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Matt Doyle thinks the LA Galaxy may be in some trouble
2.8k Plays9 days ago
MLS Armchair Analyst Matt Doyle returns for what will be a regular feature talking about the Western Conference. This week, he and Jeremiah play a little game of “Choose your own adventure” to discuss the Week 1 results. He’s a lot less high on the LA Galaxy than he used to be but still think the Sounders and LAFC are going to be near the top.
You can read Matt Doyle every week at MLSsoccer.com, watch his tactical videos on Bluesky and subscribe his new “Tactics Free Zone” newsletter.
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“Diversions” audio provided by Sounder at Heart subscriber Lars; find more of their music here.
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Transcript
Sponsorship and Introductions
00:00:02
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounders supporters.
00:00:16
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
00:00:25
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. Here we Come on.
00:00:36
Speaker
Hey, O'Shea. Let's go. The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners.
00:00:53
Speaker
And now they truly can't start the celebrations.
Sounders' MLS Cup Victory
00:00:56
Speaker
It's the Sounders MLS Cup. Nikola. so The Sounders rule the region!
00:01:05
Speaker
Seattle, the Sounders,
00:01:13
Speaker
it's going to be good! He's gone! That is good!
00:01:24
Speaker
That publicist ain't cheating.
00:01:30
Speaker
since sounder hard commentary that you didn't take look
00:01:41
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adietes.
Western Conference Insights
00:01:44
Speaker
I am Jeremiah O'Shan, joined today by new friend of the show, longtime friend of the show, Matt Doyle, the armchair analyst.
00:01:55
Speaker
Welcome back, Matt New regular guest of the show, but yeah, longtime friend and supporter of the There we go. There we go. I like that. I think you you captured that well.
00:02:06
Speaker
So ah we're going to try to do this regularly. this is This is the second time we've had you on, but we're going to do our best to to make this at least like a ah monthly feature where we sort of go through the Western Conference and come up with different ways to talk about it. This time...
00:02:20
Speaker
I thought, here we are coming out of week one, and I'm going to call this, we're going to do it, maybe this will be an ongoing bit, but today i wanted to do play a little choose your own adventure with Matt.
LA Galaxy's Struggles and San Diego's Strategy
00:02:32
Speaker
And so what we're going to do is we're going to run through the schedule of Western Conference games, and I'm going to give you two oh clearly overreacting storylines, and we'll let you choose which one you want to get into, and ah and then we can we can kind of dig it into it from there. How does that sound, Matt?
00:02:49
Speaker
I'm always game for a bit. You know that. Yeah, I figured you love bits. So this would be, yeah you know, I had to make it worth your time. And I will say, I hope everyone goes and reads your column today on MLSsoccer.com.
00:03:04
Speaker
It is always some really fun insight into some of the finer points. I liked the videos you're doing. How sad are we that you have to use Twitter, though, to like make these videos?
00:03:14
Speaker
This guy needs to start making longer videos, like allow us to do better videos. I was able to get them on blue sky too. So I was able to oh learn ah how to use handbrake, which is actually pretty simple ah software to compress video files. So they're all up on blue sky as well.
00:03:30
Speaker
The problem is our CMS doesn't take blue sky embeds, which is why they're still going out on Twitter, um which I, I would prefer not to use at at this point in our decaying democracy democratic world. But um you know, it is what it is.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, well, that makes sense. I guess I'll now have to go back and find these things. I missed them on Blue Sky, but I did watch the videos and I thought they were well done. So anyway, Matt. They're fun make, man. And they weren't as hard.
00:04:04
Speaker
It's not as hard to to learn the software as I thought it would be, especially for, red you know, an old guy with a half century old brain that's probably mostly calcified. Like, all right, was able to figure that out.
00:04:15
Speaker
Okay. Okay. I like that. All right. Well, let's just start with, I want to say, i like that MLS is moving finally to this game of the week model where we are going to have a chance to, as a, as a soccer nation, embrace a game every week and, and, you know, kind of treat it like it is like, it like the big deal that it should be.
00:04:38
Speaker
And this week we got galaxy versus San Diego FC. Okay. And I guess the the two narratives I'm going to let you cook, decide to cook on is, did we underestimate how much the galaxy will miss Ricky Pooge, which I know is something you said they wouldn't do?
00:04:57
Speaker
Or has Mikey Veris decoded MLS after one week? ah the Let's take the Galaxy one and kick on that because I actually am currently overreacting on that. I handed in my my power rankings um and i you know I had the Galaxy, I think, fifth or sixth in the first power rankings because I i thought they would be able to compensate without Ricky. um I had him 16th in this week's power rankings because they just were not able to do anything in terms of
00:05:31
Speaker
um ball progression, finding Marco Royce between the lines. And then they weren't really able to effectively stretch the field either. And like part of that was, um you know, Mikey Varis doing a really good job structurally setting that San Diego team up. A part of it was like, Oh man, they really sucked.
00:05:49
Speaker
Yeah. at the things they were good at last year. And the biggest reason why was was no Ricky Pooch. And it just made me feel like, oh, they're going to kind of have to go back to the drawing board this week. They're going to have to do a lot of what they did in the last 15 minutes of the game. When Elijah Winder came in for Lucas Sanabria and he gave them, i think more dynamism and sort of transitioning from possession to attack and, and getting them to to be a little bit more vertical with, I think, more aggressive positioning and off ball running.
00:06:21
Speaker
And like, I honestly feel that way after 90 minutes, which might be an overreaction.
00:06:31
Speaker
Well, you know, I think one of the stats that jumped out to me was Marco Royce only had, i guess, one key pass and 32 touches in 72 minutes. ah And you you look at him as the player who you assume is going to kind of fill the Ricky Pooge role.
00:06:48
Speaker
And that's like, I don't know, a quarter of his per 90 touches per like that's that's a that's a very different player like that. whether or not 32 touches is enough in a vacuum.
00:06:59
Speaker
If he's the guy that needs to be Ricky Pooge, Ricky Pooge is getting 120 touches, uh, a night per 90 minutes, basically. Uh, that seems like it's a, it's a problem. I thought it was going to be b split more between ah the the two deeper lying defensive midfielders. And I think Greg Vanny did too, right? It was Vanny was yelling.
00:07:21
Speaker
This is as per Weeby, who was on the sideline and could hear all of this happening. Vanny spent the whole first hour yelling at Sanabria, Sanabria, how you say the guy's name that for being too high.
00:07:32
Speaker
for not being in a position where he could get touches and help combo play with Edwin Cerio. And I think the feeling is if senator ah ah Sanabria had been deeper like that, more of a two, one rather than the one, two,
00:07:46
Speaker
um that they would have been able to find Royce in between the lines more. So, you know, it goes back to to my overreaction, which was that Winder just did a much better job of that, like both getting on the ball and then progressing the ball.
00:08:02
Speaker
And the reason why it probably is, might be, could be an overreaction, is like all that came in the tactics free zone. over the final 20 minutes of the game when the Galaxy were like, oh you know, what but we're throwing the kitchen sink and we got to go for it. But it was worrying, man. It was a worrying, like super sterile performance from a team that on paper has the pieces to make up for not having Ricky Pudge for most of the season.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, they had one big chance in the game, and that was with Miguel Berry on the on the end of it. That does not seem to be... you know Even missing Joseph Paintsill, that was not... you know yeah i don't think anyone really expected them to be so so feckless, ah really, in the attack.
00:08:49
Speaker
And, I mean mean, honestly, good job to San Diego um because they were playing that super tight 4-3-3, and almost reminded me of those great ah RSL teams from... you know, 15 years ago, they played a super tight diamond. And then we're like, if you're going to beat us, you're going to have to take risks by playing out loud out wide and overloads and get your fullback to the end line for pullbacks. But if you do that, you're going to open yourself up to be countered.
00:09:15
Speaker
And that's exactly how San Diego got the second goal to kill the game off. So saying, okay, bring them all up. We're going to go in the other direction because that's what you're taking a risk on. um So it like,
00:09:26
Speaker
All of this, ah you know, in how we're discussing the galaxy, um all of this is at least an equal measure. Well done to the newcomers for for inflicting this level of suffering on the champs.
00:09:40
Speaker
Yeah, and it and that is a quite an impressive way to open. I honestly, I suspect... there's going to be some growing pains for San Diego. There is always some growing pains, although I don't know, not, we sometimes overestimate how much growing pains, uh, expansion teams are going to have.
00:09:57
Speaker
I, you know, I heard, just read some of what they said going into the season and it felt like, wow, that seems a little naive, but Hey, uh, at the very least that last goal was one of the prettier goals. I like just, it was just a very pretty constructed, like du the way it unfolded. ah Yeah. It was just very satisfying visually.
00:10:18
Speaker
Yeah. And Thomas on hell, who I don't think has ever looked like an MLS caliber player. And from what I've seen of him, like he hit a perfect pass right into dryer stride for, for the goal. So like,
00:10:31
Speaker
it Like, I don't think they could have asked for a better overall performance in their in their inaugural game. I think the only thing they maybe would have wanted was for Ingevartsen to look at all dangerous, which didn't happen. But yeah, 90 minutes in, three points, that type of performance, they're happy.
00:10:51
Speaker
Yeah, and it can do nothing but go up from here, right? I mean, for her for the galaxy or for San Diego? Because it definitely yeah know i mean it could definitely go down. Oh, you were being sarcastic. I got it. I was being sarcastic. Yeah. Yeah. it's the the whole ah you can yeah whatever can go wrong when an expansion team is too much success early on.
00:11:12
Speaker
All right, well, let's let's move into the next game that I these are in no particular order. I hope the listeners do not mind that I just sort of like randomly pulled the games out of the off the shelf to sort of like talk about. But the next one I wanted to get in partly because I'm interested in it. Obviously, the Sounders are going playing ah RSL this weekend.
00:11:33
Speaker
A few things can change between now and then, but sounds a versus
RSL's Tactical and Squad Challenges
00:11:37
Speaker
RSL. These are the two storylines I came up with. One, did we sleep on RSL's wooden spoon candidacy? And two, are San Jose like a playoff team?
00:11:48
Speaker
Oh, both of those feel like overreactions. Well, they are. but i i I think the i think the the San Jose one is less of an overreaction than the RSL one. So we should talk about that.
00:12:04
Speaker
um ah RSL is a ah potential wooden spoon team. um And I'm going to and read you a quote from Bruce Arena. The scoreline wasn't fair.
00:12:15
Speaker
I don't think that's a four nil game. ah RSL had a lot going against them coming in with their game on Wednesday in Costa Rica and those challenges and all that. So it was a starting point. Let's be fair about that.
00:12:28
Speaker
So it's tough to say that they're going to go from 59 points to wooden spoon, which is what usually 28 points last year was 21 drop off. It would be a really big drop off. And I,
00:12:40
Speaker
So I don't think it's going to be that bad, especially because look, they Pablo Mastroianni gets his teams to play hard, but they also look like a team that got rid of three of their four best attacking players last year that lost something like 70% of their goals that are...
00:13:00
Speaker
changing their system a little bit and rotating their center backs a little bit in a way that I'm not sure makes a ton of sense. um And when you add all that up, like I still can't get myself to wooden spoon for RSL, but I could get myself to like sub 40 points.
00:13:19
Speaker
Like, Oh, this team 20 points worse than last year. And that'd be a little surprising, um but not not a lot surprising. Yeah, I talked to one of our good friends, Matt Montgomery, who covers RSL for Wasatch Sentinel.
00:13:38
Speaker
And I asked him sort of what he thought going into this. And and he but he's he was pretty blunt. He's like, we don't have an MLS caliber number nine on the roster. I don't know if that feels too harsh for you, but it certainly seems to be kind of what's been ah what we've seen early on. You know, RSL has played now two matches, two competitive matches. They had not scored any goals.
00:14:02
Speaker
ah Forster Iago, is that how you say his name? I don't know if it's a ah hard J or right Okay. Well, anyway, this is a, ah a player who is who started both of their games and, and, and doesn't really look the part at this point. I mean, he, he came out of MLS next pro last year at Nashville. He had seven goals. you know, he he was good in MLS next pro last year in relatively limited, limited minutes.
00:14:30
Speaker
He hasn't done anything at the MLS level though. And ah even though he got some decent, look you know, he got ego about 400 minutes or so at the at the first team level. ah But yeah, I mean, this seems like a legitimate concern. i assume that they will patch this hole at some point, but they don't have a quick fix on the roster for the number nine situation.
00:14:52
Speaker
They don't. um but You know, I think they really were expecting the Elias Manuel to play this role, but he just didn't show up. He like they traded for him. um You know, Tom Bogert's done a lot of reporting on this.
00:15:07
Speaker
And oh yeah there seems to have been a pretty massive miscommunication between the clubs and the players. But like he's not there and he's not going to be there. And I think he's the type of player that would have been, know,
00:15:19
Speaker
you know, it was a worthwhile chance to take on him. ah had he been willing to play in Utah, but he wasn't. ah So that it's kind of back to the drawing board. The name that I keep thinking is Duncan McGuire um because RSL has done a lot of good work in terms of ah transferring guys out and accruing some cash to spend.
00:15:40
Speaker
And now they should spend it on a center forward who could help this team. And McGuire is not a starter for Orlando city. And frankly, I don't think he's going to be. So can you get him for 5 million in a cell on?
00:15:54
Speaker
And if you can, I would, you should. Yeah, and my understanding is the Sounders and Orlando, at least, I don't know who ultimately walked away from it, but my understanding is last summer, the Sounders and Orlando were talking about swapping Maguire for Jackson-Reagan, which tells me at least that Orlando was open to that possibility of moving him on.
00:16:17
Speaker
And you know granted, Jackson-Reagan was, at the time, he was still out of contract, which was or he was going to be out of contract, which is why I think the Sounders were exploring that possibility. But ah it was, you know, that that would be an interesting solution for them.
00:16:32
Speaker
ah But if people don't know about the Elias Manuel story, this is something that's maybe gone under the radar a little bit. ah When you said it, it sort of jogged my memory. But so basically what happened, if I'm correct, he was at Red Bull, he got traded.
00:16:46
Speaker
And then after the trade happened, he's like, no, that's not I'm not about that. Yeah. I'm not going to Utah. I'm like, okay. I don't think that that's what, I mean, i haven't read all of Tom's reporting on it.
00:17:01
Speaker
um There's just so much covering 30 teams. But like my understanding is like, there was some level of miscommunication between both organizations and the agent and the player.
00:17:13
Speaker
And it's, it's bad. It's really, really bad because he would help this team a lot. Yeah, ah so but they did. So it's funny because the four zero scoreline at least does seem pretty flattering, obviously, to Jose and RSL did create some chances. oh yeah, no they were.
00:17:35
Speaker
But they were every bit as leaky as that four zero. Like they they they were just gappy all over the place. So they were gappy from the 65th minute onwards.
00:17:48
Speaker
And this is where I need to pull it back a little bit. Right. Cause they weren't good the first hour, but they weren't, they didn't look like a team that was going to lose four nil.
00:17:59
Speaker
um But then i think the, you know, to back to Bruce arena's point, like, they like they had a tough week ah rsl did playing in Central America and all the travel that comes with that um and you know not being a a fully formed team at this point and I think the final 2025 minutes of the game their their legs just gave out and San Jose to their credit were ruthless in a way that San Jose has historically not been um And so they took a, a, what would have been in good win in turn into sort of a, a landmark moment, hopefully for them in the turnaround of that club.
00:18:39
Speaker
ah RSL absolutely do need to learn from it, but I don't think what they should learn is throw everything away. It's permanently broken. It's like, okay, we, we have to figure out, um,
00:18:52
Speaker
you know if we're playing a team that plays with true wide wing backs how do we have our legs in the second half to get pressure to them so christian espinoza isn't absolutely murdering us and like okay we're playing a team with a second forward that's actually starting deeper and making kind of jordan morrissey runs from the left to the right like how do we get our center backs in a position where they can handle that and not have to deal with it in the open field as much, especially after an hour of running and, you know, 3000 miles of flying over the past four days.
00:19:24
Speaker
So one of the things I was a little surprised to see, i guess Pablo Ruiz was playing as a 10. Like the yeah yeah and that's a new role for him. Is it not?
00:19:35
Speaker
It's a new ish role. um You know, they had him primarily as ah as a deep line creator before the injury a year and a half ago. um They don't really think he fits as a deep line central midfielder in their new scheme.
00:19:50
Speaker
And for whatever reason, They do not want to use Diego Luna as a number 10, which I think is a problem. I think at this point, he's pretty clearly the best player on the team. um Put him in the spot where he is the focal point of everything.
00:20:06
Speaker
And just for him as a developmental piece, he has to learn how to do that. He has to learn how to be the first name on the team sheet and the guy who is responsible for how things operate.
00:20:18
Speaker
And I understand why they pushed him out to the left. last year and like Kurt Schmidt has good reasoning behind it he's like he gets more touches when he plays as an inverted left winger than he does as a true number 10 and we want our young players to get touch like that is solid reasoning but like we have moved beyond that point because of the personnel moves that the team has made and the way you help this team is to get ah to get Diego Luna in spots where he could do what Albert respect did on Saturday night, which was have a million touches on the ball and kind of conduct everything, whether that means he's in the box finishing or not.
00:20:59
Speaker
Yeah, the other player who I took note of is Philip Quinton, who is a player who had been, I think, mostly been playing on the right. ah But they have him now. it's He's a big guy but he they moved him. I guess this is maybe a permanent move to move him to center back.
00:21:15
Speaker
ah What what have you made of of his ah his play so far? I haven't. I mean, that you could knock me over with a feather that I just got asked on a podcast.
00:21:25
Speaker
The person and I took note of was Philip Quinton. Can I phone a friend? No, i know. not going to talk about Philip Quinton. Fair enough. He seemed like, I guess he seemed like he was okay in this one. he I just remembered he struck me as a player who was way too large to be playing right back and had been playing right back. I think primarily he, I think primarily he's been a center back in his career. They used him as a right back because there were injury issues last year.
00:21:52
Speaker
Fair enough. Well, i'll I'll take a note that I actually managed to kind of stump you on something, but that's a new one for me. ah Real quick, before we move off of San Jose, I, you know, when I saw the plan that they were going to be playing with three center backs and they were going to move Espinosa to a wingback position, I thought that's an odd, ah that's an odd call.
00:22:15
Speaker
And it seems like it worked really well, though, in this first game. It worked great. I was surprised that they did that because Bruce has always been a four at the back guy, except famously against Mexico and Germany 23 years ago.
00:22:29
Speaker
um But it allows you to play both Chicho Arango and Joseph Martinez and not get completely gashed. defensively because ah you know the 3-5-2 is a naturally sort of wide formation and you have those two center back or central midfielders who aren't going anywhere right they're staying in front of the center backs and then you have those three center backs who aren't going anywhere and then you just hope that you get enough defensively from those two forwards and Munoz the 10 or Lopez Munoz
San Jose's Defensive Shift
00:23:00
Speaker
however he does it
00:23:02
Speaker
Um, you get enough from them to sort of shape the opposing build out a little bit and you have five guys in position to sort of keep it in front of them. I like, it's interesting to see kind of the three, five, two, or the three, four, two, one, um,
00:23:18
Speaker
It's becoming more and more the default formation in MLS because of that. you know ah Columbus, Cincinnati, um you know Toronto used it, I think, pretty effectively last year. We've seen Miami try it at times as well. The Sounders are going to be buying a lot of it.
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's a club to have in the bag. I think for most teams, um it's a real kind of like old dogs, new trick moment with with Bruce who's 72 years old, pulling that out in this game. But also Bruce will tell you um that you're an idiot if you talk to him about formations at all. So, right. Yeah. i know it Feels good to have him back.
00:23:55
Speaker
It's going to be fascinating what I, I, I, it's better, I suppose with, with Bruce in it. All right. So we're going to do, We're going to Portland, Vancouver, which I mean, I'll be honest. It was probably the most enjoyable match I watched of the little weekend.
00:24:15
Speaker
Because you're such a big white caps fan. Exactly. Because I am a white caps Stan. Thank you for listening to the sounder at heart podcast network, which now includes no sony at this lobbing scorchers and the cooler guild.
00:24:30
Speaker
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00:24:48
Speaker
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00:25:10
Speaker
Thanks for listening.
00:25:13
Speaker
It's getting to be that time of year when you need to figure out how to watch Sounders games. If you're an Alliance member, you are getting a free subscription to MLS Season Pass and you're covered. Similarly, if you're a T-Mobile subscriber, you're also covered.
00:25:26
Speaker
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00:25:44
Speaker
Just to make things extra easy, we'll put a link in the show notes too. Thanks.
00:25:50
Speaker
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00:26:46
Speaker
Hacks and Ferments is a proud sponsor of that sounder at heart podcast network. I guess the two talking points that we get to decide between ah here it is is Portland going to be doomed to another awful defensive year or are the Whitecaps the funnest team in the league?
00:27:02
Speaker
um The overreaction is the white caps. Take that makes sense. Cause it doesn't, the Portland take doesn't feel like an overreaction to me.
00:27:13
Speaker
Cause this has been a, but they've been in the league 15 years, 14 years. How many times have they been in the top half of the league defensively? Like three. Have they? i would that I mean, I'd take the under on, if you, if we're setting over underlines, I think the under might be yeah a solid. Yeah.
00:27:31
Speaker
And then they didn't make any big moves defensively ah this winter and but unless it's signing in Ecuador, a 29 year old Ecuadorian demon who has Matt Doyle speed um and showed it several times on the break.
00:27:48
Speaker
ah So I don't i I don't think that the Portland one is an overreaction. the The Whitecaps one is because so much of them being fun was based upon Jaden Nelson, who had himself an all-timer of a game and um could end up being a valuable piece.
00:28:07
Speaker
But I don't think... I mean, he had three assists, a goal in three assists. He forgot. Like the goal was nice. um The three assists, like he, he might not double that for the rest of the year.
00:28:22
Speaker
You know, like he might end the year on five assists. Cause I don't think he has that kind of vision or instinctive ability to create chances. um It was kind of a, you know, even on the one that he had to Vitae, um,
00:28:37
Speaker
he kind of screwed that up and Vitae just took an unbelievably good first touch to put that onto his left foot. So um it it was, I was happy for the caps and I love that the new coach um whose name I have yet to learn is willing to play the kids because that team needs to play and develop the kids.
00:28:57
Speaker
um But it's to say they're going to be the most fun team in the league felt like a massive overreaction. Oh, sure. Absolutely.
Portland Timbers' Defensive Woes
00:29:05
Speaker
ah but i guess let's talk a little bit about that game, though, because i heard some of the discourse following it understandably came around the Kamal Miller dog. So red this is the Schadenfreude part of the podcast for your Sounders fans. Like, let's talk more about the Timbers losing for one at home in their opener. Yeah, exactly. Sure. Sure. jeremiah
00:29:29
Speaker
right Right. I mean, i as a neutral observer, I just am fascinated by the idea that ah but anyone can really... argue like I get it. It's a soft foul, but if you are running behind a a player who's in on goal and you tug on him, you're going to get You're going to get the foul. No, in real time, I thought it was thought it should have been a penalty and then therefore no red card, but it looks like they actually nailed the call on it.
00:29:59
Speaker
And i don't know. so You can call it a soft foul, but again, you're putting yourself that, and that was the second time that a, white caps, a runner was in behind. And that was like the 12th, 13th minute of the game.
00:30:12
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it was a soft foul at all. I think if that foul happens in midfield and you have two other defenders back, it's a yellow card every time. Yeah, right, sure.
00:30:23
Speaker
You know, and like, I don't think White dove. I think he he tried to keep his feet, but like, lost his footing after and then immediately got up and tried to keep playing and then come off committed another foul that would have been a penalty had the first one not been caught. I just, I can't imagine um feeling at all aggrieved about a call like that.
Sounders vs. Charlotte Analysis
00:30:49
Speaker
Yeah, I, I, I agree with you. It just is a, I don't know. It's, it is very funny because I think we've talked about it. Like the Phil Neville, whole situation the the way the i don't know it's just the whole situation on the timbers just strikes me as so as so funny uh right now i don't know i i realize that's funny haha but yeah exactly funny to me haha but i don't know i guess we don't have to i probably need to be less petty uh because it's too early but we got to get it out we got to get it out um
00:31:24
Speaker
But I don't know. I guess now may as well feel like as good a time as any to get into the Sounders-Charlotte game. And ah I guess my overreactions would be, is Jordan Morris actually going to be an MVP candidate?
00:31:38
Speaker
And i don't I don't even know. what What do we say about Charlotte? i don't what's it what's a What's a takeaway from this? like Did they... Like I thought Dean Smith was refreshingly honest in his take after the game where he basically said, i don't think we deserved a point.
00:31:56
Speaker
You know, we'll take it obviously, but we were outplayed pretty much the entire game. And we were very lucky to sort of like get out of this with, with anything. ah But I don't know what, like Charlotte looked like Kalina looked like a goalkeeper of the year. ah think He played very well.
00:32:13
Speaker
but they generated virtually nothing offensively. ah And the Sounders, you know, it's, it's funny. The, the Sounders, the, the criticism, I think most coming from the Sounders is sort of like a, here we go again thing because they did blow a lot of late leads at home. You know, they, this is a weird stat that I, I can't really make heads or tails of, but five times they led by one goal at home in the 85th minute or later.
00:32:41
Speaker
And or oh eighty fifth at the eighty fifth minute, actually, that's the stat. And in four of those games last year, they managed not to win the game. They only won one of them. ah And it was, but it was usually ah situation where like, oh, ah they made their own.
00:32:56
Speaker
made their own mistake, but they weren't like dominating the game anyway, up to that point in this game, they were seeing the game out. I thought they were doing what you have to do to hold on to a lead. And they, you know, they, they took a couple of decent chances. They weren't super aggressive trying to build the lead, but the subs were pretty aggressive. You know, they, they put on Jesus Ferreira.
00:33:16
Speaker
They put on Pedro de la Vega. They put on Paul or Areola. yeah They swap bell for, for new who. And But ultimately the play that breaks down is the kind of thing to me where if you can't expect your defender of the year center back to handle a header and a clearance like he had,
00:33:37
Speaker
that Jackson Reagan had your whole, to there's no tactical approach you can take to limit those kinds of mistakes. It was individual errors. I don't think this was anything systemic. I thought like you, I thought that, um, look, three, one felt a lot more likely than two, two right up until it became two, two wasn't the case. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:59
Speaker
Um, I, I don't, I, I think given the track record of Jackson Reagan and Yamar, who has, I think only like 5% of the fault on this goal, it was um like 95% Reagan fluffing a clearance that he should have dealt with ah twice given the track record. or Yeah.
00:34:18
Speaker
I just don't think you, i don't think you worry about this. Say, okay, it's early season and shit happens. And, you know, we were coming from Central America and there were probably some tired legs at that point. And, um, you know, come midweek, we go again and we figure it out.
00:34:35
Speaker
Um, I think that's you make though of Jordan Morris's performance. Jordan Morris is awesome center forward, right? Like, and he's not the most, never to be the most well-rounded guy. He's not going to go out there with his back to goal and and be a, uh, Luis Suarez style playmaker, but like the way he set up two really good center backs with the run on that first goal.
00:34:59
Speaker
And then the second goal, like Morris has always been really good at finishing on the break. um And obviously still has the speed to get there. It's been fun to watch him, um you know, take this opportunity.
00:35:12
Speaker
And if you had told me before the season, um the line was 15 and a half, I probably would have taken the over.
00:35:23
Speaker
Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I think that would be, that's, I think that's probably, that's probably about where he needs to be. If, if this is to sort of work out in terms of his DP status, it'll be interesting to see how the Sounders juggle their lineup. the but So I want to push, I want to push back on that a little bit. The thing about yeah Morris is that even if he only scores 13, 14 goals,
00:35:46
Speaker
he justifies the dp status because of his gravity because he makes those hard direct unselfish runs at the heart of the back line that all of a sudden de la vega rust neck um rothrock whoever is going to have they and we saw it happen last year right the the season turned on a dime when morris became the center forward because suddenly all those creative attackers had more space to play in And it's because he is relentless and unselfish with those off ball runs.
00:36:18
Speaker
And it's like every one of those is like a body blow to the opposing defense. um And it's why look, it's why he he doesn't need to be a golden boot contender or 16 goal scorer to justify that DP tag. I think he justifies it just by being out there because he makes the whole thing work so much better.
LAFC vs. Minnesota Tactical Analysis
00:36:39
Speaker
Yeah, he yeah. No, I don't think I don't think that's ah that's unfair at all. And ah I'll take that. I know as I'm looking at the conceit of this approach, I realize Charlotte's not a West Coast team.
00:36:52
Speaker
We don't actually have to talk about them at all. No. So there you go. That's a freebie for you. ah All right. So LAFC, Minnesota, I read, you wrote pretty extensively about this one.
00:37:06
Speaker
I thought you had some good observations. ah We'll get into those after we, we go through maybe the, the two potential talking points from this one is LAFC a possession team now.
00:37:17
Speaker
And because some good quotes in your story about, about that. And, or I should say, did Minnesota actually fix their midfield this off season? I think both of those are overreactions.
00:37:28
Speaker
um but Let's take... LAFC more interesting to talk about. um
00:37:38
Speaker
But let's go with with Minnesota because it's um like I I've never been a Will Trapp fan and I thought he was really, really good in this game. um And part of that was like they played a lowish block and they kept the game in front of them and ah that allowed him to not have to chase.
00:37:57
Speaker
ah but um he was really good. However you want to slice it And I think the overreaction from Minnesota's point of view is, yeah, we, we fixed our midfield.
00:38:08
Speaker
We like, we've figured it all out and it's like, no, this was just one game. And we have 12 years of data that says like, well, traps, not actually that guy. minnesota needs their new signings they signed two new midfielders this winter they need to get those guys into the lineup as quickly as possible and they need to get them assimilated and they need to get them um playing big minutes because as long as it's will trap in that spot they're not gonna have the dynamism to turn those good moments into um
00:38:41
Speaker
into possession and penetration and chances and goals. and the flip side is, they can't really play any other way with will trap out there because he just doesn't have the physicality to chase plays and then make plays defensively.
00:38:58
Speaker
So I think it all ended up looking really good. And I think they have a valuable club in the bag. And I think he's a solid depth piece, but for Minnesota to get to the level that Seattle and LAFC and the galaxy were at last year, they, they need the new signings to have hit.
00:39:14
Speaker
And given their track record on these signings under this new CSO, like I think there's reason to be optimistic about it. um But it's like we we saw the difference between these two teams in the second half. And it was ah it was not insignificant.
00:39:28
Speaker
How much of Minnesota giving up so much possession was by design and how much of that is this is sort of who they are. Like they're just not going have a ton of the ball.
00:39:40
Speaker
I mean, Eric Ramsey was was talking about it He's like, we're we're not going to have a ton of the ball in this game, especially, but I think that is going to end up being their default, um,
00:39:52
Speaker
probably 70% of the time they play. I think they're going to have to come up against a team. That's like, no, you have the ball in order for them to, to climb above 50% possession.
00:40:05
Speaker
Um, and like, it's understandable. Your bow is so dynamic in the open field. And I think Tani is as well. then obviously, um you know, Bongi on, on one wing and Rosales to a lesser extent on the other, the other wing back.
00:40:18
Speaker
Um, like yeah they're better in the open field. So play in the open field. Uh, But it's, you know, i I have my doubts about how far that game model can take a team in the modern MLS.
00:40:32
Speaker
Fair enough. All right. Well, we got three more games here. And I'm curious, which one of these do you find more interesting? St. Louis Rapids, Austin, sport Kansas City, or Houston, Dallas?
00:40:44
Speaker
Houston, Dallas. Okay. yeah Houston, Dallas. We'll start there and then we'll really we'll really zip through the last ones. ah So will the Dynamo pick up where they left off will Peter Musa, Peter Musa, carry this team until they figure it out?
00:41:01
Speaker
ah the overreaction is, is the Dallas one, right. Is, is more of an overreaction than the Houston one. um Okay. Cause Houston's problems are like strictly at this point ah personnel related. Like they just lost too much from last year's team and it showed on both goals.
00:41:18
Speaker
ah Dallas. I think there's a sense that, okay, we have the high price number nine and we have the high price number 10 now. And, we're going to be fine because they're going to get chances like that. And they're going to put chances like that away. and it's like, no, they're not. You don't get gifts like that week after week after week in this league. Like it happened for, you know, the first month, like it did for St. Louis two years ago, but it's not going to be an every week out kind of thing.
00:41:46
Speaker
So they have to, figure out um I think a little bit more how to be dangerous with the ball and to get Lucho into spots where he can release not just Musa, but both wingers, right? Because Anderson ju juli ah Julio on one side and Bernie Kamungo on the other, they don't make the game.
00:42:05
Speaker
They are really dangerous off the ball, but they're not going to be combined like they have to rely upon Lucho to make the game for them. um So it was like a really fortuitous 2-1 win for Dallas. And they did a good job of holding on down the stretch when Houston were were kind of throwing everything at them trying to ah to get an equalizer.
00:42:28
Speaker
but it was like it, it was fortuitous and they need to play better and be more connected going forward. If they're going to keep collecting three points. All right. Well, uh, two more games here. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll spend too much time on these, but St. Louis Rapids or Austin sporting Gen Z, which one, which one you like better there?
00:42:50
Speaker
Uh, I think St. Louis Rapids. All right. So we got city are actually good defensively uh, The Rapids were a total fluke last year.
00:43:01
Speaker
Which one's more of an overreaction? Both of those are overreactions. I think the Rapids are a total flu were a total fluke last year is the bigger overreaction. Because they beat LAFC midweek in CONCACAF Champions League. And they were the better team.
00:43:17
Speaker
And they didn't give up the goal in this one. Correct. They didn't give up a goal in this one. um Maybe Zach Steffen is back is the overreaction. That's a good one. He's been really good good in two games. And I thought he was pretty good for the national team and in January as well. And I've never been a Zach Steffen fan.
00:43:36
Speaker
Um, But like he he like credit where it's due. He was he's been really solid in 2025. um But no, like it's an overreaction to read too much into how punchless um Colorado were and and say, yeah, 2024 was a fluke because they went on the road on short rest after emptying the tank midweek.
00:43:59
Speaker
And oh, by the way, they're playing without three starters, maybe a fourth starter as well. um And then like two or three other rotation pieces on top of that like to go to a pretty decent team in st louis and get that scoreless draw i think that says um you know they they have something in terms of their mentality and in terms of their depth that they didn't have in 2024. Like they may actually be a better team than last season's though. If you gave me the points line at 49 and a half, um, cause they were 50 point team last year. I would probably take the under still, but just barely for this rapid side.
00:44:37
Speaker
did you Did you get much out of the Austin-Sporting Kansas City game? I'm not even going to pretend there's a and like a fair overreaction here. It just did not strike me as a as much of a game.
00:44:50
Speaker
There wasn't... You know, it was tough. that Austin were were missing their main guy, um Uzuni, the the guy they spent $12-13 million dollars on.
00:45:01
Speaker
um i thought that Owen Wolfe was fun in central midfield and Danny Pereira was fun ah playing more as a free eight. I'm worried a little bit that they still didn't create enough.
00:45:13
Speaker
ah Sporting Kansas City have probably been better defensively through two games than I expected them to be, but ah no goals.
00:45:23
Speaker
dialing too much in on any of that is probably an overreaction. It's one week. well Yeah, of course. So early on, you you put out your were ah your power rankings right now. Who do you like as like who do you feel like is the class of the West right now? Who are the two or three teams that you feel pretty strongly are going to be punching in there at the end?
00:45:47
Speaker
ah Definitely the Timbers. Oh,
00:45:54
Speaker
ah For sure. Rail Salt Lake.
00:46:00
Speaker
Okay. ah No, if you're going to like the two obvious teams are still LAFC and Seattle. um Okay. Okay. I had, look, I had the Galaxy as the third team in that group. Even after all the changes, I had them as the third team in that group heading into the season.
00:46:18
Speaker
And like I said at the top of this show, um I've already rethought that. So there is your there is your big overreaction from the Western Conference week one. The Galaxy are no longer the class of the West.
00:46:32
Speaker
Well, you know, in all seriousness, I don't know how to... caught off guard you were by this but I was really the last i don't know week or so of moves that the Galaxy were effectively forced to make starting with buying out Sean Davis right after trading for him ah having to trade $125,000 allocation in to get in allocation this year.
00:47:01
Speaker
so you're basically paying a twenty five percent vig ah to borrow allocation money just to get right and then they work this weird trade where they They gave up allocation next year.
00:47:15
Speaker
I think another trade where they got, what what was that? they They traded an international roster spot next year for an international roster spot this year while also giving up a first round draft pick. All of that, you take all those moves together. all Any one of those would be a kind of alarm bellies type of move. Like did something happen here?
00:47:33
Speaker
You take them all together and their salary cap must just be like, almost like did someone make a mistake on the spreadsheet type stuff? Well, I mean, they were famously inept in the front office up until we Will Koons got there two years ago.
00:47:51
Speaker
And he's been trying to unwind all of that while at the same time putting together a team that can compete. And then and did win MLS Cup. fortune Yeah, they won MLS Cup. And my guess is that a lot of guys had bonuses in their contract.
00:48:07
Speaker
for winning MLS cup. So suddenly the math that they had thought was pretty likely for 2025 changed pretty drastically. And they, I'm sure they brought forward $300,000 from next year's gam into 2025 to pay for like, obviously they did that or they wouldn't have paid that 25% VIG to get another $100,000. So like, it's like they're scrambling a little bit, but at the same time,
00:48:36
Speaker
They have, look, this is the team that they're going to be for the next couple of years. Like they're in in pretty good shape with that. Royce will come off the books most likely after this year. Like he might not make it to the end of the year with the way he's looked so far.
00:48:52
Speaker
um But it's like, it is part of the difficulty of, of, you know, maintaining a team in MLS, especially if you're not going to develop young talent.
00:49:05
Speaker
And that's the rub for the galaxy where they are in terms of the talent around them. They should be selling ah homegrown kid for three and a half million dollars every single year, even if it's just an effort Alvarez type to, um,
00:49:21
Speaker
to to tiwa to Tijuana. right like ah You should be able to max out your incoming gam every single year. and To that end, Ruben Robbins got on the field, which was nice to see.
00:49:36
Speaker
ah you know I think that i like I honestly think that Mikovic started over McCarthy in goal because Wilkins was like, look, we have to develop and sell this guy so that we can keep this roster together and get $3 million dollars of GAM to do that for 2026 and beyond. like I think that is part of the the calculus.
00:50:01
Speaker
I was wondering about that that that. I was like, oh, did something happen to McCarthy? I guess not. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they had planned to start him last year, but McCarthy is just a much better communicator and that they felt the team needed that with all the new pieces on the back line and like, look, it worked out for them. But, um,
00:50:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they're they're going to have to keep scrambling because ah this their their cap situation wasn't screwed up in two years. It was screwed up in 10. And it's going to take more than just two years to to unwind all of the the damage that Karofsky and Klein and then the rest of that group did.
00:50:37
Speaker
Well, Matt, ah thank you again for doing this. It was great having you on. ah where So you i heard you on SoccerWise this week. I thought it was great. You guys had your golden boot draft.
00:50:49
Speaker
I hope you're feeling good about your, your picks. Uh, are you good? Is that good? Are you also going to be doing soccer wise, uh, pretty regularly? Yeah, I'm probably going to be on soccer wise every couple of weeks. And then, um, you know, writing two or three columns a week for MLS soccer.com, still putting out those tactics videos, for um, tactics, free zone, my, your sub stack, my, my sub stack, which will eventually move to ghost. I have to figure that out in the, in the coming months, but I'm here to help you with that one. Let we tell you oh excellent excellent um but no it's been fun to write like it's brought me back to like my blog boy roots to to be writing that sub stack um so like there's there's a lot of matt doyle happening ah just about everywhere so
00:51:33
Speaker
Well, if people aren't already following you and I don't know why they would be listening to the show and not follow, hopefully they they have you on on Blue Sky at Matt.
00:51:45
Speaker
Is it it's Matt Doyle? Is it what's what is your handle? actually It's Matt, doyle Matt Doyle, that blue sky dot social, I think. Yeah. Well, if you look for Matt Doyle, they'll they'll find you on Blue Sky.
00:51:56
Speaker
yeah that's it well great perfect uh matt it was great having you great talking western conference soccer i'm looking forward to a full year of of doing this on the regular and ah yeah we'll we'll we'll catch up with you um maybe talk some philip quentin again in ah in a month exactly you can do some real philip quentin discourse all right well i'm jeremiah shan this is nosa rietes part of the sounder at heart podcast network and we will catch next time
00:53:00
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!