We are live today out at Smith's. It's our Smith's Football Fridays. We're the Smith's on night to night. Come on by and say hi. We've got tailgate passes for the Utah football game coming up tomorrow.
Arizona's in town.
We've got a nice Modello cooler. Now it's empty, but it is branded as Modello. But there's no ice inside the cooler. There are no Modelos inside the cooler. Our next guest, I think if there were Modelos inside, Donny, I could have convinced you to come down to Smith's.
I was right around the corner. I mean I almost turned around and once you said you had a cooler Modello cooler. But yeah, I'm proud I made the right decision by getting on the freeway.
No, that's smart.
No, And that's my favorite thing about you. You make good decisions, Donny. So I've always appreciated that about you, buddy. All Right, So I asked Jason, I asked Kurt, I asked Pablo a question that I haven't asked you because it's been a little bit. The question generally is this, Doney, like, did you give the potential for something special right now to make a little cash and then play the long game. And look, if that's the deal, that's the deal, right,
There's so many different ways to do this. I'm not even judging, But what do you think about the decision making process? That certainly brought in a lot of good young talent that may pay off in the long run, But did they sacrifice the opportunity to make a run this year?
Absolutely not. I think the outlier in this conversation with the goals and assists and Andres Gomez put up and I don't know if he's ever going to be more valuable to be truthful and transparent than he is right now. And I hope he has an incredible career over at Ren and internationally for Columbia. But I can remember a time in which need Grabovoy had like eight goals in twelve assists, and that was the one year that you know,
he topped out. I think Dominic Marchuk is going to be as important for Rial Salt Lake over the next couple of years, and quite honestly have a more immediate impact than what ponders Domas did, because remember Andres for that first year really struggled to adapt. Dominic Martschuk looks like he's been a part of this club for eighteen months, not a month and a half. The problem isn't losing
under his doma. The problem is that Chijo Rongo, since that game in Portland in the subsequent suspension, has been nowhere close statistically to the player that he was. And then the bear on his truth is that they've got two number two goalkeepers, neither of which want to become the number one goalkeeper based on performances, errors, and inability to hold onto the starting position.
All right, I'm glad you brought up the keepers because for our listeners, my man's a center back, so he's about to get sensitive. I've learned, Brian, through people like you and Jason and Pablo, that when it comes to certain goals allowed, you cannot just crack on the keeper, and you can't just crack on the back line.
And Pablo often talks.
About defending as a group, and so I get all that, but dude, what is it like nine goals conceded in three games and two keepers that look really skittish? I mean, I don't And I asked Kurt prior to the window opening, are you looking for a keeper?
And he said, no, we like what we have.
But to your point, neither of those two have taken advantage of the opportunity to make the job theirs. And there have been some rough moments from Jay Glad and Philip Quinton. So as a former center back, and I always feel bad that you guys are punished so punitively because goals change everything. What do you most attribute to what I perceive to be a really leaky defense with only four matches left.
Well, you're right, it is. It is. It is a group effort. But I would actually dumb it down that listen, the goalkeepers to make the save or don't make the save based on the shots that they're based and I would agree with you in moments real saw Lake is giving up way too many shots. That being said, the shots that they're giving up aren't worldies. I mean, these
aren't These are savable goals. And I mean, listen, I go back to the days of Nick Romando, and if Nick Romondo, one of the best goalkeepers, if not the best goalkeeper historically in Major League Soccer, would give up a goal that compromised his team that he felt that he could have stopped, you would have been able to tell by his body language. You would have been able to tell by his facial expressions, and the moment that he retired it opened up the door for David Ochoa.
And you saw Zach McMath come down from Vancouver where he's a backup goalkeeper, and he was supposed to be kind of the conduit of, you know, short terms success but the long game being a show. A chow takes from the Western Conference finals the next year, ownership change, some things go sideways. He's been sent off. He's now currently I don't know if you know this, the backup goalkeeper to Huge Larisse at LAFC. So he's going to be the airpay and goalkeeper once Larise is gone at LAFC.
I think they've tried to bude their time and understanding that Gavin Beavers' is upside is extraordinary. But I would say that the weakest position on this team has been goalkeeper, and it has been goalkeeper for the past couple of seasons. Even so much so is that I thought that either Maxine Kroppo or John McCarthy, who were both going to be moved on from LAFC, were absolutely the right goalkeepers to take a runout So that's just my humble opinion.
I don't do the numbers, I don't make the decisions, but I'll double down in saying that for whatever hope Real Salt Lake has in these Western Conference playoffs and the identity of trying to lift an MLS Cup trophy, it'll be determined by goalkeeping. And right now, goalkeeping is the weakest fascet in terms of consistency of what we've seen for Rielsa Lake for the better part of the last five months.
Hugo Lauris reference. Come on you, Spurs, thank you, Donny. I believe is there a match this weekend that you and I need to discuss real quick, non sequitor?
Are we gonna do? Are we gonna do hot sauce? Are we gonna do? The loser?
Well, we did it, we did it, We did it, and for once in a generation, my Spurs beat your proud man you and you never paid up.
So is it a double or nothing situation this weekend or what?
Either way, let's do it this way. Next time. I'll come into the studio and we'll do it live on air. We'll see how you have love it?
Love it? Okay? Fair enough? That still feels like a bet I lose even though I won.
Anyway, moving on, okay, So one more keeper question for you, okay, and then I've got a lot that I need to give from you today.
Before I set you loose in a few minutes. So it's it's go time.
Do you go with the vet, Do you go with the guy who has the experience, Do you go with the guy who appears to be a little bit more of a front facing communicator because he's older, or do you go with the youngster because you like the upside? At this point, Donny, they've got to pick a lane.
Yeah, yeah, Unfortunately you have to pick a lane. But I don't think it's necessarily the present versus the future. I think it's just based on this last week and in these last weeks, what you've seen with the cools that have been given up. Listen, this is Gavin Bieber's position to lose, and I think he lost it again. And I think, quite honestly, this is going to be what the fifth time there's been a back and forth between it's your job, it's his job, it's your job,
it's his job. Now it's back to your job. So I just think from a psychological perspective. Gavin hasn't been through this, and you have to be patient and you have to understand young goalkeepers are going to make some silly mistakes. So I wouldn't be surprised. I really wouldn't if tomorrow night down in Austin, when Max Brado's steel, Max and I get to starting eleven. Uh that exactly Math is back between the posts.
Had Max on yesterday. What a delightful guy. Man, you guys do a great job. So excited to have you on the call. All Right, we got we gotta talk chi Cho because you know, I don't know, and Max obviously being you know, with his la gig, so he has an understanding of chi Cho the person in a way that I don't. I guess Mercurial strikers are pretty commonplace. We've had him here with Sabo and Eurah. And when that suspension went down, yes, the best example, thank you sir.
When the suspension went down, Man, I talked to guys over there, and you know, there's just this concern like could this be the thing that spoils a special season for both the player and the club. And you can't spin it any other way than he hasn't looked the same since.
Uh. If they're gonna do anything special, it's gonna be on Nine's back.
It just is so your thoughts on all that where we stand right now with Chicho, Yeah.
I thought the link to the suspension was ridiculous. The fact of the matter that he took him out of the All Star Game, he took away from the starting eleven, and he took him away from potentially being the captain of the All Star team. It has certainly affected him, as have injuries and suspensions, multiple suspensions to the yellow card warning situation, as well as the injury that he
picked up on the backside. We thought that it would be Diogo underneath Chicho and this team would jump to another level, and at times it has shown what it's certainly capable of doing, and at other times we haven't seen nearly. The goal that he forced Siatchenko into an own goal at Houston shows how dangerous he is. That ball he hit off the half skip from the hut bounce against Portland Timbers was inches wide and I would
suggest that he's still the same chi Cho. He just needs that goal because I think it's been like maybe three of the last nine games is being able to take a part of and that's just devastating. So this was at a time where he's whatt seventeen goals thirteen assists of the break Savos record for season single season
goal scoring records. So I'm of the personal belief he just needs to get one, and if he gets one, I think the weight of the pressure of being deviates, because I think he's been stretching a little bit to get back into the form that he was in.
How much, and this was Max's point yesterday, how much of Chico's dip in production is because Andress is not out there, you know, giving him service, providing opportunities, taking pressure off of him.
How much of that is there?
I don't. If I say zero, that's probably not correct, because I do think there was. I do think there is a freestyling characteristic to the way that those two teams are. Those two players played within the team concept because there was still structure. But I think Pablo also understood there is a connectivity an intuition between those two players, and they made each other better, and I do think
that's part of the equation. But Chicho's good enough to play in so many different versions of that position that I think it's I think it's more about finding his rhythm and his fitness and his sharpness again as opposed to just laying it at the feet of Andres Gome's departure.
All right, now, let's move over into the space of how they're trying to replace not just the production of Andres Gomez, but simply that position.
And kids, let's learn a little soccer term. On a Friday.
It's called like for like, right, So, Donny, this is not like for like soccer knowledge everywhere because the players they're asking a fill in for Andres don't play like him, right, So give me your opinion on how the progress is going to try to replace what Andres brought out on the wing.
I think Lachlan Brooks showed industry of getting up and down and showed a level of commitment on both sides of the ball that Diego Orcum that Andres had a little bit more freedom from, if that makes sense, because he was so good in the attacking phase of play and scoring so many goals that there was less of a structure for him to defend as much. And I also think, listen, you've gone through four right backs right, You've gone through Brody, You've gone through Body, you've gone
through Clinton, and you've gone through Jervaine Brown. So I think that's another part of this conversation in terms of and Vera picking up injuries and suspensions. So there's a defensive component to this too. But I really, really really like Dominique Marchuk. I love the way he gets back and he gives you the hust. He's got the final product, and I think in these two, these last two appearances,
he's certainly shown what he's capable. Now I'm not trying to get out over my skis, but the potential is there to be as effective as on dress, but more of an immediate effectiveness, as opposed to the eighteen months that it took for Andres to be in the form he was to be sold over to Red.
So we've seen really bright moments from Diogo for sure. I mean, you can see what Kurt and Jason and everybody saw on him, and you can see why they wrote the check to bring him over.
It's still early, so there's.
A lot of like observation, not conclusion going on, But like I said, four matches left in its playoff time, so there's not a ton of time to be, you know, messing around.
What have you seen so far that stands out?
Most five games played, three starts and that goal when you watch Diogo and how do you see the kind of the interchange synergy between he and Chicho working out so far well?
So this one will hit home a Manchester United fan because he was at Copenhagen when they beat Manchester United and had incredible performances not only against Manchester United but against Bayern Munich as well. And previously going to Copenhagen, he was at Benfica and played against Arsenal in Europe as well. So I've seen what Diogo is capable of doing at a higher level than Major league soccer. I'm not surprised. I think he's continuing to adapt both on
and off the field. I think the guys have taken him in immediately and recognized what a player he is. And I think that even though statistically Matt Crooks hasn't been putting up crazy numbers, there's a work ethic that goes unnoticed in the system and they're two completely different players.
But you also have to make sure that the system and the structure matches the players on the field, right, So I think the biggest miss book, I don't know how to say this correctly, not that I think there was a mistake and the timing of not getting Diogo into market in a similar way that they got Chicho in the market, meaning that two and a half weeks before Chicho was even available to be registered, he was
already training with the team. Whatever the delay was to get Diogo here, I think was a mistake because you missed out on the better part of him, probably about six to seven games, where that would have had him in his prime form and understanding what's necessary at this stage of the season. So I could see him starting tomorrow. I would also remind people that it's a three game window once again ahead of the international break, So if he doesn't start this week this weekend in Austin, I
would assume that he starts the next two matches. For ourselves.
I want to ask you about Anderson Julio, who I think deserves as the kids would say, done, he deserves his flowers this year.
I think he deserves a lot of credit.
For because you know, I was told his best friend on the team was Andrew Gomez, and so you lose your buddy, you know what that's like.
You played for different clubs.
And sometimes he's coming off the bench with Chicho's stuff.
He's had to start.
And I never thought Anderson Julio could be a double digit goal scorer in Major League Soccer.
He gets one more. He's at ten, which is pretty impressive.
So what's your take on what we've seen from Anderson as the both the player and just kind of the teammate through these turbulent a few weeks or so.
Yeah, Listen, I think when you lose somebody that you hang out with off the field, for you and your wife or your partner, you know, it's it's stings, but it shouldn't affect your performance on the field because you're a professional athlete. For Anderson, if you look at his goals per minute ratio, he's actually extremely high in Major
League Soccer. But the reality is that because he has a certain profile and a certain proficiency for stretching back lines, he's looked at more so as an impact player off the bench, and his historically he hasn't really lasted physically past the seventy fifth minute mark. If you go back and you look at his records, I would, I would. I would probably be a betting man and say he hasn't had a full ten games of ninety minute performances underneath his belt since he's been here. So knowing that
Chicho is available, he's always going to start. You can always double up he and Chico, and now with Croaks and Diego and Luna, you have multiple options. So either way, I think he's he has been much much more effective than previous years with the minutes that he's had on the field, whether that's from a starting slaught or coming off the bench.
All right, I want to get a preview with the Austin match coming up. But before we do that, one more question here. As you're putting together, you know your board for the call and you're you're you're doing the eleven for RSL, which is if you had to pick one spot where there's the most competition, which spot is it and why?
CON's a good question.
Right back.
Maybe I'm going through it. Yeah, you know, there's a part of me that one would want to say that Nelson Pelacio playing in that central part of the midfield with Amataelli and Brian o'heada. I don't. I don't think Nelson gets enough credit because I think he's a really good player. But the problem is the consistency between Oheita and Annelli has been extraordinary this year. I would say probably the number ten positions because Crooks, Diogo and I
would throw Diego Luna into that conversation. All can be incredibly effective if given the keys to the Ferrari, but in completely different ways. There are three completely different players right now. The two challenging positions are right back and goalkeeper. I would say that's the toughest to choose from because maybe they are the most competitive without either position having a clear cuss breakthrough.
All right, let's move over to Austin. That's the next opponent. Really cool city, really cool venue. Was there a couple of years ago when Austin actually beat RSL in the playoffs? It was a heart wrenching loss. Josh Wolf has phenomenal hair. He's also a good friend of yours. But I'm not going to sit here and tell you I've been smashing Austin tape all year, Donny, But I will say when I was down there for that match where they got RSL pretty good after a dream start, I was really
impressed with their form. From my vantage point, it looked like that a lot of talent. So why hasn't it worked out for your buddy this year? And what's RSL up again? Says they traveled down to Austin coming up on Saturday.
Yeah, there's a couple of things here. Number one, I think we have to acknowledge. Claudia Arena Georeana's dad was a general manager and after the World Cut twenty twenty two, he was let go from his position as general manager at Austin FC. There was a lot of heavy contracts that that club was carrying for players that weren't nearly good enough that were signed from Claudio Rodolpho Verrell, who was an assistant coach for Pep Guardiola has taken over
the sporting director role. A little bit wet and green behind the ears with understanding the MLS, the MLS rules and regulations of signing players. I think they missed out on some important players at the beginning of this season. They were quite light heading into the year because they
had to get out of some certain contracts. They signed guys like Jader Obrion, Giosi Zardez, Diego Rubio, guys with MLS experience to tie them over in some positions, and then signed Osman Bukhari, the Ghanaian international, Mikhael Dessler, the right back from Finland, and then a Svatsko who was the Ukrainian center back who finally just got his debut at LAFC the other night. They haven't matched expectations, but that year you watch them, in my humble opinion, they
were better than LAFC. And in that offseason they ended up losing a couple of players that they didn't think they were going to lose, and it threw their project into complete disarray. What I will say is if anybody wants to see what or what Austin's capable of doing, go watch that LAFC game. They walked out of there with a one to one tie and they probably should have won that game, and they were missing Dreusi, so Sebastian Jerusi, their number ten, will be their most dynamic player.
Rubio is gonna really piss every RSL player and RFL fan off because of his manipulation of the game. And then they've got a really strong goalkeeper in Stuver, so they're not going to turn over because their fan base is up in arms with where they're at right now on the Western Conference table.
All right, Donnie, last thing, I'll set you loose on this. You know, we had a cool night for Kyle Kyle Beckerman a couple of weeks back since you and I last spoke. He's now a Hall of Famer. He was inductive into Utah Hall of Fame.
Uh.
You saw firsthand, obviously how everything changed.
When he landed here.
What's the Brian Dunn set summary on what Kyle Beckerman means to RSL.
Yeah? First off, maybe I can get an invite next time you get the Voice together every night.
Don't. I'm the wrong guy to talk to you about that. As you know, I'm just saying, yeah I was.
I was envious and jealous seeing all your Instagram posts. Listen, Kyle Beckerman. I'm not sure I'll ever come across another one like him. I met him as a young, precocious teenager coming through the under seventeens. I played with him at Miami Fusion when he got his you know, his first deal before he Spiral francehurt his ankle. I watched him become one of the best central midfielders in Major
League Soccer. In Colorado Rapids. I watched him go from maybe he and Pablo the most hated duo in Salt Lake City history, from on RSL fan base to the most beloved duo from or a couple of the most beloved duo in the RSEL fan base history. The fact that he gave everything every single time he stepped on
the field for Claireton Cobalt. His desire, his innate desire to win, is something that I don't think he'll ever get enough credit for, because it was every day in training that he rode the level of everybody around him, and he held himself at such a high standard. His technical ability, the way he read the game, the way he would jow people with crunching tackles, He'd take a
piece out of you. He was dude. He was an MF for Nobody wanted to play against him, and I to this day I talked to my boys about Kyle of the guy like you want to mimic somebody who took a little and turned it into a lot. That's Kyle Beckerman to be a World Cup veteran, to be, in my humble opinion, no disrespect, the most iconic RFL player in history. I'm happy to see he and his family be rewarded with the recognition that he so rightfully deserves.
Well said, And after I let you go, I'm going to send you my location and wherever I'm at, you're invited.
Just roll up. You don't have to tell me. I'm just going to share my location.
Just show up, like, hey, you know where you will, because you know you're always invited when I when i'm you know, when I'm involved in the situation.
Yeah, it'll be like, oh, gunny, what are you doing here?
All right? Brother, have a great call tomorrow, man, good chat with you.
Appreciate you, all right.
Brian Dunsat, former RSL player, now on the broadcast side with Apple TV.
He'll be on the call for tomorrow's match against Austin