RFK Refugees: you Welcome in everyone. RFQ Refugees podcast. Ted here, John here, as John apparently is trying to... I didn't do anything. This is the way it is. I don't know what's going on. We don't know what's going on. We never know what's going on here. Our whole thing is stuck. Don't This is lovely. Don't worry about it. John, there we go. We're back. right. John, how are doing my friend? How was your weekend? Hope it was good. I'm good. I was in West Palm Beach watching baseball all weekend in the sun. And it was funny because I was like, I'm getting to escape the... cold winter of Virginia and it was like 80 today. was like, well, I picked the wrong week. Clearly. Clearly. How about you? You were probably right. and sweating. I was, as you can probably tell from my face. Um, it has been exceptionally warm, exceptionally warm out here in Virginia, which has been great to be honest, man. It's been like just perfect, beautiful weather, seventies, eighties. I'm used to like doing these like, uh, so this is like a big, a big thing in Richmond. called Jefferson cup. It's a massive. tournament. There's like four weekends. There's like literally they, they, it's, it's such a big tournament that they split up like boys and girls weekends and they split up the age groups as well in between like those four weekends. ⁓ so it's a, it's a massive turn. There are teams for all over, man. got a, there was like a Chicago fire, like, you know, youth team out there. There was teams from Denver teams from Dallas. it's a, it's, it's this Travis Clark. out there with binoculars? Probably not because this was like you, this is the young, this is young boys weekend. Next week will be the, young, the younger girls age group. like, this is like highest age groups like you 13, you 14. He will definitely be here. And in fact, he has asked me, ⁓ he has asked me in the past to ask if I have time to cover ⁓ some of the games. But yeah, the older age groups will be the showcase. That's where you'll see a lot more of the, ⁓ more of the talent around the area. So ⁓ So yeah, but now that was that was it's been great. It's been wonderful weather. I hope it sticks around You know won't sans the the the impact that it'll have I bought like I bought like gloves about new gloves I was like ready. I'm ready for winter. I'm ready for like to referee in the winter So my hands don't freeze and then literally it's been beautiful weather. It's gonna be cold next week Don't worry. We're still not out of that. We're in the Virginia fake spring moment. Yeah, so don't don't worry about it It's gonna it's gonna hit us. It's gonna hit us hard. But uh speaking of Speaking of things that hit hard, guess, DC United ⁓ game in Baltimore was 70,000 of 70,000 fans. John made kind of a weird little noise. Hopefully I didn't blow up his speakers. 70,000 people, 72,000 people. Maybe there was maybe some fudging of the numbers when it comes to how many tickets were actually sold. Packed into ⁓ &T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland to watch DC United. Fall two to one to Inter Miami. ⁓ The spectacle's over. think hopefully maybe there's a bit of return to normalcy. ⁓ We'll see what kind of comes about this kind of whole charade in Baltimore. Does it get the team, the MLS next protein? Does it get the team to stadium? Does it lead to that? Probably won't know until, you know, several, maybe months from now. ⁓ it may as be seen, ⁓ any sort of final thoughts, John, about the whole. But the whole charade, the whole escapade. I think from a business perspective, it was probably a smashing success. And I think that that was the most important thing for them here. They filled probably two and a half outy fields, or at least two full outy fields. Did they help grow their brand any with new fans? I don't think so. I think as Matti Peltola said, they were there to see Messi, not Matti Peltola. So I think that the struggle is converting those people who were there with Messi jerseys in Baltimore. to driving down to DC to see DC United versus Chicago Fire or New England Revolution on a Wednesday night. It's a hard sell. think maybe if they had beaten, if DC United had beat Miami like seven to one and Messi was like crying and trying to give his jersey away, trying to like get Luis Montaña's jersey, like trying to like beg him for it, then maybe that would have done it. But you know, like I said, this was a business decision. It was said all week sort of in the press conference ahead of time. It was the first time I saw, ⁓ Renee Weiler sort of break with break ranks with sort of like, ⁓ not necessarily with ownership, but basically like everybody knows what this is. And it's not a mystery what this is. This is, this is about money. If I had my choice, it wouldn't be here. We'd be an Audi field, but we're not, it's not my choice. And that's, that's that. So, yeah, I don't know. I I'm glad it's over for the most part. I would like to see DC United to get, they've got some winnable games here ahead of them. think three points are. more important than how their feelings were after having a mostly partisan crowd in their semi backyard. Yeah. I think ⁓ the most telling thing about Rene Wilde that I've learned is ⁓ the dude is just like very much not going to give much away. He seems very annoyed at press conferences and he gets questions asked and he just kind of wants to get it over with. He's ⁓ and I feel like it's like what is it the player in Ted Lasso is like, he's not rude. He's just Dutch. It's like, he's not rude. He's just You know, Swiss, and this is what Swiss could do. Very, very interesting dynamic. Yeah. I mean, will those people turn into DC United fans? I think, you know, if the everything comes together as far as the academy, if everything like, I think you're, you want to build actual fans. need more than just, you know, one game. You need an actual, like, you know, identity, you need actual like land in there. You know, you need the Caranta youth academy or whatever they want to call it. I think they should call it the Santino Caranta. Youth Academy, think that would be a great name and a great to the most famous player from Baltimore. What's that? It's gonna be easier remember than pipeline. Yeah, exactly. is their actual name. But yeah, but you know, I think that'll be the real the real tell of this. If this doesn't end up, you know, in that type of land, and then yeah, this will all look, I think a little a little silly, ⁓ you know, in in in hindsight, ⁓ it would be funny if If it really, if their focus on Baltimore was not about the MLSX Pro team, but it was just desperation to find new fans that weren't mad at them already. Like they're like, I've given up making DC like us. We're going make another city who don't hate us like us. That's going to be our strategy. Maybe we'll play multiple games every year. Maybe we'll be like the Europe. It'll be like NFL Europe, but just Baltimore a couple of times a year to get away from people being mean at outy field. To their credit, you know, we talked about, I think a little bit about the social media stuff that we saw. Um, you know, and that maybe a little bit of the disappointment, you know, and kind of then deleting comments to their credit, you know, they managed to figure out, they, they put buses to allow fans to travel up. They allowed the team, they figured out ways to transport the drums, you know, to sort of give it some sort of in a supporter section. It would have been a very easy for them to just be like, no, we're just, you know, figure it out. Um, you know, we'll maybe we'll do a bus, we'll do a couple of buses, but that'll be it. Apparently they did a really good job of the pre-match stuff too like the fan zone stuff area at a time people people had a lot of good things to say they also said why can't you do this at Audi field but some of that some of they mean they do they try I still think the the vibes are better at spirit games before games and after games But it appears that they really did put an effort into trying to make it a good fan experience for the people who are like we like we said like we see this one game and then never again, yeah, so ⁓ You know, it remains to be seen. Let's get back. Let's get to talk about the on the action, the action on the field. DC United falling two to one. Maybe not a surprising result. I think a lot of us were very negative about how this game sort of came about predictions on this game. I think I said three nothing. It really felt like that. But it ⁓ it really kind of wasn't that DC playing sort of very cagey in the first half, not really trying to press. I will say that this game makes Austin in hindsight, very confusing to me. ⁓ know, he, he trotted out this lineup, because he was like, and Austin, because he was like, ⁓ well, they can't, you know, we, needed to, I need them to defend and, know, basically saying like, we're not good enough to beat this team toe to toe. ⁓ And then he throws out literally the lineup from Philly, ⁓ the attack, the attack lineup, we'll call it, against Rodrigo DePaul, against Messi. And yes, there were moments and we'll get into some of those moments, but really the breakdowns were not, were very much individual. ⁓ thought on the two goals, in one particular individual, which we'll get into, not sort of team breakdowns, like you would have expected. talked about the lack of pressing in the first half. Like this team, I don't think of all the teams that you play against. don't know. Obviously there's not an easy way to handle this team. Right? Like, otherwise they wouldn't be so dominant. ⁓ and they're, I mean, their lineup is their lineup. have the best player in MLS. Probably I don't want to, we're not going get into is he the best, is he the best player in MLS history at his age? Like in this, we're not going get into that. That's, a, that's that's a good off season conversation point. ⁓ we've got a lot of soccer to talk about, but I don't think that that strategy pays itself very well. I think in the second half, saw this team, obviously we'll talk about the fact that they were down. two, nothing a half time and they come out, come almost a completely different side. They, they play different tactically. They're on the front foot. They're more dangerous. They're not, ⁓ sort of, they're just, they just turned, they're just different. And also Miami has, Miami's got a more behind the ball, ⁓ in the second half and is in a more of a desperation mode at sometimes. But I think that I think you can't, I think you can't set out that way. And I don't, I guess there's no way of knowing what that half would have looked like without those two individual mistakes. Cause that cast such a, you know, it being two, nothing. There's very hard ways to come out of that and be like, well, you know, we actually were looking all right. We're not so bad. Because it was looking, it did not look likely that we were going to score three in the second half. So it just sort of puts your mind ⁓ to a certain way with the score line. What were you, what was your sort of overview, you know, goals aside of the way that the tactics were set out? Did you think that that was going to work? And once you saw it, once you, before the goals started going in, would you say like, we might get through this half scoreless or no? No, I mean, Not really, just because again, I feel like they sat kind of back on the front foot. And you know, honestly, I mean, the way both the way Messi and everybody else, they find moments and I feel like it's not a good idea to play Messi into that role where you're kind of trying to sit back. I almost feel like you do have to kind of attack them. They've struggled this year and they've struggled to, you know, yes, they improved defensively, but I think we've seen through their first couple of games that they're still a little soft there and teams that kind of go at them a little bit in the first half tend to figure out ways to be successful against them. So, ⁓ I was happy with the lineup he threw out, but again, yeah, the caginess of everything. ⁓ Gabe O'Purani was borderline useless through this entire game. And I'll get into a little bit the changes that we saw in the second half. ⁓ Like I really can't recall anything tactically like that really happened in this first half that was notable offensively. was, it was just all completely just like, you know, trying to just keep things, ⁓ trying to keep things, keep them off the score sheet, ⁓ keep them away from the goal. Just not really playing in a, in a manner that I think, ⁓ that, maybe I was maybe a little hopeful for, ⁓ coming to this game, you know, going up in on at home in front of this crowd, you know. Everything around that. was the XG chance of the Gabriel Perani no shot? guess you get, do you get no, you get no XG for a shot you don't take, but an opportunity where you, that's not being quantified by the stats. Yeah, that's, that's a, they had a 0.23 XG according to foot mob, ⁓ sort of entering in that first half. So definitely very poor, very few chances. Kurokawa doing his left foot. Yeah. The, the, incident with Perani, I think really just summed up. him in this whole game. mean, this, the one thing he is good at is sort of getting into the box, getting an opportunity at getting a chance. And it's like, he w he wound up to kick and I forget the defensive player that I think stole the ball from him, but it was, that was just like, just like almost like an embarrassing type moment, tight moment for him just to like whiff almost a whiff on the entire, on the entire ball, a zero five successful dribbles, never really, never really got engaged in the game. ⁓ I I don't want to call this like maybe the end of the starting of him in the starting role, but I think we're getting, we're getting close. I don't, I don't know what next week is going to hold. And I think, Gurnay trying to see who the weak link in the squad when he with, with, with the formations he puts out, I'm assuming is what that then. Yeah, maybe, maybe I don't, I don't know. I guess nothing really else have really note. mean, we, well, let's maybe talk about the bad. Um, let's get into the Lucas Bartlett having a day to forget. Yep. Certainly. So, uh, Rich Meyer says same old Bartlett, uh, not quick enough to stay with old man, messy and terrible on the ball. You had another turn over the box. He's us level at best. Uh, you always hope he's getting better and then reverse to normal. Where are the, where are the new center backs that we signed? Well, one of them played, uh, defensive midfielder. Uh, one of them was out there and really well. Yeah. Well, we'll, we'll into Sean Neal. Sean Neal is, think you could, you could see him. Do the Bartlett. Yeah. You're good. Good. ⁓ I think that's going to be, you know, what we see maybe some shifting around, you know, in the formations. This is a coming up next week, these two games, in Chicago against Atlanta, think very, very crucial games, ⁓ to kind of show this team looks better, but I think it's a question of how much better. Yes. These are games on the road. ⁓ Chicago has been okay. They are certainly a very talented team. ⁓ they've got some talent out there. ⁓ maybe a question of their star striker, Hugo Kipers, is he going to be Healthy, he did not play against Columbus, but, and then you've got Atlanta who look very lost. You can't be, you cannot be Atlanta's get right game at home. can't, that is, that is like, that is ⁓ like fundamental bad vibes if you do that for the entire season. Obviously things change, but if you allow yourself to go in there as Atlanta has looked entirely hapless and be like, and lose multiple goals to nothing, wrap it up already somehow in March. Yeah. I'm not as mad about Bartlett. with the second goal, I guess the messy goal because it's messy. At the end of the day, it's Lano Messi. Like Messi has, it does not matter the skill level of the defender that you sign. ⁓ Maybe he wouldn't do so well against like a prime Virgil van Dijk. mean, cause that's- So if we get a time machine and bring him over, we could do it. But, or I'm trying to think of some other major sort of bigger defenders. ⁓ out there, out there, but like a Sean Nealus, for instance, perhaps Sean Nealus, gonna put him in his pocket the whole game. But, but you know, he has made in this league at this level, he has made a fool of just doing those types of things. He is just so expertly good at reading the ball and reading the position, reading the space and making kind of like walking the field, scanning, knowing where to be. It's why he's able to stay at this level at nearly 40 years old at this point. So I'm not really mad about that. The first goal I am mad about because that is Bartlett in possession. It's not about him being slow. He just completely gets bodied off the ball ⁓ and really leaves his team kind of high and dry at that moment. know, if he turns around, kicks it out, that goal probably doesn't happen. Maybe Messi picks up that goal and then we come fight back and we get a draw out of this game. So that goal really kind of stung. Stunned with and I think really undersold kind of a poor performance for him in this game Do you think Sean Johnson is at fault on getting sort of not sort of lobbed by by messing the second goal? Obviously, we just said messy's messy But do you think that I think that there have been a number of decisions where we have, know Sean Johnson's has made some good saves But it's made some poor decisions through three games. Did you think that was that or was this just what happened against anybody? Maybe maybe maybe that's fair. I don't know if I really you know again caught up on, you know, one V one versus messy, you know, versus any striker, you know, I'm not really going to sit there and Jordan far was in there. think he would have definitely made the safe, but, I'm not going to, you know, put be too harsh on, on showing Johnson there. Yeah. So, I mean, and you know, maybe the, the second goal again is through traffic, ⁓ getting kind of caught off guard again. So I don't think you can look at this game and really blame him. I don't think he really made many saves that you would say would like save be game savers. I can't recall. Yeah, I can't really recall. He made one two in the second half. He made one that would have ended it. then I think also I was looking, Miami had quite a few chances to change the scoreline in second half as like DC United was getting stretched, which happens. But yeah, I don't know. He's not our biggest problem at all. He's making good saves. But there are the things that I worry about are the more of the box management that it's messy. I think you just when you when you play in her, you just in your, in your mind, put one nothing messy and then like work around that. Like you've got to score two goals. You want to win, you got to score two. We're just going to put that on the board at halftime. we, did, I did hear from a lot of folks ⁓ during the game. ⁓ Nicholas ⁓ Michael says drum stop that halftime from a distance. looked like the same, not prevent pink shirts in the foe Chico stand and also did not give the supporters enough space for the drums or flags. Always a problem when you do, when you go and deal with security, that's not used to you. I think that's happened a lot of times when you travel. when you have a home game that's like traveling. I did hear there were some problems with people, ⁓ some visiting fans and Miami fans getting very rowdy and like attacking some of the members of ⁓ the supporter group. So not really a surprise. And it took a while, I think, for security to sort it out. I think they eventually did, but it's, ⁓ you know, that is not a surprising outcome, I think. It takes a year or so to train. the security staff to know how to handle it. I mean, it's complicated. you're, if you, if you like mostly do football games, like NFL games, and then you go to this, you're like, I got a briefing, but I was not prepared for any of this. This is, this is that side of my expertise. We always laugh at kickers games. Anytime like there's a kickers game that's like bumping up against like the NASCAR race or some other like big event where stadium, like they clear out like all the usual people that we get, you know, the, the stadium security people who know what this is, who know. There's supporters group, there's people yelling, there's people maybe saying some naughty language and yeah, there are kids around too. I mean, it's just, you know, the nature of kind of how city seems built. becomes very obvious when we have those games, when they're not the usual security people around. And then there's usually maybe a little, a little lack of knowledge as far as like trying to figure that out. I'll never forget the Miami fans or the Madison fans and the Richmond fans. And this guy thought he was like, he was like, ⁓ going to be going like, I don't know, like. Yeah. River plate and Boko juniors type like fights that we're going to develop in the fans between, between these two people, even though we were literally tailgating with them before the game, ⁓ was kinda, it was kinda funny. ⁓ but, ⁓ but yeah, ⁓ yeah, that's true. And I think I went to a couple of DC games, you know, they've cleared out a lot of the like, you know, supporters, there were some issues with supporters away supporters sneaking in. They've cleared that out here at Audi field. So yeah, it's one, it's one of those things that takes time in case of DC. Apparently it took three to four years to figure that out. ⁓ second half. No subs, no changes. The first changes that came in were a Nicola Markovic coming in for Britain, Slovenia and Luis Montano or Luis coming in for Pirani. ⁓ Let's, let's talk about, let's talk about Markovic to start the game and then we'll, get into Luis. I maybe want to save a little bit, a little bit of analysis on him for the, for the Patreon show. ⁓ Yeah. Markovic go ahead. I was just saying, I'm ready. I'm somehow already ready to see him start against Chicago. I thought ⁓ from a physicality perspective, he was better. Obviously he's got size on Brendan. He was calm with passing. thought that that would be sort of the area that you'd be concerned about him pushing him farther up the field, playing an owl as a professional after just being in college a little bit ago. I was not concerned there as well. ⁓ I think, I think the, I think the team knows it too. He has been, has he been a sub in every single game? Has he come in at every single game? I'm pretty sure that he has. He came. I'm 90 % sure. Yeah. Very last minute. No. This is a guy who was a huge talent. I am concerned. I will say, you know, yes, I noticed immediately, I think he played a ball, like got off the, got off the half turn, turned around the midfield, played this really nice ball that kind of like split Miami and allowed DC to sort of develop an attack. passing ability is great. Defensive ability, physicality is great. Speed wise, I think he did get kind of turned a little bit. you know, I don't know, maybe a concern with like a team that maybe has a little bit more speed to it. You know, are they able to kind of bypass him? he's gonna have his hands filled when he's his partner, I think. He's got to cover more ground. regards that to if it works, like, you know, we know that Markovic is going to be maybe that kind of that guy's going to ping the box. If he can figure out a way to cover kind of that defensive ground, opens up Matty Petola to, you know, get more involved in the attack to maybe cause some overloads that can maybe give some, teams, fits. So it's, it's something to watch for sure, because yeah, kind of another first half Servania was Servania. Maybe next to Prani, he's been the most like invisible player. You're not really seeing much sort of contributions from him that really, that really stand out. ⁓ And I think it's definitely time. I definitely left that game thinking I want to see more Markovic over Cervania if it's set up and you know, maybe over Bartlett. don't know. Right now the team is just very, very thin at central midfield. So we might see Bartlett or ⁓ Rolls or some other players kind of step in there. ⁓ but ⁓ yeah, but, then let's get into Luis Montano, ⁓ who I think for the first time finally showed a little bit, not going to call him, you know, sure fire hit. $7 million worthwhile still doesn't have any goals. Still doesn't have any assists, but a very noticeable improvement. Once he came in and Ronnie left, of course he tries the bicycle kick, which, know, I tried to like, just, I tried to like say, okay, I mean, take that out of the equation. Like, okay, yes, that's nice. Haven't seen a player try that, I guess, except for Jacob Mural. Take that out of the equation. You know, that's the, the try stuff type player that you'd like to see. ⁓ but otherwise, you know, he dropped back a lot more comfort space. ⁓ you know, tried to maybe do some link up play and certainly you could start, could start to see, know, Hey, this guy can read space and he can read everything. What was your, what were your thoughts on, on him, I guess in this game? I'm much better than the first two appearances. I think for sure. think he's much closer to starting. He was, I think he was a player that was demanding the ball in a way that was not, that you noticed a lack of before. freebo is always going to ask for the ball, but Luis was doing that as well. So he's another threat. that we don't have a lot of otherwise. We do, but I think he's like, he's got a nose for goal and I think he looks dangerous a lot of times. ⁓ I think you see him start next week. I really do. It's like I said last week, think this is the opportunity here on the road to ⁓ give him 60 minutes from the start and see how we do. Like you said, he's got a long way to go. He's got to be man of the match contender, like every game at what... that the outlay and what this team needs to actually do well. So he's got a way, he's got a ways to go and he got an opportunity to prove himself soon. Yeah. And I think, think it'll be, it'll be good to see him kind of get into that, ⁓ get in, get into that kind of that, ⁓ that starting role. ⁓ Kayden Clark also subbing in Jacob Merrill, not too much, but Kayden Clark coming in, ⁓ looking, alive and kind of strong. ⁓ he is alive. ⁓ I think he fits. I don't like, cause I feel like if you start him, then you're kind of benching Jackson Hopkins. I think he kind of works. He is a much more direct player than Hopkins. And that's why I kind of want to see Luis kind of get, into this game because I want to see more, you know, Luis Montano, we, we heard kind of drifts off to the left in this game. He was very much drifting off to the right to try to link up with Jackson Hopkins, to try to make passes, try to make connections. ⁓ you know, Jackson, Jackson, Hopkins, of course gets the semi assist, ⁓ the little shot, ⁓ that finds a Briba for the goal. ⁓ but you know, it's. It's pretty clear like Caden Clark came in. That was good to see. He looked lively. He definitely wanted to press the game, wanted to push the game a bit. So it's nice to see now, you know, that this team does appear to have, you know, some players that, that can step in and can kind of change the game, which hasn't been the case, hasn't been the case for a while. you ⁓ Hopkins, Connie is out of contract with them this year based on the fact that he has started or appeared. for most of these games and sees seems kind of key to the, you know, hopes of this team or at least would you extend him right now? Would you make sure the give him a couple of years? I would, I would seem like it seems like a no brainer if you are putting him in as much. you sign him right now and you get him on a U 22 deal. Like that's, that's the play. ⁓ I think this team, I, I, really does too. right? They've got the opportunity to do that with the domestic player. They do. I would prevent them from signing a DP because they would be maxed out at four, based on everything we're seeing, maxed out at four ⁓ designated, four U-22 slots and two designated players. So that would, you know, cap them in that way. I was trying to check like when his actual birthday. Yeah. July 1st, 2004. So he'll be 22 this summer. Yeah. And I think that's okay. As long as you're, as long as you don't turn 23, as long as you stay 22 for the whole season. yeah. Perfect opportunity, I think, to get him on a U22 deal, keep his cap hit low, get him paid. And, you know, this is like, this has, I think, been like the only sort of success story of the U22 slot. And I wish, I wish they would just take this role and kind of chuck it and, you know, maybe give everybody an extra DP slot, but then say, okay, you can take a homegrown player and you can offer them a second contract and get the same benefit. ⁓ Because that's kind of what we're seeing, like the spot really being used for, like Gaten Clark, U22 slot. slot type player. I'll be curious to see though. think, I think based on it seems like Prani's body language, according to some was just not was not good. I think he knows his days are numbered. He is a player I would watch if his if he makes his exit, if there is a team out there that in Brazil that wants to sign him and he gets to return. ⁓ I think there's a pretty good chance he could be a player that ⁓ that makes his exit and frees up that U-22 slot to sort of allow them. It'll be, the summer window is going to be interesting. I think there's going to be a couple of players, including one, you know, maybe I think we're going to save that a little bit for the Patreon show. We'll, talk a little bit about it. Kim has played in both of his matches in Korea, by the way, and got a clean sheet out one of them. So maybe if he, he, if he burns it up, maybe they quickly convert that loan into a transfer and get him off the books as a U-22 player and then allow yourself to sign that, sign that third DP. They may not be a bit rushed with Hopkins. I don't imagine the Hopkins is going to have any sort of like international suitors of any kind. And they do have an option. They have an option here, think still on his contract. he's locked in. ⁓ I just think if they can make it work, take advantage of that U-22 slot, him locked in for a few more years. He loves the club. He wants to play for the club. I say this only partially as a guy that's in this get obviously in the bag for him. I just think that if this is a player that the manager seems to great enough to play them all the time, then give your, think you could probably do a good deal. I think you could probably do a very team budget. Even if it wasn't you 22, I think you probably can get them on good money. All right. And any other, I guess, listener questions that we have on our free side? Here's from Todd duds. This didn't even feel like a game or like an event. Oh, by the way, DC is playing a soccer match. What are your feelings of the charade of a home game? Bonus question. Will messy ever play it? Audi? don't know, man. This was messy's contract. I think he signed for a few more years. They signed two more years, two more years. DC will be grouped in with, there will be probably maybe at least two opportunities potentially next year. for Messi, both in the 27-28 season and the shortened 27 season, depending on how all that shakes out. I bet they just do this again. I bet they just run this back next year. Yeah. They sold that many tickets? There would be, I don't think that this team has the self-restraint to turn down the money ⁓ in that way. They would have to triple the prices, not in the secondary market, but in the primary market to make it even, and they won't do that. I think it's going to depend. They will do this again. It of course have messes on the field. Who knows man. mean, he signed a contract. He could also be like after the world cup, he could win the world cup again and be like, this year I'm done. I think it's time to sail in the sunset. mean, there's nothing that says he can't retire. The dude, the dude is more money than he knows what to do with this. He literally is just playing cause he can. can go to New Olson, wrap it up down there, play in Argentina. I think a lot of this is going to depend on where the whole stadium deal is. That deal gets announced, that deal gets done. even if the stadium's not there yet, they're building the academy. Oh yeah, 100%. They're gonna do this again. They're 100 % interested again, especially since the Commander Stadium is not even close to ready. Close to ready. Yeah, I think that's going to do it. We did get a listener question about Herrera. I think we'll save that a little bit for our Patreon show. But anything else you wanna drop about this game? Any other news notes, thoughts? No, I think that this is gonna be... I think like we talked about the circus being over now. Now we are now we're firmly in the, all right, time to, time to get off the high of the Philadelphia game, the excuses of the Austin game and the circus that was messy coming to town. Now these are games that are winnable. They're on the road. ⁓ and there may not be where you want to play at this early, but these are, these are points you got to convert at this time with these teams being down. So it'll be interesting to see, ⁓ where, know, what that looks like. Are they able to come out with the same lineup again? Do we see Luis get run from the start? Do we see someone score? Can we get more than one goal in a game? Which we may need. I don't know. It'll be good to see. am not, for a team that only has three points through nine, I don't feel awful about it yet. Talk to me in two more games. If we have three points from 15, then I'm going to probably be concerned. Over under one and a half points out of these next two games. Over. I'll say the over. Maybe I should have said it like two and a half or something. I don't know two points two points would be successful for you. You get two points out of this game to draws No, want one of these to be a win. You want one of these to be a win? If a win and a loss you good with that. Yep. Okay Where do you think where do you think the win is most likely to come from? I think the win is most likely to come away to Chicago Which I'm gonna go we got we get drive that we get draw it I think I draw out Atlanta happens very likely I think that's very possible. I could see the zero zero happening in Atlanta to be honest with you. Yeah, I do think I I will see man, it's, you're right, mean it's a scary sort of get right game type of thing. ⁓ but again, I don't think, I don't think DC is, is flying so high where it's, you know, where they could be considered like sort of that team that can, that can be that type of get right game. we'll see Atlanta look really bad. ⁓ I will say like, look terrible. think Chicago looks like a better team. If we get a point out of Chicago, I will be, I will be happy. think we see the Austin lineup in Atlanta? We see the defensive Jared Stroud. I hope, I hope not. I hope because that that's indoors. I have to like, have to think like just looking at looking at the way he line up this Miami game, there was just a heat concern about the idea of trying to press. And maybe he was just like, I need to just like give this team like half a half a time to go at it because of the heat. I don't know if that's the only thing could sympathize with it. Maybe we'll see. We'll see, man. I mean, maybe this does become his away lineup. ⁓ or maybe he looks at this and says, Hey, you know, we defended pretty well against our attacking lineup is also our defending lineup. can, we can just do this. We can do this no matter what. Yeah. So I do think that's important. I think we need to see, we need to see a set lineup out there. ⁓ And I think if you're throwing Luis, if you're going to play that defensive lineup, then you absolutely should not put Luis Mataño out there. You should put Luis Mataño out there when you have an attacking lineup to support him. Yep. A hundred percent. All right. That's going to do it for the free version of the show. If you're listening on Patreon, just stick around. We'll be right back. And ⁓ our real. you'd see a little break and then we'll be back. I've just seen the free version. You can join our Patreon version patreon.com such as rfqrfgs. We have a lot more questions, a lot more comments. answer all of them. show is going to be like double the length if you subscribe based on the amount of questions we get. So if you like hearing your if you like hearing your questions answered, and us try to come up with answers, then this is this is the $5 you want to spend exactly. Alright guys, we'll catch you next week if you're listening on the free version stick around the Patreon version. Vamos.