S5E25: Picking up the Pieces (Season Finale)

ON TONIGHT’S SHOW

• The MASL season is over and the Savage are champs, we’ll recap the Ron Newman Cup Finals
• It’s end-of-year wrap-up time, we’ll look back at the Sockers season and the key moments that defined it along the way
• Our second annual OT Awards will highlight the best performances of the season
• It was a year of growth for the MASL, we’ll look ahead to what could be coming next season

Episode Transcript

(00:22):
Hello once again, everybody, andwelcome to Soccers over time. You're looking
inside the San Diego Soccers and theMajor Arena Soccer League coming to you live
on Twitch. It's our season finale, Season five, Episode twenty five.
We're picking up the pieces from thetwo thousand, twenty two twenty three m

(00:42):
ASL season. We're putting it allneatly in a box. Will put the
next little bow on top of thebox. We're gonna bury the box in
the backyard, and we're never gonnaspeak about it again. Craig Elston,
Jerry Jimenez, here with you,Elson Jr. Himene, what's happening?

(01:02):
How are you much? You know? I think today today, I'm in
celebratory mood. Today I'm celebrating agreat season for the soccers who didn't end
the way that we wanted. Buthere we are. Man, it's our
last official, you know, episodeof this season until we pick up some
other things and continue this going.Um so yeah, I think celebratory is

(01:23):
the way I'm feeling right now.You know, I have a nice drink
here in my hand, and I'mhere with you and everybody else, So
it's a it's a good time andlooking forward to chat with you and go
through some of our end of seasonstuff today, end of season stuff.
Indeed, does my mic now soundbetter? Yes? It does, fantastic.

(01:44):
Okay, thank you, sir.I clicked a button, went from
a airpot to a plus microphone quality. Excited to have you here, Excited
to be here, everybody checking allof my levels, making sure everything it's
good, everything's happy, look awesome. Last show of the season, and

(02:07):
we're still dealing with we're still tryingto figure out exactly how we get this
to be the best quality ever.But it's okay. There's always a darn
button we forget to push, whetherit's on Craig's side and mostly throughout the
season on my side. But weappreciate you all being here and being patient
and we do this for you soand on my side and set mostly on

(02:30):
my side. Let's be honest,it's usually on my side, so you're
forgiving. I can take an Lin soccer's lost twice this year. I
can take an L or two,I guess this season. Well, we're
welcome everybody joining us live on Twitch. Thank you for finding us, Twitch
dot tv, slash San Diego Soccers. We hope you've enjoyed all the content
we've created for you over the courseof the season, from the preseason,

(02:53):
through the postseason and all the wayto the Ron Newman Cup Final. Thanks
to everybody joining us live. Buthey, no shade on anybody watching the
show on replay on YouTube, evenif you're watching it months later, even
if this is October and you're checkingthis out because you never caught up on
the show, and well, hey, we welcome you, better late than

(03:15):
ever. And for everyone listening onthe audio podcast, special tip of the
hat to you, the ogs,the original audio listeners. You don't need
no stinkin video. You've got usin your ears. We appreciate all of
you. Bobby Cressey's song Beyond theSouth Bay as our official theme song.
Find it on his album Callie Native, available on iTunes, Spotify, band

(03:38):
camp, wherever you get your music. Band camps a great one because the
artists get the most from your patronagethere. On tonight's show, the MSL
season is over. The Savage ourchampions will recap the Ron Newman Cup Finals
for you. It is end ofthe year wrap up time. We'll look
back at the soccer season. Thekey moments that defined it. Along the

(04:00):
way, we will issue our secondannual OT Awards, highlighting the best performances
from the soccers this season and ayear of growth in the MSL overall will
look ahead to what could beat comingup next season. All coming your way
on Soccers Overtime, Yeah, Jerry, you know, it's it's a weird

(04:23):
feeling. Man. You work onthis stuff for so long, and you
always know that there's kind of apotential for a sudden expiration date. There's
also a kind of a known expirationdate, right like you're gonna get to
this day and then after that that'sgoing to be it. No more games.
And yet every single year it comesas a little bit of a stunner.

(04:45):
And I think for everyone who worksin the industry, but the fans
of the team understand this as well, Jerry, But for folks who work
especially, you just put so muchtime effort, you just feel like you're
on a train that's constantly moving,and instead of coasting into its final it
just stops. You just fly offthe train and you're like, WHOA,
holy crap, where are we?And so that's how I've been feeling the

(05:06):
last couple of days. Yeah,for sure. No same here, I
think. You know, once youget the season started and right after that
first game, it's it's it's goaltime and there is no stopping, just
as you mentioned, So it hasbeen very weird to have some time to
kind of, I guess relax ina sense from the soccers. You know,

(05:28):
obviously watching still the around Newman Cupfinals and you guys got to do
a fantastic job over there and giveus that English language broadcast and you know,
but for me was very much thatway as you just explained it.
So yeah, it's it is aweird feeling, but it's this is nice
being able to come back and dothis at least once more to say the
proper goodbyes to the season. Thisfeels good. But up to this point

(05:53):
now I think, yeah, it'sbeen very weird, very very weird.
Well, let's talk about it.As you mentioned, you know, the
season ended on Friday, last Fridayfor us, and then sometime around Sunday,
Monday, we got the call fromMSL. We talked about it last

(06:13):
Tuesday night on the show that wewere going to be doing an English language
broadcast for the league. Nadabrea andI doing it from Calafino Lounge in Carl's
Bad. We drove up there Thursdaynight Friday night. Tony Sanchez huge,
huge tip of the hat to Tonydoing an incredible job on the logistics,
production, directing side engineering. Gettingeverything set really quite an ask to be

(06:41):
honest, to simulcast on both SiriusXM radio and Twitch, which is not
the same thing. Just in caseyou wondered and you've never done play,
but it's not the same thing.To do radio and television play by play
at the same time, and thento have that all done remotely and have
it all done via a video wall, or to be very honest on the

(07:05):
second day off of a big lapto our desktop monitor because that was what
was most in sync for what wewere doing. You know, it's a
challenge, it's it's absolutely a challenge. It's a broadcast challenge. It's an
engineering and logistical challenge. I wantto thank the League for giving us that
opportunity and also for helping us obviouslythe feed as you know, Jerry,

(07:30):
that they wanted to give us,they could only give us the second night.
The first night, we had todo what we didn't want to do
which was take the original Spanish lightwhich broadcast feed, mute it, play
it, talk over it, andrebroadcast it, which creates the second generation,
which means it's the video is notgoing to be as crisp, and

(07:51):
it's going to be more jagged andit's gonna be a little bit behind.
And with that we got it done. And then Friday, the League and
the Savage came through with a greatfeed and it was just so much more
exciting and h so much more intenseto have that sound from inside Corner Sport
Arena. But I guess just startwith the you know, I wanted to

(08:11):
say that on the top, justthanks thanks to Tony, thanks to Nate,
thanks to JP Della Camera, KenStanley at the League for working with
us and getting it set up.And we appreciate everybody who tuned in as
well. And we had a verynice crowd, especially on Friday for that
broadcast. But you know, topline, Savage went at home. Savage

(08:33):
beat Baltimore twice. I thought theBlast had a really good underdog strategy.
They utilized their defensive game plan welland they certainly kept both matches very much
within striking range until the early fourthquarter of the second match. But in
the end what happened it was whatwas supposed to happen, Jerry Chihuaba.

(08:56):
If we weren't going to win thetitle, it had to beat Chihuaba and
they and they got job done.Yeah, it was looking very good for
the Blast right for a little while. I think they came in with some
confidence. Obviously, the results ofthat first game ending in seven six and
overtime goes to show just that theBlast and not given up and that they
were going to come to try toget that win and try to bring the

(09:18):
cup home. It was not tobe. I think at the end of
the day, we all agreed thatif there was going to be anybody to
win it besides us, it wouldbe that Chihuaha was savage, and that
is what came to be. Butit didn't come as easy as I think
maybe a lot of us expected ittoo. Right with that that, especially
that first game. I think thatfirst game was like, okay, all

(09:39):
right, so there, I mean, there is hope and the Blast can
do this, and nothing to takeaway from the Blast, But I never
thought it would come that close,especially you know, to be taken into
overtime like that. I never thoughtthat the Blast could do that to Chihuahua,
but hey, they did, andkudos to the Blast, Kudos to
Chihuahwa for getting the job done atthe end of the day, you know.

(10:03):
But I mean it was again,thank you to everybody that made that
possible to have that English language.I know, there was a lot of
people there, and so it wasgood to have that and to enjoy it.
Two really good games that maybe nobodyexpected. We're going to be very
great games except for Blast, ofcourse. Yeah. And you know,
Baltimore had the strategy to do it, and Game one was where they had

(10:26):
to get it done, you know. And they had leads one nothing,
they had I believe two one,they had three, two, They had
six five as as different leads inthat match, and quite honestly, they
conceded quite quickly, especially six five, having that was their last lead of
the season as it turned out,and they conceded ten seconds later for six

(10:52):
six. But it was a veryorganized Blast team that insisted on putting five
behind the ball at all times,playing that low pressure strategy, really staying
behind the midfield line, attempting tokeep Chihuahua's offense bottled up to prevent runouts,
to prevent breakouts, and they didthat for the most part. I

(11:16):
think they frustrated Chihuahua for the mostpart. But even with that, Baltimore
caught a massive break in the thirdquarter when Barone Valdevinos took a sprained ankle
that was a serious injury that hehad treatment on for several minutes on the

(11:37):
field, and then come the firstquarter was unable to continue. It was
to the backup if on Terry Muno'sin net against Vanzella in a game where
you know you win it and youare in the catbird seat, and it
went scoreless for about six minutes ofthe fourth quarter to close things out,
and then a minute eighteen into goldengoal and Jorge Rios completes his hat trick

(12:03):
and wins it seven to six.A really good, high quality match,
great advertisement for the league. Butalso and we'll talk about it more when
we get to the MSL Year inreview, but winning that match kept the
predominant trend of the Ron Newman Cupplayoffs alive. The team that won Match

(12:24):
one won every single playoff series thisseason. Jerry. It was seven for
seven teams that won match one wonthe series and we talked about it during
Thursday night's game. We wanted toset that up as a storyline and it
came through. Once again. Ithink it's really really hard in this format

(12:45):
to win twice in one night.Yeah, I mean absolutely. And we
goes back to the last podcast thatwe did, well, we talked about
it from quite a bit right thatthe league maybe what is trying to create
a sense of even this in thefinals, but at what costs? Is
there a possibility that because of thisformat, the teams that are supposed to

(13:09):
have the advantage really don't have thatadvantage because that first game is not played
in their home and so normally right, yeah, and so you know,
interesting to see that. And youknow, one other thing about these games,
and especially when it involves a teamlike the Savage, you cannot go

(13:30):
a game without seeing some drama involvedwith Savage being a part of these of
the of a game. If yousee the name too all Savage, you
know there's gonna be at least alittle bit of drama. How did you
feel about the final series here withwhat you all in Blast as far as
the drama goes, you know,I thought it was it was a clean

(13:54):
series. I thought it was officiatedgenerally pretty well. There were a couple
of holes that confused me, inparticular one handball that wasn't called, but
there were very, very few penaltiescalled over the course of the two matches.
The general latitude from the two officiatingcrews Ryan Sickoch fernd Opinia for match

(14:16):
one, Shane Shane Butler and KiaDepini for match two was to let them
play. And you know, matchtwo there was a lot Eddie just made
the comment, but as true,there was a lot less in terms of
fall down stall you know, delay, delay, delay, But also the

(14:39):
Savage didn't have a one goal leadto protect in either of these two matches.
It was tied going down the stretchin match one, so there's not
really as much reason to lay down, and then match two they were up
eight to one at one point inthe fourth quarters, so again there wasn't
as much reason to engage in thosetype of stall tactics. The real match

(15:03):
was the soccers. I mean,like, you know, not to disparage
Baltimore, but the Savage knew,everyone knew who the final was and what
the key was, and it waswinning that first match at Corner Sport Arena
back on the eighteenth, and theygot the job done. And the amount
of time they laid down to getthe job done, Hey, they did
it, so yeah, not thatmuch drama. Second match followed a very

(15:26):
similar pattern. It was close.It was to one in the third quarter,
it was three one at the endof the third quarter, and then
the wheels just fell off for theBlast. You know, Savage got the
first goal, made it four one, they got a quick extra goal,
made it five one. Then theBlast one to six attackers and then it
was six one, seven one,eight one, just like that, five

(15:50):
goals in three minutes in the fourthquarter to start things off. Then everyone's
emotions were just you know, becausethe Savage knew they were gonna win,
the Blast knew they were gonna lose. The Blast started pouring in a bunch
of goals because Chihuahua's minds are scatteredat that point because they've got such a
huge lead. The final winds upbeing a very uncharacteristic of the match flow.

(16:15):
Ten six Chihuahua victory in match two, but it is the final.
It's the victory. And the onething I would also say before we kind
of let them go. We've gota couple more things to say about the
Blast before the shows up. ButWilliam Venzella was absolutely terrific. He was
dynamite so good. Easily could havebeen a much different shape of blowout in

(16:41):
match two because Chihuahua was just pepperingthe net. They did it in match
one as well. I think thefinal shots in match one was something ridiculous
like forty three fifteen or something likethat. It was. It was a
super high disparity, and I thoughtWilliam was just dynamite both match did everything
he possibly could do to get histeam over the line. It wasn't meant

(17:04):
to be the better team one.Chia was definitely the better team between these
two. But Finzilla, man,tell you what, Jerry, he closed
that gap pretty solidly in two days. You Know, what I would say
is that we've known Van Zilla inthe past, that we know what he
can do, so it doesn't surpriseme at all that his performance was what

(17:25):
it was in these two games againstthe Savage. He's just a fantastic goalkeeper.
You know. He's one of thoseplayers that you've come to expect a
lot from and he delivers every singletime when you expect him to show a
big and this is one of thosegames. I'm sure I believe I read
somewhere an article where he said,hey, look I have him have another
hand. I want another ring,you know, and that is his attitude

(17:47):
when it comes to this. Hemanaged to make it all the way there
and took a really good shout atit. I think if it wasn't for
him, it would have been adifferent story. So yeah, you know,
kudos to Vanzella and and honestly,kudos to Baltimore. I think at
the end of the day, ifyou watch these two teams and watch this
series and the season as a whole, you can say that, you know,

(18:11):
if Baltimore would have taken this itI don't know if it would have
surprised me as much now seeing themplayed before this, it would have absolutely
surprised me. I think there wasno chance that I would have thought Baltimore
had a chance, But I thinkthey showed that they did in the first
game, and like you said,the wheels fell off in the second one.

(18:33):
You have to take everything into account. I think at the end of
the day, right we're going togo into the should have, could have,
what could have happened, what wouldhave happened, what ifs? But
I mean, now, where dowe go from here with these two teams?
Right? Because Baltimore is it's sounique. Is this could if they
would have one? Could that havebeen the start of an era for Baltimore?

(18:59):
Is this now then of an era? Or are we seeing the start
of an era for Chihuahua. Likeit's really interesting to go into that perspective
and see what those two teams accomplishedthis season, even if Baltimore maybe wasn't
anywhere near as what's the word Iwant to use, dominant maybe, and
then other seasons and other years theBaltimore Blast that we come to know,

(19:22):
they still made it to you know, the end game. They made it
to that final. So now thatwe've seen them playing, now that we've
seen this final played out, wheredo we go from here with these two
teams? And what is the visionof the future for these two teams?
Well, let's start with the champions. I think for Chihuahua, they have

(19:44):
had as good an entry into thisleague as you possibly could have, right,
you know, and whether you wantto say was this an expansion team
last year? You know, Isee people saying, well, it's basically
the Soulas, not exactly. I'vegot back to some of those old box
scores. Yes somewhat. There's someMonterey players that used to be part of

(20:06):
Soulis as well. There's some soccer'splayers that used to be part of Soulis
as well. You know, ChristianSegura and Iran Poluis were huge parts of
Soulis. So it's not as simpleas just saying the Savage are Solis.
That's not true. Some not completely. But in two years this club has

(20:30):
gone from an O five and twostart to their franchise to fourteen out of
fifteen wins, to pulling themselves allthe way up to be the number three
seed last year in a full leaguetable, to forcing a twenty three oz
and one team to put their backsagainst the wall and have to beat them

(20:53):
twice in one night. And thenthat happened and the franchise had to see
the Monterey Flash come back into existence, a potential talent drain that we thought
was going to affect HuaHua more thanit did. But it did take some
players and some potential available players awayfrom Savage and back over to Monterey,

(21:18):
they had to deal with another dominantsoccers team as well as a Mexican opponent,
and they had to play two threematch series in the first two rounds
of the playoffs, and they gotthe job done and won the championship.
I think that this is a Savageteam that is going to be right there

(21:41):
again next year. I think ifyou were going to start the season,
you'd say Soccers and Savage again asthe two potential best teams. And whereas
the Soccers like Baltimore have a lotof old players, I think the Talkers
have a better mix of some youngplayers too. Chihuahua not that old a

(22:06):
team. I mean, they're notMonterey rolling out Kalukalu and Gushi Gucci in
the back at forty six and fortyfour years old. You know, They've
got guys like Escalante and Madrono inthe back, guys like Flacco in the
midfield. Puentiss Is only twenty nine, Rios Is I believe twenty nine thirty

(22:29):
years old. There's a lot oftalent there. And while there's going to
be expansion in Mexico again and Guadalajarawill present the same issue in terms of
potential talent drain, and if Soliscomes back, it'll present the same issue
in terms of potential talent rain.I really think the Savage are just kind
of a perfect little franchise for thisleague. You know, they're right sized

(22:55):
for their city, for their state. They've got an arena, it fits
what they're doing. You know,they had a little parade for the team
in the city of Chihuahua for winningthe championship January, so they've got support
that we thought, you know,that we saw was really clear. So,
you know, again, starting withthe champs, I'd say Chihuahua,

(23:17):
this is the start of an era, not necessarily an era of five straight
championships or something, but an eraof probably five straight years that they are
right there in the conversation for theMSL Championship, and they are well coached,
well designed. I think they're agreat club. Yeah, I have
to agree. I think if Icould sum up their first season, it

(23:38):
would be one of perseverance right wherethey did not start out well, but
we're able to push through and startjelling as a club. And then the
second year is the one where itwas solidified what their mentality was going to
be, what their style of playwas going to be what they were going
to be about, not just withthe branding and with the look and feel

(24:00):
of the club, but with theiractual play on the field. And I
think that, you know, Ithink back to a time when I was
questioning the branding and like savage likethat, I'm not sure that's gonna work,
But that's exactly what they are.Like, they're they're crazy about their
sports, their sport, their team, and about their city and they have
shown that throughout these last two seasons. And I think I agree with you.

(24:22):
I think this is a start ofsomething great for Chihuahua, and kudos
to them for really getting it rightand representing that community in such a way
where you know, they do havethe backing of the city and they're able
to have even a parade. Imean, how cool is that? You
know, It's just it's amazing tosee and it shows growth in the league.
And I think Gabriel said it andI wouldn't put it quite that way,

(24:44):
right, lose the championship save aleague, But I think that there's
there's a lot of positives to betaken from a team like Chihuahua representing the
league as the champions going into thenext season, and Gabe's doing a play
off of one of the most famoussoccers quotes ever, Julie V talking saying

(25:06):
lose a game, save a franchiseabout some of those games in the eighties
the Wichita Wings, like twenty fourstraight times, and then they would lose
to Wichita, the whole city ofWichita would celebrate, and he would say,
you know, lose a game,save a franchise. So a little
bit of a play on that.I don't think it saves the league.

(25:27):
I do think it's good for theleague. I'm sure that almost everyone outside
San Diego or anyone who isn't kindof a league sport purist was rooting against
the Soccers. I think sport puristswere rooting for the Soccers because they were
the best team. Like they werejust by far the highest quality team.

(25:48):
So usually, you know, ifyou believe in the purity of the sport,
you want the best team to win. Nonetheless, great stuff for Chihuahua.
Congratulations, and I think they're wellpositioned for years to come. You
know. On the flip, justvery honestly, and you know, we'll
let our guys goals and boards getinto the heart analysis the actual Baltimore fans
that are hard hurting right now.But you know, it was funny,

(26:12):
Jerry. I was doing research beforematch two of the final, looking at
when Baltimore went to Mexico and wontwo games on the road field in the
same night to win the championship,because I wanted to have that example,
as you know, some emotional ballastfor Blast fans to start our broadcast.

(26:32):
And that was twenty seventeen, thetwo seventeen playoffs when they beat Soulis nine
eight in overtime and then one nothingin the mini game. And I looked
at the roster and it was halfthe exact same roster in twenty seventeen that
was there in twenty twenty three,just you know, six years older.

(26:55):
You know, for everyone from NellieSantana to Josh Hughes to of course Donna
Telli and Roque to Venzella. Youknow, like this mellow, this Baltimore
team has been at it for along time, and their core has been
together for a long time, andtheir franchise has been a dominant franchise for

(27:19):
a long time. And at theend of this year, they didn't have
a home arena. Not sure whatthe situation is for next year, but
they were definitely let down by theirsituation, I think by their ownership as
well. And this felt like anend of an era to me. For

(27:42):
the Blast, this felt like afranchise group with kind of that last dead
cat bounce. You know, itlooks like they're on the way back up.
Got a very interesting played a veryvery hard nosed playoff. Had to
win at Utica, you know,got the job done, or pardon me,

(28:04):
had to win at Florida, gotthe job done, had to win
at Milwaukee, got the job done, almost pulled it off in Chihuahua,
and I feel like if they had, it would have been this remarkable capstone
for that group of players who havebeen playing together for well over a decade,
I mean dating back to the MSL. They were playing together before the

(28:25):
merger, and they almost won anotherone, and William almost won a fifth
title with Baltimore and a sixth inhis career, but they didn't. And
everyone gets a year older next year. And while the soccers can look in
the mirror and ask themselves some verysimilar questions, my friend, I think
Baltimore has to start thinking about whendo we reconfigure this, When do we

(28:48):
retool? When? When do wejust kind of start over, maybe from
the top all the way down.And that's kind of what I'm looking at
when it comes to the Blast.I don't think they're ready to just lock,
reload, press reset on the gamebutton and be a championship contender next
year. I think they kind offound their way into the final and I
don't know if the path gets anyeasier for them. Yeah, I would

(29:12):
percent agree with you on that.And I think you look at the Blast,
you look at the soccers as legacyteams of this league, right,
and so at what point do youstart changing what made that legacy? Some
of these players at our legacy playersalso a part of a legacy team,

(29:33):
and some of the older guys thatare in these teams, I would say
you have to look realistically at productivityof these guys, right, Like I
don't think you can talk about guyslike Vanzella, but I mean he showed
up, he's still playing great.Is that somebody that you would want to
let go or is that something thathe's ready to let go? Probably not.

(29:55):
So it's gonna be really interesting tosee how they change, But yeah,
I think I would have to agreewith you the idea of an end
of an era as a whole individuallyas players, I think you can see
that talent. I you know,maybe people will think a little differently I
guess than I do. But Idon't think that it's just yet the end
of an era for Baltimore. Ithink they will build on this. I

(30:21):
mean, you know, this isnot taken into conservation what happened near the
end of the season. I'm talkingabout just as a whole. They were
able to get to the end.But if we're looking at the team from
from the outside, and again Ilistened to a lot of goals and boards,
I think those guys are gonna bevery positive. I hope they're going
to be very positive about their teamin the recaps. I don't know if

(30:41):
they already did it or not.Whatever. I think it's just going into
this. I don't know. Idon't know if I one hundred percent agree
with you on it. So Iguess we're gonna have to see. I
think we're gonna have to see whatchange has happened and what changes happened to
the soccers. That's maybe something thatwe can talk about too. Right now
we're talking about Baltimore, and Ijust don't see it. I do think

(31:03):
that the core group, those olderlegacy players of Baltimore Blast will still be
here next season. Oh I dotoo. It's just a matter of,
you know, for example, you'rethinking, you're thinking in addition to yeah,
okay, yeah, well, Ithink it's it's time to start making

(31:25):
those rotations. Who's the next greatBlast forward, you know, because it
can't continue to just be Roquet everyyear. That would be the that would
be the equivalent of if the soccerscame out this year and Forbes was still
the starting midfielder and Eddie Vallez wasstill, you know, starting in the
back, you know, kind ofjust only legacy former championship players and you

(31:53):
didn't bring in to Void Morgan andMitchell Cardinas and Christian Gudiers and brandonness go
to and you know, the groupof late twenty somethings or early thirty somethings
that are on the soccer's roster,the Blast of just kind of year by
year, same group, maybe addone guy and move forward. I don't

(32:15):
think. All I'm saying is Idon't think that group wins a championship.
I think this was their chance andthey could have swept another one. They
could have scooped another one up andit would have been, I mean,

(32:36):
honestly, from again a league puritystandpoint, an upsetting result, but it
would have been a brilliant result forthe Blast franchise. It would have been
one they stole. You know,it would have been it would have been
a championship that they kind of stolemore than any of the others in their
franchise history. So that's where Iput that pin in, you know,

(32:59):
And I'm sure someone could say,oh, what's an end of the era
for San Diego. Is Craig Child'sgoing to win another championship? As boris
Partle going to win another championship?You know, these are aging players.
Can they get the job done?Hey, we can talk about it.
It's not the whole corridor though,you know, the soccers have a much
more diverse core of talent, ofplayers at various stages of their career.

(33:22):
I kind of think Baltimore has alot of guys that are toward the end
and when you just keep playing runit back, which is if you know
we're about to transition to soccers.When you just play run it back,
you reduce your options in terms ofhow to get better. Yeah, and
that's that's where I am with Baltimore. How do they get better so that

(33:45):
they are they have a better chanceof beating a team out of the West
next year if they just run itback. I think this was their chance.
And that's all I'm saying, gotit. Yeah, I guess the
way I look at it is likeand that to pick out a specific player,
and this is probably the worst player. So I'm just gonna throw the
name out there. But stop puttingall of your eggs in the Roque basket

(34:07):
because there may be some holes becausedue to age. So let's find this
other new basket that we can putsome of those eggs into and split it
evenly and start building that. Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense.
And yeah, I think you agree. I agree with you on Many people
are on the league may also bethinking this could be an end of an
era for the soccers after one seasonlosing after having two championships. However,

(34:31):
the difference being those younger players thatare showing up, and we will talk
about you know, our unsung heroesare fresh new faces and stuff like that
coming up. But you know,I think that the problem, the good
problem that we had and that Ihad today was figuring that out because I

(34:52):
had a few choices. And that'swhat you want to see coming into this
new era of m ASO just asa whole. I think it's a new
era for MS and it's gonna bereally interesting to see where we go from
here. Okay, let's transition toour soccer's twenty two twenty three season and
review, just a chance to kindof go back through the key moments of

(35:13):
this season, look at the shapeof the season and reflect upon it.
And you know, Jerry, it'sa very interesting shape, almost an inverse
Bell curve in terms of the team. One ten in a row to start
the season, then they had theirlittle rough patch of two and two,
and then they want ten in arow to end the regular season. Two

(35:36):
beautiful stretches of smooth sailing, somechoppy waters in the middle. Obviously,
a resounding playoff win over Mesquite andthen against Chihuahua, a really solid,
entertaining, exciting matchup between two greatteams in this league that the Savage were
able to be better than one goaltwice. So when I look back at

(36:00):
the shape of this year, Iwill say that one thing that never truly
got smoothed over was the thing thathappened at the very very beginning. The
Soccers came into training camp the latestof any team in the major arena soccer

(36:22):
league. They came in two weekslater than what their original plan had set
forward. They did so in acost cutting maneuver, and it was penny
wise and I don't know if itwas pound foolish. At the end,
Jerry in that this club never reallytruly clicked on all cylinders. And that's

(36:43):
funny to say on a twenty twoand two team, but I think when
you look at power play, whenyou look at set piece, when you
look at the performance as some ofthe stores on this club, there were
some elements of this team that werealways kind of like ninety percent there.
And I still go back to kindof picking things up on the fly at

(37:04):
the start of the season as anelement of not having that sharpness. Yeah,
I mean now looking back at it, right, and we talked about
this I think episode two or three. Going into the preseason, It's like,
is this going to affect the waythe soccers played the rest of the
season, and I would have toagree with you that we were never really

(37:28):
on, you know, playing infull cylinders, like, yes, we
played great, but could it havebeen better? I think so, And
it was in the beginning when therewas teams already playing and we came in
and we're just I think those firstfew wins were not easy ones by any
means. And so looking back now, could that have helped having started at

(37:51):
the right time with everybody on board, you know, when the season started
for everybody else, could that havehelped out in that maybe it would have
just moved moved over that middle areaand maybe we could have had those extra
couple of games that could have helpedus out at the end. And of
course it sounds ridiculous, right becauseI say that, Yo, they never

(38:15):
truly recovered from that rough preseason,struggling out to a ten and oh start,
you know, I mean, like, obviously the team was great from
a win lost standpoint right out ofthe shoot. But I actually do agree
with Marlsia in the comments that theywere also kind of training games to some

(38:36):
extent early on, and I dothink it also gave the soccers a sense
of confidence that their first two winscame against Empire, right, And you
know, you started with going toToyota Arena and winning eight to five,
and then coming back to San Diegoand it was not a pretty game.
It was one one into overtime,but still saysar sorta got the goal and

(38:58):
the Soccers won that. And andthat was the kind of really shady,
low output, low connectivity game thatif you lose it early in the season,
it's kind of a little bit ofa wake up call that you need
to shake up some of your systems. And that didn't happen. The Soccers
won that, and then they hada couple of easy games against Dallas to
follow that, and it was like, you know, okay, two and

(39:20):
h three oh four, No,you know, you start racking up some
wins. Mesquite was not a greatteam on the road, Chihuahua, you
can beat them at home in fullgames, you know, And it's set
that tone of winning, not quitebeing in one percent lock step, but
having those ws stack up to makeyou feel like everything's okay, everything's fine,

(39:42):
there's nothing to worry about, there'snothing to work on here. Yeah,
yeah, I mean it. Youknow, it's again, could that
have changed? I think we tendto talk a lot about what ifs,
but this is what ended up happening, right, And so as we try
to figure out and put some sortof sense to the way the season ended,
I think it's fair to talk aboutit and and look at that preseason

(40:07):
and those training games at the beginningof the season. I think it's completely
fair. But you know, Imean, we move on, We move
on, and uh yeah, youknow, I don't know. I don't
know what else to do. Imean, it is what it is.
It's just we're just reviewing, right, We're just kind of looking back and

(40:29):
retracing the trail and going, oh, you remember when, you remember when,
and that's what we're doing. So, you know, ten and oh,
everything looked great. Soccer's dominant teamin the league. They're about to
start a six match road trip.You and I both said, like,
just look out. If the Soccersstart this trip with a big win,
they may not lose this year.We were really thinking about could this be

(40:51):
an undefeated season and we go toOntario and get the doors blown off the
car ten to four, one ofthe worst losses in the Philosilvagio era.
I think we looked it up asthe second worst statistically loss in the history

(41:13):
of the San Diego Soccers PASL masl ERA. It was a great night
for Empire. I think they mademultiple videos out of that one win.
It kind of helped fuel their socialmedia for the rest of the season,
But it also set the tone forthree weeks of struggle for the San Diego

(41:36):
Soccers. You know, even thoughthe team came back from that to beat
Tacoma and beat Dallas, they didn'tlook particularly good in either one of those
games. And then of course thatwas followed by a pretty dispiriting loss,
even though it was by one goalat Mesquite so I kind of just look
at that as the stumbling block thatwinds up being, interestingly enough, the

(42:00):
low point of the season. Thatblowout loss at Empire. Yeah, that
was that was a heartbreaker and Ithink also a wake up call, you
know, to say, hey,look, we're not invincible. We do
have some things we need to workon, and that was a beginning of
it. That was a beginning oflearning some lessons and really having to change

(42:22):
maybe a few things within the team. Yeah, and of course that match
also featured three days later a Empirestriker's Instagram post and a deceptively edited video
and uh you know, a submissionto the league and the Disciplinary Review Committee

(42:46):
and a suspension for Brandon Noscoto anda suspension for Caesar Sarah, which really
set the stage for Texas and thengoing to mesquite losing and the ridiculous almost
entirely outlaws created uh kerfuffle at theend of that match, and the you

(43:06):
know, Pablo slapping to Void offcamera, a security guy dragging down cardonists
on camera to avoid trying to wrenchhim out, and suspensions and talk about
all or the soccers a dirty team? Do they have no disciplines as their
coach control their team. Maybe thatwas the low point of the season.
That's where everyone thought, oh,wounded animal, let's go get them,

(43:30):
let's poke them with the sticks.Sockers are weak. That was That was
probably the low spot. Actually,I would say there was also though a
little bit of blame that could beput on on the sockers for handling certain
situations. The way that they werehandled, I would say could have been
done a little better. So Idon't want to necessarily say that you know

(43:52):
that that is completely on Mesquite andon Empire and that whole situation. You
know, there's a lot of differentways that you can look at it,
and I'm sure there's a lot ofpeople that are going to disagree with what
you just said, you know,one hundred percent, and that's fair.
But I think that also it didaffect the soccer's mentality a bit, right,

(44:15):
Whether it's good or bad, Ithink it depends on the player you
ask. I think it fired upCraig Chiles, though, I'll tell you
that much. You know, thatentire trip really fired up our captain and
you know, at the end ofthe day, if you look at it,
and one of the things that I'msuper impressed with still and now I'm
celebrating, like I said, I'min the celebratory mood, is one of

(44:37):
these this thing right here, whichis that the team was able to hold
their own other way to the endand not completely lose it because they could
have because of everything that was happening, regardless of who to blame, of
what right, they were still ableto keep their heads on and not let
them completely fall off and go offthe rails like they did not. So

(44:57):
that is one of the things thatI'm you know, I'm celebrating today and
look, you know I'm not.We're a soccer's show. We're going through
a narrative from a soccer's point ofview. Nonetheless, the soccers have plenty
of lessons to learn from that littlerough patch of the season, and the
biggest one to me is don't alwaysturn your attention to the referees. You

(45:20):
know, the officials are going tomake calls. Sometimes they're not going to
be the call you want. Sometimesthe opponent's going to get away with something
and then you're going to get flaggedfor the retaliation and that are carded for
it, and that's just the natureof sports. I think when this team
gets off, it's when their attentionturns away from their opponent and toward the

(45:42):
officials, or away from the opponentand toward themselves. When those things happen,
it's really bad for this franchise.And we saw some of that in
that little miniature muddy patch in themiddle of the season. But having said
that, you know, you talkabout Childs and I truly point to this
show and you can go back andwatch it. You know, that week

(46:04):
before February, so it was probablyFebruary twenty first, that show, absolutely
and Craig coming on and showing incredibleleadership, showing why he's the captain of
the team, installing confidence in theteam, saying that they can win and
and by the way, if they'rethe fifth seed, they can win.
And by the way, if they'rethe third seed, they can win,
and then taking that and following upwith a hat trick and to assist the

(46:29):
very next game in Chihuahua to helpthe Soccers be the first team in two
seasons to win a regulation game inChihuahua. And I thought that was the
turnaround, and I thought that wasthe you know, lighting of the fuse
in the bottle rocket that helped theSoccers take off and they won twelve in

(46:50):
a row from that point until theChihuahua playoff loss. Yeah, he didn't
let it, you know, hedidn't let off an entire time after that
show. And I mean, obviouslyit's not because of the show, but
we were able to hear the mentalityafter that whole situation and what they were
going to do. And I thinkthat that was an eye opener and also
very telling of the mentality of thisclub and Charles didn't just talk to talk,

(47:15):
he walked the walk and did itall the way to the end and
it was very, very impressive.So yeah, I think that was a
big, a big moment for thesoccers this season. Huge wins followed that,
you know, the two wins downin Mexico, consecutive wins over Empire,

(47:37):
the game that Empire thought they hadwith the huge fourth quarter comeback and
then to have it broken by ChristianCoutierrez winning in overtime. Following that up
with a hard nosed win at homeover Empire. It all set up that
wild final weekend which saw the Strikerlosing in Mesquite, which thought Tacoma finding

(48:02):
out that a tie would get theyou know, just a regulation tie would
get them into the playoffs. Thatthat very weird final game of the season.
It was an exciting finish for theleague, obviously a rough finish for
our neighbors to the north, andthen into the playoffs. You know,
Mesquite a team that that talked alot, a young team that that had

(48:22):
that brashness. If you're following theNBA playoffs, kind of the Memphis Grizzlies
of our league, young and upstart, but talking like they had won at
all, and the Soccers took itto him, you know, beat him
at home pretty handily and then shutthem out here in San Diego. And
and that should not be overlooked.You know. Yes, Mesquite was a

(48:45):
tired club. Yes, they werepretty much burned out for that second match.
It's a playoffs shutout, Man BorisPardo and Xaviers near Williams. A
playoffs shutout, truly one of thehigh points of the twenty twenty two twenty
three. Yeah. Absolutely, Andat this point I think it felt really
good to be a soccers fan,right at this point in the season where

(49:07):
it felt like, okay, wellthe bat is all past us, it's
behind us, and we are movingforward, regardless of that little rough patch
like you said, in the muddywaters in the middle of the season.
And here we are going off againstMesquite, who a lot of us were
really looking for that that match againstthem, to really bring it to them,
and they did and it felt reallynice. It felt really good,

(49:30):
and it was a confidence that thesoccers were shorting at this point. Yeah.
It was an aggregate fifteen one winin that playoff series. And you
know it's funny, I mean,on aggregate. Soccers won the second round
two, so we should go toaggregate scoring. I mean, because I

(49:52):
believe it was what twelve to ten, it would have been twelve twelve to
ten. Twelve to ten. Soccersoutscored Chihuala in that second round twelve to
tend. Nonetheless, I think reallythe lesson of the second round is play
with fire, you get burned.You know. The soccers came into that
series feeling and we knew it feelinglike we could lose the first game and

(50:17):
we can take care of this becausewe did it last year. So of
course we're going to try and winthat first game. But if we lose
that first game, we can takecare of it at home, and they
couldn't this time. It's not easy, and I think that's the real lesson
to be learned. It's not easy. You can't take it for granted.

(50:37):
I don't think they in any waytook that Chihuahua match for granted. I
don't want to say that there wasany mental letdown or any mental weakness in
losing that game. I don't wantanyone to infer that from what I'm saying.
All I am saying is you can'tcount on doing that, and Chihuahua
proved it a really good team beatingthem twice, even on your home floor
where it's a fortress. Beating themtwice in one night. Man, it's

(51:00):
hard to do. Yeah, Andsometimes, unfortunately, that is the way
the world goes. The ball doesn'tbounce your way, just like Garopino told
us last episode, and some ofthese guys also feel the same way,
right, Coach Feelsovagio said the same. Sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your
way, and that's the way itgoes. That's the way the cookie crumbles,

(51:22):
right, That's the way that itis. In sports. Sometimes even
the best teams lose. Unfortunately thistime we were on that end. And
I mean, I honestly don't.I don't feel bad about it because we
did push all the way to theend. I think the podcast before that,

(51:44):
those final matches, I said,you know, as long I feel
I'm gonna feel good. As longas these guys show up and play their
best, I'm gonna be happy.This season was a great season all the
way through, and there is nothingto be ashamed of. There's nothing to
be said about other than just nothaving that ball bounce our way. That's
it all right, Q the awardmusic, It's time to get out on

(52:09):
the gilded stage. It's time topresent our second annual OT Awards, our
Soccers Over Time Club Awards, ourchance to offer our felicidadas at the end
of the season to the players whomade this season so special. And we'll
start Jerry with Soccer's Team MVP,our lead acting award. Soccer's Team MVP.

(52:34):
Who would you pick as the Soccer'sTeam MVP for twenty twenty two twenty
three. Well, here's what I'mgonna say really quick, because I do
see there's a lot of people inthe chat. Throw us your Soccer's Team
MVP. And as we go throughthese, throw us your options for these
help us out because there might besomething that I missed, Craig, probably
not, probably me so, butI want to know. I want to
know what you guys think. Andfor me, I had to think about

(52:58):
this one a little bit because itwas between two people, but I decided
to and on Boris Pardo for theSoccer's Team MVP this year. I just
feel like without him, there wasjust no way that this season would have
ended the way that it did.I'll tell you that my other option,

(53:19):
I'll actually, you know what itmight be yours. So I'm going to
keep it to myself and we'll talkabout it after you give your your option.
But yeah, Boris Parto just stoodon and said the entire season,
I think that again he is thatone piece that puts everybody together, and
this season he really stepped it upman, And there's no reason why he
shouldn't have had League MVP. Sothere's no reason why he shouldn't have Soccer's

(53:40):
team MVP. So for me,Boris Parto, you just said it.
I can't logically have been making anargument for Boris Parto to be League MVP
for weeks and weeks and not followthrough by saying he was the team's MVP.
Otherwise, it was a pretty allowargument on my part, Like I

(54:01):
don't actually think he's the best playeron the team, a most important,
but I think he should le LeagueMVP. No, Boris Parto is the
through line. He is the oneplayer that quite honestly, for two seasons
now and it's not I want tobe clear about this. This is not
a knock on Xavier Snare Williams,Xavier Snare Williams is a last year was

(54:22):
a twenty one year old kid.This year a twenty two year old kid
coming out of Beach soccer that's barelyplayed the game indoors. He's a kid
who's been learning by playing soccer's twogames in the middle of the season to
try and get reps just in case. The soccer's never had the last two
seasons a dependable, veteran, experiencedsecond option to Boris Parto. It was

(54:46):
Boris Parto, or it was throwa kid into hot water, deep water
and maybe panning, and they neverdid that. Boris Parto, his age
thirty eight and a thirty nine seasons, played basically every game two seasons in
a row. You know, hedidn't rest until the twenty third match of

(55:08):
this season, and even then,yeah, it was only two games after
the team flinched the shield that theywere willing to sit him for one game,
and he came right back and heplayed every minute basically the rest of
the way. So Boris is thecall. I think there's plenty of offensive
guys, and we're going to talkabout them with some of the subsequent awards,

(55:30):
but when it comes to the singlemost important player, the Most Valuable
Player. It's parto. It's definitelyparto. Yeah no, thank you,
all right, But here here isa chance to get some of those other
guys names in the mix, becausewe're now looking for the soccer's best supporting

(55:51):
Actor. Who was the player whohelped support this effort. This MVP effort
by boris parto the very much,and here's a great chance to throw some
more names into the mix. Sowho do you like for best Soccer Supporting
Actor? This was another really difficultone, so really quick because in case
you're wondering, my other option forteam MVP was Craig Chiles because he just

(56:15):
because he did what he did.So for best soccer Supporting Actor, this
one was another really difficult one becauseI also had Craig Chiles as a possibility
for this one. However, Iended up on Leonardo Deolivera as my best
soccer Supporting Actor of the season.I don't think that you can argue with

(56:37):
what he did this season and whathe was able to do, maybe not
so much at the end of theseason, but I mean he was our
leading assists right with twenty seven yea, I just I don't think you can
give it to anybody else, Well, we're two for two in terms of
agreement, and you know, allagain speak to logical consistency. I can't

(56:58):
keep saying that Leonardo Olivia is themost underrated player in the NASL and not
throw him up here as a guywho offers the most support to the clubs.
I think he is the backbone ofthis club offensively because clearly the team's
forwards are tasked to score the goalson this club, whether it's Tavoy or

(57:19):
Craig or Christian, but someone's gotto get them the ball. And we
saw in the playoffs in the secondseries just how important it was to have
Leonardo d'elivera out on the floor andhow much he connects the pieces together of
this team. He's that hub,you know, that all the spokes attached

(57:44):
to. And I think Leo isjust he is a two way creator.
He turns the ball over defensively,he gets the ball back for your club
when you've lost it, he holdsit when you have it. He slows
down the tempo when you need itto be slowed down, and he's the
player that usually speeds things up whenit needs to get sped up. By

(58:07):
getting a good pass forward and beingintelligent and creative with his decision making.
I think Leonardo Deoliveta is one ofthe best players in this league, and
I think for the second straight yearhe put together a dominant performance and didn't
get All League either year, buthe got our award two years in a

(58:29):
row. So Leo, I hope, I hope you take that one and
we appreciate it. We're in andthis is already look at where the comments
are so varied, and this iswhat I love about this team, Like
anybody on the team could take anyof these awards, Like you know,
we we have to pick, butI love this. I love that.
Yeah, there's obviously some players thatare not going to be named by us

(58:53):
specifically, but that does not meananything because there's you know, there's possibly
for everybody. Like we just havesuch a solid team. So yeah,
I just want to throw that outing. Like we're already two in. But
you already see the varied responses fromum the audience here today, Um it's
yeah, it's it's great to see. Yeah. I saw a lot of
Mitchell for Best Supporting Actors, sawPino thrown in there, saw Craig and

(59:17):
then Eddie Triujillo said, you can'tput Craig in a supporting role. I
appreciate that he only submits his namefor best Lead Actor, he just not
submit for Best Actor in his supportingrole. I appreciate that. So,
uh yeah, great commentary in thechat. Next up, and this is
again a category you could go anumber of directions, and probably we will.

(59:40):
But who was the unsung hero forthe Soccers in twenty twenty two twenty
three? Soccer's Unsung Hero? AndI have two again, I like,
I can't just pick one, soI'm just gonna pick the first one that's
on my list, uh just becauseoh, I see my other pick just

(01:00:02):
went up. But okay, soI'm gonna go with Mitchell cards for this
one on Soccer's Unsung Hero. Butyou know that this was really tough for
me. But Mitchell Cardinals I thinkdoes so much and not just an assist,
not just in defense, but alsoin the goal scoring category near the

(01:00:22):
end here I think had some beautifulgoals. We've seen what he's been able
to do. He's somebody that knowshis role but then also knows when to
step out of that role to tofix a gap during gameplay. He's somebody
that definitely does not get the loveand respect from other than us and the

(01:00:45):
fans here outside of the league.I don't think he gets the love and
respect that he deserves. Mitchell Cardanasis just an outstanding player in always possible.
So Mitroll is my pick. It'sa tremendous pick. I could even
go as far as to say it'sthe right pick. So I'm very happy
that you made that pick. Wouldgo well, I'll go a little different

(01:01:09):
just to differentiate, okay, differentiate, And this player was not the soccers
leading scorer. He was sixth.He was not the soccers leading goal scorer,
but he was second. But he'sthe player that is not the backbone

(01:01:30):
of the soccer's defense. He's thetip of the spear of the soccer's defense.
He's the guy that's up top,out front and then blasting to the
back to score big goals late.Christian Gutierrez is my unsung hero for the
Soccers for twenty twenty two twenty three, twenty three goals in the regular season,

(01:01:55):
seventeen of them in the fourth quarteror overtime, and the huge goals
against Empire, the ot winner upthere, the equalizer down here on March
twenty fourth. A player that justleads the club in work rate, leads
the club in minutes, in sweatand hustle, helps Craig Child's to be

(01:02:21):
the player that he is because Craighas to play half the field and guzzierdis
can play the other half of thefield. I think he is an unsung
hero. He's also a player thatdoesn't get a lot of pub doesn't get
a lot of discussion as a Spanishlanguage only player, doesn't get a ton
of interviews, doesn't get a tonof attention. But man, without him,
the soccers wouldn't be the same team. So that's why Christian gets my

(01:02:44):
call. Yeah, I can't arguewith that. That's solid. Next one
is a chance to identify a playerwho took their biggest step forward in twenty
twenty two, twenty twenty three biggeststep forward A chance for someone who broke
out this season. Who do youlike for this one? Jared? I
want to see what the chat issaying. Again, I think this is

(01:03:07):
awesome that there's a lot of differenceshere. Um, I don't know if
in the stats it reflects it,but I am gonna have to go with
Rojo for me, and you know, maybe not a lot of people will
agree with that, but I justfeel like this season I really felt his

(01:03:29):
presence just as a whole. Again, I don't think the stats reflect that,
and I'm going more on feeling herethan anything, but I would have
to go with Hama. And thiswas another really difficult one too, because
I didn't want to have to gooff the stats and I don't think that
that's necessarily always the right way togo. And and so yeah, my
heart just landed on a hormone.I like that. I like it.

(01:03:52):
I think he took a huge stepforward. He made it to second team
All League, Um, so you'vegot that as well, double digit goals,
became a player that on big fieldsthe soccers could reliably isolate to get
on that left wing for one vone plays he had. He had a
nice solid step forward. But Ikind of feel like it was part and

(01:04:15):
parcel of what he's supposed to dofor this team. And so I think
it's a great pick. I'm gonnaselect somebody else, and this player I
feel played to the very top ofhis ability. This is a player who
is not a star on this team, but is an absolutely critical second line

(01:04:35):
player who brings energy, who bringshustle, he brings creativity, he brings
smarts on field, smarts no how, both offensively and defensively. And this
year, for the first time inhis soccer's career, he was healthy the
entire season and pretty much put upwhat I think is his top line activity,

(01:05:00):
and that player is Philippe A.Gonzalez. I think Philippe really maximized
what he can do to contribute toa winning team. This year. He
was over twenty points, he hadtwelve goals. He was just a burst
of energy and passion everywhere he was. He's so important to this team on

(01:05:24):
every level, defensively, offensively,tactically. He is a player who helps
keep the clubhouse cohesive. And that'swhy I think Philippe took a huge step
forward. In the past, it'sbeen like, oh, well, Philippe
scored seven goals in twelve games,and we hope he's healthy to be a

(01:05:47):
difference maker in the playoffs. Ifeel like that's kind of been the Philipe
Gonzalez soccer story year after year,is like he was injured half the year.
He got a couple of goals hereand there, and then he you
know, turned it up maybe inthe playoffs. This year, he was
there game one all the way.Three, had a great start to the
season, He had a good finishto the season. I think he was

(01:06:09):
consistent. So biggest step forward forme. I feel like he stepped up
into a kind of like the Pokemonfinal evolution, you know, like the
ultimate version of himself. I thinkthat's what Philipe Gonzalez was this year.
I absolutely love that pick. AndI know I just said that stats don't
matter, but if you look atit, it's obviously also it makes it

(01:06:31):
very clear. Right in the twentyone twenty two season, he had eight
points with fifteen games played, sixgoals to assists. Twenty two twenty three,
twenty one games played eleven goals,nine assists for twenty points. I
mean, yeah, big step inthe points category, in the goals and
the assists in the games played.Which is the biggest part here is he

(01:06:55):
was healthy the entire time, SoI can't I'm not even gonna hate on
that. That is a great pick, all right. This is maybe the
toughest category because the soccers essentially tooka run it Back philosophy. For twenty
twenty two twenty three, it wasmostly familiar faces on this roster, but
this category asks for the fresh newface for the San Diego Soccers in twenty

(01:07:17):
twenty two twenty three. So it'sa limited podium worth of options here,
El Signori Menez. But who wouldyou like to select for the fresh new
phase for the Soccers? Oh,I have two Again. I'm gonna wait
a little bit as I see someof the chat here coming up. Yeah,

(01:07:39):
I think everybody is an agreement withme. I think the most surprising.
I think I was already expecting somethingfrom Ishmail Rojo, but I'm for
my pick for this one. Ithas to be Irving. It has to
be Mohica. You know, Ihad those two on my list, but
I think everything Mohica just showed up, immediately, added a press, immediately

(01:08:00):
added something to the team that wasvery much needed and maybe wasn't there from
the very beginning, but it feltlike he was. Uh and yeah,
so for me, just like hishis hustle, his ability to jail with
the team so quickly, and hisability to contribute in the way that he
did and learn his role so quickly. Um, I think that's my fresh

(01:08:25):
new face. It's a great call. You know, I had written down
on my Apple Notes app here BigRojo for this category, Ismail Rojo U.
The one issue I have with myselfin making that pick is that is
he really a new face. He'sbeen around for a while. We've just
been waiting for him to get inthe lineup. We've been waiting for the

(01:08:45):
visa situation to get sorted. Soyou know, very appreciative that happened.
There were expectations for Big Rojo,and I think for the most part,
he fulfilled those. I actually kindof thought he might fight his way into
the starting lineup at the end ofthe year, and he didn't. And

(01:09:06):
the play and so just to diversify, the player I'm going to pick is
the player that the soccers thought wasworthy of selection for a knockout game against
the other best team in the league, and that's Luis Perez Tortine. And
I think you know, Mohika andTortine both came in the same game,
you know, February twenty fourth atChihuahua. They both joined this club at

(01:09:28):
the same time. Mohica had thatgreat start at forward and scoring i think
three goals in those first two gamesfor San Diego, and it was kind
of quiet after that. And Ifeel like it was just as simple as
putting a forward in the midfield andseeing that he didn't quite have the same
thing to offer, just like whenthey put Big Rojo in the midfield,
he didn't have the same to offerthat he did when he was a defender.

(01:09:51):
Perez brought energy, hustle, speed, got a couple of goals late
in the scene, and really earnedthe eyes of the coaches to the point
where they're thinking about a permanent rosterspot for him next year. So a
fresh new face, someone that wedidn't know anything about at the start of

(01:10:13):
the season, came out of nowhere, came out of Soccer's two and via
Tijuana, and became maybe a partof the solution next years. So great
call on Mohika, and I'll throwin Perez so that both of those kids
get a shout. Yeah. Absolutely, And then I think we both mentioned
Ishmail Rojo in there, So Imean, those three guys are just fantastic.

(01:10:35):
I just had to go with becauseof a stat thing, and I
just said that I wasn't looking atstats but in this situation, I think
I kind of went back and didthat. Yeah, there's no arguing there.
I think both Peres and Mohika addedso much this season, and I
am so excited to see what theybring in the next season. Next step,

(01:10:55):
we're getting into very specific Candidas.One was Mane soccer's goal. Sure,
absolutely favorite soccer's goal. This couldbe any goal all season, and
for me, I'm gonna go toMarch twenty fourth. There's twenty seconds left.

(01:11:16):
Empire is beating San Diego in SanDiego and Robert Palmer sees a ball
get in, get out ahead ofa soccer's attacker, turns on it,
attempts to clear it down the fieldto end the game, punts it into
the officials box. Give San Diegoa top of the arc. They bounce

(01:11:43):
it off the high wall. Layouthad a secondary left footed refeed off the
high wall, and it came toleft wing and Christian Gutierrez put it in
in the final seconds and put thatgame to overtime. Rojo won it and
overtime that point kept Empire out ofthe playoffs. If Christian doesn't score that

(01:12:05):
goal, Empires into the playoffs.Easy, peasy, no problem and it
kind of fits with my unsung heroas well. I want a golden Gudierra's
goal in there so late equalizer inthe military kits. It's golden, it's
golden, It's golden Gudierras. That'smy pick. Yeah, that's a really

(01:12:28):
good shout like that was actually oneof my three as well. I'm not
kidding. I see that I'm gettingsome you know there. I see,
uh, Kelsey given me a hardtime there, But no, I absolutely
think that we have so many thisseason that it's difficult to pick. That
one was absolutely my top. Justwhat a golasso that was. But man,

(01:12:51):
so I try to go back andfind it in Craig, I'm gonna
need your help on this one.I'm sorry everybody to be patient with me.
But there was a goal from believeit was Philipe on salid Is that
flying header that came in uh justout of nowhere. I don't even know
how he was able to get toit. Did like a superman fly um

(01:13:11):
parallel to the goal. Do youremember that in the semi finals last year?
I don't was it was it lastyear? No? No? No,
okay? So then then let mehe had another he had another really
good goal. You're right, Philippe, I had another really good goal.
He had a really good goal.But the one that I think I had
to pick just because it's Craig Childsand it's so Craig Childs. A ball,

(01:13:35):
first touch, ball over the field, right foot, right on the
top corner. Um. Then Ineed to go back and see when that
was. But I know everybody remembersthis goal. Um, that was in
the playoffs, that was against Mesquitethat it was, Yes, it was
Christian put the ball there, Ibelieve, Um, I think it was

(01:13:59):
Pinot. I think it was Pinot, long falling it forward to Childs and
Child's with absolute absolute blaster there's sevennothing or eight nothing. Yeah, yeah,
that's a great that's a great call. And I see toy Runner agrees
with you. You guys, rememberchild that's the one Pino to Childs.
Yeah, that's it. That's agreat call. That's a great call.
Um, that's one of them.Surtasot game winner is one of them,

(01:14:24):
pretty as game winner up in Empireis one of them. Because Empire thought
they had the game and we weresitting there going, god, dang it,
eight four became eight eight falling apart, you know, and and instead
goodier Has scored twenty seconds later.So that was a great goal to be
sure, Child's hat trick goal downin Chihuahua where he did a little hop

(01:14:46):
he was hopping up and down likea little kid after he scored. Um.
I loved that one as well.But yeah, that's a great pick.
I think that's aesthetically probably one ofthe most pleasing goals of the year,
that Child's falling um and for me, for Goodierras, it's more of
meaningful yeah. Yeah. And thenI'll throw in one last honorable mention Zay

(01:15:08):
Roberto scoring the last goal of hiscareer on a power play header Headers Milwaukee.
That was beautiful. Yeah, itwasn't important. It was just a
lot of fun. Yeah yeah,And I know the team enjoyed it and
we loved seeing ze Roberto get thatgoal, you know. Man, Yeah,
that was a really difficult one becausethere was just so many great goals

(01:15:30):
this season, and a lot ofthem from a lot of them from Childs
man. Honestly, after he madethat run, there was some some bangers,
but you have to pick. Soyeah, I would love seeing everybody
here and your picks too. That'sawesome. Yeah, some good Steff John
san Diego six one nine wants theRojo big Rojo volley. Yeah, Yeah,
that was a Glosso that was absolutelya gorgeous, gorgeous goal. Lots

(01:15:56):
of good choices, lots of excitingthings to go back and check out in
the highlights. We'll be playing someof these through on social media in the
next couple three weeks as well,so in inviting stuff, and we look
forward to hearing your responses as wecontinue forward. How about best team performance,
best performance by the soccers in asingle match. What do you think?

(01:16:20):
This one is really hard too.I'm telling you back, I was
like it was a termination of twogames for me just because of what it
meant in the history that came beforethese two. But I mean, for
me, it's that the two gamerunning Mesquite. That's one in a zero.
So I'm gonna go with seven onejust because knowing that a zero we

(01:16:42):
were already they were just already completelydemolished by then. So I'm gonna go
with the seven one against Mesquite.I think that the guys came in with
the ray mentality against a team thatcould have very easily put up a much
bigger struggle. Yeah, there wasplayers missing them both sides. I would
say there was, you know,maybe a up more and Mesquite that we're
changing some things around, But man, I feel like that one felt really

(01:17:05):
good. So I'm gonna go withthe feeling. And seven to one against
Mesquite is my pick. I thinkthat's a great pick. That's a very
very appropriate pick. I'm gonna gowith the chat a little bit, and
I'm gonna and also cheat a littlebit, and I'm gonna talk about that
Mexico weekend February twenty fourth, Februarytwenty sixth, because it was right off

(01:17:28):
the heels of the loss to Mesquite. It was right off the heels of
our highest rated soccers over time intwo seasons, everyone around the league tuning
in to hear about our team's dysfunctionand collapse and to try and throw more
logs on the fire. And Childscame in with so much bravado and excitement,
and then we were at Califino Lounge, Tony Sanchez and myself for back

(01:17:53):
to back absolute thrilling wins nine eightin Chihuahua, six three against Monterey.
You know, starting with the bigChild's performance ending with that big Rojo Colosso
and first team to take six pointsout of six in Mexico, Eddie Bear
saying, the East Coast Wags saying, oh, We're gonna lose both games.

(01:18:15):
Honestly, we were thinking in thoseterms, right, Like they had
no Tavoi that weekend, no Charlie, no Pino. They were missing so
many dudes. We were thinking,Hey, you know what if they do
lose? What if they go twoand four in this stretch and on this
road trip, is everything going tofall apart? Is Chihuahua're gonna take the
lead? God forbid? We mighthave to start at home in the second

(01:18:41):
round. Maybe we should have lostthese games. I don't know, right
absolutely absolutely, But nonetheless I thoughtthat was the turnaround point of the season,
and I thought that was their bestperformance of the year. Okay,
we wrap up, and maybe thisone's easy, biggest disappoint this one's super
easy. I feel like this wasthe one and I'm gonna go and just

(01:19:06):
follow what I said. Man,these were all so difficult. They are
you happy? Kelsey jerk Um,I see you, biggest disappointment? I
think we can all agree that itwas that loss against Empire an Empire in
Ontario. I think that's the easiestcall. Right, we're all gonna agree.
I don't think we're all gonna agree. I think everyone was gonna say

(01:19:29):
the minigame was I mean, like, but not winning the championship biggest disappointment.
No, for me, it was. Okay, So then I'll go
different from everybody else. Then,fine, I'm gonna go with that.
The ten four loss against Strikers,that one hurt. So I'll go with
that one minigame. Everybody minigame isobvious. Okay, yeah I did.

(01:19:54):
I didn't pick the knockout game either. I didn't pick the knockout game either.
Um, because is at that pointthose two teams put it all in
the line. The soccers lost ina Glosso I mean you can you can
make some arguments, you know,Marlsha's making a point like, could we
have changed our roster more for theknockout game? Potentially? Did Chihuahua do

(01:20:19):
that and succeed by one goal?And therefore we think it was the better
strategy? Yes, if we hadwon, would we have thought that we
had the better strategy? Yes?So that one I just I left that
arena with our heads up, youknow. I left that arena on April
twenty first feeling like we did ourbest and it wasn't enough tonight, And

(01:20:44):
yeah it could have been, butit wasn't. For me. The biggest
disappointment was all the stuff that happenedright after the final horn, and Mesquite,
that's that's what it was for me. It was losing that game,
yes, but then having everything stupidthat followed and having it cost to Void

(01:21:10):
enough games that it probably cost himan All League spot, cost him another
chance of the thirty goal season,led to this mini turmoil. It was
just a black spot. It wasthree or four days of people attacking the
franchise and attacking our players. Somany unnecessary things were said about to Void,

(01:21:31):
so many unnecessary things were said aboutBrandon. It when I think of
the word disappointment, right like,I was disgusted at Toyota Arena with a
ten four loss. So was thatthe biggest disappointment you want to pick that?
Absolutely? And Mesquite, I wasdisappointed. Yeah, we lost,

(01:21:55):
but the way that it had happenedand everything that followed, and then to
have to hear people go to voiceshould be in jail or players are resulting
officials and all of this nonsense,like, oh, it was so irritating
to me. So there you go, yep, and there they are,
got awards, our second annual OTAwards. Congratulation, Congratulations to our actual

(01:22:19):
league award winners once again. PhilSolfacio Coach of the Year, Boaris Parto
Goalkeeper of the Year, says ArSarah Little Rojo second Team All League and
look Susan's right, like we're talking, we're picking knits. Inevitably, the
biggest disappointment was we didn't win.So the knockout game is the biggest disappointment

(01:22:43):
by definition. It's the one thatended our year. It's the reason we
don't have the cup. So itis what it is, all right.
Briefly to the MSL Year in review, We've been going a little longer than
I intended. Um, so I'mnot gonna I'm not going to plow through
this necessarily point by point. Ijust think the biggest overall trend I thought

(01:23:05):
this year was the decision at thestart of the year to ReConference this league,
to go away from a full leaguetable within divisions and to go to
two conferences locked in conferenced playoffs,and it just so happened. And it's
not going to be this way everyyear. These things come and go,

(01:23:28):
but it just so happened that thisyear the West was definitively better than the
East, and I think just aboutevery contender in the West had a leg
up on the contenders in the East. In the end, it was a
two oh West over East final.I know Baltimore made a pretty decent go
of it, but I don't thinknecessarily that the league's intentions for conferencing played

(01:23:57):
out, because you had a lotof teams at the end of the year
that had issues with arena dates andwith travel, and the primary excuse we
heard for conferencing was arena dates andtravel, and all that stuff still played
out. I don't think conferencing hadthe intended effect. I don't know what

(01:24:19):
they're going to do next year,but I hope it's not this. Yeah,
we'll see. I mean, theytried it out, they're going to
have to probably reassess, and thenwe'll see you going into the seas,
especially with the you know, thepossibility of new teams is joining in and
coming into the league, So howis that going to work. Yeah,

(01:24:41):
yeah, I agree, We're goingto see some restructuring. For sure.
Mexico was rising in this league,and I think that's great. You know,
the addition of Guadalajara next year,the potential return, whether it's next
year or a year after of Sonora, the opportunity maybe to have a four

(01:25:05):
team Mexican Division in this league,I think would add a lot of fairness
to the league. I think thefact that Mexico is just attached to the
West, even though you could drawlines geographically straight down on a map from
Eastern Conference teams to Western Conference Mexicanteams, I'm looking at you, Midwest.

(01:25:33):
I think it's really exciting. Expansionis coming. You know, we've
heard rumors of a Las Vegas teamfor two years now. It's gotten super
quiet around that, so I hopethat's not dangerous. But I have heard
in the last couple of weeks morebubbling of like, yeah, we're going
to have a Las Vegas announcement.I've heard rumors of teams, whether it
be Wichita or someone else, tryingto make the climb up from M two.

(01:25:58):
And one thing I'll definitively say isMesquite coming back to the league and
Monterey coming back to the league madethe league stronger this year. Both those
franchises acquitted themselves well. Both thoseteams made the made the playoffs, and
so however they shake out the alignmentrealignment, geographical alignment, I think the

(01:26:20):
league is getting to a stronger placeand hopefully adding solid ownership along the way.
Yeah, as we're talking about theleague too. Obviously expansion is great.
How that's going to be handled isgoing to be something we'll have to
wait and see. But there's stillsome issues that haven't been resolved. Right,
There's still some things that within theleague that we need to look at

(01:26:43):
and before the expansion happens, Ithink should be cleared out and figured out.
The things like the arena issues.One of the biggest things that affected
the playoffs this year, right,the availability of being able to play your
games. You get into the mostimportant part of the season there, I
say, and have that availability.It's literal issues like that. I think

(01:27:09):
the league has taken a lot ofsteps for us, but maybe a couple
of steps back. I think there'sa lot of positives this season, but
then there's still also a lot ofeye opening that happened as far as that
goes and things that you have towork out before you really start looking at
this expansion. I would hope thatthat's the way they see it, because

(01:27:30):
this team's coming in. It isgoing to change the dynamic of the league
as a whole. So I wantto see some of these things happen hopefully
before. I will say, asa note, i'd like to see the
league abandoned the play in game.I think that was a cute try,
like, oh, look the NBAis doing it, we can do it
too. It didn't work. Itreally screwed up the playoff schedules. It

(01:27:53):
could have had a material impact onthe playoffs, and we don't need it.
So cute idea. Whatever they getto next year, let's have a
set number of playoff teams and let'sjust deal with that. You know.
John san Diego's like, hey,four groups, top two in each group,
make the playoffs. Okay, youknow, if you want to play

(01:28:16):
it like that, Okay, howeverthey want to do it, I think
they'll stick with conferences just because whoknows. M asl gonnam Asl. I
don't have no idea what they're gonnado. Clubs on the Rise Yeah,
what what what am I doing wastingmy mental brain power trying to figure out
what the m ASL is gonna do. It's whatever I don't think they're gonna

(01:28:38):
do. That's what they're gonna do. Is I should stop thinking. I
should stop thinking about it. Yeah, so I should stop thinking about it.
Um credit to clubs on the rise. I think a Mosquite is a
franchise on the rise. Utica Ithought had a really interesting season, the
way they came together under Everton,the way they played in the second half

(01:28:58):
of the year, and I thinkit's really cool the direction Utika is going.
Mesquite on field did really well.Off the field did not do very
well at all. Almost nobody attheir games, very few people at the
Dallas games. I still think we'dprobably be ultimately a stronger league with one

(01:29:18):
team down there instead of two.I get why they have too. Hopefully
over time both franchises will be builtup. Dallas was a punching bag this
year. They had no point beingin the league other than their name and
their legacy. They were I mean, they beat one team the whole year,

(01:29:42):
so yeah, it was pretty bad. So, you know, Hopefully
Dallas, which seemed like a teamon the rise. Last year they were.
I literally went through last year's seasonending menu, we had them listed
as the team on the rise.They're not. They're in complete free fall.
So however, they do play ina real arena, unlike Mesquite playing
in a rodeo arena. So youknow, again, we would be a

(01:30:05):
stronger league if that was one team, it would be a playoff it would
be a very strong contending playoff team. As two teams right now, there's
room, there's room for improvement,and let's hope that they improve. And
that brings us to the other side. Clubs on the decline, And for

(01:30:25):
the second straight year, leading thiscategory is the team formerly known as Fury,
you know, Ontario. Two straightseasons missing the playoffs, with all
their bluster, with all of theirattempts, Jimmy Nordberg has been kicked upstairs.
There's gonna be new bench leadership forthis club, you know. And

(01:30:47):
I'm just here to say I thinkBaltimore should trade for the Taiou Brothers,
try and create a new era inthe East Coast. Now I think they're
gonna double down. I think they'regonna stay with the Taius And I think
they're gonna They've re upped with Stinson, so it seems like they're just going
to kind of go with the sameteam and we'll see how that works out

(01:31:08):
for them. But the Strikers havebeen the disappointment of this league back to
back years, one of the bestrosters missing the playoffs two years in a
row. The other one that peopleare identifying in their one hundred percent ride
is Florida because the Tropics began theyear as the defending consecutive defending Eastern Champions.

(01:31:30):
They were the number one seed inthe COVID year and lost. They
were the number one seed in theEast and lost in the finals in twenty
twenty two. This year, theywere the number one seed. About halfway
through, fell apart, traded theirbest player in Zach Reggitt, and at
the end of the year the announcementthat they'll no longer play at the RP

(01:31:50):
Funding Center in Lakeland, And Imean I was all ready to completely blame
them for that, based on lastyear's decision to not charge admission and to
say, you know, you cancome in for free if you pay for
parking, and they had terrible,terrible attendance this year. They had no

(01:32:15):
atmosphere, no attendance all year long. But that RP funding Center also lost
the Lakeland Magic. They've lost boththeir sports tenants. There's some talk that
maybe that franchise relocates to Kissimmee orsome other little town in Florida. I
don't know if they go down toOrlando. Nothing has ever worked other than

(01:32:36):
the Magic in Orlando. But it'sa drag. Florida was kind of the
we're here, we're spending big money, we're getting big free agents, We're
doing it, and for it toall fall apart to now they're kind of
a who knows, Like, whoknows will the Tropics be here next year?

(01:32:58):
If so? Where? Definitely that'sa team that's that had one of
the worst years in the league.I would never have thought that we'd be
talking about this now, you know, But yeah, it's it's unfortunate,
and I can't comment more than whatyou just said. I think that it's
going to be really interesting to seewhat Florida decides to do, whether it's

(01:33:23):
moved somewhere or something else. Youknow, I'm sure there's you know,
I was going to say a lotof Florida Tropic fans. But there's a
few Florida Tropic fans that are youknow, I'm gonna be very upset,
very sad about this, and I'msure are just even with that whole reggae
situation started there and then just startedreally going going downhill. So will they

(01:33:46):
also be you know, kind ofstarting over rebuilding. Yeah, So I
would say that is that is anotherone of the things to see going into
the next season. Last thing,I'll say, first full year on twitch
for the MSL. They made thatswitch at the very end of the regular

(01:34:09):
season last year. They had somereally good viewership numbers a couple of times.
I think viewership overall was slightly higherthis season than last season. I
know the guys that the league wouldbe able to put together the actual numbers
or whatever numbers they've got for aspreadsheet. I do want to say,

(01:34:32):
though, and sure, maybe thisstrikes a little bit more home personally because
I'm one of the few people thatactually kind of gets directly affected by it.
But I don't know that the league'sgetting what they think they're getting out
of the chat, you know,And I've had this argument. I've had
it very directly with people in theleague, and I've every time I hear

(01:34:57):
the same word, and the wordis engagement. They say, look at
the engagement, that the engagement issomething that we can take to sponsors.
Sponsors, here our viewership numbers,and they're like okay, and then they
hear our engagement numbers and they're excitedand okay. I mean, I'm not
in your conference room discussions, soI can't say that what you're saying is

(01:35:23):
not true. However, I dobelieve that there are no sponsors who would
actually look at the chat and thencount it as positive engagement. I don't
think there are many sponsors who wouldlook at the chat and go, this
is helping my business, this ishelping the league, and this is helping

(01:35:45):
my business. I think, especiallywhen we got to the playoffs, you
saw some games get hijacked by thechat, and there was a big push
in the league throughout the season forannouncers to be engaging with the chat during

(01:36:05):
the game. There were directives andemails from the league two announcers saying,
you know, once a quarter,twice a half, however you want to
do it, but like, getinto the chat, talk about it,
reference it, bring it up andI'll just say that when we got to
the playoffs, I spoke to aleague official and said, I am going

(01:36:26):
to ignore the chat on our broadcast, and the response I got was cool,
like that's fine. And I willsay also that when it got to
the final half and the final quarterof the final game, the chat turned
into such a terrible place, atruly toxic, awful place, that the

(01:36:49):
moderator had to shut it down sothat whenever anyone typed anything, only emojis
came out. I had to changethe language of the chat to only visual
because what was coming out in termsof words was completely counterproductive to anyone.

(01:37:09):
And if I was looking at it, it could have been like, Hey,
would you like to have an anxietyattack and see, you know,
twenty people all saying that you're theworst thing in history. So I just
don't think they're getting what they thinkthey're getting. And I know that when
the NFL goes to Sunday Ticket onYouTube in September that there's not going to

(01:37:35):
be a constant stream of five hundredthousand NFL fans stupid drunk ass comments on
the side of the screen Like that'sjust not going to be there because they're
a professional league. I've got onmy iPad over here the Eastern Conference semifinals

(01:37:55):
of the NBA. There is nota running stream of Nick and Heat fans
ripping each other and ripping the announcersand ripping the league and ripping the sponsors.
Like. That's not there because they'rea pro league and they know how
stupid that would be. So Idon't think they're getting what they want to
get from that. And I'm notsaying they need to abandon Twitch. We're
here on Twitch. Our show lovesthe interactivity of the chat. Twitch is

(01:38:19):
designed for shows like ours. Youknow. Twitch is designed for shows where
people are interacting while they're playing videogames, live sports. It's a different
thing for this platform. And Ijust don't know that the commentary in the
chat is necessarily I just think theleague is misrepresenting it's impact. I don't

(01:38:42):
think it's a positive impact. Yeah, I'm not adding anything to that because
I agree fair enough. Last thing, how do you feel ment you know,
another year with the soccers, anotheryear you know for ant office,
chanced to be a member of staffwhere we are a small group, we

(01:39:05):
worked really really hard. How doyou feel, just like what what are
you proud of? What have youthought of? Like when you reflect,
what are you going to think aboutthis season? Me personally, I feel
accomplished. I think as a whole, this season was my most productive.
I've done the most work for theSoccers and the most proud of work that

(01:39:27):
I've ever done in my life,I think was with the Soccers this season.
And you know, from being ableto do all the game day graphic
designs to you know, the thirdkit that I'm probably is going to be
one of the highlights of my life. And and yeah, I think just
adding to the graphic design, thefeel and the style of who the soccers

(01:39:48):
are, plus also getting to knowsome really awesome people and have one on
once with pretty much everybody that's hereon the chat right now, I think
I feel like a law was accomplished. Yeah, I mean, the end
goal was to win it all againand that wasn't accomplished, but I think
that there was more to that,and so I feel really good. I'm

(01:40:10):
really proud of this season for myself, and I'm also really proud of the
team. I think the entire seasonshowed re siblings, to show that these
guys can push through some pretty difficultobstacles and even though on paper it might
have looked perfect, it was neverperfect. And that's the way that life
is. They were able to dothe best that they could under certain situations

(01:40:32):
and certain circumstances that weren't ideal.I'm really proud of our leadership, really
proud of what our captains did,and yeah, proud of us and this
very small front office that was ableto accomplish so much. I think that's
every season, right. We're nota big front office, would never have
been. And you know, shoutout to everybody. I don't want to

(01:40:56):
miss anybody, but you know whoyou are. I think, you know,
everybody that works behind the scenes deserves, uh, you know, high
praise for everything that they put inday in, day out to bring the
soccers to the public, to toour fans and to everybody that's here.
So yeah, I'm super grateful,super thankful, and very very proud.

(01:41:17):
So I'm I don't think that Ifeel sad in any way about the way
the season ended, because of allthose things. I think it makes it
better. It makes me realize thatthere's more to the game than winning,
right, and that's yeah. Thecommunity, the family that we have,
and you know how much we literallyput some of our Leo's sweat and tears

(01:41:40):
into it. Yeah, I'm soproud of what we were able to do
with the Cross Border kit. Youknow, what you were able to do
and design, our collaborations with JusticeParliman and Ryan Young to create some just
incredible content for this team. Ithink we are leading the league in that
since I think this show leads aleague. There's a reason it's the show

(01:42:03):
of record in the m ASL isthat we're creating this consistency that I think
the league has done a good jobto follow, you know, and I'm
excited that we create the wake thatthey can follow to build good content.
What we did with everything from thatthird kit, the hype videos this year,

(01:42:26):
what you and Azra did in designare Saint Patty State kids are Star
Wars kids are military kids, justthe even the reverse retros this year.
Some of the best merchandise we haveever had, for sure, these blankets,
are you kidding? Met? Theseamazing blankets, great stuff the league.

(01:42:46):
As a team, we had ourhighest revenue since the Landon Donovan season,
and throughout the PASLMSL era, ourhighest revenue second only to the Land
and Donovan season. Very very excitedwe accomplished that with one fewer full time
staff member on our front office staffthe entire year, we were able to

(01:43:11):
you know, have you on asa part timer, Jerry, to bring
on Sonora and Jenny as part timersas the year went on, and that
was incredible. And you know,just the cohesiveness of our staff. And
I just have to shout out inclosing Sean Bowers because he sets the tone.
He's the leader of this group.Uh. He is an incredibly engaging
person, who is positive, whois a motivator. He's not a micromanager.

(01:43:34):
He's not sitting there, you know, tapping on his screen and making
you punch in and punch out.He wants to make sure that this group
gets the job done. He hastrust in us. Uh. He's very
very generous with his staff and uh, you know, just incredibly thankful.
This was a very very difficult yearoff the field for the soccers and there's

(01:43:59):
been so much tumult and the arenaobviously was kind of supposed to almost be
done now and it's not. It'snot close, and that has massive knock
on effects and it's going to havemassive knock on effects to our front office
for the next several months, andall of us are going to be feeling

(01:44:23):
that pinch. I mean, justto be completely honest, all of us
are going to be feeling that pinchover the next several months. And we
hope to come out on the otherside of it stronger and able to recoup
and able to get everything done.But for everything that happened, I think
for us to keep it together andto be the vanguard of this league and
to win the Shield for a secondstraight year. And to you know,

(01:44:43):
I thought our broadcast on TVX wereoutstanding. Want to say a big shout
out to Tony and Chiva, TonySanchez, Aljandro Achieva via signor our Spanish
language broadcast team. That's something noone else is doing in this league,
is regularly creating a second language broadcast. Guys were incredible. Big shout out
to Randall Slidz, Ted Bendrick,our TVX video crew, Emily Sperados,

(01:45:04):
everybody there. I think we havethe best broadcast in the league. I
don't think it's necessarily that close,and we do it with less resources than
several other teams. In the leagueas well, So a ton to be
proud of. I love the cultureof this group. I love the culture
of our fans. I'm so thankfulfor everybody who supports us. We're going

(01:45:27):
to suffer through the summer and we'regoing to come out of it on the
other end a little bit leaner inthe belt, but we're going to come
out of it in the end hungryto get this done again for our fans.
And of course we couldn't do itwithout our owner, our head coach,
our man on top, Phil Silvaggio, Cheeky Luna. Thank you to
all of them, Josh Elias,thank you to everybody for your support.

(01:45:53):
Okay, we're gonna wrap up here. I want to let you know what's
coming up next. This is theseason finale soccers over time. We will
not be back next Tuesday, SoTuesdays at five are going to open up
for Jerry and myself a little bit. And that is okay. However,
things are still coming v TFC.The soccer tournament is a month away.

(01:46:18):
It's just under a month away.So as this gears up, I'll say
it as simply as I possibly can. I have not been told by Phil
what if anything he wants or needsme to do or wants or needs us
to do for V to FC.But whatever whatever comes, I'll be there

(01:46:41):
for it. And if it's announcingthe tournament, that would be amazing.
If it's a trip to North Carolina, that would be amazing. I don't
know, and the leadership for thisis in North Carolina, so we'll find
out. But I think the nextcouple of weeks stay tuned. We'll have
announcements on the soccer social feed aswe get information. But that's coming and
we hope to cover it the bestwe can. I'll be doing some limited

(01:47:04):
player wrap up interviews over the courseof this month of May. We'll do
some zooms and we'll put them upon YouTube here, and we'll put the
audio up on our Soccers Overtime Audiofeed as well, So stay tuned for
that. And Jerry, you know, as events warrant, as situations develop,

(01:47:27):
the opportunity for some summer overtime series, you know, I know the
two of us would always love tohave the chance to chat with our fans
and to connect, so we'll justwe'll play it by here as things go
forward. Yeah, and we'll giveyou guys a heads up if and when
those episodes come up and we're gonnabe going live, well we'll give you
a bit of a heads up.We won't we won't drop it on you

(01:47:47):
the day of. We're gonna doour best to keep you informed and you
know going forward. I know latelywe already set that Presidents of Tuesdays at
five. So from this point on, we'll let you know when when those
issues come out, those episodes comeout. Um. But yeah, thank
you guys so much for falling along. Man. It it's definitely not a
it's a goodbye it to see youlater, probably very soon. So um

(01:48:11):
yeah, that's it. Are wedone anything? That's pretty much it?
Man. Yeah, I saw thequestion about information on the tournament. You
can go to the tournament dot com. That's the tournament dot com slash t
STU. And if you go tothe tournament dot com, you can also
just click on the t st tabat the top of the page. Uh.

(01:48:38):
In doing so, I'll tell youthat they are going to reveal the
groups. It's a thirty two teamtournament. They're going to reveal the I
presume eight four team groups. Uh, Thursday at nine am on YouTube,
so uh, this is gonna yeah, so we'll get to find out what
group the soccers I mean Veita.Yeah, Vita is in and we will

(01:49:03):
find out some more about that,definitely. I see Eddie just dropped his
link. If you want to gorevisit Old Matches. Old Highlights his soccer's
playlist on YouTube. Is there isabsolutely cooking, and yeah, stay tuned,
stay tuned to our socials. Hopefullywe will have some ve To coverage

(01:49:23):
coming up. I truly don't know. I keep hearing people say, oh,
it's going to be on ESPN,or it's going to be on ESPN
Plus or I don't know. Noone's told me anything. But then again,
the league asked me to announce gamesin Mexico, you know, like
Monday for a game on Thursday,so maybe I'll get asked the Monday of
that week like would you like togo to North Carolina and call a game

(01:49:45):
on ESPN? I mean the answersyes, so so well, we'll see,
we'll see, We'll see what happenshere. It is maybe our longest
episode of the year, but it'sour season wrap up and Jerry Man,
I couldn't do it without you,brother, three of these five seasons,
you have been the steady hand onthe helm and I am so appreciative of
everything that you bring to this organization. You're an absolute light. I thank

(01:50:09):
you. I know you had yourmost impacted year doing double duty. And
you're going to be so happy toget me off of your phone for the
next few weeks. And I promiseI won't call you. I won't talk.
I won't even think about you.Oh yeah, sure for many many.
By the way, when are wemeeting this week? Yeah, I'll
see you later this week. Okay, fair enough, but yeah, I'm

(01:50:31):
going to completely ignore you. Justto Nidia sent me a note she said,
would you get off my husband's back? I'm so sick of you.
She slipped it right into in mypocket when I saw her Sunday at the
Legion game. At the Legion game, way off, Jerry. We try
to stay away from each other,and somehow we end up in the same
place at the same time. That'sjust the way. They handed me a
nacho chip and I looked in thebottom and the cheese it was spelled out,

(01:50:53):
back off Jerry. All right,like damn it? That very much,
so clever with the cheese operation.I mean, how did she do
it? I was just like Iwas, mister, this is a conversation
for later. But she was atthe Legion game looking for a new husband
in the players, so like,we'll talk about that later. Anyways,

(01:51:14):
she said, why aren't you doingmore squats? I said, wow wow.
So anyways, this is a differentconversation for a later time. Maybe
we'll talk about it next time wesee each other. I love you,
Thank you guys so much for beinghere. Hopefully you guys enjoy this season
of Soccers over time. As always, Craig, I love you, man,
and I can't wait to see youlater this week. We're going nowhere.

(01:51:35):
We'll be around. You can alwaysgonna hold the me on social media.
You guys know that. But thankyou everybody for tuning in and go
Soccers. We'll see you guys soon. For Jerry amends for all you tremendous
fans who have been with us everysingle Tuesday night. My name's Craig Elston.
Thanks for following us, Thanks fortuning in until the summer, until

(01:51:55):
Vita, until whatever is next.Have a great whatever you doing, and
go sockers. H