Austin Da Luz on playing in The Soccer Tournament at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary

It's the Adam Gold show. Can we put a poll question out during the show? Is that allowed? We most certainly can. Alright, I want to put it out there. Is Adam Gold, tag him on it, is Adam Gold more likely watching soccer or watching golf right now?

Which one is it? I could see him in either one. I could see him, he's probably caddying for someone. That's how into the Corn Fairy Tour Adam Gold likely is. Here's the thing about Adam Gold. I've never caught him lying about watching a sporting event. I was watching this, I was watching this. When he's talking about it, I never think, he's not lying, he didn't watch that. I truly believe every time he said he's watching something. However, I think if you line up the hours of sporting events that he watches and the hours in the day, they don't math. It does not add up. He watches more than 24 hours of sports a day and somehow he also does like 8 hours of radio a day when the canes are playing.

It's unbelievable. My man is a sports watching machine and so right now he's probably finding a way to watch. He's either at the Corn Fairy Tour stop at the UNC Healthcare Championship at Rally Country Club watching soccer on a phone or vice versa. He's at the soccer tournament at Wake Med Park and Carry watching the Corn Fairy Tour on a phone. Somebody who is not just watching, he is participating in the soccer tournament, the inaugural first ever soccer tournament. As a man who we watch play a lot of soccer around here, he is a Wake Forest legend, a Carolina Rail Hawks legend, an NCFC legend. He's even a radio legend because he's done some radio and he's our good friend and he's a participant on the NCFC team in the soccer tournament.

It is Austin DeLuis. Austin, what's going on man? Hello, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.

It's great to talk to you. I texted Austin and I was like, hey man, are you doing anything with this soccer tournament? I'm like, maybe he could be calling a game, maybe he could be managing a team.

He was like, oh I'm playing baby, I am playing. So I gotta ask first, your first game is in 30 minutes or so? What time do you play? I'm actually warming up right now as we speak, so I'm taking this very seriously.

You know, we're going after the million bucks. Alright, so I gotta ask how it started. Did you put this team together? Did somebody ask you to play? How did it come about? Yeah, I think obviously with the tournament being hosted here at Wakeman Soccer Park, NCFC wanted to have some representation. You know, Charlotte FC is participating as well and we can't let them participate if we can't get some love.

So, Jorge Acuna, the VP of Broadcasting and Events over at NCFC, he put up the bat signal and got all the old heads together and here we are against doctor's orders. Alright, speaking of which, that leads right to my next question. Like, how, two questions, how hard did you train for this and like, how hard do you play? I mean like, you know, you got other things to think about like being a dad and walking around and stuff like that. So I imagine, this is just me, I'm not speaking for you, I imagine pro athletes, one of the things that tells them it's time to retire is when they are not willing to go 100%. I imagine athletes have to have a little bit of insanity to them to play at that level. And like, if there's a header you think you can get or a tackle you think you can make or a ball, like you're going at it 100% not thinking about the consequences and that's how you have to play the game to be good at it. But it's got to be a little bit different right now, right?

Like you can't... Oh, it's a lot different. Okay, good. Thank you for that line.

In terms of the training regimen, if you can imagine like a Rocky montage, the exact opposite of that is what I did. So, you know, it's going to be fun. We're going to go out, we're going to kick it around a little bit.

But yeah, it's certainly not in the headspace to go 100%. Now that might change as soon as the whistle blows, you know, that might start seeing red. But no, I think it's, we're just out here to have a good time and hopefully put on a good show for all the people here. It's a party out here, man. There's a ton of people. We got food trucks. We got music.

There's some big, big names. I'm watching Steve Nash warm up right now as we speak. Wait, he's playing? He's playing.

He's playing for Como FC out of Italy. That is awesome. So you guys would only play them if it went to the next round because at first they're in groups. And so I see they've got you in a local group. Charlotte FC is in there, NCFC, the Raleigh Rebels. And then who is the fourth team you guys are in against? The Duke Sevens. This is a group of Duke alumni. So you're right to forget them. Excellent. And look at this smack talk.

I like it. So is the goal to advance of your group? Is it like, are the teams grouped together so that they'll have interests like that? Like I think in the World Cup, well, I don't know what FIFA does to put things together for ratings, but like it's supposed to be just a mix of like all level teams. Did they intentionally group teams together that might have a theme to them like a North Carolina group?

Yeah, I think so. I think they tried to put some teams together that could create a little bit of rivalry or some good press, whatever it might be. I like to joke that they put the four teams together that nobody cares about into one group for our group.

But, you know, I think it's fun. It's a lot of familiar faces, you know, a lot of guys that kind of grew up in the area, grew up playing against each other. So it'll be a lot of fun to play against them on the stage. What's different about 7v7 versus 11-a-side soccer? It's fewer people.

The numbers aren't as big of a factor, I don't think. I think the size of the field is the main issue. The field is pretty big, so it's a lot of running, which I'm not sure we're prepared for. But yeah, 7v7, you know, you're getting a lot of touches, seeing a lot of the ball, it's fast-paced, lots of shots, hopefully lots of goals.

Yeah, it's going to be great. And then have you looked at the actual rules? Do you know about the Elam ending that you guys are using, Austin? I have glanced at the rules, can't lie. I don't know the rulebook back to front.

I know there's no slide tackling, should not be an issue for me. But yeah, the most interesting rule is the target goal rule. Every game has to end on a goal.

It gives the losing team the opportunity to come back and score consecutive goals before the other team can score a winning goal. So there's some cool stuff going on, unique. I think the fans are going to dig it. And then did you guys get together as a team and practice it all before that, or is today the first time that you've all been together? We had a few practices, a few scrimmages. In all seriousness, it's a lot of fun to see some guys that haven't been around in a while and see some faces that we haven't seen in many years.

Yeah, fitness definitely left something to be desired. But yeah, we're not coming in cold. We've had a couple dry runs here. Who are you considering your rival in the group?

There's a lot to choose from. You've got the rally guys, which is close to home for you personally. Does the closeness breed a little bit more rivalry? You've got the Duke guys, like you mentioned. Nobody likes them. And then the Charlotte guys, which then all three of you guys should be breaking the rules in slide tackling, of course.

Who do you most have it in for in your group? I'm excited to play Charlotte. I think going back to my playing days, that was obviously a big, big rivalry. Not with Charlotte FC, but with Charlotte Independence. But you know, the city of Charlotte, it's not my favorite. I'm looking forward to that one. But they're all going to be fun.

They all have a little bit of extra meaning. I should be a better friend and actually text you and catch up on these things, but I was looking at the roster and you're listed as from San Diego, California. Is that where you're from or did you move and I don't know it? I was born there, yeah. Moved to North Carolina a long, long time ago.

I consider myself a North Carolina. I was a little confused by that. I was like, I feel like he's been here long enough.

And then I was like, maybe he moved and I just don't know about it. Is seven on seven, this was total speculation, is it more positionless than regular soccer or does the defense mostly stay on the defense and often stays up? Yeah, we're going to try to have a little bit of structure, a little bit of formation, but I think it's going to end up being pretty free-flowing, especially as you get later into the game and people get tired.

Yeah, you just got to kind of do whatever you got to do to make it through the game. I think positions are going to be a little bit secondary. The reason I was asking, because I didn't know if I should take Austin Deluz over 0.5 goals in this first game. I'm looking at it hard on DraftKings right now. I really want to bet on you.

I don't think that's not, yeah, I would save your, keep your money, put it somewhere else, put it in the high-interest savings account. Austin Deluz, would you be willing to come back on tomorrow, as bad as I am at asking actual soccer questions, but then you'll have a game under your belt and we'll know what things look like. If you have the time, would you be interested in coming back on tomorrow? Let's do it, especially if I'm in the hospital and I need to kill some time over there. Don't get hurt, my man. Do not get hurt, but it is curious. It's one of those things where, like you said, when the whistle blows, or when there's a ball that you're running to, you're like, well, I'm not going to not go for this ball. So, I'll be curious after you play the game to ask you where the, you know, where the needle went during the game. So, I appreciate you taking the time. Sorry to the team for disrupting warm-ups.

Go out there and get them. Give it to Charlotte FC and the Raleigh Rebels and the Duke Sevens, and who knows, maybe you'll be taking on the U.S. Women's National Team or Steve Nash or somebody else. But, as you described, a great scene out there, so head on out to Cary for Wake Med Soccer Park. You can see Austin DeLuce play. You might not ever get to see Austin DeLuce play soccer again, and here you've got an opportunity. Very cool. That is the truth. Austin, thanks for the time, dude.

Alright, thanks for speaking. I forgot to ask Austin, but we will ask him tomorrow. Do they put the million dollars just on the sideline? Like, they need to do it like they do poker tournaments, right? There needs to just be a pile of a million dollars. Don't put it in hundreds. Put that, band that thing up in ten and twenty dollar bills, and let's pile the money as high as we can.

And I want the winning team, maybe you don't bring it out until Sunday. Maybe you bring it out in cases early on, and you just keep, every game, just keep stacking another case in there. Then the last game, you dump out all the money just to the side of the field, and there's just a big pile of money, and whichever team wins just goes and Scrooge McDucks that thing into the pile of money. That's what I want. I feel like that's one of the best moves that poker ever gave us, was the like, when they come out there to the final table and they just set the mills right there and just stack it.

This is it. This is what you're playing for right here. They remind you, you get- Who's dogpiling in the pile of cash? Yes, you get desensitized by seeing the stick, the chap, the chaps of stick, the stacks of chips, we were going to say. You get desensitized to realizing how much money that actually is, so they're like, we gotta remind people, like, they're not playing for just those chips, and they set the money there. That's what I want at the soccer tournament. I want the million dollars just splashed all over the side of the field, and somebody Scrooge McDucking that thing after the game.