3rd Degree the Podcast #371

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Third Degree the Third Degree Ned Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree N Podcast Third Degree the Third Degree N Podcast Third Degree. Well, hello there, DFW soccer Curious. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. We've got a lot to get to today and there are thrice of us to do so myself. Dennis. Hi, Dennis. [00:00:39] Speaker B: Hey. Hey, hey. [00:00:40] Speaker A: You're not wearing a hat. This may be the very first time I've ever seen you without a hat on. [00:00:44] Speaker B: You know, Buzz calls that out every time he sees me without a hat, [00:00:48] Speaker A: so maybe it happens more often than I thought. [00:00:51] Speaker B: I've got a room full of hats here. I can find one for you if it makes you happy. [00:00:54] Speaker A: And our good Host, Editor, Founder, thirddegree.net BuzzCara County Buzz Dennis, I have the same problem. [00:01:01] Speaker C: Hello, Peter. In that, in the sports business, people give me hats all the time. So I have like boxes and boxes of hats and I never wear hats. So [00:01:11] Speaker A: both you guys have all that hair. [00:01:12] Speaker C: Yeah, I wear, I wear visors instead of hats. [00:01:15] Speaker A: Right, right. Okay. [00:01:17] Speaker C: Mostly. [00:01:18] Speaker A: Well, interesting times around these parts. We'll start with the football club Dallas, who had two games since we last spoke, and I, you know, here's the thing. We. I'll just speak for myself. I, you know, I thought going into this road trip situation post World cup was going to be a disaster, but here we are. And it's not really a disaster. In fact, in this road trip, they got a really nice, kind of fun, entertaining win and then they just kind of mailed in the game at Vancouver. But you can kind of understand that. And since the return to play, they have won two games, tied two games and lost two games. And I, I don't know, Buzz, that feels pretty right? [00:02:04] Speaker C: Yeah, like they're sitting on 500 with one game left to go. And we said before the thing started, if they come out of the thing at 500, that's fantastic. And they'll be in great position with 12 games left, eight home, four road. They'll be an ideal position to try and cement themselves in that top half of the playoff picture and try and shoot for that home, that number four seed to get themselves some home playoff stuff. So, yeah, yeah, perfect scenario in terms of how it's worked out. Some stumbles in there, some things to talk about for sure. But in the big picture of the things they, they have to feel really, really good about it. And included in that is the tying the club record for six road wins on the season, which they've done twice before. So a sign that they Have a really good group pulling together in the right direction. They are still not Vancouver clearly, as we will talk about, but nonetheless, this is considerably better than they were before Eric Will was hired. [00:03:01] Speaker A: Dennis, where are you on 8 out of 18 points? [00:03:05] Speaker B: I think it's like we talked about last week with leagues, Cup. I think it was a lot better than expected coming into this stretch. A little bit of recency bias with the last performance. We'll get to that in a bit. But I do think that they performed better than expected. I do think the outcome is a little bit better than expected. And like we said again last week, they are in the right position. Things could go right for them. Things could also go very wrong for them in the next couple of weeks. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Let's start with the Salt Lake game Buzz a little bit more digging into the details there. Yeah, man, the team just. I don't know what Quill got into those guys, but they really got off to a nice start and well, the [00:03:45] Speaker C: biggest, the biggest tweak lately that has really helped this team and I don't even know necessarily that Peter Musa. No, no, no, no, no. That's been a thing for a while. The new thing, the thing that's changed is walking Valiente. Whether you give Quill all the credit or some of the credit or none of the credit, that guy is coming on. He had a goal and two assists to this game. And in the last several games, like on this road trip, he's found a way to be the player that can change the games. He's making passes now that alter the games. Before the early part when he first got here, his passes were still there, but they weren't making a difference. Now they're making a difference. He's becoming a player that's in that difference maker conversation. He's, he's doing a good enough job that for the people out there hollering that this club is needs, needs a 10, I think you can mollify that and think, you know what? They seem to have developed one that is good enough in terms of when you have Peter Musa in front of you. Now, if you didn't have Peter Moussa, this would be a different conversation. But Joaquin Valiente is playing really, really fantastic soccer and he's become a big difference maker and that's what has pushed Dallas up to, to the next level of, of talent and capability. Now there are concerns in this game, but that's not what made it really, really take off and play well in the first half. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Let's see. I, I was really impressed with the attitude in the game, especially because of altitude and everything. But the wheels did almost come completely off. [00:05:11] Speaker C: Yeah, this is the concern as, as positive as I feel about this team relative to its talent level. The concern is something we've talked about which is the, when you, when you, when you dig down into the amount of minutes guys play, Quill is playing a very short rotation, particularly defensively up until now, where there really is only one backup, one sub, and that's Ibiaga. There are no backup wing backs unless you count Shaq Moore, but he's a starter at center back. Right. So there really is only one defender that comes in and plays now. That's why in the last couple of games, all of a sudden we've seen a boubacar and we finally saw Josh Torcato for the first time in the, in the second game for the first time in a year since he got smoked a year ago. So like, these are emergency play guys playing. These are not part of the rotation. And this is the thing, at other positions you have three or four guys that are in the rotation. At defense you have one. And so that defense is looking tired and at the altitude they started to wear out in the second half. Quill took out a couple important players and maybe everybody relaxed a little bit thinking they were going in with three. One that proved not to be the case. And I think if, if you carry that conversation further, you can see the next game too. The defense looks tired, man. There just. There's not enough depth pieces that Quill can use. And so when, when the team talks about having good depth, well, they don't mean all 30 players. They mean the players that are in the rotation. And that's not necessarily enough people on defense. And that's a thing that'll be a worry for the rest of the season. Is this defense going to hold up? [00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah, Buzz, I think you're absolutely right with the Valiente conversation. I think what you're seeing is absolutely spot on. He's really starting to come into his own here. He's starting to produce. I think we're finally starting to see what they went out and saw and what they, they, they paid for here. I think defensively they are getting run into the ground. Shot creation has been a concern. I think four goals on seven attempts or seven shots on target is not. Or five on target. Absolutely. Actually they had, it was Salt Lake that had seven. I just think it's, it's not all that ambitious. Right. It's ruthless. It's not dominant. Ball, though they are not playing any sort of dominant ball by any stretch of the means. They went up to altitude again, got run into the ground again, and you know, goals are coming from unexpected places. We saw last week with Abubakar scoring a header this week, Binyamin with the game winner and just shy of stoppage time. Yeah, incredible goal, but a completely unexpected place it's coming from, right? It's not the top guys. It's not the, the Moreno of the world. It's, it's, it's, you know, Moussa's doing Musa things, but all these other guys that are up front, supposed to be scoring aren't really doing the job. So, you know, it is a concern how far this goes down the stretch. [00:07:53] Speaker A: So in the last two games, they've given up seven goals, which gets back to Buzz's point about the shortness of depth or the lack of depth defensively. And it does make you wonder if they had just kind of done a lot of the things that we've all been asking for in terms of defensive depth in the last couple of transfer windows or few transfer windows, how much better this team actually would be. [00:08:14] Speaker C: Yeah, they have a week left. Speaking of the transfer window, technically, nine days, it ends next Wednesday. [00:08:21] Speaker A: They're not doing anything, are they? [00:08:23] Speaker C: Well, there's some undercurrent that they might be doing something. I, I don't have any reportable stuff and by the way, I want to come back this. Before we leave FC Dallas, I want to come back to some transfers. But, you know, you know, the, this. I don't think you can expect a defensive replacement. The, the, the chatter we hear is in the midfield, but the thing will be that they'll need to be able to use Abubakar more and they'll need to be able to use Torcado more going forward if they're going to survive this. Because you're already seeing signs of burnout, you're going to need those guys to be able to play for you some. Now you're done with the game every five days for four days thing with the midweek games for a while, that one that's going away so you'll have some time to recover here. That'll help, of course, but it doesn't change the fact that you're just playing an immense amount of minutes with guys like Eric Ede and more that are in the very top of the top in terms of the minutes they played on the season, you know, and so you saw what happened when they tried to rest some of those guys towards the end there, how badly it went. But that's, that's the problem. [00:09:22] Speaker A: And it's all on the road. I mean it's this, it's ridiculously self inflicted road trip. Thanks. Stadium project. [00:09:29] Speaker C: I mean, yeah, it's on the road. It's, it's. The last couple were altitude. They're getting tired. It's all, it's all understandable. But the, the fact that there's only been really one defensive sub all year is catching up to them. You know, can, can they get through it? They. Can they survive it? Probably. Maybe. But it would certainly help. Peter, you're right. If they would have signed the center back we've been talking about for three seasons now that they never have. Other than your Gita. He was the one. We needed a two. You know, even if you like where Nolan was going, even if you like what Shackmore's done, the bottom line is you needed another capable body and that and you're, you're, you're stuck going with Abubakar who admittedly has been. Was really, really bad earlier in the year. He did okay subbing in the last couple of games. You're gonna, you're just gonna have to use him more going forward. [00:10:13] Speaker A: And then the Ben Yamin winner. That was nice. [00:10:17] Speaker C: That was a lovely goal. I, I want to complain however, that Ramiro has two assists from that game because his first assist he literally got dispossessed and the defender took the ball away from him and then the defender toe poked it over to Musa who scored. I think it was Musa or maybe it was. No, that was Joaquin Valiente's goal. [00:10:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:36] Speaker C: But nonetheless it wasn't a pass. Miro lost the ball. [00:10:38] Speaker A: No. Trying to get rid of it. Yeah. [00:10:40] Speaker C: Yeah. And the second one was a free kick near midfield and Ramirez staying there and he sees Ben Yamin way over on the touchline like 20 yards to his left and so he whips it out to him and then Benjamin Mean carries the ball 30 yards and scores. Well, that ain't an assist, dude. Let's not assist. [00:10:56] Speaker A: I. You know who deserves an assist on that Benjamin goal, and I'm not even sure who it is. It may be Torcado. Whoever made the, the run through and behind cleared out that space in the box for Benyamin to shoot from. It was a really, really nice run. [00:11:10] Speaker C: Oh, it's a wonderful goal. I just think, you know, like, look, Ramiro gets enough love as it is, like to give him two assists when he didn't deserve it. I thought Annoyed me, but, you know, sorry, I'm a hater. [00:11:22] Speaker A: But Ben. Yeah, but he's also like a billion years old, and he played the entire 90. And Kaik had to come out. [00:11:27] Speaker C: I mean, that. That's part of the problem, too, is that you are having to play Romero so much. And the commentator said. Had a quote. They were talking about him where Quill said that he does all this hard work, and the commentary says something about how he covers up the back four. And I said, well, let's be honest. He doesn't cover the back four. He covers the two center backs. He does not cover the whole sideline. The sideline. He stands in the middle of the field. It's important what he's doing. He gets a lot of interceptions standing in the middle of the zone, but he gets zero tackles and he gets zero dispossessions of the other team. He gets guys going by him all the time, and he wins hardly any duels. So, like, there's a lot of deficiencies happening, too, but yet he's the most important player they have in terms of his leadership and organization and holding the team together. When he's not in there, the team stinks. So it's a weird combination of a guy with serious defensive deficiencies, and yet he's the most important player on the field sometimes. [00:12:17] Speaker A: Couple of observations about the game itself. One, I'm. I'm relieved to see that Salt Lake's red stadium seats have also faded into pink seats. Yeah, I noticed that. Two, I think it was Mark Rogan Dino who was calling the game. Is that correct? [00:12:34] Speaker C: I'd have to go back and look, but it could have been. [00:12:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was. It was making me a little bit nuts, whoever it was. We're playing in Salt Lake. Salt Lake is the other team that wears red and blue hoops, quote, unquote. And he kept referring to Dallas as hoops. [00:12:51] Speaker C: Well, the hoop. Roganino definitely does that. Yeah, he calls them the hoops. Yeah. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Despite. No, they haven't been called the hoops in, like, whatever, 15 years. No, you don't remember when the team. The team had the hoops. The. The. The. The club. [00:13:05] Speaker C: Yeah, they. They call they. When they first wore those uniforms, there was one season where they called them the hoops and they had the hoops club. And then Kelly Weller was hired as the VP of marketing. And the first day she was working, she came out there to all the media and said, please stop calling them the hoops. We don't want to be called the hoops. So that was it, that was the end of them being the hoops. Unofficially, if they've been working, has been calling the hoop since then. [00:13:29] Speaker B: It's unbelievable how much that is stuck though. [00:13:32] Speaker A: Yeah, well, because they wore them forevermore and nobody. And I think it was kind of the organic name that came up whether the team had the hoops club or not. And it just kind of stuck. Dennis. It was a very weird time. [00:13:47] Speaker C: It was working. Kelly Weller, she said I don't know why they call them the hoops. What does it have to do with basketball? And I was like, well she makes a point like the, the average American sports fan doesn't know what hoops are. You know, you explain it's the rugby style horizontal stripe. Oh, I know what those are. And so like the team, the teams that have hoops that are called hoops are like Celtic who wear them all the time for 100 years, not SC Dallas that words them for 5 years and then stop wearing them for 8 years and then brought them back sort of, kind of, but not really. So like it's the dumb nickname. It's like this team is not the hoops. Never has been, never should I. I [00:14:22] Speaker A: just think people who weren't around at that time don't quite understand just how confusing the Brie branding was on literally every single level down to the fact that nobody knew what hoops meant. And there was a significant percentage of people that thought FC stood for Frisco County. [00:14:39] Speaker C: Yeah. Because it was in front I you just like 2 days ago I was reading some article where somebody was complaining about all the European style names and they were bitching about how FCDAUS makes no sense in English. Well, dummy, that's because it's not. It's named after. It's named in the Spanish style. They specifically cited FC Barcelona as the Spanish style. The football club Dallas. Like so. [00:15:00] Speaker B: Yes. [00:15:01] Speaker C: You know, do your homework, do five seconds of research before you call them out on that. [00:15:04] Speaker A: And Dennis, you looked very confused when I made that Frisco county comment. And trust me, I aware that it's not Frisco county, it's Collin County. But there was plenty of people that thought FC must have stood for or Frisco City. That was the other one that I heard. [00:15:19] Speaker B: Okay, that's that at least sort of makes sense. [00:15:21] Speaker A: Yes. [00:15:21] Speaker C: Yeah. Go fc. [00:15:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Frisco City. Dallas, [00:15:26] Speaker C: hallmark of youth soccer. Go fc. [00:15:29] Speaker B: I mean hell, it's almost Denton county, right? It's the other side of the highway is Denton county over there. [00:15:33] Speaker A: It's pretty Close. Yes. Yeah. The early aughts was an amazingly weird time for a soccer fandom here in the Dallas Fort Worth area. The other thing. What else? So I got those two things out of the way. Oh, here's my other comment. I think I've caught on to something, and maybe I'm making this up. Are Kaik and Moreno doing some sort of hair bit where they both wear the same hairstyle at the same time? Because I swear, for the while they both had braids, and then they went to the afro thing, and now they're. And they went to braids again. Another back to this. [00:16:14] Speaker C: I. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know if there's a literal correlation, but, Peter, you're right. It sure seems to track together at the same time. [00:16:22] Speaker A: Like, they're hanging out with each other, the two Brazilians. And they're like, how about we just wear the same hairdo? [00:16:28] Speaker B: Marino's a Colombian. [00:16:30] Speaker A: Oh, okay. You. Yeah, sorry, Colombian. South Americans. The two South Americans are hanging out with each other. [00:16:36] Speaker C: They both speak Spanish. [00:16:37] Speaker A: Right, Exactly. And they're like, how about we just go. [00:16:41] Speaker B: I'm not gonna get into it. [00:16:42] Speaker A: Hair twinsy. Yeah. [00:16:45] Speaker B: It might be a symptom reality of, like, them just being able to get back to, you know, somebody who does their braids here in town as opposed to wanting to do that on the road. [00:16:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:55] Speaker C: Maybe I don't know enough about that to be able to speak to that, but it definitely seems like there's a corollary there for sure. [00:17:00] Speaker A: All right, very good. And we'll spend a few minutes. Not many, just a few, talking about what happened in Vancouver. [00:17:08] Speaker C: Yeah. Here's the thing. Like, the concept of, like, a complete rotation is not new. People have done this, I think. I'm not a fan of it because I think what happens is. What happens here is that everyone kind of goes, oh, we're mailing this one in. And they kind of mail it in. You know, there have been times when people have done this, and I think there's even times NFC Dallas has done it, and everybody gets fired up and plays hard, and they actually. You can actually win doing that. But in this case, when everyone's tired at the end of a road trip, everyone sort of went, you know. Now, at the end of the day, you can break down this game tactically and should demonstrate why all these goals happen. You know, the biggest red flag is Torgato not doing enough in terms of getting back and playing the back five and keeping the space tight with Nolan. That was a Red flag. The other one is that they definitely had a front foot, which is one of the new buzzwords mentality and, like, tried to go at it and play, which is crazy. Like, why aren't you sticking with your same 5, 4, 1 low block that's been working all year with your counter moves? You know, I don't know why you all of a sudden try and open it up at Vancouver with a whole bunch of scrubs, but they did. And the whole thing is a meltdown. You're down for nothing at halftime. The other thing that happened, of course, is that Quill then decides to go for it. And I 100% buy quote. Quill bringing in four people at halftime fits his M.O. of never quitting, always going for it, always fighting. But let's be honest, the game's over. You might as well. I'm not sure that it did you any good other than perhaps injuring some people. You can have a whole conversation about whether that was the right move or not, but it's Quill's way. And for like five minutes, they sort of got at him and started to play a little bit, but then it all kind of fell apart again. It wasn't. They. They didn't have any success. And that's the worst part is you brought in those pieces. You weren't able to bring in your whole team, right? There's no Abubakar, there's no more. There's no defensive alterations. It was all offensive, but it was awesome. The offense, it was a problem. It was the defense that was the problem. So those moves, while they were aggressive, they didn't help solve the problem. And there was no way they were going to get back in that game without being able to do any real defensive changes. And they didn't have the ability to do any real defensive. [00:19:21] Speaker A: Dennis, anything good from four? Nothing. [00:19:23] Speaker B: Vancouver, I mean, look, I understand the concept of rotation. I understand why you want to do it going into this, but I don't get why you do that when you're looking at eight days off following this, right? You've been in this stretch for so long. You've been playing two games a week. You've been working out, practicing, traveling all over the country, all over the continent, really, at this point, going to Vancouver. But now you're going to rest your starters when you've got eight days off following this. I think at this point you at least start them in the first half and go from there. There wasn't much good to take away from this game. I don't think I Mean, Torcado, I think did a decent job for. For what he was thrown into, but this was way over his head. I think looking at the competition he was up against. Look, reality is Vancouver's the best team in the west right now. Right? I think they're on. They're on top of the table right now. [00:20:11] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I. I think what you do there, and it's easy for me from my sofa and a couple days later to say this, but I think what you do there is you maybe rest one or two people like he had been doing through the whole road stretch. And then at halftime, if it's okay and it's going well, then you do these halftime subs that he'd also been doing, like giving people half games off all the time instead of taking them out at the beginning of the game and having a whole complete rotation. You do the same sort of thing that had been working. [00:20:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:20:37] Speaker C: So that's why that's what bothers me the most, is he went away from what had gotten them through this road stretch. I think that's a little bit of a stumble on Quill. Not the end of the world. The bottom line is you can still look at those, how those goals happen, what went wrong tactically, you know, but for the most part, you're just going to throw this game tape out and be like, it doesn't mean anything. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I, you know, when they hired Eric Quill, my frustration, or I think our frustration, was that they've hired a guy again who's relatively green, hadn't Reft in the. I mean, Reft coached in the league kind of thing. And this is kind of those decisions that I don't think a more veteran, savvy MLS coach makes in terms of how to manage players on these types [00:21:19] Speaker C: of road trips with a. [00:21:20] Speaker A: With a roster like this. This, to me feels like a. A very young MLS coach kind of thing to do. [00:21:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I remember Shellis did this. [00:21:28] Speaker A: Once again, a guy had never coached an mls. [00:21:31] Speaker C: Yeah, he had like a. He had like a. If I, I'm. [00:21:34] Speaker A: I'm. [00:21:34] Speaker C: I can't remember the exact games, but it was like a. Three games in five days in the middle. And one of the other games was an important, like, open cup semi or something. And so the middle game, he went full rotation and it was on the road and they actually surprised somebody and won. It was like a really great, like, wow, you know, because everyone just assumed they were going to get walked over. So it can work. But I think in this case, when you're at the end of this marathon road trip and you're really, really tired. Don't change. What you're doing is I think, I mean you had a thing that was working that was getting you through it and you kind of tossed it out and tossed this game out and up. You know, Vancouver on turf, on the road against that team. You know, admittedly they hadn't won at home in like two months, but they hadn't lost either. So like, you know, they. And they'd done really well against Seattle just like a week and a half before that. So it was like they were not in shape for like of a beating. But I just think you should stuck with what you're doing. [00:22:27] Speaker A: Yeah, Dallas. But Dallas historically does have some pretty significant games where the coach, the most famous one being Oscar, putting out all the kids against Columbus that day. And in a game everybody was like, oh my God, what is Perea doing playing a bunch of teenagers and they won that game. [00:22:44] Speaker C: Yeah, but I don't think it was in the context of this extended road trip and this defense that's being worn out. [00:22:50] Speaker A: No, but it was because they were. No, but they were also. They were very clearly in a point where they were stretched roster wise and schedule wise and that's why he did it. And then there's also the famous Casey Keller. Oh, that's insulting. Game up in Seattle. [00:23:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:04] Speaker A: And who was the manager then? Was that Praya too? [00:23:09] Speaker C: I don't remember. [00:23:10] Speaker A: I don't either. [00:23:11] Speaker C: I just look up what, what year that was. And there's also the famous time when New York Red Bull rotated their whole team and brought up five guys from there. Absolutely taunt Dallas smoked Dallas at home. It can work. [00:23:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:23] Speaker C: You know, if, if the weird part was that Vancouver I guess didn't necessarily think that Dallas was going to rotate and they went full hog best 11 and then they got the Dallas full, you know. And look, the problem at the end of the day is that there's two couple of players that are mega, mega important for Dallas and if you take two or three of those out, you're going to get trashed. The team, Dallas is too much of a team of parody. And let's say like if you look at the whole Dallas 11 and you say every single position starter to the backup drop off, what is it on average? I don't know, 10, 15%. Well, if you apply that across the whole formation, that's going to crush a team like Dallas, who's a sort of a middle of the pack kind of team. Especially when they're going up against the best in the league kind of team. You know, you just, you just made the gap all that much bigger. And they're going to light you up when they play in their best 11. [00:24:09] Speaker B: You know, something we said to Peter, you mentioned, like, play the kids other than, you know, I think maybe Sarver and Torquato is getting an early start here. [00:24:19] Speaker A: Right. [00:24:19] Speaker B: And these aren't exactly kids that we're throwing out there either. These aren't homegrown kids that have come to the academy or anything else. These are, these are warm bodies in a lot of cases. And these are Buzz, as you call them, dudes. [00:24:31] Speaker A: Yeah, but it's what the front office is, is provided the team in terms of depth. I mean, just this is all a reflection of the stuff that, that Buzz and Dan and Dennis, you guys have been talking about for several seasons now. It's just that it's a team that just doesn't really have any depth. And. [00:24:51] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:51] Speaker A: And it is what it is. There are a couple. [00:24:53] Speaker C: What I was going to say. And when you include, on top of that, Quill's very, very short rotation, he doesn't trust any of those kids. Or, you know, they have 10 supplemental players. You know, they have five or six home roster. Those guys aren't in a million miles. They're all down at North Texas, you know, the GA Cup, Sorry, not G Cup guys they drafted. They're all down in North Texas. Like, he doesn't play them. So like, you know, even if you had kids, they weren't with them, so you couldn't have played them. [00:25:17] Speaker A: Buzz, I. I mean, a couple, I want to ask about a couple of players because one of the things that I'm a little concerned about is the form of one Nolan Norris, who I feel like is being put through the ringer. A pretty significant series of mistakes, bad moments, you know, directly involved in goals being, you know, scored because of a mistake he made or bad defensive error. I know Nolan is a better player than that, but he's also very young. And I'm just curious if you have any thoughts about is this just part of the learning process to become a seasoned veteran or is Quill playing him so much that he's endangered of stunting his growth? [00:26:00] Speaker C: No, you know, he. Because he had the suspension for the first league game after Leagues Cup. Cole played him a bunch in Leagues cup. And it was the tape against, against Toluca that sort of made everybody notice, like, oh, here's how you go at the kid. Because Nolan went up Against El Nino, who's both better on the ball and faster than Norris. And Norris struggled with him a bit. Now he only he mostly did okay, but he had a couple of moments and those couple of moments is all it takes where he just got smoked. And since then, people that have a fast winger have basically run a fast winger at Nolan and the pro. This is what I talked about. Like, you can't abandon this back five idea because the whole point of it working defensively, remember the beginning of the year they were giving up all those goals and Quill went to this back five to tighten it up and stop giving up goals. Right. Well, the best couple of games, the back five hasn't really happened. Johansson and Bernie and even Torcado and Shaq Moore when in the last game they are up the field more and all of a sudden Nolan really is in a back five. Well, if you take the fastest player they have and you run them at him and that's his one deficiency so far is he's a half a step slower. He's going to get in trouble, especially in again against Vancouver when he didn't have IR inside to bail him out. Now IR is so fast and covers so much ground. He can cover a lot of ground and bail Noles out. Iaga is actually fast. Iaga has the fastest recorded time and for FC Dallas this season he's fast. But he doesn't read the game fast like Oz does. So he can't help Nolan as much. And so that's why Bernie has to be back there or Turcato has to be back there in that back five. This is part of the learning process too of Nolan. We talked about this. He's capable of being a top, top level defender because of his soccer brain. He has. He's going to have to figure out how to defend guys that are faster than him. It's just part of the process for him. If he never figures it out, he's going to be exposed forever this way. He'll have to figure it out if he's going to progress his career. So yes, it's part of the learning process. And the only way to learn is to play. [00:28:08] Speaker A: Okay, you mentioned Bernie. I'm curious, what do you think Eric Quill said to Bernie after the Salt Lake game about that half ass tackle attempt on the Diego Luna goal re in the box? Do you remember that? [00:28:24] Speaker C: Well, given the amount of how fast the games are coming, I'm not sure they've had a chance to watch tape [00:28:28] Speaker A: talking about where the ball leaked into the Box. And Bernie and Diego had an opportunity to both go for it. And Bernie pulled out of a tackle and Diego just knocked it in for the goal. Made it three. Three. [00:28:39] Speaker C: I don't, I don't remember that specifically, but if he, if he shied away from it, I'm sure Quill had a word because that's that were mentality. [00:28:45] Speaker A: He should have been there. He should have gotten to the ball first and cleared it. And he didn't really try to get to the ball. And then I think he was worried he was going to get called for a pk. So he didn't try to tackle and win the ball and he just kind of quit on it. [00:28:57] Speaker C: Well, Bernie's not a good tackler, whether it be a slide tackle or maybe a stand up tackler. He's not a great defensive duel winner. So I'm not surprised he didn't win it. [00:29:05] Speaker A: You know, my other question that I was wanting to ask you after the Vancouver game was, is there something going on with Beaver? Because one, he's not starting very often. Two, when he does play, he's missing really good opportunities very badly. I mean, goals that Logan Farrington normally scores, he's banging off the post or putting in the stands. It's very strange. And then there are a lot of other times and I'm thinking the one that really stood out to me in the Vancouver game was the incident that led up to the fourth goal just before the end of the half where he was very selfish with the ball, should have passed it, didn't. Ended up getting tackled, lost the ball. And that started this week sequence for the fourth goal. And he just stayed on the ground, rolling around like he had gotten hurt. And I just. His. Let me, I'm. Let me be more brief about it. His bad finishing and he's gotten very selfish with the ball of late. And I'm just curious if there's something else going on with him. [00:30:03] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Yes, there is. [00:30:06] Speaker A: And that would be? [00:30:07] Speaker C: Oh, I have no idea. Oh, but there clearly is. I just watch him play. Is he just the same? [00:30:12] Speaker A: Is he just pouty because he's not starting? [00:30:14] Speaker C: I don't know, man. You know, he's in his own head or something. You know, you never know. You never know what's going on in somebody's life. You never know how they're doing. And in the locker room, that's different than when they're like on the field. In the locker room is different. You know, how's the coach talking to him? You know, maybe they're trying some tough love on him. I, I, who knows? You know, at the end of the day, like, you can watch him play, and it's not the same. The him and Musa starting, which was working at the beginning of the year, is not working now. He's coming in late in games. It's not working. You know, it's like, I, you know, unless somebody gets him in front of a mic and gets, like, a long conversation and gets him to open up about stuff, which no one will because this is mls. I mean, yeah. [00:30:57] Speaker A: You know, it's funny, I think I mentioned this in the Discord. I don't think I said this in the podcast, but I literally wrote down a note in the Toluca game when he started with Musa that the two of them were terrible together, to the point that I said, these look like two strikers that have never played a soccer game together before. [00:31:16] Speaker C: Well, you remember the end of the year, they were talking about how much they love playing together, how much they were able to create of each other, and now that's not there. So, like, you know, it could be a million things. I mean, I have no idea about his personal life. Maybe his girlfriend broke up with him. Maybe someone's family's sick. I don't know. Maybe he moved. Maybe he's got a new, new car. [00:31:33] Speaker A: Something's going on. Yeah. [00:31:35] Speaker C: Yeah, okay. [00:31:36] Speaker A: Something's going on, and he's just not the same guy. And is that, is that the reason why he's not starting? [00:31:41] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, yeah. [00:31:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:42] Speaker C: He's not starting because of the way he's playing well and because Joaquin Valiente is playing so well. You know, they're founding a way that up front is working really well, which is the 3, 4, 3, the two tens underneath Santia Marino. Not every game, but every other game maybe, is having a really great game. Joaquin Valiant, he's playing really well. I'm not. Moose is doing Musa things. Farrington is not. So he's not starting in front of those guys, you know, and he's not coming in and make an impact. And there's a million different reasons why it could be, it could be physical, and we just don't know. You know, I, I tell you a dumb story. You probably noticed when it was Ryan Giggs one time, Peter, you remember where he was having all these crazy back problems? It was hurt all the time. Yep. Turned out it was his car. Is the seat in his car was bad. They made him sell his car and get a new car and it went [00:32:22] Speaker A: away because I think it was like a. Like a Maserati or an Italian sports weirdo sports seats or something. And it was. Yeah, it was effing his backup. [00:32:33] Speaker C: So, like, it could be a million things. I mean, who knows what it is? And your guess is as good as mine. Like, you know, even if, you know, people that are around training might not even know. It might be the kind of thing where he's not talking. I don't. I don't know what kind of person he is in terms of sharing things. Like, you know, I don't know the man. So, like, who knows what it is? But yeah, there's definitely something wrong. He probably even say there's not. Just look at him play. Yeah. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Something to be said about his body language out there, too. I mean, there was a point where he was getting calls pretty often. Now I think he goes the ground a little too often. The book's out on him a little bit, so to speak, that he's a guy that's going to go to ground and try and get calls and he's not getting them anymore. And he comes up out of those very, very frustrated. [00:33:11] Speaker C: Even his touch has gone south. He always had. He always had a couple of bounce aways, but then he would. He would have these incredible touches where he would drop the ball right in the shooting position, too. He would do that. Well, those have gone away. [00:33:21] Speaker A: Oh, that Toluca game, they kept trying to play direct to him on restarts and the ball would just bounce off him like a rubber ball on a wall. It was weird. He was. That was really the first time I started noticing that something was. Something was up with the beef. And it's just. It's been pretty poor since then. [00:33:38] Speaker C: He's not even gonna exist anymore either. [00:33:39] Speaker A: No, no, no, no. Bad news. Well, you know, here's the other weird thing, guys. And this is something somebody else in the media brought up to me the other day. I was actually kind of surprised that they even knew this, that Peter Musa, FC Dallas, has the league's leading goal scorer and we don't ever, ever hear anything about it. [00:34:02] Speaker C: Well, I mean, we do around here when we talk. [00:34:05] Speaker A: Well, okay. In our tiny little itty bitty sphere of, you know, the 37 people that listen to the podcast, it's, It's. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like, they have MLS leading score and none of the local media talk about it. You don't really hear about. I mean, is he even going to be a contender for mvp? He probably should be. [00:34:28] Speaker C: I think it'll be a contender for mvp, but he won't win because he plays for FC Dallas. You know, I. At the end of the day, there's the. The national media does not particularly think very much of FC Dallas. They don't really like them very much. And players that are here, unless you have a 60 point season, like with the couple that Oscar had, then you can get your hedges in the conversation for the year, you know, but that's about it. Like, you're not just leading the league in goals. Won't get him in the conversation for mvp. He'll win the Golden Boot, but unless Dallas finishes in the top two or something, he won't be in the conversation. [00:35:03] Speaker A: Is it. Is it exacerbated by the fact that the league overall is just kind of lost any sort of attention in the, in the general mainstream media? [00:35:13] Speaker C: No, not really. I don't think so. You know, if you mean, like, why is no one in local news noticing? Well, the FC Dallas has never been in the conversation with local news. I mean, I, I've mentioned to people before that I'm. That I do a sock a website about professional soccer and they'll say, oh, the Sidekicks, man, the Sidekicks haven't been relevant since 85. It's like, you know, so, like, it's just not. [00:35:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I just have this sense that MLS as a league has really slowed down in terms of its general mass media attention levels. And then I just wonder if that ends up getting reflected back at the local level, that now that the World Cup's over, nobody really cares. And here we are with a team that's doing okay, you know, better than we thought. But they also have the league's leading scorer and a guy that scored in a World cup game and, you know, they don't get two seconds on any of the local TV stations or any of the coverage. [00:36:10] Speaker C: I don't want to tell you, I [00:36:11] Speaker B: think not playing here for two months certainly takes some of the shine off of that a little bit. Right? [00:36:16] Speaker A: Yes. Dennis has picked up where I was. Yes. That was the other thing I was. Again, thank you. Stadium project. [00:36:22] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:24] Speaker B: There's something to be said about not capitalizing on all this opportunity. You know, most World cup games of any city, some of the biggest matches, some of the best matchups that we had here, and then just completely shitting the bed. Not capitalizing it by not having a place to play and not having home matches for two whole months. [00:36:41] Speaker C: I'm looking forward to a whole nother season of half a stadium. It's A three year project. It's at least all next year. Yeah. [00:36:50] Speaker A: I'm telling you, some young person is going to end up writing a master's thesis for sports business in a college somewhere in the, in the Texas area about the great FC Dallas stadium project and its impact on the club long term. [00:37:07] Speaker C: Yeah, FC Dallas has a better road record than home record right now. And some I was like I can't believe that. I imagine finishing the year that way. And somebody pointed out that that happened last year, but it happened last year in points, but it was closer to even this year it's more and more unbalanced. So it's like there definitely is a factor happening when whatever is happening that makes you be better on the road than home. That's a real tangible thing because there [00:37:30] Speaker A: is a like legitimate atmosphere at these other stadiums that it's not because people aren't excited to be at the game, it's just there's not enough people there and the stadium is in this weird state and it just doesn't make for a good in, you know, home environment. And I think I, you know, I just go back and look at their record last season, this season and I assume next season. It's, it's just it. I think it's a big part of why the team is where it is. [00:37:58] Speaker C: Well, in the meantime we get to watch better Musa pass Jesus Ferreira for the second all time club goals and, and he's got a legit chance to break the single season club scoring record and he's got a legit chance to break the multiple game. Isn't that the weirdest, isn't that the [00:38:12] Speaker A: craziest irony out of all of this is that they probably have finally gotten the nine that we've all wanted them to have. [00:38:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:19] Speaker B: It's crazy that it's. It's only August and he's a hat trick away from the club record. Right. This is a single season record. [00:38:26] Speaker C: He's got 13 more games to break it. [00:38:28] Speaker A: I mean knock on wood, he doesn't get hurt but he's going to, he's going to clobber it. [00:38:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Hopefully it'd be fun to watch. [00:38:33] Speaker A: Will he break 20 goals? [00:38:35] Speaker B: I think so easily. [00:38:36] Speaker A: What's the, is MLS record 28 or 27? [00:38:40] Speaker C: Oh gosh, it's pretty high. I mean like. No, I mean I want to say didn't in, in like 96? Didn't wear Lassiter have like 31 or something? [00:38:49] Speaker A: No, somebody's broken it since then, but I thought it was less than 30, but I don't remember. [00:38:55] Speaker B: It's 34. [00:38:56] Speaker A: Holy crap. [00:38:57] Speaker B: Okay, 2019. LAFC. [00:38:59] Speaker C: Who? [00:39:03] Speaker A: Wow. Okay, well, he won't do that. [00:39:05] Speaker B: Martinez had 31 in 2018 and had 30. [00:39:12] Speaker C: I was right about Roy Lasseter in 96. 33. [00:39:16] Speaker A: Did he do 33 and 96? I thought it was 28. [00:39:19] Speaker C: No, 33. I'm looking at it. Paul Carr. You can count it. If Paul Carson. [00:39:23] Speaker A: No, no, Paul Carr said it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:39:25] Speaker C: Joseph Martinez, 34 in 2018. [00:39:28] Speaker A: Early onset dementia. Okay, well, it is just. It. It is just one of the weird things about this season, Buzz, is that they've got this guy who's just continuously putting the ball in the net and [00:39:42] Speaker C: we get to enjoy it. [00:39:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:45] Speaker A: They just put a few more pieces around them. They may actually be a contender. [00:39:48] Speaker C: But, I mean, think about this. If people cared, the press box will be full and we would know where to sit. [00:39:53] Speaker B: Well, you got to be careful it doesn't come down around you or they don't accidentally knock it over while you're in there. [00:39:57] Speaker C: Fake press box. Exciting. [00:39:59] Speaker A: It was my favorite. The other day. They. They posted that. One of the salespeople, I think it was a salesperson, posted a. A drone video fly through of the stadium in its current state. And they were coming in from the north end and they were flying through, and I saw this, like, weird brown thing, and I'm like, what was that? Because it. It kind of flew by really quickly. So I stopped the video, went back, and I realized what they've done is they've erected a wooden box around the Lamar Hunt statue. Lamar? They put Lamar in a box? [00:40:33] Speaker C: What's in the box? [00:40:34] Speaker A: A giant box. They didn't, like, pack him up and move him out of the way. They left him right there. [00:40:39] Speaker C: I'm sure he's permanently attached or close to it. It's easier just to wrap him up and put his bubble wrap around him. [00:40:46] Speaker A: They put Lamar in a box? [00:40:48] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:40:49] Speaker A: That is crazy. All right, very good. Well, so next up on the list, Buzz. Next. The next victim, FC Dallas victim is St. Louis, who apparently in the own right are. Let's see. St. Louis 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 wins in their last eight games. Gulp. [00:41:10] Speaker C: Yeah, they are on fire. They are. They're basically right with SC Dallas on points. Just like level on points. [00:41:18] Speaker B: 33 piece. [00:41:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Just 11 game unbeaten run, 8 wins. And at 11 and 2, 3 ties. So just incredible. [00:41:28] Speaker A: The Tina Turner kids. [00:41:31] Speaker C: Yeah, well, they. They've made some changes and they just turn it around. I mean, you know, it's like. It's just. It's not a good time to be going to St. Louis when you're tired and they're on fire. But, you know, you play every game. They'll compete. I'm sure that they will. I can't imagine you're not going back to what is effectively your first 11. You know, what we pretty much saw in Salt Lake City. [00:41:53] Speaker A: You have to. [00:41:55] Speaker C: Sirwa is a lock at this point. Even if Daniel were back this week, you would say it would still be so this week, you know, more irrigate. Norris. I don't think there's. I don't think Ibiaga or Abubakar are playing well enough to take one of those guys out of the game. The only question would be, is, is the back five falling apart and will he go back to a back four? That's where you have the question. He moves Nolan slightly more outside that that. There was a stretch where that worked. You know, he went back to the back 35 when league scup happened in part because Mexican teams cross a lot. So could he go back to the four? I'm going to stick with the back three five until he changes his mind. So that means if Moore's in the back because he's got to be, that means Johansson's back in. It means Bernie's in because there isn't anybody to replace those two guys. The only way it would be different is if he's like, Iaga was good enough. They put more back at wing back. But I think, you know, on the road, I think Johansen will be back, especially because he didn't start the last game. So that's doable. Musa and Valiant Arrow locks. Ramiro's a block, probably Kaika is a lock. So then it just comes down to how does Santi Marino and his pubis energy injury holding up. This is what they said it was called. I don't know. Whatever it is, that's a really good [00:43:15] Speaker A: new show on Apple tv. [00:43:16] Speaker C: Yeah. So I. I think that it's probably Santi Marino because Fairington's not working. Sarver as a starter is crap. He can't do it. He's only good as a sub because he can't. He can't pace himself for 90 minutes. Sarva's only effective when he's high energy against guys that are tired. That's fine. You got five subs, just use them as a sub. That's great. So really, Santi Marano is pretty much the only choice, except for perhaps Paxton Delgado. But I'll come back to that in just a minute when we finish this talk about St. Louis. [00:43:46] Speaker A: I think St. Louis plays three in the back. Does Quill have a track record of matching teams that play three in the back? [00:43:56] Speaker C: He has a track record for altering the shape. If he thinks that there's a reason to alter it tactically from the other team, that doesn't mean that he'll. He'll. He'll say that, like the three at the back means I'm gonna go three at the back. But it could mean that he would. You know, if he feels like a particular guy is going to be a particular threat, then he might change. You know, I mean, their big. Their big threat is Demit, so it's like, you know, that it's. I don't. I don't think. And my analysis on them is not deep. I don't think their threat is from the wings. So I think it's probably okay that you can have. Bernie and Johansson is not the greatest defenders on the planet out there on those wing positions. I think that's okay. I think it's. You want to clog the middle against them? I believe so. That's probably. I'm leaning to them sort of sticking with the back three five for now. [00:44:46] Speaker A: All right, Dennis, you got any hot sports opinions about St. Louis? [00:44:50] Speaker B: They're. They're tough to play right now, like you guys mentioned. I just think this is. This is the longest stretch that Dallas has had since the World Cup. Right. So these guys should be fresh even, especially with the rotation and only playing really half a game this weekend. For most of the starters, this is an opportunity to go out there and get it and grab three more before coming home. I think. But I think best case scenario is you come out of this with a draw and you tuck your tail between your legs and come home and settle in for some home cooking. But it would be nice to see Moussa at least get a brace maybe and tie the record and look to come home and do it. [00:45:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that'd be good. All right, well, there you go. Any other FC Dallas stuff you'd like to discuss? [00:45:34] Speaker C: Yes. [00:45:35] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:45:36] Speaker C: I want to discuss Patricson Delgado. This is not. I'm not reporting anything. I. But I have a sneaky suspicion. Oh, my instincts are telling me something. My instincts of. Based on watching this team operate for 30 years. [00:45:52] Speaker A: Can I just. Hold on. I want to make a public service announcement. [00:45:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:45:56] Speaker A: When it comes to all things FC Dallas, Byrne, if Buzz says he has a feeling. [00:46:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:46:02] Speaker A: His track record of being Correct about this is extremely high. [00:46:06] Speaker C: This is definitely 100% a feeling only. [00:46:11] Speaker B: Temple tap. [00:46:11] Speaker C: A tingle. I got a tingle in my soccer. [00:46:14] Speaker A: Do you have it written in an envelope that you're going to reveal? [00:46:16] Speaker C: I'm gonna hold that to my head. No. [00:46:18] Speaker B: The great Bazzini. [00:46:20] Speaker C: Do you remember when Mario Diaz was sold? There was this. Oh, he got a knock in training, and then he was out for, like, three weeks, and all of a sudden, he was sold. Right. [00:46:30] Speaker A: How many times? Okay, Buzz, how many times is this exact scenario played out in the last 32 years? I mean, five, six times? [00:46:38] Speaker C: Several. Okay, so remember, they go to Toluca, and Where's Patrick Delgado? Right. Not in the grip. Oh, what happened to him? Oh, he got a knock. A little bit of an ankle. Have we seen him since then playing? Not like, on the bench or. [00:46:52] Speaker A: Anybody checked his socials lately? [00:46:55] Speaker C: Like, is he. You know, he doesn't. On Instagram. He just does Bojangle ads. Yeah. So my point is that, like, my. My spider sense is tingling, that this could be one of those deals where Patrick Delgado is being sold. I have no this. I'm not trying to hint or sneak you some news. I have no idea. [00:47:15] Speaker A: This isn't a dump, but this is [00:47:17] Speaker C: not a Huntsman dump, okay? This is just a vibe check from me. Why has Paxton Delgado vanished? You know, I mean, maybe it's one of those deals where the little B train knocked. No big deal. Ankle is actually a broken ankle. He's out for, like, eight months. What was. [00:47:30] Speaker A: I think it's Delgado's last game. Hold on. I'm gonna look that up. [00:47:35] Speaker C: I think he was on the bench for a game, like, within a week after Toluca. I think he was on the bench once or twice, but he didn't come in. I don't think he's played since before the Toluca game. [00:47:47] Speaker A: Hold on. I'm going to look it up right now. Sir, I'm going to tell you the last game that he played in, he played 66 minutes against the Galaxy. He played 16 minutes as a sub in that first Leagues cup game. Right? [00:48:03] Speaker C: So before Toluca, when he wasn't in the A team for the Toluca game, and it was. We. I was told that he had a knock, and it was a little. No big deal was his ankle, and we haven't seen him since. [00:48:13] Speaker B: And that was the one where they left an open spot on the bench, right? [00:48:16] Speaker C: I think so, yeah. So my. Either he's catastrophically hurt and they're hiding it, but I Think that's not likely because like I said, I think his name was on the bench from a couple. A couple of games later they wrote him down. He didn't come in. So, like, my gut, is that a sale maybe is going down possibly with him? Like I said, it's just pure conjecture on my part. Just having been around a bit, isn't [00:48:39] Speaker A: he one of your 120, your U22s? So now we're gonna have a team. [00:48:47] Speaker C: I'm just saying, like, I'm not. [00:48:48] Speaker A: I'm not. [00:48:48] Speaker C: I'm not reporting nothing. Nobody say that. Buzz said they're selling. [00:48:51] Speaker B: I'm just saying, one DP, one U22 model. [00:48:56] Speaker C: Yeah, there you go. [00:48:58] Speaker A: Dan, [00:49:00] Speaker C: was it? Was I right? Did you look? Was he on the bench for a game like my brain says he was? [00:49:04] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's so. Well, so on Fat Mob, it shows that he was actually on the bench for three games. The Chivas game. [00:49:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:49:11] Speaker A: The Salt Lake and the Vancouver game. [00:49:14] Speaker C: So how has he gone from being like a guy who could come in and have these great games? There's been a couple times he had an awesome games. He can score these banger goals. Why has he vanished from basically the start of Leeds cup until now? I. I know he's alive. We've seen him. [00:49:27] Speaker A: But I'm. But, dude, I totally am. I. I get it. Yes. [00:49:32] Speaker C: Barrington's playing that crap. [00:49:34] Speaker A: If I'd been paying closer attention, I would be. I would go, yes, Buzz, I've been thinking the exact same thing, but I don't really care about Patrick's and Delgado in general. I don't think he's that great of a player, so I don't really care. [00:49:47] Speaker C: All of a sudden, Ran Binyamin means getting a bunch of minutes ahead of him. You know, he's what's going on. [00:49:54] Speaker B: So need to go to some other markets and stake out some Bojangles chickens. [00:49:59] Speaker C: Yeah, see, we're supposed to see where Bojangles is hot. I'm just saying, just me, my spirit signal. [00:50:06] Speaker A: They're going to sell him off and he's going to move somewhere and he's going to lose all that Bojangles credit that he got for free for doing those ads. [00:50:15] Speaker C: Well, there's some places such a way. [00:50:17] Speaker A: So I wonder if they'll let him, you know, leave the Bojangles tickets back for a friend or something here. [00:50:23] Speaker C: So it just feels like Mars. So I. I swat. I was going, I think they're big in Indonesia. Huge. Huge. [00:50:34] Speaker A: Wow. Okay, well, very good. I like that Buzz. That's good stuff. That's why people listen to this podcast, to hear you do stuff like that. All right, Dennis, stretch your hammies. We're coming to you hard here. Dallas Trinity, this is. They lost against Carolina at the Cotton bowl over the weekend. Thoughts, reactions, observations, findings, Sir? [00:50:58] Speaker B: I mean, I think it's exactly what we expected going into this. Maybe not the results so much, but exactly the way they played. Trinity held the ball 65, 66% of the time, 68% actually. They let in shots. They let in every single stat that mattered. They let in shots, shots on target, big chances, corners, double, more than double passes, but they just couldn't pull it out. They just couldn't find the back of the net. And this is a little bit of a carryover from last season that we've seen, too. So new coach, new roster, similar tactic, similar results, and they are now two games in. They've got one point from the two, both home games. And this is just more of what we've seen from Lee win. [00:51:42] Speaker C: So, Dennis, you're saying that they did not lead against and the only stat that actually matters, which is goals. [00:51:46] Speaker B: Exactly. Right. They. They did pretty poorly on that one. Right. There was a three. One final here, and that one definitely felt like they were trying to get back into it in the second half, but they were. They were down two nil to start the half and they all, all three of Carolina's goals came off of restarts. [00:52:05] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, I kind of want to say, I feel like, you know, you got to give the team a little bit of a break because they're essentially rebuilding a brand new team again for the first, you know, in its [00:52:16] Speaker B: second or third, whatever season. [00:52:18] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, the third rebuild in three seasons. And I thought, so you got to [00:52:21] Speaker B: give him a break. [00:52:21] Speaker A: And then I realized, wait, isn't that how every nw, every team in this league is. Operates? Is there essentially a brand new team every season or is Dallas unique in this way? [00:52:33] Speaker B: No, Lexington and Carolina have returned most of their rosters. Jacksonville returned most of their rosters. They added. They added some additional pieces, but both, all three of those top three clubs are building on what they had last year. Yeah, Lexington returned almost their entire roster and they won the double at the end of the first season of this year. This is a short season too. Right? This is a 14 game season. So one point from two matches at home is not a great way to start when you've only got a dozen matches out from here. [00:53:03] Speaker C: I have a couple thoughts I want to throw out there Number one, I'm team Beckman. That girl can play. She is awesome. Fantastic player. [00:53:10] Speaker B: Game changer. [00:53:11] Speaker C: Yeah. I was concerned about Shepard so I tried to isolate watching her in this game. And one thing I will say that she does a good Romero, which is like when she has the ball, she moves it on. She does that well. And I also thought about the fact that they have a bunch of these kids right out of college and a bunch of these NWS loans that are really young. She's the one player that's sort of in the middle of her career. She's already been in the NWSL for three years. She has a handful of games, not many, but she is a leader and a middle of career player. And so that's why I think she's probably in there quite a bit, you know, so I'm okay with that. I was, I was also pleased to see Lancaster return to the lineup. After I complained about it the first week, he brought it back for the second week. So good on him for doing that that he sat Cummins at right back and put Beckman at right back. And Beckman did a really great job overloading. She's got such energy and she covers so much ground. She's like Kaik in a way, I suppose, except better. [00:54:06] Speaker B: Yeah, she plays that flex up out of the right side like a. Like we saw from Kumins in the first game. She just plays a little bit more into the midfield as opposed to getting up on the win. [00:54:14] Speaker C: Yeah, she is a midfield player so she can do it better. And you know, at the end of the day like the, the goals they give up were in transition as you mentioned, are coming off of set plays. Dennis. So it's like they kind of got hung out a little bit in terms of some emergency defending as the, as they tried to push forward. But the other big, big concept, as I was listening to the broadcast and they were talking about lean win, how they had talked to him about how the team wants to play and they specifically mentioned that he said he fell in love with this style of play. Watching the great Barcelona teams, the ticky, tacky Barcelona teams, that that's how they want to play. And my thought is you don't have those players, you don't have the Barcelona greatness to play that way. [00:54:53] Speaker B: But a bunch of 22 year old women out there, right? [00:54:57] Speaker C: But if you watch the way they play with the false nine, right. That was the quintessential Barcelona way. When they had what's his name up in the front and Messi was on the wing, you know, and all that kind of stuff. And they had Xavi and they had Iniesta and they had Xavi Alonso and like he's trying to replicate that. But again, that's the thing. It's like ambition. I. I love it. League, yeah, go try. But you don't have those players, man. So maybe you got to be a little bit problematic. But at the same time also remember this is the seasonal results don't matter. So if he wants to go for it, I guess go for it and see what happens. But I think it's going to get you exposed like this. So. [00:55:34] Speaker B: And you mentioned the false 9 buzz. One bright spot here is Jasmine Hamid finally opened her Dallas account after coming in here in the spring. She came in from Fort Lauderdale. She was the league's first transfer and so she hadn't scored a goal since she's been here the end of last season or. But finally got one off a Lancaster assistance. [00:55:52] Speaker C: So. [00:55:53] Speaker B: But unfortunately Lee pulled both of them not too long after they scored, even though they were trying to get back on that same attack again. [00:55:59] Speaker C: So how'd you think of seven in the middle, Dennis? I didn't think she did very well in the middle. [00:56:04] Speaker B: I don't think she did as well as she did on the wing. I think the issue up there is. Is going to compound over the next couple of weeks. I think it's a matter of is it 7, is it Lancaster who is going to be on the right wing? I don't think they have a definitive left wing. They've been playing Camaro up there pretty often and they did have. Yeah, it's Camaro right now, but they were working out a trialist that was. That's. She was in the midfield but she was getting up on the wing at practice last week. Didn't get a name but they. They had her out. She. She was running some drills in midfield and then running some more up on the left wing and filling in up there. We saw Eichenberger play up there in preseason a little bit too, so I think we're going to see some. We start to see some rotation on the left wing at some point. Guerrero had a bunch of shots. They weren't all great shots though. She had I think maybe one that was a really solid on target shot. But Sydney Martinez, Carolina's keeper, had a hell of a game too, so she definitely had an incredible game. There was one shot that Sid Cheeseman had from midfield. It was off a set piece. She. I forget who took the set piece, but it was A little step over and then went short. The Cheeseman. And Cheeseman had an absolute rocket from damn near just the same center circle. And Martinez, it was top corner. Martinez was just barely able to push it away. I. I don't think there are a lot of other keepers in the league that get to that ball. Ambitious shot by Cheeseman, though. [00:57:24] Speaker A: Okay, Dennis, I'm curious because you've been attending these games on the regular both before and after the acquisition or sale or whatever you want to call it. Have you noticed any difference? I'm. I was just curious if we're getting any kind of preview of what we can expect at the Cotton bowl with Atletico Dallas, with that group now in control of Trin and how they're operating and managing these games and ticket sales and things like that. [00:57:53] Speaker B: It's a lot of the same as of right now, I think it's a lot of they are taking a handoff and going, okay, this is the way we did things last season. And there are some changes that are happening. The environment up in the press box is a little bit different. They have a lot more of their folks sitting up there, their social media teams, all the folks that are up there running their Instagram accounts and all that stuff are doing the live work. They're kind of radioing down to the folks that are doing photos and doing the video down. So there's a little bit more coordination. But there's definitely some things that they're still learning too. They're still trying to figure out that I don't think may have been handed over completely yet. So interesting to watch. But as far as gate and security, a lot of that all changed mid season last year anyway when Fair park switched the. The team that they have running it when. So, you know, there's been a ton of changes and I think the only, the only real consistency is change, right? Like, it's. I mean, the building is what it is, elevators work half the time and, you know, all that fun stuff. [00:58:51] Speaker C: I think the biggest change is probably the training situation because that's fundamentally significantly different, Dennis. [00:58:57] Speaker B: Dramatically different. Last year, practice was, you know, invite only. I think we only got out to like two or three of them last season. They were all at Hawk a Day. You had to be check in at security, give them your id, get like your, your car search getting over. It's a prestigious all girls private academy, dude. Like me just pulling up in a car going, hey, I'm here for practice. They look at you a little funny, right? But now over at the Moneygram or Dallas Soccer park, as it's called now has been. They've opened it up a few days a week to media. So it's, it's just, you know, show up and practice is going on out there. Field conditions over there have definitely improved since the first game. The first preseason game that they had a month and a half ago, I think it was. Some of those fields were not in great shape and you can tell that the, the group that's running it now because it's even. It's new grounds crew, it's. It's new everybody. FC Dallas took all of their crew out of there and everybody that was there worked for FC Dallas. So Atletico has their own team in there running the grounds and everything else. And so they've had a lot of work to do. [01:00:01] Speaker C: One question I have for you about that. Have you. Have you seen any sign of the two new training, professional training fields they're going to put in for. For them for Athletico? Have you seen signs of that construction happening? Are they still using the general complex fields? [01:00:12] Speaker B: They're just using the general complex fields as of now. There is, there's some modular trailers and stuff that are out there right now. But construction has. Yeah, no, there's, there's, there's some actual buildings that are there that they're using and then there's some modular trailers where they have some offices set up and stuff like that. But it's, it's, it's just the fields in use right now. It just sounds like there was a lot of work that needed to be done when they took over that facility before they even can start breaking ground on something new. [01:00:38] Speaker A: Interesting. How's attendance going? [01:00:41] Speaker B: Not great. [01:00:42] Speaker C: Not good. No, not good. [01:00:44] Speaker B: 2000 changed the first one under 1500. Week two. [01:00:49] Speaker C: Wow. [01:00:49] Speaker B: 1440, I think was the number. [01:00:51] Speaker C: Yeah. There's lots of discussions to be had about this. The changeover happened so fast that like, they're, they barely have their feet under them in terms of marketing, I think. But like, I don't know whether the transition has hurt them in the stands or whether that just is. This is the continued slow fade off we've seen since the launch of the whole thing two years ago. [01:01:13] Speaker A: Well, I saw the news that Amanda Vandervoort is out at Pres. President of the league, and I like her a lot. She's got quite a track record and, and I thought she was an interesting hire for them and I'm. It says that she's going to pursue other opportunities. I assume that mean I'm just, you Know, I hear that. And I wonder, oh, I wonder if she's getting out because she knows this is not going well. Well, in terms of the league overall. [01:01:40] Speaker C: I mean, she might have been going well in terms of like reading the wire on the wall because like you're talking about a league that has not made any money. We know every team in that league, none of them have made any money. So like I, I commented in the discord that like, they need their Don Garber, which is a guy that was not from soccer. They don't need a soccer person. They need a money person. They need someone that knows media and sponsors and can get this league from. I'm gonna use the Ms. Analogy, Doug Logan to Don Garber, right? Logan was the guy that was able to get the league off the ground, but he was not an NFL guy that knew all the high players at the highest level like Don Garber did. That's what this really needs. They need their, their Don Garber. And I don't know who that is. And I'm not saying that, man, it was doing bad, but for a change to happen two years in, she didn't even get like five like Logan got. So like, yeah, you know, and the USL in general has had a big investment from some private equity groups. So it's not surprising that within a couple of months, six months, four months, whatever it was of that investment that you're seeing these kinds of changes happening. So I think it's a big deal to watch. [01:02:44] Speaker B: All right, that's the USL overall, right? That's not just the super league. [01:02:47] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. That investment group came into the USL as a collective, into the company that's the family owned previously. It no longer is. Just now there actually are seats on the board that belong to these private equity groups. That changes everything about terms of ownership and leadership at the whole organization as they're all in preparation for this premier league to come. But that doesn't mean they're not changing other things too, like the commissioner of the super league, apparently. [01:03:09] Speaker A: All right, Trinity travels to Jacksonville and has a game Saturday at 6:00 Clock Central time. Dennis, any starting lineups you'd like to promote? [01:03:21] Speaker B: I think we're going to see Lancaster start again, given that she got the assist. I think we will probably see Beckman at the right back again. Might be some changes in midfield, though. I think it's definitely time to, to see what some of these options are that are on the bench and see where they go. I also think Sid Cheeseman will probably be out of the lineup. She came out of the locker room with her knee taped up after, after coming off and I think 60 something or 80. 84th minute she came off injured. So she was going for imaging, I believe. So we'll see where that lands. But Lauren Flynn has been getting back to it. She spent about an hour on the field before practice on Saturday ahead of the game, just, just running drills. She was running drills on the side and practice this week as well. So her return is imminent. I would expect to probably see her at some point in the lineup. Maybe not this week. I think this week if they're going to find a replacement for Cheeseman, it might be Winnie Bilotta who's been playing Cent practice a lot. You'll. You'll recognize her from the midfield. But she got. [01:04:20] Speaker C: McNabb's hurt too. [01:04:21] Speaker B: Yep, McNabb. McNabb is hurt with a winner and she didn't participate at all in practice this week. So not a lot of depth here. [01:04:31] Speaker A: All right, North Texas Buzz coming off a couple of shootout wins. [01:04:36] Speaker C: Yeah. So a couple shootout wins. You know, they're within some shouts of like the bottom end of the eight person playoff. Not four, eight, but it doesn't matter. Playoffs don't matter. The record doesn't matter. What matters is that over the last couple of games they actually have made a move in the right direction in terms of how they're using this team now. They are still not playing the kids. We're not seeing any academy kids coming through. We're not seeing any of the youngest homegrowns. In fact, Davin Kimbrough got hurt apparently. So like we're not seeing like the babies that I want to see in the mix. They're not getting in the mix. But what they are doing that has helped is that they are actually using that team even more than they were to develop the guys that are under first team contract. All of a sudden Simmons and Lewis are getting a lot of time. Daniel Barron, who's an actual homegrown on the actual FC Dallas Riders, getting a lot of time. Swan is getting a lot of time. Newman coming back from the ACL getting a lot of time. Even Alvaro Gusto is down there playing. I mean he's crap but they're playing him which is important. That guy needs to be playing if you're going to keep him. Slade star and playing all the time. So like this last couple of games they've ramped that up and gone with a much more talented roster in terms of guys that are actually first team players that need minutes. And so that's an improvement of the usability of that team. It's coincided with them playing a little bit better, too. But that's not the point. The point is that to use it to actually develop guys, that's the point. And that's good. So only two games, small sample, but it's slightly better now. Just get a couple of these baby kids in too, and that'll be even more better. [01:06:16] Speaker A: All right. Very good. Well, yep. Oh, hold on. [01:06:20] Speaker C: We didn't see this earlier. We should talk about North Texas playing at the same time of FC Dallas, because that has been a problem. And it means that, like, some of these guys that could have gone with FC Dallas, perhaps to rotate in were left behind because they are playing with North Texas and getting really, really important minutes there. I don't know that they would have helped SC Dallas if you'd have rotated them in. And the thing is, like, when they're playing at the same time, you can't do that stuff. This weekend, for example, they're both playing St. Louis, but North Texas is on Friday and FC Dallas is on Sunday. So you have plenty of time to use guys on Friday and then have them on the bench. If you wanted on Sunday, whether they go 90 minutes on Friday even, you could have them on the bench to get a couple of minutes or you could do like a half and half if you had some dudes you felt were close. This is a much better alignment in terms of how you could use your second team to have them play before. Ideally after would be even better. But before even is a positive improvement compared to at the same time, which is a terrible way to do it. And it just shows you that ordinarily on the home games we talked about this last week, when they do play at the same time, they obviously are putting a priority on having a really great time to get butts and seats in Mansfield on a Saturday night over the usability of the team in terms of like, the best for development. So still not ideal there, but a step in the right direction. [01:07:40] Speaker A: Yes. Once again, the very confusing strategy behind how the Hunts have chosen to operate and manipulate and benefit from their own stuff. [01:07:51] Speaker C: I mean, Quite quite clearly St. Louis understands it because they're the ones that scheduled the Friday night home game for the second team when they had a Sunday game for the first team. So smart. [01:08:02] Speaker A: Very good. All right. Anything else, boys? [01:08:06] Speaker C: I don't have anything else, really. I mean, I can't think of anything other than, you know, sometime over the next few months, we'll start to see hopefully Athletico start to sign more players. Been quiet over there and hopefully we'll eventually we'll get some news about Fort Worth. We hear percolation. We know things are happening, but very slow over there. Very, very slow. [01:08:25] Speaker A: Dennis, you got anything? [01:08:27] Speaker B: Stay tuned to the channels. I think we might see a special bonus episode again this week. So keep your eyes peeled for that. That might pop up in your news feeds there. And then Sunday for the St. Louis FC Dallas match, there is a joint supporters watch party. All the support supporter groups are getting together over at Rollertown out in Frisco, doing a big one before the final, before the return to Frisco. So if you're looking for something to do Sunday, come on out and watch it with with everybody. [01:08:56] Speaker A: Very good, Dennis. Thank you very much. Thank you, Buzz. Always good to see you, buddy. [01:09:01] Speaker C: Thanks, man. Hopefully your recovery is going well. [01:09:03] Speaker A: I got a big blue cast on now. I got this one. [01:09:05] Speaker C: Oh, it's blue. [01:09:06] Speaker B: Nice. [01:09:07] Speaker A: Yeah. This one's on for two weeks, so. But I can drive. Not my, not my car because my car is a manual. I have to drive my wife's car. [01:09:17] Speaker C: So your car's going to sit there for a year? [01:09:19] Speaker A: Not a year, no. It's going to be there for a fur bit. Yes. Poor thing. It's very sad. [01:09:24] Speaker B: We got to get you some red tape and put some hoops around that. [01:09:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, that's actually a really, really good idea. I thought about that. [01:09:31] Speaker C: We'll call you Hoops. Peter Hoops. Well, [01:09:35] Speaker A: thanks, guys, and thank you, DFW Soccer. Curious. We'll speak to you again on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:09:42] Speaker C: Hoops, baby. [01:09:43] Speaker A: Hoops. Third degree. The third degree. The third degree. [01:09:57] Speaker C: The 3rd degree there, Sam.