Speaker 1: RSL is in action tonight. The MLS Cup playoffs start tonight.
Speaker 2: Want to get it?
Speaker 1: Get you guys ready for that? Now here's the deal.
Speaker 1: I do not know how our guest is because Trey
Speaker 1: said he would get me Donny unless Donny is too
Speaker 1: busy and that, and in that instance, Trey booked himself
Speaker 1: as the backup, which I would very much like to avoid.
Speaker 1: So porter, who's our guest's dune?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Oh oh yes, bullet dodge. Come on, Donny, Donny, thank
Speaker 1: you for saving us. Happy Tuesday, buddy.
Speaker 3: Oh what's going on? Guys? How are you perfect timing?
Speaker 3: I just got done with my meeting for Apple ahead
Speaker 3: of our broadcast tonight of Real Salt Lake Games Minnesota,
Speaker 3: So perfect timing literally wrapped up like thirty seconds ago.
Speaker 2: Very nice.
Speaker 1: Well, look, fall, for a lot of people is about football.
Speaker 1: Fall also means playoff soccer. I love fall soccer. I
Speaker 1: just love the drama. I love the feeld. So just
Speaker 1: paint a picture for us. You're out there at the stadium.
Speaker 1: What's what's the buzz like?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean gates about open here in about thirty minutes,
Speaker 3: and then you got to march the match right around
Speaker 3: six sixteen, where RSL supporters will head out from the
Speaker 3: tailgate and make their way into the stadium and listen
Speaker 3: to today's the start. Right, it's the last days of
Speaker 3: the season. You worked so hard from January to get
Speaker 3: to this stage, right, all the extra doggies, the runs,
Speaker 3: the weightlifting sessions, you know, those tough conversations about who
Speaker 3: deserves to play, who doesn't deserve to play based on
Speaker 3: performance or news signing, the amount of money spent during
Speaker 3: the summer transfer window. You know, the atmosphere and the
Speaker 3: investment into the stadium, and this is what it's all about.
Speaker 3: Heading in the playoffs, and once you secured that top
Speaker 3: three spot in the Western Conference, you've secured home field
Speaker 3: advantage unless you hit one of these two Los Angeles teams,
Speaker 3: whether that be LAFC top of the table in the
Speaker 3: West or LA Galaxy who failed at the very last
Speaker 3: moment down in Houston and tonight against the Minnesota United
Speaker 3: team that you know, Realita Lake has had success, but
Speaker 3: most recently these last couple of matchups they've ended in draws,
Speaker 3: including these teams meeting a couple of weeks ago where
Speaker 3: Brian Vera ended up spitting at an opponent and getting
Speaker 3: himself a multi game ban. So statistically two teams that
Speaker 3: match up fairly even. But for rialso Lake probably most
Speaker 3: importantly keeping the back to back shutout, kind of turning
Speaker 3: that into something even more and trying to get Chicho
Speaker 3: Rongo that goal. It's because it's been elusive finding the
Speaker 3: back of the net. The seventeen goals, twelve assists, his
Speaker 3: last goal on July sixth, previous to that, three goals
Speaker 3: and the hat trick performance June first, So they got
Speaker 3: to get their captain back on track, confident and scoring goals.
Speaker 1: So tell me a bit about Minnesota. Now, ultimately, I
Speaker 1: don't want to be disparaging, but the two games that
Speaker 1: I've watched, certainly the one here, they did park the
Speaker 1: bus in a way. They kind of did not engage
Speaker 1: and look tactically, that's something that Pablo did in Seattle.
Speaker 2: Like I understand, if.
Speaker 1: You don't think that you have the ability to kind
Speaker 1: of engage the other team, or if you just want
Speaker 1: to get a road result that that is a win.
Speaker 2: To attack the game, that might be beneficial.
Speaker 1: But first of all, I guess I should just ask you,
Speaker 1: is that kind of the way they play and then
Speaker 1: if so, how does RSL handle that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's dependent upon the game itself, the
Speaker 3: regular season game. Going on the road. Getting the point
Speaker 3: at Real Salt Lake is something to be proud of.
Speaker 3: Considering the strength of the home record schedule for RSL
Speaker 3: this season, they've turned it back into the fortress that
Speaker 3: it once was back in the days of Rio Tinto.
Speaker 3: But also for Eric Ramsey and Minnesota United, this is
Speaker 3: a season of threes. I just hit my hit on
Speaker 3: appletb and I was trying to explain it's a young manager,
Speaker 3: just thirty two years of age. For those that don't know,
Speaker 3: the Minnesota United manager, Eric Ramsey spent time at Chelsea
Speaker 3: Football Club, he spent time at Manchester United, spent time
Speaker 3: as an assistant coach at Wales with Gareth Bale and company,
Speaker 3: and now has taken over at Minnesota United. And I
Speaker 3: think it was kind of I don't want to say
Speaker 3: he was out of nowhere, but you didn't think at
Speaker 3: that stage of his career this young man would take
Speaker 3: that job. So we had to bet in. And there's
Speaker 3: actually Cameron Knowles. Cam Knowles who played for Real salt
Speaker 3: as a center back back in two thousand and five.
Speaker 3: He was the head coach for the purpose couple of
Speaker 3: matches of the season, so adaption period. Team was doing well,
Speaker 3: some young players probably over punching their mark. In the
Speaker 3: middle of the summer June and July, things kind of
Speaker 3: went sideways. Three goal or three wins in just fourteen games.
Speaker 3: But in these last ten matches, seven wins. You know,
Speaker 3: they conceded just one goal in their last five and
Speaker 3: they've been trending upwards. Like Real Salt Lake. They've added
Speaker 3: some players, guys like Bata Bongie, Robin Hood up top,
Speaker 3: Kelvin Yoboa. These players have shown they're more than capable
Speaker 3: of causing havoc against opponents. But like you said, it's
Speaker 3: a team that's probably going to come sit in, sit back,
Speaker 3: force Reale Salt Lake or allowed Real Salt Lake to
Speaker 3: play their possession based type of attacking football soccer and
Speaker 3: see if they can hit in the transition because they
Speaker 3: are legal and counter attack opportunities. And sometimes the name
Speaker 3: of the game is being beautiful with the ball. Sometimes
Speaker 3: the name of the game is figuring out how to
Speaker 3: expose your opponents, and that's what they've done well these
Speaker 3: last five matches, four wins and just to draw.
Speaker 1: All right, so excuse me on the RSL front. You
Speaker 1: reference the Vera stuff, which is just such a bad look.
Speaker 1: And I've had everybody, Pablo, Jason, Kurt, We've all talked
Speaker 1: about it. Then Big Phil Quinton goes down and so
Speaker 1: against Vancouver, Pablo's solution was to move to Van Brown
Speaker 1: to center back a mecca Andelly to right back, a
Speaker 1: mecca I think played sixteen games right back last year,
Speaker 1: and bring in Nelson to where a mecca was. Are
Speaker 1: you anticipate or maybe you straight up no, like, what
Speaker 1: what is that going to look like?
Speaker 2: I was gonna say you had you might have the lineups.
Speaker 1: Like what is it going to look like tonight with
Speaker 1: that lack of center back depth?
Speaker 3: Yeah, without confirming anything whatsoever, because you know, I want
Speaker 3: to keep my job, Loo, could you sane? I think
Speaker 3: the one thing that you can lean into is everything
Speaker 3: you just described how they ended. They kept the shut.
Speaker 3: You know they they they've showed defensively that they and
Speaker 3: handle those type of moments and you go back. There's
Speaker 3: been multiple times this season where Justin Glad and Brian
Speaker 3: Vera the preferred partnership for Paulo Mastroni has not been
Speaker 3: available where effectively you played two outside backs as center backs,
Speaker 3: and whether that was you know, the days of a
Speaker 3: left back and a right back playing a center back,
Speaker 3: or you're just having to mix a match. It hasn't
Speaker 3: been ideal. But at the same time, nobody's healthy. You know,
Speaker 3: nobody's one hundred percent healthy. So again, you know, the
Speaker 3: back to back shutouts for Zach McMath kind of continuing
Speaker 3: to build what it looks like in terms of defensive
Speaker 3: solidity and a shape and identity that at least with
Speaker 3: the mechaanelly. What I would say is if he does
Speaker 3: again play in that right back position, yes, he's played there.
Speaker 3: When I talked to Pablo last year, he you know,
Speaker 3: he was thinking down the road of a Mecca being
Speaker 3: a central midfielder, which has been incredible alongside Ojeita. But
Speaker 3: now if you put him at right back, he's he's
Speaker 3: got the intelligence of playing that position, the familiarity of
Speaker 3: playing that position. But I'd be really intrigue expense to
Speaker 3: see what type of wrinkle he adds in terms of
Speaker 3: overloading and stepping up into that midfield in possession and
Speaker 3: what that looks like, because it's gonna. It's going to
Speaker 3: cause some havocs for the opponents to kind of think
Speaker 3: about where his starting position and his ending position are,
Speaker 3: especially with Catronis down that left hand side. He loves
Speaker 3: to get forward, effectively plays a left winger, and that
Speaker 3: ultimately allows Diego Luna and Matt Crooks to be two
Speaker 3: central midfielders in attacking mode underneath Tico Rongo. All of
Speaker 3: those little movements that I'm talking about causes a lot
Speaker 3: of it causes. It causes a ton of havoc for
Speaker 3: opponents to try to figure out when to step, when
Speaker 3: to stay, and you have to be very communicative in
Speaker 3: terms of dealing with what's in front of you and
Speaker 3: what's behind you. That is a nightmare, especially in the playoffs,
Speaker 3: to deal with.
Speaker 1: So Pablo hopped down before the Vancouver match and I
Speaker 1: asked him, because the schedule is being a little funky
Speaker 1: this year, with three games in one week often and
Speaker 1: then international duty injuries, he's had to show uff lit
Speaker 1: a bit. I said, okay, last regular season match before
Speaker 1: the postseason, are we going to see a first choice eleven?
Speaker 1: And he basically said yes, so, and you know, I
Speaker 1: just want you to walk me through this because it
Speaker 1: feels like Diego should be centralized, but Matt's been really
Speaker 1: good there and so Diego was out left, Diego was
Speaker 1: out right, which is new. Diego hopped on the show
Speaker 1: last week and said where every place I'm gonna end
Speaker 1: up centralized?
Speaker 2: So there's that.
Speaker 1: It feels like Mark Zuke was the guy they wanted
Speaker 1: and maybe still will be the guy they wanted. His
Speaker 1: feeling for Andres, and we have Lachlan in the mix
Speaker 1: as well. He has a lot of different offensive options
Speaker 1: and groupings. Where where do you think that group ultimately
Speaker 1: should and will kind of settle in when the dust settles.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think mark Chuk started because he was
Speaker 3: away with Poland in Germany coming off international duty. So
Speaker 3: I think mark Chuk if he had, if he had
Speaker 3: his full compliment of attacking players available, mark Chuk will
Speaker 3: be on the right, Luno will be on the left,
Speaker 3: Kriks would be underneath Chico. Now it seems surprising for
Speaker 3: a lot of people, including myself, well because Diogo and
Speaker 3: the amount of money that you've spent on him, it
Speaker 3: would suggest that he would be the guy that you
Speaker 3: would absolutely play over Matt Crooks, especially because statistically Matt
Speaker 3: Crooks isn't anywhere near the respective number tens in Major
Speaker 3: League soccer. But what he does for the system and
Speaker 3: the past before the pass and the runs off the ball,
Speaker 3: I think have been incredibly important for the for the
Speaker 3: setup and the tactical nuance that Pablo wants from this group.
Speaker 3: So and by the way, not that he wants to,
Speaker 3: but Diogo has been really good coming off the bench
Speaker 3: and being an impact player, uh you know, in the
Speaker 3: in the second in the second phase of play. So
Speaker 3: all of those things are I think can be real
Speaker 3: and can be true and still be frustrating. But I
Speaker 3: think Pablo has a really good identity of who his
Speaker 3: starting eleven is, even though he's got to have some
Speaker 3: tough conversations about why certain players aren't getting the certain
Speaker 3: amount of minutes that they expect at this stage of
Speaker 3: the season.
Speaker 1: Tell me what you've seen this year from Diego, who
Speaker 1: I perceived to be the player in that group that
Speaker 1: is in the best form right now. Obviously, goals help,
Speaker 1: and he's scoring goals. The best strike he had a
Speaker 1: against Vancouver may have been the one that actually didn't
Speaker 1: go in and went off the crossbar after like four stepovers.
Speaker 2: I mean he's a magical talent.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: How from your vantage point, Dotty, has he grown this year?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I did his game in January when
Speaker 3: he was called up to the full men's national team
Speaker 3: and he was capped and down in San Antonio. And
Speaker 3: you know, the joke was he was turning from moon
Speaker 3: boy to moon man because he was no longer kind
Speaker 3: of his precocis young talent. Now he was going to
Speaker 3: be about what can you do at the highest level
Speaker 3: with the pressure on, the expectation on, and a U
Speaker 3: twenty two contract that significantly gave him a pay raise. Little. Well,
Speaker 3: I don't want to say little by little because he's
Speaker 3: the same player. But every game he's continued to I think,
Speaker 3: showcase not only why he deserves to start, but why
Speaker 3: he should be an all star, why he should be
Speaker 3: a contender for the US men's national team underneath new
Speaker 3: head coach Mauricio Pochettino. You know the double birds based
Speaker 3: on performance he gave the former US under twenty three
Speaker 3: coach that refused to take him to the Olympics over
Speaker 3: in France. You know, this is a young man who
Speaker 3: has dealt with stepbacks his entire life, and the strength
Speaker 3: and mental fortitude that he has is extraordinary, and I
Speaker 3: would agree with you in terms of the consistency of
Speaker 3: run of form. There haven't been a lot of games
Speaker 3: where you've seen a dip in his performance. He's the
Speaker 3: type of player that nobody wants to play against. He's quick,
Speaker 3: he's dynamic, he's got a low center of gravity, very
Speaker 3: very intelligent, great technically with either foot, and he's a
Speaker 3: kid that wants to be on the ball as much
Speaker 3: as possible, and you can see the frustration when he
Speaker 3: doesn't feel like he can be a part of the
Speaker 3: solution and finds himself maybe as part of the problem.
Speaker 3: So yeah, the sky's the limit for this young man.
Speaker 3: And twenty gold contributions on the season so far and
Speaker 3: counting heading into the playoffs, I think it's just the
Speaker 3: start of what we're going to continue to see during
Speaker 3: whatever the timeline looks like. With him wearing an R
Speaker 3: Sol jersey.
Speaker 1: Go back to Chico for a moment, because I haven't
Speaker 1: been able to catch up with you for the past
Speaker 1: few weeks and I'm just floored.
Speaker 2: Did he still on seventeen goals?
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm baffled, right, So several dynamics here and Dress,
Speaker 1: and he obviously had a cool, good thing going. Gomez
Speaker 1: has gone acclimates to new players. The suspension maybe a
Speaker 1: hot star that wasn't sustainable, But how would you characterize
Speaker 1: exactly why a player that was so red hot has
Speaker 1: gone so eyes cold?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it definitely coincides with the suspension for me.
Speaker 3: You know, he was supposed to he was up for
Speaker 3: the not only just starting in the All Star Game,
Speaker 3: but potentially being the captain of the All Star Game
Speaker 3: in Columbus, so you know that, and probably the frustration
Speaker 3: handle or embarrassment of having to deal with the suspension
Speaker 3: in the manner in which it was verbalized or not verbalized.
Speaker 3: Losing and Dress hurts because I think those two just
Speaker 3: instinctually understood one another. But I would say more importantly,
Speaker 3: you know, we saw, you know, we saw even the
Speaker 3: Siachinka own goal down in Houston where we thought, okay,
Speaker 3: Chicho's getting got his goal again, here we go, how
Speaker 3: many posts he hit, how many world class saves goalies
Speaker 3: have had against them. But I think the one thing
Speaker 3: to recognize as well statistically, Yeah, that's what we're always
Speaker 3: going to focus on. Goals and the fifth from Chicho
Speaker 3: because he is that good, and he's the captain of
Speaker 3: Rial Saw Lake, and he was about to break Calvo
Speaker 3: Sabario's single season goal scaring record of seventeen goals. He's
Speaker 3: still playing well, Spence. I think that's that's the craziest
Speaker 3: part about this. You know, statistically, he fell off a cliff,
Speaker 3: but he's still playing really well. So if I knew
Speaker 3: the solution, I would certainly verbalize that to Pablo and
Speaker 3: his staff and to chie Cho himself. But I think
Speaker 3: I'm as dumbfounded to the frustration that he's finding himself
Speaker 3: in as anyone else.
Speaker 1: All Right, So what I have here is about forty
Speaker 1: degrees a kickoff with the chance of light rain, but
Speaker 1: maybe no rain at all. You're a guy that played
Speaker 1: all over the world in extreme conditions everywhere. What yeah, no, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know, Like, so what what sort of unique challenges
Speaker 1: does a cold, ready night bring.
Speaker 3: Well, it's ideal in terms of you feel like you
Speaker 3: can run forever, but you have to get your body
Speaker 3: right in warm ups and make sure that you're not
Speaker 3: pulling up. By the way, I didn't know Stevie Rayvaughn
Speaker 3: was practicing the national anthem behind nice yeah, I think
Speaker 3: you just got to make sure physically you're prepared and
Speaker 3: you're and you're warm, because getting through the warm up
Speaker 3: is one thing. But then you go back inside to
Speaker 3: the locker room and then you're standing out there during
Speaker 3: national anthems, which it sounds like it's going to be
Speaker 3: a fifteen minute national anthem right now with uh with
Speaker 3: Stevie Rayvon out here. But then you know, it's about mentality,
Speaker 3: and right now it's about killer mentality. So you know,
Speaker 3: you you wear the long sleeves, if you need to
Speaker 3: wear the gloves, whatever it is. It's going to be
Speaker 3: a cold night and and hopefully, you know, maybe they
Speaker 3: can mimic the performance they had against in the beginning
Speaker 3: of the season where the snow was falling, seemed like
Speaker 3: it was going to be a nightmare, and they absolutely
Speaker 3: smashed LAFC on the night.
Speaker 1: All right, Dondy, last thing, then I know you got
Speaker 1: to go. So I'll just put it like this very simply,
Speaker 1: RSL gets all three gets a win tonight.
Speaker 2: If what.
Speaker 3: Ooh, if they set the tone, and I expect them
Speaker 3: to set the tone, but I think it's important on
Speaker 3: a night like this where you've had such a significant
Speaker 3: break since decision day that you know, effectively what ten
Speaker 3: eleven days off, that you haven't lost your rhythm and
Speaker 3: if you can set the tone, I think that is
Speaker 3: the baseline of confidence in terms of like the first tackle,
Speaker 3: first touch, you know, winning that first header. If you
Speaker 3: if you set that level of expectation for your teammates
Speaker 3: and you show that you're up for it. It's a
Speaker 3: lead by example, like I never needed to hear somebody
Speaker 3: tell me as a player, let's go, boys, let's go,
Speaker 3: Like I already knew we have to go. So then
Speaker 3: how do you get everyone to fall in line with
Speaker 3: your leadership. It's it's it's getting stuck in, it's setting
Speaker 3: the tone, it's it's you know, getting into those those
Speaker 3: verbal dialogues with the opponents. These are two teams that
Speaker 3: don't like each other. That's clear and evidence. And you've
Speaker 3: got to continue that through the playoffs because in a week,
Speaker 3: a couple of days time, when you're on the road
Speaker 3: in Minnesota on Saturday night, you want to make sure
Speaker 3: that you that they know psychologically, whether they want to
Speaker 3: verbalize it or not, that they're in for one hell
Speaker 3: of a painful game to deal with playing RSL.
Speaker 1: All right, brother, well, I appreciate the time, have a
Speaker 1: great call, and I will love to get you back
Speaker 1: on soon.
Speaker 3: Okay, sounds good on man, good talking.
Speaker 2: Ryan Don Seth.
Speaker 1: He'll be on the call tonight with Max bred Us
Speaker 1: as OURSL welcomes in Minnesota for the first leg of
Speaker 1: a best of three first round MLS playoff format. They
Speaker 1: change the damn thing every year, so I think that's
Speaker 1: what it is. Do not quobe. Brought to you by
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