The legend himself, and yes, Donnie, you are legend, Brian don Seth on a Tuesday afternoon, thank you for the time, Donny.
How you doing, Bud. I'm doing great, Spence, except the fact I'm out here at Churchill Junior High sitting in the shade watching Micah train and the sprinklers just came on, Oh dear, and I went into a full panic mode of trying to figure out where my flip flops were still sprinting and understanding I was waiting just to come on air and trying to dodge these sprinklers that literally have the power to knock you off your feet. So slightly wet but safe. Nonetheless, I appreciate you.
You still have some quickness. Can you still move the way you did once upon a time?
Well, I got a new hip a year ago, so I'm feeling great in the hip department. But I just had wrist surgery about a month ago, and so you kind of forget how necessary the wrist is when you don't have actual use of it. So when I'm trying to grab my cup, grab my phone, grab my flip flops, and grab the chair and not get doused in the same I used to get knocked off my feet. You realized when you just have one hand, it's a little bit more difficult in real life.
I got to follow up when it comes to the new hip, what was the impetus? Because your boy over here might be considering it. Why did you decide to go through with that? And have you been pleased with the results.
Well, you know me, I've had this back issue since I retired. It was one of the main reasons why I retired. Uh, And it ended up I was shifting all my weight to take the pinch off of my back and I just slide, I just literally adjust my weight standing and slide my hip out like slide to
my left, and I burnt my hip out. And it was one day walking down in Manhattan Beach where I thought I had done my hip flexer, and it was just that last little fiber finally shredded pin and then it just became the most annoying, ruthless throbbing every single day and every single night. And then that's when I for me. I went to go see doctor Momberger a talk and he sent me, right, man, it was the best decision I could have possibly ever had.
All right, good to hear I'm not there yet, but I don't know that I'm far off. But no, none of our listeners give a rip about our hip issues, so we can we can move on. Indeed, we are so duddy I am. I'm no expert, and I certainly am not a guy that blames the refs for very many things. But my soccer pee brain says, when the ball hits the defender's hand in the box, that's a handball and it's a PK. But apparently it wasn't for RSL against Charlotte with Tim Reem there, and of course
a lot of people upset about the no call. You're always good to like make these complicated. It doesn't seem complicated to me, but you're always good to make it understandable the folks, and maybe don't fully get it, like myself, Why why wasn't that called? And can you help me understand what seems to me a very obvious handball in the box was not to the officials.
The updated laws of the game includes the ditch sense and any type of motion made towards the ball, So for me, that was not a penalty worthy handling of the ball inside the penalty area and I'll tell you why, Bence. And this is where I think Tory pencil could have been a little bit clearer, because there was no attempt for Tim Reim to make any motion towards the ball, and what she suggested was natural position of his body,
which I do agree. It was well what we wanted to see with situations like this, where it's a hopeful cross. It's not a cross with purpose. It's not trying to pick out an open man and a defender who has no other options. He's not making himself unnaturally bigger. That is a natural defending position. The ball comes off his arm.
What they have adjusted for was the distance in which the ball is struck and then hits the defender's hand inside the box or his arm inside the box, and that's usually a me you know, a yard or so. And that's been kind of the struggle of the consistency of a call like that continuously being made. I had the same call or sorry, in the exact same situation up in Portland last Saturday later that evening, and I didn't think that was a penalty worthy ball coming off
the arm. Maybe Spence. This is because I'm an old center back and I don't like the law being updated that every and what we were seeing is just these attacking players whipping balls into the box to try to purposely hit defender's arms, so then the referee w'd be like, well, hit ron penalty. They've tried to adjust the laws to understand for a defender, unnatural is putting his arms behind his back. There's nothing natural about that, so they've tried
to allow defenders to have a more natural position. And for Tim Reim, he's not making any attempt to make himself bigger, he's not making any attempt to play the ball. And I listen, I just think the the verbide should have been from that distance, there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn't trying to knock the ball
down and take away a goal scoring opportunity. I would hate for that to be called, and I wouldn't want real Salt Lake fans to want if that came off justin Glack, because we've seen them punished for something similar that they were up in arms and saying well, there's no way that's a handble, So yeah, for me, it wasn't. It wasn't a penalty worthy handling situation inside the box. But these are a part of the updated laws of
the game. The problem is, Spence. You go back to bodeh Adalgo's second yellow and where was it San Diego. You go to the Nashville game where the outside bats should have been sent off not once, but twice. You go to New York Red Bulls where Diego Luna was shown his second yellow. He got his first for verbally saying the magic words the referee. He's shown a second yellow.
Then they start playing, Then they go over to the monitor and pause the game, and then send off Kyle Duncan, who gets a red card, but he's the one that actually committed the foul, but they don't rescind the yellow card. It's like four or five moments where you know the purists and they'll say, well, hold on a second, Doney, it all equals at the end of the season. It's it's all levels out. It just doesn't. That's one of the biggest bs things I've ever heard for analogy or arguments.
So RSL feels as though they've been done dirty for the better part of i'd say probably five or six results now where they felt as though calls should have gone their way. Calls could have gone their way. Calls
ultimately didn't go their way. And even the handball and the wolf Zaha throwing a Mecha and Nelly down, I mean that's hands to the nuts or face that's supposed to be by letter of the law, red card and again an unpunishable action where we all saw like saying, hold on a second, when can we have catch or break this season?
Yeah? I was going to ask you about the Zaha foul, but the answer there and a Mecca. He's a he's a big, sturdy kid and he doesn't dive. So when he went down like that, I went, Okay, something's got to give. And then they showed the replay and it felt like that should have been a straight red. And to your point, you know when and I've said it before, like, Okay, the calls will even out over the course of a year. It feels like the thing to say to just avoid
talking about the bad calls all the time. So what is what's fair to say about what feels like a very frustrating season so far with the officials when it comes to, as you said, the bottom line results for RSL. Because the problem I've always had with officials missing calls is they're not, it's not as punitive for them as it is for coaches and players. There are jobs on the line here. If you miss the playoffs, an owner might be inclined to move you to a different club
or maybe fire the coach. So if you're Pablo, how are you feeling? What's fair to say about these rough whistles RSLs received this year.
There's a lot of curse words. I would assume there's a lot of requests to speak to officials for clarity. In those requests for clarity, once they do get on the phone or zoom calls, there's probably some more curse words being said and ultimately nothing will come of it. I think what we you know, and this is a bigger part of the conversation between the letter of the
law the application of the law. Ultimately, when when you feel as though you're aggrieved and you're not getting calls looking for the explanation at the end of the day, when we're talking about var Ultimately, the idea was to minimize impactful moments, similar to what we saw with Gierry Henrie this handball against Ireland and effectively tossed Ireland an opportunity to go to the World Cup. That's what it's
really about. But you know, for all of us that maybe hoped that there would still be those Monday morning quarterback conversations at the water cooler, well we're certainly getting them. But we're we're talking about layers of conversations of referees, decisions, intervention of technology, and ultimately some of the it's the right way to say this, some of the gosh, some of the human error, I guess. I mean the tech, the tech itself is fantastic, but where do we find
fallible moments? It's it's going to be the application of the laws of the game and the technology. It's not the tech that's the issue, it's the application. But again, Spence, you know, we do this thing where we talk about calls that are similar. There's never like the like. They're very rarely like the like situation. So again, I know, these referees, a lot of them, a lot of them are great guys. They're under tremendous amounts of pressure. I
know they want to get it right. And in the midst of trying to push for all these younger referees and to get new blood into the system, there's going to be some learning curve errors. But to your point, I mean, I think that's always been the biggest gripe of you know, when mistakes are happening and it's costing points that ultimately at the end of the season result
in playoff spots or home field advantage. That's where you're looking for accountability and across the board in sports, very rarely do you see the accountability from the referees perspective, at least publicly.
So I believe coming up on Saturday, Diego is still suspended, Gozo's out yellow card accumulation, and Williegata is out as well. So tell me about Minnesota because it feels like they've got to get this one. Doney. There's eight left, five of them are at home. There are two points I think below the playoff line if I remember correctly. So coming up this weekend without really three of your main pieces up front, of course, we have seen Ron Cruz, we finally saw the Yo Latunji kid a little bit.
But talk to me about Saturday. Do you feel like it's a must win? Can they get it done with all these players on the sidelines.
Yeah, I gotta at this stage is not a player that Pablo is going to lean on from the opening whistle. It's gonna be Olatunji and it's going to be role on Cruz. They spent too much money to bring them in. And even going back to the Cincinnati game a couple of weeks ago, where it's very evident a Gotta needed six or seven opportunities to score, which is just isn't
a good enough strike rate in consistency, you know. Part of the part of this was also listen, Gozo has been fantastic this year, but there was never a plan for Gozo to play the amount of minutes he's playing. And I and and I don't know if that's more credit to Gozo or a more serious concern about Dominic Marshuk because it's been a disaster him trying to replace you know, uh, you know, in any in any way, shape or form, what we've seen on that right hand
inside since last summer. So Luna is a huge loss Gozo, with his athleticism and what he's done this season, huge loss and a big challenge against the Minnesota United team that quite frankly is extremely difficult to deal with, both with the ball without the ball. They just beat Seattle Founders at home. They've swept them this season. It's the same team that knocked Oblo and Realit Salt Lake out after losing in penalties back to back in the playoff
formatt last season. They are a team where, and I say this with the utmost respect Eric Ramsey and everything they've done, they are a team that is not really that much fun to watch. They know who they aren't, so they play more towards who they are. They sit deep, they absorb, they hit and transition moments. They've got, you know,
fantastic power and pace and intelligence at top. Specific to Kelvin Yeboa and Tanny Oliva Sahi who they turned down a four and a half million dollar did for coming in during the summer transfer window, and it sounds like they might be bringing in another attacking player, but that's only after last week. Eric Ramsey, their head coach, kind of publicly in the nicest way possible, throttled the decision makers at Minnesota United for not bringing in new players,
fresh blood and competition to the roster. So really interesting team, whether at home or on the road. They have figured out how to win games. They win the ugly games they can turn on every once in a while the style which makes you kind of sit back and ask bigger questions as to why philosophically they don't play that
way more consistently. But a tough test because they as much as I try to understand how San Diego and Vancouver have been so consistent this year in the Western Conference the hierarchy of the Western Conference, Minnesota is the head scratcher because I think a lot of analysts in my kind of realm look at them and say, man, they know what they're good at, but they are just not fun to watch. And yet they are one of the most consistent teams in the West in terms of results.
Yeah, they're a pain in the ass, you know, Like they're just you know, yeah, Like every time I watch RSL plan like, man, it doesn't look like a lot of fun to play against Minnesota, but it feels like it's kind of a must win. As I said, tell me what you've seen. So we saw Victor Olatunji and Rwan Cruz startup top against Charlotte, and of course there were a few opportunities, but it wasn't all that bright. RSL is second to last in the West in goals score,
they're tied for third and goals allowed. It's actually a good defensive group. Roth has been so good in goal. But what have you seen from these two players brought in by Kurt and his staff during the summer window, and what should we be hoping to see moving forward based off maybe some things you've heard in training and such.
Right now, I've only seen potential. I've only seen glimpses. Obviously, Kurt, Jason Pablo will have scouted intently on the positions and the player profiles that they think fit this group. When you bring two players like this in it also, I'll generally remind people that you have to change the system and effectively go to a four to two to two two to allow those two players to shine, which then begs the question of Gozo, Diego Gonzalveez and Diego Luna.
What does that look like from two out of those three specific then the trickle down effect is Ojeda Ameca and then maybe Paulo Ruiz fits better than one of those other two because the other two are so similar in the four to two three one built up. So there's expense, there's a lot of questions, and with eight is eightish games left not a lot of time for adoption.
So again potential and glimpses of what I've seen, and at some point you know you're you're you're looking for got it a bigger, a bigger litmus test that includes goals and assists or at least generating some really dangerous full staring opportunities, because I can see the potential and I can see the skill for these guys, but they've got to put it. They got to put it together sooner rather later.
One more RSL question that I've got one additional question that I'll set you loose.
Uh.
The secondary transfer window closes on Thursday. A little birdie, cute little Bertie, very little birdie UH informs me that Pablo was called uh to participate in a potential player zoom call today, which is why you couldn't join us. Are you hearing any other additions in the pipeline for RSL prior to the window closing on Thursday night?
You know, I would say that the two outside back to the position in need of competition. And my concern is Kalaskin I feel like is being used like a Mecca was a couple of years ago because he was good enough to get on the field, but he's not good enough to beat out the two central midfielders right now. I think Real Salt Lake has been a week at the right back position basically since Brooks Lennon and Aaron Herrera left, and I think that's a position of need.
I think they need some experience to know how inside of our locker room from MS know how inside of that locker room, because the times they seem young and naive. But the windows still open trail Thursday evening, so hopefully they can, you know, get some work done. They've spent new ownership as shown. You know, you bring the right you bring the right product to the table for a
conversation that they're willing to invest. And it seems like the new infrastructure has changed significantly with ownership, which I would suggest as probably a good thing, you know, based on how light the team was in the first half of the field.
All right, Donny, before I said you loose, I wanted you to chime in on this odd dynamic between former US men's national team players. And you're included in that. You were the captain of an Olympic team once upon a time. Yeah, yeah, And these current the current the irony of the current players, namely Christian Polisik and Timothy Wea.
Uh it was it was in a documentary on Paramount Plus that they're trying to get people to watch and they're accusing these former US men's national team players of looking for clicks while they're doing the same thing. But it really re reeked of a lot of entitlement, and they came across as babies. Timothy Waya went out went as far as to call Landon and Clinton whoever else evil for the criticism that they're you know, levying on these young players that are currently playing for the US
men's nation team. You know this. I know this because we have microphones in front of our face all the time. It is simply part of the job. And it's disingenuous to compliment players when the results aren't what we're all looking for. So, as somebody who's in this ecosystem, what do you make of this back and forth?
Yeah, no, listen, I had my say on Turner and all in T and T, and I'll be a part of the coverage coming up against South Korea and Japan to the US national team out in New York, and thin Columbus. I'll actually be on the next six games of the US men's national team at the desk, fork and t so I will I will have all the inside information that's about to happen and kick down here in the next week or so. Yeah, listen, I'll repeat
what I said at the desk. I think everyone there's a lot that can be true and a lot to be false. And I think a lot of these guys can be right, and I think at the same time they can all be wrong. You know, I come from a genera of you know, playing with Tony Meola and Alexi Wallas and Marcello Balboa and Casey Keller and Eric win Alda and John Harts and Tab Bramos, you know,
all the outspoken guys. They were critical of the Tim Howards and the Gucci and ye Wus and you know, the the Carlos Spokeneggers and the Michael Bradley's and the Jermaine Jones and the Clint Dempseeason, the Landon Donovals. It was just a different time. We didn't have the accessibility of TikTok and Instagram and podcasts and video formats, and you know, usually this stuff was in USA today, or it was on ESPN, or it was in Soccer America.
But the criticism has always been there. Now everything else is different, right, It's it's platforms, it's products, it's vanity projects, it's people making money, and at the same time, you know, people get sensitive. I really do enjoy Tim Lea. I like him a lot. I was actually really surprised at the determination that he came out with, you know, when when this project for Paramo Plus, when the boss announced
that they were they were doing this polistic documentary. It was everything that I always wanted to see because I wanted to see more Christian's personality. You know, he seems like an introvert and then extroverted on the field, and there's nothing wrong with that. And this is why I think what's interesting in all of this is, you know, Landon and Christian are very very similar in a lot of ways, very very similar in a lot of ways. So to see them going back and forth with one
another is odd. I love hearing the perspective of Clint Dempsey each and every time I get an opportunity. But here here's the reality, Spence. I did the numbers, you know, Christian at ac Milan in the last two seasons, was played one hundred and one games. In the four years he was at Chelsea, he played one hundred and forty six games. One of the reasons why he's at a CI Milan playing all these games is very simple. She's starting every single game and he's playing as many minutes,
you know, seventy five to ninety minutes per match. And he's healthy because he's starting every single game. And I asked him personally, I said, what's the difference. He said, I'm not warming up on the sidewink and coming in and exploding for fifteen minutes. I'm warming up properly and I'm having the opportunity to start the game. And he's like, I think one of the reasons why is because I was primarily used as a spot starter in the substitute and that was part of the reasons why I was
breaking down, so listen he needed to and spence. The reality is I never expected him to take part in the Gold Cup. I didn't expect a lot of the boys, a lot of the big dogs to play in the Gold Cup. But what I found out was when I asked Pochettino why tim Weya and why Western McKinney, who were playing with the UVA at the fieft Club wows Up, weren't playing when three of their teammates were in the Turkish team and in the Swiss team against the United States.
I was told that Marisio Pochettino only wanted guys that were going to be there for those first two games and the entire of the tournament. They didn't want them to just for those first two games. They wanted to try to build something. So if you don't fail at Cocamtica, if you don't fail at Nations League and then for the first time not win after three consecutive trophy lifts, we're not having this conversation. Nobody would have had a problem with Christian going out of the Gold Cup, so
you got a lot of holier than now movements. I don't have a problem with it whatsoever. You know, Christian decided he wanted to go on Paramount Plus who's doing his documentary, and have his say, his dad gets involved, his friends are involved, Tim Way is involved. It's not a good look and at the end of the day,
everyone comes off as super sensitive. Here's the bottom line, Spence you know, I and a lot of other people were questioning the build up to the twenty twenty two World Cup and tuitar and those final Cup games, they were terrible against Japan and Saudi Arabia. I was wondering publicly about Christian's ability to lead the group, and I was dead wrong because when they got into the when they got into guitar at the World Cup, he was easily the best player, the most valuable player, the most
important player. And he doesn't lead by words. He leads by example. He leads by his play. So at the end of the day, my hope is that we can get done with all this BS and whatever happens between Pochattino and the accountability that he has that he said, she said, combination of all of this and again everyone to be right and everyone could be wrong, and that's fine.
The reality, Spence is having Christian Polific in the starting eleven is better for the United States because he is easily the most consistent producer of results in big moments that we've had since the retirement of Clinton Landon. And I'll throw Michael Bradley and Josie Oltador and you know, Guccianielu and DeMarcus Beasley Steeps Kim Howard. He's the next generation. He's the only holdover of that last generation. So hopefully we can all think of this both be almost cursed.
He as childish antics that we're seeing, and we can move on. But what I am really intrigued, Spence, is to see if Mauricio Pochettino, who has shown a malicious side at your Tottenham Hotspur, when it's come to a couple of different players. He can't treat this like Tottenham. He can't get rid of players, he can't you know,
buy players from other clubs. So how he manages this relationship, He's going to be a really, really fascinating one to see in real times heading into those September friendlies right around the corner.
Donny, you're the man. I appreciate the time on short notice. Have a great week, Bud, We'll chat soon.
Okay, yeah, sorry, I know that was long, but a complicated question.
Good, Thank you all. Good there is Brian dun Seth RSL originalbls Vett was the captain of the Olympic team once upon a time and has become one of the best analysts in the game. Appreciate Donnie's time on this Tuesday afternoon. Want to remind you, guys, if you're looking for a place to watch our sl or quite frankly, any game, NBA, Jazz, NFL utes, college football BYU. Beer Bar is the spot here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. It's one sixty twenties, two hundred South. We were on
remote there a couple of weeks ago. They've redone their entire menu, a bunch of great beers. If you're not a drinker, they've got options for you as well. Check them out at Beerbar SLC dot com or just stop buy one sixty onies two hundred south here in downtown Salt Lake. Appreciate Donnie's time,