Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The Orange and Blue, looking tocontinue its league high five game winning streaks
seven thirty tomorrow night, you couldwatch the match on MLS Season Pass on
Apple TV, where Devin Kerr isgoing to be on the call match analyst
for MLS Season Pass and kind enoughto give us a few minutes to preview
the game tomorrow night. It's goodto have you, Devin. How are
you? I appreciate you having me, man. I gotta be honest.
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The weather a little bit different thanwhat I'm coming from in Austin, so
I'm hoping this changes come game time. I think we're good. I think
we're getting all this crap out ofthe way today. I think we're gonna
have I think we're gonna have greatweather, and given the way this team
is playing, we should have anawesome atmosphere or TQL tomorrow night. I
love that. Yeah, you know, I've never had a bad time here,
this this town, this culture,this team. Everybody's always so great.
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You'll know that about me. You'lllearn that about me. I always
say what's off the top of myhead, whether you guys agree with it
or not. But it's also it'salso pretty cool for me because to me
the matchup against Saint Louis City.You know, while certainly the origins of
them in Major League Soccer are notas in the depths of what we've seen
from s C Cincinnati of course atthe time in USL as well. They've
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got a great fan base as well, they travel well, they're fun,
and I'm sure in the back ofthe mind of f C Cincinnati they want
a little bit of rad revenge ofwhat went on in twenty twenty three in
the five to one match that withthat city. So we'll see, yeah.
And the thing is, it's notunlike last year where FC Cincinnati was
playing really well at the time andthen suddenly they lay this total clunker in
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Saint Louis, probably their worst matchof the season. This team is also
playing really well and so five consecutivewins. There are some parallels for those
who watched that match last year,saw Saint Louis and maybe haven't seen them
since. How does this year SaintLouis Club compare to last year? I
would say that they're very similar inthe sense that they still carry a ton
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of energy. They can be verydirect a lot of their games, and
it's difficult the amount of pressure thatthey bring to a match. You know,
as a player, whether you're MattMelsi on the back line or you're
the you know, perennial front runnerfor pretty much every award on the attacking
side of the ball and Luco Acosta, the switch can never be off and
that's a difficult thing as a player, constantly looking around where your marks are
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coming from when you're receiving the ball, always having to you know, be
on the next ball immediately. Youdon't really have that gray area to slow
down at times compared to what someother teams bring. So that's the same,
but there are there are some differencesthat stick out to me. Number
one is Sailo City doesn't have thesame amount of depth in the nine spot.
They lost Nico Joe Achini in theoffseason to Italy, so a lot
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more is put on the shoulders raAl Klaus, which is their striker up
top. That changes because the gameshave evolved underneath him. He's a type
of guy that you can play intohis feet, you can play him over
over the top. But because theydon't exactly have the support latent games,
they found a way to stretch hisminutes a little bit more in my opinion,
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and so they play more through themidfield. Now they're predictable in the
sense that they overbalance on one side, but they're unpredictable because there's a lot
more moving through the midfield. That'snot what FC Cincinnati fans are going to
be used to because last year itwas a lot more point A to z
as quick as possible. They're capablein different areas of the field. That's
slowing it down, recycling the ballsto the other side, and specifically through
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the midfield to create chances. Ihad your colleague Danny Higginbotham on the show
with me on Wednesday. He hadtheir game on Wednesday night, and I
threw this question at him. Ithink when you have a great player,
right like a Lucho Acosta, it'salways funny, you know. I always
imagine people who cover Lebron James orguys like that, it's like you kind
of run out of things to say, You kind of run out of superlatives.
With a guy like Lucco Acosta,I'm always interested in different perspectives.
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Where do you even begin to describehis greatness and what he's meant for this
league? And obviously specifically f C. Cincinnati. I always lean on the
side of humor for things like this, and as you can tell coming in,
it's he's a chief code, right. He's the biggest past that you're
ever going to face on the fieldbecause of the luxury that he's given by
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the coaching staff. Respectfully, that'snot to say that Luco doesn't work defensively,
but he has given more freedom togo explore the game and a lot
of guys don't have that. Andso as a defender, I'm former center
back myself, it's hard to marksomeone like that because there is no tendency
of starting point. You know,you know that he wants to play down
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underneath, he's going to pick upthe ball and in five movements going forward,
but he'll also be the guy streakingin behind. He's also the guy
in the touch line, and thenevery now and then you find him at
the top of the box on theeight team coming to receive it off the
back line. So because of allof that, it's near impossible to mark
him. You know, the waythat you try and find no way to
do it is physically bump him offthe ball. But again, his quickness
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is so good that he just alwaysfinds the way to find success, and
I would say that you're entering anera with him that the hope for FC
Cincinnati fans is that maybe their attackcould start to hit an unprecedented level.
No, I want to be veryclear. The window that we've seen so
far, the sample size, ifyou will, is quite small with Kevin
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Kelcey. But what his profile ofplayer unlocks for even more opportunities going forward,
whether it be Lucho Acosta or ifit's someone popping out of the midfield
a late run by Wobodo right orOrigiano on the left hand side, who
I'm a massive fan of. Ido think the addition of Kevin Kelsey is
going to put this team attacking wisein another realm that we haven't seen.
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Assuming that level of consistency can continue. Well, you kind of stole my
thunder because that was going to bemy next question. Kevin Kelcey, we
haven't seen much of him, buthe jumpstarts their attack in the Columbus match.
He was their attack on Wednesday night, and he's so young, he's
so new to this club. Ithink it's really fun to think about just
the way this club integrates people whocome in from other clubs, who come
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in from other places, and theyadd them to the mix and it feels
like they have been part of theteam for such a long time. Kevin
Kelsey's kind of the tip of theiceberg in that regard. Smart by the
club. You know they have goodbackground on data and what that profile will
look like to go and search forthe players in general, and then you
know, how does that person goabout their business. I can tell you
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that again that small window you've seen, he's a pro. He works his
butt off in the gym. Iwas at training earlier today and tell you
what, I'm six six and thiskid's right up there too. But the
lower portion of his body is insane. He has got all muscle waist down,
and I was watching him in training. There is just a seamless nature
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about him. The first ball Iwatched him take forty yards out of the
air at Maaska on the backside,plucked it right out of the air like
it was nothing. And I thinkfor him, it's just going to be
trying to figure out style of play, understanding FC Cincinnati's processes both on and
off the field, and getting tounderstand one of the things that players struggle
with. And I'm not saying Kelsey'sdoing this, but when you come to
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a new team, you yourself,you're so excited and you have so many
ideas and you've want to go andattack this opportunity right this project. But
you have to be careful that youmake sure you're listening as much as you're
trying to explain what you want.So you're listening to what's going on around
you, and that's something that they'rereally working on right now, so that
you understand the team better because thatin turn is going to open up opportunities
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for you going forward. But injust in terms of him as a striker
back to goal, he's good.He knows how to use his body.
Certainly f the Cincinnati fans have seenhow good he is in the air,
and he just moves like a wellversed striker right now, outside, in
inside outset pieces. He's got alittle bit of everything. That's why I
said, if you can contain thisand like bundle all together and just keep
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that a constant, it's scary whatthey could be going forward. Yeah,
I would agree with that wholeheartedly.I know you have a match to prepare
for. Have a blast tomorrow nightman. I do appreciate the time.
Thank you so much. Hope wecan do it again. Thanks for having
me all the basket luck tears