STL United FC Soccer Sunday Hour 2 - 6/16/24

Hour two begins with Matt Baker from the Flyover Footy podcast.  Jordan talks soccer.  And in the last half hour, Ty Keough joins Tom, Ted, Jordan and Jim in studio to talk Father's Day and all things soccer.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Sandy of the show. You cancheck out the show's podcast on five ninety
the fan dot com. In thefive ninety the Fan app. You are
listening to five ninety the Fan kayf and s wood shape. If you
leep awake in the mirror of thebad dream, and for a fraction of

(00:29):
a second you change him where youall just open your window, follow your
mill stream through the meadow in themountain you recounted every fall. Start.

(00:54):
I believe the light that shines onyou will shine on you for it.
And then you're tee. There's somethingscary. Welcome back, everybody, Stale
United Soccer Sunday coming to you livefrom the Harry Kyo Studios right here at

(01:19):
kf N S five. That wasnot five, That was not what was
Paul Simon but not the right song? Okay, alright, norrats movie.
It's still a good nice still anice song, nice song on the Sunday
morning. Is is our caller?Yes, yeah, we're happy to welcome
to the show. Regular contributor theguy who runs fly Over Footy, mister

(01:44):
Matt baker Man knows Matt morning,guys. I noticed you didn't put good
in front of that. Uh,happy day what's your take on last night.
Oh, the biggest takeaways are obviouslywe lost Salio and Yoki Milton.

(02:06):
That's that's the biggest takeaway to me. The result on the field to nothing
extremely frustrating because it was more ofthe same from city. We did a
good enough job of creating chances.Even Nokie Thorson had enough chances fall his
way for what he was provided fromthe midfield and from the wings that we
should not have left that game withzero goals. And that's that's the biggest

(02:30):
takeaway on the field is if wecontinue to have problems finishing. Klaus had
a sitter of a header sent fromThomas Totland. Later Nuky Thorson had a
nice header opportunity himself for Mikhil Watts. Chances were there, but we yet
again can't finish the can't finish thejob. Matt Is romans Burke a taking

(02:54):
a shot of distance or b walkinto the locker room and slap a ten
hundred dollars bills down on the tableand say next goal, it's yours.
Come on, something's got to giveyou. Almost think when Nookie or when

(03:16):
Klaus or in six in the balls, I mean, they're like, this
is that this is gonna be theone. It's like, just play and
you know what our chances in there. But there haven't been a lot of
diving saves. We've We've been hittingit right at the keeper. I just

(03:38):
don't get it. They work onit, and they work on it and
they work on it. Yeah,there's a there's a step that I like,
and we've been talking about it onfly or footy more. That's expected
gold on target and it builds offof the XG. So XG is that
that that I think everybody knows atthis point of expected gold and it puts
try to put a number on howgood the shot is that you take and

(04:01):
how likely it is to go in. Jeses Ferrera's PK was about a point
eight in XG, but it wasa point nine to nine in x got
expected goals on target, And Ithink that speaks exactly to that point.
Of these shots that we're taking,they aren't in good enough spots on goal
to make it overtly likely that wewould score. In fact, we had

(04:27):
and this is exactly opposite from howthis stet should work, we had a
higher expected goals than we did expectedgoals on target. What should happen is
you take the XG and you addon wherever it lands on net, and
that gets to your ex got.It should be much higher than your XG.
But in fact, overall City's XGwas about one point six to three

(04:49):
and their x SCOT was one pointthree seven. It means that we did
not get enough shots on target,and the shots on targets that we did
get were not good qualities. Ifyou put the ball in the middle of
the net, right where the keeperis, right where Martin Pott is,
that's going to be a very lowXCOT. If you put the ball in
the corners or on the sides,places where he would have to dive to

(05:11):
that point, then it would bea higher XCOT. It's a very straightforward
stat and we did not do anywherenear as good of a job, and
that's been a consistent story. Wehaven't done a good job of putting the
ball into dangerous spot on net,much less putting the ball on net enough.
And that's where you struggle to reallysay, other than we just need

(05:32):
new attackers, what the real problemis. Because Eddue Luvian spoke postgame talking
about the form that Saint Louis wasin talking about you know, I felt
that we did good and creating chancesand you just have to have to keep
going. Bradley Carnell now is prettyseeming pretty frustrated with the consistent story of

(05:53):
you know, you can't get outsideof yourself and your beliefs in your system.
You don't want the entire structure offall part. But at the same
time, something has to change inthe form into confidence and you're waiting for
this damn breaking moment. But ifyou have so many of the chances that
we had last night where Klaus isgetting I mean, we have moments last

(06:15):
night in the game, especially inthe second half, where buckets of shots
were occurring forty nine minutes, sixtyminutes, three shots in a sequence,
three shots in a sequence. Kloudshad opportunities to end these in transition.
The moments were few and far betweenthat we actually had good quality shots because
of how Dallas was playing us.They were dropped into a real deep low
block. They were their point ofengagement. I look at this other stat

(06:38):
This point of engagement was nearly intheir own penalty box where they were willing
to engage Saint Louis on the ball, it was just thirty yards out of
their average defensive actions being taken.And that's that's something Saint Louis has never
really found a solution to consistently inbreaking down these low blocks, and so
they have to rely on when Dallashas counter attacking opportunities and when they actually

(07:01):
moved the ball into Saint Louis's defensivehalf, you have to figure out how
to turn the ball back around quicklyand mass but often. But it did
happen a few times, and wedidn't take advantage of it. Speaking of
all the expected goals and expected goalson target, I'd say our expected penalty
last night was a one, butvideo assistant referee gave us nothing. Well,

(07:21):
yeah, I mean, you canonly say so much about the handball,
and I feel like I've spent thepast twelve hours just hyper fixated,
hyper focused on it. The thingI'll say about the handball no call on
this one is that I didn't Idon't, necessarily, looking back on it,
have an issue that the handball wasn'tcalled because if you look at the

(07:43):
letter of the law, there isa new portion of the IPAB law that
says if the ball goes off theplayer's leg or foot and it hits their
arm, then it won't be calleda handball. Letter of the law,
you can easily make an argument thatthat shouldn't be a handball based on the
new interpretation of the rule, thenew application. The problem that I have
and that I was very boisterous abouton Twitter last night, is that this

(08:07):
exact play happened to Saint Louis onthe March thirtieth game against Ralph cult Lake
where Chris Durkin was in the boxand he deflected a path from Ralph salt
Lake that hit his leg, bouncedup, hit his arm, and a
handball was called. Not just thehandball was called, but Varr confirmed the
handball in that game. And ifyou look at that moment versus this moment

(08:31):
last night, was Idiaga and whathe was doing in the box against Saint
Louis, it is like for like, it is the exact same scenario.
Ball hits the upper leg, bouncesup, it hits the arm that's extended
from the hands. And in theRSL game it was pointed too that it
was the arm was making the bodybigger, which is another portion of the
law, so they're looking at thatpiece to apply it in that scenario,

(08:54):
and last night it was a differentpoint to apply it to the same scenario.
The only there are two consistencies inthat One is the call when against
Saint Louis, which is horribly frustratingfor us as city fans. But the
other one that I have more havea problem with because I don't think this
is as qualitative as you know,being happened to be against the same team,

(09:16):
But it's the referees upholding the callin the field using two different interpretations
of the same law. If asingle play happens two different times and you
have the call in the field thatgoes two different ways and you uphold it
based on different pieces of the law, that that's a problem. There is
no way you could properly set expectationsabout how this game is going to be

(09:37):
governed if you're going to interpret handballin such a wildly different ways for the
exact same play twice. Well,Matt, usually we would have a week
to stew over this one, butwe've got Colorado Wednsday and then Atlanta gums

(09:58):
on Saturday. Can you give usa look ahead? Well, Wednesday is
going to be a problem for US. First and foremost, we need bobbies
to sell out our roster, andthat's what Bradley Carnell was alluding to last
night. And the way that Coloradoplays is difficult. They don't like to
possess the ball. They like tohit the counter. Chris Armas, new

(10:18):
head coach for Colorado, has reallyturned this team around from last year.
They're scoring goals and a lot morebuckets than they did last year. They're
having a lot of success. Theirsixth in the standings, they just beat
Austin FC two nothing. So theyplayed this really nice counter attacking pressing style
that is not unlike what Saint Louisdoes, although they are willing to possess
the ball just a hair more inan ideal scenario and they create a ton

(10:41):
and their goal scorers are scoring goals. Ralphel Navarro has ten goals on the
season. You've got Georgia Mihailovich,Cole Bassett, really strong young players who
are national team contenders for Olympic teams. For January camps for the US national
team. They've they've done well atbuilding and bolstering their roster this season.
This is the first time we've playedthem, so it will be a massive

(11:03):
test on Wednesday, and made allthe more difficult because we're likely going to
be without Joki Nilsen so for ahamstring injury. We're going to be without
Salia Pompeiu. We assume he's outfor the season, but that bad news
hasn't completely broken to us yet,and so where do you find bodies for
this roster. Johnny Klein's short termloan is up, so if we want
to have Johnny Clein available for usagain, we're going to either have to

(11:26):
sign him to another short term loanor sign him to a first team contract.
If we sign him to a shortterm loan, the benefit is he'll
be available potentially for both Wednesday andSaturday. Now he can only play for
one more MLS regular season game ona short term loan. That's how those
work. You get four appearances tofour matchday roster appearances two actual game appearances

(11:48):
on your short term loans. Sothe clock is ticking on Johnny Clein.
Caden Glover has a homegrown deal,he could play, no roster restrictions for
him. We are probably going tosee a short term loan for Michael Venzil,
which means that, like I said, and for Johnny Clins, the
short term loan because we have twogames in the span of four days,
the short term loan is applicable forboth of those games. We can use
when vntil for both of those.But it's going to be a tall,

(12:11):
tall app and a tall order tonot just fill bodies out for the roster,
but also the guys who have beenplaying. They have to recover and
reach in and be okay to gofor this period of time. So Bradley
Carnell is stuck between a rock anda hard place on what he's going to
do with this roster and how he'sgoing to fill it out much less gets
the best possible eleven out there.It's going to be a vastly different look

(12:31):
against Colorado, but it's almost certainlygoing to be a vastly different look for
Atlanta, at least Atlanta. Theyalso have a new coach scenario over there.
They fired Gonzalo Pingaida. So thiscoming weekend we're facing an Atlanta team
that is lower in the standings.I would say we have a better shot
matchup wise against them, but wehave to get past Colorado and like Santiago
Beltround told me this morning on flyOver Fallout, every single game from here

(12:54):
on out has to be viewed asa cup final. Hey Matt, speaking
of new players, can you tellus about this rumor over the weekend about
this player from the Bundesliga two.I'm so happy to end on a positive
note. Marcel Hartel. He's attackingmidfielder from sc St. Pouli in the
two Bundesliga. The news came outon Saturday morning that Saint Louis wasn't just

(13:16):
interested, but was in advanced conversationswith Hartel and his agent, who actually
he shares an agent with Marco Roycefunny enough, the Russia Dorman legend,
who we were also linked with.But Hartel his discovery rights are currently held
by the Columbus Crew. We loveour discovery rights now, don't we.
But the Columbus Crew were close tosigning him in May, apparently to a

(13:37):
one point five million dollar contract.They have his discovery rights. Saint Louis
has already been rumored to be willingto pay three hundred and fifty thousand dollars
to acquire those discovery rights and signHartel. To a designated player type deal.
This is huge for Saint Louis intwo senses. One, it shows
that Lukes is willing to pivot hisgame plan were earlier this season he said

(14:00):
typically he wasn't looking to sign adesignated player in killing that Nico Joachini spot
so seeing the issues that we've hadin our attacking half, being the chance
generation up the middle that Hartel canhave not just in assists and expected assist,
but in goal scoring himself. Thisis a player that has been targeting
and when he played for FC StPoli last season it was kind of coming

(14:20):
out season for Hartel. He hadone. He was averaging better than one
goal per two games, better thanone assist per three games, and he
helped f C Saint Pauli earn promotionfrom two Bundesliga. This isn't just a
two Bundesliga player team. They're goingto be playing the Bundesliga next year and
it's the second time that Partel hashelped a team earn promotion from the two
Bundesliga to the Bundesliga. Is ahigh caliber player in the two, and

(14:43):
he's a Bundesliga worthy player that we'relooking at set our sights on to bring
in to help Thater, Toykert andother Saint Louis City attackers. This is
a big deal. This may bebigger than Toykert, and this may be
the biggest thing that we've seen sinceour original DP signings. I was going
to say toyker in has got someexcitement. Are they comparable players? I

(15:03):
know Toykert plays as a ford,but if you look at Hartel's stats,
they seem more positive than what Toykert'sdone in the same league. Yeah,
and it's funny how Saint Luis hasbeen willing to tout Toykert is calling him
a midfielder to bring him in,and my understanding is that speaking to the
versatility they're looking to get from him, not as a replacement for Klaus,
but a compliment to Klaus. Sothat Niko Jochini second striker. At the

(15:26):
time, we thought he might bean underneath maybe even a ten player for
Toykert, but with Tartel coming in, you're seeing a potential overhaul entirely in
the same as attack. These twoplayers can compliment each other, but you
would typically see Toykert more as atarget player. He plays historically a lot
more upfront around the same area inthe box, making runs deep but high

(15:46):
up in the box. Not unlikeKlaus and Hartel is definitely more of a
tried and true midfielder. Hartel actuallyhas a previous experience in the deeper areas
of midfield, having been essentially convertedto an attacking midfielder for sc st Polli.
He has a lot of experience withArmenia the lfled in the Bundesliga as
a deeper central mid so I viewHeartel as more what Eddie Luvin has done

(16:08):
and is capable of in stepping upinto ten versus Twyk, who is an
out and outstriker. Thank you MattMartel twenty nine goal contributions in thirty three
matches last season, fasting, wecan definitely use that anything else about As
we wrap it up now, justhoping for the best out of the injury
friends and looking forward to Wednesday inColorado. That's Matt Baker, he of

(16:32):
Flyover Footy. Make sure you lookfor Matt's excellent podcast. It's on any
of your favorite platforms for podcasts.This is STL United, Matt, Happy
Father's Day. Exactly, thanks guys. STL United Soccer Sunday, coming to
you from KFNS. Johnny Cash,Daddy's saying bass, Mama saying tenor me
and little brother joined right in there, gonna come back. Ted's gonna give

(16:56):
us an update on what's going onin the world. One then soccer in
the sky Lord and this guy.You know, there's there's two people that
come to my mind that I can'tI've never heard anybody say anything derogatory of

(17:27):
One of them is Dolly Parton andthe other one is the late Johnny Cash.
In his later years as a youngerguy, with all his substance abuse
issues, he was certainly a tormentedsoul, but June Carter straightened him out,
and then the last several years,last couple of several decades of his

(17:47):
life, he was pretty exemplary guy, you know, And just you know,
you listen to that song and youjust kind of can't get help and
get a smile on your face.Any anybody who doesn't like boy Barton,
there's something you mean? I mean, and she does so many things under
the radar, how many books men, and is a reading advocate? Come

(18:17):
on, man, she had towrites cancer research. She had to writes
other medical research. She you knowher and then she's Then she goes,
well, I just thought I'd writea Broadway musical. Does that right?
Well? And she did that collaborationwith the rock stars. She's star.

(18:40):
But you know what, God loveher. He may not be a huge
fan of her music. But ifyou're not a fan of Dolly the person,
you need to check your center,of your moral center human Speaking of
good humans, Hey, I havea hashtagg that I like to use it
stuff power of wo So women's soccer. I have rarely met anyone involved in

(19:07):
the game of women soccer who isnot a quality human being. How about
you, Jim. I've grown tolove it. I've grown to love it.
It's just they're really quality people andcommunity that cares about one another.
They lift each other up. SoI've talked a lot about the Men and

(19:33):
Blazers podcasts The Women's Game with samanthamUIs is the host, Sam who I
had predicted would be the women's nationalteam captain, and she would have been.
She was on target to be thecaptain that Lindsay Iran is now and
her knee, her knee failed her. She's got a degenerative knee condition and

(19:59):
she us can't play anymore, tothe point where she had to make some
really difficult decisions about am I gonnatry this again? Or am I gonna
have some semblance of a quality oflife, active lifestyle in my thirties,
not my forties or fifties. Inmy thirties, she made the tough decision

(20:26):
that he was gonna step away fromthe game. And she is an outstanding
podcaster, and obviously he has accessjust access to people, right but her
podcast this week with Kelly O'Hara,whose body has also failed her. She

(20:47):
can no longer physically play and soshe's retiring, and the raw direct just
totally transparent conversation about Kelly deciding Iknow what I'm gonna I'm done. And

(21:10):
the only thing that Kelly can doright now athletically that she is comfortable doing
swimming, and she goes, Iam addicted to it because she's addicted to
soccer and she can't play anymore.So, if you've never listened to the

(21:30):
Women's Game, they have two podcastsa week. One is called Friendlies,
and that's what Sam and either LynnWilliams her best friend or Sam and Vicky
Soerbrun and they have fun, theytalk about the games, they talk about
funny stories. And then the secondbut guess it's called friendlies. Excuse me.

(21:56):
The first one's called good vibes.The second one's called friendly and that's
with a player, and she's hadeverybody on there that you could think of,
and they're they're fun, but they'realso direct conversations about the fact that
you know, playing in these bigcompetitions can be a real grind. R

(22:19):
Danielle vander Dunk from the Netherlands whohad that collision with uh Lindsay Iran in
the World Cup, Well, Lindseyand daniel Danielle are best friends. They
play in the same club together inEurope, but that day they were frenemies
and they wanted to kill each other, right, So it's it's good stuff.

(22:41):
Check it out. I had noidea about those two podcasts, no
idea. They're good. They're good, they're they're highly they're well produced,
like all the men in Blazers podcastsare. So I want to talk a
little bit about the league and wL and the fact that on any given

(23:03):
day anybody can be anybody truly.And the Kansas City Current. They have
their new stadium in Kansas City.It's a beautiful stadium. It's a packed
house. And they were six andoh in that stadium. They were down

(23:23):
to gogo on Friday night, onenothing, and they scored two quick goals
at the beginning of the second half, and she gotgo hung on and hung
on, and they scored late ona corner gick to tie the match.

(23:44):
And it was an electric atmosphere.And the person who scored was Sam Stob,
who was a veteran center back.Okay, she played in college at
Virginia and she's been with the WashingtonFreedom and she got traded to Chicago.

(24:08):
And the observer of that ball wasMiles Watson. Okay, so Males Watson
will definitely be in Paris. Okay, great striker, but look for Sam
Stobb to positively be one of ourcenter backs. She is deserving. She

(24:30):
got a call up for the DukeKorean friendlies. She's a good player.
Okay. So I want to highlightone other match. Okay, it was
last night. It was Washington Spirithosting Alec Morgan in San Diego Wave.

(24:52):
Last weekend, Chicago had thirty fivethousand at Wrigley new record, okay,
new record for attendants. Well,last night Washington Freedom or Washington Spirit had
their hiatt scrowd ever at Audie Fieldalmost twenty okay, so the Waves scored

(25:15):
twentieth minute. Spirit were knocking onthe door all night. They have Trinity
Rodman up top. They have aoutside back named Croy fifth Un. She
is a rookie, remember that name, Kroy Fith June. She scored a

(25:40):
goal on a ball over the topon a half valley on the near post
against the world class goalkeeper to tiethe match late in the sixth minute or
the fourth minute of extra time,to tie the match. Okay. Then
finally the late match was Angel Cityat Houston. That match was scoreless and

(26:08):
there were twelve or thirteen minutes ofextra time for that match. Okay.
So it gets down to the twelfthminute of extra time and a corner kick
was earned by Angel of the Cityand it was obviously one of those ones

(26:30):
where it was like, this isgonna be the last kick. Right,
corner comes in, the ball isheaded into the six. It's headed again.
Houston goalkeeper Jane Gamble is on theline, but as the shots mate.
She took a half step and she'sin the goal, but her knees

(26:55):
are forward over her chest. Theball hits her knee, goes out,
it bounds back toward her and shesits on it and it's on the line
or over the line, but youcan't see the ball. There is VAR

(27:17):
in l but there is no goalline technology. The call on the field
was no goal. They go toVAR. It was not inclusive conclusive,
so no goal. And another exampleof this league, and there is a

(27:37):
term that fans of the league appit's called NWSL after dark because there are
crazy things that happened in those lategames on the ghosts usually after it's stark
and I'm telling you the league iscompetitive and it's exciting. So the platforms

(27:59):
were and ws l R Friday NightPrime Prime Video, Saturday Night on Ion.
And if you don't know where towatch Ion, you go to i
n WSL on ion dot com andit will tell you where to watch Ion.
It's usually free on two B andall the little gadgets you used to

(28:22):
get TV. And then there isa match today will be on Well,
yesterday there was a game on CBS, but today will be on an app
or a or a website called wL Plus and it's free, so I'm
telling you you'll enjoy it. There'sa lot of soccer to watch, but

(28:42):
check it out. The league hasa lot of internationals that will be playing
in the Olympics. And I can'trecommend it highway enough. But I want
to circle back again the power ofquotes. Quotes. So, we've seen
a lot of issues in the wNBA recently with maybe the veterans not embracing

(29:08):
the young players that have entered theleague. Okay, I'm telling you that
doesn't happen in women's soccer. Theyembrace they I'm not gonna say they don't
compete, but they embrace the newblood. Okay, it's culture and I
love it. It's it's my favoritething to watch. And if someone comes

(29:30):
over to the house and they say, what's your dad watching? The answer
nine nine, one hundred times,it's gonna be women's soccer. I like
it. So and and Seattle RainPortland Thorns is on CBS today three.
So here's a quick funny thing aboutthat. Shoot, it'll come, It'll

(29:52):
come to you. It'll come toyou. While we're all breaking Portland Thorns
striker. Is she gonna be inthe Olympics, Yes, she is,
so Fia Smith. Yes, yes, Sophia Smith got a red guard.

(30:18):
The ball went out of the boundsand she was on the bench and she
acted like she dropped it and itrolled under the bench and the rep she
was last enough of that cananigans andshe gave her a second yellow. So
she's missing this match. Yeah,you so. Do you think she did
that on purpose? Because I firstwatch it, one hundred did and then

(30:40):
someone was like, well, itlooks like she was rolling it and then
she looked up and maybe lost.You know what. What was the score
her team? Yeah, well,yeah it was. You could see both
sides in In the last eight months, there's been two coaches in that league

(31:00):
that have been red guarded or whenthe ball came out of bounds them not
handling it in a manner that isindusive for the play the flow. In
one cases they kind of just whippedit away and in the other case,
Amy Rodriguez, former US international,she she got it and then she didn't

(31:25):
hand it to the person. Theyred guarded her. Right then it is
it is so anyway, thanks forhumoring me so be a smith. God
love her. She's gonna be astar for the US. She already is.
But man to leave the ball,you know what. She maybe she

(31:48):
needed a night off. All right, we're gonna step away and we The
other voice you might have heard inthe background, there was none other than
Tay Kohos joined us. Gonna taketake a break here, pay a few
bills, coming back with Jim Leeker, Jordan Williams. Hey maybe maybe well
from Glendale. You know what,I might put money down on that.
You're listening to STL United Soccer Sundaycoming to you live from KF and S

(32:12):
five nine of the Fan in SaintLouis, Missouri. This is the chicks.
We'll be right back down there.We have a good time. We
don't talk. We all get togetherin type of Webb and then with you
the camel walk. He telling tothe strong he saw me when he's gone

(32:46):
to come down, and then Imet come around that that shoe. Welcome
back everybody that Steel United Soccer SundayOKFN S five Night of the Fan.
Those of you are listening closely willrecognize, Yes, that's the chicks.

(33:08):
I got ahead of myself on thelog today. As I said, this
is this production is done by thecompany called Wing in a prayer. We
do have Do we have a calleron the line? We have a persistent
caller is on the line. Longtimecaller, first time listener. I think

(33:29):
the collar there? Hey, wherecan I get one of them fried baloney
sandwiches? That's what I'm calling aboutdown there next to the Brain's Cafe.
Ty keo, he's there, tyYes. I have two questions I want
to ask you. First, Iwant to ask you about the incredible human
being that was your father, HarryKio. But after, okay, talk

(33:54):
a little bit about Harry before Iasked you My other questions. Well,
he obviously learned a lot of soccerfrom the Spaniards down in his Chronallet neighborhood
back in the day. But Ithink he also learned about opening his eyes
to different cultures. Frankly, andI benefited from that. You know,

(34:16):
he was a guy. You know, most people kind of know his soccer
background and playing in the World Cup, winning all those national championship with the
Kudas Soccer Club, winning all thosechampionships as a coach with Saint Louis university
five of them. But the otheraspect of him, I think throws more

(34:37):
light overall on what we do andwhat we talk about here. And that
is how soccer is a world sportand it makes four connections culturally and friendships
all over the world, and andthe love of the game and be able
to open up and see the otherpeople view the world the way other people

(35:02):
view our sport. And so mymother's from Guadalajara, Mexico. So my
dad grew up in a neighborhood ofpeople from Spain and their kids, and
that's where he learned to soccer.He basically throughout his life he he did

(35:22):
not have one ounce of prejudice inthat he was had an open heart,
he had an open hand, andparticularly if it was around a soccer field.
He wanted to live the sport andlive the culture and just be a
guy that wanted to open himself upand open up Saint Louis to all the

(35:43):
different influences that are out there throughthe sport of soccer. And and it's
made my life immensely better because Iknow so many guys. You know,
guys grew up in different neighborhoods inSaint Louis and had different experiences than me
and maybe had different dads that Idid. Uh. And and they they
they still kind of struggle with it. I'm going to interrupt you right now.

(36:06):
Nobody had a dad like you.Your dad one of a kind.
I gotta I gotta drop this inbecause it's on that that not so super
secret text line that you have involvedme in. And I think was Bill
McDermott who said that when they wereplaying that they break out into the North

(36:30):
South games. Yeah that Harry,Harry liked those, and Harry and Val
Palasol would play and they were themost fit guys on the pitch. They're
very competitive guys too, So thejoke is they always played until it got
dark if Harry or VAL's team wasstill you know, if their team was
still losing, until they tied itat least uh and Uh. Yeah,

(36:54):
those were those guys. They werestill in their forties when they first took
over right at Saint Lucian University.And and Val was the fitness guy,
so he was fitter than anybody onthe field. Harry was busy telling fl
who to mark and who to givethe ball to. Harry was a good
traffic director. But uh uh yeah, bottom line, uh I tell a

(37:14):
quick anecdote. And my dad lovedto talk soccer. He loved to be
at soccer games. Obviously was verysuccessful. Do you see that, You
see that? Yeah? Yeah,for sure, I still got marked.
So I got marked on my sidefrom where your dad was. So it
was one of those days where mydad kind of got home late for dinner
and what's going on? And mymom says to him, what do you

(37:37):
do when the game's over and theneverybody's gone, Do you turn around and
talk to the goalpost? Because heprobably he probably would sometimes it's a great
father's day and and and I'm sofortunate that I had. I got to

(37:57):
experience that, and and the sportof soccer through him. Well, I'm
really jealous of guys who have relationshipswith their dads that I didn't have.
And you know, ed Gail Edmunds, Edmundo, whatever his name is,
I must drop the F bomb forgetsit. His same thing, his dad.
I never met his dad, buthe's got all these great lines about

(38:23):
life. And Harry was just Inever met anybody like Harry. But I
got to change the subject because you'rean expert on this in the Europe.
Why don't they hire people to announcethe games that Americans can actually understand what

(38:45):
the hell the people are saying.Yeah, it's it's a pet peeve obviously,
in that we have capable people inthis country, You've been around the
sport for decades who could commentate andwould be understandable in playing England and not
some sort of cryptic thing that's spokenin pubs somewhere. But yeah, you

(39:07):
have to make it accessible, right, Yeah, I'd like to understand at
least understand who you are talking aboutwhen you're using these guys' names. Dereck
Ray to me is the worst.I mean, I don't know, maybe
who are your favorites. Well,I'll tell you I have a pet peeve
about Derek Ray because he can speakEnglish exactly the way we are speaking right

(39:30):
now, Brain American English. Yeah, he he's his parents are Scottish.
I think he spent his summers inScotland when he was a kid, but
he grew up in the States.So he puts that on to get hired
basically because they because they know hecan do a Scottish accent, which he
comes by it, you know,sort of genetically and somewhat culturally, but

(39:52):
he it's fake. Wow. Onthe on the game yesterday, he said
his hometown of San Diego, andI said, oh, hometown of San
Diego. Interesting, No, that'sthat explains it. Yeah. No,
I've heard him, and actually Iheard him this is like thirty years ago,
heard him do a game where hejust used his American accent and he

(40:15):
did a pretty good job, youknow, and I complimented him on it.
And then the next time I hearhim, I'm like, what that's
Derek, you know. So,I mean, guys do it to get
work basically, even fake it.Well I guess, yeah, yeah,
you fake the accent, you getthe job, right. So Robin Williams
golf, Yeah yeah right. Well, to quote Bora Militanovich, it's it's

(40:39):
creamy. Now it's criminal. Ohty, If you had a chance to
watch any of the Euros, Ihave only watched highlights, but yeah,
I mean there's some awesome talent outthere. And what really kind of opens
my eyes is you look at thebench on some of these rosters, you

(41:00):
know, you see the starting eleven, You're like, well wow, and
then and then they show the subsavailable, You're like, oh, wait
a minute, it's like another AllStar team. It's another world. You
know, world names that you knowfrom the Premier League, that you know
from La League. You're like,oh, these guys not only do they
have an eleven, that's unbelievable.I'm talking about teams like Spain, obviously,

(41:22):
Germany, Italy, I mean,yea, they have such strong Yeah,
France, they have such strong leaguesand they have so much depth.
Now we're bragging about the US teamand going into Copa America and their last
two friendlies. The fact that youknow a lot of them play in big
European leagues, but if you getpast our first eleven, there aren't so

(41:43):
many that are playing for big teams. Whereas in your Germany's, in your
Italy's, in your England's, inyour Spain's, these guys not only have
eleven, they have another eleven.Right, It's ridiculous. And when you
get to the Copa America you're goingto see the same thing. Obviously with
Brazil, Argentine, Chile, Columbia, I mean they're loaded and uh,
which makes you salivate really to seewhat you know, how much talent is

(42:07):
there. Yeah, I think Ithink I was going to say, I
think City would feel that way rightnow with all of their injuries, they're
depleted. Yeah, yeah, youneed depth. I mean, it's a
thirty four game regular season in MajorLeague soccer and these things are going to
happen. I mean, they they'vegotten hit badly in terms of injuries.

(42:29):
But and then you look, youlook to your depth and sometimes it's it's
not adequate, you know. So, So Todd, what what's the biggest
difference this year in last year?Why are you know? I mean to
me, I kind of see itas this is the year we should have
had last year, right, andthen nobody's expectations Lebble, everybody would have

(42:50):
been thrilled about it, but ourexpectations were so warped by last year.
Well, Burke Burkee kept us inmany games. That was critical. But
we've everybody talked about it. Thefirst five games last year, In three
of those five games there were goalswhere the other team played the ball directly

(43:10):
to Klaus or to one of ourstrikers, and and those things might happen
once twice a season, and wehad it like four or five times in
the first eight games, and itwas freakish to come right down to it.
And you know, there's a lotof energy about a new team.
A lot of guys played with achip on their shoulders trying to prove something
because they had been you know,basically left in the expansion draft that they

(43:32):
weren't good enough for the places thatthey were signed by previously. But yeah,
you just I mean, luck hasto go your way to this year
is the end to last year's yang. Yeah, no, it tends to
even out in any sport, rightover the course of a longer time period,

(43:52):
over a couple of seasons, youcan't expect those things to keep happening
for you, and you just haveto adjust and and if need be,
you have to overhaul certain aspects ofthe team's approach. Well, it's kind
of clear they need to overhaul something. I mean, it's it's something as
fundamental as not scoring goals, right, I mean, it's Well, the

(44:15):
other thing is the league continues toimprove, and there's there's better goalkeeping coming
into almost every team. There's strongerback lines. I mean, you you
have to raise your level to dealwith the improving league because this league is
probably forty fifty sixty percent better thanit was like four or five years ago.

(44:36):
Yeah, Bradley guy the Bark dimmerMan or ask him Saturday night about
a team that probably you should havebeen a win. Yeah, and Bradley
quickly, you know this league isat a point where there are no automatics.

(44:57):
Oh yeah, yeah, you can'tgo to oh yeah, we'll probably
win this. We'll probably this.You know, we get this team at
home. No, it's it's it'sthat competitive. Uh and and and you
have to meet the challenge is whatit comes down to. And it takes
some soul searching and then eventually ittakes a break or two. A deflected
shots you know, uh uh reallyuh ill advised back pass by your opponent

(45:20):
that somebody reads. Uh And itdoes tend to even out you Just you
just have to suck it up andand and keep working and and and wait
till those things fall into place foryou. With SC Dallas as well,
when you when you looked at thatteam they just fired, their coach,
hadn't won in a long time.You're looking at City SC coming in You're
like, okay, this is awinnable game. I was watching the game
last night SC Dallas has they havefour used to be regulars on the national

(45:43):
team that Omargan, z Oz whowas the starting center of a very long
time Sebastian lejet Ariola and Ferrera whojust recently was one of the you know
in the striker pool for so theyyou know, Dallas had a talented team.
But going back to what you say, it takes a deflected shot.
That might be what it is ifit's in the rapids game or game where
city s just gets a little bitof luck and then the fortune change and

(46:04):
you start to see the wave comeback and they go in like a little
bit of run. It happens inevery sporty, it really does. It's
just and you got to look atyourself and just keep hammering away. That's
all. I'd like you to speaka little bit more about the improvement of
the league, because I think you'respot on if as Americans in particular,
I guess we're not so used tothat because our leagues are established and it's

(46:30):
not like, oh man, thatthe Major League Baseball is considerably better than
it was five years ago. Maybethat's true, maybe I don't follow it,
but in soccer that's for sure.True. And in the MLS,
if people are spending that kind ofmoney, you're either going to have to

(46:50):
spend that kind of money or you'renot gonna be able to keep up.
Yeah, the league is developing,and so are the payrolls. Right.
I mean this league was established asa single entity league so that all of
the contracts were controlled by the league, so that salaries did not get out
of hand, right, But we'vegone well beyond that. It's almost a
joke when when you talk about asalary cap in a lot of sports,

(47:14):
not just soccer. Right, right, Well, we're gonna tom, We're
gonna take a little break, andI'm gonna chat a couple of things about
this song. This is a summertimestarts officially on I think Thursday, the
twenty first is the solstice, andthis is a great summer song. And
if you listen closely, there's somefairly decent drumming going on in here.

(47:38):
And I happen to be listening toa podcast about the history of rock and
roll. A lot of the peoplein rock and roll that you know for
being vocalists are actually good musicians.In this case, it's Marvin Gay sitting
in with the with the Funk Brothersplaying drums on this song, which Marvin
Gate was, he's just hanging outat the studio or I you know,

(47:59):
Tom might have been because this hasbeen a kind of early in his career,
but as his career went on therehe he wanted to do other things
besides you just sing the songs thatBarry Gordy wanted to. I'm looking at
Martha, She's I'd like hang aroundher. Martha was, you know,
Martha was originally the secretary. Shegot herself got in the studio by being

(48:20):
the secretary and said I can singback up and then they said, well
maybe you can sing lead. Dude. You're listening to Sto United Soccer Sunday
coming to you live from kfn's fiveninety the fan back with from Martha and
the Vandela story sounds a lot likeyour story. You were just hanging out
as a secretary to kind of dudeand oh, I can do that right.

(48:42):
I was actually hanging out helping youinflate balls one day at your baseb
at charity and I said, really, what happened? Somebody come on?
And then Alice he goes, doyou want to do it? Yeah,
when do you want me? Liketomorrow? Hey, you should, you
should interview you, labor Bush.That's my origin story. Here we are,
we're back, die what's happening?I don't know. I'm enjoying the

(49:06):
Mario Bellatelli jersey. I saw himplay two weeks ago. He had a
he had a glazzo. He wasone of my favorite characters. He still
could play. Yeah, obviously,who's got a Mario? Do you remember

(49:28):
when he got into the fight attraining with Maurinho This is more than ten
years ago. Card story, theyellow card story. No, no,
they weren't on the training facility.They actually got to do a shoving batch
and and somebody from outside was likevideotaping the training session. It's you look
it up. It's awesome. Andthen there's like memes all the time about

(49:51):
Mario Bella Telli, the one wherehe always he always had the shirt underneath.
Why is it always me? Doyou remember that one? And then
then I remember they had he hada Porsche that was Camo. He had
a camoors. It was like onething. But yeah, you go look
up the Mourinho shoving match with theBalatelli at trading it's awesome. There's a

(50:14):
great Balotelli and Marinho started. They'replaying in the Champions League and this is
when Marino is at inter in Balatelliwas playing and all of their other strikers
were injured, and so Balotelli getsa yellow card in like the thirty fifth
minute, and during halftime, Rinhotells him tighten up, you know,
no the strikers, we need towin this game. In the forty sixth
minute, second yellow immediately, youknow. You bring up the point about

(50:37):
his shirt having a T shirt onhim? Why is it always big Sam?
Big Sam is wearing a shirt,a T shirt under his I saw
that. Yeah, it's Roman.It says Roman. Yeah. Is it
a is a biblical quote? Maybe? I mean from a scripture Romans?
Was there an on it or not? Well you can't see. But what

(51:01):
it reminds me is that the guyused to always come to the games and
dress up in uh yeah yeah,and it was John sixteen Yeah yeah,
yeah. Okay, Well I'm guessinghere's my guess that Sam has Romans two

(51:21):
fourteen or what however they do that. This is not my area of expercise,
by the way, but I wouldlove to know what scripture, which
which scripture? Which scripture? Thatis, uh, someone out there who
knows a little bit more about thisthan me, which by the way,
would be anyone. So quickly,I'll tell you. I was in Mexico

(51:43):
City in the eighty six World Cupand we took the subway to try to
get to the Azteca and there wasso much traffic. We jumped out of
the subway. We jumped in withthis other man. It was the John
three to sixteen guy. Yes,we wrote with them, and they're headed
pamphlets to us and stuff like that. When I got okay, we're just
trying to get to the game.It's only gonna be on Monday. You

(52:06):
head down to the draining and askhim there you go, ask you.
Yeah, I probably like to talkabout it. Yeah, I I'd rather
find out surreptitiously. Just that wouldbe more fun. Okay, I'm not
going anywhere in the ninety five degreethat I don't have to go. Yeah.
Well, he's six Sam six footfive. It's hotter even where he
is. We got about three minutes, three minutes, Well, ti,

(52:30):
ty, send us away, sendus which way, well, whichever way
you want. What the news isgot about city or what bad? What
do you want to say? Well, whatever you want to think. I
mean, we we got to talkabout city. They got two big home
matches, right, you gotta capitalize. You got to play in the back

(52:51):
or I Dirki's got it. Hehas played center back before. Okay,
yeah, so that wouldn't surprise me. That wouldn't surprise me. But you
know, beyond that, what doyou who? I can't read. What
does it say if you're going tobe finishing up? Okay, he wants
it? We want to touch something? Go ahead, Uh, we got
a for the benefit of coach TerryMickler. We got a trivia night coming

(53:14):
up here Saturday, July thirteenth atCBC High School. Starts at seven doors,
open at six, tables of eightor two hundred dollars per table.
That's pretty good, just just lookingup on social network. Yeah, yeah,
it's good. I just wanted toI just wanted to pass that out
to everybody, cause everybody, Yeah, Terry's hoping to be on the sidelines

(53:37):
fall that'd be awesome, that wouldbe awesome. Yeah. Talk about a
guy who's paid his dues and lovesthe game. Yeah, A lot players
players love well, and what aboutall the stuff he's done with going over
to Holland, to the Netherlands andbringing training techniques back and really raising the
level of high school soccer for sure, and and even youth soccer in this

(54:00):
in this community. Great stuff.Touch touch the Dutch touch. You're right
right, great, Jordan mud elseyou got anything any party England plays today
to really looking forward to that game. Obviously, I said earlier today,
I'm looking forward to England playing inthis tournament, like would like to see
them win something. Yeah. Alot of soccer coming in Copoa, America

(54:22):
starts as well, so it shouldbe a fun summer as we talked about
the summer of soccer. So whatgoing on? Yep, Jim you what
you got? We got you withyour time. I'm good, I'm good.
Everybody that date again, February twentyseventh, that would have put it
out on the on the social network. Nice the date you here first.
Everybody knows City plays this coming Wednesdayon two days rest and then Saturday,

(54:45):
so we get a lot of City. Yeah. So say this would be
a test of whether they pay theirprinciples, right, I mean, because
you could be tempted to bunker andtry to tie. Now. They talked
their system, they talked their principles. They're not going to change it.
And and the fact is they makesure that it bleeds down to the reserves

(55:08):
and to the guys that are partof the substitute's bets it. Hey remember
last year their main quote was nextman up. Yeah, next man up,
next man up. And that's that'swhat it needs to be. I
know Johnny Clive would have been inthe middle, but he was not on
the wing. It just it hadan opportunity to score on that headwall.
Yeah, yeah, guys, wegot to go. It's been great uh

(55:30):
avenue here today and once again wewant to thank Jordan Williams, Jim Leeker
Bleeker, excuse me, Jim Santiato santi Ato, jesus, just tell
it, Sonny, Uncle Beltran,Tai Kyo Ted gave us a great update
on the women's game. A lotgoing on there. You can find us
on your favorite podcast platform where they'reeverywhere. You can catch us right here

(55:51):
on KFNS dot com if you wantto look for us there. I will
give you one piece of advice thatmy dad used to say, never get
into a PN match with a skunk. Think about that. We'll be back
next week for Ted. For Tom, it's ed Mundo saying I took that
advice from Edmundo's Bye Bye, We'reout. See you next week, everybody.

(56:37):
This is five ninety the Fan CAFand s Wood River Saint Louis,
a Zebra's media station,