Eddie Gonzalez from Fuego FC joins CK On Sports

This Saturday night Fuego FC is playing at Fresno State Soccer Stadium at 8pm. Eddie talks all things Fuego FC with CK On Sports

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
C K on Sports. It isFox Sports Radio. Eddie my man,
assistant coach Fuego. Always appreciate youcoming in, mister Eddie Gonzalez. Let's
talk about the game tomorrow night beforewe get into a lot of things soccer,
a lot of things. Fuego FC. Big match, big match.
It's our first Jegermeister Cup. Yes, so with USSEL League one this year

(00:22):
we've had our you know, leaguecompetition and now we have a league's cup
which is the Yegermeister Cup where youyou get we'rewarded by obviously winning right and
scoring a lot of goals. Yeah, that's how you advance. And then
there's also prize money for that andif the game does end in a tie,
there are it's a penalty kicking.Yes, so we've actually done that

(00:43):
three times all the way. Sowe're happy to finally come back play in
front of our home fans tomorrow eightpm. Yep. You know. Good
thing is the game is at eightpm. We understand that during the summertime
it's a little bit hotter, sothe game times have been moved back so
that way you know you're gonna getthere, You're gonna arrive. The sun
is starting to set and you getto enjoy a great evening of soccer.

(01:06):
The one thing I will say aboutthe Yeagermeister Cup, it's truly exciting because,
like you said, when it finishesin a draw, you go straight
to PKS where regular matches, thatdoesn't happen, no, unless it's a
knockout game. And for us,we've on the road, we've actually gotten
you know, good results. Yeah, we've come back. We were at
Lexington, we're down to zero thered card early in the game, and

(01:27):
we came back and we had oursuper sub a fredom Medentz, which he's
already gotten a couple of goals thisyear off of coming off the bench,
so that's that was pretty exciting.And then obviously the Omaha game, which
was you know, unfortunate we lostin PKS, but come you know,
holding up a shutout for the game. And for the last few games we've

(01:49):
actually been improving, you know,tweety sweaking with the lineup, and we
were excited to be playing at home. You know, this is our home.
We're still looking for our first winat home this year, which has
been a little tricky, but weare we are, we are plugging.
Let me say this though, thegames are exciting. Oh yeah, And
that's the one thing I try toexplain to everybody when you look at what

(02:12):
this Fuego team has done this year, Jamaine Jones has brought an exciting brand
of football to the valley. Theteam is engaged, the team plays tough
all the way through. In additionto that, they're putting up goals.
I'm like, this is fun towatch. And I have to ask you
a player that you guys recently acquiredBenson. Benson Man, that dude,

(02:35):
he's something else. He's exciting.No, he's a he's a he's a
fun player too. Obviously. Iget to coach and and and you know,
Jermaine Jones and and and company.We've been able to bring him in
and he's plugged right in his firstgame. You know, he has one
game with us and he got anassistance, yeah right away to his h
his his his national counterpart, Alfredo. So he's on Duran. He actually

(02:57):
comes from a huge like footballing family, okay, pedigree where his brother was
on the played all over, wason the national team, went to the
World Cup. I mean I thinkhe said his niece and his cousin and
his other brother are also professional footballand he played in on Duras and then
we picked him up actually by whenwe played against Vaalito. He's fun,

(03:19):
he has a spark, he hasenergy. When he's on the ball,
he's electric. It's almost like everytime he touches it, you say to
yourself, something could happen here,Something could happen here. And and that's
the thing is you want to haveinvolvements goal environments, right, whether it's
a cyst, it's goals. Obviouslythat's why we got him. He's our

(03:40):
number nine, but also like drawingfouls, chances create. Yes, he's
at the end of services, butI think he was that one missing piece
that we we really needed to havethe final you know, the final product.
And for us looking at stats,I like going off with stats,
right, some other people are likewhatever, but you know, chances created,

(04:02):
crosses, passes in the final thirdthat lead to you know, whether
it's a foul, corner kick,et cetera. Right, and you know
that was that one missing piece thatwe feel now now that we have all
that, he's gonna be able toput the icing on the cake for us.
So Fuego FC back in action.Super excited for that again. Kickoff
eight o'clock Fresno State. Get outthere early. The place is going to

(04:26):
be packed. First Yeager Meister Cupmatch that's taking place in Fresno. Oh
and by the way, make sureyou go to their website fuegofc dot com.
Once again, fuegofc dot com.You can even get yourself a Yager
Meister Cup fridge, which is insane. Yeah, so you can enter to
win. It's a raffle and they'reactually pretty cool. I even asked to

(04:47):
see if I could even join,but they told me I'm excluded. Well,
when I saw it at the officebecause I went by the office,
I was like, what do Igotta do to get one of these?
Exactly. Yeah, So you justgot to go in enter to win on
the website like and just you know, register to win and hopefully you win
it. Once again, that's fuegofcdot com. One thing I also want
to give Fuego props for you guysdid juneteenth last game. This time it's

(05:12):
pride night love. The fact thatyou guys are giving back to the community,
staying engaged and representing for so manydifferent cultures lifestyles, you name it.
The fact that here we are inJune and we did a big Juneteenth
I guess you would say celebration inhalftime and gave away limited edition Juneteenth T
shirts. That was a big deal. Then you look at Pride Night during

(05:33):
Pride Month again, another big deal. Fuego FC. You guys are not
missing the boat on this, No, no, no, you know it's
inclusive, it's a family environment.We want make sure that everyone's welcome.
If you love footy or if it'syour first time, and yeah, you
know you can grow hopefully we canyou know, earn your support and yeah,
so just looking forward to having everyoneout there, and you know it's

(05:56):
a little cooler, right APM,Right, yeah, no, APM is
perfect. So you know, makesure that you you come with enough rest,
right and if not, then youcould get a few beverages. Yeah,
that's what I'm saying. You getout there around eight o'clock, well,
get there around seven thirty, youknow, enjoy yourself, get the
beverages, chill, the sun goesdown. Great night for soccer into five

(06:16):
five nine. Before we let yougo, let's talk about what's going on
with the Euros. Let's talk aboutwhat's going on with We got to talk
about Copa America first, because herewe are, you know, on the
cusp of possibly seeing both Mexico andthe US not advance out of the group
stage. That's crazy, that wouldbe that would be really really hard pill

(06:41):
to swallow. Yeah, especially withthe US, with the promise that they've
had and some of the good resultsof good footy that that the US has
been playing and having some young talentscome out and yesterday's match, I'm there
and I'm just like son of agun like but i mean literally, the
red cart would just say it's Imean, there's no excuse for that,
right, and there's there's that isa not to say that it's his fault.

(07:02):
You know that you has lost,but that had that has a big
contributing play with ten men. Andthen you know with Mexico the previous day,
I mean, it's it's always seeingare the question is are the right
players? Are the right players there? And and and with Mexican Federation Mexican

(07:24):
Soccer, the Mexican fans always hopefulon Mexican I grew up going to Mexico
games in La the Coliseum. Youknow or orp North the barrier, and
so it's always like, hey,we fight with the big dogs, yeah,
and then with the with the smallerdogs. It's kind of like,
you know, it's a it's ayou know, a little bit of a
letdown, but there's still a lotof good chance. I mean, it's

(07:46):
not like you're throwing in the towel. I mean you basically you win,
you get a good result, youhave a really good chance. But now
maybe you get a little bit ofhelp. But I think, uh,
as far as in a hole,I think the direction is going in the
right way that you know, youas you know Mexico, and then you
know, but advancing is they're gonnaplay you know, they could play against
Brazil, right, they can playagainst a big team. You know,

(08:07):
you're like, all right, youwere hoping to wait till the semi finals
for that. So yeah, theyput themselves both in a hole. And
yes, they can advance out ofthe group stage. It's exciting to get
to match day three and know thateverything is on the line. I mean,
it's good news that your the way. They ended up winning their game
easily, So I mean, Idon't know what they're gonna throw out there

(08:28):
against the USA, which may begood for the USA. Yeah, but
even even wise, you would saysecond team there, they're still good.
Yeah, I mean, because thatbasically means Satz is gonna start. Yeah,
I mean he went in and stillI mean you're still dealing with that
and he's stended up in MLS.So it's it's in Copa Medica in a

(08:48):
whole, it's it's a beautiful tournamentto be able to have all these,
you know, teams from different countriescome out, top level players from all
over the world to come and play, you know, up and out right
the Brier in Vegas. You know, great facilities have been doing a great
job. They've been packed. You'renow introduced to Venezuela. You're now introduced

(09:09):
to these countries that you said toyourself, wait, wait, hold on
a second. I didn't know y'allwere playing like this and at this level.
Well you see that, and it'salways like dog fights. And because
they're with with the co Boul theSouth South American teams, right, they're
they're kicking the crap out of everyonebecause they're trying to fight for points,

(09:30):
right right. When you look athow Panama played against the US yesterday.
I mean it was like I thinkclose to twenty fouls. Yeah, like
I don't know, five yellow cars. Yeah. No, it was a
dog I mean it was a dogfight. And you see that these guys
are just with passion and all that, and for US and Mexico, you
have to compete that way. Youhave to because these people, you know,
these countries are are clawn at theat the heels. Yeah, and

(09:52):
you're trying to punch, you know, above your weight class. It's just
like a doggy dog world thing.So it's I've been in I loved I
wake up my lady. She waslike, I wake up early to watch
that. I was watching the EUROSAwatching you know at the time where it
was a six and the nine o'clockand then it's like all right, I
gotta go to training. Yeah,well or you don't get to watch the
twelve Yeah, and so then afterthem and then and then three yeah,

(10:18):
I mean, so I'll do itbest video to have the back there going.
So it's uh no, I meanthis summer is it's just beautiful,
loving, beautiful games and uh Ican't wait to keep watching more. Now
we know that Jermaine played for theUS national team, but he also lived
in Germany. Got to talk aboutthe Euros. That's been crazy in Bape
breaking his nose the first match,Georgia doing what they did to Portugal.

(10:43):
How do you see that whole tournamentplaying out, because again, countries like
Georgia, countries like Austria, wedon't throw them in there with the big
names of the soccer football world.I mean a lot of these countries that
you you don't you've probably never heardof because it's been all the other countries
that have been and you know,like the italy'sands England. Right, you

(11:07):
have these bigger countries. But understandingis now football is evolving. Right now,
you have teams that are now comingout with more resources. They're you
know, they're coming up with youngerplayers going and playing abroad in other countries,
and so you even see what,uh even Slovaki was able to get
some good results, even even atthe last you know, Albania took it
to you know that last game.They didn't I think they only got one

(11:28):
point, but I actually they watchedthey were competitive where before, you know,
even like two cycles ago, theywere getting smacked zero. And so
for me, it's it's been abeautiful thing obviously showing you know, Germany
going out and getting the results thatthey did. They're they're there top one.
And that's the joke in the officeobviously to tell Germaine about, hey,

(11:52):
what's up with Germany. They're gonnamake it out. So so yeah,
all right, Gonzales, man,appreciate you as always, Thank you
so much for sliding through once again. Eight o'clock tomorrow night. Make sure
you get to Fresno State Soccer Stadium. Fuego FC back in action, the
first Jaegermeister Cup match that's happening inthe five to five nine. You gotta

(12:16):
get out there, check it out, see what it's all about. The
best part is if it does goto PKS. Now, we want to
win, Okay, let's be let'sbe clear, we want to get the
win. But if it does goto a PKS because of a draw,
that's always fun to watch, especiallyduring the middle of the season. So
good luck to Fuego FC. EddieGonzalez, thank you so much for your
time. Truly appreciate you, myfriend. Thank you for having us and

(12:39):
yeah, hopefully being able to comeout and see you on Saturday ck on
Sports. It is Fox Sports Radio