FiredUp Network
Saturday, July 6: Time Out KC With Gerald Bentley
Hey guys, welcome in to the fired up network. It's time out Casey. Got a couple of new panelists this week talking with Parker Johnson and Carson flake from I on you media. They are covering the Kansas City sports world as well. Go ahead and introduce got Carson here and then Parker and Parker. Can you tell me about I on you media? What is it? And where can people find it? Yes, so island media is a really were a full media house taking care of social media management, web design, video, photo, any typical need for a company. Okay, we also provide a wire service to editorial magazines and just other newspapers and whatnot. And also having a sports network where we, you know, post articles and whatever sharing about games or happenings in the Kansas City sports world. And so website social media, it's all at I on media and then our website is on your media.com. And everything's through there. Yeah, awesome. Well, and I know you guys have been you've been covering the games with me. So I mean, you're speaking from having been there. I wanted to start off with, you know, what ended up being a national story and it was at Arrowhead Stadium. I didn't get to go to the game. I drove by it. I looked in. I saw that the the upper deck was a little bit empty. Looks good on TV though, except I think for some reason they decided to shoot the game from on top of the upper deck. It looked like you were watching a video game with the 360 view, but the US had a chance to advance to the knockout round of the Copa, America, and they didn't do it. They lose to Uruguay. One deal. They needed to tie or actually needed to win the game to advance. They needed to tie if I believe Bolivia tied and they ended up. Bolivia was getting smoked 3-1. So they needed to get the W, which meant towards the end of the game after they gave up that goal in the 66 minute. They needed two goals and they ended up getting none. Alexi Lawless, former Kansas City Wizard, US national team star, he was talking in the post game about how bad of a loss this was for the US men's national team and that they've actually moved backwards. What do you guys think of that? Was he was he exaggerating or was he accurate? Well, we talked a little bit about this before the show. I think he was accurate. I compared it to the game against Trinidad and Tobago a few years ago before the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where they failed to qualify. And honestly, it felt like the same. They might be qualified for the 2026 World Cup and yeah, we still owe. We have things to look forward to, but this felt like a real big tester for this team to gain, you know, the United States trust and confidence and pretty much anything that they needed to start, you know, kickstart the campaign to the World Cup in 2 years. This tournament was all about that and they did not succeed in that at all. The host, a tournament and to get knocked out in your own tournament in the group stage is not something good or anything to be proud about. Yeah, I want to touch on kind of what you mentioned, you know, with the tie versus the win and kind of how that was going on throughout the game. I was there at the game in the stands watching on my phone. We had the Panama game going on the phone. So that was really fun. Actually, when Bolivia tied it up, obviously, people knew the stands started cheering. It was pretty cool because there's still zero zero at the time. Well, I saw a clip today that was Greg Berhalter signaling to his team. Hey, hey, it's one to one. It's one to one. We just needed to defend now. What happened one minute later? Give up the goal. Give up the goal. Say whatever you want. If it was a valid goal or not, they still gave it up. And I mean, what a horrible look from Greg Berhalter to be focused on the game. I've been playing soccer for 15 plus years. And our coaches whenever we're in a situation like that, always tell us you can only control your game. Whatever happens over there happens. So the fact that we have a national team and a national team coach talking about scores of a different game. Man, that's just disappointing. It's just disappointing. It's a horrible look. I mean, Parker, I mean, I, you know, her Madwards. One of the most entertaining coaches in really in pro sports history. I mean, he's making a living now just doing commentary on ESPN made it famous by saying you play to win the game. The great Berhalter make a conscious decision that we play to tie the game at the 60th minute and that ended up blowing up on him. I was not watching the game. So I can't really speak for anything. All I can speak for is the off sides no call that happens with almost the one that your wine players almost a foot off sides. Yeah, that's really all I can speak of because that's all I want. Yeah, you had that. You had a yellow card called on Tyler Adams when painfully obvious that Tyler was the guy who was fault. You have another yellow card called and as the referees holding up the cards. He's letting the Euroquiance start the ball. I mean, at the end of the day, I don't think the referee cost him the game. I think the US team did, did themselves in. But that was a horribly refereed game. And this gets to another point that I was looking to make and look to talk to you guys about. Why is it that the Copa with the US with Argentina, with Uruguay, with Brazil. It seems like it's the afterthought. It's the minor league. It's the sideshow and the euros is the one that really matters. Even on our own network, Fox seems to be much more concerned with the euros and the copas like an afterthought. Hey, we'll show it, but I mean, you matter with the euros being broadcast on Fox mainstream. And then Copa being broadcast on FS1, FS2, and occasional games on Fox. Yeah, the first US game against Bolivia was on was on big Fox. But the last night, I mean, a primetime game on Monday night and it's on FS1. I mean, Monday night's TV time for sports, right? There's a reason why it's Monday night football. It's in the name of the program. It's Monday night football. But yeah, I think, sorry, go ahead. No, do you guys feel that? It just feels like it's an afterthought. It's a minor league and the euros is what really matters. Yeah, I think it honestly kind of flows just from the whole idea of European soccer. Everyone here in the United States. Oh, our team, the US presidential team, we're so good because everyone plays in Europe. Oh, it's European. Oh, it's the Premier League. It's any other league in Europe automatically is rated up here. Whether it is or not up here compared to any other league. No one talks about South American leagues. No one can name the official league name of Peru. I have no idea. But everyone knows the Serie A, the Premier League, the Bundesliga, all the big leagues in Europe. So I think automatically Europe is a step ahead. And I think Fox just knows. If anyone says the word Europe and puts soccer behind it, people are going to watch that before. And then instead of having to teach someone what the COPA is. Yeah, there's so many people in the United States. We just talked about it that didn't even know what this was. I was having to explain it to my grandpa yesterday. I was like, what game are you going to tonight? I was like, he was like the coda. I was like, no, the COPA America. Like, man, like, we're hosting the day tournament. Our country's in it and we don't even know about it. So of course, any soccer fans are going to want to watch the heroes in the ways. Yeah. And hey, just to just to put this out here, then we'll move on to our teams. It's really it was kind of a disappointing showing for Kansas City. Just overall, this flurry of international games. I went to and covered the US Olympic team their last match before heading out to the Olympics, the men's team against the Japanese. And one, I mean, we played a, it was a horrible game. We lost two nil and easily could have lost four nil had no, no chance of scoring. They said it was because they were trying different positions or putting guys out of spots. And John Luca Bousieux didn't play. So, okay. But the game was bad. Our effort seemed off. We seemed disjointed. Just kind of out there. And the worst thing was there was maybe, maybe 3,500 people there. And it was actually a pro Japanese crowd. And it's is the quote unquote soccer capital of America. And we couldn't support our Olympic team. That amazed me. Then Copa game Canada against Peru. And obviously they knew, Hey, this isn't going to draw that much. We're not having it at Arrowhead. We're going to play this one at Children's Mercy Park. We don't need 75,000 seats. Well, as it turns out, they could have played it at CPK C stadium, which seats 11,500 and had 6,000 seats to spare. Drew about 5,000 people. So that wasn't good. And then the US national team. I mean, how could you think that should sell out? Drew about 50,000. Is that, is that a warning sign for the World Cup or with the World Cup take care of itself? And it doesn't matter. What do you guys think? You know, last night, I had this exact conversation about this with my buddy, because I was like, dude, this is a problem that we can't even sell out a game. And like, how do we expect to sell out to random countries that are all the way across the world in this stadium that seats 76,000 people? Like, you see the Euro games and I will give them a little bit. It's a little bit different over there because the travel is a lot better for the away teams. So like the tournaments being held in Germany, all the different countries near Germany are not nearly as far away. United States is massive. But we all know that it didn't just magically become big. We decided we were going to have the World Cup here. So I'm concerned. I'm really concerned. The only way I think that it's going to change is the tag behind it being the World Cup will help a lot. Whereas you don't have that little education piece where you have to tell people what it is. And hopefully prices go down. I mean, I paid $170 last night to sit in the corner in row 13. So, like, I could have saved money if I went up top, but I wasn't going to do that. But that's not a lot of people can afford that. Or, I don't know, man. I mean, Parker, it's not all going to be people from Kansas City. You're going to have a lot of people coming in. And I think the World Cup to find a guitar with the stadiums right next to each other on the same street. I mean, it would literally be like we built temporary stadiums down Metcalf Avenue. I mean, that's what it was. It's sold out. So it's probably an overstatement. It'll probably be fine. I think, well, because Kopa, I don't feel like, was hyped up as much as the World Cup is because, like, they had the whole, like, reveal, watch party of power and light and, like, this, all this, all this build up for all the, for the whole event. And with Kansas City getting six matches, including a quarter, quarter final. Yeah, quarter final. That helps. That helps a lot with just driving traffic and that they're, that Kansas City will be hosting three events. For their training facilities. Yeah, they did announce that. So you have a sporting training facility, the Compass Mineral Center, the Kansas City Current Center, and KU's soccer facility will be the host. So that, that'll be Nate. And yeah, I mean, there'll be tons of people coming in. It'll, it'll take care of itself. But it is a little bit of a caution that, hey, let's, let's go. Let's have a plan. Because if nothing else, you're going to have to have a good plan on how the heck you're going to get people from downtown to Arrowhead without circling the parking lot for an hour. Yeah. And, you know, I feel like I'm going to have mass transit. So you're going to have to trust, you know, there's no mass transit. So you're going to have to get people to get up there. Go ahead. I feel like this just kind of proves the point that soccer is here on sports in the United States. If there was a World Cup of, I heard about some little like World Cup for American football going on right now. But I'm meaning like at an actual global stage, like quality players. If there was a World Cup for for American football, 100% these stadiums would be selling out every, you know, all the other sports. I would say baseball is probably the most comparable, but it's totally different because their seasons are so much longer and way more games. So if baseball was a 32 game season, they probably sell out every single game too. So I think that the fact that the soccer is just not big enough yet. And I think that a lot of people, including myself, think it's up here and it just happens to not be where we think it is. So then we get disappointed with the results of the stadiums. Well, you know, it's growing rapidly. I mean, it is, because these games weren't marketed terribly well. They just worked. There's a lot of people that really had no idea it was going on. And I think a concerted marketing push will make a huge difference. And you know what? Hey, just to be point blank honest, Americans like winning. And this is the one major sport out there. I mean, where the US is the best in the world of baseball. The US is obviously the best in the world at football. The US is best in the world at basketball. And the US has won the Stanley Cup. The US teams won the Stanley Cup now over 30 years in a row over Canada. So the US comes at things and their interest if we're not winning as a country drops considerably. And I don't think anybody thought that the US was going to beat Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to win this. I mean, you guys didn't did you? I was shocked about the tie against Brazil a few weeks ago, but yeah, we were shocked that we got a decision. Heck. Just that we didn't lose. Well, a team that has made a practice of not losing the Kansas City current. They come back to CPAC stadium. It's on Saturday night. They're taking on the Orlando pride. The two teams that are sitting at the top of the table in the NWSL battle of the unbeaten. And the current continue their 17 match on beaten streak against Orlando. Parker. I do think that they can. I know with with Casey current and Orlando pride being the top two teams. I think that current has the edge with the atmosphere. I was there last Friday and I thought the atmosphere was that of a sporting case. Even with 7,000 less people. Yeah, but they sell out every game that they have there. And I think there's. More than a few problems with their whole communications on all that, but communications PR and just. Places for people to be. And obviously the size of the stadium and parking whatnot, but I think the team and the atmosphere and everything in and around the stadium. Is really well put together and they did a good job. Oh, and especially from the start to because you got the beer garden getting built, the hotels getting built and it's going to look totally different next year. And in two years, I think you'll be amazed. Like Carson, we had the chance to talk to Roger Espinoza as he had his retirement ceremony at the sporting game. And I asked him about the current, let's get his take on what the currents do and then I'll get your call on the game coming up on Saturday. Roger, first family of Kansas City soccer with low helping out the current leading the current to the top of the table. Yeah, talking about leaders earlier. That's the leader right there. I think she's super smart as you guys know already. Just broke the record yesterday, so that's it's a lot about a team. They broke the record and NWL. I hope Orlando lost a nice, so no one can catch it on that record or lose it tomorrow actually. But on top of that, it says a lot about women's sports. Is it Kansas City current or Lando chasing that too? Not many teams have gotten 17 games undefeated. They say a lot about sports and like I said earlier, it says a lot about Kansas City. Yeah, and shows Kansas City is in fact the soccer capital of America. You guys are here showing it. You guys care about it. Hey guys, there's Roger Espinoza talking a little bit about the current and his wife, Lowlobana, the team captain for the current. Carson, what do you feel? A big game. This is a game that's been built in all season. Of course, first of all, I just want to say what an awesome relationship Roger and low have. I mean, the fact that it warms my heart that he's like, that's a leader right there. Like he thinks of his wife as a leader, not as anything else. Like he sees that in her as a person. I just thought I'd put that out there, but that's cool. And I think honestly that is what makes the whole current how good they are. It's not just one leader. The whole team is full of them. A.D. French massive leader. And she's doing great things back there. And then we've talked about it at the game, at the sporting game on Saturday. Tim what Chiwinga is freaking money. She's going off. Like literally showing the whole N.W.S.L. like she's on a different level, which is awesome. And then all these other young girls getting to make their appearances. They obviously are feeling that connection with the team because they're full of leaders. Some teams, you have some really bad leaders at the top and then the young players just don't want to be a part of it. And then they don't have any confidence going into the game. I think that this is a current team that, yes, 11 players on the field, but it goes deeper than that. And you can put in whoever you need to put in and they're going to continue to have that chemistry and the work rate and everything that you need to make a good team. That goes down further than just 11 players. It goes down 22 plus. And I haven't been in the locker room, but I assume that the energy in the locker room is fantastic and that everything there is just connected. That's just what it seems to me. You can't find that talent only gets you so far. Hard work is what gets you further. Yeah. No, and I think the culture of the team, the identity that Flaco talked about in the preseason, they really seem to have built it. And Parker talked about Greg Berhalter with the national team. Flaco was coaching the women's national team left and now he is the coach of the current. And when he left the national team, he talked about his joy for the game being beaten down. He definitely seems to have it back. He actually gave me a fist bump and said, man, that was a win after the game this past week. You don't usually get that with professional coaches. He's excited. Yeah, I know he loves the team and loves all the players on the team. And he has a drive for the game too. It's not like, oh, it's just another job, but it's his passion as it should be with any coach in any league or any team. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And it shows here. Let's let's just go with one more player. Let's hear from forward Michelle Cooper. This is from a couple weeks ago talking about the current's identity. I thought it was a good, good comment and really kind of sums it up. Yeah, I think we have moments in those games where we tie where we can definitely be better. And I think this identity that we're continuing to grow into is something that we've had from day one. I mean, we came out against Portland in the first game, score five goals. It's just the difference between not getting scored on, but I do think, yes, this identity is continuing to grow and continuing to be stronger and something that teams circle about us. But I think it's been something we've had since game one and just continues to get better. And I mean, that's a great attitude and it really kind of sums it up. We saw a little bit of that. So let's segue over to Children's Mercy Park. We did see a little bit different sporting Kansas City. Something that we haven't seen this year, really. They absolutely beat down Austin FC. It was only to nil. Score probably should have been more. They should have had a couple more opportunities convert, but it was a beat down. And that looked like a sporting team from their championship seasons. Lockdown defense. You got a contribution from the backs. Tim Leibold scored his first goal of the season. And then a absolutely beautiful goal to really put the game away and ice it with Johnny Russell on a breakaway counter and a nice cross to Stephen Afrifa scored his third goal in four games minutes after being subbed in. Brought instant electricity to the team. Where's that team been all year? Yeah. I know that Peter said during his post game interview that he doesn't know what made the team different. But allowing, I think Austin had no shots on goal the whole game. Yeah, Austin, no shots on goal. Only two shot attempts and sporting was the further dominant team in that game by far, having five corner kicks. 14 shot attempts and two shots on goal with two successful attempts that shows that this team is here to play and is ready to try to make a playoff push. And they basically have to win out Carson to make it. I mean, I think they can afford to lose like one more match. Yeah, so good luck for that. But I will say that they haven't had the problem this year hasn't been upfront. They've been scoring goals. Yeah, so you would think like for how poor their defending has been that like a good game on the defensive side of things for sporting Kansas City would be a little bit worse than what we saw. Like, I feel like for this to be like a bounce back game for the defense, that was like a crazy performance. So talk about a good confidence builder because I think four shots on goal would have been a confidence booster for the back line. So the fact that they've gone with no shots on goal is even better than that. I mean, obviously it's going to be a tall task to make the playoffs at this point. But that was that that was something that they really, really, really needed. So yeah, I'll be curious to see this weekend what what goes on. Now, here here's my my ball take for tonight. I don't even care if they make the playoffs at this point. I want them to win the US Open Cup. Let's get that done. They got a game against Colorado coming up on Thursday night. Probably just after you're watching this. Then they get Dallas on Sunday night and then they come back and play Dallas again. Back to back Dallas games at Children's Mercy Park. The one is MLS. The one on Wednesday is the US Open Cup. Let's put everything in. Let's play like that in the US Open Cup. When that you get your championship and if if you miss the playoffs and MLS. Okay. Because that it's it's done probably anyways. But if you get a you know, if you get a trophy, okay. And now we have our new technical director, new sporting director, Mike Burns. He took the job and they got a lot of roster flexibility. Coming up, but it sounds like we're going to have to wait a little bit. This transfer window coming up right now. Mike Burns quote. When asked about it today. To be honest with you, we don't have a ton of flexibility in the summer window. Is that quote as bad as it sounds. Um. I know. No, I don't think so. I, I met Mike today. I was at the, at the press conference and it seems like he's going to do really good. Thanks for the team. Um, and he did say that they're definitely going to bring in at least one new player. And with the majority, the vast majority of the team. Being out of contract or within a one year extension option. Yeah. They're going to have to completely revamp the team. Yeah, I mean, it's 18 spots is that quote. If he could take it back. Do you think you're really meant to say, Hey, I'm just, and she did kind of get into that. I'm just getting acclimated in. We don't want to make a bad decision. Let's see what's going on. Let's take our time, make our judgments. And there's two more windows coming up before the next season. Is that more actually trying to. I think I see where you are coming from and I hope that that's the case, but I did a little bit of research on him at his time in New England. And people don't have a lot of good things to say. And that's where I'm a little bit suspect about the whole thing is it's like. Apparently in New England, he was a hard negotiator. He didn't do a lot for the team. He said he was going to do things, never did them, all this different stuff. So it's like. Yeah. Okay. Is his, oh, we're only able to sign one player in the summer window. Is that him just doing his normal thing? Or is that him actually being honest saying we're going to get after it. You know, in the off season. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. So it's fair to be fair with MLS. It's not the English Premier League. You have, you have two or three big money slots in the salary cap that you can fill. And that's, that's really it. So the moves do have to be targeted. It's a little bit different. It's not like, uh, well, we go or the EPL where there is no cap. It's a blank check. Just do whatever you want. So it is a hard salary cap. It doesn't make it a little bit harder and they're going to have tons of room to move and literally do whatever they want to within reason. Uh, Peter did say and, and Mike Burns, uh, seconded it that, hey, we're in the bottom, bottom third of expenses and salaries and we got to move up. We got to be in the middle third, which I think that's probably where they should be. And you can win a lot from the middle. I mean, heck, the Royals went to a World Series and won a World Series and they were just knife in the middle. And you look at what the Royals have done this year. They're still probably not even quite in the middle. And it's been a huge difference. I did want to highlight one of the young players who I thought made a huge impact. And we talked about it. Stephen Afrifa. We had looked back in preseason during training. I had a chance to talk to Stephen Afrifa because he had a few great games in the exhibition season. And man, we were looking forward to him making a huge impact. It took a while, but now it's common. Here's what he said after that game on last Saturday. Just a couple quick. Just a couple quick questions. Awesome game. Thank you. Glad to see you out there. We have a chance to talk to you back in preseason when you got a couple of big explosive games. How does it feel to now have an explosive game and be an impact in regular season? Great. Free season, obviously. Great time for me. This is the kind of form that I had back then. So it's good to be back there. And just got to keep holding on strong. Just all starts Tuesday or Monday. Get back in. Just focus like we have been last week. Put a lot of effort in understanding what we have to do. Understand the weaknesses of Austin. And again, we got to get back in training and just do the same thing for next team. Great to see you and a good attitude. He was happy. He was excited. He was fist bumping people. A little youthful energy and some speed added to the offense. That's not a bad combination at all. Hopefully we see a lot more from him. You guys have watched the team. Is he one of the young players that kind of jumps out at you? He's definitely one of the ones that jump out a lot farther than some of the others. Because I think his contributions to the team, especially as quickly as he has been off the bench with one of his first goals this season coming probably 45 seconds after he got subbed in. Yeah, less than a minute in. Yeah, a huge contribution to the team for sure. I mean, I think that it's, I think it's just massive that we've got some young guns on the team that are performing. I mean, you look, Johnny Russell, talent of his career, Alan Pleidol. You never know where he is in his career every single game, I guess. So I won't even mention him. And shall we kind of out of his prime, he had his whole thing in 2021 and now he's not there anymore. You know, on the back, Fontos, there's a lot of older guys. I'm not saying it's bad to have older players, but it's really good to see, especially when the team is struggling. A young guy and other guys like Jake Davis, Kate and Pierre, et cetera. Young guys that are excelling because that shows that maybe they're going to be the dudes that stick around when they do the whole revamp. They might be the ones that stick around, but then that means that, you know, the team will be going up, hopefully, because the young guys are excelling, which is, I think that's great. Now, shall we should be in his prime, I believe he's 27 years old. He should be, but I couldn't even tell you the last game I saw that I was impressed with the shallower's performance. Okay, that's disappointing for me, because I used to be a big shallower guy. I was a huge, I was on his side, and man, I haven't seen him perform a lot recently, so I don't know. Yeah, the whole season's been disappointed. Let's push for that US Open Cup win and play out the season strong like they did last year, so you have an up and out going into the season. Guys are playing for their jobs. That should be a big motivator. I mean, they literally are. I mean, they're flat saying that the owner told the Kansas City star Sam McDowell, hey, we're going to make some changes. So, I mean, the notice has been given. The other team that's in season right now, the Kansas City Royals. Rough road trip, but they got home, took three or four against the Guardians, outscored them 20 to 13, hit seven home runs in the four game series and counting the Miami series. They've won five of the last seven. How do you feel about the Royals? Have they turned the corner now? They just had to get home and, you know, a West Coast trip for teams. That's always a little rough and played some good teams and just kind of ran out of gas on the road. But now they're back home, get recharged and have a good run going into the all-star break. What do you think? I think the Royals are making shifts upward instead of down with them winning multiple games before their road trip. They had, I don't know how many wins in a row it was, but it was enough to call it a streak for sure. And I just think that them continuing to trend up. They might make the playoffs. I know they'll get at least, or they'll get less than 100 losses because. Oh my God. Yeah. How they've been the last few seasons since, I mean, now with the Bobby Whit Jr. Yeah. Nine wins in the last 56. Look at that. They only need nine more wins to match last year's total. We're not at the all-star game yet. They need two good weeks and they're matching last year's total for wins. That's how much better they are there. Yeah. It's a much better team than it has been last few years, especially last year. And hey, another up note for the Royals. MJ Melendez is getting really close to hitting his weight. He's been hitting a lot better. He's up to 188. So he's getting close. Yeah, he's going to have a batting average above his weight. So that's good. Yeah, we're making progress to go to the right direction. But yeah, I mean, that's amazing, isn't it? Only nine more wins and they match their total of all of last season. So they're knocking on the door. And that tells you one how bad they were last year. And I think it gives a little confidence crossing sports here. That sporting Kansas City isn't that far away either. Because really look at this team versus last year's team. Your additions essentially are Seth Lugo, Michael Waka, and Cole Reagan's for the whole year. That's really about it. Hunter Renfro's an addition. But he hasn't really done much. He's just kind of there. And three players and you turned it around an enormous difference. They added some more relievers. But none of those guys have really stood out. And the standout additions have been Waka, Lugo, and Cole Reagan's for the whole year. And night and day difference. And maybe part of it's the attitude with Bobby Whitchen, you're getting that big contract. Okay, he's committed. So now let's build with him. That's what I was about to mention is that the atmosphere of the team is quality. Just like we talked about with the Casey current. Yeah. If the team is well connected and there's a good attitude in the dugout. That's definitely going to translate under the field. And I can guarantee you last year, the attitude was awful if we're only winning 56 games. Sure. It's really hard to keep a positive attitude. But, you know, the season, obviously, it could be better if they were, you know, the top in the A.L. Central. But, you know, they're not, but they're still having a good year. So they have something to be proud of. And then almost, it's almost a little more fun because you have a little bit of a goal. You know, last year, they get to this point of the season. They don't have a goal. They don't have anything to shoot for. They're still in playoff contention. They still have to be, you know, I mean, being a Guardians, you know, was huge. Because they're top of the league. They're, that proves to the Royals. Okay. We can't compete with the big boys. Like, let's do it. So that's all they need. It's just a bunch of confidence in the dugout and they'll keep going. I think. Yeah, I believe it's the first time they've won a four game series from the Guardians. In clean, sorry, in Kansas City since 2014. So it's been a little while. So that was a huge, that was a huge statement on the week for the Royals and Parker. I mean, they kind of feel great. I don't think anyone thought they were going to be putting up this many wins this year. I picked them to go like 72 and 90. I thought that would be a big improvement. Yeah, for sure. I think this, this team is much, like I said, that this team is much better. Probably since the World Series team. I mean, yeah, it was a world series. It was kind of steady and then it just kind of dropped after that. But now it's starting to trend back up and especially with Bobby Witt's big contract that'll, that'll help a lot. Yeah, absolutely. The best year they've had since 2016 and that's not even playing the second half of the season. It's been the best year since 2016 because there wasn't much in 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 or 23. So yeah, definitely a huge, huge, huge difference. And, you know, you get a chance to go see some competitive baseball, conference stadium despite the push for a new stadium, which is going to be the gift that keeps on giving for sports talk shows for the next year and a half. Conference stadium is a great place to go watch the game. So it's definitely worth heading out. And if you're looking for entertainment value, baseball is a value. And to the Royals defense, they lowered their concession prices, which doesn't happen ever in sports, but they actually did it. Well, commendable move to the Royals. I don't know what they were at before, but I was just there a few days ago and I had to jump a hot dog for $16. So I feel bad for whoever was buying a hot dog last year. You got to get the value hot dog for $4. You must have got like some jumbo hot dog combo meal or with the barbecue. Yeah, I don't know what I bought, but it was too much money. And I was like, and I ate it in about 30 seconds. And I was like, all right. Well, that's because you're used to eating off the training table, so they just have all the food. Well, hey, let's go ahead and wrap it up. We got our weekly champion. I got the wrestling spotlight championship belt here. Just give me your champion of the week in Kansas City sports. Parker, who was your champion this week? For sure. Sporting Kansas City, they made they made the turn. They rounded to they rounded first, I guess, if you want to say that. Yeah, I'll give you that one. Okay. Yeah, it was slow kind of going. Now they've started to make that turn towards home. And hopefully they can take it a second and just keep rounding the bases. Absolutely. Okay. Carson. All right. You stole it from me, man. I was going to say sporting Kansas City. However, I think even if sporting Casey gets another win this weekend, if the Casey current win against Orlando, they've got it next week, 100%. Because that's a huge game and I'm so excited to be there. So. Well, and that's a good one too. And I'm going to go with here. We talked about it with Roger. I'm going to go with the first family of Kansas City soccer. Roger Espinosa low, lobata. Low, lobata, the captain of the current. So she is stepping forward and leading the charge and huge game. Like I said, Carson, they're playing for the number one spot on the table, taking on Orlando. Big game. And the focus of women's sports is going to be on Kansas City this week. So that is a big deal. And it's a year that women's sports is just spiking. The NWSL, the WNBA, they're pulling in record ratings every week. It's really impressive. It's been a long time coming. So I'll go with it. I think we could see Roger in low. Sweet man. I think we could see Orlando and Kansas City in the NWSL championship. That would be pretty sweet. Oh yeah, yeah. It could be at the preview. Yeah, I don't think this is the last time they meet. I agree with that. Yeah. Hey guys, as we're wrapping it up here, the best place to see the fired up network is on that true TV plus app. A bunch of entertainment content on there. You can get it on every app store. Pretty much Apple, Amazon, Roku, Google, Chromecast. Anywhere you look, the true TV plus app, it's free. Fired up network right out there and wrestling spotlights on there as well. Both feature channels. Carson Parker, tell us a little bit about eye on you media as we head out where people can follow you and where they can find some of your content and your reporting. All of our articles and stories are all on eyeanemedia.com/sports. It's all on there. Carson, me. Another one of our reporters/writers, Josiah Wannell. We're all on there. Our photos and everything are on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn. It's pretty much at eye on your media everywhere. Awesome. Yeah. I also tried to, when I'm there for the sporting and for the current this weekend, do live updates on Twitter. Great. I'm Flake_Carson. If you just find eye on you, media, Twitter itself or X, whatever you want to call it, you'll find me there somewhere on all the retweets. Excellent. Well, guys, thanks for stepping in here on Timeout, Kansas City. Big Week in KZ Sports. We got the double header with sporting taking on FC Dallas on Sunday and then coming back on Wednesday and the current taking on the Orlando Pride. Plus, the Royals continue to try and drive closer to the Guardians. Never coming up on chief season. Training camps start real soon. We're into the month of training camps. So, it's almost time for the National Football League. Thanks for joining us here on the fired up network for Carson, for Parker. I'm Gerald Bentley. Everybody have a good night. Stay tuned for more sports and entertainment right here. Bye. [BLANK_AUDIO]