Brookly Reality Check (You Gotta Fight...For yer clean sheet)

Welcome to Cannon Crew, a weekly podcast discussing the Charleston Battery.

Your host, Granite, will be joined by.

Other defenders of the fleet from the black and yellow supporters section, and together they will help fortify and conquer.

They are the Cannon Crew.

Welcome to the Canon crew.

I am Granite and I'm joined by Ryan.

What's up?

Doing good?

I'm doing all right.

You working?

Sitting at the desk at the soccer five, coordinating courts, fields, pitches,.

A little bit.

Pickup going on and having some nice.

Ryan do an outstanding job.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

We'll talk again Monday.

Patrick, you are sitting next to a shuttle simulator, are you not?

Yeah, you could say that.

The Artemis 7 is being simulated on your shuttle simulator.

No, no.

It's too woke for the people.

They.

You can't tell them that it's all fake, that all the astronauts are actually actors that have appeared in movies.

Where'd they go, the actors?

I don't know.

Okay.

I think they made it big time in Hollywood.

You would have or they would have.

Yes.

I. I'm trying to fill some time with banter because we're going to get the.

It's like ripping a band aid off.

Right.

But we won't talk about till later.

I think it's more.

It's more like sunburn.

Sunburn.

You have to take a shower.

You just don't want to do it.

Oh, excellent.

Oh, my gosh.

Right?

You know, it's going to feel better, but you know it's going to absolutely hurt.

You didn't do it right away when it wouldn't hurt.

You kind of wait until later or the next morning and you're like, I kind of got to do it.

I don't want.

I.

How long can I make this last?

You smell the pits.

I can't make it.

Yeah.

That much longer.

You drink?

Drink a little.

Drinks.

It doesn't seem to help.

Well, let's talk about a good note.

Let's talk about good notes.

The beautiful get.

Does that seem to.

Does that seem to happen, like, across multiple days, though, when you're on the road and you're traveling and you're on extended road trips, Right.

You get, you know, need a shower, you need to change it up.

Hard to stay.

Stay with the flow, Stay up with consistency.

No, I don't have that problem.

I've always been curious about the gas station showers.

Want to just put my name in, get a number?

I think we should do that.

We'll do a podcast for them outside the truck stop showers.

We got to figure it out.

What.

What's going on back there.

I don't know.

Let the people know.

Yeah, let's see if our back four can shower and.

And try to get us somewhere else besides where we are.

Let's talk about the beautiful game real quick.

Just got off of the pitch.

Referee in a couple matches.

City of Charleston Rec League West Ashley, Bunch of kids out there as always.

And first match, you 12 girls.

It's always fun, you know, it's slow paced.

I have to force myself to run a lot, just kind of get a workout.

And one team showed up and they're one player short.

So they're playing 7v8 and then they're losing 3 1.

Halftime.

About 10 minutes through the first or second half, their keeper gets hurt.

She's gotta go off.

So we're playing two players down and they were just dejected.

You could see em.

The other team scored a goal.

That's when the player, the keeper went off and they were just like looking at me, their heads down.

I said, girls, I said, just have fun.

Just go out there and enjoy the game.

Don't worry about it.

Defend well and just do what you normally do.

And within five minutes, they scored a goal and their eyes just lit up.

And they still lost 3, 2.

But they defended like beast and everything else.

And I was like, this is the reason why this is called a beautiful game, because those young players went out there and just had a blast.

Kudos to the young ladies that went out there.

They still lost, but they had smiles on their faces when the match was done.

They're going to remember that game.

Matt Wallace is going to feel so much different to them than just a loss, Will.

They fought.

They didn't give up.

Another goal and they ended up scoring that goal.

And it was.

They just played very well.

So they.

I felt like they won.

They felt like they won.

That's all that matters.

Okay, Any other comments on the beautiful game?

What a full circle moment.

A full circle moment.

What.

What about losers?

No.

What about winners?

Yeah.

One.

Knoxville knocking off D.C. united in the U.S. open.

And their head coach happens to be a former Battery player.

Yeah.

And not only is he a former Battery player, but he is a former Battery player who also scored against D.C. united back in 2008.

Is there a conspiracy going on here?

Well, conspiracy there going over here.

Oh, Ryan has left us to go do something.

He's checking on it.

He's seeing it still alive.

Is.

Is it real?

Apparently I'm the only one with two more than one screen.

And Ryan's screen is reduced to five and a half inches.

Patrick, do you have any good feel good stuff before we start turning on the water?

Yeah.

I think as soccer fans we were treated to a really fun week.

Whether you have a team in the race or not.

Champions League, man.

Quarterfinals are big.

Second, second leg of it.

So the Real Madrid Bayern game, incredible.

I wasn't watching that one.

We all know.

Just like granite.

I'm an Arsenal supporter, so I was watching a miserable game where nothing happened.

Oh my.

It was tough to watch, but tough anyways getting to kind of watch those highlights.

That Bayern Real Madrid game, phenomenal.

You know, only watch the highlights.

Oh, man.

Y' all miss a great game.

Oh, just the.

Everything in between the highlights was just.

I'm.

It's what you.

It's what you sign for.

And now you're getting Byron versus psg.

And I'm like, well, it's, it's.

It's the.

I have problems with the Harry Bane or whatever his name is.

That's just thing of mine.

Yeah.

Harry Payne.

Who is it?

Harry?

Pain in my veins.

Well, anyways, yeah, that was a kind of a high flying, high scoring match and so we had to bounce it out with our stomp Sporting.

So know that means right too the acronym hpv.

Say that again, sir.

Not hairy.

Pain in the vein.

Hpv.

That's a. I'm not even joking with you.

I didn't.

I didn't make it up.

It's literal chant that they.

I take.

Isn't there.

Isn't there a.

That was vaccine.

No, that was when she was with Hol.

Back with Hull, with.

With Jamie Varty.

Jamie Var is a beast.

I hate Jamie Varty when he plays against us, but he is a beast.

He is like old school loyal if anything.

Right?

Yes.

Every time we.

I loved it when I watched him play other teams.

I hate it when he.

When he played against Arsenal because I was like, oh,.

Yeah.

I mean besides the Real Madrid Bayern just.

Atletico beating Barca, actually losing, but going through.

But some really good games this week at high level, which is fun.

And us as Arsenal fans have a big game this weekend, but Premier League's winding down, most of the international leagues are winding down.

So we're getting down to nitty gritty time in the football world for the rest of the world and starting to ramp up in the championship with kind of get off the pot like we're starting to get into.

Are these the guys we want to stick with?

Are we going to make some changes?

Yeah.

How's our form doing?

Who's going to be our next starter.

So interesting contrast of the rest of the world is kind of winding down getting ready for World cup and we're kind of winding up trying to find our feet, get into a groove and see who's going to stick around as a starter and might be making changes soon.

So now do you think that impact is going to have though on the league with some of the players getting.

Called out for international play?

For international play.

I.

Do you think it really affects the usl?

Not so much, but kind of how the talk has gone recently with MLS trying to I guess stay relevant in an MLS way of saying they want to switch to the rest of the European league schedule eventually but without declaring a time or facts and how they're going to do it.

But just saying we may go ahead and switch to that schedule because it just makes sense for world football.

I think it's too little too late of that NFL mindset of where the dominant force in the US kind of like their last graphs at it.

I don't think it really.

The World cup stuff, I don't really think affects USL championship.

I mean you're going to have those off teams if they qualify.

Maybe one guy, two guys in total that are really going to join a camp.

But everyone else, not really.

I mean we're more on the under 20s, under 23s, kind of those guys going off and playing international and getting a little better competition because you're playing against European players who are on maybe reserves or a two team over in Europe.

So I think that's.

That's more of something we should look out for.

Are like a Colton Swan.

Is he going to be.

Yeah.

Continuing on this road to play international duty for the under 23s, under 21s and not abandon the club but like grow his game but not really stick around when maybe we need him in some key.

Yeah.

Very key moments.

Exactly.

And where's his head at too?

You know, because that age and what you're looking at here, his head's probably going to be focused a little more on national team than.

Than battery sometimes.

Which, I mean, I get it.

My brain would be there too.

Yeah, for sure.

But you got to remember who.

Who signed you first.

You know, you're getting this opportunity because you're a club.

More chances than not you're not getting it just because your parents knew and paid for you to go play us under 17 team.

Yeah.

I mean, unless your name's Geo Reyna, it's not happening so.

Well, it's almost time to turn on the water.

I think,.

I think we should dive into it because.

Here we go.

We.

We have something else that we can look forward to.

What's that?

What can we look forward to?

Just a game at home finally.

Right.

We're having a prolonged like absence again.

We're not, we're not gonna have a home game for a few weeks.

Like my wife just.

We're trying to plan some random thing and she's like, can you pull up the battery schedule?

Keep up Arsenal schedule.

I'll make sure the date.

And I was going through May and.

I was like nothing.

Away game.

Away game away.

Yeah, I guess we're clear.

Well, let's talk about a game that shouldn't have been the way it was.

I don't know what, I don't know what to say about it.

Kind of our job is to score goals and stop the other team from scoring goals.

And it seemed like neither of that, Neither one of those things happened.

Yeah.

For lucky for the listeners, they didn't hear the pod that will never be released of us talking about our next three games.

What do we think's gonna happen?

Draw at Louisville would be fantastic.

If we win the game Brooklyn, that should be a freaking easy, easy peasy easy.

And then get ready for Tampa.

Yeah, that's going to be a big one at home.

So we went this really high apex, you know, penultimate thing in Louisville and like hell yeah.

Then smack down to the low part of the valley to prepare ourselves for Tampa Bay.

We get.

We can prolong it a little bit.

What a God awful camera angle to have to watch a game.

I mean you might as well just put it on the ground.

I don't care.

Someone just put your phone on the ground.

They're just broadcasted from here.

You can't see anything.

You can't see runs, you can't see space.

It's just.

I mean you're watching a U9 kids game.

No, that was the point.

They have better cameras.

They have roller coasters behind.

Go.

Someone go sit on top of that roller coaster.

As freaking highlighter vest as maintenance and just broadcast the game.

At one point even announcer says, we don't know if that's a corner throwing because we can't see that part of the pitch.

I, you know, that's fantastic.

Well, you know, turf.

I don't like turf anyways.

I don't know if that affects us.

We've had this discussion before, but it just.

It's a baseball field that they hamstrung into.

Put a soccer pitch on.

I don't I don't know how we're letting teams into the USL at this level on a baseball field anymore.

I, I don't know how we lose to a team that.

And they even.

They have one, maybe a win.

Yeah, I mean they're, they're not good.

No, they're not good at all.

Even you watch their goals.

They're just kind of.

I don't know, it.

It's like the, you have a coach growing up who says just take chances, you'll.

You'll get lucky.

Every now and then it's like they went off that mentality of just shoot it and maybe it'll go in and we have a guy standing between the freaking post who has no idea what's happening.

I think he's looking at the roller coasters too.

I think so.

First goal and I, and I watched it and then I watched it again and was kind of whatsapping to y', all just briefly saying, oh my goodness.

He said all three of them were like that.

Yeah, it's like he's looking as if he's so obstructed.

Can't see it.

They somehow have a camera angle behind and you're like, no, you saw it, you saw it, you watched it.

We could see your head move and you just didn't react.

Like, I thought we turned a leaf with this guy.

I thought he was starting to build some momentum.

He had some really two back to back games that were good on his part.

Maybe not good overall, but good on his part.

I didn't think we would have to go back to what the hell is this guy doing on a professional team?

Oh, it just.

He needs.

We.

We have one clean sheet and I don't think that's up to him.

He did some Mickey Mouse hands at that match to kind of save a couple shots that coming at the goal.

That was it.

And everything else, I mean, is going in the back of the net.

It's just, it's just poor.

Yeah.

Like you have to at least dive or you have to react.

And it's not like someone hits a worldy from outside the box and he curls it around a wall of defenders and you're kind of diving at it and you just, you just can't get to it.

These are chances you're seeing the play, you can see the ball.

You don't react and then you throw your hands up like, oh, you guys were in front of me.

Yeah, they're in front of you.

You can move too.

Like, you can move a little bit in Shift like it's not on every defender.

If they did that, then they would.

Every attacker would just dribble to goal if the defense just moved out of the way.

We don't, we don't want those because he's not been very good at those things either.

So Brooklyn is played six matches.

They're two and four, four losses.

And of course one of the two match or wins were against us.

Gold difference negative.

Negative four.

Here, here's one stat.

So this is a big stats lie game.

When you get scored on in the 9th minute, a team who isn't as good as the battery is going to resort to maybe a little more defensive, a little more counter, go for that break when they need to.

So you'll look and you'll see a lopsided possession.

You'll see a lopsided total shots.

Well, maybe not total shots, but big chances, passes.

Everything that has to do with kind of controlling the ball.

That's all a lie.

When you get scored on in nine minutes, the game has shifted at that point.

Yeah.

Team can sit on their heels and kind of lock you down defensively.

And when they get a second goal in the first half, all bets are off.

They don't even want to touch it.

Go ahead, attack us.

It's on you now to bring the game to us.

We don't have to bring the game to you any longer.

We don't have to be opened up.

We don't have to give you chances, but you are going to be opened up.

And that was the case where we saw a third goal.

Again, like, it's just football.

This is what happens.

And the stats will lie in this game more than any game that we will see throughout the season.

Yeah, because I'm looking at ball possession.

We had 71%.

They had 29 total shots.

We had 13.

They had 11 shots on target.

We had four.

They had seven.

I had two big chances.

They had one.

We just got to go back to shooting practice.

I.

Accurate passes.

Am I looking at the right thing here?

Because this is just nuts.

Yeah.

So after passes, they were at 58% with 127.

We were at 82% with 457.

Triple.

It's just crazy.

Is this just a fluke match or is it time to make a change?

Completed that 400 and something bit of battery that was completed passes.

It's time to bring a different goalie in.

Like I don't want to see like the, the our third string guy or whatever who played in the US Open play him.

He's a monster is Christian Garner still.

This, this is where guys get their chances and they thrive and maybe make a name for themselves.

Yeah, this, this is the point where I'm putting my hand to my head and I'm like, where's Kuza?

I don't know.

Because we know we didn't see him.

We haven't seen him yet this season.

He's supposed to be back.

From what I've been hearing in the off season is that he was expected to give Zoo a real contention to for that starting role.

I was asking for him that we would most likely see him after the fourth week.

We are well into that point now where we're now asking after week five.

We completed week six, right?

Yep.

Week six.

We just played week six and we're literally asking for it now as a fan base, like, I know I wasn't saying it was going to be this bad.

And are we really this bad, right?

No, no, no.

We're really not.

We can still bounce back and everything, but why not allow for there to be change?

Because we know what the end story is down.

We've changed everything else.

Right?

You gotta change.

And if you're changing everything else, why are you holding back and changing this position?

Because you weren't last year.

I don't.

Or the year before.

I don't know.

It's kind of just hitting me right now.

Are we focusing on the wrong thing?

Do we make.

Did we let too many good players go at this moment now?

No, no.

You're saying it defensively.

I can hear it in your voice.

No, no, of course not.

We wouldn't do that.

But like, I, I agree with the whole, like.

Whereas, because this might be my biggest knock on this league is you don't get updates.

There is no transparency on, like, yeah, I picked up a knot, a slight injury.

We're kind of weaning them back or.

It doesn't have to be even that transparent, but it should say, like, pick something up in training or like, is injured, he's out because he's injured.

Like, tell us what the hell's going.

On in the dark for every player, every season.

And unless you physically are at the training facility seeing a guy kind of like gingerly train one on one with a coach on the practice field, you're not going to get any information.

No, absolutely.

And I feel like it's.

I feel like it's ridiculous for.

And again, this isn't just for us.

It's for teams in the entire league where I've looked at their Other team apps, they have injury reports where it's a whole tab where they have like a match day.

They have like their lineup and everything.

This is injury report.

Guess what's never filled out for every team?

The injury report.

Nobody fills out that tab.

They will always put their team lineup, their formation, who scores, the assists, the cards, everything.

But they'll never fill in an injury board.

So we never know who we're going to see who's got the pickup.

Like, like Laurent for example.

Like I was asking for him to start.

He finally got his start against Louisville and finally made an impact and scored right away like he should have.

It was beautiful.

But before he was, he was coming off of a hamstring injury but we didn't know that and it was like kind of like his fans.

Like I was kind of like frustrated a little bit for not seeing him, but then I got to speak with him and he's like, yeah man, I'm coming back with a little hamstring.

And I'm like, wow.

So on CO wasn't even on the bench.

We have Burner on the bench, right?

So no CO is on the bench.

Garner's the Garner's retired.

I said CO is not on the bench.

He wasn't on the bench.

I'm looking at, at, at the stat substitutes, all the ones that checked in and then left on the bench was Jo, John Burner, Joey and Cruz Hill who like Joey did play.

But I don't, I don't see where we had CO sitting on the bench.

And we do, we don't need to know that he hell Joe, don't tell it, don't tell us that preseason he's competing for the job and he's going to really push for it.

And then five, six weeks in, we, we're not sniffing anything U.S. open cup games.

He's not getting minute like yeah,.

I.

Don't know if it's another injury.

I mean that's a player decision that's the toughest to go through.

You have to sit there and wonder is this worth it again?

Because these are your years where you should progress and maybe have that opportunity to succeed and move up.

Well, we need, we need to stop goals and Kuz isn't doing it so might as well.

I mean if we're going to lose 3 nil, why not lose it?

Because John, we took a Chance on a 35 year old John Burner.

You know, put him in there.

We signed the Academy kid, throw him in there.

He's 62 East Charles in Born and Bred.

He probably put more of a fight right now.

Throw Subar in.

He's not even playing defense.

Put his ass with gloves on in the middle of the net.

Somebody love you, love you Zamudio.

But man, you gotta, you gotta do better.

And this is Ryan.

What, what do you say to these goals?

Because this is a tough look for goals scored against you as a keeper.

This definitely is.

What was.

That.

For our viewing public.

Ryan is actually working right now so he has to go out and supervise a little bit.

So in the meantime what we'll talk about is who's the academy guy he's talking about.

Let's talk about Jack Wayne real quick.

Right.

Talking about him.

He.

He came out for a played a little bit.

Was it.

How old is he?

Young man, age 17.

He came out there and I and just watched him last, you know, couple minutes.

I was like he's not doing that bad for a 17 year old out there doing better than some of our not 17 year olds.

10 Touches on the ball in six minutes, which is more than a lot of youngsters would get.

I don't know.

I like again we've had these conversations.

I think these are players where early games, mid season games, you can kind of experiment, give them some minutes at the end of the game and see where they go.

Yeah.

See if they maybe can hold up to the pressure.

I don't know.

It's a good, it's a good analyst of.

Does the guy have the mental strength or does he have the kind of whereabouts.

Not, not necessarily all the physical stuff.

Yeah.

Like you can kind of see if, if a player young enough has the mental fortitude to continue in this league and maybe step up and train and like get to that next level.

Now I, I like that we put them in, we're losing three now and we put them in there and I don't think it was changed the game state.

I don't think it was anything other than hey, go in there, get some, get some time in the, in the trenches.

Yeah.

Which I think it was a brilliant move by.

And hopefully pay off dividends at the end of the year by coach Pierman.

Yes.

Ryan, question do.

Okay, got one.

I got.

I actually got a good take.

Do you think we actually utilize mid season transfer target?

I don't think so.

I mean maybe for a keeper.

That's it.

I talked about.

That was my next question.

Even for a keeper because I see, I see us still going and grabbing, if not a winger grabbing another forward on loan or something and then still going after, like, if we do not go after a keeper this entire window and we end the season with our keeping core, how it is now, how far do you expect us to go?

Well, we talked about last year, about clean sheets and how it's been.

It was difficult and we talked about all season long and it was a difficulty for us.

And we're starting out the season with one clean sheet and we're not scoring a bunch of goals.

And so best way to win matches is to have more goals scored against, you know, the other team.

When you tell, when you do sell your number, the guys scored the most goals and the guys scored the second most goals or the third most goals in the league, I, yeah, I, I,.

I think that, that the people we have are more than capable of doing scoring more goals than they did.

But it's hard to do that when you're picking the ball on your own net.

You know, I think it, it changes the game state, it changes the way you approach your attacks.

You know, just how players react to everything because all of a sudden you're getting anxious and you're rushing things where you might not necessarily rush it and, and not taking chances or taking too big of chances.

And so it's not what you're trained to do, it's not what you practice to do, and so it just throws you all the way off.

Well, like, I just don't, I don't believe that this lineup either was our best lineup.

Like, yes, it wasn't our best lineup to where you just came off playing Louisville and you can rotate guys because of you're on the back end of a road trip, but for who, for who was played in the positions and stuff.

It's kind of like some of the guys definitely had the numbers, the minutes tolling on them on the long road trip, but then like, you could have revitalized some other areas of the pitch in other positions, and you just didn't see that.

So it kind of left like question marks of again, like, are injuries looming on these road trips?

Are there, you know, just not carrying as many people on these trips or, you know, what is it, you know, I kind of like to know.

So, like, that way, you know, that's easier transition into what fans understand about this league, and not only what they understand, but also what they're willing to kind of buy in for the team because who's, who's for a lot of the stuff when the fans are giving back, the fans are trying to, you know, continue to purchase jerseys, food, the stadium tickets, the Constant supporting of the fans or supporting of the teams.

They want to continue to be there, be there for those players.

If they don't know, it's kind of hard to continue to build that connection.

Because you go to a game, you see a guy, the next game, he's not there, you think he doesn't play there anymore.

Yeah, and we've seen that last year.

You know what I'm saying?

You see that quite a bit.

And it leaves you questions like next two, three, four games, you don't go to a game for a month.

But the guy's been back for a week already.

You just don't know.

So what do we do?

We talk about keeper change.

Is there any other change that we need to do?

I'm a big fan of Kelly and Kelly played an excellent match.

I played a fantastic game.

I gave him some.

I gave him some little beef the other probably about two podcasts ago.

Kelly,.

I see why we kept you.

I do, I do see.

I do see it.

I do.

I think, I think this is the coach's curse, right?

You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.

We can sit here and say, personally, I wish Landry would have started.

Maybe that would have been a little more energy.

Centrally, Kaza didn't look great.

Maybe you playing Landry, he just is a bigger guy, a little more physical, kind of.

I don't know.

I mean, we can sit here and say that, but you have guys in training.

We don't get to see training all week.

You don't see how guys are performing.

Personally, I think from a battery standpoint, Barry needs to find the mark.

Barry needs to start getting on a roll and maybe not just scoring goals, but like looking more dominant up top.

Like you're a, a pretty well known name who came from the MLS.

You're not 40 years old, you're still in your 20s.

You should be putting in better performances.

You should create a little more or start gelling a little more with these guys who are supposed to be your creators.

I think that's what it is because his energy is there and his movement I think is there, is just.

We're just not connecting from that midfield to him.

But I understand what you're saying, which.

Also going back to your question with him moments ago, Ryan of like, do we see us bringing anyone in, like big name transfers?

I think we're missing a winger.

I personally, we don't have that.

We are built on wingers.

For the past four seasons, it's all been wing play, messer is leading the USL Championship in crosses.

He's our left back.

He should not be leading.

He shouldn't be leading the league.

He shouldn't be leading our team in classes right now.

We have a.

And this isn't a knock to the players.

This is a pyramid style of play.

We are missing these creative guys on the wings who are willing to just take players on and damned if you do, damned if you don't.

I'm not asking you to sprint back on defense, but go and create and we're not getting that out of it.

Yeah.

And when have you actually seen like, have you actually seen a play from.

From Barry this season where he's gone and created like, like with the ball?

He's gone and created off the ball because he works.

He has.

The work rate is there and he's not lazy and he knows where to be.

But I haven't seen him create anything with the ball.

What kind of attacker is he?

I mean, is he something.

He's over the top ball.

Is he.

That's how he been successful.

He's a big guy.

He's more of a stand up, stand up the target, receive the ball.

Yeah.

And I guess the, the argument I'll make is usually you give guys some grace when they come to a new league.

He's in essence taking a step down in league play.

Yeah.

He should be more dominant and I think that's the issue that we're kind of running into.

Come out of the gates.

You don't have to be scoring two, three goals a game, but you need to be putting in a little more like the efforts there.

That's awesome.

But like at some point it has to click.

Like you're making a run and your guys know you're going to make that run.

Yeah.

Or you know a guy's going to make a run off of you.

Or you can be the holdup play that draws guys in.

Like, if you're going to be that central point, you have to be a disruption for the defense.

You have to create for your midfielders, you have to create for everyone else.

If you're not going to be that guy scoring and turning and trying to drive, then you need to open it up for the rest of your team.

Exactly.

Defenders way.

Yeah.

And everything else.

Yeah.

Okay.

That's a very disappointing match.

I felt like we were, we took a huge, you know, 15 steps forward against Louisville and then really stumbled, fell back about 37 steps.

What is it about this, like, not this core group of guys, but the Battery in general.

Why do we have to keep going through these super high highs, super low lows week to week?

Can we not be like just a little consistency of play?

I don't know.

It's maybe, it's just, maybe there's.

Maybe the players are just still trying to gel with each other.

Six matches in, is that enough for a team to start making those connections and, and you know, on and off the pitch, the lead team, you know, really good teams to start scoring goals and start defending really well.

I think it, it should be at, at this professional level, the amount of weeks you're.

What are we at?

8, Nine weeks of training together?

10 Weeks more than that.

Yeah.

That you should be gelling decently enough, maybe getting your stride with.

When he plays the ball like he, he can play it to my foot and not 20 yards past me.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I think, honestly, I think our midfield just needs to have more control in these games.

Again, there's so much space just left between our midfield and defense that any team should be able to get in behind and have 10, 20 yards of dribble.

I think we need to tighten up there if we're gonna play, if we play more attacking.

But you still have to help your defenders out.

You can't just be like, hey, the four of you, three of you on an island, see ya.

Yeah, someone's gotta stay a little bit.

Because our defensive core, who, who was the starting backs?

This man.

We had Messer, Smith and Suber.

And so you have Smith back there, who's been back there for a while with us in front, especially in front of Zamudio.

And Subaru is just an outstanding player.

Messer, like I said, is really killing it, moving forward with the ball.

But they don't seem to be gelling and they're seem to be allowing people to get shots off at Zamudio.

Of course he can't stop, but normally we wouldn't let get off.

Do you think that defensive failure back there is causing us to not be able to score goals?

No, because you're putting more guys in front of them.

They like those, it's on them.

Now if you're putting that many, you're taking a defender away.

You're playing three back.

You should be creating more chances.

Ryan.

What?

And it's that like, you know, I saw this take and it got me really thinking that about how youth U.S. soccer is actually, you know, on the downgrade of trending because of when you're taught, you're taught one of three options, right?

You have this option, this option, this option, if you get right and anything else is wrong.

Well, if one of those options are not available because coaches want to do.

Constantly want to do certain pass patterns or certain types of movements and stuff like that.

Well, if one player doesn't do the right movement or one player isn't there, okay, well, that player is now stuck.

What is he supposed to do if he hasn't been developing the skills to actually move the ball and create again?

That's where we're going into create.

And that's where we're at right now with the battery.

And it kind of shows across, not just here, but in US Soccer is that ability to create.

And I feel like now we're.

I feel like each season comes with a different theme.

And I started noticing this when I started coaching, too, that each season does have a theme, whether it's just with you and your team or if it's with the club or with the.

The league entirety.

And it does happen.

It does have like a kind of like a cohesive theme.

And like this year right now, I feel like we're in a creative season where you're going to have a lot more.

Not just wingers, not just forwards, but players individually starting to come out and be more creative on top of the ball.

And I hope that that's where we kind of progress to the next two years.

You know, more like that.

Similar to like the Brazilian or the Argentine playing style, but making it our own and allowing our Americans to.

To really develop on their own.

That's my take.

Thank you.

Ryan.

Yes.

What do you guys think?

We've been talking while you've been giving orders out there.

So we.

We have a lot of thoughts.

So let's switch to Saturday night or Saturday afternoon kick off.

What, 3:00pm Is that what's showing?

3:00Pm 3:00pm Ignore Quartermaster Darby.

How are we feeling?

I mean, just how are we feeling?

I'm excited.

This is the.

We talk about Louisville in previous years of like these big one verse, two matchups.

I'm more excited for this game.

I'm more excited to see Dos Santos.

Maybe Leland Archer will be in the stands.

I don't know.

He hasn't played a single minute for Tampa Bay.

But like MD crying at the end of the game.

All of them just watching us celebrate.

R. Ryan screen either stuck or he's like, I. I'm not prospecting.

I'm looking at.

I'm looking at their stuff right now, seeing how much.

Yeah, I mean, you got Myers right now.

He's got Two goals and an assist on the season with only having two starts.

And Dos Anto is actually getting the majority of the playing time down there, so he's actually doing decent enough for Tampa.

But that.

That's another huge statement game because Tampa is, again, a team that's in the driver's seat right now in the east, and it's just another team that we can go and knock right off and have so much meaning behind.

Okay, this is what pisses me off about the Santos going to Tampa Bay.

I can't wear his jersey now.

Right?

I mean, I really can't fucking wear his jersey.

No, no.

Here's what you do here.

So let me.

Here's what you do.

You wear it.

You wear it.

And after the game, you go and you go get a hug from that man, and he's gonna sign it again and he's gonna go, and you know,.

I can't do that.

Loyalty is number one.

You get a bird, then you.

You wear.

You're dead to me.

You wear it.

Yeah, you know what?

You know what?

After this.

Burn it.

We burn it, right?

You put.

Burn it.

You wear it, and you put a little line on the second O. Yeah.

So it says Dos Santos.

Santos.

And you and your wife dress up as Santa Claus.

Dos Santas.

I just won't wear it.

I'll wear a tourist jersey.

How's that?

It's better.

Okay.

Yeah.

Is it this game?

Yeah.

I've missed.

Dude, are you guys excited for this game?

Like, they're.

They're number one in the East.

They haven't lost.

They're undefeated.

Seven matches.

Yeah.

I don't.

First I'd wear the jersey.

I wear his jersey.

Be like, nate, remember when this looks so good, when you beat Tampa twice.

And then now you're on Tampa and you just lost.

I think it's some pirate thing to say to him.

Like, you know, yeah, I just rated this from the tr.

I rip it off, throw it at him.

Take this back, Trader.

I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

Nate, if you're listening.

I'm just kidding, man.

I'm just.

He's not.

He doesn't care.

You don't know that.

We.

We have a listener from several places in Europe.

He's in Florida.

Well, he might have a VPN.

Hey, we got a few listeners down in St. Pete.

Do we.

I have to check.

Yes, yes.

I just checked.

We do.

We do have a couple of listeners down in St. Pete, and if it's the USL people, I'd really like to See your rules.

Since nobody will answer my emails,.

I would.

All right.

Who do you guys want starting in this match?

Because we gotta go.

I assume switching it up a little bit with the team.

No.

Yes.

Lorenz got it started.

Who?

Lauren?

I think so.

I think he's got to start.

And the other must start has got to be Krill.

Krill.

I'll go with that.

What about our back?

Joey's got to start.

Yeah.

Joey should be back in for sure.

I think not having Joey there really hurt us in.

In Brooklyn.

I would.

I would also like to see Colton come in and just start the game up top.

Yeah.

Or.

Or play something with a two forward system because I don't think the wingers are there yet.

So if we just have two forwards playing off each other, maybe let's try that for a game and it might be a little better.

At least for a little bit.

Right.

Why don't.

I mean we could go right back to what we did against five four.

No, we did or one and then moved it to three in the bag.

And then you basically play a three, five two.

Yeah.

That's how I was sitting there looking.

Think Smith.

Yeah.

I think it cold playing much better.

That I think we put Suber, Smith and Joey in the three.

Got the three to do it.

And why haven't we been doing it?

I mean that she solidify and again you still get scored on.

I mean the Louisville game we played so good.

Yes.

You're still going to concede.

I mean look who's in gold.

And you.

You got to remember Dos Santos is going to push up that field.

Yep.

He does leave space behind where the center back has to come over.

So that's going to create in the middle in the box.

Have two forwards up.

Like you're going to be able to create this space off of them.

He.

He hasn't changed as a player.

He's still going to try to drive the ball forward, move it.

He rarely likes to go back.

He likes to try and create it himself.

So I think we can capitalize on that.

Does he cause a start?

I. I think so.

I. I mean what.

What's that option I put.

I'd put him at cam with Krill and Landry as the sixes.

Okay.

I'll go with that.

Good with that.

Yeah.

But what do you do, what do you do with Kelly?

Kelly's out wide on the left.

I think he's such a good central player.

I wish.

I wish he was.

Like we talk about how Malloy left and like this.

How do we fill this gap?

I think Kelly's a better replacement than Iaza, personally.

So push concept 8 roll that wears on his jersey and.

And Kelly into more of a six.

What a crazy statement what the number on his back is.

I mean, that's the reason why you kind of do that, right?

Yeah, that's the exact reason why you pick numbers.

Sorry, that was.

I mean, I could see that of.

Instead of playing Krill, playing Kelly in that six role, just Krill is so big.

He is big, dude.

He is so.

I mean, did you ever go next to him?

He made.

I'm six two.

Okay.

I'm six two.

That made me feel small.

So why not put these big guys in the box?

Right?

Well that.

I think that's what Ryan's saying.

You just can't take them off the field.

You gotta have them on there.

There's a reason why we picked tall guys, right?

Yeah, we just use better wingers to drive and get more corners so we can just harass teams with our overall height.

Just put in there, dink, dink, dink, dink.

Just a header after header.

Right?

Okay, guys, we've been going.

We've been stammering for 47 minutes, which is really long for a wine ass session here.

I gotta go and get ready to start closing.

I too have to get ready to get.

Do something.

Patrick, what do you have to do?

Yeah, I gotta go to bed.

Yeah, his score prediction real quick and then he can go.

Good dude.

Patrick, you bet.

What you betting, Pat?

I think it's gonna be a.

A 2:1.

But I think we go down 1:0 early, unfortunately.

Ryan, I think we, I think we battle back.

But I see us going down first.

I see us.

I see us Wrong.

Two, two with us with them equalizing against us late.

Oh, man, you guys are.

They score first, we go up 2 to 1 and then they equalize late.

I'm going 32 and we're winning this one.

Okay.

I like.

I'm going towards you.

I'm going towards you, Ryan, because you last year like it leaks a goal.

Now the movie is leaking at least two goals.

I was going to say no clean sheets.

So we'll probably get one.

Yep.

Hey, if that's what it takes, that's what I'll keep doing that.

Okay, gents, see you at the pitch.

Yellow lot, 2 o'.

Clock.

2 O'.

Clock.

The other lot.

It's Saturday.

What else we're gonna do?

It's gonna be 90 degrees, so everyone get a little sunscreen, grab a little water.

Hydrate or die.

Yeah, with your barley water.

Did you say ranch water?

Ranch water.

Barley water.

Regular water.

Bring all the waters.

Whiskey waters.

Mom water.

Dad water.

Kid water.

Are we going to see a tifo in the.

In the back?

Oh, yeah.

Mercedes Benz.

Do you think they forgot about it already?

Such a waste.

Someone I had.

Ryan, you got a Griffin.

Someone came up to me saying, man, that looked good.

And I was like, no, it's off center.

It's like the tunnel.

Yeah, I can't get every house.

It's like the tunnel coming out behind her goal.

It's like off center.

First thing, you're like, wait a second.

Doesn't look right.

Maybe we get Home Depot for the next one, you know?

Yo, waters are yellow.

Maybe we just need to get lasers and get a little laser light show the canon crew laser light show and put it onto the.

We need those drones.

Fly all the drones in as a wall.

Drop down the big yellow wall.

We can do that.

What if you just built a cannon crew tfo?

That's what we need to do.

Big one.

That's what we need to do.

Create a canon.

If you have ideas, send them to us.

Granite canon crew dot com.

We shall build.

Can you feel the thunder?

Come to put you under.

We are the make.