#1: Welcome to The Chromaniacs!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:45):
Welcome to the Chromaniacs. It's our first ever, highly unofficial
San Diego FC podcast, a co production of San Diego
Punto Football and Padres Hot Tub. Welcome to It, Everybody,
Episode number one. Craig Elston here joined by Tony Sanchez
and Alex Pania. Gentlemen, made in voyage. We've just pushed

(01:10):
off away and we're set in sail. It's great to
have you boys on board now.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Thank you for having us. And I mean, I'm excited
to get to know Alex. I mean, Alex, you've been
through this San Diego footboy verse and with the San
Diego f scene grifferally, but I'm really interested to get
to know you in your mind for soccer.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, it's it's great to be here with the two
of you, and I'm really excited about this new venture
from Maniacs twenty twenty five. You know, we have liftoff.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
We are underway, all right. Well, you're finding us right now,
and quite a number of you might be finding us
by accident or by subscribing to either San Diego Punto
Football or Podres Hot Tub and seeing this podcast pop
up in your feed. So welcome. Thank you for clicking
play if you weren't inclined to at the beginning. This

(02:03):
is a new, brand new weekly San Diego FC podcast
hosted by myself, Tony and Alex will be coming at
you weekly. Thursdays are our general record and print days
for the podcast, and we're excited to have you along
for the ride. A lot of the times this is

(02:25):
going to be a show looking at the topics surrounding
San Diego FC, because a lot of the time Thursday
is going to be five days or four or five
days away from their last match and just a couple
of days away from the club's next match. Of course.
Today Coromaniacs Episode one, we fall in the sweet Spot
Boys one day after a San Diego FC result, although

(02:46):
not the result we wanted on the road one nothing
lost to Seattle and two days in advance of Austin
FC coming to snap Dragon Stadium. So a little bit
of a unique way to get things started. But certainly,
and we've got a re signing or an extension signing
to talk about later as well. The boys have given
us a lot to talk about here on episode number one.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah no, it's really incredible to see what's going on
and Alex I mean, what are your thoughts coming into this? Like,
I really think that this is a new space, new everything.
There's so many firsts in sandi UFC. Like I'm loving
how many stats the comms department will throw you. Hey,
by the way, that was a first this, Hey, that
was the first this seeing a lot of first first resigning.

(03:30):
I think you were the one that sent it earlier, like, hey,
something to talk about tonight?

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Love it?

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Oh yeah, there's a lot of first here, you know,
first trip to Seattle, first time that Austin comes here,
and we have our first resigning, first extension with the Santos,
and that's very excited to talk about, you know, really
well deserved, but h yeah, it's a first for everybody,
and it's first for just being bands of a new

(03:58):
MLS team too, And it's great to follow it's great
to follow along. And this team has really given us
something to talk about because they're really exciting on the
pitch and they've given us, you know, are already so
many memorable moments.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
So here's how Cromaniacs Episode one is going to light
lay out for everybody who is watching and listening. First off,
we say thank you for being our earliest of early adopters. Secondly,
this is what we've got for you on today's show.
We're going to start things off because it is episode one,
even though we're almost the midpoint of the SANDYGOFC and

(04:36):
MLS twenty twenty five schedule. We'll give you an overview
of what we're thinking about the club from opening night
until today. We'll get into all of that. We will
obviously introduce ourselves, we'll do that momentarily, and why we're here,
reveal our evil hidden agenda. There is no just to
talk sandygo FC with you. As we move on, we'll

(04:57):
get into Sounders one SDFC zero. We'll talk through the match,
We'll talk through the stories that come out of the match.
We'll get into some discussion topics that emerge from the match.
We will get into what happened last Saturday. Of course,
the result was sublime against the Galaxy two to one
in the last thirty seconds. The aftermath was not and

(05:21):
then the way that that has tarnished, you know, with
a no longer necessarily clean blue and chrome brush, there's
a lot of paint and being done broad strokes about
what's going on with supporters culture, We're going to get
into that as the show continues. We'll wrap things up
with a look ahead to Austin FC. We'll preview the game.

(05:42):
We'll get you all the information you need to be
a smarter SDFC fan going into Saturday night. So that's
the layout for episode one. We'll start things off, who
are we, Why are we here? What the hell are
we doing here? Well, my name's Craig Elston. You probably
know me. I've been in San Diego sports media, honest
to god, since nineteen ninety six. That seems like a

(06:04):
long time because it is most of that in radio,
A lot of it in radio, a lot of it
in team sports. I've worked for the San Diego Soccers,
mostly on as in terms of on and off, since
two thousand and nine. I worked for the San Diego
Goals for three years. I'm the public address announcer for
San Diego Wave. And when it comes to the men's
outdoor game and MLS, Hey first time that true story.

(06:29):
I went to the first MLS match at the Rose
Bowl LA Galaxy back in nineteen ninety six with my wife.
Actually she wasn't my wife at that time, she was
just my girlfriend. But we went up to that as
a part of being in sports radio, and at the
time it was like, what's this new thing MLS? Who

(06:50):
cares all the first year kid? Do you want tickets
to the game? You can go? Like no one else
wants this stuff? Do you want it? So I did
go to the first ever MLS game, so I can
get give you that for some bona fitus, or at
least the first one at the Rose Bowl. But since
then twenty nineteen went to my first Sandy LAFC match

(07:10):
and dove right into the thirty two to fifty two
and that was the first time I really got deeply
ingrained into supporter culture. That led me to the Locals.
I've got the scarf up in the office right now.
Joined the Locals their first season, followed San Diego Loyal
and was in Section one oh nine throughout well from

(07:32):
almost all of their four seasons. There was one year
that I took some time away from that section for
reasons we won't get into right now, named Andrew Carlton
that we won't get into right now. Nonetheless, and followed
through with that to San Diego FC, where I've been

(07:52):
with both the Locals and the Riptides and Javos and
Bara and Dago Boys and everyone else in the North
End for just about every match, every match that I've
been able to make so far for San Diego FC.
I've been talking soccer for a long time in this town,
but never had the chance to do it like this,

(08:13):
exactly like this with an MLS SDFC only podcast. So
super excited about it, and Tony, as I passed the
baton to you, I know we were gonna be doing
this show on the radio in twenty twenty five and
then Odyssey happened, Short Version Corporation, big mess. But now
we get the chance to do it independently, control our

(08:34):
own mics, and I'm so excited about that. But remind everyone,
and I'm sure they don't need reminding, sing this is
going out on the San Diego Puntal football track, exactly
what you guys have been doing to the point that
you're just the number one question asker at every press
conference for San Diego FC.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
I think that right there is like the gravestone will say,
like the San Diego that asked the first question.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
I think that's a good one. But my name is
Tony Sante.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
If you haven't known you know, there are a lot
of people that have joined the adventure not five years
ago with Chieva and I here in the Two Balls
in a Mike studio. This is indeed my garage and
the home of the podcast that I created along with
my co host Alejandro Chia senor Two Balls in a Mic,
where we've done soccer coverage right here and I see
it changes now.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
I have three screens.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
This is the thing that you're are going to see
here on Crominiac just behind the scenes of everything. But
we've been covering soccer in San Diego through and through
from nineteen oh four through Sandio Loil, getting credentialed with
the hopes and aspirations of maybe one day, you know,
get to cover us a FIFA World Cup in twenty
twenty six as it's coming to us here in the States,
Mexico and Canada.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
We've been able to cover through.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
San Diego, punto football, Two Balls and a Mic, everything
and anything from the NWSL USL internationally accredited media technically,
but with Cholo's quintless with Manu whenever they come.

Speaker 4 (09:58):
Through Copa America cop COPAO.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
I mean, it's been the adventure of a lifetime and
I really hope that I can continue to really be
somebody who can promote and highlight and amplify the voice
of soccer in San Diego. This is something that I've
been loving to do. I understand the game by playing
the game. I love the game, I have fun, and
I want more people to enjoy the game just like
I do. And if that means that we get to

(10:21):
talk about the game in a non watered down way,
and even if we do, hey, let's come on in.
Let's have everybody have that understanding. People learn at different ways,
people learn at different levels. Let's learn a Chromaniacs way
here with the three of us. I think I think
it's a good good way to go about that. How
about you, guys?

Speaker 3 (10:38):
Yeah? I couldn't agree more. Yeah, And that's pretty much
the same reason why I'm here, just kind of following along.
I think I really got into MLS when the talks
of the Soccer City was happening back in twenty seventeen.
And at that time I was living in San Jose

(10:58):
going to school, and they they have a team, they
have this as a earthquake. So I started going to
earthquake matches and really enjoying from the very first match
I got to talk about it on my self stock
Chromatics FC, and uh it was against a team we've
seen already, that's FC Dallas, and from the from the

(11:22):
very start, from that match, it was I really fell
in love with the game. Started watching Premier League games
on League Games, Lega mex matches, pretty much anything I
can watch because I really wanted to know more about
the sport. And as I get to learn about the sport,

(11:44):
and as I get to learn about sant THEFC, their
players and everything else that comes with this league, I'm
gonna you know, write about it and inform others and
really you know that that way we can have that
interaction and really build on this on the fandom and
the community here and seeing diego. So that that's the
reason I started dramatics, if see, was that need of

(12:05):
people wanting to learn about the league and the teams
and the players and everything that comes with it. So
every you know, every week I've been I've been writing
since the start of the season, and I love it.
I completely love it. I I'm always excited to unleash
and you know, put a new post out and uh

(12:27):
uh yeah, I can't can't wait to you know, talk
about the matches with with you guys, with with Tony
and Craig. So I'm excited to be here and uh yeah,
you know, let's get let's get into it.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
So yeah, we got three different kind of perspectives on
the Cromaniacs Podcast. We've got the journalists who's at every
press conference. We've got the writer who's breaking it down
and analyzing the film, analyzing various passing motions, analyzing defensive structures.
And you got the broadcaster, the guy who can try
and find the whole hook picture of it and put

(13:01):
an entertaining product together for you. And meanwhile, I'm dancing
around and you know, I see part of the match,
part of the matches, a flag waving in my face
or you know, smoke bomb going off, or all the
various impediments that it takes to be a supportive. But nonetheless,
that's a good thing about Apple TV. You can always

(13:21):
go back and watch everything you missed. So that's what
we're here for Chromaniacs Podcast opportunity to give you an
independent look added content san Diego FC. Make you a
more excited, more passionate, hopefully a smarter, better fan those
are our goals. Let's see how we do on episode one.

(13:42):
Something I always like to say, by the way, and
I always say it to my radio partners, and I'll
say it to you guys, my podcast partners as well,
Welcome to our worst show ever because it is episode one.
Episode one is always the one that we're always trying
to do a little too much or maybe not quite
enough for where are we? Is it you? Is it me?

Speaker 3 (14:02):
What do we do?

Speaker 1 (14:02):
And I always compare it to the first pancake, you
know that you pull off the grill on a Sunday morning,
that one that doesn't really puff up and it's a
little bit flat, and then you just kind of take
it and either the chef eats it just like gnaws
on it right, or you just toss it in the bend,
toss it in the trash and move on. So welcome
to our worst show. Everyone will be better incrementally from

(14:23):
here on out. Okay, with all of that said, let's
start kind of broad boys. San Diego FC at the
halfway point just about of the MLS season, second place
in the Western Conference for San Diego FC, five points
away from first place. Okay, Vancouver's got that reasonably well

(14:47):
staked out five points away from seventh place. The Western Conference,
filled with good teams, certainly a lot of room to
move up and down in the standings, but so far,
I'll ask the question to you Tony and to you Alex,
has this San Diego FC inaugural season to date surpassed

(15:07):
your expectations, lived up to your expectations or are they
doing worse than you would talk?

Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah? It's uh, yeah, it's absolutely surpassed my expectations, especially
with everything that was being written up on you know,
the the athletic or MLS soccer sites. They just had
no belief in this team, in this back line, in

(15:34):
this goalie, in this goalkeeper. They had no belief in
any They just couldn't see it. They couldn't see all
the pieces that were going to work together and really
build up this team. And the I think the people
that were building this team, Taller Heaps and mikey Varis,
they were they kind of they saw the future a

(15:55):
little bit and we're really building this team up to
really compete in the Western Conference. So absolutely blown away
by the performance. The style of play has been. It's
it's a style of play that I really like I
like being in the front foot. I do like a
possession based team, and uh yeah, there's there's nothing better

(16:18):
than them being on offense and or else you could
be like Saint Louis and just play defense all the time.
We've seen that and it bores me. I mean, it
absolutely bores me. I have no interest in Washington team
like that, and I'm glad that in their first year,
this is what we're getting out of the standi UFC. Uh. Yeah,
what are your thoughts, Tony?

Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, I mean I'm there with you, and and I'm
very comfortable and always admitting if I don't know something
because I'm ready to learn. And and that's the kind
of the outlook that I had coming into SDFC, where
I'll be there to admit, like I may know ball,
but I don't know MLS ball, where there's different layers,

(17:00):
there's different Americanized styles of the beautiful game that everybody
kind of points out and makes fun of sometimes, but sometimes.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
There's things just like you know what they have a
point here in MLS.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
And so with that, like I was very open and
expectations wise, I could say I had none, but I'm
very very thankful to have a perspective like, look, there's
water in the cup. It's not half full, it's not
half empty. There's just water in the cup. We'll see
what this water is. It might not even be water,
it might be some other substance in there might be
a positive neck.

Speaker 4 (17:30):
I'm not sure, but there is something there. What's that thing?

Speaker 2 (17:33):
Well, I'm being told by Mikey Vadas, it's this being
told by Tyler Heaps that he's putting a squad about that.
He's telling us about this right to dream. Just this
just giant formula on a university blackboard of a team
that's supposed to happen at some point.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
The answer is going to be X for sure.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
But you have to go through all of this, all
of this, all of this, and so far the formula's
been working. I really can't see too much growth or
really anything that I can necessarily point and to like, look,
your ambition was this. You fell way short of that
on the field, off the field, in every regards.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
There's still room to grow.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
There's still that Hey, look it's our first time we're
doing this it we're still a first time team. But
I don't think they've taken that high road yet of like, look, hey,
we're learning, we're learning this. No, every time that they've lost,
they've taken a loss and said, you know what, it's
because of this. Hey, we've learned, and they've been able
to bounce back after stronger. And that's what San Diego
C has been able to do and stick to their principles.
I really wasn't too keen on hey, they're going to

(18:36):
be really stubborn with this play style.

Speaker 4 (18:38):
No, they are.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
They they are, and sometimes it's frustrated. Sometimes it's very scary,
especially with CJ. Del Santos at times. But this is
the style. It's not right to dream style anymore. Is
what I said on two Malls at a mic the
other day. This is San Diego FC style.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
I agree, And that style is recognizable. It's entertaining, it's
possession based, it's fluid. There's a fluidity to what San
Diego FC does. But they keep the ball, they move
the ball through their midfielders, they move the ball upfield.
They've got talented wingers who can attack, who are dynamic,

(19:11):
who play off of one another. The team gets forward,
they create chances and as such, of course, they surrender
some chances. Pretty much every match. But that is a
flowing style of soccer and as such, whether there was
intentionality behind it, whether there was synchronicity between football ops

(19:32):
and marketing, you know, using flow with us as their
opening slogan, at least this team has provided flow, They've
provided excitement, and I think one thing that they've absolutely
hit on is their first two major international signings. I mean,

(19:53):
Chruki Lozano has come in and to me, Alex filled
every you know, like ticked every box so far in
terms of what you'd expect. And Ander's Dryer is probably
the guy that people didn't know as much about, but
he has come in and served as the perfect foil
to Lozano.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
Yeah, it's the absolute perfect tandem that we're getting out
of Dryers and Losano right now. And yeah, you can
you can dream of a perfect match. And yeah, the
way they just sync up, like we saw against the Galaxy,
they you know, tricky and Lozano just knew where where

(20:34):
to be and for that final goal, he just knew
that he Dryer was going to give him the ball
and all you have to do is just head it in.
So yeah, it's it's been great. I think I think
the Dryer was just so like not talked about when

(20:54):
he came in, but I saw something there. I felt
like he was going to be a key in this
offense just because he does have international europe experience, you know,
just just like uh, just like Lozano, just like the
de Latre, just like these other guys. They really build

(21:16):
this team with experience and just because you know they're
not in leagues that we know the you know the
experiences there. These are really well trained, well coached players
and uh, it's great to see the success that we're
seeing at a Dryer and then especially Choky right now,
he's been amazing and I can't wait to see more

(21:40):
out of Chokey.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
Yeah, I mean I mean on terms of TP, right,
like that term even like does it designated player?

Speaker 4 (21:47):
What do you what do you mean? What is that?

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Like you just have players and there's these superstar level
like okay, sure, but let's say those are the parameters
that you're working with. You're telling me that there's these
two guys that you're supposed to just bet the house on,
and if they don't, it's a bust in your whole
season like goes out the window.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
But the.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
Backing that SANDYFC has always has. Like look, it's the
play style.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
They're almost accents to this play style where they're intelligent
enough to be able to adapt and mold their play
style to anything, because they are world class players, and
that was always a question will this style work? Will
this spine of yep Espreshkovo he's the captain, Okay, well,
he's coming from right to dream in FC norseland that
same right to dream DNA is instilled in so far,

(22:33):
so good. Like again, there's been times where the right
to dream play styles, the SANDYFC play style just isn't working.
And we've seen a couple of times where your two
dps link up or individually and they resolve the team
the game for you. And that's essentially the best case
scenario for Sandy UFC. Hey, you can't walk the ball
into the net and for seventy minutes, Okay, we have

(22:53):
these almost joker cards, and we say it in Spanish
that it's the wild card. They've just given ball and
something may happen, and that's exactly what you have. They
know how to be resolvers, problem solvers, and in the
biggest moments so far.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
As a result, You've got this SDFC team playing a
fun style. And I think the thing that has been
the most impressive to me because I know Tony talking
to you over the course of the winter that we
thought that on the field they were doing a lot
of things right in soccer ops and we weren't sure

(23:29):
off the field. Are all those same steps gonna bear fruit?
You know, there was a year of marketing. There were
the eighteen Chromeball tour sites. There was that whole thing,
and I think a lot of Sandy Eggans. You know,
you bounce off it. You know, your mileage may vary
in terms of Oh, I didn't know we had eighteen cities.
You know, it didn't seem important to me before, but

(23:50):
now I guess it does. And all of that, like hey,
are you are you guys carpetbaggers or are you real
Sandy Eggans? You know, I don't know, but all of
that has disappeared from me because I see it on
the trolley. I see it on the way in and
the way out of Snapdragon Stadium. Soccer fans are at

(24:15):
Snapdragon Stadium. San Diego FC has captured the soccer diehards.
They've built a North end of supporters. There was a
question would they be able to fill it up? Well,
will they be able to fill it up Saturday? It
might be a separate question, stay tuned later in the show.
But nonetheless they have. They're getting crowds of twenty five,
thirty and more regularly to Snapdragon Stadium. And the thing

(24:39):
I think is the most exciting guys from a front
office standpoint, is they've captured a decent number of casuals
as well. I see enough merchandise. I see enough of
that FC logo that people originally were like, what is
that is it? Does SD stand for shower drain? Is
that what that stands for? I'm not sure, but hey,

(25:01):
I see it. I see it every day going to
and fro, and I feel like they have had that
market penetration. They worked on it for a full year
and I believe they have achieved that to a pretty
decent extent.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah. It's uh, yeah, it's been. Yeah, it's great to
see just yeah, just seeing all the you know, all
the merch that you see across town and in the airport.
I saw somebody just recently on Monday coming home they
had the white sandy UFC and that was one of
the first pieces of merch because I got the same sweater.

(25:39):
It was the whites in the UFC with the with
the logo in the back, and and I was like, man,
look at that, look at that van, you know, getting
getting on their uber you know, and it's so it's cool,
cool to see how they connected the community. Yeah, was
it gonna work? Was it gonna Were they able to

(25:59):
tie everybody together and you know and make them come
to snap Dragon. It appears that it's been working, so
I I you know, from for me it, you know,
the just like the way they play football, to all
the merch that's coming out, everything, even like getting local

(26:22):
artists to do some of the work for them. It's
it's been phenomenal. So I hope they continue it. I
hope they stay very community focused. And uh yeah, I've
been liking all all the things they do off the field.

Speaker 1 (26:39):
Amazing. Man. Yeah, I agree. And so with that there's
our generic overview so far, Tony, would you like to
contribute to anything to that part?

Speaker 4 (26:50):
Before we go, I.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Checked with my lawyers just to make sure that the
following is uh, you know, just correct.

Speaker 4 (26:56):
Now. I just want to wanna, you know, again, like
I agree. I agree, But.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Through this I think we'll just start with here, like
I'll always be down the middle of like, Okay, I
see what I see. That was a white net that
they cost cast as well. There was a lot of
boxes to be checked, you know. You see it from
the way that they approached the military community to the
way that they approached Latino community and embrace the Latino community,
the way that I see fans that don't cross pollinate

(27:24):
with San Diego Wave fans, and there's that exclusivity there.
There's also the fans that came over from other teams,
not just San Diego Loyal, but nineteen oh four just
where it's been this cross section of San Diego soccer
fandom that has a lot to do with what you're
saying on the trolley crag like these are soccer fans.
But now I think the distilling is happening where you're
in the middle of the process of like, Okay, who's

(27:45):
going to be there on the Wednesday game, who's going
to be there?

Speaker 4 (27:48):
And on a window game on a Pondres giveaway night.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
And we got that answer for the first time this
last weekend of this last week and I was like Okay,
that's that's decent. Twenty thousand plus wasn't the nicest of
days to be out there, you know, Uh, the the
opponent wasn't the most attractive, uh to be you know,
just for that casual fan. But you know, there is
definitely room to grow. But it's year one and so

(28:11):
I'll be here just observing from from this from the shadows,
be like, Okay, well I like that, I like where
that's going. I'll give I'll give props where props needs
to be. And definitely for that ambition outside, they've they've
been able to check a box for themselves as well.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
And hey, we you know, Alex is the biggest MLS
fan in terms of length of any of us. So
you know, for you and me, Tony, we're kind of
negotiating this going through this first year finding out what
is MLS, what is it really all about? And we
haven't even got to the first international break yet, so
you know that's about to come. That's that's a topic

(28:46):
for episodes two three, you know, going forward. So uh,
this is a voyage of discovery and it's exciting uh
to be along it. Okay, with that overview, h too long,
didn't listen skipped ahead. We're all pretty happy with San
Diego FC. Pretty pretty happy, pretty happy. Okay, Well, it

(29:06):
was a beautiful victory over La Galaxy, a moribund team
that certainly gifted two points at the end with a
spectacularly arrant clearance attempt. But that was match one of
three in eight days for San Diego FC, and last
night Lumenfield Seattle. To me, when I think MLS like

(29:30):
coming into MLS, I think Sounders and I think Galaxy,
to be honest, those are the two teams I really
think about, you know, and then maybe DC United, like
you know, going kind of going back to some of
the East Coast teams, but I really think about those
teams as being, you know, pillars of MLS. One of

(29:50):
those things you got so excited about when San Diego
FC was announced in twenty three, like, oh my god,
we're gonna play Sounders, We're gonna play Galaxy, We're gonna
play LAFC. And to see the club up there on
the turf, you know, at the Seahawks field, you know,
all of the all of the pageantry of Sounders, that
personally was just cup filling for me last night, and

(30:15):
to get into it. I thought San Diego f C
played pretty well. I thought the keeper of Sounders made
a critical save late in the first half that could
have put San Diego FC up top. Uh and then
man one great touch in turn by Jesus Ferira, one

(30:36):
little letdown and then the Sounders locked down from there.
They just really locked down. I thought they showed a
veteran team's poise and why they are undefeated at home.
You know, h one nil Sounders take it and take
all three points yesterday.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah, it was like it was. It was a good match.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
I really felt like CUFC had their chances in the
first half and then all of a sudden, you know,
they bring in Troochy, but they got shut down. They
really got shut down in the second half. And once
especially right after that goal. It seemed like Seattle was

(31:20):
just content with that goal and they were gonna shut
Sandyo down and they they did not create that much
space in between the get get get a ball through
or do anything in the in the final third. But yeah,
I think the the the you know, the the players

(31:42):
they were, they were good. There were there were some
questionable things, I thought, especially with the starting eleven. I
will start with this the Annie Valakari in that central
forward role. It's not really my favorite thing to see
anytime the starting eleven comes out. I just don't feel

(32:06):
like that's a good fit there. But I don't know
who else you would put in there with kooky out.
I do have questions about that, and maybe Tony you
can give us some answers of why chokey play did
not play in the first half and then started in
the second half. I wonder if mikey Varus got into

(32:28):
that a little bit. But other than that, yeah, I mean,
you know, after that first goal, they're just trying to
get just the point and maybe it was the field.
Maybe you know, this is the second time they played
in the NFL style stadium. The last time it was Charlotte,
and you know, we saw we saw how Charlotte went.

(32:51):
It did not go well for C in UFC and
that that turf really it really did something to them
that they just couldn't connect on passes. And and it
happened a little bit again, you know this time, and
and yeah, I mean one now in Seattle a defeat,
So yeah, it's like yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
It's like you were there when I was going to
ask Hedge coach Mikey Vadas in the post match yesterday, like, yeah, no, exactly,
Like there was a moment where they were doing well,
but in that second half it seemed like they kind
of broke down against Seattle, and it was it was
a sandwich. The good performance at SENDIGOFC had was sandwich
between two halves, the beginning of the game and the
end of the game where they were trying to settle

(33:33):
back in either to their play style in the second
half or just into the game. In the first half.
They did have mostly most of the possession in that matchup.
And so if you want to point out a performance,
and this is where I like for anybody, this goes
to land In, This goes to Nate Miller, this goes
to Mike E. Vadas, goes to Casey Stony. Anybody is like, hey,
how'd you like that performance? Well, it was a good performance,
but you lost. Yeah, but I love the performance. Okay,

(33:54):
that's that's as much as you're gonna get. But I
thought that there could have been a little bit more
more on the final third where yeah, you keep building,
you keep making these chances, but you can't keep getting
hurt on the back end. Also, like about has disagreed
that that the defense was a little bit shaky coming
out from the back end. I don't think I've seen
a necessarily worst game by Dose Santos in terms of

(34:16):
trying to get the ball, having the jitters in a
lot of different ways. There was a point where he
got the ball and it seemed like he dragged it
back inside the box.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
And oh, just visited Pardo shades right there, Tony, Like,
hang on, just a blue card and a shootout? What's about?

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Right?

Speaker 1 (34:33):
That was amazing?

Speaker 2 (34:36):
And again the only thing like yeah, no, one hundred percent,
I'm with you with that, right, Like what what is
he kind of seeing and training that leaves you to
put Tomas Aanke not in that position? He's a winger,
but he's a nine. He wears number nine like he's
supposed to be that backup. On top of that, you
have Milanowski, who was the understudy for Marcus in Vartsen

(34:58):
in FC norseland for half a year still played in
FC Norseland and he's been rather good when he's been
seeing the field. So why isn't he starting? So as
far as Tukulos, definitely rotation. He wanted to go ahead
and get give him some rest, preparing him into the weekend.
Same thing with Godoy. But at the end of the day,
like you should still be able to finish some chances

(35:18):
and and have that opportunity and not really point to
an injury in the run of play. For that Seattle
game where Mike he's like, well, I'm actually not happy
with the way that play wasn't stopped. Actually pulled up
with a with a with a muscular injury. Uh, Spaskov
goes over and helps him out, and so there you
just lose your whole defensive midfield areas.

Speaker 4 (35:41):
Then run and play happens. Goal one zero.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
Yeah, it was really quick and yeah I think it
was McVay McVeigh. Had he had the one on one,
he could have stopped it, could have prevented it. But
uh yeah, uh had he put a good ball to it,
I mean good kick, And you know, that's just how

(36:06):
it goes sometimes, and hopefully that that doesn't really deter
from you know, from the from the performance of of
you know, they had a lot of the possession and
that's a really good thing. But on the other side,
on the flip side, the Sounders just made it one

(36:27):
note game in rather quickly. And they they yeah, they
they didn't need all that all that possession to do it.
So especially in the in the second half, if you
look at just just shots alone, like Bambino how to
shot turist off McVay Lozano had two. So he he

(36:50):
he made an impact once he showed up in the
second half, but you know that that was pretty much it.
And and and three of those were on target. And
so when when Mikey Varnes says, like, you know, he
liked the expected goals, he you know, he liked the possession, Well,
you know, you only have like three shots on target

(37:12):
and in the second half, and and and Seattle did
everything they can to to try to prevent you from
scory and and fry. My goodness, he had a heck
of a game, just stopping everything and insight and yeah,
I mean that's why he's been there, that's why he's
an all time sounder. And yeah, and we're probably going

(37:35):
to see him again, probably see him again some somewhere
down the line, maybe this year maybe, and up probably
again next year for sure. So yeah, well, well we'll
see him again.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
His save wrong footed on the deflected ball where he
had to just kick his leg out as all of
his weight was going the opposite direction. That's probably even
though it's a very impromptu play, it might just be
the play of the match because that's a ball that
just dumps in a lot of the time, and nobody
thinks the lesser of it. When the ball goes in,

(38:06):
they go, oh, deflection, What was the guy supposed to do?
But he got the leg up really well, you know,
back to Ferira, I just thought the whole thing was
his controlling touch. He controlled the ball away from McVeigh
over to the left, giving himself the space to turn
to his left leg. Whether it was all premeditated or
whether it was just you know, a beautiful extemporaneous play,

(38:32):
you know, a little bit of jazz, you know, improvisation
on his part. It all worked and his first goal
as a sounder after being such a prolifical scorer in
the past, so, you know, all things considered, I felt
like this was one of my less disappointed feelings coming
out of a San Diego FC loss and road loss.

(38:57):
I thought they generally acquitted themselves reasonably well, and it
just when you fall behind Sounders at Lumenfield. You know
you're gonna need something special. Here's the question I want
to ask you guys, though, because I always think about
three matches in eight days and the one thing I
don't like is a half measure? So did we under

(39:18):
rotate on a Wednesday night? Would we have been better
served under I mean, obviously in retrospect, knowing that you lose,
you'd rather have started the junior team and kept everyone
off the pitch. But is there anything to be said
to that? Or do we think that Mikey was like
right on spot with tactics that you save a half

(39:38):
of chooky, you save a good portion of goodoy and
therefore we should expect expect well out of them on
Saturday night.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
I didn't understand why they didn't rotate last time. Right
two weeks ago, they kept it pretty consistent with very
minimal changes to their starting eleven for three straight games,
and they had their the same front three, right it was,
it was mitin Losano, Dryer, and so what what what

(40:11):
has changed that coming into this week? You know you
just had Galaxy, now the Sounders and you know, coming
up next to Austin so and then next week there's
really nothing on the schedule. You know, you have a
friendly against Globe of America, and so I don't understand

(40:34):
why you were kind of going they they went all
all in on Galaxy, that was for sure. Mikey Virus
was going all in on that game, even with Losano
on a on a yellow card. He played the full
ninety and I could tell that they were going for
the win from the very start of that match. And
then this one, Yeah, you start rotating players. I didn't

(40:57):
really understand that, especially with the wee that that's coming up.
I yeah, I mean I would have loved to see
uh ALASKI. I mean I would have loved to see
on him play played a little bit. And then I
think what we're we're kind of forgetting from last time
is the last time the Sounders we played the Sounders.

(41:19):
That was the Tucky Lozano game. He was involved in
all three goals. It was three nothing by the half,
and he had an assist. He was involved in another one,
and then he scored at the very end of the half.
And you know, if you you kind of knew that
coming in, I would have started Cooky in the in
the first half and just kind of saw how things

(41:42):
were going and then and then rotate somebody out. But
that's just me. I'm not I'm not the head coach. Uh,
that's up to Mikey virus. But yeah, I have a
lot of questions about this week, but uh, not not
enough answers.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
I think it was a line of design to tie,
to go in and be a team that says, you
know what, we took it to a team that's difficult
to be at home.

Speaker 4 (42:09):
We got it out with a tie. Let me tell
you they almost got it.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
And I think again in retrospect, had this been a tie,
you would have been like, Okay, that's good.

Speaker 4 (42:17):
You know, you got Abalakati involved in a win that
in that middle area.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
Alba Alo is also, you know, a young player who
definitely has incredible talent, but you can tell that there's
just a step that he's missing, especially you know, comparing
him to how good Goldi has been. Alex excuse me
as they a right back really is out with with
an injury after the LA Galaxy game, which you know,

(42:42):
update will happen tomorrow for our media availability on what
the timetable might be for that. But it's still kind
of this this team where you get to try stuff,
and you get to just be like, hey, let's go
ahead and see what happens here. Uh, if we get
a win, right, if we get a tie, great, If
we lose, at least.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
We got some good minutes a good showing out there.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
But again it's that narrative now of like, well, that's
the team that's in the top half of the table.
Usually San dieguvs has done very well, but against teams
that aren't in that upper echelon of teams. So from
the national kind of narrative perspective, those are things that
are starting to kind of you know, divide themselves and

(43:21):
come up with like, hmm, this team is good, no
question santegups is good, but can they do it against
the top elite?

Speaker 4 (43:29):
You know they have taken into LAFC.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
But when they face Minnesota, when they face Vancouver, when
they face a difficult situation of Seattle away, how are
they going to react to that? So I can see
a little bit of the rotation or the lack thereof
just you know, they wanted to get a point out
of this, and.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
You know you did have Chukinos.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
I don't do that massive sprint towards the end of
full ninety, and you know you have to be able
to kind of bring that back a little bit and say, hey,
we can go ahead and let deploy in case we
need Chuky. If this game is there for the taking
and it might be one Chucky in the second half away,
we could go ahead and deploy that. And I think

(44:07):
that's that's what we saw coming out of the half
of Mikey Bodice was like, Okay, I think it's it's attainable.
I think we put Chucky out there. He's been good.
Pair him up with Dryer. Maybe he's getting too much attention.
Get something over here. You still have a Lakati in there,
create something in the middle. And that's exactly the play
style that went through. They just weren't able to fulfill
it with a goal.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
Good analysis, and for SDFC, you come back home empty handed.
You've got three points so far out of these three matches,
and obviously we'll get into Austin FC and everything that's
ahead for the club momentarily on the show. Any other
thoughts on this one overall? I feel like, let me

(44:49):
just be kind of general about this. So we're gonna
get into CJ Do Santos, the club just extended ce
j Dos Santos, he gets caught off his line, He's
had to make some crazy scrambling saves, but I feel
like that's part of being in the connection matrix of
a possession team that sometimes he has to get out

(45:11):
there in order to facilitate, in order to keep the
ball moving. The team is very forward, so they're a
little bit daring also as CFC generally allows three or
four chances a match, and Dos Santos has made some
really exciting physical saves. You know, he's he's shown his range.

(45:33):
You know, he's shown his reflexes over the course of
this season, and he's and he certainly grabbed the starting
job and taken hold of it and not let go.
I mean, as a guy who you know came up
through l AFC the last few years. When I heard
Cistiega signed him, like, oh, well, there's a guy who

(45:53):
I know splits some time in lafc's met he'll probably
be our regular goalkeeper. But Dosanta not only has taken
the starting job, Guys, now he is a member of
a Zuli chrome uh and I still need a nickname
for the damn team. I hate stumbling every single time
going FC San Diego, San Diego FC. The blue and

(46:15):
chrome a Zuli chrome, like give me a name, give
me a nickname. Anyways, your thoughts on Dose Santos not
only being here is the number one, but being here
for a while.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
Now, I think it's great. Uh, you know before the season, yeah,
it seemed like we didn't really have that goalkeeper. We
had a lot of you know, inexperience in that and
just just looking at the roster, Yeah, those Santos came in,

(46:49):
uh from enter Miamily and yeah, he's been looking great. Yeah,
he does play that goalkeeper slash sweeper that has to
you know, be at the box sometimes. But he's been
doing a really good job. That's a very physical job
that you know, you have to go out there for
a pass and also backtrack and you know, defend your goal.

(47:12):
And he's done a really good job with it. Right now,
he has a seventy seven point nine say percentage, and
that that's ranking him like third and third in the league.
So I mean, he he's he's up there, and it's
good to lock up your goalkeeper because now you don't
have to think about it. You know he's going to

(47:32):
be there. He's going to be in that position, and
you know he's still still a young guy too. It's
great that you know that's what we're seeing, that's what's
being promoted right now. You know, not not just Dos Santo's,
but you know, we're seeing potentially lockdown left back right now,
and look at Bombino, and I think that's going to

(47:56):
be the right to dream and now the same Diego style. Right,
we're going to be promoting these younger guys that are
hungry and want I want to fight for a spot
over some veteran guys, right because we do have Lapelson,
we do have Negrie and and now what we're seeing,

(48:17):
we're seeing the eighteen year olds come up and they're
they're they're locking down some spots. So it's really rare
to see.

Speaker 4 (48:25):
Yeah, no, it's excellent.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
I always have a plethora of thoughts when it comes
to the goalkeeping position in general. So we can be
here for hours, but I won't keep you with CJ.
You can tell that from the beginning of him being
signed and being earning, like being given because clearly he's
earned this position of starting goalkeeper, that there's a chip
on his shoulder. There was this discussion of like, well,

(48:47):
you know, he's never been a starting goalkeeper in the league.

Speaker 4 (48:50):
He's never been and again coming into.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
The league not knowing necessarily who the players of the
league or the dynamics, where it's like you hear that
and you're like, you know, I'm not liking that because
you know, are you just gonna try to hope and
score five and try to make sure that they only
score four?

Speaker 4 (49:04):
Is that going to be the narrative?

Speaker 2 (49:06):
But he's been very, very important and impressive. He's not
my goalkeeper that I grew up with. Prototypically, he's not
the complete shot stopper Oliver Kahn trying to be a
bof trying to be able to fuon like no, the
new goalkeeper needs to use his feet and needs to
be really good at it. But also typically that means
that the shot stopping ability isn't as good.

Speaker 4 (49:26):
But he's proving everybody wrong. He's there.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
He along with the whole team, are shutting mouths up.
And there's one thing that I won't forever enjoy say, hey,
just shut my mouth up. That's fine. Look, dos Antos extended.
He's earned it. The key to the way that he
is able to track back is all in his footwork,
and I wish I had all the just like tellustrators,
just to show you the intricacies of him tracking back

(49:49):
to make sure that the angle's covered to give the
shot whoever's taking a shot from halfway range, like no,
like I still got this, I still have this, and
that's that's a very good weapon.

Speaker 4 (49:58):
He's the modern goalkeeper and.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
A prototype that San Diego FC is exactly what they
thought they were going to get, if not more from
c delcntals.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
I am in no way an MLS capologist, and I
don't expect either of you to be one, at least yet.
Maybe I'll learn as we continue. So I literally state
with ignorance, I have no idea how this extension impacts
their ability to sign somebody in twenty twenty seven or

(50:29):
in twenty twenty eight. It just seems like a nice
thing that the starting goalkeeper that you like is locked
up for a couple of years and gives the club
a little bit of continuity. I feel like Alexa in
many ways, especially for a casual you find out about
like two players on a team, your favorite goal scorer

(50:52):
and the keeper, and those are like the two guys
that a casual is going to learn the names of
the player first, whoever scores the first goal that you
see in person, and the goalkeeper.

Speaker 3 (51:03):
Yeah yeah, and now now we're gonna have him for
a long time here. But yeah, it as as we
get to know, uh you know, the players and and
get to know like the team and everything.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
C J. He's a really good personality. I've listened to
the the the the what do you call it? The
team podcast, and I heard a c J on there.
He's great. I mean, he's you know, he's got he's
pretty even keel. He seems like a very chill guy.

(51:40):
I I that's good to have it as a goalkeeper too.
You know, you want someone that's going to be calm
under pressure. And boy, I remember when he was up
against that penalty kick. I was there for that FC
Dallas match, and I wanted I wanted that so bad
for him and he and when he got it, he

(52:00):
celebrated with the crowd and oh he was so fired up. Man,
he forgot everything that was going on in the play
and he just turned back and just started firing up
the crowd and and everybody was so everybody was behind him.
And and I think that the consensus right now is
that everybody is behind this contract extension for him. It

(52:24):
seems like a really good uh it's it seems like
a really good good thing for s C and the
UFC to do. Uh and uh, yeah, I hope to
see more more clean sheets from him, because right now
he has six and that's tied with third fourth in
the league. And so hopefully more of that more c

(52:47):
J do Santos try to save and save some goals
and yeah, this is a really good thing for for
the fan base and and the team.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
Go ahead.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
So oh sorry, but the CJ De Santos thing is
that you see him as this good guy. Is his personality.
It's very jumpy, bubbly and jubilant. Don't and this is
where like I see that intensity. Don't misinterpret that or
a lack of caring or lack of like, oh, he's
just gonna smile everything, because there is an intensity in
there that once his defense mess up, you can look

(53:20):
at his face and just see exactly he knows what
broke down and he knows where to go ahead and
adjust his defense with that intensity, like no, I need
this here, this there, just because he's all smiles in
This doesn't mean he's having fun all the time. He's
locked and loaded, and he knows for a fact that
he has that chip on his shoulder and he wants
to go ahead and prove people wrong and he's been

(53:40):
doing it. So it's an excellent mix for a goalkeeper. Sorry,
go for a greb oh No, that wonderful tag. I
didn't have anything else to add on CJ. Dos Santos.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
I was just going to transition to our last discussion
topic before we get into what's been going on supporter away,
which is an open I did question, and I think
a good one. You know, we've been very almost uniformly
positive here. San Diego f C has earned it. They're
in second place in the West. For goodness sakes. They

(54:10):
they've definitely you know, they deserve the plot its. But
what more, what more are you looking for? What's a
what's a spot of weakness? If there's something you could
tighten up, something you could upgrade for San Diego FC.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
I'll start with you.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Tony, and then go to Alex. What is the thing
that you think if you could just pull a thing
out and give it to San Diego FC, what would
it be.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
I think it's just a little bit more decisiveness whenever
they are given space work with, because from what we've
seen from San Diego FC is that they'll make the
quick reactionary triangulation, a beautiful passing ping pong between a
couple of players, and then the break they break through
and then they'll.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
Walk it through the ball or have a shot outside
the box.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
But sometimes some of these teams have figured out that
if you give San Diego FC some space to keep
a ball here, have it, go for it.

Speaker 4 (55:01):
You're gonna keep the ball anyways, you do what you're
gonna do.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
You're gonna pass it back anyways, You're gonna look for
the perfect window and then guess what, we can run
out the time. We can have looks on a counter
attack and really hurt you on that on that side,
and we only need one goal to then park the
bus and then we can go ahead and you know,
be successful potentially at making sure that we stop SDFC
from doing Actually, what they've been doing is being great

(55:26):
at the last ten minutes of each half, and that's
for sure a breakdown in the play style of methodically
breaking this defense down, tiring them out run. You want
the ball, go get it. It's at c j De Santles,
go go go for it like that. That part is
is is definitely part of the style that they're implementing.
But sometimes when they're giving too much space and too
much to think about, there's every option to do, and

(55:47):
in trying to calculate which one is the right one,
you're already dispossessed or those windows closed and they can counterattack.
So I think a little bit more decisiveness when the
space is given, especially in that final third.

Speaker 3 (56:02):
Yeah, I think, yeah, that's a really good point. When
when when you think of I was just thinking about
the the LA Galaxy goal, Uh, you know on Saturday
or Kumato. You know he goes over trys to get
the the left back and then he just took a

(56:23):
step way too far and that opened up a huge
space for for the shot to be taken. But in general,
I mean, for for me, it's just like, what what
more does s C f C need?

Speaker 1 (56:37):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (56:38):
I think a striker. I think that that's that's needed.
I know that it seems like Imbartson might come back
soon and and we've seen some games with Imbarts and
I think that that's probably a player I do want
to see a little bit more from. But uh, you know,

(56:59):
I think we need a little bit more depth there.
I know, I know Alaski's there, on Hell's there, but
you know, we kind of need like that every day,
every every week type of player that's going to be
there and really fill that role. I've I I do
want a striker that has eyes for the goal, you know,

(57:21):
for each match and and so far, like I think
the mixed matching and everything that comes with it, it's
it's been hidden or miss. I like Dryer there, but
it kind of seems like Dryer doesn't want to be there.
He likes being on the on the right wing, and.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
Every time they put him in the center, he just
gets out to the right.

Speaker 3 (57:42):
So yeah, every time, and I feel like he he
would do such a really good job there, but you know,
since he doesn't want to do it. I like Chookey
where he's at. I don't want to mess with Choky
at all. So I think that's going to be the
missing piece that when it comes to the summer transfer window,

(58:04):
I really want to see some moves. I really want
someone to come in and really take that role.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
I think it's such a great call, Alex, you pretty
much stole it, although I do wonder. I mean, they
wanted in Vartsen to be that player. You know, he
got hurt. He wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire
his first few matches. He did get hurt. You want
to give anyone the grace of Hey, it's a beginning team.
There's just figuring things out. You know, chemistry is at

(58:32):
an all time low. So go ahead and give them
that space. But in the summer transfer window, I agree
that that could be an area that go but just
to differentiate and to throw a third log in the fire.
I always take a look at the back end, and
I feel like mcnaar and McVeigh have really shown their quality.

(58:55):
I feel like both of them at the center back
positions have shown the ability to come up on set
p They've done a great job of this possession. They
haven't been leaky SIVs. You haven't seen a lot of
Route one against San Diego FC, So I give both
the center backs a lot of that. Luca Bombino has
kind of taken that left back spot and made it

(59:15):
his own, and I'm really excited about what I'm seeing
from Luca, and that leaves right back and right now
Willy is out. But Willy's tried it. They had Verhoven
out there. They've tried a number of players at right back,
and I kind of feel like that's been the revolving door.
And it's also been the spot where I've seen mistakes

(59:39):
in certain matches. I've seen giveaways in certain matches at
that spot in the field. So I feel like, right now,
if I was going to say where's the weak spot
in the San Diego defense, I'd probably point to right back.
And as such, you know, if you either can just
get heightened performance, maybe a guy like Will he you know,

(01:00:00):
settles into the role and becomes dynamic there, or maybe
they get a veteran that improves uh the position. Either way,
I feel like, if you know, in addition to and
I think striker is probably the more important need uh right,
that would be a spot I think about.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
How about you guys, yeah that too, And then you're
pointed the the I think I guess on the call
carouse of the the mcsmass brothers, that that defense where
McVeigh is really coming in and another player who had
a chip.

Speaker 4 (01:00:29):
On his shoulder right is he a left back, is
he a center back? You know he was at DC United.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
There's questions can he adapt and he's taking that starting role,
And I mean, I promise you Andres Reyes is a
real person.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
I have seen him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
Are you sure?

Speaker 4 (01:00:46):
I'm sure I have seen him.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
I have spoken to him, unless it's a very elaborate
David Copperfield esque magic illusion trick that I'm under a spell.

Speaker 4 (01:00:56):
No, he's He's real.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
But that was supposed to be who's the starting center
back once he was healthy? So there's a lot of
just questions with that. So if I want to throw
something else, like a little bit clarity with the Raya situation,
you know, he came in and I think previously like
that's one thing that I did say. His style is
like a Sergio Ramos where he's gonna come in the intense,

(01:01:17):
a true center back, cracking center back.

Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
But that's going to mean he's gonna get some red cards.
What does he do in the first game and then boom, disappear,
he's gone, and now there's a knee injury.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Or a lower leg injury once again lower body.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Yeah, gotta be non specific.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
Yeah, man, I'm actually I'm one of those people that
were was looking at the roster, and when I saw Reyes,
I was like, oh man, you know Reys, he looks
like a really good player. I mean, he was a
really good player two seasons ago with the Red Bulls,
and I was really hoping, just like you said, Tony,

(01:01:56):
that he would be the center back and kind of
maybe put McBay out out and right back maybe and
then but yeah, he kind of fell off from the
Red Bulls. I don't know if you guys know that
story that he scored the goal in the semi final
for the Red Bulls. They go into the final, he

(01:02:16):
becomes essentially like a Red Bulls legend, and in the
final against the Galaxy, he was in the starting eleven
and then all of a sudden, like twenty minutes before
he is gone, they dropped them and no one knows why.
And after that he gets traded to sand the UFC,

(01:02:40):
So something happened there. I don't know if it's still
kind of lingering with the race, but I hope everything's
okay with him, and hopefully we get to see him sometime,
you know, this season, and you know, I think he
can be that hard, smash mouth type of center back,

(01:03:01):
and yeah, maybe we'll see that.

Speaker 2 (01:03:04):
The official word is that he's getting something looked at,
maybe needing to clean up. So that's officially from STFC,
so a clan on the injury report.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Okay, might need to go in there, clean it up.
It's a little little sweet job, a little sweet job
in there, get it all, get it all tidied. Okay.
So we'll never see rays all year?

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
I mean, do you want to if we're going by
trajectory and history of what he's actually done on the
field so far, Like.

Speaker 4 (01:03:36):
I don't, I don't. I don't see him Leagues Cup?

Speaker 1 (01:03:38):
Can we can we see him in League Cup?

Speaker 4 (01:03:40):
Maybe? Hey, that's that's true. That's a little you know,
he's he's a Colombian.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
He might see just a different layer and physicality that's
needed against some of these other other teams. Because that's
definitely that's definitely something that comes up right like these
l A F C America games, Like you're not playing
against other MLS teams, You're playing against a team that's
coming in physical Mexico used to getting a lot of
calls historically in their favor. Maybe dark arts, maybe not,

(01:04:07):
but it's definitely something to look at right, like, is
what is Luca Bombino going to look like against a
Mexican team with a lot of South American influences in
their attack?

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:04:18):
Like?

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
What are those lap matches going to be? I'm actually
very excited for those things to develop.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
All right, that's some spicy talk.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
I like that stuff right there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:29):
Okay, let's keep it moving because this we're gonna generally
aim for an hour ish on the Chromaniacs. This one
is probably heading toward ninety minutes because we had a
game to discuss as well as a game to preview,
and we had to get through the who are we
and the overview and all of the you know, get
the basic ingredients out there, get the flour and the butter,

(01:04:51):
get it all laid out, create the dough. So now
we caetn't let it rise. So this week for and
Diego FC has featured a win, a loss, and an
even bigger loss in my opinion, because what took over

(01:05:11):
the entire front page of the San Diego Union Tribune
on Wednesday was Maley Melee at the stadium. You know,
Meley at the match? I think is what they is
how they wrote it, Because you've got to be alliterative,
you know, if you're looking for newspaper headlines. But of
course it was accurately describing what happened at the very end.

(01:05:33):
And I want to be very very clear about this.
What happened several minutes after the end of San Diego
FC's win over LA Galaxy. And we've now gotten to
the point, guys, where there's been enough reporting, enough work
from the club, enough discussion from supporters groups that we

(01:05:53):
can generally cess out what happened. So I'll put a
quick narrative and then we'll get into the discuss like
what happened. What happened at the very first ever San
Diego FC match away at LA Galaxy in their away
section San Diego FC supporters, one of the primary supporters group,

(01:06:14):
Daego Boys, had one of the banners that they hung
inside Dignity Health Sports Park ripped away, taken away, stolen,
It was hung and then it was ripped off of
its moorings and it was taken. It was believed to
be taken by the biggest supporters group of Galaxy, Angel

(01:06:37):
City Brigade, also known as ACB. So okay, that's a
thing that allegedly happened at match one on we go
to the rematch, and what is unveiled both at halftime
and late in the match, but that Daego Boy's banner
up in the visiting supporters area where Angel City Brigade is,

(01:07:02):
an area that by the way, is ringed by security,
and SDFC put in protocols such as security is going
to usher out the Angel City Brigade at the end
of the match. They ushered them in at the beginning
of the match. They did put together the type of
protocols that you might angrily casually say, why didn't they

(01:07:22):
do that? Well, they did, they did do that, but
ACB decided to hang a piece of cheese on the
edge of the trap by taking this banner out and
you know, hanging it up upside down and doing the
whole thing of like non nah, boo boo, we stole
your flag. And then at the end of the match,

(01:07:46):
some members of Daego Boys, followed by several members of
other supporter groups, but not everybody, but some a few,
not even many, but a few, made the decision to
leave the north end, the exact opposite end of sab

(01:08:07):
Dragon Stadium and go all the way up and go
up the stairs and get up to confront Angel City Brigade,
at which point some members of Angel City Brigade broke
through the security line, which may or may not have
desired to truly hold the line. You know, it was

(01:08:30):
not as effective as the Magino line, if you remember
your World War II history. It was burst through quickly. Nonetheless,
a melee ensues an actual fight, which was ugly, and
many of the videos have circulated. If you're listening to chromaniacs,
you probably saw one of those videos. I saw several

(01:08:52):
of them and was scared half to death to see
people literally tumbling to the last fast row of the
upper deck, tumbling up against the stanchions that are waist
high that prevents you from falling to your definite death,
you know, down below. And there were people that that
those stanchions probably saved their life on that on that

(01:09:17):
particular afternoon, that Saturday afternoon. So, uh, that's a real
thing that happened, a real brawl. There's no question that
it was instigated by a non violent but provocative action,
the theft of something, and then the display of said

(01:09:38):
theft and mockery of it. But then the the violence
that began came because San Diego fans made the trip
from the north end up into the southeast corner of
the upper deck. So guys, that's that's the first narrative.

(01:09:58):
We've had a big meeting between the club and the
supporters groups on Tuesday, Tony, what more from a repertorial side,
what more is there to add to this before we
even get into the opinion side of it.

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
Yeah, you know, in this season, the inaugural season, actually
MLS has a couple of necessarily instances where they look
at and like, hey, like, we're not really too fond
of this as San Diego FC fans, But every time
there's been the distinction of hey, this was not from
deta San Diego, this was not coming from the supporter union,

(01:10:35):
that was not this In the press uh press conference,
post past press conference, we were actually waiting for Mikey
Bidis and company to come off after a great game
and literally thought this is going to be probably his
most jubilant that he's going to come in and talk
about a fantastic game. But much like the chance that
we're heard at snapdrag in the first ever game, Mikey

(01:10:56):
Batas comes up and you know, I have my hand
up and Comms directors says not yet, put your hand down,
like oh okay, and he his coach, Mike Abatis, will
start with a statement, gives a statement that we've all
all heard. And so at that point we really didn't
have any context because it was just videos being shared
in the press room of like, look, this is what's happening.

Speaker 4 (01:11:17):
Actually right now out there, right like now.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
And so as things start coming in, you know, the
the league has definitely taken this incredibly seriously. Uh. They
there are repercussions that are going to be had and
announced that before the next home match, whether that's going
to be individuals, uh and or supporter groups in general,
So those are going to be coming down.

Speaker 4 (01:11:41):
But again, like for for me personally, like.

Speaker 2 (01:11:46):
When I when I definitely want to see everybody have
a good time, it meant I mean that in the
safest way, because I don't think anybody needed that either side.
I know we're going to jump into opinions, but like
the the fact of the matter is that there are
facts in this matter that are incredibly negative. There are

(01:12:08):
stories coming out of some people going up there to
get people out. So I don't want to you know,
also leave that side of the story out. Clearly there
are people caught in the video that you can see, Hey,
get out of here, like go like let let's go.
There's no forward motion, so that.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Also peacemakers, peacemakers.

Speaker 2 (01:12:26):
And so if without those, hey, maybe somebody does go
tumbling down. Unfortunately, and hopefully that's being taken to consideration.
But from from an optic standpoint, from a narrative standpoint
on the national media side, like, that's just not what
you want as a club and an inaugural team, you
don't want anybody representing you this way. And much like
the chance, Look it's like a team. It's definitely a team.

(01:12:48):
Your teammate just lets you down that game, just teammates
let you down. But you have to come back next week. Yeah,
and what are you going to.

Speaker 4 (01:12:54):
Do for that?

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
But as in the business standpoint, we're going to most
likely hear from if they follow the same formula as
a CHANT CEO Tom Penn about, Hey, these are the
steps we're going to take. This is the measures moving
into Saturday, and then we'll see executed and hopefully it
doesn't happen again. They were successful as the chant last time,
I would say, definitely very successful in quelling that so far.

Speaker 4 (01:13:17):
But you know, I think that's kind of the pattern
that we're going into.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
Yeah, your thoughts. Yeah, I for me, when when I
first heard about it, I I really couldn't believe it.
Uh that what what? What was going on? I I
when I had to watch the match off a laptop
in a hotel room. So after after the match was

(01:13:44):
I turned it off. And then you know, once you
go on social media, you kind of you're a little
confused about what was going on after the match, like
this was all happening and you know, just just like
this chant, you know they're there. There is a code
of conduct when you enter, you know, any sporting event,

(01:14:04):
you must follow it. You can't just try to do
things and take things into your own hands. It's you
should try to have a safe, fun environment wherever you go. So,
you know, we we we shouldn't have to be doing this,
mikey virus shouldn't have to go and try to be

(01:14:25):
the principal and be it, you know, and try to
tell us, hey, you know, what you guys are doing
is wrong. You know, you shouldn't have to do that.
You know, when when when these incidents happened, and when
he goes into a press conference where when it should
should have been a very a great mood. I mean,
the match was great. It was one of the best

(01:14:46):
matches they had, and that's what we should have been
talking about. That's what the press, that's what everybody should
have been talking about. They should have been talking about
the match. I was, I guess I was the only
one talking about the match, but everybody had to just
kind of crush that and focus on what was going
on in the stands.

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Yeah, and that kind of you know, brings me to
my feelings about all of this, because once again, I'm
a member of one of the supporter groups, the locals.
I've been a member of Chavo's San Diego. You know,
they've moved to frontier altars. I still sympathize, completely align

(01:15:31):
with so many of the folks, their friends, you know,
everyone in the Purple Lot. I think of as you know,
I think we all think of one another as a brotherhood,
a sisterhood that we're all together doing this thing, supporting
for a club. It's a sacrifice, you know, but it's
also a cultural experience. It's also a bonda, right, A Barra.

(01:15:54):
It's your group, it's your people. And when you do
something tribal, one of the natural human things when you
are acting tribal is to see another tribe as a threat,
to see another tribe as something that you must, you know,
work against, and it can lead to a violent conflict.

(01:16:19):
But that is the nature of tribality. Oh there they are,
We are us, they are them. We are good, they
are bad. They took our thing. Go get it, you know.
Add in the passion of a match, add in the
drama of a late win. And add in a hot day,

(01:16:41):
the sun beating down at Snapdragon Stadium, not ninety five degrees,
but still a warm day, first day game for San
Diego FC. For all of this, add in SD versus LA.
Add in ninety minutes plus for some folks, three to
four hours to six hours to eight hours before that

(01:17:03):
of pregaming, right, of drinking alcohol, of smoking weed, of
doing whatever you were doing, to put yourself in that
physical mental space to be as loud and crazy and
passionate as you possibly can. It's it's a mix that
can create a lot of fun moments, but if it's

(01:17:24):
not taking the right direction, it can lead us to
something like this, and again, as somebody who's been a
part of supporter culture for five six years, what breaks
my heart is seeing the next day, you know, a
dead eyed scribe like Ziegler. Just right we supporters group's fighting.

(01:17:49):
You know, the team's left the field quoting. The teams
left the field a couple of minutes later, but the
animosity between rival supporter groups continued in the stands, with
wild scenes of fighting that elicited a size police response.
An hour after the final whistle, a police helicopter was
still circling above the stadium, ordering people to promptly exit
the parking lot. It's the second time this season that

(01:18:10):
a game against LA at Snapdragon Stadium has descended into violence.
Videos posted on social media following a three two SDFC
win show a free for all in the parking lot.
SDFC supporters were seated behind the north goal, Galaxy supporters
were in the far upper corner, but after most fans
filed out of the stadium, some SDFC supporters appeared to

(01:18:31):
approach the visitors section, and multiple fistfights erupted. Galaxy supporters
broke through. It's the Jets and the Sharks. When you
read it in the in the SDUT and it's it's
the North end moving enmass, you know, like the game
ended and then the North end just got up and

(01:18:53):
marched over to the Galaxy. No, it was a few guys.
There's a few guys, and then some guys followed those
few guys because they know those guys and they're like,
hang on, that's my captain, hang on, that's my leader.
That's a guy who's maybe been very prominently featured and

(01:19:17):
a lot of SDFC generated content.

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
Hey, there's a knucklehead kid that's trying to get involved, right, Yeah,
he doesn't need to be involved in this.

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
None of them need to be involved in this. I
gotta go help them. I gotta go take care of them.
I gotta go take care of my brothers and sisters
that are running up there. So it's such an unfortunate,
unfortunate situation because I've seen it, guys, and you know,
for as you know, you know, for fourteen months before

(01:19:50):
Odyssey did what Odyssey did, I was out there trying
to wave the flag for soccer, for supporter culture, for
San Diego FC into the headwind of casual sports fans,
not soccer fans, I think soccer fans see this and go, God,
that sucks. Doesn't it any way change my desire to
go to the next match. The boy that sucks. But

(01:20:13):
the sixty five year old woman watching KUSI you know,
the sports radio Tier one listener that just likes football
and baseball. Like those people are like, oh yeah, soccer,
violent soccer supporter groups violent thugs. I saw a prominent

(01:20:35):
reporter who used to write all the time in SDUT
on social media saying, well, this gang behavior. You know,
soccer matches are great, but this gang behavior, it's just terrible.
And I hate that type of coded language. I hate
even the very quiet coding that was taking place in
the news reports of this and the subsequent news reports

(01:20:57):
about it. And as such as a supporter, I'm so
bitterly disappointed in the people within supporter leadership who chose
to make fools of themselves by running into a violent incident.
And I understand, try hopefully you can hear everything I've said,
and I understand, I get the passion, I understand all

(01:21:18):
the underlying circumstance. You still can't go there. You can't
do it because this is a first year team. You
are a several month old supporter group, you know, and
your initial reactions are gonna be held against you for
a long long time. Your initial impressions are gonna stick
for a long long time, and there are gonna be

(01:21:40):
some people who are gonna say years from now, oh,
I don't want to go to an SDFC game. I
heard that there's violent brawls, don't I don't want to
go there. I don't want to get hit by a
belt somebody whipping a belt buckle around. Another thing that
was written about in the newspaper, you know, graphic detail
to try and make it a little bit more dangerous, sounding,
a little bit more we're salacious. So it's on the

(01:22:04):
club to do the right thing, to be as public
as I'm sure they're going to be. And as this
comes out, you're probably listening to it on Friday, you
might know what the club has done. We're recording this
Thursday night. But it's also on these supporters groups. It's
on each and every supporters group, and you know, right
now there's a lot of talk about, well, you kind

(01:22:25):
of have the Big Three, you have the Dago Boys,
you have Bar eighteen, you know, you have Terra Ultras
like they're the Big three, and then you got the
other groups and you're we're backing each other, and do
the other groups have our back? We don't hang on.
We're all a brotherhood in the sisterhood as the supporters
of San Diego FC, and we all look bad, every

(01:22:49):
one of us, and everything that we stand for looks
terrible when violence is associated with the beauty of supporters culture.
So I really call on both the club and the
groups to have a long, hard thought about how this
goes forward. And if some folks don't get to come

(01:23:11):
forever or for the rest of the year or for
a long time to San Diego FC, obviously both sides
have a trust gap that they have to refill now.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
And if that's not the narrative, and if we're missing something,
I would love at least for me, I'll open that invitation.
I have a little bit a Monday show or anywhere,
just let me know and we'll say that context that
we're missing. Right, I'm open because I want to hear.
I want to find every way to be like, look,
that's true. People went up there just to get people out.
There were reports of underage people going up there and

(01:23:46):
trying to get involved just because of Hey, that's what
you know, sixteen seventeen.

Speaker 4 (01:23:49):
Year old kids do.

Speaker 2 (01:23:50):
They just want to be part of the ruckus at times.
And if that's really kind of what we're leaning on
as the reason, it's still not a good enough reason.
It There are consequences to be had. Every action has
a consequence. If there are contexts that we're missing, please
let us know. But as of right now, I don't
have anything. But again, I also empathize and I will

(01:24:13):
forever understand again growing up the way I grew up,
from National City through Juana, through the South Bay, like
I've known some of these people of like, yeah, that's
a lifestyle that they chose. But also you're also sometimes
saying like, well, that's not us. You gave somebody a
reason to think that was you. Even if it's not.
You gave somebody a reason to think that was you.

(01:24:35):
And you've done so much great work that immediately might
get erased because of something.

Speaker 4 (01:24:40):
How are you going to move forward with that?

Speaker 1 (01:24:41):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:24:42):
What I will say is that the groups did meet,
like you mentioned with the club, and for the majority,
from what I understand is that there's there is good
there's a good place where that meeting ended, and so
that's collectively as the group.

Speaker 4 (01:24:54):
So whatever that means as far as what's.

Speaker 2 (01:24:56):
Going to come out, I hope it's you know, I
hope it's a lesson learned for everybody and it can
be a growing experience for everybody.

Speaker 4 (01:25:04):
Very corporate, very this. But like it's true, Like, guys,
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:08):
I get the intention of wanting to defend something that
somebody else on purpose comes in to try to.

Speaker 4 (01:25:13):
Disrespect and disrespect.

Speaker 2 (01:25:15):
I understand that it came into your house, it's bit
in your kitchen and said what are you going to
do about it?

Speaker 4 (01:25:19):
And you did something about it. But that's the give
and take.

Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
Yeah, really well sent guys. I agree, Yeah, appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
Yeah, And like you said, Tony, you know, I want
this show. I want Chromaniacs to be a spot that
that supporters want to listen to. This show want to
feel is a supportive space. You know. I want to
hear from supporters, and so I'm with you too, Tony.
I'd love to hear from leadership. There's an open invite
for context for putting out your side of the story,

(01:25:54):
whether it's Daego Boys, whether it's bar eighteen, whether it's
Fronteria Ultrai's anybody who wants to put their story out there.
Cromaniacs is a place you can do that and understand
that you're not you know, it's not the cop FC podcast.
You know, like you're gonna you're gonna be given your
grace and your space to say what you need to say.

(01:26:16):
But I said what I need to say. As a supporter,
I feel like this is literally like the first real
stain on everything that we've done since day one, and
and I felt like the pea chant in the home
opener was this like super frustrating thing because I'm like,
that's not us. And it was immediately like oh yeah,

(01:26:36):
well look at those supporters, Well look at look at
who those supporters are, and then look what happened, Like, no, guys,
it was the other end of the stadium. It was
a complete other end of the stadium. And it felt
like an initial brush fire. I feel like every team
that starts a pro soccer first division team is in
America or Mexico is going to have to snuff out

(01:26:57):
the peachant in their first three months because there's this
group of people who just want to show up and
do it, you know. And but like they're gone. Now
they're gone. It's done. They solved it. Solve this. This
is the first time I feel like supporters really have
to stand up and show the strength of the Union
two not only defend yourself, but now to police yourself

(01:27:21):
and to make it an inviting space and a welcome
space for everybody. All right, with that done and said,
let's wrap up the show with a preview. Austin FC
is in Saturday night. This is the team that handed
the Blue and Chrome, the Chrome Dragons, the Chrome, the Chromes.

Speaker 4 (01:27:40):
It's gonna come.

Speaker 2 (01:27:41):
It's gonna get here, like it's gonna it's gonna be
birthed from here, from this area, and it's gonna be perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:27:48):
I just know it is. But we're almost there.

Speaker 1 (01:27:51):
The Chrome Devils, the Chrome anyways, so we're gonna our
team is gonna host Austin f C. The first ever
lost in our team's history was in Austin to FC.
Uh and Alex kind of you know, exciting in that
very San Diego sense. Chula Vista's very own Brandon Vasquez

(01:28:16):
will be here with the other Colors, trying to score
on his hometown team.

Speaker 3 (01:28:22):
Yeah, like, uh, he showed us. He showed what he
can do. In the very first match he got by
Ian Pilcher, which that was the last time we saw Pilcher.
By the way, he hasn't played sense he.

Speaker 1 (01:28:37):
And Negary are just like I think those two just
like have a special hangout, like maybe they're starting their
own podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:28:43):
Yeah, we don't know about Oh my god, Yeah, that
was the last time we saw Pelter. But yeah, he
got by Pelcher and scored the goal in the ten
minute and yeah, and from there they scored another one.
That was two one victory for Austin in Austin, and yeah,
he's having a really good season and all through across

(01:29:04):
all competitions. Right now with the US Open Cup. Uh,
Brandon Vasquez has seven goals, one assist. Yeah, he's playing
way better than when he was playing in Leah Max.
He's he's getting those minutes. He's starting pretty you know
every match here and yeah, he's he's there guy, he

(01:29:27):
is their guy to score goals. So hopefully that doesn't
really happen on Saturday. Uh. We we don't want him
to have a good homecoming when when he's here. But
but yeah, I watched him play a little bit, uh
in the second half of the Austin FC versus Real

(01:29:49):
Salt Lake game last night, and yeah, he was playing really,
really well and they were able to h at the
equalizer late. It was a Thegle Rubio equalizer in stoppage time,
and yeah, I mean this is yeah, this you know,

(01:30:09):
this is a team you know that it's gonna give
you some trouble. But at the same time, they are
not good on the road. Austin FC has one win
on the road and a bunch of losses and a
couple of draws. So so hopefully we get to see

(01:30:29):
that team come in and it's going to be a
victory for Sandy UFC. But yeah, you know, we saw
what they can do on their turf and hopefully we
can get them this time.

Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
Well, you know, we talk about those two goals, Tony.
Those are two of the eleven goals that Austin FC
has scored all year in sixteen matches, having conceded eighteen,
the same number as San Diego f C. Sandyg f
C has scored twenty seven, sixteen more goals. You know,
closer to three times more goals than it is to

(01:31:06):
two times more goals for San Diego FC. So to me,
this is a match you really want to get three
points from, You want to get a clean sheet out of,
You want to hold Austin FC to nothing and find
your way to at least a goal and take this match.

(01:31:27):
But I'm very curious. This is the second, you know,
stretch of three straight matches in a week for San
Diego FC, And as Alex mentioned earlier in the show, Tony,
the first time that mikey Vardies filled out that third lineup,
he pretty much just wrote in his lineup and it
was a zero zero draw at the end of the day,

(01:31:50):
a match that was, you know, one of the less
entertaining home matches so far in club history. So I'm
really curious whether we're gonna see a rotated lineup at all,
or a heavily rotated lineup or a mid rotated lineup
for this particular match.

Speaker 2 (01:32:08):
Yeah, in some positions, obviously you're kind of you know,
tied to Hey Vahovin. He's still a young guys. He's
gonna go the full ninety as you're gonna wish him to.
Maybe not because of Willi Kumalew's injury, but again you
have that experience of lawful senden playing that depth game,
because also on top of that, you're gonna start having
players go on international duty, and so are you gonna

(01:32:30):
get the last squeeze of that lemon before they go
out into international duty, knowing that if they do go
out there and they're really prominent in that team, in
their national team, that can definitely lead to fatigue, potential injury,
and then if they get injured. Nothing worse obviously than
a player getting injured, period, but nothing worse than having
a player that's in formed be injured internationally and then

(01:32:52):
there's nothing for you then just wait and recover them.
But to the point that Alex was making is that, yeah,
that rotation against Austin FC for the first game, Ian
Pilcher like, I hadn't heard that game since since that
game actually, and you can definitely tell that there's a
lot of growing that happened within that game because in
the second half San Diego FC against Austin looked like

(01:33:13):
a much better team. They were able to adapt and
clean up the mistakes. They did look very shaky, very young.
That first goal that we saw was actually off of
a heads up play because there was a foul on
Austin's side that Austin takes care just immediately, starts replay immediately,
and they catch the entire defense for Sandege FC sleeping,

(01:33:33):
and so that's why you get Brandon Vasque is getting
so much space and finishing right there. But that didn't
happen again for the rest of the game. Since that game,
they've been bouncing back and they actually had a three
game winning streak after that match San Diego FC did,
so I think this is going to be a little
bit different where this is going to be a bounce
back game for San Diego FC. My biggest thing is

(01:33:55):
I never want to see a team be the reason
why another team is scessful or can point out and say, hey,
remember we went down to San Diego and snap Dragon
and we figured our season out when we unlocked the
secret of Brandon Vasquez. Yeah no, it was that hat
trick that he scored against San Diego and the rest
of the season he's been great. But it's starts started there, like,
don't be that team to give a team that bounce

(01:34:16):
back in confidence to be able to say, okay, no,
we have this, because it just takes one or two
of those or you to really start to dip in
in those standings and then now you're in a precarious
will they won't they situation. Yeah, San Diego C's second
right now, but there's a lot of season left and
there's a lot of teams that are growing and learning.
Because San Diego C has more footage out there, there's

(01:34:38):
more study, a film to study. So all these things
kind of need to be thought of a little bit more.
But it's the fun aspect of it, like it's the
first time we can get to think about returning Texan
team to Snapdragon Stadium.

Speaker 1 (01:34:54):
Well, guys, to just throw a little more preview into
the mix. According to We Are Austin TV, Austin FC
midfielders Eli Sanchez and Bisard Savovich are both suspended for
Saturday night's match because of card accumulation, each picking up
their fifth card against Real Salt Lake. So two of

(01:35:17):
the connectors for Austin FC will not be in the lineup.
And I saw a little bit down the X chain
from that FC fans going, well, I hope we get
a point. Well on Saturday, Well we're gonna let the
kids play.

Speaker 4 (01:35:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:35:34):
I actually just came from a preview of a it's
called Swoon Tower Austin FC podcast and outlet out there,
and that's exactly what they were saying, like, well, I
hope that we're good with having our kids come out
there and have a confidence. And I said, stop right there,
Verhoven is, how old Bombinos? How old ci Di Losantos?
Howld Like if we really want to talk the age

(01:35:55):
and kids discussion, you know, I guess our kids are
better than your like that. That's okay, that's okay, But
that's kind of the mentality that Austin has coming in like, oh, hum, bum,
but that's.

Speaker 4 (01:36:07):
What happened last time. Where's Brandon Vasquez?

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
He hasn't scored, and then boom, Brandon Vastis scores his
first goal AGAINSTANDYFC in the season.

Speaker 1 (01:36:15):
Yeah, okay, Well thoughts we get we I don't know.
Are we gonna be a predictions show? This is episode one.
I'm fine with not being a predictions show because we're
a sandyg FC podcast. We should theoretically all three of
us pick three points for every match to make our
audience happy and allow that very tiny dopamine hit. Oh yeah,

(01:36:38):
we're gonna win. Yeah, three cheers, for three beers, you know,
But so I don't know. I'll leave it up to
you guys.

Speaker 4 (01:36:47):
What you think.

Speaker 1 (01:36:48):
I would just say that I would hold a higher
level of expectation and I would feel a little disappointed
with zero zero or one to one on Saturday night.

Speaker 3 (01:37:00):
I would agree that this should be a win. You know,
Austin seen you know, just looking at the last few matches,
it's just one win overall, one loss and one two, three, four,
four draws. This isn't yeah, this this, this shouldn't be

(01:37:22):
the team we we saw, especially, uh, you know, given
the contexts. I believe McNair was out because of international
duty last time. We should have our you know, full
back back line this time the midfield. I kind of wonder,
if you know, is Luca gonna be given you know,

(01:37:46):
more minutes? Probably probably less minutes since he's going out
to international duty himself. And yeah, we'll see what what's
gonna happen in the front on the front line, you know,
is it gonna be another rotation of a different starting
casts this time? Uh? Might My hope is you know

(01:38:07):
they give more minutes to ALASKI I really want to
see that for him. Why not now? Because you're not
really going to have a lot of competition, you know,
next week. You know it's not going to be for
another couple of weeks that you really do see uh,

(01:38:27):
you know that you're back in the MLS playing playing
in the league. So yeah, hopefully we see see Eloski
out there, you know, get you know, give them a shot.
If I see Annie Melacari again, I'm going to be
so disappointed. I just I can't. I can't do this
again with the Melakari experience. It's just not my damn.

(01:38:54):
I really just want to see someone someone else up front.

Speaker 2 (01:38:58):
Well, i'll tell you sports out there for Marcus and
Varsen did state a eight to ten week.

Speaker 4 (01:39:06):
Oh where do you go there? It went eight. I'm like, okay,
we have this thing where let me.

Speaker 1 (01:39:13):
Take stage here, I've got some news.

Speaker 4 (01:39:16):
Here we go.

Speaker 2 (01:39:17):
Yeah, usually when we talk about teams for the league,
some league official comes in rogue and just takes control
of the stream.

Speaker 4 (01:39:23):
Historically with soccer's overtime, so hey, watch.

Speaker 1 (01:39:25):
Out, I've experienced it. Good point.

Speaker 2 (01:39:30):
But no, like some reports said eight to ten weeks,
this would be week ten, so we might be seeing
I mean, excuse me, Marcus and Varson make his return
to the starting eleven sooner rather than later. He is
scheduled to start very soon, so it's something that they'll ask.
Head goes Mikey about us, and I mean, now that

(01:39:51):
we have this weird thing, like, is there anything you
guys want to know?

Speaker 3 (01:39:56):
Wow? You got any questions?

Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
Yeah, well, you know, I was thinking about musical genres.
I was thinking about wardrobe choices because he feels very
comfortable in a T shirt and some math leisure on
the sideline.

Speaker 3 (01:40:14):
He looks good in that tribal I agree, Yeah, I
mean it's cool. I mean that's a local brand. He's
really wrapping the Tribal brand really hard, so I like it.
I mean he's got the hoodie, he's got the T shirt.
He pretty much has everything.

Speaker 2 (01:40:33):
Uh, you'll you'll come to learn, Alex that I'm a
soccer purist in a lot of ways. I like my
managers and coaches.

Speaker 3 (01:40:40):
In the suit, I think that's gonna be a question
for the future. Is he gonna wear a suit if
we reached the final is it gonna be suit.

Speaker 1 (01:40:52):
Shirt?

Speaker 4 (01:40:52):
Yeah? I want to see the travel scene question anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:40:55):
Like, honestly, like the model that you would say like, okay,
like athlete, you're a whare Like this guy looks cool,
like he's like the Latino in him too, Like he
has excellent like excellent rocks it every time his best
he has the he has a sweaters and he'll like
push him up and when he's got yeah yeah yeah,

(01:41:15):
just move like there's there's different things we've noticed that
like okay, like he's working with what he has on.
So keep doing you, Mikey, It's fine, it's just a
personal preference.

Speaker 4 (01:41:25):
It's all good. Might as well wear a tracksuit just
like the Russian. Hey yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (01:41:32):
Can see a track sit on my Yeah he can
rock it.

Speaker 1 (01:41:37):
Yeah, what is the I'm just trying to remember they're
not Adidas, are they?

Speaker 4 (01:41:44):
Yes, they are.

Speaker 1 (01:41:45):
They are so that to be perfect the three stripes
track exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:41:48):
Yeah, Russian Gangster, it's on brand. Yeah, it's absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:41:52):
Oh let's go. Let's go. So well, hopefully, Tony, I'll
get the opportunity to join you at some of those
trainings as the spring turns to summer, and then I'll
come up with my own unique and stupid questions to
ask Mike e Vanas and to try and shake things up.
At the press conference. But as for now, let's wrap

(01:42:15):
up this initial jumbo sized edition of the Coromaniacs. Again,
don't expect it to be a two hour ride most weeks,
expected to be a lot closer to an hour hour
fifteen as we go forward. Nonetheless, wherever you are listening
to this, if you're listening to it on San Diego
Punto Football, if you are listening to it on the
Padres hot tub feed, if you were watching it on YouTube,

(01:42:37):
please subscribe find us. We're creating those new feed Those
new feeds are being established in the podcast world so
that all of these podcasts are distributed to Apple and
to Google Play and to Spotify and to Ihearten to
everywhere else. So when you find it, click subscribe, five

(01:42:57):
star review thumbs up. All of those things are going
to be helpful to our young podcast as it develops
wings and grows quickly. Tony tell everybody where to follow
along with San Diego Punto Football.

Speaker 2 (01:43:13):
Absolutely you can check us out san Diego punto Football,
dot football, san Diego dot futbo l that is the
name of the game. That is the website, San Diego
po Football, and that's pretty much it. You can find
everything we do on there, everything I do pretty much,
Graig or actually Alex, I say.

Speaker 3 (01:43:29):
Alex, you plug in the traumatics FC on slubstock. You
can find me there, all the recaps, previews. I should
have a recap for tomorrow morning and Blue Sky if
you want to reach me. Who knows Alex on Blue Sky.

Speaker 1 (01:43:48):
I'm at six or nine sports on Blue Sky at
six one nine sports and life on Instagram, which then
goes over to Facebook or and I think it gets
stolen to threads too, But does anyone use thread I
think it's only used when it's fed to you through Instagram, like, hey,
here's the thing, go click on this. Anyways, it is.

(01:44:08):
It's a dirty trick, Zuckerberg. I'm on to you your
dirty tricks. That's gonna do it for this episode, for
Tony Sanchez, for Alex Panna, I'm Craig Elston. Thank you
for getting to the end of episode one of the
Chromaniacs and Vomos sd FC D

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