speaker-0: you

speaker-1: you

speaker-0: Welcome into a midweek episode, a Tedless episode of RFK Refugees. I'm your host John and with me I have with myself Jason Anderson of Green Line Soccer. Jason, thanks for joining us.

speaker-1: Thanks, John. Good to see you. ⁓ Good. We're fighting tech problems, but we're through it.

speaker-0: We are if this doesn't work, we're going to start writing letters to each other and mailing them and then we'll just like we'll post the we'll post the transcript at the end of it. Yeah, at the top I want to make sure that we talked about Jason's new enterprise. Make sure that you know where it is and you sign up today so you can get a you know a little bit more DC United daily news or at least biweekly news ⁓ in your inbox. So talk about Greenline soccer Jason.

speaker-1: Yeah, I left USA today and I still wanted to write about soccer. I took a job where I don't really write about the local teams especially, but like American soccer in general is not really on my radar that much and it was like kind of a hole in my life. So I was like, can I still do this? And there was no conflict of interest. So it was like, yeah, sure. If that's what you want to do with your leisure time. And I did, it turned out. ⁓ I would just fill that time with this anyway. So It is kind of selfish, but it is also hopefully useful. Just trying to fill a little bit of a void in the beat writing. know, after matches we get a lot of quotes and stuff like that that tell you more than just what was happening on the field. It wasn't going anywhere. Maybe it goes into Blue Sky or like a chopped up version and it's like a, yeah, you know, I made this point, but it was really brief and I don't like to do brief. So... This is the place the articles are long if you don't like long articles. I don't know what to tell you ⁓ There I'll try and make them shorter, but I'm not gonna try that hard

speaker-0: I still subscribe and you can just ⁓ like feed Jason's articles to a summarizer and then you can read that but he's not going to go shorter just for you. I don't think that's going to happen.

speaker-1: It's just not in me. ⁓ Maybe some of them will be a little shorter, but not really.

speaker-0: The it's actually an additional tier to make them shorter. It's like ⁓ it's the normal fee and then if you double or triple adjacent will just do what I just said and be like here's here's the entire article in 250 words if you really want.

speaker-1: I'll just refer you to blue sky again. know, I kind of a lot of this is I had a jumping off point that I posted already. That's the summary. ⁓ The rest of it is expounding.

speaker-0: Jason is also making sure it's so the thing I always think about you you mention sort of the the the drive by questions that happen in the the post game in the mix zone. The thing that always will as always the top of my mind whenever I think about that is when Jason I were standing next to each other in a spirit mix zone and there was a guy that was asking every player about the importance of nutrition and the food pyramid. And he asked Alex Morgan eight so he could have asked Alex Morgan anything Alex Morgan walking through there might have been her last time and how do feel as a player? not

speaker-1: And also, kind of, we got lucky that ⁓ San Diego's willing to bring her by because the nature of that game was, as with most Spirit San Diego games, was the Spirit had scored a very late goal to change the result. ⁓ And yeah, they brought her over and we got like four questions and this guy got his in. It is a mix-on skill. ⁓ But yeah, I would prefer if the questions stuck to soccer ⁓ because I need that raw material to do what I'm trying to get. people to subscribe for. This is what the whole thing is, right?

speaker-0: I'm fairly certain that guy was a public affairs officer at the US, like the food and drug administration. I think he just wanted a newsletter. He's like, I gotta get this quote. And he did, congrats to him. So that's, Jason's gonna keep it more soccer related, at least in a less tangential way, I think for anything that he puts together. If not, I would also subscribe to that. would like sort of just like the, the problem is you have some. credibility to maintain and professionals and to uphold. But I think like asking sort of these hair brained off the off the wall questions just to see reactions that would also be interesting.

speaker-1: I I ask on this past weekend, I asked the Spirit if they were going to get to cook, get to not cook out, but in and out ⁓ since they're in California. And apparently they were told that the in and out near where they were staying was closed due to it was Easter. ⁓ So they were denied their in and out experience. So you do have to throw those in because players do get tired of the monotony. ⁓ But you can't always do it. You have to get some soccer questions in before you get to the, ⁓ hey, so ⁓ what fast food do you guys want to eat that your coaches are probably like, could you not?

speaker-0: Imagine asking that of a Lasada coach team. They would have been real. They would have said, we heard your interview with Jason Anderson and we have to have a conversation. in and close the door. By the way, that in and out is the one I think probably near PayPal park, which is the one I used to go to all the time when I would go to earthquakes games. So I know that one well. That is a weird, I'm sure you've been out there for a step before the San Jose four games.

speaker-1: I think Not this I've been to San Jose, but not it was before the stadium existed. It was the last time I was there. So I was at the airport, which is right there, but I.

speaker-0: You could have walked 50 feet and have been in the the future home I think I went there before and after it was a big sign that said future home of San Jose earthquakes I remember seeing that and then having a hamburger All right, let's go. Let's let's dive into I think as we always say when we talk before the show starts like you we've avoided it long enough We've avoided talking about DC United long enough, but let's do it now DC United had an interesting offseason a season that an offseason that you know from a pure numbers perspective as they often sort of made sure that we were aware, they definitely spent money. If you were going to say these owners are cheap, they don't spend money, you can't say that technically anymore. I think, know, ball knowers have not been saying that for a while, they've just been saying, boy, you spend money very unintelligently. You take really bad advice when you spend money. But I think, you know, if you listen to this show or maybe if you read, Jason's preview. I'm trying to remember now how optimistic you were, probably not super optimistic. There was a hope that the floor was raised and this is not a team that's gonna get trounced at home anymore. This is not a team that's gonna get embarrassed anymore. At least they may not be able to create anything. And I'll let you repeat your line too. They may not be able to create anything, they're also not gonna get beaten up really bad. But you had a better quote about, at least before this weekend.

speaker-1: Yeah, was just if if they're not bad, they're going to be boring. ⁓ And they were for five games, pretty boring and not bad. ⁓ I would stop short of saying good. They were good at certain things. ⁓ And then this weekend happened. And now the flaws in the weekend's performance are the like exact flaws that they needed to not have happen, which is like this is not a team that can afford 70 minutes of effort and then 20 minutes of like well this one's a lost cause let's let's pack it in Because then they get demolished instead of just losing they get hammered ⁓ This is not a team if they take the gas pet their foot off the gas pedal a little bit They are all the sudden getting lapped ⁓ They really have to give it everything for the entire season to keep this Competitive because that's where they're at like realistically They are better than they were last year, but they're also not a team that can get away with taking it easy. They won't have that luxury any time this entire season.

speaker-0: a roster composed in this way for a season as long as MLS is and for the parity that exists all throughout it. It does not seem like a good strategy for competition being in order to be competitive. have to have a hundred percent effort at every time and always have breaks go your way and hope that you can get a one nothing victory. That seems that is certainly the condition they find themselves in like their best outcome, their best possible outcome. But it seems like that's not Optimal it seems like particularly for a team that spent, you know, 12 million dollars in the offseason it seems like you would want to have a different a different set of ⁓ potential outcomes to choose from

speaker-1: You would, but also they are coming from as far back as they were coming. ⁓ this wasn't a one season roster rebuild. I think the days of that happening in MLS are gone. I'm thinking back to like after 2013, if people remember that season, they came out and they had this unique set of scenarios where they got the Open Cup Champions League spot. So they got bonus money for that. They got bonus money for missing the playoffs. The re-entry draft that year was probably the best it's ever been, et cetera, et cetera. They had this incredible, like, just a convergence of circumstance that was like, if you were ever gonna be the worst team in MLS, this was the, and win the Open Cup, this was the season to do it. And that next season, they finished, I think, six points off the Supporters Shield. ⁓ You can't do that anymore. in this league. The league is the top of the league has gotten too good. ⁓ And I don't think you could have done it with DC United's contract, the contract situation they entered this winter in. ⁓ I think they made a bunch of pretty smart moves to get better. Monteanu being the obvious question mark at this point. ⁓ His time in Romania, there's a season that you're like, wow, that looks really good. And then there's a season that's like, ⁓ that's not so much. ⁓ We don't know what's going on. ⁓ he hasn't played that much. Then he picked up the, the, the knock, ⁓ that he's just now coming back from. ⁓ but yeah, it, it's the team's ceiling is still very low. and I think in one, in one window, they got a lot done, but they didn't get everything done. ⁓ they're still very thin in the midfield. And I think they've also just in general, they don't have enough speed kind of across the board. Those are the two things that I think are the biggest concern right now is that, you know, and that's the nature of going into the transfer market, knowing you need so much. Right. You're probably not going to get everything. If you need as much as they did, if your shopping list is that long, you know, just like when you go to the grocery store, they're going to be out of, you know, if you need cabbage for the recipe, you might have to go to the second grocery store. The first one might be out. And D.C. found that you know, for whatever reason, maybe it was, maybe they pursued some stuff that didn't pan out, that just hasn't come to light, I don't know, but they entered the season with improvements and important moves, but also some holes that are still like, kind of, if you don't fill the holes in the roster, you can't play some other way. And that's where they're kind of at right now, is that they, I think Weiler said after, can't remember which game it was, maybe the Austin game. Or maybe it was the Chicago game, but it was kind of like, we can't dominate games right now. It's just not within the group. We don't have the ingredients to do that job. So we have to find some other way to win games. And like you said, it's not optimal. No one wants to enter the season being like, okay, if we really max out today and we get some breaks, we can win the game. Because if you do that 34 times, 10 of those times at least, you're not gonna get the break. ⁓ And probably you have to throw in 10 or more times where you're not gonna max out effort-wise. ⁓ They did manage to max out effort-wise, I think in, I would say four of the five, the Austin loss was also not super high intensity. Austin's not very good in either, in my opinion. ⁓ And DC still wasn't able to match them or even really. keep them under wraps. It was kind of a like maybe we'll get out of here with the draw was the vibe that they were giving me. And then they couldn't. You know, they gave up the penalty or was it a penalty in that game? I think it was a penalty. Yes. And that was it. It was like, well, they're not coming back. They did come back against Chicago and I thought the same thing was going to happen. There's like, you know, that's it. This team is is was playing for a zero zero. They don't have goals in them tonight. They give up the penalty. That's it. Turns out they got some breaks after that, but you you can't really, that's not going to happen very often either. ⁓ I, the Dallas game though, it really does come back to the flaws in the group. Don't give them any other margins to do things in a different way or, ⁓ get away with even backing off. And so they were already losing that game. I think they were, once they gave up the second goal, I think they were definitely going to lose regardless. but if they had kept up the effort level as they had in the other matches. They get out of there with a 2-0 or maybe a 2-1, though I don't know that they were going to create a goal in that game. Dallas seemed to have their measure completely. But still, 2-0 and you're trying hard. People are unhappy, but they're not mad.

speaker-0: It doesn't, it doesn't reset the net. doesn't reset the narrative away for nothing. Drubbing does. And I think that's important to focus on. Right. Uh, I would say, you know, I've, we have been talking about, uh, the good doctors LinkedIn, LinkedIn habit for the entire time of his being here. It's now broken contain. I talked about it on soccer wise, uh, Matt Doyle is now quoting it in his newsletter. Uh, the, the entire world has now noticed how insane these posts are and what, and then they'll always come win or lose. There'll be a post. Uh, but the struggle is like, trying to, this team is very interested in crafting a new narrative, right? They wanted to, after last season's, the team for many months, the no drums in the stadium, the just, know, emergency, we need to have the owners on Fox five talking about this team. It's gotten that bad ⁓ before and after everything, everyone was fired and let go. They're a four nothing loss, throws a, ⁓ giant wrench into the narrative wagon that was moving forward. Like this team is, you know, we're not going to blow anyone away, but we're playing disciplined soccer. There's no quit in this team. And you're right. they up to this point they had, I just can, I don't call it, you know, evidence, call it, you know, past performance, call whatever you want. It feels like a loss like this has a good way of spiraling pretty quickly for this team because it's, if it was all about belief that this is different. You saw in the post game remarks by Bartlett, by the manager, by, know, like they're like, we all quit, everyone quit. This was all, this was the old team that showed up again. I thought we had beaten. We thought we had banished them to the, the, you know, the, I don't know the zone, the zone at which they will not return, but they're back. we are. ⁓ what do you think that this team has it in them to put a stop to this? Or do you think that they're, they based on those quotes, they also see like, Maybe, maybe we're bad again.

speaker-1: mean, I do think that there was a level of alarm in the post game in with everybody. think ⁓ maybe not Sylvan Hefty who came and talked to us as well. Sylvan didn't see last year, so he doesn't have to think back to, you know, he did.

speaker-0: He doesn't have a thousand mile stare when he's when he's when he's thinking about it

speaker-1: And so his was very much like, what's not good enough? ⁓ You know, the effort tonight was not what we, we know what it is going to take for us to get results. And we know that we didn't do it tonight. So for him, it was very much kind of pretty cut and dry ⁓ with Bartlett, with Brandon Cervania. ⁓ I think Bartlett's exact quote was, he said, we quit. And then he's he corrected. He said, it wasn't everyone, ⁓ which is maybe even more.

speaker-0: That's way worse.

speaker-1: It could be, it could be. ⁓ It'll really depend on, you know, one, can they clarify that within the group? You know, are the players that were perceived as giving up, do they accept that that's how it was? ⁓ Because if they come in and they're like, hey, I think you're one of the wise that gave up, and they're like, I don't agree with that, then you've got a schism. Yeah, you don't. Those aren't just like we're having a disagreement. That's a like we might never get along again as teammates ⁓ level accusation. ⁓ But Wyler said, you know, we want to reset the culture and change the culture. And obviously a game like this tells us that we are not done doing that. ⁓ So that's good that he wasn't like, ⁓ you know, everyone has a bad night every once in a while because that would be lying to yourself. ⁓ But yeah, it. I think he my sense is that he really knows that this is the thing that could tank this season tank this season in relative terms. Obviously this team is not competing with Nashville and Miami. ⁓ This team if it if it's in the playoff race in the final month of the season has had a pretty good season. We're grading on a curve here. ⁓ But yeah, I think he knows that this is the thing that could have them sinking back down to where you know, I'm looking at. Orlando having an absolute hell of a season ⁓ Montreal looks completely Montreal looks kind of like what people thought DC were going to look like ⁓ and mantra people expected this of Montreal it's not like they're surprised to find themselves in this situation but ⁓ yeah I think this is the kind of stuff that DC internally knows it's one thing to lose at home but to lose in this manner where fans come away saying I think they gave up on the night and players and coaches are like, yeah, that is you guys are not wrong. That's poison potentially. That's not a, shook this thing off and it's just a one-off. They, this weekend training needs to be as good of a week as they've had, which unfortunately I don't think anyone's gonna get any real info on. We're just gonna find out on match day, whether they solved it or not. It would not shock me if Wyler makes some changes to the lineup.

speaker-0: confirming it.

speaker-1: Based on if if if you see these players that have been starting suddenly not starting, then you have to assume that they're in the quit band again right now. But. Yeah, yeah. And obviously we know one change is coming or we shouldn't. I shouldn't say we know, but we can suspect that Sean Neal is won't be back in the lineup. That injury looked pretty bad ⁓ the way he was coming off with his shoulder kind of moving his hand, but not moving his arm. never a great sign for the shoulder joint, which is complicated as is. ⁓ So I would expect bad news on that front. ⁓ But he was also probably just getting a one game stand in for Kyrolls. So that's a change that I would say, take that one off the table. But everyone else, if they are suddenly not in the lineup, you have to wonder ⁓ maybe Tiber Rebo. He did look like we didn't get to the press conference was very focused on.

speaker-0: That was my other concern.

speaker-1: the disaster of the game. there wasn't a lot of info on is, you know, think Weiler did say it was precautionary, but that doesn't give us much info on terms of is he just just to get him out of this game because next week is important to or is this a like we don't want a two week injury to come up six week injury that we don't know yet. ⁓ So those two, think, take them off the table. But the other nine starters or maybe not even starters because like Jackson Hopkins came out of the game before the give up. really got obvious. ⁓ So maybe the guys that came out earlier, you can sort of take them out of the equation. But anyone that was on the field in those last 25 minutes, ⁓ and then they suddenly aren't in the lineup on the weekend, maybe this is a signal. ⁓ I think that doesn't take great insight to put those two together, I think.

speaker-0: It's the worst game of guess who possible for DC United fans. can start to narrow it down. I want to talk about René Weiler because he is an interesting character to me. ⁓ think that we have had from Ben Olsen to, I would say that was the sort of the previous to him, that was the far end of the spectrum as far as prickliness in post-game conferences. And then you have Troy Lassane who was really just at the beginning at least before things went really bad was You know, I've seen to me emotionally open, very thoughtful, very gentle in the reception of his questions, even if he thought the question was not fair or dumb. He seemed to be, he's in to be playing ball. Rene Weiler is very Teutonic. He's very, very Swiss. He's very a matter of fact. If he doesn't like a question, ⁓ he doesn't like the question. It's, it's kind of obvious if he's answered the question before from another reporter and you've tried to rephrase it in a way to try to get something else out of him. He will just say what he said before. ⁓ He's interesting from your perspective of being there, being in those press conferences more often. What's your takeaway on sort of his personality? And I wouldn't ask you to try to read into like his like mental state at the moment as he says he seemed like a satisfied coach generally, but it's interesting to me because he is a different character. And also he's got ⁓ a track record of not staying in jobs for very long. And usually because it's an issue. At least what we hear it's like an issue with ownership or or or or the minute up the upper administration is not happy with the way things are and then goes to a new place. What are your what's your read on him as a a as a coach and as a.

speaker-1: Guy. So I will say he's been in, let's be honest, like bigger jobs than this job. This used to be the biggest job in American club soccer. Those days are long gone. ⁓ But yeah, I think he's seen bigger pressure scenarios than this. And thus, from that front, he's not going to fold or lose his cool in a press conference, I think. His answers have been very concise and, you know, ⁓ I'll say selfishly, I would prefer the longer press conferences, ⁓ the ones that go on a little more that even if they're prickly, even if you're getting pushback, you are getting something. ⁓ But this is the, I think this is the experience he's had in some of these big jobs is that you need to be very controlled in what you say because if you say the wrong thing, if you put it clumsily and he's speaking English as a second language or I think a third or fourth language as with many Swiss folks and really many people everywhere except the US. He speaks multiple languages. So, but yeah, I think he's he's very intentional in what he's doing. He's not coming to the press conference and shooting from the hip and that can be good. It can help the team through a moment like this for sure. He I think spent some time probably discussing with the coaching staff what he should say before he came out and he did say, you know, we have to talk about the last 1520 minutes that the team quit. He said it was unbelievable more than once.

speaker-0: He's though, even though he's measured, he is very candid. He does not seem to be like obfuscation guy. He's like, I'm gonna tell you what I think, but I'm also not gonna hang myself either.

speaker-1: Yeah, exactly. And so this was a case where he said what he thought he didn't. In this case, the control is more like not going on and on about how upset you are and not really letting on like his his tone of voice was not very it wasn't getting louder. ⁓ I think maybe one of those unbelievable might have had an exclamation point behind it, but not like three exclamation points, you know. ⁓ But yeah, I think he. I think he knows that this is a difficult one. that he stepped into a job where it's not just, okay, the team was bad last year and we can rebuild it. The team was bad the year before and the year before and the year before. And the team has also changed from, you mentioned Losada earlier, they changed from his way of playing to Wayne Rooney's way of playing, to Troy Lassane's way of playing. ⁓ The switch from before Losada, you mentioned Ben Olsen. All of these are very different approaches. And the rosters have been built towards that over and over again. And if you keep changing those things, you don't have a coherent plan. You just have a bunch of guys. ⁓ And I think he knows that as well. And so that's why the system is very extremely stripped down, ⁓ very much back to basics kind of stuff. This is why ⁓ you see them playing long. It's because playing long is easier. ⁓ I think it's very much a like... I understand that this team like I'm speaking as him, but I think he comes in knowing that this team isn't capable of playing. More entertaining soccer and so he's like, OK, we have to put that out of our minds. We have to be realistic about what we are and we still have the obligation to go try and win games. ⁓ Us not being ready to play beautiful soccer doesn't matter. The game days are coming ⁓ and so we will try and play to win. I think he's gotten buy-in from the group, is important. ⁓ Coming in last year, think, I think almost his entire first, what, four months was basically just like, this is all evaluation. ⁓ We are not betting in tactical concepts for next year. I'm just learning what you can and can't do and who can and can't stick around for next season.

speaker-0: He is finding players on Montreal that he wants to sign immediately. That's part of his doing scouting as opposition. Kaden Clark quickly coming over.

speaker-1: I mean, I've never put too much stock in that just because it's the only reporting we got was I think that was a Tom Bogert line that he said like, Wyler likes this player. ⁓ But we also have to remember that DC changed GM's not long

speaker-0: Right, Dave Casper also made up like this player.

speaker-1: Right. And other people in the organization that were in place in the holding pattern before Soget was actually ⁓ an employee of the club may have liked that player. it's one of those things where the club's higher level processes have been messed up for so long that I'm kind of like, yes, they made a trade quickly and then Clark got here, had the concussion almost right away and then kind of didn't play. ⁓ That side of it is a little curious to me because if Wyler was one of the people that liked him, then why didn't he play once he was fit to play? Because he was in uniform. Like the concussion didn't last that whole time. But in any case, ⁓ I do, you made the point about how maybe in the past he'd, you know, pushed up against things with the clubs he was at that he just didn't, you know, he saw it one way and they saw it another. ⁓ I have to imagine that at DC United, that will be a thing ⁓ because it's happened enough times where regardless of what you think of, know, Losada left, you know, the club made the right decision to fire him. But also part of that narrative was they came to him and said, you have to do things a certain way. And he said, no. ⁓ But I'm sure there were also things that he was saying that weren't damaging ideas that were good ideas. And the club was like, no, we don't want to do that. Wayne Rooney, I guess Rooney was the one that kind of got like, okay Wayne, do whatever you want. ⁓ And we saw that that did not work.

speaker-0: Right, Rappelmorsom, come on down.

speaker-1: Right. So the club has been kind of all over the place and I'm sure that there are things that he said, we're doing this incorrectly. We have to correct it. ⁓ The level to which they do that probably depends on his relationship with Sogut, which I understand might not have as much of a history as maybe was advertised before they got here. I don't think they knew each other especially well. It's just more like they knew of one another. Rather than this being like, yeah, we found these two guys that have worked together a bunch. I don't think that was the case ⁓ Yeah, I think in terms of being a realist and Someone who's not gonna waste his words, but like you said he is going to say You know this performance was bad if they play bad. He's going to be like, I don't think we played well today He's not going to hammer the players in public even when they deserve it like he could have absolutely demolished them on Saturday He just said, you he said his piece in his opening question and then he kind of moved on. ⁓ He could have brought it back to like, and again, this was bad, blah, blah. He didn't really do that. ⁓ That presser was still only, I think, six or seven minutes long. ⁓ That is the space he's looking to. So I'm curious to see how he handles this because... It's not his first challenge as DC United head coach, because his first day was his first challenge as DC United head coach. But I think this is the trickiest one ⁓ because how he responds to the nature of the way they lost to Dallas, it really is going to determine, I think, whether this team can recover and be this, you know, punching above their weight in a dreadful Eastern Conference, by the way. ⁓ I've watched a couple other games around the East when I've had the chance and I've been like, this is rough. Like there are like three teams where I'm like, okay, this is a good team. And then everyone else I'm like, ⁓ this is how has this happened that all of you were in the same conference.

speaker-0: It is it is it is good to I was going to say it's good that there are there's lots of competition for wooden spoons and there seems that look much more odds on favorite than even if everything were to go wrong for decent. I there are teams that were are going to be below them most likely. So that's good. That's improvement.

speaker-1: Right, Orlando, Montreal, I've got the expected goal difference chart and DC is actually ahead of New England. I didn't expect to see that. They're not ahead of them in the table, but they are ahead of them in terms of even they've actually generated more chances even, which is shocking to me. The revs have a 6-1 win and a 3-0 win. So it is, it's a weird year, but it's a good year to be a bad team.

speaker-0: That's insane.

speaker-1: Yeah, that is maybe not as bad as the other ones, but that's DC

speaker-0: He's slogan for this year. should have, should have, that's marketing materials.

speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, it's a real tough thing to try and sell people on, but it is the truth. They are better than they were last year. The East is worse than it was last year. And maybe that's enough to get in the mix. like I said earlier, DC's goal this year is to just be involved in September. Last year, September came around and it was like, no one wants to talk about this team nationally, much less watch it. ⁓ And if they can get in the mix where it's like, DC is at insert Eastern Conference opponent and you know what, they're in the mix between that eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 range. To me, that would be for DC, that's a huge step forward, quite frankly. It's also a very tiny step in real terms. If we take the curve away and we're just grading on zero to 100, but that's where the club is. And so if a small step forward is what they can manage this year, great. But yeah, Weiler this week is a huge test as far as whether he can actually make that culture change he talked about. Can he make it happen? We'll find out in the next couple of weeks, I would say.

speaker-0: Jason mentioned our technical challenges that we're dealing with, so we now have a ticking clock of seven minutes before this zoom call is clear. So I want to I want to quickly ask two questions about DC United and then make sure we have some time for the spirit. ⁓ Your assessment on Luis from what you've seen and try to understand where we were told at the beginning to give more patience to him and that he would come when he would come obviously pick up an injury. And then I want to know what your read on the air and Herrera. Is there a situation? Or is it just he was injured and now he's not anymore? Both of those players.

speaker-1: So with Monteanu, think I haven't seen enough out of him. But then when you compare it to the other players that have played the second forward role so far, he's been better than them. ⁓ Gabriel Pirani is really struggling to make an impact on games at all. Joao Paglo does not look comfortable when he's had to shift up there. And Hopkins, when he's played up there, he and Pirani end up switching. Both times he started as a forward, he ends up at right midfield and After the Miami game, he said himself that it was a switch that he and Pirani were like, you know, we'll switch it up ourselves. And Wyler was like, yeah, it's, you know, that was one that we're okay with them. They, they read the game and they made the call. ⁓ so I assume that happened again against Dallas. ⁓ as far as his level, I think, I think we need to see a start before we can even really dig into it because he's coming into these games where the terms are already set and he's kind of trying to find it. Against Miami, thought he was showing some signs of life. And then obviously, he immediately after that picks up the knock and then misses a couple games and comes into this Dallas match when, like we've been talking about, not really a lot to work off of. Let's be kind. He didn't have a lot to play off of from his teammates. As far as Herrera, I think it was just the knock and he did become a father. He actually brought his... Awesome. His baby, don't know. He brought he brought the baby into the locker room. I think it was the baby's first game ⁓ on Saturday. So ⁓ that's a nice positive for within the locker room, at least ⁓ at least one positive from a night. Yeah. ⁓

speaker-0: That was the Dallas game you did that? Yeah. And so baby's first game. That's unfortunate.

speaker-1: Exactly. ⁓ Hopefully better ones in the future. Yeah, we'll see. Like Hefty has played well enough that Herrera's got competition on his hands. But we also saw those games last year where Weiler played him as a midfielder. ⁓ And so maybe he gets pushed up the wing and maybe that lets you bring Hopkins inside. ⁓ Certainly not enough. I think after after Borebo and Hopkins, the other players that are options to play up front and on the wing have not done enough to keep Herrera. restricted to the backline. So we'll see there as well as to whether he gets in the mix ⁓ or maybe maybe he came in and Weiler was like you're one of the guys that was that you know part of the problem at end of the match. I don't think that he was but maybe there's a different perception internally. We'll find out a lot when this game against the Rebs kicks off.

speaker-0: So I think we could have another entire 40 minute call on the spirit just solely based on the narrative, the narrative police and the narrative that was running away before this most recent victory. But if you've been paying attention to the spirit, from my perspective, the story has been one of a lack of cutting edge, a lack of a real preseason with all the players involved and some individual mistakes resulting in goals or not opportunities to win that did not come through. The Bay game changed that up a little bit. Just, want to give you the floor for three minutes to say why this team is not, or maybe I don't want to put words in your mouth, but the fan, the fans on Reddit and wherever else be like, this is because we, because Troy got traded or Croy got traded. That was, that's the extent of what's going on here. What is your read on this, the slow sort of crawl out of where this, you know, for at least from the standings perspective, where the spirit are right now.

speaker-1: I just pulled up there. Their expected goals are the highest in NWSL right now. They have created more chances than Orlando and San Diego. ⁓ Their expected goal difference is tied for second with Orlando. They only trail San Diego. ⁓ These are good indicators. ⁓ The fact that they miss, they've missed some big chances obscures the fact that they are creating the big chances.

speaker-0: DC vetted wishes that they had that many chances created.

speaker-1: ⁓ And as a fan, of course, there's going to be it's an acute agony of watching Lacey Santos not turn in that early chance at Bay because if she puts that one away the way that they were performing, I think this is a blowout win. ⁓ They did not have a sniff of that game. They could not figure out what to do. ⁓ Their best solution was to basically hunker in and get to halftime and then see if see if they could figure it out in the locker room. They didn't. ⁓ the Spirit were the better team in that one by far. And they were the better team by far against Utah. I think Esme Morgan said they should have scored six. I don't know if I would have gone that far, but they probably should have had like three on the board so that Sandy McKeever's throwing error doesn't matter. It just becomes like, well, you don't want that to happen, but ⁓ well. ⁓ Instead of a, it changes the result. It changes the whole narrative around the team. ⁓ I think they're doing really well. They are... lacking the central thrust from Bethune. The dribbling in particular is missing because Lacey Santos, she'll use a move, but it's more to get you out of her way so she can make the pass, whereas Bethune is trying to go past you. ⁓ It's a different type of player, but they've also adjusted to it by just saying, OK, we can create different ways. ⁓ We don't have to be the same team as last year to be as effective at creating chances. ⁓ Rose Quasi is absolutely cooking defenders. Trinity Rodman if we played this season as a simulation ⁓ If we did the Monte Carlo style simulation of 10,000 reps, I think she would have three or four goals by now she's been very unlucky with Jordan Bloomer and ⁓ Mia Justice playing out of their minds against her in particular So yeah, I think they are actually doing quite well and it just it might not feel that way because of the missed chances But trust me they are doing what they need to do to continue to win games like they did against Bay. The Bay game should be more normal than not normal.

speaker-0: Yeah, so everybody take a deep breath. It's alright. It's a long season. They're going to be OK. We're about to wrap up Jason. Thank you for joining us. I hate to have cut the shop like this, but zoom is going to make us do it. So everybody subscribe to Greenline Soccer. Follow Jason on Blue Sky. Do all you are. If you're listening to this, you already doing those things, but do it anyway. Jason, thanks for coming. I appreciate it. Bye bye.

speaker-1: Thanks, John. All right. See you, man. Is this going to kick us off or just make us stop?

speaker-0: It will in like five seconds. I appreciate it,