The Never Forgetting Your First Pod

Hello and welcome to raising anchor your podcast and source for all things Rhode Island FC I'm your host manager can coming to you on this Monday, May 5th RFC opens the doors in front of a sold out crowd at Central Bank Stadium in what was a thrilling Neil Neil draw that proved once and for all that Rhode Island is a soccer state We're gonna go over that match and get you ready for The preview of the open cup round of 32 against

the New England Revolution. Our good friend from the Blazins must get Seth Maycomers going to join us to preview that game. But for now, the one and only Jason Carey. Jason joins us. Jason, first, you're on time. You're late, but you're also on time. How are you doing, my friend? I'm doing great. You know, I think maybe still still riding the high a bit from Saturday. You know, that was it was as close to as perfect as you

could be. You know, one goal, I think maybe, maybe would have make it, you know, quote, quote, best day ever or something. But, you know, I think that ultimately, you know, I don't know if we could really ask for more. Um, not the result we necessarily wanted, but maybe the result we deserved. Right. Good. I don't know about that. I mean, we were, we were knocking on the

door in that final 20 minutes. The rain there and the rainbow at the end and, you know, You know the draw Kings return for a brief visit It just felt like we had to have a draw right like we forgot where we came from for a moment

there We drew and burned of course. We were gonna draw at Centerville Bank Stadium Yeah, that rainbow signified a lot to me It showed the kind of the fair weather fans literally that's not a that is upon but also literally like the rain starts coming down and people start Vacating the the stadium trying to get under some of the protection and then the soccer sickos are like This team's

got five minutes left. I'm gonna give them all five minutes of my of my life soaking here in the rain You know, we'll talk about the roof and actually I had an interview with Brett Johnson, which we'll release in the coming weeks We talked about that as part of the strategy for phase two of Centerville Bank Stadium But listen, we've got a very tight show because we have a guest coming on and we have to be mindful of their time So we can talk at length about the stable.

We'll touch into a little bit more here in a second, but let's get straight into this news here Big, big things coming out of last Friday. Another defender signing with the club. We've got our, you know, I think CB number seven now. We went from CB four to CB seven in a matter of weeks. Let's what do we need to know about about IMA? Yeah, so RFC just signed IMA Mavika. If you hadn't noticed they announced this last Friday for the 2025 season pending league in

Federation approval. The experienced 26 -year -old defender reunites with a pair of former teammates in the Ocean State and brings 50 Major League Soccer appearances across Stints with InterMiami, CF and Toronto FC, hashtag non -MLS podcast. Mbica spent the last two seasons with MLS Club Toronto FC making 20 starts and 33 appearances during that stretch and logging nearly 2 ,000

minutes with the Canadian club. Prior to his time up north the Zambia native spent two seasons with Inter Miami First team after being selected as the 26 overall pick in the 2021 MLS super draft He began his career in 2021 with Inter Miami 2 formerly for Lauderdale CF who used to play in USL League 1 I think at the time Playing alongside current RFC defender Frank Nodarse making 14 appearances for Miami Reserve during the 2021 U .S .L. League One season. Forest Time

is a professional. Mabika enjoyed a five -year collegiate career at the University of Kentucky, spending three seasons playing alongside current RFC midfielder Clay Holstead, earning multiple accolades along the way. Good to see there's already some chemistry there between Frank and

Clay. Yeah, you know, a lot of people were worried how would a player come in this late integrate into this team and already a connection to kind of that right side in terms of the midfield there on the on the defensive side with Frank Nadar say really exciting to see this prospect. You know, another thing I remember fans that were either rooting for RFC to fail or questioning how we had been so successful in that post. You know playoff run. It was looking back at the

amount of MLS depth. We really had in the team Mabika now kind of just adding to that, you know, and I'll be honest He's not it was just also temper expectations. He is not necessarily a dug in replacement I just want to be clear both in position as well as you know qualities and skills We're gonna have to wait and see kind of what his game is producer torn had mentioned.

He's a very tactical very smart defender I talked with Kano last week during practice about the arrival of Mabika and I asked, like, could we see him on the weekend for the home opener? And he was really upfront and transparent about saying that because he's an international and that his playing certificate is with Toronto still, even though he's a free agent, he was still going to be waiting on that ITC or that international transfer certificate to move from Canada into

the United States. There was a couple of jokes back and forth about tariffs and whatnot, and Conno didn't take the debate on that one. So that's the only thing we're worried about. I asked if there could be any slowdown in the expediting of that ITC, and he said that usually working with a country like Canada, those things happen pretty quick. I couldn't pin him to saying, would Mabika be ready for... The open cut match this Wednesday, but you know, he said that they move

fast. So there's probably some intent and some desire to see him be available for selection. You know, maybe the bench. I don't think he'll get a start right away, but we could see him as early as this Wednesday for his first appearances in front of a home crowd. And I may is tall, like legit, super tall. We're both pretty tall dudes. Yeah, we're 6 '3, 6 '4 on a good day. Yeah, he towers over us. I remember we took a

picture with him. He was walking around the stadium We met so many cool people so many great people at the stadium and I tried to get the picture and He's I couldn't get him in the shot And so he's like do you want me to take it and he took it and just you know And from the angle like you don't realize how much further back, you know, it's that depth thing But yeah, but he got very very tall dude Interesting to see how he'll fit in the starting 11 right now. It's

a position of need. We have these injuries. We have these depth problems But if we get healthy come end of July, we're something going to have a real tough fight on our hands when it comes to coaches' game day selections. You think down the road, since this isn't a loan, since this isn't a 25 -day contract, is this going to create problems for us? Or is that a tomorrow problem?

That's kind of a tomorrow problem. At this point, we need to get through these next couple of months, it looks like, where we're going to be kind of light till maybe Early mid -summer depending on how you want to look at it until we kind of get everyone back And the reality is injuries are going to continue to happen So hopefully not all at once like right now that we're dealing

with so Plenty of games. You know if we continue in some of these cup competitions, there's going to be plenty more games for rotation So moving on to the next bit of news, your ID Inc., which is such an interesting name, they announced today the first ever international soccer friendly that's going to be held at Centerville Bank Stadium. And it's set to take place on Sunday, June 1st, 2025. Don't worry, everyone. This does not compete

with a Rhode Island FC match. That one will be on Saturday, the day before against the Riverhounds away. So you'll be able to get All types of soccer in on your on your soccer weekend there. This landmark match is going to feature the men's national teams of Puerto Rico and Nicaragua. So Isaac Yankees home team coming into town and

it's scheduled to kick off at 4 p .m. This is a big deal for these two teams as they get ready for competition in conca cap to earn one of the remaining, you know World Cup qualifier spots within conca cap. So many of those are kind of already It's deluded in the sense that with three teams in conca -calf already getting a top -seated berth It makes it a little bit more challenging for the remaining group selections within the conca -calf league So these are kind of extra

special moments and it's gonna be exciting. Your idea is gonna be putting on a first of its kind soccer event at Centerville Bank Stadium They're gonna have fan a fan fest kind of like what rodeo NFC does They're gonna have a pregame session with live music, you know vendors. This isn't gonna be just show up and watch soccer. They're trying to make an entire production of it. I can tell you that they already have the pre -sale available. Someone wrote the code on our Twitter

account. I can't multitask, so I don't know what it is. If someone wants to pull the Twitter or if they know the pre -code, I'll throw it up on the screen right now. But there is a discount, so really important. If you are interested in going to that game, as long as you purchase tickets either today, Or tomorrow you'll get 15 % off. So don't wait if you want to go see it and it's going to be a really big deal. There's a lot of Puerto Ricans that live within Rhode Island.

I think this is a great way to start the fan base off, get people excited and what better way to bring an international team in than that. So are you going to go? I think I'll try and go. Silly question, right? Of course you're going to go. When I look at this and like part of me wants and King to play it in front of his crowd, but the other the RFC half of me is like I'm not Puerto Rican. I don't care about that. But

like I would be a big deal for him. Oh, yeah, and like I want him to have that but You know, I will I just want RFC to do well and You know, he's he's been struggling with injury and you know, if he's not ready, he's not ready Matthew Jean writes in the pre code might be your ID pre so why oh you are ID PR E so go use that and get your 15 % off and like you said, I I really want him to succeed I'd love to see him be able to there'd be nothing more special Maybe

he just dresses though because like we need him back so bad I mean I'm sure dress up on for like the last few minutes just to jog around the pitch Yeah, exactly Exactly. But we got to move on for the sake of time. So let's get into this overall experience and recap of the game against San Antonio. Jason, first and foremost, let's get through this stadium. I mean, we could do a whole another hour and a half podcast on just

the overall. Experience the overwhelming sensation of seeing that many people ten thousand seven hundred fans in attendance So they were over their city their seating capacity there were standing room only tickets number one attended us on match of the weekend We could not get tickets into the pressable tickets We couldn't get spaces into the press box because there was so much there were so many journalists there cover I mean to be clear. I want to be really courteous

to RIC communications. They absolutely offered to bend over backwards for us, but we don't write in the moment. So we didn't need the amenities that way. Yeah. No, they still took care of us. We had our own space. It was just not, you know, it's not the process. I love the seats. Yeah, it was fantastic. I was in the shade. So I was worthy to burn. No, it was a fantastic showing overall. What were your big takeaways about the overall experience at that stadium? You've been

to the stadium numerous times. I'd actually only first been when we did the the food event thing. Yeah. So I was really impressed with how with how everything went. I think that it's as close to as perfect as you can get. I think there's always going to be a few things that people can kind of nitpick on here and there. I think when we extrapolate it to the whole experience is like as a whole package. Everyone was afraid parking was going to be a nightmare. I didn't

hear any complaints about parking. It didn't seem like it was that big of a deal. I think that there was so many different options and ways to get there. We even took the... I mean, we got the early park, but then we used the bus. We got there at like 10 .45 in the morning, and they were turning us away from places because we got there too early. I wanted to get B -roll, so yeah, we did the bus the fun. But the crazy thing is we were not the only people. There was

a lot of other people already there. So and we took the bus the defines route up into the M7 lot Yeah, we thought we got on the train one

by accident. So that was a learning curve as well Now it was it was a great time, you know speaking about that 430 kickoff or the speaking of parking I should say get this in order here one of the reasons that the game was actually You know kind of moved back is there was there was some you know Concerns that people couldn't get into the stadium on time and they wanted to make sure that everyone Was able to find their seat and be available in that stadium to watch

the opening ceremonies of the game So a little bit of planned deliverance and making sure I know that not everyone kind of understood that so they were certainly like 30 minutes going I thought this was I thought this kickoff was at 4 p .m. But you know looking back on it. That's the way you have to do it That's that contingency

where you want to be like, okay? i need to i need to understand how are we going to be best set up for success and i think it worked because how many times it burned last season did we get 15 minutes in the game before people would kind of meander and find their seats it was it wasn't problematic because everyone enjoys the game at their own pace at their own speed but being able to see 10 500 strong in their seats at kickoff with the helicopter flyover i mean fireworks

it was just spectacular yeah for the occasion i definitely i don't think they're they're not gonna start every game thirty minutes later there's a learning curve for a lot of the the newer soccer fans if you will that. These games are kind of prompt right you so if anything you want to get there a little early if you if you want to get yourself something to drink some snacks and kinda

get yourself settled in because. When it hits four you maybe got a few minutes of the opening ceremony and then boom the game starts Yeah, we got to move on but so many people came up and said hi from coach Conno's mom found me in the crowd came over gave me a hug We took a picture. We saw Nate Silvera there asked him how he was doing at the police academy. He's doing great Ran into Noah's parents. I ran into all the families Someone told me there was a Gabby Alva sighting.

So I was like looking around Ramp it for him but other than he reached out like no, I couldn't make the game but he had wanted to go up so just really exciting we'll talk more about it in the weeks to come. Anyone that has a really personal experience that they want to share some moment of pride let us know in the comments will put it up for people to read along but we do have to move on. I will say that I made a promise to a little girl and I told us that we know that

chip is an avid listener of the show. And we told her we would move the message along. So Chip, as you're listening, we need to somehow figure out how to get chip, chip, hooray, incorporated into celebrating you as a mascot. I think when he heads over to Defiance, I mean, that's just, they just, that becomes a champ. We, we, we, we just, we just move, we move the, we move the

message along. We don't, we don't make them, like I want to make sure that's organic and that people don't go, here's Matt and Jason imposing that, well, this was a little girl, a wonderful little girl who wants to hear chip, chip, hooray with her favorite mascot. at request of her. Yeah, of course. Of course. All right. So let's get into this game recap itself. You know, it's it's been 189 days since we saw a home game in front of home fans. Not a lot was able to happen.

Unfortunately, we do end up still in 10th place with the Neil Neil draw. So didn't really move up or down in the Eastern Conference. But overall thoughts, just quick impressions of the match overall. Yeah, a bit rough there. You know, draw Kings are back. I I went re like went back and rewatched like some of the game In the second half, I'm like, I I don't know how we didn't score there There are so many there were so many

chances. I think that on a on a different day we put one of those away um San Antonio maybe wasn't incredibly threatening. It's not to say that they didn't have some opportunities and You know We ended up was able to kind of shut them down the few times that they did venture forward. I think maybe to a certain extent, I don't know if they completely showed up to play

soccer. It very felt like when they realized the way that the ref was going to call the game, they were maybe taken full advantage of that. Absolutely. I mean, we were also depleted, right? Eight players unavailable. Six injured one red card suspension and one still pending the registration with the league so Considering how well the team did I think that overall like I'm not I'm not

upset. I would have loved to have a win there to celebrate with the fans, but like It wasn't a boring nail -nail draw if anything How do you how do you rank this game across the five regular season games we've played so far? It's it's hard to like rank them. But I think when you look at how well some of the players did specifically, right, I mean, you know, Sanchez was just Sanchez had a phenomenal game. And I don't mean all your Sanchez. I mean, Richard Richard Sanchez from

the gold San Antonio. Like he was he was keeping San Antonio in that match. So. I think what's important here is that we saw the resilience from the team. We saw them fight back. We've been concerned that maybe this team is a first half only team, but we saw a really good fight from there in the second half, especially because the first half was maybe a little dull at times. It was just constant fouling to a certain extent, and they couldn't really get it going until that

second half there. Yeah, I think that the fouling though, you know, I think you said a minute ago credit to the San Antonio for the gamesmanship of selling the meals out of the opportunities they had Had ref Alissa Nichols really had a tough time on on managing this game, you know There was arguments for a PK each direction. First one was against them or was for Alde or Sanchez in the box. I didn't see enough of it to warrant it. And likewise, the one where I

think it was a grieve that went down. Just I wasn't convinced, but you saw these teams go at each other early on with a lot of attitude, a lot of pushing and shoving. And then once they got the game going, it felt like every bit of contact was just, you know, especially from the San Antonio side, just kind of selling it. Coach Conno very frustrated with the refing in this

game. I don't know how they're going to do it in the future, but there might be some damage control they need to worry about with how closely the sideline is mic'd. They may need to think about moving those mics to the side. I went back and listened to the broadcast and you could hear Coach Conno. the entire time from the amount of f bombs that he dropped to everything in between.

He was very frustrated with Nichols. Even if you watch the highlights, there's no, you know, profanity in there, but you can hear Miellen on the side being unhappy with with Files being called. I mean, he was yelling at his player. I mean, he's a passionate coach. He's a he's a coach that like is trying to always make his team the best that it can be. But specifically back to Nichols, you know, he was picked up multiple times on the mic saying that she can't keep stopping

the game like this. She's killing the momentum

of her team. RFC really wanted to take as many of the quick whistles as possible before San Antonio could grow into the game It felt like RFC wanted to try to do something those first 15 minutes and and Nichols kind of kept getting in the way and then I remember one point a little deeper into the game You know Conor just said you know She's having way too much influence on this game because of the way she's starting and stopping and that no one came to see her

She needed to stop inserting herself as kind of like that main character energy So it was it was a tough thing to see but you know credit san Antonio This is what makes them so dangerous

on the road. This is why they haven't lost the game yet this season When they're traveling away because they are a difficult team when they're not shooting Which they you know, we'll talk about that here in a second But san Antonio were kind of the heels of of the I guess they might be the heels of the west this year They might be the Detroit city, but it was definitely a frustrating first 30 minutes, especially the

first 15 for Rhode Island of Sea. Yeah. I think one thing we should highlight here is we talked a few minutes ago about here of like when you have this big squad, right? And if some of these players start performing, you put yourself in a kind of a headache situation, right? Well, I think we need to give Amos Shapiro Thompson his due. We weren't really sure, like, What exactly type of player he was right? He was injured for

a lot of last year. He started making some kind of cameos here and there and There's definitely a bit of a bite to him kind of like almost like a bit of a bulldog there You know, he he had a lot of spirit and fight, but we didn't really know how or where he fit into the team But he had a phenomenal performance this match. I think he was maybe wearing a Angolo Conte jersey underneath because he was, he was all over the pitch, right?

He was, he was that kind of like industrious, hardworking midfielder who would just get where he needed to go after the ball, pick it up. He was winning tackles. He was distributing the ball well and just constantly fighting to keep the team in. And I just think that, you know, seeing that he could do this, like if he can do this again, like our midfield has been a very strong point in the squad, right? So like. You're not gonna take off Hervo. You're not gonna take

off Holstad. You're not gonna take off Rodriguez, but Well, how good AST performed if he continued if he can per replicate that performance You're gonna want to get him some some minutes in there maybe even some starting minutes if that continues Yeah, I mean, let's talk about the starting 11, you know It wasn't exactly the roster that I think people expected to see on the game day And it was a pleasant surprise, you know going

back to that AST moment there. Okay, Vegas in the net Coach Kano definitely kind of continuing the evolution now of this 4 -2 -3 -1 or some kind of Morphosis of at least that back four line you saw all day your Sanchez out at left back with Grant Stoneman and then Zach Haribo being the player we dropped back We weren't sure if we'd see Zach or clay in there So Zach Haribo slots into that center back roll Surprisingly too because the team naturally starts to move

forward as a back three Zach was the center of the center back. So he was kind of the anchor and the pivot for the back line instead of Grant Stoneman. So that was exciting to see. Rio Hope Gunn gets his second start in this team now and in two consecutive games, the double pivot. So Amish Shapiro Thompson dropping back into more of a defensive or full CM instead of where we've seen a more kind of the tip of the spear in the

midfield partnered alongside Clay Holstead. Then you had that midfield three of Joe Burrito out on the left wing. I don't know that we've seen Joe ever out on the left side like that. Typically he hugs the right Maxi Rodriguez in that attacking midfielder role and Joe J. Acuasera continue. his right side. And that was the interesting part, right? Like, you know, Joje is a natural left wing. Why we didn't see those two switch.

Coach Conno knew that probably Quasaro was needed more for his shooting than his crossing and passing. Also, with how well it did against Westchester, I think we might, we might continue to see him play in that position. And I know that Amos Shapiro Thompson was the man of the match for Defiance. I think it was well earned and well fought. But I also do have to agree with Torren that, you know, Joje and Quasaro's contribution on the

day was second to none. I mean, he's just Becoming such a such a problem for defense on the opposite team when it comes to the way he builds up his attack Whether he's gonna be redistributing the ball or just going in he looked really dangerous No, if you saw him the lone striker up there, he struggled on the game pretty much But not

because of anything where it was his fault. He's just not a striker He's not that player that you're gonna want stationary in the midfield to collect balls He's better when he's at pace

when he's at speed out on the wings. And so, you know, he was doing a role that You know he did the best that he could but in reality It's not his preferred spot and we saw when chico came on in the 60th minute We saw immediately what the transformation of that could look like when we had a striker kind of jump on board I do want to say real hope gun, you know with those two starts now undefeated as long as he is starting on the team So that is exciting to see continued

headaches for conno when everyone else gets when everyone gets healthy It's gonna be it's gonna be a real problem. You know the only other thing I guess I would ask is You know, is this the team that we thought we would see on the day or is this just the circumstance of the people that we had available? Are you surprised time

who didn't get the start over amus or joe? I'm a little surprised in the sense that maybe we've seen time a lot more But considering how well Shapiro Thompson performed I like You know, I'm very happy with what we saw like you said the roster itself is very much a It's it's the circumstances weren't right there. There was not even a full

bench with two keepers on the bench. So You know, I'm happy with with what we saw out there would have loved to get a win But at least we didn't lose and then kind of talking through really quickly the two big talking points because it's it's hard to unpack a lot of things that are no performance But kind of going through these

rapid fire. I do want to talk about the defensive actions and the saves from coke You know, he wasn't really heavily challenged on the night only facing two shots, but they were the two most important shots to keep Rhode Island FC in this game. First, the early, what I think is going to be an early save of the year contender, when Jimmy Adron to tries to do that lob in like the 34th minute, 35th minute, trying to catch Vegas, who, who likes to range. He's a little

bit far forward out the box. Koke tracks back like a, like a baseball outfielder fully extends and just, you know, pushes the ball away from the net. Incredible. incredible opportunity there. And then, of course, he takes on the one -on -one later in the game, shuts down the lane after a pretty, pretty damaging Stoneman giveaway, which, you know, it felt very reminiscent of the Zac Carrivo goal against Westchester and

just shows up really big. But just not on top of the Coque Vegas saves themselves, the defense really played out of their minds. And it might not have felt like it because the game wasn't really as crispy as we could have seen. There were over 257 instances of lost possession in this game. These teams were stumbling through each other a lot of the way. Part of that, again, was probably the head ref. Part of it was getting used to this turf, especially once it started

getting wet. Clumsiness and a little bit of risky turnovers created a lot of dangerous attack. It was still an exciting game And I think both of these teams really had some good looks but just didn't come through so credit to coca Vegas on those clean sheets on this clean sheet and that defensive move from El Capitan any thoughts on coca overall No, he he did well when he was called upon his distribution was good as always

So I mean what more can you ask from him? I will say this, you know, on top of the defensive work, it was the first time the Western Conference leaders were held scoreless. It's their first game where they have not scored a goal. So credit to the defense. In fact, San Antonio only had six touches in our box the entire match. So we definitely kept them, they kept them at bay as best they could. And I think it was a really good admirable defensive performance. Are you

ready to pay? Okay. Vegas is a lobster roll tab. How dare you? Hey, you got to start showing up to the practice sessions. Otherwise, I'm gonna use your name as I see fit clearly at work there Jason without you We wouldn't have gotten a cheat It's I guess it's worth it at this point. Where do you think he's gonna go for his lobster rolls with his wife? Hmm. I don't know. I'm not I'm

not sure. Do you think he do you think he's a uh, a cold lobster roll guy or that's that's what i'm gonna i'm gonna have to ask him before we we fund his uh, his dinner or his lunch with his family is we have to know if you think i think he's a hot i think he's a hot lobster guy i don't think he's a cold but if he is a cold i won't hold that against him either i mean both are good i'll eat both of them i i kind of want to trick him into going we will go with you to

have lunch so that you know we get out we get something out of it too but as long as the price on the lobster roll isn't market price you know there's an actual dollar amount You know you're going to be paying $40 a pipe here, but yeah, that's what you deserve You got to start showing up these practices and contribute more to this podcast Jason. That's on you. Um, my job Final kind of touch point on the night want to talk

about Chico's return big time. It wasn't a positive We were speculating could we see him return to

the bench? He looked healthy, but you know, we weren't sure if he was quite ready for a match he puts in a 30 minute performance, but Even with the and he had some amazing looks like there was probably the one where he headed it on and it just didn't it went a little too wide But there still seems to be some scoring opportunities We talked last week about the importance of JJ Williams in terms of the offensive Contribution and what would I NFC what their score lines typically

look like when JJ is running on all cylinders right now This RAFC team has now failed to score in four of their six games No team is worse off when it comes to that kind of stat, you know We talked about how when this team gets to the 15 to 20 shot range, normally things kind of unlock. They had 16 shots, five on target. Maxi led the charge. Again, he was doing a phenomenal amount of work. It just didn't seem to fall into

place. Is there something more that we need to look through on this, or is this just things will work themselves out and just getting out of the Centerville Bank Stadium jitters? Sometimes it just happens like that. I wouldn't be too concerned about it. If it continues, then you start to see a trend. Well, then maybe there's a little more to it. But maybe to a certain extent, even for them, like maybe the nerves got to them a little bit. So I think I'm happy with the performance.

You know, I think it's good, the momentum that we've been kind of slowly building up here after maybe a bit of a rocky start. Things are potentially looking pretty good on the horizon here once everyone kind of gets healthy, get back together as a squad. Yeah. I still think this draw. is everything you expected out of it, just one or two pieces of a little more clinical finishing and this ship is ready to go. During the press conference, Coach was very impressed with the

team, was very proud of the effort put in. Really appreciated the hard work across everyone that had delivered, not just the stadium, but that game day experience. I mean, it really truly was a core memory now for myself and I hope many, many, I hope 10 ,700 people along with us. So

it was just an exciting way. Really fun fact, you know, he had mentioned how San Antonio didn't set up the same way that they had been preparing for and planning So not sure how much of that went into it, but I also really enjoyed one of the one of the people in the press room Jim from false and a webbo He asked about what it was like playing against his former New England Revolution teammate and Carlos Yamosa Had no idea that they

were former revs team players together. This was really exciting to bring back the 2005 New England Revolution there for a minute Yeah, they must have been I think you most so was on kind of towards the end of his career trajectory I think he's almost oh, he's over a decade older than yeah, I mean Carlos Carl I think he moved on to Shiva's USA for his retirement So yeah conno ever much the the young impression of a winger talking to the the defender and you know

kind of for I'd say maybe guy who held it but in the back for new England Revolution there So exciting to see you know, it's again It's a small world. Soccer connections run deep, and apparently everything points through the New England Revolution, which is a perfect segue into moving into our guest joining us for the New England Revolution versus Rhode Island FC Open Cup match in the round of 32 here at Centerville

Bank Stadium this Wednesday. And who could ask for more than the one and only Seth Micomer, who points by the way, not only is he the senior editor, But he's also a co -host of Rebels Should Be Happened. And that's a feature that you've not been covering the Rebs for over 10 years now? Wow, you really know how to quickly Google and find information. Yes, over 10 years. I think it's like 13 years or something like that. But

yeah, I love being a part of this show. I really appreciate all you guys are doing out on Rhode Island. I was at the game this weekend with my five -year -old kid. He absolutely loved it. We then went up to Portland the next day, so we are a soccer family going to bring him and maybe he'll be a junior reporter for the Blazing Musket. Seth, is it going to be difficult? You've now seen these two hyper -local soccer communities. Is it going to be almost artificial when you

have to go back to Gillette? I guess not this weekend, but maybe the next weekend when you have to cover the revs from an NFL stadium. You guys, this is becoming like a big thing. Like you guys want to poke things as much as possible to try to get this rivalry big, which is great. I mean, I think in this soccer world, you want rivalries, right? You want these things to be meaningful. And it's only meaningful if the fans make it meaningful. Like, you know, you see so

often rivalries are trying to be forced. It's constantly this question of who is the rival for the New England Revolution. And the reality, it just really hasn't come up much. When the league was smaller, you know, the Houston Dynamo because of all the playoffs and DC. United. And there's been this little bit of a force thing with the Philadelphia Union, because we played

them so much during the COVID years. But I think that this will be really exciting, because you guys down in Rhode Island really want to make this a rivalry. And there's definitely an itch to see what happens on Wednesday night. I always thought that the rival right now for the New England Revolution was Mer -Woo in Boston. But sometimes I get my sources a little mixed up there. Depends who you ask. It could be the crafts, too. There's been different articles and different

theories on those things. I will say this though, you know, Seth, I know we haven't had a chance in a while to connect. You know, one of the best parts of these band bases right now really is though, that there are people that are going to be going down that are fans of both teams, right? Like that's the reality of it. This is a very rare occurrence. This is not something

we may see very often. So, you know, Rivalry I think is fun in the terms of the charged circumstance of the shiny new thing that is us at Rhode Island FC versus You know the group and full credit to the revolution I mean they've been holding down the soccer landscape for you know What is it now 26 years in MLS is that the is that the no 30 30 30 years there man I can count guys I can count 30 years in the MLS I mean full credit to that team where it was a barren wasteland

of at least professional Soccer until these things all came in line So you have to pay your respect you have to pay it to the heritage of what the revolution have done And I'll be really interested to see how fans react and respond to that when they come to when they come to Centerville Bank Stadium this weekend Anything else real fast before we get going like any initial thoughts or you know impressions of that match that you got to see in person Seth Yeah, that was great

My kid was really excited. The fan zone right next to the water was really a cool opportunity for him. He grabbed anything free that he could possibly have. He then showed it off the next morning to mom and brother and brother immediately says, I want those things. I want to meet Chippy. All those types of good things. I think we're still waiting in the line for chicken fingers. I think that line is a little bit longer than

some of the lines at Gillette Stadium. But yeah, other than that, I'm sure that thing is going to be worked out. I'm sure they're aware of it. Obviously, that's max capacity. That's beyond max capacity, right? Because you were selling standing tickets for that game. No, I really enjoyed the game. I was six rows back. I'll be down again for sure. I think to your bigger point, The more soccer that you can see in New England, I think the better. My kid is getting older.

He's super into it. We were up in Portland on Sunday night. Highly recommend you guys make the trip up there at some point. The atmosphere they had was electric. I don't know if you saw the stuff I posted on social media or other people. 6 ,000 people for the inaugural game, all clapping in unison saying the same thing. And I'm not sure how many stadiums that happens, certainly in New England where every single person is on the same page and it's really electric. So I'm

all for the growth of soccer everywhere. I think the more soccer the better and make it accessible and fun for everyone involved. Yeah, absolutely and and that's really going to kind of crescendo I think here with this open cup match So kind of just getting straight into it Jason, you know, we've been talking at length about the proximity of these two teams when it comes to usl to MLS comparisons How how significant now is this? I mean we have no we have no dog in the MLS part

of this right? We were never revolution fans from the beginning So we didn't have our allegiances tested here, but looking at the overall landscape. How significant is this? Yeah, I think that the proximity thing is is kind of a big interesting I don't know if like I don't say issue but You

know Rhode Island is very close to Foxboro. So there's probably a lot of conflicted fans here who Now have their own team at home Granted they don't play in the same league and in some people, you know, I'll say soccer snob or something but there's there's can be differences in quality. I think to the average regular fan who doesn't watch either leagues, they probably couldn't tell. But, you know, to the sickos like us, we have to admit, there is a difference in quality

to a certain extent. So some of them won't necessarily have to make a choice. At least I would hope they would on Wednesday, maybe. I really don't want to see those split kits and split scarfs. Like I'm absolutely not a fan of those, but long term. I think when we think about the soccer landscape, Portland, Maine now has a team. Sure, they don't play all the time, but Vermont Green. All of the New England states now have their

own teams to a certain extent. So with the Revs trying to claim all of New England in terms of fandom, I don't know how that's going to look long term. If all of New England gets You know, like Seth said, if everyone's getting into soccer, that's better for everyone. But at the same time, a lot of their fan base has accused the ownership of the team not caring enough about their team. So if everyone else starts doing well, I think they could run into an issue where they could

be losing fan base. Yeah. And I mean, the reality is this too right in open cup. you're watching it the way some people watch NASCAR, you're looking for the car crashes, you're not looking for the performance. The magic of the cup, if you will. Right. And, you know, but cup sets are far and few between, right? This is now a depleted USL. Unless you're a Farrarolito, you just do it every

day. Even their journey ended, right? So you're looking now at a USL championship side, preparing to take on almost full strength MLS team that has an MLS2 reserve system that they they can go from. They can draw from the well because their next pro team did not enter this tournament. So when we start thinking about this logically and strategically, there are some predictable outcomes that I think we can start kind of basing

our predictions on. But what I think is really important, and I think of the significance of this, And Seth, I'd love to be corrected from what you've seen over the last two or three years. It seems that the fan base for the revolution have just grown tired over a certain amount of things that have been happening at the club beyond the performance on the pitch. And so what I think that this is going to do is put a magnifying glass on the culture war part of the teams that

are growing here in New England. No one would discount how the revolution have performed over the last five years at a macro level They've had some of the highest highs and they've had some of the lowest lows, but they are a top flight team that being said all of the people that have been let's call it Stadium curious because they've

heard the noise out of Pawtucket. There's a good chance they're gonna be tuning into this game now and Seeing what an environment can look like because I think you know one of the biggest Problems for the revs is you know, it's the fact that they do play in the NFL Stadium and even on a 26 ,000 30 ,000 Fan attended game it can still look empty when you pan that camera back now You're going to see 10 ,000 tightly packed and I have heard from the club that they are going

strong on ticket sales to hit that 10 ,000. The only reason that they're going to miss that mark is because of the inclement weather that may be coming in, but you're going to see a brand

new experience. And so, Seth, for you, we'll get into the actual performance expectations here in a second, but just with all eyes on the fan experience here, the audience and the culture that's being built, is there anything at Jeopardy or the significance of these two clubs meeting for the first time, especially with it being

in Rhode Island FC's backyard? Yeah, I mean, I think right now, not necessarily, because if you even look at the schedule, it seems pretty clear that they obviously collaborated in some way. There are multiple times that you can go to a Rhode Island FC game in the afternoon and make it home for New England Revolution game and watch that game. If you look at, you know, Portland, they're playing a lot of games on Sunday. So I think there's a lot to kind of go around,

obviously at some point. you're not spending your entire weekend watching soccer. You know, your wife's probably your significant other is probably getting mad at you at some point if you're spending that much time in stadiums or watching soccer or being part of it. But I think right now it's not necessarily, hey, are we getting tickets to Gillette Stadium? Are we getting tickets to the Brand New Stadium, Century Bank Stadium

down there? I think it's eventually, yeah. I think eventually if a team is not winning, if it's too expensive to go to a stadium, you're going to think about location. You're going to think about the worthwhile, where the kids are having most fun. I think that something really positive that I experienced is that you're right on top of the field. You have that autograph alley that my five -year -old was all about.

He held that poster up the rest of the way. He showed it to every single security person as we were walking out of the stadium. So he loves that type of stuff, but we haven't quite been to a Gillette game because I'm often covering it from that journalistic viewpoint. So I mean, yeah, I mean, eventually there's only a sort of amount of money to go around. But I think right now it's so new. And right now the Reds are so established that a lot of people have

had those tickets for a really long time. And it's not going to be that they're immediately cancel their tickets to go to these other games. Maybe they're doing both situations. Plus, I'm not sure if you guys know there's someone named Lionel Messi in Major League Soccer. And basically, if you want that game, you have to buy season tickets. It makes the most sense to buy season

tickets. So maybe in a few years when he goes to Hartford Athletic, Maybe obviously that'll be a really great thing for USL championship and their pro rally that happens at that point. I have heard that he is a big fan of New Haven style pizza. I wouldn't think he'd be allowed to eat pizza as a part of his diet. I always also thought he would just buy the Miami FC and call them the messy FC and and still live in Miami then afterwards. That was always my vision

for it. As long as they still play at Pitbull Stadium, I'm all for that. Of course. And so the same record, the same losing record you have to. He'll have to be one of those player coach owners, you know, who just jump in periodically. All right, well then let's jump into the open cup here itself and talk about the history of it for these two teams. Jason, I mean, it's pretty immediate. We've got some recency here, but what's

our IFC been up to? Yeah, so RFC have been flying high this year into the open cup after a hard -fought battle against Hearts of Pine up in Lowston, Maine that earned the Amber and Blue a 2 -1 victory. But it came at a cost. We did lose Karifa Yao to a red card late on, but it did advance for the first time after our disappointing exit against

Charlotte Independence last year. It was very much an exciting moment, especially getting to see a Portland Hearts of Pine team that had made a run themselves after first knocking out Hartford Athletic. On the New England Revolution side of things, it's been a bit of a love and hate relationship with the US Open Cup over their tenure. Before they were the winners of it back in 2007, they fell short in 2001, losing in 2

-1 in extra time to the Los Angeles Galaxy. And then in 2016, they were finalists again, but were defeated. for to buy FC Dallas in Toyota Stadium. Since then, over the last 10 years, it's been a bit of a mixed bag for the Revolution, seeing some round of 16 exits, a quarter -final

exit. But most recently, when you look at their two performances before they were not in the cup last year, they failed to make it out of the round of 32, first losing to the New York Red Bulls, but then most recently getting outed by the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, failing to advance past that. It was the first time they've ever lost to a USL championship team in the modern

era. Seth, looking back at the history of performances for this revolution side, I didn't realize how many times the Red Bulls have ejected the revolution from the cup. Is this tournament something that the revolution wake up for or is this just always been something that they play it as best they can and they make as much of a meaningful entrance and then exit as they can? Well, the history of it is that normally there's a storm and a giant weather delay in the middle of it. I remember

we actually listening to like a radio call. There was actually no television or no stream. It was just a radio call. And there was some sort of long, you know, storm that kind of delayed the game. Yeah, I mean, I think the history of the Cup has obviously changed. We see that obviously with, you know, certain Major League soccer teams not participating in and prioritizing other tournaments.

Oftentimes it's in a ability for the younger guys or for guys who aren't playing to get minutes to kind of show themselves, especially during those early rounds. Kayla Porter said last week that he had brought in some reps to guys to take a look at them because obviously if you're performing well, the MLS next. pro level or a usl championship level. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're

going to do well in major league soccer. So you got to bring some of those guys in to see what it looks like in a training session and then decide are any of those guys going to be guys that brought into the open cup. And so I think that you're going to see rotation this week. And I think that's going to be actually a pretty competitive lineup because even if you look at the bench guys plus some of those guys in MLS next pro there's some talented players there.

And that's not to say anything bad about out Rhode Island. Rhode Island has some very talented players, especially if you guys are healthy. Obviously you're dealing with a number of knocks this past weekend and a busy schedule yourself, luckily all at home. So you have to kind of think about what are you going to prioritize? You saw how to get with Portland Hearts of Pine. They put out a really strong lineup when they faced

Rhode Island FC because it was at home. It was an opportunity to make a statement to advance the tournament. Imagine if Portland right now is about to host the New England Revolution. That's a marquee game. Just like this weekend, I'm sorry, this Wednesday is a marquee game for Rhode Island FC. So I think that depending on where you are, is how seriously you take that tournament. The Revs right now are on a situation where they have won five of six. Let's not forget

last year they missed the playoffs. Last year they tried to play Kaka Kaka Champions League and try to balance both of them and play a lot of starting lineups. Didn't work out for them. Lots of injuries. So Caleb Porter, who's trying to get this team into the playoffs this year, maybe work that Caleb Porter magic and get an

MLS Cup. He might not really be prioritizing this early game, but I think that there's still an ability to put out a a decent lineup to have a in the time that you've been covering it, was there ever any importance to the fact that the open cup kind of originated in Rhode Island? You know, looking again at the New England side of things, the open cup hasn't been actually held in Rhode Island since 1997 with the stingrays.

Has that ever been a badge of honor that the rest have carried through in their 30 year career to your knowledge? Or is that just kind of like, okay, that's a fun stat, but we play as we play. Yeah, I think it's more of a fun stat situation. I know 2007 was a big deal when they won the championship and they had fans down there. And obviously anytime you could put a cup in there

is an important part of your history. I'm not sure if they've leaned too much in the idea of like, hey, here's how many times the other teams have won the championship that have been in this area. I think it's more about. you know, seeing what happens. And then when you get to a certain point within the tournament, then it gets a little bit more serious because obviously you're talking about this year, especially increased amount of money that's going into the tournament, increased

coverage with Paramount. I'm really excited to see their continued ability to cover this tournament. And obviously opportunities to participate in other tournaments if you win that tournament. So I think it's more about like, hey, this is our club. This is our history with it. And then seeing how far you can make it. Got it. And then you just mentioned kind of the change in the direction of the sales for New England Revolution

kind of going on this win streak now. But it hasn't been all roses at the New England side under Caleb Porter this season. Can you walk fans that maybe aren't connected through the revolution as much as the soccer sick goes around here? Can you kind of walk us through what's been the overall performance trend and changes this year for the revolution side? Yeah. I mean, last year was a difficult season for the New England Revolution. You had, you know, a new

sporting director come in with Kurt Onofa. You had a new head coach that come in with Kayla Porter. And they didn't make a lot of changes to the lineup. And they didn't make a lot of changes to the roster. And as a result, you had a coach that played a different style of soccer, a little bit more possession based soccer that wanted to control the game in that way. And it just didn't work out. And when you look at what happened last year, I really look at the stat

of how many multi -goal losses they have. If I remember correctly, there's 15 multi -goal losses. And so there's something that happened there. There's a disconnect that's happening there. So what they did, what the team did is they showed up the back line. They got rid of every single center back basically, except for Andrew Ferrell. And they brought in new guys. They brought in Fofana. They brought in Sabayos. Two foreign signing that have been really good

this year. Tanner Beeson from the San Jose earthquake that came in. Keegan Hughes, who might start on Wednesday. He's a guy who was over in Columbus and originally signed for the second team and was promoted to the first team. Someone that K .O. Porter knows really well. Wyatt Olsberg, who I think is who I know is a main native who might play in Portland one year at some point. He comes in and he's a really good player. Chicago fire guy. Unfortunately, he's questionable right

now. We'll kind of see what happens with him. But they really made that back line. Recently, what Caleb Porter said is that one of our mantras is that defending is like breathing. If you don't do it, you're going to die. And so everyone's going to be defending. And so when you see this team, it's actually kind of remarkable that someone like Carlos Hill, who's so good, who is someone that can make magic at any moment, he's coming back into the box and slide tackling people.

He is like leading the press, Leo Capone on the same type of way. There's a real dedication to defending. Now the issue was this year, that there was so much defending that there was no attack. And we're talking about games where the XG was 0 .5, you know, and that's okay because in some ways you're trying to prevent those multi -goal losses. You're trying to keep the game close. But the issue was that they kept keeping the game close and they ended up on the opposite

side. They were losing. So now they're finding that balance a little bit more. They're figuring out stuff. They're still keeping it really well. The best defensive start. ever in New England Revolution history, seven goals this season conceded. Pretty remarkable to think about that. And now they're getting a little bit more goals. Most of them through colorless heel, but other guys like Leo Kampana, two goals on the season. And Kanago is getting a little bit more opportunities

in front of net as well. So the team is figuring out that balance, I think. I mean, you could be supporting Kansas City and score a goal with .0 XG. So zero shots as well, too. Historic.

Like LA Galaxy sold it all for a cup, you know, that's all there is to it but not an LA Galaxy podcast So Seth I want to kind of get into then what we know right now as far as the injuries that are kind of at least plaguing the Rhode Island FC side of things And that, you know, right now a long list, you know, it's getting shorter and shorter by the day, but unfortunately still some problems here. Isaac Anking getting closer and closer to the return after that ACL

tear. We talked to him at the game. He kind of winked and nodded when we were talking about a June return. We made the joke earlier before you got on about he'd probably play his first minutes with the Puerto Rican international team. But I don't want to see that. I want to make sure he is as healthy as possible. You go back to racks still going to be another about four to six weeks at this point as he recovers through

his injury. Danny Rivera also at the game we talked to him, he's at least four weeks out from his return. JJ Williams was the major blow that was dealt to this team as he got injured last week in training right before the San Antonio match. They're calling it a calf strain. We don't know the severity of the grade of the strain or if it's a tear. Right now, you know, they're saying we need more time to analyze it and figure it out. But you know, you can do the math on

these things. It's either going to be two to as many as 12 weeks. As far as I'm concerned, until we hear more news, we shouldn't anticipate seeing him until some point in late July. And then, you know, Marquis Barra, he's I don't have a time for him yet. He was in a boot still kind of limping heavily I asked him if his girlfriend has been you know stepping on his feet at night and we kind of all had a laugh about it But he wouldn't give me a timeline, you know, nor should

he and then creepy out. That's the double whammy for the red eye on the seaside He's both been injured. He's closer and closer to game day fitness But he's also dealing with the red card suspension So you could kind of take it either way on that one in terms of the ones for the rev set Do these look right? These are just what we pulled from last week's MLS injured Are these still the three that we're expecting not to be able to even be available for selection on the open cup? I think

Andrew Farrell might be available. He's been training recently. He was out in training when I was there last week. So I have him as someone that could potentially start. You know, obviously someone who played for a very long time for the club. Someone that's a club legend, probably getting near the end of his career. But with Andrew Farrell, he is someone who everyone on the team loves. Every time you hear someone say, Who's helping you around the team? It's always

Andrew Farrell. So you'd be really interested to see if he's able to start this game. Maybe pairing with someone like Keegan Hughes. And then Malcolm Fry and Wyatt are probably most likely a scratch. Yeah, I saw those guys off to the side last week. I mean, we'll see. Wyatt is getting closer. He was working with a trainer, but I saw Malcolm Fry leaving the building and coming out in the field. He didn't really look like he was that close, but, you know, we'll

see. And then moving into the predictions, at least on the RAFC side of things, Jason, let's talk through who we believe the starting 11 most likely will be. Yeah, guaranteed to be wrong. Jackson, Lee and Net, we're thinking here with a back line of Rio Hopegund, Grant Stoneman, Frank Nodarse and Aldair Sanchez, I think as we continue to see this team, you know, play their quote -unquote four back line now. With Holy Midfielders here of Clay Holstead and Zach

Harrevo. with a forward three in front of them of Joe J. Quasarra, Maxi Rodriguez, Joe Brito, and Noah Fuson with a bench here consisting of Amos Shapiro Thompson, Chico, Taimo Okyoshi, Ame Mabika, Kevin Vang. Cole Dewhurst and Koke Vegas. So you may, if you're watching along, you're like, well, the graphic has Koke, and that's because we're pretty split down the middle

on this, right? This is a big time game. There's a lot at stake against an MLS sided team that, you know, even if they're not playing a starting 11 full of senior players, this is going to be a big test. And I could really see this going either way. What is your argument that Jackson Lee gets the nod here? I think it's bad juju when you. You decide before you go into a cup if you're going to play your ultimate keeper. And you continue to play them throughout those

cup games. So I don't think you bring in Kokei even as quote -unquote momentous as this is an occasion can be. I think you trust Jackson Lee. to get the job done. I mean, this is mostly the exact same team that dominated the USL one side in Westchester. The different tiers than now out JJ Williams. So Joe Brito tucking in on that left side again with no if you saw him back up

front. But I want to ask you about the two players that people are going to be looking the most to get excited about here in Mabika and Chico. What kind of minutes do you think they'll be getting on this game day? It is a long week and Chico's just coming back from injury. So I would expect him to play, but he's not going to start. I think maybe it depends on how a match is going to. If we're getting thumped or something, no point to bring him on. But if it's a close match,

20, 30 minutes left, you bring him on. Because then you still have to look forward to that Monterey Bay game at home on Saturday. When it comes to Mbika, he didn't have a lot of time with the

team. Compared to like others like we found Rio had been maybe trained with the team for a while So it felt like a much more seamless fit where he just went right into the team and looked like he belonged That being said with how injured everyone is and how long of a week it is I Think you get him some minutes here a bit of trial by fire You know if he is the type of profile player that we believe him to be I Think he'll figure it out Yeah minutes manage is definitely

gonna be a topic We're gonna have to talk about here as we bring up what's going to be the big storylines of the game But when you're so roster depleted it's going to be a very telling tale Especially on that frontline attack We just don't have another striker and those you know that we hear it on we hear it online all the time You know that people saying this is why you go and pick up a third striker and you know It's easy to say it now in hindsight, but you know

the offense the chance creation is there It's been more of a problem, I think, when the defense this season than it has been the offense. So there's going to be some answers there, but we'll see what happens on this game day. Seth, I know we talked about it's almost impossible to predict a starting 11 when you have what collectively you've got the 26 team senior squad, and then you've got the entire Revolution Academy behind

it. How do you go about deciding what kind of players Caleb Porter may select on game day? Yeah, as I was waiting for the show to start with me in it, you guys already had a great show beforehand before you ruined it with me coming on. I was thinking about what would this team look like if they completely rotated? If they went with no starting guys, what would it look like? So first team guys, reserve guys, and maybe

some MLS next pro guys. Bono is talking. Alex Bono tomorrow is talking to the media, which would probably indicate that he is going to start a very experienced goalkeeper, someone that played at DC United, among other places. pretty safe hands there. Will Sands, someone that was starting earlier this year, MLS experience, Columbus crew. Obviously, Caleb Porter knows him well. Left back at the right back position, Brandon By, everyone knows that name. He's been kind of relegated

to the bench right now. He's been coming off the bench and actually seeing out games. It's been kind of a cool role for him as a more experienced player, but he obviously has plenty left in the tank. In the middle would be kind of interesting. Are you going to go with a three? Because they've been recently playing like a three. or are you going to go with a four? I went with a four just because the revs don't have a lot of healthy

center backs right now. So I went with Keegan Hughes and Andrew Ferrell in that situation. I then went with five in the midfield with kind of Chonkoi being up top but floating in that space. So as holding midfielder, Jackson Ewell, someone that was actually brought in as a TAM signing, someone that was starting earlier this year. Guy from San Jose, international experience. He would be. I think he's going to be pretty obviously starting in my opinion. Next to him,

maybe someone that is a Revs two player. I don't know your earth. I'm really high on him. He's someone that came from Uganda. Plays for Uganda has scored for Uganda. He actually recently scored a really nice goal for Revs two. He is a first team player currently down with revs two. He did not play with revs two this weekend, which to me would indicate that he's probably being being saved for Wednesday. So I would really

like to see him start. If not him, Eric Klein, who has been around with the first team for quite a while. Eric Klein's dad actually played for the Revolution back in the day. Both of those players are young players, talented players. I think it'd be really exciting to give those guys minutes, especially with so much experience around them. On one wing, I have Luca Langoni, the club record signing for the New England Revolution,

playing in this game. He is someone who has now been coming off the bench, recently had an assist to Carlos Heel, although he didn't necessarily do a lot on that assist. It was more Carlos Heel magic, but he's someone that can produce on the field. On the other side, I have Luis Diaz, someone who used to be a young DP. for Columbus crew. I have a DP coming back from an ACL injury. So it'd be interesting to see how they use him. He's mostly been coming off and being a sub.

He has been coming off and being a sub at this point. And then up top is a Rudy, someone who's older, I believe 34 years old, but obviously scored a lot of goals in major league soccer. So if they went with no. starting players right now. No one that started this weekend. It's still a pretty strong lineup. You got guys like DeMario McIntosh, who's a first team player playing with Revs2. He could come on as a right back type

of situation. Alex Moniz didn't play. He's a former Chicago player who's now playing for Revs2, has international experience. And there's another guy that I'm forgetting right now. But there's some guys out there that have experience with

Revs2 that could certainly come up. Does surprise you I mean looking through the genocide of so many of those, you know revs to into Alternate players that couldn't quite penetrate the first team, you know, I think of the jack patio to learn loan I think of the the buck sale is Is this something where this is that new crop? Is this the chance for the guys coming up through the New England Revolution to side to really this is their one shot for the season to kind

of earn their mark Yeah, potentially. I mean, every time that you're on the field, it's an audition, right? It doesn't matter. Every time you're out there, I remember talking to John Bell after he was selected in the expansion draft. And he was like, you never know who's watching you. And he was like, people were watching me. And I wasn't aware of that. And they actually picked me as one of the five players that they

wanted all throughout the league. And he's gone on to have himself a little bit of a good career. So anytime you can put yourself out there, it's an opportunity to see, hey, look at what I can do. I need more minutes here or maybe another team is going to bring me on loan or maybe next year when they're, you know, making a trade, that's your opportunity. The reality is, is that not every player is the right fit for every club, right? And every player has to also find where

they best fit. I'm a big fan of Jack Ponyatu. I think he's a really talented individual, but he really wasn't getting opportunities with the first team. And now he goes down to originally RFC and had that really good run last year. And unfortunately when he goes back on that second loan, you guys had kind of already figured things out and he really wasn't going to factor in that situation. Well, now he's over at Hartford and you saw what happened in that first game. He

has two goals. Is he a major league soccer player? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe he's just not in the right system. Maybe he has to go somewhere else. Or maybe like right now what he's going to do is make his career in the championship. So I think that like you get any opportunity that you have. I think one of the hardest things for anyone on the outside, myself included, you guys that are in the media, we don't see training every single day. And so oftentimes people will

say, Oh, why isn't so -and -so playing? That's clearly the solution. But we don't see every single day what they're looking like, how they're playing. So this is an opportunity to see what they look like on TV, to see them against a really tough opponent. Obviously, RAFC made the championship last year. They want to win this game. Kayla Porter talked about how they're hungry to prove that the guys on that team belong in major league

soccer, right? You know, you talk to these guys, they often say, I want to play at the highest level. But right now, major league soccer is the highest level. So it's a really good opportunity to see whoever is on the field, whether you're an academy guy, you're an 18 year old from Uganda, who is just coming to the United States right now to have an opportunity to show what you can do. And then kind of touching into that, I look at this team completely transformed now over

their last five games. Seth, what's been going on with this New England group to switch their fortunes? They've rided the ship. They've strung together this win streak for the first time this season. What has that been? Why has that now happened? And then also, does that create? the pressure for Porter to change his tactics on the way he treats the open cup. You know, before I'm thinking, does he give it the Jim Curtin treatment of like, I'm not going to win hardware.

So I'm going to go all in on the open cup performance. But now Porter's got a little bit more leeway. He's got this this performance win streak on his on his mind. Does he have to prepare differently to not only tackle this game, but also Orlando on the weekend? Yeah. I mean, again, I think he hasn't said anything about this, but I think the standings really matter. And as you start to collect more wins, especially in the league, then people start to say, okay, the Stalingrad

Revolution team. can maybe do something. You know, now it's worth going to more games. Now it's worth buying more merch. Now it's worth, you know, really supporting this team more and more. And so, you know, like this game on Wednesday obviously matters. But the standings I think for the revolution matter a little bit more that you have to make the playoffs. Last year they didn't make the playoffs. So I think with the lineup that I gave you, there's still a lot of

experience there. There's still a lot of talent there. And I think oftentimes what you see is that you go with a more rotated lineup and you put someone like Carlos Heel on the bench. So that may be the last 20 minutes. Hey, Heel, go out there. Let's see what you can do. You know, you put someone like Leo Campana out there and then they can go after the game if you need those

types of moments. So I don't think you're necessarily going to see a first choice lineup for the revolution because things are going pretty well in the league and unfortunately there is roster congestion. The worst thing that could happen on Wednesday is someone like Carlos Hill getting injured. Because then all of a sudden, yeah, maybe you advance in the open cup, but Orlando becomes more difficult. The next game is May 17th against Bruce Arena and all of the former New England

Revolution players. They're going to have a hard time figuring out which locker room to go to because so many of them were here last year. So again, I know I know that it's a bummer in some sense. You want to see this team, this rivalry be a big deal. But I don't think you're going to see a lot of those guys out there. In terms of the turnaround, part of it has to do with like Matt Poulster coming back. Kayla Porter talked about how the players are taking ownership,

the leadership council are leading the way. You know, Carlos Hill finding his magic, guys getting healthier, and then becoming the wingbacks, you know, switching out formation and getting guys like Peyton Millers, you know, 17 years old, really good player. And on the other side is a 20 year old Israeli international named Eli Feingold. And those guys are a lot of fun. to

watch. So that's part of the turn around is, but to your point, I think what's going to be interesting is that they might not necessarily go with that formation. They might go with a 451, which is more of a trademark for Kayla Porter, or maybe more of like a 442 type of situation where Chonkoi is up top with someone like a Rudy. And then Jason, kind of the same question for you on the RAFC side of things. Obviously, Kano's hands much more tied behind his back with the

limitations of this roster. We're not in the basement, but we haven't made the progress we'd probably like to see in the regular season performance so far, now still just in 10th place in the Eastern Conference. Does coach Kano need to prepare for the longer game or does he need to be all in because of, you know, the optics because he's a former New England Revolution open cup winner? You know, how does he prioritize these matches, especially with the fact that he can't rely on

rotating players for minutes? Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised here if we saw RFC be a little more tentative to start the match to kind of feel it out in terms of. There's a lot of injuries a lot of people missing we need to conserve energy We need to think about the game on this on Saturday.

We can't afford to get other people injured and Then there's also the reality against playing, you know, the the quote -unquote higher opposition right here This is the the division one team that we're gonna be playing against here So you try and keep it tight and then maybe try and go for it second half and we see this a lot with a lot of open -cut matches where They start to open up in that second half where it you you get yourself into a good position like okay now

now we're only looking at about 45 more minutes can we Make some changes can we kind of you know put the pedal to the metal here a little bit and try and go for something the same way that the revs might be approaching it in the sense that We both have league games. We need to worry about So I and I think that you know The revs are on the up and up right now. I think that it would do well for them to like make the playoffs for in that sense and You know, obviously, I

think RFC maybe in a similar sense. We made the playoffs last year, but we kind of scraped in I think that Kano would love to have a home playoff game and I think so with this this team so You know, I think they both go out there kind of feel it out see how it is and Maybe we see a bit of an explosive second half, but the first half might be a little a little bit of poking or prodding That feels very anti -RFC for a team that has scored now I think what it's it's either

scored or been scored against 15 times in the first half of all of their gameplay across all competitions this season So that's that I just don't know if they have that dog in them quite yet. Yeah, maybe not But that being said too, I can absolutely tell you, you know, it was one of the main interview points and I'm sure if there's a media day before the open cup, I don't know if there's time for it now. But a lot of the focus was on asking Kano, you know, where

are his loyalties? Where are his allegiances? And how fired up is he to take on his former side? And, you know, I don't want to I don't want to dismay any revolution fans or or or loyal Kano, you know, I was there in 2007. I watched it with my own eyes, but he's very much not Talking about his ties to the revolution for this particular

match. He is very much an amber and blue and it seems like it's somewhat personal It seems like there's some I don't want to call it vendetta, but it seems like there's some stakes involved like I'm going to best this team So I think he will show up, but to your point It's a long stretch of the over these next seven days and without those reinforcements Well, you know, we only have the two new defenders. I just don't know

what kind of style we're going to see. I feel like there's going to be a much different version of the high block and the counter -press, you know, or excuse me, the counter -attack with the high press. I feel like we could see a team that drops back a little bit deeper into a low block, especially if Jackson Lee gets the nod and, you know, tries to absorb what the revolution may throw at them and then see what they can

do from there. But I don't expect to see the same kind of tactics in the way Kano sets up typically for a USL championship opponent. Seth, I want to kind of ask this final question about the New England side because you brought this up earlier. You're absolutely right about this defense. It's one of the best in the league. It's one of the best performances that the Revs have had themselves regardless of the competition

across the 30 teams in MLS. But it also seems that it's coming at The offense may be suffering. I know you mentioned a minute ago about heal needing to take his time to get into this season and start scoring goals. But you've got the best defense in the league, but you think I think it's the fourth or fifth worst offense. How does Caleb Porter adjust that so he can be kind of a more complete team? Or does that not matter? Does it just matter that the results are going

in the revolution's direction? Or should he use the open cup to experiment with some new attacking pieces? You're muted, Seth. I think the answer that the coach would give is that the goals will come. There doesn't every single coach say that, you know, the goals will come. And that's usually the last thing that does happen. I think there is truth to that too, you know, that if you can get the defense right. and start then figuring out what are the moments that we want to attack

that we don't want to open up too much. Then you kind of create those opportunities in that way. I always go back to 2021 when the New England Revolution won the supporter's shield. And then they go into that first round game against New York City FC. Granted, it was like a 30 day break in terms of things. And when they go into that game, they play to open. and they end up getting knocked out by NYCFC. Who then go on to win the

championship? But that was an opportunity for the refs to actually host every single game, including the championship game. But they just played to open. The situation was Matt Pulsar playing in the middle there, and it was just too much for him to do. Well, now you have a situation where you have a good solid defensive base. And then you try to figure out when are those opportunities to get forward? Where are the patterns of play looking like? And then how

do we get Carlos Hill in the best spots. So now that you have all these players behind them. Carlos Heal could basically float anywhere he wants and try to pick up the ball. And then the team becomes more dangerous in that way. A lot of people were looking at this formation switch and being like, okay, you have three center backs. That was way more defensive. I don't necessarily

think of it that way. I think of it as more simplifying the tactics and allowing guys like Heal, the two outside guys there, Eli Feingold and Peyton Miller, and then the strikers up top to kind of carry the burden while these other guys just hold things down defensively. So I think it actually becomes a little bit more free and a little bit more attacking that sense. They're probably never going to be the most attacking team in major

league soccer. I think Kayla Porter believes in defense first, the idea of being a good defensive team and having control of the game. And I think honestly, when it comes to the playoffs, that's the type of soccer that you want to play. You want to be disciplined and you want to win the game on the margins. I think about last year, right, the USL championship. Final, if you guys want to talk about that, I know you guys are still going through some stuff. You're talking

to your own people on the outside. That's okay. I understand. But I think that you guys at that moment played a little too open and you got punished about that. There was gaps that were happening and then all of a sudden the game got out of hand. And after the first goal and then the second goal, it really didn't feel like the team necessarily was going to come back even though they had that identity that they would come back. you know,

it was just too much of a situation. So I think Caleb is kind of building the team in that way, that if we can win the game on the margins, and that doesn't always mean one zero, you know, we're seeing now two zeros, but kind of build in that sense. So this weekend, so this Wednesday, I think what's really hard though is that you're probably not having a lot of those starting guys. So it's not necessarily about, hey, let's test

out what this thing looks like. I think it's maybe more of an opportunity to say, Hey, Luca Langoni, what do you got? Like, we know you're good. We know you're talented. Let's see what you got if you were putting in the starting lineup. Thomas Chonkalei, how are you feeling? How's the ACL situation? Are you ready to start with Leo Campana up top? Or are we still playing with Gonzaga in that situation? Jackson, you all,

what can you bring to the table here? So I think it's an opportunity more for some of those other guys to kind of showcase themselves and then think about... What's going to happen with those other 24 games in the season? Question for you both. We'll start with Jason. You know, there's so many former Revolution players on this Rhode Island F .C. side. You know, we hear it all the time. It's Rev's light. It's the Rev's Academy rejects. Does this game have more significance?

We talked about the fan importance and the impact to them a little bit earlier. But when you have this many players who didn't make it in the revolution system, now all here playing against their former team, does this amplify the stakes for them? Are these players going to be showing up with a little bit more of a chip on their shoulder? I think so. I think there'll be a bit of a sense of pride that a lot of the RAFC team will have in that trying to prove their worth, so to say.

I mean that the reality is all of these players want to to play at the highest level right and maybe Some of them felt a bit slighted that they maybe they didn't didn't get through whether or not that has anything to do with it being You know the revolutions fall, but it's you very much want to put your best foot forward show how great of a player can be there's always You know like like Seth was saying you never know who is watching you play right so this could

be Big for people, especially now this is on Paramount. There's a lot more eyes on the cup. So this is a big opportunity. So I think that they will go out there fired up. If anything, I think that this match is significantly more important for Rhode Island in the sense of they have a certain pride on the line to show like, no, we are a serious competitor out here and we're going to go out there and prove that to

everyone with the Rebs. I think that they have the league to worry about, and we've all seen this in the history of the open cup. They don't always take it as serious in the early rounds. Seth, how about you? Do you feel the same way? Yeah, I mean, I think that any time that you're not the highest level, you feel a little bit

slighted. I think that when I was talking to Zach Harreville last year, he kind of mentioned that some of these guys like Noah Fuson, like they were at a different point of their career. and Kano brings them in and they get to the championship last year and they're kind of showing themselves.

Unfortunately, I think there's a situation that some of these guys, maybe they could be in a Major League Soccer, but now as they get older, as they are put in, they've kind of been labeled in some way, they don't get some of those opportunities. So what better way to kind of showcase that you can roll with the big dogs than to playing a game like this and show really well and and knock out a major league soccer team. Even if they're not playing all of their best players, the headline

is going to be out there, right? RFC defeats the New England Revolution. Well, what New England Revolution? You know, I know that, you know, earlier, Portland Hearts of Pine beat Hartford Athletic during preseason. What Hartford Athletic? Sounds like there's a lot of younger guys. It wasn't the first team guys, but the headline was there, right? So I think when you think about this game, RAFC are going to want to make a statement. I think a guy like Zach Harreville wants to make

a statement. Anyone that's on that field wants to make a little bit of a statement. And it might not be, hey, you passed on me. Hey, you cut me. It just might be, hey, look at how good of a player I am. Look at the ability that I can make. Because you never know, at any moment, your career could be over. And that's for every single level, right? Next year, it might be like, well, We're not going to pick up your option and you look around and no one's going to pick up. They don't

want to sign a new contract. And the career is over. So the more great moments you have, the longer you extend that career. And I'm sure all of these guys want to make sure they have those longest careers possible and continue to find success because they're having success, they're finding success. And the hope is to continue to have that feeling. I mean, my career was over before it ever started. So that that that hits

me deep. Gentlemen, let's talk about what these two teams are going to need to do to carry the win for the day. Obviously, this is an elimination tournament at this point, so there will not be a draw. Excuse me. It could go into added time, and then it could go down to penalties. But if you're Caleb Porter or your coach, Kano, what are you doing to set this team up for success on Wednesday? Jason, we'll start with you. I think the squad's really going to need to bring

their quote -unquote A game here. You're playing against the big dogs, if you will. They're gonna need to defend as a collective, right? These little mistakes that you give away against USL teams where they don't punish you. Well, we could be playing against some MLS guys and they will punish you if you give them some opportunities there. So they're gonna need to keep it tight at the back. They're gonna need to win that midfield

battle. If not that, at least keep them away from their final third, which RFC can be good at times in terms of pressing. So keep it tight at the back. Press your opponent. Maybe see what you can get on a counter. So how about you for

the revs? Yeah, I think the revs have to avoid the big mistake You know, obviously when you go into a game like this with guys that maybe aren't playing together all the time Something could happen, you know, and then all of a sudden if Like Jason said, you know, you make a bad pass and the press is there and you get scored on. What happens then if the fans are cheering, the noise is happening? And then who do you bring

off the bench in that situation? I mean, I think you're obviously looking for a bit of magic from some of those highly paid players. You know, guys like Langone, if he's playing out there. He can do it, man. Like he's a fast player. He's a talented player. Chanceli, we saw that when he first came in, he scored a lot of goals in that first half season. He scored in the second minute when that Gillette stadium was full and

Messi was there. And so everyone went to see the Argentine with the name Messi on the back and then Thomas Chanceli scored it. Everyone's like, look at this guy. There's some talent there. So, you know, there are weapons on this team. Jackson, you will someone that can obviously move the ball and spring the ball. I think that they have to try to use those weapons. And I think ideally get a early goal in that situation. The revs have been better when they're scoring

in the first half. That obviously gives a situation that can control the game a little bit and then maybe bring off some guys off the bench. But yeah, definitely avoid that mistake and kind of see what happens. Yeah, I've got kind of the same thing for Rhode Island FC. I think I know we had talked, you know, with the minutes they have to manage. Do they do they wait to see what

they can do in a second half performance? But I think what works best for them is getting on the attack early and, you know, not letting revolution kind of figure them out. You know, I'm assuming Porter has done his tape. I'm not I don't believe for a minute that he's just ignored this and said I'm just going to pick my 11 best. I'm sure he's prepared for this team. And so Rhode Island FC really needs to catch. the revolution before they can figure out what they want to do and

implement against the amber and blue. I think also too, you know, you guys are both talking about the mistakes and the capitalization. But I think for Rhode Island FC, it's also going to be about, you know, that next level, right? There's a reason that it's a division one. team against the Division 2 team. And that speed and that technicality is usually one of the things that separates the performances across these

two leagues. So if revolution come out tighter, if they come out crispier on their passing, it's going to be a faster game. The Rhode Island FC group needs to be prepared for that. And that could mean that they play a little bit more conservatively because they don't want to get overexposed and encountered. If that happens, that's a complete change to Rhode Island FC's kind of main trick,

if you will. So there's a little bit of concern there, but that being said, too, if they play their version of the game better and they catch the New England Revolution off guard, that may be able to set the tone regardless. I don't know if he can't afford to let this go into added time at this point. Extra time is not what this team is going to want going into the Monterey Bay game later this week. They have to find a solution to end this in 90 minutes because if

they don't. Well, one, expect the revolution to be better at penalties because again, it's an MLS side and what I don't see hasn't exactly been the best penalty takers across their time in the championship so far. But those are going to be also just some very tired legs and there isn't exactly the roster depth to help support going in beyond 90 into that extra time. So what I don't see has to figure this out, hopefully in the first 45, but at least in the total game

and not let it go into extra. So, Seth, any score predictions that you like to do? I don't know if you ever do that because on the recap side of things. You guys like to just more focus on, on what the performance was versus the prediction. You want to take a shot at what you think this result might look like? I mean, I, no offense, Matt, but these is one of my least favorite questions because like it could be anything, right? Like it could be 17, zero. I don't know. Like I just,

how about this? Let's rewind it here. I'll ask it again. Do you expect this to be a high scoring affair given the talent that the revolution have, and a shaky word INFC defense, or do you expect this to be a tight game given how the defense has played overall for the revolution this season? I like that question better. I'm going to say a tight game. I think that all the revolution games have been tight so far, although I think that It would be really fun to see a shootout,

a 4 -3 shootout. I think everyone at the stadium would really like that. I think to your point, I think probably both teams would love to see this game and after 90 minutes. I think to your point, 100 % Matt, that you guys are an interesting situation where, OK, yeah, you had a really exciting game this past weekend, but you didn't get a win. And so at some point, you want to have that stadium be something that you're collecting wins.

And yeah, maybe you want to win on Wednesday against the Revs, but would you take that over sacrificing Saturday? I'm not totally sure, especially right now when you have the standings. I mean, let's be honest, is RFC going to win the tournament? Probably not, right? And so wouldn't you rather have a home playoff game? So I think this game is going to matter for both teams in a sense, but I think For both teams, Saturday probably matters a little bit more. I agree with that,

Jason. You know, I mean, the statistics on this from all the different betting websites, especially since we have it as an MLS side, it's down to 30. Again, 4 % of people believe the open cup match will be a draw. So they're looking for the penalty shootout, apparently. But it's down to what is that 34 % then believe that Rhode Island of Sea will win the day and then 62 % are going to take. the victory on the revolution side of things, I will hold you to a prediction

because we have a long -standing game. The gentleman's bet at the end of the season, so what say you? I'm going to go with a 2 -1 scrappy win, but also, like, very dependent upon what the refs put out there. I think that, you know, obsessed predicted lineup is quite a strong lineup. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a few more MLS next -pro names in that starting lineup, but it's so hard to tell until I actually see that starting line. So, 2 -1 either way. I'm

hoping for RFC though. You're legally contractually obligated to... Yeah, I'm not ready to start betting against them yet. I will say it's 3 -2, just because I want to see it. If there's that many goals, then the New England soccer community wins. beyond just what happens for an INFC. And no matter what, and I will say this for all the defiance, loyal listening, we've already won in the stands at that point because they're going to have such a good showing of it regardless

of that result. So before we close things down here, I do have one last question. Seth, what do we think the likelihood that one of the crafts will be in attendance in a luxury suite watching how a soccer specific stadium can operate in New England? My understanding is that every single craft is going to be at the stadium. I think there's going to be 10 ,000 crafts. at the stadium. They brought out the entire stadium for this

game. Perfect. That's what I like to hear. All crafts as long as they're wearing what I don't see kits. That's all that matters for the day. So let's wrap things up here as a reminder everyone. Rhode Island FC does return to the U .S. Open Cup action this Wednesday as they get set to face the first ever major league soccer opponent in the New England Revolution. The game kicks off on Wednesday, May 7th at 7 .30 p .m. Please

come early again. I know there was a lot of wins in the parking lot and the arrivals and getting to the game, but this is still early days. And remember, too, there will be commuters coming home. you know, operating on 95, getting home to their homes in Pawtucket. So plan accordingly if you can show up early. Jason, I think you're a leaving worker. I don't know if I'm getting you in trouble with your job, but I think you're... I have PTO. That's perfect. Yeah, Jason's leaving

early for work. So make sure you plan accordingly. And then also speaking to that plan, remember the weather report as of right now, potential afternoon showers, maybe even thunderstorms with the temperatures in the high 60s. So about as New England as it gets, I think maybe Seth... cursed it by talking about how open cups are designated to have rain delays and inclement

weather. So just plan on that and make sure that you're prepared for it and you'll be all set to watch an exciting game for the battle of the soul of New England here with this open cup. Seth, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate everything you do within the New England soccer system. Can't express enough how happy it is to finally have you on Raising Anchor. How can fans follow along on your journey and where can they catch you for all the socials?

Yeah, honestly, I think there's sometimes too much negativity that's out there. I think that you guys do an amazing job. You guys are super professional. I know that when I am trying to cover the team or understand the team or just be a fan of the team, as I start to go to more games with my five year old and my family, you guys do an amazing job with everything that you do. So kudos to you guys and thank you so much for having me on, for finally inviting me on.

I've been in their DMs for the last two years and they finally hit the you know, the people that they aren't following and they realize, hey, Seth's right there. So I was able to come on to the show. I believe Matt, you're gonna join me later this week and we'll do like a little post game opportunity. But yeah, SethMan 31 on Twitter if you still use that thing. Hey, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to build something called an Instagram account. It's new, okay?

Maybe one day a Facebook account. It's called New England Soccer Insider. So if I can get, Anyone one person that's watching this show to follow me there. Uh, that'd be awesome. Cause I am trying to, uh, grow that account. It's new. It's called Instagram and you can find me on it. I've heard that one. I'll have to look it up. We will make sure to attach you to the show invitations collaboration so people can join

along on the journey. Seth, you do incredible work beyond just the sub -stack and the blazing musket. It's always great. And I really also do enjoy your interviews. We've learned a lot through you and your work as we've been preparing for the show. So thanks for being a mentor to us. And then also apologies on the late response to the... the reply on the DNs. When you got a blue checkmark, it's hard. Okay. Like life just gets really complicated out there. No, you

guys are awesome. I appreciate you. By the way, once we finish this podcast, we're going to continue to compliment each other for another hour. If you join our Patreon, you can listen into that conversation. I will get it started right now. I'll start working on the back end, but appreciate

you again, Seth. Jason, any final thoughts? No. Thank you so much Seth for joining us and make sure to check out our friends over at the Blazee Musket for all your New England soccer coverage including the great work from Seth here covering the New England Revolution as well as RFC News. Anchors up buddy. Anchors up and let's go restart the revolution. See you guys on Wednesday.