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Episode 353: We can do this
94 Plays3 years ago
Sure, it was only a half of inspired soccer AND it didn't even get us a win, but it was enough for Aaron and Jeremiah to be bullish on the rest of the regular season.
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.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
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!
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.
Sounders' Playoff Chances
00:01:07
Speaker
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 idea to sponsored by full pool wines and our newest sponsor Watson's counter. This is episode 353 and we're recording on Tuesday, August 23rd, 2022. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan joining me as usual is Aaron Campo and our producer Lickett.
00:02:19
Speaker
For a half, it looked like the Sounders matched against the LA Galaxy, who was going to be a microcosm of the season. The Sounders had played reasonably well, but a pair of defensive mistakes had left them trailing 2-0. I'll admit, I didn't give them much of a chance, and I was legitimately starting to wonder if this was the year the playoff streak would end. But then the second half, Enroll Ruidias decided to do his thing. He set up Kellen Rove for a goal early in the second half, finished off an exciting sequence to equalize, and then the Sounders actually pulled ahead.
00:02:47
Speaker
Yes, we all know they ended up running the equalizer on a stoppage time penalty, but for the first time in a couple months, the sounders actually gave us reason to think that they have what it takes to turn this around. So, Aaron, my question to you is, will they? Or is this, what's gonna, what do we, what do you believe in your heart is gonna happen from here on out?
Team Dynamics and Injuries
00:03:07
Speaker
In my heart, I believe the Sounders will make the playoffs. I haven't really shied from that. I admittedly am less sure of that than I have been in the past, but I still think the odds are very good, though, to make the playoffs. We were talking about this before we started recording. 538 is giving the Sounders 52% odds of making the playoffs. Which is funny.
00:03:29
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I do. One of the things I thought was funny about that is that they have eight teams in the West with over 50% chance. And I guess the numbers work. I don't, I don't really, I don't know, like a numbers guy, but apparently I'm told the numbers actually work. But I do think that's a little odd, but go ahead. It is a little odd. But I do think, you know, the headline there is like,
00:03:49
Speaker
Five thirty eight predicts the Sounders more likely than not to make the playoffs. I happen to think that's low. I think that and we were kind of talking about this as well. I think that if you were to be given a rundown of the MLS season and you didn't know who any of the teams were, you just saw, you know, these were the results here that the team's records that they've won and lost against here, the gold differences.
00:04:13
Speaker
All that stuff. You might not think the sounders are especially likely to make the playoffs, right? But we have the benefit of having watched the team. We have the benefit of knowing a little bit about the team, I would say. And I just like, I think that this team, even without Joao Paulo, even without Cristiano down for the next, you know, six weeks or so,
00:04:34
Speaker
is better than a lot of the other teams in the Western Conference. I think they're better than Nashville. I think they're better than RSL. I think they're better than the Galaxy, honestly. I definitely think they're definitely better than the Galaxy. I mean, the Galaxy got three fluky goals. All three goals, I think, were pretty fluky. Yep.
00:04:54
Speaker
The sounders I think actually scored three pretty good goals. Yeah. I mean, if you were, you know, if you were to ask me where I put the sounders in terms of the
00:05:05
Speaker
pecking order in the West, I think they're arguably the third or fourth best team in the West. Like as is, without Joao Paulo, without Christian Roldan, I just think that they've had a weird flukey season. They've had a lot of bad injuries. They've had a lot of bad luck. They, you know, they have for all the tap in the season, they still have the positive goal differential. That is a kind of a wild stat and they're positive in XGD, the expected goal difference too, which I think is also
Western Conference Outlook
00:05:31
Speaker
interesting.
00:05:31
Speaker
And I know that people are sick of hearing it, but they just won the Continental Championship not that long ago. They're clearly a very talented team. They have been hurt by injuries. They're missing some guys that were crucial to that run. They're not on AFC's level. I don't think they're on Austin's level. I don't think they're on Philly's level.
00:05:54
Speaker
you know, NYCFC Montreal, like that's arguable talent-wise, but they have put themselves into a bad position. They are missing guys that are pretty critical. They have some pretty, I would say, well-discussed struggle scoring goals. Although I think I feel a lot better about that, you know, after the LA game than I did before it. So it's not as though it's nailed on. I'm not gonna like bet my house on it or anything.
00:06:23
Speaker
But I feel still pretty confident that they're going to. And I think the thing that's crucial to acknowledge is that the Sounders have been a pretty average MLS team this year.
00:06:36
Speaker
And this is what most MLS teams are like this year. And it's pretty far below the standard of what we're used to seeing, what we know that this team especially is capable of. But it's not like this is the worst team in the league or anything close to it. It's just, I think that people lose sight of what
00:07:02
Speaker
your bogged average middling playoff competing, but not world beating MLS team looks like, and it looks a lot like the Sounders. Yeah. You know, I, I think that's an important thing to, to recognize because I, as Sounders fans, I think we oftentimes get pretty, uh, tunnel visioned in, we watch the Sounders a lot closer than we watch other teams and we start to sort of like, sometimes we'll just like casually view results and we'd be like, Oh man. Uh,
00:07:31
Speaker
This team is awesome because I just saw that they won a game for zero or whatever. Right. And I don't, I don't blame anyone for doing that, by the way. Like I do that too, but I always at least try to go back and, you know, because this is sort of my job, I try to go back and, and like.
00:07:48
Speaker
do reality checks. And I don't know, maybe people looked at the story, maybe they didn't. But I wrote a story on Sounder Heart today about the Sounders playoff chances. And essentially what I did is I did two things. I looked at the teams between 3 and 11 in the West. And I looked at the remaining schedules. And then I kind of did a deeper dive into the Sounders schedule. And I thought there was a few interesting things that I was able to pull out of that.
00:08:17
Speaker
The big one is that none of the teams in the West are playing particularly well, right? Like once you get outside of, you know, Minnesota is on a tear right now. Austin and LA are also playing really well, but really outside of those three teams, no one is really playing that well. You know, if you look at their last 11 games, there's only two teams that are even playing above the current playoff pace.
00:08:47
Speaker
And neither one of them are very high above it. You have the Timbers who are winless in their last five, but if you go back 11, they're playing at a pretty decent clip. They have like 17 points in 11 games. And then Dallas, who was in a bit of a slump until they won their last game,
00:09:08
Speaker
They're a little bit above the that line as well but everyone else is like really struggling, like, like even by the sounder like even compared to the sounders like no one's really like RSL Nashville galaxy whitecaps timbers rapid or rapids. All these teams are.
00:09:27
Speaker
are like sputtering. And that's why every time the Sounders win or get a point, it seems like they shoot back up into a playoff spot, because that's sort of the state of the Western Conference right now is that if you get a point or you certainly if you get three points, you're going to be in a playoff spot.
Upcoming Matches Analysis
00:09:44
Speaker
And so I bring this all up.
00:09:47
Speaker
Uh, because the gap between what the sounders need to, like what the sounders are doing and what they need to be doing is really not that great. And then if you go another step and you look at the teams that these, uh, the games that most of these teams have left to play, the sounders have about as easy of a schedule as anyone. And in fact is easier than, and then a lot of these teams, you know, uh,
00:10:11
Speaker
The Sounders have four, eight games, four on the road, four at home, but like the Galaxy are the only team that have more games left, but they have to go on the road six more times.
00:10:21
Speaker
Like that's, that's going to be tough. Uh, and then if you look at the, the sounders schedule, their last eight games are all against teams that they have an all time winning record against. Uh, and they, even if you go, like, if you adjust for home and away, they look pretty good against all these teams, you know, like, like the timbers.
00:10:41
Speaker
I know people are understandably stressed about this timbers game. It's a big game, but the centers have won five and six games in Portland right now. Uh, and then they, they go to Orlando, Orlando is a playoff team. They're five and seven at home and they're going to be playing on two days less rest. And the centers have won their own only two games there. Then they come home against Houston, a game they absolutely, if they, that's it, they have to win that game. They should win that game. Then they're at home against Austin. That's going to be a tough one.
00:11:11
Speaker
But Austin, you know, they tied Austin earlier this year. There's no reason you shouldn't think that they can get a result in that game. And then they're at the Whitecaps, a team that is negative 14 goal difference this year. And hasn't been that great at home, although they did beat LAFC at home somehow. But the Sounders have been borderline dominant in Vancouver since like 2000.
00:11:34
Speaker
I don't know I think it was like 2016 was or 2015 was the last time they were not beating up Vancouver or 2014 was I think you go all the way back to the 2015 season they've been basically dominant in Vancouver then they have FC Cincinnati at home a team that's been playing better but still a team that's outside the playoff race they'll both be missing some internationals and then they're at Sporting Kansas City a team who has is in last place in the west right now
00:12:01
Speaker
And then they're at home against earthquakes. Another team, another game that they absolutely should win. I'm not saying the Sounders are going to run the table. They won't want to run the table. I'm not going to get 24 points, but like, I think a realistic expectation is anywhere between 13 and 20 points over their final eight games. And if they get any, if they.
00:12:19
Speaker
finish anywhere in there, they're going to make the playoffs.
Tactical Changes and Injuries Impact
00:12:21
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is that if the sounders, my position is and has been for quite a while that if the sounders play 80% of what they're capable of, they're going to make playoffs. Yeah. And I think, I think that that still holds true. Every result they don't get that percentage creeps up a little bit. Right.
00:12:41
Speaker
you know i i think um i i just i was really encouraged about that second half against the galaxy uh i think that it's it's been a struggle to sort of figure out what to do tactically with the with the injuries they've had with the players' missings you know that they've had um hearing that christian has been battling an injury for this long is not surprising
00:13:05
Speaker
but does give a little bit of explanation to sort of the drop off in his performances. And I think that there is something to be said for the idea that as much as it hurts to lose him, if Christian is capable of playing, he's going to be in the lineup, I think, almost as a rule.
00:13:23
Speaker
But I think if you're not having to tweak the formation around his limitations and his injury and just trying to fit him on the field somewhere and you can just kind of go with your best team, I think that there might be a benefit to that. I just, I think that
00:13:41
Speaker
It's going to be tough. It's going to be, I think, the toughest run-in that we've seen. They've got to start getting results. Absolutely. They need to get a result against Portland. I'm going to be really disappointed if they don't win that game, because I'll be damned if the time the home team wins in this rivalry is it's going to be the Timbers. But even a draw, I think, is a decent result there. But they should take care of business at home. They should take care of business against some of these weaker teams on the road.
00:14:09
Speaker
I think it's okay to like expect them to do what they need to do to get into the playoffs. And I think that there's this weird sort of disconnect between people who feel like we should expect the Sounders to be much better than this and we should for sure. Like I don't think that in a vacuum this regular season has been acceptable for the Sounders. I think that's fair to say. Yeah, it's been below their standard. No question about it.
00:14:34
Speaker
But then they don't expect them to do anything like those same people who think we should be demanding more expect them to play much worse than I think they've demonstrated they're capable of even this year. And I get it like pessimism is sort of infectious to some degree and it's not like sounders have given the fan base a ton of reasons for optimism over the last couple months or so, but
00:14:58
Speaker
Ultimately, I don't think it's as dire as a lot of people seem to think it is. I think that the fact that the rest of the Western Conference that the Sounders are in direct competition with have been pissed as well is a pretty beneficial factor. And if you, you know, give me odds on
00:15:17
Speaker
any of the players on any of those teams, any of the collections of talent on who's going to who's going to come out ahead. I think the Sounders just have the edge there. But they absolutely do have to have to start getting the better results. And I think the Galaxy game was a step forward. The fact that they got a draw in what seemed like an unjust fashion, I think almost made me feel
00:15:37
Speaker
better than if they had gone down 3-0 and come back to get a draw, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think that totally makes sense because I think, right, I mean, I sort of tried to make this point in my column is that the problem the sounders are facing is not right now a mathematical problem. Like they still have a lot of ways to affect the math
00:15:58
Speaker
in a positive way, what they need to do is just start playing better. Like they just need to, like, they need to get their form right. And if they get their form right, the math will take, I guess my point was getting their form right will make the math work. But if they were just kind of eking out results, I don't know that I would necessarily feel better about that, but this was a result that, you know, sure, like could two points end up making the difference between the playoffs and not? Absolutely. There's a,
00:16:27
Speaker
But if they play as well as they did for the second half for the rest of the season, they're going to make those two points are not going to be as consequential that I don't think that are going to make the difference between the playoffs and not. And I guess it's it also goes to my point that I've been making for a while, is that the Sounders have just been
00:16:46
Speaker
So like this season has been so atypical in a lot of ways where, you know, last year they were one of the best set piece teams. And I'm sure Zhao Paolo was a huge part of that, but this year they're one of the league's worst set piece teams. And it's not like they suddenly have forgotten how to, like they're still generating a decent amount of chances on set pieces. They just aren't scoring any. And, but right now there's like a difference of like,
00:17:14
Speaker
I don't know, probably six goals that they that they would have had. You can put those six goals at like randomly sort them throughout the season. And I guarantee there's at least four or five points that they're going to pick up.
00:17:27
Speaker
from randomly sorting those six goals. And that makes a big difference in the standings. Another thing I've been talking about is how they've been losing all these one goal results. And again, you sprinkle some of those set piece goals into those one goal results. And that's where you get those four or five points at least. And I guess my point of this is that
00:17:55
Speaker
And on the whole it's not like the sounders have suddenly just started playing like garbage, it's that they're not getting results we've talked about this in previous episodes where they are just sort of mediocre and the breaks that they've traditionally been getting aren't going their way and some of that is you make your own luck.
00:18:13
Speaker
I guess to bring us back to the larger point, one of the biggest positives I thought out of the Galaxy game was it looked like the 3-5-2 might be a formation that you can sort of build on going forward, especially now that we know that Christian Roldan is going to be out for the next few games.
00:18:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think that if it was at least in part a confidence issue, and just from the eye test explicitly, it kind of feels like that was a big part of it, is they just felt like a team that looked like they didn't know how to create goals and that didn't really know what their identity was. They did not have that look about them in the second half against LA.
00:18:55
Speaker
They got off the Schneider, right? They scored three goals in a very short period of time. They looked really dangerous doing it. I thought even in the first half, as bad as they looked at times, there were some promising signs and that the first half was a little unfair to them. And I mean, Morris had that goal waved off offside where he's just barely offside. And they were creating chances.
00:19:19
Speaker
And I think that that's the critical thing, right? Like for a while now, they haven't looked goal dangerous. They haven't looked, they've just been pumping in crosses. I mean, you talked about this with Brian after the last game where they're attempting a ton of crosses and that's definitely not the plan. And this has been a recurring theme for the Sounders.
00:19:43
Speaker
over the years when they've struggled. And believe it or not, it's been a recurring theme that I've observed with Villa as well. And I'm sure any other team that, you know, their fans will tell you when we're not playing well, when we can't create, it's just crosses and crosses and crosses and crosses. Right. And more a symptom of being exactly of when the game sort of falls apart. Exactly. Like you can't break down teams. You're not taking risks. Teams are able to bunker and against you. I thought what was really encouraging was that when the galaxy went 1-0 up,
00:20:14
Speaker
I had the sinking feeling of like, well, I felt okay if the Sounders scored first, but I do not trust their ability to get into a game when a team can take a more defensive posture because they just haven't shown the ability to do that. And they were able to just completely break down the galaxy in a way that I haven't seen them break a team down in months. Absolutely. And that's hugely encouraging to
Yacht-Con Postponement Announcement
00:20:35
Speaker
me.
00:20:35
Speaker
Yeah, I would totally agree with you. Just to put some numbers behind what you were saying, a week ago, the Sounders, I think, pumped in something like 32 crosses from open play against the Galaxy. It was 14. So they cut that number. They had about a third as many crosses despite having a fair amount of the ball. I thought Albert Rusnak looked particularly good in this one.
00:21:01
Speaker
Uh, Raul Rui Diaz, I think looked like, you know, pretty close to the full version of himself. I thought Jordan Morris was sharper than we've seen him in a long time. Nico Ledero, uh, looked like himself, you know, you can kind of go down the roster.
00:21:19
Speaker
But maybe the biggest revelation, Danny Leyva really looks like he belongs out there right now to the point that, you know, I don't know that he's the key to the sounders sort of turning this around, but he does provide something alongside Rusnak that the sounders have really struggled to find since Obed Vargas went down with injury.
00:21:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I've kind of been banging the strum for a while that like that, that lack of a player doing the things that Leva has been able to do over the last couple of games has been a huge part of what's caused problems for the Sounders. And so if he can keep putting in those performances, that's a huge thing. And it's something that's not just the defensive phase, but it's every phase of the game, right? Like that, the doing that kind of dirty work that he's been doing, being able to move the ball forward, not being like,
00:22:07
Speaker
super conservative with the ball but also taking care of, you know, keeping your house in order tactically, keeping the midfield shape together like that's all stuff that's caused problems for the Sounders this year in the absence of of JP and then Obed and I think that
00:22:23
Speaker
If that problem is sorted out, that sorts out a whole host of other problems. And the defense is something that people have been really frustrated with over, I think, especially this last pretty poor run since the Portland game. But realistically, this is a very above average defense on the year. They've given up 34 goals.
00:22:45
Speaker
third best in the Western Conference. That's not a lot of goals. That's not Philly. Philly has given up like 20 goals or something like that. It's insane. But it's pretty good, right? That's a pretty good defense. And that's like the most maddening thing is that the defense has actually been statistically fine.
00:23:03
Speaker
Right. And I think a lot of when they've looked really bad, when they've looked like they've been really pulled out of shape, when they've looked sort of at sixes and sevens, a lot of that has been the midfield just getting overrun. And I don't think we saw that as much against the Galaxy. And I think that's going to be hugely encouraging because it allows everything else in the Sounders tactical approach to work.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And if they can, if they can solidify who those defenders are, I, you know, we, we've spent a lot of time on new who struggles in the attack, but he has, you know, we saw him again against the galaxy looking like a very, very good left center back. He was outstanding in that game. And I was a little annoyed that he didn't get more
00:23:54
Speaker
because he's gotten a lot of stick and he's deserved a lot of sticks. But he was great in this one and I'll note that he made two really good plays on the second goal. One of them was keeping a, he picked up a misclearance and then right away he had the play in the box
00:24:13
Speaker
that kept it alive and sent it out to Lidaro who ended up crossing it to Rui Diaz. But yeah, he looked great. He almost blew my mind when he looked like he wanted to shoot on that same sequence from like 25 yards out, but he didn't. And he deserves credit for some good play. And I mean, I don't think the sounders should
00:24:40
Speaker
use a formation that is designed specifically to get the best out of new who, but it does seem like. A lot of players are in positions that this suits them. Uh, you know, letting Jordan Morris just be a forward, I think right now might be for the best. Letting people, like giving Nicole Adero the freedom to be, you know, sitting beneath two forwards like that, uh, probably suits him. Uh, Alex rolled on as a wingback suits him. You know, I think the left wingback position is still.
00:25:10
Speaker
Maybe a bit of a question. I don't know if Kellen Rowe is the answer there, but he looked perfectly fine against the galaxy. I think Jimmy Madranda has shown some promise. Last year he looked great at that position. He's had some struggles defensively this year, and I don't know if that's going to initially go away, but it's just a lot of players that look like they're in positions.
00:25:34
Speaker
Were there set up to succeed? Yeah, and I think the midfield roles are a little clearer in that formation. I think that some of the deficiencies in the midfield are masked a little bit by playing with three center backs. I think Jordan looks just infinitely better as a forward, which is crazy to think about, because before his injury, he looked like he had fully become a winger. And now he looks back to being, you know,
00:26:01
Speaker
a forward first and foremost. But, you know, if he can play forward the way he played against Galaxy, that's fine. I mean, they can make a two forward set up work. It's not like they've got like a lot of other wingers banging on the door to force him to play that sort of formation. And I think I just, I do think that
00:26:24
Speaker
New who has a left center back and a three defender set up or three center back setup is one of the better players on the team. Like he's he's a better than average, like he's better than your average sounder in that situation. And if he's playing as a left back, he's a black hole. Like I think it.
00:26:43
Speaker
I just that's kind of the reality like maybe you don't need to completely shift your tactical approach just for new who but I think it has to be a consideration right like hey this guy's a plus center back who contributes a lot somewhat amusingly I think that he actually is pretty decent in the attacking phase as a center as a center back when he's playing as a center back whereas when he's playing his left back he's
00:27:08
Speaker
not that, I'll just say. But I just think it makes the team better in general to have him doing what he does best and not doing what he does worst. And, you know, he does that as a center back. Left wing back is the question mark, but I'm not sure either of Ro or Madranda are worse at left wing back than you as a left back.
00:27:33
Speaker
Right, so you're getting better there. The defense looks more solid. The midfield looks more comfortable. I think that Rusnak can get forward a little bit more and be a little more effective in the attack than when he's trying to shield two center backs instead of three. I just think it makes the most sense for this personnel right now. And I don't think that tactics and formational stuff is always a panacea, necessarily. But I think in this case,
00:27:59
Speaker
There are some serious deficiencies that have just been caused by injuries and attrition and all sorts of stuff that shifting to this formation is kind of a decision that's been made for the sounders to some degree.
00:28:11
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, I am I am actually intrigued to see how this plays out. I think we're going to probably get some a lot more evidence of of all this when they face the timbers. A team who, by the way, is coming off a 4-1 loss to the last place team in the Western Conference. You know, you sort of throw the records and you throw the form out whenever the Sounders are playing the timbers. But like,
00:28:37
Speaker
There's not a, I don't think there's a lot of rational reasons to not be at least cautiously optimistic going into this one. And, uh, and we'll see, we'll see how it goes. Uh, but a win would absolutely be huge and, uh, fingers crossed on that one. Uh, but we're going to take a break right now. We're going to come back. We have some news about yacht con and, uh, we'll be taking your questions. Uh, you're listening to no idea at this.
Performance in Tight Matches
00:29:05
Speaker
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00:29:44
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:30:25
Speaker
Welcome back to NOS Adiete. So before we get into the questions, I told you we had some news about Yacht-Con. If you have been on Twitter or on its own or hurt, or if you bought a ticket, you probably know this, but in case you didn't, we have decided to postpone Yacht-Con until hopefully we're able to bring it back next year, move it back to pre-season, but you know,
00:30:50
Speaker
Frankly, there were too many headwinds, I think, working against us. We put in a fair amount of work to get to where we were. We were really happy with how things were looking. But I just didn't get the sense that there was a ton of interest out there. And I don't blame anyone. COVID is still a thing.
00:31:11
Speaker
People are packing a lot of events into, they put off a lot of events over the last two years that they're still trying to make room for. And I think we would have probably had a decent crowd, but the energy I wasn't necessarily sensing was there and we were just not interested in trying to force this.
00:31:34
Speaker
We'll be back. Hopefully everyone understands, but that's the basics. All right. We have some questions. This is a question near and dear to my heart from BP2U. Did Jeremiah curse us? Because Brian said that I cursed them after the RSL game.
00:32:00
Speaker
I think so. What do you make of that? Yeah, I think so. You gotta blame somebody. Yeah, I'm a good scapegoat. Yeah, most people will like you less than they like the players and Brian. Yeah, justifiably. Yeah, I'm much less popular than Brian. I'm much less popular than most of the players. So yeah, I mean, I'll take the arrows. I will do that. But yeah, I guess
00:32:25
Speaker
That was, I guess, it was because I had pointed out the Sounders record in one goal games and it's not good. And, uh, it got a little bit better marginally, I guess, against the galaxy. Although the ending was, it would have been better if they had won a one goal game than, than tied one, but, uh, some ties here would be actually fine. Yeah. Some ties would be good. Yeah.
00:32:52
Speaker
So the next one is from Dave Clark. Should the first team sign Marlin? So Marlin Vargas, in case you don't know, is a player for the Tacoma Defiance. He has been in the Sounders Academy.
Marlon Vargas Signing Debate
00:33:06
Speaker
He signed a professional deal I think five years ago as like a 17 year old.
00:33:10
Speaker
And he's still only 22. He's sort of like a Swiss Army Knife midfielder type, but he's like among the league leaders in goals. He's among the league leaders in assists in MLS Next Pro. He is making a really strong case for the MLS Next Pro MVP, especially considering the Defiance currently had the best record in the league.
00:33:33
Speaker
and are one of the best teams in League. So he is kind of the poster child for if you are like he's having an outstanding season. I don't know that he is someone that's going to help the Sounders
Roldan's Injury Impact
00:33:49
Speaker
make the playoffs, I don't, I don't know. Like I'm not saying he isn't, I'm just, but I do have a hard time seeing him. Like, I don't think he's going to get minutes over Danny Leyva. I don't think he's going to get minutes over Albert Rusnak. Uh, but could he be useful? Maybe he definitely might. And if the senders get down to the last days of the roster freeze, I don't, why not give the kid a contract, send a message to the defiance players that if you do well.
00:34:19
Speaker
We'll give you a first team contract and heck, maybe it works out. But as much as I wish this was the case, I don't see him as saving the season.
00:34:29
Speaker
No, probably not. But I do think there is something to be said for rewarding players that show the kind of growth he has. Absolutely. And I have to feel like if you're concerned about roster limits going into next year, I have to feel like there's a USL team that could do somebody like him next year. And that's going to make that not. Yeah. And honestly, if the worst case is that you have to guarantee him through next year, it's fine. You'll be fine. I guarantee it. I guarantee Marlon Vargas is not the guy who's going to make or break your roster.
00:34:59
Speaker
If he is, you've got bigger problems. Right, exactly. And I think there's something to be said about, like I said, sending a message to the players like, just because you weren't the highest level prospect, if you perform, we're going to take care of you. So this is from Nick in Seattle. He says, I just saw the CR7 news. Can we panic now?
00:35:26
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, I think it's probably too late. Honestly, like if you're gonna panic, it was probably, it was like a few weeks ago, the Portland game, I would say would be a good, a good moment to assert panicking. Um, that was when it was like, Oh, these guys are actually kind of broken. Um,
00:35:45
Speaker
You know, we talked about this earlier in the show. I honestly think, I don't want to say there's a silver lining to this, but I do think that there is potentially some upside in that it kind of makes some decisions for you. It allows Christian to get healthy, which I think is the crucial thing. I mean, if he's going to be out four to six weeks, he'll be back for the playoffs.
00:36:06
Speaker
Right. Having a fully healthy Christian and the playoffs versus limping into the playoffs and having an even more hurt Christian, I think I'll take fully healthy Christian. And if they don't make the playoffs because they don't have them, they probably weren't going to make the playoffs with the version
Optimizing Albert Rusnak's Role
00:36:21
Speaker
of Christian they had.
00:36:21
Speaker
So yeah, that's a fair way of looking at it. And I, and I'll, you know, we don't know how long he's been playing with this injury. Uh, what we do know is that he was playing great up until about two months ago. And he's had, you know, he had something like, I think he had five goals or four goals and.
00:36:41
Speaker
uh through the sender's first like 20 odd games and he's only had one goal in the last eight he had no assist in the last eight games and he just hasn't looked himself especially the last couple weeks uh you know he you know he just looks a little slower on defense he's not as strong on the ball and and like the sounders need
00:37:05
Speaker
peak Christian Roldan to be at their best. Like they, like, especially given the other offices. And the only way they were going to get peak Christian Roldan is if he has this surgery and hopefully he comes back strong. And if he can get into a couple of games and help push the Sanders across the line and, you know, and is like fully ready to go for the playoffs, great. Like I think that's the best case scenario. And frankly,
00:37:31
Speaker
That's like you said, that's better than like, just taking a 75% version of them and, and open for the best. I think the fact that he had been coming out of games pretty regularly in hindsight should have been a bigger red flag. Cause that's not, not something that happens too frequently. And, and he'd, I think a couple of games in a row about and subbed out. So, uh, so next one is from Bill Jones, TRPT. Rusnak looks amazing on the ball on the final third. Is there a way that it makes sense to get him more touches around the 18? I mean,
00:38:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think you can just, I think that's sort of what Danny Leyva is doing, right? Like he is giving Albert Rusnak the freedom to join the attack.
MLS Salary Cap Critique
00:38:15
Speaker
I don't know that there's a way to, like as the roster is currently constructed, I don't know that it makes a lot of sense to like swap him and Nico Ledero. And I've seen that mentioned as, I'm not saying that's what Bill here is suggesting.
00:38:31
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I think that's what Danny Leyva's assignment is.
00:38:36
Speaker
defer to Rusnak, let him get into the attack. You know, he had a few just outstanding moments, I thought, against the galaxy. One of them was where he just destroyed Ricky. It's it's Poosh. Is that how you say that name? I think it's I think they're saying it on the broadcast. Yeah, but he's English. So who knows? Right. That was sort of trusted. I think it's I think it's huge. Like, OK.
00:39:03
Speaker
like pure show. I mean it is kind of a Catalan name so but in any case he does great spin like sort of like this tackle that he went into with uh we'll call him Ricky and he looked right there and then he had those two shots on the on the second goal where he hit the crossbar on the first one and then he hit the
00:39:24
Speaker
the post on the second and they were both great shots and it was sort of a reminder that he can really shoot. He just hasn't been able to do it a whole lot for the sounders.
00:39:34
Speaker
It's kind of funny because it was sort of a running almost joke, I guess you would call it on the show about how we wanted like a DP, deep lion playmaker, fielder. And like we ended up getting one that we didn't know that's what we were getting. But I mean, that's like, he really has been that kind of player for the Sounders. And I think he's done it really well. And I think that he's been underappreciated in that role. But I do think when he can get a little more involved in the attack, it's a good thing as we saw for sure.
00:40:04
Speaker
And I would say that the Sounders are going to be at their best when he's able to contribute something offensively. For sure. Yeah. He can start in a deeper position and he can, he can sort of occupy that space. But if he's playing as a defensive midfielder, something has gone wrong further. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so this one is from M Gomini. What changes, if any, would you make to the salary cap roster rules to help the league continue to improve competitively against other leagues?
00:40:33
Speaker
I would assume that we are like not, the option of get rid of it is not on the table, I think is probably a fair assumption. Kind of against the spirit of the question, I think. But I do, I would eliminate the cap and I would go to a system kind of more like what baseball has, that the NBA has with like a floor and a luxury tax. I think that, you know, I think that if
00:41:01
Speaker
LAFC wants to spend an ungodly amount of money and pay a tax for doing that, and that gets redistributed to the other teams, then they should be able to do it. Why would we want to deny American Soccer Club's greatness in the words of a wise man? But I genuinely don't think that even if you could just say there's no more salary cap
00:41:29
Speaker
things happen the same way they do in every, quote, every other league, unquote. I don't think that's the right thing to do. Like, I think that competitive balance is a good thing. I think that we were talking about this before the show. The Premier League is boring, dude. Like, it sucks because whoever spends the most money is going to win.
00:41:51
Speaker
And if they don't win one year, they're just going to spend twice as much money the next year to win. And that's like, that's, it's not good for the game. Uh, now that just uninteresting. Yeah, it's, it's boring. It's boring as hell. And you know, there, there are teams like in MLS right now, all the teams are businesses, right? More or less ostensibly. And if you open everything up, I think that the odds are that there's going to be teams that aren't really run that way anymore. And I don't think that's necessarily for the benefit of the game.
00:42:20
Speaker
But I do think getting rid of the restrictions on, well, you can spend this much on this profile player, and you can spend this much on this pro. I don't let teams spend the money they have, however they want to have it. Try to put some guardrails on with something like a luxury tax. Force teams to spend a certain amount of money. I think you're at the point where team, like if that's going to cause FC Dallas or something to fail,
00:42:48
Speaker
There's plenty of people that'll write you a big check to take their spot. And I'd like to think that the teams like FC Dallas are currently
00:42:58
Speaker
employing a model that should make them solvent forever, theoretically. I mean, Dallas might not ever spend a ton of money, but as long as they're generating income through player sales the way they are now, are they really going to be in any different number of predicament?
00:43:18
Speaker
then they are now in a different in a system where that's a little bit more free spending like the other teams free spending is not gonna curtail their ability to develop players. But on the same note, did you happen to read the athletic article where they made the case for less parody?
00:43:39
Speaker
No, because I feel like I've read it a million times before. Right. Well, it was I thought it was an interesting story. And I was basically arguing that the reason that MLS hasn't broken through in the mainstream sports consciousness is because there's too much parity and the league is like too unpredictable, I guess was the argument. And that people love it when sports are unpredictable.
00:44:06
Speaker
They hate it, sorry. Right, yeah. It was a little all over the place. I think ultimately what they were saying is that they'd like to see the best teams be able to attract some of the world's best talent. And they didn't quite say it that way, but that was sort of like the illusion that they were making. And so in order to do that, you would have to allow a couple teams to sort of like rise above the fray. And I just can't help but think,
00:44:34
Speaker
Isn't that what's going on in Italy? Isn't that what's going on in France? Isn't that what's going on in Germany? And those leagues, while clearly better than MLS, are not necessarily like ratings champions either.
00:44:55
Speaker
The, yeah, I mean the, what for MLS to break through into the mainstream American consciousness, soccer has to be a lot more popular than it is among the audience that is considered the American sporting mainstream. Right. Like soccer is hugely popular in America. MLS is not as popular because a lot of the soccer that's popular is popular. It's the leagues of.
00:45:19
Speaker
immigrants who like the native country. It's Liga, Maki's, it's the English Premier League and it's Champions League and it's really just those three teams and then maybe Barcelona and Madrid and Bayern are popular but La Liga is not particularly popular. Serie A is not particularly popular. The Bundesliga is not particularly popular. Like some teams in those leagues are very popular.
00:45:43
Speaker
But it's just a different equation. But to your point, Grant Wall compiled all the contracts that American TV stations or streaming services are paying to soccer leagues. And it's now actually quite a bit more money than anyone's paying for the NHL. And the ratings sort of back that up.
00:46:06
Speaker
if you combine the best ratings from soccer, there might be more soccer fans than NHL fans. But part of the problem is that there's a lot of...
00:46:17
Speaker
There's a lot of soccer. There's a lot of soccer. That's the thing is like all of these arguments that MLS isn't popular because we're not allowing teams to spend. If the teams could spend what they wanted to spend, you can't compete with Manchester City. You can't compete with PSG. Barcelona is just making up money. You can't compete with that. LAFC could be given free reign to spend whatever they wanted.
00:46:45
Speaker
and they wouldn't be able to spend like a lower table Premier League team. That's just the reality. Like the best talent in the world is going to three or four leagues in Europe and really it's going to like six teams. And if you're just saying, well, MLS didn't have these salary cap rules, you know, Killian Mbappe would be playing for LFC and Neymar would be playing for Inter Miami. You're wrong. Like that's just not the way it works because
00:47:14
Speaker
American soccer is not the best soccer in the world. The best soccer in the world is played in Europe. That's where they pay the most money. They've got the best competitions. They've got the Champions League. That's what everybody else in the world is
Closing Remarks and Gratitude
00:47:25
Speaker
watching. It's just such an America-centric view of if soccer suddenly became the most popular sport in America, there's still more people watching the Champions League outside of America.
00:47:38
Speaker
than in America and there's still going to be more money to play in Europe. That's just the way it is. Right. And I think that's, we've talked about, this is like, it feels like an old conversation, but there is a, there's a certain quality of player that's never going to give up the chance to play in Champions League.
00:47:55
Speaker
And that's never going to give up on the chance of, of winning champions league titles. Like you're just like, and the, the gap between where like MLS can absolutely compete. You can imagine a world where MLS can compete for the kind of player who is signing for the fourth or fifth best team in Spain. Right. Like you can, you can, you can get yourself to that point. I think when you're like, okay, I could see a world where, where, uh, MLS is, is competing for guys that are signing $50 million or $75 million transfer fees.
00:48:26
Speaker
But those aren't the guys that are going to go to Barcelona. Those aren't the guys that are going to go to Madrid. Those aren't the guys who are going to even PSG or Juventus or like these other big clubs that are able to compete in Champions League and dominate their domestic leagues. And until you are getting those players, it's going to be really hard to compete
00:48:51
Speaker
popularity wise with those players, you know, with the leagues that where those players are going or with, yeah, with the competition, those players are playing. And yeah. And I think if you look at the rest of the world where soccer is the most popular sport, the domestic leagues there are doing like the Eredivisia is doing well, you know, the Austrian Bundesliga is doing well. Like these leagues are doing fine and everybody's OK with them. It's just that soccer just isn't as popular here.
00:49:18
Speaker
Well, and, and by the way, the area to VC is not probably drawing like there, I would imagine their, their TV ratings aren't really any better than MLS is. Yeah. I mean, I probably not. I mean, they have a much smaller population that they're, they're selling it to, right? Yeah. I just like, they're, they're making a lot of money off like developing players and champions, like the clubs at the top champions league and stuff like that. But it's just, I wish that we could.
00:49:46
Speaker
be okay as Americans with the fact that MLS is like a middle of the road league. Like it's, it's better than most leagues in the world. Right. That's not bad. Like it's compared to what it was when we started doing this show, it's light years better. Yeah. And even then it was probably a better than average league worldwide. Um,
00:50:10
Speaker
And I get that Americans are used to having the best of everything and feel like they're entitled to that, but it's just like plenty of people around the world love their clubs and love their local clubs and their leagues. And they still watch the Champions League and they still watch the Premier League or whatever, but they still love their local teams because they're their local teams and they're okay with their place in the, like they're not constantly obsessing with how do we get to this level? Because they're not going to, they've just kind of accepted that.
00:50:38
Speaker
which isn't to say that MLS can't get better, that MLS shouldn't loosen the purse strings, but I just think that, you know, the idea that if every MLS team could spend $300 million that the league would suddenly be like, and every, like most of these teams are not interested in spending that kind of money. Part of the reason that Toronto FC is willing to go out and spend $15 million a year on Lorenzo Insinie is because
00:51:07
Speaker
they know they can only sign one of those guys. Yes, they have a $40 million budget, but if they had a $50 million budget, I don't necessarily think they would go out and sign another Lorenzo and Tine. They're going to disperse the money differently, I guess, but you're still not going to be a Champions League quality team.
00:51:30
Speaker
Right. The talent distribution in MLS, it's gotten better with the introduction of like TAM and stuff like that, but it's out of black. Like one of the thought experiments I've always kind of had fun with is, and I think Josh Yaqui even put together like a bot that did this way back in the day. Josh Yaqui. That was like, whatever happened to that guy? But where it was basically like, you set a salary budget,
00:51:57
Speaker
And it just randomly generates an MLS, like from the players in MLS randomly generates like rosters if they, the standings or whatever. And like, you know, even in like 2013 or whatever it was when he put this together, like those teams were pretty good teams because the teams at the top have all the good players. And then, you know, your DC user, whatever have a bunch of trash.
00:52:21
Speaker
And I don't think that that's necessarily a better setup, but I do think it speaks to the talent, like the aggregate talent level in MLS. It's pretty good. It's getting better, but the teams just look differently than teams in other parts of the world because of the sort of carrots and sticks of roster building.
00:52:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And I guess that's a long way of saying, I think MLS can and should get better, but the way for it to get better is not through like significantly less parity. And, you know, as it is, I think, you know, the fact that, like,
00:53:05
Speaker
The Sounders have been consistently very good and LAFC has been consistently very good and Toronto FC has been consistently, like it's not like every year it's just a roll of the dice and a new collection of teams are good. Yes, like there is a degree of that I understand, but like I think we can also sometimes overstate the degree to which that's true.
00:53:30
Speaker
teams like every team has a decent shot of turning it around and becoming a playoff team for being garbage in one year. Yeah. But like, look at who wins the MLS cups, man, like the galaxy had a run where they won like, what, like four out of six. The Sounders have been to four since 2016. Like,
00:53:50
Speaker
there's not like there's parody to a degree but the best teams have been good for a long time because they figured out how to spend their money well and make good decisions and I don't know this idea that it's a total crapshoot it's not based on much I think which is I guess the point you're making yeah yeah but anyway well that's uh I guess that's let's show
00:54:15
Speaker
Um, thanks again for hanging out with us. Uh, hopefully we have, uh, you know, more fun stuff to talk about soon. Uh, but, uh, I want to thank, uh, Popol Wines. I want to thank Watson's Counter. Uh, I am Jeremiah Shan, signing off on behalf of Aaron Campo and look at this is his own Adiatus. Remember, you'll never get alone.
00:54:45
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the water's 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.
00:55:22
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!