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The Philadelphia Union And Their Awesome Start To The Season! (PST Episode 610) · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

0:00
Speaker 1: What's up, everybody. It's Jeff here. Wanted to let you
0:03
Speaker 1: know that we've recorded this podcast episode on Wednesday, April second,
0:06
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. By the time you hear this, some
0:09
Speaker 1: things may have changed here there, but we hope you
0:11
Speaker 1: enjoy the show. Welcome to the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show,
0:47
Speaker 1: the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world.
0:52
Speaker 1: We are just about at our twelve year anniversary. Again,
0:56
Speaker 1: the longest running Philly sports podcast show in the world.
0:59
Speaker 1: I'm Jeff. I'm here at my good buddy len Hunt
1:02
Speaker 1: Sicker lent Man. Almost twelve years. Seems like yesterday we
1:06
Speaker 1: started this endeavor.
1:08
Speaker 2: Seems like it's for ninety.
1:13
Speaker 1: Well some weeks, it does, doesn't it. Bless your soul,
1:18
Speaker 1: you just you've stuck with it this. I honestly didn't.
1:21
Speaker 1: I never thought it we would be doing it for
1:24
Speaker 1: this long. I really haven't.
1:25
Speaker 2: No, I did not.
1:26
Speaker 1: How long did you think it was gonna last? Because
1:28
Speaker 1: I remember we had a little hiccup after what was
1:30
Speaker 1: it a couple of years. I remember we were at
1:32
Speaker 1: we were at Eric's house. We had a little hiccup.
1:33
Speaker 1: We had to talk about the show and like expectations
1:36
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. I think it was like the
1:38
Speaker 1: first time you and I ever had like any sort
1:40
Speaker 1: of like little type of hiccuppy discord or something. Do
1:44
Speaker 1: you remember that?
1:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I just kind of figured.
1:48
Speaker 2: I mean, I know how I and I guess I
1:50
Speaker 2: just looked at it from the perspective of how I am,
1:52
Speaker 2: and I'm not the best person at sticking with stuff
1:56
Speaker 2: and finishing stuff. So I'm like, Okay, this will be
2:00
Speaker 2: you know, here for a little bit and then it'll
2:02
Speaker 2: peter out and run its course and then that'll be that.
2:05
Speaker 2: So yeah, so that that's just what i'd assumed.
2:08
Speaker 1: Wo that right, Well, it was a good time for
2:10
Speaker 1: Eric to come on board. Then, I remember after we
2:12
Speaker 1: had that conversation you know about like expectations and things
2:16
Speaker 1: like that, and just I again, I just cannot believe
2:19
Speaker 1: that we're still doing it after all this time. Thanks
2:21
Speaker 1: buddy for sticking it out for just about twelve years now.
2:24
Speaker 1: I'm serious, thank you.
2:25
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, no, that's fine.
2:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fun. Honestly, this is like a it sounds
2:30
Speaker 1: bizarre wherever you're listening to us, if you are on
2:33
Speaker 1: a treadmill, you're in your car, you're at the office,
2:36
Speaker 1: you are at homework and wherever. I mean, this is
2:40
Speaker 1: a like release for me. You know, we have the
2:43
Speaker 1: daily riggers of our life while we are working full
2:46
Speaker 1: time during the day. I have a lot of different
2:48
Speaker 1: obligations outside of work and even my family as well.
2:52
Speaker 1: But yes, I've got a family where I've got three
2:54
Speaker 1: ladies in this house and when we are able, whether
2:58
Speaker 1: it's you, Eric myself, were able to get on these
3:01
Speaker 1: microphones and record, dude, it really is. It's like it's
3:04
Speaker 1: like a release for me, and I'm just able to
3:07
Speaker 1: enjoy talking about Philly sports. It's something I've always loved
3:10
Speaker 1: ever since I was a kid. And the fact that
3:13
Speaker 1: we get to talk about this and people actually like
3:15
Speaker 1: listening to us for some reason, and it's a great
3:18
Speaker 1: release for me.
3:20
Speaker 2: Well yeah, and it's also a thing of like, you know,
3:23
Speaker 2: it's like with anything. I think, the older you get
3:25
Speaker 2: and the more things you tackle on, like you really
3:27
Speaker 2: you don't really see your friends, yes that much anymore
3:32
Speaker 2: over talk to them just because what used to be
3:35
Speaker 2: like the primary people in your life kind of get
3:37
Speaker 2: on the back burner as families start to happen and
3:40
Speaker 2: careers happen. And all that all that stuff, so it's
3:43
Speaker 2: kind of a way to just kind of keep that going.
3:45
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, And I just I love that. Honestly, I
3:49
Speaker 1: love that we don't dive into the analytics of this show,
3:52
Speaker 1: because if we did, it probably would feel different. I
3:56
Speaker 1: will always remember dude told me, right when you know
3:59
Speaker 1: we're starting this out, Guy told me, he's like, try
4:02
Speaker 1: not to look at the analytics. Is once you start
4:04
Speaker 1: looking at the analytics, you start losing your passion for
4:06
Speaker 1: what you're podcasting about. And I just I always remembered that.
4:10
Speaker 1: And aside from the weekly email that we get with
4:12
Speaker 1: how many downloads that we got for that week, I don't.
4:16
Speaker 1: I don't look at the analytics, and I'm glad that
4:19
Speaker 1: I don't. Man, I'm glad. Do you wish I looked
4:21
Speaker 1: at him?
4:22
Speaker 2: No? I honestly, I couldn't tell you how many people
4:24
Speaker 2: listen this show. I couldn't see the first thing about
4:27
Speaker 2: it because because that's kind of I think more of
4:30
Speaker 2: a thing that you, you know, would would pay attention to.
4:33
Speaker 2: I just I don't know. I have no idea who
4:35
Speaker 2: listens to this show.
4:36
Speaker 1: I barely do either.
4:37
Speaker 2: It could be you know, twenty people. It could be
4:41
Speaker 2: two hundred people. I don't know. Perhaps more than that, No, possibly,
4:48
Speaker 2: I don't know.
4:48
Speaker 1: It definitely is, I'll tell you that. Yeah, I mean,
4:50
Speaker 1: it definitely is. Folks usually don't like to throw out
4:53
Speaker 1: their numbers and stuff like that, but it's definitely a
4:55
Speaker 1: lot more than that. So anyway, I love that we're
4:59
Speaker 1: going to be embark on year twelve here, So twelve
5:02
Speaker 1: or twelve years you know, in the in the books,
5:04
Speaker 1: and we'll be embarking on year thirteen. So with that
5:07
Speaker 1: being said, let's get into some Philly sports here. We're
5:09
Speaker 1: gonna be getting into some Phillies talk this week, folks,
5:12
Speaker 1: some NFL and Eagles talk. And then the Sixers, boy,
5:15
Speaker 1: they are tanking very nicely at this point we know
5:19
Speaker 1: the NBA is investigating them. And then, of course, right
5:22
Speaker 1: after we uploaded the show last week, the Flyers decided
5:25
Speaker 1: to fire John Tortorello. We're gonna talk about how this
5:29
Speaker 1: team has been looking since Tortorello was released. Now what
5:32
Speaker 1: we're thrown down on the table this week. We got
5:34
Speaker 1: our good friend Josh Schuster from Philadelphia Soccer Now dot com.
5:37
Speaker 1: He's gonna be joining us for a discussion about this
5:39
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Union team, who are looking thus far pretty darn
5:44
Speaker 1: good in this early part of the MLS season. They're
5:47
Speaker 1: currently second in the Eastern Conference. So we're gonna dive
5:51
Speaker 1: into the Union with Josh in a little bit. But Lenn,
5:55
Speaker 1: let's start talking about this Phillies team right out of
5:57
Speaker 1: the gate. As we are recording this here on Wednesday night,
6:00
Speaker 1: April second, this team is four and one, they are
6:04
Speaker 1: a top of the NL East. We just want to
6:07
Speaker 1: talk about how they're really looking here, getting into our
6:10
Speaker 1: top concerns, and then what we're actually least concerned with
6:13
Speaker 1: when it comes to this team. It's been fun to
6:16
Speaker 1: have baseball on our screens. I love it, just the
6:20
Speaker 1: fact that this past Sunday, Len I had baseball on
6:23
Speaker 1: the TV in the background as I'm doing, you know,
6:26
Speaker 1: some things around the house, you know, doing my weekend chores,
6:32
Speaker 1: and I got baseball on and it was such a
6:34
Speaker 1: comforting feeling. It really was great. But I was thinking
6:38
Speaker 1: about what my top concern is for this team right now,
6:42
Speaker 1: and it's still the fact that you got a lot
6:44
Speaker 1: of talent in the batter's box, swinging at junk early
6:49
Speaker 1: in games, early in games, and it's really really tough
6:53
Speaker 1: to watch.
6:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I mean it definitely. I don't know, I
6:59
Speaker 2: don't know if I'm becoming desensitized to it or whatever,
7:03
Speaker 2: but it just feels like that is what baseball has
7:06
Speaker 2: kind of become. Like the days of guys hitting three
7:09
Speaker 2: point fifty and having like a scientific approach at the
7:12
Speaker 2: plate are pretty much over. It just it's become you know,
7:17
Speaker 2: it just feels more grip it and rip it kind
7:19
Speaker 2: of and you know, and that lends itself to a
7:22
Speaker 2: more freewheeling approach of the plate and things of that nature.
7:26
Speaker 2: So and I don't think that's a Phillies thing. I
7:28
Speaker 2: think that is just kind of now what baseball has
7:33
Speaker 2: become more of, you know, because you mentioned the show
7:37
Speaker 2: Analytics earlier, but like with analytics, I mean launch angle
7:41
Speaker 2: and trying to hit the ball in the air and
7:43
Speaker 2: you know, trying to do this kind of stuff to
7:46
Speaker 2: hit home runs. I like, the nuances of the science
7:50
Speaker 2: of hitting have kind of disappeared a little bit. And yes,
7:55
Speaker 2: it's a Phillies thing, but it's also a major League
7:57
Speaker 2: baseball thing. Yeah. I mean there's guys like Trade Turner
8:01
Speaker 2: had a really nice game tonight.
8:02
Speaker 1: Yep.
8:03
Speaker 2: It's Colorado. But you know, prior to that, it was
8:05
Speaker 2: just like, where where is the guy from Washington? Where
8:09
Speaker 2: is the guy that you know, was you know, the
8:12
Speaker 2: prototypical leadoff guy, the speed, the you know, hitting for
8:15
Speaker 2: the average and all that stuff. So hopefully, you know,
8:17
Speaker 2: tonight was a good step in the inter right direction,
8:20
Speaker 2: you know, for him, and uh, you know, we can
8:23
Speaker 2: go from there a little bit. But you know that
8:25
Speaker 2: I think that's just the nature of the game. Kind
8:27
Speaker 2: of do you.
8:27
Speaker 1: Miss that aspect of baseball that we really don't see
8:30
Speaker 1: too much anymore tradition.
8:32
Speaker 2: I'm not asking for everybody to hit you know, like
8:35
Speaker 2: three ten or whatever, but like, you know, I don't,
8:38
Speaker 2: I don't know, like it would be nice of like,
8:41
Speaker 2: you know, to see a guy come and play and
8:42
Speaker 2: be like, oh, that guy's getting on base right, which yeah,
8:46
Speaker 2: you know, I don't, you know, don't. And it kind
8:49
Speaker 2: of sounds like I'm saying that the Phillies have don't
8:51
Speaker 2: have any offense, which is comical because it's not. I mean,
8:54
Speaker 2: they they definitely, you know, you can look at the
8:57
Speaker 2: numbers right now. They've got some guys that are off
8:59
Speaker 2: to good starts, that are hitting the ball well. But
9:01
Speaker 2: like the the whole, like the Tony gwyn type of
9:04
Speaker 2: guy that you know, just is always gonna seemingly be
9:08
Speaker 2: on base and stuff like that. A guy that you
9:11
Speaker 2: know is a table center, a guy that like, you know,
9:14
Speaker 2: you don't have to worry about, Oh we're hit. All
9:17
Speaker 2: we did was we hit solo shots today because nobody
9:20
Speaker 2: gets on base, because we need a guy that can
9:23
Speaker 2: get on base and kind of set the table and
9:26
Speaker 2: you know, make these home runs more than what they
9:28
Speaker 2: they are actually are. It would be nice just to
9:31
Speaker 2: have something like that. That's all I'm saying.
9:33
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Well, what what's your top concern? I mean,
9:36
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure you're liking what we're you're seeing
9:38
Speaker 1: in general thus far from this Phillies team, But what
9:41
Speaker 1: has been your top concern thus far?
9:44
Speaker 2: Yeah? And again they're they're four and one, you know,
9:47
Speaker 2: so you know, how much can you really complain at
9:49
Speaker 2: this point? You know, Uh, they've they've they've played well
9:53
Speaker 2: up to this point. I would say, uh, you know,
9:57
Speaker 2: it was an off season that you know, the there
10:00
Speaker 2: wasn't a lot happening. You know, the Phillies have had
10:03
Speaker 2: a couple off seasons in the past where they're signed
10:05
Speaker 2: a lot of big names, and you just can't do
10:08
Speaker 2: that every year. It's not sustainable. So this was an
10:12
Speaker 2: off season where that didn't happen, where there wasn't a lot.
10:16
Speaker 2: But the one one of the guys they did bring
10:18
Speaker 2: in that was kind of, you know, hopefully going to
10:21
Speaker 2: address what I considered an area of need was Jordan
10:24
Speaker 2: Romano in the bullpen. Guy that had come from Toronto
10:28
Speaker 2: where he was an All Star for a couple of years,
10:31
Speaker 2: had injuries last season, but from everything that we were told,
10:36
Speaker 2: you know, he was you know, those injuries were cleaned up,
10:39
Speaker 2: he was fine, had a clean bill of health going forward.
10:42
Speaker 2: So it was kind of I don't know, it's super
10:45
Speaker 2: early to be panic panicking about anything, but you see
10:49
Speaker 2: the nine era and you're just like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
10:53
Speaker 2: You're just like, man, this is a guy that I
10:54
Speaker 2: was hoping, you know, was going to be the back
10:57
Speaker 2: end of the bullpen piece, either eighth or ninth inning.
11:00
Speaker 2: It seems like they're you know, I don't know that
11:02
Speaker 2: they have a set guy in any of those roles,
11:06
Speaker 2: but you know it would be nice if you kind of,
11:09
Speaker 2: you know, depend on him, and even I think it's
11:11
Speaker 2: spring training, I saw him getting hit around a couple
11:14
Speaker 2: of times, so it's not just like me looking at
11:16
Speaker 2: the two games he's pitched so far this season, it
11:19
Speaker 2: does feel like it's something that's been kind of happening
11:21
Speaker 2: for a little bit here.
11:22
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think on the flip side of things though, too,
11:26
Speaker 1: I think we're seeing some things that we absolutely should
11:28
Speaker 1: not be concerned about, and we wanted to get into
11:31
Speaker 1: them as well, and we're hoping that you all can
11:35
Speaker 1: also reach out to us, let us know what your
11:38
Speaker 1: top concern is with this Phillies team and what you're
11:40
Speaker 1: actually not concerned with. Philadelphia Sports Table at gmail dot com.
11:43
Speaker 1: We'd love to read your email here on the show
11:45
Speaker 1: and respond to it. But in terms of what I'm
11:48
Speaker 1: least concerned with, and I can't believe I'm actually going
11:50
Speaker 1: to say it, it's a guy who actually is batting
11:53
Speaker 1: three sixty four right now in this lineup, and there
11:57
Speaker 1: are a lot of questions about him coming into this season,
12:01
Speaker 1: whether or not he could be an every day you know,
12:04
Speaker 1: you know, left fielder, and this is Max Kepler. He's
12:07
Speaker 1: off to a strong start here with his new team,
12:11
Speaker 1: four for eleven as of US recording this with three
12:15
Speaker 1: walks and three extra base hits. I mean he homered
12:18
Speaker 1: in the eighth inning of the Phillies six to one
12:21
Speaker 1: victory over the Rockies on Monday in the home opener.
12:26
Speaker 1: That was really great to see Max Kepler again off
12:30
Speaker 1: to a really strong start. And there were a lot
12:33
Speaker 1: of people that had a lot of doubts about him.
12:35
Speaker 1: And look, it is still early in the season, like
12:37
Speaker 1: you were saying, Lenn, we have no idea what's going
12:40
Speaker 1: to be happening two months down the road, four months
12:42
Speaker 1: down the road with some of these guys, whether they
12:44
Speaker 1: are on the mound or in the batter's box. But
12:47
Speaker 1: right now, I'm not concerned with Max Kepler at all.
12:50
Speaker 1: I'm not. He's having a damn good start to the season.
12:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, he definitely is. And he's another guy that
12:56
Speaker 2: you know, had a rough year in Minnesota last year,
13:00
Speaker 2: but a lot of that was due to injury. So
13:01
Speaker 2: your your thought processes, Oh, man, is this guy you know,
13:06
Speaker 2: is he healthy? Can can he make it all the
13:08
Speaker 2: way back? And and it looks like, you know, thus
13:11
Speaker 2: far again early, super early. You know, he has in
13:16
Speaker 2: the first game of the Sea against the series against Colorado,
13:20
Speaker 2: he had that home run. At the end of the game,
13:22
Speaker 2: him and Castianos went back to back, so it was
13:24
Speaker 2: nice to see him kind of get on the board there.
13:27
Speaker 2: But yeah, and this is also a position of need.
13:30
Speaker 2: You know, you look at the Phillies outfield and there's
13:33
Speaker 2: not a lot there. You know, Rojas is still very
13:36
Speaker 2: much a question mark. Castianos is very streaky, So you know, okay,
13:40
Speaker 2: what do we have in left field? You know, marsh
13:43
Speaker 2: has kind of gotten off to a good start when
13:44
Speaker 2: he's been playing center, so but you know, you were hoping, Okay,
13:49
Speaker 2: they bring in somebody with pop you know, I know
13:52
Speaker 2: that they were one of the people that was on
13:54
Speaker 2: the back end of the Sodo chase that was never
13:57
Speaker 2: gonna happen. You know, it would still be nice to
13:59
Speaker 2: have like a name brand guy there, which I don't
14:02
Speaker 2: know that Kepler is, but he's he's kind of done.
14:06
Speaker 2: He's done well so far.
14:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, absolutely, What I mean, what is that
14:10
Speaker 1: one part of the start of this season that you're
14:13
Speaker 1: really not too concerned with? Again, for me, it's Max Kepler?
14:16
Speaker 1: What about you? What are your thoughts here?
14:19
Speaker 2: I guess like there's a couple guys that have had
14:23
Speaker 2: maybe some slow starts. I'm looking at Bryce and Stott
14:26
Speaker 2: hitting two hundred yeah, right off the bat first couple
14:29
Speaker 2: of games of the season. After tonight's game, Harper is
14:33
Speaker 2: down to like two twenty seven. But you know, you
14:35
Speaker 2: can't really focus too much on that. I mean, coming
14:39
Speaker 2: into the game he was hitting two ninety four. Okay,
14:41
Speaker 2: you have a bad out of dish early in the season,
14:44
Speaker 2: and you're your batting average is going to take a
14:46
Speaker 2: tumble and stuff like that. I don't really see a
14:49
Speaker 2: ton that I'm honestly worried about so far this season.
14:54
Speaker 2: I mean, A, it's super early, and B I think
14:57
Speaker 2: the team is looked there again they four and one.
15:01
Speaker 2: I mean to me, looking at at stuff and going, oh,
15:04
Speaker 2: this is a problem. This is a problem for a
15:05
Speaker 2: team that's doing this well. This early is kind of
15:07
Speaker 2: like nitpicking a little bit. I think once we get
15:11
Speaker 2: in a couple of weeks here and have a maybe
15:13
Speaker 2: a bigger sample size, you will be able to go, Okay,
15:17
Speaker 2: this is now a legitimate concern. Yeah, so and so
15:21
Speaker 2: we'll see. But yeah, there's a couple of guys that
15:23
Speaker 2: have gotten off the slow starts, and everybody does it
15:26
Speaker 2: every year, you know, there's a couple of guys that
15:28
Speaker 2: you know, have to turn it around after a couple
15:31
Speaker 2: of months, and you know, hopefully, you know, Stotton and
15:35
Speaker 2: Stott will do that. And Harper, I'm not worried about
15:37
Speaker 2: He's Harper. He's going to be just five.
15:39
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, I got to say one thing. It's not
15:42
Speaker 1: even dealing with the Phillies Lynn. The Atlanta Braves. They
15:46
Speaker 1: have not won a game yet. They are the only
15:48
Speaker 1: team in Major League Baseball who has not won a
15:51
Speaker 1: game yet. They're owing six.
15:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's still going on in Atlanta. It's pretty crazy.
15:57
Speaker 2: I mean, for especially a team that you know, this
16:00
Speaker 2: is supposed to be a three horse race in the
16:01
Speaker 2: East and they were supposed to be one of those horses.
16:04
Speaker 2: I am watching on them right now. They're up five
16:07
Speaker 2: to three on the Dodgers in the seventh inning, so
16:09
Speaker 2: maybe maybe tonight is where they get that first win
16:12
Speaker 2: of the year. But yeah, I mean to see them
16:14
Speaker 2: get off this kind of start is it's genuinely shocking.
16:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, it absolutely is. All Right, Well, enough of Phillies talk,
16:22
Speaker 1: right there, Let's yes get into some NFL and Eagles talk. Yes,
16:26
Speaker 1: it's the off season, folks, and we know that the
16:28
Speaker 1: NFL Draft is really going to be here before we
16:31
Speaker 1: know what. We're going to be getting into that in
16:33
Speaker 1: a little bit. But this past week the Owners met
16:36
Speaker 1: had their annual Owners Meeting, len and the one thing
16:39
Speaker 1: I wanted to get into on this show from that
16:43
Speaker 1: is a new quote rule that is going to be implemented,
16:47
Speaker 1: and the NFL's method for measuring first downs is going
16:51
Speaker 1: to switch from the chain gang to camera based technology
16:55
Speaker 1: this year. So the traditional chain crew they're going to
17:00
Speaker 1: in on the sidelines in a secondary capacity, whatever that
17:02
Speaker 1: actually means. But we are actually going full fledged technology
17:07
Speaker 1: now and cameras and measuring with the cameras when it
17:12
Speaker 1: comes to first downs in the NFL. I am all
17:16
Speaker 1: for this, buddy. I am all for it. When you
17:19
Speaker 1: have referees that we have seen in the past and
17:22
Speaker 1: officials measuring with index cards as we saw a few
17:26
Speaker 1: years ago. I forget the ref's name that did that,
17:28
Speaker 1: but the guy absolutely loved being on camera doing that
17:32
Speaker 1: and it was a huge story. Look, we're talking about
17:34
Speaker 1: it now, but I love the fact that technology is
17:37
Speaker 1: actually able to get into this sport in this particular
17:40
Speaker 1: capacity to make sure that the right calls are happening.
17:46
Speaker 1: And because you know what, humans aren't perfect and we
17:49
Speaker 1: know that, but we're getting to a point where in
17:53
Speaker 1: a game of inches, in a game of millimeters, even
17:57
Speaker 1: it can be it can be life or death for
18:01
Speaker 1: a team season, And I think it's a good thing.
18:04
Speaker 1: I don't know what are your thoughts on this.
18:07
Speaker 2: I mean my first thought is that's the job I want.
18:11
Speaker 2: I want to be on the chain gang and just
18:13
Speaker 2: be the secondary thing. Yeah, they really don't even use
18:16
Speaker 2: during the game. I don't know how much those guys make,
18:19
Speaker 2: but that that sounds like the job for me.
18:21
Speaker 1: Absolutely. But if it was like fifty thousand a year
18:24
Speaker 1: just to just sit on the sideline.
18:26
Speaker 2: That's cake. It's a cake job. Oh my god. Who
18:30
Speaker 2: And you're basically hanging out watching NFL games because they're
18:33
Speaker 2: never going to use those guys. I mean, if the
18:36
Speaker 2: computers that they think are going to solve everything can't
18:39
Speaker 2: do the job, they're trying to replace these guys, and
18:42
Speaker 2: they're going to bring them back out because they don't
18:44
Speaker 2: trust computers. I don't know, maybe if there's an outage
18:47
Speaker 2: then you're but even then, like, how often during the
18:50
Speaker 2: game do you see them get used?
18:52
Speaker 1: Right, exactly.
18:53
Speaker 2: And all you're doing is you're planning a thing on
18:57
Speaker 2: a spot and then measuring out ten yards and chain
19:00
Speaker 2: has no give to it, so it's not like it
19:03
Speaker 2: is what it is. Whatever that ten yards goes to it.
19:06
Speaker 2: Really the impetus is on the refs where they spot
19:09
Speaker 2: the ball. Yeah yeah, I mean that the chain gang.
19:12
Speaker 2: It's you know, they're just measuring out ten yards, you know. So,
19:16
Speaker 2: I mean it just seems like the easiest job in
19:19
Speaker 2: the world. And now it's one where you're kind of
19:21
Speaker 2: like the backup quarterback. You just never have to worry
19:24
Speaker 2: about the starter getting getting hit and then you got
19:27
Speaker 2: to go into the game. Yeah, so you're just basically
19:29
Speaker 2: getting paid to hold a clipboard.
19:32
Speaker 1: It sounds awesome, But overall, do you like the technology
19:37
Speaker 1: that's now going to be used? I mean, that is
19:39
Speaker 1: what is going to be happening starting this twenty twenty
19:42
Speaker 1: five NFL season.
19:44
Speaker 2: I mean, if they're confident in it, you know, I
19:49
Speaker 2: mean I have no reason to doubt it. I mean
19:52
Speaker 2: unless I see a couple of instances where they blow
19:55
Speaker 2: some calls because of it, right, and even if they do,
19:58
Speaker 2: will the fans really know? You know, like, how are
20:01
Speaker 2: we going to know if they mess it up.
20:03
Speaker 1: That's that's actually a really good point that I didn't
20:05
Speaker 1: think about. That's a really good point.
20:07
Speaker 2: You know. I mean it's not like, you know, I
20:10
Speaker 2: don't know unless you really were paying attention to the
20:14
Speaker 2: last play and you're like, wait, no, the ball was
20:16
Speaker 2: spotted there, which you know, I don't think anybody's really
20:20
Speaker 2: going to do, right, How are the fans going to
20:22
Speaker 2: even know?
20:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's really interesting. I mean, they they've announced that
20:28
Speaker 1: they're going to be using a Sony system of six
20:32
Speaker 1: eight K cameras. It's not four K eight K cameras
20:36
Speaker 1: to track the position of the ball on the field.
20:39
Speaker 1: So I don't I don't know what I do not
20:44
Speaker 1: know how these six cameras are actually going to track it.
20:48
Speaker 1: Haven't dove into it that much, but as somebody who
20:51
Speaker 1: understands cameras and understands that world, if you have six
20:55
Speaker 1: you are getting basically every single angle of a ball
20:59
Speaker 1: and where it's on the field. How are they going
21:02
Speaker 1: to do that when there's guys holding onto the ball
21:05
Speaker 1: and possibly if there's a tush push or something, if
21:08
Speaker 1: it doesn't get banned, if there's something like that where
21:12
Speaker 1: you're like, well, how the hell are they seeing where
21:14
Speaker 1: the ball is anyway? You know they're not gonna have
21:16
Speaker 1: cameras on the bottom of the fields, I don't believe.
21:19
Speaker 1: So that's what's going to be interesting. So I see
21:22
Speaker 1: where you're coming from with that.
21:24
Speaker 2: Now, No, that's you know you mentioned the toush push.
21:26
Speaker 2: What do you think of I mean, it sounds like
21:28
Speaker 2: they're really trying to, I don't know, get traction behind this.
21:32
Speaker 1: Absolutely Apparently there are sixteen teams that would be open
21:37
Speaker 1: to banning it and another sixteen teams that want to
21:41
Speaker 1: keep it, apparently from a report that I read. I
21:44
Speaker 1: don't know the validity of that report. And now we
21:46
Speaker 1: know that it's going to be discussed at a later date.
21:50
Speaker 1: I'm not sure about that. I really don't know why
21:52
Speaker 1: it would be discussed at a later day. It's like,
21:53
Speaker 1: put it on the table, have it voted on, and
21:57
Speaker 1: if it fails, it fails, and if it's banned, it's banned.
22:01
Speaker 1: I think it's ridiculous, And yeah, I am definitely biased.
22:05
Speaker 1: I am definitely biased. Nick Sirianni said something about a
22:09
Speaker 1: month ago or so where he said, we've actually worked
22:12
Speaker 1: hard to make this play happen for us. We've worked
22:16
Speaker 1: hard at it. And I think with any play, any
22:20
Speaker 1: NFL play, any sports type of play, if you're working
22:24
Speaker 1: hard at something in sports and you're able to make
22:26
Speaker 1: something happen where you can generate offense, or if you're
22:29
Speaker 1: doing something defensively, you should be allowed to do it
22:33
Speaker 1: within the confines of the sport. And that's what the
22:35
Speaker 1: touch push has been. They've been doing it within the
22:37
Speaker 1: confines of what the sport is. Yes, everybody's talking about
22:39
Speaker 1: how it's looks like a rugby scrum and stuff, but
22:43
Speaker 1: end of the day, they are following NFL rules in
22:45
Speaker 1: terms of using that play, so.
22:48
Speaker 2: It's not illegal. It's not like the guys on offense
22:51
Speaker 2: are doing anything exactly able to do it. So it's
22:54
Speaker 2: basically just like, oh, I don't like this, as I
22:56
Speaker 2: can't stop.
22:56
Speaker 1: It exactly exactly.
22:59
Speaker 2: It's I mean, I don't know. This is the kind
23:03
Speaker 2: of thing they did with Wilt Chamberlain when he was
23:05
Speaker 2: like a foot taller than everybody else yep, and the
23:08
Speaker 2: Eagles aren't a foot taller than everybody else. Like, I
23:10
Speaker 2: don't know, I don't get this. Where Like we got
23:14
Speaker 2: to stop this because we we can't. We physically, we're
23:18
Speaker 2: not strong enough. We can't, you know, I don't know.
23:20
Speaker 2: I don't I don't get I would be embarrassed as
23:23
Speaker 2: a member of one of those teams.
23:25
Speaker 1: The package.
23:25
Speaker 2: My team was trying to ban it because they're basically
23:29
Speaker 2: they're saying, our guys aren't good enough to stop this,
23:32
Speaker 2: so we have to we have to legislate it out exactly.
23:35
Speaker 1: I don't think it's going to be banned, Like my
23:37
Speaker 1: gut is telling me that it's not. Even when they
23:39
Speaker 1: revisit this down the road, my gut is telling me
23:41
Speaker 1: that it won't be banned. I could be wrong. My
23:44
Speaker 1: gut's been wrong before, but it's ridiculous that they have
23:49
Speaker 1: gone to this length to do this. It's a football play.
23:52
Speaker 1: It is a game of football. Quick crying, learn how
23:56
Speaker 1: to stop it. I mean, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have
23:58
Speaker 1: done a pretty good job of stopping it the past
24:00
Speaker 1: couple of years. They have. We've seen it a number
24:03
Speaker 1: of times.
24:04
Speaker 2: And that's the thing. If there's a team that does
24:05
Speaker 2: it well, then why aren't you, as the organizations, trying
24:09
Speaker 2: to pick their brain or watching what they what they do,
24:13
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, you always hear the term copycat league. Okay,
24:17
Speaker 2: copy copy with Tampa pae doing, then if they're that
24:20
Speaker 2: good at it exactly, I don't understand why this is
24:22
Speaker 2: that hard exactly.
24:23
Speaker 1: All right, Well, buddy, before we head to break here,
24:26
Speaker 1: I mentioned NFL draft's going to be here before we
24:29
Speaker 1: know it end of April. Just wanted to give some
24:32
Speaker 1: brief thoughts on what we think the Eagles may be
24:34
Speaker 1: looking to do during this draft as it really pertains
24:38
Speaker 1: to their team building. Look, I mean, they had an
24:41
Speaker 1: offseason where there weren't any huge, huge acquisitions. In fact,
24:46
Speaker 1: they traded away some players they had to let sit.
24:49
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, it's been an exodus.
24:51
Speaker 1: It really has, Yeah, it really has. They had to
24:53
Speaker 1: let some players go in free agency. Milton Williams got
24:56
Speaker 1: the largest contract of any NFL free agent heading up
25:01
Speaker 1: to New England. Look, on offense, you had the backup
25:06
Speaker 1: running back and starting right guard.
25:08
Speaker 2: Uh.
25:09
Speaker 1: They departed, leaving a very explosive offense with two holes
25:13
Speaker 1: that needed to be filled, and they certainly were filled
25:17
Speaker 1: in various ways the Eagles. They added a running back
25:21
Speaker 1: AJ Dillon, three pass rushing linebackers, two tight ends, a cornerback,
25:26
Speaker 1: and they got to for special teams. They got a
25:28
Speaker 1: new long snapper. So I think when it comes to
25:30
Speaker 1: this upcoming NFL draft, Howie Roseman is gonna do what
25:33
Speaker 1: he's been doing for years, build through the trenches. I
25:37
Speaker 1: think defensive lineman or a pass rusher is going to
25:41
Speaker 1: be that first pick, you know, and then I think
25:43
Speaker 1: we're gonna see potential offensive linemen and depth pieces uh thereafter. Yes,
25:48
Speaker 1: are they going to draft a cornerback probably? Are they
25:51
Speaker 1: gonna end up drafting another wide receiver probably? Uh, you know,
25:56
Speaker 1: they're they're going to be looking at depth in the
25:58
Speaker 1: future with this draft because this team is still going
26:01
Speaker 1: to be a powerhouse. But I really think the trenches
26:04
Speaker 1: is what Howie Roseman in that front office are going
26:06
Speaker 1: to be concentrating onlin.
26:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is it's not going to be a
26:13
Speaker 2: sexy draft, Let's put it that way. You know, this
26:16
Speaker 2: is what happens when you win, you you picked dead
26:19
Speaker 2: last in each round, which is what the Eagles are
26:22
Speaker 2: basically going to be doing. So as a result, you know,
26:26
Speaker 2: guys that you may have had your eye on, chances
26:29
Speaker 2: are will probably be gone by the time the Eagles pick,
26:32
Speaker 2: and you know, you're just gonna have to deal with it,
26:34
Speaker 2: you know, and and they're going to Yeah, they're going
26:37
Speaker 2: to basically fill holes. They're they're gonna look at the
26:40
Speaker 2: at the offensive line and defensive line and you know,
26:42
Speaker 2: just basically anywhere where they where they lost somebody. I
26:45
Speaker 2: would imagine those are the places that you're that you're
26:47
Speaker 2: going to be drafting. And I just don't expect it
26:51
Speaker 2: to be like, I don't know, big names and intrigue
26:55
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. I just I don't So I
26:58
Speaker 2: expect it to be probably some guys that I've never
27:01
Speaker 2: heard of, you know, I don't you know, I've watched
27:05
Speaker 2: plenty of college football, but you know, I don't know
27:07
Speaker 2: who everybody is. I haven't done the all twenty two
27:11
Speaker 2: on you know, Southeastern North Dakota State, you know, so
27:14
Speaker 2: I don't know all that stuff in terms of like
27:17
Speaker 2: who everybody is. But you know, at this point, it's
27:20
Speaker 2: you know, they're going to take who they're going to take,
27:22
Speaker 2: and you have to really just trust that they know
27:26
Speaker 2: what they're doing, because they've shown you that they know
27:28
Speaker 2: what they're doing. So chances are they going to draft
27:31
Speaker 2: a bunch of guys and I'm going to look at
27:33
Speaker 2: them and go I don't know who a lot of
27:34
Speaker 2: these guys are, but I trust Howie Roseman. Yeah, and
27:37
Speaker 2: that's basically what my draft analysis is probably going to be. Yeah.
27:41
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And let's keep in mind too, Let's keep in
27:44
Speaker 1: mind too, eight draft picks this year, twelve next year,
27:47
Speaker 1: twenty draft picks in the next two years. It is
27:50
Speaker 1: freaking crazy. It's crazy. And if they if they if
27:53
Speaker 1: they trade back out of the thirty second pick, they're
27:57
Speaker 1: gonna they're going to probably get more another two or three.
28:00
Speaker 2: And knowing them and given their pass, I mean, that's
28:03
Speaker 2: definitely a possibility. So you know that's there, and then
28:07
Speaker 2: you know, really it's going to be to me more
28:09
Speaker 2: of a thing of by the end of the season,
28:11
Speaker 2: I'm going to go back and I'm going to look
28:13
Speaker 2: at their draft haul and I'm going to see how
28:15
Speaker 2: many guys are still there, because if you look look
28:18
Speaker 2: at last year, pretty much all those guys are still there.
28:21
Speaker 2: In the year before, I think at least the top
28:23
Speaker 2: three guys were big time contributors, and then the year
28:26
Speaker 2: before that, pretty much everybody from that draft is still
28:29
Speaker 2: on the team. And that to me is the sign
28:31
Speaker 2: of like, did you draft well, you wait a couple
28:33
Speaker 2: of years and then you go back and go, oh
28:35
Speaker 2: my god, they got a couple big time contributors in
28:37
Speaker 2: that year. Oh my god, like pretty much at their
28:40
Speaker 2: entire draft class made the team that year, like that
28:43
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. And when you go back over the
28:45
Speaker 2: past few years and look at what the Eagles have done,
28:49
Speaker 2: Howie Rismond's hit on a lot, So that that'll be
28:52
Speaker 2: it'll be the kind of thing where you really, you know,
28:54
Speaker 2: you'll look at what they got. Maybe there's a couple
28:56
Speaker 2: of guys that you get excited about, but really you've
28:59
Speaker 2: got to wait like a year to really suss out
29:02
Speaker 2: how good that class was.
29:04
Speaker 1: Absolutely, yeah, it's gonna be interesting to watch, and we're
29:06
Speaker 1: gonna keep following it here at the PST Podcast Show.
29:08
Speaker 1: If you're new to listening to us, hope you've been
29:11
Speaker 1: enjoying the content. Subscribe on whatever podcast platform you are on,
29:15
Speaker 1: and if you are over on YouTube, you can subscribe
29:19
Speaker 1: to our YouTube channel. No videos yet, but we are
29:22
Speaker 1: getting there, folks. Just search out the Philadelphia Sports Table
29:26
Speaker 1: on YouTube. We'd love for you to subscribe there. Follow
29:29
Speaker 1: us on various social media platforms. We are out there
29:32
Speaker 1: the show myself, Eric Len you're not out there on
29:35
Speaker 1: social media platforms really at this point, right, No, yeah, exactly.
29:41
Speaker 2: Like I'm taking yes, well, why would I bother?
29:45
Speaker 1: Exactly. I've actually been putting up TikTok videos. They've been
29:49
Speaker 1: my goodness. So I'm like doing I'm doing like I'm
29:53
Speaker 1: doing like this schmorgasboard of political posts due to my
30:00
Speaker 1: elected position. Uh, some music stuff and some sports stuff.
30:05
Speaker 1: The political ones are crazy that the hate comments are
30:09
Speaker 1: absolutely fantastic. I actually said to my daughter, I got excited.
30:12
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, literally hate comments. I'm like,
30:15
Speaker 1: I'm like my TikTok I'll get more followers because I
30:20
Speaker 1: got excited.
30:22
Speaker 2: It's just the most bizarre. Oh, I don't know. I
30:27
Speaker 2: just I'm I guess I'm officially an old person because
30:30
Speaker 2: I just can't imagine, like at this point, just being
30:34
Speaker 2: online and just spending your day online just posting comments
30:38
Speaker 2: on people. I just like that, that's that's how you're
30:42
Speaker 2: going to spend your day. Huh.
30:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, Oh I had, I had folks will
30:47
Speaker 1: end up seeing the view of my studio area. But
30:50
Speaker 1: I put up a I put up a TikTok post,
30:52
Speaker 1: and I was actually talking about how I was. I
30:54
Speaker 1: was actually really excited about one of the president's executive
30:58
Speaker 1: orders with regard to concert ticket gouging and scalping. I
31:02
Speaker 1: was actually really excited about it. And then I dove
31:04
Speaker 1: into it and I was like, there's nothing here. I'm like,
31:06
Speaker 1: there's nothing, It's just it's grand standing and marketing. And
31:09
Speaker 1: I put up a TikTok video about it, and they
31:11
Speaker 1: hate comments. We're hilarious. They really were people saying that
31:15
Speaker 1: I was in my mom's basement. Get out of your
31:18
Speaker 1: mom's basement, because I'm like, I'm downstairs here in my
31:21
Speaker 1: studio area, which is in my nicely finished basement. But
31:25
Speaker 1: it was it was great. I love the hate comments.
31:28
Speaker 1: I love it.
31:29
Speaker 2: Are you going to start answering and back like, no,
31:30
Speaker 2: this is my basement.
31:32
Speaker 1: Or like, I don't plan on answering the people back
31:35
Speaker 1: unless they have like a legitimate question for me or
31:38
Speaker 1: a legitimate comment. But if it's just like hate posters,
31:42
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna engage in it. So okay, anyway,
31:46
Speaker 1: let's take a break here, Len and when we get
31:48
Speaker 1: back from break, talk about Sixers and the Flyers with you. Yeah,
31:53
Speaker 1: let's take the break now we'll be back in just
31:55
Speaker 1: a bit. All right, we are back, Len. Let's go
32:00
Speaker 1: into this Philadelphia seventy six ers team. Boy, they are
32:03
Speaker 1: tanking nicely and it seems like they may be on
32:06
Speaker 1: the verge of keeping their first round draft pick instead
32:09
Speaker 1: of having it go to OKAYC. The Sixers have successfully
32:14
Speaker 1: out tanked the Raptors, I think at this point, and
32:17
Speaker 1: they're now in a two team race with the Nets
32:19
Speaker 1: for the fifth slot in the lottery standings, and the
32:22
Speaker 1: fourth slot might actually be in play. So as of
32:26
Speaker 1: us recording this here, a fourth place finish if they
32:31
Speaker 1: could actually do it, if they could just lose the
32:33
Speaker 1: rest of the season to be an eighty one percent
32:37
Speaker 1: chance of retaining the pick, with a fifth place finish
32:40
Speaker 1: a sixty four percent chance of retaining the pick, and
32:42
Speaker 1: with the sixth place finish a forty six percent chance
32:47
Speaker 1: of retaining the pick. I'm really thinking that they that
32:52
Speaker 1: the New Orleans Pelicans, like I really think that they
32:55
Speaker 1: may be able to do it and finish with a
32:57
Speaker 1: fourth place place finish. I really do. Man, they're tanking
33:01
Speaker 1: nicely here. I'm liking it well.
33:03
Speaker 2: When you look at at what it is right now,
33:05
Speaker 2: New Orleans is twenty one and fifty four coming into tonight.
33:10
Speaker 2: I'm on the Tankathon website, you know, and the Sixers
33:15
Speaker 2: are twenty three and fifty three. Brooklyn is twenty five
33:19
Speaker 2: and fifty one. So it looks like the Sixers are,
33:22
Speaker 2: you know, they're pretty solidly in fifth at this point.
33:26
Speaker 2: Obviously it's only a couple wins here and there, so
33:29
Speaker 2: that could change things. But I mean, you look at
33:32
Speaker 2: everybody there, like it's in front of her and behind them.
33:36
Speaker 2: Everything's kind of following the way you would hope it would.
33:39
Speaker 2: New Orleans has won one in a row, Brooklyn has
33:42
Speaker 2: won two in a row. And then sandwiched right in
33:45
Speaker 2: between them are the Sixers, who have lost nine in
33:48
Speaker 2: a row. They're one in nine in their last ten games.
33:53
Speaker 2: They are really man, they are on a streak and
33:57
Speaker 2: not a good one, which you know is they need
34:00
Speaker 2: to do this. They sucks. You know, if you're a
34:02
Speaker 2: fan of these teams, you hate watching it, or if
34:06
Speaker 2: you're me, you're really just not outside of looking at
34:10
Speaker 2: the scores, maybe you're not paying that much attention.
34:12
Speaker 1: And look at who some of these players are who've
34:14
Speaker 1: never heard before.
34:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, like Quentin Grimes has quitted himself. Well, justin Edwards,
34:20
Speaker 2: and those are guys you know that are playing for,
34:22
Speaker 2: you know, a spot on next year's team and maybe
34:24
Speaker 2: they maybe they're contributing guy off the bench, and that's great.
34:26
Speaker 2: But man, I don't know. Paul George is thirty four,
34:33
Speaker 2: is he gonna Is he gonna discover health that he
34:37
Speaker 2: hasn't had in the past five years career? No embiid.
34:44
Speaker 1: Sorry, let's talk about him down.
34:47
Speaker 2: You know that he is on the way up healthwise.
34:49
Speaker 2: I mean he's on the wrong side of thirty. Now.
34:52
Speaker 2: This has been dragging on for a while with with
34:54
Speaker 2: the issues with his knee. Do you really see this
34:59
Speaker 2: getting better? Like they have to have an injection of
35:03
Speaker 2: young talent because the guys that are making all this
35:06
Speaker 2: money aren't playing. And that's that's this year. It's probably
35:11
Speaker 2: gonna be next year as well. I mean, honestly, if
35:14
Speaker 2: you really think about this, Paul George will probably give
35:17
Speaker 2: you what he's given in his best years over the
35:20
Speaker 2: past couple of years, which is what maybe fifty games
35:23
Speaker 2: something like that out of an eighty two game season,
35:26
Speaker 2: and b you'll be lucky if you get that, because
35:28
Speaker 2: maybe they decide he is going to have another surgery
35:30
Speaker 2: and then you know, he's out for at least the
35:33
Speaker 2: beginning of the year. Then he's got to play himself
35:35
Speaker 2: into shape, and then something else is gonna happen. He's
35:38
Speaker 2: going to be hurt again. Like it just you know
35:41
Speaker 2: what I mean, it's hard to really I have zero
35:45
Speaker 2: faith those guys are going to be there. Yeah, even
35:48
Speaker 2: next year. I just don't believe it. So that's why, like,
35:51
Speaker 2: you got to give me something too, Okay, Maxi's fun
35:55
Speaker 2: to watch. McCain was good when he was before he
35:58
Speaker 2: got hurt, so it'll be interesting to see them progress.
36:01
Speaker 2: But you got to give me something new to back
36:04
Speaker 2: my hopes on. Yeah, because it's not going to be
36:07
Speaker 2: Embid or George anymore.
36:08
Speaker 1: Right, Well, I mean just to get into Embiid because
36:12
Speaker 1: it was released today and reported on I know, NBC
36:15
Speaker 1: Sports Philadelphia had it that Embiid is definitely getting arthroscopic
36:21
Speaker 1: arthoscopic surgery next week to address the left knee issues.
36:26
Speaker 1: He's been out of the Sea out for the season
36:28
Speaker 1: since February twenty eight because of these persistent left knee problems,
36:34
Speaker 1: and apparently Sixers head coach Nick Nurse recently said that
36:37
Speaker 1: the team's vice president of athlete Care, Simon Rice, was
36:41
Speaker 1: a key part of these conversations and discussions with doctors.
36:47
Speaker 1: Embiid has said when a number of times, multiple times
36:50
Speaker 1: this season that non surgical approaches were just not working
36:55
Speaker 1: and his knee continued to bother him game after game
36:57
Speaker 1: after game. He ultimately just played nineteen games for the
37:04
Speaker 1: team this season, and you know he's gonna have this surgery.
37:08
Speaker 1: It's gonna take him a while to recuperate too. What
37:10
Speaker 1: type of Embeid are we gonna see next year? You know,
37:13
Speaker 1: we don't know, We really don't know, but he's not
37:16
Speaker 1: you know, father time is not on his side at
37:20
Speaker 1: this point. And like you were saying, we maybe getting
37:24
Speaker 1: to the end of the line here when it comes
37:25
Speaker 1: to Joel Embiid.
37:27
Speaker 2: Yeah, which sucks to say, but you know, it happens.
37:31
Speaker 2: And some guys have a shorter career than others because
37:35
Speaker 2: they haven't been able to shake that bug. And you know,
37:37
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know what's gonna happen with
37:39
Speaker 2: m beat. But the days of me thinking, oh, he's
37:43
Speaker 2: an as sending player, he's gonna be the foundation this
37:47
Speaker 2: team of the future, those days are over.
37:49
Speaker 1: For me, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Look when he won the MVP.
37:54
Speaker 1: After that, everything really just kind of I don't want
37:56
Speaker 1: to say it came crashing down necessarily, but just his
38:01
Speaker 1: health and how he was still playing on the court,
38:04
Speaker 1: like just it it just felt it did fall off.
38:07
Speaker 1: I don't want to say completely crashed, but I mean
38:09
Speaker 1: this season was a complete crash. But after the winning
38:12
Speaker 1: the MVP like that, that was it. That was it,
38:14
Speaker 1: you know.
38:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, And and this team I think at this point,
38:18
Speaker 2: you know, needs to just focus on just stop trading
38:22
Speaker 2: away draft picks first off, yep, just realize that this
38:27
Speaker 2: is going to be your lifeblood here over the next
38:29
Speaker 2: couple of years. It's the only way you're going to
38:31
Speaker 2: get better. And because I'm going to talk about this
38:34
Speaker 2: with the hockey thing shortly, they're not a destination right now,
38:37
Speaker 2: the six Ers or the Flyers. Yeah, they're just not.
38:40
Speaker 2: So what are you going to do to get better?
38:43
Speaker 2: The only way you're going to get better is to
38:45
Speaker 2: get young players that don't cost a lot. That's that's
38:49
Speaker 2: the only way it's going to happen.
38:51
Speaker 1: Well, let's dive right into this Philadelphia Flyers team here, buddy.
38:54
Speaker 1: Before before you head out the Flyers fired John Tortorella
38:59
Speaker 1: shortly we recorded the podcast last week, a move that
39:03
Speaker 1: has been a long time coming for most of us fans.
39:06
Speaker 1: Obviously for the organization, Danny Brier and the front office.
39:11
Speaker 1: Brad Shaw has taken over as the interim head coach,
39:15
Speaker 1: and the team, as well as certain players, are absolutely
39:18
Speaker 1: energized in the aftermath of John Tortorella not being here anymore.
39:23
Speaker 1: And one of those players is the star and the
39:26
Speaker 1: guy that we want to be that marquee name for
39:31
Speaker 1: this Philadelphia Flyers team in the future, and that's Matt
39:33
Speaker 1: Vey Mitchkoff. I mean, there is a real chance that
39:38
Speaker 1: he should be a serious contender for the Calder Trophy.
39:42
Speaker 1: He should receive serious Calder Trophy consideration at this point,
39:49
Speaker 1: Mitchcuffi's he now sits what fifty eight points and his
39:53
Speaker 1: twenty four goals leads all rookies. And look, this happened
39:58
Speaker 1: over the course of the season. He certainly had to
40:00
Speaker 1: learn a lot during his rookie year. He's had ups
40:04
Speaker 1: and downs. This entire team has had ups and downs.
40:06
Speaker 1: But the firing of John Tortorella not only came I
40:10
Speaker 1: think at a time when I was glad that it happened.
40:12
Speaker 1: I thought he was just going to be able to
40:14
Speaker 1: ride out the season. But after some comments at a
40:17
Speaker 1: press conference and just not seeming like he really had
40:21
Speaker 1: a clue what was going on with the team, Danny
40:23
Speaker 1: Breer said, Okay, there's the door. And I really think
40:27
Speaker 1: that Lenn, you and I talked a number of times
40:29
Speaker 1: about how John Tortorella might have been part of the
40:33
Speaker 1: front office organization when his time was up, that perhaps
40:37
Speaker 1: the Flyers and he would have come to some sort
40:39
Speaker 1: of consensus to say, you know what, we're not going
40:41
Speaker 1: to continue where we are now. Let's get a new
40:44
Speaker 1: head coach, but John come up here in the front
40:47
Speaker 1: office and you can help us out with this or that.
40:49
Speaker 1: I don't even think that's going to be possible now
40:51
Speaker 1: the way that he was fired and let go, and
40:55
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe relationships can be mended, but I'm
40:59
Speaker 1: glad John Torterella is not here. It just seems at
41:02
Speaker 1: this organization, whether it was Chuck Fletcher in a very
41:05
Speaker 1: incompetent role as the general manager of this team and
41:09
Speaker 1: then having John Tortorella only being able to do so
41:12
Speaker 1: much with the talent on this team and especially during
41:14
Speaker 1: a restructured rebuild. It was just one thing after another
41:19
Speaker 1: with this team. But we continue to see that. But
41:21
Speaker 1: I'm glad he's not here anymore because we have a
41:23
Speaker 1: team and certain players that seem to energized. So that's
41:26
Speaker 1: where I'm at right now with this Flyers team and
41:29
Speaker 1: with what we are seeing with bradshaw And I don't
41:31
Speaker 1: know if he's going to be the long term head
41:33
Speaker 1: coach for this team. Doubtful, but I don't know. That's
41:36
Speaker 1: where I'm at, Buddy, Where are you with it?
41:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, we don't know fully what happened, but
41:41
Speaker 2: I know there was the he had an interview where
41:43
Speaker 2: Tortorella where he said I'm not interested in coaching this
41:47
Speaker 2: type of team or just something that effect with the
41:50
Speaker 2: whole rebuilding thing. And then apparently the next night there
41:54
Speaker 2: was him and Cam Yorke had some kind of huge
41:56
Speaker 2: blow up where York ended up not playing most of
42:00
Speaker 2: the game and they sat for the entire game after that,
42:03
Speaker 2: which was under shawl. But I guess it was punishment
42:05
Speaker 2: for something something happened that they're not saying, and I
42:08
Speaker 2: think it might have been something, you know, I don't
42:11
Speaker 2: know if it was something physical or what. But something
42:13
Speaker 2: happened where and and it's he and Twitterrell said in
42:17
Speaker 2: the past, I want these guys to to want to,
42:20
Speaker 2: you know, I want to push their buttons. I want
42:22
Speaker 2: to I want them to come into my office and
42:25
Speaker 2: challenge me. I think he meant, you know, argument wise,
42:28
Speaker 2: and maybe not physically, but points. But then I don't
42:31
Speaker 2: know if that's sustainable. I don't know if you can
42:33
Speaker 2: like keep pushing guys. Eventually that's going to boil over.
42:37
Speaker 2: And eventually, if you push enough people in the room,
42:40
Speaker 2: they're going to be like, why is he doing the song?
42:44
Speaker 2: There's going to be a mutiny. And it looks like
42:47
Speaker 2: that they reached that point because you know, you don't
42:51
Speaker 2: really fire a coach with nine games left in the
42:54
Speaker 2: season unless you absolutely have to. So I think something
42:57
Speaker 2: happened there that was so bad that pre Air basically
43:00
Speaker 2: had to step in and look at the players and say, hey, okay,
43:04
Speaker 2: we got you, we we understand, we got your back.
43:07
Speaker 2: We're going to fire this guy. You won't have to
43:09
Speaker 2: worry about it for the rest of this year, because
43:11
Speaker 2: for for it to happen with nine games left in
43:13
Speaker 2: the year is pretty shocking. I was shocked when I like,
43:19
Speaker 2: if you would have told me after the season, okay,
43:22
Speaker 2: I could have seen, I could have you know, understood that,
43:25
Speaker 2: but to have it happened with nine games left in
43:27
Speaker 2: the year was very, very very surprising to me.
43:31
Speaker 1: Glad, I'm glad. Were you glad? I was glad.
43:35
Speaker 2: I I think he did a good job of like
43:37
Speaker 2: teaching guys some discipline, disciplinary aspects of the game, tightened
43:43
Speaker 2: up some stuff that was sloppy. I think he is
43:45
Speaker 2: good for that. I think he's a good coach with
43:47
Speaker 2: regard to that stuff. But I just in terms of
43:50
Speaker 2: the people and in terms of like, like even said,
43:53
Speaker 2: I'm not interested in coaching this type of team. No,
43:55
Speaker 2: no coach is going to win with that roster, and
43:59
Speaker 2: that is that is going to get into what we're
44:01
Speaker 2: going to talk about here with the draft position, because
44:04
Speaker 2: as soon as they fired Tortorell and I was reading
44:06
Speaker 2: about it, my thought is, oh, no, they're going to
44:10
Speaker 2: go on a run towards the end of the season
44:13
Speaker 2: and hurt their draft position. And lo and behold, the
44:16
Speaker 2: Philadelphia Flyers are three and oh since getting rid of Tortorella.
44:20
Speaker 2: They were fourth in the draft order.
44:22
Speaker 1: Now they're seventh, not a great position, even though we'd
44:26
Speaker 1: like to see the fire at.
44:29
Speaker 2: And that's and that's kind of going back to what
44:31
Speaker 2: I'm saying. It's like, you know, Okay, no coach is
44:34
Speaker 2: going to win with this team because there's no outside
44:38
Speaker 2: of Mitchkoffin and Connectney. Connectney would be a really good,
44:43
Speaker 2: you know, second line guy on a team that was
44:46
Speaker 2: serious about winning a championship. I mean for an elite contender.
44:50
Speaker 2: Maybe he's even like a third line guy. But but
44:54
Speaker 2: you know, you've you've got you know him, and you've
44:57
Speaker 2: got Mitch Coffin. You've got really nothing else. You've got
45:02
Speaker 2: nothing else in terms of elite, high end talent on
45:06
Speaker 2: this team, and you have to get something. So that's
45:10
Speaker 2: why I don't like seeing their you have, Oh I
45:12
Speaker 2: want to see them win, and I want to see
45:13
Speaker 2: them try hard and grit and all that stuff. And
45:18
Speaker 2: it is not just stop that they have to have
45:22
Speaker 2: to have to have as many high picks and just
45:25
Speaker 2: have as much opportunity to bring in elite talent as possible,
45:30
Speaker 2: because that's not what they have. They have really almost
45:33
Speaker 2: nobody even coming close to approaching that on this team.
45:37
Speaker 2: And this team is going to continue to be in
45:39
Speaker 2: the dumper for as long as that's the case, and
45:41
Speaker 2: it's going to be a couple of years. Yet, Yeah,
45:42
Speaker 2: this isn't gonna this isn't gonna get better, or they're
45:45
Speaker 2: not going to be a contender anytime soon.
45:47
Speaker 1: Look, I'm still happy about the fact that they do
45:50
Speaker 1: have three first round picks in this upcoming drip. They
45:52
Speaker 1: have their own, They have one that they acquired from
45:55
Speaker 1: Colorado in the twenty twenty four trade of Sean Walker,
46:00
Speaker 1: another first rounder that they acquired from Edmonton for the
46:05
Speaker 1: thirty first sorry, thirty second overall pick in twenty twenty four.
46:10
Speaker 1: So and they've got I think they've got like four
46:13
Speaker 1: second rounders too.
46:14
Speaker 2: So they have seven picks in the first two rounds, right,
46:18
Speaker 2: so hopefully, I mean, I don't know if they're gonna
46:21
Speaker 2: keep all of hope, but you know, maybe they maybe
46:25
Speaker 2: they packaged two or three of them to move up.
46:27
Speaker 2: You know, if there's a guy that you know, if
46:29
Speaker 2: the draft has following a certain way and they're like,
46:31
Speaker 2: oh my god, I didn't think that guy would be available.
46:34
Speaker 2: We can get him right now if we package some
46:36
Speaker 2: of these picks in our in the second round or
46:39
Speaker 2: then by all means do that if you believe that
46:42
Speaker 2: much in the kid. But it's all going to depend
46:44
Speaker 2: on the Flyers scouting and it's going to depend on
46:47
Speaker 2: their development.
46:48
Speaker 1: Yeah.
46:49
Speaker 2: So, and that really hasn't shown through that much in
46:53
Speaker 2: the past couple of years. I did hear something and
46:55
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's true, and God, I hope
46:57
Speaker 2: it's not true. But apparently from from what I had heard,
47:03
Speaker 2: that the style that the Lehigh Valley Phantoms play is
47:07
Speaker 2: different than the style that the Flyers played under Tortorella.
47:12
Speaker 2: So the minor league guys that were coming up now
47:16
Speaker 2: have to learn a new style. Like this is the
47:21
Speaker 2: word is organization. The Fantoms are part of the Flyers organization.
47:27
Speaker 2: Why you would have teams playing two different styles and
47:31
Speaker 2: then these kids are getting called up and they have
47:33
Speaker 2: to play a completely different way and now they're thinking
47:35
Speaker 2: and now they're not there. It's not instinctive, and they're
47:40
Speaker 2: playing for a coach in Tortorella who has a quick
47:43
Speaker 2: hook and is notoriously you know, so now like, oh
47:47
Speaker 2: my god, I got I don't know what I'm doing.
47:49
Speaker 2: This guy's yelling at me like that to me is
47:53
Speaker 2: a failing of Danny Brier, and I've I've not really
47:57
Speaker 2: criticized him so far because you know, it's relatively new
48:01
Speaker 2: to you know, Oh, he's been around like maybe a
48:04
Speaker 2: couple of.
48:05
Speaker 1: Years the world.
48:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, in the GM world. This is the first
48:08
Speaker 2: thing that if this is the case, is absolutely damning
48:11
Speaker 2: to Danny Brier in my view, because you are the
48:14
Speaker 2: leader of that organization. This is this is your show.
48:18
Speaker 2: If things are being done differently from one level to another,
48:22
Speaker 2: that's a problem.
48:23
Speaker 1: That's a big problem.
48:24
Speaker 2: Yet, and how are you supposed to develop talent? And
48:29
Speaker 2: and that's where this comes into me, is like, Okay,
48:31
Speaker 2: they can get this talent, but you still have to
48:34
Speaker 2: develop it. And if there's issues with the way they're
48:37
Speaker 2: developing players, then none of this is going to matter.
48:40
Speaker 2: And that's the scary thing. So I mean, that needs
48:43
Speaker 2: to get figured out. I don't care what style Ian
48:46
Speaker 2: Lapierre wants to play in the Lehigh Valley. This is
48:51
Speaker 2: what it is. This is what we do. This is
48:53
Speaker 2: what you're going to do. If you don't like it,
48:55
Speaker 2: get the hell out because you have to have a
48:59
Speaker 2: cohesive system throughout your organization otherwise you're setting these kids
49:05
Speaker 2: up for failure.
49:05
Speaker 1: As they come up to the Absolutely, that's that's definitely
49:08
Speaker 1: a topic we should get into more in the Cure
49:11
Speaker 1: on this podcast platform.
49:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so, but I don't know. I mean it
49:17
Speaker 2: just I don't know. I want to see them get
49:21
Speaker 2: the just have a shot at the best players possible.
49:24
Speaker 2: Nothing's guaranteed, you know, obviously, you know.
49:27
Speaker 1: Look what happened with Nolan Patrick years ago.
49:29
Speaker 2: You could have had mccarr, you could have had Hey Skinning,
49:33
Speaker 2: you could have had a number of guys, and they
49:35
Speaker 2: picked they picked Patrick, who you know, to be fair,
49:40
Speaker 2: it was considered him and he shure one two in
49:44
Speaker 2: whatever order you want to pick him. I had not
49:47
Speaker 2: heard the name cal mccarr. You know, I'm not in
49:50
Speaker 2: the know. And that's a tough thing about about these
49:53
Speaker 2: prospects is none of us are watching minor league hockey
49:57
Speaker 2: or I'm sorry juniors, none of us are walking these
50:00
Speaker 2: guys over in Europe. We don't know. Well, all we're
50:03
Speaker 2: all we know is what we're reading. So yeah, I
50:06
Speaker 2: was on board with Patrick because I was told it
50:09
Speaker 2: was Hamm or the other guy. I didn't know who
50:11
Speaker 2: hell cal maccar was, So yeah, in hindsight, you know
50:17
Speaker 2: what can you do, but we're not in the know.
50:19
Speaker 2: These guys that are that are working for these organizations
50:22
Speaker 2: are in the know. They're supposed to know who the
50:24
Speaker 2: hell these guys are, and they're supposed to you know, Yes,
50:27
Speaker 2: would we have probably rioted if they picked cal mccarr
50:30
Speaker 2: or Nolan Patrick. Yeah, we would have had a ship fit. Yes,
50:33
Speaker 2: I have no doubt about it, Like, well, who right,
50:36
Speaker 2: right and then and then it would have bore itself
50:39
Speaker 2: out later. But but yeah, in the moment, we would
50:43
Speaker 2: have lost our minds. But these guys work for these organis.
50:45
Speaker 2: This is this is what they do for a living.
50:48
Speaker 2: This is their livelihood is the game of hockey. So
50:50
Speaker 2: you better know who these guys are. So I don't know.
50:53
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe there's a guy that wherever the Flyers end
50:56
Speaker 2: up drafting, Maybe they pick a guy that you know,
51:00
Speaker 2: pans out the way, you know, the way mccarr did
51:03
Speaker 2: you know later on than than Patrick. I don't know,
51:07
Speaker 2: but I just think you want to give yourself the
51:10
Speaker 2: best chance to have the pick of the biggest pool
51:12
Speaker 2: of players, And right now it just seems like they're
51:15
Speaker 2: not doing that because all of a sudden they're winning.
51:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, now all of a sudden they're winning. Yeah, it's
51:20
Speaker 1: it's it's really gonna be interesting, and we're certainly gonna
51:23
Speaker 1: get into some draft prospects in terms of who the
51:26
Speaker 1: Flyers might actually be looking at in future podcast episodes
51:30
Speaker 1: for sure. So great show, buddy, great great, great discussion
51:35
Speaker 1: on all four of these major Philly sports teams, and
51:39
Speaker 1: the fifth Philly sports team, the Union. We're gonna be
51:41
Speaker 1: getting to them in just a bit. So buddy, I'm
51:44
Speaker 1: gonna let you go any final thoughts before you head
51:46
Speaker 1: out of here.
51:48
Speaker 2: Well, it'll be you know, I'll see this weekend and
51:51
Speaker 2: we'll try to get this whole video thing figured out.
51:54
Speaker 1: Hey, yes, video is coming, folks. We got to help
51:57
Speaker 1: Land a little bit from a tech perspective, but yeah,
52:01
Speaker 1: it's gonna be. It's gonna be great to see you.
52:03
Speaker 1: It's gonna be great to see I'm not.
52:05
Speaker 2: It'll be it'll be good to not hold a phone
52:08
Speaker 2: in my head while doing the show anymore. I'll actually
52:10
Speaker 2: just be able to look at a camera and maybe
52:14
Speaker 2: you know, I'll have two hands free. It'll it'll be awesome.
52:17
Speaker 1: I love how you pull back the current there. I
52:19
Speaker 1: don't know if people know that you've been using Skype
52:23
Speaker 1: via your phone for all these for so many years.
52:27
Speaker 2: It's been it's been a while.
52:28
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I don't know. If I try
52:31
Speaker 1: to make it sound as good as I can.
52:33
Speaker 2: It does sound good. I mean, I'm not saying anything
52:36
Speaker 2: about the quality. I'm just saying, I mean cool, I
52:38
Speaker 2: don't have to hold a phone anymore.
52:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, can't wait, can't wait? And then they get
52:42
Speaker 1: to see our faces if they want on YouTube.
52:45
Speaker 2: That's that's not good for anybody.
52:47
Speaker 1: But all right, buddy, Well I'm gonna see you this week.
52:52
Speaker 2: You guys in the in their mid to late forties,
52:54
Speaker 2: so don't expect much exactly exactly.
52:57
Speaker 1: Eric's the better looking one. And I know I've said
52:59
Speaker 1: that before. He's the best are looking one. I think,
53:01
Speaker 1: you know the I wonder if the ladies will like him.
53:05
Speaker 2: Probably more so than us.
53:08
Speaker 1: All Right, buddy, I'm gonna let you go.
53:10
Speaker 2: Folks.
53:10
Speaker 1: We're gonna take a break. When we get back, we're
53:12
Speaker 1: gonna get into some Philadelphia Union talk. They are currently
53:15
Speaker 1: second in Eastern Conference. What a season they are having
53:18
Speaker 1: thus far. Gonna take a break and we'll be back
53:21
Speaker 1: in just a bit. All right, we are back. Let's
53:25
Speaker 1: now get into some Philadelphia Union talk. It's what we're
53:27
Speaker 1: throwing down on the table and now on the table
53:33
Speaker 1: joining us this week to get into this Philadelphia Union season.
53:38
Speaker 1: It has been a surprise, at least for me. We're
53:42
Speaker 1: gonna talk to our guest here about what we've been
53:44
Speaker 1: seeing with this team on the field. We have from
53:46
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Soccer Now dot com. You can catch him on
53:50
Speaker 1: the Twitter slash x at flag Eye Josh ninety one.
53:53
Speaker 1: We've got our good friend Josh Schuster, Buddy man, how
53:56
Speaker 1: you doing.
53:57
Speaker 3: Heymy Jeff. I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay. I am
54:00
Speaker 3: also in shock, so this this should.
54:03
Speaker 1: Be fun exactly. Folks. You may know Josh helped us
54:06
Speaker 1: out with some Eagles postgame podcast shows, not just this season,
54:10
Speaker 1: previous season as well. You may recognize his voice, and
54:14
Speaker 1: sooner rather than later, you are going to get to
54:17
Speaker 1: see his face. And I say that because we are
54:20
Speaker 1: going to be going to video as we are embarking
54:23
Speaker 1: on our twelfth year here at the Philadelphia Sports Table
54:26
Speaker 1: podcast show. Head on over to YouTube, search out the
54:28
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Sports Table and subscribe to our YouTube channel. So
54:32
Speaker 1: that being said, let's get into this Union talk here again.
54:35
Speaker 1: I'm like kind of shocked about where this Union team
54:38
Speaker 1: is currently at in terms of the standings, Josh, And yes,
54:41
Speaker 1: I know that it's a long season. They're currently second
54:44
Speaker 1: in the Eastern Conference and right there with Inner Miami,
54:47
Speaker 1: and even though Miami beat them this past weekend, they
54:50
Speaker 1: won three in a row right out of the gate.
54:52
Speaker 1: The losses thus far have been to Nashville and Miami.
54:55
Speaker 1: As I just mentioned, they've got twelve points thirteen goals.
54:59
Speaker 1: They're the only team in the Eastern Conference actually at
55:01
Speaker 1: this point without a draw. This isn't what I was
55:04
Speaker 1: expecting right out of the gate here in twenty twenty
55:07
Speaker 1: five for this Union team. Josh, what are your overall
55:10
Speaker 1: thoughts here? And you said you were shocked as well,
55:14
Speaker 1: what are your initial you know, takeaways as we've started
55:18
Speaker 1: this season out and seen a different Union team certainly
55:20
Speaker 1: than we saw last year.
55:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, well, when we had kind of talked
55:26
Speaker 3: before the season had started, you know, I had I
55:29
Speaker 3: had kind of told everybody to kind of brace themselves
55:32
Speaker 3: that it was it was a clear indication that the
55:34
Speaker 3: Union we're moving into rebuilding mode. And I really did
55:40
Speaker 3: not expect this season to go very well. Yeah, and
55:46
Speaker 3: so we'll get into this in a little bit, but
55:49
Speaker 3: one of the big changes, it's not even necessarily formation wise.
55:54
Speaker 3: The Union are now playing more of a pressure style system.
56:00
Speaker 3: And while if you're watching it and you don't watch
56:03
Speaker 3: a ton of soccer, you may not notice it. But
56:07
Speaker 3: if you regularly watch soccer and you've watched the Union
56:12
Speaker 3: for years under Curtain, one of the issues was he
56:16
Speaker 3: always liked to have this system that moved from the
56:20
Speaker 3: back to the front. Now, when you have good defenders
56:23
Speaker 3: that are having good seasons, it's a highly effective system.
56:27
Speaker 3: But when we see things like last year where the
56:32
Speaker 3: defense took a step back in a very big way,
56:36
Speaker 3: it really wreaked havoc on Curtain system. I do think
56:41
Speaker 3: that this new system doesn't necessarily rely on one specific
56:49
Speaker 3: level of the defense, whether that's the forwards, whether that's
56:52
Speaker 3: the midfield or the defense. I don't feel that there's
56:57
Speaker 3: as much pressure on Andre Blake or whoever is in goal.
57:00
Speaker 3: I don't feel that there's as much pressure on the
57:03
Speaker 3: defense anymore. I think it has freed them rather than
57:09
Speaker 3: them being to use a hockey term, an offensive minded defenseman,
57:13
Speaker 3: rather than them having to constantly focus on how they're.
57:17
Speaker 4: Going to move the ball up the pitch.
57:19
Speaker 3: This has enabled them to actually be able to sit back,
57:22
Speaker 3: actually be able to play defense, and feel more secure
57:27
Speaker 3: in what their responsibility is.
57:28
Speaker 1: Absolutely yeah, And I think it's interesting you mentioned that too,
57:32
Speaker 1: because we have seen as we're moving along with the
57:34
Speaker 1: conversation here, we've seen those differences in styles between new
57:39
Speaker 1: head coach Bradley Carnell and his predecessor Jim Curtin, who
57:43
Speaker 1: you mentioned, when it comes to leading this team, the
57:46
Speaker 1: coaching styles. I was hoping we could kind of get
57:48
Speaker 1: into it, maybe even a little bit more detailed for
57:50
Speaker 1: folks who may not completely be entrenched in the Union
57:54
Speaker 1: way of doing things. Over all the years that Jim
57:57
Speaker 1: Curtin was here talked about the reliance on d it
58:00
Speaker 1: is noticeable that it is just not as quote reliant
58:05
Speaker 1: here in twenty twenty five under Bradley Carnell. I mean,
58:09
Speaker 1: are there other differences that you're seeing as well, whether
58:12
Speaker 1: whether it's you know, on the field type coaching and
58:15
Speaker 1: things that we're hearing outside the realm of the field
58:18
Speaker 1: as well. What are some of those differences that you've
58:21
Speaker 1: been seeing and that we should be keeping our eyes
58:23
Speaker 1: on with these you know, with the coaching styles and
58:25
Speaker 1: even who they are as people too.
58:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm gonna I'm gonna use one specific player
58:31
Speaker 3: to kind of try to highlight this. Okay, Cornell's system is.
58:37
Speaker 4: Much more.
58:40
Speaker 3: Like I had mentioned, pressure based. It's much faster as well. Yeah,
58:45
Speaker 3: you have to be far more decisive with ball. It
58:49
Speaker 3: is not a defense first.
58:54
Speaker 4: Type of system.
58:55
Speaker 3: So when the Union decided to let Martinez go this offseason,
59:00
Speaker 3: I mean, he's been a pillar at midfield for them
59:03
Speaker 3: for a while, but he is solely a defensive midfield.
59:09
Speaker 3: He very rarely would score a goal. I think towards
59:13
Speaker 3: the end they wanted to have him shoot some more
59:16
Speaker 3: because they were having a hard time scoring. And every
59:19
Speaker 3: blind squirrel finds a nut and that's kind of what
59:22
Speaker 3: happened when he would score. But with this system with Carnell,
59:28
Speaker 3: I don't think that Martinez would have been a good
59:31
Speaker 3: fit here. And it's not an indictment on who Martinez
59:36
Speaker 3: is as a player. He was fun to watch. He
59:40
Speaker 3: was very much Philly athlete. He was going to give
59:42
Speaker 3: you everything he had. He played with an edge. He
59:45
Speaker 3: basically was personality wise the Travis Connectney of the Philadelphia Union,
59:50
Speaker 3: he was an agitator.
59:52
Speaker 4: And I talked about.
59:54
Speaker 3: It in the past when being on here that while
59:58
Speaker 3: I enjoyed Martinez, really I started to kind of get
1:00:02
Speaker 3: pissed off with his antics because connect me has a
1:00:04
Speaker 3: way to be able to draw you to get penalties.
1:00:08
Speaker 3: With Martinez, he just kept getting cards and then once
1:00:10
Speaker 3: you get so many cards, you're unavailable. So now the
1:00:13
Speaker 3: main defensive piece of your midfield is gone. So anyway,
1:00:19
Speaker 3: all that is to say, really, I think you know
1:00:23
Speaker 3: the fact that the Union have the MS leader MLS
1:00:27
Speaker 3: leader in goals speaks to this. The fact that mikel Uha,
1:00:32
Speaker 3: who I have griped and complained and had, you know,
1:00:36
Speaker 3: a horrible opinion of he actually looks functional now. I mean,
1:00:41
Speaker 3: he only has one goal on the year, but just
1:00:45
Speaker 3: he doesn't look lost anymore right now. And I think
1:00:49
Speaker 3: this system that Carnell employs it enables the forwards to
1:00:55
Speaker 3: be forwards and not having to do a bunch of
1:00:59
Speaker 3: defense of work, which is not their strong suit. Uha
1:01:03
Speaker 3: has never been good defensively, so Curtin trying to mold
1:01:08
Speaker 3: him into this defensive forward just is not going to work.
1:01:14
Speaker 3: And that's I think part of the reason why he
1:01:16
Speaker 3: was such a problem. I don't have any issue with
1:01:18
Speaker 3: UA's production. He actually is taking a bunch of shots,
1:01:22
Speaker 3: which is good. He's not hesitant anymore, and I think
1:01:24
Speaker 3: we'll see more.
1:01:25
Speaker 4: Goals that come.
1:01:26
Speaker 1: You play to players' strengths. We see it in every
1:01:30
Speaker 1: single sport. How many times have we talked about it
1:01:32
Speaker 1: in the NFL? Remember back in the day, you had
1:01:35
Speaker 1: coaches like Jeff Fisher who were so headstrong about their system.
1:01:40
Speaker 1: You have to work within my system. He get players
1:01:43
Speaker 1: on his team that just weren't able to perform within
1:01:45
Speaker 1: his system. Failure after failure, season after season, and okay,
1:01:50
Speaker 1: you know what type of coach Jeff Fisher was, Jim Curtin,
1:01:53
Speaker 1: it seemed to be as much as we respected him,
1:01:55
Speaker 1: and we've talked about it on this podcast platform a lot,
1:01:59
Speaker 1: as much as we were affected him, just not able
1:02:02
Speaker 1: to get the strengths out of these players that we
1:02:07
Speaker 1: now are seeing Bradley Carnell getting it. And it really
1:02:10
Speaker 1: is it really is something to watch. It's it's it's
1:02:12
Speaker 1: something that we're we are not used to as Union fans,
1:02:15
Speaker 1: for sure. But the next topic I wanted to get
1:02:18
Speaker 1: into was what we've been feeling really with the season
1:02:22
Speaker 1: thus far in terms of disappointments and even even biggest
1:02:25
Speaker 1: surprises thus far. So two part question for you here.
1:02:28
Speaker 1: Let's first get into what the biggest disappointment of this
1:02:31
Speaker 1: season has been so far. And I hesitated to put
1:02:33
Speaker 1: this in here quite frankly, Josh, because like I said
1:02:36
Speaker 1: at the beginning, we're all we're all shocked. We're all
1:02:38
Speaker 1: shocked at where this team is at from a from
1:02:40
Speaker 1: a positive standpoint. First, what's the biggest disappointment thus far?
1:02:44
Speaker 1: And then we'll get into the biggest surprise thus far
1:02:46
Speaker 1: for this for this team. So what's that biggest appointment
1:02:49
Speaker 1: disappointment for you?
1:02:51
Speaker 4: Yeah?
1:02:51
Speaker 3: I mean, Jeff, I'm only gonna pick this person because
1:02:56
Speaker 3: I have to pick one. Okay, question is the most
1:02:58
Speaker 3: disappointing person? And I don't think that this person has
1:03:01
Speaker 3: actually been a disappointment, But I think it's more of
1:03:04
Speaker 3: the defense was so bad last year that the fact
1:03:07
Speaker 3: that they're even functional this year, they're not disappointing, right.
1:03:12
Speaker 3: And I also think because the Union are actually winning games,
1:03:17
Speaker 3: a lot of other players can't really be disappointing, right, Exactly.
1:03:20
Speaker 3: The only person I really have left is Quinn Sullivan. Okay, Now,
1:03:25
Speaker 3: his younger brother gets all the hype, and I'm at
1:03:28
Speaker 3: the point where I'm having a really hard time with
1:03:33
Speaker 3: his brother, Like, if he truly is this gift to
1:03:35
Speaker 3: soccer that.
1:03:38
Speaker 4: The Union want to make him out to be.
1:03:41
Speaker 3: He has played in one match this year, right right, Like,
1:03:45
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, but if he's really that great, it's not
1:03:49
Speaker 3: like the Union have this roster compiled of MLS all
1:03:53
Speaker 3: stars that he's having a hard time breaking in, right right,
1:03:56
Speaker 3: So I think both Sullivan's are kind of in there,
1:04:00
Speaker 3: and it's not again an indictment on them, it's more
1:04:03
Speaker 3: of what a surprise this season is. And just I
1:04:07
Speaker 3: really do expect a little bit more out of Quinn Sullivan.
1:04:10
Speaker 3: He's missed on a lot of crosses, He's been taking
1:04:14
Speaker 3: some shots that aren't normal for him, Okay, and I don't.
1:04:18
Speaker 4: Know if he feels that he needs to do more.
1:04:20
Speaker 1: Okay, sounds good. I guess the flip side of that
1:04:23
Speaker 1: would be which players have been the biggest surprise to
1:04:27
Speaker 1: you thus far this season? Here? What are your thoughts,
1:04:30
Speaker 1: because I mean, like we're saying, we're seeing a lot
1:04:33
Speaker 1: of strengths coming out with a lot of these players
1:04:35
Speaker 1: on the field. Who's been the biggest surprise thus far
1:04:38
Speaker 1: for you?
1:04:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the first is Lukas he has two goals
1:04:43
Speaker 3: in six games. I did not think that he was
1:04:47
Speaker 3: going to be much of anything, and he has really
1:04:51
Speaker 3: turned out to be really a fun player to watch.
1:04:56
Speaker 3: And the second one, which will be a good transition
1:04:59
Speaker 3: into the next next question, how's this Tybaribo.
1:05:03
Speaker 4: I mean he has just.
1:05:04
Speaker 3: Been Yeah, he has been a monster, and he just
1:05:09
Speaker 3: has this nose for the goal. I wasn't very happy
1:05:15
Speaker 3: when the Union acquired him about three years ago. I
1:05:18
Speaker 3: did not think that he was going to amount to anything,
1:05:21
Speaker 3: and I have never been more happy to be wrong.
1:05:24
Speaker 1: It's a great segue because ty Berribo at this point
1:05:28
Speaker 1: already has netted six goals this season on thirteen shots.
1:05:31
Speaker 1: You know, even though he hasn't scored in the last
1:05:33
Speaker 1: two games here, Josh, he's been a real spark for
1:05:37
Speaker 1: this Union team. Again. Bradley Carnell being able to get
1:05:40
Speaker 1: get more out of him, putting him in good positions
1:05:44
Speaker 1: on the field. Vision has been stellar. I wanted to
1:05:47
Speaker 1: get your thoughts on whether or not he's simply fortunate
1:05:51
Speaker 1: or maybe lucky at this point or if really opportunities
1:05:54
Speaker 1: are being generated for him to net these goals. What
1:05:57
Speaker 1: are your thoughts as we're looking at Tyberribo here in
1:05:59
Speaker 1: the type of season he's having.
1:06:01
Speaker 3: Well, the first thing is it's a humbling experience when
1:06:05
Speaker 3: you look up player stats and you think that they're
1:06:07
Speaker 3: old and then realize that you were born before them. Yes,
1:06:11
Speaker 3: I'm officially reaching that age. I think, like thirty eight,
1:06:15
Speaker 3: when you begin to realize that you're not the spring
1:06:17
Speaker 3: chicken anymore. So anyway, I don't think that ty Baribo
1:06:24
Speaker 3: is a mirage. And this is why I say that
1:06:28
Speaker 3: at the end of last year he really started getting
1:06:31
Speaker 3: some playing time. In seventeen games that he started last year,
1:06:35
Speaker 3: he scored nine goals, right, that is more than a
1:06:39
Speaker 3: half a goal of game. This year, he's got six
1:06:42
Speaker 3: goals in five games. Now, I don't think he's going
1:06:44
Speaker 3: to keep a goal of game pace up because if
1:06:46
Speaker 3: he does, then I'm begging the Union to sell him
1:06:50
Speaker 3: because he will be able to net you a ton
1:06:52
Speaker 3: of money. And I don't really advocate for selling things,
1:06:55
Speaker 3: but I don't know that he can keep up this
1:06:58
Speaker 3: kind of production. But I don't think it's mirage. I
1:07:02
Speaker 3: just think that he has turned himself into a player
1:07:06
Speaker 3: that is like a bloodhound with a nose for the goal,
1:07:10
Speaker 3: and I think him being there even moving forward, if
1:07:15
Speaker 3: we see his production drop, what you're going to start
1:07:19
Speaker 3: seeing is the opposition is going to have to shift
1:07:23
Speaker 3: more players to whichever side Beribo is on, which then
1:07:28
Speaker 3: opens up the door for whomever is playing on that
1:07:31
Speaker 3: other side. So even if his production goes down, I
1:07:34
Speaker 3: don't think it's going to be because he's a bad player.
1:07:37
Speaker 3: I think it's just they had to shift coverage because
1:07:40
Speaker 3: right now, I don't know what you can do other
1:07:43
Speaker 3: than putting like three defenders on ty Baibo, what you're
1:07:46
Speaker 3: going to be able to do to stop him?
1:07:48
Speaker 4: And I think we've seen to your point about the
1:07:51
Speaker 4: last two games.
1:07:52
Speaker 3: If you watch the games, you will see they have
1:07:55
Speaker 3: begun to shift that coverage over, which is why it's
1:07:58
Speaker 3: been harder for him to see.
1:08:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially with Miami, they were definitely were doing that
1:08:02
Speaker 1: for sure. Absolutely all right again, folks. Josh Schuster from
1:08:07
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Soccer Now dot com follow him on the Twitter
1:08:09
Speaker 1: slash x at flag Eye Josh ninety one, Buddy, before
1:08:13
Speaker 1: I let you go, wanted to talk about some goaltending
1:08:17
Speaker 1: goalkeeper on this team, Andre Blake, as we know, primary
1:08:21
Speaker 1: goalkeeper for the Union, and he's had a nice season
1:08:24
Speaker 1: thus far too. Again, like the difference between last year
1:08:29
Speaker 1: and this year is they're just not necessarily needing to
1:08:32
Speaker 1: rely on him as much as we talked about earlier.
1:08:35
Speaker 1: You know, we've already seen one shutout this season. I
1:08:38
Speaker 1: want to can you talk about Blake's performance over these
1:08:41
Speaker 1: past games and how you think that he's going to
1:08:43
Speaker 1: be able to continue this kind of positive run well
1:08:47
Speaker 1: into the season. Again, only six games thus far, however,
1:08:50
Speaker 1: it's been a positive run. What are your thoughts here
1:08:53
Speaker 1: with him?
1:08:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, So Andre Blake is a fantastic keeper and he
1:09:01
Speaker 3: has been a staple for the Union for a very
1:09:05
Speaker 3: very long time. This is eleventh year with the senior
1:09:08
Speaker 3: he's been eleven, this eleventh year with the senior team,
1:09:12
Speaker 3: and somehow he's still younger than I am, which I
1:09:15
Speaker 3: again I can't believe. One of the issues for Blake
1:09:22
Speaker 3: is so they signed him to an extension, which I
1:09:25
Speaker 3: was fine with because he's always been pretty reliable. Then
1:09:30
Speaker 3: last year happened. He only played in fourteen games last year. Now,
1:09:36
Speaker 3: the only other time that happened was he played in eighteen,
1:09:40
Speaker 3: but that was in the twenty twenty season, which was shortened, right,
1:09:43
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to hold that against him. He
1:09:47
Speaker 3: has already played eight matches this year, so six more
1:09:51
Speaker 3: and he's matched his total from last year, which I
1:09:53
Speaker 3: think will happen. The question is not how good is
1:09:58
Speaker 3: Andre Blake still? The question is how healthy can Andre
1:10:03
Speaker 3: Blake be? Because I'm gonna be honest, the Union have
1:10:10
Speaker 3: had the luxury of having an adequate backup the last
1:10:15
Speaker 3: couple of years, but he's gone, Yes, so now they're
1:10:19
Speaker 3: relying on Rick. Now, Rick is okay, and I think
1:10:25
Speaker 3: he will be better in this system. The problem is
1:10:31
Speaker 3: you don't want Rick to be your keeper for a
1:10:37
Speaker 3: long period of time, right, So, and I don't. I
1:10:40
Speaker 3: don't really know what the Union looked like without Andre
1:10:43
Speaker 3: Blake and net like permanently and that I realized that
1:10:47
Speaker 3: we're I'm coming to the chemo team and in realization
1:10:50
Speaker 3: that at some point this player that I love is
1:10:54
Speaker 3: just not going to be able to play anymore and
1:10:57
Speaker 3: it will be a very sad day. And I I
1:11:00
Speaker 3: would hope the offseason that he retires he goes in
1:11:03
Speaker 3: the ring of honor with Sebastian Latou because Andre Blake
1:11:07
Speaker 3: has been a staple here. I'm glad he's healthier. I'm
1:11:10
Speaker 3: glad he's healthy, and I'm hoping for a really good year.
1:11:14
Speaker 1: Absolutely, he's having one heck of a season. This Philadelphia
1:11:17
Speaker 1: Union team are also having one heck of a season again, folks.
1:11:21
Speaker 1: Josh Schuster from philadelphiasoccernow dot com, Buddy, it was great
1:11:26
Speaker 1: talking to you. Always great being able to talk soccer
1:11:28
Speaker 1: with you, and we can talk some more Philly sports
1:11:32
Speaker 1: in the future if you are up for it, my friend,
1:11:34
Speaker 1: I'd love to have you back on the show.
1:11:36
Speaker 3: Sounds good, Jeff, thank you, and that's going to do.
1:11:39
Speaker 1: It for us this week. Make sure to share the
1:11:42
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show with your friends and family
1:11:45
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1:12:00
Speaker 1: and to give us great content, and ultimately we appreciate you.
1:12:04
Speaker 1: Take care and have a great week and we'll catch
1:12:07
Speaker 1: you next time,