People Who Aren’t There Anymore (and 2024 DCU Predictions)

Ted (00:02.349)

Welcome in every in everybody ladies and gentlemen boys and girls are if you're a jeez podcast Ted here John here we are finally made it. Feels feels like feels like maybe we never left but it's been a an interesting offseason I'd say the least but we're finally almost here almost here to some MLS games before you know that John how you do my friend how's your how's your weekend.

Jon (00:24.966)

This is the little behind the scenes thing for everybody listening right now. It's Sunday, February 18th, and it's still the weekend. We're doing this on a late Sunday night. How was it? It was good. I you know, I don't think you know, what did I do? I was like the last week in for soccer. I watched a lot of college baseball. That's that's like there's like a period before spring training starts where there's college baseball and I watch a whole bunch of it. And then I never watch any of it again once Major League Baseball is available to me.

Ted (00:51.737)

Hahaha

Jon (00:52.906)

So I'm like, oh, college baseball, sweet. Yeah, that's about it. I don't know. What about you? Did you get anything fun this weekend?

Ted (01:01.425)

Nothing actually really fun. It was kind of a quiet weekend watching just watching soccer hanging out and Trying to trying to get ready for the MLS season. I'm excited for it I'm we had we've had some hope we've had some that's Mopin cups from cocky calf champions cup games have started I feel like that's like the first real kickoff when you start seeing those games and we'll have some this This week as well along with the start of the season on Wednesday, so I'm excited even though

Jon (01:25.158)

No more weeks off for us, Ted. We're back to the full... Yeah, every week forever until the end of time. And then Patreon every other week. Woo!

Ted (01:35.365)

So if you missed us, we'll go ahead and drop this. This Sunday night will carry into the first weekend of the season as well. So we will probably record Sunday night. I have to travel Monday and so I will be unable to record Monday night. I think that was the situation for John this week. So we'll get back to your live shows. We know you guys love the live shows. You love to drop us into the chat.

But yeah, man, we're going back to week. We got the season starting to get games to talk about. We haven't been able to see any DC United preseason games. I held out hope. I held out hope this past weekend that maybe, you know, MLS was going to be trialing, you know, some of the more broadcast, but I guess they got that all figured out. So.

Jon (02:15.49)

They did that last year so they know how they know world they know where to plug in all of the wires and whatnot so it's whatever but I got to talk about this like we've got we've seen no games and like the very little bit of video we've seen were both like oh this is not good. I wish we had seen no video I'm I don't want to have seen this little bit of video that we have.

Ted (02:29.655)

Hahaha!

Ted (02:35.085)

Well, there was some good to start against the Sudanese national team, but. I will get into a minute. I I'm not, you know, I don't know how this how this year is going to go. It's it's very up in the air. Yeah, it's.

Jon (02:39.794)

Oh yeah, you're right. We should have just done that one game. That's the only games we should have done. That's our level.

Jon (02:53.462)

I remember one just what last bit of preseason like results conversation. I remember back in the day, like a long time ago, uh, when you could see all these games, usually there was a correlation between them doing really poorly in the season, if they did great and preseason and vice versa. And then all of a sudden it didn't, it de-correlated and it would just be bad. Like it didn't make a difference. Like that's, that's just been like since 2011 or 2012, there's been some rogue good seasons in there, but typically it's just been bad.

Ted (03:13.89)

Hehehehehehe

Jon (03:21.854)

all the way through. There's not been, they've not gone like four and oh and five and oh and preseason a long time. But that used to be like the forbearance of a uh-oh season, but not anymore. Now it's just whatever.

Ted (03:32.546)

Hey man, 2010 Carolina Challenge Cup Champions, whatever that tournament was called in South Carolina. Yeah, they won the coffee pot cup and that was like the only trip they won that year because they were awful. But yeah, I agree. I mean, I think it still holds true that preseason results don't always mean. I guess I'm a little worried. I think back to last preseason, I think Ted Kudu-Pietro really emerged onto the scene.

Jon (03:39.065)

The Coffee Pot Cup Champions.

Ted (03:59.057)

And that was, and that was kind of maybe an indication of, oh, he's, he's here to play. He's, he's ready to go. Jackson Hopkins the year before that earned himself a contract for his performance during the preseason. My biggest concern is I don't know whether we've had that right now, and I don't know if it's a nature of the team, you know, trying, you know, and I think Troy the Saints talked about it a little bit and we'll get into it in a minute, but I mean, he seems like he's very much wanting this team to sort of, you know, regardless of how these preseason games go.

We're sticking to our plan. I want you guys to get comfortable in this system. When we have a real game or we have a couple games, maybe we'll adjust a little bit, or maybe we'll go against some of that. But right now, I don't really care.

Jon (04:37.326)

That's a guy not being judged on results. So that's why you can say that. And that's fine for what this team is right now. Fine, great.

Ted (04:44.473)

And what this team is trying to do, and we're going to admit, but let's start with, we've got, we've got a signing to talk about. Maybe not the most, not an exciting signing. I know there's been a lot of, a lot of people, you know, decrying.

Jon (04:50.076)

Yes, indeed we do.

Jon (04:57.359)

I call them a create a player signing, a auto generated name.

Ted (05:03.937)

Diving into the into the scouting. It's when you hit the scout button and you go for like the two threes. Connor Antley, center back slash right back wing back for the Tampa Bay Routies he terms were not disclosed. I don't know if it was a financial parts were exchanged.

Jon (05:06.038)

The. Yep, like I don't know is any good.

Jon (05:23.362)

Terms, so he's got a two year, well the contract at least was disclosed. He's got a, I believe he has a, is it a two year with a option? Yeah, so, he's here.

Ted (05:28.156)

to your contract.

Option so be for 24, 25. So I would have maybe liked a year, but maybe he would have said, now I'll stay in Tampa. Give me give me give me at least two years guaranteed on that contract. Roy, come I would. I'm more curious as whether the team paid any sort of transfer fee to Tampa Bay. A lot of these USL teams is a reason they don't get transfer fees is because they have something in their contract that says, hey, if an MLS team comes hunting, you know, you have to basically release me for free. It's becoming less common now, but.

I think maybe an encounter situation that might've been on his contract. But, um, so it was very, it was very, I think Steven golf's posted undisclosed transfer terms. It seems to me that if, if there was a chance for fee exchanged, it would have, it would have said it. So, um, you know, I think this is sort of representative of the team needs, the team needs depth. Uh, we've learned now that Steve Birnbaum is, is out, uh, for at least a three to four weeks. Um,

The team needs depth. They have no depth behind Aaron Herrera. They have Pedro Santos behind Mohammed Yaz, but then that's really it. So this team was desperate for depth. That being said, based on everything we've heard, and again, we do not watch the USL, the guy that runs NA, I really should credit his name. And in fact, John, I'm gonna let you maybe jump in while I go find the guy's name. I wanna make sure I get, yes.

Jon (06:47.55)

His name is John. I know I know that much. I think what I think we should have just done is traded them a Hayden Sergis. Like that's sort of what this was. Like he's the new he's the new Hayden Sergis. Like, all right, well, maybe this will work. And then it didn't. And then we got a new one. Maybe this will work. But to your point, he's a body. He exists. And that's really what he's got going for him. I think right now you find it yet.

Ted (06:55.269)

Hehehe

Ted (07:09.449)

And, and, you know, to state is that he's a body. He is USL. And certainly that doesn't always. That doesn't always translate. John Morrissey, thank you. So that doesn't always translate, you know, to the to the molested is a step up, certainly. But, you know, I think there's still there's still plenty of avenues. And it's not like they're getting a guy, you know, somebody I think like Hayden

Jon (07:19.938)

John Morrissey, by the way, is his name.

Ted (07:37.921)

a guy with some potential that maybe that will maybe there'll be something here and I think they've

Jon (07:41.174)

He was starting. Ironically, John Morrissey was data. He was an analytics guy for both Sacramento Republic and Tampa Bay. So it is no, it is no wonder that he had a lot to say about this player because he probably watched him at some point. Uh, but yeah, you're right. I think that this guy is, I guess the finished article by age. She's been here a little while. He's, you know what to get out of him. I mean, we shouldn't spend too much time. If this guy is on the field, uh, like if this guy's playing major minutes,

Ted (07:53.793)

Yeah.

Jon (08:09.078)

We don't want that. That's not that's not necessarily what we want with the signing. I think.

Ted (08:12.245)

He's good. I mean, if he's good, yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I agree that I think he's depth. I'm not sure it's the plan is for him to really play if he's starting then yes, it means Aaron Herrera has suffered a tremendous, terrific injury. And yes, as we did. So I'll walk that back. I think I think is there but he is you know, just to give some stats that he dropped. If you go check out, go check out go check him out on Twitter. I believe he writes for backheel.com he is 80.

Jon (08:22.69)

Which is not good, which is bad, because we paid a lot of money for him.

Jon (08:37.975)

He does.

Ted (08:39.061)

82% on percentile and expected goals, 82% on expected assist. He's a guy who likes to push forward. So he's a player, they showed a nice little clip of him sort of starting a counter attack from all the way from the back and then sort of pushing it up into the attack. And so he's a guy who certainly likes to get forward. And I think he, I think at the very least he will, he seems like a good fit as far as what this team is trying to do with pressing, with trying to win the ball, to move forward, to move quickly, so.

I think for that he's a fit. Whether he's good or not, we'll see.

Jon (09:09.73)

I like that his expected assists are at the very top of the grid and he had three assists, but that's because he played it as a center back. So that's so, but I also, I mean, obviously he can play it right back to, uh, but if he does more than not, then you want to say that number a little bit higher, probably. So they probably mixed them around last year. Swiss Army night.

Ted (09:16.813)

What?

Ted (09:26.221)

Yeah, and I think versatility is also probably a big part of this. It's, yeah.

Jon (09:30.934)

He's the Drew Scandridge. You gotta have a, you gotta have a, you traded Chris Durkin, you don't have any more Swiss Army knives. You need more guys that you can like put in five positions.

Ted (09:38.421)

Yeah, so I think right now he hit the depth suits the right wing back position, but we'll see what happens with the other ones. And we're looking at a four man back line. I think I thought maybe we might see a three man back line. But based on that, say the last game, it looks like we're sticking with the with the format with a four with a four, three, two or four, two, three, one, I think is what we're what we're looking at this season. Other squad updates that maybe we went around. Brandon Parrish, who was their second round draft pick, I believe.

Jon (10:05.854)

Out of Clemson maybe?

Ted (10:07.093)

Yep, out of Clemson not offered a contract after spending the time with the team in Saudi Arabia. Graham Jones, these returning to the Academy, but could still be a homegrown signing. Again, we already talked about injury updates. I mean, I guess anything we want to drop there, it's who knows? Who knows about those two players? Steve Birnbaum with the injury updates out three to four weeks with the had knee surgery. So we'll see what that is. And Russell Canals also.

Jon (10:32.043)

Yep, yeah, scope.

Ted (10:36.729)

Doubtful for the home opener, right? Okay.

Jon (10:37.904)

He's confirmed out by the way. Russell Canales is now confirmed out for the opener and maybe in subsequent weeks as well with an ankle.

Ted (10:43.905)

Yep, so now we get we get Maddie Patola.

Jon (10:46.806)

Hope he's ready. He's right here into the into the into the firing frying pan for sure. I think I saw on the Friday show like we you know, we obviously put the hex on canal spice saying many an Iron Man season last year like and then the first the first opportunity to play is like oh he's out. He's hurt. He's hurt. Unfortunately knock.

Ted (10:59.149)

Hahaha!

Ted (11:04.457)

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what we think. Steve Birnbaum out. I mean, a lot of fans, you talk to them, they'll say.

Jon (11:11.366)

Wait till you hear my prediction for 2024 around Steve Brunbo.

Ted (11:13.645)

Oh, here we go. Here we go. But but Steve Burbaum out, you got to think, you know, this is you can have Chris Krabbe, Christopher McVeigh and Bartlett. I'm going to guess they're going to be the centerback pairing the Taekwondo and they will get into a little bit. You got him from the last preseason game from the highlights we've been able to see again. Let's go and jump into a preseason game to nothing lost. FC Dallas. I know Pauliola had the second goal.

Jon (11:40.066)

Go on and assist for Paul.

Ted (11:41.793)

Yeah, the team. OK, we're looking at it before for a certain Discord member gets upset at us. Yes, we know we're looking at we are looking at video coverage. We don't get a chance to see the whole game. I think we saw like one potential chance that DC United had in which Prani was at a shot or across, who knows? But it somehow found I couldn't tell who was on the end of it, I guess, on the other end. But across the but as John, apparently as someone upstairs.

Jon (12:11.114)

I've got I've got it. I don't know what's going on. Something's going on. We're not seven o'clock. It's not our normal recording hour. So the whole house is awake and things are happening. Sorry.

Ted (12:19.509)

Fair enough, but um, yeah, so but I think one thing we noticed from the videos is, and one thing I'm taking away is I'm a little I think this team might struggle a little bit handling like a quick transition team. And I think that's what we saw in this game is, you know, the first goal. I'm going to go ahead and guess that the DC had some sort of set play either a free kick corner kick something like that, because there were no, I believe it was a rare and, and the new guy Antley sort of tracking back.

But there wasn't any, any defenders that I could see. McVeigh wasn't there. Bartley wasn't there. They were probably all pushed up to try to win a header on a set piece. And the team got completely burned and caught out very nicely worked goal. But yeah, that didn't look good.

Jon (13:01.654)

that starting next Saturday we're going to be able to draw conclusions on. Actual like non sub pruder like cell phone coverage of a one angle behind the goal and we're like we're going to draw conclusions we're going to do. We're going to do some analysis, but no, I mean I'm very excited to actually watch this team play and you know I you know I'm not feeling super confident. I think burn bomb being hurt is going to be a big problem with this back line. We got.

Ted (13:06.817)

Oh my god.

Jon (13:28.086)

guys that are just sort of figuring out where the keys where they put their keys and you know where the locker room is. But you know it's here so we can at least be happy about that. But this game I think you the only thing you can draw from this probably. Is that is likely our first choice lineup. What you saw is the 11 there is what we're probably going to see barring injuries against doing going on Saturday. I would I would suspect.

Ted (13:51.701)

Yeah, yeah. And you know, I think it also is an indication. I think I think Stroud started sort of on that right side, um, sort of to the, and then it was sort of the, he was talking about the four, two, three, one, you had, uh, you know, Maddie Peltola and, uh, Mateus Click kind of in that sort of that holding midfield role, I imagine, but told us probably going to occupy, uh, a lot of that sort of defensive side of the ball, sort of the canals role. And then Click will be able to sort of have more freedom to push forward. Uh, Stroud also appears to be that he has sort of won the

the right wingback spot away, right, the right side spot. So he won it from Martin Rodriguez. And I think that's significant because you're talking about there are certain players on this roster to home a Rodriguez, I don't may also could have been an option as well. Where are they going to fit into this team? Or where are they even going to be on the roster or considered being on the roster? You might be right. That bright

Jon (14:40.642)

Martin's a left-sided player, right?

I think you I think he so he would be over there. I think the question is like there was, you know, where do you, how do you get a Pirani and Ted Cudi Pietro and Deque and Rodriguez and somebody like in that. And that's, I guess what they're going to do is drown. I feel like Stroud winning that spot is not altogether exciting. I think Stroud, you know, yeah, I think last year in St Louis had 10 goal contributions, which is great. I think that's a high for him.

It's certainly not. It's it's like I'm trying to think of a good analogy. It's like when it's I want to stop bringing up Ulysses Segura and Drew Scudder. But it's like where you find this player who is like not going to wow anybody. He's not you're not going to you're not going to be like on a winning team. This guy is not a star, but you want to have a guy that you can depend that he's going to be a seven out of 10 no matter what. I feel like maybe that's him. And I think that there isn't enough depth on the wings either side to really.

Ted (15:35.053)

Mm-hmm.

Jon (15:41.742)

turn our nose up at that. I guess it's just not exciting. It's just not like, you know, when we saw that trade happen, you're like, well, he's good depth. Great. Good. Jared straddle. He could get in. Then he's like, Oh no, he's going to start game one. All right. Well, that's fine.

Ted (15:49.333)

Hehehehe

Ted (15:53.489)

Yeah, so I, you know, again, we could get some curveballs. I think maybe they're also, I'd be curious to see, I believe Antley started that game. I'm wondering if that was just, we need to get to see some minutes. We need to see what we have with him. We need to see where he might fit. I think it was interesting that he was out there and not, you know, Muhammad, Muhammad Jaws or.

Jon (16:11.102)

I think he's I think jazz is still not fully fit. And they he would, they said they were bringing him along slowly in camp. It would not surprise me at all if he's not ready to go. And it's not about me. Maybe I hope, you know, that's better. It's better if the guy that you're paying like the highest left back salary in the league is available after last year, but maybe not. We'll see.

Ted (16:15.094)

Yeah, it's possible.

Ted (16:32.725)

Yeah, I think I think basically if they are going with a 4231 and they do have the odds out there and they do have Herrera out there, I think you're going to see both Stroud and, uh, and Ted Kudepierre obviously are going to play very narrow and then they are going to sort of, they're going to sort of play narrow and then they're going to sort of use their wing backs to kind of give them with so sort of similar to, I mean, kind of what we saw with in the or not in the saw today's of, you know, with Kevin Paredes out there and, uh, I forget, uh,

Joseph more maybe like just like giving getting your width from your wing backs. You know, then you can kind of play through the middle. So we'll see. We actually have a game to walk about. We're not going to be speculating anymore. So

Jon (17:14.945)

I wish we had Joseph Morris still with us.

Ted (17:17.389)

Yeah, is it Costa Rica right now? No.

Jon (17:19.214)

He is and starting. He's very dependable. He was always very think about like if you had him as your second choice left back on this team right now, you'd be like sick. I'm feeling good about that. I'm feeling good. And then I said, we're like jazz and, you know, Pedro Santos.

Ted (17:26.857)

Yeah.

Ted (17:33.545)

Let's get into what we can preview about this home opener again. I don't think we've I mean, maybe there were some revolution preseason games we could have watched but we Not gonna get into that But some interesting, you know new coach Kayla Porter steps in I think the general consensus is that the revolution still think this is their window You're not bringing in Kayla Porter to rebuild or do anything. He's just there to do a solid job, obviously

Jon (17:40.834)

We're not gonna do that either. Come on guys get out of here

Ted (17:59.769)

The storylines from last year I think is missed opportunity. This team was, I don't want to say they were rolling along under Bruce Arena, but I mean, they were, I'd say, you know, top one to.

Jon (18:09.774)

They were top couple of the other conference. They were doing quite all right. I think.

Ted (18:13.429)

Yeah, they were doing well. And then of course the whole unbelievable whole story of whatever Bruce arena said, which I don't know, I think at this point, we're just never going to know. Yeah. So and I think it seems like teams don't even want to touch that. In a lot of ways. We'll see what happens summer summer, there might be some firings might be some coaches gone. I think there are

Jon (18:23.659)

If he never comes back, we'll never know.

Jon (18:28.962)

does.

Jon (18:33.43)

He's getting the bill Belichick treatment. He's the New England coach that has no job that the seats, the musical chairs have gone and he's still standing. Just like, just like Bruce arena.

Ted (18:42.565)

I will tell you, I will tell you there is a coach on the hot seat in Atlanta. Shoot, why can't I think of his name? I know we were looking to hire him as well. I can't think of him. But I think Atlanta is a good maybe a good shout out. If things go really south there, they've got they've also got a team that's in a window. I was I can't think of it. It'll come to me anyway. Let's get back to this key departures for this team.

They have Gustavo Bo and Omar Gonzalez. They also had a goalkeeper that they signed that was supposed to be the Petrovich replacement and he never played a minute.

Jon (19:14.454)

The goalkeeping coach hated him apparently and didn't talk to him the entire time he was there. I read an article by him. He's like, he's like, I don't know, I just practice. No one talks to me. I train on my own. By the way, the name that you're looking for there is Gonzalo Pineda. The name, a name I also always forget. I don't know why. Again, know that we know that he interviewed here. We know that he played for the Sounders and then my brain just gets.

Ted (19:19.785)

Hahaha!

Ted (19:26.933)

Yeah, Gonzalo Pineda. Yeah.

Ted (19:35.305)

If I was doing like an MLS specific prediction, I would have said like by the summer, by Copa America, Bruce Serena will be the head coach of Atlanta United after Gonzalo Pineda would be let go because I think he is one of those coaches that is on the hot seat. But big departure, I think, is obviously Gustavo Bo. He's a massive goal scorer for them, massive, massive player for them, but they do have some other players that come in. They have Henrik Ravas is going to be their new goalkeeper. So it's sort of

Jon (19:51.263)

I think that's probably true.

Ted (20:03.641)

dropping in, replacing them. They also grabbed Nick Lima and Thomas Chanaglae, which I believe is one of their new players. Team again is in a championship window. I think they are, they think this is still their year. They're still trying to make the best of what they can do with the window. They obviously, one player of course I'm gonna highlight is Carlos Gale. He is the, still very, very good. Go look up his FB ref.

Jon (20:24.238)

Still very good.

Ted (20:28.621)

Go look at his FB ref and then compare it to Gabriel Pirani and you will see a world of difference. Uh, one of the catches my eye. He is a 99th percentile in shock creating actions. So, um, I'm telling you, Pirani, you got to look at that because that's something you struggled with last season and that's something you got to look to create. He's also 87 percentile, unexpected assist goals. He is a number 10 creator. He will be very, very difficult for this team to manage. He is for all, for all I know he's healthy. Um,

And then you have no buck who's the who's another player have I believe he's 19 or 20 young guy for the revolution should I think probably potentially sold in this in the summer I know there's been a lot of teams looking after them. 83rd percentile and tackles in 91st percentile in progressive carry so he's a guy who likes to move the ball forward and push it forward so

Jon (21:16.494)

There's one other player that really we probably should be looking at. It's Esmir by Rok Taravich. I know that because I just looked at the pronunciation guide on their website. He was in the January camp. He got a couple minutes at the end of the season. They're very, very high in him as well. New England, they're not known for their home-growns historically, but they've got a couple good young players that they've signed. Noel Buck obviously has been in the consideration for the England, I think under 21 side.

Ted (21:25.092)

Hehehe

Ted (21:31.299)

Yeah.

Jon (21:47.15)

You've got Esmer, you've had every starting goalkeeper for New England basically get sold to a Premier League team basically in the last couple of years. So they just keep on they just keep on recycling. I imagine the guy you're talking about here, this Rob us guys probably like, well, I'm clearly going to be arsenals goalkeeper in like a year or something if I just play here. That's how it works, I think. Or Chelsea, Chelsea certainly has could have some availability when they go down the championship. This this is this is certainly like you said.

Ted (22:05.671)

Or Chelsea, you never know.

Ted (22:11.353)

Ah, haha!

Jon (22:15.826)

A team not in a rebuilding mode, a team that's still very much in imagines themselves in the conversation to win the Eastern Conference. And, you know, I would be concerned at a team that for the most part, other than Gustavo Bo is the one player that I'm really concerned about missing. And I think everyone's kind of healthy. Uh, a team that a team like us right now, where we have a whole, a wholesale new back line, uh, in place and are starting defensive midfielders out. And we, you know,

We're sort of figuring out what we figuring out what formation we're going to play. I think this could go badly in the first week. And I guess we could talk about prediction right from that. I would say I see a, I see a three, one loss to new England.

Ted (22:55.343)

Yeah.

Ted (22:58.797)

Ooh, you know, and Veroni also, I think, is a striker that they're going to look to, to probably be the bow replacement. Um, yeah, man, I, you know what I was gonna, I was gonna go with a draw and you know what, I'm still going to go with a draw to, to draw. Do you know, you know, here's the thing. Here's the thing. DC United for the past few years always seems to perform. I would say except with the exception of 2020.

Jon (23:12.086)

Someone's gotta be, Ted, take the optimism for one of us here.

Ted (23:26.425)

Twenty twenty one, twenty two, when we didn't think they would be good, they somehow managed to pull, pull a game out where they where they go in and they and they either pick up a win or they pick up an unexpected result. They get some momentum and the wheels kind of fall off. I think they benefit from the fact that no one their games aren't strained. Their preseason games haven't been streamed. I think this is why they do it. If I had to be honest, because they want to be completely as completely unknown as they possibly can, they'll.

You know, that's why they play FC Dallas. That's why they went to Saudi Arabia. They like, they literally want nobody to be able to watch their games or to get any sort of tape on them about how they're going to play. And then they come out and they surprise people because coaches don't have really a game plan and they kind of have to adjust a little bit on the fly. That's my conspiracy theory for the day.

Jon (24:08.606)

I have a I have a cynical take on the opposite end of that is that they don't show those because if they stink really bad, they want to make sure that they at least get one sell out in the year and it's the home opener. And if they, if they, if they, if they are hard, hot garbage, own five garbage fire, then they're like, Oh, no one wants to come see this. So that's another good reason to keep it a secret. They weren't a garbage fire necessarily, as far as we know. Those were we weren't getting, we weren't inter Miami and it up. We were not losing six to nothing to various sides. So there's that, or we're in the, these were very, uh, on brand.

Results for this club like compared to where we were right like it's to a to nothing law seems That seems right that seems or a 3-1 that seems reasonable

Ted (24:47.105)

And there are going to be people in the chat or people in the comments, Instagram, Facebook, when this team, if this team does struggle, which we're, I think we're saying they're going to be, and I'll get into one of my, one of my specific predictions, which I'm going to tease a little bit. It involves them potentially struggling out the gate. I think you're going to see a lot of that. I think we, I think what we need to ask ourselves as fans is, do we want a little bit of short-term pain for actually long-term vision, or do we want this club to do what they've always tried to do?

for the past few years, which has been cobbled together, go out, overpay for players, and then maybe we'll be okay. Like we'll be together, cohesive, but then it's not gonna be sustainable. It's gonna fall apart at the end. There's no identity, no vision, and then we recycle all the way back again. I think this is going to be as close to a cleansing restart. It's going potentially to be rough, but I think, my hope is that by May, June,

Maybe the team starts to put together some results. They just hum a little bit. You know, maybe they get a cup run in the open cup though. We'll get into that. All that mess that's going on in here in a little bit. You know, then they can start to, we can enter the next off season saying like, okay, we have a base built and we can move forward. That's really what this is about. This is about building a base for this club. All right, let's do it. We got some specific predictions I am borrowing from Total Soccer Show.

which they do a segment that I love and I think it's I want to apply it just to DC. So here we go. John first very specific prediction for the season.

Jon (26:20.974)

Steve Birnbaum will be the best defender on this club by all statistic metrics by the end of the season.

Ted (26:25.425)

Ooh, good one. I have one, and this is coming from my research I did on Maddie Peltola. Malibutola will lead the team in ground covered in 2024. So he will cover the most ground. You will look at the, whatever they have, the game maps of like how much a player runs using those trackers, he will be top of the list. He's going to be all over the place. Yeah, I bet, I bet so. Next one.

Jon (26:44.438)

be number two I bet you.

I also predict that one of our goalkeepers will be sold by end of the season, probably in the summer window. A club will look for an option maybe with an injured player or something else going on and see that we have two players that could certainly fill that bill.

Ted (27:02.593)

Yeah, I have Aaron Herrera will provide the most assists on Christian Menteke's goals. So what I'm saying by this is that when you add up all of Christian Menteke's goals, they're going to be assists. They're going to be played. The ball's going to be played from Aaron Herrera. I think he is going to, I think this team right now, especially after the way they're setting up, they're going to play very narrow. The ball's going to slip out onto the, onto the wings when they want to get with, and he's going to be whipping balls in and you have one of the best players at winning the ball. I think he's going to get a lot of headed goals.

it doesn't have to be all with his head. I think you can also find him with his feet as well. So next one, you got another one.

Jon (27:36.29)

Ted QDP Atrial will be the secondary score this team has needed since Taxi Funtas left, scoring nine goals this season.

Ted (27:42.653)

Nine goals exactly. I have this one, which I think is maybe some fans won't like a DC and I will have only one win in February, March, and that one win will come against Inter Miami. Here's my thinking. If you look, if you look at their schedule, so they got we already, we're already chalking up either a tire or a loss for a revolution. Then they're on the road against since see they're on the road against Portland. Those are going to be two incredibly tough games. However, however, I think what there's rumors that messy might not even be there on the 16th.

Jon (27:55.365)

Oh

Ted (28:12.829)

I think the other team on the list when I looked at the risk that might struggle to start the year I think is going to be in Miami. They're also going to be have Concaf Champions Club that they're going to have to start to think about. So then they're going to be juggling those types of things. Those those things that are that type of tournament and that's a tournament they want to win. So I think they're going to play a little bit of a week inside. I think DC will see it. There'll be a packed house there. They will be looking to prove something.

I think that will be the only one they'll pick up in February, March, and then it kind of goes back to a little bit back to normal. So, yeah.

Jon (28:45.15)

Last one, biggest scapegoat of the year is going to be Gabriel Pirani. Yeah, Pirani is going to be much more of a Edison Flores than a Luciano Acosta. The numbers and the advanced statistics that everyone saw last year and looked to the other side and said this team was bad. So that's why his numbers are bad. Uh, it's going to be, uh, the opposite of that back yields, uh, stance on this player being a shut up, being a ball mover and not a chance creator is going to be correct and we're going to have buyer's remorse.

Ted (29:15.053)

Do you think the team in the summer, I think goes out and gets a number 10 or they just ride out to the air and restarts?

Jon (29:18.974)

Yeah, I think they do. I think that they might. I think if they're looking at where they want to go from a DP perspective, that might be it depends. I think there's we know that Mateusz Klic and Christian Matic are gone next year. They're going to have it's completely a blank slate on what they need to build. A nine will be part of this, because if you look at this roster, one's not there. And I think a 10, they like to your point of Prani is as is as I say he is. It's possible that they have to go elsewhere and spend the money.

Ted (29:47.557)

We'll see. You know, I find that, you know, Mackay, you know, Mackay talked.

Jon (29:52.27)

This was interesting. I brought this up on the Friday show, but mention it. Say it. About burning.

Ted (29:55.925)

Yeah, Maki talked a lot about analytics or talked a lot about how this is going to be an analytic based team and Brownie certainly doesn't fit that bill. And also, I think you were going to mention what he said during there was a sort of a supporters group meet and greet. So I'll let you talk about that.

Jon (30:08.126)

Yes, so there was a question that comes up about what is Dave Casper's reach on this team still and Makai was still trying to make it very clear that it's his it's his team now and he said that Dave found out about the pirani signing the way everyone else did on the internet Not because he knew that was coming which I think is very it's kind of in it Accidentally very telling like this move is now on you bud So now like you can't there's not even like a you can't even be like it was a group decision

Or you know, like you know, I just was taking the data that I got from it. No, this is you man. This is this is a player that you decided that you want to spend the transfer fee for. So I hope that you are right. And I hope that I am wrong. That's good. If I'm if I am if I am right, that's super bad. I mean, that's to your point, like it's a not a huge transfer fee, but it is flying in the face of we're going to be a data first team. We looked at the data and we said this is the move.

Ted (31:05.493)

Yeah, I still think this was I don't have my group together. I don't even have the beginnings of scouting a number 10. This number 10 is here. He's cheap. If it blows up, it's like it's not at the end of the day, not a significant amount of money. We you know, we can we still have the 22 slots to take in. I bet he knows to he is going to have one other prediction I thought about making was like of the group of like Martin Rodriguez, Mahana, jazz and Christian to home. I said two of them will be gone by the summer.

Jon (31:13.87)

Hehehe

Ted (31:34.413)

and they will occupy the two international slots that they will then fill for you 22 slots. Maybe I'll make that, that's a prediction I'm just gonna come up with on five. My other one is Christian Fletcher will be a regular starter by June. So yeah, I think the fact that they are playing Stroud, me and I think especially because of Stroud is the starter, you're right, he's going to be serviceable. I think it shows that the team, I think when Lissane talked about guys that like maybe aren't as into it, I think we can point the finger at.

Jon (31:39.438)

That'd be great.

Jon (31:44.939)

Inshallah, I hope so.

Ted (32:03.769)

Christian to homey. I think the homey is like, look, I'm on the last year, my contract. I'm not, you know, I, they could exercise potentially a buyout on him. I don't think he's engaged. I think if you are, if you're able to say, and you were going to the first person off the bench is going to be Christian Fletcher. I think maybe he shows something. He starts to build up some confidence. He starts to register some goals and assists, and then he completely takes over. I would have said maybe Matea Cambone, but I think the team has brought in too much depth.

and center back young center backs is hard. It's much harder. It's much easier to be a young actor than in this young center back, but I could be wrong.

Jon (32:37.142)

I hope from the standpoint that we're turning around, turning away transfer fees for that player, I hope that they do have a plan to develop him and we're not just, you know, sitting on him for nothing.

Ted (32:47.405)

Yeah, I think he will get sub opportunities more than last season. I think he will start to be brought in certain games, maybe when we're up. And I think the thing that gives me worried is the goal, the second goal. He plays a very soft square ball. And then the house game, I can't see who the player that he tried to play to, but it was not a good pass and you see basically gets burned on the whole situation. So.

Jon (33:02.638)

in the Dallas game.

Ted (33:12.269)

I think there's still maybe a little bit of rough areas that they're trying to work with him. So we'll see.

Jon (33:17.334)

Watched at home may be the first option off the bench for left wing back, which he played sometimes, which was a part of that conversation about. And if we have injuries, he will see the field.

Ted (33:20.908)

What? Watch him be the goat.

Ted (33:30.421)

Yeah, and I think that's where he is right now. I think it's like, look, we let's get out there. We'll we'll let you know if we'll see if you can prove something. And but I think he's one player is going to be definitely gone. Let's get it. Bad vibes. There was our specific predictions. I have mine down, John. I think you should put yours down. We will save them off somewhere and then we'll review at the end of the year and see if we were right.

Jon (33:41.91)

Let's continue the bad vibes conversation.

Jon (33:56.042)

I don't do that because I'm going to probably be wrong, so I'm going to forget to write those down. Some some listener will write them down for me. That's usually this work. Someone will somewhere will have to be like a bet. A bet collection service will figure it out. But as we're saying, what's we actually got just before the show started, got the text of what this is going to be. So we talked a lot about the Saudi Arabian trip, the why, the how. We talked about the fact that this was money in the door.

Ted (33:59.557)

You might be right on the prani thing, I don't know.

Jon (34:25.822)

And we talked about that this was has been in the works prior to the coach and general manager coming here. And it's also something that they want to do into the future. So there's consequences for that. I think that there were people who felt very strongly about it. I said it on the Friday show. I was thinking about it. I knew that this protest was coming. And I was thinking like, you know, how did the players seem like they had a good time? The front office staff that was there seemed like I had a good time. And I was thinking, if not for a new job, the

director of player personnel could have been in danger just for like being on the preseason trip. And he's probably not the only one, right? If Rory were there as like a known individual who the club has featured frequently as being like an out and proud gay guy in Washington, DC and in MLS and then they, you know, Saudi Arabia is not a secret like about how Saudi Arabia does handles those handles situations and how

Ted (35:09.561)

Mm-hmm.

Jon (35:24.77)

You know how brutal it can be in situations that are pretty benign like Grant wall wearing a t-shirt and all the things that sort of like that whole experience before. Like that recontextualize how bad the decision making was like it is it is a place that the State Department is like do not travel there. If you are if you are like if you're gay don't go there like it's like it's just wild that that's the place we send out before you can kind of abstract that a little bit. When you think about like a lot of people are doing it.

But then when you think about the human side of it, it's wild. And it did not go unnoticed by fans, and they're having a response, at least the supporters groups.

Ted (36:03.829)

Yeah, for home games they will be no drums or chance, so it will be noticeable. I'm sure in the in the atmosphere on the game and you know, I support them. That's I think I think that is I think that's a good way to slice this. And I feel like we're all I think we're all struggling right now with the behaviors of major league soccer, of MLA of DC United right now, especially DC fans are struggling. We're all struggling with this because.

Jon (36:15.33)

Me too.

Ted (36:33.441)

You know, many of us have been fans of this team since we were, I've been a fan since I was a kid, I've gone to games, I still have that connection. Those connections are very hard to, to separate. Um, and I feel like that's what a lot of fans are going through. It's, it's, it's hard to separate those and expecting all bunch of people to just suddenly set, I hear the, you know, the, the pro row crowd, all the people who yell about this type of stuff, about how MLS is all about money. You know, they, they all say, you know, you should just separate. I'm like, it's not, it's.

I'm sorry, it's really not that simple. We dedicate a lot of time. You know, we want these teams to be successful. I think there are appropriate ways to respond when they do these types of things. And I feel like, I feel like if you're abandoning this, then you're abandoning, I'm sorry, the only soccer league that's been around and been successful. And we can argue about whether there's a better way to do this, but for right now, this is what we got. And yeah, it sucks in a lot of ways, but.

Jon (37:31.274)

It's a part of a thing that I've noticed and I'm not the only one to notice this. So the people have talked about it is like everything is getting worse as a sports fan in this country. Like, like very recently, like the, obviously some of the matter more than the others, the open cup thing that is blatantly fan hostile decision or attempt decision-making jerseys are getting worse in some sports, they're getting more expensive and other sports. Uh,

There are there are issues still with streaming and consolidation of those platforms. The cost of MLS direct camera, not direct camera, called direct kick. Holy crap. Season pass didn't go up, but it's still it's still a barrier for some people. Things are just in a continual way, little by little, bit by bit. Making it harder to be a sports fan and like you're just like the relationship you have to that team.

Becomes more and more purely one as a consumer, and it always has been to some degree, but like the artifice, the thing you construct between yourself and the product you buy has always been a story, right? You have this story of this connection to this community, all those things and like just, you know, just a cap, just a fanatics decision, a little capitalism here, a little decision to go to Saudi Arabia here. You're just like, man, it is it is.

Like more and more that story that I have been telling myself I have to change. Like it has to be maybe this doesn't have to be a central part of my identity anymore. Or like what I, you know, like my the first thing I tell people about is that I'm a DC United fan or whatever it is, or DC United podcaster in my particular case. And maybe it's going to be something else just because, you know, it's harder, it's harder to align those things with the way I view myself or, or any of it. I think it's just, it's not just soccer. It's not just us. I think it's, I think you're seeing it all over the place. It's not good, Bob.

Ted (39:23.009)

Yeah. And you know, you talk about, I mean, I guess the one positive thing is like the one thing I feel like you talked about kits getting worse jerseys getting worse. I mean, at the very least, yeah, like MLS like blew it out of the water, like every single design. I mean, with maybe the exception of RSL. But I mean, I will contend. I mean, you think about two years ago when they when they tried to get everybody excited about the white kits or the clean look of the of the white jerseys. By the way, you can still buy that jersey if you want on.

Jon (39:31.81)

They're all good this year, by the way. The designs are awesome.

Ted (39:52.969)

No discount. I guess they're just like, we're just gonna sink a hole.

Jon (39:54.654)

You can buy a pack of five of them from Target for $14.99. I was mostly from a jersey perspective. I, you not, you don't fall as close as I do obviously. And I would expect you to, the baseball jerseys have been made by Nike via fanatics. They, everyone is mad about them. Fans are mad at them. Players are mad about them. It was clearly a decision about, you know, maximizing profit on these things. They shrunk the letters. They, they ironed on everything that used to be sewn on. They moved the location.

It looks you probably haven't seen it Ted. It looks like the giveaway T shirt jersey they give you and these are the ones they're giving the players to play in. And like this is a joke. Why would they do this? And they made it more expensive. It's just like it, but it is all it's all of a piece, right? Like it's just like, well, how can we squeeze a little bit more out of this? Let's make this jersey cheaper, but then also charge more for it because, you know, inflation.

Ted (40:46.497)

Yeah. Other.

Jon (40:48.15)

Sorry for my, sorry, any chance to talk about baseball jerseys being shitty, I'm gonna take advantage. I do not, makes me crazy.

Ted (40:51.829)

Yeah. I mean, I think, I mean, I follow a little bit of hockey. So I know the NHL is going through this as well. So it's coming. Yeah, it's going to be I just hope I know I'm less right now. Like right now you look at fanatics and like all the DC gears terrible. Like I look at like gifts for like my, my dad, for instance. And I look every year, I always check when maybe there's something interesting and I look, I'm just like, there's nothing. Yeah, it's just that there's no, there's no soul to it. There's no, yeah.

Jon (40:57.962)

It's coming, they're coming next.

Jon (41:12.906)

It's like custom ink with DC United's logo on it. Like it's just like, here's a generic brand item.

Ted (41:20.849)

And I've seen some stuff on fanatics for other teams that looks really good. I think it's just a matter of who what the effort, what kind of effort is put in. Anyway, other sort of supportive news, the Labanda, which I don't know if we really talked too much on the show, but they are still going to be not have the still be banned. So the I think like everyone who's in that group can still attend games. They just cannot have a presence in the supporters group.

And a lot of people are upset about this. I understand it. You know, they bring a lot of heart and a lot of soul. I say the reason, the reasoning behind their ban is legitimate and justified. Guys, this is soccer. This is a sport. And yeah, don't throw rocks at buses. Don't do that type of stuff. You know, it's, I know we get into a lot of this sort of, you know, banning supporters groups and we see ultra behavior and stuff like that. People can, like,

Jon (41:56.061)

is legitimate.

Jon (42:01.71)

Don't throw rocks at buses.

Ted (42:16.605)

instances where people can get hurt like seriously hurt. That's where I think you can you can kind of draw the little draw the line a little bit and say, Nope, that's something we want. So I love MLS for the fact that the atmosphere is at stadiums can be electric in a lot of places. I think that is what has led to the growth of the game. I think it's kind of waning a little bit as far as a part of a part of growing the sport. But I think it's still a great part of this, of this sport of watching the sport. So

New Jersey, new black Jersey, new sponsor as I think we've talked about. It looks we all the jerseys look great. I think the DC kit looks great. I'm really glad that I was worried. I was worried like the pattern wouldn't really show through, but it definitely does. I don't know if it'll show through on the field, but I'm fine with it. Not showing on the field. You know, we're, we're a team that wears black. I like the way, what I love about the Jersey. I do like the way the red, the, the red is much more prominent. I think that should be a, it doesn't look like a black and white kit. It looks like a actual black and red.

Jon (43:13.077)

sides and bottom unless you're buying the replica kit and then no, that's not the case. This doesn't have a ton of the sides.

Ted (43:18.842)

It's expensive. We talked about. Guidehouse is the new also the new sponsor. There's no more crypto, which I think a lot of us are very happy about. 5 year 7 1

Jon (43:46.666)

Is it since they announced the ending of the DC United partnership, does that what shot it up? People are like, oh, they're finally not associated with this garbage soccer team.

Ted (43:46.681)

from when they first started.

Ted (43:51.125)

I don't know. It was, it was, it was, it was kind of, but it like, it shoots up basically as soon as they announced the, at the year that they sort of announced the sponsorship, then it kind of went right back down. Crypto is, isn't something that is crashing. So if I never hear the words XTC again, I will be, I will be very, very happy. All right, let's get into some league wide news. Let's talk about this news. This is why if you're watching on the video version, I am wearing my referee Jersey for the same, the MLS referee.

Jon (44:16.15)

I didn't know that was a referee shirt. I thought you were just wearing a green polo because I couldn't see the button things. I know that's blocked. I couldn't see that. It's like, hey, cool. I was expecting black and white stripes like a high school basketball referee.

Ted (44:22.161)

Oh yeah, I couldn't see that. Yeah. It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't show through.

You come on you what? No you what you watch refereeing. You should know what kids with kids they wear. Yeah, I could have grabbed. I grabbed the green one. I could have grabbed. I got a bunch of colors sitting right there.

Jon (44:33.634)

Sometimes they're pink, sometimes they're different colors.

Jon (44:40.13)

Bring, do the whistle next time. You got a whistle that you can.

Ted (44:43.505)

I didn't mean whether I could wear the patches like I don't want to wear the patch. I don't want to get in trouble. They've got some particular ones, but I wanted to show some solidarity here with the referees because we're gonna have replacement referees guys. This should be this kitty. This will either go. I think there's two ways. This will either be fine 2014. They talked about how there was like an increase in mistakes and my argument is that well mistakes can be this varying degree soccer like mistakes are going to happen by the referees all the time. They're going to make a miss a miss call. It's going to happen just about every game.

It's the degree of those mistakes that can be the difference. So if there's like, if they're counting like an increase in mistakes being, well, sometimes they call it a throw in wrong, or sometimes maybe they call it a foul in the middle of the field wrong. You know what? That that's not really somewhat of a big deal. So.

Jon (45:25.09)

They were talking about concussion protocol stuff not being followed the right way. That was their big thing that they were drawing out as a thing. And that's fine to your point. So you said that one way it could go is it go fine or what? They could go really horribly.

Ted (45:35.994)

Mm-hmm. Or it could be fail Mary NFL territory, which if you're unfamiliar, maybe too young because apparently it has happened a while. It's been a while. I don't know. I guess we 10 years. It's been 10 years. I can't remember how when the NFL referee strike was, but basically in a game between the I think it was the Seahawks and the Packers. I think there was a Hail Mary play at the end of the game that was very clearly intercepted and would have been called intercepted. But.

You had two referees go in one says once a touchdown and the other one said interception and they went with the touchdown play and it actually sort of galvanized and it gave the referees at the time what they wanted, which was a massive mistake that sort of forced the NFL back to the table. So, um, for those of you who may be not be aware, there was a tentative agreement. It looked like all this was kind of settled. Uh, but that tentative agreement and apparently according to the PSRA, it wasn't really an agreement. It was, all right, we're just going to take this offer. We don't agree to it or anything. We're going to put it to a vote.

and 95.8% rejected. And so as a response pro has locked out the rest of these. This did include some revenue increases. There's like 15. I find the range is really interesting. It's like seven, it's like, well, 75 to 104% for assistant referee. So that's significant. And then it's like 15 to 100% for video referee, video man.

Jon (46:49.154)

That's it, yep.

Jon (46:53.538)

So there must be some video official referees that are not making money, like that are like volunteer referees. Because that's the only way it could be undoubted. They're just doubling their salary.

Ted (46:58.934)

I guess so.

Ted (47:02.741)

Yeah, increase fees for the regular season. An increase at is a bunch of 7% for match fees. Bunch of different things. They also will get first in business class. The proposal was first in business class for the playoffs and MLS Cup. And I think also they said decision day and decision day in 2027, 2028 my and again, this is where I think this is where according to what we've read. I think that's what the referees mostly were like. Come on. You can you can be of us first in business class for.

Jon (47:32.782)

It seemed to me like it was about scheduling is about quality of life stuff, so that's part of that is travel. But part of that is like, you know, when do I get to come in? Like how many how day how many how early can I get into the games that I'm not flying in the day of? You know, I originally saw all these numbers and I was like, well, I don't really know what they were hoping for expecting. But then when I see a 96% reject of the proposal, it puts me much more in the camp like, all right, well, so clearly things are very bad for referees here that they would not have done that because.

I think it says two things. One, things are not good. And two, that a lot of these people are not making all their life money from refereeing because of this, that they're having to have other jobs. They're not. Some people usually they usually will sign a bad deal sometimes when they're in an economic precarity situation or don't have money, you know, have money coming in, whatever. But I feel like this is like a resounding thing saying we want to make this our full time profession. We want to make sure that we're doing our best in improving.

and this doesn't get it done. The thing I am concerned about from their perspective is that things go fine with the replacement referees. That tends to chip away at your leverage you have in these conversations. In the NFL's case, it fell all into the referees, the union's hands, because it went so poorly. When the baseball strike happened and they had scab players for a very short time and it wasn't very good, same story there. I'm just hoping

I mean, I'm not hoping because I don't want the games to be horrible, but I am hoping that this does not go so dramatically against them where they find themselves wishing that they had this deal that they turned down.

Ted (49:26.219)

Yeah, you

Ted (49:42.893)

VR VAR trained. Will will have to wait and see right now. No games are being canceled. They're all going to use these replacement referees. I think they're also pulling some from the upper reaches of the NCAA. I'll be curious to read the list, and I'll be curious to maybe research some of these guys that are coming in. What one thing I want to add one thing I want to add is that I feel like a lot of people are looking at this and they are. A lot of them. Number one, there's been I've seen responses of people who like your initial response that were like we're like, hey, this is a pretty good deal. I don't know what else you all were expecting.

Number two, I've seen people say, well, they can't get any worse. I'm like, well, yes, it can. We're not the referees. We don't do this job. We don't interact with this. We have no a lot of us have no basis to look at this and say, this is a good deal or this is the best they can get these referees. I feel like in a lot of this in a lot of this nature, it's been it's been very interesting to watch some of the reactions of people when they talk about this.

and just how much they feel like the referees should just take what they can get. And we would never say this about the players. We would never, we would always want the players and it like, we need to start treating these respect. And if we treat these referees better, if we make it a more viable profession, if we help grow it, if we make it better for them, then maybe they will do better. Like, have you ever

Jon (50:42.744)

So you know.

Jon (50:56.426)

And then if they don't, you can toss them out. Yeah. If they suck then right. If they're, if they're flying first class everywhere and they get, and they're making like commensurate wages with the, with, you know, international refereeing and they suck, then they got to go. So it's like, it's like, it's like, if you pay them, if you pay, if the expectations are professional, then the conduct professional and the output is professional, I think the struggle, like the point you made, you're, you're able, you have a different lens because of, you know, your referee experience and you've done it and it's hard.

Ted (51:21.862)

I've actually done it and it's hard.

Jon (51:24.758)

The challenge for fans is no one watches MLS or any sport for the referees. They are like. They're the requirement for the thing to happen, but like it's almost, they only exist in so far as they make you mad, right? That's the, and it is, it's like, it's like, if you, if you've noticed a referee, if you know their name, it's usually a bad thing. You're not like, I love Greg. I love watching him referee. His matches are always wonderful. Unless you're a referee yourself and then you're like, you know, you get it. You're, you're, you're the, you get.

But everyone else in the world like, oh my God, it's that guy again. He sucks. So it's hard. I get it. I think that certainly explains the differential and like how they're being treated and it sucks from their perspective. And also it can't. It's like playing soccer without the soccer ball. Like it's, it is in fact a requirement for the game to, to exist and proceed. So they got to figure out how to be consistent about that or a little bit more consistent anyway.

Ted (52:19.685)

Yeah, and you're right. I view it through a lens. I just for some for someone like me. I don't know what people what people expect. Like I really that that's where that's where it really gets me. And I was having a conversation with somebody and you know, he was showing support. He's like, yeah, well, I don't think they're that great. But and I'm like, number one, they're let's talk about these. These guys are humans. So they're going to make mistakes. They have an incredibly difficult job. The laws as themselves written right now are a mess. It's an absolute mess right now.

Handling is all over the place. IFAB has completely screwed it up in my mind. They have made it so difficult now to figure out what's handling, what's not, that it's always gonna be inconsistent. They have not done the referees any favors. I think when you look at it, the quality of refereeing in MLS has gotten better. It's just nobody wants to look at it because they're all gonna talk about, well, this call in this game, it was 50-50 and the referee went with this decision. I think that was the wrong decision and they screwed my team.

That's what everybody's going to think. So I think this is a lose as far as every that's what everybody's going to think. No one thinks refereeing is getting better. These guys who make that level have to go through incredible amounts of scrutiny. They have to go through numerous times even just to advance from where I am, which is right now. Grassroots referee. I'm right at the bottom of the barrel. I am not going to be refereeing professional games anytime soon. I don't have any desire to do that right now. This time point in my life. I'm happy just to go out there.

Jon (53:18.69)

Yes.

Ted (53:47.181)

do my high school, do my, you know, rec and, and some of my other games. Um, but you know, those, even just to jump up a level, I have to, just to give you a sense of like what I have to do, I have to number one, I have to go referee adult level, uh, adult level games. So 90 minutes adult level games. I have to think I do a center and I have to have a set. I have to have assessments for that center. I also have them to run, have to pass a fitness test. I have to run like a seven minute mile. Mile. So I have to pass the fitness test. There's different camps. You have to go to where you get assessments.

And then you have to keep that up even just to stay at that level. You have to keep that up year after year. So right now, if I live in Lynchburg, I would have to travel to Richmond on a Sunday, go and do, uh, do adult level sort of, you know, Sunday league type games in order to keep my, so it is incredibly stressful that these plate people go through it. And again, what always frustrates is none of them want to go out. None of them, no, no one here wants to go out and do it. They all want to criticize. They don't want to actually go out and do it. So yeah, exactly.

Jon (54:41.39)

It's called thankless for a reason, Ted.

Ted (54:43.941)

I don't know. It just, I get, it gets me. It gets me on the thing. I think we should support the referees. I stand with them. I hope, I hope they get the good deal. I hope that, I hope that everybody's safe, but I hope this weekend shows, you know, what it, I hope maybe this gives some moment, some moment where they say, wow, you know, maybe, you know, maybe Ted uncle's not that bad. Maybe he actually does do some good things because you know, this guy, they've this scab they brought in is just not cutting it today. So

Jon (55:08.782)

I want Christian Bend ticket to grab the ball and throw it in the net like he's playing European handball and then the replacement ref to say it's OK and then we win one nothing. That's what I want to have.

Ted (55:17.294)

I will see. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. And then of course, so again,

Jon (55:22.466)

Keeping up with the bad vibe central.

Ted (55:25.517)

Bad vibe central. We all thought the US Open Cup drama was stopped. I have had, you know, God bless the guy that runs the cup.us, but he has been saying, look, it's, you know, US soccer denied it. We're going forward. Apparently that's not been the case. Apparently MLS is sort of digging their heels in and they are saying, we are not competing. We are not doing this as we always do it. They are basically, from what we've heard, holding the US Open Cup hostage. And this was on the Hudson River Blue.

I've defined the article of the person who wrote it and I just found it out. But go check that out. Go just go to Hudson River blue. Read it. I think there's a lot of interesting stuff in there. Um, more specifically that U S soccer has talked about canceling the tournament as a whole. Um, and in fact, the USL had an emergency, an emergency meeting where they said it looks really bleak. Um, there's been some proposals that have put out, there's been some talk about sharing gate receipts with MLS. So basically if, you know, DC were to travel to Richmond, they would get 40% of those gate receipts.

So, I mean, they are pulling out all the stops to...

Jon (56:24.586)

Yeah, again, capitalism wins, man. The spirit of the cup is dead. We're going to get our money out of this.

Ted (56:29.601)

Yeah, apparently MLS says they only want eight teams to participate. So I guess that would be what the eight teams that didn't make the playoffs. I don't know how they determine that. So, I mean, there is, and they, I think what they've also tried to, they've tried to basically, we will have eight teams in the tournament. If you recall at one point, and I don't know if you do, I think around 2011, I think it was, it used to be not all teams were in the tournament proper.

Jon (56:39.778)

We're in, baby.

Ted (56:57.889)

in MLS. There was like a qualifying tournament where they kind of had like a quick knockout game and then the winners of those knockout games then made it to the actual tournament proper. And then the teams that finished high enough in the standings were, you know, we're also in it. So it was a very different sort of setup for the tournament. Yeah, this is bad vibes central. A lot of people, you know, wanting U.S. soccer to pull their division one sanctioning. Apparently, the Hudson River Blue article seems to indicate that this would

this would aid the NASL in their antitrust lawsuit. And I think that is the primary focus of why they are, US soccer is nervous because the people, the remnants of the NASL are watching this with beta breath, because this is, we're already, we'll get into a little bit when we talk about women's soccer about some of the things that I think are kind of trying to build their case that yes, our division rankings are fine, don't worry about it.

Jon (57:49.654)

The open cup is not worth it to US soccer to have everything else fall apart. Like they love the, they love the cup, but it's still, I think cost them more money than, than it makes. So from their perspective, like, well, we're going to cut this. I don't want an ASL to be able to Sue us into oblivion. So whoops, fine. Whatever you want to molest.

Ted (58:05.733)

Yeah. And I mean, they're in a, I mean, they're in a tough shop. Yeah. And loss has the money. They have the weight. They have the financial weight. They want to do this. The East cup thing. Everybody talks about how it's money. I feel like there, there should be a solution here and the solution, the solution, the obvious solution is MLS needs to, I just don't understand why MLS is so hesitant. Just, Oh, open up your rosters.

Jon (58:26.638)

The fix is so easy. The fix is open up your rosters just for US Open Cup game, just for the Open Cup. Say you extend your roster to 32. You can bring in Academy players, you can bring on whatever the deal and then that's it. But they don't lose any other provisioning. They don't have to be paid throughout the year. They don't need benefits. None of those things. Short term emergency loans basically. And then let the team play it how they want to. If they use the end of their roster against a reasonable USL championship club.

They're probably gonna lose. Like that's not, like if you're, if you're drawn up against, if you mean if it's Flower City or whatever, like maybe not, but there's a certain standard if you get drawn to them, if you don't take it seriously, you'll lose. And that's fine.

Ted (59:09.989)

I mean, it's clear it's clear this is retribution from Major League Soccer. I think this is retribution from what happened with the with the original deal where they're like, we're going to put our next pro teams in there. And those are what that's what we're going to do. And you're like, no, you're not going to do that. We did. We deny that request and like, OK, then we're going to make it exceedingly difficult. We like we really do not want our team. We tried to be nice. We tried to be nice. And that was us being nice to this tournament. Now, now we're going to get now we're going to get upset. So.

Jon (59:32.423)

That's right, that was us being nice to you.

Jon (59:38.062)

Now we're gonna destroy it.

Ted (59:39.561)

Yeah, it's bad. I hate it and. Yeah, I at this point it's like I mean, we'll wait and see. This is this story is getting very interesting. I'll be curious to see there was a lot of fervor when MLS originally announced this. I'll be curious to see if that fervor if that type of fervor returns and their people upset about it so. Alright, we don't have much women much Washington Spirit News to discuss. Really nothing King as I believe is now finalized the.

the purchase of olympic leon's the female uh the women's team uh no she has said no major brand changes no changes right now she wants to get i think a training center built for them she wants to have a better situation for them sorry

Jon (01:00:22.35)

Don't worry, Leon, you've got two seasons before you're going to be a highlighter, highlighter yellow.

Ted (01:00:27.501)

Black and yellow. Yeah, we will have kits. We'll have a kit reveal soon for the spirit. It's not it's not going to look good. But we did have some sort of pretty interesting news in regards to women's soccer at the USL Super League, which is going to be their women's league originally supposed to be a D two league, but they've decided to go after division one sanctioning and US soccer has granted it to them. Again, conspiracy hat for me goes on.

I feel like yes. So so right now there is a team going to be in Washington DC. They are probably going to play in Loudon, which is very, very far, very, very far from Washington DC. Um, so they will not be playing at Audi field. I think this is, I think this is also, this is part of aiding, uh, their antitrust lawsuit that says, look like, you know, if you meet the standards and we say you meet the standards, we have no problem with two division, one leagues, any SL you, you just did not meet the standards. So, you know, go, go home, go home.

Jon (01:00:57.23)

Mm-hmm, they are.

Jon (01:01:18.146)

So we miss. I would love that it all is going to come down to what these rosters look like. Right. I think I said, I think I said somewhere, I think it might've been on discord. Like if they are pulling players that couldn't make NWSL rosters in Loudon, they're going to draw like 250 people a game and a hundred, a hundred of them are going to be friends and family of the players. So it's, is all, this is all sort of kind of silly. I think in them, at least if you're, if you're looking at cities that have

Ted (01:01:23.513)

Mm-hmm.

Jon (01:01:46.098)

professional soccer teams located in them. I don't know what you're hoping to accomplish. I just seems like a strange decision to do, although I mean, you know that what's I guess will give him a chance. Let's see what they come up with. This is for my understanding. This team is also partially owned by a firm sports which owns Loudon United, so it's a coalition. That's why they're probably at Segra. Potentially, I just want to see what these rosters look like. That's what it all comes down to. If they sign a bunch of like.

like college players that couldn't get drafted. It is a division one T league in name only, right? It's nothing else about it as division one. When you look at NWCEL.

Ted (01:02:26.101)

Yeah. And it'd be curious to see. I think, I think a lot, what a lot of people have said, I think at this league had come out two, three years ago, I think you would, and they, and they got some money behind it and some investment behind it. I could have seen them maybe pulling some big names away from, you know, Kristen press, let's get you out of Chicago here. Why don't, or let's get you out of the mess that was Chicago at the time. And let's get you onto one of our teams. We'll treat you well. We want you there kind of kind of

Jon (01:02:52.402)

USL should have launched immediately when the athletic report came out. They should have like just press release, like, uh, we're starting next week, guys, we're going to go next week.

Ted (01:02:55.512)

Oh yeah.

Ted (01:03:01.798)

But now you've seen, you've seen the, and the, and the league truly was struggling for investment as well. But now you've seen a lot of that change. Teams are now getting their own stadiums. The end of it sells now on such a small, strong footing. I think, I think this was, I wonder sometimes whether this was us, they went to us, what it would take be division one. And they were like, you know what, you know, put forward your best effort, make it look good. We're going to give you D1 sanctioning. This will help us in a number of ways of showing that, that we actually hold.

Jon (01:03:27.07)

Right? That had nothing to do with this women's soccer at all in any way, but it is in fact helps us for sure.

Ted (01:03:32.477)

I think they're going to start off. I think like you said, if, unless they pull off some sort of huge heist and they grab a player that maybe we weren't expecting, you know, then we'll see. But I think eventually that league isn't going to say, okay, uh, we're just going to go back to, we're going to go back and be a DT league where we're totally fine.

Jon (01:03:50.958)

And that'd be fine. And that's good. There's, I would love, and it will be great if NWSL teams could have reserve teams in those leagues, similar to the USL, whatever. Who cares? Adrian Gonzalez, assistant coach to Washington spirit has finally arrived in California for training. So that's good. Now they can actually have a coach that will be there longterm and is actually a real coach for them. So it's still been, you know, there's not much going on out there in California. It's been raining. Camp continues. They still have, I think, like, when's first kick for the spirit? Do we know that?

Ted (01:04:20.953)

March. Yeah, wow. This is really, this is really good. Really good stuff. We, we, we've been in, we've been in DC mode for a while. March 17th is kickoff that we on the road against Seattle rain.

Jon (01:04:21.11)

First week, was it March?

Yeah, well, that's it. Googling, googling, googling.com.

Jon (01:04:33.43)

So almost a whole month, almost a whole month. Either preseason games also listed on there. I believe there are a couple that they've got planned. I don't believe any of them are available to the open media or streamed, because apparently that's again, who would want to do that? Certainly not podcasters would hate that.

Ted (01:04:43.382)

or streamed.

Ted (01:04:50.481)

It you know, you know, it's you know, it's you know what I feel like what I feel like MLS and to be a sell should do and maybe it's just too expensive come up with like for satellite camps. You know how they do the media day and everything they do like the media day combine that with some preseason games get like a whole MLS fast to welcome everybody back move the teams there cover it so no one has to pay for it.

And just like just show something to like get some people excited about like the games, have some interviews, try some new things with your Apple TV broadcasts that might be might be worth trying.

Jon (01:05:27.074)

That would have been you could have you could have local podcasters do like a small segment of the game. Well, fan zone, who knows what the article I read that was like the quality is so poor often in the preseason that the only thing that was coming out of a video broadcast in the preseason games was clips of horrible goalkeeper mistakes in preseason. And then that just being the joke and then be like, we paid to have this negative free media, basically. And I'm like, you know what? Screw it.

Ted (01:05:32.007)

Do a fan zone thing, like, you know, go crazy.

Jon (01:05:55.726)

There's only 250 people on watches anyway. It's all it's all downside risk for us. It's not nothing's up and it's Ted. I agree with you, man. I, I want it too. I'd watch all of them. I'm watching college baseball, Ted. I clearly, I mean, I'm clearly having a gap in my sports watching life. I would love to be watching them all three season. I watched all the stupid inter Miami games cause it was on Apple TV and it was available, but you know, it's just, it's, it's something we want, but it doesn't make dollars in sense. So it doesn't.

Ted (01:06:08.109)

Hehehe

Ted (01:06:21.925)

But maybe NWCL can do the same. I know they kind of have the Challenge Cup as kind of their big preseason thing that's now no more. So I don't know. Just like just get the teams in one location. You can do your media stuff. You can do you can do a lot of that stuff and you can also combine it with some games.

Jon (01:06:36.35)

One of the camps can be in Saudi Arabia. Half of a quarter of the teams want to go there anyway.

Ted (01:06:38.821)

There you go.

I don't know. Maybe we'll see that change for both leagues. But all right, folks, I think that's going to do it. We got an hour long show.

Jon (01:06:47.726)

We've got a, yep, Awa Long Show album recommendation thing I'm starting, I did it on the Friday show, I'm doing it now. The album is People Who Aren't There Anymore by Future Islands, it just came out last week, it's really good. If you haven't heard Future Islands before, they're a Baltimore band, they've been around forever. If you haven't heard of them, just look Future Islands, Dave Letterman, and watch the performance of a song, like I think of two albums ago, that should make you a fan, I think, that's all I'll say.

Ted (01:07:11.797)

very astute recommendation and I feel like you're paying homage to the Washington Spirit team which has several people that are no longer there anymore.

Jon (01:07:22.036)

That's gonna be the episode title now. People aren't there anymore.

Ted (01:07:27.658)

Alright folks, thank you guys so much for listening again. Patreon.com slash RFG's. We're gonna we're gonna we're still like hacking out some content. I've got a piece just to give you a little teaser. I'm gonna have a whole preseason piece. I've already asked for prediction from John and the guy and Brian as well to get to get some predictions out more your generic Golden Boot assist type predictions, but also some discussion in.

Just some overall thoughts on how I think the team is going to do and some things to watch for this year. So definitely if you've if you kind of like have been away from the team for some of you, it might just be old news you guys that you sickos. But if you've kind of been dipping in and out, maybe you haven't been paying attention to everything. I think it's maybe a good refresher on what to expect for the team.

Jon (01:08:06.738)

All I need to remember is the time I went to a game at the beginning of, I think last season and there was someone was like, where's Bill Hamid? And I was like, yeah, you gotta you gotta reiterate for folks. They are not paying attention as much as you think they are. So.

Ted (01:08:15.701)

Yeah. Yeah, and that's and that should also be the notion of why MLS thinks they can get away with stuff that they're getting away with right now. And why do you see things they can get away with the stuff they're getting away with right now? Thank you guys again. We'll check. We'll be back next week with an actual game to watch and some analysis. So it should be fun. But most.

Jon (01:08:26.609)

Short memories.

Jon (01:08:33.302)

Woohoo! Vamos!