City SC Posse - Ep. 14: We Blew It, And I’m Still Pissed

Bright: I'm just going to say it. I'm pissed. It's Tuesday. I've had time to reconcile what happened on Saturday night and I'm still pissed about it. Like I don't, I just, I don't get it. I don't understand why city can't take that next step. You know, this could have been a statement win. This could have been.

Kev: Why? What happened?

Bright: A we're better than our record win. This could have been a, this is where we turn the season around.

Kev: Yeah, it could have been, could have been, should have been probably.

Bright: Could have been, well, absolutely. It should have been, and it wasn't, and it's not. And now we can spend the next 15 minutes talking about how much we suck and how the season's over. It's over. I'm tired of it, you know, and I'm sure there's a lot of city fans that are frustrated this week and left frustrated again. And not to say that the game was not entertaining. And not to say that we didn't have fun because it was, and we did. So, you know, I'll start by saying a couple of things. One, we got down there a little bit early. My wife and I, it was a beautiful day. went to Schlafly had a couple beers. went to the block party, had another beer, ⁓ walked around a little bit. We went into the stadium a little bit after Gates opened up. We went to Pappy's. She got the burnt end sandwich. I got the ribs.

Kev: Yeah, it was fun. was nice.

Bright: The ribs were excellent. So yeah, I like actually better than the burnt end sandwich. The ribs were great. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, definitely.

Kev: Mm-hmm. Excellent. Yep. They're good. Really? No. Not as easy to eat, though.

Bright: Nah, we, I figured it out. Um, looked at the new hat collection. didn't buy one, but I was tempted. There's some nice new hats. Uh, you know, got to our seats and you know, pumped for the game. You know, we had Ali Marmel, John J. Uh, and Daniel DeScalzo did the match ball and you know, all of that. Yeah, it was all good. You know, sold out crowd. All good. I'm feeling it. You know,

Kev: Little messy. Open end, yep. Louvin's back on warming up on the field. I'm sure everybody loved that.

Bright: Yeah. Yeah. Yep. There was a big flag for his wife and the supporter section, you know? So yeah, you felt the energy, you felt the energy and it had been, like I said, not counting the U S open match. had been like, what, at least a month, if not like five or six weeks since we were last home, you know? So I think we were ready for it. And yes, we were going up against the best team in the league. San Jose, who had the time had won eight of nine matches. The first team since.

Kev: ⁓ huh. Cool.

Bright: 2000 to do that. The first team, ⁓ since we got rid of the, the shootout method, ⁓ to start that good. And of course now they've won nine out of 10 and they shouldn't have. And that's, that's why I'm so pissed. And I'll let you, you know, give your comments here in just a second. But the fact of the matter was they had played midweek. Yes, they had a ⁓ huge win and an easy win against Austin, but they were rotating their squad. They had made a bunch of changes, you know, they should have been tired and we blew it. Not only because we missed our chances on the field, but because coach to may didn't adjust the way that Bruce arena adjusted. And by the way, Bruce arena, we already know he's a great coach used to coach team USA. He was the coach of the match day, ⁓ according to MLS and, and Apple TV and all of that. So no surprise there.

Kev: Yeah, it was a rough loss, wasn't it? A rough loss on my wallet too, because you know I had us winning that. I thought we were going to win it. Going up against, realistically, was their B team. At least their B team set up with all the movements that they had to make. ⁓ So disappointing loss. ⁓ Not surprising. Just not surprising. Not surprising.

Bright: half of their B-team. Yeah. Well, it's not surprising. Of course, it's not surprising. This is what Citi does, and this is what we've done for the last three and a half years.

Kev: This is what we've been doing. I know. How many wins do we have at home over the last three years or two and a half years, whatever it is?

Bright: I don't know. I'm going to have to look that up, but it ain't good. And as, as a fan that spends money, not only on merch on stadium F and B on the tickets, it gets frustrating when you're not seeing the results. And I know

Kev: It's nothing. There's nothing. What was really tough was how easy their first goal was. made it. We were we had five guys around that cross into the box. It was a good cross, but like, how aren't we pressuring, you know, and having a body right on top of him? So that was infuriating.

Bright: So. So I went and I, I rewatched the whole, the whole match. First off, I rewatched the whole match Monday morning. ⁓ I posted my, my blog post. think it's the best one yet actually, because being able to rewatch the match, you know, and that's I'm here in the comments. So thank you everybody that reached out. Definitely. ⁓ but,

Kev: That's what people are saying. People are saying it. Yeah. ⁓ yeah.

Bright: But yeah, cause I, you know, I was able to rewatch it and take a little bit better notes than when I'm watching it live. You know, I already knew the results, all of those things. So when I look at their first goal, it was frustrating live in the stadium because it, it definitely looked like a foul on Cordova up the field. And it was, I mean, they're guys all over Cordova's back, you know, jumps over his back, pulls them to the ground. Probably should have been called, probably gets called nine out of 10 times.

Kev: Sure.

Bright: But it wasn't called play continued. Our guys are caught ball watching a little bit. McNaughton goes in for the immediate tackle. Probably gets unlucky there. You know, I don't know that that was the bad, bad decision. He just gets unlucky because it kind of makes the tackle, but the ball pops out anyway to a, another free player. And at that point it was over. We were outnumbered and they made a smart backwards pass to the open player. And it was a, an easy slot in goal.

Kev: Yeah.

Bright: Now, it's frustrating for a couple of reasons, some of which I already mentioned, but also we were in like the eighth minute.

Kev: Yeah, I was going to say seven minutes in. Yeah.

Bright: Yeah. So that was frustrating and you could feel it again. Like, here we go again. We're going up against a good team and we kind of set it like this could have been a, you know, a four, nothing a four one loss back to back weeks. ⁓ that kind of a thing. And that was, that was my sense after they scored that goal, even though it, felt unlucky. And, and I'm not gonna, I don't want to get into the refereeing too much, but this particular referee that has ref our game city is now like,

Kev: Mm-hmm.

Bright: ⁓ five and one when he refs. So I don't, I don't know what that means. Obviously we had the missed call, ⁓ here and then we'll get in, we'll get into some other decisions.

Kev: I don't know if that's his fault. You be able to point at a couple of refs that have very similar records for us.

Bright: Yeah, I don't know. don't know what that's all about. It could just be that we're a bad team and we've been a bad team for the last three and a half years. So yeah. So, okay.

Kev: I think that's it. So I thought the first goal was disappointing and then to go into halftime down 1-0 was frustrating too because we had about a thousand chances to put a ball in the back of the net and we couldn't do it.

Bright: So that was exactly, exactly it. And that's the way it felt in the stadium. Now we, we were attacking the opposite direction from what we normally attack when we're at home. So that means that we were attacking right in front of our seats, right? first half. ⁓ normally we attack towards the supporter section for the first half. I don't know why that is. It's just the way that it works out. If coin flip, whatever it may be, but it was the opposite this time around. So.

Kev: Mm-hmm. You know.

Bright: We had all the, all the action in the first half, you know, and we had perfect views. I, ⁓ right. I'm going to run through a couple of ones. Wallum. We'll get into him in a minute. He sucked as usual, and he missed a wide open shot from the top of the box right after the goal. So right after, ⁓ right after St. Jose scores their goal, we come down and I called it. I said it to my wife. ⁓

Kev: Yeah.

Bright: somebody, I'm assuming Totland, Totland passes it to Hardell. And I said, leave it, leave it. Hardell leaves it, let it, let's it go right between his legs. Wallum has a wide open shot, shoots it high and wide. And I'm looking around to all the people around us. I'm like, put the ball on the ground. I don't know what our fascination is with trying to put the ball in the upper 90. We're not that good. Hit the ball low and hard. You know where the hardest spot for a goalkeeper to get to?

Kev: Do you me to Mm-hmm. Yep. Hmm?

Bright: On the ground, on the ground, you know, so hit the ball low and hard, see what happens instead. He's hitting it into the, hitting it into the crowd, which is frustrating. You know, of course it's wall. I don't expect much more from him. Then in, in the 10th minute, and I know I'm just ranting here in the 10th minute, Totland, you know, great ball in from Hurtle. This was not Totland's fault. I love. Yeah. Great cross.

Kev: I'm gonna grab. ⁓ this was the cross?

Bright: And I love the fact that Tottenham got the start here, although I wish it would have gotten the start for, for Wallum. ⁓ but he was good. He had some chances and he brought some more offense to the team. I thought he wasn't afraid to take players on one-on-one. He gets a great opportunity here. I'm not going to say this. Of course it should have gone in goalie came across, made a great save. You know, it was just like, ⁓ you know, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course. mean, you look at that. Yes, you definitely do.

Kev: Yeah. Mm-hmm. On the other side, You gotta put it in the back of the nut though.

Bright: So that was frustrating. Now their goalie was, didn't know this at the time, actually it was their backup goalie that started the game and he made a couple of, of amazing saves. then right after on the ensuing corner kick, McNaughton gets a free header and, and this goalie dives out, makes a Palm save, you know, also easily could have been a goal. So now here you're looking at it we're like, well, we could have two or three goals.

Kev: Okay, yeah, he crashed it.

Bright: Already 10 minutes in, you know, and so a couple of big saves and one humiliating miss from Wallum then 13th minute. So still not too far along here. Hardell hits the crossbar, you know, again, unlucky, but I'll go back with what. Shoot the ball on the ground, you know, right. All right. So hits the crossbar then.

Kev: Yep. Yep, that was a reference. Put the ball on the ground. ⁓ boy, ⁓ boy. Sensing a theme.

Bright: 28th minute. All right. A couple of minutes go, go by. Hardell. Clear breakaway. Clear breakaway.

Kev: Nah, this is not, he's had a couple of these so far this season, I think, and he has not found a way to finish his chances on those breakaways.

Bright: Mm-hmm. Well, and that's the thing. This was not one where he's coming in at an angle. Didn't really have any time. The goalie had the better positioning. He was coming in straight. He could have, he could have. He could have pushed the ball wide. He could have chipped the goalie. I mean, I know all those things take skill. They're not easy. ⁓ you know, I don't ever really remember missing breakaways ever. No, come on.

Kev: It was good. Dad, you were at seven. 8

Bright: Even still didn't miss breakaways. ⁓ you know, so, so when, when, ⁓ when he missed that, you're just like, ⁓ man. So then, all right, a couple more minutes. McNaughton.

Kev: You trying to remember, did he push that ball ⁓ right side?

Bright: High and wide. Yeah. Right side, high and wide in the air again, you know. ⁓

Kev: It was kind of tough to see how far he missed by on Apple and...

Bright: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I could, I still am not sure. I kind of need to go back and rewatch that chance again, too. Of course on the field, you know, ⁓ you know, and I skipped a couple here, you know, betcher, he missed an opportunity earlier. ⁓ McNaughton hits the crossbar in the 41st minute on another header. ⁓ you know, so now that's two crossbars, ⁓ betcher, he missed a header that probably should have gone in on the 44th minute.

Kev: Yeah. ⁓ we have plenty of chances.

Bright: Now this came from a, I think a cross from Wallum. Terrible cross. Absolutely horrendous hits the ball a hundred yards in the air, but, but Betcher is in the right position, gets the positioning on the defender has the free header and it misses it high and wide. So it's not like, it's not like we, we couldn't create the chances in this game. And at home, we have been able to create chances, but this is again, we're allergic to finishing. I don't know what the deal is.

Kev: I heard a member go.

Bright: I don't know if it's a mindset. I don't know. I don't know. Is it a culture at this point?

Kev: We did finish, we? We did have two goals in this game that came in the second half. Let's jump into those. Yeah.

Bright: All right. We're going get to that. Let's all right. Let's go in. Let's go into the second half. So right off the bat, I'll compare it to the last three games where we gave up goals early in the second half. But what do we do here? Completely flipped the script, which is great. We come out a half time. We have, we had this amazing first half couldn't score. We scored two goals in one and a half minutes. had three minutes of glory.

Kev: We I don't know if you saw the I know you said you really watched it, but the Apple broadcast was still covering that first goal to where they come back and literally horror puts it in the back of the net. And I'm just left wondering what what just happened. I didn't even know. Didn't even know the ball was back in play, you know. And here we are scored. Yeah.

Bright: I saw. Yeah. We were still celebrating Yeah, we were still celebrating in the crowd. People were still high fiving and drinking and talking about the goal. And then all of a sudden, Hartle scores again. Um, and then everybody just went nuts and you just had this feeling of what just happened. Okay. Floodgates are going to open. Right. And again, this could have been the turning point of the entire season. And we've talked about it. We've had several road games.

Kev: But yeah.

Bright: You know, we've had a really tough schedule as far as being on the road and playing top tier teams. And here you are, you're at home. You have the chance to beat the, ⁓ you know, and we got a couple of easier games coming up, right? We have, ⁓ Austin, not a great team. ⁓ yeah, actually I'm not sure. have to look it up to see where Colorado sits right now, but I think even still Colorado is a beatable team.

Kev: to get a win at home.

Bright: You know, ⁓ then we got DC probably also beatable Austin back at home, beatable Kansas city at home, beatable LA galaxy, beatable Colorado again at home, beatable. You know, so you're looking at several, the next several where you probably beatable teams, chances to win whether they're on the road or at home. And this could have been the springboard and Cordova Cordova gets his first goal. ⁓ and it was a good goal. He.

Kev: Beautiful.

Bright: Finished his run. was playing out of the wing, hadn't done anything to that point. And if you read the blog, you'll know, still don't think Cordova solves anything. ⁓ this was his one and only chance. And he did to his credit. He finished it. You know, he got it. But what I did like about it is that he filed, he kept his run going, you know, and then the ball comes back to Hartle. Hartle punches it to the penalty, ⁓ penalty spot where Cordova still making his run balls in the air.

Kev: Mm-hmm.

Bright: No touch, just boom shot back in the net, buried it. No, there was no doubt about it. Goalie had no chance. Those are the goals you want to see. Goalie has no chance. One touch quick plays in the box, you know, short spacing. Did it right. So, okay. And then, and then the

Kev: That was a good goal, right? A hurdle, honestly. Again, playing a nice ball, finding them there at the zone. I'll put it on the zone.

Bright: So I want to say a couple of things about hard. Yes. He missed some opportunities. ⁓ he, he, he creates everything. He's everything. Right. Yes. So, so.

Kev: He's our office right now. He's everything, everything. Yeah. Honestly, every time, every time we have a chance, it's because he's touched the ball somewhere or he's, you know, let that dummy pass go by to create that opportunity for Wellum, whatever it is, right? Like it's certain with, with her, which is why.

Bright: He's involved. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. And that's how I felt about Klaus, you know, and why a lot of people were down on Klaus when he hadn't scored and things like that. I was like, yes, but he's the only creativity that we bring. He's the only one that creates scoring chances. So even if he's not the one scoring, he's the one that's contributing. Now, now that's how I feel about Hardell, you know, and as you watch him play, of course he's runs all over the field. plays all 90 minutes, every game, so on and so forth, you know, but again, Without him, you don't score any goals. And speaking of money earlier, I put money on Hardell to be a two-time goal scorer.

Kev: enough. ⁓ no, he had so many opportunities to do it. Yeah, even, yeah.

Bright: I know, man. I was like, felt good about it. So I actually, put money on the draw, which I felt like, you know, it was probably the most likely outcome, believe it or not, before the game. And it was close. And then I put Harto on being a two time goal scorer also really close. And I was like, this is the game. and man, he could have done it, but you know, we talked about all the opportunities he missed in the first half, but then, you know, as we start the second half, ⁓ As you said earlier, very quick turnover. We pressure immediately after the goal. Goals come in bunches. We know this and we get the turnover and he kind of lets the ball off the pass. Just roll, roll, roll. Doesn't take any touches. Just waits for it to roll, sets it up, buries it. Where?

Kev: on the ground, right side quarter. Puts a little, Yeah, you're not wrong.

Bright: ⁓ Keeps it on the effin' ground. Doesn't try and put it in top 90 of which, you know, and he did that at the very end of the game, at the very end of the game, he had an opportunity and yeah. Yep. So, so that was. Yes. ⁓ all right. ⁓ you know, I don't know a couple, a couple more things, ⁓ conceding first, this is eight straight games where we've conceded first. So even though we're.

Kev: bots it. He missed it. Yeah, missed it. Top rate. Nope. One that we needed to hit too.

Bright: You know, up two to one at this stage in the game, you know, took a comeback to do it. Right. So eight straight games of conceding first, you know, that, that is a, definitely a trend at this point. ⁓ you know, even though we bucked the trend of. Right. Right. Yes.

Kev: And early goals too, like early goals within that first 10 minutes, like killing us.

Bright: Mm-hmm. Yeah. So that that's not good. And then again, going back to, you know, closing out the game now. So now you're up two to one, you know, like the stadium is electric. We, we have full belief that this is, this is going to happen now. And, you know, and then guess what happens next. Go ahead and say it.

Kev: I I did. Bala! Bala!

Bright: Yes. Like come on back to back games now with a, with a given up a penalty. And this was another no doubter even live. was like, that looks like a penalty steps on the back of the guy's heel. Even if he did make a good move, he kind of turns around the guy, you know, puts his body out. Wallham comes in fast and hard at the top of the box. There's really no reason for it.

Kev: You called it on the pregame show that you were putting it on Wallum's shoulders if he starts all on him. And you had mentioned that we had had any penalty kicks throughout the season yet. Now, I thought you meant for us. Yeah, but I don't think we had any. ⁓

Bright: Yeah, I did. Yep. I said, I said, if he starts, we lose. Well, no, we haven't gotten any as what I said. Yeah, yeah, we haven't got.

Kev: I guess thus either, did we?

Bright: against us until these last two games, know, so Wallum gave them up now and back to back games.

Kev: Okay, I couldn't remember. ⁓ yeah, that's right. Yep. So I was thinking this was the first. Either way, somehow, somehow I feel like Ejinks does.

Bright: At least going off of memory. Yeah. Wallum jinxed us at all. And you know, and you could see his reaction. He's on the ground. He's practically crying. You know, I'm like, well, of course he be, know, he knew he is a liability both offensively and defensively. You know, we have better options. So I don't know what Demay's deal is. You know, we could, we could have Totten in that position. Santos on the other side, we could have Joyner in that position. ⁓ we could have.

Kev: Well, that's true. Yeah, because he knew.

Bright: ⁓ who am I, who am I forgetting? Who's our, our other center mid that just came back from injury. ⁓ drawing a blank on his name.

Kev: I don't know, because I wasn't paying attention to who you even listed off.

Bright: Hold on, I'm drawing a blank on his name, let me find it. Was he not even in the... wasn't even in the lineup? ⁓ starts with an H?

Kev: we talking about?

Bright: I don't know, I can't think of it. Huh?

Kev: Pegaman. No, I don't know. was shouting out a name. I have no idea who you're talking

Bright: Yeah. All right. Well, I'm drawing a blank. I'll have to look it up. Look up the city SC roster, ⁓ and look up our, our center and how is he not? Okay. So he wasn't even in the lineup. I'm not sure why, ⁓ he wasn't on the roster, ⁓ for the game, but he certainly, you know, he's an option on the right joiners and ops, an option toy shirts, ⁓ you know, put betcher in that position. You know, I don't care. I mean, Betcher sucked again. He did absolutely nothing. ⁓ Cordova. Yes, he scores that goal, but does absolutely nothing. But here's what I wanted. Here's what I wanted to talk about. San Jose Bruce arena used their subs like a weapon. We did not, we didn't, we didn't react. We didn't whatever. We let them dictate the rest of that game. So San Jose, and I made notes on this and watching the replay, they made four.

Kev: Mm-hmm. We don't.

Bright: of five subs by the 60th minute. Yes, I understand they played a midweek game and we didn't, so we should have been more rested, but they changed the way that that game was being played. So they refreshed that match. They had used all five subs with 20 minutes left to play. How many subs did we have at that point? Zero. Zero. Yes, we waited until the 75th minute.

Kev: Done? ⁓ wow.

Bright: to bring on our first sub and Louvin who was 45 minutes fit that we talked about came in in the 85th minute.

Kev: Ready.

Bright: What so tactically, is Demay doing? Our guys are tired. Our guys are gassed. They're bringing on subs guys that are more fresh. They're changing their formations and Louvin who could be our best playmaker or him and Hardell who you said was 45 minutes fit. Demay said it. Didn't bring him on until there was five minutes plus injury time left to go.

Kev: Yeah, we've talked about this in the past. Like, I don't know if it's him not trusting his bench players, him over trusting his starters, him not knowing when to ⁓ refresh your players on the field, not understanding when players are tired. I can't figure that out. I would say if there's one player on your bench in that game that you should trust more than anybody, it's Lumen. Like, you know what type of player he is.

Bright: Of course. Yep. Yep.

Kev: You know, he's fantastic. If you're saying he is 45 minutes fit, if you're saying he's 30 minutes fit, whatever it is, get him on the field early. He's got the creativity. He's got the strength on the ball. The great awareness. What are you doing?

Bright: I think I said it. I think I said you either, I thought we were guaranteed to either see him come on at halftime and get full 45 minutes or come into the 60th minute, 60th minute, but he doesn't come onto the 85th minute. don't know. And toy shirt, toy shirt too. You know, and again, we talked about it. Toy shirt really hasn't delivered yet, but better on Cordova where nothing other than the, yes, Cordova gets the goal, but you take that out of it.

Kev: Yeah, that's you were thinking. Yep.

Bright: They were terrible.

Kev: I still haven't seen anything, anything that I really want out of Cordova, like on the field. His presence just to me is nothing except for that goal.

Bright: Yeah. Exactly. Well, yeah. Again, great. mean, great. Maybe it starts doing more of that. I, you know, we'll have to wait and see, ⁓ before we move on, cause we're running out of time and I want to preview the match tomorrow night real quick. So to recap, ⁓ tonight, our, our, well, Saturday night's match, we lost three, two yet. had more shots, more shots on target, more possession, more corners, more expected goals.

Kev: Yeah, what?

Bright: We won on the spreadsheet. Can't win. Can't win in the soccer game.

Kev: Yeah. We won that game. We won that game. By every measure of it except for my goals. The one that matters.

Bright: We should have. Yeah. And that's why, that's why this feels, that's why this feels, that's why I'm so pissed. Let's, mean, that's, that is, am pissed. ⁓

Kev: Let me, before we move on, let me ask the question that everybody wants to know. We lost two to three. Did you go to the after party?

Bright: ⁓ we went out afterwards. We did not go to the after party. I didn't want to be in the stadium. ⁓ you know, we, we had a sitter. So we actually, we actually went to that new, new ish, ⁓ speakeasy. ⁓ I'm trying to remember the name of it. ⁓ it's, it's in the old, ⁓

Kev: I can imagine. I can imagine you were fired.

Bright: It's in, it's on like showdo across the street from like planners house, Vindaset. It's in the old Vindaset building, ⁓ in the basement makes, they make good drinks. ⁓ we got in there early. got a great parking spot. We beat the traffic, got in there early, got a table. And then I stepped out to go to the restroom and you have to go into the main lobby there. And there was all kinds of people in city gear waiting for a table. ⁓ so we, we lucked out there. I had a, a nice mezcal drink and then finished it off with a.

Kev: ⁓ does that? OK. Yeah. There you go.

Bright: with a classic old fashioned.

Kev: That's the way to do it. That's the way to do it. Especially if the kids are.

Bright: Yeah. So yes, we, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was great. We had a good night, but it would have been way better if we would have won the game like we should have.

Kev: taking care of stuff. Should have been. Yep, should have been. We didn't talk about that third goal. I know we're moving on, but that third goal was a little bit ridiculous. Ball watching, let's move on. It was just frustrating, just frustrating. All of it was so frustrating.

Bright: So now... Oh, how did I, yeah. How did I even forget about that one? Super frustrating. Well, and that comes right after a hurdle misses the, again, open shot. He, I saw it in the replays, lean him back, shoots it high. And then the very next play they come down, uh, pretty familiar. You leave the far post open easy touch. So the last thing I'll say, San Jose had three shots on goal and three goals.

Kev: Mm-hmm. Yep. Gotten ball watching, think. Yep. All three. Yep.

Bright: And that is not a slight on Berkey because he didn't really have a chance on any of those.

Kev: Nope. He actually had really good positioning on that PK. I thought he had it. They just bulleted past them.

Bright: Yeah. PK was, you know, no, no mistake, you know, power and, and placement. Yeah. What are you going to do?

Kev: Yep. right. All right.

Bright: All right. Well, we play, we play tomorrow night or by the time this, ⁓ episode might air, ⁓ tonight, depending on when you look at it, but we'll say Wednesday, Wednesday night, another midweek matchup, ⁓ against the Chicago fire, ⁓ us open cup. ⁓ so this is the, the round of 16. ⁓ you know, we'll see what happens. Now we're going up against an MLS foe. ⁓ this is in Chicago. So in a way game. ⁓ people are saying this is kind of like a must win game. Now, you know, it's us open cup. I'd like to win. I'd like to, you know, I'd like to have that. It's could be another momentum builder, ⁓ before we head into the weekend could be another opportunity to see some younger guys rotate the squad a little bit. ⁓ you know, but.

Kev: Hey, you know, you said the season was over. So why not play for the cup?

Bright: Yeah. Go, go for the cup. Right. You know, we talked about this, the last us open cup. Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing. The, the deeper.

Kev: You know, like we gotta get excited about something. Yeah, like if we're out of the season, let's be excited about something. Let's be excited about the Cup. ⁓

Bright: The deeper you go with, with this cup run, right. That, that you're right. That gives you something to be excited about. ⁓ and you know, Chicago fire and anytime we were playing a Chicago team, that's a rivalry. Even if it's, it's not like the Kansas city rivalry we have, you know, in the MLS, but right up the road, I'm sure we'll have some city fans there. ⁓ you know, we came off of the four ⁓ win earlier in the U S open cup matchup.

Kev: Uh-huh. Sure.

Bright: Now Chicago is a better team than Tulsa. They, uh, now they beat, they beat Detroit city FC two, one in the round of third 32. Um, they're, they're coming off of, I think they won big. Uh, let's see. They won big just the other day. Uh, five, nothing over the weekend against sporting KC. So, you know, scored a lot of goals. They're currently.

Kev: So. Okay.

Bright: five, two and three, a much better record than us in the Eastern Conference. So they have 17 points and they currently sit in third place in the Eastern Conference. You know, so they're, they're a better team. So we'll have to go in and yep.

Kev: Those are the games we got to go in and take the ultimate momentum and start believing in your team. Right. Like we've had these offensive opportunities. We got to stop giving up the soft goals. Got to stop obviously making stupid plays and penalties in the box. That just dumb.

Bright: That, Demay has to make some changes. I think that's ultimately what it comes down to. You know, subbing earlier is

Kev: Got us some earlier. Got us some earlier and we got to do something else on that right wing.

Bright: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, wall, ⁓ it's gotta come out, you know, the last us open cup match. did not play at all. You know, now if they were resting him, that's not the right move. But again, this is an opportunity maybe to see what you have instead of wall. ⁓ other options, a good opportunity to rotate, continue to rotate the squad. He has to start making some substitutions. It just amazes me that we're not making substitution till the 80th minute. It's one thing if the other team hasn't made a substitution and we're winning, but when the other team is making changes and we're still going with the original game plan, the game has changed. The game plan from the other team has changed and we're not making any, ⁓ any, any adaptations, right? We're not adjusting.

Kev: Yep. We're not changing anything. We're bringing McSwirly in in the 96th minute of the game. ⁓ Come on!

Bright: ⁓ well. All right, well.

Kev: Read the room! Read the room!

Bright: The games on Paramount plus or CBS sports plus tomorrow night. So yeah. So somehow find a way to watch it. ⁓ yeah, I like having these midweek games just, you know, gives me something to do. Obviously blues hockey's over, you know, Cardinals ads early in the year, but you know, this is. Yeah. I was watching. I mean, we won big against Pittsburgh, I think. So, ⁓

Kev: ⁓ there we go. I think I got access to that. I would just wander out. Nope. Nope.

Bright: But yeah, so I'm excited for that. And then we'll come back at you, ⁓ later in the week, ⁓ for, for the matchup here against, ⁓ Austin. It's a, it's an early matchup. This, ⁓ is it this, ⁓ it's a Sunday matchup. We play Sunday at four 30 against Austin. That threw me. Cause actually we're having a, we're having a party on Saturday night. And I was like, ⁓ everybody can stay soccer game. Oops. I guess that.

Kev: Nice. Nice. Not that game,

Bright: Guess that ain't happening. Not, you know, not that game. Maybe I'll see what time the card does play. Oops. All right. Well, sun Sunday afternoon, that'll give me some time to just watch it by myself down in the basement. Maybe, maybe if you come over, you can help me put up the outdoor TV.

Kev: There you go. All right. There you go, I like it, should be a nice weekend hopefully.

Bright: That's right. All right. Well, peace out. We'll catch you next time.

Kev: All right. Adios!