Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 357: Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris are going to the World Cup!
83 Plays3 years ago
They clearly aren't the two most popular picks for the United States' World Cup roster, but we are thrilled for Cristian Roldan and Jordan Morris making the trip to Qatar. If you're inclined to defend those picks to anyone, we give you plenty of ammunition.
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
Sponsorship and Sounders' MLS Cup Celebration
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. Fullpool's unique writing styles applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving, turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books. 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. Come on! Hey, Ocean! Let's go! I want to say bye-bye! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win!
Sounders in the World Cup
00:00:52
Speaker
important the KSA's genius. Here comes Rui Diaz through the middle to crowd it for Seattle. They have climbed the mountain and now are masters of all that they survey. Michael Odero leaves absolutely no doubt the Saldars rule the region. Seattle Saldars is convinced
00:01:18
Speaker
Seattle Sounders, the greatest MLS team in history. How does this one feel? This feels fucking awesome. The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle. And the hills the greenest green in Seattle.
00:01:53
Speaker
I didn't know what it was. Is that what you young people call twerking? I have no idea. I don't know.
00:02:04
Speaker
Welcome to another edition of no audio at the sponsored by full pool wines and Watson's counter. This is episode 357. I'm recording on Thursday, November 9th. Nope. Wednesday, November 9th. I am your host Jeremiah Shan. Joining me as usual is Aaron Campo and Lickit P. It's been a bit since we last talked to you. Um, in fact, Aaron hasn't been here since the season ended. So we probably have a fair amount to, a fair amount to catch up on. Uh, but before we, we do that.
00:02:34
Speaker
I wanted to talk a little bit about some stuff that was a little bit more newsy. Today we found out that Jordan Morris and Christian Roldon were both named to the United States World Cup team. We also found out that New Who officially made Cameron's roster.
00:02:50
Speaker
That will guarantee the Sounders have at least three players in the 2022 World Cup, a record for them. And there's a very good likelihood that Javier Arriaga is going to make Ecuador's squad as well. Beyond them, Seattle native and former sounder De'Andre Yedlin also made the USA squad giving the state of Washington two natives for the third time ever, which I thought was
00:03:11
Speaker
Kind of interesting. And then there was also another Sounders connection on the roster. Aaron Long, who I think sometimes we forget actually was on the Sounders and he played a season for us too, also made this roster. So it's a pretty big day for the Sounders in terms of World Cup news.
US National Team Strategy and Sounders Players
00:03:29
Speaker
And it seems like Twitter is very happy for us. Couldn't be happier. As usual, guys with player avatars are
00:03:39
Speaker
you know, going out of their way to tell Christian that, you know, they're really proud of him and they're happy. And that, you know, that Jordan definitely deserves to be there, that he's not worse than some guy we've never heard of that's in the Academy of some Dutch team who, you know, had like a layover in Dallas in 2004.
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's, you know, it's, I, I said earlier today, Phil Avila fan that I followed, uh, said he really hoped Tyrone Mings would make the England squad because of how much it would piss people off. And that really resonated me. Like, yeah, my, my rooting interest in this world cup is for Christian Jordan, Tyrone Mings guys like that, that are, uh, nobody's saying like Christian or Jordan are the guys that are going to make the difference in the world cup for the us. Right.
00:04:31
Speaker
But nobody that's in that spot are going to be the guys to make the difference. And if you're that upset about two of the last guys on the roster.
00:04:41
Speaker
who, you know, have a lot of appearances for the national team, who, you know, Jordan has... Dude, yeah, who, it's not like they haven't earned their spots. Yes, they both have a lot of positional flexibility. Jordan would play anywhere along the front. Christian can play pretty much anywhere in midfield. You know, it's pretty easy to understand why they're on the plane, unless you are a total loser player avatar.
00:05:05
Speaker
Well, it is it is funny I, I, um, it feels like people, players with sounders connections are getting a lot of the ire of us national team Twitter, and on some level I mean I don't know I think it's coincidental that they're related to the sounders I don't
00:05:25
Speaker
I don't think it's literally that they're sounders, but it's sort of a good reminder that these World Cup rosters are not meant to be all-star teams. I know a lot of times you start to think of World Cup rosters as sort of like you just pick the 20 odd, there's 26 players on the team, but normally there would be 23. So you pick the 20 odd,
00:05:51
Speaker
best players with no real mindfulness of the most cohesive unit or the way they fit together or the game plan or any of that stuff. And I think one of the things, if you paid any attention at all to Greg Berhalter, not to turn this into a national team podcast, but if you paid any attention at all to Greg Berhalter,
00:06:15
Speaker
The whole ethos behind what he's been doing is, is trying to build a team that is sort of better than the some of their parts and the only way that you are able to do that is if you pick players that are serving specific roles like if you are just calling in the best.
00:06:31
Speaker
26 players, you're going to have holes on your team. And I think that's one of the things that, you know, one of the, whether or not this works, I don't know. Like it's, it'll be interesting to see how this plays out, but I do think it's fair to say like, if the U S is just going to roll out their most talented team and sort of just say, go for it.
00:06:56
Speaker
they're gonna be at a talent disadvantage against a lot of teams. But if they can create a cohesive unit that plays like a team, and I don't know if they haven't necessarily done that, but like this is the end game, right? Is to try to do that. You can see how maybe they can punch up above their weight. And it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. But I think you have to sort of look at the context of, man, these are the guys that Berhalter thinks
00:07:24
Speaker
will give them the best results. And whether or not I agree or disagree, I think he, I mean, I don't know, like it's fun to debate this stuff, but I just feel like there's too much focus on, is this literally the best player that we could get and not on what are we trying to do with the roster?
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that the reality is that every coach of every team has players that they start or bring into games or national team coaches that they name to the rosters that a lot of people are like, I don't see, I don't get it. I don't see what it is. And not to do appeal to authority, you know, go all in that direction here. But there are a lot of things that people can analyze about, you know,
00:08:13
Speaker
about the game that I think the democratization of like sports analysis is one of the cool things about the internet. I think that it's fundamentally changed the way a lot of games are played like without you know the analytics revolution in baseball that was basically just a bunch of nerds
00:08:31
Speaker
um you know making observations from numbers like baseball would today's baseballs just wouldn't exist right so um and you can argue whether or not that's good or bad but there can be like things that people notice that for whatever reason coaches have blind spots for whatever that you know the the wisdom of the crowds can can parse out or what have you but sometimes and i think especially with
00:08:59
Speaker
you know, rotational guys back at the bench guys who are there to, you know, be able to fit into any role in the team. Uh, and you know, be able to do a couple of different things at a level that coaches can trust. Like a lot of that is just familiarity and trust, right? It's Greg Berherlter knows if I need Christian to do.
00:09:24
Speaker
One of eight or nine different things I can trust that he's going to do those things. If I need, I don't remember who was it you retweeted today but but it was a guy who had a really good observation about Jordan where it's like, he feels very specific roles that no one else in the pool really does that.
00:09:40
Speaker
Yeah, he's probably not going to get a lot of time, but if you need somebody to be able to, you know, chase down balls when you're defending and just be an outlet, he can do that. If you need somebody who's just going to crash at the goal when you're chasing an equalizer, he can do that. Like there are things that he does really effectively. There are things that he, there are holes in his game, right? I think like.
00:10:00
Speaker
There have always been holes in his game there are holes in his game that are just him not being fully sharp back from his injury yet that I think even his most ardent supporters would acknowledge, but there are things that he does better than anyone else that's sort of equivalent in the player pool that are really valuable especially in a tournament like this.
00:10:19
Speaker
And, you know, Greg Berhalter can trust these guys to do those things at a level that he knows what to expect. Like, Ricardo Pepe is going to be a really good player.
00:10:33
Speaker
I think he's going to be really good. He's playing really well in the Netherlands. He's 19 and he completely disappears. You just can't trust that you're going to get. Well, and I think it's interesting. One of the frustrations I think a lot of people had with Berhalter's
00:10:52
Speaker
thought process was that he sort of like moved on from players too quickly or he didn't give him a chance. And Haji Wright is like a great example of a player who he decided to call in despite seemingly being on the outs because he wanted to bring in a guy that was in good form. And here's a player who's got nine goals in Turkey and
00:11:13
Speaker
in 12 games, something like that. He's the hottest striker in the US pool right now. He's got some size. He's got some ability to do things that other guys on the roster don't do. And that's why he's there. And I think you can kind of make a similar, a different argument, but like in a similar way, like Jordan Morris is there because he thinks Jordan can do things that no one else on the roster can do. And that's, you know, get in behind off the wing. He's probably the fastest player on the squad. He was, and the idea that,
00:11:43
Speaker
He was competing against, you know, Brandon Vosquez or Jordan Peafock or some of these other players just isn't right. I mean, he was really, I think it was straight up battle between him and Paul Ariola. One of them was going to go. One of them wasn't. They're very essentially redundant players and
00:12:02
Speaker
And for whatever reason, he chose Morris over Ariola. And you can be upset about that if you want. I'm not begrudging anyone for saying they think that they should have brought Ariola. But I think you have to take a bigger view of what he's trying to do with the roster.
Sounders' Expansion Draft Strategy
00:12:17
Speaker
And I can see how Morris fits in there. Even taking my sounders, even I'm really happy for Jordan and Christian, but taking that part of my mind out of it. And I get like,
00:12:28
Speaker
Why is Jordan there? He's there in case you're chasing a game late or you're trying to shut a game down and you want a specific skill set out on the field. Maybe, I mean, I don't know, maybe I suppose it's possible that he even starts a game. I don't really expect that. But similarly, Christian is there mainly to raise the level of training on a
00:12:49
Speaker
day-to-day basis. He's there to like, he's a player that the guys like. And by the way, he's really versatile. He can competently play a bunch of different positions for you. He's almost certainly not going to start, but if you needed him to play right back for some reason, you could do that. If you needed him to play left back for some reason, you could do that. If you needed to play him anywhere in the midfield, you could do that. That's a really useful piece to bring, especially when you're talking about a 26 man roster and
00:13:15
Speaker
And you don't want to wait. You don't want to literally waste any of those spots. Everyone there know what you can't bring anyone that's just to kind of take the ride. Like that's not you're not doing anyone any any help by by doing something like that. So
00:13:31
Speaker
I don't know, I'm really, mainly I'm really happy for Jordan and Christian, but I think there is like perfectly valid soccer reasons that both of them are going to Qatar. And I don't know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm stoked for them. You know, I'm bummed for, there's a lot of players who had significant roles in this team that didn't get a go. Not so dissimilar from Brad Evans in 2014.
00:13:53
Speaker
And it sucks for them, and there's not really much to say, but the only thing I would end on this subject with is if you are frustrated by this, don't at the player on Twitter. Don't at them on Instagram. Don't be that guy. It's so stupid. That's the thing, man, is that there are players that we're critical of on this show, that we're critical of on social media.
00:14:16
Speaker
or whatever. But like, I'm not going to go to that players like if you know if somebody that I have been critical of got a contract essential with the Sounders I'm not going to go tell them to, you know, to like quit and go into hiding in his mentions and like,
00:14:33
Speaker
US men's national teams fans and like we'll get into this in the questions because there's a question that sets us up for this, but it's a unique kind of dirtbag behavior that goes along with international soccer. I think like people just they don't it's like they're only rooting for these guys occasionally. So they feel like they can like they don't feel connection to them so that they can be just like bigger dicks to them and it's just really depraved stuff man.
00:14:59
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't know, like I don't, I don't like to, I don't want to yuck anyone's yum. If you want to root, if you, if you feel like your entry into soccer is through the national team, like, Hey, I don't want to, I don't want to begrudge you that, but I do think it's important to recognize that there is a, you end up coming at this from sometimes weird perspectives and, you know,
00:15:23
Speaker
suddenly everyone on the roster is very replaceable and it's because there's like a nation of players that you can theoretically call up to replace them and you don't have to worry about budgets and you don't have to worry about all this kind of stuff and it kind of changes the way that we think about roster building and teamwork and all these kind of things and I would just like
00:15:43
Speaker
I don't know, caution. I would imagine most of the people listening to this podcast or like like-minded in this way, at least as far as the sounders go, but like, just keep in mind, like these are guys who are.
00:15:56
Speaker
probably enjoying one of the highest highs of their careers and to just like want to drag them for what exactly for having the gall to accept the call up, I guess. It's just so crappy. And I hope like you it's important to you that they know that you think they're bad is so weird.
00:16:17
Speaker
doing that, like snitch tagging, being like, Oh, you're saying something bad about this player here. Let me at the players. So I make sure to draw attention to the fact that you like criticize them in some way. Like, what are you, what are you doing with your life, man? Like I get up to some really pathetic stuff on social media as I think people know, but like save it for like literal fascists, you know? Like if you're going to be shitty anyway.
00:16:43
Speaker
Well, on a more sounders focused note, this is also, I think on Friday, we're gonna find out who the sounders are protecting in the expansion draft, which is always like, I guess in a similar way, kind of like a crappy process to go through as a fan, because we have to...
00:17:06
Speaker
say who we think the sounders should protect. And it somehow gives the impression that like the other players are less worthy or something. I don't know. It's not a fun process, but it does feel like the sounders are going to lose someone in this thing because I feel like they probably have
00:17:29
Speaker
I don't know, 13 or 14 players who would be reasonably attractive to another team, uh, not counting all the other homegrowns. And I think I have a feeling there's going to be some tough choices they have to make, uh, on this, on this list of 12 players that they can, that they can protect. Yeah. The thing that's always like tricky, I think for.
00:17:51
Speaker
A lot of people, and myself included, is that there's an element of game theory involved. Yeah, there is. The expansion drug protecting list. There's an element of the unknown, of there are absolutely conversations happening between GMs and technical directors.
00:18:06
Speaker
you know, about handshake deals and stuff like that, that people aren't being pretty to. Sometimes, you know, the players even, like Ozzy had a pretty serious meltdown about being unprotected one year when it was, I think exclusively he was left unprotected because he, you know, the sounders were confident he wasn't gonna get picked, but he still took it as a slight. So it's like, it's just the messy,
00:18:34
Speaker
thing. And I keep feeling like we've gotten to the point where the expansion draft has outlived its usefulness, but
00:18:42
Speaker
I just think it's probably gonna be one of those things that's around as long as there are expansions and- Well, what's crazy to think is that it wasn't that long ago that teams could select 10 players and that there were two teams at once coming in at the same time. So there was 20 players being selected in the expansion draft, not that long ago. And there were way fewer homegrown players. And so there was just more players exposed to the draft. It used to be even, I mean, that's the thing, it's crazy how much
00:19:13
Speaker
more wild that used to be and like how much more painful process it was. And so it's like, at least it's less painful now than it used to be, but I'm with you. I would, I would rather just like give these teams a bunch of allocation money and let them go to town and let them sort of build, especially with the way that free agency has come in. And there's just so many more
00:19:36
Speaker
available players like there's both in the world and in MLS and it does seem like
00:19:45
Speaker
this is sometimes a little unnecessary. I mean, just you look at the last expansion draft, I think two of the five picks were immediately traded for more allocation money. And it's like, whoa, can we just like give them that allocation money directly and, and the kind of sort of save this, this whole, this whole thing. But I guess maybe that whatever, I don't know. It's a,
00:20:12
Speaker
An interesting, an interesting process that we have to go through, but I feel like there are probably 11 players, 10 or 11 players who are like almost automatically protected. Uh, I dunno, do we want to do this now or do we want to, I guess we've kind of opened the Pandora's box for this, right? Like we should. Yeah. I mean, I'll be honest with you. Like, I think this is the first one of these that I don't know that I have a solid opinion about. Um, I'm happy to go through the exercise, but I, I've been thinking about it a lot and I just like.
00:20:45
Speaker
There's no, like, there's a point at which there aren't good options, right? Like, we've been kind of lucky. I know, you know, in the Charlotte expansion drafts, we didn't have to protect anyone, if I remember correctly. And prior to that, who did we lose to? Who was it? Was it Nashville that we lost someone to?
00:21:10
Speaker
No, uh, we lost, uh, the, the last player we lost in an expansion draft, I want to say was Brian Meredith, maybe to Miami. Is that, was that too long ago? Yeah, I think that that's correct. I think you're correct. And that was a, yeah, it was like shocker. Yeah, we did lose Brian Meredith. It was shocking, but it also became pretty apparent that it was part of a handshake deal. Right.
00:21:34
Speaker
I think we ended up trading something to them for less than it was worth or. Oh, maybe. Well, there was also. Yeah, I mean, one year we lost Tyler Miller, which was that was a sort of a handshake deal because the sounders basically agreed to let him go.
00:21:53
Speaker
Uh, like he wanted a chance to start and this was their sort of like doing him a solid. Uh, and I can see Stefan, well, Stefan Cleveland is not going to get a chance to start if he goes, but like, I feel like someone like a Stefan Cleveland or.
00:22:09
Speaker
I could even see like an AB Cisco, maybe even getting picked. Like these, like, relatively young, younger, cheaper players are oftentimes very attractive in these sorts of drafts. I could even seem like Sam Adenarin is someone who I could see as being attractive in an expansion draft.
00:22:31
Speaker
Like I, and that's part of why I think Jackson Reagan, you almost have to, if you really, if the centers are anywhere close to as high on Jackson Reagan, as they say, you kind of have to protect them because I think Jackson Reagan is like the exact kind of player you want to pick in, in this sort of draft. But I'll give you my, the ones I think that are obvious are Ledero.
00:22:53
Speaker
I think there's a good chance he probably has a no trade clause anyway. Same thing with Ruby Diaz, but I would protect either one of them. I actually have kind of come around into thinking that they're both really going to be useful players. Jordan Morris, Alex Roldan,
00:23:14
Speaker
I think they're going to protect Javier Arriaga. I can see the debate over that one. But then Yemar, Jia Paolo, Nuhu, Christian Roldan, Albert Rusnak, and Jackson Reagan.
00:23:28
Speaker
And then the guys who I think might be a little bit more on the bubble layout to ultimately I think is probably going to have to be protected. In part because there is a rule in the expansion draft that you if you only have three international which senators have you'd have to protect at least two of them, I guess.
00:23:47
Speaker
The thinking is that they don't want teams flooding the market with internationals, who are likely who are less likely to be picked. Because these expansion teams don't have, like for instance, I think St. Louis already has eight internationals signed.
00:24:04
Speaker
So theoretically, they're already in a position where they need to be picking up more international roster spots. And so they're probably not going to pick an international player in the expansion draft. But anyway, Laochu is a player who I think is sort of on that bubble, probably ends up getting protected. Ariaga, another player who might be on that bubble. But one of the things you have to keep in mind with Ariaga, same thing with New Who, same thing with a few of these guys, is if they play well in guitar,
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah. They're all of a sudden going to be valuable, uh, transfer pieces. And if you can get, like, if you're an expansion team, why would you not take in a hobby or Ariaga? And if you can get a million bucks for him, that's just money straight into your pocket. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think that anybody you think potentially has transfer value, especially with the roster situation being what it is, especially being up against the cap, but probably feeling like you want to make some moves. Um,
00:25:02
Speaker
And I think, you know, even if Javier Arreaga doesn't have a great World Cup, he's playing in a World Cup, right? Like there are teams out there with budget to spend that need center backs. They're going to say, well, this guy wasn't great, but he's a World Cup player, right? Like, you know, that aren't probably scouting MLS. So, so I think you're totally right. I think anybody you think has, and it's like,
00:25:27
Speaker
If Bobby's back next year, I don't think that's the end of the world, right? Like he's a good MLS. No, yeah. He's not having crazy money, off-field stuff, not entering into this particular conversation. It's not a disaster if he's back. So I think he's sort of protecting for sure. Yeah. And then the one player who I think there's probably a fair amount of debate over is probably Stephen Fry, who
00:25:57
Speaker
I don't know. I'm of two minds on one hand. He's clearly a very good goalkeeper still. Like I think he's probably a top five goalkeeper in the league. Uh, he's on $500,000 a year, which is not a lot of money for a starting goalkeeper these days. Uh, but on the other hand, is this someone who we think St. Louis is going to pick? Uh, they, they already have, uh,
00:26:21
Speaker
Is it Roman Berkey? Yeah. Who's like, who's on crazy money for a goalkeeper. He's certainly, he's a former Dortmund goalkeeper. He is almost certainly their starter. They're not going to take Stefan Fry with the intention of rostering him, but they could.
00:26:38
Speaker
take him with the idea that they would trade him, I suppose. But then they have to believe there's a trade market for Stephen Fry. And I don't know that they're like, Stephen Fry is a very good player. Like I said, I don't know how much of a trade market there is, because, you know, you like, you're essentially going to be committing at least, you know, you have his $500,000 salary, and then probably at least 250, you would think a team would have to give up, be willing to give up to get them. Yeah.
00:27:07
Speaker
That's $750,000 cap hit for a 37 year old goalkeeper who's on the last year of his contract. That would be, that's going to be a tough sell. I think is the same caliber of player, but he's the center back or a forward. Right. And he's not 37.
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah. If he's, if he's a 33 year old forward, right? Right. Teams would probably, that's one thing because all over themselves would take them. Yeah. But he's, he's not. I mean, he's, he's a keeper. He could have a good three or four years left, you know, easily keepers have long careers. A lot of the time he certainly looked very good last year. Um, but he could also like, that's a risky signing, you know, that's, uh, I, I think.
00:27:53
Speaker
But the other problem is that there are a lot of very stupid GMs in this league who do stupid things and trade, make trades that they probably shouldn't, you know? Yeah. I gamed it out and I tried to figure out who would be the team that might go after him. And I will admit there's a compelling case to be made that like a Toronto FC might look at Adam and be like, yeah, why he's familiar with, we know that he likes Toronto.
00:28:19
Speaker
Uh, this is a team that's clearly built to win now, but they are probably going to have to open, they're getting rid of most likely both of their, uh, top goalkeepers this off season, uh, who were, they were paying like.
00:28:34
Speaker
over $800,000 collectively, too, and getting very little production out of Alex Bono.
Sounders' Offseason Strategy and Player Development
00:28:39
Speaker
Alex Bono was making more money than Stephen Fry. When I looked that up, I could not believe it. But Alex Bono and Quentin Westenberg, who was the guy who actually started against Sounders in the 2019 MLS Cup. And he was on like $300,000. That was a lot of money that they were committing to goalkeeper. So I suppose it's possible
00:29:00
Speaker
that they look at Stephen Fry and they look at a potential $750,000 investment and they're like, that's a bargain. Even if we only get them for a year, this is a no brainer for us. So I think it's possible, it's possible that a Toronto FC could be in the market. That said, I would have thought, I would think they would have contacted the sounders first and said like, hey,
00:29:24
Speaker
Can we get him from you for this? And that apparently didn't happen. Trade window closed.
00:29:32
Speaker
So I don't know, I don't know. I would be very sad to lose Stephen Fry, but I do think this is the kind of thing that I think Garth Logway has to think about is like, can we afford to expose him? And if we don't, if we protect him, who are we risking losing? And it's probably like a Javier Arriaga. And that would be a really, like to lose Arriaga for nothing? Yeah, yeah.
00:30:00
Speaker
It's a very tricky one because I think that there's not a ton of room for sentimentality in sports, especially in MLS, especially when you've had a very bad season and you're right up against Sarika.
00:30:14
Speaker
But if there is room for sentimentality, nonetheless, I think a guy like Stephen Price is the guy that there's sentimentality for. And you have to kind of decide what that's worth, right? Like, we're going to hurt ourselves in this way, but we're not going to risk a club legend being taken away and having to leave on bad terms, right?
00:30:34
Speaker
Cause I think if something for I gets picked and that's go play somewhere else, he's probably not going to be super enthusiastic about that. I would have to guess. No, but I think Toronto would might be one place that he would be willing to. Toronto's not bad. Yeah, for sure. And especially since he has experience there. I think it's a much more plausible scenario though that they're like.
00:30:56
Speaker
I feel like it's inevitable they're gonna lose someone and it feels to me like Cleveland is a real possibility of being like if I'm St. Louis I look at Stephen Cleveland and I'm like this is exactly the kind of player we should be like backup goalkeeper who had actually really good
00:31:14
Speaker
really, really good advanced analytics. You know, he was, he actually was a better, um, post shot XG. If you were someone who was into that kind of thing, he was actually better on a per 90 basis than fry, who I think was six in the league. Uh, so it was, you know, like, I could see the case for them going out for Cleveland and, and by the way,
00:31:41
Speaker
There's like, if I'm another team, I'm probably calling the sounders about Cleveland too. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think too, it's a, it's a situation where maybe the sounders, you know, can say, Hey, we'll trade you stuff in Cleveland for less than he's worst with a promise to not take somebody just for certainty. Cause I think, I mean, if I'm, if I'm another team in MLS and I need a goalkeeper.
00:32:07
Speaker
And I don't feel like I have to get a guy who is the guy that I can, you know, take a fire on somebody that maybe has a little on a risk. Cleveland is at the very top of the list because I think it's entirely possible he's going to end up as a starting goalkeeper for, you know, for quite a bit.
00:32:25
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that's entirely possible. But it's also, if you're removing the sentimentality from the situation, the sounders might say, we love, we love fry, but we feel pretty good about the job Cleveland can do for us as well. Right. Well, exactly. And so this is, it's hard. This is where Garth makes his money. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And then, like, that's,
00:32:53
Speaker
You know, all that said, I feel like we do need to at least touch on, if not the way the season ended, what we think needs to happen. Like, this is the first step of a off-season that is pretty important, I think, for the Sounders. They don't have a lot of flexibility, but they have some flexibility. And I think, I don't think they need a drastic change, but they need some change, right? Going into next year.
00:33:22
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think for anybody to feel great about the season, I think that there's a chance they run it back. They don't really make any consequential changes and they're a solid playoff team. That's within the realm of possibility. For sure. I don't even think it's like a, like,
00:33:40
Speaker
you know 99th percentile sort like I think that's distinctly possible but I also think that last year was not a whip right that like key pieces of this team are are aging out and
00:33:56
Speaker
maybe they can still be very useful players, but they're not by themselves championship caliper players anymore. And you're looking at a, I think the Sounders talent-wise right now are a playoff team. Like I think that they did not make the playoffs this year for a lot of reasons that I think everyone probably knows where we stand on them. Underperformance, fatigue, the drain of CCL, all that stuff, right? It was a bunch of different things that sort of all came together at once, just the confluence of stuff.
00:34:27
Speaker
Uh, and it, you know, just ended up not being their year. Right. But I think nine times out of 10, without those factors, the sounders make the playoffs pretty comfortably. But I don't think that this is a team that people are just happy with the playoffs. And I don't think that that's what the front office is really going for. Right. Like they, they want to be competing for championships, competing for trophies. And, and I think that's a reasonable expectation for a team with, with the resources that the sounders have. So.
00:34:54
Speaker
I think they have to do whatever they can to improve, but there's going to be a lot of risk involved. I think in anything that makes them better, right? Like significantly better. It's going to require, you know, most likely like a player being sold like, you know, or, or Ariaga being sold. So you get some additional resources, maybe trading like a key piece of the team and.
00:35:20
Speaker
doing more with whatever resources that player was taking up, whatever cap space that player was taking up, whatever you get back in return. There are a lot of really talented young players on this team. It's a weird team because the key core guys are definitely older. Nico is older, Raul is older.
00:35:44
Speaker
Jordan and Christian are not like, they're in their athletic crimes, right? Like they're still in the prime of things, but they're not young guys anymore. Like, this is like their window. This is who they are. They are, this is like, they're kind of at the point of their career where this is, this is as good, like Jordan, I think you can reasonably expect will be better this next year than he was this year. And I think it is really,
00:36:09
Speaker
good to keep in mind like how much he fell off at the end of the season statistically like up until you know uh you know the beginning of summer he was having a really actually a really good year and then he he just sort of fell off a cliff uh down the stretch similarly christian raldon was having a great first half of the year yeah and he sort of fell off and that was probably injury related
00:36:35
Speaker
Uh, but yeah, they're not going to suddenly turn into like, I don't think Jordan Morris is going to suddenly become a 20 goal scorer, uh, next year. I don't think, I mean, Christian rolled on is, is sort of what he is. And that those are useful players, but they aren't like, that's not where they're going to get. The centers aren't going to get their big, you know, boost, uh, necessarily from there. Uh,
00:36:55
Speaker
But then you also have guys like Jackson Reagan, who I think has the potential to be like a Chad Marshall level player. Yeah. Like that. Like he's, he's fantastic. I'm super high on him. You've got, you've got an embarrassment of riches in the center, some midfield in terms of young players, um, to the point where, you know, you're, you're asking where, like, does Danny Leyva need to move on, right? Like does he need to go out online somewhere or be transferred somewhere, which I think is a reasonable question just because there are so many young promising guys ahead of him. Right. Like.
00:37:27
Speaker
So they're in this weird space of they've got all this young talent in the pipeline that I think could be the next golden age of the team, but then they've got all these fading stars who are probably still good enough to make a run. It's a weird position that the team is in. It really is.
00:37:47
Speaker
I feel like they have to do something big and whatever that big thing is could potentially be kind of painful emotionally. Yeah, it might be and I suspect those are some of the discussions they're having. To zero in a little bit on one of the moves you possibly alluded to is Danny Leyvo. He's the player who
00:38:06
Speaker
You know, maybe our listeners don't know this, but we've started putting together a newsletter and I've tried to kind of work stuff into this newsletter that we haven't been publishing on Centered Heart for whatever reason. And one of these little tidbits, and I'll probably write more about it on Centered Heart at some point, but one of these tidbits was about Danny Leyva and how if there's one player who I think would be an interesting player to watch this offseason, it's Leyva because
00:38:31
Speaker
He's finding himself in a weird position. Like he showed he was an MLS quality player. I think he showed a lot of potential at 19. Like this is a player who I think has potential to be a very, very good player, but he needs to keep playing. And it's hard, like looking at the roster right now, assuming Ciao Paulo comes back fully healthy, assuming Obed Vargas comes back fully healthy,
00:38:55
Speaker
Assuming Joshua Tansio is, is healthy. Assuming Nico Lidero is healthy. Assuming Albert Rusnak is healthy. Assuming Christian, like there's a lot of players competing for minutes in the central minute field. I don't know exactly where they're all going to play, but it's going to be tough to get like, you know, Layla got close to a thousand minutes this year, but that was with two of the guys ahead of them.
00:39:22
Speaker
being out for a really long stretch of time. I don't know that he can really count on that. I don't know that he's not better than Joe Paolo. I don't know that he is better than Obedvar. I guess I think he might be better than Joshua Tencio, but that's a debate. And so if the sounders can find a good spot for him, they kind of have to, even if it's alone, I think they almost have to be open-minded to moving him somewhere.
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, and I think, I mean, I'm high on his potential for sure, and so I would kind of prefer to be alone. But if someone's willing to offer them a decent chunk of change, I think it's something they'd have to explore. And it would be a bummer to lose a guy like that, but I think that it's also a really good sign that things in the academy are heading in the right direction, that we're having conversations like this. That was, I think, unimaginable, frankly,
00:40:20
Speaker
you know, two or three years ago. Well, three, three or four years ago, I guess we'll say that, you know, we could there could be like, oh, yeah, you know, we have too many 19 year old potential best 11 central midfielders, we got to figure out something to get one of them more playing time than they're going to get here, like, that's a pretty good position to be in.
00:40:41
Speaker
Um, and you know, it's one of those things where if the right buyer is out there, um, willing to make the right offer, like that's something that could really free up a lot of cap space potentially for the sounders and, you know, give them a lot of games. So who knows. And I, and I think the sounders are probably at a point in their academies development where.
World Cup Anticipation and US Fans
00:41:05
Speaker
I don't want to say they have to sell someone, but it's kind of getting to that point where there needs to be a little bit of proof of concept. Like they've shown they can produce MLS quality players. And I think you, you really start this at like 2015, this is the post, Jordan Morris, DeAndre Yedlin years where they happen to have two great
00:41:27
Speaker
generational talents that happen to play for the academy, but I don't think the sounds can realistically say they developed them through the academy, right? Like really the the sign of their where their academy is is like the Danny Lave is the Josh Tenzio's the Obed Vargas is the players that they identified at 14, 15 years old and they brought into the system and they actually like spent time developing these players. But they are getting to a point where
00:41:54
Speaker
it would be really good to sell someone like that. And then if you can get a million bucks for Danny Leyva.
00:42:03
Speaker
And he does well in Mexico, or he does well in Spain, or he does well somewhere like that. Then it makes it a lot easier to sell the next guy for 5 million or 10 million. And this is what we saw at Dallas. This is what we've seen at Philadelphia. This is sort of what we're seeing. And I'm sure the Sounders are looking at it that way. Like it's time to start, you know, if we can sell some of these players,
00:42:26
Speaker
That's something we have to do. And it's also going to be really helpful to the first team. And especially when it's at a position of strength where you can afford to deal, you know, you can deal a player from the middle of the deck, essentially. Yeah. I think that like I make fun of FC Dallas a lot because FC Dallas never plays these guys. They sell them when they're like 17 and it doesn't reinvest the money, but a functional team.
00:42:52
Speaker
can do something like Philadelphia has done, which is invest a lot in their academy and go from being a perennial also ran to having one of the most entertaining teams we've ever seen. Well, and on a different level, I think we've seen this in LAFC too, like people keep going asking, how is LFC have all this money to buy these players? And
00:43:13
Speaker
I keep having to remind them or when people tell this to me I keep pointing out like they've sold a bunch of guys now that they aren't academy players but they've been able to steal a bunch of players who they made profits on and that gives them a bunch of allocation money that they can go and spend on all kinds of things where you start to wonder like well where are these like well they've sold like quite a few players yeah I mean that's that is
00:43:38
Speaker
What MLS has to be right to like the next step is to become like to have that model of like, we're going to develop players we're going to identify young talented players and selling for profit. And that's how you actually get better. It's not.
00:43:53
Speaker
you know, having a hundred expansion teams and just continuously liking, like you've kind of hit the limit of how much you can grow the lead for those means. So you have to actually. Develop some talent. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, and, and like, and, and luckily I'm lost is still at a point where if you can sell a handful of guys, if you can sell regularly, sell players for seven figures, uh, let alone eight figures.
00:44:23
Speaker
You can do some really good business, like, yeah. And, and, you know, the sounders want in on like the centers made no secret about wanting in on on that, that part of this, and that was the idea behind Leo Chiu we'll see how that plays out.
00:44:42
Speaker
I think that might be the story that I'm most interested in this off season barring some big move is if they can figure out a way to sell one of these younger guys and turn real profit on it. But anyway, that's what we'll have to watch this off season when we're not watching the World Cup, which will be a whole month and is sneaking right up on us.
00:45:11
Speaker
Yeah, it's, I realized today that the US N1 game is the day after Thanksgiving and that's just on so many levels, like really upsetting to me, but that's what I'm doing the day after Thanksgiving instead of like watching college football or whatever.
00:45:28
Speaker
Yeah. Watching a soccer game that I'm kind of angry that is happening, but feel an obligation to watch for whatever reason. Right. All right. Well, that's probably a good place to take a break. We'll come back. Uh, took a, got a few questions. We'll do that. And, uh, yeah, you're listening to no study at this.
00:45:49
Speaker
Full pull 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.
00:46:08
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 fullpawines.com.
00:46:28
Speaker
Thanks to Watson's Counter for sponsoring this episode. Located in Ballard, Watson's Counter is your neighborhood specialty coffee shop, brunch spot, and now, coffee roaster. Sourcing exclusively high scoring coffees, Watson's Counter has started their coffee roasting project to showcase amazing coffees grown around the world. Their first featured coffee is the beautifully complex washed Ethiopian Odola.
00:46:50
Speaker
Follow them on Instagram at Watson's Counter to keep up with all the upcoming releases or check out their website at www.watsonscounter.com. Whether you want to stop by for your daily coffee to go or sit down for delicious Korean inspired brunch, Watson's Counter has got you covered. Welcome back to NOS Ariete. So we have some questions despite our
00:47:16
Speaker
very tardy request for you to send them in. I guess we recorded rarely enough that people were into this. So you want to start out? Yeah. So first one is from Alonzi Rachel. Why is the US Men's National Team fans base complete and utter trash? You know,
00:47:37
Speaker
I will admit I listened to a podcast that is like a US national team podcast that I like a lot. And I think it's very well done. And I think I've come to an appreciation for the mindset of the US national team fan. And like I said earlier in the show, I don't want to yuck someone else's yum. And if that's what fans, if that's how they want to consume the game,
00:48:01
Speaker
more power to you. But what I do think there is an aspect, and I think there is some truth to this question, is like there is a certain kind of fan who does not really look at the US national team as a, like they follow them like a club team, but they don't really look at it like a cohesive unit. They look at it just as a, like a
00:48:26
Speaker
Like an avatar for their dreams and like they love putting like they have this saying on on scuffed which is the podcast that I listen to that I actually I really think is a good podcast. But they have this thing that they call the old badge team and it's basically just like people getting off on like
00:48:43
Speaker
putting the badges of the best teams that are that have America like, you know, like, so you would put like a Manchester City badge next to Zach Stefan. And, you know, even though he doesn't really play for Manchester City, and and sort of like you kind of build this team and you look at the badges and you're like, how is this not a
00:49:03
Speaker
world-class like how is this not one of the best teams in the league or in the world and um and i don't know i just think it it starts it warps the way you think of the game i think a little bit uh or it can warp the way you think of the game and the way you think of the players is sort of like interchangeable parts you know it's not like a not like an mls or like a regular team roster where you have you know 25 to 30 players and then
00:49:28
Speaker
Theoretically, you can change that if you go out and you buy people. But there's this understanding that there's resources that you have to expend to get these other players. And so there's always a cost. Whereas with the national team, there's a virtually limitless pool of players that you can impress your dreams on. And so there's always someone better that you can bring in to replace the guy that you're tired of. And so I just think it warps the way you think of players and the team.
00:49:58
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's all spot on. And I would I would also add that I think that there's a for one people that are almost exclusively into international football. I'm going to try to say this a neutral way, tend to have
00:50:17
Speaker
what some might call jingoistic tendencies. That's not always true. I know plenty of total sweetheart, non-nationalist people who just love international soccer. But I think a lot of the worst guys, especially on the... It lends itself to that sort of thing for sure.
00:50:38
Speaker
I, a guy who sent me a torrent of homophobic abuse last night, um, was getting faved by a lot of dudes with like Christian holistic avatars. I'll just say these, I'm assuming this was not because of your Christian rolled on and Jordan Morris takes, but no, no, they're not, but yeah. So, and so I think that's, that's an element of it. Um, but I also think you kind of touched on this and how it works your perception of the game.
00:51:04
Speaker
I think if you only view that, like if the only team you really have an attachment to is your national team, right? The US national team in this case. Cause I do think there's like a unique level of toxicity about the US national team pan based compared to some others. Although there are some pretty nasty ones. They just aren't in the English speaking world. So we don't maybe get as much exposure, but it's not like it's exclusive to the US national team.
00:51:33
Speaker
But I think that you don't really have that much exposure to stuff outside of like that, right? Like you watch the best teams in the world, you watch Champions League, you watch Premier League or whatever, but you don't understand that like the global soccer infrastructure is enormous, right? And there are lots of players playing outside of the top leagues.
00:51:58
Speaker
And so you like, I think a lot of these guys just have this mindset of like, if you're not playing at that very top level, you're not.
00:52:06
Speaker
worth of shit. But the thing that warps that perception is that there are a lot of guys playing in the Premier League that are not that great, but they're English. Same thing goes for all of these top leagues. It's not like anyone playing in the Premier League is as good as anybody else. You just have to have a certain number of English players, while league teams have to have a certain number of Spanish players, etc., so forth, so on.
00:52:30
Speaker
And so, but like, there are a lot of leagues in the, in the world with really good players in them, you know, like MLS, the air to busy, um, like all sorts of leagues in South America, leagues in Africa, like there are going to be a lot of players in this world cup to play club football in Africa that are really, really, really good players. But I think if your idea of just like.
00:52:54
Speaker
But they're not at the elite so they're garbage and I think that that's that really permeates like a certain segment of the US national team fan base of like, if you're not playing for Champions League club like you don't belong in the international game and that's just not like that's not an accurate reading of the way things really are.
00:53:11
Speaker
Yeah. And I, and I would say like, it's also, I think what you'll find is right now, a lot of people are going to be talking about the world cup and they're going to sort of make assumptions about how good a team is by base, based almost except exclusively on like, have I heard of how many players on their team have I heard of?
00:53:29
Speaker
or like have I seen play seem to play and like surprise surprise there's gonna be some teams that do really well that have players that we like average soccer fans know nothing about and like I don't know anything about and I don't I don't think I'm an average soccer fan necessarily but yeah anyway let's move on to the next question
00:53:54
Speaker
This one is from MLS some and they want to know, has a player ever won the world cup club world cup double before will Morris and roll Don be the first? I also just want to say I appreciate the assumption that they will be that they'll win both of these.
00:54:12
Speaker
Unfortunately, they will not be the first. So, I didn't go back any further than 2014, although I'm almost positive that there were guys on the 2010 Spain team that have won a World Cup in that year. I don't remember who won in 2020, it was probably Barcelona, for being honest.
00:54:30
Speaker
But 2018, Rafael Riberon won the World Cup of France, won the Club World Cup with Real Madrid. 2014, Tony Krosz and Sami Khedira won the Club World Cup with Real Madrid, and won the World Cup with Germany. I'm not rare. Well, so actually 2010 Inter won. Oh, Inter, okay. They probably had a Spanish guy. Probably not, actually.
00:54:58
Speaker
Now that they might've, uh, I do think, I think it's, it's probably happened other times, but that's kind of, you didn't have to go that far back to find, uh, I did not have to go. I've had to go to the last one. So it's, which, I mean, it's not shocking, right? That like the best players who are the teams that are winning the world cup would be playing for one of the best club teams in the world. Like.
00:55:24
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So next one is from Andy Fretwell. How many and which World Cup matches should I get up early to watch? Oh, man. Well, the good news is that the U.S., if you if you only are interested in the U.S.,
00:55:42
Speaker
You don't have to get up early to watch any of them because they're all like really reasonable times. I think they're all 11 o'clock. You're all 11. Yeah. Yeah. So like, but if you're going to, if you're one of those sickos that wants to get up at, uh, 5am, which I guess is not that crazy. Uh, there's an England, I mean, this is like route the bat England. I ran on November 21st. That's that might actually be worth getting up for. Opening match has a sounder in it.
00:56:11
Speaker
That's an 80 at the 8 a.m. Is not that's not terrible. But you know, on my birthday, which I don't know. There's a game at 2 a.m. Argentina, Saudi Arabia. Oh, that's oh, it's not Tuesday, though. That sucks.
00:56:29
Speaker
If that were on Friday or Saturday, I would be all over it. I'll be all about that. Let's see. Denmark, Tunisia, also on November 22nd at 5 a.m. Morocco, Croatia at 2 a.m. on the 23rd. Okay, this one's legit. You got to get up. I might actually get up for this one. Germany, Japan on November 23rd at 5 a.m. I might get up for that one. That'll be good.
00:57:00
Speaker
Morocco, Croatia, that's the night before Thanksgiving. All I have to do the next day is be around my father-in-law, so it's not like I'm going to be talking anyway. So maybe that's when I can do it at 2 a.m. before. Yeah, you'll probably not be working the next day, right? On Thanksgiving? No. Well, no, on Wednesday, the 23rd. Oh, right. I'm looking at it wrong, huh? Yeah.
00:57:25
Speaker
Well, so the next one is the next, the one that would actually be the day before Thanksgiving is like you said. No, that's, yeah, this is, this would be a good one to start your day off with Switzerland Cameroon. Yeah, I'll stay up to watch new who at three in the morning. Absolutely. Yeah. No question about it.
00:57:45
Speaker
on thanksgiving day like actually there's a lot this is a lot of these games i would i would like i don't know how many teams i will go out i don't know that i would go out to any of these games but i would totally get up and watch like ergoi south korea on the 24th at 5 am uh wales i ran um i guess that might be an important game for it might be important but i can
00:58:11
Speaker
I can look at the score later. I can make that assessment in retrospect. At 2 a.m. I mean, I don't know. Guitar, Senegal. I don't think I'm going to make it for that one. That's one I'll probably go skip. Tunisia, Australia. Poland, Saudi Arabia. Probably not. Tunisia, Australia is a Saturday. So if you're a night owl.
00:58:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair. You know, I will say one of my favorite earliest World Cup memories, uh, was the 90, no, 2002 World Cup. Yeah. And, uh, I, I, those, those games that was in Japan and South Korea, those games were all seemingly like in the middle of the night, like crazy hours. Did you try again?
00:58:58
Speaker
And whoops, Siri getting a little frisky. And I had insomnia for a lot of the World Cup. And so I would like just randomly wake up and watch, like be watching like Japan, Poland, I don't know, that probably wasn't a game, but be watching these random games at like three in the morning. Which I guess has the same potential.
00:59:26
Speaker
I feel like this is a good, this is a really good time slot for the World Cup because it's the perfect amount of games during the middle of the day, especially like for Americans, like US games are at 11. Yeah.
00:59:40
Speaker
But then there's also sicko times too. Like if you want to get crazy early, you can get up crazy early. If you want to stay up crazy late, you can stay up. Like it's, it's all, it's like a sweet spot of like, you know, but it's not so, it's like, it's not so late that the final is going to be in the middle of the night or whatever. Although they wouldn't do that anymore. Make sure it was played in primetime everywhere, but. Although the final is being played at, uh,
01:00:08
Speaker
at 7 a.m. Wow. 7 a.m. 7 a.m. is like I think it's probably as good of a time as you could get for the world. Right. Like right.
World Cup Politics and Predictions
01:00:18
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But all the all the knockout games are at 7 or 11. That looks like. Yeah. But yeah, there'll be some fun ones. There's definitely some games that all I don't know how many of those 2 a.m. games to watch, but I'll definitely try to watch some of those 5 a.m. games. Yeah.
01:00:38
Speaker
All right. This one is from D height. General thoughts on the world cup, political drama, actual football, match-ups, games you're looking forward to. I mean, we kind of went over some of this, but general thoughts. What are your general thoughts on this world cup? Are you excited for it? As it gets closer, I'm having to admit that I am kind of excited for it.
01:00:59
Speaker
just because I like the World Cup. But I mean, the elephant in the room is where it's happening, the circumstances under which it's happening. It's not great. There's just like this endless parade of people who are super critical of it when it was being, when the decision was made and in the couple of years after that for valid reasons, like for socio-political reasons, human rights reasons who are now official ambassadors
01:01:28
Speaker
of the game or of the World Cup and of Qatar. And it's, you know, it's the World Cup is problematic and the best of times, I think, is a fair way of looking at it. Like, it's not quite the Olympics, but it's not that much better. But this one is, I think, you know, especially loaded, it's fair to say.
01:01:53
Speaker
Ultimately, it's happening. And if you decide you can't do it, I think that's a perfectly reasonable decision to make. I'm, you know, I'm gonna watch. I'm gonna watch it. I mean, yeah.
01:02:07
Speaker
Yeah, I guess that's sort of my, like, I appreciate that we're going into this open eyed and a lot of places it's, you know, like there's been some good coverage, you know, I was just, I think you and I were probably talking about this, like Grant Wall has actually done some, some pretty good coverage of the sort of down, like the, the, the, the,
01:02:33
Speaker
the downsides of some of the, like the bad stuff that's going on in Qatar. There's been some good coverage at a bunch of different outlets on like kind of going into this with open eyes. I don't think I would want to go to like, I'm glad that I was not in a position where I had to choose whether or not I wanted to go to Qatar, Qatar. And like, I would have felt very uncomfortable being there, but like, I'll watch these games. Like I'm not, I'm not,
01:03:00
Speaker
gonna act like I'm not. I think with stuff like this, you have to ultimately not watch any games is not moving at all. Like, and you have to kind of decide whether or not you can stomach it rather than like, that's how I feel about it. Maybe you feel like you have a moral obligation to not watch the games and I'm not gonna tell you you're wrong about that. Right, but I will say like the reason that guitar
01:03:29
Speaker
puts this on. It is not just for the pride of being able to say like, hey, we put on a really good World Cup. It's to be able to like show how great they are and what a great place they are. The idea is that it attracts people to continue to attract investment and doing all these kind of things. And in that way,
01:03:54
Speaker
I think we can positively affect some things. We learned that all this stuff was going on there, that there was all this slave labor that was building a lot of the buildings and whatnot.
01:04:12
Speaker
Like, that was maybe maybe that was good that we like there was a light shine on that, to some degree, like, I think the people the world knows a little bit more about, you know, cutter for better for worse, right.
01:04:28
Speaker
Like I don't think I would recommend anyone go vacation there. Not that I could afford it anyway. I definitely think maybe this is a selective memory, but I feel like when it was announced, the complaints were, it's way too hot. It's going to be way too hot. They're going to have to move to the World Cup. It's not a serious footballing nation. And now the complaints are much more serious, much more, you know, there's much more grave issues.
01:04:54
Speaker
And I think that that does speak to sort of the questions people asked. And I think it also speaks to just sort of the changing.
01:05:02
Speaker
world where like I feel like people do have a little bit more insight into the way the world works than maybe they did in whatever that was 2010, you know, when it was announced. But yeah, I think you're right. In terms of the other stuff, because I don't, I'm certainly don't feel smart enough to say anymore about the serious stuff in terms of like the games. I mean, the World Cup is always fun. Unless
01:05:31
Speaker
you know, Russia's hosting it. That wasn't that much fun. But there were even good moments then. I think I have no idea who I think is the favorite, like
01:05:42
Speaker
I would have told you it was for sure France, and that France was going to be like the team to be for years and years and years and I don't know if I feel that is the case anymore. I think there are six or seven teams that can win. The team that does one probably isn't going to be one of the ones I think it is. It feels to me like one of the most wide open World Cups and it does.
01:06:05
Speaker
It does feel wide open. It feels like a year where a South American team could get back on the winner's podium. I could see, I mean, I don't know. Yeah, I think it's wide open. I think there's a whole wide variety of
01:06:24
Speaker
of things that could happen in this one. And I think the fact that it's being played in the middle of the European season is going to have a big impact. We're already seeing a lot of the world's best players. The list of players who aren't going to be at this tournament is
01:06:38
Speaker
is pretty impressive, like mainly through injury, but like, you know, like early Holland, clearly the best, you know, score in the world right now, not in this tournament. Italy, which is like the defending European champions, not in this tournament. Like there's a lot of weird things that are going on nuts. And like Sadio Mane just went out with an injury, is gonna miss the tournament. So,
01:07:07
Speaker
You know, who knows? It's, it's, it's going to be interesting. I think I'm going to say, I think Argentina is going to win just to be, because if they do, it'll be pretty surprising and I'll look smart. So. Yeah. All right. The next one is from drone 637. Why are there not any sounders temporary tattoos on Amazon? Also, which sounder will get the most playtime in the world cup?
01:07:35
Speaker
That's a great question. I don't have a good answer for you on the temporary tattoo thing. The sounder who gets the most playing time, almost I got to think new who is like, yeah, the easy bet, right? Like he's the only one who I think we can guarantee will start at least one game. Yeah, I think that's true. I think that the US plays around last, right?
01:08:02
Speaker
Yes. So if by some freak of nature, the US is through after their first two, I could see Jordan and Christian getting a start, but I don't think that's likely. I think who will absolutely play probably, I think he could start a couple of games. So yeah, I think you're right. But of the Americans, I think it's probably Jordan. I think Jordan's going to get,
01:08:29
Speaker
he's not gonna start unless there's some kind of weird situation, but I think he'll get like pretty, I wouldn't be shocked if he gets two or three appearances. Yeah, yeah, I can see that.
01:08:40
Speaker
Uh, this is from, uh, interpersonal since the United States loves the sounders. If the U S M N T could take another sounder of any nationality with them to the World Cup, who would they pick? That's a good one. It is a good question. I got to think even coming off a down season, that's horrible. I mean, he's the kind of striker that the U S national team is, it's crying out for. Um,
01:09:07
Speaker
Maybe Stephen Fry. He's eligible, of course, for the United States. Yeah, I think it's probably Raul. That's a good... Nico, I think would obviously fit into the U.S. national team. Do you think Rusnak could get into the midfield of the United States?
01:09:29
Speaker
I think so. I think that the reason Raul stands out is not necessarily because he's so much better than Rusnak or Pico. It's that the US hasn't had a striker since Brian McBride that was like that caliber, I guess. I don't know. Maybe I'm overreigning Raul.
01:09:52
Speaker
Um, I think, I mean, I don't know. No, you're right. I would agree. I think Robey Diaz is probably the guy that would. Especially on this team. Like maybe, maybe this version of Raul is, is not that much better than like crime Josie Altadore was, but I think that a guy that can score from nothing the way Raul can would be, uh, extremely good for the U S to have.
01:10:19
Speaker
Um, so kind of a similar vein, I guess, uh, from better Dan, if you can only improve one position for the sounders, what position would you improve? You know, um, I think the, the easy answer is to say left back and yeah. And I think that probably finding a two way, more of a two way player that you can put there is, is, uh, maybe the easy answer.
01:10:48
Speaker
the more complicated answer would be another winger that allows you to move rolled on into that midfield group, which ends up creating a lot more competition, which I don't know how to say. So I guess, yeah, left back. I'll go with the easy one. I think left back. I think Christian has really given me an appreciation for wide players that play the way he does.
01:11:16
Speaker
Yeah.
Sounders' Roster Improvements and Offseason Outlook
01:11:18
Speaker
Where it is tempting to want another out now winger, especially since Jordan is inverted, cuts inside, all that stuff. But I really, I like what Christian brings to the, to the midfield on, you know, on the outside. I think he's, I think he's really good there. So I would say, I would say like back as well. If we could give Jimmy Vangeronda like,
01:11:43
Speaker
Like Jimmy Madrona's ligaments, I think would be like we could add better ligaments to Jimmy. That would be. If he could play 90 minutes every, you know, every week, that would be. That'd be good. Alright, this was from Garrett Amoebi. This is our longest offseason ever. How might that affect next season?
01:12:04
Speaker
I don't think it's going to be bad. I mean, I don't think it possibly could be. It might be, I think there's a chance it's like a real opportunity to reset and it being good. Yeah. I mean, the Sounders went, they had a pretty short off season after a extremely weird year where a lot of games got crammed into a short period of time. They had a short off season right into CCL, right into the grind, had a bunch of injuries that
01:12:31
Speaker
It, you know, really never had a chance to heal. Um, yeah, I think, you know, I don't think there's any way it could be bad. Like I'm a lot less worried about rust than I am dense at this point. Yeah. Yeah.
01:12:46
Speaker
Uh, so the last question, I know it's technically, you know, Oh no, I guess this is my, I guess it is my turn to ask. Yeah. No, we did it. We tight. We, we set it up right. Look at us. Uh, so it's from Jamie and Tello can Jeremiah put together a best 11 from the season's pregame press box food.
01:13:04
Speaker
The best 11 feels a little cheating because you're not going to eat an 11 course meal off of pregame press food, but there were a lot of there were actually a lot of good meals. I'll just pick out some of my highlights. They opened really strong.
01:13:22
Speaker
They did this chicken cacciatore that was shockingly good, especially that it was coming out of a chafing dish. They also did this thing where they started, I think they started like just straight up doing Beecher's Mac and Cheese, like just buying, I'm pretty sure they just were like thawing out Beecher's Mac and Cheese and it was a solid choice. They did it a few times.
01:13:49
Speaker
One day they combined it with ribs that were really, really good. So those were two in there that I think those were probably three dishes that I would throw in the top. They also do a Cobb salad. You always got to have a salad. Their Cobb salad is reliably very good.
01:14:14
Speaker
And my favorite dessert that they do is, um, is they, it's like kind of a cop out, but they, they do a really good, um, cookie.
01:14:30
Speaker
Like that's like they usually have a choice of like chocolate chip, sugar, and like a couple other things. And the cookies are always like nice and warm and gooey. And like the sounders, I got to tell you like pretty reliably good eats going on there. I think a cookie in a situation like that and like a catering type situation is the best like
01:14:59
Speaker
Everybody has a kind of one of the main kinds of cookies that they like. They're hard to mess up. They're relatively easy to do really well. And then somebody like, if you can't have like a pie, like a buffet style thing, like it's just gonna be a total mess. You can't have a cake. Like you could do slices of cake, I guess, but cookies just, it's a solid option. I really want chicken cacciatore now. I would add chicken cacciatore.
01:15:28
Speaker
Really long time. It's really good. Yeah. I, I was this year. I don't know. I felt like the sounders really, uh, they're catering, they're, uh, stepped up, but it was, it was pretty good.
01:15:41
Speaker
So that's, that's, that was maybe the meal I would have, uh, it's a little heavy. I have to admit it's a heavy meal, but the Cobb salad with everything else is, even though I do like Cobb salad, it's like, it's like the best 11 thing of like, well, yeah, like I know these defenders are all right backs, but now what are you going to write? Exactly. Like I don't think I could realistically eat a Cobb salad with all those other items, but like their Cobb salad is their best salad. And I felt like I needed to put a salad in the,
01:16:12
Speaker
in my best 11. No, I think you're right to do it. I think you're right.
01:16:18
Speaker
But all right, well, I guess that's the show. That's the show. And we might be back, like, if anything interesting happens at the annual business meeting next week, we might actually record again next week. So coming in, coming in like a wave. Yeah, the last time we said, if this happens, we'll record next week. It was the sounders making the playoffs.
01:16:45
Speaker
And I think in this case, no big news at the business meeting would be good. So I kind of hope you do this again on that. I don't think there's going to be big news, but there might be stuff worth talking about because it is going to be at the Long Acres facility. And it'll be interesting if they've done anything to Long Acres that is worth talking about. I was there not so long ago, a couple of months ago.
01:17:15
Speaker
a month or two ago. And it still looks the way it looked when they opened it, which was they've kind of got some office elements that are there, but they haven't started doing any heavy work. And I still don't think they've started doing the heavy work that's going to make it really feel real, real. But I guess Brad and Steve record their podcast there now, and I think they're starting to do some meetings there.
01:17:44
Speaker
It'll be interesting if, I don't know if it's going to be worth talking about or not, but open mind. If it is, we'll be here. Yeah, exactly. It's not going to enjoy the World Cup. Yeah. And I'll give another plug for our sub stack. If you want to read stuff that is a little different than what we're doing on it's under heart. It's also a good way to just kind of follow what's going on with the sounders. I think it's nosadiettis.substack.com.
01:18:11
Speaker
I think is the address. I guess I could have looked that up before I did this, but if you type that in to Google, you'll probably find it or you can like click on our Twitter profile. But yeah, follow us there. We don't know what's going on with Twitter these days. And that was sort of like the impetus to actually start doing this thing was we want multiple ways to talk to you and
01:18:34
Speaker
And figure that would be a good one but we can also get our podcast feed through sub stack. That's something that you wanted to do for some reason. And that said, thanks to our sponsors, football wines and Watson's counter.
01:18:53
Speaker
really great people supporting our podcast. And they legitimately have good products. I am reminded every time I go to Watts' counter, like, I would eat, I would 100% eat there, regardless of their, their sponsorship. And I would 100% shop at Vocal Wines if I, even if they would stop sponsoring us, like, good stuff in both places.
01:19:20
Speaker
I think it would be a lie to say, hey, we wouldn't have these sponsors if we didn't believe in them. I'll take money from anyone. But in this case, we did really luck out to have two sponsors that are actually really great businesses. Exactly. I can't guarantee that every single sponsor we've ever had, I would
01:19:42
Speaker
Right. I've vetted. I've fully vetted and been like, no, I 100% believe in their product. But these are two that I do. Yeah. So anyway. All right. Well, thank you. I'm Jeremiah Shannon, signing off for Aaron Campo and Likit. This is No Suddy at This. And remember, you will never get alone.
01:20:03
Speaker
Green Douglas, where were the waters cut through? Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew Canadian northwest to the ocean so blue It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On Roll On, Columbia Roll On Roll On, Columbia Roll On Your power is turning our darkness to dawn Roll On, Columbia Roll On
01:20:41
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!