We took a month off and discuss it. Some light Josh Wolff content.
Suffering From Joy Podcast
VERDE WOLFDUT SPECIAL EP 067
[MUSIC] What an eye for Google. Devin Pia has, he wouldn't make the Cyclops jealous. >> Do I look nervous? >> No. >> What was your answer? >> Get his back, I'll get the ball out, get his back up, get his back up, get his back up, get his back up, get his back up, get his back up, get his back up, get his back up, get his back up. >> No, no, yes, he missed it. Welcome back to the suffering from joy podcast, my name is Devin. Been a little out of touch lately, I've been hiking in the mountains with some nice cool crisp air, and just even compared to that, like this morning, just the air is a little cleaner and nicer and crisper, the sun was shining a little brighter. Felt nice getting some vitamin D and the song of the birds just seemed a little sweeter, everyone was in a great mood. And I can't think of why, but maybe our esteemed panel can help us out, joining us today, Seth, who knows everything, Seth, how are you feeling? >> Well, I mean, I had more suffering, but that was, because I was in Cincinnati this past week, I'd rather go to Austin a week. We don't talk about that level of suffering, but watching my mother and a ravens fan yell, every female ravens fan yell back and forth for three and a half hours of the day was next. >> Was this before or after the Waffle House incident? >> This is after the Waffle House incident. >> Okay, we'll go into it later, maybe, Brad, how you feeling? >> I feel, I kind of like Seth, I had a little more suffering than I expected with my football, like college football on Saturday, because I, of course, choose this past Saturday to like, hey, there's probably nothing really interesting to watch. Let's go play some golf, and then shit hits the fan, and I miss all of it on Saturday afternoon. So for my college football, loving heart suffering, and then we get some good news yesterday, and it's just lovely today. >> Yeah, I mean, only one of our teams got absolutely pasted by A&M when it was at 41 to 10 seemed closer than the real game, but we were, it actually reminded me a little bit of Mizzou was a 15 seed one year, and lost her, it was a two seed and lost a 15 seed, and then Duke did it like two hours later. And so the right, like half of the other top 10 losing definitely helped out, but rounding out our esteemed panel, Scott, how are you now? >> Good, and you? >> Not too bad, how are you feeling? >> No, you know, it does, there's just a sense of hope in the air. You know, the air is a little cleaner, and the vibes at FCT yesterday were amazing, even though that match didn't go great for them. It was very weird having the first team and the next for a team, both getting a limited from the playoffs, so then like 24 hours of each other. But no, it was still like fun to see everybody, including surprisingly enough ratio put your team out, because they are in town for a match, and everybody got to go run to pictures with them, and it was a really fun day. >> Yeah, our good friend Derek posted a picture, and there was a immediate fan girl right after, but it was a good time. So we haven't gotten to the real news, and I'm going to let Seth break it for us. Seth, what's our big news? >> Big news is that after, when a year and a half of campaigning on this podcast, Josh Woth is, no longer yet. >> Whoo-hoo! >> [INAUDIBLE] >> So we're going to ruin Colorado's day in two weeks. >> I hope so, and we've still never beaten them at home, right? >> Correct. >> Davey R. No, Record Center. We're going to get into all that, and we're just going to kind of free form it here. Brad, what do you want to talk about first? There's a lot of shit going on. >> So I guess we haven't spoken on this pod, because we have all left the country at some point in the last month. >> I went a little further than you guys. >> You did, you decided to go over to Europe in places that honestly, I didn't know it had been existed. But I think we have to kind of start back from what late August, early September, around Labor Day, last time we spoke? >> Our last official recording was September 1st, and Seth wasn't on it. I didn't watch a single minute of Austin FC in September, and it was fucking awesome. >> Okay, so the first match back from that was the one that your other three folks on this pod were at. >> Yes, so myself, Seth and Scott were all at Toronto. Great city, great trip, fantastic people. The most exciting thing is we got Toronto Argonauts T-shirts when we weren't supposed to be able to buy Toronto Argonauts T-shirts at the game, so that was amazing. >> Excellent. >> Yes, yes, and we saw an Oh and Wolf very nice goal, which was a lot of fun. >> Oh, let's see that, that was a nice idea. >> And we did get harassed by a bunch of teenagers that are actually younger than teenagers. >> No, they were like no more than 10 years old, it was great. >> Yeah, it was under 10s. >> Yeah, it was under 10s, and yeah, certain numbers of the fan base did not take well to that. >> Yeah, I don't think I've ever had to calm somebody down from getting angry at 10-year-olds like that before in a game, that was entertaining. >> I think that maybe is tiny or a little odd edge. >> Yeah, yeah, no, it was wild. >> Other than that, great atmosphere, rather enjoyed Toronto. Weird that their supporter group does not come in until literally right at kickoff. >> That is weird. >> Yeah, they weren't marching into the stadium with flares as the teams were taking the field. So that was a little odd, but liked everything else about it. Let's see, what was the next game? We had a home game after that, remember, right? Was it Houston? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. >> I don't know what we had at the LASC, I don't know what we had at the LASC, yeah. >> Oh, yeah, yeah. >> Yeah, somehow we get a draw at LASC that we should have won, let's quickly recap that, that we immediately score, sorry, we score, and then immediately go to a back five. Well, we scored late in the first half, I should say, go about 10 minutes into the second half, and then go to five at the back. And it just made some very weird substitution patterns that killed us a minute or two later, which is story of Joshua's life. >> Didn't we get it home, too? We gave up a late goal after scoring early. - No Houston, we just gave up a late goal. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - The LA I think came, yeah, that was the-- - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - That was the type of mara. - So this was a, this was a, this was a, this was a, this was a late goal. We gave up a goal with like, in like the 55th, 60th minute, it was just literally about two minutes after Josh made us up, to get way too conservative. So we get a one, one draw there that I think most people would have taken going into it, but the way they would have played out was not okay. - Josh, I got to remember the schedule now, 'cause there's been some, there's been a decent - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - And then it was Houston at, well, actually let's come back to Toronto for a second, 'cause Toronto, we actually played, we had two horrendous fuck ups in the first half. - Oh, really? - But we actually didn't play that poorly. We created a ton of opportunities. We just couldn't finish to save our lives outside of Owen. It's a chance. And if John Johnson made a couple good saves in that game, but like realistically, we should have walked away with at least a point from Toronto. - So my underrated favorite thing from the Toronto match, right towards the end of the first half, I walked downstairs to go to the restroom before the big crowd rush happens. And we get a big chance. You can hear the reaction outside and you're listening to the radio, you're listening to the radio pipe to the bathroom. And how long is how their old beyond been in this lead? - At least four years. - Four years. - Okay. Whoever the play-by-play guy is for Toronto is very not used to that apparently because Jader O'Brien made a pass or with it. I don't remember exactly which one, but it was Jader O'Brien on the pass. (both laughing) - Yeah, part of it was like, yeah, that's a very Canadian thing. - Yeah, the other bad thing about these Toronto match was being up where we were in the at least hundreds, I'm sorry, hundreds of stairs that it took to get up there. That was just such a trek and a half. - Yeah. - We were in 35 of an upper deck and you enter the stadium at a round level below the upper deck. - Yeah. - And keep in mind the BMO stadium, 'cause BMO Fields, LA, BMO Stadium is a very big stadium. It seats like 30,000 plus. It's gonna be a World Cup and you like, it was a trek to get up there every single time where you were kind of like, I don't have to go to the bathroom that bad actually. Like, I'm gonna win. - Well, if you go to most equivalent stadiums, like you go to like, I don't DKR, Kyle Field, these massive States, BMO Field is not quite that level, but they have ramps to get you up to the upper deck. And yeah, you walk, you go back and forth, but they have ramps. There were no ramps in that place. That was the stairs. - It was stairs, it was stairs. And I'm gonna be honest, I had a great time. Lovely city. I don't know how the hell that stadium's gonna host a World Cup game or several. - So apparently what they're gonna do there is that there's very few seats behind the goals there. That they're building triple decks behind the goals there. - Oh my God, that's a terrible fucking idea. - It's gonna, in Toronto, it's the smallest World Cup venue, even with the expansion. It's a soccer obsessed city. Brad and I went into the PSD lifestyle store in Toronto. - Yeah, randomly we were walking down the street and there was a PSG store in the middle of Toronto. - You could also tell that like, Toronto's hurting for attendance 'cause that night they had Canadian military appreciation night and Croatian heritage night. - I need to shit talk. I didn't see a single day of Mountie, by the way. No, they're in real Canada. (laughing) But we did get to like Ned Flanders, New York. - Hey, I got to ride a pirate ship. So that was cool. - Okay, yeah. - Yeah, the pirate ship was fun. - We ate poutine, multiple bays. Seth fell asleep in a booth waiting for Jibakin' beef fatties that felt like they were never gonna show up. - Oh, no, he just left. He just left and went back to the hotel. (laughing) - No, you fell asleep already left though. That was pretty great. - Yeah, no, it was a great trip, it was beautiful. You know, it's the entire, it was great. - We took you guys, it was fun. - We missed out on the college Canadian football game, which I think will haunt us to our graves until we go next time, but you know. - And I am no longer allowed to go to watch a Liverpool game with anyone up there as a Liverpool fan apparently. - Oh, no, no, no, no, I'll cover your bar tab, do it. (laughing) - The one game they've lost all year apparently was the one game that I showed up to go hang out with. - Yeah, but they also haven't played anybody. So like, it's my one away, it's someone. - Okay, fair enough. Sorry, in the Premier League, you have zero points against the top half. - That is correct, 'cause we played zero matches against the top half. - Correct. (laughing) (indistinct) - Yeah, but yeah, so after the LA FC draw, lost to Houston at home for the first time in club history. And honestly, that's kind of when I felt like the like tide really turned against Wolf, like everywhere instead of just like our like very obsessed little group that knows ball better than the people there. - I didn't go to the match, but I heard there was a lot of booing post match there. And for the RSL match at home, I was told that there was booing when he got announced as the head coach at the beginning of the game. Was that right? - Ooh, that's rough. - Yeah. - Is that accurate? - That wasn't fair. - I missed both matches, so I don't know. - Yeah, I haven't been to a whole match quite a while, I've had other things going on. - Yeah, I've heard the same thing. I just can't confirm it like in person. - Okay, yeah. I was at the Emirates Stadium the same day as the RSL match. So I'm exempt from this one. We did talk kind of beforehand about what our big kind of milestone matches would be. You guys were talking a lot about Toronto. I thought if we didn't be Houston, we were fucked. And it may have been both. We don't really have data to suggest when it was more important than the other, but it did seem from the little bit, I was kind of following that vibes very much went downhill in a hurry after Houston. - Yeah, I think that's when you saw other media begin calling for including Eric Goodman, I think the Northian guys who famously last year called people who are wolf out bum ass losers starting to join the club. So yeah, it turned right after that Houston game, which I don't know, it's a little weird to me. Like, why is that one game the one that's turning you when really nothing is changed? It's just a continuation of the same bullshit we've seen for the entire season and season and half. - But it was like, "Well, Josh Wolf, I've never lost a Houston at home." - Yeah, yes, Josh Wolf who famously cares all of the much about Cup of Tejas. - Yes, I mean, let's not forget we needed what an 86-minute goal to beat them earlier this year at home? - No way. - That was a way. - No, and home, and home, and home. - That's a game of love. - It was a one-year-old game earlier this year gets Houston. - Yeah, obviously, we're going to game. - Yes, that was a way game. - No, there was a home game, guys. - I was in the one game this year, I sat in the supporter section with everybody 'cause I got asked to come heckle Rap Tailor, Steve Clark, which I did. And we scored a goal, and that was the game where Roto infamously wrote like a letter to the fan saying, "You guys rose up in like the 85th minute and we scored and it was a one-nothing game." - Yeah, but Drew you see in the 87th minute and the other Houston one was, we're going to run similar time. - Yeah, it was off the third year, so 86th. - Yeah, so-- - We didn't do that. Instead, we got Galasso'd. - Yes, but all three matches were one-oh, this year against Houston one way or the other. But yeah, I mean, I don't know why that one game would have changed anybody's opinion because there was nothing fundamentally changing about Josh Wolf or the way this team played in that match. And then you have the first 80 minutes of RSL a week later. (laughing) - Yeah, I think there's an interesting level of you can no longer possess cognitive dissonance that may have come with that game. 'Cause at that point, we were effectively eliminated from the playoffs, like, you know, we can do the math around it and we weren't, but like-- - Yeah. - That was essentially last chance to loon. - Yeah. - And to an in-state rival at home, we lose to him for the first time. Late goal, if I recall, we had most of the play. And I think people were just like, all right, that's enough of this shit. - Yup. - Yeah. But again, I'm analyzing this from Sweden at the time, so you guys tell me. (laughing) - Yeah, no, I agree from watching it. Like I do think sometimes like there are just like points of inflection where like, it just kind of tips over. Like there can be a lot of like fan sentiment building and building over time. And then all of a sudden like, everybody kind of notices. And then everybody kind of understands that like, oh, this group of fans like calling for this, they've been talking about this, who are really knowledgeable. They've been right all along. And I think that was the, I actually think that was the moment that everybody realized we're not gonna make the playoffs. And that's really where the point of inflection was. 'Cause everybody was kind of like, oh, you know, we'd be Houston at home. And then we pull the vlog, like we can speak in. And that's kind of like, oh no, our path of playoffs is basically like match fixing as the only possibility. And so like, now we don't-- - We don't have that kind of money, Scott. - I won't tell that to the Apple TV commentators the other night who are convinced we still have a shot of playoffs with a 20 goal differential. - Jesus. - I thought that was weird like post, definitely RSL but Portland too. Like people are like, well, we're not out of the playoffs. Yeah, it's like, yeah, we are. I know there's like a mathematical possibility, but like unless we score as many goals as we have all season against Portland in one game, like we fucked. - Yeah, I mean, do we wanna get into like the Portland tactics since I was in this week game of-- - Yeah. - I was really needed more goals at one point taking the ball to the corner to waste time. - I have one thing I wanna hit on RSL before we go there. - Okay. - It cracks me up to no end that we scored two goals and damn your score to third by starting to play an exact opposite style the way Joshua wants to play. - Yes. - Yes. - Continue on with Portland. - Yeah, no, Portland, I think that match was like a lot of road matches and since Portland, I think Portland now played us. And we finally learned that sometimes if you just shoot the ball hard at the goal, sometimes you get a lucky bounce and it goes in. - What, no, in that list? - And then Brad Stuber, yeah, exactly. And then Brad Stuber, you know, does his usual Brad Stuber thing, which I think a lot of people think that every other MLS keeper is as good as Brad Stuber without understanding that he is one of the three best keepers in the league and has been for ever since he won the starting job. And in terms of playing opposite way of wolf is that in the second half, there were so many good countering opportunities 'cause Portland really was throwing guys forward. They knew that they could punch a playoff spot and they were like, let's just go do this. And there were multiple times where Austin had a three on one or a three on two and didn't even get a shot out of it. And for a team that desperately needed goals even make this seem like mathematically possible, like it was incredibly frustrating to only win one nil. - When we got like XG dominated, right? - Yeah, FB ref has, yeah, FB ref has them at 2.4 and that's a 0.4. - Okay, yeah, I mean, if you're getting smacked and you get to go and have goal and you need goals, like just run with it if you draw, who cares? - Yeah, like you need to win and you need to win by multiple goals. Like in a lot of ways, like Austin was lucky to win and Portland was lucky to only lose by one. - Okay, interesting. - Yeah, you can point me down for a second. - Yeah. - Yeah, I mean, wondrous. - I'm with you, to me it's, yes, we were lucky to win. I'm still more baffled where you started. Scott with the conversation, which is why are we taking the ball to the corner? Why are you playing so conservatively? When, if you truly believe that you're not mathematically eliminated yet, so I understand it, be truly believe you still have a shot at the playoffs. If there's ever a game to just be the most aggressive possible you could ever be, it's that game, because that's the game you can double up your goals and goal differential. And there was just no interest in doing that. - Yeah, but why? I don't, like obviously I said, I didn't watch the game. - Made no sense to me, man. - Okay. (laughing) - Now we had opportunities. I wanna say that there were opportunities to put probably three on the board. There was a breakaway specifically where Owen put one behind, I think he was he put it about a step or two behind Dreyusi and it was a two on one. And there was another one in the game as well that we just missed out on. But we probably put, it should have put three on the board, but it still wasn't an aggressive enough game plan to go try to get five, six, seven goals. - 'Cause what made us think that a team that has scored what now a total of 30% goals of the season was gonna suddenly find a game where we were gonna put up five goals even at a game where effectively we got bonus goals 'cause of how goal differential works. And like, that's hasn't been how we've played all year. - No, of course not. I didn't think it would have happened necessarily. It's more of a matter of why aren't you even seemingly trying to do that. There's more of my frustration. - Yeah, like these play four defenders pop one DM in there and then just throw every forward player we have out there. - Yeah. - Then just have a back line of one to just spot-talk murdering everywhere with the back line. - Fine by me. What do you have to lose? - If there's one thing that we do see, by the way, out of that game and I did not see the game the other night due to some unfortunate things that happened on Saturday. But my understanding is spot-talk played great on Saturday again. It's the other question that I have asked repeatedly in spaces and we haven't had a chance to really talk about it. But the Rata Vonnovich thing poking its head out again where the guy who probably should be in the starting line up every week based on just talent and ferocity at that sitterback spot, it took extenuating circumstances to finally get them on the field. - And then you see spot-talk taking over the game at that sitterback spot. He saved a goal for us in the first half. Or maybe it was the second half, but he literally stepped in front of a ball heading right to the back of the net just because of positional awareness. - Yeah. Like him and we talked a lot about when Dusler came in about how Dusler is just like an adult veteran who has always been the right place in what he's doing. And spot-talk is exactly the same. And you can kind of at least see like roster build-wise like, okay, if Dusler's right back, spot-talk's one of your center backs. You have Steve Robinson in goal and then Drew C. Bakari and Danny and like suddenly like the team starts to look like they might be somewhat competent if you have just like a couple of like signings happen. I mean, that's the oak talking. But it does make just make a huge difference defensively to just have a centerback as good as spot-talkers and Austin's never had anybody near his level. - So that was my big question for you guys. While I was gone was how much his swaddock played and how good has he been? And is this sort of like rotto level where you're like, oh, this is like an actual or like ribbon. Like, oh, this is an actual centerback who like he's remotely and by example, like he has started two games and absolutely he is that guy. - Okay. - It took to the point where he was about to punt. I was afraid he has a look on his face from a still shot in Portland when something about broke out. And I thought he was about ready to rip somebody's head off into the best way possible. - Good. I want that in a centerback. Yes. - Same. Yeah. And I know this probably understanding how good ribbon was because of how good of a player he was. And one of his amazing things was how good of a defender he was without fouling and giving up those free cakes and giving up those things. But I think spot-talk is that kind of like leader center piece of a defense that can immediately elevate defense from being like relying on Stuver constantly to bail you out to actually being competent in front of him. - Yeah. I'm curious to see you with a new coach next year. If vice and is able to be healthy, do we finally get this spot-talk vice in a centerback hearing that we all would like to see at some point? - I've had this feeling for about half the season that vice and ends one foot out the door. It's not like based on any rumors or anything. It's just vibes wise. I can't tell if it's a health thing or he's not or Josh thing or whatever. Like he just doesn't seem like he's clicking here. And I don't know if that's a Roto's gonna hit the reset button. He wants to go back to Finland type of thing or I'm just reading too much into it or what. - So there was a story about him having a longer-term injury that we were not aware of. - Okay. - Yeah. - That has been bothering him. - I also do think that some of it is you bring in a new coach and they have a different view of the players and that's always just gonna affect minutes and appearances. And so until we see who that next guy is, like I would expect that we don't see a lot of Oscar moves because I think that that's just gonna be how that usually works out. I do think like one of the big picture questions for the off season of her Austin is figuring out what your centerback lineup is and what your depth chart is because we spend a lot of money on guys on the bench then. And guys who are not getting younger on the bench. And that's really a way like in a salary cap lead that you really can kind of like reformally or roster to clear up some space. - Yeah, I mean, I guess we're kind of getting into it but let's wrap the last bit of the games and we'll go into the brave new world we find ourselves in. - Yeah. How much of the LA Galaxy game did anybody watch or care about? - I watched all of it 'cause I'm a sicko. - Right, it was an FC. - As I was saying, I went to an awful, since actually it wasn't that awful but it was pretty bad. FC since that he really had a city game in person Saturday night and I got a home right around kickoff and I was like, oh, wait a minute. Arkansas has drive, I think I've got Tennessee. I'm gonna watch Arkansas, Tennessee go for this. - And you chose correctly. Or anybody who watched Cal Miami also chose correctly. - As I was saying, there was a point in life where I would stay up for the end of the games like that especially being on the East Coast. I'm like, oh God, Cal Miami hit the half and I'm like, I'm quite asleep. - Yeah, I can't tell you how often I used to watch like Hawaii play San Jose State but not anymore. - As of the same, Boise State plays at Hawaii at 10 central, I think this Saturday and that might be bus watch TV. Ash and Janke's amazing but I'm gonna go for it. We just hope for a starting to ever die who could just run through people like that and I don't know score. - Maybe. It's not good carried away. But Scott, since you were the one who watched the most of the game, tell us about it. I am one key incident I wanna talk about. You probably have more but. - Yeah, no, the Galaxy are good. They have a lot of really good attacking players. They really know what they're doing. Painsel had a really great chance in the first half that he missed, that really should put Austin down 1-0. The goal was Gabrielle Peck just destroying beer on the wing and nobody coming over quickly and have to stop him. - Joseph Smith a really good chance in the first part of the second half that really should have could have ice the game before Austin scored. And with Austin, we finally got to see what we've been asking for all season, which is the car getting the ball in the wing and are playing with somebody else and then passing to Driesi, who got in between the line of defenders and the midfielder who was supposed to be guarding him and scored a beautiful goal. And then you look at who's occupying the defenders and one of the Austin players is Gabrielle, who's on the right side of the formation against the center back. And you're just like, how does this happen? Besides the fact that one of the key things in Austin is that our full backs are better at scoring than preventing goals. And that's just a constant thing for us. And then later on, they got us, they got a late goal after one of their players tried to kick Bukari's leg off, which only resulted in yellow card. And frankly, I was kind of disappointed in 10 on those performance because this turned into a-- - You were disappointed, you had standards? - Well, no, here's the thing, I expect a 10 uncle game to not devolve into craziness. I usually expect him to insert himself too much into pull out cards and do that kind of thing and he did the opposite, which is kind of what led to the incident I think Devin wants to talk about, which is that he didn't control the benches and he didn't control the other players around him. He only yellow-carded one of the galaxy back up keeper ran onto the field after Delgado again, tried to remove Bukari's leg. And only yellow carded him. And like once you don't set that standard of like, hey, everyone needs to calm down if you want to stay on the field or if you want to just even be available, like what you see at the end in terms of the galaxy bench getting involved is what happens. And ultimately that's what escalated the situation. I think if you didn't watch or didn't listen to the Apple TV announcers who again were terrible, which has been something we've talked about all season, but they acted like beer who tried to kick Please face off with both studs. And instead he just kind of makes a pretty standard slide tackle on the side that like maybe is a card, but like Queens already launching himself in the air before beer is even there. - Yeah, and I mean, I think this is pretty solidly a yellow like maybe you can make a case. It's a red if you look at it from a certain angle, fine, but it's not like, oh my God, this is the worst red card ever like, I see five tackles worse than that in the Premier League go yellow carded at worst every weekend. - No, I mean, you know that's a red card or arsenal and a yellow card. - I mean, it's not like he kicked the ball away, or somebody like threw a ball at him and then kicked him, which is the worst offense in history. - That fucking Christ, we didn't do that refereeing episode yet, by the way, Seth. - Oh my God. - But hey, we still have our friends in the smites of Bundesliga who I don't know if you see the clip that's been going around of the morerendous orrendous initiating. - Yeah, I'm working great offense over the weekend. - I half watched it, but I need to go back and give it some real time. But yeah, and I mean, I mean, I agree with you, Scott, like there should be more Tedunkling in a Tedunkle game, especially with noted Austin FC lover Drew Fisher as the fourth official. You didn't touch on, I guess the only other thing I wanted to talk about, which is how hilariously bad that penalty was that Tedunkle called the God Overtime. - Oh, that was where there was no goddamn way. - Like you watched the replay when he gets zoomed in and like he literally doesn't make contact. Like, and I guess like bar isn't allowed to decide this, but if that's not a penalty, that has to be a dive. - Like that has to be a card card. - No, no, Varken instruct that. - Okay, well then Tedunkle completely fucked up, which is something that we say every match, but like he really fucked that up. - So let me clarify that statement a little bit. Varken sent Tedunkle back to the screen and say, "Hey, look at this again. "It might not be a penalty, you can overturn it, "but you can also give him a yellow for diving on it." - Yes, yeah, which it has to be. Like if that's not a penalty, it has to be a dive. - Yeah, well, he like came out and he's like, "Oh, well the attacker initiated contact, "so no penalty, it's like no, dude, there is no contact. "You've got this wrong after looking at it again." - Well, I will say, I really do like the accountability, I'm sorry, I really do like the accountability of the ref having to like explain the call after. I really do enjoy that. - Yes, I do, except for the fact that I now know what Tedunkle's voice sounds like. Seth, what were you gonna say? - No, it's just, I mean, we're assuming that, I mean, Tedunkle is getting, one of the things I am very disappointed MLS doesn't have yet. We had a ref earlier this season who was over 50 years old officiating a game. Like, and some of these VAR screens are tiny. And I say this as someone who is younger than that, but it's terrible eyesight without my glasses. And as you get down to it, like, it is hard to see on some of those screens. Like they have been, like one of the things, I have, and it's not a (indistinct) but I just, what you call it, consistently disappointed with how frequently that we still have not gotten improved camera angles. We still don't have, some of these VAR screens that they're looking at are absolutely tiny screens. Like, I just got the memorial tiny screen. (laughing) I mean, hey, if it was, if it was inside a Yeti, it'd be a little better, but thank you in case you're current. But it is still, how do they beat us to that, by the way? But is going into it, like Apple really needs to figure this out. And like, we wanna see an increase in quality of the league, especially once the messy show ends in a year or two, that's adding more camera angles, goal line technology, improved VAR, we're not gonna get fish cakes, sorry, Devin, but like, I think we are, there's definitely strides that need to be made here. - You know, I should have brought back some fish cakes, although this probably wouldn't have kept well over the plane. - I sort of say, and I don't think that those are probably allowed to be brought into the US and probably for good reason. - Yeah, of the things to bring on an 11 hour flight. - Yeah. - That's pretty low, but we'll come up with something. We can do the Pundas League RC car thing. - Yeah. - That was fun. All right, anyways, back to this disgusting tackle from people there, maybe, Drew. The only way this is disgusting, and even then it's just like, oh, that was a bad challenge, is if it's two-footed and it just, it isn't. He's maybe a little out of control, fine. It's a very high tempo game. Emotions are running high. He clearly has like control of pulling his leg out and swiping for the ball. And he almost wins the ball, too. Like you guys said, Ricky Pooge is jumping before Drew even goes into the tackle. So like, you can be upset. Like if I were the coach, I'd be like, hey, man, it's the, you know, 102nd minute, like maybe that's not necessary, but like for the announcers to say that, that's fucking ludicrous. And Greg Vanny should have been sent off for running onto the field and screaming at V-Roo. - Yeah, that I think was the real loss of control at that point was, and honestly, what I think the red card happened was just because it had a galaxy entry acted. - Yep. - But that's just, that's what happens when you don't card players earlier in the match to calm them down. You have to do that to control the game and to make sure the game's flowing and you don't have these incidents. And again, technical fail. - Yeah, and you mentioned the backup keeper coming on the field earlier in a, in a fracas and okay. If you come out of the field and you're like pulling players off, I understand like maybe give him a yellow, but like he went on to start shit. And that's an auto red, easiest, easiest call you should ever see. You're not on the, you're not on the field. You're not, you know, one of those players. - It doesn't impact the flow of the game at a certain point. It's like, okay, yeah, you get sent off and you have one less big fucking deal. - Yeah, like calm everybody down. Hey guys, I'm fucking serious. You're Ted fucking uncle, like I don't get it. You know, I know like we're at LA, you know, they're one of the media darlings right now. We're not going to get calls fine, whatever. I really don't even have a problem with like the beer one 'cause I guess in isolation I wouldn't 'cause I'd be like, whatever, I understand you're trying to control the game. It's too late, but like he gives him the red and then he just blows the whistle. And it's like, we'll give him a yellow and then just blow the fucking whistle. The game's over, what are you doing? So I don't know. This is not like a game we lost because of officiating or anything, but like just the inconsistency and how terrible, like even just knowing the fucking rules these people are is it's infuriating. Anyway, Brad, what'd you think? - I didn't see the game. And I only saw the two foot tack. Are they the two foot quote unquote for a hornet to tackle on, at beer room via X, Twitter, whatever the hell you want to call it now. - Yeah. - I think the only thing that strikes me is the windiness of Galaxy fans. - Yeah. - Because so many of them are complaining that it's such a terrible looking tackle. And listen, is it a yellow? Yeah. Okay. Is it a red? Eh, I don't think so, but whatever. We can argue that all day long. - Oh, they are already. - Yeah, that's fine. I'm not going to argue that. Is it malicious to the point that he's trying to take out some dude's career? Absolutely not. Stop wanting you little babies. - Yeah. - Like just, just stop. And when I have to sit here and agree with Stu Holden and Alexi Lawless saw this, that's a bad day. But here I am doing the same thing. - And let's go to Lowry, who was posting probably, who's not even a Galaxy fan, who's posting the main thing. It's like this is the most vicious tackle of scene. It's just like, I mean, he deservedly got ratioed for it. But just getting to the point here, it's like, I did not watch every batch of the league this week. But like, it would not be hard. I don't think that would make the top, I mean, you said earlier, top five in the Premier League on a week. I don't think that makes top 50 tackles of the year in this league. - No. - Oh, yeah. No. - No. - Saying that that's the worst tackle you've seen in a league this year, just goes to show that you don't actually watch the league. - Yeah. - Well, which is honestly way too common of people who comment on MLS, the people who just legitimately don't watch. So I watched like the 66 or so minute until the end, five minutes before that happened, Ring had a worst tackle on them. - Oh, yeah. - And like, good. I don't even think they called them out. - Yeah, no, nobody paid attention to that at all because nobody actually wants the best of Alex Ring. - If Ring is back next year, by all accounts, he seems like he will be. Him and Spotok in the back, just like being like the modern bash brothers of soccer is something I'm really looking forward to saying. - I would love that. - Yeah, I would love to just have a mean back four, back five. Yes, let's do that. - Yes, I want that. Like, like, this is one of the biggest complaints we've had about Austin is that I've had anyway, is that Austin doesn't have a pressure on other teams. We don't try to impart our will on them. We just kind of let everybody play and we just kind of passively play. And like, no, like, you have to do things to cause the other team to be uncomfortable or do or force them to do things they're not wanting to do in order to win matches. And that's why Austin doesn't win matches. - At least they can run around a bit. - Yeah, like that's the entire point of the whole, like having possession to control the game and make them run around or blah blah blah. But like, yes, we don't do that because we play station to station passing the whole time. And so they just kind of randomly jog at the same pace that also randomly jogs up. - I do want to take one more shot at the announcers 'cause there was a moment where they were talking about a Markey Delgado. And they said, he's one of those big piano lifters in the midfield. So Ricky Pooge can play his sweet, dulcet, Catalonian tunes. And if I had heard that and watched that game live, I would have turned it off. - So Tyler Terrence, who was one of the announcers there, him and Devin Crow were the two guys. I mean, it was Kendra St. Auburn on the color for the Galaxy game. But they were the parry that in the open cup included over 220 Taylor Swift songs in one of their game coverages. So yeah, like this is their stick. - Well, at least they're having fun. - Yeah. - All right, so we talked about all the bad shit. You guys want to do some hopeful stuff? - Yay. - Yeah, Brad, lead us off. So Joshua's fired. What are we doing now? - Well, we go get another mobile billboard talking about how he got fired. And that's a good time. - Yeah, no, I thought, I kind of told people for the last few weeks that I thought the day that he got fired, which is yesterday, on Sunday, was going to be the day. It always made the most logical sense to me. It was after the road trip. We did, I think we'd be mathematically eliminated till sometime during the road trip, which turned out to be correct. And then before the last long game, 'cause the last thing you want to do is dead man walking into the final home game of the year. Like that doesn't help anybody. It's better to cut the court now. It needed to happen. We've been on this podcast, screaming it for a year and a half. But it's nice that it finally is happening. There's a few defenders out there of him. God bless you. I don't see how you can look at this team's lack of progress and still think that he is the coach for this club. Josh is going to get another chance somewhere because he's still only in his mid 40s. And in the United States soccer pyramid, guys fail up all the time. I think it would be wise of a U.S.L team to maybe give him a shot. Let him rehab his image a little bit. I don't know that he would necessarily go do that. Very likely that Berg is going to get a job in MLS next year. Berg being per halter. And I could easily see him being a wolf being on the staff there and just going back under a couple of years. I would have bet money on this right now. I would say Greg is the coach here at Chicago with Josh is his top assistant. And here's the thing. I actually think Josh is a good candidate to be an assistant. I think his personality leads to being an assistant coach. I don't think he is a leader of men. And a leader of adults to go out there and be a coach to make game decisions and get players to pull in the same direction. I think he's a tactical brain. And that's what an assistant coach needs to be. - But I don't disagree with you there, but I think somewhat, I don't think it will be in 2025, but I'd say by 2027 someone gives him another shot to manage in this league. - Oh, absolutely. - Incredibly forgiving for our MLS coach, especially one of the Western Conference finals in Paris. - Oh yeah, and it might be Atlanta when the U.S.S.S.S.F. was moving down that way. So it wouldn't shock me at all that he's going, he's going to get another shot in this league. - Well, and he's from Atlanta area too. - But he's just, he needed to go. It was time to part ways and it's time to start a new vision from what this club is. You know, obviously had the Roto press conference today, which we're gonna talk extensively about here in just a few, but Roto already breaking out that you wouldn't believe the names that are reaching out. He's saying he's 25 people are reaching out already to yesterday, interesting to the job. If you're going to tell me I'm not going to believe the names Roto, then you need to make a ball, out of the ballpark higher that's going to blow me away. Cause otherwise you're just blowing smoke up my ass. - Yep. - I'm going to say that right now. - Yeah, so, so something I think gets kind of forgotten about sometimes is that like Josh Wolf out lasted a sporting director who was hired after him. And a lot of the speculation was built on the fact that because Roto didn't hire him, we weren't sure that Roto had the ability to fire him. And this was kind of like the last vestige of Roto's perceived control over what goes on in the club. And with Wolf gone, it really goes to show that like, he really is the decision maker. There's nothing else that he can really blame on Claudia or anything else going on of really being able to input his vision. And I'm very excited to see what that looks like in the off season and who he hires. - I expect it'll be somebody who has previous had coaching experience. I think that I hope that Josh Wolf learned a lot. I think there were a lot of good lessons that he could have learned here and having some time away and to look back, hopefully he improves. Cause I think just as players can improve, coaches can improve with time and experience. And just that, you know, in four years, not making the playoffs three times out of four and a league where two thirds of the teams make the playoffs, it's just not good enough. And ultimately like, this is a results business. You either win the games or you don't. And if you don't win the games, you get fired. - If I'm Josh, sorry, go ahead, Seth. - I guess we'll just add on here. First, I thought it was really interesting that Roto in the press conference emphasized that him and pre-court were there at the stadium together yesterday to make this announcement. And a lot of us were like, did it a world where pre-court wasn't as active as he is as an owner? I think Josh Wolf probably would have been fired at the end of the last season. I think Roto had seen enough there. I think that he had to wait and have two consecutive exits for pre-court's blessing. So I don't know how much Roto is full. I think Roto will get 90% lead way on this, but there's gonna be a final interview with Uncle Tony in this job. And I mean, he is the owner of the team at a certain point that makes sense. But like there's going to be, I don't know if Roto is in 100% control. So I'll push back on that there. The second point here is like, we'll see where we come out with this pool. Like, I think it could be a bunch of interesting names coming through this world. Like, do you want someone who is currently based in the US, based in the Western Hemisphere, coming out of it from all sorts of different directions? Like, I'm almost hoping that I have no clue who the person is. And I'm like, oh, also she's hired. Question mark, Google them. Oh, I remember when they were involved in this as an assistant or even as a head coach of a, I mean, heck, even, I mean, even people like, Kevin Scott, myself, who can know a lot about European football, we could probably name half of the coaches in the current Champions League, much less Europa League. Like, you start going down, like, you can find, I mean, Bukari had his famous goal in the World Cup, but he wasn't exactly at any of our radars before we signed him as a DP. Like, I expect that the tentacles of the network are going to be pretty impressive here. - It was very subtle there that the leading candidate, a question mark leading candidate in my head. We're not going to hire Carlos Cuesta, but he would be a slam dunk. I'm going to do a couple of like end notes on Josh just from my perspective. Like, I agree with Brad, like this is sort of the, you could be a great defensive coordinator and be a shithead coach thing. And, you know, maybe like, you know, Scott touched on this too. Maybe he learns a few things and like comes back and like, I don't think anybody, at least on this podcast is like, I hope Josh Wolf like fails for the rest of his life or anything like that. Like, there are times when it is correct for both the coach and the club to move on. And we're way fucking bastard, but at least we did it. - Yeah, I mean, Riverby still has a job in Kansas City, 16 years ago. - I look at this from Josh Wolf. And if he has anybody in his ear giving him good advice, there's a few things he needs to do. One, reach out to some former players, especially the ones who went like the Instagram post about him getting fired from like 30 seconds. And ask like, hey, what did I, where did I mess up? Like, have the humility to go ask questions. - Yes. - Be curious. - Yes, because that's not normal to have that many former players immediately. One of the VTA go fagudias who is still in this league playing for another club, liking a post about you being fired at Austin FC. But that's not normal. - It has been, you had, you had Ragone and Maxie's Instagram story about looking for a new coach and just taught to him. - Why? - Ooh, there's some tea there. - And well, and it's not just that. You need to ask yourself, as Josh, why is it? And I'm trying to say this in a delicate manner. Why is it seemingly only the guys who speak span or some of our key Spanish speaking players who have this much of a problem with you? Because if you're gonna coach, especially in the Western Hemisphere, that seems like a bridge you need to fix. - Oh, especially in MLS. - Yes. - Yeah. I was actually wondering this. I've always seen one post from anybody at the club that was like congratulatory or like praising Josh. And I haven't seen any from current or former players. And that feels like something that speaks volumes and its silence of everybody just kind of, everybody being glad that this is ending because he has worn out his welcome and that there needs to be a new voice and a new person in charge for this club to move on. But I can't ever remember seeing a coach get fired and literally nobody sticking up for them. - Yeah, it doesn't seem or feel like anyone is sad to see him go that is on the pitch every day. - Yeah. - You know, when you're biggest defenders or the guys who are video crew or work inside the halls, I get it. I'm glad that you're receiving them good terms of them and you're good with them and that you've made friends and you don't treat them like crap, that's a good thing. But you need to understand as a coach, why is it that my players seemingly aren't real sad to see me go? Like that's a question that I think you have to introspectively ask that. I mean, I've seen and these are, take it with a grain of salt rumors, okay? But even if you look at his interactions with Owen lately on the field, they haven't been great, right? And you've seen some speculation out there like what's going on there? So, and I think Owen's gonna flourish without Josh here, by the way. I mean, I'm in it for like two or three years and I'm very happy that Roto made a point today to say, Owen's under contract, he's coming back, he's a very talented player, we can't wait to keep him back here next year. - I was surprised that was as big of a talking point as it was because that should be an obvious answer. He's a professional athlete. - You know what, you know what? - You know what I'll say in rumors and people think that's his man like, Roto nipped it in the butt, that's his shot. - Yeah, you have to understand now, is Gavin potentially gone? That's a legitimate question. - Yeah. - I don't know if he's under contract, because he's still with the academy, he's an underage player. - And he is not under contract and he was, yeah. - So, that's a legitimate question. But Owen, like he's a great, he's a very good talented young player and we absolutely should want to keep him and support him on this team. And having someone new, teaching him skills, teaching him how to play this game, showing him new ways to go about it is going to nothing but help with him. And also, I think it's gonna help him too with people like Jorge. Jorge, I'm calling you out here. If you listen to this, I don't give a shit. You're on this kid constantly about being a nepo baby and only getting a chance because he's, because he's who his dad is. This kid, when he gets a shot, that line of thinking's over. I need you to shut the hell up with him forward. - I wonder if we've poked holes in that left and right. Yes, number two, three years now, but yeah. I hope like that little segment, it's small, but vocal minority of the like, Owen's only around because he's a nepo baby. Like kids got talent, kid can play. Josh probably overused him and definitely stuck him in some bad spots for both him and the team. - Yes. - Yeah, new coach, fix it, fine. Let's all move on with our lives. - Yes, I'm very excited. I think there's an energy around this team again. I'm curious to see the next home, the final home game of the year because there's so much going on in Austin that day. And they just announced Texas, Georgia being a night game too, which is going to pull from the crowd whether people want to believe that or not. It just is. So I think the folks who are going to be there are going to probably create a pretty loud and jovial atmosphere no matter what happens given the news today, but the reshape of this roster over the next few months before next season. And whoever this team goes to hire for this head coaching role is going to, I think, give you a full glimpse of what a Radolfo Barrell led program is going to look like finally for the first time since he's been here. - Yeah, and I think you kind of understated it here, but it's not just, you know, we're moving on from the Joshua O'Fara. I think to a lot of us, this is the last of the, hey, we dragged a bunch of people from Columbus here era. - Yeah, we're moving on from our expansion era. - Yeah, this is now Austin year zero almost. - Yes, we're done being an expansion team. - Yes. - Okay. And it's time to go up, put some big boy pants on and be a club and make decisions to decide or to go and compete at a high level. I think you're going to see a very largely reshape roster 'cause there's a lot of contracts expiring, which we can get into in a post-season episode. A lot of contracts expiring, there's a, there's talent in the academy and at MLS next pro level for us that we could probably bring in and start integrating a little more. And then I'm sure Radolfo's out there scouting guys that he wants to bring in. So, and with the new rule changes to go to two DPs and four U22s, I think we're going to get a lot younger, a lot faster. - Well, I don't think, remember that choice was just made and we'll get again and get into this on other episodes. That choice was just made for this season. - Yep. - The way that our lineup is set up, I would suspect we're going to go three DPs, three U22s for next season. - Okay. - Yeah. Let me ask kind of a round table question and then let's get into the press conference a little bit 'cause I think that was almost more interesting than, you know, some of the games we played. But I'll let Scott go first, like give me as many factors or as few as you want. Like what are you looking for in a new head coach? - I would want somebody who has head coaching experience who's able to speak Spanish, who understands either MLS or at least like has been in and around MLS. I assume that we're going to get somebody who Roto has worked with before, or at least has like high recommendations from that. I think what we kind of like talked about like to me, like this is a great chance to fresh start. And I just want somebody who has some experience who can kind of hit the ground running to where we're not waiting on them to learn on the job. - Yeah, that sounds good to me. Seth? - Yeah, I mean, I would agree with all of that. I don't necessarily buy if they don't have the MLS experience, but just someone who is proficient in both English and Spanish, you get to a point of, yes, as much as I would someone who is going to be able to speak in Spanish. You still have a lot of guys on this roster. I think of people like a bicentat or Bukari who don't speak Spanish. And you do need to have someone who, even if their first language is in English, it does have a masterful commander that can actually language. Like just watching both Rodo and his press conference today and even watching the currently in Austin, Mauricio Pochettino, what you call it, conduct themselves in just the way that they're moving back and forth between English and Spanish. Just like, that is just such a good for dynamic, for the fans, for the locker room, for really where Austin is as a city, is something that I do think is way more important than like the fan and game piece that I was asked about the press conference today. I also think it's just you want to have someone who has been around, this is going to sound weird, but been around both successful and unsuccessful teams. Like you need to have someone, whether it was their playing career or someone else like, you have to have someone who understands what losing feels like as much as you need to have, someone who understands what winning feels like, and someone who has the self-realization to learn from their mistakes. I'm not asking for perfection, but I will say that 13 teams on a 14 teams in the Western Conference have made the playoffs one of the last two years. My expectation is, even in the first year, especially with the roster, we're building, that they should be able to make the playoffs. - Yeah, I will throw a two-year- - I'm not saying it's not a four seed, I'm not saying anything else. I am saying that they should at minimum, be able to get into the eight, well, who knows, we don't know the MLS playoff for that first thing. - I was going to break that up. (laughing) - Yeah, two very important stats though, since you brought up Mauricio Pochettino, a very nice guy, and also goes to the child in a James Madison jersey yesterday, so I already like him. James Madison's Spurs kit, and Spurs were leading two to nothing yesterday, then Josh Wolf was fired, and then Brighton came back to win three to two, so. - I was like, already good news for Verde teams. - Yes, I love that you're like Spurs kit, and I'm sitting here going, what does he have against the Dukes? That's mean, yeah. Nope, nope, nope, nope. All right, Brad, what are you looking for to coach? - So I think my view of when he comes to coaching at this level of any professional sport is, I'm less interested in tactical nuance than I am, someone who has flexibility to use players in the right positions at the right times. So tactical flexibility is important to me, and man management. So show me a guy who, I need somebody who can bring players together and consistently get best performances out of them. You're not gonna always get, you know, a 10 out of 10 at every player every game. It's just a human nature that's not going to happen, but consistently bringing out positive energy, positive players and knowing the right buttons to push is much more of a prerequisite for me than understanding every little, this is how we're gonna attack this, this is, I can give a shit less about that. That's what give assistants forward in my head. - Yeah. - This is about getting guys to play at their apex the most oftentimes possible and to make this sound greater than the parts. That's what a good head coach does. - Especially in a parody league like MLS, if you can get that like Jurgen Klopp, like supercharge everybody. - Yes. - That's worth, you know, an extra DP slaughter. So whatever you wanna call it, however many Miami gets now. - Yes. - Yeah, I'm gonna be pretty short in mind, I want them to be Basque and either actively antagonistic with or never heard of US soccer, the US Soccer Federation. Sure, I like all of your answers too, but. - Yeah, I've heard to mention that, I want them to not know who Greg Raulter is. - Yeah. - I mean. - Or if they have or they laugh. - Yes. - Oh, no, yeah, okay, that's all I'm talking about. - Yeah, that's what I was saying. (all laughing) - Kids coach a team into the World Cup knockout stage. They were like, "Yes, people don't know who the hell he is." - Well, coach is a really fine, lived with a heavy lift there. He was on the sidelines throwing bounce passes for a team at Mates. - We're nice sneakers. - He does have a nice sneaker collection, but he's got a great collection of Kankukaf trophies. You know, I'll give him that. - It's sure much mugs from all the places that he's on Kankukaf trophies. - I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Beech and Kallahan has a Kankukaf trophy, right? - Does. - Yeah, okay. - Sure. - Nashville has been eliminated from the playoff detention as well. - Yeah, well, I mean, speaking of people who have failed out of the Swedish L.S. Vincarian, which I'm sure I'm pronouncing wrong, Adam Onequist, if you're still listening at this point, your interview offer is still on the table. (all laughing) We actually went to his home stadium, but he didn't respond to our requests for an interview, but it's still open. I don't know if we're gonna fly back to Goetheborg for it, but, you know, Kalliffs will be fine, which is one of the weirdest things that's ever happened to me that we ended up at a stadium that Adam Onequist now plays at, but. - Is that fun design experience? - No, no, no, we went to the Arsenal women's champions league game there. - Yeah, I mean, it looked like there were quite a few Arsenal fans there. - Yeah, so it's like a five to 7,000-seater stadium, and it was probably, we had probably had like 7,800 in their little like pendant corner, and then there were a bunch kind of scattered throughout, so it was good atmosphere. Like, home crowd did really well too. - Yeah. - It was a good time. - I was up to save. How did it feel being in a cage for the first time? (all laughing) - Wish they would've done that to us at that LA playoff game, but. (all laughing) It was kind of funny. - Crazy, if we had not had Joshua Smos, Unforgivable City, losing to VLX, that we would have played in a lay-on in the next round, where we would have absolutely been in a cage for that match. - Yes. - It was a little surreal being like, guys really, but like I understand like there's protocols and like, it was a very collegial atmosphere. We had this like entire section blocked off. Like, you know, they wouldn't let us in any other entrances. We had the, you know, the dedicated restrooms, dedicated concessions, and I was like, damn, I'm glad you guys aren't fucking around, but this is totally unnecessary. - I mean, I guess like, I mean, they have to stop the, okay, the Norwegian League was starting fish cakes, but Sweden, they banned VAR. So we would, did the Women's Champions like qualification round have VAR? - If they did, they didn't use it and I don't think so, 'cause there were multiple times that they probably like, should have at least taken a look at things and never did. - Interesting. - So I wonder if the stadium's just not equipped for it so they don't have it, which would make the most sense. But, I mean, this wasn't even like the biggest team in Gothenburg, Sweden. So, you know, do what you will with that. - All right, so let's talk about the press conference. Seth, you speak more Spanish than the rest of us combined. So do you wanna give us your opinions on kind of the overall? - Yeah, so I did have a chance to watch the whole press conference. I thought Roto was remarkably composed. He is not a, it's funny, 'cause I have interacted with Roto in person three times now, and I would say that most of his answers to me have been 30 seconds or less. But if you give him an actual microphone, that his answers get quite verbose and quite detailed. He spent some really interesting time. I thought for the most part, the questions in Spanish were a little more insightful than the questions in English just 'cause they were asking him about different regards in the team, not the ones from Jorge. The ones from Jorge were stupid and mindless, but you didn't need a translator to tell you that. I think that what we really learned there today is that Roto was not happy with how things have gone. Oh, wait a minute, that's not really anything that we needed to learn per se. I think that he has been frustrated with just, he thought there was some hubris in here. I mean, remember when he came over, he's like, this guy's coming from Bad City, where they had unlimited budgets, where apparently they did, I did not read the whole initial charges that they apparently partially succeeded in it against the primarily today. - Yeah, I'll fill you in later. - Yeah, I was, yeah, I haven't had a chance to go through. - It's not important. - Yeah, but going through this, it's like, he did not realize how bad of a situation. He was aware of the weird MLS rules. Like he knew about Gam and Tam before taking this job. - I don't even know about Gam and Tam. - Was it? - I don't even know about Gam and Tam. - But like, the guy is an MLS nerd, but you could be an MLS nerd and not realize how badly Cloudy Arena fucked this club with contracts until you dug into that. 'Cause it's taken us a long time we realized how bad, like none of us were really mad at Claudio until the 2022 World Cup. Yeah, we thought like there were complaints about the expansion, draft and things like that, but like, no one was rainin' out until that whole shit broke, right? I mean, apparently if I'm wrong here, yes, but like. - No, no, no. - I mean, we could, no, 'cause we were coming off that like 2022 season where like everybody was just like, oh, we're one of those like great clubs that just immediately hit Instagram running or a great every year and like, I don't know, then. - And then at all that. - I mean, it's kind of like any job though. Like when the old manager leaves, the new manager comes in and finds out that the old manager fucked up, like that's a thing. - Yeah, that's what you should do too. But honestly, one of the things that's even, like actually the Claudio, he did a bad job of three, but a lot of the stupidest things that happened in this club were in the first six months of 2023, which is partly Claudio's fall, the large part, Josh, well, this fall, probably a fair bit Sean Rubio's fault. I mean, if you look at our 22 to 23 off season, holy shit, we fuck that up. - Yeah, we should actually look at Toronto a little bit and go, hey, Rubio, you're not really doing great over there right now either. (laughing) - I'm sorry, but like, okay, but he traded assets to the team he ended up taking over. Like, can we still talk about that? Like, is that something that we're gonna bring up again? - I'm sorry, we have one more full of Toronto of us here to bring up because Toronto is the team that gets the bi-week on decision day. So they've already been eliminated. Toronto has won one game in September and October in the last four years. And guess which game it was? Oh wait a minute, we've already talked about it tonight. - Oh, yeah. - But hey, but you know, positive of that, we gotta watch that in person. - We did. Which actually, no, if they make a coaching move that could, with Rubio there, maybe? Maybe that's where Josh goes? - Interesting. - I would love to watch Josh. I would love to watch Josh ready to coach in Cignet, Amber and a Dash. That would be a high comedy. - More each week, rueges for the Argonauts or goals for Toronto F.C. under Josh Wolf. - Ooh, there's gonna be some fun lines on that, but I mean, (laughing) - That's a real sick goes best. - You know, more people on Earth that would bet on that and they're all on this podcast. - Yeah, yeah, we'll just announce it every week when we do a new episode. - Bandual's like, no, we can't take that. But yeah, no, I mean, I think John Herman might get fired not due to performance per se, but due to all the Canada scandals and stuff like that. So I'll be curious to see how that all turns out. - Yeah, we got a little off topic here, didn't we? - Yeah, no, but getting back to our roster build. It's just like this roster build pre-Roto and like, not everything that Roto's doing. Like Diego Rubio looked a hell of a lot better on the pre-season than he did this season. Like, I mean, our best, what? I mean, actually we had three really good January winter signings, Bureau, Heinz, Ike, and, gosh. - Obrad. - And Obrad, yes. Like three outstanding signings there. Like that have like, far exceeded expectations. And Spatak and Destler are going up there. But Kari, I think with the right coach and like a full off season integrate into the team should be much better. And I still have hope for him. But yeah, we'll see how it all comes together. We'll see how many open spots we have. I have to, I haven't done all the roster math yet to figure out how many open spots we're gonna have or figure out who we have to move. But yeah, it's gonna be a complicated off season. - Yeah. And I mean, this is Roto's biggest press conference since he decided he was keeping Wolf. And it was fucking hilarious that the communications director came out and started like asking for questions. And Roto was like, but I wanna say nice things about Josh first. And like, it was just so emblematic of the way the club has been run for the past four years. - Yeah. - So that's fucking seriously. - It's basic just to give the guy whoever's at the mic a chance for an opening statement before you ever open up your questions. That's basic media one on one. - This is the second time we've seen that in a major event. The VP debate also, if we can't like this. And I'm just like, okay, like let people introduce themselves before you ask a question, like common decency. And we never had that in America. - Nah, that's a myth. Yeah, but I mean, you know, Scott or Brad, any kind of general overarching things you wanna touch on the press conference? - I don't think we learned a whole lot today. - No, which is fine. - I agree with it. - Yeah, which is fine. I thought other press conferences from Roto, we've actually learned a little bit. And there was apparently one really interesting answer in Spanish, which our friend Arleus has translated in Slack, that we were up, I guess going after Dessler earlier. And we're trying to get him here in January of last year, but we had to save money on the million dollar transfer fee because of how to amateurize this and the money that it is here in MLS versus other areas are in Europe, especially in that apparently we were in a bidding war with a Buddhist League of Club for him, before Dessler came over. Yeah. So I found that to be interesting. Other than that, we didn't learn anything. That's fine. I didn't wanna necessarily learn anything. I didn't think we would. I'm kind of over, and he's the second or third time he's done it now, I'm kind of over, Roto is saying names you would not believe. Honestly, just hire somebody instead of glossing it up because I think you're setting people up for failure. You're setting yourself up for failure and inflating expectations over who you might hire versus who you're probably going to end up hire. - Yeah, and it's a little weird too because he's sort of been doing the very corporate under promise over deliver thing. - Yeah. - And everything about that. And also like anybody who had come here that I've heard of, I probably don't want. Like just being serious, like who are we gonna get? Like Frank Lampard, fine, great. I don't think there are a ton of assistants clamoring to come here. I don't know who's a name that's realistic that we would actually want coaching here. Do you wanna say Merino? - No, no, we don't want your blood now. - We don't deserve cozy Merino. - I mean, I would have a great time talking about his post-game press conference every week, but I don't wanna watch this. - Okay, we're hanging against Jose Merino. I need to fight anything. (laughing) - If you have MLS media and you need somebody who to protest the bad call, put up a laptop showing the call was bad in front of a TV camera for the broadcast, MLS cannot handle them. - He is a genius. - He is a genius. - I'm the highest one. (laughing) - No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. - I also didn't know you after. - That's fantastic. - He set up a laptop to show that the call was wrong in front of a broadcast camera. Like he actually did that. - No, but so like the thing is like, like Apple has been very bad at marketing messy, because like messy is actually a pretty damn boring person. He's a brilliant soccer player, but like messy, the person is like, oh, he goes out and eats pizza with his kids and why it's like, he's not like, oh, we're gonna do a six-part-time scene series. Like, no one's watching it. Like, Jose Mourinho, I don't like Jose Mourinho, but Jose Mourinho would get like the, like drive to succeed, like type ratings for a show on Apple because Jose Mourinho is just that ridiculous. He's a better personality because he is a coach. - Yeah, especially now. And I mean, I don't wanna play like Mourinho terrorism ball or anything, but for the lulls for a little bit, it could be fun. - Yeah, I mean, but no, what's not to it? - Mike, that tells me we're gonna get somebody from the Pep Man City coaching tree that is an assistant or maybe worked with the academies or some of that nature. I think that's what's gonna happen here. - Yeah, I keep hearing people say this and like he was an assistant at both Barcelona and Liverpool, which are like real football clubs. So I don't know why we wouldn't like think somebody, if like, you know, maybe it's somebody who was at Barca that's now at City or something, but. - I don't think he's gonna, because I don't think the deviation for the play style is changing. The play style is being ingrained in the club. - I mean, that's endemic to Barcelona before Pep was there. - Fair, fair. I also did like, he did sing at least praises today at the press conference. And I think that's deserved. I think what at least done with the second team, even this year missing the playoffs, but they were young, big change over from last year. The development that you've seen from some of those guys has been really nice, which is his job. And I think people have to remember that about any of the academy or second team coaches, like their job is fully development. It's winning and losing a secondary to it. Yeah, I just, I think ultimately it's going to be somebody that we probably have not heard of. And that's fine. I just don't want Roto to set himself up for being ridiculed or having to hear it from a fan base that can sometimes have some crazy real unrealistic expectations. - Yeah. And I mean, that was my biggest takeaway in the press conferences. Like it was mostly boring, but it was professionally boring. And we don't get like professionally boring from Austin FC that often it's like sort of shit show what the fuck are you guys doing? Like how do you not have media training 101 shit? - You mean, Josh Wolf saying, I don't feel pressure from in this league. Yeah, smart. - Yeah, fine. Let's talk about that. (laughing) - But, hey, look, he doesn't have to feel any pressure because he's not coaching a team anymore. (laughing) - When nobody's like, you know, cars on fire, or whatever the fuck he said. - No, but I will say. - Okay, I thought there was an invitation to the latest car on fire. - I did too. (laughing) - I will say. - Josh, you're not doing your job. You said this would motivate you. Like, what the fuck? - We did get one piece of actual news. Not that it really matters that much, but that Davey Arno will be the interim coach against Colorado. - Yeah, I thought my Roto answered. That was like, oh, I thought you guys already knew this. - Yeah. (laughing) - We were probably probably supposed to set out a press release and did it. (laughing) - Here's just like, of course, it's Davey. Like, what are you, you know, next question. We were like, oh, okay. - Yeah, I'm not sure everyone's on the stuff it would even have been. Like, I think everybody was just like, what's gonna be Davey's playing? But I don't think anybody ever said it. - Yeah. - Yeah, like that's really the only news. Like it was, again, like Seth said, like it was professionally boring. - Yeah. - And I mean, you know, I don't love professionally boring, but it's nice that somebody at this club can do that. So, yeah, I don't know anything else you guys wanna touch on with the press conference before we get to my hobby horse for the day. - No, okay. - Not for me. - Okay. What do we have to do to get Brad Stuver on the US national team? - He's not the pitch on yesterday. - Yeah, I mean, I don't understand if you're Paul Chitino, he's here. Why would you at least bring him in the train with the team this week? What does it hurt you? - I mean, maybe he is. He's just not on the roster. - Yeah. Because the way to get Brad Stuver on the national team radar is to get him a better defense. Because ultimately the only thing that's gonna matter and we're gonna see this when it comes to MLS reward season, which is coming up right now, is that they are gonna vote for, it's probably gonna be shilled from Columbus crew. It's probably gonna win it because his defense is just so good in front of him. And ultimately best goalkeeper is a team stat and not an individual stat. And as much as we harp on Brad's numbers, which are amazing and obviously the best in the league, until Austin has a better defense in front of him to where that limits, to where his numbers just overall he'll middle of the league look better, he's not gonna get a shot. - Yeah, I'm asking that more as a US soccer, holy shit, our goalkeeping situation is a full blown crisis at this point than in a season. - It's kind of like the joke about like, how do you win for baseball? Like, how do you wanna goal glove? - Yeah, but adding average points, yeah. - Yeah, there's a similar discussion in hockey. There's an award called the Norris Trophy, which is given to the best defender or defenseman. And it's always, you know, like Eric Carlson won at like five out of eight years or something. And he's like literally never played an ounce of defense in his entire career. He just stands in the light and it's specs and shouts. - I mean, look at John Gallagher getting an all star nod last year for scoring goals as a wing back. Like, that's, he wasn't there for his defense. He was there 'cause he scored goals. - Yeah, almost all entirely in the beginning of the season too. - And when he wasn't really playing defense. - Yeah, sort of like when we would pretend that Cristiano Ronaldo was a midfielder. It's like, okay, well, he's the highest guy at the pitch the entire time, but sure. Whatever you guys wanna say. All right, let's do a dramatic past month. Stocks rising, following moments of suffering. Brad, stock rising. Ooh, I didn't actually think about this before we got started. - Ah, gotcha. - Yeah, this is, I mean, I think Slata 'cause a little bit, yeah. A couple of starts we've seen for a minute. It's just, he's exactly what we expected him to be. And it's nice that he finally got some time to play. - Okay, that's good, Nick. Scott, how about you? - I was gonna just say Bacari to re-use these stock rising because I feel as though like they are actually starting to get some kind of a connection now. And ultimately, like next year's attack is going to be dependent on how well that relationship builds. - Yeah, so during the press conference, I know people asked about Owen, but they also asked about Danny and Triusi, right? And he said both were coming back. - Yes, he made a joke about whether or not anything have been posted to Twitter by somebody's neighbor's friend, if Triusi was saying. Which I thought was the one like actual like moment of his personality coming out. - Nice. Seth's stock rising. - I'd say Bureau. I mean, yes, he had the tackle that we talked about earlier against Galaxy, but he's looked much better and he's really fit into the team. Like, I was a little unsure of his signing at the beginning of the year of like, we're getting a guy out of the Brazilian second division. Let's figure out like, and there was a lot of like, okay, he's one of Roanoke's guys, we're just there. But like, especially with him and Destler, like they should be locking down the wings. In the next couple of seasons, we just kind of make sure they stay healthy. I don't know where that fits John Coleman into this team. I don't know why his contract was extended. And that's hopefully someone's buying him this summer for his sake. All right, not summer this winter, but it will be interesting to see where that comes together. But yeah, Bureau has been impressed with attaching up. He's getting better at defending and I'm excited to see him here for the next few seasons. - Yeah, and I want to kind of rewind on that too, 'cause I don't think I mentioned it. Like, if that tackle is actually like harder, not like an actual intent to injure like the idiots on the broadcast said, but like just going after Ricky Pooge a little bit harder in that game. And it was like a clear red. I probably wouldn't give a shit. I might give him more points 'cause your whole season's down the drain. Fuck that kid. It's nice to see somebody on the team have some fight and give a shit. - Yeah. - So obviously you wanted to manifest and other things, but it's yeah. - So my stock rising is Vanderbilt, 'cause. (laughing) - That was a better use of everyone Saturday. (laughing) - So did you see that from the goal post, by the way? - Yes, yeah, cops send a fish 'em out of the river and they're all shooting them off to pay the fine. - They walked it three miles down Broadway, passed all the Bachelorette parties and threw it in the freaking cover of the river. That's amazing. - Yeah. Yeah, that's a fairly steep drop off that bridge, isn't it? - Yes. - Well, they didn't throw out the bridge. They threw it off the edge of the street goes to the river. - Okay. - If you follow it all the way down Broadway. So they threw it from there. - Okay. - But yeah, I did think that was funny. They gave Arkansas $250,000 fine in Vandy eight, $100,000 fine, both for rushing the field. Like, okay, Vandy, maybe we get it for you guys. (laughing) - Arkansas was a repeat offender. - Okay, that's what it comes from. - I like my version better. - Well, I mean, it still is because Vanderbilt hasn't done it before. - Yeah, exactly. (laughing) - It's, I'm going to sidebar here. I know where it's awesome. I've seen podcasts, but being the native Alabama, there's a lot of folks out there because of Saban's run for 17, 16 years, whatever, who grew up and haven't really seen what pissed off Bama fans are. - This, this is, and this isn't like, oh, we lost Georgia, we're mad or something like that. This is like, this is what I grew up with when they were consistently eight before seven to five. Like that fan base when things aren't going well is the most unhinged fan base in America. And it's not close. - Oh, yes. (laughing) - One man continue. - And I know that and it's fine. I was on a call today with one of the someone I'm interviewing a lobby. Who is at a love of the University of Alabama. I was just like, I had you everything. And I successfully get it to like, my con could not mention Saturday's game. But I was just like, whoo, don't mention it, don't mention it, don't mention it. (laughing) - I already found and worn a Commodore hat. (laughing) The three point, the point Z kind, not like the actual like regular kind. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Anchor down. Anchor down. - Yeah. I'm gonna enjoy when Auburn loses to them next month and Diego Coffee and beats it for the second straight year. - Well, what do we think the odds are that, so like Texas gets what? Oklahoma on Saturday, Georgia, the next Saturday, and then goes to Nashville. Like if there's ever a game that has ever screamed track, I mean, I guess because out there in Alabama, it's like, okay, I feel like Texas won't be ready for this rather than this being the traditional track game. - Yeah, I got, we're going to burn it from our normal podcast thing. I don't think it's going to be a track game because of that. If they didn't pull that win off, then yes. I think you'd be a little more scared. - Yeah, you can't be a trap game if you've already been a trap game. - Texas is welcome to the SEC moment is the next two weeks. - Yeah. - Because never before have they had to play somebody like Georgia right after playing Red River. - Yeah. - No. - Yeah. - Yeah, and I mean, you know, we can say we're off subject here, but I think we had an episode where Seth talked about cricket for 20 minutes or at least at the back of it here. - Okay, we're talking about going to see darts in England here in a few months. So, the darts, the darts, please. - This is, wait, this is, this is very funny to think about, but I guess, wait a minute, Devon. Mizzou joined the SEC while you were in law school, correct? - Correct. - Okay, so I was about to say, all four of us now very technically have degrees from an SEC institution, which is very weird that it's like-- (all laughing) - We didn't have to think about that. - Oh, for the only one of us, we're at an SEC institution when we apply to set institution. (all laughing) It's a very funny thing about that. - Well, see, Brad has two, so his just mean more. Like, well, not two institutions, but two degrees from the same course, yeah, yeah, that's what it is. I've been told I have to keep going back because every time it's my last year, we go undefeated. So, it's science. - Yeah. - I mean, you gave a PhD, Dr. Taylor, no. - No, that actually almost happened. We're not gonna joke about that. - Oh, okay. - When I moved here, the choice was get a PhD or get a job. So that actually was almost, that was on the table. - Did you choose wrong? - No, no, I didn't. - Okay. All right, well, let's do a stocks falling. Seth, you wanna go first? - Ooh, stocks falling. Oh gosh, we've got so much to choose from here. I am gonna go with, I mean, he's been playing a little better, but I still feel like we have to go with our guys Sebastian Trucy for Tweetgate, which we talked about here for a little bit. Like, we understand that he was, it was suspended for the LAFC game on card accumulation. After we managed to have four guys potentially eligible in Toronto for card accumulation. And three of them managed to get, yeah, what was in that game? Like, yeah, man management, at least Joshua, we can't blame him the next time this happens, but hopefully this won't happen again. But whatever tweets that him or his handler were sending out, just like complaining about the whole world here, like you're a professional athlete, you're getting paid $6 million a year in a league where the league minimum is like 89K. Like, come on, you have to be a leader. And he did get finally stripped of the captain's armband, which I know is like, we were like, oh, is this gonna be a one or two game thing? Like, finally, like, Josh Wolf, you should never have given him the armband to begin with. And just like his lack of leadership, I hope to see a hell of a lot more. He's looked a little better in the last couple of games, but still stock balling. - Seems totally fair to me. Scott, you wanna go next? - Yeah, I was gonna say Brandon Heinz-Aik who has been a consensus starter for the team, but based on spot-docs emergence and just kind of general skill level, he's kind of fallen behind at the point that he was deployed as a right-back for some reason. On Saturday, which still I would love an explanation of, but I feel like he's gonna kind of be the odd man out next year, which based on his salary number won't be like that bad, but for somebody who started so many games, like that is gonna be just like a downgrade. - Yeah, he was very good at the beginning of the year too. - Yeah, he really was like his speed and when he brought to the table was something that Austin really needed. I mean, I still feel better about him back there than Julio. - Yeah, you wanna take both of 'em, take Heinz-Aik and Julio? - I mean, yeah, I mean, Julio's gonna be in the same bow. Like he's gonna be competing against Leo and whoever other center box he brought in, but like that's gonna be an interesting shakedown in terms of the Austin roster of how that build goes, because ultimately like we're paying at least two guys or at least three guys starter money and salary happily, I don't know if you can do that. - Yeah, I think that's my big thing. I wanna tackle in the off season episode, but we'll get to it. Brad, I bet you. - I don't know how much higher it can go, but I thought Brad's Subaru's been carrying this team the last few weeks to some points that we probably won or two that maybe we did deserve and that Portland game was arguably one of his three best games he's played. I don't see anybody else, we're at stock down, aren't we? - Are we at stock up or stock down? - Let's talk about Brad's Subaru 'cause we've been at Oregon. - Sorry, but that makes sense. - I got totally lost and thought we were still at stock up. My apologies, guys. - I wonder how you got fucking lost, Brad. - Yeah, well, I'm stupid. That's how I'm stupid. Sorry, but Subaru, shout out. We haven't talked about you enough. My apologies are there. I think stock down though, it's honestly, man, I think it's the overall idea of how we wanted to play. And I don't wanna say Josh Wolf because he's fired now, right? To me, that's the answer. It's Josh Wolf not being aggressive enough over the last month or so with the season on the line since we came out of Leakskop with all those momentum and squandering said momentum. We've talked, we beat it to a poll party today that people aren't going to give him another shot, but I don't see how he gets rehabbed that quickly considering what we just saw. - You only need 180 it like directing Tim Tebow in the first round type of stuff. - Yeah, I wasn't talking about that. - Yeah, I wasn't trying to pick ideas. That was my good two example. - Um, yeah, you never know. I'm gonna go for, we had one big hope when we did our season preview and that was that we would play a meaningful game on decision day. - And we're not gonna do that again for the fourth year in a row. - So that's my stock. Our free season hopes is my stock falling against. - I will say I bought, there was a moment where I thought I was going to be in Dallas for work next week. And I was like, I will buy a ticket Sunday morning back on Southwest before flights, or it's like in case I want to go to decision day. I moved that to a ticket to Hawaii in February. So that's probably the first one. - Oh, there is, there is a secondary stock falling which is Roto's opinion on MLS Next Pro. - Yes, okay, sure. But he's right, we had just gone 50% and shoot out. We would have been in the playoffs. - For sure, but still shoot outs after the games of now. So our MLS Next Pro are awesome, shut up, Roto. Don't you mess with Next Pro? - He has other things to fix first. - Yes. - When we win our like ninth MLS Cup in a row and have five, whatever the fuck they've renamed Cock A Calf Champions Cup at that point, then he can fix Next Pro. - It doesn't need to be fixed. Well, you can fix other things. - It's a playoff system where you get to choose your opponent. It's perfect. - Oh, I will say, I mean, not that you guys, we're 90 minutes into this, but tomorrow at 1 p.m. 1 p.m. Central, they're livestreaming the Zoom call. - Yeah. - And then 2 p.m. for the Western Conference. I will probably put that in Slack right now 'cause that is amazing that it's going to be livestream. They're actually giving people like a week and a half because Chicago Fire 2 is gonna be hosting. So I will probably, I have the Chicago Fire gave me free club seats in exchange for Messy not showing up in the game. To a game between Chicago and Nashville who are both eliminated. If the, as long as it is not at the same time as the Georgia Texas game, because I will go watch the Georgia Texas game over that, but as long as it's not there, I will go out to Bridgeview to go watch Fire 2 play against the Fill in the Blank component as the foresee in the next Pro playoffs. - Are they like club seats or like a box? - No, they're like the second level, which is like, yes, you have access to a club, but like they're not like, and they're padded seats, but like they're not amazing seats. - Okay, not like you have a TV nearby that you could tune into the Georgia Texas game. - Yeah, if they give me box seats, yeah. If they were giving me free booze and box seats, that's so drifty, oh yeah, I'd probably just do that. It's just like, oh yeah. Oh, how do you book darts playing down there? How cute? - Yeah, that's nice, it's first down Texas. - Yeah, oh yeah. - All right, thanks, PA announcer. You're the closest I'm getting into this game. Yeah, I don't know. Moments of suffering, I feel like we're gonna have a lot. - Oh my God. - Scott, you haven't gotten to go first yet. - So my moment of suffering, we kind of touched on it before, but I really can't emphasize enough how many stairs there were in Toronto. (all laughing) It's somebody who had been walking around Toronto for a couple of days before that. And my wife and I found a really cute yoga studio. We were doing yoga in the mornings. And my legs were just so dead the last time going up there. And then we got shit talked by a bunch of 10-year-olds about how our team sucks. And I'm kind of sitting there like, yeah, we know, we've watched this 30 times. Our team's terrible. Brad was telling them about how we wanted the coach fire. But yeah, halfway up the like 100 stairs to get up to row 35, I was just like, this actually sucks. Why am I doing this? - So, I'm gonna add on to Scott suffering here is that we had initially, when we were allocated tickets, they allocated us like 400 tickets. So we had bought like in row 25. And then they moved us up to row 31. And then like a couple of weeks before the end of them, before the match, they said we'd only have like 40 of us up there. They moved us all up to rows 35 and 36. The two very top rows. So it was a progressive moment of suffering. Kind of like the 2024 awesome of CC. - Way to tie it together. Are you gonna take that or do you wanna take a different moment of suffering? - I'm going to take a different moment of suffering. I'm gonna take the funniest moment of suffering which was the moment of suffering of scoring two goals. It gets RSL to knock it, eliminated from the playoffs. We are in this mixture of suffering and joy, all up on the plans of like, yay, we're actually connecting, we're doing things. Are we in a minute? I only want us to score. I had, I was messaging with the so, the LV Wolf out statement did go out that night 'cause technically we weren't mathematically eliminated but we were eliminated 'cause we weren't gonna close our 20 goal differential. And then even if we did take over 30 more goals on there, but I was like, okay, we're waiting to see this. And I had to spend like an hour plus watching a Portland Vancouver game without Evander in it on that awful turf at BC Place to see a Vancouver would score an extra goal so we could officially be eliminated from the playoffs. Like, what does, like, I kind of think it's now twice this year between this and then Stupid Leaks Cup of figuring out if you're gonna be able to see a game or not. I've watched this 11 PM games that are utterly meaningless but, like, other results in LV or larger Austin FC community depended on it. I'm just like, what am I doing with my life here? And it's just like my girlfriend had COVID so like I'm sleeping in the guest room while doing this or I have a TV unlike in our bedroom and I'm just like, what is my, like, this is just the hat. What does my life come to here? - I mean, you've achieved so much to get to this point. - Oh gosh. - Well, we appreciate it, Seth, 'cause I'm not fucking doing that shit. - Yeah, I've seriously questioned my life a few times on this. - Well, I mean, it's a high price to pay to know everything. Brad, how about you? - My moment of suffering was seeing the credit card statement after I kept doing math all weekend wrong in Toronto going, oh, it's like 25% off everything up here. (both laughing) - Nope. I mean, it was like savings, but it wasn't as much as I thought I'd say. - No. - Yeah, you're still spending the Haiti half. - Yeah, you're still spending a fair bit. - Yeah. - But I think it was sweet Quebec Nordique City for like 55-60. - Oh my God. First of all, it's Toronto, there's no second tea and it's Quebec. - We need to teach you guys to speak Canadian. - Well, you know what, I was at the hockey hall. It was pretty. - I wanted it. (both laughing) - You got a Nordique's jersey? - No, a sweater, a really nice hoodie. - Nice hoodie. You know, 'cause they are the avalanche now and it works. - Yeah, fair enough. Did you write a Joe Sachek on the tag already? - No, definitely not. - That'd be the OG move. Yeah, I don't know, I got a few I could pick, like, I think I'm gonna take kind of a heartfelt one that I wish we could have had our good friends, either Adrian or Michael on here, could discuss this 'cause I wish I got to see one of their faces when they heard the news or both. - So I have communicated, well, Adrian hasn't gotten back to me, but Adrian is also a very big bangles fan and I was at Paul Brown Stadium when I heard the news of the firing yesterday and I texted him best place to hear the good news and then three hours or three hours and 22 minutes later, well, we have our next coach to fire. 'Cause that's, you know, absolutely needs to be fired. I did talk a bunch of Mike, Mike's, what was it? Also, Mike was named by World Soccer Talk today as one of the 10 best American soccer studio analysts. - Nice, good for him. - Congrats, Mike. - He is very excited about that. Let's see, what was Mike's first text to me? It was, wow, finally, and then he sends me the Instagram host of Maxi just smiling as Maxi in regarding at the last laugh. Me, no, the rest of us is not, all sorts of other stuff here, but yeah. Apparently he's gonna be interviewing Panchashino for Morning Funny this week. - Oh, nice. And I think Adrian's on Moon Tower this week? - Yeah, he is, yeah, I was upset. I realize he doesn't check his WhatsApp as much as his Facebook Messenger. I should Facebook this week. - Well, I mean, we'll still get to hear from him in some way, shape, or form. - Honestly, that's the biggest news on the podcast. It's finding out that Adrian Healy uses his Facebook Messenger. - It is. - Yes, for those of you who are still listening in 90 plus eight minutes. - Well, I mean, we went, hey, the last game was what? 115, so we got some decently way here. - We're 105. - We came to the Smokolade Star. - We didn't know that. - Yeah, I was gonna say, we had multiple matches. A coach get fired, we had a very depressed conference. Like we actually have legitimately a lot to talk about. I know we still spend a bunch of time talking about things that have no relation. - Vanderbilt's worth it, man. - It's true. - It's true. - All right, well. - You haven't lived until you've seen your team lose in Vanderbilt Stadium. - I have. I've lived. - I have too. (laughing) - God, it's not a good feeling. - It was my bachelor party. (laughing) - Oh, wow. Okay, that's worse. That's way worse. (laughing) - Texas is like three and eight. Like how did it get to Vanderbilt? - No, they're like one in eight, one in nine, something like that. - I think it was. - Yeah. - No, I think it's old enough that they have a tie. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, so for those who don't know. - I think it's three, one in eight or something like that. - For those who don't know, Vanderbilt used to be like legitimately one of the two best teams. - Yeah, it's 73 hours, right. Yeah. - Yeah. - A lot of things like this, 1928. - Yes, and that's when Vanderbilt was really, really, really good in football. (laughing) I mean, like when Cumberland was still a member of the SEC. - Yes. - Like this is Wadi? - Yeah, I think so, Wadi was still in there. - They were at the time. - Okay. - Yes, but this is back when Vanderbilt was actually really, really, really good at football. So it was, it was a thing they weren't always crap. - See, we're not totally ragging on you, Texas here. - Yeah, no, it is definitely a wild time to see here, but I said, Brad did get to appreciate the other texts that happened there. Where, he had to have a tech start with Cody Cardone and myself around the glorious Tommy Tuberville Bowl, which was actually a fantastic football game. - Yeah, that was gonna be a lot of fun. - Yeah. - Sadly beats it today, 'cause it's nice kick or sucks, but 44, 41 game. And the only time that Cincinnati, Texas Tech had played before that was a tot. - Oh, wow. - Yes, but yeah, Tommy Tuberville. - Yeah, I mean, he managed to be a bad football coach at a worst United States senator. It's a remarkable achievement. - Yeah, there was a joke going around Twitter the other day that says, what do you call a head coach football team in the State of Alabama that loses that Vanderbilt? - Senator. - Ah, well done. - So congratulations, Kaylin DeBore. You'll be the Senator in the State of Alabama in the next few years. - Well, low bar, let's see how well he could do. Anything else you guys wanna get off your chest, sir? Anything along those lines? - No, I just, I'll go ahead. - Oh, I do have one more that I wanted to point out, which was that Greg Dalt, Bear halter, has not only lost his job as international team coach, but three of his former assistants also were fired this year. And I hope that the title wave in US locker against Bear halter and his, and I'm using the term loosely system, continues to where nobody is employed anymore. - Well, but he's going to get a job, though. - Yeah, he will, but I mean, okay, but like, is coaching the fire really a job that like the former national team manager should be getting? - Oh, that's too prestigious. - Well, yeah, I sort of said, I mean, the job of coaching the largest market while if we're considering LA and New York split, like the most potential fans of any MLS team, so that should be a prestigious job in a 60-work house in downtown stadium. Wait a minute, it's the Chicago fire. What am I kidding myself? - Yeah. Shoulds doing a lot of work there? - Yes. - Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. How many ex-U.S. spends national team coaches would get a job right now? Like, Bear halter, just kind of name rec. Nobody would hire Klinsman. Arena's a whole different conversation that we're not going to get into. Bob Bradley's basically been run out of the league. - Yeah. - Yeah, that great hiring. - That's what's our, is Dave, whatever. Is Dave is still coaching at a Puerto Rico? - I don't know. Yeah, it's. - I'm interested to see, the last game is the last game. Like, I think the team's going to play loose in the rigidity of what we've seen. I think the team's going to look a lot more like the last 10 to 15 minutes against RSL than anything we've seen all year. I hope we get a really, I hope we get a win just for the video, but I also would like to see the Davey Arno pre-game speech because the little bit we see for him in that regards been really good. And just, do we give anybody a chance in the last game and maybe it hasn't been enough minutes now that Fcedo's not going to be playing in the playoff does CJ get to start to throw the bone, see what happens. You know, I mean, what do we learn if how they're over done, starts on that last game versus CJ? Nothing. - I don't learn anything new. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So part of me wants to just throw some shit against the wall and let some guys play that haven't been playing and get them some first team minutes, right? - Yeah. - Why not? - I'll be interested to see if Jimmy gets named so the rest of it. - Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, can we get Jimmy? Can we get Micah? Like can we get guys up for their first chance at minutes and just get them, get the exposure to them, get them out in front of a bigger crowd. Let them see the speed of the game because Colorado's got something to play for. And they're playing for positioning. So, you know, it's not like it's going to be a malaise of a game and I think it could do them wonders and you start seeing maybe what you have to work with going into next season. So I really hope that we take a forward-looking approach to the last game of the year. - Do we think there's any chance Davies around this club in one capacity or another next year? - No. - Oh, I think they're absolutely as a chance. - Yeah, I would think if he wants to be, he could be. - Yeah. - So I'm looking at this. So Colorado actually has less to play for than I thought. So they are, they cannot reach top four. So they are, they could end up... - One second, I need to pull up this game. - They can go anywhere between five, six and seven. - Can they fall to eight is what I'm trying to figure out. - Theoretically, yes. - Theoretically, yeah, no. - Because Vancouver has 13 wins and Colorado is 15. - Well, but... - And malaise tiebreakers. So no, they can't. So there are going to be five, six just in a minute. So it's just a question of, and then two, three, four all tied together. They're not really playing for much. - But I think it... - Yeah, but if Colorado gets to five, you set up a Rocky Mountain. - No, not necessarily because LAFC, Seattle, and RSL are all within two points of it. - True. - Yeah. - All of us play Vancouver on next Sunday, during the international break, during one of those rescheduled games in Vancouver. So we'll see, LAFC can cool. Oh, actually, wait a minute. They actually, LAFC could still pass the galaxy if they win their final two games and the galaxy lose their last game. That'd be enough. - And the galaxy... - Yeah, wait, wait, how? Because they'd have a identical record to that point. - Gold differential. They're only three back on gold differential if they win just by winning... - Oh, okay, okay, actually, okay, gotcha. - Yeah, so they would have to... They'd have to win at least one of the games by multiple goals, but unlike the gold differential scenarios we talked about, there were 20 goals. LAFC is three goals back on gold differential and there are three matches that he played here. That is completely a Hoover chief. - Yes. - I don't think they necessarily will, but they can. - Yeah, yeah, and galaxy on decision day are in Houston against the Dynamo. Which Houston is part of that five, six, seven group trying to see if they can get... - Yeah, and LAFC is at home against San Jose. Actually, if they were down 10 goals on gold differential they still might be able to overcome that. - Yeah, yeah, you don't... I mean, looking at this, you don't wanna fall to seven or eight because that's going to push you into again against one of the Los Angeleses into a series against those guys. I know theoretically Seattle can still get above LAFC and I think LAFC is gonna end up at minimum second place here. You gotta avoid galaxy and LAFC at all costs in that first round. - Do we see a Western conference final that's not an L traffic call? - I don't. - I mean, weird shit happens, but that seems the obvious thing. - Yeah, I mean, like this year it's really interesting if we can do an MLS playoffs episode at some point if we care, but like there are four really good teams at this league this year. And if those four teams are not in the conference finals that's actually gonna be disappointing. - Yeah. - Yeah, like I wanna say that we also like, what has a chance just 'cause I kind of like them from the idea of like their team that can score. And I just think that any team that gives yourself a punter's chance of, you know, the other team just being having an off-night on finishing, but like, yeah, it's tough to imagine. I mean, especially a team like Galaxy that scores at will and LAFC just their level of talent, like-- - Boris sells in an interesting spot. So they're probably gonna play either Houston or Colorado. Those are the most likely opposition in the first round. If I remember right, they played Houston last year in the first round and it got chippy. And they got real chippy last year. So you can have a redux of that. And then of course, if they end up playing Colorado, then you have a full-on rivalry for the opening best of three rounds. So RSL to me might be the most fun team to pay attention to in that opening round of playoffs. - Yeah, and Galaxy, if they meet him, has a bit of a soft underbelly RSL, they can easily punch him in the mouth and-- Mike Tyson, everybody has a plan. - Also, let's be honest, like storyline-wise, like, how much fun would it be? If Chijo Arango knocks LAFC out of the playoffs. - That would be fun. - Like, that storyline is there for the taking and it would be really funny. - Yeah, I think Don Garber really wants the L-traffico Western Conference Finals, so I don't. That's where LA-- - Don Garber gets either LA team at Miami for this MLS comp and they're actually might be a really good reading service. - Yeah, good point. - Yeah, that's-- - That's LA teams. - No LA teams. There we go. - So here's the fun part, though. - The only problem with that is we haven't seen a kickoff time for that game yet, 'cause it's our coverage championship weekend this year. But like, as long as they don't put it at their normal four o'clock spot, if they put it at the eight o'clock Eastern spot, it's seven central that you could have that like going up against like the ACC championship game, the big 10 championship game, it's set, or honestly, I'd put it at noon against the-- - Yeah, yeah. - New championship game. - New West Coast, ooh, I don't know, that's great. - New would be the right spot because you're only going up against the big 12 as far as the big ones go. - Or you could have like one or something because then you start, they start a little bit later, but then you're still done by the fourth. - Well, unless it goes to extra time, of course. - Yeah, I-- - Yeah, but it seems you have to get people to tune in or stay around for extra time. - See, if you're Garber, and this is where I think MLS is stupid, I know the season is long as it is. Back it up one week, and your only competition is Army Navy. - Hey, they're gonna cancel Army Navy 'cause that's gonna be the American conference shift. (laughing) - Oh, yeah. - We just gave up to FedEx Field a week early. That honestly would be the perfect solution for-- But I mean, if you're Garber, like if you wanted a full-on, this is the week we play every year, that's the weekend, that's the Saturday. Your only company, let Army Navy have their afternoon and you've got the night and all you're going against is the Heisman presentation. That's the only thing that-- - Which people totally watch. - Yeah, exactly. So if that's the weekend that I would try to dominate, trying to go up against all of that on College Football Championship Saturday, especially with automatic buys and automatic bids to the play-off now on the table, changes the entire dynamic of that day. And it's just stupid. You're just killing yourself. Where there's a lot of folks who like both sports and why make them choose. - Don't know. I mean, we have a lot of questions about how MLS does things, but-- Off-season episode, I'm sure. - Yeah. - 'Cause we're gonna have to talk about the Club World Cup, too. - Oh, God. - Yeah. - Yeah, so-- - We're gonna clitchek a spot. MLS hasn't announced this, of course, but like, 'cause they want the shield. I'm sure Inter Miami will magically be at the Club World Cup, but they're gonna wait until I have to have a lot of stuff fully announced. 'Cause they're like, let's have them with both and then we'll have an excuse. But Inter Miami, we'll be in the hot one. - Yeah. There's no way they're not. And like, in this case, we're almost okay with them ringing it like this. - Yeah. That's fine. Well, I mean, they're having trouble selling TV rights and all sorts of stuff. So, it's definitely in play. - Yeah. - I do have to take moderator's privilege here since we're 112 minutes into this podcast. Speak now or forever, hold your peace. Okay, well, it's been a fun, crazy month. Wolfdutt finally got its scalp. And on behalf of Brad, Scott, and Seth, thanks for suffering with us. - Bye. - Obviously for Austin, Jared Stroud, it's the angle for goodness. He has written his name into Austin folklore. - They just won't go away. - Oh, it's the upright again. That's impossible. - The bear season's gone in on a double joint. - Alton Osman's it. Dempsey's mistake. Donovan has it. From Hope, there is glory. (upbeat music) (audience applauding)