S6E4: Farber's Last Run (Special Guest: Brian Farber)

ON THE SHOW TONIGHT

• We’re one week closer to Opening Night and have plenty to show and tell, including the new uniforms for this season!
• The MASL season starts this week! We’ll look at the opening slate of games and make some premature predictions
  • This week’s guest is Brian Farber, he’ll join us live at 5:30 with a special announcement about our first match

(First aired live on Twitch, Tuesday 11/21). Join us for the live show every Tuesday at 5pm PT at twitch.tv/sandiegosockers

Episode Transcript

(00:35):
Hello once again everybody, and welcomeback to Soccers Over time. You're weekly
look inside the San Diego Soccers andthe Major Arena Soccer League coming to you
live on Twitch with Tony Santie.I'm Greg Elston. We are back with
you for season six, episode fourof our little program. We are three

(00:55):
days away from the kickoff of them ASL season. We are nine days
away from the kickoff of the SanDiego Soccers season, and we are looking
forward to talking about it all withyou coming up over the next hour or
so. Mister Sanchez, how youdoing today. I'm doing really well.

(01:17):
I got involved with some of thepreseason duties, I guess because the season
really feels like it's coming around thecorner. And really excited for this season
coming up. And oh man,I saw some stuff that I'm really excited
for. We're going to be showingit to everybody tonight on this evening's show.

(01:37):
We are one week closer to openingnight. By the way, my
instant math was terrible. We're threedays away from opening night, five days
away from Sunday, which means we'retwelve days away from the Soccer's season opener,
and I want those extra three daysto prepare. Trusty, so I
don't want to short change myself oranybody else. But we've got plenty to
show and tell, including the newuniforms yes for twenty twenty three, twenty

(02:00):
twenty four. If you weren't atour season ticket member party, you will
see them tonight. We said it. Season starts at three days. We're
gonna look at the opening slate ofgames and we're going to offer our yearly
premature predictions for how the league willsort out division by division. Don't hold

(02:21):
us to it, but we willstill do it. And this week's guest
at the bottom of the hour BrianFarber. He will join us live and
he will have a special announcement surroundingour first match, as well as give
us some insight into the design ofthis year's uniforms from flight. It's all
coming up on Soccers overtime. Wesay it very special. Welcome to everybody

(02:45):
joining us live on Twitch. Thankyou so much for your support, Twitch
dot tv, slash San Diego Soccers. Make sure to click the follow button
so that you'll be notified every timewe go live. But hey, if
you're watching on YouTube, we areequally happy to have you here for the
next day. Audience. Click likeon the video, click subscribe on the

(03:06):
channel and get notified every time weput up a new show. Hey,
if you're an audio listener, weain't mad at you. Happy to be
inside your earbuds for today's audio presentationas well. Okay, Tony, here
we go. It was a verybusy week last week. Not busy in
terms of stuff that fans are gonnachew on. It's stuff for behind the

(03:30):
scenes. We had our photo day. We had everybody out at the Lion's
Head Studio and the Califino Impromptu Studios. On Wednesday, bright and early recorded
our new video elements. Things thatyou will see on the video board when
the year comes up. Player animations, goal celebrations, new rounds of Scattergories,

(03:53):
a new contest where we'll ask fansto beat a soccer in their longest
goal chance. I like that youwould have won easy, Tony. I
mean I've I've heard you do itin real time in competition, so to
speak, So you would have beenyou would have been a ringer in there.
I will say that one of thekids that recorded that no one is

(04:16):
going to beat the other five areprobably pretty easy marks. So I do
feel bad for the one person who'sgoing to catch the like forty second goal
call. But yeah, one personwent all one, all out on our
team. But you were there.You got a chance to get yourself photographed

(04:36):
as well. Tony your thoughts onwhat you saw without revealing too much,
No, absolutely, I mean itwas a it was a really it's a
really nice drive sometimes to go upnorth and and in traffic to to explore
all of San Diego in a way. But I really like going over to
the to the I guess the pageantryof it, right, like this is

(04:58):
a setup for a lot of thethings that going to be rolling out throughout
the year. I saw a coupleof vignettes getting shot that I'm really excited
for, And you know, justoverall, I mean, there's only so
much you can do with this mug. So thank the wonderful, wonderful artists
with the cameras that will somehow makethis printable on something. Maybe maybe not,
I don't know. I haven't gottenany proofs. Maybe I owe some

(05:20):
people some equipment. But overall,and we'll get to it a little bit
later. As far as some ofthe uniforms are absolutely stellar. There's one
in particular, but that's literally allI can say. There's one in particular,
and we'll definitely get to that whenthe time comes. But really cool
to see a lot of familiar facesplayers coming back. I mean a little

(05:44):
bit behind the scenes. It justDrew Ruggles just looks so natural. He
just looks so happy. We hadhim on last week and it's just fitting
like a glove and it's really reallyinteresting to see him just interact with the
players already, was hanging out withBoris and overall, just really great to
see the players just coming in,mingling and having that vibe already, even

(06:06):
though the season hasn't started yet.Agreed, it's been a blast to be
around the team. Training has beensharp. I was there yesterday for another
addition to training at Bradley Park mostweekday mornings eight a m. At Bradley
Park in San Marcos. I sawa couple of fans get out there.
Awesome space Monkey that's his andel.I saw a got out there this week

(06:30):
as well. So it is opento the public if you do want to
drop vibe, of course, yougot to be available on a weekday morning,
which not everybody is and available todrive to San Marcos. Nonetheless,
it's been good to see the guysput through their paces and Marie alf back
from Olympus Performance Movement putting everybody throughthe paces on Monday, resistance band running

(06:54):
all of this stuff. It's alwaysfun to see. I think if you
went out to Soccers training camp,the one thing that might stand out if
you had a very discerning eye isthat the Soccers don't have a ton of
depth right now. And what Imean by that is one to sixteen.

(07:15):
I think the Soccers will put theirteam against anybody in the league. So
when we talk about depth in termsof, you know, the bottom of
the roster, it's fine. Thequestion is what happens if somebody gets hurt,
or more accurately, what happens whensomebody gets hurt, Because somebody gets
hurt every single years. It's partof sports. And what was interesting to

(07:39):
me this week, Tony, isto see a handful of players who were
at the Soccers combine a couple ofweeks ago and including the Soccers first rand
draft pick as well getting an opportunityto be at training. And these are
players who are not signed. AndI have a famous attitude of when you

(08:00):
sign, when we sign, youall learn your name. So until then,
you're a nice practice player and we'llfind out you know. Kay Ribbert
and the chat mentions. Eddie Vealzis a player who has not announced his
retirement. He has been battling backfrom a series of injuries that pretty much
held him out all of last year, but he's looking to return to training.

(08:22):
Brian Farber at training this week.Brian will be a guest on the
show. No spoilers. Will talkto Brian a little bit later. But
I'm just kind of curious. It'san unanswerable question. I'll ask it.
I'm not expecting you to answer it, Tony, but I'm just curious,
if and when something happens, willour Soccer's operation brain trust be comfortable with

(08:50):
turning to a combine player to bethat sixteenth or fifteenth guy, or fifteenth
and sixteenth guy if there's a coupleof injuries, or is the organization gonna
look outside and try to find anMASL veteran, somebody who's unsigned, somebody's
on the bottom of another roster.It's just something I think we're gonna have
to keep an eye on. BecauseI feel like in previous years we always

(09:13):
said one to twenty the soccers wereset, and I'm really glad to see
some of those guys, whether it'san Andy Reyis or ad Jason Payne,
Irvin Mohika, guys who were kindof in that sixteen to twenty range for
the club to get slots on otherclubs rosters. But does leave the depth
a little bit shaky for San Diego. Yeah, and especially with a veteran

(09:37):
squad, right Like, this isone of the few sports where maybe the
veteran aspect isn't necessarily them that impactful, but it is in terms of when
and how you need to utilize thetalents of the players that we have.
You can't really run Craig Childs outthere for an entire game. You're gonna
run him to the ground. Yeah, you're gonna get some games that are

(09:58):
he's going to be incredibly exploded ifhe's going to be doing things that young
Craig Childs would wish he'd be ableto do athletically. But at the same
time, it's a kind of concerningtoo. I have to agree on there,
because these teams have gotten stronger,and yes, the San Diego soccers
have that chemistry have a down.But if there is an injury and you
do look outside, that's going tobe something to look for because the philosophy,

(10:22):
the way that the soccers play,there's a there's a certain style in
a way that you see, youknow, soccer play. The most beautiful
iteration of indoor soccer forbo is herein San Diego in my humble opinion,
But is that going to be asituation where you're trying to fit us around
a square peg in a round holeand it's just not going to work?
And at what time does this happen? And you know, again we wish

(10:46):
health for every single player, butjust thinking about it and the depth that
there is maybe on defense in themidfield is one thing, but I look
up top and and what happens ifyou know, knock on wood, but
say ta void gets gets a knockhere and there, that's an area where
already with the squad that you havedepth is is not ideal perhaps and you

(11:09):
just let like you said, painMohica Goo where they could have gotten some
time here. But we'll see,you know, the town that is here
locally is if that's going to besomething that's going to be able to fit
the system a little bit better.Maybe that's the way to go. But
I mean, don't scare me,Craig. Season hasn't started. That's me.

(11:30):
We've spent three weeks talking about howgreat everybody isn't it, you know,
at every player on the top ofthe team. Now, I've just
been through the wars too many times. You know, things start going someone
gets kicked, someone gets a redcard, someone sprains an ankle, you
know, hurts their shoulder because theyget knocked to the turf. There's there's
a million ways to get hurt.I love Kate Vibberts and loyal rosters still

(11:52):
in town. Yeah, Hey,Gito Amigo are actively trying to recruit some
players, and I mean some somefamiliar names like Elijah Martin Toomi Moshavani.
Gave me the hmm maybe, butobviously they're still in their US time period
right now. But never say never. You never know. Cam Riley.

(12:13):
I know cam Riley's around mm hmm. Someone told me that they were inviting
him to the game on Sunday.I'm like, hey, grab a bib,
come down and warm up. Imean, you know, we even
heard Craig said in his interview onlast week's show that we played and then
put on social later in the week, like, it's quality over quantity right

(12:35):
now for the soccers, and that'sgreat. It's terrific. They've got as
good a roster as I've ever seenthem have. Just that question is interesting
to me. What happens when,not if, what happens when someone gets
a nick Who's gonna be next up? And with less depth? Are the
guys who are in training camp nowthere to win a job as a reserve

(12:56):
or would the team look somewhere else? Can Ben Phil and Cheeky's ear to
get my guy Hirasio from the Challengeto season thirty nine to come back and
be that top depth. I meanI always wanted him to get a game
last year. He was there,he was training, he was watching,
he was you know. Now hejust looks beautiful on television. He's dating

(13:18):
Nourice now if you watch MTV,I mean, it's like power Couple.
It's ridiculous. But he's probably gotno time for us. But nonetheless,
okay, we've got some housekeeping notes. I do want to mention one roster
note that we did talk about atthe season ticket member party as well.

(13:39):
I think we maybe kind of alludedto it in previous shows. But one
man, well Rojo, is noton the soccer's roster right now, and
when you look at the m ASLSoccer website, it can be deceiving because
Craig Childs isn't on the soccer's rosterright now. Oh no, yeah,
our buddy Hector Trehillo texted me earlierthey like his child. His child's retired.

(14:01):
I'm like, now, Xavier SnaireWilliams isn't on the website right now,
but he's going to be on theteam. So I don't know what
that is. I literally I don'tknow. Is that a thing where they
haven't turned in, is you know, paperwork to the league or whatever.
There's some reason he's not there.But Craig Childs is training. Greig is
on the team. Don't worry aboutthat. Nonetheless, one man is not

(14:24):
in the roster too. But itis not looking good for one man to
be on the team this year.And the best way I can just talk
about it is we're back in thatVisa town again. H and again.
I'm trying to be careful of everybody'srights, and I'm kind of a third

(14:46):
party to all of this, Butmy understanding is there was a little bit
of an opportunity for Little Rojo tocome up and work on it, and
there was a decision made to staydown and then a deadline past. So
I don't think you're gonna see onememo Rojo on a different roster this year,

(15:07):
I don't think. But I don'tthink you're gonna see him on our
roster this year. He wasn't atphoto day, he wasn't part of our
preseason stuff. He has been inthe past. So hey, that's a
big loss, There's no question aboutit. I think he's the fastest or
one of the fastest defenders in theleague. He's half of the TJ counter.
Uh. And while Drew Ruggels ishere and we've got easily the depth

(15:31):
to paper over this, we knewthat a starter on defense would have to
sit if the whole roster was available. Nonetheless, it's not great. Yeah,
it's the unique realities of a MASLleague that really highly depends on talent
on the other side, and andit's and it's it's the reality that a

(15:52):
lot of people face here, evenif it's not h MASL professional indoor soccer.
It's just it's a it's a partof life, and you know that's
going to be somewhere where it's gonnabe heavily missed. That left flank is
going to be incredibly, incredibly missingsome highlights this year. But hopefully,
you know, like I said,the depth with ruggles and everybody else will

(16:15):
suffice to cover that talent. Yeah, hopefully we wish him the very best.
You know, I've got a lotof I've got time for Rojo.
Let's just put it that way.Like, I think he's a good player
in this league. I think hisbrother's a good player in this league.
And you know, I wish theywere there, and I hope that they're
not against us. Yeah, andhis smile is I mean, he's already

(16:38):
in Monterey, but that's the otherside, so uh, you know,
don't have to worry about that tillthe final. But for little Rojo,
wish him the best. Hope we'llsee him later in the year. It
is what it is. A coupleof housekeeping notes. First off, big
ups to everybody who showed up ofthe season ticket member party on Sunday up

(17:03):
at the Califno Lounge in Carlsbad.It was great to see our season ticket
member family. Was great to reconnectwith so many different people. Tony Schawan
now on our video stream. Heresome of the pictures from the day.
I'll tell you one thing which waspretty funny. You can see there's this
big tent outside Califno where Ezra andSonora and Spencer were checking everybody in.

(17:29):
That was from a kinsoniera the nightbefore. I love that at Califno,
and like, it just so happenedthat it was like there and so we
set it back up and so likepeople walked in and there's like chandeliers,
all this fancy stuff. But thecolors were like purple and green. It

(17:52):
was almost like Saint Louis ambush colors. It was a little bit off on
that. Nonetheless, it was fun. Big ups to one kitchen collaborative who
is our cater for this year upin Ocean Side. Just had some incredible
apps for everybody. The shrimp cocktailthere a huge hit, great crowd that
showed up got bigger as the yearas the hours went on into the afternoon.

(18:19):
Just an absolute blast. We loveour season ticket member family, and
I said it I mean, thisis the core constituency that's keeping the flame
alive of what the soccers mean tothe community. As you see, the
players were there. It's a greatpicture of Drew who was there with his
lovely wife Tristan, their two kids. Was tremendous to see them and see
how they're You know, we hadbeen asking about making that switch from Florida

(18:42):
over to California, so it's greatto see that that adjustment is happening and
going really well. And by thetime we were ready to get going at
one thirty, as you can see, we had a packed house. We
had an absolutely packed house for ourpresentation when we got to talk to the
players, et cetera. You seethe gift for season ticket members this year
a lovely notebook kind of thing thatI use on a day to day basis

(19:07):
at work. Yep, A tonof fun for the season ticket member party.
Big perk oh Wait. I wasthere too. Oh who's that guy?
Things turned? Things turned, Thingstook a turn. At one point
I started speaking. Everyone was boredwith that. Then Tyler came up from
visit Ocean Side, and that wasterrific. It was great to hear from
him and to start to get There'sCrystal from one kitchen, collaborative and wonderful

(19:32):
to find out everything. Stephanie Polonna, now in charge of ticketing for Front
Wave Arena, ex of the loyal, wonderful to have her as a part
of the family and their Spencer andSonora are ticket gurus. How about it.
Look, we got video, wegot everything out. Gabriel Costa there,
got to introduce some of the newestSan Diego soccers. So an absolute

(19:53):
blast had by everybody. Great time. We do it every year. Become
a member of our season ticket memberfamily. It's something that you can do.
It's the least expensive season ticket intown. I mean, I don't
know, maybe the growlers are lessexpensive. I don't know, but for
soccer, it's the least expensive seasonticket in town for sure. And we

(20:14):
have a great time all the time. Oh no, oh boy says he
didn't make the cut in the picture. Well, look, we couldn't put
every picture up, Chip. Wegot other pictures to show, like the
uniforms coming up, so stay staytuned. Cave I Ebbert asking the cross
border scarf. Is it something thatwill be available at the merch booth?
Yes, yes, it is yes. It was actually one good thing we

(20:36):
had. We revealed our uniforms toour fans and then they were immediately available
for sale for the fans there,and season ticket members get a discount as
well. So okay, real quick, just a couple other notes and then
we're going to get to the uniforms, and then we're going to get to
Brian farberd Soccer's golf tournament. AnnualCharity Golf Classic coming up Friday, December

(20:59):
first, two fridays from now,not this Friday, but the next Friday,
benefiting Reginald J Phoenix the RJP ScholarshipFund. It's at Mount Woodson.
My understanding, our golf guru,John Green told me on Monday that we
currently have only nine forsomes remaining available, and I will tell you right now,

(21:22):
I'm planning to have a padres hotfor some them that claims one of
those. Oh no, think ofit, more like eight for someomes available.
It's an incredible day out of MountWoodson. Starts at seven point thirty
with sign up. But we've alwaysgot the Bloody Mary Bar, the breakfast
burritos, putting contest, incredible merge. There's really a ton of value with

(21:45):
our tournament and then it tease offat nine o'clock for typical scramble and we'll
be out of there lunch around twoo'clock, you know, and awarding the
prizes, the raffle and of coursethe tournament champion. Gonna be a lot
of fun. Go to sdsoccers dotcom slash golf and you can sign up
your forsome. If you want tosend me a little message, I might

(22:10):
be able to get you a littlebit of a discount, a little bit
of a soccer's overtime discount to puta force of men. So you know
how to find me. Send mea message if you want, and I
will take care of that for you. We last week announced the Soccer Supporter
Summit. I want to just mentionit again. It is going to be
on December third at our home opener. It is open to anybody who is

(22:33):
in a soccer supporter group right now. That's the locals that travels to San
Diego or the Fronterra Ultras, theSan Diego Riptide, San Diego Sirens.
We've been in touch with every oneof these groups. We've given them our
sign up sheet. We're giving freetickets to the match to supporters specifically,
and we're starting things off ninety minutesearly with a soccer supporter summit. The
goal is to get everybody together.It's just to get everybody together, to

(22:57):
get all of these groups together,so many reasons to have synergy in the
soccer supporter community. We're going totry and help continue that. I think
there's a lot of folks, greatfolks in leadership in all of these groups
who have common goals. I'm notsaying anyone's at lockerheads or anything, but
just staying we'd like to do oursmall part to keep everyone together and also

(23:18):
to you know, humbly offer thatwith this American outdoor schedule of March to
November and the American indoor schedule ofessentially December through March, there's a lot
of reasons that you can be atwelvemonth a year supporter and support indoor without
giving up any of what you wantto support, whether it's the Wave or

(23:41):
San Diego FC in the future.Obviously supporting the loyal Now, I mean
it's tough because there's no team.I was there Saturday when the office was
literally cleaned out. I tried tobuy Stephanie Polonia's desk, rising one exactly

(24:02):
for the monitor that she is touse, you know, like I mean,
it was all available. So that'sthat's coming up Sunday. Everybody in
the various discords of the various groupshas the Google link to sign up,
and I encourage everyone if you haven't, if you looked at this and said,
oh that's cool, well please signup. Go ahead, put your
name on the sheet, you know, give us the give us the opportunity

(24:23):
to fulfill those tickets early, andwe can't wait to see you Sunday,
December third. Last housekeeping note,I'm really excited about this. Happy to
announce that this year's San Diego Soaker'shome broadcasts, which will involve myself and
Tony and our great TVX video crewand Melissa May as our sideline reporter.

(24:48):
But I am thrilled to announce thatAlejandro Chiva v Senor is joining the club
as well as our chat correspondent forall of our broadcasts, all the ones
he can make, all the oneshe can make. Chief is a very
very busy man. He's got avery very busy schedule. He is indicated
he probably can't make all twelve matches, but we hope to have him there

(25:11):
as much as possible. And whenhe's there, he's going to fulfill what
is for me a very important role, which is to handle the chat on
Twitch handle during during the match,and we'll be going to him. We'll
be going to them multiple times,you know, four six times for broadcast
to find out what are people sayingin the chat, what's going on,
what's the tenor what's the mood,what are what are the burning questions that

(25:34):
are being asked of the broadcast AndI'm really looking forward to that, you
know, as you know, Tony, I'm just so bummed that we don't
have the Spanish language broadcast back thisyear. I wish they were there.
You guys were so good on thosebroadcasts. But to have the opportunity to
have both of you involved one wayand another makes me very happy. No,
I mean, it's it's a greatopportunity to be involved, and now

(25:56):
speaking for myself in this in thisin this role, but it's it's really
good to have the partner who i'veyou know, really built this platform and
being that that allowed us to evenbe considered for the San Diego Soccers anything
I'll just say anything. The factthat we were allowed to be on a
mic English or Spanish was ludicrous atsome point. But are you going to

(26:18):
welcome some of the some of thecomments that I find because i've during the
Spanish one, I kind of wentback and forth, and they're not all
positive, Craig, they're not verysoccer Soccer's friendly. I've found out.
That's what she is for See,that's the chief is that that lovely.
He's the cooling saucers. They oftendescribed the Senate as the cooling saucer of
the government. He's the cooling saucerof the broadcast. Because you'll have the

(26:42):
opportunity if if seventeen people in arow, right, Greg, you stink,
you know, to just be like, wow, things are pretty choppy
in the chat right now, Craig, you know, like you can give
it to me in a much morepalatable way or I'm not like just getting
mad in the middle of theodcast.So this as Tony stinks? Oh okay,

(27:03):
all right, j thank you?What what? Look? I love
our league. You won't find anyany any major professional sports league that would
demand of their broadcasters that while theyare announcing the games that they keep an

(27:26):
eye on an Internet chat to seewhat anybody who has an accountant signs in
has to say, and to centerthat commentary as if it were equal to
what's going on in the game itself. Philosophically, maybe I'm making my point

(27:48):
as to how I feel about it, but I think Chieva is going to
be terrific for this, and he'sgoing to help us out a lot.
So and Malicia's right. I mean, it's the nature of our games.
The fans of the home team areat the game for the most part.
Sure there's out of town, outof state, out of country fans who
are always going to tune in,but for the most part, the home

(28:11):
fans are at the game. Sothe broadcast and US home announcers understand this.
The home broadcast is mostly watched bythe away team. And hey,
when we were doing the final thisyear, Tony yep, the English broadcast
was mostly watched by the Baltimore fans. So when Chihuahua started winning and we
were praising the Savage, the Baltimorefans just turned on us at some point

(28:36):
in the third quarter of Game twoand then just started piling on horribly.
And it's like oh, I'm supposedto read this. I'm supposed to read
this and do my job. No, So thank you Chieva, Thank you
League. I don't know why I'mthanking the league. Thank you League for
existing, Thank you Chieva for helpingsolve problems. And I'm just psyched for

(28:59):
everybody that we're going to have whatI hope and no will be once again
a top flight broadcast in m As L. All Right, I know
we've got our guest, Brian Farberstanding by and probably ready to rumble.
And you know what, seeing ashe is one of the co creators of

(29:21):
these beautiful kids, let's just bringon Brian and let's talk about the kids
with Brian. The legendary San Diegosoccer, A five time champion with San
Diego, a six time champion overallbecause he won a championship in Stockton as
well, and a dear friend formany years there. He is and looks

(29:41):
He's always handsome, his hair alwayslooks good, Like I just feel alighting
better and worse at the same time. Every time I bring on Brian,
I'm like, I'm so happy helooks good. I'll never look as good
as he does. Always a littlejealous. Brian. Oh, he's on,
he's live. Hey Brian, welcometo the show. Well, guys,
thanks for having me. All right, Hey, I wanted to get

(30:03):
you on right on time. Youknow, I gotta pull the chain a
little bit before we get into BrianFarber stuff and Brian Farber news. The
one thing we've big thing we've gotleft to do on the show is to
reveal the uniforms. And I justthought, hey, you're a big part
of flight. Let's just do thistogether and we can talk through kind of
the design process and the thought processas well. So for everyone who wasn't

(30:26):
at season ticket member party, herewe go. Time for the breaking news,
the big reveal, and Tony,let's start with a home kit.
Let's start with twenty three twenty twentyfour home Blues for the final season at
the Grand Old Arena. Okay,there's there's Craig Chiles in the kit now,
Brian, I think the biggest thingthat everyone sees right away with this

(30:48):
home kit the touch of gold.The touch of gold in this The yellow's
gone gold here. I'm fortunate enoughto be in the conversations around and the
uniforms and trusting I guess style orwhatever it is my attention to detail.
So this year you're going to seea lot of gold from the uniform kids

(31:12):
that were revealed the other day,and I think it's kind of interesting and
cool. And then you know,it's a little bit different than the soccer's
traditional yellow, but I think thatit's I think that the club is going
to embrace it. I think alsoin the seventies, eighties, nineties it
was really challenging to probably make somethingactually gold, and even though they may

(31:33):
have been going for a gold attimes, they got a mustard yellow.
So now you can actually do certainthings with uniforms and the gold looks sharp.
So on the blue, I thinkthe gold looks straight. And then
the next one you're going to showin a second, I think it looks
amazing. And the one other thingto note there as well, and it's
a lot you see it a lotmore in detail when you get up close,

(31:55):
but there's a little bit of Idon't know if it's a wave,
almost a cresting wave type pattern sublimatedunderneath there. It's subtle, but when
you get up close, I thinkit's very attractive. I actually haven't even
seen it in person other than froma distance when Craig was wearing it,
so I wasn't close enough to actuallysee the design and haven't touched one,

(32:15):
felt one or worn one. Butfrom what I understand, the team over
at Flight had some amazing designers andteam and they made some really cool stuff
and I think that it always makesthe soccer stand out as unique on the
field. Yeah, you can kindof see it, Tony zoomed in a
little bit, so you can sortof see the uplift, the little waves

(32:37):
and to me, in my mind, it's just an homage to the great
San Diego wave e FC, SoI appreciate that. All right, let's
go to the road kit because thisis a reversal of our third kit from
last year, one of the mostpopular kits in San Diego soccer's history.
And Brian, I think a lotof people are liking kind of seeing the

(32:58):
white verse of the Aztec calendar patternthat we saw last year. Yeah.
I think that you were a bigpart of this design side of conversation early
last year with some thoughts of tyingit back to the heritage of and the

(33:20):
culture of Tijuana and our players thatare you know, the cross Border Kit
as it was called. I thinkthat the white and gold looks unbelievable.
When I was in the meeting withthe team, I got to see it
firsthand on samples and there was somea couple of different variables or slight changes
of this version and you got tosee it and how much detail that they

(33:40):
put into it. For me,it was this was the one that I
was like, Oh, I wantthat one, Like I want to wear
that one right now. So it'sreally really cool to see and I think
the fans will really appreciate it,and Marlesia makes a great point, it's
going to be tremendous for team autographsas well. The white away. I

(34:01):
understand not to give away in toomany house secrets, but I believe while
that is our roadkit, we maybe wearing it at least once at home,
maybe very early on at home tokind of just jumpstart la culture around
this kit. But you know,you give me a little credit, Brian.
But if you say something like that, I just have to shout out.
Jerry Jimenez y yay. So integralin the design of the Cross Border

(34:25):
Kit, along with Adrian from Chavos, along with Ezra, you know,
yourself, Chuck, everybody involved atflight, you know, collaborative effort to
be sure. But I got togive a tip of the cap to Big
Jay for what he did as well. So there you have home, there
you have road, and when weget the keeper, this is something we
were talking about even last year.Man. So I think Brian, I

(34:50):
think Boris Brian is going to bereally psyched to be wearing kind of a
red, green and white. Thisis where the cross border gets a sure,
just a little bit. As youcan see, there's there's a green
version of this, and there's ared version of this Brian for the goalkeeper
kit. But essentially it's just adifferent color version, even down to the

(35:12):
trapezodal pattern on the side. Oh. I just like how that looks.
The red and the gold worked togethervery well, my friend. Yeah,
I think that Boris had a bigpart to play this on his requests from
last year. You know, Boris. Boris knows what he likes and I
think he was heard, so heshould be pretty pleased with the uniforms he's

(35:35):
got. I did get to seeit when he walked by me at the
event the other night, and it'spretty sharp for sure. I think that
in general, these three kids arevery unique to this club obviously, and
it's it's really cool to see themall come together as they go through sampling
to final product. And the lastthing I guess we'll say about this is

(35:57):
there is still a third kit tobe revealed later in the year. Yes,
and I think it's going to makesome news. I have seen it
and I think it's going to bethe epic. I agree. There you
kind of see the layout of everythingthat was available. There's the greenkeeper kit,
there's the red Keeper kit, thewhite Away, the blue Home and

(36:19):
the crossborder scarf that I was wearingat the season ticket member party as well.
All are going to be available atthe merchandise stand starting with the home
opener. Season ticket members got achance to purchase on Sunday at the event,
and Gabe's asking beyond the Star Warskit, there's a third kit.
Yes, Gabe, There's going tobe three kits, plus a Star Wars
kit plus a military kit this yearonce again. So soccer's are going to

(36:44):
be beautifully adorned in multiple looks allyear. And we haven't even talked Brian
about Boris's special goal keeper. Ohmy god. I got to see that,
and that's that's that's all I cansay. It's I got to see
it, and I can't wait foreverybody else to see it. That's period.
I really enjoyed that one. SoI was there for the conception of

(37:07):
the idea is that Boris plays pickleball. I don't know if anybody knows how
good Boris is a pickleball. He'sincredible. And Boris has been playing pickleball
with the team over a fight myfriendship, and they were talking about why
why can't we do some fun,unique cool fus like we can't? And
so I think it turned into Boriskind of came up with the idea and

(37:30):
the thought process, and Chuck andhis designing team and team over that flight
made it happen. And I thinkwhen people see it also, I think
they're going to have a hard timechoosing which one to purst. I agree.
I think it's amazing. I thinkit'll be slightly polarizing, and I

(37:50):
very much look forward. I likethat we have a couple of cards left
in our pocket to hold it toreveal a little bit later before we get
off of a flight. Brian,just your your thoughts now, as you've
been involved for a couple of yearson the company. It's growth where it's
heading overall, as of course thesoccer's official apparel manufacturer, but you're doing

(38:13):
so much more as well. Yeah, my friend Chuck is the president of
the company, and it's kind offunny how it all worked out. But
you know, he's always trusted inmy opinion, So I get to kind
of get it and step aside andand kind of watch the I guess,
the details like this come to life. So it's pretty cool to watch.

(38:35):
It's fun because Phil is an investorin the company and a partner in it,
and he essentially, you know,helped this and and get partners on
board and m ASL deal with theball and all this stuff that Phil does
is you know, it all kindof comes together. It's fun. It's
like I get to see it allin idea, ideation and turn it into
final projects. And so I sendeverybody over to those guys and they have

(39:00):
youth clubs and they have soccer campbusiness and they make amazing product from the
soccer ball to grip socks and more. So what we're doing over there is
pretty fun and I get to kindof always give my soccer opinionach. Maybe
it's not always wanted, but Ifeel like I bring it. Add I've
been in the industry right with Puma. He's been in charge of all Puma

(39:20):
accessories, socks, balls, goalkeeping, gloves, bags, a little
bit everything, honestly, and sowas in charge of every single soccer ball
that was sold in the United Statesfrom Puma for two seasons and I learned
a lot. And so when myfriend now runs a company in that space,
I give them as much insight asI know. Incredible stuff. Brian,

(39:43):
now turning from the wonderful world ofsports apparel back to the world of
indoors soccer. Saw you at trainingthis week. You're back twenty twenty three
twenty four season opener coming up twelvedays away Sunday, December third. Let
everybody know officially, what is yourstatus for the twenty twenty three twenty four

(40:05):
season. Well, I saw somecomments further saying that I haven't technically retired,
but I retired last year and itwas kind of an own thing that
I was retired. It was myfinal season. It is a very difficult
thing for somebody to commit to theroster, to be a practice every day,

(40:25):
to put full effort as I dointo practices and traveling. And I
have three kids now. I haveseven month old, I have a six
year old, and I'm an elevenyear old. My wife is a full
time employee of a Califino and she'sgot a big role over there, and
so she doesn't take liberty she comeshome. She just walked in the door.

(40:47):
So Mike has been entertaining themselves inthe other room by themselves for the
start of this interview. So allthat being said, to maintain a level
of fit and to always be readyto say yes, let's go to Harrisburg
and Baltimore for forties in January,like it's just an interesting thing. Why.

(41:09):
I also run a company called BlazePod, and it's the US business
that is underneath me US, Canadaand Mexico technically speaking North America. And
I have a team and I havemarketing and sales and education and it's a
lot of work. And so I'vebeen doing this throughout my career. From
Puma, then I built Skills tothe number one soccer training brand in the

(41:31):
world for a period of time beforeI departed there to come to Blaze Pod.
So I'm in an interesting spot.I think a lot of players stay
playing because they're not sure what todo next or when did transition into coaching,
and it's just it just makes senseto keep playing. But for me,
I have way too many things goingon in my life to continue to

(41:54):
prioritize everything. And I'm not tryingto take away anything about how much I
love the club and the guys andthe players and the team. Is that
it's family. Phil his family,Cheeky's family, right child is my one
of my best friends. Like hetold me not to retire again this morning.
So it's not about not being ableto play. It's just simply about

(42:14):
I have to prioritize certain things andsomething has to go, and it feels
like this has to be one.No, that's that's something Again. Congratulations
on a fantastic career, because obviouslyyou gave the San Diego Soccers fans a
lot of joy. I mean,even up till a couple of months ago.
You're putting your body on the line, going helicopter airborne for the sake

(42:36):
of a beautiful goal. And thoseare the memories that really are going to
stick to the people. But uh, was this kind of like a long
process in the decision to retire,or was this something that triggered it,
or you know, how long hasthis kind of been ruminating your mind.
That's a good question. No,you never really think about retiring until you
just you can't play anymore. Ithink I always told myself, when I'm

(42:58):
not impactful, then I'll be done. I don't know when that's actually going
to come, because I feel likeI will be impactful for us being probably
the best team in the league andany other team out there for a number
of years to come, even atmy age, because I'm still fast,
I'm still quick, I know thegame, and I have a lot to

(43:20):
offer. But I just have alwaysbeen telling my wife one more year,
one year, one more year,and that's gone on for like six years.
Keep in mind, if I didn'tget hurt in Vegas that night,
in that rinky people little place thatwe had to play our semi final,
you know, my name might havebeen hung on the rafters along with what
can I naturally be? Craigs,you know, And that happened to me,

(43:44):
and it took away three full seasonsof like helping me in myrime.
That was hard, And then Igot back and I have a full time
job, and I have a familyof creating and working on and trying to
build my career outide of soccer,and then I get that foot injury in
preseason while I was preparing for myfinal run. I was actually supposed to

(44:07):
retire two years ago, but myfoot injury was so bad that I could
not possibly make that last year.So it has kind of dragged one.
I'm ready for it, I mightsay otherwise in a couple of weeks,
but it's been it's been planned fora while. It's time, I think.
And I had a lot of greatconversations the other night at the event

(44:30):
with season ticket holes that I've knownfor ten years, and it's a little
emotional, but it's kind of fun. And you know how many people come
up and say, you know,you've been my player for how long?
I love to hear that, butit's just too much. So just to
be extremely clear, Brian will bein the lineup for the season opener,

(44:50):
a farewell game, a chance forthe fans to come out and scream your
name one more time, maybe multipletimes every shift that you come out uh
and play, and for the clubto honor you as well, and then
Brian Farber is hanging it up.And your decision making is extremely sound,

(45:10):
very rational. You are making yourwife extremely happy, and I understand all
of that. So having said allof that, you know you're gonna play
at least two more games beyond OpeningNight this year. Right, you understand
that, Right? I don't knowabout that. That is not in the

(45:31):
agreement. Yeah, and then we'regonna go to Texas and someone's gonna sprain
their ankle and someone else is gonnaget turf toe and do to do to
do. And the next thing,you know, the bat signal, the
farm signal, is gonna be reflectedoff the clouds in North County and there

(45:53):
there will be farmer. Look,I saw what happened with Zay's retirement to
brother. I'm just I'm just tellingyou, Yeah, I know, I
know, trust me, And likeall these things weighed in the back of
my brain all last year and whetherI should or shouldn't, But honestly,
I've had amazing support from the familyside, and then from my work.

(46:16):
You know, my boss lives inEurope, he doesn't He's not like in
my office with me every day.There's a ton of trust and letting me
continue to play last year even thoughI wasn't going to play last year,
and then you know, preparing forthis season. It's a no brainer.
He's like, yes, obviously,go train the next two weeks and go
enjoy this month. You've earned it. But you know, I have a

(46:38):
real responsibility to the business to drivemillions of dollars in sale, and I
don't want to keep taking that forgranted either. Absolutely, and I mean
again, I have to agree withCraig. That's very sound logic and you're
gonna be very happy with whatever decisionyou make. But you mentioned you were

(46:59):
at training preparing for the season,so you know what's out there right now.
You know what's what's cooking at trainingso far? What do you see
in the in the soccer is comingup for the twenty twenty three twenty twenty
four season already, I mean welook good, you know, take the
core, Take the team that wehad last year, that we unlucky to

(47:21):
not make it to the final,tough place to play in one goal difference
in Chihuahua and then come home andjust it was devastating how it ended,
and it could have totally gone ourway, we would have been in the
final, and I think we getto the final week we take it.
But we have that core group back, and now we've added two unbelievable players
from around the league. Our fortuneto pick up Costa, who we know

(47:44):
very well, and to be fair, he was it was the most dynamic
player that we faced throughout the year, to the point where I was like,
I would talk to him early onin the season. I watched him
play and I was like, damnthis, this dude's the real deal,
and I even spoke to him afterthe game like a Man's very fun for
me to watch the future is likein good hands watching these up and coming

(48:05):
players bring it. Because I've beenin the league since two thousand and five,
I've seen a lot. I've seenit come, I've seen it go.
I've seen some people stay. I'veseen him adjust as I got older.
He's unbelievable, and now he's wearingthe soccer's crest. For that to
happen was like, I couldn't believeit happened, but it did, and
so that's amazing for us. He'sblending in very well with the rest of

(48:27):
the midfield. I think he evenkissed Bendon today in practice because they went
they went ahead. It's a joke, but there they were. They were
going at each other and it's ait's bringing this this level of strength in
the midfield to challenge each other,right, like we're all there to win
and we're training hard. But theydid. They had heads and they both
had to sit out of practice alittle bit today. But I joke about

(48:51):
the kiss. But then you haveruggles, right and now you bring in
multiple things here, bring in adefender, you bring in a big body,
You bring in a very composed goingforward out of the back. He's
left footed. We have not hada left footed free kick option in a

(49:12):
couple of seasons to rely on.And I've seen him for years. I've
played with him in Australia in theMini World Cup. I've got to know
him as a human being. He'sgreat, dude. He's fitting in perfectly.
So the team just got stronger withthe addition of those two players.
Rojo situation is very unfortunate. Weknow what he brings. So that's I

(49:35):
think the one loss that is reallyclear. But now you even have a
healthy Lao again, I'm just theteam is deep, so sorry, not
in terms of deep depth and lotsof players, but strength wise, I
would say that our squad is very, very good and ready Po hasn't even
shown up yet, and you knowhe's gonna bring it. So it's exciting

(49:59):
for me to I get to playin the first game with this team,
and that means that if they're inthe championship, I get and so I'm
rooting for them absolutely, absolutely,And two or three games later in the
year. So final season at PachongArena, final season for Brian Farber,
but final season at Pachang Arena forthe San Diego Soccers. Twelve of the

(50:20):
sixteen championships have been won there.Of course, in twenty twenty one,
the soccers had no home, sothat ones are are or vagabond season Championship
three at Del Mar Arena and twelveat the Sports Arena. When you think
about what that building has meant toSan Diego Sports and then within that what

(50:44):
the soccers have meant to that building, what kind of like what are your
feelings thinking about one more chance forthe soccers to play there? Yeah,
I think it's I think the twoare like hand in hand, right,
It's anonymous with the success of thesoccers playing in the sports arena, and

(51:05):
you can change the name by thesponsor, but it's the sports arena and
you can you walk in those doorsand you just get the feeling of the
legacy of the brand. You lookup in the rafters and you see the
names and you see the championship banners, and that's intimidating from an outside standpoint.
No matter who you are, youcoming and you realize you're playing the
best and the building that you justsaid has been part of twelve championships.

(51:29):
It's undeniable. Right. So you'rewalking in the back a little area and
you're looking around and people from theopposing teams they have to they have to
have it thrown right in their faceand they see it and they feel it,
and the fans bring it. Soone more season in the grand old
Arena, I would say, isit's it's like unfinished business. Let's let's

(51:52):
go out with a bang and whateverhappens in that building, they always have
what happens, and let's try tobring in the new building that is ours
always rather going to be ours forthe first time. And I'm really excited
to have that transition. But finishon and go into that with trying to
put a new banner up in there. So I think that it's it's a

(52:15):
heavy it's a heavy burden on usto try to finish out with the championship,
but that's the way it's deserved.Canot agree with you more? As
a San Diego that's a hollow groundthere. But you know, like you
were mentioning, You've been in theleague for a long time. I've been
being a lot of different evolutions iterationsof this league now, you know,

(52:38):
removing yourself a little bit from whereyou were when you came into it.
Have you seen the growth of theleague in the state of the m ASL
currently and where it's been with theexpansion of teams of savage winning and the
sprinkling of talent across the different divisionsas well. That's interesting the transition of
the indoor game since I was inthe league in two thousand and five,

(53:00):
my first years, it feels likesimilar but feels different. Right. You
have teams like Monterey were then wherethey're then, and they left a couple
of times and come back a coupleof times. Right, that's just like
the way that they do it.It's always great to have more teams south

(53:20):
of the border. It just isbetter for business in my opinion, especially
for San Diego, because you know, we get to play a different style
and see a different style. Yougo and play teams like Kansas City or
you know, Saint Louis over theyears, like Detroit, it's just a
different game. And when you're playingagainst a team full of really hard working

(53:44):
Mexican players that understand the game andknow each other like front and back,
they help each other out, They'realways there. It's so fun to beat
them. When you get to beatthem. I remember years ago where we
beat Monterrey and Monterey and we gotcheered off the field by the fans.
Are earned respect. That doesn't happenin Detroit. You know, it might

(54:04):
happen in the Baltimore potentially, buthonestly, I don't know if those fans
really care if they lose. They'renot happy about it. I don't think
Ray was happy about it, butthey appreciate good play and we this club
creates that dynamic. We have anamazing team and front to back, from
our goalkeeper to our forwards. Andwhen you play teams like Florida that were

(54:27):
supposed to beat us a couple ofyears ago and we to them down like
the semi finals. Those are thoseare moments that this league is built upon,
and so nothing really changed from thevery beginning. Players come and go,
strategies slightly change, coaches like amazingcoaches Phil and Tozer and those guys
you speaking about him in the samesentence. They've won championships and they've earned

(54:51):
that right, and the I guessthe whole league in general, continues to
go. You have great players,like I said, Costa come last year
and making such a splash as anplayer, and then Brazilian players that have
always been scattered throughout the league beCardinos and Everton's back in the day,
but now you have Leo an example, the path master himself. So it's
very fun for me to watch thesport. I'm definitely gonna be a fan

(55:14):
after I'm done playing, and maybeeven come and teach some of these young
guys certain things that they're missing.I'm talking to players now practice saying like,
hey, you might not know thisgame. Right there, you got
step and you've gotta drop or yougotta slide, and you know, I
like to teach this my style andif these players are going to try to
be impactful for this team and rosterlate in the season, then need to
start learning. Yeah, you havea restless mind. You will not be

(55:37):
far from this club. You won'tbe far from the strategy of this club.
I won't say anymore, but thelast thing before we let you go.
You know, I've known you fora long time, Brian. I
remember when Ari came into the worldback in the del Mar Arena days.
I remember when Beckham joined your family, and then now in April, Mila

(55:58):
Sophia Farbar entered the universe as well. And I'm just curious for yourself and
your beautiful wife, Christy. Andfor all the years that you played man
demand defense, now you have tolearn the zone. It's two on three.
You're out manned every day for therest of your life. So how
is that adjustment? Bed? Thethree kids is definitely a game changer.

(56:22):
Craig tried to warm me, butuh, you know it happened, And
so we have. We have thisamazing, this amazing little girl not jogging
you. Just yesterday she learned thewave. She's seven months now and she's
like waving, like intentionally leave whenyou say bye. He like waves and

(56:43):
it's it's adorable, right, youlike, every day is different. You
take this on. But we alsohave Ari who's now eleven. She's a
responsible little girl and she is superhelpful. And then you know Beckham is
you know, we just turned six. But he helps as much as he
can. And in fact, hejust got a haircut today. He went
he got his haircut without me.He came home, he's got my haircut

(57:05):
and I like I had had adouble day because I hadn't seen it yet
and made me laugh. So youknow, I have a lot to be
thankful on that side, and it'sgonna be definitely more of my focus now.
Farbes your class always, You'll alwaysbe class. We look forward to
honoring you for the first match andthen to just begrudgingly recognize you the three

(57:30):
to four extra games you play thisyear, and thank you so much as
always, you've been so generous tothis show over the years. Thank you
so much for your time tonight,guys, Thanks for having me on.
I'm happy to do it. Andwhenever you need a color commentator, you
know where I'll be absolutely my friend. Yeah, well I will probably sneak
you in on a couple of broadcaststhis year as well. Brian Farber,

(57:52):
thank you so much. My friend. There's Farbes. Man. What a
guy. Guy, What a guy. That's the representation that you want from
a player in San Diego. That'sa total package. Man. There was
such a special moment when Brian Farbercame to this club in twenty ten and

(58:14):
he was like kind of like Costalast year. Was that one guy and
another team that you're like, ohmy god, we got to deal with
this guy. And he's such apain in the ass and he's always in
the back post and making some leapingat her and his energy and he's got
passion and he plays with bite,he plays with grit, and he's fast
as l and like, what arewe gonna do with this dude? And

(58:35):
when we got Farbar, it wasjust like, okay, it's on.
Like the soccers have Farber now it'son. There's not much coincidence that it
was very shortly thereafter that we wenton a forty eight match winning streak to
set the old time US professional sportsteam record. And he's got five championships
here, six in his career,as we mentioned, and hopefully he'll finish
with six and seven and Brian Farberus the best. Okay, let's get

(59:01):
to ma ASL News and wrap thingsup. Season starts Friday, my friend
Milwaukee at Saint Louis, Empire atChiwawah Let's go. I can't wait.
Yeah, it's gonna be an incrediblestart of the season. The teams are
already just ready to go. I'vebeen looking across the league some social media's

(59:24):
and and I mean at Chihuahua isreally embracing this whole champion thing. They
you know, earned, but therethey are primed and ready to go and
to try to repeat. And Ihave to say that, you know,
I'm very excited to keep an eyeon how dynamic and how you know,
this league starts developing from early onand what the soccers are really going to

(59:45):
have to face when they start theirseason December third. Yeah, it's going
to be very interesting this weekend.And we appreciate the Empire Strikers for sallying
forth into the breach and being thefirst first person to jump out of the

(01:00:05):
of the trench and rush across thefield here and face the machine guns,
because they will take on Friday Chihuahua. They will take on Monterey on Sunday.
They're gonna do the Mexico Twofer.And that's how Paul Wright's coaching career
gets started with two of the toughestmatches that you could possibly play in this

(01:00:25):
league. And you know, youtalk about Chihuahua and we're going to get
into kind of our division previews andconference previews, and this is a team
that really save one player has broughtabsolutely everybody back. And the one player
is Torres Edgre Gonzalez. He's goneback to Monterey and that's not a surprise.

(01:00:49):
That's his hometown. You know,he played in Chihua for a couple
of years. But Edgar Gonzalez goingback to Monterey just really kind of fleshes
out that roster. Other critical playerwho has gone from Chiuaba to Monterey is
El Sarjento. Berna Valdovinos is nowin Monterey and he is not in Chihuahua.

(01:01:10):
And if on Terrey Munos played tremendouslyin the final when Berna got hurt,
and I want to make that clear, and he might be an up
and coming goalkeeper in this league,but Chihuahua Waszho and five with the Von
Terry Munos their original year, andthen they signed Berna and then they went
fifteen to one, and last yearthey won seventeen games and Burna was mostly

(01:01:35):
the goalkeeper. So I think that'svery significant. Torres the number one striker
and Berna the number one keeper,both migrating from Chiuaba to Monterrey. That's
got to have some kind of impact. Absolutely, And if you saw any
of the matchups with the Savage andthe San Diego soccers, you would know
exactly the impact that Berna by Loovinoshas and what type of a player he

(01:02:00):
really is and commanding at commandante ofthe back line and as a shot stopper,
incredibly talented, and and Torres aswell, that that was the big
question and going into the finals aswell and into the matchups against San Diego
will he play? And he endedup being an X factor in a critical
time. Munos also stepped up,So perhaps that earned him the confidence of

(01:02:23):
Shihuawach just to be able to partways a little little, you know,
uh, having with a little bitmore of a safety net and sending better
than over with Morego who is headingMonterey Flash as well, but I mean
it's I'm glad, like you said, Empire is gonna have that first taste
of what Savage has to offer thistime around. Yeah, you know,

(01:02:47):
you bring up Luis Brego and yeshe's back as as El Profe in Monterey.
But Evarardo Sanchez guided his club toa championship last year, so yeah,
he's no slight. I think bothteams are going to be really,
really good, but I think ityou know, from a soccer's centric standpoint,
I'd rather face Chihuahua without Burna thanChihuaha with Berna. I'd rather face

(01:03:12):
Chihuaha without Torres than with Torres.So good news for San Diego there,
so to speak. Sunday we mentionedEmpires at Monterey, Milwaukee is at Kansas
City, so we'll get to seeone of the presumptive favorites in the East
Milwaukee. We'll get to see anotherbig time contender in Kansas City on Sunday.
I'm very much looking forward to thesematches. Speaking of Empire, goalkeeper

(01:03:39):
Clayson Delma put a post on hisInstagram earlier this week thanking Empire for five
years and announcing that he would notbe back with the strikers this season.
My ear has heard that it's avisa thing for Clayson Dilema, which is
very unfortunate. But of course ChrisToth was a free agent this offseason and

(01:04:03):
he signed in Tacoma with his buddyNick Pereira and is now doing his second
tour of duty with the Stars.So and party doesn't have a keeper,
Tony, They don't have a keeper. They've got whoever they drafted in the
combine or whoever's shown up at tryoutto be their goalkeeper. And they have

(01:04:26):
a game in three days. Soyikes. Yeah, that's that's an industry
interesting strategy, Cotton. We'll seeif it pays off. But if we're
not trusting the rosters on the MISLwebsite, because I mean, they have
somebody Brandom Gomez double zero's, butagain, that could be the player that
they drafted or just it's not lookinggood, because what are you gonna do.

(01:04:50):
Are you gonna get somebody off thestreets? Are you gonna go and
get somebody off the streets and tryto find somebody in Mexico and trying to
find some local talent over there,a shot in the dark. Can somebody
an outfielder play in goal. Isit going to be six attack or the
entire game? I don't. Idon't know, Craig. That's a very,
very just alarming thing. You know, you have these great signings seemingly

(01:05:14):
rebuilding an empire, and then youhave such a glaring hole here with no
goalkeeper as of now, and evenwhoever you're going to bring in, it's
a little late to really assimilate themselvesinto a style because it's not just throw
a goalkeeper there and see what theycan do. They have to be able
to have the confidence of the defense, command the people who are in front
of them, have the vision,have everything that you want from a goalkeeper

(01:05:38):
in order to play in the playstyle that you want in this new revamped
empire. So I mean I retired. I can't play anymore. I wouldn't
play for strikers. I'm sorry that. I mean that I from Stamford.
I can't imagine what the media blastswould be upon my signing over. There

(01:06:00):
be scathing, we'd be announcing chiefis elevation to producer and host of soccer.
But no, it's it's alarming.I have to say, I have
to agree with that. It's interesting. I've never seen this. What what?
What can possibly happen? Just picksomebody off the streets. That's well,

(01:06:20):
I'm glad you asked, because I'vegot a thought and I've got an
idea. It just so happens.If you go through the different rosters on
the MASL website. Again, CraigChiles isn't on our roster. So take

(01:06:40):
everything with a grain of salt.Okay, we take everything with a shaker
of salt, like, but don'tput it all on your food, you
know, keep an eye on yoursodium levels. Uh. There's a very
very very accomplished goalkeeper who has setallied over to the West Coast once before

(01:07:03):
who is listed as inactive on histeam's roster, and that is one William
van Zela. And given the waythat Baltimore has been changing their roster and
moving away from critical players such asLucas Roquet, could the strikers, who

(01:07:30):
have said all along that they're tryingto get younger and more dynamic go get
one of the oldest goalkeepers in theleague and make him a fly in player
to fly in for you know,X number of games and be the goalkeeper
of Empire. I'm not trying tomanifest this certainly ideas. I'm just saying.

(01:07:59):
I'm not saying anything. I'm justsaying, if there's one thing that
Empire could do that would materially changetheir fortunes for this year, yeah,
that would, As Marlicia says,that would be a game changer. Okay,

(01:08:23):
So Tony, this is where Iwill now either make myself sound really
smart or embarrass myself. I willnot ask you to do this. I
mean you can if you want.You can throw out your predictions if you
want. Feel free to jump intothe breach. I agree with you.
Dive in head first if you want. But this is how I see the
divisions shaking out right now, basedon the rosters which have salt shakers attached

(01:08:48):
to them and everything else. Solet's start, of course, with our
division. I see San Diego ontop. I think this. You know,
the Soccer has finished five games betterthan the next best record in the
league last year in just a twentyfour game schedule. That's a level of

(01:09:10):
dominance that is difficult to overcome.I think the team is better this year.
Soccer's number one and would be mypick to win the Shield. Chihuahua
is an obvious number two in theWest. And even without Burna, even
without Torres, They've got depth,They've got all kinds of experience. Now,

(01:09:30):
they've got the confidence of winning,they've got the championship pedigree. So
Chihuahua is an easy, easy pickfor number two. And I think of
all the picks I'm going to make, there's thirteen teams, there's thirteen potential
placements. I guarantee San Diego wonChihuahua two. Like those are the two

(01:09:51):
things I would be the absolute mostconfident in. I'd stop that top four
teams in each division make the playoffs. I believe the other two teams that
will make the playoffs out of theWest are Texas and Tacoma. And I
could see it in that order,Texas third, Tacoma fourth. If Chris

(01:10:12):
Toth has a whale of a yearand Tacoma gets a little bit more production
out of some of their younger players, I could see it flip flop and
I could see it Tacoma third andTexas fourth. I still give Chris Toth
a ton of credit for being oneof the best goalkeepers in the league.
I think he kind of single handedlysaved Empire at certain points in the last
two years when the defense was atrociousand by the way, Empire lost Robert

(01:10:34):
Palmer two, he went back toKansas City. I mean, you know,
it's been an exodus out of Empire, so one way or another,
I see, I'll just say Texasthird, Tacoma fourth, But I see
those as being the playoff teams.And then probably you know what, Paul

(01:10:59):
dor I love you. I'll sayEmpire fifth. All right, I'll give
him that shot to be a teamthat gets better as the year goes on.
Young legs, new system. Maybethey come together, you know,
maybe they make a trade. Hey, if Empire made the trade that I

(01:11:20):
danced around there, I might flipflop them and one of Texas and Tacoma
because I think that player can pusha team that far. So that would
be kind of my one hedge.But I'll say Empire five and I'll put
Dallas six. You know, Imean, what is Dallas done to really

(01:11:41):
improve? I'd like to see Dallasimprove. Dallas snuck their way into the
playoffs two years ago. Last yearthey were an absolute disaster once again.
Could it possibly happen? Sure?Could Empire completely crater and be the worst
team in the league. I mean, yeah, they could, They absolutely
could if they did acquire that particularplayer. They probably have to send someone

(01:12:05):
east too, And there's not alot of people left on the roster that
aren't young. But that's how Isee it. I see San Diego,
Chihuahua, Texas, Tacoma as beingthe playoff teams, and I see Empire
Dallas on the outside looking in.Uh your mine, Lache may vary any
thoughts on that, Tony No,I I definitely agree that that one two

(01:12:26):
is definitely solid. I mean,Chihuahua has the depth their their m A
s L two team is fantastic,so they have talent to really kind of
uh make that make that number twopush there. But Texas, uh,
they have some some good talent aswell, And overall, I think I
have to agree with that. Imean, you said it, Craig.
You're putting Empire as potential fringe playoffcontingent team if they change things. I

(01:12:55):
mean, you know, the onlygoalkeeper on the roster right now was their
M two kid Brian Roscoe from lastyear, and he wasn't bad in him
two. You saw him with EmpireJets. You know he was fine,
but you're gonna throw him in sixgames against US, you know, games
against Chihuahua. Like, if theycan't win any of those games, they're
already sitting at like ten to elevenlosses, and then what are you gonna

(01:13:16):
do from there? Now You've gotto win all the rest of your games
essentially, So tough going probably forEmpire this year. Maybe Paul will surprise
us. I still will say they'llprobably beat his ones like one massive revenge
game that they'll make fifteen videos aboutafterwards, because we you know, pummel

(01:13:41):
him four times in a row andthen show up fat to Toyota Arena one
day. Okay, to the East. Here's my bold, not so bold
prediction number one in the East MontereyFlash, Monterey Flash, yep, and

(01:14:04):
I believe the Monterey Flash will havethe second best record in the league and
that the Monterey Flash will push thesoccers for the shield. I think they
will push the sockers for the shieldenough that in the horrible, you know,
alternate universe that we are not goingto live in where the soccers had

(01:14:26):
you know a lot of injuries orsome type of you know that that if
there was a team that could takethe shield over San Diego, I think
would be Monterey. You know,in addition to Berna, in addition to
Torres, in addition to all thekids that they already had last year,
you add Ismail Rojo, who Istill believe when he is left to his

(01:14:54):
own devices, so to speak,and is featured on a team, I
think he's gonna be tremendous. Andthey added Poyo too, and I think
Poyo is incredible glue for that club. I mean, you really just look
at the whole roster for Monterey andit's tough top to bottom. But why
am I putting them first? Becausethe West has been so much better than

(01:15:15):
the East the last couple three years, and We've said so many times you
could take any one of these fiveteams from the West and put them in
the East and they'd probably be thechampion. So I'm putting my money where
my mouth is, and I'm sayingthe Flash would have been number one in
the East if they could have playedover there. So now they're there,
So now I'm putting them number one. Monterey number one. Yeah, No,

(01:15:39):
that that team is filled with talent, while that iov number ten is
an absolute pleasure to watch it.It's going to be a team, and
that team also has that fan basethat's incredibly loyal and really pushes them through.
It's a very hard place to playwhen visitors come over into Montrey.

(01:15:59):
So that's that's definitely my hot take, because the more popular pick would be
Milwaukee, and I think Milwaukee gotbetter this year. I think Cravallo is
going to be a lovely ad tothat team. I just the top stars
for the Milwaukee Wave for years havebeen Ian Bennett and marcio Lette, and

(01:16:25):
they're both now approaching forty and it'sjust a matter of how long can you
be great. I think the greatestdays of the Wave are in the past.
They need new, young, dynamictalent to not just be the aging
warhorse of the East, and that'skind of where I see him this year.

(01:16:46):
So I think the Wave are goingto be really, really good,
probably in the conference final, butI'll take Monterey over Milwaukee. And if
Monterey has home field and they're playingdown at Arena Barregos in a conference final,
really like Monterey in that situation.So I'm gonna go Milwaukee too.
No dis to the Wave. They'redefinitely a top contender and could take the

(01:17:09):
East third. I'll put Kansas City. I really like what's going on with
the comments, and I thought aboutputting another team in the third spot,
but Kansas City has made some keyadditions in this offseason, including Chand Vandergriff,
who has been a top League alldefender, All League defender each of
the last couple of years. Camefrom Milwaukee, was a top defender there.

(01:17:30):
You know, he's not a dynamicplayer like and Drew Ruggles. He's
not a complete shutdown player like aPino or a Cardinist. But he's going
to really help their defense because KansasCity's defense was pretty weak outside of goalkeeper
Nicol Aetto. And guess who elsethey got. Robert Palmer is back in
Kansas City, Ontario's number one defenderwho has spent five years out here,

(01:17:51):
is back in his hometown of KansasCity. And I think those two guys,
plus Zach Reggitt being there full timeand having the opportunity to become the
full time number one offensive option incasey he came in midyear last year,
it's kind of a mix with himand with Rion Marquez and with Leo.

(01:18:12):
I think now he's the undisputed numberone. Palmer helps the defense, Vandergriff
helps the defense. Netto has abig year in net as a result,
and I'll put Casey third. Inmy predictions, I'll put Utica forth to
be the last team to make theplayoffs. The King's gonna help, He's

(01:18:35):
gonna score goals. Him and Gordycould be an interesting team up. The
question for Utica is defense. Straightup, The question is defense. Bro
Jelovac has retired. I don't thinkthey've got the best defenders in the league
in Utica, but that team reallycame together, and I really like what
Everton Morera has done as a headcoach. I think he really galvanized that

(01:18:58):
club in the second half last year. So maybe it's a little bit of
a bias tip to the King TYU, but I'm gonna put Youtica fourth,
which means I'm leaving the Eastern Conferencechampions out and putting Baltimore fifth. In
one iteration of my standings, Iput Baltimore seventh, and it's because I
just feel like it's a franchise goingthe other direction. They couldn't even find

(01:19:24):
a home date for playoff games lastyear, they're going to play a game
outdoors this year. Netto isn't active, Roque is gone, Max Ferdinand isn't
on the active roster, and ifVanzella leaves, if then Zella leaves,
to me, it's a house ofcards that collapses behind him. You know,

(01:19:46):
Mike Zeroffer did a really good jobas a backup goalkeeper last year.
But I think it's a major differencebetween playing for a guy where you know
the man is coming back next game, or playing for a guy where there's
no one but him. And soI'm curious. I could be dead wrong
on this. I'm sure Geo isfurious, I'm sure Brad is furious listening.

(01:20:08):
But I'm gonna put Baltimore fifth,and then I'm gonna go Saint Louis
and Harrisburg and they could finish sixto seven, they could finish seven six.
I don't know, but I thinkthose are the two teams. Harrisburg's
gotten better, Saint Louis has gottena little bit better. But when I
looked at the rosters, I justat the end, Tony, I couldn't
justify putting either one of them aboveBaltimore, never mind any of the other

(01:20:31):
teams in the division. I wantto apologize to everybody who just got the
entire season spoiled by Craig by beingabsolutely mostly probably correct on these And yeah,
no, that's definitely the way thatthis league usually turns out. Is
the most likely thing to happen.Usually happened, and you know it's special

(01:20:54):
when when it doesn't, and invery various ways. Right, you know
that Talkers Savage game maybe wasn't supposedto happen that way, but it was.
It was a special moment for theleague, nonetheless, But I have
to agree with that. And eitherway, these are gonna be some very
good games. There's gonna be somereally good competition, and that the playoff

(01:21:15):
race on either divisions are going tobe stellar with some great teams who have
really improved and have really have somethingto show. And I mean, again,
we've seen these mid table teams sometimestake it to the soccers, and
you know, the soccers aren't inprevious at all times. So that's something
that they will have to definitely goahead and make sure they are vigilant about

(01:21:38):
throughout the season and not let up, because again, then you're gonna get
Empire beating you once and they're gonnagloat about until the next until the next
renaissance of players comes in. Betternot be when we do a bus trip
up there, you know, like, not that game. Pick a different
game, all right? So Igot San Diego, Chihuahua, Texas,
Tacoma in the West, I gotMonterey, Miilwalk, Casey, and Utica

(01:22:00):
in the East. I probably gota San Diego Monterey final, which would
be really a hell of a final. Be a hell of a final?
Would I prefer Milwaukee? Yeah?Yeah, Just you know, it's tough
to go out of country for thechampionship. It's tough to go to chihuaba
and win a playoff game. It'stough to go to Monterey and win a

(01:22:23):
playoff game. To me, that'sthe hardest thing you can do in this
league. So uh should be aton of fun. What do you think?
Leave us a note in the conventshere on YouTube or on Twitch while
you're liking if you want to putin fictions are that's tremendously to go back,

(01:22:45):
right, I'll give myself a prize. Let's let's let's I like putting
stuff on the line. Let's let'sgo ahead and do that awesomething prepared for
you at the end of the season. If this does pan out, it
has to be exact exactly thirteen forthirteen. It has to be a thirteen
team parlay. I have to nailall thirteen by miss one. I missed

(01:23:09):
it all. I love it allright. That's it for this episode of
Soccers Overtime. When we are backnext week, Tony, it's match week,
man, It's gonna be match week. We're gonna have an actual match
to preview and prepare for and getexcited as Tove and Brera and Jacoma come

(01:23:30):
to town. I wanted to saybig ups to Brian Farberd. I want
to say thanks to everybody in ourSoccers front office for helping the Soccer season
ticket member party and our media daypossible, always led by our glorious leader
Sean Bauers, our team general manager, Tony. Where can everyone find you?
They can go ahead and find meon Twitter or X at Underscore Tony

(01:23:53):
Sanchez. It's simple, Tony CentchezUnderscore in the beginning. That's about it.
And you can follow me on Instagramat six one nine Sports in Life.
You can follow me on X atsix one nine Sports. I've given
up calling it Twitter now. Imean it's been months, so gotta stay
with the times, all right.For Tony Sanchez and Brian Farbara, I'm

(01:24:15):
Craig Elston. Thanking you for makingus part of your Tuesday evening or if
you're watching on on YouTube and listeningon the podcast. Whatever you chose to
take in our content, we saythanks. We'll talk to you next week.
Enjoy the MASL action this weekend andgo Sockers.