City SC Posse - Ep 10: Let's Keep the Momentum

Bright: All right. Today is game day. Um, and I was joking around with duds on the NFN P pod, um, that I couldn't remember last week. did not record any episodes and I'm like, well, when did I say, know, in our mission statement, if you will, when we were going to drop new episodes. So I went and I looked it up and it was in or around on or around game days. So I'm like, oh, we're good. No. Yeah. So did, did you win any money or anything like that? ⁓ with the game? couldn't do any sports betting because I was down in Florida. So I was out last week.

Kev: Yeah, no, I, did. I, ⁓ I won my bet on the game. ⁓ so I was actually thinking, trying to remember back. So I was thinking hurdles bull won it for me. ⁓ cause I was thinking I put us down on a two goal. When, but it actually just secured it in my mind when we were at the game. So I did the Asian handicap. Minus, ⁓ I'm interested in it, right? I'm checking it out. I'm kind of new to it. Flexible, Even flexible, you know.

Bright: No episode last week. Well, and we need to be flexible. It's hard to get us, you know, on the same schedule with work and kids and, and all of that. ⁓ so I figured we'll just record the one episode today for our listeners. We're going to do ⁓ a recap of, of the game two weeks ago now, ⁓ just about two weeks ago against, ⁓ new England, ⁓ which was a great game and our first win finally, which we predicted. Yeah, you always do that one.

Kev: Yeah, it is. it feels good. It feels safe. think I somewhat understand it and I will say somewhat, ⁓ you know, there's kind of a split, ⁓ betting to it. You're almost placing two bets in a lot of scenarios when it's like minus, ⁓ point 75, right? You're making a bet on a goal or, ⁓ or a tie or whatever. So just there's chances of not losing all of it. ⁓ but my bet was on, ⁓ St. Louis city.

Bright: I think we predicted a two goal win, ⁓ which, which we, ⁓ we accomplished. Yeah. You know, three one. We'll, we'll take it. ⁓ and then tonight, ⁓ we got the game against, ⁓ New York city FC. ⁓ that's going to be a tough one. So, ⁓ you know, let's. Yeah. Let's just, ⁓ jump right into it and see what we got. ⁓ you know, I was, I was down in Florida, so was watching the game in Florida. and so was a later start.

Kev: Yeah. Could go in, yeah, with my guess. I thought two no, but we were close. minus ⁓ half a wool, which of course we won by by two. So I brought in about 25 bucks, which feels pretty good for me. Yeah, so we might be checking that one out again this week. more of a challenge.

Bright: for me, I know even when we were recording the podcast, I think the night before we were both tired. could, you could hear it in the podcast a little bit. You know, we were exhausted. was an hour ahead had spent the day on the beach. So I'm thinking that this episode is going to have a little bit more energy. So let's bring, let's bring some energy to this episode. All right. We'll get, we'll get to our bets. Uh, for, for this week's game here in just a minute, uh, let's do a quick rundown of some of the stats before we move on to tonight's match. Uh, so shots were the same six and six, shots on target. had five compared to their one. So their only shot on target was their one goal. And even though they did have a little bit more possession, it was 54 revolution to our 46.

Kev: video. Let's do it. Yeah. Last one, I think, was like a Friday night. The kids had beat me up all day long. As soon as we got done, my head hit that pillow when I was out like sleeping. I missed the whole Mizzou game, which turned out to be a good thing. I think if you were a Mizzou basketball fan, you got a chance to miss that game. It was a good one. So a little bit more energy, a little bit more pep going into this game. Plus, we won a game and that's that's huge, right? We get a little bit more excited going on.

Bright: It felt like we were pretty much dominating the game. And I think it's because they didn't have any real attack, honestly, that no point after their goal did, did it really feel like they were threatening? ⁓ so, you know, that's why it certainly the whole second half, ⁓ prior to Hardell's goal, felt like we were still in control of the match. And then Hardell adds the, you know, the two goal cushion. And you really, at that point, you were like, ⁓ yeah, we're, we got this down with lockdown for a win. Yeah. Well, it's good for the momentum. Certainly it's, good for the standings and we have a pretty tough stretch coming up here. And we've talked about this in previous episodes. got three in a row on the road. Then we're home on four 25, ⁓ against San Jose. And then immediately another two back to back on the road. So five of our next six games are on the road. And if you can't figure out how to score some goals,

Kev: Yeah. Yeah. It's funny that you said that they control the possession because it didn't feel like that at the stadium. I don't know if it if it was mainly because, you know, as you said, it felt like we had more of the attack. Maybe the possession was played more on their side of the field than it was on our side. Definitely felt like that in person. I guess I'm not all that surprised that it would have been like

Bright: Just barely. Yeah, it was pretty even.

Kev: Mm-hmm.

Bright: on the road, win some games. It's just going to be a brutal stretch and, we're going to be out, out of it before we can get past this, you know, before the, before the world cup break. Right. Exactly.

Kev: 52 or 53, whatever it is ⁓ from them. yeah, no, it felt like we had most of the possession and most of the momentum going in. What were ⁓ the pass accuracy routes? Yeah, the schedule didn't do us any favors, did it? When you look at the difficult matchups.

Bright: No, like we said, we started, we started tough. had a lot of. Yeah, exactly. Uh, pretty even 91 for us, 90 for them. Uh, we each had nine files. We picked up three yellow cards. They picked up two. Um, and then I already mentioned the corners. had six to their three. Uh, so I, know, that's big and you know, actually converting on one, but there were, you know, a couple of things here, a couple of notes. So we already talked about this, but Betcher gets his first goal of the season, uh, his 13th of his career. So that's good. Um,

Kev: We had one early on, ⁓ you know, we should have won probably match one, right? ⁓ that would have been huge. Would have put us in a lot better position than we're in now. ⁓ But yeah, hitting five of six, five of six road games?

Bright: Yeah, Charlotte. Yeah. Five of the next six. Yeah. Road game. So it's a, you know, it's a good thing that we did win. It's a good thing that we won a couple of weeks ago against new England. That puts us at five matches played, ⁓ which is on par with, ⁓ almost everybody in the Western conference. Colorado has six matches and Houston has four matches played, one win, one draw, three losses, ⁓ which puts us at four points. So. He's now scored in both games against the revolution, ⁓ dating back to prior seasons. ⁓ Durkin got his first goal of the season and his second kind of crazy only a second, with city, ⁓ Harto gets a second goal of the season. Edelman gets a second assist of the season. Santos gets his first goal contribution of the season. ⁓ fall, fall number two. How do you pronounce this guy's first name? Mbake?

Kev: Yeah.

Bright: Out of those five games, have four goals. Not great. ⁓ seven goals given up. a negative three differential, and it does put us in 13th place. So we, we hopped up a couple of spots cause we were dead last, ⁓ when we were recording our last episode and, ⁓ we are now ahead of sporting KC, ⁓ and Portland.

Kev: Yeah, that's it. That. hmm. Yep.

Bright: Mbaka fall. Yeah. So not, not fall, fall, but in back a fall. So he, ⁓ he gets subbed on, ⁓ I did want to talk about Pompeo and this goes into tonight's game. Of course. So he gets his first start of the season and I pulled up the match day ratings and Pompeo had a ⁓ seven rating compared to wallum 6.2, which is pretty boring. If you ask me, not terrible, but not good. ⁓ and.

Kev: Good see him. It was good to see him on.

Bright: So, and it looks like maybe Colorado might be playing right now. They might have a day game, which is why they're at ⁓ six games. So they might be playing right now. It looks like they're down three to two ⁓ as we record this and maybe they're playing Toronto, Toronto FC. So ⁓ we'll see how that, how that plays out. But well, yeah, you know, we'll take it. Anything again, we have the same points.

Kev: Yeah.

Bright: Immediately you noticed what Pompeo brings to the game. He starts taking people on, you know, going down the line one-on-one, you know, that's part of the reason you get as many corners as you do is because he, takes it down to the corner looking for the cross or looking to beat that defender one-on-one, which wallum we've already said doesn't do all he does is play it backwards. Yeah. No. And it's gotten to the point where you have to actually count how many password backward backward passes he has.

Kev: Feels good not to be in the basement though, doesn't it?

Bright: ⁓ as both of those teams, but we're a little bit better on gold differential. ⁓ you know, then Minnesota who's ahead of us, they're at minus seven gold differentials, but they got two draws. So five points. maybe this is an opportunity we could, you know, if we win tonight, you know, we hop, ⁓ hop ahead of them. ⁓ there's also the galaxy and Austin both sitting right there at five points. So, you know, if you can win tonight, if you can string a couple of wins together, ⁓ on the road.

Kev: Go back and yeah play back.

Bright: And then of course we get the devastating news this week that Pompeo is probably out for the season with an ACL injury and he can't catch a break. And now you almost have no choice, but to play wall. I don't, I don't know what else you do. You know, we're not out of it. It's just like we said, a tough stretch, but we need to use this, this new England game, which I know was at home, but we need to use it as momentum. We scored three goals. We need to, we need to keep that, keep that ball rolling. We need to score goals.

Kev: Two things, completely agree. Pompeo takes it to the corner. He's not afraid to take it to the corner, not afraid to use his speed to try to beat somebody. And I think that's something that we lack. We don't have it. He does. Wallum pulls it back. Yes. I will say Wallum, I think, had a better game this game than he did the last couple of weeks. You know what, if you were able to make the game, it was so much fun. It was such a fun game to be at. And I knew it was going to be. I thought we had a good chance of winning the game. was kind of, you know, shouting out that to no prediction. Pretty darn close, right? Pretty darn close, but exciting to see some goals. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I told.

Bright: And skill, he has, he has skill moves, which Wallum does not have skill moves.

Kev: So don't want to sit here and just hark on one every week. But or volume volume volume, I know you do. I know you do. He missed what he missed, though. He missed the goal. I don't know if you remember him. ⁓ It was on a reflection, I guess, from the goalkeeper. think it was like a left footed. Left footed ⁓ volley, and he just put it up into the left and completely missed, which was disappointing because we were down at the time.

Bright: Well, we gave up, we gave up the goal early. That was the, that was the biggest thing. You know, how, how early was that goal? They scored in the 15th minute, ⁓ to make it one, nothing. And honestly, it was, it was pretty, it was a pretty easy goal for them. Berkey was not happy. I do. I do. I want to. Yeah. It was, it was the lowest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kev: Yeah, yeah, we got beat on the wing down in the corner. I think that was, ⁓ well, got beat, ⁓ just maybe had his body in the wrong position when, that pass came through and wasn't able to catch up and then clear across, you know, through the center to, I think about the, ⁓ penalty, penalty spot, right? To where they buried it. That was pretty easy. disappointing too. told him, Amanda, I was like, this is going to be tough. We're down.

Bright: Uh-huh. I remember. I remember. Yeah, uh-huh.

Kev: Uh, well nothing still. So that was disappointing. Um, you know, obviously he was in the right spot to take that, which counts for something, but you gotta be able to finish it. So, uh, he had a better game. It still was. Yeah, it's still.

Bright: Yeah, yep, yep. Well, he had the lowest rating. still the lowest rating on the team of all the starters. You know, so that there is definitely room to be desired there. And I don't know what you do with that position. If he doesn't play tonight, you know, I, you could put better out there on the wing. Yeah. John could play out there. ⁓ joiner could probably play out there. mean, hell, MIGI Totland. Here we go again, right?

Kev: We're in town. Like we have no faith that we can score. So everybody in the crowd was a little, you know, defeated based on one, how easily they made that look, how early it came in and then knowing that we have issues finishing, right? Like we were ready. We were ready to be disappointed. Yeah. Yeah. What's his name?

Bright: That was, that was definitely my concern. You know, watching it on TV, I think, you know, again, I was down in Florida, kids were in bed. ⁓ my wife had already gone to bed, I think. So it was just me drinking a couple of beers, you know, ready to go. And then I was like, soul crushing. ⁓ but you know, I'm an optimistic fan. I did had, I still had a high hopes. It's still early. I was like, we're gonna, we're going to start to put the pressure on now. Cause we don't want this to snowball.

Kev: Yes, thank you.

Bright: You know, they could in theory all play that position. So it's possible you have the same back three tonight, Orozco, Bumgardeal and Pulvera. And then you play Totland on that right side. I actually would be pretty okay with that. And then you could almost have Orozco and Totland depending on what they want to do in the game. You know, just flip flop, you know, and I wouldn't mind giving Joyner an opportunity. Now I also think Zhang could play out there.

Kev: Mm-hmm. Yeah of Flops.

Bright: ⁓ you know, and that's exactly what we did. So let's, let's run through the three goals. ⁓ I have to say, you know, we've, we've been hard on betcher, ⁓ but this was, this was a top class. Goal here. So this goal came at the 30th, 30th minute. ⁓ you know, I think, I think it was Edelman that gets the steel, ⁓ on the pressure passes it up to betcher in the box.

Kev: That was kind of my first thought.

Bright: ⁓ and if you put Cordova in up top, maybe, ⁓ you know, betch, like I said, betcher can kind of swing out there. guess maybe he is the defensive liability. ⁓ yeah. All right. Let's talk, let's talk about, ⁓ tonight's game a little bit, ⁓ other than Pompeo, which we just referenced, we are fully healthy. So that means toy shirts, ⁓ Totland.

Kev: I was lost. I'm looking for a killer picture out there.

Bright: He takes a, you know, back heel touch to put it on his left, ⁓ left foot and one touch and then in it was, it was just perfect.

Kev: It was pretty. It was awesome. It was on the other end of the field. It was tough to see what was happening. You know, for down on our side, we're sitting on the opposite side of the supporters. And, you know, I didn't, I didn't get to see how much skill required for him to put that one away, to bring that down, bring it across, you know, behind his body, basically, ⁓ to bury it. And then,

Bright: Ready to go. Now we said, Louvin, he didn't travel with the team. So of course he's healthy, but he's, he's not going to be an option tonight. There is a little bit of concern with Berkey. Apparently I was reading up on this. We, called up our, our third string goalie, if you will. And I read something that Berkey was having some kind of shoulder tightness earlier in the week. So they said this is probably precautionary, but you know, if you, if you pull three goalies into the starting lineup. And maybe that's, maybe... Yeah.

Kev: Mm-hmm. Three, Yep.

Bright: Yeah.

Kev: Okay.

Bright: Right.

Kev: Yeah, when I got to see it at home, you know, afterwards on the recap, you just saw how much it took for him to bring that in. It was awesome. was. It was a great call.

Bright: You know, then maybe it's, it's, don't know. We'll have to see. mean, hopefully you only have two, not in the starting lineup. mean on the roster. ⁓ cause then somebody else has to be left off the roster if you play a third goalie for tonight, but. And some of that is, you know, what, what makes better a little bit of a frustrating, you know, forward attacker is we know when he gets in the box like that, you know, he has the skill, ⁓ you know, it's just sometimes getting those opportunities and we've seen a miss a couple, guess, early on. ⁓ but, but that was, that was exactly what we needed. It was skill. was a high pressure turnover.

Kev: Yeah. afterwards. So I was reading something around the call up and somebody had referenced that Lunt's wife, I think, is expecting and may be close to due date. So they may not have been sure what his availability was going to be tonight, which is a better scenario than Burki and shoulder tightness. So hopefully that's what it is, something fun.

Bright: ⁓ Okay. Well... And we got rewarded. And then obviously that's, think that's got the, got the team going a little bit. And then the next goal that comes right before halftime, ⁓ then you kind of felt like, you know, all right, where, know, where we got this game on, on lockdown. Then the shoulder tightness. Right. Right. Right. Now he was a full. Yeah. He was a full participant in practice and everything. So I was like, I'm not too concerned about that. You know, Berkey is a little bit older, so, you know, you gotta do some extra shoulder rolls or something, but, ⁓ yeah. Yeah. So he'll, he'll be okay. You know, so that, yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so New York city, they're a good team.

Kev: Yeah. Your stress is, you got. Yeah, definitely caught the momentum with that goal. I like when Betrayer scored that one, I jumped up, you I was like, oh my God, we got one. We got a freaking goal. And it almost felt like that relief probably came off of everybody, players included, right? And then goal number two, think was off of a quarter kick. I expect them to be in there either way.

Bright: Yeah. ⁓ let me see. I've got the, I've got their rankings right now. They are second in the Eastern conference. ⁓ three wins, one draw, one loss, 13 goals for, which is tied for the most in the Eastern conference. ⁓ Vancouver has, has 14. So they, it looks like they lead, ⁓ Yeah. Corner kick. was Durkin at 45 plus three. I don't know exactly how I think it was maybe only three or four minutes of added time in that first half. So, ⁓ pretty much right at the conclusion of play. And we had six corners in the game to, their three. And this is, is this the first, has to be the first set piece goal of the season. ⁓ you know, we've had a lot of games where we've had a lot of corners and we haven't been able to convert.

Kev: Yeah. Yeah.

Bright: They lead the entire league with goals for, but right there, there's a couple of teams with 13, ⁓ and they've only given up six. So they got a plus seven goal differential. Obviously that's a big gap, ⁓ between us. So they're, they're going to bring offense. Now they do have some players out. They've got like five or six players out with injuries. you know, yeah, that could help us a little bit. And then the other thing, the other note here,

Kev: Mm-hmm. Well.

Bright: ⁓ so, so to get, this was an easy one too. I mean, this was a tap in for Durkin. It was a missed, ⁓ you know, missed assignment for the revolution and it just fell right to his feet. I mean, it doesn't get any easier than that. And he was practically on the goal line. Yeah. Yeah.

Kev: ⁓ no, no, no, it's fine. Yeah. Right in front of the net, right? Yeah. It was a quick touch in, but you know, you gotta have some of those, right? You gotta have some of those. for injury or? Yeah.

Bright: you know, and this is certainly home field advantage for them, but city field where they're playing is, the smallest of all the fields in MLS, right? So, ⁓ we've been practicing for that. I don't know how it, how it impacts the game. What's so funny about that. For sure. And the one thing that I liked about this corner kick, and I think we've said it on, on the podcast before, and I've definitely saw some people talking about it on social media is Santos took this corner. And you know, you notice a big difference between Santos and, ⁓ Hardell, you know, Hardell tries to kind of loft it up there, use some finesse, right. And Santos stepped into one, you know, put some pace behind it with some, some ball curve.

Kev: Yeah. Mm-hmm. It just reminds me of Ted Lasso. He goes to Wembley. He's same size pitch is a, you know, same size field. It's all 100 yards. No, it's not. The biggest stadium.

Bright: Yeah.

Kev: or else seem to be lollied up.

Bright: What does he say? No, ⁓ yeah. Who's like, who knew that soccer fields could be all kinds of different sizes, right? You know, and even our field. and you know, and it beat, beat their team and made it for an easy tap in. So I'd like to see Santos take a couple of more, not just corners, but you know, any, any kind of free kicks, you know, from, from a dangerous area, doesn't always have to be hard. And certainly when we get Louvin back, he did not travel for tonight's game. So, ⁓ but he did practice this week. So I think, you know, I think we're getting, getting close to him and you know, there, we talked about that a couple of episodes ago.

Kev: I know. exactly. Exactly. Well, that's interesting. It'll be it'll be interesting to see how that factors in right from ⁓ an energy standpoint, how quick the game moves from a possession standpoint. We're obviously a little closer together because of it. So ⁓ yeah, I'll think about that. and more.

Bright: Now, yeah, we have to, ⁓ we have to adapt to that. And I guess we've been working on that in practice. We've been playing on a smaller pitch, ⁓ to try and have, you know, quicker decisions, quicker, you know, one, two passes, that kind of a thing. ⁓ but I think the big thing is we got to throw in a good starting 11 tonight. And again, we have to, we have to be the aggressors. I feel like on the road against a team that scores a lot of goals. ⁓ you know, we're going to have to score some goals. I think, you know, getting back into soccer and stuff after, after his situation, but, know, Hardell just doesn't bring it for me for the free kicks for corner kicks. So I'd much rather see at least from that left side, you know, Santos, ⁓ being able to step into one or maybe the right side using his left.

Kev: I mean, it's clearly working at the moment, right? Just based on recency bias here. ⁓ Why not let them take a couple more and see if, you know, putting that pace on it is gonna is gonna result in more goals. So I do want to correct you a little bit. We did have one other goal on a set piece. Yeah, that's the one. That's bullshit. The one that didn't count. ⁓

Bright: So I don't know about you, but I, you know, we talked a little bit. I want wallum out of there. ⁓ somebody said, I saw, ⁓ a prediction that Ostrac gets in tonight at center mid instead of Edelman. ⁓ you know, I don't know about that. I love Ostrac. I think he's really energetic and great as a center mid. ⁓ he brings a little bit more attacking, ⁓ prowess, if you will, over Edelman, maybe. Yeah. The one that got called back? Yeah. The one that didn't count.

Kev: Yes.

Bright: Yeah. And that was a bad call. You know, we talked about that, but yeah. Well,

Kev: Yeah, still the supported, right? Yeah. Yeah, no, that was was great to see. And it was awesome, you know, in stadium environment all of a sudden going into half and all of sudden we're feeling great. ⁓ yeah.

Bright: But Edelman's had a couple of solid games. You know, he had a 7.4 rating last game. He was tied on the team with Durkin for most tackles. ⁓ Durkin had an 8.1 game. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think, I think you stick with them. I think you stick with Santos. ⁓ you know, wall and like I said, maybe, ⁓ maybe you get Totland in there. I'd love to see Totland play. looks like he's fit. ⁓ you know, what do you do with Cordova? You know, does, does he get a start? Well it changes the whole mood, right? Everybody's going to get another beer and you know, you're socializing some more. Your mood has changed in the stadium, I'm sure.

Kev: phenomenal last week. Great game. I don't know how to great game. Yeah. was just good to see some offense, which is something that, you know, we've talked about it. We've been lacking. So yeah, it was nice. It was a good game to be at. Still have fun with it.

Bright: Yeah. Yeah. And then the, then the third goal, you know, when we get to the heart, it was a goal.

Kev: Yeah, he's kind of a question mark at this point in time, isn't he? After last game. Cause we had been, we'd been calling for him to start and then better comes, you know, with a pretty solid game last week. And I feel like, yeah, they come in there again. I remember that one. What happened?

Bright: Or does he, I think so. Yeah. I think he is. Yeah. ⁓ we were texting for that one and I know that was, ⁓ that was kind of right in front of you really, ⁓ which, which is awesome. And this was in the 84th minute, which has, look back on it now. I'm like, ⁓ that was actually later than I thought it was in the second half. kind of thought it was maybe more closer to like the 70 or 75th minute, ⁓ 84th minute. But again, you know, just pressure in a little bit. wasn't anything crazy, but getting in the passing lanes.

Kev: Right in front of us. Yeah.

Bright: Right. Right. And if, toy shirt, if toy shirt's healthy, is he, is he getting the start tonight or is he coming in off the bench? I don't know.

Kev: Mm-hmm. Now, Ostrichs, he was injured with a hammy. Was it? They were kind of calling it like a hip boxer or something. He's four weeks out from that now, I think. So.

Bright: I don't remember, maybe a hammy, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he's probably, I personally, I wouldn't think he'd be ready for a start. So when I, when I saw that in the projected lineups, I was like, okay, you know, coming right out now, I think he's a guy that, you know, has good fitness. ⁓ but typically when you're coming back from an injury, you know, you're not, you're not getting the start unless, unless maybe you're only playing the first 45. ⁓ you know, I guess maybe that's the idea. Maybe you start him with a little bit more attack. terrible pass by, the New England defenseman. I don't know what he was doing there. He, he just didn't see Hardell, but nevertheless, Hardell takes the interception and you the ball pops up, which is fine.

Kev: The, I... No, he'd be a bash. Yeah, I don't Mm-hmm. immediately knew what he wanted to do with it too.

Bright: But that's the thing, you know, for him to have the wherewithal to know that he has to hit this volley it out of the air, ⁓ to have time to beat Turner, who of course is a, you know, national team goalie, ⁓ who was a little out of position. Of course, I guess you're not expecting your player to make a, to make a mistake like that.

Kev: And then you're coming in. Yeah.

Bright: ⁓ he plays 45 and then you, you bring them out. So I guess we'll have to see, but, but I'm definitely curious in the, starting 11 and I do, I do think we. We need to attack. then I think our summit are subbing our, our, timing has to be better and in the actual subs have to be better.

Kev: You're not expecting the defender to just pass the ball like that. You know, he's playing up a little bit to get involved because he knows they're down by one might need that outlet pass, bring it across the field. Right. So as soon as yeah, they cough it up in a hurdle has, you know, the awareness that the goalie is out of place to be able to pop that one over his head was awesome. And as soon as he kicked it, right. Like everybody, I had no idea where.

Bright: Yeah. Sure.

Kev: That's all that. Yeah. We've been talking about that for a while now. Like subs coming in at the fifth minute. And it's just like, what are we doing here? Like, what are we doing?

Bright: Yes. Right. So listen, listen to this. I got it right here. So last game, ⁓ Demay here's his ratings. So tactics. got a 7.2 rating. Good starters for last game. 7.2. Good. When it comes to subs timing 4.6.

Kev: goal he was zero idea right i do the quick look i'm like ⁓ shit like that's getting that's going over his head that's getting in ⁓ it was so

Bright: Yeah. Well, sure. Cause he's not on the.

Kev: All right. Yeah.

Bright: Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was pretty, pretty fun. Pretty cool. And that's the skill that, that we know hard old definitely brings to the match. ⁓ so that, that was pretty cool. Pretty cool to see.

Kev: Yep, well deserved rating too, in my opinion.

Bright: And in sub yes, sub choices, 6.0. So here's, here's the timing on our subs. Cordova comes in in the 73rd minute. Okay. All right. You know, that's before, before the third goal. ⁓ I think better, right?

Kev: Yeah. Who do you come in for? Retro played the whole game and I was shocked. I am am almost positive that I saw him out there the whole game because I kept saying what it like he looks he looks exhausted. He was still bringing energy, but he felt like he was a step or two behind towards the end of it.

Bright: Did he? Did he? I, ⁓ I- Alright. Right. ⁓ he, all right. He came in for Pompeo in the 74th minute, 74th minute. All right. But here are the other two subs on the day, right? McNaughton comes in in the 89th minute. And then, and then fall comes in at the, in the 98th minute.

Kev: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. Does this tell you more about how he feels about his starting 11 or what he feels like he has on the bench to come in? I can't figure out if he just has no confidence in his subs. And I feel like that can't be right. I don't know why we're waiting until the 89th minute when we're up.

Bright: Is that right? Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It definitely seems strange. Yeah. And fall did fall came in in the 98th minute, 90 plus eight. ⁓ so that that's pretty crazy. And then Berkey picks up a yellow card at 90 plus 10. ⁓ but I don't, I don't know. It just seems strange to, to wait that long on your subs.

Kev: You know, we're up two goals or one goal, you know, like you would think you'd want some fresh legs in there. Grab one.

Bright: And even like when I'm playing FIFA and stuff like that, which I know it was not the same. I don't always like to make subs either. Cause generally you think you're starting 11 is your best 11. ⁓ but with the, with the stats that they have now. With how much these players have run, what their average speed was, how much they're interacting in the gameplay. Like I would think they'd be able to make better judgment calls and be like, okay, we need to make a tactical change here. And depending on where you're at in the game, of course, if you're winning, if you're losing, but you know, you're, you've to be making those changes. can't wait until the 90th minute. Yeah. No. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Kev: There's no point in it. Why are you doing it? You're literally, you're literally up a goal. You're up two goals wherever you're at within that game, right? Like bring on some fresh legs so we're not getting beat down the wing or so we have some ability to play up top and keep it up top for a little bit, right? Like I couldn't figure.

Bright: Nobody's making an impact. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

Kev: I couldn't figure out the timing. couldn't figure out why better was still in there. Honestly, he looked tired from what I could tell, but, ⁓ yeah, I'm not coach. So.

Bright: And again, we only use three of our, of our subs, you know, the rules have changed on that. You're not limited to three anymore. Demay. So, ⁓ I don't know. we'll. I think so. Yeah. Well, he's, he's hearing it from the fans. He's hearing it.

Kev: We won. We won. Yeah. Yeah. Something that he needs to work on, I think, and we'll see how it progresses throughout the season. But I want to hear that rating next week to see how he does and kind of progress, you know, see how it progresses throughout the year.

Bright: Yeah. All right. Well, we'll, we'll look it up. We'll talk about it, um, in our next episode. So let's get into, know, our betting situation and what we think is going to happen here for this game. So just the overall win probability has New York city sitting at 56%, 24 % for a draw and 20 % for a city St. Louis city win. I mean, that's probably on par. That's probably pretty accurate. would personally, you know, I already said this, I've been a little bit of an optimist, so I would like to put us a little bit higher than, than 20%. So I don't know. Are you going to play the agent handicap again? Like basically you're going to play, what is that? Is that like basically the wind and the draw? I mean, that's more or less like if city wins, you get a little extra bump. If it's a draw, then it's a push.

Kev: Especially. So. Yeah. So again, I'm kind of stupid around what this actually is. So don't rely on me for it. Ask TrackGPT. ⁓ So I think it is, I think it is a split bet, right? So right now the Asian handicap is at a plus 75 on a New York. ⁓ So they're giving up.

Bright: Just ask Chachabee T.

Kev: minus, I guess, 0.75, 75%. So that's a bet that they're going to win it by a goal. But if they don't win it by a goal and they tie, you get 25 % of your bet back. And obviously if there's any other results on the, you know, St. Louis wins, you lose all of it, right? If they do win by a goal, you get all of that, you know, all the money that you bet. So it's like a split bet. At half a goal, it would be, you know, you get 50 % of your

Bright: Okay. Right, right.

Kev: back if they draw. ⁓ So it's just kind of reducing the risk at which you're betting but ⁓

Bright: That's not as much fun.

Kev: Yeah, maybe not. Maybe not. I'm actually so you say that you say that but at ⁓ Yeah, I don't know

Bright: Is anything else?

Kev: I know. I've been, I had been looking at, you know, I'm feeling like we might come away with a tie in this game after last game, ride some offense. St. Louis City to tie or win at plus 100. I feel like that line feels okay to me. So I could definitely take that one. And then of course you could look at your, your goal scorers. Let's see. I feel like.

Bright: Sure. Right. Well, see, that's the thing. I don't want to put any money down on a goal scorer until you really know who the starting 11 is. Right. So you have to wait until closer to game time for sure.

Kev: Yeah, you gotta wait. You gotta wait. ⁓ yeah, could take a, if Betcher's in, I feel like I could take a Betcher, maybe a toy shirt. ⁓ Anytime goal scorer. If you want to get a little crazy.

Bright: If ToyShirt What are the odds on a toy shirt anytime goal scorer?

Kev: plus 330.

Bright: All right. That's a little light for me. was going to say plus 400. The only reason is I would be, I would be interested in that if he gets the start because he he's really been in the games that he's played, think really looked like he's a threat to score. Yeah. The problem is, is that he doesn't play complete games. And if he's coming off of an injury and fitness, he probably isn't again, not playing a complete game. Right.

Kev: He's had some chances and he's... Yeah, yeah. Only play in 45 to... Yup. That one, yeah. I don't want to talk about that bet that I lost when I played him and he came off like two minutes after I like bet it. ⁓ That one was rough. I forgot about that. Right? Yeah. Like he's in it. Like he's getting chances. He's in the mix. Like I feel really good about it. And two minutes later, he's subbed out and it's like, that's right.

Bright: So I think that might be a light for him. Yeah. Oops. Well that's yeah, because you're like, ⁓ man, he's I feel good. He's he's got the shot. and then subbed out.

Kev: Goodbye $5. Yeah, I mean, great point. Look at who's starting before you make any goal scorer bets, but I'll probably play one or two goal scorers any times. I haven't done it in a little bit, but total quarters might be something that I look at. It's at nine and a half over nine and a half is at a plus 100. And I feel like that might be a play that I look into tonight.

Bright: Yeah.

Kev: ⁓ That's obviously both teams.

Bright: think that could be, I think that's interesting because we know that they, ⁓ New York has a lot of attack. ⁓ so that they're probably due to get a lot of corners and we have been positive on corners. think almost every game this season, you know, which, which is a little bit different than where we were last year. So I agree at nine and a half feels like a pretty good number for the over.

Kev: move fast. I will say though, you you had mentioned Pompeii being out and he is somebody that likes to take it down and an attack. So it does hurt a little bit. So might have to factor that in too. I'll see if it's wall him out on the wing and maybe it's, maybe it's wanting to stay away from this. Maybe, maybe stay away from it and just play it safe, right? Keep that money.

Bright: Yeah, that hurts us. You're right. Yep. Yep. Definitely. If we have to wall him out on the wing, maybe we go the under. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Well, it's a six 30, ⁓ central time start for us tonight. It's a little bit early. ⁓ I'm going to make some chicken wings at six o'clock. ⁓ that's dinner tonight. Roll right into, ⁓ right into the game with a couple of beers and, ⁓ you know, it's, it's already two 30 and we're just wrapping up the podcast. So I got to get this out for all of our listeners, man. You know, got it. Got to get it out there.

Kev: I like it. We'll do it. Come on. We had some some snafus that you got to take care of and edit out. So.

Bright: Only one it doesn't take that long. I can edit it It doesn't take that long to get it up, but definitely want to get it out there You know, we'll come back at you next week for a little bit of ⁓ Reaction and to get you set up for our next game. We're at Dallas ⁓ Next week on the road again So we'll see what happens. Hopefully we're going into that game You know with at least one point, although, you know me. I don't like draws

Kev: Boom recap, yep.

Bright: Uh, so I would love for us to go for the win, especially where we're currently at in the table. Uh, if it's, if it's close tonight, we, I want us to go for it. You know, if obviously if we're down, we'll take a tie, but yeah.

Kev: Well, mean, sure, if it's close, like, yeah, you want to go for it, right? Like if you can steal a win on the road would be huge. Play it for the pack. I know what you mean. I know what you mean. Like if we're down at 80 minutes, like just pulling it back and pray to God we come away with ⁓ a point, but it would be a big point to get.

Bright: I don't want us playing for the tie. That's what I don't like. Yeah. Yeah. Right, right. Yep. Yeah, yeah, I get that. And if you have the opportunity to, know, to jump ahead of ⁓ a team or two on the table, any, any, anything as a win right now, ⁓ where, where we currently sit. ⁓ and like I said, you know, we'll, we started with this and we'll wrap with this, you know, five out of our next six on the road. So we can't be passive because if we do that, we're gonna, we're gonna lose all five of those games and, then the season's over. So you gotta go out and be aggressive.

Kev: Almost seems so ridiculous, 5 out of 6 coming up here on the road. It doesn't seem real, so let's go get a point. Let's get 3. Let's get 3 points.

Bright: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's get three points. All right. See you. Good luck.

Kev: Adios.