Cincy 360 -- Austin Elmore with Tom Gelehrter

Austin talks with Tom Gelehrter of FC Cincinnati, on ESPN 1530!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, Hello, Welcome in ournumber three since he three sixty ESPN fifteen
thirty, brought to you by ourgood friends at Penn Station. No Tony
on a Friday, but the Fridayvibes continued. Charlie Goldsmith earlier, Tommy
golerder now talking a little FC Cincinnatias they returned from their break and head

(00:20):
out west to take on San Jose, and Tommy joins us. Now,
Tommy, what have you been doingthe last couple of weeks? Have you
been done anything productive at all?Austin, Austin, Austin. Where is
Tony? Tony Tony? How longdoes leave? That's a great question.
I think there's I think it's upfor debate. It's you know, three

(00:41):
days, ten days, I comeback around Football Sea or something like that.
Yeah, he'll yeah, He's probablylike, yeah, he'll probably take
a vacation somewhere. You know,he did all of his vacation at one
time last year. He'll probably dothat again. So we'll see him sometime
in October. Yeah, well,we look forward to that. In the
meantime, I'm appreciative of you havingme on. Glad to be here for

(01:02):
a usual Friday slot and let's seesixteen days since f C Cincinnati have taken
the pitch, so it'll be seventeentomorrow night when we see him back in
action in San Jose at late nightonce. I hope everybody fires up some
coffee or puts it on as theygo to Saturday night. But I know
it's been sure a productive couple ofweeks working on some other things, you

(01:23):
know that's up the voice. I'mready for the second half of the season
now and can't wait, honestly tosee the team back to the pitch.
Able to watch him train a bitthis week. I thought spirits were high,
so the team looked very sharp.If you listen to Pat Noonan's press
conference yesterday, He's been very happywith the way the team has responded because
this is always a tricky spot withthe time off, and his teams traditionally
have responded to the time off well, and I think they will in this

(01:46):
regards it's time off and if you'reever going to take a trip out to
the West Coast, you'd rather beafter two weeks off and going up against
the team in San Jose who hasstruggled. Tell us about this matchup coming
up tomorrow. Yeah, I mean, look, certainly a story of two
teams in different places on the table. And when Pat Newnan spoke yesterday to

(02:08):
the media, he kind of cautionedthat he doesn't want anybody getting too caught
up in where San Jose is versuswhere FC Cincinnati is in the East and
San Jose obviously in the West,because Franklin San josees that hasn't had a
great year. They have three wins. They've struggled and that's been because they've
conceded a lot of goals, butthey've also scored quite a few goals.

(02:28):
And they got a guy like ChristianSpinoza who has nine assists the season.
So they have some I would sayconsistency and continuity in the attack amongst the
guys that they put up there.And then in the back is where they've
had issues and they may have aninjury right now in the back line,
so we'll wait to see, uhyou know what exactly it looks like at
the center back position for that.But they just haven't been able to find

(02:50):
any type of rhythm this year.New head coach out there, so but
you can't go in, you know, assuming a win. I think a
lot of people who myself included toassume to win last time out against Nashville,
you know, and on paper season, and I should have won that
game. But these games aren't playedon paper. We all know that,
and therefore this game can be playedon paper, and C Cincinnati certainly can't

(03:12):
be in San Jose and just assumethat they're going to find a way to
win the match. So I'm interestedto see, you know, how the
team comes out from the opening whistleand what the energy looks like. Obviously
it's the longest trip of the year, but it's a match up that FC
Cincinnati should be able to exploit someof the weaknesses. And look, they

(03:32):
scored a lot of goals over thatseven match winning streak, so if they
can pick up where they left offat that point and continue to get goals,
they're going to be there for thetaking. I feel against the San
Jose team. You talked about howthat seven match winning streak, When you
put that into perspective the first halfof the season, it's hard not to
be pleased with what you saw secondplace right now in the Eastern Conference.

(03:54):
And Pat Noonon kind of tried tosay that after the game after the match
to say, listen and this isa disappointing result, but we're very happy
with the first half of the season. What do you think Pat and the
team will try to fix or improveupon going into the second half of the
season they can get them over thehump down the stretch. Well, I

(04:15):
think something they got a lot ofattention in the last two matches, the
game on the road at Toronto thatwas a secuted win, and then the
loss in that was there were issueson set pieces and they they hadn't been
exploited maybe in the ways defensively onset pieces that we saw in those two
matches all season and they really struggledto get opportunities on set pieces. So

(04:39):
I think, you know, thatwill be one thing that people keep an
eye on, you know, isthere more quality in those set pieces,
both defensively and in the attack.And then look, I think and I
hope that the break was really goodfor Kevin Kelsey. This is a guy
who came on to the team andhas just been getting comfortable more and more
with every match. He now hasthree goals in his young career. He

(05:01):
only has three starts and six appearancesfor s seasons. Any young nineen year
olds look really good since since comingover and joining the Orange and Blue,
So I think people are really excitedabout him. But I think two weeks
of training and two weeks of beingaround his teammates hopefully pays diffits, right.
You hope that this is the typeof thing that fires up you know,

(05:24):
Kevin, and it makes him feelmore comfortable with a guy like Luco
Acosta. We know how good heis and his team highs seven goals ten
assists on the season. But ifyou have chemistry with Lucho, do you
have the opportunity to score a lotof goals? Just have Brandon Vasquez and
Kevin Kelsey has the opportunity to playthat role now. So I think that
depth time off should be really big. And then it also helped guys get
healthy. Remember yu Yah Kubo wasout at the end of the stretch and

(05:46):
Yuyah is a full go, fullparticipant in training, so he's he's back
in the group. Ablupenzo is veryclose and doing better and Corey Baird,
as Pat said yesterday, they gotsome good news. It's not a hernia,
so they feel like like he's notgoing to be involved this weekend,
but he could be soon. SoI think that there are some checkboxes here
that were accomplished over the break aswell. That'll be big. I was

(06:09):
reading on the FC Cincinnati website earliertoday, Luciano Acosta has been People are
committing fouls against him, the ninthmost in Major League Soccer right now.
We know kind of going into thebreak he was a little bit banged up.
Is there anything that can be donewith his style of player, with
the way that the offense is builtto kind of protect him from so many

(06:30):
of those fouls or is that justpart of life with Luciano Acosta and how
he he does what he does sowell. I mean, I think it's
part of life with Lucco a becausehe's gonna have ball quite a bit,
right, So that automatically puts atarget on you. You're the reigning MVP,
Yeah, so what does that do? Puts a target on you?
And you know, see the teamin goals and assists this year, so

(06:54):
that adds another target. So Ithink, look, when you're on your
foot, you're probably gonna be filedmore often players, uh, and then
you know it's uh like people,it's MVP, right, it's the guy
that they know he can hurt you. So maybe there's gonna be a little
more umphed than some of those tackles. But I think the way they can
help him, And and this isLuca Oreano, and this is deanre Yellen

(07:15):
on the right side, and it'sKevin Kelsey as one of the strikers.
And whoever else is with him ona given day, whether it's Title Balnzuela
or you know, U Yakubo orAaron Bupenza if he comes back, or
Serio Santos, you know, whoeveris out there, it's being in the
right position so that he can makethe turn and get rid of the ball
quickly and be efficient. So ifhe gets the ball off, it's got
there's a less chance of a collision. And and I think, and I

(07:38):
didn't mention that, but yeah,Luco was carrying a couple of knocks and
some some bruises into that break.So hopefully this break was really productive for
him and stealing a lot better physicallyas well. Well. Long season still
ahead. Coming out of the break. You mentioned some of the injuries and
and where guys stand at the moment, uh in order to get back to
being a supporter shield champion and rightback into the thick of things in the

(08:01):
Eastern Conference. We know that Miamiis going to be without Messi for a
period of time later on this summer. What does f C Cincinnati have to
do, in your mind the biggestkey to stay in the race for the
entirety of this second half of theseason and back into the playoffs in the
fall and winter. Well you talkabout Look, Messi is going to be
out for Miami for a you know, to be determined amount of time.

(08:22):
You won't see him for that Julysixteen, probably at TQL Stadium as he
makes the run through Copa with Argentinaand f C Stay is missing a pretty
big defender right now, Miles Robinson, and you know he's he's in on
this Copa stretch. So we'll seehow the US does, but he's he's
out through early July as well forsure. If if the US make this

(08:46):
one in Copa, then he's gonnamiss more games. But there's also this
report that's been going around on Xthat he that he's gonna be caught in
the Olympic team, and it's it'sreally tough you know, and said yesterday,
we would never stand in the wayof an opportunity and say he's not
going right, not one like that. He is the opportunity to represent the

(09:07):
country in the Olympics. We wouldnever stand in the way and say absolutely
not, he's coming back. Butnow if he does get to be one
of those older slots on the Olympicteam and he goes to Paris, we're
not gonna see Miles until August,which means we've now lost him for two
months that whole stretch. So toget to your question, FCG thing is

(09:31):
gonna have to maintain their quality defensivelywithout one of their best defenders and arguably
one of the best backs in theleague in Miles Robinson, no matter what
amount of time he has gone fiveor six games or more. So,
if that's the case, then it'sa massive, massive opportunity for Nick Haglan
and Kip Keller to step in andcarry the load while he's gone. And

(09:54):
look, we've seen great minutes fromNick over the years. Kip Keller has
shown some good minutes so far thisyear, and I think they're both gonna
get opportunities. We come back withthree matches in eight days, So there's
gonna be some rotation on the backline, and both Nick and Kip are
gonna be involved over those three matchesin the eight days. If they can,
you know, maintain what C Cincinnihas done defensively and there's no drop

(10:16):
off, then f C Cincinnti willbe positioned coming out of let's call this,
this is June and July stretch inthe League's Cup. And when you
come out of League's Cup, whichI believe is August twenty fourth in Miami
of all places, right, that'sthe first regular season game back. Let's
call that the home stretch August twentyfourth through October nineteenth. So those two

(10:37):
months there, then f C Cincinnatihas positioned themselves to win another supporter Shield,
which will position themselves to you know, compete for m molest Cup,
which is Dulton's goal. So Ithink that that's gonna be the biggest key
here over this stretch where Miles isgone. It's abnormal, right for him

(10:58):
to go and play in Copa Americaand then potentially be selected for the Olympic
team like that, that doesn't happen, right, It's very yeah, it's
very unusual. I'm trying to rememberthe word that Pat used yesterday in describing
it. But you know, it'snot how things usually operate, right,

(11:20):
because typically national teams don't I don'tknow if this is the right way to
say it, but don't care asmuch about the Olympics for the men because
the World Cup is a bigger dealto them. Am I right in that?
And no, you are. Andlook, the Olympics from a soccer
standpoint, is a U twenty threecompetition, so it's gonna be younger players

(11:43):
for both the men and women's soccerteams going over there to compete. But
you have three of these overage Ithink they call them spots for older players,
gotcha and Walkers. Zimmerman has beenconfirmed as one of them, but
Walker Zimmerman is not currently included withthe team and away from Nashville, right,
Walker will probably miss League's Cup,right, but he's not missing I

(12:05):
don't know, five six seven leaguegames leading up to that and then going
to Paris and coming back. Andwe're also a considerable travel in all of
this. So that's where, Yeah, it's unorthodox, I think is the
best way to put it. Andat the same time, you're not gonna
say, well, Miles, youknow, we don't want you to represent

(12:26):
the Stars and Stripes man like hecaus, Look, there is something to it
that this is good for development forMiles, but also you went out and
got arguably the biggest free agent inthe history of the league. And now
if he does do this, youknow, Olympic stretch, you're talking about
all of June, which is fourgames that he's gone for. You know,

(12:46):
realistically, depending on what happens withthe US, probably the first two
games in July at be Ceding homefor Miami, so that's two more and
now we're six if he misses thethree leading in the League's Cup, he's
missed nine regular season games. Yeah, and then is probably back to that
August twenty fourth game against Miami.But you just lost, you know,
the arguably the biggest free agent inMLS history for nine of your thirty four

(13:11):
matches. Let's see if my quickmask can figure that out, maybe thirty
twenty five to thirty right, Yeah, so of your of your schedule,
that's really hard. I mean,imagine, you know, a national team
for American football and you know,yeah, Joe or Jamar are called out
for four or five regular season game. Yeah, it's insane. Yeah,

(13:33):
when you I think I would thesame kind of thing. Yeah, that's
right, that's nuts. Uh.Tommy g the voice of FC Cincinnati.
You can hear him on the calltomorrow night right here on ESPN fifteen thirty.
FC Cincinnati on the road at SanJose and up against the Earthquakes,
who have been struggling this year.Tommy, before I let you go,

(13:54):
I saw this report from the SportsBusiness Journal that Cincinnati is preparing a bid
for the NWSL. What do weknow about this? Well, and not
sure that I'm authorized, uh theperson on that topic, but I mean
you're a soccer expert, tom Iknow, I know, I know.

(14:16):
I think that I can tell youthis and and this much has been clear.
You know. I think throughout thehistory of f C Cincinnati and and
obviously the rise of Bell and herfound the popularity around women's soccer scene.
You know, then WSL do welldown the road in Louisville, and then

(14:37):
they're playing a beautiful facility on thereis that that Carl and Jeff have always
been bullish. I'm wanting a women'steam as well, and I don't think
it should surprise anybody that there isinterest from the ownership group and from Jeff
Birding and everybody involved f C Cincinnatiin having a women's team, and they

(14:58):
want to make sure that they're doingit right and then that they're getting into
the right time. It's been whatBoston's coming in. Uh Bay Area came
in for this season with a lotof excitement, So there's a lot of
momentum I would say building around women'ssoccer in the country. And if I
have Seasoncinnati or a Cincinnati based groupof owners is getting involved and that shouldn't

(15:20):
be a surprise to anybody. Youknow, I would hope, and I
think everybody in the city would hopethat your first quarter of business, probably
before you get a coach, isto get rods, you know what I
mean, Like you gotta get rows. I don't know what you're trading.
It might be a lot, butyou gotta you gotta acquire roose level.
I mean, that's good for theleague, it's good for the team.

(15:41):
You have a poster child who wouldbe playing at home. I mean imagine
that it would be you already havea world class stadium for them to play
in. So that would be awesome. I mean, it is, It's
very cool to think about. Andyou know, I'm not as familiar with
the process for the WSL, butI know that that cities have been aggressive
about getting involved. Cleveland's involved,They have a group up there trying to

(16:03):
think. Who else I saw Denver, maybe in Atlanta, Denver, Nashville,
Jacksonville, all apparently possible cont themix, right, So look,
it'll be a very interesting process.But it shouldn't surprise anybody that that f
C Cincinnati or you know, theCininnati based ownership group is interested because of
the momentum of what f C Cincinnatihave done. And I think that an

(16:29):
n w SL team would do verywell in this market. It will be
so exciting if we get an NWSLteam. Would you then do double duty?
Would you be the voice of both? Would you? Would you be
able to do that? So thenwe then we'd have you on Mondays and
Fridays to talk about it both teamson Monday and here. Yeah. Yeah,
like you'd be drinking a lot ofwarm tea and having a lot of

(16:52):
cough drops. Tommy, great,thank you so much for making some time
for me here today. We'll talkto you again next week. I can't
wait. Look forward to it.Austin, be good there. It is
the voice of the Orange and Blue. You can hear him tomorrow night right
here on ESPN fifteen thirty, asFC Cincinnati takes on San Jose. All
Right, a couple other things toclean up here in our number three.

(17:15):
Richard Skinner's gonna stop by. He'sin for Mo this afternoon. He'll stop
by for quick hits and locks thenight and more, ESPN fifteen thirty