Latest / Tectonic Takes / Episode 154: Last chance vs US Open Cup Finalists (W/ Hernan from WeAreAustin TV)

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Episode 154: Last chance vs US Open Cup Finalists (W/ Hernan from WeAreAustin TV) · Tectonic Takes

• speaker-0: Welcome back to the TocTonic Takes podcast where San Jose earthquakes are back to being spiritually eliminated, but there's still a slight chance. We'll get into that and some more events involving both San Jose earthquakes and Austin. We welcome back Ernan from the We Are Austin TV podcast. And we also thank everyone for getting us to 500 subscribers. Thank you for letting us approach that milestone before the end of the season. And we thank all of your support. and we look forward to providing some more great content today and we'll check in with our panel today featuring Devin Abram and starting with Arnon. How are you doing? Welcome back. speaker-1: Well, thank you guys for having me back shout out to my G Devon He said last time he said he was like man this guy got energy So I had to make sure I had the same ritual the same stuff with me. I got a coffee So, you know, I'm ready to talk San Jose, which I gotta say kind of thank you. I don't know. It's weird We're gonna get into that I'm ready to talk Austin FC and of course just the end of this season, you know, which is playoffs We're here and and you know, I think that you said it best, know, San Jose still has a chance It's not over yet for them and honestly I would love it if you guys got postseason soccer that way those 500 subs can turn into 550 and then 600 you know what I'm saying so Doing good over here, man doing good speaker-0: There we go. Uh, Abram, if we had to describe Santa's Earthquakes position right now, we are that kitten barely hanging in there in one of those motivational posters, right? speaker-3: Hey Ivan, I think you top yourself for most niche reference like every few episodes and it's so impressive. Yes, that is definitely where we're at. I mean, that's probably a little bit more positive than it is in my mind. I'm like, in my mind we're already out so I can't be disappointed and I'll just be pleasantly surprised if we do end up making it. speaker-0: Yeah, most of those posters have the kitten with two paws hanging on a hanger or something. Maybe we're down to one nail, I think. Devin, you say that's apt? speaker-2: I don't know the reference, but yeah, I'm gonna say yes just to go along with it. Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, so basically it's just another way of saying it's very very unlikely, but we're at least playing for something ⁓ It's hard to put in perspective right now Technically it is progress, but in all seriousness I don't blame any Son of the Earthquakes fan that is back to their default pessimistic vote mode because This has been the story most of the seasons whether we are barely clinging on to the last playoff spot for a chance for that or We are out of it completely. They're not very much the most optimistic outlooks for a major league soccer season over the course of 13 seasons now since 2012 Supporters Shield run, virtually every other MLS team, barring a very few exceptions, have had at least a playoff victory, have finished higher in their respective conference, or something. And this includes a boat full of expansion teams, which will bring us to a US Open Cup final featuring two very new teams in MLS. We'll talk about Austin versus Nashville, and there's several key points in this game. And on one hand, it was decided by a penalty that was scored, but there was also a penalty that did not get converted. So, Ernan, I'll let you set the stage for this first half. speaker-1: Well, the first half was a roller coaster man, I mean I want to start off first with the national anthem I know that's before the ball was kicked I'm a big fan of the national anthem because it just kind of sets the mood it just kind of like gets everybody ready for like battle and The national anthem that was played in the US Open Cup final. Look, I respect every musician in this world. I am not a musician myself. I'm sure it's very tough to play an electric guitar, let alone try to play the national anthem on a late on an electric guitar. That must be tough. But as soon as it started, mate, I didn't want to say anything to the people around me. But I was like, man, I felt the aura drop. Like I was like, man, this is this is just tough. I don't know. It just something that stayed in the back of my head. But That's nothing that has to do with the game. I just wanted to point that out because that's a big talking point down here. in Austin. When the first half started, of course, one of the things that really first kind of stuck out was the fact that Coach Nico had switched from a back five, which had brought him ⁓ success in multiple games. He switched to a back four. I thought it was the wrong decision. However, I'm not the coach. And even then I can argue about the decision about going to the back four. I do have to admit that chances were created. was chances for Guillermo Biro, chances for Bucari, chances for ⁓ Usuni, you know, ⁓ there was that penalty that you had asked about. Folks were saying that it was not a penalty on Mirto. I do think that he was very quick to the ball. He got there first. The national goalkeeper, ⁓ takes a swipe at his legs. Did he sell it a little bit? Sure, but I feel like in today's game, you gotta sell your penalty a little bit. And Mirto Usuni did well in that department. There was some confusion as to who was gonna take the penalty kick. uh... when brendan baskets is healthy and here he is the primary shooter however with the season ending injury that position is kinda opened up and the ball was first in osmabukari's hands then it was given to me to go so near or middle so we took it from book at uh... he steps up to the plate and i just have to get this out of there to step up to to the plate to shoot a penalty in a final it takes quite the mindset it takes quite the the bravery to do it was so neat Decided that he was gonna take it. He felt like he was right for the moment But the execution for the pen it just wasn't that of a designated player like me at all, you know He's been in in in bigger stages. He's played in La Liga 2 and in La Liga Granada. He's very loved there I think he's a if I'm mistaken, he's the historic goal scorer for them I mean fans are still in his comments asking him to come back So it's not like you know, this guy is just a random Joe like no, this is me. It's all Sunni, right? I was just a little bit let down by the way that he took his penalty. I think it was very announced, the way that he opened up his hips. It really told the Nashville goalkeeper, �Hey, I'm going this side. I'm going low.� And even then, the ball wasn't struck with any kind of threatening force. It was kind of just passing to the back of the net. And when you have that kind of execution, it gives the goalkeeper a chance. And when you step up to take a penalty, you have 80 % to convert it. The keeper only has 20%. You just got to do a little bit better. in that department but like i said other than that penalty kick, Usuni later came on ⁓ to, I'm sorry, he later went on to make up for it. Ilias Sanchez played a ball to his feet in between Nashville's line. He finishes very nicely in between the Nashville goalkeeper's legs and the first half was just very bittersweet. You you missed the penalty but you gotta go back. Bukhari missed a chance 1v1. Gilevne Bidu missed a chance in front of goal which is very rare for him and Of course, Nashville did get their goal. They weren't the better side. They were not the better team of the night. if I have any criticism for Austin FC and mainly for the coach is just why did they switch from the back five to the back four when things were going good? And I think it's just shoulda, coulda, woulda at this point, you know, at one of the most historic moments, probably the most historic moment in Austin FC history. They tried an experiment and it didn't, it didn't play out. speaker-0: It's really difficult to make a shift like that during the final. ⁓ Many teams and many competitions found out the hard way that that's not the time to change something so fundamentally structural to your defensive scheme. Abram. speaker-3: Yeah, no problem. So what I wanted to ask is, ⁓ you're the guy making that decision, who's stepping up for you? Because I know Elias is the guy in the commercial against John Johnson. He's very smart. I always have to make that reference. My favorite MLS commercial. ⁓ So if I'm the guy not knowing Austin SC, that's who I pick. But you've been watching them week in week out. Who do you pick? speaker-1: going with Mirto Sunni 10 out of 10 times brother. That's the thing because when everybody saw him step up to take this penalty they were like, man, this is everybody was already celebrating it before the penalty was kicked. That's how excited the stadium was and Mirto Sunni, he oozes confidence. He has that aura. When he got signed for Austin FC, he was saying that he was here to break records, that he was here to solidify himself in Austin FC history. the moments there's no too big of a moment for this guy, right? Because everything that they he was saying, the way that he carries himself, the things that he posts on his ⁓ social media. So 10 out of 10 times I'm giving that ball to Usuni, which is why I was so surprised, so shocked at the level of execution because I feel like if he were to take that penalty again, he puts that into the back of the net. I don't know what happened. I wish I could go back and maybe just give them a little bit of word of advice like, man, this is your moment. I don't know what it was, but I would go with Mirto's 2100%. That's the craziest part. speaker-3: And you know sometimes the hardest thing to accept is that Polly is you know fate because like Quicks fans we remember the last penalty shootout we had or one of the most recent ones was ⁓ against Kansas City when we got knocked out of the playoffs for not the first time it happened but ⁓ Christian Espinoza who everyone would have picked to take that penalty even other teams probably would have picked Espinoza to take their penalties He ended up, you know, getting his penalty saved and obviously Amelia is a great keeper. But you know, even even the man, even the guy that you would 100 % back in that moment, he is going to let you down. And you know what? That's football, right? speaker-1: It is made, it is, is football and I think you put it, you put it in a great San Jose earthquakes example. Christian Espinosa is y'all's guy. And matter of fact, I'm a big fan of Christian during the MLS All-Star. made it our mission to get some quotes from him, to talk to this guy when he was down here in Austin, because I know what he represents to the league. I think he's one of the hardest workers and he's such a humble guy, right? That's the kind of, that's what I get from him. I don't know much about him just like you guys, I mean, as much as you guys, you see him week in and week out you know much more about Christian than I do but from what I've got from him I think he's a very humble guy like I said he's a very hard worker and those are the kind of players that I like that I really admire and Mirto Usuni He is the Christian Espinoza for us in FC in the sense that he is that guy. Right now that Brandon Vasquez is not here, the sporting director, Borrell, said that BV9 was the main DP. Well, he's not here right now. And the main guy is Mirto Usuni. So that's why I would put the ball in his hands to take that penalty 10 out of 10 times. Like, complete confidence in him and also complete confidence moving forward. If there's a penalty next week, I would want Usuni to also take it for two reasons. Number one, to get it out of his head. And number two, because I know he's going to slot it home. speaker-0: Similar level of confidence as Allegri showed Pulisic with his penalty miss on the weekend. And that's what you have to be. can't be focused on that one moment. You have to look at the bigger picture and think about, you know, that's the best option you have. You roll with it. Before we dive into the second half, we'll peel it back a little bit. We'll go to Devin and then Abram. Did you feel like either Austin or Nashville had a significant edge over the because both of them are in similar spot in their respective conferences. speaker-2: I I didn't necessarily watch the game, so I don't know if I have a true opinion to this. haven't watched the highlights and whatnot, but knowing the buildup to the game and listening to other fans' opinions about who may or may not have the advantage, I had kind of thought that, admittedly, Nashville did have some sort of an upper hand, I think, offensively. And we had mentioned this in another podcast kind of after we had Hernan on the first time. Nashville has incredible atta- King Pravis. you know, for the first half of the season, their winger was, you know, a Golden Boot leader and now it's being led by, you know, Buonga and Messi, but you know, he's still up there. ⁓ And I can't tell you the name right now, but you know, that goes to show that, you know, Nashville doesn't come to play. They want trophies, they want silverware, their fans want silverware. I'm sure Austin fans want just as much silverware, if not more. ⁓ Just because of, you know, how new, well, not how new they are, but you know, I think you know what I mean. ⁓ They want their first one. And, you know, as an Earthquakes fan, we kind of sympathize, sympathize with that. Like, you know, it's been a long time. We want something. ⁓ So, you know, that being said, I think Nashville kind of came into that game, you know, admittedly, as favorites. And it seemed like that's kind of what the narrative of the story was. They persevered, they pushed through, and they ended up with the win. And they stuck to their guns, kind of like Hernan was saying. Like, ⁓ Austin kind of switched gears halfway through the game, or either late in the second half. ⁓ You don't want to be doing that in a cup final. You don't want to be experimenting in a cup final. If you have something that's good for you, you stick to what's good for you and you're gonna finish off with the win with the things that are good. ⁓ If you change things up, it's gonna throw confusion into the wind and you never know what's gonna happen. So I think with that, yeah, Nashville is expected to ⁓ come home with the upper hand. speaker-0: And we've seen all sorts of wild 4D chess moves made in the final. The biggest one being Pep Guardiola not starting Rogerie in the final against Chelsea. So, strange things have happened, but the worst thing you can do is switch something that doesn't need to be broken. unfortunately, Austin found themselves against a Nashville team that was very clinical. The goal scorers on the night were the same two that score virtually all the goals for Nashville, Hani Mukhtar and Sam Ser... albeit same surge was from the penalty spot and Ernan you mentioned some ⁓ discussion about the validity of Uzuni's penalty. How did you feel about Suraj's penalty? speaker-1: my days bro. ⁓ That is a whole podcast right there because the decision to give I mean was Surge was the one that converted it right but I believe it was Palacios the defender that ultimately won it. Now I know a lot of awesome MC fans are gonna be like hey that was a soft penalty should have never been called. Yes I agree with that part right I agree that it was very soft I saw both players kind of tugging at each other right ⁓ the Nashville player was was pulling on ⁓ Danny Danny was had his hands around them or one not trying to limit his movement in the box but the thing that maybe is not being talked about enough or or even then some Austin fans are kind of like skipping over is the fact that the referee had gone to Danny Pereira and she spoke to him about what was going on in the box she said hey keep your hands down no touching enough and unfortunately Pereira he didn't really calm down what he was doing if you look at the very very very slow replay and zoom in you see that Palacios kind of pulls Pereira into him as well you know kind of enhancing the the the foul illusion in the box I saw I heard a lot of criticism for the ⁓ referee that night I also included myself but not just because of the penalty I mean I think the entire referee team had gotten multiple calls wrong the entire match. I Nashville's time wasting the goalkeeper just holding the ball for so long. And although the penalty was a huge factor in this match, I agree 100%. There was other things that Nashville was doing that the referee was not even given a slap on the wrist or anything for these Nashville players. And I was very disappointed with the refereeing in this match. I think it was not at the level of a cup final. I don't think that that it was appropriate. I think that there should have been maybe, I don't want people to say, ⁓ you're just saying that because it was a whole team of women referees. That's not the case. I think the best referees should be refing a cup final. And that's just point blank. I don't care if they're a Martian. I don't care if they're from Saturn or from Jupiter. If you are the best at what you're doing right now, you need to be refereeing the cup final. And I think the penalty that Sam Surge converted was soft. I don't there wasn't even any VAR intervention. There was no monitor looking or anything like that. And at the end of the match, Coach Nico, he had a quote. He was very critical of the refs. He says that he always says that this is why VAR was created so that a final is not decided by a call by a bad call like that. And I have to I have to agree with him. That is literally why VAR was brought into the game because before VAR we were saying, ⁓ that's just soccer. That's the emotion that we love and hate. Those are the controversial calls that keep us watching. But when VAR was instated, when VAR was brought into the picture, you now had an extra tool, another opportunity to make the right decision, to make the right call. And I think this referee was just too proud to say that it wasn't a pen. She stuck to her guns and you saw what happened. Sam Surridge put it right in between the goal. Very, very cheeky penalty. Very, very mental game kind of penalty. and ⁓ brad stover a great keeper he he couldn't do anything i mean it was just it was just a very frustrating night and the penalty didn't help at all at all and credit to sir it's for putting it away because also does he had the same opportunity and need to fully didn't take it sam syringe devin was just saying that you know he's battling it out with messy for the ⁓ golden boot he goes up and down sometimes he's leader sometimes he's not but that's the quality that that sam surge has and they also have a guy like honey mook dot MVP in 2022. He's fighting for MVP this season. I don't think he will get it this year. But Nashville is a team that knew how to play the final. They're a team that had lost the final already in 2023. And just the penalty, you got to give them credit for them for converting it. But for me, it was soft. It was not the right decision. And I think if they would have gone to VAR to review it, it would have been called back. But to my first point, Danny, if they're talking to you about it, if the referee already pointed it out to you, mate, you got to keep your hands down. That's just the most frustrating part about it too. speaker-0: I agree there. It sucks that that ended up being another decisive moment. ⁓ Two penalties in the final. That rarely happens. One for each side in both of them. You could argue whether or not they should have been given, particularly that second one. And then Austin went to their rolls of the dice. Nico went with all offensive substitutions. CJ Fadry, Hader O'Brien, and John Gallagher. And that's all you can do at that point. You did everything you could have left at all. out there and ultimately for a first cup final ⁓ sucks to be on the losing end. You've got to a cup final, you've got to experience that. There's going be valuable experience for this team that had a few different eras regarding some DPs that have come and gone in Austin's brief MLS history, but now this team is shaping an identity and they still have playoffs to look forward to. speaker-3: You're welcome for that by the way. speaker-0: Speaking of, unless you have any final thoughts on that particular US Open Cup final or none. speaker-1: Well, just the last thing that I want to say is that Austin FC will most likely be back in a cup final. It hurt so much to lose it. really, really, really did. know that fans were leaving Q2 Stadium crying. You know, they were very upset. I mean, it was a game at home. Nobody wants to lose a regular season game at home, let alone a cup final. The stadium was absolutely full. It looked like it was about to erupt. There was fireworks. There was so much emotion. And to see Nash raise a trophy in your stadium it's kind of it's kind of deflating it's kind of demoralizing a little bit but I want to give credit to the fan base because there was a game at home right after that literally 72 hours later on Saturday and there's a music festival ⁓ sorry there's a music festival going on right now in Austin ACL it's very big it attracts so many people from all over the world from all over the country and Q2 stadium was still full After a cup final with so much going on in Austin, Texas, the stadium was still a four and what does that tell me? It tells me that we have a good fan base that supports this team. And I think everybody knows this quote in football where it says, you got to support your team at the good times and in the bad times. And the Austin FC fans showed up in the bad times. They didn't win against St. Louis, but that's another conversation. But what I'm saying is that the fans showed their character and they showed that they have a, there's a proper fan base here. And hopefully Austin MC can repay them with a trophy soon because this fan base really really was hurt that day and they deserve something special honestly. speaker-0: Agreed. Once again, congratulations on a great cup run and wish you the best in trying to get over that hump there. That's something that many other teams are to find. While Austin, they're currently on a three game losing streak. Three happens to be the margin of defeat that the Earthquakes suffered against Vancouver Whitecaps. It was a shaky start with both Espinoza and Kakanovic getting early yellow cards. Devin, your thoughts on that beginning of the game? game. speaker-2: I think it was too early to start dealing yellow cards, to be honest. I think the ref tried to dictate the flow of play in an awkward way. Like, there were many times in 15-minute segments where, you know, the referee let a lot of, you know, interesting challenges go, but then all of a sudden, ⁓ started handing off yellow cards. At least at the beginning, you started handing off yellow cards left and right. Like, some of those fouls, those are warnings. Those are warnings at max, you know? Blow the foul. let the play stop, let everyone recollect themselves, let play continue. I think sending out early yellow cards like that not only hinders the flow of play in the future, but it also kind of like if people are on yellow card accumulation, that hinders the rest of the season. I think, know, ⁓ with calls like that and especially like penalties and whatnot, that alters a season to a team. And I'm not trying to say like, you know, those... those types of calls should be investigated or whatever. They're just calls. They happen. We get upset. Fine. We go to the next game. But there should be some sort of standard of refereeing. If you're gonna act this way, act this way throughout the entire 90 minutes. And that just wasn't the case. And I think it was really disappointing to see that because now, in my opinion, two of our best players on the field for that game ⁓ now had to limit themselves for challenges and tackles and, you know, just 50-50 opportunities. ⁓ it, in my opinion, it ruins the flow of the game. But, you know, everyone may have a different opinion. ⁓ It's just unfortunate, because they just weren't necessarily yellow card worthy tackles. speaker-0: Yeah, that is really poor decision making that is a theme between the two matches we've talked about so far. with Espinosa, he's very smart with his tackles, especially for a forward. Usually you see a forward get a yellow card and you can just chalk it off to, ⁓ that's a forward's challenge. But Espinosa, particularly because he's been asked to play as a fullback many times, he has a bit more experience in that department. And then for one type, to another. The San Jose Earthquakes concede a scrappy goal and it's another unsung young hero for the Whitecaps in this case. was 18 year old Ryan Elumi, a young Canadian prospect within the Whitecaps Academy, very scrappy 1-0 goal. It just felt like anytime you look at textbook how not to defend, San Jose Earthquakes have shown many examples of that this season. It's a big reason why they found themselves in early holes. It's a very similar story to the previous previous game between Austin and the Santa Ana's Earthquakes, defensive mistakes, defensive lapses, and I think it was just deja vu at that point, Abram. speaker-3: Yeah, I agree. ⁓ I want to touch on the ref thing just really quick. I think that it's really frustrating that Adnan comes on here and he talks about the ref and we talk about the refs in our game. It's just like that's the last thing we want to talk about when we're discussing a soccer game. We're a football podcast and we come on here and we're like, the referees hindered everything. And it's like, come on, let them play. That's my thing. It's like we want to watch the game. We don't want to watch arguing for. however long. But on that goal, is ⁓ also frustrating, almost equally as frustrating as, you know, premature yellow cards. ⁓ The amount of times Sebastian Brughalter got a like different types of dead ball situations to be able to swing it into our box was very frustrating. you know, whether they were warranted or not, that's a different thing. But it's just like man this guy can strike a ball really well we gotta stop letting him do that and in fact stop giving him situations where like you literally can't like the part of the game is he can swing the ball in and no one can stop him like that's what a corner kick is and so yeah it's a wide set piece ⁓ Danny Meany lost his man ⁓ when you're looking at a replay and you see that your center back is behind the striker in that small of an area it's really like damning in my opinion it's hard to say like ⁓ he got lucky there whatever you you really want to you know keep track of your man in that tight area if you are you know the the he's the chief defender in in this squad in the in the three centerbacks he is the most ⁓ capped the most experienced and i know he's not very experienced he's you know only two years out from being a rookie but We keep talking about on this podcast how good Denny Meanie has been and then he goes in and does that almost as if to make me look bad, me personally. No, but yeah, obviously a very frustrating goal to concede and I think that really kind of opened up the floodgates for Vancouver to continue to do what they did. speaker-0: Aaron, I'm not sure how much you've watched Vancouver over the course of season, but what impressed you most when you have the chance to watch them play? speaker-1: ⁓ I know a little bit about Vancouver, mate. They gave us a beat down 5-0 or 5-1 once before. ⁓ So I got a little bit on Vancouver, although at the end of the day, their victory over San Jose ended up helping Austin FC clinch playoffs. So maybe I got to watch out what I'm going to say about these guys. But one thing that's really impressed me, mean, obviously, is, well, number one, I got to send a shout out to a guy that maybe doesn't get enough praise, and it's their goalkeeper. ⁓ I think he's a great goalkeeper ⁓ he was here for all-star you know he it's a it's a language barrier kind of thing where he didn't really speak much you know because his is his ling his english i'm sure even he thinks this is obviously not as good as a guy like brad stuber right but you know he still spoke with the media he still you know got to say his things he was very proud to you know be here whatnot one of the hardest working goalkeepers in mls i think he did a great ⁓ great job when it came to ⁓ ccc they absolutely demolished ⁓ cruz azul but you know ⁓ That's maybe the unlikely hero the guy that gets all the praise. I mean you got to give it up to brian white I mean, this is a dude that knows what he's doing in front of goal the day that it was up to up to Brandon and vasquez or to brian white to secure that mls position in butch roster brian white scored four on austin fc for literally four goals on austin and I think that kind of Solidified that conversation, but other than that. I think they also have a really good guy in ⁓ sebastian burhalter ex-austin fc player, a banger versus San Jose. I'm sorry to mention it boys, but it was a banger. It was a banger. And even he posted something on his Instagram story and he said that goal was for the people in the back. And I screenshot it and I sent it to the chat. was like, nah, man, that goal was for the people in Austin, not the people in the back. And so I think they have a complete team. think Vancouver is a very solid team when it comes to the playoffs. You obviously don't want to see them. There are possibility for us and FC this year. And ⁓ although we've had some OK moments against Vancouver, I think they're a more complete team than Austin FC. I think Austin FC has some pieces that they need to improve for next year in order to be at that level, because Vancouver is a team that can play two competitions at once. Not in the same night, but you know, in in in one week. They can play two different competitions. Austin, every time they had to play Open Cup and MLS in the same week, it got really bad for them. And that's just the kind of team that Vancouver is right now. I don't want to say that they're the goats of MLS because they're not, but they were a very solid team this year. I got to give them props. speaker-0: Yeah, congratulations to the Whitecaps as well. They're champions of the Canadian Championship against the Vancouver-based team in the Canadian Premier League. So a big moment for the city of Vancouver and one of two host Canadian cities for the World Cup. things are buzzing in Vancouver and their biggest goal contributor showed out in this game, Sebastian Berhalter, 10 assists and four goals on the season. A creative spark plug when they've been needing someone to step But before Mueller came in they've been missing Ryan Gold for a lot of the season and Ryan Gold had the perfect Scenario to come in late for the San Jose earthquakes To get some more fitness in before the World Cup and all he does is he's provides an assist for Brault is third goal contribution of the night and a questionable or interesting decision was Bruce's first move from the bench was to put in buck for Ian Harks and then Bolleroo shows up in the 79th minute and and you only need 10 minutes to score. Devin, I know you have some thoughts. Go for it. speaker-2: think the majority of Earthquakes fans, at least from what we've seen in our Discord server, it's just like, why are we not playing Boleru? Week in, week out, when he's on the field, he surpasses expectations from head coach to normal fan, casual fan, dedicated fan. Boleru is the guy that you want on the field. If there's a player that us and FC were to snipe from us that's affordable, I feel like it would be Boleru. speaker-3: want to energy up there. speaker-2: I don't want you guys to do that obviously, but you know, he's the kind of guy that every team would love to have on their team. And sure enough, he gets subbed on and almost immediately he sets an impact to score a goal back from, I think a four nil deficit or something like that. Yeah, I absolutely love having Bolu Ru on the field, but it's just way too late. he passed the 75th minute, passed the 70th minute. It's not gonna lead to as much of an impact as maybe the 60th or 55th. ⁓ I see Abram raising his hand, passing it to you. speaker-3: I'm waiting for you to finish bro. No, worry about it. Okay, I don't know I wanted to Raise this I don't know if you remember but last time you were here we were praising Bulu like crazy you had to look up his stats and In that game we wind up losing the game against you guys But do you remember that streak where Bulu picked up the ball on his own half and then ran past like four you guys and Nothing came of it. Unfortunately, did that make an impression on you? speaker-1: Dude, when y'all first mentioned him, was like, okay, well, I'm gonna have to keep an eye on this guy. And then whenever that game did come around, I felt like I knew something that a lot of people didn't know. was like, dude, that's Bolero, like that's him. You know what I'm saying? And just like you said, although it didn't end up in anything in that sequence, you see the individual quality that this guy has. you know, ⁓ Devin said that if there's any player that San Jose, if there's any player that Austin FC would poach from you guys, be Bolarou. Well, I don't think it's just Austin FC. I think a lot of teams in the league would benefit from having a young kid like that. And that's a really good question. And the one that you guys are asking, why did he come on so late in an important game like it was versus ⁓ the Whitecaps? know, I mean, just like you said, he only needed what, five, 10 minutes to make an impact. those are the kind of players that you want on your team week in and week out starting not off the bench starting unless he was dealing with an injury unless he was dealing with some serious fatigue I mean he's a young lad you got to be playing him and also literally as soon after we finish that part where we had talked about this guy he did something with he did like a feature with somebody I think it was ⁓ I think what maybe it was like urban pitch or something like that where he did like a like a mini interview and I was like okay with Fabi shout out to my G And I watched it and I was like, feels good to know who Bolo Ro is before this came out because I feel like I'm watching a movie that was recommended to me and it ended up being good. You know what I'm saying? Like that's what I felt like. And yeah, I would take Bolo Ro. I would take this guy in Austin, MC, especially right now. mean, Austin has two good midfielders, two very young, talented midfielders in Danny Pereira and Owen Wolf. But you know, have guys like Ilya Sanchez who is great, is talented, is a leader, is phenomenal. He's not that young of a man anymore, right? You have guys like Duber Sarski who has not panned out. You have guys like Salovich who has not panned out. And a guy like Volarou, he knows the league. He knows what it is to travel from California to the East Coast, to the South, to the North, right? He knows what it is to travel in this country. And I think that has a lot to do with how players approach and how players handle MLS. The travel is not like what you see in Europe. And this is a guy that has everything down. He checks a lot of the boxes that you would need for a proper MLS player. And that's my take on Mr. Bolaru. I like him. speaker-3: Yeah, I'm glad that you enjoyed him. I do have some more insight on Bolaroo. We were gonna release ⁓ the press conference, the audio was messed up so we didn't do that. So I asked Bruce Arena, why not? Why not Bolaroo? He has played so much of the season so far and a lot of people are very curious, right? And obviously, know, Bruce Arena is not gonna give you the most in-depth answer on this kind of thing. But what he did say, I... felt like we could you know pars enough from that where he said that you know is my decision and he said that he felt that boulder rule slowed down at a certain stage of the season and that we we had acquired a new midfielder in renal de viera and so you know that's gonna put him back down the pecking order but in my opinion right I'm disagreeing with brits arena which is obviously you know not a situation everyone wants to be in but I think that even a slowed down boulder route provides more to this team than any of our other midfielders and I'm not gonna crap on our midfielders. think that they all have strength in certain areas, but boulder route has, he's almost as good as each of them in their best area. He's a great defender. He's ⁓ a great passer of the ball. can progress through the midfield very well. I just I just fully disagree with with Bruce arena there and I also were they would ask Ballou himself You know in this game where you were only on in the 80th minute ⁓ Do you think that you would have been able to make more of an impact had you started and? You know I don't think that he actually gave me as good of an answer as boosted because he was just so upset you could see That the result of the game really affected him and he was just not in a good place to be answering questions So he said yes, but he really didn't want to get too into it. He said that I got to back myself, but it's the coach's decision. speaker-2: Yeah, I think that's kind of telling too. I mean with a player who just scored a goal and every time he scores, you know, his social media lights up like a firework, you know, and when you see him kind of down on himself like that, that's very telling of where he's at in the team right now. and, ⁓ essentially, you know, it's, it's just so disappointing. It's just, it's really disappointing to see someone go through something so significant like boulderu is and i i feel really bad because he deserved that goal obviously and he deserves to celebrate and and be happy and you know have his teammates support him but it just doesn't seem like anyone is cohesive in that environment that the santa's earthquakes are bringing forth right now even you know despite the san diego win there's just nothing nothing to bring forward to to any fans cases that there's anything to look forward to. speaker-3: Can I ask you question real quick? want to ask you specifically. Do you feel, I remember Bruce Arena said this, that he felt that Bolero was getting bullied in midfield because he's not physically ready. Is that something that you get from Bolero? I have a YouTube channel we watch them every week. I don't know if that's the case in my opinion. speaker-2: I don't see that at all. I don't see him getting bullied in the midfield. He's making successive progressive passes and he does it in a way where it's not rushed. When he's in possession, he looks around, he finds an open player and he distributes. A lot of the times our midfielders like Vieira and like, I mean, not necessarily like Harks or whatnot, but people who sub in to replace Harks and I can't think of specific, like Mack, guess, for example. You know, we are the Santa's Earthquakes community. We should be allowed to kind of call these guys out and let people know what's up. But ⁓ in that regard, we see people like Vieira making forward dribbles and then they pass it to no one. Bowleroo has a successful pass rate to the wingers and to other midfielders and other distributing players. We don't see that in many other players. So I don't really see why Bruce is making this assessment about Bo because it doesn't feel right. speaker-0: If this linked to the season, do you think there are any players that are being frozen out or not as many minutes as they got earlier in the season that you'd like to see get a little bit more of extended run potentially in one of the last two MLS games this season? speaker-1: Well, just real quick before I give my take on any player from Austin, just want to, I went to Bolo Ru's social media real quick. I'm looking at the highlight reel of the goal and literally the four first comments. Max ⁓ Alades, he says, so our only goal scored by a kid, everyone is asking to start. Who would have thought that? The second comment, the guy that's supposed to be starting you mean? The third comment. Is that enough for Bruce to realize you should always start bowing big games and i'll read just one more. ⁓ mr Estrada He says should I have always started? I mean if it says if it's as easy for folks at home On social media to be noticing these kind of things you think that a soccer bring like bruce arena Something is weird here. Something is weird here. You think that he should be recognizing this guy's talent i'm wondering if maybe bruce is I don't know guys. mean, we got to, we got to also be real. Bruce arena is not a sweetheart when it comes to us soccer, right? We all know who Bruce arena is in this landscape. I'm wondering if it's a little bit of, of coach pride. I'm wondering if maybe bowl of rule had, I don't know the kid at all, but sometimes you say some things that maybe you don't mean when you're in the heat of the moment. Maybe he, maybe he, maybe he let out a comment that didn't sit right with coach who ultimately makes the decisions. know that Bruce Arena, what kind of character he has, what kind of coaching style he has. And I'm wondering if they're just bumping heads, if there's like a clash of heads there because if it's as simple as for us to be saying it on the pod, if it's as simple for people to be commenting on social media, why is it not happening on the pitch? think there's something there that's behind the scenes that we just don't know about. I mean, you guys are probably maybe sniffing at it. Maybe you like see it or whatnot. But me from the outside in. just off of the comments on social media and hearing you guys and we already talked about Bolarou before and he's not a starter for you guys in this crucial part of the season something's up something is up mate and on the Austin part if there's any players that I think are maybe being frozen or should be seeing minutes it's sad because our bench is not they're not giving you the if it's not CJ Faudre it's nobody And it's very sad because you have guys like Robert Taylor on there who won the Leaks Cup with Messi in Miami. And he was a crucial part of that Leaks Cup ⁓ run. And when he came to Austin, he's been erased. He's been eliminated. Coach Nico is a very good coach. He doesn't throw his players under the bus. I've asked him before. I said, hey, coach, where's Robert Taylor? What's his status? Why is he not getting any minutes? He said that it's just everybody is working really hard and it's about internal competition. and he's just not winning that battle. But then I see the guy that's winning that battle, Enjadero O'Brien, and he is nothing. He's not better than Robert Taylor. They're battle amid. They're both battle amid, and I hate to say it. The Austin bench is terrible right now, and if it's not CJ or even Sparks of veteran Diego Rubio, it's the starting 11 or nothing for Austin FC, and that's a problem. It's a big problem. speaker-0: Not even Gallagher when he comes off the bench? speaker-1: See the thing is is that Gala hurt Dave kind of sent him back to a defensive role He's either playing right back or he's playing left back and although he does the job. He's a hard worker He's a journeyman kind of guy. He does what the coach says He's one of the most professional players I've ever seen you know in this sport in MLS because his ability to to to change Chip mentally in 90 minutes to play one position to go to another position to go to a different position next week Not a lot of players can do that, but he's been reduced to a defensive role when he himself has told us on the pod. said, yeah, I do the job on defense, but I'm a winger. I'm a guy that likes to go forward. And I think he's just being his qualities are not being used at the best because he's now reduced to this defensive role. And yeah, I do want to give credit to, you know, Johnny G. But the reality is, is that I wish he had more minutes in the attack. And a lot of awesome fans will also say that. you speaker-0: I guess it's a similar comparison to another Irish player. did represent Ireland before England Jack Grealish He was kind of boxed in to a lack of a spark in Manchester City And then he just scored a game-winner for Everton in dramatic fashion over the weekend So yeah, if there's any Irish people watching this the fact that I just mentioned Jack Grealish is probably gonna make them shut off this video But yeah, I think that Gellar we've seen him perform very well in a variety of different roles but it's exciting to see him in the wing play and when you're lacking that excitement, if you're deciding between Yadar Overeem who has been in his MLS peak, maybe a third option off the bench versus Robert Taylor who for whatever reason isn't getting opportunities but we know what his ceiling is, if neither of those options are appealing, Gallagher up there would be another option to consider. And I want to take the time to look What MLS is looking like going into their last week plus of? Regular season we'll go through the East real quick because that doesn't concern either of our teams and also all nine teams in the playoffs are locked in it's just a matter of position shuffling it looks like Philadelphia Union have locked in the Eastern Conference and Potentially the supporter shield Vancouver could still catch them, but Philadelphia would just need one more point and then second place Cincinnati third in Miami fourth Charlotte fifth NYC sixth Nashville so they have a little bit of momentum with the US Open Cup seventh Orlando and then eighth and ninth surprises for different reasons Chicago fire congratulations on making the playoffs but Columbus crew I think that that's kind of disappointing but yeah they're in the playoffs but ninth that's the lowest they've finished in the wild any thoughts on Eastern Conference before we go into the West and I'll than that to anyone. speaker-1: want to say one thing real quick. Both of our teams would be cooked in the Eastern Conference this year, We would be cooked. I just looked at the East right now. Columbus is at the bottom of that barrel with 51 points, We're 11 points off when we're talking about the final position in the Western Conference. So sometimes you got to be thankful that you were in the West. What did LeBron say? I'm good in the West. I'm good in the West, right? That's us right now. I'm good in the West right now, you know. People always like to say that the West is bad or whatever. A lot of the times the West battles the East and ultimately takes chips away from them. So I just want to point that out. We would be cooked in the East, but it is what it is. It is what it is. speaker-0: It might have been John Marant, but I get what you mean. speaker-1: My bad, said LeBron, bad, bad. Morant, shout out to my G. Better than Zion Williams if you ask me. Zion the Flop, Jean Morant did a lot better, although he's trying to play gangster. speaker-0: ⁓ Yeah, 9th place Columbus Crew to their credit. I know I just kind of crapped on them there, but they would be fifth ahead of Seattle Sounders in the West. But even still, like, when you just think of Columbus Crew and 9th in the same sentence, that hasn't been the case for them in a long, long time, especially with the likes of Darlington Nagby, who just announced that he'll be retiring at the end of the MLS season. And he's MLS Hall of Fame right there. speaker-3: Yeah, definitely. I feel like if you talk to any pro from that era, they'll say like one of the best players that were played with, ⁓ Darlington Nagby. And this is like someone like Dax McCarty who was like played with Thierry Henry and it's like, no, Darlington Nagby. And he's a great player, but unfortunately obviously didn't really culminate in anything crazy substantial for the U.S. ⁓ you know, obviously a great player and, ⁓ pretty much midfielder for them, but ⁓ No, I think a very underrated player and I don't think a lot of people realize just how good he was. speaker-0: Alright, on to the West. So San Diego is currently up top with 60 points but they only have one game left. Vancouver have two games left so they're tied with San Diego on 60 points but they got a slight edge there. Third place Minnesota United 58 points. Fourth place LAFC and they still have three games left to play so LAFC you're have to squeeze out 270 minutes of regular season action still. And then fifth Seattle Sounders 49 points with the game in hand. sixth Austin 44 points of the game in hand, 77 Portland, 44 points one game left, 8th Dallas, and 9th Rail South Lake, both with games in hand. So we'll see what Dallas and RSL do with that, and that really is where the San Jose earthquakes lie. As of now, the San Jose earthquakes barely have a chance at the playoffs, and that chance can be evaporated before decision day happens if Dallas and Rail South Lake pick up points. And the same can be said for Colorado Rapids. So let's talk a bit about some storylines for Austin here. ⁓ most likely playing defense trying to hold on for that sixth spot where it could be Minnesota, it could be LAFC, but also you have a bit of a leg up definitely against Houston who are out of the playoffs and Dallas most likely you're gonna be finishing above Dallas so any words for the Texas Cup rivalry? speaker-1: Well, will say that the The rivalry between the Dallas teams, didn't really go in Austin's favor this year. Didn't get a victory over them in regular season. You did beat the Houston Dynamo in the Open Cup. That was a great run. But ⁓ in league play, it was not good for Austin FC against Texas teams. They did not get one victory. They dropped points twice against ⁓ the Texas teams. They played Houston tied 2-2. They played ⁓ Dallas literally back to back. They tied 1-1 and both of those games Austin FC should have won them and those are points that if you look at it right now you say, well if we didn't, if Austin FC wouldn't have dropped those points the playoff picture would have been a little bit more different for them. They maybe would have been fighting for that fifth position with ⁓ Seattle or maybe solidified their spot in sixth a little bit more. ⁓ When it comes to the playoffs I just don't want to see LAFC. I think Austin has a chance against anybody else. And it's not that LAFC is some kind of god team or everybody should be scared of them or whatnot. But the reality is that they're the hot hand right now with Hyo-Ming Son. They're the hot hand with Denny Buangah. And we have to see them real soon on Sunday because of a weather delay, because of the floods that were here. But without those two players, I'm very interested to see what this LAFC side looks like. Because then maybe if you develop a game plan where you can maybe lock down Hjelmingsson, maybe shut down Denny Buonga, kind like what you did against Sam Surridge in that Open Cup final, he only had that penalty chance, you could have a chance against this LAFC side. But if you ask me, mate, if you guys ask me who do I want in the playoffs, I'm going with Minnesota because I've traveled to Allianz for the semi-final of the U.S. Open Cup. I have to say beautiful stadium. The fan base erupted when they scored that free kick versus Austin. ⁓ I don't know if I'll go back. didn't really like the city, if I'm being real. I thought it was rough. I thought it was rough. I'm not going to lie. Minneapolis is rough. I've never been to that part of the country, but it's kind of rough. I'm not going to lie. And also, in that game, Yoboa was heard and They also let go of a big player to Villarreal. So I'm looking at Minnesota as, hey, let's lock in those guys. Hopefully they don't lose their spot. LAFC, just like you said, Ivan, pushing for that third place ⁓ position there. They still have games in hand. But I would rather see them more than anybody else in the 2025 MLS Cup playoffs. But that's if Austin finishes sixth. The way that they played in recent games, they've lost three consecutive games for the first time this year. They could slip up into a lower position from sixth and then if that happens, just pray. Just pray. speaker-0: Yep. Of course, with Tania Luashei starting for VAR against Real Madrid, that's the level of talent that Minnesota United no longer have at their disposal in their attack, and their solution would have been, okay, well we had Kelvin Yoboa before Luashei anyway, so, but now he's hurt. So, just based on that, that would be the only reason why I would agree that you'd much rather face Minnesota than LAFC, but otherwise, Minnesota United, they're built for the playoffs, so you can grind out these tough games, so. Definitely some sluggers throughout the Western Conference. Even if the point totals are lower for maybe the latter half of the playoff teams. ⁓ any thoughts on any of the other Western Conference teams before we talk about the last San Jose Earthquakes game of the season? Devin and the neighbor? speaker-2: I mean, I'm looking at the table right now. LAFC is on 31 matches played. That's the least amount in our Western Conference and they're sitting at 56 points while San Diego is sitting at 60. So, you know, LAFC still has a chance to be, you know, Western Conference champions. Let's, let's, you know, keep that in mind because of how their form is over the last month. You know, they've been winning five, like I think they won five straight and, you know, kind of like what Arnan said, like, They have Denny Buangga, they have Jungmin Son. No one's been able to stop them and I don't believe that anyone will be able to stop them. I genuinely believe that this is a force that can take to the MLS Cup final and it's really hard to stop these two front runners and anyone else on that team for that matter just because the chemistry is so high. ⁓ I believe Minnesota will end up sitting forth by decision day at least. LAFC, Vancouver, and San Diego will be fighting it out on decision day for the top spot. ⁓ I mean, for San Jose, we'll probably get into this, but it's very grim. But I want Abram to relay his thoughts first before we go into that. speaker-3: Yeah, my thoughts are, I'm here listening to Derdnan pick who he'd like to face, and I'm like, I just want to be in playoffs. Like, I'm not even thinking about who I'm going to come up against. I just hoping to be there. ⁓ But yeah, I'm like, bring it on, whoever's there. speaker-1: I really believe that any team that makes it into the Western Conference playoffs can go on and win the playoffs, well, you know, go on and make the final. After that, it's a 50-50 versus whoever is coming out from the East. But we've seen times where Portland makes it to a final and nobody was betting on them. Nobody was betting that Portland would have made any kind of final. They're not in any kind of form. And that's just the playoffs. I hear it. I a lot of Austin fans down here talk about, well, we're not going to do anything in the ⁓ postseason. We're not going to do anything ⁓ playoff-wise, right? Austin kind of backed their way into the playoffs because certain teams did certain things that got them into this party, right? But the reality is that Austin has also done good things throughout the whole year that has got them in a position to hang on to. Now we're the little kitten hanging on to the number six. ⁓ Devin is like, I still don't know what you guys are talking about. now we're the little kitten hanging on, right? And it's because of the things that Austin MC did earlier this year, right? And so I really think that any team that makes it into the playoffs has a chance at making it to the Western Conference final and then going on to the MLS Cup final. I really do believe that. it's just about first, it's just about making it to the playoffs. And then after that, you play. what is the playoffs. It's a completely different competition. It's a whole other beast. Literally Seattle is known for throwing away a season, still making it to playoffs and having a great playoff run. That's Seattle. Tell me if I'm lying. Tell me if I'm lying, guys. That's literally Seattle. That's their game plan year after year. speaker-2: You know, think Hernan earlier in the podcast definitely alluded to something serious in the earthquakes and I believe that is the discomfort that I think Bruce gives to a lot of the players and you know, if Hernan is saying something like that and he's not even an earthquakes fan, he's seeing those types of things and he's seeing those patterns, then you know something is serious and yeah, I think Hernan is right, that there is some sort of issue going on and it stemmed from, ⁓ I'm pretty sure it stemmed from Hernán leaving ⁓ Senna's earthquakes because all of our top players, Josef, Chicho, ⁓ Espinoza, all their forms dipped. ⁓ And you know, maybe you are right, Hernán, that there is some sort of personal things going on between Bo and Bruce. But I think ⁓ a good professional coach would determine the difference of, you know, personal issues should be resolved outside of the sport. and issues within tactics should be resolved on the field. And if you can't resolve those differences of personality issues and player issues, then I really don't want to see you coach the earthquakes or any other team for that matter. I think you've lost your head. And if that's the case, then I really don't want to see Bruce back next year because it seems like there's a lot of personal issues going on and I really don't want to see my players kind of go through those emotional wrangles and kind of... Going back to what Ivan's question was, like, you what do we see in our team? We had a dip in form. We could be making playoffs. We could be in a playoff position, I think, if we kept Hernán López. ⁓ Those types of decisions make or break a team. They broke the earthquakes. And now we're sitting at 11th place, 33 games played, you know, at 38 points. There's a lot that is riding on the line for us. We are reliant on other decisions. We're reliant on other results. know, FC Dallas, we all saw Lake, still sitting at 32 matches played. They can keep tallying the points, and that's one less spot that we can occupy in playoffs. You know, we have to control our own destiny, and that starts from the head coach, that starts at the GM, that starts at whatever else Bruce holds himself as a role in the team. ⁓ Everywhere else, you know, that starts all the way up top, and it trickles down to the players, and the current player form is just not. not good enough to see us make playoffs. As much as I want to see us make playoffs, I will be brutally honest and say we don't deserve it. speaker-0: Yup, it's the same old crap. I'm sorry to say this, but that's the point I'm at with the San Jose Earthquakes. And I will be wearing my jersey. I'll be going to games. Like I'll be supporting this team no matter what, but... it's this is why people have been checked out from this team this is why we all have friends that haven't followed the sands earthquakes in years because they check back maybe every now and then they get an espn notification and they see ⁓ yeah that's the sands earthquakes i knew from much of the wandalowski days this is the sands earthquakes i've known at buckshaw like this is the sands earthquakes you know this is their destiny and they can change that but despite we've had some great coaches come and go with all the pedigree you know great MLS coaches Lucia Gonzalez great international coaches like Matias Almeida. Brissarina is just a great US soccer coach in general and you know this leads into what I hope to see regardless of what happens between now and decision day. What I want to see in this Quakes game in decision day is just go all out attack. You have Bout La Roux who is very dynamic you I want to see the death lineup of Espinoza, Arango ⁓ and Martina start the game. Give Buda and Judd at least 25 minutes each off the bench. Like I want to see at least two to three goals and go out down swinging whatever happens. That's all I have for the Quakes. Any last expectations or wishes for what you want to see for the Quakes lineup? Abram, then Devin, and then Ernan. I'll give you the same question. What do you want to see from Austin these last few games? speaker-3: I think that you made a good point Evan, I think that we need to see exciting football whether we win or lose because that's really all we have left to hope for. mean obviously there is still some mathematical anomaly that sees us enter the playoffs ⁓ but that's not what I'm going to be holding out hope for. I've held out hope for too long to be honest. ⁓ ⁓ Yeah, I mean Ivan I agree with with what you said about I want to see our big three up top Whether I don't know if they deserve to to be playing right now, but I would like to see it ⁓ And I like to see a bowler we back in the lineup whether Bruce wants to be playing him or not He's a really good player. He's one of the bright spots of the season ⁓ and Can we? Where's Romney like it? Do we lose him? Like I'm like, you know what I mean? It's like we we've been having deep this rookie backline and it worked well against San Diego but I think we all got here last week and talked about that's not really sustainable the To keep charting out the kids and then hoping that they'll stop one of the best teams in the league It happened against San Diego as a fluke almost because they kept missing their shots and then we're like, okay was the reason i think it's that cover and obviously they couldn't stop some perhalter bangers so i'm not going to blame a hundred percent of the game on that obviously but ⁓ now it's it's ⁓ great speaker-2: gosh, I yeah, I would love to see both the roux over Viera. I know Viera is a great defender. I think Bo is as well. And Bo provides kind of like Abram said earlier, like a lot more to the game, retrospect, not retrospectively, but like, you know, holistically, then other players do individually. ⁓ I would love to see like, most of our games are lost through midfield pressure. I feel like because when Borja Halter scored that banger, no one stepped up to the plate for him. Fierro was deep in that six when he's not supposed to be that six. He should have been the one to step up. ⁓ Everyone was basically on the back line at that point. You know, your pressure starts at your attack and then the midfield and then the defense. That's that's the line of pressure. And we didn't have that midfield pressure to, you know, kind of push on Vancouver. We need a change. We need players who can defend the way that the team needs to defend and I don't see that in some of the players we start now. We need a lineup change, simple as that. And I think that includes a lot of players that we're used to seeing succeed. know, Rodriguez, I don't know what's going on between he and Bruce. Again, like multiple players discussed here. We need to see Rodriguez on the field. He wasn't even in the 18, he didn't even fly to Vancouver. He was here in San Jose, like what's going on? We need to see Rodriguez, need to see Romney, other older players who have the caliber, the experience necessary to see out a game, to see out a victory. We're with Exactly, yeah. And even like Muni in between them, I'm okay with Muni, know, everyone makes mistakes, but as I think we lose Hernan, ⁓ hopefully we can reconnect in a second. ⁓ speaker-0: early in the season. speaker-2: Yeah, we need to see those starter caliber players that we all know as Earthquakes fans deserve to be on the field and make a ⁓ great impact for the team, especially on decision day where you know everyone's heart's out on the line and they're pushing to make a game as exciting as it can be. speaker-3: ⁓ Real quick, I have an update on ⁓ D1 Jones. ⁓ While we were waiting for the press conference to start, I was able to ask the Earthquakes PR. ⁓ He told me that Jones is a week-to-week thing. ⁓ They can't say right now whether or not he'll be out for the rest of season, but every week they check back in, they see how his status is, and ⁓ he hasn't yet been cleared to play. So, you we could see the one Jones making appearance before the end of the season, but we shouldn't be too worried about his long term fitness. I think next season he'll be probably be back up and running. But that's just a quick little update on the one Jones that I had. speaker-0: Thank you for that update, Abram. And Arjan, we'll close with you. What's something you're looking to see for Austin in their last two regular season matches? speaker-1: Well. I would be a liar if I would say that I want to see San Jose in the playoffs if you guys make it in I know it would be difficult it would be very difficult you know for those things to kind of match up but I feel like every time Austin plays San Jose it's a really difficult game for Austin it's never it's never you know kind of like it's never easy it's never a walk in the park people will say whatever they want about the quakes I feel like versus Austin there's a little bit not a rivalry right it's not a rivalry but it's like It's a very good game when Austin plays the ⁓ Quakes. And I think for a very long time, Austin had like never beaten the Quakes. It was just draw, draw, draw. It was very, very, difficult for Austin. But other than that kind of part of things, like what I want to see moving forward for Austin in the playoffs, I would like to see them kind of go back to what has worked for them. I'm a big advocate of that back five for Austin FC. I know a lot of folks are maybe associating or will associate a back five with being more defensive than anything. But what I like about Austin's back five is that they have two really good fullbacks in either Mikael Dessler on the right or John Gallagher. And you also have Guillermo Biddle on the left. And he also has a great substitution, a great partner. Sometimes he starts Komenich. Those two fullbacks, they're able to push up and help the midfield really create a lot of opportunities for the guys up top like Osuni, Bukari. with Vasquez out, Rubio has to definitely step up. But I want to see them go back to things that have worked for them. I want to see them go back to things that have gave them results. The experiment in the final, it happened, we have to move on. But it's data at this point. It's now data. What worked for you, what didn't work for you, what can you kind of put into the back of? back of your pocket and say, this is what I'm going move forward with. You know what happens when you put these guys out on the pitch. And if we're being real, Coach Nico, this is his first year with his team. A lot of this stuff is data for him. He has one more year on contract. But I want to see these guys really give the playoffs a go. You lost the cup final at home. You lost ⁓ the game against St. Louis at home, which was 72 hours later when the fans expected a response from the team. It is what it is. you still clinch playoffs. You kind of backed up into it short, but you also did a lot of good things during the regular season. Although you lost Brandon Vasquez, it was very difficult to get this team really going, really gelling in a way where they were getting results. And I just want to see them give the playoffs a go. Give it a go. No matter who you play, do not respect anybody because just because a team is in first place or second place or even third does not mean that you have to respect them when you play them. Treat them like anybody. Treat them like they're the last place team, although you did play St. Louis and they weren't playing for anything and they still beat you at home. But what I'm trying to say is have no respect for the team that's in front of you. Treat them like anybody, just on any given day. And I want to see fight. I want to see heart. I want to see energy from this Austin MC side moving forward in playoffs because you literally have nothing to lose anymore. You lost the cup final at home. The heart has already been ripped out of the fans' chest. At this point, just give it your go. Give it the best you can in the playoffs. And like I mentioned earlier, once you make it into playoffs, I think anybody has a real shot at making it to the MLS Cup final. So I want to see heart. I want to see passion. And I want to see freaking energy from the guys. And I'm not saying that they haven't done it before. I'm just saying keep it up. speaker-2: I really want to see conversion from grief to fuel. That's what I want to see from Austin. There's something like as a coach and as an instructor from skiing, like if you get down, like if you fall down, you lose a ski, you lose a snowboard, whatever, know, put it back in your feet, keep going, you know, like you said, not, like it turns into data, like you, this is an experience, you've learned from this experience, you move forward, but this is also football, like. You turn that emotion into something that fuels you, that fuels the fans, that fuels the organization, the team. You lose at home, you lose a final at home, and you convert that into fuel to push yourself and motivate yourself to train extra hard, to individually train yourself, to push yourself to that limit that you possibly can as a human being over the line. And I would hope to see that. I'm actually kind of looking forward to seeing Austin in playoffs in the days to come. ⁓ To see how they react to it because I think I totally believe Austin has the ability to convert grief to fuel And someone needs to light it I don't know who it is, but someone needs to light it speaker-1: One last thing, you hit something perfect, When we were doing fan reactions outside of Q2 after that cut final, literally, if it was, I'm just gonna put it into numbers, if it was 10 fans that got on the mic, nine of them destroyed Usuni. They destroyed him. And honestly, when you're in a cut final and you miss a penalty like that, I mean, the fans are gonna say what the fans feel. But one thing that really stuck with me from that cut final is the fact that Usuni, did not let that penalty miss affect the rest of his game. He got a goal literally minutes later after that. And a lot of the times when coaches are scouting young players, I've heard this from scouts and I've also seen it like on TikTok videos and yada yada. One of the things that they look at is their reaction to when they make a mistake. Usuni's reaction to the penalty miss, I loved it. I loved it. He said, you know what? I missed it. I got my big boy boots on. Iliya gave me the ball and he slotted it in between Nashville's goalkeeper's legs. He's the only player that scored a goal for us in MC that day and he got the most criticism out of everybody. He missed the penalty, sure, but he still had the character to not let himself down and still try to carry this team forward to lift their first ever trophy. speaker-2: No, that's the thing that I loved about Matias Almeyde when he was on the team. Sorry, I'll give the rain back to Ivan. But the one thing that I loved about Almeyde is he kind of taught our players, you lose the ball, you're the one that passed it away, go back and recover. Your other teammates, they know exactly what's going to happen. They'll put themselves in a position to recover and to kind of, I don't know, cover your position. As you go down, track back. ⁓ except for the earthquakes. But, you know, that's what you want in the players. You want to see that vigor, you want to see that fight, that fire under your feet. ⁓ There's not much else to say besides that. And I really hope that both teams, especially the earthquakes, as a biased earthquake fan here, ⁓ can show out that fire under their feet at PayPal Park. speaker-0: Yeah, great messages to end this podcast. Frankly, the last five or six contributions to this conversation all could have been fitting ends to this story. And that's where Austin and Santos Earthquakes tie their destinies together. Like finish strong, put the pain of yesterday away, and see what happens. For Santos Earthquakes, it's out of your hands, but... you just play until the season's over and hopefully there can be some pieces to pick up ahead of next season if it ends on October 18th. And considering ⁓ all the following along we did for Austin's journey this season, those journeys collided in the US Open Cup when our teams faced and we got to see some more big games from them, we wish them well in the playoffs. And with our playoff coverage idea of we're going to try to get representatives from ⁓ different teams, podcasters, writers, journalists, whoever, to kind of debate their teams and depending on how the playoffs fall, we may see you again pretty soon yet and ⁓ you mentioned your fan reactions videos, definitely check out their YouTube channel, very passionate, very exciting, ⁓ we'll provide the links to that down below. It'll be the same as the ones earlier this week, ⁓ season, but we thank you for time again, Erna. speaker-1: ⁓ Thank you guys for having me on here, you know as soon as you send me the invite I was like, hey man, don't worry. I got it. I will be there I really like the chemistry that we've kind of developed with with the guys on this pod honestly I feel like we've been knowing each other for quite some time So anytime that you guys want to have me on here Just send the message and I will be here mate tectonic takes and we're watching TV like that, bro. Like that speaker-0: Alright, and that'll do it for us. ⁓ Thank you once again to all 500 plus of our subscribers and thank you for everyone, whether you're subscribed or not, liking, commenting, interacting with us on social media. Go awesome, but mostly go quakes! speaker-1: Hey, good luck guys. Good luck. I would like to see you make it into the playoffs. I really would. You guys... speaker-0: We have said to speaker-3: We would too. you. we'll see. Go Quicks. Go Quicks. speaker-1: Go Austin.