We are in a Nodelli zone. Officially. Hi, I'm in a hotel room in Perry, two hours south of Atlanta. That's why the lighting is what it is and my posture is what it is. Now. Uh, we have a promise to get somebody out by the bottom of the hour because he's like globe trotting and has things to do. So we're gonna go ahead and bring in Glenn Crooks and discuss the fall of Kirby Smart and everything going on with Georgia football. Glenn, thanks for dropping by on a Friday. Man, thanks for coming on.
Well you might be surprised by this, but the uh, the I just wanted to see I'm gonna put Yeah, I've got do you hear me better? Now? Yeah?
You're good. You're good either way, you're good.
You're so Yeah. Soccer has engulfed in my life to the point where I only occasionally really focus on Georgia football. But I was curious and heard that a lot of transfers and oh yeah, and that Kirby went crazy after the game, and uh, and I do have I do have someone I know who's pretty close to the situation, so I don't know all the details but I'm pretty uh, you know, it's it's you know, even a guy who you think would just be cool and because he's been
there before. Coaching is a very pressured occupation, no matter how much you're making, and especially at a place like Georgia where you know every every move is monitored, and but coaching at any level there's pressure. I when I'm in season, I don't sleep at all, not a wink.
Nope. Right there with you, brother, uh. And before you do go, I do wish that you would cut the promo for the hosting programming that you do on Serious XM, so folks can sit there and follow what's going on, especially as you look at the ketch up with coaches and such. Main reason we brought you on, as we always do twice a year in the Eastern Conference when Atlanta and Landy and I did take on NYC, it's our chance to catch up with you and see what's
going on up there in the Tri State. So I'm going to go ahead and ask off the top, how different is the vibe with Pascal as head coach than it was last year? How different are things right now?
Well, I think the thing that I've heard and I spent a couple of weeks with them out at the Coachella Invitational as well, so I've gotten a really good feel for how preseason went. In the early part of this season. Pascal Jansen, the new coach, has now coached eleven games, as he put it to me yesterday in our pregame briefing, so he's counting the preseason games almost equally because we were talking about the absolute anemic attack
a week ago in Columbus. But still getting the point, Neil Millan, he said he'd never encountered anything like that in his eleven games plus in his entire coaching career. He could only think of one time, and that one time at alcama Are in the Netherlands. They still got in for a couple of shots no shots on goal for the third time in history for New York City FC. And that's that's that's I was gonna say, that's quite an accomplishment, but it goes more in the other direction.
But in terms of the comparison, and I know Nick very well, and it seemed that preseason and everything is just a little bit more intense and very transition oriented. So the thing I've been looking for early in the season is to see if indeed they transition with more urgency. And I can't honestly say I've seen it in practice yet that is in practice in the games, But that is one thing and I do feel also, and I think some of the results of the more intense preseason
is that there were some injuries. Jago Martins, their DP center back, played He trained the first three days of preseason and didn't play another minute, no competition, so his preseason is now. I kind of kidded with him yesterday. I said, well, you're at the tail end of your preseason, which is now gonna be uh, you know, six games into the into the regular season. And it's true, but he had a calf injury, and there there were a soft tissue injuries that we didn't see a year ago.
So I'm just wondering, if you know the players, I'm sure next time around, if they're still around with Pascal, they'll be a little bit more prepared for for the preseason. And I'm not I'm not saying one hundred percent that's what the result of some of these injuries. Kevin Kevin O'Toole was down, Tavon Gray is still down, Andres Perea was coming off herring a surgery. It brought him back,
but now he's down. Uh, so you just wonder. Keaton Parks has a foot injury which he's been playing on and but had to come out a half hour into the game against Columbus. Look good in training yesterday, so I suspect he'll be back. So there's these little things going. So I would just say the word intensity would be the defining difference.
When you so, then, what with all of these these notations and injuries and subheadings and things, what does your vibe tell you about a starting eleven? What's it going to look like? You think, if all things being equal, how are you envisioning a starting eleven?
Though? Well, I think he's gone with when everyone is available and Tevon Gray Mitscha Illinage. I think they were still in a bit of a battle at the fullback slot on the right. But it's it's Kevin O'Toole, burke Resa, Thiago Martinz and Mitya Illanage. It's going to be Justin Hack and Keaton Parks if he can go in the midfield. If Parks can't go, you get to see a seventeen year old Johnny Shore most likely Maxie Morale is the thirty eight year old Well, I'm almost certain start at
an attacking midfield and then up top. That's where it's not one hundred percent, sir. There's two positions that I think are pretty solid. Alonso mar Tinez, who's the only guy scoring and contributing pretty much, and Hannas Wolf, who's had a two or three very good games so far after kind of a sluggish second half last year. The other winger, it's uh, it's it's unclear. Is it Augustine Ojeda? Is it Julian Fernandez?
Uh?
Is it Monte Bacuar playing on a wing and then teaming with Alonzo Martinez a little bit. So that's where it's a little unclear. But there won't be too many surprises in the starting eleven, I don't think. And Matt freezing goal.
No doubt. And so the other subplot attached to this is the easy one for those of us that cover the games, and it's the Ronnie Dila derby. Yeah, and so what is your what is your best NYC story involving Ronnie Diala? That that that well, and you could you could take it that way, but what's your best Ronnie dila story to personify and have folks here in Atlanta understand the kind of coach and individual that Ronnie Dilay is.
Well, if they don't know this story, this is a good one. So he is the former Celtic manager Celtic Park and yeah, it's it's just that that whole scene in the Scottish Premiership it's Celtic and Rangers pretty much. So the Old Firm, that match is massive. It's just it's a massive match. One of the oldest rivalries that we know. Well. The Old Firm was while Ronnie was manager of New York City FC. The Old Firm was
played on a Saturday or Sunday morning. I think it was a Saturday morning, and Ronnie went to Jack Dempsey's in mid Manhattan, which is also a City supporters bar. He wore a Celtic kit and he sat and drank pints with supporters on a Saturday morning. He didn't have a game that day, so it was a day where there was no game. That's why I'm thinking he was
Sunday morning. Maybe game on Saturday and he went in on Sunday morning, but he hung out with supporters for two or three hours, you know, just and loving the game and having some pints and then the other fun Ronnie Dilas story. These are all off the field things. I like Ronnie. I sure hope I get to meet up with it when I'm down. We fly in today. Is in Nashville. I found out that he his favorite song, and she'd ask him this sometime. His favorite song is
Whiskey Lullaby. And I cannot remember the country musician who made it popular, but like a million country musicians have sung this song. But it's really it's a kind of a it's sort of an emotional song, but a really nice song. And so what he did in Nashville Broadway, you know all those bars and pubs along Broadway. I don't know if you've been to Nashville, but there's like, you know, the twenty line up on one twenty lined
up on the other side. And the story goes that he just went into everyone and requested Whiskey Lulabah, put like a twenty dollars bill, you know, in the bucket, and said we play and he just so he's Ronnie is a is a fun guy. Uh, he's serious about his soccer. I think he. I'm certain that the players enjoyed playing for him because he's he's a good man manager, he's a good leader. When he was at New York CITYFC, Nick Kushing, who got sacked last year, became the head
coach after Ronnie left. But Nick did a lot of the tactics and did almost all of the training of the team. So Ronnie his strength at the time anyway, was more, at least for New York City FC, was his man management, his leadership, how he got the best out of each player and got the best out of out of the team, which, as we've learned over time, you know, that's why they call that person a manager, because they have to manage, even though we call it
a head coach, I guess. But I like calling the managers because that's really what they are.
I remember, off the top of my head the Brad Paisley Allison Krause version. I think of Whiskey Lullaby. I think that's or was it? Oh?
And I love Alison Krause. I didn't. I think I've even heard that it's a single. Now it's a male artist who's made it really popular, and I can't I honestly, I can't. I'm not I like country, but I'm not a massive fans.
I can't quite Now you're gonna have me search here, whiskey lulla Eddie.
I think there's an e somewhere in there, you know.
Alison, Yeah, Alison Krause and Brad Paisley. Back in two thousand and three, they did the version the song written by Bill Anderson and John Randall.
Wonderful.
Okay, so uh three, the the Paisley Krouse version is the one that I know. Okay, you mentioned the starting eleven, all things being equal for NYC, and so well, let's let's play the feud here a little bit. All right, we do the we do the TV open. You and I are sitting in the booth. We do the TV open, and at the beginning, you know, the whoever's doing the match, they always have player to watch. So let's go to
player to watch for NYC. And then after you do player to watch, give me somebody on level two that's not really going to be you know, spot shadow, and everybody's going to be following this particular individual back and forth for an entire ninety minutes. But if things are going well for NYC, then this individual outside of the player to watch is making things work for NYC. Who would your player to watch be in this matchup against
Atlanta United? And then who's your second level player, Folks to pay attention to.
Well, top tier level, it has to be a Lonzo Martinez. I mean, if if you haven't watched the New York City play or you don't watch them often, I mean, he's their center forward striker however you wanna define him. And he has twenty two goal contributions in the thirty three regular season games he's played for New York City FC, and most of those have come since the middle of last season. He's been incredibly productive. And then you saw that he was on international duty with Costa Rica last
week in New York City got nothing. And Monster Bachrar, who was the starting striker at the beginning of last year. I mean, he's an interesting story. Alonzo Martinez. Bachrar was the starting striker. There was no reserve striker in preseason camp. So again at that Coachella Invitational, which I was at the previous preseason as well, Bachrar rather Alonzo Martinez, who was brought in as a wing. He basically got shifted into the striker role just out of necessity, because you know,
Bachar can't play every minute of preseason. You don't do that to anybody, you know. So then Martinez moved in and he did okay, but there was nothing striking about his move into striker. And then he scored a hat trick off the bench against the San Jose Earthquakes, and I know you'll say, well, what's that all about, But he did it like in a ten minute period, and
it was startling, and it was as a striker. And from that moment on he became a more regular focus for Nick Cushing to put him in the lineup, and sixteen total goals last year and then won in the playoffs, and so he's easily the player to watch, and he
knows how to ride the last line. He'll be off sides a couple of times because he's just always riding that line, and he's got very good pace, explosive first step, and I don't think, having watched Atlanta, I don't think that there's anybody in central defense that can keep up with him if he gets the step on him, you know, And that's just from what I've seen. And then it's up to Gazan to you know, come up with the
safe if that does occur. So they look for him early and we'll see if they can find him the tier two player or the one that how did you phrase it, you know, the player to watch and second, you know radar, Yeah, under the rain, like an under the radar guy.
Yeah.
I would say, I don't know how well people know Justin Hack, but he is a homegrown player. Justin Hack. In his New York City career, first of all, he was signed in twenty nineteen and didn't played three games between twenty nineteen and twenty twenty two for the first team. He was loaned out a couple of times. He was kind of the forgotten guy, and he was the victim of New York City not having a second team. Like when MLS Next Pro was born in twenty twenty two,
they added this second team. Well, Hack had already you know, he's already now pretty ensconced with the first team. But he paid that price along with several other players in his position. So I got loan to Hartford. Some guys were getting loan to San Antonio in USL Championship. But Hack has been really, really valuable and the reason he's been so valuable is his versatility. So he and he's mostly come in to help the team when somebody goes
down injured. That that's been his It was maximum Chinou first back when China was part of the team, came in and played center back. He's played full back, and he's played midfield. So he's done all three things for New York City. And I would be shocked if he isn't a starter in the midfield alongside either Keep Parks
or Johnny Shore. As I was saying before. Uh so he's like and he's going to have an important role to try to you know, bottle in Latte laf you know, come double down on him or whatever, or prevent the passes into him, whatever he's got to do to make that happen. So Justin Hack is the next guy I would you know that would go too, just to see because he's you know, New York City has to boss the midfield in order to have success in this game,
and they did not last week. And I know that that's been something that's been emphasized in training this week, very much emphasized.
So now I'm sitting here writing down boss the midfield and so that that's gonna be one of the the the thought patterns that we're going to have to keep an eye on for this particular match. What does your gut tell you about this particular matchup this weekend with Atlanta United and NYC? What kind of a match are you expecting with these two.
I think it's a hard one to decipher because you know Atlanta from what I've I've seen. I saw the last game. I still have to watch the Miami game when you had all your troops. I did watch the last game where you know, during the international break, when there's no al Maron, no sleeves. I can't remember who else was missing, but those two that are the other dudes, Yeah,
the other dudes, so you know, I I uh. And then the two prior games with everybody you couldn't score a goal, So I'm not sure I would imagine Ronnie Diland new coach, Pascal Jonson new coach, new players in for Atlanta, not so much with New York City. But still I think both teams, I think it's fair to say, are still trying to figure out their head coaches also and how they want things to go, and they're still
working those things out. So for me to the only thing I would say is that I mean and this is a fascinating statistic to me, which was read to me last night, And I had no idea. In the last ten meetings, all competitions, Atlanta has not beaten New York City no matter where they've played. I'd like to see if them go out in the park and play four at side, see if they could win that one. So I guess you could say Atlanta and iited's do
But I think the irony of this game. For me, it's the Ronnie Dilah thing, and it's the first thing I thought of is that at Mercedes Benz with Ronnie Dila in the New York City FC technical area, Goodie Torronson scored a free kick goal in the ninetieth minute past Guzane for a one to one draw. In October
of twenty twenty one. New York City didn't lose another game the rest of the year through MLS Cup, And if they hadn't tied that game, there's a very very good chance I wouldn't have even gotten into the playoffs. So it was just this massive moment in New York City history. Ronnie Dada was the coach, and now he's on the other line and it's in the same building, which he must have some fond memories of that building. From that moment, I'm sure.
No doubt about it. One question from our folks on the twitch pitch before you get out of here, Alex is asking, is that a CRT TV behind you? Is?
I don't know what CRT is. What I will tell you it is. The thing is over twenty years old. It's like one of these rear what do you call them, the rear rear projection, rear projection. It's I can't believe it still works. I still watch it sometimes down here, but there's no HD. But I do have my cable, the Catho ray tube. Okay, thank you, Yeah, I believe that's what it is. The reason it's still here is because I don't know how the hell to get it
out of my basement. It weighs about two thousand pounds and it wouldn't fit through any door or up to I don't even know how I got it down here, so I will have to deconstruct it someday to get it out of here. But right now it's kind of a piece of furniture. I put things on top of it and to the side of it, and occasionally I put it on and watch it just for an old time sick.
That's fantastic, all right, cut the promo for me, so you can get out of here. What can folks listen to you nine days a week when you're doing stuff and when you're not doing stuff with NYC, where can they pay attention to what's going on with you?
Well, anybody that subscribes to Serious XM, you should know. There's a soccer channel. It's Channel one fifty seven, so it's twenty four to seven soccer and I'm one of the hosts of some of the local programming. But I have a unique show. It's pretty niche. It's called The Coaching Academy, and I essentially talk to coaches. I talked to players, but nutritionists, performance coaches. When I get off in a half hour, I'm going to be interviewing Dawn Scott.
Now people might not know her name, but she's one of the top high performance coaches sports scientists in our game. She was with the US women's national team in twenty eleven, twenty fifteen. In twenty nineteen, the players look for their quotes They swore by her, so she's really she's massive in the industry. My guest last week was tab Ramos, who I brought on to talk about the US men's national team, who he follows closely for obvious reasons, former player,
former coach in the system. He went to four U twenty World Cups. He thinks Zach Stephan should be our goalkeeper. That interview is one if you're a national team fan, that's one you're going to want to catch because it's not this big negative thing, but it's really, I think, a constructive conversation about the US men. So it's every Tuesday, it airs and then it repeats a little bit. But then you got to go on the app. So if you're if you're a subscriber to Series X, I me,
you need to get the app. I use it all the time because I like listening to music too, And of course my favorite station is a E Street Radio Bruce Springsteen Baby outside of the soccer channel, Yes, outside of the soccer channel.
Absolutely true.
By the way, By the way, it's Brad pay You're right. Brad Paisley is the guy I Whiskey Lullaby. He's the one.
Okay, So the Paisley Krouse version is the one that we have to keep an eye on. That's what that is my personal favorite of the of that particular remakes.
If you here's what you do. I don't know if you ever bring in Ronnie Dyeland to your show, but you have to do. Get him on your show, and unbeknownst to him, just intro his segment with this song. He will freak out. Man, You'll have him for the however long you need him.
Oh, that's fantastic. That's the kind of Intel that we love here as always, my friend. Great to see you. Be safe, to have them down and we will catch up with you soon. The Intel will catch up see you later, all right, be good Glenn Crooks everybody, and it's always great to catch up with Glenn and find out what's going on in the Glenn Crooks of the Crooks a Verse, the Glenn Crooks universe and find out
what's going on with him. One of the busiest men in the show business because of Sirius XM, because of NYC, because of everything that he does. He's got coaching academy, all the local programming, everything that he does with n y C. So must follow underlying exclamated tali sized bold face must follow Glenn seriously, and so it'll be good for Glenn obviously, just coming down here and just safe travels.
That's all we wish as always, safe travels, come on down, have a great call, and it will be good to see Glenn and everybody for NYC coming up this weekend. We always like to give those kinds of previews and everything when it comes to what's going on. We always want to try and find out the oppositions side of things. And now we know, and now we know, Now we know Whiskey Lulla by Brad Paisley and Allison Krause. Whiskey Lullaby Brad Paisley and Alison Krause. That is the kind
of intel that we have here. That's the kind of stuff that we like to find out about. So there it is. There, it is that And so you know, if I would have my Paul Harvey drop, I would sit here and say that we now know the rest of the story involving Ronnie Dila and the fact that he goes that when he goes to Nashville, he'll go up and down Broadway and go into each and every establishment along Broadway and want to have whiskey Lullaby played.
Drop a twenty in the bar, play Whiskey Lullaby, and I'm out the door.