[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
Third Degree. The Third Degree. NEP Podcast.
Third Degree. The Third Degree Nap Podcast.
Third Degree. The Third Degree Nap Podcast.
Third Degree.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: The Third Degree.
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Well, hello there, DFW soccer Curious. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast.
Being the much superior American to Buzz and I that he is, Dan Crook is not here because he's paying proper homage and taking the pod off to pay tribute to those who sacrificed the most for our country, while Buzz and I stick to talking soccer because
[00:00:53] Speaker B: I,
[00:00:53] Speaker A: you know, we're just that way. So Dan's not here today, but he is your hero, my hero, everybody's hero. Editor, founder of third degree.net and the original soccer influencer himself, Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Happy Memorial Day, Peter. Glad you could be here with Talk Sucker with me.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Me too.
We got lots to get into before that. I'll just remind everybody that we are nigh close to the World cup and the kick around, the radio show that I do with Andy Swift will be converting itself back to its original form, which is World cup kick around, which we have done for the three previous World Cups. Nightly, at least hour, if not hour and a half. Long live radio shows on the ticket after the hard line at 7pm Just kind of getting into what. What has happened that day in the World cup, what is going on in that moment? Because there's shows where we're doing shows when there are games going on and then even after the fact. So the full schedule and everything is all up on our website, thekickaround.com along with the group and team memorization tool and the World cup kit Cup. Which one is the nerdier thing that I built? I'll let you decide. Buzz, have you completed the World cup kit cup yet?
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I did it twice and I got the same answer both times.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: And who did you. Who'd you select? Who was your winner?
[00:02:24] Speaker B: Germany White.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Germany away.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: White.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Oh, Germany Home. Okay.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Yeah, the fancy one with the colors on the come all across the chest.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So since we talked to you last, we added a really cool feature, which is a scorecard. So if you complete the tournament or if you've already completed the tournament and go back to it, there's a new tab at the top that says results. And so we've been keeping in the background a tally of everybody who has previously completed the tournament, and it will show you results for the team, group and overall level. So there you go.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: It's lots of fun.
[00:03:01] Speaker A: It is cool. So go check those things
[email protected] and the radio show will begin on Wednesday, June 10, the Saturday before, in our normal 2 to 4 slot. On Saturdays we'll have a giant preview show. And yes, Lars Severston is coming over from Europe to do this show with us as well.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Is he actually going to be here in. In person with you?
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: Oh, that's very cool.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we're flying him over and he's. We're putting him up somewhere and he's here for the entirety of the tournament.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: All right, awesome.
I probably should mention to everybody that because of the World cup and because FC Dallas is going on hiatus and Dallas Trinity is done, and other teams like Athletico and Rodeo, we're not playing yet. And North Texas has two games before they shut down for the World Cup. Like, basically there's nothing to talk about on the podcast for a good two month window. So the podcast will go sort of into a holding pattern.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Stasis.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Yeah, stasis. You know, most of which is because Peter can't be here at all.
So Dan and I will be, you know, observing and following along. And if there's FC Dallas news or, or Atletico news or Trinity news or World cup news that has somehow related so the Metroplex, then we will do some things. There might be an episode or two throughout there, but we're gonna sort of go into quiet mode for a bit and then we will come back basically, you know, towards the end of the World cup, maybe like the first week of August or maybe this, somewhere around that window, the podcast will resume itself. Because with no other soccer in the world happening but the World cup, that's not our area of expertise. You have the kick around for that, you have other people for that.
So we'll just be enjoying it like everybody else was. But we're not going away. We're just taking a small break and we'll be back.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: It is quite remarkable the amount of soccer content that is available to us currently and in the coming few weeks, all of the different series that are on tv, all of the documentaries and podcasts, too many documentaries. It's just. Yeah, it's. It's ridiculous. The. The Vice one with Pablo Mara is actually quite good.
I'm not sure it's retelling a story we all haven't heard a lot, but it's probably really good for relatively new people to it. The HBO documentary is turning out to be a massive disappointment.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Is that the one the current team?
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Yeah, it's the one that they've been shooting for four years and they've only released two episodes. But the director confirmed for me what I was really worried about after the first episode, which was they purposefully has essentially left out the entire Raina Burhalter controversy. And he claims it's because as a, as he says, he's a proper journalist. He didn't have the time or ability to give it proper coverage because it was just too complicated. And I called bullshit on that in the best way. And if you want to hear my crazy. Do you want to hear my crazy conspiracy theory?
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Yeah, go.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: My crazy conspiracy theory is, is that he actually. Because he is a noted journalist by trade, I suspect he actually did shoot an entire edit that includes the entire controversy. But when it became more and more clear that Reyna was going to get included in the roster, the federation said, you need to take that out because that's going to cause problems with him being back in the team.
That's a conspiracy theory. I've not heard that anywhere. I'm just, I'm making that up off the top of my head and pulling it out of my butt. So. Yeah, but it make. You can kind of see how it makes sense.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm one of those people that thinks that the stuff that happened with Raina should disqualify him probably from ever getting called up anymore. You know, it's. I, I think it's, it's not the same, but it's of the same vintage as the Harks when all the stuff, you know, that really just destroys your team, you know. And I'm amazed they called him up again.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And I, you know, I never could figure out if the worst part of that entire story was him throwing a hissy fit as a teenager or if it was his parents ridiculous revenge tactic after the fact. And I suspect it's the parental part of it that was the worst part of all of that, you know, and he was, you know, just a kid and hopefully matures and all that stuff. But I'm. All that aside, I'm still just blown away that tomorrow, Tuesday or whenever somebody listens to this episode is apparently likely them to get called back up to the World Cup. I just, I find that flabbergasting.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: I mean, it was his, his. I'm with you. It's probably the parent stuff. But his tantrum was so bad that like I heard about it through back channels, like players told players who told us, you know, like we heard about it back here in the States. That's how awful it was. Well before he actually got it actually became public, like so it's like it was, it was definitely way, way up there.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Yeah. But you know, well, the way that they, the way that's described at the beginning of episode two of this series. Series is is that the Berhalter and Reyna families had a significant disagreement.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: It's pretty poor anyway.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: Vietnam, a conflict.
[00:08:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
So anyway, it's a hype. It's a promotional hype video and maybe that's, you know, my feeling is if you're going to do a hype video, there's nothing wrong with that. Just cop to it though, because maybe that's what the U.S. men's national team and U.S. soccer culture needs right now is just pure hype.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: But don't hide behind journalistic BS and whatever force fields you throw up there. Just admit. Just cop to it, man.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:53] Speaker A: Everybody to understand. So there you go. That's the US against the world on hbo and there's five episodes total coming out. They're only, they've only released two of them.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: So yeah, that doesn't make me really want to watch it, but we'll see.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: It's. I will say this, it's produced really nicely. It's shot extremely well. It's probably over. Over edited, hypey kind of editing in the way that it's done.
But some of the footage, especially the footage in the aftermath of the Copa loss and the scenes after Tim Waya got the red card in the game against Panama on the group stage of the Copa is pretty, pretty interesting stuff.
[00:09:40] Speaker B: So.
[00:09:41] Speaker A: All right, there you go.
Let's move on to things that people really care about on this specific podcast, which is Football Club Dallas, the Burn. We are doing this and recording this after the Is it a surprising 21 win up in Colorado buzz.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: I mean any road win is a little bit of a pleasant surprise. I, you know, Dallas is pretty good on the road and Colorado's not great. So I don't know that I'm going to call it like a crazy surprise, but it's always nice and pleasant surprise to get points on the road.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: So Dallas goes up for the final game before the big break and they do so without Musa who had been and Deets Dietz and both who have been held back for because they had both been called out, called up for the World cup and they also didn't have Ure in the lineup. So we got a bit of a janky lineup and it they haven't. Their record in Denver is terrible as a club and, and so look, they, they Got a couple of. I mean, this is, this is one of those weird games where you get a win, you say it was ugly, but you can't, you know, you can't deny any win. All wins are good and you just take them as you get them and you move on. And we'll wait and see what happens in two months.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, we remember coming out of the San Jose game, we talked about what a good team win that was. It was a collective strong performance. This was not that.
This was a collective really poor performance.
You know, FC Dallas as a group had five total shots and only two of those are on target. Those two that are on target are the two PKs.
So that means they only had three shots in the run of play and none of those three shots were on target. That is a brutally bad team collective performance, particularly when we talk about how this team needs a good. Needs to create chances in good position to be able to be successful. And this they did not have. And, and it's the two players they were missing.
Oz is not a guy that helps with your ability to create to get chances, quality chances, Musa is, but more about the finishing of them than the getting them. So like to not even get a quality set of opportunities at all. I mean, they're down to 34 possession, which is brutal. And they're 1.76 XG when Colorado had a 1.6 XG from 17 shots. Most of Dallas's XG is more than likely the two PKs, because I think a PK is about a 0.75 XG generally speaking. So, you know, if you take away those two things, that's like a 0.3 XG for Dallas, which is brutally terrible bad. It's just an overall really poor performance.
And as I joked in my three things and at the end that they had six central midfielders in the game for the bulk of it and none of them could pass, build line, break, dribble, pass anybody, and essentially just play soccer at all.
They just got absolutely manhandled. Except they got too soft.
Accurate, but soft. PK helps from the referee. I can't complain about them not being PKs, because they are. They're just not very rough ones. They're pretty flop over kind of PKs, but they got them and they won.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: You shouldn't, if you love the game of soccer, you should not like those PKs, even if they go in your favor.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: No, they're not PKs that you think are like, oh, that's a foul. It's like it Was like, that's a foul. I guess sort of. I mean they will, you know. Now Dallas over the years has been able to get some wins. They have nine wins in Colorado, so it's not like Seattle where they have one or Vancouver where they have.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: But I feel like it's been a long time since they won in Colorado last.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: It probably has been at Colorado's the team. Like if you're a long term FC Dallas fan, you know that Colorado is a team that's smashed them and knocked them out of the playoffs when they had good teams, dude, more than anybody else. This is the team that's hurt them the most in the playoffs. You know, of late they have to go to Seattle all the time. But historically Colorado was the problem team.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: The last I'm looking right now, the la. You want to guess the last time Dallas won in Colorado?
[00:14:02] Speaker B: 2018.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Would you believe me if I told you it was October 18, 2014?
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Ooh, it's even longer now.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: There were 1, 2, 3, 4 straight ties in the road games after that.
But since then, since then there have been two, three nothing losses and a bunch of other shutouts too.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: This is the 11th place team in the West. Colorado is. They're the youngest team on average age in the league.
You know, this is a team that you want to be able to beat in their home field but nonetheless road life is always hard. So like as you point out, since it's been since 2014, since they beat them there, it just goes to show you how difficult it can be. But this is a team, Dallas, that doesn't get a lot of points on the road under Quill. So yeah, you know, you always feel like they're in it when they have a chance and this proved to be one of those cases because the referee helped them.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: Well, they say you should never apologize for a win, but this was the ugly kind of win and, and especially considering the lineup that you had to roll out. So, you know, I'm the altitude, all of that. By the way, just observationally, before getting the game, what happened in Colorado, that place was relic. I mean that place looked just about as full as I've ever seen. Yeah, well, they had a sporting goods park hut or whatever they're calling it.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: Well, they had a pretty good season last year. That probably helped a little bit. You know, they. Maybe they're finally doing some things to get known in the community. You know, possibly I'm not on the ground in Colorado, so I can't really tell you. But yeah, that was, I think the last couple of years, they've ticked up a little bit in their intendance. You know, people seem to be buying in on the rapids a little bit of late.
They're about to go through that brand tweak or whatever, which I don't know much about, but I thought that was a little odd. They're going to do that, but they're going to do that.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: So the rumor is they're going to start calling that stadium Dick's Hut.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Dick side. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what that means, man.
[00:16:02] Speaker A: I don't either.
I like that Paxton Ericson kid. He's a good player. That's a nice set. I'd pay money to go see that kid play soccer on the regular.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: I guess the weirdest thing in the lineup is, you know, we're continuing to see this. Four central midfielders across.
Ron Benjamin played left back, which was clearly not something he'd ever done before.
He quite egregiously bit hard and led to their goal.
You know, when as a midfielder you can buy trying to step forward and stop that play out, but as a defender you have to be conservative and backpedal and get back and stay back, you know. So not a great defensive performance by Benjamin by any means. Not the kind of performance where you go, oh, I'd like to see some more of that. No, no, I definitely would not like to see more of that.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I. But, you know, it was funny because you and your instant reaction video and you just said it again here a little while ago, verbalize something that was very frustrating watching the game, which was, oh my gosh, we have six center mids out on the field at the same time.
By rule, I think center mids are supposed to be superior passing players, really good at it. And yet there were six center midfielders and Dallas couldn't pass for shit. And that really, really worried me. And I couldn't quite figure out, is it because so many of them are playing out of position and they're being asked to passing ways they're just not used to. I just. It was so bad.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: I don't know. Honestly, I just.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: And they still won the game. That's the crazy part.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: Well, they only won the game because of two PKs. If there's not two BKs, they're not winning that game because there's no creation at all. There's like. You have to look at the central midfielders they're choosing. One of which is. Is Santiago Marino. We're counting him as a central midfielder. Because they're talking about him being a 10. Now historically I think of him as a winger, but SE Dallas keeps talking about him as their new 10, so we include him in that scenario. But Benjamin is a hard working, like moves a fair amount of ground. Valiente hard working, covers a fair amount of ground, presses well, cake covers a fair amount of ground, attacks pretty well. Ramiro does not cover a lot of ground, but does, you know, play pretty good. These are all defensive players, they're all midfielders known for their grit and grind and defensive ability, not for their playmaking, passing, creating. None of these dudes are catalysts. The only guy that's even remotely close to a catalyst is Delgado. And that only happens, I think, when he plays really strong high defense. But this game, because Colorado is in fact a very good possession team and a very good passing out of the back team. So that ability of Dallas to high press them was out the window pretty much.
Which is why I was actually surprised Delgado started because the game that he did really well was the game where he was able to press, take around center backs and create some havoc.
So in this game we got the sort of just walk around Delgado, he spent a big chunk of the game way out over on left wing trying to find some space, which is fine because Santi Marino spent the whole game inside, trying to go inside. So you know, it was an absolute mess of a thing. And while we call them all six midfielders, it was really more like five holding mids and one winger. But still the point holds that Dallas didn't have anybody in the midfield that wanted to dribble past somebody or line break or get some transition. And it was striking to me. The minute they brought Capis in, he immediately like made three straight plays where he turned, dribbled past two dudes and then played a ball off. So like instantly they had the ability to do that because he's the only mid they have that does that. But they don't start him. So I don't know what at this point it's like, it's just this, this is the grindiest grind of all six holding mids I've ever seen in this club. Do you?
But it worked. So this is the Quill Mo. This is the. I can't tell you. It's not the game plan. It sure looks like it's the game plan. And it in the case of this case where they got the pks handed to them, it all worked, which is crazy.
So you want a game missing your two best players. It's Amazing sometimes when you can do that. Yeah.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: I mean, and while they got lucky with the two PKs, they also got lucky that Colorado can't finish a sandwich.
And Sarah had a couple of really nice moments.
I saw somebody tweeting today they thought he might be the best Canadian keeper running right now. Is he. He didn't get a call up. Or maybe they haven't. Oh, they haven't made the Canadian call up yet. That, that comes out tomorrow, too.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: I'm pretty sure he's not getting called up, though.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Well, so it's all interesting and, you know one of those deals where I always feel weird about this because I hate watching this team play this way.
It's not fun, it's not entertaining, and it's, you know, but I, I, I'd
[00:20:46] Speaker B: go so far as to say this is the worst soccer performance of the year for FC Dallas. They did not play in a good soccer at all. What they did was sit back in their two lines of four, and later in a five four. And Colorado had 17 shots, which ordinarily you'd think, man, that's a lot of shots. But only five of them hit the target, and all the ones hit the target were from outside the penalty box, except for one, and it was way over on the left. So, again, like, Dallas's double block is limiting the other team to a low xg, low quality of opportunities, and it's effective. You only need one or two good saves from your keeper, and the other team's not scoring. The only goal they got was when a catastrophic transition mistake happens and they get in on the break.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:29] Speaker B: That wasn't like they were, like, doing their typical passing around. Dallas wasn't in their block. They didn't break anybody down. They just caught Dallas and Benny, I mean, in particular, in a poor transitional moment, and they got in the box. So.
[00:21:41] Speaker A: Okay, so you, you, you, you have done a really good job for the last 15, 20 minutes, reporter style, describing what happened. But I'm curious, in talking about this, what did you, how do you, how do you feel about it as a fan?
[00:21:59] Speaker B: I did not enjoy it at all.
This is not a game I enjoyed.
There are, there are games that Dallas plays in a defensive block where they get forward and they catch the other team in transition. They catch them in some mistakes, they turn them over, they get Adam in a hurry. Those can be fun if you can get 3, 4, 5 really great scoring opportunities. That's exciting. And there have been games where I've enjoyed the games, even though Dallas is Not playing a great soccer game. This game was a bad soccer game and not fun because they didn't create anything. And like I said, like it was driving me bonkers that like none of these six midfielders, none of these dudes can play soccer. And it was like it was just driving me crazy. Yeah.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: And I think the, the question to come out of it is, is because we have seen them produce fun out of this formation. Obviously the reason is because you're missing Peter Musa and you're missing.
I must, I mean I, I don't know how much Ericide has to do with that. Maybe something.
[00:22:59] Speaker B: Well, he's a decent passer out of the back. I will say that. Yeah.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: And, and whatever else. What other other thing that you, you've got that's changed because of these missing Norris. And so I, you know, maybe that's what it is and maybe it's just a reflection of just how this team has so little depth.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Like you, you, your two best defensive passers are Yurgide, who's the second best defensive passer and Nolan Norris. And the broadcast, the home radio guys mentioned that Norris had some sort of little knock. So they precaution wise put him on the bench and subbed him in. But those are your two best passers out of your defense. That definitely limits your ability to transition. Definitely limits your ability to get to high midfielders in positions to do anything. Sure it's a factor but like it, it was just this, just watching this game was just like it was so boring and non fun to watch.
[00:23:49] Speaker A: So does this render you and I like the two old guys and the Muppets just up in the, in the audience just, just pretty much being grumpy old man.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: Well, even if you like, even if you like modern soccer or like defensive soccer, I don't think you would watch FC Dallas play and say boy, that was a lot of fun. There have been a lot of games like the San Jose game I thought was fun. You know the even Vancouver game. The Vancouver game was fun even though they lost. You know, I remember doing my three things on the Vancouver game thinking that was a fun game. That was a great game. You know, great performance by Dallas. Even though they just got unlucky and didn't get the win. This game, man, they were awful and they got lucky and got the win.
It's just a really bad. I can't help but think that like some of them might, maybe not on purpose, but some of them might have mentally been on vacation already. You know, this is the Last game. We're shutting down after this.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Like the, the Philly, Miami six four.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
You know, we're missing Oz. We're miss. Was never playing for this club again, you know, all this kind of stuff, you know. Yeah, yeah.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: This is a weird, this is a very unusual season in the fact that it's the stoppage and all of that. And I, I can't imagine being a player realizing you're just going to be sitting on your butt essentially for two months or alternatively you're getting ready to go play in a World cup for your national team.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: And how that affects you going into these final games.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: MLS has stopped before, but only usually for their opening round. They usually get going again. This one's much longer, you know, and, and plus with Dallas and the whole stadium thing and like, it's just a weird, weird season.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Crazy. And then, you know, there's the whole, you know, sort of Damocles hanging over this team, which is the Petter Musa situation. I mean, we may have watched him play his last game for the team.
Who knows what's going to happen with that guy.
I guess I, the thing was thinking about this the other day.
If he gets sold, I. Is that, is, is that on balance a good thing? Meaning you. The, the, the, the business model of football club Dallas has succeeded.
[00:25:58] Speaker B: Yeah. It would depend on how they, how successful they are with what they do with the money. You know, this club is always, they've, they've said flat out, we're a stepping stone club. They advertise themselves as that.
[00:26:09] Speaker A: That's how they're development club.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Yeah. That's how they appeal to a lot of the signings they make out of South America. And particularly even Musa from Europe was, hey, we're a great stepping stone club. You can put yourself in a shop window here. You know, this is what this club has decided it is, you know, and that's just. If you're gonna be a fan of this team, you have to have that in your brain. You have to understand that this is not lafc, this is not Miami where they're signing big, huge stars and they're winning it all, trying to win it all every year, spending all kinds of money. This is not that team.
So you just have to accept it if you're going to be a fan of this team, that this is the way it is. So, you know, it would not shock me to see people come in for other players than Musa. We've reported that we've passed on to other people's Reporting about the interest in Kaik, I think you can't help but watch this team. If you, if you're scouting this team for Musa, you can't help but notice Irigide play now. He's a bit chaotic and occasionally goes, gets way up field and gets lost. I think that's less appealing to a, to a powerhouse European team. But his skill and the level of play is undeniable.
You know, the guy can absolutely play at a really high level. He's definitely Dallas's best defender without any question, you know. So this summer is a summer of chaos and also we're about to see the league realign its calendar. So this is one of the first big windows where like you might be looking at people across the league either way as I'm now going to sign people from here through to the next summer and. Right. Because next summer is the mini season and then the transition to the winter. So like, you know, there's an easy one year deal to that summer and going forward with one year deals from here on.
So a lot of people, a lot of things are going to change around the league this summer. It's going to be a summer of chaos in that sense.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: Yeah, the, the moose's situation fascinates me because if they sell him, that means one, he had a really good World Cup. But I also think it will come at a lower price than I think people expect. You know, we've joked about 30, 40 million bucks. I don't, I don't think that's any sort of real number. I think, I think the Hunt sell him if they can double their 10 million bucks on him. He is still 28. He's not in that prime buying window, but he is, you know, if there's a, if there's a European team out there that he wants to go to that could benefit from somebody like that guy, it won't surprise us at all if, if he's not here.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: You know, I think, I think 20 million would get them to sell. And I think that there's a boatload of teams in the top five leagues in Europe who could use a striker visibility and for whom 20 million bucks would not be a stretch.
That's a pretty easy number. Like we talk about guys like you can't look at like the bottom of Portugal inspect them to spend 20 million. Well, no, but you can look at the bottom of the Premier League or the bottom of the German league and expect people to maybe spend $20 million without too much trouble.
So there's plenty of teams that could really, you know, I, I don't look at like the top half of the Premier League for him because a team like that, he would go and sit on the bench. Then you're looking at teams like Newcastle who could have, who dropped Almiron or whatever. You know, they, they just had Isyk that they sold for 120 million. They're not going to spend a striker they would buy for 20 million. It's just an example is not going to be walking in and starting. But if you were looking at like mid table Bundesliga, a player like him who's from Croatia would just walk right in, I think, and be like perfectly fit right into their squad, for example, you know, so maybe not Bayern Munich, but maybe like a mid table, you know, German team. You could see that happening. Maybe not Spain, but he did play in Portugal, so maybe Spain's a better fit than I think.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And you know, there's been a lot of really good and healthy conversation about this in your discord. For anybody who is looking for that kind of spirit space, you know, give Buzz, what is it, five bucks a month or something to get access to it.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: And one of the interesting ideas and conversations that come out of it is, you know, the Hunts could keep him around if they just paid him what he deserves for this league in comparison to other strikers who are performing way below him. But then you begin to look at those numbers and you get to see you look at what those salaries are in 20, 26 for those guys. And Peter Musa today is what on 2.5?
[00:30:11] Speaker B: It's 2.45 as the base.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: All right. Yeah.
You know, they're, they're going to have to start that offer by doubling it and he suddenly now becomes the most expensive salary player in club history or very close to it.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: I think Mucho was higher, wasn't he?
[00:30:27] Speaker A: Was he at 5?
[00:30:28] Speaker B: I think he was at 4 something.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I would suspect he would end Musu to get him to stay in lieu of a better offer over in Europe is they're just going to have to money whip him to death. Something the Hunts are completely capable of doing. But will they pull the trigger to do that?
[00:30:44] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the thing is that they don't, they don't tend to do that. They, you know, they don't spend what is Messy on like 20 million a year. That's like they're not doing that.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: He's 2x the entire Dallas salary. Entire Dallas, you know, wage bill.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: I think, I think Musa, Musa is like on his 2.4 is maybe the third, third, second or third biggest contract they've ever had, you know, and so like, for them to go double, that is tough. That's a tough ask for them. This is just how they run their budgets. They just don't do this. So like. Yeah, I mean, it's like, yes, it's possible you could keep Moose and keep him happy. Definitely. He seems to be very happy here.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: But what team was it the other day, this, this later this season they played where Moose's 2.5 was. Not even top five salary on the team they just played. Was it Vancouver?
[00:31:33] Speaker B: It probably would be Vancouver, yeah.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: It was crazy.
So anyway, I, we'll see how it all plays out. I, Again, I. There's a part of me that feels like if they sell him, you gotta, you've gotta be happy for him and you gotta be happy for the club because as advertised, this was the point to all of this.
[00:31:54] Speaker B: Yeah. By the way, I looked up Acosta. He was on a base of 3 and a 4.2, 4.3 guarantee escalator or whatever. Yeah. So still like, still like that's the highest salary they've ever had and Moose is like two. I'm sure he's top three without looking. But you're right, the real question is like, yes, you want to be happy for Musa, but then you have to think to yourself the next part, which I think most people think of themselves. Okay, what are they going to do with that?
[00:32:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: And then you have to look at like, okay, how happy are they would be with Farrington, but they go out and get another striker at the 9, 10 million dollar number, which is what Musa was when they bought him.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: See, I think the, I think the, the X factor in all of this is exactly what you spoke about, which is the, the shifting calendar and the fact that next summer's the first offseason summer, summer off season kind of deal, and now you're into the healthier meteor transfer window before a new season starts. And I think what the club is going to ask the fans to put up with, and it's, and it's a, it's a strategy I don't wholly disagree with, but I'm going to put a caveat there in a second, which is, look, I know you want a Moose replacement today, but the smart spend of our money is to wait until the summer of 27 to use it. The caveat to that. Well, here's the caveat. What if this team continues to perform, it finds itself in fourth place right now. In the west, what if somehow coming out of the window and into that really awful, you know, gauntlet of away games.
Quill has got this team, you know, churning points and you're getting towards the end of the season and you got something working and, you know, you get to the end of the window and you're like, you know, if we just had another striker, really good goal poacher to go along with the beaver.
You see what I'm saying?
[00:33:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
Well, that's where they would point it. Like Santi Moreno. Like you might look at Aniston Julio getting healthy.
[00:33:49] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that's exactly what I know
[00:33:51] Speaker B: this club loves to say. We're going to wait and see how like rather this club's M.O. rather than having this is the winner, we're going to quote, unquote, I'm quoting, selling Musa. And we got another guy lined up right away. Like you hear about deals sometimes. It says this deal's lined up where the, the player is going to get sold, but only if we get the replacement are we going to pull the trigger on the initial sale. But that's not FC Dallas mo. FC Dallas MO is pull the chair, get the money, and then we're going to see what happens. And we'll wait till the next window. Well, the next window would be the winner window, which is no good window. We've just went through that. That's the no good window. So now you're looking at summer of 2027 when they're doing the calendar flip. I mean, I hope you're right. I hope that's. I hope you're not right on this one. I hope that if they're gonna sell Musa that they, that they know what they're gonna do with the money. But I'm. I think because Logan Farrington is pretty good, they honestly might just tell Quill. Well, let's just see what happens with Logan Farrington at the nine and see how that goes. Since we just got you Santi Marino.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And we'll replace your replacement for Farrington is Nick Simmons.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Yeah, it is, it is. You know, Sam Cyber is going great. Sam Cyber model money rolling in, right? Yeah, she is Modelo Jambox today, by the way, out on the lake.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: That was awesome.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: So good. Where did he score a model? I mean, I'm sure I know where he scored it, but that is so good. Yeah. He needs to get out there more, though. He's a little pale looking.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: What a wonderful run. Okay.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: So it wasn't.
There's not Much to talk about this game. It was an ugly win. Again, you never apolog. You I should say this. I'm going to say it. This is like the fourth time I've said it. I'm going to say it again because I don't want anybody to come away from this thinking or just grumpy old guy. You never apologize for a win. But there are elements to what happened in this game that I are red flags to me about how long this is sustainable with this. This group, especially because it's a reflection of its lack of depth. That's. That's the issue.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: Yeah. I do want to have one thing from this game I want to shout out, and that's. I thought Armand Johansson, who was my. My player of the game, I thought he was terrific. And the biggest indicator of that is that Colorado in the first half, Darren Yappy, who's an excellent player, was on Johansson's side and he basically Johansson, obviously with some help from the inside and from the midfielder, but whatever.
Yappy did nothing. So much so that at halftime, Colorado flipped him and Manu, the other winger they have, in order to try and get Yappy going against Ben Yamin. And Manu got shut down by Johansen. And so much so that the minute Johansen subbed out, they flipped Yappy back over to that left side pretty much, pretty quickly. So, like, I just thought there was some recognition from Colorado's in there that, that he was getting handled. Both that side was getting handled really well by Johansson. He had a really terrific game.
And then I thought there was a couple times too where Hansen got forward and contributed well. Now, if this had been a game where Dallas would have been playing some scintillating football, you, somebody, some people might have done some things other than Johansson that would have gotten the man of the match. But in the context of how horrible this game was, Johansson had seven defensive contributions.
You know, pretty solid play across the board, three tackles, some clearances, some recoveries. You know, just a general quality defensive game from. By. From him. And he. And he. And 36 touches. He managed to get forward into the box, got a touch in the box, got three passes into the final third. So, you know, relatively really good game from him because a lot of people have been bagging on him. And you've asked me many times, like, how do I think he's doing? So I thought this was a really good defensive game which. Where he can sometimes be susceptible. So, yeah, strong game by him, I thought.
I don't think he got the World cup either did he?
Because he's been in and out of the same team. Is he in the Sweden team? I don't think he is.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: No. He was called. He's. He's on the auxiliary list and is joining the team when they come over because obviously they're essentially training in his backyard. So.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: Yeah, that's cool.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: He. He got on the auxiliary list. So if somebody gets hurt or whatever, I guess in theory he could get called up for the Sweden.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: For.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: For the Sweden, Yep. All right. So Dallas finds itself in fourth place at the end of all of this, which is.
Okay, that's not, that's, that's not bad.
[00:37:54] Speaker B: Yeah. If you remember, Peter, when we did our predictions at the beginning of the year, I said that if the, if they get a 10 and a 10 hits, they will finish fourth to sixth. So that's right where they are now. The caveat, of course, is that the schedule is front loaded for home games. They played more home games than almost everybody else. The, the. They're going to have this humongous stretch of road games. And those, that stretch of ties at home is like at the end of the season, you may look back and think, boy, those, those four ties in a row, I think it was, are going to cost you. After the D.C. game when they tied St. Louis, tied, the Galaxy lost in Minnesota, lost to Seattle, you know, that little stretch there was before they went
[00:38:32] Speaker A: and beat New York, they're gonna regret that.
[00:38:33] Speaker B: They're gonna regret that little run. I think now it depends, like if they continue to be just crazy nuts on the road, then all bets are off in terms of that. Right. And then, then we'll have to talk about what an insane job Quill's doing, coaching up what is a. Basically a little bit of a subpar talent group compared to the big spending teams in the league. Right. And how credible they are on the road. You have to start talking about platitudes for Quill. But in the meantime, like we had a lot of season left, a lot of road games left, so we'll have to see how they do coming out of the summer and starting off with a couple of road games before they go into leagues cup on the back end.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: I wonder how many people listening are aware of the fact that Dallas's road record is superior to its home record, which is crazy to think that, you know, they went into the season with the front loaded, mostly home game record or schedule and they dropped so many points. They're three, two and four fours, ties, not losses at home. And they're four, two and oh. On the road that's wins, losses and draws the way that together. So it's. It is interesting that the, that they, they've gotten way more points on the road than I think we anticipated. And. And as we worried about dropped way too many points at home.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Then that's typical Quill Mo with his team. Like they were the same way last year. They perform better on the road than at home. So like they still haven't solved whatever it is that makes them not be great at home. I can't help but think it's mentality when.
Yeah, well it could be the instruction. I think it's more about mentality of which construction could be a factor in the sense of like at home you relax and are comfortable, whereas on the road it's like you're surrounded by the enemy if you will. Like it's us against everything and we're gonna fight in battle. We're at home, you're like, oh cool, we're at home and you relax a little bit. That's all. That's what I. This team is so much about their mindset and their willingness to battle and all that kind of stuff. I just think that that's what happens at home. And it could be the atmosphere stinks and they're like, man, playing here sucks. That could be part of it too for all I know.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Interesting stuff. All right, well, the break, the breakthrough has begun and we won't see football club Dallas again for quite some time. In fact, the next home game is kind of crazy to think about. This isn't until.
Hold on, hold on. Don't, don't say it out loud. Isn't until the game in Portland in late July on the 21st or 20. What is it? The 23rd, I think it is.
[00:41:06] Speaker B: You say home game or road game?
[00:41:09] Speaker A: Road game in Portland.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: Yeah. July 22nd in Portland.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: 22nd.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: Yeah. The next home game is September 5th, correct?
[00:41:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Crazy.
[00:41:17] Speaker B: Well now technically there's a home game against Carrot. Getting bored.
Carrot.
Peter.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: League's cup game. Just say league scub game against a Mexican MX team.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: God dang it.
I cannot say this name. It's a mental hang up.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: But quesadillas playing against Case.
[00:41:38] Speaker B: Yeah, those. That teams that, that team's at home for Dallas. But we know that that game will not be a toy stadium. It's like it's going to be somewhere else.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: That's going to be in Mansfield. No, they're not playing it in Mansfield.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: No, I don't think so really? Yeah, I don't think so.
Is that the Mansfield. We determined the Mansfield wasn't going to work.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Wait, no, no, no. They're, I thought the, I thought there was a game. They've got three leagues cup games. One of them we thought they were going to play in Mansfield. One they would play in Mexico and the other one we think they're going to play in Houston. Right.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: Well, Dallas only has one home game of those three and then they have two road games technically. So they're at Chivas and at Toluca.
[00:42:22] Speaker A: I got that backwards. Okay, so you think they're going to play the home game outside of Dallas?
[00:42:28] Speaker B: Yes, because the, the, the first game at Mansfield's new stadium is the July 4th game. So like schedule wise the stadium will be open and available in theory. But that stadium, I don't think that stadium is. I, I, this is just pure speculation on my part. Like they don't, if it was going to be played in that stadium, they would be listing it as being played in that stadium in Mansfield. Right? Why would they not?
And it's still listed as tbd.
So I think that, that maybe they're
[00:42:57] Speaker A: waiting to see if they, if, if ticket sales would justify like they could. I mean the reason why you don't play it in Mansfield is because the stadium isn't big enough to, to accommodate the amount of tickets you think you can sell for it.
But do you really think they can pull more than 8, 000 people for a leagues cup game against a relatively. Yeah. Quesadillas Soccer, Quesadilla fc.
[00:43:22] Speaker B: Yeah, a couple of gringos.
I, I don't know, man. I just don't know. I just think that if it was there they would announce that they would be talking about it, hyping it up, trying to get, you know, and they're not so.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Well, yeah, I wonder.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Like the Toluca game we know is our, it's got listed, it's got Estadio Neo Diaz. I don't know where that is.
It's probably in Toluca, is it not?
[00:43:45] Speaker A: I think, yeah, I think that one is.
[00:43:48] Speaker B: Yes, that game is at Toluca's home stadium.
The chiefest game is still is TBD somewhere in the US Even though it's a road game for the, for FC Dallas.
And then the, the Caratero game is also TB C to be confirmed.
Okay, that's weird. It's weird stuff. But anyway, yep, three road games before those three open, those three leagues cup games. So you know, they, it's not Until September. So I'll think combines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
Yeah, 10 games either on the road or home game at somebody else's stadium for Dallas on the back end of the World cup before they play that home game against Kansas City.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: All right, well, we'll figure that's it for a while. Just put that one to bed for a bit.
[00:44:40] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:44:42] Speaker A: Little burn.
Had a game. And this is. I always forget that this league does the whole shootout thing at the end. They don't have ties.
[00:44:51] Speaker B: Yeah, well, they get one point instead of two if you win the shootout or whatever. It's that silliness. I. I think it's dumb.
Natty James finally scored a game goal against somebody other than Sporting Kansas City. Remember, we told you that all seven of his goals that come against the one team. Ivon scored against somebody else and then Adu Niece also scored again.
Both of those guys are having phenomenal seasons with great numbers. The kind of seasons that you would think, man, surely Dallas is going to look at them at some point. But remember, they're both farm players, so that makes it almost impossible for that to happen.
Short of a much bigger turnover in the Dallas roster this summer than we expect, I would not anticipate seeing either one of those two players come up this back this year because Nice is Belgium and Natty James is from tnt, so not likely to be able to help you this year.
And not much to say about them. They have two more home games. They got St. Louis on the 30th. They're at St. Louis. Excuse me. And then they're at Vancouver on June 10th, and then they shut down for the World cup as well. So they got a couple more games over the next two weeks when Dallas will start.
[00:45:54] Speaker A: Well, they do have the July 4 game, which will be the debut in their new stadium out in Mansfield. And if I wasn't in the middle, if I wasn't balls deep in the World cup and having to do the kick around, I would be there for that game. Because that. That play. By the way, every photograph and all the video I've seen of that new stadium and is there a. Is there a name for it?
[00:46:14] Speaker B: Yeah, Texas Health.
Mansfield Stadium.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: Well, you know, the official name is Mansfield Stadium, but it's got the sponsorship. Texas Health. Right, Mansfield City.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, it looks fantastic and I'm excited for those guys to have. And I'm excited for people in Mansfield to have that down there.
[00:46:31] Speaker B: I. Yeah.
[00:46:32] Speaker A: I'm really curious to find out how success.
Let me put it this way, I think we're going to learn a lot about the soccer market and you know, what is what other teams that are getting ready to start playing or here in the area are facing in terms of ticket sales when we can kind of see how North Texas does in Mansfield.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: Yeah, that stadium only holds 7,500 seats.
[00:47:02] Speaker A: Right.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: So keep that in mind for your leagues cup possibility andor like you're. If you can't sell out 7,500 seats now, that's way more people than come to North Texas games now in Choctaw. By the way, this was their last game in Choctaw.
They. They're both of their road games and then they go to this new place. So, like, we'll have to see if they draw better because right now I think they average about.
I don't know what is on paper. I would say in person it's anywhere from 500 to 1,000 at most. They've been doing it as a home field of at Choctaw. So the stadium is not going to work out if you don't drop more than that.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: No, but see, I think. Yeah, but see, I think, you know, Choctaw always felt like a stopgap and. And there was no connection between that team and Arlington or the surrounding area.
You know, they. I feel like they've gone a. Gone about it the right way and really trying to connect this thing to the community in Mansfield for sure. Say, hey, here's your pro team, guys. Why don't you, you know, are you interested in coming out and supporting this? So that's. That. That to me is going to be an interesting bellwether for the Atletico Dallas's and rodeo SCs and you know, all these other worlds of the world and
[00:48:11] Speaker B: the greater health of Next Pro because this is what the team, the people that are bringing. Bringing in the money that this equity group into Next Pro, this is their model. This is this other location than where your main team plays. Different name. Trying to make them more like minor league baseball teams and sustainable and profitable on their own. This is what those guys want to do. So North Texas is a good model for that.
[00:48:31] Speaker A: Yeah, theoretically. Yeah.
[00:48:33] Speaker B: Well, grass surface too down there.
[00:48:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, so everybody, if, you know, if you're not. If there's, if there's not a game on in the World cup, you make your way to Mansfield and that you care. A World cup game that you care about. Go make your way to Mansfield and go. Go check that out.
All right, let's move on from there and we'll go into Trinity whose season is now over.
And there's other news within the league that we can get into in a second. But Dallas loses their playoff team, their playoff game against Lexington and better luck next season.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: Yeah, they got be pretty handily by Lexington who was the number one team in the league.
Trinity is a possession based team. They need the ball, they want to move their ball around, spread you out. And they only had 46 possession so they got pretty much be at their own game.
It was not a strong performance by them relative to the last couple games of the season where they played really, really well. But against teams that were down near the bottom of the league. Now you play the number one team in the league, it ain't the same, you know. And we saw this season basically turn into a case of three really good teams and then everybody else and Trinity was the best of everybody else but they all those other teams from Trinity on down in the standings were not nearly near good as those top three teams or of which Lexington was the, the bellwether team.
You know. And I think it's a tough end of the season. They had some, you know, some personnel changes in terms of who was playing.
Lexington now goes on to play the Carolina Ascent, who's another really good team.
So like, you know, they had a lot of pieces moving in and out. It's going to lead to what I think is going to be a pretty big turnover this year this, this, this off season for Trinity because in part you have got players like Amber Wisner. Amazing career, she's retiring. I bet she won't be the only one to retire. I bet you there'll be two or three more.
Swanko and Swan and Celie Strawn are both off to college.
But more importantly the league is now two years in and so a lot of those initial contracts that were likely one plus one or maybe a two year deal or two plus one, like those deals are probably all coming up. So like you're going to have I think a big chunk of the roster probably either be out of contract or be on an option the team could decline. So I would think that I would expect there to be kind of a rebuild happening not just for Trinity, but almost really probably a potentially the entire league that's now two years old. You know, across the league you'll see a large number of contracts come up and anyone that's not one of these best three teams, I think you'll see a fair amount of turnover, you know. So it's going to be a really Chaotic summer in terms of player moves is my anticipation, you know, Trinity for specifically, you know, they're losing Wisner in midfield. Balata was hurt at the end of the year a lot.
Stain back, who has looked like a really nice player on loan. Loan probably ends potentially. So at center back, they, the central midfield and center back are where they're going to need to add pieces. Those are tough spots to add pieces. They're good on the flank, they're going to need right at the spine and those are not easy to find. So they got their work cut out for them. I think Trinity does this, this, this offseason.
[00:51:43] Speaker A: You know, I know in your discord, the, the, the Trinity specific portion of the discord, there has been some weird conversations floating around in there about their situation at the Cotton bowl and whether or not the team may end up finding someplace else to play further north. Do you know any more about that? Is there any truth to those rumors?
[00:52:05] Speaker B: I think that's a little bit off. There's some rumors and I know the team's been working on trying to get a training facility, training situation set up.
You know, they're doing what FC Dallas did in the very, very early days, which is training at a high school. That's not an ideal situation. There's no locker rooms there. Players are arriving in their gear and getting in their car after training in their gear. You know, it's not a good setup. It's tough to bring people in there as guests because it's a very locked down, very private campus.
Hockey Day is the name of the school.
I think that they've, I think what they're trying to do because you remember they have an original three year old setup at the Cotton Ball that had a pretty good, was pretty good in terms of the city paying for a lot of the costs initially. So I don't think that they would be bailing out on the Cotton Ball right now. I think this, the stuff that we're hearing about a facility I think is related to a training situation and perhaps some offices, you know, some locker rooms for the players, that kind of thing. That's what I think is happening. Perhaps we're hearing maybe like a, a grapevine, south lake kind of area, like northwest of town, going towards the airport or slightly north of the airport kind of vibe that would be ideal for them.
You know, they're not going to have a stadium with the ground outside, like I said.
But if they could get a situation that was like where Dallas was in the middle years, which was that facility north of the colony. What was the. Those under that stupid blue sky. Blue sky? Yeah, they need a thing like blue sky, but that they own and control. Maybe has a few fields that you can use for your whatever academy type situation you eventually put together. If they're going to go that route or lease out to other teams or clubs or whatever and get some revenue going that way, those things are all really important. I think that probably would be their goal first would be that kind of thing because the cost for that are way below the cost of a stadium when they already have the Cotton bowl and the Neil's, remember are a property development, real estate kind of family. So like the idea to me of like some sort of facility, office training ground like that is right in their wheelhouse. So that's kind of what my expectations are.
[00:54:12] Speaker A: Okay, we should talk about this. And I know this is impacts you directly, which is the news this week that Zephyr Spokane, Zephyr their feet, their women's team, which is in the same league as Dallas Trinity has announced that they are full folding.
[00:54:28] Speaker B: Yeah, they're, they're ceasing operations. They're going to continue with their men's side. Spokane Velocity, I think is, there's a, I'm not privy to much up here other than what I've read in the paper. And to try and make the, the, the long story short, they did not have revenue control of the stadium here. Basically the city of Spokane built a high school soccer stadium. And then when that was being going through the process, multiple teams that I just learned this, this was in the paper. Multiple people tried to get involved and say, hey, we'll throw in some money, let us bring a team there. And one of the guys that talked openly this week was the guy that owns the minor league baseball team and the hockey team here, tried to put together a next pro team affiliated with some of one of the MLS teams and bring it here. And he lost out to the people that put together Zephyr and Velocity mostly in part because they brought in the women's team.
But the thing is, is that the, from, from the talk of the owners like the Revenue has not been there and they, they threw out all this blah, blah, blah, whatever. But at the end of the day, if you don't have revenue control of the venue. We've talked about this a hundred times, Peter, and you know, we've, everybody we know talks about this revenue control not just at the facility but like the area around it. These minor. What is not the top, top tier, what is clearly the second tier, third tier, whatever. You have to have things around it to make it all work. Look at how things are working in Fort Worth where we know the fate of Fair Field is up in the air. And that's going to dictate what happens with that potential franchise. Men's and women's side. Right. So it's the same sort of thing end of the day. Not let revenue control. And I've been trying to talk to people around the league a little bit and my understanding is that nobody in the Super League has broken even yet.
[00:56:12] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
[00:56:14] Speaker B: Is underwater. And at the end of the day, right. You, you need. If you're bringing. If you're launching a league.
We've seen it with every league that's launched here. You have to be able to sustain it for years. 6, 7, 10 years of sustained before everyone starts to feel good about the weather. Like where NWSL is now, where MLS was after year 10 or so. Right. So at the end of the day, you have owners like the Hunts who are billionaires. You know the two Hunt brothers are worth what, like what, 9 billion a piece. And then you have guys like the Athletico owners who owned a company and sold it off and has some cash and now they're putting this team together. But they're not billionaires. They can't compete with the Hunts. Right. They're just sort of normal sort of millionaires. And then you have some owners like what we saw in Spokane, which are people that are just like executives and corporations or whatever and tried to put together an investment group. And one of the people they got investment with, involved with here is a real estate kind of guy who maybe has a little bit of like moving money around sort of shadiness. I'm the stories I hear. And they tried to conglomerate enough money together and they just didn't have enough and they don't have enough and they cannot sustain it for the years that it needs to sustain, especially when they don't have revenue control. So I think that's.
[00:57:25] Speaker A: Or revenue sharing within the league. That's the whole USL thing. Which is so ridiculous to. To me. But.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: Right.
[00:57:32] Speaker A: It's every man for themselves.
[00:57:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And no MLS team really makes money on broadcasting. Like I imagine USL Super League is a self produced broadcast that's like offered
[00:57:41] Speaker A: up to whoever local high school AV teams.
[00:57:44] Speaker B: Yeah. So like we've seen some of the qualities of some of that stuff. So like the Super League in general, like I'm worried about the overall total health of the Super League in the sense that like is everybody got the enough money, like the Neil kind of money to sustain it for six years or so and, and get some stability and not lose like USL leagues. The bottom three or four, five teams in USL leagues come and go all the time. Right. Are we going to see that in Super League as well? And will that be able to sustain and survive and be healthy? And that's where I don't, I don't know what, what the future is going to hold, you know. Yeah, there were, there were strong rumors that there were two other teams that were either considering folding or were going, going to. Nobody else has yet. And you notice we haven't seen a. The season just ended or they got a championship game to come, but no schedules out in terms of like the next season, which should start in August, I guess when they usually start their season. So like right after the World cup that's like two months away, two and a half months away and there's no schedule yet. So, you know, I'm, I'm a little concerned about the whole thing and I think Trinity is one of the healthiest ones. They have third highest attendance, you know, and they have some good sponsors. They have a, they, they draw on like 3,500, sometimes up to 5,000 depending on the game, you know, sometimes less than 3,500. You know, they have some good merch sales, we know that they talk about. So question marks abound, my man.
Question marks abound.
[00:59:08] Speaker A: Interesting future for the sport, especially with all the new stuff coming into town. It's. Yeah, it's going to be wild to watch all this go. All right, so let's see, what else did we have this week in terms of other football around dfw? Rodeo. What did Rodeo do this week?
[00:59:25] Speaker B: Rodeo announced a turf little field downtown Salina. A little venue, a little bar type thing. Exactly like McKinny Chupacabras are doing at TUPs. You know, they're going to have some parties and some stuff like that. It's, it's just part of their brand building for Rodeo. And Chupacabras had a groundbreaking today on theirs at Tufts Brewery. So this kind of thing is pretty common at that level right now. It's a thing everyone's pushing for. They're just going to have some summer soccer events like everybody else is trying to take advantage of the World Cup. Nothing earth shaking, but it's something to be to at least note.
And then the FC Dallas U23s had their first game of their season against 1015, which was funny because Zach Lloyd who coaches the FC Dallas U23s was coaching against his club that he and his wife founded. So his wife was coaching 10, 15. She's a former pro player too, so it's not like she's a chump. But.
So they played each other and Dallas won six nothing because they got a bunch of people back. I'm still getting supposed to get a roster from them this week.
[01:00:22] Speaker A: Okay. And oh, speaking of Atletico, they're.
What is it like a U23 team or what is it that's out there? Right.
[01:00:30] Speaker B: Athletico 2. Yeah, it turns out that they've played three or four games already and Dan sourced some. A couple of picks of them in their kits and they're. They have a black one with blue sleeves and they have a blue one with black sleeves. And so it's. We saw. They got. They're out there playing it's upsl. That's a pretty low level play. That's. I mean it's nationwide elite amateur play really. Basically.
[01:00:51] Speaker A: So it's fancy Sunday league.
[01:00:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it's better than that, but it's not crazy. Better than that?
[01:00:58] Speaker A: Yeah, no, no, it's fancy. It's. It's high. It's more organized. Sunday league.
[01:01:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:03] Speaker A: Level. Yeah, yeah. The teams that are playing in UPSL are the teams that typically are playing in the open one division of your local Sunday league.
[01:01:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's a lot. A lot of these guys are guys that are, you know, right out of college and so they're still pretty much in the prime of their playing career and they're pretty good players. They're just not pros. You know, the best players from college that didn't make it as a pro, you know, in the, in the, the Athletico version, I think has got a good chunk of dudes they borrowed from FORA basically and then a couple of, you know, former Acid Alice guys that are on there and that have not quite made it.
[01:01:38] Speaker A: All right. Well, it's sad that we're. The podcast is going into stasis for a period of time and Dan isn't here to join us.
[01:01:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. It's a weird time like with this big of a break with nobody playing other than like North Texas has two more games games. But when we do North Texas stuff, nobody listens. So the, the biggest thing that's going to happen between now when Dallas plays again is the, the next summer window. This Summer's window opens July 13, so that's in the middle of the World Cup. The window will open up for Incoming players into mls, into dusty Dallas. So, you know, we'll see if they have some activity. You know, you might need to sell some people to get some people in, but it'll be, they'll. That'll happen before they play again.
So, you know, Quail's going to have a nice little two month summer spring camp here in the middle of the season and maybe get a couple players in. You never know, maybe sell a couple players. So it won't shock me to see a different roster from FC Dallas now than, than we did before.
[01:02:35] Speaker A: Okay, before we go, we talked about it a little bit at the beginning. Tomorrow. We're recording this on Monday. Tomorrow the national team roster is being quote unquote revealed despite the fact that it was leaked on Saturday.
You have any thoughts or reaction to that? Since Dallas has four players apparently and one of those is not somehow Tanner Testman.
[01:03:00] Speaker B: Yeah, at the end of the day, I'm not surprised Tanner, because he's been hurt a little bit. Right. So he hasn't been playing much. So I'm not surprised on that one. I, I can't help but think that your guy, is it Johnny Cordoso or whatever that got hurt at the last minute may have cost Tanner a spot in the sense that like they had to probably bring in Rodan to shore that up just in case, you know, the biggest thing on the roster for me is no Diego Luna. And they made Diego Luna the face of their marketing and selling. And he's like one of the faces of a brash, young, exciting, tough as nails, Clint Dempsey style, U.S. national team. He didn't make it. That pisses me off.
[01:03:35] Speaker A: Okay, this is. I'm glad you brought this up because one of the interesting things that I thought about when that news came out was I reflected on the game here in Dallas a few weeks ago when Salt Lake was in town and Luna was playing for them. And we heard that Pochettino's assistant was in the stadium scouting Luna. And I came out of that game thinking, and I don't know if Luna's going to get called up because he did not play well this game. He had that one moment after Shaq brain farted and he had a, you know, and they just essentially let him take a shot from, you know, a little bit of space.
But other than that, Dallas did a really good job on him and I was not impressed by. He just didn't look like he cared very much. And I thought, I wonder if they're going to call him up.
[01:04:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that was not a good game from him. But the thing I'll say about that is that RSL is not nearly as good as the players that would be around him for the national team. Like he would be the third or fourth choice of, of talent on the field any moments. So he's going to sneak up on people from the national team. And I also am a big believer in guts. Like there's a reason why I think Clem Density is the best American player ever and it's because of his guts. And I think Diego Luna is cut from that same cloth and this and our national team, as talented as it is can be really crazy soft and miss some World Cups because in large part because they don't have guts. And I think that kid had guts in spades. And I think it's a miss that he's not in there. Like they need people like him that'll ra rise to the occasion and battle and bleed for his country. Yeah, I think a lot of these guys won't do that. Yeah.
[01:05:12] Speaker A: But I would also say if you think about Rolled on and Burhalter, the two MLS midfielders that did get called up, they really stand out in their games consistently. Like they've been consistently good for their teams for a while and Luna's coming off injury and he just does, you know, it just. I, I kind of get it at this point as much as it disappoints me because I'd love to have a team made up of 11 broken nosed Diego Lunas.
You know he just, he hasn't been super good of late. So yeah, kind of get it.
[01:05:43] Speaker B: I think. I think Bear Halter and rolled in Cost Testman. I think Giorna took Luna spot. I would rather have Geo. I'd rather have Luna than Giorna.
[01:05:52] Speaker A: I think what cost Testman is critical Chris Richards injury because with Chris Richards injury being questionable they had to call in extra center back help or extra defensive help and, and, and Testman's injury was too big of a risk to call him up instead of adding some more defensive depth. Especially if he's going to do. What I think he's going to do is play three in the back and, and he needs to, he needs more center backs to pull that off.
[01:06:21] Speaker B: Well, it's unfortunate that they didn't get a chance to work more with the Testament center back idea because I still think Texas one could be the best one of the best center backs the US has if they would just play him at center back. But they don't.
[01:06:31] Speaker A: I agree. How much of that do you think is Testman, do you think Tanner is like yeah, I'll do it if you ask me to do it or is it like yeah okay, I don't want to do it but you know what I'm saying. And like is, is he putting out a vibe that he wants to play center back?
[01:06:48] Speaker B: He probably doesn't want to play center back but I know for a fact that since he was in the academy I've talked to people around him.
[01:06:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:06:54] Speaker B: That have known that he probably would end up being a center back eventually. And like because like when he was in the academy he was like a 10. He was like a dynamic playmaking. Right. And like the further you go, the further back you drop. So like now he's like an 8 or a 6 and like by the time he's 30 he probably is going to be a center back. And the thing is is that he's tall, he's really good at physical one on one defender and he's got, he's just absolutely gorgeous. He would instantly be the best passer, even better than Richards out of the back on the national team and he can hit these extraordinary long balls. Now Chris Richards is an immaculate passer too. Richards is a better passer than anybody else they got as well. But Testament will be even better. Like those two dudes together would just be an extraordinary center back pairing. But that's, you know, he doesn't. He would have to do it for his national team. Not. Sorry, not actually probably for his club team too in order to do it enough. Probably Testman because he's not a natural center back. So like he would have to like make a real conversion. It's probably too early for that for him but I still wish it would happen because I think he'd be worth crazy money as a center back.
[01:07:56] Speaker A: We'll see. Maybe the federation has pulled a fast one on everybody and purposely leaked out an incorrect roster and what we end up getting tomorrow is going to be some sort of.
[01:08:07] Speaker B: That would be so fun.
[01:08:08] Speaker A: That would be great.
[01:08:09] Speaker B: It would be so fun.
[01:08:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:08:10] Speaker B: I mean I wouldn't even care like what players were different just the to watch the Internet react that being the case would just be. That would just be baller.
[01:08:17] Speaker A: Well thank you very much.
The one file I'll share with the the good curious here. The one weird stat that has taken place out of the World cup kit cup is that as of this morning the number one overall voted shirt was the South Korean away the purple kit.
But what's weird is that when you Break it out by team. It's not even the preferred shirt between it and the home red, but it is the number. But it's the one shirt. The people who love it have by more just barely over the US Stripes jersey, pushed it to the top of the table.
And I find that fascinating because if you're into that kit, man, you. You are. You're pushing that thing all the way along. So there you go.
We'll see how it goes. Now, hopefully, more people start doing this and the numbers start to reflect more people.
A bigger. I mean, statistically, the number of people have done it so far is statistically safe. But I won't be surprised to see if we get 2x the number of people have done it now. It changes quite dramatically by the time the World cup starts happening. So there you go.
All right. Well, Buzz, thank you, sir. I love. I don't know what. What am I gonna do if I'm not talking to you at least once a week?
[01:09:33] Speaker B: You'll have to talk to Andy every day.
[01:09:35] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:09:36] Speaker B: All right. I mean, it's all right.
[01:09:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:09:40] Speaker B: There are worse things to do.
[01:09:42] Speaker A: I like talking to you more than Andy way. Oh, yeah, yeah.
[01:09:45] Speaker B: Hey, I'm here every day. You can just call me up.
[01:09:47] Speaker A: Just call you?
[01:09:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. We'll even get on zoom together and
[01:09:51] Speaker A: act like it's important, like it's a pod episode.
[01:09:54] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:09:56] Speaker A: We put together a run sheet for a conversation.
[01:09:59] Speaker B: No, you have somebody to do that for you for the World Cup. I don't need it for you.
[01:10:03] Speaker A: All right, very good. Well, hopefully all is good with Dan. Hopefully he has a nice World cup too. Buzz, you have a nice World Cup. Thank you very much.
[01:10:12] Speaker B: Thanks for being here. It's been a heck of a first half of the season. Can't wait for the second half.
[01:10:16] Speaker A: Yeah, it'd be fun. It'll be really interesting to see how this thing plays out. And thank you, DFW soccer Curious.
Love you much, and have a great World Cup. And we will speak to you in a bit on the next episode of third degree, the podcast Patrick Sindelgado at 11.
[01:10:33] Speaker B: Duchess versus Colorado.
[01:10:35] Speaker A: Go USA third degree the third degree n podcast third degree the third degree Nepal I guess third degree the third degree never gas third degree third degree.
[01:11:09] Speaker B: It.
