01x04 - City Blues

[bunniefuu]

And it was Tim Parker.

What a slide off the line!

With a wide open header! At Tim Parker!

…as Tim Parker scores the second goal

for the New York Red Bulls.

I am a journeyman throughout the MLS.

I envy those

that have played in one place.

Just to be embraced by a city

and be there for your entire career

and get to settle down.

I think that's been my goal

for the last five, six years.

In my brief time in St. Louis,

All Star, Best XI.

First goal in different areas

of St. Louis CITY's history.

Here comes Parker. And it's into the net!

Their first goal in Major League Soccer.

- First playoff goal.

- And it's Parker!

It's just really cool

to be in a proper sports town.

We had so much success

as an expansion team.

A future in St. Louis

is almost, like,

written on the wall somewhere.

Vamos, Vamos, Vamos St. Louis!

Vamos, Vamos, Vamos…

St. Louis…

Look at all these people.

Vamos, Vamos, Vamos St. Louis!

Vamos, St. Louis.

The best way you can tell when

you are successful as an ownership group

is when the community feels like

they own the team.

And the fact that we've been able to do

that in second season is truly incredible.

Oh, my gosh. I love this.

- How are you? Nice to meet you.

- Hi! How are ya? Good to see you.

Great to see you.

She wants to meet you

because it's her birthday today.

Oh, my gosh. Happy birthday!

- Hi, I'm Carolyn.

- Hi.

- How old are you?

- Nine.

- Can I get a picture of you guys?

- You're nine?

From day one, the ownership group

has said, yes, it's a sport,

but it has to be bigger than that.

It has to be about

bringing the entire community together.

All right, you have

the best birthday ever.

And we'll have a date next year

and I'll bring you macaroons.

Okay.

It's fun to just

think about it 'cause it's year two.

A couple of years ago there was no team.

S-T-L, S-T-L.

How are you doing St. Louis?

It is with great honor to announce that

St. Louis is officially the 29th MLS team.

Congratulations.

St. Louis, are we ready to do this?

My name is Lutz Pfannenstiel

and I'm the sporting director

of St. Louis CITY SC.

Carolyn literally called me

out of the blue.

You know, I didn't really know

anything about it.

And said, we are the new franchise.

You starting the club.

Do you wanna do that?

I call it the most interesting and sexiest

job, actually, in professional football.

As an expansion team

you have no expectations.

You just try to survive.

It's kind of tradition

in the United States that you say

an expansion team must be bad.

I f*cking hate losing.

This is why I came to St. Louis

because I believe

that we will be a winning culture

and we will be a winning team.

I joined in January of 2022.

Looking back now, it's been a dream fit.

Major League Soccer

is underway in St. Louis.

When we commit, believe

and play with confidence,

the next four, five weeks, boys,

you know what's coming here, huh?

Second corner.

Here comes Parker.

Their first goal in Major League Soccer.

Last year was a magical ride.

St. Louis CITY,

unbeaten in their last five…

Winning those games mean

a lot for the city, a lot for the fans.

We were the biggest thing in St. Louis.

They caught the entire league by surprise.

Top of the list and staying there.

So year one,

you win the Western Conference,

you qualify for the playoffs,

you're hosting a playoff match.

It's 40 degrees. It is dumping rain.

And who's your opponent?

A two time MLS Cup winner,

Sporting Kansas City.

Alan Pulido.

Forward to Ndembe. Ndembe!

A sports enterprise is not owed

the attention and the loyalty of fans.

The kick save from Bürki.

Walter! And in!

You know, everybody likes a winner.

But we've got hundreds of thousands

of fans in our region.

When St. Louis joined the league

I called Carolyn

and I indicated to her that

on our database, here in Kansas City

we have a fair number of fans

that have ZIP codes in St. Louis.

And I asked her, "What do you

want me to do with those?"

Oh! What a goal!

It's over. Sporting Kansas City does it!

Looking back at the playoffs,

we were pretty pissed off.

Wasn't the ending that we had hoped for

for our season last year.

You guys can be one team and I'll just…

Sometimes they can use my shot.

Sometimes you're on our team,

sometimes their team.

Look at my partner. Would you look

at my partner. A little cut in there.

- Oh, wow.

- That's good.

Winning on the field is important.

In terms of the family dimension to it

the most important thing in our

organization is winning the people game.

It's about painting the wall in results

and trophies and championships.

We're a founding member of the league.

I sit alongside on the board of governors

with my old man, Cliff.

We've delivered trophies

in many competitions.

We're a World Cup host city which,

I think is a true testament.

You know, Kansas City

is the soccer capital of America.

There's always been a rivalry

between St. Louis and Kansas City

but it was… You know, we never

played the Cardinals until '85.

We beat 'em 11-nothing in game seven.

So f*ck those guys.

And then it really became a rivalry.

Now the towns kinda hate each other.

Over the years, George has…

he's become a great friend.

Aspiring soccer fan.

They've only been in the league one year,

but you get fired up to play them

more than anybody else?

- Yeah.

- 'Cause Saturday's game is…

It's got a little more icing on the cake.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Yeah.

St. Louis wants to be, you know,

like a New York or Chicago.

- Yeah.

- And we're proud being Kansas City.

We like being the small town

in the Midwest,

where they wanna be the big city,

you know? Yeah.

Yeah, it's a f*cking sh*thole as well.

Apologies.

We're like 20 minutes away, if that.

There's always traffic in the morning.

On game days I can get to the stadium

in like 15 minutes.

So there's a really cool billboard

up here of me.

It's kind of like, you know,

the city supported me

in the first year and a half

that I've been here.

It's definitely a really cool, welcoming

feeling that I get from being here.

My name is Tim Parker and I am

a center defender for St. Louis CITY.

Coming to St. Louis, it's been

like a revitalization of my career.

I was in Houston for two years.

It gets away from Parker.

Houston wasn't

the best place for me soccer-wise.

I didn't have a lot of success there.

And neither did the team.

5-nothing Union.

I think I fell out of love

with the game of soccer for a little bit.

But then, getting traded here…

I've definitely

fallen back in love with it.

I'm happy that I was able to

give them some memories last year.

The way the city's embraced me

and my family is awesome.

And I just love that.

I'm 31, gonna be 32.

I've been a pretty healthy player

throughout my career.

Contract negotiations started

in the beginning of this year.

I feel pretty confident.

I hope to stay in St. Louis. I do.

Peasants, good morning.

"Tim-oh-thy" Parker, good morning.

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

I definitely pride myself

on communicating to guys

and being a vocal leader out there.

I like to think I'm someone

that guys can rely on.

Morning. Sir, good morning.

Signing Tim Parker from Houston

where was not too happy,

some people saw it as a gamble. I didn't.

- Dude, do it.

- Do it.

You know, a good character. A leader.

Played a massive role

for us being successful in 2023.

I'll play something good.

Yeah, you look sexy, bro. Bow, bow, bow.

We have a lot of guys

that haven't played in this league before.

So there's definitely little things that

I can kind of help to acclimate guys.

- I've never been to Costco.

- Costco?

Yeah. Never been there.

It's the most American… You'd love it.

They have everything.

Think of something that you would need,

and it's all in one place.

Literally.

You need, like, an oil change?

Costco's got you.

You need a vacation? Costco's got it.

There's a lot that I can provide to a team

in terms of leadership,

locker room, mentality

and then of course on the field.

When I was playing,

didn't have none of this.

Now they have it.

- Roger, good to have you, bro.

- Good to finally see you, man.

- Just unretire.

- You must come more often.

- This place better be good.

- Very close where John lives.

- You haven't been?

- No.

- Never been?

- No.

- It's great.

- Right.

My name is Johnny Russell.

I'm a winger at Sporting Kansas City.

I have been here…

This is my seventh season now.

…backtrack, over to Johnny Russell.

First-time shot and Johnny Russell

has a hat trick!

And I came here in '18

just needing a change.

And he tucks it home!

The people have taken to me from day one.

They've made me feel so welcome.

Took me in as one of their own.

Something I'll be forever grateful for.

Loyalty's always been a huge factor.

The fans are the best. You can see it,

the support that they show.

Delivered it to Erik Thommy!

It falls to Russell!

Anything else outta here?

Chocolate chip, please.

- Are you eating the full thing?

- No.

- You wanna share it?

- All right.

If you spend enough time here,

it's actually a really cool place to live.

Somewhere that I'll always see

as a second home for me.

Made my debut in the 2006, 2007 season.

- That's like 18 years. Oh, my God.

- This is my 19th season.

They don't go to school in Scotland,

they just go straight to soccer.

- You'll be 35 this year?

- Just turned 34, bro.

- Oh, yeah. That's true.

- How many years was your career?

Sixteen years.

I look at you guys run, dude.

I watch you guys run.

It's like, all right, I know why I'm done.

I don't wanna do this anymore.

I still feel like I've got so much

left to give, so much left to offer.

It's probably somewhere

that I would like to finish my career.

Hey, make it to playoffs, do well

and there'll be very little changes.

- Sounds great!

- Sounds amazing, doesn't it?

I get up early. I go in

around this time in the morning.

It's my alone time.

It's when I don't have to

be answering anybody's questions.

If I wanna think about soccer, I can.

And if I don't, I don't.

My name is Peter Vermes.

I'm the manager, head coach

and GM of Sporting Kansas City.

It's so different than

being a player, right?

Because when you're a player

you're only worried about yourself.

When you're a coach, you're worried about

everything and everyone.

You're constantly thinking about the team,

you're thinking about situations.

I don't think you ever turn it off.

In 2009 with ten games left,

we had fired a coach.

I was asked to take over

for the last ten games

and I've been doing it ever since.

I think what really shapes a club

is a stable environment.

The four jerseys

represent the four trophies

that we've won

since I've been here as coach.

They're special moments of my time here.

But last year, it was probably

the most difficult season,

I think we have had as a staff

and me personally as the head coach.

For Sporting KC

it has been a horror start to the season.

There was a cloud over the team

and when you're not getting the results,

ownership starts losing confidence.

They have yet

to tally a win all season long.

Peter was under a ton of pressure

last year, no doubt.

Certainly feeling it from fans

and from me in ownership.

It was a difficult situation.

We just suffered a ton of injuries

amongst so many players.

At one point,

I had 15 guys on the injury list.

His night is coming to an end.

Mike called me in that ten-game stretch

when we hadn't gotten a win yet.

He asked me, "Hey, listen,

a bunch of the owners have been

asking me some questions."

It was a point where we were seriously

considering parting ways with Peter.

If you guys wanna fire me, I understand.

I would be nothing but professional.

They're gonna try to up the tempo.

They love going this way.

They love taking shots.

They wanna get the crowd into it.

But I also wanna warn you, if you fire me

and bring somebody else in,

that person is going to have to wait

the same amount of time

till all those players are

back in the team and back from injury.

Give me one second.

Once we understood

what the root cause of the problem was,

the decision was,

"don't be too quick to fire your coaches

because it's not their fault."

You can't let Stephen…

- Get it--

- Get it, like you…

like you should be thinking,

"I can k*ll this if they play it

in the air 'cause it's me."

When you have hardship, that's

when your coaches earn their stripes.

But oftentimes,

they don't get to see those days

because they're fired too quickly.

Listen, please.

Gotta go forward. You gotta play forward.

I'm giving you ten touches.

And it's a goal.

Ready?

Play, John.

Defend!

He gets f*cking pissed when I yell at him.

- Who, John?

- John. He doesn't love it.

Red card, Russell.

I think I've always had

a good relationship

with the majority of our players

and I think I've also had a good

relationship as guys have gotten older.

Yes.

Oh, no, Isaac.

sh*t ball.

What I've appreciated about

Johnny is that he is 100% a team guy.

He works like crazy.

But Johnny's gotten older.

He's had injuries and he only

has so much that he can give.

I'm not telling the guy he should retire.

I'm saying, at some point,

you have to be realistic with yourself.

Like, do you want to go out

and just stand around?

The beginning of the season

hasn't went the way I wanted it to.

Tore my hamstring

in the San José game.

So just to get back out there

is something that's…

It means a lot to me.

- You're off, John, right?

- Yeah, so I've been told.

That's right, you're off.

My contract's up

and there's always a worry.

I wanna stay here.

I don't think

there's any question of that.

Hopefully the journey

doesn't end this year.

In year one, St. Louis CITY defy the odds.

Job done. Year one. Year two.

Can this team…

Good morning.

Can Bradley Carnell show us an evolution?

Because that's what

it's gonna take in year two.

You're gonna have to be

more than a one-trick pony.

Welcome back to St. Louis, Missouri.

We're gonna cover

every single blade of grass together.

We believe in us, no one else does.

Season 2024 we open up a new chapter.

And now you have to go again

and prove it all over again.

- One, two, three, City!

- City!

Come on, boys.

Year one exceeded all expectations

for a St. Louis CITY team.

Now it's time for year two,

against Real Salt Lake.

First time finish. Hat trick.

St. Louis will suffer

their first defeat of 2024.

St. Louis CITY

and the Colorado Rapids duking it out.

Year two was not the same sweet song

that we were singing last year.

Another mistake!

It just hasn't been

the same for St. Louis CITY.

When the time gets tough and we're getting

a little gassed, 40th minute,

we can't stop using our heads.

They get leads in games,

but they can't see out victories.

No f*cking way!

f*ck's sake!

Last year we were the unknown quantity

and maybe they took us lightly

in the beginning.

And there's the final whistle.

I'm watching very closely, St. Louis.

Bradley Carnell has not been

up to snuff so far.

The expectation must be clear that we

be again very competitive in year two

and making the playoffs.

You know,

we stick together, we stay strong

and we ride waves of adversity,

and we move on.

And for me, it's a matter of time

before you get rewarded.

Come on, show 'em the way.

Go ahead.

We play against Kansas City this week.

It's a huge rivalry in between the clubs

that's kind of just obviously

formed quickly over the last year.

Hey, Rors.

Did you see the bunnies this morning, Tim?

Yeah, yeah. We have some fat bunnies.

They also know that

they're safe in our backyard

- 'cause he can never catch them.

- No.

He's so tired. Come here, boy. Come here.

My wife's name is Kelsey.

I met her when

I got traded from Vancouver to New York.

Come here, boy. Is that your brother?

- Love at first sight…

- Is that your brother?

…and that's the only date

I've been on since.

Hey.

So this is where I come…

After games I like to come down here

just 'cause when the baby's sleeping

I don't want to make

too much noise upstairs.

My debut jersey that I got framed

when I was playing for Vancouver.

So that's almost ten years ago.

I would consider myself a journeyman.

I have played for four teams.

I'd actually played at Red Bull

when Brad was an assistant.

I like playing for Brad and I have

a good relationship with Brad.

Second corner. Here comes Parker!

And it's into the net!

Strike that one up as a slice

of St. Louis soccer history!

I scored the first goal

for the club away against Austin.

And before the game I asked my wife,

"Hey if I score,

should I do the baby celebration?"

First thing I start to do was run one way.

But then I realized I didn't have a ball.

So I ran behind the goal,

grabbed the ball,

and my wife ended up making,

like, a TikTok of it.

And that's how we announced our pregnancy.

It was pretty cool.

And then this, it's the Parker Pilsner

beer that I started here in St. Louis.

A local artist made this

out of the cans for me.

I thought it was really cool

that he did that.

The following weekend, we don't have a

game. But we have a scrimmage on the 27th.

Oh, sh**t. Great.

So if we wanna go somewhere,

we can go somewhere, like, Sunday night.

- Yeah and we can hang out by the pool.

- Yeah.

- That would be awesome.

- Yeah.

My wife and I, we are ready for the idea

of settling into St. Louis long-term.

That's the reason,

you know, we bought a house.

Isn't it? Isn't it, honey?

I don't wanna keep

telling my wife we're moving.

Rors, what are you looking at?

I think he's looking at the diffuser.

Unfortunately,

we haven't been winning games.

It's always harder to negotiate a contract

when you're on a losing team,

just because the team is more likely

to make changes

than they are to make extensions.

Fascinating.

If you're able to play good

and the team's able to win,

then you put yourself and the team

in a better position.

Nökkvi, ready to go. Nökkvi, ready to go.

We gotta go on the trigger, Nökkvi.

On the trigger!

When we go, we go!

f*cking hell.

Come on, no delays.

Nonnegotiable when we lose it.

I think Bradley has very high standards.

And when things aren't

necessarily going correctly,

you can see him start

to get a little angry at times.

Why are we just protecting the goals?

It's four versus four.

We have to forward defend

on each other, guys.

How are they getting

so much time and space?

All I ever wanted

in our first year was to be competitive,

to be tough to play against.

This year, we have a bunch of guys

who are incredibly talented.

But they're still rookies

in their development as pros.

From a maturity level, I think

there's a lot of learning to be done.

Come on, Nökkvi.

Come on, Nökkvi. Yes, Nökkvi. You now.

Next one! Next one!

When I can feel that we need a little

bit more intensity, I'll push the buttons.

Tim, you can't play

Kyle Hiebert to Rasmus.

Rasmus to Anthony. You can't do that.

I wouldn't say

everyone is happy with Brad.

Make sure there's a lot

of communication, yeah? All right?

I would say that, in my opinion,

Brad may have lost faith

from a couple of guys.

There are whispers

about Brad being let go.

If we don't end up making the playoffs.

This is a new addition.

She's been a dream so far.

Hopefully that continues.

I'm gonna see these guys.

When I was coming here,

Kansas were the ones who, right

from the get-go, showed their intentions,

and showed, you know,

how much they wanted me to be here.

When a team

makes you feel wanted like that,

you obviously

hope that it's going to be somewhere

that you can stay and be successful.

I hope you score four goals.

We're going to score four goals?

So who's gonna score the four goals

if I don't score them?

Either…

- Who can you…

- Fonty.

Fonty's gonna score

four goals from center-back?

- Daniel…

- Okay.

- …or Messi.

- Possible.

Messi doesn't play.

- He's on the other team.

- Even my own kids.

Messi on the brain.

I'm joking. I'm joking.

I'm giving you luck.

Ah no, you're giving me luck. You do.

You know, I've been here seven years.

But you never know in this sport.

It's such a crazy sport at times,

where you're here one minute and you're

gone the next day without even knowing.

I'm gonna slide tackle.

I don't have as much time left

as I've played up until now.

I wanted my kids to see me play,

and not just play at the end, so they

could not see a washed-up old man.

Is it straight?

Hopefully, the new addition gets to see

me, you know, play a few years as well.

Not too much.

Don't try to strangle me.

You getting your fifteen minutes…

Fifteen seconds or whatever it is?

Julius.

Come on, out the way.

I'm not looking to the end

'cause I still feel like I've got

so much left to give.

Get a goal!

Thank you. Love you.

Okay. Thank you.

I'm excited about today.

A message from The Cauldron.

"Welcome to the blue hell"

is what they always say.

And a little extra one for their rivals,

"Abandon all hope ye who enter here."

Kansas City. St. Louis.

A rivalry that might be

the League's youngest,

but it's already one of its best.

I spoke to the manager and he's

made the decision that I'm not to play

and I get it, you know,

just coming off the back of this injury.

We've got a long season ahead of us.

I'll be ready when called upon.

We're supposed to be out

in six minutes. Six minutes.

Boys, good warm-up. Keep the energy high.

Remember what we want to do

in the first fifteen minutes.

We gotta win every individual duel

on the field.

Make sure we strike first, okay?

Let's go. All right.

The atmosphere is great. It's a derby.

And now, we get our first away win.

One, two, three, City!

One, two, three, team! Let's go.

- Let's go.

- Let's go.

- Johnny's not gonna start?

- No.

- Why?

- Remember he's been injured?

Yeah.

Will the heartland be blue

or will it be red?

Last year,

St. Louis CITY coming into the league.

This rivalry immediately was intense.

I expect the first twenty minutes

to be a thousand miles an hour.

And underway…

It's a f*cking yellow card.

It's a yellow card!

f*ck that sh*t.

Here is Pulido to Agada.

Back to Pulido.

It's in! Alan Pulido!

What a great one-two.

f*cking guy. Calls every foul, every foul.

f*ck St. Louis!

f*ck St. Louis!

It's a foul!

It's a f*cking foul.

João Klauss!

What a response from St. Louis CITY!

Honestly, f*ck this guy.

Pompeu cutting inside!

Yeah! f*ck!

And St. Louis CITY

take the lead back! It's 2-1!

They can do whatever they want.

All the time.

We've gotta go and f*cking match it.

We're playing into their hands.

They're trying to put the ball in the

f*cking goal and we're helping them.

f*cking show them, bro. Go and show them.

Everyone keep your f*cking head.

The f*cking feistiness and tenaciousness.

Keep f*cking going.

Stick a little bit more

in every f*cking tackle.

This is one of those games where

you've gotta go and run through people.

He's not calling it

when they're doing it to you.

It's a f*cking battle.

We gotta start running through them.

Let's go. Come on.

Keep f*cking jumping,

keep f*cking bodying them. Let's go.

I would have loved

to be a fly on that wall

during that half time talk.

Peter Vermes and Sporting Kansas City

in the first half were outshot

thirteen to three, as a home team.

I think this is all

about veteran leadership.

And they just are not showing it.

They've kind of been punched in the face

since going up 1-nil.

Johnny.

Now the first change of this match,

Johnny Russell will come on.

So, listen. You get Thommy in with you.

Tell him he's gotta make the runs

because we need somebody who can

f*cking, like, really hold the ball up.

Truth be told,

this is exactly when you bring in who?

Johnny Russell.

No!

Russell drives this into the box.

Klauss's defensive header.

Goes straight to Sallói, and across.

Bürki, the touch, and it is in!

f*ck yeah!

That's a goal right there.

He tries to deflect it out. If he lets

it go, this ball is out for a goal kick.

That's too f*cking easy.

Too easy.

Every single time the teams get after it,

put your seatbelts on.

Flag is down for now.

Some frustration showing

from St. Louis CITY.

Pompeu, Klauss.

Totland might be in to tie the game!

It's happened again to Kansas City!

Could feel it coming.

It's the rivals,

St. Louis CITY, level in the final minute!

St. Louis CITY,

at the very end, stealing a point!

3-3, the final tonight.

- Good game. Nice job.

- Hey, thank you.

Hey.

Good job, man.

- We fight you to the end, you know?

- Always, yeah.

But we're fine, we came back.

Johnny. Thanks, man.

Good job, man. All the best.

Johnny's not done.

He's got a lot left in him.

Everyone knows that I want

to be here, I want to remain here.

The fans, from day one really, have been

behind me, they've had my back.

Still got that fire, when that fire goes,

then I'll know it's time to give it up.

But I can't see that fire

going out anytime soon.

Is everybody in?

So we are better than this, all right?

So we take that on the chin.

But we can't give away

these f*cking points.

We can't afford to give them away

time and time again.

These are the things

we need to tighten down.

We somehow let the game slip.

We get a draw.

But you feel like you lost the game.

It's happening through the whole seasons.

We're leading and we're leading.

And in the end, there is something sloppy

and we just drop that two points

and it's painful.

St. Louis, with a sixth draw this season.

Yeah, they got something to figure out.

We had a season last year

where lots of things went our way.

This season, so far,

we struggle with that.

St. Louis CITY

grouped in everything they could

to try to get back into the game,

but another dropped result.

Too many.

Too many corner kicks,

too many set pieces.

Of course I'm frustrated and I'm angry.

So, for me,

I start to think what can be improved,

how can we cover bad performances

and, yeah, make changes.

St. Louis trying to get something going.

This big Colorado Rapids win here tonight.

Since that 3-3 draw, it's been

a downward spiral for St. Louis CITY.

One win in their last ten games,

they're sitting twelfth.

So they're

obviously outside of the playoffs.

The reality is, if Bradley can't

figure this out ASAP, their season's over.

Let's go.

I mean obviously, performance-wise,

we aren't in a good place.

I don't know how good our chances are

still to make playoffs.

Do you think we need to cycle out people?

Do we need to move some out?

Honestly, I think, it's just sort of,

that newness has worn off.

We had to just work through the pressure,

to try to keep up with last year.

How do we navigate all of this?

I will say that Lutz, I think,

did a very good assessment.

And I think the harsh reality is,

on the sporting side, difficult decisions

are gonna have to be made.

I think we have no choice.

And I think we just have

to get some stability in there.

Yeah, what were the factors

in the decision? Just talk about that.

Unfortunately,

that's part of professional sports,

that you have to make these decisions.

It was for me, personally,

a very tough decision as well.

We worked together for a long time.

You get judged on wins and losses,

not what you did for me last season.

You're left with

all these questions, like,

"What did I do wrong?" "How did I fail?"

You're feeling really bitter.

Maybe the club felt that, you know,

I didn't do anything for them lately.

I was in the gym before training.

Lutz came in and was like,

"Hey, I need to talk to you."

I walk into the room

and they tell me that a deal's in place

for me to move to New England.

I was like, "Oh, sh*t."

What the f*ck.

It was yesterday full,

now it's empty. I think…

Last year, it was a great year.

Probably played

the best season of his life.

But then

we also need to look into the 2024 season.

With only six months left on the contract,

if I can get a younger player with

a longer contract, then we have to do it.

I understand

the business side of that stuff.

But you guys don't realize that, like,

you basically just ripped me

away from my family.

Welcome, welcome.

All right.

More stuff.

Look who it is.

Hey, nugget.

Say, "Dada, how's Boston?"

Oh, God.

It is a harsh reality of our business

and I get that.

But when you have a family

and as you get older, it gets harder.

Bah.

Who's that? Is that Dada?

The family is still in St. Louis.

He's trying to kiss you.

Missing this time with him is valuable.

It's awesome to be able to,

like, have him recognize me

and hear him say "Dada" and stuff

but it's not the same as being there

day in, day out.

- Kels, can I see Rory walking again?

- Yeah?

Yeah.

Go, buddy, go. Go, buddy, go.

Great job.

I'll send you pictures. Love you.

Love you. Bye, Rory.

Good evening from

Foxborough, Massachusetts.

The push for the playoffs is on.

St. Louis know they need to win now

if they wanna keep any hope alive.

For the Revolution, we got a club debut

from center back, Tim Parker

against his former team.

So my first game will get

to be against St. Louis.

I definitely think that there's a

statement for me to make in the game.

Just proving that you guys got rid of me

but I can still play in this league.

That's something

that is really important to me.

I'm sure some people

at St. Louis would love to watch me fail

but I don't really wish that upon anyone.

I would just rather go out there

and kind of play well.

Every time you get traded,

you have to prove yourself again.

It's unfortunate, it sucks to kind of be

in the unknown when you're 31 years old.

Tim Parker's still searching for a home.

Maybe MLS Team number six, who knows?

Match underway at Gillette Stadium.

I've endured hardship.

I lost my dad,

I moved to a whole new country.

You don't get through that

just by being mediocre.

Here comes Malachi Jones.

Jones getting the cross in. Good ball!

Hannes Wolf! Oh, cuts it back!

The game's given me so much,

but at the same time, I know

I was given this talent for a reason,

and I think I'm just scratching

the surface of my potential.

Oh, boy.

And we've got a collision

between Stajduhar and Jones,

who are both down.

In that moment,

I just was thinking in my head,

"This could be the last time

I step onto the field."