3rd Degree the Podcast #378

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Third degree the third degree Ned podcast. Third degree the third degree Nap podcast. Third degree the third degree nap podcast third degree the third degree. Well, hello there, soccer curious DFW person. You welcome to another episode of third degree, the podcast. Now, Dennis McGowan was a good member of the crew and actually attended the game in Charlotte. And at the time of recording, he is in transit, I think, or something like that. He's not here at this point, but he will join us or Buzz a little bit later to discuss Dallas Trinity. But that's okay because you know who is here, the person you're really here for. Editor, founder of thirddegree.net Buzz Carrick. Come in, Buzz. [00:01:00] Speaker B: Hello, Peter. How are you doing, my friend? Good to see you, Buzz. [00:01:03] Speaker A: I'm, I'm not doing well. [00:01:05] Speaker B: No? [00:01:05] Speaker A: No. [00:01:06] Speaker B: Why not? [00:01:08] Speaker A: My current state, with quote unquote, my teams is not good. [00:01:14] Speaker C: No. [00:01:15] Speaker A: Between Thursday night, the embarrassment of the Cowboys, I forgot about that. Saturday morning with the comedy of Manchester United and, and last night, Saturday night with the inevitable with football club Dallas. It's just not a good time to be sports fan, Peter. [00:01:35] Speaker B: I was waiting for a Texas Tech football update in there. [00:01:38] Speaker A: I, I, I divorced Texas Tech a long time ago. [00:01:42] Speaker B: Oh, did you? [00:01:42] Speaker A: Okay, I went to school there, but I, I abdicated my allegiance with them quite some time ago. [00:01:48] Speaker B: Yeah, the Aggies aren't making it easy for me right the minute either, so. [00:01:51] Speaker A: Yeah, well, yeah, college football just feels like a giant waste of time to me. But that's just my own personal thing and that's a whole completely different conversation. The point being is, Buzz, it's tough being me right now. [00:02:03] Speaker B: This weekend was. Yeah. [00:02:04] Speaker A: Oh, good lord. You know, because I, So here's a weird thing about last night, Saturday night. I have lately been watching Dallas games delayed late that night or the next day for a myriad of reasons. But last night, because my wife is out of town and I was batching it, you know, it's 6:30, I'll start watching it. So I watched the first half at home and then I got hungry and I said, you know what? I'll watch the second half on my phone while I have dinner at a local sushi bar by my house that I go to. [00:02:35] Speaker B: So it's your fault, is it? Yeah. Change. I can't method mid game. That's not allowed. [00:02:43] Speaker A: Oh, is that, oh, is, oh, so it's not, it's not, it's not. Watching it live. That was the hex. It was changing my location. [00:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it was working. First half was working. You Left at halftime. I blame you. [00:02:56] Speaker A: I'm telling you, they looked pretty good to start the second half, too, Buzz. [00:03:00] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you were going to be in transit at that point. Still hadn't kicked in. Took a while to take a. [00:03:04] Speaker A: No, I was sitting at the bar when the second half kicked. I mean, look here. Here's the thing. [00:03:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:10] Speaker A: I was really impressed. We did the radio show yesterday and I ended the show by reminding everybody Dallas had a game. And Andy and I had a very brief conversation about how weird this season is because Dallas is sitting tied for third or whatever it was. [00:03:25] Speaker B: Third? Yeah. [00:03:26] Speaker A: Despite the fact that I just don't think they're really good at soccer and they're not a lot of fun to watch in terms of how they play, their style of play. Andy gave me a little bit of shit about that. That's fine. That's fair game. But then when I watched the first half last night, I was like, whoa, where's this been? This is really, really good. Like, I could watch this and I'm really proud of this. They were tearing Charlotte up, by the way. It's the very first time the two teams have played each other in league play. Yeah. And I. I was really duly impressed and went, okay, now this is something I can get into. And then it wasn't because inevitably, its own natural but. Well, you know what I'm talking about. Like, eventually Dallas just does its Dallas thing and end up. I mean, here's the thing, guys. You go up to nothing and you end up not only giving up points and you don't even draw it, you lose it. You give up three goals in the last 20 minutes of the game and lose three. Two on the road. What a crusher that is. Buzzard. [00:04:40] Speaker B: Well, you know, two nothing lead is the most dangerous lead in soccer. Of course. [00:04:44] Speaker C: Yes. [00:04:44] Speaker B: I've heard that before somewhere. Ye. Well, here's the thing. Big picture. You. Since I wanna. I kind of want to say post World cup, but I don't think it's even that. I think it's post road trip. You know, we've been watching Quill Post [00:04:58] Speaker A: World cup road trip. [00:05:00] Speaker B: No, no, not. Not just post World cup, but post road trip, the big slog where they grinded it out and did really well. And they basically. They were a little above.500 on the road trip. Right. Coming out of that. It's been. We've been watching for several games now since then. I don't remember how many games that is. It's more. It's more than a couple Quill has been opening it up. He's, you know, we talked a lot about. He doesn't want to play this five at the back low block. Awful soccer, right? He wants to open it up. And they've been trying to open it up in this game. Probably the first half, maybe the first 50, 60 minutes was that opened up. Looks good, exciting, fun, like actual like out playing the other team in soccer, not just outscoring them. Right. Well into the game, we saw why they've been most of the series. Play this back five, grind it out because it collapsed. You know, when you open up the game, you open up yourself. You open up your defense as well and expose yourself. And if you don't believe me, go look up the average position for FC Dallas through like 60, 70 minutes and you'll see that the wing backs are 100% high up the field with like a higher average position than Capus and Kaik even. They're playing like real wing backs and they're really playing a back three. And they got exposed, you know, and part of it is Herman Johansson ran out of gas, as he does in like the 60, 65th minute. That didn't help. But, you know, overall, if you're going to try and play exciting, fun, attacking open, pass it around soccer and then you, you, you expose your defense and it falls apart. [00:06:34] Speaker A: But isn't that Quill's fault for not adjusting the team when they went up to nothing or, or even when they gave up the initial first response goal? [00:06:43] Speaker B: It is. But, you know, if there's only so much a coach from the sideline can do, you can yell and you can wave and you can try and get people to come back, but they don't always necessarily listen. Like, it's entirely possible that coming through this road trip and getting the good results that they've been getting and trying to play more open soccer, they're feeling really good about themselves. They're up to nothing on the road at Charlotte has a good team. Look how good we are. And you sort of. And that's why 2 nothing is a dangerous lead because you get a little. You can't help it. It's human nature. Oh, we're good. We've got this. And you kind of, I don't know, maybe relax just a little bit. And how much do we know that this team is about mentality and, and fight and battle? I remember what I said in last week's podcast about what my concern was coming out of this break was that you had this team that was fighting and informed and Tight and battling. And then you gave them two, two weeks off of. Without a game in there, a nice little vacation. How was the mindset going to be? And they came out and they were playing really well. Oh, we're good. They can beat this team, you know. Oops. [00:07:43] Speaker A: But the result of how this game played out belies its nature of being resilient and tough and fighting to the very end. [00:07:50] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I mean. That's like, you know, they didn't have that. And Quill even talked about that. He said we kind of didn't have it at the end like we usually do. And I think that's a byproduct of trying to play this more open, higher up the field, more of a real 3, 5, 3 and 3, 4, 3 and not. Not the back five. Remember when he used all the time say it's a back five, it's a back five. Well, this church wasn't no back five. So, you know, that's part of it. [00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah. And I also think the midfield just ran out of gas. They had worked so hard to press and really clamp down on Charlotte and Charlotte's own end of the field that it really began to haunt them. And I just began to wonder if Quill had made some mistakes in terms of substitutions, tactics and just. And then ultimately it just set the team up for failure as the game wore on because it was a crummy night, the weather was crappy, it was rainy and windy and it's on turf. And by the way, you didn't even start anything. You know, your best luck, you started. I mean, I was pretty blown away when I turned the TV on. And there's Lawless Abubakar starting not only at center back, but center, center back in a back three. [00:09:05] Speaker B: Well, that, that was the reaction to Alan Saint Maximum, who's one of the best one on one players in mls and you know, a couple years ago, maybe the world. But you know, he's still 29. So they shifted Iraq over there to try and deal with that. And you know, he mostly did a good job on that. I really don't like doing that because this team without irrigated in the middle, is in the back shows itself to have real liabilities in terms of decision making and the. And I thought Abubakar actually played a good first half. Like, I didn't think he was poor. [00:09:34] Speaker A: I did too. I actually was quite impressed by Abubakar. I thought he played strongly. [00:09:39] Speaker B: I was really surprised he got lifted. My assumption was he must have gotten A knock or something because I didn't see a performance that made me think, oh, loss of Ubacar needs to come out of the game. And they put Ibiaga in there. And we know at this point, at this stage in his career, Ibiaga is not as good as a decision making as Oz is. And you can point to specific moments where Oz would have played a higher line in Abubakar because he can't turn. He's quick in a straight line run, but the turn and run, he's not as good at the turn part. So he would drop off more and then there's like a three foot gap behind Norris and Oz, the people they can get into and they, they may took advantage of that. So like the defense did not do good. Johansson in, in the late stages because Johansson got tired. He eventually subbed him out in the 75th minute. But at that point I think that they had already gotten a goal back. So, you know, Daniel did not have a great game. [00:10:29] Speaker A: No. [00:10:30] Speaker B: Maybe he's a little bit limited by whatever the leg was. Maybe he came back a game too early. Maybe it's the cold and wet hampered him a little bit. You know, they just looked a little sluggish and wore out. Late in the game we didn't see a sub in midfield. Like Ramiro didn't come in for Capis or for Kaik, either one. You know, Shaq Moore went the whole distance again, you know, so I think they just, they just sort of lost at the end of the game. Maybe the travel and the weather and the, and everything just sort of compiled. I mean, don't forget Charlotte is a good, is a good team. Like since they've signed St. Maxim, they've lost one game, I think, and it was just the last one they played before this one. So they were probably mad they lost the previous one. So, you know, they play the first 45 minutes and they're down and they're pissed and they bring on a bunch of dudes and they come at you and they don't quit because it's their home field, you know, so it's just, you know, you can't win them all, man. Sometimes you just get beat. And I think this one they just got beat. They didn't do a good job of closing it out and maybe that's because of they were feeling good about themselves. You know, I'm actually hoping that maybe this loss could be a little bit of a wake up call in the sense of like we really can't just out soccer everybody we can do that at first, but at the end of the day we're going to have to drop in and play tight. And a perfect example of that is that the Charlotte had. When I looked at Fmob at the end of the game and at the end of the game sometimes he has to get adjusted. At the end of the game they had 18 shots. Charlotte did. 17 of them came in the box. That's not FC Dallas defense this year. Their defense this year is to make you take like a third or even half of your shots outside the box by keeping that tight, compact defense. And they did not do that. So that's, that's what it is, you know, and that's why I'm hoping it'll. Maybe it'll. The coach will go because apparently somebody said that some of the fans did that. When he was walking off, Quill was waving to the fans and appointed it himself and said, this one's on me. So, you know, maybe there's a little bit in his mind too, like, okay, you know what? I didn't coach that right. I know a good adjustment. We're going to get this tight again. We're going to go back to this back five for real, you know, not just in name and we're going to play tight and hopefully because that's what. While you and I don't enjoy it, it's not sexy when they play that way. They win more games. The end of the day, that's what cool is. After his wins. [00:12:43] Speaker A: Yeah. And it would have been perfectly acceptable to play this kick ass new way when you until you went two up and then went back to the old system. I just was kind of surprised that he stuck with it for as long as he did and. But when the first goal happened, if I'm just being honest because you know me, I'm a pessimist, I was like, oh, here it comes. I kind of held off as best I could. I was like, no, Peter, you're just being an a hole. It's going to be fine. They've played really well. They just happen to let one in. It's going to be okay. [00:13:16] Speaker B: He had to go to Abiaga. I'm going to assume from our knock for Ububakar, for whatever reason, he goes to Ibiaga at halftime. Okay. Later on he's going to bring in Peter Musa for Farrington. I thought Farrington played excellent and I would have kept Farrington on and still brought Moussa on, but, you know, that's fine. But the people that he had on the bench. Like, you're right, you need some different defensive reinforcement at that point. But you already brought on Ibiaga. You won defensive reinforcement after that. He brought on Santi Moreno, an attacker. He brought on Bernie at wing back. That's not a defensive replacement. That let him put Shaq Moore on the other side and bring off Johansson, who was tired. But Bernie's not a defensive player. That's not going to solve that and tighten up your defense. You brought on Daniel Jobe. I'm okay with getting him more minutes. He's the new guy. But other than that, he's got Sirod. That's not going to do anything for any goal. Ramiro, maybe you bring in Romero for capis, but it's not like Ramiro is going to come in and run everywhere. He's going to come in and sit there. [00:14:09] Speaker A: Yeah, but he could sit in front of the back line protect. [00:14:12] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe you could have done that, but he'd already used up his five subs at that point. You know, maybe instead of Santi Moreno, who. I get it, he's a dp, maybe you could have brought Ben Yamin in, who we've seen play some better defense than Johansson. Johansson didn't have a big bad game until he got tired. Once he got tired, he was getting shredded on that side. And I'm not sure Binyamin means the better answer. Shaq Moore is the better answer. But Bernie's not a defender, so that's not. That just makes the problem on the other side. And they got shredded on the other side. When you got Bernie next to Norris on the other side. Norris is a good defender, but you need a little bit of pace to help him, which is fine. But Bernie's not a good defender. So when they move Shaq more to the other side, instead of getting shredded on the Dallas right, they got shredded on the Dallas left. They didn't have enough defensive answers on the bench. Again, this team has defensive deficiencies. It does. [00:15:00] Speaker A: Well, I'm not going to pretend that I know Charlotte well at all, but my perception is Charlotte didn't necessarily start their best 11 last night. And some of those guys they brought in as substitutes were clearly the difference maker. And. And some of their more regular goal scorers and players that made a difference that to Kid. He was killing them. [00:15:23] Speaker B: He had a great game. [00:15:24] Speaker A: He was absolutely. He. And he subbed on late and he did. When he. One of their substitutions. [00:15:29] Speaker B: No, no, he. He started. [00:15:31] Speaker A: Oh, did he start. [00:15:32] Speaker B: He just exploded late. He did for the first 60 minutes. He did nothing. [00:15:35] Speaker A: Whoever they put in that unleashed him because whatever that subst. Suddenly that. See, that's the funny part is I didn't even notice him until whatever the substitution was that suddenly brought him to life. And he just absolutely was killing Dallas in the back. [00:15:50] Speaker B: I believe that was the right wing. Rodolfo Aloko came in at right wing for Abada who was, you know, more in. Norris contained Abada. For the most part he was okay, but he didn't. Wasn't effective. It was after. I mean, Saint Maximum was the trouble all game and they finally were able. They were isolating Johansson on him even though irrigated was even over there to help. They were getting isolations on New Hansen. He was getting smoked. That's why they put more over there and brought in Bernie. And then they proceeded to bring in. In response, they brought in a loco and he proceeded to shred Bernie. So it's like, you know, at the end of the day, like you just didn't have enough. You didn't have enough defense, people. No, not that are up for it. You got some bench guys that are. I mean, Benjamin is not a great defender. Maybe he's tiny bit better late in the game than Johansson would have been. That would have been my thinking, I think would have been to just bring him in for Johansson to leave more on the other side. But, you know, at the end of the day, there just isn't enough defense when you had to burn your one big defensive side, Ibiaga at halftime, that hurt you. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Well, and I think this is somewhat an omen of what you and I have talked about probably either. I don't think we've talked about it on the podcast. We've talked about it off. Off air that this ultimately is what we concern ourselves with with the playoff. As you get to the playoffs and the thinness of this roster really becomes exposed. [00:17:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I wrote a whole thing about it, about how short Quill's bench was and that all in like five of the top seven in minutes are all defenders and are all center backs and like they were burning up their defense playing them because they don't have depth back there. They really don't. Not real depth. [00:17:29] Speaker A: You know, it was funny as I was watching the game, I really was. I was getting this point where I'm like, man, this Johansson guy, he just hasn't really done anything this year. He's. For me, he's been an overall disappointment. And then of course, he. He absolutely slices in that perfect cross that Farrington finishes and I'm like, well, okay, that's exactly what I've expected out of this guy, more and more than we've been getting. But I do wonder Buzz, do you think he's with this team next year? [00:18:00] Speaker B: Man, I don't know. You know, it's. It's probably racist of me to say this, but, like, he really struggles with heat. He's a pasty Norwegian, you know, not Swedish, but Viking style, big guy. And like when it's super hot, he struggles. He really has struggled to get more than like 60, 65 minutes fit, you know, like he showed in the first half. I thought he had a really good game, right? He had a really nice assist. [00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah, but then he did. But he also absolutely murdered a few, most of the crosses before the assistant, right? [00:18:30] Speaker B: And then he got scorched one on one a couple times at the end. And like, I just think at the end of the day, like, I don't know if he has the Quill motor, you know what I mean? Like, look at how much Quill likes Shaq Moore, who goes 90 minutes every single game. Look how much he likes Kaik, who physically can go 90 minutes every single game. You know what I mean? Those are the odds. Those are who. That's what he likes, right? And I don't. I just don't know if Johansson's the right fit for this club. I joked that like after he had that assist, I joked, sweet, trade him to Portland or Seattle right now where it's cold and rainy. You know, why his values up. Just joking. Like, I don't think he's a bad player. I just don't think he's the right. I'm starting to think he's not the right fit for this team and this coach and this market with the weather. [00:19:14] Speaker A: Well, he just has not turned out to be the player they promised us. They talked about how fast he was and how he got up and down the well. Is he. I just never noticed him being. He's not. He's not outstandably so fast that I noticed that. And as part of his game, he [00:19:30] Speaker B: has the same athletic trouble that Ibiaga does. They're very similar actually to me and that they're both straight line, relatively fast and they both have good size. But like when you try and spin them, like when he has to spin and chase a guy 1v1, he can't do that turn and run. Ibiaga has the same problem. Wasn't as bad about that six or seven years ago, but now he's 34, eight or whatever he is. [00:19:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:19:54] Speaker B: So Johansson has the same thing and that he's. He's kind of really big. It's hard for him to spin and agile and run. And again, I think that's not a great Quill thing. Like, I think if you had a. Played a back four and he was, you know, more of a. A guy that had a full bang like, Like a, like an outright fullback where he had a guy in front of him that was like an out, like a real wing in front of him that he could outlet too, and then like an overlap from. I think it would work better and maybe he wouldn't have to run the whole line like as a wing back, but even then I'm not sure. I think it's more about the style of play Quill uses and the weather. I just don't think he's going to be holed up in the high, high temperatures that you have in Texas all the time. He just looks to me like he's never been 90 minutes fit. He looks like he's 65 minutes fit and that's. And it's not like he's fat. It's just burns out. You know what I mean? Like, I don't. I don't know. I just don't. I don't think quite works here. [00:20:50] Speaker A: Yeah, well, he's, he's not singularly the. I mean, I think the wing play for on both sides of this team has been a problem all season and you know, we've talked about that endlessly, so. No, no need to do that now. I thought Farrington's finish was really good. [00:21:07] Speaker B: He was excellent. [00:21:08] Speaker A: He was really good. Moose's finish was good and there were a lot of, lots of this game that I really enjoyed. I love the interplay in midfield. I love the play. I love the fact for the first and forever they were actually playing through midfield. [00:21:21] Speaker B: Yep. [00:21:22] Speaker A: Some of that was because Charlotte was letting them do it differently. You know, obviously a lot of this has to do with the opponent you're playing, but this was the opportunity and they took it and they were doing it well and I really enjoyed that. [00:21:34] Speaker B: Well, I think a big part of that is what we talked about. Like I told you, look. Look at the average shape where the wing backs were actually up in the midfield. And so you had four across for real in the midfield rather than five in the back. You had a real three, four. So like there were, there were people for outlets for capis and Kaik. And Kaik's range is incredible. He's going everywhere. His recovers twice the ground of Delgado, who actually forgot was in the game. They used him as the fc now socials used him as the picture at the end of the game. And I was like, come on, man. [00:22:04] Speaker A: You know what, though? There were at least two, if not three times where that dude was trucking on recovery run. And I was like, oh, wow. Quill's actually gotten in Bojangles head because I don't ever remember watching him make a 60, 70 yard recovery run like that before when Charlotte got in transition. I don't. I'm not saying he played well, but at least I saw a degree of effort out of him that I've not [00:22:28] Speaker B: seen in quite some time. That's fair. You know, he may not not have gotten enough of the ball. And he only had 33 touches, you know, in 60 minutes. That's okay, but it's a little low. You know, he was 2 for 3 on duels, which is fine, but he didn't really do much at all defensively, you know, and his, you know, only four balls into the final third, you know, only two touches in the box. He just was kind of like, yeah, localized, you know, he doesn't. When you cover, like, you just look at how much. I mean, half the time I look up, Kaik was like, either past him or behind him or like all the way across. I'm like, just, you know, I. I almost feel like with Joe, with Job coming on, it might have been like, okay, dude, this is going to be pretty much your last go, or we're gonna start putting Job in there, you know, or whatever. Like, show us what you got or it's done, you know, that's kind of what it felt like to me sometimes. [00:23:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I kind of feel like he took too long to put Job on. And then Job made a really, really nice, janky little move to get towards the end line. And then he just made the worst cutback pass. And then because the team is trying to press, everybody's out of position now because they've now they're caught in transition going the other direction. And that turned into a. A Charlotte opportunity, which was unfortunate, but we'll see. [00:23:43] Speaker B: That cutback passed to me looked like a passive, like, well, I don't know where my guys are going to be because I don't know them yet. [00:23:48] Speaker A: Yes. [00:23:48] Speaker B: But maybe there'll be one right here in zone 14. I'm gonna play it. No, no, I misjudged that. [00:23:53] Speaker A: Sweet Jesus, please let somebody be standing at the running right at the top of the Box, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, it really stinks to be up 2 nothing on the road and not even get anything out of the game to lose it. Three two is a crusher. And I hope this doesn't have some sort of long term effect because you and I both know this is where this starts to get hairy. They have Seattle on Wednesday who now suddenly are on their own heater. Do you realize Seattle, we went from Seattle not winning a game in like 11 games to now they have not lost a game in their last nine. [00:24:30] Speaker B: Yeah, they haven't lost since August. They tied five in a row and now they've won four in a row. So they've won four straight. So they're coming in hot with Jesus and Paul both on the bench. Sure. That was funny last game. [00:24:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And to be fair, Dallas's last time they lost, believe it or not, the light. Do you know the last time Dallas lost a game without looking? [00:24:47] Speaker B: Vancouver? [00:24:48] Speaker A: Yep, the 5, 0 loss in Vancouver back at late August. [00:24:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And before that it was Toluca and the league, Scott. [00:24:55] Speaker A: Right, exactly. So I mean typically, I mean, I mean really generally the team's been in pretty good form. But here we go, Seattle on Wednesday and then coming up after that they've got to go to Houston. And that's a huge game. Both the Seattle and Houston games are huge just because of, you know, and then. Oh shoot, I didn't even notice this. San Jose. Okay. Yeah. I mean this is a three game stretch with Western Conference teams that is going to make this a really hairy run. [00:25:22] Speaker B: Well, at this point, you know, you got on the back side of this thing. You have the crew not good. [00:25:28] Speaker A: Oh no, no. Columbus is not having a good year. They're down in 13. [00:25:31] Speaker B: They're not having a good game. But then you. Kansas City is not having a good game and Colorado's, you know, Colorado. So like this little stretch here is a, is your last sort of like really tough little three game stretch. You're right about that. You know, going to Houston is never easy, but Houston's on a little bit of a stumble. Houston is only 1, 2 and 2 in their last five, so they're, they're in a little bit of a stumble. They're still a relatively good team though, so like you can't take it easy on them. So this two game stretch, you know, three game stretch, when you consider San Jose on the home, on the back is going to be really big, you know, because you could easily stumble here and lose three in a row without, you know, if you're not if you don't get it fixed. And like, if Quill doesn't say, hey, that was on me, I'm going to write that real fast. Yeah, yeah. You could easily lose three straight. [00:26:13] Speaker A: But the problem for Dallas is these are all six point games because San Jose is a point behind you, Seattle is six points behind you, and Houston is two points behind you. [00:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. These are the four, five and seven teams in the West. So like, you know, these are the, these three games right here might determine like, are we going to get a home game or not? You know, this is where you're going to end up in the bottom, have to go on the road versus, you know, home field advantage in the first round. And if you stumble bad enough, you could end up in that eight, nine playing. Yeah. Where Colorado's in. [00:26:45] Speaker C: I don't like that. [00:26:47] Speaker B: Yeah, well, this is it. I mean, you know, you got to play them all. [00:26:49] Speaker A: Right, so here's the question. [00:26:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:52] Speaker A: Do we want to see Quill continue to try to open it up or do we like. Oh, no, Quill, just go back to the shitty soccer that was winning games. [00:27:02] Speaker B: Yeah. You can worry about opening it up next year. You can get a little defensive help and then we'll. Can. We can play. Switch to a 4, 2, 3. No, go back to the. [00:27:12] Speaker A: We'll just all close our eyes until we find out what the result is and then enjoy the, the point collection at the end of that. [00:27:18] Speaker B: I, I do think, I do think Shaq Moore, left wing back is the way to finish this season though, because Bernie is such a defensive. Defensive liability. Yeah. And Ben Yamin or you, Hansen are good enough at the other wing back side. And Iaga has been playing pretty well because the alternative is to bring back Bernie and then bring more into the middle again, which is good. And then. But then you're going to bench Norris for probably so like just a mess of whether you think Bernie or. Or Norris is a better choice to sit. Really. [00:27:48] Speaker A: There's an argument in my head that at the end of the season I'm going to have an open debate with you and Dennis or Dan or whoever is on at that time about who the MVP of this team is. And I know everybody's just going to automatically say Moussa, but I think there's a shout for it being Shaq Moore. [00:28:05] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [00:28:07] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, I felt so bad for that guy when he made that incredible run. He beat his mark, which we don't get enough of of this team. And a guy in the Box. And he just looks like he's trying to slide that shot into the far post. And their keeper makes a really nice hand save to his left. And I just was crushed for Shaq because he had worked so hard and set himself up so nicely. He deserved a goal in that moment and I think that would have made it three. Nothing at that moment. [00:28:34] Speaker B: Point, I don't remember exactly, but yeah, it would have been nice. I mean, I think you. Whether he wins the team MVP or not, you know, Musa, you expected to be scoring a lot of goals. Joaquin Valiente was brought here to be a 10A playmaker and get assists. He's done that. Azir, you're expecting to be your best defender. What did we have as an expectation for Shaq Moore like we were last year? We were talking about how he's fading as a wing back. He's not really doing very good and they sort of brought him in the middle and it's like Quill's like, oh, he's added a couple of years of his career as a. As a center back. Well, this year he's outright for sure been FC Dallas best defender, second best defender across the board, and we had no expectations that was going to be the case. [00:29:14] Speaker A: He's, you know, he's kind of like the new Ryan Hollings head in terms of his utility. [00:29:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think you could also include his leadership. Like he's been captain multiple times, you know, when. When certain people are missing. I mean, I think he's captain for the second choice behind Romero as captain, honestly. [00:29:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:30] Speaker B: At this point. So, like, you know, a big leader, you know, still not in the prime of his career, but still has plenty left obviously in the can watching him play and in terms of his age. So a really nice piece. Obviously you can put all over anywhere in the back and hell, you can probably put him in high wing if you needed to. You know, he's just a competitor. [00:29:49] Speaker A: Plus his name is Shaq and that's kind of cool. [00:29:53] Speaker B: Academy for five minutes, but it counts, Buzz. [00:29:57] Speaker A: Five minutes counts. [00:29:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:29:59] Speaker A: All right, well, here we go. Seattle on Wednesday. Coming off the 32 loss. What you got in store for starting 11? [00:30:07] Speaker B: Well, you know, you. I think you can rotate in a couple of guys that sat coming off of their travel, you know, because this is the better team you're going to play this week, Seattle. So Patter Moussa comes back in. I think Binyamin comes back in at wing back for Johansson. Johansson gets a midweek restaurant and then he'll Be fresher for Houston if you need him there. If you want to bring him back. Ibiaga probably going to go as a starter again since I'm assuming Abubakar is hurt. We don't know yet, but either way I think he'd be in there. I think you bring back Romero in midfield and sort of rotate him and Capus a fair bit down the stretch. You let Romero have this next one versus Seattle, you know, in their, in their game and then you can maybe bring Capis back on the weekend if you want. The Capis has played really, really well. I'm not saying bench Capus. I'm saying three games in a week, Capis and Romero Campus is an old, but he's not super mobile. He's a lot more mobile than Romero, but Ramiro's outright old. So maybe give Ramiro this one game in the middle and then the last thing I would think about rotating is I don't know if Daniel's not still somewhat limited. Like I maybe would consider letting. Sir, why have a game here even though Daniel's not hurt? I don't know. I have to think about that one going on coming back home. It'll be warmer, I think, than it was in Charlotte. Maybe Daniel's okay, but maybe don't burn him up by going three times in a week. Maybe I don't, I don't know. I'd want to, I'd want to be involved in like a discussion with the medical staff and him, see what he thinks. So that's just maybe a possibility. But you end up with. I think the way forward is more at the left wing back with Norris and then Oz back in the middle and then Ibiaga right center back, Benjamin at right wing back, Ramiro Kaik in the middle. I think Logan Farrington deserves to start again. He played really well, but as that second striker that off striker behind Musa with Valiante. So that's what I would do this midweek Seattle game, you know, because it's. I. The reason I would keep more at right wing back for sure is that Norris is back playing well again for Seattle on the left on the right wing. So that's not going to be important, I think to, to button him up. You know, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're bigger striker. They're nine in the middle. Oz can handle that. Rusnak is, is good but like he's not incredibly mobile as the 10. So like a Romero Kik Kaik combo can handle that. I think Benyamin you know, running on the right wing. Well, maybe that's just Jesus for air again. Maybe they stick with Gomez. Not really sure. But I think he can handle the. The effort, energy it takes on that side to go to one of those games. So I would do that and then see and then decide on Houston later on and then maybe, maybe you could bring back in Johansson. You know, Boobucar, we were shocked as he started at all, so I don't think he would rotate back in, but especially if he is hurt. But Cavus could come back in against Houston, you know, maybe Joe by that point be ready for a start for. For Farrington, maybe. So that's kind of where I'd be at. [00:33:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it's crazy how this season has played out and Dallas is sitting atop both of these teams, and yet now we're at a point where they can play both of them lose and get in serious danger of losing all the ground that they've accumulated for themselves to this point. [00:33:30] Speaker B: Well, there's so much parity in the West. You know, you look at their points, like Vancouver on 51, down to Seattle on 41, you know, 10 points for seven teams. You know, they're all roughly, you know, three or four points at the very top from Vancouver to St. Louis and Dallas. But then one point back, another single point back, three points back, another single point. You know, like the whole thing is just super tight at the top of the West. So six games remaining. You know, anybody in the west could go from first to eighth if they chip up and stumble and, and if the right. And. And Seattle is hot, St. Louis is scorching hot. Colorado's kind of muddling along and the Galaxy are kind of muddling along, but, you know, they're. They're. San Jose's. One hadn't lost in five at least. You know, they're three and two in their last five. You know, everybody at the top of the west is playing really well. So, like, you know, it's going to stay tight, I think, and it's going to go right down to the end of shuffling for those spots. [00:34:33] Speaker A: Well, very good. Crushing defeat in Charlotte. Shame. Let's bring in Dennis, who is checking in from Charlotte, and then you and Dennis can talk about the game, Trinity's last game of the season, as they described it, and get into that. But before you do that, Dennis, I would like to know and get a report from you since you were there live at the game in Charlotte Saturday night. [00:35:02] Speaker C: Yeah, I flew into Charlotte Saturday morning, go see the game. I Had some friends that were going out there, got some family out there in town, so I figured I'd make a weekend out of it and I've got some business out there the rest of the week and just. First time FC Dallas has played there. First time they've been to bank of America Stadium. First time we've ever seen this as a regular season matchup. You know, Charlotte came to Frisco once for the league's cup, but we, we haven't been there in Charlotte, so just want to go and check that out since we have an opportunity. Right. There's a group of us that like to travel, especially to new stadiums. I think we'll probably end up doing NYC next year as well since that'll be a new stadium if that's open in time. So, yeah, cool experience getting to watch them play in the football stadium that is bank of America Stadium on that super soft carpet of a turf. It looked like it was just a, you know, it looks like it was somebody's gym carpet or something like that. Have you ever been to like a physical therapy office or something where they got that, that terrible Astroturf? That's, that's what it looked like in there. And you know, just being wet, the ball just, just died on that thing. But it was pouring rain the whole time I was there. You know, pouring rain all around the stadium. The lucky part was my seats were up underneath. You know, they put us all the way in the back where they typically put, you know, away fans and we got to sit under the overhang. So that was nice, but sparse crowd for obviously rainy Saturday night in Charlotte. But the crowd got up for when the team got forward, when Charlotte sprung forward with the ball, which obviously they did often early. And often the crowd got up and they really got into it and they got noisy and they really followed it. You know, getting to see Dallas on the road is not something we get to do all that often. We've only really got two, maybe three teams that are nearby. So when there's an opportunity to do it, I like to get out there and see new stadiums and check that stuff out. [00:37:01] Speaker B: It's interesting you mentioned the ball checking up or holding up on the turf and that that obviously is not conducive to the way Dallas generally wants to play on a Coach Quill, is it? [00:37:11] Speaker C: No, not at all. I mean, this was the, the key to this game was clearly who was going to end up going over the top and who's going to spring forward to pass this. And that's Sort of what happened, right. You know, whoever got the ball out and got in front of the crowd was the one that really was able to get away with it because it was just a lot of, you know, mess through the midfield. The ball just would. Would just sort of die when it hit the ground sometimes and bounce up with a. With a splash a little bit. It was just, it was wet, it was soggy. And that carpet plays soft to begin with, right? It plays slow to begin with. And just seeing it under all that water was. Made it a little bit more difficult for them to play clearly. So after the game, as the guys were all coming off the field, the coaching staff, everybody, the. The last two guys out on the pitch were Peter Musa and Kalina, Carolina's goalkeeper, both Croatians. And Kalina did not make the. I don't believe he made the roster either, or he didn't make the rost roster for Croatia. This, this call up and the two of them were in a. A very animated conversation. You know, it was on the other side of the building from where I was so hard to see. And, you know, I also don't speak Croatian, so I wouldn't have understood if I was standing next to them anyway. But to speculate a little bit on the animations that were going through, they were two guys that were very animated in their discussion that both looked like they were a little upset and sort of not, not, not upset with each other or disagreeing or anything else. Speculate something could be happening with their, you know, their, their participation in the Croatian national team. You know, we've heard some chatter around about, you know, how they're, they're. They're looking. The team is looking at older guys as they're coming down the stretch, and they're not really bringing in younger blood there. So must have been a very interesting conversation. Like I said, they were the last two out there, and they were out there in the rain talking for probably a good 30 minutes, you know, before I even left the stadium, and they were still out there. [00:39:01] Speaker B: Well, let's move on to Dallas Trinity. That was also not a great endeavor, Dennis. Man. One, One draw at Brooklyn. That was some ugly, ugly sporting. I'm not going to call it soccer because there ain't much soccer habit. It's certainly not the way that Lee Nguyen wants to play. Just a brutal, ineffective game by Dallas train. A bad game to watch, period. But certainly ineffective by Trinity. [00:39:30] Speaker C: Yeah, another, you know, poor field surface right there. Talk about as well. We know how we talked about the dimensions there in Brooklyn and what that looks like, that's a hard place to play to begin with. It's just such a weird setup. The way that baseball stadium is set up and the way they play into that narrow field, that's just. It's difficult for a team to come in there, right. And, you know, Brooklyn seems to be getting a little bit warm. But Trinity did not play their way. They did not really come in. They didn't do the things that they typically do. Started the newest arrival, Giannino, started because she got her first professional debut. Her. She made her professional debut, got her first start at right back, which was interesting considering, you know, she's a pro. She was a little bit of a prolific goal scorer and a sister in her college career. And she starts it right back here in that flex. Right back, midfield, wing, whatever you want to call it, that. That Lee win places. I don't know. This was a little bit tough to watch. Like you mentioned, Buzz, this was hard to. To get through. I mean, difficult to watch on the broadcast, as every game in Brooklyn is to begin with, the broadcast started late with no explanation whatsoever. Can we actually talk about that for a minute? That this whole Peacock situation is. And I'm assuming it's a league thing, right? Because Peacock covers, you know, Peacock carries the Premier League, right? [00:40:50] Speaker B: Well, it depends. It's. It's. It's a cost issue for sure. You know, it. It just depends in terms of how the deal was done, who's paying for it. You know, it. It could be that the league is paying for all the production and they're just sort of buying time, if you will. It's not a network, so you don't buy time anymore, but they're buying slots. It could be that Peacock has some level of investment. Obviously, the things run on a shoestring budget, you know, in a real broadcast scenario. And what they should have done was come up live when you're supposed to come up and then explain what's happening. You know, if you're not capable of filling for 30 minutes. I remember an MLS next pro game one time that was delayed a good chunk of time. And they came up and introduced the game and set the. Set the stage. And then they said, well, the game is 20 minutes late, so we'll be back. And they sort of. They left the camera turned on. They just turned off the mics for 20 minutes. I mean, that's lazy and bad TV, but you should have come up on time and let everybody know what was happening. And then even if you want to Then just lock off a wide shot and walk away. Which again, lazy and horrible tv. But that would get me fired and people I work for. But not, not well done, particularly not to come up and just leave your audience out there spinning the reals. How many people gave up and walked away of your audience. It's just a terrible. Their whole product is really bit poor. And in particular I was watching the NFL this weekend and obviously the NFL was amazing, but I was watching how crisp and clean an NFL game is on my same tv, on my same system, on my same streaming services, versus the absolutely horrible signal we get from super league games, which is money. And this one, of course with the net in front of the cameras doesn't help, doesn't help make it any better, but it's, it's just really poor a lot the way around. [00:42:38] Speaker C: Yeah, this wasn't the first, you know, game there have been technical issues with too. Right. I think it was either last week or the week before. There was the game cut out three or four different times over the course of the game. There have been late starts, there have been drop broadcasts and you know, it's not one particular stadium, it's not one particular club. This is a league wide issue. And if this league is going to grow and they're going to, you know, really take it forward into the next level, I think that's one of the first things that needs to come up. Right. You want to get fans and seats obviously, but you need people watching on tv. That is the product. Right. The product is always going to be television. Regardless of how much your first. [00:43:13] Speaker B: Even if you're only going to have one camera, you still need to spend enough money on the transmission and the quality of the feed and the, and the reliability of the feed and get good people to make those connections happen. Because if you can't reach your audience, you can't sell your game or your tickets or your merch or your players. You can't do anything if your audience can't see you. That's number one. You know, you want to get more people into the stands, let people see your products, you know, make your product look good. So don't get me started on that. Speaking of the product looking good, watch Eternity play. Like, you know, they want to pass it around. They want to be. There's multiple things here I want to talk about. They want to pass around and want to move around. That field is so clogged. [00:43:56] Speaker C: It really so hard to do that in that stadium. [00:43:58] Speaker B: Yeah, you, you can't do that. They Couldn't play through the lines and couldn't line break. And they only have one player that's capable of beating somebody like on a one on one, and that's Hamid. And like all three of their real chances came through her going one on one with somebody. [00:44:13] Speaker C: Yeah, it was, you know, they tried to come in and play. I guess we can call it wind ball, right? We can. This is Lee Win's version of what he's doing here, right? The sticky tacka. Pass it around the back, which works when you've got a wide pitch like the cotton ball. When you've got this super wide field and you can get up the wings and you can. Can get up the side channels and bring it in and out, you can do that in the cotton ball. But I think a lot of coaches are learning that as as poor of a club as Brooklyn can be. You know, Alex Smith does have them on, on the right turnaround. This is, you know, three in a row without losing for them. So they're, they're starting to pick it up here a little bit, but they are learning that it is difficult to go into that stadium and play in those dimensions and play the game you want to play. You have to play to that field. You can't just go in and play your game. And, you know, hopefully that's a learning experience for Lewin. [00:44:59] Speaker B: It was sort of fascinating to watch Lee use almost like four lines. Like he would have bronze step up. And so Henson and Cheeseman were back. So that was like a 2, and then there was like a Braun Beckman line, and then there was like a line of mids and then they had like trying to find ways to play through there. None of it worked. I'm not sure I have an answer other than to just go over the top and bypass the whole thing. Because it was, you know, which is [00:45:23] Speaker C: what I would have done, right? I. I would have. And which is what they did in practice earlier in the week. So that's why that's what really stood out to me is that didn't happen is, you know, they had Cheeseman going over and switching play and, you know, just shooting it deep. And they didn't do any of that this week. So that was a little confusing for me. I don't know why you would practice that and not put that into the game. You know, I don't know if things just sort of fell apart when they got in there and got down a goal. [00:45:47] Speaker B: Well, one of the things I think Dennis is bothering me the most is that there are no defenders on this team. We saw Giannino come in and she's a playmaking 10. Led the NCAA and assists, and they put her at right back. Flynn is a real defender, but she's not. She's hurt. She's not playing. Braun is a central midfielder. Cheeseman, okay, maybe you could convince me that Cheeseman's actually a defender, but I think she looks just as good in the midfield as well. Henson's a forward. Drew. Drew Kumins is a real right back, but she doesn't play. So it's like Louis. [00:46:18] Speaker C: I mean, Beckman is the only real midfield defender, right? She's the only. I mean, the guy played six a little bit, but I think Beckman's the only physical midfield six defender. [00:46:27] Speaker A: That. [00:46:27] Speaker C: That's a true defender. And Braun. Braun is a defensive midfielder as well, but she's not a center back typically. Although she has been playing that a little bit with Argentina. She has been playing that a little bit. That. That's. But it's been a more modern development for her as well. [00:46:39] Speaker B: I mean, at best, it's an adaptation of a player that's a central midfield six. It's like Shepherd's been playing to six. She's an eight. Knox is an eight. It's like, who. Who else? We've seen the Sedano. Sedano is a 10 playing as an 8. It's like lean win. It's like he's trying to create 1972 Dutch Total Football with. With Cruyff, with like midfielders all over the whole field. He just doesn't have any. He barely has a forward, like, like seven. Castane is really a winger playing as a nine. Hamid's a real wing and so is [00:47:14] Speaker C: Camaro. [00:47:15] Speaker B: Camaro, the other G name Gamero is on the other wing is a real mime. Lancaster is basically a mid. Right. It's like, again, I don't know why you're taking lancaster out of 11, by the way. I don't understand that at all. [00:47:25] Speaker C: Especially since she's got. She's got more goals against Brooklyn than almost anybody in the league. More goals and assists at least. [00:47:30] Speaker B: Yeah, she's the other player that, like, she doesn't take somebody one on one straight ahead, but she can dribble through people and she's like one of the only. Like there's nobody else really. So Daniel's a nice player, but right now she's not like a beat people on the dribble, on the ball kind of player. She's a passing kind of player. She's moving around she's looking for space. You know, Castane's a vertical kind of wing too. Not a, not a one on one kind of player like Kamitas. So like he's just got this complete team full of possession, happy, pass it around Dutch. Total football, all interchanging mids all over the field. And it just, just sometimes you run into a team, it just doesn't work like in this, on this field, it's not going to work. [00:48:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Again, I think a lot of it has to go back to the dimensions that they're playing in, the field conditions that they're playing in. And you've got to prepare for that. It's, it's not like you're going into, you know, any random stadium in, in even the Premier League. Right. They, even in the Premier League you have, you have stadiums that are bigger and stadiums that are smaller. But this is a very, very unique venue. This is an extremely unique venue and you have to play to it. It's unfortunate that this is where they play, you know, New York soccer legacy. The former home of the, the Cosmos. [00:48:35] Speaker B: No, but yeah. [00:48:39] Speaker C: Hamid comes up and misses her second penalty of the year. That was, that was devastating for this club. [00:48:46] Speaker B: I'm not a big fan of the PK Taker. If the, the person that gets fouled gets crushed, which she did. I'm not a big fan of that person taking the kick as they're still like, you know, flexing and trying to get their groove back. I don't, I don't hate it, but I would have, I would have preferred maybe a 7 or even a Sedano or I don't know, a Knox, you know, somebody that's, you know, that is in the flow of the game and didn't just get crushed by the defense to maybe take that. But she didn't earn it. So I'm okay with it at the end of the day. [00:49:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Second miss of the year is unfortunate though, especially from somebody who is such a prolific goal scorer. Right. You would think somebody who's able to score score goals the way she is would be able to just put one in from, from the, from the penalty spot there. [00:49:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And there were a couple other chances that could have been buried. I think it was Sedano that had a point blank one in the box, that she just didn't get a clean hit on it and maybe could have scored. And I still think at the other end, Dennis, they have an issue. The replay, the live goal, I wasn't that. It's like, oh, that was a good shot. But when they showed the replay during the halftime interview, they showed an angle from behind the goal. And Purcell, her. Her positioning was way off. She was way too deep and near post and she left the whole left half of the goal open. It's just bad. And was not capable physically of getting to that shot. So I thought that was poor on her part. [00:50:09] Speaker C: The, the leveler. And was it the 84th or 86th? I don't have my notes in front of me, but it was a gorgeous team goal that they were able to put it away with. Get that level or. So kudos to them for pulling that out. And you know, it's a great little back and forth pass that turned into the keeper coming down early, which, I mean keepers, it was only her second career start. So they got one back late and we're able to salvage a point on the road and able to salvage themselves into a playoff spot with just I think six left to play. [00:50:41] Speaker B: Yeah, another nice assist by LJ Moore. Another creative 10 playing right back subbed in. So that's a trend. [00:50:49] Speaker C: Well, that right back isn't, you know, it's not a true right back position. It's not a defensive right back position whatsoever in this formation that Lee's playing. But yeah, no, you're absolutely right. Like these are, these are athletes that should be up front and should be creating passes and creating around the box and, and. But you know, the reality is is they also don't have a, you know, they don't have a. A nine to play through really either. [00:51:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I might feel better about that flexing right back if Henson wasn't also a converted forward and not a defensive first player out at left back. And they're making her statement. Like the previous two seasons, the flex has been Henson. Henson's been flexing up into midfield continuously and overloading the wing. And we saw Ubagogo cutting inside from that left side like Hamid is kind of doing now on the right, you know. And then again, Braun and Cheeseman aren't necessarily really center backs. So it's like, you know, this team has got a negative goal differential or they did and they may still be really close to it. For a team, it's in the middle of the table. That's kind of weird because they're letting in too many goals. And that's the bottom line for me is that like at times you worry about the creation, but this team just is not good enough defensively when you have all these mids playing defense and a keeper that so far is not showing to be up for it. But you know, there's the season's just over halfway and, and it is the mini sprint season and a lot of times, Dennis, we've talked about this season just being a bunch of things thrown in a pile and they all tend to be ball nifty midfielders and they're just trying to figure out how to get through this. [00:52:17] Speaker C: All midfielders? [00:52:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Oops. All mids. But yeah. [00:52:23] Speaker C: Classico. Coming up this week, Chivas comes to town during the fair. That's going to be a fun one to watch. I don't know how much you could say about that one. It's going to be, I'm assuming, heavy rotation. Brewer's going to be good gone, which I, I, I, I was shocked to see her gone already from this one. I expected to see her see her in this lineup given how much she is factored in. But I guess they, I guess the, the 17s left early. So she, she'll be in Morocco this week. [00:52:47] Speaker B: For me, it would be a great game to see Lauren Flynn get back in the game and you know, results not going to matter. You know, get her, get her some minutes and get, you know, her integrated into the group. I think that would be really important for me. That's the number one thing I want to see. [00:53:03] Speaker C: Yeah. With McNabb coming off the injured report as well, be nice to see what she can do. We haven't seen anything from her since she's been here, yet she went directly on the injured list and we talked. I wrote about this earlier in the week too, but Heather Stainbrook was back practicing this week as well for Dallas Trinity. She was limited, clearly still hurt, but she was working back really, it looked like. And I'm by no means, by no stretch of the means am I an expert on fitness or training. But you know, she was having, she was running some touch drills with Johnny, one of the, the secondary coaches over there off to the side. He's the one that typically runs all of the, the injured player training or the limited training. And her touch looked incredible. She looked like she still had her touch to her. Looked like it was more fitness she was working on than anything else. Just getting her cardio back up and just sort of get back to fighting shape. I would love to see Stainbrook available for this club in the midfield down the stretch. I think that would be an absolute game changer for this group. [00:53:59] Speaker A: Group. [00:53:59] Speaker B: It would be outstanding. Although they have a lot of players that play that spot. I think this class goes too early for that based on when she came back. [00:54:07] Speaker C: No, no, absolutely. Probably would be another couple weeks at least. [00:54:09] Speaker B: I wouldn't hate seeing Braun get some minutes in midfield to see what that looks like, like with a real six, you know, sort of would hate that. [00:54:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I'd like to see her paired up with Beckman in the midfield. That'd be really nice to have a little bit of a double pivot back there and, you know, one can sort of slide back and defend, the other can kind of get forward a little bit. And I think that would be really exciting to watch as well. [00:54:29] Speaker B: So Knox had an outstanding game in Brooklyn. [00:54:32] Speaker C: Yes, I. Yeah, for sure. But I'm hoping Lee takes an opportunity to try out a few different things during the Classico. Right. Like you said, results don't matter. I think the only number that really matters to anybody in the organization is going to be the attendance number. They want to see how many asses and seats they can fill. But, you know, it'd be nice to see to. To try out a few different things and see some things that might not have that. That we might not try in a regular season season. [00:54:55] Speaker B: And just reminded everybody if you buy a ticket to the Trinity of Classico, that gets you into the state fair as well. So everybody get out there and take advantage of that. And FC Dallas is out of town on the weekend. They're home midweek, but out of town the weekend. So here's your chance to go watch Trinity play and take your family and take in the. The state fair too. [00:55:14] Speaker C: And go get a corn dog while you're at it. I mean, look at that. I mean, Trinity went from. From playing next to the. The best hot dogs in the world and Nathan's. And now they're. They come home to get some corny dogs. [00:55:25] Speaker A: Muy bueno, Dennis. Travel home safely when you get around to doing that. Appreciate your insight and your report. All right, Buzz, let's see. We don't have much else to talk about. You got any North Texas information? Is there any reason to talk about Little Burn? [00:55:42] Speaker B: Yeah, the Little Burn. They've got a guy named Nikki Law who's an assistant coach there on the staff. He's running training because keep in mind their player is. Have contracts till December without a manager. [00:55:55] Speaker A: I forgot they got. [00:55:56] Speaker B: Yeah. So Nikki Law, their assistant, is running that group. He's the. He's not an official interim coach or anything, but he's running that group. They are going to play a series of scrimmages that they're lining up since they're out of the playoffs. They're going to play some of the other MLS next teams that are out of the playoffs between now and sort of the end of the year to keep those guys playing and training. Not a big news item, but it's a thing. You know, I don't know that we'll see much reported from them in terms of scores or things like that, but, you know, they will be keeping those guys working and developing for next year and under the instruction of Nikki Law, who's already on the staff there. So just a little update. [00:56:33] Speaker A: I saw something interesting online the other day that caught my eye. You, I. I'm assuming, Buzz, you're familiar with Crossbar, the indoor facility. So those guys, which is Ben and the guy with the beard, the English guy, the British guy, the English guy with the beard, Boyce, I can't remember his full name. He owns London Calling, which is the little shop inside a Crossbar, I believe that sells like old jerseys and stuff. [00:57:06] Speaker B: Clash albums. [00:57:07] Speaker A: Yes. And he's, you know, he's con. You know, he plays a lot over there too. And he's, you know, classic kind of stereotypical English guy with the tattoos and yes, it seems like a really, really funny and nice guy in that whole setup. And so, you know, if you know anything about what's been going on over at Crossbar, the guy that owns Crossbar, Ben, is also the same guy that owns Dallas Soccer alliance, which is the amateur league that plays out at Moneygram. Many of us have played in that league and it's really the thing that kind of took over NTPSA in the area and has really been the best and leading outdoor league adult league in the area for the last, I'd say five or six years now. And now they've Crossbar has that location in Richardson and probably a year or so ago they opened up another location up in Denton and they've got all kinds of leagues and, and Ben has been a part of some investment to put a local Dallas teams into that 7v.7 million dollar tournament. I think they've done that twice. Yeah, the TST thing a couple of times. They're really growing, you know, this kind of thing in this community. Well, I was really surprised to learn this week that they have bought and are taking over or merging with Soccer Innovations, which is a locally owned soccer supply, a family owned soccer supply group. They've. I've found out about Soccer Innovations because DSA is part of the deal when you join the league is you would get a, a free ball, a league ball. Oh, wow. And they were really good. The quality of the ball was actually really nice. And we've used them on borrachos. The ones we got seven years ago, we're still using. They're really nice balls. And it's a family owned business. Well, it appears Ben has bought it. [00:58:58] Speaker B: Oh. [00:58:58] Speaker A: And they're going to run it as. As part of a larger venture. And it's just interesting to see a local Dallas business kind of grow that entire business of soccer at that level. [00:59:09] Speaker B: Just for my understanding, they're making merch. Are they just reselling other people? [00:59:15] Speaker A: No, they make. They make merch. Yeah. So yeah, they, I think, think I. I think Soccer Innovations does equipment like balls and jerseys and things like that. And I think Soccer Innovations also has a secondary brand that does jersey manual, like custom jerseys. And I think it's an X or something in the logo. I can't remember what the name of the brand is, but I just find it interesting that all of that's getting merged together in one larger kind of deal. That's. I think that probably bodes well for. [00:59:46] Speaker C: For. [00:59:46] Speaker B: I mean, soccer in the Metroplex is alive and kicking and we're still on the way to six, seven, eight professional teams, which is insane. But to me, in some ways. But because. Because I come from a world where there were none, you know, so that's not even counting indoor, which may or may not ever come back. I mean, hard to bring indoor back when there's seven outdoor pro teams floating around. But you know, and semi pros and all these other things. And by the way, Speaking of which, US Open 2027 qualifying, Denton and Foro are the last two local teams alive facing off against each other on 31st October. So that'll be a fun. [01:00:21] Speaker A: Have you seen the footage from the game between Master Joga and the Arkansas team? [01:00:28] Speaker B: Is that the one where the keeper gets in a fight with his own defender and they score? I think that was the. Yeah. [01:00:34] Speaker A: So it's really great. Is it sad? S. Is it sad FCD guy that's on this team? I think it's his team. Yeah. So if you haven't seen this, they're. They're playing in a qualifying open cup game. And I don't know where it's being played, but it's against this Arkansas team that I think is a semi pro team. Yeah. Master Yoga Joga. Is it Joga or Yoga? [01:00:59] Speaker B: Whatever. [01:00:59] Speaker A: I don't. Is like a local DSA team. I was just talking about Dallas soccer alone. Well, I think they play in that. So they're just an amateur weekend beer league team, but they're very good. Relative. [01:01:10] Speaker B: They're very good. Yeah. [01:01:11] Speaker A: And they have a corner kick. Well, this Arkansas team has two players at the top of their own box start to get into an argument and kind of a handbags. The keeper comes out to break it up. Yeah, but the referee has not stopped play. No, they're setting up for a corner kick and the ref has it blown the whistle. So Master Joe, that takes the corner and easily heads it in for the goal. And it counts. And I watched that and I thought that is either the most killer thing ever or the biggest jerk move ever. [01:01:52] Speaker B: I mean it is an Open cup [01:01:54] Speaker A: game and if you're bet. If you're stupid enough to go out and do that, that then maybe you deserve to get punished for your own stupidity. Yeah, but it was the beauty of the Open cup really right there, wasn't it? [01:02:06] Speaker B: Oh my gosh, the open cut is the best thing ever. It's just so amazing. I mean some of the most craziest things we've seen in town here like Dallas Roma beating, you know, heroes in Miami, you know, and then it's just like it's crazy bonkers upsets. You know, of which FC Dallas has fell pray when they, when they Lost A Division 4 Seattle Sounders select that year of Billy Sleath who proceeded to get signed by Chicago Fire right after that game or shortly after that game. Yeah, it is. [01:02:36] Speaker A: It is pretty nutty buzz. You should retweet that video. I think Sad FCD fan posted it on. On Twitter. You should retweet it so people who hear this on the pod can see the. The highlight for itself. [01:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Long live the Open Cup. [01:02:52] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:02:53] Speaker B: I'm so glad that all MLS teams are back in the Open Cup. Specifically FC Dallas is back in the Open Cup. I was looking today. I have this document where I. I calculate numbers and stats and points year by year in adult and keep tracking all the Seattle stuff. And the Open cup line is like all down to the, to this year and it's like nothing. [01:03:14] Speaker A: It's like, hey, you and I both at, at the game in Duncanville when they played the Open cup game in Duncanville height at Duncanville High School that year. [01:03:23] Speaker B: I. I've been to a couple of games down there at old Panther Stadium. That's one of the ones where they lost the Seattle Sound of Select. That's the one I was talking about. [01:03:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't think I was at that one. [01:03:33] Speaker B: There was a. There was a couple of them that have been down there, I for sure have been to more than one. [01:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:03:37] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't remember what the other one was specifically, but I know that there have been multiple. And that was one of them at an old Panther stadium. It wasn't even, like, at the new Duncanville fancy stadium. It was the, like, wooden bleachers with, like, hold 200 people. Yeah, yeah. [01:03:53] Speaker A: Like something out of a 1970s high school football movie or something like that. [01:03:58] Speaker B: They were so mad when they lost that game to the. To that trash team. [01:04:02] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Great. Burn memories. One hundo. All right, well, thanks to Dennis for going out of his way to check in all the way from the east coast host and all of that. Thank you, Buzz. Good talking to you. [01:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah, man. Thanks again for being here. [01:04:17] Speaker A: Hey, man, enjoy Rush. [01:04:19] Speaker B: Thanks. Yeah, big show tomorrow. [01:04:21] Speaker A: Have you ever seen them live before? [01:04:23] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is like my fifth or sixth time. [01:04:25] Speaker A: But you've not seen them with the new drummer? [01:04:27] Speaker B: Oh, no, no. Okay. The last time I saw him was the. The 40 year tour, and I thought that was it. I was. I stood there at the end when it was over, and, you know, it was near the end of that tour and I thought. And that was it. That's because people knew Neil was done playing. They know he wasn't sick at that point, but people were. Knew he was quitting. That was going to be it. So I was like, man, I'm never going to see Rush again. That was amazing. And then I've seen clips of her playing and, oh, she's outstanding. She's so good and she's legit. I was watching an interview with Gay Lee not to. It's not what this spot's about. But he was talking about they couldn't just go get, like, a famous drummer from some other band. Like, you can't go get Dave Grohl because then everyone just compares Dave Grohl with Nirvana and Foo Fighters and, like, it's all that stuff. They needed somebody that nobody knew, and so they went and got her from, like, this sort of outside jazzy fusion. She played with Jeff Beck, but nobody knew who she was. She's a clean slate and she's phenomenally talented, and I think it's fantastic. [01:05:19] Speaker A: I've watched most of the documentary about Neil Peart that has come out and is on YouTube. Have you watched it? [01:05:25] Speaker B: Yeah, after you told me about it. I wouldn't watch it right away. [01:05:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And because they. What they do is they kind of celebrate Neil Pearce by playing a bunch of their Songs with other famous rock drummers. The guy from Chili Peppers, Danny. Danny Carey from Tool. And the guy from Porcupine Tree. [01:05:43] Speaker B: And not a band I knew, but. [01:05:45] Speaker A: Are you not familiar Porcupine Tree? [01:05:47] Speaker B: No, I'm not. I. [01:05:48] Speaker A: Apparently if you're a Rush fan, you would love Porcupine Tree. [01:05:52] Speaker B: Well, I was planning on going to look after I saw that. My funniest thing about the documentary is Stuart Copeland, who's nuts. [01:05:58] Speaker A: Yes. [01:05:59] Speaker B: He's a completely different kind of drummer than Neil, period. So I'm watching him try and play Neil. Sports was hysterical, but. [01:06:06] Speaker A: But he did a good job. [01:06:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And I love the story about. He's like, yeah, we hated Rush. Yes. With the Bastards, the Empire. We hated you so much. And they were like, we liked you. We were standing backstage when you jumped in the pool and they had the picture that was so good. [01:06:18] Speaker A: He tells him the story about how they used to was stand there and watch them on stage and talk about what wankers they were and how much they hated. Because they were long haired and they hated Rush. Yes. It was very funny stuff. [01:06:29] Speaker B: I do think it was funny as Stuart co was like, yeah, we hated Rush and Fleetwood Mack and the Beatles. He goes, yeah, we were really dumb. Yeah, you were. [01:06:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:39] Speaker B: But it was the establishment, you know, they were the anti establishment. [01:06:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:06:42] Speaker A: I gotta tell you, you watch as much as I love Stuart Copeland, you watch an interview with him for all of five, maybe 10 minutes and you begin to want. You begin to understand why that band broke up up and why Sting hates him so much and he hates. [01:06:56] Speaker B: But I totally understand that like as. As crazy different as all three of those guys were. It's that crazy different. [01:07:02] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [01:07:03] Speaker B: Energy that made the Police be. I mean, I like Sting. Sting by himself is not the Police. It's totally different, you know. And I like the Police. [01:07:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:07:11] Speaker B: But I went and saw them twice on their reunion tour and they would glare at each other and yell at each other on stage. [01:07:17] Speaker A: I was really. I went to that show and I here in Dallas and I just thought it was. Was bad. They just didn't look like they. They just didn't click. And it just. [01:07:25] Speaker B: It's better than the last time I saw Van Halen when they were. They were awful and they. They kept. They were playing wrong parts of songs and missing. It was one of the worst bands I've ever seen and that's Van Halen. I was like. I told Amy, I said, well, I'm never seeing that man again because that was. And I'm a lifetime Van Halen nut. And I was like, I'm never coming back. That was awful after that. So [01:07:47] Speaker A: sorry, everybody. Didn't mean to derail into classic rock talk between us old Gen Xers. All right, very good. Well, thank you again, Buzz. [01:07:56] Speaker B: Come back to the States. [01:07:57] Speaker A: Hopefully when we talk again, we'll have six points to discuss and some good results. And we'll just. And we won't care how they do it. We just need the points, right? [01:08:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Play ugly, win whatever, Quill. [01:08:10] Speaker A: Just do what it takes. I. I give you permission. I won't judge you. I promise. Prom. [01:08:14] Speaker B: Promise. [01:08:16] Speaker C: Very good. [01:08:16] Speaker A: Thanks, Buzz. Thank you. DFW Soccer Curious. We will speak to you next week on another episode of third degree, the podcast. [01:08:23] Speaker B: Thanks for being here, Dennis. [01:08:25] Speaker A: Third degree, the third degree. Ne podcast. Third degree, the third degree dot n podcast. Third degree. The third degree. That third degree. The third degree. [01:08:39] Speaker B: Never. [01:09:02] Speaker A: Sam.