Speaker 1: Here we go. It's another edition of First eleven. I'm
Speaker 1: Dave Johnson with Bruce Murray. Yeah, your connection with the
Speaker 1: DC United. We get set for the LA Galaxy on Saturday.
Speaker 1: We will have that for you on iHeartRadio app iHeart
Speaker 1: Sports DC. You can sing along with Apple TV. That's
Speaker 1: a ten to fifteen on Saturday. But that's bearing the lead.
Speaker 1: DC United after a promising start, the five to two
Speaker 1: loss to Nashville in the quarterfinals of the Open Cup.
Speaker 1: After the game, head coach Troy Lasain relieved of his
Speaker 1: duties as head coach. Of course United right now four
Speaker 1: ten and seven in the standings, twelfth place among fifteen
Speaker 1: teams in the Eastern Conference. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it is a business and Troy Lesain knows this. It's
Speaker 1: all about results. Frustrating part and get Bruce to comment.
Speaker 1: We feel for Troy Lesain and his commitment. He worked
Speaker 1: so hard to make it happen. We understand why the
Speaker 1: decision made the results just not there. But Steve Goff
Speaker 1: noted in the Washington Post that he works so hard
Speaker 1: to work on the culture of DC United. We noticed
Speaker 1: it at the training facility, you know. Photo galleries celebrating
Speaker 1: the history, including alumni of the team and the legends,
Speaker 1: celebrating the four championships. Obviously, you know, flying out the
Speaker 1: players for the game against San Jose that celebrated the
Speaker 1: inauguration of this league back in nineteen ninety six. So
Speaker 1: Bruce Murray again, this is just it's a cruel business.
Speaker 1: It's just about results. But certainly Troy Lassain's heart was
Speaker 1: in this club because he grew up knowing about this
Speaker 1: club and he was a fan of this club.
Speaker 2: As unfortunate as to what happened, but you know, he
Speaker 2: wanted to try and make DC United a family atmosphere.
Speaker 2: He wanted to involve the players from the past. He
Speaker 2: wanted to involve you and me, allowing us to access
Speaker 2: out on the field talking to players. You know, he's
Speaker 2: a super guy, a great guy, and it just it
Speaker 2: didn't come together for him here. I still think he
Speaker 2: knows quite a lot about the game. I just don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know how the locker room and how it
Speaker 2: worked out that way. But I feel sorry for him.
Speaker 2: I feel bad for him. He's a great human being.
Speaker 2: But you're right, it's a brutal business and he needs
Speaker 2: to move on.
Speaker 1: And we wish him the best. And the look he
Speaker 1: had success gotting the Red Bulls into the playoffs before
Speaker 1: he came here. It just didn't work out here. Listen,
Speaker 1: when coaches lose positions in any sport, it does not
Speaker 1: mean they can't coach. It just means it didn't work
Speaker 1: out for whatever reason in the position. And often coaches
Speaker 1: in every sport move on and find success, and we
Speaker 1: wish him success. The washing post of reporting, Renee Veeler
Speaker 1: from Swiss Clubs for VET will be the next coach,
Speaker 1: and that's not been officially now, so we'll see how
Speaker 1: that plays out. Until that plays out, Kevin Flanagan United's
Speaker 1: director of Youth Academy and player Development will oversee the
Speaker 1: team and that includes Saturday against the LA Galaxy. And
Speaker 1: this is a moving train, Bruce Murray, any way you
Speaker 1: can relate what the players must be going through right now.
Speaker 1: Have you been in a similar situation where, look, you've
Speaker 1: got forty eight hours to step on a field and
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter who's coaching, there's business to take care of.
Speaker 1: How do you deal with that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to go back to your instincts. You
Speaker 2: go into emergency thinking there's nobody who's running the show.
Speaker 2: Kevin's not going to be able to get his message
Speaker 2: across in a game. But the team needs to pick
Speaker 2: up three points. So you have to go on your instincts.
Speaker 2: As a pro. You're there for a reason, and you
Speaker 2: have to go out and you have to play the
Speaker 2: way you're supposed to play, and you'd be surprised that
Speaker 2: you get a what You'll find quite a few times
Speaker 2: when they have these coaching changes, there's a lot of
Speaker 2: good results, and it's because the players are just playing free.
Speaker 2: They're not playing with restriction, they're not playing under some
Speaker 2: type of system. They just go out and they play.
Speaker 2: It's almost like the streetball. I've been in this situation.
Speaker 2: I US men's national team coach got relieved of his duties.
Speaker 2: I was in Bermuda and you know we I think
Speaker 2: we're going through with Spain the next but Bob Gansler
Speaker 2: was relieved at his duties, and uh, it was it
Speaker 2: was bizarre. You know, all the players would get together
Speaker 2: in different rooms and try and figure out, you know,
Speaker 2: how we're going to play. And but it was, like
Speaker 2: you said, it's just it's it's not easy. But the
Speaker 2: players go back to what they just go out and play.
Speaker 2: That's what it is.
Speaker 1: Why sometimes and I believe and I want you're coming
Speaker 1: on this, that a jolt does create a response. Maybe
Speaker 1: it'll be short term, maybe long term, but because it's
Speaker 1: just like momentum when you're winning, when all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you're struggling to score, are you're losing, the games
Speaker 1: just keep coming And is as hard as you try, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's hard to hard to break either good or bad habits.
Speaker 2: No, I would, I would agree with that. You know,
Speaker 2: the situation they're in is it's a it's a good
Speaker 2: one in a way. I mean, because now everyone's just
Speaker 2: going to do what they want to do out in
Speaker 2: l a And and you'd be surprised, Dave. I mean,
Speaker 2: there's there's so many times professional soccer is really difficult
Speaker 2: because you're in a situation where do this, do this,
Speaker 2: do this, don't do that, don't do this, don't do it,
Speaker 2: and you become a robot, right, And so now you're
Speaker 2: going out and you're just letting it rip. And I
Speaker 2: think that you're going to see that the way we
Speaker 2: play on Saturday, and I think you're going to see
Speaker 2: a lot of people playing with a lot of freedom.
Speaker 1: Now on Saturday. I mean, I don't want to get
Speaker 1: into the tactics. And again it's we're talking you're changing
Speaker 1: on the fly. There won't be time to make a
Speaker 1: lot of changes. But I think something we talked about
Speaker 1: on Wednesday, even though United scored first, a great goal
Speaker 1: by Gabrielle Protti, even though they were up actually to nothing,
Speaker 1: this team still needs to create more chances. That's an
Speaker 1: easy statement, create more chances. Okay, you are a guy
Speaker 1: that made your living of chances in scoring goals. Take
Speaker 1: me through the mental process that has to happen for
Speaker 1: that to happen for DC United.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's exactly what I'm talking about. Players playing
Speaker 2: with freedom take chances. Nobody's going to get punished for
Speaker 2: taking chances on Saturday. There's a new you know, they
Speaker 2: don't have a coach right now, so they're just going
Speaker 2: to play and and you'd be surprised when you do
Speaker 2: take chances. If you look at Pirani's goal, he just said,
Speaker 2: you know what, I'm just going to take two players
Speaker 2: on and I'm going to go ahead and swing and
Speaker 2: take a shot, and of course it ended up being
Speaker 2: a great goal. I think you're going to because you're
Speaker 2: not going to be afraid of losing. I'm watching DC United, Dave,
Speaker 2: and I see players that seem very scared to lose
Speaker 2: or make a mistake, and that way, you start playing
Speaker 2: negative and neutral all over the field. And you go
Speaker 2: from a guy on the left wing who's getting ready
Speaker 2: to cross the ball, doesn't like to look. He goes
Speaker 2: back and the ball ends up at the center back
Speaker 2: and you've gone nowhere. So I think you're going to
Speaker 2: see players playing completely free and creating chances will come
Speaker 2: because it's going to be a little bit street ballish.
Speaker 1: Now, one player do want to celebrate that. It seems
Speaker 1: like he's playing and we commented ins Nashville and we've
Speaker 1: seen it every time he comes in off the bench
Speaker 1: is Jackson Hopkins. He seems to be playing with a
Speaker 1: commitment that says, all right, I want more playing time.
Speaker 1: So if you're gonna give me five minutes, ten minutes,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go out. I'm just gonna go out.
Speaker 1: Case in point, he takes a shot thirty yards and
Speaker 1: you know what, it didn't miss by much. And that's
Speaker 1: what I've seen from him, is he's come back from injury.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me just put it completely so that there's
Speaker 2: no way you can misinterpret it. Jackson Hopkins needs to
Speaker 2: be starting, and he needs to be on the field.
Speaker 2: He is an absolute box to box runner. He's strong,
Speaker 2: he's got a massive frame. You know, Jackson Hopkins is
Speaker 2: gone from a kid to a man in a year.
Speaker 2: And you know I'm telling you right now, Jackson Hopkins
Speaker 2: needs to be on the field. He needs to be
Speaker 2: on the field.
Speaker 1: Well, maybe it'll be on the field Saturday, more time
Speaker 1: against the Galaxy again. We will join you at ten
Speaker 1: fifteen Saturday night, So go ahead and bring the craffee
Speaker 1: and stay up late with us. And again our best
Speaker 1: wishes to Troyle, saying this is a real business. We
Speaker 1: get passionate, we get emotional about it, but at the
Speaker 1: end of the day we deal with people on a
Speaker 1: personal level and there's some pain. And we wish again
Speaker 1: Troylet's saying every success and thank him for really his
Speaker 1: hard working commitment, because I think Bruce, we know he
Speaker 1: tried real hard to make it right in DC United,
Speaker 1: and no doubt it'll work for him somewhere else. We
Speaker 1: thank you for your time on first eleven. Again. You
Speaker 1: can find us wherever you find your podcast, Please tell
Speaker 1: your friends as we continue on this journey together. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening. And we promised eleven minutes or less and
Speaker 1: it was