Speaker 1: H l.
Speaker 2: Well hm hmm, come on, man, helps.
Speaker 1: Helps good for dude.
Speaker 2: It's Friday.
Speaker 1: Day Day.
Speaker 3: It is in fact Friday, and you show how it's
Speaker 3: Friday because I forgot to take things out of loop. John,
Speaker 3: hear you there. It's a Friday. It is a match
Speaker 3: day Friday. It's a freestyle Friday. At Lanta United getting
Speaker 3: ready for a trip. Hopefully they can get out of
Speaker 3: here before the rain starts down to the erector, setting
Speaker 3: Fort Lauderdale to take on Messi and Friends. Match Day three.
Speaker 3: Match Day three. Dominant in the Eastern Conference in Major
Speaker 3: League Soccer, not so much in the West. Everybody, pretty
Speaker 3: much everybody in the West is kind of sitting there going,
Speaker 3: you know, can you kind of gig out of work
Speaker 3: on here a little bit? You guys, just do your thing.
Speaker 3: We're gonna sit here. We're gonna heal up and do
Speaker 3: our We're gonna do our thing.
Speaker 1: We'll watch.
Speaker 3: That's where we are morning, John, hear you there, And
Speaker 3: whatever's on your mind as we get you ready for
Speaker 3: a match day three weekend in Major League Soccer for
Speaker 3: the MLS Cup playoffs. At Lanta United getting ready for
Speaker 3: their trip to Fort Lauderdale and we'll go over all
Speaker 3: the juice boxes, go through all the news and the
Speaker 3: numbers and everything that's attacked. We've invited everybody else from
Speaker 3: the week back in, so if anybody wants to wander
Speaker 3: by and sit there and go, it's Friday, and I
Speaker 3: haven't had the chance to think about anything over the
Speaker 3: last however many days it was since they were here
Speaker 3: in the building. So everybody's got the everybody's got the invite,
Speaker 3: and we'll see what's on everybody's mind as we go
Speaker 3: here this morning.
Speaker 1: We'll go through.
Speaker 3: Everything in Major League Soccer, everything overseas, news of the am,
Speaker 3: anything on your mind. We had some interesting stuff happened
Speaker 3: yesterday during the show where it was announced that Jim
Speaker 3: Curtin is being relieved of his duties. Mutually agreed to
Speaker 3: part ways whichever you wish, and then that conversation comes
Speaker 3: into play.
Speaker 1: Welcome back, tom and good morning, and we'll we'll.
Speaker 3: Get into that since that seems to be a topic
Speaker 3: of conversation as well. So we got all the stuff overseas,
Speaker 3: we got all that to get into. We've got all
Speaker 3: this stuff here to get into. Whatever is on your
Speaker 3: mind to get into, and we'll get you ready for
Speaker 3: the weekend across the board.
Speaker 1: So good morning, everybody.
Speaker 3: Let's get into opening Kickoff brought to us by our
Speaker 3: friends at Kickoff Coffee and Kickoff Coffeeco dot com. Let
Speaker 3: me start your day this way from our friends there
Speaker 3: at Kickoff Coffee and Kickoff Coffeeco dot Com. You hit
Speaker 3: the QR code and it takes you to Kickoff Coffee.
Speaker 3: Don't forget to use the code soccer down here fifteen
Speaker 3: When you check out, you get fifteen percent off your purchase.
Speaker 3: They in turn take ten percent reinvested into cool things
Speaker 3: and youth initiatives, very very cool stuff from our friends
Speaker 3: at Kickoff Coffee and Kickoff Coffeeco dot Com. College soccer
Speaker 3: right now is in their tournament stages you're seeing, and
Speaker 3: we go over this a lot with the rundown of
Speaker 3: what to watch, where to watch it, how to watch it.
Speaker 3: Some of the stuff is in opening round play, some
Speaker 3: of it isn't, and some of them are trying to
Speaker 3: figure out who's going to be attached to the rundowns
Speaker 3: of every of everything when it comes to who's gonna
Speaker 3: be making postseason runs and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: And we'll keep you posted on stuff here in this
Speaker 3: footprint involving Division two and all the appropriate conferences there,
Speaker 3: Fun Belt, etc. Don't know if you had the chance
Speaker 3: to catch a couple of matches in the acc And
Speaker 3: when North Carolina and Duke get together on the women's side,
Speaker 3: you know that North Carolina and do get together in anything.
Speaker 3: It is one of those kind of must see. You
Speaker 3: know they're gonna trade haymakers for fifteen rounds and figure
Speaker 3: out maybe a winner after ninety minutes. North Carolina was
Speaker 3: the four seed going into the tournament. Duke the number
Speaker 3: one seed going into the tournament. Duke took a one
Speaker 3: miller lead at the halftime break. Cameron Roller got a
Speaker 3: PK and then Linda Olmark scores from distance to give
Speaker 3: North Carolina the equalizer in the fiftieth minute.
Speaker 1: So that gets us to a moment with ten minutes
Speaker 1: to go.
Speaker 3: After going winless in their previous four meetings with Duke Duke,
Speaker 3: North Carolina had a chance to win their first over
Speaker 3: their in state rival since September the eighth of twenty
Speaker 3: twenty two. September eight, twenty twenty two, you get a
Speaker 3: moment like this, ten minutes to go, and that's going
Speaker 3: to go a long way for you, courtesy of our
Speaker 3: friends at the ACC Network and ACC Extra.
Speaker 1: The guy with the corner.
Speaker 4: Away strong, the defects i NW fake Schemiro exaten minutes
Speaker 4: North Camrolina lege Duke.
Speaker 2: Well had to be armstrong.
Speaker 3: How this is the player that's been outstanding tonight defensively
Speaker 3: doing everything.
Speaker 1: She has to do.
Speaker 3: Trinity Johnson's header in the eighty first gets to be
Speaker 3: the difference. Two second half goals give North Carolina to win.
Speaker 3: The number one seed is out in the tournament. But
Speaker 3: there was another moment on the men's side that I
Speaker 3: don't know if you've had the chance to see. It's
Speaker 3: probably been on those those top tens that have been
Speaker 3: all over the place, you know. And when you have
Speaker 3: a moment like a hail Mary, and I mean literally,
Speaker 3: time is running out. There's there's no extra, clock's running down,
Speaker 3: and you end up with a moment like you do,
Speaker 3: and you sit there, you tip your hat and you're
Speaker 3: just like yep, Stanford and Notre Dame number seven versus
Speaker 3: number ten, And it comes down to time running out,
Speaker 3: and I mean time running out. You're looking at like
Speaker 3: ten seconds and nine in counting down, So leave it.
Speaker 3: It leave it to the feet of Dylan Hooper. Dylan
Speaker 3: Hooper will probably go down in ACC lore anyway for
Speaker 3: this moment that happened once again courtesy of our friends
Speaker 3: at the ACC Network and the Atlantic Coast or the
Speaker 3: All Coast Conference, but now it's the ACCV the Atlantic
Speaker 3: Coast Conference.
Speaker 1: This moment from Dylan hoops a hail Mary of a
Speaker 1: shot that on second left. You gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like that. Ferguson draws level nothing
Speaker 1: like that. So there you go.
Speaker 3: So that was the moment Dylan Hooper from his half
Speaker 3: as time is running out ACCN Network Extra with the
Speaker 3: call there.
Speaker 1: That's what this part of the season is all about.
Speaker 1: First goal of the season.
Speaker 3: Stanford got to the second round of the ACC Tournament,
Speaker 3: advancing to play number two Clemson on the road on Sunday.
Speaker 3: So Stanford goes to nine to four and four. And
Speaker 3: we always talk about how you're going to afford programs
Speaker 3: and things like that. Jeremy Gunn is the head coach
Speaker 3: at Stanford, and after the match he was asked about it,
Speaker 3: he goes, it was a crazy game of soccer. Seen
Speaker 3: a lot and I've been in a lot of games.
Speaker 3: I don't think I've ever seen anything like that at
Speaker 3: the end of the game end quote. The men's soccer
Speaker 3: position at Stanford has what we've been kind of tongue
Speaker 3: in cheek referring to as the tenured professorship. It is
Speaker 3: the Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer at Stanford. It
Speaker 3: is a sponsored title, the Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer,
Speaker 3: Jeremy Gunn. So when you become the head coach of
Speaker 3: the men's soccer program at Stanford, you become the Knowles
Speaker 3: Family Director of Men's Soccer. So Jeremy Gunn got the
Speaker 3: quote as the Knowles Family and literally that is in
Speaker 3: the release, that is in the post match release for
Speaker 3: this game. The post match release it was a crazy
Speaker 3: game of soccer. Knowles Family Director of Men's Soccer, Jeremy Gunseat.
Speaker 3: So it is a tenured professorship. Good on the cardinal
Speaker 3: for thinking in three dimensions and if you got to
Speaker 3: do something, if you got to do something like that,
Speaker 3: you do something like that. And so sure enough you
Speaker 3: end up with with that as part of your part
Speaker 3: of your DNA when it comes to college soccer. Will Riley,
Speaker 3: by the way, blast out of the past. So Will
Speaker 3: Riley got a goal in that match too, so blast
Speaker 3: from the Past Will Riley is a part of the
Speaker 3: discussion too.
Speaker 5: So.
Speaker 3: But yeah, so when you got moments like that in
Speaker 3: the postseason, very very cool to have these kinds of
Speaker 3: wild things go down. And since we're there, we'll go
Speaker 3: ahead and let you know what's going on on the
Speaker 3: planet as a part of opening kickoff morning, Rich and yes,
Speaker 3: we are going to talk about Jim Kurt So the
Speaker 3: women's conference tournament play. Obviously we mentioned the ACC Big ten.
Speaker 3: UCLA beat Washington two nil in the semis at I
Speaker 3: guess it's still officially City Park in Saint Louis. It's
Speaker 3: not quite Energizer Park yet. Ryan Campbell got her fifteenth
Speaker 3: shut out of the season. Bruins go to the final
Speaker 3: against Ruggers, and so this is a smart play.
Speaker 1: Meet in the middle.
Speaker 3: You're not having folks come from what's left of the
Speaker 3: Tupac and heading to go all the way over to
Speaker 3: the East coast. You meet in the middle, you play
Speaker 3: in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: Good call.
Speaker 3: So shootout winner over USC and the other semi final
Speaker 3: was Ruggers. All but the Scarlett Knights were former PAC
Speaker 3: twelve teams playing in their first season in the B
Speaker 3: one G. South Carolina knocks off Mississippi State. Mississippi State
Speaker 3: had a fourteen game win streak. Brionna Beams scores two.
Speaker 3: Catherine Barry, another fifth year player, had her sixteenth of
Speaker 3: the season. They're going to face Texas Sunday in the
Speaker 3: final in Pensacola, Florida. So that was the women's side
Speaker 3: of things on the UH and so you got to
Speaker 3: keep an eye on all of that. So what to watch,
Speaker 3: where to watch it, how to watch it, and we're
Speaker 3: going to expand it with the colleges and so we'll
Speaker 3: go there.
Speaker 1: So today.
Speaker 3: Kind of busy, we'll get you ready for everything being
Speaker 3: and being an Espanol Marseillan h share it to forty five.
Speaker 3: If you don't have ben, you can get all the
Speaker 3: b NS at FINTS, FNTZ dot co slash Soccer down
Speaker 3: here and you can get all the BNS neuester Tela
Speaker 3: cedio cdo for the fans, tay say uh lego one
Speaker 3: max Lego one max Pro, all of the above. You
Speaker 3: can get it at finaates. Be a true degenerate like
Speaker 3: the rest of US CBS sports Networks got Siri, I
Speaker 3: let you an employe at two forty five. ESPN two
Speaker 3: has the English Women's Super League Manchester City and Spurs
Speaker 3: at two thirty uh.
Speaker 1: Coming up in about a half hour.
Speaker 3: The league that we neither condone, endorse nor promote has
Speaker 3: a game on FS two once again, be in a
Speaker 3: n Espagnol simulcasting. League deport this La Liga Ryle viaconnell
Speaker 3: Os Palmas at three Fox deport this.
Speaker 1: This is very, very busy.
Speaker 3: They have that league that we talk about at nine
Speaker 3: to forty five, and then at noon Gold TV Portuguese
Speaker 3: Premier Moro Renz and hil Vicente at three point fifteen
Speaker 3: Rossing and nacion alaut to Urguay at six thirty. You
Speaker 3: can catch our buddy at Nino Torres calling a lot
Speaker 3: of stuff in Portugal this weekend on Goal TV, Amazon Prime.
Speaker 3: The playoffs are underway in the NWSL. We got to
Speaker 3: talk about that before we go. Orlando and Chicago at
Speaker 3: eight Apple TV in season past. Tonight playoffs out West
Speaker 3: LAFC and Vancouver match Day three at BEMO at ten thirty,
Speaker 3: which means ten forty listed at ten thirty, so add
Speaker 3: ten minutes, so ten forty kick with the Vanni Sartini
Speaker 3: forcing a match Day three and the rest of the
Speaker 3: white Caps forcing a match day three with LAFC do
Speaker 3: Zone USA. I have north idea how to get disown USA.
Speaker 3: I imagine you can dial up Dezone and you can
Speaker 3: subscribe to it. French Division Ie Feminine, LaHave and Leon
Speaker 3: at three The Plus we mentioned the Women's super League
Speaker 3: Bundesligga b Untruk Braunschweigen Hamburg at twelve thirty, while Byaconnellis
Speaker 3: Palmus at three. Fox Soccer Plus has that noon game
Speaker 3: in the league that we neither condone, endorse nor promote.
Speaker 3: Paramount Plus a light day for them. English Championship Friday
Speaker 3: Night Football Watford Oxford United, that's at three o'clock Syria,
Speaker 3: and then the Scottish Championship Greenock Morton and Air United
Speaker 3: at two forty five.
Speaker 1: So that's that's today.
Speaker 3: Obviously tomorrow you've got League UH in WSL playoffs on
Speaker 3: Big CBS Kansas City and North Carolina League One WREXOM
Speaker 3: if you're up at seven thirty taking on Mansfield Town
Speaker 3: CBS Sports Network. ESPN two's got the Bundesleague at nine
Speaker 3: to thirty. Premier League doubleheader will get into those juice
Speaker 3: boxes as well, being an Espanol's GOT League uh Strasburg, Monico,
Speaker 3: Lens nonte Anger and PSG and their triple header hon
Speaker 3: Duran Primiras on BNN Espanol Municipalimagno and Plateense ESPN Deport's
Speaker 3: Bundesliga at nine thirty LA Liga has eight, ten, fifteen, twelve,
Speaker 3: thirty in three, so they're all Lalliga all the time.
Speaker 3: On Tomorrow, Fox Deportees Siria noon in two forty five
Speaker 3: Guatemala Liga. This is true to generate stuff. Antiga and
Speaker 3: Shina Bajul at seven. Hon Duran League Nacional Olympia are
Speaker 3: friends from Olympia from the concak CAF Hemispheric Extravaganza and UPNFM.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting blend. Eight thirty goal TV Portuguese, Permira
Speaker 3: Uruguay Promira, Telemundo's got Lega MX today AND's got Liga
Speaker 3: MX double header, UNI Versa's got Your double header in
Speaker 3: the Premier League Lega MX at six Univision simul casting.
Speaker 3: And then the playoffs four, six and eight with FC Cincinnati, NYC,
Speaker 3: Orlando City and Charlotte Inter Miami Atlanta United four six
Speaker 3: eight SO four ten six ten eight ten. Next Pro
Speaker 3: Cup Final North Texas SC in Philadelphia, Union two is
Speaker 3: at eight thirty. The Plus has a bolt Looatus stuff
Speaker 3: on Saturday. Airdavizi Bundesliga Bundesliga b Laaliga Laaliga two USL
Speaker 3: Championship playoffs. We gotta get into that League one playoffs.
Speaker 3: We've got to get into that there in the semispox.
Speaker 3: Soccer Plus has your title game in the Canadian Premier
Speaker 3: League Cavalry and Forge Golosso Network, Argentina English Championship Syria.
Speaker 3: The dot com at NBC Sports has your double header
Speaker 3: simulcast on the Premier League Paramount Plus on Saturday. Argentina
Speaker 3: English Championship League One Syria NWSL Playoffs. Peacock has everything
Speaker 3: else in the USL Super League with two matches at
Speaker 3: seven and one at seven thirty.
Speaker 1: So that's Friday and Saturday. You want to watch, Where
Speaker 1: to watch it, how to watch it? All right?
Speaker 3: That's opening kickoff, your preview for tomorrow and today. That's
Speaker 3: your opening kickoff, brought to us by our friends at
Speaker 3: Kickoff Coffee and Kickoff Coffeeco dot Com. Right there, you
Speaker 3: start your day with our friends at Kickoff Coffee and
Speaker 3: Kickoff Coffeeco dot com. You click through that and you
Speaker 3: end up with starting your day with Kickoff Coffee. Don't
Speaker 3: forget to use the code soccer down here fifteen. You
Speaker 3: get fifty person off your purchase. They in turn take
Speaker 3: ten percent reinvested youth games.
Speaker 1: You finish.
Speaker 3: It is very very cool stuff from my friends at
Speaker 3: Kickoff Coffee and Kickoff Coffeeco dot com. Okay, since Tom
Speaker 3: mentioned it and Rich is here, we'll go ahead and
Speaker 3: get into this.
Speaker 1: Tom, welcome back.
Speaker 3: By the way, I know that work gets in the
Speaker 3: way sometimes morning, Rich, and so Rich, I need your
Speaker 3: assistance from the Philadelphia side of things to let everybody
Speaker 3: know what's going on from that perspective. As we talked
Speaker 3: through this. The question by Tom Rousso this morning the
Speaker 3: Airborne djit obvious three questions. So I guess we're doing
Speaker 3: three questions to start. Does Garth call curtain again?
Speaker 1: One? Does he even take the call this time? Two?
Speaker 1: And do we even want him?
Speaker 2: Three?
Speaker 3: And then Tom goes for is the internece one over
Speaker 3: Arsenal yesterday? And so all right, so Tom, to answer
Speaker 3: your three questions. One, does Garth call Curtin again. This
Speaker 3: comes from Tom Bogert at Gimme Sports and his talk
Speaker 3: at GMS said that uh in the fall, Earlier in
Speaker 3: the fall, a couple of months ago, that Atlanta United
Speaker 3: had reached out to Jim Curtin. Ah, thank you, Rich
Speaker 3: Rich doing the the public service and letting everybody know
Speaker 3: about the Union Soccer blog and what's going on through
Speaker 3: Joe Tansey. All right, So the three questions, does Garth
Speaker 3: call curtain again? Does he even want does he even
Speaker 3: take the call?
Speaker 1: His time?
Speaker 3: And do we even want him? Let's work backward. Does
Speaker 3: Atlanta United want Jim Curtin? I would say on a
Speaker 3: couple of different fronts, And I'm going to take my Vaughn's,
Speaker 3: my Vaughn's club card and use it. After a comment
Speaker 3: where he's referring to plastic, I don't know if you
Speaker 3: want that here unless you want to sit there and
Speaker 3: bring in the top. Heel to be the guy in
Speaker 3: charge of what's going on. So when Jim Curtin talks
Speaker 3: about plastic fans, do you want that guy standing on
Speaker 3: your touch line? That would be my first thought. Second,
Speaker 3: does Garth call curtain again? That goes back to and
Speaker 3: I'm going I'm jumping from three back to one. Does
Speaker 3: he even take the call? I don't know if Jim
Speaker 3: Jim Curtin takes the call. There there is another there's
Speaker 3: another opening out there that I think would fit and
Speaker 3: and taking taking the taking the plastic comment from from
Speaker 3: you know, taking that to the side, and all the
Speaker 3: other shenanigans that go on. And we've discussed Audenfinitem at
Speaker 3: Dausium about stylistics, philosophy, all that kind of st oh.
Speaker 3: I know, I know Rich he was being a wrestling heel.
Speaker 3: I know, and that's and that's part of his persona.
Speaker 3: He's being a wrestling heel.
Speaker 1: I get that.
Speaker 3: When it comes to if we just take that and
Speaker 3: put that to the side. Philosophy, I think is the
Speaker 3: element here that we have to focus on. When Jim
Speaker 3: Curtin brings out a four four to two diamond and
Speaker 3: it is physical and you're trying to figure out, you
Speaker 3: know where you can you know where your line is
Speaker 3: when it comes to being physical and you're trying to
Speaker 3: create short fields, be clinical, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: I just think philosophically, I don't think it fits because
Speaker 3: the athlete that Jim Curtin has attached to what he
Speaker 3: did in Philadelphia, not this past season, but you know,
Speaker 3: say when they were younger. But that whole idea of
Speaker 3: the four four two Diamond and the athletes that you
Speaker 3: currently have in Atlanta, I think that would be square peg,
Speaker 3: round hole. And you don't want to do that considering
Speaker 3: all the money that you've invested in folks like Miranchuk, Saba,
Speaker 3: et cetera, and that you have all of this stuff
Speaker 3: waiting for the off season to invest in and trying
Speaker 3: to find folks to come and be a part of things.
Speaker 3: I just think philosophically, I don't think it fit. So
Speaker 3: that would be that would be it for me. The
Speaker 3: the the Curtain philosophy here with the personnel on hand
Speaker 3: in Atlanta, I don't think it's I don't think it matches.
Speaker 3: I think that if you wanted to take him philosophically
Speaker 3: and apply him to a situation, I think Saint Louis
Speaker 3: would be more I'm not gonna use the word appropriate,
Speaker 3: that would fit better. I think that if you had
Speaker 3: the Saint Louis style of play, I think that would
Speaker 3: fit Curtain stylistically more than coming to any other opening,
Speaker 3: because it is that that to me would be where
Speaker 3: we are here. So someone that is red bullsyan which
Speaker 3: is kind of what which is what Saint Louis is
Speaker 3: with what fun and Steel and Bradley Cornell at the
Speaker 3: time wanted to create. They wanted to do something red
Speaker 3: bullsy and where you're pressing short fields, you don't care
Speaker 3: about possession, those kinds of things, those kind of red
Speaker 3: bulls light in Saint Louis. But I think philosophically that
Speaker 3: would fit him better. And I had that John Hackworth
Speaker 3: would probably sit there and he's probably pressing on the
Speaker 3: door that would enter into the training facility for for
Speaker 3: all caps. You know John Hackworth, like you hear a
Speaker 3: knock on the door and you know it's it's like,
Speaker 3: who's that, Jim Curtin, John Hackworth, nobody here, you know.
Speaker 3: So I think that Saint Louis would fit Jim Curtin philosophically.
Speaker 3: So I don't know if you make that phone call again,
Speaker 3: So that that would be the bigger element in this
Speaker 3: for for me looking at things, and I will I
Speaker 3: will recommend for those of you who might be new
Speaker 3: to our discussions and too rich and to everyone from
Speaker 3: the Philadelphia side of things. When this seemed to be
Speaker 3: getting to its head, to its you know, to its zenith,
Speaker 3: when it came to the Philadelphia fan frustration and all
Speaker 3: of that, we did a deep dive into Philly. So
Speaker 3: go back into our archive on the app and over
Speaker 3: its spreaker, we did a deep dive into Philadelphia and
Speaker 3: it was a really cool deep dive where we analyzed everything.
Speaker 3: And this was what three four months ago when we
Speaker 3: could kind of see the riding on the wall where
Speaker 3: Jim Curtin publicly would be frustrated in postmatch comments and
Speaker 3: it would be thinly veiled. Then it wouldn't be so
Speaker 3: thinly veiled.
Speaker 1: And so rich.
Speaker 3: To your point, Curtin may have had a strength, a
Speaker 3: strength in it, but he was also forced to use
Speaker 3: formations by the GM and the sporting director.
Speaker 1: So with the.
Speaker 3: Resources he had on hand, he was doing four four
Speaker 3: to two diamond, et cetera with that personnel and with
Speaker 3: what was being developed through the academy system with Philadelphia
Speaker 3: Union and Union two. Philosophically, I think that he would
Speaker 3: be more suited for Saint Louis than he would right
Speaker 3: now any place else. But go back and listen to
Speaker 3: the deep dive that we did on Philadelphia across the board,
Speaker 3: and it was a look at the ownership the investment
Speaker 3: where they were focusing more on infrastructure and buildings as
Speaker 3: opposed to bringing in people in transfer fees to help
Speaker 3: things out. Then, so you saw in the twitch pitch
Speaker 3: the Joe Tansy piece that Rich linked us to. So
Speaker 3: Joe Tansy right there at the Union Soccer blog. But
Speaker 3: I would go back and listen to our in depth
Speaker 3: run of Philadelphia. We analyzed pretty much everything we could,
Speaker 3: and Rich being our eyes and ears up there, kind
Speaker 3: of helped us out navigate what was going on ownership,
Speaker 3: front office, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Using that as our evidence in hand.
Speaker 3: Plus Jim Curtin in postmatch comments discussing front office and
Speaker 3: all of the extra year of running it back with
Speaker 3: the same personnel, not getting a whole lot of investment,
Speaker 3: that kind of a thing. So you have public comments,
Speaker 3: and I imagine it was far more heated behind the scenes.
Speaker 3: So I would say you add one plus possibly one
Speaker 3: to come up with two. You just get to this
Speaker 3: point to where after X number of years, you're just
Speaker 3: kind of like, yeah, we probably should just you know,
Speaker 3: we should just break up and be friends. So I
Speaker 3: think that the relationship from that perspective got to the
Speaker 3: point to where it was untenable. Because if you have
Speaker 3: a head coach who in his postmatch pressers and and
Speaker 3: any other press conference is sitting there and discussing lack
Speaker 3: of resources and what have you and displeasure just general
Speaker 3: displeasure about the situation and where things are going, it
Speaker 3: made sense for the two of them to break up.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's not you, it's me. You know,
Speaker 3: I need to focus on me to become a better person,
Speaker 3: all those kinds of things. So that's where it just
Speaker 3: it gets to a point, it gets to it. So
Speaker 3: that's where we are. So go back and listen to
Speaker 3: our breakdown of everything Philadelphia. It's nine point thirty and
Speaker 3: we now have that that time where we catch up
Speaker 3: with our friends from beyond goals entering. We get to
Speaker 3: talk about a couple of different things, including postseason playoffs
Speaker 3: for a particular mogul in training and find out what
Speaker 3: it's like to go on the road. We get to
Speaker 3: find out and see what happened in the opening round
Speaker 3: of the USL Championship and USL Championship playoffs. But before
Speaker 3: we do that, we have to run kind of special
Speaker 3: opens and things. So we're gonna run a special open
Speaker 3: and then welcome to somebody to the show.
Speaker 1: What's happening cap?
Speaker 5: Good morning?
Speaker 3: So, uh, before we get into two mentoring, did you
Speaker 3: go to Indianapolis, sir?
Speaker 5: I sure did, and and it was a lovely experience.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, what a what a win? What a game?
Speaker 5: I mean it was. It wasn't obviously a great accomplishment
Speaker 5: to make the playoffs year one uh for an ISFC,
Speaker 5: but you know, we we actually felt I felt crazy
Speaker 5: confident going into that game, where I'm like, we're a
Speaker 5: year one team or the underdogs were the five seed,
Speaker 5: but I don't know why. It just felt really confident.
Speaker 5: I mean, I guess second half of the season we've
Speaker 5: been I think the third best team in you US up.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I felt pretty good going into the game
Speaker 5: and obviously had a great start to the game, and
Speaker 5: it was a little hairy of a finish as it
Speaker 5: always is, but it was it was really really awesome
Speaker 5: to be there and experience.
Speaker 3: It well, you know, and we had the chance to
Speaker 3: catch up with with Conno for a one v one
Speaker 3: before the playoffs started, and to be able to I guess,
Speaker 3: just become more acclimated with one another and what you're
Speaker 3: trying to sit there, It's like, okay, so I know
Speaker 3: that if you do this, I get to do this
Speaker 3: in return becoming more more adjusted to each other on
Speaker 3: the field, those draws turn into wins.
Speaker 1: And it was a four or five.
Speaker 3: But obviously you had to go on the road in
Speaker 3: that one, and I did not have JJ Williams and
Speaker 3: hat trick on my on my bingo card.
Speaker 5: By the way, especially not in back to back weeks. No, yeah,
Speaker 5: he's been uh, he's been a beast for us obviously,
Speaker 5: and when we needed it because you know, Albertico, last
Speaker 5: year's league MVP went down with a groin injury a
Speaker 5: couple of weeks ago and we thought maybe he was
Speaker 5: done for the season if it was a hernia, but
Speaker 5: you know, he's bounced back. But yeah, now we can't
Speaker 5: get him in the lineup because JJ Williams is scoring
Speaker 5: six goals in two games. So it's good problems to.
Speaker 3: Have, absolutely, And so now you get to to get
Speaker 3: to advance to a round number two. Are you traveling
Speaker 3: this weekend, sir?
Speaker 5: Unfortunately not, and it would be only a four hour
Speaker 5: drive for me, but I had some plans already lined up. John, So.
Speaker 3: Dude, Oh, Eastern Conference semifinals, that's gonna be uh, it's
Speaker 3: gonna be fun. Low City and Rhode Island seven thirty
Speaker 3: on Saturday night. It's on the plus and so cap
Speaker 3: much like everybody else that is not making the four
Speaker 3: hour trip from where he is to Louse City and
Speaker 3: Lynn family has to watch on his favorite streaming device
Speaker 3: and all that kind of stuff. So congratulations on so
Speaker 3: far what you guys have been able to accomplish this year.
Speaker 3: It's been fun to see the growth and the evolution
Speaker 3: of the draw Kings and knowing that you're going to
Speaker 3: be a difficult team to play because a lot of
Speaker 3: times it's going to be one point and you're gonna
Speaker 3: have to fight in scratching claw for that against Rhode
Speaker 3: Island FC, and you end up getting the duke and
Speaker 3: you're going up against the team that you beat the
Speaker 3: bricks off of. And I thought it was one of
Speaker 3: the turning points of the season where you guys just
Speaker 3: went in to lend Family and decided to remind him
Speaker 3: that you weren't going to be a pushover. Earlier in
Speaker 3: the regular season.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure, that was. It was a turning points.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 5: It really marked the difference between the first half and
Speaker 5: second half of the season for us. And so yeah,
Speaker 5: hopefully that gives the guys, you know, confidence going in there,
Speaker 5: because I think lou City probably lost twice at home
Speaker 5: all season.
Speaker 1: I don't know, ye beat the breaks off a loose city, sir.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Let's hope it doesn't give them a false sense
Speaker 5: of like, oh, we're going to go out there and
Speaker 5: put five up on them again, But hopefully it does
Speaker 5: give them confidence to go in there and say, hey, yeah,
Speaker 5: we can do this.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: So then let me use that as our entry point
Speaker 3: when it comes to mentoring and the wide ranging conversations
Speaker 3: that we always have confidence versus cockiness when it comes
Speaker 3: to dealing with mentees. How do you when it comes
Speaker 3: to younger athletes specifically, do you find them to be
Speaker 3: more cocky when it comes to your first conversations and
Speaker 3: you have to dial them back into being confident or
Speaker 3: are they confident in understanding the balance or do you
Speaker 3: have to try and find confidence and have them focus
Speaker 3: on that. Where are most of your mentees these days
Speaker 3: when it comes to their own self identification.
Speaker 1: When it comes to who they are on the field.
Speaker 5: The majority are in the last two buckets. They're either
Speaker 5: confident yet very wary of getting too confident, or they're
Speaker 5: not confident enough. And I think that, and it's something
Speaker 5: I talked to about a lot, is there is a
Speaker 5: very very fine line between two cocky and uber confident,
Speaker 5: and you need to toe that in order to have
Speaker 5: big success in anything, really. And one of the things
Speaker 5: that I try and get across is you can be
Speaker 5: a little bit different on the field than you are
Speaker 5: in life and in the locker room, right, you can
Speaker 5: be and toe that line, maybe a little bit over
Speaker 5: on the side of cocky out on the field, and
Speaker 5: yet still be a you know, a great human being
Speaker 5: off the field and easy to talk to and get
Speaker 5: along with and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And you know, I.
Speaker 5: I didn't toe it as much as I try and
Speaker 5: tell mentees, although I was very confident. I mean maybe
Speaker 5: I was. Maybe I was actually looking back, quietly confident
Speaker 5: and a little bit cocky in myself. But two guys,
Speaker 5: two examples of guys that did it better than anyone
Speaker 5: else I ever saw or played against, were Clint Dempsey
Speaker 5: and Joseph Martinez. Yeah, just unbelievable and really good guys
Speaker 5: and yet just so so confident and cocky on the field,
Speaker 5: but a good arrogant. So yeah, it's it's definitely something
Speaker 5: that we talked to them about a lot, because I
Speaker 5: think some of them are too afraid of being confident
Speaker 5: and showing up people and and I get that, and
Speaker 5: that's a that's typically a good thing, but sometimes you
Speaker 5: have to have that killer instinct out in the field
Speaker 5: and really take ownership. And so sometimes that can help with.
Speaker 3: That because you've got to figure out and I imagine
Speaker 3: this obviously comes with agent experience, You've got to figure
Speaker 3: out when to turn it off, when to turn it on,
Speaker 3: and make sure that that on the field persona doesn't
Speaker 3: carry over into the off the field you and I
Speaker 3: would think that that's it's a delicate balance to try
Speaker 3: to figure out. It's like, Okay, I know that when
Speaker 3: I step across that line, I have to be, you know,
Speaker 3: mister badass extraordinaire. But then remember that once you go
Speaker 3: back after a match is over and you're out, you know,
Speaker 3: you're out in the parking lot or you're hanging out
Speaker 3: at dinner, that person.
Speaker 1: Has to be put to the side.
Speaker 3: I mean, you have to take these multiple personalities and
Speaker 3: understand where to where to turn it off, turn it on,
Speaker 3: and then put it in the closet and not have
Speaker 3: it be there as that part of your aura the
Speaker 3: whole time.
Speaker 5: Totally, totally, And that's that's a big challenge for a
Speaker 5: lot of people. And that's a big challenge for younger
Speaker 5: professionals or you know, high level youth athletes where maybe
Speaker 5: they already are confident and do really well in that area,
Speaker 5: yet in the locker room or out in just life
Speaker 5: in general, they need to understand, like some people just
Speaker 5: don't care, right just because you're a great soccer player,
Speaker 5: you know, that doesn't mean anything when you're out and
Speaker 5: about in life doing other things, like you still have
Speaker 5: a responsibility to be a good human being, and nobody
Speaker 5: cares that you can kick a soccer ball really well,
Speaker 5: or that you're a gifted sixteen year old or seventeen
Speaker 5: year old, whatever it is. It doesn't go that far.
Speaker 5: So that's that's tough though, because sometimes they get in
Speaker 5: this world of like, oh, I'm the man or I'm
Speaker 5: the woman, and I'm everybody bowed down to me because
Speaker 5: I'm so good, and yet you know, away from the
Speaker 5: soccer field, nobody cares.
Speaker 3: Then there's that moment where they get that first dose
Speaker 3: of reality or the dressing down, or it's a blowout
Speaker 3: or however you want to phrase it, and then that
Speaker 3: confidence gets shaken in that moment. It's like, well, I
Speaker 3: you know, I guess I'm not who I thought I was,
Speaker 3: or I'm not to that level or to that extent
Speaker 3: of an individual who I thought I was.
Speaker 1: How do you help navigate them to remind them? Look,
Speaker 1: that's just a one off.
Speaker 3: Don't let that you know, dwell, understand what happened, learn
Speaker 3: from it, move on and get to the next step.
Speaker 3: Don't let that weigh you down to take away from
Speaker 3: who you are and who you want to be.
Speaker 5: Yeah, for sure, And that's that's tough. And before I
Speaker 5: talk about that, it's it's one of the main reasons
Speaker 5: why throughout my career you could see a huge difference
Speaker 5: between somebody that went to college and somebody that didn't,
Speaker 5: because you get that dose of humility when you step
Speaker 5: on a campus and you play with guys, especially nowadays
Speaker 5: where players don't play high school soccer and a lot
Speaker 5: of them anyways, I know, some still do, but a
Speaker 5: lot of them don't, and so they're always playing with
Speaker 5: kids their own age or maybe a year older. But
Speaker 5: if you then step into an arena where you're playing
Speaker 5: with players that are four years old or five years
Speaker 5: older than you, things change. And those guys don't care
Speaker 5: if you're on a full ride or you know you're
Speaker 5: coming from an MLS academy. They don't, right, They know
Speaker 5: that they probably aren't going to turn pro, but they
Speaker 5: want to enjoy the heck out of their college career. So, yes,
Speaker 5: you're a teammate, but yes you're also a competition, and yeah,
Speaker 5: I'm going to show you your place because you're so
Speaker 5: much younger than me. And in a good way. That
Speaker 5: builds humility and you know, it builds like responsibility within players,
Speaker 5: and you could see it in a professional locker room.
Speaker 5: You could see the guys that went to college, even
Speaker 5: if it was for a year, so it was it's
Speaker 5: part of the growth. And that's exactly how they have
Speaker 5: to view it when you do get a dose of
Speaker 5: reality that this is just part of growth and it's
Speaker 5: necessary and in the long run, good for you. But yes,
Speaker 5: in the short run, take it in and try and
Speaker 5: see it from their perspective. Use what you can from it.
Speaker 5: But yes, of course that doesn't change anything about how
Speaker 5: you are as a soccer player out in the field,
Speaker 5: so hopefully it doesn't. It doesn't hurt confidence, that's not
Speaker 5: the purpose of it. It's more just growth as a
Speaker 5: player in person.
Speaker 3: So when did you get that first wake up call
Speaker 3: on a college campus when you first wandered into the door.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 5: It was a little bit different for me and a
Speaker 5: lot of players my generation because we all played high
Speaker 5: school soccer. So you got that in high school where
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, you're a ninth grader and you're
Speaker 5: playing with eighteen year olds who are at the time,
Speaker 5: you're thinking like, holy shoot, that guy's a man, right,
Speaker 5: Like these guys are big, they're strong, or I'm like,
Speaker 5: I'm like ninety five pounds and not mature at all
Speaker 5: yet physically, And yes, that was I got it in
Speaker 5: high school a little bit, but for sure you get
Speaker 5: it in college too, because yeah, I was recruited obviously
Speaker 5: in expect I had expectations when I showed up at
Speaker 5: wake but at the same time, you could tell like
Speaker 5: these guys were like, you better rise up to those
Speaker 5: expectations like we're depending on you type thing in that situation,
Speaker 5: so I got a lot of support from the team.
Speaker 5: I also kind of fell into a good situation where
Speaker 5: a couple of players got kicked off the team for
Speaker 5: issues right before I arrived, and there were both defenders,
Speaker 5: so I kind of worked in my favor. But so,
Speaker 5: but I definitely went through that in high school a
Speaker 5: little bit more than college.
Speaker 3: And that obviously set you up because when you're a
Speaker 3: ninth grade or here in some states you could be
Speaker 3: an eighth grader because middle school didn't exist, and you
Speaker 3: get to see somebody who's a full head taller than you,
Speaker 3: might outweigh you by thirty or forty pounds, and those
Speaker 3: get to be those first challenges of Okay, he's a
Speaker 3: lot bigger than I am. How do I attack this
Speaker 3: and how do I reinforce my own skill set in
Speaker 3: these kinds of things. So, you know, I definitely can
Speaker 3: see the idea of Okay, I had that in high school.
Speaker 3: I can take that experience and apply it now that
Speaker 3: I'm having to go through it all over again from
Speaker 3: freshman and seniors in college.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's John's sorry interpreted that that's part of
Speaker 5: the growth and the challenge of Okay, maybe you're not
Speaker 5: a freshman or whatever, maybe you're a new player to
Speaker 5: a team, But how do you find your place within
Speaker 5: the team, understand the dynamics of a team, and yet
Speaker 5: still play with that cockiness arrogance of like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 5: a baller, right, That's that's sometimes the challenge, right, because
Speaker 5: there are players that, especially if they're old school players,
Speaker 5: that don't really love that type of player. But if
Speaker 5: that's what you need in order to play well, you
Speaker 5: don't want to lose that. So how do you play
Speaker 5: with it and yet still show respect for your teammates
Speaker 5: and especially the older players and find your way within
Speaker 5: the locker room or a new team.
Speaker 3: How long did it take you to find your way
Speaker 3: where it's like, Okay, this is who I am. I
Speaker 3: still get to learn from these upper classmen. I get
Speaker 3: to add that to my skill set. But how long
Speaker 3: did it take you to adjust as that freshman either
Speaker 3: high school or college?
Speaker 1: And was that different?
Speaker 3: You know, was the level of adjustment different in high
Speaker 3: school versus college? How long did it take you to
Speaker 3: adjust to become a part of the collective? Was it
Speaker 3: like a full season, you think just it's under to
Speaker 3: understand the dynamic that was in play a little.
Speaker 5: Bit less for me because I played, And I think
Speaker 5: that if you're a freshman that doesn't play a lot,
Speaker 5: it probably takes a whole year just to feel confident
Speaker 5: around the entire group and sure of yourself and on
Speaker 5: and off the field. It can be tough because I
Speaker 5: was playing every game and a lot, like you get
Speaker 5: a little bit closer and guys depend on you a
Speaker 5: little bit. But even in that sense, like as a
Speaker 5: center back, I didn't feel uber confident telling a twenty
Speaker 5: two year old what to do when I was eighteen,
Speaker 5: you know, as a college freshman, and even though I'm
Speaker 5: playing center back in the middle of a three and
Speaker 5: should be the guy that's, you know, organizing most of
Speaker 5: the team, like it was, it's a weird dynamic and
Speaker 5: it takes a lot of confidence to think like, okay,
Speaker 5: age doesn't matter here, it's it's I'm trying to help
Speaker 5: the team win. But even in that regard, it took
Speaker 5: me a little bit of time.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 3: But then there's the senior who is, you know, either
Speaker 3: four or five years older than you, and they have
Speaker 3: to put their pride or whatever word you want to
Speaker 3: use a side because there's someone who's a lot younger
Speaker 3: behind trying to tell them what's going on. It has
Speaker 3: to be on that older person. They've got to be
Speaker 3: willing to listen and understand that you're not just being
Speaker 3: that eighteen year old you know, kaky, you know what,
Speaker 3: trying to tell you know, a twenty two year old
Speaker 3: look do this. No, it's like, look, do this and
Speaker 3: we'll all be fine. That's that's got it, that two
Speaker 3: way streak coming from the older player back to the
Speaker 3: younger player. That's got to be an adjustment too, you
Speaker 3: know for sure.
Speaker 5: And there's no doubt about it that you can have
Speaker 5: this attitude out in the field or arrogance or ability
Speaker 5: to talk to older players and they will be more
Speaker 5: receptive of it based off of who you are in
Speaker 5: the locker room, what you do off the field, right,
Speaker 5: do you do things the right way? Do you respect people?
Speaker 5: Like all that stuff, And that's why that's so important
Speaker 5: because that way when you get on the field and like,
Speaker 5: if a younger player is telling me what to do,
Speaker 5: if I know what's coming from a good place, that's
Speaker 5: helped the team win. And this guy's not just being
Speaker 5: an a hole and thinks he knows better than me
Speaker 5: or whatever. It is, right, because I know and I
Speaker 5: see on a daily basis what he's doing to prepare himself,
Speaker 5: that he takes the game seriously and all that stuff.
Speaker 5: But if he's a last guy in the locker room,
Speaker 5: first guy out, barely does anything in the gym and
Speaker 5: all that stuff, and then you're gonna come on the
Speaker 5: field and tell me what to do. That's not gonna work.
Speaker 3: How much reorienting do you have to do for men
Speaker 3: tees and dress them down and set them, set them
Speaker 3: straight about their their attitudes? Are they are those more
Speaker 3: outliers in a bell curve?
Speaker 1: How is that for you?
Speaker 3: When it comes to talking to those men tees? It's
Speaker 3: like how many how many times have you had to
Speaker 3: sit there and really reel somebody in and give them
Speaker 3: the the you know, the the dunk of the cold
Speaker 3: water glass over the top of the head and go
Speaker 3: now it's not gonna work.
Speaker 5: Yeah, those are outliers.
Speaker 2: But it occurs.
Speaker 5: And you know, every team has has a player or
Speaker 5: too probably that could use it. Some players some teams
Speaker 5: have more uh and and sometimes it's the parents that
Speaker 5: just can't get through to them, or sometimes it's egged
Speaker 5: on by the parents honestly. Uh and and again it's
Speaker 5: it's that balance of like not killing confidence, but understanding
Speaker 5: how important it is who you are as a human
Speaker 5: being and what your actions are off the field and
Speaker 5: how they show people who you are. Like I make
Speaker 5: these videos and I talk about these things all the time,
Speaker 5: Like you see, for example, Hector Herrera spit at the
Speaker 5: feet of a referee. You know, it's it's attitudes things,
Speaker 5: and you know, we see it at the highest highest level,
Speaker 5: So of course we're going to see it at the
Speaker 5: youth level. But if that's a high school kid that
Speaker 5: does it in a game, any scout that's watching is
Speaker 5: a permanent X. A permanent X, there's no chance you
Speaker 5: get recruited, right, And so it's yes, these who you
Speaker 5: are and how you carry yourself and your actions and
Speaker 5: reactions and how you communicate with guys on the field.
Speaker 5: It's noticed. It is absolutely noticed, and it will overshadow
Speaker 5: anything you.
Speaker 1: Do with the ball.
Speaker 5: You'd have to be the best player in the country
Speaker 5: if you're going to be in a hole and still
Speaker 5: go to a college or get drafted to a team
Speaker 5: because honestly, for most organizations, it's not worth it. It's
Speaker 5: not worth the headache.
Speaker 3: Michael Parkers Beyond Goals Mentoring, hanging out with us on
Speaker 3: the Friday free kick before maybe a round of golf,
Speaker 3: maybe going back into the bunker to look at tape
Speaker 3: for Rhode Island FC as they get ready for a
Speaker 3: trip to lu City this weekend in the Eastern Conference
Speaker 3: Semifinals gets to hang out with us every once in
Speaker 3: a while and ask and gets questions asked about mentoring
Speaker 3: and mentees with all the work that he and Greg
Speaker 3: Garza do at Beyond Goals Mentoring at BG Mentoring on
Speaker 3: the two hundred and eighty character app, and he is
Speaker 3: at m F Parkers on the two hundred and eighty
Speaker 3: character app.
Speaker 1: When it comes to.
Speaker 3: Dressing somebody down and you mentioned parents, how much of
Speaker 3: an issue I'm not going to say problem. How much
Speaker 3: of an issue are parents these days in steering their
Speaker 3: student athletes in one direction before you get to try
Speaker 3: and over correct them and make sure that the parents
Speaker 3: understand that there's something larger at play here. How much
Speaker 3: intervention I guess maybe how much over correcting or how
Speaker 3: much correcting have you had to do when it comes
Speaker 3: to your mentees.
Speaker 5: A little bit here and there. It's a fine line,
Speaker 5: of course, right, parents are doing their best and they want.
Speaker 3: Them, But then there are sometimes where parents turn into
Speaker 3: like the dad who was the manager of the Yankees
Speaker 3: and Bad News Bears, the Vic Morrow character, where you
Speaker 3: get that kind of a stereotype. I mean, so they're
Speaker 3: out there, but I would imagine, as you said, that
Speaker 3: they're the edges of the bell curve. And thankfully they're
Speaker 3: not more closer to the middle of that bell curve
Speaker 3: in these situations.
Speaker 5: Yeah, one of the most important things that parents of
Speaker 5: youth athletes need to understand is they can affect the
Speaker 5: child's ability to make a team or a school or something.
Speaker 5: And I don't know if I've told you on the
Speaker 5: show before or not, but we were we recruited, not recruited.
Speaker 5: We went and saw a player for Rhode Island FC,
Speaker 5: a young teenager and play, and we decided not to
Speaker 5: pursue him because we could see that the dad was
Speaker 5: going to be a real pain in the you know what,
Speaker 5: and this is not worth it. And so if we're
Speaker 5: saying that, there's no doubt about it that college coaches
Speaker 5: are saying it too. They don't want to deal with
Speaker 5: a parent that's going to helicopter, going to call every week, right,
Speaker 5: going to be on the sidelines, go nuts. It can
Speaker 5: affect your athlete's chances here and there, And I think
Speaker 5: that's important for them to understand because they have the
Speaker 5: best for their children, but sometimes they're unable to control
Speaker 5: themselves or see the bigger picture.
Speaker 1: Pressure in a deadline situation.
Speaker 3: Uh, there's a team that you played for that they
Speaker 3: are in a winter go home situation, and it's not
Speaker 3: the first time in a row that they're in a
Speaker 3: winter go home situation in recent history. They win last day,
Speaker 3: the last match of the opening of the regular season,
Speaker 3: they win the eight to nine to advance, and right
Speaker 3: now they are a win away from knocking off the
Speaker 3: number one seed in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 3: How when you're in a situation like this where everyone's
Speaker 3: kicking dirt on you and you keep proving everybody wrong.
Speaker 3: You prove them wrong, you prove them wrong. Everything's coming
Speaker 3: together and you are you're at the you're at the table,
Speaker 3: and you're you're running sevens elevens. I mean, you are
Speaker 3: just rolling everything and everything's great. How do you in
Speaker 3: a in a situation like this balance the idea of
Speaker 3: good pressure and is there any bad pressure at this
Speaker 3: point considering what's at stake? I mean, how do you
Speaker 3: how do you balance those notions of pressure in a
Speaker 3: situation where it seems to be the pressure might have
Speaker 3: flipped to the favorite now because of what you've been
Speaker 3: able to do? How do you handle pressure in a
Speaker 3: situation like this where it's win.
Speaker 1: Or go home.
Speaker 5: Yeah, You're gonna feel pressure, no doubt about it. It's
Speaker 5: a playoff game, it's a big one, so you're going
Speaker 5: to feel pressure. But that's okay. Uh pressure, I talk
Speaker 5: about it all the times, okay, And it can be
Speaker 5: perceived as a good thing. And then for at Lanti
Speaker 5: United situation, absolutely it's a good thing because Miami face
Speaker 5: much more pressure than at Lanni United in this game.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 5: At Miami's fragile right now. I think they are, and
Speaker 5: you can see that they get frustrated.
Speaker 1: They you know, sowar as.
Speaker 5: This body language is brutal sometimes and I really think
Speaker 5: if they can get to halftime zero zero or even
Speaker 5: wherever it might be, Miami or fragile like, they will
Speaker 5: be on top of each other in the locker room.
Speaker 5: They'll be starting to freak out and things open up,
Speaker 5: and you know, Atlanta have shown that they can score
Speaker 5: against Miami. That's not a problem, So you know, I'd
Speaker 5: look at it. It's such such an awesome opportunity to
Speaker 5: knock out the clear favorites of MLS Cup and you
Speaker 5: know you're playing with house money. No one expected there
Speaker 5: to even be a game. Three MLS brass is probably
Speaker 5: over there pooping themselves thinking, holy smokes. The only reason
Speaker 5: why they're not actually is because it's Atlanta and at
Speaker 5: Atlanta goes through, like I guess they wouldn't have a home.
Speaker 1: Game likely, but they're done.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so yeah they're themselves. And so I would take
Speaker 5: that and really embrace it. Yeah, of course you're gonna
Speaker 5: feel some pressure, but I mean, no one expected it.
Speaker 5: So you're really playing with house money here.
Speaker 3: When what's that feeling like in a locker room where?
Speaker 3: And like I said, you can go back as far
Speaker 3: as high school and college or pros or if there
Speaker 3: was any example for you when you're in a situation
Speaker 3: like this and it is a house money situation, do
Speaker 3: you I mean you're playing freer. I would imagine but
Speaker 3: how much freer are you playing knowing that you can't
Speaker 3: just kind of yolo.
Speaker 1: Everything and go out there.
Speaker 3: But obviously the you're sitting there and you're stared at
Speaker 3: the other guy in a staring contest, and you're going, okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: all right, I'm ready. You know, what's that kind of
Speaker 3: confidence like in a situation like that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the best example for me person is
Speaker 5: probably like Champions League games, right, where you're playing in
Speaker 5: Champions League. So there's pressure, right, you want to perform well,
Speaker 5: you don't want to get embarrassed, you want to show well.
Speaker 5: But we are a minuscule team compared to playing against Chelsea,
Speaker 5: Juventus and Shack Tar, right, no one expects us to
Speaker 5: come even close in these games. Right, So you're kind
Speaker 5: of out there like, hey, let's show them what we got.
Speaker 5: Let's shock the world here, and let's give a good performance.
Speaker 5: And if we lose, like hey, let's at least feel
Speaker 5: proud about like what we go out there and show.
Speaker 5: And so you're still going to feel pressure because you
Speaker 5: understand that you know you can do something crazy, and yeah,
Speaker 5: you don't want to lose and you don't want your
Speaker 5: season to be over. So there's going to be pressure.
Speaker 5: But I think that in this situation, the the possibilities
Speaker 5: and the dream I think overshadow the the pressure and
Speaker 5: the nervousness come kick off where I think it's the
Speaker 5: opposite for Miami. I mean outside of the stars.
Speaker 3: And especially the young kids in that situation who are
Speaker 3: on that roster, surrounded by the gulf stream galacticos, and
Speaker 3: it's just like, you know, you don't want to let
Speaker 3: the big names down, but there's that pressure, that internal
Speaker 3: pressure of okay, you know, I'm kind of like almost
Speaker 3: on eggshells here because I don't want to mess up.
Speaker 3: But I have this I have this thought pattern those
Speaker 3: younger players might be really tight, and you have those
Speaker 3: that have been there before and the ones that are
Speaker 3: really tight, and there doesn't there probably isn't some kind
Speaker 3: of an in between, and it's gonna make for an
Speaker 3: it makes for an interesting, uh staring contest for those
Speaker 3: younger players that you're going to be playing against.
Speaker 5: Totally, and that's why I'm surprised, honestly that Gresslow hasn't
Speaker 5: played much for Miami. I mean, I'm surprised I brought
Speaker 5: in the Kumashki player. You know, he's a good young player,
Speaker 5: but he makes a mistake that leads to Atlanta's goal.
Speaker 5: You know, they're late in the game trying to take
Speaker 5: that ball down, and you don't think he's going to
Speaker 5: be a little tense here going into game three.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 5: That's to be on the back line or to be
Speaker 5: a midfielder and not be one of the big guys
Speaker 5: on the team. It's very difficult, right, because you're expected
Speaker 5: to be perfect and if you're not and you end
Speaker 5: the season, you end messy season, right, You're going to
Speaker 5: feel brutal. Right, So you're like, man, I don't want
Speaker 5: to make a single mistake and that's a really tough
Speaker 5: way to play. So if I would land on land
Speaker 5: anytime I got a one on one, like, I'm just
Speaker 5: going after these guys because you know, just put them
Speaker 5: under pressure.
Speaker 3: And then what's it like to see a bald polar
Speaker 3: bear at the age of forty where life begins and
Speaker 3: you're a man? According to Mike Gundy, what's it been
Speaker 3: like for you to see Brad come through all of
Speaker 3: this and just be out of his mind to time?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I send him a text after game one and
Speaker 5: I'm like, dude, stop acting like you're tired, You're a
Speaker 5: sicking goalkeeper, Like come on. So he responded and said
Speaker 5: he was dead tired, and then like, come on, man.
Speaker 1: I'm sure that you've used other words other than yeah,
Speaker 1: come on now.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it's it's crazy. I mean, I can't imagine
Speaker 5: how my body would feel if I was still playing. So,
Speaker 5: I mean, I know he's a goalkeeper, but you know,
Speaker 5: even what he does, you know, at the end of
Speaker 5: the season, and to have those performances, yeah, that's that's
Speaker 5: a lot. And to know, like, hey, you're kind of
Speaker 5: on the brink, right, I know he wants to play
Speaker 5: again next year, but there's no contract there, I don't think, so,
Speaker 5: I don't know. It's a little iffy. And to do that,
Speaker 5: like that's a little bit of pressure, right, same thing
Speaker 5: with Dax, right, you don't want your career to end here.
Speaker 5: And so yeah, I'm happy for him. He's putting in
Speaker 5: some good performances.
Speaker 3: Well, he told he did tell Saba. Saba's got a
Speaker 3: bet with him that if they win MLS Cup he's
Speaker 3: coming back. So and that bet still is in play.
Speaker 3: So so you got to talk to Saba and Dax
Speaker 3: about that one. What's going on with you and beyond
Speaker 3: goals and Greg.
Speaker 5: What is going on? Just doing a lot of videos.
Speaker 5: We definitely are on the hunt now for the right
Speaker 5: fit to add to our team in a former female,
Speaker 5: well current female female. I meant former college athlete. So yeah,
Speaker 5: we'll see. We want to expand and bring a female
Speaker 5: on and that's a that's a high priority between now
Speaker 5: and jen One.
Speaker 3: Very very cool as always, Cap It's great to see you.
Speaker 3: What are the planes this weekend that you're not able
Speaker 3: to go to Louisville? You're playing golf? You want to
Speaker 3: you want to scramble?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 5: No, John, it's not that exciting poorly timed triple date
Speaker 5: that's been in the works for a while and going
Speaker 5: to a comedy show and staying at a hotel and
Speaker 5: so it'll be fun, no doubt about it. Just just
Speaker 5: poor timing.
Speaker 3: Can you shift the comedy show to UH to Louisville,
Speaker 3: make it make a weekend out of it with the
Speaker 3: trip date? Have just get everybody in like a like
Speaker 3: a like an uber or like a jeep wagonear or
Speaker 3: something and take everybody to hey field trip, We're gonna
Speaker 3: go here.
Speaker 5: Well, I don't know if the comedian is gonna find
Speaker 5: it too funny if I'm watching the game on my
Speaker 5: phone as he's up there performing, he or she.
Speaker 3: Hey, well, I mean you get the comedian to sit there,
Speaker 3: and you could be a fodder for the comedian.
Speaker 1: I'm busy, I'm an owner here, and then you can
Speaker 1: get into the discussion with the comedian. As always, my friend.
Speaker 3: Great to see you, great to catch up with you,
Speaker 3: Great to find out what's going on with Beyond Goals minnering,
Speaker 3: and always fantastic to pick your brain about these situations
Speaker 3: and how you and Greg and everybody are impacting folks.
Speaker 3: Enjoy your triple date, and I know that you're gonna
Speaker 3: have a I know that you're gonna ask for a
Speaker 3: table in the back of.
Speaker 1: The room so you can sit there and watch what's
Speaker 1: going on with Lucy, no doubt about it. All right,
Speaker 1: be good, friend, Yeah, all right, be good.
Speaker 3: That's Michael Parkers, everybody, and so Cap is on a roll,
Speaker 3: Rhode Island, f C, Atlanta United, all the points, all
Speaker 3: the points. So he's a very busy time and it's
Speaker 3: always great to catch up with our friends at Beyond
Speaker 3: Goals mentoring and find out what's going on. Okay, So
Speaker 3: who's here this morning? Tom Russo is here, Rich Ransom
Speaker 3: is here, Michael Head is here, and for Card is here.
Speaker 3: Good morning, four Card, Morning Jordan, and apparently according to Jordan,
Speaker 3: it looks like Sergei Busquet is out again. Morning Harry
Speaker 3: and morning four Cards. So there we are this morning,
Speaker 3: and it's it's yeah in four Card. It's really cool.
Speaker 3: Four Card says he loves having Cap on the show
Speaker 3: on Fridays. It's great to be able to pick Greg
Speaker 3: Garz's brain, in Michael Parkhurst's brain about how they're impacting
Speaker 3: folks through beyond goals mintoring and to be able to
Speaker 3: share their wisdom and apply it to not just mentoring
Speaker 3: student athletes and that kind of stuff, to the every
Speaker 3: day because these lessons also apply to all of us
Speaker 3: in our data day. So in a way, when they're
Speaker 3: not traveling the planet and bettering humanity as they do,
Speaker 3: it's a chance for us almost to get our own
Speaker 3: mentoring session. And I've always thought that to be very
Speaker 3: very cool to be able to understand where talented professional
Speaker 3: athletes are coming from and how it can apply to
Speaker 3: us in the day to day.
Speaker 1: So that.
Speaker 3: Was that's a thing, a cool thing for me to
Speaker 3: be able to have this kind of pick your brain
Speaker 3: half hour with the two of them and find out
Speaker 3: how things are in professional soccer, and how things are
Speaker 3: with the up and coming student athlete, and how they
Speaker 3: are with not just athletes but young folks, and how
Speaker 3: we can learn from that, and how we can take
Speaker 3: that information and turn it toward others. So in a way,
Speaker 3: it's like I said, it's like our own mentoring session,
Speaker 3: and then we can take the information and spread it
Speaker 3: to others and we can continue to just you know,
Speaker 3: touch others with what Michael and Greg get to teach
Speaker 3: us on Fridays at nine thirty. So it's always cool
Speaker 3: to have the Friday free kick and see what's going
Speaker 3: on there. Okay, So yeah, Jordan good vibes on a
Speaker 3: five strip Friday with Parky and you know four card.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: I actually get to see the emojis now, Okay, So
Speaker 3: because there were times where with the old software you
Speaker 3: couldn't see the emojis when they're when they're popping up.
Speaker 3: But now apparently you can see the emojis as they go.
Speaker 3: All right, So we've got all of the stuff to preview,
Speaker 3: We've got juice boxes to look at. We've got the
Speaker 3: officials to look at in this weekend, and so what
Speaker 3: we'll do now we'll go over the assignments for the weekend,
Speaker 3: the match day three assignments courtesy of our friends at
Speaker 3: PRO and you can go to Pro Referees dot com
Speaker 3: and you can see them. But here's the rundown of
Speaker 3: who's doing what this weekend. For tonight LAFC and Vancouver
Speaker 3: at BEMO ten forty start. Joe Dickerson is the man
Speaker 3: in the middle, reserving comment. Jeremy Keiso is your AR one,
Speaker 3: Kylie Smith your AR two. Your fourth is Armando via Real.
Speaker 3: Chris Penso is your VA R. T j Z A
Speaker 3: BLOCKI is your A v R. So you have Chris
Speaker 3: Penso at VAR. You have Joe Dickerson in the middle.
Speaker 3: Tonight in Los Angeles, reserving comment tomorrow the three matches tomorrow,
Speaker 3: FC Cincinnati and NYC four o'clocks of four ten at
Speaker 3: t q O. Drew Fishers is in the middle. Logan
Speaker 3: Brown and Michael Barwagon are your ars. Pierre Looke Loosier
Speaker 3: is your fourth. Your VR is Kevin Stott, Tom Supple
Speaker 3: is your A v R. And what you're seeing in
Speaker 3: these situations with var and a v ar. As you're
Speaker 3: seeing these pairings consistent, and I think that that's just
Speaker 3: as important when you have the experienced referees that know
Speaker 3: how to to calm things down and read temperatures of rooms.
Speaker 3: You have the pairings for your var and your av ar,
Speaker 3: they are consistent as well going forward, so you don't
Speaker 3: have a different avar with a var, so you know
Speaker 3: what the conversations are like, you know how someone might
Speaker 3: respond in a situation like that. And something that just
Speaker 3: kind of hit me the other day. Oh, they're having
Speaker 3: consistent lineups in the booths as well, and so it's
Speaker 3: not just one or the other.
Speaker 1: So it's not just random dude, Oh, who do you
Speaker 1: want to have?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like, oh, okay, so we'll have that this
Speaker 3: dude paired with center var. So you're having these folks
Speaker 3: line up with each other throughout the season. It just
Speaker 3: literally it was like I was today years old. So
Speaker 3: til you know, til you pay your var and your
Speaker 3: avar throughout most of the season and especially in the postseason.
Speaker 3: I think that's what the kids do. Is til Or
Speaker 3: a purple team, and Charlotte in Middle Florida is mere
Speaker 3: Pek Mitch is the man in the middle at six
Speaker 3: ' ten. Nick Yurannga, Jeffrey Greeson your ar. Sergey Boyco
Speaker 3: is your fourth. Ismael l Fath is your var. Jonathan
Speaker 3: Johnson is your avar. And I think that that is
Speaker 3: just as important in a VAR setting as it is
Speaker 3: a center ref setting, where you have someone with experience
Speaker 3: who knows how to read a room and those kinds
Speaker 3: of things. To have an Ismael l Fath. As much
Speaker 3: as I enjoy having Ismail el Fath and Jayramrufo outside,
Speaker 3: I think it's just as important to have Ismael el
Speaker 3: Fath if you can't be outside and in the middle,
Speaker 3: have him in a VAR position where he knows what
Speaker 3: it's like to be in high pressure situations and things
Speaker 3: like that for an elimination game in an opening round
Speaker 3: of a playoffs. Here then for Messi and Friends in
Speaker 3: Atlanta United in Fort Lauderdale, the erector set Lucas Sapala
Speaker 3: is in the middle. Corey Rockwell Andrew Bigelow. Corey Rockwell
Speaker 3: has been voted in the past year Ar the Year.
Speaker 3: Rockwell and Bigelow your ars. Tory Penso is your fourth.
Speaker 3: Jose Carlos Rivero is your VR, Mike camp Minor is
Speaker 3: your AVAR. So that's where they are in the booth.
Speaker 3: And you've got Lucas z Apala as your center F
Speaker 3: for this match day three. And let me double check
Speaker 3: Michelle Kaufman to see what she has to say, because
Speaker 3: Jordan with what you mentioned involving who is and who isn't.
Speaker 3: So Michelle Kaufman, let's see if she has a break
Speaker 3: down the playoff series. Boosy and Bright status NIMA and
Speaker 3: so it looks like Boosy and Bright were the two
Speaker 3: that were not engaged earlier in the week when it
Speaker 3: came to practice and they were trying to There was
Speaker 3: one day where Bousy and Bright were not available in
Speaker 3: the opening visual session where the media could be on
Speaker 3: the field and they could see all of the early
Speaker 3: rondos and things like that, Boosy and Bright were not around. So, uh,
Speaker 3: you're looking at Lepeers and I'm gonna like I'm scanning
Speaker 3: the article. So uh, with Michelle Kaufman's article quote, other
Speaker 3: Miami players have to step up. Last game, the team
Speaker 3: was missing Busketts due to illness. He's like an assistant
Speaker 3: coach on the field, making smart decisions directing others to
Speaker 3: do the same. His leadership was missing. Busqutt's absence was
Speaker 3: even more noticeable in the second half after Yannick Bright,
Speaker 3: one of the team's most reliable, defensive minded midfielders, left
Speaker 3: the game with a hamstring injury. And this goes back
Speaker 3: to what we were talking about. Neither Buskets nor Bright
Speaker 3: was that the open media training session Wednesday morning, and
Speaker 3: their availability for Saturday's game is unknown whether they play
Speaker 3: or not. Teammates fowed to win at home move on
Speaker 3: to the next round. Fredericka Rodondo quoted beautiful thing about
Speaker 3: soccers that it doesn't matter what happened in the past.
Speaker 1: You have to win in the present.
Speaker 3: Everything we did in the past is for not If
Speaker 3: we don't win this week, I hope Saturday we did
Speaker 3: the first game and are able to win in advance.
Speaker 3: Redondo is asked why Atlanta is such a tough matchup.
Speaker 3: They're always a difficult opponent. They are very tough. We
Speaker 3: have to go at them, and they have a goalkeeper
Speaker 3: who in these past two games has played great between
Speaker 3: the posts. David Martinez said the team remains calm and
Speaker 3: confident heading into the clinching game at home. Rodondo adds
Speaker 3: that the loss of Yanick Bright was a big one.
Speaker 3: Yanick is an extra quote. Janick is an extraordinary player
Speaker 3: who helps us so much defensively. He's a tireless worker
Speaker 3: on the ball, very disciplined. Having him on the field
Speaker 3: next to you makes you better. We would miss him
Speaker 3: if he can't play this weekend. Heading into Saturday's game,
Speaker 3: Intermiami players motivated to live up to expectations, Redondo quoted
Speaker 3: minlest is a very unique league because any team can
Speaker 3: beat any other team. We're seeing that with Atlanta. They
Speaker 3: barely got into the playoffs while we came in as
Speaker 3: the top team. We've been the best all season, and
Speaker 3: they're making this series very complicated for us. I think
Speaker 3: that's a good thing about this league that any team
Speaker 3: can pull off a surprise. So that's the questions are
Speaker 3: boosy and bright. Traditionally I would think that those to
Speaker 3: have a holiday that's boosy and bright. That seems like
Speaker 3: something that's more Christmasy than November the ninth. But we
Speaker 3: will all be down there. Maddie and I will be
Speaker 3: down there, Jason obviously, and Mike will be down there.
Speaker 3: Remember broadcast is on Star ninety four because the Hawks
Speaker 3: are on ninety two nine in the game, So the
Speaker 3: Hawks are on ninety two nine. The game Atlanta United
Speaker 3: with Mike and Jason five Stripes Countdown starts at seven,
Speaker 3: kickoff at eight ten.
Speaker 1: That's going to be on Star ninety four.
Speaker 3: SDH will be down there as a matter of fact,
Speaker 3: flying down tomorrow morning and we'll be down there getting
Speaker 3: in early afternoon and we will be there. You'll just
Speaker 3: set your notifications on social media for me and Maddie
Speaker 3: and Mike and Jason and everybody. You know what's going
Speaker 3: on down there in Fort Lauderdale at the Erector Set,
Speaker 3: So set your notifications on all of our social media platforms.
Speaker 3: SDHILL be down there for the decision, the decider Game three,
Speaker 3: so be ready for all of that tonight. As we mentioned,
Speaker 3: it is LA and Vancouver, and you wonder which LAFC
Speaker 3: team is going to be there at BEMO Obviously it
Speaker 3: is a massive home field advantage for them at Bemo
Speaker 3: Field Remo Stadium, Bemo Stadium because BEMO Field is in
Speaker 3: is in Toronto, Ontario for Toronto FC and they are
Speaker 3: not in the playoffs, so at home this season, LAFC
Speaker 3: at home eleven two and four. The only team that
Speaker 3: was better than them at home in the Western Conference
Speaker 3: lag At thirteen one and three at LAFC eleven two
Speaker 3: and four at BEMO this year away from home, they're
Speaker 3: fairly you know, they're fairly normal. They were eight six
Speaker 3: and three in the regular season away from home. And
Speaker 3: you're looking at a team in Vancouver that's riding in
Speaker 3: is an eight seed, and they're just like, yep, okay,
Speaker 3: we got them three nil at home, and you know,
Speaker 3: we're we're cool. We're gonna go in there, We're gonna
Speaker 3: do our thing and we are going to make life
Speaker 3: trouble for LAFC. You remember Nico Moreno yesterday said that, uh,
Speaker 3: you know, Olivier Gerroux hadn't been all that since he's
Speaker 3: been there at LAFC. So, uh, it will be interesting
Speaker 3: to see what LAFC does. Obviously, you get that push,
Speaker 3: and we all know about that home field push and
Speaker 3: what it's gonna You know, you look at bu Wanga
Speaker 3: and Bogush and all of these weapons that they have
Speaker 3: at LAFC. Hugo lures between the sticks, all of air,
Speaker 3: all of these weapons that they have and and they
Speaker 3: have been fantastic this season, sixty three goals scored. They
Speaker 3: were third in the Western Conference. Actually fourth in the
Speaker 3: Western Conference, so they were fourth, but not by much.
Speaker 3: And it was the two teams at sixty five with
Speaker 3: RSL and Portland, and then you had LAG at sixty
Speaker 3: nine goals. But LAFC at home tremendous in their eleven
Speaker 3: two and four run. You look at the juice boxes
Speaker 3: in this one and no real surprise, you had the two.
Speaker 3: You have the two games on Saturday leading up to
Speaker 3: Atlanta United and Messian Friends, where the I think, I
Speaker 3: think the juwice boxers just got kind of a little
Speaker 3: lazy and oh no they changed things. Okay, so LAFC
Speaker 3: juice boxes minus won sixty seven LAFC to win ninety
Speaker 3: minute draws, A plus three thirty four. Vancouver went outright,
Speaker 3: so a plus four hundred in the composite three ninety nine.
Speaker 3: That's courtesy of our friends at odds Portal and Odds Portal.
Speaker 3: What they do is they have, I have a list
Speaker 3: of fourteen different in this case, they have fourteen different
Speaker 3: juice box purveyors, and they take all the numbers Adam
Speaker 3: together come up with an average and that's where we are.
Speaker 3: So you end up with Vancouver in La. Vancouver basically
Speaker 3: is a plus four hundred. No real surprise that the
Speaker 3: number is like that. You get Ryan White, you get
Speaker 3: to Bryan White from Ryan gauld and Armstrong and taka
Speaker 3: Oka who has been on he has been between the sticks.
Speaker 3: He has been hard to take advantage of at home,
Speaker 3: and so a team that was two games over five
Speaker 3: hundred on the road this year gets to go back
Speaker 3: home and try to take advantage of things Vancouver.
Speaker 1: Honestly, get this.
Speaker 3: Vancouver at home this year was only one game over
Speaker 3: five hundred in the regular season seven six and four.
Speaker 3: How were they on the road? One game under five hundred.
Speaker 3: That's how you end up at thirteen thirteen and eight.
Speaker 3: Literally one game above five hundred at home, one game
Speaker 3: below five hundred on the road. Fairly tight plus three
Speaker 3: in goal difference. They scored fifty two on the year
Speaker 3: in the regular season, so thirty four and fifty two
Speaker 3: is eighteen, so almost a goal and a half average
Speaker 3: on the year. So how do they respond being on
Speaker 3: the road? Sorry I had that reverse. They were better
Speaker 3: at home, I mean they're better on the road. They
Speaker 3: were one game above five hundred on the road. This year,
Speaker 3: I had that flipped. So seven six and four on
Speaker 3: the road, six seven and four at home, so I
Speaker 3: had that flipped. They were better by one match, by
Speaker 3: one win on the road than they were at home.
Speaker 3: So we'll see what happens. But you know, Beny Sartini
Speaker 3: once again, uh, not afraid of anybody, and that one
Speaker 3: eight is going to be tonight. That one to eight
Speaker 3: is tonight. Then the three matches tomorrow, Cincinnati and NYCFC.
Speaker 3: And in this one, you know, mentioning the juice boxes
Speaker 3: and how things are and how things might have been
Speaker 3: a little different. Initially, all week long, you could take
Speaker 3: the Cincinnati favorite number and the Orlando City favorite number
Speaker 3: and double it and you end up with inter Miami's
Speaker 3: number to minus two fifty six. That changed a little bit.
Speaker 3: The margins grew to where it's minus one eighteen and
Speaker 3: one nineteen and inter Miami Messi and friends are now
Speaker 3: to minus two fifty six to win at home. We
Speaker 3: bring in Jared for our number two.
Speaker 1: How are you, my friend?
Speaker 2: I'm okay, how are you?
Speaker 1: It's a it is it is a Friday, and everyone
Speaker 1: is is dialed in as.
Speaker 2: We say, I mean, yeah, we got uh, we got
Speaker 2: two days of game threes coming up. Yeah, the state
Speaker 2: of Louisiana might implode.
Speaker 3: Okay, So for those that haven't heard, go ahead and
Speaker 3: tell that story, because that one's a piece of work.
Speaker 2: Okay. So, a long time ago, in a galaxy are
Speaker 2: far away, Louisiana State universities fighting tigers used to put
Speaker 2: their tiger mascot on the field before games. So the
Speaker 2: legend goes to my understanding is that if the tiger
Speaker 2: roared for every roar, it would be a touchdown for
Speaker 2: them that day. So it was like a good omen Uh.
Speaker 2: This led to them, as my understanding, antagonizing the beasts
Speaker 2: and making it roar more, trying to coax more touchdowns
Speaker 2: out of the damn animal. All this to say, they
Speaker 2: haven't put the tiger on the field in a.
Speaker 1: Long ass time, in a decade, I think, I believe.
Speaker 2: So they have a if you ever go to LSU,
Speaker 2: they have a very lovely enclosure for Mike the Tiger
Speaker 2: that he basically just lives in, just living his best
Speaker 2: life over there. That being said, the Governor of Louisiana,
Speaker 2: who has never met a controversy he does not like,
Speaker 2: has decided to to He wanted the tiger on the
Speaker 2: sideline for Alabama. LSU this week, ls you said, now
Speaker 2: we're good. They said, no, he lives there, he doesn't
Speaker 2: stay on the field. We don't do that anymore. The
Speaker 2: governor said, I want a tiger on the field and
Speaker 2: LSU said no, So he went and ordered a tiger
Speaker 2: from out of state. It's a tiger named Omar from Florida.
Speaker 2: This is just going to end poorly for everybody. Also,
Speaker 2: the person who apparently this tiger has actually like gotten
Speaker 2: out before. The tiger has a record of escaping. They're
Speaker 2: just good, but they're gonna put the damn animal on
Speaker 2: the sideline. And John, if they lose Alabama with a
Speaker 2: fake tiger on the sideadline, they might impeach the governor
Speaker 2: tomorrow morning. Oh my god, like that might be what
Speaker 2: happens Sunday morning. The governor doesn't have a job anymore, yeap,
Speaker 2: because he just decided to yolo it.
Speaker 3: And I just had this vision of the Billy Nunguess
Speaker 3: are sitting there and leading that charge. It is so
Speaker 3: literally what they're doing is they are they have gone
Speaker 3: out of state.
Speaker 1: Yep. And apparently this dude.
Speaker 3: Is like he rents out this tiger, and the governor
Speaker 3: is like, Okay, well I'm going to rent a tiger
Speaker 3: and I'm going to I wonder it's you know, it's
Speaker 3: kind of like renting a car.
Speaker 1: Literally, it's like you call the dude up.
Speaker 2: It's not quite tiger King, but it's also not not
Speaker 2: quite tiger King.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and literally the this tiger has escaped twice from
Speaker 3: his handler and his real estate.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you have this.
Speaker 3: This doesn't really bode well at all with this animal
Speaker 3: feline history of escape at a night game in Baton
Speaker 3: Rouge involving Alabama.
Speaker 2: What It's functionally an elimination game. By the way, LSU
Speaker 2: and LSU and BAMA both cannot afford to lose this
Speaker 2: game if they even want to keep their hopes of
Speaker 2: playoff berths alives. This is functionally an elimination game. Also
Speaker 2: functionally a how much does Kaitlin want to Kaylen de
Speaker 2: Bor want to have to replace the glass in his
Speaker 2: house if it gets shattered after this game, even though
Speaker 2: it's on the road. Yeah, man, like not even like
Speaker 2: the animal welfare of it all, but like because of
Speaker 2: the the superstition and pageantry that is college football. If
Speaker 2: this goes poorly, LSU fans are going to shit a
Speaker 2: chicken because somebody will have brought it out of state
Speaker 2: tiger that isn't their own tiger into their stadium and
Speaker 2: they will have all of the questions known to mankind.
Speaker 2: The Mike the Tiger Twitter account has already started sub
Speaker 2: tweeting all of this, like, I love this sport for
Speaker 2: all of the wrong reasons. This is going to get
Speaker 2: somehow dumber before it doesn't. And just to get there,
Speaker 2: we still have to again go through MLS playoffs for
Speaker 2: whatever reason.
Speaker 3: And Rich makes the point, it is a Florida Tiger,
Speaker 3: So let's bring in Jason. Uh So, you see where
Speaker 3: our conversation started. The timeline JAREDTT basically led into us
Speaker 3: about five minutes ago discussing artificial tigers in SEC football.
Speaker 1: It's a fake tiger.
Speaker 2: It's not it's not a fake tiger. It's a real tiger.
Speaker 2: But it's not Mike the Tiger that is the official
Speaker 2: mascot of LSU. It's an import from Florida.
Speaker 1: Oh that's not good. Oh it's not.
Speaker 2: Also, the Mike the Tiger Twitter account, like the Twitter
Speaker 2: account of the Tiger that I guess like one of
Speaker 2: his handlers, probably Runs, has started subtweeting everything possible about
Speaker 2: the imported tiger.
Speaker 1: Mm hm, fair enough. Yes, this has gotten exceptionally stupid.
Speaker 2: Yes, well yeah, like I told them, this is functionally
Speaker 2: an elimination game for Alabama and LSU. The loser is
Speaker 2: not going to make the playoff, so it's even funnier.
Speaker 3: Could you imagine Paul finebaumb on Monday. They don't want
Speaker 3: to that's I mean, that's where we are with this.
Speaker 3: Oh yes, Zat's Tigers.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's a real fake tiger. Again, it's not quite
Speaker 2: Tiger King, but it's also not not Tiger King.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 2: Anyway, there are there are actual soccer games, including tonight,
Speaker 2: that we should probably discuss as well. Everybody can pay
Speaker 2: attention to the tiger later.
Speaker 1: Yes that's tomorrow.
Speaker 3: So yes, so Jason, before we get into uh inner
Speaker 3: Miami and Atlanta United tonight tonight tonight. Quoting Genesis H
Speaker 3: Phil collins Brand, we have a we have a game
Speaker 3: where Vancouver as an eight seed as a plus four
Speaker 3: hundred going to LAFC in an elimination game. Uh, not
Speaker 3: that you've really spent a whole lot of time focusing
Speaker 3: on that one, considering there's one that's far more important.
Speaker 1: But thoughts on the one eight dare you three?
Speaker 2: I know Danny Sartini will find you eat your liver.
Speaker 1: Vanny Sartini will be very happy if LAFC plays the
Speaker 1: wrong lineup. And that's what this skits is gonna come
Speaker 1: down to, you know, and said it. When they signed
Speaker 1: Olivier Erude, did they need him? Did he make them
Speaker 1: better by adding to that roster? Not really, and he
Speaker 1: potentially created some very complicated situations like this one. They're
Speaker 1: better without him in the starting lineup, but they have
Speaker 1: to make the decision to leave a World Cup winner
Speaker 1: on the bench, and that's look not an easy decision
Speaker 1: to make. But when you sign these kinds of players
Speaker 1: and you're an LA Galaxy, an LAFC, an Inner Miami
Speaker 1: some other clubs in the league have done this before too,
Speaker 1: you have to have everybody on the same page and
Speaker 1: you have to figure out how the best to use
Speaker 1: that player. I think the Galaxy have figured out how
Speaker 1: to use Marco Royce very effectively. I think he was
Speaker 1: on board with it. I don't know what the situation
Speaker 1: is with LAFC, but I think it's pretty clear that
Speaker 1: this team is best with Matteos Bogush up top, and
Speaker 1: they need to do that in an elimination game, and
Speaker 1: if they don't, they're giving Vancouver an opportunity to pull
Speaker 1: an upset. I think LAFC wins. I don't think it's
Speaker 1: pretty I think it's going to be a long night
Speaker 1: in general, because even in Game one, Vancouver made it
Speaker 1: a kind of long night. The score line was a
Speaker 1: little flattering because the Vancouver goal came at the very
Speaker 1: very end. But LAFC should win this. They need to
Speaker 1: make the right choices in the lineup and if they do,
Speaker 1: they'll they'll win. If they don't, they open up the
Speaker 1: door to chaos.
Speaker 3: And we enjoy opening up doors to chaos. Jarrett, your
Speaker 3: first question for Jason here on a freestyle Friday.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And to Jason's point, LAFC did this the year
Speaker 2: they won the Cup when they brought in they brought
Speaker 2: in the golfer extraordinair.
Speaker 1: But they figured out he was the bench, didn't they
Speaker 1: They did, But it took him like two months.
Speaker 2: It took him like two months of trying to shoehorn
Speaker 2: his ass and to line up before going He needs
Speaker 2: to come off the bench and we'll win a cup
Speaker 2: than they did. And it was kind of complicated. Sorry, Rich,
Speaker 2: but they took him a lot to figure that out.
Speaker 2: That you can't do.
Speaker 5: This isn't FIFA.
Speaker 2: You can't just shoehorn players in and just expect to
Speaker 2: hit a button in it magically works. I actually want
Speaker 2: to ask you about one of the other games before
Speaker 2: we get to Atlanta is on the East Coast. We
Speaker 2: have another game three. I think someone from Charlotte deemed
Speaker 2: this operation Bugs Bunny that it is up to Atlanta
Speaker 2: and Charlotte to do the bugs Bunny jiff of sowing
Speaker 2: the state of Florida off. Charlotte has to go try
Speaker 2: and saw Orlando in Orlando. What's your thoughts on that
Speaker 2: one coming up?
Speaker 1: How did Atlanta go into Orlando and be the only
Speaker 1: team to beat them in their building in the last
Speaker 1: five or six games. They were aggressive off the jump.
Speaker 1: What has Charlotte's issue been all season under Dean Smith?
Speaker 1: They've been defensive? They have to be aggressive this Orlando team. Look,
Speaker 1: there are some similarities between Orlando and Miami. I think
Speaker 1: both teams are substandard defensively. Orlando has pretty much the
Speaker 1: same group defensively that they've had for a long time.
Speaker 1: Robin Johnson hasn't gotten younger, he didn't find the fountain
Speaker 1: of youth in Central Florida. Rodriguo Schlegel is a downgrade
Speaker 1: from Antonio Carlos and it's a team that you can
Speaker 1: get at, and Atlanta did with two goals early and
Speaker 1: it was enough. Charlotte's got to be more aggressive, and
Speaker 1: I think they've got to start Patrick Agumon and they've
Speaker 1: got to get him in behind, and it's it's doable,
Speaker 1: but you have to be brave, and I just don't
Speaker 1: know if they will. If you're not, then you need
Speaker 1: Christian Kalina to stand on his head, which he has before.
Speaker 1: I mean, it can happen. You probably will need to
Speaker 1: get through in penalties, which you can and you have,
Speaker 1: you've done it before last game. But this is an
Speaker 1: Orlando team that you can beat even in their building.
Speaker 1: They're very good. They're very good attack wise, and you
Speaker 1: have to respect that. But I think what we're seeing
Speaker 1: play out in these playoffs, and I think just the
Speaker 1: theory that I subscribe to you, when you have teams
Speaker 1: like Miami and Orlando that are tilted, they're much better
Speaker 1: offensively than they are defensively. The easy way to try
Speaker 1: to deal with that is to be defensive, to try
Speaker 1: to take away their attack, and then hope that a
Speaker 1: limited attack will beat their limited defense. I think the
Speaker 1: best way is the opposite. I think you go at them,
Speaker 1: you break them, you score goals on them, and then
Speaker 1: you put the pressure on their offense, which is very good,
Speaker 1: and you can look. You can start aggressively and if
Speaker 1: it doesn't happen in fifteen twenty thirty minutes for you
Speaker 1: and it's going to be a slog, okay, then you
Speaker 1: can bunker down for the log and you can be defensive.
Speaker 1: But I think you have to try to exploit their
Speaker 1: weakness first rather than try to take away their strength.
Speaker 1: That's the approach in my opinion. And I just don't
Speaker 1: know if Charlotte.
Speaker 3: Will do it, okay, So I'll ask about FC Cincinnati
Speaker 3: and NYC, So then Jared can start the questions with
Speaker 3: Atlanta United and Inner Miami, FC Cincinnati and NYCFC.
Speaker 1: What do you think Cincinnati should do it? I think
Speaker 1: NYC is about who they are, like when you look
Speaker 1: at where they are in the table, you look at
Speaker 1: the quality of that team, you look at what they've
Speaker 1: done this season, I think they've pretty much gotten what
Speaker 1: they should get out of that group, and even a
Speaker 1: Cincinnati group that is not as good as they were
Speaker 1: in the first half of the season before injuries affected
Speaker 1: their center back room, they still should be able to
Speaker 1: get through this NYC team. I just don't think NYC
Speaker 1: has really progressed over the past couple of years. I
Speaker 1: think Cincinnati's got enough on both sides of the ball,
Speaker 1: and they should get it done. I think they will.
Speaker 1: I think they'll advance. I think it'll be like a
Speaker 1: three to one kind of game. It's not going to
Speaker 1: be a blowout, but I think it will be a
Speaker 1: semi comfortable win for Cincinnati. All right, Jared, go for it.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna break the rules. I'm gonna ask
Speaker 2: you a question about NYC because their coach has been
Speaker 2: in the news recently with Nick Cushing. It sounds like
Speaker 2: he's going to be back at NYC. I know it's
Speaker 2: like a move that I thought he would be a
Speaker 2: guy who I did not think he would survive twenty
Speaker 2: twenty four. They stabilized, they were fine, but move to
Speaker 2: keep him and does it limit their ceiling potentially by
Speaker 2: doing so. I know that's like not really a fair question,
Speaker 2: but I'm asking you anyway.
Speaker 1: I think he's a fine coach. I don't have an
Speaker 1: issue Nick Kushing is a coach, so I don't think
Speaker 1: he limits their ceiling. I think they just need a
Speaker 1: better roster. I don't think they have a good enough
Speaker 1: roster to get into that top tier in the East.
Speaker 1: And you know, look at the right this season, that
Speaker 1: top tier has been Miami, Columbus, Cincinnati. I think Orlando
Speaker 1: is a step down. Cincinnati, you could say, is a
Speaker 1: half step behind Miami Columbus. Now Columbus, you have questions,
Speaker 1: do they keep Kucho or Nandez if they don't got
Speaker 1: to get that replacement right or you're not in that
Speaker 1: same tier. Miami's going to be a year older. Questions
Speaker 1: obviously about how that affects them, because you never know
Speaker 1: when father time reaches up and slaps you in the face.
Speaker 1: Atlanta's going to be better than they were this past year.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have a better roster, and we know that
Speaker 1: for a minut You're going to have other teams in
Speaker 1: the East that are going to be aggressive and go
Speaker 1: out and try to make their roster better. So NYC
Speaker 1: has to do that, and if they don't, I don't
Speaker 1: think it really matters who the manager is. I think
Speaker 1: Cushing is a very good manager. I think he'll get
Speaker 1: the best he can out of what he has to
Speaker 1: work with. But he's got to have more to work
Speaker 1: with to be a contender in the East in my opinion. Okay,
Speaker 1: since Jarrett went there, I'll go there and fill in
Speaker 1: the other holes. Yesterday, actually the news broke during the
Speaker 1: show for a change, Jim Curtin out in Philly, and
Speaker 1: then Bruce Arena the night before is going back into
Speaker 1: the coaching business in San Jose with multiple titles. What
Speaker 1: do you think about those two? Bruce Arena to San Jose.
Speaker 1: He'll make them better. I don't like the multiple titles thing.
Speaker 1: I think even if you are that, in reality, I
Speaker 1: don't think it's a good look because it's two full
Speaker 1: time jobs and I think it's very hard to do it.
Speaker 1: And that's why maybe Sporting Kansas City has had some
Speaker 1: limitations with Peter Vers, he's surely being the only one
Speaker 1: to do that. I think Greg Burheld is going to
Speaker 1: have these same issues in Chicago. You have to again,
Speaker 1: even if you are the ultimate decision maker, I think
Speaker 1: I would not want it to be put out there
Speaker 1: that I am the sporting director and the technical director
Speaker 1: alongside being the manager. Would I want somebody in that
Speaker 1: role that I vibe with and I can direct, absolutely,
Speaker 1: But don't put that on me. Like put that on
Speaker 1: somebody else and I'll tell them what to do behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. Like that to me, you just set yourself
Speaker 1: up for lots of criticism on two different fronts as
Speaker 1: opposed to just one. But I think Arena will make
Speaker 1: them better. He is a very competent manager. He did
Speaker 1: very well in New England before the wheels fell off.
Speaker 2: And schedule the New England game right now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean look in the season with it. I'm
Speaker 1: fine with it. I don't know what happened exactly. There's
Speaker 1: all kinds of conjecture and there's all kinds of whispers
Speaker 1: like is it somebody in Richie Williams who knew he
Speaker 1: wasn't going to come back, who found his escape hatch
Speaker 1: to stay in a role which they had a bad
Speaker 1: year renewing the revolution too, But doesn't look like he's
Speaker 1: going anywhere? Is it?
Speaker 5: That?
Speaker 1: Is it?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: Arena said things that he shouldn't have said, even if
Speaker 1: they were in private company. Is it Arena being an
Speaker 1: old man who probably is speaking out a turn for
Speaker 1: what twenty twenty four going into twenty twenty five is
Speaker 1: probably all of the above. Honestly, he's a good coach.
Speaker 1: He's going to go there and make them better. But
Speaker 1: kind of go back to the same idea, like what's
Speaker 1: the ceiling for San Jose. It's not very high because
Speaker 1: you have an ownership group that isn't really going to spend.
Speaker 1: And look, we had the same conversation about Arena going
Speaker 1: to New England. You know, remember this was the exact
Speaker 1: same conversation about well, you know, why is he going
Speaker 1: to New England? They're not going to spend? Well, they did,
Speaker 1: and I don't think he would have went there if
Speaker 1: they didn't spend. Robert Kraft opening up the checkbook is
Speaker 1: very different than San Jose's ownership group opening up the
Speaker 1: checkbook because you can actually believe that it'll happen in
Speaker 1: New England and it has. I don't see that happening
Speaker 1: to the same extent, even in the ballpark, at the
Speaker 1: same extent in San Jose. So will he make them better? Yeah.
Speaker 1: Can he get them into the playoffs? Absolutely? Do they
Speaker 1: need more talent to be a true contender? Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I don't think they go get it. And otherwise you're
Speaker 1: gonna ask your academy to develop it for you, and
Speaker 1: that's gonna take time. They have a good academy, They've
Speaker 1: developed talent. I just think they're gonna be better, but
Speaker 1: not that great. And I think ultimately it's not gonna
Speaker 1: last for Arena. And the other question because we saw
Speaker 1: it in New England. You know, he took his core
Speaker 1: guys were there to go do that job. Well, one
Speaker 1: of his core guys in some way turned his back
Speaker 1: on him. And now who are his core guys. Who's
Speaker 1: gonna go to San Jose with him, Who's gonna to
Speaker 1: help him do all the things that need to get done.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'll be really curious to see how
Speaker 1: that plays out. Jim Curtin and Philly. I was really
Speaker 1: surprised about the way that it went down. I remember saying,
Speaker 1: this is not look I've I've been outspoken about not
Speaker 1: liking the style of play and not liking some of
Speaker 1: the comments and not liking some of the ways that
Speaker 1: the team has played not style of play, some of
Speaker 1: the more cynical aspects that we've seen from Philadelphia over
Speaker 1: the years. I don't take any of that back. That's
Speaker 1: how I feel. I do think that with Jim Curtin,
Speaker 1: he was never really treated fairly by the ownership group
Speaker 1: and by the sports leadership at Philadelphia. You know, I
Speaker 1: remember being very critical of their decision when I think
Speaker 1: Ernest Tanner took over of just giving him a one
Speaker 1: year contract at that point basically a show and prove.
Speaker 1: He had shown and proved, and I thought that was
Speaker 1: really putting him through an exercise that wasn't fair, And
Speaker 1: in a way, I think it shows maybe what they
Speaker 1: thought of him all along, which again is not fair.
Speaker 1: I think in terms of the amount of talent that
Speaker 1: he was given, he punched above his weight for a while.
Speaker 1: And we're never gonna know exactly how it went down
Speaker 1: behind the scenes about bringing guys back for another year
Speaker 1: when maybe it was time to move on, trusting the
Speaker 1: young players or not trusting the young players. We're never
Speaker 1: gonna truly know exactly how that played out. But in
Speaker 1: terms of the quality of the roster and in terms
Speaker 1: of the results, Jim Curton punched above his weight for
Speaker 1: a long period of time. Some of that is down
Speaker 1: to the style. Some of that is down to a
Speaker 1: style that isn't really as reliant on star players. I'm
Speaker 1: surprised with what he did in very recent history. This
Speaker 1: year's really the first blip. I'm really surprised that they
Speaker 1: handled this the way that they did because I don't
Speaker 1: know if you're going to for what they're going to
Speaker 1: give their manager, I don't know if you're really going
Speaker 1: to get any better. So we'll see. It's another group
Speaker 1: that kind of like San Jose. You can put whoever
Speaker 1: you want in the dugout and in charge of the
Speaker 1: team on the field, but if they don't have enough
Speaker 1: weapons to work with, the ceiling's low, and you know,
Speaker 1: I don't like to see it become an arms race
Speaker 1: of who's going to spend the most, But that's how
Speaker 1: you guarantee success the easiest way. Otherwise you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to be really creative. You're gonna have to be really
Speaker 1: savvy in how you manage things with honestly less talent
Speaker 1: than the opposition you're going to be playing. So we'll see.
Speaker 1: With Philadelphia, I think he deserved better on the way out.
Speaker 1: I thought he would get the chance to walk before
Speaker 1: they would push him out, especially after essentially one year
Speaker 1: of a dip where that roster's old and probably needs
Speaker 1: to be overhauled. He's not going to be the one
Speaker 1: to do it. I don't know who is, all right, Jared,
Speaker 1: go for it, all right.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you a question while we get
Speaker 2: as we get into Atlanta and Miami finally and satisfy
Speaker 2: people's requests. Something we talked about after the game, Jason,
Speaker 2: was the change that Miami made at halftime or after
Speaker 2: halftime where they you know, Sushio Busquets wasn't available, you
Speaker 2: had a more defensive minded midfielder in the game, you
Speaker 2: took him out. Yeah, if Busquets is unable to go,
Speaker 2: how do you piece together that midfield if you're Miami,
Speaker 2: so you do not get absolutely massacred on the counter, because, yeah,
Speaker 2: Miami's going to dominate the ball almost certainly, But there
Speaker 2: are moments in any game where you cannot dominate the
Speaker 2: ball for one hundred percent of it.
Speaker 1: You don't have an answer. You flat out don't have
Speaker 1: an answer in that position with what we have really seen,
Speaker 1: because Sergio Busquets and Yonick Bright not training this morning.
Speaker 1: According to reports out of South Florida, Janick Bright is
Speaker 1: the more defensive midfielder of the rest of them, after
Speaker 1: Sergio bus Getz, Who's such an important element for that
Speaker 1: team in the way that they play, in the way
Speaker 1: that they stay organized, even though defensively he's a liability, right,
Speaker 1: not really a liability. I think he's been very good
Speaker 1: for this team. And when you have a team that
Speaker 1: is so top heavy like Miami, you got to hit
Speaker 1: on guys like Janick Bright, whether it's from the draft
Speaker 1: or from the league or what have you, and they
Speaker 1: did well. He's going to be out, according to I
Speaker 1: can't remember which player talked about it. He's not gonna play.
Speaker 1: So how do you deal with that? I don't think
Speaker 1: there's an easy answer, because you know, we haven't seen
Speaker 1: Julian Gresseol in this playoff series. You can't put him
Speaker 1: there and ask him to defend in that way. And
Speaker 1: Tota Martinez has played him as a central midfielder, but
Speaker 1: he's a liability defensively and we've seen that throughout his career.
Speaker 1: Who else can you put their David Ruiz is out,
Speaker 1: so that would be another player that you could have
Speaker 1: put there. He's not available. You're gonna have to put
Speaker 1: somebody there and ask them to do a job that
Speaker 1: they don't do. You know, can Benjamen Kramowski do that
Speaker 1: job to an extent? He can run, he can do things,
Speaker 1: but he's not a six. He's not a defensive midfielder.
Speaker 1: Do you put a Noah Allen in there? You played
Speaker 1: no Allen as the central of three center backs in
Speaker 1: the last game, which was crazy to me. It worked, Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't think Atlanta exploited it enough. But can you
Speaker 1: move him up and bring another center back into the group. Maybe.
Speaker 1: But this is where MLS rosters can bite you at
Speaker 1: various points where you have limited depth, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: have to make decisions on where that depth is limited
Speaker 1: when you construct a roster. Miami made a decision to
Speaker 1: have really three guys who can play the sill to
Speaker 1: varying degrees, and all of them might be unavailable. So
Speaker 1: how do you handle it? If you're Miami? I think
Speaker 1: you have to handle it by going out and trying
Speaker 1: to score ten goals. Yeah, I don't think you can
Speaker 1: handle it in another way. So it's gonna be fascinating
Speaker 1: because that's generally not taught to Martino's moo in these games.
Speaker 1: When you get to the stage of the season and
Speaker 1: you get to these kinds of big games, he gets
Speaker 1: more conservative than usual. I don't think he's gonna have
Speaker 1: that luxury. And if he does, look, he's gonna have
Speaker 1: to find something in someone that we haven't really seen.
Speaker 1: And I don't think it's gonna get talked about. I
Speaker 1: think he's just gonna get glossed over and you know,
Speaker 1: we'll be talking about it on the radio. Because if
Speaker 1: he plays David Martinez in that role, for example, does
Speaker 1: he have the characteristics to be able to be a six? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he does. He's never really played it. I'm
Speaker 1: sure there's some point where he played it for River
Speaker 1: or played it at Defensi Houstisia, but he's not a six.
Speaker 1: Can he be a six for a game for you
Speaker 1: because you don't have another six. That's where you're down
Speaker 1: to the experience and the qualities of tota Martino and
Speaker 1: can he find that or is his option gonna be
Speaker 1: unorthodox for him and say well, we're just gonna get
Speaker 1: hit there and we're gonna concede goals, but we can
Speaker 1: score more goals than them at home with the offensive
Speaker 1: talent we have. I don't know what his answer is
Speaker 1: going to be without Janick Brighton, Sergio Busquez, and we.
Speaker 3: Had Michael Parkhurst on in our number one, and we
Speaker 3: were discussing pressure in elimination games. And you have the
Speaker 3: younger players that are there at the Kramowsky age and
Speaker 3: the pressure that's going to be on them in this
Speaker 3: match with the older players that have been there before,
Speaker 3: Messi Suarez, Geordie al But et cetera. Mixing that with
Speaker 3: the younger players who haven't been in that situation. The pressure,
Speaker 3: the emotional pressure of not wanting to mess this up.
Speaker 3: I think that that ratchets things up also emotionally for
Speaker 3: Inner Miami, no matter how they line things up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if the younger players are gonna
Speaker 1: necessarily think about it that way. I think it's just pressure.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're worried about letting somebody down
Speaker 1: in these moments and that kind of stuff. I'm really curious.
Speaker 1: I mean, Federico Rodondo would be the other one, but
Speaker 1: you're gonna ask him to stay home a lot more
Speaker 1: and try to figure that out. But Rodondo's got to
Speaker 1: handle this moment. Diego Gomez has got to handle this moment.
Speaker 1: Tomas Abules, David Martinez have to handle this moment. And
Speaker 1: the thing about it when you really dig into how
Speaker 1: this game can flow. If Atlanta scores early, how does
Speaker 1: Miami respond? If Atlanta keeps Miami off the board for
Speaker 1: a period of time and at zero zero for a
Speaker 1: long way, how does Miami respond? How do the young
Speaker 1: players respond to the crowd getting antsy? How do the
Speaker 1: young players respond to that feeling of oh crap in
Speaker 1: the stands. I don't know. The veterans will handle it.
Speaker 1: The veterans will be fine with it, but how do
Speaker 1: those young players handle that. I think it's more of
Speaker 1: that than you know, this idea of it's not Argentina
Speaker 1: in the World Cup in twenty twenty two or Copa
Speaker 1: America in twenty twenty one, where the young players did
Speaker 1: not want to let Lionel Messi down. That's different. You're
Speaker 1: talking about a cultural icon and one of the last
Speaker 1: opportunities that they're going to have to win something. This
Speaker 1: is not that. I don't think Ben Jim and Kremowsky
Speaker 1: has that exact same feeling about Lionel Messi, he's going
Speaker 1: to be one of the closer one. Some of the
Speaker 1: other South Americans are going to have that to an extent,
Speaker 1: but it's not the same. This is more of the
Speaker 1: individual to me of how do you handle being a
Speaker 1: front running team but not being able to run out front?
Speaker 1: How does that get dealt with? And I don't know
Speaker 1: what the answer is going to be. And these are
Speaker 1: the moments where you learn a lot about individual character.
Speaker 1: And we'll see. I think we've seen from Atlanta in
Speaker 1: these moments as of late that they have risen to
Speaker 1: the idea of being that underdog and that's what they've
Speaker 1: rallied around, and they have handled those moments very well.
Speaker 1: Miami hasn't been in these moments very much as a group,
Speaker 1: and we'll see what happens with them without potentially Sergio
Speaker 1: Busquet's and Yonick Bright sounds like neither one train today.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a big ask for them to
Speaker 1: be able to go. If anybody can handle that, it's
Speaker 1: Boo gets because of his his history and his intelligence,
Speaker 1: but Kenny run because intelligence doesn't make those legs move
Speaker 1: any faster. How does Miami handle not having an ideal six.
Speaker 1: I don't know, and Atlanta has to try to exploit
Speaker 1: that if that's.
Speaker 5: The case.
Speaker 2: And shift sides to the field now because I do
Speaker 2: want to get to the flanks. Something we talked about
Speaker 2: as well is that Savola needs to might not actually
Speaker 2: have an empty sign on his tank, and the way
Speaker 2: he played and the way he moved kind of trying
Speaker 2: to stalemate Jordi Alba to where they're kind of even
Speaker 2: even if they're canceling each other out. I wanted to
Speaker 2: ask on you know, how you see that potentially playing
Speaker 2: out in a game three.
Speaker 1: Jordi Alba is the player for Miami that scares me
Speaker 1: the most. I know that's sacrilege on a team with
Speaker 1: Messi and Suarez, but if Jordi Alba went the side
Speaker 1: of the field, he's the one who can change everything
Speaker 1: because then you're getting something it's not unexpected, but it's
Speaker 1: coming from an unexpected place to tilt the game, and
Speaker 1: he tay. If that's the case, he's probably eliminating Saba
Speaker 1: from joining the attack for Atlanta. So that's the battle
Speaker 1: to me that determines the game if it's a stalemate
Speaker 1: like it was on Saturday night. In my opinion, then
Speaker 1: that opens the door, honestly for Messi and Suarez to
Speaker 1: do what they can do, but it opens the door
Speaker 1: for other Atlanta players to try to win their battles.
Speaker 1: And the opposite side is an interesting one because if
Speaker 1: if you go with the same group for Atlanta and
Speaker 1: you play Saba as a wing back, and it's Saba
Speaker 1: dealing with Jordi Alba up and down the field, Okay,
Speaker 1: the other side, you're not going to ask Pedro Amador
Speaker 1: to exactly do the same things as Saba. You're gonna
Speaker 1: ask him to do a decent bit of them. And
Speaker 1: Marcela Wagan is not Jordi Alba. So can you exploit
Speaker 1: that side more in the run of play. I think so,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have to be smart with it. Look
Speaker 1: in another issue here that is definitely flying under the
Speaker 1: radars Jay Fortune. He's banged up, he didn't train fully.
Speaker 1: Yesterday Rob Valentino talked about it and he took a
Speaker 1: knock and also a roll of the ankle in the game.
Speaker 1: Rob said it was pretty surprising that he was able
Speaker 1: to do as much as he did for as long
Speaker 1: as he did in that match, and he had a
Speaker 1: huge play on Messi late at the top of the eighteen.
Speaker 1: That was vital in Atlanta getting the opportunity to go
Speaker 1: win it to be able to do the things that
Speaker 1: you want with Saba and Amador getting forward and exploiting
Speaker 1: Miami's want to get forward from their fullbacks, You've got
Speaker 1: to have central midfielders that can run in those moments.
Speaker 1: You don't have another one like Jay Fortune on the bench,
Speaker 1: Tristan Milliam, Bob's not the same player. You're gonna then
Speaker 1: have to reconfigure your midfield a little bit. If it
Speaker 1: is Mulliam, bah McCarty and Sleish. Sleish can do it,
Speaker 1: but he's one person. He's already doing it on one side,
Speaker 1: So how do you handle that if you're Atlanta. It's
Speaker 1: a more subtle issue in the central midfield than not
Speaker 1: having a dedicated six or asking Ridondo or asking a
Speaker 1: center back to play it. But it is going to
Speaker 1: have an impact, and it's going to potentially affect how
Speaker 1: much Amador and or Saba can get forward to make
Speaker 1: that fullback from Miami have to defend more. I think
Speaker 1: it's gonna you're probably gonna have to make the trade
Speaker 1: off a little bit more. You're gonna have to deal
Speaker 1: with Alba more. I mean, look, if you're thinking about
Speaker 1: which weapon am I more afraid of, Jordi Alba over
Speaker 1: Marcella Wagan, So you're probably gonna have to have Sleish
Speaker 1: to that side of the field to help deal with
Speaker 1: that just in case. And that's what we've seen and
Speaker 1: I think that is fine. But then Amador's gonna have
Speaker 1: to adjust to Mullyambah not being able to cover as
Speaker 1: much ground as Jay Fortune and help as much and
Speaker 1: maybe stay home a little bit more at times. So
Speaker 1: it's gonna be really interesting, like those little chess matches
Speaker 1: in this game are gonna determine it. And I think
Speaker 1: it's been a fascinating series so far and it's only
Speaker 1: gonna get more fascinating in Game three. What about other injuries.
Speaker 1: I know that Steaan was back at practice yesterday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's good enough to start. I
Speaker 1: don't know. You obviously would love to have him back
Speaker 1: because I thought he has been really good down the
Speaker 1: stretch once he got healthy and got consistent games. Derek
Speaker 1: Williams has been outstanding. I thought he had his best
Speaker 1: game for Atlanta in the Game two, and that's not
Speaker 1: just because he scored. He was really well organized, really
Speaker 1: good at leading the line and stepping out when he
Speaker 1: needed to step out and closing down that space at
Speaker 1: the top of the eighteen, I thought he was great.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need that from him, and Luisa Bram has
Speaker 1: been very good in the moments we've seen him against Miami.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need that as well. I don't if if
Speaker 1: Stian can go, I think it's gonna be hard for
Speaker 1: him to go ninety. Do you want him to close it?
Speaker 1: Do you want him to start it? I don't know
Speaker 1: how deep he can go and do it. So that
Speaker 1: then potentially gives you the ability to change up your
Speaker 1: shape though, if you want to or change up how
Speaker 1: you organize it. Because with Saba as a wing back,
Speaker 1: because you've played Ronald Hernandez as a central as a
Speaker 1: center back, do you want Hernandez as a wing back
Speaker 1: to try to defend Jordi album more? Maybe not be
Speaker 1: able to get forward as much, but does that give
Speaker 1: you the ability to go to more of a five
Speaker 1: two two one uh three four three three four two one,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it. Think of al Marim
Speaker 1: and what he's done with Sporting and what he's probably
Speaker 1: gonna do with Manchester United. Do you want Saba and
Speaker 1: maranchuk as those two tens behind and tra which we
Speaker 1: would assume would start and in front of two central midfielders,
Speaker 1: or do you want three central midfielders and then have
Speaker 1: to sacrifice somebody or do you keep Hernandez in? Like again,
Speaker 1: see lots of questions. And that's the thing when you
Speaker 1: add gregorson back in, is it just straight up for
Speaker 1: a bram or does it give you the ability to
Speaker 1: move other pieces around? If it doesn't from the start,
Speaker 1: it might at some point in the game. And that's
Speaker 1: what I kind of come back to you with this
Speaker 1: one is Game two. The way that it played out,
Speaker 1: you really didn't have to make a dramatic change in
Speaker 1: the shape until the very end, and you didn't really
Speaker 1: have a clear cut option when fortune had to come off.
Speaker 1: You went aggressive with Silva and it paid off. I
Speaker 1: don't think you start wide open aggressive here, but do
Speaker 1: you have to turn to that at some point? And
Speaker 1: does it give you the ability getting Gregor's and back
Speaker 1: even with potentially losing fortune or having a limited fortune,
Speaker 1: does it give you the ability to get more of
Speaker 1: a three front or a one in front of two,
Speaker 1: which can expand to three depending on how you want
Speaker 1: it to look. Yeah, it does, but I don't know
Speaker 1: if you start that way. So to answer the questions
Speaker 1: about the lineups and the individuals, I don't know how
Speaker 1: it starts. I think Rob Valentino has been really crafty
Speaker 1: and how he's put this team together in these games.
Speaker 1: I don't think there's a guarantee that it's different than
Speaker 1: the team started against Miami in Game two, but I
Speaker 1: do think you see more evolution of how the team
Speaker 1: finishes between the start and between the final whistle. All right, Jered,
Speaker 1: go for it. What else is on your mind?
Speaker 2: I just realize we're running Jason up against the clock here,
Speaker 2: and we're making work over time to your point about
Speaker 2: not just the kids on the roster, but even the
Speaker 2: veterans on the roster, And we talk about this in
Speaker 2: all the playoff games, So why not just finish it
Speaker 2: off here? The longer this game stays scoreless or tied,
Speaker 2: you know, how do how does everybody deal with that
Speaker 2: and deal with the pressure of you know, if you're
Speaker 2: the home team, I don't you want this to go
Speaker 2: to penalties, especially with Brad Guzan deciding to I don't know,
Speaker 2: enter his avatar state in the last uh in the
Speaker 2: last month or so. But the longer it goes, you know,
Speaker 2: how do you how do how do players deal with it,
Speaker 2: not just the young players, but even the veteran players,
Speaker 2: of that pressure of we got to get something, we
Speaker 2: got to get something.
Speaker 1: I think on the Atlanta side, they'll handle it fine.
Speaker 1: They're they're not going into to play for that. They're
Speaker 1: going in to play to win. It's a ninety minute game.
Speaker 1: It might not be wild risk taking early, but they're
Speaker 1: going in to win the game. I do not think
Speaker 1: they're going in to defend and hold on. They're gonna
Speaker 1: pick their spots, they're gonna be smart about it, but
Speaker 1: they're looking for ways to win the game. For Miami. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know how they handle that. I don't know
Speaker 1: how they handle backs against the wall, struggling to score goals.
Speaker 1: I don't know I will I don't know how that
Speaker 1: fan base will handle it. I don't know how the
Speaker 1: stadium will handle it. I don't know how it will
Speaker 1: feel in the building. You guys know what a feeling
Speaker 1: of that anticipation is in a building. You know it
Speaker 1: from your roles. I know it from my role. It's
Speaker 1: different in how it affects you on the field and
Speaker 1: does it make you try to do too much? Does
Speaker 1: it make you scared? Does it make you too tentative?
Speaker 1: Does it in some For some players it makes them
Speaker 1: rise to the occasion. I don't know. With some of
Speaker 1: these guys, Messi, Suarez, Alba, They've risen to the occasion
Speaker 1: so many times in these situations and they very well could.
Speaker 1: And even if the young players around them struggle and
Speaker 1: fall apart, Messi's good enough to win this, Like that's
Speaker 1: just real talk. You have to try to take that
Speaker 1: away from him. If you try to take Suarez away
Speaker 1: in albow way, and that's three guys you got to
Speaker 1: try to take away. But all them are capable of
Speaker 1: rising to that occasion. The question is going to be
Speaker 1: is the rest of the group capable? And even if
Speaker 1: they can't rise to the occasion, can they prevent making
Speaker 1: the mistake that ends up sending shockwaves to this league?
Speaker 1: Because look, it's a it's not a question about who
Speaker 1: the league office wants to win this game. And that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean something's going to get tilted. That doesn't mean,
Speaker 1: there's going to be a bad call here and a
Speaker 1: bad call there. Those happen on their own, but everything
Speaker 1: is against Atlanta United and they know that thought. Brad
Speaker 1: Gazan's question about if there had been any punishment for
Speaker 1: Miami coming out late for the second half was very
Speaker 1: interesting because I think it gives you the mentality feeds
Speaker 1: into the FBA attitude, doesn't it. That's something that Lanta
Speaker 1: United's gonna feed on when those moments happen in the game,
Speaker 1: and they will again it happens in a normal game
Speaker 1: in May, it's gonna happen in this game too. There's
Speaker 1: gonna be a bad call, There's going to be a
Speaker 1: call that you think is a bad call. There's gonna
Speaker 1: be something that drives you crazy for Atlanta that's going
Speaker 1: to fuel them. I think, I really do so. I'm
Speaker 1: not worried about the effects of those sorts of moments.
Speaker 1: I am worried on the Miami side of how that
Speaker 1: back line defends when their offense isn't getting goals, and
Speaker 1: I don't think they handle it well. But Atlanta then
Speaker 1: has to topple them over and they have to find
Speaker 1: a way to be attacking enough and in the right
Speaker 1: spots to punish Miami. If Miami comes out with the
Speaker 1: same group and No Allen's at center back, Atlanta has
Speaker 1: to find a way to get Crosses into Jamal Tira
Speaker 1: matched up with no Allen and if then things move around.
Speaker 1: I like No Allen as a player, He's just not
Speaker 1: a center back. If Miami's able to adjust and get
Speaker 1: Martinez or Aviles matched up on tra in those moments,
Speaker 1: then Atlanta has to find the cut back to the
Speaker 1: top of the eighteen, and it's gotta be Moranchuk coming
Speaker 1: back across or one of the other central midfielders making
Speaker 1: a run in. It very well could be a Tristan
Speaker 1: Milliam Bah who I think finds those space as well.
Speaker 1: You've got to exploit that. That is where Atlanta can
Speaker 1: beat Miami. The flip side. You know how Miami can
Speaker 1: beat Atlanta. It's talent. It's sheer talent with that attacking group.
Speaker 1: It's finding that space at the top of the eighteen.
Speaker 1: Atlanta has to be so dedicated to taking that away,
Speaker 1: making Messi go wider to try to find opportunities, making
Speaker 1: Suarez drift away from the middle to go try to
Speaker 1: find opportunities, try to prevent Jordi Alba from killing you
Speaker 1: and make it be one of the other seven guys
Speaker 1: on the field. Try to take those three away as
Speaker 1: best as you can. A lot of teams have tried it,
Speaker 1: very few have done it over three games. We'll see
Speaker 1: if Atlanta can do that. But in my opinion, the
Speaker 1: other way is what we'll decide it. For Atlanta. They score,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be hard for Miami to handle that. If
Speaker 1: Atlanta can hold on for a long time. But if
Speaker 1: Atlanta gets a goal, I think Miami's going to struggle
Speaker 1: to handle that. Atlanta's gotta find ways to attack, not
Speaker 1: all the time, not with abandon but in very intelligent
Speaker 1: ways and punish this weak defensive group for Miami, and
Speaker 1: we'll see if they can do it. Broadcast plans one
Speaker 1: more time partner seven o'clock for the five Strips Countdown
Speaker 1: eight ten. Allegedly, if Miami shows up on time for
Speaker 1: the kickoff in Fort Lauderdale at Chase Stadium, we will
Speaker 1: be on Star ninety four on your radio, ninety four
Speaker 1: point one FM on the Odyssey app. Type in start
Speaker 1: ninety four not hard to find. You won't be able
Speaker 1: to listen to us on Apple. You'll have to sync
Speaker 1: that up. Not too hard, you can handle that. Make
Speaker 1: sure you're following Soccer down here on all of your platforms,
Speaker 1: because we're going to have a ton of content. Barring
Speaker 1: some late changes of things, we are sending the most
Speaker 1: media to Fort Lauderdale to cover Atlanta United, maybe some
Speaker 1: of the most media in terms of sheer numbers to
Speaker 1: cover any Atlanta United postseason match in the club's history.
Speaker 1: It doesn't happen without you guys consuming the content. It
Speaker 1: doesn't happen without all of us being borderline insane. It
Speaker 1: doesn't happen without the support that we have gotten from
Speaker 1: you guys, from people like Kaiser Permanente, from Scott Flood,
Speaker 1: you know, finding those partnerships for us. It doesn't happen
Speaker 1: without the dedication of the people that are doing all this.
Speaker 1: So there's going to be a lot of content starting
Speaker 1: in the middle of the afternoon from Fort Lauderdale, all
Speaker 1: over your Soccer down Here platforms. So hopefully you enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you are with it in spirit if you're not
Speaker 1: in Fort Lauderdale, and it is an epic kind of
Speaker 1: night in the history of this club. So I hope
Speaker 1: that all of you enjoy it wherever you.
Speaker 3: Are, all right, partner, I know the fourth held up
Speaker 3: the lightboard a long time ago.
Speaker 1: We'll see you down there in Fort Lauderdale. Audios.
Speaker 3: All right, that's Jason. Jason has to like hop on
Speaker 3: a plane and head south.
Speaker 1: Four card.
Speaker 3: Yes, there is no borderline. Yeah, we are all insane.
Speaker 3: That is absolutely true. So yeah, we're we're sending the
Speaker 3: SDH Army down to down to Fort Lauderdale. My flight lands,
Speaker 3: I think Maddie's on the same flight that I'm on,
Speaker 3: but my flight I think is either late morning or
Speaker 3: early afternoon, and get down there about two thirty and
Speaker 3: from that point, when we can get our plane phones
Speaker 3: off of airplane mode and get to normal transmitting, that's
Speaker 3: when things will start.
Speaker 1: So we'll be down there for the whole experience.
Speaker 3: And I'm still got to go and get a cover
Speaker 3: and a protector for the new phone because I got
Speaker 3: the wrong one. So I got to go to Best
Speaker 3: Buy at some point today and get something that protects
Speaker 3: the new phone because yeah, all that stuff that we
Speaker 3: went through last night, Jarrett, and trying to get a
Speaker 3: get a protective device, wrong wrong.
Speaker 1: Size, wrong model.
Speaker 2: Would you get the oh you got the nine. Did
Speaker 2: you get like a nine instead of a nine pro
Speaker 2: one nine?
Speaker 1: It's the nine pro XL. Yeah, and so literally on
Speaker 1: the on the box that is the that has.
Speaker 2: The this is pixel. He's not buying an iPhone nine.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, this is yeah, this is this
Speaker 3: is Google Pixel nine Excel pro. This is me getting
Speaker 3: into the twenty first century when it comes to phone manufacturers.
Speaker 3: I went from Motorola to Google Pixel.
Speaker 2: And so look, if you want a non bloat weird android,
Speaker 2: Pixel is a good one for that. It's not gonna
Speaker 2: have blot where it's going to have a clean copy
Speaker 2: of the Android, and you're gonna get secured updates before
Speaker 2: most other people do, so you'll be fine.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so yes, in theory, So I go to best
Speaker 3: Buy last night and I'm trying to find it. Literally,
Speaker 3: I'm carrying my case that has the name of my
Speaker 3: phone with me. So I'm not getting like the wrong
Speaker 3: because Pixel nine versus Pixel nine XL and pro and
Speaker 3: all these different things. Literally to the letter. I wanted
Speaker 3: to know what I had.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they over complicated it this year with their new
Speaker 2: release and yeah, like a new model.
Speaker 3: And so I go into best Buy with the information
Speaker 3: that was on the box that had my new phone
Speaker 3: that I pulled said new phone out of and have
Speaker 3: been wandering around the house with and still got the
Speaker 3: wrong carry case because it did not have the charging
Speaker 3: It did not have the charge.
Speaker 1: Port on the underside.
Speaker 3: Even though it said it was the right box and
Speaker 3: the right model, it did not have the charger entry
Speaker 3: point on the casing. So I I have to go
Speaker 3: back to Best Buy, exchange the case and start all
Speaker 3: over again.
Speaker 1: So yay me.
Speaker 3: So I got to do that before Tonight's Carver Atlanta
Speaker 3: Hatepril Charter game on GPBA, and it's going to be
Speaker 3: a street fight. Yeah, and we'll be at Banneker at
Speaker 3: seven point thirty seven region titles still to be decided tonight.
Speaker 3: There's fifty one games in the state, about twenty five
Speaker 3: percent of the schedule, and this is all of the
Speaker 3: Hurricane Helene pushback that was postponed and eradicated bye weeks
Speaker 3: and things like that, and so yeah, so I've got
Speaker 3: to go there before I go to Bannaker, before I
Speaker 3: hop on a plane tomorrow and we all head down
Speaker 3: to Fort Lauderdale to get you ready for match Day
Speaker 3: three involving Atlanta United and Messian Friends at the Erector set.
Speaker 3: So we have we mentioned MLS bet Noods, FC, Cincinnati's
Speaker 3: and minus one eighteen Purple Teams of minus one nineteen,
Speaker 3: and they've upgraded Messian Friends to minus two fifty six
Speaker 3: at Landy United by the way to win in ninety
Speaker 3: minutes a plus five nine zero.
Speaker 1: Sure, why not? You got some? You got some extra
Speaker 1: juice boxes? You sit there now?
Speaker 2: How much sure Halloween candy? You can throw a hundred
Speaker 2: grand bar on.
Speaker 3: That, absolutely absolutely true USL Championship. You're down to the
Speaker 3: final eight out West Colorado Springs of minus one ninety
Speaker 3: two hosting Orange County lou City of minus one forty
Speaker 3: seven hosting Michael Parkhurst and his Rhode Island FC at
Speaker 3: a plus three zho nine, New Mexico on the plus
Speaker 3: side against Vegas in the one four in the in
Speaker 3: that in that matchup plus one nineteen, Vegas of plus
Speaker 3: one ninety two. Charleston and Tampa Bay at Patriots Point
Speaker 3: on on Sunday. Charleston's minus one thirty two Tampa Bay
Speaker 3: on the road is a plus two eighty five. So
Speaker 3: you've got uh, you've got that there. USO League One.
Speaker 3: They're down to the final four, Union Omaha and Greenville
Speaker 3: on the left hand side, Union Omaha minus one eighteen.
Speaker 3: Greenville's a plus two sixty seven. Spoke Can the seventh
Speaker 3: seed that got the upset in the opening round knockt
Speaker 3: off Northern Colorado at four rivers Spokane on the road
Speaker 3: at Ford Madison is a plus four to twenty five.
Speaker 3: Ford Madison is a minus one seventy nine. Ninety Minute
Speaker 3: Draw is a plus two to ninety two. The MLS
Speaker 3: Next Pro Cup And if you missed the interview with
Speaker 3: Matt Denny the GM at North Texas SC that is
Speaker 3: on the network, North Texas favored. It's at Toyota. It
Speaker 3: is not at Chalktaw. If you go to Chalktaw you'll
Speaker 3: be the only person there. It's at Toyota, North Texas
Speaker 3: s C A plus one to eight. Hosting Philadelphia Union two,
Speaker 3: who is at a plus two twelve.
Speaker 2: So that real fun story out of Philly two, well
Speaker 2: not fun, but really inspiring story out of Philly with
Speaker 2: the tragedy that fulfilled that club for them to make
Speaker 2: this run.
Speaker 3: Yes, Orlando, it is a minus three seventy in the
Speaker 3: NWSL taking on Chicago Red Stars only for the rest
Speaker 3: of this season. Red Stars tonight or a plus eight
Speaker 3: twenty seven. Orlando with the incredible run they had this year,
Speaker 3: They're a minus three seventy Tomorrow at noon on Big CBS,
Speaker 3: Kansas City Current at home of minus two thirteen hosting Courage,
Speaker 3: who are a plus four seventy one. Trying to see
Speaker 3: if there are any other leagues that I might have
Speaker 3: missed while I was bouncing around looking at juice boxes.
Speaker 1: USL Super League.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow Carolina Santa minus one sixty nine hosting Spokane Zephyr
Speaker 3: and Dallas Trinity, and minus one twenty eight at Lexington,
Speaker 3: who is a plus two to seventy two. On Sunday,
Speaker 3: Fort Lauderdale's a plus one fifty hosting Tampa Bay Sun,
Speaker 3: who's a plus one sixty two. I think short of
Speaker 3: the Premier League, that's all the news that's fit to print.
Speaker 3: What else is on your mind before we get out
Speaker 3: of here.
Speaker 2: That's pretty much it. Yeah, it starts tonight at eleven
Speaker 2: o'clock because MLS doesn't believe in reasonably timed games for
Speaker 2: the East Coast. Yea god, let's have some. Let's have
Speaker 2: some playoff chaos. Let's knock out some one seeds and
Speaker 2: let's get weird with this. That requires Atlanta to do
Speaker 2: their job, and it's going to be tough for them.
Speaker 2: But you know, they've they've been playing against It's funny
Speaker 2: they've been playing against They've been playing against the Grain
Speaker 2: for the last month. And it's a club who for
Speaker 2: most of their history has gone in as kind of
Speaker 2: the favorites and the darlings. And now they've they've had
Speaker 2: the shoe put on the other foot and they've embraced it.
Speaker 2: I don't know how long that lasts. Like going into
Speaker 2: next year, that roster, by all accounts, should be turned
Speaker 2: over with more talent and be a favorite. So with
Speaker 2: you becoming a favorite next year, this might be your
Speaker 2: last chance to be able to play this card. But
Speaker 2: you still got to play not completely reckless, but you know,
Speaker 2: loose and kind of care free about it. Of you know,
Speaker 2: we this is on you to lose, Miami, like we're
Speaker 2: going to try and take it. You got to Atlanta
Speaker 2: gets to go try and win this game. Miami gets
Speaker 2: to go try and not lose it. It It kind
Speaker 2: of has that feel of what could have happened in
Speaker 2: the World Series if the Yankees knew how to field
Speaker 2: a fly ball or a ground ball or And I'm
Speaker 2: still not mad at Anthony Rizzo as much as I
Speaker 2: am as much as I am Garrett Cole for not
Speaker 2: covering first base. Everybody mad at everybody who was strictly
Speaker 2: mad at Anthony Rizzo never had to do pitching fielding practice.
Speaker 2: And it shows so much because if you had, you'd
Speaker 2: know the pitcher sprinting to the line like that he
Speaker 2: needed to get his ass up the line to cover
Speaker 2: the bag and at least make himself an option. But
Speaker 2: what you could have had is a situation where you
Speaker 2: go back to LA and you put all the pressure
Speaker 2: on that, where it becomes a LA has to just
Speaker 2: try not to lose. Well, right now, it feels like
Speaker 2: Miami has to try not to lose this series.
Speaker 1: Yep?
Speaker 2: Can they do that? We'll find out together, all right?
Speaker 3: You know how we've been keeping an eye with Michelle
Speaker 3: Kaufman and her two hundred and eighty character app what
Speaker 3: happened training update, per Tozzo, Martino, Bousquets, Bright and Ruiz
Speaker 3: all out. Busquet's a contusion the first playoff game led
Speaker 3: to pneumonia like issues his return timetable is unknown. Johnick
Speaker 3: Bright might be back next week if they advance. So
Speaker 3: no Busketts, no Bright, no Ruiz for this matchup.
Speaker 2: Okay, well.
Speaker 3: Look everybody, yes, so that is the that's your update
Speaker 3: before we get out of here. Like I said, well,
Speaker 3: I'll be down there in Fort Lauderdale. It all out
Speaker 3: for you. So that's your inner Miami update. Let's see
Speaker 3: who the six is, Let's see who the back line
Speaker 3: is as it Landy United makes their way down south.
Speaker 3: So Jared, you know, it's that time on a Friday,
Speaker 3: so that means, uh, we got to say goodbye, but
Speaker 3: we got to say goodbye in a particular manner safe.
Speaker 3: Everybody will see you from Fort Lauderdale. It's uh, it
Speaker 3: is that day of the week, so we got to
Speaker 3: go this way, see you later and maybe if I, oh,
Speaker 3: I don't know, that's great. You know, you sit there
Speaker 3: and you tease up everything and you forget to move
Speaker 3: the volume up. Good job by me. Way to go, Nelson,
Speaker 3: all these teases and you screw that damn thing up.
Speaker 3: So let's try that again. Let's see if it recycled itself.
Speaker 3: I doubt that it did, but once again, we'll see
Speaker 3: it from Fort Lauderdale. We'll see you here on the cheese.
Speaker 2: Stick it into our fingers.
Speaker 4: Equipment, questions, papers sent electric shocks just through our body,
Speaker 4: like a cattle prod out in the warehouse. The trucks
Speaker 4: kept banging into the docks, not even thinking about stopping.
Speaker 4: Our frail bodies were strapped to the chairs.
Speaker 1: And our chairs were chained to the desks.
Speaker 4: Our please for justice were ignored, and the end seemed near.
Speaker 4: But we busted our save drivers, little bitty balls we've
Speaker 4: judged high. Their breakftress the streets.
Speaker 2: Our hearsty guys.
Speaker 4: Yes, Friday, Fridayday, Fay Day, you didn't