3rd Degree the Podcast #379

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hopefully you brought enough drugs for everyone. [00:00:01] Speaker B: Drugs are good. Oh, my gosh, Are they good? [00:00:05] Speaker C: Yeah. Third Degree, the Third Degree NEP Podcast. Third Degree the Third Degree Nepa. Third Degree the Third Degree. Never get Third Degree Third Degree. Well, hello there, DFW soccer. Curious. Welcome to Third Degree, the podcast. The band's all here. Dennis. Howdy, Dennis. [00:00:40] Speaker A: Hey. Hey, what's up here? [00:00:42] Speaker C: And your hero, everybody's Hero. Editor, Founder, third degree.net Buzz Carrot. Come and buzz. [00:00:48] Speaker B: Peter, I believe it's actually colder in Dallas this week than it was up here in the Northwest. [00:00:53] Speaker C: Oh, how do you feel about that now? [00:00:55] Speaker B: Tables still got a hoodie on. Yeah. My how to turn T. [00:01:02] Speaker A: I got [00:01:02] Speaker C: to put on long pant pajamas. The other day, a Saturday morning when I was watching my soccer. [00:01:08] Speaker B: Is it everything you imagined? [00:01:09] Speaker C: That's when I know that's a good. We've. We've broken into the good time of year. [00:01:14] Speaker A: I was out of town for a few days and came back. I got off the plane yesterday. I was like, what the hell is going on here? Where'd all the heat go? [00:01:20] Speaker B: Peter, that reminds me of one of my favorite little media interview bits when with Ryan Reynolds and. And I forget the other person is. And they were talking about. The reporter said asked him if the best thing about recording a movie in space and spacesuits was that you got to wear socks all the time on set. They were all like, it's really funny. [00:01:41] Speaker C: What? [00:01:41] Speaker B: How excited they were. They said the. So it was the best question they ever had about going to wear socks on the set all the time. You don't take them off. You can just. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Brian Reynolds. The soccer player? [00:01:51] Speaker B: No, the actor. [00:01:53] Speaker A: Ryan Reynolds. [00:01:54] Speaker B: I said Ryan Reynolds. [00:01:55] Speaker C: Well, I heard this is a FC Dallas podcast. I heard Brian Reynolds and thought you were talking about the former Academy. [00:02:03] Speaker B: Yeah, he was in a space movie. [00:02:05] Speaker C: Well, that's where I didn't make any sense. [00:02:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:07] Speaker A: We're two minutes in and this thing's completely off the rails already. [00:02:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what we do, Peter. [00:02:11] Speaker A: Get us back on track. [00:02:14] Speaker C: Everybody. Buzz is playing hurt. So that's if you all also heard Brian Reynolds and not Ryan Reynolds. You understand? [00:02:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Squeaky voice day. Yeah. [00:02:23] Speaker C: Well, we do have much to discuss, including point collections for football club Dallas as we've got two games to go through. Also the game out at the Cotton bowl for Trinity, who we will get into and other this, that and the other. We'll start with the win over Seattle last week since we last did the podcast. [00:02:47] Speaker A: Really? [00:02:48] Speaker C: First off, let me say this this was my first trip post World cup back to Toyota Stadium and I got to especially even reopening of the east side, so I got to experience all that. We can discuss that here in a little bit. But Dallas plays kind of an interestingly tight game against one of its more NEMA teams. I think I'm saying that right, and. Or probably not. And end up winning one Nutton Buzzard. [00:03:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the stat coming in was that Seattle hadn't lost in Dallas since like 2020 or something, you know. And Seattle's been a team that's always been in trouble for Dallas. And to be fair, the first half was a little sketchy on the defense, but thankfully the keeper, they paid a lot of money for Danielle. Okay, I don't see the broadcast has got me doing that. Daniel played great, had seven saves, particularly in the first half. Build them out, had a terrific game and then Kaiku did not have a great game. Scored an absolutely wonder goal. One of the, I mean I, I said this on my three things, if anybody's ever played any soccer at all. That ball dropping straight down vertically, trying to hit that thing square and keep it flat and straight and square. That the hit zone is just minute. Incredibly difficult shot to pull off and he nailed it and it was gorgeous. And Dallas held on after that, thanks in part to second half, better defensive play in particular, Daniel standing on his head and that'd be an awesome. [00:04:10] Speaker A: What an incredible goal that was though. Come on. That was, that was just gorgeous to watch the, the play in the touch off the keeper. Osaze heads it back up into the air over there and Kaik just, just nails it right, just like you said. Perfect touch. That was like once in a lifetime sort of goal for a kid like that, I think. Not, not, not to say we hope we won't do it again, but that was just an incredible goal to watch. [00:04:32] Speaker B: And if I remember correctly, if I'm not getting my games confused, Musa almost had an equally spectacular goal that came across and he volley like at a half angle and missed by like that. That, yeah would have been, you know, when they got, they got outplayed I thought in the first half and that still almost had two goals on two miraculous shots. [00:04:50] Speaker C: So yeah, the moose opportunity would have been up for goal of the year just because of the way he had kind of gone horizontal to try to hit that. That would have been a tremendous a finish to that game. I did enjoy. I did have the weird heart tugging moment of Jesus Ferreira coming on at the stadium, which was very Weird. I was a little disappointed at the amount of pause he got because you should be booing him when he's playing for the other team. It's okay if you're in the starting 11 and you get introduced, it's okay to applaud then. But once the game has started, it's all booing from then all out. That's really how that's supposed to work. [00:05:31] Speaker A: When he took the corner, it sounded like they got some booze from. [00:05:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I think everybody tried to be polite and just applaud him onto the field. But I personally think that unless it's the original starting 11 lineup, you boo anybody and everybody. You know, that's how we handled Jason Christ back in the day. [00:05:49] Speaker B: See, no, I'm okay with when they subhan giving him a clap just like you would in the lineup, you know. [00:05:53] Speaker A: No, he's dead to us. [00:05:55] Speaker C: There was plenty of. Yeah, everybody appropriately blew a booed after that. I think there's just some disagreement as to when applauding a former player is applicable. I did also find it a bit curious that Paul Areola got converted to left back or left wing back in that formation after new who got hurt. [00:06:17] Speaker B: People do that. Yeah, it's a ball. Yeah, that happened here too, if you remember. Yeah. [00:06:22] Speaker C: Boy, Paul missed a sitter in that game too. [00:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah, run over a couple times too. [00:06:29] Speaker B: I'm very forgiving of Paul because he's a fantastically nice person. One of the. One of the nicer people displayed, you know, in terms of like how he deals with people that aren't in the team. You know, just really friendly, really nice members, everybody. Good guy. [00:06:42] Speaker C: And Jesus is just exactly the same, right? [00:06:45] Speaker B: No. Well, you guys, I'm not going to say that he's not a good guy. I don't know him enough because he's very quiet, very much a lone wolf. He doesn't pal around with people. Like I've seen him come to a thing and have like one friend and you know, and just. He's just not gregarious and out it's going and friendly and vivacious, you know, he's a very much a, you know, keep it tight, you know, don't talk to people kind of guy. Which doesn't mean he's not a good guy. I don't know because I never have gotten him to open up enough to find out. Yeah, I'm like Paul, who's approachable and very friendly and sees you, it's like, oh, hey, you know, it's like one of the good guys. [00:07:23] Speaker A: You Know, I had a chance to meet him a few years back at one of the cocktails and cleats events and he was just like you said, was very reserved, very quiet, just sort of like very comfortable to be in the room. Didn't know like, what to say and how to interact with people. You can tell he loves the game, right? He's grown up with it. [00:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a gamer kid, you know. [00:07:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:07:42] Speaker C: I would say this is more evidence of the growing attempt by Eric Quill to have this team play more stylistically and pass through the middle and do all those things, which we'll come to more even in the Houston. Houston game, I'm sure. But it was. It was good to see in person. I really enjoyed it. And I would also say this may be the game that one Kai K began to open the door to possibly winning me over. [00:08:09] Speaker B: Really? I didn't think he was very good. [00:08:10] Speaker A: I know exactly what you're going to talk about here. [00:08:12] Speaker C: So this is not the goal, but in the first half, a ball gets played way back. I think it's like a. Trying to clear it or something. It comes off a defender and. And it quickly rolls, I don't know, 50 yards towards the touchline and Daniel starts to make a half effort to try to go get it. Kaik goes into full hard sprint and I bet he sprints a full 60, 65 yards and he keeps it from going out of bounds. And he didn't even really need to do it because I'm not sure it would have been a corner kick because I don't think Daniel thought it would have been a corner kick. And just that level of effort got me to stand up and give him a little applause because he deserved that. And I enjoy. [00:09:00] Speaker B: I get it. He's turning into Ted Heck. Yes. That's why you like him. [00:09:04] Speaker C: Yeah. Yes. The wildly inaccurate passing or missed passes, but, oh, the true level of effort, really, Claire, you really care. And the occasional worldy. [00:09:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:19] Speaker C: He is the 2026 Vers of TedX. Yes. And I dig it. [00:09:25] Speaker A: First in, last out kind of guy, huh? [00:09:28] Speaker B: Peter, get yourself a 55 jersey with. With like. Or a half and half with like 14 and 55. And then kayak, you know, kayak. Kayak on the back. [00:09:38] Speaker C: Kayak. Yeah. I'm not going to say I'm fully bought in on Kai yet, but just seeing that happen in person did a lot of good in repairing my. My feelings about. [00:09:51] Speaker B: Or my. [00:09:52] Speaker C: My sense about him. [00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I think part of them opening up is Quill giving him Having more trust in him and giving him more and more rope to go forward and popping up in the box all the time. And as a consequence, whoever he's with, whether it's Romero or Capus, has to stay home more, you know, so like once Cabbage was with him the other day, he had to play very deep and then when Cavs was Ramiro Cavis got to go forward, be that guy. And that's when he had that excellent game, you know, which is the Houston game. So, you know, I, I think Kaik's maturing and progressing. He's a long way from being a finished product. He's a long way from being like a great two way midfielder. But you cannot knock the effort in the work or the. [00:10:34] Speaker C: Has he even played a hundred professional games yet? [00:10:38] Speaker B: Oh, I wouldn't think so. I'd have to look. But I seriously depends on. [00:10:41] Speaker C: He was on one when he got here. [00:10:43] Speaker B: Yeah. And this is his second season, so he's on about 60 maybe. [00:10:47] Speaker C: Yeah, something like that. Yes. [00:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I mean what, what we all ever. What we. What I ever. All I ever want for people is progression, right? Is to see you improving. Like I won't, I won't slam a kid because they're a kid, you know, I want to see them get better though. And he's definitely getting better. There are guys who are not getting better that don't then get more opportunities. Norris is getting better. Not there yet, but you're improving. So that's going to get him more chances in the future. Just like it's getting Kaik more minutes in the future. [00:11:16] Speaker C: So Buzz, I haven't seen you talk about this, but I think I've seen it in other places. I have seen reports or sightings that Logan Farrington is sporting a boot. And I'm not talking about cowboy boot or work boot. I'm talking about Ow, ouchie boot. [00:11:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So apparently he took part in training, you know, to some extent prior to the game. And then when Tuesday after training, some developed some sort of issue which is why they first listed him is out. And this is obviously the so much fun for FC Dallas that Logan and Anderson Julio were both listed as questionable. And then on Wednesday they, they, I guess were mad that they were listed as. I'm sorry, they were listed as out. Excuse me. And then Wednesday they got mad that they were listed as out and called the league and said, hey, change it to questionable. I said, that's fooling anybody. And then he was seen in a boot on the game on Wednesday. And then missed obviously the next game officially out at that time. So dumb. So like, you know, there's some chatter going around that maybe he'll be out, be back this week possibly. But last time we, lots of times we hear that they're, oh yeah, no big deal, they'll be back this week. It's like we never see him again. We never see him again. So like your miles are very. On what the actual injury is and how long he's going to be out. But you know, fingers crossed the, the chatter is correct that he will be back this week. But you know, at the same time, like you probably can't assume he's going to be ready to start or go big minutes if he's coming out of a boot. Because whatever it is to put you in a boot has got to be big because that's, that has to do with strength and support of not making it worse or whatever, you know, so it's not. [00:12:50] Speaker A: Melzer had reported that it looked like something happened in practice and he came off during practice and didn't finish, I think the day before. So it would have been like Tuesday. [00:12:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Some of the chatter is that basically it was a pre existing sort of thing that got aggravated maybe. So we'll see. So he's been fighting it apparently, whatever it is. So if we ever learn more, we'll let you know. But in the meantime, like, fingers crossed he'll be back this week, but they're gonna have to learn to certainly function without him, honestly. Because when you, when you see a guy to boot, you don't know how long it's going to be. Usually the boot means a long time, but we'll find out, I guess. [00:13:26] Speaker C: Yeah. Because if he's hurt for a period of time and then Musa needs a rest, what's the next move? [00:13:33] Speaker B: Well, probably not Simmons at this point. Simmons is the one who's the prototype profile. But it would more likely be something like somebody like a vertical style Winger as a nine like, like a job or a Santi Marino or maybe even an arson Julio as a nine. Okay. Certainly Julio's played enough nine and probably might be job. He looked pretty dang interesting. Be honest. When we get to the Houston game, we'll talk more about that. [00:13:58] Speaker C: Yeah, and don't worry everybody, we will get to the Sonata Instagram posting here before the episode is over. [00:14:06] Speaker A: Forgot all about that. [00:14:07] Speaker B: I tried to block it out, [00:14:10] Speaker C: Buzz. It was his personal 100th victory. [00:14:15] Speaker B: Yeah. How many losses does he have? [00:14:21] Speaker C: What? Save it, save it, don't burn it. Yet. We'll get there. I just wanted to mark that. That was the 100th. That was the game of. No, we'll get to that. [00:14:31] Speaker B: It feels weird. [00:14:33] Speaker C: I just. Hold on. Just. You want to do this now? [00:14:36] Speaker B: We do whatever you want. You brought it up so well. [00:14:39] Speaker A: Peter, you want to talk about your experience in the stadium first? [00:14:42] Speaker C: Yeah. So I got, I have, I have decided that the current version of Toyota Stadium is the stadium equivalent of the El Paso border. [00:14:53] Speaker B: Okay, do go on. [00:14:54] Speaker C: Have you ever been to El Paso? [00:14:56] Speaker B: Many times. [00:14:56] Speaker C: Okay, so now let me also qualify that I haven't been to El PASO probably in 30 plus years. But when you sit in the stands at the stadium and it is the same thing to me as the first time I went to El Paso where you're driving west on 10 and you look to your right and it's this cosmopolitan modern city and you look to your left and it's just desolate, nothing kind of destruction going on in the left on the other side of the border. Well, that is what the experience is inside Toyota Stadium with this new east side. You walk into it and through it and you're like, hey, this is really nice. This is modern. It's clean, it's new, it smells good, it's big and it's, it's eye catching. And then you go out and you sit in the stands and you look across and it's nothing but demolition and destruction. And it's just a very, very weird juxtaposition for somebody to be in. And it continues to make it the weirdest sports going experience you could possibly imagine. [00:16:03] Speaker B: I'm just trying to think about how good it's going to be when they finish it. [00:16:06] Speaker A: So what you're saying is the supporters are sitting in Juarez? [00:16:09] Speaker C: Yes, kind of. Yeah, yeah. There just needs to be like a tire fire going on somewhere nearby. That would make. That would probably finish the illusion. The. I also, throughout the game, I repeatedly would openly laugh every time a player would over hit a ball on the north end because the ball ends up bouncing and rolling endlessly in this concrete nothingness which used to be the stage. And there's nobody back there collecting it and it just rolls around and bounces off the wall and rolls a little further. It's like being at the city field and somebody hitting the ball into the car part behind the goal or something. It's. It's just so farting weird. [00:16:54] Speaker B: Is it weird to have the big stage apparatus gone? [00:16:57] Speaker C: Well, it's not going to be gone. You and I both know that I [00:17:00] Speaker B: don't think it's coming back. [00:17:02] Speaker C: No, the stage is staying. They're doing stage. [00:17:04] Speaker B: The apparatus, the big roof, the big. [00:17:06] Speaker C: Oh, that. Yeah, that's weird. That is. Yeah. Because it's just makes it even more open and empty space. And it's weird that they've left the [00:17:15] Speaker B: office in the corner and that's not being renovated. [00:17:18] Speaker A: Well, they're still working out of that office. [00:17:20] Speaker C: I know, but they didn't tear that down. Like, the whole thing's just really, really confusing. But the new Eastside actually turned out to be nicer than I. Than I anticipated. It was. [00:17:32] Speaker B: Looks great. [00:17:32] Speaker C: Yeah, it looks really good. And it does give you the sense that when this thing is done, it's going to be a significantly notable improvement on what Toyota Stadium was for its first 20 years. Whatever it is. I don't. It won't be. No, it won't be one of the best soccer small soccer stadiums in the world. Dan Hunt. It won't even be one of the best soccer stadiums in the United States because it's so far. But I think it'll be behind New York and Miami and. And a whole bunch of other ones that I could LAFC and some other ones. But it will be demonstrably nicer than what we were, you know, being sold, you know, in the last several years. Right. [00:18:15] Speaker B: I think so. I think a lot of how it'll compare will be based on what the. The. The other side ends up being in terms of the television screen. The big giant screen and, and, and the. [00:18:25] Speaker C: Yes. [00:18:26] Speaker B: And the club on that side and like how it all incorporates into the. What's already there on the south side. You know, so [00:18:34] Speaker C: the sound system is so much better. The lighting underneath, the awning on the east side is significantly nicer in an improvement over what they had previously. I, I think it really portends great things for an improved experience. Unfortunately, that won't be finished until, you know, another two years or year and a half or whatever it is. [00:18:58] Speaker B: The biggest thing is going to be is the west side big enough to provide shade to the east side? That'll be the biggest thing is the east side. [00:19:05] Speaker C: Yeah, it almost has to, doesn't it? [00:19:07] Speaker B: I mean, that's the plan. That's what it's supposed to be. The. The structure on that side and the roof on that side is significantly bigger in order to block the shade on the. Make shade on the east side. So hopefully that comes through. [00:19:17] Speaker C: Dennis, I don't know if you're stuck in the. The tool shed across the field or if you're someplace else, I don't know where you guys hang out in the media, where the media thing is set up. But what I will say is that it was still a pretty warm night even after the sun went down, and it was very muggy and still in there. And it did make me wonder, once the entire thing is completed and the roof is up, how much of kind of that boxed, you know, steamy box kind of effect that I even got when I went to Austin's new stadium. Because the. If the wind's not blowing, you're just going to get humid and musty in there. [00:19:57] Speaker A: Yeah. I can say, you know, being at the past few games down there in the south end, down around concourse, down there around the back, it. The heat definitely stays in there. The humidity definitely stays there in the building, and it does kind of feel like Austin. If you ever been to Austin and been in there, where the humidity just stays in the building even after the sun goes down, even if there's, you know, a little bit of breeze, it just kind of lives in there because there's no place for it to go. It just doesn't escape. And. And I think once that other west end cover goes up, I think it's going to make that a little bit worse. Which, you know, when we. When we flip the schedule, it's not going to be that much of an issue. You're going to deal with probably three or four games at the beginning of the season in August and September, and then, you know, by the. By the time they. They get through that schedule, I don't think it's going to be something to be too concerned about. [00:20:45] Speaker C: Yeah, the other thing that I couldn't figure out is if they actually did remove some of the concrete that included the seating on the west side, because without the press box there, it doesn't look like there would be that much seating in the stadium because the one deck of concrete doesn't look like it would hold a 10,000 people. [00:21:09] Speaker B: Well, I'm not an engineer, but the middle sections of that west side, Peter, as you know, were sliding down. The whole hill was sort of sliding down and gapping away from the building. Yeah, you need to do some support infrastructure work on that side. And they'll need to do the dig. I think. I'm not involved, but I think they need to do that dig down that happened on the east side where they had to dig down. [00:21:28] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:21:29] Speaker B: And open up those conduit tunnels. Like that also has to happen, because remember that one of the problems on the east side was the, the structure and the supports were not correct and they needed that. So one of the cost rising things was. And that I think that needs to happen on the west too. So I'm sure that what you're seeing now is not going with the finished product in terms of what the seats are going to be. And we know that the middle seats are all coming out and being upgraded just like they were on the east side anyway, that middle three sections. [00:21:56] Speaker C: Yeah. I have mixed feelings about the mesh seats after sitting in the them. [00:22:01] Speaker B: Oh, you didn't like it? [00:22:02] Speaker C: I, I couldn't figure out if I liked them. The backs are very upright and while the seat is squishy and the back is squishy, it. There's something about it. I hadn't quite figured out if I like them much or not. I don't know. [00:22:18] Speaker A: You know, we'll have to get you back again to. [00:22:22] Speaker C: Oh, I'll come back. I mean, I go, yeah, maybe sit in a mesh seat for a half and go sit in one of the pink plastic seats for the second half. And yeah, so all of it is. Is promising. It's. My two other observations is walking on the east side, there's no signage. Like there's nothing that says FC Dallas. When you're walking in the main entrance on the east side. There's a giant video board to the right. But there needs to be like a logo or something. It's weird. [00:22:53] Speaker B: Well, the video board makes it, you know, adjustable to whatever tenant is in there. [00:22:57] Speaker C: Yeah. But once you walk past it, it's a pretty sizable space, like a little courtyard and there's no signage. [00:23:03] Speaker B: It's probably intentional. Probably intentional. [00:23:06] Speaker C: Why not? Why wouldn't they put like the logo or something? It's. That's where. And the other thing that needs to happen because it took me forever to figure out where my seat was. When you walk out of the club into the little concourse behind the seats of the middle three sections, I was sitting in 127. I had no idea where 127 was. And I asked a person, I said, Where's 127? And she pointed. Oh, it's on the other end. So I walked over there and I kept looking for a sign that said 127 behind the seats or on the wall behind. No, it was all the way at the very top of the roof line in the rafter about 25ft up in the air. [00:23:47] Speaker B: Well, I was going to suggest maybe there's a bunch of signage that hasn't all Been put in yet. [00:23:50] Speaker C: That's what I was thinking too. [00:23:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:23:52] Speaker B: If it's hanging off the roof, maybe that's it. [00:23:54] Speaker C: Because idiots like me can't find our seats easily. [00:23:57] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, they're probably waiting for the complete stadium to be completed so they can order that all at once. So they don't. Yeah, because if I order 23 signs versus ordering 64 signs, it's probably cheaper to order the 64. Right. So just wait. Wait till they're all there. [00:24:13] Speaker B: Yeah, totally possible. [00:24:14] Speaker C: Okay, well, I saw lots of people eating food and having a good time and you know, there you go. So there is a little bit of my experience of returning post World cup to Toyota Stadium. [00:24:27] Speaker A: Did you get inside and check out the new club or. [00:24:29] Speaker C: Yeah, we walked in, we sat and had a chat after the game and just kind of. They had like a couple foosball tables and a pinball machine and the big bar and they had, you know, all the different kiosks for going in and get all the new concessions. I got to go check out all the concessions and stuff. That all tracked really well. I used a little boys room. That was great. And you know, I, like I said, I was really impressed. It was nicer than I thought it was going to be. Then the team traveled to H town and had a game Saturday night against the hated Dynamo and the announcer said, those are the home whites. That's their. Is that their third kit they were wearing? [00:25:12] Speaker B: That's their third kit. I believe that same guy called Dallas's white jersey their home whites too. Oh, you know, okay. Those guys don't always do the same teams and so they don't know. [00:25:22] Speaker C: Oh, okay. [00:25:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Their home jersey is orange. Their road jersey is that black purpley smudgy thing. This whites is there. It's like the burn kit Seals had last year. This white is their version of that. [00:25:35] Speaker C: Well, Dallas goes on to give up the lead in added time and then tie the game in added time as they end up tying Houston. Two. Two. [00:25:47] Speaker B: Yeah. This was a fascinating game to watch. Again, more open even than the previous one, I thought as Quill continues to open it up. Some of that maybe is that Kaika wasn't in there to run everywhere. But Cabaser, Miro, double. [00:25:59] Speaker C: Very different starting 11 from the previous. [00:26:01] Speaker B: Very different. You'd almost call it a full rotation. I mean, Musa was in, but Oz gets a rest. You know, your best defender, your playmaker. Valiente gets arrest. Kaiki or midfield Motor gets arrest. Although it turns out that was a late scratch for some Personal reasons which we not aware of. But Capis had a great game. It would have been interesting to see what Kai where K was going to play, whether I kind of predicted that Romero might rotate back out and Kai would be in there. Some other people predicted that Kai would be the high press ten kind of thing. But we saw Job get his first start in that spot and that. That was awesome. He was amazing. Capis was my man of the match. But Job was right there behind him and it was fascinatingly intriguing and. And depending on what you were looking at, he was some people's man of the match or their. Or the highest rated player or whatever. But super exciting. His ability to take people on and combine. And I actually really would like to see him as more of a real natural wing and a shape that had a real wing rather than sort of that internal 10. But even as that internal 10, it was great. It did end up with. Because I think because without Valiente and you had Delgado up there also, who doesn't do. Who does some work but doesn't cover a ton of ground. Musa was hunting the ball and coming way back and. And was really took himself out of the game and his average position was back behind like, even behind like Capis. So that's not a good look. We gotta close. Gotta work on that part. But you know, for the most part I thought Dallas outplayed Houston. Houston got some help from the ref on a couple of occasions, depending on where your fandom was and how much you were out of the ref for that game. And certainly the end was bonkers. A couple of PKs. Moose's PK miss where he took it too fast and had do. It was a bunch of shenanigans and just a. Just a typical derby game, man. Just crazy. [00:27:50] Speaker C: Let's talk about Job for a little bit because it was his first start and we've all been very interested to see how. Because the team has hyped him so much. Why don't you give everybody your just add water review of him as an individual player. [00:28:06] Speaker B: The verticality is nice. I really like the pace, the ability to run by some people. He got five touches in the box, which is pretty good. He's getting. When you don't have a playmaker, he's getting past people. And he also came back and did a little bit of defensive work. Not huge, but a little bit. Had some recoveries. Ground duels, six for six. That's big. You know, that means he's not just sitting in there waiting. He's actually being Aggressive and had an XG of almost 0.1, which is not very good. So, like, obviously the team needs to do some work in terms of getting him into a position to score. You know, that's really more Moose's job, but you'd like to see him do that three for three on dribbles, you know, just 35 touches. Again, you want to get him more involved, but, you know, so new to the team and again, without a playmaker. You relying on campus or Ramiro to kind of link play or Bernie on that side is sort of linked play. Not great, but way to go about it, but, man, just exciting in terms of, like, what he did. Now, if you really want to get cut and dried about the idea of the being the real 10 and being being underneath the striker, his position was really wide, which is why, like, I want to see a shape where he really supposed to be that wide guy, rather than one where he's just kind of going out there. And then Bernie also wants to occupy that same space. And so they ran into each other a little bit. You know, Bernie's not. Shaq Moore is better about coming underneath when he plays that wing back than Bernie does. So that wasn't great. But again, like, for a start, you know, you want. You look at the raw pieces, you go, man, that's really exciting. Not like how it worked with the team, because, of course, how it worked with the team is going to need time still and the formation maybe need to be different, that kind of thing. [00:29:50] Speaker C: Do you feel like he should be starting? [00:29:54] Speaker B: I think his performance was better than we've seen from anybody else in that spot in terms of it being Santi Moreno or Delgado or. I thought his overall play was better. You know, I would be. I really would want to see him with Valiente to see, like, if you could get him touches higher up the field. I really would like to see him with either a wing back who would come underneath, like, if you were to put Shock Moore out there, or if you could just convince him to come inside more and leave that open line out wide for Kamungo. Now, part of it perhaps was Musa coming back so deep. So maybe, you know, he felt like Moose is coming into the space where he should have been. So maybe that's why Job's going outside. So it's hard to know until we see more of it how it's going to work. But I certainly would be willing to give him a couple more starts, like, you know, what you have on those other guys. So if you. If you Play, you got four games left. If you play a couple of those games with him and it's still not dialing in, you can always go back to Santia, Moreno or Delgado or, or especially now we're talking about Fairington being hurt because Farrington's earned the chance to start. So if Farrington's hurt, give Job a couple more. Job a couple more and see how that's going. And then say like, oh, is that better than what Farrington's giving me? Because then you could have Farrington be your off the bench guy to come in and give a goal threat or Bruce Place moves if you need him. If Job can try to be a better fit. So questions for the coach as he goes forward for a couple of games, I would definitely want to see him. You know, as long as Farrington's kind of questionable, which he probably will be again this week, I would assume coming out of a boot, you know, give Job another go. I mean, you know what, you got everybody else, you might as well. [00:31:36] Speaker C: Yeah, but aren't we at this kind of critical juncture where Quill. And then you'd think Zenada and the front office would align on this, that they need to make a decision on what this team is going to be because and I ideal world, if you're keeping Santiago Moreno around, he's probably a DP player. [00:31:56] Speaker B: No, no, he is. Yeah. [00:31:57] Speaker C: Okay, so is he replacing Moreno? [00:32:01] Speaker B: Well. [00:32:02] Speaker C: And don't you want to have both of them on the field at the same time? And to accomplish that, don't you have to switch from being a three man back line to a two man backline? Because now you need the additional attacking player instead of an additional defending player. [00:32:13] Speaker B: Yeah, but those are questions for the off season because right when you're third in the west, you're playing for now. Yeah. This season. Forget about anything else after this season. No one gives a crap about anything after this season because you're in third. If you were in 10th, we would be having all those discussions, but you're in third. You got to give Quill a chance to play for the now. So like every decision you make for the next four games is about now. [00:32:36] Speaker C: So like gee, Buzz, just four games, you think it's. [00:32:40] Speaker A: That's it? [00:32:42] Speaker C: No, I make it sound like. Never mind. Go ahead. [00:32:45] Speaker B: My point is that like that position, like Moose is a lock, Valiant is a lock. The other position has been draw a card every week. Right. It's been Reno, it's been Delgado, it's been Logan Ferrington, it's Been Kaik. It's like every week it's somebody different. Well, okay, give Job a couple of games and see if he's the better option right this minute for a couple of games and if he is, let him go through the playoffs. I mean, because otherwise you can rope. You can rotate back to Moreno or you can rotate back. [00:33:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I just feel. Whatever my observation is is Moreno doesn't work in that wide space anywhere near as well. He feels like a guy that needs to be more central. And Job does deliver on the promise of being El Rapido and will go at people in a way that Moreno just doesn't do. And, and I obviously by winning the PK and some of the other stuff that took place during the game, that was a very promising debut. Again, thank God he didn't score a galazo on his first start because we know how that goes for Dallas players. But he played well and that was promising. It just makes me wonder how Quill handles filling that role for the rest of the season. Right. [00:33:56] Speaker B: You have a couple of different profiles, right. Farrington is the. Is more of a second striker off the shoulder. Santi comes underneath, wants to get into those tight spaces and be more of a like cut her through traffic. Job wants to go wide and go at people, right. Kaik's up there to be a high press. Delgado, same sort of thing. So you have some sort of options. And Quill has been tailoring that piece to adapt to like, because we know Valentin, we know Musa, right. So he's been. That other piece has been interchangeable. Depending on who he's playing with, someone's try to do. So you just use. Use Job for a couple of games and see what kind of option that looks like. Maybe he does so good that like, oh, that's going to be the guy or for the playoffs. Or maybe you just think, okay, he's a option and now I'm going to mix it up all time depending on where I am and what I'm playing in that spot continues to be volatile in who he puts out there. So it's okay to do that. I mean, that's. We're. It's all for the now, right? You know, you can reserve your thoughts about do we keep Moreno or not or whatever in the future. I mean, we're. You would probably change shapes. There's all these conversations that'll happen in the off season when you turn over like five to 10 guys on your roster anyway, as you always do. You know, it's. Those are for different day. [00:35:06] Speaker C: I do Find it intriguing. I just need to see some final product. But it's only one game or one game plus some extra minutes. We just, you know, if. If he can throw some sort of. I'm not even saying all the time, just some level of consistency on creating danger and a final product, maybe there's more to this than. Than we thought, and maybe there was a reason to sell. [00:35:27] Speaker B: You know, you can get that out of Farrington. You can kind of get that out of Santa Marino. So, like, okay, can we give a couple games of Joe and see how he contributes in the same sort of scenario? Because you're right, you want to see a better final product. You want to see more touches in the box. You want to see how he interacts with Valiente. You know, you want to see how he works with Musa actually being high and not coming back so much. So, you know, you have. You got five games technically to serve. Figure some of those things out. Dennis, don't you? [00:35:49] Speaker A: Yeah. You've also got to consider that, you know, based on what we saw at the end of this, or when they took him off at 60. Right. He looked like it'd be a little gassed around 60. So, you know, I don't think he's fully MLS fit. And, you know, I know he came in from Norway. Was that where he played? Norwegian. Yeah, Norwegian. Second division. Right. He's just not up to MLS fitness yet. So when you do start him in a lineup, you have to consider that you might only get 50 or 60 minutes out of him right now, and then you have to bring somebody on at that point, and that takes up a sub. [00:36:17] Speaker B: So, yeah, same's true of Marino and probably Delgado, too, for that matter, you know. [00:36:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, we know Marino's been playing with some sort of nagging injury that might need surgery at some point, [00:36:26] Speaker C: and Delgado's full of Bojangles. [00:36:28] Speaker A: Yeah, chicken and biscuits. [00:36:30] Speaker B: 20 minutes, Delgado. Yeah, great. 20 minutes. But then. That's it. [00:36:35] Speaker C: Very good. Well, now, what is it about the game that changed Buzz, that Houston really began to push and poke on Dallas and. And, you know, obviously ended up giving themselves a 2:1 lead? [00:36:49] Speaker B: Well, it's hard to really say, you know, Dallas subbed in a couple of better people. You know, playing on the road is tough. It's a rivalry game. I think Houston sort of rose to the occasion a bit. I don't think Dallas did anything differently. You know, they played the same way most of the game. I thought, you know, this week, Shaq Moore was excellent the whole week. Again, you Know, I think at the end of the day, like with not having Oz in there, not having Kaik in there, you know, you, you're relied on a bunch of players that are older, Romero, Ibiaga, somewhat, not as, not as young and can run everywhere for 190 minutes. Capis is not capable of that. You know, I think just sort of over time, you know, you know, Hanson was in for that one. He runs out of gas, you know, as time goes on. He looks a lot better this week in the better temperatures of course, which is, you know, we talk about that all the time. So I think they just flagged a little bit until they brought in, you know, Valiente and, and, and Moreno and Benyamin Benjamin brought the energy back up, you know. So after he came in the 80th minute, basically that allowed them to find them some, some energy at the end of the game because he was kind of going crazy and then very late saver, same thing, you know. So I think it's just, it wasn't particularly hot in Houston, but it's always, you know, 40 something percent humidity or something like that. So that's not dry as bone. But so I think it just, I think they just got a little tired because they had a little bit of old retired legs in there towards the end, that's all. [00:38:27] Speaker C: Well, Dallas runs into the final games of the season right alongside St. Louis who they are tied with on 51 points. They're tied on wins and Houston is in second because they lead on goal differential 15 to 8. Now here's how this plays out. Buzzard and St. Louis. St. Louis. What did I say? [00:38:51] Speaker B: Houston. [00:38:51] Speaker C: Houston. Sorry, I meant St. Louis. [00:38:53] Speaker B: Yep. [00:38:54] Speaker C: Here's how this plays out for the two teams. Dallas has San Jose, Columbus at Kansas City and Colorado. [00:39:02] Speaker B: Yep. [00:39:02] Speaker C: Which is a 4th place team, an 11th place team, a last place team and a 9th place team. Colorado obviously is trying to stay above the Mendoza line. Yeah, St. Louis for that second place has a road game at RSL. Now they're in 10th and they're trying to get leap over Colorado for a playoff spot, period. Portland they have at home who are just behind RSL and also still have the ability to make the playoffs. Even San Diego who is their third to last game that game they're only a few point, they're tied on points with Portland so they still have the potential to make the playoffs. And their final game of the season is at Houston who obviously are in fifth and are trying to get in the top four. So I think it's fair to say that St. Louis who by the way their winning streak that went on forever and I think either tied or beat the MLS record for undefeated streak. I don't remember Todd. I believe tied came to an end the other night in Minnesot Soda. [00:40:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that sort of sets up really the Dallas San Jose game being a six pointer as humongous game for Dallas's chance to be higher than third or even to stay in the top four for that matter. You know, you'd like to think the crew are in 11th. This is who Dallas plays after San Jose. They're one point out. So they're going to be fighting for the playoffs. Sporting is 15th. They're. They're actually the only team that's eliminated in the whole of mls. But you get your usual playing for jobs kind of thing where guys might all of a sudden be really battling so you never know what you're going to get in San Jose. Sorry, Sporting who you think you should beat and then the last game is Colorado who you mentioned as in 9th also fighting for a spot. So like Dallas only has one game. It's like a team that's out of it really in the San Jose game is humongous because they're also going to want to be, you know, second to fourth conversation. So it's not a, it's not an easy road for Dallas. Three of the four games are going to be super competitive and Sporting Kansas City probably would love to be a spoiler. So even the fourth one might be so really like staying ahead of San Jose when this game becomes massive because like if you fall behind them, that's going to be a problem for you. St. Louis, man, I know they lost, but they are so hot. I just think it's going to be really difficult to catch St. Louis. I know that they're tied on points, but that plus 15 goal differential, that's seven goals, seven points ahead of Dallas that you're probably not making up a plus seven with five games left. That means that you have to [00:41:52] Speaker C: goals [00:41:53] Speaker B: for it means you have to outscore them down the stretch basically again also probably hard because they're on 56 goals to your 55. So like your chances of catching St. Louis are I think are not good based on the way they're playing. So I think really your battle is to stay in the top four, third, fourth. You don't want to be falling out and lose that home. First round advantage really is trick Dennis, go ahead. [00:42:18] Speaker A: That loss at Charlotte really impacted where this team ended up right Dropping points out there, especially when you had that, that duo lead, it really just kind of turned this table on its head a little bit. Had they got points there, you know, seven from nine would have been a lot better than four from nine. [00:42:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And you would have had one more win. So you would have been in clear second ahead of St. Louis and you would be within one win of Vancouver at the top. So like that game cost them a shot I think at the top of the West. But listen, beginning of the year, the prediction was third to six and they're, they, they're at the top of that. My prediction was a lot of, I think the rest, you guys had them much lower than that. But this is exactly where you want them to be in this second season under Quill. So they're doing great. It's just maintained. Everything's working, the cooking is happening. As long as your defense, as we've talked about a lot, doesn't burn up with all the minutes that they've been playing. You know, getting Oz arrest was actually probably pretty good at the end of the day because this, you know, the stretch run, he'll now be probably pretty. Feeling pretty good for San Jose this week. So, you know, they're in a great spot to put themselves in a great position to make a little noise in the playoffs and they're capable of beating anybody on a given day. So they've given themselves a little bit of a leg up and they're in a good spot. You just got to maintain. [00:43:33] Speaker C: Now it is the beauty of Major League Soccer that here we are with, you know, a few games left left and Dallas is literally tied for second place. But they are only 12 points away from being, you know, a playing game in ninth place. [00:43:48] Speaker B: Yeah, from seventh is on Seattle's on 42. So that's your nine up on that. So like with five games you probably feel pretty good about your chances to stay like top six. But like at LAFC, who's struggling on 46 points and you said on 47 and those two teams for sure are capable of catching you. You know, a couple of wins by LFC and a couple of losses by FC Dallas, you've put yourself in question so you don't have to. It's not panic mode or anything like that, but like, you know, the, the bottom, the teams between really like seventh to God, 13th, even Austin, probably not, but Minnesota on up at 34 points on up. Those teams are going to be like, okay, we're, we're, we're six points out or we're five points out with five games to play. We can do that. You got to just play above a 1.0 points per game, you know, so like all those teams are going to think they got a shot. So like anyone you play is going to be bringing it right. There's not going to be any easy games even except for maybe sporting. But again that's those are the playing for their job kind of guys that are going to be kicking in trying to play sport. [00:44:54] Speaker A: Now I have to say good, good job by the league by scheduling these rivalry games, you know, towards the end of the season to where they really matter for, for points up and down the table. You know you had Texas derby this weekend, you had Hell is Real yesterday over in Cincinnati. So it's really made for some excitement down the stretch here as these games all really matter. [00:45:12] Speaker B: And if you know your Dallas history, usually Kansas City and Colorado to end the season would be real trouble. Yeah, in the past those games would have knocked Dallas out. [00:45:23] Speaker C: Well, I mean look Colorado still, I think as a team that has Dallas's number a lot, maybe not as often as it used to, but it does make it a bit of a bunch butt clencher that they're the final team of the season even if it is at home. San Jose, by the way, are on a three game tie run. They have drawn their last three games at Hockey Sticks. Again a road game at Colorado, a road game at Salt Lake and then the other day at home against Nashville. They finish out the season with their game at Dallas and then two home games, Colorado and Salt Lake and they finish their season on the road at Minnesota and obviously is the team right behind Dallas in the standings. That's why and to Buzz's point, that's why we care about that. What do you think about a lineup for them, Buzzard? [00:46:12] Speaker B: Well, I would imagine you rotate everybody back in, right? I mean like you'll have, you've rested some of your good guys, you'll have a week off. There really only is a couple of questions. We just, we just talked a lot, a little bit about some of these things. Right. Musa and Valiente are a lock. Daniel Oz at this point, more Iaga. Quill's definitely shown that he wants to play this more open play. So it's going to be Kamungo. You know, Norris probably is taking a backseat to IABA right now, but it's close so like that can change game to game. Johansson vs Benyamin is a battle. I think Benjamin's probably earned that spot. But Quill Keeps changing his mind on that, it seems like. Or else he's just. Just rotating those two dudes. So I'm gonna guess Camungo Ibiaga. More on that. Left center back Ibiaga, right center back, Oz in the middle and. And Benyamin. Lately he's been playing quite well. We'll see. I think Kappas has earned the right to start a little more the last few games. I want to predict Kappa's Kaik, but you know how much Quill loves Ramiro, man, I think Cap is earned the start. I'll stick with that. [00:47:24] Speaker C: Do we know what Kaik's status is? [00:47:26] Speaker B: We don't. It's something personal and they won't. They for sure won't say. And we have not heard any rumbles. [00:47:31] Speaker A: So he did post a picture that he was back at the facility today, so it likely wasn't anything too serious. [00:47:37] Speaker B: Optimistic he'll be involved. So again, it comes to that extra spot, that extra 10 spot, and I'm gonna say go with a game with Job and see what happens. You know, Delgado hasn't shown enough to maybe think that that's the choice. Santa Marino's been, you know, fine, but, like, maybe Joe could be better. And I'm gonna say Farrington will be, if not actually questionable. I'm gonna call him questionable because he had a boon on this weekend, so. Or this week. So let's. Let's pencil in. Joe began up front. So the closest guy, the questions are Norris over Ibiaga or Romero versus Capis, because Kaiko the lock starter, and then that one extra spot, that Job spot. And so I think Job, Capus and Ibiaga will be the three choices. [00:48:18] Speaker A: Norris giving up the handball might pull him out of Quill's lineup just because of the way Quill kind of. [00:48:24] Speaker B: He played pretty good. I. I think that ball. If he would have just stood there stock still, they might have called that as a sword position. But he kind of flexes himself and that's what cost him. We should probably talk about the Sarver red card at some point. [00:48:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I was going to say, I know who will not be in the lineup this week. That is one Samuel Sarver. [00:48:43] Speaker B: Yeah, maybe for a while, actually. [00:48:45] Speaker A: Yeah, that was certainly an interesting end to the game there. And some. Some interesting videos have come out over the last 48 hours or so since. [00:48:54] Speaker C: Well, not that his legendary status of this club was already was in question at all because of the beer incident. I think Sam Sarver's beloved status within the fan base was solidified by the way, I want to point out, we'll talk about some of the other parts of this, but the aspect of it more that I love more than anything is Sam Sarver throwing out the very old fashioned. I don't even know what you got. What this is called when you up yours. Up yours hand gesture, which I haven't seen a Gen Z do ever once ever. So kudos to Sam Server for doing the old up yours east coast bit. So there you go. [00:49:34] Speaker A: As I say, that's usually I pull out as I'm driving down the tollway. [00:49:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Not to get into the technicalities of like his love the fan, the love the fans are going to have for him. And not to excuse anybody from the Houston crowd doing whatever they were doing. Just speaking of Sam, you know, some sort of obscene gesture to the fans probably gets you a fine or almost certainly gets you a fine, maybe gets you an extra game. The clip of him throwing the bottle back in the stands, however, is the problem. That's problematic. That probably is more than an extra game game that might be. I mean, I don't know. [00:50:08] Speaker C: He might be done for the season. [00:50:09] Speaker B: Yeah, that could be four, five, six games, easy. I'm not asking for them to do that. I'm just saying history says if you throw something at a fan, just like if a fan throws a bottle at a player, they're going to get a lifetime ban like when that guy hit George John. So, like, I'm not, I'm not. I'm not even going to get into whether he should be doing that or not be doing that. I'm just saying the league is probably going to come down on him for that part way more than the red card for the gesture. I don't know that the ref saw the bottle, but once that clip of the bottle throw got out there, it would not surprise me, Peter, as you say, if Sam's done for the season, the regular season anyway. [00:50:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:45] Speaker C: So that would not surprise me at all. [00:50:47] Speaker B: And at that point would Quill bring him back for the playoffs when he'll have probably Farrington job, Anderson, Julio Santia, Moreno, he's going to have lots of other options maybe to bring in over Sarver at that point. [00:50:58] Speaker C: By the way, Buz, you get an extra point for this episode for bringing up an. An item from the list. [00:51:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Which. Oh, the George John getting hit in the face with a bottle. [00:51:07] Speaker C: Yes. [00:51:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:51:08] Speaker C: By his own fan. [00:51:09] Speaker B: Yeah, by his own. I forgot it was a Dallas fan. [00:51:14] Speaker A: You know, there's something to be said a Bigger picture around the league as to how often this seems to be happening. I mean, first of all, this is the second time this season, or really since the, the World cup break that or the end, or just prior to the World cup break that Sarver has had a beer thrown at him specifically or in his general direction, this seems to be happening a lot more. [00:51:34] Speaker C: You can kind of see why if Sam Sarver was playing for another team, he'd be easy to dislike. [00:51:39] Speaker A: Oh, I would absolutely hate him if he played for Houston. Right. Or Austin. And he's very, very much a likable guy for us and quite the opposite for anybody else. [00:51:48] Speaker B: This is the exact, exact same scenario that happened, I think it's about four years ago now, when Jesus Ferreira scored a game winner in that same goal and ran to that same section and celebrated like this to the fans with the middle fingers and they all threw bottles and stuff at him. So, you know, as I have said, I'm not excusing this, but if you celebrate into the supporters, you're going to get stuff thrown at you. And I'm sure people are like, my fans, don't do that. Okay, whatever. As a player, there's an expectation that I'm probably gonna get some chunked at me if I celebrate. [00:52:21] Speaker C: Well, the whole thing started because Musa engaged with those fans. He kind of gave him the shush [00:52:27] Speaker B: and a little bit of a. [00:52:27] Speaker A: Too small. [00:52:29] Speaker C: Yeah, a little bit. [00:52:29] Speaker B: Hector Herrera did a. Did a moose thing after he scored. Did you see that? [00:52:34] Speaker C: They all did. Yes. [00:52:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:52:35] Speaker C: What is going on with Hector? Hector Herrera has vaguely Elon Musk body torso these days. [00:52:43] Speaker A: He's just old and built like a cyber truck. [00:52:45] Speaker B: He's. He's fat. [00:52:46] Speaker C: How old is Hector Horan? Has he got to be 40 something? [00:52:50] Speaker B: 36. [00:52:51] Speaker C: God, he does not have the body of a 36 year old. [00:52:55] Speaker B: Well, you know, it's hard to know. He may have Carlos Ruiz for all I know. Syndrome. [00:53:02] Speaker C: Barrel chested. [00:53:04] Speaker B: No. Speaking of the other behavioral stuff. I don't know. [00:53:08] Speaker C: Okay. [00:53:08] Speaker B: I mean, to be playing at 36, he must have taken care of himself to a certain extent. Although he doesn't run a lot. He's a player that gets by. By his brain. He always has been. [00:53:16] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:16] Speaker B: So, you know, a great player. I mean, obviously well past it, but his prime, of course, but still effective for them. A guy you love to hate. I remember when he first signed with Houston, my wife was like, hector, Hera. I hate that guy. Just complain. [00:53:30] Speaker C: With Mexico, you think the, you think the Benyamin penalty was Legit. [00:53:38] Speaker A: Oh, for sure. [00:53:39] Speaker B: I mean, within the letters of the rule. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure that there are probably Houston fans that don't feel good about it. But you know, when you look at [00:53:45] Speaker A: the way that game was called, I mean, I think it was pretty clear. If you look at the one that was called before that, I think Reavis was. [00:53:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean he was definitely calling him strict by the book. You know, like the callback on the Musa pk, it's like, man, I don't know why you just don't go. Yeah, okay, go ahead. [00:53:58] Speaker C: All right, before we move on, one last thing I mentioned earlier. So in the, on the heels of the game against Seattle, somebody in Buzz's discord posted a link to an Instagram post by one Andre Zenoda. Now what you should know was this was an AI generated kind of celebratory image of Zenoda front and center with some FC Dallas imagery behind him and the in a big white letters underneath it, 100. And there was this whole thing by him underneath, essentially celebrating the fact that with the 100 win over Seattle, that was his personal across all competitions, 100th victory with the team. Now he has some very nice things about thank you to everybody, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I saw this and maybe I'm overreacting and I admit up front I'm not a big fan of his. I'm very suspect about him and what he's doing and all of that. So maybe I'm overreacting and making more bad out of this. I thought if the team was to post it, I would think it was weird. The fact he's posting it publicly I thought is just borderline tone deaf and, and just unnecessary. [00:55:28] Speaker A: Well, I think the, the Zenoda personality bit has just been completely off the charts this year and it has been for a little while. But you know, when you look at how they started the season, they had the press conference for the, they sold extra, extra price tickets, higher price tickets to cocktails and cleats for an exclusive interview with Andre and Quill. And then you've got all these different things that went on over the course of the season, including like them making a big story of him flying out to sign job in person. Right. So this kind of cult of personality they're building around Zenoda is really interesting to Buzz. [00:56:05] Speaker C: Who is driving that? Is it Zenoda himself that's encouraging the marketing team and social media team to do this? [00:56:12] Speaker B: I think so. He, he does a lot of posting on social media where he takes a Selfie with someone famous in the soccer world and then posts it. He does that a lot. So like he's. And he'll celebrate his own mileage like there's a, there's a poster picture I use a lot from when the North Texans won a championship a couple years ago and he and Sandro and, and their chief scout are posing with the trophy. You know, like they do a lot of this sort of self congratulatory. It's tough, you know, at some levels. I understand it, I get it. I, I don't think, I'm not sure as a TD that you should be celebrating wins and losses and trophies. Yes. Because that's an organizational level thing. But like wins and losses because he's on someone in the discord added up, not me, he's on 99 losses. Okay, there you go. [00:57:03] Speaker C: Yes. [00:57:03] Speaker B: So like he's basically 500 someone in [00:57:05] Speaker C: the Discord when he's celebrating his 100th win. He was this close to have having 100 losses beforehand. First he's 199 and. Well now. Yeah, 100 and 99 and now 86. He has 86 draws. So he's essentially 500. Yeah, he's never won, he's never won MLS Cup. Of his eight seasons, he's only made the playoff three times. He's had three winning seasons. He has not actually flat out won a playoff game. They've won a two game, two series over through pks. [00:57:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:41] Speaker C: And they've never qualified for, you know, Champions League particularly. [00:57:46] Speaker B: The thing that I think I feels disingenuous about it and maybe we're all seen as haters, but you know, they love this idea of, oh, we don't do tactics, we don't do lineups. We just get players and we get versus all players. And then now that's up to the coach to do something with it and to win games. And if you don't win, you're going to get fired. So like it feels disingenuous to me to be like, hey, look, that's my 100th win, man. You are, you are the. It's not. I have nothing to do with coaching guy. You're the dude that puts all the weight on the coach that takes no responsibility for tactics and style. So like, if you're going to, you can't have your cake and eat it too, man. Well, is it. [00:58:23] Speaker C: I just found it objectively weird that a technical, technical director would be celebrating a personal milestone of victories for a club. And I just, I don't, I don't get it. And I thought it was really unusual and. And tone deaf. [00:58:40] Speaker B: Even more so because he's not TD anymore. He's. [00:58:43] Speaker C: Or whatever. [00:58:44] Speaker B: Sandro is technical director, who's the one that's in charge of determining, you know, working with the coach and styles of play and all that crap. So. Yeah, okay, Dennis, I think this is [00:58:53] Speaker A: just like the sporting equivalent of, you know, posting up to, you know, LinkedIn slope. Right. The, the. What I learned about B2B SaaS, if you've ever followed, you know, any of those LinkedIn influencers, this is, this is what this is. [00:59:07] Speaker C: It was. Was very strange. Okay, enough about that. Also, we should definitely take a minute to note that with the goal. Musa is now on 20 goals in a single season. That's the first time an FC Dallas player has done that. It puts him second behind. He's way behind Jason Kreis, who ended up his career at 91, I think it was. So he's got a ways to go for that and I don't know if he'll ever get that close. But it is notable that getting 20 in this particular season is a big deal. Is he the best? Oh, there's a helicopter outside my window. I was like, what is that sound? I don't know if you can hear [00:59:46] Speaker A: that howling through your window any second. [00:59:48] Speaker C: Buzzard. [00:59:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:50] Speaker C: Peter Musa, best striker in club history. [00:59:54] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Not close. [00:59:57] Speaker C: Even better than Jason. [00:59:58] Speaker B: Jason Grice is the Goat because of the longevity and what he did for this franchise and what he meant for this franchise, the amount of goals he scored. Pure head to head striker pattern. Moose is a better striker. It's not a question. [01:00:10] Speaker C: Christian Coleman would like to have a word with you, sir. [01:00:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. Moose's physical profile is more like Graziani. [01:00:19] Speaker C: Yes. [01:00:19] Speaker B: Moose is unquestionably the. The or, or, or Coleman or Blas Perez. Jason's an off tracker. He's more like Jesus Ferreira. Jason was an amazing player, but Jason was like one cap ever for the national team and that was when the national team in the league wasn't anywhere near as good. Peter Moose has, you know, been in his national team far more and played at a much higher level and is a much better striker. That doesn't mean that Jason Christ isn't still the Goat. He is the Goat. He's on Mount Rushmore of FC Dallas and Peter Moose is not. [01:00:46] Speaker C: Would you like to predict how many he finishes this season with? [01:00:51] Speaker B: I'll, I'll, I'll go two more. I'll get. I'll get him a 22. Like score two out of the next five games. [01:00:57] Speaker C: I think they have four games left. [01:00:58] Speaker B: All right, I'm still giving them two and 22 games. [01:01:02] Speaker C: Do playoff goals count? [01:01:04] Speaker A: No, but there is a separate number that he will. He. He will also. [01:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Jason's 91 is regular season. Yeah, but I didn't know. [01:01:11] Speaker C: I couldn't remember if they, if you made the playoffs and you scored goals, that goes towards a single season goal scoring count. All right, very good. [01:01:19] Speaker A: But he had 20 last season. All comps. [01:01:22] Speaker C: Okay. [01:01:22] Speaker B: It doesn't count. [01:01:23] Speaker C: All right, well, Dallas plays San Jose coming up next, and we'll maybe see some of you there at the game. Maybe not. All right, Dennis, the game, the El Classico, was at the Cotton Bowl. Chivas was in town and Trinity, in their little special game, got a very notable win. And I will say right off the bat, I'll be damned. Those kits are amazing. And they should be wearing that all the time. [01:01:50] Speaker A: Damn, those look good. That. That live oak green, as they call it, tops with the gold shorts and the maroon socks. I think this just all came together and it looked really good on the field and so did the club. I think the, the, the roster they rolled out. The lineup they rolled out was obviously heavy rotation. They got pretty much went with the bottom amount of minutes for everybody. So it's everybody who hasn't really played and hasn't gotten a ton of minutes. He had Lauren Flynn getting her, you know, first start since coming back from injury. She hasn't really been a part of this club for a little while. She's gone almost six months. And then we had the debut of kaia Brewer at 15 years old. Obviously not an official league debut, but she is the younger sister of 17 year old Mila Brewer who was only signed by the CO club maybe a month ago, a month and a half ago. And Mila's been starting with the club almost ever since she got here. And Kaya is actually still officially listed with kc, so Casey current too, so I don't know exactly how that works out. We heard rumors a few weeks ago about her being signed as an academy player, but nothing official has been announced. And the broadcast didn't even know who she was when she scored the goal. This has been this. [01:03:05] Speaker B: Don't get me started on the damn broadcast, dude. Oh my God. [01:03:07] Speaker C: There we go. [01:03:07] Speaker A: Here we go. I got him started. [01:03:09] Speaker B: No, don't. Don't. Yeah, you have another hour to go, but yeah. [01:03:14] Speaker A: Lauren Flynn gets back in action. Heather McNabb gets her first action for the club. She hasn't, hasn't had any time on the field since she signed back in August. This was a good chance to rotate in and get some good minutes for players who haven't seen any. And they did it against a crowd. Right the. In front of a crowd, rather. Right. 15,015 and change. 15, 326 was the official number, a little bit down from last year's Classico. Last year was 22 and change almost 23. But this was, this was a great look for this club. Got a lot more eyes on it. And I think everybody who bought a ticket, I think gets a ticket to the final game of the season as well. So that's ideally, ideally, I think this will put some asses in seats for the club as they come down the stretch and really just got an opportunity to showcase some of these players and, you know, see what they're able to do on the field in front of, in front of a big crowd and against a tough opponent. And they got the win they got. They, they, they dropped last year. So, you know, this is their first win in this Classico and they did it in an exciting style with Jasmine Hamid pretty much walking them off with a game winner. [01:04:17] Speaker B: Dennis, confidence is a big thing because we saw some boss skill out of Eichenberger that I did not know she had in her bag. Oh, yeah. I mean, some scintillating ball work to get the first goal. And then Kumins overlapping, blown by people also looked terrific. That whole right side has not played hardly at all and looked great. So that makes me optimistic for. Because those are both players that are signed and not alone, if I remember correctly. So that's really exciting for perhaps from the future L.J. moore. Great game. Playing as the seven, sort of nine. Well, that's a Star Trek striker thing. That looked good. Just overall, really exciting book. Batman in the Middle, of course, just I'm all team bagman and I mean all over the place. [01:05:03] Speaker A: She's a workhorse. She is really the spiritual successor to Amber Wisner. [01:05:08] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, because, like, listen, I was on board with time. She's been long. She's playing, I can't remember Signbrook. Like, I think she's a terrific player, but Beckman has succeeded her in my opinion. So, like, I know her loan's about to be up anyway, Steinbecks is. So I'm really excited for the future of Beckman in the middle. Wonderful player. If Kumas can be a great right back, maybe the Beckman can stick in the middle. That'd be awesome. And then just nice to see Flynn and. And Braun working together. Maddie Anderson got in that and did not do a lot to make me think that she needs to be in there over Presell. Goalkeeper is a problem with this club going forward for sure. Even if leaves. [01:05:51] Speaker A: I think the two biggest gaping holes in this club are all the way up front and all the way at the back. The nine and the one. [01:05:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, seven is serviceable, you know, when. [01:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah, but she's not a striker by trade, right. [01:06:03] Speaker B: Better is the right wing and then Hamid could go back on the left. But then what does UAGO do? Like, there's some interesting questions that. I mean, seven probably won't be here because her loan's going to be up, [01:06:10] Speaker A: but yeah, she'll probably be in NWSL next year. [01:06:13] Speaker B: Year. Yeah. I'm not sure that Cook is. The answer is a 9 either. Not the way Lena Win wants to play. She's not. So they got some questions I got to solve up front for sure. [01:06:27] Speaker A: But good, good look from Chivas, Alicia Savante's coming off the bench and scoring two in like eight minutes. Nine minutes. Yeah, she is incredible. She's one of the best in the league down there. And if they can bring in a player like that up here, I think that would probably. Not only would that make some noise around the league, but that might get some, some bodies to come in. [01:06:45] Speaker B: And I mean, I have no idea what Liga MX finale players get, but they had a couple of players I wouldn't mind stealing, for that matter. [01:06:53] Speaker A: Well, Chivas, you know, like the men's side, they. They play, you know, only Mexican national players. [01:06:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I know, but some of them, like half their team was American born, so like. [01:07:02] Speaker C: Yeah, but how many of those players have goals to playing in NWSL versus uslsl? [01:07:11] Speaker B: I mean, on the. On the Trinity's team? [01:07:13] Speaker C: No, on the. On Chivas. [01:07:14] Speaker B: Oh, I have no idea. I mean, they may be really excited and happy playing on the game. X. I'm not saying. [01:07:19] Speaker C: No, no, no. I'm just saying if they're coming to the us, if they're gonna leave, are they shooting to play at the NWSL level? Probably. [01:07:27] Speaker B: It depends on what they're getting paid in. In Mexico. You know, it may be that the USL Super League could be a step up. I have no idea what female players in League MX get paid. I mean, no clue. So, I mean, I know the men's side, they get paid boatloads of money. It's really hard to get a player to come to the MLS for Mexico because they get played a lot. But I don't know about the women's side. I couldn't tell you. [01:07:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the women's league has only been around for nine years or something. Yeah, yeah, they're coming up on a decade now. [01:07:53] Speaker C: Trinity has returned to league play. On Sunday the 25th they traveled to DC. They're their next home game is on the 1st against Fort Lauderdale. [01:08:04] Speaker A: That's right. Coming down the stretch here into the season. You know D.C. is has only played once since like the end of September. Right. This, this league still has sort of that weird schedule where they have weeks off and teams rotate out, which I think it was built. The structure of the schedule was built for the nine team table. So there's, there's still some weird weeks off and some weird rotational weeks. So you know their. DC's last match was September 22nd when they lost to Carolina or they lost to Carolina, which was their first match. [01:08:38] Speaker B: Sorry, you got an 11 prediction for us there. Dennis on. [01:08:42] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I think we'll see Purcell return to goal. I think we'll see probably Braun and Flynn I think is center back. I think Braun stayed her left center back there. I think we'll see Flynn roll into the right spot there. Hinson will probably stay at left back. I would like to see Sid Cheeseman roll into the right back position. I think she can be really exciting about moving up the right side of the field and sort of playing that version of game. Lee Win wants to play where that right back gets up forward and gets into the midfield and then you know, is another attacker up there. I think with the midfield you have to go. Beckman has to be in that midfield and I think, I think we return to, to Knox and Zidaneo there because they both had decent performances over the past few, few games. And I think we look at the, the top, the, the front three again I think will be Guerrero, Castane and Hamid again. And so I think it's really just a matter of who is going to be that right back. I think that is the biggest question there. Uh, but uh, Giannino, uh, look has looked really good in that position as well too. The, the newcomer, uh, she looked pretty good in most of these matches too. And Drew Kakuman's made a case for herself there and uh, the younger Brewer made a case for herself to get some minutes. So you probably see both of them at least come off the bench in this one. [01:09:58] Speaker B: My only problem with this whole thing is that Cameron Lancaster is Not in that conversation. I think you're right in your prediction, but I don't know how they're better when Cameron Lancaster plays. I think they win more. I hadn't look it up, but I think they win more when she's in the game. And so I don't know how you solve that problem. [01:10:14] Speaker A: You know, I, I think the Lancaster issue is that they playing her a lot at 10 and now that she's been support 10, she's got good passing, but she is not a natural 10. She played all through college, she played on the wing and so there's just too many wingers. I mean I'd like to maybe say throw her up front, see what she does at the nine. Right. Which is what they were, they were doing sort of that overlap with her and Hamid earlier this season, which really didn't work out with Hamid up front too much in the nine. But yeah, you're absolutely right. There's, there's got to be a home for, for a player with that talent here. [01:10:43] Speaker B: The question I have about your, your lineup that you listed is that you know they, they like to list it as a 442 with like an off striker and they've been using Sedano as that high off striker. But then she comes way back to midfield. That's the same spot for Lancaster. It's the same spot for LJ Moore. They kind of just have a log jam there. And like I know Lee definitely loves some Daniel in terms of her ability to possess like high, high, high possession player versus Lancaster is not a high possession player. But sometimes certain players win you games. And so I don't know what the answer is and in a way that might be why Beckman is playing a lot of right back. So like that's my one thing I might throw out there is like, like I'm with you. I like Cheeseman and I wouldn't mind seeing her on a right back. If you leave Beckman right back then Knox and in your double pivot and then you can have a Lancaster and L.J. moore as that second striker. Maybe that's just a twist I was thinking of. So, but I don't doubt your, your, your, your selection there that you're 10. [01:11:36] Speaker A: I, I do think there are a lot of women that made a case for themselves to get some minutes and maybe even start based on this performance this weekend. [01:11:43] Speaker B: And Lee likes to mix it up. So we'll see. [01:11:45] Speaker A: Yeah, and Mila Brewer will not be there. She's still away with the U17s. She's playing in the U17 World cup and they knocked off or, or they, they. The first round. They beat Samoa 17 nothing today. And Brewer had the, the, the impactful number 17 goal in the 90th minute. So she started for the 17s, played all 90 and scored a goal. [01:12:11] Speaker B: The other, other oddities of that US 17 game is that Gano's sister scored. So that's like first like brother sister World cup goals or games or whatever, which is fascinating. And then also like there was a young lady that I think had six goals which is the most by any individual player in a World cup game [01:12:27] Speaker A: for the U.S. yeah, just an absolutely insane performance there. [01:12:31] Speaker B: World cup was just terrible. It's like, it's like playing. [01:12:35] Speaker C: It's not like they've got a treasure trove of talent to choose from. Buzz. [01:12:39] Speaker B: No, I know but I mean that's like, it's ridiculous that they even matched up. It's like, you know, how is Samoa even in the World Cup? [01:12:45] Speaker C: Well, because there's probably not a lot of really good soccer teams playing out of the Oceana. [01:12:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:50] Speaker A: Apparently at the 17 level maybe there's expanded field. [01:12:53] Speaker B: Maybe as much people got in. [01:12:55] Speaker C: And before we finish up real quick, North Texas had a game against four that they beat last weekend. And then speaking of four. Oh, they and Denton Diablos have a big U.S. open cup game coming up. Buzz. [01:13:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Saturday October 31st. This is the final like local. Last two teams left in the qualifiers, Meangram Stadium and NTON 4:00pm Saturday the 31st. Support local soccer. That's why for played this game as a warm up scrimmage for them to play somebody better, you know. So two good teams, two of the best teams in town that aren't pro teams. So. So if you're not doing anything that day, go out and support or if [01:13:31] Speaker C: you're up in the Denton area. Very good. [01:13:33] Speaker B: Yeah. If you live in near Denton. Yeah. [01:13:34] Speaker C: All right boys. Well that was a fantastically fun chat. All that good stuff. Thank you very much, Dennis. Good to talk to you. Thank you, sir. [01:13:43] Speaker A: Always. [01:13:44] Speaker C: And Buzz, stay toasty warm up there in the frigid northwest. [01:13:48] Speaker B: Thanks man. Before we go, let me shout out there's a, there's a GoFundMe for Luke Munson at the top of Pin. At the top of my Twitter leaves, the young man who had his leg amputated, former FC Dallas Academy player, played for Furman, talked about him the other day. So shout out for him and give his recovery and get on there and give a couple bucks to the gofundme all the best. [01:14:07] Speaker C: Very much. Thank you. DFW Soccer Curious for giving a listen. We will speak to you next week on another episode of 3rd Degree the [01:14:14] Speaker A: Podcast support local soccer. [01:14:18] Speaker C: The 3rd Degree podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd Degree N podcast 3rd Degree the 3rd degree N podcast 3rd Degree the 3nd degree N podcast. [01:14:46] Speaker B: Sam.