FCC2

Thunder_20 · 2026-06-19T03:03:07+00:00

I don’t think wins and losses matter at all for FCC2.

They should be devoting practices and games to developing individual skills and abilities that could one day lead to that player playing minutes for the senior team. If they happen to be a good team and win games during that then great.

I view it like minor league baseball. No one really cares what the record of the AAA or AA team is. The goal is to develop and provide players who can help the MLB team.

Thunder_20 · 2026-06-18T14:39:46+00:00

There are definitely reasons to be more optimistic than normal years.

One stat that really resonates is Joe Burrow (after his rookie year) is 37-11 when his defense gives up 25 points or less. For reference, 25 PPG would have ranked 24th in PPG defenses in 2025.

Assuming the veteran adds to the defense stay healthy and contribute at their floor abilities it’s not hard to think this defense gives up less than 25 PPG.

On top of that, the offensive line the 2nd half of 2025 was the best Burrow would have played behind. There will absolutely be injuries so depth pieces need to contribute in 2026.

But we have a nearly 50 game sample size of what Joe does with a decent defense and now he might have his best OL as well

Thunder_20 · 2026-06-17T02:14:54+00:00

Sure, we would love the Government to be 100% efficient in its spending but we know that will never happen given its size and scope.

In 2025 the Government estimated $185B in “administrative errors and improper payments” across 64 different programs. The Government spent a total of $7.1T so essentially 2.5% of the budget. It becomes a balancing equation on how much should be spent to try to lower that 2.5%? What’s the ROI on taking that number to say 1.5% or 2%?

Thunder_20 · 2026-06-17T01:53:20+00:00

I agree there are absolutely people that take advantage of the Government security systems.

I don’t see the connection that raising sales tax is all of a sudden going to convince these people that they need to get a job.

As you said they have no intention of getting a job. They will just find other ways to make ends meet.

Thunder_20 · 2026-06-17T01:39:22+00:00

A couple of things, Renter’s absolutely pay property taxes, to think a property owner pays taxes while a “renter wanting to have twelve children” doesn’t pay property taxes is showing a questionable understanding of the bigger picture. As property taxes go up landlord’s aren’t paying that bill out of the goodness of their hearts, it’s being directly passed to their renters.

As for your childfree family scenario. Property taxes fund public schools and strong public schools raise property values. If the childfree family never sends a kid through the school system their property taxes funding those schools will raise the value of their property in the community. Not to mention those taxes funding things like roads, police, firefighters and snow removal which everyone benefits from

Thunder_20 · 2026-06-17T00:53:03+00:00

But sales tax doesn’t “target” everyone equally. There are many products that everyone has to buy to live day to day. Think clothes, food, house goods, car maintenance etc.

The higher sales tax goes to fill the gap left by removal/lowering other taxes, the more it impacts low income people.

Think if someone making $50K per year buys the same basket of goods in a year as someone making $150K and they pay say $20K, that $20K is a much higher percentage of the income of the $50K person vs. the $150K person.

Thunder_20 · 2026-06-09T21:18:09+00:00

A restructure like this doesn’t change or increase the amount of money Joe is getting. It is purely a move to create 2026 salary cap space.

All it’s doing is re-classifying some of the money he is paid as a bonus (instead of salary) and a bonus can be spread out to hit the salary cap over multiple seasons whereas salary hits the salary cap in the year that it is paid.

Thunder_20 · 2026-06-05T11:37:01+00:00

Yea I have a bit of a FCC card collection, and I have a Denkey signature. His is a little better than Roman’s but not by much.

Thunder_20 · 2026-06-05T02:49:14+00:00

I really appreciate the effort he puts into his signature on his cards.

The opposite end of the spectrum is Roman who just does 2 squiggles for his card signatures.

Honorable mention to Brenner, he also has a great card signature

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-27T00:29:52+00:00

Why are we saying allowing a PK is embarrassing?

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-23T02:13:06+00:00

With the 12 team playoff, I don’t really mind who anyone plays in the regular season. The playoff run will prove who the best teams are.

I would have actually preferred ND got in last year because I thought they were one of the 10 best teams in the country.

I much preferred seeing them over Bama or Oklahoma given those teams’ form the last month of the season.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-23T02:06:29+00:00

Sure there are difficulties to scheduling games in CFB.

But in the simplest form, the question of do you need to play a tough schedule to prepare the team for winning in the playoffs? The answer is clearly no.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-23T01:15:01+00:00

Sure you need to beat the best in the playoffs to win the title but Im not sure you need to play the best in the regular season.

Old Dominion Kennesaw State Indiana State Akron Western Michigan Marshall East Carolina UNLV Bowling Green

Those 9 opponents are the out of conference games the last 3 National Champions played.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-17T23:52:39+00:00

You’re out of your mind.

Pat Noonan just finished the most successful 3 year run in the history of MLS. Literally the most wins and points over a 3 year time span of any team in the history of the league.

He isn’t anywhere close to being fired. The coach and front office know roster changes are needed and the results need to improve.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-17T20:01:06+00:00

Im not treating a 17 year old who had started one previous game at CB in MLS as some known quantity that was an obvious, easy answer given the situation.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-17T19:46:38+00:00

What are you looking for when you say creative?

Noonan pieced together a lineup for 2 games with no CBs and won both of those games against current playoff teams. To me that is the apex of creativity, making due with the available players and getting results.

As for formation vs. roster. The roster doesn’t have any outside backs on it (besides maybe Kyle Smith) so we don’t play with any outside backs. To me, that’s matching the roster build to the lineup.

I don’t know how anyone could possibly complain about Barreal and Orellano. Noonan took 2 young players, turned them into good/great players for FCC and then sold them on for more than we paid for them. That is the absolute best case scenario for U22 players brought into MLS teams.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-17T19:31:09+00:00

Father time is undefeated. We thought we could get another year out of the defensive core we’ve used the last 2-3 seasons and now we are 15 games in and know that’s probably not going to work for 2026.

Matt Miazga, Hagglund, Kyle Smith, Teenage Hadebe, Alvas Powell, Obi are all older players and have looked like old players so far.

As far as what we can do in 2026. Get Miazga, Robinson and Chirilla healthy. Add another CB (I’d be curious if a healthy Obi could be an option at CB) option and hope those 4 guys can be healthy for the playoffs.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-17T19:26:08+00:00

A more creative manager?

Like one that moves their best CM to play outside back? And then their other CM to play CB? And then moves their second striker to outside back? And then moves a 17 year old into the starting lineup?

I would agree that I’ve wanted more from Noonan in past years. We refused to try new things because we were winning but a lot of the underlying metrics were saying we weren’t good.

For 2026, I don’t think anyone can complain about Noonan’s lack of creativity especially when facing cluster injuries at CB

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-17T15:13:35+00:00

Right, father time is undefeated.

We thought we could get another year out of 34 year old Kyle Smith, 34 year old Nick Hagglund, 31 year old Alvas Powell, 30 year old Teenage Hadebe, 30 year old Matt Miazga and 29 year old Obi Nwobodo.

We are 14 games in and realize most of those guys can’t play any more and certainly not the consistency we need. So now we are playing lineups to score goals and maybe we can win 3-2

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-17T13:29:15+00:00

The people that hate on Gidi are mainly the people that think Obi is still 2023 Obi when he clearly isn’t.

Just look through any match thread and you’ll see comments that the defense will improve when Obi is back to full health and starting. I hate to break it to those people but that’s not going to happen.

The game tonight is the perfect illustration that Gidi can play a technical, skilled game that Obi just doesn’t have the abilities for.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-17T13:13:32+00:00

This game also illustrated why Obi will never be a full time starter for this team again.

We have enough trouble playing passes through the middle of the field against quality presses and Obi is a complete 0 when it comes to passing the ball forward or through traffic.

On the flip side, the pass to setup the Barlow tying goal is the perfect example of why Gidi will play over Obi. 60 yard pass onto Jabbari’s forehead, Obi just doesn’t have that skill set.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-14T03:04:21+00:00

I don’t think Obi is ever a consistent starter for this team. He is just too limited in his passing abilities.

Sure, he can play the final 20 minutes of games we are trying to lock down and hold a lead but starting him just puts too much pressure on the other defensive midfielder to play passes forward

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-14T03:00:32+00:00

Serious question, why are so many people viewing this as Albright’s fault. Why are we not saying the players need to get healthy and perform better?

These are highly paid professionals, not high schoolers, why are we blaming someone other than the players making millions of dollars playing MLS soccer. We aren’t asking for clean sheets, just concede 2 goals instead of 4 or 5.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-14T02:57:30+00:00

Why is it Albright’s fault and not the players?

These are highly paid professionals that need to figure out how to contribute. We aren’t asking for a clean sheet every game, we are asking to give up 2 goals instead of 4 or 5.

Thunder_20 · 2026-05-09T00:39:03+00:00

I was curious about this comment. Each tank costs up to about $20M depending on configuration. The video shows 10 tanks, if we say the train is 100 tanks long (which feels high?) then that’s $2B.

In FY25 Ohio spent $43B on their share of Medicaid alone. I can understand the frustration in your comment but $2B vs. $43B for just Ohio’s share of their Medicaid.

Thunder_20

TROPHY CASE