RSL is in action tonight. The MLS Cup playoffs start tonight.
Want to get it?
Get you guys ready for that? Now here's the deal. I do not know how our guest is because Trey said he would get me Donny unless Donny is too busy and that, and in that instance, Trey booked himself as the backup, which I would very much like to avoid. So porter, who's our guest's dune?
Yes?
Oh oh yes, bullet dodge. Come on, Donny, Donny, thank you for saving us. Happy Tuesday, buddy.
Oh what's going on? Guys? How are you perfect timing? I just got done with my meeting for Apple ahead of our broadcast tonight of Real Salt Lake Games Minnesota, So perfect timing literally wrapped up like thirty seconds ago.
Very nice.
Well, look, fall, for a lot of people is about football. Fall also means playoff soccer. I love fall soccer. I just love the drama. I love the feeld. So just paint a picture for us. You're out there at the stadium. What's what's the buzz like?
Yeah? I mean gates about open here in about thirty minutes, and then you got to march the match right around six sixteen, where RSL supporters will head out from the tailgate and make their way into the stadium and listen to today's the start. Right, it's the last days of
the season. You worked so hard from January to get to this stage, right, all the extra doggies, the runs, the weightlifting sessions, you know, those tough conversations about who deserves to play, who doesn't deserve to play based on performance or news signing, the amount of money spent during the summer transfer window. You know, the atmosphere and the investment into the stadium, and this is what it's all about.
Heading in the playoffs, and once you secured that top three spot in the Western Conference, you've secured home field advantage unless you hit one of these two Los Angeles teams, whether that be LAFC top of the table in the West or LA Galaxy who failed at the very last moment down in Houston and tonight against the Minnesota United team that you know, Realita Lake has had success, but most recently these last couple of matchups they've ended in draws,
including these teams meeting a couple of weeks ago where Brian Vera ended up spitting at an opponent and getting himself a multi game ban. So statistically two teams that match up fairly even. But for rialso Lake probably most importantly keeping the back to back shutout, kind of turning that into something even more and trying to get Chicho Rongo that goal. It's because it's been elusive finding the
back of the net. The seventeen goals, twelve assists, his last goal on July sixth, previous to that, three goals and the hat trick performance June first, So they got to get their captain back on track, confident and scoring goals.
So tell me a bit about Minnesota. Now, ultimately, I don't want to be disparaging, but the two games that I've watched, certainly the one here, they did park the bus in a way. They kind of did not engage and look tactically, that's something that Pablo did in Seattle.
Like I understand, if.
You don't think that you have the ability to kind of engage the other team, or if you just want to get a road result that that is a win.
To attack the game, that might be beneficial.
But first of all, I guess I should just ask you, is that kind of the way they play and then if so, how does RSL handle that?
Yeah, I mean it's dependent upon the game itself, the regular season game. Going on the road. Getting the point at Real Salt Lake is something to be proud of. Considering the strength of the home record schedule for RSL this season, they've turned it back into the fortress that it once was back in the days of Rio Tinto. But also for Eric Ramsey and Minnesota United, this is a season of threes. I just hit my hit on appletb and I was trying to explain it's a young manager,
just thirty two years of age. For those that don't know, the Minnesota United manager, Eric Ramsey spent time at Chelsea Football Club, he spent time at Manchester United, spent time as an assistant coach at Wales with Gareth Bale and company, and now has taken over at Minnesota United. And I think it was kind of I don't want to say he was out of nowhere, but you didn't think at that stage of his career this young man would take that job. So we had to bet in. And there's
actually Cameron Knowles. Cam Knowles who played for Real salt as a center back back in two thousand and five. He was the head coach for the purpose couple of matches of the season, so adaption period. Team was doing well, some young players probably over punching their mark. In the middle of the summer June and July, things kind of went sideways. Three goal or three wins in just fourteen games.
But in these last ten matches, seven wins. You know, they conceded just one goal in their last five and they've been trending upwards. Like Real Salt Lake. They've added some players, guys like Bata Bongie, Robin Hood up top, Kelvin Yoboa. These players have shown they're more than capable
of causing havoc against opponents. But like you said, it's a team that's probably going to come sit in, sit back, force Reale Salt Lake or allowed Real Salt Lake to play their possession based type of attacking football soccer and see if they can hit in the transition because they are legal and counter attack opportunities. And sometimes the name
of the game is being beautiful with the ball. Sometimes the name of the game is figuring out how to expose your opponents, and that's what they've done well these last five matches, four wins and just to draw.
All right, so excuse me on the RSL front. You reference the Vera stuff, which is just such a bad look. And I've had everybody, Pablo, Jason, Kurt, We've all talked about it. Then Big Phil Quinton goes down and so against Vancouver, Pablo's solution was to move to Van Brown to center back a mecca Andelly to right back, a mecca I think played sixteen games right back last year,
and bring in Nelson to where a mecca was. Are you anticipate or maybe you straight up no, like, what what is that going to look like?
I was gonna say you had you might have the lineups.
Like what is it going to look like tonight with that lack of center back depth?
Yeah, without confirming anything whatsoever, because you know, I want to keep my job, Loo, could you sane? I think the one thing that you can lean into is everything you just described how they ended. They kept the shut. You know they they they've showed defensively that they and
handle those type of moments and you go back. There's been multiple times this season where Justin Glad and Brian Vera the preferred partnership for Paulo Mastroni has not been available where effectively you played two outside backs as center backs, and whether that was you know, the days of a left back and a right back playing a center back, or you're just having to mix a match. It hasn't been ideal. But at the same time, nobody's healthy. You know,
nobody's one hundred percent healthy. So again, you know, the back to back shutouts for Zach McMath kind of continuing to build what it looks like in terms of defensive solidity and a shape and identity that at least with the mechaanelly. What I would say is if he does again play in that right back position, yes, he's played there. When I talked to Pablo last year, he you know, he was thinking down the road of a Mecca being
a central midfielder, which has been incredible alongside Ojeita. But now if you put him at right back, he's he's got the intelligence of playing that position, the familiarity of playing that position. But I'd be really intrigue expense to see what type of wrinkle he adds in terms of overloading and stepping up into that midfield in possession and
what that looks like, because it's gonna. It's going to cause some havocs for the opponents to kind of think about where his starting position and his ending position are, especially with Catronis down that left hand side. He loves to get forward, effectively plays a left winger, and that ultimately allows Diego Luna and Matt Crooks to be two central midfielders in attacking mode underneath Tico Rongo. All of those little movements that I'm talking about causes a lot
of it causes. It causes a ton of havoc for opponents to try to figure out when to step, when to stay, and you have to be very communicative in terms of dealing with what's in front of you and what's behind you. That is a nightmare, especially in the playoffs, to deal with.
So Pablo hopped down before the Vancouver match and I asked him, because the schedule is being a little funky this year, with three games in one week often and then international duty injuries, he's had to show uff lit a bit. I said, okay, last regular season match before the postseason, are we going to see a first choice eleven?
And he basically said yes, so, and you know, I just want you to walk me through this because it feels like Diego should be centralized, but Matt's been really good there and so Diego was out left, Diego was out right, which is new. Diego hopped on the show last week and said where every place I'm gonna end up centralized?
So there's that.
It feels like Mark Zuke was the guy they wanted and maybe still will be the guy they wanted. His feeling for Andres, and we have Lachlan in the mix as well. He has a lot of different offensive options and groupings. Where where do you think that group ultimately should and will kind of settle in when the dust settles.
Yeah, I don't think mark Chuk started because he was away with Poland in Germany coming off international duty. So I think mark Chuk if he had, if he had his full compliment of attacking players available, mark Chuk will be on the right, Luno will be on the left,
Kriks would be underneath Chico. Now it seems surprising for a lot of people, including myself, well because Diogo and the amount of money that you've spent on him, it would suggest that he would be the guy that you would absolutely play over Matt Crooks, especially because statistically Matt Crooks isn't anywhere near the respective number tens in Major
League soccer. But what he does for the system and the past before the pass and the runs off the ball, I think have been incredibly important for the for the setup and the tactical nuance that Pablo wants from this group. So and by the way, not that he wants to, but Diogo has been really good coming off the bench and being an impact player, uh you know, in the in the second in the second phase of play. So all of those things are I think can be real
and can be true and still be frustrating. But I think Pablo has a really good identity of who his starting eleven is, even though he's got to have some tough conversations about why certain players aren't getting the certain amount of minutes that they expect at this stage of the season.
Tell me what you've seen this year from Diego, who I perceived to be the player in that group that is in the best form right now. Obviously, goals help, and he's scoring goals. The best strike he had a against Vancouver may have been the one that actually didn't go in and went off the crossbar after like four stepovers.
I mean he's a magical talent.
Man.
How from your vantage point, Dotty, has he grown this year?
Well, I mean I did his game in January when he was called up to the full men's national team and he was capped and down in San Antonio. And you know, the joke was he was turning from moon boy to moon man because he was no longer kind of his precocis young talent. Now he was going to be about what can you do at the highest level with the pressure on, the expectation on, and a U
twenty two contract that significantly gave him a pay raise. Little. Well, I don't want to say little by little because he's the same player. But every game he's continued to I think, showcase not only why he deserves to start, but why he should be an all star, why he should be a contender for the US men's national team underneath new
head coach Mauricio Pochettino. You know the double birds based on performance he gave the former US under twenty three coach that refused to take him to the Olympics over in France. You know, this is a young man who has dealt with stepbacks his entire life, and the strength and mental fortitude that he has is extraordinary, and I would agree with you in terms of the consistency of run of form. There haven't been a lot of games where you've seen a dip in his performance. He's the
type of player that nobody wants to play against. He's quick, he's dynamic, he's got a low center of gravity, very very intelligent, great technically with either foot, and he's a kid that wants to be on the ball as much as possible, and you can see the frustration when he doesn't feel like he can be a part of the solution and finds himself maybe as part of the problem. So yeah, the sky's the limit for this young man.
And twenty gold contributions on the season so far and counting heading into the playoffs, I think it's just the start of what we're going to continue to see during whatever the timeline looks like. With him wearing an R Sol jersey.
Go back to Chico for a moment, because I haven't been able to catch up with you for the past few weeks and I'm just floored.
Did he still on seventeen goals?
I mean, I'm baffled, right, So several dynamics here and Dress, and he obviously had a cool, good thing going. Gomez has gone acclimates to new players. The suspension maybe a hot star that wasn't sustainable, But how would you characterize exactly why a player that was so red hot has gone so eyes cold?
Yeah, I mean it definitely coincides with the suspension for me. You know, he was supposed to he was up for the not only just starting in the All Star Game, but potentially being the captain of the All Star Game in Columbus, so you know that, and probably the frustration handle or embarrassment of having to deal with the suspension in the manner in which it was verbalized or not verbalized. Losing and Dress hurts because I think those two just
instinctually understood one another. But I would say more importantly, you know, we saw, you know, we saw even the Siachinka own goal down in Houston where we thought, okay, Chicho's getting got his goal again, here we go, how many posts he hit, how many world class saves goalies have had against them. But I think the one thing to recognize as well statistically, Yeah, that's what we're always
going to focus on. Goals and the fifth from Chicho because he is that good, and he's the captain of Rial Saw Lake, and he was about to break Calvo Sabario's single season goal scaring record of seventeen goals. He's still playing well, Spence. I think that's that's the craziest part about this. You know, statistically, he fell off a cliff, but he's still playing really well. So if I knew the solution, I would certainly verbalize that to Pablo and
his staff and to chie Cho himself. But I think I'm as dumbfounded to the frustration that he's finding himself in as anyone else.
All Right, So what I have here is about forty degrees a kickoff with the chance of light rain, but maybe no rain at all. You're a guy that played all over the world in extreme conditions everywhere. What yeah, no, yeah, I know, Like, so what what sort of unique challenges does a cold, ready night bring.
Well, it's ideal in terms of you feel like you can run forever, but you have to get your body right in warm ups and make sure that you're not pulling up. By the way, I didn't know Stevie Rayvaughn was practicing the national anthem behind nice yeah, I think you just got to make sure physically you're prepared and you're and you're warm, because getting through the warm up
is one thing. But then you go back inside to the locker room and then you're standing out there during national anthems, which it sounds like it's going to be a fifteen minute national anthem right now with uh with Stevie Rayvon out here. But then you know, it's about mentality, and right now it's about killer mentality. So you know, you you wear the long sleeves, if you need to
wear the gloves, whatever it is. It's going to be a cold night and and hopefully, you know, maybe they can mimic the performance they had against in the beginning of the season where the snow was falling, seemed like it was going to be a nightmare, and they absolutely smashed LAFC on the night.
All right, Dondy, last thing, then I know you got to go. So I'll just put it like this very simply, RSL gets all three gets a win tonight.
If what.
Ooh, if they set the tone, and I expect them to set the tone, but I think it's important on a night like this where you've had such a significant break since decision day that you know, effectively what ten eleven days off, that you haven't lost your rhythm and if you can set the tone, I think that is the baseline of confidence in terms of like the first tackle, first touch, you know, winning that first header. If you if you set that level of expectation for your teammates
and you show that you're up for it. It's a lead by example, like I never needed to hear somebody tell me as a player, let's go, boys, let's go, Like I already knew we have to go. So then how do you get everyone to fall in line with your leadership. It's it's it's getting stuck in, it's setting the tone, it's it's you know, getting into those those verbal dialogues with the opponents. These are two teams that
don't like each other. That's clear and evidence. And you've got to continue that through the playoffs because in a week, a couple of days time, when you're on the road in Minnesota on Saturday night, you want to make sure that you that they know psychologically, whether they want to verbalize it or not, that they're in for one hell of a painful game to deal with playing RSL.
All right, brother, well, I appreciate the time, have a great call, and I will love to get you back on soon.
Okay, sounds good on man, good talking.
Ryan Don Seth.
He'll be on the call tonight with Max bred Us as OURSL welcomes in Minnesota for the first leg of a best of three first round MLS playoff format. They change the damn thing every year, so I think that's what it is. Do not quobe. Brought to you by our friends at Flanker Kitchen. Get game day ready. Get Flanker Kitchen and Sporting Club at the Gateway, your ultimate destination for pro and college for fotball watch parties.
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