S6E5: Let's Get it Started! (Special Guest: Chiky Luna)

ON THE SHOW TONIGHT

Here we go! It’s season 10 of the MASL, season 15 of the modern Sockers and a battle for a 17th all-time championship begins Sunday when the Tacoma Stars come knocking at Pechanga Arena, we’ve got a full match preview

• On a show this big, we’ve got to go to the top, we have Sockers director of player personnel and assistant coach Chiky Luna as our special guest, coming up at the bottom of the hour
• Thanksgiving weekend gave us four sides of MASL action and let’s just say, Empire struck out…we’ll recap it all in MASL News and get you ready for a huge week of indoor soccer next on Sockers Overtime…

Episode Transcript

(00:35):
Hello once again everybody, and welcometo Soccers over time. You're weekly look
inside the San Diego Soccers and theMajor Arena Soccer League. Greg Elston,
Tony Sanchez. That one Tony said, head right there a guy with two
thumbscup balls and the mic. Howare you doing it? I am does

(01:00):
today? It's great thing. Goahead and read you some asl and with
a talker game coming up here upcunning Craig. Season of those years one
day the home opener we are onthe way was four lectord the Hunter's four

(01:21):
week Times season. It's episode five. Callment. Let's get it started because
it's time to go. And beforewe go too far, I just want
to say congrats Tony from me toU fil a podcaster, two hundred episodes
of two Balls in a Mic,your weekly show. Two hundred consecutive weeks
without fail. I have never doneanything two hundred twelve. Maybe I have,

(01:42):
but nothing I want to talk abouttwo hundred weeks in a row,
and I am very proud of youand Chieva. Congrats on your great uh
accomplishment. Oh thank you. It'sit's you know, two hundred weeks does
sound like a lot, and itis uh to spend with one individual,
and it's really brought us a lotof joy and it's led us some really
cool things like this. Now I'mhere with you, Craig, ready to

(02:04):
start on the commentary table here comingup December third, very exciting, so
thank you for that you bet ontonight's show, Here we go. It's
season ten of the MAASL. It'sseason fifteen of the Modern San Diego Soccers
and it's a battle for a seventeenthall time championship here for the Soccers franchise.
It all gets started Sunday, TacomaStars come and knock in, but

(02:28):
Changa Rena will be rocking. We'vegot a full match preview for you.
Coming up on a show this big, we got to go to the top.
We have Soccers Director of Player Personnel, Cheeky Luna as our special guest.
He'll be joining us at the bottomof the hour. We'll get into
the nitty gritty of the roster andhis thoughts, excitements, challenges, etc.

(02:49):
As the season gets ready to begin. And yet the season has begun
for some other teams. Thanksgiving Weekendgave us four sides of m ASL action
and let's just say Empire was thatside that was left full on the table
but nobody picked at Well, we'llpick you, Adam or pick on him
a little bit in MASL news andget you ready for a huge week of

(03:15):
indoor soccer. It's all coming upright here on Soccer's Overtime. Bobby Cressy's
Beyond the South Bay our theme song. We thank him as always. You
can find that on his album CallieNative, available on iTunes or wherever you
get your music. And we saya special thanks to everybody watching us live
on Twitch. We are every Tuesday, five pm Pacific time with you until

(03:38):
the end of the season. Thanksas well to everybody watching us the next
day or later in the week onYouTube or listening to the audio version on
the podcast. However you consume theshow, we are thankful that you have
made the choice to do so.All right, Tony, let's get into
it. Let's get started with ma SL News and we will start with

(04:03):
season openers. I see something inthe in the you know what. Twitch
has a chat. We have alive chat. We have a great audience
with live chat. And I seeSusan s Barber fifty five with a question,
Craig, can you discuss Twitch notbeing free? M it's free for

(04:25):
me. Yeah, what you're talkingabout other computer you know, boosting our
little views, making sure the soundsall good. So I don't know.
You can subscribe to channels and givechannels money, and that's something that Twitch
creators can use as a way tomonetize their feed. You know, there's

(04:47):
so many gamers that use this asa platform for people to enjoy their streaming
content of games, and they willsubscribe, almost like a Patreon situation for
podcasts, where you have that.Marlicia says, all recordings in the first

(05:09):
ma Asl channel on Twitch are behinda pay well okay, well take it
up with JP Della camera. Nothingnothing to pay for here. Absolutely,
we're free on Twitch. We're freeon Twitch. I and ma Asl Monday's
behind it paye. I just disagreewith that wholeheartedly, and I imagine it's

(05:29):
probably a mistake on their part.I can see definitely see that a misclick.
Wait what we're doing? What?Because I think you probably guys all
remember that when the league had payper view in the COVID season, I
screamed bloody murder against it. Infact I got in trouble with the league

(05:50):
for screaming bloody murder against it tothe league like, no, don't do
this, So I don't think theyare. And thank you guys for bringing
that to my attention. Twitch isstill free, supposed to be content,
should be free. This show's freefor you and for me. All right,

(06:11):
AYSL News Season openers. Milwaukee getsthings started. First game, Black
Friday at Saint Louis at the FamilyArena, a really dry game, one
that was pretty slow burned slow watch, to be honest with you, two
to one. Milwaukee took it inovertime. Really not a ton to say

(06:32):
about that match. It was verydefensive and it looked to me like two
teams playing the first game of theyear. That's one thing about the m
ASL Tony, I always feel like, unlike maybe some other I guess it's
true in all sports, but thatfirst game I always feel like that's the
first pancake in the batch. Likeusually you just toss it out, everything's
flat, nothing's fluffing up quite right, and it takes to that second game

(06:57):
for you to really get cranking.Yeah. Absolutely, Some of these teammates
in other groups are barely getting toknow each other. They don't have as
many potentially practice facility usage. AndI was looking across the league at some
of the arenas that are that arebeing used for practice, and again,
like I look inwards towards the soccersand is it's really like a spoiled just

(07:21):
you know, whatever whatever in thatsense that we seem to be. I
think it's okay to admit that thesoccers are spoiled in a lot of different
ways. And I do think thatthe talent that pushes the soccer team the
soccers team in the first couple ofgames is really nothing that it gets overlooked
a lot because they might not befiring all cylinders, but they'll still get

(07:43):
the job done and it's usually becauseof that talent. But yeah, two
to one overtime match in Football Rapido. It was probably a football as slow
up for the opening matchup Football Despasio. In more, nonetheless, Milwaukee gets
that win. We're like, okay, Milwaukee Eastern Conference favorites, they get

(08:07):
getting started with a win. Chihuahuagot to begin their title defense hosting Empire,
and that match had a lot offirst game feel to it as well.
The strikers actually scored first. Thegame was scoreless, won, nothing
into like midway second quarter when finallyChihuahua got on the board, and then

(08:31):
they just ran a truck over Empirein the second half and especially in the
fourth quarter, and you know,it got out to four to one,
and then in the last few minutesit was just like goal goal, goal,
goal, eight to one final score. Empire completely running out of gas
in that match. But unlike maybeSunday, I didn't Okay, I didn't

(08:54):
leave the match feeling good about Empireand how they played or performed or how
their ros looks. But at leastit was competitive. For a long time,
a lot of teams really struggle inChihuahua. So I was kind of
willing to take that one as Empire'sfirst pancake and toss it out too.
Yeah, And I mean, look, if you want to take the small

(09:15):
victory of beating the current reigning defendingchampions one zero in the first half and
having that be the poster Bourbon Cerealfor the rest of the season and having
that be a highlight, sure gofor it. But I mean, it's
just levels with Chihuahua Savage and whatEmpire brought on that opening game, and
honestly not a surprise at all,to be completely honest on that side,

(09:37):
Yeah, I did think that Chihuahuawas kind of finding their legs, their
rhythm. There are a lot ofchanges to that Savage team, and not
having Voldovinos in the back, Ithink in the big games is going to
be something to really look out for. You know, without Gonzales Torres Gonzales
up front, a little bit ofa change in where the because of the

(10:00):
attack goes. So, you know, I thought Chiwama needed to take some
time as well. Lugo Puente's gotthings going a little bit in the second
half, but eight one was thefinal in that ones. They took Saturday
off because both weekend affairs involved ateam on the road playing multiple matches,
and Sunday would be the finish ofthat with Milwaukee going to Kansas City.

(10:24):
And I think this is the gamethat's like the talk about it game of
the first weekend of the league,Tony, in that the Comets winning is
really not that surprising. I thinkthey've won four or five in a row
over Milwaukee at Cable Dama Arena.Usually this series kind of goes in terms
of the home team wins it.But kans City didn't just beat Milwaukee.

(10:48):
They beat up Milwaukee nine to three, and they really looked like a complete
team in doing so, from nettoin the back, to Regget in the
front, to a lot of talentin the midfield. But beyond anything else,
man, I think getting Chad Vandergrifffrom Florida and then getting Robert Palmer
back from Empire. Those are twophysical defenders. Vandergriff had to sit this

(11:09):
one out he had a one gamesuspension for card accumulation last year. But
Palmer alone completely changed the tenor ofthe Comets defense. The team looked more
rugged. Reggitt gives you something reliableup front and gives you that left foot
which he used for a hat trickagainst Milwaukee. And you know, we

(11:31):
gave out some silly predictions last podcast. I'm already starting to think about a
revision, like it's one game.You should never take one game too seriously.
But boy, Kansas City look good. Yeah. No, I was
watching that regged game. Vali Goulasooff the our partners over in Canela and
having them call that match, andyeah, I mean it's it's something that

(11:52):
this league is one of those thingswhere it usually makes sense when you see
one team go up, you know, wave two to one, and then
you Comets come in, Kansas Citycome in and beat them the way they
did. Now I look forward to, well, then this means that then
Saint Louis is about to get anabsolute thrashing whenever they go up against uh

(12:13):
Kansas City, and and you know, for the most part, that's how
this this this league plays out,and that's why there can be such prediction
like you know what it's gonna beChihuahua and UH San Diego won two in
the West, because usually that's howthings are going to play out with the
teams that they have, and UH, the the East is going to be
very interesting with that monkey wrench ofMonterey and what they had to offer because
they also had a match in theirtheir first opening match as well. Yeah.

(12:39):
I mean again, it's one gameand teams look great, but unlike
all these other clubs were like,hey, first game, throw it out.
Kansas City comes up, puts outnine goals, looks strong on both
ends of the floor, just lookedreally really good. I do think they
had a couple extra weeks training justbased on you know, social media posts
and whatnot of clubs came in likethe Soccers did two three weeks in advance

(13:03):
of the opener. But if youget those extra couple weeks, I think
it makes a gigantic difference. Imean, I've felt for the last two
years like the Soccers weren't in formuntil the fourth or fifth game because of
their late starts. So we'll seehow it all plays out. But Kansas
City looked terrific. Then in theafternoon, Monterey look terrific. Arena Borregos,

(13:26):
smaller arena, blue turf, sokind of giving Utica run for the
money there on the turf color,but looked very clean. It looked like,
you know, cool, clean venue. Looked like probably a right sized
venue for what Flash has been drawingcompared to the gigantic arena Monttererey that does
the big concerts and everything else inthat gigantic city. And look, Empire

(13:50):
can again say that you know,they got the first goal. You know
they got the first goal, andthey got the last goal. It was
everything in between that was a problem. As Monterey just thrashed him nine to
two. This one didn't feel asclose ish as the Chihuahua game did.
I don't think there was that muchto hang your hat on for Empire.

(14:13):
They pretty much got smoked in thesetwo games. Now, was that unexpected?
Not really, I think it wouldhave been. I think the unexpected
would have been them coming in andgiving either one of those teams a real
game, you know, and beingclose in the fourth quarter. That wasn't
the case. But right now,Tony, I think Paul Wright's got a

(14:35):
long season ahead of him. Yeah. I mean, if you're really going
to go based on a season onmoments, it's gonna be a season to
build on. And again, I'mtrying to think of positives that they're gonna
go ahead and take from this.But it's gonna be tough. If this
is gonna be the result of mostof your games and if you run out
of gas after halftime, then it'sgonna be something that's not going to be

(15:01):
pretty for our Empire friends. Iknow I saw this and Philly they had
their watch party as well, Andthe kind of seeing them go through the
emotions of those matches are you know, it's the reality of things and really
reflective of kind of in the directionthat they chose to go in at least
for this season. Early on thisseason, Empire is on the road December

(15:24):
ninth a Saint Louis and then whenthey come home December fifteenth, they take
on Baltimore. So nothing easy comingfor the Strikers, whose next match after
that is two days later here againstSan Diego. So you know, the
chance basically that Saint Louis match,you know, circle it if your Paul

(15:48):
right, whatever you got in termsof you know, the tune down magic
juice, you know, get thatready for that match, because otherwise you
could be staring at zero and fivepretty quick. And for a franchise that
didn't finish last year, well,I saw the misl Monday, guys today
yesterday. Try to spin it like, hey, you know, the team's

(16:11):
finished really bad the last few years, so maybe it's good to start bad.
Consistency, right, you know,there is something that people usually ask
in sports, right at least beconsistent about. It weren't consistently good,
So you know, part for thecourse, at least for the beginning of
the season as well. Absolutely,this week's matches Texas at Baltimore, Harrisburg

(16:33):
at Utica, we'll see Frank Tyu'sdebut for UCFC on Saturday at home.
Dallas will go to Monterey. They'llbe the next to go into the Shredder
against the Flash. Saint Louis willgo to Kansas City and we'll see if
the comments have a similarly rude welcomefor the Ambush. And then of course,
wrapping up the weekend will be Starsand Soccer's Sunday at five o'clock with

(16:59):
our guests about ten minutes away.Also on a new season. A reminder
check out and support all the otherMAASL shows and podcasts that they are working
to create content in and around thisleague, including m ASL Monday, including
the under review show on Friday withthe referee Ryan Siggitch. Now, if
they I will tell you, Susan. At least I watched ma ASL Monday

(17:22):
live on Twitch. It was certainlyfree, So I don't know if they've
got something going on with their replays. Replays shouldn't you shouldn't have to pay
for a replay, but hopefully youcan catch those shows live or on review
And are they on YouTube? Iwould assume that the league is putting them
on their YouTube channel as well theydid every other year, so yeah,
well I was looking fair enough.I really hope nobody's subscribed already to them

(17:45):
on twitch, because then that's goingto give him ideas of like, oh
well we got this is good.Yeah, oh wait, we got an
extra one hundred bucks here. Let'skeep going. So masl Monday, of
course, are guys you know,Philly and the Doctor in the Panda with
Striking Fury goals and boards on theEast Coast, in the Box, the

(18:06):
Tacoma Stars podcast with Nick Programmer andmore. I know, dall, let's
just launch a podcast this year aswell, so we celebrate you all.
We thank you all for being apart of the community, and we thank
you for tuning in to the showof record Soccer's overtime. I'll skip ahead
to some soccer's news while we wait, because we've got about ten minutes until

(18:29):
our guest shows up. So acouple of reminders. Once again, golf
tournament coming up on Friday, andall the soccers have to be there,
man, So if you want toshow up, there's about five or six
foursome spots available still sdsoccers dot comslash Golf you can go and sign up.

(18:49):
If you get a threesome in,we'll probably toss as soccer in your
foursome and let your roll. Ithought I had a foursome lined up and
then this morning all three people werelike, oh yeah, I can't make
it. So if anyone would liketo set up a foursome with me,
let me know. Reach out sixto nine Sports at Life on Instagram,

(19:10):
clstft Soccers dot com on email andlet me know because I can get get
us a discomp but it does benefitthe RJP Scholarship Fund. It's going to
be an incredible day. I wastalking to the staff on Monday morning,
Tony. They're doing something a littlebit different this year. There's gonna be
a lot of food out on theholes. I like, in lieu of

(19:32):
making everyone wait till the end fora lunch that like eighty five percent of
the people don't go to because they'veplayed around and they've they've been up since
whenever and they're tired and they gohome. Instead of that, they're going
to have I think four or fivedifferent holes with food, so like,
see that you actually out for forgolf, like you know at the beginner,

(19:53):
you know, get me inspired.Six to eight to one hundred holes
with drink. So I'm just sayingthere's a good chance that you're going to
actually gain calories playing this five hourround of golf at Mount Woodson, but
really nothing like it. Incredible stuff, Bloody Maria Bars, get you started.

(20:15):
At seven point thirty. Our wonderfulnew catering group I will be out
there also providing breakfast. So it'sgoing to be it's going to be great.
Can't wait. Sign up if youcan't, If you haven't, if
you're looking for a foursome, letme know st soccers dot com slash golf.
If you've got your own forsome,it's all good. The new Kids

(20:38):
will be on sale Sunday at thearena. I'm wearing the home kit right
now. You can see the goldtouch. We talked to Brian Farber about
it. This, along with ourroad whites, along with the goalkeeper,
red and Green, will be onsale Sunday at the arena and then after
that on sale online on our onlinestore at sd soccers dot com. So

(21:03):
if you're one of our out oftowners watching, you can go to SD
soccers dot com slash shop coming upafter the match on Sunday. To pick
up all of the authentic new twentytwenty three twenty four kits, you can
go to the shop right now.They've got incredible clearance sales on all of
last year's merchandise, So if youwant to pick something up right quick and

(21:26):
cheap, you can do that atthe soccer's online store right now. If
you click on the authentic jerseys link, you'll get a not here yet,
but they will be after the matchon Sunday, So first crack is always
to the folks who come to thearena, and then they'll be available for
you Sunday. Speaking of give awayt shirt coming for the first fifteen hundred

(21:48):
fans in attendance, it'll have theteam schedule on the back, which I
always think is funny Tony. It'ssuch. It's like the same thing with
a concert tour, right, Likeif you got the Taylor swift eras tour,
it would have all the concert dateson the back. You know,
you get the Sockers and has theconcert dates on the back. But like,

(22:08):
unless you're folding the T shirt afteryou washed it, what are you
gonna see the schedule? It's areminder of someone behind you in line.
I guess no, no, no, I subscribe to you a little bit
of that. I'll give some pushbackhere, Craig, because I myself was
a purchaser of the most recent coldPlace Fears at Snapdragon dated shirt, and

(22:29):
it's one of those things where youcan tell the person, Hey, I
want to cold play this day,but will they really believe it? Maybe?
But if not, you can alwaysturn in. Let's say, look
I was there on that day.Hopefully you can. And that's a world
tour kind of yeah, like look, look right, you can have only
get my fifth and sixth vertebrae.I believe you can fight it the proof

(22:52):
and so this is what's gonna happen. They're gonna be like, guys,
remember Goboklosta's first hat trick. Iwas there. It's them back, like
check it out. It's gonna bememorable for for somebody out there. And
I like those calendars because again,it gives a little hints of nostalgia down
down in a couple of years whereyou're like, oh, yeah, that's

(23:14):
that's right, Greg chiusecar an overheadkick on opening day this match, What's
I'm just saying, you know,schedule magnet. It's on the fridge.
You look at it every time yougo to get milk or juice or whatever.
T shirt schedule, you're gonna hangthe T shirt on the back of
your maybe you are maybe you needto hang the T shirt on the back
of like your work office chair.And then like every time you ready to

(23:37):
sit down, like, there itis. There's the schedule work on weekends
and you got a request to daywhat David has a request? Oh?
There it is it spin around,it's right there. It's right there.
Uh. Nonetheless, on the frontit will have the Farewell to the Grand
Old Arena h logo kicking off ourfinal season at Pachanga Arena, Sand Diego

(24:00):
before heading to beautiful Front Wave Arenascheduled to debut around September October twenty twenty
four. So on new social postsgo up just this morning from Front Wave
Arena. There's the logo. It'llbe on the front of the T shirt.
So hey can't wait to see everybodythere. Make sure you get there

(24:21):
early. Gates will be open.Gates will be open pretty early on Sunday,
so just head on up when youget there and you can probably get
in and hopefully get the size Tshirt you want. We're going to be
open a little bit earlier because Isee folks already talking about it. Yeah,
I know, cheeto, Jerry.They don't have your size, but
that's because usually we don't create children'ssizes when we get the giveaway T shirts,

(24:47):
so it's out of swimming in it. It's the other way around too,
Craig. And it happens for everysport. They don't have a circus
tent size, you know, justdecommissioned circus tent to put me in.
And so it's all good, Ifeel a Jerry. So also on Sunday,
and we've mentioned the last two weeks, we'll mention it once again.

(25:08):
Soccer Supporter Summit is coming up onSunday. That'll be at three thirty.
We'll be inviting supporters in at threepoint fifteen. And if you are a
member of the Locals, if youare a member of the Chavos de San
Diego, if you're a member ofthe San Diego Riptides, if you're a
member of the San Diego Sirens,this match is on us. We have
put in your discords, your variousdiscords a link to get two free tickets

(25:33):
per supporter to the match, andbeyond just getting to come to the match.
We are asking that you come alittle early and be there at three
thirty. We will be in theStellar Lounge. I have received official confirmation
we will be downstairs in the StellarLounge. So before I was told we
were going to be out on apatio or something, I'm glad we're not

(25:55):
dealing with that, not dealing withany weather variables, darkness variables, et
cetera. We'll be down in theStellar Lounge where we know it's dry and
dark. It will be hanging out, get a chance to talk about the
history of the San Diego Soccers whilewe think would be a great chance to
support this club this year, butalso to give supporters groups that maybe haven't
had that chance to just mingle,like instead of worrying about my banner,

(26:18):
my flag, you know, likejust mingle and get together for a common
team that we can all root for, the San Diego Soccers. And then
of course once yeah, I know, just just messing with Ea Cherry.
And then once the supporter summit isover, you know, head on out
to Section nineteen where Adrian will beleading Los Bruos del Sentente Jocho our official

(26:42):
supporters group, and hopefully we growthat group and just have an incredible presence,
have an incredible atmosphere for the match. So let's get it started.
Sunday first taste free for all supportersin San Diego, whether you're a local,
whether you're a rip did and listen. I'll just say this last thing
because I think Cheeky's about ready toget going. Of all the groups that

(27:06):
have been signing up as of thismorning, and last place for attendance the
locals. Let's get going. Locals, like, let's get going. I'm
one of you. I talked toa lot of you at the farewell party
and you were very interested in beingthere. Those those were those are great
sentiments at the time. Let's backit up. Let's show why this is

(27:29):
still a strong supporters script. Butif you're one of those folks, it's
like, well, I'm not goingto SDFC. Fine, you're still a
local. Come over here, Comeon over here. We're here with arms
wide open. We're waiting for you. So we gave you the the kind
regards invitation. Let's let's let's goahead and be we're giving you a gentle

(27:49):
naw push regards to go like it'sokay, like we can come on,
come on now, don't be don'tbe afraid. We don't we don't bite.
But again, it's a great opportunity, it's a super super super opportunity
for this to really come together andwhy not support what's been here forever San
die O Soccers. Be about it, be about it. Hey, as
a local, I was really happywith this statement a week ago saying that

(28:11):
the club that the local supporters groupis going to move towards supporting San Diego
FC. I support San Diego fC. I'm excited for our new MLS
club in town. I can't waitfor it to be here. I'm happy
with all the folks that they havehired and with the direction that they're going
to be linked to our community.So when I say that, I just
you know, I know there's somemore calcil trant like understandable, you know,

(28:33):
folks taking a moral stand or takingwhatever stand to say. You know,
I'm not not going there. Iwant to do something that's a little
more independent or a little more local. Listen, we're there to pitch you
on Sunday, So come on down. Tickets on us. Get on in
early. We'll we'll have something downthere. I have been promised from management

(28:55):
we'll have some bring tickets so stellaO Lounge will be open first one on
us. Okay, come on down, free ticket, free beer. What
else do you want? What elsedo you want? Auntation with calligraphy on
it? What do you want it? I love it. I love it

(29:18):
when Craig divulges to that part ofthe brain and it just kind of becomes
the creative Craig And yeah, no, do it? You heard Craig and
his other silly voice right voiceover portionof the brain. That door sometimes swings
open. It's kind a rusty hingeon it, like you're trying to keep
that thing shut all of a sudden. What happened here? Practice tomorrow morning

(29:45):
in San Marcos at Bradley Park eightam. Practice Thursday night at the arena
that's open to media only. Friday'sthe golf tournament. Sunday is the match
you are caught up? Is ourspecial guest ready to roll? I literally
just saw it pop in. Letme just confirm that everything is good to
go, and I do believe thatwe are going to go ahead and start

(30:07):
here in a second, while weget that ready, just want to confirm
you had a good Thanksgiving, Craig, Yeah, Dad came down. My
wife made entirely too much mashed potatoand stuffing. And here's the funny thing
too, there's always like that,well you got to have a pie.
My wife has been a Type onediabetic her whole life. She doesn't eat

(30:30):
anything that's not sugar free. Myson doesn't like pumpkin pie, doesn't like
pecan pie. My dad doesn't eatbig sweets. So what happens. We
got two gigantic pies in the houseand I'm the only one that gets to
eat the pie. Tony also appearsto be frozen in place, which happened

(30:53):
a couple times I think last weekas well. Now I understand Susan never
too many mashed potatoes. I mean, yeah, and generally I agree,
but it's like, how many daysin a row and how many different ways
in a row can you have mashedpotatoes? My wife's talking about frying them

(31:14):
into some sort of pancake and listen, Kara ellen O four, I'm with
you. Pecan pie is my favoritetoo, When I have like eight slices
of it, I'm not going tofit in this large jersey much longer.
I'm gonna be I'm gonna be askingfor the Xcel or the double Xcel come
January. As all of this lardson to my side. Obviously, Tony

(31:38):
is gone now. Also, Cheeky'snot here. There's Tony hi talk.
I got to go down to thedepths, make sure that the pipes are
all good to going with Ethernet.And we have mister Chiqui Luna coming han
in here you go, all right, let's welcome him in. He is
the director of player Personnel assistant coachfor the San Diego SOCCRAS. He is
a six time champion for as aplayer too as a coach and director.

(32:01):
And you can unmute yourself now andwelcome to the show. Chiki Luna,
my friend for fifteen years. Howare you unmute yourself? There? You
are nice? All right? What'sgoing on? Brother? Doing great man?
Thanks for having me on. Lookingforward to another exciting season again,
right, A little bitter about howwe ended last year. That you know,

(32:25):
we had a fabulous regular season team, played great during the season and
then Chihuahua has got the best ofus in that you know, overtime minigame,
So looking forward to get back out. The guys are hungry. You
know, we've had a great preseasonso far, and I think everyone is

(32:45):
ready to get going. Yeah,what are your thoughts on just the overall
level of preparation right now? Wewere going through the first weekend's results.
Well, always kind of say thatfirst match is sort of like the first
pancake in the batch. You tossit in the bin. But I know
you want to come out firing onall cylinders. How confident are you that
the Soccers are heading toward that?You know, for us right now,

(33:07):
we have a few new players.Our team's gonna look somewhat the same as
we did last year. We losta few players, we gained a few
players, so I'm pretty happy withthe way that the team is built.
We go into every offseason seeing onhow we can improve, how we can

(33:27):
rebuild, or look at the future. But we also understand that, you
know, hey, we're the Soccersand we're expected to win every season.
So coming out, I think Ithink we're gonna come out hungry. I
think guys are going to be excitedon Sunday against Tacoma and you know,
I'm expecting us to come out andbe a fun team, fun team to

(33:52):
watch for the crowd for sure,a lot of exciting players. And I
don't see uh taken too long togel with the new guys, the new
group, just because the the soccerIQ is is there. You know,
That's that's one of the biggest thingsthat I see or that I look for,

(34:13):
and players you got to have thatsoccer IQ to fit in with this
group, and last year it wasnot a usual position for the soccers to
be in. Right, So howwas the club reacted since last year's elimination.
You know, at first it wasbitter, we were we were sad,
We were bitter, we were mad, angry, trying to figure out

(34:37):
what we could have done better,uh, you know, everything in the
locker room, the the coach's,uh office staff. You know, the
question was should we have made afew subs like Chiuawa did going into that
mini game? We did not.We stuck by our guns and said,
hey, we're gonna We're going tolive and die by our team. And

(35:00):
and you know, we we questionedthat all off season. Now as we
had a little downtime and thought aboutit. You know, we figured,
hey, what what is it thatwe need to get over that hump?
What do we need to add?What will make us better? And I
think we brought in the right piecesin Ruggles in Costa. Uh, those

(35:22):
are two names around the league thatanyone would love to have. And you
know, this summer we've got toget a chance to see them play in
that million dollar tournament and we weyou know, we've been playing against them
for a few years. We sawwhat they can do and then watching them

(35:43):
on I want to say an unbiasedpoint of view when you're watching them play
in the tournament and you're not playingagainst them directly, and we were able
to see what they can do underpressure under the big lights. They look
fantastic and I think once they comeon to our team, they're going to
help us in big time. Soit's always difficult because the club's won the

(36:08):
MASL Shield two years in a row. So when you win twenty two twenty
three games out of twenty four inthe season, there's really not a lot
to improve upon. You're obviously thebest team in the league. You want
to win your playoff games, sodoes everyone else? Not a lot to
talk about? There But if there'sone thing that you think about with this

(36:28):
club, what's something that we coulddo better, What's something that could make
the soccers life easier in twenty twentythree, twenty four, if you had
your Christmas wish list for that,what would be on the top of the
list. I would say, ifI had it my way, you know,
the shield is always great. We'realways going to aim for that because
we're the soccers, right, that'salways a standard. You want to win

(36:50):
every game. But if I hadto put something as a top priority for
me, the biggest, biggest prioritythis season is going into the playoffs healthy.
Last year, actually the last twoyears, you know, Leo has
gone into the playoffs a little beatup for some reason or another. He
went in with a cap injury thelast two years going into playoffs and he's

(37:14):
missed big games for us. AndLeo is a big player on our team.
You need Leyo healthy going into theplayoffs if you want to win.
So the top of the priority,I would say, going into playoffs,
we want to be healthy, wewant to be fit. But more than
anything, if we're injury free andwe have a full squad going into playoffs,

(37:37):
there's not a team that can competewith us in a playoff game.
If everybody's one hundred percent, yougoah to touch a little bit about Gabrielle
Costa and Drew Ruggles now being partof the San Diego Soccers. What are
the challenges of integrating such high useplayers. I mean, my mom used
to tell me, why don't theyjust give every player a ball? They'd
be happy. It's not about thatthere's one ball and a certain amount of

(38:00):
players on the field at all times. What are the challenge about having such
capable scorers on this team and gettingthem some minutes and important moments. Yeah,
I mean, that's that's one ofthe talks right in the off season
as you're talking to these players,they know it, and that's you know,
we were very open when we werehaving talks with the players. They

(38:22):
know we have a lot of qualityplayers here and they're coming in to be
big time players for us. Butat the same time, you know,
they have to learn to share theball. I think they understand that.
I think they're here because they wantto win, they want to be in
a professional environment, they want tobe around good players. It's fun playing

(38:44):
with good players and with players thathave a high IQ. And you know
that is that is one word thatI use a lot with the coaching staff,
with players in the off season andwhen we're just looking at players in
general. You know, if someonehas a high soccer IQ, you can

(39:06):
teach them how to play the indoorgame, you can teach them how to
defend properly, you can teach themhow to play as a unit. And
then there's other times when people arevery very skilled, they have a trait
that another player might not have inthis league, speed, something along those
lines. But if you don't havethat high soccer IQ, it's going to

(39:28):
take you a while to blend innow coming onto the soccers when you're playing
with guys like Leo Chiles Serda,you know, I can go down the
list, Mitchell, Felipe Ta Avoid, These are all guys that have a
high soccer IQ. So if youdon't have that soccer IQ, it's going

(39:49):
to be very difficult to play andblend in with someone that sees the game
a little bit different. Chiki,let's talk a little bit about depth,
and we're getting some questions in thechat as well. I know that right
now, if you go to theMSL roster. It looks a little bit
deceiving for the Soccers. They're onlylisted as having fourteen players. Craig Childs
isn't there, Xavier stare Williams isthere. I feel pretty confident, having

(40:14):
been at training a lot, thatthese are players we're going to find on
Sunday's roster when all things are saidand done. But I understand probably we're
going to have some announcements as wella little bit later this week. From
a depth standpoint, But the lastcouple of years you had SD Soccers two
that you could rely on, knowingthat you had a whole team below your

(40:34):
team. What are your thoughts nowon the depth behind what we know to
be a very top level of starson this roster. Yeah, I mean
this year the team will look alittle bit different in that regard. Of
course, we're not going in withfourteen players into the season. We will
be officially announcing and on the websitestarting tomorrow, more names will come up

(41:00):
on the board. I can't getinto names right now just because of league
protocol. I can't officially uh inname off some of the names on there,
but you know you'll be seeing anothersix names pop up in the next
week. Uh, they'll be addedto our roster. Yes, we are

(41:20):
not. We traded away some bignames, you know, when you're talking
about guys that were staples on ourteam. You know Pyo, Ismael Rojo,
Urban Mohica. Those are three guysthat went to Monterey this season in
the off season. Uh, youknow that was not necessarily because of something

(41:42):
we wanted. That was it wasjust a league issue, visa issue,
and it's it's it's something that we'restruggling with as a league and right now
the Mexican teams are the ones benefitingfrom the visa issue in general. So
we lost a few names. Welost Fuado over the Empire, which you

(42:02):
know, that was that was amutual agreement. Hudado was looking for a
little bit more playing time. Hewanted to be a main player, which
he deserved. Unfortunately that was hisbest case scenario, so we agreed that
was better for his future and forhim as a person. We you know,
we want him and every player thattouches this organization to be happy.

(42:27):
We want them one hundred percent happyhere and if there's a better place for
him, then hey for us,by all means, go and be happy.
You know, these guys aren't makinguh, you know, multimillion dollar
contracts a year to where I cantell them, hey, grind it out
for two years and then you goretire. You know, this is a
passion project for a lot of theguys and they need a They need to

(42:52):
be happy. Right. We willbe thinner when it comes to numbers this
year, however, our quality isimproved. I'd like to hear that.
And touching a little bit more ondepth, right, how confident are you
in the progress of x Xavier SneerWilliams as a backup goalkeeper and his progress

(43:13):
to this point. He's done verywell. You know, he's a professional
all around. He does a lotof stuff with the Beach soccer team in
the off season. He trains alot indoor outdoor in the off season.
He's always fit. He's a youngkid, very energetic, very positive the

(43:34):
kids, always smiling, always wantsto learn, He always wants to suck
it in. I know he hadat least two opportunities to go elsewhere and
become a first team goalkeeper, astarter. And you know he came to
me in the off season and said, hey, I have these calls.
I have these opportunities, what doyou think? And I was very open

(43:55):
with him. I said, hey, if you want to play first team
ball, that's probably where you cango. At the same time, I
don't know if that's the best casescenario for you. Just from an organizational
standpoint. He can stay here,learn play behind what, to me is
the best goalie in the league.He's shown it the last few years.

(44:17):
You know, Boris has done afantastic job. And by Xavier being behind
him, you know, training withhim every day, you're learning and you're
sucking it up every day. SoI think Xavier is only getting better.
He's young to where he can learn, and a goalie in this league,

(44:38):
to me, needs a few yearsof really grinding to be able to learn
the ins and outs. Right,Danny Waltman, he grinded out for some
time. You know, you hadChris Tothe, one of the top goalies
in this league. He was playingbehind Riley Swift. He was learning from
Riley Swift. Worst part of hewas playing behind Danny Waltman for a lot

(45:02):
of years. He learned from DannyWaltman. And I can go down the
list, right, guys like thatBenzella. They all learn from someone,
and you need to be riding thebench and training with someone every day to
learn. Great answer, Cheieki,Before we let you go, let's just
look ahead to Sunday. Tacoma's intown. You're gonna play these guys six

(45:23):
times this year. Obviously, youknow this club, from Nick Pereira to
Chris Toth who is now in thenet and you know, gives them with
Danny, one of the best tandemsobviously in the league. They're coming in
looking to up set the apple cart, looking to get things started on a
strong foot. What are your thoughtson the challenge of Sunday. You know,

(45:46):
when you mentioned those two names,you know, Toath and Waltman,
it's scary to the best goalkeepers inthe league, and you know, just
the last few years. Really,I'm just glad you can't have too gold.
He's in the net at the sametime, so you know that that
kind of makes me feel better thatone of them will have to sit out
and only one can play. Nowyou're talking about Nick Perra, who to

(46:12):
me, Nick is probably the bestoffensive player in this league. And that's
no disrespect to any of my players, right, but just looking at it
stats wise and what Nick can dooffensively. You know, all respect to
Nick, he's probably the best offensiveplayer in this league, so we know
we have to focus on shutting himdown. You know, they have a

(46:36):
lot of speed. You know,they have cocks they're going to come in
with with some of their their youngguys. Right, you have Ramos who
can run and he's fast, knowsthe game very well. Lund I'm assuming
we'll be here another great player forhim. So they have Tacoma has a
lot of speed. Their their debtis a little bit lacking, I think,

(47:00):
but that's just my opinion, right. I know they're very comfortable with
their squad this year. They broughtin a few new faces. They have
cast Arrests in the back, whodictates the pace a lot of the game
and controls a lot of the games. So we we've we know kind of
what we're getting ourselves into from playingthem last year. But at the same

(47:22):
time, it is a new season. The first game of the season and
the first time you play a teamin a new year. It's always difficult.
It's always a challenge because they mightthrow a curveball at you. So
we have to be on our toes. We have to be prepared and I
know this is this is a biggame for their organization. I know laying

(47:43):
up there in Seattle really prides himselfon this game against the Soccers. He
wants to win, and it's it'sgoing to be a tough game for us.
It's it's always fun to play takomaI. I enjoy that rivalry right,
it goes back a long time.But it's just a game that we
have to be ready for because thisfirst game of the season is always tricky.

(48:06):
Cheeky, I can see you're stillin your office at Califino. It
means you've had a very long day. We're gonna let you get home to
your family and your beautiful wife.Thank you so much for spending time with
our soccer's family here on Soccer's overtime, the show of record in the MASL
and getting everybody hyped up for Sunday. We'll see you tomorrow morning out of
training. Sounds good, guys,Thanks for having having me on. Always

(48:30):
great being out here and hopefully youknow we get some of these fans out
here cheering us on, getting usready to go for the season. Get
our trophy back let's do it.Cheeky Luna there. He is a six
time champion, He's got as manyrings as I do, Tony six.
We're linked, We're linked like that. His rings are my rings, my

(48:51):
rings are his rings. Just theydon't fit the same, all right.
So there was cheeky, great stuff. Hope you appreciate it. Really thankful
for him, very very busy man, and you know, kind of a
seventy eighty hour work week kind ofkind of guys. So getting twenty minutes
with him deeply appreciated. And let'sjust barrel right into it. Man.
You know, we got the chanceto kind of clear out soccer's news there

(49:14):
before we brought in cheeky. Solet's dive into the match preview to wrap
up the show, Soccer's Tacoma Stars. First thing to mention. Last year,
the soccers and Stars met twice.This year they're gonna meet six times.
A quarter of the schedule will beSan Diego and Tacoma. So get

(49:35):
used to whatever you see on Sunday, because you're gonna see a lot more
of it. And I know whenI was on the Tacoma Stars podcast about
a month ago, Tony with Nickone of the first things he mentioned was
how irritating it is that I thinkit's some ridiculous number of their first games
or against US in Chihuahua. It'sjust like, let's go ahead and just

(49:58):
get things started by getting slammed overthe head over and over again. And
I'm sure he would like to havea slightly more beneficial schedule. However,
there's six teams in the West,they're going to play each other, and
Tacoma's going to see a whole lotof US. Yeah. No, it's
gonna be trial by fire for Tacoma. And you know, it's again a
testament to their play style because Chiekihimself, you know in the professional that

(50:20):
he is already knows exactly what tolook for, who to be prepared for.
And it really it's just telling ofa team that can potentially be dangerous
and not to have the soccers takeanything for granted at all, because that's
when you really start getting yourself comfortableand you could potentially get smacking the mouth
like they did against Empire last lastseason. That's not what position where you

(50:42):
want to be. You want tomake sure that you're coming in pedal to
the medal and you're absolutely ready forTa Coma. But Tacoma. I mean,
you know, the record isn't necessarilyin their favor, but it's in
brand new season. Anything can happen, and I don't know, it's an
interesting look across the MAASL with someof these teams, but that Tacma should
be interesting. Yeah, just lookingat the schedule because I was just trying

(51:02):
to remember what Nick was saying tome. You know, he wasn't exactly
whining, he was kind of whining. But I think he probably feels better
now that he's seen the opening weekendbecause their schedule starts at San Diego versus
San Diego versus Baltimore at Empire,at San Diego versus Utica versus San Diego

(51:25):
at Empire versus Empire. So alot of San Diego, Utica and Baltimore
tough teams, but you do havethose three matches against Empire that might be
able to balance things out a littlebit for Tacoma. And when you talk
about the Stars, usually you're talkingabout a pretty balanced team in terms of

(51:46):
wins and losses. Last year theywere twelve ten and two, so twelve
and twelve and that's kind of wherethey are most years. Maybe they'll be
fourteen and ten one year, maybethey'll be ten and fourteen one year,
but they're usually kind of in thatplus two minus two of five hundred.
They finished fourth in the West.They did have a plus sixteen goal differential.

(52:07):
They were pretty decent away side.They were five six and one away
Last year. They took the Soccersto overtime in the final match of the
regular season. That was a matchwhere Tacoma found out, i think late
in the fourth quarter that all theyhad to do was tie to make the
playoffs, and they just punted theball around the field for two or three

(52:28):
minutes before they got to overtime.And then the Soccers beat him in overtime
and they were like, cool,We're in the playoffs. And then they
lost at home and they did notcome back to face US, so bumber
for them on that one. Theother win in Tacoma was sixty three.
The Soccers have really handled Tacoma inTacoma, well, look, the Soccers

(52:50):
have just really handled Tacoma. Sincethese two teams have come into the MAASL.
The all time record is San Diegotwenty nine, Tacoma four. So
you know, history says and dictatesas the following. Yeah, also going
back to the MISL, going backto Jungle seventy two and twenty two,

(53:15):
the Soccers against the Stars, soobviously a few more wins for Jungle and
Friends, but nonetheless this has alwaysbeen a historically lopsided matchup in indoors soccer.
The soccers usually beat Tacoma. Inthe modern era of the soccers almost
always beat Tacoma when Tacoma wins.It's a really special thing now in the

(53:37):
days, and I know some folksin the chat remember this very well.
In all those days where it wasevery year played Tacoma six times or five
times, four times, you alwaysfeel like there was always that one game,
especially here, where Danny Waltman wouldgo crazy and the game would really

(53:57):
be up for grabs and would goto overtime. We'll go to bubble overtime.
As we remember in the twenty nineteenplayoffs. He would always be that
thorn in the side. Well,I think of Chris to the exact same
way. And you know, aswe kind of dig into it, you
know when you talk about a playerto watch for Tacoma, it's always Nick
Perera. He's the defending points leader. He's the MVP, he's been a

(54:20):
you know, he's a multiple MVP. He's always going to be the focal
point of the offense. He's alwaysgoing to be either the giver or the
recipient on a free kick. Youknow, every set piece is going to
run through Nick Perera, and atthe end of the day, he's gonna
get his You have to mark him. He's never gonna stop working. He's
creative, he sees the field.He's an excellent passer. You know,

(54:43):
he's not fast, you know,he's never been fast, but he's a
big guy who can control the ballalmost better than anyone else. But you
know, the Souckers Tony since sincehe was a soccer in twenty ten,
they've known Nick Perera. So thisis kind of a familiar assignment for Pino
cardoness at all. Yeah no,And Perera is one of those players where

(55:06):
it sometimes took teams four quarters totry to figure out and break down the
San Diego Soccers defense defense with Cardonaand Pinot back there, but it would
just take a moment of genius forPereira to do something individually that would just
leave you absolutely floored and score somegoals against the soccer is that frankly,

(55:28):
nobody else does, and so that'sthe danger that you have with Nick Pereira
adding you know, Chris Toth isanother dimension on that. But you know,
just being able to witness Perrera dohis thing, even if it's on
the other side of the of thesquads, is really special. So you
know, I think it's going tobe one of those matches where if he
gets a little bit of help,it's going to make it a little bit

(55:51):
more interesting on the competitive side ofthings. Now, when you talk about
a newcomer to watch from Tacoma again, it's a name we've already brought up
a lot. It's Chris Toth becausehe's now the number one goalkeeper. Danny
Waltman isn't currently listed on the Starsroster. I'm pretty sure he's still going
to be their number two. Ididn't see a retirement announcement. If I'm

(56:12):
behind on that, you know,somebody let me know. Nonetheless, Toth
is here. If you remember thehome opener last year against Empire, the
final score was two to one Soccersin overtime because Chris Toath was just unbelievably
good. That day. He andNick Perrera have been friends since Nick walked
in as a rookie two Soccers campin twenty ten. They've been close to

(56:37):
best buddies ever since. So thetwo of them playing together once again not
surprising at all. But when Ithink about Chris Toath, I really think
about the safe percentage seven thirty eightcareer safe percentage, one of the top
shot stoppers in the history of theMASL and Empire put him in a shooting
gallery many years and he would justgo back there and save sixteen seventeen eighteen

(57:00):
shots. Tacoba is not known fortheir diligent defense, but I think they're
a little bit sturdier than Empire.But Chris gives you a chance in every
game. And as mart Lisha mentioned, they were also tst teammates on Sneaky
Fox FC, which I believe lostto New Town in either the quarters of
the semi finals of that tournament.So I mean they've got the symbiosis,

(57:24):
you know, the synergy those twoguys, they've got it all. Yeah.
No, And it's really in thissport where you don't have eleven,
you have just six, and it'sone of those sports where it really matters
if you have a really, reallyquality player, especially in the goalkeeping position
where you need that distributor. Butthat shot stopper is incredibly incredibly difficult to

(57:46):
find. At times, you canhave one, I mean, you can
have the other. That's why BorisParto is so special, right, he
does it all incredibly well. ButChris Toth is another one of those goalkeepers
that is just amazing at what hedoes here in the league. Let's talk
about Tacoma's Sneaky Under the Radar edition. For the most part, Tacoma's kind

(58:07):
of been the same team, sameteam every year. And you kind of
heard that when Cheek he was talkingabout all the Jamail Cox, Mike Ramos,
you know, Corey Keats in theback, Philip Lund the eight games
he's healthy. I would love tosee Philip Lund play a healthy season.
Maybe this will be the year.But a former star who became a Fury

(58:31):
is now a star once again,and that is Willie Spur. Willie Spur
joined the Ontario Fury in twenty twentyone and played really well for ten games.
He's kind of a slithery midfielder.He's got a good shot, he's
pretty fast, he's pretty good onthe ball. And then, in a
very famous what wound up being shootoutwin for the soccers up at Toyota Arena

(58:55):
in Ontario, in a third quarterplay, Willy Spur came in on Boris
on a play, took a fullleg swing into Boris when Boris was trying
to grab the ball, and woundup breaking his leg and he didn't take
it. I mean, you know, it was a really bad injury.

(59:15):
He missed the rest of that season, all of all of last season.
The Fury took it as if therewas a dirty play. It wasn't a
dirty play if anything, when youwatched the replay, and look, I
know i'm soccer's biased, but Ithink I think when people watched the replay
on a neutral corner also Spur wentin very hard. It was he was

(59:37):
taking a full leg swing into asituation where the keeper was reaching down to
get the ball. Uh, andhe contacted Boris's leg and he broke his
leg over Boris's leg because Boris ismade out of steel and sinew and and
all sorts of amazing stuff. SoI'm really happy Willie Spurs back in the
league. And I'm guessing he's gonnahave a grudge and this is going to

(01:00:02):
be an important match for him tobe back, to be playing, and
to be playing against the team thatat least in his mind, took him
out of the league. So he'sa guy I got circled for Sunday Tony.
I wouldn't be surprised if Willy Spurscored, and I wouldn't be surprised
if Willy Spur was an impact playerin the game. Yeah, it's something

(01:00:22):
where emotion can sometimes carry you overand really inspire a player to play above
their average that they might play otherwise. And you know, one more inspiration
do you want? Right, Like, you're coming back, first game against
the team, against the goalkeeper,against the player, against the individual that
puts you in that situation. Youknow, you hear it all the time

(01:00:43):
from athletes. The comeback is thehardest part to do, and all those
PT sessions, all those you know, everything just kind of reminds you of
the moment that happened and just youenvision coming back and to have the opportunity
to play against the team, theplayer who put you in that position,
that chair, in those appointments everyday. That takes a toll and depending

(01:01:05):
on how when, what type ofplayer he is is gonna be, how
he's gonna come back and utilize that, And yeah, I would agree it's
gonna be something to very much lookout for. We talked to Cheeky about
it. I'm gonna be very interestedto see how does Gabriel cost To integrate
into the soccers offense. How doesDrew Ruggles integrate into the Soccers offense.

(01:01:29):
Are these guys on free kicks?Are these guys on power play? If
so, where there's so much Becauseyou could have Charlie Gonzales run the power
play, you could have Brandon Niscotarun the power play. You could have
Gabriel Costa run the power play.You could have Leo run the power play.
Are they all going to play together? If so, how is it
going to work. I'm fascinated tosee all these things. But if I'm

(01:01:50):
gonna throw out a player for aSoccers spotlight for match one, who you
might see me talk about at thetop of the broadcast with you on Sunday,
it's to void more. Because Morgansaw a fifteen goal drop from twenty
twenty one to twenty two to twentytwenty two to twenty three, he saw
a fourteen point drop overall season overseason, and I think this is a big

(01:02:15):
year for to Voy Morgan. Hehas the opportunity to score forty to fifty
goals this year, if he's makingthe right play consistently, if he's working
to get himself open, if he'susing that physicality, if he's being kind
of relentless but also being really smartin terms of making himself available with all

(01:02:36):
of these talented midfielders that are lookingto distribute the ball. A forty point
per season to Voy Morgan is agood player in the league, but a
fifty point to Voy Morgan season isdominant in the league. It's Elite six
stuff, and that's where I thinkthe soccers becomes such a dangerous, multifaceted,

(01:02:59):
unstoppable attack. I'd really love tosee to Void, you know,
who got the bag at TST.I think he's been just okay in preseason
so far. Obviously, none ofthat's televised or whatever, so you can
just take my word for it.But I'd love to see to Void get
off to a good start and getrolling. You know, last year with

(01:03:20):
the suspension down in Mestuque, andMesquite. It just felt like it was
kind of stops and starts for toVoi Morgan. He didn't score at home
almost all year, like he mostlyjust scored on the road last year.
So I'd love to see him getstarted at home, get that good feeling,
good mojo, get the dances going. So that's my soccer spotlight for
Sunday. I love it. Yeah, No, it's always incredibly important.

(01:03:42):
And those fifteen goals right there,intrumenting fourteen fifteen goals is what he didn't
get it done at home, andthat's really apparent right he was getting it
done. I've seen the comments.Yeah, I was getting double teamed a
lot, but when he was gettingit done at away matches, it's the
same type of situation where for somestrange reason, the ball just not want
to cross the line at Pachanga Arena. But yeah, I mean, if

(01:04:04):
it's one of those years, Ithink this is a comeback season for Toboy,
And if Tavoy is on, Imean, the rest of the soccers
is already set and it's going tobe incredibly lethal. So the expectations I
think are warranted for this big comebackfor to Boy this season. Yeah,
And I'll even respond to that commenttoo about getting double team. Well,
if clubs are going to double teamto voy Morgan to voy, Morgan should

(01:04:25):
lead the maasl and assists and assistsare points that count just the same as
goals. So you got to havethat thought to make the right soccer play
all the time. If the thoughtis as simple as I want to score
forty goals, then you might turninto a double team. You might fall
down trying to draw a foul insteadof making the right play. If you
just get the ball to all ofthese little water bugs that we have in

(01:04:48):
the midfield, you're gonna be set. So double teams should be lethal to
the other club if they're putting twoon anybody on our team, because everybody
on our team can score. SoI would love to see it. I'd
love to see it get started Sunday. I'd like to get see it get
started early. So you know,Joe hud says need to see his dance

(01:05:10):
again. I agree. So it'snot like, uh oh, I didn't
score at home last year and nowit's the first match and I didn't score
at home again. So you know, I'd love to see it get started
early on Sunday, hopefully it does, and then to avoid gets rolling,
and I'll finish the preview with astat to watch stat to watch power play
because boy, it was disappointing lastyear the soccer's on the power play and

(01:05:36):
when I see on the training groundLeo and Costa on the same unit,
it's like, are you kidding me? Like this team should score every time?
And I really do think the socceris not every time because obviously there's
another team in the field, butlike, the soccers should score fifty to
sixty percent if they are clicking,but last year they didn't click very often

(01:05:57):
on the power play. And it'searly in the year, and it's one
of the things that seems to getpushed to the side when you're doing so
much conditioning and you know, workingon kind of the basics of the year.
So I'm gonna be really curious,can the soccers in that first match
where the finishing usually isn't quite theirfirst match at Pachanga as well, getting
off the practice field getting onto thebig field. We've often seen finishing be

(01:06:20):
a problem early in the year forthe soccers, So I'd like to see
if they are given two or threepower plays, you know, hopefully four
or five power plays on Sunday thatthey convert one, two, three.
You know, if they score threepower play goals, soccer is gonna win
every game. But score one ortwo power play goals, well, that

(01:06:41):
kind of takes care of the wholething of are we going to score?
Are we going to finish? Youknow, if you can get a couple
of power plays in there, you'regonna be set. So that's what I'm
really going to be keeping an eyeon. Is is to Coma gonna be
physical and if they are, canthe soccers turn that into goals against They
have to, They have to.It really costs them in their way matches
against the Cagot, Chicago, Chihuahuaputting a team in elsewhere now. But

(01:07:03):
yeah, it's really crucial to getthose those crucial power plays goals in.
I remember very clearly, you know, you know, Funky timer aside over
in Chihuahua. There were opportunities togo ahead and go up and have a
more competitive matchup at some points inthe in those playoff matches, but they
just couldn't get it done. Soyeah, hopefully a lot of this malaise

(01:07:25):
just kind of gets washed away inthe first in the first game, let's
just take care of business and youwon't have to worry for the rest of
the season. Almost autopilot, becausethese guys know exactly what they're doing,
and they are great at what theydo with their talent. Let's just start
clicking sooner rather than later. Ithink, think you muted Craig. I

(01:07:54):
can't. I can't hear any anyany I can't hear any Craig right now.
Actually, I see the Oh itis got to unmute the seven that's
behind the scenes. I gotta unmutethe say all right, well, you
know sometimes it happens where the internetdoes come in. But again, it's

(01:08:17):
going to be here on Sunday,as fast as it comes, as fast
as he goes, as fast ashe returns. Elston Buttons, I think
we want to curse before Buttons.What I was trying to say before I
first muted myself and then canceled myselfwas that, let me tell you about

(01:08:44):
young people these days. How doI get canceled? Oh it's so easy.
No. Callen was talking about theChicago Mustangs twenty fourteen m ASL champions,
so good on you, Callen.We're not bringing back the Mustang.
We'd lose Pee wee. He wasa member of the Mustangs. He would
move back to Chicago in a hotminute. But there we go, all

(01:09:06):
right, So that's it. I'mnot going to offer predictions. We don't
do predictions on the show. Jerrytaught me. My dear friend Jerryman has
taught me this. What's the pointof making a prediction? Like what you're
trying to show you you're smart orlike that you know the future. It's
soccer we're talking about. We absolutelyhope that the club will win. Obviously,

(01:09:27):
Yes, do I think it'll bea close match. Probably. I
think it'll probably be a close match. I'm guessing that when we go to
the final break in the fourth thatthe match will be a foot you know
that it'll be a one goal game, a two goal game. You know.
I don't think I'll be thrilled ifthe soccer's put up a nine to

(01:09:48):
three, you know, like KansasCity did. We'll be back here next
Tuesday to talk about it one wayor the other. But I'm guessing Chris
comes out strong. Nick has apoint to prove well. Least is there
to show something. Soccer's are thereto show something too. I think it'll
be a good match, and Ithink it'll probably be a pretty close match.

(01:10:12):
They usually are when Tacoma comes here, especially the first match of the
year. So can't wait. Youand I and Melissa May will have the
call on Twitch, Twitch dot tv, slash MSL, Underscore Soccer. We'll
be there for you at five pmPacific with our TVX video crew with all
of the action. And can't wait, man, can't wait to get this

(01:10:34):
thing underway, to get a result, to have an actual match preview,
have some highlights to chew on nextweek. Let's get it going, baby.
I'm ready for it, man,I'm ready for it and ready to
go ahead and be right there nextto you this whole season and call some
games and calling a lot of goals, beautiful goals, some beautiful San Diego
soccer action at a toga arena.Man. And you know, once the

(01:10:59):
first matches underway, then and onlythen do I open up to my next
major challenge, which is setting upthe media game rosters for January. So
I'll help you with that one.I got it, thank you, Thankfully,
I've got you here to help me. Yes, indeed, I need
your help absolutely, so I can'twait for that all right, can't wait

(01:11:20):
for Sunday as well again. SupporterSummit three three thirty. If you have
not signed up yet and you're amember of any of the local supporters group,
please go to your discord, findthe link, reserve the tickets.
Come on in. We will seeyou with a first beer on us three
point thirty at the Stellar Lounge andthen five o'clock for the kickoff. Cannot

(01:11:42):
wait to see you all there,Tony. So everybody can go ahead and
find me at two Balls and aMic. You can find everything that we're
doing in soccer and San Diego.My personal one underscore Tony Snchez. Tony
sunchis with underscore. I don't knowhow you say that in the Spanish.
Actually I shouldrobably figure that out outhere, Craig the Bao marked or I

(01:12:06):
don't know you. I think youshould know how to say underscore in Spanish.
Not me. Yeah, true,I don't know if duelingo covers that,
but we'll see up the subscription,we'll see fair enough. If you
can follow me on Instagram at sixone nine Sports and Life or I have
a lovely picture right now of myplug looking nonplussed as he saw the inflatable

(01:12:26):
pug, the inflammable Santa Pug onthe front lawn. You can check that
out and more six or nine Sportsin Life. I still have my account
open at X and six one ninesports. You can find me on threads
at six one nine Sports in Life. I think I'm supposed to open a
blue Sky account. If there's everany actual sports interaction on these other websites,
I'll leave backs for all time.But until then, like kind of

(01:12:48):
sucks, but I'll be there nonetheless, And thanks to everyone for being here.
Please don't forget to follow us ourchannel here Twitch dot tv slash San
Diego Soakers if you are new tothe show so it'll be alerted every time
we go live, and to likeand subscribe all of our videos on our
San Diego Soccer's YouTube channel until Sunday. For Tony Sanchez, I'm Craig Elliston.

(01:13:12):
Thanks to Cheeky Luna, our specialguest. We'll talk to you Sunday
on Twitch. Until then, havea great rest of your week and go soccer.