STL United FC Soccer Sunday Hour 2 - 5/19/24

More City talk with Tom, Edmundo and David Brcic. Later, Matt Baker of the Flyover Footy Podcast, phones-in. 

Episode Transcript

(00:33):
I was once up strolling one veryhot summer's day. We're gonna let Eric
Burton stroll off into the big field, the tall grass, where he lays
down and things happen back. Welcomeback, everybody to Seal United Soccer Sunday,
coming to you from KFN S fiveninety the fan here in Saint Louis,
Missouri, also known as Kirkwood,Missouri. Actually, where we are

(00:56):
happy to have you with us.We're happy to have our good buddy in
the studio today running the board overthere, Tom, And you want to
say, Mad Grover, No,we got to get to Matt Baker.
I know we got Grovers, andwe got too many, we got too
many matts. So here's your host, mister Tom Schwartz. Thank you,

(01:17):
ed Mundo. And now the manwho knows the x's and o's of SDL
City sc And let's see if hewants to talk about last night, Matt
Baker. How you doing, Matt? I'm doing all right. Tom.
You're telling me people don't want tohear about last night's quote unquote game.
I don't understand why not. Itwas so it was so thrilling, so

(01:38):
entertaining. Yeah, it's I mean, you're going up against one of the
best teams in the league. Youknew it was going to be a tall
task. You're coming off of threematches in eight days, which the first
two you had thrown out your bestlineup, and you you did a little
bit of rotation, but you'd obviouslyprioritize those first two games as you should
have because they're home matches and they'remore winnable, more opportunity to take point.

(02:00):
And it follows the Bradley Carnell mantraof if you play the next game
and you have play who you haveavailable, and you look to that game
and see what's going to happen next. What ended up happening last night is
I saw seven rotated players Bradley Carnellreferenced post game two or three, meaning
he saw it more as the playerswho had been playing, whether it's first

(02:21):
or second half in the previous games. There were only three net new players,
Nick Clostewart, Kila Watson, andjose Kajima. Other than that,
he saw it as the lineup thatthey've been throwing out in previous games.
But those players in particular, whenyou talk about how the game progressed and
how the game flowed were pretty critical. Saint Louis had in the past obviously

(02:43):
been adept at progressing the ball throughtheir wings, and that's what Thomas Totlan
and Anthony Merchanic, two of ourplayers who lead the team in touches,
had been so good at, ismoving the ball up through the wings and
playing off of our midfield. Andso those three players, those three positions
where you had Merchanics and Thomas Ostrak, now you replace them with Nicholas Duer,

(03:04):
Akil Watts, and Jose Kajima.And it's jose Kajima's first MLS start,
it is Akila Watts's first appearance thisyear, and it is Nicholas Duer's
first start in probably about two months. And so you have players who aren't
familiar with each other, they're notcomfortable with each other in these in game
moments. Couple that with the factthat Bradley Carnell even admitted post game that

(03:27):
their previous plan of attack, whichis progressed the ball through their wings and
create chances delivering into a final thirdthrough the wings, especially on the left,
was not what they entered this gameto do. They knew that f
C Cincinnati was having a back fivewhere they leveraged three center backs and wingbacks,
and Bradley Carnell had no intentions ofprogressing the ball through the wings,
he said post game as a meansof creating those chances. So, I

(03:51):
mean, you just had a qualityopponent in f C Cincinnati. You had
new players on City, get adifferent game plan and game model, and
it equaled unfortunately, no real highquality chances being created by City again.
But other than that, hey,I mean, hey, Tom, if
you're looking at for a positive takeawayon this Roman Burkey again, I mean,

(04:15):
how how many times now it's it'salmost like it's on repeat. Can
we say that Roman Burke has eitherwon us a game or kept us in
a game for massive stretches? Hey, let's go back and look at Let's
ask a goalkeeper about that. DavidBursik answer answer that question for that,
well, I mean we talked aboutearlier. I mean, yes, where
where would we be without We wouldn't. Yeah, we wouldn't even last year,

(04:40):
you know, I mean even knowhow many games we won and how
well we played. Still without RomanBurkey, none of this happens. So
yeah, we need to find ourRoman Burkey to play striker, you know
well, and everything will work out. Roman has friends, Yes, contracts
are up, Yes he does,Yes he does. And that's I mean,

(05:02):
that's the point though, that thisteam is not just led by Roman
Burke in the locker room and intangibly, but they're led by what he does
on the field. Against LFC,he tried to get this team back in
the game playing on the ball,bringing it out of the box, and
he led our team in expected threats. A lot of these underlying metrics,
both shot stopping and ball progression,are really Roman Burkey is really high level

(05:28):
at all of this, and hestarts a lot of things that I think
a lot of other teams don't havethat luxury. But man, I think
you're one hundred percent correct. Butare we able to take advantage of it?
My point earlier we were talking isthat you know, he plays great
balls up top, but seldom,and I mean seldom is the correct word,
do we actually receive that ball inplay off of it? We just

(05:50):
don't have We seemly do not havethe ability to take advantage of those services
that he plays up top. Andwe do play the ball up top a
lot. You know, it's atremendous amount of time, but but we
never seem to take full advantage ofit unless the other team, you know,
fails to you know, to controlit, because we seldom, if

(06:11):
ever are able to take his balland bring it down and take advantage of
it. You know. Well,that's the other primary way that Stainless progresses,
and they've done that for now almosta year and a half. It's
not just progressing through the wings withthe ball on the ground, but it's
in transition. But it's sending theball up top and leveraging aerial duels to
then control the ball, hold theball and play it off to some of
our attacking midfielders. That's where Klaushad been really and has been really good

(06:35):
sometimes winning these battles. When he'sable to win these aerial duels long deep
and hold the ball, then itallows time to play to a z or
Sale or Indy and then you couldget a quick transition. But a lot
of the reasons that I'm seeing that'snot effective is and I this morning,
when Santiago and I were recording ourclover footy looking at the ball out of

(06:55):
this I kept going back to theindividual skill level, because you can you
can have best game plan and youcan have things that if you had the
highest quality players, they're able toexecute this, and they're able to capture
those duels and then pass it offand put themselves in a position to have
high quality shots. A lot ofthe problems last night weren't that we weren't
able to create a couple of thosemoments. It was that we didn't have

(07:16):
the quality on the ball to executethose moments. Azy Jackson in the second
half had two shots that were Imean good, like good moments. One
shot at the top of the boxthat started from a Thomas Ostrok stretch pass,
and it was it was a beautifulsequence, very quick by City,
and it is a lot of whatthey usually try to do. But Daisy

(07:38):
couldn't finish it. He had gothimself into trouble. Kind of looked like
he overthought it and then he hada weak left footed shot that by the
underlying metrics, Yeah, sure,it looks like it's high XG, it
looks like it's high expected goals ontarget, But you just watch it and
you can tell that that didn't havethe quality that we need. So you
look individually at those players up there. The system, I think it has

(07:59):
a lot of mayrig and we've seensuccess at various points with the system.
Now we just need to look atare these players capable of executing in the
system consistently without just a moment hereor there. I agree with almost everything
you said, Matt, but Idon't believe that we can execute what Burkey
can give us. I don't seeKlaus controlling that ball seldom. I mean,

(08:24):
you'd have to go back and lookat fifteen games and show me ten
times where he was able to bringthat ball down and control it and then
playoff of the it it doesn't happen. I mean, it flicks off the
top of his head, the defenderheads it out. I mean, and
I've told this multiple times, it'salmost like we're, you know, let's
just throw it up there and hopethat we have a scramble and we end

(08:46):
up with the ball, because it'snot ever that we're going to bring it
down, control it and really makesomething happen off of that. I just
don't see it. I just don'tsee it. I mean, you're absolutely
not wrong, David. And that'swhere they're looking at. What Klauds can
do when he goes up, becausehe doesn't go up looking to bring the
ball down to his own feet andpossess the ball. He looks to win

(09:07):
a duel in the sense that he'sable to head the ball over to a
teammate, or more likely or moreoften, what happens is you have Klaus
quote unquote win that duel where hegets the head or off, and then
no matter who the ball lands tooff of him, you either press that
player immediately to create a high turnoveroff of this aerial duel, or sometimes
you get lucky in a player isaround clouds and able to recover that themselves.

(09:31):
But it's really not leveraging the skillof an individual player to win that
aerial duel, keep it at theirfeet and then play it and create that
transition. It's almost like you're puttingthat ball up there. You're just sending
it along and then you're leveraging otherstrengths of the team in the high press,
in the swarming, I think you'releveraging the weakness of the other team
because I think the only way thatthat's effective for us is when the other

(09:54):
team heads the ball to us.Because I can tell you again, you
could go back twenty games and youshow me one Burkey pass and one Burkey
service that Klaus got his forehead onit and actually headed it down to one
of our players. Uh. Andmost of the time the ball, most
of the time the ball goes overhis head. He might get a little
flick on the very top of it, but of course there's nobody beyond him

(10:16):
because he's he's the top guy,uh. Or the other team simply can't
handle it. And then we withour pressure, you know. So if
you want to say that that thatthe plan is, we serve it up
there with with just the hopes thatdon't know who's going to get it,
and then by our pressure will winthe ball. Now that that we can
be effective at, you know,by pressuring the other team once once they

(10:37):
play the ball or they play it, you know, to us mistakenly.
You know, that's how that's howI'm scored, uh against Chicago. You
know, they headed the ball toall, you know, and and I'm
took off and then and then andthen and then and then scored. I
almost think, I almost think thatis part of this I don't know,
what do you think about this map? But I almost think that is part

(10:58):
of the strategy. Is that becauseI had never thought about it the way
you expressed it, but it kindof makes sense. Is to play the
rebound. You know, you're playinga second chance. Yeah, you're playing
a second chance. But I'd liketo see us. I'd like to see
us be able to actually play thefirst chance, meaning that we're we actually

(11:18):
received the ball in playoff. ButI thought of just hoping that the ball
bounces. I think I think whatMatt's saying, though, is that he
doesn't see the skill level of play. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Man. It sounds to me likeyou're saying it the problem isn't necessarily Klaus,

(11:39):
which is what David's saying. Ithink, uh, and you're saying
it's he doesn't. One of thereasons he's that they're not trying at is
because they don't have the skill levelin that. I mean, that's right.
You know, he basically disrupts it. So the ball is being served
long. He's just going up totry to make sure that they can't play
it cleanly, and possibly the ballbounces to us and now we have an

(12:01):
opportunity. So I don't that's aweird stress. It's a weird stress that
I was trying to think of theright word for that, but yeah,
I mean that if that's your strategy, that's your strategy. And and again,
if you look at the way weplay overall with our high pressure,
you know, many of our opportunitiesand many of our goals come by their
mistakes. And that's next. Andif that's part of it, let's serve

(12:22):
it up there and see if theycan handle it, because obviously we can't
handle it, so let's hope thatthey can't handle it and we get an
opportunity. So well, that's whyyou see it successful against the lesser quality
teams, the teams that can't possessthe ball, can't get their short passes
worked out, and are often disruptedby the city high press. At the
Cincinnati is very clinical. It wasvery clinical in their short passing and their
ability to navigate the press and tofor Saint Louis into more of a mid

(12:46):
block area. And so when you'redoing that, then you know you're not
able to have your high press aseffective on these second chances. And I
do think it is the it issomewhat of the bread and butter of how
city progresses. You know, wealways joked that Burkey has such high quality.
How is it that he hasn't gottenin a sit in the past year
and a half. And it's becauseof this. It's not that his quality
in passing isn't great. He hasled our league and expected threats from passes

(13:09):
the time. It's the fact thatwe don't intentionally take the ball that he
offers and then use that one playerto progress it up the field. We
create these second chances and we're morethan happy to lose the ball if it
means we can quickly regain it back, which goes back to the quality in
finishing of those players who get thosesecond chances. Hey, man, hold,
can you stick around for a coupleof minutes. Let's get a breakout

(13:31):
of the way. You gotta oryou gotta go? Oh, I'm honored
to get a second segondent All right, cool, cool, let's because I
want this conversation to continue. Gotcha, ladies and gentlemen, let me remind
you you're listening to KFNS five ninetythe fan. You know this is a
song about you and your mom?Is it? Yeah? Coming to you
live from okay, well listen ASKTLUnited Soccer Sunday. Come KF and Scott

(13:54):
get it out, send it backto Tom, Tom take it. I'm
done. I'm toe, you know. You know, man, The problem
is nobody loves that but his mama. That's right, and she might be
driving too. That's the problem,all right, Matt. Let's jump to
what's coming up next game? Nothingeasy. Seattle Founders are next week and
if you watched last night you gota kind of a glimpse of what we

(14:15):
can expect for next week, whichis no knew who knew? Who is
their left back, who's extremely goodat progressing the ball up the field.
He's a great two way fullback.He had a red card in stoppage on
a penalty that allowed Vancouver to tiethe game. And if it wasn't for
that, we'd be talking about tenthplace Saint Louis today instead of still ninth
place, two points ahead of Seattle. So you could say they got lucky

(14:39):
Vancouver got lucky rather in what knewwho did? On Ryan Gauld I think
it was. But either way,the Seattle team is getting better. They
were bottom feeders to start the year, almost shockingly, and they weren't able
to score anything. They were reallybad at finishing. Not unlike some of
the conversations we're having the city,but here in the past five games they've

(15:00):
won, I believe they've they've gottenpoints out of three or four of their
last five, and that's dangerous cominginto Sydney Park on the heels of this
stretch. And Sansei told me earlierthis morning that he felt that this might
be a make or break game,and I had to agree with him because
you can look to the quality Seattlehas and how they possessed the ball and
their high number of high number ofpasses, which is pretty reminiscent of what

(15:24):
we saw from f C Cincinnati.They do run a back four this year.
Last time we faced them last yearthey had a back five. I
would expect more similar mechanics to whatBradley Carnell runs out where it's wing play.
It's going back to what we hadseen before s C Cincinnati against Seattle.
But this the Seattle team is they'rehungry, they're wanting to climb the
ranks. Branch Mets or their coachis one of the best head coaches in

(15:48):
MLS, and so they're an extremelywell coached, well tactically sound team,
and so there's a there's a lotto be a little weary about. But
if we don't get a result againstthe Seattle team, looking at a high
likelihood of four losses in a rowbecause Inter Miami's on the other side of
this this week, and so thismatch is a focal point for the cdv's

(16:08):
almost a flashpoint in how the seasonremaining up until League's Cups could go.
Yeah, I'm gonna be optimistic.We're gonna take We're gonna take the negatives
from the last two games, andand Bradley's going to put something together and
Louvin's going to start and we're gonnaput some things together. I think we

(16:30):
play good teams well. Cincinnati obviouslywas not an example, okay, but
I mean I remember last year,you know, we lost the Seattle three
nothing away and we lost the la FC away, and we matched them
incredibly well of first halfs both ofthose games and then give up an unfortunate
goal and then things kind of cameapart, which is similar to how the

(16:51):
LAFC game won at home last night. I think we can match up with
with really good teams. I mean, you know, we talked earlier Tom
timmer In particularly about you know,matching up with their best player. We've
obviously struggled a little bit, butagain, I think, you know,
if I was Bradley, I wouldlook to, you know, how they
like to play and where they liketo play, and get my best athletes

(17:12):
on those players on the offensive sideof the field and not worry so much
about how much my left back cancan play left wing and and get somebody
out there that's going to be committedto to making sure that we don't give
Seattle opportunities because because they are creative. So I'm I'm optimistic that you're right.
It could be a turnaround game.And uh, you know, everybody's

(17:33):
smart and a little bit and uhsometimes uh that's you know, for an
opponent, that's the worst thing,you know, that you can have is
to come back to someone's home who'swho's not you know, not happy about
things and pissed off and uh andhopefully we're really pissed off and we come
out and and and we put it, we put a hurt on them.
That's my optimistic side. I mean, the players have talked about how they

(17:55):
want to play angry. They needto play angry. Roman has said it
before, and that's kind of whatthey have to have going into the match,
and they need to control it moreto their own. They can't let
Seattle run rough shot over them andstick to their style. And you're going
to have low possession from Saint Louisin this game. That's almost been given,
but you're also going to have moreof your full compliment of your top
tier players available for a longer period. I don't know that I see Edite

(18:18):
even starting this one, because heonly played like fifteen twenty minutes last night.
I think that might be a stretch. But what I do think is
at the very worst, we couldget nearly if not a full half out
of Luvin. If you think aboutyou know, you just mentioned David that
saylist was great at playing the firsthalf against LFC and Seattle last year,
and in the second half of lastnight, I would argue that we had

(18:40):
more better chances created. We didn'thave a lot, so I'm not going
overboard here, but we did createbetter in the second half I thought,
which coincided with bringing Louvin. Youhad basket left Ostrok, you were able
to have some of your more comfortableplayers and in your familiar players. That's
what I see for Seattle next weekis that and at the very least would
be back in the midfield, andthen when Louvin subs in early, if

(19:03):
not at half times, then youhave freedom and flexibility to take Tomas Ostrok,
who has been fantastic in central midfield, great two way player this year.
He's taken a lot of growth fora city, and you can move
him up as you need to,So take wherever whoever's struggling or whoever.
You have that additional depth now withTomas Ostrok, and I think that's something
that Eddie Luban's also going to offer, not just his skill and his set

(19:27):
piece danger, but he gives youthat extra little bit of depth and quality
that you can keep Thomas Ostrok onthe field if he's performing well as opposed
to Ullstrok starts and has to subout for you know, someone else like
a Nukie Thorston or somebody who wereally haven't seen a whole lot of talent
or quality on this year. Sothat's just an ad advantage. Would I

(19:48):
would cond of that to say,I think Saint Louis is in a position
where we need to score first athome. And again, my humble,
you know opinion is that you putyour best eleven out there to start the
game at home and you try toget up one nothing or two nothing.
That's what you know, that's wherewe're comfortable. You know, why would
you why would I mean, Luvin'sgot all weak now to to prep you

(20:11):
know for this game. Yes,you're right, he only played twenty minutes.
He you know what, didn't particularlylook like the Leuvin that that that
we've known and loved. But Ithink you put them out there and you
start them and then you're right,you have Ostrak to come in, you
know, who's got strong legs andworks hard. But I think you start
with Louvin and and give him asmuch as he can go, and you
try to get up on top ofSeattle. That's where that's where we're strong.

(20:33):
When we're trying to play from behind, we we are not. You
know, if the other team getsone up on us and wants to sit
back, you know, that's wherewe don't have the creatity to break,
to break that type of defensive wall. And so I hate to see us
go down, So I say,put your best eleven out there and you
go far it. It's all gonnaboil down to how Bradley carnelving fitness through

(20:53):
this week. I agree that ifhe's fit enough to play forty five,
why not awesome at the beginning ofthe game, you've had that that Carnell
is not incredibly sure of that,then you're looking at a potential first half
sub if if Luvin isn't the Luvinthat we knew, sure, but if
you ask him, if you askhim, Luvin's going to start that type
of a player who desperately wants tobe in a game and definitely desperately wants

(21:15):
to be that game changer. Hey, Matt, speaking of Luvin, let's
talk about the press conference this weeka little bit. And have you ever
been to anything like that in yourlife? Well, I haven't been to
many press conferences in my lifetime nowthe past half I've had a lot of
different types of press conferences. ButI walked out and I was talking to

(21:37):
gen C and I asked, I, I was, you know, more
shaken after any press conference than I'veever ever been to. And I was
trying to get a sense of Isthis something that happens here and there,
or is this a massively unique situation. I really think it was just that
unique, not just because of theissue at hand and Ilona Lubin's brain cancer
that she has that was devastating tohere, but you know, you think

(22:02):
of not just what the words EddieLuven was saying in he seems so composed
and it really it really gave mea sense of when I was reflecting on
it, because I was I couldn'task a question in that because I didn't
trust that I could get the wordswithout breaking I was. I was grateful
for Tom. I was grateful,Oh my god, the TV folks to

(22:22):
ask what they did, because everybodyasked the questions that I wanted to hear
the answers to. I just couldn't. I couldn't do it myself. I
wasn't I wasn't strong enough. Itexted Timmerman right after, I said,
man, I got new respect foryou, because that was just, you
know, let's face it, we'reall amateurs compared to Timmerman. And he
was with Grace too. Yes,he started doing what I'm doing right now,

(22:47):
just not stuttering, but well,okay, I'm gonna ask you,
and then then he asked you andno, like you take this as far
as you want, Like, I'mnot poking right right. Yeah, But
you know, I had to rewatchthe press conference too because it was so
moving, and I thought that Tomhad asked him what kind of cancer.

(23:10):
It was early in the interview,but it was the last question he asked
him late. Yeah, and that'swhat we were left with. And everybody
walked out. I mean everybody's eyeswere blinking, I think you know from
the yea uh. It was justit was just stunning. And again to
me, the amazing thing is mypoint was at at the at the conference

(23:36):
was people don't appreciate the level ofsophistication of medical You know how lucky we
are to live in Saint Louis becauseof the medical situation. Everybody is one
or two steps from a world experton a medical crisis. If you,
if you that's happened to you,you know about it, right. But

(23:59):
what Luvin was talking about was thelove that he felt, right, the
just the love of the people,the love of the team. That stuff
just doesn't happen. And his faith. I am not a man of faith.
Louvin Is is a Christian to thecore, and that's what's carrying him

(24:21):
right now, you know, Andit's a beautiful thing to see. I
think he's fortunate to be here inSaint Louis because I think what you're saying
about feeling the love, I thinkthat that speaks to a lot about the
people of Saint Louis. Yeah,I mean that's just the way we are.
We love our teams, we loveour players, we support them through
all these things, and that's justa very I'm sure other cities are the

(24:42):
same way, but I think asbeing a Saint Louis and that's one of
the things that I think that makeus proud. Yeah, Matt, final
words, the level of I thinkcomposure that I was talking about, just
how long he's been dealing with this, yes, and to be able to
be so posed at this point intime, that gives us insight into what

(25:03):
he's already gone through in handling thisand whatever method. Everybody has their own
coping mechanisms, but he alluded tothe sobbing, weeping, crying that him
and his family have gone through withtheir pastor with their community, with their
church, and that that to mespeaks to where he is right now.
It's you talk about the five stagesof grief. I don't know what stage
he's at, it's not my business, but he has he has gotten to

(25:25):
a point where he's comfortable getting backon a soccer field. He's using that
as an outlet. And and thistells me, like, we don't really
know anything about what's going on withanybody's life, right, So the takeaway
that I have to fans is,these are players, These are people,
and I know we want we wantthem to be as successful as possible for
our team, but we have noidea what is going on off the field,

(25:47):
and we don't deserve to know necessarily. These are these are people who
had their personal lives. He gaveus an insight into what he's been dealing
with, which is just a remarkablelevel of just humanity behind him and strength.
Yeah, but you know, wejust need to take this as a
lesson learned in while we're supporting lovingin his family. Lesson learned on just

(26:08):
how and what players might be goingthrough. That, you know, a
reminder I gut check opportunity well andjust as hey, how to live your
life, how to act? Youknow, terrible things are going to happen,
you know. I mean, youknow, cancer happens in families,
and you know, if you gotsomebody like this acting like that, you're

(26:30):
thinking, hey, that's that's thebest role model you could possibly have.
That was nib Thank you Matt Bakerfrom Flower Footy take care of Matt and
you can find Matt's podcast which goesup every day or every week, excuse
me, on any of the podcastplatforms that you're looking for. We got

(26:52):
to take a break. Yeah,well yeah, and David is getting out
of here before he says, youknow, he drops the F bomb.
We want to thank Dave Bursley forjoining us and for really cleaning up his
lane and we hope to have himback and he can. He is welcome
here anytime. I will venture tosay. You are listening to Sto United
soccer Sunday on KFN S five Nightof the Fan. We have to take

(27:12):
a break and play. Pay somebills, coming right back, don't go
anywhere. Yeah, thanks Dave.To find you with the working girls in
the carney jair I was smoking withthe blood upstairs. The NTT Indy Current

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(28:19):
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(28:40):
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(29:07):
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(30:06):
Are you the common for zolis fair? Plot is back breaking work?
Rolling Stone's bringing us back with maybea song you haven't heard from them in
a long time, Salt of theEarth. They do. They do this
live sometimes and it's a good song. It's a great nice change. Come

(30:30):
on, man, I listened toit on headphones. Is really good to
hear. It's me guitar work there, Oh yeah, you guys, who
is it? Was that Keith Richardscoming opening it? Or I think it
was. I think it. Ithink it was Keith, but I'm not
sure. Anyway, You're you're listeningto STL United Soccer Sunday coming to you
live from KF and S five Nightof the Fan, and in a rare

(30:52):
treat, we get to revisit asegment that we used to be a regular
treat on here every week back inthe day. I'm gonna let our host,
mister Tom Schwarz bring the ladies andgentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, time
for Grover's take. Matt Grover,how you doing, Matthew? Great gentlemen.

(31:14):
Nice to be back old stomping grounds. Looking how far the show has
come? God, what is ittwelve years now? We're not thirteenth?
Yeah, yep, thirteen, Iwas thinking twenty twelve something like that.
Yeah, so going, yep,time flies you and Ray. I think
of the old, honest running showson this station. Yeah, you've been
through what how many different incarnations ofit now? The acts, the woman,

(31:37):
the man, my man, yeah, my man, and locations Yeah,
just as many of them too,Shoot parrots, junkies. Oh,
you got them all. How manytimes do we come in on Saturday with
bottles of like Heineken and other others, with cigarette butts and others, and

(32:00):
people people just seing on the Iremember that one time we were in there,
this guy dressed all in black.I don't know, it's some weird
name, but he's guzzy I believehe's Yeah, and he opens up his
hands and and he's got a bunchof pills in it, you know,
and people are like, oh,yeah, I don't know, like Jesus,

(32:20):
oh yeah, it's always cut.We've come a long way. Yeah,
absolutely, yeah. What what haveyou been? Uh? What's your
What do you want to talk about? What do you want to talk about?
I know you broached the topic ofsports in Saint Louis and what is
the novice fan think of Okay,that's a very good there, it's a
very good intro. What's your takeon city and what's happening here and all

(32:43):
that stuff? I think as faras obviously and you alluded to earlier in
the show, I'm very much anovice when it comes to city. I
know now of some of the players, like I know who Roman By is
and I know who Klaus is andBradley. No, no, I don't
have any. I do have ashirt, a couple of shirts, really

(33:04):
I do. I don't have ahat yet, which is I got to
take care of that. But Ido have a couple of City shirts,
so I'm slowly getting there. Ihaven't been to a game yet. I
do watch them on TV. Iwant them to do well. I try
to take an interest. I dothink that I do not invest in their
TV package that I guess that's wheremost of their games are from. And

(33:27):
I understand if that's sustainable for theleague, and that's what has to be
done. Totally get it. Forme. It's like if I like,
right now, I still have cable, but I do that because that way
I'm guaranteed access to Blues and Cardinalgames. I wish City had something like
that, and when they are on, they would be huge if they had
something like that, right if theycould just be on one of the local
networks. Or so you're watching,when you're watching on your TV and a

(33:52):
commercial comes up and you just wantto hit the previous button and watch something
else for during the commercial, can'tyou got to exit the at the app
or the whatever they call the thing, and you know, exactly take you
three minutes to go to change andfurtherm why I understand, And again I'm

(34:13):
not at that point. Perhaps oneday we'll see, but like, yes,
I can get access to all ofthe MLS games if I get this,
but if I'm only focused on City, it doesn't seem like the juice
is worth the squeeze. Like Iwill watch I will watch other NHL playoff
games. I've been watching of theNBA playoffs. I don't have well,
I mean, playoffs is when itreally matters, right, I know they're

(34:36):
near the end of the NBA doesn'tstart so Christmas for me anyway, but
that's another story. But I don'tright, well, yeah, get but
that's kind of where I'm at.Like, I will watch the NHL playoffs,
and I know like players around theleague, so there's an interest.
I don't know everything here, LikeI know Messi's with Miami and like,
okay, that's gonna be huge.I don't know if Miami comes to singles.

(34:58):
They came last year, right four, right after he signed, but
he wasn't playing four right, sobecause I remember there was a big deal
you could wear messy jerseys. Butuh so, I don't. I don't
know a lot about what's going on. I do know, like there was
a couple of Sundays ago, maybeabout a month ago, that all four
local teams were playing on a Sunday. It was the Cardinals and the Blues,

(35:21):
the BattleHawks and the City, andall four teams were on television.
So I didn't I watched some ofit. I even saw Daniel Taya Koh.
They were on I believe the twoFox and Your boys that were I
sat in these chairs and I've seenin person multiple times. Talk Soccer were
on TV doing the postgame show andI was watching. I believe Klaus scored

(35:42):
the they won one nothing. Klausscored the or I'm sorry, one nil
and Klaus Klaus scored the only goalin the second half. Our version of
right, I don't want to don'twant to offend anybody. I've learned some
of the lingo kits. Yeah,pitch, yeah, come on one ill
like you know what a blank it'sa blank sheet or a blank, right.

(36:07):
But I'm glad to see they're doingwell. I know this year they're
essentially a five hundred team. Ibelieve after they're the table. And that's
another thing. It's not you can'tjust go let's go look at the standing
and they don't have The league doesn'thave wind loss draw. They have I

(36:29):
believe wind draw tie. So I'mlike, wait, they're three and seven
draw I'm sorry, wind draw loss. So I was like, wait,
they're three seven and three or something. And then I'm like, oh,
wait, because I know they've hada lot of draws. Yeah, they
draws aren't terrible things, I guessnot. Now, enlighten me here.

(36:50):
I know last year they won theconference. What do you what does it
take to make the playoffs in theMLS? What number? You know,
how many of the top like sixseeds? This? This may you might
find this remarkable, but you probablyknow about them as much about the MLS
in general as I do, becauseI really don't care. I care about
city, but in terms of takingthe MLS seriously, sorry, I mean

(37:13):
I I sort of do, butuh, you know, I mean,
come on, man, oh,it's not like Premier League, right,
it's not the quality, and Iunderstand that, but I think for here
in Saint Louis and what it brings, and obviously our city is right and
that's that's what's good. It's goodto see the city, not team,

(37:34):
but the city of Saint Louis rallyaround something. And I think that's what
is important here. I mean Idon't. I mean, I know,
but I wanted to do well becauseif that gets people downtown and they're filling
that stadium up and the bars aroundit, and they're spending money in the
city, and we're making it notthe desolate cesspool that it is known I
think or viewed, because the thingsis not a bad city. This downtown.

(37:59):
Yes, I don't know how comfortableyou would feel walking late at night
by yourself, like even if you'retrying to go from a Blues game to
am I armed you could be,but I mean they're not getting into the
but like, could you get intoa stadium that no, So then that's
where the robin lies, right,Oh we'll see. Well then there you

(38:21):
go. I'm only joking, butI mean, like you look at how
many alumni, like Cardinal alumni,Blues alumni, even some of the Randmum
I like Rams and football Cardinals arestill here and live like and there's a
lot more to the city when yougo back to the right, And I
mean, like it was alluded toearlier you talked about Edward Loewen. Did

(38:44):
I say his name right, I'msorry, and his wife and and how
he feels like that's the kind ofstuff the city and yes, other other
markets. I'm sure that was whatthat is. A Saint Louis thing like
that is like you were one ofus, we will well in one of
I don't want to say we're asoft market, but we're not New York.
We're not going to parade these guyslike a. I mean, all

(39:05):
this fire alley marmal stuff is aboutas mean as it gets right now for
this city. And that will diedown after this, right. I mean,
well, you know one of thethings too, Matt, that I
think you touch on is that andthat And I'm sure I'm not the first
worst person to observe this is thatas this city has gone through its gradual
de crescendo from being even a toptwenty, we're not The things that that

(39:30):
have been a touchdown for the cityover the years have become even more important,
you know, And one of thoseis the city is integrating itself at
that level. I feel pretty certain, but the Cardinals are like that too.
That's why people get Blues. Soyeah, it gets so I think
the Cardinals even more so than theBlue They get so ticked when they see

(39:53):
things, you know, people whoshould be playing better. You know,
when you see Old Schmidt swing ata ball, it's as far outside as
I am from you, like,what are you doing right? And it's
like a personal insultant rather than thatwas a dumb movie and it's a frustrating
thing. So I'll just point outtwo younger players in this city on these

(40:14):
things. Jordan Kyrie with the BluesJordan Walker with the Cardinals. Both came
up. The Cardinals were the onesthat said Jordan Walker made the comparison Dalvin
poolholes. Not the fans. Thefans voidn't know anything. We got hyped
because, oh, this is thenext guy, this is the guy that's
going to be So when he strugglesout the gate and he's not doing well,

(40:35):
and then all the guys around himaren't doing well, it becomes a
frustrating thing. And sing Lewis isspoiled in that sense. As a Cardinal
fan, you were conditioned to seethis team compete for the World Series ever
since the Duits took over what inthe mid nineties up until last year.
I don't think there's been a Septemberthat they haven't gone in in the playoff

(40:57):
chase, right. I mean,they've had great teams, the teams,
the individuals on the teams have notbeen jerks, and they fit in with
sort of the Saint Louis mentality ofnot being excessively showy, you know,
not being a big market man.We gotta play it. We got a
problem because we got to play threesongs before we end the show. So

(41:22):
do uh Ed's pick right now ifyou would. Hey, let's get people
just a heads up to this isSto United Soccer Sizing coming to you from
KF and S five night. Sorryto be distracted. A lot going on
here in the studio, so uh, we're waiting for Matt, who's been

(41:43):
talking to now put his engineering hatback on and pull things up. But
I'm going to talk here in aminute about the passing of a local legend
and in a worldwide legend for thatfact. And we just got to score.
Their Arsenal are still and Arstone tiedup one. Everton just scored a
minute ago, and these guys justcome back. So anyway, we're gonna

(42:08):
were ready grow. There we go, there we go. Let's just listen
for a second here, and that'sthe unmistakable sound of David Sanborn, who

(42:36):
was born in Tampa but grew uphere. And there's been a lot said
about David on various shows around thisweek. We just went to add our
condolences to his family. He hasmaintained strong ties here. He and Michael
McDonald often talk about how important SaintLouis has been to their musical formation.
And he was in an iron lungas a kid for a year following about

(42:57):
a polio and his Yeah, hewas born before the vaccines were available,
and vaccines, yeah, and theone that you and I all got when
we were little kids. So hisphysician said that, you know, you
need to strengthen your lungs and yourdiaphragm, so he should take up playing
saxophone. And he did, andit was like pushing a little duck into

(43:20):
the water. He took right offwith it. By the time he was
fourteen, he was playing around theblues clubs here in town. So we're
talking nineteen fifty nine, nineteen four. Yeah, he's playing with little Milton
and Albert King, so he's probablywith Albert King. It probably tells me
he's playing on the East Side becausethat's where Albert lived, so and he
just went on from there. He'splayed for and with everybody. And to

(43:45):
go back to the Michael McDonald analogyabout you know, his voice was everywhere.
This guy's saxophone is everywhere. Imean it's bought Butterfield Blues Band,
Stevie wonder Stone, you name somebody. And he's been hugely influential in his
world of music as well. It'sa great loss. I've seen. I

(44:09):
saw the guy several times. Heused to tour regularly through here with Algeroux
in the early eighties and they werethat was a great show. They'd sell
out the Fox. So he's he'sa major guy and he will be missed.
And his his the Sanborn scream.When you hear that, you know
exactly who you're listening to. Sorest in peace, David Sanborne. You

(44:30):
left the world a better place thanit was prior to your getting here.
That's all I got to say.Thomas Mitcha, Oh buddies, Fela fella,
he Lati the fellow guy. Ilike the music, Me and Matt

(44:50):
Man from Nigeria, Nigeria. Yeah, every Saturday morning, Legos, Legos,
tom oh Man. I love this. He's a guy that got ticked
at McCartney when he like Jerry torecord band on the Run. Right,

(45:13):
McCartney had his tape stolen. Hesmoked some good weed and they thought they
could not just go back to whereverthey were staying, and they got robbed
and the people took their tapes.I don't know if they got them back.
But wasn't fe originally upset about himcoming to Nigeria, No, I
don't think so. I think Flawas excited about it because it was more

(45:36):
exposure for his music. Hu andhe had this place, the Shrine I
think they called it, where theyjust go and play music and listen and
let that roll in the back.Man Paul thought he could handle it.
People said, hey, don't smokethat stuff. I can hear that.

(45:57):
A few hours later, he's stillsitting in the same position. Yeah.
Yeah, Well, let's talk alittle bit about today. Today's show was
great. It's amazing, you know. I mean, I'll exclude Matt obviously

(46:19):
because he's only here sometimes, butyou know, you and I don't really
know anything about soccer and about tacticsor any of that kind of stuff.
I mean, I know what Iknow about soccer is about from travel and
understanding how important it is, andmeeting people that I love who love teams.

(46:40):
You know, people say, well, you know you're a who You're
a Liverpool fan or you're an Arsenalfan or something. I'm a soccer fan.
You know. Some of my favoriteteams are teams that are friends of
mine's teams because it means a lotto them. Sure you know, and
well, I just make sure liferich. You got more more things that

(47:00):
make it happy? Yeah, andyou got For me, soccer has been
a key in all my travels.Two things. Two things. I you
know what, I know what you'regonna say. Well, you say I
know you say it because I ammy. I haven't traveled as much as
you. But I I heard yousay that before. I did as much
traveling as I've done in Europe,and it's like, oh, you hate

(47:22):
to admit that. No, Igive you props for it, man,
I'm feeling. Let me show youhow you do that. Yeah, I'm
good, So say it. Okay, So in traveling, my experiences.
I struggle outside the United States,okay, but even in the United States,

(47:43):
if you know about soccer and ifyou know about Bob Martley, it's
just two things you see everywhere yousee and you see a lot of pictures
of Chakuavar, but not as muchas you used to because nobody ever knew
who he was anyway. But Marley'sgot albums, you know, and he's
still My grandkids dance to Bob Marley. There's some Bob Marley songs that you

(48:04):
put on. It's like the CarolJi Shakira song you Gotta You Gotta move
to that. I don't care ifyou are an old white man. Yeah,
shake your booty man. Yeah,it makes you feel good. That's
what I like to say. Ithink daddy daddy music. I think we
were fortunate to have that, havea network that we've kind of built with
people who are willing to come inand talk or call in on the phone,

(48:25):
as mister Timmerman regularly does. Howcool is it to listen to David
Bursik, talk to Tom Timmerman,talk to Matt Baker, I mean to
me, just to sit and listen. I mean, those are three different
men who have very good ideas,formed opinions, and they don't yell and

(48:46):
scream over each other. So yeah, we had to figure out a way
to make them yell and scream.That'd be a lot better. Well,
yeah, higher ratings will get moreclicks. Yeah, yeah, I guess
this is the wrong show. Ifyou're if you're uh, that's what you
want to say. Well, we'velearned some important things here. We've learned
that my vowel to constant ratio inmy last name is much cooler than David

(49:08):
burs. Actually, David Bersi mighthave paid Pele, he might have played
with Franz Beckenbauer, he might beone of the greatest goalies out of Saint
Louis ever, et cetera, etcetera, et cetera. But I have
more consonants and less vowels than myname. The vow to ratio con yes

(49:29):
ratio, the vowel to constant ratiomy last name is huge. Yes it
is. So I feel pretty goodabout that. Well, we know we're
we still have all you want totalk about other things I feel good about,
Well, I don't feel good aboutlast night. So here's what I

(49:50):
did last night. I want tomake a confession. Sally's out of town.
So I moved the TV from myoffice into the living room so I
could watch the NBA game and citybecause I'm sick of do you want to
exit the app and get back intothe app? It's stupid. You know

(50:10):
what. You can buy a thirtytwo inch real really reasonably decent TV,
like a Samsung for like one hundredand fifty bucks. I got like a
forty inch that I got rollers okayeither way, but right in there,
that's that's a if you figure outwhat the cost is, that's a cheaper
way. Oh, it's it's justit. It was now. I took

(50:31):
a picture, Selly, how areyou doing? So I clicked oh my
god, because she told me Icouldn't do it. I wanted to do
it last week because we had Charlie. And this is making it a lot
easier to keep up with the youknow, because I don't want to watch
the whole NBA game. I wantto know the score because we're you know,

(50:52):
game six, game seven, allthat kind of stuff. But I,
okay, can I get up,go into the office look for it.
But no, in soccer, yougotta watch the whole. Well,
and of course if you have streamingapps, that's that happens to carry them.
But oh no, that's what itis. But okay, so I'm
watching it on the regular TV,like that TV right up there, and
I'm watching it on Apple. Okay, Well, I want to know the

(51:13):
NBA score because Apple doesn't have anythingthat's going to tell me the NBA and
I could look at my phone,but I want to see a little action.
I'm not disagreeing with you. Youknow, you could if you happen
to have, you know, aniPhone or an iPad or maybe one of
the big iPads or even a laptop. You can do that as well.
It won't work. I want areal TV. I want to be able

(51:37):
to see it. Is that toomuch to ask? Is that too much
to ask for a man in Americathe day? No, that's what apparently
it is. Like, like Mattwas saying before, you know, why
do you have cable so you canwatch the Blues and the Cardinals? You
know, you can't tell me thatthe city wouldn't have gotten a really good,
mutually advantageous relationship with the local TVstation and that you would have just

(52:02):
been you know, you can hitthe previous channel button? Is that too
much to ask? I don't thinkso, Tom, Thank you? I
have My question is to how manyTVs do you have in your home?
Matt And how many do you have? Three? I think? Is that
all? I think? So?How many do you want? Oh?

(52:23):
I got a lot of Well howmany do you have? Uh? I
have four upstairs? We have fourupstair, six, one in the basement,
seven and one in the garage.Eight. That's life right there.
How many in the bathrooms? No, that's the next step. No no,

(52:44):
no, no, no, no, no, that's not the life.
That is a serious problem that youneed to talk to somebody about.
Have you ever thought about see?You know? But you know what you
these days you just kind of acquireTVs. I know they come almost like
it's like they sneak off into theback bedroom. There's another TV? Where
did that come from? Mom?Can I keep this dog and follow me?

(53:04):
Well? You got a TV withit? Missus Edmondo and I combined
households. So she brought uh twofairly new TVs and smart TVs. Yeah,
so we're we were blessed with abundanceof TVs. Oh, I forgot
that I forgot you better hurry up. Nine, I got nine nine TV,

(53:25):
nine TVs. How many people areliving in your house? Wow?
A dog? It's the dog animalplanning on. You know, there's dog
TV. Right, I've heard allthat. People do that all the time.
Yeah, he's he listens to uhdalk radio. There you go.
Wait, your dog listens to Duckradio talk talk talk radio. I think

(53:52):
Duck radio. Yeah, be likemy phone, listen to my phone all
the time. Well, I reallyenjoy today. I mean, I really
appreciate listening to people talk who knowwhat they're talking about, which is really
an odd thing these days, youknow. Yeah, I mean again,

(54:12):
to go back to it, Davebrings a really refreshing and thoughtful analysis of
the game, and I thought thatthe interplay between Dave and Matt was very
good in their their takes on thevery tough news conference that Edward Luvin had
that took part in this weekend.And again, I never met the man,

(54:37):
but I don't know his wife's diagnosis. But if it's brain cancer,
folks, we know it's it's notjust a simple procedure to deal with.
So I've had friends that have hadthat. I have a friend who survived
a very serious one of those fewyears ago. She's still with us and

(54:58):
doing fine. It's that the herchance on that was about like with pancreatic
cancer, and she came through itand she's doing awesome. Yeah, I
talk to her just hope. I'lltell you the thing that I learned living
in Saint Louis. It's a goodplace to live. I your second.
The yeah for the medical and theyou know exactly, I mean, you
you it was I've never experienced anythinglike that in my life. And I

(55:22):
mean I'm not a journalist, I'myou know. And it wasn't the fact
that it was a press conference perse. But this is what he wanted
to do. He wanted to comeand talk to people because he felt safe,
seems to me. And you knowagain, man, he referred to
it, you know, in inEurope, this could be the sight of

(55:44):
weakness, you know, to dothis. And I think, oh,
man, I think Adu might wantto live in Saint Louis. That's all
I am. All right, Oh, one last song to take us out
for Franz. For not ladies andgentlemen, you've been listening to stl United
Soccer Sunday, coming to you livefrom KFN S five ninety of the Fan.

(56:07):
We've had a great time. We'vehope you enjoyed the show today.
We want to thank Dave Bursik,Tom Timmerman, Matt Baker, Matt Grover
for setting in on the board today. You can find us anywhere on the
podcast, of course, just lookfor STL Soccer and you'll find it.
And now when our logo is onthe podcast STL Today, right, No

(56:28):
STL Seal Soccer. No, I'msorry, Steel United Stel. It doesn't
say United on there, doesn't.I gotta have and look for it.
I don't know if I'm ever talkingto you again. I gotta go.
Holy Ben on the show for twelveyears. I'm sorry, I gotta go.
All. I probably won't be backnext week, but everybody else will

(56:49):
be back. We'll see you liveat at anybody else to come in,
Tom, thank us out Let meout of here, baby, bye,
bye die. I want you totake I know I been minut