May 2, 2024 • 13 mins
Pat Brennan of Cincinnati.com joined us on ESPN1530 to discuss FC Cincinnati's two-game winning streak, the addition of Kevin Kelsy, and Aaron Boupendza getting punch in the face.
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Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
Listen to the show live weekday afternoons 3:00 - 6:00 on ESPN1530.
Listen Live: ESPN1530.com/listen
Follow on Twitter: @MoEgger
Email: mo@espn1530.com
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I didn't play this. I didthis is I'm not responsible for this.
I thought we would talk about KevinKelsey joining FC Cincinnati and what happened to
Aaron Boo Penn's jaw and the gameon Saturday. FC Cincinnati is on the
road against Orlando. That's why we'recalling Pat Brennan. Pat covers FC Cincinnati
for the Cincinnati Inquirer and Cincinnati dotCom, and he's with I just I
(00:23):
wanted to have ya on to talkabout soccer, but also check in and
see how you were doing. Well. Thanks, Mo, I know you
truly care. I do I'm doing. I'm doing okay. I assume that
comment your your line of question thererelates to the Sixers next series, and
I do feel I feel good abouttonight. I don't feel great about the
(00:45):
series. I would just gonna tellyou I'm gonna I want to I want
to opt out. I want tocash out, you know, like if
you gamble, I want to cashout. Yeah, oh yeah, the
early cash out. Yeah yeah,yes, Well we can do that.
We can get together and do ourthing, but you know, on the
gar front. But you know,I think, as a general rule,
and I said this to the producerbefore I came on. When these first
(01:07):
round series go along, I feellike that's usually not always, that's a
kiss of death for both teams.And we're looking at Game six tonight.
Philly's at home. I think theywill force Game seven and ultimately lose there
back in New York. But thisis just like we said before we before
the series started, this is thisis a rough, rough draw for both
(01:30):
teams for a first round series.So the kiss of the kiss of death
is when you're at home and you'reup three and you're leading by six,
and uh, the crowd is goingwild and then Tyrese Maxi turns into Reggie
Miller. That's yeah, and youlet it get away like it's I've lived
(01:51):
this my entire life, not justas a Knicks fan, I've lived this
in my entire life as basically asports fan. I know how this ends,
and it will not end tonight.It will continue, and then it's
gonna end on Saturday, and I'mgoing that would be truly shocking. I
truly don't think that's gonna happen throughI think you'll be okay. But again,
(02:13):
these teams will just have scratched andclawed each other's eyes out to the
point where they're so feeble in thesecond round. It I kind of don't
think it'll matter, but I thinkyou'll be fine. Maybe you'll be a
happy boy tonight could be well,we'll see. Aaron bo Penza has a
broken jaw. Was Joel Embiide involved. No, No, of the of
(02:36):
the injuries that Joel has sustained,I don't think the broken jaws want and
there are a great many at thispoint in his career. No, but
sustained or inflicted upon others, rightright, Well, listen, I I
I hopefully will have a little morenews to share on this subject in a
(02:58):
few minutes. But yeah, Aaron, obviously he's out six to eight weeks
and that is because of an offfield incident that resulted in a broken jaw
for him. He went under theknife to repair that broken jaw today,
I understand. And yeah, ona day when FC Cincinnati introduced a very
(03:22):
promising nineteen year old Venezuelan striker whofigured to play alongside Aaron, the day
kind of became about a player that, over the course of the rest of
the season, might be replacing Aaronpermanent. Well in the short term,
while Aaron is out for up totwo months and then potentially you know,
(03:43):
beyond that. So it's a littlebit of a situation f C Cincinnati is
sorting through right now. I wantto ask about who they've brought in,
and I don't want you to giveaway your reporting here, but there's I
think a great amount of I knowthere's a great amount of least on social
media fan exasperation with Aaron. Isthat shared with the within the halls of
(04:08):
FC Cincinnati's training center. You know, I think it's twofold, the way
they feel about the way they probablyfeel about Aaron. There's no question that
as of today, you know,May May second, I think we're at
amo if you'd gone back, ifwe went back to the day Aaron Bupenza
arrived last summer and asked people aforecast, you know, what kind of
(04:33):
a trajectory would this player be oncome May second, twenty twenty four,
You wouldn't, you know? Abroken jaw and looking at two months on
the sideline is not what you wouldhave forecasted, you know, plain and
simple. On top of that,he hasn't produced the goals that he's supposed
to be. The man at FCCincinnati and he hasn't produced the goals that
(04:55):
kind of need to come with thatmantle, you know, in the big
salary and all that. But youknow, then there's another recognition of what
Aaron did for this team down thestretch last year. People will remember that
a very talented goal scorer Brenner leftthe club. FC Cincinnati needed to plug
that hole. They did it inthe aggregate with several players that were already
(05:18):
here, but they really needed kindof a top level talent to get them
over the line and help them wintheir first trophy, and Aaron did that.
He was kind of I think thegold standard for goal scorers in Europe
is kind of a goal every othergame or a goal every third game.
You were getting that from Aaron,And like I said, that's considered the
(05:39):
gold standard from a top level striker. So you were getting that from Aaron.
He helped this team wrap up theSupporter Shield, which was their first
major trophy. People appreciate that,but there's no question this is not you
know, the first time Aaron hasbeen in the news for off field incidents.
You know, he was suspended bythe team for a game for returning
(06:01):
repeated lateness is returning from international duty, and you know, it seems like
a litany of other things. Howcould that not wear on you? You
know, I guess is how I'mlooking on it. But the guy did
some good here. He's not goneyet. I think you will see him
in orange and blue again. Butyeah, this is this is not where
(06:21):
you want one of your highest yourtop three highest paid players to be right
now. That's frustrating. When whenyou and I last talked, this team
was trying to end a two gamelosing streak. They've done that by getting
six points over the last two games. And you know, I think I've
done this with the Reds. Youyou look at the standings, they're second
place in the Eastern Conference. Ithink relative to how unevenly they've played at
(06:45):
times and all the injuries and allthe just stuff that has been thrown at
this club, that is a smashingsuccess. Right Yeah, I think so
absolutely. I think they're pretty significantlyahead of schedule until where I thought they'd
be this year. And I thoughtthey'd you know, make the playoffs and
contend for the MLS Cup and allthat stuff. I didn't think they were
(07:06):
going to be bad. But youknow, just with kind of the herky
jerky nature of all the personnel theylost in the offseason, some of the
struggles they've had this year, asyou pointed out having to balance the Champions
Cup. Yeah, you have that. Not only are they in second place,
Mo the three points back of firstplace Miami, and they have a
(07:28):
game in hand, so conceivably they'llbe right there with Miami in due time.
That is very impressive, especially considering, you know, the four goals
they've scored over these last two gamesthat they won, those all came with
Aaron Bupenza sitting on the bench.You know, that makes it more impressive.
Aaron hadn't been delivering goals at theclip you needed this year, but
(07:50):
he can still produce things at amoment's notice. He's he's got that raw
talent and raw ability. So thefact that they're doing this with Aaron on
the bench suggests to me that there'smore than more than a snowballs chance that
they can continue to produce goals whilehe's out for the next six to eight
weeks. And yeah, I mean, it's it's crazy to think they've come
(08:15):
to this point with all the movingparts and especially the talent they lost last
year. It was really incredible,but I think they're ahead of schedule from
where they should be. Mom,what is Kevin Kelsey at Well? In
the medium term, he could endup being a really, really solid filling
for Aaron Bupenza. This kid isold, nineteen years old. You know,
(08:37):
I've been getting it. I've beenon the wrong end of I've been
on the butt end of some socialmedia teasing mo people teasing me from my
turn of phrase. I said oneday, Kevin Kelsey, Look, he's
a physical freak, in my opinion, is what I think. We met
him today, super nice kid.He's nineteen years old. Pat Noonon had
glowing things to say about him.He's already staying after practice, He's asking
(09:01):
coaches to stay after with him andhelp him. And this is a player
that's already scored in the Champions Leagueover in Europe. So this is like
a top level prospect, a toplevel phenom that actually Cincinnati has on his
hands. But I described him asphysically formidable. His frame was formidable.
People didn't like that, but heis physically I don't know, you'd have
(09:24):
to ask some of these knuckles physicallyformidable. Is not one of them.
I would be called physically formidable.Are you kidding me? In my current
state, if someone called me physicallyformidable, I would I would you know,
I'd be walking on air. Butthis guy is physically formidable, Hugh.
(09:45):
You know, he with with awith a frame, he broad shoulders,
big tree trunk legs. With aframe like that, you can play
with the defender on your back,receive the ball, distribute to players around
you, and also turn and havea shot for you. So he potentially
you got to like kind of youknow, be reasonable because he is nineteen,
(10:07):
he's in another new country. He'sfrom Venezuela, and he just came
from you know, Ukraine, whichwas not an easy assignment. As he
described for us today, their aspectsof competing in near near not in but
near wars and that are very challengingfor a nineteen year old. But this
guy's adaptable, you know, consideringwhere he's where he's come from. And
(10:28):
yeah, I mean all of thatvotes very very well for his future.
Here FC Cincinnati on the road onSaturday against Orlando and then they play Columbus,
which is is you know, nextweek's going to be a lot of
fun it's the rematch of the EasternConference Final. But you know, I
was watching that match that night andColumbus scores, you know, within the
(10:50):
last five minutes of regulation, andI turned to the guy that I was
watching with and I said, Iknow how this ends, and that's exactly
how I feel about the Knicks.So I was right then. Unfortunately I
hope I'm wrong tonight. We willsee. I always appreciate you coming on
man. Thank you. Yeah,I appreciate you. MO. Thanks a
lot, buddy, Pat Brennan,make sure you follow him on Twitter,
slash x at p Brendan e andQ. Reading in the Inquirer and Cincinnati
(11:15):
dot Com. You know it's it'sKentucky Derby weekend. We have one more
set of tickets, four of them, four tickets to Turfway Parks, racing
and gaming. It's their Kentucky Derbyparty. It says here Kentucky Derby Parties
in't quotes. It's this Saturday.They're gonna have betting, believe it or
(11:35):
not. You could bet on thehorse races betting. They're gonna have a
DJ They're gonna have a hat contest, so you could wear your Kentucky Derby
hat. They're gonna have family friendlyactivities in the event that you're like,
you know what, I'm taking mykids. That's awesome. They're gonna have
the naked karate girls. This isgonna be a good time. You could
(11:56):
get tickets to their Kentucky Derby partyby going to Turfway dot com. Or
you can call five one three sevenfour nine fifteen thirty. That's our phone
number, that's our show. Fiveone three seven four nine fifteen thirty and
uh, and you might win tickets. We're looking for contestants. I think
(12:16):
you know what we're gonna do,right, but I think I've made this
mostly easy. We're gonna test yourknowledge of a guy that the city is
on edge waiting to see what happensto him. Mike Ford, Mike Ford
trivia to pick them up tomorrow.You've got to be able to pick up
the tickets tomorrow, yes, whichI know that's gonna disqualify some some folks,
(12:39):
which is fine. Five one threeseven four nine fifteen thirty. If
you want to go to this bigKentucky Derby party on Saturday, uh,
And if you want to go onour dime, call five one three seven
four nine fifteen thirty Good Luck,It's twenty four from six o'clock on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati'sESPN
I didn't play this. I didthis is I'm not responsible for this.
I thought we would talk about KevinKelsey joining FC Cincinnati and what happened to
Aaron Boo Penn's jaw and the gameon Saturday. FC Cincinnati is on the
road against Orlando. That's why we'recalling Pat Brennan. Pat covers FC Cincinnati
for the Cincinnati Inquirer and Cincinnati dotCom, and he's with I just I
(00:23):
wanted to have ya on to talkabout soccer, but also check in and
see how you were doing. Well. Thanks, Mo, I know you
truly care. I do I'm doing. I'm doing okay. I assume that
comment your your line of question thererelates to the Sixers next series, and
I do feel I feel good abouttonight. I don't feel great about the
(00:45):
series. I would just gonna tellyou I'm gonna I want to I want
to opt out. I want tocash out, you know, like if
you gamble, I want to cashout. Yeah, oh yeah, the
early cash out. Yeah yeah,yes, Well we can do that.
We can get together and do ourthing, but you know, on the
gar front. But you know,I think, as a general rule,
and I said this to the producerbefore I came on. When these first
(01:07):
round series go along, I feellike that's usually not always, that's a
kiss of death for both teams.And we're looking at Game six tonight.
Philly's at home. I think theywill force Game seven and ultimately lose there
back in New York. But thisis just like we said before we before
the series started, this is thisis a rough, rough draw for both
(01:30):
teams for a first round series.So the kiss of the kiss of death
is when you're at home and you'reup three and you're leading by six,
and uh, the crowd is goingwild and then Tyrese Maxi turns into Reggie
Miller. That's yeah, and youlet it get away like it's I've lived
(01:51):
this my entire life, not justas a Knicks fan, I've lived this
in my entire life as basically asports fan. I know how this ends,
and it will not end tonight.It will continue, and then it's
gonna end on Saturday, and I'mgoing that would be truly shocking. I
truly don't think that's gonna happen throughI think you'll be okay. But again,
(02:13):
these teams will just have scratched andclawed each other's eyes out to the
point where they're so feeble in thesecond round. It I kind of don't
think it'll matter, but I thinkyou'll be fine. Maybe you'll be a
happy boy tonight could be well,we'll see. Aaron bo Penza has a
broken jaw. Was Joel Embiide involved. No, No, of the of
(02:36):
the injuries that Joel has sustained,I don't think the broken jaws want and
there are a great many at thispoint in his career. No, but
sustained or inflicted upon others, rightright, Well, listen, I I
I hopefully will have a little morenews to share on this subject in a
(02:58):
few minutes. But yeah, Aaron, obviously he's out six to eight weeks
and that is because of an offfield incident that resulted in a broken jaw
for him. He went under theknife to repair that broken jaw today,
I understand. And yeah, ona day when FC Cincinnati introduced a very
(03:22):
promising nineteen year old Venezuelan striker whofigured to play alongside Aaron, the day
kind of became about a player that, over the course of the rest of
the season, might be replacing Aaronpermanent. Well in the short term,
while Aaron is out for up totwo months and then potentially you know,
(03:43):
beyond that. So it's a littlebit of a situation f C Cincinnati is
sorting through right now. I wantto ask about who they've brought in,
and I don't want you to giveaway your reporting here, but there's I
think a great amount of I knowthere's a great amount of least on social
media fan exasperation with Aaron. Isthat shared with the within the halls of
(04:08):
FC Cincinnati's training center. You know, I think it's twofold, the way
they feel about the way they probablyfeel about Aaron. There's no question that
as of today, you know,May May second, I think we're at
amo if you'd gone back, ifwe went back to the day Aaron Bupenza
arrived last summer and asked people aforecast, you know, what kind of
(04:33):
a trajectory would this player be oncome May second, twenty twenty four,
You wouldn't, you know? Abroken jaw and looking at two months on
the sideline is not what you wouldhave forecasted, you know, plain and
simple. On top of that,he hasn't produced the goals that he's supposed
to be. The man at FCCincinnati and he hasn't produced the goals that
(04:55):
kind of need to come with thatmantle, you know, in the big
salary and all that. But youknow, then there's another recognition of what
Aaron did for this team down thestretch last year. People will remember that
a very talented goal scorer Brenner leftthe club. FC Cincinnati needed to plug
that hole. They did it inthe aggregate with several players that were already
(05:18):
here, but they really needed kindof a top level talent to get them
over the line and help them wintheir first trophy, and Aaron did that.
He was kind of I think thegold standard for goal scorers in Europe
is kind of a goal every othergame or a goal every third game.
You were getting that from Aaron,And like I said, that's considered the
(05:39):
gold standard from a top level striker. So you were getting that from Aaron.
He helped this team wrap up theSupporter Shield, which was their first
major trophy. People appreciate that,but there's no question this is not you
know, the first time Aaron hasbeen in the news for off field incidents.
You know, he was suspended bythe team for a game for returning
(06:01):
repeated lateness is returning from international duty, and you know, it seems like
a litany of other things. Howcould that not wear on you? You
know, I guess is how I'mlooking on it. But the guy did
some good here. He's not goneyet. I think you will see him
in orange and blue again. Butyeah, this is this is not where
(06:21):
you want one of your highest yourtop three highest paid players to be right
now. That's frustrating. When whenyou and I last talked, this team
was trying to end a two gamelosing streak. They've done that by getting
six points over the last two games. And you know, I think I've
done this with the Reds. Youyou look at the standings, they're second
place in the Eastern Conference. Ithink relative to how unevenly they've played at
(06:45):
times and all the injuries and allthe just stuff that has been thrown at
this club, that is a smashingsuccess. Right Yeah, I think so
absolutely. I think they're pretty significantlyahead of schedule until where I thought they'd
be this year. And I thoughtthey'd you know, make the playoffs and
contend for the MLS Cup and allthat stuff. I didn't think they were
(07:06):
going to be bad. But youknow, just with kind of the herky
jerky nature of all the personnel theylost in the offseason, some of the
struggles they've had this year, asyou pointed out having to balance the Champions
Cup. Yeah, you have that. Not only are they in second place,
Mo the three points back of firstplace Miami, and they have a
(07:28):
game in hand, so conceivably they'llbe right there with Miami in due time.
That is very impressive, especially considering, you know, the four goals
they've scored over these last two gamesthat they won, those all came with
Aaron Bupenza sitting on the bench.You know, that makes it more impressive.
Aaron hadn't been delivering goals at theclip you needed this year, but
(07:50):
he can still produce things at amoment's notice. He's he's got that raw
talent and raw ability. So thefact that they're doing this with Aaron on
the bench suggests to me that there'smore than more than a snowballs chance that
they can continue to produce goals whilehe's out for the next six to eight
weeks. And yeah, I mean, it's it's crazy to think they've come
(08:15):
to this point with all the movingparts and especially the talent they lost last
year. It was really incredible,but I think they're ahead of schedule from
where they should be. Mom,what is Kevin Kelsey at Well? In
the medium term, he could endup being a really, really solid filling
for Aaron Bupenza. This kid isold, nineteen years old. You know,
(08:37):
I've been getting it. I've beenon the wrong end of I've been
on the butt end of some socialmedia teasing mo people teasing me from my
turn of phrase. I said oneday, Kevin Kelsey, Look, he's
a physical freak, in my opinion, is what I think. We met
him today, super nice kid.He's nineteen years old. Pat Noonon had
glowing things to say about him.He's already staying after practice, He's asking
(09:01):
coaches to stay after with him andhelp him. And this is a player
that's already scored in the Champions Leagueover in Europe. So this is like
a top level prospect, a toplevel phenom that actually Cincinnati has on his
hands. But I described him asphysically formidable. His frame was formidable.
People didn't like that, but heis physically I don't know, you'd have
(09:24):
to ask some of these knuckles physicallyformidable. Is not one of them.
I would be called physically formidable.Are you kidding me? In my current
state, if someone called me physicallyformidable, I would I would you know,
I'd be walking on air. Butthis guy is physically formidable, Hugh.
(09:45):
You know, he with with awith a frame, he broad shoulders,
big tree trunk legs. With aframe like that, you can play
with the defender on your back,receive the ball, distribute to players around
you, and also turn and havea shot for you. So he potentially
you got to like kind of youknow, be reasonable because he is nineteen,
(10:07):
he's in another new country. He'sfrom Venezuela, and he just came
from you know, Ukraine, whichwas not an easy assignment. As he
described for us today, their aspectsof competing in near near not in but
near wars and that are very challengingfor a nineteen year old. But this
guy's adaptable, you know, consideringwhere he's where he's come from. And
(10:28):
yeah, I mean all of thatvotes very very well for his future.
Here FC Cincinnati on the road onSaturday against Orlando and then they play Columbus,
which is is you know, nextweek's going to be a lot of
fun it's the rematch of the EasternConference Final. But you know, I
was watching that match that night andColumbus scores, you know, within the
(10:50):
last five minutes of regulation, andI turned to the guy that I was
watching with and I said, Iknow how this ends, and that's exactly
how I feel about the Knicks.So I was right then. Unfortunately I
hope I'm wrong tonight. We willsee. I always appreciate you coming on
man. Thank you. Yeah,I appreciate you. MO. Thanks a
lot, buddy, Pat Brennan,make sure you follow him on Twitter,
slash x at p Brendan e andQ. Reading in the Inquirer and Cincinnati
(11:15):
dot Com. You know it's it'sKentucky Derby weekend. We have one more
set of tickets, four of them, four tickets to Turfway Parks, racing
and gaming. It's their Kentucky Derbyparty. It says here Kentucky Derby Parties
in't quotes. It's this Saturday.They're gonna have betting, believe it or
(11:35):
not. You could bet on thehorse races betting. They're gonna have a
DJ They're gonna have a hat contest, so you could wear your Kentucky Derby
hat. They're gonna have family friendlyactivities in the event that you're like,
you know what, I'm taking mykids. That's awesome. They're gonna have
the naked karate girls. This isgonna be a good time. You could
(11:56):
get tickets to their Kentucky Derby partyby going to Turfway dot com. Or
you can call five one three sevenfour nine fifteen thirty. That's our phone
number, that's our show. Fiveone three seven four nine fifteen thirty and
uh, and you might win tickets. We're looking for contestants. I think
(12:16):
you know what we're gonna do,right, but I think I've made this
mostly easy. We're gonna test yourknowledge of a guy that the city is
on edge waiting to see what happensto him. Mike Ford, Mike Ford
trivia to pick them up tomorrow.You've got to be able to pick up
the tickets tomorrow, yes, whichI know that's gonna disqualify some some folks,
(12:39):
which is fine. Five one threeseven four nine fifteen thirty. If
you want to go to this bigKentucky Derby party on Saturday, uh,
And if you want to go onour dime, call five one three seven
four nine fifteen thirty Good Luck,It's twenty four from six o'clock on ESPN
fifteen thirty Cincinnati Sports Station, Cincinnati'sESPN
Mo Egger News
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