Latest / Tectonic Takes / Episode 151: Sifting Through Wreckage (W/ Erick Sarceno AKA ThatFootyDad)

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Episode 151: Sifting Through Wreckage (W/ Erick Sarceno AKA ThatFootyDad) · Tectonic Takes

• speaker-0: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Tech-Tonic Takes. I'm here as usual with my co-host Devin. Devin, how are doing? ⁓ speaker-1: Well, I just came back from the dentist office, ⁓ had a little feeling in the left side, so if you see me talking one side of my mouth and I look like the Joker or some sort of comic villain, ⁓ that's the exact reason why, but you know, the things we do for tectonic takes, we're here representing Loud and Proud. speaker-0: things we do for sure. And we have, of course, a very special guest with us today from the That Footy Dad on TikTok. Eric, how are you doing today? speaker-2: doing well man, excited to be here and ⁓ you know, I feel your pain Devon, I just had a wisdom tooth removed a couple weeks ago so I'm still ⁓ traumatized from it so I get it. speaker-0: Yeah, that's a tough procedure too. to all four, I still got them all. But Eric, you don't mind, could you explain your content for anyone who might not be familiar? speaker-2: Yeah, so that footy dad kind of just came about because I mean soccer's life, know, everybody knows that. ⁓ I found myself every weekend either at a Quakes game, at a BFC game, at our kids, you know, soccer games or my Sunday league or, you know, even when I was younger, played soccer. was, soccer's just kind of... you know part of my life and i decided like why not make videos around it why not make videos you know i'm a season ticket holder for the quakes why not you know take the things that my wife and i bicker at each other about on at the stands you know in the stands while the quakes are playing and put it out to the world and see if people like it and that's kind of where it where it came from so it's just me documenting my life as a soccer dad ⁓ you know fan of the quakes and a fan of all things soccer speaker-0: ⁓ for sure. That's why we do it. That's why we show up every week. If I could like not do this every week, ⁓ you know, I would. But I love doing it. I love being here with you guys. ⁓ But man, it just gets harder and harder every week, it feels like, because these guys just they don't want to repay us. We're here putting in the work and they're out there. They're running around for sure. know, ⁓ but yeah, that was a difficult. 4-2 defeat at the hands of LAFC with new MLS player, Hyeong Min Son getting on the scoreboard, but He was some might say outperformed by Danny Buang, who you know got his 20th goal of the season I believe Favi was saying to me in the press block that that might be I believe that makes him the first player in LAFC history to get 20 goals in three different seasons Devin can you just What was your thoughts on on Bwonga in this match? speaker-1: Well considering, I believe, Buwanga had a hat-trick this game. ⁓ The fact that he had a hat-trick alone speaks for itself. Hyeong-min Son did open the scoring. ⁓ But Buwanga, time and time again, what can we say about him? I'm not trying to glaze on LAFC or do all this or that, but it's a fact of the matter is Buwanga knows where to be, where to put himself, and when to put himself at the right place and the right time. ⁓ and he has the footwork to open up space while he has the ball and find a way to put the ball in the back of the net and sure enough, you know, he did that three times against us twice in the first 15 minutes of the game. ⁓ It's Denny Buonga. You know, he's now in the Golden Boot race for a reason at this point, close to, you know, Lionel Messi and I believe is one of Nashville's attackers. ⁓ But... Yeah, it's the nature of the game for Denny and that's why he's been wanted by so many teams in Europe and he's got a big price tag above his head because he impresses week in and week out. speaker-0: Eric, anything to add? speaker-2: Yeah, no, mean, you guys pretty much hit it, you know, the nail right on the head right there is, you know, Wong is a high caliber player and you know, it's he shows it every week and it hurts to talk nicely about an LA player. But you know, you got to give flowers where they're due. The man came out and did what he was supposed to do. Same thing with son. They came out and, know, they're paid to score or school goal score goals. Man, I can't talk today. And they definitely did that. You know, obviously a great player was made to look even better by our Swiss cheese defense this week, which was not, you I don't think he needed our help for that. And you know, you know, the quakes here to please everybody but us. speaker-1: You know, something I was telling Abram and we'll definitely allude back to this, but right before the podcast begun, I'd mentioned Abram like if we ignored the first 15 minutes of that game, we win 2-1. We win 2-1, simple as that. If we played 75 minutes of football, we win. speaker-0: Yeah, and I mean, unfortunately we can't call it that way. We can't be like, we can't cut it off of the match. But yeah, that tends to be how it goes sometimes. We'll be better in a lot of ⁓ different categories. We'll dominate. like this game, we had about double the position and ⁓ so many more shots. But it kind of doesn't matter. It felt like inevitable that we were going to get beat on the counter-attack. They were waiting for us to, you know, leave ourselves vulnerable. And it wasn't even just like that they broke us down that that much. It's that we made huge mistakes that led to goals and they were very precise about it and very clinical. you know, sorry to start this podcast off on such a like, you know, hard note, but it was that's how the game started off, you know, all of us in the the the stands. Within a minute of the match starting, we're already down a man. ⁓ We're already down to one zero and it didn't get better from there. ⁓ Eric, I know that you like to do the good, bad and the ugly ⁓ on your TikTok. Bring us back to some positive vibes. You want to start off with the good if you can. speaker-2: Well, you know, it's funny I do say that you know in my videos whenever I do talk about the good the bad and the ugly is I always like to start off with the good start off on a positive note and I just found myself so Just I had to dig I couldn't I literally if it wasn't for the fact that I'm on this podcast The only good that I would have had is that we had 11 players out on the field and kickoff was right at 530 You know, it was kind of an ugly game you know the I was I found myself the day of getting ready to go out there and looking at You know, I always like to plan ahead and I'm like, you know, it's kind of weird the gates open kind of funky at a funky time and then I was like wait the games not at 730 it's actually a 530 and it felt like the quakes kind of were on the same page as I am they forgot the game started at 530 but ⁓ I will say some of the good that I did see was obviously pressing judge getting on the board the man's making a case for himself, you know, it's good to see the young guys filling themselves in these big games, you know playing in front of 50,000 people no matter especially in a crowd where it was it felt like an LAFC home game but to see them go out there and and fight the entire time and not necessarily give up up front regardless of what the defense was doing is definitely you know the main good that I really saw and is kind of that great FC ⁓ is kind of becoming that Goonies 2.0 and I love to see it and I just wish they were rewarded a little bit better than than they were for their efforts speaker-1: I want to see more praise for Senibuddha as well. know, he didn't technically, I don't think he got the goal because when the quakes posted on YouTube, their highlights, it was considered an own goal. ⁓ But Senibuddha throughout the entirety of his substitution, he had the skills. He, you know, found space for himself, not just for himself, but for others. ⁓ He made the game look as entertaining as it should be, know, as fans want to pay tickets and money for it. That's, that's exactly how he plays his game. And, and, know, every time he steps onto the field, you don't know what's coming from the Senibuta and it's, it's usually more of an impressive feat than anything. And I wanted to give the Senibuta a shout out since we're talking about the good right now. ⁓ he absolutely deserves it. And, know, despite him not getting the goal specifically, he was there at the right place at the right time to make the LAFC defender, ⁓ you know, generate a mistake putting it in the back of the net. speaker-0: Yeah speaker-2: Yeah, no, Seni Buddha definitely is one of those players that I feel I wish we could see more time from I think he's one of those he kind of gives off like a young Alfonso Davies even though I think they're pretty much the same age, know, I think ⁓ That's kind of the vibe that I get from him. I love the speed I love that kind of dynamic offense that he brings and the fact that he kind of does help, you know both sides It does help but he's just one of those players that I just I hate that we haven't found a starting role for him, you know I think he's a player that when the time comes for him to move on, because another team is gonna come knocking. They're gonna see what Bruce Arena doesn't and he's gonna find a starting spot somewhere. Hopefully not anytime soon, we see him get more minutes, but he's one of those players that we're gonna see move on and definitely regret. speaker-1: If he does move on, do we see him as another like Danny Wazowski? He moved on from the Quakes, went to RSL, went to Seattle, and now he's, you know, he's still somewhat consistently scoring goals every season. Do we see that out of the centerboard? speaker-0: That's about the caliber, I would say. speaker-2: I'd say maybe a step above. I remember Musovsky very much when he was here when he was at Reno and I think he's one of those players that was kind of that same idea. He's a very good utility player but I definitely see Buda finding a starting role at least MLS level if not somewhere in like you know like your Danish league, you're somewhere in Europe that's kind of a not necessarily a big five league but definitely somewhere ⁓ of where he's gonna find himself playing Champions League soccer at some point. speaker-0: that would be an amazing claim to fame for us to have another player in the Champions League because we had Marcos Lopez go over to he went over to Fiannoi then Copenhagen and ⁓ obviously I'm taking credit for him every chance I get but another positive I wanted to bring up was our first goal I really like how it went because ⁓ obviously it was scored by Preston Judd ⁓ who is the main you know the main guy championing the the grid FC, you know moniker, you know really embodying kind of the the mentality that we'd like more of our players to have on the pitch and The the goal started off with him pressing loris loris didn't really have a good option. So it went wide to a player who was kind of isolated and Costa was pressing him and The guy wasn't able to bring the ball down because of that pressure. So he had to head it Costa then headed it on to Chicharango who did an amazing job with like a kind of a sombrero to get it over the guy and then you know head toward the goal I can't give him the credit with the assist because He was dispossessed and that tackle kind of went over into the path of Judd who then ran onto it and got a finish You know great play from Judd to recognize that situation and take full advantage of it and obviously it's a great play from multiple different players involved of course so that's definitely another positive anything you have to say about that goal speaker-2: Yeah, no, I think you're right on there. think ⁓ Judd is one of those players that in these games and these rivalry games where I think, you know, I don't think the players take it as seriously as the fans, but the LA games definitely there. There's some animosity between the players. I think they all know what's on the line and ⁓ Judd is one of those players that can really get into that mental game and really just try to chip away at those mental barriers that that the opposing team has and just, you know, just piss people off and I love that kind of player in these kinds of games so to see him get on the board and you know just basically just breaking them down you know that that's what he's here to do I just again just wish he he'd been rewarded a little bit more for for their efforts speaker-0: Yeah, definitely. And I think that's unfortunately like one of the last positives in this match. So we're going to have to go over to the bad. And I know that it felt like a little bit of a LAFC home match, but obviously that's not due to a lack of trying from our support groups who obviously do a great job. Although they are not fans. We've talked to the people in the Discord who are part of the support groups and they're always complaining about Levi's Stadium because of how difficult it is for them to set it up and then they're in the sun. It's just a layers upon layers of negative things that are thrown at them just because we're playing a match in Levi's. And obviously it's great to bring more crowds. We had the most attended Quakes match of all time on Saturday, but I don't know if it's worth it when you're alienating your most ⁓ dedicated supporters and Eric you told me earlier that you had a really difficult you know time in this match I don't know if you want to talk about it but ⁓ speaker-2: I mean, it's one of those things where it's hard to, I can deal with bad seasons. I can deal with bad games. I've been a fan since I could walk, right? I got to see my team lift the trophy. I got to see them lift two, win supporter shields. I've seen them win wooden spoons. I can deal with that. But when you put us in a situation where we're home, right? That's how I see it is. This is our home. This is, you at PayPal, even when there's LA games, even when there's this you'll get you'll get the rowdy LA fan here and there the rowdy away fan and but at the end of the day, they're kind of like, yeah, we, you know, we're, mean, I mean, your home, I'm gonna at least pretend like I like I'm gonna respect it, right. And I feel like that doesn't really happen at Levi's. Stanford definitely feels like it's 5050. But Stanford has that historical like, you know, just feel to it where it's just We all know why we're there. Nobody likes each other, but we're going to have a good time and enjoy the people around us as presidents. But I just feel like with LAFC being so new, the Levi's game being so new, it's just not, I don't see the point of it other than filling the pockets of the front office, right? And which, which I get, it's a business at the end of the day, but it makes you just not want to, I don't like putting the same effort into. The Levi's game that I do the Stanford Stanford. I bring my entire family, which I did this game mostly because it's my mom's birthday, but I don't tailgate I don't make it a big thing. I don't you know what I mean go crazy with you know Banners and flags because it's just not it doesn't feel like we're home. It almost feels like we're an enemy territory I feel like I literally I parked five feet from the entrance and there was 10 LAFC cars around me. A ton of people wearing Tottenham jerseys, wearing Korea jerseys. It was just like I felt like I was in the middle of downtown LA. And I was just like, this doesn't it just it just it's off putting right that title with I think Levi's poor management of things. The parking situation was kind of a mess. There was no clear direction. There was issues that I had with security. that was to the point of me having not so fun conversations with the front office regarding some pretty hateful things that happened, in my opinion, that were pretty much based on the color of my skin, which was not a fun thing to be a part of. Basically being told that the foam. flags that we had that were given to us we had the the red flags from last i think it was last year they gave away at levi's and then we had the black and blue ones that were just given away a couple games ago ⁓ we were told that those are dangerous weapons ⁓ because the phone stick and mind you my daughter was holding this was a it was a a dangerous weapon in the hands of a three-and-a-half-year-old little girl ⁓ and then the next family comes up And we said, look, it's foam. We were bending it. I, you know, my wife smacked me in the head with it was like, it's not going to do anything. Guy was like, Nope, not not going to go in. They made, made us go all the way back to our car, come all the way back. We were kind of sitting there waiting with our hands, you know, our hands in our pockets, like waiting the very next family. I hear the dad say the exact same thing. Hey, it's foam, it bends. And without even hesitating, the guy was like, all right, go ahead. Same flag. It was the blue flag. remember it clearly and I had to sit there and look at my wife and go, what was different? Like what, did that man say that I didn't? I had to, I was almost justifying it saying, did I say it in like an aggressive tone? Like was I, was I like, and the only difference that I could see in the 32nd interaction that I had and the 32nd interaction that person had was that it was brown dad. speaker-1: You're questioning yourself, speaker-2: Brown kid, white dad, white kid. I'm just like, it's hard not to put those things together. And it was a white security guard. it's just like, you know, and then we were talking to the, it was, it was weird because there was ⁓ one set of security guards that were checking our bags and then. he was kind of wearing a different vest, it said security, different color. And the lady in the yellow vest was like, yeah, he's been kind of doing that all day. And I did notice that he was kind of, because I said something, was like, it's kind of like, am I, am I, am I off base here? You know what I mean? And he, she was like, he's been doing that and been mostly white families that he's let through. And I'm just like, okay, it's not just me, you know? And I even saw my wife is American and she's white. I was like, tell me, like, I need you to tell me straight up, like, am I reaching here? Like, that? she was like, no, like I, I'm, she's very like. Ignorant to some of those things just because she's never experienced it as a kid and she even sat there and was like no that was that was messed up like that was that was not okay speaker-1: I feel like that's... ⁓ go for it, yeah. speaker-2: Yeah, that just started my day off on a bad note and then, and then here we go. speaker-1: It's something that I oddly take with pride with PayPal Park, not the whole racism thing. Let me just clarify here. but I haven't seen any of those incidents at PayPal Park. seems like when we go to events like Stanford and the Levi's stadium, you know, they bring in a hefty amount of security and they don't really check those backgrounds of those security officers. And they're just kind of throw everyone in and then incidents happen left and right. And you don't know what's going on because you know, 50,000 people have to come through those, those seats. And it's just a real shame that you get incidents like that, ⁓ where you question yourself based off of ethnicity and you're questioning your ethics and what you did wrong and you're looking at other situations like everything seems to be the exact same, but I have a different result. It's very strange and I'm really sorry that that happened to you, Eric, specifically. And I really do hope that it never happens to you again from here forward. using this platform, hopefully someone can see that and share their story too, or someone from security sees it and they can make right of a wrong at some point down the line. ⁓ speaker-2: And for me, this is where I will give the quakes 100 % their flowers is I did end up talking to I went to the season ticket booth and was like, hey, I need to speak to somebody, a manager. she was like, and I felt like a Karen because like, you know, but she was like, is there something I could help you with? They're all the way on the other side of the stadium. They can come, but it's going to be a minute. And so Ashley, who's a season ticket holder, season ticket rep, I appreciate you because you sat there and you listened to me. felt like I was going to tear up and you just you tried to comfort me you told me you know like she apologized it wasn't her fault but she was like hey like you know let me take notes let me make sure that I you know connect with your season ticket rep and then you know Sean who's my season ticket rep actually came out to our seats and we just had a good conversation about it we spent pretty much most a half time just talking and I was like look like I'm not I'm not one to pull the race card. Like I can see how that can be overused, especially nowadays. Like every little thing can be like, it's cause I'm brown. It's like, no, like I only call it out when I really feel like this has happened. Cause it's not the first time that I've been racially profiled and it's definitely not going to be the last. and that's just a sad world we live in. So the only thing that I can do that's in my powers is, is help educate and then counteract that by spreading positivity. Right. I try to put out twice. as much good as the bad that I take in and that's what we did this game. We gave away some really nice seats to a family up in the nosebleeds and just trying to counteract that evil that's out in the world with positivity and that's all we can really do and just fight evil with love. It's kind of corny but that's really how I feel. speaker-0: And we really appreciate you talking about that and I want to make clear I wanted Eric on the show before he did all those really nice things for people So it's just like you know really exemplifies the kind of person you are and it again I want to apologize also that really sucks that happened to you and I can I I feel bad because my apology doesn't mean anything really because it sucks that the This is probably not going to change. And if you hadn't gone to talk to, you know, your rapper or, you know, talk to people, then maybe nobody would ever hear about this guy, right? Like that's the kind of thing where it's unfortunately just gets overlooked like, whatever. Um, and it's, it's just those micro things that like, yeah, maybe like, you know, you got to get in the game still all you have to do is put away your flags, it's still just unacceptable. It's like the reason and, and And shouldn't have to go through that. And a lot of people didn't have to go through that. And they have the same exact situation as you. So obviously, we here at Tektron takes are all for equality. yeah, I'm sorry you have to go through that. speaker-2: I appreciate that. appreciate that. It's definitely one of those things where you know, I I'm Sometimes I'm happy that it happens to me because you know, I'm I'm religious I don't like to really you know put that out there because again, it's a weird world we live in but I know that God puts things in my path that that I can handle and that he knows what I can do and and You know, I I think that that's that's what happened today is is it it fueled me to do something positive for somebody else and I have a platform I have a platform where can speak on this. It's not one that I use very often. ⁓ But you know, I don't have millions of followers, but the 50k that I do have, I'm going to use and I'm going to talk about what happened and and let people know that you don't have to just sit there and take this right like I I think I handled it as best as I could in the moment. I was kind of even just kind of caught off guard because it's been a long time since anything like that has ever happened to me. But you know, I talked to the right people and I'm just going to make my voice heard and make sure that people that I'm sure it wasn't I wasn't the only person that went through that that day. ⁓ know, it's main thing is just let people know that that they're not alone. Because know other people are scared to speak up because they might not be in the position to but I'm in the best position I could be to speak up on things like this and and I'll keep using my voice to speak for those that can't. speaker-0: Hey, you know, I was about to say like that's a great example to set for your kids who, ⁓ you know, being the same ethnicity as you partly, you're gonna, you know, probably go through the same thing. My father is a lot darker than me and I am light skinned, I guess. I get profiled for a different ethnicity altogether. People think that I am a Arab or something and that that is a different problem, but it does exist. My dad is darker than me. My dad's probably watching this and I see it I see it happen where people treat him differently or they might not know that we you know him and I are related and It's it's really rough. It's it's you know difficult for me to see that but ⁓ The way that you handle those situations is you know that that is the the real test of character To see like how you handle yourself in adversity. You know that you're being treated unfairly but to still handle it with grace is very admirable and I admire you for going through that. And again, we planned to have you on before this happened, so we didn't even plan to have this conversation. no, it's just really tough to see the state of the country right now. And we try not to talk about it too much, but it's really a lot. speaker-1: Yeah, as we grow. Every day, every day passes, know, incidents like these becomes more prevalent. So at some point we have to talk about it during the podcast, you know, tectonic takes, we are very quakes based. ⁓ sometimes we do reach out to other games, and discuss, discuss other leagues and league MX or international games, cetera. ⁓ but you know, incidents like this unfortunately do occur and, and this is, think a good time to, raise awareness to it in the future and, and kind of let fans know. especially because as a white man myself, you know, if I see something that you went through Eric, I definitely would absolutely speak up on behalf of them and defend them and support them. ⁓ the more we talk about it, the more awareness other people of, you know, Caucasian, ⁓ Caucasian folks will hopefully take your story into account and and stand up for you and others like you. in the future. And that's a promise that I have if I were to see that ever happen again ⁓ in the future with you. speaker-0: And he's not getting, Devon would do that. ⁓ Devon's a great ally. ⁓ That's why we have him on. But guys, let's get back to the soccer. A slightly less dark topic for us. ⁓ So guys, the highline was brought up ⁓ in the press conference by our friend of the show, Alex Morgan. He was asking, you know, Bruce... do you think that was an issue for us? And for me personally, I'm like, well, they did get in behind us a lot. ⁓ Bruce, his thing was that he didn't believe that it was the fact that we had a high line. It was the fact that we kept losing the ball ⁓ in really poor areas and then triggering a counter attack with one less player like with the media situation. I still think that when you have a high line that you open yourself up to that exact thing happening. ⁓ But I am curious what you guys thoughts are. Eric, we'll start with you. speaker-2: Yeah, no, think for me it's a chemistry issue a hundred percent, you know getting an up-close look at the players and and You know, I go back and I watch the highlights after just because I'm I'm a nerd like that know, I really enjoy analyzing the game and you can really see that there's there's definitely some miscommunication happening between our defense specifically we've got Vitor Costa and ⁓ Romney there's been a couple cases I can think of one specifically at the San Diego game and this game where there was just kind of a marking situation where Romney was kind of like do I go do I not of I was there and you could see Romney kind of physically go hey That's your man. I'm going this way. And then of course, I just not tracking that man and that costing us a goal. Whether that person was the goal scorer or that first assist, you know, that's kind of the difference, but it's definitely something where you can see there's a frustration happening of just like, I'm telling you something. You're not listening to me. It almost feels like there's just no faith in each other. You know, like you, I don't think you're going to hold it down for me. So why am I doing it? That's kind of the vibe that I'm getting. And, and I think it has a lot to do with just as revolving door. of defensive changes that we've had going on all season. And I'm sure there's a little bit of that camaraderie of like, hey, you're taking my guy's spot. I'm sure there's a little bit of that and it's it's ugly to see up close. speaker-0: doing. speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, to the meat and potatoes here, like when you start with a four back and you already have a high line against a team that's well known since they've started, you know, since after their Chivas USA days, I'm just going to take a little dig in there because why not? But since, you know, since their LAFC specific inception, they're a counter attacking team. They've never really been known for being a, you know, pass around the back possession. They play it through their wingers, their wingers have speed, they cross it into their strikers, and they finish. It's as simple as that. when we have a high line, and when we announce that we have a high line, with four in the back when we usually have five, ⁓ you know, there's recipes for disaster at that point. And sure enough, not even a minute in it, we had witnessed ⁓ that level of disaster. ⁓ do recall at some point I think we weren't expecting that formation from LAFC. So it did throw off kind of the team chemistry and just the tactical understanding and preparation of the game. But you know, you're professional players, you have to make those adjustments on the fly as soon as possible immediately. You cannot be conceding three goals in 15 minutes. speaker-0: Can I add on to that that when asked about that that the decision to have a four in the back as opposed to the usual three he said that He was expecting or to have supply, but he didn't remember what as his name. So he referred to him as the white guy But yes, that was obviously a big, you know kind of a shocker that What at what point do they know each other's lineups? I was under the impression that they're before finalizing they they would like, you know lock in and agree on that that just because of the way that it ends up working with like Everyone knowing the lineup beforehand and being like part of that that process where like I I have to go up to the coach and be like Do you have your lineup like is it done? and having to get the lineup from him. That's how I thought it always worked. I guess I don't actually know how it works because it's like, it ended up being different. speaker-1: So, okay, and I want everyone else's thoughts on this too. And this could be like a little rant, but why are we playing Rodriguez at right back? Why are we playing Rodriguez at right back? What has he done to prove to anyone on the team that he's a right back player? I know he likes to bring the ball forward and he's good at doing that, but he does not have the body style or the height or the speed to be a right back. He's a center back at heart. What was the decision making to place him as the fourth person on the outside when he's much better in the center? speaker-0: Do you have anything to say about that? speaker-2: I know I completely agree. mean, I'm I'm a Rodriguez fan. ⁓ I definitely like his style of play. I'm a center back so I can appreciate the different styles. It's different from how I would play as a center back, but I'm also not a you know, over six foot Brazilian. So you know, there's that but no, I completely agree. There was no reason for Rodriguez to be on that right side. ⁓ The transition from center back to right back is is not an easy one. You know, going up and down. He does have that skill as you said to move up and and you know be a threat offensively but he it's not necessarily the quickness that I'm necessarily worried about it's the kind of that ⁓ that explosiveness right he doesn't have that quick transition which with a counter-attacking team you're gonna need because you're going up and down and you got to be quick when you transition he doesn't have that he's he's good once he's once he's at full stride he's fast which a center back you have more space in front of you to really just kind of read that and be able to to start your run sooner in order to do that but on the wing like there's no it's it's you got to be able to turn on a diamond and he's not the player to do that with the players that I think we had available I just I don't see as much as I love him as a player and want him to start more I just that wasn't that wasn't the best move in my opinion speaker-1: And I think seeing that one incident, believe it was the second goal. Abraham, correct me if I'm wrong. I believe it was the second goal where Daniel Muni gave the ball away in our middle third towards the half line on an errant pass. He gave the ball away and that's what led to LAFC's second goal. Now, I would love to see Muni as an outside back because he has the speed for it. He's played there before. He has the experience. I wouldn't expect to see something so dangerous from uni as an outside back or a right back or right wing back etc. I think if Rodriguez was a player in the center that second goal or that mistake that led to the second goal would not have occurred. Abram, what are your thoughts? speaker-0: Yeah, I also like to add that that because would you get the right back in the situation he had gone up and The ball was recycled back to Muni Muni had gone wide So what you guys is higher up the pitch than Muni at that point is playing like, you know right backs go forward and because of that now there's not a center back in where Muni supposed to be and so that's the issue where if Muni was you know, Initially the the the right back then would you guys would be the center back? And then there's a center back there to block the counter. Like it's a simple chess to me. I feel like that makes complete sense. Muni has played fullback for us. I think that he does have that explosive speed that I was talking about. ⁓ Also, I wasn't convinced with with Bruce's reasoning for it, which was just Rodriguez has played right back in his career. He played there once for us. And I'm like, okay. ⁓ But it obviously didn't work. And I feel like he's not taking accountability. He did say that like a lot of this game has to do with him. ⁓ But he didn't go into any specifics on that. I felt like he was just saying that as like a catch-all. like, yeah, I take responsibility. But this is actually what happened. Like I can't help Muni giving the ball away. I can't help all these mistakes that happened, right? So I feel like he says he's taking responsibility, but he's putting the responsibility onto other players, like specifically called out Tsuchiya Arango and Christian Espinosa, who didn't have the best of games, but like this was a whole new system for them to grow accustomed to, and they only had a week to do it. Anyone have thoughts on that? speaker-2: Yeah, no, think you're right on there. It was really tough to watch not only the just what goes on in the player's head as they're trying to the rhythm in this new formation that I mean, it's a basic 4-4-2, right? But everybody's played in a 4-4-2 in their life. ⁓ But when you've already bought into ⁓ that, you know, I think it's more of a 3-5-2, but people are calling it different things. But when you've bought into that system, And it did okay for as long as it did, right? We kind of had a weird start to the season and then players start getting rotated and the faith in that system starts to kind of die down, but then you have better games and it starts. So you're kind of up and down on whether or not your players are buying in. And then you go and switch it up midweek. We don't know how long they were, they were working on the tactics for this formation. So it's really just awkward to see. Like it's, hard to see is that the player having a bad game Is it the the formation throwing them off or is it something else with like like what I'm talking about earlier? Is that chemistry? You know, it's pretty obvious that some of the players aren't necessarily the happiest right now I mean, you do you guys was linked with the move out of out of the country? Not that long ago. He hasn't been playing how much of it, know goes into like well, I'm gone after the season anyways Like I'm just trying to you know, you know to quote Marshawn Lynch. I'm just here so I don't get fine Right, you know, it's what's like it's really weird It's hard to pinpoint where we're going with like where to lay the blame. Is it on Bruce? Is it on the players? Is it on the ownership? Which is always going to be my answer. ⁓ At least for now. But you know, it's hard to tell. as somebody who, you in the beginning I said, you know, I'm giving Bruce the year. You know, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I know what he's working with. He's working with not only a roster that he didn't build, you know, he's inherited a roster that's just kind of been there for the last couple years. You know, we're going through an ownership change. So I don't see a lot of money being invested anytime soon. So, you know, the players that he might have gotten might not necessarily be his players that he wanted. It's just kind of working, you know, rolling with the punches until he can that ownership and come in. There's just so much and it's really hard to To keep defending it, well, it's like when I don't even know, can't even, past seasons I could say, that player's a problem, that player needs to go, that coach, this and that, it's just, there's no bullseye that we can just hit and say that's the problem. speaker-1: You know, as much as we've kind of harped on Bruce Arena with, you know, the way he handles himself in press conferences and the fact that us as fans don't really believe that he's doing what's necessary or what's needed to help this team succeed, I do believe that he is actively being hindered by the front office and ownership, kind of as Eric mentioned. You know, let's not forget that he was given a $10 million budget for a player, you know. Austin took our main guy from us, Brandon Vasquez, you know, unfortunate he tore his ACL in our own stadium. ⁓ But, you know, there's that factor of we were given a hefty sum, a very hefty sum. It was going to break our transfer record by a crazy, you know, crazy amount. ⁓ The front office could not get that deal done over in time. And... between that and the summer window was when ownership decided to sell. And when ownership decides to sell, that $10 million now gets sucked back into the bank account of ownership. So Bruce Arena effectively lost that transfer sum over the summer and wasn't able to make a big name signing as he obviously wants. We got rid of Renan Lopez Munoz because we were on track to sign Acosta, which we wanted to earlier on in the season and some Southern, you know, some Southern team picked him up before we could, even though Tom Bogart had announced that we were in the running for him at some point. ⁓ So he does want bigger name players and he's asking the front office and ownership to make these transfers for him so we can concede, you know, we can succeed. However, that's just not the case. It's not happening. It's. And this is something that I've been trying to dig into for very long time is how many managers do we have to see fail before we realize this isn't a manager discussion? Bruce Arena is the winningest coach in MLS history. And we have him. He's done average in the first season for every season and every team that he's managed. And now he's doing average for us, actually a little bit better than what the club's expectation was. ⁓ And yeah, we're not, it doesn't seem like we're making playoffs, but he's, you know, with the squad that he's running right now, it's, it's all right. ⁓ But he's not being financially backed. We need to see a manager be financially backed and make those big name player signings that would bring a lot more fans, kind of like we saw with, you know, Levi's Stadium. I couldn't even tell you how many times, like I was parked in the red lot and I saw fans in front of us parked in, you know, like getting jerseys out of the car fresh out of like the packaging, the shipping packaging, and they put the Sun jerseys on. They bought the Sun jerseys specifically for that game. It's a big impact that a team has. If you can find the right big name and the right way to include them into your starting 11 and tactics and whatnot, that's really good success. And we saw that with LAFC. We, as ownership, and as an FO and club have failed to provide that for our team. And I really hope that at some point within the next season during the ownership change, ⁓ if there is an ownership change, we don't know what happens behind the scenes. I haven't heard anything on the dark webs at all just yet crossing fingers. But, you know, that being said, Bruce Arena did get screwed over by ownership and fun office. And I think that that's a big factor as to why. I think he's so stubborn, upset, angry at this club right now. He's not getting the things that he's gotten from other teams. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, I would totally agree. I 100 % believe that Bruce Sweeney as a supporting director, awesome supporting director. I mean, we're a little bit spoiled in a way, right? I started to say that seeing as who we are, but if the season ends today, we are in the playoffs, right? And last season, we were the worst team in MLS history. So there is definitely a... We're trending upwards in that way, but I 100 % agree Devon that it does feel like at some point in the season the rug was pulled under Bruce's ⁓ feet, whatever, however the saying goes. because he assured us in his initial press conference that he had been given a budget, like you said, ⁓ and then ⁓ I don't remember where it came out, but he is quoted in saying that He was asked does the ownership change have an impact on the student. Of course it does but that's soccer whatever. He's not going give you a really good answer to those things. But you can tell he's frustrated and that's exactly why because this club has never been good at providing a great platform for other coaches and GMs to succeed. So I'm not surprised that they're not doing it for Busuna and to be fair he did. a crazy job we have Josef Martinez and Christian Narango on our team now like that's something I would never imagine that would ever happen and also just the influx of a bunch of players that just really increased the bottom standard that we have at the club now you know there's a lot of really good things we can say about Bruce Arena I don't think that 100 % excuses his choices that he makes on the field I think that it's been a problem now for a while that he waits too long to make substitutions I think that we go really hard on big changes in the tactic that maybe the players have ⁓ an issue with or maybe they're not able to adapt with. And we have a really high caliber of opposition in our way between now and the end of the season. So it's really not an easy job and I do not envy his position. ⁓ And I mean, that's why he has podcasts talking crap about him and we don't. And we have his insane speaker-2: Yeah, I mean, it's tough. think Bruce came into a really tough situation, you know, where, like you said, we were the worst team ever in MLS history last season. And to come into that as a fan, you know, I try to put my, cause I feel like I, I try to be grounded with my opinions is, know, like realistically, like what's going to happen. Cause obviously the, the giddy 10 year old in me is like, well, we're winning MLS cup. You know what I mean? He's, he's in, you know, he's bringing in Ronaldo, the real one, not not Viera, you know, he that, you know, obviously, like that's inside, I'm like jumping for joy. But there's the realist in me that, you know, he came into a situation where the fan base is just we're tired of it. We're tired of being told, you know, we've brought in great coaches in the past, and they haven't done anything, you know, and I'm thinking, you know, you're all made us who has a pretty tarnished reputation here in San Jose, and then went and did great things in Greece, right. So So for me, I understand and I almost feel bad for the guy because he's coming into a situation where if he doesn't make the playoffs, it feels like a loss. But the realist in me sees the great improvement. you said, we're in the playoff spot. We went from worst to in the middle. We went to worst to they're not bad. Your average quake season, your average whatever. ⁓ So I can kind of feel for him in that point. It's just tough to kind of keep defending it when when the results aren't there and and the one thing that I will say for For Bruce this year is that I can see the improvements I can see the improvements in the players He's brought in like you mentioned Arango Martinez Those are players that you know I don't think would have looked at San Jose twice if it wasn't for the fact that we have a high caliber coach That's backing it with that promise of that money that we're bringing in players And you know, I don't think that would happen under anybody else At least not yet the players we brought in and to see him just be frustrated like I get it like it sucks ⁓ You know, and so it's tough, but you know, I see the improvement I see the fact the fact that I'm leaving games this year versus last year differently thinking last year. It was like ⁓ god, this is getting exhausting but this year it's like That I leave mad because I'm like we should have won there were so many games where we were the better team for 80 minutes and we just, you know, went ahead and just dropped a big deuce on our own game towards the end. You know, like we shot ourselves in the foot, but we were the better team for most of that game. We were the team that we were the underdog coming in all the cute little sports betting, whatever. Like we have the lowest percentage, but we went and dominated possession. We dominated the shots. We just couldn't buy goals. leaving the stadium feels better because I'm mad that we just couldn't buy a goal. It's you know, it's not we're mad because we were terrible and we should be playing in you know, usl league two, you know with the performance that we have. ⁓ so there's that you know, bruce i'm still giving them the season. We'll see. I I only know what I know and what i've heard is is january is when everything wants to get tied up in a bow and be done. You know, don't quote me. I've heard it from reliable sources. ⁓ that the the I don't know that an owner has been locked in yet, but I know that January is the date that they're looking to have something in motion. So I don't know what that does. I don't know if that owner is going to come in and hit the ground running and aim for that winter transfer window. ⁓ But we'll see. speaker-1: Those transfers better come in quick, that's all I have say. speaker-0: for sure and and you know I do you know hope the the quakes go in a better direction with the change of ownership but there is a part of me just being a quakes fan like what there it is physically possible to be worse than than Fisher like it is it is possible that you make our kits like like puke green like I don't know like they could do something and I'm just anxious about that possibility but it is definitely It does look like it should be a better situation for sure. And there's a lot of reasons for San Jose to be a big club. Like they're a massive regional team. A big, big market as we've shown on Saturday. A lot of things, a lot of history, a lot of very passionate fans who are desperate for a winning team. But I guess we're going to have to wait till January. Guys, is there anything else, any closing thoughts that we'd like to touch on the game? ⁓ Anything you saw that you think that might have been? speaker-1: I do want to actually ⁓ discuss something here and that's the substitutions made by Bruce Arena. know Abram had mentioned a couple of minutes ago that Bruce Arena is known for late substitutions, but at least this game at Levi's Stadium, we saw surprisingly early substitutions. Benji Kakanovic, Osenia Buda, Josef Martinez, they were coming in fairly early or at least earlier than we've expected in the past. ⁓ And I think we saw improvement. from those substitutions, some subs, not all, ⁓ like Osenibuta and Benjik Akanovic on the right hand side, I think he did a pretty good job with locking it down and his movement off the ball, that was something else I wanted to say, comparison and contrast to LAFC and the Earthquakes level of play. I think the experience that Jung-Minsun kind of provides, as a Spurs fan myself, I hated this game because... I watched him score a goal and I couldn't celebrate and I just hated him seeing Lee Tottenham in general. But, that being said, you can see the difference in quality with Sun and the rest of the team and the rest of the league. They're interchanging with each other. Sun's making underlapping runs behind, underneath and around Buanga and around the striker, around other wingers. He's opening himself up for space so he can open others up for space at the same time. and confuse our defense. We don't see that from our side. It's very basic, very vanilla play. know, someone checks in, someone pulls out. There's a lot less interchanging, overlapping, underlapping behavior like we used to see when, and I'm gonna, it feels weird to say this, when Tommy Thompson was on the team, he was into overlaps. He loved overlapping and confusing the defense and making them jumbling their tactical decisions. I loved seeing that. We haven't really seen that from any players or just from the team at all this season. think Benji Kukanovic brought a little bit of that as a substitute. ⁓ But back to the substitutes as a whole, I did think it was somewhat worrying that the substitutes that came on besides, I want to say, ⁓ Bouda or Benji, most of them acted like they were playing for 90 minutes time. I don't know if you guys saw the same, I don't know if you saw any different, but there wasn't as much hustle from our substitutes as you would like to see from them. What do you guys thoughts on that? speaker-0: Eric. speaker-2: Yeah, no, I agree. you know, one of those players is ⁓ Ricketts who has kind of become a friend of mine. he's one of those players where he's got so much to give and it just, it just didn't feel like it was there this game, you know, and it just didn't feel like we were really playing to win. think everybody was just kind of like, let's just finish out the rest of this game and worry about the next one. Cause you know, they have our number of this game. They're going to keep doing what they're doing. And it just, really disappointing to see from, from all those players where we just were, but I think there has to be some accountability from our end, That's our role in this. We're the 12th man. We're the ones that are supposed to rally behind them. And that stadium went so quiet for 60 minutes, right? We were there, and as soon as things started to of pick up, that second goal came in, I think, at the 80th or whatever it was. Things started to kind of pick up, right? And at that point, it's too late, right? That's one thing that I will respect 1,000 % about. the ultras is that they're giving it all for 90 minutes because they know that that atmosphere definitely rallies up the players and I think. That's one thing that I would like to see improved is as a fan base is when those subs come in, like let's sub our mentality, right? Let's sub out the crappy feelings and feeling like you're not, like we're gonna lose this game and say, okay, here, reinforcements are here, the cavalry's here. know, whether or not we truly feel that way, right? It doesn't matter if we're out there, we're chanting, we're yelling for our players. I think it gives them that mentality of like, okay, I can do this. Cause at the end of day, they are professionals, right? This is their job to do. But we all have jobs that we're professionals at and you know an attaboy goes a long way when you're at your office Right here if your boss comes in and says hey, man You've been doing really good like you I need you on this project you come in on the project and everybody around you is like ⁓ Yeah, like you know this guy's coming in like let's you know it's the same idea right with it They're having bad days at work right now So let's rally behind them. That's what we can do. That's what we can control. And hopefully when those subs do come in, they come into that fanfare and it pushes them to give that extra 10%. speaker-1: I think you make a good point with Ricketts too. It's a name I didn't present as one of the good subs. I think on the left-hand side he presented a couple of interesting crosses, and I'm not just going say interesting, they were dangerous. They went over the goalkeeper's hedge toward far post, and unfortunately I think there were some players that couldn't connect. ⁓ But he presented good opportunities for the team to finish, or at least make a dangerous chance out of. ⁓ So yeah, Ricketts was another name. to impress. Go ahead, Avery. speaker-0: Yeah, I just want to say Rick is one of players that it's not his rookie season, but he's playing like it is in the level of hunger that he shows. I spoke to him at the beginning of the season and I said, do you think this could be a breakout year for you? And he's like, absolutely. And you could tell in that moment that he is ready to seize this opportunity with both hands. And when he comes on, he makes things happen. And not everyone is doing that. I also agree with what Eric was saying about the fans and how loud we are or aren't. It was difficult for me. This is probably the most negative part about being in the press box is that there's, in Levi, there's a big, thick pane of glass. So I thought we were quiet because it was out behind glass. But I guess, you know, even on the other side of the glass, might have been, you know, Quite, I mean I understand to an extent when you're losing 4-1, 4-2, but no, I've been in ⁓ PayPal Park, I've been in Stanford where it felt like we as a fanbase conjured that goal to equalize or to go ahead just purely by just believing and feeling it and that's something that this fanbase is quite literally built on. just never say die attitude and I just this isn't the time to start saying die we're 30 games in we are in the playing spot we have teams chomping at our ankles trying to get past us and we just can't let that happen no matter who's in front of us and I mean I'm gonna be here you know win or lose but I'd really really like to say we we made it speaker-1: You know, I don't know exactly how to say this specifically, but when Germany beat Brazil 7-1, when Brazil scored that one goal, I heard a louder crowd than what I heard at Levi's Stadium. And I'm not trying to shit on our fans, alright? But there's passionate fans out there, and you know where they come from. You know where they come from. And they're apparent, they're loud. Even if you're losing 7-1, you still show up for the team, for the players, make as much noise as possible. And even the players themselves, whether it be on our team or other teams, they make it known that support, that vocal support helps the team cross that line. speaker-0: Very well said, Devin. ⁓ Guys, that's gonna be the end of today's episode. Eric, real quick, where can the people find you? ⁓ again, you, you, the stuff you do. speaker-2: Yeah, so for those that want to follow me for my soccer content, follow me on that footy dad. That's, you know, take talk, Instagram. I'll be posting just strictly soccer content there. If anybody wants to find me for my main channel, it's official black turtle. This is where we pretty much do all my family stuff and all the stuff you guys see in the back, motor sports. speaker-0: I wanted to ask about those, like what are those trucks? They look hella cool. speaker-2: So that's for my day job. So I'm actually a project manager and I work for a company that makes RC cars. So I get to play with toy cars all day and I go out to events. We use the toy cars as an avenue for fundraising. We have events for that raise money for kids with autism. So that's kind of, know, like I said, I try to put positivity out in the world. But those are those are my fun. That's my that's my joy. That's what, you know, pays the bills. What's people keeps the lights on is the toy cars. official black turtle that's ⁓ you know my alter ego speaker-1: It's a dream job right there. speaker-0: Yeah, we might be funding those things, because I don't know about you, Devin. I know that you're into cars, but I'm looking for an RC car too. speaker-1: If they have those little toy F1 cars, it over. I would absolutely love to try them out. speaker-2: You have they have F1 there's an F1 ⁓ race series out here in San Jose. You know there's a lot of fun you know let's we'll chat a little bit more about it off offline and we'll get you set up. I know a couple people motorsports has been a blessing in my life and you know it's it's like I said it keeps the lights on. speaker-0: Yeah, we would be here for another hour talking about cars if we could ⁓ But yeah, thank you guys so much for joining us for this episode to kind of take I think we're on 151 I joined the show on the 51st episode, but I haven't made it I'm almost at a hundred episodes guys. So stay tuned for that. Also, I want to say that we are at 497 subscribers right now as of recording so guys if you have three friends like If you have like two uncles and an aunt, please like, you know speaker-1: Parents in the background, know you can hear this. Subscribe for the sake of Tectonic Takes. speaker-0: Know you can hear it. We're so close to 500 and getting over that that mark would mean a lot to us. So You know, please Feel free to leave those subscribe Like whatever all those things But yeah, that's gonna be it for today's episode thank you so much for watching and thank you guys Thank you for joining. We'll see you guys next time go quakes speaker-1: Thanks.