Speaker 1: But it has been a busy news cycle. All right,
Speaker 1: I'll saw Lake our next guest. Man, I know he's
Speaker 1: missed this, and I know he's so excited to be
Speaker 1: doing this. It is Kurt Schmidt, technical director for the
Speaker 1: club on a Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Kurt, how bad did you miss me?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 2: Let's let's be honest here.
Speaker 3: I'm just psyched to be here.
Speaker 2: You liar, you liar? How you been?
Speaker 3: Man?
Speaker 2: Things all right with you?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I'm just waiting for the off season
Speaker 3: to start so i can relax.
Speaker 1: Well, look, I don't really know where to start, but
Speaker 1: we're going to get to as much of this as
Speaker 1: we can because I'm not privy to the conversations behind
Speaker 1: closed doors. And I know a lot of RSL fans
Speaker 1: are very curious to hear from you and your main
Speaker 1: motivation for moving on from Chicho Orongo, the Golden Boot
Speaker 1: winner for the club and at one point one of
Speaker 1: the favorites for League MVP, and you know, he just
Speaker 1: had such a bright start and then we all know
Speaker 1: it came crashing down with the suspension. And I don't
Speaker 1: know what changed, Kurt, but something certainly did. So walk
Speaker 1: us through this. What what's it like? The communications structure,
Speaker 1: you know, speaking to ownership and Tony and everybody else
Speaker 1: in the front office, Pablo and then Jason bringing everybody
Speaker 1: together to decide to move on from a player that
Speaker 1: really went He's right, he is just very very good.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, look, it's it's not an easy decision
Speaker 3: when when when you're talking about whether or not to
Speaker 3: move on from from a quality player, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's something that that we had to face a couple
Speaker 3: of times, maybe last year. But you know, on for
Speaker 3: all the successes that happened last year that we achieved
Speaker 3: last year, and we did achieve some some some goals
Speaker 3: and and some heights in last season, we still fell
Speaker 3: short of our ultimate goal, right, which is winning a trophy,
Speaker 3: holding a trophy at the end of a competition. And
Speaker 3: you know, some of that was was how things went
Speaker 3: in the in the back half of the season, second
Speaker 3: half of the season, you know. And and as it
Speaker 3: relates to Chiacho, obviously, you know, we don't need to
Speaker 3: rehash it, but everybody knows kind of how that went
Speaker 3: for him and with us, and you know, we had
Speaker 3: certain guys step up in a time when he maybe
Speaker 3: wasn't producing as much as he had in earlier in
Speaker 3: the year, but anyway, it just you know, it got
Speaker 3: to the point where it was obviously very difficult and
Speaker 3: something something changed, and you know, we had a lot
Speaker 3: of hard conversations internally about it amongst staff, with Chicho
Speaker 3: and obviously his representation, and you know, at a certain point,
Speaker 3: you know, Chicho came to me and asked that we
Speaker 3: help him find a solution for for him and his family,
Speaker 3: you know, to get a fresh start, and and that's
Speaker 3: you know what I think we well, that's what we
Speaker 3: tried to do. And what I think we did was
Speaker 3: found a solution that you know, obviously is the best
Speaker 3: for all parties.
Speaker 1: So I'm quite prepared for a very short answer to
Speaker 1: this question, but you also understand I need to ask it.
Speaker 1: Can you shed any lights on the suspension, why it happened,
Speaker 1: and the effect that it had on him and also
Speaker 1: the team.
Speaker 3: I can look obviously the you know, the club and
Speaker 3: and you know did everything that they could have done
Speaker 3: and what was were required to do and needed to
Speaker 3: do in that situation. And you know, we the league,
Speaker 3: the league went through their process and we accepted their
Speaker 3: decision and we went you know, and that's what we
Speaker 3: dealt with and in terms of how any of that
Speaker 3: affected chi Cho. You know, obviously I don't know what's
Speaker 3: none of us can know what's in his head, what's
Speaker 3: in his mind, but certainly we we saw what was
Speaker 3: on the field.
Speaker 1: How much of this the decision Kurt had to do
Speaker 1: with chi Cho and his family not wanting to live here,
Speaker 1: and how much of the decision had to do with
Speaker 1: the club being ready to move on with a player
Speaker 1: that clearly was not right after the suspension went down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think some of that's the question
Speaker 3: for chi Cho, but I just would reiterate that I
Speaker 3: think with with all the water that had flowed, you know, uh,
Speaker 3: float under that bridge, I think we just found the
Speaker 3: the solution that was the best for all parties.
Speaker 1: Got asked the question, you know, and I am, admittedly, still,
Speaker 1: after covering this game for twenty plus years, a neophyte,
Speaker 1: and you're an expert. And I'll see to you if
Speaker 1: you compare what you received in exchange for Chico to
Speaker 1: what Seattle sent out for Haesus fre for AA. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: the package is not close. And look, I understand that
Speaker 1: you had to cut the tie. I understand you had
Speaker 1: to make the move, But one point four mil in
Speaker 1: allocation money and an international roster spot Kirk does not
Speaker 1: seem like a fair haul.
Speaker 3: Your thoughts, sure, I mean, I look, obviously it's it's
Speaker 3: really difficult to compare players like that and to set
Speaker 3: to set the market based on one or two or
Speaker 3: such a limited number of transactions that you're talking about
Speaker 3: at that end of end of the market. Obviously there
Speaker 3: were other opportunities. There were other clubs, other situations, you know,
Speaker 3: outside the league, in the league, like, there were different opportunities,
Speaker 3: and you know this, you know, this ended up being
Speaker 3: the right thing from from all facets, from uh the
Speaker 3: standpoint obviously the finances from you know, obviously it needs
Speaker 3: to be agreeable to cheat Sho and his family who
Speaker 3: are going to move there. And and also from a
Speaker 3: timing standpoint where you know, this was something that we
Speaker 3: knew was happening, and you know, preseason is here, and
Speaker 3: you know, like we want to we want to have
Speaker 3: our group together and move forward. So just when you
Speaker 3: factor in all the implications of the decision, this was
Speaker 3: this was the best case.
Speaker 1: So Sally and Andres was proof of concept. I don't
Speaker 1: think anybody would debate that, but it's not just andres.
Speaker 2: It's now cheat Joe.
Speaker 1: Now let's move over to Matt Crooks, and I'll just
Speaker 1: kind of ask you the same question. Is this a
Speaker 1: scenario where Matt and his family just wanted to leave
Speaker 1: the market? Were you not satisfied with what you received
Speaker 1: for his production? I was also taken back that Crooks
Speaker 1: was sent on his way. Can you shed a little
Speaker 1: light on on that decision?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look where we try to put the
Speaker 3: players first at the club, and you know, again that
Speaker 3: means like we want players that want to be here
Speaker 3: and that are happy here, and we want to support them,
Speaker 3: and then we feel that that's the way to get
Speaker 3: the most out of them on the field. I think
Speaker 3: that with Matt and his family, you know, yeah, you
Speaker 3: kind of hit the nail on the head, like this
Speaker 3: family situation wasn't ideal, and he was. They spent a
Speaker 3: lot of time apart last year, and for him, the biggest,
Speaker 3: the big thought process the decision was, you know, could
Speaker 3: he could he do that again? Were they going to come?
Speaker 3: Was it better to go back? And again there's a
Speaker 3: lot of tough conversations there as well, and and ultimately
Speaker 3: the right opportunity came up for him to go back,
Speaker 3: and it worked for us as well. So, you know,
Speaker 3: from that standpoint, it was a little bit of an
Speaker 3: unwinding of kind of what we did a year ago
Speaker 3: when we brought him in. You know, Matt's Matt's a
Speaker 3: great guy. Matt. You know, I really like Matt as
Speaker 3: a as a person and as a player. I thought,
Speaker 3: you know, you hit you talked about production. I don't
Speaker 3: think he lit up the production side of things. He
Speaker 3: certainly helped us with his movement and that type of thing,
Speaker 3: but he also you know, we also we needed some
Speaker 3: production from that position as well. And that's part of
Speaker 3: the genesis of us bringing Diogo here as well, is
Speaker 3: because we felt he was someone that was going to
Speaker 3: be more Goldings, was going to produce more from a
Speaker 3: similar position. And you know, so from that standpoint, we thought,
Speaker 3: you know, Jyogo coming in, you know, allows us to
Speaker 3: grant Matt and his family their wish essentially and get
Speaker 3: them back together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, entirely fair about the numbers and the production. I mean,
Speaker 1: don't take this the wrong way, but every time I
Speaker 1: heard somebody talk about how far he ran, I'm like, cool,
Speaker 1: But you know, like let's get some assistants, some goals.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not saying you to work hard, but it.
Speaker 3: Wasn't just how far, but it was, you know, just
Speaker 3: to He ran very you know and maybe the satica
Speaker 3: to sound equally maybe boring to you, but he did
Speaker 3: run very intelligently in terms of, you know, the timing
Speaker 3: and direction of his runs, the pace and how it
Speaker 3: created space for guys like Andreasin, Chico and Luna at times,
Speaker 3: and you know how he filled He's a very intelligent player,
Speaker 3: how he filled the gaps that others laughed in order
Speaker 3: to continue and maintain our structure in certain times when
Speaker 3: we were when others were a little more fluid and
Speaker 3: kind of doing whatever they wanted. He was a little
Speaker 3: bit of a blue guy that kind of made sure
Speaker 3: that our game model was still being implemented and that
Speaker 3: the team still had the right structure.
Speaker 1: No, I totally get it. You're not wrong, but run
Speaker 1: intelligently and get your head on a ball. Let's get
Speaker 1: a couple of intelligent goals and assists. That's all I'm saying.
Speaker 1: But you're not wrong, Kurt, You're not wrong. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you're yeah, and you and I talked about what I
Speaker 1: proceed to be a very professional approach to the season
Speaker 1: from Anderson Julio last year, who I just thought was
Speaker 1: called upon oftentimes to step in in tough scenarios, and
Speaker 1: I thought he did a good job. Now this wasn't
Speaker 1: a hey, you're going to move on without getting some
Speaker 1: things in return, but same question take us through the
Speaker 1: mindset of moving on from Anderson Julio.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it was a great guy, worked hard, he
Speaker 3: learned a lot and developed, you know, even though he
Speaker 3: didn't come here as a twenty year old. He came
Speaker 3: here a few years after that, but he he up
Speaker 3: a lot in his time in ourselves had a great
Speaker 3: year last year. And you know, when you've got a
Speaker 3: player around that age, as they're heading towards their thirties
Speaker 3: and they're having a career year, you know, you have
Speaker 3: to think about our you know, can you make a
Speaker 3: move here at at or near the kind of top
Speaker 3: of his market, top of his value, and if we
Speaker 3: get enough in exchange, is it worth it? And so
Speaker 3: we thought we thought that's kind of the situation. And
Speaker 3: we were able to get obviously some money, which is important,
Speaker 3: but also a piece that solves a bit of death
Speaker 3: and competition for us on the back line and Sam
Speaker 3: Junkwa who can push guys in two different spots and
Speaker 3: give us solid, solid depth and two positions along the
Speaker 3: back line. So it was kind of a win win
Speaker 3: all around.
Speaker 1: I apologize for another uncomfortable question, Kurt, but I'm gonna
Speaker 1: throw it at you anyway. I mean, look, the numbers
Speaker 1: are the numbers, and you set a club record for points,
Speaker 1: you set a club record for goals scored, as you
Speaker 1: reference the ending, unceremonious, you qualify for the postseason, ousted
Speaker 1: in the You want trophies.
Speaker 2: I want you guys to get trophies. I get it.
Speaker 1: But with all of the moves that have been made
Speaker 1: juxtaposed to what was a historic season, with the data,
Speaker 1: what does that say about the group? What does that
Speaker 1: say to the locker room? What does that say about
Speaker 1: the connectivity or lack thereof.
Speaker 2: Of the group?
Speaker 3: I think it would send the message of trust to
Speaker 3: the players that that we have kept and are going
Speaker 3: to rely upon honestly, Like you know, we brought in
Speaker 3: you know, we talked a lot about this last summer.
Speaker 3: We brought in a lot of guys last summer and
Speaker 3: fit the you know, made the cap stuff all work together,
Speaker 3: so we could add them then. But but we knew
Speaker 3: that part of bringing a lot of those guys in
Speaker 3: was almost preemptively replacing some guys that we might have
Speaker 3: to move on from in the winter. So you know
Speaker 3: that some of that work was done six months ago.
Speaker 3: But again, when you talk about guys like Dominic marshaok
Speaker 3: Tiogo obviously Luna, you know, guys in the middle of midfield,
Speaker 3: No Hata and Mecca Poblariez come back from injury as well,
Speaker 3: those types of things like those Nelson Placia, like those.
Speaker 3: You know, we're putting our trust from those guys, and
Speaker 3: I think they should feel that and that should fill
Speaker 3: them with confidence and give them the ability to play
Speaker 3: with you know, without fear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well said, And I do want to get into
Speaker 1: the space of the players that you're bringing in. So
Speaker 1: and look, I honestly, I don't know if you can
Speaker 1: comment on some of this stuff. I just have some
Speaker 1: of the reports that are out there, and I'm certainly
Speaker 1: not an expert with Brazilian goalkeepers. Raphael Cabral, I'm thirty
Speaker 1: four years old, know nothing about him, but acording the reports,
Speaker 1: you guys have signed this Brazilian keeper, Kurt.
Speaker 2: Can you shed some light on this transaction.
Speaker 3: I can't deal with reports.
Speaker 2: It's not official yet.
Speaker 3: Okay, we've signed a veteran, yeah, veteran international goalkeeper that
Speaker 3: has you know, experience playing in some of the top
Speaker 3: leagues in Europe and in South America, and so you know,
Speaker 3: we think he's going to come in and add some
Speaker 3: just experience in the locker room, but also some quality
Speaker 3: and goal and give us a little bit of a
Speaker 3: different look there.
Speaker 1: Can you do discuss us sending Gavin Beavers on a
Speaker 1: loan to a Danish club?
Speaker 2: Are you able to discuss that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, Gav's on his way out. It's not alone.
Speaker 3: But that's not official yet either, but we're certainly working
Speaker 3: on that. But you know, Gas a really good young
Speaker 3: keeper and you know, played a lot of minutes for
Speaker 3: us last year. And you know, when we talk about
Speaker 3: where like obviously where he's going is kind of within
Speaker 3: a little bit of our family or cousins, whatever you
Speaker 3: want to call it. And it was actually a really
Speaker 3: productive process to just collaborate across our ownership group and
Speaker 3: different clubs and decide what is what is the best
Speaker 3: thing for ourselves, What is the best thing for Brumby,
Speaker 3: What is the best thing for Gavin Beavers and and
Speaker 3: make the right decision for all parties. But you know,
Speaker 3: I think for him it's an exciting step in his career.
Speaker 3: You know. For us obviously, you know, it makes my
Speaker 3: job harder when we lose players that at you know,
Speaker 3: homegrown players or players on a subman a roster who
Speaker 3: actually can contribute. So that makes my job harder a
Speaker 3: little bit. But but it you know, it makes sense
Speaker 3: for all parties to let him go. And yeah, that's
Speaker 3: why you saw, you know, mason statue art come in
Speaker 3: today from from Orlando.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you said the name because that's where I
Speaker 1: was going next. Okay, Mason's statue, if.
Speaker 3: I got it right, to be fair, I probably need
Speaker 3: to go check on that, but I tried.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll trust you as opposed to the guest that
Speaker 1: was about to lob out.
Speaker 2: But that one is official.
Speaker 1: It is on the website, as is Kobe Henry correct
Speaker 1: center back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Mason was is someone
Speaker 3: you know. Again, I think the other thing we didn't
Speaker 3: really touch on is is Zach is you know Zach's
Speaker 3: looking like he's going to miss some significant time early
Speaker 3: in the season, so obviously we've we've brought in an
Speaker 3: experienced guy to be the guy. And then you know,
Speaker 3: Mason comes in as as someone with MLS starting experience
Speaker 3: that we think will at competition and good depth is
Speaker 3: in the in the goalkeeper. And then you know we've
Speaker 3: revamped it otherwise completely with with the college kids coming
Speaker 3: in as well.
Speaker 1: All right, Urt, there's a report and I know you
Speaker 1: can't discuss reports, but like you.
Speaker 2: Know, this is the deal. I got to ask you.
Speaker 1: You can tell me to kick Rocks and he's an
Speaker 1: Australian forward.
Speaker 2: Here we go. Okay, it's a new year. My goal
Speaker 2: is to just say yes and try things.
Speaker 1: Ariath Peel, I don't know, no idea, but it's out
Speaker 1: there that you're bringing in Australian forward.
Speaker 2: What is it close?
Speaker 3: I feel like that was close. Huld. If I had
Speaker 3: to guess his name, I would say maybe the Arif Pole. Okay,
Speaker 3: maybe like that. Yeah, I mean, look, obviously we brought
Speaker 3: in Mocklmbrook last year. Australia is the market that we're
Speaker 3: looking at more and more. You know, we like to
Speaker 3: bring in talented young players. So signing like that, you know,
Speaker 3: would would make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, well that's as close as we're going to
Speaker 1: get to a curt admission. What okay, where are the
Speaker 1: goals coming from? We've already TOPPD And by the way,
Speaker 1: as you reference, and you brought in a lot of
Speaker 1: players during the summer window that I think people are
Speaker 1: excited about once we see them with a training you know,
Speaker 1: a full training camp under Pablo.
Speaker 2: I think everybody loves the Marxian kid.
Speaker 1: I mean, you got a lot of bright options, and
Speaker 1: lest we forget, maybe your most skilled player, Diego Luna
Speaker 1: is still on the roster, so all is not lost,
Speaker 1: but you lost a lot of goals.
Speaker 2: Where are those goals coming from?
Speaker 3: Kurt? I mean, I think you started it already. Look,
Speaker 3: I think we came in. You know, if you go
Speaker 3: back in time a year ago and going in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four season, you know, it seems like a no
Speaker 3: brainer now, But us relying on Luna and Andreas to
Speaker 3: come in and give us quality minutes and high level
Speaker 3: production like that wasn't a no brainer move at that
Speaker 3: time either. And you know, we thought we had two
Speaker 3: talented young players that we're going to take a step up,
Speaker 3: and they did, and credit to them, and so I
Speaker 3: think we're looking at something similar this year where you know,
Speaker 3: I think, again Luna's still a young player that is,
Speaker 3: you know, I think can take even another step in
Speaker 3: his development and grow and in his production. You know,
Speaker 3: Jogovinsolved is someone that came in and you know, maybe
Speaker 3: didn't quite catch the league in the first few months,
Speaker 3: but it started preseason well and we we have high
Speaker 3: hopes for him coming in. And as I said before,
Speaker 3: I think he's someone who's from that position who's more
Speaker 3: goal dangerous, you know, dominic Is. I mean, he'll get
Speaker 3: goals too, but I think he's just going to serve
Speaker 3: up some of the easiest goals ever for for whoever
Speaker 3: three four other guys that are going to play with
Speaker 3: him in the attack. And so I think he can
Speaker 3: he can definitely score himself and get some assists and
Speaker 3: then look what you know at the ninth you know, honestly,
Speaker 3: I think I think, you know, I pabably said it
Speaker 3: earlier today, we're not going into the season, you know,
Speaker 3: playing a man down, like we're going to have a
Speaker 3: guy playing center forward that's going to do the things
Speaker 3: that we need in our game model, and our game
Speaker 3: models geared to creating chances for guys in our attack
Speaker 3: and you know, we're confident that the committee of attackers
Speaker 3: that we have will will score those goals.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and before I said you loose, you know, I
Speaker 2: think we just forget.
Speaker 1: Like your central midfield is pretty stacked because you get
Speaker 1: Pablo Luiz back, and of course a Mecca has he's
Speaker 1: going to the national team camp and he's he's really
Speaker 1: shown to be a very bright player.
Speaker 2: And then there there's.
Speaker 1: Also brian A Hayda, Right, so you have that kind
Speaker 1: of three headed monster and I guess that central holding
Speaker 1: mid area, forgive my my language, how do you think
Speaker 1: that's going to play out? And how's Pablo looking now
Speaker 1: that he's back?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I mean we we forgot about Nelson
Speaker 3: Palacio as well, who is a very talented player. And
Speaker 3: you know, I look at Pablo has been out, you know,
Speaker 3: with the exceptional kind of the beginning of last evening,
Speaker 3: he's now for eighteen months. And so for us with Pablo,
Speaker 3: it's about bringing him along in the right way so
Speaker 3: that a he stays healthy and also he like gets
Speaker 3: his sea legs under him. Right. It's not something where
Speaker 3: you bean out more or less for that long. You
Speaker 3: just pop right in and it's like nothing ever happened.
Speaker 3: It's something you gotta you gotta get into. So, you know,
Speaker 3: I think Pablo's obviously a very talented player that can
Speaker 3: add a lot to us, especially in possession. And you know,
Speaker 3: we're going to bring him along the right way so
Speaker 3: we can be a top contribute for us. But it's
Speaker 3: not a situation where we have to rush him in because,
Speaker 3: as you said, we've got a met we've got to
Speaker 3: hate it. We've got Nelson, you know. So we have
Speaker 3: a good rotation of players, even with the number of
Speaker 3: games we've got playing this to play this year.
Speaker 1: You you sleep in a night, you're hydrating, you're getting food,
Speaker 1: Like what, dude, You've been insanely busy.
Speaker 3: One for I'm usually one for three or two for
Speaker 3: three on those three things most days. All right, man,
Speaker 3: it's usually the one I missed it.
Speaker 2: Fortunately, I'm with you there.
Speaker 1: Well, look, you're a smart guy, so we'll trust you
Speaker 1: and we'll hope that things pan out. Not easy decisions, Kurt,
Speaker 1: Thanks for the time, man, Have.
Speaker 2: A good week.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks man, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Kurt Smid he's the technical director for Rayal saw Lake
Speaker 1: means he is the main decision maker, the sporting director
Speaker 1: essentially the general manager.
Speaker 2: Soccer teams have different terms