Speaker 1: Trail saw Lake in the midst of a bit of
Speaker 1: a road heavy portion of this schedule in Nashville last week,
Speaker 1: but they will be home coming up on Saturday against
Speaker 1: Toronto for a seven to thirty kick. It is cold today,
Speaker 1: but Saturday looks all right, so maybe Saturday night will
Speaker 1: get a little luck with the weather and time.
Speaker 2: Now for our well, it's becoming a.
Speaker 1: Very regular conversation with head coach over al saalt Lake.
Speaker 1: Pablo mash JOINNY on a Thursday afternoon. Bablo, Happy Thursday, sir.
Speaker 3: How are you happy Thursdays?
Speaker 2: Fen's doing great, Bud, appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: So let's look back Nashville Nashville two to one final
Speaker 1: score looked good for a little bit. So before I
Speaker 1: get into some specific questions I have for you, now
Speaker 1: that you've had a chance to digest the loss and
Speaker 1: go back and look at the tape, would you like
Speaker 1: and what would you not like?
Speaker 3: Pablo, Yeah, I think there is a lot of good
Speaker 3: stuff again, building off that La Galaxy game. I thought,
Speaker 3: you know, going on the road, Nashville is in a
Speaker 3: good run of form, you know, I think we played
Speaker 3: a really really well one to one into I think
Speaker 3: it was a seventy fifth minute where we scored a
Speaker 3: goal and it was called off sides after var so
Speaker 3: again the referee didn't call it in real time and
Speaker 3: took it back, So now we're two to one. And
Speaker 3: then I think in the eighty eighth minute it was
Speaker 3: we gave Way just a very soft PK and you know,
Speaker 3: it ended up determining our fate in that game, which
Speaker 3: was really difficult to kind of stomach given the way
Speaker 3: that the guys played. And I think it's really important
Speaker 3: for our group, Spence, and really any team is putting
Speaker 3: together two good performances that get two really good results. Right,
Speaker 3: so three points are in this case, you know, three
Speaker 3: points at home and one on the road. We take
Speaker 3: that and we can continue building. Where I felt like
Speaker 3: this week we had to go back and talk about,
Speaker 3: you know, very fundamental aspects of the game and and
Speaker 3: and you know how you have to walk gingerly in
Speaker 3: the box when your opponents have the ball in there,
Speaker 3: and you can't be clumsy, you got to move your feet,
Speaker 3: so a little step back, but I think overall it
Speaker 3: was a really good performance that was marred by some
Speaker 3: you know, non calls. You know, there could have been
Speaker 3: a red card and that goal that they called back
Speaker 3: on bar and then our penalty kick. So definitely defined
Speaker 3: by a couple of moments in the games that you know,
Speaker 3: sealed our fate and that in that.
Speaker 1: Game, Tom gets gets the goal in the twelfth and
Speaker 1: Diego gets that assist. So take us through what you
Speaker 1: what'd you like about that build up and you know,
Speaker 1: the the the redeeming thought of of Dom being able
Speaker 1: to find the back of the net and another assist
Speaker 1: for Diego.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, you know again, that's that's there's so many
Speaker 3: moments where you know, we saw that they wanted to
Speaker 3: get pressure on the ball and we had a we
Speaker 3: had a break through our we had to get through
Speaker 3: our midfield to get to our attacking midfielders, and that
Speaker 3: play was was textbook. Dio got on the ball, took
Speaker 3: a good look at goal. Dom was there to clean
Speaker 3: it up and and one of the things that we've
Speaker 3: been working with Dom is in that final third area
Speaker 3: is making sure he's positioning is such that it's not
Speaker 3: too wide where we're actually threatening from that wide position.
Speaker 3: So kudos for him for really tightening that up and
Speaker 3: being in a great position. And and again Joe getting
Speaker 3: on the ball, and I think if we get Gioke
Speaker 3: on the ball in the attacking third and we got
Speaker 3: guys like Luna and dom and and Ari or his SEUs,
Speaker 3: you know, crash in the box, we're gonna we're going
Speaker 3: to score goals and we're going to you know, create
Speaker 3: a lot of good opportunities. So it was a really
Speaker 3: good play that culminated into a really good goal.
Speaker 2: Okay, the the goal that was called back. The off sides.
Speaker 1: To walk us through that a little bit, and I
Speaker 1: felt bad for Jesus because he was so excited, you know,
Speaker 1: and it was it was a great ball, It was
Speaker 1: a great finish. And I didn't even uh, you know,
Speaker 1: watching it on TV in real time, I didn't even
Speaker 1: consider that that could have been an offside penalty. Uh
Speaker 1: So your your thoughts in the moment, and you went
Speaker 1: back and watched it, What do you make about that
Speaker 1: all went down?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's it's it's it's really interesting because
Speaker 3: the whole purpose of v A r. Bar Is is
Speaker 3: to nig is to take back a play that was
Speaker 3: egregiously miscalled. And what's interesting with the off side is
Speaker 3: we don't have the technology in var in our league
Speaker 3: that has these lines that go across the field that
Speaker 3: they use to validate whether or not given the angle
Speaker 3: of the camera and all these things could be misleading,
Speaker 3: and so the fact that the line's been on the
Speaker 3: ball side didn't raise his flag. And then you go
Speaker 3: back and watch it and you're, you know, sometimes you
Speaker 3: watch it with the understanding that it was like they
Speaker 3: called it off side, so you're looking at it from
Speaker 3: his off side, but it was for me, it's still
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's not what var is meant to be,
Speaker 3: especially for offside call where there's there's no objectivity other
Speaker 3: than using a camera that's at a slant, and because
Speaker 3: we don't use those lines that make it objective. So
Speaker 3: that was really the disappointing part. But again, a really
Speaker 3: good play where a mecha finds Diego, Diego finds Diego,
Speaker 3: Diego releases Dom, and Dom woods in across behind the
Speaker 3: defense with his seu's finishing. I mean, it was like
Speaker 3: it was, you know, training ground type type play that
Speaker 3: that you know was eventually nullified. So it was a
Speaker 3: bit disappointing, but again, we create more of those actions.
Speaker 3: We're going to create more of those goals, all.
Speaker 1: Right, now, over to the PK because it looked like
Speaker 1: you guys were going to escape with one at least,
Speaker 1: you know, instead of walking away with three. And look,
Speaker 1: you know, in every sport, a veteran player knows the
Speaker 1: way to massage the game to get calls in his
Speaker 1: favor or to get in the head of a young player,
Speaker 1: and that Luk Tah kid is a really, really good player.
Speaker 2: But from my vantage point, it felt like he knew.
Speaker 1: I think it was Nelson was kind of on his
Speaker 1: back and he initiates the contact and then just goes
Speaker 1: down in the most soccer dive annoying way of all time.
Speaker 2: That's what I saw. You tell me what you saw.
Speaker 3: No, I think you're right. I was angry at the call,
Speaker 3: but I was also angry at his cleverness, right, Like,
Speaker 3: I was angry at both of those things in one moment,
Speaker 3: because again it was super soft. But what but the thing,
Speaker 3: what you know, so just going back and looking at
Speaker 3: the play, and my conversation with the pivots is when
Speaker 3: you're recovering, so the balls, the balls on the left
Speaker 3: side of the box before it gets crossed, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's the old Wayne Gretzky skate to where the puck
Speaker 3: is going. Don't skate to where the puck's at Like
Speaker 3: it's the same. You can use that for recovering pivots
Speaker 3: when you're when you're going from midfield to now into
Speaker 3: your box to recover is what does the what is
Speaker 3: the play saying where's the danger area? Where's the ball
Speaker 3: going to eventually go? Because that's where I want to
Speaker 3: That's where I want to run to. So that was
Speaker 3: the first problem, is his recovery wasn't in a position
Speaker 3: that was advantageous for us defensively. The second part was
Speaker 3: because he wasn't proactive in his recovery. Then it's a
Speaker 3: reactionary it goes over his head and now he's just
Speaker 3: chasing the ball without really seeing the sight of the player.
Speaker 3: And then, like you said, Mouktar just does what veterans
Speaker 3: do and he realizes that he's coming full speed, and
Speaker 3: so he just gets in the way of Nelson's row,
Speaker 3: which is you know, it's it's cheap, but it's smart,
Speaker 3: you know, and and and that's the type of clever
Speaker 3: cleverness that that wins you games or wins you moments
Speaker 3: that help you in games. And so that you know
Speaker 3: it was frustrating, but but again it's a good learning
Speaker 3: moment and if if that happens again, then then then
Speaker 3: we have some big problems. But I think for for
Speaker 3: all of our pivots who uh you know, they're they're
Speaker 3: they're learning, they're getting it, and we talk about it,
Speaker 3: we go through it on training field. So it's I
Speaker 3: think it's gonna be one of those moments that that
Speaker 3: we'll learn from and and won't happen again.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm stretching my memory, Poplo, I'm getting a
Speaker 1: little bit older, but I seem to remember a midfielder
Speaker 1: with a little bite who played for the Colorado Rapids,
Speaker 1: who may or may not have at times enjoyed executing
Speaker 1: some shall we say, dark arts here or there? Is
Speaker 1: there a part of you that tips the cap to
Speaker 1: Mouktar and says well done, sir.
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, That's why I said I was angry with
Speaker 3: this cleverness because it's it's genius and in and again,
Speaker 3: and then that's the thing that you know that that's
Speaker 3: what experience will bring you the same thing in the
Speaker 3: other box, right with with guys that have been around,
Speaker 3: they know like the angle of attacking the ball. So
Speaker 3: it's not just to recover the ball. That's that's just
Speaker 3: playing the game that's in front of you. But there's
Speaker 3: a game that's happening within the game. And if you
Speaker 3: can get into that, if you get into that level,
Speaker 3: now you're multi dimensional and that's where you you know,
Speaker 3: you can you can really man, you know, you dictate
Speaker 3: what the referee calls, you know how to get under
Speaker 3: people's skin, and there's another game that's going on and so, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, fair play to Mutar and for us, definitely
Speaker 3: a learning moment.
Speaker 1: So as far as the learning moment goes, like it's
Speaker 1: hard to even be mad at Nelson, right because like,
Speaker 1: what what's the lesson?
Speaker 3: Do?
Speaker 2: You just let him know?
Speaker 1: Like, hey, when you're around a savvy vet, you've got
Speaker 1: to be a little frosty, like what what are the
Speaker 1: teaching what are the teaching talking points?
Speaker 2: After something like that?
Speaker 3: Babla, Yeah, no, that's a great point. So again, it's
Speaker 3: it's that moment was happened because his actions were reactionary.
Speaker 3: In other words, if he was recovering to a spot,
Speaker 3: so the ball gets played out to the left side
Speaker 3: right and as the weak side pivot, so the weak
Speaker 3: side sense for midfielder, You've got to get to a
Speaker 3: spot defensively that covers the back line. So that's the
Speaker 3: first part. That's really the teaching moment. So again, don't
Speaker 3: you know where the ball is? You know what's happening
Speaker 3: over there. After two seconds you glanced there. Now you're
Speaker 3: spending the rest of your time recovering to a position
Speaker 3: where you identify Muktar. Because Mouktar was floating in between
Speaker 3: the lines, right, There wasn't a center back with him.
Speaker 3: He was just kind of floating between them. So as
Speaker 3: a pivot, I'm recovering to Muktar. That's my point of reference. Right,
Speaker 3: that's the danger guy in this moment that can affect
Speaker 3: our defense. Right. So that's really the teaching moment. And
Speaker 3: then the other teaching moment is you don't try to
Speaker 3: win the ball in your penalty box. And I know
Speaker 3: that sounds counterintuitive, but you don't make tackles in your
Speaker 3: penalty box. What you're doing is you're literally playing and
Speaker 3: like cop defending, where you're moving your feet, you're using
Speaker 3: your arms in your hands to keep the player moving
Speaker 3: away from the box or to pass the ball to
Speaker 3: another player that's outside the box. But anytime you go
Speaker 3: into challenge like to win a ball, you're putting yourself
Speaker 3: at the mercy of the referees discretion, right, and then
Speaker 3: all the dark arts from your opponent. So there's so
Speaker 3: many variables that come into play when you try to
Speaker 3: win the ball. Box, So we talk about moving our
Speaker 3: feet blocking the ball. You can block the ball, you
Speaker 3: can shuveer them out, but you just don't want to
Speaker 3: make tackles in the box.
Speaker 1: M interesting before we get to the players that are
Speaker 1: not on your roster, because we have to get there
Speaker 1: at the moment.
Speaker 2: Was Forrester unavailable?
Speaker 3: Was it?
Speaker 2: Was he hurt when you guys went to Nashville.
Speaker 3: No, no, again, I think you know we've we've you know,
Speaker 3: he had a really good run of games and we
Speaker 3: weren't able to you know, produce enough attacking output. You know.
Speaker 3: So my conversation with him is we we just got
Speaker 3: to give other guys a try, Like we just got
Speaker 3: to figure out between Ari between Forrester hashus, who who's
Speaker 3: the guy that's going to get be the most compatible
Speaker 3: with the players that we currently have. But also, you know,
Speaker 3: either creating a goal scoring opportunity or scoring himself. And
Speaker 3: so it was just basically coaches' decision as far as
Speaker 3: why Forster wasn't on the roster, so.
Speaker 1: He went with Ari to start in Brea as the sub.
Speaker 1: Take us into that mentality and how do you analyze
Speaker 1: the way those two handle themselves.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I think again, I think Ari again. My
Speaker 3: expectations for Ari's is what he's been doing, right if
Speaker 3: you know given you know his this is his first
Speaker 3: professional season, right, he played a few games in Australia,
Speaker 3: came over. So like, my expectation is that he's not
Speaker 3: going to come out of the gates and in his
Speaker 3: career in our league that's very difficult, and he gets
Speaker 3: more and more difficult every year. But he's going to
Speaker 3: be just banging goals left and right, like that's that's unrealistic, right.
Speaker 3: But his runs are really really good, his hold the
Speaker 3: plays getting better with every game. He had a really
Speaker 3: good chance in the first half that just missed the post.
Speaker 3: So he's doing everything from at least my expectations. And
Speaker 3: so then the thought was his sus is a very
Speaker 3: technical guy. He's clever with his runs. Let's you know,
Speaker 3: I think already went sixty five sixty minutes. Let's let's
Speaker 3: give hasus a run here to see if we can't
Speaker 3: get a hold of the ball. Because again, what Juzu's
Speaker 3: does is he does a really good job of bringing
Speaker 3: teammates into the game because he's technical, he reads the game.
Speaker 3: And so that was that was the thought with that decision.
Speaker 1: Well, I wanted to ask you this because I asked
Speaker 1: Herd this earlier when he joined us. This week two
Speaker 1: part question, are you a fan? This is the wrong
Speaker 1: week for me to ask you this, but are you
Speaker 1: a fan of VAR? And if you are not, what
Speaker 1: are some changes you think they could make to the
Speaker 1: way that this system has kind of manifested itself to
Speaker 1: maybe improve on the product.
Speaker 3: You know, to be honest, I think it was better
Speaker 3: before VAR. And I'll say that because you have the
Speaker 3: same feelings that you do now, right, but now there's
Speaker 3: this new technology, but it leaves both coaches feeling the
Speaker 3: same way that you did before there was this technology. Right,
Speaker 3: So it's like there's this review thing, but you know,
Speaker 3: like that for example that the red card review that
Speaker 3: was you know, rarely does it go to VAR if
Speaker 3: there's a red card where it's not a red card.
Speaker 3: And they came back and gave him a yellow card,
Speaker 3: And so I'm like, wait a second, if you're a
Speaker 3: fourth official, is saying that that was an egregious file,
Speaker 3: that was a red card, well then give them a
Speaker 3: red card. But to go back and review it and
Speaker 3: not give a red card for that, I'm thinking, what's
Speaker 3: this whole process for? Like it? You know? And and again,
Speaker 3: like the red card we we had against Dari when
Speaker 3: we played Dallas, it's the same thing. If you slow
Speaker 3: things down at the micro second, it looks a lot
Speaker 3: different than the and the actions that actually existed in
Speaker 3: real time. So I guess to answer your question, I'd
Speaker 3: like to because because both coaches, both teams, all fans,
Speaker 3: they're going to feel the same way after a VAAR call.
Speaker 3: And I'm saying, can you capture the moment in real time,
Speaker 3: the feeling of the game and what that was, And
Speaker 3: you're still going to be wrong sometimes, but at least
Speaker 3: you caught it in real time, and it puts a
Speaker 3: notice now on referees to be a little bit more,
Speaker 3: you know, on top of the game, versus having somebody
Speaker 3: to fall back to to then give to them make
Speaker 3: a call that that was reviewed in macro seconds and
Speaker 3: maybe not the best angles as well, So I think
Speaker 3: I'm a fan of not having it.
Speaker 1: I know it's been a little bit of a rough start,
Speaker 1: you know, through eight get three eight matches, But I
Speaker 1: wanted to ask you a macro question about these eight games.
Speaker 1: So you guys have analyzed and Kurt walked us through
Speaker 1: some numbers. Obviously Kurt's very analytically driven through eight games.
Speaker 1: What are you guys doing well?
Speaker 2: Pablo? What you what do you like that you're seeing
Speaker 2: so far?
Speaker 3: Well? Again, I think between the boxes we're doing we're
Speaker 3: doing we're doing well. In other words, the stats that
Speaker 3: aren't significant to results, I know. So like, our ability
Speaker 3: to control the game with the ball has been really good,
Speaker 3: both home and away. Defending between the boxes has has
Speaker 3: improved drastically in the last four games, so that parts
Speaker 3: really well. So just going over the game, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: six of the nine chances that that Nashville had against
Speaker 3: US came from dead ball situations, which are throwings. Uh,
Speaker 3: their goalkick set pieces, second phase set pieces, so like,
Speaker 3: these are all controllable moments where we actually have a
Speaker 3: chance to set up. So that's that's been the difficult part,
Speaker 3: you know, And and so that's what we focus on
Speaker 3: this week is and we use the slogan when the
Speaker 3: ball is dead, we come alive. Right when the ball
Speaker 3: is dead, you think I'm gonna get my chance to rest,
Speaker 3: but no, this is when you come alive because this
Speaker 3: is when we're conceding our most chances. So I think
Speaker 3: the area is where we've been deficient. Obviously, you know,
Speaker 3: scoring goals has been another area. But I think again
Speaker 3: the rhythm of play has been better, the chances have improved,
Speaker 3: the quality of chances have improved, So I think we're
Speaker 3: trending in the right direction. And this is what I
Speaker 3: alluded to at the beginning is you've got to put
Speaker 3: two good games together with two wins in order to
Speaker 3: validate the work, and the belief system goes up and
Speaker 3: the confidence goes up. And that's why I think the
Speaker 3: result against Nashville left the bat taste in our mouths
Speaker 3: because I think we're on the cusp of really finding
Speaker 3: our form, finding our way, and getting.
Speaker 2: Good results before we get to Toronto.
Speaker 1: Your opponent on Saturday, the way you kind of broke
Speaker 1: down where you feel like you guys are excelling, does
Speaker 1: indicate you might have a hole on your roster, and
Speaker 1: of course I will ask you once again, and I
Speaker 1: know you might get sick of it. I had to
Speaker 1: ask Kurt this week, and I feel like you want
Speaker 1: to strangle me through the phone. But Pablo, we're less
Speaker 1: than a week away, man, and we just are. And
Speaker 1: then that window closes. Then you have to wait until
Speaker 1: the summer, and the season might be tough to get
Speaker 1: back at that point, as you know. So for the
Speaker 1: RSL fans that are glued to the radio waiting for
Speaker 1: the one question, they probably have been wanting me to
Speaker 1: ask you for twenty minutes. Now, what is the progress?
Speaker 1: Where are we at? Our reinforcements on the way.
Speaker 3: So I might get in trouble for saying this, but
Speaker 3: I've been told that we are going to get a
Speaker 3: big player across the line. Okay, So now that's me
Speaker 3: probably speaking out of turn, because again, like these things spent,
Speaker 3: like I've said all along, and that's why I've been hesitant.
Speaker 3: It's there. There's so much that has to go through.
Speaker 3: But I've been but I've been told that that we're
Speaker 3: going to get this across the line. Those are our expectations.
Speaker 3: So I'm going with that, and this player could be
Speaker 3: coming at a better time. Like I said, I think
Speaker 3: we're really moving in the right direction with the way
Speaker 3: we want to play and all these things and him
Speaker 3: coming into that's that's that's confident, and that's you know,
Speaker 3: building towards something special. I think is a great environment
Speaker 3: for which to come into the group. And and and
Speaker 3: there's also a possibility of adding a little bit more
Speaker 3: experience to the roster, and that hasn't been yet solidified,
Speaker 3: but I think we're close there as well. So I'm optimistic.
Speaker 3: I'm an eternal optimist. I feel like we're gonna we're
Speaker 3: gonna turn things around shortly here. I feel like these
Speaker 3: we're gonna get a couple of players in and uh,
Speaker 3: we'll be moving full steam.
Speaker 2: Ads music to our ears before I set you loose.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: Toronto rolls into town on Saturday and they have not
Speaker 1: won the game all year. They've played eight games, they've
Speaker 1: lost four, they've drawn for I'm not one, based off
Speaker 1: of my experience at MLS to say a game in
Speaker 1: April as a must win, but this feels like there's
Speaker 1: maybe a little heightened pressure for you on Saturday night.
Speaker 2: Is that fair?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean, just based upon the fact that we're
Speaker 3: we're we're we're we're doing everything that we're asked that's
Speaker 3: being added of the guys, they're they're doing, they're they're
Speaker 3: putting in all the work. And you know, we're up
Speaker 3: against the Toronto team that have actually had three or
Speaker 3: four good results in a row. And results I mean
Speaker 3: they've they've drawn, they haven't won, but they've played some
Speaker 3: really good stuff and they've played against some really difficult teams.
Speaker 3: Right they went to Miami and got to draw in Miami,
Speaker 3: which they probably should have won that game. So again,
Speaker 3: in MLS, there's no there's there's no easy game. So
Speaker 3: we've got to be on top of ours in order
Speaker 3: to beat these guys. But but but yeah, I feel
Speaker 3: like obviously, you know, we're we didn't get out to
Speaker 3: the start that we'd like. But again, I think it's
Speaker 3: it's calm when bullets are flying, making sure that we're
Speaker 3: doing all the little things that we can we can't
Speaker 3: control to put ourselves in the best position to win
Speaker 3: this game on Saturday.
Speaker 1: All right, my guy, Well, I appreciate the time, have
Speaker 1: a good final couple of days in training and then
Speaker 1: best of lux Saturday night.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks Ben, appreciate it, but.
Speaker 2: Pablo Master Rennie if you missed it.
Speaker 1: He said he has been told a big player will
Speaker 1: be signed prior to the transfer win into closing, which
Speaker 1: is six days away from right down,