Latest / Tectonic Takes / Episode 157: Timo Time

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Episode 157: Timo Time · Tectonic Takes

• speaker-0: What's up Quicks fans, are back with another episode of Tectonic Takes. We have been gone for quite a minute, right Devon? speaker-1: It's been a little bit. It's been a little bit. You know, it's been a year ⁓ But we're back. We're back starting 2026 with an absolute bang speaker-0: You know it's been a minute when one of my mic's in a new place but also I have to think about my hat hitting the mic and you having to edit that out later. But no, yeah, it's been a while. We kind of are a little bit rusty on how to do a podcast but we're going to try our very best because there's a lot to talk about today, right, Devin? speaker-1: ⁓ yeah, lots of transfer news that we're just learning about and ⁓ player number updates, a lot going on behind the scenes. it's actually quite nice to see because the San Jose Earthquakes fans were quite disappointed in the early off season and late post season. ⁓ No transfer news and we were one of the last teams to have a player announcement. speaker-0: think St. Louis and Quakes were last two teams who hadn't made any signings, including homegrowns. And then think St. Louis made a homegrown signing or something, or like a small acquisition that left us last. But then we got Tomo Allen. Spoiler alert, we signed Tomo Allen and that broke the deadlock. ⁓ We will talk about Tomo in a minute, but of course the thing everyone wants to hear about, Timo Werner, ex-Spurs player, David is very aware of this man. The biggest signing in this regime of Quicks history, a UCL winner, a German international, Europa League winner, ⁓ there's a lot of accurately to this guy had and he's like probably the first like ⁓ you know household name alisa i could think of that we have actually signed what you think that speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, especially as a Spurs fan, know, hearing his name be associated with the team, the fact that he's had such a, I guess, a good history with English teams in Europe, and hearing that come to San Jose, a Europa League winner, Champions League winner, ⁓ a player who scored 40 plus goals ⁓ at Leipzig. someone who's known to be an attacking threat. ⁓ It's great to see and hear to finally put our name on that podium of stars to come to the MLS. And of all places, we imagined that San Jose was not one of those places where we could bring a player quite of value like Timo Werner. ⁓ However, that's a different story now. We have upgraded in terms of expectations. for player acquisitions. ⁓ Whether we play him as a cam or we play him as a left wing, it's still unsure. I really hope he's a left winger. Spurs at heart, he was playing as a winger there. Leipzig, he was ⁓ mostly a winger. ⁓ I mean he's quick, very quick on the ball, can counter attack well. I think he would work really well with Chicho and whoever we may decide to put at the right wing, whether it be Buddha or anyone else we may have lined up in the future. This is great. This is great rolling into 2026 here. speaker-0: There's definitely a lot to be excited about. think that obviously we talk about the profile of player If you know our words aren't enough to convince you that this guy's a big deal Fabricio Romano is actually the guy who broke the news Tom Bogart was saying that the jail was closed this morning But we got confirmation later in the day from Fabricio Romano and also confirmed by Tom Bogart in those comments ⁓ yeah, this is a huge deal. As you said, ⁓ Premier League player, Bundesliga player, ⁓ someone who can play off on the left or a striker. I don't know what this talk is about having him as a cam. ⁓ you know, we haven't used a cam that much even, ⁓ to, to feel like we have to shoehorn him in there and his strengths are definitely like making runs off the ball, you know, ⁓ running at, at defenders. I don't think that really, ⁓ Link-up play and chance creation are 100 % his thing, but obviously we'll have to see there, but I'm predicting that he's going to be either off the left and having, you know, Chichou is more of a supportive striker and having options to play him behind, you know, build up and in that sense, or if we end up having him at striker, maybe a two-strikers formation, same thing, he could still play off Chichou making runs in behind. And also boulder who everyone else who is available to be You know making those chances for him ⁓ The question is his finishing which has been a big concern amongst quakes fans now that he's entered the club and you know, it is true that this is a huge signing for us, but You know that that question is something that remained and he was kind of a meme during his time the Premier League But I think that you know, I just want to go I know that you have stuff to say on that Devin, but I just think that the Premier League isn't quite MLS, right? And we all know that but none of us really want to admit that when we're making analysis at least a lot of people, know, amongst the Quicks fans don't want to admit that maybe. It's going to be much different. The amount of time he's going to have on the ball is going to be way more, maybe less physical. less quality overall. ⁓ I think he's going to be just fine. Maybe he's not going to light up the league and get 30 goals a season, but I think that he's going to be up there and hopefully at least worth what we're paying him as a DP signing, which this is confirmed to be. speaker-1: Yeah, I mean if you take a look at a lot of the leagues around the world, each league kind of comes with its own strength and weakness. La Liga is a lot of technical based, a lot of ⁓ on the ball skill, ⁓ tiki-taka, quick passing movement, etc. Primary league, counter-attack based, ⁓ quick on the ball, counter-attacks, ⁓ quick movement, lot of physical, like very physical league. ⁓ Bundesliga, you know, it feels more strategy based. ⁓ Where it's just a lot of past connections ⁓ and more, I guess, technical skill. And I kind of feel like MLS resonates closest with the Bundesliga style of play. And I want to also add Eredivisie ⁓ in the Netherlands. ⁓ I feel like MLS is closest to those two and the league that Timo Werner essentially thrived in the most was in Bundesliga. When he went over to England, he didn't really play as well as he did in Bundesliga with Leipzig and whatnot. So I feel utmost confidence that bringing in Timo Werner into a league that feels somewhat like what he's most comfortable with. will benefit the earthquakes in the long term. He is 29 years old, know, he's almost Espinoza's age, who knows how much time we'll have with him. ⁓ you know, Leipzig was one of those teams where they love selling youth players. They want to play youth because they can make a hefty profit off of them. know, Shavi ⁓ Simons over-dispersed for 60 million is a great example of that. A lot of their attacking threat right now is in form and they're all young players and they're hoping to ship them off to other teams to get a lot of money for it. Hence, Timo Werner is not going to make that much playing time and I think according to Tom Bogert or ⁓ Fabrizio, I read somewhere that he wasn't going to get minutes for Leipzig due to that fact. ⁓ So him coming to San Jose is a complete fresh start. and you get a lot of minutes, find his form, and if we were able to counter on that and sell him to another club that's interested again, maybe back to Europe if he wants to go back, that's perfect for us. ⁓ So having that Bundesliga-like kind of feel and vibe in our league is my prediction that Timo's gonna thrive here in MLS and San Jose specific. speaker-0: Yeah, I would agree that, you know, guess stylistically speaking, obviously not in terms of quality, ⁓ the two leagues, Bundesliga and MLS, have similarities. ⁓ I just want to get ahead of the hate, like, ⁓ Bundesliga is better than MLS, like yeah, we're all saying that, right? We're on the same page. ⁓ But I would agree, Devin, I think that the... ⁓ you know, style of play, just the rhythm, the tempo ⁓ would probably be similar. ⁓ And yeah, I would agree in terms of why Timo Werner is doing this is definitely a, you know, hopefully a return to the good old days for him because when he was coming up at Leipzig originally before he went to Chelsea, one of the, you know, the most sought after strikers in the world. ⁓ And I'm not just saying that he was like, you know a very big prospect extremely fast very good at getting in behind and was also scoring a lot of goals in Germany so he's probably coming here and he's gonna think I'm gonna be the main man and I think that that's gotta be true with who we have on you know our roster you know Chicho is a great player but I don't think he's ever played in the Champions League like a Werner has you know ⁓ so that's just the kind of ⁓ step up that we're looking at in terms of pedigree whether you know it shakes out that way on the pitch maybe we end up liking chucho much more than than verner ⁓ we don't have to compare them because they're going to be on the same team ⁓ luckily for us ⁓ unfortunately there is somebody we mentioned who is no longer going to be on the team nevin you had to say something before we go into that speaker-1: No, we can continue. ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah, so very sad news. We didn't even make a podcast about it because there was just no point. ⁓ Everyone was down. ⁓ Christian Espinoza has left the center of the and signed with ⁓ Nashville. Now, is this, you know, really hard to take? Of course. He played six years with earthquakes, top assist maker of all time. ⁓ You know, one of the top two quakes. that's ever lived, right? you know, personally to me, he's very important. I'm still keeping his action figure up. I don't care, you know, what happens. He's staying there. But I am very, very, very glad that he went to Nashville and not to another California team and even more than that, a team on the West Coast. So we don't have to face him as much. speaker-1: Yeah, there was speculation, you know, Espinoza was ⁓ planning to move to LA. There were rumors that he was looking at houses down there and they had at the time an open DP slot, which they ⁓ they seem to have collected a player and then that player got injured. ⁓ So who knows, maybe LAFC is kind of regretting their choices. But hey, good news for us. We don't have to see him in the West Coast. He gets to stay in the East Coast and and, know, maybe he can win the Eastern Conference. out yonder but you know yeah it is is sad to see espinoza kind of depart from the san jose earthquakes i think a lot of us were looking forward to seeing him in the 2026 season ⁓ the caliber he brings as a winger or as bruce has used him as a wingback ⁓ has significantly as you know elevated this club from the first day we had him with almeda and to the very last day we had him ⁓ at our decision day. It's definitely unfortunate to see him go. And it seems interesting that all this timing is working out the way it is. We see Espinoza leave the team, and then all of sudden, just days later, we're connected to Team O'Verner and a couple of other attacking threats. Tomo Allen and another player who's still, I think, in the mix, kind of in the back scenes that we can talk about. ⁓ I think his name is Gauthier Hain. ⁓ He currently plays for FC Metz. He was connected to the Santos Earthquakes and FC Dallas. ⁓ They are currently in last place in Ligue 1 in France. He is not happy with the FO and his club as he made an Instagram post the other day. ⁓ It seems like he's wanting out and know, Santos Earthquakes may provide that exit for him. speaker-0: Yeah, and I think that would be a pretty strong acquisition ⁓ You know if he's a DP as well that brings it up to three and it's been a while since we had three DPs at the club Unfortunately, but ⁓ no I think that you look at his stats ⁓ and there is quality there ⁓ It is a little bit weird Devon you're the one who originally pointed out. He has terrible take on rate ⁓ He just he doesn't do take ons ⁓ and you know that's fine because he he is getting goals he is getting assists so he has five goals and two assists I believe in Liga this year ⁓ and he is being deployed as an attacking midfielder and a right wing ⁓ he he's coming ⁓ he lining up as a attacking mid slightly more often but he is being utilized on the right with some frequency so ⁓ safe to say that he's comfortable in either position which is good for us because we just let go of the best right winger in the league and if we're going to be using a attacking midfielder we also have that option to have him there even though we already could have done that with Nico Chakaris who said that back to Hieb sorry Hein Hein got here high and ⁓ yeah i mean ⁓ league of another league that is you know proletarian purposes ⁓ higher caliber league than ⁓ l s and so he's putting up good numbers in that league i would assume that the numbers that ⁓ make his juggling outlook really poor you know overall go up if he was to play in the last but ⁓ it's not bad to have ⁓ somebody who's you know Let's look at his passing stats real quick. is in the 96th percentile for passes attempted, 99th percentile for passes completed for an attacking mid or winger. That's crucial because if you're a CDM you're making way higher percentages than that hopefully. Moving on to progressive passes which is huge because you know San Jose sometimes can be very timid and not go forward. he's in the 96th percentile for progressive passes. and then he's also ⁓ 82nd percentile for assists. So look, we're looking at a very creative player here. ⁓ And if we could get our hands on him, that would be really, really nice. And I think that it's just the kind of signing that could really compliment somebody like Timo Werner, who's is, you know, attempting to get on the end of things rather than creating things himself. What do you think? speaker-1: Yeah, I mean in our Discord alone, I think there's been plenty of conversation about what our formation is going forward. And I'd like to just kind of reiterate, you the fact that we're interested in a cam kind of shows that Bruce Arena still wants to provide a cam formation ⁓ despite the fact that we haven't had one in a very long time, even though we have Nico sitting on that bench every day. ⁓ Yeah, I don't know who said that either, but... Um, you know, if we can get Gauthier, he's basically the guy that I think Bruce may have sought out in, in Acosta. You know, I think there's been a lot, a lot of time Bruce has been looking for a cam and maybe he hasn't found the confidence in Nico Siqueiros to use him. But the fact that we're looking for a cam now, to me, that shows that we're looking for, you know, We're looking for a new formation that involves a cam and if we were to pick him up, that's a lot of central midfield, you know strength We could have Werner in the middle as a striker. We can place him out wide, you know this got the a player He's a great distributor as you as you mentioned Abram, you know, I think with her nan out of the squad one of the things that Bruce was was kind of upset with Hernan about was he dribbled a lot. And that's something that fans were upset about Voco doing. And I think it's right, deserved criticism, to be fair. If we want a can, we want someone that possesses, that moves the ball. Something that I learned at an early age is you let the ball do the work. And sometimes if you dribble a lot, you're going to get tackled, you're going to get injured because players... speaker-0: Take you out. you ever play with Devin, he's lying. He's a very good player, obviously. But you have to be standing next to the goal for him to pass it. Because he can dribble the whole team. So you're just like, all right, you go ahead, buddy. But I didn't want to get that in there. speaker-1: He definitely can, but I think there were flashes in early 2025 and maybe late 2024 where he was passing a lot less and relying on himself. speaker-0: I'm talking about you buddy. ⁓ me? Yeah, you. I'm talking about you specifically. speaker-1: I think my buddy Luis can second that. Yeah, I think as a cam what you really want is to distribute out to the attackers, know, to the wingers or strikers, whatever formation we want to use and Hein will provide just that. So if we can pick them up, I think that would be extremely beneficial to the start of a 2026 season. You know, we haven't really had a season where we've picked up these big name signings in preseason. You know, we've, don't know what stats we have to look at to go back to in however many years when Bruce Arena helped create this, this DP role with David Beckham. We're excited. We're excited to see, you know, finally some big names start of the preseason. You know, it just, kicked off today as we're recording this. We may get Timo Werner. know, midweek, late in the week, we don't know what the visa situation's gonna look like. But to have them before the start of the season, I think is kind of, you know, a note to Quakes fans. Things are changing around here and things are gonna start changing now. Second season, Bruce, with LA Galaxy, with New England Revolution. ⁓ I'm not trying to jinx anything here, but he won the supporter shield in both teams' second seasons. ⁓ Is that gonna happen for San Jose? I... not expecting anything because of Santa's earthquakes. We haven't really had such great success in the playoffs in recent time, ⁓ you know, on to new things. This is a change of culture in the club and I'm very excited that it's starting now. speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ There's definitely a lot of speculation about changes in formation and all that kind of thing. I can't say for sure what's going to happen because I don't actually think Bruce is that married to playing the way he has. think he's like, well, this is where we are. We got a bunch of center backs. We can have a three center back formation. We have a bunch of wing backs. Throw them all the way. And so I think that he literally just using what he had. But speaking of change ⁓ We wanted to discuss the fact that there's been at least three confirmed ⁓ changes in number so Usani Buddha who started his quicks career as number 24 then went to 17 and then went to 11 and then I saw ⁓ earlier today one of the quicks post about training he's wearing number seven shorts so all these are based off the shorts by the way so maybe if they if they're just wearing each other shorts then then disregard this but I think that this is a pretty good look at to what they might be wearing this season anyways the the speaker-1: on that note specifically, ⁓ did you see the shorts last year if the numbers were that small? I feel like that's a new trend this season. speaker-0: Small and I can't tell you why that is you got to talk to the shorts guy like hey Did you you ran out of the big numbers? Put them on there ⁓ But no, ⁓ so another player who changed numbers seemingly is Romney who started off as number 12 he looks like he's wearing number four which previously belonged to Bruna Wilson and Dewan Jones ⁓ he was wearing 22 Obviously that was Tommy Thompson's number and so we're like yeah go DJ you keep that number as long as you're playing well but he seems to have opted for number 24 which is not that much different from 22 but I believe that might have been what he wore at New England so it might be like just a personal preference for him ⁓ speaker-1: Interesting to see what Nick Lima does with that because I think he was 24 years old. But his number maybe now is definitely different. speaker-0: Right, he was 24. Yeah, and I don't know did I see him in the in the training video? I don't know. Well, this is Yeah, we're doing this ⁓ you know Live so we're not gonna go back but guys, ⁓ keep an eye out for that. Check out who who's in there who isn't because there's definitely some the town players in there I saw ⁓ anandro, ⁓ alexandro cano and then I saw ⁓ edwin mendoza who's a first team player but speaker-1: See you in the training video. speaker-0: plays with the town mostly and I saw a town goalkeeper I believe but regardless ⁓ so yeah those are the the numbers that are being changed and if number 11 stays available we could very likely see that number go to Timo Werner since that was that's been his preferred number over his career any thoughts on the number changes Devon? speaker-1: Yeah, I'm interested to see why or to ask. ⁓ gosh, I'm blanking again. What is it? 28 minutes. ⁓ Dwan Jones. I'm interested just to see what the answer and reason is for Dwan Jones to change his number. ⁓ Obviously, with just a bunch of numerical changes that could bring more comfort into players ⁓ when playing for us and whatnot. ⁓ bless you bless you anyways yeah Timo Werner definitely number 11 I can I can see him using for for us ⁓ you know looking at the open available numbers obviously eight hasn't been touched in a while ⁓ you know given the right player I think we can see number eight making an appearance for the earthquakes again given the significance of the signing and I think not that verner's going to choose 8 but with a big name like that if we were to acquire a player of that caliber and he requests 8 i think this is we've come to the we've come to the length of time where a lot of quakes fans may be okay with a big caliber player using number 8 and potentially if gaultier hein were to sign with the earthquakes i can kind of see a number 8 rolling into the midfield. But now we have 10 available. So he may also choose 10 if we were to confirm his sign. speaker-0: Yeah, and that would be let me see what his current number is. I'm not yeah, he currently wears number 10 at his his club in France, so ⁓ Maybe it's just a direct swap and he keeps the 10 ⁓ I'm one of those guys who I'm like I wish we could retire numbers I know wonder doesn't want it and so thus we have to you know ⁓ let it be available, but I think that if somebody can take it has to mean a lot. And so I'm wondering, Devon, what do you think about this? ⁓ if we were to give it to somebody club grown like Niko Chakaris or Bola Roo. speaker-1: I'm all for that. Definitely all in favor of Bo LaRue, Nico, or if Tomo Allen stays with us for a while and he's successful with us, then seeing him rep the eight at such an early age I think would be pretty spectacular. speaker-0: I 100 % agree, think that Tomo is somebody who I've talked a little bit about before. ⁓ I can't say that he's gonna get to that height quite yet, but he is 18 years old, Japanese American, six foot three or six foot four, somewhere around there, ⁓ very big. ⁓ I can't remember which foot he prefers, but I know that he's okay on both. I remember the town game where he scored his first professional goal. actually Devon you described this goal to me earlier so do you want to describe it yourself? speaker-1: Yeah, sure. Tomo collected the ball kind of in the second third of the field, in the attacking third of the field. ⁓ He initiates a dribble straight to the defensive line, the opposition defense, ⁓ makes a left cut inside, faking out one of the defenders, has a shot kind of middle of the goal, but still hits the back of the net nonetheless. ⁓ good awareness, situational awareness, positional awareness, spatial awareness by Tomo to consider dribbling it forward, ⁓ good collection, good dribbling, you know, compose, finish ⁓ to, I believe that was the only goal of the game. ⁓ speaker-0: I wouldn't be able to tell you, it's been so long and I just, can't. Yeah, I will say, I'll add to that. ⁓ I thought it was very impressive how Tomo had the bravery to, ⁓ you know, when he picked up the ball, he drove it in, but also did a step over with his right, then cut left. And that's not really something that you see from big players that often. They like to, you know, use their strength and agility usually isn't one of those strengths. but he obviously has the composure with the ball to pull something like that off. Also just in a huge game for him to score his first professional goal, know, very exciting stuff for Tomo. Devin, you and I were going back and forth with somebody in the Discord who was concerned about the Tomo signing, saying that his time in college, he only had three goals in 630 minutes. and you know 3 and 630 doesn't look great but when you consider that 630 minutes divided by 90 which is the length of one game is 7 so that's 7 games and if somebody has scored 3 goals and 7 appearances you're like okay well this guy is you know he's scoring almost every other game right and so that's you know that's pretty impressive for a freshman 18 years old there's a reason we signed him is what i'm saying and ⁓ so definitely want to look forward to ⁓ i'm not saying that he'll get any playing time this season in mls but ⁓ he will be available for the town to use and so that's a very good opportunity to see him ⁓ show what he's capable of ⁓ speaker-1: think putting into perspective on a per 90 basis definitely covers a lot of confidence in what we have seen in Tomo ⁓ in a Town FC perspective. would just like to reiterate the goal he scored. ⁓ His only goal for Town FC was actually the equalizer in Portland against Portland. ⁓ So it wasn't the game-winner anything. It was the equalizer in the 87th minute. ⁓ speaker-0: Which is still awesome, you know? speaker-1: Yeah, and you know, given our luck in Portland, they all take an equalizer any day. ⁓ You know, that said, I went to the game versus Boston College when he played at Stanford. I think it was November 5th and it was one of the knockout round games. know, Stanford was second in the nation, Boston College 15th. ⁓ We were down, I think, two to one or two nothing. ⁓ Please correct me down in the comments if you remember. But we were down at least 2-1. ⁓ And then Stanford at some point equalized to make it 2-2. And with just over a minute left in the game, Stanford brings it up the left side. They chip it right to the center where Tom Allen was placed without any pressure. ⁓ He slots it home with his head left side of the goal. ⁓ Stanford wins 3-2. So Tomo Allen shows up when it matters, not the most, but when it matters. ⁓ So to have a player of that caliber, of that confidence and composure during, you know, difficult moments and moments when you want your best players to thrive, to see Tomo Allen confidently play Skulls is something you always want to see for your your professional team and to have him on the quakes now as a homegrown, as an academy product, as one of the best youth players in his class. I'm really happy for the Earthquakes to have made this signing. speaker-0: Yeah, cause when we learned that he took the college route, we thought, okay, we're to have to wait four years for this guy because he was somebody who I saw and I was like, I'm really excited to get this guy, you know, playing for us because I think that he has a lot of potential. Now another player who had potential, probably still has potential, but we haven't seen anything from him is Cruz Medina and he is heavily linked with ⁓ Chivas Guadalajara and in I guess response to that ⁓ stuff has come out about ⁓ you know one of his family members talking about the Quakes organization and ⁓ the Academy system which he ⁓ probably feels does not offer enough first team opportunities to young players who come through the Academy system. And though I disagree with how he chose to, ⁓ you know, word that, I can't say I disagree completely. What are your thoughts on how we treat our youth players, speaker-1: I think his message provides a lot of accuracy and something I've been trying to note on tectonic takes for a long time is the first team needs to provide a really good basis of options for their youth players and you know, I'm still in favor of this to send our players to Europe because that's a lot of our players' goals and the fact that we still haven't sold a player to a European team yet. is kind of frustrating and I think that's something that that Cruz Medina's dad was almost I feel like he was alluding to a little bit. know, Kate Cowell had chances to go to Europe. We denied those offers. I believe Nico Sikaris had some ⁓ European interest and still hasn't made any headway on that. ⁓ A couple of players ⁓ have had options to go to Europe. You know, I think the only two big names that didn't come from our academy went to Europe was Francisco Calvo de Turkey and ⁓ Marcos Lopez in the Almeida era went to ⁓ Feyenoord and I think that was it. We haven't really sold anyone to Europe and that's something that I think we should be looking forward to changing in the future and I believe you know with Toma Allen's caliber if he were to develop the right way you know Tom Bogart After releasing the announcement that we've signed Tomo Allen, he also mentioned that Allen was receiving interest by European teams during his stint either at Stanford or while he was at Town FC. I think this is a really good prospect and opportunity for the Earthquakes to show the Academy that, if you want to go to Europe, this is the club that we can send you to Europe to. A lot of players for Philadelphia Union have gotten that opportunity, and they've been sold Big Bank. You know, I think one of the biggest names is Kevin Sullivan, even though he hasn't gone to Europe yet because of his age, you know, he was still bought by Manchester City. And those are the kind of things that Academy players are looking to, you know, if they want to sign for a team, if they want to play in a development ⁓ league, they want to see that there's actual, you know, transfers and a, you know, and a pipeline to Europe. And if we want to show our Academy product that they should stay with us, you know, for the opportunity to go to Europe, then maybe we should sign, you know, sign players and actually sell them. ⁓ And I really hope that Toma Alan is the first player we can, we can, you know, send to Europe. ⁓ Whether it be the Dutch league, Bundesliga, et cetera, you know, Alfonso Davies, a great player. thrived at Vancouver Whitecaps, immediately picked up at Bayern Munich, ⁓ doing a great job out there. There's a ton of MLS players that can thrive in kind of like-minded environments like MLS. ⁓ I think there's a really good opportunity here that the Santa's earthquake should not waste. speaker-0: Yeah, and ⁓ want, well said Devin, I wanted to bring it back and talk about ⁓ Kuzmudina and also Chance Cowell because I think that they have a similar situation where for different reasons these players are both very hyped ⁓ and ⁓ when it was announced that Chance Cowell was sold ⁓ on a conditional contract or conditional fee to Rail Salt Lake ⁓ People were upset, ⁓ but I, as someone who's seen a lot of Trans Cowl, or as much as you can, he didn't get that many minutes. ⁓ Let's be real. But I thought that he was a fast player and he had good things about him, but he wasn't somebody who I saw as ⁓ having a good path to the first team and similar for Cruz Medina. ⁓ He had a really good season in MLS Next Pro. but I didn't really see ⁓ the development physically. He had developed over the past few years that he's been playing at that level, but I don't think that he's quite ready for MLS play. ⁓ So obviously these are players that are probably being moved on. Cowl is definitely moved on. ⁓ Just to expand on Trans Cowl's deal, that's 650, ⁓ thousand in game ⁓ if certain conditions are met and that's performance based on chances part so he has to play well for us to get paid which is kind of ⁓ we had to do it in the end because we're like okay well this guy's not good enough for us let's give them to someone else but we only get money if he's good enough for them and so we may likely not get anything from this ⁓ which is a weird deal to make And I'm not sure if there's like a potential for a lesser fee upon him not meeting, ⁓ you know, those performance based expectations. But that's the only reason this would make any sense to me. Now for Kuzmedina, if we were to get a fee for him and move him to GUS, I think around like $650k in GAM, ⁓ or I won't get GAM from GUS. They don't have any to give us but you know around that marker would be on the low end But we've seen players like ⁓ Emil Choa go for what 3 million 2 million ⁓ So if we can get something like that even less like 1 million for Kuzmedina That would be really good business for us because I don't think that he was going to make it into the first team And I know there's a lot of people like ⁓ he he's just he's just a kid you know give him a chance whatever i watched him for the second team and he wasn't that you know he wasn't that special where i thought that he would indeed make a difference for the first team who's already struggling and the players in the first team they they're more ready for the league than he is and so i i don't think that the improvement was going to come from that end ⁓ any thoughts on what i said speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, Tom Boater kind of alluded to that in soccer wise. And what I mean by that is, know, kind Karizmadina had a lot of opportunities to perform and to shine, but there were definitely moments where he did not do that. ⁓ So giving him that path line and opportunity to the first team may not have been as obvious than most fans think. think, you know, there's some expert analysts in MLS that that like to hype up Cruz Medina as a world renowned potential first team starter for the earthquakes. he, in our opinions, he isn't, and I'm not trying to downplay his skill and talent, but he's not of that caliber as they say he is. He is talented. And I think that we're seeing a breakout in 2025 when he was listed among the best in MLS Next Pro. but I believe we signed him what three, four years ago and he's barely touched the field for the first team. ⁓ Not to say that he doesn't deserve it, but I think there's aspects to his game that definitely need a lot more improvement to be recognized as a first team player. And since it's not being realized here in San Jose, we might as well make money for him by sending him to another team. ⁓ It's unfortunate because he was one of the most renowned players, like he's like the next Georena, as Soccerwise put it, when he was like 15, 16, and the fact that we capitalized on it and gave him a homegrown contract was great for the first team, great for the earthquakes, but we never really developed him into that Georena type player. And so to have Chivas be the team to do it and to get money from it. I think is good business. I think it's poor business not to have played him and play the youngsters quite like we did with with Kate Cowell and you know kind of neglecting a little bit of Nico Tsikaris in 2025. I think he deserves more minutes given his talents as the U-20 national team player. I think his dad is right in that you know our youth, our academy players, our homegrown deserve more play time. I believe that's also the case for Edmund Wendoza ⁓ and in a couple of other homegrown signings that we've made last season and the season prior, I think they deserve more first team minutes, whether it be US Open Cup and whatnot. They need experience. No one's gonna know what their level and their skill is until they've actually been met with first team competition. ⁓ So to have him move on to Chivas, even if it be alone for now, to see him, to see where he fits in, I think is a really good move. ⁓ Just kind of unfortunate that the Quicks are kind of getting a lot of backfire from this. speaker-0: Yeah, and I think that's from people who don't watch the second team. I think that there's like an idea that, ⁓ you know, operates a similar way to FIFA career mode, where you only sign players with like, you know, 90 potential. And so the only thing you have to do to let them get to 90 potential is play them, because that's how they get there. And, you know, that does mirror real life, but The fact is that the potential thing is 100 % abstract. That's not a number that they're destined to reach. There is no number. That's not how we have to operate in real life. We see the attributes that they have at their age group and then make a prediction, make a gamble of how will this carry over to the next age group or the next one. And then amateur level, pro level. players like Kid Cowell, he had the physical attributes to at 15, play in the first team and you know, really make an impact and show everyone what he could do. And that's because he was at a level so far above the players in his age group. Nico Chacaris, similar thing, where you people see Chris Medina and Nico as similar, but there is a big gap between those two players. I've seen them play on the field at the same time. One of them is a master at moving the ball and Chris Medina is also a very good player but it just the disparity between the two was really you know juxtaposed in that moment when I was watching both of them play and Nico is zooming in and out of players you know scoring solo goals and you know Chris Medina is trying really hard he's doing all the things he can but he just doesn't have the the speed or the the burst he doesn't have the strength to push people off and you know he has improved in those areas but it's just i don't see him getting into mls the way that nicochcaris did who was more physically developed at a younger age and was able to take that and then hone his ⁓ technical skills amongst the the level that he wishes to be at in mls right and obviously we've seen a a a down trend in his playtime in the last year but ⁓ it's not you know that that that's irrelevant to this conversation. I do think though that Cruz Medina has a skill set that is better suited to Mexican soccer than MLS play. I think that he has a great shot on him. He's always been able to unleash a rocket from from very far away and in the box around the box very very good at shooting and picking out his ⁓ his place and also you know just the general creative nature good on the ball. think that if you watch American soccer you see that there's a lot of shooting from outside the box. just bombing the goal. And a lot of ⁓ people who aren't used to that type of soccer, they're very confused. They're like, what's going on here? Why aren't they passing into the box and shooting and stuff? They do do that, but the culture is different. And so I think that Cruz Medina will do better in that culture. And what's tough about that... is that we're gonna see Kuzmedina go and play Tapatio, then he's gonna move up to Chivas, because the playstyle suits him more, and he's gonna be doing well for Chivas, and we're gonna be like, that's the guy we had, and we let him go. And there's a of that, that's true, we could've developed him better, however you do that, but there is no guarantee that he would've become that with us. That's the same feeling I have about Amal Palagrino, there was no... Guarantee that he would have scored the same amount of goals. He did for San Diego if he stayed with us it change of scenery changes everything and I feel like it's just like We can't be holding on to these things we have to take the money in this instance and run with it and keep improving and keep Improving the first team because that's the problem for the first teams full of holes and we're gonna bring up kids And I just, I don't think that the solution is downwards. I believe that we need to be taking from clubs that are above us and improving ourselves with that rather than, you know, plucking out kids from the youth system, a willy nilly and hoping that they can save the day. You know, I think that obviously we need to be giving them chances, but what we're asking for is more than just like chances. We are asking them to save the day. and and some of these instances where we're like okay well we're we're we're having a terrible season just throw the kids on that's not you know really that situation speaker-1: I want to make a really quick note because you made a really good point. I think if you really want to truly develop youth talent, you have to provide them with an example of what to do. And what to do is experienced, well-renowned players. We haven't exactly had that on our team for our youth development to kind of be inspired by. I think with this signing of Timo Werner, now the youth can kind of look up to the first team and be like, ⁓ this is a player that we can learn from. And he won a ⁓ UEFA Champions League. He won a Europa League. ⁓ He's won plenty of other trophies and he's been with the German national team. Like we've never had that player. We've never had that player. I think it's great to have Wando, you know, because of just his ability to... kind of accrued something from nothing and that's what you want in a player. But also to have that experience and to have that trophy cabinet behind you to be like, I was with these guys, I learned this from this guy. And to bring it to San Jose and to kind of give our new academy an opportunity and more of like a light in the distant tunnel. is really good, something that we haven't done in the past. I want to give credit to Bruce Arena for this. I know we haven't really given Bruce that much credit. We've kind of been critical recently in 2025, but I think this is a really good change for the earthquakes because Now we can give the youth the opportunity they deserve ⁓ by being inspired by world renowned talent like Timo Werner. And I think Chariz Medina would definitely have benefited if he stayed with the Quakes to learn from Timo. And I really hope that Nico can take something from... from being know Timo's teammate and maybe maybe he can be sold to Europe in 2026 you never know. speaker-0: Right, if not Teemo, then the next one, right? The next Superstar that we bring in, you know, hopefully it's soon. ⁓ But we are running out of time. I do want to make some announcements before we go. ⁓ Guys, ⁓ if you're wondering what the preseason is going to be like and how you're going to watch it and how you're going to get your coverage, I have the answer. It's right here at Technic Takes. We will be going to Goldchella. Devin and I will be covering the game against speaker-1: We'll post the schedule on the screen. But I believe it's Portland, New York City and Charlotte. And don't quote me on that. speaker-0: Okay, we'll be playing against that team. And so yeah, we will be providing a live stream, or at least our goal is to provide a live stream for the duration of the match from the first whistle to the end of the post-game press conference. ⁓ Devin and I will be providing color commentary for the live stream. I will... ⁓ Unfortunately have more responsibilities. So Devon will be your main host for that event ⁓ also ⁓ While that's happening look out for ⁓ footy dad ⁓ He will be ⁓ joining us for this trip and helping us provide coverage to you all at home And guys if you are looking for more coverage ⁓ Feel free to check out our patreon. That's right We finally have publicly spoken about our Patreon, which we've had for about a year, where we only have one patron on there. We've been holding off on announcing it to you guys because we want to make sure that if you guys are going to give us your hard-earned money that we're providing coverage that's worthy of that. we have, as well as the link to that, we have a survey ⁓ I'm You guys have a chance for that question to be asked by me and then hopefully Hopefully answered by Bruce because we know how he can be with hard questions He is very difficult to get information like that out of but that doesn't mean I won't try right ⁓ So that's one thing that we're providing on patreon. There's also exclusive discord stuff for all you guys on discord ⁓ and plenty more but ⁓ Like I said, there's a survey down in the description for you guys to provide your input on what else we can provide for you ⁓ Because we have a lot of opportunities here at tectonic takes we want to be providing more player interviews stuff like that ⁓ Maybe maybe old quicks players if that's possible I think that there's there's a few that we can get our hands on But we just want to make sure that we're providing content you guys want to see right? And so make sure to go ahead and check out that link in the description. Any closing thoughts, Devin? speaker-1: No closing thoughts. I was just looking at the Coachella Valley Invitational and the game we're covering is at 12 p.m. Pacific Time against Charlotte FC. ⁓ So we will provide coverage for Earthquakes versus Charlotte and if we were to stick around the other games that day would be ⁓ Austin versus St. Louis, Minnesota versus Kansas City, and Portland versus DC United. So if any fans want any updates on other players and whatnot that we could be linked to in the future or whatever, please let us know. and we will do our best to give you that coverage that you such desire. speaker-0: That's right. ⁓ I had something but and that game against ⁓ charlotte will be on ⁓ february 7th, I believe right evan Yeah, that's correct. Yep. ⁓ super excited for that. We're also going to be releasing a travel vlog, ⁓ with that footy dad, ⁓ devin you and I are going we're also bringing louise shout out louise, And it's gonna be a really fun trip. I'm really looking forward to it. Even if the quakes get demolished by wolf red zaha I am just looking forward to the experience and ⁓ sharing it with you guys. speaker-1: Yeah, this is my first time kind of as media, so I just want to absorb everything, take it all in, ⁓ and just, you know, with you guys. This is going to be a fun trip for sure. speaker-0: Yeah, my first ever media assignment was, uh, Fabi, he asked me if I wanted to go with him down to Goccella back in 2023, 2022, either one of those. Uh, and I'd never done anything like that. Uh, I had never met Fabi in person and I went to his house and we drove six hours down to Palm Springs. Uh, and it was crazy. It was, Obviously I always thank Favvi for that opportunity and we have grown from there to here with the Patreon and everything. We also have close to 200 members in the Discord. know, second-hand takes, we're growing every single day. And yeah, can't be more thankful for the opportunity we have here and I'm super excited for the content that we'll be able to provide in the near future. And with that being said, go Quakes. speaker-1: Go Quakes!