Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Jason Kreis on Messi Day for RSL, Hosting Lionel Messi and Inter Miami tonight, Their great start to the season + more

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Jason Kreis on Messi Day for RSL, Hosting Lionel Messi and Inter Miami tonight, Their great start to the season + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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Speaker 1: Please please by Sean O'Connell Show. You are home of
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Speaker 1: the best inside of your hues. Let's get back to
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Speaker 1: OC from a Murdoch Chevrolet studio of ESPN seven hundred
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Speaker 1: ninety two one half am. Welcome to our number two
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Speaker 1: here on the Sean O'Connell Show. Our next guest is
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Speaker 1: the first ever one hundred goal scorer in Major League Soccer.
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Speaker 1: He is the head coach who guided RSL to an
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Speaker 1: MLS Cup back in two thousand and nine. He is
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Speaker 1: the current president of soccer operations for the Clareton Cobalt.
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Speaker 1: Jason Christ kind enough to give us a few minutes
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Speaker 1: on what is already a very busy day down in Sandy. Jason,
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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Sean O'Connell Show. Thanks for your time.
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Speaker 2: How are you, thanks, Shaan, good to be here. I'm
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Speaker 2: doing great. Excited for tonight.
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Speaker 1: I've been trying to figure out the right way to
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Speaker 1: characterize what this night is because obviously it's a regular
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Speaker 1: season professional soccer game. You have a really good club
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Speaker 1: right now, off to a great start, a lot of
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Speaker 1: promise on those fronts, but also you know they're special
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Speaker 1: bleachers in the stadium. This was announced a year ago.
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Speaker 1: It's the highest get in ticket price I've ever seen
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Speaker 1: for a sporting event in the state of Utah, and
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Speaker 1: a lot of that is because a global icon in
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Speaker 1: Leo Messi is coming with his club. So how are
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Speaker 1: you in the building characterizing and compartmentalizing what tonight is
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Speaker 1: relative to a regular season game.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there's obviously two perspective perspective. Number one
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Speaker 2: is from a soccer perspective for our coaches, for our players,
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Speaker 2: for our front office staff. On on the sporting side,
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Speaker 2: this is just another game, you know, this is another
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Speaker 2: opportunity for us to pick up three points, continue our
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Speaker 2: very strong start, continue a very good home winning streak
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Speaker 2: that we've started, and so it's another soccer game. But
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Speaker 2: obviously from a more global and more business perspective for
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Speaker 2: our club is a massive deal. You know. It's easy,
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Speaker 2: I think to characterize if you just say, basically, it's
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Speaker 2: Michael Jordan coming to town twenty years ago, where we
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Speaker 2: have the greatest player of all time coming into our
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Speaker 2: building with a team that won MLS Cup last year.
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Speaker 2: So the fans are going to be treated to, I
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Speaker 2: think a fantastic game tonight, and it's obviously an occasion
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Speaker 2: that we should all celebrate and enjoy.
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Speaker 1: The home field advantage has been incredibly strong, and again,
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Speaker 1: I don't want to keep hammering on the point that
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Speaker 1: it's messy, but it is. It's messy. We gotta at
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Speaker 1: least acknowledge it. And there's a lot of people that
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Speaker 1: are going to be in the building. They're going to
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Speaker 1: be there because they want to see messy. How will
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Speaker 1: that affect the atmosphere? Do you anticipate what that might
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Speaker 1: look like?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's a couple of things to think about, right.
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Speaker 2: I mean, we now know that he is definitely in Utah.
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Speaker 2: We see pictures of him at the training facility down
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Speaker 2: in here, so you know, the perspective is that he
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Speaker 2: will play and most likely he will start, just as
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Speaker 2: he does in all of the regular season games that
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Speaker 2: he is fit for. And I think in thinking about
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Speaker 2: how you know, I would expect that there will be
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Speaker 2: fans in our building a lot earlier than is typical
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Speaker 2: because I would expect that everybody would want to see
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Speaker 2: him on the field warming up. And so I'm excited
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Speaker 2: about that and excited of having a full stadium before
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Speaker 2: the game kicks off. We typically have a group of
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Speaker 2: fans that likes to come a little bit late, and
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Speaker 2: I've always wanted them to be there early at the
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Speaker 2: start of the game, to impose himself and to make
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Speaker 2: the atmosphere a difficult one for our oponent. So lots
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Speaker 2: of exciting things tonight to see.
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Speaker 1: When when we think about the players compartmentalizing versus the
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Speaker 1: business side and the fans and whatnot, I mean, I
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Speaker 1: don't know what it's like to try to compete against
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Speaker 1: someone that you grew up watching and probably in some
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Speaker 1: ways idolizing. I know that these guys are profandals. You
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Speaker 1: have some very promising young stars on this team that
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Speaker 1: probably have had Messi posters on their wall, and it's
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Speaker 1: not the first time. Some of these guys will compete
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Speaker 1: against him in various places. But how is that handled
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Speaker 1: by players coaches because it happens for different generations with
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Speaker 1: different players in soccer.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, from an idealistic point of view, you want all
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Speaker 2: of our players and coaches to understand this is just
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Speaker 2: another game. From a realistic perspective, you know, I think
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Speaker 2: this probably isn't just another game. This is an opportunity
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Speaker 2: for all of our players to put themselves in the
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Speaker 2: same field as I said, with the greatest player of
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Speaker 2: all time, and then there are also some other stellar
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Speaker 2: players and enter Miami, which you know, our players don't
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Speaker 2: maybe perhaps don't often get a chance to play against
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Speaker 2: the likes and the names of some of these players
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Speaker 2: on a weekend and week out basis, So there will
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Speaker 2: be excitement for sure. We played down in Miami two
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Speaker 2: years ago and what I would say, and it was
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Speaker 2: also the first game of the year, so I think
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Speaker 2: that ads some part of it. What I would say
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Speaker 2: is it looked to be a very nervous team. My
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Speaker 2: hope is that this team has been a different place
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Speaker 2: with some different players and will handle the occasion very well.
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Speaker 1: Was there anyone in your career that you ran up
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Speaker 1: against it was a rough equivalent of what we're talking
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Speaker 1: about with Messi tonight.
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Speaker 2: Oh, I don't think so. If I'm honest and humble,
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Speaker 2: I would say I probably never played against anybody that
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Speaker 2: I thought was one of the best in the world.
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Speaker 1: Jason christ is our guest here on the Sean O'Connell
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Speaker 1: show RSL hosting inter Miami tonight. Leo Messi is in Utah.
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Speaker 1: He is expected to be there, expected to play. Why
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Speaker 1: would he make the trip if he wasn't going to play.
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Speaker 1: I know that we got a couple of text messages
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Speaker 1: about people worried about exactly that, especially with the high
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Speaker 1: getting price. Is there any management of these situations from
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Speaker 1: the MLS level, because you know, the league is obviously
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Speaker 1: hyper aware of the economy around Leo Messi and what
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Speaker 1: happens when he makes a unique trip to some of
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Speaker 1: these places like he is in Utah. Does the league
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Speaker 1: do anything with Miami with Leo to say, hey, we
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Speaker 1: really need you on the field.
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Speaker 2: No, I don't think that that's implicitly said. But to
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Speaker 2: be honest, I don't really know. You know, I'm very
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Speaker 2: much focused on the soccer side, not the business side.
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Speaker 2: But I would have to think that Messi is aware,
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Speaker 2: as is inter Miami, as is the league that you know,
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Speaker 2: every time he steps on the field, that's a huge
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Speaker 2: financial and business windfall for the league. So I would
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Speaker 2: have to think there's some implicit, implicit conversations there, implicit
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Speaker 2: what the right word is, nudging perhaps, But you know,
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Speaker 2: at the end of the day, this is professional sports
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Speaker 2: and he is a human being, so you know, he
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Speaker 2: isn't going to be healthy for every single game. But
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Speaker 2: I do get the feeling just by watching what he's
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Speaker 2: done the two years he's been here. This guy doesn't
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Speaker 2: sit out games, so it's not like he's a guy
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Speaker 2: that saying, Hey, I'm just going to rest that game
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Speaker 2: because I need to save myself for the next one.
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Speaker 2: He seems to put himself out there every single time
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Speaker 2: he's available.
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Speaker 1: Let's talk about your squad off to a great start,
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Speaker 1: as we have mentioned a couple of times, five to
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Speaker 1: one and one on the season, unbeaten in the last
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Speaker 1: six to what do you attribute the hot start if
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Speaker 1: you can pinpoint something.
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Speaker 2: I think a couple of things. We in the off season.
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Speaker 2: We were very critical of ourselves and evaluated where which
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Speaker 2: particular areas we needed to get better at, which led
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Speaker 2: us to coming up with a new tactical formation for
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Speaker 2: our team, which then further led us to a very
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Speaker 2: specific recruitment process. And so I think we really checked
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Speaker 2: those three boxes pretty well. In particular, what I would
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Speaker 2: shout out is, I think the recruitment that we've done
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Speaker 2: in this winter to bring in the likes of Giovogi
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Speaker 2: and Snabria, Sergey Solons, Dine Spearings, Lucas Engel, all of
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Speaker 2: these guys have turned out to be winners. And what
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Speaker 2: I would say is that's that's in direct contrast to
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Speaker 2: I think what happened in a couple of windows before that.
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Speaker 2: So the process has been very good, and I think
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Speaker 2: we're seeing the results of some of that process.
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Speaker 1: For the novice and uneducated soccer fan. How massive and
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Speaker 1: undertaking is it when you do change a formation, when
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Speaker 1: you say, all right, we we're going to kind of
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Speaker 1: strip something down and we're gonna we're going to alter
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Speaker 1: the way we approach our like regular run of play,
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Speaker 1: especially if you have you know, holdovers and guys on
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Speaker 1: the roster that have been here at homegrown prospects that
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Speaker 1: maybe have come up and expected game day to be
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Speaker 1: a certain way and run through a certain system. How
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Speaker 1: how serious of an undertaking is that for those of
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Speaker 1: us who don't really know.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want to oversell this. I
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Speaker 2: do think it's a challenge, but I don't think it's
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Speaker 2: a massive undertaking so to speak. I think that you
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Speaker 2: have to be smart about how do it. I feel
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Speaker 2: very strongly about that because you know, in our from
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Speaker 2: our perspective, we want to make those decisions based upon
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Speaker 2: the most important players that we have and the players
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Speaker 2: that we're trying to build around. So we would never
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Speaker 2: want to go out and say we want to play
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Speaker 2: this system and now we need to get all new players.
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Speaker 2: So we look at it from the perspective of the
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Speaker 2: Diego Lunas, the Amchanelli's and Justin Glads, the Rafaka Brals,
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Speaker 2: DeAndre Yedlin's that are coming back from last season, those
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Speaker 2: important players. What would be a better system for them
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Speaker 2: going forward? And how do we address specifics which was
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Speaker 2: how do we create more high quality goal scoring chances.
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Speaker 1: Speaking of high quality goal scoring chances, you just mentioned
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Speaker 1: Sergi Solon's and he's he's scored in the last three
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Speaker 1: and two two games, two goals in the last outing.
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Speaker 1: So the team's hot you could say that in the
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Speaker 1: last three games especially, he's even hotter. What's working for
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Speaker 1: him right now?
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Speaker 2: You know, he's a very interesting person to talk about
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Speaker 2: because you know, we got a little bit fortunate, I
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Speaker 2: have to admit by drafting him two years ago, and
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Speaker 2: at that point we wanted to bring him in basically
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Speaker 2: as a second team player for the Monarchs, and he
10:17
Speaker 2: said he wanted to go back and play college, so
10:20
Speaker 2: he went back changed schools actually the UCLA, and then
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Speaker 2: had just an incredible year last year. So we approached
10:26
Speaker 2: it a little bit differently this year and said, you know,
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Speaker 2: it looks like there's a great opportunity for you to
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Speaker 2: come in now rather than go back to school for
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Speaker 2: one more year and have an opportunity to actually get
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Speaker 2: minutes because we were missing Victor Olatinji form the majority
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Speaker 2: of preseasons. So Sergeia has come in and taken advantage
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Speaker 2: of the opportunity and done an amazing job. But what's
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Speaker 2: really interesting is that he has five goals, but if
10:51
Speaker 2: you asked him, and I'll tell you from my perspective
10:54
Speaker 2: as a former striker, he should probably have ten. So
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Speaker 2: you know, the upside is still really really low on
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Speaker 2: this guy. And what's so admirable about him from all
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Speaker 2: of our perspective is not necessarily just the goals, but
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Speaker 2: the defensive work that he puts in is so critical
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Speaker 2: for our team's success.
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Speaker 1: Who has shouldered the load of player leadership or on
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Speaker 1: field generalship in a way that I think, you know,
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Speaker 1: you were considered to be that guy. And obviously guys
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Speaker 1: like Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimondo and some of the
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Speaker 1: legends of this club. When when we think about the
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Speaker 1: Claret and Cobalt, those are the faces and the names
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Speaker 1: that we're thinking of. Who are those guys on this
11:37
Speaker 1: year's team.
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Speaker 2: I think it's the group has done a really good
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Speaker 2: job of spreading it amongst a few players. Those players
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Speaker 2: are Rapa cabral Justin Glad DeAndre Yedlin and Amcca and
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Speaker 2: Nelly are the names that jump right out. And with
11:52
Speaker 2: the addition of a guy like Lucas Engel, who I
11:55
Speaker 2: think adds another nice dynamic of leaderships. I wouldn't say
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Speaker 2: that there is one particular guy that I could point out,
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Speaker 2: but I do think it's they're getting the job done
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Speaker 2: by committee. If if you forced me into I probably
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Speaker 2: would say it would have to I would have to command.
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Speaker 2: Ralpha cabral Is is probably the most vocal leadership leader
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Speaker 2: guy that we have out there.
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Speaker 1: Jason Christ our guest here on the Sean O'Connell Show
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Speaker 1: for another couple of minutes. It's a big night down
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Speaker 1: in Sandy at America First Field RSL hosting inter Miami
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Speaker 1: Leo Messi in Town. Tickets are available on the secondary market,
12:31
Speaker 1: but be ready to break the bank. Because it is
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Speaker 1: a hot item and this RSL team needs your support.
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Speaker 1: They have looked really excellent so far and a big
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Speaker 1: opportunity against the good Miami team as well coming up
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Speaker 1: in a few scant weeks. Obviously, you've got the FIFA
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Speaker 1: World Cup from the RSL perspective, from the MLS perspective,
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Speaker 1: and I guess for you, know you, as the president
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Speaker 1: of Soccer Operations, how how difficult to challenge it is
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Speaker 1: it to incorporate this massive global event right in the
13:03
Speaker 1: middle of the season.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, obviously the World Cup is the most
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Speaker 2: important sporting event in the world, and so I'm not
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Speaker 2: going to sit here and tell you that I'm frustrated
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Speaker 2: by it. But truthfully, when you start off the way
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Speaker 2: we are, we would love to just continue on the
13:18
Speaker 2: momentum that we've created and kind of keep rolling through
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Speaker 2: this season. So it will be viewed as a challenge
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Speaker 2: by us. We can, you know, we will be able
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Speaker 2: to take the time and have players take a couple
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Speaker 2: weeks off, actually get some rest, and then come back
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Speaker 2: in and focus on and put the players through basically
13:38
Speaker 2: another mini preseason. We are also trying to make some
13:42
Speaker 2: decisions so that we can have some games leading back
13:45
Speaker 2: into the second half of the season for us. So
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Speaker 2: what it does is it makes a little more work
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Speaker 2: than what we would like, but we have to consider
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Speaker 2: the benefits of what will happen from World Cup to
13:54
Speaker 2: be to be ultimately a positive thing for us.
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Speaker 1: In other pro sports, we talk all the time about
14:01
Speaker 1: the you know, things like salary cap, we talk about
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Speaker 1: contract situations. We talk about in baseball, especially the farm system.
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Speaker 1: And there's been some significant proof of concept with the
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Speaker 1: RSL academy and homegrown players becoming important guys on the
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Speaker 1: MLS squad. And you're in this role now, we're kind
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Speaker 1: of overseeing all of it. Do you stay the course?
14:25
Speaker 1: Are there changes necessary down the line? How do you
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Speaker 1: view I guess the growth of the RSL product, especially
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Speaker 1: from within.
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Speaker 2: We're extremely proud of it, extremely proud of it. I
14:37
Speaker 2: would say it's you know, when I came in to
14:40
Speaker 2: two years and a couple of months ago, that was
14:43
Speaker 2: my first and primary focus was to try to make
14:46
Speaker 2: sure that the academy, the way we were playing, the
14:50
Speaker 2: players that we were producing and developing the identity of
14:55
Speaker 2: the whole thing was in a strict alignment with first
15:00
Speaker 2: team and monarchs and was able to implement that over
15:05
Speaker 2: probably what took about six months to make sure that
15:09
Speaker 2: all the coaches are speaking the same language, the positional
15:12
Speaker 2: profiles are the same for all the players. And before that,
15:16
Speaker 2: you know, a couple of years before that, when mister
15:19
Speaker 2: Blitzer came on as the majority owner, he and Tony Beltran,
15:23
Speaker 2: Kurt Schmid, people like that put a big focus on
15:26
Speaker 2: trying to get that academy headed in a good direction.
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Speaker 2: So I would say that currently and I think for
15:32
Speaker 2: the next several years, we have and are going to
15:36
Speaker 2: be able to reach some massive benefits from a lot
15:39
Speaker 2: of very intentional work that was done four years ago
15:42
Speaker 2: and again sort of refocused on as I came into
15:46
Speaker 2: two and a half.
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Speaker 1: Years ago, and I already asked you a World Cup question,
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Speaker 1: but this slipped my mind at the moment. Do we
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Speaker 1: know what countries, what clubs are going to be using
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Speaker 1: RSL facility in order to sort of camp and uh
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Speaker 1: and prepare themselves for the World Cup here.
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Speaker 2: In North America?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, we do.
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Speaker 2: We have two. We have South Korea that's going to
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Speaker 2: come in as like a pre World Cup. They want
16:12
Speaker 2: to get some elevation trainings. I think there, they maybe
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Speaker 2: play a game or two down in Mexico's city. So
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Speaker 2: they're going to do like a pre World Cup training
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Speaker 2: camp with us here down in Harriman and Zebra, and
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Speaker 2: then we will have Bosnia and Herzegovnia. This that their
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Speaker 2: their home base. Training camp will be here, but it
16:31
Speaker 2: won't be at the training facility, It'll actually be out
16:33
Speaker 2: of our stadium.
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Speaker 1: Oh cool. Do you do you have relationships with anyone
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Speaker 1: in those or is this going to be kind of
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Speaker 1: like a you know, expanding your personal network when when
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Speaker 1: that happens in both both cases, the Bosnia herz Arena
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Speaker 1: and then South Korea.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I do not have relationships yet or connections yet,
16:54
Speaker 2: but do plan to try to try to establish some.
16:58
Speaker 2: I have an off, sort of weird connection with a
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Speaker 2: player from Bosnia and Herzegovinian named Van Jeko. He was
17:05
Speaker 2: a player at Man City when I was over there
17:07
Speaker 2: for six months doing my implementation with City Football Group.
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Speaker 1: Are you better at coaching, playing soccer or being in
17:19
Speaker 1: an administrative role when you look back at all of
17:22
Speaker 1: what you've done, which one suits you best?
17:24
Speaker 2: You think? Oh? Man, I don't know. I mean obviously
17:28
Speaker 2: being a professional player was probably the most enjoyable time
17:31
Speaker 2: of my life. Felt like you get to focus on
17:33
Speaker 2: something for very very short amounts of time and spend
17:37
Speaker 2: a lot of time with your family. So I love that.
17:39
Speaker 2: From a coaching perspective, I love, you know, putting a
17:43
Speaker 2: group together and leading them and trying to establish identity
17:46
Speaker 2: and culture and those sorts of things. In the role
17:49
Speaker 2: that I am now, i'm probably you know, still doing
17:51
Speaker 2: a lot of those things with identity, culture alignment and
17:55
Speaker 2: all of that. And I think from a legacy perspective,
17:59
Speaker 2: I would say that I would like to walk away
18:02
Speaker 2: from this job at some point feeling like I had
18:05
Speaker 2: a really positive influence on a large number of people.
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Speaker 2: And you know, the greatest opportunity for that is in
18:12
Speaker 2: the exact role that I'm in now. So I just
18:14
Speaker 2: can say anything more than I'm very, very happy with
18:16
Speaker 2: what I'm doing, and I'm extremely happy with where I'm
18:19
Speaker 2: at for.
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Speaker 1: The league itself. When you were a player in the
18:23
Speaker 1: more foundational days of MLS soccer, did you in those
18:28
Speaker 1: days anticipate that you know, at some point there would
18:32
Speaker 1: be you know, five hundred dollars a seat stadiums being
18:35
Speaker 1: sold out across the land, for MLS soccer.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely not, absolutely not. I would never have seen, you know,
18:44
Speaker 2: never thought that a player like Lionel Messi would come
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Speaker 2: here at an age that he still has a lot
18:49
Speaker 2: to give to the game and in a competitive way.
18:53
Speaker 2: I mean, those early years of the league, we had
18:56
Speaker 2: some global stars, but you know those global stars were
18:59
Speaker 2: really I passed it from a physical perspective, and it
19:02
Speaker 2: was obvious to everyone.
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Speaker 1: When Team USA trots out for the upcoming World Cup,
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Speaker 1: what are our chances? The World Cup for me is
19:12
Speaker 1: a lot like the Olympics, where for a few weeks
19:16
Speaker 1: have become a passionate expert on gymnastics and everything else
19:21
Speaker 1: in the Olympics, And so I will pretend that I'm
19:24
Speaker 1: an expert on soccer for those few weeks. But give
19:26
Speaker 1: me the real skinny on how Team USA should fare
19:30
Speaker 1: in this upcoming World Cup.
19:32
Speaker 2: You know, that's a difficult question because I would have
19:35
Speaker 2: said a year a year and a half ago, I
19:37
Speaker 2: would have told you that I think we've got a
19:39
Speaker 2: chance to make a real big impact on this tournament
19:42
Speaker 2: at home. But now, having watched the team this last
19:46
Speaker 2: month or two, my hopes and aspirations have probably gone
19:50
Speaker 2: down significantly. But I also know that you know, you
19:54
Speaker 2: can have a couple of bad games that are friendlies,
19:58
Speaker 2: and that can look extremely differ from when you put
20:01
Speaker 2: the team out there and there's there's pressure and competition
20:04
Speaker 2: and the support of all of our fans and the
20:06
Speaker 2: biggest sporting event in the world. So I'm still hopeful
20:09
Speaker 2: that our guys are going to make a mark, make
20:11
Speaker 2: it out of the make it out of the group stages,
20:13
Speaker 2: and I think that we have to kick on. We
20:15
Speaker 2: have to establish a new level of expectation, which isn't
20:19
Speaker 2: just to get out of our group, but we need
20:20
Speaker 2: to start winning some of these knockout games. So I'll
20:23
Speaker 2: project that we're going to win that first knockout game
20:25
Speaker 2: as well.
20:26
Speaker 1: Well. Your word is gospel on this show, So now
20:29
Speaker 1: that's the expectation for everyone who's listening, and we will
20:32
Speaker 1: be sorely disappointed if it doesn't happen.
20:35
Speaker 2: That's unfair pressure, but I'll take it.
20:37
Speaker 1: Come look, enjoy tonight, enjoy the season because obviously that's
20:44
Speaker 1: the more important thing in your world, and it's going
20:45
Speaker 1: really well so far. I know you're very busy, especially today,
20:49
Speaker 1: so again I very much appreciate your time. Thank you,
20:53
Speaker 1: You're welcome.
20:53
Speaker 2: You're welcome, Thanks for having me.
20:56
Speaker 1: That is Jason christ an icon in RSL Claret and Cobalt,
21:02
Speaker 1: current President of Soccer Operations. Of course, he was a
21:05
Speaker 1: player for RSL, he was a coach during those title
21:09
Speaker 1: run years and for the title and now he's overseeing
21:13
Speaker 1: it all and tonight, as we have talked about at
21:16
Speaker 1: nauseum on, the show is as big a night as
21:19
Speaker 1: it gets, not only for RSL, but for sports in
21:22
Speaker 1: the state.