For the Glory KC: Sporting KC vs. FC Dallas Preview Podcast and ReynaGate

For the Glory KC is back with the 20th episode of the show!

On this week’s second episode, Sheena and I preview this Saturday’s road trip to Frisco, Texas for Sporting Kansas City as they take on FC Dallas. We tackle the question of if Dallas is KC’s rival (they are not!), as well as break down their form, preview their players, and talk a little history between the clubs and of Dallas in particular. Plus, we talk about the ‘resolution’ of the Gregg Berhalter/Reyna family situation, the KC Current’s FIFA 23 ratings, Sporting KC II news as well as a national team call-up for Marinos Tzions to Cyprus.

Here is a quick rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

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The temporary intro/outro music is by Kristian Leo and is from the song “Ride it Like You Mean It.”

Update 3/17/23: Here is the mostly unedited (with some name fixes) transcript for those that wanted it.

Transcript from Revoldiv

We’re back. Just like I said, we’d be back. This is for the Glory KC where we bring a mix of in-depth Kansas City soccer knowledge and a more casual perspective. 

I’m Chad Smith, where your co-host and the editor at thebluetestimate.com, the website name coming soon, who will take you a bit more in-depth. And I’m joined, as always, by my wife, the American dream, Sheena Smith, who gives us that more casual perspective. What’s up, Sheena? Hey Chad, not much. How are you? I’m doing amazing. 

I’m getting excited about some sport in Kansas City soccer. Are you excited? I am excited. Well, on today’s show, we’ll get to our excitement in a moment. On today’s show, I want to let you all know what’s going to be on it. We’re going to preview the game against FC Dallas. Sporting Kansas City will travel down to Frisco, Texas. We’re going to talk about the US Soccer investigation into the whole GEO Reina Greg Berhalter nonsense. I’ve been hearing it called Reina Gate. 

And then, in WSL, FIFA 23 ratings are out. And of course, the digital crawl, y’all. But the reason Sheena and I are so excited is because we’re making a road run. We’re heading to Texas and we’re going to go watch. Sporting live on the road in a new stadium that we have not been to before. Well, it’s hardly new. It opened in 2005, but new to us. We have never been there. That’s true. We haven’t been. So, I’m excited. 

If anyone has any last-minute recommendations on things for us to do, let us know on the Twitter or Instagram or email. The Twitter. Yeah, you can reach us at For the Glory Casey on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and you can email us for the glory Casey at gmail.com. 

Now I don’t have to do that at the end of the show. I got it the other way now. That’s a good reminder. I have a co-worker that lives in Dallas. I need to reach out to them before I hit the road and get some good tips from them. 

So, let’s just get right to it, Sheena. Let’s talk about the Dallas Kansas City game that’s coming up this weekend. I think you had some stats to kick us off. I don’t, but I do want to tell you what I did do. 

So, I listened to an FC Dallas podcast. I should probably stop listening to other teams’ podcasts because it’s very overwhelming because I don’t know who the players are. I listened to this. I think it was just called the FC Dallas podcast. Oh, very original name. Yeah, I think they’re like the announcers and they do the aftershows, what I gathered for the team. The Sporting Kansas City show. 

Yeah, I mean, I didn’t investigate it, but that was what I was gathering. But let me just say they’re not as good as Corner of the Galaxy. And speaking of Corner of the Galaxy, Chad probably knows that I’m about to share, but I listened to a second podcast of theirs this week because I wanted to hear how they analyze the LA Galaxy Sporting Kansas City game. And they immediately started trashing the Kansas City airport. And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa here, buddy. Like, we got a new airport. 

So I found them on Twitter and I tweeted them. Yeah, I tweeted them. And I let them know that we just got a new airport and we don’t have the disgusting airport anymore. And we went like they responded back to me and now they’re following me on Twitter, which is kind of random. But the whole interaction was amusing. 

So shout out to Corner of the Galaxy. But anyways, going back to that, Chad, you have like a… If you become a Galaxy fan over this nonsense with the Corner of the Galaxy, our daughter will do this to us sometimes where she’ll say, well, my favorite team’s the LA Galaxy. I’m like, you’re just saying that to get me under my skin, aren’t you? Yeah, yeah, my favorite team is the US Women’s National Team. That’s what she’ll always tell me. 

Or the, then the current, then sporting Casey. Sometimes Phoenix Rising is above that because we’re from that area. She is literally from there, born there. One time she said Seattle Sounders and we almost had to kick her out of the house, so. I will disown her if she keeps saying these things. 

No, but anyways, so won’t be listening to Corner of the Galaxy again. I don’t have any need to, but FC Dallas podcast, nothing was wrong with them. They were just too tactical, which isn’t my thing. I like more casual conversation. 

I did like their theme song chat. It wasn’t as good as Corner of the Galaxy, but it was like a country version of the song Shipping Out to Boston by Dropkick Murphy’s, which felt random because they were in Texas, but it was just instrumental. So that was kind of fun. I would have liked to have heard more of it. But anyways, I got a few tidbits, so let me share. 

In their last game, they played against Vancouver in Vancouver and they probably should have won that game, but it was a draw because they had an own goal. And actually, I believe they lost the last three games they played in Vancouver, so they don’t have a good streak with Vancouver. That is accurate information. 

And then also that own goal, it’s a little questionable to say that they would have lost because honestly, Ryan Gald for the Vancouver White Caps, he was right there. He was gonna poke it in if the Dallas player didn’t accidentally put it, Paul Areola accidentally put it into his own net. Yeah, so that was gonna be my next little tidbit. 

They were saying on the podcast that he was maybe injured during the play. I think he came off, maybe got subbed off, so I don’t know if he’s still injured. I think he’s fine because I looked a little bit ago and I didn’t see any news about that. 

So I have a couple other little fun stats. So they’ve had three games in a row where they’ve had 11 shots each game. So against the Vancouver, only two of those shots, two of those 11 were on goal. Hopefully John Pulskamp knows this little tidbit and he can prepare properly to at least have the ball come at him at least 11 times. But I’d also say our 30 shots to like the 11 or 13 that were on target for the last game sounds like a better situation to me than 11 to two, right? Yeah, statistically that is more shots, yes. Yeah, okay. 

And then my last little tidbit is that Dallas has had two sell out games this year, which really surprised me because I feel like their stadium always looks empty and doesn’t really have a lot of energy. So that was kind of surprising. And this should be our first game with a decent weather, which works out since we’ll be there. So as of now, I didn’t use my phone to get the weather. I went to Google and got Google’s weather since my phone is notoriously gives me bad weather. But for Saturday at kickoff, it’ll be around 53 degrees, partly cloudy and no one but Chad knows this, but I’m a huge weather nerd. So probably missed my calling as a meteorologist. So I might just start giving the weather updates for the games. Like that might be useful. 

I mean, that’s useful information to know what the game is going to be, except for when you’re wrong. Like, Sheena will be looking at her phone saying, it says it’s raining outside. And I’m like, I’m out here. It’s not raining. Like, look out the window. It’s not raining. Well, that’s how I went to Google instead of my weather app from Apple. I’ll start giving the weather because you use that as an excuse for last week on why we haven’t had any goals or winds yet. So that’s not going to be an issue unless the weather changes, which it very well could between now and then. 

All right. I think that’s good information to add to your little injury report that you gave it. Paul Ariola not listed as of right now. OK, well good. 

Looks like a reporter here drew Eperly, part time soccer nut. It says he says that head coach Nico Estavez said that only one injury, quick, quick none. I’m from saying that name wrong. 

He trained at the club today and he should be good for Saturday. No other injuries and news signing. Jesus Jimenez got his passport and has trained with the team for the first time. 

Now, Sheena, do you remember Sporting Kansas City? They’ve played Dallas. Obviously, they play them multiple times a year, every year, since they’re sporting return to the Western Conference, I think in what, 2015, something like that? I don’t know, like asking you. Like, you know. Anyways, do you remember how Dallas used to play soccer? Like, we’d always complain about Dallas because of a certain play style. I’m guessing they’re very defensive and it’s very boring to watch because I associate them with boring. 

Like, I really had to make sure that I had to make a conscious. effort to call them FC Dallas because to me they’re Dallas FC. That’s not right. I’m glad you’re getting away. I know. I know. But like they don’t stand out to me as exciting. I find them to be pretty boring. 

Is that what you were going to say? Yeah. So they were playing that way. We used to always be like, oh gosh Dallas is on the schedule. And I hate that sporting have to play Dallas because they would just foul you and they’d slow the game down and they’d waste time. 

Well, they don’t play like that anymore. As of last year, they play much, much more exciting soccer. They score quite a few goals, not like a crazy amount of goals. Like I think they’re capable of more, frankly, but they did finish third in the West in 2022. They had a plus 11 goal differential. So they were doing something right. 

And you know, maybe the playoffs made a little round there. But yeah, it’s, I think it’ll be better, although it could be much more dangerous as an opponent for sporting. You see those one nothing boring chop you down waste time games though are brutal to watch. So at least it should be maybe a little bit more wide open, bolting attacking a little more. 

The one one scoreline in Vancouver doesn’t really tell the story because that game had quite a bit of action in it. Quite a bit of near misses, frankly, for both teams. So I am nervous because of course I want sporting kids to win, but I’m excited for what could be a better looking soccer match than we’ve seen from Dallas, you know, 2021 and back basically. Let’s talk about some other stuff around FC Dallas. Let’s tell you, Sheena, I was trying to do some scouting, do some research and I decided to go on Apple TV, the MLS season pass and look at some of that content and dang it, it made me kind of like Dallas. I’m not allowed to like Dallas, obviously, but I think obviously all that content is designed to, you know, pull it the old heartstrings. 

Do you know who owns Dallas? Is that Mark Cuban? I don’t know. I know he owns the basketball team. Does he get into soccer too? He owns the Mavericks, that’s correct. He does know. Yeah. 

It’s somebody with a Kansas City connection. Let me give you a hint. I don’t know. 

Is that one like? The Hunt family? Who are the Hunt family? They don’t they own the chiefs? They own the chiefs. Yeah. So I was watching this history and I was aware that, you know, the Hunts used to own the Kansas City Wizards and the Columbus crew and Dallas and now they just own Dallas. You know, they live in Dallas. So it’s funny that they still own the chiefs even though they are not based out of Kansas City as a family. So watching that and kind of seeing the history like Lamar Hunt, the dad who helps, you know, start the chiefs, start the AFL, start MLS, start all these different MLS teams, help save MLS when it was near collapsing in the early 2000s. It made me go, oh gosh, that Lamar Hunt man. What a good guy. 

And that’s still screw Dallas and we got to go beat him. I have a question for you because when I was listening to the FC Dallas podcast, they were saying FC Dallas and Sporting Kansas City are rivals and I was kind of surprised by that. What are your thoughts on that? It’s tough. 

I don’t know that Kansas City has any real obvious rivals. There’s the fake rivalry with Minnesota United. They used to have a rivalry, I would say, with Houston because there was so many of those important playoff games and like right around when, you know, Sporting Family won the MLS Cup in 2013 and they’d been eliminated by Houston a couple of times before that and then they eliminated Houston on the way to winning the title. So Houston kind of felt like a rival. I always think of RSL as a rival because they have such contentious games and obviously beat Real Salt Lake in the playoffs there to win the championship in 2013, MLS Cup in 2013 and lately I’ve been kind of feeling like Seattle is a bit of a rival because some of those games have been very contentious. I think of Tim Mealy a drop in the rock bottom on Christian Roldon and slamming him down in the goal. 

I know Seattle fans are still bitter. They probably still want Tim Mealy to be arrested and put in jail for battery, I believe is what the internet was saying. Oh boy. 

They were very upset about that play. I don’t really look at Dallas as a rival. If they, I mean, regionally they’re close. They obviously play each other in a lot of competitions because of things like the US Open Cup. You tend to play regional games and they run into Dallas a lot in that competition. But frankly, Dallas hasn’t been good enough over a long stretch of time for me to think of them as a rival or they had these like contentious rivalry games. Dallas’s rivals with Houston and I would assume they’re building a rivalry with Austin, but to me they’re not Sporting’s rival. No. 

I was thinking Houston also because I was thinking of the one guy from Houston Dynamo, maybe Roger Espinoza punched him and then he joined the team, Brad something. Brad Evans is Seattle. Brad Davis, I knew it would come to me. Yeah. 

Brad Davis. Because I think it wasn’t at like the one season Roger punched him and then the very next season he was on Sporting and like how awkward. I don’t know if it was back to back seasons, but I remember when they signed Brad Davis that I wrote an article for the Blue Testament. that said, hey, remember that one time, Roger Espen’s a punch, Brad Davis? And I like put the clips and stuff into an article. I just thought it was good. 

Oh, but that was a flop of assigning for Kansas City. That was when they kept signing these old guys that yeah, couldn’t stay healthy and didn’t contribute. That was, and I really, that was like one of the first seasons I was really watching. 

All right, see, Sheena’s got some history here. She’s remembering things. Let’s get back to Dallas. I mean, half remembering. Whatever, like, you know, that’s how memories are, right? Fragments of things are in our brain. 

Let’s talk a little bit more about Dallas. So a lot of players that you should probably be aware of on FC Dallas, Jesus Ferrera comes to mind. He is their striker. He’s just 22 years old. He plays for the US men’s national team as well. He was at times leading the golden boot last year in MLS being the leading goal scorer and then kind of tapered off a little at the end of the season, got a little cold. But he is a legacy player. His dad, David Ferrera, played for FC Dallas before that as well. So he came up to the Academy, kind of a cool story there, you know, father, son playing for the same team. 

I also heard that he really hasn’t done much so far this season. I don’t know what truth there is to that. That was just what the podcast was saying. 

Man, they’re hating on him, huh? He had a two goal game in one of their games, though the win they had over the LA Galaxy to bring this full circle since this is a podcast war between us and the quarter of the Galaxy, I guess. Yeah, he scored twice against them. So he hasn’t scored in the other two games, but I don’t know that as sporting KC fans, we’re allowed to talk about that because three games, no goals. I’m not sure if you remember. 

Yeah, I would take two goals. I wouldn’t be complaining about that. I’d take one goal at this point. Should I take an own goal, you know, as long as we’re not the ones scoring it. I just want something to go into the back of our opponent’s net. That would be our luck. If our first goal here is an own goal, I don’t care, whatever. If it helps them win, it helps them win. Let’s learn a little. 

I was gonna say it’d be our luck that our first goal of the year, we would be giving up an own goal. Yeah, that would be our luck, right? Like the first goal is, oh, I mean, honestly, is this team not closer to an own goal than they are to a regular goal? Zusi had one deflect off of him and almost go in. By the way, speaking of that goal, I watched, they put out this video review thing every week from a pro, the referee association, and they concluded that they got the call right, that it was not a goal. Like, or like basically that the camera angles weren’t able to prove that it was a goal. And the same thing on the offside call, they said they got it right. Now to be fair, they often do seem to pick plays where they think they got it right. So I don’t know how much weight can be put in that, but I do remember a few years ago, they like apologized to Johnny Russell for a call where they got it wrong, not that it helped sporting because it cost them that game, or maybe they got a draw in that game. It doesn’t matter, but occasionally, they’ll admit that they’re wrong. 

Let’s move back to Dallas though. So we talked about Jesus for a dangerous striker, very good attacking player. This Jesus Jimenez player, a certain player I don’t know him at all. He’s 20, 90s from Spain. As I’ve told you all before, deep knowledge here for the Kansas City soccer teams and nobody else. Like I know a little bit about MLS and then nothing about the rest of the world unless I learned it playing FIFA. 

But he’s 29 years old, so he’s a forward, I would assume he’s gonna be potentially playing strikers. Well, they did say they have to manage his minutes as he approaches. So maybe we only see him off the bench. Another player though I want you all to be thinking about is young Paxton Pomykal. 

He joined the team quite a few years ago, he was dealt with a lot of injuries, but he seems to finally be getting healthy. And he’s kind of that dangerous midfielder that can create and make plays for those around him. Set people like JesusFerrera up for goals, as well as the team’s really dynamic wingers. They got Alan Velasco and Paul Ariola, who are both kind of high paid, big fee based players. Paul Ariola, like two plus million dollar fee to get him from DC United, which is unheard of inside of the league. Because that’s fake, funny money, general allocation money. 

And then I don’t remember how much it was for Velasco, but it was like the record for Dallas going out and signing a player on the open market. And he was 20, I believe when they signed him. So he’s 21, 22 now. So young, fast, Aril is a little bit older, but fast, it could smell danger for Sporting’s back line. What do you think? It could be an issue. 

I think that so far, like especially with the last week’s game, our defense wasn’t really challenged too much. So because of that, they played well. So it could be a challenge. And I would be curious to see it sounds like they’re gonna be challenged more against Dallas than they were last week against LA Galaxy. I think that is a fair assessment. 

Dallas is probably gonna get some chances. It’s just a matter of can we shut those down, limit the angles, make it a little tough on them. But I’m definitely a little nervous. 

the music right here. So sorry, Hazer for anything, like this or what, just reminded me that there is a big difference in my浪 competition. So I guess to reflect on how much this U.S. worldwide sparkle has been through this. And so thank you. Yeah, okay. Here’s your 

shot about A nacho, right now, a few night ready people feel like what are you delivering and who is applying? Do you want to make any predictions about this game? Yeah, I truthfully think it’s going to be a draw. Well, it could be a loss. Love your confidence. I OK, so there’s a couple of things 

why I say that. Well, for one, the biggest contributor is we haven’t scored a goal. And I feel like scoring a goal on the road. Obviously, I’d love to see that, but I 

don’t know realistically how likely that is. So I think it could be. And then if we do score, I could easily see Dallas coming back and getting one, too. I feel like if we score at this point, like, we’re going to be so excited, we could easily give one up. Like, I feel like this is we’re getting to that like in football, you know, how every season there’s a team who hasn’t won a game and like the fans are like, you know, are we ever going to win a game? And that’s how I feel about a goal. Like we’re becoming that what I think we’re one of three teams who haven’t scored a goal yet this season. So I think when it does finally happen, everyone like the team’s going to be so excited, I could see them easily giving up another one, which could end up in a draw. That is, yeah, I think very reasonable. I think a draw would be an acceptable 

result. I know people don’t want to hear that because sporting haven’t won a game yet. This year would be nice to get a win. But historically, it’s it’s hard to win on the road. I will give you some kind of maybe more optimistic stats. Sporting did lose the last game that they played in Dallas, which that’s not optimistic. I am aware of that. But it was on decision day that last 

year, sporting had been eliminated for a couple of weeks from the playoffs. It basically was a meaningless game. So I didn’t put a lot of stock in it. They lost two to one before that, though. 

Dallas had lost three of the prior four and the other one was a draw. So sporting is capable of going into Dallas and beating them. And I think even more so when the weather’s not brutally hot, because sometimes what gets a team is going to Texas in the heart of the summer when it’s so humid and miserable. And as our weather girl told us, it is going to be pretty nice. So that should favor sporting who have been training in conditions either like that or colder and worse. Also, Daniel Salloi is fantastic against Dallas. He 

has scored six times against FC Dallas. So I think that’s kind of exciting. That is exciting. I was going to just throw out there 

that the humidity for Saturday is going to be 43%, but it still shouldn’t really be a factor because of the temperature. Why are you laughing at me? The weather report is over. You already did the weather report. I know. I didn’t think we needed to discuss humidity, but since you brought it up, I thought I just remembered reading it was going to be 43%. But that’s awesome. Hopefully he can get another goal. And I 

feel like the minute somebody gets a goal, the team’s confidence will already boost and I feel like right now the issue is they have no confidence as a team. Maybe they’re not saying that. That’s just my perception because it has to be like, what’s the word I want to use? It has to be. Demoralizing. Yeah, demoralizing to go into three games 

and have no goals and have every one thing if they hadn’t had so many shots, but they’ve had like 50, what, nine, six shots. Yeah, upper 50s and I know that they have the most shots in the league without a goal. So lots of bad things. That said, they’re trending in the right direction. 

I thought they looked for sure or against Portland. Colorado wasn’t the greatest game, but they solidified their defensive nonsense. Then they were really good defensively against the Galaxy and then attack was all over them. Not great chances as we discussed in the 

post game podcast, but I’m feeling a little better now if they lose, probably not going to panic unless it’s like a six nothing loss and then I might have to have a meltdown. So on that note, we might not get to meltdown with you all live because we will be in Dallas for the game. So don’t count on a podcast. You might see a surprise one pop up in the feed, but I’m guessing without our proper equipment, she now also prize one a set in the hotel room and edit this audio. So well, Airbnb. Oh, my apologies. You want to give everybody our address too, 

so they can come hang out. I actually don’t know it yet. She’s emailing it to me tomorrow. So all right, there’s some inside baseball there. 

Let’s move on from this game. We didn’t make any solid predictions. We’re nervous, but wait, what are you? So you think it could be a draw or a loss? Yeah, I’m not very optimistic, but I hope that I’m completely wrong and sporting. Keep it going and win really well in Dallas and get just so we can shut everybody up. I’m tired of hearing about the negativity, frankly. Can I just say one more thing is that I said that I don’t tweet very much, but a blue Testament article popped up and for some reason I felt compelled to write back. And so my. that on this whole situation of when we 

start to panic is if we draw in Dallas, there’s no need to panic. If we lose in Dallas, like there’s a little cause for concern, but I think ultimately everything comes down to next week at home against Seattle. So if we go into, or if Seattle comes to us and we draw, there’s a reason I think after that to panic, especially if we don’t have a goal yet, like we need a goal by that Seattle game or by the end of that Seattle game. Cause if we still can’t score in another two games, like there’s cause for concern. Even if they draw or lose this game with Dallas, I think they need to score regardless just to get that going. I agree. They need to score, but I won’t panic if they, if it’s a draw. Fair enough. All right. Let’s move on. We 

told you we’re going to tell you a little update about this independent US soccer investigation that was completed. I’m going to quote, I’m going to quote some tweets from Kyle Bonagura. I’m sure I’m nailing that he’s from ESPN. He talked about this domestic violence issue that 

was re, you know, looked into between Greg Burr-Halter and his now wife Rosalind Burr-Halter. And basically it corroborated the reports that Greg and his wife had said that, you know, he was drunk and he, uh, like she slapped him, I think. And then he pushed her down and kicked her twice. Obviously not acceptable, not okay. It was from 1992. They’d obviously forgiven each 

other, been married, had four kids. The issue was the way the Reina’s brought it up and a lot of information came out about that. So Claudio Reina was unwilling to participate in the investigation. Daniel Reina had two brief phone calls with them. They both made threats to US soccer employees about releasing damaging information about Burr-Halter’s past during the World Cup. Claudio said to USMNT GM, Brian McBride, you guys don’t even know what we know about Greg. And Daniel told an unnamed US soccer employee, once this tournament is over, I can make one phone call, give one interview and his cool sneakers and bounce passes will be gone, which there was a lot of, uh, not being made, I guess, of his cool shoes. And then when the ball would go out of play, I don’t know if you saw this, she knew he would do like behind the back bounce passes or, you know, quick little passes to players and people were, they were breaking them down on Twitter and how it, how it allowed the player that he was bounce passing the ball to, to make a faster throw in. So it was like kind of a running 

joke. And they’re clearly getting bitter apparently during this whole thing that, you know, all the families are traveling together at the World Cup and all the people in the Reyna contention were like grumpy and ruining things for everybody else. And everybody else was like having a good time enjoying being at a World Cup. Like this could be a once in a lifetime thing for a lot of these people, but a lot of conflict where the Reynas are reaching out to US soccer employees and, and complaining, being upset. One really kind of damning thing was an email from 2018 came out where Claudio is complaining that female referees shouldn’t be allowed to referee men’s games. It was like a youth US game that Gio was involved in. A lot of really terrible, like we’re soccer parents in the world stuff. So Sheena, what, what did you do to weigh in? What, what were you thinking about this when you saw that the investigation had closed? My gosh, his parents are awful. Like they are truly awful human beings. Well, 

these are their best like the Berhalters are some of their best friends. I know they were like in their weddings, roommates in college, things like that. You know, what are you doing? I’ve been 

waiting for more tea on this to come out and the tea has spilled everywhere. And I think the part of this whole situation that’s hard for me to grasp is that level of friendship that they had. Like this was their best friend and they spilled like some really like life altering stuff about them. And it’s disgusting, especially because it happened so long ago. It’s not recent. And like you said, like Greg and his 

wife have overcome that. And I think I said this before when we talked about this topic, but like with friends like that, who needs the enemies? Like these people are awful. And I think I don’t know what the intention was for the Reina’s to expose this information. But like sadly, in the situation that’s about an abusive situation, somehow the abuser comes out looking better than the Reina’s, which is crazy. They just seem like violent like individuals. And it’s like no wonder Geo has that like attitude problems. Look at his parents. That’s his example. Yeah, that’s true. Right. You 

think about all these situations where parents are like their kids acting up at school and the parents are somehow blaming the teachers or other people. They don’t want to take responsibility that maybe their little kid is a monster. Now, I don’t know anything about Geo. He 

sounds like a typical 19-year-old or 20-year-old, whatever he was at the time of this incident where he pouted a little. He didn’t get his way and he probably has you know used his father as a former US player himself And they probably used that influence at times, but Geo’s a really good soccer player But it didn’t even I wasn’t even that upset that he wasn’t playing in some of these games because the most of the games didn’t even call for him Which we talked about back in the podcast around the World Cup so go back and listen to those if you want to get into that I don’t want to repeat myself too much, but interesting story Sheena I don’t know if you saw this Tyler Adams entered his hamstring for Leeds United the other day He was pulled out of the recent USM and T call-ups and his replacement is Geo Reina. Yeah, you know I am glad that he still has the opportunity to be called up and everything because It kind of is like he has this like mark against him because of his parents And so the other thing I was gonna bring up because you brought up some of the times the Reina or Claudio called the Federation to complain but there was one that stood out to me that I didn’t hear you talk about but in 2019 Claudio Reina contacted the Federation to overturn a red card that Geo received Because he had to sit out the next match and it’s like who does that and he was a soccer player So it’s like, you know the sports and the expectations like rather you agree with that You know the card or not you don’t call and try to get it reversed like that it I just like can’t even grasp that Especially as a parent and a parent of a daughter who plays soccer Granted I was never a world-class like scholar or anything in the sport But I would never try to interfere like I just I’m so baffled by this But I’m glad he has the opportunity to go into camp and hopefully he uses all of this noise And ignores it and goes out there and plays well and hopefully he doesn’t have any more attitude issues Yeah, absolutely when he came back to his club or is he a doorman and he was playing after the World Cup He scored quite a few goals and one of the celebrations He does put his fingers in his ears after he scored which I think is like I’m blocking out the noise I’m not listening to it and hopefully he can because I don’t know how much of this is his fault And I don’t know that he should be punished for the things that sounds like he did the right stuff after he pouted and didn’t practice hard He apologized to his team and stepped up and was doing what he was supposed to do during the World Cup But as far as his future career, yeah, hopefully it’s not affected Claudio on the other hand He basically lost his job with Austin FC. He used to be their sporting director now He’s in like a behind-the-scenes technical office and who knows if they’re gonna take his bad job away from him, too You know could you fire him for this nonsense? But did he ruin his soccer career? Over pouting for his son at the World Cup and then all this other stuff that came out afterwards maybe it’s just and I wonder How much should Geo knew what was happening? Did he know his parents were making these calls because like I was thinking about that aspect of it as I was reading the Article that I was reading about all of this is like if he didn’t know and then it comes out That your parents have been behind the scenes doing things and maybe that’s the reason you had these opportunities to play and stuff Like I’d be so embarrassed if I were him just regardless I’d be mortified at the like if this was my situation and like a job isn’t everything But like their actions would honestly if it were me make me reconsider what kind of relationship I would have with them if they were my parents like I hope they’re going to counseling and they need some like Volunteer work to help them realize how ridiculous they are and like the scheme of life and like the issues other people go through I don’t know. They’re gross. I don’t like them Yeah, it’s 

it’s definitely soccer and your kid not playing in a game are not that important Yeah, grand scheme of life for sure exactly enough of renegade. I don’t need to think about those people anymore for a long time Let’s switch gears. Let’s talk about the Kansas Incurrent the other 

team here in Kansas City that deserves some attention They we mentioned the other day that the FIFA 23 game now has NWSL players being added to it as well as all the NWSL teams and this week They came out with the ratings for all the players. Sheena Did you see who the highest rated player on the Kansas City current was I didn’t but I’ll take a guess Okay, I don’t know why I decided I want to take a guess. This makes it better now. You have to guess come on A Da Bina Da Bina that’s the right answer. She is an 88 overall the second highest 

player in the entire league behind Alex Morgan So if you all didn’t know they got themselves a superstar now I think we mentioned that one to be in your sign But FIFA can be a little wonky at times too. So the next highest rated player is 80 French 85 overall and then Desiree Scott’s right behind her Desi love Desi. She’s a Canadian soccer legend, the Kansas City soccer legend. But she’s getting up there. This will probably potentially be the last year of her professional career. For her to be the third highest-rated player is probably a little bit over the top, but that’s okay. You’re getting some legacy credit there. I wanted to highlight some of the people that I think are getting the shaft on this roster. C. C. Kaiser only rated a 76. Kristen 

Hamilton only a 75. Fifa, I have notes that I would like to give you. What about the Michelle Cooper? Is she on 

there? So this only shows me the top chunk of players all the way through Cassie Miller rated 75. So Cooper not listed in here yet. Notoriously, Fifa is cruel to young players because on this big list I’m not seeing Alex Loera who’s a star player. She’s gonna be on the women’s national team. Paley Mace by the way, she’s on this list. She’s an 82 overall. Other new signings on the list, Vanessa DiBernardo is an 82. Morgan Gautrat a 78. So some of the new players getting some 

love, but then yeah, Mimi Larson not on here at all either and she might be their starting strikers. So Fifa, take it with the grain of salt. They sometimes get their numbers wrong, but I just love that the ladies are being included and if I actually get Fifa 23 because I’m still rocking Fifa 22 then I’ll have to play with them and use them in the game. Maybe let my daughter play as well. She is excited about it when we heard about that news. Our daughter, sorry, I always do that. Yeah, she’s ours although when she’s bad she can be yours. Okay, fair enough. Alright, so any other closing 

thoughts before we go to the digital crawl, Sheena? Let’s just go to the digital crawl chat. Alright, the digital crawl is where we give you rapid fire news. We’re just gonna hit these topics quick. We’re gonna get y’all out of here and then we will talk to you again next week. So, Marino Giannis got called up for the 

Cypress National Team. He is going on international duty. He is gonna miss that very important game Sheena was talking about with the Seattle Sounders. It’s possible he could miss the game after that as well. We’ll see if he can make it back, you know, Cypress is way around the world. They’re playing some friendlies though. Scotland, I know is one of them. So it’d have been interesting if Johnny Russell 

was called up, but obviously with him being there and he’s kind of out of national team duty. Other news, Ozzy Cisneros, if you know Ozzy on the team, had his 19th birthday. He’s been on the team since he was 16. So it’s kind of wild. Oh, that’s crazy. 

Yeah, he’s already been on for quite a while. He hasn’t gotten a lot of first team minutes. He’s spent some time with the Academy this offseason and with SKC too, I believe a little bit in training as well. So it’d be interesting to see if he can make that leap and go to the next level. Still so young, so much future ahead of him. We mentioned the Kansas City current earlier. It 

was announced this week that their home opener is now gonna be on CBS. It’s a rematch with the Portland Thorns. That was the NWSL title game. That’ll be their second game of the season. Everybody should get out to Children’s Mercy Park 

and support the current and are we going? I’m sure we’re gonna go. I mean, I’m gonna go as press if nothing else, but yeah. No, you’re gonna go with me and have to hang out with me. Just sit in the stands. All right. I can we’ll discuss this off air. Other news, the Utah Royals have officially been 

announced as an NWSL expansion team. We had mentioned that they were likely coming back. They will join the league again in 2024. Sporting Kansas City 2 schedule was released. They 

opened their season very soon on March 26th. Nothing like MLS Next Pro getting their act together and finally getting their schedule out. A team, the Rochester Royals, former Rochester Rhinos, 

they are like Rochester FC or something. They dissolved last week, so they’re no longer in the league. I imagine that screwed up the scheduling probably a little bit, but they’ll play the Colorado Rapids, SKC2 that is. They’ll put the Colorado Rapids 2, which is how they opened the season last year on the road. Then they’ll come home on April 2nd and play Austin’s new MLS Next Pro team at Sunday at 3 p.m. April 2nd, Rock Chalk Park over in Lawrence, Kansas. One last little bit of Sporting Kansas City 

2 news. They lost to North Texas SC, which is Dallas’s Academy team. Well, Academy team. MLS Next Pro team lost 1-0 in a preseason game the other day. Their final preseason game will be in just a couple of days on the 18th. Depending on when you’re listening to this, they’re coming back home. They’re playing UMKC. But if you made it this far in 

the podcast and you have not already, be sure to go subscribe to the pod. Rate it. Spotify. You can do it in the mobile app. Wherever you Apple people rate podcasts, you can go into that platform. Apple Podcasts? I don’t know what it’s called. Just search for the Glory KC if you enjoyed the show. Then follow us on all the social media 

that I mentioned earlier. Follow me at Playfor90 on Twitter. Let’s play it out with Christian Leo with Ride it Like you mean it. Take care everybody. Bye.