August 25, 2023 • 51 mins
Dax McCarty an 18 year MLS Veteran and current Nashville SC midfielder stops in the studio to talk about life as a professional soccer player. Dax talks about what it's like to try and shutdown Lionel Messi, who McCarty thinks is the best soccer player to ever play the game. How did Dax end up with Messi's jersey after the Leagues Cup Final and how did Dax become the talk of the town in the British tabloids? Does Dax McCarty think Messi can lead Inter Miami to the MLS Playoffs?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
We were supposed to record tomorrow, and so the boys,
like one of the guys couldn't do it, and so
I was like, all right, we'll whin And so we're
recording today right after this too. Are you going back
to back?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Dang, dude? Were good?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Okay, yeah, they work here.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You're hear you check?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right? Good? Just eat the microphone.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
You know. Hey, he does a podcast. Due he's professional.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Is that thing standing up? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, that's good. How's that? That's all right?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Great?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Right?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You ready?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
All right, hit it.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
We do it from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, you gotta do the intro so he can hear
our stupid intro and.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
All right, we have an invisible person and we act
no I wanted you to do.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I thought you were going to do the invisible intern
without him knowing, without saying it, and he'd be like,
what the go ahead.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
There was a kid that we offered two hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
He emailed in and what he goes, Dude, I think
I can take your podcast to the next level. And
he was like, I'm just getting out of college. If
you guys will pay me twenty four thousand a year,
I'll move to Nashville and I'll run your social media's
and everything. And his name was Arnold, and we're like, dude,
we'll pay you two hundred bucks if you want to come,
and so he was like no. And so now we
just act like we hired Arnold, and we still use
(01:13):
his likeness to this day.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And he's probably mad about it too.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
No. No, he still emails in because he tried to
get in our fantasy football league.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So, all right, we're gonna do it live. How are you, Arnold?
What are you? Guys?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
That's Dax.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
He's on the soccer team. Get back, get back. Help
me with these dials. Put it down, put it down.
Let's do it live. We oh the three sol losers?
What up?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Everybody? I am lunchbox. I know the most about sports,
so I'll give you the sports facts, my sports opinions,
because I'm pretty much a sports genius, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's says it. I'm from the North, I'm in Alpha Male.
I live on the West side of Nashville with Baser
White Piggot fence. Two point five kids die of a
heart attack when I'm seventy two. Let's get to the
guest boys. Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, all right, guys. If I don't know if a
lot of you watch MLS, this dude has been around.
He's been in New York, he's been in Chicago. He's
been traded, he's moved. He's what we call a journeyman.
He also does a podcast called Journeyman. The One and
Only Dax McCarty. He started like five hundred and fifty
two thousand games in the NFL and not the MLS,
(02:20):
NFL two, NFL two. Yeah, it was a kicker. Did
you ever try to be a kicker?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I never tried. We kicked a couple field goals every
now and then after practice a few days in Dallas.
And then there was a guy who I played with.
He was sixteen years old when he turned pro named
Josh Lambeau.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Okay, here's the jaguar.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
He actually he actually turn pro. He played four years,
four or five years of professional soccer. Decided this isn't
for me. He was a goalie. Weird people, weird goalkeepers
are weird. Man decided pro soccer wasn't for him, went
best drivers, went back to college. I think he kicked
at Texas Tech or Texas A and M and turn
pro and he kicked in the NFL for like eight
(02:59):
or nine years. So he's the only guy. He's a
he's a true success story, that is.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah. So I mean, I'm I played soccer still to
this day. I played co ed soccer every Wednesday night,
and so I played growing up since I was like
five years old. At what age did you realize, damn,
I'm really good at this?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Oh man? I think I did.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Your parents tell you you could play pro?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Right? Like? That's what I wonder because like a lot
of parents nowadays, they tell their kids, oh yeah, my
kid's gonna be in the Major league soccer. My kid's
gonna be in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
But it's so unrealistic, it is, I think. So, I'm
I've been around, like you said in the intro for
a hot minute, I'm in my eighteenth professional season. So
you know, I was growing up. When I was growing
up in the mid nineties, I mean, soccer, it wasn't
that big. You know. The World Cup, the men's World
Cup came in ninety four, and I think that a
lot of people got interested after that. But honestly, I
(03:52):
don't think my parents even had a second thought about
like it was even a viable career to be a
pro soccer player. And I realized when I was probably
twelve or thirteen that I was significantly better than the
kids I was playing against. But was there a path
to turn pro? Not really, I watched. My dream was
to play in Europe. Funny enough, okay, because MLS wasn't
that big. I watched MLS. I watched teams in Europe.
(04:13):
I wanted to play for Manchester United. I'm a man
United fan for better or worse. But yeah, my parents
were just like I think, if we can get our
kid a full scholarship to college, we'll be happy.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Were your parents athletes?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
They were?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
My mom played tennis. My dad played every sport. My
dad is from a small town in Missouri where he
was the quarterback of the football team, pitcher for the
baseball team, point guard for the basketball team.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
They never played soccer. This makes sense, dude, both parents
being athletes. I think nowadays it almost leads to somebody
being a professional athlete or one of the people was
a professional athlete. Case in point, Kenny Lofton, Vlad Bigio, Jordana,
Tis Juniors, Lebron.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
All that messy, But okay, so you think it's part
mostly genetics or was it hard work.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I think it was a little bit of both. I
do think I have good jeans because I'll tell you,
guys something that's actually even more impressive for my parents,
a little feather in their cap. My younger brother actually
was also a pro soccer player, so he played for
the LA Galaxy back when they had makes Sense, Landon, Donovan,
Robbie Keane, David Beckham, and so look, I think a
(05:24):
lot of it is genetics and a lot of it
is hard work. Man. My parents essentially were like, listen,
you can make your dreams come true, but you gotta
work your ass off. That's the only way you're going
to do it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Dude, the parents, the brother, I mean, it's destiny, Like,
let's be real.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, but I mean, so, okay, So when you were
eleven twelve, were you playing against fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year olds?
Because I know Clint Dempsey, he grew up in Nacadocia's
and the competition wasn't good, right, So he was driving
to Dallas twice a week for practice in games and
doing his homework in the car because he needed to
play against better competition. How did you start playing against better.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Comp Yeah, that's a good question. When I was twelve
or thirteen, I was playing at my age and my
brother was actually he's actually two years younger than me.
He was playing up with my age group, and so
my brother was significantly better than I was growing up.
He decided that his path would be he wanted to
go and play with his friends. And I decided when
I was like fourteen or fifteen, you know, I needed
to play against better competition, older players, because that's when
(06:26):
you really develop. So when I was probably fourteen or fifteen,
I decided I was going to play and what is
not what was called PDL and it was essentially all
college players trying to stay fit in their offseason. And
so I was this young fifteen year old playing against
college players who were all playing D one and I
think that really helped develop me and it really kind
of opened my eyes to yeah, if I wanted to
make this dream come true with hard work, I could
(06:48):
definitely make it at the next level.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Okay, And so you followed your brother to those did.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
You say no, no, No. My brother decided because he
was playing up with my age group and he's younger
than me. Oh, but he decided, you know what, I
do love soccer, but I want to have fun with
my friends too. So he went and played down back
at his normal age group, and so we kind of
went in opposite directions. And he's still because he was
super talented. He still managed to turn pro, but he
(07:12):
only played one season.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But you and your brother sparring with each other and
then the support at home, I mean, d you had
the foundation to make it pro.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
That was the truth.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And you picked a sport that not many Americans pick exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Well, look at me. If people could see me right now,
they would probably be like, that's not a pro soccer player.
That's a used car salesman. Like you don't look at
me and think, oh, pro athlete for eighteen years, right,
and so you know our genes. You know, I'm five
to eight, one hundred and fifty five pounds soaking wet, right,
soccer is a sport that, naturally, if you look at
the greatest player of all time to ever live. In
(07:43):
my opinion, Leo Messi's five seven, one hundred and fifty good.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Day, was somebody gonna tell me that he was short?
I had no idea I was watching on TV, and
they showed you all the other team and then it
was him, dude, and he was a foot shorter me.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
This is why soccer is the sport for the every
man who can't be Lebron, who can't be the uber
athlete who can play college football in the NFL, in
the NBA. Right there's the there's a baseline of athleticism
that you have to have to play soccer, and you
have to have a baseline of good fitness. But you
can look like a normal guy, you can look like
a normal girl and be able to go and play
(08:17):
these sports. And soccer was what I was drawn to
right away. I played a bunch of I didn't specialize.
I love soccer, but I played a bunch of different
sports growing up. I played tennis, I played basketball. Soccer
was the one that I really gravitated towards most, and
luckily for me, it worked out.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
What parent, we need a striker on team? Have you
ever been on T.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I'm not as like obsessed.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
That's all right.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
He will do soccer up the butt like he loves soccer.
I'm into it, dude, I've all of a sudden just
gotten into it. Really crazy.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
We're here to hook you, that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
But uh but yeah, so we need strikers on Team USA.
So like, did you know you wanted to be a
striker a midfielder?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I I scored a lot of goals when I was younger,
but as I got what's the most you scored in
The most I scored in a pro game is two.
But when I was younger, I would score four goals, five.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Goals in a game.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But that was but that was because that's insane.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Though this goes the whole season and doesn't score a goal.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And that's in co Ed on Wednesday nights. Okay, but
I okay that that's so true. And so my question
is my Wednesday night co Ed team field short field,
if you came out there and you played on our team,
would we would it be fifty to nothing? Like it's
a it's a fifty minute game.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
So when I was younger, you know, when the competition
wasn't as good and I was better than everybody else,
I could score all those goals. Now that I'm a pro,
I play I'm a midfielder because I can't score for anything,
So I don't score that many goals, right, So if
I were to go out for your team, you would
see me do a lot of simple things. Well, like
that's kind of my bread and butter, butter as a
pro soccer player, Like, I'm not going to go and
(09:48):
score ten goals in your pro league or in your
in your in your men's league, you know, or your.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I think we're not very good. We're not.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I mean, because you're professional, would you would you incentivize me?
Like what, I would you be giving me hundred bucks
a goal? Like what are we talking about here?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
It'll be an amazing TikTok.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And I don't think yes, especially the field conditions. It
might be a little different than the glass that they're
playing with, you know, over at n ac or or
in Atlanta or wherever they go. I just think, I'm like,
cause we I try so hard and I'm like, god,
I can't score goal. I'm so old. But I never
scored goal. I played left men as as growing up.
And because I can run, So what like your fitness level,
(10:29):
do you go for long runs or is it all
sprint work?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
So that's a great question. I think it's a little
bit of both for me. I was always aerobically very fit,
like I could run for a long distance at a
pretty high level for a long time. I was never
like a sprinter though, I could never run at like
a top speed very fast. And so soccer that's the
perfect sport for me because you got to run around
a lot at a relatively moderate pace. So I was
(10:53):
always working more on my like long distance aerobic anaerobic
fitness sprints. Listen, if you watch me play, if I
ever have to do more than three or four sprints
in a game, I'm not doing my job well, Like
I'm not reading the game well. Because guess what they're
I would say ninety five percent of professional soccer players
are faster than me in general. So you'll see me
run around at a moderate pace a lot, but you
(11:13):
won't see me sprint much.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So is it a lot of defense?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, so I played defensive midfielder all right, And so.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh my gosh, the announcers, dude, the messy game. I
watched the whole thing. I took a nap so I
could stay up for it. The announcers were in love
with you guys, like they go, oh my gosh, this
defense they've put together is unbelievable five four three two.
I mean, dude, like five times they said it. I
was like, guys, for the love of god, they're playing
fine defense. Yeah, they're like, whatever, organize this defense, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Well, you know what, our coach, he's a great coach.
You know, he has been. He's he's renowned for putting
together tactical game plans that will help nullify the opposed
the opposing team. And when you're preparing to play against
the greatest player that's ever lived, who by the way,
we're the same age. He's thirty six, I'm thirty six.
But you know, I played him MS my whole career.
(12:01):
MESSI he just won the World Cup like seven months ago,
which is the most competitive, biggest tournament globally in the universe.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Oh that's right, Argentina.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
One yes, And so he's still at the peak of
his powers. So when you're playing against a guy like that,
you just have to prepare a little bit differently. So
we were very organized. Yeah, I had. I had a
couple of duels with him out there on the field.
And clearly, you guys saw the goal he scored. He's
an alien man.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Were you involved in it? There was five guys around him.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, I was there. I was a witness.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I was there. I saw it fly into the top
corner and look sometimes, I mean, it's when you play
against players like that. You can prepare all you want.
But our coach said it best after the game. Great
players are going to make great plays. It doesn't matter
how good you're trying to stop them, or how good
of a defense you're playing. He made a better play
than we were able to make in that moment. But
the fact that we were able to limit that team
(12:50):
with how many goals they've been scoring recently, to only
one goal. We were able to come back tie the game,
and I thought we were the better team. I thought
we should have won the game in regulation. To lose
in penalty shootout, you know, again, a generational talent of
the greatest player to ever live. There's no shame in
that we're upset we lost. I mean I was devastated
to lose the game, but like, what a great experience
man for not just our team, but for the whole
(13:10):
city of Nashville.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Did you get a penalty kick?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I got subbed out.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
He took a penalty the game against America.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Two games before So penalty against Cincinnati, penalty against Club America.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So they didn't they thought there was a better kicker
on your team. No.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I was just tired, man, I was dead.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I was like, oh, so you told the coach, hey,
I don't want a penalty.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
No, no, no, no. I would never say that ever.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
All right, hey, coach, I don't want that. I don't
want that smoke. I'm too scared because let me tell you,
we are center forward on our high school team. God dang.
He was scared to take a penalty to save his life.
He'd always say, no, coach, I don't want it. I
don't want it. And it's like, dude, you're the center
forward striker. You're supposed to supposed to score goals. You're
supposed to score goals. I understand it's nerve wracking, but
if you want to play center forward and there's a
(13:51):
peek a step your ass up and take it right,
it drove me nuts.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah. I would never say that. The minute I said
I don't want a penalty in a big game is
the minute I'd retire. So I wanted to take one,
but you know the calculations that coaches have to make.
I was chasing around MESSI for a bunch of the game.
We had just played like a heavy workload in the tournament.
I was starting to fatigue a little bit. And once
you once you're thirty six, and you get tired at
the end of a game, a coach usually says, all right,
(14:16):
he's a prime candidate to get subbed out. So it
had nothing to do with penalties. It was more so
just how can I put a player and then maybe
help us get more energy, more legs, help us win
the game in regulation. But I was bummed that I
wasn't in for the penalties because I was in the
previous two shootouts I scored. I was I was confident,
you know, And what a penalty shootout. You don't watch
much of the much of our games, but penalty shootouts,
(14:37):
they don't always go to goalkeepers.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
That's right, okay.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I have watched a lot of soccer. I have never
seen it go to eleven.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
When I saw your goalkeeper, the guys like dressed like
a polo player, Dude, he comes out kicking. I was like,
what the fuck is this? No, I didn't know he
was gonna kick.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, it usually you have five of your best players
take penalties or your best most confident penalty takers. You
usually after five it's done. Somebody will miss and a
goalkeeper will make a save or you know whatever it is.
If it's tied after five, then it's sudden death and
it goes to the next players that are field players
or even a goalkeeper. Goalkeeper can take a penalty whenever.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Yeah, because in the US and the women's game, she
took one.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So usually you know, it doesn't get to goalkeepers, but
when it does, it's a crazy electric scenario. And this
will blow your mind even more. If our goalkeeper would
have scored, guess what happens next? It would it starts,
It starts over, and you go through the whole rotation
again until somebody misses.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Alcers did a pretty good job explaining that crap that was.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
That was a crazy finish to a crazy game.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Man. I'm kind of like I liked it. It went
straight to pks though. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Overtime, yeah, I mean, the the sad part is is
that if it would have gone to overtime, I felt
like we were the better team in the second half.
I feel like we would have won the game in overtime,
and no, man, you can't blame him for anything. Dude,
He was a beast throughout the whole time.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Are you talking about the corner no early on when
they kicked it and they hit it to him and
he headed it, but he headed it right to the goal.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Well, okay, yeah, goalie made a good save.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
You say if he got up he hit it down
on the ground. I mean, what do you want him
to do?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Look, there's for me, there's no blame to go around,
even with with anyone. Our team played great, man, And
when it goes to pks, there has to be a
winner and a loser. And eventually you know someone is
going to make a big play, someone's going to make
a save, and there you know their team made one
more play than we did. And that's the that's the
sad reality of pro sports. It's like in anything right
in the NFL and MLB and the NBA, when it
(16:33):
comes down to a walk off or a last second
shot or a hell Mary, like you know, sometimes there's
not that much between the teams, and you know when
a team that can make one more play at the
end is going to win.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
This is crazy interviewing you though, because seriously, you guys
are making a run at it.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
You know, they were limping it. They were limping like.
It was like what in the hell happened to n
SC all of a sudden and we get in that
League's Cup and it was like something clicked.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Well, was somebody to tell me Muktar was like the
fastest guy in MLS. Dude, I didn't even know he
was good. He's one of my favorite players outside of you,
You're number one. I love dude. Muktar's fast as hell.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
He's the raining, He's the reigning MVP of the whole league.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Had no idea. This guy's been talking about it, but
I didn't know Muktar was amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah, welcome to the club man. The guy's the guy's special. No,
it's it's one of those things where you know, you
go into a tournament like this and this is the
first time we ever played in this tournament and.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
The tournament and see that's the thing like going into
it with I mean, I have season tickets and they
ask you do you want to opt in to the
League's Cup?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Sure, and you don't know what it is.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
You know, I'm like League's Cup. This is usually when
they're gonna bring up the people from the farm team.
Get them some you know what I mean that you
get them some playing time so that you can see
what you have on your farm team. Get some younger guys,
some experience a lot. Some teams don't try to win
these tournaments. They're just trying to avoid injury, rest players,
develop players. If someone has a nagging injury, you sit
(17:57):
them down because it really doesn't mean much. And then
all of a sudden you start winning. And I'm like,
damn it, I should have opted in these tickets. I
should have opted into these tickets, you know what I mean?
Because then it goes on sale for the freaking championship
and it's like, good God, I could have paid. I
could have paid fifty dollars for my tickets. Instead they
want ten thousand dollars for my.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Seats, and I'm like, god, I hate this free market economy.
Baby supply and demand. When the when the best player
to ever live is coming to town and Nashville has
a chance to win their first championship, it's gonna be expensive.
But I did I did, you know? I did feel
bad because it felt like some of our fans couldn't
go to the game. But again, a lot of people.
You know what you said, they weren't sure whether to
opt into the tickets or not. Because you look back
(18:39):
on it and you probably are saying, well, I regret it,
but it's hard to It's hard to foresee a team
making a run to a final and hosting it, right,
And so, look, I understand that that thought of it.
But the did you did you were you? You watched
it on TV?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
No, no, no, no, the atmosphere. The atmosphere was in the stadium.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Was no, no? Was that?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Okay? Okay, let's not lie. Okay, I paid for the ticket.
I end up paying for the ticket. That's right, you
did go. Yeah, and so but my question, the whole
thing is, is it disappointing as a player to see
so many damn messy jerseys there?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
I think it comes with a territory with him. I
think he is I think he's a player that just
transcends the game and he transcends the sport, right, and
so I don't have any issues with it. I think still,
for the most part, our Nashville fans showed out and
they proved that they were going to drown out any
messy fans who were cheering for him, and they did.
(19:36):
But no, I don't. I don't have any problem with
it because at the end of the day, players that
transcend the game, they are always going to have that
type of following and there's nothing you can do about it.
You may as well just embrace it and hopefully get
the best of him. And unfortunately we weren't able to
do that.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I mean, you're like you were saying about your defensive
game plan. I felt like MESSI from watching him when
he join in Miami. Every game he had so much
on the ball action. He he dominated on the ball
against every other team. Against Nashville, I swear to god,
he maybe had the ball for thirty five seconds. Yep,
(20:13):
he scored a goal and hit the post. I mean fantastic.
I mean he's a magician. He is, and I mean
I love every time he make a run, like he
would try to do the give and go with the
guy in the middle, Dax's arms going out grabbing make
it and try to knock him off the run.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Is that touched him up a little bit?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I mean good. Right at the very beginning, he did
a forearm shiver with his first touch, and he was like,
I'm sending a message. Yeah, well, I know he got
called name. His name is Ishmael. I think his name
is what was his name good By? Oh yeah, yeah.
But here's a funny story about Ishmael. He's from Austin
(20:54):
and I used to play Men's league against him at
Zilker Park right out after college. Like he would play
and then he would ref all day long. And dude,
that dude has a cannon. Yeah, he could rip the ball,
he can believe it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, he's a decent ref. I gotta say, when when
we were scouting in er Miami, we were watching some clips.
The prevailing theme about what I saw was that teams
were giving Messi too much respect, and they were giving
him too much time and space to operate and do
the things that he wanted to do and look, to
(21:25):
a certain extent, I get it. When you play a
player of his magnitude, it's easy to kind of get
lost in the hype and kind of say, well, I
don't want to be embarrassed by him. I don't want
to get too close because he's still otherworldly when it
comes to dribbling and when it comes to his touch.
But our game plan was, look, let's let's respect what
he's capable of, but let's not play scared. You know,
if you play scared, you're already behind the eight ball.
(21:47):
And so it was a big, big effort from our
whole team, especially our back line in our midfield, to
try to condense the space that he likes to work in.
And look, he scored a great goal and hit the post.
I don't think you're ever going to stop him from
doing some of the those things in the game. But
for the most part, the way we handled how dangerous
he can be, I thought was was really really good,
and I'm proud of the performance from the guys.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Is there any trash talk to Messi on the field?
Do you guys say anything to him real or is
it more you don't want to piss off somebody, because
I mean there's obviously trash talk.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
In the game.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah there is, but it's like the superstar players. Do
you just say, I'm not gonna talk trash to him.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I think it would have been different if if you know,
he was chirping or back at us. But he's a
really quiet, humble guy for how famous and how amazing
of a player he is, And so in my head,
I'm thinking I want to stop him. I want to
play him as close as I possibly can, but I'm
not trying to piss this guy off, you know what
I mean. And so, yeah, there was no thought of
(22:42):
like trying to get in his head with trash talk,
because he's the type of guy who I just don't
think it affects him. You know, he's seen everything there
is to see. He's played professionally for twenty years at
the highest level possible. I don't think he's gonna be
too bothered by a little redhead guy in mls' whole
career bothering him and talking trash to him.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Was he speaking another language?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
He speaks Spanish? Yeah, I think he. I think he
understands a little bit of English. I mean, I'm not
too sure, but yeah, he's he mainly speaks Spanish.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Did you say what up? Or no? No?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh no, no, hold on, holdah, We're gonna get to that.
We're gonna take a break. Do you have time to
stick around form? Yeah, of course, Okay, we're gonna get back.
Because I wake up on Sunday and I see something
on Instagram and I'm like, excuse me, And then now
this dude's all over the papers in England, and we're talking.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
About the game on Saturday. You were up in the
morning on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
And yeah, I was gonna be able to pull at
ten am, but it didn't quite have it at ten am.
And so I mean, Dax's McCarty all over the papers
in England. And I'll tell you why right after this.
See next. We don't really take a break. We just
sit here. We'll just insert the commercials. So how okay
going into the game, Like did it as a player?
(23:48):
Are you jazzed up because you're about to play the
best of all time or do you have to block
that out and say I'm going to get a championship?
Like what's the mind is?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
The mindset is I'm going to get a championship, Like
I don't care who I'm playing against. I want to win.
I mean, that's why you play the game, That's why
you play sports is to win trophies and to win championships.
I think secondary is man we as a team have
the opportunity to do something that a no team has
done yet, which is beat Interer Miami with MESSI and
(24:17):
and b. Yeah, you get the chance to go and
win a trophy and playing a championship game against who
many people consider and I consider to be the greatest
player to ever live. He just won the World Cup
seven months ago. Like, yeah, it adds a little extra
fuel to the fire, but you want to win over
over anything else.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
So how did you end up with Messi's jersey? Like
I need to I mean, that is so dude. He
got Messi's game warn jersey. And just so you know,
his wife said, quote smells like cologne.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So going into the game, that's that's funny.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Uh is this real? Yeah? It is?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, yeah, So going into the game, there's never you know,
the the tradition of trading jerseys. Yes, it's prevalent in soccer.
It's a sign of either you do it with your
friends or people you know, or a player that you
think is great, and it's like a mutual sign of respect.
And I've done it throughout my whole career. I've gotten,
you know, jerseys from friends of mine, I've gotten jerseys
(25:10):
from great players, and it's something that when I look
back on, I think, I want to look at that
collection and say, I'm really proud of of these people
that I've been able to go toe to toe with
and so the conversation was. It was actually between me
and Hanny Muktar before the game a few days before,
and he was like, hey, do you want to get
Messy's jersey? I was like, well, you know, that's not
at the forefront of my mind. If it so happens
(25:32):
to come to be where you know, we're close together,
and I asked him to trade and he's willing to
do it, I'm going to ask sure, and Hanni said,
all right, no problem. You know we play we play
Miami down in Miami in a week in a week
and all you know, I can trade with him down there.
So that was kind of how that conversation went. After
the game. You know, you're upset, man, we just lost
in a heartbreaking fashion and we're shaking hands, and then
(25:53):
it clicked on me, oh, well, MESSI sells is a
jersey on. You know, no one's gotten it. Let me
go see if I can get it. So I shake
his hand, I asked him to trade, and he says
in the tunnel. Let's trade in the tunnel, basically because
he wanted to celebrate and with his jersey on, right,
because there's pictures and all kinds of stuff, So fast
forward thirty minutes. You know, I'm in the tunnel. He
comes in. We trade. He was really humble, really gracious.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Were you waiting in the tunnel?
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I went back to the locker room.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Would you stay out and watch them lift the trophy?
Because I know some of the players. I didn't know.
I couldn't see who all was down there, but you
see some of the players and like when you watch
like major League baseball or you know, basketball, or some
of them are the you know, college football, some of
them stay on the bench and watch and just sit
there sad or is it like I want to get
off the field, and kind of I.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Did a little bit of both. We were waiting around
there after we got our runners up medals, and you know,
obviously it's I think, you know, a sign of respect
to see the winning team get their medals. And right
when they were about to lift the trophy, a few
of us started to head back in the locker room.
So I was a part of that crew. I didn't
stick around for the entire celebration. You know, it hurts, man, honestly,
(26:59):
it hurts you lose, and it hurts when you watch
another team celebrate a trophy on your home field right
because we we had full confidence in belief that that
was going to be us. So it hurt. Man, it was.
It was devastating. But go back in the locker room.
Our coach gave a kind of a wrap up, a
tournament wrap up speech, and he was proud of us,
and I think we were all proud of each other.
(27:19):
I mean, you know, you never want to sit there
and say you're happy you lost. I mean, everyone's pissed
off and devastated, but at the end of the day,
we should have been proud, and we were proud of
our performance. And so after that, I waited about fifteen
twenty minutes. I went to the tunnel with my one
of my buddies, the Kitman, and we were hanging out
while inter Miami was kind of doing their rounds waving
(27:40):
to their fans. And after about ten fifteen minutes, they
walked back in MESSI had about ten photographers surrounding him,
and he saw me and was like, let's change. And
that was it. We traded. And I don't know what
he's gonna do with my jersey. I can't imagine. I yeah,
I can't imagine. I can't imagine that there's too much
thought about him in that jersey. But yeah, afterwards, I
(28:02):
took the jersey home. I had some friends and family
with me, and it was kind of just like laying
on my dining room table and a lot of yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
That's messy jersey. And he walks in the house and
just tosses it on the table like I'll get that
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Yeah, he's also an athlete and a professional. It's not
like us getting it, I know, but still it's still funny.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
You know what's funny about that statement is that that's true.
But at my core, like I'm a fan of the game, right,
and even though I play professionally, I still I probably
watch more games than I've ever played in Like, I
watch soccer religiously. I love the game. I love everything
about it. I am about to I'm a fan of
greatness and I'm a fan of great players, and so
(28:42):
at my core, like I'm a messy fan, no question
about it. When I'm playing against him, he's my he's
my my competition. I'm trying to win. I'm trying to
beat him. I'm trying to do whatever I can to
win the game. But then after it's all said and done,
there's no question that he is a guy who like
he's worth being a fan of, Like he's that good.
And so the jersey's on the table. I think one
of my buddies picked a jersey up and was like, man, like,
(29:04):
it kind of smells like cologne and so, and he
didn't go like like pick it up and sniff it
right away. It's just he kind of held it out,
you know, and he kind of got a waft. And
so if you watch MESSI play at least right now,
you see him walk around the field for majority of
the game a lot, and then he turns it on
when he gets the ball and when he needs to sprint.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
But he's always moving. And that's what if you watch soccer,
that's what's amazing is I realize that when I'm playing
my cod game, I'm like, man, I should always be moving.
So I'm like moving my place into spots, you know
what i mean, Like back in high school when I
had all the energy in the world. Now I'm like, huh,
I'm gonna take catch my breath right here and stand here,
and then the ball goes over there. I'm like, damn,
I should have been walking that way. You know what?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I mean yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
So so he look, MESSI conserves energy because his job
is to score goals and to attack. His job is
not to defend. And so I think he probably you
know what, Yeah, maybe he sweat here and there during
the game, but honestly, he's conserving energy more than he's running.
And so I don't know if he if it was
cologne before the game, if he wears Colone during the game,
who knows, man honestly, with that guy. But is funny
(30:03):
because everyone kind of started laughing, like, how does it
smell like Colonne? Like my wife like has smelled my
jersey after a game. If it's a special jersey, I'll
bring it home and it isn't. Wah, She's like, get
that out of our room. It smells awful, you know
what I mean. And so for me, it just kind
of was a funny thing. And she ended up like
tweeting something out, like a picture of it or something.
(30:24):
And you have to know my wife, and you have
to know our type of humor and our banter. It's
very sarcastic, and so this tweet, it was a response
to someone who was like, Hey, are you gonna hang
that up? And she was like, ah, maybe like it
smells like cologne, like it's only messy that could do
that or something like that. And it just like took off,
like it's getting picked up by all these like British tabloids,
(30:44):
and I'm sitting there thinking like what the hell is
going on right now? And people are I think, maybe
taking it out of context a little bit as as
something where it's some sort of weird fetish thing, and
I'm like, come on, people, like, let's be honest, look
anything for a story. I know how the tabloids work.
I get it, but it is a little bit funny, uh,
to look back on and say, all right, like I
(31:05):
get it. It's a funny story. You know. People are
gonna take it however they want to take it. But
it's a joke, you know what I mean. My wife's
messing around and I can't really actually believe that it
has made the headlines that it's made.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I mean, you look everywhere it's like, oh, wag of
soccer player Dax McCarty and.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Which she absolutely despises that moniker. By the way, my
wife is my wife is actually the opposite of a wag.
Like I don't it's a term it's well done. Perfect there.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I knew like they have baseball wives, but I didn't
know they called them like, is it a bad thing
to be a wag? Like to be a wife of
a soccer.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
For me, to me, it is a it is a
very like British term that English media kind of invented
to describe women who were wives and girlfriends of soccer players, right,
And it is like the connotation surrounding it is more, oh,
like this is just a girl who doesn't want to
work and just wants to be taken care of. Right,
(32:03):
So it's it's it's not the best connotation. And like
my wife is the absolute opposite of that, Like she's
got she started her own business, she is an entrepreneur,
like she does a million different things in our life.
And so it is a little bit of a term
that she is not too fond of. And I gotta
say I don't blame her for being a little bit
perturbed by being called that.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Okay, we're gonna get off MESSI after one more. What
what would have been more devastating losing in the peaks
or that last player regulation that I don't know what,
I don't know what happened I still have I still
don't know if he was off sides or.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Not, like he was on I think he was on side.
It was it was a weird play right, Shack falls
on the opposite end. I mean I saw it. I
saw it happen.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Shack falls down, gets up, he chips it over Panico,
and then Shack falls down again and then he slides
it on me.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Crazy. I think in general, losing in penalties is devastating always,
but it would have been more devastating in that moment
to lose on that play because that was They didn't
have hardly any chances in the second half, Like literally
they hit the post with MESSI that was it, and
that was it, and so the last kick of the game.
If we lose on a fluke play like that, I
think we're a lot more devastated and heartbroken than losing
(33:13):
in a penalty shootout, which man, that was one for
the ages. There's nothing to be ashamed of with the
way that we took our penalty kicks and the way
that we played, but that last play was just bananas.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Are you a fan of any other sport besides soccer?
Do you watch other sports?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I'm a fan of a bunch of sports.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I'm a fan, A big fan of tennis. I love.
I'm an Orlando Magic fan since I'm from Orlando, so
like I was, like Penny Hardaway was my favorite athlete
growing up. So I still follow the NBA and I
play fantasy football. So if I didn't play fantasy football,
I probably wouldn't watch the NFL, but I do. I
watch the NFL, I watch the NBA, and I love tennis.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
That's like my sport, Dude, Tennis right now with Alcatraz
and Freaking Joker, that's We're gonna see that for the
next five years. It's those two in every final.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And I think it's cool, like what Netflix has done
kind of telling stories of athletes a little better, like
with the One series and now with tennis. I think
it's called like break Point or something. I started watching
it and like it just hooks you in. Man, it's cool.
You get to see the other side of like athletes
and their stories, and that's something that I think is
really cool. And I think we're gonna see a lot.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
More of that film an MLS one.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Maybe I don't know. I don't have any inside information.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
The guy out of the Jersey cologne guy.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I know, I don't have any inside info, but I would.
I would, but.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
You have connections, Like if that's an idea, you don't
take that to Apple TV and be.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Like, oh, look, god, guys, I think I mean, I'm
sure these have been these ideas have been thrown out there.
I mean, look, you you'd have to be crazy to
think that Apple is not trying to do some sort
of documentary on MESSI coming to n LS. I'm certain
that will eventually be released.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
I think they've already been filming it. They said he's
getting followed by cameras. I don't know, but yeah, did
you see the amount of press that was there? Like
it was crazy.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
I actually think the best sports related content out there
is still Hard Knocks.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Yes, I agree with you on like they did that
Quarterbacks on Netflix and I watched it, but Hard Knocks
is better, so much better. Yeah, and it's so entertaining
and I mean, just I still remember, I mean, I
don't even remember the guy's name, but seven to eleven
was on the show and he was always open. That
was his name in training camp, and I don't even
know I think it was the guy that went and
played in the cross Hogan. Yeah, and I'm just like,
(35:14):
it's so fascinating to see the ins and outs and
the interaction and then it's sad to see him get cut.
But that's part of the sport and it's it's.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Why as part of the human interest, right, because you see,
I think these shows have helped humanize athletes a lot more. Right.
They're not just the name on the back of the
jersey or part of an organization. You see, they have
lives off the field. You see, we bleed and sweat
like everybody else does. And you know what like the
human side of it, Like athletes, you know, we're not robots,
(35:42):
we're not perfect, we make mistakes and you know, it's
just you're in such a heightened atmosphere with fans always
seeing everything you do. It's nice for people to be
able to see the other side of people and kind
of humanize that element of them a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
And a truck driver, I mean he has a truck driver.
Truck driver hasn't worked out in a freaking month, dude,
and then you guys work out pretty much every day. Now,
that's what they realize honestly from these shows. Oh there's
other people that do sprints and stuff. Well, I'm just
in my sprinter van.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
When you go on vacation, do you work out?
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Man, depends on the vacation, depends on how close it
is to preseason. If it's vacation right after the season's over,
I'm not touching a weight or running for a few weeks.
If it's vacation, that's like within a few weeks of preseason,
I'm running.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Because I saw a Dame. I saw a Dame in
the middle of the summer though, so he was straight
up vaca. He was in the Dominican Republic. Damian Lillard
just chilling.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
You gotta rest man athletes. We I mean, especially soccer.
If you look at a European season, they have the
players that play the longest seasons. They have legitimately they
play eleven months out of a year and they have
six weeks. That's it. That's their vacation time. So US
we have a little bit of a longer break. We
have closer to like eight weeks. But the seasons are
(36:53):
so much longer in soccer than they are in any
other sport. You have to find time to rest.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
So you said your goal was to play over in Europe.
What is the difference, the biggest difference between soccer over
there and MLS.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Well, that's not my goal anymore because I'm thirty six
and I don't think anyone in Europe's touching me with
a ten foot pole. When I was younger, it was
definitely a goal of mine and I had a few
opportunities here and there to maybe go over there. But
there's a lot that has to go into it to
play in Europe, right, I mean, the biggest difference for
me is is I think promotion and relegation, which obviously
people talk about a lot over here with THEA As
(37:28):
a player, I would love promotion and relegation over here, right.
I think that it's a very exciting version of soccer.
I think that it raises the stakes a little bit.
But again, promotion and relegation it comes with very high
highs for teams that get promoted, and it comes with
very low lows for teams that get relegated because those
teams they lose a ton of money. They've got a
(37:49):
cut budget, they've got a cut players, they've got to
cut staff. Like it's not all you know, roses and
sunshine for promotion relegation, Like, I understand why MLS hasn't
adopted it. We haven't been in a place financial to
be able to afford to do that, and so look,
I would love to see it. Do I think it's realistic.
It's never gonna happen in my time playing. Maybe in
fifty years it'll happen. But I think the biggest difference
(38:11):
is the promotion relegation. These leagues are established, they've got history,
they've got culture. MLS has only been around for you know,
thirty years, right, and these other leagues have been around
for you Do you.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Realize you've been in the MLS, like you're longer than
half of it? Its existence is that weird?
Speaker 1 (38:24):
It's weird. And one of my buddies told me before
the season, He's like, Dax, you realize you turned pro
at eighteen. You're turning thirty six this year. Half of
your life will you will have spent as a pro
soccer player at MLS. And when you think about it
in that context, it's kind of hard to believe. Man,
really it is. And it sucks because you snap your
fingers and it goes by so quickly. I can't believe
I'm already in year eighteen, and I'm like, possibly thinking
(38:47):
about what comes next? Scary?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
At what age We'll take a break and I want
to talk about like different things you learn in soccer
that I know it's part of the game, but drive
people nuts. Flopping, the laying down.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
We'll look it.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
We'll talk about it right after this. At what age
do you learn to roll around on the ground? Because
I mean I played soccer, and I mean we weren't
very I mean we I mean I played you know
whatever high school and that was it, Like it wasn't
competitive that way. But at what age did you learn
to roll around the ground because we wouldn't gone next
team Carlos he must have played for a different club
(39:23):
team than I did, because he would roll around and
all the crowd. Oh no, he's fine, guys, he's faking it.
Don't worry.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Don't worry.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Like, how do you guys learn how to say?
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I gotta say I think it's ingrained in you from
a young age through coaching. I was never never taught that,
and I've never done it in my career. I don't flop,
I don't embellish, I don't exaggerate injuries. If I'm injured.
I'm injured and it's gonna hurt, and I'm gonna tell
my trainer, but I'm not. It's called gamesmanship, right, And
I think more sports it's funny because I don't like it.
(39:54):
I don't approve of it. But it is part of
the game of soccer. It always will be, it always
has been. It's funny. I think American sports are actually
adopting it more so now, like you see it in
the NBA Monogeno. We brought it to the NBA, you
see it in the NFL even it has in Like,
I don't like it. I don't approve of it. I
would never do it. But as far as players doing
(40:16):
whatever they need to do to win the game, like,
what is towing that line between playing within the rules
and doing something that's legal and then cheating? Right, Like,
I don't ever think embellishing an injury would be considered cheating.
But is it a little bit dirty?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
I think it is. But I was never taught that,
so I don't do that.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
What about when a ref makes a call and everybody
on your team has to surround the damn ref and no, no, no, no, no, no,
that's not right. That's not right.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
D Look, man, that's part of games I do. And
the thing about professional sports is the emotions are so
heightened and the stakes are so high. So, first of all,
refereeing is the hardest job, and not only in sports,
but I think pretty much anywhere.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
It's the worst thing ever.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
You can't please everyone. You're going to eventually you're like
you have human beings making subjective decisions about games that
are happening at a million miles an hour. There will
be mistakes, right, and there's ways that sports have introduced
to try to mitigate those mistakes, but you're still going
to get bad calls. And so in the heat of
the moment when players surround the ref, it doesn't look good.
(41:21):
It's not a good look. But it's just players that
are angry and they want to win the game, right.
And so as I've gotten older, I think I've calmed
down a lot and I don't do it as much
as I used to. But look, any way, you can
try to get in the ref's ear to tell him, hey, man,
I think you made a bad call there, Please, like
you know, reconsider it next time you're thinking about making
a call like that. You always want to try to
(41:42):
sway them, right, and that that's just a reality of
professional sports, right You just you want to get favorable
calls that go in your team's direction.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Yeah, they respect you though, because you've been around for
a while.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
And they respect you. And I think they respect the
way that you approach them. If you approach them and
you tell them to f off and f your mother
like they're good, they're not going to appreciate that, you know.
But if you say, hey, listen, I think you made
a bad call, you know, and you're not berating them
with hand gestures, I think they respect that. And so
that's kind of how I've tried to approach referees in
(42:12):
my older years.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
What when I'm trying to see how like when players,
so you go up and you put your hands behind
your back, is that why you just show you because
you walk they walk up and they put their hands
behind their back, trying to act like, hey, I'm not confrontational.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
It's diffusing. It diffuses the situation because if you're like smart,
demonstrative and you're like throwing fingers and hands in their face,
I don't think they appreciate that. I think they're much
more likely to give you a yellow card than actually
listen to you.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Do all refs speak English?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Yeah, they said us.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Well, I don't know if it's universal, but I think look,
I think English for the most part would be probably
considered a universal language. And so all the refs in
MLS speak English. Maybe in Europe a couple of them don't,
but I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
And then when people are laying around on the ground
and you do you ever walk up to get the
get up?
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Come on?
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Sometimes sometimes is there a trash talk to the person
that's eb if.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
You know, like let's say you get called for a
foul and you know that you fouled the guy, but
you know it wasn't that bad and you know they're
not injured. Yeah, it's gonna be a little frustrating seeing
them roll around on the ground and try to get
a ref to, uh, maybe give you a yellow card
or call a penalty. And so, yes, there is trash
talking in that sense. But I gotta be honest. I mean,
for the amount of games and the amount of time
(43:25):
that is played, the embellishment stuff, I think it's blown
out of proportion. It really doesn't happen as much as
people say it does.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Because I think people don't realize when they get hit,
like when you guys get hit like it hurts. Yeah.
I mean, those are some big studs coming in and
it may not look bad to you, but when it
breaks across that foot, there's nothing they're protecting it.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I agree, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Right, you got any question, But I was gonna say,
you don't necessarily jump in the air in real life
if that happened. But also when you watch the report
drop a book on your foot, do you jump up
in the air not that high? These guys you bounce
like you bounce on one foot.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
FeH, you bounce on one foot for a minute. I
guarantee it like you step on a lego.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Here's a difference. You're you're getting a book dropped on
your foot or step on a lego. You're not running
at twenty miles an hour, right, you know. And so
when these plays happen most of the time, it's like
a miniature car crash, right, It's not like the NFL
where guys are smashing each other. But like, yeah, you're
running fast and look the body is not meant to
be contorted or you know, hit in certain ways and
(44:21):
it hurts, man, But sometimes. Yeah, of course there's embellishment
and guys are trying to take advantage of the ref
and that's just always going to be a part of
the game.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
After the game, you guys have the next day off
or do you practice at all?
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, we had a few days off. It's been a
long tournament, man, you know, we've played. We played seven
seven games in three three and a half weeks, I think,
which is a that's a heavy load for any team
that plays. And so, yeah, our coach is very I
think our coach is very cognizant of managing bodies, managing minutes.
And yeah, we got a couple of days off to
(44:52):
lick our wounds. And it still hurts, I gotta be honest,
It still hurts that that we didn't win the trophy,
still hurts that we lost. But again, I'll go back
to the same thing I said at the beginning. I'm
so proud of the way that our team played and
the way that we performed, not just in the final,
but throughout the whole tournament. I think everyone on our
team should be proud and our city should be proud
about how they they showed up for that semi final,
(45:13):
in that final some of the best atmospheres I've played in.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
How do you turn it off? Like competitor, so angry
you lost, and then you go home and because you
have a wife, kids, like is it immediate?
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Like?
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Oh, he you know.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
It's a good question. I tried to diffuse. I tried
to decompress in the car a little bit going home.
So I live about five to ten minutes from Giotis Park,
depending on traffic.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Do you drive your cell phone? Does your wife drive home?
Speaker 2 (45:39):
No? No?
Speaker 1 (45:39):
No, I drive. I drive myself home.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Well I didn't. I didn't know if you call the game.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Look, I was the last one.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
I was.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
I was the last guy to leave the stadium that night,
And you know it's it's you're you're trying to reflect
on things you could have done better, trying to reflect
on what went wrong, and in the car. You know,
I've learned as I've gotten older, the stuff that happens
on thee, especially when you have a family, the stuff
that happens on the field, it's never a good idea
to try to bring that home, and to try to
(46:06):
bring that into the home your disappointment, your frustration, because
that manifests itself in different ways. Around your kids. I mean,
I've got two kids and they were sleeping by the
time I got home. But I had my best friend
in his family in town. I had my wife, I
had my parents and my brother in town. You just
you want to put on a brave face and you
want to make sure that yeah, like, Okay, you're disappointed,
(46:27):
you're upset you lost, but you're proud of of you know,
what you represent and how you played. And that was
kind of how I tried to handle it.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
And when you walk in the house, do you guys
talk about the game or do you talk about what's
going on in a big brother or like a TV show,
like do.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
You chase when it's a final? And especially when it's
a final played against you know, Inner Miami who have
Messi and Bousquettes and Jeordie Alba, it's kind of hard
not to talk about that. And I think in general,
you know, your family just wants to, you know, be
that kind of support system, right, they want to be
that crutch if you are upset, and so, yeah, there
was a little bit of time talk about the game.
(47:00):
There was a little bit of talk about hey, like
should we stay in, should we go grab a beer
to like, you know, celebrate a little bit a good tournament,
and so there's all all kinds of calculations and permutations
going on when you get home. But uh, I think
the overriding feeling was just I'm glad my family was
there to rep to witness such a great game, sad result,
disappointing outcome, but ultimately there's a lot of pride that's
(47:23):
involved in that.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Did you get them all tickets?
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Dope, yep, they there were. There were some tickets that
had to be paid for, but I don't think hopefully
the club was so gracious and able to to help
us get tickets that were at you know, fairly reasonable prices.
Speaker 3 (47:42):
That's awesome. Yeah, and then the rest of the season,
I mean now it starts back up. I mean the
race for the cut. I mean now we're trying to
win it all.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Dude, that's it. Yeah. MLS Cup is the focus we've got.
We've got ten games left in the regular season, five home,
five on the road. We have such good momentum I
think heading into the last ten games and we're confident, Like,
I love the place that our team is in right now.
I think we're in a good mood. I think we
have a lot of confidence, and you know, we want
to make the playoffs first and foremost, and then once
(48:10):
you get in the playoffs, anything can happen. We're going
to win MLS Cup.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
What are you guys in the standings? Oh?
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Man, So there were a few games that happened on Sunday.
I think we're like fifth, fifth or sixth, top eight,
top nine, make it we're I think we're you know,
we're three points out of second place.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
So so we beat Charlotte this weekend on Saturday, then
we beat Miami on Wednesday, Boom, We're in second place, no.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Problem, yep. So we'll see how it goes. Man. We're
just we're going to attack the second half of the
season with with with the goal of making the playoffs
and trying to win a cup.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Hey, does does in or Miami make the playoffs?
Speaker 1 (48:45):
That's a that's a spicy question.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
They got to win.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
I think I think they got to win more than that.
I think I got twelve games left. I think they
probably need to win nine or ten.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
And I mean there's no way, there's no way.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
I mean, you never look at the risk of you know,
fan boying too hard over MESSI you never want to
count him out because he is truly great, great player.
But I think it's probably too tall of a task
right now for them to make the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
Because like like on Saturday, a tie would have done
them no good, right they get in that turnack and
a tournament, you can they can tie, and they can
go to a shootout in the l they get a
point and that does not help them. They need three
points every single time out, so that that that hill
they got to climb is very steep.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
I would say, I would say they you know, they
won League's Cup, they won, they won a trophy. They
are in the semi final of the US Open Cup,
which they play against Cincinnati is on tomorrow, so Wednesday.
I would say that if they win that game and
they end up winning US Open Cup, that you know
this season is a wash, they'd be very happy with that.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
I mean, yeah, And the emotion, I don't know how
you guys, How do you guys maintain the emotional because
the emotional letdown, you got to get back up for
the that's a that's at it's huge.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
It's not easy. It's not easy, and you know you
still think about what could have been quite frankly with
hosting a final and winning the championship. But you just
have to move on. I mean professional sports. I think
the best players they're able to have a short memory.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
It's like quarterbacks, you gotta if you throw an interception,
you gotta you gotta have a short memory. You gotta
figure it out and move on. So that's what we're
gonna do. I think we're gonna be proud of how
we performed. We can be sad that we lost, but uh,
I think it's a good stepping stone for us to
go in these last ten games and go try to
win a trophy.
Speaker 3 (50:29):
That's why, that's why we're not professional athletes, right, because
I watch a game and the Cubs lose and you know,
game five, and I'm like, oh, it's over, there's no
way they can win. And then they win the next game.
I'm like, how did they do that?
Speaker 1 (50:39):
We're back.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
The Spurs are like, they get blood, the shot of
the butzer. There's no way they're gonna be able to
oh and they recovering they win this game.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
It just makes no sense, you guys, No, no, no, no,
we saw the I saw the video of him on
the field, but they get no, it's great.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
I thought it was great, But my.
Speaker 3 (50:56):
Giddy my question is like, why do these people went, dude,
thank you, that's my quest. Reese Witherspoon. They're all there,
but they don't wear Nashville SC stuff like Kobe call
singing the Nationalism were in Nashville s C. Jersey. It
drives me insane that Giannis is a minority owner of
the team and I supposedly he was wearing a jersey later,
(51:18):
but when he's out on the field, dude, rock a
freaking jersey, Like it drives me insane, Like why do
more owners and people not take their cues from Mark
Cuban to be the reason you're a fan or I
would think the reason you have the team is you're
a fan. And where the jersey? Where the gear? Wear
a hat? Why do we wear suits? Why do we wear
(51:39):
Nike sweatpants instead of Nashville SC gear? Okay, thank you,
all right, Dax, I'm sorry, thank you for coming into.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
Really that was a good rant to end the pod
Man Yeah, all right, make it easy. Thanks guys,
We were supposed to record tomorrow, and so the boys,
like one of the guys couldn't do it, and so
I was like, all right, we'll whin And so we're
recording today right after this too. Are you going back
to back?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Dang, dude? Were good?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Okay, yeah, they work here.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You're hear you check?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right? Good? Just eat the microphone.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
You know. Hey, he does a podcast. Due he's professional.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Is that thing standing up? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Yeah, that's good. How's that? That's all right?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Great?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Right?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You ready?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:32):
All right, hit it.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
We do it from the very beginning.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Yeah, you gotta do the intro so he can hear
our stupid intro and.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
All right, we have an invisible person and we act
no I wanted you to do.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I thought you were going to do the invisible intern
without him knowing, without saying it, and he'd be like,
what the go ahead.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
There was a kid that we offered two hundred dollars.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
He emailed in and what he goes, Dude, I think
I can take your podcast to the next level. And
he was like, I'm just getting out of college. If
you guys will pay me twenty four thousand a year,
I'll move to Nashville and I'll run your social media's
and everything. And his name was Arnold, and we're like, dude,
we'll pay you two hundred bucks if you want to come,
and so he was like no. And so now we
just act like we hired Arnold, and we still use
(01:13):
his likeness to this day.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
And he's probably mad about it too.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
No. No, he still emails in because he tried to
get in our fantasy football league.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
So, all right, we're gonna do it live. How are you, Arnold?
What are you? Guys?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
That's Dax.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
He's on the soccer team. Get back, get back. Help
me with these dials. Put it down, put it down.
Let's do it live. We oh the three sol losers?
What up?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Everybody? I am lunchbox. I know the most about sports,
so I'll give you the sports facts, my sports opinions,
because I'm pretty much a sports genius, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
It's says it. I'm from the North, I'm in Alpha Male.
I live on the West side of Nashville with Baser
White Piggot fence. Two point five kids die of a
heart attack when I'm seventy two. Let's get to the
guest boys. Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
Yeah, all right, guys. If I don't know if a
lot of you watch MLS, this dude has been around.
He's been in New York, he's been in Chicago. He's
been traded, he's moved. He's what we call a journeyman.
He also does a podcast called Journeyman. The One and
Only Dax McCarty. He started like five hundred and fifty
two thousand games in the NFL and not the MLS,
(02:20):
NFL two, NFL two. Yeah, it was a kicker. Did
you ever try to be a kicker?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
You know what?
Speaker 1 (02:26):
I never tried. We kicked a couple field goals every
now and then after practice a few days in Dallas.
And then there was a guy who I played with.
He was sixteen years old when he turned pro named
Josh Lambeau.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Okay, here's the jaguar.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
He actually he actually turn pro. He played four years,
four or five years of professional soccer. Decided this isn't
for me. He was a goalie. Weird people, weird goalkeepers
are weird. Man decided pro soccer wasn't for him, went
best drivers, went back to college. I think he kicked
at Texas Tech or Texas A and M and turn
pro and he kicked in the NFL for like eight
(02:59):
or nine years. So he's the only guy. He's a
he's a true success story, that is.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah. So I mean, I'm I played soccer still to
this day. I played co ed soccer every Wednesday night,
and so I played growing up since I was like
five years old. At what age did you realize, damn,
I'm really good at this?
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Oh man? I think I did.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Your parents tell you you could play pro?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Right? Like? That's what I wonder because like a lot
of parents nowadays, they tell their kids, oh yeah, my
kid's gonna be in the Major league soccer. My kid's
gonna be in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
But it's so unrealistic, it is, I think. So, I'm
I've been around, like you said in the intro for
a hot minute, I'm in my eighteenth professional season. So
you know, I was growing up. When I was growing
up in the mid nineties, I mean, soccer, it wasn't
that big. You know. The World Cup, the men's World
Cup came in ninety four, and I think that a
lot of people got interested after that. But honestly, I
(03:52):
don't think my parents even had a second thought about
like it was even a viable career to be a
pro soccer player. And I realized when I was probably
twelve or thirteen that I was significantly better than the
kids I was playing against. But was there a path
to turn pro? Not really, I watched. My dream was
to play in Europe. Funny enough, okay, because MLS wasn't
that big. I watched MLS. I watched teams in Europe.
(04:13):
I wanted to play for Manchester United. I'm a man
United fan for better or worse. But yeah, my parents
were just like I think, if we can get our
kid a full scholarship to college, we'll be happy.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Were your parents athletes?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
They were?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
My mom played tennis. My dad played every sport. My
dad is from a small town in Missouri where he
was the quarterback of the football team, pitcher for the
baseball team, point guard for the basketball team.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
They never played soccer. This makes sense, dude, both parents
being athletes. I think nowadays it almost leads to somebody
being a professional athlete or one of the people was
a professional athlete. Case in point, Kenny Lofton, Vlad Bigio, Jordana,
Tis Juniors, Lebron.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
All that messy, But okay, so you think it's part
mostly genetics or was it hard work.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
I think it was a little bit of both. I
do think I have good jeans because I'll tell you,
guys something that's actually even more impressive for my parents,
a little feather in their cap. My younger brother actually
was also a pro soccer player, so he played for
the LA Galaxy back when they had makes Sense, Landon, Donovan,
Robbie Keane, David Beckham, and so look, I think a
(05:24):
lot of it is genetics and a lot of it
is hard work. Man. My parents essentially were like, listen,
you can make your dreams come true, but you gotta
work your ass off. That's the only way you're going
to do it.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Dude, the parents, the brother, I mean, it's destiny, Like,
let's be real.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, but I mean, so, okay, So when you were
eleven twelve, were you playing against fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year olds?
Because I know Clint Dempsey, he grew up in Nacadocia's
and the competition wasn't good, right, So he was driving
to Dallas twice a week for practice in games and
doing his homework in the car because he needed to
play against better competition. How did you start playing against better.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Comp Yeah, that's a good question. When I was twelve
or thirteen, I was playing at my age and my
brother was actually he's actually two years younger than me.
He was playing up with my age group, and so
my brother was significantly better than I was growing up.
He decided that his path would be he wanted to
go and play with his friends. And I decided when
I was like fourteen or fifteen, you know, I needed
to play against better competition, older players, because that's when
(06:26):
you really develop. So when I was probably fourteen or fifteen,
I decided I was going to play and what is
not what was called PDL and it was essentially all
college players trying to stay fit in their offseason. And
so I was this young fifteen year old playing against
college players who were all playing D one and I
think that really helped develop me and it really kind
of opened my eyes to yeah, if I wanted to
make this dream come true with hard work, I could
(06:48):
definitely make it at the next level.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Okay, And so you followed your brother to those did.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
You say no, no, No. My brother decided because he
was playing up with my age group and he's younger
than me. Oh, but he decided, you know what, I
do love soccer, but I want to have fun with
my friends too. So he went and played down back
at his normal age group, and so we kind of
went in opposite directions. And he's still because he was
super talented. He still managed to turn pro, but he
(07:12):
only played one season.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But you and your brother sparring with each other and
then the support at home, I mean, d you had
the foundation to make it pro.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
That was the truth.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
And you picked a sport that not many Americans pick exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Well, look at me. If people could see me right now,
they would probably be like, that's not a pro soccer player.
That's a used car salesman. Like you don't look at
me and think, oh, pro athlete for eighteen years, right,
and so you know our genes. You know, I'm five
to eight, one hundred and fifty five pounds soaking wet, right,
soccer is a sport that, naturally, if you look at
the greatest player of all time to ever live. In
(07:43):
my opinion, Leo Messi's five seven, one hundred and fifty good.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Day, was somebody gonna tell me that he was short?
I had no idea I was watching on TV, and
they showed you all the other team and then it
was him, dude, and he was a foot shorter me.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
This is why soccer is the sport for the every
man who can't be Lebron, who can't be the uber
athlete who can play college football in the NFL, in
the NBA. Right there's the there's a baseline of athleticism
that you have to have to play soccer, and you
have to have a baseline of good fitness. But you
can look like a normal guy, you can look like
a normal girl and be able to go and play
(08:17):
these sports. And soccer was what I was drawn to
right away. I played a bunch of I didn't specialize.
I love soccer, but I played a bunch of different
sports growing up. I played tennis, I played basketball. Soccer
was the one that I really gravitated towards most, and
luckily for me, it worked out.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
What parent, we need a striker on team? Have you
ever been on T.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
I didn't know.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I'm not as like obsessed.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
That's all right.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
He will do soccer up the butt like he loves soccer.
I'm into it, dude, I've all of a sudden just
gotten into it. Really crazy.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
We're here to hook you, that's what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
But uh but yeah, so we need strikers on Team USA.
So like, did you know you wanted to be a
striker a midfielder?
Speaker 1 (08:55):
I I scored a lot of goals when I was younger,
but as I got what's the most you scored in
The most I scored in a pro game is two.
But when I was younger, I would score four goals, five.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Goals in a game.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But that was but that was because that's insane.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Though this goes the whole season and doesn't score a goal.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
And that's in co Ed on Wednesday nights. Okay, but
I okay that that's so true. And so my question
is my Wednesday night co Ed team field short field,
if you came out there and you played on our team,
would we would it be fifty to nothing? Like it's
a it's a fifty minute game.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
So when I was younger, you know, when the competition
wasn't as good and I was better than everybody else,
I could score all those goals. Now that I'm a pro,
I play I'm a midfielder because I can't score for anything,
So I don't score that many goals, right, So if
I were to go out for your team, you would
see me do a lot of simple things. Well, like
that's kind of my bread and butter, butter as a
pro soccer player, Like, I'm not going to go and
(09:48):
score ten goals in your pro league or in your
in your in your men's league, you know, or your.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
I think we're not very good. We're not.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I mean, because you're professional, would you would you incentivize me?
Like what, I would you be giving me hundred bucks
a goal? Like what are we talking about here?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
It'll be an amazing TikTok.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
And I don't think yes, especially the field conditions. It
might be a little different than the glass that they're
playing with, you know, over at n ac or or
in Atlanta or wherever they go. I just think, I'm like,
cause we I try so hard and I'm like, god,
I can't score goal. I'm so old. But I never
scored goal. I played left men as as growing up.
And because I can run, So what like your fitness level,
(10:29):
do you go for long runs or is it all
sprint work?
Speaker 1 (10:32):
So that's a great question. I think it's a little
bit of both for me. I was always aerobically very fit,
like I could run for a long distance at a
pretty high level for a long time. I was never
like a sprinter though, I could never run at like
a top speed very fast. And so soccer that's the
perfect sport for me because you got to run around
a lot at a relatively moderate pace. So I was
(10:53):
always working more on my like long distance aerobic anaerobic
fitness sprints. Listen, if you watch me play, if I
ever have to do more than three or four sprints
in a game, I'm not doing my job well, Like
I'm not reading the game well. Because guess what they're
I would say ninety five percent of professional soccer players
are faster than me in general. So you'll see me
run around at a moderate pace a lot, but you
(11:13):
won't see me sprint much.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
So is it a lot of defense?
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Yeah, so I played defensive midfielder all right, And so.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Oh my gosh, the announcers, dude, the messy game. I
watched the whole thing. I took a nap so I
could stay up for it. The announcers were in love
with you guys, like they go, oh my gosh, this
defense they've put together is unbelievable five four three two.
I mean, dude, like five times they said it. I
was like, guys, for the love of god, they're playing
fine defense. Yeah, they're like, whatever, organize this defense, it's amazing.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Well, you know what, our coach, he's a great coach.
You know, he has been. He's he's renowned for putting
together tactical game plans that will help nullify the opposed
the opposing team. And when you're preparing to play against
the greatest player that's ever lived, who by the way,
we're the same age. He's thirty six, I'm thirty six.
But you know, I played him MS my whole career.
(12:01):
MESSI he just won the World Cup like seven months ago,
which is the most competitive, biggest tournament globally in the universe.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Oh that's right, Argentina.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
One yes, And so he's still at the peak of
his powers. So when you're playing against a guy like that,
you just have to prepare a little bit differently. So
we were very organized. Yeah, I had. I had a
couple of duels with him out there on the field.
And clearly, you guys saw the goal he scored. He's
an alien man.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Were you involved in it? There was five guys around him.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, I was there. I was a witness.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
I was there. I saw it fly into the top
corner and look sometimes, I mean, it's when you play
against players like that. You can prepare all you want.
But our coach said it best after the game. Great
players are going to make great plays. It doesn't matter
how good you're trying to stop them, or how good
of a defense you're playing. He made a better play
than we were able to make in that moment. But
the fact that we were able to limit that team
(12:50):
with how many goals they've been scoring recently, to only
one goal. We were able to come back tie the game,
and I thought we were the better team. I thought
we should have won the game in regulation. To lose
in penalty shootout, you know, again, a generational talent of
the greatest player to ever live. There's no shame in
that we're upset we lost. I mean I was devastated
to lose the game, but like, what a great experience
man for not just our team, but for the whole
(13:10):
city of Nashville.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Did you get a penalty kick?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I got subbed out.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
He took a penalty the game against America.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Two games before So penalty against Cincinnati, penalty against Club America.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
So they didn't they thought there was a better kicker
on your team. No.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
I was just tired, man, I was dead.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I was like, oh, so you told the coach, hey,
I don't want a penalty.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
No, no, no, no. I would never say that ever.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
All right, hey, coach, I don't want that. I don't
want that smoke. I'm too scared because let me tell you,
we are center forward on our high school team. God dang.
He was scared to take a penalty to save his life.
He'd always say, no, coach, I don't want it. I
don't want it. And it's like, dude, you're the center
forward striker. You're supposed to supposed to score goals. You're
supposed to score goals. I understand it's nerve wracking, but
if you want to play center forward and there's a
(13:51):
peek a step your ass up and take it right,
it drove me nuts.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah. I would never say that. The minute I said
I don't want a penalty in a big game is
the minute I'd retire. So I wanted to take one,
but you know the calculations that coaches have to make.
I was chasing around MESSI for a bunch of the game.
We had just played like a heavy workload in the tournament.
I was starting to fatigue a little bit. And once
you once you're thirty six, and you get tired at
the end of a game, a coach usually says, all right,
(14:16):
he's a prime candidate to get subbed out. So it
had nothing to do with penalties. It was more so
just how can I put a player and then maybe
help us get more energy, more legs, help us win
the game in regulation. But I was bummed that I
wasn't in for the penalties because I was in the
previous two shootouts I scored. I was I was confident,
you know, And what a penalty shootout. You don't watch
much of the much of our games, but penalty shootouts,
(14:37):
they don't always go to goalkeepers.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
That's right, okay.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
I have watched a lot of soccer. I have never
seen it go to eleven.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
When I saw your goalkeeper, the guys like dressed like
a polo player, Dude, he comes out kicking. I was like,
what the fuck is this? No, I didn't know he
was gonna kick.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Well, it usually you have five of your best players
take penalties or your best most confident penalty takers. You
usually after five it's done. Somebody will miss and a
goalkeeper will make a save or you know whatever it is.
If it's tied after five, then it's sudden death and
it goes to the next players that are field players
or even a goalkeeper. Goalkeeper can take a penalty whenever.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Yeah, because in the US and the women's game, she
took one.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
So usually you know, it doesn't get to goalkeepers, but
when it does, it's a crazy electric scenario. And this
will blow your mind even more. If our goalkeeper would
have scored, guess what happens next? It would it starts,
It starts over, and you go through the whole rotation
again until somebody misses.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Alcers did a pretty good job explaining that crap that was.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
That was a crazy finish to a crazy game.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Man. I'm kind of like I liked it. It went
straight to pks though. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Overtime, yeah, I mean, the the sad part is is
that if it would have gone to overtime, I felt
like we were the better team in the second half.
I feel like we would have won the game in overtime,
and no, man, you can't blame him for anything. Dude,
He was a beast throughout the whole time.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Are you talking about the corner no early on when
they kicked it and they hit it to him and
he headed it, but he headed it right to the goal.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Well, okay, yeah, goalie made a good save.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
You say if he got up he hit it down
on the ground. I mean, what do you want him
to do?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Look, there's for me, there's no blame to go around,
even with with anyone. Our team played great, man, And
when it goes to pks, there has to be a
winner and a loser. And eventually you know someone is
going to make a big play, someone's going to make
a save, and there you know their team made one
more play than we did. And that's the that's the
sad reality of pro sports. It's like in anything right
in the NFL and MLB and the NBA, when it
(16:33):
comes down to a walk off or a last second
shot or a hell Mary, like you know, sometimes there's
not that much between the teams, and you know when
a team that can make one more play at the
end is going to win.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
This is crazy interviewing you though, because seriously, you guys
are making a run at it.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
You know, they were limping it. They were limping like.
It was like what in the hell happened to n
SC all of a sudden and we get in that
League's Cup and it was like something clicked.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
Well, was somebody to tell me Muktar was like the
fastest guy in MLS. Dude, I didn't even know he
was good. He's one of my favorite players outside of you,
You're number one. I love dude. Muktar's fast as hell.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
He's the raining, He's the reigning MVP of the whole league.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Had no idea. This guy's been talking about it, but
I didn't know Muktar was amazing.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Yeah, welcome to the club man. The guy's the guy's special. No,
it's it's one of those things where you know, you
go into a tournament like this and this is the
first time we ever played in this tournament and.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
The tournament and see that's the thing like going into
it with I mean, I have season tickets and they
ask you do you want to opt in to the
League's Cup?
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Sure, and you don't know what it is.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
You know, I'm like League's Cup. This is usually when
they're gonna bring up the people from the farm team.
Get them some you know what I mean that you
get them some playing time so that you can see
what you have on your farm team. Get some younger guys,
some experience a lot. Some teams don't try to win
these tournaments. They're just trying to avoid injury, rest players,
develop players. If someone has a nagging injury, you sit
(17:57):
them down because it really doesn't mean much. And then
all of a sudden you start winning. And I'm like,
damn it, I should have opted in these tickets. I
should have opted into these tickets, you know what I mean?
Because then it goes on sale for the freaking championship
and it's like, good God, I could have paid. I
could have paid fifty dollars for my tickets. Instead they
want ten thousand dollars for my.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Seats, and I'm like, god, I hate this free market economy.
Baby supply and demand. When the when the best player
to ever live is coming to town and Nashville has
a chance to win their first championship, it's gonna be expensive.
But I did I did, you know? I did feel
bad because it felt like some of our fans couldn't
go to the game. But again, a lot of people.
You know what you said, they weren't sure whether to
opt into the tickets or not. Because you look back
(18:39):
on it and you probably are saying, well, I regret it,
but it's hard to It's hard to foresee a team
making a run to a final and hosting it, right,
And so, look, I understand that that thought of it.
But the did you did you were you? You watched
it on TV?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (18:52):
No, no, no, no, the atmosphere. The atmosphere was in the stadium.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Was no, no? Was that?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Okay? Okay, let's not lie. Okay, I paid for the ticket.
I end up paying for the ticket. That's right, you
did go. Yeah, and so but my question, the whole
thing is, is it disappointing as a player to see
so many damn messy jerseys there?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
I think it comes with a territory with him. I
think he is I think he's a player that just
transcends the game and he transcends the sport, right, and
so I don't have any issues with it. I think still,
for the most part, our Nashville fans showed out and
they proved that they were going to drown out any
messy fans who were cheering for him, and they did.
(19:36):
But no, I don't. I don't have any problem with
it because at the end of the day, players that
transcend the game, they are always going to have that
type of following and there's nothing you can do about it.
You may as well just embrace it and hopefully get
the best of him. And unfortunately we weren't able to
do that.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
I mean, you're like you were saying about your defensive
game plan. I felt like MESSI from watching him when
he join in Miami. Every game he had so much
on the ball action. He he dominated on the ball
against every other team. Against Nashville, I swear to god,
he maybe had the ball for thirty five seconds. Yep,
(20:13):
he scored a goal and hit the post. I mean fantastic.
I mean he's a magician. He is, and I mean
I love every time he make a run, like he
would try to do the give and go with the
guy in the middle, Dax's arms going out grabbing make
it and try to knock him off the run.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Is that touched him up a little bit?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I mean good. Right at the very beginning, he did
a forearm shiver with his first touch, and he was like,
I'm sending a message. Yeah, well, I know he got
called name. His name is Ishmael. I think his name
is what was his name good By? Oh yeah, yeah.
But here's a funny story about Ishmael. He's from Austin
(20:54):
and I used to play Men's league against him at
Zilker Park right out after college. Like he would play
and then he would ref all day long. And dude,
that dude has a cannon. Yeah, he could rip the ball,
he can believe it.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, he's a decent ref. I gotta say, when when
we were scouting in er Miami, we were watching some clips.
The prevailing theme about what I saw was that teams
were giving Messi too much respect, and they were giving
him too much time and space to operate and do
the things that he wanted to do and look, to
(21:25):
a certain extent, I get it. When you play a
player of his magnitude, it's easy to kind of get
lost in the hype and kind of say, well, I
don't want to be embarrassed by him. I don't want
to get too close because he's still otherworldly when it
comes to dribbling and when it comes to his touch.
But our game plan was, look, let's let's respect what
he's capable of, but let's not play scared. You know,
if you play scared, you're already behind the eight ball.
(21:47):
And so it was a big, big effort from our
whole team, especially our back line in our midfield, to
try to condense the space that he likes to work in.
And look, he scored a great goal and hit the post.
I don't think you're ever going to stop him from
doing some of the those things in the game. But
for the most part, the way we handled how dangerous
he can be, I thought was was really really good,
and I'm proud of the performance from the guys.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Is there any trash talk to Messi on the field?
Do you guys say anything to him real or is
it more you don't want to piss off somebody, because
I mean there's obviously trash talk.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
In the game.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Yeah there is, but it's like the superstar players. Do
you just say, I'm not gonna talk trash to him.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
I think it would have been different if if you know,
he was chirping or back at us. But he's a
really quiet, humble guy for how famous and how amazing
of a player he is, And so in my head,
I'm thinking I want to stop him. I want to
play him as close as I possibly can, but I'm
not trying to piss this guy off, you know what
I mean. And so, yeah, there was no thought of
(22:42):
like trying to get in his head with trash talk,
because he's the type of guy who I just don't
think it affects him. You know, he's seen everything there
is to see. He's played professionally for twenty years at
the highest level possible. I don't think he's gonna be
too bothered by a little redhead guy in mls' whole
career bothering him and talking trash to him.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Was he speaking another language?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
He speaks Spanish? Yeah, I think he. I think he
understands a little bit of English. I mean, I'm not
too sure, but yeah, he's he mainly speaks Spanish.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Did you say what up? Or no? No?
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Oh no, no, hold on, holdah, We're gonna get to that.
We're gonna take a break. Do you have time to
stick around form? Yeah, of course, Okay, we're gonna get back.
Because I wake up on Sunday and I see something
on Instagram and I'm like, excuse me, And then now
this dude's all over the papers in England, and we're talking.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
About the game on Saturday. You were up in the
morning on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
And yeah, I was gonna be able to pull at
ten am, but it didn't quite have it at ten am.
And so I mean, Dax's McCarty all over the papers
in England. And I'll tell you why right after this.
See next. We don't really take a break. We just
sit here. We'll just insert the commercials. So how okay
going into the game, Like did it as a player?
(23:48):
Are you jazzed up because you're about to play the
best of all time or do you have to block
that out and say I'm going to get a championship?
Like what's the mind is?
Speaker 1 (23:56):
The mindset is I'm going to get a championship, Like
I don't care who I'm playing against. I want to win.
I mean, that's why you play the game, That's why
you play sports is to win trophies and to win championships.
I think secondary is man we as a team have
the opportunity to do something that a no team has
done yet, which is beat Interer Miami with MESSI and
(24:17):
and b. Yeah, you get the chance to go and
win a trophy and playing a championship game against who
many people consider and I consider to be the greatest
player to ever live. He just won the World Cup
seven months ago. Like, yeah, it adds a little extra
fuel to the fire, but you want to win over
over anything else.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
So how did you end up with Messi's jersey? Like
I need to I mean, that is so dude. He
got Messi's game warn jersey. And just so you know,
his wife said, quote smells like cologne.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So going into the game, that's that's funny.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Uh is this real? Yeah? It is?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, yeah, So going into the game, there's never you know,
the the tradition of trading jerseys. Yes, it's prevalent in soccer.
It's a sign of either you do it with your
friends or people you know, or a player that you
think is great, and it's like a mutual sign of respect.
And I've done it throughout my whole career. I've gotten,
you know, jerseys from friends of mine, I've gotten jerseys
(25:10):
from great players, and it's something that when I look
back on, I think, I want to look at that
collection and say, I'm really proud of of these people
that I've been able to go toe to toe with
and so the conversation was. It was actually between me
and Hanny Muktar before the game a few days before,
and he was like, hey, do you want to get
Messy's jersey? I was like, well, you know, that's not
at the forefront of my mind. If it so happens
(25:32):
to come to be where you know, we're close together,
and I asked him to trade and he's willing to
do it, I'm going to ask sure, and Hanni said,
all right, no problem. You know we play we play
Miami down in Miami in a week in a week
and all you know, I can trade with him down there.
So that was kind of how that conversation went. After
the game. You know, you're upset, man, we just lost
in a heartbreaking fashion and we're shaking hands, and then
(25:53):
it clicked on me, oh, well, MESSI sells is a
jersey on. You know, no one's gotten it. Let me
go see if I can get it. So I shake
his hand, I asked him to trade, and he says
in the tunnel. Let's trade in the tunnel, basically because
he wanted to celebrate and with his jersey on, right,
because there's pictures and all kinds of stuff, So fast
forward thirty minutes. You know, I'm in the tunnel. He
comes in. We trade. He was really humble, really gracious.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Were you waiting in the tunnel?
Speaker 1 (26:17):
I went back to the locker room.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
Would you stay out and watch them lift the trophy?
Because I know some of the players. I didn't know.
I couldn't see who all was down there, but you
see some of the players and like when you watch
like major League baseball or you know, basketball, or some
of them are the you know, college football, some of
them stay on the bench and watch and just sit
there sad or is it like I want to get
off the field, and kind of I.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Did a little bit of both. We were waiting around
there after we got our runners up medals, and you know,
obviously it's I think, you know, a sign of respect
to see the winning team get their medals. And right
when they were about to lift the trophy, a few
of us started to head back in the locker room.
So I was a part of that crew. I didn't
stick around for the entire celebration. You know, it hurts, man, honestly,
(26:59):
it hurts you lose, and it hurts when you watch
another team celebrate a trophy on your home field right
because we we had full confidence in belief that that
was going to be us. So it hurt. Man, it was.
It was devastating. But go back in the locker room.
Our coach gave a kind of a wrap up, a
tournament wrap up speech, and he was proud of us,
and I think we were all proud of each other.
(27:19):
I mean, you know, you never want to sit there
and say you're happy you lost. I mean, everyone's pissed
off and devastated, but at the end of the day,
we should have been proud, and we were proud of
our performance. And so after that, I waited about fifteen
twenty minutes. I went to the tunnel with my one
of my buddies, the Kitman, and we were hanging out
while inter Miami was kind of doing their rounds waving
(27:40):
to their fans. And after about ten fifteen minutes, they
walked back in MESSI had about ten photographers surrounding him,
and he saw me and was like, let's change. And
that was it. We traded. And I don't know what
he's gonna do with my jersey. I can't imagine. I yeah,
I can't imagine. I can't imagine that there's too much
thought about him in that jersey. But yeah, afterwards, I
(28:02):
took the jersey home. I had some friends and family
with me, and it was kind of just like laying
on my dining room table and a lot of yeah.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
That's messy jersey. And he walks in the house and
just tosses it on the table like I'll get that
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Yeah, he's also an athlete and a professional. It's not
like us getting it, I know, but still it's still funny.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
You know what's funny about that statement is that that's true.
But at my core, like I'm a fan of the game, right,
and even though I play professionally, I still I probably
watch more games than I've ever played in Like, I
watch soccer religiously. I love the game. I love everything
about it. I am about to I'm a fan of
greatness and I'm a fan of great players, and so
(28:42):
at my core, like I'm a messy fan, no question
about it. When I'm playing against him, he's my he's
my my competition. I'm trying to win. I'm trying to
beat him. I'm trying to do whatever I can to
win the game. But then after it's all said and done,
there's no question that he is a guy who like
he's worth being a fan of, Like he's that good.
And so the jersey's on the table. I think one
of my buddies picked a jersey up and was like, man, like,
(29:04):
it kind of smells like cologne and so, and he
didn't go like like pick it up and sniff it
right away. It's just he kind of held it out,
you know, and he kind of got a waft. And
so if you watch MESSI play at least right now,
you see him walk around the field for majority of
the game a lot, and then he turns it on
when he gets the ball and when he needs to sprint.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
But he's always moving. And that's what if you watch soccer,
that's what's amazing is I realize that when I'm playing
my cod game, I'm like, man, I should always be moving.
So I'm like moving my place into spots, you know
what i mean, Like back in high school when I
had all the energy in the world. Now I'm like, huh,
I'm gonna take catch my breath right here and stand here,
and then the ball goes over there. I'm like, damn,
I should have been walking that way. You know what?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I mean yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
So so he look, MESSI conserves energy because his job
is to score goals and to attack. His job is
not to defend. And so I think he probably you
know what, Yeah, maybe he sweat here and there during
the game, but honestly, he's conserving energy more than he's running.
And so I don't know if he if it was
cologne before the game, if he wears Colone during the game,
who knows, man honestly, with that guy. But is funny
(30:03):
because everyone kind of started laughing, like, how does it
smell like Colonne? Like my wife like has smelled my
jersey after a game. If it's a special jersey, I'll
bring it home and it isn't. Wah, She's like, get
that out of our room. It smells awful, you know
what I mean. And so for me, it just kind
of was a funny thing. And she ended up like
tweeting something out, like a picture of it or something.
(30:24):
And you have to know my wife, and you have
to know our type of humor and our banter. It's
very sarcastic, and so this tweet, it was a response
to someone who was like, Hey, are you gonna hang
that up? And she was like, ah, maybe like it
smells like cologne, like it's only messy that could do
that or something like that. And it just like took off,
like it's getting picked up by all these like British tabloids,
(30:44):
and I'm sitting there thinking like what the hell is
going on right now? And people are I think, maybe
taking it out of context a little bit as as
something where it's some sort of weird fetish thing, and
I'm like, come on, people, like, let's be honest, look
anything for a story. I know how the tabloids work.
I get it, but it is a little bit funny, uh,
to look back on and say, all right, like I
(31:05):
get it. It's a funny story. You know. People are
gonna take it however they want to take it. But
it's a joke, you know what I mean. My wife's
messing around and I can't really actually believe that it
has made the headlines that it's made.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
I mean, you look everywhere it's like, oh, wag of
soccer player Dax McCarty and.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Which she absolutely despises that moniker. By the way, my
wife is my wife is actually the opposite of a wag.
Like I don't it's a term it's well done. Perfect there.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
I knew like they have baseball wives, but I didn't
know they called them like, is it a bad thing
to be a wag? Like to be a wife of
a soccer.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
For me, to me, it is a it is a
very like British term that English media kind of invented
to describe women who were wives and girlfriends of soccer players, right,
And it is like the connotation surrounding it is more, oh,
like this is just a girl who doesn't want to
work and just wants to be taken care of. Right,
(32:03):
So it's it's it's not the best connotation. And like
my wife is the absolute opposite of that, Like she's
got she started her own business, she is an entrepreneur,
like she does a million different things in our life.
And so it is a little bit of a term
that she is not too fond of. And I gotta
say I don't blame her for being a little bit
perturbed by being called that.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Okay, we're gonna get off MESSI after one more. What
what would have been more devastating losing in the peaks
or that last player regulation that I don't know what,
I don't know what happened I still have I still
don't know if he was off sides or.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Not, like he was on I think he was on side.
It was it was a weird play right, Shack falls
on the opposite end. I mean I saw it. I
saw it happen.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Shack falls down, gets up, he chips it over Panico,
and then Shack falls down again and then he slides
it on me.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Crazy. I think in general, losing in penalties is devastating always,
but it would have been more devastating in that moment
to lose on that play because that was They didn't
have hardly any chances in the second half, Like literally
they hit the post with MESSI that was it, and
that was it, and so the last kick of the game.
If we lose on a fluke play like that, I
think we're a lot more devastated and heartbroken than losing
(33:13):
in a penalty shootout, which man, that was one for
the ages. There's nothing to be ashamed of with the
way that we took our penalty kicks and the way
that we played, but that last play was just bananas.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Are you a fan of any other sport besides soccer?
Do you watch other sports?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
I'm a fan of a bunch of sports.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Man.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
I'm a fan, A big fan of tennis. I love.
I'm an Orlando Magic fan since I'm from Orlando, so
like I was, like Penny Hardaway was my favorite athlete
growing up. So I still follow the NBA and I
play fantasy football. So if I didn't play fantasy football,
I probably wouldn't watch the NFL, but I do. I
watch the NFL, I watch the NBA, and I love tennis.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
That's like my sport, Dude, Tennis right now with Alcatraz
and Freaking Joker, that's We're gonna see that for the
next five years. It's those two in every final.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
And I think it's cool, like what Netflix has done
kind of telling stories of athletes a little better, like
with the One series and now with tennis. I think
it's called like break Point or something. I started watching
it and like it just hooks you in. Man, it's cool.
You get to see the other side of like athletes
and their stories, and that's something that I think is
really cool. And I think we're gonna see a lot.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
More of that film an MLS one.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Maybe I don't know. I don't have any inside information.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
The guy out of the Jersey cologne guy.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
I know, I don't have any inside info, but I would.
I would, but.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
You have connections, Like if that's an idea, you don't
take that to Apple TV and be.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Like, oh, look, god, guys, I think I mean, I'm
sure these have been these ideas have been thrown out there.
I mean, look, you you'd have to be crazy to
think that Apple is not trying to do some sort
of documentary on MESSI coming to n LS. I'm certain
that will eventually be released.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
I think they've already been filming it. They said he's
getting followed by cameras. I don't know, but yeah, did
you see the amount of press that was there? Like
it was crazy.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
I actually think the best sports related content out there
is still Hard Knocks.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Yes, I agree with you on like they did that
Quarterbacks on Netflix and I watched it, but Hard Knocks
is better, so much better. Yeah, and it's so entertaining
and I mean, just I still remember, I mean, I
don't even remember the guy's name, but seven to eleven
was on the show and he was always open. That
was his name in training camp, and I don't even
know I think it was the guy that went and
played in the cross Hogan. Yeah, and I'm just like,
(35:14):
it's so fascinating to see the ins and outs and
the interaction and then it's sad to see him get cut.
But that's part of the sport and it's it's.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Why as part of the human interest, right, because you see,
I think these shows have helped humanize athletes a lot more. Right.
They're not just the name on the back of the
jersey or part of an organization. You see, they have
lives off the field. You see, we bleed and sweat
like everybody else does. And you know what like the
human side of it, Like athletes, you know, we're not robots,
(35:42):
we're not perfect, we make mistakes and you know, it's
just you're in such a heightened atmosphere with fans always
seeing everything you do. It's nice for people to be
able to see the other side of people and kind
of humanize that element of them a little bit more.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
And a truck driver, I mean he has a truck driver.
Truck driver hasn't worked out in a freaking month, dude,
and then you guys work out pretty much every day. Now,
that's what they realize honestly from these shows. Oh there's
other people that do sprints and stuff. Well, I'm just
in my sprinter van.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
When you go on vacation, do you work out?
Speaker 2 (36:12):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Man, depends on the vacation, depends on how close it
is to preseason. If it's vacation right after the season's over,
I'm not touching a weight or running for a few weeks.
If it's vacation, that's like within a few weeks of preseason,
I'm running.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Because I saw a Dame. I saw a Dame in
the middle of the summer though, so he was straight
up vaca. He was in the Dominican Republic. Damian Lillard
just chilling.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
You gotta rest man athletes. We I mean, especially soccer.
If you look at a European season, they have the
players that play the longest seasons. They have legitimately they
play eleven months out of a year and they have
six weeks. That's it. That's their vacation time. So US
we have a little bit of a longer break. We
have closer to like eight weeks. But the seasons are
(36:53):
so much longer in soccer than they are in any
other sport. You have to find time to rest.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
So you said your goal was to play over in Europe.
What is the difference, the biggest difference between soccer over
there and MLS.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Well, that's not my goal anymore because I'm thirty six
and I don't think anyone in Europe's touching me with
a ten foot pole. When I was younger, it was
definitely a goal of mine and I had a few
opportunities here and there to maybe go over there. But
there's a lot that has to go into it to
play in Europe, right, I mean, the biggest difference for
me is is I think promotion and relegation, which obviously
people talk about a lot over here with THEA As
(37:28):
a player, I would love promotion and relegation over here, right.
I think that it's a very exciting version of soccer.
I think that it raises the stakes a little bit.
But again, promotion and relegation it comes with very high
highs for teams that get promoted, and it comes with
very low lows for teams that get relegated because those
teams they lose a ton of money. They've got a
(37:49):
cut budget, they've got a cut players, they've got to
cut staff. Like it's not all you know, roses and
sunshine for promotion relegation, Like, I understand why MLS hasn't
adopted it. We haven't been in a place financial to
be able to afford to do that, and so look,
I would love to see it. Do I think it's realistic.
It's never gonna happen in my time playing. Maybe in
fifty years it'll happen. But I think the biggest difference
(38:11):
is the promotion relegation. These leagues are established, they've got history,
they've got culture. MLS has only been around for you know,
thirty years, right, and these other leagues have been around
for you Do you.
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Realize you've been in the MLS, like you're longer than
half of it? Its existence is that weird?
Speaker 1 (38:24):
It's weird. And one of my buddies told me before
the season, He's like, Dax, you realize you turned pro
at eighteen. You're turning thirty six this year. Half of
your life will you will have spent as a pro
soccer player at MLS. And when you think about it
in that context, it's kind of hard to believe. Man,
really it is. And it sucks because you snap your
fingers and it goes by so quickly. I can't believe
I'm already in year eighteen, and I'm like, possibly thinking
(38:47):
about what comes next? Scary?
Speaker 3 (38:49):
At what age We'll take a break and I want
to talk about like different things you learn in soccer
that I know it's part of the game, but drive
people nuts. Flopping, the laying down.
Speaker 2 (39:02):
We'll look it.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
We'll talk about it right after this. At what age
do you learn to roll around on the ground? Because
I mean I played soccer, and I mean we weren't
very I mean we I mean I played you know
whatever high school and that was it, Like it wasn't
competitive that way. But at what age did you learn
to roll around the ground because we wouldn't gone next
team Carlos he must have played for a different club
(39:23):
team than I did, because he would roll around and
all the crowd. Oh no, he's fine, guys, he's faking it.
Don't worry.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
Don't worry.
Speaker 3 (39:30):
Like, how do you guys learn how to say?
Speaker 1 (39:32):
I gotta say I think it's ingrained in you from
a young age through coaching. I was never never taught that,
and I've never done it in my career. I don't flop,
I don't embellish, I don't exaggerate injuries. If I'm injured.
I'm injured and it's gonna hurt, and I'm gonna tell
my trainer, but I'm not. It's called gamesmanship, right, And
I think more sports it's funny because I don't like it.
(39:54):
I don't approve of it. But it is part of
the game of soccer. It always will be, it always
has been. It's funny. I think American sports are actually
adopting it more so now, like you see it in
the NBA Monogeno. We brought it to the NBA, you
see it in the NFL even it has in Like,
I don't like it. I don't approve of it. I
would never do it. But as far as players doing
(40:16):
whatever they need to do to win the game, like,
what is towing that line between playing within the rules
and doing something that's legal and then cheating? Right, Like,
I don't ever think embellishing an injury would be considered cheating.
But is it a little bit dirty?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
I think it is. But I was never taught that,
so I don't do that.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
What about when a ref makes a call and everybody
on your team has to surround the damn ref and no, no, no, no, no, no,
that's not right. That's not right.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
D Look, man, that's part of games I do. And
the thing about professional sports is the emotions are so
heightened and the stakes are so high. So, first of all,
refereeing is the hardest job, and not only in sports,
but I think pretty much anywhere.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
It's the worst thing ever.
Speaker 1 (41:01):
You can't please everyone. You're going to eventually you're like
you have human beings making subjective decisions about games that
are happening at a million miles an hour. There will
be mistakes, right, and there's ways that sports have introduced
to try to mitigate those mistakes, but you're still going
to get bad calls. And so in the heat of
the moment when players surround the ref, it doesn't look good.
(41:21):
It's not a good look. But it's just players that
are angry and they want to win the game, right.
And so as I've gotten older, I think I've calmed
down a lot and I don't do it as much
as I used to. But look, any way, you can
try to get in the ref's ear to tell him, hey, man,
I think you made a bad call there, Please, like
you know, reconsider it next time you're thinking about making
a call like that. You always want to try to
(41:42):
sway them, right, and that that's just a reality of
professional sports, right You just you want to get favorable
calls that go in your team's direction.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Yeah, they respect you though, because you've been around for
a while.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
And they respect you. And I think they respect the
way that you approach them. If you approach them and
you tell them to f off and f your mother
like they're good, they're not going to appreciate that, you know.
But if you say, hey, listen, I think you made
a bad call, you know, and you're not berating them
with hand gestures, I think they respect that. And so
that's kind of how I've tried to approach referees in
(42:12):
my older years.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
What when I'm trying to see how like when players,
so you go up and you put your hands behind
your back, is that why you just show you because
you walk they walk up and they put their hands
behind their back, trying to act like, hey, I'm not confrontational.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
It's diffusing. It diffuses the situation because if you're like smart,
demonstrative and you're like throwing fingers and hands in their face,
I don't think they appreciate that. I think they're much
more likely to give you a yellow card than actually
listen to you.
Speaker 3 (42:37):
Do all refs speak English?
Speaker 2 (42:39):
Yeah, they said us.
Speaker 1 (42:42):
Well, I don't know if it's universal, but I think look,
I think English for the most part would be probably
considered a universal language. And so all the refs in
MLS speak English. Maybe in Europe a couple of them don't,
but I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
And then when people are laying around on the ground
and you do you ever walk up to get the
get up?
Speaker 2 (42:59):
Come on?
Speaker 3 (43:00):
Sometimes sometimes is there a trash talk to the person
that's eb if.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
You know, like let's say you get called for a
foul and you know that you fouled the guy, but
you know it wasn't that bad and you know they're
not injured. Yeah, it's gonna be a little frustrating seeing
them roll around on the ground and try to get
a ref to, uh, maybe give you a yellow card
or call a penalty. And so, yes, there is trash
talking in that sense. But I gotta be honest. I mean,
for the amount of games and the amount of time
(43:25):
that is played, the embellishment stuff, I think it's blown
out of proportion. It really doesn't happen as much as
people say it does.
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Because I think people don't realize when they get hit,
like when you guys get hit like it hurts. Yeah.
I mean, those are some big studs coming in and
it may not look bad to you, but when it
breaks across that foot, there's nothing they're protecting it.
Speaker 1 (43:43):
I agree, yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Right, you got any question, But I was gonna say,
you don't necessarily jump in the air in real life
if that happened. But also when you watch the report
drop a book on your foot, do you jump up
in the air not that high? These guys you bounce
like you bounce on one foot.
Speaker 3 (43:56):
FeH, you bounce on one foot for a minute. I
guarantee it like you step on a lego.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
Here's a difference. You're you're getting a book dropped on
your foot or step on a lego. You're not running
at twenty miles an hour, right, you know. And so
when these plays happen most of the time, it's like
a miniature car crash, right, It's not like the NFL
where guys are smashing each other. But like, yeah, you're
running fast and look the body is not meant to
be contorted or you know, hit in certain ways and
(44:21):
it hurts, man, But sometimes. Yeah, of course there's embellishment
and guys are trying to take advantage of the ref
and that's just always going to be a part of
the game.
Speaker 2 (44:28):
After the game, you guys have the next day off
or do you practice at all?
Speaker 1 (44:31):
Yeah, we had a few days off. It's been a
long tournament, man, you know, we've played. We played seven
seven games in three three and a half weeks, I think,
which is a that's a heavy load for any team
that plays. And so, yeah, our coach is very I
think our coach is very cognizant of managing bodies, managing minutes.
And yeah, we got a couple of days off to
(44:52):
lick our wounds. And it still hurts, I gotta be honest,
It still hurts that that we didn't win the trophy,
still hurts that we lost. But again, I'll go back
to the same thing I said at the beginning. I'm
so proud of the way that our team played and
the way that we performed, not just in the final,
but throughout the whole tournament. I think everyone on our
team should be proud and our city should be proud
about how they they showed up for that semi final,
(45:13):
in that final some of the best atmospheres I've played in.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
How do you turn it off? Like competitor, so angry
you lost, and then you go home and because you
have a wife, kids, like is it immediate?
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Like?
Speaker 3 (45:25):
Oh, he you know.
Speaker 1 (45:27):
It's a good question. I tried to diffuse. I tried
to decompress in the car a little bit going home.
So I live about five to ten minutes from Giotis Park,
depending on traffic.
Speaker 3 (45:37):
Do you drive your cell phone? Does your wife drive home?
Speaker 2 (45:39):
No? No?
Speaker 1 (45:39):
No, I drive. I drive myself home.
Speaker 3 (45:41):
Well I didn't. I didn't know if you call the game.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Look, I was the last one.
Speaker 2 (45:44):
I was.
Speaker 1 (45:44):
I was the last guy to leave the stadium that night,
And you know it's it's you're you're trying to reflect
on things you could have done better, trying to reflect
on what went wrong, and in the car. You know,
I've learned as I've gotten older, the stuff that happens
on thee, especially when you have a family, the stuff
that happens on the field, it's never a good idea
to try to bring that home, and to try to
(46:06):
bring that into the home your disappointment, your frustration, because
that manifests itself in different ways. Around your kids. I mean,
I've got two kids and they were sleeping by the
time I got home. But I had my best friend
in his family in town. I had my wife, I
had my parents and my brother in town. You just
you want to put on a brave face and you
want to make sure that yeah, like, Okay, you're disappointed,
(46:27):
you're upset you lost, but you're proud of of you know,
what you represent and how you played. And that was
kind of how I tried to handle it.
Speaker 3 (46:34):
And when you walk in the house, do you guys
talk about the game or do you talk about what's
going on in a big brother or like a TV show,
like do.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
You chase when it's a final? And especially when it's
a final played against you know, Inner Miami who have
Messi and Bousquettes and Jeordie Alba, it's kind of hard
not to talk about that. And I think in general,
you know, your family just wants to, you know, be
that kind of support system, right, they want to be
that crutch if you are upset, and so, yeah, there
was a little bit of time talk about the game.
(47:00):
There was a little bit of talk about hey, like
should we stay in, should we go grab a beer
to like, you know, celebrate a little bit a good tournament,
and so there's all all kinds of calculations and permutations
going on when you get home. But uh, I think
the overriding feeling was just I'm glad my family was
there to rep to witness such a great game, sad result,
disappointing outcome, but ultimately there's a lot of pride that's
(47:23):
involved in that.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
Did you get them all tickets?
Speaker 3 (47:26):
Yep?
Speaker 1 (47:27):
Dope, yep, they there were. There were some tickets that
had to be paid for, but I don't think hopefully
the club was so gracious and able to to help
us get tickets that were at you know, fairly reasonable prices.
Speaker 3 (47:42):
That's awesome. Yeah, and then the rest of the season,
I mean now it starts back up. I mean the
race for the cut. I mean now we're trying to
win it all.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Dude, that's it. Yeah. MLS Cup is the focus we've got.
We've got ten games left in the regular season, five home,
five on the road. We have such good momentum I
think heading into the last ten games and we're confident, Like,
I love the place that our team is in right now.
I think we're in a good mood. I think we
have a lot of confidence, and you know, we want
to make the playoffs first and foremost, and then once
(48:10):
you get in the playoffs, anything can happen. We're going
to win MLS Cup.
Speaker 2 (48:13):
What are you guys in the standings? Oh?
Speaker 1 (48:16):
Man, So there were a few games that happened on Sunday.
I think we're like fifth, fifth or sixth, top eight,
top nine, make it we're I think we're you know,
we're three points out of second place.
Speaker 3 (48:27):
So so we beat Charlotte this weekend on Saturday, then
we beat Miami on Wednesday, Boom, We're in second place, no.
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Problem, yep. So we'll see how it goes. Man. We're
just we're going to attack the second half of the
season with with with the goal of making the playoffs
and trying to win a cup.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Hey, does does in or Miami make the playoffs?
Speaker 1 (48:45):
That's a that's a spicy question.
Speaker 2 (48:47):
They got to win.
Speaker 1 (48:48):
I think I think they got to win more than that.
I think I got twelve games left. I think they
probably need to win nine or ten.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
And I mean there's no way, there's no way.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
I mean, you never look at the risk of you know,
fan boying too hard over MESSI you never want to
count him out because he is truly great, great player.
But I think it's probably too tall of a task
right now for them to make the playoffs.
Speaker 3 (49:11):
Because like like on Saturday, a tie would have done
them no good, right they get in that turnack and
a tournament, you can they can tie, and they can
go to a shootout in the l they get a
point and that does not help them. They need three
points every single time out, so that that that hill
they got to climb is very steep.
Speaker 1 (49:29):
I would say, I would say they you know, they
won League's Cup, they won, they won a trophy. They
are in the semi final of the US Open Cup,
which they play against Cincinnati is on tomorrow, so Wednesday.
I would say that if they win that game and
they end up winning US Open Cup, that you know
this season is a wash, they'd be very happy with that.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
I mean, yeah, And the emotion, I don't know how
you guys, How do you guys maintain the emotional because
the emotional letdown, you got to get back up for
the that's a that's at it's huge.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
It's not easy. It's not easy, and you know you
still think about what could have been quite frankly with
hosting a final and winning the championship. But you just
have to move on. I mean professional sports. I think
the best players they're able to have a short memory.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (50:11):
It's like quarterbacks, you gotta if you throw an interception,
you gotta you gotta have a short memory. You gotta
figure it out and move on. So that's what we're
gonna do. I think we're gonna be proud of how
we performed. We can be sad that we lost, but uh,
I think it's a good stepping stone for us to
go in these last ten games and go try to
win a trophy.
Speaker 3 (50:29):
That's why, that's why we're not professional athletes, right, because
I watch a game and the Cubs lose and you know,
game five, and I'm like, oh, it's over, there's no
way they can win. And then they win the next game.
I'm like, how did they do that?
Speaker 1 (50:39):
We're back.
Speaker 3 (50:40):
The Spurs are like, they get blood, the shot of
the butzer. There's no way they're gonna be able to
oh and they recovering they win this game.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
It just makes no sense, you guys, No, no, no, no,
we saw the I saw the video of him on
the field, but they get no, it's great.
Speaker 3 (50:54):
I loved it.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
I thought it was great, But my.
Speaker 3 (50:56):
Giddy my question is like, why do these people went, dude,
thank you, that's my quest. Reese Witherspoon. They're all there,
but they don't wear Nashville SC stuff like Kobe call
singing the Nationalism were in Nashville s C. Jersey. It
drives me insane that Giannis is a minority owner of
the team and I supposedly he was wearing a jersey later,
(51:18):
but when he's out on the field, dude, rock a
freaking jersey, Like it drives me insane, Like why do
more owners and people not take their cues from Mark
Cuban to be the reason you're a fan or I
would think the reason you have the team is you're
a fan. And where the jersey? Where the gear? Wear
a hat? Why do we wear suits? Why do we wear
(51:39):
Nike sweatpants instead of Nashville SC gear? Okay, thank you,
all right, Dax, I'm sorry, thank you for coming into.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
Really that was a good rant to end the pod
Man Yeah, all right, make it easy. Thanks guys,
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