Here we go, Here we go. It's another edition of First eleven eleven minutes or less with the Hall of Famer US Soccer Hall of Famer Bruce Murray. It is DC not on the road against the New York Red Bulls. Also news today d C and I will be taking on the Charleston Battery May sixth, US Open Cup action important to support the team. Remember last year when the Open Cup controversy about the MLS teams were not going to be in the Open Cup and they talked about
while not getting the crowds. So I think it's important for soccer supporters to show up May six because we want this tournament. We love this tournament. Bruce Murray, your experience with the with a tournament.
We actually won the Amateur Cup with an amateur team here in town called the Spartans the Greeks. The Greek teams had had you know, representatives. We crashed out of the Open Cup, but in the in the Amateur Cup we did quite well. But you know the other thing about this particular event is it's like the Fake Cup. Anything's possible, right, Anything's possible. And I think if you if you look at you know, right down our bench and go to the very prominent person on the bench.
His name is Troy Last, our head coach, and the Charleston battery coming. That is uh, you know, that's going to be mixed emotions for him because that's really where where his professional career was.
Great point, But again, I think it's important because it became such a controversy. Wait a minute, MLS side should be a US Open Cup. But I did understand Commission Garber's counter argument noting that there were a lot of you know, small crowds and because of that, you're playing at alternative, alternate venues. So I think if we want to make the US Open Cup continue to be a thriving competition, it's important for the supporters of the game to get out. So that's May six at Autifield.
You're absolutely right, Dave, that that is that is a great point because if you if you want it, then you've got to go out and you got to put your money where mouth is and that's that's the bottom line.
Well no, and that's just it. And if you don't want it, if you don't want to pay for it, you don't want to show up, then I don't think you can complain when Commissioner Garber says, you know, we don't need to be in that competition because it does come down to it, it's not worth it if only a thousand people are showing up. So we look forward to May six against the Charleston Battery and the US Open Cup. All right, d C United, New York Red Bulls. It was a loss last week def C Cincinnati, but
a recovery what would you describe? And as this DC United team transitions from losing six to one, are we getting closer to getting should we say back on track? Or how does doctor Bruce Murray diagnose the situations?
You know, we broke our leg and then it was a compound fracture when it was six to one, you know, and San Jose and now all of a sudden in the second half. We found our footing the other day and we were playing some wonderful football for thirty minutes. We were we were, you know, foot on the gas,
couldn't quite put it away. So if you look at things like I do, in thirds, you know, eight games in, you know, if you can steal a couple of points in that that first third of games, uh, then and your team is now right where you need it to be.
You're playing good football, and now you're learning how to win points versus performances, like even if the performances aren't as good, then you're a team that's got You know, you really can't hit panic buttons until you're done with the second third and you're and you're not putting something together on the field. What I saw in the second half was really good football.
Panic is a good thing to point out because it's hard not to get a little squeamish if there's a four to one loss, a six to one loss. But when we're talking as we talk here in April, you start panicking. And you know this is if you if you're a player in the locker room and senses that the coaches is panicky, that that suddenly it's all changed. Often that doesn't end well. Then it becomes a scrambled there.
You do have to adjust things, but there has to be belief in what you were doing, in what you sold to the players at the start of the season.
That's right, Dave. And you know, you know I becked Troy li saying, I just love the way he goes about his business. You know, he never talks about like laying into the players, and we know, you know that Troy's he's the kind of guy that's will He's so honest to me as a coach that he you know, I know he gives it to people if he has to. And as a group, he wants to hear from the group what's more, what's better than a player? And everyone can talk about the old school days and Alex Ferguson
and the hair dryer speeches. Don't think that doesn't happen occasionally, because it does. No coach survives without the ability to have that in his arsenal. Okay, but this coach also lets players have a little bit of say and that makes players feel good, and players that feel good play good.
All right, But finishing scoring goals? DC United needs more than ben Teke. So that was your specialty? Scoring goals? How does that happen?
When Leo Messi goes in, Liono Messi goes in to a dribble and just starts spreading up people with the ball, you can ask him. He doesn't know what he's going to do. He just works off the situation. If you watch Pirani the other day, he ran at people again, like he did last year and he hasn't been doing that this year. And so we had we had Peglo Piranib guys just running at people with the ball and
what that does is it completely unbounces his defenses. It allows them to get off of ben Teke right as the primary mark and Ben tech becomes mobile. Ben Techy can't do anything in this league if he's not mobile, because he's he's just a target.
Right. So the individual brilliance is then important when you're talking about what a Peglo, what a Prowny can can bring because if if the player as he's dribbling doesn't know what he's going to do, the defender doesn't.
Know absolutely, And that's the key, that's the key to it, you know, is just to make sure that you're willing to go and take on that risk. And it's almost like somebody from the bench or or somebody hit a switch and said, hey, guys, you know what, just go just go pretend you're eleven years old again and you're you're in your your club team and you're the best player on the field. Go for it. And that's what it looked like, Dave. It really did for thirty five minutes.
And that has to be repeated against the Red Bulls.
Yeah, it does, it does. But at the same time, defensively, I said it the other day, we still have to squeeze in. We have to bring one, you know that that second center midfielder back. We have to bring the off the weak sided midfielder in so that we end up with that three man middle becomes a six man middle and slows them down. Because again Red Bulls probably one of the better teams on the fast break. We've got our league as a fast break league, there's no question about it.
The prescription of doctor Bruce Murray, we just elevated you to doctor status. It is first the level. We appreciate the time. We know your time is valuable, so that's why we like to do it in eleven minutes or less. D C ed New York Red Bulls Saturday. We started seven point fifteen on iHeartRadio, iHeart app. It's free, please download it and we look forward to Saturday again. For Bruce Murray, I'm Dave Johnson. Yeah, thanks for the time. Eleven minutes or less,