Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Kurt Schmid Previews RSL 2026 season, Season opener tomorrow night against the Whitecaps in Vancouver + more

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Kurt Schmid Previews RSL 2026 season, Season opener tomorrow night against the Whitecaps in Vancouver + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

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  Speaker 1: You were listening to about Sean O'Connell's show, your source
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  Speaker 1: for the best youths football coverage. Here's oc from the
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  Speaker 1: Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred at ninety two
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  Speaker 1: to one half am.
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  Speaker 2: You've got Olympics going on right now. You've got the
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  Speaker 2: Utah Jazz back in action. Okay, You've got NHL hockey
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  Speaker 2: that we'll be returning shortly after these Olympics are done.
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  Speaker 2: We've got an NFL draft process coming. It is a
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  Speaker 2: busy time to be a sports fan. And guess what,
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  Speaker 2: Real Salt Lake adding itself to the mix. First game
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  Speaker 2: tomorrow against the Vancouver white Caps. We're lucky enough to
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  Speaker 2: catch up with kerch mitcheap soccer officer down at Real
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  Speaker 2: Salt Lake ahead of the season opener. Kurt, Welcome to
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  Speaker 2: the show. How are you.
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  Speaker 3: I'm good?
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  Speaker 2: How are you doing all right? Thanks for giving us
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  Speaker 2: some time today. Is there anything do you have, like
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  Speaker 2: a tradition, a ritual. Do you have something that you
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  Speaker 2: you get out of the way before the season begins,
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  Speaker 2: because the MLS season is this marathon and I imagine
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  Speaker 2: you know, it takes up a lot of your time
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  Speaker 2: and all of your focus when the season's actually going.
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  Speaker 2: So is there anything you do to prepare yourself for tomorrow?
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  Speaker 3: Actually, I think it's a little it's almost the other
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  Speaker 3: way around. I think the off season for me is
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  Speaker 3: is much more I guess, uh, hectic and busy, and
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  Speaker 3: I guess attention attention grabbing. You know, I've gotta got
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  Speaker 3: a lot more to do in the off season. Then
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  Speaker 3: once you know, get all the all the new guys
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  Speaker 3: in the door, then it sort of calms down a
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  Speaker 3: little bit for me, and I can I can think
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  Speaker 3: a little more strategically long term. So I'm not quite
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  Speaker 3: there yet with this season. We've still got a few
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  Speaker 3: more things to button up. But you know, no, no,
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  Speaker 3: no rituals. But I'm looking forward to, uh to watching,
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  Speaker 3: you know, watching some of the guys that we've signed,
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  Speaker 3: and enjoying that.
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  Speaker 2: When we talk about some of those signings, how would
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  Speaker 2: you characterize the additions? I mean, it's a pretty significant
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  Speaker 2: reshaping of the roster. Is reshaping a good characterization? Is
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  Speaker 2: it an overhaul? It's probably not. Doesn't fit into the
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  Speaker 2: rebuild category necessarily, But how do you frame what you've
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  Speaker 2: done with the roster in your own mind?
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  Speaker 3: I think I mean, yeah, I don't know if any
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  Speaker 3: of those words are great encapsulations. I think we've just
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  Speaker 3: looked at you know, we've tried to improve on some
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  Speaker 3: areas that we thought we struggled with last year, and
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  Speaker 3: you know, yeah, when you look back at it, it's
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  Speaker 3: a significant number of potential starters added to the group,
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  Speaker 3: which is a good thing. You know, this is a
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  Speaker 3: league that is constantly improving and growing, and you know
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  Speaker 3: you've got to you don't just you can't just improve
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  Speaker 3: upon yourselves from a priority here. You have to continue
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  Speaker 3: to keep pace with the rest of the league, and
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  Speaker 3: so sometimes that necessitates making a few more more changes
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  Speaker 3: than than normal. But yeah, I think we've we've added
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  Speaker 3: some key pieces that should plug some holes and also
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  Speaker 3: helps guide It helps guide us towards.
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  Speaker 4: A bit of a formation and maybe a slight style.
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  Speaker 3: Shift where we're not changing things completely stylistically, but we're
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  Speaker 3: changing a little bit of the base formation and giving
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  Speaker 3: us some stability both in and out of possession.
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  Speaker 2: So for the novice soccer fan, which I can barely
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  Speaker 2: count myself, that, I mean, that's generous description of my
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  Speaker 2: knowledge of the game. Uh, what what is the I
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  Speaker 2: guess the end goal of making that formation change and
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  Speaker 2: establishing more consistency in the attack and defend.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think in the last couple of years we sort.
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  Speaker 3: Of attacked and defended in different shapes. So we started
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  Speaker 3: in like a four two three one, and when we
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  Speaker 3: attacked it kind of morphed into a.
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  Speaker 4: Three two four one with two tens underneath the striker and.
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  Speaker 3: The two one wing or high and one full.
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  Speaker 4: Back high and the other wing you're tucking in.
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  Speaker 3: So what we've decided to do this year is sort
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  Speaker 3: of stay in a more stable system in both both moments.
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  Speaker 4: So now we attack, you know, and it'll be a
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  Speaker 4: three two.
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  Speaker 3: Four one, and when we defend, the wing backs will
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  Speaker 3: just drop a little bit and it'll be more three
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  Speaker 3: four three four two one. So it's you know, maybe
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  Speaker 3: it's a lot of numbers to throw at you, but
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  Speaker 3: basically from from a team standpoint, you know, like we
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  Speaker 3: were asking our left back to get all the way
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  Speaker 3: up in the attack and all the way back in defending,
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  Speaker 3: and now we're asking a little bit less of the
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  Speaker 3: wing backs in that situation because we've got another center
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  Speaker 3: back there who's going to stay home in both in
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  Speaker 3: both scenarios and so we're trying to get a lot
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  Speaker 3: more attack out of both wing backs, which is one
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  Speaker 3: of the reasons why we added Scenabria as well.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, and again forgive the ignorance here, but like, if
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  Speaker 2: you're that center back or you're those wing backs, how
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  Speaker 2: drastic a change is it from an individual perspective?
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  Speaker 3: Right?
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  Speaker 2: I mean if we're this, is this a completely different
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  Speaker 2: posi to play basically now? Or are you just doing
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  Speaker 2: something that maybe you did earlier in your career or
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  Speaker 2: something that you came up doing maybe a little less complicated.
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  Speaker 2: I'm trying to get a sense of like how quickly
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  Speaker 2: they take a little more.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, three center backs is always a little bit of
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  Speaker 3: the very more of the variation and not the norm.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, everyone you know has played a lot
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  Speaker 3: of you know, some sort of base for format back
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  Speaker 3: line system like kind of growing up and a lot
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  Speaker 3: of their professional careers, so that's more of a baseline,
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  Speaker 3: and then the three center backs is a little bit
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  Speaker 3: more to the variation. And so learning how to how.
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  Speaker 4: To defend and attack and that is usually something.
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  Speaker 3: That people have to learn more. For us in possession
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  Speaker 3: when we have the ball, it's actually not a big
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  Speaker 3: change for us. You know, we've changed personnel, but in
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  Speaker 3: terms of roles and responsibilities for the various people in
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  Speaker 3: those positions, it hasn't changed a ton. Out of possession
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  Speaker 3: is where it's changed the most. And you know, it's
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  Speaker 3: added a little more thinking to the wing backs and
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  Speaker 3: it's given them a little more freedom to.
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  Speaker 4: Break out and transition as well, So there's.
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  Speaker 3: A little bit more of a difference there. And even
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  Speaker 3: at the three players playing in the attack, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the way we're going to play it this year is
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  Speaker 3: instead of sort of a nine with two tens and anything,
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  Speaker 3: so instead of two attacking midfillers and one center forward,
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  Speaker 3: we have sort of a center forward, a second striker type,
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  Speaker 3: which is someone who's kind of an in between her
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  Speaker 3: does a little bit of both things, and then an
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  Speaker 3: attacking midfielder.
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  Speaker 2: Kirchman is our guest here for a couple more minutes
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  Speaker 2: on the Shot O'Connell Show. In anticipation of RSL starting
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  Speaker 2: their season tomorrow, we check in with the Claret and Cobalt.
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  Speaker 2: As you're making these changes, right, Leadership in the locker
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  Speaker 2: room's got to be pretty important, and with a relatively
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  Speaker 2: young roster, that's always something that I'm much more interested
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  Speaker 2: in who is stepping into that role naturally. Is it
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  Speaker 2: a conversation that you and Jason and whoever else have
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  Speaker 2: to have, like, hey, we really need maybe moon Man
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  Speaker 2: step up a little bit. How does that process go
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  Speaker 2: as you look for more and more leadership to emerge
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  Speaker 2: on the roster itself.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you need them to step into the role. You know,
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  Speaker 3: you need the guys that will take that because if
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  Speaker 3: you know, if someone whether it's Pablo or Media or
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  Speaker 3: anyone else, steps in and says, this guy's a leader
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  Speaker 3: now that that doesn't necessarily mean you can lead. So
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  Speaker 3: you know, part of it is having guys that are
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  Speaker 3: naturally gravitate towards that type of role and has players
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  Speaker 3: gravitate towards them. But you know, we've tried to add players.
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  Speaker 3: Last year we were very young. We were like the
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  Speaker 3: four third or fourth youngest team based on minutes played
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  Speaker 3: in MLS. And and this year the pieces that we've had,
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  Speaker 3: we've we've largely tried to add guys with with a
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  Speaker 3: little more experience, who've had you know, has been in
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  Speaker 3: other clubs. You know, Lucas Engel has more experience. We
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  Speaker 3: added DeAndre Edlin you know, towards towards the middle last year,
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  Speaker 3: you know, he's got more experience. Stein Spearings is a
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  Speaker 3: more experienced player. Morgan Gilbogie's a you know, a prime
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  Speaker 3: age player. So you know, we've added some more eperience
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  Speaker 3: the squad. We still have some exciting young players like Gozo,
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  Speaker 3: like you know, Juan Jose Arius who we we acquired
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  Speaker 3: as an exciting young player, you know, and and also
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  Speaker 3: some players like Luca Moysa and Hezar.
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  Speaker 4: Kani coming from the.
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  Speaker 3: Academy, and then you know, I don't want to leave
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  Speaker 3: them out, but I like one one, mass Scenabria, who
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  Speaker 3: who brings a really really interesting pedigree to the club,
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  Speaker 3: having spent so much time in Mexico and and having
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  Speaker 3: the experiences he's had with Rguayan national team. So the
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  Speaker 3: group as a whole has a lot more diverse and
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  Speaker 3: and extent extensive experience as professionals. And that's something that's
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  Speaker 3: going to help the team stabilize and solidify.
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  Speaker 4: And it's also something that's really going.
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  Speaker 3: To help our our club's objective of of developing the
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  Speaker 3: talented young players that we do have and are still
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  Speaker 3: going to be able to get on the field.
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  Speaker 2: Do we have injury updates on a Mecca and Arius
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  Speaker 2: and and Kobe Henry.
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  Speaker 3: No, I mean no, no updates other then what's gone
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  Speaker 3: out today. That's you know, a Meka. We're bringing along
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  Speaker 3: slowly so that when he's back, he's back and we
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  Speaker 3: don't have any recurrences. And you know, there's been a
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  Speaker 3: few other knocks that have occurred this week, and you
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  Speaker 3: know that I don't think anything coming out of that
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  Speaker 3: is going to be too long term, but it is
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  Speaker 3: putting us in a you know a little bit of
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  Speaker 3: a deficit here in week one, that along with some
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  Speaker 3: of the immigration stuff.
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  Speaker 2: So team chemistry is always important, but I've become more
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  Speaker 2: and more interested in recent years with organizational chemistry like
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  Speaker 2: ownership on down from ownership to uh, you know, roster construction,
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  Speaker 2: which is usually a general manager of sorts, a chief
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  Speaker 2: soccer officer, whatever the title is, and then you've got
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  Speaker 2: to have some type of agreement with your coach. Sometime
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  Speaker 2: there is friction there. Sometimes that's just the nature of
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  Speaker 2: a personality or a relationship that goes all the way
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  Speaker 2: down to the roster. How would you characterize the organizational
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  Speaker 2: level chemistry with this are a sales squad right now, I.
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  Speaker 4: Honestly think it's really good.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I've been at a few different clubs now,
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  Speaker 3: you know, Jason has, Pablo has.
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  Speaker 4: I think I think we would.
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  Speaker 3: All probably say something similar, which is that our our alignment,
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  Speaker 3: you know, from ownership, you know, through Jason, myself, Pablo
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  Speaker 3: is all is all pretty good. You know, that doesn't
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  Speaker 3: mean we agree one hundred percent of the time, but
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  Speaker 3: it means that we we're we're we have a good
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  Speaker 3: way of collaborating with each other and seeing seeing things
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  Speaker 3: from different perspectives and you know, working together to find
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  Speaker 3: the right solution and not being afraid to share our thoughts,
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  Speaker 3: but also having the presence of mind that you know,
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  Speaker 3: once we once we all head in the direction, that we.
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  Speaker 4: All get behind it. So you know, as far as where.
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  Speaker 3: I've been, this is this is probably the best that
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  Speaker 3: it's it's been at any of the clubs that I've
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  Speaker 3: been at all.
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  Speaker 2: Right before I let you go handicapped the MLS, especially
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  Speaker 2: the West for me, right now, who are you having
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  Speaker 2: an eye on? Who do you think you're going to
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  Speaker 2: see at the top?
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  Speaker 3: And I'm not going to do that. You do that,
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  Speaker 3: I'm not going to do that like, we're just you know,
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  Speaker 3: I want us to be at the top, but I'm
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  Speaker 3: not going to pick us, you.
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  Speaker 4: Know, because maybe I'm overly superstitious, But you know, I
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  Speaker 4: think that we've got a.
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  Speaker 3: Good team that can compete, you know, for.
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  Speaker 4: For where we want to be, which is in the
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  Speaker 4: top four of the conference, so we can have hope
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  Speaker 4: field advantage and give ourselves a chance to compete for
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  Speaker 4: for for an MLS Cup.
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  Speaker 2: We'll keep our fingers crossed for exactly that. Kurt, thanks
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  Speaker 2: so much for your time today.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no problem, Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: Kerchmid, RSL Chief Soccer Officer,