3rd Degree the Podcast on the Soccerwise Podcast's FC Dallas Preview Episode

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Time to talk FC Dallas. If we had done this show 48 hours ago, would have been different 86 hours ago, it would have been different a week ago, two weeks ago. It has been arguably the most hectic offseason of any team in MLS. That wasn't 100% what we anticipated, Tom. It's not far off, right? They let their manager go, they had an interim. We thought there would be some moving pieces in this offseason. It's gone off plan and yet somehow has come back on plan all at the same time. [00:00:29] Speaker B: Yes. So this was a team that was connected to me by sources around the league for Lucho Cosa. When Estudiantes bid for Lucho Costa, I was told that number was somewhere like 10 million range, which is a lot for a 31 year old, right? Like, again, we all love Lucho Costa. That's not quite the market value rate. Dallas loved Lucho Costa, but it was like, hey man, like if you got 10 million, good deal, we're not coming close to that. Let's not waste our time. I'm not going to waste your time. And then when it was, you know, there's questions being asked about that group, the Foster Gillette group of everybody, like, it's like, hey, no, no, no, like you don't need to bid 10 million to get this done. Like, and Lucho would want to go there. If we, if we can work this out, like talk to Cincinnati again and they get this deal done for 5 million plus 1 million add ons, I think it's a fair price for Cincy. Dallas is a no brainer. They have struggled to kind of get to the next level and they kind of took a step back when we thought they were going to take a step forward. Alan Velasco is a surprising transfer abroad for 10 million to Boca Juniors. They've revamped their defense, right. They brought in Osaze, UG Hogheid. Again, I can't be pronouncing that right, but I'm doing my best out here. That's all you can ask. Lucho Costa, Peter Musa, I don't care if you put Tom Bogan and David Goss on the other wings. That front two is going to score a ton of goals. You don't even need a third and a fourth guy. So I'm extremely excited to watch this team play in 2025. And like you said, Gus, a week ago, I was like, woof, this team looks rough. Since then they brought in a three and a half million dollar center back and Lucho Kosa and a couple other like center back depth, a few other signings. This is a team that you could be pretty pessimistic about it a week and a half ago. Right now I got a lot of optimism. [00:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah, they're one solid piece away, I think, from really inserting themselves towards the top of the Western Conference conversation. And they're in a good spot in which that piece could be at a few different positions. [00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:18] Speaker A: And like now that they've got Lucho done and they know that now, you think, okay, they can go out and be aggressive. Maybe I'm a little surprised they're not in the Josh Atencio conversation, but maybe they don't want to spend U22 spots and capital on a different young player when they want to be promoting from their own academy. [00:02:35] Speaker B: They could be a Hasani Dotson team too. [00:02:37] Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah, I hadn't thought about that. It's not the solve for everything, but if he comes at the right, if they can get the right deal because they're the only one in the market, then it's worth doing it. And then maybe there's still space to make another move or two. Am I playing on the left or the right? [00:02:53] Speaker B: Wherever you want, guys. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Because if I'm playing on the right, you know Lucho is going to set the ball up clean for me. I'm hitting a first time cross every time I touch the ball. Whether it's trying to wrap it around the back line for Musa or it's that early open foot ball for Moussa to get on the end of, I'm hitting that every time. If I'm playing on the left, I have no left foot, so I'm coming in on the right and I'm trying to hit a slide rule through ball for Moose at a cut across or lucha to cut across. I just want you to know that now. [00:03:20] Speaker B: Well, but why haven't you talked about lobbing the ball to the back post for 5 foot 7 unathletic Tom Bogart? Where did that not fit in the equation there? [00:03:28] Speaker A: I would take Tom's determination not to let me down on the far post over 80% of major league Soccer players and what they're doing. Anyway, I hoping Dallas is back. When Dallas has been good the last few years, the stadium has been filled post the construction on the on the American Soccer hall of Fame. It's been a cool atmosphere. If you are in the area, that's a must attend. I've been a couple times. I have a great time there all the time. I wouldn't choose to be in Texas because I'm from New York and it's like the antithesis of everything I would do. But when I'm there, I enjoy going to an FC Dallas game and being around Toyota Stadium and as well. Hopefully again this year it'll be a must attend. We've already talked Buzz Carrick a ton on this show. He was the one who published the story about the Unknown FC Dallas player who played a game or two on your Division 3 college soccer team all the way back in the day and now we get a chance to have him on himself. If you don't already follow third degree, I don't know what you're doing. They're the best covering soccer in the Texas area, in Dallas specifically. And they're covering so many teams now. North Texas, of course, a super league team on the USL women's side, a couple USL men's team apparently coming in to the scene and then like it is a such a strong lower division scene in Texas with having these NPSL and UPSL teams and all the other things as well. So follow them and let's go to our segment with Buzz right now. Well, we were recording right now on February 14th and it has been a long 2025 for FC Dallas fans and we are barely into the year. But it is time to dig into this Texas club that has had arguably the most eventful off season of anyone. And there's no one else to do it with than Buzz Carrick of the 3rd Degree podcast 3rd Degree Net as well. For all your Dallas coverage across what now Super League mls, Next Pro MLS called everything going on. [00:05:18] Speaker C: Yeah, we're on our way to seven or eight professional teams here in Dallas, so we're getting stretched pretty thin. But we're trying to do our best to keep everybody covered up. [00:05:26] Speaker A: It is, there's now the new USL team as well, which is like in Plano, Texas right next it's in Garland. [00:05:32] Speaker C: Which is, you know, within like a 30 mile distance of FC Dallas. And there's also some behind the scenes discussion of a USL team coming to Fort Worth. And we have three or four, you know, usl, two PDL teams and you know, and one of them is launching a women's WPSL team. So it's just piling on more and more as people try and get in on soccer well before the World Cup. [00:05:53] Speaker A: Yeah, we do know that the population is there, so the potential for it to succeed. It would be odd, it seems odd to me, to make the decision to pick the exact same suburb as the one that already exists. But let's talk about the one that already exists and it has been all over the map. We have been waiting for the dominoes to fall so we could do our Cincinnati and Portland and Dallas previews and finally it feels like someone pushed that first domino and the rest went with it. We like to do our transfer updates right out the gate and then we'll get into our big storylines. We'll, we'll, we'll play a clip from Doyle his thoughts on the team. I've been calling them our doylisms and then we've got an over underline to close things with Andrew Weavy. There has been so much happening that I kind of forgot about one of the record sales in MLS that started the off season, which is Alan Velasco being sold to Boca Juniors for up to 12 million. He was supposed to be the center of this team because Jesus Ferreira and Paul Areola were traded to Seattle right before that. It is a long list of pretty big names going out the door at FC Dallas and Kosi Tafari traded to lafc, Sam Junko traded to RSL and then allowing some starters like Asier Iramendi Huan, Eugene Ansa, Liam Frazier and Ema Tumasi to to walk out the door. So the rebuild is on. It was probably stretched a little faster because of the sale of Alan Velasco. Let's go back into some of these moments. What have you made of this off season as it's gone and I guess how surprised were you with the magnitude of the moves? [00:07:31] Speaker C: Well, not surprised at all. The hunts of how long had a making the playoffs is sort of a minimum requirement here and we all know the value of DPs or U22 initiatives. The high caliber, high end players that eat up, that use these mechanics to get big salaries under cheap ways and when you're not good, the best way, the fastest way to change is to vacate those spots and get new players in. They planned to try and move Jesus and wanted to move Jesus for over a year, maybe even going all the way back to the World cup when he he and his people expected a bounce off the World cup which didn't happen. Of course. You know when you have a player of his caliber who has been declining in productivity through various injuries or whatever it is that once out and you're trying to rebuild your team, you got to start with that. So they needed to vacate that DP spot and and make him happy and give themselves an opportunity to do some things. And the same thing's true with Paul Areola. That massive contract was an albatross at that 1.7 million because of the buy down that it required. So I wrote back in October that both those contracts needed to be out. So not a surprise at all. The one that's a surprise was the, as you said, Alan Velasco. Nobody expected that the club had been dealing with these Boca rumors or these river rumors for years. And so they gave him this new contract expecting that to squash that. And instead it was like throwing gas on the fire because Boca was like, oh, so you do value him. Here's 12 million at that point. 12 million for Velasco is ridiculous. That's. You cannot pass that up. You know, a young, interesting, exciting player, but the pure goal in assist productivity was never there. And he's coming off at acl, so that's a no brainer. But caught them off guard. So that was not part of the rebuild plan. He was going to move inside and be the 10 in this new system. So now you're scrambling and they got in a sense a little bit lucky that here comes this new rule that you can buy a player inside the league. And we all know the risk factor of a foreign signing versus a known commodity inside the league. Domestic. You know exactly what you're getting. You know the productivity is there, particularly from Lucha Acosta, who's been in the league for a while, quite a while, for various teams. And done it has a green card. You know, it's. It's a no brainer deal. Now it's been reported by a lot of people, not me, but that they put in 12 million on Evander. They obviously did not win that. They probably, obviously would have liked that better. But Lucio Acosta is an amazing fit. It's a perfect linchpin for this next 3, 4 season cycle under Quill and you can build the whole thing around him. And his numbers replace Paul Velasco and Jesus combined. He replaces them just alone on his numbers, purely goals and assists. So you have to feel really good about the offense being at least the same as last year. Yeah, unfortunately that's only half the problem. [00:10:09] Speaker A: And they maybe not even half. Yeah, it goes to the magnitude of the moves. I just want to talk for a moment about Jesus Ferreira, because I think with Dallas and you know as well as anyone, right, the. They became this youth factory and they had this incredible talent. I've said it a couple times, I think, unfortunately, but fortunately for them, I think it was a bit of a golden generation. Not everyone is going to be Ricardo Pepe and Brian Reynolds and Paxton Palm and all of that. Jesus Ferreira was then put in an interesting spot where they turned him into the dp and it felt like he was going to be the one to stay for a little while and then become a huge move that probably covers a couple years of maybe not as many moves to then get the next generation ready to push through and start to sell consistently. And this is not how the plan was to trade him inside the league to get him off a DP contract to potentially arrival in Seattle. Just like, how do you see how this has all gone down and how maybe it will affect the way Dallas operates going forward? [00:11:12] Speaker C: Well, I think you might be right, that we might have been looking at between 99 to 03, which is, you know, basically paxed into Pepe. That might end up being a golden generation. It's very possible. It's also true that everybody else has gotten better. Like Dallas was an early arrival in the idea that the academy would work. So they've doubled down after the Nico Estevez I hate kids sort of era, which is not quite fair, but you know what I mean? North Texas wins a championship because he pushes all the kids down and there's no longer this playing up, happening, cascading effect. Well, they're now doubling back down to that. They signed six home runs in one day, so they're back to that idea. The depth here is back to being kids, which is the way it should be for this club. That's their identity, that's their DNA. That's the way they can compete in the league is by having these kind of things so there will be more guys to come. Again, you might be right about the golden generation. But as for Jesus, you know, he often talked here about wanting to, you know, live was in his dad's shadow. He's been here since he was nine years old and he wanted to sort of outdo his dad in terms of FCD al stum. But when you've been here that long, at some point you're just like, I need to try. I mean, I eventually I need to do something else. I've been here a long time. He kind of was getting so that it was like, you know what? It's not happening here. I need to kind of go. And he. So he wanted. And he's long wanted to go to Europe eventually, you know, so he didn't quite get the outdo my dad bit here. But at the same time, like, they had the Russia 12 million offer that got nixed by MLS. And then the window after that, they had a 3 million dollar offer to the Spanish team Las Palmas that fell apart because they didn't get money into the last second. So Jesus for like a year is like, I'm going, I'm going. And then now he's. Then he didn't. So now he's like, oh my God. So he needed a greener pasture and to sort of refresh himself because post, not even the World cup, post Gold cup, he had sort of, you know, faded and he's been dealing with some things and he just needs to go somewhere where he's not have the weight of his name and the world on him. And it turned out that MLS is the best situation for that. I think the deal is a little undervalued for him, but you're stuck with the mechanics of the league. Some of the, some of my perceived value will be what Leo Chu is. If you, if Leo choose 2023, Leo Chu, maybe we're excited. If he's 2024, Leo Chu, then that's not a good return. If Zenata can do his, his businessy selly thing and turn that into a couple mil or something to Brazil or whatever, then, oh, now we feel a lot more better about the money. But in the meantime, it's, it's a case where I think everybody was ready, they were ready, the team was ready, it was just time. [00:13:44] Speaker A: Yep. We, we saw with Kellen Acosta and I think it worked in the long run, moving him inside the league. He got more successful and then Dallas can try and turn those assets into more talent or money or whatever it is down the road. I'm excited to watch Jesus in Seattle. And as you said, it felt like it was probably time for let's go to Lucho now. Like, Lucho burned down the bridge behind him to leave Cincinnati. Now he lands in Dallas. And I asked Tom on our show last week before this happened, but as the rumors got heavy of like, I'm looking at a depth chart and you throw Lucho in and I'm interested already. How quickly does it take for him? What, what do you make of what he's going to be and sort of what this team can be around him. [00:14:25] Speaker C: You know, the big part with him will obviously be buy in. Like he ran into a little bit of, you know, kerfuffle at the end of his D.C. united days too. So, you know. But again, like Zenata, Zenoda. I should get that pronunciation 100 right. Says that you know, he's dealt with these concept players before. He was there when he sold Neymar and things like that. So, you know, this is not a guy that he's unused to. Some of the questions will be how will Quill handle him? But I think Quill has a lot of respect for a player like this. This is a guy who, you know, can deliver. It's not a question, it's just as long as he buys in. And they talked a lot about a Zoom call they had with him on Super Bowl Sunday where they were like, the buy in is here. He's excited, we're excited. Everybody's selling each other on the project. And so. Okay, that's great. Let's go. Obviously, when you have a guy like Peter Moussa in front of you, for a guy like Joe no Costa, that's probably very exciting. I mean, that's a big time goal scoring goal, you know, slightly above his xg, but, you know, that's the kind of guy who, you know, the post shot XG is even better. So, like, you know that if you get to the ball, him in a good spot, he's put it in. You know, some of the other wings are a little bit more of a question, but there's some exciting pieces there. You know, there's. It's a double pivot behind him so he doesn't have to play a lot of defense. Even though that's one of the big questions is there ain't a six around here. It's a whole bunch of eights. [00:15:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:41] Speaker C: So we'll see how that goes. But, you know, in the end of the day, it's like if, if he buys into what Eric is selling on what they're trying to do, tactically, I think it's going to be a perfect piece, the perfect kind of piece to have the whole offense, you know, rotating around him and flowing past him and through him. And that's really exciting for fans because Quill's going to play a very open offensive attacking game. You're going to see higher scoring games. You're not going to see one nothing. You're going to see four, three. You know, it's going to be open on both ends. So we'll, it'll, we'll see how it goes. But I think everyone is so excited about that. You have a linchpin guy that is going to be in the conversation with Mario Diaz or David Ferreira as the best tens that ever played here. [00:16:19] Speaker A: Yep. His worst year in Cincinnati was 17 goal contributions, seven goals, 10 assists. Otherwise, he's pretty much blown that out of the water. 29, 31 and 34 goals and assists combined. I imagine he's going to start the year playing pissed off and that's like an ideal situation for Dallas fans. Whatever happened in Cincinnati, whatever happened in D.C. it takes a little while to get there. So 2025 is probably not the concern or not the issue. And as you said it is as far fortunate as you could get to replace Areola, Velasco and Jesus with this one piece. And he's been durable, he's been healthy, he's been consistent, he knows the league, he knows a ton of the responsibility he is along with a few other pieces, some a ton of additions for this team. You mentioned Leo Chu who came in the trade. Anderson Julio as well came in a trade as an option along the front three. Shaq Moore comes back to Dallas in a trade from Nashville that it just never really worked out for him there but partially that was on the transfer fee that they paid for him and now he sort of fits the proper role of he's a consistent right back, maybe not a game changer. And then two big signings at center back that just happened. I'm going to go Alvaro Augusto and I'm not sure how to pronounce Osazi or a guide. Very good. [00:17:40] Speaker C: Yeah, that's good. [00:17:40] Speaker A: There we go. [00:17:41] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:42] Speaker A: 24 year old center back from Amiens and a 19 year old center back from Puerto Mayence. How real are these pieces you think Dallas expects for 2025? [00:17:52] Speaker C: Well that's the big question because the defense was the stated thing that had to be fixed. Way too many goals against last year and I don't know if today you can say the defense is any better. Yeah, because Shaq Moore is an upgrade but he's an offensive upgrade. Is he a defensive upgrade over what they had there? I don't really think so. Marco Farfian is what he is. Sebastian Nibiaga is still a lock starter here. Who's your miles may vary on what that is worth. Nikosi Tafari I thought was better but they couldn't handle him so he's gone. Abubakar is definitely falling off and isn't should not be a starter anymore. So now you're looking at like is a 24 year old kid legit? And I, I looked at the, the highlight clips and there's there's power, there's size, there's strength. Very aggressive, he hits hard like recovery speed, like lots of good things there. But I also just described Nicosa Tafari jettisoned a guy and got the exact same guy. Well, hopefully this guy's actually better at 24. You know, he's not going to peak for three or four years as a center back because they peak even later than your normal player. So it's a. The idea is to, I'm assuming, is to build with that guy for a couple of seasons, yet you still expect him to walk in and start the other kid. Augusta is a fun story because Dallas went to Portugal short bodies. And so they called up some local team and said, hey, send us three players. I need a six, I need a left back and a center back. And they sent him three kids and the center back. They were like, oh, this kid's 63 and Portuguese, Brazilian, 19 years old. So they kept him for the whole camp and he played in a couple scrimmages and they're like, you know what we're buying him? So they bought him on a discount. But he's 19. This is the fifth center back on the roster. He's going to need lots of North Texas time. This is not a guy you should think about. I mean, if he's playing, we got real problems. If he's playing this season. This is just a. It's like a. Almost like a homegrown in the sense of like where you have to think of him because they just found he was playing for a second division French. Sorry, second division. Portuguese teams, U23 team. So not even their first team, their U23 team. That's. That's how raw and off the radar he was. But, you know, when you find a kid, whatever it costs you, I don't know, 100 grand or something. So they went for it and that's fine, but that's not a player to worry about. [00:19:58] Speaker A: He plays at Porta Mayente and I've actually. That's where he was playing. I've actually been to a game there when I was on vacation. It's in the Algarve. It's like the only team not in one of the two big cities in the Portugal area. So one credit to Dallas for picking a really cool place to go on vacation and do the preseason. And I'll talk Portomiance one day when I see Alvaro Guso at an MLS All Star game. [00:20:19] Speaker C: The exciting thing about him is that he has played a little six. So maybe we think, oh, the feet might be all good. So that's. That's kind of cool if you don't know seen him. So. [00:20:27] Speaker A: So a bunch of question Marks on the field. Yeah, I want to start on Eric Quill off the field though. Like you've been around him because he's been a Dallas guy. North Texas championship manager, went to, took the number two job in Columbus to get into the MLS ranks. And then the head coach at New Mexico where he had good regular season success, not the postseason success. Either way, I think people would say he was one of the best managers in USL last year. What is he like? What is his personality? What should Dallas fans expect? What, what's his interactions like around the team? [00:20:59] Speaker C: Well, he even played here too, so he knew 100 what he was getting into and buying into. And he wanted to be here, which is key. And I predicted it back in April that he would be the coach even before they fired Nico, that he was going to be the coach this year. So part of the question is like the Hunt's tradition of hiring, like Nico's the first guy they've hired that wasn't Nico Stavez, that wasn't part of their tree and their pathway of coaching. Yeah, obviously they didn't feel good about how that went, so they're going back to that idea. And the second thing is the buy in. Like the fact that he wanted this gig when he didn't get it against Nico Stavez. He, as you said, went to Columbus to improve his resume. So what is he like as a player? He was an extraordinary athlete, really fast, but also technical enough that he got recruited by IAX when he was in high school and he. This was way back before, in the earliest, earliest days of mls. So the parents aren't on board with that. And he, so he stays and goes to Clemson and he's like a Project 40 guy, US Youth International, that stuff. So he's a real admirer of the combination of what probably is considered very American, both size, power and skill. So like not going to be ticky, tacky, Barcelona, two point, whatever this is going to be verticality, pace, athleticism, power and skill. He's the one who made Bernie Camingo be Bernie Camingo when he was here. So like also was involved in the progression of Ricardo Pepe, Tanner Testman, Jogo, Jonathan Gomez, for people know who Jogo is, you know, was involved with getting these guys through. The team almost always plays a 4, 2, 31 variation of some kind or another. Wants to be aggressive defensively in moments like press triggers, but not going to chase you all over the field and wear you out. The team will probably mostly look like Oscar Pareja's teams where they'll be patient, but once they get it, it's on. It's a track meet and we're going fast at you and coming at you vertically, but yeah, also with some skill. So as a person he is very, very demanding. Demanding of fitness. They've done a bunch of fitness work. Demanding of effort, demanding a focus. No lollygagging around. He will call you out in public, in your face, in front of your team if you're not up for it. He's also the guy that a minute later is then arm around the guy, patting him on the shoulder. People seem to love to play for him because he is not just lollygagging it around. He's got intent, he's got purpose. And most importantly for me, I think, and the thing that I think was really what separates him is that he has won things. You know, he won a DA championship with Chris Richards and Chris Kappis and then recognizes that that talent has exceeded what he has and then hands them to FC Dallas, you know, recognizes the importance of that progression. Picked Chris Richards when Lucci Gonzalez had passed on him. So recognizes young talent, wants to play young talent, wins an MLS next, sorry, USL1 championship playing a 15, 16 year old at left back, an 18 year old at right back. So will play kids and has won those things. If he just stuck with New Mexico, I think he would have won something there eventually. [00:24:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:24:01] Speaker C: So to me, like you can talk about a lot of dudes that would have fit the profile here and that's one thing that I particularly like is like it is hard to win and a guy that even, even though it hasn't been mls, it's been like a couple of steps along the way. He knows what it takes to win things and I think that even if he doesn't have the money here behind him that a, that a Seattle or an LAFC or a Toronto, even though it hasn't worked out, or Miami has, you know, he know, he, he recognizes how this team can win, which is what he did with North Texas. So it's a really good fit in that regard. [00:24:31] Speaker A: It's. It's going to be an interesting season. I am excited to see him get the opportunity. It's sort of what we're hoping for of like let young coaches get their, you know, get their feet wet and then give them the opportunity and don't just panic and say, well, we need someone who has a resume so that we have cover for ourselves if it doesn't go well and all those other things as well, as I think part of my conversation around the golden generation with Dallas is I think Oscar Preja and Lucci Gonzalez and Eric Quill and so many other pieces around this were so key to the recruitment. And I think they've maybe taken steps back. And part of that is Austin and Houston coming on the scene. Part of that is, as you said, everyone else getting better. But I think in Eric Quill helps Dallas maybe reset themselves and say, like, no, we're going to go back to what worked with us and we're going to be able to convince the best young players to come here. [00:25:20] Speaker C: Yeah, you can go back, we can talk for hours about what has happened to the FC Dallas Academy, but you lose guys like Lucian Gonzalez is not back there. Great talker, teacher, educator, charismatic. Javier Morales was here at the time. Peter Luxon was an academy coach. The Bazan brothers were academy coaches. You know, those guys knew how to sell a product and knew how to recruit and get guys in, like the best guys. Alex Aldez is now the U16 national team coach Mikey Barris, who was in the academy at that time when, when he was with the first team, everybody thought he was just Lucci's yes man. Apparently not. Apparently that dude can coach because now he's done well with national teams and he's done at San Diego. So, like all these great academy guys that could recruit and, and and get dudes in and develop have gone and what's here now is what's left. And there hasn't been like a purge or a clean house. And I'm not suggesting they should just wholesale fire the staff, but they definitely took a way step back in recruitment and to their. To be fair to them, post Covid, they have gone hard at recruiting. And now the current 18 team, there's like four kids left from 13. So they're aggressively recruiting all up and down the ranks to revamp things. Yeah, yeah. And so the next group of like, I mean, I. Stone, they missed on ice Stone. You know, there's. Norris is a U20 guy, but is he got the next thing. And then behind them there's a. There's a. There's one or two years there, but then there's guys that are just, you know, some. A Honduras U17, a Jamaican U17, U20. Like there are other countries and other guys, but you're right, we're in this gap where they sold Pepe, they sold Testament, they saw they sold everybody. [00:26:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:50] Speaker C: And they just haven't quite. The next group, which is Nolan and Tar Scott, have not come through yet. So like is again, is it the golden generation? I mean, probably not, but you know, there's going to be some stuff there. It just won't be like a. What else? [00:27:04] Speaker A: Yeah, for cup competitions. Just the one U.S. open cup because of the struggles last year. But it does allow the club to focus a little bit. Let's get into our doylism and then we'll bounce off the back of that. [00:27:16] Speaker D: Mean, anytime you can get an MVP caliber playmaker who's in his prime, you've probably had a pretty decent off season. I don't think any of this went in the direction according to any sort of plan that Dallas had beforehand. But they, you know, they've done so well in the transfer market, moving players on at a profit that they were able to go out and get Lucho Acosta when it was clear he did not want to return to FC Cincinnati. And Lucho Acosta is a MVP caliber player. He was the first half of the season. He was the entirety of the 2023 season. So that should make them better. The other thing I like about this is that Eric Quill, the new head coach, has preferred a pretty vanilla 4231. And that's not derogatory. Like, I still think a 4, 2, 3, 1 is the, the best, most flexible sort of formation for like 90% of MLS teams, especially ones that are built around a number 10. Because it gives Lucha the chance to roam but still keep structure like very easy banks of 4. It keeps that around him and that's, that's when he's best. And we saw last year he roamed too much in that 3, 5, 2 that since he wanted to play and it kind of broke their shape and I don't think they're going to have that problem. Then you add a high scoring number nine to the mix. I have high hopes for Bernie Camungo coming in from that right wing. Like there's suddenly a lot more fun in this team than it felt like there was going to be a month ago. At the same time, just massive questions across that back line, but especially in central defense and some serious questions at D mid as well. So it's hard to get out too far over your skis about this. [00:29:02] Speaker A: So a lot of question marks there, I think. Interesting from Doyle of the work that Dallas has done over the last few years to set themselves up with Lucho Acosta. And a reminder for everyone, Lucha signed a new deal with FC Cincinnati. So he's locked in for 25, 26 and then a team option for 2027, a little over $4 million. So Dallas has some time now to play him. Whether they sell him for something in the end or just get pure production out of him, it's all pretty strong. I think it goes into just the open cup with this sort of. Doyle talked about the up and down the back line versus the attack and what can be there. What should expectations be for this club this year? [00:29:39] Speaker C: Well, I think he's right about the 4231. That's pretty clear. All their right backs are vertical get forward kind of guys and the left backs are Marco Farfan and right now probably Nolan Norris who are not get forward aggressively kind of guys. So like if you're talking about a modern getting into the WM that everybody does, you know, far fan will slide in a little and your right side will go up and they have a couple of wings on the right. Bernie, not Bernie, but you know, Pedrinho at the Ramir. Some guys that can play like a false and slide underneath. If they use Logan Farrington in that capacity, he does the same thing. We have seen that at adaptation. So you can look for the right side overlap if you want some of that more tactical kind of flux forward kind of bit. He's totally right about the lack of a six at this point. Everybody on the roster is like a more of a 6, 8 guy or a puree like legit. I mean right now they're using almost two eight tens in legit and seeking settling because that's all they have available because Ramiro's been hurt. Sho Kahamana has been sick and is still not training with the team again. He's only training on the side. They let Era Mindy go, so there's a massive hole. Other than Nolan Norris, there's only real six they have on the team. We're really excited about Diego Garcia and like what he's going to bring to the table. But he's an 8. He's not a 6 either. So spot on about that. Analysis of the big questions about the defense are related and of course all those bodies and. And you know, I don't know that you can think Lucio Costa is going to immediately turn this team around and turning into a contender. That's not that but I think it gets him back to where they were last season, which is a scrap at the bottom into the playoffs. I think they're probably a team that's going to fight for that 7, 8, 9 if they do nothing else. But they also have tons and tons of GAM available and two open senior roster spots if they want them, the 20th, 19th and 20th spots. So they, you know, there's still talk of getting a six. There's talk of maybe a U22 winger. There's a talk of another center back maybe coming in. So they're not done. On, on the, on the, on the press conference on Wednesday, Dan Hunt specifically said we're going to bring in two, couple more players. And Zenata pointed out the window goes to April. So I think they're actively in the market. Still not finished. So you can make a call about where the team is right this minute, what they're going to get at the money they're going to get that they have left is not going to like turn you into Seattle overnight or, or, you know, Miami overnight, but it can make you more of a solid 5, 6, 7 firmly than it. Than it would be like right now where you're thinking maybe you're, you're just ahead of that playoff line. You only need to drop, you know, five or six points maybe in goal differential, cut five or six, add five or six and you're right in there from six to eight in terms of the standings because the west is not elite. You know, there's a lot of questions in the west. So this is the first step, getting back to where they think they should be. [00:32:17] Speaker A: So we be set our line on gold differential at 55 and a half. I believe this is goals against. Last year was 56. Am I right about saying that or was this supposed to be. Yeah, this is supposed to be goals against. So he's asking that question and sort of going into the center of what's been an issue. I think while you think about this one and we decide if the line's good and where we land, I think from an attacking point of view, there should be belief that it's much better this year of just. I think Camungo is going to put up numbers easily comparable to Ariola or Jesus. I think Logan Farrington's going to put up some better numbers this year. I think Anderson Julio can do a job off of Lucho Acosta. Like my expectation is this team scores at least 15 more goals than they did last year. And that is also Peter Musa having half a year trying to figure things out and get his feet under him and then none of the pieces around him being available from the moment he found his feet. So from an attacking point of view, I have high expectations for this club. I think they're going to be fun to watch. I think it's all going to work pretty quickly and I think we're going to see some elevation of the game of Camungo. I think Leo Chu could be in that. I think Anderson Julio could be in that as well. From a defensive point of view though, the question right here is is it better or worse than last year? Last year was 56, so 55 and a half goals against. What do you make of this line and where would you fall? [00:33:37] Speaker C: I, I think that line is fair because I honestly think the defense right this minute is not better than last year. I think it's the same, you know, the, the, the relative value of the guy coming in versus the people. No Kosi Tafari, they. Jensen is relatively speaking the same. I think French League 2 is not coming out of the Premier League or even the championship. Like there are questions to be asked. [00:33:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:33:55] Speaker C: Now it could be the kid ends up being amazing and then we'll all be blown away and how awesome is that going to be? But we've talked about the other problems on defense. Defense, you know, and not having a real dominant sticks. There's just too many questions. There's too many players that we don't know exactly what they're bringing to the table. We don't know how good they are. If all the ifs hit, if Chu is better, if Anderson Huna becomes a full time legit starter. He looks great so far. If Bernie comes back, if Logan reproduces his stats off the bench or if they make him a starter. Sebastian Legette led the team in assist last year alongside Farrington. What is his role now that a cost is here, now that he. Is he going to be an eight? [00:34:28] Speaker A: Right. [00:34:28] Speaker C: How's he getting into the mix? You know, still a player that you think of at 900k plus salary ought to be a big time player. What's going on with Paxton? A million dollar player. If Paxton comes back mid season and all of a sudden is the Paxton of old. That's a totally different question too. So there's, there's still, you know, Lucho Costa, we know who that is. Peter Musa, we know who that is. Everybody else is an if and a question. And so you can't really to make some prognosis they're going to be this great team. I'm with you on maybe adding, you know, you know, 10 goals compared to last year. But the defense I think is basically the same. So that's what I said. Like Quill is going to be very aggressive. You're going to see These games that are 4, 3. So both those numbers could go up. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:35:05] Speaker C: You know, in terms of the grand picture. And so that's why it's about the goal difference. If you can take the goal difference from minus two to 10, then you're in the playoffs and you're probably like fifth. [00:35:13] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:35:14] Speaker C: So that's the. The balance is the question. And that's where, again, there's just. It's chaos here. We joke on our podcast, root for chaos. Like, what a fun year it's going to be because it's going to be chaos because we don't know. There's so many questions they need answering going into the season. [00:35:28] Speaker A: I'm excited to tune in early on and see how it all goes. I'm going to agree with you. I think both numbers go up. So I'm going to go under on this or over on this. Sorry. I think they're going to concede more goals. I think they're going to score more goals as well. I do think they'll get a little closer to that plus number on the goal differential and I think they will contend in that 5 to 9 range in that playoff conversation. I and I. One of the things that's tough to sort of figure out with teams is what would have last year been if they aren't out of it? Like, how much effort are you getting at the end of the year? What was the, you know, firing a coach bump? How bad was it at the end there? Like, if you kind of smooth all that out, was there four more points in this whole thing for the team and then you're hoping even better with Lucho coming in and some other pieces around it. Either way, to follow it, you've got to follow third degree. Follow them on all social media, listen to the podcast, go to the website Third Degree Net as well. Buzz, I appreciate you taking the time. Stoked to do this with you. I'm a big fan of everything you do and let's do this again soon. [00:36:29] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks, man. It's been a real pleasure. I've been listening to Yalls new bits and I love what you're doing and you can tell Doyle that Dallas had 60 points in 2015 and 2016 back to back and from the last one. [00:36:40] Speaker A: He texted very sadly last night and I responded. He said this. If you haven't heard in our points over under show, he said no team had gone back to back 60 points and asked about Miami. He texted last night and I responded, do we have to redo the whole hour and 56 minute show because the premise was flawed at the foundation of all of it. So, yeah, I think we all got to blame Doyle for all of the problems in our life. But once again, thanks to everyone for listening and we'll talk to you again very soon.