The Six Yard Box - Oscar Interview (and a Tampa Bay Preview)
Welcome back to another edition of the Six Yard Box where we interview players or coaches with Tormenta but try not to take ourselves too seriously. Today we've got defender Oscar who joined us after practice on Tuesday for a brief chat. As always, I appreciate their time as answering questions from the guy who occasionally hangs around practice with his kid isn't necessarily high on any player's list of things to do, but he was great.
After that, we've got a guest post looking at Tampa Bay for Tormenta's upcoming game with the Rowdies in the Jagermeister Cup.
This interview was lightly edited, mostly to remove all my "ums" and "yeahs"
[Stormwatch912]
First off, just question for jersey number. What tell me about 58 why why we're going with that?
[Oscar]
So, I used to be 19, basically. But I went 58 because, as a kid, one of my first favorite players was in the Mexican league, and his name was Juan Pablo Rodriguez. He was a midfielder played for Atlas at the time, and he wore number 58. He was this small guy, center midfielder. He wore the biggest jersey and just a big 58 on the back, and so I just remember as a kid watching his games, and that was, like, the first professional game I went to was as Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara with my dad. And I watched, watched him play, and so I think that number stuck with me and I wanted to try something different, you know?
[Stormwatch912]
Obviously working out for you. So, and I know, I read, you were just Oscar on the back of your name for your stepfather. Can you tell me that story?
[Oscar]
Yeah, I mean, I don't really like to talk about this, really, but, uh, I mean, if you really want to know, I just had my first name on the back of my jersey, out of respect to my dad, who raised me. It's not his last name that I carry, so I didn't want to have a different last name on the back of my jersey.
[Stormwatch912]
Also, I read you ran cross country in high school.
[Oscar]
I did.
[Stormwatch912]
How did you get into that? And I know you did fairly well. I think I saw you got like eighth place in regional or something, your senior year. Can you tell me some of your cross country experience?
[Oscar]
I really didn't like it, but it kept me fit for soccer. I mean, when you play football, one of the biggest things is you got to be fit to play to do what you really want to do on the field. And so for me, it was trying to be as fit as possible. And when it wasn't soccer season in high school, it was club soccer, but it was like, if I could add a little bit more to my fitness, which that's what cross country did to me, built some endurance.
I had a few, you know, mix-ups with the coach at the time. Funny story. We'd always, me and my friend, because we did it for soccer, we'd always cut through a field. We got caught a few times sitting underneath an apple tree, just eating apples as the rest of the team was running. But yeah, basically, it was for soccer.
[Stormwatch912]
What was your best time?
[Oscar]
I don't remember, but I did get faster once I started wearing the track spikes, that's for sure. At first, I was wearing just regular shoes, and then I kept noticing all the guys that were always in the front were wearing these tiny shoes, like barely any soles and spikes on them.
[Stormwatch912]
Speaking of shoes, how many pairs of shoes do you go through in a soccer season?
[Oscar]
There's a lot of times they get wet and sweaty. I go through pretty quickly. I'd say, two to three per season. I also don't like mine to be super worn out,. They lose that stiffness to them. So I think I go through three a season.
[Stormwatch912]
Yeah. And then me through kind of your game day routine. If you got a home game at 7:30, kind of, when are we waking up? Tell your routine.
[Oscar]
My game day routine is I wake up around 8 a.m. or 8 30. I drink some water right away, some electrolytes, and then I make some banana chocolate chip pancakes. I make three of them, and I put a sliced banana on top with blackberries and blueberries and some maple syrup, and then I'll do two fried eggs on the side with a big glass of orange juice. And then, after that, if there's Prem(ier League) on, I'll watch a Prem game.
[Stormwatch912]
[Oscar]
[Stormwatch912]
Awesome. When you're not watching soccer, what? What's your what are you watching? What's your TV show?
[Oscar]
When I'm not watching soccer? I'm watching ... Righteous Gemstones is a show I'm watching currently, It's a show on HBO. It's not too bad, kind of funny. It's a comedy I kind of like the thrillers, thriller shows like La Casa De Papel was really good, but they haven't made a show like that in a while. I don't think. But occasionally, I'll just throw in a movie, just a random movie. I'll pick a category and just go blind with one and just watch it.
[Stormwatch912]
And. A professional athlete, you got to take care of everybody. What's your cheat food? What's your? What's your when you're shooting yourself to something? What's your? What's your treat?
[Oscar]
My treat food would probably be ordering way too much food at a pizza place, maybe pizza, and some wings or stuff like that. But yeah, I try to eat kind of healthy when I can.
[Stormwatch912]
What's your pizza toppings?
[Oscar]
Everything? I like everything on it. So usually Supreme, but if they have a specialty pizza with something I've never tried before, I tend to go for those.
[Stormwatch912]
And obviously, you've played a lot of places. Had you heard of Statesboro before you signed with Tormenta and what were your impressions since you've been here?
[Oscar]
I have not heard of Statesboro before getting here. But so far, it's a cute little town. I don't know if I, personally, would call it a city. It doesn't seem very big. People are very nice, but there's not much to do around here to be quite frank, but it's all right.
[Stormwatch912]
Well, the problem is the thing to do or come to watch your games. That's the problem is the thing to do is watching you work.
[Oscar]
Yeah, but the thing is, we're not getting as many fans as I would like, you know? The stadium. I don't know how many seats the stadium can hold, but I would be, you know, I know, not just myself, but a lot of the players on this team would like to see a lot more fans come to the game. Be rowdy. Be loud. It really, really pushes the, you know, the energy on the field, when, when we have that. If you haven't been to a game, or if anybody that you know hasn't been a game, please invite them out. That'd be great to see them.
[Stormwatch912]
What's the funniest thing you've heard from a fan when you're on the field?
[Oscar]
I won't say specifics, but the funniest thing to me was a fan in Detroit. I was playing for Louisville City at the time, and we played Detroit. He said something, and I heard it, and I was like this sounds like a kid voice. So I turned around, and it was probably a like, I don't know, a six to eight year old, yelling, something bad that his father had probably just said to me, and he yelled at me. So that was quite funny to get yelled at by a young toddler. It was good.
*****
In a cruel bit of scheduling, Tormenta's League One team and W-League team both play Saturday night at 7:30 with the W-League at Tormenta Stadium and the League One team heading to Tampa Bay for the second game of the Jagermeister Cup against the Rowdies. I'll be at the W-League match and following the League One guys as best as I can. But don't worry, I did line up a preview for the game from Dan Endonino of the Unused Substitutes Podcast that covers Tampa Bay.
Take it away Dan:
This weekend, my beloved Rowdies are hosting South Georgia Tormenta FC at the beautiful Al Lang Stadium in St. Petersburg. This match is happening at an interesting time for Tampa Bay. After firing Head Coach Robbie Neilson after the first four league games, the club has struggled to find itself and a home win under interim manager Steve Coleman. The Rowdies have been on the struggle bus with no signs of truly stopping. They are riddled with key injuries all over the pitch with a shallow bench. They are lacking cohesion and an identity. In my 10+ years of covering this club, it has never felt this bleak.
That being said, there is still heaps of talent and experience available. We saw a glimpse of what they were capable of in their last Jagermeister Cup appearance, going up three - nil on Miami FC at the half before the wheels came off.
Now for the slightly granular details: it appears the Rowdies have been playing a 3-5-2ish as of late with Manuel Arteaga and Woobens Pacius up top, followed by Leo Fernandes, Ollie Bassett, Danny Crisostomo, Blake Bodily, and Thomas Vancaeyezeele rounding out the midfield. Defensive stalwarts Aaron Guillen, Forrest Lasso, and Robert Castellanos are in front of Ethan Bandre.
All in all, I don’t know what to expect. This is a club trying to find its footing but severely lacking in both confidence and consistency. The club has shown flashes of brilliance and has also completely broken down in the same match. This will be a true coin toss of a result, but it should be entertaining until the end.
As always, I greatly appreciate Dan taking his time to write that up for me. Please be sure to go check out @UnusedSubPod.bsky.social and give them a follow if you're so inclined.
Whichever game you end up watching Saturday night, enjoy it and we'll meet back here next week.
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