Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Nos Audietis, Episode 331: We could get used to this
67 Plays4 years ago
The Sounders are now officially off to their best start in franchise history, going undefeated and claiming 17 points through their first 7 games while posting a +11 goal-difference. They’re leading hte Supporters’ Shield by three points and have a four-point advantage in the Western Conference.
The Sounders have, of course, done this without Jordan Morris, while only getting 24 minutes in total from Nicolas Lodeiro and their two most recent results have come without Stefan Frei. They now have a chance to head into the June international break with a 6-0-2 record if they can beat expansion Austin FC at home on Sunday.
This week's music: Perry Como - "Seattle", "RVIVR - "Ocean Song", Woody Guthrie - "Roll On Columbia", "Your Journey Begins" - OurMusicBox (Jay Man) (CC BY 4.0)
Thanks to James Woollard, Sounders Public Address Announcer, for doing our sponsor reads. You can follow him on Twitter at @BritVoxUS - if you’re looking for a British Voice to advertise your business or non-profit, please reach out to him.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Sponsor
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fulpul's unique writing style is applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Meet the Players
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. What? Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Jordan Morris getting in behind Florian Youngford. Jordan Morris! Scores!
00:00:50
Speaker
And how's this for a save from Steph and Fry? Here comes Roy Deers from the middle to crowd it to Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of? They take a little Tigers in. It's the Sounders and an S-Com. I feel a lot better than Bob.
00:01:18
Speaker
The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle And the hills the greenest green in Seattle Like a beautiful child growing up
00:01:35
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of Nos Adietes, sponsored by Full Pool Wines.
Sounders' Historic Start
00:01:39
Speaker
This is episode 331 and we're recording on Tuesday, May 25th, 2021. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan, joining me as usual is Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickit P. The Sounders are now officially off to their best start in franchise history, going undefeated and claiming 17 points to their first seven games while posting a plus 11 goal difference.
00:01:58
Speaker
They're leading the supporters shield by three points and have a four point advantage in the Western Conference. The Sounders have, of course, done this without Jordan Morris while only getting 24 minutes total from Nicolas Ledero. And their two most recent results have come with without seven fry. They now have a chance to head into the June international break with a 6 0 and 2 record if they can beat expansion Austin FC at home on Sunday.
Match Analysis: Sounders vs Atlanta United
00:02:21
Speaker
And Aaron, is there anything not to like right now about the Sounders? I mean, I know this.
00:02:26
Speaker
Last result was a little frustrating. A 1-1 tie against Atlanta United, but I don't know. Maybe that's where we start. Is there anything from that result that has you concerned beyond the frustration of dropping points at home to a team that felt very beatable?
00:02:43
Speaker
I don't think so. I mean I think that if you can get this far into a season and the worst result you've had is one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference manages to snag a point in a game that you probably should have won by several goals.
00:02:58
Speaker
you've got to feel pretty good about that. I think it's very frustrating because I do think that the Sounders should have won that game pretty handily. But to have that feeling, the Sounders had to create some decent chances and just have kind of the better of the play. And despite what some Atlanta fans would have you believe, I think the Sounders definitely had the better of the play.
00:03:21
Speaker
in that game and probably should have won comfortably. And I think there's a difference between a frustrating result and a worrying result. And I
Defensive Highlights
00:03:28
Speaker
would put this one pretty firmly in the latter camp. Yeah. It was a funny game because I thought the first half played out like textbook, like if the sounders had drawn it up.
00:03:40
Speaker
Or maybe not Brian Schmenzer, but if I had drawn up how I thought it was going to go, it was going to go exactly like that, where the sounders would give up a lot of the possession, Atlanta would take most of the possession, do a reasonably good job pressing, but not really create much danger. The sounders would probably be more clinical in their chances.
00:04:00
Speaker
you go into half of one zero and it's just, you know, like going exactly how you think it's going to go. And I would say through 80 minutes, it was going about how I, like, there was never a point at which I thought Atlanta is just banging down the door, banging down the door. I mean, I think if there was a frustration, if there was like a concern, it was the sounders kept generating, getting these counter attacking opportunities that they weren't like completing, that they were missing a pass on that they were, you know, making the wrong move one way or the other.
00:04:30
Speaker
And I think there was a sense that they were wasting opportunities, but
Player Performance & Team Dynamics
00:04:37
Speaker
it wasn't coming from the other side where Atlanta was creating all sorts of trouble on the other end. A lot of their possession was in non-dangerous areas. Even their shots were coming from mostly outside the box. They only had a few shots from inside the box. And even the penalty that they drew was not the kind of play that
00:05:00
Speaker
is some sort of breakdown. Brad Smith is a little late to react to the pass, but if he just lets this man go, if he just takes a different angle and tries to disrupt the cross, not necessarily by slide tackling, but by just kind of being in his way, I don't think that goes anywhere. Yeah, I mean, I think that that's
00:05:24
Speaker
It's paradoxically one of the things that's the most frustrating about the game and also one of the things that makes me not super worried about it because you almost feel better about the result if Atlanta is full value for it, but they weren't. They didn't play very well. The Sounders did play pretty well. They were just uncharacteristically, like you said, missing on the final pass, maybe not taking the best shots.
00:05:49
Speaker
They played well defensively they weren't allowing, you
Season Expectations & Challenges
00:05:53
Speaker
know, like you said again, a lot of good shots. And then it was just a really bad penalty to give away that gave him a chance to get the point. You know, Brad Smith picked a pretty bad game or pretty bad time to have his first game, I think it's fair to say and he's been great this year and
00:06:10
Speaker
You know, he's going to get a lot of the stick, obviously, because his mistake at the end of the game was what allowed Atlanta to get out of there with the point, but.
00:06:20
Speaker
there were a lot of other guys that were culpable as well by not finishing chances or making bad passes and things like that. But I mean, again, Atlanta is a horrible to watch team. I would be miserable, I think, if I were an Atlanta fan with the way they've played this year, and this game was no real exception. As an aside, I was blown away by the fact that they were trying to portray, their fans were trying to portray
00:06:47
Speaker
The Sounders is the ones guilty of making that game so unexciting, which I think is very amusing. But, you know, they're still a decent team and you have to execute well against decent teams at home or away. A bummer that it was, you know, the biggest crowd we've had in 16 months and that was the kind of performance that folks got.
00:07:12
Speaker
Yeah, it wasn't a visually appealing game and I guess you could say that it's...
00:07:19
Speaker
You know, the sounders weren't doing themselves any favors from an aesthetics perspective, but I think it was mostly down to just not connecting on passes. I didn't see the sounders playing cynically or sitting back or if anything, you know, credit to Atlanta for keeping the possession and forcing the sounders to sit deeper than they would have otherwise wanted to sit. I don't think the sounders were inclined to give up, you know, 35 or 65% of the possession.
Tactical Adjustments
00:07:46
Speaker
But I also think the Sounders were willing to seed possession in certain parts of the field with the idea that they were going to get some opportunities to break out. And they probably had, you know, half dozen, maybe even 10 opportunities to break out. And they just, you know, they didn't do a very good job of it. You know, knew who I thought had an interesting game.
00:08:10
Speaker
He did a lot more dribbling than we had seen him for a while. And it was a good reminder that he's pretty good with the ball at his feet. I don't know, I would like him to see him make a little bit better decisions about when to pass though. He had a couple opportunities where he could have put Will Bruin into a channel early on. And then he had another one late where Brad Smith was streaking down the left side and he decided to keep the ball and ended up drawing a foul.
00:08:37
Speaker
It's a play that you'd like him to be mindful of how far out of position he's getting maybe, but he had a great game. I don't know that there's really a real complaint to have about NuWho. I mean, he didn't get beat at all, I don't think. And it was another very impressive defensive performance, especially from that back three. I would have a hard time
00:09:04
Speaker
I would be curious if there's an argument against that
Key Players & Adaptability
00:09:07
Speaker
being the sounder's best three right now, especially after we've seen them play together for a few games now. Javier Ariaga in the middle, I think is the natural fit there. Jaymar has looked really good on the right. I think he's probably been the steadiest pure defender and then Nuhu has been absolutely spectacular.
00:09:29
Speaker
He's everywhere. And in a lot of ways, I don't know that he's been beaten this year. It's very impressive. I think that the thing about Nuhu that is the thing that makes him stand out beyond just the quality of his play is that it's so rare that a defender is that much fun to watch. It's so rare that a central defender who's not making a ton of forward runs, he's not doing anything crazy. He's just
00:09:59
Speaker
he plays the game in a way that's just so enjoyable to see. And he plays with like, like he knows the things he's good at and he relishes them, like his, you know, his ability to read the game. When he, when he sees a pass that he can cut out, like he has like kind of a skipping step, like while he's going to the ball, he's just a blast to watch. And
00:10:24
Speaker
kind of an anti Chad Marshall in some ways. And I don't mean that in a, that doesn't in not in any way meant to denigrate Chad Marshall, but Chad Marshall had this ease to him. Like he made all the plays look easy. He looked, he oftentimes didn't look like he was having to put in a lot of effort. He was just always in the right place at the right time, you know, never almost always electing for the safe pass. You know, he would complete 95% of his passes pretty routinely, but he wasn't, you know, he wasn't hitting a lot of
00:10:55
Speaker
challenging passes either, you know, he wasn't out there breaking lines. He wasn't, certainly wasn't dribbling through defenders, but he was always there when you needed him. Right. That's a buddy cop movie. And Chad Marshall's Dan Aykroyd and new who's Tom Hanks. And yeah, you know, um, yeah, it's, it's a shame that we never got to see him play as a center back bearing. That would have been pretty enjoyable, but, um,
00:11:15
Speaker
especially in a three center back pairing like this. It would have been kind of an interesting, uh, cause I, I know I was, I don't know if you happened to hear him, but Chad Marshall was on, uh, side by side, the, the, the Brad Evans and Steve Zachawany, they renamed their podcast.
00:11:32
Speaker
And they were talking about Nuhu a little bit and you could tell that Chad Marshall had played with Nuhu a fair amount, but it was like a different Nuhu in some ways. It was the left back Nuhu. It was the Nuhu who was so intent on getting forward and joining the attack that he sometimes forgot to play defense and that he didn't entirely understand his role.
00:11:54
Speaker
and this new who is a different player and you know you could see how there was a frustration but also an admiration in some ways for the way that new who played the game but this new who isn't you know he knows what he is and i i'm just really interested to see how he develops over the course of the year because this is a new position for him he's only been playing this position for a few months if you include training
00:12:17
Speaker
And there's every reason to think that he could get better. And I'm just kind of, I'm really excited to see how this season plays out. It's an interesting feeling, I think, because the Sounders, as good as the results have been,
00:12:33
Speaker
there is this overarching sense that it can get better.
Depth Amidst International Duties
00:12:37
Speaker
Like there is room for growth. You know, new, who presumably is going to learn the position better. I think that Javier Ariaga, all three center backs, I think can probably learn those positions better because the, none of them are really used to playing those roles. Alex rolled on, I think has upside, you know, Brad Smith, I don't know that he's going to keep scoring like this, but I think in some ways he'll grow into being a left wing back more, uh,
00:12:59
Speaker
Christian Roldan is going to be an interesting one to watch because presumably he's going to move back a line. And we're going to see him paired with Jau Paulo, I assume. And it'll be interesting to see how that works. Obviously, you add Nico Lidero to this mix.
00:13:16
Speaker
at some point we're going to see how this team looks without Raul Ruidias and I think that's really going to be the big test because I think Ruidias has been more influential even than his six goals through seven games implies like and I think that implies
00:13:34
Speaker
a lot, right? Like he's scoring almost a goal a game right now. And yet I think he's been even more influential than that because he's been so dangerous. He's been so good at creating opportunities. And, you know, he's the one guy I still, he's still really the only guy on the team I think that can make a goal out of nothing. He hasn't really had to do that this year, but he is someone who you, I think defenses have to account for in a way that there still aren't out there. And it's, it's funny because I look at this team
00:14:03
Speaker
still. And I don't see like they're leading the league in scoring. They have 14 goals. Yeah. And you don't look at the team and go like, well, that's a juggernaut offense. You know, and I don't, you know, I'd be hard pressed to tell you where all the goals came from without having to, you know, look at it, but it's, you know, Brad Smith has three and I think everyone else has got two or one. Yeah.
Q&A: Strategy & New Signings
00:14:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think that teams that play good soccer holistically and that are more than the sum of their parts typically have that kind of
00:14:35
Speaker
How are they scoring so many goals? There's nobody on this team that blows you away. I mean, the 2014 team was kind of like that. Like obviously, Quentinova scored a ton of goals, but there were all these dudes on that team with like seven, eight, nine goals at the end of the season who had never done that before. We're never going to do that again, but playing good soccer and having people like Raul Ruby Diaz to distract attention and create space for other guys is going to
00:14:59
Speaker
is going to lead to, you know, career years for people. And I think, I think that Raul is, I think Nico is still the soundest best player, but I think Raul is the most important player on the team. And so I'm, and I think it's been interesting to watch him in a two striker set because, you know, for the most, most time, I mean, obviously he's played with a strike partner before in Seattle.
00:15:27
Speaker
then fits and starts, but for the most part, he's been either in a three man front or as a lone striker.
00:15:35
Speaker
And you can kind of see the other side of his game a lot more. And that's kind of what you're alluding to in terms of talking about, you know, what he's brought to the table in addition to those six goals that he scored. So that's going to make it much tougher. But one of the things that the Sounders have not had in the past, when they've lost Raul Ruidiaz or Clint Dempsey or Opal Martins has been somebody like Freddy Monteiro to come off the bench. Yeah, that is nice. It's a nice, it's nice thing. And he's obviously not 2013 Freddy Monteiro.
00:16:05
Speaker
or 2012 Freddie Monteiro, I guess, but he's still extremely dangerous. And, and Will Bruin, I think, I mean, if you want to talk about somebody who has outplayed their goal production, Will has been, I think he's been the best that I've seen him as a sounder so far this year. He's been fantastic. More influential in a lot of ways. Yeah.
00:16:23
Speaker
And in this game, I thought it was an interesting one because originally at live watching, I thought, oh, you know, Will had an off game. He wasn't as involved as he's been in the other games. And that was mainly because he wasn't getting as many touches. But when I went and watched it again, he made a ton of really dangerous runs, either to pull defenders away or to get himself into position. He just wasn't really getting the ball where he, but those are important runs regardless.
00:16:51
Speaker
And so I think that it's, you know, you see the soccer IQ, and I think that's maybe the thing that I've noticed the most about this team is that, you know, the sounders scout for very specific things, I think, and one of them is soccer IQ and understanding how a game plays out and not necessarily needing to play in a very specific
00:17:13
Speaker
formation. It's more of a general ethos that this team is playing with and it's been really exciting to see this year and it does give me some, you know, it makes me really look forward to seeing how this is going to play out and it's going to be an interesting test after we come out of this break because
00:17:32
Speaker
right away, the Sounders are going to, you know, they're going to right away be without Raul Rodriguez. I think, you know, they haven't announced exactly who they haven't announced the Copa America roster yet for, uh, for anyone or, but we do know he's going to be going to Peru for the World Cup qualifiers, which happened to, which are happening during the break. And then right after the break,
00:17:55
Speaker
They go into the Copa America. He could potentially miss as many as six games. Uh, Brad Smith, hopefully we'll be back by the, by the end of the break. Uh, but they could lose Christian rolled onto the gold cup. They could lose hobby, uh, Ariaga to the goal, to the Copa America. So there's going to be some interesting balancing acts coming up and it's going to be even more important that the sounders, I think, get as many points like in there, you know, get as many points that they can now.
00:18:25
Speaker
Yeah, because we just don't know what's going to happen. But I, I think there's a reason to think that this team can, whether that, especially if Lidero comes back. And I think that's, you know, there's no reason for us to think that Lidero isn't going to come back after the break that the, like, but we haven't seen him play. So you just never know, right? You don't know how serious this injury really is.
00:18:48
Speaker
And but I think I'm looking forward to it. You know, Josh Atencio is another player who can come back who I think had been really influential those first two games. And, you know, I think he could have helped a lot this last this last game, especially playing against a team who is needs their lines broken, so to speak.
00:19:11
Speaker
And, yeah, this is and then they're going to probably sign someone, you know, they'll probably sign someone I don't know how influential that player would be I assume it's going to be a younger player. But, you know, there's there's pieces that are going to be coming in. It'll be interesting you know I'm, I'm.
00:19:28
Speaker
I'm looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. I don't know, it's Yeah, it's, you're definitely right that it's nice to make these points because I think I don't want to be a doomsayer but I think that they're not going to be able to keep up this form through the break I don't think I'm up to the break but through, you know, internationals it's just
00:19:46
Speaker
If they do, that's fantastic. But I think being pragmatic, you just have to understand they're going to be missing half of their difference makers. I mean, that's tough. And I do feel pretty good about the state of the depth and the bench and everything, but
00:20:05
Speaker
It's going to be tough to maintain this kind of form. So if you want to compete for the shield, if you want to be up there at the top, you have to bank your points before you lose all your players. And the Sounders have done a very good job with that this year. And hopefully they can avoid the lows that they've had in some of the other
00:20:25
Speaker
past seasons where they had, you know, players missing to this degree. We'll see, but I feel I feel better about it, largely because I do think that the kids are better than they have been in the past. I mean, if if you would ask me, would I rather have Josh Tencio then
00:20:41
Speaker
I don't know, like Darwin Jones, I probably would. I think there's a little bit more quality in the depth at this point. And I'm excited to see those kids get tested that way. I'm excited to see what they can do when they have to produce. And it's not just like a 20-minute cameo or they're getting a start, but they're not expected to lead the team.
Public Health & Stadium Reopening
00:21:04
Speaker
It'll be fun to see because I think they're up to a challenge in the way that maybe some of the kids in the past haven't been.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And I think that goes to the idea that this is an organization that is
00:21:17
Speaker
surprising soccer intelligence over all else. And I think you see that in a player like Josh Tencio. It seems like it's a thing that we see in a Reed Baker Whiting. And it's, you know, and I wonder if that's part of why they seem to be so good at producing central midfielders and they don't necessarily seem as great at producing other talents, but I would imagine because a lot of those kinds of players end up as central midfielders. So,
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's an interesting one. And I think the other thing that gives me some encouragement is there's no one out there. In 2019, the last time the sounders got off to this great start, they didn't have any room for error because LAFC was just blazing hot. They ended up setting a points record that year. They were one of the great
00:22:09
Speaker
regular season teams of all time. There's no one, no one else looks like they're going to do that. You know, the Rebs are in second right now. They're a good team, but they've, you know, they've got some holes. Uh, I would say the one thing that they have working for them is that they probably aren't going to lose a bunch of guys international duty. Yeah. So, you know, they, I could see them maybe overtaking the Sounders during this, uh, during June, July.
00:22:34
Speaker
But in the West, I don't, I don't, you know, right now, supporting Kansas city is the second best team. I don't that they, they haven't struck me as someone who is, you know, who should trouble the sounders in terms of like, that's a team that feels like the sounders can hold off pretty well.
00:22:49
Speaker
I'm not buying L.A. at either. I know. No, I'm not either. They're points per game or they're around two. I'm not buying it. You can't give up 11 goals in what, six games and make me think that you're a huge threat until you demonstrate that you're not going to continue giving up two goals a game.
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, six of those came in their two trips to Cascadia. Uh, but I think that also speaks to what happened, you know, they were, they both times they were playing against an opponent that had missing key pieces. Right. Uh, and they, and they got shelled both times. So that doesn't really speak real highly of their depth and their quality, you know, their, their quality. So yeah, I mean, I, who knows how this plays out, but it's, it's feeling like a good one. It feels like.
00:23:40
Speaker
This is going someplace. I'm assuming you have not been out to the stadium yet, but this last game I thought was starting to feel a bit more like home.
00:23:57
Speaker
You could hear the supporters, boom, boom, clap. It had a real depth to it that we hadn't really seen in the first few home games. It was getting there and I think we're going to get a little closer on Sunday. Then when we come out of this, my assumption, the Sounders have started selling season tickets starting with the 23rd.
00:24:25
Speaker
they haven't confirmed that what that means exactly other than they're selling the season tickets. But it tells me that they're planning to open this thing up pretty soon. I guess in presumably, I guess one way I'm imagining it going is
00:24:44
Speaker
have vaccinated you know they have most of the stadium is vaccinated sections and they keep some unvaccinated sections maybe for uh for that first game and then you know after June 31st I think is when the restrictions get lifted yeah or that's when the plan is that you know they'll be back and and I think the thing that's encouraging about all this is that
00:25:06
Speaker
it does feel like we're at a point where this doesn't feel really dangerous. We're seeing COVID numbers drop pretty significantly, especially in Seattle, but throughout King County and Washington. And it feels like, like I said, it feels like it's all trending in a good direction.
COVID-19 Risk Assessment
00:25:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, without getting into the detailed arguments about
00:25:33
Speaker
whether it's a good idea to lift restrictions and everything at this point, because I don't fucking know what I'm talking about. None of us do, but.
00:25:44
Speaker
I think if you're vaccinated, it's safe to go to a game. And if you're not vaccinated and you're not going to get the vaccine, I don't care. As long as you don't go infect a bunch of other people that can't get vaccinated for whatever reason, I don't really care if you get COVID. Not to sound like an asshole, but that's just the level of comfort we're going to have to have going forward.
00:26:09
Speaker
It is, unfortunately. Yeah, it sucks. It's a bummer. But at a certain point, you choose what you choose to do. And that's the way it goes. Yeah, I think the thing that's not to get, we don't need to spend too much time on this. But I think the thing that's frustrating is that, especially those of us with kids, there's not as much of a free choice in this. Right.
00:26:35
Speaker
So like I'm going to still be like, I'm not going to like, I'm not personally taking my kids everywhere that I would normally, that I would normally take them. I guess that has benefits too. It's a good excuse to not take the kids to the supermarket or whatever, but.
00:26:50
Speaker
Yeah. And I definitely don't want to sound like I am downplaying the risk to kids, to people with kids and how they have to continue. But like, if you feel safe going, you should go. And if you don't care about any of this stuff, then I don't, you know, whatever. It's I don't know. It's I'm just glad that people are going to have the choice again and can do it and feel pretty safe in doing it. Yeah. That's that's the key thing is people have the ability to
00:27:19
Speaker
properly gauge risk in a way that they haven't in like a year and a half.
Listener Q&A
00:27:24
Speaker
Right. And I think that's what we've been talking about a lot. I think is that, uh, the ability to gauge, to make your own risk assessment is what I think was missing from the last year and a half or so is that you could, like, you just didn't have the, like, we didn't have that ability to make those risks because it wasn't something that we could just, Oh, well, I don't care if I get sick. Well, it's not just about, you know, that we don't, you know, we love all this stuff, but, um,
00:27:53
Speaker
I think we're now at a point where we're comfortable with people making those choices for themselves. We're at least very close to it. But yeah, that's probably a good place to call this. We will come back. We're going to take a bunch of your questions.
Sponsor Highlight: Full Pool Wines
00:28:08
Speaker
You're listening to NOS Adiathis.
00:28:14
Speaker
Full Pool Wines are based in Seattle, owned and operated by Sanders fans, and have been sponsoring Nota adieres since 2011. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest. Their model is simple. One, they email compelling offers.
00:28:33
Speaker
Two, you request bottles that sound appealing. And three, your wine arrives at their soda warehouse and is ready for pickup or shipping. Their soda tasting room is also open to the public. If you're interested in joining their mailing list or learning more about them, visit fullpaulwines.com.
Listener Q&A: Player Dynamics & Tactics
00:28:53
Speaker
Welcome back to Nus Ariete. So a bunch of questions and
00:28:59
Speaker
Let's get going. All right. The first one is from Trivia Lex. I always get tripped up and can't decide whether to say Trivia Lex or Trivia Alex. So I'm going with Trivia Lex today. Next time I'll go with Trivia Alex. Trivial X. Trivial X. Oh God, that's another one. That's probably what it is actually. Oh well. Christian didn't have the influence in the Atlanta game that we've been used to seeing this season. Was that more on him or did ATL crack the code on how to take him out of the game?
00:29:29
Speaker
You know, I do think that was him having an off game. You know, he had some moments, you know, the ones that stand out to me were, you know, there was one where Will had a nice hold up play, hits it to roll, roll then sprays it out to Christian on the wing. He's able to make that turn. And instead of, he kind of gets stuck between a shot and a cross. And he had Will wide open at the back post if he was able to get it to him, but instead he kind of splits the difference.
00:29:58
Speaker
Then there was another one where he got into space. Will again is kind of left all alone. If he basically rolls it to him, Will's in. Instead he kind of mishits it, takes Will out wide, chance goes wasted. But there was a few things like that. I think he had the fewest attempted passes and completed passes of his season. So I guess that maybe speaks to something that
00:30:27
Speaker
that Atlanta did, but I don't know. I think that was really more like the Sounders as a whole completed and attempted fewer passes than they had. So I don't, I don't think it was shutting down Christian as much as it was kind of an off game. And, and, you know, the Sounders just kind of plan it a little differently. Did you see any, did you see it any differently? No, I don't think so. I think that, um,
00:30:50
Speaker
I mean, I do think that maybe Atlanta is a team where Christian's style of play is going to inherently be a little more difficult, but I don't I don't think that I think that's just the playing that role is more difficult to team that plays the way Atlanta does. I think it's much more, as you said, just an off day, which, you know, he plays 90 minutes every single week at full speed. It's going to happen occasionally.
00:31:14
Speaker
So, this one is from Brandon bleak says what sort of role on Ontario play when Rudy Diaz is away. What will lead arrows return due to the lineup. I mean I think that Freddie and roller different strike their different players they have different styles of play different strengths and weaknesses.
00:31:33
Speaker
but I think he's going to play a similar role just like in terms of the space he's occupying and things like that. I think that, you know, Will does what Will does and it suits the way Raul plays, it suits the way Freddie plays. I think that, you know, we'll probably see a little less running directly at the opposition. Raul loves to do that. Freddie's a little bit more of a creator, so we might see, you know, him playing a little bit more of a false nine at times type role, but
00:32:03
Speaker
You know, I just in general, I think the sounders aren't going to change a ton technically, it's just going to be kind of in the nuance of the way that they approach the position in terms of Ledero's return. I'm really curious about that. I mean, we kind of talked about that in the first segment, that things have been clicking so well that
00:32:21
Speaker
You know, you almost like you're never going to say no to Nico Ledero coming back, but you almost don't want to upset the apple cart too much, but I think that it's going to provide a little bit of a let off for Christian virtual Apollo, open things up a little bit more.
00:32:37
Speaker
you know, and I'm not really worried about that causing any issues structurally for the team. I do think the formation will look a little bit more like a three, four, two, one, I suspect. But I still think it's going to be a lot of Ledero on the ball and, you know, he's going to still end up with, you know, 60, 70 touches a game. Montero probably won't
00:33:00
Speaker
Touch the ball quite that much, but it'll, it'll be interesting to see how they play together because I don't know that we saw them much together during preseason. Certainly we didn't see a much. We didn't see them much together. I assume they played some together just off camera.
00:33:16
Speaker
So I think it's an interesting look, and I'm intrigued to see it. One thing I am a little hopeful of is, you know, Jel Paolo has been pretty good on set pieces. I wouldn't mind seeing him continuing to get his fair share, at least of the corners. He's got four assists this year. Three of them were on set pieces.
Potential Signings & Impact
00:33:37
Speaker
So yeah, I wouldn't mind seeing him continuing to get to do that.
00:33:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think Nico's struggles on set pieces are overstated, but I agree. Next one is from BT Weber. Should I be concerned about our depth at right back? Alex is a tough kid, but who steps in for him so isn't running to the ground by September?
00:33:58
Speaker
I think there is some legitimate concern there. There still isn't really a bona fide backup. We've been told at the beginning of the year, the expectation was that Kellen Rowe was going to be competing for him at that spot. I assume that's still his backup, if that's what it comes to.
00:34:20
Speaker
But Ro is really untested at right back. I don't know that he's played there almost at all in an MLS. He may have come in and played late games there, but I don't think he's got more than one or two starts there. So it's a question mark. I think it's a legitimate concern.
00:34:41
Speaker
But Kellen Rowe has, if anything, shown to be extremely versatile. Another one of those high soccer IQ players. And I'm not, you know, I'm confident he will do it, but I think the skepticism is warranted because we just haven't seen it yet.
00:34:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I do, I feel like I remember New England playing in a three back with him at right back when he was there, but I don't think it went too well if I remember correctly, not necessarily for him, just for the team in general, but they were kind of a disaster. I think you're right. Like I'm optimistic about Roseability to fill in there and, you know, take some spot starts.
00:35:20
Speaker
It's tempting to say, well, Alex rolled on was untested at right back as well, but you can't really count on people having that kind of breakthrough very frequently. But I think he has a good skill set. I would be a lot more worried about it if it was right back and not right wing back, because I think he's got a little more defensive cover. His skill set is probably a little more well suited for wing back than a fullback.
00:35:45
Speaker
It's my biggest concern with the roster right now, without question. This is covered right back. But I want to see how Kellen can do before any roster moves are made. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess you could go out and get a veteran MLS Jordan McCrary type, but I would be hard pressed to
00:36:09
Speaker
be convinced that that would be an upgrade. Yeah. Same here. This is from our good friend, Bill Jones TRPT. With silly season approaching, what sort of player or players will the Sounders seek out this window? Winger was the consensus before the season, but has that changed? Great transition from your last. Yeah.
00:36:28
Speaker
Yeah. Way to line these questions up, producer. Thanks. Oh, I guess that's ostensibly looking at that part. Yeah, I don't know, but you did a great decision. Whoever did it did a great job. But let's answer the question, I suppose, before we get too congratulatory for those.
00:36:46
Speaker
I don't think anything has changed. I still think it's a winger. And it's not because the play from the wing has been bad by any stretch of the imagination or anywhere. I mean, I'm very happy with the way the team has been.
00:37:03
Speaker
his play, obviously. If anything, maybe that opens it up to just the like, we're gonna try to find the best talent and culture fit, regardless of position and figure it out later, like maybe that opens up that possibility, maybe that opens up the
00:37:20
Speaker
Eh, maybe we'll add some better in depth, but we're going to hang on to our money and wait till next season. But I think if they are going to sign an impact player, that's the obvious place to do it. Or, I mean, maybe they can find somebody that has, like, legitimately played as an attacking wingback who can be sort of like a Brad Smith on the other side. Like, those guys are up there. Yeah, they are. And I almost wonder, because I don't know the answer to this. Like, I feel like you're absolutely right that beginning of the season,
00:37:49
Speaker
I think winger was the top of the shopping list and I kind of wonder if it would be a mistake like if they just sign an out and out winger like I guess that's not bad because you can always find a place for that player you can you know
00:38:07
Speaker
If you're not assuming that this is going to be a starter anyway, it's someone that you can bring off the bench and just kind of like use in as you need them. If you want to switch to a 4231, you can always do that.
00:38:22
Speaker
But I do wonder if they decide that this is the formation they want to stay in. You can say, OK, well, Jordan could play as a second striker in this formation. Why? We don't need to change formations just because Jordan is, we think he's best at winger. He can also be a good second striker. That's what he was going to play at Swansea, for instance.
00:38:48
Speaker
I mean, if they are, if they convince themselves, is it wingback? That's probably the position they need to look for, right? Yeah. I mean, I think you can also, like if you're, if you've got a guy that's capable of playing at wingback, he can almost certainly play pretty effectively as a two-way wide midfielder. Sure. The sounders tend to like to have at least one two-way wide midfielder. So maybe that's
00:39:10
Speaker
Yeah. You know, maybe that problem solves itself, but it's, I mean, if you, if you want to commit to a three back for the longer term, I think it's okay to, to just go get somebody that can own that position as a wingback and not worry too much about, you know, what they can do outside of playing as a wingback. Would it be crazy to go out and spend money on another center back, like a young center back?
00:39:34
Speaker
No, I don't think it's ever crazy to spend money on a young center back. And maybe that's the thing, is maybe they're just going to focus on upside with that money. They're going to assign somebody who they think can contribute, but doesn't have to contribute right away, who can be like a young, whatever they're calling the young DP, that new concept. Maybe it's something like that.
00:39:56
Speaker
Um, or it is like, like maybe they can sign Freddie Monteiro's replacement, who they're hoping can eventually turn into Bruin or roll Rudy Diaz's replacement. Like you never know. I think that's like one of the exciting things about this time in MLS in terms of the way the rosters are structured and teams are beginning to spend money is that if you are going out and making a big impact signing from outside of the league, it doesn't have to be a player that you're counting on to come in and save your season or come in and be your savior. It can be somebody.
00:40:28
Speaker
Maybe it is, you know, you never know. Um, and so that's, I mean, that's an interesting thing to think about. It's pretty exciting. I think that like, that's, that's the next big step for the league is that teams are going out and spending money on guys that they don't need to contribute right
Expectations & Player Contributions
00:40:43
Speaker
away. We kind of saw that with, with, um, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
00:40:47
Speaker
with Javier Ariaga, you know, it's the same kind of thing where he's, I think, definitely, there's still skeptics out there, for sure, to say the least, but I think, to me, he's definitely starting to show that he was worth that money, that he was worth the transfer fee, that he was worth the growing pains. He's really, I think, developing into the kind of player that the sounders were optimistic he could be. And so,
00:41:12
Speaker
trying to find those guys that can allow you to more seamlessly transition into your next core and identify them and get them steeped in the culture and all that is a pretty nice option to have.
00:41:28
Speaker
Yeah. And my CFC just signed an 18 year old Brazilian who people are comparing to Neymar, which is obviously insane, but they are. I mean, this was a kid who, you know, like NYCFC has some legitimate talent act, you know, talent scouts, right? Like they're not out there. Like they have city football group behind them and they think this is a kid who what is.
00:41:53
Speaker
you know, on the market for double what he was a year ago. But because he was at Bosco de Gama, I guess, which is, which, which was in a lot of financial trouble. You know, he, he was available. So that's the kind of player though, that MLS is now trying to get into. So it's an interesting, I don't know if you watched his highlights or not, but this kid was, he, he, I can see why people compare him to Neymar. He has some moves.
00:42:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, it's exciting that because it's, that's never been like the kind of investment that made sense for teams in MLS. Right. Exactly. And NYCFC is a little bit different because ultimately they're saying, well, we want this kid to play a lot, but we think maybe he could be beneficial to Manchester city or something like that. You know, so it's a slightly different calculus, but it's not that different. I mean, ultimately NYCFC is still a business that has to be run as a business. Right.
00:42:49
Speaker
Um, it's exciting. I mean, that's like, that's where this stuff gets fun. And that's when we can become like the super obnoxious fans who care more about transfer rumors and shit like that. And the actual names like that, you know, that's like, that's a huge step for American soccer culture. Um, next one is from AJ Allen PDX. What has been the biggest disappointment outside of injuries for the team? And on the flip side, the biggest surprise outside of new who be in the MLS MVP so far.
00:43:15
Speaker
Well, that's that is a good one. What is the biggest disappointment outside of injuries? God, like really and then then dropping new who has taken that out of the nicest surprise. Let's start with the nicest surprise. I think the nicest surprise has been the willingness to trust young players and that
00:43:40
Speaker
Whether it was forced or not, I think that the Sounders went into the season willing to give minutes to a Josh Atencio. They're willing to sign Reed Baker Whiting and get him on the field immediately. You know, we'll see how much that ends up that they gave you. You know, Ethan double error, I did not think was particularly good in his start.
00:44:00
Speaker
but that they were willing to give them that start I thought was really nice and encouraging. And so I think if there's an excitement, it's this idea that they are developing talent and that they are bringing guys up, that they stuck with Alex Roldan as long as they did, that they stuck with New Who really as long as they did. I think these are all encouraging things and it speaks to the culture that they're building and that they're trying to
00:44:30
Speaker
you know, not just go out and sign a bunch of foreign players and plug it that way, but that they're using different mechanisms to fill the roster out. So I think that's, that's all probably exciting and encouraging the disappointment. Hmm. It's tough. I mean, it's tough. Yeah. Maybe that knew who hasn't scored a goal. Yeah.
00:44:56
Speaker
Any time that they move into a four-back and he gets switched to one-back, you can tell he's just dying for it. I think, like... I would say Will not, more or less jokingly, Will not having a goal is a little bit disappointing, but it's not because I'm frustrated with how he's played. Like we've said, I think in some ways he's been the most influential that he's been. You'd like to see that rewarded with a goal, though, and I'm sure it's eating him up that he doesn't have one yet.
00:45:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's like disappointing in like a karmic sense rather than a performance sense. I think for me, in addition to the youth, the most exciting thing has, or the most surprising thing in a positive way has been that, you know, they played, they switched to this dramatically different formation and everybody just snapped right into their roles. I mean, it's been seamless. Like you almost wonder like, gosh, they've been, you know, playing this,
00:45:51
Speaker
this style and formation a little sooner because they just seem so natural for them. I'm genuinely shocked at that and obviously that they've managed to play so well without Nico.
00:46:06
Speaker
Well, and along those lines, I think I'd also say that the thing that's funny is that for a long time, we've always heard fans say they should switch to a three-back formation. And that was, it was like kind of like a throwaway line almost for a long time. Like, oh, you should just go to the three-back formation because that will somehow fix all your problems. And, and my refrain was always, it's not so easy to just change to a three-back formation because it requires all this, you know, it requires a different kind of roster and it requires a, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:46:35
Speaker
And I mean, I, they did train in it all off season, so it's not like.
00:46:41
Speaker
but they also have made it look a lot easier. But I also think that speaks to the soccer IQ of the players that they brought in and kind of gone over all this stuff, but it is funny. I would say the biggest disappointment is not getting three points worth it against Atlanta. Yeah, that was pretty big disappointment. You're doing okay if that sort of thing happens all year. For sure it was the most disappointing result of the year. No question about that.
00:47:08
Speaker
Twimberly23 says, how much credit should Adrian get in the success of the club after the start of the year and considering how consistent we've been since he became the owner during the U.S.L. days, he seems the most important figure at the club, especially comparing to other ownership groups.
00:47:24
Speaker
I would say an enormous amount of the credit, I think that he obviously is very passionate about the club, beyond them being a way for him to get richer. I'm sure he's gotten richer as owner of the Sounders and that's a great benefit to have but I think he's emotionally invested in the club on a
00:47:45
Speaker
very fundamental level. I think that he knows the business side of the game very well, obviously. But I think that his ability to separate his ego from what's best for the team, what's best for the long-term success, he was the GM of the club.
00:48:03
Speaker
through some extremely successful seasons and then said, you know what, I can't do the stuff that I want us to be able to do to get to the next level and went out and hired Garth Waterway. He recognized that his
00:48:20
Speaker
financial muscle wasn't quite enough to get the club to where they needed to go in the new landscape in the middle of us. So we went out and find a bunch of investors. He recognized that he probably couldn't keep doing as many things on the business side as he was doing. So we went out and got Peter Tomizawa and a bunch of other executives. That ability to recognize when you're not the right person for something
00:48:41
Speaker
and delegate is something that a lot of people that get into sports ownership don't have. Their egos won't allow them to do that. And I think that it's a huge part of what has allowed the Sounders to thrive is that he cares more about the team's success than he does about himself.
00:49:01
Speaker
and about how he feels about himself and his role as the owner and decider. And I think that that's critical, you know, I just think he's never makes anything about him. And there are things that he's done and the club has done it is, you know, assuming that his best that I have serious problems with and we've talked about them on the show in the past, there's no need to revisit them but
00:49:24
Speaker
That's I mean, that's inevitable, right? Like when you're the public face and the main decision maker for a soccer team as big as the Sounders, like that's going to happen from time to time. But I don't think anybody can question whether or not.
00:49:37
Speaker
he cares deeply about the club and the fans and their success and he's willing to do whatever it takes to facilitate that, even if it puts him in a position of having less power. And that's, I think that's been key. It was funny, recently someone brought this, like somehow it got discovered
00:49:57
Speaker
And I don't remember why the news hook that led the person to finding the story, but there was a story in the Seattle times about Bernie James being fired from the sounders back in like 2001 or whatever it was. I think it was 2001. Yeah. And.
00:50:15
Speaker
And it was such a small club kind of thing. And it was a USL team. And it was an argument between the owner and James about not playing his son, essentially, that seemed to have led to his being fired. And Bernie James has gone on to, I think he created Crossfire and he's been successful.
00:50:38
Speaker
But it was, it mentioned like in passing like Adrian Hanauer had also come into the organization and was starting to take a bigger role in it. And I just thought it was kind of a funny thing because of how far we've, the club has come from this period where it was like, really, it was a, it was like a step up from a neighborhood club in a lot of ways. And I think it's easy to forget that during a lot of those USL days, the, uh,
00:51:04
Speaker
existence was not to be taken for granted and and Hanauer managed to take this team that was losing all this money and whose existence was not guaranteed. He helped transform them into a perennial contender
00:51:20
Speaker
He hires Brian Schmetzer and then sets it on this trajectory of where we are now, where they're one of the biggest clubs in North America. And it's amazing. It's really kind of an amazing story. And I, you know, he's not perfect. He makes decisions that I disagree with on occasion. And I think I try to call out in the most honest way possible. And, but it's hard to argue with the
00:51:50
Speaker
Like the balance, right? I mean, it's just hard to, you know, there's not a lot of teams that have a local owner who is as accessible as him and is as big as him. And, you know, like, I don't know what else you could ask for, frankly. But yeah, I think he deserves a lot of the credit. Yep. Next one is from Clark8710. Which sounder would do the best at blindfolded soccer?
00:52:18
Speaker
Well, this is a reference in case you missed it. One of our photographers,
00:52:26
Speaker
got an amazing shot of Bethany Belser at the Rain Thorns game where her headband had fallen over her eyes and she was literally blindfolded on the field. It's very good. I would encourage you to go to Sounder at Heart and look at the photo gallery from that game and you'll see it. There's a bunch of great photos in there, but who would be the best
00:52:54
Speaker
blindfolded sounder, probably Xiao Paolo, probably as someone who like has probably trained with the blindfold on or something. Right. Very karate kid kind of vibes. Yeah. Just like hitting like 70 yard cross field switches with. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Deprived of every sense. Yeah.
00:53:13
Speaker
That seems, that's, I would like to come up with a better answer than that. I would like to see Nuhu do it, but I don't know if he would be effective. I could see him training in the, like, I could see him like going through it and I had, now I have this idea. Zhao Paolo putting Nuhu through the paces of a blindfold, like, you know, in a torrential downpour and him hitting 70 yard crosses into a trash can while
Barbecue Techniques Discussion
00:53:43
Speaker
Jaupalo barks orders at him in Portuguese. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah, I can see that's trailers just coming coming in. This one's from Kirby the King. And this is this is a really, really good question. Yeah, it's my kind of question. Yeah. You're smoking ribs for yourself, pork or beef.
00:54:01
Speaker
I am really curious to know how you answer this Jeremiah, because for me, this isn't a question at all. It's pork and beef ribs are fine. You know, I don't I don't mind them. I'm not going to kick them out of bed for eating crackers, but they're not. They're not pork, not if you're smoking them like you can do a lot of good things with beef ribs. But I think if you're making barbecue, if you're barbecuing ribs, pork ribs are where it's at for me. And I, you know, I'm from Memphis.
00:54:29
Speaker
That's the tradition, the barbecue tradition I grew up in, and that's dry rub ribs. So I'm obviously biased, dry rub pork ribs, but I've never ever seen it as even a close contest between the two.
00:54:45
Speaker
Yes, I agree. And I will add that I have made, I have actually made beef ribs. I would not say that either one of those are something I would call my specialty, but I will say that pork ribs are shockingly easy to do really, really well.
00:55:06
Speaker
Yeah, they're the most forgiving barbecue. Yeah. Like I've only done them a couple of times and every time I was like, this is spectacular. Why would you ever not smoke? And they're cheap. You can get pork ribs for really cheap. They are like this perfect size. They're easy to like portion out. They're just very, very easy.
00:55:26
Speaker
beef ribs are actually pretty expensive. They're a little unwieldy. They, you end up like, at least when I cook them, I felt like they rendered a lot off. So I felt like there wasn't as much meat there as like, I felt kind of like I didn't get what I was paying. You know, it was like one of those things where you lose so much of the weight through
00:55:49
Speaker
I assume it's because there's a lot of fat on it, and that's just the way it goes. I don't know, I just felt very disappointed. Now, I've had good beef ribs, but I don't think they are as nearly as forgiving as a home, like I'm not an expert smoker.
00:56:07
Speaker
But any stretch. I think I make a pretty good brisket and I like I said I think I do some good pork ribs and I've made a few other like I do a good pulled pork, but I have not.
00:56:24
Speaker
Part of it is that, like I said, they're so expensive relative to other cuts and they're not so forgiving. So there it's a little bit harder to kind of feel like you can learn how to do it, but yeah, there's no contest. It is really no contest. Yeah. I mean, I've, I've had great beef ribs and.
00:56:40
Speaker
And I can appreciate the differences from pork ribs and that they're good. But I I would take my lazy ass, you know, pork ribs over over great beef ribs, at least if we're talking barbecue. If we're talking like, you know, oh, I'm cooking short ribs, I'm doing like Korean barbecue short ribs or something. That's that's a different thing. If we're talking about going on the smoker, it's not even close. No, I totally agree. I would actually even say that like I've made good pork ribs in the oven.
00:57:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, you can. Yeah, there's just like, they're so, they're so easy to do that. I would love to get like, I almost wonder if there's an argument against this because I am sure there are, like I said, I'm sure there are people out there that are doing amazing beef ribs. And I feel like I've, I feel like I finally had good beef ribs kind of recently. And I was like, Oh, okay. I get it. People, why people would be into this, but
00:57:35
Speaker
Um, not for me, like I, I'm not, I'm not making them. It's definitely, it's one of those home cooked things where the juice is not anywhere close to worth the squeeze for me. Like it's just, I was going to use that same phrase. Yeah. I've been using it way too much. It's not good, but, uh, it's anytime you start a new job and you gotta throw all your new cliches out there. Yeah. But it's, it's true. They're just like, it's a, it's a lot like, like I made Robin at home once everything from scratch and yeah.
00:58:04
Speaker
Oh, so I did the broth, you know, if and I and I did the I did all is all from scratch and pork belly, all that stuff. And I was just like, this is 30 percent as good as what I could get for like seven dollars. I'm glad that I know that I've done it. Well, and for me, beef ribs are that way very much like I'm not there's no reason for me to prove to myself that I can do this. The thing that really kills me with ramen is that there are some pretty good dried ramens out there that. Yeah.
00:58:34
Speaker
If you just alter very slightly from the package are amazing, like are really good and are better than I think most people are able to do on their own. Um, especially if you just buy like a tub of, uh, of the Sesame paste. What am I blanking when it's called? But, um,
00:58:54
Speaker
Anyway, if you like, there's some ways to do ramen at home that are really easy, but not from going all the way from scratch is such a, the broth is intense. It's like the, it's like the craziest, you know, chicken broth you've ever made times a hundred. It's insane. There's so many steps and so much weird shit. Like I had to drive to like 60. Yeah, it was definitely the same way.
00:59:19
Speaker
I'll just like, I'm happy to let the experts do it for sure. But those things are actually really good. And I just, you know, I don't even feel the same way about beef ribs. Even the best beef ribs are going to be for me.
00:59:32
Speaker
It's going to be like, you know, kind of okay. But yeah, I think honestly, I think the one I did be for was the one, maybe the only time where I was kind of bummed out about my smoking experience. They're really, really hard to do well. Like that's one of the reasons that they're one of those like competition barbecue foods is because it's like, it's like doing a whole hog, right? It's like more about.
00:59:57
Speaker
how skilled are you then like this is like the best thing to make. Yeah and I gotta tell you my anything that gets you into technique that's where I like I feel like I'm pretty good at like understanding flavor profiles and yes those kind of things but once you get into like oh you got to get it timed right and you got to cut it right and you got to do this and that yeah that's like I'm not I'm not I'm not I'm not there
01:00:24
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it's one of those things too that like, and this happened to me when I got really into watching like a barbecue pit masters or whatever, where it's like the stuff that you have to do to make competition winning barbecue makes more than like two or three bites of it and edibly rich. And it's just like so expensive and involved because it's like, you're not like trying to have a good Sunday night dinner. Like you're, you're trying to win a million dollars or whatever it is.
01:00:49
Speaker
So that's, you know, that's like always a lesson that you gotta learn if you try to get too into that kind of stuff. Yeah. And not to belabor the point, but it is also kind of like, there's a reason that restaurant food oftentimes tastes so much better and it's because they're not shy about salt.
01:01:06
Speaker
Or butter or butter. Yeah, or things that like when you are watching yourself do it you get really self conscious about. Right, right. No, exactly. Like if for me to make ribs and be happy with them requires me using like an entire bottle of honey and several sticks of butter.
01:01:27
Speaker
It's probably not the right kind of meat for me. So yeah. Well, this was barbecue talk with Aaron and Jeremiah. Yeah. Hope you enjoyed that. Yeah. And if you didn't, it's the last, it's the last. Yeah. You, you got, you got like an hour and a half of good show or whatever. How long today's show was. Yeah.
01:01:48
Speaker
But I was on that same note, I was I just recently bought Kenji Lopez Alt's food lab cookbook. And I was reading the section about hamburgers. And now I want to go out and make I was convinced that first of all, apparently I've been making hamburgers wrong.
01:02:07
Speaker
But anytime you read something, Kenji Lopez, all right. So you realize you can do it something wrong. Right. It's really upsetting. It is. It was really upsetting. And, and now I want to go make burgers using his technique. Yeah. But which is all like smash. It's like, apparently all the smash burger thing.
01:02:25
Speaker
Yeah. So it's like the key here is you handle it as little as possible. You only season it with salt and pepper right before you put it on the flat top and then you smash it in the first 30 seconds. But then you don't do that again because that's where you start losing.
01:02:42
Speaker
So do you do do you smash it on each side or do you yeah I guess you have to smash it because you got to caramelize both sides right you smash it and then you basically get it get a good you have to put it on a searing hot pan get a good a good crust on one side and then flip it
01:02:58
Speaker
salt it, smash it again, and then or no, you I guess you salt it before you flip it. Yeah, because you put the salted side down first. But yeah, and then you and then you don't do it. You don't you don't you can flip it more, but you don't smash it after that because it's like the 30 seconds is where the fat liquefies. And then once it's liquefied, you start losing the flavor. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I get to get one of those Blackstone things.
01:03:28
Speaker
You seen those? They're like propane outdoor flat tops. Oh, these are the things that like all the burger YouTube shows use. Yeah. So yeah, you can like, you know, I'm not, I'm not getting up at 6 AM to make breakfast on the deck, but I'm also not going to do that on a gas stove and set my house on fire. So yeah, that's a, I'm gonna have to look into this. Yeah.
01:03:50
Speaker
All
Closing Message
01:03:51
Speaker
right. Well, anyway, that was burger chat. Yeah. This was no study at this. Uh, thanks to our sponsor, full pool wines. Uh, they have a cookbook. They don't talk about any of the things that we were just talking about, but you know, if you're in that, into that thing, uh, they're great. So thanks.
01:04:15
Speaker
Thank you everyone for listening. I am Jeremiah O'Shan signing off on behalf of Aaron and Lickit. This is No Study Yet This. Remember, you'll never get alone.
01:04:40
Speaker
Roll on, Columbia Roll on. Roll on, Columbia Roll on. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll on, Columbia Roll on. We love you. Let's win another one!