Speaker 1: It is a filibustering time, or at least it was
Speaker 1: kind of sort of, And so I filibustered a bit
Speaker 1: man's properly hydrated William I don't know. Let's let's check
Speaker 1: and see from the weekend and see if he is
Speaker 1: in fact properly hydrated. Abe Gordon, sir, have you recovered
Speaker 1: from the weekend?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good.
Speaker 3: Uh you know that that uh that game Saturday night
Speaker 3: made it almost drove me to drinking, I believe.
Speaker 2: But but but we're back at it, so here we are.
Speaker 1: I was like, wait a minute, now, I mean that
Speaker 1: that When was the last time that you had as
Speaker 1: goofy or crazy a match as that one that involved
Speaker 1: a team that you are either covering or anything like that?
Speaker 1: When was the last year?
Speaker 2: I just like that.
Speaker 3: Just not on the professional level, right, Like, like we've
Speaker 3: all played rec leagues where some team dominates the first
Speaker 3: half and some team dominates the second.
Speaker 2: And that's not what this was, necessarily, But we've seen.
Speaker 3: Comebacks at lower levels, uh quite comfortably, but uh, this
Speaker 3: one was was weird.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: And I was sitting up in the booth with with
Speaker 3: Madison Cruz and Jared Smith and I turned to Jarrett
Speaker 3: before before that own goal, and I say, man, I
Speaker 3: don't know if there's a path back in this one.
Speaker 2: You're down three to one.
Speaker 3: Have it looked overly dangerous in quite a while, but
Speaker 3: lo and behold, I mean, just put the ball in
Speaker 3: good places and see what happens.
Speaker 2: That's what Saba did that led to the own goal.
Speaker 2: And quite frankly, I think that's what you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, Seandae Silva is kind of a blind cross, right,
Speaker 3: I mean the way his back is to the goal
Speaker 3: or to the box, and he just kind of turns
Speaker 3: and fires it in there. And look, if it wasn't Maggie,
Speaker 3: it would have been Latte Lot. They were both right there,
Speaker 3: and so just put the ball in dangerous spots and
Speaker 3: see what happens. And that's what they did. They found
Speaker 3: their way back. And again, you know, for for a
Speaker 3: season that had started out one, two and two, and
Speaker 3: you probably deserved a little bit better than the results
Speaker 3: showed through those first five matches. We're gonna be quite honest,
Speaker 3: this was the performance that you're gonna necessarily compliment in general.
Speaker 2: But the result was there.
Speaker 3: And so, man, just a little bit of the soccer gods,
Speaker 3: give it and take it away, and all that really
Speaker 3: matters is the three points at the end. So I'm
Speaker 3: happy about it, pleased with it, and now you're really
Speaker 3: starting to build something because kind of the talking point,
Speaker 3: at least for me, but also for Rodney Dila, who
Speaker 3: had mentioned it in his press or Thursday, was like, hey, man, like,
Speaker 3: we haven't got many points, and we got three straight
Speaker 3: home games. These are winnable games, Like, let's start to
Speaker 3: rack up three, three and three, and by the end
Speaker 3: of this a couple of weeks, you're gonna be sitting
Speaker 3: on nine extra points and that doesn't happen without picking
Speaker 3: up the first three. And so they did that and
Speaker 3: they accomplish that. And the one thing that you and
Speaker 3: I John have talked about is is the start of
Speaker 3: the season, the opponents that you're dealing with, these teams
Speaker 3: that were in the playoffs last year, that starts to
Speaker 3: change coming up with these next two home games, and
Speaker 3: so an opportunity to really get on a roll at home,
Speaker 3: and that's something this team has sorely needed. And then
Speaker 3: the other thing that I mentioned to you a week ago,
Speaker 3: and it was kind of like, I know, they're not
Speaker 3: really gonna consider this, but also maybe they should consider this.
Speaker 3: Is there's something about Saba on the right and they
Speaker 3: went into another formation midway through the second half that
Speaker 3: moved Saba to the right, and I turned to Jared,
Speaker 3: I was like, what formation are they in right now?
Speaker 3: Because Saba's on the right, Shawn Day's on the left.
Speaker 3: I don't exactly know what they're asking Miggy to do.
Speaker 3: We also saw Alexi Mornchuk slide deeper a little bit
Speaker 3: and play from the six, and so it's just something.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's sustainable. I don't know if
Speaker 3: it's something that you will do at the start of
Speaker 3: a match, but I think there are gonna be stretches
Speaker 3: where you maybe shift for Machion for twenty twenty five
Speaker 3: minutes see if you can produce something. But it's something
Speaker 3: to consider. It's just a different Saba on the right
Speaker 3: side for whatever reason, and it needs to be looked at.
Speaker 3: It needs to be figured out.
Speaker 1: Because I was trying to do the schematic in my
Speaker 1: head and I was thinking that it might just be
Speaker 1: a different four. It might just be a different four
Speaker 1: two one, three.
Speaker 3: Well, what you need is twelve players on the field.
Speaker 3: If We're gonna be honest, it is like that's what
Speaker 3: I was walking my dog this morning. I'm like, I
Speaker 3: know we're going to talk about this, and I can't
Speaker 3: figure out how it would actually look during a game
Speaker 3: unless you're running twelve men, right, I mean, if you
Speaker 3: have Sean Day and Saba and the rest of the
Speaker 3: guys and the midfield and the defenders and Goose, that's
Speaker 3: twelve men. So it's just not something that I think
Speaker 3: you can necessarily run for ninety minutes. But there might
Speaker 3: be stretches in the game where you move people around
Speaker 3: and ask people to sit higher, sit deeper, or whatever
Speaker 3: it might be. But there has to be a little
Speaker 3: bit of consideration in film study going as to why
Speaker 3: it's dangerous that way.
Speaker 1: No, maybe we're just going to play CFL rules and
Speaker 1: see if any of the folks can sit there and
Speaker 1: jump on and go, hey, wait a minute, you've got twelve.
Speaker 1: But no, to your point where you have the four
Speaker 1: that you have on your back line, then you know,
Speaker 1: Ronnie Daila wants to have those two holding mids, and
Speaker 1: then you have the full kroom and then he wants
Speaker 1: to have the three. You know, maybe it turns into
Speaker 1: something at times where and we've always said here on
Speaker 1: the show that formations are a loose construct. Anyway, you
Speaker 1: can sit there and put up a graphic on television
Speaker 1: and go, oh, it's a you know, it's a four
Speaker 1: to two three one or whatever it is, and then
Speaker 1: when the whistle blows, everybody kind of goes and does
Speaker 1: their thing. But if you have a moment where you
Speaker 1: want to drop mid on Chuck a little bit, you
Speaker 1: want to have him be more of a point guard,
Speaker 1: you drop him further back a little bit, send everybody
Speaker 1: else forward, lock saba In down on the right hand side,
Speaker 1: and Miggy wander on that two thirds and figure out
Speaker 1: to track it down and figure out, okay, do we
Speaker 1: overload here? Do we flip this? And all that? To
Speaker 1: your point, it gives teams something else to think about,
Speaker 1: in something else that they have to account for. Oh okay,
Speaker 1: here's your standard formation. Okay, I know what to expect
Speaker 1: on the left hand side. Oh okay, now Miranchu cast
Speaker 1: a drop. Now I've got to figure out how I'm
Speaker 1: going to handle that. So it just I think it
Speaker 1: just adds something else where folks to have to think about.
Speaker 1: And the last thing that you want with twenty five
Speaker 1: to go is folks with fresh legs are sitting there
Speaker 1: and coming at you from different positions, and then Micky
Speaker 1: yelling at Rocky to go ahead and start swinging and
Speaker 1: fighting left hand on it.
Speaker 3: Well, the other thing is the best time to do
Speaker 3: it is like right after the opposing team brings in,
Speaker 3: you know, two or three players on a sub and
Speaker 3: they've been given their duties and responsibilities based on how
Speaker 3: United's played for sixty eight or seventy two minutes, and
Speaker 3: then they get in there and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: it is not what we talked about. And it is
Speaker 3: really impressive though to see Moran chuck in the ability
Speaker 3: that he has to play those multiple roles in what
Speaker 3: he's being asked and so hopefully that continues. But there
Speaker 3: just seems to be a level of danger. You'd like
Speaker 3: to not have it forcefully be when you need goals
Speaker 3: down three to one, but there's something about it, and
Speaker 3: it's it's at least got to be measured and weighed.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Kind of brought it up last week and said, hey, man,
Speaker 3: like this was noticeable. Right, They're not gonna move Miggi
Speaker 3: off the right, So I understand what the talking point
Speaker 3: was last week. Now it's two weeks in a row
Speaker 3: that we've seen it, and it does start to become
Speaker 3: some sort of consideration again, if not for ninety straight minutes,
Speaker 3: certainly how you could adjust in game to get Saba there.
Speaker 3: And I mean, look, there's all sorts of things wrapping
Speaker 3: through my head, like would Moranchuck work on the left
Speaker 3: and Miggi drops central and Saba goes right? I mean again,
Speaker 3: I don't I don't know. The formation takes twelve people.
Speaker 3: That's why it doesn't work right now.
Speaker 1: But maybe it's maybe it's a four to two to
Speaker 1: two two basically to where you've got your fourth the back,
Speaker 1: you have your two midfielder, you have your two holding mids,
Speaker 1: then you have your two attacking mids with Midanchuk and whomever,
Speaker 1: and then Saba on the right and cheating in and
Speaker 1: then whoever your striker. You know, Latte lot at the
Speaker 1: striker position being where he is, and so I'm thinking
Speaker 1: maybe it's a two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And there's a lot of things that come into
Speaker 3: play here, right like maybe this formation isn't necessary if
Speaker 3: Pedro Amador is healthy and he's running up the left side.
Speaker 3: But you had to switch out him because of a
Speaker 3: quad injury for dom chan Qui. Some good some bad
Speaker 3: there for him, but you're probably not tasking him with
Speaker 3: getting forward the way you would task Pedro.
Speaker 2: You probably here say hey, man, it's your first start.
Speaker 3: I know it's not your first appearance, but it's your
Speaker 3: first meaningful minutes here with Atlanta United. Maybe play a
Speaker 3: little bit safer right on the defensive side of things,
Speaker 3: and so maybe it would look different if it is
Speaker 3: a Ronald Hernandez or Pedro. Amador is back healthy in
Speaker 3: terms of the connection on the left with Saba, in
Speaker 3: terms of the attack from the left side, and maybe
Speaker 3: you don't need sean Day in there for things to work.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of different considerations here. But it
Speaker 3: worked and it led to just a crazy comeback. And
Speaker 3: again I'm not gonna fight and sit here and say
Speaker 3: this is an outstanding performance for Atlanta United.
Speaker 2: It wasn't. But you got three points.
Speaker 3: And for a season that started out where you felt
Speaker 3: like you could have had three points, or in some
Speaker 3: of those games where you picked up zero, you could
Speaker 3: have had one point. For this one to happen in
Speaker 3: a manner that it did. I don't feel bad. I'm
Speaker 3: never gonna apologize right for three points, but I certainly
Speaker 3: don't feel bad about this one based on how the
Speaker 3: earlier parts of the season had gone, and so you know,
Speaker 3: for me, it just continued to build on this. We
Speaker 3: do see that Saba can be dangerous. Latte lot is
Speaker 3: a problem for ninety minutes, like the energy doesn't die down,
Speaker 3: and I've been really impressed by him and his willingness
Speaker 3: to do things you don't see a lot of elite
Speaker 3: goal scorers do. His willingness to drop back and defend
Speaker 3: in moments and continually to defend. You see a lot
Speaker 3: of guys defending in the first half and then in
Speaker 3: the seventieth minute or seventy fifth minute they stop making runs.
Speaker 2: They do this, They do that. He's willing to defend.
Speaker 3: He's gonna get off sides here and there, but he's
Speaker 3: not just standing off sides all the time, which is
Speaker 3: one thing you see a lot of guys do. There's
Speaker 3: just a lot of parts of his game I really
Speaker 3: really kind of respect and appreciate, and obviously that paid dividends.
Speaker 3: We do need to contact the MLS league office that
Speaker 3: needed to be an assist from Brad Guzan. I'm sorry
Speaker 3: they refuse to give it to him. Jarrett myself on
Speaker 3: the full time report unofficially gave him the assist, but
Speaker 3: he deserved that. And all kudos to Latte Lost for
Speaker 3: causing a problem in the late stages of this game
Speaker 3: where a lot of guys may have run themselves dry.
Speaker 3: So look, there's just a lot of really nice things
Speaker 3: that we're seeing right now. And going back to the
Speaker 3: first goal, I think it was the first goal Alexi
Speaker 3: Moronchak getting on the scoreboard was a nice feeling because
Speaker 3: he's kind of come under a lot of heat for
Speaker 3: a variety of the reasons, some deserve, maybe some not deserved.
Speaker 3: But he's played well and yes, I get it, he's
Speaker 3: not leaving the league and assists that was my bold
Speaker 3: take I take at the start of the year. That
Speaker 3: hasn't happened, to be fair, your bold take of Pedro
Speaker 3: leading whatever it was, hasn't happened yet either, So it
Speaker 3: is just one of those things where I do still
Speaker 3: think that it's going to come. But it was nice
Speaker 3: to see him rewarded from some fine play and then
Speaker 3: again credited later in the match for being able to
Speaker 3: drop it and play it a different role than what
Speaker 3: he was asked to play the first you know, seventy
Speaker 3: minutes or whatever.
Speaker 1: It was double digit assists. I think was what I've
Speaker 1: got with Pedro Amador.
Speaker 2: I got time. It's early.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like you know, yeah, look you got you got
Speaker 1: yours with am five nine, I got mine with Amador.
Speaker 1: We got plenty of time. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: Dominic chon Qui a little bit and Matt Edwards and
Speaker 1: DCQ basically was tapped on the shoulder and it's like, dude,
Speaker 1: you're going in. You're starting because of just a concern
Speaker 1: over Pedro. Nothing nothing you know that we have seen
Speaker 1: that is earth shattering, no news about him, you know,
Speaker 1: sitting out for nine months or something like that. So
Speaker 1: DCQ comes in. He has literally thrown into the fire.
Speaker 1: Matt Edwards I think, ends up having to play his
Speaker 1: third different position at the back at certain points during
Speaker 1: this particular match. And so once again we talk about
Speaker 1: the young guys being thrown in not they're not flinching.
Speaker 1: Yes there are mistakes, but once again, you know, you're
Speaker 1: your first time in, You're you're learning. Ronnie Daila has
Speaker 1: been nothing but positive, really sees a bright future for
Speaker 1: d CQ. What do you think of DCQ and Matt Edwards.
Speaker 3: Well, let's just start with Matt Edwards. I think it's
Speaker 3: a shorter conversation. I know you called him a young guy.
Speaker 3: It doesn't even feel that way anymore, Like like there's
Speaker 3: just full confidence in him being brought in, whether it's
Speaker 3: on the outside, whether it's on the inside, whether it's
Speaker 3: off the bench, or whether it's the starting role. I
Speaker 3: just don't even think about it, right, It's not even
Speaker 3: one of those things like you have to protect him
Speaker 3: and maybe use a football term slide coverage or whatever.
Speaker 3: I just don't even think about it, to be honest.
Speaker 3: I'm just fully comfortable in what he's doing, certainly defensively.
Speaker 3: Maybe there's some more he can add in the attacking
Speaker 3: aspect of things, but I don't even think about it.
Speaker 3: In terms of dom chon Qui, A couple things probably
Speaker 3: played in his favor, Like he probably got a great
Speaker 3: night of sleep Friday night, right, I mean the fact
Speaker 3: that he's not told until a couple of minutes early
Speaker 3: that hey man, we're pressing a duty, we're gonna need
Speaker 3: you probably actually helped him out and we talked about
Speaker 3: we see this a lot with like starting pitchers making
Speaker 3: their debut and being called up, and when did you
Speaker 3: find out? I didn't find out until two hours before
Speaker 3: game time. And you know, it just the ability to
Speaker 3: not panic or overreact or like get in your own
Speaker 3: head because you don't really have time to think about
Speaker 3: what's happening in the moment.
Speaker 2: And I'm talking about the.
Speaker 3: Pregame and the warm up and the fact that you're
Speaker 3: being called on probably does help you. And then once
Speaker 3: you get into the game, it's just the game and
Speaker 3: we understand that. And so look, there were some mistakes made, certainly,
Speaker 3: and that's got to be fixed. And we'll see if
Speaker 3: he gets another opportunity to start. Right this is his
Speaker 3: last short term call up, So if they are going
Speaker 3: to use dom chon Qui again at any point in
Speaker 3: the regular season, they're gonna have to do so by
Speaker 3: modifying his contract and signing him, I think, to a
Speaker 3: first team deal. And so maybe we get that news
Speaker 3: at some point early this week if the plan is
Speaker 3: to keep him either on the bench or in reserve,
Speaker 3: and maybe that's the plan, is to keep him with
Speaker 3: the twos and continue to develop him. But look, he
Speaker 3: made some mistakes it cost you a goal. Ultimately, it
Speaker 3: didn't cost you the match, and I think you'd be
Speaker 3: a lot more frustrated, you'd be a lot more critical
Speaker 3: in the decision if you had lost three to one
Speaker 3: and you look at some of the play there, but
Speaker 3: a massive learning experience that ultimately you still picked up
Speaker 3: three points on. I think that certainly helps. I think
Speaker 3: doing it at home probably helps quite a bit it
Speaker 3: as well. And look, there are times in that match
Speaker 3: where you can see what others see about dom chon
Speaker 3: Qui and as as he continues to grow and as
Speaker 3: he continues to learn the league.
Speaker 2: And that's the one thing.
Speaker 3: I always remind people about when when you've got these
Speaker 3: guys making their first start or like it's not just
Speaker 3: learning their teammates, but you have never played against probably
Speaker 3: all eleven guys, maybe one or two guys you've met
Speaker 3: at the junior level, or you're on a youth national
Speaker 3: team with something like that. But it's a completely new
Speaker 3: opponent field, and so you're getting used to pretty much
Speaker 3: every aspect of your team, every aspect of their team
Speaker 3: as well. So mistakes can be made. It's nicer for
Speaker 3: a mistake not to ultimately cost you goals. It did,
Speaker 3: but ultimately they were they were able to fight back,
Speaker 3: and so really nice debut, not debut, but starting debut
Speaker 3: for dom Chon Queen. And we'll see if he gets
Speaker 3: a new contract, and we've see a lot more from him,
Speaker 3: But there are reasons to be optimistic. I think we
Speaker 3: can all.
Speaker 1: See that he's like the pitcher called up and he's
Speaker 1: thrown into his first start and he goes five and
Speaker 1: two thirds, gives up and earned, and he's pulled with
Speaker 1: two runners on base, and that they bring in the meat,
Speaker 1: the middle relief guy, and he shuts the door in
Speaker 1: the sixth inning, right, something like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, look, he did cost you a goal,
Speaker 3: So I'm not sure the outing was quite that strong,
Speaker 3: but I think it's a situation where he gave you
Speaker 3: an opportunity to win, right, And that's really all you
Speaker 3: can ask of if we're going to keep a baseball
Speaker 3: term here, like a spot start is really just keep
Speaker 3: you in the game, man, three or four runs of
Speaker 3: five innings, four innings, whatever it was. Let's see if
Speaker 3: we can stretch it out a little bit, and then we
Speaker 3: get to our bullpen, our closers, And that's kind of
Speaker 3: what Louis O Brahm and Matt Edwards were brought on
Speaker 3: to do, and ultimately, from their aspect, they did it,
Speaker 3: and you still needed the offense to wake up. It
Speaker 3: did it, and so you walk out of there with
Speaker 3: a nine inning win and you're not too concerned about it.
Speaker 3: So three points and you get back into it.
Speaker 1: No doubt. All right, hit the promo for me. What's
Speaker 1: going on in your world?
Speaker 2: Yeah, man, we're ready.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be exciting week of coverage here on ninety
Speaker 3: two nine, and it's all leading towards another home game,
Speaker 3: the second of three straight home games feels winnable against Dallas,
Speaker 3: and this one again is at kickoff at just after
Speaker 3: seven thirty, but the Five Stripes countdown will be getting
Speaker 3: going at six thirty, so really excited about it. Hopefully
Speaker 3: it's not as crazy downtown as it was this past weekend.
Speaker 3: I know, the volleyball tournament and some other stuff kind
Speaker 3: of had people acting all crazy up on.
Speaker 2: North Side Drive.
Speaker 3: So hopefully a lot more Five Stripes and a lot
Speaker 3: less Span Dex and we'll be ready to roll.
Speaker 1: No, not as much volleyball, I don't think, Thank you,
Speaker 1: my friend. It's always great to see you on Mondays.
Speaker 2: Always better after three points, isn't it.