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TABLE TALK: The Union Are A Dumpster Fire · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. I wanted to let you know that we
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recorded this podcast episode on Monday July fifteenth, twenty twenty four. By the
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time you hear this, some things may have changed here or there with our
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discussion, but we hope you enjoyed the show. What's going on, everybody,
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Welcome to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the
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longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the world. We got a great
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discussion on our Table Talk interview show this week as we look at and dissect
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what has been happening to the Philadelphia Union. I'll tell you right now,
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this is a team that has fallen from grace. If you are following the
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Union, you certainly do know that. If not, we got a lot
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of great information coming to you, a lot of great discussion points humming to
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your ears with regard to this Union team right now. Just a disappointing season.
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We're certainly gonna get into it. Is there any silver lining with this
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team? I mean, that is a real question. I mean, my
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guests and I we're gonna try to get into some positives toward the end of
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the discussion. But we'll see how that goes anyway, folks, we do
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have a great guest, so let's get right to it, joining us this
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week here on Table Talk again to get into this Union team and what we
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have been seeing. He is from Philadelphia soccernow dot com. You can catch
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him on the Twitter slash x at Flag Eye Josh, and they're doing a
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great job over at Philadelphia Soccer Now, Josh Schuster, Buddy, how are
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you, my friend? It's been a tough season with this Union team,
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but how are you Otherwise? I'm doing rr Jeff, all right, all
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right, I'm glad to hear. I'm glad to hear you're doing okay,
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because this Union team certainly has not been doing okay. Let's get right into
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it. A disappointing season thus far. It's certainly been frustrating to watch as
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a fan. Actually actually disappointing and frustrating, I don't think actually are the
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correct words. It is a dumpster fire of a performance of a major league
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soccer team at this point in the Philadelphia Union. Yes, I know there
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have been injuries, there's been bad luck. We've talked on this podcast a
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number of times, lend myself and you've been on a couple times to talk
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about the Union during the course of this season here in twenty twenty four,
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about just the lack of depth, ownership, just not investing in the team.
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But as we start the discussion here, Josh like, where did it
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all start to go wrong for the Union this season? I mean, was
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there a moment that really kind of just sticks out to you as to where
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it all just started to go wrong? Yeah, So for me, there's
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kind of two areas where it started. The first is with Blake's injury.
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And I say this as an individual who hates when people make the injury argument,
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right right, the Union are not the only squad in all of MLS
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who has an injury, so I kind of move that to the side.
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But it's become very evident that over the last number of games with Blake being
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out, that the defense just does not play with the same level of confidence.
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They don't have the same goalie depth as they did last year. And
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this is nothing injury related. They let Joe Bendick walk and he made eight
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starts with them last year when Blake was out, and the team was very
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much able to navigate that time when Blake was out because Bendick is a long
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time veteran. He knows the MLS. The players know that he knows the
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MLS. It just they took a gamble. I like Andre Blake. I
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like him a lot, but he does miss about a third of the season
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of late they made a gamble on trying to go with youth. It has
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not paid off. Which is the second place that it goes back to,
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goes back to the off season. Every year, it seems to go back
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for the Union to the off season. They opted not to bring in almost
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anyone and they opted to give the kids a chance, which I'm fine with.
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I'll talk about this later. Jim Curtin only plays certain players, so
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there's no sense in them investing in that, I guess, And it's incredibly
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frustrating. Why do you have a full bench if you're not going to use
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them. And so it really goes back to the off season. For years
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they didn't have scoring. They chose not to address the scoring, or they
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did and it was a horrible mistake. It all goes back to the off
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season. Yep, it absolutely did. I want to go back to something
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you just said though, and I think it's important too with regards to Blake's
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injury this season and there being no confidence, there was nobody to step up
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to provide that confidence from a defensive standpoint, and I think it's an extremely
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critical talking point for folks to realize, not just as we're continuing to move
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forward with this particular season, but perhaps in future seasons, like the lack
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of leadership, and specifically from the defensive standpoint, it's so very apparent that
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nobody has really taken the reins and stepped up in that regard. Josh,
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yeah, Jeff, you're right. And there's kind of two analogies I'll use.
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I'm going to bring the Flyers in for a minute. Okay, the
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Flyers have a bazillion culture guys. Yeah, they don't need more culture guys.
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If you need more culture guys, then your culture is not good.
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Yep, right, what you need is skill. But they continue like they
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just gave Halthway a contract. Here, we are a culture guy. Hathway's
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fine. One, Hathway is fine. Do not need four halfaways, which
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is what they currently have, and they just keep bringing in roster guys that
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are culture guys. But the other thing is, and the other illustration I'll
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use is I'm sure you played growing up sports. I played growing up sports,
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and I'm sure the people listening grew up playing sports. I happen to
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be a pitcher. I was a relatively decent pitcher. But one thing they
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always said is they could tell when I tried to pitch my pitches as opposed
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to just throwing my pitches. The catcher would always come out and say,
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Josh, you're trying too hard. You're pitching your pitches. Just throw the
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ball. It's the same principle here with the Union. I think they're just
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at the point where because they have no confidence in who is in net or
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what the organization is doing, where they're going, and they just sold off
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Carnza, which we'll get into in a little bit, I think they're just
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trying too hard. And professional athletes do it, and we start doing it
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when we're kids, and I think that's kind of what's happening. Bedoya was
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supposed to be the culture guy, and that's where my frustration comes in.
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If Jim Curtin is going to keep playing him as much as he is,
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then either a Badoya is not the leader I thought he was, or things
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are just such a train wreck. Then nobody can get them back on track.
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Yeah, I think it's a great point. It's a great segue too
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into the next topic I wanted to discuss with you, Josh, because,
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like, like we talk about the lack of depth. Of course, the
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consistent slow starts time and time again, but there's something deeper here that's happening
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that you're touching on here, especially towards this part of the season where they're
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dropping stinkers to Montreal and Toronto. Like you talk about them trying too hard
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too, but at times during these matches too, there really is this lack
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of fire from this squad. I think that is running pretty deep here.
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Have you been seeing that as well? What are your thoughts there? So
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I have a couple of thoughts on this. I really kind of put a
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lot of thoughts into this process, into this question, which some of it
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will be answered as we keep going down the question. But the first thing
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is, you know, the Union are now the last place team in the
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Eastern Conference. So I don't know that the losses that you mentioned were as
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I want to say bad, as they are now kind of seeing where the
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standings are because we've moved into a decent portion of the schedule now. And
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the thing that I'll say though that's bad is how they're losing right Like,
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they will have a two goal lead in the second half to a horrible team
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and it's not that they come out with a draw, they lose it,
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and it's it's mind blow. But I think one of the main things in
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terms of lack of fire, you know that the players are aware of what
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the front office does. The union had a really great season last year.
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They did quite literally nothing, not one thing to improve their roster. I
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can't help but look back now and go maybe that's mentally affecting them. And
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so part of it is ownership, the cheapness of ownership, which we'll get
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into later, but it's also just really bad investments. Like I'm thinking they
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gave Andre Blake a good sized contract extension. Yeah he I don't know how
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well that's going to age. They paid Ouah, who has done nothing nothing
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have re upped their defense that has been a sieve this year. And so
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I'll bring in another analogy. I hate it when people say money buys you
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championships. Money gives you an advantage, but it does not buy a championship.
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I'm going to use baseball as an example, the Cubs who have the
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seventh highest payroll, Toronto's eighth, Texas is ninth in San Francisco is top
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ten highest payroll. I just listed four teams in the top ten of payrolls
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that all have losing records and some will definitely be sellers. On the other
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hand, we have Kansas City, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Cleveland, Tampa Bay,
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Pittsburgh. That's six teams and the bottom third of payroll all are five
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hundred are better that all will likely make the postseason. It's not that money
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buys championships, it's how you invest your money. You have to be smart.
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What was that you have to be smart with your smart Yes, the
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problem is the Union are both They are cheap and the players that they have
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brought in on international contracts really outside of Gozdog, have really had no impact
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on the roster, and that's just poor investments. Now it also has left
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leads to the idea of selling off the only performing player this year, which
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is Bronza. He's been one of only two players that have been fun to
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watch this year and he's gone. Now we're probably going to be looking at
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Gosdog the all time leading scorer for the Union, is probably going to be
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sold off soon. I'm not saying there's anything in the works. I'm just
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saying I know the track record of Sugarman, I know the track record of
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this ownership. If they can get more value than what they paid, they're
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going to sell the player. Yep, absolutely, absolutely. Again, we're
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talking to Josh Schuster from philadelphiasoccernow dot com at flag Eye Josh ninety one over
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at Twitter slash x, and let's go through the list of I guess who
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needs to be accountable for this horrendous season at this point, Josh, Let's
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let's go through them like first, who who's most accountable for the on the
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field issues? I mean, you did mention Jim Curtin earlier how he has
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a certain philosophy, he just doesn't play certain players. And we'll get to
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who's accountable in the front office, and I know we've already kind of touched
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on that, but from an on the field perspective, who's most accountable for
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how this horrendous season is gone? I'm going to answer both questions at the
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same time. Let's do it all, right. I think this individual was
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responsible for on the field issues, and I think they're the most accountable in
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the front office. And it's Jay Sugarman, right, the owner of the
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Union. He has been one of historically the cheapest owners in all of MLS.
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And it's really unfortunate because if you've been to Super U Park when it's
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sold out, it rivals the Phillies in Red October, and I'm talking regular
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season. There's something just magical for that two hours that happens. I think
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people have more passion and energy for a shorter period of time. It's incredible.
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But he's now stooped so low that he is removing signs from the stadium
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from the Sons of Ben. There is no way Jay human can look at
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the state of this team and decide, you know what, yeah we're okay,
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Yeah, you know what, this is great, right, But to
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have the audacity from people who pay to be a part of this club,
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in the Sons of Ben, to have their signs removed is just absolutely excusable.
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And it's not even like the sign was offensive, like if they had
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middle fingers or they're like, you know, a Hugh J. Sugerman,
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I get it right, But it was just sugarman out. It's not sweet
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anymore. That's not offensive, that's not a personal attack, like that's the
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state of things. It's not anymore. It's time, And so I equate
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it this way. I'm going to talk about shopping and cooking. Okay,
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the first is thrift store shopping. Now, I have no problem with people
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who thrift shorts. Thrift store shop. My wife and I do it.
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Sure, the items you get there, they're gonna be okay for that time.
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They may even be great for that time. But you know what eventually
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happens. The cheapness of what you paid eventually begins to show, right.
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And that's where we're at with the Union. We are at the point where
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the thrift store shopping and the investment in the youth which has produced some good
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players, and now we're at the point where we're seeing the that they thought
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were going to be great may not be right. But the one person I
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will refuse to blame is Ernest Tanner. And this is where the cooking illustration
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comes into play. A mister Lynn star chef. You can give them really
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cheap ingredients and they'll do the best they can, but it's not going to
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be what they can truly do. Ernest Tanner has done everything in his power
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to create a competitive squad. You're in and year out with horrible dollar store
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ingredients. Yep. There's only so much magic that can be done, and
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he's done the best he possibly can. And I'm not going to fall the
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person who's responsible for the moves if they aren't given the resources. It's not
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fair. It's like blaming the GM of the Tampa Bay Rays or the GM
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of the Kansas City Royals when they aren't given the resources that they need because
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the owner is more concerned with making money, which makes no sense because the
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more you win, the more money you make. Right, People buy more
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merchandise, they go to more games. It makes no sense. But to
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wrap this up, I have become a strong Jim Curtain defender. YEP.
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I think it's time to begin to bend that. I understand that he can
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only coach with the resources he has, and I fully support that. But
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part of the problem is Jim Curtin is stubborn, and so he again,
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as we mentioned earlier, he only plays certain players, but he also is
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refusing to change up the system, or he'll change it up for a short
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period of time, and then he always goes back. Something's got to be
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done. Either Jim Curtain needs the change or the manager needs the change.
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I do think that Jim Curtin is a great manager. In fact, I
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want to be upset if he became the manager of the US national team.
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But something has to change. Something's got to change over an entire roster.
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Yeah, yeah, something has to give, you know. You know,
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it reminds me of an analogy, and I don't mean to make a joke
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necessarily about it, even though it is kind of funny how Len used to
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talk about you put something in a blender like this, such an entire situation
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that's happening with the Union, and it's just a blender of poost do.
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That is what it is right now, what we are seeing from them,
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and it's interesting. I was on Philadelphia soccernow dot com. Jared Young,
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one of your colleagues over there. He wrote a piece recently that discussed how
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the team's passing directness correlates with how well they perform on the field. That's
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something they haven't done for much of this season, and when their passing directness
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hits around thirty nine percent or greater. The team's in pretty good shape now.
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Teams have actually figured this out and they're allowing the Union to play in
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front of them to combat this, and Union players have been taking the bait
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for much of the season. And this does come down to I think,
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in my opinion, you know, some coaching style here by Jim Curtin again
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taking the bait on this. Their style of play isn't what it necessarily used
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to be. So how do you think, Josh, they get back to
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that or getting back to that style of play that we were used to seeing
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and with regard to that culture of winning, how do they get back to
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it? In your opinion? Yeah, So the first thing I want to
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say is Jared is an excellent writer. He's awesome, and I mean this
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fully. This is probably the highest praise I can give someone who really looks
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into at analytics. He reminds me a lot of Charlie O'Connor, who writes
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for the Flyers. Yeah. He has a way of making these complex statistical
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numbers or complex principles formations, different things, just making them very easy to
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understand the point where you walk away and say, wow, okay, I
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kind of get it. And so Jared does a great job. I love
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reading his stuff. He's an excellent writer. But to answer the question,
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and this is kind of a short answer because we talked about it a little
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bit before, Jim Curtin has to change his playing style. Yeah, it
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has to move on from the more attacking style and it has to become possession
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based. The style they're playing now it leaves them too vulnerable. They are
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making mistakes for whatever reason. And I don't have an answer to this.
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I had mentioned last time that I was on that the Union have invested more
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money in the defense than any other squad in MLS. I don't know what
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to do with that mess that is back there, right, But the style
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has to change to a more possession style. Possession doesn't mean a whole necessarily,
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but in the Union's case, what possession will do is prevent the vulnerability
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and prevent scoring opportunities. All right, Well, as we're moving along with
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the conversation here, Gosh, I feel like it's the most depressing podcast we've
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done in a while, and rightfully so. This team stinks. Leadership stinks.
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In the front office. We talked about, you know, lack of
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depth, talk about a lack of a lot of things. But if we
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can put any positive spin on this season, come up with any silver line
20:33
and come up with something to hang our hats on here, Josh, are
20:37
there some players who you like that have been given a shot this season that
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you think could potentially blossom and contribute well at certain or I should say at
20:45
a certain level in the future for this Union team. Are any Is there
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any talent on this team you're kind of looking at and saying, Okay,
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down the road, yes, could blossom, could be a contributor. What
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are your thoughts? Well, if you were depressed before listening to this,
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buckle up because we're about to go downhill. Here. Here's the problem.
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There's really three things that the Union had going into the season and that if
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it was going to be a bad season, it would be worth watching.
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The first is to watch Caranza while he's gone. The second is, other
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than Gozdog, they have zero and I mean zero must watch players, and
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even Gozdog. The thing they had going into the season is he may break
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the all time scoring record. Well he's done that, so now for the
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entire second half of the season, you have no one to watch, I
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mean no one, And as much as everybody loves Andre Blake, the injuries
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are beginning to take a toll in the sense that people are now they've gone
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from excitement to him signing the extension to dread of what this is going to
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be like. And he's not playing, so you have none of the three
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things. And they have some promising players in the academy, but who knows
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how long it's going to take him to get to the pros. And even
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if they do, who knows if Jim Curtin is going to play them.
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There's one player I will highlight and it's CJ only, And CJ is having
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a pretty good season for the Union two squad, and he leads in a
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number of categories. Now he's a midfielder, he's like third on the team
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in goals, he has the most assists, and he has the most impactful
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passes on the season for Union two. So he's he's got promise. But
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again I don't. He's seventeen, so I have no idea when they're going
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to call him up. Who knows they may sell him before he gets I
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could see that happening. Yes, Like I mean, Jeff, I'm not
23:07
trying to be Debbie downer here, but I want something positive. But really,
23:11
the Union have gone from somebody who really follows the team and myself,
23:17
they have gone from must watch once a week to me being fine with watching
23:22
the Apple recording a day or two later. Yeah, because just there's nothing
23:26
to watch other than seeing how they're gonna implode. And I just I don't
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know, I don't know. Well, look, as we're closing up the
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conversation here, Josh, let's we'll pivot. We'll pivot to some teams maybe
23:41
that are playing some good soccer. Oh good, yeah, exactly. You
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want to talk Euros. Oh gosh. Now, well, I'm saying specifically
23:49
within the Eastern Conference here, you've got you've got some pretty good soccer teams
23:53
in Cincinnati, enter Miami Columbus, and the New York Red Bulls that you
23:59
know, they're all looking to sustain their success towards the top of the conference.
24:02
Here, jocking for position, it's been Look, when you were able
24:06
to actually not watch Union and watch any of these teams, it's like it's
24:10
interesting major League soccer for sure. So I wanted to get your thoughts as
24:14
we're getting ready to head out here on how this Eastern conference is looking at
24:18
this point and might there be any sneaky teams here that we should be keeping
24:22
our eyes on as you know, second half of the season here is going
24:25
to be getting underway. Well, the first thing is is I really should
24:30
just stop predictions, because you know, I said the Union we're going to
24:34
be I believe the top three three squad yup for the supporter Shield to have
24:41
the best record. That has not happened. I also said that that the
24:48
Miami wasn't going to be as good as everybody expected, and they're second in
24:53
the conference. And I said I didn't see how Orlando and Toronto would even
24:57
be decent, and they're both in playoff spot right now. So whatever I
25:03
say next, just completely disregard. Great stop right now, folks. Yeah,
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the two teams from the Eastern Conference, We're going to do two from
25:14
the Eastern and go above and beyond all my homework here too. From the
25:18
Western Ice, keep an eye on Nashville and Charlotte. Both teams are willing
25:22
to spend, and both teams they play a very fun style of soccer.
25:27
They're both in the playoff picture, so just keep an eye on that.
25:33
And the two teams in the Western Conference is two kind of historically powerhouses that
25:41
have been off to either a slower start than anticipated and are beginning to ramp
25:48
things up or not quite where they normally are. And that's both Portland and
25:52
Seattle. Just keep an eye on them because sometimes, you know, sports
25:56
are weird, especially with the formats that American sports have, where we talk
26:02
all the time that in baseball, you know, at seventy eight in team,
26:06
if they win their last you know, ten games in a row,
26:07
they're hot going into the playoffs, they may take out the one seed.
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And it's kind of the same in MLS. So just keep an eye on
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those teams. Look how the Phillies took out the Braves past two seasons.
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Yeah, it's just it happens in sports. For sure. Not gonna be
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happening with the Union, folks, But there's some good soccer out there for
26:26
us to watch every now and again. And we thank you, buddy for
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your time again, folks. Josh Schuster, Philadelphia, soccernow dot com at
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Flag Eye, Josh ninety one on the Twitter slash X. It was great
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talking to you, buddy. Let's talk more down the road. We got
26:41
the Eagles season coming up. Maybe we can have you on do some postgame
26:44
shows as you did last season. That would be fantastic, And let's talk
26:48
again down the road. That sounds good. That's gonna do it for us
26:52
here on Table Talk this week. Please share our podcast with your friends and
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