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Speaker 1: FC Cincinnati is coming off a frustrating performance against Minnesota

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Speaker 1: the other night. A key mistake leads to a goal

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Speaker 1: on a free kick, a whole bunch of scoring opportunities

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Speaker 1: go by the wayside. The Orange and Blue back at

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Speaker 1: home on Saturday for a tilt against Toronto, and Jig

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Speaker 1: Ziven has the call Apple TV and always kind enough

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Speaker 1: to join us whenever we ask. It is awesome to

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Speaker 1: have you, Jake.

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Speaker 2: How are you no doing great?

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Speaker 3: It's nice to be with you for the first time

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Speaker 3: in twenty twenty six. Can't wait to get to Cincinnati

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Speaker 3: this weekend.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's awesome to have you. As always. We

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Speaker 1: love having you. What have you seen from the Orange

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Speaker 1: and Blue. Let's focus on the two MLS Pacific matches.

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Speaker 1: The win at home over Atlanta, the lost to Minnesota.

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Speaker 1: A frustrating night because they had their scoring chances. Your

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Speaker 1: takeaways from the first two games or work?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the team needs a vander Right to

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Speaker 3: be at its best.

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Speaker 2: That's an obvious thing.

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Speaker 3: He's one of the best players in the league. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: they had chances against Minnesota. Drake Calendar had a good game,

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Speaker 3: but even you know, looking at the kind of the

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Speaker 3: advanced analytics. The expected goals number, which is a Staten

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Speaker 3: and Soccer used to try to describe kind of a

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Speaker 3: quality of.

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Speaker 2: Chance as the team creates threat a game. It was

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Speaker 2: prett low.

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Speaker 3: It was just about one expected goal. Minnesota was close

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Speaker 3: to three. That probably watching the game, I was surprised

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Speaker 3: it was that big of a discrepancy.

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Speaker 2: But in the end, it.

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Speaker 3: Probably accurately describes Cincinnati kind of needing a Vander out there,

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Speaker 3: needing that magic man to help create, to find that moment.

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Speaker 3: And I think this club has been so used to

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Speaker 3: playing games like this over the past several seasons.

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Speaker 2: They're tight games, they keep it close.

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Speaker 3: It's a one goal game, and whether it was Lucho

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Speaker 3: Acosta several years ago or Vander last year and now

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Speaker 3: eventually into this year when he comes back, they have

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Speaker 3: that match winner and they're the ones who win the

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Speaker 3: game one nil. Without Evander, it felt like that was

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Speaker 3: lacking for Cincinnati. Minnesota found the goal and they lost.

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Speaker 3: I agree with you that you got to look at

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Speaker 3: the MLS games, the CONCACAFT Champions Cup, that was an

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Speaker 3: opponent that was just extremely outmatched by Cincinnati. Night score

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Speaker 3: lines good to get confidence, not anything to extrapolate on

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Speaker 3: going forward, I think, but right now, right that, the

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Speaker 3: team I think has got to kind of figure out

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Speaker 3: if Evander, uh, just kind of how to do it

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Speaker 3: without Evander. It doesn't sound like the injury etherious, which

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Speaker 3: is great, but there's gonna be times throughout this year

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Speaker 3: they're gonna have to play without him. They're gonna have

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Speaker 3: to figure out a way to be threatening about one

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Speaker 3: of the best players in the league.

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Speaker 1: Jake Sivin is with us some Apple TV. By the way,

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Speaker 1: I may have mentioned before, I think I said that

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Speaker 1: the game was going to be on Saturday's actually a

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Speaker 1: Sunday game this week, Nasty Cincinnati Sunday Night. Yeah, so, uh,

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Speaker 1: Sunday night, Sunday Night soccer, a little bit of the

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Speaker 1: national spotlight on the Orange and Blue as they host Toronto.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned, you know, the other guys, right, the scoring

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Speaker 1: without a Vander, and that's that's been a theme throughout

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Speaker 1: the course of the offseason. Obviously, you want him, and

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Speaker 1: obviously you know we're all breathing a sigh relief that

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Speaker 1: it feels like the injury is not that serious. But

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Speaker 1: there have been times, whether it was with Lucho before

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Speaker 1: that went Sideways or Evander last year where it felt

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Speaker 1: like the offensive load was a little bit too dependent

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Speaker 1: on both guys, And so I do think it's an

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Speaker 1: interesting early season test, one that they frankly didn't pass

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Speaker 1: this past week, to see if they can generate more

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Speaker 1: offense just so maybe when Evander comes back, they don't

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Speaker 1: need him to do nearly as much heavy lifting. Would

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Speaker 1: you agree?

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Speaker 3: Absolutely? And I think they're you know, I get to

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Speaker 3: send and we were there a lot at the end

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Speaker 3: of last year, and.

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Speaker 2: I got to sense there's some frustration.

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Speaker 3: In the fan base and the supporter group over you know,

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Speaker 3: maybe this team not taking another step of being this

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Speaker 3: kind of dominant team that can win games three nail,

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Speaker 3: four nail. And I was surprised because, look, no team

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Speaker 3: has had more success in the regular season the last

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Speaker 3: three years.

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Speaker 2: Combined than FC Cincinnati.

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Speaker 3: They won a Supporter Shield, they have been at the

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Speaker 3: top of the eatern conference every year. Yes, it's gotten

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Speaker 3: into the playoffs and they haven't quite gotten over that hill.

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Speaker 3: Same thing in the Open Cup in twenty twenty three

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Speaker 3: when they went on a great run. But still it

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Speaker 3: has been a team that has been the most exemplary

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Speaker 3: week to week, consistent success as far as winning games

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Speaker 3: of any team in the league over the past three years,

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Speaker 3: but it still felt like there's kind of this anxiety

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Speaker 3: of taking the next step. And I think what your

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Speaker 3: question kind of hits on that, because it does feel

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Speaker 3: like the way that they have gotten wins, that they've

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Speaker 3: even gotten goals is through kind of individual moments of

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Speaker 3: brilliance from really special players in this game. That is

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Speaker 3: frequently the difference. But it also means if you get

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Speaker 3: to the playoffs and your main guy isn't doing it,

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Speaker 3: which we saw lest year with Evander in the playoffs,

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Speaker 3: what's the plan How do you get wins if Evander

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Speaker 3: is not going to create one or two special moments

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Speaker 3: of the game to score goals. So absolutely, I think

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Speaker 3: it's a big question for Essie Cincinnati and for Pat Noonan.

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Speaker 3: Not being said, you got to assume this team at.

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Speaker 2: Its best is going to have a Vander on the field, right.

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Speaker 3: And so I think when you're talking about Evander being

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Speaker 3: on the field, it's how do him and Kevin Dank

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Speaker 3: create a connection communially?

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Speaker 2: See it last year, right, they each got.

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Speaker 3: Their goals, but rarely was it Vander two Dank and

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Speaker 3: that's something. Their connection, their ability to play together I

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Speaker 3: think has got to be kind of priority number one

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Speaker 3: for Essie Cincinnati throughout this season.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's it's interesting because I felt like

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Speaker 1: last season they're both remarkable individual players, but I felt

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Speaker 1: like each guy was at times last year. And this

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Speaker 1: is no knock on either one of them individually, but

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Speaker 1: it felt at times last year like both were on

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Speaker 1: an island.

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Speaker 3: Yes, I agree, I agree, and and look, it's you know,

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Speaker 3: that can be hard. It is a game where sometimes

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Speaker 3: two great players don't always mesh in their skill sets

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Speaker 3: and the way they see the game in the way

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Speaker 3: they want to play the game.

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Speaker 2: Sometimes it works great.

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Speaker 3: And players seem to have this kind of uh you know,

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Speaker 3: kind of telepathic connection with each other out of nowhere

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Speaker 3: and they gel immediately. If Anther Kevin, they don't, they

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Speaker 3: didn't have that right like, they don't have that innately.

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Speaker 3: It didn't happen right away, but as something that can

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Speaker 3: still come with time, and you would think in year

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Speaker 3: two with a full preseason, and they had a full

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Speaker 3: preseason last year for the most part as well, you

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Speaker 3: know that that Pat Newton and the coaching staff can

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Speaker 3: can get that out of.

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Speaker 2: Them, and uh, that's got to be the hope, right,

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Speaker 2: And I think.

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Speaker 3: That is kind of Cincinnati's path to getting over that hill,

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Speaker 3: is getting these two guys to really connect better on

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Speaker 3: the field. Uh, and then they become a team that

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Speaker 3: can really overwhelm everybody because I think defensively, there's not

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Speaker 3: a worry even with matt and they Osgas still working

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Speaker 3: his way back from injury. You know, they meet matt

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Speaker 3: Ney Osga. I think to be at his to be

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Speaker 3: at their best, they need Matt in Osga. But it's

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Speaker 3: still a very good defensive team even without him. And

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Speaker 3: I think it's about figuring out that attack and getting

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Speaker 3: everybody connected and on the same.

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Speaker 1: Page very early on. But how do you break down

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Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's Miami, it's the favorites, right, even though they

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Speaker 3: lost the opening week in the Coliseum and then they

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Speaker 3: were down two mil at halftime in Orlando. We were

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Speaker 3: doing that game last week. It was Sunday Night soccer

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Speaker 3: last week. Their four goals in the second half at

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Speaker 3: their rivals, messy celebrating into their supporter section asking the

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Speaker 3: Orlando bench if they want is autographs. I mean, they

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Speaker 3: just flipped that switch at halftime and you're like, yep, okay,

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Speaker 3: this team is the favorites.

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Speaker 2: It's what they thought.

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Speaker 3: It's what everybody thought they would be with all the

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Speaker 3: talent they have, so for sure to.

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Speaker 2: Be the favorites.

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Speaker 3: And then Cincinnati have to be right there behind them. Philadelphia,

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Speaker 3: last your Supporter Shield winners have gotten up to a

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Speaker 3: rough start, so there's questions whether they can do it again.

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Speaker 2: Surprise to the East are the New.

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Speaker 3: York Red Bulls, this young team that have won two

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Speaker 3: games with theresa teen year olds or younger in the

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Speaker 3: starting eleven, a sixteen year old in the starting eleven.

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Speaker 3: They're scoring goals, they're assisting, they're combining together. It's been

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Speaker 3: incredibly impressive. They're probably the story of the year. But

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Speaker 3: it's Miami is going to be the favorite or nastral

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Speaker 3: in there as well that they added Chris Despinos in

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Speaker 3: the offseason, so they got even better.

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Speaker 2: A team that was good last year, but.

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Speaker 3: It's gonna be that Miami homp and looks Cincinnati knows

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Speaker 3: all about that, right, I Mean, that's team to knocked

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Speaker 3: them out of the playoffs last year at home in

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Speaker 3: pretty emphatic fashion.

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Speaker 2: It's a team that knocked them out.

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Speaker 3: Of the US Open Cup at home in twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 3: and it's a team that everybody's gunning for.

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Speaker 2: They're the defending champs, and they have the best player.

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Speaker 3: In the world, and that you know that they're they're

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Speaker 3: at as the favorite in the conference is not changing

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Speaker 3: anytime soon.

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Speaker 1: No question about that. Jake seven Sunday Night Soccer on

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Speaker 1: Apple TV. So you'll be here all weekend. Enjoy your

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Speaker 1: stay in the Queen City and we will talk to

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Speaker 1: you against so Man.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much, can't wait. I meantime, Mom curious, you're.

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Speaker 1: The best jags of an Apple TV block. Sunday Night

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Speaker 1: FC Cincinnati and Toronto