The Evening Juice With Lemon City Live | Season 9 | Episode 11 | The Messi Era Begins

All right, Lemonheads, what up? Welcome to the Evening Juice with Lemon City Live. I know it's been a while. Season 9, episode 11. I'm your boy Fungus. I'm joined by Xavi over here, XG La Voz. What's up, Xavi? How's it going, man? Great. Fantastic. I bet. I bet, man. So before we get started, man, I just want to remind everybody, if you're watching, you're watching on our Facebook page, on our Twitter page, or on the Five Reasons Sports YouTube Network. Shout out to Five Reasons for hosting us on their YouTube page. So I think we should just get right into it, man. Last time we had an episode, the title, or not the title, but the description of the episode was, Enter Miami Continues to Lose. Now what? Wow. That was for a while. Yeah. It's been like two, three weeks since we did our last episode, but man, one episode later and how things have changed, right? The GOAT era, the Messi era, has officially begun. Two wins later, Messi scores, what, three goals in less than an hour of play, or less than 90 minutes of play, whatever it was. Less than a half, yeah. Oh my God. Ridiculous, bro. Ridiculous. What a way to start. The butterfly effect? No, no. It's the Messi effect. Oh, yeah. For real, man. That's what it is. A lot of people- The Pulga effect, bro. A lot of people kept saying, no, one person won't make that great of a difference. And to be honest, it's not just one person because Busquets, Busey, Busey, down here they have a little chant, in the green line in the parking, they were like, hey, we want some Busey. Oh, I love it. The first time I heard it, I flashed back to my junior high when the actual song, I was like, whoa, what? They're like, oh, that's pretty smart, whoever came up with that, it's awesome. They're like, hey, we want some Busey. Oh my God. And the man is like the genius behind the genius, right? Yeah. He's the genius behind the genius. Exactly. It's amazing how he just, he maneuvered and took over that whole midfield. Yeah. And it's so elegant and beautiful, a 6'2 guy. Yeah, man. With that finesse and that, because that's hard for anybody to have that quality. But for that big, it's fantastic to see them there. And people are saying, oh, they're older, they're past their prime. They're past their prime age, but the play on the field is still perfection. Just from what we see, they still got it, man. Physically, it might be a little bit less, but they still got it. Yeah, because their mind is just, it works so much faster than the average player. You know what I mean? And they've competed at the fastest paces. So MLS, they probably feel like the game has slowed down for them at playing at the MLS level. Yeah, they've won anything and everything there is to be won in sports. They've won all the trophies. They have all the accolades. And they came, and they're hungry. Yeah. Because they're moving. Messi was moving. He was marking. He wasn't just standing. If he's motivated early on, I don't know, and I don't care, but the guy's doing it. And then Busi, and they're saying, you know, he's not that great on defense. He might not be the greatest defender, but like we said, you know, he reads the play, and then when he has the ball, it's quality. We're going to have to go back, and we're going to get a clip, prior episodes, when we were talking about this. And I mentioned, I said, look, when you have two guys like that on the field, the boost, the confidence, everything goes up. Everybody else around you feels better. And yesterday was the proof of that. Because even the guys say that in interviews afterwards, Dixon Marroyo was being interviewed, Jesus, Joseph, they were being interviewed, but particularly Dixon. He said, like, they make it, their quality, they make it so easy. Yeah. They make it so easy to play. I get it. You know, they do the work. I get it. I give it. And it's everything so simple. And you saw guys, Camashi, Camashi, that game, he looked, he actually looked elegant. Because that was one of the things that I've said, that I always believe he's more, he's not a bad player. I think he's a really good player. But I think he's more of a defensive minded. But yesterday, he actually had a nice assist, and he had movements, and he looked more fluid. So I guess he is picking up from Boosie. You know, he's picking up in practice or what, but there is, this is a different team. This is a different. It's night and day. A completely different. Atlanta is not, you know, they're not having a great season, but that's not a horrible team. Yeah. And a 4-0 bashing that could have been more. Although Atlanta did have opportunities, and they could have scored. So the defense has to toughen up. The defense for Miami, even though they got the clean sheet. Yeah. Thank God that we have Drake Callender protecting the goal. The season MVP. Yeah, he's the guardian angel. He's a guardian angel. He is, to me, the MVP of the season. This wretched season that looks like it's turned. It's like a Disney movie, right? It's wretched, and it's being charmed. You know, we have Prince Charming come in, and he's changing everything, and it's amazing. It's the greatest thing to see. Yeah. It's the greatest thing to see. And you know what's incredible is that they're still waiting on Jordi Alba, right? They're waiting on Jordi Alba. They're waiting on Diego Gomez. He's a U22 initiative, Irwine, central midfielder also. Very good. A lot of potential. They're waiting for Facundo Farias, who is supposed to be a top, top prospect that they're bringing in, that they had somehow stolen because he was supposed to be going to Europe. Where'd they get him from? Colón. And he's nice. You lost me? I did. Okay. I'm back. I hope I'm back. What were you saying? He's supposed to be what? He's attacking midfielder. He's supposed to be a up-and-coming prospect, a hot prospect over there. Young guy, too. And then they're looking into getting the central midfielder, Tomás Áviles, from Brassing, but they're having issues with that one. They're asking, you know, holding out for a lot of money, but they're still negotiating, and anything's possible there. Plus, Gregory looks like he could make it back this season. Nice. He's looking a lot better. They mentioned Malta, but I'm not so sure. When I see him, just my eye test, he doesn't look. His left leg looks considerably skinnier, and I see a little bit of a limp. Yeah. But supposedly he spoke to somebody, and like two months, they're two months out, two more months before he comes back. I don't know. We'll see. But if Gregory comes back, that's a big boost. Yeah. They're getting everybody at the right moment. They're getting everything happening at the right moment. And I got an opportunity to ask Tata a question yesterday, and I told him, hey, you know, there's two games, and you've won two games looking nice. Does this give us, the fans, a hope that things can happen, good things can happen? Like the US Open Cup, the semifinals. They could theoretically win that, right? They can win that. And then the Leagues Cup, they're in it until they're not. They can still win this. And then I asked them, you know, can the fans hope? And the most important one I said to me, I said the most important one, I added that in there, is MLS, you're far away from the playoffs right now. You know, if you guys play like this, can the fans expect that maybe you somehow make it in? And then there's a hope. And he goes, look, you know, the first two, you know, we're in, we're good. The last one is the hardest one to reach, but we're going for all of them. Of course. Until we have no more chance or no more hope, we're going for, we're all in. And that's what I want to, that's what I want to do. I mean, it's scary to think about for, if you're one of the other teams, that Miami could possibly sneak into the playoffs, you know, maybe if they went out or, you know, they need, maybe they need some help. I'm not sure. It's possible. No, no. Yeah, it's possible. I think they're only down 12 points and there's, you know, there's a good amount of games. 30 something in 36 points in play. Yeah. So there's a chance. Exactly. So if they get in it, all bets are off. Completely. All bets are off, man. Especially the way they look. Oh my, they look, they look dangerous, bro. And if everybody comes back and if they have the depth and everybody comes back at that point. And once you add Jordi Alba and these other, and the other new guys, the young guys. It's a scary team. And what's even scarier is that next season is when the money, the wallet opens up because you remember everything, everything, they're restrained. The thing is that the genius that is, and then we're using that word genius a lot. Now in Miami, we weren't, we weren't using that word too often before, but, but the genius that is Chris Henderson, you know? Okay. These are all the restrictions. Yeah. It went like this. Yeah. I'm here. This is a rule. Okay. I can do this. I can do that. I sell everything. He did it. Do they have an international player spot available? They got one from, from San Jose of quakes for GAM money. Yeah. And then one, this is, there's, there's something else. I'm not sure. Negative. Negative is out for a season. He's an international spot. I believe that his spot, they can replace it if they bring a player to see can be making more, you know, I don't have the specifics. I didn't read the specifics, but I know there's something to that. So there's something there that's a spot that, that, that they can get also. So, and, and there's still, you know, there's still a chance to trade someone away. Yeah. So don't be surprised. I mean, the name that comes up and people think it's a far fetched idea, but it would be Campana is a DP spot and he's not an international spot because he's born here. But he can make it work. If anybody can cook, it's, it's Henderson. Baby godfather has been making the moves and you know, they, they pay their dues. They plan for things to be bad before they got better, but it looks like they're getting better. Now really fast. Yeah. At the, at the moment, but it has to get better when you have messy and boosted. Of course. Man, what a difference. Imagine those guys. I was thinking, imagine those guys in the prime, those people in Barcelona enjoying those guys. And that, that must've been, if you're a football aficionado, you're in a beautiful city. You live in an amazing place. And every weekend you get to see that. And you enjoyed, you know, you enjoyed champions league. Those people through that span, I think it's the best in the history of football, right? They enjoyed it. It's awesome. But let's, let's continue. Let's continue. Yeah, man. And like, like, like we said, there's, there's that one international spot available, maybe two because of a negative. So some of the names that were thrown out were, were Luis Suarez, right. That from gremio, but it doesn't look like that got shut down. But yes, that's still not there. I don't, I don't think so. No, I don't think so. I haven't heard anything. And, and, and some people have come out saying that, you know, their socials tell them, I just don't see it. I don't see it. I don't, Luis Suarez, that he, he definitely wanted to come doing everything in his power. And the team, you know, has to stay numb mom on that because they can't interfere with a guy. He has a contract. But he was trying to do everything in his power. He said, Hey, I'll give you all the money back. Plus more money out of pocket. Let me out of my contract. And they're saying, no. Yeah. That's how much he wants to be with his boys. Right. They must be calling up saying, dude, we're loving it in Miami. Get your ass over here. For real. They're inviting him to the next Asado. Yep. He'll be in December. He'll be here in time for Christmas. Yeah. He's got to finish out the year and then he can join us. Or join Miami next season. All right. No worries for them. Happy days are ahead. It's going to be insane. How can anybody stop that? How can anybody stop people wanting to come here? And you can't, you can't. And, and hopefully this is the beginning of that trend. Yeah. That these high caliber players say, you know what? I, I love the Miami vibe. I like the feel, you know, I want to go there. That's where I want to go. Come on in. And, and, and let's start this thing. Let's get this thing rolling. They just start. This is only the beginning. We can't get too ahead of ourselves, but it's just that when you see this product for two games and, and you remember just what we had just a season, let's not even go back. Yeah. Just a season. Your, your eyes are, I mean, you're what have I been seeing? And this is, and this is the 36 year old goat. Imagine him 16. 26, 26 in his peak performance. And you still see him and you realize this man is special. This is, he was touched by God. He was touched because I know you, you go and you work hard and you do. And, and, and that's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to go and focus and work and kicked about 20 million times, which I'm sure he did, but he's just a special gift. You see the, the ball at his feet, the movements without the ball. All of a sudden he gets it and, and he makes a millimetric pass down on the grass. The next minute he'll put one up 40 yards. Perfect. Yeah. You know, and, and only he saw that. And, and I was, because we're up there on the topic, we get to see that panoramic view. You know, because when you're watching a game from up there, you see what the players don't see. So you, you're like yelling at them. This guy's open on the right or whatever, you know what I mean? But the great players can see that from the field. Absolutely. It's amazing. It's a, it's a spidey sense. They say, you know, how many, there was a play where Messi, they gave him a ball up top and he, the boss coming, he has his back to the goal and he has Martinez running in off to his right. The boss coming and he doesn't even, he just comes and he just does a little flick with his foot, foot with his right foot that way. And it's incredible. It's just a little play, but it breaks the defense because they expect that. And you know, funny thing is both his goals were with his right leg. He's got both his goals with his right leg. Cause the first one, he broke away, hit the pole. It came back, boop, tapped it. And then the other one, he takes it up, gives it out to, to Taylor, who I'm going to talk about in a second. Yes. Puts it, puts it, Taylor puts it in Martinez. Martinez had a really good game, even though on the stats, it doesn't show, but it's a different Martinez on the field. He does his little fake. The ball goes through the fender bites with him. Messi goes in and just taps it. Like he's done thousands of times, taps it into the corner, like nothing. And, and, and they're up to zip and you're feeling that it's going to be a runaway. And it was, and it was perfect. That's incredible, man. So talk to me about, about Taylor, man. He had a brace yesterday. He's having a great seat, his best season with a team. And he's had great, good seasons with this team. Didn't he also score in the previous match? The, the previous goal. Was it Cramashi or was it him? No, no, you just made me forget. Okay. They won. Messi scored the game winner. Right at the end, but who scored the first. Jeez. I just blanked out, dude. That's, that's what happens when you watch the goal. Yeah. I just, I just focused on Messi. We'll see if somebody, yeah, check it out. Let me, let me see. Right. It was against, it was Robert Taylor, Robert Taylor in the 44th minute. Oh, he went across. How can I forget? That was a beautiful play. An inspirational way. Well, we're talking. Yeah. If I'm not mistaken. No, no, that was Robbie, Robbie throw vomit Robinson. He, Oh, that was before Messi even checked into the game. Yeah. But yeah, they, they went at the 44th minute of the first half. They, they went into the lead. Robbie made an, you know, spectacular switch over the top. Perfect. Beautiful. and he just brought it down and he's done. He did what he likes to do when he's on the left side, cut in, cut in. But this time it, it just went in perfectly. Yeah. Now, Robert, Robert Taylor has always been one of my, my guys, because I like, he's very, you can use them in so many positions, but he's always, he's always good at each one. Cause it's hard. You know, if you're, if you're a defender, the coach is hard for the coach to tell you, no, go play center forward. There's skill sets there that are different. Oh, this guy has played right back. He has played right wing left wing. He has played nine. He has played 10. He has played eight on this team this season. You know, he, he's been all over the place, but he's one of the guys that people underestimate. And I had a conversation with a colleague and we're talking about for next season. It's like, Hey, you know, the team's not going to look the same next season. Yeah. There's like, so many guys that people underestimate. Hard to believe there's a lot of guys that can be gone. And he mentioned his name and I told him, no, No, no, no. He's got the same amount of goals as Messi in those two games. Yeah. He's the he's the finished goat. He's the finished goat. I saw some on Twitter, somebody wrote like, yeah, as expected, Robert Taylor's the player that benefited most from Messi's arrival, because everybody said, who's going to benefit more, Joseph or Campana? That's the understanding, right? You think, oh, he's going to do it. Man, Taylor's playing at a different level. He's playing at a different level, but he's with the goal. Inspirational. Inspirational. Yeah. But you know what? For Joseph, I think his time will come, because during all these plays, all these scoring plays, I see Joseph positioning himself well. You know what I mean? Messi's first goal could have easily been a pass to Joseph, and Joseph would have had a wide open shot. You know what I mean? He has a different pep in his shot. He's moving more. And he's playing with somebody that can create for him, and he doesn't have to worry about that aspect of it. And he's being unselfish, too. There's a couple. Just in this game, he gave two balls that could have been to assist. One to Messi that got stopped. The other goalie came out. And on the other side, for Robert Taylor, for his third goal, they did one of those pop, pop, pop, pop. Got it to Martinez, and Martinez faked and tapped it into the middle. And Taylor came in kind of like off-balance, but hit it with his left, and the goalie dove. It wasn't his best shot, but the goalie made a good save and grabbed it, because it was going to go into the corner. But I like Joseph. I see him smiling more. And he didn't have a hard body towards it like that. He didn't go to old-school Gonzalo. Not new-school Gonzalo towards the end, because Gonzalo towards the end was amazing. He was awesome. But not before that. So this guy, Joseph, is smiling. You see him on the bench holding the end with Messi and on the field. He's making moves. He's being all selfish. His star is rising. His star is rising. He's a proven player. And once it goes in, he's going to pop off. Pop, pop, pop. And he'll just start popping. So it's like from every angle that you see it, it's so positive right now, right? The only thing that you do have concerns is the defense, because now McVay got thrown out of the game, because they were going to give up a goal. He turned back and grabbed the player going in. It's a red card. But it's definitely a red card. McVay's one of the guys that has surprised me with his low-level play, because everything's not positive, right? He was, to me, one of the better players last season, if not the best player on defense for sure. This season, since he hasn't been consistent minutes and he's been left out a lot, I don't know if it's affected him emotionally, psychologically, or whatever. But he's not the same guy. He's not the same guy on the field, because he's a very talented player. He's a very talented player. He's not playing anywhere near to his level. So who's going to ride the bench once Jordi Alba joins the squad? More than likely, it's going to be Noah. More than likely, it's going to be. And Noah played an outstanding match this last game against Atlanta. Defensively, he was solid, aggressive, didn't give the guy space. He was on him. The guy would move this way, that way, whatever. He was on him. He did a really solid job. And he actually got up, made some nice passes, touched the ball around. He looked good. He looked good. But if Jordi's coming, as he works his way back in, more than likely, it's going to be Noah, who's going to see less time. Okay. Is it because they play the same position? Can you not move Noah around somewhere? I think either one has the ability to play back or further up. But I think Miami has other options higher on the pitch, and Noah's a better option there. And also, he might have his playing time lessons, but he's going to play because he's playing very well. And I think Alba is not going to be 100% for the whole game. He's going to get his playing time. He's doing really well. He's doing really well. And when I talk about a shout out to William Frey, who got injured once again, I saw him when he used to play in Western. He got injured again. It's a shame. The moment he went down, I knew it was serious. Why? How do you know? Well, he has a history, and it was non-contact. The worst injuries I've seen in person and on TV or whatever is your foot gets stuck, you rip your knee. I've seen it. Even in recreation, when we played, a friend did a slight tackle, and nobody near him broke his leg in three pieces. Nobody touched him. And the shout and everything happens. He's young. He's young. He vowed to come back, and I believe him. I believe him, and I hope so. But just three injuries, serious knee injuries in three seasons, oh, man, that's going to be tough. It'll be tough. Don't count him out, but I do believe it's going to be a tough comeback. Definitely. Definitely, man. Well, shout out to Ian Frey. They did hold up his jersey. That was nice from La Familia. I saw that. He was out. He was there. He took some pictures before the game. And now that you mention La Familia, I always go and hang out around the lobby. Even before, like last season, I would always start filming and going around. I see more people doing that. They're following that lead. I see more people coming. There you go. I see people coming out that I never see before, walking out of the parking lots, getting photos and stuff, so that's okay. But I'm out there, and one of the things that I talk to guys in the game that caught my attention and I appreciate is it is like a familia. They're set up, and everybody's around, and these guys have the food, and these guys have brewskis or whatever. Everybody's sharing, dude. I hang out a lot with the Black Herons, United. Those are my guys. I'm always there. And you see they always have the Jamaican patties, and you see people come, hey, what's this? What's that? Can I have one? Yeah, yeah, look, beef, chicken, whatever. There, and then you have other guys coming around with sliced meat and stuff, and if you want a brewski. Now, this isn't open to, you got to be part of the group. Just come in here, and if you're coming, come and bring something. But it's a special thing. It's a special thing that I appreciate in tailgate. I always go and hang out there. They always treat me great, and I love it. I love to be there before the game. I got a little episode going now with Javon, which I always ask him before the game. He's a character, so I always ask him. One of the Black Herons, I always ask him what he thinks about that game, and he's been almost two for two. In the last game, he said, hey, all I want is for him to keep it tight, and if Messi comes in, anything can happen, and he hit it. And then this game, I ask, hey, Javon, what's going on today? And he tells me, look, I don't know about a score, but I feel a hat-trick from Messi. I feel a hat-trick. Maybe he can get a hat-trick. He was this close to a hat-trick, but he did two goals and an assist. Contribution hat-trick. Exactly. He said, I feel confident. I feel I'm a believer. I feel good, and I think they're making believers of people. One of the things that stuck with me when Phil was around, the Phil days, he said, you got to believe. You got to keep believing. He was big into that, so I played along with that, and I said, hey, don't stop believing. Like the song, Don't Stop Believing, so they're making them believe. They're making the fans believe now. They're starting to make them believe. It's only two games. Don't get super high, super low. You know, it's two games against good opponents. Absolutely. They got lucky against Cruz Azul because Cruz Azul in the first 25 minutes, what Miami did to Atlanta United straight, two goals right off the bat, Cruz Azul could have done that to Miami. If you're honest, you're watching that game, Cruz Azul had total control at the beginning. Never stop believing. That's right, but what happened, you know, when you have the goal, it's like things work in your favor, like your luck turns. Like it's one of those guys that goes to the casino and he's always losing, and then he has that day, that lucky day or whatever. Well, we don't have a lucky day. We're going to probably have, hopefully, a lucky two and a half years while this guy's here. If not more, things change. The ball hit on the pole and bounce back right at Messi. It was a perfect bounce. It's like if he did it on purpose, you know, ricochet and boom, perfectly to tap it in. Before that ball hit, goal, goal, goal, somewhere else, and nothing. Drake Callender, last play, you know, they call a penalty. Yeah. If everything was going to work out the way it should, he was going to block that kick, and lo and behold, and they get the play, he keeps going, kick it at him. Another outstanding little dive right there. It's like, man, everything's going in their favor. Yeah. Man, Drake Callender has been money, man. Super Drake. I call him Super Drake. Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. I hope he gets more call-ups to the national team. I believe he will. He's got to work his way up the ranks because some guys have a little bit of seniority over him. Matt Turner, to me, is fantastic. He's earned the top bit, but you need to have as many good guys as possible in every position because, you know, this is a sport where injuries are a major part of the sport. That's how Turner got his spot. Absolutely, and he never gave it back, and he never gave it back. That's how Drake got his spot with Miami, remember? Remember? That's how he got his spot with Miami because once he got his chance, once he got his chance, he never let it go, and he's doing everything to keep that, and hopefully we keep him because his star is rising, and eyes on him, and he's a very young. I mean, honestly, if he keeps playing the way he's playing, he's going to get poached by some European club. No, he has to. He has to. He's too fantastic. He's Super Drake, and not just that. What a cool, great guy, and that's one of the things that you kind of have to give Phil credit. He built, when they make fun of him because he used to talk about culture. What culture? What? That was one of the things he did, man. He had a lot to do with the roster, with bringing the guys in, and he's brought a lot of quality people. He's brought a lot of quality people to the team, and Drake is one of them. That guy is, from my interactions and my experience, just seeing that quality. Yeah, for sure. All right, let's talk about the young players because when you're in the MLS, whether you're a homegrown talent, or you're brought in from somewhere else, when you're a young guy, you're basically trying to come up and take a veteran's spot, which in the MLS is very possible, but what have you seen from these young guys that know that, man, they're in a locker room with Leo Messi and Sergio Busquets? What have you seen from these guys? How are they dealing with this? Okay, first, before we get into that, these guys are the luckiest kids, you're right. One day, you're playing, and the next day, the gold is there with you in the locker room. They're listening. They're paying attention. Even the veterans, even the older guys, even Arroyo, which I loved his interview yesterday. He was an interviewer after the game, and he says, even at my age, I listen. I like to ask questions because you have to understand that it's the top of the top of the top in your sport. You got two guys that many, many, many, many say are the best ever in their positions. Messi, the best ever, period, but Busquets, so many people consider him the best five. The best five, yeah. I am among them in the history of the game, and you have them, and they're still very active, and they're willing, and they're approachable. Messi, that humility, that's one of the reasons. I'm a big Real Madrid fan. I've always been a Real Madrid fan. I love Ronaldo. I always had the utmost love and respect for Messi because of his greatness off the pitch, but also his humility and everything outside, family guy, signed autographs, is real cool. He was hanging out in public, bro. And if that, they say it's a publicity stunt, but whatever. Was it or not, I don't know, but he looks to me that type of guy that he'll go to Sedano's and stand in the window and get a drink and ask me, hey, Javi, you want a drink? Oh, hell yeah, for sure. It's cool, and you have to learn just by observing, and he seems to be very approachable, too, with other kids. I saw one of the videos from the interviews from the game, and Deandre and who else, it was Deandre. Yeah, Deandre was talking. It was Joseph and Bussi, but particularly, one of the things that caught my attention was Deandre because they talked about, they asked, man, how is it to play with these guys? Because they say there's so much space now, the spacing, and he says, man, it's amazing to have the communication. One, the spacing for Deandre, he says, the spacing for me is great because I have him right on my side, and I got two, three guys on him, so I'm chilling, but one of the things he mentioned that really caught my attention was the fact he said, no, and in the game, Bussi tells me, hey, hey, you're too high, which is one of the things I've always said. You're too high. Give Leo space, drop a little bit, drop a little bit, so he spaced them, so he's there telling them, no, no, no, you know what? And this is Deandre, one of the most accomplished, you know, right backs in American history, blah, blah. Of course, that's nothing compared to, you know, to Bussi, and he turns, and like, he listened. He said, okay, perfect, boom, and he had a, one of the other guys is yelling. He's playing at a higher level now. He's defending because he defended like old school yelling, and he's attacking. This is the guy, you know, and I guess, because he's always been a great effort, and you know he's trying, but he wasn't having, I was one of the critics, and I try to analyze and critique, critique meaning, you know, fair and with reason. I just say, oh, this guy sucks, and I don't say that about people, but he was having a subpar season. His last two games, and you could see it, you could see it in his demeanor, and how it's changed in the past two games, you know what I mean? Yeah, his body language was down before when they were losing, you know, which is, can you blame him? No, that's natural, that's natural. 11 game winless streak. I said that when I interviewed him, I go, no, he gave 11 game losing streak. He goes, no, no, no, no. I go, no, I'm sorry, my bad. It's a winless, because they lost eight, and then they tied. They tied like two, right? Two or three, I think it was the third, that was the third one in that day, because it was 11 games. Oh, it was the two in a row at the end there. Yeah, so he's playing a different level. It was nice to hear these accomplished players, just, and you know, I'm not going to say they're in awe, but they're like, you know, what do you need? Okay, got you, I got you, you know. You need me to drop? Okay, you know, what does Leo need? It's amazing, it's great, and he said that Leo is talking, and pointing, and dictating, and telling, so they're all going to get better like that, and one of the guys we have to give props to is Tata, because he's got the team playing yesterday, the high pressure. Anytime, even when they were winning, anytime they lost the ball, bam, everybody swarmed, they swarmed. It looked like old school, I'm not going to compare to Barcelona ever. But that's what they do, that's part of their. That is the Barcelona way, right? Yeah, that's part of their identity. Boom, boom, boom, boom, knock them, boom, boom, boom, boom, oh, we lost it, shoot. Yeah. It was fantastic to see, even when they were winning, you know, and then obviously when Messi came out, Busey came out, there was a drop-off, and it was noticeable. Yeah, but yeah, man, that's part of their identity, and even when you're winning, you got to do that, especially at this stage in the growth of the team, because that just builds, you know, repetition, that builds that sort of that culture, where that this is what we do, you know what I mean? All times, a hundred at all times, and you have to appreciate that as fans. The fans were getting ripped a little bit, because when Messi came out, it seemed to be like half the stadium dipped, but people don't understand that traffic on I-95, on a Tuesday night, I-95. Still though, still though, I mean. No, no, you have to, especially if you paid the cheapest ticket, 180, you know, on a Miami budget, because everybody in the country makes much more money than the people down here, but everything here is more expensive than another place in the country. People don't understand that. You have to stay. I've never liked leaving a game early. I remember once when I was a kid. I've paid for that ----, but I'm staying. Even if I didn't pay for it, when I was a kid, I went to a heat game with my dad, and some, I don't remember which, what other of my siblings was at the game with us, but we were playing the Charlotte Hornets, we were losing, and then with like two minutes left, my dad is like, all right, let's get out of here, and then I was like, oh no, I want to stay. He's like, no, come on, the game is done. That's it, it's over. As soon as we walk out of the arena, I look back, and I see the final score with the Heat having won the game, and I look at my dad, and I was like, bro, if you were not my dad right now, I would say some choice words to you, bro. Yeah, I don't like to go there. Man, you can't. You got to stay till the end, bro. It not only is, like, did you pay to be there, but it's disrespectful to the players, you know? Yeah, even in the press box, like, if I'm watching, I usually watch the Ted Lasso way. That's right. Even in the press box, if I'm watching, I tend to stay till the whistle's blown, then I'll go down to the, because there's so many things that you can miss, too. You know, as a reporter, you have to be eyes everywhere. There's always a story, something's happening, so there's things that you can miss, and even, like, let's say the unveiling, you know, Messi went in, everything, the rain, blah, blah, blah. But after, he came out with his kids again. You know, if you were there, and you got that, that's awesome. That was a great thing. Yeah, man. So it's a different vibe of this city right now. Oh, incredible, incredible, incredible, man. All right, so I think they have one more game left in this stage, do they? They, no, they qualified. It's three teams. Oh, it's three, okay. Yeah, it is three teams. It's, Cruz Azul needs to play with Atlanta, and Atlanta can still make it in, you know, so they're fighting for their lives there, because it's the top two teams, I think, that go through. Yes, the top two teams. So they topped the group, that's awesome. It's the first group, the first team that's already qualified the next round, you know, apart from the two champion teams, which was LAFC, and I forgot who was the champion for the Mexican League. Tigres? No, Tigres was like number two. I don't remember. Pachuca. No, no, that sucks, man. I had, you know what, I had it in my mind, I saw the thing, I read it, and then it dropped. From the previous season? I'll look it up real fast, I'll look it up real fast. But so what's, what is the next round looking like? When is that stage? Well, supposedly it's August 2nd, but they have, it's whoever comes first in the group, and there's a possibility, and I hope, this is the one time I'll be rooting for Orlando City. I hope they top the group, because if they do, they gotta drive down here to drive Pink Stadium, and play the goat. And all those Orlando City people that I see on Twitter talking garbage, that they're cheating, that Miami's a cheater, that they can't win anything, that regardless, they have a trophy. But hopefully this season, we can get that same trophy plus two more. But I want Orlando City. I want Orlando City. That would be beautiful. I would love to see that. I would love to see that. And they're a good team. They're better than Atlanta. They're better than Atlanta. I'll be at the Orlando game this Friday. I'll be covering that game. Yeah, man, Orlando, they play, they played Houston last time. Yeah, no, Orlando's a solid team. Orlando's a solid, solid MLS team. Yeah, oh, they play Santos, Laguna. They're gonna play Rayito. Rayito's on that team. Say what's up to Rayito. Oh, will do. I'm gonna ask him, how does it feel to not be playing with Messi? No, don't tell him that, dude. You'll break his heart. You'll break his heart. Go Orlando. Go Orlando. Go home is more like it. Carefully talk to my wife. That's your wife? My bad. That's not you in the picture, that's her dad, huh? That's her dad, yeah. Wow, no, what do you mean go Orlando? We live in Orlando, bro. She's an Orlandoan. Yeah, I understand. You're, you're, you're, you're one of those guys over there, but it's, it's been funny to read. It's been funny to read. There's a couple guys. But Orlando fans gotta be super pissed because they're having a, they're having a very decent season. They have an amazing rookie named Duncan McGuire, who's leading the team in goals. Yes, yeah, he's, he's going, he's going nuts. So, you know, for, for basically the rug got pulled out from under them with, with this Messi signing and all these guys, nobody cares about the season that they're having anymore. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's a solid team. It's a solid team. Yeah. Yeah. It'll be tough. So yeah, man, I would love to see that. That would be amazing. I know that it's a better team than, than Atlanta. Yeah. And, and it's a tough, it's going to be a tough matchup for, for Miami. Cause Miami's vulnerable on the defensive side right now, but, but with Messi and they, they've had the ball more, so it's less, less than an attack, but, but they were, they, they had these guys, Atlanta had several opportunities. They just couldn't put it in. And then when you have the goal, the goal, you don't need too many opportunities, man. He's going to put one in. Yeah, no, for sure, man. He, he's averaging four goals per 90 minutes is what I read today. That's incredible. He hasn't even, I don't think he's played 90 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Cause the first three were within a 44 minute span. Yeah. That's crazy, bro. That's crazy. I didn't think it was going to be like that either. I mean, I didn't think it was going to be like that. Well, um, um, Wayne Rooney and David Beckham both came out and said that it's, you know, Oh, it's not going to be that easy. There's going to be a transition, whatever Messi's like, all right, bro. Hold my key. You know what I mean? He's transitioning. He's transitioning the same thing. He's done all over the world, all the time, everywhere. Any, any playground, even on families, he went to, he played a couple of friendlies before coming here. He scored three goals in one of them, like in the first half. Yeah. Like he has no chill. There's no chill. It's like I'm scoring. I don't care. Oh yeah, man. Yeah. It's incredible. It doesn't matter where he, where he goes. The guy is class class. The best, the best, the best. Yep. Yep. Yep. So Orlando second is our next game. We don't know who their opponent is yet, but if Orlando city wins on Friday, it'll be Orlando. Yeah. If Orlando tops the group, if they top the group, they will be playing Miami. Awesome. Awesome. And it'll be in Miami. It's supposed to be here. Okay. I want to, I want to look ahead a little bit. Cause I know you got to sit down in a group setting with a, with Horace, Jorge Moss and very, very privileged. We are even also privileged to, to be credentialed for these two games. I know there's a lot of people that didn't make it and, and listen, listen, the work that you've been putting in not only this season, but last season as well. And even, even before, before you, you joined us, we had, we had Alex Wendley who was writing for us. So we've been covering enter Miami since it's well earned. I feel privileged, but I know I earned it. I earned it because I, you know, I put out a lot of stories that, and I'm always on the Twitter stuff and it's, you know, and, and I appreciate, I really love to be there. I really enjoy writing about the team and I try, and I try to do a good job. I try to, to, to, to, you know, put out what I see without being having my feelings involved. You know, I try to analyze and do, and I try to do a good job for the people and I enjoy it. And we appreciate that, bro. And, and, and I saw there were some big names that didn't get credentialed. I mean, there's obviously there's limited space. You can't credential every big name that wants to, you know what I mean? That's a cool thing by the cool thing by the team, you know, not, not, not just going by the big name, but also appreciated the local talent because there is local talent and there's good, good people, you know, in, in smaller settings, broadcast, whatever, providing really good and consistent Yeah, man, they could have easily turned away the little guys and gave, you know, all the ESPN guys, their credentials, and we would have still kept applying afterwards. It's not like we're going to be like, Oh, you didn't give us this game. We're going to stop covering you. No, no, it doesn't stop. You know what I mean? So it's, it's really awesome on their part on inter-Miami's part to, to still, you know, stick with us, you know, reward our loyalty with their loyalty. Yeah. So shout out to them and shout out really as much as, as they have been criticized by us and everyone else for the wrongs that they have done, you know, that was really great. And, and that was a very classy move from them. It shows that, that, you know, at the, at the center of it all, you know, that, that they had, they, they are running a class organization and we're about to see the fruit of that. Yeah. And they appreciate, you know, the stuff that we put out for them. They're aware and they appreciate it. And, and, and that's how they, they let it be known by, by giving us that. So let's talk about that sit down that you had with, with Jorge Mas and David Beckham. What are some of the takeaways from that? I'm going to, I'm going to go the first one, the initial one is having two, two icons, right? Because Jorge and his family, they're icons of Miami, right? The Cuban American that came, you know, for freedom and have made it big, this country, and they've given back. And he, like he says, he loves Miami. So he is like Miami born and bred. And, and I, I got that he really is loving and living the moment that's happening. And, and one thing just personally I love the humility from those two guys, to be honest, I might not be something important for, for anybody else, but Beckham and Mas came in and they went around and shook every person's hand and they didn't just do it like, you know, they, it was, it was polite. It was nice. They sat down and they opened up and it was, it was, it was very, very nice. To me, David is the key, right? LA in 75, somebody was, came in and started this, right? He started this. And 36 years later, 36 years later, David Beckham came, they made the DP rule, things change. Hey, awesome. Cedar, Cedar Hill, Texas. We appreciate it. Shout out to Cedar Hills. They, you know, he, he came through and, and he ushered in an era and the MLS, right. It grew in his time. The MLS grew, more people saw it, people put their eyes because it was Beckham. And then some good things happened. And 18 years later, so it was 36. And that's 18 years later, Lionel, Andres, Messi, Cuccini, the GOAT, he brought him here. So he's had a part in two of the major movements of the major, uh, seismic shifts of American football. So his, his name will be in history forever, you know, of this league because he's, he was so involved. And, um, it, it was great to, to be there, to listen, um, to what they were saying. And it was funny because Moss like couldn't contain himself. And like, he broke the story there. It's like, no, because Jordi Alba, uh, he, well, he signed him today. Everybody was like, what? Awesome. And then he talked about Diego Gomez. He was asked about, you know, Louis Suarez. And he said, look, wait, wait, wait, Suarez belongs to Gremio. He's a Gremio player, whatever he does, he distanced himself because you can't be tampering good. Then everybody's going to be talking exactly. He's there. He distanced himself. He said, look, if he happens to get out of a contract, we'll be interested, but he's a great player. We haven't read chat to him. We don't, you know, we're not talking about him. And it was great. And then, um, David did talk about his, his time, you know, when, when he got there, his first two seasons were not very good. He was injured. He didn't have great. And then after is when he, you know, won a couple of championships and he needed to meet in his contract. He needed to meet certain goals, um, for that to kick in all his special clauses and stuff. And they were very difficult goals. Like one of them that he needed, uh, the league needed to have like an extra six teams by, by his five years. I'm like, like he met every single goal, but they weren't, they weren't as easy as people think. And his foresight, he said, look, uh, people said, I was taking a risk when I was coming to America and me, it wasn't a risk. You know, he had the vision for what's happening now, but he said, I love, like he said, he loved the country. He saw himself living here someday. So I thought that was awesome. I thought that was cool for him to say that. So he's really enjoying it. He's, he is where he loves to be. And, and he's, he's, he's that glue, you know, it's holding, he's part of this movement and he's going to be the person that's going to get the guys coming. Cause you get a call from Beckham. Everybody knows Beckham. Yeah. Everybody knows Beckham, those players, all these players coming up, even if they're, you know, 1450, you still know that icon is, and it's big for Miami. Those two, those two guys, they seem to be the whole group, obviously. Right. But they're the face, uh, they seem to be quality people too. And once again, it's, it's the culture. There's good people, good people, good things that happen. Did they have sanctions that things happen? Yeah. Yeah. Bad things happen to good people sometimes too. Yeah. All right. So next, uh, next up after this is, is a us open cup match, right. At the end of October, I'm not sorry, August at the end of August, I thought it was already second. I, uh, for some reason I have that on my, in my, no, it's like August 20, something it's a little bit later. So maybe it is. Yeah. That's a Cincinnati game. Yeah. It's, um, they have plenty of time to gel. Absolutely. No, even though it seems like they already have yes. Amazing. Right. Yeah. But by that time, Jordi Alba will probably already, already played a few matches though. So there'll be man, there'll be clicking on all cylinders heading into that game against Cincinnati. And I believe, I believe Jorge Ma said, uh, that if they were to win that game, that they are considering playing the final at hard rock state. If they make it to the final that he says that, you know, his, there's rumors that they don't have, he doesn't have a good, um, connection with the people, which naturally he said, no, I have a great relationship. Uh, you know, we will, he mentioned our games are going to be here, right? Like for the season and stuff. But if, if, um, the need, they make it to the finals, definitely. They're going to look into that and that would be fantastic. That'd be amazing. That will be fantastic. Whoever, whatever team that is, that has to face Miami in hard rock stadium of capacity car, because that's going to be capacity capacity crowd is already losing one zero when they step into that field, they're already losing one zero. You know, that's, that's awesome. That's going to be, that's, that's, I really hope it happens because that's going to be great. Yeah. So where does this put like, oh man, it, they have the, a strong possibility of winning these two tournaments, league cup and us open cup. And if they can sneak into the playoffs, you know, what, what, what, what would it mean if they run, if they're on the table, man, what, what would it mean if they win a treble, it would mean that inter Miami has beaten the odds. Uh, it's been a, it will be a galactic, galactic like undertaking for them to just beat every single odd, every single, uh, obstacle because this team has paced all these obstacles. This season has been, like I said, it's a wretched season. Yeah. It's a wretched, it's been a wretched season. And if Prince charming comes in and, and it turns everything around, it will be one of the greatest stories in, in, in sports, you know, in history, it has to be because it's there. It'll be bigger than the bad news bears. It'll be bigger than the bad news bears. You know, you know what it is for this team to be down. And, and, um, Tata said, look, we're, we're against the clock for the playoffs. That's the hardest one. He says, that's the hardest one. I don't think, I don't think it's, you know, impossible. No, I don't think it's impossible. I think it can happen. And if it does happen, wow, watch out. This is going to be awesome. Yeah. Awesome. Right. I I'm sure the MLS, like the NBA, when they want like the Lakers or Boston or when the, they want these top teams, you know, fighting for, for, for, because the ratings that people are going to be I'm sure they're rooting on, you know, secretly because it will be off the roof. That's the sales for messy jerseys will explode more. And they've already sold like 3 million or something more, more, more than, than they are now. Um, and in the tweet, in my, in my Twitter, Twitter, right. My Twitter, I Twitter the Twitter. I've got a lot of followers from, from Asia, from India, from all over the place. And so the world is watching and it will be fantastic. Fantastic. Awesome, man. But before I let you go, any, any takeaways, any, any parting thoughts? Oh man, this is, this is when you have special people, right. When you have special people come in to your organization and I, and I read it somewhere too and say, well, what's the lesson in this is that you're only a person away. You're only, you know, a person or two, the right people away from your organization being excellent, right. The right people being there. And they got the right, they got the goal that what did they get with messy? They got an amazing, fantastic player, but an amazing, fantastic human, right. Human being Boosie. Same thing. Amazing, fantastic player. Amazing, fantastic human. The, the locker room. And this has been always a strong locker room. It looks like it's even stronger. The kids, I didn't mention, but Jimmy Camashi played an outstanding game. Yeah. Noah Allen. I mentioned him also played a great game. You know, these, these guys are upping their level. Yeah. And they're only going to mark them. This is going to market their career because once you see a certain thing, you can't go back. You can't unsee it. Once you thought that this is the way, this is the way that you play. You can't undo it. He's the Mandalorian. This is the way. I don't know if you've seen that show, but I've, I've, I've never watched it. I've heard it, but I know what you're talking about. Yeah. I know what you're talking about. So, oh, and, and, and there was a little meme with, with, with Messi where after he scored the second goal, he did the whole force thing. Nobody knows if it was to Beckham because he was like laughing or if he was like to the kids or to whoever it was, he's, you know what it means to me? MLS. I'm a death grip on you guys. I'm coming. All right, lemon heads. If you missed today's episode, it'll be available tomorrow, wherever you get your podcasts. We're also going to stream it on our YouTube page, on our Twitch page and, and somewhere else that I can't remember right now, but on our LinkedIn page. So go ahead and check this out. All right, X, thanks for joining us. Lemon heads. We'll see you next week.