Nico Cavallo

Sorry.

Mike, probably the only other question, is the left-back position, Kevin O'Toole, reclaiming that position from Nico Cavallo?

Yeah, you're never going to convince me that that's the right choice.

I'm sorry.

Luigi is on loan in a U-22 deal for them.

Keaton Parks, Mia Illinich, Nico Cavallo.

Arnaud, Farnos, Cooper Flax, Malachi Jones, Max Murray, Kevin Pierre.

We'll talk U22, stay or go, and then give me other thoughts.

Give him a little bit more time.

I think you bring him back.

Now, outside of that, I've got Nico Cavallo as one that's, I think, for people, that's probably a pretty obvious one for us ball knowers, us in the know, the New York City know.

That's

well.

And JR, you know, the Nico Cavallo, Kevin O'Toole, you know, that's a situation that keeps popping up as a question mark.

And in this game, Janssen went with Cavallo.

Well, Cavallo's looked better, really, ever since coming back from the World Cup break.

Once Miami gets possession of the ball in their defensive end, the referee picks up his hand to go blow the whistle for halftime.

And all of a sudden, Miami plays an advanced ball, breaks down the NYCFC defense, and it leads it to where it's a three-on-three with NYCFC trying to defend three with three.

And one of those three is Nico Cavallo, you know, basically lunges backwards at the ball, trying to intercept the pass.

So now he takes himself out of the play.

... [laughs] and then, uh, Jansen does the unthinkable.

He takes out, uh, Nico Cavallo and puts on Kevin O'Toole.

Um, I, I was shocked.

Um, not gonna lie, I was actually, um, and I forget who asked.

Um, and that's how the, that's how the original turnover started.

So, um, it's just a lot of really average players and players not in form and players that are just coming back from injuries on the field.

So, um, yeah, I didn't really... uh, the Nico Cavallo sub, I mean, Nico Cavallo's been actually ver- I've been very pleasantly surprised with how he's played this season, but he's not a player, I'm sorry [laughs].

He's maybe above average.

And it's just like the fact that there was just no real...

The best chance that they had to get a second goal was that Alonso Martinez sort of, like, first time shot after Nico crossed the ball to him, and he sort of puts it out wide on his, like, redirect attempt.

But that being your sort of best opportunity, clear opportunity to score while you had that man advantage until maybe desperation time after they conceded.

They had a couple late, late chances, I know, like, towards, like, stoppage time, but that, that shouldn't be a case.

It doesn't make sense.

Like, it should be, we have everything going for us and now it's time to sort of put the foot down on the neck and finish Chicago.

And also, even the tactical adjustment that he decided to make at halftime of taking off Nico Cavallo because he thought Nico Cavallo was struggling and that Chicago was finding too much sort of like comfort on that side of the field.

Kevin O'Toole has been in bad form.

... and like, you know, do something.

[laughs] Uh, there's- Consistently, even in this terrible f- few months, moments of downhill magic between Nico and Perea and Ojeda that can happen like a spark, and it's fun to watch those moments because it's feels like somewhat of a promise that is latent in, in this team's kind of talent structure that we haven't seen before.

And it, and it owes itself to, you know, the rapidity of Perea and Ojeda, and it owes itself to Nico being such a flexible, um, dynamic player.

And, and, and it feels wrapped up in that.

Um, unfortunately, we get those moments only ever, every so often, but we only get those moments and no other moments because there's nothing else-

And you're playing Benny at forward and Hannes Wolf on the left, and Benny is sitting because he's not a striker.

[chuckles] He is cre- he, he is doing what the frustration was the whole first half of this season, right? The whole first half of the season not having...

You know, playing Nico as a false nine, where there was no depth, there was no ability to find anything in the box.