POST MATCH REACTION!!!! St. Louis City SC v Real Salt Lake 1-1 Tie!!

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Summary

The hosts recap the game and the fan experience. They analyze the lineup and discuss defensive performances. They highlight individual mistakes and question the team's formation and style of play. The hosts express concerns about the team's dependence on one player and the lack of fluidity in their attacks. They discuss potential lineup changes and emphasize the importance of taking the upcoming competition seriously. They also mention the need for improvement and a different performance in the next game.

Takeaways

The fan experience at the game was disappointing, with a lack of energy and noise from the supporters section.
The team's defensive performance was shaky at times, with individual mistakes and questionable substitutions.
The team's formation and style of play need improvement, as they struggled to connect passes and lacked fluidity in their attacks.
There is a concern about the team's dependence on one player and the reliance on set pieces for goals.
The upcoming competition should be taken seriously, and rotation and depth will be important factors in the team's success.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Game Recap
01:23 Disappointing Fan Experience
03:15 Defensive Performance
04:13 Impressive Performances
05:13 Midfield Issues
07:03 Poor Refereeing
08:08 Player Fitness and Form
09:03 Defensive Substitutions
09:29 Defensive Weaknesses
10:09 Individual Mistakes
11:18 Formation and Style of Play
12:41 Questionable Substitutions
13:58 Dependence on Sam
14:34 Lack of Fluidity
20:26 Positive Moments
22:09 Looking Ahead and Potential Lineup Changes
25:30 Taking the Competition Seriously
27:01 Rotation and Depth
28:42 Desire for Improvement

Transcript

Hoov (00:01.829)
And we are live welcome back to the Mecha of Banter Mecha moment today after the 1 -1 draw yesterday at City Park between St. Louis and Real Salt Lake. It's your boy Hoov here tapping in with my man Hen. Hen and I got to go to the game last night. What you think man?

Hen (00:23.192)
I could have sworn that you were just about to say it's your boy Hen in your intro. Man, it was good. It was so much colder than I thought that it was going to be. Paige and I drastically underestimated that weather. Normally we're like bundled up with hats and scarves and coats and we just weren't. And so that made it slightly less enjoyable. But I don't know. It was kind of interesting. Obviously it was opening night and I could just be...

Hoov (00:33.669)
Me too, dude.

Hen (00:52.27)
biased here. I could be, I think I was just expecting maybe a little bit more. Like I know that there was like a big like TFO with all the like signs and it said round two and it was great. But I even felt like during the game and maybe it was a product of the game, I felt like some of the the supporters section, it was a little quiet in there. It just like, I don't know, it just didn't feel like it had the same level of like gumption.

Hoov (01:01.477)
Mm -hmm.

Hen (01:17.934)
as a couple of times last season. I don't know if that was just a second season slump or what, but I don't know, it was fine. Like, it was fine.

Hoov (01:18.181)
Yeah.

Hoov (01:23.589)
Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of the things that you said, like, you know, it was very much so one of those games that the team never got, it gave us anything really to buy hold on to his fans and to get excited about and get loud about. So, um, yeah, you know, we can just dive right into that. Uh, we had Smino as the, the pregame artist. I went and saw he pretty, he performed his new song for the first time that, you know, that was cool. And like everything around the club.

Hen (01:41.934)
Yeah.

Hen (01:48.366)
you

Hoov (01:53.093)
I just love so much and the pregame hype and the pregame festivities and the TFO stuff just all masterfully done from my point of view. But then, you know, the product on the field didn't really display the pyro and fireworks like the pregame festivities did. So one, one draw, zero, zero at half. The lineup looked Totland in the right, Berkia at the back, Parker, Nilsson, Markanic.

Hen (01:54.554)
Yeah.

Hoov (02:21.413)
We had a 4 -1 -3 -2 -4 -4 -1 -3 -2 -4 -1 -3 -1 -3 -2 -4 -4

Hen (02:24.334)
Ha ha ha.

Yeah.

Hoov (02:45.477)
I was so excited about that lineup. I was so excited about that lineup. It was more towards what we'd seen last year. We were letting Lowen kind of sit as the deep line playmaker. And you know, it just didn't work. The connectivity between Jackson and the forwards and the wing players, I saw a pass map at the end of the game and I thought that was a very, very telling map. And it really showed that Lowen was the only player.

Hen (02:58.218)
Thank you.

Hoov (03:15.109)
looking for for deep balls. He was the only player trying to get at the wide players to Klaus. AZ was not connecting passes very well with anyone to be truthful in that 10 roll. So it was stagnant. Defense was shaky at moments. I thought Nilsson, I texted in the beginning, very beginning of the game, 15 minutes or so, thought he was really shaky. He ended up really locking it down and coming into his own. And he even said in his post game, he was so happy he got 90 minutes.

Hen (03:34.958)
Yeah.

Hoov (03:45.253)
You know, we want him to consistently see and get 90 minutes. But then we lost him Parker in the 35th to a muscle injury. Early reports sound like it's not going to be that bad. But man, did Josh redeem himself from Tuesday because he stepped in and played so well after getting battered multiple times and having to go through concussion protocol. A lot of people were nervous about him even being able to stay on. But I thought.

Hen (04:00.142)
Yeah. Yeah.

Hoov (04:13.029)
for having to come into the position he did. I thought he was awesome.

Hen (04:16.942)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. I think he did well. And I while I was excited for this lineup when I saw it, I did not predict this lineup. I was so surprised to see Thor and Ceeleo in the starting as like, actually playing wide. And I'll give him his credit. I think in the season preview, we talked about Thor and he was kind of the guy on all of our radar that we're

a little confused about, like we didn't really know where he played or anything like that. And he actually held his own pretty well. Um, especially in the first half, he was pretty consistently our, our main outlet. Um, he also seemed to be a little more mobile, um, next to Klaus than Sam was, but I want to double down on the midfield. Um, it, we're not.

Trying to even possess the ball. We look we look allergic to you know, connecting passes and it's kind of at every stage of of the progression AZ I I know that like dobes is huge on AZ and I'm not I'm not saying that I'm not but he He gets himself in unbelievable positions probably better than any other player on the field for us consistently.

But then it's almost like when he gets on the ball, he is the most frantic player that we have. It almost looks like he's trying to like chop the ball with every single touch he has. And it leads to him dribbling more often than not straight into a defender. And his combination play isn't there. His final product isn't there. There was even a couple of moments where, especially in the first half, he would get the ball kind of at the top of the box and like.

Hoov (05:49.475)
Yeah.

Hen (06:10.252)
Maybe he's seeing something that we're not obviously like being in the game, but like, you're like, he's going to pull the trigger for sure. Cause why wouldn't he? And he just doesn't. And I just continually am confused by that. Um, and our, our midfield just had no link of play. And, and oddly enough, the 35 minutes that he played, Tim Parker of all people was the most composed person on the ball. Several times he just stopped, put his foot on the ball.

Hoov (06:17.893)
Mm -hmm.

Hen (06:40.206)
Maybe pulled a move to shake off the forward and just slowed it down. But the first half, especially like we couldn't connect a five, six, seven yard pass to save our lives. It was astonishing how, how off it was. And like you haven't even touched on it yet, but I think part of it is the stop and start nature of the game. I mean, the referees, it was, it was so bad. I.

Hoov (07:03.557)
Yeah, the refereeing was terrible, it was abysmal.

Hen (07:09.742)
I haven't been able to look up the stat yet because I genuinely don't even know where to look. But like I would, I would ballpark for the 90 minutes that we played on the clock. I would ballpark. We played probably 51, 50 minutes. Like, I mean, the, the stoppages of the fouls, the like delay of times when the ball's out of bounds. Like, I mean, it was insane how stop and start that game was. And I think that built into the frustration that the fans saw during the game as well.

Hoov (07:38.565)
Yeah, definitely. And, you know, I read a lot. I was coming into this this morning. I wasn't angry. I don't think angry is the right word. And I'm not scared. I don't think we're in a crisis mode. I don't I don't think any of those things are true and need to be said. But reading the players post -match press conferences was very telling to me. You know, things that we do need to take in consideration was that Lowen missed half the preseason. Lowen was out getting a green card. Nilsson was the same way. Nilsson was trying to stay fit.

Hen (08:04.366)
Mm -hmm.

Hoov (08:08.581)
in a, uh, an athletics hall in Sweden. And he was like, you know, that it just wasn't realistic for me to stay game fit for that. So, um, Lowen did not have a good game and, and he was the first person to kind of accept that and, and, and say it as it was. Um, but he was also like, you know, look, I feel I'm going to need to get a couple of games under my feet before I feel, you know, a hundred percent in my game and, and fitness level. So.

people were, everyone around me was questioning why he was coming out of the game. And I was like, you know, well, there's a couple of things. It's not his night. You can kind of tell that already. And B, I don't think he's got 90 minutes. We can't just be losing, you know, especially with Durkin. And I think that guy just has an absolute engine on him. So I was okay with that. You know, I guess it kind of leads us to the changes that Carnell did make.

Hen (08:48.428)
No.

Hen (08:54.734)
Mm -hmm.

Hoov (09:03.461)
Um, and you and I were the first person, the first two people to be like, this is going to be bad. Now, Winski comes in, slides in as that third center back and wouldn't you know it, Jake gets spun like a, like a top, uh, on a right away on Chucho's goal and you know, well finished goal. None of our other center backs get turned like that. Parker doesn't get turned like that. Yarrow doesn't get turned like that. Nielsen doesn't get turned like that.

Hen (09:16.5)
right away.

Hen (09:24.936)
No.

Hoov (09:29.221)
I don't think he was in the best position, but I think he was in the position that he had to be given the back line and the changes. That was really disappointing. And, you know, it's kind of back to, we didn't love Jake's performances last year and seeing him come on to me was just like, oh, shoot, you know, I don't feel good about this anymore. And lo and behold, kind of what happened.

Hen (09:54.094)
Yeah. And I guess like it, I, Matt Baker, shout out Matt Baker had a really good analysis this morning of that goal. Um, and he's the first, you know, he said that, you know, a screenshot doesn't tell the full story. And of course he took a screenshot of exactly where, you know, the positioning was, but then he also attached the video after. And I want to remind you all, I'm a nobody. I play on a rec league coed team. Um, but I've played center back a time or two.

Hoov (10:09.539)
Yup.

Hen (10:22.496)
Um, and there were just like three separate opportunities in that two or three second clip that Newerwinski had to not let that happen. And the thing is, is that while the MLS isn't always going to be the highest quality and while you're not going to go up against, you know, your Rinaldos or your Lewandowski's or your Benzema's or anything like that, you're still going to go up against number nine. That if you give them the position, they're going to put the ball on net and.

That was one of them where it comes down to the split decision of do I foul him? Do I step in front of him? Do I block his run? And then when he turns me, do I bring him like, there's just so many decisions. And I think just like as a center back, you just have to be so much more clinical. And Jake's normally a right back, but he is also a secondary center back. It's one of the reasons why we were comfortable with, with parting ways with Bartlett knowing that we had that extra cover with Nurensky there and Hebert still, you know, a couple of days out, but the.

The cynic in me is going to say, you know, I hate a five back system. And last night was the perfect reason why not only did the goal come up from a five back system, as soon as we switched it, we were exposed beyond belief. I mean, Nelson was getting pulled out to the left. Jake was getting pulled out to the right. Josh. I mean, it was like straight ball, straight run, which is like the lowest form of soccer IQ. That's what was beating us a straight ball and a straight run.

But then also like, I know that there's going to be people in the chat, they're going to be like, but we scored from a three, five, two, not really. Like, like we scored while we were in a three, five, two or a five back, whatever you want to call it. But it was again, a straight ball, straight run. Sam bullies the guy and scores a great goal, but like there's no fluidity with it. And

It does make me nervous and it made me nervous last night that 60 minutes into a game where like, let's alter the game plan and switch to this five back system. And the only thing that is giving me any bit of perspective today in terms of the Klaus substitution, the Louvin substitution, things that seemingly made no sense is the fact that we turn right around and play on Tuesday. That's the only thing that I'm like, okay.

Hen (12:31.662)
If we didn't have that Tuesday game, maybe we do give them 90 minutes, but I just thought it was an insane decision that we're down a goal and we take off Klaus. You know, it makes no sense. So I don't know. It was, it was odd.

Hoov (12:41.143)
Yeah, the Klaus thing to me is interesting because it wasn't his night either. But when you look at a number 9 like Zhao Klaus, he's not gonna do the things that Sam does. He doesn't provide the same attacking threat. And he's dependent on other players to be able to get in, interchange, quick one -twos, get out, and then be a demon in the box. Sam is gonna...

Hen (12:48.59)
Totally.

Hoov (13:08.421)
Same is going to dog a man on the back line and beat you with a straight run because that's what he does. So I was okay with it because he didn't, there was nothing indicating that he was growing into the game. There was nothing indicating that we were being able to find him in more effective positions. So at that point, you know, I went to a bar last night, met a bunch of friends after the game and, you know, being the soccer guy, it was just hot on everyone's mind. They were all there watching the game. It,

Hen (13:12.95)
Mm -hmm.

Hen (13:24.782)
it.

Hoov (13:37.797)
If you're going to play a pump and dump style of football and you know, don't get me wrong, there are teams in the premier league who do just fine with with pump and dump. But if you're going to do that, Sam has to be on the field. Jow's not making that run.

Hen (13:50.67)
So there's a world where like, there is a world where Sam is a better forward for St. Louis City than Klaus is. And it has nothing, yeah, it has nothing to do with their ability. And it's just like, that kills me to say, but it's like, ugh, it's crazy, bro.

Hoov (13:58.181)
Yeah, because of how they play. Yeah.

Yeah, we've played 180 minutes now this season and not one goal has come from tactics or fluidity or a formation or a lineup. They've come from a set piece and Tim Parker, who's gonna get on those every time. It's come from a long ball to Sam who can hunt guys down and honestly came from a lucky deflection in the box for Kojima to get his 90th minute winner. So.

Hen (14:15.98)
Mm -hmm.

Hoov (14:34.053)
That's what concerns me is that we're not seeing the style or the system work like it did last year. The only thing we have to compare this year to is last year. And we've said this on a bunch of different podcasts, but the way that we play was very beneficial to a first year team that didn't have any expectations. Now it's like, you know, we need to be on the front foot. And you're right, we couldn't hold the ball. I don't solely blame Lewin for that. I...

Blom's not the best distributor of the ball by any means. Unreal stopper, we saw that again last night. He shut down play after play. Diego Luna was playing more of a central role. They had a really good 1v1 battle and I thought Blom was fine for that role. I just need him to do more for me with the ball and being able to get it out into transition. There just wasn't much of that. And that, my biggest concern is that we're gonna be set piece FC.

Hen (15:05.326)
Mm -hmm.

Hoov (15:31.427)
you know, we're going to be relying on low and deliveries into the box. And again, if that's what we have to be, so be it. We just have to play to those strengths. And that makes me nervous for Klaus, you know, because it's just not advantageous for him.

Hen (15:47.214)
Yeah, it's not going to be his thing. And I think like, as we look ahead to, to say, I think the lineup that we play with is going to be very fascinating. Um, obviously it's going to be dependent on Tim on how he's feeling on, you know, if it's just tightness or if he's ready to go again, if not, it's going to be Nielsen and Parker again. But I don't think you can take Totland out of the lineup again, the second half, especially. Also, I want to call out, I forgot if it was Celio or Markainich and I can't remember which it was in the second half.

Um, someone gave the ball away at the halfway line and it was either Celio or Markanich tracked all the way back and defended the guy in the box. It was like an incredible work rate play, regardless of who it was. Those are guys that were playing the full game that that happened in like the 80th, like 82nd minute. I think that was the play of the game. Like that, that was, that was so insane to, to, to preserve the tie. And I want to give the shout out there, but.

Hoov (16:36.325)
Yeah.

Hoov (16:40.197)
Mm -hmm.

Hen (16:46.382)
When you think through Houston, I don't think that we can play with a true two striker system because there's too much space in between Louvin and Blom and the strikers. Like, I know that maybe things have changed since the end of last season, but from all we have is that one interview with Louvin last year where he talks about not liking the 10 roll, but I'm like, give me Blom and Durkin as a double pivot. Like,

when Blom picks up the ball, like get it to Durkin short and let Durkin figure out if it's going to go to Lubin or if he's going to ping it long. Durkin had a couple of pings yesterday when he came in for like 10 minutes and it was, it was great, you know? So I just, I just think winning that battle in the central of the park, it's going to be so important. And if we don't do it, we're going to get overrun like we did yesterday. And I think that we're in for a long season if we can't figure that out or.

Hoov (17:23.493)
Yeah, I did.

Hen (17:41.07)
if no one can have the frame of mind to put their foot on the ball and just slow it down. That's what I can't figure out. Tough breaks are gonna happen and deflections are gonna happen and you're gonna get turned on a play, whatever. But it's like the frame of mind that literally no one in the team just fucking stopped for a second and thought about it. It was just insane to me. I don't know.

Hoov (18:05.733)
That and you know, I hate to you don't want to point fingers but that that comes down to the instructions that they were given to a certain degree. It's not like any of these players can't play in a slow progressive buildup style team. They're all obviously more suited to what we're doing. That's been the plan from Lutz and Cardinal from the jump. But it had to have been an instruction to a certain degree is to get the ball look up the field go which again is fine.

if you do it correctly and I don't think the wide players were set up for success, Klaus obviously wasn't and I agree about the low end thing, he doesn't have to be the 10 that's in the box all the time. We can play really more of a 4 -5 -1 with him just being the guy that's higher than Blom and Durkin and he doesn't necessarily need to be the playmaker at all times but it were so dependent on him and when he's not,

Hen (18:36.686)
Okay.

Hen (18:48.204)
Mm -hmm.

Hen (18:52.684)
Yeah.

Hoov (19:03.247)
you know on his a game it's gonna show it he was the only player to find to to find class to find pump a to find for to find a z a z couldn't find those guys is playing higher up the field so I'm with you and you know I hope we're not just building so much dependence on him that that we can't operate without him you know but it's it's it's looking shaky.

No goals from really open play, you know, open play loosely is kind of what I'm getting at because, you know, that the same goal is awesome. At the end of the day, the positives that I can pull are that that's always going to be an option is to just, you know, the joke with Pat Mahomes is fuck it, Tyree's down there somewhere. Like that's exactly what I said to my friends. I was like, fuck it, Sam's down there somewhere. Just pump it, see if you can beat the guy.

Hen (19:38.926)
It was great. Electric.

Hoov (19:57.669)
And he does, and he does that really well. And I think that's a huge strength of his. So huge shout out to him and his ability to finish, you know, didn't need, I was sitting there watching it. It was right in front of me and I was like, Indy's open, Indy's open, Indy's open. And then he tucks it and then we're, you know, limbs. That was awesome. And you can't, you can't talk badly about the performance without saying, Jignor Witske had a goal saving, you know, clearance on the line at the very end of the game.

Hen (20:10.926)
Ha ha ha.

Hoov (20:26.637)
He was in the right position at the right time there and you know, kudos to that. End of the day, I think this is a big point and this is ultimately what a lot of the players said too. They were like, not our best night. We know it wasn't our best night, but with such a long season and another thing that I'm slowly working into in my MLS fandom is understanding who are the good teams and who are not. I think Salt Lake was quality. I think they, they really stifled everything that we wanted to do going forward. Although I'll be, you know,

Maybe it not been that difficult for them considering it was so clustered from us, but they looked like they could have gotten in and out of there with a 1 -0 win and it would have been smash and grab, no problem. And it looked pretty comfortable for the most part. So at the same time, Berkey didn't have a ton to do, a couple big saves, you know, the ones that you'd expect them to make. So it was not as exciting. We come back to...

the crowd not being a little flat, the performance was flat. The most dangerous point of the game was after Sam scores that goal, we actually looked like we had some decent offensive chances from there and where we're getting balls in behind. And if that's the style we're gonna play, we'll just play it. So that's what I wanna see moving forward is more connectivity between the top and the midfield. Getting those guys the ball and then being able to build on it instead of getting.

Thor the ball and having him dribble into a wall or AZ the same. Just not a ton of fluidity, which is a bummer because of so many times last year it was like it looked effortless the way that we were able to build up and hit so quickly on transition.

Hen (22:09.166)
Yeah, we had like one or two progression to play in the second half that you could tell was like almost like a passing pattern was like here back through whatever. Um, but outside of that, like there's just not a lot of offense to go off of. Um, I'm curious your thoughts, like as we look ahead to next week, obviously we have the Tuesday, Saturday, um, slots next week. Like, what do you think needs to change? Does any, is anyone out there like solidifying their start in the starting 11? Like.

Faking through Tuesday, what are your thoughts?

Hoov (22:40.389)
You talk about this in hockey sometimes, but we're in a position right now where you ride the hot hand. And I think Sam's the hot hand. And it absolutely murders me to think of a team that isn't centered around Lowen and Klaus. But the conversation at the pub post -match was, how are you gonna sit Sam? The way that he's just been the most dangerous player for us, I do expect to see him.

Tuesday, maybe even just more often, maybe even Saturday too. He's one of those guys younger who's ready to play 90 minutes every week, multiple times a week. And you know he's got that hunger and that desire. So I think he's locked himself in as being one of the more key players going forward. I'm with you on Totland. He was the best player on the pitch. Again, his technical ability is second to none that we have on the team. You know, maybe Lowen when he's in form.

Hen (23:26.702)
Mm -hmm.

Hoov (23:39.493)
I don't think we should see a world where he doesn't play about every game. Obviously, long season, you need rotation, you can't let him get hurt. I'm so giddy about his ability to play and what he brings to the table. Now you just have to build on it because he was able to get out of tight spots. His effectiveness to move the ball forward once he wins a tackle and get back on the front foot was so evident. It just nothing else.

came with that and that's not the right backs job the job the right back job should not be the guy who you know is is starting to build all the the the passing plays but those are the two for me you know like low and said you just give the guy run of games i have zero doubts about him zero doubts about his ability and what he can contribute uh... so we're we're gonna be fine there i've i'm taking solace in how good the center backs have been uh...

Despite our backline in itself being a little messy here and there that's you know, maybe nerves That's maybe first couple of game jitters. No shutouts, but Individually performance wise I've been really really happy with them and we hate five at the back But if we're gonna have five at the back Yarrow, Nilsson and Parker I'm gonna feel better about and again, there wins. He's not a natural center back. That's not his role I'm not gonna slate the guy, you know for this entire podcast, but I

With those three and the new wing backs that we kind of have that are those true five back wingers that can win a tackle and then get up, I don't hate it as much as I did with Spurs and Conte and Mourinho and the terrorist football we kind of come to know. So knowing that that is in place, you know, we're just not at a crisis moment, but it is worrying. It's concerning.

Hen (25:30.862)
Yeah. Yeah. I want, I want to see a different performance on Tuesday. Uh, and then again, on Saturday, um, Tuesday, I could see quite a bit of rotation. Um, I could see no Rinsky starting. I could see dire starting, uh, Indy started. I thought he was going to get a shot last night. Um, especially with Mark, and it's putting in, you know, two 90 minute shifts in a couple of days. I could see that happening unless, unless he's not ready.

Hoov (25:40.773)
Yeah, you too.

Hoov (25:46.213)
I don't know why we haven't seen Dire yet either, by the way. Me too.

Hen (25:58.286)
unless he's not ready to go and we're just riding Markanich, but I could see Tuesday rotating a little bit more, especially with coming off of the win, you know, mid week with them already. Um, that could, that could be what I'll see. And, and I honestly, like, I think Celio and Thor did more than enough to earn their starting spot again. So like, I think you're really looking at like a couple of positions that I would swap out performance wise, but then most of the guys locked down their spots again. It's just.

Hoov (26:15.971)
Mm -hmm.

Hen (26:26.638)
It does go back to coaching and goes back to tactics of like, if we can't hold on, hold onto the ball, like at some point you do have to look at Carnell and say like, what's the game plan here?

Hoov (26:37.349)
Yeah, yep. So the lads are back in action on Tuesday. And as we've seen, obviously you're going to take the first game no matter what you do, seriously. I think we're going to take this competition seriously. This is not the league's cup. This is not a cash grab. This is not what we kind of saw from how we took the last couple of cups seriously or how they did. But.

I think this one is, you know, someone online was like, when do you really know? When can you guarantee that we're going to be back in this conversation? I think we truly should take every opportunity to get as far as we can here. And again, all of it just boils down to being more experienced for the boys and those moments are invaluable. So I do expect to see a pretty strong lineup still. Our depth is better than it's ever been. I think we now actually have, I feel okay when we do rotate.

You know, and we would rotate certain times last year and certain players would play. It's like, all right, well, it's wash. We're out on this one. So I like the rotation. You know, four matches in two weeks is a lot for anybody. So it's important to carry those expectations and make sure that we're not, you know, beating the drums when whoever who or whoever doesn't play. But I do expect them to take it seriously and I expect them to take it to Houston and come away with something there.

Hen (27:35.694)
Yeah.

Hoov (28:00.709)
It's gonna be tough, but I'd like to see us go to the next round.

Hen (28:05.486)
Same, even a tie would be huge.

Hoov (28:07.653)
Yep, a tie. We're going in up 2 -1. The away goals are in place in this competition. So if we were to lose 1 -0, we would be knocked out based on the Houston's goal that they scored at City Park. So a couple of tidbits, as football should be, it adds a level of jeopardy to force the away team to attack. If only there was a rule in Europe for that, who knows? But yeah, any other thoughts?

Hen (28:21.742)
as football should be. As football should be.

Hen (28:31.086)
Hahaha!

Hen (28:36.686)
No, I just want to see a different performance on Tuesday. And yeah, that's what we need.

Hoov (28:42.147)
Rejuvenated I want to see some more runs. I want to see a little bit harder play, you know it a lot of it I'm you know, you don't want to throw things on the ref, but it was so Bad, it was so poorly officiated that you're right the stop -start nature is hard as a player to get back into to really dig in and want to give full 90 when you know, the ball stopped every five minutes, so

Hen (28:52.822)
Mm -hmm.

Hoov (29:04.837)
Hopefully we get new refs too. Hopefully they can sign the CBA that they've got and get the, I can't even believe we're begging for the old refs back already. Cause they were so bad last year, but looking forward to it back in action Tuesday. And then again, Saturday, the hits don't stop rolling brother. We're alive. Cheers man.

Hen (29:23.252)
Absolutely. Cheers, brother.