Assistant Fuego FC Eddie Gonzalez talks Fuego FC w CK

TONIGHT Fuego FC is playing in the Ice & Fire Cup 6pm watch party at Crow & Wolf. Assistant Fuego FC Eddie Gonzalez talks all things Fuego with CK On Sports

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
K on Sports It is Fox SportsRadio. Hey, look, if you're
looking to do something to kick offthe Fourth of July festivities a little bit
early, come hang out Crowing Wolf. That's where they're gonna have the official
watch party for the Fuego FC game. As a matter of fact, they're
gonna be doing karaoke there around thesame time. It's gonna be a lot
of fun food trucks, you nameit. But more importantly, come through

(00:21):
watch the Fuego, enjoy the game, have some beverages, and just chill
out again. That's Crowing Wolf inClovis joining me right now, Assistant coach
Fuego FC. They're in Colorado.Eddie Gonzalez, what's up, Eddie?
How you doing doing good? Allright, So here we go seek on
Sports Fox Sports Radio talking with theassistant coach CV Fuego FC. Okay,

(00:46):
let's go back to the game.Saturday night. Had a great crowd Fresno
State Soccer Stadium. One one draw, went to penalty kicks. I know
that Fuego didn't get the result thatthey wanted, but come on to come
back from being down one nail.The energy inside Fresno State Soccer Stadium I

(01:06):
know it was not the result.The crowd loved it. They were behind
you, and you guys fought allthe way to the very end. Yeah.
I mean it goes to you knowwhat we talked about last week.
How you know it's going to beexciting. There's going to be a lot
of goalscoring opportunities. You know,obviously it's the crowd is like the twelfth

(01:27):
Man. So you know, shoutout to the people that showed up,
you know, even though it wasa little warmer. Yeah, but I
mean the match was was exciting.You know. I think it was a
you know, we were down onezero in the first half. Obviously you
don't you don't want that. Butaside from that, you know, that
goal. I mean, I thinkwe controlled the match pretty much the entire

(01:49):
last sixty minutes of the match.Right Again, you know we talked about
certain players coming in and being exciting, gan Bor Benson having some chances,
getting on the end of scenes andthen are super subs, like I said,
Alfredo Medez again goes in, Yeah, and he scores a goal and
in the crowdsman, while we couldhave gotten you know, a couple more,

(02:09):
but also heads up to all theteams in the league where it's very
competitive, it's it's I'm not gonnasay it's like the Premier League, right
because that's like a big thing.But what I'm saying is in the Premier
League, everyone there's a good matchevery weekend as a matter who's playing who.
The level is pretty it's you know, it's pretty even across the table,

(02:32):
and where everyone's beating everyone, you'retrying to get points, you're trying
to leap frog. And so forus, I mean, I think it
was a it was a good outingwe had. We we had to change
some tactics on on what we thoughtthat they were. You know, Tormenta
did and and you know, weadjusted and the boys, you know,
the boys did well. They adjusted, they they they stuck to the game

(02:53):
plan and we got a goal andwe created so many more chances where we
could have went ahead. And youknow, but that's the game. You
know, you missed your chances andyou know you don't you don't get the
results that you want, but abig one, you know, the you
know, the fans came out.It was a really good night of footy.
Yeah, we were really pleased withwith everything. Hyveryten came out and

(03:14):
so yeah, just unfortunate with justone point. We wanted three. I
know that we showed love to thefans for coming out and the energy that
they brought. But even after losingin PKS, and that's always tough,
those fans kept that energy up.They couldn't wait to see those players come
to the other side of the pitch. They couldn't wait to just say thank

(03:37):
you, thank you for your effort. And the reason I bring this up
is because I can't say it wasalways like that. I think there were
times that when that first goal wouldgo in, and I'm not talking about
this season, that first goal wouldgo in. The next thing, you
know, it's two zero, nextthing you know, it's three zero.
Then it's three to one, andwe're like, where's that effort, where's
that fight? I see a differentFuego team this year. I'm excited for

(04:01):
that, and I love that thefans showed you guys love even in defeat.
Well, you got the one onedraw, you get the one point,
but even after losing in PKS becauseit was the Jegermeister Cup. Yeah,
and and and to piggyback on thatpoint, ck, what we tell,
you know, the guys is like, look, no matter what happens,

(04:23):
we have to be disciplined. Wehave to stick to the plan because
it's football. And comparing to whathappened in the Euros, what happened in
Copamerica, you see it. Yousee these you see these teams going to
toe to toe with the big dogsand they're going at ninetieth minute getting equalizers
or in the last minute they're makinga PK say, or you know,

(04:45):
after scoring after getting scored on earlyin the game. And so with our
guys, it's a you know,it's a fight to the end. You
know, you don't give up,you keep fighting, you keep battling.
And a lot of that, youknow, shows to what we're trying to
end late on the pitch, onwhat our playing style is. You know,
they talk about what type teams youknow, emulate the coach and what

(05:11):
that is and if you know,I mean when I played, it was
like that, and obviously everyone's seenGermaine play. That type of mentality you
try to instill in your team alongwith the other coaches too, is that
we try to say, hey,you know, last minute of a drill
at training, you go one hundredpercent, like you're not taking any any
days off. And credit to theboys. I mean, we've been grinding

(05:33):
then we're trying to get results.And my hat's go my hat goes off
to the boys because it's not easyshowing up every week every day after you
know, being you know, notwhere we want to be, but we're
continuing to work and so that's hopefulthat that we see that we have that
no quit mentality and so that's somethingyou could definitely build off of. Okay,

(05:57):
so let's talk about the match that'sjumping off tonight. Ice Cup gonna
take on Northern Colorado the Hellstorm.Very excited about this one. Tell us
how this is gonna play out,because we have a lot of folks that
are going to be supporting you backhere inside Crowing Wolf, the official Fuego
FC watch party, six pm.Crowing Wolf. Get out there and kick

(06:17):
off the fourth of July weekend early. But tell us about Fire and Ice,
tell us about the Haill Storm.Yeah, so you know, this
this Cup is another you know,they made a match out of it,
a series between us and then Fireand Knife. They have the upper hand
on us, you know, thelast few years but they've always been good
matches, I mean very you know, exciting, even the coaches getting after

(06:42):
it. You know, with Emon'shad actually he got a red card last
game. He's not gonna be onthe sideline. But that's what I said
earlier about you know, coaches emulatingyou know, or the players emulating their
coaches style. And they're they're agood team, and they're very vertical,
they're fast, wrong, they're big, So we for sure are looking to

(07:03):
have to match them up, youknow, physically. I think tactically we
we already have our plan and howwe're going to go about that. But
the match, I mean, there'sgonna be a lot of goals. That's
what I think. Last game weplayed against them, it wasn't a Yega
miser Cup, but it went forto three. We came back, you
know, tied it up and didall that, and and you know it

(07:26):
was back and forth, back andforth. So there's a lot of goals.
It's not easy going to Colorado beingbeing over there because the altitude,
the environment that they have, it'skind of you know, it's in the
outskirts, so it's kind of youknow, gives it more of that you
know, smaller intimate area, butout with you know, you have to

(07:49):
deal with all the elements, youknow, the turf, you have to
deal with the we had like somany weather delays, even like how the
stadium locker rooms set up where itbenefits always the home team, and that's
what it is. You know,you don't want to give the away team
any type of edge, so you'rehaving to it's an uphill battle. You're

(08:09):
having to deal with all those things. But again we have that that mentality
that we're going to take it athim and we have to match up with
them, uh physically, which Ithink, uh, you know, we'll
be able to do. Every gamehas been improving in that area. So
I expect a lot of goals.I expect it to be fast paced,

(08:30):
a lot of counter attacks. Uh, set pieces are going to be huge.
And so those are all things thatwe've been preparing for. And you
know, we want to we wantto bring this fire and ice cut back
and one thing that they haven't seenespecially on the pitch, dimbore Benson yep.
And so that's another thing. Wehave a you know, they have

(08:52):
some some big boys at the backand so he's going to be able to
compete with with their with their twocenter backs. We're going to see which
ones are to go with. Butuh, you know that's one the one
element of that, like I said, is that what we've been missing is
that target striker that that reachs Havoccan hold up play and you know,
and there's a couple of players thatalso aside from him that have actually been

(09:15):
shining through. We have a youngacademy player, you know, Javier Mariona.
He's a young kid, eighteen yearold kid, you know, from
the North Valley. And he's beenyou know, he's been he's been going
in and and and actually starting forus, getting minutes and he's been doing
very well. So we're excited forfor him to continue to grow. And

(09:37):
and uh that's one highlight another playerto watch that I would say that that
grops well with with den Bore andthen Alfredo. You know, I like
that. I like that combination ofplayers. Six pm watch on ESPN Plus.
Actually join us for the official freeFuego FC watch party at Growing Wolf.

(09:58):
That's right, it's free. Youcome through, you have a good
time. You kick off the fourthof July weekend watching a little footy all
I'm saying is Crowenwolf is gonna bethe place to be six pm. Fuego
FC. Make sure you follow themon social media again, go to their
website FUEGOFC dot com. But wetalked about this last week. It's official.

(10:20):
The USA is out, Mexico isout. What are your thoughts about
both of those countries being gone?The one country I didn't expect when you
look at North America to stay inthis was Canada. But okay, here
we go. What's going on withMexico, What's going on with the USA?
I mean, I think this isgonna be a time to reflect and

(10:43):
not jump on making decisions. Butit does hurt, man, you know,
it hurts on so many levels whereit kind of gets everyone thinking,
okay, if we can get outof the group. Here. This Copa
Medica, which was gonna be likeI wouldn't say the trial, but it
was going to be the real teston what the US and Mexico and even

(11:05):
even the South American teams, howthey're gonna fare in a high pressure situation
in a place where the World Cupis gonna be. And a lot of
teams passed the test. They passedthat and a lot of teams failed,
like the US and Mexico, andso you know, with Mexico it's it's
a it's a pressure situation. Imean, the press is crazy in Mexico.

(11:30):
The sporting director came out and said, hey, basically, they're not
going to fire the coach. They'regonna give him a two week kind of
you know, time frame for himto come back with an analysis report and
see what are the areas that theyneed to improve on, et cetera.
And and so I don't know theycould, they couldn't fire him. I

(11:50):
don't know what's gonna happen. Hey, that federation is better than I am.
I'd have been like, Okay,you gotta go, you gotta go.
See here's the thing like, Anddon't get me wrong, I understand
they say this is the golden erafor American soccer, and we have some
splendid players that are playing all overthe world. But in my opinion,
when it comes to this region,I always look to Mexico to lead the

(12:11):
way. And I'm sure a lotof USA soccer fans they are gonna be
frustrated that I'm saying this, Butyou know what, Traditionally, Mexico has
been that one team from the regionwhere you're like, we can count on
them to make the World Cup,we can count on them to make some
noise in Copa America, we cancount on them to make noise in the
Gold Cup, and then to seethem flame out the way that they did,
knowing that they shouldn't have, Likethe USA had to go up against

(12:35):
Yoda Way and I mean, ifyou watch that game, you saw how
good Yodaway was. That was atall order. But Mexico, man,
that was a surprise to me.Yeah, I mean it goes to show
that where you know, if you'renot every game is you got to handle
business. And if you let thatone game, you know it can effect

(12:56):
it have a domino effect on theon the on the bad end. And
so with going back with Mexico isthat they don't the Federation. And again
this is just what I've read onwhat I know is that before they would
be quick on making decisions. Rightnow, I think they're going to take
your time because they really have toanalyze where they want to be in two

(13:18):
years from now because of the WorldCup. So they're really going to see,
Okay, this coach, what typeof players were they recruiting for the
national team for this tournament, andso I think they're going to take their
time on what that's going to be. I'd be surprised if they leave the
coach, to be honest, Butagain, you know, crazier things have

(13:41):
happened. And then moving on tothe US, man, we were watching
the games and we're we're hopeful thereare some opportunities, but how oo do
White plays? I mean they're indogfights? Yeah, every weekend. Their
players are playing Champions League. ThatI mean, they're not that our players
aren't, but you're talking about theirmeaningful matches fighting relegation. And then when

(14:03):
they're in the Coulner Bowl, theSouth American you know, federation to qualify
for the World Cup. I meanthey're playing Brazil, they're playing Argentina,
they're playing Chile, they're playing Colombia. I mean they're playing they're playing all
these countries like every you know,and so those are meaningful games. If
you saw, you know, watchingthe game yesterday, I mean, they

(14:26):
were kicking the crap out of theUS and it took a while for the
US to like fight back, youknow. And again they're gonna say the
ref this raft that. But Imean, if you look back, I'm
just like, man, that's that'sThat's just how they identify themselves. That's
their identity of just playing hard andgoing and so that that showed in the

(14:48):
match, and I was like,holy smokes, you know. But I
think that's another thing is that theUS. I I'd be surprised if if
Berhalter stays. But again, crazierthings have happened, you know, and
so I don't I don't know what'sgoing to happen in that sense, but

(15:11):
but yeah, I think I thinkthe US is also going to take their
time on making decisions and doing ananalysis as well, because they're in the
same boat as Mexico. They haveto get this right. They have to
make sure what are some things becausethere are going to be hosting the World
Cup, you know, both countriesand you know they are. They they

(15:33):
got to make sure that. Yeah, it's just right. They got to
get it right. They got toget it right. Thank you, Eddie,
appreciate you coming on. Eddie Gonzalez, assistant coach Fuego FC. Reminder
another Ice and Fire Cup matches takingplace against Northern Colorado six pm you can
watch on ESPN Plus, but we'reinviting everybody to watch at Crowing Wolf kick

(15:56):
off the fourth of July weekend EarlyCrowing Wolf, six pm and let's root
on Fuego, Save travels. Eddiecan't wait to watch you guys on ESPN
Plus live from the Fuego watch partyat Crowing Wolf. Yeah, thank you,
CK. And having a you know, it wouldn't be so nice to
have a nice cold one day witheveryone, but yeah, right on the

(16:17):
way back, on the way back, I'll have one for you. Eddie
Gonzales right there, Assistant Coach Fuegofc CK on Sports Fox Sports Radio