soccer team. [00:06:42] Speaker C: No. And in the Minnesota game, for example, there was again, some talk about, you know, not coming out with the right sort of mentality. But, you know, they, they, that game, they fell prey to one of the things that we've talked about for a few years now with this team. They outshot Minnesota 15 to 5. Right. You'd be like, oh, that's awesome. Well, two shots on target by FC Dallas. [00:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you know, over the course of these two games, their collective open play XG is 1.3. [00:07:12] Speaker C: Yeah. So the, the in two games are. And two games are. Are bad in different ways. The, the Minnesota game, 15 shots at home. We usually would count that as a good target. That's what you want. But the two on target is bad. Remember, always we talk about this 50% on target from FC Dallas and you're. And they're more than likely going to win the game. Right. 2, 2 out of 15, that's not going to cut it. So that's not getting it done against Minnesota. And then you look at the Seattle game And they had nine. Which team am I looking at? Okay. They had 12 shots on target, out shooting Seattle 12 to 9, six on target. Oh, great. That's the 50% we talk about. Right. We like that. Well, this is a different problem Dallas has had in the past. Only four of the shots came from cleanly inside the box. There's one right on the line. But most of the shots, the other eight Shots are all on the line or outside the box. Well, that's not what we want. Right. Granted, Seattle game, you don't have Musa and Farrington, so that's probably a big part of that. But when this team, again, is, yes, they got more shots on target, but these are not great scoring opportunities. They have an XG of 0.6 just to show you, compared to the 1.8 for Seattle, who had less shots overall, but the same number on target. Right. The quality of the chances also matter. So again, these are two things that this club occasionally has fallen prey to over the last couple of years. And they both raised their head in this. In both of these games. So these games have deficiencies in different ways and. But most cases are deficiencies. And when you play teams that are better, these deficiencies can cost you and you can lose games. And this is what this team is. This team's not a good enough team to be deficient in some major way and win. They need to be on to win. Right. This is the team is. Which is fine. It's better than last year, right? I think. [00:08:55] Speaker A: Well, I mean, there was a period of earlier in the season where in six games they scored 14 goals. So it's. Yeah, it's not like it's something the team isn't capable of. I just think the teams have figured them out a little bit and they've slowed down a little bit. And, you know, yeah, there's a whole. I think there's a lot of other complicating factors. I think probably what makes sense is to kind of go through the games individually because they were both losses, but losses in very different. Different ways. Right. Especially because something you mentioned in, in the beginning, which was the. It. The significant difference between the two games is the lineups. So in Minnesota, he rolls out a very attacking lineup that includes Santiago Moreno for his first start of the season. And also obviously Moose is on there, but now he sits Farrington, but he also starts Valiente with a midfield, an addition to Capis and Kaike and Johansson. And to your point, Buz probably the most attacking lineup they've got at his disposal. And not a lot came out of it. [00:10:01] Speaker C: You know, the defense is the what at this point, pretty much you'd expect to be your best defense, minus perhaps left wing back. But you had Johansson and Moore both out there on the wings. You had Norris Iaga, and those are the guys you would expect from. To be started these days since Bernie's hurt. You know, Farrington for Moreno is pretty commonly what we think might be most often the choice. But you know, certainly Farrington is very good and can play any given game. So I mean, honestly, this is about as best of 11 as you can run. The only you have your questions about like Otis quote, like Moreno, sorry, excuse me, Ramiro or not, but Kaik played great in that game, so that's not, you can't complain about that. You know, it's just a case of not getting enough opportunities cleanly on, on goal against Minnesota. And, and part of that too is you can accept that. Okay, Moreno's first start, you know, working with Valiant, working with Musa, like still figuring all out with those guys, like he's played what, 30 minutes with them prior to that. So it's not shocking that maybe it's not all flowing perfectly. You know, this is part of the growing pains of getting a DP in there and getting them to be effective, you know, and I think if you, if you look at Moreno specifically as you go to the Seattle game, you'll see some changes happening with him. And so I, I think that you can't. Some of these things are just going to happen as you try and bring in another expensive player, high profile player that's going to be starting probably more than likely, and you figure out exactly how to use them. [00:11:30] Speaker A: More about the Minnesota game, Valiente, who's somebody I think we've all kind of wanted to see out in that position, more buzz because it's kind of an attacking guy that the team clearly has needed. He very clearly has an engine and he's got a lot of effort in him. I'm still not convinced he's particularly MLS starting quality. His passing isn't consistent. He's produced very little in terms of, you know, expected assists and goals and we just haven't seen a lot out of him yet. [00:12:01] Speaker C: He's a little bit inconsistent. There's been some games where we finally like, oh, we're starting to see some control and like he passed in that game at a 78, which out of like a playmaking kind of player is pretty nice. But then you look at any of the, the game breaking kind of thing. Like the touches in the opposition box were only three passes in the final third was only four. You know, they just didn't penetrate enough. He didn't, he was only 1 for 5 on crosses and 1 for 3 on long balls. When he keeps it simple and keeps the ball moving quickly, I think he can be effective like we saw a couple of games ago. But when he's trying to do too Much. I think it doesn't come together. He is a little, you know, still 25 years old. He's approaching the prime of his career, so he's not going to get crazy. Better. Other than just sort of learning how to play with this group and continuing to develop him. He was in here a little late in terms of coming in and joining the team, but by now I think he'd be on the same page. So we may just be, you know, he's not a DP level game breaking 10. He's a guy that was sort of a middle mid level 10, you know, and maybe it's going to be that he's not going to be the answer going forward when now there's a new DP in town. [00:13:08] Speaker A: Are you feeling like, is that a deal where it's a one or the other thing in terms of starting in between Marino, Moreno and Valiente? [00:13:19] Speaker C: Well, Quill basically has, you know, given that his. He's locked into a back three, which basically means he's going to have four across the midfield, you know, two wing backs and then two double pivot. So he basically has three positions left and he has four players that you might like to see for those three spots. Musa Farrington, now Moreno, that's three. So is Valiante gonna outplay one of those guys or Delgado's five guys for going for those spots? So, like, you get to a point where there's just like someone has to be sacrificed to keep Musa, Farrington and Moreno on the field. And so what is it, one to one, Moreno versus Valiento or Valenti versus Farrington or. No, like any given game, you could see the two tens or you could see the two strikers, you know, or some or other kinds of variations perhaps. But, you know, Quill does have four pretty decent players for that front spot. And if you're going to look at the values of one or any of them together in terms of what they get paid and the amount of scoring they do remember, at the end of the day, it's about scoring and particularly with this team who's trying to outscore you. So, you know, you got to look at the effectiveness of Moose and Farrington, the way that the chaos they create for each other and this team still is at its best when those two guys are playing together. So is it just Moreno versus Valiente then? Or is Quill thinking of like, man, I'm gonna have to sacrifice Farrington to get Moreno on and keep Valiente? I don't know. Those are some tough calls and so far I would say that you really need to keep Farrington and Moose on there together. It doesn't look real good when those guys are both aren't out there. Which worries you in terms of whatever might happen in the second half of the year. But, you know, we're approaching a point, I think, where he's going to have to make a call about, okay, I got to have those two guys, and maybe Moreno's got to play that 10, you know, and Valiente is going to have to sit. And if you have MARINO Is that 10, quote, unquote, both Farrington and Musa like to check back and they like to move and not to create chaos, and so does Marino. So those three guys, I think, would be interchanging a lot. I don't think anybody would be labeled as you're the 10. You're gonna sit in zone 14 and just sit there like it's not. None of those guys are that kind of player, you know, so you would end up with a very fluid, very mobile, very active front three. That's actually kind of exciting, you know, Although it would put a really heavy load on your three guys that are in the double pivot. Capus, Kaik and Ramiro. Of which of those guys now can you look to. To help pass and build a link play, you know, Or. Or are we gonna look at a team that' bypass the midfield completely, which is entirely possible. [00:15:54] Speaker A: Yeah. But going back to the Minnesota game and with this lineup, where in particular do you think it fell apart? [00:16:03] Speaker C: Well, you know, not having Farrington on there for the Minnesota game hurts. Although Farrington hadn't played very well in a couple of games. That was why we suggested Moreno should play. Moreno didn't do really great in that game. You know, he only had. [00:16:19] Speaker A: Does Moreno done great yet? [00:16:21] Speaker C: Yeah, the Seattle game. If you want to talk about those numbers, I will. But he actually did really good in the Seattle game. I know you won't believe me, but I'll read them for you and you'll see. [00:16:30] Speaker A: Okay? [00:16:30] Speaker C: Against. Against Minnesota, he only had 37 touches. So really, like, once Minnesota went into, like, their block, it just became really difficult to break them down. And just. That's why a lot of Dallas shots are from outside the box. That's what Dallas does to other people. [00:16:46] Speaker A: Right? [00:16:46] Speaker C: They. They put seven guys back and they make you shoot from range. So they. They just did to them what Dallas does. Other people. It was just a difficult game to break down and get good quality opportunities. Hence the low xg, hence the low shots on target, hence the shots from range. This team, we've talked about it for a couple years too taught they're not really good about breaking down a block. Right. Not really what they do. So. [00:17:07] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:08] Speaker C: You know, lots of things in this game conspired against them. And Moreno was not particularly good in, in, in that game against Minnesota compared. Certainly compared to what he did in Seattle, which was much, much better. [00:17:19] Speaker A: Dan, any thoughts about the Minnesota game you'd like to share? [00:17:23] Speaker B: I think just for the, the heavy attacking lineup they put out, they, they didn't get out of the blocks like they normally do. Minnesota gets not early goal but relatively early. And then they just, they shut up shop as best they could. They did what Minnesota has done historically against FC Dallas, clog up the middle and just make it a little bit ugly. [00:17:46] Speaker A: It dawns on me that I, because it wasn't in the notes, we did not get into the karate kick and the lack of the red card that wasn't called in the Minnesota game. And I, I had, I look, this is, I think this is the beef with the whole VAR setup, which is you can understand how a center referee misses something, but then it's, that's why you have VAR to miss the what is apparently a clear and obvious error. I mean, I don't know how you look at that and don't go that's isn't that a red card? But Dan, you're going to tell me somebody gave you a different of opinion. [00:18:25] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:18:26] Speaker B: I've been talking to a couple people trying to actually get a call together with pro to kind of get the understanding this. But. [00:18:35] Speaker A: Well, hold on before you go to that. Hold on before you do that. Buzz, do you think that was a red card? [00:18:40] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Okay. [00:18:41] Speaker A: Dan, do you think it was a red card? [00:18:43] Speaker B: I think common sense says it's a red card. Okay, now don't always think officiating is common sense. [00:18:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree 100%. Law 18, go ahead. [00:18:52] Speaker B: So, yeah, so when they're analyzing the decision, there are a ton of considerations that they need to put into place. Direction of travel, right. Both players are running side by side. Mark and Itch. His eyes are on the ball when he, when he jumps because they're, they're not running at each other. They, you know, they take into account how forceful it was. Wasn't particularly. One of the things I never really thought of was the position of the legs. So the fact that his legs are both bent, not locked, takes a lot of the force out of it. The fact that his other foot is not planted, it's off the ground. It. That in itself absorbs a lot of the force. So they, they have these little gray areas and once they get into gray areas and they can't, you know, I think the, the classic example is dog sober. It's like, you know, there's, there's three to five considerations. [00:19:55] Speaker A: Yes. [00:19:56] Speaker B: If it doesn't meet all five, it ain't dogzo. And in this case they're effectively told if you're in the middle round down, so round towards the yellow rather than the red, which Alan Chapman cannot see that he is directly behind Mark and it's body. So he's relying on his linesman. Linesman's obviously not giving him a ton of information there. But var is going to be looking at that saying, okay, well the foot struck the shoulder so it might be reckless but it's not a great risk of an injury. Where I think the example that was brought up in, in the discord was Maxi Aruti when he had the bicycle kick on Ikara and give him a concussion where that was, you know, okay, force wise he's trying to kick us a soccer ball. He's trying to put some force behind it and he catches the guy in the head and oh yeah, he's like out cold on the floor as opposed to rolling around, grabbing his shoulder. So yeah, when they talk about serious, serious foul play, something that endangers the safety of the opponent or uses excessive force or brutality, things like that, the lack of a secondary motion. I think the, the Santi Moreno one had a, had a secondary motion. He, they were running at each other. He was kind of like, you know, 10 yard run, puts his foot up for the ball, immediately retracts it and catches the guy in the body. So they're looking at like that kind of secondary motion or was it intentional? Was it dangerous in itself? Now he was, he was pulling his foot away with Mark and itch. It was just. Foot was kind of planted in the shoulder and then it was away. So there's no like, not retaliation but like a follow through. [00:21:45] Speaker A: And so the conclusion of all of that is what? That's a lot of noise. [00:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly that. There's a lot of noise. And because of that noise they feel that it's not as clear cut as [00:21:58] Speaker A: maybe what did Chapman call it on? Did Chapman just run over and give a yellow because he didn't see it or did he not give anything? I don't remember how this went down. [00:22:06] Speaker B: He gave the yellow. So it might have been the linesman in his ear who Had a better view, but. [00:22:11] Speaker C: Okay. [00:22:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I understand there's a whole process of check marks and figuring it out from the VAR point of view, but my feeling about this is when these situations happen is. Is the incident. We just watched one of those deals where if it's happening to your team, you're like, that's a red card. But if you're on the other team, you're like, no, there's no way that's a red card. Or is this one of those deals where the one team goes, that's a red card. The other team goes, thank God they didn't catch it, because that was totally. Is. That's what that felt like to me. [00:22:40] Speaker B: The way I was looking at it is I thought the Moreno one was worse because he is running straight at the guy. [00:22:47] Speaker A: Oh, fair enough. [00:22:47] Speaker B: Eyes on the guy. And it's foot, head height makes connection forces a concussion test. To me, that was a lot worse than guy catches guy on shoulder. There's a lot of angry rolling around. [00:22:58] Speaker A: Okay, so should we celebrate consistency? [00:23:02] Speaker B: I. I mean, for. For a false. Alan Chapman was very consistent in that game. He let a lot go, which I'm happy to see it. You can. You can be good, you can be crap, but if you're consistently crap, then. All right, great, We've got a soccer game. [00:23:17] Speaker C: Okay. [00:23:18] Speaker A: My. [00:23:19] Speaker C: My problem with that call was that if that's a slide tackle, that's a red card because your cleats first into his ankle. So, like, the fact that you jumped up in the air, it made it a dangerous play on top of being a cleats first impact means it's a red card. [00:23:33] Speaker B: I do. I mean, we obviously go through this with. With handball offside. I do kind of miss when it was a very clear cut. If you start to show and you're off. [00:23:41] Speaker C: Right. You know, I mean, this is. It goes back to the idea that, like, you don't have to hit somebody for it to be a punch. Right. So if you're. If your cleats are going at somebody's chest, doesn't matter how hard you hit them, you might cleanse first into somebody's chest or ankle or whatever, and it's a red card. You can't stud first tackle, so you can't jump up at somebody's studs first even if they weren't there when you jumped. [00:24:06] Speaker B: That's it. We're kind of getting into. The issue isn't with the referee, it's with the laws of the game. [00:24:10] Speaker A: Well, it's always. I Mean, that's always how it is. It's, it's the, the grayness of all the way the rules are written provide all sorts of opportunities. I just remember it was, it didn't feel that long ago where the, the kind of rule of thumb was you're, you're ultimately responsible for your body and where they end up. And to me that felt like that. But I don't know. Anyway, I just thought it was worth having a discussion. You may want to chop that in earlier in the episode. [00:24:39] Speaker B: I mean, I think that's insight that we can offer because of contacts that we have that no one else in this market can offer. So that is a worthwhile discussion. [00:24:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And I also think that that is now a run of a few games where Dallas probably feels a little bit hard done by on some weird decisions. The off call that didn't happen in the, in the game. Was it the LA game? Yeah, I think it's the LA game [00:25:04] Speaker B: and the Musa one. [00:25:05] Speaker A: So you know, they tend to go your way or not over the course of the season. I'm a big believer that they tend up evening out. But right now they're just kind of in a low referee decision biorhythm. So there you are. Now obviously at the end of the Minnesota game, everybody had their hearts thrown up into their throats when Musa goes down and grabs his knee, leaves the game and ultimately ends up not making the trip. Neither does Logan, by the way, to the Seattle game. So before we move on and talk about the Seattle game and what all that looked like, do we know anything about the extent of the Musa situation? Because this is the. Out of all the different Musa outcomes that you could calculate over the course of the next few months, this one wasn't one I had thought about yet. And this would easily be the worst doomiest of all the outcomes if he's blown his knee out and isn't available for either Dallas or Croatia. And unsellable. [00:26:03] Speaker C: Well, Peter, nothing to worry about. It's just a lower body injury. So nothing. [00:26:12] Speaker A: Oh, just the minor lower body injury. Just the super vague lower body injury. [00:26:18] Speaker C: Hangnail. Yeah. And grow toenail. [00:26:20] Speaker A: That's the same thing they report for hemorrhoids. [00:26:24] Speaker C: Yeah, the word I got was that it's not too, not bad and that he was, you know, jovial and fine the next day. So I'm going to take all that as a not serious and hopefully it's just a little, you know, since they were going up there and playing on the grass turf combo. Okay, get on a Plane. We'll see. [00:26:42] Speaker A: How many times have we heard that before? [00:26:44] Speaker C: I know, I know. [00:26:45] Speaker A: Let's start counting. Let us count the ways over the course of the last 10 years where we've heard the oh, it's not a big deal. And we don't see them again for a year. [00:26:53] Speaker C: Particularly under Quill. That's really the case. We get that all the time. Like, ah, it's fine. And then it's like, oh, he's out too much. So, you know, they say that about Julio Anderson. Anderson, Julio. [00:27:03] Speaker A: I mean, Anderson Julio. [00:27:04] Speaker C: Yeah. And Bernie too. I think so. Yeah. But anyway, you know, we got. So we got. What we got is no big deal. He was in a good spirits. Lower body injury. [00:27:14] Speaker A: FC Dallas. Curious specific to this episode. Just act however you wish. Your mileage may vary. [00:27:24] Speaker C: He. [00:27:24] Speaker A: He may be back this weekend. He may be done for the season. So nobody knows. [00:27:29] Speaker C: I have also talked to a couple people that my theory was correct about like Ricky Lewis and Alvar or whatever being basically hidden from the terms of being injured by a sign the North Texas. That apparently is right. So two more guys that are hurt and nobody knows what they're. What's wrong with them And Capis. I did also talk to somebody else that can confirm for me he's been fighting a knock. We were right about that. None of it's on the injury report. None of this. They may have any idea. [00:27:52] Speaker B: So, you know, Capis has been walking wounded. His eyes, his knees always stop immediately after every game. [00:27:59] Speaker C: Yeah, there you go. So like, you know, the fall off in his game is probably almost perfect. Very clearly because of whatever it is he's fighting with that. You know, it's just. They're just super CIA secretive about all this stuff. And it's a shame because people are like people out of the game. You know, it's like he's playing her. Well, they never said that. [00:28:19] Speaker B: Secret if they left Mooses questionable when he was posting on social media from Plano while the team was in Seattle. [00:28:27] Speaker C: Yeah, [00:28:29] Speaker A: yeah. So Saturday night I look at my phone, I'm out. I don't get to watch the game live. And I'm out with my wife and I look at my phone just to see what the lineup looks like. And I'm just going to be flat out honest. There's a dude in the lineup that I have to then Google because I can't remember who he is. [00:28:51] Speaker C: Which one is that? [00:28:52] Speaker A: And I was like, oh, it's the draft pick. That's right. I forgot they drafted this guy Simmons and That's right. He also, I had also forgotten that he had kind of poked in the game late against Minnesota. I don't know what his sudden introduction into the squad is due to Buzz. I don't know if you have any insight into that because I feel like he's just appeared out of the injuries. Is that all it is? [00:29:13] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:13] Speaker A: Has he been playing with North Texas? [00:29:15] Speaker C: He was until he started getting called up to the first team. [00:29:18] Speaker A: But when has he done anything for Byrne Jr? [00:29:21] Speaker C: Well, he's only 19, so he's a, he's a kid that came through a non academy and went to college and then did really, really well as a freshman. The league signed him in Dallas. [00:29:31] Speaker A: He's an old school American player. [00:29:34] Speaker C: Yeah, he is. Except that he's not American. I mean he is, he's from America, but he's also. Is it, is it Jamaica eligible or T in Jamaica? Yeah, Jamaica eligible. He is born in the United States American, but he is eligible for another country. But the point is he came, he's, he's a little raw because he came around the academy system, went into college, but people were really excited about him coming out of college. There's a lot of talk about him and Dallas grabbed him. That's a great pick actually. So for North Texas, you see what you saw in this game for against Seattle, he looked way more confident in this game than he has before with the first team. But with the second team he looks very confident. He hasn't been like scoring a goal a game or anything that's niece is doing that. But you know, there's a whole lot of good stuff here that you see pieces of the size, the physicality. He can play vertically, he can play back to goal big, intimidating, he moves well. He causes chaos in the other team like Ferrington and Musa do. So like there's a, there's a lot to like in terms of like give it a few years and there's going to be a good player here. Like right now he's a little in over his head. I think you could see that against the Seattle game. I'm not going to say he played poorly. I thought he played okay, perfectly fine for the guy that's basically your third choice, nine at 19 years old. So there's some intriguing ideas there, some intriguing physicality there. It's just, you know, Seattle's a good team and he wouldn't, wasn't able to crack them open. But I wasn't upset with how he played. [00:30:56] Speaker A: Yeah, okay. I, I what I was really, I Didn't mean for you to get into that at the. In that depth yet. I was just commenting on the fact that the. The starting 11 for the Seattle game was so bonkers. B team. [00:31:08] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:31:09] Speaker A: I was afraid that one Casey Keller was going to accuse somebody of disrespect. [00:31:15] Speaker C: Yeah, it was. [00:31:17] Speaker A: That is a. I mean, if I had told you in January that Dallas would go to Seattle with that lineup, you would have thought there had been some sort of, you know, a flu bug going around or food poisoning or a plane crash or something. [00:31:34] Speaker C: Well, once you lose Moose and Farrington, you know, then like our chances of winning. This is a coach speak. Our chances of winning in Seattle probably are. Went from 0.1001 to 0 point. [00:31:47] Speaker A: So that's zero. That's the impetus for resting everybody else. [00:31:50] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. You would ordinarily, you'd say it's also turf now. Right now it's this grass turf mix for the World Cup. But you know, they. They've won once there ever. And it's been 15 years since they've won there. You know, it's like Dallas has the longest streak in the history of MLS not beating a team, and that team is Seattle. Right. So like there's every reason in the world to be like, you know what, we'll just throw this one away. We'll play some kids. We'll see what happens. Seattle rotated too. Like Morris, I think got his first start of the year or maybe it's since early, early in the year. He looked really stiff. But you know, they. They rotated a couple of guys in. They took advantage of it as well with their long injury list. So they're still better than Dallas every [00:32:30] Speaker A: way, but yeah, 100%. I'm just gonna sidetrack here. Buzz says grass turf hybrid. I don't want anybody to come away thinking that it's a turf surface in any way. It's the same kind of grass they use in most of the Premier League and European. It just happens to have. In the. In the base of it, there are some turf fibers to help the grass go it grow and keep and give it some stability. It's a grass surface. Yeah. [00:32:56] Speaker C: I'm just saying it's not 100 grass. There's other things happening in it. I didn't want to say it was grass. [00:33:01] Speaker A: 98 grass, 2% turf. Yeah. [00:33:04] Speaker B: Plastic for the underpins, the grass to grow to. So the same thing they put in FC Dallas in the summer a couple years ago. [00:33:12] Speaker C: I just know if I would have said grass, somebody would have said it's not all grass, I mean, so I was trying to be polite. [00:33:18] Speaker A: Well, I got you the other way. [00:33:19] Speaker C: So yeah, [00:33:23] Speaker A: it's, it, it does look good in there to have grass. That is quite crazy how, how good it is. And I will admit straight up, this was the game that I have been dreading for over a year, which is the day Jesus Ferrez scores against his club. And it did happen when they for some reason left him standing wide open all by himself just outside the box to collect an easy pass and finish it, which just. [00:33:47] Speaker B: They were expecting him to be playing right back. [00:33:49] Speaker A: Yeah, something like that. [00:33:51] Speaker C: Well, in your midfield combo was glacially slow Moreiro and 20 year old Benjamin. So yeah, okay, go with him. [00:33:57] Speaker A: So I'm gonna, I'm gonna be again, this is a safe space and I feel like I can be honest with you guys and not be judged. So I turn the game on when I get home from dinner and I watch the first half and I watch Dallas go down 2:1 and get very burned out on watching the misplay passes and turn the ball over and be under attack and it's just kind of. And it got to be halftime and I'm like, okay, I'm tired and I turned the game off and I went to bed and I never bothered to go back and watch the second half. What did I miss? Buzzard? [00:34:28] Speaker C: Well, you missed out because they brought in some of the more starter kind of pieces and played a lot better. So Noah Norris had a great game and Santiago Moreno had a great game. So those are the pieces that you [00:34:40] Speaker A: expected and then see, I'm glad to hear that because I thought Moreno was really disappointing in the first half. [00:34:47] Speaker C: Well, he ended up with 57 touches, which is, you know, twice as much as the previous game. 80 passing for basically a striker or 10. It's amazing. 4 for 4 on dribbles. So go and buy people at 100 rate. Right? Okay. Duels 7 for 9, right? Nice. 5 defensive contributions for a striker. That's amazing. 6 recoveries, also amazing. He had a good game. You know, Dallas didn't win, but he played well. [00:35:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I, I, I, I also want to give him some grace because he's just joined the team and he's had to transfer from one hemisphere southern to northern hemisphere and all of the things that come along with that. I don't expect him to, to be balls out. There was a moment in the first half where he had a really nice dribbling run into the box and I thought he had a really good opportunity to score. But then he just over complicated it too much and he blew the opportunity. Opportunity. [00:35:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:39] Speaker A: And, and there was a little bit of that too much in the first half where I thought he was over complicating things. And that again could just be a lack of familiarity and who he's out there with and especially the fact that he's playing with essentially Burn junior out there. [00:35:53] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Consider he had four chances created. That's pretty good. That's like a key pass, right? One big chance which is you know basically what they call like a. You know that's a blown where they're like you should have scored and didn't in this case. He only had one shot. Yeah he was, he only had one shot but it was on target, you know. So like yeah, I'd like to see him get more opportunities himself but he played good two way ball. You know, he created. He probably had pretty close to the highest XG at XA of anybody on the team I would imagine. I didn't look at it straight up but you know overall it was definitely his best game and it was significantly better than the one on Wednesday. So. So good progression. [00:36:28] Speaker A: So Dan, how do you feel about the decision to essentially mail the game in? [00:36:33] Speaker B: Can I just say something on my owner credit? Because I keep coming back to the same thought every time I see him play and granted small sample size for FC Dallas, he's just not an instinctual player. It's like everything has an extra thought or two before the action. And I felt that really played out in Seattle second half when he kind of got a little bit more comfortable. Certainly felt more like he had a, well a feel for the game. I don't have a problem with that lineup. They have a lot of games coming thick and fast. You've really got to do this reset. You've got your two home games after Red Bull before you go on that nine game road trip. Plus the leagues cup games. Now I asked Will after the Minnesota game. Yeah. How does he feel? The, the home form's not been really what they needed for such a home heavy first half of the season, you know and he gave the very mentality based, you know, playing away, it's the same as playing at home. If you just play in. It's like is it though? So to go into a place they haven't won in 15 years since Brekcher scored. And as the announcers like to point out, the Sasha clashing was just a. A baby at the time and whoever the hell was awful doing play by Play was, wasn't even a consideration. They weren't getting a result there. Your two arguably most important players so far this season out injured. Yeah. Give people minutes, get, get people some reps, get some much needed rest for guys like Uregidde and you know, save it for the, for the winnable games which, you know, that may be in Jersey, that maybe just kind of get everyone back home in one piece and focus on the rail Salt Lake and Vancouver games, which also sound incredibly winnable. That was sarcasm, by the way. [00:38:41] Speaker C: Yeah, I was gonna say. Yeah, I, I think we, we got some answers to some questions too. Like why is the boobo car not playing? There you go. You know, and, and fairness, at his [00:38:56] Speaker B: age, if he just comes into a team without playing a single minute. Yeah, that was, that was exactly what you'd expect. Unbelievably though, Ippy Haga was fantastic next to him. [00:39:06] Speaker C: Yeah, so was Norris. [00:39:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:39:08] Speaker C: And I enjoyed Sam Sarver as a wing back because he did something that no other wing back on this team can do and that, that's build out and line break and have play passes going forward. [00:39:17] Speaker B: And the team went to shit when he got subbed off. [00:39:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:21] Speaker A: Okay, hold on. Okay, see, I saw you say this in your, your three things and again, I didn't see the second half, but I was super frustrated by Sarver. Every time he got the ball, he had a ball played to him and he would try to one touch it and he would blow it into the air and make a really difficult pass to receive for the next player. I just, I thought he looked like a guy who was playing very much out of position. [00:39:45] Speaker C: Yeah, well, he got better. I, you watch second half. [00:39:49] Speaker A: I said that I. [00:39:50] Speaker B: There was a much better, there was a much better balance. They took off Deedson, they brought on Johansson on the left and you just had two pure pace wing backs and you know, there was. Suddenly that team was so much more balanced. Simmons grew into the game, Moreno grew into the game. [00:40:06] Speaker A: Okay, maybe I need to go back and watch. [00:40:07] Speaker B: You suddenly had outlet passes for both sides sides. [00:40:11] Speaker C: And Kai comes in and Capis comes in and all of a sudden now the combos are working. You know, the ball's going forward up the side. Like it's not just hoof it, it's actually like a build out and that was kind of exciting. Now Saver has a long way to go. It's not in terms of playing that role defensively. He has no idea what to do if the defender on that side is a person that talks and communicates well, then he's better off. Like, because I.B. was over when. The times when I.B. was over there, it was better than when they. He and Bakar flipped a lot. IB did. And when Ubukar was over there, it wasn't as good. But, you know, I'm not saying Sarver's gonna be starting anytime soon, but I liked it as an experiment. [00:40:44] Speaker A: Okay. [00:40:45] Speaker C: You know, as an idea. So that was fine. You know, Ben Yami, we learned, man, there's not. The energy is really high, but he doesn't know what to do. [00:40:55] Speaker A: Does that translate to turnover? [00:40:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I think what it translates to is that he was not playing at a level anywhere near this good in terms of the team. Again, these players that they get from these leagues, like the Israeli League or whatever, are just sometimes they're just not up for no level that this league is at. [00:41:10] Speaker A: You know, he may be a baller for North Texas. [00:41:13] Speaker C: Yeah, well, he hadn't played at all. He's not playing for no Texas. [00:41:16] Speaker A: I know. I'm saying. Yeah, but I'm saying just, you know, just stick him down in another league and you'd see the difference between where his shortcomings are. [00:41:23] Speaker C: He'd be amazing. You know, even Johansson, who was one of the, you know, league best kind of player for the league he came from, stepping up to this league is tougher, clearly. You know, so some things that we knew. Delgado, you know, spent the whole game playing high left wing, even though there's no high left wing in this formation. [00:41:40] Speaker A: So what was that all about? [00:41:42] Speaker C: I don't know. I just. I don't know whether there's a language barrier or whether he just says, I don't give a crap. I'm gonna do what I want. He just spent the whole day. Could be the Bojangles. He spent the whole day camping out on top of the wing back, which is dumb. You know, it opened up the middle, I guess, and he had the, like always. He had the one nice moment. It required a world cast save to keep it out. But, like, other than that, he was junk for the rest of it. So, like, nobody did anything really that like, surprised us or made us think, oh, my gosh, that guy needs to get in there. Like, just some nice glimpses from. From Simmons, some nice glimpses from Sarver, you know, and that was. Nolan played great, and then Rano played great, and that was about it until they brought everybody in. [00:42:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I. I think the. The summation of what we've seen over the two games is that this team has the capacity to entertain and be interesting. But man, it is, it is limited to making sure that they have very specific set of players out there. And B, it's largely dependent on who they're playing against. And that's just kind of who they are. And that's what's going to keep them right around the Mendoza Line through the rest of the season. [00:42:48] Speaker C: Yeah, and now maybe people have a better understanding for why Quill has such a short rotation. Like a lot of these guys are probably ones that were saying like, how come I'm not playing? Okay, now you see why you're not Hoya, you know what I mean? Like that's all part of it. So. [00:43:01] Speaker A: Yeah, but see, here's the thing. And this gets into a much larger conversation about the Hunts operation of how they choose to run this club with Zenoda kind of in the lead role, which is a lot of people are making a ton of noise in the last couple of weeks about how good Sandy San Jose is right now under Bruce arena and how, how transformed that team looks under Bruce Arena. And make no mistake, there is zero chance Bruce arena was ever coming to coach in Dallas. But he was available after they fired Nico. But the reason why is because he would require a level of control and say that they are not willing to give up, that they give to Zenoda. And so Quill is a guy who just kind of has to make the meal out of whatever ingredients are given to him. And Bruce is like, no, I will make the meal with the ingredients I get, go out and shop for myself. And that's why San Diego, San Jose looks so good. They went out and got Timo Verner for Christ's sake. So, and, and Bruce has got Timo Verner scoring. And that unto itself might be a Coach of the Year qualification right there. So you know, Bruce has a very [00:44:15] Speaker C: clear way he wants to play and he goes out and gets the guys. He gets a bunch of dudes. They're not, they're. It's not that they're not dudes, but they're good players. [00:44:22] Speaker A: They are experienced, good known quantity players [00:44:26] Speaker C: and they fit specifically the plan and what he's trying to do. It's the. Both the person getting the players and the person coaching the players has the same plan and the same idea and it all fits together. And where we know, we really clearly know here the person getting all the players and the person coaching all the players are not on the same plan. The person getting the players just says here's a pile of flexible players, do what you will. And then the coach has to try and figure it out rather than saying, I'm going to be really, really, really good at this one thing and you're going to have to deal with that. Which is what Bruce does. Yep. [00:44:58] Speaker A: So 100% an interesting exercise. For any of the curious out there that kind of really want to get their head right with what FC Dallas is, is just go just inside of Wikipedia, type in FC Dallas by season and then you're going to get a Wikipedia page that has FC Dallas seasons and you can click on seasons and there's a graph that breaks out every season. It shows you their record, it shows you where they finished in the league, it shows you how they performed in the playoffs or if they qualified or not. And it shows you their US Open cup and supporter shield standing. Just roll down that list and start at about 2004, post when the Hunts got it and just take a look for yourself and come to your own conclusion as to what this club is. And that's where it stands today. And I'm not saying that as a criticism, I'm just saying as a fact of reality that this is who the club is and will probably continue to be for a while now. And I know that sounds like a bummer and I'm being a pessimist and all that stuff, but I'm just, I'm trying to be real with everybody that when we have these games like this, it's going to be better. They'll probably make the playoffs, but that's what this team is. [00:46:10] Speaker C: Yeah, well, when this team had more cohesion between the player acquisition and the team, we got runs under Colin Clark where he had the, you know, got built that team up to weird 20, 2005, 2006, you know, I think it's 2006 is wire to wire. First place might be 2005, but really good team. Right. And then they went to Morrow, did not work out, but they went to Shellis, you know, and he had his 2010 cup run. Never a great team overall, but a really good defensive team in 2010 and he had his cup run and then under Oscar again cohesion of player acquisition and style and what they want to do back to back 60 point season. So for a long time this team was generally speaking better than a lot of everybody else. They had the academy figured out they did pretty good in the farm market with particular value players. They, when they had a dp they were usually pretty good. They weren't crazy expensive. So things kind of worked and they were on average, better than most people. Current era, that's not working. Somehow or another, the focus has shifted to guys that we can buy low and sell high as the number one focus. That doesn't necessarily help you win. So like some. There's a, There's a disconnect for me between the front office of, of trying to make money and trying to win. Coach is trying to win, front office trying to make money. And that's why it's not as good as it used to be. [00:47:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the, it's the post 2016, which was clearly the pinnacle of the, of the club when they won, they won the double, as they call it, and we all felt like it was on the precipice of being a club that was going to be consistently a MLS contender for quite some time. And post that, it's. They've missed the playoff three times. I didn't, you know, they've never, I think they've gotten past the first round of the playoffs twice. In the. Six times they've been to the playoffs. I think it is. Yeah. In the, in the Hunt era, they've only gotten past the quarterfinals twice. They made the semifinals once, and they made the MLS cup and lost MLS cup in 2010. And that's the, that's the extent of their playoff success. [00:47:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:48:00] Speaker A: Again, I don't. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drag this into an overview of just how mediocre the club is. But. But when we see what's happened over the course of the last now, you know, all the draws at home and they're dropping points at home, and we all know they got to collect points at home. It is what it is, and that's just the reality and the state of the team. [00:48:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Since Oscar left and Clavijo passed away. [00:48:23] Speaker A: Well, it's. I call it the Zenoda era. I mean, it's really all. I mean, it's Dan Hunt hiring Andre Zenata or Zenodo to do all this work. And to be fair to him, he's done some good things. I mean, he brought Peter Moussa in here, he signed a few really nice players, but he's also signed a lot of crap and a lot of players that just haven't have completely failed to provide anything. But I do think, to your point, Buzz, the larger problem is that whatever Zenoda is trying to do in terms of execute on a strategy feels very different from whoever of the three coaches he's hired to, you know, make lemonade out of his lemons. [00:49:01] Speaker C: Yeah. Not to harbor the disconnect, but only once in that era have they finished above sixth place. And that was the first season of Nico when they were third, when they had virtually no injuries and everything was magic that particular season. Yeah, it's all come down to Earth. That's 2022. Yeah. [00:49:16] Speaker A: Okay. [00:49:17] Speaker C: Before we move on from Seattle, I want to point out, do you guys remember in the off season when we were talking about the fact that Hassani Dotson was available and that I thought Dallas should go for him? And we thought people said, well, where are you going to play that guy? And we talked about the idea of putting him in the central midfield and turning him into a six and that kind of thing. Well, he played in the double pivot for Seattle yesterday, and his line is amazing. He had 85 touches, which is a huge number, and passed it at 95% clip. And he had 12 defensive contributions, seven of which were interceptions. Seven interceptions, and it was five of eight on his ground duels. So he was phenomenal. So imagine if you had that kind of player performing with his kind of pace and range in the holding mid spot instead of perhaps like Romero. Might be pretty nice. [00:50:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:04] Speaker C: Just saying. You want a quick. You want a quick Sounders game in person review going to Seattle. [00:50:12] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I'm sure it was awesome. [00:50:14] Speaker C: Yeah, well, yeah, it was pretty cool. Saddle. Saddle is very walkable. There's not a lot of parking around the stadium. You got to find parking and then just sort of walk around. Lots of cool stuff down there. Stadium is humongous. It's way too big. I don't know how that team does other than the fact that, of course, it's basically free. I don't know how that team doesn't have their own stadium, but they had 20,000 people in there, you know, and that was a small crowd for them, but it was fun. You know, almost everything around the game was first class. Really well done. They had a band, and the band was like 50 people playing. It wasn't just like three. So they played like before the game and after the game outside, like a marching band, and people gathered around and. And sang Seattle songs. I don't know what they were, but that was really cool. Just the whole presentation was really nice. It was well done. It was a good, good experience. Lots of fun. Lots of Seattle fans. Just like everywhere else, they don't know the rules either, so it's cool. There was a guy two rows in front of me that every time a Seattle player was on the ground, it doesn't Matter why, if he tripped over the ball, if it was good contact, or if it was the foul, he jumped up and screamed foul. Really loud. Is like, dude, like only one of those 12 times you jumped up, was it a foul? The other 12 were fine. Like I just tripped. [00:51:25] Speaker A: Well, with the losses and now leading into the next game, they gotta come home and then travel to the other edge of the country, which is a lot of mileage and travel for one team in the course of a few days. Do we know the extent of Farrington's injury? Injury? [00:51:45] Speaker C: No, we don't. [00:51:45] Speaker A: We know not. Is it a lower body thing again? [00:51:47] Speaker C: It's a lower body injury, yeah. Pivotal lower body injury. I think they all are, except for one. [00:51:52] Speaker A: So we have no idea if any of these guys are available this weekend? [00:51:57] Speaker C: Nope. I'm sure that's the point. Well, I mean, we know that Bernie is out a fair bit, right? We know that Anderson, Julio is out a fair bit. Both those guys, we don't expect back for the World Cup. The fact with both of both Musa and Farrington were questionable means that, you know, maybe they could have gone and they chose not to. Now we have seen guys be questionable in the next week, be out. That has happened. But, you know, if. If things are going the way they're supposed to, from questionable, you become probable. So I'd like to think that both of those guys are going to be potentially be available, you know, a week later for New York. But it brings back in the problem of you now, if you're going to have Valley, Valiente and Romero, you know, four guys for three spots. I think, I think with Romero being a DP and the, the fact he played really well against Seattle, I think you got to continue with that. And I really would like to see him with Farrington and Musa and see what happens. Like up until now, they kind of. If you assumed before Marino got here that it was Farrington, Musa and valiente was the 10, then basically they took off Farington and brought on Marino. Well, okay, let's try it differently. Let's see if. If Musa, Farrington and Moreno works, see how that goes. And then you just have the same decisions as always, which is your three guys for two spots in the midfield, Capis, Kaik and Ramiro Cava still fighting something. So maybe, maybe it'll be Ramiro and Kaik, perhaps that might be the most healthy version of that central midfield pairing. And then if, presumably you're going to see Johansson and more continue as the two wing backs and that leaves Iaga IR Norris as your back three. So there's not a lot of decision points. You know, there's not a wing back that's actually pushing Moore or Johansson. There's no choice there. There's no center back that's pushing any one of the three center backs. You know, the only way there's not. Is if you had a wing back and then Moore could be a center back, then you could talk about sitting Iago, but you can't because Alvaro's apparently hurt and also stinks. And if you, if you needed another center back, I'd tell you to bring up Slate Starnes over Alvaro. The way Slade's playing, you know, so really you just have the two decision points, three of the front four and then the two. Three. Two of the three guys in central midfield and that's it. That's the only changes that really are possible. [00:54:11] Speaker A: All right, so they go up to New Jersey. They face off against New York, who have only won three times this year and they've only won once in. Let's see. Good lord. What is. It's a. It's. It's been a. A not a good run for New York of late. [00:54:27] Speaker C: Or New Jersey. Well, they started the year pretty strong under Bradley. [00:54:29] Speaker A: Yeah, they've won once in the last year, but they've. Yeah, they've lost. They've won once in their last eight and they've lost four and tied three. So they're not in the best. They lost to Cincinnati to nothing. They drew against D.C. that same D.C. team. [00:54:46] Speaker C: Four. [00:54:46] Speaker A: Four. And oh, my gosh, they lost that horrible Montreal team game four to one. Goodness gracious. So, yeah, Dallas maybe got some opportunity. Maybe there's some reason to have some optimism going into to New Jersey. [00:55:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Particularly because you gave everyone a relative resting in Seattle. You now have a week basically to get super fresh and go up there and I think you have a chance to get some points on the road. It's not a given. Obviously. You have to play the game. You can't just assume you're going to. But if you get the good form, good road form version of FC Dallas, that's a winnable game. [00:55:21] Speaker A: All right. Just to get some more Dan in here. Dan, am I off target on my thoughts about the state of the team [00:55:31] Speaker B: that you hit the. Well, yeah, you got it. [00:55:35] Speaker A: I thought you were gonna. Thought you were going to object. [00:55:38] Speaker B: No, no, no, no, no. [00:55:40] Speaker A: Counterpoint me. [00:55:42] Speaker B: If only there was a counterpoint. [00:55:46] Speaker C: I. It just. It goes back to the idea. I think. I don't. I don't want people to assume that we're really sour on the team. It's just, it's a team that cannot afford to not be on. When they're on in all phases, they're pretty good and they can beat most people. Yes, but they're not always on. They're, they're commonly not on. So that's like, you know, if they get an 80 performance, that's not going to be good enough against a lot of MLS, they get 100 performance, then it is good enough against everyone. [00:56:09] Speaker A: Right. They're, they are a mid table team. They historically, you know, in the Zenoda era, are a mid table team and this is just the team that they've put on the table. It's just who's the, it's just who they are. And they're going to win some games and they're going to lose some games and they probably will make the playoffs and probably get knocked out in the first round. [00:56:27] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:56:28] Speaker A: And if they get lucky and get a team that they get the better part of, they get to the quarterfinal, we'll see what happens then. [00:56:34] Speaker C: Yeah. I would feel if Santiago Moreno can continue to progress and actually can become a contributor equivalent to like a Musa or Farrington, then you feel even more optimistic about climbing a bit. But you're not going to get into the top two or three. You know, it's just going to be maybe you're up like 5, 6 rather than like 7, 8 where you are right now. [00:56:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's just the, you know, this is, this is, this is the, the Valley after the peak. Right. There were some people that were doing victory laps after the D.C. game because FC Dallas had won three out of seven, six games against two of those against pretty poor Eastern Conference teams. Only one loss in that time. That's great. Since then, no wins in four, you're going away, you're coming back to play rsl, then Vancouver, then you're heading off to San Jose that we've just spoke about as part of this nine game. You know, you, you kind of just, you're prepping for September, October, well, I guess on the start of November to be hopefully the, the savior of the season. You know, there's nothing to say that with that away schedule the, the old summer swoon where FC Dallas would routinely go a month without scoring. I mean, it is a possibility. And that's not, that's not just on the players, the coaches, technical staff, whatever that is. You know, unfortunately, the situation with that historically horrible away run due to the stadium [00:58:15] Speaker A: well, it is weird because this time a week ago, the team had only lost one game all season. Now we come back and they've lost, they've doubled that and now they're up to three. But it is still only three losses. But the problem has been is they've dropped so many points through tying themselves to death. [00:58:34] Speaker C: Yeah, tie yourself right out of the place. [00:58:36] Speaker A: Right. And, and that's the, and that's the thing. And that's where it's at. So we'll hopefully, I mean, fingers crossed. Whatever superstition you may carry, please execute it now on the health and well being of Farrington, Musa and anybody else that you're concerned about in terms of moving forward and hopefully Iraqi Day and Kappas and Kaik all, you know, are tanned, ready and rested by Saturday. [00:58:59] Speaker C: Hopefully, so. [00:59:00] Speaker A: Hopefully so. All right, very good. Anything else, Football club Dallas you would like to discuss? [00:59:08] Speaker C: I don't think so. [00:59:09] Speaker A: Okay, explain to me how the MLS kit assigner decided to let that happen in Seattle when. What is going on? I. I am so confused about the rules around the kid assignments in Major League Soccer. [00:59:24] Speaker C: Well, there's no more prohibition against life versus light or dark versus dark. I, I imagine that the, they've just [00:59:30] Speaker A: forgotten all the colorblind rules and stuff too. [00:59:34] Speaker C: Well, the, that dark green probably is better for colorblind against the red than the light green is because the light green versus the red is really is a problem for people that are colorblind. You know, obviously that's a game where Dallas should have been in white against whichever color dishwater wearing. Yeah, Dallas, dishwater, fake blue. Whatever it is, wash it with your new jeans. You know, whatever it was, it's like, you know, it wasn't ideal. So not, not a good, not a good kid matchup at all. On the other hand, the Minnesota one was great. I mean, that was a fabulous kid matchup. The. The hoops versus the, the sky blue of Minnesota. So that was really good. And then really bad. As good as it gets. As bad as it gets within two, three days. It's awful. [01:00:18] Speaker A: Very good. Okay, so we'll talk once again next week after the trip to New Jersey. Moving on, let's figure out what else we've got to talk about. So I'm going to run to our new digital run sheet and we're going to move on to North Texas, who also got poo pooed this week. [01:00:39] Speaker C: Yeah, they. They played the first ever home game this season at Minnesota for Minnesota. Minnesota been on the road the whole season. [01:00:48] Speaker A: Why is that? [01:00:49] Speaker C: Cold I guess. I don't know. [01:00:51] Speaker A: Where did they. Where does Minnesota play their two games? [01:00:53] Speaker C: In their main stadium, which is weird that they. [01:00:56] Speaker A: Oh, they do. Okay. [01:00:57] Speaker C: Yeah. So there were like five people there, it looked like. Although again, people. The people are all on the side of the field as the camera cameras. I don't know why. It's not that hard to just have your crowd sit opposite your cameras at a game like that when there's like 100 people there. You know, just have them sit over there. It looks a lot better than. It doesn't say if the place is empty completely. Yeah. But you know, North Texas got a PK late and then didn't convert it. Natty James missed the pk, did a little stutter step thing. Didn't really work very well. But, you know, they played okay. The. The problem is, is that for that team, when they're missing their best four or so players that are all the guys that are down from North Texas from. Sorry, from FC Dallas. Caleb Swan was on the bench for FC Dallas. Nick Simmons was starting for FC Dallas. Ricky Lewis was on the bench for FC Dallas and maybe hurt. Anyway, Alvaro was again neither place. So assuming he's actually hurt as well. Not that Alvaro's being outplayed by Slade Stern, so he's not really the one missing, but when you're missing, you're two of your most lethal attackers and you're missing your best central midfielder, it's not going really well. So they're. They're struggling a bit when they're. Because they're missing those pieces. And on top of that, our friend Diego Garcia, who everybody likes, is just not. It's not working. Like, whatever he's doing is not going because he's not getting FCD all time. And maybe he's not really happy about being in North Texas again. Like, he. He's broke the record. He's only 19 years old, but he broke the record for appearances for North Texas is. That's not good. You know, he's. Maybe he's the quintessential example of a guy that needs to step in between. Maybe he needs a usl something because he's kind of just playing in the games of North Texas. And I don't know whether it looks that way because he doesn't care or because he just isn't good enough. One or the other. It's not working. So that's an issue. [01:02:41] Speaker A: Yeah. But I mean, you and I both buzz the, the. The story of players who come up through the academy, get put into junior and Fail to live up to their potential and not grab those games by the throat and, and boss around. They all end up being Thomas Roberts. [01:03:01] Speaker C: Yeah, he. Well in, in Garcia's case, for a couple of seasons he dominated for that team and looked really, really good. And Quill talked about how much he liked him and he. This would have been the year you would have thought he'd be getting on some benches and starting to get some minutes. But Caleb Swan's past him quite clearly and Garcia's just kind of Biden time it kind of looks like. So he just needs something better than what he's got going on. And then other than that, like, you know, there's. The defense is pretty solid. Like this kid Bigger is a straight up left footed center back at like 6:3. He's really coming into it and getting comfortable. I like the look of that kid. Slane Starnes is playing really, really well. Enzo Newman bizarrely has put on a lot of muscle and it looks really stiff and not at all fluid. And they're making him play center back, which is weird. You know, this sometimes happens when kids are out for like a year with an acl. They can't get enough running in and all and they hit the weights way too much. And that's what it looks like to me. He's lost his flexibility. So that's bad in terms of a guy who came out of college as this flying outside player. On the other hand, I like the Jaden Contreras experiment at wing back. Something I had been wanting to see. I think he's got a little. I want to see him be more impactful, but I really like what he's doing. But other than that, like Dunes is the one who's the real exciting playmaker, you know, leading the league and scoring. He keeps. He's the only guy in the front five that's, that's really creating and that's where they're missing Swan and where they're missing Lewis, where they're missing Simmons. Those are, those are problems of the guys that are filling in just aren't as good. And that's where they're kind of losing out on these games. And that's basically the state of North Texas right now. There's not much to add other than Zach Malamo finally got like two minutes. Not that he, you know, that's not nearly enough. He should be. He should have started every game last year instead of not playing at all at left back. We know why that was. And then I was excited to see Liam Verostek finally make a bench for them. Who's a 16 or 17 year old player I really like left back or left center back who's going to be really, really talented. Eventually was on the bench. And those were both really cool to see. So that's what it is. [01:05:10] Speaker A: All right, well, let's move on to Pegasus. Buzz. [01:05:16] Speaker C: Yeah. If you watch this game, congratulations. You have now seen the worst television sports production that I have ever seen in my life. It was absolutely horrific. [01:05:30] Speaker A: I assume when Buzz watches this, he could not pay one second of attention to anything actually happening. All his professional broadcasting experience is just going haywire. [01:05:43] Speaker C: It was pain, man. You give me 10 kids from the local high school audio video club, I could do better than this. This was so bad. [01:05:51] Speaker A: Is it. Are they just trying to computerize and AI all of this? [01:05:55] Speaker C: No. [01:05:56] Speaker A: Or they have like three people trying to produce and direct all of the games at the same time. [01:06:01] Speaker C: I don't know. It was, it was. For one thing, it was torrential rain, which doesn't help. But there's some very simple things you can do to mitigate a lot of the problems. A lot of the problems were self created because of the pieces of equipment they were using and where they chose to put them. They're trying to do this thing on such a shoestring budget that like half of the equipment is what we call. We call it prosumer, which just means like. Like for you at home it would be a high end camcorder, but for television it's junk and it doesn't have the housing and the coverage and the flaps and the bags. And it's like the lenses are just soaked with water. Water's getting into the cables and it's glitching. And it's like not only that, the people running the cameras don't know how to focus the camera. [01:06:43] Speaker A: What? [01:06:43] Speaker C: The main game camera was crooked so it was running downhill left to where the Acid Al skull was. It's like it was the worst. Cameras are whipping everywhere on air. Like you can't see it. It's like it was the worst production I've ever seen in my life. And on top of that they have this person doing color commentary who must be new because they're an ex super league player. So they must have just quit playing and it was someone valueless commentary. Like here's the. The open of the. I'm sorry to get on a soapbox. The open of the broadcast. They do a graphic. That's the two key players for Brooklyn. And the one on the left is Their striker. And it says her name with her face and it says nine goals. And then under. The girl on the right side of the screen has her name and her face and it says eight assists. And the. And the play by play go. The guy goes, oh, here's the two really key players. So they know up front. And the color commentator goes, yeah, so. And so on the left, she scores a lot of goals. And the girl on the right, she gets a lot of assists. Yeah. Thanks, Captain Obvious. It says goals and assists right there on the graphic. Please tell me why. Ex player who's gone against them. And then they go, and here's Celie Straughan, who is just back from international duty. She's going to start a striker. Yeah, she's really young, but she's important. Thanks. That's some great commentary. You have really helped me understand. And the whole game was like that. On top of, like, the worst technical collapse I've ever seen in my life. [01:08:12] Speaker A: Could Dan and I do a better job oh, my God. Dating an nwsl, I mean, a thousand percent USLSL game? [01:08:22] Speaker C: Yeah, this was the worst. You know, it just was so bad. [01:08:27] Speaker B: I'm offended you even asked that question. [01:08:29] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:08:32] Speaker A: Dan, do you want to do color or play by play? [01:08:35] Speaker C: He would be colored for sure. [01:08:37] Speaker B: I'll be sidelined. [01:08:38] Speaker C: Yeah. One of the comments later in the game was, I think the rain might be a factor because the ball rolls differently when it's wet. [01:08:45] Speaker A: Oh, no, no. [01:08:46] Speaker C: I'm like, are you? Are you? [01:08:48] Speaker A: They really said that? [01:08:49] Speaker C: Yes, the color commentator really said that. I'm not gonna say because the ball [01:08:53] Speaker A: rolls differently when it's wet. [01:08:55] Speaker C: Yeah, when the grass is wet. Balls wet. So the rain might be a factor. And why the passing is not great in this game. You think. You think it's possible the rain was a factor? This torrential downpour that we're witnessing, that's awesome. If it had just been the pictures, it still would have been the worst broadcast I've ever seen. The color commentator made it worse. [01:09:16] Speaker A: All right. I feel like I don't watch enough Trinity, but I feel like they're having a really, really bad season. But I see they're still in fourth place. [01:09:25] Speaker C: Yeah, well, the problem is the two of the last three are at Brooklyn, and Trinity's game is width. You know, big cotton bowl surface. They spread the lines really wide and the two wingers, like, hug the line and it opens up the middle and it allows them to, like, get a little bit going through the middle, even though the middle is not Great. In terms of ball creation. Brooklyn is super, super narrow again. Here was one of the comments. Boy, the field looks a little narrow. That might be effect. You think it's like five feet wide. [01:09:53] Speaker A: So is it narrower than like the old San Jose field or, or. And it's like that NYCFC's field. [01:10:01] Speaker C: Yeah, like NYCFC. Yeah. It's a postage stamp. It's tiny. It's not as short maybe as NYC FC's was where penalty box to penalty box is like 10 yards. It's not that it's short, it's narrow. So like there's like three feet on either side of the penalty box basically that you could play. So they're. Yeah, don't get me started again, dude. It was awful. But okay, I won't. Trinity. Well, Trinity wants to use the wide spaces. They tried to train as Dan told us last week, they tried to train in a narrow setup so that was better. But they still like if you take away their number one, just like SC Dallas, you take away their best game, you're going to be able to handle them. Basically there are three good teams in this league and everybody else is just mediocre and Dallas is the best of the mediocre teams when the less the field is like 5ft wide and then they're not very good. So that was the big problem for them and they just, they only had like, like I think through like 70 minutes. There were like four combined shots in the whole game. It was awful, awful, awful game. It's not good for anybody. But Cameron Lancaster came in off the bench after they had allowed a goal. Cameron last. Lancaster came in and saved the day for Dallas and got them a point on a tie which keeps them one point ahead of DC Power and in fourth place. And it won't matter anyway. They'll get, get smashed by who they play in the playoffs. But you know, at least they're still in it. Three games to go. [01:11:17] Speaker A: Dan, you want to comment? I mean typically this is your wheelhouse. [01:11:22] Speaker B: I didn't watch the game, unfortunately. I, I actually haven't had a chance to watch a ton of Dallas Trinity this season. Unfortunately I've only been to two games since the winter break. [01:11:33] Speaker C: Well, they're leaving themselves some real work to be done. Trinity is because two of their better players are Sealy Straw and. And then today Conan Swan started in midfield. So they're starting two teenagers, both of whom will go to college. Swan's going to UT and I'm going to North Carolina. Dance. That where she's going? [01:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:49] Speaker C: So they're unless they're going to be able to sign them, which you probably can't because those girls will probably get into some money, some wing. So like those are two big holes they're going to have Wisner's retiring Uber, Gogu's 34, Dan. So that's, you know, they're gonna have some work to do in this next offseason. They've also added some nice pieces. Steinbeck, who's on loan, looks good. Flynn in the back is a great addition, really good addition, can play out of the back, really quality center back. So they, you know, the meat on the wing looks legit. So, you know, they've got some pieces, but they're going to have some work to do this winter in terms of not a full rebuild, but a little bit of a rebuild because of both the youth and the veteran that they're going to lose that Wisner being the one that's the most important by far, the captain. [01:12:32] Speaker A: We don't have a lot. We don't have any Atletico Dallas or Rodeo or Fort Worth news because nothing really happened. Although I have one Atletico Dallas thing I'll throw in here a little bit later. But the reason why I bring all that up is that I have spent a little bit of time just kind of sampling NWSL games and USL SL stuff, Trinity in particular, but not like entire games, just kind of checking things out here and there, just kind of watching. And my general observation, which I think is somewhat relatable to whatever is going to happen with the guy side of the USL in the introduction of the USL premiere and kind of the push of USL Championship when Athletico Dallas gets out is that man, the gap between the NWSL and the usl, the USL Women's League is not insignificant. [01:13:26] Speaker C: It is huge. [01:13:27] Speaker A: It is a huge, huge difference. And I think you don't even have to be a hardcore fan of the game to watch an NWSL game and then flip over to the USL stuff and go, whoa. [01:13:41] Speaker C: The analogy I make is it's the same gap here as MLS to MLS next pro and that the second best teams in America are the second strings of the nwsl. Basically. [01:13:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. I completely agree. And it does begin to kind of frame out what people should be setting their expectations for for the early runs of USL Premier as it relates to Major League Soccer. And but the question I keep asking myself is, can USL SL catch up to the NWSL and should it? Is. Isn't. Isn't there almost a better. Isn't it almost better for the game domestically, if you have these kind of different tiers of quality so that players of different qualities can find opportunities to progress. [01:14:35] Speaker C: Yeah, the question will be in the, in the long term is like Super League will need some time to consolidate and become stable, financially stable. Right. Right now the whole thing is kind of on a shoestring. So if they can do that, if they can solidify, then you would hope they can start to pay a little bit more and build themselves towards. I don't know you'll ever catch NWSL and compete, but you can make yourselves a legit, like right there with them. Because NWSL is talking about making a reserve league to be a real Division 2. And that'll mean that they'll start to stockpile players and they'll start to have. Instead of loaning to my kids. Yeah, it'll be, it'll be interesting to see how that all works. But you know, right now the. I don't think the Super League has the money to try and climb and compete with nwsl. Not until they solidify and stabilize. And they'll need a little bit of a larger footprint as part of that. You know, on the guy side, it's a good question. I mean, USL Championship is much closer to MLS than USL Super League is to nwsl, you know, so it'll be interesting to see how the Division 1, USL fits in that space. Is it going to be all that much better than championship? Particularly if you have pro rail in that interior to that league, the best championship teams might be right there with the bad Super Premier teams. Yeah, for usl, that, that, that may almost become like one level in a sense. [01:15:59] Speaker A: You know, I think what I worry about, when I think about how all of this is going to play out and maybe this isn't the time to get into this discussion, which is because of how USL is structured from the fact that everybody's kind of every man for themselves and serves in terms of, you know, you talk about getting the league getting stable. Well, the league can't get stable in the same way Major League Soccer got stable or other professional leagues in the United States get stabilized because there's revenue sharing. There is no revenue sharing going on in usl. And so it's like not only do you have to be every man for yourself, you have to hope the other teams in your league figure it out. Because you might be a absolute revenue machine, but if everybody else in the league sucks, you got to go find somewhere else to do your business. [01:16:46] Speaker C: Yeah, for context, that's what killed the North American Soccer Exactly. [01:16:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:16:50] Speaker C: Cosmos were a money making machine with this roster of superstars that were making, you know, crazy money. Everybody else was a ten thousand dollar shoestring budget, no players operation. And it became one great team and a bunch of, of exhibition games and it killed the league. [01:17:06] Speaker A: And I feel like that happened so long ago, nobody remembers it or even knows as to why. When everybody gets all excited about the USL thing, I just got a thousand questions about how this is going to work based on the structure that I understand it to be today. [01:17:23] Speaker C: You know who remembered the people that founded Major League Soccer? [01:17:25] Speaker A: Yes, yes. [01:17:26] Speaker C: Which is why Major League Soccer is single entity. [01:17:28] Speaker A: Yes. [01:17:28] Speaker C: And it's why it is so far financially surviving and successful when nobody else has been successful here since 1910. [01:17:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:38] Speaker C: Because of this, because of this socialistic revenue sharing which by the way, the NFL has and the NBA has and, and mls. [01:17:45] Speaker A: Yes, yeah. And even to a degree it happens in England in that pyramid. I mean there's all kinds of revenue sharing going on and trickling down from the premier Premier League and they're trying to renegotiate that deal now as we speak. So there's all kinds of that stuff going on. And that's the reason why when I watch the USL sl, I wonder to myself, man, how long, how long can this league sustain with this level of quality and ever find its way to trying to catch up or even getting closer to the nwsl? Yeah, and maybe it shouldn't. And I realize, I recognize that in the eyes of the Federation, they are an equal struggle standing. You know, they're both Division 1 leagues. But I, I mean it's, it's like 1A and 1Q. [01:18:33] Speaker C: Well, keep in mind, you know this, Peter, the division oneness in the United States is a technicality based on 100%, based on certain metrics that you have to meet. And if you meet it, you meet it. It's like usl. I'm sorry, US Soccer doesn't govern the pyramid here. Right. All they do is say if you meet these requirements, you're Division 1, if you meet these requirements, Division 2, like they don't tell people there's only one Division 1. So it's, you know, it's a different kind of world than lots of other countries are. And it, and you're totally right, that the viability of this league is, remains a massive question. You know, the USL Super League in particular, it'll come, is what we're talking about. It'll come down to like the owner's willingness to float this whole thing. As they try and get their feet underneath them. The, The. The. The 10 years that NWSL Head Start has. The. The 10 years it took MLS to get stabilized and they had to go through that chop where they cut teams and then. And trimmed it down to three owners before they could really even get going and survive, you know, So I think it'll be a decade before we know for sure whether the Super League's gonna make it. [01:19:35] Speaker A: Boy howdy. I'm gonna get some emails. All right, well, anything else we need to discuss? [01:19:42] Speaker C: I got one more thing. [01:19:43] Speaker A: Well, one more thing. [01:19:44] Speaker C: I got the F. The League of MX leaving the Mexican federation. [01:19:48] Speaker A: Yes. [01:19:49] Speaker C: I saw this, which reminded me only in the Vegas sense. I don't know the internal metrics of the Premier League splitting off from the fa. Right. But also those guys going independent and pulling in Atlanta, who's a, you know, more valuable team, having their own commissioner certainly seems like a step. Getting rid of relegation seems like a step that has to happen if you're going to merge with mls. So those are the two things I thought of when I saw that. I was like, oh, like the Premier League. And also, here we go. We're a decade away from a merger. [01:20:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I. You know, there are all kinds of people across the globe that hate MLS for its structure, but, man, there's a whole other slice of pie called owners across the globe that think that's a really nifty business model because look at the values of all these MLS team. Teams that have only been around for, you know, 15 to 30 years, and they're already far exceeding all these clubs that have been around for a hundred years, 150 years or whatever, because they can't be relegated. Well, right. Well, it's more than that. [01:20:49] Speaker C: Not the TV money. [01:20:50] Speaker A: No, well, no, but it. I mean, yes, the relegation piece of it is absolutely a factor, but there's a lot of other parts to it, too, in terms of how the. How organized they are in terms of revenue sharing and, and sponsorship skill sets and, and cutting deals to bring in revenue. I mean, clearly that is working very, very well for the league. [01:21:12] Speaker C: Yeah, a lot of NFL owners here that know how to make money. [01:21:15] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:21:17] Speaker C: In a weird way, you could thank Jerry Jones for mls, because Jerry Jones is the one that changed the NFL and taught people how to revenue beyond just the bonkers revenue. And then those guys have now brought that. The ones that are in MLS have now brought that to mls. And those. Those team. Even though the money's not huge here, the revenue is massive for these MLS teams, if they know what they're doing, the guys know what they're doing. [01:21:39] Speaker A: All right. Dan, how's the. We need an update from the Husky [01:21:42] Speaker B: Hive League season finishes tomorrow. [01:21:47] Speaker A: Are you going to do it? [01:21:49] Speaker B: No. Technically it would. I think if we won something stupid like 12 nil, we could win one of the leagues, but yeah, that's not likely. [01:22:00] Speaker A: Okay. How are you? Okay, I guess you want to. Any other updates to how the team's doing both on the scoreboard and on the scale? Because that's the whole point to man versus fat. [01:22:11] Speaker B: Yeah, Looking good. I, I, I scored a really fun little goal in the week. That was, that was about it. [01:22:18] Speaker A: Okay. I love it. Well, better luck next season. [01:22:23] Speaker B: Thanks. They do a funky thing end of every third season. They redraft all the teams. So it's gonna be fun to see how that shakes out. [01:22:31] Speaker A: You'll be in high demand, no doubt. [01:22:34] Speaker B: We'll see one, one thing in the, in the week it came out that George Lay, who played for the Dallas tornado for five years in the 70s, had passed away. He was, but weirdly, he played for Luton. He coached Luton. I actually met him over in England despite the fact that I lived in Dallas and he lived in Austin at the time. Yeah, really, really lovely fella. Had some great stories of Lamar Hunt being cheap and what? [01:23:08] Speaker C: No way. Can't be true. [01:23:10] Speaker A: God, if the Hunt family is cheap in the 2020s, could you imagine how effing cheap they were in the 70s? [01:23:17] Speaker B: Well, he, he told me like they, so like, obviously, you know, the players are all in and NASL at the time playing like second seasons for extra income and you know, a lot of guys from England, Scotland, they're going out together to shows and stuff. They're like, you know, they're parking at the far away parking lot and then they see Lamar walk past from like street parking. This multi billionaire Lamar was great. [01:23:43] Speaker A: Lamar was the everyman who just happened to have a kabillion dollars. [01:23:50] Speaker B: And that's why. [01:23:51] Speaker A: That's right, Exactly. [01:23:53] Speaker C: That's not why. [01:23:55] Speaker B: Well, that's, that's why he kept, that's [01:23:56] Speaker C: why he kept the things right. That's not why he hasn't been correct. [01:23:59] Speaker B: Yes, but, but yeah, George low passed away 80 in the week. Part of like Portsmouth's hall of Fame. He was the semi pro team I worked at Dunspore Town. He, he and his brother Tony played for back in the day. That's, that's actually where I bumped into him wearing an FC Dallas T shirt with a discussion of like how I used to play there, but. Yeah, yeah. And a big part of the youth soccer community in Austin, Round Rock. He was on the Austin. There was a Texans club he coached at and the Austin Sucker. Dillo's indoor team, I think as well. [01:24:40] Speaker A: Well, thank you for sharing that, Dan. The Tornado were a big part of Buzz and I's ute. Yep, those were the days. There's a over at Spectrum on Tuesday nights were in one of my beer leagues. There's a younger age group team that wears Tornado kits. [01:24:56] Speaker C: Nice, Buzz. [01:24:57] Speaker B: That's so cool. [01:24:59] Speaker A: They're sweet too. And they call themselves Tornado. [01:25:02] Speaker C: Every once in a while I wish that that had been the rebrand in 2004 for the. [01:25:07] Speaker A: We all have a lot of regrets about 2004. [01:25:10] Speaker C: I know. All right, Very good charm, Peter. Go for it. [01:25:16] Speaker A: Here we go, Dan. Dismount attempt number three, Dan. Thank you very much, sir. [01:25:25] Speaker B: I got nothing. Just. Just skip straight past me. [01:25:27] Speaker A: All right, Very good, Buzz. Good to see you from afar, my friend. Glad you had a good time at the game. Got to do that. [01:25:34] Speaker C: It's fun. Vancouver's next. [01:25:36] Speaker A: Oh, are you going to go to [01:25:37] Speaker C: that hopefully or Portland. [01:25:40] Speaker B: I can't wait until we get like a Canadian Premier League walkabout. [01:25:45] Speaker A: Yeah. How is your walkabout going to change every now that you're living up there [01:25:49] Speaker C: where you just travel down here? Well, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go to Alaska and drive to Alaska one of these days, but. And back. But I have to figure out like, what's a good time to drive down to Texas and like, see family and stuff. And it may be just like the holidays or something. [01:26:03] Speaker A: Like the reverse walkabout. [01:26:04] Speaker C: Yeah, reverse walkabout. Kind of maybe. [01:26:06] Speaker A: Okay. [01:26:07] Speaker C: Not coming in August was a thousand degrees, but come in the winter when it's actually nice. It'll be warm compared to up here. And then I can come down like, I gotta figure it out. It's a work in progress. [01:26:16] Speaker A: You'll might migrate like birds down here. [01:26:18] Speaker C: Yep. [01:26:19] Speaker B: Okay. [01:26:19] Speaker A: Very good. All right, buddy. Good seeing you again. [01:26:22] Speaker C: Thanks, man. [01:26:23] Speaker A: And thank you. DFW soccer. Curious. Oh, I. I'm. Now I'm ruining the dismount. Atletico Dallas published a video this week. Everybody should go check it out on their YouTube page. It's about Dallas in the 80s. And they. And I. And they asked me to do an interview. I mean, the 90s. Not the 80s. The 90s. [01:26:43] Speaker B: That's really awkward that you're talking about the 80s in a video about the 90s. [01:26:45] Speaker A: Yeah, right, exactly. That's. And they've got me and some other guys in it. You should go check it out if you care about Dallas in the 90s. It's interesting. So there you go. [01:26:55] Speaker C: That's all. Okay. Fourth time's the charm here this time. Richard. [01:26:58] Speaker A: Dan. Thank you, Buzz. Thank you, DFW Curious. Thank you. We will speak to you next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:27:05] Speaker B: But wait, this mall. Third Degree, the Third Degree nap podcast. [01:27:11] Speaker A: Third Degree, the Third Degree Nap podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree n podcast. Third Degree, the Third Degree Nail podcast. [01:27:33] Speaker C: Sam.