Welcome, welcome, and welcome to Richmond Kickers Weekly, my name is Darrell Gro. Here is Everettist Tad of Rockwell. Hello. But more importantly, we are joined by a special guest. I mean, hurtful, but accurate. Richmond Kickers Head Coach, David Buello. Welcome back to the studio. Bonjour, my ami. He got fancy in the interim. This is his last we saw. So learning French is the thing that's turned the kickers around. Absolutely. Al-Anzi is what you've been saying to the interim. This is last we saw. So learning French is the thing that's turned the kickers around.

Absolutely. Al-Anzi is what you've been saying to the place. Is this one of those like sports movies where you all had the montage of like taking French lessons and cooking classes and I

you're all bonded together? We'll do the rest of it in English though. That'd be good for me.

For a unilingualistness.

Okay. All right, so Richmond kickers 2-2 against Toronto 2 this past weekend. We want to quickly talk about that, but we also want to talk about the big turnaround, right? Four games unbeaten after that not happening in June, shall we say. Let's start with what happened on Saturday. 2-0 up early, two Daniel Jackson goals, then two, not two equalizers, two goals, one equalizer from Toronto in the second half. Let's start with the positive. Daniel Jackson, scoring goals. Yeah, I mean, he came off the bench. I think he scored almost right away in Madison. Yeah, I know, so it was great. It was funny. I said to Mika just before he scored, I think DJ's going to score today. I was pleased with that. Actually, can I ask, is it as simple as? So Dennis Chin started that game against Madison. Daniel Jackson came off the bench, scored. Is that what changed the lineup decision for the next week? Is it? Hey, he scored, he's in? Is it as simple as that? A little bit, a little bit.

I think part of the management side of it is you have to keep as many people bought in as possible. And there's a balance of trying to figure out, okay, you don't want to change a winning team. You know, I think Maxi coped well with that. where just to try try something different having not won in a long time

you know he was not in the starting lineup against Orlando yeah it was just give another guy a

chance you tried to do something different and you know when you win and then you win away to

Toronto you know their first loss of the season then you win again in in Madison it's's going, you know, you don't want to change much, but at the same time, you want to make sure you don't lose, you know, that next five to seven guys either. Yeah. So we assume Dennis was cool with Daniel Jackson's starting? No, no, of course not. Of course not. No, everybody wants to play. I guess that's good news, right?

Yeah, you know, I mean, it's, the reality is, I mean, the honest answer is, I remember

I remember being in Ireland going, I hope we win, but I hope none of the forward score, so I can get it. You know, you're happy when the team wins and does well.

But, I mean, that's the hard part of being out of the team.

Everybody wants to start.

Everybody wants to play.

Everybody's disappointed when they come off. But the reality is, is we have a squad for a reason. And who knows what's going to happen towards the end of the year when you need everybody. And I think we've made some good subs over the last, you know, three games, three, four games.

So we know we can count on guys. And it's just a matter of keeping guys, you know, excited to get on and make a difference. So, of course, Dennis was disappointed. How much does communication factor into that for you? Is it like, is it just saying to him like, hey, it's going to be DJ today and that's it? Or are you kind of conveying to him what's going on, why you're switching it around, telling him to be ready?

I think you have to. Like, is it just saying to him like, hey, it's going to be DJ today and that's it? Or are you kind of conveying to him what's going on, why you're switching it around, telling him to be ready?

I think you have to. I think you have to be that transparent. They can not like it, but that's their job. And I'm not perfect by any means. you know, I was back and forth whether to play

Connor Shannowski against North Texas, you know, early was back and forth whether to play Connor Shannoski against North Texas, you know,

early in the year and left it way late.

Literally didn't have an idea what I was going to do until the last minute.

And he found out by seeing the board and he took it really poorly.

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