S5E24: A Savage Way to Lose (Special Guest: Guerrero Pino)

ON THE SHOW TONIGHT

• And just like that, it’s over. We’ll recap the stunning end to the season on Friday night at Pechanga Arena
• We’ve got audio from Phil Salvagio right after the season ended,
• Sockers general manager Sean Bowers will help us pick up the pieces and think to the future in our featured interview at the bottom of the hour
• It’s Baltimore vs Chihuahua for all the marbles as both #1 seeds go down in the semifinals, we’ve got an announcement on MASL News
• We’ll announce our second round of Season Ticket Member renewal winners in Sockers News!

Episode Transcript

(00:22):
Hello once again, everybody. Welcometo Soccers Overtime. You're weekly look inside
the San Diego Soccers and the MajorArena Soccer League coming to you live on
Twitch. Craig Elston, Jerry Jimenezback with you. It is season five,
episode twenty four. It's a savageway to lose. The season's over,

(00:46):
not the m AGAs hell season.It's got three more days left.
The soccer season is done. Theygot done in overtime and golden goal in
the knockout game. Knocked out out, popped in the snout by a guy
named Popper. Soccers out in thesemifinals, semifinal mountain, that last perch.

(01:10):
The fingers could not hold on andwe fell again. Mister Jimenez,
I can see it already in thechat. I think everyone is still in
some ways processings. This is oneof those rare sports that can just take
take your breath away just like that. Yep, And you know what,

(01:30):
we are here for all of youguys. We totally understand and we are
right there with you. Definitely nota fun one today, but take there's
a lot of positives in this entireseason, and I think that's why we
can look back on and we'll obviouslytouch on this game something that was you
know it was coming. It waseither going to be good or bad.
This episode is here for you guys. Today is going to be all about

(01:55):
just talking it out, working itout together, and hopefully at the end
of this we'll all feel better andwe can move on and prepare for another
season. But a bummer a bummera way to go, obviously, and
I'm ready to just start talking itout with you. Man. It's good
to be back. Good to behere on Tuesday with everybody. We see,
we see you in the comments,we see you, and we love

(02:15):
you. Yeah. I normally savedthe title for our padres podcast, but
it's kind of a group therapy podcasttonight, and we hope to offer up
the virtual couch for all of youwatching live on Twitch, Twitch dot tv,
slash San Diego Soccers. Go aheadand give us that follow if you
haven't done it all year, Imean, why not do it now?
Is at least a going away presentfor not the channel. The channel will

(02:38):
still be here, but for theshow, which now has an expiration date
for the season that's a week earlierthan we planned on tonight's show, just
like that, it's over. We'llrecap the stunning end to the season Friday
night at Pachonga Arena. We've gotvideo from Phil Silvagio right after the season

(02:59):
ended. You can hear the rawthoughts of the head coach. We will
hear from Guerrero Pino, the stalwartdefender of the San Diego Soccers. He'll
help us pick up the pieces andthink to the future in our featured interview
at the bottom of the hour.And it's Baltimore against Chihuahua for all the
marbles. Both number one seeds godown and the semis. We've got an

(03:22):
announcement about the finals coming up onm ASL News. Will wrap things up
by announcing our second round of seasonticket member renewal winners in Soccer's News.
All coming up right here on soccersOvertime Live on Twitch of Illablon, replay
on our YouTube channel at San DiegoSoccer is available as a podcast on Apple,

(03:43):
Podcast, Spotify, iHeart Spreaker,wherever you get your podcasts. We
thank you all for your attendance.We doubly thank everybody who shows up and
enjoys the show live and you know, Jerry, We're gonna We're gonna into
the clips. You know, wegot about eighteen minutes or so. I
think it's more like sixteen and ahalf when I watched it through of highlights

(04:09):
from Friday Night. We'll play thatPhil Silvaggio interview, we'll hear from Guerrero
Pino. I just want to stayright off the top. You know,
we Soccers fans are spoiled. Werethe team that comes through in these situations
more often than not. And whilein the late twenty tens, we started

(04:30):
to feel a little bit of astigma of getting to the semifinals and losing
to a team from Mexico in Mexico, and that happened three years, and
then we had Monterey here in twentynineteen and lost on a golden goal in
overtime and saw land In season cometo an end, you know, at

(04:51):
the toe of Miguel Vaca. Obviously, that stung bitterly. The last two
full seasons. The Soccers won thechampionship. The last two full seasons,
whenever San Diego needed the goal,the goal at the end of the game,
whether it was twice in overtime againstTacoma in the two twenty one playoffs,

(05:15):
whether it was twice against Florida inthe two twenty one semifinals, whether
it was in the last minute ofthe knockout game in the twenty twenty one
final against Ontario, whether it wasagainst Chihuahua in the semifinals and the knockout
game last year, whether it wasChild's big goal in Game two of the

(05:41):
finals. The soccers always found thatcritical goal, that last goal, that
golden goal, and you do youget used to it, right, You
get used to thinking the soccers arethe one team that it doesn't go the
other way, that the pendulum neverswear, the pendulum only swings once and
it never comes back, you know. And the pendulum swung back on what

(06:06):
I thought was just a great matchoverall, Jerry, a great set of
matches. And there's plenty we cantalk about breakdown, we can discuss how
Chihuahua want it. I think Chihuahuahad a game plan that they enacted both
tactically and psychologically that worked. Nonetheless, I think the very first thing is

(06:30):
just to kind of note this issports. This was an incredibly difficult task
that the soccers assigned themselves after losingmatch one, and they came damn close
and in many ways should have pulledit off. They had four or five
chances in regulation of the knockout gameto win that game. When it doesn't

(06:51):
happen, I think you have tocredit Chihuahua for winning a great match on
a great goal. Yeah, andyou know, I I hate, just
in life in general, thinking aboutthe could have, should have, would
have and and all of that.I think this episode is to do that.
But moving forward, I don't wantto even look at it that way,

(07:14):
you know, But for now Ithink we can talk about it.
I think it's fair to talk aboutthat. Yeah, I think there was
a lot of missed opportunities, right, um, having Leo hurt, having
him missing in the first game,I see more. Lesia commented that as
well. I absolutely agree with her, and I'm sure a lot of us
think that too. He could havemade a difference, and yeah, I
just missed opportunities, and you know, I'm not capitalizing. Also on power

(07:35):
Place, but that was an issuethat we've had the entire season, I
think, where we wouldn't capitalize onein the two minutes, but for whatever
reason, literally seconds later a goalwould go in and then you know,
we would we would actually you know, be on top or whatever it was.
I think you guys might have mentionedit even in your broadcast. I
think Nate might have brought it upthat, you know, it seems like

(07:58):
we wouldn't scored her in the powerplay, but we'll score quickly after um.
But yeah, a lot of littlethings like that that I think would
lead up to where we were rightand where we ended up not being able
to capitalize. And in Chihuahua,it is really executing their plan, you
know, and and getting it done. Let's roll the highlights courtesy of our

(08:20):
man Eddie Trujillo. He put bothmatches into one set of clips, which
is fine. Uh, you know, I mean for me, honestly,
Match two winds up being something that'skind of in the afterburners. You know,
we're gonna forget a lot about matchtwo. We're gonna remember a lot
about match one and about the knockoutgame. But San Diego played with purpose,

(08:43):
with passion in match two, andwhile in retrospect and with coach his
comments afterwards, you know that theSavage always at least had a thought of
a game plan that involved conceding thismatch. That wasn't the case in the
first quarter. They wanted to comeout and see if they could win it

(09:03):
and if they could take this thingin two matches. And I really thought
the soccers the first quarter of thismatch was about as good as we've seen
the soccers play all year, absolutely, and it starts with a beautiful goal
from Mitchell Cardinas, and it's ateam team effort, and I think the
first few goals that first quarter wasjust a complete team effort right where these

(09:24):
guys really were just selfless and we'repassing the ball around like we know they
can do. And it was abeautiful goal again from Mitchell Cardinas. It
was set up by Mitchell and eventuallyfinished off by Mitchell, and I think
that you could see this whole firstquarter was just beautiful, beautiful soccer from
from the soccers. That was fiveconsecutive one touches to set up the card

(09:50):
in this goal, and he hadthe first and the third and the fifth
of those touches. Just one ofthe prettier team goals of the year,
and it really kept going as thisguy. Of course, the crowd electrified,
and how about the crowd over thirtyfour hundred in the house over forty
five hundred tickets out for this one, Jerry by four, our biggest crowd

(10:15):
of the year and the loudest andmost passionate for the game that mattered most.
Yeah, it was great to seesuch a huge crowd there to support
the guys. I mean, theyabsolutely needed it, and you know,
the town came through and you know, unfortunate ending for everybody there, but
they got to see that first gameand that is the soccers that we know,
right, that beautiful goal from Cardinalsand then onto a great goal from

(10:41):
Leo again doing his thing. Yeah, Leo back in the lineup, clearly
limited in ways that we will discussand detail even further as this highlight continues.
Couldn't use his right foot to shoot. And here you see he gets
the give and go back and hesets himself up to take the shot left
footed and to score. He didnot have the poppy, didn't have the

(11:03):
burst that you normally associate with oneof the best players in the league.
But he found a way in thismatch, Jerry, to keep himself productive
despite playing at well under one hundredpercent. Yeah, it was it was
tough to see us sometimes, right, you can saw you could see him
limping at certain points to turn thegame. But that was just a great

(11:24):
ball over from Tavoyd Morgan and Leobeing in a place where he didn't have
to put too much effort behind thatball to get it in. I think
we'll see another goal later where oralmost goal later where it was actually Tavoy
on the end of it and hedidn't put enough power on it, otherwise
I think that would have been agoal. But and the guys just keep
going right this first quarter with thegolden Gutierres getting that third one, and

(11:48):
now San Diego is looking good,looking strong. Three and oh with three
minutes left in the first quarter,and again it's that beautiful soccer playing.
You see him there set it up. It goes over to I think it's
a Juan and then Philippe right andthen back to back to Gutierres for that
goal. Yeah, wonder twin powersactivating if it was hockey. They both

(12:11):
get the assist on Christian's goal.Three nothing, crowds going wild, bang
of banners are slapping, everything ishappening. Enrique Kanyez for the second time,
and the quarter hits the crossbar,and I think it's just about at
this point that Chihuahua starts to thinkabout, well, you know, we've

(12:35):
got we've got our game plan,we've got our strategy. However, they
were gifted eight powered play to startthe second quarter and Ugo Puentest playing badly
hurt, Ugo Puentess comes through witha goal. Right there. We talk
about Leo Plentest dealing with a badankle and was clearly limited in his movements
throughout the course of both matches.In fact, he actually looked a lot

(12:58):
sharper in the knockout game somehow,some way than he did in the full
match. In the full match,I felt like he was going at maybe
fifty sixty percent, but gave akid like that just a chance to finish.
I mean, that was a wickedstrike he took against Boris right there.
If I would have to take aguess, I would say it had
something to do with some ultra magicspray there during the break between the two

(13:22):
games. Yeah, did it theultra magic? Yeah? They might have
gone to the ultra magic at somepoint before the knockout game. Maybe maybe
for everybody. A couple of weirdscrambly moments for San Diego and then check
this out. This is coming upLeo in the middle from Tavoy. I

(13:43):
think it's one of the telltale momentsin the first half. Right here,
Leo gets this is a gimme goalfor Leonardo Deoliverda, goalkeeper out of position,
in the middle of the free throwline, no defenders, and he
hit it wide. But he hitit wide, Nate, all right,
sorry, Jerry with his right foot. He hit it with his right foot.
It was the first time the wholematch Leo tried to take anything with

(14:05):
the right foot. Not only didhe miss, but then he limped afterwards,
and he didn't take another right handright footed shot attempt until one that
we'll see much much later that couldhave won the knockout game. Kind of
the tragic moment at the end ofregulation. Meanwhile, to avoid, Morgan,
hard working, gets a pass fromRojo, keeps it going to Chihuahbua

(14:26):
challenges this looking for a handball.They don't get it to avoid, trapped
it off his chest and it's fourone in the second quarter. Soccer's grooven
up by three and take this leadinto halftime. Feels like at this point
you're really thinking, Okay, thisthing's gonna go the distance. It's gonna

(14:48):
go to the third game. Yeah, I mean they were looking strong,
they were looking great. Yeah,and I honestly thought that was a handball
too at a first look. Butthen you see the replay and it's clearly
not, but just a void withthose quick turns. So I'd love to
see those. When he's given thatopportunity, he takes it. Um,
And we saw this whole season.I mean they were covering him where he
didn't have this kind of space,right, um, and and there he

(15:09):
has it and is able to turnand catches Berna and out of out of
place and scores that that goal.But yeah, going back to what you
were saying about Leo, I meanI hadn't even realized that, you know,
but you can clearly see it inthe replay. I know we just
passed it, but um, here'sanother great opportunity too, and then the
ball just sends up in Burno's hands. A lot of chances, you know,

(15:31):
we were looking really strong and theyjust the guys just kept kept going,
um, doing their best. AndI mean Chia was a great team,
you know, and nothing to takeaway from Chihuahua. I think that's
this is right here. What Iwas mentioning where to avoid maybe a little
bit more power behind that. Idon't think Burnard gets back on time to
to stop that, and that wouldhave been another goal. Soccers get the
goal from Peewee, Mitchell and Peeweeteaming up to fender goal to make it

(15:54):
five to one again, games gettingaway from Chihuahua at this point. We
know now definitely in retrospect, thatthey turned the after burners off at some
point in this third quarter, andnot that they stopped playing, but that

(16:15):
they understood what the assignment was.Later, Soccers do get a power play
on this collision, and Giovanni Gayegos, who was really good brand new player
for Chihuahba, was really really goodon this night, but he gets his
hand up into Wan Gonzalez his face. Soccers get a power play. Soccers

(16:38):
fail on the power play. Ireally wondered, would we be on this
show the week after the Soccers goteliminated from the playoffs and just talking and
crying about the power play, Butit didn't come up in the knockout game.
Nonetheless, it was a lingering weaknessfor this team really throughout the second

(17:00):
half of the season. However,the second after a power play, Oh
we're golden Graig Child's scores for sixto one. The magic seconds when the
power play is over and everything's fallingapart for the other team. Soccers have
it six to one at this point, and then you know, Jerry is
as the highlight reel goes on.You know, we go into the fourth

(17:22):
quarter and as we get another lookat again, you know, a well
crafted goal driven to Childs on theback post, really got through three Chihuahua
defenders, none of whom dove forthe play. But in the fourth quarter,
Parto made a number of very nicesaves, you know, Chihuahuas still
out there on the field. Soccer'skind of pulled the parachute as well in

(17:47):
terms of their attack on net,really trying to drive the net and score
it. And I wonder if youthought that was at least a little bit
of a mistake, because in hindsight, San Diego winds up getting shut out
for the final thirty six minutes andforty seconds of this match. They go
scoreless for thirty six forty to wrapup their season. No, I don't

(18:11):
I don't think that was a mistakeat all. If that isn't the case.
You know, I think both teamsnow at this point it becomes really
what's the main objective, what's themain goal, and that is winning that
second game for both, right,or in this case the third game,
winning the third game, winning thesecond game for for the each team.
What I would say is that they'reboth now like this is a balance,

(18:33):
right. They need to know howmuch to pressure, how much to defend.
Obviously to not they go to notlet Chihuahwa catch up too much,
and for Chihuahwa to not let standthey will you know, get too crazy,
but also maybe make them work alittle bit more, entire them out
for that second game. So thementality of each team changes at this point
because at the end of the game, the second game really doesn't matter as

(18:53):
much as the third one is gonnamatter. Right, the soccers have this
one on the back. Chihuahwa understandsit, and you know, with the
players that are hurt for both teams, I think that it was it was
smart to a certain extent. Whywould you say it's a it was a
mistake. I'm not necessarily thinking it'sa mistake. I mean, I feel
like it's kind of a tough situation. You have to play the quarter of

(19:17):
right like like I think Phil wouldhave loved to have leaned across to the
glass to Sanchez and say, canwe just scotch the fourth quarter and move
straight to the knockout game? Wouldyou guys like to move on? You
know? But you don't. Youhave to play it through. Nonetheless,
there's kind of a winding down,and I'm thinking more psychologically than anything,

(19:37):
the Savage veterans were completely gassed atthe end of the game, you see,
and Rique Kanye just gets a breakawayand it is like moving at one
quarter speed and the match ends,and then the Chihuahua tactics truly come out.
Jerry as the Savage not only changefour players out of their starting fourteen

(19:59):
feel players, but they change uniforms. They come out in red, what
the white is gone? They runout in fresh kits, and it did.
It just felt like one team wasextending the second match and the other
team was there to play a brandnew game. And man, while this
beautiful steel by this is where,in fact, I'd love you to pause

(20:21):
it right after this Christian Gudierras,this is minute two of the Knockout game,
Charlie Gonzalez, team's got fresh legs. They're using high pressure. Berna
makes an error with his feet,which we've seen the soccer's pressure many many
times, and Charlie gets the steeland tips. Itto Christian Gudierres. And
I said it on the broadcast,Jerry I said, Gaudierras scored in this

(20:47):
spot in the Knockout Game last year, and as he moved to his right
foot, man I thought for surehe was about to score again for one
nothing in the early minutes of theknockout game to set the tone again.
And missing that shot, just missedfirst sign, first sign that it wasn't

(21:08):
our night in the knockout game.We actually had. When I say we,
the soccers, you and I weren'ton the floor. The soccers had
a number of chances. There's numbertwo to void. Morgan as a good
look at net, tries the outsideof the foot and misses to void.
As another chance, tries to stepup, Miller blocks's shot. That's a

(21:29):
third opportunity for one nothing in thematch. The best chance for Chihuahua comes
here. A puentis again moving somuch better given the shot. This is
what the soccer's practice thought, ohno, they left him up, and
no, they gave him the shotParto. Great job defending it, Rojo
little wide on that one. Soccerskept trying to isolate Rojo. Could never
really get the isolation playing for Rojogoing at any point on Friday night,

(21:55):
Morgan another great opportunity and again getsdefended, gets blocked, but then gets
it back and complete. The angleis off right there, Jerry. If
he's got his hips turned toward net, that's one nothing, he's got his
hips turned to the free throw line. And then this one over the top

(22:15):
Felipe. Great save by Berna.That's a fifth chance to score. You've
seen one for Chihuahua in the knockoutgame one. And then okay, pardon
me, that was the Rojo one, because both first Phelipe went over and
then Rojo and it's a great saveby Berna. They check the review.

(22:37):
He's right on the line as hestops that ball. And you know what
I thought when I saw Rojo outthere, Jerry, he's on the wrong
side of the field. Ah,he's on the right, the left,
right side, Rojo on the leftside. With that right foot, he
put it at ned he put theshot on net. That's the best you
can ask. You get to thefinal seconds of raylation, and this,

(23:00):
to me is the sports tragedy moment, the beautiful, you know, delicious,
heartbreaking sports tragedy moment for Leo andthe soccers. Seconds running out,
ten seconds is sorta takes the ballin the midwall, sort of looks and
he does the right thing. Heplays it off the wall and pose it
comes to Leo. Oh sorry,comes to Leo's right foot. Leo who

(23:26):
could not shoot with his right foot. Leo who is in pain with his
right foot, Leo who did nottake a shot with that foot the rest
of the match. He had theone chance, He had the one chance
with four seconds left, and heput his right foot through that shot,

(23:48):
but probably at eighty eight percent ofthe power he normally would, and it
was just enough, just enough forBerna to save that ball. You're seeing
about the only chance the soccers getin overtime. Felipe over the top and
right here Poile. The ball comesdown to Poile. He tried to clip

(24:11):
it on the first try left footed, as opposed to trying to bring it
down and work around Berna. I'msure in hindsight, he would have loved
to have gone another way. Jerry. The soccers don't get another look on
net the rest of the season.As we see the fatal play developing,
it starts with Rojo taking one inthe nether regions. Look how important this

(24:34):
is. Popper is Rojo's man.Now Cardinis has to come out. Maybe
he wanted to take one more step, but he was worried because he didn't
have support behind him. And justa perfect shot. Popper bends it around
Cardiness leaves Boris unsided to the shot, not that he was likely to stop

(24:56):
it anyway. It was headed intothe top diagonal corner. A beautiful way
to end a classic match of playoffindoor soccer. You see Melissa there.
I hadn't seen that, but Romerogoes right up to Melissa. It just
kind of looks back like, hey, what's happening? Um? Yeah,
you know, man, this isthis is why we love the sport.

(25:21):
You know, these are the moments. This is part of what makes this
sport so beautiful and why it's calleda beautiful game. And it reflects life.
Not everything goes your way always.You know, you have your struggles,
you have your bad luck, youhave your good luck. Sometimes you
win, sometimes you lose. Andin this situation, I think we all
knew that going against Chihuahua, thiswas, you know, really the final

(25:45):
of the league. I mean,these are the top two teams in the
league, and you know, ifwe were going to lose to anybody,
it was gonna be Chihuahua. Andwhat a beautifully plays to ball. You
can't hate on that. It was. There was no drama behind that goal.
It was beautifully placed from pulped Ithink, you know, again,
unfortunate that thinks before that led upto him being open, having enough space

(26:08):
to take that shot. But againthat's part of what makes this game so
special and so beautiful, and unfortunatelywe were on the wrong end of it
this time. But man, Imean, you can't hate on that goal.
And there was nothing hard could havedone. There was nothing else other
than what we were doing already basedon you know, a Rojo being hurt
and a couple of other players that, um, we're with their guy,

(26:29):
we're with their marks were doing theirjob. It just it didn't work out
our way, and man, itwas definitely rough. You know, I
say that while still knowing that Iabsolutely hate it. But but hey,
and then you know, an interviewwith with Captain Read after that was heartbreaking.
Honestly, that was heartbreaking. Craighad nothing to say, and really

(26:53):
it was I don't know, itwas almost like Chi sield Light, just
in terms of the purity of wewanted to win and we didn't win,
you know. I mean you cansee he's wiping tears from his eyes in
the interview and the devastation of knowingthat from day one, this was your

(27:15):
championship, you know, And andit was. And one one of either
Chihuahboa or Baltimore is going to bethe m ASL champion for twenty twenty three.
It's not going to be the soccers. The soccers won the shield.
The Shield's a real thing, youknow. I mean, I've always been
a proponent of the shield. Youknow, the soccers won the shield.
They had the best regular season,they had a dominant regular season. America

(27:38):
believes in playoffs. Playoffs are crapshoots. Playoffs add randomness to the sport.
Teams team sports arena sports historically evolvedto longer series to eliminate the randomness.
And of course, do I thinkif it was a full three game series

(28:02):
with two home matches, that thesoccers would have prevailed. Of course,
I do, of course I do. I think it takes asking San Diego
to play two games at home andto have the second game be twenty five
percent the length of the third ofthe first game to set up a scenario
by which San Diego can lose.But these are the rules that everybody signed

(28:26):
up for. And you know,Milwaukee had the same opportunity at home and
lost, and Utica had the sameopportunity at home and lost in the mini
game. It's very much a possibilitywhen you narrow things down this much.
And while it's not like tactically ideal, it's where the league is right now.

(28:49):
And clearly, with the Baltimore situationthat we saw this offseason, the
idea of like, well we shouldhave a best of three and then a
best of five for the final,Like it sounds great? Can we get
the Arenas to make that happen?Right now? I think this is the
best that we can do. Yeah, I mean, we can't complain about
that. Everybody knew what they sendup for. Everybody knew beforehand what this

(29:11):
was going to look like. Whetherwe liked it or not, we kept
it going with hopes that, youknow, we would get that advantage,
and to a certain extent, therewas that advantage, right, But now
we look at it and obviously beingon this end, we start trying to
figure out, like what happened,And I think that plays into the mentality
of like, yeah, I meanthey came in with a plan that take
advantage of it. They beat usat home, so now they have they

(29:33):
have the advantage, right, andso yeah, you know, I think
in talking to these guys throughout theseason, having them on the podcast,
talking to them behind the scenes aswell, the mentality was never about anything
other than we want to win thechampionship. And so for me now in
the place that we're at and havingsome time to kind of reflect, I

(29:53):
think that it's important that we talkabout the Winds and the fact that they
are the the Shield winners and thatthey absolutely deserved it, and the whole
season as a whole um, youknow, came to an end, unfortunately,
and all the players will tell youthat what they wanted was the Cup.
But man, did they do afantastic job the entire season. And

(30:14):
I don't want to downplay any ofthat, because I mean, we saw
some fantastic goals, We saw somebeautiful soccer played this season. They won
the you know, the the shield, which does matter, and uh,
we're able to show the hometown fanslike what they're about, you know.
And again it goes just back toin that moment, it wasn't it wasn't

(30:36):
our day, it wasn't our game. And I know that these guys will
move past it. It might takea little time for all of us to
get past it, but you know, I'm excited to talk to Guerropino and
see kind of the mentality coming outof the season now, and because it
feels abrupt, because like you said, we're spoiled. We are so spoiled.
We're not used to being in thistype of situation. So now how

(30:57):
do we cope? How do wetalk through this and get out of it?
Well, we start looking forward andactually looking back at all the good
stuff and then looking forward to toyou know, what changes are coming and
what this next season is going tobe like, and can they do a
repeat of that of you know,of that caliber of twenty two oh and
two right to end the season andthe regular season and then go and get

(31:21):
the shield one more time and thendo another take another stab at a at
another championship. You know, wecontinue on and that's the beauty of this
game. I know we have Guerrerostanding by. Do we have the Phil
Silvaggio interview as well, Let's let'splay that first, just to kind of
keep things in chronological order. Justabout forty five minutes after the match was

(31:41):
over, the knockout game was overon Friday night, I had the chance
to chat with Phil right outside hisoffice at Pachanga Arena, A very philosophical
Phil Silvaggio. Boss. I've beentrying to tell people how hard it is
to win two games in one night. It's hard against a great team.
And I thought I was an incredibleadvert for the league, a great great

(32:07):
mini games, so much competition.You could have won it on the last
shot, and instead you lose iton the last shot at the end of
the day. And that's why lessfamous and I wanted the best games head
around there so exciting, everybody's atit and crap fans had a great crowd
tonight, unbelievable all the way around. And that's why you David's freaking unbelievable.

(32:32):
How proud of you of the heartsome of your players. Leonardo kind
of was out there tonight. Itwas so clear he couldn't use his right
leg, he couldn't shoot. Heshot with his right leg to try and
win the game at the end ofregulation. He was in so much pain
afterwards he could barely walk. Howproud of you, just the effort the

(32:52):
guys put out there. I mean, when you have to wait two weeks
from one night, it's so hardand you got to put it out everything
you got in and I did.The day we were all standing, uh,
you know, tired, and youknow, and it's it's it's a
very tough game. You along thoselines, Chihuala had that one part in

(33:12):
their pocket they could play as anadvantage. They had some young players that
they rest him and threw in tothe game three, and it really did
look like they had a little bitof an insul life in their LIFs.
I didn't they anybody could run thegame just the way that Bob pounces.
It's like, you know, youneed a little look on yourself in court.
What's your message to soccers fans who, obviously we're thinking about a three

(33:32):
peat. You guys had the bestrecord by five games in the league.
That's the level of disappointment to notbe in the final. Well, it's
always disappointing when the soccer should've everthe finals, because you know that that's
our franchise, you know, fromhistory and everything. So you know,
we're all sad, we're all disappointed, and you know it's gonna be a

(33:53):
long time before we get over it. But we you know, we got
to look for the hatred. Thankyou, coach. You can hear the
Chihuama folks like packing up right acrossthat wall in the background, so as
talk. He's jolly being like interviewedon an aircraft carrier. That's what all

(34:13):
that weird banging was. So weweren't in a we weren't in a submarine.
They were backing up the locker roomfor the savage on the other side
of that wall. But you know, I just thought it was great to
hear from the coach. We don'thear from the coach very often. He
declines almost all interviews. He declinedcoming on tonight. He doesn't He doesn't

(34:34):
want to think back. He wantsto be a goldfish and think forward.
V TFC is coming up, youknow, in about five six weeks.
We've still got stuff to talk aboutas the spring wears on. Nonetheless,
nonetheless wanted to hear from the coach. All right, let's welcome in one
of our great veterans to Soccers overTime and we truly thank him for his

(34:58):
time after such a rough laws hangingout in San Diego before heading back to
his home city tomorrow. Guerrero Pinois our special guest live on Soccers over
Time this evening. Guerrero, Craigand Jerry here with you. Man.
We've just we've just gone through itall. We just broke it all down.

(35:20):
Thank you for being with us tonight. I mean, can you guys
hear me? Can you guys hearme? Right? Yep, we got
you. And thanks for the invitationand thanks for doing this for the fans
of course, my friend, Let'sjust start kind of with the simplest of
simple things. It's been you know, a good solid seventy two hours plus.

(35:43):
Now you've had the chance to reflect. What are your thoughts now on
what took place on Friday night?I think it was the bold didn't bounce
our way, to be honest,I mean, I think he came he
came down to one goal either inthe mini game or the overtime. Uh.
And unfortunately the bouncing of the ballwas was to Chua. And that's

(36:07):
that's what it was. I think. I think we did a great job
offensively and offensively throughout the games andand and at the end of the day,
I mean we couldn't. We weren'table to score and copy a lot
of the chances that we had atthe end. But it was just a
bound. You know. We alwayssaid that in their soccer is about the
ball bouncing your way, and andI think that's what happened that night.

(36:30):
Yeah. Absolutely, And we heardactually, you know, coach Phil Siva,
you'll say that the ball didn't bounceour way. Um. And it's
a perfect way to look at it. I think that you guys did everything
that you know you had to do. But you know, in talking about
Friday nights and uh, I thinkyou heard uh Coach Sea talking about it
a little bit too. I'm wondering, you know, and your kind of

(36:52):
point of view, what what's thedifficulty, like right, trying to win
two games in one night, um, And what's the mentality have to come
out after winning that game. Uh, you know, what what do you
guys do? And then what's thedifficulty of having to do that and change
and start over? Uh, knowingthat we gotta go one game at a

(37:14):
time and we gotta take your businessof the of the second game and then
and then think about the mini game. Once we took over, took cur
of the of the second game,then we started to think a little bit
of like, okay, there's noother fifteen minutes that we gotta we gotta
take care of. And we wentto a locker room, I mean without
positive thinking, and we were like, hey, we got this. We
we can if we keep doing whatwe've been doing for the last sixteen minutes,

(37:37):
I mean, we'll be okay.And that's what we did. I
mean, unfortunately, the game wenttwo over time and plays a little bit
more of our role. Um whenyou're the team looking for the result,
especially on the second game, andand I mean you know that we're the
ones that finished that that chance andthe ones that put the bull in uh

(38:00):
and Curtis to them, I mean, I think they did a great job
throughout the game as well. AndI mean it's Chihuahua. We the whole
league was suspecting this game to bea championship game, kind of like what
happened last year, and again onceagain because of the format of the league
and all of that. I mean, we're in the semis and the game
went to a sudden dead just likelast year. But the difference was the

(38:22):
last year we coupled lest our chances. This year we didn't and they did.
So that's why we're sitting down herethinking about what could it go different
instead of like, oh, wasthe plan for for the championship game?
You know? You know, growone thing that that stood out to me,
And as you know, right,I do a lot of analysis.
I look at a lot of film, I dig through the numbers, etc.

(38:45):
Prior to Friday, I had goneback and watched last year's Match two
and the knockout game. And onething that really stood out to me between
twenty twenty two and twenty twenty threeis the depth that the Chihuahwa Savage added
to their roster from one season tothe next. Because over the course of

(39:06):
this season they really added to kindof the back half of that roster,
and last year, going from Gametwo to game three. They rolled the
same lineup out there from match tomatch. Between game two and game three,
this year they changed four field playersand brought in guys who hadn't been
playing in the playoffs previously. Theychanged uniforms. I thought that was a

(39:29):
cool, like psychological thing to doas well going into the knockout game.
But it just seemed like they hadthat extra depth. You guys, We've
always been the deepest team in theleague, but Chihuahua adding that extra little
bit of depth when it comes downto knockout golden goal over time, I
thought that was a factor. Wecan say that it help a little bit,

(39:52):
but I think I mean, justreflecting or thinking back about the game
last year, I think they didthe same thing. Maybe they didn't change
pour players, but they changed acouple of them. Um, and I
will say it's just about the session, you know. I think they they
taught they needed to make those changesand and our coaching stuff. I mean,

(40:12):
after looking at the first game andall of that, they were like,
I mean, I think, verygood and good hands, you know.
But again, I mean he camedown to a goal if we put
it that way. Um, yes, the death help, Yes, of
course he does help a lot becauseyou get fresh legs for a game like
that, especially those young kids.They came out and then they wanted to
show up, you know, sothey did show up and they they they

(40:36):
I think they played a huge roleon those on those what it was like
twenty three minutes between the minigame andthe and the UM over time. So
yeah, he helped. I meanif you if you see the result and
they won, I mean yeah,you will say, yeah, it wasn't
the right thing to do, uhfrom their side. If it were to
go the other way. I mean, it wouldn't make any difference. It

(40:58):
was just those fresh legs help alittle bit, you know. Yeah.
Look, at the end of theday, it was two very strong teams
that came to play. It cameto UM you know, came to try
to get the same exact result.It went one team's way, it didn't
go our way. But we haveto also talk about how amazing our team
has been throughout the playoffs and theregular season and the playoffs, and specifically

(41:22):
our defense. Right, I mean, we've seen your praises every single week.
How proud are you of this defenseand your performance throughout the playoffs,
I think. I mean it has, it has been our signature. You
know. It's not only the defense. I mean, I think our midfielders
are forwards. They understand the rolethat we're asking them to do when it

(41:43):
comes to the fan and they helpout. You know. It's not only
the two defenders political keeper. Imean, it's the guys in front of
us that helps as well when wehave the ball. And in playoffs,
I mean we I think out off. If I count the mini game was
five games and playoffs and we allowwith the five goals Gray, I believe
so and and three between well,no, have you count is more than

(42:09):
that? But ten total, tentotal five for five playoff games. I
mean, that's that's a lot,you know. But at the end of
the day, nothing matters, tobe honest, I mean, it doesn't
matter if we allow one goal intwenty games or if we score fifty goals.
I mean, we're sitting down herenow wishing that one the other way.

(42:34):
He didn't. So, I meancredit to to our defenders, credit
to to our team in general forfor doing such a great job doing doing
the regular season. But to behonest, to a franchise, light the
sun Diego Soccer. It doesn't matter, Yeah, Grea, I'm curious because
everyone's different when it comes to thiskind of stuff. Right, You've been
part of this club for five seasons. One season got wiped out at the

(42:58):
end due to COVID. Twice we'vewon the championship, and twice we've lost
in golden goal in the semifinal athome in overtime. Uh. And there
are some folks who spend a wholesummer kind of going back and digging through
the right the ashes, right,you know, trying to find the little

(43:19):
piece of rubble and go, whatif if we switch this one thing to
that thing? Is that the differencedo we win the title? There's some
folks who go, Okay, goodseason, it's done, move on and
and just leave it in the backgroundand never go back and think about it.
What what which bucket would you putyourself in? You know? The
next season, I'm already thinking of, like we got to prefer I have
to have to do my stuff andget ready to to get back into that

(43:45):
championship game first, and then afterthat thinking about winning. I think with
the with the roster and the personnelthat we have on this team, I
mean, this is a championship team. You know, this is a franchise
that is looking for a championship everyseason, and we're we're lucky to have
that where you're fortunate too to knowthat next year the soccers are the number

(44:07):
one or number two, however youwant to put it, contenders for the
for the championship, you know,and you already have that mentality. I'm
telling you that from my perspective andfrom what I see on the on the
guy who's that, everyone is hurt. Everyone is wishing that he went different.
But at the same time, everyoneis like, Okay, I mean
he we made this few mistakes,so we we could have done this different.

(44:30):
So next year is gonna be different. And next year we got to
do it again. You know,I love it. By the way,
to hear in the chat, wehave somebody saying, but first you gotta
worry about that. That's the nextthat's the next step going into it.
Um. You know, we havesome awesome fans that are going to be
over there by the way, supportingyou you guys during that tournament. To

(44:54):
be honest, I mean, Iobviously I didn't want to mention that or
something like that. Because I thinkI think it's been around for five weeks
since everyone started talking about the tournamentand all of that. And yes,
it's on the back of my headthat we had a big tournament in the
next five weeks, but I meanthat's the next thing. Yeah, you

(45:15):
have to play that tournament. ButI mean based on the soccer saying what
we're talking about, that's why Ifocus on what's next. These things gonna
be you know for me personally,I mean, yeah, I go home
and take your own business there andthen go to with the UTFC and try
to win that million dollars. Whodoesn't want to win a million dollars?
I want you to win a milliondollars. Yeah, I mean too,

(45:37):
Like personally, I'd like to seeI'd like to see this happen. I'm
hoping to be in North Carolina withyou guys for that run and I'm hoping
that we're able to create some vitaover time or you know, yeah,
to share it with all of ourgreat San Diego fans because it's such a

(45:58):
San Diego team. UM best crowdof the year at the semi final Guerrero
over thirty four fans in the seatsover tickets out. Uh, this rivalry
obviously in the playoffs ramps things upto a different level. But how how
like great was it for you guys, knowing how hard we worked to fill

(46:20):
those seats to see it's so packedfor the playoffs. I'm not gonna lie
I think. I mean, youguys the front offered our an amazing job
on getting defense through the arena.I know it's really hard to sell tickets
within a week, you know,because that's pretty much what you guys did.
Um, but the atmosphere was electric, to be honest, I mean

(46:44):
it was loud. It was hardfor us to hear each other. Uh,
the support that we we felt thatnight, it was unbelievable. And
I'm pretty sure he played a hugerole on against you I won the first
on the second game, I meanwhen they saw that, I mean a
lot of guys were like, ohshoot, you know, but I mean

(47:04):
hands down, hands down. Andfor you guys in the front office,
for the fans, I mean,they have always been great. I Mean
we know how hard it is tosell tickets everywhere, but especially here in
San Diego. I mean there's alot of things that you can do and
and while we experience that night wasamazing. To be honest with's amazing,
and I mean nothing but thank youfor to the fans, to you guys

(47:29):
in the front office and through everyonethat supported you know. Yeah, we
want to get everybody out. Isee it in the chat a lot of
the fans that are here every singlegame saying we want that for every single
game and going into this next season. I mean, all of you there
here listening right now and are hearingU Guarapino talk about this. I mean,
this is this is what every playertells us, right. They need

(47:49):
you guys in the back. Theyfeel you when you're there. And so
please tell friends for the next season, get them ready, start showing them
highlights of this season and how amazingthe team is. Because we want to
we want to do this every singlegame. So Craig, you want to
take it, you want to takethe last question, because it's yeah,
just just last thing before we letyou go, Guerrero and and we appreciate
you man, You've been so graciousto me throughout the season as well.

(48:13):
But the championship is set. It'llbe played Thursday and Friday. It's Baltimore
at Chihuahua. It's it's the minifield championship, as we joked last year
when they played in the playoffs,but this year they will play for all
the marbles. What are your thoughts. It'll be a tough game, you
know, because both teams are youused to play on I feel like that,

(48:36):
So I don't think there's not gonnabe feel advantage besides the fact that
you always hosting it, um,but they're used to play to a small
field now. I mean, ifyou asked me at this point, I
want Baltimore to win it because what'llhappening with youahwa. But if you asked
me whenever they're playing, I wantyou I would to win a years because

(48:57):
it's a Mexican team. I'm fromMexico and on top of down from Chihuahua
as well, so it's kind oflike I mean, and there are a
lot of friends there, I mean, the guy, the players and fans
that are used to be I mean, they're still my friends and they go
to games, and for them toexperience a championship title, I mean,
it's it's great. So I don'tknow, it's gonna be a tough one.

(49:17):
It's gonna be a tough one.But I think I'm leaning more Torshihuahua.
But I don't know. Baltimore isBaltimore. Do you know how Baltimore
is. I mean they went toMilwaukee and see what they did on a
bigger field. Everyone says that,oh Baltimore doesn't how to play a bigger
field. Well they they used toget to and oh, you know,
so, I don't know, it'sgonna be a great It's gonna be a
great match up. I hope it'sa great match up. I mean,

(49:40):
I hope either one the Wednesday,Um, they make it a great match
up, I hope. I meanthe level is great, the the atmosphere
is great, which I know isgonna be um. And then everyone mutched
the intensity, I mean, thereferees, the player, the coaches,

(50:00):
everyone, you know. At theend of the day, we're here for
the fans, and I wanted tobe a good a good experience for everyone.
You know. Right on, brother, well listen, uh I do
look forward. It's it's it's solong. It's not farewell. Uh you
know, we'll we'll see you againshortly again. Veita coming up. That

(50:22):
is something exciting. It's hopefully somethingthat the soccer's players who are on that
club can use as a little bitof a salvage at the end of the
year. I mean a lot ofa salvage if you get that big cash.
Let's be honest, that's a lotof a salvagetheless go ahead. It
is going to be a good Imean advertising for the league because there's a

(50:45):
lot of players from our league thatwe're going to be playing there. And
then it's I mean dan and thinkingof like oh, because the guys playing,
you know. I mean, it'sit's gonna be a get up a
tising for the league. So believeit or not. It's a different is
an area in a different format,but it could help the league. Yeah,
I think it will too. Iknow you'll be a big part of

(51:05):
that. I saw you captain theteam to a mini football championship down in
Australia a few years ago, andI hope you can do it again in
North Carolina. But thank you somuch, brother. I appreciate you.
I appreciate your passion on the field, off the field, everything you bring
to this organization every day that you'rewith us. You are a great player
man, and a great dude aswell. Thank you so much, thanks

(51:28):
for doing this as usual. SoDy and Jose enjoy the rest of the
show and thank you again, guys. Thank you Guerrero, appreciate you mate.
Guerreo Pino love that guy, dude. He is passion, He's the
backbone, you know him and Cardinalssmart veteran know how intensity. I thought

(51:53):
Guerrero has stepped his game up manthe last few games in the playoffs.
He was playing at nobody scores onyou level that he has and just you
know, a dynamite performance defensively thisyear. Stunning outcome. But I think
you heard it, and I thinkthe chat's reflecting it too. These guys

(52:15):
come together after this. They don'tsplinter apart. We're not like some of
the franchises that lose and fall apartand everyone leaves and scatters to the four
corners. These guys stick together.Yeah, no, And I mean they've
all been through this, They've allfaced you know, they all had their
own path and stories to get towhere they are. There's a reason why
they are in this organization. Thisorganization is about winning, and you know,

(52:37):
this is a position that these guysare not used to and are not
comfortable in and so they're going todo everything they can to get out of
it, you know, going intothe next season and like you said,
be a goldfish and and move on. But yeah, super super great to
hear from Get European on again.If he Leavesens later on, thinks for
his time because yeah, and it'snot an easy thing to have to,
you know, get in front ofa camera and talk, especially to fasit

(53:00):
are said, and it feels goodto be able to have a conversation,
you know, with somebody that's sucha big part of this season, which
was I mean, at the endof the day, it was. It
was a fantastic season. You know, it didn't end the way we wanted
it too, but don't forget abouthow great it actually really was. So
yeah, and it was a propersemifinal. You know, it was truly

(53:23):
a proper semifinal. Both arenas werepacked, the home team won each full
field game, and the knockout gamewent to overtime. You know, the
knockout game almost stretched to thirty minutes. So it was a great series by
comparison. As we transition to MSLNews, it was not a great series

(53:45):
in the East. A great seriesfrom Baltimore, but for Milwaukee, who
had the chance to host both matchone, Match two, and a Match
three if necessary, to never evenget to a knockout game. Absolutely disappointing
for the Milwaukee Wave. I don'twant to say stunning, because Milwaukee's lost

(54:07):
to Baltimore plenty of times over history, just like Baltimore's lost to Milwaukee plenty
of times over history. But uh, you know so, sorry, Kelsey,
We're not We could we could skipthis part. We could just fast
forward. Sorry, uh yeah,but she probably hates us right now.

(54:29):
I just yeah, I just willsay. I mean, really, I
look at match one because and that'sthe one that we were all watching on
our phones on our pads at thearena. I remember watching that getting ready
to shoot our stand up at thearena, and Ian Bennett scores with a

(54:50):
minute nine left in match one totake a fourth three lead, and he
scores and he celebrates, and Iliterally turned off the feed on my phone
and went, okay, let's shootthe stand up. Milwaukee wins Game one,
and then I went and ate dinnerand like looked at it and saw
a five four blast in overtime andhad to go back and look and see
that Max Ferdinand scored. Like onthe first play with six attackers, it's

(55:17):
one o nine. Baltimore goes tosix attackers, they get the ball at
midfield, they pass it back overhere, over here into the middle.
No one's guarding Max. He turnsin these scores. I was I couldn't
even believe it, other than Milwaukee'sdefense just hasn't been the backbone of their

(55:38):
franchise the last couple of years,and it was it was just, you
know, heartbreaking, and then obviouslythey lose in overtime. Jamie Thomas scores
in overtime, Baltimore wins the game. Baltimore wins the game kind of doing
the Venzela thing and five behind theball and great saves in match two and

(55:58):
shutting down the way even maybe dispiritingthe Wave. Overall, it was definitely
not the result I think the leaguewanted. But I got to give credit
cherry to the Baltimore Blast. Thisis a franchise kind of like the soccers
in twenty twenty one right now,that doesn't have a home in the playoffs
and just found a way to beattheir rivals on their field. Twice full

(56:22):
games in the playoffs, and nowthey're going down to Chihuahua. Same scenario,
but it's a baby field. They'reused to it. And if anybody
could do it, it's Venzella,Donna, Telly Roque and the Baltimore Blast.
It's crazy to me, and Ithink, you know, we'll get
into our thoughts of about this championshipgame, but I think that this is

(56:45):
not at all the final that anybodywas expecting. I don't know if anybody
guessed that they was gonna be BaltimoreChihuahua at the end. It was either
going to be Chihuahua Blast or I'msorry, Chihuahua a wave, or it
was gonna be Soccer's wave or soccersblast. Nobody thought Baltimore Chihuahua. And
so yeah, I mean it wasreally surprising to see, uh, you

(57:06):
know, Milwaukee just not getting itdone at all, um last, just
holding on and doing their thing,being patient. Like you said, I
mean, Benzela is going for hisuh for his picture with his six fingers
up. Now, you know,it's interesting stuff, but I mean,
I don't know how that happened.And again, only in this league can

(57:30):
stuff like this happened, and it'scompletely like it's surprising but also not really.
Yeah, it's pretty surprising, youthink. So, you know,
in that forms four months, Baltimorelooked like one of the three worst teams
in the league. Every time theyleft that basketball court at c Q Arena.

(57:52):
They were like one and eight onthe road going into the last couple
weeks of the season, and theywon a couple road games at the end
of the year, so you know, credit to them. But the playoffs
start and a veteran team finds adifferent level, and I think going down
to Florida and winning that first roadgame set the tone for the Blast.

(58:13):
But I don't want to even breakdown things beyond what I think is the
psychological situation, which is I thinkthere's kind of a Major League if you
remember the movie Major League. Ithink there's kind of a Major League clubhouse
type situation happening in Baltimore. ABlast franchise that was let down by their
front office, a Blast franchise thatdoesn't have a home field to play when

(58:37):
they're in the playoffs. And youknow, again, we're not going to
get into things that didn't happen,but there were a lot of things that
didn't happen last week that were threatenedto happen, and really had the league
over a barrel for a day ortwo, like the league over a barrel

(58:57):
for a day or two. Andto see and to hear some of the
things I've heard off the record frominside that locker room, and then to
see this team come together the waythat they have, you know, from
their home knockout game to these twogames in Milwaukee, it makes me feel
like they're a group that adversity hasbanded them together to some point. And

(59:22):
by the way, Cave Verbard makesa really good point in the chat as
well that Baltimore did a lot ofClippers esque road load management in the regular
season, and they didn't send Williamto most road games, they didn't send
some veterans to road games, sothey kind of picked their poison in that

(59:45):
way. But I mean, theBlast finish thirteen and eleven, you know,
thirteen and eleven, that's that's mediocrity, that's barely a decent team.
And then they've come together in theshort tournament in the playoffs, so uh,
you know, just very very interesting, very interesting. Who am I
gonna pick? I'm gonna pick Chhuahua, you know, I mean, I

(01:00:05):
think Chuawa was gonna win. Ithink the Savage you have the home floor
advantage. I think they've got byfour the depth of talent over the Blast.
But the Blast have Donna Kelly andRoka, you know, and our
our boys seventy eight Santana, WilliamNetto Mello, guys who have done it,

(01:00:32):
guys who have won it, andguys who have won championships in Mexico,
whether it was in Sonora right inMonterey, these guys have done it
in the past. So I don'tI don't discount the Blast. I see
some people going like blowout games bothgames, Games one and two could happen.

(01:00:54):
It's not impossible. I don't thinkthat's gonna happen. I think that
it's gonna be close, and Ithink it's gonna be tough. I like
Chihuahua. I think they're the nextbest team in the league. They're the
only team I was okay with usbowing too. But it's gonna be a

(01:01:15):
good series. I think it's gonnabe a great series, and I see
it going one of two ways.Craig, I think it's either gonna be
one very tight, just like yousaid, and Last is going to really
bring it and it's gonna be avery close score line. But realistically,

(01:01:35):
in my head, I think chiwahwas gonna absolutely destroy Blast. I think
those are the two scenarios and it'sone, yeah, the one that you
just said. I don't think Lastis gonna take it. I have chihuah
winning this, but I think,yes, you can call it the you
know, the mini field matchup Championshipand Blast that that size is not gonna

(01:02:00):
matter. But you know what it'sgonna matter is Chihuahwa's crowd, Chihuahwa's energy,
the passion of their fans being thereis going to absolutely play a part
in this game for two games.And so yeah, yeah, I think
Chiawa does have home field advantage andthink that also Savage know how to play
at home much better than the Blastcan play away from their home. So

(01:02:24):
it's gonna be really interesting to see. It's gonna be a really, like
I said, either a type matchor it's gonna be a complete blow out,
and Chiawa is gonna take it easily. I just don't see it going
Baltimore's way. And sorry to Geoand her friends over our goals and boards.
But I mean, I just Ijust don't see it. I don't
even know how they were able toget past Milwaukee. I do not see

(01:02:45):
them doing it again, and notagainst Chuawa. You know, I was
just trying to look it up onthe fly. But these two teams played
last year in the playoffs. Iknow for sure it went three, and
I know obviously see Cheuabwa one becauseit was the first round matchup. But
I can't remember whether the Savage onein Baltimore lost at home and won the

(01:03:09):
minigame or whether they lost in Baltimorecame home one and won in the mini
game. Obviously it was one orthe other. But just don't count the
blast down. I like Callen's callof Chihuahba in three. I think it's
very much possible. This is whyI'm gonna say I think the match one
winner wins the series. Okay,I think the last two years have really

(01:03:37):
drilled into me that this format trulyfavors the match one winner. Yeah,
and as such, you do saythe format match favors the underdog because usually
the underdog has Match one at home, and just what we just saw with

(01:04:00):
Chihuahwa and what we saw with Baltimorein the opening round where they went to
Florida, they won, they lostthe second game fourteen to one, and
we're able to marshal their forces andwin the knockout game to advance. I
think it's all about match one,and I think chihuaha is gonna win match

(01:04:20):
one. I think they're gonna takeit, and I think they're gonna take
the series. But if there's ateam that can handle the field, handle
the pressure and has the goalkeeper inthe back that can take care of it
other than us, it's Baltimore.I would definitely take Chihuahua over Milwaukee.

(01:04:40):
I'd take them in two. I'dtake us over Milwaukee and two. I'd
take us over Baltimore in two.But I like Chihuahua over Baltimore. Now
an announcement, breaking news, that'smy breaking news home. Yes, the

(01:05:01):
MSL has asked us to handle anEnglish language broadcast for the Ron Newman Cup
Finals, and we have stepped upto answer the call. So I'm happy
to announce for the first time trumpingthe MSL here on Soccer's Overtime. Sorry
JP, Sorry Lindsay, Sorry Kennot too terribly sorry that Databareya and myself

(01:05:30):
will be calling English language coverage ofboth matches of the Ron Newman Cup Finals.
We will give you championship coverage inEnglish language on both Twitch and sirius
XMFC channel one fifty seven. Wewill be doing a simulcast from here in
San Diego of Baltimore and Chihuahua.I will be doing it from the Califina

(01:05:55):
Lounge Thursday and Friday night. Theleague is telling us that they're going to
be piping us in a clean feedthat includes the sound from Corner Sport Arena,
which should be super, super exciting. Nate and I are thrilled and
humbled to be selected by the leagueto be neutral announcers for this and to
carry the English language coverage. Ourour guy Tony Sanchez will be there engineering

(01:06:19):
for us as well at Califino.And yeah, you know it will be
some late nights Thursday night, Fridaynight up at the Sublimit Lounge. But
you know, I can't deny thatthere was a great deal of regret to
not be calling the Grand Final andnot be calling the last moment of the

(01:06:41):
m ASL season. And of coursewe don't have that home match, and
we don't have that Fox five broadcastthat we would have had on Friday,
and that's a drag. But tobe able to be on Sirius, to
be able to be on Twitch,and to be able to provide English language
coverage, and to have Nate alongsideas well, I'm super excited for all

(01:07:03):
of this. Thankful to JP DellaCamera, Can Stanley and everyone at the
league. But yeah, Thursday Friday. You know, hey, look,
I think Carlos and Jimmy are asgood as anybody in this league. I
think they're terrific. So anybody whotunes into Spanish language, I'm not gonna
blame you at all. But ifyou're looking for English language, if you're

(01:07:24):
looking for your yeah, boy,if you're looking for, you know,
the top broadcast team in the league, and I do think we are the
top broadcast team in the league.And the broadcast team that tries to treat
every match like it's a network match. You know, we're gonna bring that
to Thursday and Friday, and youknow that neutrality go Savage, and that

(01:07:45):
neutrality and that balanced jim Nance style, go Chihuaba coverage, and and we'll
bring that. We'll bring that toyou. I'll be doing some prep tomorrow.
I'll be getting locked in sharing itwith the natives, and we'll be
doing that on Thursday and Friday.It's such a goofball. Uh no,

(01:08:06):
I'm excited for that. It's gonnabe awesome. How dare you call me
a goofball? You're just so humble? How dare you? I'm really excited
for it. Um, I mightsneak in, might sneak in one of
the days. I mean, look, you're welcome, brother, You're welcome.
I'm gonna one day, both days, every day you come in and

(01:08:29):
bring my bring my um, bringmy board along with Tony's and we'll just
be doing like sound effects. Soyeahs no preference, Yeah, no preference.
But every time the blast score,it's like and every time she almost

(01:08:49):
scores, it's like, but nopreference is shown in this broadcast whatsoever?
I mean pretty much that is whathappens every time Chuwalma scores at home.
I mean, the big trucker jetsshoot off and the lights go off,
and it's pretty fun. It's actuallypretty fun. So that is coming up.

(01:09:13):
That is on Thursday night, seveno'clock Friday night, seven o'clock.
If there's a triple game, youknow, a knockout game, we've got
it for you. We'll be upthere. Thanks as always to Jacob Grouney
and Adrian and the folks at theCalifino Supplement Lounge for being incredible and uh
basically you know, giving us thekey and saying lock up when you're done.

(01:09:34):
Boys don't make too much of amess, right, So so that'll
be happening Thursday night, Friday night, and I am I'm definitely humbled in
privilege to be able to call anotherchampionship for the major arena soccer league.
And we'll see how it goes.You know, I'm excited to see what

(01:09:55):
happens. I'm excited to and actuallya little bit u nervous isn't the right
word, but like Chiwa was adifferent thing, and it really is,
and I've said it so many times. It's like calling a soccer match that's
being played inside a pinball machine,and it's like bing ba bing bing bing
bing bing bing bing bing bing bing. Well, the ball's over here.

(01:10:15):
Now it's over there. Now it'sover here, now it's over there,
and now it's over down down,there and they least score. And it's
okay on TV because everyone can seewhat's happening. But knowing that we're going
to have to do a radio callto simulcast it for serious x MFC means
I have to add and this isplay by play minusia or details, but

(01:10:41):
I have to add locators to mycall now. So instead of saying escalante,
I have to say escalante right midfieldor escalante on the right wall,
the left corner, and the leftcorner is right next to the opposing right
corner. I mean they're right nextto each other, like Berna can reach
out and ship Venzilla's hand from hiscrease. So it's gonna be wild.

(01:11:04):
It's gonna be Uh, it's it'sgonna be fun. It's kind of like
calling hockey on the radio, butit's it's even faster. It's like calling
three on three hockey if they onlyuse two pieces of the ice. So
it's gonna be if. It's gonnabe a fun time. Uh, and
we're definitely, we're definitely gonna enjoyit. As we transition to soccer's news,

(01:11:29):
I just you know a couple ofthings, Uh. First off,
soccers, over time, we alwayshave kind of a set way of doing
things, which is that once ourteam wins the championship or is eliminated,
we do two more shows. Wedo the show where we react to the
final result, and we do theshow where we kind of react to the

(01:11:54):
end of the year and and doour superlatives and and our you know,
podcast award and our goal of theYear and our save of the Year and
all that stuff. So we're gonnado that again. So that means that
next Tuesday at this time is theseason finale of this season of Soccers Overtime.
We will reach the season finale ofSoccers Overtime next Tuesday, Season five,

(01:12:17):
episode twenty five will be the finalepisode of this season. Jerry and
I will be back. We'll probablyhave a guest. It's kind of like
maybe maybe not, because it's sortof our wrap up show. We'll wrap
up the finals, we'll wrap upthe Soccers, will look ahead to Vita,
etc. But yeah, one moreshow for Soccers Overtime this regular season.

(01:12:43):
I see everyone's saying, like wewant Vita coverage, So I'll just
say stay tuned, like stay tuned. You know, things are happening in
the front office things are happening.Da da da da da. But we
want that. We want that,whether it's watch part He's Look, we
don't know, like the soccer tournament. Is it gonna be on ESPN?

(01:13:03):
Is it gonna be on ESPN plus? Are we gonna be calling games?
I have no idea. I haveno ideas. It's five weeks away,
I have no ideas. So juststay tuned. We're gonna try and bring
coverage of this because to me,v t FC is the soccers. I
mean, it's the soccers plus likethree or four dudes, right, the
soccers if Torres was on the team, So like, uh, it's it's

(01:13:29):
gonna be a lot of fun,and we do look forward to giving you
coverage of that some way, somehow. We'll figure it out. Bear with
us. Uh, just kind oflike, yeah, Zach Reggitt is there
to write toy Runner, Like,yeah, there's there's a couple other dudes
from other teams. There's a coupleof dudes from teams that we've never heard
of. There's somebody from overseas.It's all good. We'll figure it out

(01:13:53):
and as as we get closer,we'll let you know what we can do
and what we will do? Youknow, we'll figure it out. YEA
very last thing is we had adeadline of Sunday, Jerry for our second

(01:14:14):
break point for season ticket member renewalsto be part of our opportunity drawing.
Let's reveal the winners and everybody whorenewed in our second round. So congratulations
to Barbara Dotson for winning the VIPexperience. Joel Drake getting a twenty twenty
two twenty three signed mini banner,David and Andrea McKesson a seventy five dollars

(01:14:36):
shopping spree on the soccer's online store. Eddie Trehill, what do you know,
Eddie? Get that he's not justa team photographer, he's also a
season ticket member and apparently he's alsoa prize winner. Okay, Eddie,
Okay, I see you. Timferguson getting the Felipe A Gonzalez signed Jersey

(01:14:59):
and John Evans the twenty twenty twotwenty three signed mini ball. So congrats
to one and all. There isa third round of season ticket member renewal
opportunity drawings. I think it's ina couple three weeks. Check with Spencer.
Nonetheless, why don't you just geton there. Call eight six,
six, seven, nine nine goaland talk to Spencer, talk to Ezra,

(01:15:21):
renew those season tickets, take advantage, get in, hopefully win something
for our third round of prizes,and Jerry, with that, we've picked
up the pieces and we say thankyou. We do. We say thank
you, you know, thanks toour TVX video crew did an incredible job

(01:15:42):
all year long. Thanks to youand Parker doing a great job on social
media. We'll get all blubbery andtalk about all this stuff next week.
Next week, yeah, next weekas well. But just thanks to everybody.
Thank you for for being part ofthis. You know, I think
it's just so awesome that we havethis platform on Tuesday nights, that we
know our fans tune in, weknow our haters tune in, we know

(01:16:05):
the opposing rival teams tune in,we know the league tunes in, we
know owners of other teams tune inhoping to catch us on something. And
we appreciate everybody for their patronage ofthis show. It's really grown in in
the last two years. It's beensomething special. Jerry, we could never
do it without you, man.You're the backbone of this and I appreciate

(01:16:27):
you so much. Yeah, man, kudos to you for putting up with
me this entire season, and everybodyas well putting up with me. Thank
you, guys. We're getting there, We're getting better and better, and
next season of Soccer's Overtime is goingto be better than this one and I'm
looking forward to it. I obviouslywe have one more to go, but
yeah, excited to still have somecontent for you guys, so stay tuned

(01:16:48):
for that. Please don't ever hesitateto reach out to us too. And
yeah, man, obviously not wherewe wanted to be, but just a
friendly reminder, like, be proudof this team, because man, this
whole season was a ride and Iwas reflecting a little bit on it.
Today. It's my son's Elias's fourthbirthday today and I'm looking at I'm going,

(01:17:10):
man, how are you four yearsold? How does time fly?
You know? It feels like sometimeswe don't take a moment to kind of
take take a breath, or takea breath and deep breath and think about
everything that has been accomplished and everythingthat we have already done. And I
think this is the time to doit, you know, this is the
time to look back and really appreciatewhat we have and how lucky we are

(01:17:31):
to have a team that wants tobe in expects to be in the championships,
and for us to be in thisin the mentality of like, this
is not cool, we don't likethis, but it's because we're spoiled and
not other Not everybody gets to saythat. So yeah, man, love
it. I love all of you, and see you guys next week.

(01:17:51):
We have another one to do.So yeah, you know, I'll very
briefly. I'm sure most people didnot stay to the three hour, forty
five minute mark of that very longbroadcast on Friday night, but I said
it at the end of the broadcast, and I'll say it at the end
here. I'm so proud to workfor an organization that can look at a

(01:18:12):
year where we went twenty two intwo, won the MSL Shield, had
the coach of the year, hadthe goalkeeper of the year with number one
seed, and lost a classic playoffGolden Gold semifinal, and we look at
it as a devastating disappointment. Youknow, literally, there are other teams

(01:18:34):
in this league that would hang abanner for winning the Shield, for winning
the conference, you know, youknow, the division, the regular season,
whatever, and our team is championshipor bust. And you know,
in the five full seasons that I'vebeen back with this organization in the front

(01:18:55):
office, we've won the championship twice. One year ended without COVID with COVID,
and the other two times were homesemi final, golden goal overtime losses.
And those hurt more than the sixchampionships that I've got and the six
rings that I've got. I'll thinkabout Landon's year coming up one game short,

(01:19:17):
and I'll think about this year comingup one game short. My entire
life, like literally my entire life. I will think about, we've got
six, we should have eight,you know, like we've got six,
we should have eight. And it'sbeautiful to be with a franchise that thinks

(01:19:39):
that way. It's beautiful to bewith a franchise that it's championship or it's
absolutely nothing, and it's just socool, Like it's just so cool.
It sets our tone, it's itsets our mission statement. Every year we
don't settle. We're not going tosettle for Yay, we were third play

(01:20:00):
and we got second team in theNewcomer of the Year or whatever, like,
no, we're it's championship or it'sforget about it. So it makes
me proud, and i'm I'm Ihope you soccers fans are proud that you
have a franchise that behaves this way. Essentially, the behaves as a behemoth,

(01:20:21):
behaves as if like we need towin every single championship in the league,
whatever league we're in, every seasonthat we're in it, and anything
else is unacceptable. And very fewpeople get to work for the Yankees in
their prime, or the Canadians intheir prime, or the Celtics in their
prime, or the Lakers in theirprime, and the Soccers are a team

(01:20:42):
that can be mentioned in the breathwith those franchises, Jerry. So it's
just something like it's the thing Ihold onto all the time. Yeah,
no, same here. Echo thatfor Jerry Jimenez, for Guerrorero Pino,
and for all you great soccer fans. I'm Craig Elston. Thanks for tuning
in. Please join us Thursday night, seven o'clock, nat Abrenne myself,

(01:21:04):
Friday night, nat Abrene myself.We'll be on Twitch. I'm not sure
if we're on MSL Soccer one ortwo. But either way we will be
right there with you. If youhappen to have Sirius XM radio, you
can join us on the radio SeriusXMFC channel one fifty seven Thursday and Friday
night at seven o'clock and then nextTuesday, five pm Pacific. It's Jerry

(01:21:27):
and I right back here to wrapup the entire m ASL season. Put
a bow on it and put itin the oven and get ready for the
spring and summer to come. Untilthen, I'm Craig Elston saying thanks so
much for listening. We appreciate you. Have a great rest of the week
and enjoy the finals and Ghost Soccers.