speaker-0: you Welcome in everyone. RFQRFG's podcast, Ted here, John here, as John tries to get our ⁓ video ready to go. We're here to talk DC United. We're here to talk soccer. We're here to talk everything. But before we get into that, John, how you doing my friend? How was your weekend?

speaker-1: It was, it was pretty good. I'm trying to remember what happened exactly. I don't really remember. I watched a lot of baseball. I watched a lot of, I watched a lot of soccer. Watched a lot of, ⁓ I watched one game. I don't know. I would say with one game was pretty hard to watch and the other game was also pretty hard to watch, but ended with three points. So a little less hard to watch in the end of it. I tried to play hockey today because I'm starting playing hockey next week and I spent all day getting ready. And then I got up there and like, ⁓ you're not a lot on the ice unless you have all of your pads. on it's just like me and two other guys just shooting pucks like not hitting anybody. So my entire day was wasted. All wasted. It's okay. I took the day off. I slept till 930. Ted, do you remember the last time you slept till 930? Probably because you you ref on the weekends, right? So like

speaker-0: Let's spend a minute. Well, to be fair, so I guess my Saturday, didn't really get started till like 2 PM.

speaker-1: ⁓ So you definitely could have slept in then.

speaker-0: So I definitely slept in that. I did, but we're trying the, my wife and I are trying the early wake up. We actually woke up at five 30 this morning to go to the gym to try to get the gym workout in before, uh, where this, and we're going to the. We did it and we got through it. We caffeinated up, caffeinated up throughout the day. Uh, we actually managed to make it work.

speaker-1: How was that? Was that good? Ted's going to go to sleep during this episode. Just that's okay. I'm just going to keep going. When Ted falls asleep, we're going to turn his video off and I'm going to saw a monologue.

speaker-0: Either that or the power is gonna go out because either it appears like

speaker-1: One of those. You're going to get a very short show and you'll get a longer show tomorrow in your feeds.

speaker-0: Well, not tomorrow because I've got ⁓ I've got open cup to attend I've got the first round of the open cup between the Richmond Kickers and Nova FC I'm sure I will see some people like hey, I remember when that guy played for DC slash Loudon ⁓ So be fun. Well, yeah How's my week going? Thank you for asking John ⁓

speaker-1: That's Nova for you. ⁓ I kinda didn't know I should ask Ted. How's your week going? Have a good weekend? ⁓

speaker-0: Yes. And, know, not, not really, no. ⁓ we, suffered a, ⁓ a loss of a furry friend to the, in the, ⁓ a furry friend, I guess you could say. ⁓ so that, that was not a great way to start the week. ⁓ and then, ⁓ but I did, I did do the, soccer refereeing as I always do, which is always kind of a nice little, nice little way to distraction. ⁓ dealt with a, ⁓ a U 10 semi-final with a brand new, literally said this was her first game. ⁓ so you don't know there's the Jefferson cup and, ⁓ you Tim parents, the most reasonable people, ⁓ in the entire world. ⁓ I, you know, the, the, 10 Jefferson cup, semi-final college scouts, they, they look at the results of that very, very intently. but, you know, it's, it's been a rough week. I'm here, DC United one, which is always good. ⁓

speaker-1: and get it in. They did it for you, Ted, I think. I think that's the only reasonable explanation of how that game ended up the way it did.

speaker-0: Fertuitous, fortuitous win. think we'll get into it obviously, but so that's that was that was certainly one good thing that happened and you know, mostly, you know, games were fine. No major incidents, you know, got to get outside and run around for a bit. So always fun. So I'm really digging the jersey you're wearing, by the way, the Quebec type type jersey.

speaker-1: Thank you. It's a Peter Forsberg jersey. Nice. I have found a somewhat, I don't know it's called, reputable. I have found a company in a foreign country that can do these jerseys at a reasonable facsimile to the real version. So I'm going to basically be dressed in vintage NHL jerseys from here on out. It's kind what I'm going to wear for life.

speaker-0: Gotcha. Well, let's get into it, man. Let's not waste any time. We got DC United to talk about DC United getting a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire. Fertuitous win, think, is how you can describe it. ⁓ We'll get into a little bit about maybe what this win means. ⁓ Very like odd game, odd vibes. I don't know quite how to like really like break, I guess, the game down ⁓ significantly other than It just kind of being, it's a lot of the same things we talked about that have been good. A lot of the other things that are still concerning, it's going to feel like maybe this is like a carbon copy other than of previous shows, except we're talking about the goals. At least that's what it kind of feels like to me. It's like, it's like, I, it's the same lineup as the previous game. Again, still the Austin game continues to baffle me as to why that lineup was chosen when it's a, when it's pretty clear that, you know, this team can hang with.

speaker-1: This lineup can do both of those things. You do need to change out the wide midfielders in order to keep a team from scoring.

speaker-0: Yeah. So, but what are your overall thoughts, I guess, in this game? Obviously, the win's good, but this for me is good.

speaker-1: Good. The win is good. I think this team really still struggles in the buildup. They're going to, once they run up against a team with real like solidified attacking power, this team is going to be, I believe in some trouble. I think that's really going to be the case. ⁓ They haven't really yet. ⁓

speaker-0: Come Inter Miami, not elite.

speaker-1: We don't really count. I listen, that was an aberration as we said in the last show. was a weird event in Baltimore. That is the case. also, true, Miami also was before their game before that one. They're not off to the races yet. They've had one game in which they've really, they turned around halfway through the game where they were not able to connect and then they started to. So Inter Miami is maybe the one outlier. But I would say that this team still needs some creativity, still need options and other avenues other than give us a tie in the box. I thought I saw some some good action from our wing backs, both of them. have to I think is the player it's between Peltel and Hefty for sort of early season. ⁓ Most valuable player for DC United, in my opinion. He had he was Hefty was all over the place. I think he saved saved one goal off the line. He was I would say, you know, really not as involved in the attack maybe as as you Kurt Cowell went to Ben or Herrera when he comes back, we can talk about that. I'm sure that's one of questions. But I think there's just some, there's some struggles here. They are not as quick in transition as I'd like. think Pirani still is a big problem. are like nine to twelve questions about Pirani coming in from listeners about how horrible he's doing this season. Which as the OG Pirani hater, I feel like this is good. I feel like we've returned to normalcy. There was a weird period where he was good for like four weeks and everyone's like, Can we give him a five year contract? Can he be a DP yet? So he continues to be the place where really like, you know, 1.0 XG opportunities go to die.

speaker-0: Yeah. You talk about it, just like, it's really, what's interesting is that he's really just, he's such a non-factor in any play, any attacking buildup. He gets the ball. You know, I think there maybe was maybe one moment where I thought, okay, well maybe he found ⁓ an opportunity. But there's just like, there's just literally just like this massive black hole when it comes to like creativity. You know, Hopkins is able to do a little bit kind of from his right back position. He's able to connect.

speaker-1: tried to Hopkins worst game as a professional with a big ass, big old exclamation mark next to it. Unfortunately.

speaker-0: Yeah with the the handling call which you know is unfortunate I thought peg low, know peg low was pretty good in this game You know, I think he was lively as far as like creating chances again. Nothing super fantastic But pirani again just like there's not anything you can point to as far as him being a creative force He's not able to get in the offensive third. Yeah, Luis is injured apparently picked up an injury I think Romanian media is reporting he might be out for the international break, seems like it's some sort of muscle type injury. ⁓

speaker-1: great when the Romanian media ⁓ is pipping because there ⁓ very few ⁓ people traveling with the team to get the scoop on the injuries, but that's what we're at right now with Leaf Step player.

speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ but, know, so like overall, defensively, like this team is like showing to be pretty solid. ⁓ I do think Chicago maybe left DC a little bit on the hook on a lot of things. ⁓ Kai Rawls, especially I think had a, had a, ⁓ a Bartlett type performance where he wasn't punished, unfortunately, or fortunately for him, guess, ⁓ you know, Bartlett had two really bad moments and got punished by inter Miami. ⁓ Rawls especially got turned twice on basically the same exact play. ⁓ and very luckily, like did not give up a PK. Like when that whistle went, I think it was like middle of the middle of the first half and we were all thinking, ⁓ shoot PK, like no doubt penalty kick. Absolutely. And then they gave a, ref gave a yellow to a Zickernagel. think it is, for, for simulation, ⁓ which is very, very wild. And it was honestly the correct call. Like just like ballsy type call. It'd be very easy for the referee to be like, Nope, Nope. You know, you can just say no and move on. No call, no foul, but like he literally said, Nope, that was actually a, that was simulation.

speaker-1: Yeah, I'm very, very, very convinced of him. In a world of ⁓ VAR, there aren't a lot of people that make those kind of decisions at the moment.

speaker-0: It's really wild though. They could talk about how good hefty he's been. Like he has been, I am waiting for some, alcolytes to come in for him from sort of the internet, the national media, ⁓ to talk about how good this, how good he's been, ⁓ in that position, ⁓ able to push forward, even had some connecting moments in this game. ⁓ service was excellent as far as like putting the ball, you know, this team is going to need crosses. ⁓ he was very much like able to kind of push forward contributing while also checking back. ⁓ just, think a, a, you know, maybe if it's not for Peltel getting, getting the goal, ⁓ you know, probably a man of the match type performance from him. ⁓ and.

speaker-1: That goal by Peltel is not a one he's gonna pin on his wall, but they all count.

speaker-0: I keep on, I keep looking back. was trying to like side foot that to Caden Clark, wasn't he? I'm pretty sure.

speaker-1: It certainly did not look like his laces were going through that.

speaker-0: He, I think he, was trying to hit it like a little fast to like Caden Clark and then just took a like very fortuitous deflection, ⁓ into the, into the back of the Love him. But yeah, he's talking about the offensive, like first half there was hardly anything, lot of, lot of like possession and ability, I think to sort of like keep, ⁓ keep, keep, you know, the front foot and like sort of try to test the defense. But just like block shots after block shots. have look, had, there had to be at least four or five, like actually like block shots. I'm not able to really get much into the box of note in this game. So yeah, it just, yeah, I was going to look, see four shots on target. Only one really big chance. I guess we got from this game. I was going to look at the first half, especially. So, but. Yeah, and then, you know, goal wiped off via VAR. I'm sure some people might disagree, but yeah, that was kind of the...

speaker-1: I thought that was a pretty nailed on decision. continuing Jackson Hopkins is no good, very bad day.

speaker-0: Yeah, it's a tough Yeah, just kind of sitting in the thing. It's almost a one-nothing game. And that really was kind of the only chance, the only chance, real significant chance that DC had in that game in that first half. don't know, anything else you had to have to really point at as far as that first half?

speaker-1: Not so much. think Zero Goals was right, other than obviously the one drawn off. that to me even felt kind of out of nowhere.

speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, it really did. ⁓ But it's nice to them, I mean, get some opportunities off set pieces, you know, maybe if a player moves onside, they've got as a team that is struggling to create chances, one way you can create chances for yourself is set plays. And I think like so far this year, I've been very disappointed with kind of the set piece delivery. ⁓ This game, there was a noticeable improvement, I think from all from all ends, including the goal, including a lot of a lot of what's been ⁓

speaker-1: Who was taking the corners? Did you remember that?

speaker-0: I thought it was Karakawa, I want to say on, at least on the left side. then think it was Hopkins.

speaker-1: Still Hopkins on the right. I was wondering, cause I didn't notice and he was, he started the season as getting that duty and I hadn't.

speaker-0: Yeah, just go, maybe go back and watch, but I'm pretty, I know Karakawa was up there taking, taking some of the free kicks, but yeah, the service seemed a lot better in this game. ⁓ Second half again, I comparing the second half to the first half, I thought DC were like, honestly, like the first half I would say you could point and say Chicago were probably the better side till not significantly into their favor, but certainly. more towards their favor. The second half, thought they looked a lot better. And one thing I think they were talking about on the broadcast is the first half, there were a lot of attacks where it just kind of like, you would expect them to get on the break and to go forward and to try to rush and try to get, and then they would kind of slow up the ball, slow up play. ⁓ Kierukawa in particular, I felt had kind of a frustrating moment where I thought that there was break was on and he kind of like slowed up the play and kind of stopped. And they kind of tried to pass it around, move it around and then never really. developed much, ⁓ developed much from that. yeah, any, any thoughts second half versus first half?

speaker-1: I think that the result and the way the game was watchable or wasn't watchable, United having 36 % of the ball and that was not a huge deal and not to be really unexpected with the way the team was playing. think that this, like similar to, think you bring up the Austin game and that's really an interesting sort of comparison. Like that this is way they're going to set up on the road. Uh, they're going to, they're not going to necessarily truck. mean, not that, not that their home form has been like swashbuckling or anything. Um, but I think they're, they're much more, they're much more, um, comfortable either in a lower block or just saying like, we're going to try to take our chances on the counter attack or set pieces, which is what was the plan in Austin. didn't go their way. went against them exactly in that formation. I'll be really curious to see what the setup is this weekend on the road again to Atlanta to a team who just won and finally figured out how to score again. Uh, I will be. I assume same. assume we're going to see the, I assume we'll hope the hope is we'll see a very similar game to this one, but in Atlanta.

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: I just heard the storm come in. if all of sudden, I heard your rain finally get to Fredericksburg.

speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, it's a very much stormy weather here. I hope everybody's enjoyed the, the time off with their, with their kids, right? That's what everybody wants. Um, but yeah, you talk about, um, they completely lost my train of thought. like a thunder's rolling through, uh, the, I talk about what, this team has set up to do. It is very clear to me that this team is set up to try not to lose. And to maybe four situations where they have opportunities where maybe a little luck falls on their side and they're able to get a win. Maybe they get that sort of one opportunity. think this is a team now that is not going to get, it's very, to me, it reminds me a whole heck of a lot, like 2014, 2015, not, you know, those teams were, think a little bit better. 2014, 2015 DC United, the sort of like, just like grind it out, suffocate type results. ⁓ As has John completely lost his power. He was kind of moving around and then suddenly he's completely stopped so I will I will try to try to chalk try to talk a little bit while we do that, but yeah, it's very much a ⁓ Very much a case of a team that is trying not to lose. They're trying to keep keep games close They're not trying to get blown out and there goes John ⁓ as he has exited stage right. ⁓ I'm pretty sure he has lost power. John, think to, ⁓ to your point, what I see from this team is that they're, it's very clear with Renee Weiler, they're set up not to lose. ⁓ so they are set up to try to prevent goals from going in. This is kind of first and foremost, what the, what the mission is, try to keep it, you know, down one, down zero, not getting blown out. ⁓ and so far they've been pretty successful at that. And then it's, you know, you can. get moments like you had in the Chicago game where you a you get a sort of very fortunate goal for Maddie Patola who again was excellent ⁓ and then you can also possibly get a ⁓ lucky bounce off the hand of a Chicago defender for a game-winning PK so

speaker-1: And it feels like that's a realistic perspective on what the team's actual abilities are. think as opposed to being like, no, we're going to, we're going to win three, nothing looking at this roster. That's not a realistic, uh, guess of how these games are going to go. So I'm okay with that. I would like to see this team, uh, change course at some point, potentially, you know, maybe that maybe if it's just, if it's just one player, if it's just the DP number 10 that's holding this team back from winning games, three, nothing. Okay. Great. Uh, seems. unlikely, but I would say six points from 12. It's pretty good.

speaker-0: Yeah. Especially considering where this team was, you know, just a, just a few, a few minutes. We're above a point, you know, a point per game. ⁓ I think you're seeing, you know, I think on the stage, like this is going to be a team that's going to grind it out. Again, it reminds me, I think those teams are better. Reminds me a lot of 2014, 2015, like DC United. Like it's like where we know we don't have the talent. We've got the one star in this case, Eddie Johnson, ⁓ in that year. And we've got, you know, this case, Ty Burribo. I think a Johnson was a little more productive or Debbie has been a little more productive so far than a Johnson was, think. And I think he'll be more productive, a whole other help situation going on there for him. ⁓ but kind of like, you know, this is not pretty soccer. They're suffocating the game out. They're able to be stout defensively, ⁓ you know, behind in goal and defense, keep the game in front of them. And, you know, then they get, you know, opportunities to catch teams on the break. to go get opportunities. And I do think in that second half, they generated a lot more sort of high quality changes. There was one that really, I think, forced Chris Brady into kind of a pretty big save. I was near post, but ⁓ I believe it was Peglo had an opportunity kind of on the edge of the box. ⁓ That was ⁓ kind of important.

speaker-1: Before this game started, ⁓ Ty Bripo had two goals on two shots on goal for the entire season. ⁓ In this game, he had two in one game. So he doubled his shot total and then had another goal too.

speaker-0: Again, I think they are starting maybe to nail a little bit on the service part. The balls into the box were a lot more threatening than they have been. think Karakawa was able to get more front. Hefty also, like I didn't know Hefty could deliver a ball. He had a couple of nice moments where he got the ball on the edge in the box and delivered it in. Again, know, Hopkins still being kind of the dribbly boy. I don't think he had a poor performance. think the, you know, the handling is unfortunate. If it were up to me, that type of call would not return until like an automatic goal. Penalty kicks are silly. We need to do away with them as we know it. We need to come up with a fairer system to judge PKs, but then I'm also not going to complain.

speaker-1: You're like the Dave Johnson except it's not the offside rule, it's for handballs.

speaker-0: It is the PK rule and I can do a rant, I can do about, you know, on what they need to do. But in my opinion, PKs should only be given for dogs of situations at the box. Otherwise, it's a free kick outside the box. think that would solve a lot of VAR issues. It would solve a lot of problems. It'll never happen because suddenly gold totals will be cut in half because PKs won't exist and maybe not half a third. I'll say a third. And so that would be a little more difficult.

speaker-1: of rant.

speaker-0: I think it would lead to better soccer. ⁓ but anyway, so, ⁓ obviously talk about Hopkins unfortunate, you know, unfortunate handling call in the box. Not much you can really do about his arms open. was trying to look like whether he got his head on the ball. Cause there's an argument. If you, if the ball, if you're trying to clear the ball and it comes off your hand, you get a little more grace from officials with, with regards to that. But I believe it's kind of straight down hands away from the body. ⁓ pretty, pretty clear PK. ⁓ but to the team's credit, they sort of battle back. and you know, started to kept looking to generate chances, opportunities. ⁓ And they get a goal from Matty Patola, his first goal for DC United. So capping off a great performance from him. We haven't really talked about him. What have you made of sort of his performance so far this year for Matty? Yes. ⁓

speaker-1: them. We're giving him flowers here. Maybe I would say this team is not able to do this act of keeping games close and sort of, know, ⁓ Rene said this team had no interest in playing through the middle. They only they wanted to hurry up and get the ball into the attacking third. ⁓ But I think that his his play there keeps teams from even thinking about doing that. He's done really, really well in that spot. I think he is. It's been like a I don't want to call it like a warp speed jump from where he was, but it's a continuation of the end of last season. And I think he's a player that, you know, depends on how much eyeballs get on MLS and DC United. He's a player that someone could, could take a look at and want to leave, want to have go somewhere else in the summer, depending where the team is.

speaker-0: Yeah, I'd be very curious to I believe he's here. He's here through next year, right? I believe that's what his contract, maybe there's an option in there somewhere. ⁓ but this is a player. mean, ⁓ like again, I've sang his praises for a while. ⁓ he's a player and just the consistency out of his performances, I think is worthy of note because we always, I always saw these, there would be these little flashes of like what he could do, his ball recovering ability, his passing ability, his ability to, you know, make sort of smart decisions. to kind of run the center of midfield. I think it's very clear, you know, so all those, all those moments kind of existed and we got flashes of them in 2024, but it was never consistent. was never like a consistent stream. Now we're seeing like every single game, he is like one of the best players out there. He's able to cover just massive amounts of ground in the midfield. He's able to push the ball forward. And I think he, you know, again, gets rewarded, I think for what he's doing with a little bit of offense and getting a goal. ⁓ So yeah, again, fantastic for Matty Pettola. Been one of the really big bright spots. I'll even sing some praises of Cervania. I thought Cervania actually did some nice things. It was a bit of an industrious performance. ⁓ I thought he was a little more active in the game. Again, that's an area I think this team still needs to improve. But overall, he was not like a ghost in this game. I feel like he's been for a lot of the season. ⁓

speaker-1: I put on the ghost hat for this game.

speaker-0: Again, again, ⁓ does lead us to our first question. ⁓ don't know if we really want to break down like much. The goal was weird handling call kind of weird. Obviously we have the situation, ⁓ where apparently something was said to Tiber Evo. ⁓ that was, ⁓ on the naughty side. ⁓ think.

speaker-1: I and I thought that Jason Anderson on Greenland Soccer made a really good point there, that René Weiler was basically like, I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to give it the spotlight, we should just move on and play. And then Jason was like, well, we tried that with like racial abuse and that didn't work very well and it didn't stop it really much. So maybe that's not necessarily the way to go about things. I think that it's good that eventually after Ty continuing to freak out. the referee finally took it seriously. All right, well, let me at least find out what happened, like, and let people know and, you know, put it on record, whatever the protocol is that we have to do. So it was weird. It was very strange to watch. I think now there's reporting from Jose Emania that it was potentially a homophobic chant that was heard behind. I don't know. I had heard that we have a listener who was there at the game and had said early in the first half, like that was going on the entire game. So interesting. that whatever he suddenly got very set off on that and they intervene the way they should have. But I just thought it is a it was interesting. It was weird. Our past with this experience is it's a player and it's racial and sometimes it's been on our team. Usually it's been on our team. So it was very strange to see how that all went.

speaker-0: Yeah. Um, and you know, again, it's, you know, the protocol you have to have, I've, I've experienced a situation where a player reported something that was said that was racial. Um, it's incredibly tough situation to be in, uh, because, know, as the referee, unless you heard it. Um, and I've been in a situation where a referee heard it and gave a, gave the appropriate, uh, uh, designation for the card. But if you don't hear it, you've got to like, almost like put it your match report. You've got to, you know, talk. Talk to the coaches, tell them what said, particularly if it's another player on the field, you you've got to almost put it up to the coaches to make the decision. it's, it's an incredibly tough situation to be in, especially in a stadium too. can't imagine like in a stadium, you know, that was not the most chock full soldier field. They desperately.

speaker-1: I think because 80 % of the stadium was dressed as empty seats. If they want to find out exactly who said what with the amount of cameras and technology that's inside of NFL stadium, that person is cooked. He will be found.

speaker-0: Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about the news. ⁓ RJN comes up and says his piranha nailed on starter when Luis was healthy. That was the ⁓ one sort of news that came out. ⁓ I was planning on being on the pregame post and asking about the injuries, ⁓ know, lot of weird like, ⁓ Caramoco is still listed as illness and out. ⁓ Which is which is strange and I'm surprised there's not so much reporting there Aaron rare obviously been out with a lower leg injury

speaker-1: ⁓ He did appear at the watch party. So we have a proof of life. ⁓ And the team did make him go do a thing. So he's around.

speaker-0: That was kind of the spoiler alert that, okay, he won't be here. But ⁓ Luis Muntanio ⁓ picking up an injury, which is a shame considering he finally maybe started to show a little bit of signs of life, signs of improvement. So a rough start to get him, but it is-

speaker-1: He just wanted to make me wrong because I said he was going to start this game for his first start. was like, I'll show you, I will get a muscle injury. Was Markovich on the injury report? So he wasn't on the injury report, but we still fielded two keepers on the bench instead of, instead of, so it may be he was a late scratch. I haven't heard anything about it. I'm just something to watch.

speaker-0: I do not believe so, no. That is interesting, they did have two keepers. ⁓

speaker-1: For some reason I noticed that I'm very very attuned to the double the double keeper on the bench thing

speaker-0: Yeah. Very curious to see. I'm surprised that wasn't a question about like why what's up with Markovic and why is he, ⁓ why is he on the bench? That's it's interesting. Continue the report. I have to feel that had to be a late scratch. ⁓ I can't imagine that being anything else really, or otherwise you're going to, why are you going to put two keepers on the bench? ⁓ but is Ronnie a net on starter until we sell the, I don't know. ⁓ I have to feel, you know, Kayden Clark has shown some life. Do you try to push Hopkins up? and play, you know, Caden Clark as kind of your, ⁓ as your, as your other winger. ⁓ I have to think that has to be, there has to be some type of change coming. know he might view it as well. The team's winning. I don't want to mess with like a winning formula, but at a certain point you do have to ask yourself, you know, and also it's really hard when, you know, nobody off the bench has really done anything significant offensively. Caden Clark's coming. Yeah. He had some okay moments against center Miami. ⁓ this game didn't really do. all that much that I can recall anything sort of significant or generating sort of significant opportunities. I was curious like what his numbers were. yeah, Caden Clark, five, seven to passing two or three. not not really involved at all. As far as the game goes, but we'll see that certainly to watch he was Bronte was subbed off for Caden Clark. So I think that's certainly that's certainly something something to watch. Yeah. ⁓ This team desperately needs to...

speaker-1: Plus they have to listen to us. Pirani has only been consistently good as a late game substitute. This is where he shines. I don't get it.

speaker-0: Our chances are you surprised Sean Neal is isn't getting any getting more playing time yet? ⁓ I Don't know I think it's hard when you know it yes the deep I'm not sure like looking at the situation Sean Neal's is not a fast player either This guy is not a guy with lightning quick speeds. He's a guy to bring you I'm not sure like the improvement you get out of Sean Neal is Yeah, it's more of a like for like substitution and you know so far, know,

speaker-1: It's like for like, if it's anything.

speaker-0: Bartlett had a rough game. thought Bartlett recovered. He's another player. think that is a shout out. He had an excellent game, sort of a bounce back type game. All of the types of things that you want to see out of him, the tackling, the physicality, all the things he sort of brought. It was certainly a bounce back game for him ⁓ over the Inter Miami performance. Aaron Herrera returns to play regularly. What role do you for him?

speaker-1: Good question. I still think, you know, I think he still starts over Hefty. I think at his best, he's still gonna, gives you more both ways. I think so. I don't think you put him in the right midfield position necessarily, but he has the versatility, I think, to go either way. I don't know. He's also coming back from injury, a long one at this point. I'll be curious. I mean, you can't put him on the bench. He's gotta play. Can't not start.

speaker-0: mean, he's benched his star DP to start the season, so he could.

speaker-1: He also made big excuses about it, which tells me that there's reasons for it. Wasn't it wasn't like an attitude bench or whatever. This is when you have a team, look at the bench and look at the players that come in and the lack of game changing attacking ability. And he has both of the, has the, he has that he's going to create that for tie. ⁓ I think you've got to find a way to put them on the field. I think it's, I would say you started met right back, ⁓ and move hefty to the bench for now, but you do not think that you think he, you think maybe he doesn't necessarily, he has to earn his way back or hefty has to play his way out.

speaker-0: Hefty has been so good. mean, why he's been, he's been excellent. It's been shocking how good he's been. I agree. Excuse me. So I, I kind of look at it as, uh, I think he's on the bench. mean, he's started up hurt. That's what happens. You have to earn your way back. Um, I could see, I could see a scenario where if you're on the road against a tough opponent that he slots into that right midfield position as kind of more of a defensive option. If you're playing against like a team that's chock full of talent, ⁓ that you know, has the, ⁓ has the ability to, to really punish you, that maybe he's an option there. I'm not sure like he really fits like, like Hefty works because I think he kind of trains as a center back. So he's very much kind of defensive minded first, but he feels much more, he felt, feels much more comfortable able to kind of push forward, know when to push forward, know when to cover and go back. Again, also to, think additionally on top of that, think hefties look better because Peltola has been so good. Peltola was 2025 Peltola. This team is getting beat down the middle a lot of the time. They're not able to sort of allow their center backs to kind of push forward. I don't know. It'll be an interesting thing to watch as he gets back and he gets back healthy.

speaker-1: A rare good problem to have.

speaker-0: All right. I think we've got a lot of listener questions that came in on our Patreon page. And so I think we're going to cut over to that.

speaker-1: I think we want to quickly talk about the spirit game as well. Yes. So I got the opportunity to watch that game in whole on Friday night, sort of the opening match of the entire season. It was really interesting to watch. There was a sellout crowd. So it's absolutely popping there from that perspective. You had a lot of newcomers. If you've been following the off season, you know that Aubrey Kingsbury is having a baby. So she is out for probably the year, I would assume, definitely the year. ⁓ and Sandy McIver gets her first opportunity to start. think she came, she was an injury. she, she's played before. not her first time playing, but hasn't been a starter for quite some time since she was at Everton. ⁓ you had Lucia de, de, de googly ammo. I'm not going to take some time to practice. I'm going to get that perfected because she was amazing in this entire game. ⁓ just first game, first game running was probably, ⁓ you know, I don't want to say Casey Kruger's gonna have a hard time getting a shot back when she comes back. But she might, it's entirely possible. Across the rest of the back line, it's all sort of looking great. This is a really good defense. They've done a great job sort of reloading on that side. Trying to think of other players you had that were notable here. ⁓ Obviously, Trinity Robbins back healthy. That's something she played a full 90 after her struggles in the She Believes Cup, getting kicked in the back. And Rebecca Bernal back as a defensive midfielder until, probably until Andy Sullivan gets back when she's very close. So that was... That's from a lineup perspective. I would say this game was, I think Jason obviously also talked about this pre early season soccer is challenging in total, but it's even more challenging in total when you have, uh, an international break so close to the beginning of the season, uh, and for so long, this team looked disconnected. did not look, they did not look, they didn't look like they had at the attacking mentality necessary. There were so many. Balls played flat across the top of the attacking 18 and a lack of ability to shoot. When, when having the opportunity, Gabby Carl had a number of chances she could have taken all she was pushed very far up. Trinity Robyn was not connecting well with gift Monday. Gift Monday was probably pretty starved for service in the way that she wanted it. It was just weird. It was like a team that just sort of met each other almost in a lot of

speaker-0: And it's it's strange because you know all these players were the you talk about some of the changes there weren't really that many changes from the team last year obviously in goal, know ⁓ and the ⁓ And the new right and the new left back ⁓ Sort of replacing Casey Krueger, but Coasi was here last year Monday was here last year Robin was here last year Santos was here last year and you know was pointed out I think by some you know, the the obvious, you know hole in the room is that Cory Bethune is now no longer gone and I think that these are the types of games where I feel like really her skill set kind of shines and her ability to kind of, you know, take the game and sort of make something special happen. Not to say none of these players can make, you know, special things happen, but you know, with Lacey Santos, you know, I don't feel like she's very much the type of sort of provider on the field. She's not going to dribble or sort of make, you know, run at defenders and stuff like that. She very much plays sort of a more traditional type sort of midfield position. It's just a very different type of role from Corbithune. So disjointed, I caught like the last 10 minutes disjointed is like, looked very disjointed. I was very surprised, I guess, at just kind of how out of sync everybody looked on the field. ⁓

speaker-1: They were able to, they were able to their passing triangles all the way through the midfield until they got into the 18 and then they just lost their mind. I'm not sure how much of that is Croy as so much as entirely no player wanted to assert themselves in any sort of meaningful way. And that showed itself obviously in end result. The Moultrie goal was a bit of a sort of a ⁓ mess up. think there was a ⁓ small mistake by Gabby and then ⁓ paid as a step too slow to make a move and multislots it away. Other than that, I don't think ⁓ Portland was really on top of them that much. Washington only had one shot on goal the entire match. that, and it wasn't for lack of possession. It wasn't for lack of like, you know, general threatening, like locations on the field, but they just were not, they just were not able to do that final thing. They said it in the quotes afterwards. ⁓ But, know, ⁓ Lucia is a instant diamond. If you remember how good of a start Hal Hirschfeld had two years ago when she came out on the field, that it was that good. I think that this is going to be a really, really great addition for the team. It's not like she came out of nowhere. She's, she's a well-established middle career player playing for Italy at the highest levels for the international side as well as the club sides. This is great pickup. think that there's also two things to things to notice and call out. Claudia Martinez, the Paraguayan 18 year old who I thought based on Haley Carter's remarks to Jason Anderson was not going to start similar to the Luis sort of like, give him some, give him some time, give her some time. She's like, Claudia just learned Spanish three years ago. She was speaking a native dialect that doesn't get spoken in a Paraguay until then. Like this is a person who's not lived in a big city. It's too soon, you know, to put any expectations on her. And then she plays the first match. She plays 30 minutes of the first match, ⁓ which I thought was interesting. I think that's also looks at, if you look at the rest of the subs, who was available, you've got a lot of ⁓ not having played at all players or injury replacements. Tamara Bolt makes her, I think her first appearance since her return from loan from Dallas. ⁓ And yeah, think, I think this was a disappointing, this is a game that ⁓ Portland was not up to win it, but they did a great job at keeping Washington from winning it. Washington was their own enemy as well. I have been saying for this entire time. But Portland did a really, really good job of just closing ranks down. After they got their goal, was, it was curtains because that was the, they were already sort of set up to, to, you know, repel Washington. They did a good job. So it's just a question of, ⁓ it's early in the season. There's lots of games. It should have been three points. ⁓ I, it's not anywhere near a problem yet. I will be, see how they bounce back next week. ⁓ but this was, this was a frustrating watch.

speaker-0: Yeah. And you know, it's definitely, it's, know, again, early season soccer. How many week one narratives do we have in MLS that just got blown up, you know, right away, right away. ⁓ You know, so again, I think this team is talented. I think this team will be near the top of the NWSL. I think that's where everybody expects them to be. ⁓ I think it's just a matter of, you know, and we've seen this team also, they've had frustrating moments and then the next game they bounce back and they play well. So.

speaker-1: Other player want to call out, I want to call out Esme Morgan also as well. I remember when she got here, I was really certain of her play. She didn't seem to be really confident and now watching her a year later, candidly, I was not very playing super close to the of the spirit while I wasn't covering them in person last year. Getting to watch her in this game is, I've been reintroduced to the player that, that she probably was all last year and the player that I was told that she was when she came in. So really happy to see that. Like I said, this back line is. Very, very good. I'm excited about that. And obviously the talent is there upfront, but Gift Monday just looks so disconnected that it was jarring, I feel like, for me.

speaker-0: All right. Uh, I think that's going to do it for the free edition of the show. Please go over to our Patreon page, patreon.com slash over here for DS five dollar tier, and you get access to, uh, all of the. All of the, uh, content. Yeah. All the questions are about to answer. I I posted that at five o'clock and I was like, man, I hope I don't, I'm my.

speaker-1: ...millions of questions we're about to answer. No, we've trained them. They are very ready. They come correct.

speaker-0: Yeah, but anyway guys, we will ⁓ catch you guys on the Patreon show. Vamos.