Hey there. We won’t be recording a 202 episode in between last week’s derby and this upcoming match against Philly, instead aiming to do a two-for-one episode later this week.

The reason, just like the gap before the derby, is mostly awkward timing. Thursday to Tuesday is already a quick turnaround given that we usually record on Mondays or Tuesdays. And given the weird state of the season, and more importantly, the weird rhythm of quarantine, a quickfire schedule that we usually reserve for playoffs or CCL doesn’t fit. Given the revised, condensed schedule, this two-for-one pace might happen throughout the rest of the year.

While this is mostly practical, there is a content angle as well. As we tweeted before the derby, there wouldn’t have been much analysis to add that wasn’t said in the episode we recorded one day before the schedule release. It doesn’t really work to do a detailed X’s and O’s breakdown with an opponent when our analysis remains that management appears either uninterested or unable to deploy a plan or assign coherent individual roles in the first place. The guiding questions are the same that we posed for COVID Cup: what can we expect to learn given this, and the added chaos of the weird season.

And after beating “zone” to death in 2019, we are trying to cut down on repetition, especially when it involves bemoaning the aimlessness of the current management and campaign. The last year or so we’ve tried to build a project that has a consistent, explicit analysis that we build or amend every week. This is often easier to do and document in print, and good news, we’ve starting committing more takes to writing.

If you hadn’t heard, Cork is now Managing Editor over at Once a Metro, which has sprung to life with features and columns in addition to news. Until we record later this week, two posts written by Cork and me respectively capture the mood:

• Should the Red Bulls be as pleased with last night’s performance as they seem to be?

• Alex Muyl and the end of history in Harrison