City SC Posse - Ep30: 18 Unbeaten, an Open Cup Final & a Shot at the West

Bright: So we kinda hinted at it in the NFN Peapod episode, season two, episode thirty three, that Duds, you were gonna join me. We did technically record an episode of City S C posse together once before, but we had technical issues and I don't think we ever got to publish it. Yeah, wasn't

Duds: Yeah, it wasn't great.

Bright: great. Yeah. So this is this is the first official, I guess, episode that you're joining on. Now the last time when we

Duds: Woo, go city S C.

Bright: Yeah There we go. The last time that you joined though, you went to the game with me and so

Duds: Yes.

Bright: you were gonna be able to really speak to that I could talk about right. Yeah. So Mike

Duds: had a little bit I could talk about. I was very disappointed that you know it never got published.

Bright: Yeah, I know. It was disappointing and sometimes you run into these tech issues and we were kind of joking about it even on our last NFN peepod episode is your recording was all off and I it took me forever to edit it and I was like, We can't have this again. So we better not have this same issues for

Duds: I did that on purpose. I like making you work.

Bright: I'm sure you did, right? I'm sure you did. All right. So how much are you following this team now? I know you are a we'll say it for our listeners, a very casual fan. You're not necessarily a huge soccer fan in general. Right. Then you are watching the games,

Duds: I'm more of a check the standings kind of fan. I'm not really a watcher. Yeah.

Bright: right? So unless I'm taking you, or something like that, and unless you're at the game, you go with your Yes. Right.

Duds: That's when I'm a big fan, when I get free tickets, huge fan.

Bright: You go with your brother in law sometimes, right? He is he still a seasoned ticket holder? No. I what's up with that, man? his parents, right, right. So it has to like tr has to trickle down to ya. Yeah, yeah.

Duds: He hasn't taken me this year. His parents, yeah. His parents hold the tickets, yeah. So he gets like a a few. Yeah. Right. It's a trickle down effect.

Bright: So remind me though, what game did we go to and did we win or did we tie?

Duds: We we won. Yeah. Yeah, we won that game. I don't remember who it was

Bright: We won. Do you r Yeah, yeah.

Duds: so

Bright: I don't either off the top of my head, but it was kind of a rainy day. I do remember that, right? Yeah, yeah. And Nah, it's

Duds: Mm-hmm. I could look it up if you want me to, but

Bright: not yeah, don't worry about it. But it was on this run that we're on now, post World Cup break, and it's just gotten Yeah. So that's what I wanna

Duds: Yeah, we're still on the streak, right? Yeah, still going.

Bright: know is how much are you following all this? it is now at eighteen matches unbeaten and I think that

Duds: That's pretty crazy.

Bright: It's pretty crazy. It's it's one of the most longest

Duds: Gotta be getting to a record, right?

Bright: run. y we're cl we're getting there. I don't have it exactly what that is, but we are close. We're now there's only like three teams that have ever been on a run like this in MLS history. And

Duds: I was gonna say that's that's a pretty long streak without a loss.

Bright: Yes. And keep in mind, we're new to the this league, right? So the league has been around a long time and and we're just now getting into it. So I mean, this is pretty awesome and unprecedented. It hasn't happened a streak like this in a decade, I think, something like that. And so it's sixteen matches in the MLS specifically. and then we have two matches in the US Open Cup as well that are part of this eighteen match unbeaten run. So we won the US Open Cup semi final.

Duds: Mm-hmm.

Bright: against Colorado. And I do think it's important to note, because we have a game coming up, and we'll talk about this, against the Red Bulls in on Saturday night, and they've got a pretty good defensive team, but Colorado, and Kevin and I pre previewed this before the US Open Cup match, that they hadn't given up a goal at home in like six games.

Duds: No kidding.

Bright: And we went and dropped three goals on Easy peasy.

Duds: That's nice.

Bright: Yeah. So we won that game three nothing on the road against a a pretty decent, not great. Yeah,

Duds: On the road too. Wow.

Bright: on the road. That's the thing. and we dominated that game and that was again the semifinal. And now we have a chance we'll be in the final. We'll be playing Columbus. If you remember where Greaves, lower

Duds: yeah.

Bright: dot com field, that he helped do the naming rights. I don't think it's called that anymore, but but yeah, so we'll have that game coming up on I believe it's October twenty first, the final. And Saint Louis has a storied history with the US Open Cup. We've won it ten times, back in its earlier iterations before the MLS, right? So do you remember the team soccer team Bush?

Duds: yeah.

Bright: When we were young yeah yeah. Right. So well no, just Bush. So like

Duds: The ambush or or is just a bush. Yeah.

Bright: the s select teams as we called it back in the day. so we like we had some buddies that played for Bush.

Duds: That was pre MLS.

Bright: Pre MLS. Pre MLS. I think it was nineteen eighty eight was the last time a Saint Louis team won it. But again, we've won it ten times in its history. I don't know that any other city has that claim to fame.

Duds: So how does this work? They have the MLS games and they have this open cup, but they all go towards the record or no?

Bright: So no, so the thing with soccer, and there are some other leagues that do this now too, like the NBA is kind of starting to do it, but you have all kinds of different tournaments and leagues going on at the same time. So you have your season that of which you play soccer, and you have either league matches, which would be like our MLS games, and then you have cup matches, which would be like the US Open Cup. So it's kind like a tournament just in the middle of the season.

Duds: Just like when your kids playing soccer, you'd go and play a tournament and be in the middle of the season tournament. Okay.

Bright: Yeah. Yep. Exactly. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. So that's exactly what this is. And depending on what you've qualified for, you might be in different tournaments, multiple tournaments, and that that is a challenge for some teams. So for this last week, we played Toronto in the MLS last Saturday night, so almost a week ago. But we had to play on Wednesday night in that Us US Open Cup matchup. Toronto didn't. So they had a full week in between games where we only had we only had a couple of days. Right? So that's where

Duds: yeah, a lot of rest. Yeah. Good and bad, maybe.

Bright: it it gets a little hard to juggle, right? It gets a so the more the the better team you are, the more tournaments and things like that that you qualify for, the more games you play, which means more money for the team. Which is ultimately a good thing, more T V revenue, all that, more exposure. But then you gotta you gotta keep it up. It gets harder to to play and you have to have enough players that you can rotate into your squad. If you don't have a deep bench

Duds: How many like rest days do these soccer players need in the MLS before they're kind of up to full,

Bright: Well so

Duds: you know, strength again?

Bright: Yeah, I I mean I I think

Duds: Couple days.

Bright: Yeah, three, four days. i it just depends. So like at the end of this season. So normally you have a week in between matches and every now and then they'll throw in a midweek game. So that they're not all the time. Right. So there'll be some weeks where you're like, okay, I gotta I play Saturday and then I play Wednesday and then I play Saturday again. And then you'll have a week off. You don't play until next Saturday. And I'm sure the coach is like, take Sunday, maybe even take Monday, or maybe they have a real light practice Monday and then you get back at it. Right. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday are your hard days, and then you have a light practice Friday, 'cause you don't want to get anybody hurt. It's probably kind of just getting out

Duds: Right.

Bright: there and making sure you get some touches on the ball before your matchup on Saturday again. But this because of this season, because of the World Cup, it's condensed a little bit because we had to take that break towards the end of the season. So when I look at it, once we get into October. So we have our game this Saturday against the Red Bulls, which we'll talk about, and then they're on an international break. So the team USA has like four games, and all the all the countries, so most of the leagues take a break over that time. So we don't play again until October 11th. Well, then we play October 14th, October 17th, October 24th, October 28th, October 31st, and then 11 7. A

Duds: yeah.

Bright: lot of games to end the season here. And the season is going a little Bit longer, all of that. Again, all because of the World Cup break. So we're getting we're getting into it, but we proved it. We came out against Toronto. We beat Colorado in Colorado to get to our first U.S. Open Cup final. And then we go, we have Toronto at home, and we we easily took care of them, beat them three to one. So it was a good game. My wife and I went and we just dominated pretty much every aspect. We had more shots, more shots on goal, way better possession. We had sixty one percent possession, which is

Duds: Yeah.

Bright: a lot. Yeah. good good pass accuracy, better pack pass accuracy than them. and controlled. Yeah, I think that's been

Duds: They seem to be a team that controls the ball. So who controls the game flow? Yeah.

Bright: A big improvement over especially the last two years. I mean, originally our our whole idea coming out of the gates with Bradley Carnell and everything when we started, and we started strong, of course, our first year we won the Western Conference, but it was all this we don't need the ball. We're gonna pressure the other team into mistakes and we're gonna capitalize. Well that worked at first, but then it it didn't work out so well. Other teams figured out how to play us, they kept possession, we never had enough of the ball to score goals, and we didn't score goals. And that was always my big Criticism is we have to freaking score. Well, we are scoring now, and I think a lot of that is because we we do have the ball. We are on many games. We have sixty percent possession, fifty-five percent possession, and when you're controlling and then we're scoring first. And when you score first, like the possession

Duds: And you got possession.

Bright: Yeah, well, and eventually the possession changes just organically. You're up two goals to nothing. The other team is gonna start controlling

Duds: Right.

Bright: the possession. So the fact that we still end up on top most games. in possession is a pretty interesting stat. So

Duds: Gotta keep their foot on the gas now for the rest of the season.

Bright: yes we do. And and that's where it gets interesting. So again, we go into this game against the Red Bulls. We're playing in New York. It's the first time I think ever we've played against the Red Bulls in New York. We've played New York City FC, but first time playing the Red Bulls. And

Duds: So where who are the Red Bulls?

Bright: New York. Yes.

Duds: But y you said there was a New York team also, like another one? Which Okay.

Bright: Yes, there's two New York teams. Correct. NY NYC F C, I guess. Yes. and then the Red Bulls. The Red Bulls were the original New York team. Yes.

Duds: Do they play in the same stadium or not?

Bright: they actually switched stadiums, I believe, between the two. So like New York City F C plays in like the Yankee Stadium sometimes and like the Met and they're all building I think the Red Bulls, maybe they just built a new stadium. Yeah.

Duds: So they don't they don't have a okay. I was wondering if they had an actual stadium specifically for soccer.

Bright: Yeah. they may they might have just built a new stadium and then now New York City FC, I think they use the same architects that built Energizer Park here in St. Louis. So so they're working on that.

Duds: Okay. Well they won't be disappointed then.

Bright: They're working on that now. No, because it is it is a cool stadium, right? what else though? So yeah, on this run, the question is why? What changed? 'Cause we were not great to start the season. We only won one game of our first ten.

Duds: Yeah, they look a little rough starting the gate, you know.

Bright: Yeah, yeah. And that's what's interesting now. So we've gone on this eighteen run streak. We're now in third place in the Western Conference and and essentially tied for second. I almost think that the way that it works out, we should be in second, but however they do it, we're we're in third. But it's a tie. So we're tied with Houston w on forty four points. Dallas also has forty four points, but we have better goal differential. so it it's tight. Vancouver, who we just beat in Vancouver, has forty nine points. So they're five points ahead of us. But but there's

Duds: So they're sitting first.

Bright: a little There's a legitimate p chance that we could end up finishing top in the West again, especially

Duds: That'd be nice.

Bright: if we keep the streak. Yeah. So not only do we have the US Open Cup, which you have to go for now, and that's another game that we have to play in the middle of that schedule. So I said we had to play October seventeenth and then October twenty fourth, or we have the the US Open Cup final on October twenty first. So

Duds: There you go.

Bright: that that schedule just gets even even more cramped. but still it it's fun to watch right now.

Duds: But I think that that's not a bad thing necessarily. If you get some momentum, you know, you start you keep this streak going, you get more get more wins, you know, it's gonna actually help you out even if you don't have those long breaks between games. You wanna go out and play, you wanna win the games.

Bright: Well yeah, yeah. I think I think there's sort of yeah. When you're playing good soccer, absolutely. Yes. And we have new players. I think that's also part of it is we've made ourselves deeper. So you can bring in some of these guys off the bench. So the big thing with this Navarro guy, we brought him in and he scored in his first real two starts, he scored four goals.

Duds: Yeah, that's a nice contributor right away.

Bright: So two goals per game. Now he didn't right away, man. Now he didn't score the other night, which is fine. but we also brought in Hulsa, who well, so Navarro cost twelve million dollars. Hulsa cost six million dollars. there are two biggest signings ever. Hulsa scored the other night, and then Betcher, who's our more or less one of our like homegrown guys. He played for Slough in in his college days, and he didn't have a great start to the season. And I Kevin and I especially were complaining like this he's not our guy. He doesn't score his chances. Well, all of a sudden he's on a crazy hot streak. He's scoring

Duds: really?

Bright: all kinds of goals. Yeah. He's got like six goals in his last like eight games or something like that or

Duds: Nice.

Bright: more. I don't even know the exact stat. That's just off of memory. but he all of a sudden he's converting. I don't know if this this extra pressure that we're signing Navarro, these other goal scorers and forwards, that he's like, I gotta earn my spot. Well, f I don't know what it is, but that I think that's

Duds: That the team could just be meshing better too, you know, with these new players.

Bright: part of it. Yeah. And he's just finally taking his chances. I mean, sometimes the ball doesn't go in, you get unlucky, but he's I mean, he's

Duds: Well if you put these, you know, elite level guys you bring onto your team and now maybe some of that focus is taken off of him so much that he can start producing better, you know?

Bright: Yeah, I mean a hundred percent. I and I think that's exactly what you're s what you're seeing. We also have Maton. We brought this guy in on a free transfer, which means he was a free agent more or less. We didn't have to pay for him. and this guy, so I will say this on the last game I bet for him, I think it was a plus eighteen hundred odds. I only put one dollar down. I'm like, damn it. I should have put down more. for him to get two assists and he got two assists in the game.

Duds: So with that when you're eighteen bucks.

Bright: And no, it I won like thirty nine bucks or something like that. I don't know. However it worked out. But

Duds: Thirty nine, okay. However that math works.

Bright: Yeah, but I only bet one dollar and I won like forty bucks. I was like, sweet. And then I also put a couple of other things down. I bet on the corners again and won the corner bu bet. But over this this run especially, I'm up like three I'll say at least three hundred bucks like in the last three or four weeks. So

Duds: yeah, you gotta press that. Gotta press it.

Bright: Yeah. yeah. Yeah, well so I bet more this last week. I bet more than I normally do and I won some of the bets and I lost some of the bets. But sure. But I still I

Duds: That's how they get ya, man. That's how they get ya. Start upping your bets.

Bright: still c came out ahead because of that one Maton bet. Just because and that w again, it wasn't expected to really hit, but two assists and when he got that second assist, you know, I was celebrating with Caroline and that was on the Totland goal. it was

Duds: does seem like a pretty low odds thing to bet on, for sure.

Bright: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I I felt it. This guy, he's

Duds: You felt it coming on.

Bright: I he's he's just been so good playing in the like center mid roll or again that setup guy. And and it it worked out. It worked out for me on Saturday night, worked out for the team. So we brought in these guys and and you're gonna have to start rotating them as we're we're playing lots of games and hopefully we we can again continue the streak and and keep some of that momentum. But it it's making it fun and so a couple of other things. We're up to three. In the MLS power rankings, and I think on the ESPN power rankings, we're number two in the

Duds: wow.

Bright: entire league. Yeah. So we haven't lost since May 3rd. I mean, that's crazy. And I know, again, we had the World Cup break in between, so some

Duds: That's crazy. Yeah, it's a long time. That helps.

Bright: of that, but but right. It's pretty crazy. So when you look.

Duds: I do think it's funny though that like when we were on this streak, we they traded away a couple of guys, right? Or a couple guys left. And you were thinking like, man, it's gonna screw up this streak we're on, but then they add these

Bright: Well right, yeah. Leuven and Hartle a hundred percent.

Duds: these, you know, signings and you're like, actually makes it even better and they're doing seems

Bright: Yes. Right. So

Duds: like they're doing even better off than they were.

Bright: That a hundred percent. That was more or less gonna be my question is who do you give the credit to? Do you give the credit to the head coach, Johan DeMay, that his system is finally working, right? It didn't work at the beginning of the season. Fine new new players, you g you gotta get your things working. Or do you attribute it to Corey Ray, who is more or less the general manager that's in charge of making the sign he's pulling

Duds: Mm-hmm. He's pulling all the str the strings.

Bright: all the strings exactly on what players leave the club, what players are being added to the club,

Duds: Probably a little b little of both. Yeah.

Bright: Of course. Of course it's a combination of both, right? Like that's the it's the cop out answer, I guess.

Duds: Yeah.

Bright: but it but it's but it's true. It's true. So it it's been pretty exciting between between our new guys and

Duds: Sometimes teams get hot too and you know, they start they meld together and play well together. I wonder how like the you know, what do you it's not a clubhouse in the soccer, what do they call that? The the locker room? Yeah. It's just a clubhouse in baseball. It's a locker room in every other sport.

Bright: The locker room? I don't know. Yeah yeah, locker room. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's that's true. That's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Duds: But you if they have a good good locker room, good you know, feeling amongst the team, everybody's doing well and playing nice together. Yeah.

Bright: And when when you're winning It's a lot easier to do. Now I

Duds: Sure.

Bright: still there's some players now, like Fall. He's this guy we paid four million dollars for last season. Everybody expected a lot from him, but he hasn't played that much. Well, he came in the other day and rotated in for one of our guys that needed a rest, and he had a great game. let's see what his player ranking was, actually. They gave him a six-four. he did pick up a yellow card. I thought he played way better than that than a six-four ranking out of ten. Matam with a two is. Cis got a seven seven. Holsa with a goal got an eight seven. Durkin in the midfield got a seven.

Duds: So they rank they rank every player every game like that?

Bright: yep, depending on obviously whether you play, how much you play, what you do, when you play, all those things. Betcher came in at halftime, he got a seven two, he scored a goal. yeah, and again I'm getting my rankings from Google. It'll vary depending on you know, your source, but

Duds: So five is kinda just like your average, like you did it.

Bright: Basically, I mean you wouldn't be happy with a five. So Navarro, who I just said is our best player at the moment, scoring lots of goals. He he got a six three on an off night, didn't score any goals. I still thought he played a good game, right? So six three, six five, you're doing okay.

Duds: Just not outstanding. Yeah.

Bright: Right, right. So they and they put it they color code it. So he had a six three was, you know, yellow, but a Roscoe who got a six six, green, right? So that show anything above six five is probably you're like, All right, you're doing good.

Duds: So you have a real good game, you score a couple of goals, you're like eight nine, something like that.

Bright: Yeah, I mean, well Holso only got one goal and he was an eight seven. He may have had an assist two. I don't remember off the top of my head. Totland got a goal and he only got a six four. But right, like you get a hat trick, then p you're like nine nine, right, ten.

Duds: You're twelve.

Bright: right. R right. So so it it just depends on how they're pulling the rankings and and again, it's different on different systems. but But yeah, Wallum looks to be again the lowest on the team at a five six. Kevin and I have been talking about Wallum. Wallum's been playing better. I know you remember when we went to the game

Duds: yeah.

Bright: how much I was really getting on

Duds: You're razzing on him.

Bright: Wallum. But he he has definitely played better. I've had to admit it. He's gotten a lot of assists. He still consistently te seems to be one of the lower ranking guys on the team. He passes the ball back a lot. He he loses the ball. He kills the momentum sometimes. But hey. He has been playing better. So we'll we'll give him we'll give him some

Duds: That's what you want. They can't all be all stars.

Bright: credit. Exactly. Right. They can't all be all stars. That that's true. So and again, the team's doing better and he's benefited from it. And if he can

Duds: He's part of the team.

Bright: get some yep, he's part of the team. I want him to succeed. So I mentioned it. We got the Red Bulls Saturday before we go into the international break. the Red Bulls currently they're in the Eastern Conference. They're sitting in eighth place at thirty three points. With a goal differential of minus 14, which is not

Duds: Mm, that's good for us.

Bright: not great. Yes. We are at 44 points with a goal differential of plus nine. But I think the Red Red Bulls, I think they've played better lately. they've won two straight entering the match. I think their defense has been a little bit better. They've had three clean sheets this season. So but again, you're on the road. Typically Home teams in the MLS always have the odds. But that's not the case this week. No.

Duds: really? You got the odds on him, huh?

Bright: Yes. So St. Louis, even on the road, Vegas odds right now, 46% chance to win, 24% chance for a draw, and Red Bulls 30% chance to win. So yeah, so that's that's good that's good for us for sure.

Duds: Well, that's nice. It's looking good. So how you gonna bet this one? Gonna bet the win?

Bright: It depends. I mean it depends come game time what like the payout and what the odds are. if we're if we're not like even if we're like plus one hundred, I'll probably bet the win. Like even money, I bet five, I win five. But anytime we're in the minus, I tend to take the draw. 'cause if the draw is at like plus three hundred, like I'll put five dollars down and and I'll hope for a city win. And if we get a draw, I'm like, at least I won twenty bucks.

Duds: At least you want something.

Bright: Right, exactly. And then I'll s I'll start looking, you know, I I try and wait to see who when the lineup comes out. I might bet on a goal scorer. I might bet another buck on Matan or something like that. maybe the corners. It depends on what the you know, some of the stats are.

Duds: Few prop pets. Yeah.

Bright: Yeah, I do a couple of those. So I was I was pulling this up, so like corner kicks. Let's see. Right now, they average five point seven and we average five point six, which is pretty much right on target for like the overunder at ten and a half, right? So not

Duds: Right.

Bright: it's probably not like a great bet. So it depends

Duds: Probably go the over.

Bright: Again, depends on what the the odds are. If the odds are really good at over ten and a half, I might take a gamble on that. but we're kinda sitting sitting right there. When you look at the stats for between the two teams, it's actually really even. The possessions almost the same. The shots per game are almost exactly the same. We're slightly more shots on goal. Block shots are exactly the same. Passes per game, exactly the same. Passing accuracy within a percentage point. The corner kicks within a tenth of a percentage. we have more crosses. We're we're a little bit better in the air, so look at that when we're looking at aerial duels one on set pieces, corner kicks, we might hold a slight edge there. We might have the bigger team, that kind of a thing. So if if you look at the stats, since you're not gonna watch the game on Saturday, if you look at the stats, see if we score

Duds: I usually just look at one stat. If we win or lose. The important stat.

Bright: If we win or lose, yeah. Not necessarily how we won the game. okay. I see how it is.

Duds: How's the fan base up in New York? Are they big soccer followers up there?

Bright: Well, they have two teams, so they probably do. I'm not a hundred percent sure, honestly. they probably get a lot of soccer fans from other countries, right? Certainly a diverse

Duds: The international so

Bright: marketplace, internationals, if they buy into all of that. but yeah, when they added n New York City FC, I thought it was strange because there's so there's so many other markets. There's St. Louis, there's San Diego that now have teams. I'm like, why are we doubling up in L. And New York. What they like is they again, I think they look at European soccer and they see Manchester United, Manchester City,

Duds: Mm-hmm.

Bright: right? Like you got this derby, where they're these two teams. And we have that in other sports. I get it. The Yankees and the Mets, but they're separated by comp these guys are in the same conference, right?

Duds: Yeah, that's kinda nuts.

Bright: So, yeah, so it's it's definitely a little bit different than some of our other traditionally American sports. but

Duds: I just don't know if soccer will ever be like what they have in England, you know. Like i the way it's set up over there, that Premier League, it's just there's so many teams in just that one little area, it seems. Where here just all s spread out and

Bright: Yeah spread out That's definitely a thing. We're a much larger country, no

Duds: Right.

Bright: doubt, right? So having to travel from the east coast to the west coast or even from Saint Louis and changing time zones and and things like that, it definitely plays an impact. Now not every team in England is in London. So there's

Duds: No, I get that.

Bright: definitely there's definitely travel and and things like that, but right. If you compare you'd have to compare all of Europe to the United States and it still doesn't necessarily compete with the overall size. Right? So y

Duds: Right. But those those teams over there too, they're not necessarily like a city that has the team, right? It could just be like a little region or almost like a village that has it, right? Not like a major city here. It's like if you're if

Bright: Yeah, yeah, ab absolutely. Right.

Duds: you're not a major city, you're not gonna get a sports team in the United States.

Bright: Yeah, yeah. Chelsea, right? Chelsea is a borough

Duds: Unless you're Green Bay.

Bright: of London or what have you, right? So there's yeah, all of all of that is is definitely a thing. So Birmingham, they it was the city where my car was stolen when we were there this summer. They have two teams, right? So yeah, there's just d

Duds: Fenton Fenton needs to make a team.

Bright: Yeah, well well, hey, we've got we've got Scott Gallagher, baby.

Duds: Mm-hmm.

Bright: They are they are our Fenton our Fenton team, so and

Duds: I tell you what, you'd think that the feeder system for the MLS would be getting pretty good, just judging from the amount of kids that play in like Gallagher and those those club sports here.

Bright: Yes. Yes. And I think it definitely is the criticism that we get as Americans, and I don't know enough about this subject, is the pay to play format. People

Duds: Mm-hmm.

Bright: don't like it. You gotta pay a lot of money and we

Duds: It's expensive.

Bright: do it. It's expensive. I we do it for my daughter.

Duds: Big time commitment too, yeah.

Bright: yes. It's time commitment, mandatory, right? You can't j like we got a thing about winter already, right? And They were like, this is mandatory. You are if you're on this team for fall and spring, you are also playing winter. Last year it was optional. This year it is mandatory, which costs more money,

Duds: Right.

Bright: more money than our normal club dues and and things like that. luckily we're not to the travel aspect of it

Duds: Big business, baby.

Bright: all yet. But the and and that's what it is. It's big business. And I think people have said they say, like, we'll never truly complete compete on the World Cup stage, the world stage, because of our pay to play for. format. Plus you I mean, you have a lot of our best athletes going and playing other sports because they make more money and and things like that. So we're not attracting the

Duds: Sure. So if you don't have the pay to play format though, what's what's the alternative? What do you do?

Bright: I I mean I don't know. That's that's the bigger question. You have to you have you have to cover through sponsorship.

Duds: Tryouts for, you know, and that's covered through sponsorships and all that.

Bright: Well, that's what it would have to be. It'd have to like covered through sponsorships and scholarships and all that stuff and right, yeah you but but the problem is is when they're young, you gotta get you gotta hook when they're young.

Duds: Mm-hmm.

Bright: And so then you have way more people and you gotta be letting all these people pla that that all costs money. You gotta have referees, you gotta have fields, you g so I I don't really understand how you don't do a pay to play system, honestly. Yeah. I mean

Duds: Right. I mean how many you know, how many club teams were there? Did you play club soccer at all?

Bright: I did, but not until not until high school 'cause

Duds: Right.

Bright: it wasn't it wasn't even necessarily needed when I was in grade school. We had the we call them select teams but No, no. Yeah. And even

Duds: Right. But I don't even think they had nearly as many teams. Now there's like thirty teams for each grade level, it seems.

Bright: my club team, we practice two days a week. and then we had games on Saturday, right? So maybe we practiced Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday games. Maybe you played a tournament, so you might have Friday, Saturday, Sunday, depending on on what the tournament schedule was. And

Duds: And another practice it four days a week.

Bright: yeah, well that and that's the thing. Cat Kat, my daughter, she has four days a week. Monday practice, Wednesday practice, Friday night games, Saturday morning practice. And she's seven. Right? And it costs hundreds of dollars. And then you gotta buy the uniforms that are now they're nice. She looks cool. She looks spiffy, right? And they're not like the uniforms we had. but the the uniforms alone cost like three hundred and fifty dollars. Yeah, and

Duds: Yeah, it's wild. It's a lot of money, man.

Bright: yeah, it's a lot of money. And there's sponsorships on and patches, and she gets the number that she wants and all of that.

Duds: Well it's good that they have sponsorships, you know, because

Bright: Yeah.

Duds: Kat's getting all that sponsorship money.

Bright: well right, yeah, she's getting all for sure. Yeah. And it is fun. I do enjoy going to like the bar is there, the fields are not everything is great. I and I do, I love it. it's definitely just different than it was when we grew up, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. W I we never traveled. We went I I play the furthest I ever traveled for a soccer tournament growing up playing club ball was Columbia, Missouri. Right. Yeah, that was

Duds: Right. Yeah, not very far.

Bright: it. No. I did s I did s college showcases and all but it was all we all had that in Saint Louis. They don't have to go anywhere. Yeah. Well

Duds: They're going to Chicago and Nashville and

Bright: and that's the thing. They'll go to Nashville and then they'll they'll play Lou Fuse from Creef Corps.

Duds: Right. Yeah, silly. We didn't have to drive six hours.

Bright: I'm like, well, we could have we could have played them here. We didn't we didn't have to drive right. So that is what's interesting about the soccer landscape. And it's funny that you bring that up. So we go on this international break. Team USA has four games, including a game in St. Louis at Energizer Park next Tuesday, of which I'll be fucking out of town for work. I'm not happy about it. so I would like to go to the game. And we have a guy on the team, the guy

Duds: Give me your tickets.

Bright: that we W well I didn't buy tickets 'cause it's optional. They don't come automatically.

Duds: okay.

Bright: I would have bought I have I might have first writer refusal. I don't I don't even know. I think they got rid of that for the international games. but 'cause it's not a c it's not a PSL, right? Which is a little bit different. You remember with the Rams, like you owned those seats for any event.

Duds: right. Yeah, you'd have to buy them all.

Bright: Right. Yeah. So it's not like that. So anyhow, I don't have tickets. I'm not going to the game. I'm upset. If I was in town, I totally would go to the game. And we have Damian Downs, who is a player now for City. And he's been coming in off the bench very I th I've been very impressed with him. He scored the other night, but it got called back for offsides. He's like six foot four, big dude. I I really like this guy. He just got called up to the national team. So I'm guessing that he'll be playing here in in Saint Louis at some point, just for the crowd. We

Duds: yeah.

Bright: also have Tim Reem, who is from St. Louis. I think also grew up Scott Gallagher, along with Josh Sargent, who was just in town with Toronto. He now he's older. He was the captain for our team at the World Cup and they're honoring him. He he's he's probably done after this. so they're honoring him at the St. Louis matchup. So that'll be kind of cool.

Duds: Yeah, that'll be it.

Bright: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So looking forward looking forward to that and you know, I got I guess we'll just we'll just wait and see what happens if we can get another win Saturday night against the Red Bulls. You get a little bit of a break

Duds: On the road.

Bright: on the road, and then it's the home stretch. And again, you're talking about possible US Open Cup championship. It'll be the first hardware, as we call it sometimes, first trophy, for City and I think we've got a little legitimate shot at the top spot in the West. Nobody's gonna wanna play us in the playoffs if we're staying in this run of form. And I

Duds: I wouldn't think so.

Bright: d I don't know that we can run out the season.

Duds: come on.

Bright: I don't know that we could do that. Like at some point you're probably just gonna have an off game. You're gonna be too tired. Whatever

Duds: What do they got? Seven seven eight games left?

Bright: it may be. here, let me count it up real quick and we'll end on that note. So we play New York Saturdays, so we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight more games, plus the US Open Cup matchup. So nine games before the end of the regular

Duds: Nine.

Bright: season. Yeah, then the playoffs. I don't know. Well, I mean, we're at eighteen now. So they've they've proven that they can do it. Yeah,

Duds: That would certainly break the record, I would think.

Bright: I would I would think so. I would think so. I think the act I think the record I remember hearing was maybe like twenty-two or twenty-three games. And it was it was

Duds: yeah, they'll they'll break that.

Bright: like in nineteen ninety-five. Like the league was not what it is today. So it's almost probably more impressive what we're doing now versus what they were doing in nineteen ninety five when

Duds: Hundred percent. They're way better now.

Bright: we had we had six you know, it it was like you know, like hockey, NHL. Right.

Duds: Ninety five, yeah, it was like just a baby.

Bright: Yeah, NHL, like when they started, and you're like, Well, how did the Canadians how do they have thirty Stanley Cups? Well there were only six freaking teams

Duds: Yeah.

Bright: for the first thirty years of the NHL, right? So

Duds: It was one of six.

Bright: Right. Like the odds were pretty good. No wonder they had thirty freaking Stanley Cups.

Duds: At all the best players.

Bright: Right, right. I tell ya. Well, if you get the chance, try and try and catch the game maybe or or watch a little bit of the US Mend we got four

Duds: I really need to. We have Apple T V. I don't I keep saying that. It's like you just gotta turn it on. Just never think about it, you know.

Bright: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well it's a it's a six thirty start on Saturday. I was even thinking I need to set up the outdoor T V again now that the weather's cooled down. I was like, it might be a

Duds: Yeah, get a bonfire going.

Bright: yeah, it might be a nice night to see if anybody wants to come over and watch the soccer game on the outdoor T V or something. So

Duds: Yeah, see how they do on the pitch out there.

Bright: That's right. That's right. So All right. Well, that that should about do it. I appreciate ya jumping on and in Kev's spot while he's on vacation, so we could get an episode posted and I just like talking soccer. but if you enjoyed our conversation, go check out NFN pee pod. same kind of dynamic. I almost felt like this. It didn't feel like a City S C posse episode to me. It felt like an NFM peepod, talking soccer, but

Duds: A carryover. It's all right.

Bright: It's all about how you brand it. That's all that matters. But a little cross

Duds: We got the logo.

Bright: promotion. We I put I got the logo there. That's right. That's right. All right. Well, check us out. I I'm out of town next week, so I don't know if I can record NFMP Pod or City S C posse. We will see. So keep keep a look out on our socials and we'll go from there.

Duds: Be on the edge of their seats.

Bright: I'm sure. All right. Go city.