March 20, 2025 • 9 mins
Jamie Watson is a match analyst for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. He's on the call for Saturday's FC Cincinnati/Atlanta tilt, and he joined us on ESPN1530.
Podcasts of The Mo Egger Radio Show are a service of Longnecks Sports Grill.
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Instagram too: @MoEgger
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
Get more: https://linktr.ee/MoEgger
Follow on X: @MoEgger
Instagram too: @MoEgger
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. It's been weird this week.
FC Cincinnati hasn't had a game their most recent output,
and we talked about this late last week. I think
a lot of us had a fear they were gonna
go to Charlotte and tired legs were going to become
a problem. And you add that to some of their
depth issues and injuries, and those fears were realized a
(00:22):
pretty flat performance, I think, specifically over the last half
of the game. They fell to Charlotte to nothing. The
good news is they're not playing in any other competitions
right now, and so there's time between games. The bad
news is whether it's players playing for their national team
or lingering injury issues, there are a lot of concerns
about FC Cincinnati. They come home and play a day
(00:44):
game on a Saturday against Atlanta. This game will start
at two thirty. You could watch it on MLS Season
Pass part of Apple TV, and on the call this
week is MLS Season Pass Match Analyst twenty thirteen. USL
MVP Jamie Watson kind enough to give us a few minutes. Jamie,
It's good to have you. Good afternoon. How are you hey, Mom?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I'm so happy to be on with you. Man. It's
great to be here today. Love talking about s C Scincinati,
love watching s C Cincinnati. So very delighted to get
to be on the call, first season, past Mlscason pass
this weekend.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, no question, I wish we were doing this under
slightly more cheery circumstances because I think there are a
lot of concerns. I talked about injuries, We've talked about
depth on the back line, We've talked about players who
are off playing for their countries. And FC Cincinnati fans
are feeling a little anxious right now? Can you put
any ease to that anxiety?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Can I just invite you back to a couple and
it was consecutive wooden spoons and last place finishes, and
now when the season doesn't start out four and oh
the sky is falling? What is happening? Oh my goodness.
I absolutely love that for Cincinnati fans and the faithful there, because, man,
(01:54):
my good friend Tom, who does the play by play radio,
I remember see him through all those dark days when
he was having to commentate and put lipstick on a
pig when it was you know, losing four zero, five zero,
and the likes of that, So I love that nowadays
this constitute a slow start, not beating Tigress in the
(02:14):
Conky Cap Champions Cup, not having a dominant start to
the season. So you know, yeah, it is below the standard,
the new standard that has now been set in Cincinnati.
But I think it's far from time to panic, because
I still think there's a lot of things to break
down in dissect, which we'll do as to why I
think it. The brighter days are ahead, and I still
think things are coming together for this sort of new look,
(02:37):
this life after Lucho FC Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, I have a lot of faith in Pat Noonan,
and so I start there if you're him, and look
that the schedule does ease up, not so much in
terms of caliber of opponent, it's just there's not going
to be nearly as much travel. They'll have a lot
more time between games for a long stretch now, and
so a little bit more time to train. But if
you're Pat Noonan as you start to get this back
(03:00):
on course, what's at the top of your to do list?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, first of all, I think that patn and Chris
Albrighty deserve all of the faith and what they're doing
in their vision of this club and how they see fit.
And they made some big, big moves this offseason, I
mean blockbuster type moves, having Lucho go out the door,
bringing in Evander as well, and Denk looks every bit
(03:25):
of the type of number nine that every coach just
salivates to have on their team. You know it is
it is different this year, and I think the what
eight games in twenty five days is an absolute grind
because you're not one hundred match fit yet you're playing
very difficult opponents and you're having to do it in
a short, congested period of time, so you're asking a
(03:47):
lot and just aerobically, it's difficult to get to that
point to be at your your peak. You don't want
to be at your peak as we sit in mid March.
If you were, that's going to be brutal for you
down the stretch of the season. So the team still
coming together. I think that there have been signs and
glimpses here and there, but I think Pat New would
be the first one to tell you they haven't put
it together for prolonged stretches of times. And the game
(04:10):
against Charlotte I think was disappointing. Because that is a
difficult matchup. But I think now the expectation is for
EPC Cincinnati every matchup they go into more difficult or
just slightly less difficult, because there are no easy games
in this league anymore. They expect to be able to
compete and to fight and be there till the very end,
and it just didn't feel that way against Charlotte. I
(04:31):
think that now being out of the tonk YAFT Champions
Cup really will help. It sounds funny to say that
you get knocked out of a tournament and it's like,
you know, that's beneficial. I do think it is beneficial
for the fact that you're getting now regular stretches of
periodization of your training, how you want to get working
together with a game plan for the team that you're
(04:51):
facing in You're getting guys like Matt me Osky's posed
a few days back together now, and when the guy
when Dank comes back from international duty, you'll get a
chance to try to get all your stars on the
field together for you know more than what just two
times they have there in this season. So it will
turn a corner, I think sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Presse Sincinnati, there were times and you mentioned Luco Acosta
over the last couple of seasons, and I know we
were talking about this a year ago, even wondering if
maybe they were asking him to do a little bit
too much. But there were times over the last couple
of years where it felt like, you know, on a
night where maybe other stuff wasn't working, they could have
Luco bail them out. And obviously, you know, Evander comes
(05:28):
here and there's tons of comparisons, and look he was.
He was extraordinarily active on Saturday in Charlotte. I think
he had six shots. Obviously none of them found the
back of the net, but he was very active. If
you're Pat Noonan, do you kind of look at a
guy like that in the short term and go, we
might need you to pull a Luco Acosta for us
while we figure all that other stuff out.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You know, it's such a good point. I think, Luco Acosta.
It's not a game plan. It's not like you know,
the wil Ferrell movie Kicking and Screaming back in the day,
where you just have the players and all the arrows
point to that one player, one of the Italians, and
he passes them and they go dribble. Everybody and score right.
I mean you had a special Argentinian number ten and
Lucio Acosta who could just naturally do that. I don't
(06:10):
think it's fair to compare Evander to Luciano Acosta. I
think they're different players. I think Evander affects the game
differently than Luco. Luco will go find the ball, He'll
get on it. He loves to dribble. Luco has this
incredible ability. It's like he's not even really worried about
the first defender because he knows he's gonna get by him.
(06:32):
It's where's the second and third defender that's coming and
to provide help. And I'm not quite sure Evander is
that exact same player when you get the big price tag.
I understand that you want to compare them, and it
makes complete sense to have that expectation with the big
price tag. But they're different. And if you think back
to when Evander started out in Portland, he actually started
(06:53):
very slow. It was one of those that people were
questioning can even perform in this league? Is this is
he gonn fit for this league? Now he answered those
questions and no short order and was stellar and had
astounding numbers last year and that's obviously why Cincinnati go
and purchase them. But I think you start to understand
when you're in game situations where one player likes to go,
(07:17):
and then how you can best serve him. So you know,
if you're a Vander, now you're looking, you're going, okay, Well,
the way that Goobo plays is different than the way
that Denk plays or that Orizano plays. All very very
very good players, yet they have different tendencies about them.
So I think you've seen moments and brief instances where
it's come together. But I think trusting Evander is never
(07:39):
a bad idea. You just stick with the process and
trust what the coaches and the and the scouting department
that's seen to be able to make that change. Because
I promise you do not move on from a Costa
unless you find a player that you think can maintain
that high expectation that is within that building and within
TQL Stadium.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Each and every week, Jamie Watson and LS season past
two point thirty on Saturday, quickly on Atlanta. They win
their first match. They score three goals against Montreal. They
have scored exactly one goal since and haven't won. Break
down this Atlanta team for.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Me, Yeah, now they're going to miss out eight first
team players through international duty this week. I mean it's
gonna be a fragile time for Atlanta and the fact
that they lost at home to enter Miami. They haven't
beat FC Cincinnati in the last six matches. Sin Seti's
three to zero to three in that stretch against them. Yeah,
I mean a little bit of backup against the wall
right now, one to two and one to start the
(08:33):
season off for Atlanta bar below where they expected to
be a depleted squad. If I'm s C Cincinnati, I
think the first fifteen minutes can really be key to
be able to try to put their foot on the
throttle pressure, try to get an early goal, try to
get the fans of Tikio Stadium off their feet as
they do in full voice and you know the Bailey
end and everything. Man, it's an incredible atmosphere. It's daunting
(08:55):
if you're playing against the team there and then they
get Atlanta right now, the first it is always important
in every match mode, but especially in this match. It
could give Atlanta a reason to think, oh no, here
we go again, or it could get it to s
C Cincinnati to thought, Hey, here we go, let's go
get a second one, be very very important for the
first goal this weekend.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well said, have a great call, enjoy your time in Cincinnati.
Hopefully we can do it again as the season moves on.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Hey Mo, you do a great job with this. Thanks
for having me on anytime. I'd love to come back on,
so keep up the great work man.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Much appreciate it. Thank you so much. That's Jamie Watson
MLS Season Pass Apple TV two thirty on Saturday daytime
soccer as it should be. Of course, you could also
hear the game on ESPN fifteen thirty twenty seven
This is ESPN fifteen thirty. It's been weird this week.
FC Cincinnati hasn't had a game their most recent output,
and we talked about this late last week. I think
a lot of us had a fear they were gonna
go to Charlotte and tired legs were going to become
a problem. And you add that to some of their
depth issues and injuries, and those fears were realized a
(00:22):
pretty flat performance, I think, specifically over the last half
of the game. They fell to Charlotte to nothing. The
good news is they're not playing in any other competitions
right now, and so there's time between games. The bad
news is whether it's players playing for their national team
or lingering injury issues, there are a lot of concerns
about FC Cincinnati. They come home and play a day
(00:44):
game on a Saturday against Atlanta. This game will start
at two thirty. You could watch it on MLS Season
Pass part of Apple TV, and on the call this
week is MLS Season Pass Match Analyst twenty thirteen. USL
MVP Jamie Watson kind enough to give us a few minutes. Jamie,
It's good to have you. Good afternoon. How are you hey, Mom?
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I'm so happy to be on with you. Man. It's
great to be here today. Love talking about s C Scincinati,
love watching s C Cincinnati. So very delighted to get
to be on the call, first season, past Mlscason pass
this weekend.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, no question, I wish we were doing this under
slightly more cheery circumstances because I think there are a
lot of concerns. I talked about injuries, We've talked about
depth on the back line, We've talked about players who
are off playing for their countries. And FC Cincinnati fans
are feeling a little anxious right now? Can you put
any ease to that anxiety?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Can I just invite you back to a couple and
it was consecutive wooden spoons and last place finishes, and
now when the season doesn't start out four and oh
the sky is falling? What is happening? Oh my goodness.
I absolutely love that for Cincinnati fans and the faithful there, because, man,
(01:54):
my good friend Tom, who does the play by play radio,
I remember see him through all those dark days when
he was having to commentate and put lipstick on a
pig when it was you know, losing four zero, five zero,
and the likes of that, So I love that nowadays
this constitute a slow start, not beating Tigress in the
(02:14):
Conky Cap Champions Cup, not having a dominant start to
the season. So you know, yeah, it is below the standard,
the new standard that has now been set in Cincinnati.
But I think it's far from time to panic, because
I still think there's a lot of things to break
down in dissect, which we'll do as to why I
think it. The brighter days are ahead, and I still
think things are coming together for this sort of new look,
(02:37):
this life after Lucho FC Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Yeah, I have a lot of faith in Pat Noonan,
and so I start there if you're him, and look
that the schedule does ease up, not so much in
terms of caliber of opponent, it's just there's not going
to be nearly as much travel. They'll have a lot
more time between games for a long stretch now, and
so a little bit more time to train. But if
you're Pat Noonan as you start to get this back
(03:00):
on course, what's at the top of your to do list?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Well, first of all, I think that patn and Chris
Albrighty deserve all of the faith and what they're doing
in their vision of this club and how they see fit.
And they made some big, big moves this offseason, I
mean blockbuster type moves, having Lucho go out the door,
bringing in Evander as well, and Denk looks every bit
(03:25):
of the type of number nine that every coach just
salivates to have on their team. You know it is
it is different this year, and I think the what
eight games in twenty five days is an absolute grind
because you're not one hundred match fit yet you're playing
very difficult opponents and you're having to do it in
a short, congested period of time, so you're asking a
(03:47):
lot and just aerobically, it's difficult to get to that
point to be at your your peak. You don't want
to be at your peak as we sit in mid March.
If you were, that's going to be brutal for you
down the stretch of the season. So the team still
coming together. I think that there have been signs and
glimpses here and there, but I think Pat New would
be the first one to tell you they haven't put
it together for prolonged stretches of times. And the game
(04:10):
against Charlotte I think was disappointing. Because that is a
difficult matchup. But I think now the expectation is for
EPC Cincinnati every matchup they go into more difficult or
just slightly less difficult, because there are no easy games
in this league anymore. They expect to be able to
compete and to fight and be there till the very end,
and it just didn't feel that way against Charlotte. I
(04:31):
think that now being out of the tonk YAFT Champions
Cup really will help. It sounds funny to say that
you get knocked out of a tournament and it's like,
you know, that's beneficial. I do think it is beneficial
for the fact that you're getting now regular stretches of
periodization of your training, how you want to get working
together with a game plan for the team that you're
(04:51):
facing in You're getting guys like Matt me Osky's posed
a few days back together now, and when the guy
when Dank comes back from international duty, you'll get a
chance to try to get all your stars on the
field together for you know more than what just two
times they have there in this season. So it will
turn a corner, I think sooner rather than later.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Presse Sincinnati, there were times and you mentioned Luco Acosta
over the last couple of seasons, and I know we
were talking about this a year ago, even wondering if
maybe they were asking him to do a little bit
too much. But there were times over the last couple
of years where it felt like, you know, on a
night where maybe other stuff wasn't working, they could have
Luco bail them out. And obviously, you know, Evander comes
(05:28):
here and there's tons of comparisons, and look he was.
He was extraordinarily active on Saturday in Charlotte. I think
he had six shots. Obviously none of them found the
back of the net, but he was very active. If
you're Pat Noonan, do you kind of look at a
guy like that in the short term and go, we
might need you to pull a Luco Acosta for us
while we figure all that other stuff out.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You know, it's such a good point. I think, Luco Acosta.
It's not a game plan. It's not like you know,
the wil Ferrell movie Kicking and Screaming back in the day,
where you just have the players and all the arrows
point to that one player, one of the Italians, and
he passes them and they go dribble. Everybody and score right.
I mean you had a special Argentinian number ten and
Lucio Acosta who could just naturally do that. I don't
(06:10):
think it's fair to compare Evander to Luciano Acosta. I
think they're different players. I think Evander affects the game
differently than Luco. Luco will go find the ball, He'll
get on it. He loves to dribble. Luco has this
incredible ability. It's like he's not even really worried about
the first defender because he knows he's gonna get by him.
(06:32):
It's where's the second and third defender that's coming and
to provide help. And I'm not quite sure Evander is
that exact same player when you get the big price tag.
I understand that you want to compare them, and it
makes complete sense to have that expectation with the big
price tag. But they're different. And if you think back
to when Evander started out in Portland, he actually started
(06:53):
very slow. It was one of those that people were
questioning can even perform in this league? Is this is
he gonn fit for this league? Now he answered those
questions and no short order and was stellar and had
astounding numbers last year and that's obviously why Cincinnati go
and purchase them. But I think you start to understand
when you're in game situations where one player likes to go,
(07:17):
and then how you can best serve him. So you know,
if you're a Vander, now you're looking, you're going, okay, Well,
the way that Goobo plays is different than the way
that Denk plays or that Orizano plays. All very very
very good players, yet they have different tendencies about them.
So I think you've seen moments and brief instances where
it's come together. But I think trusting Evander is never
(07:39):
a bad idea. You just stick with the process and
trust what the coaches and the and the scouting department
that's seen to be able to make that change. Because
I promise you do not move on from a Costa
unless you find a player that you think can maintain
that high expectation that is within that building and within
TQL Stadium.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
Each and every week, Jamie Watson and LS season past
two point thirty on Saturday, quickly on Atlanta. They win
their first match. They score three goals against Montreal. They
have scored exactly one goal since and haven't won. Break
down this Atlanta team for.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Me, Yeah, now they're going to miss out eight first
team players through international duty this week. I mean it's
gonna be a fragile time for Atlanta and the fact
that they lost at home to enter Miami. They haven't
beat FC Cincinnati in the last six matches. Sin Seti's
three to zero to three in that stretch against them. Yeah,
I mean a little bit of backup against the wall
right now, one to two and one to start the
(08:33):
season off for Atlanta bar below where they expected to
be a depleted squad. If I'm s C Cincinnati, I
think the first fifteen minutes can really be key to
be able to try to put their foot on the
throttle pressure, try to get an early goal, try to
get the fans of Tikio Stadium off their feet as
they do in full voice and you know the Bailey
end and everything. Man, it's an incredible atmosphere. It's daunting
(08:55):
if you're playing against the team there and then they
get Atlanta right now, the first it is always important
in every match mode, but especially in this match. It
could give Atlanta a reason to think, oh no, here
we go again, or it could get it to s
C Cincinnati to thought, Hey, here we go, let's go
get a second one, be very very important for the
first goal this weekend.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well said, have a great call, enjoy your time in Cincinnati.
Hopefully we can do it again as the season moves on.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Hey Mo, you do a great job with this. Thanks
for having me on anytime. I'd love to come back on,
so keep up the great work man.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Much appreciate it. Thank you so much. That's Jamie Watson
MLS Season Pass Apple TV two thirty on Saturday daytime
soccer as it should be. Of course, you could also
hear the game on ESPN fifteen thirty twenty seven
Mo Egger News
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