3rd Degree the Podcast #382

[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 Nap Podcast. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Well, hello there, DFW and FC Dallas specifically curious. Welcome to another episode of Third Degree the podcast. He's here. He's Dennis. Howdy, Dennis. [00:00:41] Speaker C: Howdy. Howdy. Second place Pete. [00:00:45] Speaker B: How's that office of your smelling? [00:00:47] Speaker C: It is smelling magical right now. Show omen [00:00:52] Speaker B: I'm foreshadowing for later in the podcast. And live from somewhere in the Pacific Northwest smelling like pine needles and pot, it is your hero, my hero, everybody's hero, Buzz Carrick. Howdy, Buzz. [00:01:06] Speaker D: How are you doing? I will say howdy, Peter, since you have a howdy shirt on. [00:01:09] Speaker B: I do have a howdy shirt on. Yeah. [00:01:11] Speaker D: Yes. [00:01:12] Speaker B: My shirt says howdy across it is what it says. Boys, we do have a lot to talk about, but obviously most of our time will be gobbled up with the burn. And I, I don't know how we got to this point. I can't, I've been thinking about this for the last 48 hours. Try to just, you know, go back in the wayback machine over the course of the last month, two months, three months, six months, hell even going back to late January, early February, excuse me. And somebody explained to me how we all missed on the idea that FC Dallas would find their way at the end of the season solidly as the second place team in the West. It is remarkable. And let me also say this because I saw this discussed in your discord Buzz, which is what is going to make this a successful season. And some people said getting past the first round, some people said getting to MLS Cup, I'm sorry, it's already a successful season. Nobody had any right to believe that this team, with all of the burdens that it had to deal with in the roster situation, would end up with this kind of record. I, I, I, I'm truly delighted. As much as I fear the playoffs, I'm really, really pleased and proud, I should say. [00:02:28] Speaker D: Well, I don't think it's all that far off of what we expected. [00:02:31] Speaker B: Oh, no way. [00:02:33] Speaker D: Go back to the preseason previews. You [00:02:35] Speaker B: said fifth, maybe fourth. [00:02:37] Speaker D: I, I picked third to fifth was the next step and [00:02:41] Speaker B: their second. It's hedging. Did you say third, sir? [00:02:45] Speaker D: I think I did. [00:02:46] Speaker B: I don't think, [00:02:47] Speaker D: I think I said third to fifth was the goal in terms of your improvement. [00:02:51] Speaker B: All right. I need a diligent, curious person. Not, I mean, I may as me to go back and [00:02:56] Speaker D: fact [00:02:57] Speaker B: check some of This, [00:02:58] Speaker D: I mean, if you really, really went back and dialed down, maybe at the end of the day I might have said fourth or fifth. Like if you ch. Because you usually try to narrow me down more than I want to be. Nailed [00:03:07] Speaker B: it. But [00:03:09] Speaker D: I, I, I specifically said that if you're development is on track, you want Quill's team to take a step up to third, to fifth, because that's as high as you're gonna be able to make it. That wasn't your prediction? No, I predicted that they would be towards the not be third. I predicted they would be more like fourth or fifth. So it's not. And we've also talked about how the west everybody stumbled at the end. That's how you end up second. But at the same time, 58 seasons points is the third most points they've ever had. So that's remarkable. That is a really, really good close. Taking it much further than I thought was possible. But to act like this is out of completely out of nowhere, I think is not fair. I think it's not completely out of nowhere. I think this is more than we expected. More than I expected. But it's not out of nowhere, [00:04:01] Speaker B: man. I don't know if I agree with you on that. All [00:04:03] Speaker D: right, the, the league, the league experts all predicted like 11th. I know, 13th. And we sat here, I sat here and told you fourth or fifth. So second is not crazy. When you, when I said fourth or fifth. [00:04:14] Speaker B: I see, I, for me there is like a clear delineation in terms of league quality at the end of the season when you end up first or second in your conference versus third, fourth and fifth. And then there's another tier below that and then there's the shit tier below that. [00:04:32] Speaker D: Yeah, I totally agree that I did. Not that none of us expected them to be second, because second, it feels like you should be a legit cup contender. And I still don't think this team's a lit, legit cup defender contender. Excuse me. So like I, you know, Quill has done a remarkable job. I think he deserves all the credit in the world for keeping them in the high up and, and grinding out points. Man, this team stays in games like nobody else ever does. They win games on the road like nobody else ever has in this, in this franchise is what I mean. So like, you know, they've outperformed their roster and their team. [00:05:06] Speaker B: Dennis, you are the innocent third, unbiased third party in this discussion. You weren't doing the pod with us back at the beginning of the season. I don't remember what Dan's prediction was back then. I think mine was somewhere right around hoping to get into the play in game. What. What, what did you. I'm trusting you to be honest. A good Jersey boy to be honest with. On your mom. Swear on your mom what you're about to tell me is true. [00:05:33] Speaker C: So you can actually go back and check this. It's recorded on a. On a. In a different format. I had them coming in fifth. [00:05:40] Speaker B: Okay. All right. [00:05:41] Speaker D: That's right about where I was. [00:05:43] Speaker B: I [00:05:43] Speaker C: did have them coming in fifth. I. Based [00:05:46] Speaker B: on what Mr. [00:05:48] Speaker C: I said somewhere between fifth and seventh. And I expected them to be fighting for a home playoff spot. Is. Is what I had coming down the stretch of the season, which is exactly what happened. Right. They, they came in, you know, they, they were up towards the top of the western table towards the end of the season and they fought for it. [00:06:05] Speaker D: Peter. Dan was. Between the two of us. I was more optimistic than Dan and. And he was more optimistic than you and. But we specifically had a conversation about the goal this season is the home advantage in the first round. We talked about that. That was my prediction. That was the goal. That was the step that's through to fifth. Right. Was kind of where we were targeting. So, like, this is insane to me that it's really, really good. It's ahead of schedule and it's amazing to watch. And Quills turned out to be everything that I thought it was going to be as a coach. But it's not. It's not out of nowhere, I don't think. [00:06:37] Speaker B: Yeah. I also have come to begin to wonder. We've spent a lot of time being very critical of Andre Zenoda or Zenada, whatever. Sorry, my apologies if I'm getting it wrong one way or the other. And we have deservedly piled a ton of praise on top of Eric Quill for all the things that he does. Because I think we've talked about this before. I think this is not dissimilar to Steve Davis's claims that Parade Oscar used to make lemonades out of lemons with those rosters back in the day. And I think this is very similar kind of achievement on Eric Quill's part. But should we all. Is it going to pain us to eat a little crow on the Zenata performance at all at this point? [00:07:27] Speaker D: No. No. I still think he's terrible at his job. At that part of his job. Which [00:07:33] Speaker B: part? The roster building. [00:07:34] Speaker D: Yeah. I think he's amazing at selling one of. Amazing. Incredible. He sells broken, busted pieces that have no business even playing anymore for lots of money. [00:07:45] Speaker C: I think that is his job. [00:07:46] Speaker D: Yeah, well, it didn't [00:07:48] Speaker B: used [00:07:48] Speaker D: to be. [00:07:48] Speaker B: Okay, but then how do we account for, you know, Valiente coming good. I mean, hell job. [00:07:54] Speaker D: Sandro, Sandro Oro and Deli, since they signed him two years ago, their hit rate on signing players. He's the technical director. [00:08:02] Speaker B: Okay, but who signed Sandro? [00:08:04] Speaker D: Well, the organization did. I don't know, maybe Zenoda, maybe. But I'm sure Dan Hunt was part of it. You know, I don't know how they found the guy. I don't remember that level of detail. But since he has come in, their hit rate on signings has gone way, way up. Sandra does, [00:08:21] Speaker C: does credit Andre in his book as being the guy that brought him here. So, you know, they are [00:08:26] Speaker D: Brazilian. I'm pretty sure that he would be a big part in bringing him here, but. Nerd. But that doesn't mean that, you know, Sandra is the one finding these players in my opinion, you know, so I think he deserves the credit for the change. Because think, think back to the, the players that you're talking about, the ones that have hit, the ones that have been good. The guy's been here two years now. I'm going verify exactly when he was signed, but I think if in my mind you're talking about a hit rate that has occurred and changed. Yeah. February 2024. So he's been here for three seasons now. [00:09:04] Speaker B: 24, 25, [00:09:05] Speaker D: 26. 26. So three seasons now. But I'll give them, I'll give him a little bit of like get up to speed time. So maybe early 24 signings weren't him. So we're going to say that like as he's getting up to speed, he starts signing players in 2025, maybe mid to late 2024. But you know, so think back to these big hits that you're talking about, these good players that have come in. When are most of them more recently? [00:09:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know. I [00:09:30] Speaker D: mean, [00:09:30] Speaker B: considering this is arguably what, the third best season in club history. [00:09:34] Speaker D: I mean, in points, it's not arguable. It is third. Okay, [00:09:37] Speaker B: well, but I mean, I'm trying to put a larger kind of, I mean, I, I, I do think that it's too easy to shortchange how ridiculous this outcome is based on the goofy schedule, based on, you know, the other issues that have been going on within, within the club, in terms of atmosphere at the stadium and all kinds of stuff like that. I just, it is unbelievable that Quill has managed to will this into existence. [00:10:08] Speaker C: Can we just put a mark on this as Peter is defending the FC Dallas front officer. [00:10:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I realize this sounds ridiculous coming out of me. This is [00:10:16] Speaker C: how crazy this season is though. [00:10:18] Speaker B: But it's. I can't explain just how bonkers this is to me. [00:10:24] Speaker D: If you want to talk specifically about the success of this season so far, you have to throw some credit to 2006 Colin Clark. Wire to wire, first place, right? Only 52 points. Different table, different amount of teams, you know, different amount of winning gets you first place, I guess. But wire, wire, first place. [00:10:40] Speaker B: That was a really, really good side. Yeah. [00:10:42] Speaker D: Amazing season. And then they got upset in the first round and Clark got fired. Still one of the dumbest decisions in the history of this club. Oscars two seasons, you could probably point at things, you know, certainly regular season, 58 points. Yes. Amazing season. I mean, I think that what he's done in terms of. Listen, a big part of it, of course is your good players turned out to be good. We said, remember last week, simple game. Right. Your good players are good. You know, Patter Moose is in peak form. Right. And they've [00:11:11] Speaker B: had a remarkably injury free season. [00:11:14] Speaker D: Yes. Relatively injury free from the. Especially at the top end of the talent. Remember that Nico Stavez had a relatively injury free season, two in his first season and finished in third. And then what happened after that? So I mean, like, you know, nothing is set in stone. And if you want to talk about good seasons, well, 2010, making it to MLS Cup. But that's not regular season. That was end result. Right. So what happens next matters a lot in that conversation. You know, what Quill has really done, I think a good job of is finding a way to play that fit the talent. He had so many coaches come into a team and they just were like, this is how I play. We're playing this way no matter what, even if you don't have the talent for it. And Quill has run through multiple different ways of playing, even this season, let alone last season, before he figured out the one that worked. Beth. With what he has at his disposal. And that's the biggest criticism I have. The whole roster still is. The whole thing's just still a pile of players. It's not. They're not bringing in. They're starting to bring in players now to fit what Cole wants to do. So I think it'll change as they go forward. But you know, you have to give him credit for coaching up A, the system, but B, like all the pieces, the guys that we the that a year and a half ago, we're talking about just being dudes. He's coached up a lot of those guys and found ways to make them excel and make them the best they can be in this system. And it's producing tremendous results. [00:12:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, Saturday night was an interesting game because as I, as I go through and watch, I feel like FC Dallas must have had a kabillion shots in the first half and Colorado have none. And so I went back and looked at the stats and lo and behold, I'm not far from wrong on that. Colorado, zero shots in the first half. But then I also had this thing, I was like, how many shots did Peter Musa take just in the first half alone? And this is where the stats thing gets a little off wonky because if you read the official number, I think they have him counted for seven shots in the first half. But if you go through the actual shot by shot illustration or whatever it is in the chart, I count 12 shots alone in the first half. Now, I don't know if that's one of these weird quirks and how shots are counted, like if they're blocked, they don't count as shocks shots or something like that. But he literally took no less than 12 shots on goal just in the first half. Not, not necessarily on frame, but he took 12 shots at a minimum. He was going nuts in the first half. [00:13:40] Speaker D: Yeah, I think by my count, the first half ended, I thought to myself there were four moments where I expected him to score. He could have had a hat track. I'm like, man, not just a hat track. There are four times I'm like, oh. In my head I'm like, this is a goal. And then it wasn't, you know, so clearly, obviously that's the, that's the weird thing about this game. First half for sure, whole game for sure. Amazing performance by FC Dallas, top to bottom, maybe like goal to goal, as Oscar used to say, right? Take away the goals for just a minute and then I analyze how they play. Just phenomenal play all over the field. And yet, because Musa has the yeps or whatever, ball's not going in the goal, you know, but outside of that, amazing performance, amazing game, and he even was really good except for the finishing. But you know, that's end of the day, like that's the biggest, big thing with him, right? Is like, you know, he's here to getting paid the way he's getting paid to finish the goals. And he knows it, everybody knows it. And so he's as probably as mad at himself as anything else. [00:14:39] Speaker B: Yeah, the one that I was thinking of was earlier in the game where he cut back to his left foot and he had the left side of the net wide open and he punked it over the top and you could tell he was not pleased with himself. He had a few of those over the course of the game. I think he probably ended the game with just under 20 shots total, which is a ridiculous number of shots for one person in one game. [00:15:00] Speaker C: You know, he was officially credited with. I think nine was the number, but it definitely felt like a lot more than that. He was just all over the place and, and, and really the whole team was. I think you. You just had. It felt like at one point that they could have scored nine or 10 goals the way they were shooting. [00:15:15] Speaker B: Okay. [00:15:16] Speaker D: He had 14 touches in the box and then, you know, FMob's metric is three big chances missed, you know, so. And which are basically the ones he got on. Oh, and then he had three on target which isn't really missed. That's when somebody says it but you know, just, just, just phenomenal by him and the whole team really. Like it was such a. There was a complete performance or I thought in all phases. Like I didn't. I thought they outplayed Colorado in every part of the game. You know, they basically. It felt like they did Colorado what Vancouver did to them that time or what the Mexican team [00:15:56] Speaker B: to Looka [00:15:57] Speaker D: Toluca. Yeah. Thank you guy. Brain bubble. It wasn't coming to me in the game one of the league's cup when they got absolutely roasted, you know, that was. It felt like that but in reverse it's like. It's just exciting to have the team peaking right at the end. You know, instead of fumbling and stumbling in, they're peeking as they go in. So [00:16:14] Speaker B: yeah, I got to halftime and I was. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in my rapids because they typically proved to be Dallas's bogey team, especially in critical playoff implement implication type games. And yet here they were. They were getting absolutely shelled by Dallas and were only not behind by a lot by mostly Dallas own lack of finishing. And yet here we are just a few minutes into the second half and somehow some way Colorado finds itself up one nothing to start the second half. [00:16:46] Speaker D: That was actually for me like that. Like the next five or ten minutes after that were like the. One of the biggest gut checks that this team's had all season and there's been a bunch but like to play as good as they did and then not score and have, like, that humongous frustration as you're going into the locker room to come out and get scored on like that. That. [00:17:05] Speaker B: I think that was Colorado's first shot by. In the game, by the [00:17:08] Speaker D: way. Yeah, it might have been. And. And like many FC Dallas teams in the past would fold right there. Be like, [00:17:14] Speaker B: agree, [00:17:15] Speaker D: what can we do to hold. Why can we not, you know, everything's not going for us. And this team's like. That's the thing, I think, is my favorite thing about this team is that they never, ever roll over and just quit completely. I don't think there's been games where Quill's talked about how the mentality wasn't right, but it's never, to me, been, like, completely switched off and awful. And particularly in this one, like, they did never quit and never looked like they were like, oh, now we're up against it. They always look like that. We're not. We're getting this one. And sure enough, it was incredible to watch. [00:17:50] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree. And I think as I. As I ponder about this and think back to earlier in the season, like, even in the first half of the season, when they were dropping points at home, and we would get onto this, you know, the podcast afterwards, and go, man, that's just objectively bad soccer. Yet the one thing that I do remember us talking about was our kind of growing admiration for that. No matter how badly they were playing as a soccer team, they just continued to play and put out effort. And I do think maybe in retrospect, those were really early signs of what was to come over the course of the season. [00:18:24] Speaker D: Yeah. And what did we talk about all World cup break long like this. It's this road trip. This. This road trip. Right. It's coming up. It's like, if they get through this. And that in particular, that mentality showed up in that road trip, because you have to have that mentality, Dennis, don't you? To, like, go out there and win those games on the road. And even when all of a sudden you're playing more like a 500 because you're on the road all the time, you're not playing like a 700, you're playing like a 500. They still were like, no, no, we're good. We're going to beat anybody. That's what it looked like to me all along. And that was really the. The catalyst that made this team fire together and come together. [00:18:53] Speaker C: Yeah, there's. There's something to be said about the, you know, the time spent on the road too. Right. These guys weren't home for a long stretch of time. They were on the road together, traveling together, coming home for a few days, going back out, you know, coming home on Sunday, flying back out on, on Thursday or Friday and you know, round tripping it and you know, the, the long legs of them being away for weeks at a time. Something about building the camaraderie. I think there definitely helps from, from a perspective there. But you know, not sleeping in your own bed is hard. You know, I say this as somebody who, who travels for work often, but you know, not, not nearly as physically active as guys playing soccer for 90 minutes over the course of a week and playing two and three games a week. But you know, it's hard not sleeping in your bed. And they, like you said, they, they pushed through it. They came out of the other side of that, I think better than anybody could have ever possibly expected. Right. Coming out of that, that long stretch, you know, to come out at 500 or you know, was it 500 or just over 500? [00:19:49] Speaker D: Just barely over 500. [00:19:50] Speaker B: Yeah, [00:19:50] Speaker D: yeah, [00:19:51] Speaker C: yeah. You know, it just, just, it's completely, I think unexpected given everything they were up against. And I think every challenge that has been put in front of this team so far, they've really gone ahead and knocked down and they've done a really good job of, you know, breaking old curses, so to speak, to go into places where they've historically performed as a club really poor and come and broke some of those streaks. Red Bull's one that comes to mind. I know there are a few others over the course of the season too. [00:20:17] Speaker D: Yeah. And even not having Colorado be your trip up team at the end of the season is a break in a historic trend. And I think the thing that makes me most excited about this game is that you're peaking as you go into the playoffs. And I don't mean just like that you won. I mean that, that you have this. I'm not a little, I'm not a big XG guy. Beyond the idea that like it tells you that you were kind of in, you put yourself in good positions and to have a open play xg of 4.16 in the scan, that is just a bonkers xg and it's so high. Part of it, part of it not translate completely into, you know, 4.67 almost a 5 and because move is moose is not scoring. So it's really positive that A, it doesn't matter, they keep playing anyway and B, by the End of the game, other people found a way to score. So, like, they're picking each other up and picking up the slack, you know, and you're not walking the locker room. Everyone's mad at Musa because he didn't score. It's like, no, no, we got you. We're good. You know, and a lot of that kind of can go a long way, I think, to helping solve whatever is going on with Musa, which I think is national team related. But, you know, [00:21:15] Speaker C: and I think when you look at. At the season as a whole, I think there's been a lot of that. Moose has obviously scored a ton of goals, broke the record 22 goals on the season. But when you look at performances over the course of the season, there were goals coming from unexpected places all the time. You know, Herman Johansson goals. Kai goals. Yeah. Shaq Moore goals. [00:21:34] Speaker B: I. Dennis, you've really touched on something that I think is what gives me hope for the playoffs is, you know, we've been driving through this last half of the season thinking, man, this is a team that is so dependent on Moose scoring goals because he was kind of the singular person doing it. But here in the last several games, to your point, Dennis, I mean, hell, in the last game, they won the most this important game against Colorado and Moussa didn't score, and yet they scored three goals in the game. You know, Kaik has come into. This is the second game that he scored in of late or no, he didn't score [00:22:06] Speaker C: one. [00:22:06] Speaker B: Yeah, but you. I, and I do think that that is at least promising that they could get into the playoffs knowing that they aren't counting just on Peter Musa to bag goals repeatedly, you know, through the playoffs. They're gonna need him to do that, but it's nice to know they've got other guys that are actually producing too [00:22:24] Speaker D: well. Let's not forget that Logan Ferrington's kicking around with 10 goals on the season, you know, so, like, he hasn't been healthy the last month or so, but if he's coming back to play, you know, maybe he's not going to get back in enough of a way that you're going to start him, especially with the way Job's playing. But if you can have a guy coming off the bench that's capable of that level of scoring, I think you, you know, bodes you really well to have options, you know, and bring on a second threat or a different kind of threat. Not be stuck with Santa Marino or Kaik or. Or Joe bailing you out when you have Another guy that's capable of getting goals like that, you know, like as we've said before was. I've said before many times on any given day, this team can beat anybody. That makes it really exciting to, to think, you know, they have a chance to make a run here again. I think at the end of the day, there's also a couple of flaws that prevent them from being an outright favorite. But. And is [00:23:18] Speaker B: that, is that finishing chances? [00:23:20] Speaker D: No, no. It's related to how the team plays in the midfield and defensive depth. If they get an injury or two, they're really in trouble. But it's. There's there. When they play against a team that's really, really good at the midfield, controls the midfield and doesn't let them play through the midfield, they're terrible because like the, the. For example, this game Ramiro had like, what was it like? Something like over upwards of 70, maybe I was nine. Yeah, 76 touches, right? Which just shows you the volume of play they had in the midfield. They don't do that against really, really good teams in the midfield and that's where they're going to run into a problem. Particularly coming out of the East. There's three or four or five teams of the east that are really, really good. Think back to the Charlotte game. Think back to Vancouver again. That was a big rotation game, but they got their asses handed to them. To Luca is a good example of a team that's capable of that kind of thing. So you know, this, this game, like for Ramiro specifically, the Romero cap is not Romero cap. Excuse me, Romero, Kaik. That combination is the combination for now going forward. Romero had, by his measures, a terrific game. As I said, 76 touches. He passed at an 88% clip, right. Not turning it over a lot, but kept the ball moving at the same time. He was one for six on longer passes, one for three on ground duels and one for three on aerial duels. So there are flaws in the game, flaws in the midfield that keeps them from being an elite contender. Kaik, immaturity and poor decision making from time to time in the midfield is a problem. If they're playing, it's a really good, progressive team. They get outnumbered really quickly in the midfield because even when Johansson and Bernie are up to provide with those guys are not possession players, they're vertical players. So like, again, you know, Quill's found a way to play that works. But it keeps me from saying that they're a favorite, you know, but you never know, right? They could beat Anybody, So you never know. It's going to be fun to watch them try to make a run. [00:25:14] Speaker C: I do think Kaik has made. Made it a very difficult case for him to be taken off or taken out of the starting lineup here, I think. [00:25:20] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. No way. No, no. He's a lock. It's. It's Ramiro or Capis that's the change. Possibly. But you know, Kai's better with Ramiro, so, like it's going to be Romero at this point. There's no question. I mean, I like Capis, don't get me wrong. But it's like it's. I think he's better than Ramiro on paper, but it's not always about paper. Sometimes it's about what everybody else does when the guy's in there or not. [00:25:41] Speaker B: You know, we all love soccer because we love goals and I think we would be giving them short shrift not to point out that I think this is the most goals they've scored in the season in a really long time. I know in the 20s it is. [00:25:52] Speaker D: It's a record. [00:25:53] Speaker B: Yeah, it's 62. It's 10 more than last season, which is pretty tremendous. And I mean, yes, obviously you can chalk a lot of that up to Peter Musa, but also a little bit of the style of play. You know, I mean, I do think that that's pretty, pretty remarkable. [00:26:11] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, there's still 40 other goals that were scored by the rest of the squad, right? [00:26:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:18] Speaker D: Can I, can I turn you back to a conversation we had at the end of last season when we're talking about the stand. We were talking about the Civil game. [00:26:27] Speaker B: I was doing the way back, your [00:26:28] Speaker C: time travel music. [00:26:29] Speaker D: And I, I pointed out at the time that they, they all. What they really, and I'm gonna simplify it down for you, is that they needed a 10 to 15 point swing and goal differential this season and they would jump up to where they are in the standings. If you look at last season, 52 goals for 55 against, they were minus three. And this season they're 62 for 51 against. So they went down four against and up 12 four. So there's your 15 point goal differential swing I was talking about. And that's why this team's in second place and not in eighth or ninth place. Sometimes the soccer is a simple game, man. [00:27:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it [00:27:09] Speaker D: really is. [00:27:09] Speaker B: One of the other things that I think is especially for people like myself who have been watching this thing for a really, really long time, one of the real differences, and we See, with Quillers and even just Zenoda is the fact that we now have a team that will bring in new players and we don't wait forever for them to start showing up on the team. I mean, remember it used to be those times they would sign a guy in the January, in the July window, and we would like, where are they? Why haven't we seen them play? And we're like, oh, you know, it takes them some time or whatever. Let's just talk about Job for a second. I mean, look, the kid looks like a legit player. He's absolutely cooking people on the left side. And, you know, I'm not. I'm not. His finishing product isn't exactly my favorite at this point, but, man, it's all. It's way more better than I, than bad in any way, shape or form. He's really. I mean, he's a legit starter on the left now for them. [00:28:08] Speaker D: Yeah, the. The raw tools are what make him be so successful so quickly. Like, you could. If you want to talk about what takes other guys longer, the team integration. Like Johansson talked about it, right. Talked about how he's feeling much better now than he was beginning of the year because now he's comfortable with the league, comfortable with the team. [00:28:24] Speaker B: It's not 105, [00:28:25] Speaker D: not 105. Yeah. Job's an example of a guy who, because he has his raw ability that make him give him a step on everybody just because how quick he is. Like, the integration is still off. Like, look at game to game, how it changes what he's doing. Right. Two weeks ago we talked about, like, he's taken this really wide position and Bernie's coming underneath and we don't like that because Bernie in space, in Titan is not good. Bernie wants to occupy that same space. And we're like, oh, we want to see Job come in. We. Well, this game, he did that. He came inside, played narrow, and they were even letting him go flip, flop, whichever side. And Valiente was almost swinging underneath like this. I'm doing gestures on a podcast just like this. Fellas, I'm sure you can see what. [00:29:04] Speaker B: We're not on YouTube. [00:29:05] Speaker D: Yeah, we're not on TV. Right. But you know what I mean? Like, Job was popping from side to side. That kind of movement really unbalances a team. So I really liked that. And so the. If. If Bernie could be better about coming underneath if or when they want Job to do that, that could be a nice tool. I'm not super optimistic that Bernie could do that, but if he could, that'd be a really nice tool. In addition to this job narrow thing where he's going like that. A diagonal from underneath Musa almost. It's really exciting to watch. [00:29:36] Speaker C: Buzz is like talking like me with his hands over here. [00:29:39] Speaker D: I know. I was trying to do my Italian, doing diagrams with my hands on a podcast. Hey, Dennis, terrible idea. [00:29:45] Speaker B: I couldn't tell it from television. I know you were in the stadium. Did I actually see Bernie Camingo attempt a bike? [00:29:52] Speaker C: Yes, yes, you did. And it wasn't that far off. It was. It was a lot closer than that. Than it actually looked on tv too, on the replay. But yeah, you know, I think it's. I think, you know, having Job there alongside him and closer to the middle there on that side has definitely given Bernie a little bit more confidence or at least challenged him to step up a little bit, because I think it's just, you know, not that his ability has improved at all, but I think Bernie's decision making over the past couple of games has gotten a little bit better. You know, especially when you see him on that outside when he's sort of looking back and he's looking for Job and he's looking for guys, he's not looking to take it on, on himself and, and, and, you know, run into three guys like he normally does. So I think Job's positioning and. And the chemistry that those guys are building is really starting to come together. You know, we're at the right time. [00:30:42] Speaker B: Well, boys, I know we'll save up most of our, you know, pre playoff predictions and everything when we get closer to it, but how are either one of you feeling about Portland being phone number one? [00:30:56] Speaker D: I'm okay with it. I feel like they match up fairly well to it. [00:31:00] Speaker B: Is there another team you would have. If we were doing the MLS next pro pick, your opponent, would you have picked somebody else? [00:31:07] Speaker C: Maybe San Jose? [00:31:09] Speaker D: Yeah, I don't. San Jose can be too good on any given day. I wouldn't. I would have, you know, if you can pick the nine team, Salt Lake, I think they've done really well against Salt Lake. I would not want Seattle, not for FC Dallas. I mean, they, they beat them pretty decent the other day, but Seattle, you never know, man. [00:31:28] Speaker B: Having to go to Seattle is. [00:31:30] Speaker D: To Seattle always is a problem, you know, so. Not that Portland's not that much better at Portland. They've done, I think, fairly well this year on them, you know, Portland, Portland, for me, like, Portland doesn't control the middle. Some of their best players want to go Wide like they tend to do like a double overload wide on the left or the right and not try to control and hold in the middle. And so Dallas does well against teams that don't do that, that abandon the middle. They do well against that, I think. So that's why I think Portland's a pretty decent matchup actually. It's hard to really pick anybody better than that. [00:32:06] Speaker C: You know, to your point Peter, I think if I'm Portland, you know, I'm looking up and down this table here and thinking, you know, Western Conference, this is the team I really don't want to play. Right. Coming in here. Dallas is unpredictable. They are. You know, they've proven that they can beat teams better than them. They've proven that they can come out and do a lot of different things and score from a lot of different places and you know, really disrupt the game. And if I'm poor, Portland, looking at this, you know, there's a lot of different ways you have to game plan for, for you know, best of three series. [00:32:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I think the thing about Dallas that I find most interesting is that we can fairly look at them and say that's a team that has just simply gotten better over the course of the season. Say I'm sure St. Louis can make that same claim. In fact, I know they can. But you know, it's very, I mean we always talk about this, you know, fall stretch going in MLS playoffs to it is going in on a, in good form and Dallas is absolutely that again, St. Louis is absolutely that. And that to me is really exciting about as we get to the, as we get into this any further. [00:33:17] Speaker D: Well, unfortunately Portland has won four in a row. In terms of your being hot, it looks like staring at their fixture list including beating St. Louis and Charlotte. So you know, they may have found some magic sauce lately that makes them much more formidable. They could be a team that's, you know, Dallas in a way had that little stumble, those two game stumble right before this last win, you know, that we weren't super excited about. You know and that's one of the reasons we talked about how that Colorado game was so important. So [00:33:48] Speaker B: yeah, [00:33:48] Speaker D: I wouldn't necessarily assume that Portland isn't on just as hot or even hotter than SC Dallas is. Frankly [00:33:54] Speaker B: no. And I was wrong about St. Louis. St. Louis is had that five game winless streak before they won their last game against Houston. So [00:34:03] Speaker D: yeah, they were on that St. Louis went on that 19 game without a loss streak that tied the FC Dallas for 2010, [00:34:10] Speaker B: right? [00:34:10] Speaker D: Remember? Yeah. So they were really, really hot. And then they, they stumbled a little bit at the end. So did Saint and Stones today. You know, the other team that I would not want to play would be Houston because they're a little long in the tooth, but they have a lot of really good central midfielders. They, they kind of give up the middle. They kind of give up the wide spaces like, and pack the middle. So that would be a bad Dallas matchup too. [00:34:30] Speaker B: Dennis, please tell your postgame story and why your office smells so funky. [00:34:34] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness. So after the game, I was down on the field, we were doing some of the supporter postseason awards, and the Beer Guardian award went to Juan Petar Musa as the player of the year. And he took off his shirt and handed it to me as a thank you for the trophy. Did [00:34:53] Speaker B: you have a little handwritten sign saying, I'm your number one fan? Can I have your jersey? [00:34:57] Speaker C: Yes, yes, exactly. That's exactly how it went. So he takes out the shirt, he hands it to me, and you know, the thing is soaking wet. The guy's been running around for two hours and you know, it's just drenched. I throw it in the car, I take it home, I stick it in my office here when I get home Saturday night. And here we are, it's now Monday night and the thing still smells like his cologne, which, by the way, it doesn't smell bad. It doesn't smell like BO or anything else. But it's been sitting here in my office with the door closed for three days and my office now smells like a Croatian whorehouse. [00:35:27] Speaker B: That's awesome. Is that a regular thing that players put cologne on before they play? [00:35:35] Speaker C: I don't know, but this is the. You know, I've had a few match worn jerseys in my collection over the years. This, this thing, it smells incredible. He's a. He's a incredible smelling man. I'll say that much. [00:35:47] Speaker B: Handsome man. I just, I've dealt with a lot of players post game in my life and I don't ever remember anybody smelling like cologne. So that's something new. I'll have to ask a few other people about that. Maybe that's an Eastern European thing. [00:36:02] Speaker C: Maybe. [00:36:03] Speaker D: I have no idea. [00:36:04] Speaker B: All right, well, my other favorite little tidbit from the game comes to us today from the FC Dallas video production and social media team who put out a really fun two minute video, kind of like hype post game video. Really good stuff from Eric Quill, talking about all the things that we just have been talking about. For the last, I don't know, 30 minutes. You know, the resiliency of the team. And as much as I hate the term dogs, that whole bit and all of that stuff. And the video right before it ends has this really cool shot of Kaik walking down and into the player tunnel. And it's all of its red lighting and all the red painting and everything. I had to go back and listen to it twice because he does have his Portuguese accent when he says it. But I'll be damned if Kaik doesn't look into the camera and go and say, go, let's go fc. [00:37:03] Speaker C: Incredible stuff, [00:37:06] Speaker B: Buzz. That's your worst nightmare come true. But I'm going to suggest that let's Go FC should now be the official chant of Toyota Stadium for as long as these playoffs happen. [00:37:20] Speaker D: It feels to me like Waterboy when his mom's like, you playing the foosball. That's what it feels like. You just yelling, go football [00:37:28] Speaker C: team. [00:37:29] Speaker B: I mean [00:37:30] Speaker C: sports ball. [00:37:32] Speaker D: Yeah, go sports. [00:37:32] Speaker B: One of your star players who I understand probably doesn't speak a ton of English or probably understand the implications of it, but cheer using the fact that the team doesn't have a nickname. [00:37:46] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:37:48] Speaker B: And then defaulting to let's Go fc, which is our greatest fear we always had when they named this thing FC Dallas 20 something years ago, is kind of full circle moment. [00:38:00] Speaker C: I don't think they use FC much down in Brazil. [00:38:03] Speaker D: Well, the, the funny thing about that thing is that FC Dallas is, is named that way in the Spanish tradition. And they sp specifically cited FC Barcelona when they did it. And that's why it's mind boggling that almost universally from anywhere south of the United States, when they put FC Dallas into like a bracket or whatever, they, they go ahead and make it Dallas fc. They, they Englishize it even though it's not Anglicized here in the United States. So I always find that hysterically funny. [00:38:32] Speaker C: It's like how they pronounce streets in, in Southern California. [00:38:35] Speaker B: Well, I remember the reason why it's so funny and it tickled me so much is because I've always loved Buzz telling the Moneygram or some, you know, academy team, [00:38:46] Speaker C: Dallas cup. [00:38:46] Speaker B: Yeah, Dallas cup or whatever and hearing some mom, go, go fc. Let's go fc. So you [00:38:53] Speaker D: can almost forgive it because like you're playing against a bunch of teams that are also Dallas something. So they call it that because if you don't go Dallas, well, you could be playing the Dallas Texans. They're also Dallas. So it's like a solar [00:39:05] Speaker C: Go. Yeah, [00:39:06] Speaker D: yeah. But these are the same parents that when you say that you're wearing an FC House thing and they're like, oh, your kids play for the academy. You're like, no, no, I, I write about the pro team. They're like, there's a pro team? You're like, yeah, see the Giant stadium right there that your kid plays for their academy. Like you don't like. I'm talking about academy parents that don't know that there's a pro team playing in the stadium that their kid plays for. [00:39:24] Speaker B: I'm gonna put this on, Dennis. In fact, now that I'm thinking about this, I'm putting this on you. Since you were the one that got the cologne soaked moussa jersey, you're clearly the person responsible for making this happen. But we need a Giant T foe to be lifted above the hall of Fame that just says, let's go fc. [00:39:41] Speaker C: Go fc. That might be the T foe. [00:39:44] Speaker B: Let's go fc. [00:39:45] Speaker C: Let's go fc. [00:39:46] Speaker B: That's [00:39:46] Speaker D: right. [00:39:47] Speaker B: That's got. Yeah. So lfg. What does that everybody, all the kids say? Lfg. [00:39:54] Speaker D: Yeah. LFG [00:39:56] Speaker B: fc. [00:39:57] Speaker C: LFG fc. Okay, there we [00:39:59] Speaker B: go. Oh, Kaiki had no idea how funny, how much you made an old man laugh in that, that one moment right there. [00:40:09] Speaker C: Well, funny enough, I'm gonna drop a little plug in here right now. Tifo painting or tifo tracing will be taking place at Rollertown tomorrow, Wednesday. So this comes out on Tuesday. Well, [00:40:21] Speaker B: now you have a design. [00:40:22] Speaker C: Right? There we go. We've actually been arguing over it for hours. But tracing will be taking place up at Rollertown Beer Works and we need all the help we can get. So if you want to come out and support, support the supporters and be a part of that, be a part of that playoff tifo and you know, maybe you can paint the G in LFG FC. [00:40:39] Speaker B: So the other thing that I'm not 100% sure of, but coming in second in the west does also come with some additional prizes, including, does this mean they will not play in the open cup next year and they will play leagues cup or they'll do both. [00:40:55] Speaker D: They'll do both. They're 100 in Leagues cup and they're also. Everyone in the MLS is going back into the open cup. [00:41:01] Speaker B: Okay, so. So but the number of leagues cup spots is limited. In second place is one of those that gets that. [00:41:08] Speaker D: Oh yeah, it's the top. Then it's how many? [00:41:11] Speaker B: Nobody [00:41:12] Speaker D: cares. [00:41:12] Speaker C: Seven, five. I think it's [00:41:13] Speaker D: conference or something. Fourteen total. I think. [00:41:16] Speaker B: But now does this not potentially leave the door open? Wait, let me look at the final standings, how this worked out because [00:41:25] Speaker D: cup is not till August and September so you don't have to worry about it for the mini season. [00:41:29] Speaker B: No, what I was concerned about was the idea that Dallas may have stumbled into the possibility that they could end up in champion Cocky caf Champions Cup. I know they're in fifth place in the supporters table. [00:41:45] Speaker C: So [00:41:45] Speaker B: if [00:41:45] Speaker C: one of the teams ahead of them [00:41:48] Speaker B: wins MLS cup, they would [00:41:50] Speaker C: they win MLS cup [00:41:51] Speaker B: or they went in MLS cup, they would then go to Champions cup too. [00:41:55] Speaker C: I believe that is correct. [00:41:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Because they're fifth on 55. They [00:41:59] Speaker C: finished ahead of Chicago, right? [00:42:00] Speaker B: They did, yeah. Chicago's on 55. [00:42:02] Speaker C: Chicago was the one, the only one that could have come up on them. [00:42:05] Speaker B: So that's kind of cool. That would be fascinating. If you're in Champions cup, do you not play leagues cup? [00:42:12] Speaker C: No, I think you'd be playing in all three this year. But I think the open cup format is going to allow you to send anybody at any level so they can essentially field the next pro team down [00:42:24] Speaker B: wallet just like cried out in pain. [00:42:28] Speaker C: The travel budget just got really expensive. [00:42:30] Speaker B: Well just the player roster like it's like if you're going to play in those two tournaments, hell just playing at least cup he's going to have to. They're going to have to do something. [00:42:39] Speaker D: Well, the CONCACAF Champions cup starts in February and it runs till June. The June 2nd is the final 2027. [00:42:49] Speaker C: So that would run parallel with the sprint season. [00:42:51] Speaker D: The US Open cup first game for Dallas is July 8th through the 11th. So essentially [00:42:58] Speaker B: off season [00:42:59] Speaker D: CCC ends and then leagues cup is not until August through September. [00:43:06] Speaker B: So the beginning of the new full flipped calendar season. Okay. [00:43:09] Speaker D: Yes. So like none of those extra tournaments overlap. If you run the in the deep enough in the open cup you would overlap. But they only play like once every month, month and a half in the open Cup. It's way spread out. [00:43:22] Speaker B: Okay. [00:43:23] Speaker D: So it's like those things are not going to be too much of a load over what is effectively two seasons as a season and a half of another season. So it's not really a big concern. [00:43:34] Speaker B: Well, that's great. [00:43:34] Speaker D: Too much. [00:43:35] Speaker B: All right, first game is on Saturday the 21st here in Dallas. Game two is out in Portland on the 28th in seven days. And then game three would. If a game three is needed, it's not going to be needed, is it? It would be on December 2nd. What day of the week is December 2nd. [00:43:54] Speaker C: That's a Wednesday night. [00:43:56] Speaker B: Okay. [00:43:57] Speaker C: And. And the game one is actually a 3:00pm Central Time kickoff. So we've got a really early matchup for that one. [00:44:03] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Fascinating. Great. I can't. This is so, so much better end of the season than. This is fun. You also have to remember my other teams of the Dallas Cowboys and Manchester United. So maybe that's a. Maybe there's a hint is to my level of over enthusiasm at this point. [00:44:22] Speaker D: Good luck with your next coach there, by the way. [00:44:24] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I love it when the black hole of Manchester United gravity sucks in the US Men's national team. So we'll deal with that when the time comes in. [00:44:35] Speaker D: Not going to be Gareth Southgate. [00:44:37] Speaker B: No, it's going to be Mauricio Pochettino. [00:44:39] Speaker D: Oh. The report I saw this afternoon was. It was me, Garrett Southgate. [00:44:43] Speaker B: Everything I'm reading is that they're in hot talks with Pochettino and that they know the seven million dollar buyout clause from the U.S. federation. [00:44:51] Speaker D: Well, that'll be good for us to Dallas because that'll mean BJ Callahan will go be the Nelson coach. [00:44:57] Speaker B: Man, what an uninspiring hire. [00:45:01] Speaker D: You don't like BJ Callahan, [00:45:03] Speaker B: you're coming off Mauricio Pochettino. This was always the problem when the Federation went out and got somebody of Pochettino statter stature. When he leaves, whether it be now or in a year, unless you hire somebody of his stature, everybody's going to be disappointed. You go hire Steve Torundalo or B.J. callahan. The rank and file soccer curious in this country. You're going to look at each other and go, wait, we're going back to this again? [00:45:29] Speaker D: Well, I think there were a whole lot of people that thought BJ How Callahan should have had the job. [00:45:34] Speaker B: Don't misunderstand me. I respect to run low and Callahan, I think they're fine coaches. [00:45:39] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:45:39] Speaker B: But I think a new bar of expectation has been set with somebody like Pochettino. You're going from an A tier manager to another American guy. [00:45:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I [00:45:52] Speaker C: don't know. I'd argue what Callahan did in Nashville this year is absolutely outrageous. [00:45:57] Speaker B: I don't disagree with you, but you all, you guys also are very acutely aware of how MLS is respected in most circles in terms of people who care about this stuff. The [00:46:06] Speaker C: Internet's not a real place. [00:46:07] Speaker B: Okay, fair enough. I agree with you. I'm just saying I know a lot of people who. I mean, I can see it happening now. People being disappointed in a BJ Callahan or Steve Trendal, Ohio, after you've had Mauricio Pochettino for the last [00:46:22] Speaker C: few [00:46:22] Speaker B: years, I feel [00:46:23] Speaker C: like those, a large group of that, that group was also still disappointed in Pochettino's performance and, and didn't want him and wanted him out and didn't want him resigned either. So this is just a group of people that are never happy. [00:46:34] Speaker D: There was a bunch of people that were mad that they re upped. [00:46:37] Speaker B: Oh yeah. No, no, I get [00:46:38] Speaker D: that. [00:46:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Because yeah, for all the obvious reasons anyway, I, I, we digress. All right, so those games are coming up. Anything FC Dallas else that we want to get to before we move on to other things. [00:46:50] Speaker D: Well, just [00:46:50] Speaker C: has a whole list. [00:46:51] Speaker D: Well, yeah, there's some call ups there this week, like but none of them are going to be ones that are going to massively impact your training preparation, which is actually kind of nice. Norris is with the 23s, us 23s. Bernie's going to Tanzania for off African nations combinations qualifying against. They're playing Nigeria twice and, but then, then it's like Torcado and, and Jaden Contreras, who's still a US sales player by the way. They're going to the U20s. So like none of those three things are really going to hurt you in terms of your prep time. It's not like you're going to be. The downside, of course is that Musa did not go and I think that that's what's going on with him. I think he's been in a funk for three or four weeks ever since the last World, Not World Cup, nations cup when he came back and you know, only played 45 minutes and got yanked at halftime that didn't play again. Like he's been in a funk since then. So like it would have been nice if he would have gotten a chance to go back and sort of, I don't know if this is the correct word, but redeem himself at least maybe in the coach's eyes. So I think that's why he's in a funk, you know. [00:47:52] Speaker B: You don't think has anything to do with the contract? [00:47:55] Speaker D: No, no, I think it's nationally. [00:47:57] Speaker B: Okay. [00:47:57] Speaker D: You know, the only way that would affect the contract is, is not the negotiative contract. It's the maybe I really need to go back to Europe. You know, like he might be like, I'm not going to get called up if I'm staying here. So that, that could be, if anything it would be derailing the contract. Not that's the way I think of it, but hopefully not. Hopefully he's going to be like, you know what? No, I'm good here. You know, I deserve better for the national team. That's what I hope. [00:48:25] Speaker B: Excellent. [00:48:25] Speaker C: Maybe a couple weeks off gets his head right, too. [00:48:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:29] Speaker D: Yeah. The Scott, the training schedule came out, and they're having a couple of days off at the beginning of this week and then going to reconvene midweek and then start working towards the game on the 21st. [00:48:37] Speaker B: Well, boys, I think it's been a tremendous season. Second in the west is a, is a remarkable achievement, and I'm pleased by all of it. I look forward to being crushed once again in the playoffs. [00:48:50] Speaker D: This is getting ahead of it, but this is the first time in a long time I've been really, really positive about the direction that the team's going. Not just that they finished second, but like the direction of the development, the direction of signings and the improvement of it all. Not just like, oh, you happen to get healthy and ran. All right. [00:49:06] Speaker B: Remember [00:49:06] Speaker D: that feel this way when Nico Was here in 2022? I didn't feel this way. Remember that? [00:49:12] Speaker B: When they get knocked out at the end of the first round or some idiot gets a red card five minutes into the knockout game after that, or something like that, [00:49:20] Speaker D: no results from here on out. Don't. Won't change that. This is about players and roster development. Where [00:49:24] Speaker B: they lose onto an own goal in MLS cup, [00:49:27] Speaker D: that won't change. [00:49:27] Speaker C: Goodness. [00:49:28] Speaker D: Don't, [00:49:28] Speaker C: don't, [00:49:29] Speaker D: don't do [00:49:29] Speaker C: that. Jesus, Peter, come on. Why would you even put that into the universe? [00:49:36] Speaker B: I've lived it, Dennis. How [00:49:40] Speaker C: would you even say [00:49:40] Speaker B: that out loud? It's all I know. I don't know anything other than [00:49:46] Speaker C: this is what being a Manchester United fan does. [00:49:48] Speaker B: No. An FC Dallas fan. Dennis. 33 years of heartbreak every year. [00:49:53] Speaker D: Long enough Dennis for that. [00:49:57] Speaker C: I don't know. I caught a bunch of shit last week for, for, for saying Knicks fans suffered in silence. So I, I, I, I'll leave it there. [00:50:03] Speaker B: Okay. All right, Very good. All right, let's move on to Pegasus, who had a, a big 11 draw against Sporting over the weekend. [00:50:14] Speaker C: Yeah, the Lee win four three and four ERA continues. Uh, they, uh, continue to draw lots of games. Jasmine Hamid got the goal early. Great press off Cameron Cameron Lancaster turning it around, pushing it up to Sedano. Sedano got to Hamid, Slips for the back. She took on Jamie Gerstenberg, rounded the keeper and put one in to make it one nil. They went into halftime up and Felt like they were going to take it. And then the 58th minute, Ashlyn Puerta scores her ninth of the season and puts her atop the golden boot race to level it. And they never went back. You know, another game where they. They couldn't really break lines. They couldn't really break through. They had some great possession. They had a couple of big chances. They had a couple of big opportunities, but weren't able to capitalize on all of them. And just realistically, more of the same. I think overall, some great individual performances. Solid lineup choices here. I think this is probably the. The. The best lineup that we've seen so far. I probably would have gone with Eichenberger and not more up top, but she did come in late off the bench and didn't really do much. It was a little bit later up there. We started LJ Moore up top this time, but, yeah, I think it's just. Just more of the same. And they. They moved up to. To fourth place. They are in a playoff spot now. So I think this is exactly what we expected of this group in this. In this sprint season so far. [00:51:39] Speaker D: Dennis, I'd like to point out that we have now confirmed by his actions that Lena Win is a listener of Third Degree, the podcast. [00:51:45] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, he's firing this up Tuesday morning every week. [00:51:48] Speaker D: He now understands that you start Lancaster, that she needs to be in the game because you win games more when she plays and starts. He realized that Cheeseman is a terrific, fantastic player after Dennis Ra about how good she was. Right. He moved Sedano back into the double pivot like we said that they needed to do. We got more LJ Moore, something we said that they needed to do. So and they've. And they've settled in finally to Knox as the 6. Something else we said they needed to do. So credit to Lena Win for listening to us doing all the things that we said he should do. So [00:52:21] Speaker C: do we have a Discord front office? Do we have a Pegasus Discord front office Spy? [00:52:24] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure. Definitely. Yeah. [00:52:29] Speaker C: I do think Cheeseman had an incredible performance on the night. You know, that, that block save that she made that. That sliding block to. To really after the goal. I think it was a minute after the goal, two minutes after the goal. Purcell was off her line and she slid back and. And pushed one out over the back. That realistically saved a goal and really saved a point. When you look at the. The overall the game. And I had a chance to talk to her after the game briefly, and, you know, she just went on about you know, playing for her teammates and, and you know, wouldn't even really take any credit for her performance in this one. [00:53:04] Speaker D: Yeah, they continue to, to be a little bit one dimensional in the way they play. Hamida's the only player they can get behind anybody, but you know, everybody else wants to ticky tack the ball all over the place, but at least they're really dialed in at it. Bagman continues to be one of the most important players on the field despite the fact he's playing right back. So. And you, as you say, achievement was amazing. Braum was amazing coming off of our player of the month thing. So like, you know, I think, I think honestly this team's Louis Lee has this team playing about as good as he has all year. So I, I did give him some credit that he continues to tinker with it and he has finally figured out some of the things that we were saying before he even got here, you know, like that he realized that he needed to learn from. I now realize he needed to learn for himself. That he has learned them and now he understands and so I give him credit for adapting. And I think they're playing about as good as they're capable of with this roster that they have right now. Is it going to be enough? I don't know because they got a tough road ahead [00:54:06] Speaker C: and I think the first half was, was arguably the best first half they played all season. I think this is the most cohesive they've looked all season. It was a bit of an unfortunate goal and they gave it up to the top goal scorer in the league. You know, she's going to come in and likely get one. Puerto was also last year's young player of the year. So for her to have a, you know, leading the Golden Boot race after a season like that is, you know, really incredible and speaks to the opportunity this league has for young players and, and for young kids that are, you know, just out of college or college age to be able to come in and really make an impact in this league. It's, it's pretty cool to be able to see that. But you know, this was, I think the, like I said, the most cohesive they have played all season. They played really well together. There's some great pieces on this roster. There's some really good top quality performers on this roster and that were out on the field on Sunday night, but unfortunately they were just not able to get it done again and were, you know, gave up another sort of cheap goal. And that's what happens when you build out of the back and you play out of the back some and you know you're, you're not dealing with an elite quality goalkeeper back there. I think Purcell's serviceable but [00:55:13] Speaker D: you [00:55:13] Speaker C: know, she's not, she's not an elite quality goalkeeper. And you know, it's disappointing when I think the second best goalkeeper in the league is sitting on the bench in North Carolina and has barely played any minutes. That's pretty unfortunate there considering Carolina is also running away with this, with this league this year. [00:55:28] Speaker D: Yeah, well, that's a really well run franchise, clearly. Yeah. But I will give personal credit. I thought the save that she came up with to keep the game, you know, I don't remember it was one, one at the time or what, Nothing. But that was a big time point blank save she made. [00:55:40] Speaker C: Was that [00:55:41] Speaker D: the [00:55:41] Speaker C: knee save that, that got pushed out for the corner? [00:55:44] Speaker D: Yeah, whatever. It was the crossing from the left that went past the striker to the winger on the back side. Yeah, [00:55:49] Speaker C: I think that one actually came off her knee and came out. So she had some really good one. She had another one. She pushed over the top. She's, she's got some great moments. She's just a little undersized I think for the position too. A [00:55:57] Speaker D: lot of times being in right position is the thing. But that's the thing about FC Dallas Trinity. Good grief. That strikes me with their keepers is they're both five, eight. It's like I know that it's a women's game so you're not going to see the 6, 3, 6, 4. Not very often. But you want to see out of the men's game. But 5, 8 is not enough. We need to see 5, 10, 5, 11, 6ft tall in that. No offense to anyone who's playing keeper at five, eight, but that's, you know, [00:56:24] Speaker C: we did have a great six foot match up there towards the end of the game as CLE Eichenberger kick came on all six foot of her up against six foot two Georgia Brown. That's something you don't see in women's soccer every day is, you know, a six foot striker up against a six two center back. [00:56:42] Speaker D: No, indeed not. So what do you think about the schedule coming up, Dennis? We got a game against Tampa this Saturday and then Lexington and Carolina who are fifth place in first place. So it's a tougher schedule. [00:56:54] Speaker C: Yeah, Tampa this Saturday. I do think we probably see Mila Brewer back in the lineup at some point this week. I think we'll see her probably get back in. And again, I still Think it is time to flex Cheeseman out to the right side, move Beckman up to the midfield. I'd like to see her alongside. So, Daniel, maybe put Knox on the bench this weekend. Not that she's had a bad performance, but I'd love to see the combination of Sedano and Beckman as true midfielders and let Cheeseman get out on that right side and bomb that ball up the right side with that deep, long ball she's got. [00:57:27] Speaker D: I. I don't disagree with you. I just don't know if Lee. Yeah, I don't know if Lee's [00:57:31] Speaker C: gonna do it, but that's what I would do here. I think, you know, when we're looking at what Lee win's done, as the season goes on, I think we see a return to, you know, pretty much what we saw this week. We might see Castane move back up top and maybe more comes in underneath again. L.J. moore might come in as the 10, but I definitely think we see Mila Brewer back in the. In the starting lineup again. Uh, now that she's back from the U17 World cup, [00:57:53] Speaker D: it'd be interesting to see whether he drops Cheeseman or moves her outside and moves back when up, because Cheese would play really, really well. I mean, I think you're crazy to drop her at this point, but you're also crazy to move her outside at this point. But then again, they didn't win, so, like. [00:58:03] Speaker C: And you've got Braun that can play midfield too, right? Sophie. Sophie Braun's been, you know, she's been a midfielder most of her career. She's, you know, transitioned to center back here and with the, with the Argentine national team. But, you know, she's. She's a midfielder by trade as well, so you can move her up in the midfield. And she played a good deal of, you know, sort of pseudo six this week too. She. She slid up into that sort of midfield role and when they went to the back three and sometimes Beckman slid in and she's been played the center back. A lot of flexibility off that back line, and it's just a matter of finding the right keys and, and playing it the right way. [00:58:36] Speaker D: These Dallas teams in this flexibility garbage, it's ridiculous. This is awful. [00:58:42] Speaker C: We did have some superlatives here. Buzz, you mentioned Sophie Braun, team of the month. Second straight month she played all 180 minutes in the month of October. In the two matches they had, uh, L.J. moore, assist of the month for the ball to, uh, on the late equalizer on October 10th at Brooklyn, that was also her first, uh, assist for her career. And then Ashlyn Puerto, who is here in town this week. She was the player of the month. And interestingly enough, the goal of the month for the league was Brooklyn's goal that lj, LJ and Castane's goal equalized. So lots of Trinity related superlatives here as well. [00:59:22] Speaker D: Right? Right, right. [00:59:24] Speaker C: At Tampa this week, home for Lexington the following week, and then wrapping it up on decision day at Carolina. It's, it's a close stretch. They're in fourth place. They could jump all the way up to second. They could fall as far low as sixth or seventh place. It's a tight league here. Carolina has run away with it, but they haven't even clinched yet. They need one more win to clinch. D.C. is, is nipping on their heels. But, but Trinity can jump them at some point as well, right? With these three games left and the teams they have to play. That's the fun part of an 18 league, right, is, is anything can happen and anybody can pretty much end up where. Except for Fort Lauderdale, who have been eliminated. [00:59:58] Speaker D: Well, Carolina is by far the best team, although you get them the last game of the year. So they might be rotating and resting possibly. So you might get a little lucky on that front. Well, [01:00:07] Speaker C: you get to play their backup keeper, [01:00:08] Speaker D: maybe [01:00:10] Speaker C: the second best [01:00:11] Speaker D: keeper in the [01:00:11] Speaker C: league. [01:00:12] Speaker D: Don't let her leave Steeler. No, don't do that. Tampa's definitely beatable even on the road. And then you, Lexington's where that's a team you're fighting for that fourth spot. So like that game is huge. That's like not even just a six point game. That's probably an in or out game, you know, not knowing what you're going to get versus Carolina, who's clearly way better than everybody else. So yeah, three games. [01:00:33] Speaker C: DC's got a couple, you know, DC's got big, they've got Brooklyn and they've got Jacksonville. So those are, you know, winnable games for them too. So, you know, like I said, they can jump up to second and second place would be nice because that would mean a home playoff game. That's something Trinity haven't had yet. They've made the playoffs the first two seasons, but they haven't hosted a home playoff game [01:00:50] Speaker D: yet. That didn't happen. [01:00:52] Speaker C: Optimistic, but I, you know, I don't think it's going to happen either. It's possible, but you know, that's, that's where we're at. Where we're at right now. I think [01:01:00] Speaker D: Maybe went out, maybe you can, but I don't know. That's a tough ask. [01:01:04] Speaker C: You've got to win out. And they've got to score goals too because they need the goal differential because they come in tied anywhere. They're sitting. They're sitting level on goal differential at zero right now. So they, they need a bunch of goals and a bunch of shout outs to, to really. To. To shoot up the table here. But if they keep playing the way they are and keep, you know, the way this has been going, they should make the playoffs and then it's, it's two wins to a championship from there. [01:01:28] Speaker B: All right, very good. Good luck to the Pegasus. Hopefully things continue to go well for them after not hearing from them in a few weeks. Eerily quiet out of Exposition Park. Atletico Dallas posted a video today Monday hyping the announcement of a new player tomorrow, the 10th. And the copy along with the video which they've become the champions of. Very moody video content. [01:01:57] Speaker D: I love it. Yeah. [01:01:59] Speaker B: Hints that whoever this player is is from bred and made by Dallas. So Buzz, any idea who this particular. Is it. Is it like a former. Is it like an old Dallas player? Like a Kellen Acosta or a Reuben Luna type? Or is this going to be. [01:02:16] Speaker D: Well, it's not Ruben Luna, I can tell you that. Okay. [01:02:18] Speaker B: Or are we looking for a guy that was recently in the academy or didn't get a deal kind of thing? [01:02:25] Speaker D: Well, I think there's a young player that's. That was from North Texas that I think that they are going to sign, but I don't think that's what this is. [01:02:32] Speaker B: And who is that? [01:02:34] Speaker D: That's Anthony Ramirez. I believe that they're going to try and sign him, but that's not reportable in a done deal. I just think that that's likely because he played for Lucine and I kind of hear some shout out that that's going to happen. I don't think that's what this is. If you want to go just on the Dallas sort of thing, people are throwing around Paxton Palm call. But you know, you and I know he retired for a reason. That's [01:02:52] Speaker B: right. [01:02:53] Speaker D: Very, very unlikely that's the case. What it is, Kellan Acosta. He signed an 18 month deal back in January, [01:03:00] Speaker B: Poland. [01:03:01] Speaker D: He is on an 18 month contract. So could you get out of that thing? Could you buy him for cheap? Yeah, maybe. So maybe it could be ka. Omar Gonzalez was the. Who was with Chicago fire the last two years. [01:03:12] Speaker B: But another old guy. [01:03:14] Speaker D: Yeah, two years ago he played 12 games for Chicago this year. He didn't play any, although he played some for Chicago Fire too. Maybe he was almost like a coach player kind of thing. Victor Yoloa was thrown out. Vic, you know, is probably still fit enough that he wouldn't be too far off of it. But the name. He played for Des [01:03:31] Speaker C: Moines in Open cup last year, right? [01:03:34] Speaker D: Yeah, he's. He's been playing around and coaching around, so I don't think he would be physically out of it like. And I'm not sure that he's not a guy that doesn't get any it done by [01:03:41] Speaker C: more racing. Chicharito. [01:03:43] Speaker D: Yeah, Work rate and brain. You know, he's not a guy that needs to be fast. Like he was never, never that guy. So that's a possibility. I think I came up with a name because I stopped thinking about just FC Dallas. And so I got Blaine Ferry, solar great who went to Germany, came back, played for North Texas and did really well. And I was asking like, when are you going to sign this guy? He's great. And then he kind of didn't. Nothing happened. North Texas, he played for 40 but this year he signed a single season deal with Lexington and He played in 30 games. He had four goals and nine assists. He had a phenomenal season in the USL Championship for Lexington. He's a made by Dallas guy. He played for Solar. [01:04:29] Speaker B: Totally clicks with Byron Coker in two. [01:04:31] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely 100% does. Played for North Texas when the scene was still at FC Dallas. Some would have seen him in first team training, maybe even when the scene was. I can't remember when the scene was working with North Texas at the time. So that's my shot in the dark is that it's Blaine Ferry because you know, he's a guy who would be content with another season of USL championship quite happily. [01:04:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:52] Speaker D: And especially being enticed by the idea of like moving up to premiere and with a great season he just had with Lexington. Why have they not re signed him? As far as I know, they haven't. So like that's my, my shot is. Well, maybe because he [01:05:04] Speaker B: wanted to come play in Dallas. [01:05:06] Speaker D: Yeah, because you know, come home, you know, like to your backyard where you're comfortable and you know, the life and everything and like you have something to prove still here. Maybe because you were with North Texas and played really well and FC Dallas didn't sign you. You know, that's my shout out. And like I, like I think Anthony Ramirez will probably happen. I can't report anything on that, but I don't think that's a good idea off the heels of Chicharito to go to, like, the failed FC Dallas Academy kid, you know, who got cut, you know, hardly played for North Texas, at least Blaine Ferry is. Was somewhat famous, having gone to Germany, like, and skipped mls, you know, and then has some skins in USL Championship, has some skins in North Texas, you know, so it's the kind of guy with a connection to loose scene. So that's why I came up with him. Although I like the Kel and Acosta idea too. I think that's a phenomenal idea. Omar Gonzalez. I'm not done with that. [01:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah, everybody listening should know we're recording this on Monday night. So we honestly do do not know who it is. We just saw the tweet. But probably most everybody listening to this will have probably heard the announcement [01:06:05] Speaker D: by the time [01:06:05] Speaker B: they heard this. [01:06:06] Speaker D: And [01:06:06] Speaker B: they're like, why are they guessing? [01:06:07] Speaker C: If you're listening first thing in the morning. If you're listening to first thing in Tuesday morning, like a good listener. [01:06:12] Speaker B: Yeah. There's a couple hardcores out there that download this thing in the middle of the night on Tuesday and [01:06:17] Speaker D: Tuesday. Like, that guy Bus is a genius. Or like, what an idiot that he thought it was Blade Fairy. How dumb is that, [01:06:22] Speaker B: right? Yeah, [01:06:23] Speaker D: clearly it was. Was calling Acosta the whole time. [01:06:25] Speaker B: I appreciate you sticking your neck out with a prediction Buzz. That's good stuff. Yeah. [01:06:30] Speaker D: I [01:06:30] Speaker C: got a couple names for you here. [01:06:31] Speaker D: Oh, hit [01:06:32] Speaker C: me. Well, one, I think that would be absolutely hilarious that I don't think that's going to happen, but it'd be hilarious to be this team's second signing. Marlon Lixine make a big deal about Peter's son. [01:06:42] Speaker D: Not possible because technically he's still under contract. [01:06:45] Speaker C: Okay. All right. Yeah. [01:06:47] Speaker D: Until the 31st. [01:06:48] Speaker C: I. I just think that would [01:06:49] Speaker D: be [01:06:50] Speaker C: absolutely hilarious to make a big announcement about signing the manager's son as the second player. Overall, [01:06:56] Speaker D: I'm 99.9 sure that Dallas will waive him and that they will sign Athletico, will sign him, but I don't think it's tomorrow. [01:07:03] Speaker C: How about Diego Pepe, Dallas kid connection, name recognition to a certain extent, [01:07:13] Speaker D: more. More name recognition than Anthony Ramirez, but less talented than Anthony Ramirez. So, like, I. I don't think, think, like, my problem with any of the guys that were at Dallas Academy, guys that didn't have success anywhere else, is that coming off a Chicharito, that's like a. Oh, I see how it's going to be. It's a bunch of kidney ones. A About other than Chicharito. Right. You want to have something that's got at least a little bit of skin. That's why ka Kellen Costa even feels more likely than. You know, if I had to bet, I might bet on Counter Costa over Blame Ferry. But I just think the blame Fairy thing is a more of a. Like, a thing that just vibes to me as being like, a thing, you know, even though it's Callum Costa has much more name in the moment. [01:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, if I'm just thinking about predictive A Kellen Acosta is one that people who are just rank and file soccer curious will go, oh, I know who that is. But if you say Blaine Ferry, everybody's gonna go. Who? Nobody knows [01:08:07] Speaker D: who that dude is. Dallas soccer hardcores would know who that is. Yeah. [01:08:10] Speaker B: People who were in the academy system or. Or. And that's the reason why I said it clicks so much with Brian Corcoran, because that's kind of the player that falls in that bank of people that you would think he knows in the scene is somebody like Blaine Ferry, because I'm sure his bro, his son played with him. [01:08:28] Speaker D: Yeah. I'm pretty sure Matthew was at Solar before he came to Dallas. Yeah, I don't have that in front of me. I'm pretty sure that's true. [01:08:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:33] Speaker C: So one more name I want to throw out there, and this is what, actually I think it's going to be. And you may want to buzz, you might all over this because it might not be. Be a big enough name, but when we. When we look at Acosta and we look at, you know, some of these other names we mentioned, they're not from Dallas proper. Right. Acosta grew up in Plano, and. And the. The last tweet that came out this afternoon was raised by the streets of Dallas. Right. That was the. That was the. The last announcement. How about Alejandro or Zua playing down in Mexico right now? Dallas kid. Dallas native came through the academy. He was a homegrown. They declined him in November. [01:09:10] Speaker D: He actually played for the Athletico reserve team a little bit in some of the training picks when they. When Lucine was running their sessions and they were making a thing about it developing or whatever, he was in the mix there. [01:09:21] Speaker B: See, that's a. That's a name that I think might have some appearance on the radar of the audience they're chasing in southeast Dallas. [01:09:32] Speaker C: Yep. [01:09:33] Speaker B: I mean, I don't know [01:09:34] Speaker C: if that was a native [01:09:35] Speaker B: kid. Rings a lot of bells. I know. I mean, it's essentially Blaine Ferry it's the same kind of level of who. [01:09:41] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:09:41] Speaker B: But maybe in that community that could be one that people are a little bit more aware of because he did go play in Mexico and. And some of the other skins on a little bit of skin. [01:09:51] Speaker D: Yeah, he just signed in Mexico too. So like. Because those. That stuff with him training with Athletico was from, you know, like, like five months ago, like right after he. Who [01:10:00] Speaker B: is he with in [01:10:00] Speaker D: Mexico? Tigris. [01:10:04] Speaker C: No, [01:10:04] Speaker D: no, no, no, no, no. [01:10:05] Speaker B: Is it like a second? He's [01:10:06] Speaker C: at Adelante. [01:10:08] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [01:10:09] Speaker D: Yeah. Same place. He [01:10:12] Speaker C: said 72 minutes across. [01:10:14] Speaker D: 14 years there. He's their captain. [01:10:17] Speaker B: Yeah. It'll be interesting because, you know, we'll learn a little bit about what the, the strategy of this thing is based on who this player is and probably the next two or three players because there's a big difference in my mind between signing a Blaine Ferry and an Alejandro Azura in terms of what audience you're trying to get a. A reaction out of. [01:10:37] Speaker D: What about Antonio Carrera? Speaking of Carrera, [01:10:41] Speaker C: that would be really interesting. [01:10:42] Speaker D: I mean, he's from Pachuca, but you know, I don't, I don't know that he wouldn't count as being. [01:10:48] Speaker B: He's not from the. Raised in [01:10:49] Speaker D: Dallas. Yeah. So I just thought of him since I was thinking about his brother being captain. [01:10:55] Speaker B: Interesting. All right, very good. Well, by the time we talk this time next week, we will have long known who it is. What's [01:11:04] Speaker C: Jesse Gonzalez up to? [01:11:05] Speaker D: Dude, don't. There's no way they could do that, man. He's. I'm just [01:11:14] Speaker C: saying. [01:11:15] Speaker D: I'm just saying, like legitimately, let's consider that legitimately A, the PR nightmare in the United States. But B, he tried to get on with several teams and it was like on extended tryout for like a month and even signed like a couple of places with some low ranking teams where they were more open to that idea. And it's. He's passed it. He just doesn't have any more. Yeah, this is not there. [01:11:39] Speaker B: All right. This one's running long. Real quick. A couple of other notes, Buzz, in terms of some of the lower level stuff that's happened recently. [01:11:47] Speaker D: Yeah. Four zero has one more round to go before they get into the proper cup. I was slightly wrong about the direction that they were traveling. Instead of sending them to Houston, they sent them to Oklahoma. They're playing Oklahoma United, which is another team in leagues league for clubs. That game is November 22nd in admin at 7pm at the Tom Thompson Field which is on the University of Central Oklahoma campus. So good luck to Furrow. Dallas College, Mountain View, I don't know where that is, is hosting the 2026 NJCAA Division 3 Men's Championship. Why do you care? Well, that's the Rich Thunder [01:12:19] Speaker B: Ducks [01:12:20] Speaker D: league. Yeah, that's what they play in. And they've been in or won the final every year for 100 million years and they currently are in the the first round is playing tomorrow and they playing Bunker Hill Community College. Richmond thunderducks is technically that's the quarters. There's eight teams in the tournament. So I would expect, as always, the Thunderbucks to make a deep run in that thing. But since it's here, I mean if you're a local soccer sicko, go out there and cheer on the Thunder Ducks. That'll be fun, you know, and about as good a college soccer as you can see around here. Short SMU like those. Several of those kids will go on to Division 1 soccer, at least [01:12:57] Speaker B: in terms of men's. [01:12:58] Speaker D: Men's soccer. Yeah, [01:12:59] Speaker C: the. The Mountain View campus is in Oak Cliff, by the way, just south of 30 off 12. [01:13:04] Speaker D: The stadium looks really nice. So they've put Dallas. City of Dallas has put some money into those little colleges and that's a good looking little stadium there from the picture they put out. And then a couple other youth national team calls. Nico Montoya back with Columbia, they called the United, but really that's next year's U20 team for the Columbia. So he's doing great with them. Davin Kimbo Kimbrough is back with the Mexico U17s. And Alex Soria, by the way, a name to keep a super close eye on coming out of the Seattle Academy next year or so is with the younger version of the USU 17s. That kid is a player in the midfield. So shout out to those guys. [01:13:45] Speaker B: All right, I think that's the list on the running the run sheet. I wanted to real quick, I wanted to throw a idea grenade out to the group. [01:13:58] Speaker D: Is it going to be a dud idea grenade? I know, I think there. I [01:14:01] Speaker B: think if you let this one stew just long enough, you'll hear the. The seed. I [01:14:07] Speaker C: hate this already. [01:14:08] Speaker B: The seeds of genius in this. So we got news today that Joey Saputo at Montreal has announced that he is selling the Impact and they are up for sale, which means relocation is a high priority. And I was pondering on this idea that, you know, somebody had put out a list of the. A list of major metropolitan cities without an MLS club. And they were running through that list. And the one thing that I noted was, you know, some of these places, their population cores are not as high or that much different than Fort Worth, Texas. Now, work with me here. How long have we been talking about how cool it would be for USL to throw out in its premier league Fort Worth team a Dallas? A team in Dallas and a team in Fort Worth? We were. I, I'll, I'll claim it. I think that's the most badass thing. USL could launch out. [01:15:10] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. [01:15:11] Speaker B: But if you've got an investor who's fumbling about trying to make this thing happen with some of the ongoing, ever growing list of questions about the stability of the usl, how this thing's going to work, how anybody's going to make any money doing this thing, if you're a rich tech guy with some other investors, you know, it's a pretty solid deal these days in terms of buying sports franchises, Major League Soccer teams. [01:15:39] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:15:40] Speaker B: And what big giant bonus would MLS get out if they could plant a team over in Fort Worth and have a natural Dallas, Fort Worth rivalry that they could point to and work with year after year? [01:15:56] Speaker D: How long can I. Do you want me to wait before I poo poo it? [01:15:59] Speaker B: You could poo poo it whenever you want. [01:16:01] Speaker D: Well, what I would, I think in terms of the rivalry, that's amazing. If this was any other country in the world. Absolutely. That would be amazing. I don't think Major League Soccer, collective owners and these single entity leagues, league would let you move a team to Fort Worth. [01:16:18] Speaker C: I don't think the Hunts allow that to happen. [01:16:20] Speaker B: I don't, I. Well, I don't. [01:16:21] Speaker D: Totally different. Yeah, [01:16:22] Speaker B: I don't, I don't know if the Hunts have that much power and they already have two other cities, metropolitan cities that are markets number one and two, Dallas being number four, that have two clubs in them. You and I, all three of us in this room, know that the marketplace of Fort Worth is a completely separate and self sustaining market than Dallas is. [01:16:43] Speaker D: Yes, but, but how big are LA and New York market compared to. Just. [01:16:51] Speaker B: I don't disagree with you on that. I'm just [01:16:53] Speaker C: fair. One of those New York teams plays in New Jersey. [01:16:57] Speaker B: Well, okay. Yeah. But I would also point out the distance between Queens and New Jersey is probably about less than it is from Dallas to Fort Worth. [01:17:07] Speaker C: You're absolutely right. It's probably quicker to get to from Dallas to Fort Worth. [01:17:11] Speaker D: What's the number three market? Is it Chicago? [01:17:13] Speaker B: Yeah, Chicago. [01:17:14] Speaker D: Well, it's. Okay. How about we, how about somebody buys them? [01:17:17] Speaker B: Sure. I, I, I, Dude, I am throwing an idea grenade out there. That makes sense for me. In my interest, if you want to find somebody up a guido up in Chicago that wants to pimp getting a second Chicago team. I'm just saying if I'm already somebody who's interested in investing in the sport and soccer and I'm squirting around trying to figure out how to make a USL deal happen, I know it's a lot more money but man, it's a far more secure investment and long term upside. If you're putting in that, if you were to go out and do an, if you were able to get a hold of Montreal and move them to Fort Worth. [01:17:50] Speaker D: Well, if you want to move to Texas, San Antonio is about a half a million people bigger than Fort Worth, so you might move there. [01:17:57] Speaker B: Yeah, that would be a good one too. [01:17:59] Speaker D: Yeah, [01:17:59] Speaker C: I'm going to poo poo all over this and say how about we leave them right where they are and hopefully they find an owner to keep them right, right where their fans can, can come and watch them and, and they don't have to lose a team. [01:18:09] Speaker D: I don't care about them. [01:18:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean I, I, I agree with you Dennis, as a, just idealistically I think that's a good thing. But I, you know, I, the, the whole Canadian part of that I think is complicated and that market is so now damaged. I just, I don't know how that you're gonna have to find somebody that is really committed to turning that thing around after all the damage that's been done over the course of the, the last hour many years. [01:18:35] Speaker D: I just think that like the, the collective owner, single entity, you know, situation, I don't think they would let that happen. I think I get that there's two teams in New York and Houston in la, that's New York and la. Two of the biggest five cities on the planet. You know, I don't think Fort Worth or anybody else is getting a second team in this league. Not when they're interested in things like national footprint broadcasting deals, contracts like that. You know, at the end of the day, a place like Phoenix that is, you know, the 10th market in the United States that doesn't have a team. You know, you're switching to a winter calendar all of a sudden Phoenix makes a whole lot more sense on a winter calendar. Strictly based on population. Peter on the rivalry is exciting. I totally could buy there's enough people over in Fort Worth that you could make an MLS franchise work. But I don't think MLS will is interested in making an MLS franchise work in Fort Worth. I think they're interested in making the whole league work as an overall bigger picture than that. I think there's too many people that are lined up offering bonkers amounts of money to get the newest expansion team and they can just say, you don't even need to wait. Just go buy Montreal and move it down to wherever you want to go. [01:19:45] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I, I, I don't disagree with you on all of that. I just think that there's so much potential in terms of opportunity. Opportunity when you build rivalries like that. Because the league historically really has tried to drive home and grow, you know, El Trafico or these other types of rivalries. I don't know. It was a weird hair that I had when I saw the list of potential markets without MLS teams. [01:20:10] Speaker D: I mean, it's, it's fun, but it's not like FC Dallas is drawing 35,000 nested Alice right now. Can't even fill up 11,000 seats. Yeah, [01:20:17] Speaker B: but you and I both know that if you, you have another MLS team in a brand, you know, in a re. Whether you take Farrington Field and rebuild it or you build a new stadium and you do the proper hype machine around it and you build the proper story, you don't have 25 years of the Hunts doing what the Hunts do the build it and they will come model. There's way more than enough market to have a, a successful Ms. MLS team somewhere in the Dallas Fort Worth area. It could still be FC Dallas if they change their ways, but you know, that's not happening, I don't think. [01:20:46] Speaker C: Cowtown fc. [01:20:49] Speaker B: Yeah, [01:20:50] Speaker D: no, it had to be Fort Worth something, I don't think. I'm also going to let you go with a non city name. [01:20:55] Speaker B: Fort Worth Cats Soccer Club. [01:20:57] Speaker D: Sure. [01:20:59] Speaker B: All right, That's Peter. Crazy idea. Grenade of the day. Do with it what you will. All right, Dennis. Anything else, sir? [01:21:08] Speaker C: No, I think that's it. [01:21:10] Speaker B: All right. Job well done, Buzzard. Stay nice and cozy. Warm up there in the frozen Pacific [01:21:15] Speaker D: Northwest [01:21:17] Speaker C: tundra. [01:21:18] Speaker B: Are you going to be at the Portland game in Portland? [01:21:20] Speaker D: Of course, yeah. I mean, I plan on it. I'm working on my tickets right now, so. [01:21:24] Speaker B: All right, well, I may join you. [01:21:26] Speaker D: Oh, [01:21:27] Speaker B: yeah. If we don't have to do a show that Saturday, we may not. We're waiting to find out what time the SMU game is. I may hop a plane and go up there and meet you there for that [01:21:35] Speaker D: wow. [01:21:37] Speaker C: Sounds like an interesting prospect. My arm can be twisted. [01:21:39] Speaker B: Okay, we could have a third degree party. You're going to bring the casita because we all can cram in the casita and take a nap. [01:21:46] Speaker D: No, A, I'm not, because it needs work, but B, we can't all fit in the casita. It's pretty small. That's the whole point, is it goes behind my little. One at [01:21:54] Speaker C: a time. One at [01:21:55] Speaker D: a time. You can fit two people in there. That's about it. [01:21:58] Speaker B: That's not a pillow. All right, very good. All right, guys. Excellent. Well, hey, like I said, I started out this podcast with a positive vibe because I'm excited at the end of the season, and I'm going to. I'm going to stick to it no matter how. Whatever Buzz Killy kind of stuff Buzz tries to do to me. He doesn't even deny it. Dennis, you see that? [01:22:18] Speaker D: I'm actually as excited as I've been about their chances in the playoffs, maybe of any team that they've ever had, because Quills keep Will beating anybody on every given day. [01:22:29] Speaker B: You wouldn't have said that if Mara Diaz hadn't gotten hurt before the 2016 play. [01:22:33] Speaker D: Yeah, but he did. Yeah, he did. [01:22:36] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, [01:22:37] Speaker D: that's true. That team was really, really good. But then their playmaker, like, it would be like if they had lost Joaquin Valiente, like, in the last game where Musa got hurt, I'd feel the same way. I'd be like, no, it's over. But, like, this particular one, like, right now, this team is damn well healthy, and Quill can beat anybody anytime. Like, they're not a favorite. But it's a good time to be excited about the chances to make a good run. [01:22:58] Speaker B: Agree. All right, boys. Good stuff. What you want to say? I'm sorry, Dennis. [01:23:02] Speaker C: We'll be back next week with more Buzz Killington. [01:23:06] Speaker D: I'll try and come up with some more reasons why they're not going to win mls. Because, you know, if I predict that you're going to, then they never will. I have to predict that. There's no way. Well, [01:23:14] Speaker B: I know they're not winning mls. I mean, like I said, [01:23:16] Speaker D: I. I [01:23:17] Speaker B: know we all know generally how this ends. We don't know specifically, but, you know, history tells us we know how this ends. But I enjoy. Enjoyed it anyway. That's okay. Very good. Well, thank you. And thank you, DFW Soccer. Curious for giving a listen. We will speak to you next week on another episode of Third Degree, the podcast. [01:23:38] Speaker C: Come out and pay to tifo [01:23:40] Speaker A: Third degree the third degree podcast Third degree the third degree Ned Podcast Third degree the third degree never gets yeah, third degree third degree never. Sam.