Episode 4: Dave Edwardson

And welcome to the fourth episode of the Detroit City FC fancast. I am John Rosina alongside Sean Grogan. Hi. Indeed, Simmer.

We are all in the same room together for the first time in like three weeks. It's kind of exciting. How about that? So a quick episode dedication, as always.

We'd like to dedicate this to the Sons of Ransom. We were really worried about them about to start putting them on Milcartons and Amber Alerts and whatnot. They finally showed up about a day and a half after their team got beat at home by a sub 500-star club. So we're glad that the search party strikes you down, guys.

And we hope you're recovering from your ordeal. I think you use GLAD in an interesting way. That would be the ironic usage. As always, these are our opinions.

If you don't like them, that's your problem, and certainly not the problem of the Northern Guard or Detroit City FC. If you like them, then that's great. If not, then that's free. So suck it.

Let's move ahead to the week they lost. And here with the discussion of what happened last week, so he didn't play, but a lot of other stuff happened to Sean. Yeah, I'm sad not to get out to Cass or any game last week. But that doesn't mean that interesting things didn't happen.

I think the first result we should probably spend some time talking about was Lansing's won nothing to the Michigan Stars at home. That was completely unexpected. I'm going to be perfectly honest. Lansing way higher than the table than the Michigan Stars.

But I was looking through the Michigan Stars roster. They picked up a couple players that weren't with them at the beginning of the season, including one guy from Dartmouth, one guy from Ohio State it looked like, one guy from how do you remember? Whatever colleges the leather backs or something, but he seemed like a legit player. I remember they were purple and yellow.

That's all I remember. It's like Northern Illinois or something like that. So I think they're more dangerous team than they were at the beginning of the season because of some of these players they picked up. I don't know if they're still seeing Lansing again had the run of play to hit more shots.

They had more shots on goal. That was Michigan Stars only shot on goal. Was that goal? Yeah, the statistics in that game were ridiculous.

Lansing had 15 shots and no goals and starts at one shot on goal. I mean, statistically, Lansing didn't even need a dress keeper. He had one shot on goal, no saves. They could have pulled him like a hockey goalie at the end of the game and probably a better game.

Yeah, yeah. So you're more of the soccer play expert of the three of us. That's why I'm not going to be a big fan of that by a significant margin. So it seems like several of the teams in our conference over the last couple of years, they seem to add players as the season goes on.

Do you think like DCFC doesn't seem to really do that or at least not dramatically? We don't seem to have significant ads in July. Do you think that is that a competitive advantage to boost your roster midway through the season? I don't know.

Why does that seem to be something that people do? I noticed, since he just added two people within the last week, what's the advantage? No, New York Cosmos beat. Just added Steve Nash, the basketball player.

That's hilarious. That's real. That's real. Yeah.

I added Steve Nash. I thought I had a Twitter. I thought there was a joke. No, no, that's an actual thing.

So I think in since he's case specifically, it seemed like a lot of the guys are actually local players who have been off like, driving with somewhere professional. And then have sort of not caught on and sort of come back home. And then they picked up their local club. So I think that's legit.

Like I know they're keeper that they had in game for the DCFC game when we were down there. He was with Fort Lauderdale strikers for the first part of the season. So some of them are like legit players who just haven't caught on anywhere. Michigan Stars doesn't seem to be that.

They grab people from all over the place. Last year, the players that they picked up, like some of them were from the failed Pensacola City FC team. They picked up some of those guys. This year, they've got a striker from Dartmouth that has appeared on their roster, which is New Hampshire based originally from Texas.

So I can't find any local connection there. Honestly, not sure how they get in contact with the people. I'm not sure if these people just don't have anywhere in the summer. Last their resume out.

And eventually, Michigan Stars is like, hey, we're way down in the standings. We should just pick up these good players. Or what? Right.

DCFC always seems to sort of set the roster at the beginning of the season. A couple of players show up on the official NPSL roster. It's like throughout the season, but it's pretty much local guys. Guys who have been practicing with the team, like Bobby Budlong just ended up on the roster, but he's got local connections.

And it was that, it was tweeting that he really hopes for a high scoring in our favor game against the Stars coming up. So that season really plays as many people as possible. And so, good as to Mr. Budlong.

Yeah. And a couple other guys, like I know TJ Stevens ended up on the roster like a couple weeks into the season, but he's played quite a few times. But again, he's a second off, Ali State player. So it's another local team.

He was probably practicing with the team well before he ended up. So the Stars beat Lansing. And that, of course, did all sorts of interesting things to the table. A couple other interesting matches I know that went down with Buffalo, when Yuri and Cleveland and some folks and stuff going on there.

Yeah. So Yuri ended up kicking out AFC Cleveland, which I was not expecting. That was the replay game that had a lightning out game, because I don't know if lightning's a word, but it is now that Cleveland was up to nothing in. Now Yuri came back and they won the replay two to one.

So I'm sure that six city guys are livid about how that went down. Absolutely. But I just wanted those situations. What are you going to do?

I've got to win the replay. So that sort of throws the playoff race pretty wide open for the final two spots now. DCFC and Madison are still looking pretty good. Madison's got a pretty easy end of the row schedule.

DCFC is on top of the table. Lansing has to go to Buffalo and then to Cleveland in the same weekend. That's going to be a rough weekend for them. So they're three, four, and five of those three teams right now.

So those games are going to be vitally important. And they've got Buffalo plays both Lansing and Cleveland. So I mean, it's going to be all of them pretty much have their own fate and their own hands. You know, you beat the other two when you're going to make a playoffs.

Yeah. One other team I want to really call attention to is Indiana Fire. They're down here on 12 points and eight games played. But they've got super easy end of the season schedule that they could potentially win out.

So while these other teams are fighting between themselves, they could sort of sneak in. And one of the only one of those three teams, I mean, it's between those four teams. And one of those three teams is the right combination gets hit. Could make it in.

Even though they're all right there right now. Some other guys, Michigan Stars probably too far back. They've got too many games played. They're six in the table, but they play 10 games.

They don't really have much opportunity. Same with Yuri. Even with their upset, they're probably a long shot. Same with Minnesota Unircer's.

Yeah. I mean, I think the Dark Horse has to be the fire. I mean, they play FC Indiana, Twin Stars, Minnesota United and Sincey. I mean, that's a very doable, at least three out of four and maybe a sweep.

Right. Well, I think the interest that you mentioned this starts with, Stars only have two league games left, two conference games left, and they're both against us. So the likelihood that they would pull off two victories, they're only two obviously, they're only two obviously, they're not the same opponent twice. Like you said, they're probably out at this point.

It'll be interesting. I noticed like looking at the table that you put together, Indiana inside the place definitely has a potential to make a big jump with their max points. And Cleveland, because they've got a game lesson, everybody above them, is kind of deceivingly in fifth place. You know, who do you know they play next?

They play, I don't know if they play before the Lansing. I know they've got Lansing left, Buffalo left. They have FC Indiana next. That's probably one for them.

They play Lansing at home. They play FC Buffalo away and then four pit regiments. So they've got two difficult games and two games that they definitely could win. So at the end of the day, it's really hard to predict because I've tried to predict some of these and gotten upsets.

It'd be good money and big spending against what you said. Yeah. Well, I don't know about that. So I mean, we got FC Indiana's gone, four kids gone, twin stars are technically not gone, but functionally might as well be same with Sensi.

And then like we said, the stars I have are high on the table, but are pretty close to gone just because of the nature of the fact that they played one more match. And then they've got to go to Cass and then have a quasi home match against City with a pretty empty traveling contingent. So instead of their home opener, they had maybe 35, 40 people there. Exactly.

I think that's going to be it. So thousand to 40 is a pretty significant number. So I mean, what was the, I mean, what was the, I mean, obviously the stars Lansing was the most surprising thing in the last week, but I mean, you know, you're used to talking about others, schizophrenic all year. This was, this was like, you know, made a sexy dream girl that beat Buffalo.

Anything else that really jumped out in the past week in terms of that? I guess the last point I'd say was shots of the Minnesota twin stars got their first league victory this week with a two to one victory over the Minnesota United reserves. So I'm just happy that there's no real whipping boy of the conference this year. Everybody's got at least one win.

Oh, oh, oh. Make up season see more worthwhile. Oh, Claire, we hardly knew you. What's interesting, and this is really your segment in that mind, but you know, you look at the clubs and you've got somebody like Buffalo who's got four draws out of nine games played.

So at the end of the day, they are only in fourth in points, but they've only lost ones. And then you've got a club like Erie that's one four and lost five. They are hot or cold with nothing in the middle. And it's interesting to see at this point in the season knowing that Erie's probably out of the playoff race, but still within reach if they finish the last three games strong, it's interesting to see a team that's so dramatically opposite.

You know, they could finish seven, oh, and five where most of the rest of the clubs are sitting with multiple draws, you know, again, Buffalo having four. That's very odd to me. And as the roster turned over, I know they were slow at the game. Oh, but here.

Oh, for Erie? No, I don't think that's too much turnover in the roster. They've got a couple good players and then the serve seems to drop off. So I guess they're backholders and it's probably those games that those good players are just able to carry the weight.

I know Dan Deacon is sort of Tom Coles this year. He's like a two-time all-American player in college. So but I noticed mud did not play in the rematch game against Cleveland. So I kind of found a new keeper who plays him.

Somebody played. It wasn't mud. I assume he was the one tweeting like a eight-year-old. All right, we'll be back in a few with the community.

Now we're back and here with the discussion. What's going on in around the community around our club is Dean. A couple things I want to take a look at today. One of them is our good friend Michael Kitchen.

Probably most people who don't necessarily know from the stands would know him for his photography. He's one of several guys that posts photos just because, right? He's not working for the club. He's just taking photos of the experience and sharing with us.

He just posted earlier maybe today even his 2012 season summary. What he's going to be doing is he's going to be doing a scrapbook, if you will, individual pages of each game since day one. So I need to make a minor correction or maybe major, if you will, myself from episode three where I said the first game was May 14th, 2012. So please go back to change your Google challenges.

They were like that. I'm ashamed. You just got moved to MSNBC. Great.

Hey. So Michael posted his season summary which talks about his first game experience, the early roster, some of the names that are a little bit legendary. There's Keith Lowe, Biddell, guys that are still around. Josh Rogers, Cyrus Sadie, Duet, he's on there.

Zeke, Lateef, some other guys, Max Cameron, guys who really fit into the narrative all of the club. Really, I'm not a photo editor or genius so I can't talk about how he's edited these photos other than they look really awesome, kind of like pencil drawings. But he said, he uses the phrase on there, DCS, he hooked me, the Northern Guard supporters reel me in. So I just thought that was so fascinating for someone who's been around since the very beginning from the very first match.

And he gave shout out to his favorite chant, the, when I go make sure I'm wearing Rouge and gold. So he's going to be doing kind of a recap of all the 2012 matches and posting his photos and stuff like that. So we're going to put a link to this in the show notes and I'd really encourage people because there's so many people that are part of the DCFC and Northern Guard experience including Sean Marie with the first game. I was not.

So I don't think any one of us was at the very first match, the three of us here and we've been around for most of this I would say. And there's a lot of people, you know, this grows every week or every game and I'd really love to see people kind of see this experience from someone who's been there since the beginning and his photos and his narrative. So we'll post a link to that. You should follow him on Twitter.

You should stay in tune of this. We'll have links to all that kind of stuff. And Michael if you ever want to come on and chat about your early season experience with us, we'd love to have you just because it's so great to have people there talking about this. And Michael's a great guy.

I mean, he's got a real life of photography. He's done a bunch of video. A lot of cool things that have been captured over the years are captured because Michael was sitting there and caught some video. Like he's the one that caught the first Detroit City ain't nothing to fuck with chant from the family friendly side.

You got that in the above YouTube. His YouTube is awesome. He's also caught the Kevin Taylor goal at the first US Open. He's got a lot of that stuff back before there was as much video or as much photography.

He's got a lot of the stuff back then before. That's some of the people even like the end like that we now sort of expect or catching all these things on camera. Michael was there first and he's in addition to catching stuff and being a great city supporter is just a good guy and couldn't recommend enough. Check it out as stuff and letting him know.

So thank you for it. Yeah, absolutely. So we'll have links to all that on Twitter and the show notes, things like that for you. We encourage everybody to check that out, especially anybody who joined in sometime after May of 2012.

It's definitely worth your while. And so now we're going to turn the community section and talk about something that John has put together. One of the things that happens every week is new people come to the match. And I think I can say every single person that I brought to their first match, we brought in similar to the conversation we had with Hobby and Ross in episode one, which is people don't know what to expect until they're really involved.

However, if we do our job as supporters correctly, we can kind of set the stage for what to expect for them from the whole supporter experience, from on your way down to Harry's to cleaning up afterwards and things like that. So John, you want to... Yeah, my wife and Kelly and I are looking at the upcoming Stars match. We realize that we are going to be responsible for somewhere between 14 and 16 new people who've never been to a city match before.

We may be seeing a little bit of video or some photography or whatever. And friends of ours, connected to our people who see our Facebook photos and what's this weird cult we've become part of over the past few years. And so because we didn't have... There was so many...

It was just like one or two people you have the chance to chat from before. We got so many people from different parts of life and friends of ours and former roommates, husbands and sons who were coming in from Paris and kids my dad taught and whatnot. So I just took a little bit of while and wrote up with Kelly's assistant sort of a two-page show you're coming with us to a DCSC match with like tips and tricks and what to do and what not to do and where to sit and all this sort of stuff. And it got me thinking sort of like, you know, we sort of did the TLDRs.

The kids say version, sort of like the top bullet points and then it went on and on and on. But it got me thinking sort of like, you know, what... How do you explain this? I mean, how do you guys explain this to somebody that's never done it before?

I've been nicer to say, you know, the basic stuff is like, buy it to get ahead of time. General ambition, you know, hour and a half ish at least before he had Harry's and bring cash for Harry's stuff like that. Unfortunately I said, don't you know, there's beer in Harry's, but don't eat there because it's too expensive. Harry.

There he is there. 50 slices of cheese are not conducive to folks eating there. Now, it's sort of different stuff. What color is to wear, what color is to wear, what color is to wear, what is it, what is it, what is most like, don't throw things on the field, people will swear to be prepared for and all sorts of stuff.

So we'll throw this up on the websites if they like it, if it's any value of their don't say the thing they can even share it or cut and paste it or whatever makes sense for you folks. But I mean, in your experience, bringing folks to a match, what's been your key things that you thought you really needed to know that unless they'd experienced something like this before that they needed to know? I think the basic bullet point rules at the top, not where to park, getting your ticket and all that kind of stuff is good stuff. But I find that I tend to provide less information outside of the, you know, it's going to be the craziest sports experience you've ever experienced.

Assume, you know, some guy heard baseball fan, like, just throw that out the window. We're not even talking about the same thing, right? I don't care if you don't know anything about soccer, all that kind of stuff. You don't need to.

This is just going to be a crazy experience. And, you know, just be prepared for crazy things that happen. You know, whether, you know, normal, like, yeah, there's going to be smoke bombs and swear words, okay, right? So, see that kind of stuff out.

We're good to go. You know, but beyond that, I found that, like, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't ever want to take too much of the surprise crazy out of it for, like, I'm sure that, you know, my dad's watching the stream a couple times, you know, so, like, I think he would know what he was getting into if he was coming. There are certain people that I'd want to give as much information as possible. But I think in general, the less, you know, it's kind of like the spoiler alert thing, right?

There's not too much I want to give away. I'll say, here's the link for the songs and chants if you want to go check those out. There's videos on there. If you want to buy into the chants, we'd love to have you do it.

Here's the link, go check it out. You know, I noticed that with your, with your info, you don't spoil too much. Like you talk about like the pre-game experience and like what do you expect when you get to the stadium about, you know, this is, this moment will happen and then you'll have to, you know, go through security and, you know, your bag might get checked. You can't bring out all that kind of stuff.

But like, still at the end of the day, other than other than the link to the chants, you still, you still, like, it's going to come up to like, you can sit on the family friend and the side and things are going to be family friendly or you can sit on the other side and things will be rockin' and crazy and, you know, then it's your choice. They'll be fine. You know, let's try not to get in the full link. You might get run down by a dude in a full faceplate air mask carrying a giant ass flag after a goal.

Like, you know, not try to get to that point, but usually wear a faceplate. So, Christos, we're going to miss you, man. Yeah, but those are, that's actually the point for those who didn't catch this and for those who might not be on Twitter or whatever. The carrier, primary carrier and keeper of Big Bertha, which is the name of the giant Rouge and Gold flag that flies after, after, after Gold's.

Christos, I'm going to put you your last name in. I'm sorry, Michalakis. That's Greek to me. Unfortunately, but oh.

Christos got a job and we're very happy from his person in Washington, D.C., but unfortunately, that means that he's not going to be at D.C. Up to the matches anymore and he handed off the official keeping of Bertha to fabulous Franco, Peter Franco, on the field after the last, after the Lansing match. There were tears to be had because Stos was at the first match and Bertha has been really sort of his maybe, since then. So, it's a huge deal and now he's going to lead up the D.C.

embassy for the Northern Guard. You'll notice that we replaced Christos' caretaking of Big Bertha with like four of us. Yeah. That should speak, that should speak heavily to, you know, the importance of him all these years in the NGS.

But, so yeah, you know, I try to give him a little bit of information, show him some D.C. on pictures, you know, show him some highlight videos, maybe things like that. But still say like, listen, trust me, you'll have a good time and let's go for it. I guess for me, I mentioned earlier that my parents were coming to the first game, that's the last game.

The only thing I really told them was to get to the stadium before the big line at the gate, which they actually failed to do. They showed up right when I told them not to and ended up having to wait in that giant line. But other than that, they seemed to generally enjoy their experience. They didn't really come into the supporter section with us.

But my sisters did for part of the second half. That's really the only thing I told them beforehand, though, that and to expect for family. But it's true. Other than that, that's pretty much all I told them beforehand.

So we'll post this hopefully, it's a value to folks. Like I said, it's primarily the mechanistic stuff about like where to park, which expect, you know, bring a scarf mask, bring cash, that's sort of hopefully worthwhile. And then, you know, the folks do end up in the supporter section. One of the important things we're going to have to learn is to go to the left, type of the stars to the left.

So for this week's Ask Pottery segment, the question was asked, why do we go to the left on Tetris? Absolutely. And this is definitely a funny one. Sarge and I tried to chat about this the other day.

Way back at the beginning, we were used to Tetris. We just kind of went whichever way. And this still happens sometimes when people don't pay attention. The cables would say, here's the direction we're going and people would just go in opposite directions and then there'd be the massive train wreck.

You know, this is kind of the cartoonish sardine effect where everything, or according, or collapses together in the middle. So I asked Sarge, he wasn't certain what match it was. It was an early match. So we just asked everybody, which way do you want to go?

The epitome of the crowd starts, everybody's left, left, we need to go left. Okay, we're going left. And so when he's yelling dramatically about having to go left, it's not so much like, I mean, sure, it's being something a little bit, but it's as much funny, if anything, like that we legitimately couldn't even decide the direction early on. We had 50% chance and we're going the wrong way.

Exactly. Yeah, when the left side goes to the left and the right side goes to the right, that's fine. Nobody crashes together in the middle in the later cycles. So yeah, we go to the left because that's what we wanted to do.

And we made the choice and now we will stick with it for the remainder of eternity. So we go left because we want to go left and we will never not go left. I do like the addition. I think it's actually just this year of I want you to Tetris as hard as you can.

Absolutely. That's a new one. It always reminds me of Aquatine on your forces. But yeah, it's such a great Tetris thing as hard as we can.

Which, yeah, go left. Always go left. All right, we will be back with our interview with Dave Edwards. Dave Edwards.

Hey, Dave! Hey, we're back at the Mothership of Motor City really works. We joined today by one of the longer tenured, if not the longest tenured by playing time. Remember Detroit City FC, Dave Edwards and Dave?

Nice to meet you guys. It's good to have you. So you've been around, essentially as long as it's been at the club, it feels like. Yeah, pretty much.

How did you end up with these CFC? It was actually, it was just before the season started. Coach Ben sees us, you guys, like the column down in touch with us. And he was just sent his email last day when I was doing the summer.

And I planned originally just to go back to Newcastle. Just to like that was like, you know what it is, I should go back home. To see family and stuff. And I was like, if I get a chance to play out here, I might as well do it.

I didn't actually know much about the College City. Like I didn't know what it was to be put, it was going to be calm. So I was like, I'll come to the first week of training and then just go from there. And it ended up like after that first week of training, getting to the guys and everything.

And then finally playing in matches, because the first match was in a way game. I think the FC is spot. I mean, I didn't actually play in that game. And then the first, the next home game I played, and it might be in the game's Cleveland.

I remember, right? I think we won 1-0 maybe. I was like 2-1. I was single on them lines.

And I was like, I've seen the atmosphere and I've never, I've got to be honest. Like being apart and saying like, wow, I was like, wow. I was so taken back to know if that made sense to be good. Yeah.

Because we were talking even just, last episode of sort about what the experience was like in the first match. And it was weird stuff like, Kilta Ken was wearing pants and a tiger's hat and stuff like that. And I didn't show up until I think about the third game. But even that first game was enough to get you to follow.

Well, my, it was actually, I think maybe, I think the fish, I think, I wasn't, I don't know. I was head fish. I think mine. So you were playing in your second season.

Okay, okay. Yeah, that was definitely, because your first season, yeah, it was definitely, it was the second season of the first season of the first season of the team. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Now, my notes and by my notes, I mean, the club website, you, you've been in Michigan for a while now, like five years. I think you guys are going to five years. So you, you were at Jackson Community.

I started at Jackson Community College. Yep. Then I went to spring arbor and then ended up, and my last year I was at Madonna University. Okay.

So were you, you, you played ball at spring arbor? Yeah, I played football. I played soccer, like four years. Jackson and spring arbor, but I was like, when I first was coming up here, I went for like the temp agency where basically you go through training and then like the, like, culture's been over.

I had no eligibility, like the play like any NCAA. So I had to keep a two-core and then I had to go any AIA where you can literally play, then you can literally be in one. Yeah, right. That's good.

Yeah. Fair enough. So, all right. So, so then actually we start to you.

Yeah, then did like, and Eric Ruddlin, which is the Lansing coach, my coach at spring arbor. Oh, sorry. I think he got into a bend about me playing in the summer because I was like, I was, I was saying I was being around going home and he was like, oh, I got this bit at spring arbor. He like, he's kind of looking for a team.

So then Ben reached out with us and then that's what I just started from there. Okay. Is it, you have, you played the most minutes in club history? Is that correct?

I don't know. I know this season I'll play the most minutes. I'm lost the time I checked before coming in. I think I was fifth all time.

So maybe now I might be up there. Okay. I think it might be close. So with a club as young as Detroit City is, you often earn situations, someone set the record and then like two years later someone comes on and breaks it.

And if I understand math correctly, the only way to keep a title like most minutes played is to keep playing minutes. Yeah. And we only have a couple games left this season. Yeah.

What are you thinking after this season? Oh, I'll definitely do that. Okay. Good.

We were worried we were going to break two retirement announcements. Yeah. We're kind of getting exhausted. I'm going to say this right now for you guys.

Brett and Josh will be back next year. You know, we were not the first person to say that. There is no way and then guys did not come back. You know, one of the owners, I won't throw him under the bus.

They're several of them and I know them all. But one of them I ran into a couple weeks ago and the conversation the players were tiring came up and he said, I will never believe them when they say that until they don't show up for training in April. He said because they still want to play. You know what comes January February?

You're healthy again and you just want to play some more. Yeah. That's true. He did use that for us.

So, you know, podcast listeners who know what we're talking about have a good struggle. That sort of puts a spike in one of the questions I wanted to ask about Alaska anyways because the consensus among everybody that we talked to was that should this be Josh's last season, which I mean, he sort of semi-formally said this is it for me. If it is in fact his last season, the consensus among essentially everybody we talked to was that you're like the lockdown obvious next captain. Is that anything?

I mean, I know I'm throwing a throw in one of the questions. I'm saying anything about it. Is that the last one or is that the kind of thing that you're welcome? The first time it came about was the Lancer Away where my ender of getting B31 which is horrendous day for that.

So, that came about that Josh. Full, that was going to be captain. But Josh, to be honest with you guys, Josh, there's still all the talking. I'm just basically, I'm putting on my own hoofy, I leave, I leave, I'm on the field, my working hard, but Josh is still the captain guys.

I'm there when Josh isn't there. I'll take it with all fans. If I can help out by being captain, I'll definitely do it. But Josh is still the captain.

Can you hold your arms out and scream at a raft the way Josh can and work on that? No, there's no way I can do that. There's one thing about Josh is when he shot at the raft, just walk away. Just let it happen, guys.

I'm like, I'm like, he's going to keep going for a little bit. He's too good. This is it. I'll come back to that question.

I have to think about that one, whether I asked it or not. So, I mean, that goes to the culture of the club and it's sort of got, you know, DCS has got a somewhat chippy reputation and it's just hard and aggressive and a lot of the things that in addition to scale that you could also say much after me, is that one of the things where the club reflects the leadership over the years? Yeah, I think Josh is like, the way Josh is a leader is because he's so powerful. Like, I've known him to play out and I honestly would say this, like since I've been here about literally, I've been playing the game by using his mouth not just his feet.

He knows where to be. He knows where to tell you. He can't control me and Troy. He kind of controls for like a stick.

He tells where to go. So, we know what's going to go on behind. He's so vocal and to be honest, I'm like, I don't know Josh really well. Since I've been here, I always always might like all captain, might captain like you guys say.

So, you're not afraid to play physical. And so, one of the questions that Sean wanted asked is, do you subject your teammates to your crushing tackles in practice or you just save the crushing tackles for the game? I've had a couple of times when Ben has said, he self-practiced that everyone has just calmed down. And I'm like, oh, I'm looking around and I'm just holding me, but I know he probably is.

Does he shout at you in practice as much as he shouts at everybody else from what we've been told? Yeah, he shouts at everyone in practice. But that's the way he is, the coach, he basically gets on you to make it better. That's how I just try it.

You know, now because I've been with Ben since the start, I know when I'm going to get shouted at us. I know when I do something wrong. The first business is when we've been. And that's perfect for me because I know not to do that again.

Right. And have you seen him evolve as a coach in all over the years? Or I mean, grow? I mean, not that he wasn't next to me.

Yeah. And I think that's the way he's always had his own style, which, to be fair, makes us all go hard on training. And I feel like we've been, like, he wants you to train, like you're going to play. So if you're training hard, that's what that's going to relate to the game.

So that's kind of his coaching style. But it's actual training sessions and the way he goes about things is top-class. That's what he's like. It's not just you guys, like you guys definitely keep me coming back.

But he definitely keeps me coming for more more because he's a quality coach. Not everybody makes road, you know, player-wise makes road matches. Especially further out or whatever the school they're part of or whatever. But it seems like you're at every road match, too.

I don't know. What's the vibe of the bus with all the new guys and with the rosters being different, you know, and all that. What is that like, whether it's new guys just on the roster, then you'll be taking a team to Pittsburgh or something that's 30 or 40% different than the team that you've played for before. I think that's what makes us such a unique, good team.

Because there's a group of guys that have teams being very clicky. And what I mean by that is that you'll have some groups hanging out with some guys and all groups hanging out with themselves. But to be fair, everyone just gets on exactly the same. We have had this on the bus.

There's always going to be like me and Josh Brett on the bus, like like Tief Nomi is on the bus. And then like with the new guys coming in, everyone just seems to fit in really well. It's like, I think that's props to Ben, it's props to Josh, it's probably you guys because it keeps everyone in the social media and stuff. I know you guys keep us alive on Twitter.

So I feel like the bus is just like, I've got to be honest, since I've got older, it's hard to travel and get off the bus and then play a full game. So like with you guys being there, literally motivating them, they won't have to get off the five of them almost. So the vibe on the bus is everyone gets on, it's good banter as I like to call it. It's actually a good time to be honest.

I remember that on occasion there's been some of the songs that support us and we've made it to the bus. Oh, Cassidy. Josh, it's like on the back of the bus there's like Josh and then there's like me and Brett and only them two. But I've never had a great guy, then two just sing Cassidy the whole time.

That on the back of the bus is going for it. So you know what to expect on your mother's not the game, you guys are there. We'll just start away, matches. That is a great song.

But all the songs are going for that. What's that Banshee? Yeah, there's Banshee's idea. That's just a good one.

Yeah, I think it was even just a tweet one day that she tweeted at the end. So this came up at the pit game because I think we counted 18 non-detroit city supporters in the 10,000-6 stadium. So we said some of us over behind the bench to do the back and forth. Yeah, we're trying to balance the chance back and forth.

And we got to get the guys on the bench in two and would Caesar be cool with that or would that not be something that you guys joined in? If you were on the bench, I don't know if that would go down to what I was going to do. I think Ben likes to keep a professional. People are like the stuff they're getting on the same way.

You know, they're probably one who, because sometimes you're kind of like with the tune of the song. But I don't know if C's would like that. Maybe that's like Charlie got that red so that he could get in the stands with that Sunday. I hit Charlie with the loving.

The whole support is actually on Sunday. There's a great photo of him eating a popsicle. If you've come like the star or something like that, one of the matches where the other guys are getting some more time. There's a standing invite for any of the first team or everyday players who feel like if you're not going to go, Josh is going to come up.

Josh comes up and takes your five to center mid. You can come up and hang out with your guys all the time. You know the smoke box that was there that you can donate for the smoke from the Lansing game? If I had five bucks, I would have given you guys a more bad smoke box.

There was a moment in that game where I've never seen anything like it. I looked over, I think you've talked about it on the left side. I looked over and there was so much smoke. I couldn't even see anything on your side.

So I was like, I literally give a lot of clappers. I was like, that is impressive. If I've seen anything impressive, that is impressive. You know what I'm saying?

Because I thought you're doing that, I'm just like, they've seen everything we have to offer. If he noticed that, it's pretty impressive. Do you have a favorite chant song there? I don't know.

It's like all of them. Cast it, he's a great song. You try Alawet, that's such a quality song. Like all the songs are cool.

He loves he loves he loves he's like, I just watch Ben's little face. He has the accent he's been cool. He's loving it. We've asked others this.

You see the best grass? I mean, he's track jacket or whatever. There's anybody else who secretly wants to get out of the training gear they roll in. Nothing is like what's he's like and fall out.

I'm sure a page is there. It's beyond same. I dress them a little bit here and there. But you know what's pretty smart to be honest.

He does. So speaking of, is he your new castle fan? He's massive. Who puts who's put out better kits over the last couple of years?

Detroit or Newcastle? I don't know. To be honest, the Newcastle kid, it went from Adidas to Puma. I like the black and white.

I've been brought through that. I put all kits every day. I know you guys thought that the Rouge had a lot of you guys would say on Twitter. I said they put them in the beat, so maybe that person might have been shifted.

But all YJ's are the Maroon J's. I like both of them. I didn't think I could bait you in the answer to that question. Another thing that comes up on the road especially is there's kind of a vibe among the supporters, one of the fans that we don't as a team don't adjust to the large turf fields as well.

So you know, casts is that narrow field. It seems like our playing style gets that best. Any idea why that is? You know what it is?

We train. I think on the biggest turf field, known to match. View of these actually are fielders. Right.

Huge turf field. So I feel like that's like, I don't know what, maybe we're just used to casts and casts as like, well you guys there and we're just really going to cast because we'll never really ever be a cast. So I just feel like maybe in the first like 10 to 20 minutes of a game, maybe we saw it so because I'm not used to how big the maybe in game. It's hard to put, like maybe hard to put the title really to see what I believe is the reason.

But I know exactly what you mean that, because we've been able to game on casts pretty much. Correctly. And I think it was a regular season. I would say it was the first season.

The first season was, anyway. Anyways, the way he seemed to think when we asked him about this, he thought that there might be sort of a, that the supporters at a cast sort of give that jump energy out of the gate. Yeah. The players don't out on the road.

But we asked Brett that and he said, no, no, no, I don't think so. No, Brett doesn't necessarily use my energy as everybody else. He can stand around with the match. So maybe it's different for him and for you guys.

But yeah, I mean, the turf field, I mean, honestly, we were all looking at the playoff season since thinking, well, OK, let's go play. Yeah, great. Let's bring him home to cast. We're going to win that.

Right. I feel like the whole situation of cast is the fact that we've got you guys as like our 12th man, so to speak. Like, so you guys, I feel like every team comes in the cast wanted to put on a show, but they're not expecting what they're about to be hit by. Right.

And then when we come on fast out the gate, I get to you guys involved straight away, which you guys can do 90 minutes involved. Like, I remember the books game. You guys have a tough 90 minutes and we're getting absolutely brilliant playing well at all. And you guys were brilliant then.

So you can say that you guys have the same way against what I cast. I just feel you guys are just you guys are just you overwhelmed with teams will point where they're like, oh, did I have anything I was going to be able to perform here? We joke that the first time in warmups, any time a player looks over and engages with us during warmups, we're like, we got to choose like, I just set up shopping your head, mother. Yeah, we got the explicit bag of motherfucker and you're just going for the rest of the match.

Yeah, that's their ours. So a couple of you like right now we've got three regular season matches left in the season. We've got home and away versus whatever they're currently called up and then we've got. And then we've got the eerie emeralds.

Commerce? I don't remember. Yeah, anyway, so we got like we can have two weeks off. Right.

So first question is at this point in the season, is that much of a downtime and advantage to get people healthy like Ross and Javier? Is that an overall good thing or does it allow you going to rusty? Get out of the meeting. I see what you're saying.

I feel like as of how we were playing going like with this break the break came out of time where it's nice for people to be able to rest. But I feel like if we kept on playing we weren't great like we weren't just cruising. I mean, we were playing but soccer. Like except maybe we didn't play too great but we came back against it.

We came back against Sensi on the road. Then end up grinding that we're getting to pit. And then I thought we played really well against Lance and then before it was probably our best game. So that's where he wins on the trot so to speak.

So really the downtime came out of time where for me, especially me, I felt like I was finally be able to keep on going. I feel like the downtime came out like not the best of time for us but for like the younger kids and stuff that maybe have like naggling injuries where like a week break. It'll be great for him because then that means when we come back into practice tomorrow everyone will be there. So we're going to take a week off of practice?

Yeah, we took like a full week off of practice. I'd been like half the full week off because if you remember last year we had the stars so we never had a week off on the 4th. So give people a chance to go away, get rested. It's the ways you can look at it.

It's two different ways. Like I see from my point of view the last 10 which we just kept on playing. Now that we've had the break I'm ready to get back in the way. I know what we need to do.

It's kind of like that really. One of the guys talking about people coming into their own who's been a really close and surprised against this season is your partner Troy Watson. We were sort of saying that we were looking at Charlotte's looking at a video going, but it's interesting or whatever. He gets an answer I think really noticed that he came into his own.

He really came across that. Playing again and getting the new guys at the speed and playing with Troy or somebody else like that. And is that something you've enjoyed doing? To be fair, Troy, I thought Troy gets lance once more.

Troy is one of them guys where for me because he makes my game a lot easier because he does all the work behind me kind of because I play a little bit more in front of him. So he just kind of slops and slides. Maybe I'm not being on the ball as much but if you always be doing the defensive work. So for me, Troy gets used to what we need from him.

It has took the first game I've ever played. It was a little bit slow. I think he made me lance and I think he made me lance and got to be free. I thought he actually played really well.

But now that guy, I couldn't give that guy any more praise for you having that guys quality player worked his butt off. Which is funny because I actually, a little while ago we were talking, we were talking about the pit man. I sort of said we were talking about we were talking about we seem to have a good game. I'm not going back and I'm not going to be in the pit.

I said it said Danny was out there, we're going to have to do it. I said we were the usual suspects were excellent. And then I said, well we always just sort of assume that Dave's going to be excellent. But you know, it's like, you know, it's, I think the summits that we all sort of realize that we kind of take maybe it's just the position you play.

Maybe it's how simple you make it look. But I mean, you could probably go back in your head but I can't think of any time where I look back and go, oh man, Edward's in table with that goal. Yeah, that was, to be honest, like from this season, like for me, we started off against the Bucks. And I've got to be honest, I was horrendous against the Bucks.

Like I was like a young man, I couldn't be into the Bucks. Like I literally, I was getting passed off the field. Like not really was a massive reality check on me. I was like, if I want to keep playing and playing well, I've got to work hard.

I've got to make sure I play better, but not only you guys, but for Ben, for the team. So from that game, I was like, in my head, I was like, if we're going to do well this season, as a team, we just need to work hard. So my main, when I was telling you guys, when I was wearing the captains band, maybe I'm not like so vocal. Like I'll show, like, I'll get the guys together, like I'll be like, come on guys, let's go, whatever, whatever.

But like, as a player, I like to be known as the guy that will work hard so everyone around is working hard. And I was kind of like, my mentality, like, I know like I did blush a bit when you say it. I would take it for granted, like how good you've been playing, but that's just because I want to be good for you guys, not only you guys, but for Ben as well. So that's just the way I've looked in with after the books.

And you've been doing it. Not for sure. So we have this one situation, this season, ahead of us where we have this home and away. You can get the same team within a pretty quick amount of time.

How do you guys prepare, you know, pitches are different, atmospheres are different, although I mean, it's basically going to be a smaller home crowd. And there's no smoke. No smoke. Yeah, no smoke.

But how do you prepare to see the same team twice? The team that hasn't been, you know, they're in an OK position to table, you know, they can make it late run, that type of thing. How do you prepare to play them twice in a certain time? Well, I think the first thing you do is you take one game at a time.

So you take the first game, which is, I kind of think, I like the fact that I'm playing my home first. So we'll play my home, and then we'll play my home, then we'll play the other way. So the way we'll go about it as well, just take one game at a time. We have to now win all of our games.

That's in my head, like win all the games. We'll get first, we'll get first place. So I think the way we'll go about that is we'll not act like we're playing that team on Saturday and then that team again away. What we'll do is we'll just take one game at a time and hopefully it will play well whenever we win.

That will leave us at the top, which is where we want to be. For someone who's played soccer in this area for a few years, do you have former teammates, things like that, the stars, the main thing, that type of thing? I have a couple of really good friends on the Lansen team. OK.

And I don't have any, I don't know if the stars anymore, I used to have a good friend on the stars last year, but then I don't think he's played anymore. But one of my really good buddies, face for Lansen, and last year when we ended up tying them at their play tournament, they ended up winning the conference, that will stick in my head too long. So that's another reason I want to win every game, because I want to be able to host play off, I want to be regular season champions, I want to be a win play off. To do that, I think the best option I've got is by winning out and playing out of play off games, I can't say.

I think that's the way you look at it really, and get some revenge. I tell you, I've never seen a most smug face, because I used to be coached by Eric Woodland, and so he's a great guy, but their team and their players that used to play for them last year, they still couple of them players. I still couple of them play this year, they all had a little smud lot on their face to do. That luck, that'll stick with me for too long.

One of their players was on Twitter, it wasn't on the team last year, made some crack about the Midwest Championship, they'll still get it or something like that. That's nice to know. Some names, the locker room motivation. That's a locker room motivation.

Drew, Sargis, he comes ahead, everyone matches, and puts up his little thing on the dry race board. Do you guys actually get a kick out of that? I love it, because Ben always brings it up at the end, everyone's getting ready, everyone's gone crazy. Ben will be like, and then we've got these guys out there, and then that's how it starts, and Ben will read what you guys have put on Sargis's post, so then it just gets what will go on.

That's honestly too good for us, man. You guys do us the best. I think as you can tell, we love doing it. Not that there's ever been any hostile players that I can remember, but you've always been one of the players who seem to make the most effort to engage with the supporters.

I think my son would divorce me and dad marry you. He can come hang out with me anytime. I'll play on that, but he'll just wait for you to go another way. But I mean, is it a thing that you grew into?

Is it just something that you decided to use in a decision made or just sort of realize after a while? I just think I realized how lucky we were, if I'm honest. I was like, we've got these guys coming home in a way against, in their f-hours in a way against, even in the way against you guys, you guys, blancin. It's not like you guys dedicate yourself to all the stuff.

I feel like it's all jobs to put ourselves to you. We can't act like, I feel like Twitter, I know we're talking about Twitter a lot, but I feel like it brings us all together. You know what I mean? It's just a team, and then a fan, kind of comradery where everyone's always together.

You guys want us to win, we want to win for you guys, so all the DevOps won really. That's why I use Twitter, and also just talking to you guys, of course, but it's just a way to interact with you guys. So, I guess we're kind of wrapping up here. You're definitely back next year.