Well, still a little RSL. For the fourth straight season, Rayle saw Lake is playoff bound. They're chief soccer officers. Kurt Schmidt Schmed who joins us on a Tuesday. Kurt, it's been a long time, man, How you been?
Yeah, a long time. I've been good. How are you? How about you?
All? Good? Here? Well? Good here? So, since I brought it up to kind of intro the interview, your thought. I know it's not the goal, but it's not nothing. For the fourth straight year, you guys are head of the playoffs. Give me your thoughts.
Yeah, it's it's the first step, right, it's the first gate that we got to get through and got to get in the playoffs to make some noise. And now our goal is obviously to secure home field advantage and finish the season strong. And you know, in like all the leagues here in the league get with the playoffs. It's important how you finish the season in the form that we're in coming into these last four games as we head into playoffs.
So let's get your thoughts on a few things since it has been a while, you know, of course for a little bit. And look I talked to you about this. I talked to Pablo about it. I talked to Jay about it. Like during that fifteen game unbeaten streak, we all kind of said, like, it's not how this thing works. It's not how MLS seasons go. It's such a marathon that there will be a bit of a dip. And as we've discussed, you guys elected to move off some
players to bring in some new pieces five total. So just from a macro standpoint, Kurt, how do you think it's gone since making the new acquisitions and where are you at as of today with the confidence of that locker room.
And I think the middle of the season was obviously a little bit bumpy, and some of that is structural with Lee's cup and the interruption that that has in the middle of the season. And you know, there's it's again it's a long season. Fitness and form and all those things change, and then obviously with the personnel changes, and I think some of the guys are settling in really well. You know, it's good to see Diogo and dominic it on the score sheet this past week. You know,
I think Locklanbrook has settled in well. And you know, I think the more time we have together, the more, they're settling in to their you know, the time with their teammates, into the locker room and into the game model, and understanding what expected of them. So I think the next four games are really just about improving those understandings within and amongst the group and being you know, firing on all cylinders at the end of the playoffs.
I always want to be fair, and I don't want to put this on one player, whether it's Zach or whether it's Gavin, or whether it's Big Phill or Jay Glad. But I think it is fair to say, Kurt, there have been far too many leaks in the back right and you never want to say, well, the keeper is this, or the back four, or maybe, as Pablo often talks about,
you're not defending as a group. So I'm just going to ask you, what do you most attribute the loose nature at times from the back portion of your lineup that seems to have allowed some soft goals at on opportune times over the past few weeks.
Yeah, I mean, looks defending is an eleven player activity, an eleven person activity on the field. It's not one or two or four or five. It's everyone. And so whenever you know we have a defensive laps or can see a goal. I think it's looking all over the field on where these plays started. Sometimes even you know they start in possession. When you have the ball is when the goal really starts to take shape. So I
think it's about looking at everything holistically. And then yeah, I mean, look, obviously, you know, at the end of the day, I played to going on a player and was very good one. But you know that's you get all the attention to center back, goalkeepers, defenders, you got all the attention because you're the last ones in frame when the ball goes in the net, and so yeah,
it falls to you. But I think it starts with everybody on the field and on the bench and on the staff and everywhere just looking at inside and saying, Okay, well, what could I have done to help prevent that situation? How could I have done something myself or help my teammates put them in a better position so that they
could do something better. And once you start there and kind of work your way out instead of pointing fingers, you're just you know, you're looking inward and saying everyone can be five percent better in those moments, and and then I think, you know, staying tuned in and engaged in those critical moments this time of the season is important as well. So I think it really really starts there and improving the mentality and the awareness and the
engagement of the group and key moments. And you know, I think by and large, you know, the defending hasn't or has been pretty positive. But obviously it only takes you know, one goal to kind of undo all that could work.
So Pablo jumped on the show I think it was three weeks ago now, and announced that Gavin was going to be the start of the rest of the way and he was moving Zach to the backup role. I wanted your thoughts on that and where you're at as the guy that makes the calls on these things, with your confidence level of who's in between the pipes for you guys headed down the stretch.
Well, Pablo's you know, Pablo's always the guy who makes a call on these things. You know, I'm not going to tell him who to play. I think it's important that he has the freedom to make those decisions and obviously can incorporate everyone's opinion, and you know, ultimately he's got to make a call that he believes in. So you know, that's what's going to continue to happen and in every position, and people even gave, you know, and gave a young kid, and you know, everyone makes mistakes.
Young players make mistakes, Old players make mistakes, and the the goal or the target is that we learned from them. And so I think that's what we're we're looking at going forward for for not just Gav but you know, all of our young players as we try and develop you know, young talent here at oursl So I.
May have misspoke. What I meant was you're the guy that calls the shots on the player acquisition, so you know, when it comes to acquiring the talent that is your h that is your neighborhood. I wonder if you guys considered kicking the tires on bringing a keeper in prior to the end of the summer window based off some of the inconsistencies that we've seen.
No, I mean it's something that you know, we didn't really touch on a ton and I think it's you know, Zach's got a lot of experience, and he's been around the league a long time and he's done some really good things for us over the past few years, and you know, gav is a young player that we really believe in, and so we think between the two of those guys, they you know, when we were in the summer window, that they were going to get us through
the end of the season. And you know, I think it's it's hard to not overreact or or react to to like these acute situations and these acute problems, but it's also important to keep a medium in a long term view as well.
So I thought it was interesting the way Pablo described So I asked Pablo what Gavin can learn from Zach just based off of the experience gap in the age gap, and Pablo talked about Zach's elite communication ability, So as far as the way he communicates with the back line, the way he communicates with his teammates. Is that something for gab that just comes with age, you think experience, because he is not as outwardly communicative, if that's even a word, as Zach is. Is that something that he's
getting better at? Is it something that just comes from you know, age and experience.
Give me your thoughts, Yeah, excelling it's a personality component. And you know, I don't think gav is a wallflower by any meanings. So you know, there's certainly a personalment where a guy needs to be you know, more kind of outspoken just generally and you know, even off the field, to have that communicable aspect to it. But yeah, it comes with experience, It comes with confidence. You know, it's
always in my time kind of in this game. You know, you always find players are are better at organizing and more willing to organize and more effective at it when when they're when they feel good about themselves and their game and what they're doing, and when they don't have
to worry about and focus on themselves as much. And so I think as a young player coming into this environment sometimes it's difficult at the outset to communicate and help everyone else when you know you're trying to obviously, you know, put in a good performance yourself. But as as he gets more comfortable and as he improves performances and gains that confidence in that environment, then the communication will will certainly grow. And it's not it's not a
situation where Gab doesn't say anything. Obviously, if you look at him, you see you know, communicating quite frequently and yelling and just like you living and doing whatever with you know, to towards different players, and so I think it's something that's there and it just needs to grow. And you know, again it's there's the active saying things, and then there's the quality of communication as well, and so the quality of the communication will also improve as as he gained competence.
So I want to now move over to the space and talk about these new players because since it has been a number of weeks, we can actually be a little bit more specific than we were able to be last conversation because we know who the players are. They're on the ground. So Diogo opens his bank account. That's a goal. Excuse me, that's a soccer term for all you listeners out there. No big deal soccer knowledge permeating through the mic. But it's very very easy to see
what you guys saw in him. I mean, the quality is there, the skill is there. How's the process going. What can you tell us about your expectations of Diogo and what he's done so far? It proved to you that he can deliver on those expectations.
Yeah, I think he, like you said, he's got a ton of quality and the soccer knowledge is permeating good stuff.
Thank you.
So the quality is there, you know, I think he could add a lot to us in the final third. I think his the quality of his finishing, of his setup passes and set pieces, everything, it'll be there. And you know, fitting him into the game model and our expectations of it, and you know, the other side of the ball as well, making sure he's doing you know, pressing when and where we wanted to press offensively. Those are important aspects of it. And so the more he
gets comfortable, you know, the better off he'll be. The more we get comfortable playing with him and feeding him and knowing where he's going to be, I think the more effective he'll be. Obviously it's not taken you know, a ton of time for him to get in the score sheet, which is great. But yeah, he's a guy that the more we use him, the better the results will end up being.
So over to Dominic who also opened his account got his first goal, but Kurt, for me, my eye opening, like, oh my holy bleep moment was his run up the right side a couple of weeks ago after a really quality turn and an unbelievable cross to and who scored so We've seen a couple of moments of brilliance from Dominic. Mark Zuku's being asked to kind of fill the void that's left behind by Andres Gomez. How's this process going?
I think the most obvious, like apparent thing from Dominic just watching him and he's adapted or he's adapting pretty quickly, is just the quality and the consistency and reliability of his decision making. And I think he's in a good way, like can be very predictable in terms of like his teammates know in this situation, Dominic's going to do that.
In that situation, Dominic's going to do this, And so it becomes really reliable, and it makes him a really easy player to play with and to fit in around, whether it's you know, Crooks or Body or Javane or Brody or Diogo or Chijo or and whoever's playing around him, they kind of they know that, you know, hey, Dom's going to be here in these moments, John Dom's going to do this when he has the ball, and like it makes it really easy to play with him and
to be effective around him. And you know he mentioned in the past he played the angel. I mean that was you know, the perfect spot for that ball. I think if it's a foot you know, too far ahead or foot too far back, that goal doesn't happen. And he puts it in the perfect spot and just stays
on side and it's a great goal. And you know, obviously cack Off a great run and even his goal this weekend, you know, get getting on the end of things in the back post, getting into the box when when the attack comes up the other side is great. And the composure in that moment to take his chance
was phenomenal. So and I think he's only you know, with his call up to the Polish under twenty ones, he wasn't He actually hasn't even been here as long as the others have been, or as long as it seems like he has, because he was here for like ten days and then he had to go back to Poland and come back and you know now he's got to go back again, probably for the next camp. So you know, he's that's only going to grow, and so to see such good early returns is really exciting.
Over to Lachlan, you know, we haven't seen as many individual snapshots social media highlight moments from him. I'm sure those will come with time, But how's the process going of integrating Locklan Brooke?
You know, I mean again, whether he's started or come off the bench, I think he's added a ton of energy, a ton of work rate. You know, he's one of those guys along with Crooks and and Dominic, Frankly and Andres when he was here, who lead the team in numbers like high speed running and sprint distance. And so it really adds a physical element to to our game that we need in terms of our game model and how we press and defend and what we do attacking. Why so, he's a guy that you know from that
that pocket on the left will stretch the defense. If he's playing on the right, you know, he's he does a little bit differently than like Gomez or Dominic in terms of cutting inside a little bit onto his left. But I think you know, when he's playing one of
those ten roles, he gives you a lot. He stretches the defense, he gets on the ball, he can wiggle out of trouble, he can connect passes and be ball secure, and he's been gotten in some good spots in and around the box, and you know, just needs to find the finishing touch. But he's been a I think the word for him, honestly has maybe been reliable. Like he's
he's just been a reliable guy. Can go in and Pablo asked him to do this, He'll do that, And you know that's that's really what a coach wants when he's bringing in a new player like that.
Javane Brown four games played, a couple of starts as well. Is this a depth piece to the back line. How's this process going? How is he fit in? How's he fitting so far through the four games he's played.
Yeah, I mean, look, it's a little competition at that position, and obviously we've seen a couple of different players and we've seen now I think four players play there this year, between Brody Body and Philip and Javane, And you know, I think it's they've all been competing with each other. And I think Philip put in a couple of good
shifts this week. I think Javane's put in, you know, one good game and you know, maybe I had a really rough, bad moment the other day, but you know he knows that and is focusing on on trucking those issues. But you know, I think it's just a spot where we have a lot of competition. And I think you
can take that one of two ways. You can. You can be a glass at empty guy and say no, what you've taken this position, or you can be glass that full guy and just say that you know, the competition that we have there is really going to ensure that we have the best guy, who's most informed playing
on any given day. And I think you know, it's one of the things we wanted to do when we came into the summer window was increase the level of competition we have throughout the team, throughout the group, so that you know, every day in training was a bit of a battle and a bit of a dogfight, and that guys needed to really earn their spots and win
their position on the weekend. And so I think, you know, whether it's right back or you know, number ten or winger or striker or whatever it is, I think we've been able to create that environment.
I wanted to ask you about Anderson Julio today because of course we're talking about the new players being integrated, how that process is going, because we're unfamiliar with the new talent, and everybody loves a new shiny toy. But Kurt, I think his contribution this year has gone under talked about because it feels like you need me to start, all right, gotcha, You need me to come off the bench, gotcha.
And I thought he could be a double digit goal scorer in this league, but one more goal and he tallies ten. And it seems like he's really been a willing teammate and maybe kind of an underrated piece of who you guys have been this year. Just one of your thoughts on that.
Yeah, you said it right there, teammate, right, I think he's just been a really good teammate, a good team guy. He's done what's needed, you know, he's done with's ask, and I think he's executing it really well. You know. One of the reasons why we brought him in, you know, way back a couple of years ago when I first got here, was the element that he brings with his pace and what that can do to defenses, how he
can stretch and create space with his running. And you know, he's been able to add that element to his game.
And man, if he can finish champions like he has been lately, then then credit to him, right, And the more minute he'll get coming from that, so, you know, but it's important that that we're a good team and not just a collection of good, you know, individuals, And so having a guy like Ando that we can either bring off the bench you start in games, who, like you said, is just a really good teammate, is you know, a credit to the team.
All right, before we get tossed and that's the next opponent, I'll get a thought from you on them. We do need to talk cheat show. And it's impossible to say that he's had a anything other than a brilliant year with seventeen goals and twelve assists, but as of late, goals haven't been there. And of course the suspension is the suspension. I don't know how much of that is affecting his play. I don't know if it's getting used
to new teammates. He almost had one over the weekend we thought he did, and I'm sure he'll be just fine. But what do you attribute the dip? And I guess I'll just stay statistical production from a cheacho over the past couple of weeks.
I think all players can be very I don't know. I guess rhythm dependent. Maybe rhythm is a good word for this, where you know, you get in the groove or you get kind of going and you're in a flow and you know, things seem easy, and I think sometimes you know, things come along with it struck that
rhythm that that can have a detrimental effect. And so whether it was suspension or league cup or injuries or whatever it was, the last couple of months have been pretty disruptive form and so you know, and it's it's not been the same as maybe the previous two or three months. Does that mean he's a different player now, No, not at all. It just means, you know, especially as a striker, the confidence needs to get there, the belief, the flow, the rhythm, all that needs to come back.
And you know, it was great he get gets you know, he gets his assists on the weekend, and I think that's part of the him growing in confidence and getting back to that player he was and giving us the same things he was given us earlier in the season. So, you know, strikers even more so than other players, it's it's really about confidence and flow and rhythm and just getting into groove and kind of you know, being being ready to compete and perform every game.
All right, buddy, before I said you lose, Austin is not out of it. They're not out of it, but it is close. They need to close a seven point gap with four games remaining, so essentially, if they don't get three, they're cooked. And they're almost cooked anyway. But of course, the most dangerous animal a cage cornered animal. They have not had the year most people are expecting, but like I said, they're going to be desperate for
three on Saturday. Give us a little preview. What do you guys up against as you travel to Austin for this tilled over the weekend.
You're not gonna like my answer. My answer is none of that matters. None of it matters. Doesn't matter who we're playing, so doesn'tter where the game is, doesn't matter what their situation is. All that matters is us and us treating these last four games like playoff games as we head into the postseason, and having getting into the mindset, the urgency, the focus, the effort, just everything like like we would in the playoffs. So you know, not to
dismiss them as an opponent. I think every you know, every team in MLS, and I think they're a good team that can be and certainly hurt us if we're not ready, which is why I'm saying, you know, we have to bring the right mentality and the right focus to this game, just like we will for the three games after that and then the playoffs after that, and whatever whoever we're playing, wherever that game is, whatever their situation is, none of that needs to matter to us
and our guys. We just need to go out there and execute, you know, our plan. And if we execute our plan with the right intensity and the right mindset, then you know whether whether the team is in the playoffs, out of the playoffs, still has a chance home. We're away. That's gonna that's gonna take care of itself, because we're just going to do our thing.
Last thing. How healthy are you guys headed Austin over the weekend?
Geez, Now you're asking for like confidential privileged information.
You can give me no comments. I just have to ask the question.
Pretty healthy, okay.
Rather healthy? Relatively healthy?
It fairly strong.
We'll take that. How is your portfolio? Oh these days, Kurt? Good stuff? Man, Hey, it's been too long. I appreciate the time. Go get three and cheering for you as always, all right, all right, thanks, all right. Kurt Schmidt, the chief soccer officer for RSL Real Saal Lake. Back at it, coming up this weekend in Austin, and then they get Minnesota at home. They're at San Jose, then Vancouver. The last game of the season is Demir Crylock in Vancouver.
RSL dot com is where you go for single game tickets. I always appreciate Kurt's time. Brought to you today by our good friends at beer Bar right down town Salt Lake City, Utah. I'll be on remote tomorrow at beer Bar, so come on down between two to six, grab yourself an afternoon beverage. Brought some fries. Great place to watch RSLs. They do have Apple TV.