S6E7: A Travel Test (Special Guest: Cesar Cerda)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:26):
The Grand Old Arena for decades.This has been our own, a place
where magic has happened. This iswhere the soccer's legend is for ten championships
in the eighties and nineties, thegreatest indoor team ever. I'm proud we've

(00:47):
continued the tradition. I've won sixchampionships in my career. But this is
the last run on the Midway.One more chance to make memories at the
Grand Older. Rina well Man willsort of end it here. Come sees

(01:10):
our sorta, says our sort Yeah, says I'm good. It's not damn,
it's blocked by Palmer and restarted andit's gold. Let's gold. The
Calder joy away and we are leavingwithout another cup. Hello again, everybody.

(02:31):
Look to Soccers over Time, yourweekly look inside the San Diego Soccers
and the Major Arina Soccer League comingyour way live on Twitch alongside Tony Sanchez,
Greg Elston here with you. Itis season six, Episode seven travel
Test coming up for the San DiegoSoccers. This weekend. We're gonna talk

(02:53):
all about it, look back atthe weekend that was in the week that
will be mister Sanchez, are youthis sevening the Cardamco. I am doing
very well. I've finally had achance to watch a full stream of the
Tacoma Stars and it was soccer matchbecause we we'll talk about it later.

(03:13):
But doing well. Excited for anotherhome match coming up here this weekend.
So you watched the game the Saturday, Yeah, that's the thing you can
do now that maybe it was hauppyand to say the leap as then chopped
up into a little bits of pieces. Yeah, well we've got we've got

(03:36):
plenty to get to on the showtonight. The soccers were tested in Tacoma,
used to big fourth quarter to putaway another win. We've got the
highlights that you didn't see, atleast you didn't see on Saturday night.
San Diego a team built on defense, but so far it's allowed per match.
We've got the captain of the defenseis our Sarah. He's got a

(03:57):
lot of things down, get threepersonal fouls and probably throw a yellow during
his time on the show. Nowhe'll tell us about what's right, what's
wrong, what could go better,and his thoughts on facing Marco Fabian this
Sunday at home. It is gonnabe a very tough weekend of travel we
will detail it. Maybe a coupleof traps waiting to be sprung on our

(04:18):
soccers. We've got a pair ofmatch previews to get to. Plus Monterey
catches a wave in Milwaukee, theBaltimore Bust go flop again and did they
trade William Vincela and Max Ferdinand ordidn't they? We got a lot of
ma ASL news to discuss. Thisshould be a fun show. I want

(04:40):
to say very special welcome to everyonewho is joining us live on Twitch,
Twitch, dot tv slash San DiegoSoccers. Thank you so much. If
it just so happens to be thefirst time that you're joining us live on
the show, go ahead click thatfollow button here on Twitch on the channel,
follow the channel at San Diego Soccers. You'll be alerted every single time
that we go live if you happento be one of my next day or

(05:03):
later in the week YouTube viewers,welcome to you. So happy to have
you on our YouTube channel at SanDiego Soccers. Please give us the like,
the subscription, the rating, thenice comments, everything that you can
do to keep the churn moving.Last, but certainly not least, all
my audio air pod buddies listening tous in their earbuds of some form or

(05:27):
another on the audio podcast. Heyyou're missing the video stuff on the show,
but we thank you for being hereone way or another. All right,
Season six, episode seven, weget underway a couple of things.
First off, a big shout outWallascora. I mean, Brian sent me
a T shirt and now now Igot the official Wallascora look. So I

(05:51):
wanted to make sure I pimped thaton the feed and to say big thank
you on that. Also, youknow, like in depth viewers will notice
I'm not in my my regular studio. I'm in the bedroom right now in
my house. That's because my wifeMitzi is in the studio. She's got
COVID. She's fine, she's doingfine, but nonetheless we wish her a

(06:12):
quick, speedy recovery. I oncespent a week in the COVID Cave and
did multiple podcasts from the COVID Cave. Now I've been evicted from the COVID
Cave because someone else had to gowin. So as a resulted I'm here.
But I did get the blanket up, so we do still have the
soccer's logo. It's just it's it'sway back there. But now I've got

(06:36):
fun things I can do, likeyour your your mobile, you're you know,
your ambulae, you can do allsorts of activities. Yeah, there
you go, ambulating announcer. Wellagain, stay safe out there, stay

(06:57):
warm, because man, it's it'sit's something that's you know, it's part
of part of lives. And youknow, I had my first and second
about with the big COVID within threeweeks of each other, during my birthday
last year, lastly around this timelast year, so you know, it's
it's an interesting take of precautions andyou know, lots of chicken noodle soup.

(07:18):
Indeed, she literally made some soupyesterday, you know, when no
one was here with a mask onand whatnot. We've got soup, She's
got hydrate fluids. She's fine.I hear her talking back there. The
whole time. She spent the wholetime on the phone or asking me for
movie recommendations, So I think she'sokay. Nonetheless, first time in four
years for my wife. She was. She's one of those people who just

(07:39):
caught COVID for the first job inDecember of twenty twenty three, so I
give her credit for making it thisfar. Okay, we're about to get
to the highlights. We're gonna getto multiple sets of the highlights. Let's
start. And I saw Gabe Plumeask about it in the chat as well.
Let's just knock out the uncomfortable partart of Saturday first. You know,

(08:01):
I went to fair Play with someof our great soccers friends, some
of our great soccers, overtime viewersand listeners. Tony, I'll admit I
came there with a thought. Icame there thinking, you know, we've
been to Fairplay so many times,whether it's Wave or Loyal or you know,
other soccer matches. So I thought, okay, we're going to be

(08:24):
in the back. I know whereI can set up my computer in the
back. I know where there's outletsin the back of fair Play, be
able to get hooked up to theInternet. I'll be able to do all
my work from there. So it'llbe better for me to be at fair
Play than it would be to bestuck in the office at home. So
I get there and the only problemwas the back was closed for a special

(08:46):
function. The game wasn't on Twitch, there was no internet and no place
for me to plug in my computer. So fail on my part to go
to fair play, might as wellhave stay home. Shout out to Paul
the Cowboys, to all the guysthat I saw at fair Play, Hope
you had a good time. Ofcourse, if they stayed to watch the

(09:07):
match, they fail because it Tacoma, Phil Ye, Tacoma did an entire
professional Although you may have some margumentswith a couple of the announcers comments in
the fourth quarter, you know,professional, fully done broadcast. They did
it all up. I had heardfrom Pete Richmyer, who works with the

(09:31):
Stars, prior to the match.He said, Hey, we've got a
new production company this year. Letme know how it goes. First review
not so hot. Hey, onceshe saw the YouTube broadcast, it was
perfectly good. It's a perfectly goodbroadcast. Nothing wrong with the broadcast at
all. They just couldn't connect atwitch on Saturday. For whatever reason it

(09:52):
was, they couldn't connect the Twitch. They tried. You know, if
you were, if you were hangingin there like I was, you saw
them kind of stop and start likesix or seven times at halftime and in
the third quarter trying to get thetwitch feed going, and man, they
just couldn't get it going. Soyou know, real real bummer obviously for

(10:13):
soccers fans, for Stars fans,for MASL fans who wanted to watch the
match. You know, I woundup pulling up stakes from fair play fairly
quickly, driving home, refreshing MASLSoccer dot Com on my phone, then
setting up in the office which isnow a COVID cave, and then in

(10:35):
the second half along came a hero. Sometimes in times of need, a
hero rises to the occasion, andin this case the hero was a woman
named Alison Tuttle, who is thedaughter in law of Lane Smith, the
owner of Thomas Stars, and wasup in the owner's box at Sesso Showwear

(11:00):
Center with an iPhone and a dream. An iPhone, enough of a battery,
enough of an Internet charge, anda dream. She went for the
solo take your phone and just youknow, move it up and down the
field. Now we got to Nowwe got cocks. Now we got and

(11:24):
offered her own off the cuff commentaryas well, which I think is one
of the highlights of the young season. Tony Alison Tuttles beautifully honest and hilarious
and dry and witty and then sometimesnot so dry as ovations continued to come

(11:46):
into the owner's box. I foundthis delight. So let's let's play just
a couple of these highlights. Soundup here of these highlights, y'all people,
I drank my drink. I needother one. Who's who's sponsoring the
next drink? Oh? Ship fuck? I met shoot Fudge. That's what

(12:13):
I met. Hy yay yai.I meant shoot Fudge, shoot Budge.
Indeed aye ya yai. All right, we gotta play the other two?
These are these? Are I justimmediately into the Hall of fame. Let's

(12:33):
let's play another one of these pardowith the save. Are we on Twitch
yet? Because this is like theworst broadcasting you'll ever receive. We got
Nick Branton from the Santo Soccer's box. Yes, I just need to go

(13:00):
back on mute, don't I.I just feel really bad for the people
watching. I might everyone get onLive source and buy these fantastic Teddy Bear
jerseys. Looks like you've been doingsquats all summer long. The thing the

(13:20):
owner is my stepdad, and Ican't get fired that. That line is
what made me send her a Venmolive on the air. Good thing the
owner is my stepdad and I can'tget fired. Speaking of what's the third
clip I pulled for you, Tony. This is absolute gold. This is

(13:41):
when the owner of the Stars,Lane Smith, discovers live on his own
team's Facebook feed that he is infact live on the Facebook feed. Put
the poll on that he fell onthe mall. Yeah he slipped fell on

(14:05):
the mall. Kind of cradled though, Yeah he did, right between his
zoops right between his zoopsie daisies.Yeah, that be with gilchrest Tramp's hand,
right between the oopsie daisies. Someof the cleanest commentary that I've heard
in in the M I s L. But just that there, It is

(14:37):
what happened to our broadcast. You'redoing what oh Man, just man had
done making it happen. It's it'sit's you know this league, And I
shared this with you, right Iwas. I was, I'm self conscious

(15:01):
about a couple of streams that wedid over with with our setup. And
you know, we're gonna do thisthrough serious XM. We're gonna do this
through a feed that's fed into afeed that's going to feed into another feed
into the feed it and it worked. And so when I saw the Tacoma
Star situation. I was like,Okay, well I think we did good

(15:22):
first of all. Second of all, then you send this gold mine of
footage. And again I watched someof the actual MASL highlights. I prefer
this. It's almost like a Manningcast in a way where it's perfect.
Now I want to let everyone know, and but my glasses are fogging up
because I'm still hot from laughing sohard at your freeze frame of Lane Smith

(15:46):
right there that that's one of thegreat moments in soccer's over tien history,
just right there in itself. Iwant to let everyone know that Alison Tuttle
was warmly invited to join us onthis evening's program, and she ran it
up the flagpole and it came backdown hard, and she is not joining
us on today's broadcast. She sendsher kindest, most gracious regrets that she

(16:11):
could not be here. Undoubtedly shejust didn't want to get in more trouble.
And if you want to see hersecond half live cast, it is
still up at the Tacoma Stars facebookpage. So, I mean, that's
how I pulled these just gold mineclips, absolute gold mine clips. So

(16:33):
if you want to go watch allof that you absolutely can at the Tacoma
Stars Facebook page. And then youknow, the actual broadcast with Andrew Harvey
and Peyton Barons is now available onthe Tacoma Stars YouTube page. You can
find it on YouTube or maybe onthe MASL YouTube page. I think it's
on masltvs on YouTube. So everyonecan go and find that and watch the

(16:56):
entire match which Tony and I andShot Boweries and a lot of the soccer
staff did yesterday. And now letus present the actual recap with the actual
highlights of the soccers and the TacomaStars, and boy, the soccers got
off to a horrible start in thisone. Teddy Bear toss night. Leave

(17:18):
Ramontrres unmarked in the middle of thed. Thirty seconds in and the Teddies
are tossed. You know, niceturn by Perrera, pretty classical stuff there,
but just no defense on Ramon Torres. Less than a minute later,
it's a second defender getting in ona goal again on a loose ball,
again unmarked in the middle. It'sMatt Bram the Frenchman for two nothing and

(17:41):
just a minute and a half intothe match, Tony the Sockers down to
not an unusual situation we've seen thesoccers go down even three last year,
I think four at Tacoma at onepoint and lose. You need to get
one to get it back. Charlieto the rescue. What a right there
for two to one, Tony absolutegolasso. Yeah, and so is this

(18:06):
going to be a trend where thesoccer is going to be starting a little
slower at the beginning, And yeah, they figure it out towards the end.
But good thing you have the talentlike Chadlick Gonzadez to be able to
go and score. Will also likethat, like, oh my, that's
putting it on a dime exactly wherehe wanted. But Tacoma was not letting
up. No. Alessandro Canale,who scored two down in San Diego,

(18:26):
gets the shot. Great react,you know, say reactions saved there by
Parto. But then really the defensehere just nobody stepping up to block the
shot, a near post shot beatingParto there for three to one. Soccers
get it right back on a cornerkick, Costa scoring for three to two,
which is the score going into thefirst quarter break. Honestly, you

(18:48):
know, and as you see,lovely set up, very simple, very
simple Charlie from the corner to Costaunmarked right there on the angle Adrian Correa
right here. How does he goall the way through the middle of the
San Diego defense, right down routeone and put the ball in and near
post on Pardo for that matter,I think surprising him. I think he

(19:10):
was thinking for a post here andthen he squeaks it near post, wrong
foots him nonetheless, kind of ashocking goal. And again thirty seconds into
the second quarter and the soccers aredown to again. Yeah, too much
space there, a good run,but Ruggles somebody actually should have just stepped
up and try to bother him atleast a little bit. But you know
what, at the end of thedays, it's a mistake here, and

(19:32):
soccers go further down until it's BrandonIsscoto starting to get things going. Brandon
hu had a good game. Onehas a good game too. Here he
and Costa link up a little bitof a deflection off the leg of Corey
Keats right there. Originally this goalwas awarded to Ruggles. As you could
see on the replay, Ruggles nevertouched it, and so it was corrected

(19:52):
to Ascoto from Costa and for threethere's ruggles first, good shot and chance
as is soccer, and then Takombade signs to play some rugby. Watch
this. Here's the rugby scrum.The ball goes in between and the center
puts it right between his legs tobe merged out. Oh turns out it's
still soccer. And that's a penalty. And it's a penalty kick. And

(20:15):
with Craig Childs, who was missingthis match because he was coaching in the
Cardiff Cup, it's a Scoto takingthe penalties, and a Scoto drills this
one. You start to think,oh wow, he'll never miss a penalty
with that shot, and it's fourto four. Of course he would miss
some penalties in the fourth quarter,as it turned out, Soccers keep the
pressure up. I love this particularconfiguration and it's something that the soccer's got

(20:38):
too out of necessity. Tony withChilds out, but a Scoto with Costa
with Charlie on the floor seems likea pretty deadly scenario. There's another near
post goal concession as Nick Pereira turnson a ball for five to four.
Difficult situation, but the soccers makethe fourth quarter theirs. Tony, it

(21:02):
starts eleven seconds in Phelip Biggnzalez,right spot, right time for a loose
bowl, and then the cavalcade ofpenalties begins as the Sockers will see three
blue cards shown to the stars.Here's the first Logan Jones knocking down Serta
as the last man in the Starschallenged this penalty, and I think you

(21:25):
can very clearly see Tony on theslow motion replay there. It's not just
a touch. He leans in andthen Ascoto gets the shootout, tries to
go wide, misses, and thenChris Toth slams on top of him and
lays on top of him in thebox. So while this is yes,
a misshootout for Ascoto, you're gonnaget a second chance here because right here

(21:49):
that's a foul in the box allday, all day. Good call by
the referee crew here, which leadsto another penalty kick. And it's a
penalty kick again. It's the backupkeeper who makes a great save, but
it's five v three and the soccersget to it. Lao to Charlie Gonzalez

(22:10):
for the goal. It is fiveto five. There's another Corey Keats gets
called for a boarding penalty. Immediatelyafter this right here, This is the
one that the Tacoma announcers described asa straight up flop and embellishment and acting
performance by Brandon Escota. They said, Brandon threw himself into the boards.

(22:33):
What do you think, Tony.I think that there was some help in
that, you know, tossing ofAscota, But Ascott is not a big
dude, and that was a forcefulpush. It was definitely warranted of a
card and sanction in that situation.But yeah, you just can't do that,
and it happened. His head didhit the wall. So at the
end of the day, player safetyright back to another two man advantage,

(22:56):
back to Charlie Gonzales in the middle, backup goalkeeper, not his finest moment,
and seven to five Soccers, whohave been trailing the entire match,
are now up by two. ChrisToth comes up with an absolutely brilliant save
along the way, but can't stopthis one. That's a soccers play you've
seen from the training ground to thepitch many times. Leo from the low

(23:18):
left corner buries it. The assistto Charlie, who has a five point
game for eight to five at thispoint to Comble will get one back.
Alex Casaris lovely shot. Nothing tobe done, Nothing to be done for
Pardo there eight six with five minutesto go, three minutes to go.
Toth as the Ambulante goalkeeper, PorteroAmbolante. They'll call the ambulance on this

(23:45):
one. As Felipe puts them tobed, and then someone was trash talking
and Felipe telling them it's shush time. Kaye kyaite, says FELIPEI Gonzalez.
Nine to six is your final?You know, a pretty I'm just gonna
put it this way, Tony,A pretty typical Sockers Tacoma road match.

(24:10):
Usually Tacoma gets the lead in thesematches. Often the soccers kind of take
their time to get into the game, and usually they crush them in the
fourth quarter. And I think we'veseen that now in two matches between San
Diego and Tacoma. We've seen thatthe Stars have the heart, the Stars
have the hustle to stay with SanDiego in these matches. They just don't

(24:33):
have the stamina, they don't havethe depth and the firepower, and they've
got some players who play one sidegenerally only. Although I do want to
note because they didn't call me outby name, but they did call it
out that Nick Burr blocked a shotin Saturday's match. He absolutely blocked a
shot, his first in two years. He blocked a shot, So big,

(24:55):
big ups for Nick Burrera. Maybehe heard it too, He's like,
I'll show you, Elston, I'lltalk a shot. That's the one.
You know, he'll get another oneor two probably the rest of the
year. And you know, lategame soccers come alive, Soccers pour it
on. Tacoma gets tired, Tacomamakes dumb fouls, they get emotional,
they start blue carding everywhere. Ithought Grand Florence called a fine match on

(25:19):
Saturday. I know Alison Tuttle's husbanddisagreed on the Tacoma Stars Facebook stream quite
with some bulderitis attached. Nonetheless,I think it was. I think it
was a fairly called match. Ithink it was a fairly played match,
and I think the result is,like I said, kind of middle of
the road for what you expect fromthese two clubs. Yeah. No,

(25:41):
absolutely, especially after seeing the sameteam not a week but prior right,
you are able to prepare for thesoccers coming up. And really it was
a big night for them. They'rebeginning, you know, Teddy Bear toss
those uniforms and everything. But Ithink you're right with that spot on the
stamina just wasn't there for it tocome on where if the Soccers really want

(26:03):
to We saw it here at homein the third quarter, boom they go
and they go too much too farahead for to coma a catch up.
And again it's that talent that SanDiego has on the offensive side of the
ball. You're mentioning that that trifecta, that tar um bread of a Escoto,
Costa and Chattelie, like who doyou cover? Who do you mark?
Where? Where? You know?You don't know where that ball is
going to get be shot from.And the strength of this team is going

(26:26):
to be the versatility that they areable to offer with the San Diego Soccers
offense. But it's that defense thatit has me a little bit worried.
But run of the mill. Yes, you got Nick Perrera doing Nick Pereira
things and Chris Toath doing some greatsaves and keeping them in the game.
But ultimately, you know, Ithink that this this Soccers team, once
they start firing and and really gettingsettled in the game is when they play

(26:49):
the best and is that the theideal at this point? Not really,
because yeah, who wouldn't want towatch the soccers go ten oh in the
first half, right, But that'sjust not the nature of these things.
A couple other things to clean uphere. And I know, Saysar Sarah
that just texted me. I thinkhe might be a couple of minutes late,
Tony, but he should be checkingin momentarily. But especially from the

(27:11):
chat, I see a couple ofthings that I'd be happy to address.
Ken the Men forty eight fifty sixsays but Iscoto embellished as usual, didn't
need to be laying on the groundcrying like a baby. And here's how
I want to respond to that,Brandon Ascoto. Tony has developed a reputation
in the Major Arena Soccer League asa player who will embellish, as a

(27:36):
player who will perform a foul,as a player who has been guilty in
the past, and has even receivedembellishment cards in the past for putting a
little drama into it. And ifyou want to tell me from like a
Tacoma standpoint, that Iscoto felt contact, felt himself moving and let it happen

(28:00):
to get a blue card essentially.You know, I maybe, absolutely maybe,
I think Brandon's trying to work tochange that reputation. I think that
reputation got him in a lot ofheat the last couple of years. I
mean, you can remember, whatwas it two three years ago, some

(28:21):
ridiculous things said by the Empire ownerabout Brandoniscoto, some really good, classless
things about him. He's a playerthat other fans, other teams, other
players in the league do not like. And I understand that, and I
guess the only thing I would sayis, you know, Brandon really doesn't

(28:44):
need a ton of embellishment to getto where he needs to get on the
floor. He's a good enough playerto get to where he needs to get
on the floor. And I thinkhe knows that. I think everybody else
knows that in the as well,so certain things, that reputation, it's
going to come back to you.And I think a call like this Tony

(29:07):
is a classic example of that.As legitimate as the call looks to me
with two hands extended watching it onreplay, you know somebody who's used to
seeing his go to flop then seeshim into the boards and rolling, they
make that assumption he has to wearthat he's he's owned it over the years,

(29:29):
and that's a fine line that youas a player have to, you
know, be conscious of where ifyou are have that reputation and that precedes
you, then at some point thatlook and everything's going to run out,
and it might be at the mostinopportune time, which tense that's happened here
and there from time and time out. But as for me, like I'm
a very classic minded soccer fan,individual player, where you know what the

(29:53):
embellishment to this is it underhanded?Is it? This? Is it that?
Tell me? Tell me a playerwho hasn't done that, Tell me
a player that isn't going to beshoved their opportunity for that to happen,
and it's to help the team thatyou play for. Now, I'm not
condoning the necessary nefarious nature of thequote unquote elasticity of the rules, but

(30:15):
it's really attacked it. That's partof the game I personally don't like in
the outdoor game. The var theassistant video refereeing happens here in the MSL
as well. You're cleaning some stuffup. It's now it's a little bit
two for my liking sterile where everything'scut clean, dry, has to be
correct. There's a human aspect,but at the same time that it's a

(30:38):
pendulum and it swings one way andit'll swing the other. And for Brandon
Escoto, I do believe, likeyou're right, it doesn't need to be
doing those things. The talent willspeak to itself and he's cleaning it up.
But you know, is that somethingthat is going to proceed him for
a while now? It is,But fortunately for him, his goals and
his assists and his points do alot of the talking for him. Yeah,

(31:02):
and again, just to be clear, Brandon was pushed. It was
a legitimate blue card. Replay confirmedthat indisputably and the socker, you know,
Corey Keats deserved the card. Thesoccer's got the goal at the end
of it, and that was deservedas well. So I mean, it
is what it is. I'm justI'm empathizing to the extent of when a

(31:25):
player gets a reputation and then getsinto a close call, that reputation is
going to be weighed into the call. The last thing I would say about
that is that the n ASL hasa really fun poker game in the middle
of each and every one of theirmatches, which is that unlike the NBA
change that they made, and Ithink it's the right change this year.

(31:47):
Still in the n ASL, youget one review period. You get it
right, you get it wrong,you get it sideways. You ask for
a review on something unreviewable, itdoesn't matter. You get one. So
both teams use their reviews early inthe fourth quarter. Both teams use their
reviews within a period of a minuteof one another. In the fourth quarter,

(32:07):
the Stars reviewed Logan Jones fell fromthe back of Sesar Serta and they
lost. They lost that the replayconfirmed it was a blue card and it
was a shootout. Then on theensuing shootout, that play that we saw
as Scoto get tackled, there wasno call. It was play on and

(32:28):
Phil Selvaggio used his challenge and thatchallenge successfully overturned a no call to not
only a blue card, but apenalty kick inside the zone. So Phil
won the poker match over the TacomaStars and Becker on this particular day,
big time. And then the lastpart of that as we get ready to

(32:49):
get to Saysar Seraa Tony is thatwhen you get to that Ascoto call.
If you think it's dicey, ifyou think it could go either way,
that's the one you want to review. And Tacoma already blew the review on
a play that was once you watchedthe replay, pretty obvious that it was
a foul. Yeah, I haveto agree on that. And again,

(33:09):
like it happens one way, itcan definitely happen the other way, and
you can definitely get a foul thatdoesn't get called because of the reputation.
But this is a situation at hand, and at the end of the day,
I think it's a great call.All right, match review over.
It's the bottom of the hour hereon Soccers Overtime. It's time to get
to our special guest. He isthe defensive captain of the San Diego Soccers.

(33:35):
When you see this club take thefield, two men wear a sea
on their arm. Quick childs forthe offense, saves Serra for the defense,
joining us with a Christmas tree inthe background for the how are you?
How are you guys? Good?Thank you for asking? Yeah,
my wife, that's hold the spirit. You know. Christmas is one of

(33:58):
his favorites. Holy so as youcan see, we're ready, absolutely love
it. Well, friend, let'sjust start off pretty straightforward. You guys
got home yesterday. What are yourthoughts on getting out of Tacoma with another
win and three more points? Okay, yeah, yeah, we get yesterday
home a little tired for the trip, but yeah, everything was was fine

(34:21):
according to the plan. The planwas taking the w over there, and
fortunately we got it. It wasa tough game we start back. To
be honest with you, guys,we start I think we started really slow
the first quarter, and as thegame continue, we start playing a little

(34:42):
better and better, then getting everybodyat the same page and awful. I
mean, it was a good resultat the end of the day. Absolutely,
I mean it was a It wasa really good game. It was
a tough game. But how gratifyingwas it to see the power play give
your team in the lead in thefourth quarter? Ah? Well, I

(35:02):
think it was like a kind oflike a break point because I think I
don't remember it would tie at atime, and uh maybe when we were
tie or we die goal with thepower play, we get like two goals
up. I don't remember, butI think it was our close game.

(35:23):
So it was a good feeling,you know, trying to help the team.
If we can, like the defensivedefensive song, we can we can
help in certain ways, not withgoals, but with like those kind of
things. Is a really good,really good feeling. Yeah. I've always
said, Sarah that if this clubcan score half of their power plays,

(35:45):
teams can't play physical soccer against you. They can't afford to just value and
value and value and knock you overbecause you'll have the ability to pump in
those goals and pull the win outof it. That's the offensive side of
things. On the defensive side ofthings, so far, the club has
allowed six goals in each of theirtwo matches due to COMA. Now,

(36:07):
obviously the Stars have an MVP offensiveplayer and Nick Pereira. He generates goals,
he generates points every time. Butthis is a club that is used
to allowing about four goals a matchthe last couple three years. And you've
been up in the sixth spot theretwo matches in a row. What do
you think is going on defensively withthe club so far? I think we

(36:30):
talk about it a little bit.Boris Pino Drew Mitchell that is probably hopefully
he can play the next game,and I think we've got to get everybody
on the same page, you know, Like you say, we are used
to be a team like it doesn'tallow too many scores, too many goals
from the other team. And yeah, I mean we are totally understanding that

(36:54):
they are scoring a lot of us. Six goals for us is a lot.
So we're war you know, andtrying to to get a little better,
like everybody, trying to close thespace, trying to to to get
the midfielders and the forwards on thesame page so that way we can every
game try to keep a lower lowerscore on us. Yeah, and you

(37:20):
know, with the two first games, a lot of the reasons that you
have had these goals is neck Pereirahimself. What are the challenges of defending
somebody on who Pereira? Yeah,yeah, we all know Nick, We
know the capacity that he has offensivelyspeaking, and yeah, I mean it's
it's a good player. We inbetween Pin and myself trying to to do

(37:45):
the best we can to stop him. But we know, like he has
to have a few chances on onour goal and if we don't take a
good care of him, he's goingto be very dangerous. So I mean
it is difficult, of course,like many other great players on the field,

(38:06):
but you're gotta be worry about himsometimes and worry about the other player
because he's good at passing. Soyeah, yeah, it's always good to
be challenged, to have a goodchallenge in front of you. Well,
that was the weekend that was saysthe soccers are two and zero, which
is I know exactly where you guyswanted to be. But there's a huge

(38:27):
weekend coming up here for this club. You travel to Texas to take on
Dallas on Saturday night, a clubwith a new head coach that just got
a gigantic win on their home floor. They are gonna be running, they
are gonna be gunning, They're goingto be coming right at you hard.
And then the next morning it's atwo hour drive to a four hour flight

(38:50):
to get back home to get toanother match at six o'clock at Pachong Arena
against an Empire team that'll just haveto jump down the fifteen Freeway to meet
you, and I'll have an extraday's rest, that'll have Marco Fabian there
that will have everything ready to go. Paul Wright's first game coaching against you
guys in San Diego. What isthe attitude in practice this week getting ready

(39:13):
for two matches in two days intwo states. I think the audit is
like it's been just to be intense. You know, we totally get it.
It's gonna be a tough weekend.We know Dallas is gonna be really
motivated because they just beat Mesqui orI mean Texas out, So I think

(39:35):
it's gonna be a pretty good gayin Dallas, and then it's gonna be
another pretty good game here in homeagainst Ontario. Like you say, it's
gonna be like really motivated. It'sgonna be the first game for Marco Fabian
and I think everybody on the onthe team is gonna be really motivated because
of him, and I think weare gonna be as well, because I

(39:55):
mean it's always good, like Ijust mentioned before, to play against our
good players, so it's gonna belike an extra motivation for both and we
are getting ready on this practice isto face those two games. No absolutely,
And I mean again you're talking aboutMarquito Fabian, right, I name
that Hicanos we know who and youknow you've had also the transition of players

(40:21):
from the outdoor inside on Can youtalk a little bit more about facing Marco
Fabian and what this kind of means. I know you guys are excited looking
forward to it, but is itsomething that you know you're preparing like a
regular match, like another just anotherplayer on the Empire right now? Uh?
Yeah, I mean we take ofcourse, we're always trying to do

(40:43):
our homework and trying to sort ofthe key players of the teams, and
you know, you gotta do yourhomework, and yeah, we're gonna start
starting to get ready for him,knowing that he's gonna be probably no,
his best performance because it's probably Idon't know, but I think not one

(41:05):
hundred percent sure, but it's probablygoing to be the first game for him
on indoor professional indoor talking, andwe'll see. I think he's like,
of course, had the quality toplay. He played so many years for
division you know, Mexican national team, work Cup, So yeah, definitely
is going to be a good playerto be aware of. But yeah,

(41:27):
I mean, keep working, keepworking and trying to defend him the best
way we can. Let me justfollow up on that, Sazar, because
I mean, you know very wellback in twenty nineteen when Landon Donovan came
to the soccer is what it meantto the franchise. I mean, he
took your number nine right off yourback. You've been twenty nine every since.

(41:47):
We're used to it now and Imean to avoid took it now.
So what are you gonna do?But you saw how casual soccer fans responded
to seeing the greatest man American soccerplayer being the indoor league. Marco Fabian
is a great player two time,you know, fIF for World Cup with
without trying. You know Legua Amiekis, He's played in Bundesliga. He's got

(42:12):
a great outdoor resume. But I'mjust wondering, from like your perspective as
a Mexican national yourself and as aMexican soccer fan, Like what do you
think, just like honest opinion,what do you think Fabian will bring to
the league from the standpoint of recognition, ticket sales, et cetera. Yeah,
of course, of course, everyuh, of course it's gonna be

(42:36):
a huge ad for the league.Everything where he presents or where he goes
to play. If there is Mexicans, they're gonna know him and probably he's
gonna put people in the arena onehundred percent. So that's a good thing
for the for the league and forthe fans, for the for the teams
that he's gonna be playing for,and for everybody. I think it's gonna
go a good dish. That's agood thing that the league is doing this,

(42:59):
uh trying to get this a gooduh oud players you can say.
Now, I think there's gonna belike a just uh a few months,
maybe a few games of adaptation,and after that he can be a really
really good indoor player. But yeah, like a Mexican fans, yeah,

(43:20):
we're gonna all know him because heplayed. I think Chiva is one of
the best, one of the mostpopular teams in Mexico, and definitely he
had like a good career. Sowe know him from the World Cup.
We all we all know that he'sscored a very good goal against Barcelona.
He was like a chilena or likea bicycle gig. Yeah, so we

(43:44):
all will know him. It's gonnabe good for the Team's pretty sure.
A lot of people here in SanDiego's gonna know him, and in every
where he he's going to be playing. So I think it's gonna be a
good, good addition for for theleague, not just for Ontario. Well,
I'mcelona. Maybe he did it againstBarsa, but I don't think it's
going to get at soccer so lookforward to But could you talk about you

(44:08):
know, Sessa, you know,your stable here in San Diego signing a
new five year deal to stay herein the city for the soccers. What
does that mean to you? Andand and kind of what was the process
of moving into this decision. Yeah, I mean to be honest with you,
it wasn't like a top decision.I really enjoyed to play with my

(44:29):
teammates, with this organization, it'salways to be good with with everybody on
the team. They traded is likegood, like a real pros And I
started like doing live here and andone thing good to the other one,
and I'm I'm I talked with mywife and weeopill were like, okay,

(44:51):
we just want to like trying toto stay here for a little longer.
So that's why we are like ina good position right now in our lives
that we decide to use keep herewith the teams. They're like being great
with us, with her, withme, with her family, so it
was like I used to decision,if you can say just stay with the

(45:13):
soccers, I think it's the bestdecision you could make, my friend.
And when you when you signed thatsecond long contract, that means you're a
soccer for life. That means there'sthat shadow box coming down the road.
There's all of those opportunities that youare a legend, an absolute legend in
this franchise. You are a captain, You are the man who scored the

(45:34):
cup winning goal in twenty and twentyone. You are Sayzar Serda and you
are our dear friend as well MucusGrassis part and foneo then and Craig.
I appreciate you guys that have thetime to come here and I'll see you
guys are wround for sure. Absolutelylook forward to seeing you at the arena
on Sunday. Safe travels three points. We'll see you back there Sunday.

(45:58):
Sounds good, guys. Thank you, everybody software to see you Sunday.
Appreciate it. Sesar there, heis Sesar Sarah. Then you know,
a couple of years ago Tony hedidn't want to come on Soccer's overtime unless
he could only do answers in Spanish. He is such a good English speaker.
I love that. Like I wasactually looking at three years ago a

(46:19):
video that you did with Sada inSpanish completely and I was preparing, you
know obviously, like I know,the comfortability might not be there, but
it's there, Like, that's fantastic. In five years time when he signs
another extension or stage or decides todo something like he's going to be,
you know, top notch English speaker. And you know right now he's doing

(46:42):
a fantastic job. Honestly, assomebody who's translated Spanish. Sometimes I'll look
at these questions or just written downand there are words that I know my
parents would be like, he kissIsle, what's this gratifying Nope, not
not an issue. Working on andoff the field of that from Essa gratian
Gratiano say gratifying, gratifica, gratificcante Gratificpefully He's like, what that's He's

(47:17):
doing a great job. Seesar hasalso told me many times in the past,
as and as I continue to learnSpanish, he says, yeah,
you learn Spanish, but I willteach you how to speak Mexican yes,
which which surprisingly like Leo knows howto speak Mexican very well, and and
it's that it's that combination. Ican't wait to have him or Gabriellen practice

(47:38):
my Portuguese Portuguese, we'll see,you know, just just to let you
know. Gabriel Costah, we've askedhim to come on the show. He'd
love to come on the show.He has a regular Tuesday four to seven
pm coaching game. So what'll probablyhappen Tony is one of these dates in

(48:04):
January or something, the two ofus and get Gabriel will get together on
a Monday afternoon and record his partof the show, and then we can
have him on the show, youknow, kind of as a next day
recorded feature. Because I know he'dlove to come on. We'd love to
chat with him, but he's justevery single two just like Child's Child's right
now, Tuesday afternoons, he's booked. So because coaching, I get it.

(48:25):
So there we are, but say, great interview, thank you much.
All right, let's get to thesegment that makes us the show of
record in the m ASL, andthat is MAASL News. This is the
one that all the other teams andannounced obviously announcers based on the feedback we

(48:45):
get within game broadcasts and everyone elsetunes in to see. So I just
want to say big high to everyonein the MASLVE. It's tuning in for
this segment. We see, y'all. Okay, let's go through the weekend.
Monterrey goes to Milwaukee. They lookedlike the better team the entire match.

(49:07):
Tony, I watched this match.This was my feature match early on
Saturday. This was the one Ireally wanted to focus on. And you
know, hey, good ups toMilwaukee. They played Monterey hard. Ian
Bennett's scored a hat trick, Theygot a penalty kick in the fourth quarter
to tie things up at four,and then Monterrego's down Medina scores five to

(49:29):
four in overtime. The Flash winvery similar to a Flash overtime win in
Kansas City and in Milwaukee last season. But we talked about it last week,
so that's why I wanted to starthere. My friend, we said,
Okay, Monterey arena, baregos,tiny arena, pouring in twenty two

(49:50):
goals, pouring in thirty one goalsin two games. Let's get them north
of the border. Let's see whatthe roster looks like. And I was
very interested to note that Edgar TorresGonzalez did not make the trip, a
player who we understand to have Pone visa issues, and that Ismail Rojo,
who the soccers can state factually haveas P one visa issues, did

(50:15):
make the trip to Milwaukee and didplay in the game and scored in the
game. And why and how somebodyplaying a little fast and loose is Ismal
Rojo. Are we supposed to believethat he's only getting paid for twelve home
games and that he is an unpaidvolunteer for the twelve road games? Or

(50:40):
is it more likely that the Mexicansides feel like they can just shuttle in
and out of the US and ifthey bring along a couple of players who
don't rate from a visa standpoint,that they're just going to get away with
it. And I think that's thecase. And you know, like who's
going to be the narc right,like some assistant coach going to stand outside

(51:02):
the visiting locker room and go,can I see your visa? Can I
see your visa? Like? Ofcourse that's not going to happen. So
I think this is a little bitof a wiggle, but it's something to
really keep in mind of for thefuture and especially the playoffs, to understand
that in these big matches, it'spretty clear that Monterey and I would bet
Huaba too, are going to beperfectly happy to bring a player across the

(51:25):
border that maybe isn't legally allowed tomake money playing professionally in the United States.
But hey, we'll squeak through,we'll play this game, and we'll
get it done. Yeah. No, we call that in the in the
soccer verse in Mexico kachidulis, whichis essentially, you know, it's it's,
oh, you look enough like thisguy, and here's here's the idea,

(51:46):
like you'll play for today, oroh, just a quick switch of
jerseys at the halftime, nobody's gonnanotice, and or put the older kid
with the with the with the youngerkids. It's it's a fast and low
situation and you know, hopefully everythingis above board. Are mentioning just with
that context, it's hard to believethat that's that's a completely kosher case in
this situation. So even with that, right, it was a match where

(52:10):
you know, it's not a twentytwo goal match for Monterrey, which you
know, you saw that and you'relike, oh, okay, well it's
going to be a festival of goalsany anywhere they go. Not the case.
It's it's gonna be it's gonna bedifficult, and it's I like the
parody that's being shown here. Yeah, I mean, I just I have
a lot of respect for the Flashand as soon as they got Bernardvaldebinos,

(52:32):
it just changes everything. Yeah,You've got a completely legit goalkeeper who you
know is literally a sergeant in theMexican Army. Like he understands pressure,
he understands standing in there under fire. He has played in giant matches.
He was you know, he gotinjured in the final last year and Terry

(52:52):
Munoz took it across the finish line. But nonetheless, he's a huge part
of what makes you while a greatthe last two years. And I think
he is the single biggest acquisition thatMonterrey has gotten. But you know,
Poyo is slotting in there doing Poiothings every match, getting that one point,
but doing all the stuff in themiddle of the field that he does.
Big ro Hoo is an impact player. We've known that for years and

(53:15):
we got the question from Ken theMen forty eight fifty six, what happened
to Little Roh. Well, thesame reason Big Roho is not supposed to
be able to play in the USis the same reason Little Rojo is not
supposed to be able to play inthe US. We talked about it on
previous episodes. But Little Rojo hadan opportunity to get north of the border
a couple months before the season beganand to work on his visa. He

(53:37):
made a contractual choice to try andkind of leverage for a little more money,
and he missed a deadline and nowhe's stuck and the soccers aren't just
going to give his rights away.He would absolutely love to have his rights
given away so that he could goplay with his brother in monterrang But like,
why would the soccers do that?Yeah, no, would be a

(54:00):
favor, a super favor. Butagain, in a legitimate competition, you
just can't give anybody that sort ofedge, just, you know, just
out of the kindness of anybody's heart. But there are rules, and the
rules are rules, and those needto be followed. And you know what
deadline is also a deadline, Andunfortunately we're in this situation. Yeah,

(54:21):
and you know, just to beclear, a couple of years ago,
the Soccers did a super favor toJamie Lovegrove. They had Jamie Lovegrove under
contract. Jamie Lovegrove's looked like hewas going to be a critical player on
that Cup winning team in twenty twentytwo to twenty three, and then or
was it twenty one twenty two Ithink, and then in two games he
said Dallas is back and they changedcoaches and I really want to live at

(54:44):
home when the Soccers let him go. You know. But in that case,
Jamie did everything on his side right, and you know, I really
like jam Rovo. He's one ofmy favorite players in the league, so
you know, I want to seeI'm well in the league. He didn't
necessarily do everything right on his side, and as a result, we're in

(55:07):
this spot and it sucks, butit is what it is. Back to
MASL news. A bad week forthe Texas Outlaws. They got a mesquite
barbecued this week. It was supposedto be the match of the week Thursday
night down at Cornersport Arena, theOutlaws in the Chihuahua Savage and it was
not twelve four final score, absoluteroute savage take control in the second half.

(55:35):
You know, it's reasonably competitive,six' four at halftime and then
six nothing in the second half.And that's what we've seen from Chihuahua so
far. And that's really my takeawayfrom this part of this discussion, Tony,
is Chihuahua so far is allowed Ibelieve, five or six goals in

(55:59):
two home matches at the Baby BabyPark. So while yeah, Berna isn't
there and zoo Ard isn't there,if Chawa was figured out how to defend
on their home field, the league'sin trouble. Yeah, And again we
see it with the soccers right whenthey allow goals in they still have that

(56:20):
one or two goal cushion where theyare able to catch up. But here
it seems like shuahas just churning iton whenever they feel like it is that
something that they're going to go aheadand do and are able to now master
where you know what, we're gonnajust test our luck. We'll give you
this head start and we'll catch upeventually. And if that sort of tactic
and strategy ends up getting figured out, then it might not be the best

(56:43):
for them. But it only takesa couple of adjustments that are significant,
as you're saying in defense, toput this team up there. And you
know this is they're the current Raigneydefending champions. Granted, players coaches different
situations, but that pedigrees there.It really is. So that was the
Thursday for Texas and then looks likethey stumbled into a schedule loss on Saturday

(57:08):
because they had to come back northof the border play a second road match
down at the Texas Credit Union TexasCredit Union Events I just wrote it out
twice in the game notes today andI forgot it already. It has to
be the Allen Events Center Credit Unionof Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas
and the Dallas Sidekicks, the teamthat lost by seventeen in their first game,

(57:32):
came back and beat Texas eight toseven in overtime. Blas Perez scores
a hat trick. Gustavo Piedra hadthe golden goal. I think more Leegueway
had a couple of goals. He'san old friend of the program as well.
But twenty goals conceded for Texas onthe weekend and zero to two,

(57:55):
they get one point out of theweekend. Great win for Ed Piscerrich,
the new head coach of the Sidekicks, especially after getting their doors blown off
in their first game. But looksto me tony like Texas Missus Poile Cortes
in net. They've had a backupwith a magic marker number on the back

(58:16):
of his penny as their keeper ofthe last couple of games, and they
kind of got away with it fora game in Baltimore. But we'll talk
about Baltimore shortly. I don't knowthat you take any context out of beating
Baltimore this year. So these lasttwo games tell me that the Outlaws a
good team, but still a teamthat's in the mixer. They aren't a

(58:39):
defined playoff team yet. Yeah,you see those small glimpses of backup goalkeeping
action. You saw it against theTacoma Stars with the soccers where Chris Toath
stops a couple of those goals laidon. But again, you can't really
be messing around without a starting,established goalkeeper and hope to be successful this

(59:00):
league. So tough week for theTexas Outlaws. We'll see what happens for
Tattoos boys going forward. Clearly theyhave some firepower with Ortiz and Mendez and
Vinnie dantas the defense. I meanthey added UZI nothing there yet Kansas City

(59:22):
is right there with Monterey as theclass of the East. They go to
Harrisburg reasonably close match, but rememberthe Comets were terrible on the road last
year, like they were absolutely awful. So to post a very solid seven
to three victory another match where theComets allow three or fewer goals. They're

(59:44):
three for three on that so farthis year. And just looking at roster
and quality of play, I thinkright now Kansas City has a very strong
argument to say we're the best teamin the league. You know, I
mean, sure, soccer's Monterey.You guys can make your arguments. But

(01:00:05):
the addition of Berto Palmer and ChadVandergriff to a team that had really been
defensively challenged the last few years witha very young goalkeeper in nicol aunetto now
Neto's got that comfort blanket of havinga guy like Berto Palmer in front of
him that is able to control things. To have the defense of a guy

(01:00:25):
like Vandergriff who's going to stay athome and isn't going to make serious mistakes
and so, and that allows aclassically offensive defender like John Sosa not to
worry about the back third of thefield and to concentrate on playmaking. And
I just do feel like the commentsright now are a three level team.

(01:00:46):
You've got Reggitt and Marquez upfront,Marx pardon me, doing very well,
Rion Marx and Zach Reggitt at theforward position. You've got guys like Soza
at the midfield position that have theability to create. And then you've even
got in the back guys like Leethat can score. And you've got the
defenders now in front of Netto's soKansas City, every test passed so far.

(01:01:10):
We'll see how the rest of theyear goes. But very impressed with
what I've seen from the comments.No, definitely agree on that one.
And you as you were mentioning,you know the comic score and it's such
a great away team at home.Look, they have some of the best
attendance so far right numbers wise,here at home, so it's a difficult
place to go and play at.So that's a big, big advantage in

(01:01:32):
that regard. So there's going tobe an interesting team to keep an eye
on for the rest of the season. Here Utica got another win over the
weekend. They went to Baltimore andI watched a lot of this match,
Tony. They ran the show.They absolutely ran the show. I think
they were up like for nothing earlyin this one. Frank Tayu gets his

(01:01:54):
first two goals as a member ofUCFC, and he wins ten for three
goals in the fourth for Baltimore totry and make it look close, it
really wasn't close. The Blasts nowhave gotten blown out on their home floor
in Division twice, and Baltimore Bustis what it's really looking like to me.

(01:02:21):
I of all the teams I've watchedso far, even teams that are
truly challenged like Saint Louis, Baltimoreis the team that's shown the least energy,
the least spark, the least thatjust doesn't feel like they have it.
Man, this feels like a franchisethat's had a pin stuck in it
and I honestly don't know what thefuture holds for ed Haile's Baltimore Blast playing

(01:02:44):
on the basketball arena at Towson University, but their crowd size is going down.
Their superstars have left. More onthat in a moment and the blast
look really bad. Yeah, especiallyin the year after you have a run
at the championship, you would expectthose momentous, type of energetic moments to

(01:03:07):
keep continuing to the next season.It's not going that way. On and
off the field. Issues just plaguethis team and it's just not a good
look overall for Baltimore. And Imean, there's nothing much more to comment
because it's just beating a dead horseat this point. Appreciate the comment from
Soccer's Ben nine one Age who said, for the second to Texas match,

(01:03:28):
Uzzi Tayu and Mike Jones were inthe stands, not in uniform. Fair
enough, didn't watch that match.I'll be honest, that was head to
head with ours, so didn't watchthat match. Nonetheless, fair enough,
they're not going to help you defendin the stands, so I guess I'll
just stick with Texas. Defense lookslike it's a little bit of an issue

(01:03:51):
right now. And then you getto Empire. Empire played Saint Louis.
In Saint Louis, the ambush,the ambush don't look good like the ambush
looked like a team that's you know, they don't have Palo in the back
right now. It doesn't feel likethey have much of anything going offensively.
They did score seven goals, includingfour in the fourth quarter against Empire,

(01:04:14):
but the strikers took control of thismatch. I watched early. They were
up three to nothing literally ninety secondsinto the match and win at eight to
seven. Former soccer herodro Horraro hada lovely goal on a chess trap to
a half valley into the upper vHe added four assists. I think Stefan

(01:04:36):
Miatovich, who was acquired in theTaiyu trade, has been a big ad
to Empire in terms of his size, his physicality, the bite he brings
defensively to the team. Again,Empire almost collapsed in this game, and
when you're facing one of the weakestteams in the league. I'm not going

(01:04:56):
to put like a ton of chipson the result in terms of backing it.
But I thought Empire played significantly betterin this match, showed a lot
of fight and now that they're headinghome adding Fabian, I saw easy money.
Asked Fabian will make his debut Fridayat home against Baltimore. We have
been told explicitly that he will comeyou know, unless obviously like it's hurt

(01:05:20):
or something that he will come Sundayand he will feature for the Strikers at
Pachanga Arena, so we should seehim this weekend. But an encouraging match
for Empire. But then what wegot to talk about, Tony is something
that no one's talked about, buthas been on the MSL transactions page for

(01:05:43):
I think three or four days now, which is to say, on the
transactions trade Baltimore blast William van Zelaand Max Ferdinand to Empire. Baltimore is
not announced. This Empire has notannounced this. You may remember a month

(01:06:06):
ago on this show when we didDivision Predictions, I mentioned that there was
a chance that William Donzela could turnup in Empire. I had heard whispers
about this a full month ago.But honestly, Tony, I mean real
talk. I'm not hiding anything atall. I have no hidden information that

(01:06:26):
I'm concealing or withholding like I don'tknow what's going on. Clearly those rights
have been transferred because it's on theMASL page. But everything that I've heard
and everything I know is that WilliamDenzela and Max Ferdinand are deeply embedded in
their local communities on the East Coast. William is a goalkeeper coach, Max

(01:06:47):
as a coach, Like they've gota lot of things going on in their
life that would preclude them picking uppulling up stakes, moving out to the
West Coast and be full time playersfor the Empire Strikers. So what I'm
wondering is is this a paper move. Did the Strikers do this as kind

(01:07:13):
of a we'll put them in thecloset just in case, you know,
in other words, like maybe weget deeper into the year and then we
ask Venzella to start taking cross countryflights to come from Baltimore to Ontario and
to fly in for weekends, maybeonly fly in for you know, soccers

(01:07:36):
matches, soccers road matches, thingslike that. Ferdinand as well, like,
hey, do you guys want toplay in four big games for this
club? Literal ringer situations. Maybethat's what I'm betting. I'm betting that

(01:07:59):
Venzella and Ferdinand will be higher gunmercenaries that will fly in for select matches
for Empire Strikers, probably almost exclusivelyagainst San Diego and you know, Marlesia.
As we're talking in real time,puts up a point that would be
the literal next one I would havegone to, which is, how does

(01:08:20):
that improve your team chemistry? Howdoes that improve the culture that you're trying
to build with Paul Wright and PaulDoherty an Empire. And I think that's
quite honestly an open question, likecan you build a tight knit team culture
with new young players when you flyin a couple veterans each weekend? Not
to say you can't do it,you absolutely could do it, But no

(01:08:45):
announcement has been made yet. Theweek is still certainly young. They could
announce something in the next two daysand we could see Venzilla at Pachanga Arena
Sunday night, and honestly, Iwouldn't be surprised at all if that happened.
But it looks like Empire is shrewdlyback pocketing to extremely seasoned, talented
indoor soccer veterans. Maybe just incase I don't, I can't tell you

(01:09:10):
what the strategy is here. Imean with with the first look in the
look ahead the season episode that wedid just Free, this team was just
going in the direction of new,young, flat fast and and it's a
strategy that was okay, it's commendable. It seems like a rebuilding process.
And then you start putting some ofthe pieces in and some of the transfers

(01:09:31):
and some of the news, andI don't know what the what the direction,
what the artistic vision is for theEmpire Strikers throwing a Monico Fabian which
you know, doing some research asfar as like what the potential transfer fee
would have been or it's it's justinteresting with the van Zella situation for that,
like, I need a paralegal teamto sift through just everything that's been

(01:09:56):
going on in these situations and ultimately, how is this going to affect the
team that the soccers ultimately face isthe only question that should matter here and
not just a soccer, just anybodyelse that the Strikers face this time around,
because if it does work, kudoswill be had, great, fantastic,
Like, there is a lot ofquestions and a lot of questions would

(01:10:17):
be answered in that situation. Butuntil I see something that's a feasible product,
a feasible philosophy, a team,a tight knit network as you're saying
of individuals, because that's what thisleague and this sport team it needs a
team. I've you know out ofpersonal kind of anecdotal evidence here a young

(01:10:42):
buck team of fast college students canget destroyed by five seasoned veterans who are
in their fifties who know how toposition themselves and pass the ball around.
You don't need explosiveness, you don'tneed, you know, necessarily to have
the flashy moves. And as longas you know how to play with in
a team setting, with teammates thatare at the position that you need them

(01:11:03):
to be and they can walk around, that's all you need to have a
successful championship caliber team anywhere in thesport of fulapulo, you know. And
the last thing I would say iswe saw firsthand with William Vinzela, what
a strong character he is in thelocker room, what a leader he is
somebody. He is a strong willedindividual. He is someone who puts his

(01:11:25):
filter, puts his pattern on histeam. And if he is not given
the opportunity to put his filter inhis pattern on his team, there's a
good chance that you're not going toget the William Vinzella that you signed up
for. So I'm quite curious whatthe difference would be between a committed Venzella
and a fly in Benzela, somebodywho's not listening to the coach every day,

(01:11:48):
not at practice, not at training, not part of the culture,
and then is coming in with kindof that expectation of the culture I bring
to a locker room, I'm goingto bring to the locker room. Well,
can you do that if you're notthere every day. So all of
this is as one hundred percent speculative. I will repeat Baltimore hasn't announced to

(01:12:11):
trade, Empire hasn't announced to trade, but it is on the NSL transactions
page. So something happened at thefront office legally and officially to move these
players at the very least off Baltimore'sroster. And if it's a case where
these two guys are in limbo andthey don't play this year, I think
that sucks, you know, honestly, I mean I'd prefer them to play

(01:12:34):
in the league. There are stillof an age to play in the league.
I'd like to see that happen.Obviously, things are things are really
bad in Baltimore right now. There'slegal stuff going on, there's shady stuff
going on. There's clouds over thefranchise. You know, they hosted their
their preseason gala in a parking lotoutside of bus. I just I don't

(01:12:59):
know what's going on with the Blast, but the first two matches were indicative
of a team going down the porcelainfixtures, so we'll see what happens.
I'm not a Blast fan, soI'm not going to pretend like i'm It's
concern trolling on my part. Youconcern trolling, meaning you really would be
very happy if they're in the shit. But I'm going to act like I'm

(01:13:20):
concerned. Okay, let's advance toSoccer's News, and we've got some match
previews to get to very quickly.Soccer's News. Soccer's News, a couple
of announcements to MANK January fourteenth,that is Soccer's Chihuahua. That is a
massive match and not for nothing,a match that the Soccers will be traveling

(01:13:44):
home to play after I believe playingin Tacoma the night before, so another
one of these schedule loss situations.Play travel play Chihua was waiting and lying
and wait at home in the hotel. Nonetheless, January fourteenth is a Soccers
home match and the soccers have announceda pregame kids skills clinic to take place

(01:14:06):
on the floor prior to the matchon January fourteenth. This will involve soccers
players and coaches from two thirty tothree thirty PM. An opportunity to learn
from those pros right on the fieldplate and practice right there on the floor
at Pachanga Arena, San Diego,with the banners above you, the championship

(01:14:29):
banners, the retired numbers, allthe ghosts of the legends passed all around
you. Swirling should be incredible.We had good success with this last year,
Tony. We're doing it again,so sdsoccers dot com slash clinic.
If you are the mom or dadof a appropriately aged youth that would love
to come out and learn from soccerspros, please do so. Check it

(01:14:53):
out sd soccers dot com slash Clinic. A special ticket will get you in
for the special hour down on thefloor or before the gates open. No,
I love it, and again,this is part of making memories.
This is why this team is sogreat, because they build that culture of
coming in and really being a partof it and look playing. Seeing soccer's
play when I was a kid overin Fortati is still a highlight of my

(01:15:15):
life. When I was five,six seven years old, right, and
to be able to go on theactual pitch, on the actual field,
inside the walls, inside the boardsat the Chiang Arena. It's gonna it's
gonna make a couple of soccers fansfor live and look, you're getting to
get something out of it. It'sas a soccer clinic, so it's gonna
be an absolute blast to be outthere. So make sure you guys get
on that. Uh sign sign up, get up the all right. Second

(01:15:42):
note, Sunday is the next homematch for the soccers. We just talked
about it. We're about to previewit Soccer's Empire. It is an hour
later six oh five because the teamwill be flying in from Texas that morning.
Uh so make a note of theslightly later start time. But alt
so, it is charity sock tossnight. So here's what's going on.

(01:16:05):
We would like everybody who shows upon Sunday to bring a new pair unwrapped
bald up sucks. Now you wantto do boxers underwear, cool, that's
all good, we'll take those two. We're looking for undergarments because when you

(01:16:26):
go to homeless shelters, when yougo to places that help the unhoused,
and you ask what do they need? The number one answer, believe it
or not, is undergarments. Itsocks and underwear. It's the things that
you count on as being there inyour life and they are not there for
folks. And believe me, coldtoes, cold butt changes your life.
So bring it. You're allowed tobring it. Bring it to the arena,

(01:16:50):
and then soccer score their first goal. Toss them socks, Toss them
socks, throw them out on thefield, chuck them chonies, do it,
toss it out. This is arare time that you are encouraged to
throw your underwear Epachionga Arena, SanDiego, not just on the stage for

(01:17:11):
a Killer's concert or something. Butokay, fair, fair, Yeah you
said it better than me. Nonetheless, so let's do it. Let's salk
toss. All of these will begathered to benefit Crisis House here in San
Diego. Incredible people doing incredible volunteerwork. So please help us. Sock

(01:17:32):
toss, toss them socks, chuckthem, chonies, bring them on.
Be generous. Go to Walmart,go to the dollar store, get that
bag of twenty pair of socks,ball them up and then just fire it
out, rapid fire, spam,fire spam, attack the floor with socks.

(01:17:54):
We are very happy to have thathappen on Sunday. You want to
throw them at the you know,Ape says at the field, not the
players. Susan immediately says, Iwant to throw them at the strikers.
Look, I'm who am I tosay? What you do when you throw
it? They're soft? Who amI to say? I know you'll do
the right thing. Absolutely, yeah, I might. I might have some

(01:18:15):
uh Samuel loyal uh socks that Iraided and ransacked on a given day.
I'm gonna go before, obviously becauseI'm a prep and but I'm gonna check
my arm to see if I canlaunch it from the booth, and if
I can, then there'll be acouple heading their way. If allowed.
Again, I don't wanna well,I mean, you can feel three the

(01:18:35):
the odds of you getting a balla stuffed sock from rose of the top
part of the terrorists down to thefloor. I will put that at a
solid zero percent. I say,you cannot make that throwg Okay, you
can't do it, but you knowChievo will be there if you guys want

(01:18:56):
to do a tag team thing.I don't know if you want to relay
guy on the floor. All I'msaying is, if you happen to be
in the lower bowl and you feelsome socks hit you from the upper bowl,
go ahead and keep them moving,keep it moving out onto the field.
Just relay those on out on thefield. Because crisis has needs the
socks, needs the underwear. Sothat's going to be fun. We love

(01:19:17):
doing the sock toss every year.Okay, two matches, two days,
two states, two flights. Thisis a tough weekend for the San Diego
soccers, Tony. They've got fourfour interstate back to backs this year.

(01:19:38):
And how we're supposed to get througha season with twenty two, twenty three,
twenty four wins with weekends like this, I don't know. Because these
are what they call in the NBAschedule losses when you are playing and then
you go back and you play thenext day in a different state, in

(01:19:59):
someone's way for you, like,I've got yikes factor three point five for
this weekend. Yeah, and again, it's not just the grueling just travel,
it's the setting in which you practice, right, you know, watching
some footage behind the scenes of whatthe facilities look like for the training up
at Tacoma, you know, theyaren't necessarily world class. I'd say if

(01:20:25):
if anything, it's a world classestablishment probably that that's housed there. But
ultimately, like this is the natureof this league, and it takes a
toll. There's still professionals who needto get that recovery. And that's something
that we've been learning a lot morenow in the sports science of things,
is that recovery is incredibly vital flyingcross country on a plane, and it's

(01:20:46):
not ideal for that recovery. Sohopefully everybody is going to maintain the fitness
level at an optimum, but it'snot ideal. And this is exactly how
you necessarily drop points or have agame that you're not as sharp as it
should be, and you might letsome goals in and you might let some
points go away and some victories slipthrough those hands. And I mean,

(01:21:08):
it's not going to be an easyset this entire season with these back to
back cross country travel dates. Butthis is the first test and we'll see
exactly what this is going to befor the soccers. Absolutely and look based
on how everything's going, and thislooks like it's going to be a really
fun season. It looks like there'ssome interesting teams in the West. The

(01:21:30):
East looks wide open to me.I think there's going to be a lot
of intrigue to this year. Sofor the soccers, it doesn't look like
a situation where like that doesn't matter. Eighteen and six or twenty three and
one, it doesn't matter. Likeno, it's going to matter. So
these are six points the soccers wantto count on. They don't want to

(01:21:51):
drop a point to Dallas, period, and they don't want to drop a
point to Empire at home, period. So let's start with Dallas on Saturday
night. San Diego has had greatsuccess against the Sidekicks in the MSL.
They're twelve and one all time inthe MSL against the Sidekicks, and by

(01:22:11):
the way, they started zero toone. They've lost in December of twenty
sixteen, and they've won twelve ina row since then. They've won eight
in a row in Allen, Texas. The last loss to Dallas was December
twelfth, twenty fifteen. So youcan take that and you can go,
okay, forget about it, rideit in easy win. Here's the thing,
the soccers have literally done that foryears. They've looked at the match

(01:22:35):
in Dallas as write it in easywin. Don't have to try hard,
don't have to coach hard, don'thave to put our top lineup out there,
don't have to come in with akiller attitude. We can just kind
of cruise in to the Credit Unionof Texas Event Center and we can cruise
out with three points. And whilethey've generally accomplished that, they're they don't

(01:22:58):
get a scores for artistry for theway that they've played in Dallas over the
years. In fact, I wouldsay, as one of the soccer historians
soccer guys who have watched all thegames, they've had some of their worst
efforts as a franchise in Dallas.They've played to the level of their competition
many times. They've been tied ortrailing in the fourth quarter in Dallas many

(01:23:24):
times and pulled out games like theGlobetrotters pulled out games against the Washington Generals.
You know where you're like, Ikind of wish the Generals would actually
win one once in a while.That's been the tenor of these matches.
A really subpar performance, a lowenergy, low intensity performance, Dallas,
bringing their youth, their vitality,their desire to score and win at home,

(01:23:47):
and it leads to a what Iwould call it an artificially close match,
and it's one of those things whereyou'll go through the score lines at
the end of the year and you'relike, wow, Dallas lost fifteen to
two and twenty two to five,and then they played the Soccers and they
lost eight to six. Like Iguess the soccers aren't very good because they
don't blow out Dallas. I'm hereto tell you the Soccers play some of

(01:24:12):
their worst soccer as a franchise inDallas and I would love to see that
change on Saturday, because I trulythink they get six points clean this weekend,
Tony. It has to start withtaking a four or five goal lead
in Dallas in the first half.Yeah, and it's absolutely doable, especially

(01:24:33):
going over and with the quality thatthey've been able to show on the offensive
side of the Sandy with soccers.But look, it's much like the soccers
played down to the competition. Thecompetition plays up to the soccers at times.
So that's something that they've been facingthroughout where everybody wants in the league
wants to see the soccers get punchedin the mouth and they get celebrated every

(01:24:56):
time that they do, or there'ssome semblance of it where ah, man,
they almost got them, good effort, but when they do it,
it's something that's it's gonna make theMISL News home page, top flight so
and so beats San Diego Soccers orand look, Dallas is coming off of
a very interesting couple of matches whereyou've lost and you allow twenty two goals

(01:25:17):
in one, but you took itto Texas and you've shown that you have
the capacity to to win. Sothey're on a nupsweek, they have some
momentum, and it's not necessarily thetime for the Sockers to really just get
comfortable, get you know, confident, overly confident, and then just say
we've got this, because in oneof those that's when they're going to go
ahead and have just enough this onetime to go over that edge and possibly

(01:25:42):
beat you. And that's not asituation where anybody wants in the San Dieg
Soccers franchise wants to be in,but it's a reality, and look,
why not play your best, getthe job taken care of. That's always
my philosophy, just get the jobdone. If it's over by the second
quarter, great, then you canstart playing around, you can start doing
whatever it is that you want.Put some of the young guys some debuts

(01:26:04):
here and there, then we canmess around. But until then, let's
get the job done. Let's belethal about it. Get take care of
business. Score all the goals,do not let them score, and that's
it. Come back, healthy,move on to the next game. The
tactics here are fascinating for head coachPhil Silvaggio because you've got a team in

(01:26:24):
Dallas that you should be able tohandle. So there is absolutely an argument
to be made that on Saturday,Quentin Ivy should get his soccer starting debut.
Max Rodriguez should who got his startingdebut Saturday in Tacoma, but he
never saw the field, you knowthat he should see the field. Julian
Garcia should see the field. Thatthese young players should get an opportunity to

(01:26:46):
draw into the lineup, maybe putsome more pressure on select soccer's vets to
be you know, very aggressive andscoring, attack minded, and then maybe
leave two or three guys at homethat don't make the trip at all and
just wait back and are rested andready for Sunday and Empire. I think

(01:27:11):
there's a lot of coaches that wouldgo that way and make that choice.
Now, Phil traditionally has not donethat. He traditionally is what's the right
way to put I don't want toput it in a way that sounds badulus
he plays every game he does notwant to lose. Yeah, Like there's
that that fear of losing within you. And I'm not saying he coach is

(01:27:33):
scared, but I'm saying, likethe odds are you know. And I
heard Sezar say, you know,Mitchell Cardon this would like to come back
this weekend, like a more typicalfilm move would be Okay, Phil,
you Mitchell, you're back. You'regonna play thirty minute Saturday and you're gonna
play thirty minutes Sunday. Like you'reback. That means you're in. I'm

(01:27:55):
just curious. I'm curious. DoesPhil have the confidence in the young bucks
that he assigned to this roster inthe last two weeks to put him in
the lineup against a Dallas Sidekicks team. You know, I'm telling you there's
plenty of coaches that would start XavierSnaire Williams. Yeah, in a match
like this, it would just leaveBoris at home and say like Boris,

(01:28:15):
chill out, We'll see a Sundayagainst Empire. But probably they won't do
that. It's the kind of thingI've been begging for them to do for
years. Probably they won't do it, but I will be really interested to
see, even if it's one player, if the soccers will hold back somebody
for the Empire match. Yeah,it's wanting to play your best hand every
single hand, knowing that you havethe aces every single hand. Yeah,

(01:28:40):
you might want to go ahead andyou know you can win with with with
two pairs, you know, witha poker analogy, you can win with
you know straight, No, ithas to be a royal flush every single
time. I guess, like,okay, that's a strategy. And again
with with Boris himself, right,like he's the player that always wants to
be in the game. If hecan walk, he's gonna play in the

(01:29:02):
match. And that's just again thephilosophy of what champions, these champions are
made of. But again it's thatstrategy of like, look, you also
are gonna need this depth for lateron in the year because if there are
injuries, you need those players toget those real time minutes, to have
them under the belt, get thatchemistry, and you know you might find
something as well. We talked aboutIrvian Mohica a lot. We found who

(01:29:26):
he was over in Monterrey because hewas allowed those minutes, because he was
allowed those situations to flourish and playwith the soccers first team. Yeah.
So, I mean, I knowhow like strategically or tactically I would think
about handling it. It's not traditionallyhow the soccers handle it. And given
that this is generally a weekend league, you can kind of get away with

(01:29:47):
it. Just like in college baseballyou see teams start their same starting lineup
every single games because they play Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then maybe on
Tuesday. You know, and forthe soccers in this case, even if
it's Saturday Sun Day. Yeah,but like as Jonas Jaco says, we
could play without child Saturday and thenplay in Sunday. Like you could.

(01:30:08):
You absolutely could. You could holdback a couple three guys, and the
soccers have the talent to be like, hey, you know what, today,
Drew ruggles, You're in the powerplay instead of Ta Void, Morgan
or you know name name the guys. We've got the depth on the roster
to do that. We'll see.Uh. I think Sunday night's match is

(01:30:29):
going to be a real test forthe San Diego Soccers. Soccer should win
Saturday, frankly, no matter whatif. Even if they played their worst
and the sidekicks play their best,it should be a close Soccers win.
But if the Soccers give up evenone point in Dallas, you will hear
an incredibly disappointed Creig on next week'sshow, Like Soccers can't give up a

(01:30:55):
point in Dallas. Empire looked likea layup after their first two games,
losing by seven goals both games.They beat a bad team by one on
the road. I'm not gonna,like I said, throw a ton of
chips into the bucket for that,But these are the things I know are

(01:31:16):
going to be true for Sunday.The Soccers will wake up around four to
thirty in the morning Texas time,meaning two thirty in the morning San Diego
time, in order to get outof their hotel rooms, get everything packed,
get down to the lobby, anddrive from Allen, Texas, which
is about a ninety minute drive tolove Field in the south Dallas Fort Worth

(01:31:42):
area, which is the Southwest hubfor DFW, and then they'll need to
take a four hour flight back toSan Diego, California. Could there be
weather in Texas? Like throw thedice, There could always be weather in
Texas. Could there be a flightdelay in Texas? There could always be

(01:32:03):
a flight delay in Texas. Wesaw baseball sized hail when we were there
with Landon in Dallas at the AllenEvent Center, So like anything's possible.
That's why the start time for Sundaygot pushed back an hour to six oh
five. But no matter what,if everything goes as clean and smoothly as

(01:32:23):
possible, the soccers will have beenup since two thirty in the morning after
having played a full indoor soccer matchthe night before, flying across four state
lines to get back to California.Empire will have played Friday night at home.
They'll have rested Saturday night at home. They have the option they might

(01:32:45):
drive down Saturday night, take advantageof the free hotel sleep at the Dana
End Mission Bay, and be restedand ready to take on the soccers.
Or maybe they'll do what we alwaysdo, and they'll chill in their own
beds and they'll drive down, youknow, around noon is ish to get
down to the arena. Either way, it's a significant, significant physical advantage

(01:33:08):
for Empire on Sunday, for ateam that's already pretty much younger than the
soccers. They're going to not haveairplane legs, They're not gonna have that
dehydration that takes place, they won'thave the wear of playing the night before,
and they are gonna come in hardTony. This is Paul Wright's first
match ever as a head coach againstthe team that he played for, you

(01:33:32):
know, and brought multiple championships to. He knows Phil as well as Phil
knows Paul. Paul wants to beatPhil more than anything in the world.
This would be the signature win forthe Empire Strikers. And if they got
it the first time out against SanDiego, like Katie bar the door in
terms of they'll probably recycle the hashtagChampionship Bound after that. You know.

(01:33:56):
So, I truly truly believe ifEmpire is gonna come loaded for bear on
Sunday and if the soccers take theireye off the ball, they're going to
find themselves down a goal in thefourth quarter, an incredibly difficult a couple
of hours of travel, game travel. It's it's not ideal at all.

(01:34:23):
And this is a situation where nowyou have the health of the players definitely
at the forefront, and that's somethingthat you have to wait and see after
the match. Right. You canhave a knock, you can have something
happened to one of the players inthe first quarter and that's it, like
they're done for the game, andyou know you can't send them back.
You have to wait for everybody,and and that recovery time is also just

(01:34:45):
you know, compromise. In thatsituation, then it's such a giant question
mark. It's a it's a monkeywrench of potential energy. Energy that's going
to be with this whole modical Fabiangoal. Uh, game away, Right,
people are gonna want to see MichaelFabien. People are gonna go ahead
and want to see what the Strikersteam is gonna be. They're gonna have

(01:35:09):
the first match with Michael Fabian onthe squad that Friday that you're mentioning,
so they'll have an idea of howto potentially utilize them. Are they going
to try to shoehorn him into thelineup. I don't know, and there's
a lot of I don't knows,and it's not looking favorable for the situation
that we do know with travel withthe recovery. Man, two am,

(01:35:29):
I don't want to do anything attwo am. I don't want to do
anything at four am. What arewe talking about? Like, this is
hardcore travel. It's not just aprivate jet here and there. No,
it's it's not the reality of things. This is you know, it's gonna
be incredibly tough, and man,if the Soccers are able to pull this
off, man, that's that's gonnabe an incredible I think just a landmark

(01:35:54):
win here in the season for thesoccers, and it is really a recipe
potentially for success later on when theyface us in the year. Yeah.
I think this is a big weekendfor San Diego and if they drop a
point this weekend, I won't bestunned. I'll be disappointed, but I
won't be stunned. So in orderto take care of business on Sunday,
here's the kind of here's the thingsthat I'm really focusing on. First off,

(01:36:16):
I'm very curious about Lucas Roque becausethis was supposed to be the veteran
up front. That is going tobe the steady hand on the till,
that's going to be the calming saw. You know, the cooling saucer underneath
the hot cup of Paul Wright's.You know rookie Year as a manager,
somebody who you can count on onset pieces, on power plays. Lucas

(01:36:36):
Roque was shut out in Empire's firstmatch and he hasn't played in the last
two, so they haven't said anything. I haven't seen anything, but is
Roque injured? Is he out?Has he lost favor after one match?
I can't imagine. I'm very curiousbecause Rokey to me, is a difference
maker in this league when he plays. When he plays well, he knows

(01:36:58):
what to do. You know,I'm curious, and without him, I
feel like you're really counting on youngguys to carry Empire. How will Fabian
play? None of us know.We have no idea. We have no
idea. Is he going to bea superstar that gets five goals in his
first match? Is he going totake a hamstring injury in the first quarter

(01:37:19):
and we never see him again.We've seen both examples of both in the
past. We've seen Landon, We'veseen Jermaine Jones, you know, we've
seen Torres, We've seen Blas Perez. We've seen these guys. We saw
blas Perez last year show up forone game and disappear for twelve. Yeah,
so I can't put anything on Fabianright now. I have no idea.

(01:37:41):
Is he going to be amazing?Is he going to be clueless defensively
and we'll be able to sidewall passaround him and run past him and target
him, you know, defensively.You have no idea gigantic question mark for
this match. Here's what I lookat for the players that I do know
and can scout. I think there'sa lot of youth. There's a lot
of speed on Empire. You know, There's there's Paul Wright's son, There's

(01:38:05):
Abdul Montserat. Adam James is aguy who has straight line speed. They've
got a lot of guys with straightline speed on the team. What they
don't have on this team anymore isveteran defenders. They let Uzy Tayu go,
they let Robert Palmer go. Theytraded for Stephan Miyatovic, and he
is kind of the veteran defender forthis club. It's him, and it's

(01:38:30):
a bunch of rookies and young guys. So I think Tony the soccer is
almost in a basketball style. Needto target Stephan Miyatovic in this match.
Target him, Run at him,have Brandon run at him, have Charlie
run at him, have Coaster runat him. Because what you want is
to get Stephan Miyatovic in foul trouble. He is a physical player. We

(01:38:53):
talked about his bite. We sawhim rip the dread off of a Harrisburg
Heat last year and get suspended.Like he's that kind of dude. If
you get under his skin, he'sgoing to try and go through your skin.
And getting me atobachin foul trouble oroff the field would give the soccers
the opportunity to attack an inexperienced keeper, inexperienced defenders. And that's the type

(01:39:15):
of situation where, no matter howhard and hungry empire comes, if their
defenders can't handle it, the soccersare going to put a dozen hut.
Yeah, there's gonna be a chessmatt situation where you're gonna have to win
with this as well as the bodyright, You're gonna have to be able
to manage how to go ahead andattack the defense, because if you take
out the one veteran presence that youhave, you can discombobulate that entire team

(01:39:36):
essentially. And you know, withthe experience that the soccers have and with
a diversity of attack that they canpresent, Granted, yeah, they're going
to be tired, They're going tobe in the situation that we've been talking
about. But ultimately, like it'sgoing to have to be incumbent on the
sockers to take it to the strikers, and they cannot just play on the

(01:39:58):
back foot. They have to goahead and take advantage of those things.
You know what, the young theyoung guys are going to be able to
run behind you, But you havethe experience and then know how again to
get in those angles, in thosespaces and place perfect passes, pay perfect
weighted shots in order to go aheadand do that. But again, it's
just an interesting set of situations that'sgonna happen, and again, strikers are

(01:40:19):
gonna play up and up the competitionto their competition, like this is a
big game, not just for thesoccers, it's a huge game for them
as well. Yeah, this isAdmiral Acbar weekend for the San Diego soccers.
It's a propp like two traps intwo states. And I truly believe

(01:40:39):
if the soccers are clean, youknow, what is it, a clear
eyes, full hearts, can't lose, you know, like, if they
have that Friday night lights attitude,they'll get two wins, no problem.
They will hashtag discombobulate, no problem. It just takes a lit little bit

(01:41:00):
of inattention. Sag back, relax, I'm tired, I'm jet lagged.
I don't need to go I don'tneed to go one hundred percent here.
I can go seventy. I'll befine. And that would be how one
of these teams is in the game. And I do believe in at least

(01:41:23):
one of these two matches, oneof these opponents, these underdog opponents,
will be in the game in thesecond half. I'd love to be wrong,
I'd love for us to see twoboat races this weekend, but I
think one of these teams is goingto be in the match, if not
both, in the second half.I think the travel situation is onerous for

(01:41:46):
the soccers, and especially the firsttime out, so I'm very, very
curious to see how it all playsout. The soccers get to four and
oh, no one will give themany credit for this weekend. They'll be
like, yeah, they'd be Dallas, Yeah they'd beat Empire. Who gives
a crap? Wait till West theyplayed Chiuaa. You know, I may
sell Monday, guys will just shineit. But this is hard. This
is a very difficult travel weekend.This is a scheduled loss on Sunday.

(01:42:10):
And if the soccers get through itwithout losing, I'll be I'll be very
satisfied with the weekend. I'll Idon't care about style, I just care
about six points this weekend. Agreed. All right, let's wrap up the
show. Our forty five a littlebit longer than normal, but that's okay
because two weekcaps, because we hadthe Alice, we had the regularly defense

(01:42:39):
captain, our special day and Tonyincredible work as always. My friend,
you and I will be on themic Sunday people finds and the Empires everything.
Well, you can go ahead andfind me at Underscore. Tony centis
underscore. Tony shunches or two ballsand a mic to be a a and

(01:43:03):
a mic M I see or something. Really, you can find me anywhere
soccer and San Diego. You'll findthis face. Craig. You can find
me on Instagram at six or nineSports and life. If you want to
follow me on X, you cansix or nine Sports. I haven't dissolved
the account yet. I'm still waiting, like I'm praying for Blue sky Er

(01:43:23):
Threads to take off. Because theminute that I don't have to rely on
X to find out when Jung HuLei signs with the Giants, or show
you Tani signs with the Dodgers oreverything else, or Microfabi on slide with
the Srikers for that matter, thatI will happily jump off that platform.

(01:43:44):
Love h Dixas. See you onthe golf course, Craig. Absolutely,
let's go. We playing this weekend. Let's do it all right. I
want to do it all right forTony Sanchez for says, I stand with
that. I'm Craig els did.We will see you Sunday at Pachanga Arena.
Don't forget, bring your socks,bring your underwear, toss dem socks
check them shonies. We will seeyou for the sock toss on Sunday.
Until then, have a great weekendand go soccers.

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