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Seattle Sounders vs. FC Dallas | MLS Matchday 9 PREVIEW w/ Sam Hale!
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It's time for an edition of Under the Lights where we'll bring back special guest Sam Hale to preview the Seattle Sounders upcoming MLS regular-season match vs. FC Dallas at Lumen Field on Saturday! Sam is a veteran of the FC Dallas beat, working as executive producer of the FC Dallas Radio Network and writing for Toros Talk. We'll get the latest on the status of Seattle's upcoming opposition, who are looking like a postseason contender in their second year under head coach Eric Quill, and also boast one of the best No. 9s in Major League Soccer in Croatian international Petar Musa.
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Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Transcript
Introduction and Series Information
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or LobbingScorchers.com slash YouTube.
00:00:22
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Why the scorcher today? Well it's gonna be scorcher.
00:00:44
Speaker
Good evening, everybody, and welcome to a special Tuesday edition of Under the Lights.
Match Preview: Seattle Sounders vs FC Dallas
00:00:50
Speaker
The Seattle Sounders play FC Dallas in MLS Match Day 9 at Lumen Field on Saturday. So you already know what that means. We are going to bring on Sam Hale of the FC Dallas Radio Network and ToroStock.com to give us the scoop on Seattle's upcoming opposition. Tell us everything that's going on with FC Dallas ahead of this matchup. A friend of the pod, Sam Hale. We've been on a couple times before, and we're about to bring him on to talk some FC Dallas in just a couple minutes. Before we do that, I have a couple things to plug. I'll make it quick, and then we'll get right into it. But i got a couple things to plug. Number one, our Spokane vlog.
00:01:26
Speaker
is out now. It dropped earlier today. Our little mini doc chronicling our big trip to Spokane for that match came out really well. I'm happy about it. Shout out to our video guy, Logan boy Boyd, for doing all the editing on that. And it's awesome. So if you have not peeped that yet, go ahead and check that out after this show,
QED Coffee Sponsorship
00:01:45
Speaker
though.
00:01:45
Speaker
ah Also, Please, if you have not done so yet, consider giving a subscription to QED coffee. You can do so at lobbying scorchers.com slash coffee or QED coffee.com slash lobbying scorchers. That is of course our new title sponsor for lobbying sport scorchers kickoff. So any and all support that you can throw, those guys would be much appreciated. It's a great way to support the show, but, uh,
00:02:08
Speaker
All right, guys, we haven't done one of these under the lights in a while, so let's get into it. If you got questions as the night goes along here, go ahead and drop them in chat. if you got a question for Sam, go ahead and drop it in and chat
Sam Hale on FC Dallas (Q&A)
00:02:20
Speaker
as well. And if it's not stupid, i I'll ask it to him. But ah let's without further ado, let's get him on stage right now. We have got friend of the pod. It's Sam Hale of the FC Dallas Radio Network and Toros Talk dot com. Sam, thank you so much for tapping back in. I believe this is appearance number three for you on Lobbing Scorchers. So thanks for hopping back on. How are you doing?
00:02:41
Speaker
yeah I'm doing great. yeah This is appearance number three. We usually do twice a year, so I'm excited to keep that tradition going. And I resent that we can't have stupid questions on this show as well. I'll take smart questions. I'll take stupid questions. If it's a question, I'll put it. Now, if you ask a stupid question, I can't guarantee the answer going get, but i will I will take all questions. We we are not afraid. We are not politicians here. No, it's a good point. It it depends how stupid. All right. Like if it on the stupidity scale, if it's too stupid, then i'm going to disregard it. But just a regular level of stupid will will rock with it. I feel that you got my discretion is not very strong.
00:03:17
Speaker
ah Sam, let's talk about some FC Dallas.
FC Dallas: Last Season Review and Current Outlook
00:03:20
Speaker
First time these squads are playing this year. I'm looking forward to it. Obviously, two Western Conference rivals that have a lot of history. And these were some pretty good games last year. So what I want to do is i want to stick with tradition tradition and do what I always do when I have guests who cover the opposing team on the show, which is I'm going to give you the outsider's perspective on your club, in this case, FC Dallas, and And then you're going to tell me if that outsider neutral perspective is right or wrong, or if you have any additions, subtractions or amendments to it. But I'll start with, ah okay, FC Dallas last year, year one under Eric Quill.
00:04:01
Speaker
and it started with some promise. Lucho Acosta got there, and there was a lot of excitement about what he could do with Pete Armusa, and it seemed like it was going kind of well at the start of the year, but then there was Lucho Gate 2025, the Lucho Acosta era at FC Dallas. it was it was fast, it was furious, it was short-lived, and it did not end how I think everyone at FC Dallas hoped it would end, but anyway, Lucho Acosta out of the picture, and then it kind of felt like Uh, it was a team that was a playoff team, but probably not a true contender ends up finishing seventh in the West. So this year you're two under Eric Quill. It was all about, let's take a step forward. I think he had to show that there was progress, uh, this year from last year, not, he wasn't on the hot seat after last year or anything, but it's kind of ah a bit of a prove it year in your second year, you got to show a step forward. And so, so far this season, I think that there has been a step forward shown, ah You know, the results have been pretty good. They're, I guess, a little erratic on the results, but the performance has have been pretty good. And there's been a few of these games with three or four goals. The offense looks really good. And Pete Tarmusa, who we're going to talk about, looks like the best number nine in MLS. And he's kind of, I feel like him at the center of it is kind of, there's a feeling that this could be an actual meaningful step forward from fringe playoff team to hopefully genuine contender at FC Dallas. And what we're going to find out over the rest of the season here is if that's the case, would you say that is a roughly accurate depiction of where things stand or would you change anything with that?
00:05:37
Speaker
I think you're like 90 percent on on the ball there. So I think the way that I describe it to people who ask, and I talked about this on our postgame show a couple of weeks ago, was that this is kind of what we're we're in the middle of what I think looks like a three year project for Dallas.
00:05:52
Speaker
where last year Eric Crowe comes in year one and he's trying to get baseline proof of concept. He is trying to find out what do I have in players? Who can I trust? How do I want to play? Like he's basically trying to, i don't like to use the rebuild word, but he's kind of rebuilding the club from the Nico Estevez era where it it really didn't have ah a true form identity. And at the very end, it kind of lacked a little bit of a defined talent profile as well.
00:06:18
Speaker
So he comes in year one and he's all about establishing a culture, a mentality, a play style that centers around effort, that centers around you know fighting for the badge, all the stuff that supporters love to hear.
00:06:31
Speaker
And Lucho, as you mentioned, it didn't go like any of us hoped. And once he departed, that's when the club really seemed to pick up steam. you know, the last 10 games of the season, they looked like the team that Quill wanted them to play like.
00:06:44
Speaker
And as an as an example of that, we came into 2026.
00:06:50
Speaker
I think 2025 Dallas was an average team. An average in the Western Conference on any given year puts you about 7 to 11. And Dallas was able to ride a hot streak up to 7. Obviously, Vancouver was a machine last year, so Dallas running into them in the playoffs.
00:07:04
Speaker
yeah it was what it what It was what it was. It wasn't a huge surprise that Dallas goes down in two. So you come to this year and you want to see good because you want to see year two under Quill. You want to see some starters get established. You want see some players get established.
00:07:20
Speaker
And you want to see, yeah, let's see, can we work our way up to sixth, to fifth? If you can poke into fourth, that's even better. But especially with how good the West is is this year and some unexpected you know gate crashers to this party,
00:07:34
Speaker
I'd be content with fifth, and you still have you still don't have home field advantage. And I think that's right around where Quill has this team right this second. Are there some problems? Yeah, we can dig into them. But I think this is a team that is good, not great, as we stand here today on April 21st.
Current Season Analysis: FC Dallas' Performance
00:07:51
Speaker
They are, to me, a playoff team without question, which was not the case last year. They were a fringe playoff team. And I think that as we get to next year is the year that I would fully expect them to take that leap forward from playoff team fringe contender to contender if they're going to do it. I think this is the year where they come in and maybe they can catch someone if the injuries break right, if the if the weather breaks right. If the horseshoe falls right, all those little luck those little odd things the MLS break right.
00:08:22
Speaker
But I think this is a a capital G good team. They're not a great team yet. They're getting there. They're going to need some things to get to to add talent-wise, roster-wise to get there. But I think they are a capital G good team. And if they do anything but make one through somewhere in one through seven of the playoffs, I think it will be a disappointment.
00:08:41
Speaker
What happened with Lucho Acosta?
Lucho Acosta's Tenure with FC Dallas
00:08:43
Speaker
It seemed like such a good idea. Like when the deal was made, he comes in and it seems like he's the centerpiece number 10 that you need to put with Pete Tarmusa. And then it just went off the rails at some point, it seems like. And he was acting like a malcontent. He kind of forced his way out. It was one of those situations.
00:09:01
Speaker
But I remember the first time that ah you and I talked before the first... Sounders FC Dallas game last year the vibes were pretty good everyone was like all right Lucho's coming in the team seems to he seems to be integrating he's accepted and it's ready to roll what fell apart with that was that just kind of him being a malcontent or was there anything more you can tell us as far as ah that whole situation So the Lucho conversation is a complicated one. And I think one of the things that the the coverage at large of it has missed is that there were layers to it.
00:09:32
Speaker
um And I don't like to criticize players too terribly often because I think you know they're the ones working their bodies to the bone. And I don't think Lucho ever, quote unquote, didn't fit in with the team. Every time I saw him at training, every time I would talk to players,
00:09:47
Speaker
I think they understood that he was he himself was doing what he thought was necessary. He was he was never he didn't miss training. he was always one of the first guys out. He always worked hard during those those efforts.
00:09:59
Speaker
People never complained to me, either either on or off record, about Lucho Acosta as a player. i think one of the issues is, and I think the biggest issue was, he just is not the same guy he was when he was winning MVPs a couple years ago.
00:10:12
Speaker
That he has slowed down just just enough And as a result, he just wasn't quite the guy that was helping Cincinnati get as far as they were. The other problem is, and this is something that I think you can see reflected in the current FC Dallas transfer plans,
00:10:30
Speaker
I think Lucho may have sold them a little bit of a bill of goods to get down to Dallas. That's what I was kind of thinking. Yeah. like Because Eric Quill's system, and you can see it whenever they play, go back to last year, watch this year.
00:10:42
Speaker
He wants everybody on the ball. he wants He wants pressing from his tens. He wants pressing from everyone in the front three, really, but specifically his tens. He wants high effort defense. He wants everybody behind the ball when when when things are going bad. He wants to play in transition.
00:10:58
Speaker
And Lucho just was not that guy. No. He was more of a traditional 10 that wanted to linger up towards the box. He wasn't going to press much. And by the way, I don't have anything necessarily against that as ah as a base concept, but it was never going to fit on an Eric Quill team.
00:11:14
Speaker
So when he ends up going to Fluminense for roughly $4 to $5 million, dollars we don't know the exact total, Dallas essentially made their money back on the transfer. It was a relief, I think, but not because he was a bad guy, not because I think people were mad at him, although there was the one situation where he and Pedrinho may or may not have been caught out in L.A. on a road trip. That you know that was never confirmed to anybody, but I can watch when players don't get played when they should be in 2 plus 2 equals 4.
00:11:46
Speaker
But he was never like regarded, I never got reports like he's a bad guy or anything. No, it just wasn't working and he wasn't playing. I think once he left, that took a lot of burden off a team that was working very hard, but just knew that part of it wasn't working through really nobody's fault except just pure fit.
00:12:03
Speaker
And if you look at his time in Fluminense, Lucho hasn't been great either. Like he hasn't been the Lucio Acosta of Cincinnati down in Brazil either. Although if I'm not mistaken, he got injured last week. So he's going to be out for, I think, the next month or so.
00:12:17
Speaker
it just it just didn't work out. And I would i think Andre Zanotto would do it again if you went back in time because that's just such an opportunity that if it hits, it hits.
00:12:29
Speaker
It's kind of like hitting on 13 in blackjack. Do you need to do it? Yeah, probably. Are there times where it's going to end up going badly for you? Yes. Yes, it probably will.
00:12:39
Speaker
And this is one of those times where instead of hitting an eight and going to 21, he hit a jack and hit 23 and it went bust and it cost him half their season. But... You know, it's it's one of those things that just kind of happens
Tactical Evolution Under Eric Quill
00:12:50
Speaker
at MLS. I mean, and, you know, the wild thing is it's not even the worst transfer of that cycle. I mean, you look at some of the players in, like, Atlanta signed specifically.
00:12:59
Speaker
i mean, Emmanuel Latte-Lac cost, what, $22 million? dollars And he's been terrible. So I think, you know, He's got to be the biggest bust in league history at this point. $22 million for the league record for, i think he has seven goals. i am I have a long-time morbid fascination with Atlanta United and their, know,
00:13:17
Speaker
and their downfall. I probably follow Atlanta United closer than a lot of Atlanta United fans at that point. So I've tracked like their, ah their $30 million. dollars It was Miguel Almiro, Latte Loth and Marin Chuck.
00:13:30
Speaker
That is a tough andtro situation. So yeah, I mean, that is certainly worse. It was funny listening to you kind of describe what Eric Quill wants in his number tens and his attackers, ah you know, with the, ah with the pressing and the two way skillset and the work rate. That is not really Lucho Acosta. no That's not his thing.
00:13:48
Speaker
No, never was. He, the man, could stand there and dish some incredible dimes, score some incredible goals, but a high-pressing merchant, he is not. So it really, it did seem like an addition by some subtraction situation because after Lucho left, the team played a lot better. Is is that that about right? It's 100% accurate. It felt, it really felt like, and I can even attest, the first training that I went to after Lucho was officially transferred,
00:14:16
Speaker
The team just felt lighter, for lack of a better term. And and again, I don't think it's because they hated Lucho or anything like that. I would never say that because I don't believe it to be true. I think it's literally because they realized, okay, now we can really get to doing what we need to do as a group.
00:14:32
Speaker
Nico Estevez once told me, i think this was in either 2022 2023, one of the better years, He goes, I would rather have all my players doing the wrong thing than half my players doing the right thing and half my players doing the wrong thing. Because he his belief was in soccer that everyone pulling in the right direction was so important. Even if they were doing bad things, if you did bad things together, it was better for the team than half the team doing one thing and half the team doing another.
00:14:59
Speaker
Well, in those games where Lucho played, most of the team was doing one thing. And Lucha was doing his own thing, you tactically and stylistically. And you can see that it didn't work. You take him out and you start to move the pieces around.
00:15:12
Speaker
And suddenly when everyone's pulling on the right rope in the right direction, It wasn't MLS quality, you know, MLS cup quality yet, but it was much, much better. And I think that's what people were really feeling.
00:15:23
Speaker
And that's what really people were starting to understand could happen. And then once they started kind of getting on that win streak, they started getting on that point streak, that imbued belief that made people think, okay, this can work.
00:15:35
Speaker
And that's carried over to 26, where I think there is an inherent belief and they're just still trying to figure out the exact pieces and play on how to do it. It's funny how that type of thing can work sometimes. you know With Lucho Acosta, you have a guy who's a superstar level talent, an MVP type player. You would never think that you would be in a situation where moving off of him when they did could actually improve the team, but that's what happened. And, you know, to go back to the Atlanta example, one thing that I don't get watching them over the last two seasons is first Ronnie Dyla and now Tata Martino. They refuse to bench any of these underperforming DPs because I think they feel like they have to get them on the field because they spend so much money on them. But I'm sitting here like, guys, you need to like tinker with that. Just bring one of them off. Try something different. Like playing them every single week, all three of them together when they clearly don't fit together, isn't going to work. I swear like they could benefit from an addition by sub subtraction type situation with their DPs and probably get a little bit better results or at least improve the vibes. Like you're saying, like, I totally believe like ah moving off a player in a situation like that can just boost morale on the training ground and in the locker room. And it sounds like that's kind of exactly what took place at FC Dallas last year.
00:16:52
Speaker
Eric Quill said in his opening press conference, he only wants guys that want to fight for their space on the grass. And he also said, if you're not fighting for it, you basically you won't play. That's a paraphrase of his. So he wants guys that are to come out every single week in training, every single day in training and earn their spot.
00:17:09
Speaker
And save for like two guys i that I can think of that are just basically undroppable right this minute. I have seen him move guys around. I've seen him bench guys because he didn't think they were either the right fit for the style of the opponent, or he just didn't think they were performing well enough. Like to him, there are no real sacred cows outside of your MVP candidate.
00:17:29
Speaker
And even then I, I fully believe, and while he has not done it, and i don't anticipate it'll ever happen. If he thought he needed to bench Petter Moussa, he would do it. He would take hell for it. But I believe if he thought that was the right thing for the team to do, he would do it. So I'm not, you know, I give full credit to Quinn on that. He is 10 toes down with how he does things.
00:17:49
Speaker
and And he is not afraid to take some heat for it either because he he sticks by his convictions and his belief in how he wants the team to play and how he wants to watch the game. And even when I disagree with him, you know, as as a fan, as a commentator, as ah as a whatever you want to call me,
00:18:04
Speaker
I still believe that, like, I appreciate that he is willing to do what he thinks is best for him and what he thinks is best for the team. and And he's not worried about anything else. He wants the results. He wants to win. And that's the thing that matters the most to him. I love that about him.
00:18:19
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes that's what good
Coaching Strategies: Seattle Sounders vs FC Dallas
00:18:21
Speaker
coaching is. You know, Brian Schmetzer was in a kind of similar situation a couple years ago with Raul Rui Diaz, who was a phenomenal DP for Seattle for years, one of the best, if not the best, pure goal scorers in the history of the club. ah But by the end of his tenure here, it wasn't really working on the field. And in his final year on the team, Brian Schmetzer did bench him and gave more minutes to Paul Rothrock. And Rui Diaz was sort of like this super sub his last year on the team, which was weird, but it was what had to happen. And it made the team way better and like kind of it.
00:18:53
Speaker
seeing that situation and then seeing uh stuff like this lucho situation you can kind of tell who the good coaches are who knows what they're doing when they're throwing a situation where you have to make a tough decision do you actually make it or are you going to keep banging your head against the wall a lot of these guys just keep banging their head against the the wall even when they don't really have to and if they stop doing that maybe they could get better results but uh All right, let's hit ah let's hit a couple of these super chats here. Thank you guys for sending these in. Chicken8boy, appreciate the five. He says, keep this going.
00:19:23
Speaker
Glad you guys are happy that Under the Lights is back. Going to try to do these as much as I can this year. It's probably not going to be a weekly thing this season with our other pod schedule and all that, but I'm going do my best, guys. I'm happy that you are tuned in and glad to see you back.
FC Dallas' Defensive Analysis
00:19:38
Speaker
Zippy Tuna, I think this one's for you, Sam. i think This was kind of getting at what my next topic was gonna be, so this is perfect. Zippy Tuna is saying, my impression is the defense for fda isn't there for Dallas, but the wingers, Harrington, Musa, are dragging the team forward. What's the plan on defense? Yeah, like I kind of had a similar thought. like It seems like the offense is you know maybe a little inconsistent to start the season, but with a really high ceiling, especially with Musa and Farrington, like Zippy Tuna mentions.
00:20:06
Speaker
But perhaps the question mark is on the defensive side of the ball. Do you think that's accurate? And where do you think things stand defensively for this team? Is that something that's holding FC Dallas back? Or have you liked what you've seen on that side of the ball so far?
00:20:20
Speaker
So I would say that the numbers for Dallas defensively are a little bit misleading, having watched every game at least once, if not two or three times. Because I think you're seeing some high goal totals. of The Houston game comes to mind. The San Diego game comes to mind. Even this past week against the Galaxy, you can see two.
00:20:39
Speaker
And you're so I think people are saying, oh there's a lot of goals going in, so the defense must be bad. And I don't necessarily agree with that. I think if you look if you go back and watch a couple of those goals, A lot of them are just either one of two things. One, they're just flat-out mistakes, where in the case of Houston, Michael Collodi rolls the ball out the one way. It goes straight to Guillerme, the new striker for Houston, and he puts it right back into the net because there is nobody there to defend. It is literally one-on-one, and he gets the best of it. Well, that's not a defensive breakdown. That's a literal mental mistake, and even Collodi admitted to that in postgame. And then you'll you'll get these weird breaks. It was against it was get San Diego, two straight penalties within about 10 minutes.
00:21:20
Speaker
One of them was a penalty. One of them was not, in my opinion. So you start to see these, you start to kind of chip away at the actual context of the goals. And I don't think the defense has been that bad. Yeah.
00:21:32
Speaker
Is the offense the better part of the team right this minute? Yeah. I mean, when you have when you have the golden boot leader in Petter Moussa and Logan Farrington has got four and five goals, he's got a couple of assists, yeah, it's fair to say that the offense is the best part of the team. But I don't think it's it's at all just fair to say that the defense isn't there.
00:21:53
Speaker
Is it elite yet? No, and that's partially because ah left-wing back Bernie Kamungo went out a couple weeks ago with injury. He's got a little bit of a muscle injury that's going keep him out. So Dallas is trying to figure out what to do at left wing back right now.
00:22:06
Speaker
Herman Johansson, the new right wing back that's come in, has missed a couple games because he was with Sweden on international duty. with They qualified for the World Cup. and And by the way, Sweden's base camp will be Frisco, so he'll get to stay home for his World Cup experience when they go travel.
00:22:22
Speaker
But i think I think they've got Osazi Urgide, who, in my opinion, is the best center back in MLS. Just nobody knows about him, unfortunately. Nolan Norris is getting more and more starts. He's a much more offensively-minded guy than they had last year when they were playing like Lalas and Bubakar regularly. And you've also got Sebastian Biaga at 34. might be having one of his best seasons in MLS at 34 years old.
00:22:46
Speaker
I'm not sure if that's due to the fact that he recently had his first child. ah Dallas has this weird thing where players that have their first kid tend to have better performances in the short term. Paul Arreola had this when his daughter Seven was born. i remember talking to him about that coming out of the offseason, and he was having some good form before the injuries took over.
00:23:06
Speaker
But he like that back line of Nolan, Osase, and Ibiaga has kind of become their best three, and then Shaq Moore can slide in and deputize wherever they need. He's been good this year. So, no, i don't think I don't think the defensive plan is bad at all, especially when they get into that back five and they drop the wingbacks down.
00:23:24
Speaker
um i don't I don't think they're doing poorly at all. It's not maybe exactly where we want to be on set-piece defense. They've let in a couple of really bad set-piece goals this year. And I know Drew Keyshawn, who runs defensive set-pieces for Dallas, has been working them on the training ground trying to resolve that.
00:23:40
Speaker
But i I think the defense, you you see – The goal totals and maybe the highlights, I just don't think it really lends credence to the full-on situation that Dallas is dealing with. Is it world beater? No, it's it's not world beater, but it's more than good enough, I think, for what they're scoring.
00:23:58
Speaker
What's the status of Kamungo? Is he going to be able to play tomorrow or against Seattle or is he still a little ways out? He will be. he I've heard it's at least a month on him. He's got some sort of lower leg muscle injury.
00:24:10
Speaker
There is a chance it could keep him out until the World Cup break. I think Dallas is trying to be very careful with it because, you know, he is a young player. They have a lot of invested in him and they don't want to rush him back.
00:24:21
Speaker
So I don't, you know, it's kind of one of those things, it's a muscle injury. It could get better in a couple of weeks. It could get worse. Like we've got, and Dallas kind of has a bad record with, with not knowing about injuries. I mean, we can talk about Paxton Pomichal's injury, Giamatti J. Seuss's injury. Like they've had some really bad luck lately with, with injuries, even when things go right. So I think they're being very cautious because they see Bernie is an important piece in the team going forward.
00:24:48
Speaker
So how do you feel about left back for this Seattle game? Who's going to play it? and do you feel good about the contingency plan? Or do you think that's something that the Sounders should be looking to attack?
00:25:00
Speaker
That's a great question. We've got to get through Minnesota first, and I think that's going to determine some things. you know The result will, and also just who comes out, you know how they play right now. I could see a couple options at that left wing back spot. Deetson has played there the last two games, and he is he's got a goal in one of them. He might be going to the World Cup.
00:25:20
Speaker
he No, he will be going to the World Cup. ah He is a very important player for Haiti okay who's finding his legs in MLS. He will definitely be there. He plays a winger for them for his national team, but he's playing wingback for Dallas right now.
00:25:31
Speaker
um He had a goal the other night in the St. Louis game. In fact, he had the only Dallas goal, his first MLS. i would just I would just start him at left back, knowing nothing about if he's good at that. Yeah. It might be what they end up doing. He's gotten the last two starts, so Eric will clearly see something.
00:25:48
Speaker
um We've seen Shaq Moore move over to the left side to deputize to that, mainly because Dallas has a lot of right-sided options. Harmon Johansson, as already mentioned, is the incumbent starter. They've got someone like Sam Sarver who can play that spot. i They've got Romero, who was traditionally a midfielder, but he has played a few games at right wing back last year and was serviceable. He wasn't fantastic. So they've got a kind of a wealth of options at right wing back, not so much at left wing back.
00:26:15
Speaker
ah I would say that if I had to put a dollar down on it and write the second without knowing the outcome or anything else of Minnesota tomorrow, I would say Deidson just because he's been getting the starts and that seems to be the easiest predictor and he hasn't been he's been fine.
00:26:31
Speaker
I think that's probably, you know, as we look towards the transfer window in the summer, finding a reliable either deputy for left wing back, Bernie, or finding someone that will replace him is probably going to be high on the transfer list.
00:26:44
Speaker
I'm a Sam Sarver fan. He seems like a cool guy. And there was that, well, there's like a fun story. Yeah, he's he's cool. He's got like swag. he You can tell he brings kind of juice and energy to the team. And there was that kind of fun story last year where it was like, did he like played for the next pro team one day and then made his MLS debut like the very next day and then scored or something like that. What was that? What was that story? What happened with that? So he played for MLS for North Texas SC, by the way, that's the reigning MLS next pro MVP. Sam Sarver as well led the league with 17 goals I believe was his final total so he plays on uh he plays on Friday for the for next pro at home in Arlington they play at the old Rangers stadium and then he comes on in the last 10 minutes against St Louis City and draws a penalty and then gets up and does basically a pro wrestling celebration that gets all the crowd specifically the supporter section going Dallas gets the penalty and wins the game, and he becomes a cult hero after that.
00:27:42
Speaker
And you know he's one of those guys that, and I mean this in the best possible way, when I tell some people that this, they say, well, that's kind of demeaning, and I don't mean it that way. He is probably one of the best bench options in MLS, and I think that may be his long-term future because what he can do
Jesus Ferreira at Seattle Sounders
00:27:59
Speaker
is come in 15 to 30 minutes,
00:28:02
Speaker
Cause chaos, draw fouls, spark your team, and be a chaos merchant. And I fully believe there is absolutely a long-term 15-plus-year MLS job in that as long as he wants it.
00:28:13
Speaker
Because this this the where the league is at right now, you can absolutely do that and make a lot of money. And I think Sam Sarver, we jokingly call him a personality hire because he just has so much personality. I mean, the dude just oozes charisma.
00:28:28
Speaker
And he's a good dude, too. Like, I can't say enough good things about Sam Sarver. um He is a really, really quality, nice dude who helps tie the room together. And I think he's a really good soccer player. I think as as he grows into his MLS experience, I'm really excited to see where his career takes him.
00:28:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:51
Speaker
like a lot of the attributes that you described to him yeah right there you could also say about paul rothrock mainly just the kind of yeah the juice the energy the swagger the chaos merchanting which paul rothrock he has become a starter for this team but I think Sam Farber can as well. yeah We always, we've been talking about even in the last few weeks too, where Seattle has to decide who to start. Like sometimes it's not even who is the, uh, who should be starting on the merits. It's like whose skillset lends itself better to a super sub Paul Rothrock skillset lends itself phenomenally to a super sub, uh, perhaps more so than a guy like Jesus Ferreira, uh, which is a good segue into the next question that we got from, ah from chat this one's from zach he says sam did y'all know jesus ferreira was an amazing playmaker or is this a new development in his career and i was again was going to ask you something very similar because uh yeah let's just uh catch up on the whole jesus ferreira thing uh because last year we were talking about it and it was still very early days of his tenure in seattle i was very frustrated with this man when i came on this show last It was, there was a lot of frustration and it felt like it was not, it wasn't working and it wasn't, didn't feel all that close to working, honestly. He was playing out of position and he wasn't impacting games enough and he wasn't really even getting close to scoring. So I think there was a lot of consternation about it at the time. And I actually famously, I came out and I planted my flag and I said, everybody just needs to give this guy some time. Like he's a smart high IQ player. He needs to acclimate. And once he does acclimate,
00:30:30
Speaker
and knows what his role is on this team, I think you're going to see the production start to be there and you're going to start to see what kind of player this guy is. And I think on one level that panned out pretty much exactly how I predicted.
00:30:43
Speaker
He is now one of the most important players on the team week in week out. He is one of the engines that makes the attack go. And I think he's truly become one of the better playmakers in MLS like Zach is alluding to here. I mean, he's among the league leaders in assists so far this year. But even last year, a lot of his value turned out to be be more as a facilitator than a goal scorer. He still, as we sit here now, only has five MLS goals for the Seattle Sounders. Or it might that i might even be all competitions. He only has five goals for the Seattle Sounders.
00:31:15
Speaker
ah But he is up to 15 primary assists. And even outside of the assist production, it's just kind of... He is so integral to how the attack functions. And when this team is playing at its highest level in attack, he's usually a big part of it. But to bring it back to Zach's question, I feel like, ah yeah, when he was on FC Dallas, I thought of him more as a goal scorer first and foremost than I thought of him as a playmaker. Now, when I watch him play, ah All of his work is done as a facilitator to the point where I'm happy with the assist production. And I think he's become a great part of this attack. But I have been i have been saying, like look, it's a little ridiculous that not only does he not score at all, but like he's not he's barely even taking shots. This last game, he finally took a couple of good couple of shots, and they were actually pretty good looks where you have seen Jesus Ferreira score goals like that. million times. So I was like, okay, finally, that's good. We're seeing him actually at least take a shot or two. But before that, he really like hadn't even been getting in those spots at all, which is fine with me. As long as you're getting the assist and the goals are going in, I guess that's fine. But it does seem a little like, man, they should be able to get more
00:32:28
Speaker
goals out of him than they have been getting. But like, is this arc of his as a playmaker, does that surprise you based on what you saw from him at FC Dallas? or what do you what do you think of that?
00:32:40
Speaker
In short, no, it does not surprise me at all. To answer Zach's question specifically, yes, we did know this. And it's one of the things that made Jesus' especially late career confounding because he he is still tied for the single season goal record in FC Dallas history at 18 with three other players, including Petr Busa.
00:32:59
Speaker
We know he can score. And by the way, he's an incredibly clinical finisher. Yes, he does. Like this. No one here believes me, Sam. No one here believes me. i want to tell go get a but I got a Bible behind me. I'll go grab it if I need to swear me in. But I i promise you it's there. I've seen it too many times in training and in and covering him in games. It's there.
00:33:17
Speaker
But his soccer IQ, as you mentioned, is very high. He is ah He was easily the best passer on the team when he was there. before probably even with the Asieri Armendy when he came in from La Liga.
00:33:31
Speaker
The problem became Ferreira was kind of the best at everything and nobody around him was as good at anything else. So they kind of needed him to do so many things. They needed him to score. Oh, I need you to pass too.
00:33:42
Speaker
Oh, and I need you to play defense like In hindsight, what we're finding out is that the Jesus Ferrer problem, especially at the end, was there wasn't enough around him to enable him to be his best self. And it's why I was always thought the Seattle move was good for him, because A, you have one of the best coaches in MLS. I don't think that's any secret. You've also got a really interesting roster around him filled with up high upside ah high upside young players and quality veterans that are really good in MLS right now.
00:34:10
Speaker
And I always thought that Schmetzer would find the way to use Ferreira in the best way possible and get him to buy into whatever that was going to be, which I think was a problem that he had here in Dallas.
00:34:21
Speaker
I don't think there was ever enough buy-in on what Nico sold him, especially post-22. Obviously, he never got to work with Eric Quill because he was gone before then.
00:34:32
Speaker
So I think he needed a strong leadership type, someone that you know someone with skins on the wall like Brian Schmetzer has, to say, hey, man, this is what you do well. We're gonna use you in this role, and we're going to see success.
00:34:43
Speaker
And it took about a year, but you know the the returns are coming for Jesus right now. And based on everything I've seen, yeah, he's become one of the best playmakers in MLS. And that's not a shock because his passing and his vision have always been great.
00:34:57
Speaker
He's just never really had anyone in Dallas to play off of. Like, I would have loved to have seen a world where like he played as the deep lying forward for someone like Petter Musa and a two strength system. Cause that probably was the correct answer.
00:35:10
Speaker
But I also understand that he was tired and he wanted to go somewhere else. I fully understand it. So no, Zach, this is not at all a surprise. You should be very pleased and very much, uh,
00:35:21
Speaker
happy with your new playmaker and his hair because I saw his hair the other day. He's, it looks incredible. Like I'm so, he looks, he looks like a free man up there in the sense of like, it looks like he's truly embracing who he was going to be as a soccer player.
00:35:35
Speaker
And I'm just, I'm just happy for the guy, you know, anyone that comes through here that, that, that does what he does. he's um He will forever be a franchise icon in Dallas. I'm glad to see, even if it's for a rival, even if it's for someone that I hope we beat every single time, I'm glad for the guy to have success up
Jesus Ferreira's Defensive Contributions
00:35:52
Speaker
there.
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's funny when you were going through the attributes that Lucho Acosta didn't have that didn't fit with the Eric Quill type system earlier. Jesus Ferreira has all those attributes in spades. And that's one of the things I love about him is how well-rounded he is, very much a two-way player. I think he's one of the better defending attackers in the league, not just with his...
00:36:14
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, and and that's something that I didn't really realize about him. Not like his 1v1 defending is good, like it's better than your typical attacking player, but his pressing, Sam, he is so good at the at the high press, and he's kind of given me a whole new appreciation for the art form of pressing. Because, you know, you think of pressing as ah kind of simple conceptually, like you're just running at a guy. But he is so good at like the fine points of it, the timing of it, and knowing how to do it at times where he causes giveaways in dangerous areas and wins the ball, either by taking it himself or creating a deflection that goes to someone else. And then the counter is just on. this team got so many goals last year because Jesus Ferreira was creating situations like that. And to me, that's just, that's such a valuable attribute for an attacker and something that he, that doesn't get talked about as much. And he maybe doesn't get as much credit for, except for, for me, because I'm always going to talk about it because I love watching him do it. But that's just such, I think a fantastic part of his game. And then also just how unselfish he is in general. Like I truly think That he would rather set up a teammate for a goal than score a goal himself. And that's a sign of a that's an unselfish guy. And that's a great teammate. That's the type of guy people love that other guys love to play with. So I couldn't really I couldn't be happier with how that's going from all that perspective, other than the fact that he has not been scoring as many goals as I would like. But they are probably going to give him more time in the number 10 role at some point this year. And I think that should make him a little more goal dangerous. But I did want to ask you what you think of how Seattle is using him. Because basically what what they're doing, what they've done since last year and what they're doing this year, is that in a first choice 11, he is playing. He's listed in the wide channel in a 4-2-3-1 as the right mid. so he is he is kind of out wide a lot. He is not as central as he was at FC Dallas.
00:38:15
Speaker
ah But what it functionally happens, I think at least, is that it becomes sort of a dual 10 situation with Albert Rusnak more than him playing as a pure winger. And it took him a little while to learn how to do that. But once he figured it out, he's got it down. And I think that's the best look that this team has offensively. Like, what do you think of like the Jesus as this kind of quasi winger, quasi 10 kind of thing that Seattle's been doing?
00:38:43
Speaker
It makes total sense, especially when you consider that one of the things during his tenure in Dallas that that really bogged him down at the very end was he we we ended up even calling it the Ferrero drift, where he would come back into this into like the more deeper line, channel lines, or even at one point, we would see him at like right back in that position on the field to try and chase the ball. Well, if you're going to play him as a 10 like that, that gives him a little bit more freedom to go find the ball without jeopardizing your offense because you're going to put a striker forward. I'm assuming someone like Jordan Morris is probably getting a lot of the the starts up top for you all these days. so in the case of But anyway, it doesn't really matter who's up there as long as there's a human being up there.
00:39:23
Speaker
ah that can play striker. That allows him to go fine play a little bit more, and especially if you're going put him in those wide channels. You can move him forward. You you can let him drift back a little bit more, and it's going to hurt your defensive structure too much because he's going to put somebody behind the ball, and it's not going to hurt your offensive structure too much because that other 10 can play a little bit more advanced. So can your striker, whereas with Dallas, when he drifted behind the ball, there was nobody in front of him.
00:39:46
Speaker
like When he would play false nine, which was his traditional role with Dallas for the most part, That was the issue. He would get the ball and he could bring it forward, but there was nobody to pass the ball to because either the wings weren't crashing in or there just wasn't anybody there. he'd either have to carry the ball forward or make another pass and then make a run. And if he didn't do that, there was just nobody to score goals.
00:40:07
Speaker
you know It's why I really would have liked seen with Petr Musa because I think that would have been the perfect pairing of let Jesus go find the ball, serve it to Musa, question mark, question mark, profit. like I think it would have worked perfectly.
00:40:17
Speaker
So I think what Schmetzer and company have done is figured out, hey, as long as there's people in front of Jesus, Anything else doesn't really matter because he can get the ball to those guys with efficiency. He also has the cardio of just a machine.
00:40:30
Speaker
He can run up and down the channels. He can go anywhere and use his IQ to be in the right places and not get too terribly caught out as long as he's got help. So, ah you know, again, i think it's I didn't really know what it would look like when they first moved him to Seattle.
00:40:43
Speaker
I just had confidence that eventually it would work. And a year plus later, I'm pretty sure that has gone to the pay window for everyone involved. You were you were saying at the time, too, because i was I was trying to beat that drum that people just needed to give him more time. But, you know, no one wants to no one wants to hear that in the moment, especially because the team was struggling offensively at at the time and his integration wasn't looking very good. So I get it. But I was trying to tell people and then you came on the show and told people as well. Give it some time. He's going to figure it out. He's going to be a great player for this team. And that is pretty much, I think that is exactly what's happening. um
00:41:20
Speaker
Let's take one more from chat and then we'll talk some Peter Moussa. Everyone could please do me a favor and like the video and sub to the channel. We got Sam Hale on the show talking FC Dallas. ah This one is from Veritatum89. Sam, should we expect a rotated Dallas lineup in Seattle since they have a midweek match tomorrow?
00:41:42
Speaker
That is a fantastic question, Veritatum89. And I would say my gut instinct is yes, but i it's it's hard to say because Quill has stated early to he wants to get as many points as he can before the World Cup break, mainly because Dallas goes on a long road trip right before, I believe, their first three or or their last three before the World Cup and their first six coming out of the break are all on the road.
00:42:11
Speaker
due to construction concerns on Toyota Stadium. So Dallas is going to be gone for a long time away from home. And while they had their best road season in franchise history last year, going on the road in MLS is never an easy thing to do. Even when you succeed, it takes juice out of you because it's very hard to do. And the Western Conference is shaping up to be just a bear of a conference this year, when you have to go to places like Colorado, San Jose, luckily we've already been to LAFC. We will go to Seattle soon.
00:42:41
Speaker
um Vancouver twice is still on the, on the, on the but board for us. And you know, it's just, it's going to be a problem. So my instinct is yes, just because it is the third game in eight days, because it is turf field up there. And that's always caused Dallas problems one way or another.
00:43:00
Speaker
Well, actually, it's not right now. Oh, that's right. It's not. You've got the World Cup pitch up there. That's right. Okay. So you can take that concern off the board. It's yeah nice. you It looks good. It plays well. It's good grass. Welcome to the grass club. It's really awesome. it's We're in the grass club now. No big deal.
00:43:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's it's a good feeling, and not going to lie. um I would say yes, but I'm not sure I would expect heavy rotation. I could see maybe, like um and i'm just this is pure example here, let's say Petter Musa plays 90. I could see Logan Farrington starting with a double 10 under, and they bring on Musa at halftime or at the 60-minute mark.
00:43:36
Speaker
Or maybe someone like ah Patrickson starts for Joaquin Valiente at 10. Or even someone like Santi Moreno. He has not gotten his first start yet. We're still waiting on that for him. But he's working his way up to fitness. Or maybe we could see someone like Romero in for Christian Kappas or Ron Benjamin in for KK.
00:43:58
Speaker
um Quillis said he has between 15 and 18 starters. So I would not be surprised if he makes a choice based on, hey, You know, matchup wise, health wise, would expect to see, you know, just in my personal estimation, it a couple changes.
00:44:13
Speaker
I don't think it's going to be like wholesale where we see like seven to nine, if that's what they're expecting. I would see, I would expect two or three, but I would say if it's more than five, I'm going to be a little concerned, but I don't think that's going to be the case.
00:44:28
Speaker
Uh, well, good luck to you guys against Minnesota United. i hate that team We have beef with that team. It's going to be, Oh, I'm not looking forward. This is going to be one of those knife fight games. i see Their fan base likes to make it like a Seattle's fan base is the only one that, that,
00:44:47
Speaker
feels this way about them. Not true. The rest of every every, everyone else in the league, whenever they have to play them, especially in Minnesota, where they still play their weird Ramsey ball tactics, everyone hates it. It is not unique to Seattle. What is unique to Seattle is Seattle got knocked out of the playoffs by it last year, which was infuriating, but you know, it is what it is. Uh, Sam, let's talk about this Pete Tarmousa, Logan, and Logan Farrington duo. But let's start with Pete Tarmousa because for anyone watching who has not watched FC Dallas at all this year, doesn't know much about FC Dallas.
Spotlight on Pete Tarmousa
00:45:23
Speaker
Seattle is going to have to play against the best number nine in MLS this weekend. I i say that with all due respect to Sam Surridge and the other guys that you can throw in the in the hat for that. Pete Tarmousa is kind of one of one class of his own right now. He's about as automatic as it gets in the league right now. It must be fun to cover him because you go into every game knowing that you're probably not going to get shut out because he's going to get at least one goal, maybe two. And sometimes he gets three. He's got a couple of hat tricks.
00:45:53
Speaker
ris And he is also going, he is we were talking before we went live, but he is going to the World Cup with Croatia, which is not an easy country to go to the World Cup with, but that is how good he has been. Just balling so hard for FC Dallas. And I guess just tell us about Peter Moussa and what makes him the best number nine in MLS, you know?
00:46:14
Speaker
and All of us who follow the league, we see him banging in these goals week in, week out. How is he able to do that at this kind of just supernaturally consistent level? It feels like every single game. I'm already prepared for Seattle to get bammed on by him at least once, potentially twice in this game. And it's going to come down to if they can score three or four on FC Dallas, because it's just like no matter how good your defense is, you can't stop this guy right now.
00:46:38
Speaker
So the the best way I can describe Peter Musa, and I could talk all day about Peter Musa because I love talking about him. The Moose is is very much loose these days in MLS. Oh, man. that Seattle has Danny Musavsky, and that's what we say about him. ah The Musa. Sorry. I'm going to need him to pump them goals up before he comes in because that's Musa's territory. But ah before I started covering soccer, I worked in baseball. And one of my mentors when I worked in baseball was,
00:47:03
Speaker
told me about certain players that that teams needed, and he called them alphas. And this is not an unknown concept, but basically those were the guys that not only were they talented, they were the hardest working, they wanted it the most, and as a result, like they set the tone, they led the room. um And the comparison that was made down here in Texas was someone like Corey Seager for the Texas Rangers, who that was hit. helo Not only was he uber talented, he worked hard. He wanted it like he was the guy.
00:47:35
Speaker
He was the alpha in the room. Petr Musa is the alpha in the Dallas room. He is incredibly talented. He is a great finisher. He is an incredibly physical player. He is a great passer as well. You can watch his assist to Dietzen, which was fantastic. He had a couple balls against LA and St. Louis that if there had been a little bit better execution on the end of them, would have been goals.
00:47:58
Speaker
Like he has got every skill needed to be, in my opinion, a top five league striker. i think if you put him on on a second division Premier League team right now, he would have double digit goals. and i I don't think that's a bad take. i play my wolves And he would, he you know, who just got relegated today, he would be a double digit score in the Premier League. I have no doubt about that.
00:48:18
Speaker
But so much of it comes down to the fact that he knows how to manage his workload, how to manage his body, where to be. His soccer IQ is through the roof. And he also understands the team concept so well. And it took a minute to kind of get him going under Quill. But Quill has talked about in public before how he went about midway through last year ah when Lucha was still here.
00:48:41
Speaker
they went He went to Moosa and said, look, you're a great player. You're extremely talented. But if we want to get to where we need to go, i need a little bit more leadership from you. I need a little bit more from you. I need that next gear from you.
00:48:54
Speaker
And Moosa responded, and that's how he got to 18 goals of the regular season. That's how he's about to get to 10 if he scores tomorrow night against Minnesota, and he'll be one of like five players who have ever done that.
00:49:05
Speaker
And if I'm not mistaken, all the players that did that won MVP that their respective year. We talked about that. On our previous show for Minnesota, our playoff play guy had the stat for it.
00:49:16
Speaker
But basically, there have been like three or four guys that have scored 10 goals in nine games, and they all went on to win the MVP in their respective year. So including Carlos Vela, I think was the most recent one to do it, if if I recall correctly.
00:49:29
Speaker
So, but he he just does it because he is a pure number nine that can do it all. He is the target man. He is the distributor. He is the finisher. Whatever he you need him to do on a given day, he does.
00:49:42
Speaker
And he is not going to get outworked by anybody. He's not going to get outdone by anybody. He is a true warrior. He is a true professional. And by the way, when he's not on the pitch, he's a great guy too. Like I enjoy talking with him.
00:49:54
Speaker
He's a very nice guy. And, but when he, when he gets on that pitch, That is a different human being. If Petter Moussa is the guy off the pitch, when the Moose hits on the pitch, look out because he is a true warrior. And I think even if he left tomorrow, just it's somehow the transfer window magically opened for an hour and Dallas sold him.
00:50:14
Speaker
I would still consider him not just the best striker in FC Dallas history over people like Jason Christ, over people like Kenny Cooper, even over someone like Jesus Ferreira. I would consider him one of the best players in Dallas history because that's what he is.
00:50:28
Speaker
I think the matchup that I am by far the most excited to watch in this game is Seattle's back line and defense against Pete Armusa. ah Because, you know, this this this type of matchup, this is where you find out what you're made of. this is how you This is how you measure yourself and build character. This is character building going against a guy like this who no one can keep off the score sheet right now. you know, challenge yourself, try and keep them off the score sheet. See if you can do it.
00:50:56
Speaker
I think it's, they can't but you can try but like, yeah, give it a try, see what you can do. And it's like, you know, the point is if you can hold your own in a matchup against a player like this, you can probably do it against anybody in MLS. Cause he's kind of, he's top of the list right now as far as strikers in
Logan Farrington's Rise in MLS
00:51:13
Speaker
this league. But I do want to give some shine to his partner in crime, Logan Farrington, because this is a bit of different type of, uh, backstory than a Croatian international striker. Tell us about Logan Farrington.
00:51:28
Speaker
Super draft pick, correct? like Yeah, number three overall in his draft class. Not that highly regarded a pro prospect, if I remember. He was thought of as a guy, I think, that was like could maybe hack it as a backup in MLS, but definitely no one expected an outcome like this where he really is proving to be a great Robin to Peter Musa's uh, Batman, like he's producing on the stat sheet, but also i think what impresses me most about these guys is kind of what you mentioned is like how unselfish they are and how they play off each other. And it just seems like, uh, the, the Musa Farrington thing is giving me shades of the Clint Dempsey, Obafemi Martins days in, uh, Seattle, which that's where my mind always goes when you have a sort of one, two forward punch like that. But like they play off each other really well. And it's created like this dynamic duo situation where when you hone in on Musa, that Farrington's going to get you.
00:52:23
Speaker
But ah what's going on with Logan Farrington? How did he but go from super draft pick to what he is now, which is like not just an MLS starter, but like a upper tier high level, probably like borderline all star caliber player.
00:52:37
Speaker
Logan Farrington is the the best, in my opinion, recent example that the Superdraft is an underrated asset by just about every MLS team. Because that was a guy that Dallas traded up for. Miami had the third overall pick, and they basically went and paid a pretty high premium. I think it was like...
00:52:52
Speaker
$250,000 worth of game to go get it. It was an expensive buy to go get the number three pick. And they took Logan with it. And that was always the intent because they had been watching him. John Gall, who does the college scouting ah for Dallas, had seen him. of The Oregon State product out ah out of Wisconsin.
00:53:08
Speaker
he was a goal scorer and Dallas believed that he had the right attributes, both physically, mentally, even though fun fact, they never actually talked to him before the draft. um I've talked to both Logan and his dad who were heavily involved in the, in the draft process.
00:53:22
Speaker
And they, and I asked him flat, did you ever talk to Dallas before ah they drafted him? And they said, no, we were fully expecting to go to somewhere like Chicago or Miami or like, we didn't, we didn't even have doubts on our radar, but,
00:53:35
Speaker
Logan gets drafted to Dallas, and it takes a couple games to really fit him in and figure him out. But he has worked, again, and talk about working extremely hard. He has done that as well. ah he In fact, just this offseason, he went to Croatia and spent a couple weeks with Petr Musa and his family, and they worked out together and basically just kind of bonded together.
00:53:56
Speaker
as a pair like they i remember seeing logan's instagram story and he was in croatia and i was like okay sure why not like that's next level commitment but logan works hard logan is a guy that i think had a lot of skills that the team that teams didn't appreciate and this year especially you're seeing it um you're seeing him really develop a better finishing touch but really a better first touch if you go look at uh some A couple of his goals this year, Matt Doyle called them bird camp-esque, which is one of the best compliments you can pay someone like that for first touch.
00:54:28
Speaker
I mean, he brings it down like it's on a silver slipper, almost like it's on a string, basically, and he finishes the goal. And and I think, you know, there's still some unevenness to iron out in his game.
00:54:39
Speaker
I'd like to see him be a little more consistent overall. But when he's on, like he was against Houston, oh, man, he was just you know lighting things up. It was incredible. And I think so much of that is just he was underrated coming out of the draft. I think player i think teams were trying to look for reasons he couldn't succeed, and Dallas was looking for reasons that he could.
00:54:59
Speaker
And that has paid off in spades for them this year, just in utter spades. Super draft is underrated. I agree. I mean, Seattle's used it to great effect over the years as well. I mean, you have Christian Roldan is probably the most famous. that worked done pretty well That worked out pretty well. But even in on the team they have right now, like a guy like ah Kalani Kosarianzi, people forget that's just a super draft pick out of you university of Washington, who is now a starter for this team and looks like one of the more kind of dynamic attacking fullbacks that's out there in the league right now. So, you know, It is ah the hit rates not high, but you just you got to know where to look, what players to go for. And the I think the teams that do use the super draft like that, they get a big advantage in a situation like FC Dallas, for instance. ah Logan Farrington is awesome. And when we you know, we were talking about Atlanta earlier, manual latte lost twenty two million dollars getting vastly outproduced by Logan Farrington. So it is just kind of funny how that ah how that stuff works out.
00:56:02
Speaker
And by the way, Dallas has got more in the pipeline coming too, specifically from the Super Draft. Nick Simmons was a high pick this year. In fact, I believe he was the number three pick as well. He's a 6'4 striker that's starting to get more minutes. He made his MLS debut against the Galaxy. He's been training really well. Eric Quill is very excited about him. Ricky Lewis was the number two pick out of Georgia Southern.
00:56:22
Speaker
He's kind of going through the MLS washing machine right now where he's working, but they just haven't quite found the right niche for him yet. But i'll tell you, the hidden gem in the Super Draft this year went 40th to Dallas.
FC Dallas Academy Insights
00:56:34
Speaker
ah Edouard Neese, who played out of UIC, he's playing for North Texas right now. And he's one of the leading goal scorers in Nexpro. And he just scored a Travella in their game against, I believe it was either Sporting or, or no it's portland it was Portland. was Portland, this past weekend.
00:56:52
Speaker
The kid's got juice. He debuted at 17 in the Belgian fourth division before challenging himself coming to American college. Dallas drafted him 40th overall. He was one of the top players in like them the minimum that mid-American athletic conference area.
00:57:06
Speaker
He's just a fantastic player. The thing about him is he's just a little small. He's just a little tiny. But he's already got and a hat trick in Next Pro. He's already got a couple of assists. Like, if you're looking for the next, like, hey, why is the Superdraft good player?
00:57:20
Speaker
He's sitting at Next Pro right now, and I think he'll be, before long, 10 for Dallas, but I think, by the end of next year. Wow. Yeah, that's ah that's great intel. What's going on with like the academy and the youth set up right now? Is that, you know, FC Dallas, we talked last year about the reputation that they have for just churning out these homegrown products. Jesus Ferreira is one of them. Is that is that status still kind of there as far as all that goes? Or would you say that it's maybe fallen off from what it used to be?
00:57:50
Speaker
it's It's taken a step back, I would say, partially because I think the academy the the class that's come through most recently didn't quite live up to performances. Tariq Scott moved on. Noel Norris is starting, so that one worked out pretty well. Michael Colodia is starting.
00:58:05
Speaker
That one's working out really well. um But ah Antonio Carrera went to Tigres. Diego Pepe just never quite really worked out, unfortunately. So certain guys just didn't...
00:58:17
Speaker
It's just kind of a low. I think that's kind of the the thing about these clubs that even that are really good at development, sometimes things just don't really break your way and work out and they just never really develop. You got guys like Diego Garcia who's come to the academy. He plays regularly with North Texas, but he hasn't quite broken through.
00:58:34
Speaker
to the big the big leagues just yet. Although ah just recently for North Texas, a couple weeks ago, believe it was against Dynamo 2, one of the big prospects for the Dallas Academy debut, 14-year-old Benji Flowers came on and made his next pro debut for North Texas.
00:58:52
Speaker
And that's a guy that every time I talk to people who are around the Academy, be it coaches, be it development guys, That's the next superstar, they think. That's the guy that's getting comps to Jesus Ferreira and Ricardo Pepe ah around Frisco. So if you're looking for some stock to buy and you want to buy really, really early when it's probably a pity stock right now, because only like the real MLS sickos know, Benji Flowers, he plays winger. He's 14 years old.
00:59:18
Speaker
I can't sit there and say I have any idea when he's ever going if he'll ever make the first team or not, because that's not my lane. There are people much better suited to tell you, but the people that are suited to tell me that are telling me that that's going to be the next big thing in the Dallas system. So keep your eye on that and just see, see what happens.
00:59:36
Speaker
Zach is asking, how did you guys let Snyder Brunel get away? I'm not sure. I know that reference is Snyder Brunel Texas native. Yeah. He, uh, he was in the Academy for a little while, but he was, uh, I didn't know that.
00:59:47
Speaker
Yeah. A few guys left, uh, during kind of those middle ages, kind of like the li like right in and before and right after COVID time, you saw guys leave like Matthew Corcoran, who plays for Nashville, uh, Nate Pickering who plays in USL championship.
01:00:04
Speaker
Um, there are just some guys that, uh, made their way out of the Academy for various reasons. Julian Eyestone, the very large keeper that plays for ah Brentford now, he's on he's in their developmental system.
01:00:17
Speaker
He went on after playing a little bit of time at Duke. um There was kind of a lull during the Estevez era because he was a little bit reluctant to play ah younger players. You're even seeing that in Austin now, where they're relying on some older players like Ilie Sanchez. When Danny Pereira comes back, they'll rely on him. But like Nico and they like niko kind of caused a disconnect between the second team and the first team, and that kind of stalled academy development a little bit.
01:00:43
Speaker
um It stalled guys like Nolan Norris, unfortunately, who's just now getting the shine he deserves because he's really good. So it's kind of one of those things where like the factory shut down and and they're kind of starting to revamp it a little bit.
01:00:55
Speaker
But also Dallas is getting a little bit unfairly pinged because they had such elite level talent for so long that when they just have OK talent, everyone's like, God, what happened to Dallas? It's like it's why what's going to happen to Seattle in a couple of years is y'all's pipeline right now is incredible. In like three years or so, everybody's gonna be like, God, what happened to the Seattle pipeline if there's not like and MLS starters? And it's gonna be like, well, we can't, there's there's only so many MLS quality players out there, guys. he's like There's absolutely close to that. Like you don't you don't like stay at the same level for... like ever. It's it's ah it's kind of a cyclical thing, youth development. But we're very we're very excited about ah Snyder Burnell out here. He's become a starter for for this team, and he looks pretty electric. He reminds me a lot of Obed Vargas, who had ah Seattle just sold on to Atletico. But almost with... ah I've been saying I think he almost has kind of more dynamic attacking traits to his game for for how young he is. Sam, how are you on time? We've been going an hour, so I don't want to keep you all night. I got as much time as you need, Rutherford. All right. if you got a few more minutes, I guess.
01:02:01
Speaker
ah So ah we'll ah we'll talk a little bit about this game more. And then I had a little thought exercise I was going to share with the audience here at the end that you all ah I'll get you in on it. But I guess you have any kind of just last thoughts on this game or do you have any questions for ah for us from a Seattle perspective that we can answer for you before this game?
01:02:21
Speaker
I will tell you, if you haven't seen Dallas much this year, you're in for a dogfight. You're going to have play all 90 minutes with against this squad. um And even if you get up early,
01:02:32
Speaker
do not You better hold on because if Moussa is playing and Farrington is playing, which I fully expect them in some way to get into that game on on Saturday, whether they're starters or reserves, whatever the situation may be, um they're going to get into this.
01:02:45
Speaker
um If you want a player to watch that may not be getting the headlines but is having a really good stretch of form right now, Christian Kappas is a name you need to know. he is a He's a defensive midfielder who can play a little bit more forward.
01:02:58
Speaker
But he has kind of become the the main man in midfield that controls the the machine. He is the facilitator from the back line to the front line. He has great ground coverage.
01:03:09
Speaker
He's a super intelligent passer. He's always checking his shoulder. He is that kind of field general. And he's got a fascinating story. He was born in Houston. He played for Eric Quill at the youth level in Houston, and then Dallas tried to bring him into their academy, but this was back in the old academy rules days where they had you know like the homegrown rules where you if you were in a certain zip code, you belonged to a certain team because you were born there.
01:03:36
Speaker
And so he was, since he was born in Houston, he was like zoned for the for the Dynamo. And the Dynamo said, not only are not going sign you to our academy, we won't sign the rights to you over to Dallas's academy.
01:03:47
Speaker
They were being extremely petty because that's what rivals do. And so Kappas leaves and goes to the Nordic Isles for like five years at 18 years old. Then he becomes a man playing like Norway, Sweden, Finland, that part of the world.
01:04:01
Speaker
And then as basically as soon as Eric Quill gets back to Dallas, one of the things he tells his front office is, hey, I'm bringing Christian Kappas back to to Dallas. I'm to do that. And if you're not cool with that, then we can't do this.
01:04:12
Speaker
So the the summer transfer window comes when the Nordic Isles open up and they bring him home. And he has been just a fantastic like metronome player for Dallas. He's great on defense. He's great on ah offense. He's a fantastic leader.
01:04:26
Speaker
Quill says he's one of the two organizers on his team, him and Romero. So if you want to watch, he's one of those players that if you want to watch the game in a specific way, watch Christian Kappas and just focus on him because the way that he sees the game, the way that he plays, I'm not going to compare him to Sergio Busquets because there's only one Busquets and he's not that guy, but he is just so good at this level at managing a game, managing his space, managing his passes, managing his runs. He's just, he's been fantastic for Dallas and he's coming off a really good game against LA and a really good game against St. Louis. All right, that's a good shout. I'll keep an eye on him because I've not watched him ah that much. But if ah if if you're if Sam Hale is praising him, I'm going to take a look.
01:05:09
Speaker
um All right, Sam, to wrap it up tonight, what I was going to do is I write a column for Sounder at Heart every week, and I've been doing kind of thought exercise content with it for the last like month or so. And so the the one that I was doing this week was was the MLS clubs that I was most wrong about over the off season.
01:05:30
Speaker
And like who has who has proven me the most wrong? I know it's early sample size and things could change, but I think we're far enough into the season where the teams that have kind of flipped the narratives on their head We can kind of we can tell by now who those teams are. So I was going to here. Let me share my screen here, and I'll show you guys the column as a ah as a sounder at heart plug, and then we can talk about the teams that I came up with. ah But here you go.
01:05:59
Speaker
ah uh mls clubs i was the most wrong about so far i'll uh i'll scroll down and i'll show you guys who i came up with and then sam and i will talk about him but what i came up with was i had the san jose earthquakes and then i've got my take going into the season what i was wrong about and what we can learn because i think when you're wrong it's always an opportunity to learn and i try to do that so i wrote a little blurb on what i felt like i could learn from what i was wrong about for all these teams uh, San Jose earthquakes, real salt Lake, Philadelphia union, and the Houston dynamo. Those were the teams that I was, and not wrong in the same way. Like some of them, I thought were going to be bad and then they were good. And some of them, I thought they were going be good and they were, uh, bad, but, ah So, Sam, let's start with the ah with the San Jose earthquakes because that's kind of one that's surprised me the most. I thought they had the worst offseason out of anybody with how they lost Christian Espinoza. I don't know how much you followed that, but there was like oh yeah they forgot to pick up his option and lost their best player. So that was kind of funny for the rest of us, but not good for them. And then they had to move off of Chicho Arango. unexpectedly he was not supposed to leave either they signed him to a contract extension but then he had to leave for personal reasons so they lose their two best attackers and then their contingency plan to get out of that was okay we're gonna go get timo verner and i'm just kind of inherently skeptical of the euro star name chasing timo verner has been hurt a lot the last couple years i'm looking at that team i'm like there's no like There's no way you can lose that much production and firepower, replace it by name chasing a Euro star who's been hurt for two years and then expect to be in a very good place. And then lo and behold, they're like the best team in the league.
01:07:39
Speaker
Potentially Timo Werner looks insane, but even when he hasn't played, they haven't even needed him. Did you expect this from the quakes? Cause I feel like this is out of left field, but what i what I wrote in the, what we can learn section was never underestimate Bruce arena.
01:07:54
Speaker
Yeah, no, I didn't expect this from the quakes. And anyone that that does, I think they need to take a lie detector test because I think they were lying. I think even probably people in San Jose within the earthquakes building are probably surprised by this. Bruce Arena is probably like, damn, I didn't think i was that we were like this. Yeah, like even Bruce Arena, a man of supreme confidence in his soccer simplicity, is probably like, yeah, this is pretty cool. I didn't see this coming, is pretty kick-ass.
01:08:16
Speaker
No, you're 100%
Bruce Arena's Impact on MLS Teams
01:08:17
Speaker
right. Like Bruce Arena, for all his faults, and there's plenty of things you can criticize Bruce about, the man understands how to win MLS games yeah and he understands to do it with a simplicity and just, you know, he doesn't overcomplicate it and full credit to him as a coach, you know, obviously his tenure at the end of with the revolution was really weird and we still don't really have the details on that.
01:08:38
Speaker
And I don't know if we ever will, But you as at at minimum, you can sit there and say that all that is its own thing. he The dude can win games, and he is doing it with a San Jose roster that coming into the year I thought was going to be an easy six points for a lot of people in the Western Conference.
01:08:56
Speaker
And it turns out now that they've beaten the LAFC like a drum and they've been doing it to other teams as well, man, I don't know. like i'm not looking forward to but I never look forward to PayPal Park because it's a terrible stadium.
01:09:09
Speaker
But I'm doubly not looking forward to PayPal Park this year because if Bruce keeps this going, yeah, they're going problem. They're going playoff team, and that's ah that's a team that nobody expected to make the playoffs.
01:09:21
Speaker
Seattle beat them at PayPal Park a few weeks ago, and at the time I didn't realize how good they were. Now I'm looking back on that, and I'm like, oh, damn, that was yeah hell of a win. Like, they shut that they shut out that team with Zach shouting out Securus. Like, that kid looks insane. Yeah, he might do that to future Nash. team player like I don't think there's anything fluky about what Bruce and the quakes have ah have going on right now and I I also don't think there's anything fluky about the next team I had which is real Salt Lake Seattle played them a few weeks ago as well and that's their Seattle's one loss of the season was at real Salt Lake but they never win at real Salt Lake so I didn't really think that meant real Salt Lake was good but then it uh it turns out that they're actually one of the best teams in the League too
01:10:03
Speaker
But i don't know about you, Sam, but like the i think the coolest thing with Real Salt Lake right now is Xavier Gozo. Like he is looking like he's giving me Alfonso Davies vibes. Like, isn't he like feel like he could potentially, make you know, maybe not that type of ceiling, but he just has that kind of aura about him. Uh, so, and they have these, these young guys, Aiden has her Connie. There's a couple of these other homegrown kids that are really good. And then Jula Vogue, I think that's his name. The the new DP, he, i was high on him before this season, but he's been even better than I thought. So you throw him into eat Diego Luna with this like army of demonic homegrown kids. And you have a team that looks really, uh, That's really exciting to watch scoring a bunch of goals. Gozo's fun to watch. And then, oh man, I was like, i was looking at their social media content a couple weeks ago and they, uh, the admin was going around and like asking them, like, how often do you wash your sheets? And you know, that's a question that they answer and everyone's like, oh, you're lying. And then they're like funny and cool and they have swag And ah i was I was just watching that i was like, oh no, like they're that good and they're like fun and likable. God, and San Jose is good. This is a disaster. But what do you make of the Real Salt Lake Pablo Mastro anything? Because like, that's another thing I wrote in the What We Learned was like, all right, Pablo Mastro, you proved me wrong, I guess. I thought you were a defense-minded conservative coach that didn't care about the aesthetics, but you've created this really fun, really cool, really watchable team.
01:11:38
Speaker
Yeah, I was definitely wrong about Real Salt Lake because I remember at one point during the offseason talking with with our little soccer crew down here in Dallas and being like, hey, Salt Lake knows they've got to sign guys, right? Because they they had a pretty decent exit, not unlike Sporting Kansas City did. And I fully expected them to be a lot like Sporting Kansas City, where you'd have Pablo Mastro running on the hot seat, and then you know it would just be a bad year for for the Clarence and Cobalt.
01:12:02
Speaker
Instead, yeah, Xavier Gozo decides to go supernova, and Diego Luna also is being good, and you've got just a whole other you know list of players that are stepping up. And I think it just kind of goes to show that a guy like Mastroini should never really be counted out. you know kind of He's not quite Bruce Arena level in that way, but the dude has always been well regarded by his charges. Whenever he's he's had players, they speak highly of him, and other coaches do too, that he's he's that level of guy. He's a very resilient coach.
01:12:31
Speaker
I never really saw this in the bag, admittedly. This is a little bit new. He hasn't played like the Harlem Globetrotters. Yeah, broke out the driver for the one who's sitting at 400 yards every time. But it's it's it's I will say it's exciting, and I think If there's one thing that could that could hinder it, it's actually the same thing that could hinder San Jose in the long term.
01:12:52
Speaker
It's how long will ownership hold on to guys like Gozo, like Chakaris, like be Bo LaRoe in San Jose, especially san Jose because John Fisher is cheap.
01:13:02
Speaker
like I wonder how long before they get just an offer they can't refuse for those guys. And as a result, they end up selling them off and there's just nothing left. I think that could happen in Salt Lake too. Although I think with at this rate, Gozo will command a big enough fee that you could probably restock the team pretty quickly ah because he seems to be creeping quickly into the double-digit millions, if not higher range. It's probably only a matter of time.
01:13:28
Speaker
he is so good. He's so much fun to watch too. He's so entertaining. and Yeah, exactly. love or Like and their their whole team kind of has, I feel like sort of rallied around his aura and it's kind of rubbed off on them. It's contagious. And now they it's like they're playing there. It's an army of Xavier Gozos that you have to play.
01:13:47
Speaker
It sucks. It's terrible to have to go against. Yeah, unless you're RSO, in which case it's awesome. Yeah, i love it awesome for them. But yeah, for everyone else, it's terrible. Yeah. Okay, last two here, Sam. The Philly Union. i thought that they would still be good.
01:14:02
Speaker
And even that was even with all the the losses. Kai Wagner, Jacob Glesnes, Mikael Orr. There's another one I'm missing. there They lost four of their best players. Oh, Ty Burribo.
01:14:16
Speaker
Yeah, Ty Buribo, exactly. so But I was like, you know what? It's the Philly Union. They're the they're the money ball masters. like It doesn't even matter. They lose guys all the time. They have roster turnover all the time, and then they still end up being just as good. And they won the Shield last year, so I just had kind of full belief in the – in the foundation. And now they're are one of the worst teams in the league. I probably underestimated the impact of the front office scandal that they've had to deal with, with Ernst Tanner. But then also looking back on it, I'm like, I probably could have been able to guess that losing four guys of that caliber and then not replacing them. I gave too much benefit of the doubt there. Were you, were you down on Philly or were you delusionally high on them like
Philadelphia Union's Current Challenges
01:14:57
Speaker
me?
01:14:57
Speaker
I didn't think they would be a shield contender again, mainly because I just thought that there would be other good teams like Vancouver. I thought San Diego, you know, LAFC, even you know in the Eastern Conference, a team like Miami would probably try to bounce back a little bit, although that's been its own, you know odyssey so far this year. But speaking of, and part of Philadelphia's problem, and this is,
01:15:17
Speaker
Maybe this is just a little personal being in the Western Conference. I didn't believe in Brandon Carnell long term because I saw what happened in St. Louis. We had a really great first year. Kansas City knocks them out of the playoffs and they're never the same again after that one seed.
01:15:31
Speaker
And so when they hired Carnell going into 25, I was like, I don't i don't get it. what What do you see there? And they win the shield and that's great. like You cannot take that away from them. within and and they have a great developmental system, but for whatever reason, it's not working. And then, yeah, when you rip the spine out of a team and the heart out of a team and you have a manager that I think is just my mediocre at best, like I would not rank Bradley Cornell in the top half of MLS managers these days, even with the recent defections.
01:16:00
Speaker
you know Did I think they were a playoff team? Yeah. Did I think they were going to be a good team? Yeah. I did not expect the bottom to fall out like this. That was that was the part that was right. I thought they had a much higher floor than they do right now.
01:16:13
Speaker
But man, that thing is just just it's bad. Master. Like how often how often do you see a coach win the shield and then get fired the next year? That looks like what's going to happen. And I think like it's going to happen.
01:16:26
Speaker
In reality, the Carnell thing was probably always smoke and mirrors, but you know he went out there last year and won the Shield, so I was like, all right, i mean I guess he's good enough to not ruin Philly, but then apparently that was not the case, because for the first time really in a long time, they're looking like, man, it might take you guys a few years to get out of this. This is tough. you know If anybody can turn it around quick, maybe it's them, but I don't know. It's there in...
01:16:50
Speaker
They're in a rough way. If you need one good year, apparently Bradley Cornell can get that. So sign into a one-year contract and you'll be fine. Just don't expect anything else past one year. Okay, Sam, last one of the night, and you will you will know about
Houston Dynamo's Performance Issues
01:17:05
Speaker
this one. It's FC Dallas' in-state rivals, the Houston Dynamo. Sam, this was my this was my big brain pick. I was looking at their offseason, I was like, okay, this I was kind of trying to think of like which team is going to surprise people. And they were, they were honestly, they were my main pick, unfortunately, because, and my logic was, i looked up Guillerme's transfer mark page and his YouTube highlights. And I was like, this guy's sick. And he, it's probably a good bet that he's going to light up MLS. And then also Bogus, I'm like, okay, that's like a proven, you know, he can produce in the league. He was a baller for LAFC. He and Guillerme, they can probably figure it out and play well together. And then also in the last year or two, Remember, remember, like, I think it was two years ago where Ben Olsen randomly had Houston playing really aesthetically pleasing, like team ball, where they they had had some of the craziest team goals, like where they would just, there would be teams in low blocks against them and they would just slice it up. And you were like, wow, I did not realize. That was weird six months, wasn't it? Yeah, exactly. But like, so in my head, I was like, okay, if Ben O just kind of replicates whatever he did there, and then you put Guillermé on the field, you put Bogus on the field, and they also signed a new center back, Lucas Halter or whatever, that'll bolster the defense. And then you're going to have a team. I was sure that they were going to be like one of those really productive offenses. And then if all they would have had to do is play like league average defense and they would be a lot better than people thought. So I was all in on this pick, mostly because of Guillerme, honestly, but also everything else that I was saying. And then that just has not, they don't look very good at all. Like Guillerme looks incredible. I was right about that. Like he looks like he could actually be one of the better DPs in the entire league, but Bogus is off to a really slow start. He hasn't looked very good. Their defense looks horrible.
01:18:53
Speaker
And honestly, Benno is like closer to the hot seat than he is to that team becoming the breakout candidate that I expected. But, uh, What did you because I was kind of trying to throw curveballs with that. I realized that that probably wasn't going to be a very trendy pick nationally. But what was your take on Houston FC Dallas's biggest rival, I think, going into the season compared to how they've actually started?
01:19:17
Speaker
I did not believe in Houston. I did not. like And now that we've seen him once, Guillermo is a good player to his full credit. That looks like it's going to work out for them. But the defense is atrocious, especially with Griffin Dorsey gone. That also takes away from their offense.
01:19:31
Speaker
um The center back situation, Halter, I don't even think he's played yet this year. He's been injured. But they they just, and the goalkeeping situation also atrocious, which hurts my heart because former Dallas goalkeeper Jimmy Mauer is down there. But there was a reason Dallas let Jimmy Mauer go at the end of his contract two years ago.
01:19:49
Speaker
It's because he just didn't have it anymore. Jonathan Bond is not an MLS goalkeeper. I don't know why we keep trying to do this. ah Like three teams have tried it now and it has not worked. And The midfield is just a disaster, even when Jack McGlynn is at his best.
01:20:03
Speaker
um If you start Hector Herrera and Jack McGlynn in that midfield. it's like the slowest, most unathletic midfield. it It'll get you plenty of offense, but if you have any speed in the midfield at all, you will you will just slice them apart. And that's basically what happened when Dallas was able to get a little bit of speed in the midfield in the Derby this year.
01:20:22
Speaker
is they were able to take advantage of Herrera and McGlynn the midfield, and it didn't work out at all for Houston in the long run. i just i don't believe in the project, and i don't think I don't think Houston is a serious soccer organization right now.
01:20:35
Speaker
They've had so much turnover in the front office, so much turnship turnover in the ownership suite, so much turnover just in general. um And you know I think i've I've watched some of Ben Olsen's press conferences this year leading into the game and even after just to kind of keep an eye on things.
01:20:50
Speaker
The man seems frustrated. ah they have ah They have a red card problem, something fierce. They have a yellow card problem, something fierce. I mean, they're just not good. And I'm not even sure that a coaching change is going to matter because if you don't have the Jimmys and Joes, the X's and O's only matter so much in this league. And I think Guillermo is valuable. I think if they keep him a little while longer, they can definitely get their investment back and then some from a team that needs a guy like that, whether in MLS or otherwise. Yeah.
01:21:17
Speaker
But man, I just, I didn't love the Bogus signing because I thought it was too much money. I think this is the right league for him, but I don't think this is the right team for him. And I didn't understand the Griffin-Dorsey jettisoning to Orlando City, although, boy, Orlando's its own problem these days.
01:21:33
Speaker
Houston was able good enough to beat them, too, so take that for what you will. But no, I don't, I didn't believe in Houston. I don't believe in Austin for that matter. I think there's a lot of problems in in the state capitol as well.
01:21:45
Speaker
Like when it comes to Texas, I feel like there's one good team. And I always feel that way in general, but I feel like data is on my side on this one specifically this year. All right, Sam, that is all I had for the evening. Thank you so much for tapping in and ripping like an hour and a half show with me. That was awesome. Really appreciate it. Give us the before we get out of here. Give us the plugs. What do you got going on at Toro's talk FC Dallas radio network or any of the other coverage you're doing for FC Dallas? Tell the people what you got going on and where to find you.
01:22:15
Speaker
ah I'll give you the short rundown on on that because I wanted to highlight something really important to me in this space as well. But TorosTalk.com actually just wrote a 2,000-word piece on Petter Musa and whether he will be transferred or not. um The surprising answer that is,
01:22:32
Speaker
I don't think he will be is the
FC Dallas Radio Network Coverage
01:22:34
Speaker
thesis statement. and I think there's a lot of historical data that tells us that he won't be. I wrote again, it's in detail. It's free in front of the paywall. So go check it out. It's the most recent article we've put out.
01:22:44
Speaker
Of course, the FCD are in. Yeah, there it is right there and in the article. Thank you, Ari. Yeah. that that That'll give you everything you need to know about my opinion on the Petter Moussa article. um i think that I think he's here for the long term personally, and there's some data that backs it up both stats-wise, age-wise, and financially. So if you're interested in that topic, I covered it in length in that article. Of of course, FC Dallas Radio Network podcast feed. we released We try to release at least three shows a week, our postgame show, our preview show, and our weekly show. We're doing a couple of preview shows this week since we've got match days on Wednesday and Saturday. The match day for Minnesota is already up. It went out this afternoon.
01:23:23
Speaker
We will have a Seattle preview on Friday. ah Myself, Ryan Figert, the voice of FC Dallas, and Garrett Meltzer will do that on Friday. So if you're looking for a little bit more, if somehow an hour 23 with Ari and I was not enough, you can get even more in about 20 minutes on Friday.
EDSPS Charity Bowl and Community Support
01:23:39
Speaker
ah But it's kind of fortuitous that we're doing this show today because just yesterday, a cause very close to my heart, the EDSPS Charity Bowl went live. For those who are not aware, the EDSPS is the former everyday should be Saturday SB Nation community that covers college football. And every year they do the Charity Bowl, which helps ah refugee resettlement in the state of Georgia from ah from an organization called New American Pathways. They help refugee families find jobs, get driver's licenses, do all sorts of things help them get settled in America.
01:24:12
Speaker
And I don't know if anybody's looked around recently, but it's kind of hard for refugees out there these days. So I cannot recommend that, you know, I have a paywall on my site, but I would highly recommend, please do not spend money on me if you're going to this week.
01:24:26
Speaker
Please go to the charity bowl and donate to help those refugees, help them, you know, settle here in America because Lord knows enough people are fighting against them right now. but we as a community can do great work.
01:24:37
Speaker
their Their goal this year is a million dollars. They've already hit 800,000 and this is only day two. So if you want to contribute to that and if you're thinking, hey, I don't have a college football team. This is all college football based. What am I supposed to do?
01:24:51
Speaker
Don't worry, we got you because you can put your donation to PTKU, Protect Trans Kids University, go Blue Sharks because our trans siblings always deserve our love and protection. So if you if you have a couple extra dollars to spare, please go help out refugees in Georgia and the greater Southeast, Southwest in general, and show support either for your favorite college team or even for the Seattle Sounders. I think you can write in Seattle Sounders as a team. If you want to put an MLS team in the charity bowl, they will take your money. but
01:25:21
Speaker
This cause happens every year. It's very close to my heart. I think it's one of the most important things that happens every single year to help people that need it, that are trying to become Americans, that are trying to make this country a much better place than it already is. So please, even if you have a couple bucks, edsbscharitybowl.com.
01:25:40
Speaker
You can also check out moneycanon.org for all the details as well. Please go help those folks out They're doing fantastic work. I donate every year. i implore you guys to do it as well because it is a fantastic, fantastic cause.
01:25:55
Speaker
Love that cause, Sam. That's awesome. Slide me the ah the links for that. We'll toss them in the description, and then we'll ah we'll also slide a little LS donation, show our support. But that's ah that's great stuff.
01:26:06
Speaker
ah All right. We're going to call it right there for the night. Thank you all so much for tuning in. Hopefully, we'll get to start doing these more where I bring in the guests for the opposing team. But Sam's the man. He's always got everything that you need to know about FC Dallas. ah Go check out Toro's talk, subbed all their stuff, showing some love, follow them on ah all platforms. But ah Sam, thanks again, man. That was awesome. We'll get you on We'll get you back on soon enough. But ah we're going to get out on out of here on all that.
01:26:35
Speaker
We're going to get out of here on that. Thank you all for tuning in tonight. Love y'all. Peace.