3rd Degree the Podcast #369

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Now I know Diego Garcia is not straight ass so I know Diego Garcia is hurt. Yeah. Third degree the third degree NEPA Guest Third degree the third degree NEPA Guest Third degree the third degree never gas Third degree. Well, hello DFW curious soccer fan. Welcome back to the next episode of third degree the podcast. This is episode 369. Clearly I am not Peter Welton. Peter came back last week raring to go, want to talk about Chicharito and all the great stuff happening. But he is still in recovery mode from the World cup, which of course you can hardly blame him. It was absolute massive avalanche of episodes that he and Andy Swift did on the in Lars dead around the World Cup. So joining me again today to help fill in for Peter and Dan Crook, who's also down for the count, is our good friend Dennis McGowan. Dennis, welcome back to the show. [00:01:07] Speaker B: The injured list is piling up over here. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it is right now. The third degree injury list is ridiculous. It's starting. It's getting longer and longer. I myself feeling a little tight in the chest from the awesome fresh air I'm currently encountering up here in the Pacific Northwest with all these. [00:01:23] Speaker B: We're getting deep in the reserves. [00:01:25] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know who would be up after you. We have to do some real digging. So we have lots and lots to talk about. This is actually a maybe even a quadruple win podcast. People will be, people will be upset he's not here because this is everybody's winning right now, Dennis. [00:01:40] Speaker B: Lots and lots of points racking up. I mean, I guess you don't count Trinity's points in the preseason, but lots of wins piled up this week. [00:01:48] Speaker A: Well, I mean now that you say that they would even be a fifth win. A quadruple quintuple win is that would be quintuple. Something like that. Because they won twice and FC House won twice and North Texas won as well. So everyone's winning, winning. And I guess we'll even throw Athletico Dallas in there with their Chicharito signing. They are still winning that damn thing. I've never seen so much mileage out of one signing. It's incredible, but we've talked that to death. We don't need to talk about Chichiro no more. All right, let's. Let's begin the show with FC Dallas, obviously in leagues Cup. Holy cow. This is not. Well, it is what we expected in the sense that Dennis, we talked about this with Peter and I'm sure I talked about with you even before that Is the idea that there would be roach rotation. Everyone expected rotation. Their own pre game podcast. The. The nice job the guys are doing on that thing. They talked about rotation and it was rotation. Sure enough they. Over two games, Quill got lots of guys half games off, full games off, rested some of his most important players. Man, it didn't matter. FCLS took care of business with a 2 win over Karataro and a 10 win over Achievous of Guadalajara. Two fantastic wins in Lee's Cup, Dennis. And probably not what anyone would have expected. We've talked about how difficult this group is. Maybe the most difficult group that any MLS team has because all of it's on the road. [00:03:07] Speaker B: Yeah, surprising. I think the sentiment going around town before leading up to this tournament. I think people were expecting them to mail it in a little bit given the opponents giving the fact that they've got to go to Mexico still later on this week in a couple days. But they certainly showed up and certainly performed and scored goals when it was necessary. Closed out games. [00:03:29] Speaker A: Yeah, listen, FC Dallas under Eric Quill is one thing you know is that they're gonna fight. There's only been one or two games where they haven't had the mentality over. Out of I don't know how many games he's been in charge now, let's call it 25. Only two, maybe that you could say like the San Diego game was maybe a little flat and there was a game before the World Cup I think where there was a game where everyone was like, we just didn't have it tonight. But most every other time, even when they rotated, man, they brought the intensity. And, and we've talked about a lot on this show in particular that when you're in the parity part of the league, you need that intensity to be able to win games. And it's part of what makes FC Dallas a pretty good road team. And they're continuing that road form in this cut because while one of those games was technically a home game, the Katara game that was on in down in Mansfield. So in a lot of ways it really wasn't a home game. It really was a road game in particular for sure, the chiefest game in San Jose was a road game. It wasn't in Mexico, but. But that was 27,000 or whatever it was, Chivas fans. And it was the travel and all that stuff. And that was a real road game, that one. [00:04:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And they, they set up for Mansfield as they would for any other road game. They stayed in a hotel. The Night before they busted the stadium that morning. So it was. It was very much a road game. And Quills treated it like it was a road game. But yeah, that Chivas game was. Was absolutely a road game. That was a hostile environment. That was probably the most hostile environment that this club has played in in a very long time, at least until this coming week. Again, going down at Toluca. That a little bit more toxic, but we'll see how that goes. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say the last time they played some environments like this would have been the Champions Cup. I think it was called back when Oscar Perea was in charge when they. And they made that run for it in 2017, which really cost him. They signed some veteran players to go for that, and then it cost him at the end of the year. And that was what caught part of what caused the 2017 collapse. If. If you're a fan that's been around long enough, you will remember that. But just in case people out there are not keeping up with the format of this competition this time, this current time, at the end of the group stage, there are two sets of standings. A MLS set of standings and a Liga MX set of standings. In the top four teams in the MLS section and the top four teams in the league MX section advance to the knockout phases of this tournament. FC Dallas. Even with two wins, FC Dallas currently since six cent I can talk sits sixth. That's hard to say actually on with six points. There are some games tomorrow. So by the time after Dallas goes into their game, they will know if some people have effectively eliminated. Eliminated themselves by playing a third game and losing it. What Dallas. The short version of what Dallas will need to do to advance is basically win it to Luca. You're not. It's not likely that you're going to be advanced if you lose there. If you tie and get a point or win the shootout. Still probably not enough. It seems likely that there will be four teams that will end up on nine points. So you're going to need nine points and maybe you might need to outscore some people because the reason Dallas is sixth is they have less goal differential than some of the other teams around them. So that's a quick update on the format, what that means. Dennis. Bottom line is they have to go to Toluca and play to win. [00:06:42] Speaker B: Look, I know a lot of people dislike leagues cup and I know a larger group dislikes it because they seem or they feel that it's replacing open cup. And I agree that this club should be playing in open Cup. No matter what, when the Hunt name is on the trophy, you should be playing for that every year. I don't care. But I don't think that the two are mutually exclusive. I think you can do both. I think if you look at Europe, there are plenty of clubs and there are plenty of leagues that play in multiple competitions across the year. But this format is stupid. [00:07:12] Speaker A: This. [00:07:12] Speaker B: You can. You can win all three games and not make the knockout stages. I. That doesn't make sense to me. [00:07:18] Speaker A: Yeah, well, the Open cup value is a discussion for a different day. And I 100% agree with you about the Hunt name. But before we go too deep in what's going to happen down at Toluca, and I agree with you that this particular current format, the idea, of course, is that they want to have an equal number of League MX teams advance as MLS teams. That's why they did it. They want to have those two. They don't want to have an all MLS Final Four, Final eight, whatever. [00:07:40] Speaker B: They want to have, like the Open Cup. [00:07:43] Speaker A: Right. They want to have the whole Liga thing be happening. So I get that. And this is how they made it work. So that's fine. But before we get into the Toluca part, Dennis, let's talk about those two games. Kerataro, Chivas usa. There are some things that we should talk about that are the same for both games, and then there are some differences. So let's go over some of the similarities. First, across both games, of course, the 3, 5, 2. I call it that, but that we all know that really it's a five because of the way they play it. It's not a 5, 4, 1 because they don't use outside mids. They. It. It's a. You know, it's. It's got a real 10. It's got a second striker, right? It's a real 5, 3, 2. It's just that. Sorry, 3, 5, 2. I got to say it right after I said that's how I'm going to call it, you know, we know that those wing backs will all the time sit back and sit deep. So that was the same, generally speaking, really strong defense across the board. Sir was phenomenal. Both games. [00:08:38] Speaker B: Three in a row for him now. [00:08:40] Speaker A: Yeah, three in a row from him. Nolan Norris and Sebastian Ibiaga played both games, so we'll include them in the collective quality of the defense. Amazingly irrigated, got a game off and Ibbie was in his spot. And they did not look like utter trash like everyone thought they were going to. They gave Shaq Moore a game off again, Ibia in his spot. They look pretty solid. So congrats. Conversation for another day is his role going forward. But great defense in both of these games. And as you said, Dennis Serwa was phenomenal both times. Yeah. [00:09:12] Speaker B: And the other, the other, I think big standout on that back line was Nolan Norris, who is obviously going to miss and we'll get to that in a little bit. But he'll miss the next league game down in Austin for yellow card suspension that he picked up in the last league game. But slotting him into this tournament, he's looked really good and he's looked really professional and he has come up a level I think since last year. [00:09:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I think this last month since the World cup, we're witching, we're watching the. A massive step in a player. He's come back from the World cup break with a maturity and a difference maker. He had the one yellow card like his suspension is mostly coming from. Previously he'd gone like six or seven games without a yellow card. That's a big reduction from him. You can see in his game reading, you can see in his passing, they're using him in the middle of the back three at times. The reason Quill said he went to this back three again was that he thought people had sort of figured out the four a little bit. But also Mexican teams like to cross a lot. So it'll be really interesting. Once this tournament is over and they go to Austin, for example, will they switch it up? Particularly as you mentioned because Norris will be suspended. But for now, the back three continues and what it particularly does well, because you have an extra center back, it tightens the spaces in the back line, makes it hard to hit them on the ground and it makes hard to get crosses in there because you have an extra center back. So. Effective choice by Quill in these two games, don't you think? [00:10:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I think some of that probably also has to do with Bernie Camongo being available and healthy again. They, they moved away from that when Bernie got hurt and now that he's back, they're playing that again. So. [00:10:39] Speaker A: Boy, Quill loves him some Bernie. Right? It's too bad they don't really wing back over there. Now the, the person that probably could play wing back other than him is Josh Torcato. It's actually a position that really, it does well for him because he's got a little bit of ability going forward. More of a defensive minded first back than Bernie Tato. Not really a guy who can be a left center back like Nolan can. Tado is going to be out on the lines where he wants to be. So regular outside back or wing back in this particular case. Josh has been with the U20 World cup though not World Cup CONCACAF Championship qualifying for the World Cup US national team. So that's why he has not been rotating in and out for Bernie. I think, you know there was Quill made a statement about how quite Josh had moved into his circle of trust. The guys in the official podcast were talking about it. So I think once he comes back he is actually on the FC Dallas roster. So I think you might see him start to get some minutes. Jaden Contreras, who's also at the World cup shout out to him as well. He's not. He's on the overflow part of the homegrown roster. So he will go back to North Texas. He's yet to even cement himself as a 100 North Texas starter yet. And Daniel Baron's been playing well in his absence. So different part of their respective pathways. Everybody's different so that's fine. Josh will be get a chance here. I think if they stick with that back three or if they go to a back four with Nolan suspended for a game or even just if they go forward with Nolan as a center back, maybe Josh will get a little more playing time at left back. All right. One particular note, Dennis. I think it's really important. Anderson Julio hurt himself in the Kiratara game. It's been qualified to me as a quote, muscle injury. Exactly which one? It looked like it was actually in his upper body, but who knows? I have no idea. And he'll be out, quote unquote a while. So this the the greatest mystery cavalcade of all time. The current FC Dallas medical staff. We have no idea what's actually wrong with him or how long he'll be out other than it sounds like it's going to be a bit, but I'm not sure. Dennis, that actually isn't a, a a gift to Quill that, that Anderson Julio has now gone out and he's not going to be forced to try and play him. [00:12:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I haven't seen much from Julio since he's joined this club. He's had a couple cool moments but other than that I don't think he's really stood out as a qualified starter here based on what we've seen and based on the way Quill is playing, he just doesn't fit this formation. I don't think. [00:12:58] Speaker A: Yeah, he definitely does either One really. And I think maybe Dennis is an age factor when he's starting to break down a little bit physically. You know, maybe he's not taking care of himself well enough. I'm not really. I'm not qualified to say what Anderson Julio may or may not be doing that's leading to him getting injured. But to come off injury, then immediately get injured to certainly not a good situation. But, you know, when he's making enough money that Quill's gonna feel like he really should be playing him some if he were to come back. So maybe there'll be actually be a chance for him to get some other guys sort of locked in. And by the time Anderson Julio comes back, maybe the window will have provided a player or two, you know, to come in and perhaps. And then things might look very different on the depth chart anyway. All right, there was a little bit of different between these two games, and that is that the Kataro game had something I harp on all the time, which is a really nice shot ratio on target. Shots on target. The Kataro had a lot of nice shots on target. Opposite of that, the Chiefs game had almost none. But there was only one other than the that, because that doesn't count. The one that Musa put off the post because the. The post is not on target. The post doesn't count. But they had a decent xg. And remember, you know, we talk about the XG only in the idea of, like, are you giving yourself good scoring opportunities? But if you have a nice XG and you don't put the ball on target, Dennis, it ain't gonna go in, is it? [00:14:18] Speaker B: That's right. I. I think the. The XG was a little skewed in the first game. There was, I think, one shot that was. That was extremely close range that was turned away. That I think may have cranked it up a little bit, but the point still remains. [00:14:30] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The. My other problem with XG that I don't love very much is that depending on who you looked at, I saw that the. The Achievous game went anywhere from like 1.6, which is what MLS had it at. And then I looked at somebody else and it was zero. Like, there's a lot to be said about who's deciding your xg, but generally speaking, I think the. The Chivas game is certainly an indicator that they're not getting nearly enough quality service to whoever is up front. Vante has some potential, but right now he is not a game breaking string puller. He is not cracking open defenses with his passing from the zone. He's not setting guys up with, you know, eight or nine opportunities in the box. They're not using wings, right? And Bernie is not a crosser. Bernie is a charger into the box. So he's charging into the box of the ball and not finding people. Johansson has been, let's just say, inconsistent. He has moments when he's feeling better and looking better. I would have said, in fact at the Chevas game out in California, where It was only 76 degrees, that for the first 45 minutes or so he looked actually pretty good. And then as he got tired, he started to make mistakes and started losing the ball in places. So he also is not really finding people with balls at their feet in the box, which is when, if your wing backs are not contributing in this particular formation, that puts a lot of weight on your 10 or your off striker who's also not really getting much of the ball. Or when you have a couple midfielders who aren't exactly your deep lying playmakers. Like Romero gets back in the game. He's not a playmaker from back there. Capus is a nice box to box player, but not a playmaker. Kaik is a Energizer Bunny that runs everywhere, but also in certain and most of the time is not particularly a good chance creator. So this the Chivas game, I think Dennis really highlighted the deficiencies in this midfield and the thing that I think is really holding this team back from taking the next step and that's the ability to connect, link and create chances out of midfield. [00:16:35] Speaker B: Well, I think the unfortunate thing here is that the, the best linking string puller player here is actually Musa. [00:16:42] Speaker A: Yeah, well, to be fair, like one of the things we like about Logan Farrington, when he's, when his mind is right and he's in it, like I think it was late in the Chivas game that he can become that player. Like he gets a high number of assists. I thought coming in the year he had a good chance to go like 15 and 10 because he does connect really well. But that doesn't get you the ball from the back to the front. You know, like this team makes its hay right now by capitalizing on mistake from the other team. If they can get you to make a mistake in the mid to the high part of the field and then transitioning quickly, you're not going to see this team build from the back, you know, go out to a wing, come back inside to the 10, play into the box like that. That kind of buildup is not really happening. It breaks down when they get cross midfield. [00:17:28] Speaker B: I think as far as Farrington goes, my personal preference, I like him a little bit better off the bench as a super sub. I think I like his late energy a lot more. Seeing him come in and just in this Chivas game, right, he came on and seven minutes later he put one in the back of the net. [00:17:42] Speaker A: So not specifically about the Toluca 11, let's just talk about that off tracker position. Obviously we know that Peter Musa is going to be the nine, the guy, right? And if you're going to continue to play this three, five, two, you're going to have a tennis type player that is Joaquin Valiente. It could be. Maybe it could be Santi Moreno, although I don't like that so much. It's probably. It's been Patrick and Delgado a little bit, but let's say those names are involved in that sort of role, then the off striker position becomes. Could still be about Delgado could still be about for sure. Logan Ferrington. They tried Sam Sarver again. For me, Sam Sarver is at his best when he's an Energizer Bunny. If you start him, he tries to conserve himself for 90 minutes. Well, we saw what a disaster that was. You need Sam sarver to go 100 or nothing. So he's not ready in terms of his ability or his maturity to be starting because of that quality, because he needs 100% to be impactful in MLS. Would you agree? [00:18:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I think again, like I just said about Farrington, I think Sarver is very much the same. He's a better off the bench super sub. He's a late game changer. He can come in and really change the tone of a game and really speed things up and make an impact in that way. And that's how he did in the game at San Jose when they played there. And that's how he, when he made his appearances earlier in the season. [00:19:04] Speaker A: So those are the two positions I think in the front that are sort of up for debate. And I think if you put, when you put Delgado in there, he tends to go left often way out to the wing, which if Bernie is your left wing back, can be okay because Bernie wants to slash inside. That's not horrible. I prefer perhaps Joaquin Valiente closer to an actual real 10. So really that leaves you with that off chakra position. If it's not going to be Sarver and you don't like Logan, which I could go either way on that, really. Are we looking at Santi Marino as The only sort of choice as that other striker at the minute. Is that how limited it's become? [00:19:41] Speaker B: Well, I think, Buzz, I think you're in a little bit of a hole here because you're looking at Logan Farrington. If he is your guy, then who's behind Moussa? Who is your guy when Musa needs to come off on the 75th, 80th minute, when he's been busting his ass for 80 plus and you know, running back and forth Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, there is nobody else to fall in that nine slot. If Logan's already off striker, who else are you going to put up there? [00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah, well, the answer on paper would be Nick Simmons, but I don't, I don't know that Nick Simmons sitting on the bench just in case of that is worth doing to me. Nick Simmons need to be starting every game for North Texas sc. I mean, like there's there Nick Simmons has value. Nick Simmons has a future and an upside. But like right this minute they ran into the same problem with Caleb Swan. Caleb Swan's the next best midfielder, like sitting on the bench refc Dallas all the time. Well, what good does that do Caleb Swan? Like, that's what part of why not to get ahead of ourselves. He went back to North Texas this week and I feel the same way about Simmons. You know, maybe Clay Holstead will change that equation. So somehow, perhaps you have to think about how do we change that equation if we want Logan to be our starter? How do we change that equation in terms of somebody coming in for Musa? And I think the answer might be just either you just, as you say, leave Logan on the bench and start Santiago Moreno, or you have to understand that either Musa or Logan has to go 90 and if you want to sub out Moussa, then the Logan has to stay. And if you want to sell out Logan, then Moussa has to stay. It's kind of where I think you are if you want to start both of those guys. [00:21:15] Speaker B: What is your take on Moreno? From what you've seen so far, I feel like he's improving. What do you think, Buzz? [00:21:20] Speaker A: Man, the first two games after the World Cup, I thought he was straight garbage. The two league games, but both of these leagues cup games, he's looked better. So much so that I'm now like, all right, if you, you're going to keep doing that, then I'm okay to keep starting you with Peter Musa alongside Peter Musa. Now that's a long, long way from do I want to spend $5 million to buy you those are nowhere near each other. But, but like right this minute like going down to Toluca like I think his experience level as we start to get into Toluca discussion I think Moreno's experience level in big games is worth keeping Logan on the bench going into this game and letting Santiago Moreno take the heat of the start with Musa. Two guys that have played on a bigger stage I think than Logan Frankhampton has till this point. I think that makes some sense to put those two guys in the lineup together for this one. Musa and, and Santiago Marino and to [00:22:25] Speaker B: Lucas is going to be at altitude too. So we've got, you know you're going to get some, some tired legs early and Moreno's been what a 45, 50 minute guy so far. [00:22:34] Speaker A: Yeah but you know that's, it's okay if you go to the bench for a Farrington for him or a Sarver or a Delgado. You know, let's get into this idea really quickly. 3, 5, 2. Presumably Serwa. I keep want to call them serious. Serwa is a no brainer at this point. [00:22:50] Speaker B: Hot hand. [00:22:51] Speaker A: Hot hand. Yeah, you ride them. There's no reason people ask me about rotating a keeper. You don't rotate keepers. They don't need rotation. They don't run rotations. Is about fitness and wearing people out. Keepers don't need to rotate. The only reason you play Collodi is if you're desperate to get him some action and make him feel good. You know, in which case you just put him in North Texas for a game. There's no reason to put him in North Texas game. Not to have a different conversation overall because he's already proven himself way past North Texas. You know, I think that's why the idea was being floated around that only people we were talking to of alone. But then Daniel got hurt and it is what it is. So sir, was the answer Nolan Norris 100 for sure because as you mentioned suspended for Austin anyway. He's young, fresh, no problem. He can go. Bernie's Bernie, Bernie can go no problem. Nobody else can to really play that spot. Anyway. Oz comes back for me and more comes back. This is an all in game. If you get through this game then you worry about Austin. If people are tired you can rotate for Austin or whatever. [00:23:51] Speaker B: You. [00:23:51] Speaker A: I think you bring Johansson back. I don't know what the temperature is going to be like down there. But Johansson again, a player that was at the World cup, he's seen these better environments, is a veteran. I don't really know honestly who is Your backup right back, don't say Shaq Moore, because obviously that's the answer is Shaq Moore and you bring in Iaga. But I think Johansson did better the last couple of games. And so I think you stick with him because Moore is your second best or maybe now your third best center back. Your best three center backs are Moore, Oz, and Norris. So you go with those three. And then rather than bringing in Ibiaga, even though Ibiaga played really good for two games, I think you sick let Abiaga go back to the bench so that you could bring him back against Austin if you need to in Norris's spot. [00:24:37] Speaker B: I could see that. Although, you know, I think Ibiaga might have had a great game too, and may have earned himself another start here. And again, it depends upon what the goal is and you know, what this tournament looks like going into. If they're down by seven goals on goal differential going into this match, you really don't really, you don't want to play too much for it if, you know there's no chance you can make it to the knockout stage anyway. [00:24:57] Speaker A: Some of that may be that I don't think Shockmore is a great wing back anymore. You know, he's a not a bad right back, but a wing back is a different, slightly different animal. And Johansson's a better wing back than he has a right back. So this, this formation plays into Johansson's strengths, which is part of why I think he's looked a little better. I think he's not as good as a pure right back. And like more is more of a classic get to the end and cross it kind of wing back. Now maybe that plays to Peter Musa, but it probably doesn't play to Santiago Moreno. So I'm kind of leaning towards Johansson and letting Ibiaga have a game back on the bench after having two games. And then now that way Ibiaga would be fresh to play for Nolan in the Austin game. It's kind of what I'm kind of [00:25:37] Speaker B: where I'm at on that forecast. I was able to pull that up while we were chatting here. It's actually only gonna be a high of a 68 on Wednesday and raining with almost 50% humidity, so it is. [00:25:50] Speaker A: That sounds like Sweden to me. All right, no brainer. Okay. So Kaik for sure, the Energizer Bunny. I did not see enough from Ramiro in half of a game to say like, oh, yeah, I'm going to Luke and putting them in Capis got a bit of a rest. I Think you go back to Capis over Holstad or Romero? Holstad doesn't have enough experience for a must win game yet. With this group. With this group. I mean, so Kaik plays better with Romero, but Ramiro looked so limited to me, like he, he could barely move in that game. [00:26:29] Speaker B: Well, I know again, it depends upon what his health looks like. I personally, I, if, If Ramiro's at 100%, I want him here, I want him alongside kaik. If he's 100%, I want him in the midfield here. And then let Capis play the Austin game where he's used to playing in that South Texas heat. [00:26:46] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe there's something, as I said, for Ramiro's libertadoras experience, holding the whole team together, Captain sort of leadership. Yeah. You know what? You actually convinced me. I didn't think about it at that level because this will be like playing in the Liberty Doris game, you know, and the Cap is going to play against Austin. I think, I think you're right there. And if Ramiro is really, really struggling, you do have Cabis to come in or whole set to come in and kick the crap out of somebody or whatever you're going to do. All right, so let's, let's pencil in Romero. We already penciled in. Bernie Moose is a lock. I think Valiente is your best 10 over Delgado. That'll be an interesting one. I, I, I, in this particular instance, Delgado's got a chip on his shoulder. I actually like the idea of, like, him as a late gamer, you know, if you're, if you need a goal late, like he could maybe do something a little special because he's that guy, right? He's, he's, he's got a, he's got a little precking in him where he can whip one out of nowhere without, you know, 80% of nothing. And then all of a sudden he just looks like genius and he might [00:27:44] Speaker B: want to come on late and prove himself too. Especially if he's, if he's, if he sat the entire game and he's watching Valiente, who may or may not get it done right. We don't know what he's able to do in this, in this sort of scenario. But to your point, yeah, Delgado coming on late might be the move, you know, especially if there's some, some corners or some free kicks that we need to take. That's, that's a good opportunity for him. [00:28:07] Speaker A: The qualities that Valiante have that I really like, I actually think it plays really well with Musa. And Santi Marino too, is that Valiant is actually a really good presser. Like he's got a really good energy and a quick burst. So like he can play good defense in that higher position, which is a hallmark of what Quill's doing. Like the games we've seen Delgado excel, that's when he's been like that off striker guy instead of the 10. And they've asked him to high press center backs and fullbacks and turn him over. And that's been his best to me. When he's been a starter, that's when he's looked his best. So for me, it's Valiante and as we discussed Santa Moreno and Busa. So that's where we think the 11 is with Romero in there for the, for the game down, the must win game down in Toluca because let's be honest, Dennis going in, I think we all thought rotation was in the cards. They had a. They had one of the toughest groups there was. No one expected them to go through the first two games undefeated, but here they are. So now that you are, you should go for it now. [00:29:03] Speaker B: This definitely felt like looking at this lineup, looking at the schedule and who they were going to be playing through this stretch. This definitely felt like an easy opportunity to lay up, get some North Texas guys some minutes, get some young guys some minutes and just let them get out there and maybe even get them some minutes on the road in Mexico or against tough opponents in hostile environments and something that really didn't matter all that much. But here we are with six points, looking at potentially moving on to the next stage if they win this one and, and are able to hold off the, the rest of the league, so to speak. But now it matters, right? So we went from it not mattering so much and we were going to rotate to, oh, wow, these rotating guys actually came in and did their job. And here we are looking down the barrel of potentially nine points in the, in the group stage. [00:29:44] Speaker A: Yeah, we should clarify that. We, we all knew that Eric Quill's team would show up and play hard, but this team, you know, lacks a certain amount of depth. So when you get into rotation, the, the obvious one was if you don't start Peter Musa, which happened in the first game, the Katara game, and then if you don't start Irgide, which happened in the Chiefs game, like, how do you hold up your two best guys? If you take one out of each end, how's it going to hold up? Well, it held up and that's Great. And that's fantastic. And that says a lot about the limited squad that actually plays. Like the, the, the basketball analogy, Dennis, we've talked about this is like in the playoffs, the coach shortens the bench, shortens the amount of guys in the rotation. Quill's got a relatively small rotation, one of the smaller ones in club history. And you know, the, the we talked, we just talked about earlier, right, with. He's expanded a circle in trust to now include Torcado, right. Caleb Swan's in there and that's about the bottom of it. Like Ren. Ren. Ben Yamin is barely in there, right. So like you, you, you can't look at Ren Benyamin as a potential starter. You can barely look at Patrick Delgado as a pencil starter. I think, right. Other than Cabis and Ramiro and Kaik, has Clay Holstead looked. Put himself in position to be a potential starter? I think they gave him one game just sort of to see what sort of happens. So short bench, generally speaking, and they came through and that was amazing. Says a lot about this team. Says a lot about this coach. And so it's exciting. It will be exciting. And are you going down to the Toluca game, Dennis? [00:31:10] Speaker B: No, I couldn't. I couldn't make it happen. It's a little too complex for me to be able to get down there and get back in time to do the rest of what I got to do this week. But if you are going down there, please reach out. I would love to, to see some photos and, and see what you guys got going on. From what I understand, it's a very cool little bandbox stadium that gets very, very loud. [00:31:32] Speaker A: I know nothing about it, but mad props to anyone making that trek down into Mexico to go to a hostile environment. You know, by all signs from the World cup, the Mexican fans can be quite nice most of the time. But there also are moments we've all seen with the throwing of the pee or whatever in the stadium. [00:31:50] Speaker B: It can be rough like the Chief is game with flares thrown on the field and interruptions that were going on and everything else that happened at the end of that one. [00:31:57] Speaker A: Such a dichotomy because there were shots from the World cup of them dancing with people from England after they even lost. So like, you know, it really can be just depend on when you. What you're getting when you're facing a team down in Mexico. And obviously I'm hoping for the best. And there have been many times where their fans have been absolutely amazing. It just. You just Depends on bad apples everywhere. Also great people everywhere, so hopefully we see more of the latter than the former. [00:32:21] Speaker B: But speaking of hostile environments, I will be down in Austin's second downtown on Sunday. So. [00:32:27] Speaker A: Yeah, right up at the end of the third night. Lovely north downtown. [00:32:30] Speaker B: Yes, yes, the second downtown. [00:32:32] Speaker A: You know, by the way, you'll be excited to know we're looking ahead a little bit because Austin is in this week of the podcast, who will play against Austin, determined by what happens in this game here. By the way, Austin is wearing their purple uniforms against FC Dallas. Yeah, like Dallas will be wearing their bluish thing, their little whitish bluish thing against the purple. It's gonna look like you're playing Orlando. Whatever. [00:32:57] Speaker B: What. [00:32:58] Speaker A: What purple has to do with Austin? I. I don't know, something about the purple city or something which I've never heard of before, but. [00:33:05] Speaker B: What? That sounds completely made up. [00:33:07] Speaker A: Yeah, no, you can google it. It's real. It's a thing that they stole from Athens, Greece, apparently. So whatever. [00:33:14] Speaker B: I mean, I guess it beats stealing your entire team from Columbus, but that's never heard. [00:33:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Now I will admit that Austin supporters latched onto the purple before they had a team when they were just still trying to get a team and they didn't have a brand of colors. They were purple and they used a raven. What any of that has to do with anything, I don't know, but it was there. And Austin Aztecs way back in the day were red and purple. So at least they had that. So it's actually a thing. Even though I don't understand it because Houston also is now purple. But that's about some drink or something if I understand it. Anyway, that's about all we have, I think on FC Dallas. The only thing really to mention about Austin is that as we have discussed, Nolan Norris will be out. So Ibiaga presumably will be in that. It does raise a question with Norris is out, could you go back four? So I think that brings that not playing a Mexican team close. Talked some about the 352 being about the Mexican teams. Does Austin cross a lot or do you go back to more of a normal. The normal 442 that we saw prior to the World cup and even like a little bit after the World cup before switch to the 442 again, we'll have to see. I think that's going to determine a lot based on how this game here goes. Because you know, they. They still have Dennis this. This extra game the week after. They still have this heavy road load if they were to win and get to the next stage, that league's cup game would come in midweek, like a couple weeks down. So, like, you're not out of the woods yet in terms of this massive road schedule and some rotation rotating that still may need to happen as you're going into Austin. Maybe we'll see a Clay Holstead again. Maybe we'll see Torcado coming back. Maybe he might play a little bit. Maybe Logan gets a start. We'll kind of see what happens as. As I go forward. [00:35:04] Speaker B: Reminder, that is on Sunday, so there is an extra day's rest in this little bit of break here. [00:35:09] Speaker A: Sunday. [00:35:10] Speaker B: I don't. I don't know if that's Sunday night soccer. I don't know if they're still doing that. I don't know if that's a thing or not. That lasted about five minutes. [00:35:16] Speaker A: Well, we'll. We'll. We'll pretend it is. [00:35:20] Speaker B: Sure. Big game. Game of the week. We'll call it the. The. The i35 Derby. Not the. We. We don't give that. The. The Texas Darby. That. That is exclusively reserved for one match. [00:35:34] Speaker A: All right, let's now move on to the second phase of the show. The Golden Girls are back. Dallas Trinity. Dennis is our lead reporter for Dallas Trinity. There were a couple scrimmages, Week two wins against SMU and tcu. We all have real jobs and lives. So Dennis did not catch the SMU one and it was not streamed, unfortunately. But I know you caught the TCU game, Dennis. So how are things shaping up over there for the start of the season? [00:36:00] Speaker B: Yeah, this looked much more like a team ready to start the season than they did a couple of weeks ago in the KC Current 2 match. What I mean by that, that there was a far less rotation. There was a lot more lockdown positions. They treated this as if they only had five subs. They made all their subs in the second half. They only sort of rotational piece with swapping keepers at halftime. So it definitely feels like Lee Win is looking forward into building a lineup here. But it is very much what we saw in the first game. The Thackeray formation, a little bit of the same. The Thackeray Petrocelli setup that they had with a wing back coming up either into midfield or getting ahead into the attack and moving into the back three in possession with Cheeseman going out wide. We saw a lot of that midfield. There are a ton of options around midfield and we've seen a ton of rotation in midfield, options across all Three of these scrimmages and some changes up around the top as well. But it definitely seems like Jasmine Hamid is shaping up to be the lead number nine, which is interesting considering she's played mainly on the wing up until this point. [00:37:11] Speaker A: Yeah, this, that's the biggest change for me is that the kind of player Hamid is as a 9 relative to the kinds of players that they've used prior prior at this club. Now, obviously coach and TD is different. Before this, you had players that were more of a prototypical center channel, like taller, ish, sort of conventional sort of 9. Along the lines of what Ali Cook is a player that they sign who has been a starter in this league. Sort of can't help but think that Ali Cook was probably a striker signed by Chris and Thackeray. And then once the new coach, Lee Nguyen is putting his game together, his team together in training likes a different vibe, which is a player they already had in Hamid. So maybe talk a little bit, Dennis, if you would, about how Hamid plays differently than not this prototypical center channel. Peter Musa, like, if you will, tall Center, Pure 9. What does Hamid look more like? [00:38:20] Speaker B: Hamid is definitely playing in more of a false nine. She is coming up underneath the eights and more importantly, she's coming up underneath the wings. And this match at tcu, she was fading to the right a lot more under seven. Castane, who played on the right, who comes from tcu. So there was a great welcome back package for her and Cam Lancaster that they played at halftime. So, you know, kudos to them. But Hamid has been coming up underneath the wings and letting the wings get in and under attack. And at a certain point midway through the first period period, because we're playing college soccer and we're playing under college rules with a right countdown clock going down. All weird stuff. Very, very strange. [00:39:01] Speaker A: Early MLS countdown clock. [00:39:03] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I don't like it. I don't like it. Makes me very uncomfortable. I could. Couldn't do the math in my head. I was trying to count down minutes. It was. It was awkward anyway. But at a certain point they actually moved up and they moved into a double striker with Hamid playing off striker on the right and Castane coming inside of her to the left. So a little bit different of a formation. That's actually what resulted in the first goal. But to that end we saw when they, when they changed that formation, that's when we saw the right back, instead of releasing into the midfield, started and in this case, Drew Kuminsk released instead of into the midfield up into the right wing with basically four forward attackers at that point. [00:39:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's fair to say that, like, if we. If I. I'm guessing without having watched the games, based on your description, I'm going to say Hamid is more like Jesus Ferreira. If we want to make a FC Dallas analogy for fans that are new to the scene. [00:40:02] Speaker B: Perhaps she doesn't play right back. [00:40:04] Speaker A: Not right back. Not quite full walkabout, which is not Australian. No. But like the striker who's popping up on the wings. Popping up back as a 10, even perhaps, you know, quintessential false nine. But if you've not seen a lot of that, Jesus Frere was the last person we saw here play false9. [00:40:21] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely a lot of that. Definitely getting back into midfield, kind of orchestrating the play a little bit. Obviously, she's also the most tenured player on this. On the squad. She's got the most minutes in this league. She started at Fort Lauderdale. She started at Fort Lauderdale. That's. There's too many Florida teams in this league. It's hard to keep track. [00:40:41] Speaker A: Fort Lauderdale was the club she was with when she came to Dallas because Fort Lauderdale was in last place. I remember they lost like an important game. That was like their last chance for them to get themselves back in position, and they lost that game. And then right after that, they sold her to Dallas, which is one of the first time we ever seen a player sold in the league. I thought that was fascinating, but clearly that was a case of, like, oh, they went into a rebuild mode and so they were like, moving off a striker that Dallas was interested in. And she has pace, and Dallas needs. Needed some pace at that time. So I think that was actually a really great pickup. And she's looking much better on paper because, again, I haven't seen them play because the scrimmages are not streamed. But the results she's getting, it sounds like she's finding her way in the team much more than she did at the end of last season. Dennis. [00:41:24] Speaker B: Yeah, and she found the back of the net twice, and this one at tcu. So that was the first time she's actually found the back of the net since joining Trinity. She didn't score any goals at the end of last season as she came in, as we kind of expected her to do. And she didn't get on the scoreboard for either one of the first two matches here, as far as I'm aware. I don't know who scored in this mu. I have to check on that, but she didn't end the first one. And, you know, that ideally is what's going to change her mentality a little bit, and hopefully we see a little bit more of that out of her moving forward because she really has the ability to lead an offense and really be a consistent goal scorer. And, you know, she's got a. An opportunity to be at the top of this league in goal scoring, I believe. [00:42:04] Speaker A: So. Hamid's the nine. Let's kind of go through the rest of the thing. Is who we think has won jobs, I'm gonna say, based on evidence that seven has got one of the best names ever. Seven has won the. Let's call it the right wing job. Probably means Lancaster is your left wing, I'm gonna assume at this case, Dennis. [00:42:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Although Lancaster didn't play much on the left wing last season, and when she came in this TCU game, she came off the bench and she came in under striker. She came in at 10 behind Allie Cook late in the game. And Ali Cook plays a completely different game than Hamid as well. Ali Cook plays a. An attacking forward. She's in the box. She's in and around the box looking to receive the ball and dribbling in when she. She has an opportunity. So completely different game with these two different striker profiles. So I think we'll see a lot of mix and match as that goes. But, yeah, Castane definitely seems to be the lead on the right. You know, based on just what's left over, I think Lancaster ends up on the left. It is interesting to note that they are using Cam Lancaster in a lot of club media moving forward. She is seemingly going to be the face of the franchise going forward. They've been using her in a ton of media. But Lancaster also looks like she's definitely hit the weight room this offseason. She's muscled up a little bit. She looks like she's in great shape, and she was really able to keep up, which is something I think we saw out of her towards the end of last season. [00:43:30] Speaker A: She. [00:43:31] Speaker B: Her game improved and she's really, I think, come a long way over the past two seasons. [00:43:35] Speaker A: Yeah. As an undersized striker, she needed to be able to be able to withstand, you know, being forced off the ball. Probably something she was. Would want to develop before we go away from wing. We did. You did spot in the last game. A trialist on Yucca Gamero, who's with Annika. [00:43:51] Speaker B: I believe it's. Yeah, I believe that's. That's correct. [00:43:54] Speaker A: That's quite clever. On. Well, that makes Sense if you sound it out. [00:44:01] Speaker B: I'm not Peter. [00:44:02] Speaker A: I would not have come up with that. That's clever. Anyway, possible potential loan from. From Bay FC of the nwsl. She's here in camp, and her name was listed on a roster that the club distributed with jersey number two, which is kind of a sign that maybe they actually are bringing her, but that's not been announced or official yet, so file that one under A. Could be. So moving back down the formation, we get to the number 10 spot, which is a absolutely fascinating spot because the club has signed 2 tens more. Is it LJ was what they're calling her? [00:44:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I think she's going by lj. She's known as Juliet Moore. LJ Moore. [00:44:42] Speaker A: LJ Moore, apparently, instead of just by her. Juliet out of the University of Houston. And now Sophia Sedeno, who's a former Solar player, is another 10 they've signed up. Now we're gonna. We're gonna say probably that Moore has won this job because we believe, based on all the smoke nibbles people, we know, that the club is indeed moving on from Lexi Misimo, that transfer. Well, that transfer will be announced probably soonish. We cannot officially 100 confirm this, but we are operating as if it's a done deal. We're expecting it to be a done deal. You never know until it's done, it ain't done. Right, Dennis? These things can fall apart. But we're expecting her to move on from the organization, which leaves you with more and Sedeno as your two options, not including Lancaster potentially as well in that position as your 10. Yeah. [00:45:38] Speaker B: Boz, do you want to talk a little bit about that smoke and where that's coming from around Misimo, far away? [00:45:42] Speaker A: I know you've got some of it. Go ahead. [00:45:44] Speaker B: Yeah, we've, you know, follow social media and we play around on the Instagram and the X and the blue sky and everything, and we. We like to watch and see where people's names popped up. But there has been some videos floating around, and. And this. This all started because Alexa Misimo was not present, not on the sideline, not in the lineup for that game at tcu. So did a little investigation, and we have seen a still shot from a training video from Tigrace down in Ligameki's feminil. And we have seen a training video come out of what looks like Lexi Misimo training down there over the past couple of days. And there has been a ton of smoke on T. Grace social media, and people that follow that club There have been some edits of her in a T Grace jersey and sort of the the fake fab announcement if you will, and a lot of that going around. So there is an expectation that she is on the move. Her social media looks like it's been pretty much wiped of almost any any familiarity with Trinity. Not sure what exactly existed before, but there's no mention of Trinity really other than a couple of posts announcing resigning in her original signing. Most of her highlights are up there in a particular folder. But really it looks like for all intents and purposes lexing Misimo is out the door. So we are expecting either more or Sedano to take this spot. I do however think SEDANO Playing like 80 minutes this weekend in that 10 role may have opened up for her. We'll see how that turns out though. [00:47:17] Speaker A: Yeah, she was a later addition so maybe that's more of a look kind of thing. But you. It's hard to tell like this doesn't this TCA didn't feel quite like a final tuneup as much as it might have. You know, because of questions like that and keeping up with M O. We know that like I found out from sources I have that at some point she trained it Club America feminale. She also has flirted with Denver Summit at some point in the past. Not recently. She has followed Olympic Marseille on Instagram as another possibility. Throwing out there. So lots of smoke on Misimo. We're pretty sure something's going down and that she will not be with the team. All right, that's Denver. [00:47:55] Speaker B: Mexico or France. [00:47:56] Speaker A: Or France. I know where I'd go. The one caveat there is Denver, right? Yeah, one. Well I mean that's pretty nice. The one caveat there is that Mismo is kind of a homebody and doesn't really go far from family. So we'll see how that all plays out. [00:48:12] Speaker B: And we also know she's the highest paid player in the league, right? So what does that mean and who's picking up the tab? [00:48:18] Speaker A: Yeah, new owner, clean slate they're already talking about this season is not really one they're going to care about the results. It's kind of just a reset. Lots of players probably on short term deals and short term loans. Not to get too deep in the woods on that kind of thing. A lot of these players are represented by one particular agent. Spencer Wadsworth is his name. Great dude, used to play for FC Dallas. He's good friends with Lean Nguyen however and a lot of these things came together the last minute as they scrambled to fill up a roster that was only half complete. So I wouldn't go too deep on any particular name here in terms of the long term with this franchise, new td, new coach which is the same person, new director of soccer operations, new owners, everything's in flux. The team is going to look very different a year from now than it does today in probably all phases of operation. All right, so moving back in the midfield, we have some real interesting questions and Dennis, this is where we start to get into some of the what is you would call issues for this club in terms of massive amounts of injuries. We skipped over a Bibigo because at left wing because she'll be out until way into next season, let alone this season. But Stainbrook is here in this position and Balata is here in this position, both with an unknown timetable for how long they'll be out. We haven't seen either one of them and they're both starters coming out of last season. And so now we're looking at Felicia Knox, which for me on paper, you don't sign Felicia Knox if she's not starting. Sophie Braun, I also would have said that about except she's playing a lot in the back at center back almost exclusively. Yeah, almost exclusively at center back. Cheeseman I was really enjoying as a six last year. Now back at center back, Ariana Nagayi has come in and was one of the only players I've ever seen talked about in college as a pure six. Most of the time when they have a six, they just call him a central midfielder and sort of talk about them being in the mix, which is may have more to do with how good your beat rider is than anything. But an actual real six coming in. Jamie Shepard on loan from Bay fc, that's a starter level player. Carissa Boakman, who comes in from Benfica, she's a free agent but she was at Benfica previously, has been in the nwsl. Another player that has a starter level pedigree, perhaps if maybe not yet. There's a lot of bodies in this particular double sort of pivot if you want to look at it that way. [00:50:42] Speaker B: Dennis well, Boatman actually started at left back on Saturday, so that was interesting as well. There's definitely a lot of flex and a lot of play here, but I think what we're going to see is it comes down to tactically what formation is going to come down to what tactics Lynn wants to play in any particular game. I think there's an opportunity for them to get more of a double eight with a single Pivot in the back and I think that's where you'll see Nagai or Boekman come in as the six in the single pivot and I think they might move into a. If they want to move into a double pivot. You might the two of them there with. With a 10 in front of them, whether that be Sedano or Moore or even Shepherd. But you may see Shepard a little bit more in that double eight underneath with a single pivot behind her. So there's. There's definitely options out here in this midfield and I think this is a lot of open roles, but I think there are specializations that each of these players perform really well at and I think depending upon on any given week, in any given day, what the plan is. Might Mart who's starting. [00:51:43] Speaker A: Yeah, the. The name you didn't talk about much there is Felicia Knox, who on paper comes in with a much better resume than everybody else you've mentioned. So it'll be interesting to see how things move forward with Lena Win in his midfield. [00:51:56] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, Knox is another one. She came on as a late sub on Saturday as well. Maybe it's because he's seen enough of her and knows where he wants to play her and, and that's already written in stone. Maybe she's going to be in that sort of double pivot or she's going to be that sort of back and forth to be able to get back in the double pivot or get up that get free, depending upon whether they're an attacker or defense. But like I said, when we saw early on, we saw Drew Kumins on the right back end up in midfield, not get forward into the attack and move into the double pivot while they moved into a double eight ahead of that. So it's really interesting, flexible formation. It's sort of a strange flex, something that we, we don't see too often [00:52:33] Speaker A: here and, and because this roster is coming together late and even he's still coming together. You know, maybe what we see in the first game is not what we see by the fifth game. Game. Or the tenth game or the third game. Yeah, or even. Even this next game right away. So you mentioned right now it looks like Kumins is the right back without many other choice. We have seen Kayla Eichenberger who's a. Not only a forward forwarder, winger, six foot tall, tall player. I think we'll be in the mix down the line. We've seen her play a little right back but the only. [00:53:04] Speaker B: She also played left wing in the smu game or at least that's what they had documented on the formation that they shared on social media that she was playing left wing there. [00:53:13] Speaker A: So right now Drew Kumins is the only real sort of right back on the on the roster as far as I know. Cheeseman can play out there by the way. We have seen that left back nominally Henson, two years as a starter left back, probably still your starter left back. You mentioned Bokeman can play in there. I, I think Kuman's, based on the research I've done, could also play on the left just as easily as you can on the right. But there are some possibilities probably at the end of the day Ensign, but we'll see how that goes. Center backs, here's where the next big injury comes in. Flynn, who was a phenomenal starter last year, has yet to play Laura and Flynn has yet to play this spring. Sophie Braun, who is nominally a six and a big time experienced six, she plays for Argentina and was been in the league for a couple years, played for, was one of the Spokane players. You would expect that to be your 6 starter. She's been playing center back next to Cheeseman. Past that you're looking at Heather McNabb who's a really a forward more than anything, but it's tall. So she's been playing some center back in camp and in these games as near as we can tell. Is there anybody else available to play center back Dennis, after those three? [00:54:19] Speaker B: As far as I'm aware there is nobody else unless they've added anybody to the roster. There was another, there was a second trialist on the bench that never started and you know, a lot of faces down there. So hard to tell who was who from the other side of the stadium. But as for all intensive purposes, Braun and Cheeseman are the starting center backs for obviously there's nobody else to play center back right now as you mentioned with Flynn hurt. But they've also been pretty much locked down for every one of these matches other than the second half of the current match where they rotated and and started a whole new squad in the second half. These two have been the, the stalwarts in defense here. [00:54:58] Speaker A: Yeah, that really leaves McNabb as the only other center back on the roster. And we say that with the idea that I think if Flynn was healthy then you'd be looking at Sophia Braun in the midfield and probably not at center back. But we'll see Lena win. May have a different opinion about it than what Braun has done through her most of her career, including with Argentina where she's the dominant six for them in the middle. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Braun has also worn the armband on all three matches, so that's notable as well. [00:55:25] Speaker A: And if you're curious, we mentioned Braun plays for Argentina. She's actually from Washington. She's an American born and raised, but she is Argentine eligible. She's chosen to represent Argentina and is a big player for them, which I think is super cool. You do. That's one of the down, if you will quote, unquote, I'm air quoting. Downsides of her is that she will need to leave occasionally to represent Argentina, you know, in, in Copa America or, you know, whatever they get involved in. And Women's World cup next summer. [00:55:50] Speaker B: Yes, Women's World cup is next summer in Brazil. That's going to be exciting. You know, we've got a bunch of U20s on this squad too that are eligible for the US U20 squad and the U23 squad. So there's going to be significant international appearances for this club, I think over the. Over this stint of the short season. [00:56:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And two keepers for the first time in my opinion in club history. Two legitimate number one keepers. Probably Maddie Anderson walks in today, free agent, but she was with Lens in France last time. I'm probably saying that wrong. And then Miku Purcell, who's on player on loan from Seattle but was with the U20 US23 is in their last camp with people like Misimo and Cheeseman and stuff. So a very highly regarded player that came through the Seattle Rain system and it's still on the books at Seattle Rain. So I don't know which one do you think is right now? Dennis is one of them. Have the leg up. [00:56:43] Speaker B: I think if you're bringing in a loney for a keeper, I think you start with that and you go from there. I think that's where you don't waste a lone spot or not that there's, you know, depth of roster spots that we need to worry about here in this league and, and they need to. To concern themselves with. But I think if you're bringing in a keeper on loan, I think you need to showcase her and put her in goal. And from what I've seen, she is nominally marginally the better of the two based on what we've seen from these scrimmages so far. [00:57:10] Speaker A: Yeah. One thing to consider, I think is that this is a mini season. This is just the fall. Probably there had to be some discussion with these loans that all were, if I remember correctly, I'm going to lump them all together, they were all announced for the fall 2026. Basically, as far as I know, these are not extended two year and a half long loans. These are loans that are like, you need a player for four months. It's the back end of our season and they're not playing great, but you better play them. So I would expect that there's probably pressure to play anyone here on Loon, which, you know, brings in. Let's. Let's run down the list real quick. Maybe Gamero, if she actually does come, but Nagai is one, shepherd is one. Sedano, the 10 from solar that we talked about, 7. Castane, obviously we think won that job anyway. Maybe it's Purcell in net, you know, maybe there's some pressure as, you know, handshakes on these deals. Like, okay, if we give you this player, this player is playing, you know, at the end of the day, the Lee, the coach, Dennis will be able to make his decisions. But remember, he's also Lee, the td. He's also Lee Nguyen, the guy who got these players here in the first place. So he probably had a lot of input into why a particular player was brought here and why that particular player might play quite a bit potentially. Because remember, there was a change in manager, technical director Chris and Zachary out with a roster 2/3 built so lean when finished it. So in my eyes, if you're looking at NWSO loans that are coming in in the last couple of weeks, those are people lean when brought here. And why did he bring them here at rings a bell. And so maybe you have to lean that way. But nonetheless, Dennis, probably a whole lot of question marks with the season one week out that we don't have answers to until they actually get out there and fight somebody. [00:59:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And if you look at what's going on in the nwsl, if you look at these clubs that are. These players are actually coming on loan from, they're all clearing the deck to bring in big names. They just brought in Jenna knightswonger came on over there. That was just announced today. So all these clubs are sort of bringing in bigger names and, you know, getting into their home stretch of the season, making, getting ready for their playoff races and everything else that comes to that. So these are sort of fringe players that may be good enough, but just haven't gotten minutes and haven't gotten an opportunity to really prove themselves here at this level. This is good opportunity for them to do that. [00:59:37] Speaker A: So I want to finish off the Trinity section by posing a question, a macro question to my friend Dennis here. The USL Super League has chosen to align themselves with the NWSL calendar. They've done this while the NWSL was actively considering switching to the European calendar and then chose to pause that discussion for a bit. So interesting to me that the. In the USL Super League has said, you know what? We'll go ahead and align with you now. And then presumably the second half of that sentence is, if you were to switch in the future, we would switch back with you. So the question is, Dennis, is this move, this alignment happening to effectively or legitimately or contractually, perhaps even turn the Super League into NWSL2? [01:00:36] Speaker B: I don't know if it's so much as NWSL2, but I think this is a sort of 1A 1B hopeful potentiality. I think for both leagues. I think there are enough talented players for there to be, you know, a few more Division 1 clubs in the NWSL. But I do think that this is. This alignment makes the most sense for both leagues. This is when you're looking at loans, when you're looking at transfers, when you're looking at playoff stretches. You want to be able to look for resources and not have to worry about calendar constraints. But it's something to be said that at this level that these are both, you know, for all intents and purposes, they're both division one. I'm. I'm air quoting that division one because this is really a 1.5. I don't think it's a second division yet, but it's. It's close to a 1.5, maybe a 1.68 if we're getting really technical. But I think what we're looking at here is there might be a world where, and this might be the most shocking thing we ever. We. We ever discuss here, but there might be a world where they even look to, to have some sort of promotion and relegation across this double league because these leagues are not so much focused on, or at least the NWSL is, is not as much focused on attendance as they are TV deals like the rest of the world is. [01:01:59] Speaker A: The only thing I would put. Puts me against that is that somebody just paid, was it a hundred million dollars to get the Denver Summit. And sure, I think at this point, Super League teams are free. So I think there's a. There's definitely a gap there. I wonder if it wouldn't be more likely, at least in the midterm, that the Super League might just say, you know what, we'll fall back to Division 2, because that eliminates the requirements for three time zones, which that's true. They just lost Spokane, Zephyr and they have on paper a list of potential franchises. Just today, AC Boise announced that they're delaying their women's team for now to, you know, focus and tighten it up. Air quotes again, whatever. Well, that doesn't give you your west team Oakland roots. Potentially has talked about winning women's team. [01:02:49] Speaker B: They're having stadium issues. [01:02:51] Speaker A: Massive issues with their stadium, massive issues with that whole franchise. Don't look at Oakland roots for now. Like the, the western time zone is a real problem for the Super League. Could you get an exemption from Rio Soccer? Maybe. So if you drop down to Division 2, the 5,000 capacity seat stadium requirement goes away. So now you can play in a 2000 seat requirement stadium. You would still be eligible for all CONCACAF competitions. You know, if you. Depending on how they structure the concat qualifying, you saw a representative of U.S. soccer in that sense. You can play in smaller markets. You can have all kinds of valuations in terms of ownerships that are allowed of different levels of money. Like, believe it or not, in the United States, division status comes with market size, comes with ownership valuation. Those things all matter in getting Division 1 sanctioning versus Division 2. So like, I think this is not the USL super league. Being a Division 1 league is, I think, not written in stone. I think that like, for the good of the women's game, I think the US Soccer ussf, excuse me, ussf, would give them some leeway in terms of like some of these requirements. I think probably we know the NWSL wants a second division, wants a reserve division. They've talked about making their own. Well, Dennis, there are not enough women's players for three leagues. Sure. Not enough women's players for nwsl, their reserve team and the Super League. Well, if NWSL creates their own reserve league, all the Super League players have. The Super League players are going to jump to those teams because they're going to want to go to NWSL and eventually. Right. So talent will drain fast out of the Super League. They're not going to want that to happen. So I think you can look at this as a rapidly altering landscape. We're only in year three of the Super League and I think that the next few years maybe be three years, maybe be five years. I think there could be some real fluidity still here. You know, the, the NWL has been around for 10 years. The Super League is. We know that no one's yet made any money. So tenuous scenario at best for the Super League. Yeah. [01:04:57] Speaker B: And the NWSL is in the process of expansion as well. Again, I think Atlanta is going to be the next club in. We just got Boston and we just got Denver into the league and they're building soccer specific stadiums as well and they should be in there in the next couple of years. Atlanta obviously is going to be most likely playing at Mercedes Benz like the men's club does because that's owned by Blank as well. [01:05:16] Speaker A: And that family, Fort Worth in the cards too, maybe. [01:05:20] Speaker B: Yeah. Which by the way, I think the, the name they're leaning towards is Atlanta Rising, which kind of sounds cool. So that is cool. That's something I've heard floating around. But yeah, when we talk about this, this Super League and what it means, you know, NWSL does have reserve squads that play in a few different leagues. Casey current too. When they came to town here to play Trinity in their first scrimmage, they had just come off winning the WPSL summer championship. So that, that's more of akin to like a USA League 2 on the men's, I believe is the closest comparison on that side. So you know, it's, it's semi pro, although Caroline Kelly is, is over there now as well. I mentioned that last time we were here. But, but there's, there's definitely an opportunity for the growth of this game if these two leagues continue playing nicely together. Much more than USL and MLS are on the men's side. [01:06:08] Speaker A: Yeah. It does not help the Super League to go to war with nwsl. You know, the quality of the players you would get on loan and, and for the nwsl, the quality of the player in the Super League is vastly superior to the W League or the wpsl. The other alternatives there are where your Casey Karen Twos are playing. Super League is a much better level of play than that. So I think it really makes a lot of sense for them to work together now with the Super League. Want to be the Blank admitted, you know, second tier, the Blank Reserve league? No, I don't think so. I think they're going to want to keep some nomenclature that makes it sound like they're division one. That sounds like they're competing. But you can still work together. You can still develop or maybe you can even develop like sort of specific team versus team relationships perhaps instead of just like. Or you just keep it wide open. Like Dallas has players from like four different NWSL teams, which is fine depending on what you might have available in your team and what your needs are. [01:07:01] Speaker B: And as much as the top of the NWSL and the vast majority of the nwsl, I think, is much better than the Super League as it's stands right now. I do think the top of the Super League and the bottom of the NWSL are not tremendously far off. When we look at clubs down the bottom of the table and we look at somebody like Houston. Right. Like Houston. Well, they're, They're a poorly run franchise, but they. [01:07:23] Speaker A: By the way. [01:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Nobody's buying. [01:07:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think. I think, you know, like the, The. The friendly that. By the way, which they should. 100. Keep that Houston Dash friendly. [01:07:35] Speaker B: Absolutely. [01:07:36] Speaker A: Play preseason every year. Yeah. [01:07:37] Speaker B: Yep. [01:07:38] Speaker A: 100. I think the last version of that showed that those teams weren't too far apart. Now, of course, Dash was in a preseason mode. They played a mix of starters and, And. And backups. Well, Trinity didn't roll out a full 100% starting lineup either. They played a mix also, and they outplayed them in one. Now, they're probably. For them, it's a much bigger deal. They're playing a lot harder, but it shows. At least the teams were somewhat competitive and it wasn't like a complete mismatch when they played last year. [01:08:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I mean. I think the bottom of that league is not far off from the top of this league and the, the, you know, comparable across the eight clubs that are here. Right. It's a young league. They're all young clubs. [01:08:18] Speaker A: It occurs to me, Phoenix Rising aside, that Atlanta Rising plays into Atlantis Rising. That's a good play on the. Perhaps gives you some branding ideas and some imagery ideas perhaps. Just popped in my head. All right, so have we exist. Have we exhausted the Trinity discussion? Dennis? I think we broke down the roster pretty good at this point. Sort of talk through all the positions and, and maybe. Maybe we could have an exercise during the week of throwing together, like each throwing together a starting lineup and sort of see what we might come up with in terms of fun. [01:08:47] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, look forward to getting some content out this week as well. I think we're going to be able to drop a very special episode by the time this week is over. Leading up into. We'll talk a little bit. We'll. We'll let you linger on that one. You'll have to wait and see what that actually is. [01:09:02] Speaker A: New jerseys for Dallas Trinity this year. We can confirm. Not that that's a secret, but I confirmed it. We're hoping to get some imagery for you guys this week and we'll have an article up on that if it happens. Dennis, will we talk to the team about it so hopefully they can come through for us. But you'll see those new uniforms roll out, I'm sure right from the home opener. I hear the new secondaries got some spice to it. We'll have to see what that means. I'm looking forward to it. [01:09:29] Speaker B: They got little peppers on them. [01:09:31] Speaker A: All right, so let's move on to the last team that's actively playing right now that we care about at this level. That's North Texas sc. They brought back Caleb Swann. Lord did they need him badly. The the North Texas SC midfield is a shambles right now from injuries. They brought Kayla back down and just to show you how much it mattered the previous week they lost six to one, they brought Caleb back and they won three to one. He bossed that midfield. It was amazing to watch. He's so good. Generally speaking, you know their midfield is just demolished. Their defense is holding together with a 16 year old or 17 year old at left back and Enzo Newman is coming off the ACL right back Slade who's obviously doing everything he can and then just a patchwork of whoever else they can ban but they together to get in there at the other position in the back. They really need a big R back in my opinion. Midfield's a mess. They've still got some talent up front of course with Lewis and Simmons and James and and niece who's having an amazing season. But the biggest overriding problem and by the way, they're down to 10th in the west on 29 points. They have eight games left so they could go on a tear, win eight games and get in. But it would take something truly, truly remarkable. You would probably have to leave Swan down there for the whole rest of the year. You probably would have to get Diego Garcia back based on his Instagram. That ain't happening. But if you could get him back that might do it. If you could put guard back that might go a long way. But to make up there are 10 points out of the last playoff spot with eight games to play. That's a big ask, particularly because they're 10th. You would have to pass six teams. Passing six teams is just as hard as getting 10 points because not everybody's going to start sucking. Some of those teams are going to keep playing well. So it's a monumental task. [01:11:22] Speaker B: That's 29 points now. So you're saying they probably need like 45 to get probably because the fourth [01:11:28] Speaker A: place team is on. On 39 I think or 40 ish. So like they would have to get to that. Plus that team's playing eight games also. So, like you probably would have to double your points. I bet you'd have to get to like 50 something, maybe even 60. And I don't think the eight games is enough. You would need a lot of people to fall apart. But like I said, it would be one of the most monumental recoveries of all time. I don't know that mathematically they're out of it, but it's probably not likely. [01:11:58] Speaker B: That sounds like a massive hill to climb. [01:12:00] Speaker A: Yes. I didn't do the math, but it's a lot. I would say that in general, the problem right now with that side is they have a staggering amount of injuries. And I have not tried to add it up because you can't tell if a guy's hurt or just sucks because they don't announce injuries. When we ask about injuries, they just tell me we don't talk about injuries because they're not required to talk about injuries. So therefore they don't. There is a school of thought. I think that they're protecting the player. I don't think they're protecting the player. I think they. When you do that, you raise a question of is the guy just straight ass or is he hurt? Now, I know Diego Garcia is not straight ass, so I know the Garcia [01:12:41] Speaker B: cold open, by the way. [01:12:43] Speaker A: Yeah, right. I can tell from his Instagram that he's getting into late stage of recovery. I don't think it's going to be tomorrow that he's playing, but he's posting pictures of himself hitting the weight racks and stuff like that, you know, trying to get back. So outside of that, you have guys that just vanish for big chunks of time. And it's like it's compounded by Dallas will take FC Dallas players that are homegrowns or whoever that they're going to send down the, the Simmons, your Lewis's, your Alvarados, you saw your Alvaros. He's not a Western, he's a Brazilian Portuguese. So they send those guys down to play. They also send them down when they're injured to disguise an injury. Like Diego Garcia, for example, is an FC Dallas contracted player. He has not been on a single injury report all year as far as I know the dude, the dude's been out for like three months now. He hasn't played since May 30th. Right. And. And you could say, don't say that that was the World cup because North Texas SC played much longer than FC Dallas did into the World Cup. So they played games well into July. [01:13:48] Speaker B: So they came back July 4th. [01:13:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And then came back pretty quickly. They only took, like, two or three weeks off. So I know Diego Garcia is hurt. I know that's not what is with him. But, like, all these other guys that are in and out of the line, I've been following in and off the bottom of the roster. I have no idea if they're hurt or they just suck. So it makes it really hard to evaluate them in those terms, and it makes it really hard to know. But I think they just have a staggering amount of injuries based on guys that we see drop out for a month and then come back. Guys that are playing all the time, and then all of a sudden they vanish. And then two months later, all of a sudden they're playing all the time again. Well, I write that down as an injury, and if you include the FC Dallas guys that are missing in action, I come up with, like, 15 different people that I think might have been hurt. Like, literally half their roster, as near as I can tell, has been hurt. Well, it raises questions about what are they doing in training, what are they doing in terms of medical support for their team. It makes me really wonder about what's going on down there and how that might or might not be impacting your path, pathway, if guys are getting hurt that you were hoping are going to be developing. And I don't have answers, Dennis, to these questions. I'm just raising questions. [01:14:54] Speaker B: Yeah, no, it's. It's definitely concerning. I mean, even at the. With the first team, there's a lot of. I mean, we talked about this an hour ago, Right. We were talking about the Anderson Julio injury and how it's just a. An unidentified injury. Right. It's a muscle injury. We see a lot of lower body injury, upper body injury, leg, you know, we get very specific with lower leg is about as specific as we're able to get. And so, you know, when nexpro has essentially no rules for reporting this stuff whatsoever. [01:15:21] Speaker A: Requirements. Yep. [01:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah. It's almost like there should be a governing body in charge of this or something, you know, called the leak. [01:15:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And interestingly, specifically, when I inquired, the answer I got back was league scuff does not require injury reports. So basically, we won't get an Anderson Julio injury report until the first game against Austin. Now, FC Dallas is following the rules of the league. This is not a shot at FC Dallas. No. It's a league issue for super for Next pro and the rules for Lease Cup. Now, I will say that Eric Quills and His group are the most mysterious hiding of injuries I've ever seen in my life. I don't understand it. I don't get it. But whatever, it's their team. They can do what they want. They're following the rules. I get it. I just think the rules are dumb. And that's what annoys me is. Is that like it? I think it makes it hard to evaluate players if you don't know whether they're hurt or they suck, you know, because North Texas training isn't open. I don't know if you know that it's not open. You can't just show up for it. [01:16:25] Speaker B: There is an open training, I believe this week. Right. [01:16:27] Speaker A: They had. It was today. They had it open to public training. They announced it. As near as I can tell. They announced it with one day warning for everybody. Yeah, about right. So there were like 30 kids there. Well, that's cool. But I'm sure it was for tenant for local Mansfield people, which is fine. There's another question to be raised of what happens in three year when there are seven professional teams here and North Texas SC is really at that point only getting audience from like a 20 minute, maybe a 15 minute space around the stadium. South Arlington and Grand Prairie and, and the Mansfield. So that's a totally different question when how to road USC and North Texas fit into a landscape where there's, you know, three USL championship or premier teams and then not three, two, two super league teams, an MLS team. I mean, it's going to be a crowded landscape. [01:17:15] Speaker B: There is a lot of competition for your soccer dollar across this town and [01:17:18] Speaker A: it's going to be. We're stretched in on three and it's going to be seven. [01:17:23] Speaker B: It's crazy. [01:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:17:25] Speaker B: I mean, I will say everything I've heard about Mansfield, it's an incredible viewing experience in that stadium. It's. It's a. It's a tiny little stadium and feels like you're right up on the action. From what I've heard, I haven't had a chance has to go down there yet. I think the. Is it the U20s or the 19s that are going to be playing down there soon? [01:17:41] Speaker A: I don't know. I don't know. [01:17:43] Speaker B: There's some sort of international competition that's going to be down there soon. [01:17:46] Speaker A: I just read a article about the entire facility they're putting in down there and it's going to be amazing. It's a whole complex like, like FC Dallas is developing in Frisco around the stadium. This is the same sort of thing like you know, entertainment space, other kinds of sports fields. Like the drawings have like some softball, baseball around it, a whole big sports complex and entertainment complex. It's going to be a fascinating facility. The anchoring pin of it is the 7,000 seat stadium for North Texas SC. I just think that it's going to be interesting to watch them try to run that as an independent money making endeavor as the Hunts want it to be. In a landscape where there are literally seven professional teams, five of which will be playing at a higher level. With a higher level of play and higher level of stars. The connection to FC Dallas obviously will become huge at that point. I don't know if you pivot into like the stars are coming down or something. I don't know. That's not my problem. But it'll be fun to fascinating to watch as it takes place. [01:18:45] Speaker B: Yeah, it's going to be really interesting, you know, especially considering the debate that we always seem to have around here about whether players or, or whether North Texas should be competing for trophies or should they be trying to develop talent. Right. And you can, you can try and do both but eventually one has to take a backseat, do another. [01:19:01] Speaker A: The second one. Yeah, it should be the second one. [01:19:04] Speaker B: It should be the second one. But it's not always. [01:19:06] Speaker A: It should not. No one should care that they win a trophy or not. I mean it's fun, but they shouldn't care. But they do care. So that's why we talk about the standings. I would much rather be talking about the five players in the academy that should be playing in that team and are not. But that's a different discussion for a different day. That reminds me, I need to do my college players to watch because college season's kicking off here soon if it's not already. [01:19:29] Speaker B: I think, I think the, the girls are back this week. I've been keep keeping an eye on our friend Cellie Strong over there at unc. [01:19:37] Speaker A: Yes, a player. And, and Swan down at Texas. Yes, a player. Two players I hope play a fall season and a fall season only and come back to the pro game game asap. Who am I to speak for them? But both of those players are far too good to be playing in college soccer. [01:19:54] Speaker B: I mean those are two of the top programs in the country. So if you're going to be playing at the college level, those are the ones you should be playing at. [01:20:00] Speaker A: Doesn't matter. It's. It's the. As demonstrated when the schedules came out, they play like 20 games in like a two and a half month, window. And then there's what, the rest of the year. And that's the problem. It's just in the level of play is not good enough. Just won in starting job for a professional team and now she's going to go play in college. That's ridiculous. My opinion, which is why you're listening to this podcast and Dennis is painting too. You're here for Dennis as well. But it's. My hot sports take is that they have no business being in college as I speak, for them and their families. [01:20:34] Speaker B: Listen, I think there's something especially for Straw. I think there's something to be said for going to play under Dorrance for. For a season or two to. To just learn that. I know, I know, I know. He's giving me a look. You can't see it, but he's giving me a look. [01:20:47] Speaker A: Dallas, Trinity is moving Mimo out because of Straw, basically. Yeah, right. [01:20:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:53] Speaker A: And so they're going to. Whatever, man. Just sign s strong. Give her M's money if you have to. Whatever. Get it done. Don't let her go to the nwsl. [01:21:05] Speaker B: You cannot put a price on a. On a college education. At least they told me my whole [01:21:11] Speaker A: life, if you make enough money, you can always. College will always be there. The college education part will always be there. You can always get it whenever you want. You can even get it at the same time. You don't have to play there. You could play professional. Take the money and run. Dennis. I know. Nil. Steve Straw is not making whatever she's getting in. Nil would be better if Trinity would have just paid her. [01:21:31] Speaker B: Oh, I, I agree with you. [01:21:32] Speaker A: I'm. [01:21:33] Speaker B: I'm just. I, you know, got a counterpoint here. Look, I got a counter program against you a little bit. [01:21:37] Speaker A: Okay. Which reminds me, Dennis, hopefully even in this fall season only hopefully we're going to see a couple of young ladies come out of Solar or FC Dallas. I have a short list of four or five that I think would be ideal. That could. Hancock at FC Dallas is one of the top ones. Jordan Hancock, I think his name, who's just with the U17 team along with Swan. So, you know, I. I think hopefully we'll see the next class of those. Of a couple of those academy players. Come, come in. I know there were some academy quote unquote trialists at the very first scrimmage that Trinity had. Were those people from their own little academy with those young ladies from Solar or from FC Dallas? Time will tell. One of the best programs Super League has is that academy program where in the first season it was Hardeman, right, the Jordan Hardman, the center back who now is also in college. It was the. The FC Dallas center back who's at Wisconsin, whose name is leaking out of my brain right the minute now it's going to be Strawn and. And Swan have gone to college. None of them should have gone to college. You should have kept them all. But still, you know, a chance to get those professional level games before you even go to college is a. Just a wonderful opportunity, I think for young ladies of a certain caliber of game. And I think hopefully they'll have another two or three, maybe even five for Alliano this fall. That would be. I think it's really, really important. I hope they don't forget that part of the program because I think it's one of the best things Super League has going. [01:23:11] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think with the way Atletico's, you know, positioning their academy and where that goes in the future, I think it's going to be a good opportunity to showcase the ability to get to the top of, of the game. Right. Be able to get to essentially a first division team. Right. You can come up through the academy and, and play all the way up through first division if you're good enough. [01:23:29] Speaker A: Remember that Ray Amore who had a really nice first half of the season last year was from California and she went back to go to usc like so they don't have to be local. So it'll be really interesting to watch Trinity because they now will have an academy because athletico Dallas has an academy on the girls side. It feeds them directly. How does that balance with the Super League rule, which is where you can have players from any academy. We've seen players from Solar and FC Dallas come through their system. It'll be interesting to see how that balance works out over the years as perhaps their own academy improves. Right now, clearly Solar for sure is number one. SC Dallas is number two. After that you get your sting, you got your dksc. There are other really excellent academies in Dallas. Dallas is a women's hotbed of glorious soccer talent, so it'll be fun to watch. I hope Trinity continue to tap into that market more than just their own academy in the future, I hope. [01:24:26] Speaker B: Yeah, this is one of those areas where more competition is good for everybody. More players get the ability to showcase themselves and you know, ideally this makes the national team better too at some point. [01:24:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And for a local young lady, like the way that this team, the way Trinity so far has fed nwsl look At Sam Mezza, for example, you know, players that came on loan but also went back and did great things like this can be a great stepping stone onto bigger and better things. And maybe that's what happens with Celia Strawn. Maybe Dallas Trinity can't afford her when she comes out of college soccer, whatever that is. Maybe she'll be top tier nwsl, who knows. But that's why I think they should have gone after her. Now is that before the NWSL gets in there and gets answer. But it may be too when you [01:25:07] Speaker B: talk about the FC Dallas Academy, you got Jaden Shaw is lighting it up for Gotham now. [01:25:11] Speaker A: 100 perfect example. All right, I think we've exhausted all the topics. That's an hour and a half. We do business tonight. Yeah. Dennis, thanks for being here. Love it. Well, you'll be with us a bunch going forward, especially with Dan out for an unknown length of time. Peter will be back sometime in the next week, week or two. He's just taking a more break, which is perfectly acceptable. Thanks for being here, Dennis. Appreciate you filling in. [01:25:37] Speaker B: Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. And like I said, we'll look forward to some special features dropping this week. And then we got that special episode that'll be in the hopper in the next couple days and we're prepare ourselves for Trinity. And we've got two Epstein Dallas games this week. Lots of soccer on television and in person as well. Back to in person games. Can't wait. [01:25:56] Speaker A: That's a good team. These for a special episode coming up. All right, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you next week on, I believe, the 370th episode of Third Degree podcast. Man, that's a lot of podcasts. Well, we'll talk to you then. [01:26:09] Speaker B: That's a lot of talking. [01:26:10] Speaker A: Peter, where are you? I suck at this. 3rd degree. The 3rd degree podcast. 3rd degree. The 3rd degree podcast. 3rd de. With 3rd degree, never get 3rd degree. 3rd degree. Never. Careful, Sam.