STL United FC Soccer Sunday Hour 1 - 5/19/24

The STL United FC Soccer Sunday show is back as Tom & Edmundo are holding down the fort while Russell & Super Ted are "on assignment." St. Louis' own David Brcic, a former goalie for the US National Team as well as the St. Louis Storm, is in-studio offering up his analysis on the past week's slate of City SC games. Later, STL Today writer and STL Soccer Report Podcaster, Tom Timmerman joins the show. 

Episode Transcript

(00:14):
This season, day and now fromthe Harry Kyos Studio. Ladies and gentlemen,

(00:41):
boys and girls at anyone else withinthe sound of my voice. Welcome
back to year thirteen of the longestrunning discussion. Oh Dummy, oh Baby,
Mother's Day was last week, Daddy, I don't know, but I
heard this one this week. Biglou the man with a deep voice You'll
never jo is coming to you,Yeah, from Saint Louis. Wait,

(01:07):
you have a cigarette, let mecall you in the morning. Uh,
we're you were going to join ustoday for again a discussion of Jogo Bonito
in which is coming to you fromKFN S. And this is in fact
the bus running He got lost inthe music I did whigust running radio show
about said game in Saint Louis radiohistory, and that would be Tom fill

(01:29):
in the blank, I forget.Yeah. STL United Soccer Sunday coming to
you from k f N S fiveninety the fan Today's show, like every
show, is brought to you byour friend Mark Neiemeyer at m GK Law
Firm. Loves he does a SaintLouis law firm. It's right, he's
right up there with Tupac on hishis hierarchy of artists, yep, lou

(01:53):
and Tupac right there on top.And the Saint Louis j K Law Firm
is a Saint Louis law firm withlocal roots and nationwide results. I am
at Mundo, your announcer. Andwe have Matt Grover, Wow, one
of our alumni. We kicked himupstairs and now he ca deans to come
down periodically when we beg him.When when? Because Ted is off chasing

(02:15):
storm, chasing tornadoes out on theTed's down in Houston and you see the
weather. Yeah, did nice catchTed? Yeah? He said that you
could feel the their downtown in onthe ninth floor. I think he said,
uh, And he said you couldfeel the decompression and then when the

(02:36):
windows going out, going out.Yeah. I thought tornadoes didn't go to
cities, but there was a hugeone here. What fifty No? No,
I mean that they always well,you know, downtown, and they're
idiots. What did they know?Anyway? Come on, all right,
we're gonna let end, but Idigress. Let's move on. We will
be joined later. Unfortunately, SantiagoBeldron will not be here or able to

(03:00):
call in. He's on a specialassignment, special assignment, but we expect
to have Tom Timmerman and Matt Bakerand probably Daniel Lesteve. Of course,
we announced last week the sabbatical ofthe professor. So the voice of the
Empire, Russell Blithe is off inNew Zealand, I believe, and then
he will come through, change thelaundry and head to Italy for the summer.

(03:23):
I believe. Are you ever goingto finish well? No, because
I got introduced the in studio guestsyet and this is the big built up.
Yeah, this is a big builtup. We're delighted to have Dave
Bursick with us today again. Again. I can't believe he came back.
But he must have the ability justto for He must be like City sc

(03:44):
You were able to forget the lastvisit. You know how embarrassing it was
to his life. And he's,well, I'll just try it again.
Maybe would be better this time.David, how you doing doing real?
Well? That's Tom Schwarz, yourladies and gentleman. He starts off with
a lie. You got to remembergoalkeepers have to have a short number.
Hey, I'm gonna read you atext and then I want you to respond
to it. Oh here, well, first of all, super secret text

(04:08):
line Ted, the aforementioned Ted Williamstexting in from Houston Hobby Airport. I
guess it's still standing. But there'sanother text. I'm on this text exchange
ties on it right and seeing thedreams on it and everybody else is a

(04:30):
phone number to me. So Idon't know who who texted this. But
in response to last night, hesaid, Bob Horgan, does that name
Ringabell? Do you? Okay?Years ago used the game summation? Gentlemen,
that was exceptionally unimpressive. We justwitnessed that, did he Yeah?

(04:54):
All right, tell us Dave,Okay, when was the last time we
talked. We talked about a monthago more or le all right, Well,
let's start off something positive. Yes, let's go back to the first
half against LAFC. Okay, okay. LAFC highly skilled, came in and
high pressured us all over the field, and we handled it extremely well.

(05:17):
I think that was one of thebetter exhibitions of us controlling under tough conditions.
That pressure was really high and itwas intense, and I thought we
looked really good. If you goback and look at that first half against
l A f C. LA fC did not possess the ball for any
extended period in our third of thefield until the last about forty minutes into

(05:42):
that first half, So I thinkin essence, we dominated and controlled that
game, not to the negative.You know, things are still okay coming
into the you know, into thesecond half, not quite not yet,
and I'm still on I'm still onl A f C. Trying to stay

(06:03):
until we get to all that's,trying to stay a little bit bothered because
we've had two games this week,right right, right, you know,
we had Wednesday night and we hadSaturday nights. So, you know,
beginning of the second half against lA f C. Again, you know,
controlling things, handling things well,creating some opportunities, nothing great,
but creating some opportunities. And thenwe have a left back who is supposed

(06:24):
to be marketing the most dangerous playeron the field at that moment, and
unbeknownst to him, he's five yardsbehind him until the ball goes over his
head and he looks back and sees, oh shit, I can't say that
word. I know, I know, but I'm trying to behave myself.
But well, you know you've goneabout three minutes. Yeah, they're pretty

(06:44):
good. Yeah, So you know, that's just very disappointing. You know,
uh and and and Markennich is anice player. He has some ability,
he has some skill. He certainlycontributes on the offensive side of the
field. But you cannot have aback, a wing back, particularly who's
not committed to his defensive role.And that's what I see, and I've

(07:04):
seen for the last four or fiveweeks. Even if you go back to
the Chicago game and you look atthe three to one game and the first
goal that we gave up to againstChicago to beginning the second half, you
know, balls played near midfield,over commits the give and go and his
guy is gone by twenty yards becausehe over committed to try to win a

(07:25):
ball that he had no possibility ofwinning. And this is what you can't
you can't happen, you know,you cannot. You know, it's almost
as bad as giving the ball upat midfield's when you're you're basically your last
defender on on on your side ofthe field. Over commits and gets beat
by a simple give and go thatthen in essence, you know, served

(07:46):
the cross come over boom they scorea goal. You know, So is
this something you've been noticing with himall year, oh year, well even
last year. And I don't knowif it's just him. I mean,
it might be Carnell, that's whathe wants from him. But but but
you know, you look at Totland. Totland goes up. He contributes offensively,
but he's also very committed to hisdefensive role. And and I just

(08:09):
don't think you can have a back, you know, especially exposed out on
a wing like that where he's notcommitted to marking. I mean that ball,
the ball that was served to Blancowas from they're forty maybe thirty five,
you know, I mean, assoon as that other team, you
know, your opponent wins the ball, you better be turning your head and
looking to see who am I goingto mark? Right? You know,

(08:31):
so you're what but you're again,it's always a good idea when talking to
me, particularly about football soccer.Is I think you're talking to a fifth
grader, right, because I meanthat's about my technical understanding. Don't just
limit it to that time across theboard. I thought it was a third
grader, but well, third grade. I was giving myself a little break,

(08:54):
but you know, my bad,my bed. So what you're saying
is, in this particular case,in this particular guy, there is a
marked absence of being lost in themoment defensive commitment, defensive threatment. Okay,

(09:15):
I mean, you know one theother team had, you know,
and I could go back and giveyou twenty examples in the last four or
five games. I mean I giveme too. Well, just similar to
the case that that that happened againstChicago, that's happened multiple times. Now
the other team hasn't every score everysingle time. All right, This is
something we talked about before, andyou're the perfect person to ask this question.

(09:37):
Is are we getting beaten? Ishe getting beaten by moments of brilliance
by an extraordinary player or combination betweentwo players, or what you're suggesting is
this is something you're noticing on anongoing basis. This is an ongoing basis.
I mean, I mean, he'sso interested how he can contribute offensively

(10:01):
that he often and he wants towin every ball that's played to his his
man. That's an exaggeration. Butyou know, you can't over commit when
you're you know, we we weshare our defense shifts right. So when
the ball's on the left side ofthe field, we shift to the left,
and we expose the right side ofthe field. So now that wing
back and that winger are out thereby themselves, are not even our wing
back sometimes isn't even out there,you know, he's shifted over as well.

(10:24):
So when that ball's played to thatto that right winger, who now
is you know, opened by twentyyards, which seems to be sort of
by design. You know, thatleft that back now has to approach him
and not get beat. So theproblem is he he'd seldom thinks about containment.
He's always about either winning the ballor not winning the ball. And
it's those times where he doesn't winthe ball that exposes us completely instead of

(10:48):
just containing. You know, there'stimes where when that ball's played over there
and you're one on one and nowyou have to wait for help. The
idea is to contain, not toover commit, and try to win the
ball and then be the hero andstreak up the left side and service across.
And that's what we're going to scorea goal, you know. So,
uh, that's the weakness that Isee you If you're going to play
that type of defense where you shifteverything over to the one side. When

(11:11):
that right winger gets the ball,you know, he's one on one now,
So the job of that defender isto contain, not to try to
win the ball from that guy necessarilyunless unless the opportunity is obviously, So
it just occurred to me. Wewe haven't gotten even gotten to last night
yet, have we. No,we don't. We don't want to go
there. So so that's that's beenone of my pet peeves lately, you
know, Okay, and and thenand then just you know, we're we're

(11:35):
constantly susceptible to the counter attack anyway, right, and and and what I
see and and and I can youknow, we can point to the second
goal last night is that we wewe seem to ball watch on counter attacks.
I'm just swear if you go backto video and you see a counter
attack, you'll see all five orsix of our four defenders, however many
we have, they're all looking atthe ball, and they're not looking their

(11:56):
heads, not on on a swivel, looking to see who's making runs and
who do I need to cover.We seem to focus way way too much
on just where the ball is andfocusing on where the ball is, and
we lose sight of our our ourdefensive roles. So you're almost describing it
as a strategy. No, Imean, really, if you think about
it, if if things happen,if somebody's caught ball watching watching at at

(12:22):
one point or another, that's understandable. Right at times, yeah, yeah,
it's gonna happen. But but there'softentimes an a counter or or when
they switch fields where you have time, you have that second or two to
take a look around and see,Okay, they're countering. What is it?
Is? It? Is it?Do we have Do we have numbers?
Do they have numbers? If theyhave numbers, who am I going

(12:43):
to mark? And often just seemslike we we we we we sprint back
and we look, but we're constantlylooking at the ball and we lose sight
of the runners. And that's that'sthat's where we get caught. You kind
of have to again, you're talkingto a let's let's cut let's that's what's
the difference a fourth grader. Yeah, you're talking to a fourth grader here.
Uh, that's ball watching. That'sgroup ball watching. It's group all

(13:11):
And I swear if you go backand start looking at video, that's what
you will see. You will seea lot of ball watching. You see,
when we have a corner kick,everybody's trying to you know, pick
up and who we're gonna mark,who we're going to take right. Well,
okay, it's a dead ball,so you have time to do that,
right, But the same thing hasto happen in live action. You
cannot just be watching the ball andsay, oh, I'm getting back on
defense. Well that's fine if youget back on defense, but you got

(13:35):
to then mark somebody. And that'swhere we fail. David, If that's
a chronic problem, as you clearlydelineate, where's the coaching staff in this,
I don't have an answer. Ofcourse, it's obvious that people up
in the stands at at home onTV. No wait wait wait wait,
wait wait wait, it's obvious tohim up in the stands. This is
a guy who's played with the time. You know, you talked about this

(13:56):
the other day. No, you'reright, I mean, hey, dude,
I'm coming. It was a goalkeeper, So I spent my entire life
watching you were you were a goalkeeper. Ted was a goalkeeper at like high
school, right, you were agoalkeeper at the top level. You played
with the top players. It's notlike when you're talking to him. It's
not like talking to me. It'sit's the it's the exact opposite, which

(14:22):
is why we're talking to you.And I think that I'd be curious.
I'd be real curious to see.I might ask that question in the press
room next time. Oh yeah,we gotta take a do an id go
ahead. I think we got youknow, I went to is that Louke?

(14:43):
Oh yeah, lose again. Youknow. I went to school and
at Illinois State, me and DougCollins. You know, we were on
the hard court together. Yeah,I bet you Actually I actually played against
him one did you really? Yeah? It was pathetic. I bet he
was. It was like I waslike a fixed tree. He was going
around me. But man, hewas good. Even as a freshman.

(15:03):
I was cool. There's a lotof guys from Chicago and they always brak.
Oh yeah, I do Rolls.He's a Chicago guy. He is,
but lous great guy. We losthim a few years ago. Anyway,
I digress. Because you're listening toSTL you more well. STL United
Soccer Sunday Show coming to you fromKF and S five Night of the Fan.

(15:24):
You know, you're so focused onthis other stuff here. You're ball
watching, that's what you're doing.I am. You're listening to David and
you're not thinking about these critical thingsyou have to Oh, you know,
it's just you know, but thereis this fascinating that guys at this level
can just miss basic stuff, isn'tit. I mean, if you look
at the second goal in Cincinnati,I have no explanation for that. All

(15:50):
right, you know what you're youwere eventually going to come back to me,
right, I mean, there's theway we used to do that.
Ladies and gentlemen. Here's Tom,Ladies and gentlemen. Tom wants his name
the deed. This is the here'syour host, the man who's vowel too
consonant ratio is better than our guests, better than our guest. Yeah,

(16:11):
and my last name. Yeah,Ladies and gentlemen. The Dean of Saint
Louis sacer reportage, Tom Timmerman,who pointed out to me that I said
to him, Hey, David Bursik'scoming into to the studio, uh Sunday
again, and I'm very excited aboutthat. And Tom says, yes,
the man with a very difficult volveto constant ratio in his last name.

(16:34):
And then he thought for a second. He said, you know yours worse
than he is. That says whyI have something on you, Dave.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Timmerman,how you doing, Tom? Good morning?
Good morning? Yeah, before weget going, as always, this
portion of Saint Louis United Soccer Sunday'sbrought to you by American tourist or luggage

(16:56):
and by Rice Ani to San Franciscotreat And Tom, how many times have
you been to San Francisco? Agood number number? And how many times
have you enjoyed the San Francisco treatThere? Never in San Francisco? And
have you ever seen it on amenu? You know not? You probably

(17:19):
you know, sell it under anothername. Your honor of the prosecution rests.
He's he's in a rare mood.Tom, You just gotta be very
careful around him today. Anyway,did you hear by any Well? Where
are you? I'm at Bush Stadium? Okay, so you you probably didn't

(17:40):
hear David bring some of David asI as I as I drove in Oh,
Okay, at which point I decidedyou probably don't need me, so
thanks for having me. No no, no, no no no. Uh.
I'd like, what, how wouldyou react to what you heard?
David say, Well, well,it's hard because I didn't hear all of

(18:03):
this. I mean, so Ican react to you know, three minute
increments of it. Uh. Butyeah, you know, if if the
point is that, I mean,I guess I don't know what the point
what point I'll make, But Imean, Cincinnati is a really good team,
and they're one of the two orthree best teams in Major League Soccer
right now, and Saint Louis Cityisn't. And you know, if I

(18:26):
think if you just look at becauseone of Cornell's big words is moments.
You were saying about moments, andif if you were to have a scorecard
on Cities moments over this season orthat you know, they're they're they're they
they're losing. You know, theyare now a perfectly five hundred team.
Three wins, three losses, seventighs. But if you were to look
at key moments in games and whichway they go, more often than not,

(18:49):
they do not go to Saint LouisCity. If there's one play,
you know, play to make likeyou know l a f C. You
know, they only had a coupleof moments, but they took those moments
and they did something with it.And City gets moments and whether it was
easy Jackson making a run or adiving header, and they just aren't doing
those moments more often than not,and I think that's what the team's problem.

(19:15):
David one speciss, Well, Ithink, you know, I would
certainly agree you're right. I meanLAFC only had a few moments and they
took advantage of it. You know, we have a penalty kick and we
don't take advantage of it. Soyou know, these things are Yeah,
things are kind of piling up onus a little bit, and I think
there's pressure. I really want togive Klaus a lot of credit. I

(19:36):
think, you know, prior tolast night's game, I think his effort
and his contribution were really solid.But yeah, we just were lacking a
little little connection. You know.I was really excited to see Louvin,
you know, back in the lineup. I don't think he had a particularly
strong ten or fifteen minutes last night. U but you know, and and

(20:02):
and even the lineup against against Cincinnati. I wasn't I wasn't horrified by it.
You know, I like Watts.I don't know why Watts doesn't see
the field more often. You know, the midfield was was fine. I
mean, they didn't have a greatgame, but but they worked hard and
I was super excited to see I'vebeen pushing for just you know, I

(20:23):
think Sam really needed to start agame. I think he needed to start
a game and and show what hecould do. Unfortunately, I think it
it. I think if I hadto grade it, i'd graded somewhere near
a d uh. You know,it just didn't happen. Neither Klaus nor
him connected. Sam struggled on theball itself. So even though I've been

(20:47):
pushing for that, thinking I'm,you know here I am, I'm I'm
the coach, and this is whatyou should do, and he did what
I thought you should do, andand the experiment you know, certainly didn't
didn't prove out. I mean,you're right, Tom, I mean Cincinnati
is a very very solid team,But then so is l a f C.
You know, you know, Idon't. I don't think LAFC is
a slouch either. And I thoughtthe way we handled them was was.

(21:07):
I was very very very impressed.I just yeah, there's just not a
lot of connection. I wanted tosee Celo in the midfield with with the
dinner and up top. Uh,that didn't That combination didn't seem to work
either. So that doesn't mean itcan't and it won't, but it certainly
didn't didn't show last night. Yeah. Yeah, And you know, boy,

(21:30):
just a bunch of bad touches atkey times where they just say,
well, you just take that balland do something with it, and then
there's going to be a chance.And they would be whether there was Sam
handling a pass or you know otherguys you just like the first touch that
did the men so many times,or fifth touch on some occasions and he
you know, you saw Az Jacksonon a break and and a just has

(21:52):
to do something and he made anice run, he got to the other
box and then it just kind ofdied. Yeah, he had he had
Klaus. Uh I hate to dois slide slide that ball to the right
side of Klaus, and Klaus wouldhave had an opportunity, and he played
it to the middle to nobody,you know, well to them. So
yeah, those are those are keymoments, you know, and mentioned his
his diving header. I mean,you know, all he's got to do

(22:14):
is put that on goal, youknow, I mean period, period.
I mean, all you gotta dois put that on goal. And that's
a goal, you know. SoI mean obviously we haven't scored in two
games. Uh the other team helpedus. So yeah, it's it's it's
been. It's been disappointing and lackluster. Up top, We've had some bright
moments. I mean, overall forthis season, I've been super happy with

(22:37):
alm and Ostrak and Vasilov, uhand and uh and uh and and Dirkin
in the midfield. I think that'sbeen a great combination, even though obviously
you know, dying to see Lovinget back in there and get full strength
and and and contribute the way weknow he can. But up top,
yeah, we've got to We've gotto figure some things out, and defensively,
we just have to be a littlebit more committed. I just I

(23:00):
just don't understand. You know,if you look at that second goal last
night, I mean just take ago back and look at that. You
see you see Parker and Nielson standing, you know, basically on the top
of the six yard box with thegentleman who scored, you know, six
yards away, wide open. Andfirst thing that happened when they when they

(23:21):
scored, they go, how cansomebody be that open in the box?
And I went back and looked,and uh, you know, I think
Parker was Mark and Nielsen, youknow, because the guy who scored with
was directed a very good job ofMark and Nilson. But I don't know
if he was just confused or lostin the moment. But again, it
goes back to you know, knowingwhere you're at and where the people you're

(23:45):
supposed to be marketing are at.And and in that particular case, it
was obvious who should have been marked, but nobody chose to mark them.
And and I'm still scratching my headon that one. Yeah, yeah,
you were talking about merchantic earlier.That that's left a position is is you
know, gonna be a continues tobe kind of vexing for them, because
you don't you know, Nicholas Dooris the other guy there, and obviously

(24:07):
markanks beating him out in practice.And you know something, I mean that's
you know, indoors supposed to bethe answer there because I think, you
know, City believes. I mean, they like Merchanics, but they know
he's not ultimately the solution there.Uh, And that's you know, something
they got to they do, youknow what you're talking about. You know,
we've seen it in the past twoweeks. And if you go back,
if we also a late game whereOranga had a hat trick and Bolonga

(24:30):
has two and then you know lastnight a cost as a goal and to
assists. The best players in thisleague are City hasn't been able to stop
him. You know that, youknow there there have been really good guys
and they're getting you know, doingstuff against City and in two weeks they
play Miami. I've been thinking aboutthat. Oh god, geez, I'm

(24:52):
gonna start to pressing me two weeksahead of time. Yeah, I mean,
that's why you know, I likeTotland, I really do. I
think I think, uh, Ithink Totland can generally handle those guys if
that's what his assignment is, youknow, And I think that's maybe where

(25:14):
the problem is there. Their assignmentis to mark. But then I think
just as much their assignment is togo forward. And not that I don't
love a back who can go forwardand contribute. I just think it's maybe
become too big a part. Anduh, you know, if we're not
scoring that first goal and getting ontop of a team where then maybe we
can alter the approach and and andcommit a little bit more to defense.

(25:37):
But we're constantly exposing ourselves by byseeming to have to have our left and
right back you know, critically involvedin the offensive part of the game.
I mean, it's great to seewhen you can do it, but you
better have a plan on how toadjust when those players go up. And
I don't think that's maybe it's themidfield that's not falling back properly, you
know, I don't know if I'velooked at it that closely to the you

(26:00):
know, if Totland goes or Merchanicgoes, you know who's responsible for filling
that void? And and I meanthere's times that against uh, I mean,
I don't know if it was againstChicago or against l A f C.
Where Merchanic was ahead of Chelio andthey were both up in the up
in the left hand wing. Soso whose responsibility is now the you know,
the you know, the right wingerof the other team, because they're

(26:21):
looking for it I guarantee you assoon as that, as soon as they
win the ball, that's immediately wherethey're looking, you know, into into
that into that void. And Idon't think we have a good a good
plan for for adjusting to for whenour when our when our wing backs are
over committed on on the offensive sideof the field. Yeah. Yeah,
it's supposed to be the Yeah,the left back of those goes forward,
then they move into a three manback with the right back coming back.

(26:45):
But you know, in the sameway on the other side. But it
it doesn't, It doesn't always.It doesn't always happen. But that was
one of the things they liked aboutMerchanic. He didn't go forward as much.
Hey, I gotta go to work, all right, thanks a lot
to take care of time, likethe Dean of Saint Louis Soccer riport.
No other than it's too bad hehad to go because I wanted to ask

(27:08):
him about the uh that press conference. It was just Dave, you told
me you saw it. I sawa good portion of it. Yeah,
I didn't see the end, whichI heard was pretty dramatic. I mean,
so uh oh, yeah, let'sgo ahead and take the break now
we were going to extend it,Timmerman couldn't. Yeah, uh yeah,

(27:30):
James Brown, Ladies and gentlemen,takes us to the end of this first
What are we gonna call this segment? First half out? Let's just call
it that of Sto United Soccer Sundaycoming to you here from KFN S five
ninety the fan. We're gonna stepaway, play some announcements, don't go
anywhere. We will be right backquicker than James Brown can slide across the

(27:51):
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Stepanina's the original since nineteen eighty one, coming back with Booker T and

(30:23):
the MG's. I set this offto Tommy in the morning. I happened
to wake up and for some reason, I was to God, the song
popped in my head. I'm layingin bed. I thought I heard that
forever. It'd be a great song. I like to hear that again on
the air. I love that.You know, these guys were the house
band at Stacks and they're crying likethe guys in Detroit or in Los Angeles,

(30:44):
the Wrecking Crew where Stacks is MemphisStaxes in Memphis. They played behind
everybody and then they had their ownwhen they cut their first out, their
first song, Green Onions. BookerT seventeen, he's working in the studio
Steve Croppers twenty. You know,they're just young guys just you know,
let's go down and play music.Music, and you got they were all
good. Booker T was a freshmanat IU. He didn't know they were

(31:08):
going to release this. It wassomething they just did in the studio.
They were between takes and they werejust jamming. So he's walking on campus
at IU and he goes into theunion here as a song. He goes,
oh god, that's that's a songwe did in the studio and ladies,
and then the DJ comes on.There's Booker two and e MG rocketing
up the charts, headed to numberone. It's like, WHA didn't know?

(31:30):
Did he get paid? Yeah,he got paid. He was studying
engineering. I think he's a brightguy. Yeah, I guess he was
here last summer. Hey, welcomeback to Sto United Soccer Snay Sunday,
coming to you live from kfn Sfive Night of the Fan here. You
know, you never get this musicstuff wrong, but you're always getting can't
talk. My wife fed me somedifferent stuff for breakfast this morning. Tell

(31:52):
me, yeah, well we won'tgo that far. I mean, you
know, hey, we're happy tohave with us. Said not only Matt
Grover, yes, and and alumniof the show, but also our guest
Dave Bersica. Now here is yourhost, mister Tom Schwartz. Thank you,
Edmundo. We are very happy,uh to have mister Bersik in on
one of his irregular appearances but tooinfrequent, all too infrequent. Thank you,

(32:17):
thank you. You are good forsomething because your your insight to the
game is fantastic. So let's continueto talk about whatever you want to talk
about. Well, why don't wego something positive? All right, let's
talk about Roman Burke. Oh god, okay, Spider Man. I mean

(32:37):
maybe that is our our plan.Okay, Well, let we'll give the
other team chances because we know wehave Burkie and go I don't know them
keep their feet out because he's goingto stop mostly. Yeah, maybe that's
a strategy. I mean again,you know, he came up, he
came up so big again last night, kept us in the game. So
you know, just and overall,listen, I don't think we're a bad

(33:00):
team. Let's let's let's let's notlet's not leave with that. Like I
said, you know, against Chicago, we look fantastic. Okay, Chicago
is not as strong and there andthey have their own issues. But obviously
you know, when we play ateam that maybe is middle of the road
or lower, you know, wecan compete. And and and I think
we have a solid midfield. Ithink when we get moving back and he

(33:22):
gets solid and you get Vasilev andand Dirkin and whoever you want, almor
or Ostrak or or they are allinterchangeable. They're somewhat interchangeable, but they're
they're good, hard working, youknow, they work hard defensively, they
work called offensively. Uh, theygenerally make good decisions. So we have

(33:43):
a solid core, you know,and even our defense, I'm you know,
even though i'm you know, asa goalkeeper, I'm pretty much picking
on him pretty much this morning.But you know, we have a solid
core of players who know how toplay and can play under pressure. It's
offensively, of course, where everybodyit's you know, doesn't take a rocket
scientists to figure out that that's whereour struggles are right now. Other teams

(34:05):
have kind of you know, figuredus out. You know, they'll let
us play with the ball a littlebit and understand that we don't have that
type of creativity. I think Luvincan maybe bring that back for us a
little bit. You can find thatright, the perfect slot pass right that,
you know, the perfect ball thathe can play in. But I'm
still excited about the team. I'mnot, you know. I mean,
it's a long season, sure,and uh, you know, we just

(34:27):
need to get get a few thingsright and just tighten up a little bit
on on on defense and I thinkwe'll be okay. You know, are
we going to be top of thetables this year? But probably unlikely.
But you know, we could goon a run too, you know,
if we can find our offensive uhyou know links, you know, maybe
maybe we can go on a run. So this is kind of a two
pronged questions because I asked you earlierif you had heard this discussion about them

(34:52):
being in discussion with some city beingin discussion was about some German. I
heard that from two different sources,and I hadn't heard anything. You have
heard something. I don't think I'veheard anything that anyone else hasn't, you
know, just through social media.Yeah, different things that we've heard that.
Obviously, there's conversations going on witha gentleman named Royce from from Dortmund.

(35:16):
I think he's thirty five. Maybehe obviously is a goal scoring threat,
so is that what we need.Yet you know, obviously, you
know we need somebody that could putthe ball in the back of the net
right now. But you're also sayingthough that in listening to you talk,

(35:38):
it sounds to me like we've gota bunch of good players good to not
so good, yep to great,not great. But if we had a
great player it almost in this youweren't saying these words, but listening to
you, if we had a guythat said, yeah, it's my you

(36:00):
know, how do we fix this? How do we fix this problem?
At you know that Mercanic is thecurrent solution. Who would be a guy
say, not that you could evenget, but this is the kind of
guy that I would like to beable to put there. You know.
Well, I'm you know again,you know, based on who I played

(36:22):
with and how I played and whenwe played, I love a good target
striker, somebody that you know,confidently that you could send the ball up
to and he can receive it,hold it and then play off of him.
And we don't have that, Imean you can so neither Klaus nor
no, no Sam no neither oneare are are And there's a lot of

(36:44):
things I like about Klaus. Pleasedon't get me wrong, right, but
but one thing that he consistently doesnot do. I mean, we served
the ball long. I mean everytime Berkie gets it, what eighty five
nine percent of the time, it'ssent long, go back. And look,
we probably receive that ball less thanfive percent of the time. I
mean, I do not believe I'mexaggerating when I say that we do not

(37:07):
win that ball or receive that ball. It's almost like it's almost like our
strategy is to get the rebound.It's like a it's like a punt and
you hope he fumbles, you know, but uh, you know, and
and and but that's just that's justme personally, you know how I think.
And when you don't have when youdon't have the type of players that
can break down individually break down adefense, you know. I mean you

(37:29):
look at man City, or youlook at Spain, or you look at
you know, these teams that haveindividuals or Brazil where the individual midfields or
whatever it can just break through andpenetrate a defense. Chell is the only
thing close to that that we have. So if you don't have that,
what is your plan? What youknow, what is your consistent go to
when when when nothing else is working, you know, and and it which

(37:52):
is like where we are right now, which is where we're and a target
man for me, you know,is something And and there's not a lot
of teams in the molest that playthat way either. There is one that
I all of a sudden, Ican't remember the club or the player.
And I know Yarrow had to markthe guy the whole game. I know
you're talking about. You know,he broke somebody's ribs, the guy who

(38:13):
played in England, you know.So yeah, and and but you can
see that the team was built aroundtech, yes, getting the ball to
him and then playing off of rightbecause it is the most difficult thing for
a defense to handle. If theball's played let's say to the twenty and
now and now, but the ballcame from our forty okay right now,
now, everybody has to turn andrun towards this goal. So again,

(38:36):
same thing happens. If they're ballwatching. Now you can get you get
midfielders free because they're all running backto where the ball is. And now
they can't keep track of you andthe ball at the same time. So
a target man is is it youknow, it's predictable. I mean,
if that's all you do, youknow, a team can certainly adjust and
and and and deal with that.But it is an option that we just

(38:58):
don't have. If we don't paythat per slot pass to a dinner in
or that perfect slot pass to uhto uh Klaus, or we score on
a corner kick or a free kick, you know, or or all hits
one from you know, thirty fiveyards over the keeper's head. You know,
we don't we don't have a consistentoffensive plan. Uh. We do

(39:19):
like to get the ball to thewings, which I'm perfectly happy with,
but then again, you need thatguy consistently, you know, in that
striker position, which Klaus I thinkdoes a very good job. If you
look at two of his last goals, it's it's it's to run or or
you know, the one little movementthat he made to get open in the
box. So I'm not I'm notsaying that Klaus, you know, isn't
that can't be a guy in thebox. But as far as you know,

(39:42):
playing from our side of the fieldto to to their side of the
field, we don't have anybody upthere. The caner. He certainly doesn't
hang out in the box. No, he's moving all the time. You
know, I like him, Ireally do. I like the smart things
that he does. How much ofa problem is he having though? It's
just getting service now. He's missedsome shots over the last few games,

(40:05):
but you don't really see him gettingballs and good. There was a perfect
opportunity last night. Jackson had theball, made a nice run and came
into the box and Klaus, hisdefender, was on the inside and that
ball, I mean, was aperfect ball for Klaus on the outside of
his right foot for him to takeit. And he didn't get a service.
You know. Now, I thinkif that was Louvin on the ball

(40:27):
right, he would he would hewould have had that service. To me,
Louvin is the guy that puts isable to operate in the chaos that
city is trying to create. Andwhen he went down, we don't have
anybody close to that. There wereI think they're all very good players,
but they're not. There's not theguy who can like take the ball,

(40:51):
stop the ball, take a lookand make that pass. And it's also
you know, I mean, Imean, you know, Vasilev and Ostrek
and Alm they've all done a goodjob and they see it, but they
don't have that that soft touch thatLuvin can have to make that ball not
only to the right decision to playit to that person, to play it
in the right way. And Leuvin, I don't think people understand what a

(41:15):
physical presence he is. I mean, he's not a huge guy. What
he's six foot something like that,but he's solid, and I don't think
people like to go into challenges withhim, right, But when he plays
a ball, it's not only theright ball to the right person, it's
at the right pace, at theright speed, and at the right height.
And you know that's that's the strengthand the skill that he has above

(41:36):
the rest of the rest of ourmidfield. So if I were to ask
you right now, let's assume Luvin'scoming back, and I say, David,
we got not a zillion dollars,but you know, several million dollars
to spend on a player, orone player, or maybe less that for

(41:57):
two players. What's the first thatyou go to defense or a good offense?
A good offense right now, onehundred percent, we have a defense.
We just need to pay a littlemore attention to to how we play
it. But no, I thinkit's it's it's it's offense, and you
would go to, uh, abig guy or a little guy or any

(42:17):
the best available player. I wouldeither look for a winger that that can
take people on, sort of likeCellio, you know, like Celio.
Either that or or a striker,a true center striker, and I think
and I think Klaus could play offthat striker really well. Klaus is a
very intelligent player. He's not theplayer he looks like he is almost too

(42:39):
intelligent. Right, Sometimes he's playingballs and doing one touches that the rest
of the team's like, whoa,I didn't know you were thinking about that,
you know, so you know Ithink he could play off of him.
Uh. You know our midfield again, it's it can do the job.
Our midfielders can do the job.I think we need it. We
need a winger that again takes maybea little bit press you're off having to

(43:00):
have our right back or left back, you know, become a winger.
You know, if we had atrue winger that that that that you know,
could could beat people. Uh.And a Dennerman can do that if
you isolate him one on one outto the left or out to the right.
That's what you want. You know, when we were talking earlier about
how the defensive shift, now youcan imagine if their defense shifts and you've

(43:21):
got you've got. And Sam wouldbe smart enough to say, I'm not
going to go into big old mixin here. I'm gonna hang out here
because I want to get the ballwhen I have a one on one situation
and Louvin is a guy who couldgive him the ball absolutely. And then
I tell you what, I feelsorry for the left back if if you
get a dinner in out isolated ona you know, right back or left
back, and he takes ahead ofsteam at you, you're in trouble.

(43:44):
Hold that thought, Hold that thought. Let's let's do our id. You
are listening to stl United Soccer Sundaycoming to you from KFN S five ninety
the fan right here in Kirkwood toslash Saint Louis Missouri. Ah, that
song we already did, Timmerman,We had Tommy Timmerman. That's right,
all right? Do you remember thissong? David? This is three dog

(44:07):
Night. I'm going to see himdown lakes. No, no, no,
this is uh that's some French guy. It's a but that What was
that TV show? The God can'tif he hadn't asked me, it's the
British Spy show. No, itwas. It was used to scare me.
This this would be the opening ofthe show and it was a big

(44:28):
bubble chasing. This guy was kepton an island, you know, it
was. It was bizarre. Butthis is what Timmerman chose is they said,
all right, you can cut themusic now. We don't need him
right now, brain face, I'mall back to the show. Here's your
host, Tom Schwartz, Dave Person. I'm no longer answering any more music
questions with him. No, that'sa big mistake. That is a big

(44:50):
mistake. He lives for those Itdid sound like the beginning of a Three
Dog Knights ago. Yeah, well, I'm sure there was. There was
some sampling, uh going on.A friend of mine referred told me his
kid refused to refers to our musicas fatty daddy music. So I like

(45:13):
that as long as it's spelt witha pH. All right, So we
were talking about you're, as I'massessing your comments, you're overall you're not
at like panic City. Absolutely not, absolutely not. I mean again,
you know, it appears that we'reif we stay with the way we're at

(45:35):
right now, we may struggle toscore goals. Okay, We're not the
only team right in the world,right or in the MLS that might be
struggling to score goals, right,So if that's the case, what's your
next option? Don't give up toomany goals, right right? So you
know, my big point today isreally we need to shore up how we

(45:55):
approach our defensive role. Right.Okay, you're saying take your eyes off
the offense and focus on the defense. I'm not saying that, but I
mean you can do both. Youcan do both, but maybe you have
to give up first. First,maybe you have to give up the fact
that your your left back can't beyour your left midfield and left winger at
the same time. Maybe you haveto give up that that that thought,

(46:19):
you know, and and say,Okay, we're going to stay home defensively
and not get caught caught on countersand uh, you know, and not
give up goals. I mean,you've got the best goalkeeper in the league,
right, That's just let's just bedead honest too. And if you
can shore up your defense and tightenit up, and and commit to your
mark and commit to your role andnot give up goals. Okay, maybe
we'll tie twelve games. I don'tknow, but you know, you just

(46:43):
don't want to be giving bad teamsare really good teams this many opportunities to
score goals. Yeah, Timmerman broughtup Miami. I was thinking about that
last night. Jeez, that becausethey could do exactly what you're talking about,
right, I may go on toblackout that I don't know, don't
know. I mean again, ifyou don't approach that game like, okay,

(47:04):
defense is our is our number onegoal here, right, we need
to you know. And and Iwould put I would put you know,
Dirkin or Totland on him. Imean, Drkin may not last ten minutes
because he might get a red card. You know. But you know,
trying to follow messy. But it'snot just messy. I mean, you've
you've got you've got to put yourbest athletes, people who can keep up

(47:24):
with people and contain people out there, you know. And and and I
hope y'arroll comes back soon. Ireally like Yarrow. But wats is one
hundred percent capable as well. Ithought he played a really nice game last
night, you know, for notplaying God for at all, you know,
I mean I don't even think hecame in as a sub anytime earlier
this year that I that I can'tremember. And I thought he played a

(47:46):
very solid, very solid game.You know, you've got to have your
your people who are committed to whattheir number one role is. And when
it comes to Miami, it's absolutelygoing to be the case. You know,
they're going to be given going thisall over the place. Yeah,
and again, if you're ball watching, you're in big trouble. Do you
coach it all? No? Soyou have It's like what has you've been

(48:10):
in you No? But I meanagain, ed what you said before?
Did you say that on air oroff air about the you know, understanding
the uh yeah state? Can yousay that again? Well, you know,
I am the novice in the roomwhen it comes to well Grover,
Grover's is more of a novice thanyou are. I think that's hard to

(48:35):
find because I grew up playing basketball. And when I just said, you
know, the analogy to basketball hereon what's going on is just obvious.
It's you know, city's playing hiszone and the guy who's on the weak
sides getting sucked in. So howdo you beat his own? You flip
the ball around the other side asquickly as you can, and if the
guy's gotten sucked out of position,particularly if you overloaded offensively, you got

(48:57):
it done and you beat his own. Beat his, But you beat his
zone all these days in the NBAA lot of times by driving to the
basket and looking for your alternatives.Who is the open guy on the three?
You beat his zone by game.You don't beat his own by standing
there and looking around. You eithergo into it, you don't dribble around
it. Either go into it andpass out, or you go shoot it.

(49:20):
And that's a target. Yeah,you got to pass the ball quickly.
I mean, if you know,I'm a typical old NBA. You
know, you got a big guyin the middle. You get it to
him. Now, everybody turns andwhat turns to look to see where the
ball is, and then your runnersyou're outside, and then the ball gets
kicked back out shots up. Soit's a very simple similar It's the simplest
approach you could possibly take. Andwhen you're struggling, you go back to

(49:45):
simple, right, you know,but we don't have that person who can
control who can hold the ball,or at least that's not how they're being
told to play. I don't know, you could take your pick. You
know, maybe Klaus is capable ofdoing that. So you almost see again,
as I listened to you and thinkingabout what our comments are conversations over

(50:05):
the past, it's like you're almostsaying that the best solution to with the
best players we have right now iskind of to put Klaus on the wing
and Sam on the other wing andthen have somebody in the middle that can
distribute them the ball. No,I can't I keep well, I mean,
if you have that person, butI think you know, you keep

(50:27):
Klaus in the middle, but youcan't get Sam in the middle. Even
last night, Sam was you know. I mean there's times where he's standing,
he can shake hands with Klaus,right, you know, there's no
point in that, absolutely no pointat all. You know, Sam needs
to be isolated. That's my opinion, strictly my opinion. Right, That's
where if you go back, that'swhere his successes happened, you know,
his classic goals. Yeah, Imean, yes, he scored a beautiful

(50:49):
header on a corner last year andI think maybe twice, you know,
so you know he can be goodin the air for balls being serviced,
you know. And again if Cheliohas the ball on the on the citley,
oh, I keep calming, Chilly. I don't know why I liked,
you know, on the left wing, well and Sam's on the right,
well yeah, damn right, Samget in there, you know for
the cross. But otherwise, whenwe're moving the ball upfield, are we

(51:10):
win the ball in the midfield,he has to get one. The most
exciting times for City last night werethe few times Sam had the ball on
the run early in the game.He had and of course he took a
shot from an impossible angle. Butthen he did that last year and scored
it right earlier this year and scoreda beautiful goal, so you know,
nothing against that. But again,that's the that's that's the Sam that will

(51:31):
produce goals for you. One onone with the right back and he's just
gonna I mean, a man haspower and he has speed, so he
pushes the ball forward right and hegoes That's where Sam thrives, or that's
where he succeeds. Trying to playin the middle with the ball. Absolutely
not. You saw it last night. He looked like he had three left

(51:51):
feet, you know, when whenwhen he was trying to play, you
know, play with the ball,you know, instead of instead of uh,
you know, being out on thatwing isolated. What did you think
about the lineup last night? Youknow, I understood. I mean,
just played two games. You know, it's your third game in a week.
You know, I had no problemwith it. I mean the bench,
you know, you had the benchthat was perfectly strong to come on

(52:14):
and we and he utilized it prettywell. I did not have a problem
with it. I was happy tosee wats on on on on the left
side. I think Totland probably couldhave played. I think he's got plenty
of plenty of leg you know,uh, midfield obviously he had everybody out.
He had Ostric, you had Vassalov and and what do you think
of Bloom? Why do you haveto go there? Well, you were

(52:39):
being so positive again, very hardworker. Actually he had a good game
last night overall. Overall, hehad a good game. Uh. And
and he he didn't try to dotoo much. Most of the balls he
played were back and balls he playedforward were good, but overall, if
you watch him through she's been withwith Saint Louis, that's his that's his

(53:01):
weakness is trying to play a cleverball to somebody clever and not not being
able to execute. You know,he gives the ball up entirely too much.
But last night he did not,and I thought he played a very
solid game last night. So that'swhat I've never heard it put that way,
but that that uh expression, toplay to try to play a clever

(53:22):
ball that you can't. Yeah,you don't have the cleverness. Yeah,
he's a he's a he's a he'sa work carse. Uh. I think
he contributes, you know, toto the team, but not offensively.
So again, correct me if I'mwrong. You're what your contention is is

(53:43):
that there's a a general lack ofcreativity on the offense. Yes, and
most often, most often or wedon't have enough movement. So you don't
always want to blame the midfield,you know, if you're saying, oh,
the midfield is not create and they'renot doing this now to net,
well, maybe it's the movement upfront. You know, you have to

(54:04):
have movement up front, and there'stimes that I do see where you know,
even Klaus or is that they're justsort of standing there marked expecting the
midfield to somehow be able to miraculously, you know, swing a ball in
there, you know, to theirfeet when they're when they're very well marked.
So some of it is its movementup front too, It's not always
on the midfield. Next question,corners, are we always working the same

(54:28):
corner? Are we always working thesame play or is that just me?
Well, last year we had aplay that worked very effective, right,
you know, it was almost likea pick and pick and roll go back
to basketball, you know, whereParker and uh and Nielsen or or the
other big guy that we had thatwe that we moved on. Yeah,

(54:49):
you know, they would you know, they'd be right together, you know,
and then one would go right andthe defender didn't know which way Parker
was going to go. And itwas super effective. I mean, yeah,
this year we have not been ascreative apparently on on you know,
on our corner kicks again because Luvin'snot been taking him well you know,
I mean I believe it or notall all all the knocks I put on

(55:12):
a Z. A Z plays anice ball from the corner, vast love
play can play a nice ball.And I haven't I haven't heard you put
any knocks on easy well because wehaven't talked about it. Yeah, I'm
not even going to go there Alot everybody else take care of that one.
Well, no, I I getthis text line I was referring to
earlier. It's, uh, yeah, there's a lot of criticism of him,

(55:37):
but that's a good but. Butthat's a good example of of of
yeah, he's not he's not atthis level. Okay. And I don't
know, you could you could sayit's a size, you could say it's
this, But when the literally,I mean it's not hard to write those
statistics. Fifty percent of the timesor more when he has the ball he

(56:00):
is up on the ground. Imean, it's just it's that's not a
I'm not making that up right,you know, everybody can see it,
right, you know. And andand last night he again he had a
great break and he almost slowed downand let the guy catch up with them.
And then once the guy caught upwith them, it was all over
because again physically he ended he endedup on the ground, you know,
where he needed to really you know, continue on, but do you have

(56:22):
to go all right? Then I'mnot going to say goodbye. One last
question. Isn't the job of goodmanagement, good leadership to put people in
positions where they are most likely tosucceed. Listen, the last thing I'm
going to do is criticize a coach. Okay, do I think a Zeo
Jackson should have been starting five orsix games this year? Absolutely not,

(56:45):
But that's my opinion. I mean, when you had when you have when
you had other Ostrek and and andVassalov and uh and uh, you know
the other midfielders. I always thoughthe was a he was a bad choice,
particularly as a starter coming in latein the game, you know,
where he can throw a little spark, which is what he did against l

(57:07):
A f C. You know,he actually came in and created a little
spark, maybe even could have gottena penalty for us. You know that
That's that's I think that that's wherehis role should be limited to. Right,
Well, you're pretty much wrapped upthis half hour, and we're gonna
have to step away and pay somemore bills. But don't go anywhorse to
down, sit back down on thatchap roll over in that bed. You're

(57:29):
not going anywhere. We'll be rightback after we pay some bills. See
in a minute. Bye empty