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It’s time to vent about the Sounders
68 Plays1 year ago
Yep, we're kinda in the dumps just like you. Jeremiah and Aaron went light on recap and focused more on some of the bigger-picture frustrations that are making the Sounders so little fun to watch. Consider this a venting session.
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Transcript
Introduction by Christian Roldan and Jordan Morris
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes.
Sponsorship by Full Pull Wines
00:00:06
Speaker
This episode of NOS Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of NOS Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters.
Seattle Sounders' MLS Cup Win Recap
00:00:20
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
Episode Introduction and Co-hosts
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
00:01:28
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of NOS Adiatus, sponsored by Fullpool Wines and our subscribers. We're recording on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. I am your host, Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today is my co-host, Aaron Campo and our engineer, Lickett.
Sounders' Disappointing Start and Injuries
00:01:42
Speaker
We are now four games into the season, roughly 12% through. And things could hardly be going worse for the Seattle Sounders. Following Saturday's gut-wrenching loss in which they erased a two-goal deficit only to fall back behind on the ensuing kickoff, they are now winless.
00:02:00
Speaker
Their offense has managed to score four goals, but three of those are from the penalty spot. Their defense, the presumed strength of the team, is coming off a game in which they allowed three goals to a team that had not even scored two in a game since last September. And while they're slowly getting some of their injured starters back, it seems like every week someone else goes down. The latest one was Leo Chu, who we just found out will be out three to five weeks with a torn knee tendon.
00:02:25
Speaker
He'll become the seventh sounder to miss at least two games to injury this year, with fellow injured players Jau Paolo, Pedro de la Vega, Reed Baker Whiting, and Brad D'Elio Rodriguez all out for the foreseeable future as well.
00:02:36
Speaker
Aaron, I know it's early, but I ask you this only semi-tongue in cheek. Is it time to panic?
Analysis of Loss to San Jose
00:02:44
Speaker
It's not super far from being time to panic. I don't feel like it's been very rough. And I think if these games were coming against the LAFCs of the world, the SEC personalities of the world,
00:02:59
Speaker
Minnesota somehow, uh, the Minnesota's in the world somehow. Um, then it would be frustrating because those are the teams obviously you want to be keeping up with, but it would be a little easier to explain away of like, well, we got hit by all these injuries right at the start of the year. And these are good teams, but they're not. These aren't good teams that they're losing to. Um, whatever. Yeah. It's, uh, San Jose, a very bad team, um, that.
00:03:29
Speaker
I think that the injuries are an excuse for only getting a point, grinding out a draw on the road. That's the kind of result, I think, that you can say, look, we don't have our guys. We just got to do what we can do. That's not an excuse to lose to San Jose. It's not an excuse to
00:03:54
Speaker
lose the way they did. I think one of the most frustrating games in a really long time, just because the timing of all three goals was just infuriating.
Defensive Mistakes and Quick Goals
00:04:05
Speaker
You get the two where I think the Sounders looked decent, I think, up until San Jose's first goal, and then they just fall asleep.
00:04:15
Speaker
twice within 90 seconds. And then the third goal, a goal that is almost a cliche, you know, to give up a goal right from the kickoff. But I can't recall, I'm sure it's happened, but I cannot recall the Sounders ever giving up a goal that quickly after scoring one of them. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I don't know how many, I'm sure that's happened before. Like maybe it wasn't even in the Portland game where they gave up a goal in quick succession like that.
00:04:44
Speaker
Well, two goals in a row, uh, in quick succession. And somehow that feels a little bit more like, okay, the momentum is you get caught up in the momentum or whatever. And, and, and the balls going goes rolling downhill. And, and it's sometimes tough to
Morale and Performance Struggles
00:04:59
Speaker
stop or whatever. Right. But the, the goal they allowed at the end of the game is just mind boggling in its.
00:05:07
Speaker
An aptitude is probably the wrong word. It's just mind boggling that a team that is supposed to be so defensively sound that had a lot of veterans on the field at that time.
00:05:21
Speaker
that the momentum had completely gone in the sounder's favor. The earthquakes probably, I mean, you got to imagine, what was the feeling on their sideline? We're windless and we just gave up a two goal lead at home. They had to be pulling their hair out.
00:05:40
Speaker
You don't even make them stew in it for more than a minute. It was like 50 seconds or something like that after the sound, after Masovsky's shot hit the back of the net, that sounds like he went back ahead. I mean, it's just, it's hard to swallow. It's hard to explain. And I would say that that result, more than any of the previous results, is what has me a little bit more worried about the prospects of this team.
Offensive Issues and Scoring Challenges
00:06:10
Speaker
and yet there were some positives in the game if you really feel like digging into it but I don't know maybe that's for later in the show right now I'm I'm just still struggling to process this it was it was a really really bad result in I would in some ways I want to say it was probably work I don't know I was it better than a zero zero if the game had ended zero zero would that have been better
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah, for me it would have because it's the same problems, right? It's we can't score goals. And that is, I don't know, now that I'm saying that out loud, maybe that's, maybe you want to see, okay, we lost this game, but it was an uncharacteristic defensive breakdown. That's not going to be repeatable. And we scored a goal from the run of play.
00:06:53
Speaker
Uh, you know, maybe that makes you feel a little better. I don't know. But, but for me, given where it feels like the mindset of this club has to be the mindset of the players, the vibes in general, I think having another crack form is a little more concerning for me. And, and yes, they scored two goals. Yes. They scored a goal from the run of play, but the first goal was a penalty that, uh,
00:07:17
Speaker
Not deserved. Not deserved. Yeah, I think it's fair to say that. The second goal is a great goal. Incredible ball. Great header. Kind of came from nothing, even though the Sounders were pretty dominant. It wasn't like some long build-up or something like that. Yeah, it's not a high percentage chance. They're not going to be able to create a ton of goals that way, I don't think. Right, yeah. So I don't know. I'm trying not to be as negative as
Reflections on Missed Opportunities
00:07:46
Speaker
I'd like to be, I guess, because I want to keep an even keel here, but it's been a long time since I've been frustrated in that specific way after a Sounders game. Yeah. There's been plenty of frustrating results over the years and more of them recently, but this is one of those ones that's really hard to
00:08:11
Speaker
to sit in, I think, because of all the circumstances around it. Again, like San Jose is, and I think that's what is really frustrating about this start is that if they had just been okay, like not even good, they should have at least five more points. And if they're sitting on seven points through four games, you're actually feeling
00:08:39
Speaker
Fine, I mean, you're not maybe like excited about if they're playing, because they could be playing the exact, I guess my point is, they could have been playing the exact same way and be on seven points. You just have a little turn here or there and it's seven points. Really, you get seven points really quickly. If one of Raul's shots against Austin goes in, there's two more points.
00:09:05
Speaker
if they just don't fall asleep on a free kick in the 88th minute, there's two more points right there against the Rapids. If they just don't give up a goal right after scoring the equalizer, there's another point. So it's easy to come up with these things, and that's what's so frustrating. And I don't know, we were looking at this team. I thought they had a decent shot at the supporter shield. I thought they, I was convinced they were the favorites in the West. I don't know, I suppose it's,
High Expectations vs. Disappointing Start
00:09:33
Speaker
It's early enough that they could still get into the West race, but they're basically out of the supporters' shield race already. Yeah, it's pretty much the polar opposite of last season, where they had the best start in club history and just looked unbeatable for the first seven games. I have never seen them look this inept before. They've never looked more inept. I guess there have definitely been times where they've looked this bad for stretches.
00:09:59
Speaker
This is as bad of a start to the season as I can remember, even worse than 2016, I think. 2022 was sort of an outlier because the league wasn't going great, but CCL was happening and that was the focus.
00:10:15
Speaker
So yeah, it's a huge bummer because, as you said, coming in, I think the expectations were pretty high for a lot of people. And it's another one of these years, and this is a bigger deal, I think, to a lot of people than it is to me.
00:10:32
Speaker
But I think it's a big deal to people for a good reason. It's another year where, yeah, I think if you ask me right now, are the Sounders going to make the playoffs? Are the Sounders going to kind of get this turned around and go into the playoffs feeling like they have a pretty good shot at winning it all?
Can the Sounders Make the Playoffs?
00:10:50
Speaker
I think probably yes. I think they probably will. I think that this season, when we look back on it, is going to probably be
00:10:57
Speaker
a perfectly respectable year when all is said and done. But it's another year where they aren't doing it consistently for the whole year, that they're not in the supporters shield race, that they don't look like one of the elite teams in the league game in and game out.
00:11:16
Speaker
I understand why people want that for this club. This is a big club in MLS with a lot of resources. And I understand that people want that. They want that sort of day-to-day, week-to-week relevancy and domination.
Consistency and Relevance in MLS
00:11:30
Speaker
And it ain't going to happen this year. And we are four games in, five games if you want to be fully honest about it.
00:11:40
Speaker
They're already, like you said, out of the, out of the shield race, most likely. And it's, I know that getting it turned around is probably going to involve some soccer. That's not that great. Right. Like I think that this is a team as constructed that can win a decent amount of games by being really defensively solid and controlling tempo and controlling possession. And they can score just enough to.
00:12:09
Speaker
you know, to, to win these games. And, and I think there's a good chance that they're going to make an impact attacking signing in the summer that could make them a more exciting team going forward.
Need for Offensive Changes
00:12:19
Speaker
But it's still going to be kind of a grind. And, and I think when you look at these first four games, you were talking about how easily this could have been seven points, acknowledging the, the absences that they've had, the injuries that they've had, the difficulties that they've had in that regard.
00:12:35
Speaker
I think the expectation for this team should be, if you're playing Austin and Colorado at home, you need to be able to get three points from those games. You need to be able to grind out three points from those games. I don't care who's missing. And then the same playing San Jose on the road, you need to be able to get a point from San Jose on the road. I don't care who you're missing. And they're not doing that. And they haven't been doing that for a while.
00:13:00
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with you. I think what you're kind of saying is even when these players come back, you do expect when some of these, like they might be better against the galaxy. I think that's not a crazy, you know, they could get a point there. Hell, they might win this game, right? It would not be the craziest thing in the world. I'm not necessarily predicting that, but those kind of things happen.
00:13:26
Speaker
I am expecting this team to be better than they've been, which is a pretty low bar, but it still doesn't really excuse this start. I get that feeling. I think that feeling is very pervasive, and I don't really blame anyone for feeling that.
00:13:46
Speaker
I think the difference is what
Squad Depth and Injury Issues
00:13:48
Speaker
do people want to do about it, and we can get into that later. But you did some research that I want to give you a chance to highlight, but you went back and looked at some longer-term trends.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah, because I think that that's the key thing to sort of sussing out why this feels a little different than other swoons that the team has had over the years. Since the start of 2022, which is obviously the first year the Sounders ever missed the playoffs, CCL aside,
00:14:20
Speaker
And it's that pains me to say, because it's a huge part of the context, but just talking about the league, right? Since the start of 2022, the Sounders are playing at a 1.3, three points per game pace, which is good enough for 45 points over a season, which is, I think.
00:14:38
Speaker
almost always going to be enough to get you into the playoffs, but certainly not setting the world on fire, right? They're averaging 1.3 ish goals a game positive plus eight goal difference. And that's over 72 games. Uh, if you take out the first seven games of last season, when the Sounders looked like they were setting the world on fire. So everything up to that Portland game, um, by the St. Louis, the win over St. Louis,
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah, the one over St. Louis that really felt like, oh, this is a supporters shield money team. Yes. Since then, 1.26 points per game. That's a 43 point pace, not that much lower, but less than a goal per game, negative six goal difference. So that's not great. And it hasn't been great for a while. And I think.
00:15:28
Speaker
to bring CCL back into the conversation. I think a lot of people were willing to overlook things in 2022, missing the playoffs, being pretty uninspired because they won the biggest trophy in club history. Um, because there were a lot of reasons that explained why it was tough to get back into the grind of league after, after getting there.
00:15:51
Speaker
But it's continued, right? It got better at points last year, but for two full years now, this is a team that's playing at a seventh seed in the playoffs pace and not scoring goals. I think that's a big part of it. I think that's really what it comes down to is I think people can
00:16:15
Speaker
It's frustrating to watch your team be mediocre or it's harder to watch your team be bad. But when you layer in the number of boring games and the relative lack of scoring, that's where I think you start to get this level of real frustration.
00:16:36
Speaker
You know, I don't know, like I think the thing that's tough and this is where maybe people are going to get frustrated with us is I don't know what to I don't know how to fix this in the short term. I mean, on some level, yeah, getting back some of these injured players is going to help. It might help a lot. I don't know. We'll
Potential for Turnaround with Player Returns
00:16:55
Speaker
see. You know, like there is, you know, in twenty twenty eighteen when they started really, really badly, they only won three of their first
00:17:05
Speaker
like 15 games, I think is what it, what it was. Uh, I'd have to go back and look for sure, but they were, you know, they were, they were on pay, they were going to miss the playoffs in 2018. Then they brought in Raul Rui Diaz and they went on this amazing run. In fact, they had the best second half in MLS history. I believe maybe the best single, uh, it went like 15 and two, I believe is what it ended up or. Is that right?
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah. One of the longest one intrigues in the league history, I think. Yeah. They won 10 in a row, I believe, or maybe they won nine in a row, but whatever. They went on this amazing run, but it wasn't just because they got Raul Rodriguez back. There was some other elements that helped there, but that was a big part of it. And I suppose it's possible that when Pedro de la Vega, they are going to get Pedro de la Vega back and that will be like a new signing, although he is technically a new signing. Yeah.
00:17:58
Speaker
So there, you know, there are genuine possibilities for even if they don't, you know, make a DP level signing in the summer, there are kind of those kinds of talents that will be coming in, you know, Albert Rusnak returning is, you know, I realize that doesn't necessarily feel like a DP signing, but I mean, he is a DP, he I would imagine he'll help. So
Lack of Offensive Creativity
00:18:21
Speaker
On some level, I do think things are going to get a little bit better, but there is this sort of underlying issue that still feels like it needs to be addressed. Like even if, I guess my point is like, even with things turn around and this team finished it, like, let's just say they, they get back on a, they finished with 50 points this season, which would not totally shock me. We will still be sort of stuck. I guess what I'm saying is like, how do we break out of this cycle where
00:18:52
Speaker
It's struggle, struggle, struggle. Okay, we did enough. Let's move on to the next thing. Yeah. Yeah. And it's for me, the, the, I think you hit the nail on the head and saying that.
00:19:03
Speaker
Figuring out how to fix this is the tough part. There have been a lot of times in the history of this team where they were struggling and it was difficult to figure out what the problem was. I think in this case, it's really simple to know what the problem is. The problem is the Sounders don't have anyone that is capable of creating chances and they don't have forwards who are capable of creating their own or scoring goals out of nowhere.
00:19:28
Speaker
Raul used to be capable of that. I think he's lost just enough where he just doesn't have it to do that routinely. I think Jordan Morris has a very good forward and I think he's a solid nine. And I think in a team that's creating chances, he'd have scored a decent number of goals, but they don't have the creation and he's not able to do it on his own.
00:19:47
Speaker
How you fix that with the players that you have is a difficult challenge. It's not changing the formation. It's not as simple as that. I think a lot of people want to think that there are easy answers, that there are obvious answers to how you fix this, and I just don't think that there are. This team has a lot of good players, and right now the players that are available are not necessarily complementary.
00:20:12
Speaker
That's really the crux of the issue. They've got a lot of guys that can put in a shift that can, that would be really important players and a good team that had somebody that could carry the creative load. And right now this team doesn't, I think we're not coming back is going to help a lot. Sure. Apollo's coming back is going to help a lot. God knows the Las Vegas coming back is going to help a lot.
00:20:31
Speaker
Um, but it still feels like they're just missing that little bit more to make them capable of being really, really special. At least in the attacking phase, I think defensively there's still.
00:20:44
Speaker
No, I still feel good. Even though they had a tough game against San Jose, I still holistically feel good about them defensively. You know, Yemar was playing, was making his first start. He had a couple big mistakes in this one. I thought he got, you know, he was definitely out of position on the second goal. He had a couple other rough, you know, he,
Defensive Potential and Synergy
00:21:08
Speaker
He had a couple other rough moments, but that was, that was the big one. Uh, Jackson Reagan got, you know, exposed, I think we can say a couple of times, but even then, I don't know if that was necessarily a surprise because part of what makes him good. That's why he he's paired with the AMR is that Yamer is able to do more of the physical stuff. And it's usually don't end up with Jackson Reagan on an Island like he was certainly like on the, on the third goal.
00:21:36
Speaker
But I think these pieces will fit together defensively. I wouldn't mind, you know, some changes on the back line, but I think the pieces are, I'm satisfied that once they're kind of get together, that they'll be defensively solid. But the offense is a tough one. You know, Christian Roldan so far has not looked like, you know, his pre-concussion self. Yeah. Since, you know, and that goes back a long way. You know, like you said, Jordan Morris, I think is a perfectly capable
00:22:06
Speaker
number nine, but, you know, he needs service to be effective and he's not getting it right now. Um, I think in the short term, I, I think I'm ready to see him back out on the left wing, especially while they don't have, like, and I think that's probably going to be the answer for the time being because they don't have Leo too. They don't have Pedro de la Vega.
00:22:31
Speaker
If you don't have either one of them, who else are you going to put on the left wing? Christian Roldan played out there last week. That did not strike me as a particularly good answer. Dylan Tevez was, I don't know, I thought Tevez was okay. He's not the reason they lost the game, but he certainly wasn't a plus player.
00:22:55
Speaker
Yeah. So it's like, so I think the short-term solution is probably moving Jordan Morris back out to the wing and then crossing your fingers that Raul Ruidias can stay healthy or maybe Danny Masovsky is.
Potential Position Changes for Players
00:23:09
Speaker
You know, I suppose Musowski could also potentially play out on the left if they needed it. I looked at his numbers. He actually has quite a few. He hasn't played out there a ton, but he's been pretty productive when he has played out there. So there are some potential answers on the roster. It's just exhausting. It's just exhausting. I'd like the ride to change a little bit. Yeah, I'm with you there.
00:23:40
Speaker
Jordan moving to the left, Jordan is not a creator. I think it's fair to say that. Although, I mean, it's not like he's like a horrible cross or a ball or anything, but he's going to go at goal. He's going to cut inside and that's how he's going to be dangerous. But I do think that he.
00:23:55
Speaker
his presence out there, I think he can stretch the field a little more effectively out wide. I think that Raul just looks a lot more comfortable playing as a solitary striker, even if I worry about him doing that at that phase in his...
00:24:11
Speaker
at this phase in his career. What other options do you have, really, at this point? As much as I don't think Mysovsky has looked bad, or at least as bad as some people think he has, I was encouraged by the goalie scored against San Jose. I thought he looked really good against San Jose. I was not, I don't think he had done enough before that to have a feeling about him, frankly. Like he had just been sort of on the field. He hadn't been very active.
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, but I agree. I think he looked good against San Jose, but I still think Raul is probably the right choice at least to start because you, you know, the odds of him going 90, I think are pretty low, especially if he's playing by himself. But I think that LA on the road is, is it a situation where.
00:24:54
Speaker
Maybe Jordan is able to get in behind a little bit more, right? Like he hasn't had a ton of those chances this year. And I think it's going to be easier for him to get that space and for his teammates to find him. I think most importantly, if he's playing out on the wing. So I do think that there are reasons to maybe be hopeful for this game.
00:25:14
Speaker
But I think it's obvious that something pretty drastic has to change with this attack, whether it's formationally, tactically, shifting guys around, whatever it is. We know that what we've been doing is not going to work. I think it's fair to say at this point.
Call for Tactical Flexibility from Brian Spencer
00:25:33
Speaker
Yeah, and I think one of the things that has been frustrating about Brian Spencer, and I'm sure a lot of people are listening to this going like, you guys aren't saying the thing that I want you to say right here.
00:25:46
Speaker
I'm not, I'm not ready to throw Brian Spencer to the wolves at this point, but I will say that he needs to be more open to change. I think he is really, you know, he even said it today. I asked him like, cause he had said after the game, I'm not ready to, to make any drastic changes. And I understand.
00:26:08
Speaker
where he's coming from, but I asked him like, well, what's it going to take for you to want to make those drastic changes? And he kind of slow plays it like, well, you know, if guys aren't playing up to their potential, then maybe I start pulling them. And basically, he's saying if the effort's there, that's not going to change his hierarchy of player evaluation. And that's
00:26:29
Speaker
I don't know if that's going to make a lot of people feel great about his willingness to change because on some level, there needs to be some change for the sake of change just to give it a different look. I had suggested maybe starting Cody Baker instead of Alex Roldon on the right, not necessarily because it's all Alex Roldon's fault, but because
00:26:52
Speaker
Baker seems capable of doing some things that we haven't seen from Alex yet this year. You know, Alex, I thought Alex was pretty bad against San Jose. Uh, he wasn't the only one, but, um, I, I don't think, you know, like, I know one of the other common suggestions is moving Christian back into the defensive midfield. And my argument there is I think I, the drop off from Danny or from Christian rolled on to Danny Leyva, if we accept that Christian rolled on is a potentially better,
00:27:20
Speaker
pairing in the in the double pivot is smaller than this than the drop off from Christian to whoever you're going to play on the right. Presumably, you know, I guess you could play Alex out there. You could play Dylan out there. You could play Rothrock. But like, you know, I know a lot of people were all clamoring to hear to see more of Rothrock, but he played a decent number of minutes in this in the sound of the game. He didn't do much with it. Yeah.
00:27:46
Speaker
Um, so I don't know. There's, I guess what I'm saying is I really hope Brian is more open that he's more open minded to change than he has kind of indicated to us.
00:28:00
Speaker
Yeah, I think that that's been a consistent criticism we've had of Brian for a few years. And I think it's a criticism most coaches get when times get tough is that they have their guys and it takes a lot for their guys to not be their guys anymore.
00:28:21
Speaker
I appreciate the point about I want to see the effort and if the effort's there, I'm not going to bench my guys, but this is a results business. This isn't an effort business. If this were an effort business, Mike Fisito would be a Hall of Famer.
Upcoming Match Against the Galaxy
00:28:36
Speaker
I'm not trying to throw a strays at Mike Fisito, but you know what I mean. Instead, Dimitar Berbatov is a legend. You've got to play the guys that are going to get you results. You have to do it.
00:28:50
Speaker
Yeah, I will also note that if there is some hope, I'm looking at the Galaxy's record here, and they are undefeated. They're 2-0 and 3. They have given up, though, seven goals in their past three games on the road against Nashville, at home against St. Louis, and on the road against Sporting Kansas City. I think they are a team that has some vulnerabilities, let's just say. They're a very fun team to watch, though.
00:29:20
Speaker
They're flying up and down the field and they're scoring lots of goals. They've got 12 goals and five games and this guy, Pantsle, that they just signed is the kind of guy I know Senator Sands would have loved to have signed. I think the jury is still out on the other DP that they brought in this last offseason.
00:29:43
Speaker
I don't know, it'll be an interesting one. And I just hope that the sounders give us something a little bit more fun to talk about, frankly. It's a bummer for us to keep feeling like we're banging the same drum. It is, it is. And I do think that there's a mental issue with it. There has to be for the players where
Hope for Improved Performance
00:30:05
Speaker
maybe getting a couple of goals against San Jose, maybe finally getting any goal from the route of play, helps take some of the pressure off of it. Considering the way the game turned out, I don't know if that will actually end up happening. But this does feel like a game where even if they don't win, and I think that's a tall order at this point. Now, I think it was a tall order, even if they were playing relatively well, just based on how good the Galaxy have looked this year.
00:30:30
Speaker
If they can go in and do what teams should expect to do against Galaxy, which is score a goal or two and, and not get shelled and you know, their defense can, can play up to its potential. Um, I'd feel pretty good about that. Even if it's a loss, right? Like this isn't a game that I feel like they have to win. They've got some of those coming up to be sure.
00:30:52
Speaker
Yeah, they've got I would say so I was looking at their schedule. I'd say they need to get probably 10 points from their next five games, which still doesn't put them in a great position. But at least I think that's like there are definitely points. They need to start collecting points and they've got a few home games coming up like the Montreal game is as which is at home after the Galaxy game. That's as close to a must win game as they're going to have.
00:31:21
Speaker
Absolutely. Yeah. Which by the way, I won't, I probably won't be here to record after that game. I'm going to Hawaii. So well, see you suckers. Good for you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm happy for you. That is nice. Yeah. No, I'm sure our listeners are really stoked for me too. They want what's best for me. I'm sure. But all
Listener Questions Segment
00:31:45
Speaker
right. Well, let's just call this a segment. We don't have enough questions to do a full
00:31:50
Speaker
mailbag episode, but there were a couple questions that got sent in that I feel like are worth doing a little segment on. So we'll come back and we're going to do a second segment like the old, like the old times where we answered some questions from listeners. Uh, but you're listening to no audio.
00:32:16
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adiatus. So we decided to do a throwback episode on the fly. I didn't even tell Aaron I was going to do this, but we've got a handful of questions, not even a handful. We've got like three or four questions. So I'll just go ahead and start and I'll ask you this one. Oh, good.
00:32:36
Speaker
This is called, this question is called hot seat and it's from the list. And I will remind people that the way we do questions these days is we just take them off our discord. And if you want to be on our discord, you got to be a supporter or higher on sound or heart. You'll get access to our discord where there's a lot of fun. There was like a thousand over a thousand. There's like 1200 comments on our game thread. It's like.
00:33:02
Speaker
It's popping. It's popping in there. If you're missing out, if you're not in our Discord, you are missing out. But anyway, so the question is titled, Hot Seat, and it's from The
Brian Spencer's Future as Coach
00:33:11
Speaker
List. And he says, how hot is Brian's seat right now? I think it's as hot as it's been, I would say.
00:33:23
Speaker
I can't imagine that it has been worse. To me, it felt like it was getting hot last summer. When things were really spiraling last year, it felt like he might be in real trouble. Fair. Yeah, that's fair. I would imagine that last summer plays into how hot it is right now as well. Yeah, exactly. That's a good point. It's compounding.
00:33:51
Speaker
I think this conception, this belief among some people that Brian has not been fired already because he's been with the club so long and he's a nice guy and we won the CCL and isn't that nice. But realistically, Brian has not been fired because he's won the three most important trophies in the club history. He's the only coach to win a trophy with the Sounders. That's not a US Open Cup or a supporter shield. So he's won MLS Cup twice, CCL.
00:34:19
Speaker
And again, this doesn't matter, but I will note, he also won two USL titles, which makes him the only coach in American history to win both an MLS and USL title. I don't think that factors into this at all, by the way. I just felt like that was a fun note. It is. It is a fun fact. But I think it could potentially, because I mean, he and Adrian have this working relationship that goes back a long way, and all of that is going to factor in, right? And I think that,
00:34:49
Speaker
Guy has had success. Guy has struggled and shown an ability to turn it back around and get more success. Yes. That's going to earn you an even longer leash. I think that Brian has earned every bit of trust and every bit of
00:35:07
Speaker
of time that he's gotten. I don't think that Brian is, and this is not based on anything other than how I feel. I would be shocked if anything happened before the summer, unless things just really spiral, right? Like if they lose their next three games or something, I think that that might change things. But I think otherwise, if they're just mediocre,
00:35:32
Speaker
I think he's going to be in real trouble if this keeps up until the summer. I think it's reasonable. I want him to turn it around more than anything. I love the man. I think he's a great coach. I don't think he gets enough respect or credit from a lot of people in American soccer and frankly, a lot of people in this fan base. I don't think his success is an accident.
00:35:59
Speaker
And I want him to be able to go out on his own terms. But this is a results business, and the results have not been there for a while. And it's a standard he helped set, right? It's a real hoisted on your own petard situation. But it just hasn't been acceptable for a little bit. So yeah, I guess the answer, the simple answer to the question is,
00:36:25
Speaker
Probably hotter than you'd be comfortable with if you've got heated seats in your car, but it's not on fire yet. Yeah. I'll just add one more note. The other thing I've heard is that the only reason he was brought back was because, or there was no, I've heard it said a few times, there was no way he wasn't going to be brought back for the 50th season and they would never fire him during the 50th season.
00:36:49
Speaker
And while there's like some vague truth to that, I, I think the thing that's worth, like the worst thing to do would be to just accept that the 50th season is a disaster. Like, and I don't, and I, and I, and I will remind everyone as much as we are frustrated as, um, observers of this team or fans of this team.
00:37:14
Speaker
Adrian Hanauer, like really, at least from what everything I have my experiences with him, he lives and dies with this team, just like anyone else that like he, he gets up and screams when things are going well, he throws shit when things are going badly. Like he, he's not enjoying this either. And I think the worst thing, the only thing worse than firing your coach during a season like this would be
00:37:40
Speaker
not, if it gets to a certain point, like it will just become, it has, it will have to happen because that's like, I don't know. Yeah. It's hard to imagine them doing all this 50th anniversary, uh, festivities without Brian, but it's also hard to imagine them doing it while the season is completely spiraled out of control.
00:37:58
Speaker
right and and brian having to put on a good face when he knows he's a dead man walking you know that's that's not good for anybody yeah i think too there's this perception of adrian is not having the the chutzpah or the the i don't want to say balls because that's not good but just he doesn't have it in him to fire brian and
00:38:20
Speaker
I don't have that impression of Adrian. I'll just say that. No, I don't either. Yeah, he's a man that's had a great deal of success in business, and I think that people should keep that in mind. Which is to say, I don't think either one of us are saying that that is now, but I guess what I'm just saying is there will come a point where it doesn't matter what we say as these things go. I'm just kind of level setting what I think people should expect. All right, you want to ask the next one?
00:38:48
Speaker
Yeah, this next, this is the one I thought you were going to ask me, which is, uh, would have been tough for me to answer. Uh, this one is from NFID 7606. What is it like covering the team? And I assume forming some sort of working relationship with players and coaches and then having to be critical of their performance.
Challenges of Critical Reporting
00:39:04
Speaker
What kind of blowback or unwillingness to engage occurs or is everyone understanding if that's part of being a professional? Well, luckily, uh, my experience has been pretty good. I,
00:39:18
Speaker
I think I'm also, I'm certainly cognizant of the fact that everything I write or say could potentially come back to me. I'm not secretive about this stuff and I'm doing it in a public space. And so yeah, I am sometimes more careful about what I say than a random person who doesn't go out to training on a regular basis.
00:39:45
Speaker
But I, I think I'm willing to be critical of the team. I think when things go wrong, they understand that things are going to be like, there's no, there's no value in like, pretending things are good when they're not. And people understand that. And I, every now and then I'll, like last year I heard Nico was mad at me. Nico Ladera was mad at me because of some tweet I said, and you know, that's,
00:40:13
Speaker
That's how it is, but no one's ever like come up to me and confronted me and like try to pick a fight with me or anything like that. And the sounders I will say are pretty understanding of sort of like just today we were actually out at training and we were talking, I was talking to the press officer and he basically said, I think it's good when there's like bump and run coverage to use like a,
00:40:35
Speaker
uh, an NFL term or a football term. It's like, I don't want, you know, it, it shouldn't be, the press shouldn't be like five, 10 yards off, you know, every game. Like it, there should be some, you know, when, when there's tough stories to write, you, we expect you guys to kind of push us on those. And, you know, I, I, I also say that the way you do this for, you know, uh, I've been covering the sounders now for,
00:41:05
Speaker
14 years, I think this is my 14th season covering the Sounders. You do have to be cognizant that you have relationships with these people. If I'm running around every week saying, fire the coach, cut the players, that's not a way to keep that going very long.
00:41:27
Speaker
That's not really your role. No, I don't think it is. Like you have opinions and you, I think, I'm not trying to fillet you here, but I mean, I think you do a good job of making your opinions known in a professional way without, like your job is to report on the team. Yes. And I think people want reporters to be like bulldog muckrakers sometimes because it would make them feel better. But like, I don't, I don't know who they think who that really serves.
00:41:57
Speaker
Well, it's not it's no one that has to show up to the press conference every day. And I think a lot of times what people want is for us to yell at like to to yell at the coaches or players the way that they want to yell at them.
00:42:12
Speaker
And they don't have the access. And I can understand why people want that, but it's just not – I don't see that as my role. I'm not a lawyer cross-examining a witness. I'm a reporter that's trying to get information that I think will help people understand what's going on.
00:42:33
Speaker
And sometimes tough questions have to be asked. And I like to think that I am willing to ask those tough questions, but I can't make the answers be the answers you want them to be, you know, like that's just, that's just how it is. So this one, we also had a question from Twitter that wasn't necessarily intended for the show, but I think that was a good question for this. It's from Aaron Bregel. And he says, when can we blame the long acres for the injuries?
Impact of New Training Ground on Injuries
00:43:03
Speaker
I think he was joking kind of. I think so, but it's like, I mean, correlation does not equal causation, but it can imply causation, like correlation can imply causation, and it's notable how many injuries they've had.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah, it is. I mean, and I, in all seriousness, a lot of the injuries haven't even happened at Long Acres, but it does feel very, there is a definite irony that they have all this state of the art equipment and they're training on grass and they're doing all the stuff. They've always, they've pretty much always trained on grass, which I don't know if people knew, but they have. And, uh,
00:43:42
Speaker
And like, but there's all these things that the sounders finally have that people have thought that they wanted. And this is when it's all sort of like. Going to shit, right? Yeah, I mean, I think. It feels like this is a soccer wide problem, and I think it's because team players are just expected to play too many games in too many minutes at a very high.
00:44:08
Speaker
I think that explains almost all of it, but it does feel particularly honorous this year. And the thing is it's tough, and this is what does make it tough, is that most people, when you ask them about injury-proneness or whatever,
00:44:29
Speaker
They will say, look, the trainers can help with things like recovery and prevention from muscle injuries. That's what their entire gig. That's their whole job, right? That's what they're trained to do. And so if there's a bunch of muscle injuries, you can sort of narrow down and go, Oh, there must be something to what we're doing with our training or whatever.
00:44:53
Speaker
But, and there have been a fair number of muscle injuries. You know, Pedro de la Vega has got a muscle injury. Reed Baker Whiting does a very kind of weird one where they're having a hard time getting that. Rod Riga has a, has a muscle injury. Uh, Stephen Fry had a muscle injury, although apparently hamstring injuries and goalkeepers are not very common because they don't use the same. That's like more of a running muscle. This is my understanding of it. Uh, so.
00:45:22
Speaker
There's been, there definitely have been muscle injuries, but most of these injuries have been kind of fluky, weird ones, like, Albert Rusnak, who never gets hurt, spraining his ankle, or, uh,
00:45:37
Speaker
or Obed Vargas getting a concussion, or Leo Chu and this new, you know, his knee thing, or Xiaopalo's hip, or, you know, these are not necessarily things that trainers can fix. Now, some of them you can argue are maybe a broader
00:45:54
Speaker
issues with the way that they are treating like the more of the medical staff I suppose it's it's it's possible I don't you know I'm not an expert in these things but my point is is that there is some genuine bad luck going on here yeah I think that anytime there's a major injury crisis that is the explanation almost certainly because I feel like
00:46:16
Speaker
Yeah, they've gotten hit by a lot of hamstring and muscle injuries all at once, but I don't feel like that's super uncommon. It just seems like that's just kind of the deal with soccer, and sometimes they're just going to get grouped together in ways that are unfortunate. But when you have something like this, there's got to be some flukey stuff going on, and I think that that... Yeah.
00:46:38
Speaker
Yeah, and I think you also have to, you do sort of have to, you know, if we're taking a serious look at it, you have to take a wider view. And I asked some people who are in this business who would have the data. And what they told me is the sounders are definitely not the least injury prone team, they're probably a little bit below average, but they're within the range of
00:47:01
Speaker
Pretty normal for MLS injury rates muscle injury rates as well as like not and not just number of players But the number of games that they miss Someone I think I can't remember the exact number but I think I think what I was told by this person is the average team loses 15 players a year to hamstring to make the hamstring injuries basically, so it's like every team feels like they are like hamstring FC, right
00:47:31
Speaker
And if you're not, then, then you're one of the lucky ones, but I don't know. Um, it is, there's, there's definitely an irony. I don't know if you, I don't think you can really blame it on anything that's happening at long acres, but it's, I'm sure it isn't lost on anyone that it's, it's a frustrating coincidence at the very least.
00:47:52
Speaker
Maybe this is all just the Sounders committing the sin of pride by buying this new facility and changing their logo. Exactly. That must be it. That's the most plausible explanation, I think. Yeah, exactly. God is angry at the Seattle Sounders. Right, exactly. Yeah, exactly. I think that's
Referee Union Agreement Update
00:48:18
Speaker
our show. I will say one other news item.
00:48:22
Speaker
Hey, the Union Refs are back. Yes, thank you. Yes, I and Pro came to an agreement. I can't say that I still don't understand why MLS did this. Why they played five weeks without Union Refs just to end up giving them more money. Right. I can't imagine they did not save any money, I guarantee it. They're only real when
00:48:50
Speaker
in terms of negotiation was they didn't, the refs didn't get quite everything they were looking for in like travel reimbursements or something like that, right? Yeah, that was the big thing. And which I think to me always struck me as sort of like a sacrificial lamb, like, yeah, we want to fly on a coach or we want business class everywhere we go. Yeah, that definitely feels like a pro lawyer being like, you have to give us something, please.
00:49:18
Speaker
I got I got to be able to work in this town again, you know, right? It is funny, though, because I thought that the ref in the last game, I mean, he was still dog shit, but I did think he was the best one of the of the replacement refs. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I I. I you know, I don't think the the penalty call was. Probably was a little soft and I was
00:49:47
Speaker
I didn't really think the offside, like to me, the offside was not clear and obvious enough. Like to me, it looked like it might've been offside. Yeah. But you're right. I think he got the big calls. I think he was mostly right. And wasn't the Var-Ruff Geiger? Yes, it was. So you can't even really, because he's the one that said, hey, you should take a look at this, right?
00:50:12
Speaker
If you say you should take a look at this, his opinion is that it was worth taking a look at. I will say I appreciated how quick the review was. I actually think the ref, this is how it should be, is if VAR is recommending a change, especially for an offside that is theoretically black and white,
00:50:36
Speaker
you have to be able to trust VAR to get that right. Like, why are you calling the ref over to confirm like, okay, if you say he's offset, like, okay, like I trust you, you've been looking at this longer than I have. If you're saying it's on, then it's on, fine. And so in that way, I thought they handled it well.
00:50:56
Speaker
Um, this is the guy who's the DJ, I think though, right? He looked like it. I hadn't heard that, but it doesn't surprise me. Yeah. Cause I think he called the, the galaxy Miami game the first. Uh, so I'm pretty sure that's the guy who was the DJ. Well, I hope he never works as a ref again, but he did an okay job.
00:51:16
Speaker
And with that, that's a, that's a good note. I think that's a good note to end on. Uh, I am Jeremiah Shan. Um, well, thank you to our sponsor full pool wines. Thank you to all of our paid subscribers. We are, uh, on our way to 2,500 paid subscribers. If you can believe that just a crazy number.
00:51:37
Speaker
to be getting to at this point in the season. But with all that said, I'm Jeremiah Shan, signing off for Aaron Campbell in Lickett. This is No Study Yet This. And remember, you will never get alone.
00:52:45
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!