3rd Degree the Podcast #370

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Third degree. The third degree nerd podcast. Third degree. The third degree N podcast. Third degree. The third degree n Podcast. Third degree. [00:00:23] Speaker B: I'm all about the pipe. [00:00:27] Speaker A: Well, hello there, DFW soccer Curious. Welcome back. Third degree, the podcast. I'm here also today. Is this the first time I've done third degree with him? Buzz? Yes, it's Dennis. No, no, Dennis. You've been on the show with me. [00:00:47] Speaker C: First episode of the FC Dallas season this year following 24 Hour Tailgate. [00:00:52] Speaker A: That's right. [00:00:53] Speaker B: Gosh, that wasn't even that long ago. [00:00:54] Speaker C: Can't even remember. [00:00:55] Speaker B: That was years ago. [00:00:57] Speaker A: It's Dennis is back. And then of course, everybody loves Buzz. It's editor, founder of third degree.net Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Well, let's be real, Peter. Not everybody, just lots of people. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Well, most anybody who counts. Right? [00:01:14] Speaker B: For sure. Is that right? [00:01:17] Speaker A: Well, we're back and it is. Do we qualify this as a victory pod? [00:01:24] Speaker B: Mostly. [00:01:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:01:26] Speaker B: No, no, I'll only. Only 0.5 because nobody else won but FC Dallas, so. [00:01:31] Speaker C: Okay. [00:01:32] Speaker B: It's not a. Not a victory pot. [00:01:33] Speaker A: I don't think we'll get into all things football club Dallas. We'll get into the season start of Trinity and a little bit of other stuff, but we'll. Let's. Let's do something different. Let's start with a. In a question from the Curious, as I like to officially call this, we need to find a sponsor for. Question from the Curious. Yeah, make some Buzz. Some extra cash. [00:01:56] Speaker B: The Patreon is the sponsor of the question for the. [00:01:58] Speaker A: Yes. Brought to you by Buzz's Patreon. And this one is from Marcus Aurelius. Writers, very funny bit. With the new commissioner of Major League Soccer starting, what rule would you tell him to change? And Marcus has a suggestion. But before I feed that to you, Dennis and Buzz, what would Buzz. What would be your thing you'd like him to change? [00:02:22] Speaker B: Yeah, mine is going to be controversial. I think they should drop internationals down to six from eight. You know, people criticize mls, some people for not helping the national team enough. And I think that's because there are not enough American players in the league. Because in this country, the minute you have a green card, you qualify as domestic. So you have cases like FC Dallas who already is buying extra international slots and then they're adding green cards and they're literally fielding teams with one American in it. So I think for the good of the collective game, I'm less interested in like opening the salary cap and becoming inter Miami everywhere than I am in like lowering the amount of internationals and therefore making clubs develop more domestic talent through their academies. That's. But then my stance on how this should go is different than a lot of other people's. I'm less concerned with turning into a super club and making gobs of money than I am with developing the game. [00:03:19] Speaker C: Dennis, I would probably say let's make DP spots tradable, saleable. Like you can buy international spots, you can trade DP spots and pick those up for tam or GAM or cash. I think that would allow clubs that want to spend money to go out and do so. Clubs that want to be ambitious can do so. And clubs like our hometown club might be on the selling side of those and be able to use that cash in the development world a little bit more. [00:03:47] Speaker B: Hmm. [00:03:48] Speaker A: I've seen that one suggestion before and I was thinking about that. Would that just then mean there would be a gathering of DPs on a few number of teams and everybody. Okay, well that's such a bad thing. But then the question is, what do the teams that are getting all the cash for these DP spots actually doing with it? Like if the Hunts, you know, sold off, let's say they each get three DPS and the Hunts sell off one or two of them, are they actually going to turn around and put that money back into the roster itself? And I guess that would then allow them to buy a bunch of other guys that aren't DP level players. Is that the thinking? [00:04:24] Speaker B: Yeah. My assumption would be that once of course, they clear the stadium revenue problem, they would go back to their old way, which is where they would have seven or eight players that are just barely over the DP threshold, which would be like 800,000amillion. And they would buy them down like more of your Oz's and Paxton early on and that kind of thing. Where you would, you would. Because Dallas doesn't want to spend $10 million on a DP. They want to spend like a million dollars on DP and then buy them down to that 800k. So that's how I would read it. They would try and broaden their roster. But you're. I think you're correct, Peter. It would make the separation between the top and bottom league even worse because you would have Colorado or people like that get rid of all their dps and somebody like LAFC would have six or seven and that would, you know, ninja Miami would. Same thing. Yeah. [00:05:07] Speaker A: I mean one team could literally be made up of 11 DPS. [00:05:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm not saying that's bad. I mean, if that's the way they, they all choose to go, you certainly would get much more powerful teams that way. You actually probably could win CONCACAF Champions cup that way, you know. [00:05:21] Speaker A: Well, this was Dennis's idea, so I'm going to make him justify it. [00:05:25] Speaker C: Well, I think you can bolster it with some additional U22 spots or some other initiatives like that for these developing clubs, these clubs that, that want to be developers and, and not big money movers. You can come in and bring in some more U22 guys or you know, maybe even a U20 rule or something along those lines, similar to the U23 rule, the U22 rule, and, and spend the money on those guys where you can bring in young talent and develop them and sell them to Europe like FC Dallas does. And like other clubs, MLS 1.0 clubs tend to, to be in that world [00:05:54] Speaker B: of yeah, these are tradable. Then U22s would be tradable probably. And a club like Dallas would say, well, we'll, we'll give you RDP. You give us one of your U22s and some. And $5 million or whatever. I don't even know what it would be, but that's how Dallas would probably behave. [00:06:08] Speaker A: Well, Marcus's suggestion was, I think, interesting. His. His is I absolutely no salary cap for homegrown players. [00:06:17] Speaker B: That's a really nice idea. It would incentivize the development through your academy because then you would have like a Paxton or a Jesus that you could keep off the cap as long as you were affording their salary. You could keep them indefinitely as no cap hit. It would allow somebody who wanted to keep those kids instead of selling them your tanners, your peppies, you know, if you just pay them a lot, you could keep them. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah, interesting. [00:06:41] Speaker C: That would reward developing clubs too. That would reward Philadelphia's and the Dallas's of the world and, and not make them have to go out and buy those additional DP slots. If that was. That was an option on the table. Right. You wouldn't have it be an alternative to that. And it'd be a way to really build homegrown clubs. Like, like we, like this league was in the beginning. [00:06:59] Speaker B: At the end of the day, that's what they traded. Jesus was his salary, not his play. [00:07:05] Speaker A: Okay, well, I like the very first episode of Question from the curious questions don't have to be about FC Dallas or Major League Soccer. It can be about anything. And Buzz. How is the best way for people to Submit their question from the curious. [00:07:18] Speaker B: Well, obviously, if you're a member of the Patreon, that would go a long way to making us willing to answer the question class, you know, is what it is. [00:07:26] Speaker C: If not, you can mail in a check. [00:07:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:28] Speaker B: And having it pertain to the subjects of the podcast, like, asking me, like, about something from my college days would not be a good question because that will not get on the podcast. [00:07:36] Speaker A: Dear Buzz, is the corps of cadets actually the military? [00:07:41] Speaker B: No, it does not. [00:07:44] Speaker A: Those kind of questions Buzz doesn't want. Okay, well, I mean, I know the [00:07:48] Speaker B: answer, but it's not. Yeah. [00:07:49] Speaker A: Thank you, Marcus, for your question. We'll move on to football club Dallas, which has played twice since the last episode of the podcast. Start with the trip to Toluca. And I find this to be. Look, the guys lost and they got walked by a considerably better team and had a bad night. But I do find some sort of weird juxtaposition between this game being a tournament that ever. A lot of people just have been apathetic about, don't care about, have considered to be a joke or a problem or controversial. And yet at the same time, it arguably was probably one of the most interesting and intimidating and com difficult games in the club's history. Like, this is a club that just doesn't find itself in these kind of situations very often. [00:08:42] Speaker B: Yeah. Sam, in our discord, suggested it might be the most difficult matchup FC Dallas has ever faced. Like, because you can. You can make the case, and I did in my three things, that Toluca is the best team in CONCACAF for the last year and a half, two years, maybe even. At least they're in the conversation. If it isn't them. [00:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:08:55] Speaker B: And going on the road down there is really difficult. I suggested perhaps you could look at 2017 Concacaf Champions cup leg two, when they went to Pachuca, you know. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. [00:09:05] Speaker B: They were meeting going into leg two. Also super difficult. But I can buy the argument. This is the toughest conditions, toughest opponent, toughest situation that's the house ever faced. You know, you. You could maybe go back all the way to the 1997 Champions cup, which was actually played in Dallas, and Dallas Byrne got absolutely wrecked by two teams before Mexico as more difficult. But at least it was in the Cotton bowl, you know. [00:09:32] Speaker A: Right. [00:09:32] Speaker B: But it was so bad that the two winners never even played the final against each other. That's how bad it was. [00:09:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So 2017 is also that faded year. That was the season after what is arguably the best season in club history. The the 2016 season, the double and they loaded up on a bunch of guys to try to make a an out of league run, domestic cup run and it faltered and then the rest of the domestic season just crapped out. [00:09:57] Speaker B: They made a good run but you know, those were a bunch of older players and they got tired in the heat over the after the back end of the season after they got eliminated and that led to the greatest collapse we've ever seen. And probably at the end of the day contributed Oscar eventually leaving. Although, you know, have we even mentioned [00:10:12] Speaker A: the fact that the 26 season marks the 10th anniversary of the double? [00:10:18] Speaker C: I don't think that's been talked about [00:10:19] Speaker B: at all I long so isn't that remarkable? [00:10:21] Speaker A: It's been a decade since that amazing season took place. [00:10:26] Speaker B: Well, maybe that'll come up when you get to the part of the calendar where those things were won when the shield and the and the cup were won, you know, and then they'll give the actually anniversaries. It'll probably be more celebrated at that time of the season because we're still a couple of months away from that. [00:10:41] Speaker A: Will we mark the 10th anniversary of the moment the 26 season caputed [00:10:48] Speaker B: about [00:10:48] Speaker A: the same time Mario Diaz got injured by Seattle? [00:10:52] Speaker B: Yeah, probably. No, they won't remember that. But yeah, that deal. [00:10:56] Speaker A: For those of you too young to remember, Dallas was going to win the first domestic treble in Major League Soccer history. If it hadn't been for fart in [00:11:03] Speaker B: Seattle, at least you can make the case. I don't know that they would have given the way. [00:11:08] Speaker A: Totally on the track to doing it. [00:11:10] Speaker B: Yeah, well they were definitely on track but you know, it's FC Dallas. Something would have gone wrong notice. I mean it did. That's what went wrong. Mardias blew out his flip flop. [00:11:20] Speaker A: Well, we. Well, we found Dallas down at Toluca. What a cool scene. What a cool groovy little stadium that they've got going on. I don't know what that place holds, but all the kind of intangibles of the scene and the atmosphere and the elevation, all of that. I also wanted to point out that the banner thing that they had going above the seating, the kind of vertical bannering that went all the way across the. The other side of the stadium from the camera. I thought that's a really cool design idea for what Dallas should be doing in that dead space. They're going to run ads but you know what I'm saying, like put some sort of mural that's about the history of the club that runs from left to right or something like that. I thought that would look, like, really cool. [00:12:02] Speaker B: Yeah, the whole thing was fabulous. And despite the fact that Dallas got played off of the park, it was just so much fun to watch FC Dallas play in such an environment. Environment. Such a game with such, you know, atmosphere. Everything about it was just fantastic. Dennis, I'm sure you probably enjoyed that as much as any of us in the sense of, like, it's such a rarity, right, for Dallas to be playing in a tournament where they're getting into the stages where they're going to play one of these great Mexican teams on their own field like that. [00:12:28] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, it was really cool to see them go down there and do that. And Peter's 30,000 is the capacity. 30? [00:12:33] Speaker A: Is that what it is? Okay. It looks smaller than that on TV for some reason. [00:12:36] Speaker C: It is. It's a tiny little bandbox of a stadium. It goes way up, it slopes up to the top. You know, it's got that sort of stack seating on top of it, it looks like. And they've got that second deck that goes really, really high up. But the way they got the COVID on it, it keeps the noise and it's really loud. It's one of the toughest places to play in North America and has been for a long time. [00:12:55] Speaker B: What was this at? They've lost four games in two years or something there. [00:12:58] Speaker C: Yeah. A fortress by. By any. Any measure of the term. [00:13:03] Speaker B: But. [00:13:03] Speaker A: But can we say in all honesty, I mean, I think Toluca obviously was more than likely going to end up scoring goals on their own and winning this game going away. But I think, objectively, can we not agree that in at least the first half, and if it hadn't been a terrible mistake by Oz and another awful mistake by Nolan, Dallas had played really well. I mean, they kind of gave him two goals at the worst possible time. [00:13:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's an example of Dallas would have had to have played a flawless game. Right. I mean, if Logan Farrington scores in the 14th minute, when he has that break in on that right, where his bad touch takes him too away from goal too much. But, you know, like, if. If you execute a false half, don't give up PKs, don't have Nolan decide that slide tackling is the best defensive move there is, when it's actually the opposite of that, if Farrington's touch doesn't let him down, you know, but then that's the thing. Like, it would have taken False game. And it wasn't a false game. This is the game they executed. You know, you. How many tries would it take you to get a flawless performance in a venue like that against a crowd like that? Against a team like that, man, it would probably take you 10, 15 tries before you would get one, you know, be able to get. I mean, it would be equivalent to when Dallas goes to Seattle or Dallas goes to Portland, except worse places that there's one win in 20 years, right? Except it's even worse than that because the crowd is more nuts than that. So like it would take decades to be able to win a game there, in my opinion. [00:14:29] Speaker A: One of the comments from that game was, and I you mentioned it Buzz in your instant reaction video afterwards. And it relates to the game Sunday in Austin was Dallas's complete inability in Mexico to play through the middle. They just could not connect any passes. They couldn't do anything. Yet weirdly enough, there were some changes between Toluca and Austin. Those two performances and the big one for me, my notice was that suddenly Dallas looked like they could play through the middle. And I'm curious, so what was the difference between the Toluca game and the Austin game? Is it the opponent? Is it the lineup? Is it some sort of tactical adjustment Quill made? [00:15:12] Speaker B: Well, most of it is the opposition. You know, Toluca is just really, really good. Their midfield is significantly better than FC Dallas. But this has been a problem for FC Dallas in Austin's. Yeah, yeah, Toluca's. [00:15:26] Speaker A: I thought you were comparing to Luca versus Austin. I'm sorry. [00:15:29] Speaker B: Well, I was. But also FC Dallas to look as midfield is just incredibly better than FC Dallas. FC Dallas midfield is generally speaking the worst part of their team, the worst part of the roster. This inability to play through the middle has been the case all year. So why all of a sudden did it work somewhat better in. In Austin is actually more about Austin. There is a slight tactical adjustment. If you look at the shape for the Toluca game, it's essentially the same shape. It's effectively a 3, 4, 3. But remember that one of those people is Logan Farrington in the Toluca game, Logan plays it much higher. He plays it higher up next to Musa, almost a 3, 5, 2. Really? Where the Austin game you actually had a real 3, 4, 3, where Valiente and Moreno are both playing back underneath as tens and you got a legit different than when Delgado does it. When Delgado does it, he goes and stands out on the wing, right. Moreno and Valiente both Played it correctly and you end up with a box four in the center of the field with two wing backs and essentially you have a six to three advantage. You know for sure a four to three advantage against Austin the whole game in the, in the middle 20 yard box. And then when you include the wing backs you end up with a 6 pro person advantage. And given the way Musa also comes back sometimes a seven players in the midfield and that's why all of a sudden you can play through the middle. Because Austin's FC's midfield is not that great. Their best midfielder was missing. They're playing some 17 year old kid who's making his first start ever. So it really was a confluence of things, but in particular playing the tactic correctly is a big part of it. And it wasn't like that made them have possession. It just meant that like against Toluca they would make two passes but the third pass, the fourth pass would get cut out every time and it was a disaster. Well against Aust in FC they would make 2, 3, 4 passes right through the middle. Not high possession, totally different concepts but your ability to get through the middle of the field. And just to show how much that was the case, SC had 38% of their attack, their moves came through the middle channel of the the field. Man, that never happens with this team. They're always going wide right. So like that's how much hay they were making right up the gut. And it was almost like at times they didn't know what to do with it. They were like now what do we do? We got through the middle. Now what it's like. And they would took them a while to sort of figure it out. They were getting shots off target and event. They got it all lined up and in play and now that's when they ended up with a really nice XG and they ended up with a really nice shot ratio because it was so effective for them to go through there. [00:17:55] Speaker A: Dennis, now that Dallas's leagues cup run is over and I'm curious to your opinion as to how you felt like Quill handled it, how it was, you know, how it turned out. Did they end up doing better than you anticipated? [00:18:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I think they went for it a lot more than I expected them to. When we were looking early on I think we were looking at the injuries that had piled up a little bit. Ramiro was hurt. We, we had some, some, some bodies that were sort of recovering and when we looked at the opponents and the places where they were playing, we looked at Toluca we looked at the Chivas game up on the west coast in San Jose. It was just kind of there. There was no path forward for this club, right? And then they went out and won the first two games. And all of a sudden this third game is the most important game we've ever played, according to some folks like we just discussed. Right? So we, we went from this being, you know, a tournament that nobody really seemed to care much about. And then all of a sudden everybody, they went for it and they showed out really early. They showed up and said, okay, well, we're going to go for this. We're going to throw everything we have at this and we're going to make a run at this Cup. So I think that was, you know, they showed a lot of heart, right? They showed a lot of guts. And I think Quill himself showed a lot of guts by going for it against these clubs that I think they're. They just don't match up well against as far as, you know, rankings. I think when you look at clubs like Toluca, when you look at Chivas, these are world beater clubs, these are clubs that are consistently playing in CONCACAF Champions, these are clubs that are consistently at the top of Liga Mekis. And it's just. It's a different world for us, right? We are just not at that level right now. We are not a club that plays at that level. And to see him go out there and win, too, it was a little inspiring. You know, it would have been nice to take that third one. But I think all told, I think it was a decent performance all the way around. [00:19:39] Speaker A: Buzz. They also ended up kind of late in the game in a much tougher group then I think we all kind of thought initially when they got assigned these three teams and how it all kind of played out. [00:19:50] Speaker B: Yeah, you know, I think the key to that was that we all knew. Everybody talked about it, the official podcast talked about it, all the media talked about it. Wasn't surprised that there was going to be rotation. And when that. When you rotate often, your level falls off. Well, SC Dallas is built with a lot of dudes, and when they rotated in and out some dudes, the guys that came in all played up to the level. And so the team was able to field a really nice competitive team through two rotational games and win them. And then that put them in a position to really go for it when I don't think anybody thought they were going to go for it. Now, we didn't see the kind of rotation you get in an Open Cup. When you're playing like a Division 2, Division T3 team, when you might see some kids come in, what we saw was the middle part of the roster rotate in players 12 through 18, 12 through 22, maybe all got to come in in stages. And Quill did a really nice job with roster management. He has to continue to do that too this week because of the ext. Extra load that they're carrying with the midweek game also this week. So that was the thing, was that the. The rotation was effective and players stepped up and that allowed them to then go for it. Now go for it is relative because at the end of the day they were going to have to go to Toluca and get a win. That was always going to be the problem. If you look at Austin FC's schedule, for example, they're in the quarterfinal and they're going to go play to Luca. But like, they. They had a much, much easier road with more home games and much easier competition. And so they were able to get through when you just saw them play FC Dallas and clearly they're nowhere as near as good a team as FC Dallas. So the schedule was a killer. And the schedule almost always is going to make this impossible for Dallas because at the end of the day, you were always going to have to go to Toluca and that wasn't going to help you. So they would have needed some sort of confluence of results that would have been like, if they could have tied in to Luke and gotten through, that would have been their best opportunity. But it wasn't going to be that way. [00:21:38] Speaker A: Yeah. And. And we. I don't think it's unfair to point out that this stadium project also caused its own problem. [00:21:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Because likely, you know, some of the Mexican teams wanted to host games and so FC Dallas got picked as one of those teams to go down there, probably because of the stadium. Certainly the Mansfield game would have been in Toyota Stadium. Probably the chiefest game would have also been in Toyota Stadium if Toyota Stadium was available. Like, Dallas got effectively two road games because that game against in San Jose against Chivas, that might as well be a road game, dude. [00:22:09] Speaker A: Oh, it was 100% a road. [00:22:10] Speaker B: Huge in California. Right. Even though it's definitely on the road, but it's not as bad as Mexico. But Chivas is huge out there in California, so it might as well have been in Mexico. People are throwing flares on the field. It felt just like going to Mexico. So, like, the schedule did not do any favors and that was contributed to By Toyota Stadium being what it was. But we should give the team credit for their resilience and making it look. I hate this tournament. It pisses me off so much. The format is stupid. This mere existence annoys the crap out of me because it's about money. It's not about anything else but money grabbing. But at the end of the day, the team itself performed well enough that it made me interested, and it gave us a third game that was so much even they got played out the park. It was such a great circumstance and such fun to watch as a fan, in my opinion, just because of the atmosphere and the size of it and the intimidation and the excitement being like, man, they don't. Even though they got beat, it was such a great opportunity for the entire roster to learn and to grow. Because I guarantee you that maybe short of Musa and ir, possibly Shaq Moore, none of these dudes have played in games like that before. Romero, Copa liberator Romero. That's about it, though, right? So what an opportunity to learn and soak it in and be like, this is different, and try and try and grow as a player. You know, in those moments, for some [00:23:29] Speaker C: of these guys, this might be the biggest game of their career ever. Right. And. And might stay that way. Right. This might have been the biggest match they've ever had to play. Going on the road to do something like that. [00:23:39] Speaker B: Yeah. The only guy that would come close, they'll have a beat would be Ramiro, I think, because he won Koba Ludadoras, I believe, with Gremio. So I. I think that that was. He's probably the only one, though, Buzz, who was the. [00:23:49] Speaker A: Dallas's best player in the three games [00:23:52] Speaker B: over the whole thing? [00:23:55] Speaker A: I mean. Yeah. Who's the. Did they. [00:23:57] Speaker B: Probably Ericide, you know, as always, you know, he's just a dominant force. Consider, like, you know, he. He's not in a. In league play. He was all carrying a yellow card suspension potentially. But open cup play, that an open couple at least got played, that went out the window. But think about how intimidating and how physical those Mexican teams are. And he was up for it. He was up for the challenge, physically. He was getting in people's faces. He. He's played in games of a similar vibe and knew how to respond. And I. I just thought he really stood out across all of them, you know, because Musa rotated. He even rotated, too. But I think probably game after game after game, he would be the one that was the most consistent. [00:24:35] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought that battle he was having with Venus, the I think he's Ecuadorian. Forward for Toluca was fantastic fun. You could, you could tell they were both enjoying it and hating it at the same time. It was a good, fun battle of a different level. You don't see a guy like that [00:24:49] Speaker B: guy is so good that, like, Erge needed a little help when he would have to step off to cover something. There wasn't somebody else that could come in, and then that guy was making hay when he would have to step away. So, like, a little bit of the trouble against Toluca was that there wasn't a second person that was of IR's level in the defense. You know, we, we. There are guys we like, our Shaq Moores and our Nolan. They're not ir. [00:25:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:12] Speaker B: You know, there, there's just. There was a point at which, like, you need a second guy of that caliber to be able to handle a striker like that. When one of them needs to go away to cover for something else, the other needs to be another guy that can handle him, and there wasn't. [00:25:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought the game was important for the Nolan, the Bernies, the Beavers, world, those young guys. None of those three guys particularly had great games. And I, and I do wonder how much of that has to do with just the atmosphere and, and this and the importance and the largeness of it. But look, Tuluka is probably the best team in this, this hemisphere right now running, and that's a difficult place to play. [00:25:52] Speaker B: I'm hoping Nolan's going to take a big less this, because that was a guy who was faster than Nolan and more skilled on the ball than Nolan, and he mostly did a good job, but he was resorting to slide tackling. He really needed help from Bernie because Bernie doesn't help. But unfortunately, Bernie doesn't help defensively. And I had hoped that I would see Bernie learn from that. But Bernie did the same thing in Austin. He hung out his left center back time and time again, particularly when it's. Once they brought in 77, it was flying up and down the field, and Bernie was sort of jogging back. It's like there's still a component of Bernie's game defensively that's not there. He's not getting back. He's not help defending when it's needed. Nolan really needed some help with that guy because that dude is amazing. That El Nino kid, that dude had so much talent, speed, and it was too much for Nolan. Nolan did a really good job most of the time, but he was resorting to some panic defending and he would have needed a flawless game, which we discussed, and he didn't get it. So, you know, again, not horrible, but like, hopefully great opportunity to learn. I mean, hopefully no one's going to study that tape and go, how do I defend a guy? Because look at Tim Ream. Tim Ream's not any faster than Nolan Norris. Right. You can defend at that level, at a really high level without being as quick. Same quickness as Nolan. He's not slow. He's just not fast. [00:27:02] Speaker A: But you have to learn how slow. Buzz. [00:27:04] Speaker B: I know he's probably quicker than. I know, but that's, that was an extreme analogy to show you. Like, that's where Nolan, Nolan's got the soccer brain like Tim Ream does. So he can, he can learn to be as good a defender in my mind as Tim Rean can, but it's going to take time. Tim Ream's 39. Tim's old 59, 79, whatever. Yeah. Nolan's still 20. [00:27:24] Speaker C: His granddad. [00:27:25] Speaker B: Yeah. So I'm hoping that this kind of game helps a Nolan elevate his game going forward. [00:27:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, we'll put the league's cup to bed for FC Dallas since they did. But it was fun to see that game take place. And it won't surprise me to see Toluca win the whole darn thing and add some silverware to their, to their trophy case and, you know, at least that would be the one team Dallas lost to be the team that won it all. So we'll keep going there. Now, you mentioned the Austin game that happened Sunday night. I didn't even realize this. This was the first time Dallas has played in the. That, whatever that I guess it's highlight Sunday night soccer position on Apple tv. I didn't even think about that. [00:28:07] Speaker B: The broadcast is completely different then. I've, I've not watched those late Sunday night games. Obviously. I'm usually doing something. They had a 30 minute pregame show. They had Moadu, they had a sideline reporter. It was, I was like, this is like real television. This is awesome. It's fun. [00:28:21] Speaker A: Yeah. So just a couple of observational questions I have. First off, I, you know, the Adidas released all the archive kits for some teams that didn't get them last year. Obviously Austin is one of those. Austin is elected to go with this purple color that they claim relates to some sort of nickname or something in the history of Austin. I have literally never heard of before. And none of my friends that have lived in Austin or went to college in Austin has heard before. But that said, let's just float with it and go, okay, that totally makes sense. Cool choice. Whatever. Kit looks nice. I like the use of the old Major League soccer logo on the nape, on the backside. I think that's cool. But here's my fundamental issue, and I saw this once in a college game. I think it was Ole Miss, who are famously red. And when they were playing a home game and everybody in the stands was wearing old Miss red, but Ole Miss on the field was wearing these new third uniforms that are baby blue. And it didn't match. Like, none of the teams, like, yeah, made it didn't make any sense whatsoever. So last night in Austin, everybody in the stands wearing green. I'm sorry, Verde. And their team is wearing purple. And I just think that's a bad juju thing going on there. [00:29:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that's, that's the thing about wearing a third kid at home or whatever. I, I, when you're gonna have a third kid, you're just gonna get some of that. And I will give them the purple because the Austin Aztecs wore purple and, like, their supporters group was embracing purple before the club picked green. So, like, there was a play into it. The, the idea that it came from some poem or something that nobody ever heard of, I thought was hysterically funny, these manufactured history or whatever. But at a certain point, like, unless you had a coordinated supporters group or fan ticketing or even club ticketing, like, hey, everybody wear purple. Like, you could have done that. Like, there are colleges. My own brainwashed cult of Texas A and M does that kind of thing all the time where they, everybody changes colors to match whatever's going on on the field. So, like, it is possible to do that. It would have been cool for them if they would have done that. But you're right, it was, it's all green. And there was kind of a disconnect. But I had to say that, like, of the, the third kits that they've done this summer, like, that's actually one of my favorite ones. I think it's actually a pretty good one. That. Awesome. [00:30:45] Speaker C: It doesn't help that the entire stadium is also decorated green. All the seats are green. All the, the trusses and the lighting and everything else around the stadium is also green. So it's just looked very, very jarring to see that purple out there. And there, there were a few fans rocking the purple. Walking through the stadium with them, you saw folks that maybe picked them up that day or had got them a few weeks ago when they came out but the, the, the entire building is green all the way around. And it just looks very, very strange because it's such a, a deep, dark purple too, compared to that bright white green. [00:31:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Dennis, you were at the game, weren't you? [00:31:20] Speaker C: Yep, I was. [00:31:21] Speaker A: Are you hungover? [00:31:23] Speaker C: No, I got back about 4:30 this morning though, so there's that. I'm a little, a little tired still. [00:31:30] Speaker B: My favorite thing about that whole kid is that they had Willie Nelson leak it by wearing it like in something. I mean, I got Willie Nelson and be like, that doesn't have Willie Nelson jerseys. [00:31:40] Speaker A: I have to give them a little bit of credit because the one, the other detail that I noticed that I thought was cool was they're using a very cool 70s font for the Austin across the chest. I don't know if you noticed it, Buzz or Dennis. In the stadium, the scoreboard had the three letter code for each of the cities in that font. So the Austin and the Dallas was in that same font. [00:32:04] Speaker B: I did not. Nice touch. [00:32:05] Speaker C: Yeah, the stat sheet, the stat pack up on the scoreboard as well had the entire stat list in that font as well. [00:32:13] Speaker A: Oh, cool. All right. I dig it. Now, Dennis, I'm glad to know that you were there because I also wanted to point out that Austin is objectively having another awful season. They're like next to last in league. Yes, they've progressed in the league's cup. Whatever, whatever. Set that aside. But is it not unfair to point out that all the things that many of us, however many years ago when Q2 opened and Austin launched and all of the crazy scenes and the atmosphere we were all jealous of, many of us just sat back and went, okay, let's just see how this goes over the course of the next few years, especially if the team turns out to not be very good. And I turn on the TV last night and Dennis, was that place 70% full? [00:33:00] Speaker C: There were a lot of people dressed as seats. It was, it was, it was a, a limited crowd to speak. 70% might be a, a generous estimate. I probably think it was even 70. [00:33:12] Speaker A: I mean, the, the, their standing room only thing wasn't even full. [00:33:17] Speaker C: Yeah, the standing room supporter section back there behind goal was maybe half full. And that was, you know, I think mostly just the supporter groups that were there. There was none of the usual, you know, walk up last minute cheap ticket folks that come in for that stuff. [00:33:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not trying to pick on Austin specifically. I'm just trying to point out that we've all been through this cycle buzz so many times we've seen this so much that it's great when a new team comes into the league and they have enthusiasm and everybody's all excited. [00:33:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:47] Speaker A: But really it all comes, you know, nut cutting time comes to when you're 14th in the league and you've got like three points after 12, 14 games. [00:33:56] Speaker B: Yeah, everyone's the greatest fan base in the world when it's all sunshine and daffodils. But like, it comes to a point where your team's gonna stink and then, then you're gonna have to deal with it is. And we haven't seen somebody like LAFC stink yet, but they're already calling for their coach's head even just, just because they're not in third place. Yeah. [00:34:12] Speaker A: So it' syndrome swings both ways, guys. [00:34:16] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know that Atlanta United's quite as hot in the stands as they were the first couple of years. I mean, listen, I, I, I don't have any, I don't want to complain too much about Austin because Austin FT actually proved to both FC Dallas and Dynamo that you could sell seats in Texas. And FC Dallas responded to that, hired a real VP of marketing and spent some money and they started selling out Toyota Stadium. So I give Austin all the credit in the world for Dallas becoming a place that sold out soccer games all the time. You know, now, of course, Stadium Renault, that's changed everything. But no longer having a VP of marketing, that's different decision entirely. But, you know, it was always gonna be the case where it was all going to come back to ground. And, and my biggest question, Dennis, for somebody that was there, did Romero look as trash from the stands as he did on television because he was straight ass? [00:35:06] Speaker C: Oh, I mean, I was up in the rafters and you know where they stick the visiting fans up there up in the top section of the stadium. But he looked like a traffic cone out there from where I was sitting. It was very much how he looked in the Toluca game. He was just getting run around and picked up that yellow card again, which is starting to get concerning. And I know I was the guy that advocated for him here last week to be starting in the Toluca match, but I'm just wondering if maybe he came back a little too early from whatever was bothering him. [00:35:32] Speaker A: I stopped counting his turnovers in the first like 20 minutes of the game. Yeah, it was a very kaik like [00:35:38] Speaker B: performance in that, in that fact, 76% passing by him. Two defensive contributions out of year six, two for eight on ground duels, including the goal where he actually finally closed down a midfield shooter, lost the duel and that guy scores. He was dispossessed three times. Just an absolutely brutal performance by any measure. [00:35:58] Speaker A: And then he had the audacity to turn around and yell at somebody for not helping him out. After he lost the duel, he yelled [00:36:04] Speaker B: at Valiente because Valiente closed him down and then lost the duel also. So it's like. But Valiente is a 10, not a 6. [00:36:09] Speaker A: I mean like, and Valiente had to sprint like 20 yards to come even get to that point to try to help him out. [00:36:14] Speaker B: Well, look, we've been, I've been talking about this position all season. Well, actually probably for like three or four years, but for sure, all season the bottom line is like if your 6 is closing down a shooter, that play needs to be over. [00:36:27] Speaker A: Yes. [00:36:27] Speaker B: Right there at the top of the box. You cannot lose that play. That. And somebody's like, oh, well, he toe poked it. He got lucky, man. I don't. Your six needs to destroy that guy, hopefully in a clean tackle. But in worst case scenario, foul him. Don't let him get by you and shoot like that play needs to be over if you're the sixth. So. [00:36:43] Speaker A: But Kai probably makes that tackle and wins that ball or at least clears it out of. Or stops the danger. [00:36:49] Speaker B: Yeah. And he's not even the 6. [00:36:51] Speaker A: Romero is fair enough, but in that, but in that scenario, if, if Kaik is in that same position, the problem is Romero typically is the better passer and positioner of the two. One is Kaik even in that position to make the tackle. 2. You know, the other problem for Ramiro is, is now suddenly his passing's gone all wonky. So now the one thing he's been doing good, now he's not doing as well again or now. And that just creates a bigger problem. [00:37:18] Speaker B: Well, he never was a line breaker. Cap is the only one that can really line break from back there. But like, at least Romero used to maintain the play. And if you're going to do 76% passing and be dispossessed three times now, you're not even do the basic crap that keeps the play going. So it's like that's, that's a real. It's no surprise he got subbed as early as he did. Like I. It's just awful. And this is why again, why over and over and over again we've talked about that pivot. Like there needs to be. If you're going to compete at all, you need to get a player in there. [00:37:44] Speaker A: But here's the deal. Dallas won the game 2 1, and by and large, on the road again, won its first game in this brutal road thing they're going to have to do for the next month or so that they've been subjected to or put themselves into. And despite Romero being asked, the team largely played pretty well, Buzz, and it's hard to fuss about a win. [00:38:07] Speaker B: Well, Peter Musa did what better Musa does. Scored a banger, Lawless Abubakar, of all people, my man of the match because he's played like 40 minutes all year, one game, and he comes in and has an absolutely phenomenal game and scores a goal and plays terrifically, outplays Ibiaga. It turns out that Santi Moreno has been playing hurt with a pubis injury, but can only go like 60, 70 minutes. But he had one of the best games he's had all year. He. He's playing as a 10 and he had 93 passing. And most importantly, six chances created. Six chances created is terrific. Out of a 10, like, they only had nine shots. So he had two thirds of the opportunities created. Santa Moreno did so. Terrific game by him. And overall, just the domination of the midfield. Like, think about we. We opened the show talking about how Dallas's midfield actually played through the middle and played dominant soccer up, right up the middle of the park. And that's with Ramiro having a jackass game. Like, so other people were getting it done in there. Like Valiente was starting to show stuff. Cabbage had a pretty strong game in there. Like, you know, it was a really nice performance all the way around, except for Ramiro. It was so awful. [00:39:15] Speaker A: Dennis, you were in the stadium. What was the. Your kind of review of what you saw last night? [00:39:21] Speaker C: I think it was a gutsy performance. And I'm going to steal that word from Ryan. Figured he used it on the post game pod, but gutsy was, I think, the appropriate word. Musa came in, did what Moussa does, right? Like, Buzzy just said it. Moussa does Musa things. He comes in and he makes that finish. He brings one off the post, rolls to the other side, which is that sort of classic Musa goal. He does it with his left foot instead of his right. But to your point, Buzz, Lala's coming in and just showing up and doing what he needs to do. Coming off the bench, not having played really at all this season, or not much at all, seeing him come in, put in that goal, it really is. These guys played with a lot of heart, which is something I think we haven't seen in a while, right? We haven't seen this club really come out and show that Dog factor that we've heard so much about. We keep hearing about X Dog and how much these guys want to finish and how much these guys want to move forward and how much they want to get the ball in an attacking zone and how much they want to constantly be up at the top. And I think we finally saw that coming in. I think we finally saw this. These guys really want to play for each other, and they played really well together. It wasn't a. A clean game by any means. It wasn't a, you know, fun to watch game. It was, you know, kind of squeaky bum there at the end, as Dan would say, holding out as they were sort of bunkering. I think they may have bunkered a little bit too early after that first goal as well, but I think all told, it was a solid performance and they. They came home with three points. In a game that matters to the fans, right? It's a. It's a game that matters when you've got things like Copa TA's on the line and really just in state rivalry, right? It's. It's. It's not Houston, it's not the. The. The Texas Darby, but it is a game that matters. So it's a local. It's the closest club we have to us, right? So it matters. And when these guys come out and perform like that, I think it means a lot to the fans, for the fans that were there, folks that were watching. So hopefully we see more of this kind of performance and they can carry this over into the next one. As you said, Peter, we still got a few more games this month. [00:41:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it was. It wasn't a great game or super entertainment. I mean, I don't know. [00:41:25] Speaker B: I. [00:41:25] Speaker A: It's hard for me to judge these things these days in terms of how good the quality or entertainment value of the game is. Austin, I. Austin, again, is another weird situation because Austin's got the League cup thing. The only thing they've got going on now. They're not really fighting for anything else. So, you know, their starting lineup versus how they attack the game is probably affected by that buzz. [00:41:46] Speaker B: Yeah, there's such a mess that Jim Curtin doesn't even want anything to do with him for the remainder of this season. He's like, no, I'll just wait. I don't want to be tarnished with that garbage brush that's going on down there. You know, they got guys hurt they're gonna have to clean the house on some dps probably. It's just not a great situation. Their midfield is particularly trash. If you look at their way their guys took up positions, they ended up with like three left wings and a left wing back up on the left wing. So like they had four guys standing over there holding hands. Probably why they were really light in the middle, but just not, not a good situation for them. I mean they got, they got clearly outplayed by FC Dallas pretty much all over the pitch. You know, as Dallas was to Luca. Maybe not quite that bad. This sort of felt like that. I never really felt like Austin was in much in danger of taking control of that game. Even though they had like 64% possession. You know, that's always difficult. I'm with you sometimes, Peter, where it's like this game looks like Dallas is terrible, but it's like they just don't play a sexy brand of soccer. They can play a fun like when they get it. Like the thing about this game is like when those working and they're getting through the middle and they're attacking fast, that's fun and exciting and it looks super cool. But then there's big chunks of where they're just sitting there letting Austin fart around with the ball. That doesn't look very fun. So you get a, you get an inconsistent amount of entertainment. At least I do out of it is when I'm watching them just sort of staying around versus when they're attacking. You don't get like a, a full game of fun like when a team is a really high possession, high soccer kind of team. But that's just where this team is. So we have to adjust our thinking about that a bit. And, and I thought this was actually one of the more complete performances they've had in quite a while since certainly since way before the World Cup. And so one of my biggest takeaways actually is you get your completely dominated like they did in Toluca, even though they didn't quit in Toluca to then be able to come back the next game like four days later and go, you know, we're going to play you off the park. And they did. So that shows that they have a good mentality and it shows I think that they're not going to have a post leagues cup letdown. They, they probably feel like they over exceeded themselves at least cup like we do, you know. And so hopefully this is going to carry forward and this is a huge win in the middle of this stretch of if we just talk league games, it was the seven road games, right. It was 10 when we included Leagues Cup. But they're floating right at 200. Right. It's 12 and 12 times and one loss. So like they're right there in a good run of form. Like we'd like to see them going forward. You know, you got two tough ones with RSL and Vancouver coming up this week, but they're not out of the woods yet. But they only got three more games left in this brutal stretch and yet they probably feel pretty good about themselves, which is what we talked about. If they come out of the stretch feeling good about themselves, they're going to have a real chance to give themselves probably a home field advantage for at least one game in the playoffs. [00:44:26] Speaker A: Yeah, I do think that the difference that you talked about at the beginning about playing with the two, the two tens a little bit more narrow and a little bit further back helps with this building through the middle. But what I get frustrated by watching the team is the fact that once they get into the middle third of the field, getting into that final third, unless they catch the other team in transition position, it seems to be their real problem as a, as a, as a total club. Like they just can't complete those passes. And so many of times it's just a wrong decision, a badly executed pass, a badly executed first touch. It's little tiny things that I think has really like I, I think the elements of what Quill is trying to do are in there, but there is a level of quality that I think that we talk about with this team that, that I think ultimately is end up causing it its most, its own problems. [00:45:20] Speaker B: Yeah, well, this is why Dallas is still just one of the better teams of the parity part of the standings. Like they're not an elite team is because of that factor, because they can't create a high, high volume of opportunities. This is again why it's so important we talk about their shot ratio, that when you do get the opportunities that you get good outcomes from them. You get the ball on net 50% of the time and this was close to that. And so it's a win, right. When you get these big changes, you need to convert them. This is why Moussa is so huge, because his conversion rate is so high and it's why Logan Farrington is interesting if he can get to that higher level. Right now he doesn't have Moose's conversion rate. He still has these fumbles where he, this touch takes him away from goal or he get the ball gets underneath his feet. He. He's not as good as Musa, but, you know, you. You hope that he can develop in that an area and you could get two guys that can get that good at scoring. But then when you do have Musa on there with Farrington, you lose that connectivity. You lose a Valiant. Valiante. And really Santi Moreno, who played at such a high level in this game, yeah, that's what. That was the difference. Like he played at a DP level and that was part of why they dominated Austin so much. If you can keep him or whoever's in that other spot, because Valiente is starting to show well, also if you can keep that extra spot, that third spot, whether it be Moreno, whether it be Farrington, whether it be Delgado and Delgado's ankle knock is straight. Like that position has to do good things or it doesn't nearly. It doesn't look nearly as good. [00:46:48] Speaker A: They're still on the road. They've got a. As you said, they've got three more road games to go to get through this incredible stretch before their first return to Frisco on what is right 5th of September. Good Lord, that's happening fast. And, and they are sitting fifth in the standings. It's. You know, this isn't a disastrous situation. They're still a playoff team. Where overall, Buzz, are you in terms of the current status of how this is going so far? [00:47:16] Speaker B: Well, in particular, this road stretch, they're doing about as good as you could hope. You know, the problem is, is that you've got rsl, who's right near you in the standings on the road. You got Vancouver, who's at the top of the west in the standings. You know, even though Vancouver had a really dark stretch there, they just won. So they're feeling a little bit better about themselves. St. Louis has climbed into the top six. You know, you got them. That's your third road game. So these are three very difficult road games coming up. And I, I think that if you can get again, we talked about a 500. If you can come out of that scenario and maintain your 500, then your backload of home games put you in a really, really good, good position to be able to climb into that 3, 4, 5 conversation. You know, if you actually want to be able to really compete, you actually need to. You need to add one really good midfielder, maybe even two. But with. If you don't do anything, I think you could still fight for this 4 or 5ish kind of thing and get, maybe, maybe get that Home playoff game if you can get into fourth. [00:48:14] Speaker A: Right. [00:48:14] Speaker B: So I, I like where they are. I think Quill is coaching this team up and it's performing above its talent level by a couple of points, by a couple of positions in the standings. You know, it's not eighth or ninth like it's been the last couple years. It's now fourth and sixth. So I think I'm pretty pleased with it given the lack of talent in the, in the DP positions, the lack of come through on that. The high tan positions are not performing really, given that this road awfulness that they're going through. I think overall it's in a pretty good position, all things considered. I don't think that they're anywhere near that top, top, top end of the table actually competing for titles. It's just not there. The, the roster build is all too janky. It's still just a bunch of players in a pile. Quill still is having to play a shape he doesn't want to play just because of the talent he has at his disposal. He can't play the way he really wants to play. So I'm okay with it. Given all those qualifiers, you know. [00:49:15] Speaker A: Dennis, what's your mood? [00:49:17] Speaker C: I think they're right on schedule with where I think everyone pretty much expected them to be. I think this is about where the expectation was. Fifth, sixth, somewhere right in the mix there, being able to make a run out if they really want Buzz to your point, bringing in a defensive six would change the game here, but we're down to the final two weeks and there's not much chatter going on. I don't know if you've heard anything, but there's not much chatter going around. There's not much news happening there, so I don't really expect them to make any additions. And if they don't, I think there's a possibility they could fall a little further down the table. You know, you talked about those opponents that we have coming up on the road, but let's look at who we still have at home, too. We've got a playoffs and again, which is, you know, ideally a nice win, but Houston still needs to get to. We need to go on the road to Houston again after that break. There's LAFC comes to town. There are some tough opponents down the stretch here at home too, not just on the road too. So I think they're, they're on schedule and I think they're exactly where they should be. But there is still a possibility that they could fumble this and, and you know, if guys don't start stepping up, if guys like, you know, Johansson don't start improving their game a little bit, guys like Ramiro need to either get back to form or figure out what's going on. There is a possibility they can fall down the table very quickly, and it could be a very slippery slope with the way these games are piled up with Saturday, Wednesday, weekend games. [00:50:34] Speaker B: As for player moves, the window is open till the second, and the window has to do with incoming players. So, like, and whether they're under contract, if they're free agents, you could add after that until the roster freeze deadline, which I think is like the 12th or something. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's not the same day. The problem is that they have to move somebody out to move somebody in. And I can tell you that from all the people I know, all the little birdies or whatever, Deanson is basically not really part of this team anymore. They're just waiting for someone to take him off their hands. Hopefully they're pushing time. [00:51:06] Speaker A: That turned out to be. [00:51:07] Speaker B: Yeah, hopefully they're pushing hard. You know, it's not that they dislike him as a person. It's just like it doesn't it. MLS is at a place now where you're looking at a guy that just played in the World cup, and it's not good enough for this league. You know, it's. Granted, it's Haiti. It's not like he played for England, but still, it's like the. It's just not good enough. So, like, you need to. That's one person that I know that they're actually trying to move. So on top of that, that gives you one ability to bring a player in. I know for sure that they're looking in the midfield now. Can they do a second one? Again, you'd have to move somebody. So, like, you have to find a way to clear a roster spot. Now, there's some shenanigans you could do with Collodi, moving him to the supplemental part. There's some things you could do to open up a spot. So it's not as hard as it used to be, but even that's dependent [00:51:53] Speaker C: upon Daniel's situation, too. [00:51:55] Speaker B: Well, you wouldn't get rid of Clodi. Clodi's salary is low enough that you could put him down on the bottom part of the roster, and that means you'd have to dump a homegrown down to the unplayable part. Like, you could do some stuff like that to get a Senior roster spot open, you have the international spot open. You know, that's the doable thing. So those are the tricks. [00:52:14] Speaker A: Like I think Miami teaches us. Anything is actually doable if you want to do it. [00:52:19] Speaker B: Well, this, the way they, the way they've allowed people to use next pro and, and the homegrown systems and things like that they can now do. Like the fact that Giovanni Jesus is somehow not actually on the roster. It's a perfect example. The guy's a U22 initiative player in the international. Somehow he doesn't count for any of that stuff. Like there's a. They've done some magic where he's assigned to North Texas, so he's not on the roster. Right. Well, that's not that you can do other things like that, you know, so they, they have the ability to open a spot and add somebody. They have two weeks to go. Clearly they know there's a deficiency in midfield. So I, I think that, I think they're trying to add a piece. I think adding Holstad shows you that they knew that they had a deficiency there. That's sort of a backup kind of piece, a workman like piece that's not intended to be a high level piece. So if you're a fan that wants this club to do some things, I think you can feel positive that they are attempting to. Now again, it's SC Dallas. So we know that they may not be able to, to pull it off, but I, I know that they're trying. So I, I think that there's a good chance they can get somebody now. Is it worth it to do it now versus January? I think it is. So I think it would be good to do it. [00:53:27] Speaker A: But I guess the question is, Buzz, do you think they have it within them to get somebody of significance or are we going to end up with somebody from some other second division domestic league that we've never heard of before? [00:53:38] Speaker B: Well, you know, I don't, I don't have a lot of faith and, and [00:53:42] Speaker A: look, that's paid off. I mean, Uruguay is a classic example of this that has turned out to be a huge win. But Dietzen and. Yeah, Ben Yamin. [00:53:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's the thing. It's like Benjamin letting the game and a solid, you know, you know, got Dennis. [00:54:00] Speaker A: Did you catch that shot, by the way, up in the. [00:54:02] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. That was on our side of the throwing. Yeah, yeah, that was, that was on the side where, where we were sitting. It was opposite us. That was. I don't know what that was. I don't even know how to describe that. That was, there were, there were no words. [00:54:16] Speaker B: If Quill's involved and they get Quills that players that fit the Quill profile players he wants, then yes, Irgidde is a good example of they can do it. And then you have your Anasalis, you know, and your Deetsons. Deason is a guy who they were after for a couple of years prequel. So that just shows you that like if, if you're, if you don't have a plan that you're executing, if you're not buying pieces that fit what the coach wants to do, then you're just throwing dudes in a pile and it doesn't work. Yeah, this is what we've been talking about for a couple of years now. I literally since Sonata took over, in fact this has been an issue. So that's my reservation is like yeah, they're capable of a home run. Peter Musa is amazing. Right. Valiente starting to look good. Ramiro, you know, mentally good ad good locker room. He's just too old for it to be, it's not, he's falling apart. Right. Irrigate a home run, you know, so yeah, they're capable of it, but it's a hit rate is what, 50 at [00:55:13] Speaker A: best, you know, with Salt Lake on Wednesday and Vancouver on the following Saturday. As you said, it is a bit of a murderer's row coming up. But can I express a hot sports opinion I have about Peter Musa? As awesome as he has been and the fact that he is leading, isn't he now leading the league in goals? Isn't he the lead leader? [00:55:34] Speaker B: Golden Boot? Yeah, 14 goals. [00:55:37] Speaker A: I don't even think he's trying that hard and I mean that as a compliment. Yeah, I, he, you know, when I watched him, I got to watch him play in person with Croatia at the Cotton Bowl. I'm not Cotton bowl at Jerry World against England. Obviously that's the day the prophecy was came true. But man, I saw a very different patter Musa in that game than I see in your rank and file FC Dallas performance. And, and I, I, I am convinced that there is an entire other gear in that kid's gearbox that I don't know we have actually ever seen. For whatever reason, maybe the league is a little too easy for him or he doesn't need to based on how Quill tells him to play. But I think there's a lot more to that guy's game than we get to see on a, on a weekend week out basis. [00:56:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Could players around him, the kind of service he's getting. You know, I. I will say that post World cup, his gesticulating has risen again. It's like he's now waving at people more. Yeah, he's a little more like, what the hell was that? You know, a lot of it to Santi Moreno, which is crazy because Santa Marino had an absolute phenomenal game. So, like, you know, I just think that a lot of that is in moose's nature. So I think that the fact that that's gone up to my eye, not like I'm counting, I think shows you that he is dialed in and wanting to play really well in his focus. And. And he's saying lots of good things about how much he's enjoying being here. [00:57:05] Speaker C: Good. [00:57:05] Speaker B: Which I'm really excited about, because at his age, like, no one's gonna buy him for his future. If you're buying him, you're buying him for now. Like, he is who he is. He's not going to get better. So, like, no one's going to come in and give you, like, crazy money for him because that. They think that, like, in six years he'll be even better. No, no. This is who he is. So I think it'd be great if he would just stick here and. And hopefully they can pull that off and keep him, because it would be really nice to see Dallas hold on to talent, like, hold on to irrigate and actually improve themselves. Would be nice. [00:57:37] Speaker A: Yeah. That's a novel. Novel concept. [00:57:40] Speaker B: Stop selling everybody all the time. I get it. [00:57:43] Speaker A: Selling club now because of these daunting games coming up, I want to revisit something you mentioned earlier in the pod. It feels like an. But I think is a really important note, which is it turns out, based on a comment made by the commentator during the game, that Santiago Moreno is actually hurt. And we've never heard this before. [00:58:04] Speaker B: Yeah. The Moadu, by the way, probably my favorite American color commentator. Just amazing. Marisa, do Buzz Moo [00:58:16] Speaker A: or something? [00:58:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, he's done. He's pretty awesome, too. But I love modu. So it turns out that. That they called it a pubis injury. Some Googling tells you that there's an inflammation, like, basically in his pelvic. [00:58:30] Speaker A: I don't want to see Buzz's search history. [00:58:32] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I went right to. Went straight to WebMD. I didn't go to some. Yeah, buzz.com was not on my. By the way, don't go there. [00:58:40] Speaker C: Oh, no. [00:58:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:44] Speaker A: See you later, Dennis. [00:58:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Besides, anyway, the point being is that like he's limited to like 60 or 70 minutes. So he's basically playing, for lack of a better description, with some sort of sports hernia ish kind of info. Some inflammation in his pelvic region. And they said it, most said it needs surgery in the off season. Now I, I looked it up real quickly, like I'm not a doctor, but it does say that it's the kind of thing where you can recover from it with rest and recuperation. But in terms of athletes, a lot of times that's not enough, particularly when you'd have to sit around for like six months to get over it. So it's like, you know, it's the kind of thing where they've talked about surgery and then you have a problem with like can he can't pass a physical probably. So how does that buy work? Do you do a negotiation to buy him without that? I mean it changes everything in terms of like how you're going to execute the end of this loan. [00:59:32] Speaker A: Isn't this, this sounds a lot like the Jesus Ferreira situation that he dealt with for a long time. [00:59:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's a different thing, but in the same way it's the same. It's core. Right. And they're of the same generation. And Oscar per swore up and down that that generation just has lots of core problems all the time. You know why it is, is different people would tell you different things. Yeah, well, Oscar thought it was. The kids don't go outside and play it out. They sit inside and play video games. And we know Jesus for sure was a big video gamer. I mean that's. Who am I? I'm not. Well, I don't know. It was just what Oscar said. So, you know, it's certainly a thing like lots of core issues. And, and obviously you saw from the game the other day, like when he is on, he looks like a DP, right? Does he look like a 5 million DP? I don't know, but he looks like a DP. The problem is, is that right now he's only 60 player, 60 minutes. You probably can't play him back to back games. When I'm with a midweek game, you know, you probably have to manage his time and training. So like that's a lot of limitations on do I want to spend 5 million bucks on a guy, you know, so that's, that's going to be, you know, but at least now we know. Like I thought he was just crap. How do we not know this Quill, this club in general, right? Now is one of the most secretive injury situations I've ever seen. You know, I don't want to speak for anybody, but I know sometimes the PR guys struggle to get straight information about dudes on injury. You know, it's not their PR's fault. It's. It's the club. It's. It's the coaching staff and the, and the soccer operations staff. They want to keep all that stuff secret. [01:01:03] Speaker A: It. [01:01:03] Speaker B: This is a perfect example of why I think you do a guy a disservice by doing this. Because everyone just thinks Santi Marino is just a crap player now. No, it turns out he's got this massive injury problem and he's surgery, he's playing through it. [01:01:15] Speaker A: That changes my perspective on it. [01:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it changes how you evaluate everything. Now they would probably say that, like, who cares what fans think, man? [01:01:22] Speaker C: I don't know. [01:01:22] Speaker B: That's important. The guy's getting blasted all over the interwebs and blasted from the stands. And it's like, how do you, how do you cheer for a guy when you think he just. Just sucks versus well, no, it turns out he's playing hurt and fighting through it. So now I'm actually like, dude, good on you for battling. [01:01:35] Speaker A: You know, maybe Christian Coleman was injured the entire time. [01:01:38] Speaker B: We just knew it. Well, I will admit it's always been a thing. Quill is way more secretive than any coach I've ever seen here. It's crazy how secretive he is about stuff like this. [01:01:48] Speaker C: Beyond just fan sentiment too. I mean, this is a guy that is on loan right now. This is, you know, if you bring him in and, and you, you, you make that transaction, you bring him on full time and. And you're looking to move him in a year or two. How does that factor into his. His value? Right. That's something to think about too. [01:02:05] Speaker B: This is the kind of injury that would not have ended up on the injury report. Quill would have had to just talked about it. Like, you would have had to ask, hey, what's going on with Santi? And I'm sure people have. And he would have had to say, well, you know, finally he said it, told Risa Du that this is what's going on in their TV meeting, you know, finally admitted it. So here we are. [01:02:25] Speaker A: Crackers. All right, what are you thinking about lineups for Wednesday and how he. Quill handles that for then the follow up on Saturday. [01:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I think you still have to have your one game at a time mentality. Obviously, most importantly, Nolan Norris is back and Ozier Yide is out on yellow cards. So that's your first immediate adaptation. [01:02:45] Speaker A: So Lawless played a good game. [01:02:47] Speaker B: He can go ahead and that's what I was going to say. Like with Oz after out Nolan in that's obviously. That's the switch. Shaq Moore had a little bit of something, which is why Abubakar played in this last game. Shaq was. I believe Shaq was on the bench though, so Shaq should be fine. And I thought Abubakar outplayed Ibiaga, so I'm okay with Abubakar, Shaq Moore and Nolan as your back three. Keep the wing backs. Keep that situation. Romero was so garbage that I can't fathom starting him again on Wednesday with and being as awful as he was. Cap has played pretty well and Kaik with the baby is, you know, back in training. [01:03:23] Speaker A: He. [01:03:23] Speaker B: He showed up and played off the bench so he can start Wednesday. That's fine. Assuming Santi Marino can't go again this quickly with that new injury information. Musa, you play him. I think Valiante is doing a really nice job. You play him. Here's the thing. If you know that [01:03:43] Speaker C: you. [01:03:44] Speaker B: You don't want to play Musa 90 minutes, game after game after game with this is your last week of the midweek games, you probably want to have Farrington come in for him. I'm going to say like 60 minutes. So therefore that other 10 position needs to not be Musa. So I think you're looking at Sam Sarver or Delgado who missed a couple of games with an ankle knock. Now, they told me it wasn't bad, but again, this current medical staff is really. [01:04:06] Speaker A: You may have had it lopped off [01:04:07] Speaker B: of the lawnmower for all I know. He's. You can't even walk anymore. But let's assume that his knock is actually okay. I think you might see Delgado start. [01:04:15] Speaker A: He got burned off in a Bojangles fryer. [01:04:17] Speaker B: Yeah. In that Santi Marino spot. You know, I see Delgado in there. Otherwise, I think you might try Sam Sarver again because I. I think that we've demonstrated pretty clearly that, that the Logan Farrington situation isn't working with Musa because of the how high he plays. You need that deeper guy. Sarver will come deeper. Outside of that, you'd be looking at like, do you put a Ben Yamin in there? We all know I love Caleb Swan. He's not ready for that. Not ready to start at like a high 10 spot. You know, your Diego Garcia is still not back and playing. He hasn't played with FCS all year anyway. You really have run out of bodies in terms of somebody to play that position other than those two guys, you know, in my book I can't think of anybody else. [01:04:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I think one guy that really needs rest on this squad and I don't know who there is to fill in for him. And I think that's part of the issue. Issue is Johansson. I think the Toluca game, he was found flat footed a few times. He will let that one go out for the corner in that match. He looked gassed by halftime in Austin, so I, I, something needs to give there and, and you know, I don't think he's playing to the peak of his performance, but I, I think he just, he needs rest. But I don't know who you have there. [01:05:24] Speaker B: Well, the person you do have to use the Shaq more and then you would have Ibiaga, Abubakar, Nolan as your back three. [01:05:30] Speaker C: So Shaq's not really a wing back either, right? He's, he's a right back. [01:05:33] Speaker B: But Torcado, you could put Turcado on the left and put Bernie on the right wings. [01:05:39] Speaker A: The wing back. I debate constantly what the biggest positional problem on this team is. And I keep trying to talk myself into it being the six. And part of me is, no, this is a team with a thousand wingers and wing backs on it and none of them are good enough. And you know, and the Johansson Bernie situation is weird for me because they're. One is a, a veteran European level guy and he's not really performed in any great way. And then you got Bernie who is, you know, fits and starts. I mean, awesome Austin performance was a really good example of that, of just the, the double edged sword of Bernie Camungo. [01:06:17] Speaker B: Well, Peter, this is what happens when you build a roster without a plan, right? [01:06:21] Speaker A: I know, I know, I know, I know. [01:06:24] Speaker B: Every time. I mean it's like we've covered this. [01:06:27] Speaker A: Why did you end the FC Dallas connection with that buzz? [01:06:29] Speaker B: Well, I'm keeping it real, bro. [01:06:31] Speaker C: All right. If you want to end on a positive note, I can say it was, it was great to see the guys come over and celebrate with the fans after the game. Cappas's family was one section over from us. I, I'm assuming it was captain's family because there was like seven people wearing campus jerseys. I don't think there were that many campus fans. But he, he came over, led the charge. Obviously. I'm sure he saw his family over there, but you know, they saw where, where the away Fans were sitting too, and they came over and. And most of the team came over and clapped everybody off. And, you know, Quill. So something positive to take away. [01:07:02] Speaker A: Good. I dig it. All right, Dennis, we're going to lean heavily into you now because for the rest of the pod, at least the majority of it, we're going to talk about the season start of season number three of Dallas Trinity. As I. Here's the thing. I saw that they tied this game 1 1, and I just kind of rolled my eyes and I went, how many ties has this team had in its history? And I was shocked. I was convinced when I looked it up, I was going to find that they had more draws in their win, loss, draw, tie record than any of the other two categories. And no, that is not the fact. In fact, they've. It's not even. I think it's the. They've had. Out of the three win, loss, tied draws are the least number of those compared to wins and losses. And that caught me off guard. So. 11 to Tampa Bay at the Cup Cotton Bowl. Dennis. [01:07:55] Speaker C: Yeah, this is a carryover epidemic here. I think a little bit of a late goal being scored when they've had the lead and it just not able to close it out. This is something. Yeah, this was 90 plus 1, 90 plus 2, I think it was when this was put in on a corner on a set piece, it came off of and. And they were able to finish there and it was just, you know, really unlucky, I think just the way it went because they. They did play well. We were pretty close with our prediction of what the lineup looked like when it came out. Buzz, I think you got one right that I didn't, and then vice versa. So we're between the two of us, we got most of it, but, you know, they came out much the same way as where they finished off last season. This is very much a carryover of the system Petrocelli built and Thackeray built and what they built on that it is a four at the back in defense. When they get possession, one of the wing backs or one of the fullbacks gets forward, either into the midfield or up top. This case, it was Drew Kumins on the right side. The. The Princeton alum who's new to this squad as well. Buzz, I know you had some comments about the lineup, though, if you want to cover that real quick while we're. Yeah. You want to pop in here? [01:09:03] Speaker B: Let me get into that now? Yeah. All right. I think Lee Nguyen made a mistake with his 11 as a concept, not as a execution. This club has six NWSL players on loan and five of the six started. The only one that did not was the one that was the most recent addition like a couple of days before. So basically if he had an NWSL loan player, that player started no matter what. Like it doesn't matter like what other veteran was on the roster. This leads me to two things. One is that the biggest slight in this was the dropping of Cameron Lancaster who's one of your team leaders and has been for multiple seasons producing at a high level. The other, the one that was the biggest slight in this terms was Felicia Knox who's one of their bigger free agent signings who's a central midfielder. Now the thing is is like I would you could look at any one of these players and say like oh I just made a determination in training that that player was better. I can totally buy that scenario. The thing is is that roster management and man management exists beyond one game. It exists beyond one season. So like they he started five of the six NWSO loanees at the expense of veteran players. The point is, is that all six of those players are going to be here for four months and then leave. You need to be able to play past the December. You have some of these players that you signed up for a long period of time. They're going to be a core part of your team beyond this four month window. So if you come into this season immediately playing all the loneys that just showed up within the castle past couple weeks, the entire rest of your roster reads that as if you're not an NSL player. You suck and you're not going to play as long as I have an NWSL player. So I think that's a bad idea. I think that's you know, conceptually when you have a player like Cameron Lancaster or a big free agent signing from inside the league like Felicia Knox that those players should have gotten the opportunity to start the season as the choices and not just automatically lose a job because was and then it was how Loney came in because those players are going to be here for 15, 16 games, whatever is Dennis half a season and then they're gone. Now you also can develop a reputation of this club doesn't get a about super league players. They only care about NWSL loans. I mean yeah, I get that. I'm just saying that like roster management exists beyond one game. And so I think that a slight mistake was made here. Maybe it won't cost him at all. But I guarantee you Cameron Lancaster probably wasn't very happy and probably a bunch of other people on this roster probably not very happy about it. So he's going to have a locker room of people kind of glancing and glaring at each other, you know. [01:11:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I think I'm actually going to disagree with you here a little bit. I think, you know, when you look at this sprint season and you look at everything that this club is doing since the new ownership has taken over and new coaching staff has rolled in, this feels very much like a try before you buy situation, in my opinion. This feels like, I think with these low knees, I think we're going to see them getting a lot of minutes because I think it's, it's really, let's see what they can do and let's see who's worth acquiring in the offseason as we go into this schedule. Who's worth making, maybe extending a loan if they're not getting time with their, with their first club. You know, when you look at these players that are coming down from Bay, Bay Bay FC has added, you know, three or four really, really top talents. And when you look at where these players fit on that roster, they're not getting any minutes there. So maybe you carry them over into another season. Everything about this sprint season feels like a try before you buy. And I do think, and I do appreciate what you're saying as far as mentality in the locker room and losing the locker room and. But I do think it's a little bit different on the women's side than the men's side. I think there's a little bit of a difference in that sort of mentality in the locker room and the level of, and not like a level of competitiveness in a way that, that, you know, men are superior or anything like that. But I do think that there is a competitiveness on the women's game is a little bit different than it is in the men. And especially from what I've seen from this locker room and from what I've seen from the way this team is put together, they're all very supportive of each other. I mean, they're always hyping each other up on social media and all that. So I, I think when we, when we look at what's going on here, I really think this is. Everything about this season is going to be. What are we able to do? I think they're going to treat this entire season like a one long, 14 game preseason. Looking into the full season next season, [01:13:15] Speaker B: I, I can buy that idea. I Just think like it was a mistake to do it from game one, like you didn't even give your veterans a chance. [01:13:22] Speaker A: So Buzz, you guys know this, the women's game better than I do. But my observation is, is that one of the things that I think we clearly seen in the first two seasons of this league is that the gap of quality of player between this league and the NWSL is not small. It is significant. And, and so I assume the guy, the guy, the girls, the women that they are bringing in on loan are markedly better and more experienced to some level than the players they have on their roster that are just, just kind of your rank and file, usl, SL level player. And so I realize it's the first game, but again it is the sprint season and at some point isn't Lee Win kind of beholden to putting his best 11 players on the field no matter where they sit in terms of seniority? [01:14:18] Speaker B: Well, the back end of that is no, you can't play your best 11 every game. You have to manage your roster. There's a reason why you have a roster of 24 players instead of 11 players. Players. [01:14:27] Speaker A: Right. [01:14:27] Speaker B: It's like it's just not how it works. You just, you can't play the same 11 every game. You have to be able to the [01:14:32] Speaker A: first game of the season. [01:14:33] Speaker B: So. I know, but that's if you don't. The thing is that you're, you're correct about the, the average NW player, NFSL player or the NFL player that plays. These are not those. These are 19, 20 year old kids that have zero games. This, this is, it's not even Sam Sarver. It's, it's like I'm taking Jaden Contras on loan and now that guy's going to start over my, you know, four year veteran. That's all. At the end of the day, the bulk of your roster in the long term is going to have to be core super league players. You're not going to have 22 NWC loanees. And I think like one of these NWC players for example, I thought was the worst player in the game is that Shepherd Shepard. So. And one of the, one of the best players in the game was the player you signed on free agent. And I think these female players are more competitive than you give them credit for because you know, I'm around these teams enough and I'm around talk to people enough that I know that like the coach can lose players fast just as much in the women's game as the men's game. If people are playing, they don't deserve to be playing. You know, at the end of the day, it's probably not a big deal. I just think it all smelled like rookie coach mistake to me. Right. This is a guy that's been an assistant for two seasons in the nwsl. He clearly came with an NWSL bias. You know, these are all. These are the six players that he brought in that he didn't inherit. He brought them in, except for maybe seven. Chastain Castane. Excuse me. She might have been lined up by the previous coach. I don't know for sure, but. [01:16:02] Speaker A: Well, they sit fourth in the standings on the single point. They have a game at back at the Cotton bowl Saturday at 7:30 against Carolina. Dennis, you got a prediction on the starting lineup? [01:16:13] Speaker C: I think it's going to be much of the same. The only, the only change I would personally make is I would swap out Knock for Shepherd that we just talked about. I do agree with Buzz there that I think she was the better performer when she did come in. That was the only change I would make. But I would expect win to go with the exact same lineup again. I think this is what he's confident with and I think it's what he's going to roll with. [01:16:32] Speaker B: Okay. [01:16:34] Speaker A: They also debuted their new kits. Dennis, are you wearing the hall of Fame kit? [01:16:38] Speaker C: I am wearing the away shirt. [01:16:40] Speaker A: I'm not. Hall of Fame. Yeah. Hall of State shirt. Okay. [01:16:43] Speaker B: Yes. [01:16:43] Speaker C: I am wearing the away shirt. I love it. It's incredible. [01:16:46] Speaker A: Yeah, they need to wear those gold shorts with the maroon top. Buzz, that's the. They don't. Not the Alma. That's what they need to do. [01:16:52] Speaker C: That'd be nice. [01:16:53] Speaker B: Well, they could have just kept the sock thing, but I was dead horse. Go on. Yeah, yeah, I got you. [01:16:58] Speaker A: All right, let's move on. North Texas, it says here in the red crayon notes got smoked. [01:17:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, they played one of the better teams in the league and they got resoundly demolished. Three nothing. And it was. It was. Was far worse than FC Dallas versus Austin. This was a complete dismantling. [01:17:19] Speaker A: Who was the team? [01:17:21] Speaker B: Portland. Who's setting a record for league shutouts this year. They're quite good defensively and it showed. North Texas had zero chance to do anything. It was not good. But the bigger point is what needs to be talked about. They're down in 10th in the West. This team continues to be managed and run and coached to win, and yet it stinks. So like, you know, the, the, the. The kids that should be in my opinion should be playing which are your homegrowns, your, your hybrid guys, your dudes that are going to be important for the future. The guys that can actually help FC Dallas down the line are not playing. So like he's. You're. You're watching a team play a bunch of, you know, college kids that played an incarnate word, you know, or various programs like that. Sure, there's a couple of homegrowns or GA guys going down and that's great. Great. A dunes is having a really, really nice season. That dude will never play for FC Dallas. The kid from Natty James, right, He's. He scored a whole bunch of goals against one team. That dude is never going to play for FC Dallas. They're playing a bunch of guys that are never going to play for FC Dallas. [01:18:28] Speaker A: And so why are they playing them then? [01:18:30] Speaker B: Because the coach is trying to coach to win, yet he's not winning. Like John, John Gall has the ability to play whoever he wants to with that team. Team, right? He's. They've drafted players that so he can sign them and play them. They're guys that are being added from foreign countries to help bolster his roster that are in their 20s there because they're starting a guy at the 6 who's 23 years old. That's the guy that played an incarnate word. I'm just saying like there's a bunch of dudes playing that are never going to help FC Dallas. [01:18:57] Speaker A: And that's the senior team. [01:18:59] Speaker B: The senior team, right. That's fine. They're not even helping North Texas. They're in 10th in the west. [01:19:04] Speaker A: West. [01:19:04] Speaker B: That's like there's like three teams worse than them in the Western Conference and maybe four teams worse than them in the whole league. [01:19:10] Speaker A: So who should he be playing? If they're going to be 10th in the league, who is it they should be playing? [01:19:14] Speaker B: Well, you. You've got guys like Isaiah Kakush who's a holding mid and was a win. It was in the U17 national team a whole bunch. [01:19:21] Speaker A: Right. [01:19:21] Speaker B: He's a, he's coming off an ACL tear but he's a phenomenal player. Zach Maloma, who was one of the great outside back prospects to come out in the last two years. He's the one that started behind the coaches. His son, who also was that carnate word and couldn't even play at an incarnate word tells you how bad that guy was. Sam setta, who's the 17 year old Brazilian American kid that I was so hyped when they signed. That guy's not playing. How about Benji Flowers? How about he put Flowers in the game? That'd be nice. How about Kimbrough, who they got from Sex City, sorry, Sacramento, who was one of the youngest pro players in the history of this country? They got Wyatt Easterly, who's a center back they signed out of the academy just recently. There's. That doesn't even get into guys that are actually academy players. There's only one actual academy player playing, and that's Liam Rostick. Now he should be playing. That's great. Do more than that. He happens to also be 6:2 and physically mature. So, like, that's the thing is John Gall's picking guys based on age and size and power because he's trying to bold people on the field. Okay, whatever. That's the. That's the rights they've given him to try and win games and he's doing that and that's fine. Line organization. I think that's a terrible idea, particularly when it's not working and you're 10th in the standings. So, like, play the damn kids, man. The whole point is to develop this talent. Like. Or maybe it's not. Maybe that's a problem. Maybe I have a completely wrong mindset about the whole thing. I think your reserve team exists to develop players for your first team, but maybe I'm insane. [01:20:46] Speaker C: Is there any value to these players at all that they're worth moving at some point? Or, like, what is the thought process here if they're not good enough to win at this level? [01:20:55] Speaker B: I don't think so. Like, if you can't win a usl. Well, not. Excuse me, it's not us all one, is it? It's almost next Pro. If you can't win an MLS next pro, what value do you have? Like, the only one that probably has any value is a new niece. Maybe, like he could probably. Maybe he can play in the championship. But you know, I. I don't know that you're going to sell that guy for anything. Like, no one's gonna buy him. They'll just wait for his contract to run out if they want him. [01:21:17] Speaker A: Yeah, but they answered all these questions without getting into the weeds about specific players is they've got a brand new stadium in a brand new community, they're trying to sell season tickets and they don't want to put out a product that is getting trucked weeked in and weeked out. So they're trying to play. Yes, I get that's what's actually still happening. But the idea is we need to throw out a team that's going to win and be entertaining. Not just play the kids, the super kids. You're going to end up playing kids no matter who they are. But you know what I'm saying, that's what this is about. [01:21:46] Speaker B: I assume, assume I, I assume it is too but I think that's a terrible idea and it's not working anyway. [01:21:52] Speaker A: Well, it's a terrible idea but make it's exacerbated by the fact that they're not winning and they're in 10th place which isn't helping anything. [01:22:00] Speaker B: Four teams make the playoffs. Two of them are already locked. There's seven games left. They're like 12 points out with like eight teams in the way. So it's like dude, you're not making the playoffs. Just play a bunch of kids. Who cares if you lose the games you're gonna, you're losing them anyway way. It's like just play the kids man. [01:22:16] Speaker C: Like play the other kids. [01:22:18] Speaker B: They finally brought Swan back because Swan's been sitting on the FC Dallas bench for like three months. They finally brought him back and played him two straight games. One game they re he was so good that they ended up winning like six one but then the next game they got trucked three nothing again. So like he can't do it by himself but like if at least you're playing him, he's learning, he's the one guy. They're doing it right. They got Lewis down there who's having a good game now and then Nick Simmons is showing some stuff stuff. But Newman is not, you know Slade Stearns is probably places playing defense by himself. At least he looks good, you know. And they got the 16 year old kid playing left back which is exciting. That's the one guy they're using properly, you know, developing. That's good but it's just a mess. They're to me they've completely blown the plot in terms of like what that club is for. Like you're trying to run it to make money. What are you doing? [01:23:06] Speaker A: I haven't paid attention. How has attendance been these games? Games? [01:23:09] Speaker B: I don't know. 2500 maybe it's like maybe a thousand. I don't, I didn't actually look. Okay. The stands are 80 empty so I can't really tell you. [01:23:18] Speaker A: Okay, well they've got Austin dose on Wednesday at Mansfield as a matter of fact and then again in Mansfield on Saturday against Minnesota at 7:45. [01:23:31] Speaker C: Very good running up against the Same time as the first team. Doesn't make make any sense to me either. I don't understand how you expect to get asses in the seats when your first team is playing on television. [01:23:40] Speaker B: Yeah, well they're, they're, they're scheduling those games only with the idea of the Mansfield people. In fact I was watching the last game and the commentator talked about it because what 7:45 local is a really weird start time. So he asked the club and they explained it. Basically the idea is they, they, they're trying to find a sweet spot between 7:30 which is a little bit still too hot at 8pm which is too late because the kids in the local area. So like 7:45 is what they're scheduling that game only to get people in Mansfield to come to the game and sit in the stands. That's it. They're not scared. They don't give a about FC Dallas. They don't care about conflict. It's just about butts and seats in Mansfield. [01:24:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean Mansfield is on the other side of the moon compared to Frisco. So it is a completely different market. And there I can understand why they are trying to focus on. And you know, people who live in Mesquite and in Plano and South Lake aren't driving to Mansfield to go watch second division, third division soccer. So they've got to do and maximize the opportunity to sell tickets in Mansfield and the surrounding area. And if that's playing games at 7:45 then I guess that's what you got to do. [01:24:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:24:46] Speaker A: You know, and I, and I hear you Dennis, but my question is how many people that live down in Mansfield are driving to Frisco to go to FC Dallas games at this point in a half torn up stadium. [01:24:55] Speaker B: The bottom line is that the priority is profitability, not losing money rather than it being a player development pathway, which is what it should be. So like, and that's the Hunt way. I mean you could take that same expression. The number one thing is profitability and sustainability and not winning. That describes FC Dallas too. They, they might claim that it doesn't, but 30 years of watching, sure as it does. So again, you know, there are things that drive me batshit crazy and make me really mad and this is one of them. And it's true for the entire organization. Profitability over winning. [01:25:26] Speaker A: Well, I think the, the, the kind of frustrating part was the idea that we always were very curious. I mean it took the hunts forever to even put this team together. Like we, I remember a day where we Used to about the fact that the Hunts just wouldn't do it. And then when they finally did, they stuck it in a less expensive league because they didn't want to pay the fee. And then we were like, well, they're having a hard enough time selling tickets to their MLS team. Good Lord, how are they ever going to have the bandwidth to take care of a second team? And so now here we are and they've got these two kind of separate entities going on and they're trying to serve two different things at the same time. And it just all feels very disconnected because in theory the whole point to North Texas is to be a building block to provide products to move over to the Northeast. And, and, and it just doesn't seem to be. Now they seem to be torn between two different service, which is sell season tickets in Mansfield, Texas or try to grow kids out of the academy that you can either A sell on for a profit or B, move up to the senior team. And none of that seems to be working correctly. [01:26:30] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a fifty million dollar stadium that was paid for by Mansfield and I think SC Dallas and they need to try and pay for it. That's the bottom line. So what they, what I can tell you and I, I'm. This is something I'm going to pull from just because I know about it, is that basically the first team is taking is cherry picking players they think have a future and, and training them with the first team. Like they don't, they don't leave kids like Swan or Torcado or even like these really nice academy players. They basically p. Skip them over North Texas and have them train with the first team because there's not the pathway. The pipe's broken. Basically, in my opinion, a lot of [01:27:06] Speaker A: pipe talk tonight, it always dwindles down into that, doesn't it? [01:27:10] Speaker B: I'm all about the pipe. [01:27:11] Speaker A: Very good. Well, it was good to be back with you guys. Dennis, it's good to see you again. Great work this week and your coverage and stuff. Dude, the article you wrote the other day was good stuff. I really enjoyed that. [01:27:24] Speaker C: I appreciate it. I, not I. While I have you here and you know, it's the first time we've spoken most of the summer, but you know, the kick around, the, the World cup kick around was one of the coolest things that happened and I was looking forward to it every single morning getting up and listen to last night's episode. [01:27:38] Speaker A: Thanks, man. I appreciate it. We had a blast during the tournament. It was great having Lars here. It was A big success. The station was happy, the advertisers were happy. We got to hear from all kinds of people from mostly the Dallas Fort Worth area, which we really target the show for, but all over the world because of Lars. And so that worked out great. And I'm glad Andy and I got to do it because it was something we've been looking forward to for a long time. So thank you, Dennis. That's nice of you. [01:28:02] Speaker B: Since Dennis is empirically such a better writer than me, I'm actually going to let him tell everybody about an event coming up this week. [01:28:09] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. If you're listening to this Tuesday morning, which you should be, if you're a true sicko, if you waited any longer than that, that's on you. But tomorrow night, Wednesday, the supporters groups will be up at Rollertown Beer Works up in Frisco, up the street street from the stadium. And they will be working on the tifo for the return to Toyota Stadium on Sept. 5. So 7pm Come on out, hang out. If you just want to hang out, if you can paint, if you have any sort of artistic skills whatsoever, you can draw, you can trace, come out, help out. If you just want to see how it's done, come out, check it out, hang out with us, hang out with the. With the supporters and, you know, support a great local brewery as well. [01:28:47] Speaker A: Is it a tifo that'll hang anywhere? Is it one like you guys? [01:28:51] Speaker C: The plan as of right now is to get it up on the south end netting. That's a tbd, depending upon, you know, how we can get in with stadium ops and all that fun stuff that goes on, coordinating that. But that's the plan as of right now. It'll go up on the south end before the match on the fifth. [01:29:07] Speaker B: Cool. [01:29:08] Speaker A: All right. And then you can turn it to the setting sun to the west and use it as a shade blocker. [01:29:12] Speaker C: That's. That's the ideal plan, right? [01:29:16] Speaker B: The picture. [01:29:17] Speaker A: I don't know if everybody saw, but two things about the stadium. One, they put posted some photos from the new east club looking across to the west, and that is the weirdest sight you could possibly imagine with that entire west side building just being gone. And you can suddenly see what it's going to be like watching games there. It's going to be very weird. And two, somebody in the Discord pointed out that they're painting murals with an actual artist painted on the wall of what appears to be historical scenes from the club's history. I saw a Kenny Cooper outline. We saw some Bobby Ryan tribute stuff going up on the exterior of the stadium, and I think that is huge. That is the good stuff. I'm so happy to see that. [01:29:58] Speaker C: That is awesome. [01:29:59] Speaker B: Yeah. I've been told that it's going to be like the four corners they had before, like, along those same lines is where things are going. Obviously, right now it's on one side, it's not the other side. But eventually there will be both sides, I'm told. Yeah. [01:30:10] Speaker A: And it's an actual, like, local artist doing the mural. Work. Work. And that's really cool. And I'm glad that they did that. So kudos to them for pulling that off. All right, thanks again, Dennis. Thank you again, Buzz. Good to talk to you guys. [01:30:20] Speaker B: Yeah, man. Thanks for coming back and thank you. [01:30:22] Speaker A: Curious. Always good to talk soccer with you all, too. And we will be back next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. Dan, how's your knee? The Third Degree podcast. Third degree. Third degree to third degree. Third degree to third degree. [01:31:04] Speaker B: Sam.