Sl hopefully for a moment, calmed the masses with a two miller result against Seattle. It was the MLS home opener for the lads on Saturday. Our next guest was on the call and he is celebrating a birthday I believe today. Yes, Brian Donseeth, happy birthday, buddy boy.
I appreciate it. Yesterday was my birthday. But no, I appreciate it nonetheless. One man, thank you so much.
So you're you're what forty two? Is that right thereabouts?
Yeah? Maybe six years ago? Ka, No, unfortunately, forty eight years old man, And I don't know. It's weird. I can't be the only one out there in radio land who still thinks they're twenty three, twenty four but then wakes up with like a crank in their neck, their back hurts, and somehow, you know, they've got some foot issue out of nowhere. Yeah. I'm young and dynamic in my mind, and I'm I'm beat up and old in my body.
You're preaching the choir man. I pulled my hamstring in the shower, just trying to you know, body wash, how old?
How old?
Was a bright eyed and bushy tailed Brian dun Seth when he first landed in Salt Lake City.
So I was, Uh, I think I was twenty six. Wow, yeah, I think I was twenty six, twenty seventh somewhere there.
Okay, man, you've been you've been around these parts. I know you left for a moment, but you've been back. You're basically a local, Donny by now, aren't you.
Oh dude.
I represent the.
Eight oh one really really well. I Uh I do it. Every I do it. Everybody from Utah does. When somebody speaks high of this beautiful state of ours, I tell him it's horrible that they'd hate it, and don't even think about visiting that you wouldn't like it. Just to keep all the rip wrap away, No, I I'm throwing through my kid. You know. My wife Jade went to Skyline, went to Westminster. My boys are going to Churchill in Skyline.
I'm not going anywhere.
Man. I love the eight oh one.
That's good living here, There's no doubt.
All right, Donny, Let's start with little good before we dig into potentially some bad. What if anything did that result? And you and our guy Max on the call, what did that result do? Just to kind of calm people down to nil in the home opener. As far as MLS play.
Goes, yeah, I would say Spence, and I agree with you to an extent, but I would say it was actually more important inside of that locker room for a group of players. You know, listen, they're missing forty two goals in twenty nine to six. If you go back to calendar here talking about Chijo Rongo Andris Domez, Anderson
Julio and Matt Crooks. You know, the beauty in that is when those type of players leave, there's a you know, there's a huge upside to it, which means inside that locker room there's a great opportunity for young players to fill that vacuum, not only on the field, but maybe more importantly from a leadership perspective. On top of that, I think for Pablo Mastroni, when you're looking at it and you're looking at Piol, two players that our young
dynamic have similar player profiles. One of these guys for going out on the international market, one of these guys, you got to find somebody who could be that next you know, Halvrosapario, that next to Joe Rongo. On top of that, I thought defensively at times they were pretty poor.
In the first couple of games, I thought they were rock solid in the back with cabral the relationship between Justin Glad and Philip Quinton, Amcca and Brian o'heada picking up right where they left off, and I thought there was a tweak And I'm not sure too many people notice this, but I think it could have outstanding ramifications going forward. And that was making Diego Luna the undisputed playmakers centrally underneath either Piol or a Jago and sliding
Diego Gonzalvez out to that left hand side. And what it signifies to me sets is that Diego Luna has the key to the Ferrari and maybe Diogo comesolve, who hasn't lived up to expectation so far, maybe a little less pressure and a better opportunity to kind of hide in the shadows and pick up some really important vacated speed spaces, put workout in the running that Diego Luda has been doing in that number ten position.
So I want to throw something at you that Jason Jason Christ throw me when cause you referenced Diogo who was brought in last summer during that transfer window and is technically, I think the only DP now on the roster. And to your point, there just haven't been enough bright moments to say, Okay, that's our guy, that's our DP. And Jason said, the very same thing happened at the start of Javier's career, Javier Morales's career here in Salt Lake, where you know, you know the story as.
Well as anybody. Jay takes the gig.
He's having a tough time getting anybody to let him sign players, so he just takes a flight to Argentina and finds Javier, finds Fabian and of course Mattias Mantisia, which didn't work out as well.
But is is that?
Is that a good experience in parallel to drop on for RSL fans like, yes, Diogo has struggled, but so did Hovey and Hobby, for most people, including me, is the best player who's ever played here.
It's it's a it's a good food for thought, training exercise, a couple of different things here at the time Hobby came in to play that number ten position. Remember he was diving all over the place. He was always on the ground, yep. And we were concerned that there was a physicality issue, but Hobby still could play Diogo. You know, for for whatever reason, Matt Crooks was preferred over Diogo.
And we can talk about adaption, and we could talk about time, we could talk about what I feel was the failure for me also link to get the job done way quicker than it needed to be, similar to Chico getting in the market, you know, three weeks prior to even his availability to start training. Uh. You know, Pablo quite likely preferred Matt Crooks and Chijo Rongo together when healthy, and he preferred Anderson's Julio with Diogo because
of the positioning. I take what Jason's analogy is, and what I'll do is I'll hopefully add to it that if Diogo Consolvez is anywhere near as productive and important that Pavier Morales was to Real Salt Lake, well then you've got an iconic ten not just for the present
but for the future as well. But as I say that, I've I wonder out loud for Diogo if ultimately he's a player that thrives on having guys that are also leaders amongst him, and having guys that are as talented, if not more talented, Because during his time that was certainly the case Atanica and Copenhagen. A guy that was going to start each and every game, but a guy
that maybe like Albert Russknat during his tenure. You're here at Riale Sa Lake, you didn't have to lean on him as much as maybe the observance of being a designated player is in Major League Soccer.
So tell me, Donny, from your perspective and the inside knowledge you have, what is fair to say about the front office the ownership group right now? Because you know, with all of the moves they made, and you know, we could go over all of them, it's chie show to San Jose, it's moving andress on your reference Matt
Crooks and oh everything. The number that I've been told is they pocketed, you know, between fifteen and seven mil, which is great, I mean, and I understand that the anddress thing is now proof of concept, but if you're a fan of the club, you're expecting that money to be reinvested into the club to get top shelf talent, and if we're honest, that just hasn't happened yet. What's fair to say about the process in your opinion.
Yeah, there's a couple of different factors. And I'm no apologist for real Saul Lake, to be clear, because I think every team has certain things happened throughout the course of their one year plan, their three year plan, that five year plan, which is everything's great until you get punched in the face. Russel got punched in the face
on a couple different occasions and whatever it was. However, we kind of finalized the Chicho Arongo departure of the reality is from a financial standpoint, Rial fal Lake is an organization took a four and a four million dollar bath on what the output was for what they paid for him versus what they ended up inevitably getting as
a distressed asset. Moving him to San Jose, Anderson Julio had a big option year, and at that age and at that price, the club certainly felt as though they could maybe not upgrade, but upgrade in potential, which is what I think they've done. Although you've gotten rid of one of the you know, the most physically dominant in transition moments and Ajor League Soccer and Anderson Julio to stretch the field, and we certainly saw them do that in Week one, getting the week the game winner on
the road in Houston, Matt Crook's family didn't settle. You know, a similar story happened up in Vancouver where a designated player named Steven Armstrong. I would challenge anyone to think about being by themselves with a young family across you know, a different in and different continent, and thinking about that and having to do the player right, well, it might not do the club right. And then finally Elias Manuel, who was supposed to come over from New York Red Bulls,
which I personally wasn't a huge fan of. But in the midst of that trade, there was draft picks and there was a certain amount of general allocation money that was acquired in this offseason. And I think for Manuel, who agreed to the move and then decided that he
didn't want to agree to the move, two things will happen. One, you actually got a better return for what you even sent to New York Red Bulls for Manoel, because you're gonna end up getting around a million dollars from both the FOCO in Brazil for a player that never even showed up in market. And number two, and this might sound harsh, sense, but if you've got a guy that doesn't want to be here, good riddance. There's no reason that rialso Lake should have to convince some guy why
he should be coming to Salt Lake. Beat it like it doesn't matter if we're talking Major League Baseball, we're talking NHL, we're talking NBA, Like this is a great place to live. And if you don't want to be a part of what's happening out here, kick rocks. And that's that's exactly what happened. So there's it's been. It's been a hefty offseason. I think a couple things caught
him off guard, but the windows not closed. You have significant funds and hopefully you know they've identified somebody that will continue to push this group forward in a manner in which they will be significantly better than maybe where they're at right now. But sud for thought that goal from a Jago, two goals in two matches, Hopefully that doesn't skew what the immediate need is of the club.
And I want to I want to get to him in a moment.
But I'm glad you brought up Manuel because I wanted to kick the tires with you on this dynamic and whether or not it's something that maybe we should talk about more than we do because we talk about it all the time through the prism of Pro Basketball and the Utah Jazz.
I mean, I could give you a number of examples.
Some people know about like Derek Harper and Ronnie Sichlee other people, other others don't.
People don't really know about, namely like a Kevin Love.
Uh.
There was a trade on the table to bring Kevin Love to Utah when Donovan and Rudy were here and he said he's simply through his agent. He informed the front office. I don't want to live there. I'm not going to play for the Jazz. I don't feel like we experienced that much on the soccer side, but are we starting to because and look, I know that harkening back to you know, two thousand and five to twenty ten is a fool's errand with how different the league
is now. But my prison when I was with the club is meeting people like you and Kyle and Chris Brown, and I could keep going like transplants who came here and ended up loving it here because of our soccer community and the support that you guys had. Is it a new day where maybe the club is running into the issue of people not wanting to live in Salt Lake City. To your point, if you don't want to, like, okay,
get lost, we'll figure it out. But I just I don't know that I've heard many examples of it happening. Now we have one with a kid that I think they were hoping would come here and play.
Well, yeah, I think there's twofold number one. I think we have to acknowledge that in football, worldlife football, worldlife soccer. It's a different dynamic here in Major League Soccer that effectively the players are league employees. They're not team employees. Usually it's a loan, it's a buy, or it's a sell. You know, you've got three different situations you can find
yourself in. Here at Major League Soccer, it's different. You know, the club is the club, but you're still technically league employees. So that's a unique dynamic in which when players from outside of the United States have experiences for the first time, they think they're signing with the club. Unbeknownst to them, you know, they're at any moment the club could trade
you and you have no say. It's one of the reasons why I came to Rials Lake from being in Sweden was because I got traded down to Dallas on trade deadline day. General manager quits, head coach gets fired. I'm in an option year, and neither the two knuckleheads who took charge were telling me either they were going to pick up my option or they were going to trade me. And when the LA Galaxy wanted me, they
refused to flat out trade me. So I got caught in no man's land with a contract that no one would pick up, and yet I couldn't sign with anybody
because my rights virtually didn't didn't exist. Now that's a very difficult two thousand and four conversation versus twenty twenty five, But the reality is it's still a culture shock for some of these players to try to contemplate and wrap their heads around the idea of at any moment, I could be traded through no fault on my own, even when my kids are settled, I've bought a house, and you know everyone's in school, so fast forward to that, listen.
I think the reality is and we're a very insecure Utah state right especially when it comes to our sports. I think when people hear the name real Salt Lake, if they're not aware of it. They're going to have to do a quick Google search and figure this out.
Number two, I think they'll be aware of the Mormon culture, the universities, you know, the sporting ventures, you know, Utah Hockey Club and the jazz and then as they dig a little bit more into it once they show up in market, I think they're going to be overawed by the you know, by by the ridiculous beauty and you
know how incredibly nice everybody is in Utah. So I don't know, to your original question, we could potentially be in a situation like that, but I honestly think it's a bullet dodged for real salt Lake when it's all said and done. Like I told you, he was a substitute off the bench in an MLS Cup final. I wasn't really sold. I didn't think he was an upgrade Dan with some Julio. Oh what do I know?
So let's move over and now to the group of strikers that are on the roster before I ask you about potentially what's next. And they did sign a player Jesus Berea, who I'd known nothing about, And honestly, I don't know anything about any of these guys, I'm learning all about him, but I will ask you about the Yago kid because that was a really nice finish. Now the second leg again, Sara Diiano. He did have a goal, but he had like seven that he just should have
like tapped in. He had so many chances. But I feel like there's something there. I don't know what it is, but he's a big, physical kid with good speed and he does have both their goals. So you know, before we get to what's next, what's your take on whether it's Barea or Piol or Forrester and what you've seen so far.
Yeah, so Jago, You're right, he had back to bad goals. He could have had multiple goals against Heritano. He took that goal extremely well. I actually said during the broadcast in the goal call that he took it early, and I think that's one of the things that surprised Stephen Fry as the goalkeeper was coming off his line. A different player profile than what Peol has right Forster, Ajago going through went to Duke University. Since some time at Nashville,
He's got some familiarity with the league. Despite being a young striker. You can see there's high, high level potential. He's got a body type that's kind of Mama du Diallo for the MLS. Sikos out there the MLS after darkers that are listening to and if you're out there, you're epic. Piol Is a young twenty year old from you know, Southwest Australia. Five goals in eleven games for his club before he comes over. He had that one potential redirect from Katrani's ball was a little bit behind him,
so he couldn't get it cleanly. But both of these guys body types are similar and yet they play dramatically different to one another. And then Barrera from anything that I've seen, college kid worthy of a high level draft pick. You've and remember there's because of the transition from the presidency, there's some paperwork issues that are being worked.
Out in real time, and unfortunately for some of.
These work permits or green cards, Rialsa Lake is like many other teams in Major League Soccer and in the sporting landscape where things aren't getting done as fluidly as maybe they did under the previous administration. So I think there's going to be a little bit of a rotation, not in a bad way, but more of an addition to the roster. This kind of gets leveled out and calm down and you see the certain paperwork that was
planned on getting done and dusted. But I only saw Johnny in in two training sessions, and I can tell you that there is some great potential for this young Spaniard pathless traveled, kind of like, yesper Laffelson coming to the United States to get his college education and then playing professional soccer, which yesper Loffelson should be starting, by the way for San Diego on Saturday for San Diego FC.
Former rsler. But yeah, high, high level potential. So I think when we're talking about the roster Spence, I probably should say this. I don't think this is anywhere close to being the best roster for Rialsa Lake, as it's obviously in flux, But I would say position for position, you've got two legitimate starters in each position, and it might be the most competitive position and for position roster that our solo has ever put together.
Yeah, there's some definite depth in certain areas, but there just doesn't seem to be depth or quite frankly, top shelf quality up top. So let's move over now to any insight you have about a striker potentially on the way. Now, Kurt was on the show last week and he said that they're working on it, like they are actively talking
to people. And you know, I know that the fans are just simply a little bit front because I heard you and Max on the broadcast talk about this arms race in the Western Conference where these teams are spending millions and millions of dollars on high quality players. And to your point, there's depth in a lot of places. The new keeper seems to be a really experienced dude,
but you've got to do something up top. So do you think reinforcements are on the way and do you have any idea what that looks like.
So there's always a couple different ways to look at this, right, There's different mechanisms. Do you want to designated player? Do you want a target allocation money player? Do you want a you twenty two initiative player where it's effectively a designated player type under the age of twenty two. Do you want to use general allocation money. There's a new mechanism called cash per player in Major League Soccer. That's what saw Lucuo Coosta leave Cincinnati and go to Dallas
Evander leave Portland and go to Cincinnati. Joviilich leaves LA Galaxy and go to Sporting Kansas City. And here's the other wrinkle in dynamic I've always been intrigued on and I've never really had clarity. What's the role of Ryan Smith in this conversation with regards to the monopoly money that both he and David Blitzer have. You know, we're acutely aware of both having the sporting umbrella in multiple leagues and having the sporting umbrella. It's with particular with
David Blitzer worldwide. When you think about the investments in the clubs in the Bundesliga, the Premier League, Danish Super League, down in Portugal. I mean list goes on and on, and what is the valuation and the ultimate amount of money that you're willing to spend not only on transfer fee but effectively the weekly wage, the yearly wage. So I guess what I'm trying to say, Spence is there's
a lot of ways to crack the egg. The question is what kind of egg is going to be cracked and is it just going to be a singular sunnyside up or are we cooking with an omelet. That's that
all remains to be seen. But my problem, and I'll take this from more of like an Apple MLS analyst perspective, it's tough to be It's tough to try to tell everybody that you're taking Conky Cap Champions Cup serious when you have such a unique history in that tournament and it's your first time back in a long long time, and that's the roster that you put together three weeks ago to head down to Harry Giano. I think there's way more questions than answers, and for a really turbulent offseason.
I think that's the point that frustrates Russ when you think about, as you referenced, Tave and Nick and Kyle Nat and the good old days under Jason, But even when you think about Albert Rousmok or dom Dom or Crylock, Jefferson Savarino now cheat Show, you know now, Andres Gomez now, Anderson Julio. You know, You've got a fan base that really believes in its players and believes in the club.
But they need to believe in the club long term and who's going to be those next long term players that and maybe potentially make themselves those iconic faces and names that RSO has always been used to referring.
To all right, last thing, Donnie, that I'll set you loose. And this is tapping into Brian Dunseeth, the Apple TV analyst. The Houston Donamo played into Miami and Lino Messi did not make the trip because he needed to rest. The Dnamo sent out a post on social media and suffice it to say fans that had shelled out a bunch of money to see Messi play in Houston were besides themselves. The Donamo did with a co They've offered some free tickets, but this it's just part of the deal, isn't it.
I mean, you can't expect him at his advanced age to be healthy every single week. But I find this an interesting topic because you know my view on this, and I do view this from an old school MLS perspective. When Beckham came to the league, everyone, all of us in the league at the time, said Okay, when do we get him here? And I feel like, as long as Messi is playing, every team in MLS should have
the opportunity to have him in their city. But if he needs rest, he needs rest, right I guess it's just part of the deal, but I understand the fan frustration.
Yeah, they certainly didn't need him last night in Easton anyway, and they enter Miami smashed them. I think it's the timing that surprises everybody, because you're talking about load management at game three, game four and such early start of the season. But also remember this is an inter Miami team that kind of bounced around the world in preseason
because they were monetied the Messi effect. I've got a real problem with people taking shots at the Houston Dynamo spence because those from the outside looking in are refused. But they're taking cheap shots, obviously, but also refusing to acknowledge that when people would take trips to Barcelona, to the city of Barcelona, they would also try to coincide that with Barcelona playing at home when Lionel Messi was playing at the Camp New.
I was guilty of it.
I convinced my beautiful wife Jade, on our ten year anniversary to stop in Barcelona on two specific days so I could watch Lionel Messi and then say to her, oh, no, I just wanted to introduce you to Lino Messi. So
I got away with it. What people don't understand, or at least what people have failed to take into context, is when Lionel Messi is popping around in the United States, it's effectively the same as when Pele was at the end of NASL with the New York New Jory or New York Cosmos, when David Beckham was with La Galaxy, or say in particular, when any of your favorite teams
from abroad come to the United States. Maybe not so much Tottenham, but you know big clubs like Man United that's in Barcelona and Juve.
Unnecessarily, people will spend.
People will spend monopoly money to go see their team because spence it's cheaper and it's easier than getting on a plane flying abroad, spending the money on the flights, spending the money on the hotel, spending the money on the food, spending the money on the tickets. So what you're creating with Lionel Messi is a once in a lifetime effect to see the Peles or the Diego Maradonas. And if you're you know, if you're an introvert, you're
a messy person. If you're an extrovert, you're a Ronaldo Christiano Ronaldo person to see one of these players that are quote unquote the best players of our generation. So bravo to the Houston Dynamo in recognizing that in that moment there's an opportunity and the disappointment of all of those fans in the state of Texas or flying in from other states to go to Houston, to go to Shell Energy Stadium to see the Houston Dynamo play host
inter Miami. They recognized that there were a lot of people only coming for Liono.
Messi, not even for inter Miami, just for Messi.
But they also recognize it, Spence, Let's give them an extra ticket and see if we can get them back in the building. And while they may be a Messi.
Fan, they may even be an inter Miami fan, maybe we can be.
Their second favorite team. And I think that's what they did. Anybody tries to argue that it was naive, that it was inexperience, that it was silly, that it was dumb, They're as silly and naive to think that this wasn't a moment where the Houston Dynamo recognized that maybe, just maybe they could get a lot of crossover fans that were there just for MESSI but hopefully can be you know, short term and long term Houston Dynamo fans going forward?
Is it Tito Max simply because his cocktail is Tito soda line?
Is that as simple as what it is?
No? No, it's oh, oh my god, this whole time. But Spence, I can promise to he is Tito Max every once in a while.
Okay, fair enough, this whole time. I'm like, it's he must just dig about casoda now now I know the deal. All right, all right, but man, happy, belated, always appreciate the time.
Hope to see you soon.
Okay, sounds good, but I'll talk you all right.
The great Brian down seth RSL gets a win over the weekend against Seattle at home. Uh, San Diego is the next opponent coming up. There's no midweek games for a minute, because RSL bowed out of conkor CAF Champions Cup action in a pretty pathetic fashion. So it's let's see, We've got San Diego, then a road game at Houston, back against Dallas, and then on the road against Minnesota. That's your March schedule for the soccer club, all right,
com up next? The latest with UTABH men's basketball coaching search. Who with the candidates? How close is it to being done? Is Alex Jensen on the way. We'll get to that, but Douney. Brought to you today by our good friends at Burt Brothers. With over thirty years of experience at nearly thirty locations, Burt Brothers ASC certified technicians bring expertise and professionalism to every interaction industry, leading warranties and low
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