Speaker 1: It's time to hit the pitch on the drive. The
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Speaker 2: RSL is an action tonight and we will see the
Speaker 2: debut of one of their new players. Rowan Cruz has
Speaker 2: received his visa and it's eligible to make his club
Speaker 2: debut tonight in League's Cup Action. Kurt Schmidt, the primary
Speaker 2: decision maker, the Director of Soccer Ops or whatever the
Speaker 2: new title is. He's just the guy that signs the players,
Speaker 2: which is a very important role.
Speaker 3: Kurt. Happy Wednesday, sir.
Speaker 4: How are you? I'm good.
Speaker 3: Let's start with Rowan Cruz.
Speaker 2: Let's start with the new player you have signed and
Speaker 2: potentially we'll get to see him tonight. Origin story, Kurt,
Speaker 2: When did you first hear about him? How did this
Speaker 2: process play out? What kind of what kind of player
Speaker 2: is he?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we've we've actually been aware of you for for
Speaker 5: a while.
Speaker 4: I think it's.
Speaker 5: Been it's almost been a at least nine or twelve
Speaker 5: months since we first heard his name. We actually, you know,
Speaker 5: worked on him earlier in this in this season in
Speaker 5: the primary window, he had made a big move to
Speaker 5: Bota Fogo, but there was a chance that they might
Speaker 5: not use him as much as they thought, and so
Speaker 5: we we were speaking to them about alone a few
Speaker 5: months ago, but things didn't quite line up, and so
Speaker 5: to have them line up now is obviously, you know, serendipitous,
Speaker 5: which you always need a little bit of that in this
Speaker 5: in this line of work. But you know, it's good
Speaker 5: that we were to line everything up and bring him
Speaker 5: on board for the rest of this year and and
Speaker 5: hopefully next year as well.
Speaker 2: So Pablo this week referred to him as like a
Speaker 2: nine and a half, you know, a striker that can
Speaker 2: score goals but also make plays.
Speaker 3: What sort of player is Ruwan?
Speaker 5: Yeah, nine and a half nine, He's he's sort of
Speaker 5: done both of those things. And one of the things
Speaker 5: that's the positive about him is he can fit with
Speaker 5: the rest of our players. He doesn't have one role
Speaker 5: that he has to do this thing, so you know,
Speaker 5: you can only pair him with these certain players he
Speaker 5: can balance off I think anyone in our attack currently
Speaker 5: that we would play up top next to him, which
Speaker 5: is a positive. He is probably a little more comfortable
Speaker 5: or adept in that nine and a half role, which
Speaker 5: just means, you know, he's someone that maybe.
Speaker 4: Gets the ball defeat a little bit more.
Speaker 5: And comes from a slightly deeper space than the nine
Speaker 5: whose main job is to stretch and push the center
Speaker 5: backs back and occupy those two guys to create some
Speaker 5: space underneath. So he's a guy that can play and connect.
Speaker 5: You can play the ball into him, get it back
Speaker 5: off of him, combine. He moves well after receiving and passing,
Speaker 5: and he finds good spaces in the box, and he
Speaker 5: was able to score quite a few goals doing that
Speaker 5: thing in Bulgaria.
Speaker 2: So help me understand the type of level he's been
Speaker 2: playing at, Kurt, and how that compares, if it does
Speaker 2: at all, with MLS. It's been has always been fascinating
Speaker 2: to me to witness players come from certain leagues in
Speaker 2: certain countries and certain levels in other places and either
Speaker 2: really struggle to acclimate or just shine right out of
Speaker 2: the gates. How how does his level of play recently
Speaker 2: compare to what he's going to be up against NMLS.
Speaker 5: It's a great question, and level of play doesn't where
Speaker 5: he's coming from doesn't so much dictate how he'll do here,
Speaker 5: But it just tries to give you clues because the
Speaker 5: adaptation risk is one of the biggest risks that we
Speaker 5: encounter when we're signing players. How do they adapt to
Speaker 5: this league, adapt to this country. There's a lot of
Speaker 5: off field factors that play into it, cultural factors, or
Speaker 5: you know, they once you know, they come to practice,
Speaker 5: they go home, they come to games, they go home.
Speaker 5: You know, they're at home more time than they're with
Speaker 5: us often, So when they're at home, what are they doing.
Speaker 4: Do they have a.
Speaker 5: Family, are they you know, do they know how to
Speaker 5: go grocery shopping? Are they comfortable eating the food in
Speaker 5: this culture? All these things play into it. Language is
Speaker 5: certainly the obvious one, so all those things play into it.
Speaker 5: So it's hard to say that he's coming from this level,
Speaker 5: so you know, we know he can do this sort of.
Speaker 4: Thing in our league.
Speaker 5: One of the things though, that was very important to
Speaker 5: us as we were looking for this player, that we
Speaker 5: find the player who was used to carrying the load
Speaker 5: for his team.
Speaker 4: So if we find a guy who has scored, you.
Speaker 5: Know, double digit plus goals in the season for a team,
Speaker 5: has been the main man and had to put them
Speaker 5: on his on his back at different points. That's something
Speaker 5: you know, that's that's something that we wanted this player
Speaker 5: to have experience so that when they come here, they
Speaker 5: they won't be surprised if that's something that they're asked
Speaker 5: to do here, but they can shoulder the goal scoring
Speaker 5: load and not be the first time that they've been asked.
Speaker 4: To do that.
Speaker 2: So as far as the way this contract works, it
Speaker 2: is a loan with a purchase option, is what I've read.
Speaker 2: I would imagine that you would very much like to
Speaker 2: keep him around long term if it works out. So
Speaker 2: what's this process going to be like and kind of
Speaker 2: walk us through what options you have to kind of
Speaker 2: keep him here long term if he steps in and
Speaker 2: plays really well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, this structure just gives us flexibility.
Speaker 5: But certainly, you know, we brought him here because we
Speaker 5: like him, and you know, we'd love for the relationship
Speaker 5: to be longer term. For now, he's he's with us
Speaker 5: for a minimum of basically twelve months, and then we
Speaker 5: have an option to extend through the end of the
Speaker 5: season the loon and then before the loan terminates, we
Speaker 5: have the option to purchase him should we decide to
Speaker 5: do so, and obviously a lot of factors going to that,
Speaker 5: you know, his performance being one of the biggest ones,
Speaker 5: but certainly the finances and all that play into it
Speaker 5: as well. We think it's that, you know, a good
Speaker 5: number relative to what he's moved for recently, and given
Speaker 5: you know, the expectations of what he could do for us,
Speaker 5: you know, so we're comfortable with those those aspects of it.
Speaker 2: I believe he's been on the ground eleven days, so
Speaker 2: give us some early returns in training, meeting the team,
Speaker 2: you know, meeting his teammates, meeting the coaching staff. Pablo
Speaker 2: was singing his praises about what a nice kid he is.
Speaker 2: So eleven days actually here on the ground, what can
Speaker 2: you share?
Speaker 5: Yeah, that nice kids speaks speaks more English than you
Speaker 5: might expect from a guy who's only lived in Bulgaria
Speaker 5: and Brazil. You know, gets along, seems to get along
Speaker 5: really well with his teammates, and you know, he's gotten
Speaker 5: into some training sessions. Now. It's been a little tough
Speaker 5: because of the closeness of all the games Wednesday Saturday,
Speaker 5: Wednesday Saturday, the rhythm of the trainings have been a
Speaker 5: little bit broken up.
Speaker 4: So we haven't seen in the pun in sort.
Speaker 5: Of big spaces with our group, just because our group's
Speaker 5: been recovering and preparing for the next game. But we've
Speaker 5: seen him in moments in front of goal. You know,
Speaker 5: he's looked good. He's got he's got the soft feet.
Speaker 5: Like I said, he can combine, he moves well off
Speaker 5: of that. So those those have been positives, and like
Speaker 5: I said, off the field, he seems to be integrating.
Speaker 5: Obviously that's a slower process, it'll take time, but the
Speaker 5: early returns on that are very good.
Speaker 2: I have a feeling you're going to tell me this
Speaker 2: is up to Pablo, but do you think we will
Speaker 2: see him tonight?
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I mean it is up to Pop comes
Speaker 4: to the game.
Speaker 5: I'd be surprised if he doesn't decide to put him
Speaker 5: into the game tonight at some points. And certainly it's
Speaker 5: a good moment to get him into a game, you know,
Speaker 5: in this last League's Cup game, as we as we
Speaker 5: start restart league play on Sunday, you know, regardless of
Speaker 5: what the League's Cup future holds for us, getting him
Speaker 5: into this game is going to just help speed up
Speaker 5: the acclimatization of him to our team in our League.
Speaker 2: As far as the approach tonight, I believe I started
Speaker 2: reading the tiebreaker scenarios Kurt, then I decided I wanted
Speaker 2: to go on living my life. But I believe you
Speaker 2: need all three tonight and like six results to go
Speaker 2: your way. So it's an interesting approach where obviously you
Speaker 2: want to win and get all three and then hope
Speaker 2: that luck is on your side, but with such a
Speaker 2: small chance of advancing and a team that probably is
Speaker 2: suffering from a bit of fatigue because the truncated schedule,
Speaker 2: maybe you want to rest some guys too. What's what's
Speaker 2: the approach tonight as you enter the league scut match?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, look, we've got to take you know,
Speaker 5: this is a very cliche, right, We've got to take
Speaker 5: care of our result.
Speaker 4: The rest of it is in the hands of the universe.
Speaker 5: So you know, the other night, I think things broke
Speaker 5: for us had we maximize our point total, but we
Speaker 5: didn't take care of our job. So we just have
Speaker 5: to do do what we can do, control the controllables
Speaker 5: and do it in front of us and then you know,
Speaker 5: figure out where the chips fall after after everyone else plays.
Speaker 5: But from a fatigue standpoint, you're right. I think certainly
Speaker 5: the whole group has been playing and putting in the
Speaker 5: work and playing every you know, every three.
Speaker 4: Four days over the last few weeks. But there are some.
Speaker 5: Guys you know, that have had more games than others.
Speaker 5: And we you know, we've brought the Eggle off the
Speaker 5: bench the other night because he's you know, he's played
Speaker 5: more games in the last two months than I think
Speaker 5: we have as a team, just with.
Speaker 4: The Gold Cup and those sorts of things.
Speaker 5: And you know a few other guys who haven't really
Speaker 5: been rotated out in a while, you know, maybe get
Speaker 5: a little bit of a rest or come or come
Speaker 5: off the bench and play a few less minutes in
Speaker 5: this one, and we get to see some of the
Speaker 5: some of the guys that you know that need to
Speaker 5: push for their starting jobs from the bench. But I
Speaker 5: think that we put out a team, or we will
Speaker 5: put out a team that we're really confident and while
Speaker 5: also preparing for you know, the next run of games.
Speaker 2: You made another signing that became official, so I can
Speaker 2: ask you about Victor Olatunji. I believe he had arrived
Speaker 2: on Sunday, not available tonight.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: My understanding is you're hoping to get that visa across
Speaker 2: the line prior to this weekend.
Speaker 3: You've got New York on Sunday.
Speaker 2: But let's start with same question to ask you about
Speaker 2: cruz origin story. When did you first discover this kid?
Speaker 2: What was the process that brought him here at Salt Lake.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that one was a little more recent.
Speaker 5: I think we picked him up just in the last
Speaker 5: six months and started following him.
Speaker 4: You know, he's a guy that.
Speaker 5: Is is like we talked about nine to nine and a half,
Speaker 5: he's more of a nine to nine or he's got
Speaker 5: a you know, he likes to play up top, he
Speaker 5: likes to be physical.
Speaker 4: He's got a big frame. You know, he's got.
Speaker 5: Got more size than we have elsewhere on our team
Speaker 5: and strength, and he's he's.
Speaker 4: A guy that can hold the ball up, that can
Speaker 4: run in behind.
Speaker 5: He's got good speed, he's good at driving the defense
Speaker 5: back and creating space underneath him for guys like Diego
Speaker 5: and Diego to operate. And he's a big target, you know,
Speaker 5: in and around the box for us to find in.
Speaker 4: Front of goal.
Speaker 2: Interesting he reference his size, Well, that was one of
Speaker 2: the first things Pablo reference. He actually said, we're kind
Speaker 2: of a small team. More of like a target or
Speaker 2: an athlete that just happens to be tall.
Speaker 5: I wouldn't say he's like, you know, he's not a
Speaker 5: guy that kind of makes all his money in the air.
Speaker 5: From that and from that standpoint, like so, he's not
Speaker 5: a guy who can only really play with his head
Speaker 5: or is you know, maybe dominance with his head. But
Speaker 5: the average of the world, he's more well rounded. But
Speaker 5: from a from a size standpoint, yeah, he's he's a
Speaker 5: big boy that's gonna occupy a lot of attention from
Speaker 5: center backs and he's going to make it really really
Speaker 5: difficult on the other team center backs to uh to
Speaker 5: win the ball off of them.
Speaker 3: What is uh Ole Tunji?
Speaker 2: As far as his contract details two point five million
Speaker 2: fee TAM For our listeners who know nothing about TAM,
Speaker 2: including me, that's what he is. But is he around
Speaker 2: for multiple years?
Speaker 3: What? What are his contract details?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we've got we've got four years or sorry, four
Speaker 5: plus years on him with option including the option years
Speaker 5: and got TAM.
Speaker 4: I guess you're right. It will be a one point
Speaker 4: that means.
Speaker 5: But essentially what it means is we took that transfer
Speaker 5: fee and instead of paying you at once, we've structured
Speaker 5: the paintings out over over a few years.
Speaker 3: Are you a bigger fan of Tam or gam?
Speaker 4: Uh? Neither.
Speaker 5: Just just give me cash that you can send me cash, Spence.
Speaker 5: I don't need Tame or Game right now.
Speaker 2: At some point I'm gonna make you laugh on the show.
Speaker 2: I don't know how I'm gonna land, but at some
Speaker 2: point I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 4: Uh. How do you think you should say something? Fun?
Speaker 1: Not?
Speaker 3: Fair enough? Fair enough? Well played, sir?
Speaker 2: How do you how do you anticipate Cruise and Olatunji
Speaker 2: fitting in with Diego, Diego Gozo, you know, don the
Speaker 2: whole group like when when they have enough time under
Speaker 2: their belt, daclamate to Pablo and get in the right
Speaker 2: shape and this thing is going to be fully developed.
Speaker 3: How do you kind of see that group playing together?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean they both bring slightly different things. And
Speaker 5: like I said, Victor is the guy that will stretch
Speaker 5: and push center backs back and create space underneath him
Speaker 5: for guys like Diego Diego to operate in that space,
Speaker 5: receives able turn and then play the ball through and
Speaker 5: you you know, find him with their through balls ideally
Speaker 5: and creating some long goal. You know, Rwan or Huan
Speaker 5: is someone who who both those guys can play the
Speaker 5: play the ball into and get it off of and
Speaker 5: so they can combine around around the defense to to
Speaker 5: create space. And he's he's someone that will give them
Speaker 5: that target and be a reference point for them for
Speaker 5: you know guys, you know guy like Dom on the
Speaker 5: wing or Gozo even you know, both guys will be
Speaker 5: really good targets behind the last line and in the
Speaker 5: box for their service. So you know, they provide I
Speaker 5: think different things for each one of those guys, but
Speaker 5: the the the net net of.
Speaker 4: It all is both guys will make the jobs of the.
Speaker 5: Other other you know, two three four attackers whatever underneath
Speaker 5: them a lot easier.
Speaker 2: So let's see, today's date is August sixth, Kurt, just
Speaker 2: so you know that is there's fifteen days left in
Speaker 2: this window. Is your work done? Are you working on
Speaker 2: other editions? What can you share with our RSL fan listeners.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're working on probably one, uh one or two
Speaker 5: more things. You know, it's obviously you know they haven't
Speaker 5: come together yet, so you know, nothing's guaranteed, but I'm
Speaker 5: hopeful to get one or two more guys in the door.
Speaker 4: Potentially there. You know that may necesitate one, one more
Speaker 4: one or two out at some point.
Speaker 5: You know that depends on a lot of other factors
Speaker 5: as well, But if it all comes together, we might
Speaker 5: add one or two more pieces this window.
Speaker 2: Are we looking in the attack? How are we looking
Speaker 2: on the back line? It feels like your midfield is
Speaker 2: your strength. But where are we looking.
Speaker 5: At That's a good question. I'll probably keep that, keep
Speaker 5: that to myself for now, but probably not.
Speaker 4: We're not We're not likely to sign another striker. Three
Speaker 4: three's on us in one window.
Speaker 3: Fair enough. Speaking of your midfield, you know, a Mecca.
Speaker 2: I know he's not one hundred percent yet, but man,
Speaker 2: it's just a reminder of what he is when he sells.
Speaker 2: Now that he's been back playing you know, thirty forty
Speaker 2: to fifty minutes or whatever. But Ruiz, it's such a
Speaker 2: feel good story. Against Club America, he may have been
Speaker 2: the best player on the field. Then oh Haita somehow
Speaker 2: has channeled his inner like Rinaldo. He had one goal
Speaker 2: in like eighty games and he has three in the
Speaker 2: last three. What sort of advantage does it give you
Speaker 2: to have three preferred you know, central holding mids you know,
Speaker 2: in your formation, you typically play two of the three.
Speaker 3: It feels like that's your lynchpin. Curt Is that fair.
Speaker 5: It's definitely in the strongest part of our roster, the
Speaker 5: deepest part of our roster. And you know, honestly, it's
Speaker 5: a massive headache for Poplo, you know, and Pablo's got three,
Speaker 5: you know, three or more guys for two spots that
Speaker 5: all want to and and honestly are capable of starting
Speaker 5: you know, MLS games.
Speaker 4: For him, and you know, it makes the competition tight.
Speaker 5: You know, it's it's pushed, you know, a guy like
Speaker 5: joelk Liskin to write back at times.
Speaker 4: So you know, it's it's certainly a headache and a.
Speaker 5: Problem for for the coaching staff or Pablo. But but
Speaker 5: those are the good problems that that we like to
Speaker 5: try to give give our coaches is you know, not
Speaker 5: not who we're going to play because nobody is stepping up,
Speaker 5: but who we're going to play because everyone's playing at
Speaker 5: their top level and and it makes it difficult to
Speaker 5: pick the best too. So Pablo, it's it's really really
Speaker 5: good to see where.
Speaker 4: He's at right now.
Speaker 5: He's been he's been fantastic, obviously, he's missed a lot
Speaker 5: of time with injury, and it was very reasonable to
Speaker 5: expect and to see the last few months, you know,
Speaker 5: for him to get back into it and get back
Speaker 5: closer to the level he was at when this sort
Speaker 5: of injury, uh situation started about roughly eighteen or now
Speaker 5: it's like almost two years ago. So to see his
Speaker 5: play the last few games has been phenomenal. You know,
Speaker 5: his passing, his vision, his ability to create chances for us,
Speaker 5: and then even some things that I don't think were
Speaker 5: his strength a couple of years ago, he's now working
Speaker 5: on and improving to the point where these are not liabilities,
Speaker 5: are things that concern us as much, which is you know,
Speaker 5: some of his defensing, his work rate, defending his work rate,
Speaker 5: his ability closed down space, his ability tracking back, his
Speaker 5: willings to do things like that. That's been phenomenal. And
Speaker 5: then you know, it's really hard to elaborate too much
Speaker 5: on Olheida. I mean, obviously, when a player like that
Speaker 5: is scoring goals for.
Speaker 4: You, then you'll take it.
Speaker 5: And you know he can't can't do can't do much
Speaker 5: more than that other than recover the ball as much
Speaker 5: as he does, cover as much ground as he does
Speaker 5: and then also put the ball in the back of
Speaker 5: the net.
Speaker 2: So I find the art and honestly science of talent
Speaker 2: evaluation and sport fascinating. I always have on a scouting level,
Speaker 2: and you know, nobody bats a thousand. Everybody has misses.
Speaker 2: Everybody has a lot of misses. You just hope that
Speaker 2: you can intertwine some of those misses with some big
Speaker 2: home runs and some good hits. It didn't work out
Speaker 2: with Lachlan, and you know, I'll let you kind of
Speaker 2: elaborate as to why you think that is and also
Speaker 2: intertwined in your question. I'm wondering what your personal approach
Speaker 2: is when it comes to analyzing and whether or not
Speaker 2: this is even possible when it comes to analyzing if
Speaker 2: a young man is ready to be a professional, because
Speaker 2: when it comes to being a pro, all these guys
Speaker 2: have talent. Every professional athlete has talent. They're used to
Speaker 2: dominating younger leagues. They were dominant in high school, they
Speaker 2: were dominant in college, they were dominant in juniors. If
Speaker 2: you want to play in the pros, if you want
Speaker 2: to play in the highest level, talent's not enough.
Speaker 3: You've got to be a professional.
Speaker 2: When it comes to the way you analyze these things,
Speaker 2: how can you be sure that you're signing somebody that's
Speaker 2: ready to do what they have to do for you
Speaker 2: every day, not just game day.
Speaker 5: Well, I mean, first I would say, you're never sure, right,
Speaker 5: and you know you're trying to analyze all these things
Speaker 5: from afar and until they're here in your group, in
Speaker 5: your team, you know, in your city, you don't know
Speaker 5: them as well as you do when that happens. So
Speaker 5: we do a lot of work obviously evaluating talent, like
Speaker 5: you said, and watching the player play games. We have
Speaker 5: multiple people watch, We do rankings, we watch clips, we
Speaker 5: watch full games. You know, we ask people that we
Speaker 5: know who.
Speaker 4: Know the player or who's seen the player.
Speaker 5: What they think and get adside feedback on all those things.
Speaker 5: But then we do the same thing and you know,
Speaker 5: when it comes to the character mentality side of the game,
Speaker 5: you know, we do a lot of reference checks of
Speaker 5: hopefully we find people that play with him, people that
Speaker 5: he played for, coaches he played for, people that you know,
Speaker 5: just aret familiar with those marketplaces and and just know
Speaker 5: a lot about the players in that marketplace, and you know,
Speaker 5: we try to find out, you know, hey, what kind
Speaker 5: of person is this?
Speaker 4: What kind of kid is this?
Speaker 5: And it's and it's never black and white, right because
Speaker 5: these are all young men and you know, sometimes young
Speaker 5: men are you know, great citizens, and sometimes young men
Speaker 5: do things that are you know, not ideal or make
Speaker 5: mistakes and as we all.
Speaker 4: Have when we were young. And so you know, you've
Speaker 4: got a.
Speaker 5: Parts thing, and we through what's important, what's not important?
Speaker 5: What what it's a deal breaker for us essentially, and
Speaker 5: and what what what things can we work on with
Speaker 5: the player? Are the things that we can help him
Speaker 5: overcome or the things that will change if he comes
Speaker 5: here versus where he's at. You know, is you know,
Speaker 5: maybe he's a leader in his locker room there, Well
Speaker 5: is that going to translate here? You know, when he's
Speaker 5: a new player in a new country, you know, is
Speaker 5: he going to be a leader in the locker room here?
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 5: You know, those are things that we have to work
Speaker 5: on and find out. And you know, again, until they're here,
Speaker 5: it's you know, you can never fully answer all of
Speaker 5: those questions. But we do go through a lot of
Speaker 5: exhaustive light work to to find out as much as
Speaker 5: we can about these these players before we bring them here.
Speaker 3: Why do you think it didn't work out with Lachlin?
Speaker 5: Good question, you know, And and sometimes timing is is
Speaker 5: a big factor, you know.
Speaker 4: I think Lachlan someone who's come in.
Speaker 5: And a lot of a lot of success in I
Speaker 5: guess and sports in general, but certainly in this game,
Speaker 5: is is about.
Speaker 4: Being ready, being prepared to.
Speaker 5: Seize your opportunity, you know, and to go to someone
Speaker 5: else for a second, like you know, Nocaliskin and I
Speaker 5: spoke in pre season about you know, his pathway and
Speaker 5: his future and what that looks like and and you know,
Speaker 5: the net net of the conversation without you know, going
Speaker 5: too far into it is and like you can play
Speaker 5: at this level, be ready, it's coming when you get it,
Speaker 5: don't let it go right And that's obviously something that
Speaker 5: he's done. And you know, I think, you know, certainly
Speaker 5: Lockie had opportunities with us as well. And I don't think,
Speaker 5: you know, through any deficiency or fault I guess of
Speaker 5: his own. But in the games where he was, you know,
Speaker 5: he had the opportunities to to grab the game. It
Speaker 5: wasn't that he uh, you know, played extremely poorly. It
Speaker 5: was just he didn't grab it. He didn't take the opportunity,
Speaker 5: and and that was difficult. And sometimes some some players,
Speaker 5: for various reasons, may get a few more opportunities.
Speaker 4: Some players may get a few less.
Speaker 5: Sometimes it's you know, your attitude, your personality, your characters.
Speaker 5: Sometimes with how you're training, it's your work great. There's
Speaker 5: a lot of factors that go into how many opportunities
Speaker 5: are you going to get? But the reality is, if
Speaker 5: you're a good enough flair at this level, you are
Speaker 5: going to get an opportunity and are you going to
Speaker 5: be prepared to take it? And you know, whether he
Speaker 5: was prepared to take it or not. You know, I
Speaker 5: don't know if he prepared himself, but I know that
Speaker 5: when he did have those opportunities, it's unfortunate because I
Speaker 5: think he has a lot of talent. He's a good player,
Speaker 5: he's a good kid. But yeah, he didn't he didn't
Speaker 5: grab it on the field. And a number of factors
Speaker 5: came together in the summer window to make this the
Speaker 5: right move for him and the right move for us.
Speaker 4: Obviously, it frees up a.
Speaker 5: Roster spot, international spots and cap space. All those things
Speaker 5: were advantageous on our side, and you know, he he
Speaker 5: gets a clean start and a fresh started at a
Speaker 5: new club, and he's able to work his way up there.
Speaker 2: There are very few players in MLS, if any, that
Speaker 2: have had the calendar year the Diego has, the die
Speaker 2: A Luna has. He has the Gold Copis experience where
Speaker 2: his star just shot through the roof. He has the
Speaker 2: Skills Challenge All Star experience. Then he has the task
Speaker 2: of carrying a heavy load for you guys because he's
Speaker 2: that good. What do you see lately? Is it a
Speaker 2: little bit of fatigue? Is he pressing too hard? Is
Speaker 2: this a young man learning to be a star? I
Speaker 2: remember Donovan Mitchell went through this. He went through a
Speaker 2: real downtime and I talked to his coach, Quinn Snyder,
Speaker 2: and he said, he's learning to be a star. I
Speaker 2: don't think anybody saw the Donovan Mitchell evolution when it happened,
Speaker 2: and I'm not sure how many people saw Diego star
Speaker 2: shooting through the roof the way it has is. Is
Speaker 2: this a young player just learning to carry a very
Speaker 2: very heavy load both on.
Speaker 3: And off the field.
Speaker 5: Yeah, you did a great job of answering my question.
Speaker 5: That's tollally above your spot on, you know, and it's
Speaker 5: you know, I guess it's what are you saying when
Speaker 5: you say learning to be a star? And I think
Speaker 5: it's just you know, obviously, you know, you get to
Speaker 5: where you are by doing what you've done. And so
Speaker 5: sometimes when people get to a certain points like well,
Speaker 5: I've got to you know, it's on me now, I
Speaker 5: got to do a little more, And sometimes that pushes
Speaker 5: you to try things a little bit differently, and it's
Speaker 5: you know, it's just about realizing, like, hey, just just
Speaker 5: do my thing. My thing got me here, my thing
Speaker 5: will be fine. And I think Diego when he's come back,
Speaker 5: he's I mean, he's putting a ton of work, he
Speaker 5: has a ton of miles on his legs.
Speaker 4: Fatigue is certainly playing into it, you know, learning, learning
Speaker 4: how to kind of even off the field, you know,
Speaker 4: deal with some of this stuff.
Speaker 5: And Diego is a really like well grounded kid, down
Speaker 5: to earth kid. And you know, I've never seen a
Speaker 5: person as young as he is deal with the attention
Speaker 5: he's getting in such a good, positive, you know, seemingly
Speaker 5: healthy way.
Speaker 4: So like all that is great, but you know, like
Speaker 4: that that type of the year he's having would obviously
Speaker 4: affect the best of us.
Speaker 5: And in some way, and so obviously he's not he's not,
Speaker 5: you know, not that it's that better or worse, but
Speaker 5: he's certainly not in the same headspace and expectations for
Speaker 5: himself and pressure on himself now as he was, you
Speaker 5: know in March or in February when when he got
Speaker 5: to us from from nationally camp, right, and so all
Speaker 5: that's changed, and so that requires some adaptation on his
Speaker 5: part on our part, and it's you know, it's just
Speaker 5: about learning and growing together and figuring out, Okay, how
Speaker 5: do we how do we maximize you know, what's going
Speaker 5: on with you, Diego, how do we how do we
Speaker 5: harness what you've gotten the best way possible?
Speaker 4: How do we you know, add some.
Speaker 5: Players around you to help maybe make your job a
Speaker 5: little bit easier, take some load off of you so
Speaker 5: that you know, you can be more impactful in fewer
Speaker 5: moments rather than having to try to do something in
Speaker 5: every moment. So that's that's really the process that we're
Speaker 5: going through right now.
Speaker 2: How much of his skill set, if at all, colored
Speaker 2: your context and decision making when you were scouting cruise
Speaker 2: and all the tune gi you know, and I talked
Speaker 2: to Pablo about this, this week. I've always been just
Speaker 2: give me the talent, give me the talent, will figure
Speaker 2: it out. I've always been a give me the talent guy.
Speaker 2: But also, you know, certainly this is the case in
Speaker 2: other sports. I'm not sure how pertinent is in soccer.
Speaker 2: It's a much different game. When you have a player
Speaker 2: as brad as Diego. Do you analyze what he does
Speaker 2: well when you're scouting these other players to make sure
Speaker 2: they fit his skill set or is it just like
Speaker 2: these guys are awesome, let's figure it out.
Speaker 4: No, not not the second thing. I've been. I've been
Speaker 4: a place or two where.
Speaker 5: It's the second thing of just let's get talent in
Speaker 5: the door and figure it out. And you know, I
Speaker 5: think you you that works out when you get really
Speaker 5: really lucky, you know, and it's it's tough, but it's
Speaker 5: certainly not something that's repeatable or systematic.
Speaker 4: So you know, when we were signing these two players, we.
Speaker 5: Absolutely kept a close eye on what we thought Diego's
Speaker 5: strengths were, what were things that we could compliment him with,
Speaker 5: and what were things that would enhance his skill set.
Speaker 5: And you know, like I described the two guys to
Speaker 5: you earlier, right, we you know, he's a guy that
Speaker 5: likes to op right in the space underneath. So we
Speaker 5: found someone or wanted to find someone that could play
Speaker 5: on the iceland that could stretch. You know, if Diego
Speaker 5: were a player that loved to run in behind from
Speaker 5: deever positions and you know, be the guy who runs
Speaker 5: to the near post, then we probably sign a different player, right,
Speaker 5: who maybe does different things than that. Right, But so
Speaker 5: the compliment to what Diego does is someone who does stretch,
Speaker 5: who does run in behind, and then bringing in someone
Speaker 5: like Ruan who he can combine with, right, and so
Speaker 5: he's not trying to dribble three four players in the middle.
Speaker 4: Of the defense.
Speaker 5: But he's now someone where maybe Diego can beat one
Speaker 5: or two players off the dribble, but then combine and
Speaker 5: play one two to get around another one and use
Speaker 5: him as a decoy at times or use him as
Speaker 5: an option at times to feed and eganscoble. So yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean when you talk about do we look at
Speaker 5: what would compliment Diego? Absolutely right, and as well as
Speaker 5: the rest of the team. I don't want to just
Speaker 5: focus on Diego there and put too much on him.
Speaker 5: We focus on what we have and how do we
Speaker 5: compliment that and that's critical to us.
Speaker 2: Last week, Yeah, you know, I've asked you about Rafa
Speaker 2: Cabral pretty much weekly, and you know you alluded to
Speaker 2: something a little bit earlier like sometimes your best laid
Speaker 2: plans aside, you need a little luck. And I'm not
Speaker 2: saying you got lucky here, but he has just been
Speaker 2: as bad as any spot on your roster in my opinion,
Speaker 2: and you could make a case that keeper is the
Speaker 2: most important position in soccer, and watching him last week
Speaker 2: against Club America, in those pks, there's a little Nicki
Speaker 2: Rimando feel with the way he stepped up.
Speaker 3: It didn't work out.
Speaker 2: Against San Luis San Luis, but what can you say
Speaker 2: about what that addition has meant to you to your
Speaker 2: club this year?
Speaker 4: I'm honestly can't can't say enough.
Speaker 5: It wasn't luck getting someone with his character, his mentality,
Speaker 5: his leadership. Those were all things that we we you know,
Speaker 5: dug into in the in the sort of recruitment process
Speaker 5: and and came back with flying colors, like there were
Speaker 5: no question marks, no doubts about his character, his mentality,
Speaker 5: his leadership, what he could add to our team in
Speaker 5: our locker room, and so from that standpoint, you know,
Speaker 5: he's he's been as advertising and it's been great. Obviously,
Speaker 5: the you know, the part that was a little bit
Speaker 5: less certain was just he's coming he's coming off the
Speaker 5: season where he hasn't played with any games, and you know,
Speaker 5: he's he's getting a little older, which you know, for
Speaker 5: a lot of players is an issue, but for goalkeepers
Speaker 5: it's it's much much less of an issue. You can
Speaker 5: get goalkeepers playing, you know, into thirty thirty nine, forty
Speaker 5: forty one. You know, like goalkeepers can play for a
Speaker 5: long time in that position, especially as they as they
Speaker 5: get older. They understand positioning, they're good with their feet,
Speaker 5: they can organize, and those are all things that are
Speaker 5: strengths of his obviously.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean, but he also ticked a lot
Speaker 4: of boxes for adaptation.
Speaker 5: He spoke English, he played abroad and two and I
Speaker 5: think two different countries before going back to Brazil and
Speaker 5: coming here. You know, so he ticked a lot of
Speaker 5: boxes that made you think like, Okay, this is a
Speaker 5: guy that a you know, has has shown he can
Speaker 5: adapt after his own country, speaks the language here, he
Speaker 5: probably adapts well here, b I think, you know, and
Speaker 5: this is what we love to see from guys is
Speaker 5: his desire to come to come here.
Speaker 4: You know, he really wanted to come here.
Speaker 5: And that's something that is isn't lost on us either,
Speaker 5: because those players, those players, when they get here, they're
Speaker 5: the committed, they're the most committed.
Speaker 4: They integrate the.
Speaker 5: Best into the team, the club, of the community, and
Speaker 5: those are the types of guys that we love to have.
Speaker 3: Last thing, Kurt, I'll set you loose on this.
Speaker 2: It got late early for you guys with a rough start,
Speaker 2: but you're unbeaten in eight of your last nine and
Speaker 2: you went from thirteenth to eight in the West since
Speaker 2: mid June.
Speaker 3: Why the turnaround? What do you attributed to most?
Speaker 5: I mean, look, we are the I think the third
Speaker 5: or fourth youngest team in terms of you know, playing time,
Speaker 5: minutes wait at average age in the league. And the
Speaker 5: answer sometimes this question is is really obvious, right, So
Speaker 5: what a young players do? They develop and they get
Speaker 5: better as long as they're given minutes and they're given
Speaker 5: proper coaching, and that's you know what ourgan is one.
Speaker 5: So you know a lot of our group has gotten better,
Speaker 5: right and they've developed, and so that's helped results along.
Speaker 5: I think learning, you know, the coaches figuring out a
Speaker 5: little bit of tweaking the tactical structure a little bit
Speaker 5: at times has been has been helpful as well. Right
Speaker 5: adding Gozo in a few games there is that is
Speaker 5: that second striker option as well as a wide option.
Speaker 5: You know, having that flexibility in him, that's something that
Speaker 5: has helped the team and the team structure a lot
Speaker 5: as well. So figuring some of those things out on
Speaker 5: the fly and then honestly out of it is you.
Speaker 4: Know, not to go back to this, but something is
Speaker 4: a little bit of luck because you know, we.
Speaker 5: Had games I think early in the season where our
Speaker 5: performance and if you look at someone like the underlying
Speaker 5: more advanced statistical metrics, you know our performance was good.
Speaker 5: We should have won this game or drawn this game,
Speaker 5: or we shouldn't have.
Speaker 4: Lost this game, and we did lose the game. Then
Speaker 4: you know, you get to some of these games later
Speaker 4: and that that has switched a little bit.
Speaker 5: And so that's something whereas you play more games and
Speaker 5: you have a bigger sample size, as long as you
Speaker 5: keep playing at a good level, you know you're you're
Speaker 5: gonna do what those things usually say you should do.
Speaker 5: And and I think that's that's where things have gotten
Speaker 5: as well, and we're continuing to play at a high
Speaker 5: level and the team has now more confidence and more belief,
Speaker 5: which you know is a virtuous cycle.
Speaker 2: Now, well, it's been fun to watch the turnaround. Congrats
Speaker 2: on that. Congrats aren't getting these players across the line.
Speaker 2: Good luck tonight, Kurt, and I appreciate the time.
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, appreciate it. Thanks all right, Kurt.
Speaker 3: Schmid urseld action tonight in league's Cup play.
Speaker 2: They're back in action in MLS Cup play against New
Speaker 2: York coming up on Sunday,