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Episode 343: Kings of León
71 Plays3 years ago
Sounders look dominant in their first-leg match against Liga MX's Club León.
Thanks to our sponsors Full Pull Wine and Watson's Counter!
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 Wine Book Launch
00:00:00
Speaker
This episode of No Sadietes is sponsored by Full Pool Wines, a Seattle-based wine seller who recently released their first book, 36 Bottles of Wine. The ethos of the book, a highly curated look at wine categories that provide exceptional value right now, should be familiar to full pool readers. But there's loads of fresh content, and since it's not trying to sell any wine through the book, there's a bit more of a sass factor.
00:00:21
Speaker
And there's food. Lots of it. Fulpul's unique writing style is applied to recipes like leftover Thanksgiving turkey, schmaltz-a-ball soup, and pregnancy nachos. This book can be purchased through Sasquatch Books.
Seattle Sounders Podcast Introduction
00:00:32
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to... There's no study at this. What? Hey, Ocean! Let's go! Jordan Morris getting in behind Florian Youngford. Jordan Morris! Scores!
00:00:50
Speaker
And how's this for a save from Steph and Fry? Here comes Roy Deers from the middle to crowd it to Seattle. What do the Tigers dream of? They take a little Tigers in. It's the Sounders and an S-Com. I feel a lot better than Bob.
00:01:34
Speaker
I didn't know what it was. Is that what you young people call twerking?
New Sponsor: Watson's Counter
00:02:02
Speaker
I am embarrassingly just now realizing that this is our first show since Yacht-Con episodes. As it turns out, we have a lot of stuff to talk about. First thing we have is a little bit about our new sponsor, Watson's Counter. They're in Ballard. They're a cafe that just started roasting their own coffee. They are on 15th over by Ballard High School in that part of,
00:02:05
Speaker
I have no idea.
00:02:27
Speaker
of Ballard. They make some really awesome food, and the owner is a guy named James Lim, who is a big Stounders fan and a listener of the show. So a nice confluence there.
Sounders' Victory Over Club Leon
00:02:38
Speaker
There's also some good news to discuss around the Stounders, where we're coming off a massive 3-0 win over Club William and Cup Champions League that puts them in pretty outstanding position to advance to the CCL Finals for the first time since 2013, which is a lot longer ago than
00:02:55
Speaker
seems right, but is I'm assured is actually right. So let's start right there. And this is probably the most comprehensive performance we've ever seen from the Sounders in this tournament. And the scoreline was was somehow flattering to lay out. If you look at the chances of centers created,
00:03:14
Speaker
It's not at all hyperbolic, I don't think, to suggest that they probably should have had at least four goals, especially when you consider that they had two great chances after they scored the third one. But there were probably, you know, credit to the Leon goalkeeper, he made probably five or six really outstanding saves. The Sounders also wasted a few good chances.
00:03:36
Speaker
But this was this was like a master class performance. The sounders seemed like they were getting out on counters and in transition like especially like the second half seemed to just be one
00:03:50
Speaker
counter-attack after the other, it was kind of unreal. Yeah, it was an interesting game because in the first 10 or 15 minutes, Leon had a ton of the ball and they were creating some pretty decent chances. I mean, Leon, to be clear, had a ton of the ball the whole game. They had something like 70% of the possession. Yeah, they did. But most of that later on was pretty toothless. And I just remember thinking to myself, like, oh, God, it's this Sounders CCL. It's this version of the Sounders in CCL.
00:04:18
Speaker
And thankfully it was not, you know, they seem to have a game plan that they grew into. They executed it extremely well. It was very nice and refreshing to hear in the post game players and coach say, you know, yeah, like we wanted
00:04:34
Speaker
them to attack us. We wanted them to have the ball. We wanted to invite them on into us and then create opportunities on the break. And that's exactly
Performance Analysis: Expected vs Actual Goals
00:04:41
Speaker
what they did. They executed it very well. I'm very glad we've reached a place in soccer where saying that kind of thing is not taboo any longer because for a while it was to say that you were attempting to try to counter attack. So that's nice and refreshing. And the Sounders, you know, they're good at it. They definitely
00:05:00
Speaker
I think, you know, you said it felt like they could have scored more. It definitely did. And as you know, I'm not a huge single game XG guy, but I do think it's notable that the Sounders scored three goals and still underperformed their XG. That's not a common thing. They didn't underperform it by a ton, but I think they easily could have had four or five goals.
00:05:22
Speaker
And, you know, against the team is as good as Leon I mean we've definitely seen Mexican teams in this competition that they're legal MX teams but they're not that great either because they're just not very good teams or they put out weekend lineups the teams that the team is downers beaten 2013 to advance on that T grace team. That was not the same caliber of T grace team as we've seen the last few years and they were playing a pretty weak lineup.
00:05:46
Speaker
And the Sounders were, you know, a credit to that team, played very well across two legs to get into the semifinal. But this was a fairly close to full strength, I believe, lay on team. They're playing really well. Certainly no farther away from full strength than the Sounders were, who were missing Raul ideas and Nigueladero. Absolutely. And I think it's...
00:06:08
Speaker
Something that you didn't used to see, even in games where these MLS teams would beat League of MX teams in advance, you didn't see them frustrated in the same way that I felt like Leon was. They were extremely frustrated. Montez, when he came off, I believe like through the captain's armband back onto the field,
00:06:30
Speaker
I think he didn't shake the coach's hand. He just looked super frustrated coming off. That's cool. That's cool to do.
Roldan's Impact on Game
00:06:37
Speaker
That is cool. You know, a veteran like that, who's, who's been in the, and he's been the captain of that team for a long time, won a lot of trophies, beat the Sounders last year for a trophy. Um, it's cool to do that to a team from, from Mexico. Um, and.
00:06:53
Speaker
I would have loved them for them to score another goal or two, because I would feel pretty bulletproof had that been the case. But yeah, I got it. You can't complain. But yeah, you can't complain. But I watched. I'll tell you the one that I really wanted. I did this to myself today for some reason. I went back and watched like the two minutes after Morris's goal. Yeah.
00:07:15
Speaker
Because I looked I was looking at my notes. I was like, oh, yeah, I had a couple other big plays in here. I should refresh my memory. And I actually put one of them out on Twitter. And it was just this clinical counter attack where the last couple plays of it are
00:07:30
Speaker
Uh, Joe Paulo finding Christian rolled on all alone, basically running in behind and rolled on makes this great run. He controls the ball. Well, he's kind of getting tugged down from behind. He fights it off and he tries to chip the keeper. He actually made a pretty decent shot attempt, but the keeper makes a great save, but it was one of those ones where it's like, man, if that goes in.
00:07:52
Speaker
That's, this is over. This is the series is over. And I suppose you can maybe talk yourself into the idea that at three zero sounders know going into this game, that they have to play a little bit. So there's maybe, maybe that's better for their mentality. I don't know. We'll see if they, they blow this, then that won't have been good. But, you know, if maybe if the centers go in thinking we got to get an early goal to put this away, that's not the worst thing in the world. Uh,
00:08:20
Speaker
And maybe it's, you know, maybe it would be better for them to win 4-0 than to win 4-1 or something. I don't know. I don't know what I'm saying. All I know is, I was very impressed by the way the Senators played. I did think it was funny. Jordan Morris created, found himself in a lot of really dangerous spots.
00:08:39
Speaker
And, and I had made a comment about how like, you know, I'm not super worried about the finishing, he's going to start finishing these. But I'm, I love that he's getting into these spots and all these US national team bands are like, this is why he's trash. And then sure enough, he scores, he scores a goal. And that felt very fitting. And
00:08:59
Speaker
I thought Morris was good in this one, but really, Freddie was good. I should be said Freddie looked like vintage Freddie. This is a guy who seems to love these international competitions. But man, hard to argue that Christian Roldan was not the player of this, the man of the match in this one. He was everywhere.
00:09:17
Speaker
He deserved a goal. He didn't get one, but he had two assists. He drew the penalty to set up Monteiro's first goal. And he had something like five key passes. And he was everywhere defensively. I mean, this was just an absolutely massive performance for Christian Robon. Great to see him playing like that. And I don't know. I just was blown away at how effective he was against such a good team.
00:09:46
Speaker
Yeah, I think that it's funny to talk about Jordan and U.S. national team fans and then go right on into Christian. Right.
00:09:56
Speaker
Yeah. He was, he was fantastic in that game. Um, I think that this sound, this is such a cliche, but Brian
Rusnak’s Role in the Team
00:10:03
Speaker
said it and Brian, like I'm on first, uh, first name terms. Okay. Um, coach nuts are set it and, and he was right. You know, there's so, so many of the things that Christian does really well, don't necessarily show up on the, on the statistically, um, his pressing does. That's the one, that's the one thing I would, uh, I would take issue with because.
00:10:25
Speaker
Well, I didn't think it was funny, but he was, he was going out length to talk about like all these characteristics that like don't show up in the box score. And I suppose like on a very base level, they don't show up in like goals and assists, but like the reality is that.
00:10:44
Speaker
soccer analytics have come a long enough way that a lot of what he does does actually is quantifiable. Right. But I do, I do think he's right in the sense that the way he plays is not quantifiable. And I think the way he is clearly sets the tone from an attitude standpoint for his teammates is not necessarily quantifiable. The way he gets into the head of players, like,
00:11:10
Speaker
I think that one of the things, one of the gaps that MLS has had in competitions like these in the past has been just the shit-housery effect of being able to frustrate opponents, being able to do things that get into their head. Freddie's great at that. And I think Christian is great at that. And it's not like he's being dirty. It's not like he's diving. I think that's what people think that you mean when you say shit-housery sometimes. But I think it's just being kind of a prick in ways that are going to get under people's skin.
00:11:39
Speaker
running after balls that you have no business running after just to make your opponent also have to run after them, chasing things down. There were just so many occasions where Christian was chasing after lost causes and he wasn't going to get there. There was no chance he was going to get there, but he was going to make the defender make sure that he didn't get there, you know. There was one, I wish I could remember more of the details of it, but there was one
00:12:05
Speaker
where he chased down a ball over the top that he, Kota had pretty comfortably and Kota was treating it as though he had it pretty comfortably. And Christian just started bearing down on him and Kota had to come out pretty fast for it. And it actually created a little bit of danger because he had to clear it when if he had run a little bit harder, you know, he probably wouldn't be able to claim it pretty comfortably. So just stuff like that. Well, I think the penalty was, was a great example of that where
00:12:29
Speaker
Absolutely. Morris just kind of flicks the ball into the box. I don't know that he knew Christian was there and Christian didn't do anything really special. He just got into the position and he, and
Young Talent: Obed Vargas
00:12:40
Speaker
it wasn't a totally legit penalty. It wasn't like it was the most dangerous chance, but he had position and Mena comes through his back. It's in the box. Like there's no, he controlled it.
00:12:53
Speaker
That's a penalty, but it's one of those plays that not a lot of American players, especially, are making that play. And those are the things that oftentimes separate. And it was at a time in the game where the sounders weren't controlling it. They hadn't been generating a ton of chances at that point. And it totally turned the game around.
00:13:16
Speaker
And I think another thing that he does so well is the way he uses his body. He forced the defender to make a choice by his positioning and the way he got in the way. And the defender made an incredibly bad choice. I don't want to take away how bad of a foul that was to give up because it was
00:13:37
Speaker
It was a bad foul. Yeah, it was extremely bad. I would have been so pissed off if the sounder didn't get that foul. But it's just it is another example of Christian putting himself into a position to make things happen and that level of commitment.
00:13:53
Speaker
is, is, you know, it's incredible. And, and maybe that doesn't make him a starting caliber national team player, but I think it absolutely makes him a valuable guy to have in the player, the national team player pool for qualifying and things like that. You know, also, I think the other thing that maybe gets undervalued by the fan base a little bit, uh, at the national team level is having guys like that.
00:14:17
Speaker
in training on the roster has a effect that is hard to quantify in the game because it's, he's pushing guys to do things that they might not otherwise do. And he's keeping, you know, he's keeping players honest in a way that isn't necessarily obvious. And I think having guys like that in the pool is super important and super valuable. Uh,
00:14:42
Speaker
One of the other guys who I think is maybe not being totally appreciated right now. And, and maybe fairly because when the sounder sign had signed Albert Rusnak, it was not to be a glue player. The idea was that this was a high level DP type of player. And through five games, he's got one assist, uh, but he hasn't really done anything really spectacular, but I would urge people to.
00:15:12
Speaker
look at the play that put Roldan in where he makes an absolutely gorgeous line breaking pass to send Christian in. And also the play on the second goal where he collects the ball, he works a little one, two on the sideline, and then he sends in Alex Roldan, who ultimately sets up Christian who
00:15:37
Speaker
sets it up who sets up this but it's like he's doing some of this like kind of Darlington nag be ask
00:15:44
Speaker
pass before the pass type stuff. He's very hard to get off the ball. Uh, he's, he's a different kind of player, honestly, than I expected to be who I expected him to be a little bit more of a, uh, you know, like his stats suggest he's a goal scorer and a goal creator. And I think we'll eventually start seeing some of that, but he does a lot of this other stuff that is really useful that even if he's not scoring goals, uh, I can, I could see him.
00:16:13
Speaker
like kind of forcing his way onto the pitch regardless. Yeah, I think that the Sounders have been pretty lucky with big acquisitions hitting the ground running, at least in the last, you know, more recent times. And so I think it's frustrating when a guy that's supposed to be such a key acquisition has some struggles. Especially when it knows the league already.
00:16:36
Speaker
For sure. But I think, you know, anytime you're acclimating to new teammates, especially when you are a creative attacking player and so much of your game, you know, relies on understanding your play, your teammates and how they're going to act acclimating to a new role. Like he was kind of the guy at RSL and he's not necessarily as much the guy with Seattle. So that's going to be a factor as well. But ultimately, I think my criticisms.
00:17:01
Speaker
with his play so far are largely that he's missed some pretty clear cut chances. Well, he has every goal score and this is clear cut chances. I would rather they didn't all come kind of in a, in a bunch at the beginning of the season when you've struggled to score goals in the league, but
00:17:17
Speaker
You know, it's, it's, that kind of stuff is extremely frustrating and, and I understand why it feels so bad, but I do think that ultimately he's been good. He's, he's played really well. He had, I think some really, really good moments, um, against Leon, especially. I think that was his best game so far for sure. Oh, the Leon game was, I think undeniably his best, his best game.
00:17:41
Speaker
I think everybody's best game, but I think one through 11 on the roster, but I do think, you know, when you've got a guy who is maybe struggling a little bit or hasn't made the impact to your hoping for to see him have such a breakout game is, is encouraging. And I just, I'm not, I'm not concerned about it.
00:18:02
Speaker
at all. I think he's going to score goals. He also doesn't have to score a ton of goals, most likely to be an effective player for this team, which is nice. It's an interesting change for him because again, he was such a critical, his goal scoring was such a critical part of his contribution RSL, but I think he could be more of a playmaker for the Sounders and
00:18:22
Speaker
be able to contribute in other ways. And I think too, he's, he's still kind of figuring out what his role is going to be. And I would say that in some games where he's been playing positionally has not put him in a great position to score a ton of goals now. He probably should have put at least one or two of those away, but you know,
00:18:40
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's actually one of the other things that's been interesting about him is, you know, he's played essentially four positions for the Sounders already this year. And I don't know that I never imagined that he would be playing back a line, but we've seen him do that a couple different times for the Sounders. I don't know if that's his best position, but
00:19:03
Speaker
Uh, I, I suspect we are going to keep seeing them there because in part, because I think the sounders are maybe rightfully, uh, looking at Christian as more valuable in the attack than as, uh,
Vargas' Career Prospects
00:19:15
Speaker
shall Paulo's partner, especially with the emergence of Obed Vargas who, you know, I think that first start you go, Oh, isn't that funny? The sounders are starting a 16 year old, uh,
00:19:27
Speaker
And, but every game we've seen him get better to the point where against Leon, he was legitimately like, I don't think any, at any point in the Leon game was going like he's good for a 16 year old. I just kept thinking, wow, this guy is really good.
00:19:44
Speaker
Yeah, I think and I don't want this to sound like I'm being critical of some of the other young players that have come through for the Sounders, but he definitely looks. I think that there was a lot of like, wow, you know, that guy is good for being a kid with the other kids that have come through and good for a kid is great, like at this level.
00:20:03
Speaker
don't get me wrong, but you're right that Vargas looks good. He just looks good. He looks straight up good. And I'll say what he's, he's done better. I think that any of the other teens, even the ones that I think we, uh, liked, uh, like he has improved at a pace over the course of, you know, he's, he's started four games. He's played in all five games.
00:20:26
Speaker
his improvement from game to game is on a different level than anyone, any of the other like youngsters, Saunders abused. 100%, 100%. And I think that the, the nice thing about it is that right now he's starting his Nico Lodero is not starting.
00:20:41
Speaker
Right. So there's most likely going to come a time where Nico comes back into the lineup and Bergus becomes more of a rotational player. But how nice is it to have a kid who has been effective that you feel good about putting in the lineup and you don't feel like you have to rush and you go back. You know, you feel like you can let them take his time and really get healthy.
00:20:58
Speaker
And, you know, it also, as you get into the season, it makes it a little bit easier to give new customer. I'm sure Nico will hate that, but you know, ultimately like he's, he needs to have his legs come October, November. So I've been, yeah, I've been truly blown away. I'm.
00:21:15
Speaker
I try not to get too excited about prospects just because it's such a hard thing to make it, but I semi jokingly tweeted a couple weeks ago that he was going to be like an MLS record transfer fee, and I don't think that that's
00:21:30
Speaker
out of the realm of possibility. I mean, I don't think he's like, I wouldn't say he's that's he wouldn't fetch that right now, but no, of course not. I don't know that like I had I had a coach tell me like compare him like he's obviously not cocaine, but like he's that type like he there's like little bits of that that you can see in him where it's like he's got he's got something he's got like he's got this combination of
00:21:57
Speaker
understanding of, uh, coachability of guile of skill of like edginess. And it's like, it's just all, and you're seeing it come out in different ways. Like he can put in a tackle, he can spot a pass, he can make a dribble like the ball he put into.
00:22:19
Speaker
Javier Ariaga, like there was a corner kick and there was a little routine that they ran and he cut it back to Ariaga and Ariaga nearly scored it, ended up getting cleared off the line. But like it's that little stuff that's just, I don't know, it's great. Another one from that Christian Roldan play, he has this little touch that he basically wins a tackle with just like kind of like he kind of almost jumps into the
00:22:44
Speaker
into the tackle and the way he controls the ball there and keeps possession is like, that's the kind of stuff that you hope veterans are able to do.
00:22:56
Speaker
I don't know, it's pretty exciting. I was joking on Twitter today. He was the player that we interviewed at training. And I was joking how his interview skills have advanced almost at the same pace of his playing skills. And I say that half joking, but kind of seriously, we interviewed him at the beginning of the year and he sounded like a six year old kid.
00:23:20
Speaker
wasn't quite you know he's not the most you know he's 16 like what do you expect right but today he was like cracking jokes he was making fun of his dad he was uh you know kind of like finding the right tone for who do you want to play if like if you like understanding that neither mexico nor the united states have called you up for a senior national team cap and may not do it for years like finding the right tone to say like who i would choose even though i don't want to sound like
00:23:48
Speaker
And I don't know. I was very impressed. I, um, I'm really excited for him. Like I'm, I'm sort of kind of falling in love with them.
00:23:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think, and like that stuff, like does that always
Sounders' Depth and Injuries
00:24:00
Speaker
matter? Like probably not. I'm sure that there are lots of like really emotionally mature 16 year olds that never turn out to be great players. But I think it does speak to like his maturity and ability to adjust to change in circumstances and his ability to like be a professional. Like I'm sure that that's like one of the things that's hard for Academy kids to make that leap into being a professional is that side of like being a professional athlete.
00:24:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think that is, it's tough because I don't think they think about what they do in a way that is easy to articulate. Like they, a lot of times they're just reacting and taking information and they're not having to, they're not having conversations with their coaches. Most of the time they're hearing instructions and then internalizing that and putting that onto the field. They're not like,
00:24:50
Speaker
going back and forth about this stuff. It's not natural for them to have to articulate what they go through. He synthesized a lot of that really well and
00:25:06
Speaker
He's got a great backstory and his family moved to Alaska when they were teenagers and they had him and he's got three siblings and they're all back in Alaska and he's down here. He's been here for three years living with another Defiance Players family and
00:25:31
Speaker
He's like humble and a good kid and he's like super talented and it's going to be fun to watch. Yeah. And he was also born after I moved to Seattle, which is really upsetting to me. Yeah, exactly. He's uh, yeah, what he's a nineties. He's like a 98 or something like that. No. And like a 99 2005 2005. What am I talking about? Yeah. If he was like 99, he'd be like a normal age.
00:25:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Which is also extremely depressing, but yeah, I got my math all messed up. Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy. 2005. 2005. What? I know it's messed up, man. It's not good. We're old as hell. We're slowly dying and it's maybe even not, not even that slow anymore at this point, but you know,
00:26:19
Speaker
But good for him, good for Obed. I'm happy for him. Yeah, good for him. And you jerk, making us look... Being 16. Yeah, exactly. Honestly, I mean, I wasn't a professional soccer player when I was 16, but you could not pay me enough money to be 16 again. Yeah, no, I'm very much with you. In any case, I'm with you. I think that he's definitely the Academy products that I'm most excited about. And I think it's crazy to think that like,
00:26:48
Speaker
Jedlin was the first, like he was the first homegrown signing, right? And I think he's had a great, like he's had a great career. And I don't think anybody expected him to have the kind of career he's had, you know, maybe at that point. But he was coming out of college, like he was, I think like 20,
00:27:08
Speaker
No, he was like, yeah, I think he was 19. He was pretty raw. Yeah, he was very raw. It was kind of shocking when he, you know, ended up, I think being the starter and he was ironing out some issues with his games.
00:27:24
Speaker
And he was, I think, far more of a finished product at that point than, oh, that is. And that's pretty incredible. And I think the thing that's most encouraging to me is that all of the stuff that when you see young prospects, you're like, well, that's the kind of stuff you get with experience. I feel like he's already got that. His touch, his decision-making,
00:27:47
Speaker
That's all going to improve, but it's like at such a high level already. And that's just the kind of, the kind of stuff that's so much harder to teach and pick up through osmosis and experience. He has at a level that, that most 16 year olds coming through the American soccer system just don't have. Well, I'll tell you, uh, I've been hearing about him for about a year and the words that
00:28:15
Speaker
coaches in the system have been using about him always felt very hyperbolic, like there's no way he's as good as you're telling me. And now I get why they feel this way. Like I get why they like
00:28:32
Speaker
why he looks like, why they think he he's so polished and why he's so pro ready and why they've been so confident that this is a guy who, um, could be really special. And it's not because he's going to score 20 goals or dish out 20 assists. It's just cause he's going to do a lot of really helpful stuff. Yeah. And I think if he's, he'll be 20 years old in 20, 26 gone into that world cup.
00:29:01
Speaker
If he's still in Seattle and he goes into that world cup, I'm, I'm just saying for, for posterity's sake, if he goes and plays really well in that world cup and he's already got, you know, four or five years under his belt as a pro and he's at the level by then that it seems like he could be at, I think I don't think he'll be around that long. I don't either. I don't either. I think he's gone well before then, but you know, or two years before then, but you'd be like a 40 or 50 million. You're talking about like a 40 or $50 million player at that point or something.
00:29:31
Speaker
Yeah. And today's money, which would probably on the trajectory we're going, we'll be like $15 million in five years, but, uh, right. Yeah. You know, who knows? Who knows? But yeah, it's, it's pretty exciting. Uh, very exciting. Well, that's probably a good place to, uh, wrap up this segment. We have some questions that we'll be able to get to a lot of other fun stuff on. Uh, and so we'll go to break and see in a few minutes.
Champions League Journey
00:30:01
Speaker
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00:30:20
Speaker
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00:30:40
Speaker
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00:31:02
Speaker
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00:31:22
Speaker
Welcome back to Notes Adiattes. We have questions. Do you want to start there? I'll get us going. The first one's from Chuck Motzer. If you got offered the Sounders win CCL but finished 10th in the West, would you take it? I think I would. I've decided that if they win Champions League, that I'm okay with whatever happens after.
00:31:52
Speaker
Like that's not, it's obviously not a real choice, right? Like you don't have to make that choice, but like, I think I will be at peace with the season if they win that. I think that I agree with you in the sense that if they win and it means, you know, that they get off to such a bad start that the season gets away from them, I think that that's an acceptable choice, but I don't think I would choose it because- Right, sure.
00:32:22
Speaker
I guess my perspective is that if they win CCL that's incredible. And I'm going to feel really good for a couple of weeks in the very early part of the season. Yeah. And then if, and then if they go on to finish 10th, that means the rest of the season sucks. And, uh, that's true.
00:32:38
Speaker
That's a long that's a long time of bad soccer so. And I think to finish 10th in the West, they'd have to be pretty brutal. But I think like the on paper trade off is probably fair I just like in a practical sense I don't want to watch them be bad for that long. That man's a legitimate answer.
00:32:58
Speaker
Yeah. I guess my counter to that is pain is temporary, trophies are forever. That's a totally fair perspective. I don't think there's a wrong answer here, I don't think.
00:33:14
Speaker
Yeah. All right. This is from our good friend. Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped one. This is from Salander and Cider. Who's the harder team to face in Champions League? NYCFC, Revs, or Cruz Azul. Those are the potential... Oh, I guess that is... No, the NYCFC would potentially be the next round, and then it would be Revs or Cruz Azul, I think, in the final, most likely.
00:33:40
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, Communicaciones could still... They could. They could, which was the funny thing is that they had a tougher time with Communicaciones than the Revs had with Pumas or the Saunders had with Colvin. It was kind of, not to get too sidetracked, but it kind of pissed me off to see that the Revs did that the day after I felt so good. No, I don't think they were as impressive. I didn't watch the Revs, but I would never watch the Revs if I didn't have to.
00:34:07
Speaker
It wasn't as impressive, but they were very dominant. Yeah, but it wasn't snow. So that's a yeah, that can't be that can't be fun to play it plan. Well, I think that Cruz Azul is probably the hardest just by, you know, nature of being Cruz Azul. But if we if it ends up being NYCFC, you don't know what Bobo as high school football stadium you're going to have to play. So you're probably going to have to play in like Maine or something. So
00:34:37
Speaker
And that's got to be a huge psychological advantage for it. I cannot believe that their ownership has enough money to get away with being like a PR arm for a genocidal maniac and not enough money. It's just insane that they're they played in like Hartford, Connecticut. Right. They played in Harvard. So apparently the deal was so they played the first series in L.A.
00:35:04
Speaker
effectively in front of a closed stadium. And then the second game, the second, the quarterfinal match they had was at Hartford. And the funniest part about that was that there was a decent crowd. It was almost all communicaciones fans.
00:35:19
Speaker
Yeah and the thing like maybe it's just I'm sure it's just because I'm not paying as much attention but it seems like the sounders get way more stick for playing in a quote NFL stadium unquote than they do for not playing in any particular stadium. Like it's it's crazy to me. It does feel that way. This is me. Yeah I think Cruises tool is probably the toughest of those matches but
00:35:49
Speaker
I think what the, uh, what our friend sounders and insider, uh, is the point they're making is that there's some really good teams still to like, even if the sounders beat Leon, they've got their work cut out for them. For sure. And I do, um, I, I genuinely believe that there's a, like a real good chance that this is going to be an MLS versus MLS final. Um, I think that.
00:36:18
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think that's out of the question at all. Yeah. I think the, the MLS teams left are good. I think that the, you know, the Mexican teams left are not as good. They're not. I mean, Leon is the highest is, is, uh, based on recent form, uh, and I include last year in this Leon is the best of the remaining Mexican teams and, um, you know,
00:36:48
Speaker
that are not, they don't look, they didn't look that hot in the first leg. There's no like vintage Tigris left. There's no, you know, it's, you know, there's no, no vintage club America. There's no, I mean, cruises tool is definitely a talented team and, and like, they could, when there's no, yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if they won this, but I think they probably will, but less convinced
Midfield Strategy and Roles
00:37:10
Speaker
that I happened in the past. Yeah. That's fair.
00:37:13
Speaker
So these, we've got two questions here, one from our good friend, Dave Clark, another from Colonosaurus Rex, and they're pretty closely related, so I'll just go ahead and ask them both at the same time. Dave says, if everyone is healthy, which of these three do you want at the sixth slash eight with Shaw Apollo, Christian, Niko, or Albert? And Colonosaurus Rex says, who of those three is, those three and also,
00:37:40
Speaker
Niko, no, there's more. Who's the most important player in the middle? Of those four, who's the most important? Okay, I tricked myself, sorry about that. Yeah, it is a good question. And I guess, you know,
00:38:02
Speaker
I guess the player I want at the partner with JP is probably Christian, but if I had to guess the player of those three who will see most often paired with JP might be Albert. And I don't, I don't like totally love that idea because I feel like the main reason we signed Albert was to get them closer to goal, but
00:38:32
Speaker
I'm kind of like intrigued by that possibility. Um, and I think unquestionably the most important of those, I'm gonna man on unquestionably, but for my money, the, the one who's most important is, is JP.
00:38:47
Speaker
Yeah, I will definitely agree with you on that. On that point, I think he's he's clearly the most important player on the team right now, like maybe not the best but I think that as yeah as go shaky goes to sounders. I don't know that it's the best lineup. But I want to see how Nico plays as a deep line.
00:39:08
Speaker
I think it would maybe keep some miles off of his legs which I think would be helpful. I think that his skill set suits him very well to play in that position. I don't know that he'd love playing that position. I think there were some signs that he was a little
00:39:26
Speaker
less than enamored with the sounders signing Albert Ruznek. He's a professional, so I'm sure he got over it. But I think he maybe had some questions about why they were making that move, and so maybe being forced to ship back out of him or attacking. But I think it could work really well. I think that he's got the skill set for it. I think that the way he reads the game would be really effective there.
00:39:48
Speaker
I think Christian playing as like a more advanced midfielder, not necessarily a 10, but sort of that like 8-10 hybrid that he tends to play when he is the more advanced midfielder in a midfield three, I think he'd be really good there. But I think ultimately what you're going to see is you're going to see Christian Krusnak and Nico do a lot of switching and playing in different spots at various times in the game.
00:40:16
Speaker
So yeah, I think you're probably right though that Albert is going to be. I like, I also, I kind of like the idea of having them all on the field in part because you, like you kind of alluded to, you can, there can be a lot of fluidity in, in the way that they play. Um, and especially when you're going against a bunker defense, having more skilled pastors on the field is helpful. Yep.
00:40:43
Speaker
Our good friend of the show, Bill Jones Trumpet asks, how concerned should we be about the injury list we have? It snuck up on us last year and we played and played a significant role. I feel like we got lucky to do as well as we did last year. Are we looking at a similar situation this year?
00:41:02
Speaker
I agree that we got lucky a bit at the beginning of last year, but I think we were pretty unlucky down the stretch. So I think that maybe evens out a little bit. I mean, I'm definitely concerned about it. I think that I've been concerned about Nico for a while and nothing that's happened recently has made me feel any better about that. He's looked good when he's played this year, but he just hasn't played very much. And that's concerning.
00:41:32
Speaker
There are areas where the depth isn't great, and I think that we're going to get to one of those areas in a bit, so I'll save that surprise for later. But outside of the attacking positions, I don't feel great about the depth at a lot of places. It's pretty good at center back with NuWho, able to play there as well. Jackson Reagan has looked
00:41:55
Speaker
you know, decent in the very short amount of time he's had to play. But I think like central midfield, I have some concerns, even with as good as Vargas has been, you know, we're an injury or two away from it getting pretty scary, but it's always that way, right? Like it's, I feel like we have this conversation multiple times every year. And, you know, it is what it is. Like if, if Raul's out for a long time, that could be a big problem. If,
00:42:22
Speaker
one of the non-NICO attacking players is out for a long time. In addition to NICO being out, that could be a big problem. And if it happens, we'll deal with it, I guess. But I just think that Intel MLS changes structurally. Teams are always going to be one or two injuries away from being in a pretty big amount of trouble. I'll say that
00:42:50
Speaker
I'm hopeful that, because it wasn't just the injuries to Nico and Jordan and Steph. It was that there seemed to be a never ending, you know, cascade of injuries. And it seems unlikely that that would happen two years in a row, but I can't sit here and say that I'm not worried about it. So. Yeah.
00:43:20
Speaker
I think it's my, you know, it's your turn. So the next one is from T dash heel. Does Ladero actually play the season and if so, will he return to 2020 form or are we looking at his final season as a soundest player?
00:43:38
Speaker
I guess they're asking if he's going to play it. I mean, I think he'll be back. He's dealing with an adductor strain, which shouldn't be season ending. So from a very practical perspective, I think he'll be back. And like you, I thought the best we've seen him look was in that Montagua game, he looked like himself.
00:44:10
Speaker
If that's the Nico we get, I think that's great. I don't know how much to that we'll get from him, but I think we'll get something. But yeah, I mean, if he's limited to a comparable number of appearances, he only made nine appearances last year. If he's similarly limited,
00:44:35
Speaker
in 2022, I think the Sounders have to give some serious consideration to buying them out. Yeah, I mean, that's the reality of it. It sucks a lot. I don't like that. I don't like that. But I mean, you can't risk sinking a third season, right? Yeah. And I would also say that I think when guys
00:45:03
Speaker
at that stage of their career signed contracts like that, they have to know that there's probably a pretty good chance that they might not see them out, you know, that they want that extra year or two for the financial stability. So, you know, hopefully if it comes to that.
00:45:21
Speaker
This is from BT Webber. He says, Alex's foot injury in the first half has me concerned about her depth at right and left back because our first option seems to be Rho since Medranda is injured. Is this troubling for you too? For the record, I'm pro Rho 253 for life.
00:45:38
Speaker
Um, yeah, it is. I thought that was, uh, you know, inside baseball, that was the positional, uh, depth issue that I alluded to a few minutes ago. Um, I think it's the biggest area of concern. I was concerned about it before the season for sure. But, uh, you know, you can't always have Brad Smith on the bench, right? Like it's, um, we got pretty, it's not the best use of resources. Right.
00:46:01
Speaker
And I feel like there's maybe like, it feels like the sounders are always able to find a guy that can play that like one of those positions effectively. Even if it's not somebody like, you think like, oh, we don't really have a natural right back and or left back or what have you.
00:46:22
Speaker
who are we going to get to play there? Well, then they'll find a guy and maybe it's not the ideal solution, but like Jordy Dolan played a lot of right back one year. Yeah, like I would be shocked if we see Obed Vargas play right back. Yeah. Or I mean, I suppose Christian potentially could play there, but
00:46:39
Speaker
The good news is that Alex, his injury sounds like it's more of a pain tolerance issue than a, like a debilitating kind of issue. So, you know, that's not ideal, but he was out at training today. He was participating. If he doesn't play on the weekend, I would kind of expect him to play against Leon on Thursday. So I don't think it's,
00:47:07
Speaker
That specifically is not like an immediate concern right now, but they are doing a little bit of a high wire act because they are asking, essentially, Kellen Rowe to be the backup at both fullback positions, which can only play one. And he's probably not the ideal starter regardless, so.
00:47:31
Speaker
Yeah. Moving away from not enough players to too many players from 206 hometowners, it feels like we have a glut of riches with Fergus, Atencio, and Leyva. But given their similar positions, it also has the potential to get a little sticky. Any thoughts on how we navigate getting the minutes, keeping development arcs going, and keeping them happy?
00:47:53
Speaker
I mean, I do think that that's like a, like it seems to be working itself out a little bit right now because Vargas seems to have jumped both attention and Leyva and playing time. And there's a starters position that's available and Leyva is getting time off the bench and attention isn't healthy. And so it's not like a crisis of too many young talented young players for too few positions.
00:48:23
Speaker
But yeah, it is on some level. Those are all three players who you want to be actively developing. They're all three players who you have a vision for, either within the organization or to put in the shop window.
00:48:43
Speaker
balancing all those needs is not easy. And I don't think any one of them is going to benefit particularly from playing for the defiance right now. So yeah, I think it could be a tricky situation. I don't think it's tricky literally today, but it could get pretty tricky in a month.
00:49:04
Speaker
For sure. I guess I wouldn't be shocked to see one of those guys maybe got on loan this year, either, too. Can you loan to another MLS club mid-season, or does it have to be at the start of the season? Yeah, I think you can. So if
Critiques and Media Relationship
00:49:20
Speaker
one of those guys is not quite getting enough minutes here, there are plenty of bad MLS teams that maybe they could pick up some minutes, some decent minutes at.
00:49:32
Speaker
U.S.L. is not a bad league. I mean, like, if you're if you're playing for one of the better teams in the U.S.L., that's probably a pretty good experience. So there are options for it for sure. But I just I trust the Sounders youth development pretty explicitly at this point. And I feel like they're they're going to be able to find a solution that works. And I also just feel like we've had this conversation before of like we've been doing this show for like 10 years. We've had every conversation there's to have. But
00:49:58
Speaker
of like, we've got all these guys at this one spot. Well, it'll work itself out. Like we're gonna have like, you know. That does tend to end up being the answer is that like one way or the other, it's sort of, it sort of works out. So, but it's a good, I mean, I would say of all the problems to have having too many good young players is like high up there on good problems to have. For sure.
00:50:31
Speaker
This is another Obed question from Twimberly23. Is there any risk of losing Obed to transfer before he turns 18? If I remember the rules right, he can't be transferred unless he has citizenship in the country. He's transferred to maybe, if that's true, do we just have to worry about Liga and Mikey's teams?
00:50:50
Speaker
I don't believe he has a Mexican citizenship, right? Well, his parents are both Mexican. So if he doesn't have Mexican citizenship, it's just a formality. Yeah. I mean, so I don't think the rule is quite as cut and dried as like just citizenship, but I think that's like a fairly
00:51:14
Speaker
reasonable shorthand, right? Unless there's something I'm missing. Well, I think there's something to be do. I think if I saw someone discussing this on Twitter, and I think the way it works is if you're not 18 and you're not a citizen of that
00:51:31
Speaker
of like if you're an EU citizen, you can't have your ITC, you can't have your international transfer certificate shipped to a foreign
00:51:48
Speaker
country, unless your parents are accompanying you, and your parents have to have a real job, like they can't have like a fake job, like they have to have a real job in that country or something. So the short version is, as I understand it, until he's 18, he's not going to go to Europe. But there's plenty of teams in Mexico that potentially would be interested in him. So I would say there's at least the possibility that he'll
00:52:19
Speaker
go to Mexico. And I guess he might be able to go to, I think someone in that same thread said that it's possible he theoretically go to Spain, but that's the same complication of like needing to go out with his parents. And anyway, I think there's a very good chance that he will
00:52:38
Speaker
Like, I don't know. I think there's a pretty good chance that a Mexican team could come in and buy him for a fair amount of money. But I don't know the highest fee that a Mexican team has paid for a young American, even if they are of Mexican descent. Like, there's not a big history of MLS to League MX transfers, especially for younger players.
00:53:07
Speaker
Yep. I mean, I think like the sounders could certainly, they could certainly sell them to a Mexican team if they wanted to cash in.
00:53:16
Speaker
Um, or they could, I mean, he's, he's getting out of like, he's clearly a prospect from like a player development standpoint, but he's getting out of that range where he's like a prospect from a, what can you do for me today standpoint? Like he has realized potential. He's appears to be at the very least the rotational.
00:53:37
Speaker
quality player in MLS. And the Sounders have a lot of cap flexibility with an academy player, with an academy graduate. There's no reason they couldn't be like, we're going to pay you a bunch of money until you're old enough to go to Europe, and we can really cash in. And it just makes more sense for them to do that. So he certainly could go to Mexico. It's certainly not out of the question. But just looking at the transfer records for Mexican teams,
00:54:05
Speaker
the transfer record of 16.5 million. And that was for Inter Valencia, like, oh, that's transfers out. Nevermind. I'm being, man, I'm having a rough go of it tonight. I'm sorry. I think you're right. I think you're right though. It's not like they're, they're not huge transfer fees being paid for, especially for players from her young players. Yeah. And I think like,
00:54:29
Speaker
A lot of that is because the youth development in Mexico is very good and they don't have to do that. And a lot of it is also like the big teams when they're paying for talent, they're going the free agent route a lot of the time. So never say never, but I really feel like if he's going to go somewhere for big money, it's going to be after he's 18. Yeah, I think that's my read on it too.
00:54:58
Speaker
So our next one's from Trivialex, kind of an existential question. What would define a successful season for the team this year? Well, I think like every year, I think silverware sort of is what ultimately defines success. And if they were to win Champions League, I think like we said earlier, I think that would be a
00:55:26
Speaker
It would be hard for me to not consider this a successful season if they win champions. It would be hard for me to consider this a successful season if they don't win. I mean, if they win MLS Cup, if they win Sport or Shield. I'm not going to sit here and say that the US Open Cup is an equivalent achievement, but let's just say they
00:55:50
Speaker
go out in the champions league semi-finals and they win the open cup and the supporters shield and they don't win MLS cup. Like I, you know, like that would be successful. Um, but like, uh, I mean, I think you, this is, it feels like a year, the roster they have, they got to win like a major trophy and like kind of,
00:56:15
Speaker
completing the set of an international trophy with all their domestic trophies would feel like a real, like it would make me feel good.
00:56:24
Speaker
I think that it's such a relative question, too, because it's like every season the Sounders have ever had, there have been at least a vocal contingent of people who will insist it should have been
Season Expectations and Challenges
00:56:35
Speaker
better. 2016, well, yeah, they won MLS Cup, but they were bad in the regular season and had a lot of penalties. 2019, they should have been better in the regular season.
00:56:47
Speaker
But I think for me, they have to make the playoffs. Even if they won CCL and made the playoffs, I would probably be satisfied with that, but I don't think I'd say it was successful. But if they have a great regular season and don't win any trophies, but they're right in the shield race, they make a deep playoff run, they have a good showing in CCL.
00:57:10
Speaker
I would maybe not say that was an unsuccessful season. I don't know. But I do think that to feel truly satisfied with the season, you're right that they have to want a major trophy of some kind. And I don't think I would at this point consider EOS Open Cup like a trophy of the caliber they need to win. I wouldn't say it's like a minor trophy.
00:57:29
Speaker
But I feel like it's a, like our man United fans going to be happy with wanting the care about cup, you know, like, is that going to be, and I just think that's kind of where us open cup is right now. So, uh, by the way, the circle, I think this is what transfer market is telling me. I don't think a Mexican team has paid more than $10 million for, uh, for anyone. That that makes sense to me. Um, that seems about right. Based on how, you know,
00:58:01
Speaker
How the team because I think like there are big big players like Who's the French guy? Geniac? Yeah, I think he came on a free, right? Yeah. Yeah, he was a free and They've signed Florian was a Florian tub in also The face signed or was that did he go to the galaxy? I don't know. Anyway, they've signed a few French players of the last few years and They're almost always on on free transfers
00:58:31
Speaker
Just to back up your point, I think the senators are more likely to hold on to Obed until he's eligible to go to Europe. This is from Emily Cummings, another friend of the show. Comments on the women contingent.
00:58:55
Speaker
In a Reddit post full of crazy things, even for Reddit, which is really high bar clear. That was the one that stood out to me is just being like really weird like that was a like
00:59:10
Speaker
Explain the post for the listeners. So there was a post on Reddit, and we're going to talk more about this in the next couple of questions, so don't worry. But there was a post on Reddit, was it yesterday, a couple days ago? Yesterday. Yesterday. That was basically like...
00:59:27
Speaker
It wasn't basically, I mean, it was straight up a guy asking, are sounder at heart writers getting kickbacks from the front office? And then goes on to answer their own question that it seems pretty obvious that they are because everything is positive all the time. But then also beyond that, there was like this weird little street about like, well, they're always like, it seems like they always get their way. And, you know, whether it be like,
00:59:55
Speaker
the the friendlies thing or the ECS contingent like it didn't really make a ton of sense and then just like the women contingent which I don't know what that's supposed to be. Yeah apparently I think he was accusing the uh the women in ECS of killing friendlies. Right which
01:00:17
Speaker
I mean, I was around for that. I don't want to discredit the role that women of whoever it was may have had. And I'm sure that there were women that were opposed to the number of friendliness that the Sounders had and were vocal about that. But it wasn't like...
01:00:36
Speaker
you know, a women's issue, I guess, to use. I don't like. Yeah. This this wasn't like the I don't know if anybody remembers the the fit set boobs movement. Like it wasn't one of those things where it was like this specifically affects women. Right. God, that was a really long time ago. I can't believe we've been doing this a long time. We really have. God, this is getting really depressing anyway.
01:01:03
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't that was definitely the weirdest thing to me that just kind of casually dropping that in there definitely a my human trafficking, my against human trafficking shirt is raising a lot of questions already already answered by the shirt kind of thing to say, just like, yeah, very strange. But yes, we are we are getting paid by the front office for this show.
01:01:32
Speaker
Adrian bought me my house and, uh, how else could you afford an out of the college dropout? That's right. That's right. Uh, yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's a good gig. Um, we do this every two weeks and never have to work day in my life. Um,
Enhancing Lumen Field Experience
01:01:51
Speaker
on the same topic.
01:01:53
Speaker
If, so to be clear, the post, uh, was about the head writers at sonar heart, which I am not one. I have not written for the sites since 2017, but I'm claiming the glory. Cause it's funny. Um, if they were getting paid by the team, how much do you think they'd be worth and how much less do you think they'd actually get? Another one from, uh, Motley 69 to the sounders provide a company match in your sounder heart 401k plan. Yeah. Um, I don't even know what.
01:02:24
Speaker
Like, I don't know what it would be worth. Like, I will say this, I will say, all joking aside, I think the sounders actually have a lot of respect for Sounder at Heart and this podcast and the people that have been involved in the orbit of Sounder at Heart. And I think they also understand that it's valuable that it's an independent outlet
01:02:54
Speaker
and I suppose if you really want to get into the weeds on it like they do I guess they do kind of provide some kickbacks in the sense that they you know we we have relationships with them and you know the reason we're able to do Yacht-Con is because we have good relationships with them but those are like
01:03:18
Speaker
the normal kind of cultivated relationships that you have when you've been covering someone for a long time and there's a mutual trust there and you know the reality is that the reason that sound or heart tends to go
01:03:36
Speaker
You know, we were accused of being too raw, raw, raw for the sounders. I mean, a, we're fans. We don't hide that fact. Uh, but be like the sounders have earned a lot of benefit of the doubt. Like the reality is that Adrian has been running this team in one way or another for 20 years and they've missed the playoffs once and they've won, uh, four league titles in that time and they've won.
01:04:05
Speaker
four open cups in that time, and they've won three regular season titles in that time. And they've been to, you know, a league's cup final. They have competed in Champions League. I think this is the eighth time they've gone to Champions League.
01:04:23
Speaker
maybe even ninth because i think they may have gone once when they're in the usl like the point is like they've earned a lot of trust from people like myself and so like if we don't asking everyone to be fired every time there's a losing streak it's because we've covered a lot of losing streaks
01:04:44
Speaker
Yeah, that's the thing they've recovered without firing everybody. Yeah, that's that's the thing that it that I have baffled by sometimes people don't seem to understand is that it's like, I don't get stressed out about the sounders hitting rough patches because I
01:05:02
Speaker
Why would you? It's a completely irrational way to be at this time. And if you've been listening to the show long enough, you know that it has not always been that way. I have definitely softened on because they've demonstrated time and time and time again that they know what they're doing. And even beyond putting together a team, God knows that
01:05:24
Speaker
You can have ownership groups that are a lot worse, both on the field and off than the sounders like right, they seem to when they make mistakes they seem to learn from them. They seem to when there's.
01:05:38
Speaker
when there's any sort of conflict with the fan base, especially the extremely diehard fans, they seem concerned about that and they seem to want to repair those relationships and understand what went wrong. And that doesn't mean that everything's always going to be rosy, but they seem to have a genuine commitment to the people that care about the team in a way that not every MLS team does, even MLS teams that
01:06:04
Speaker
do pretty well attendance wise and fan support wise. And so, yeah, I mean, like our sponsors for the show are extremely generous and God bless them for it. But I would not do this if I was in it for the money. Like, right. And I don't think, you know, like it's it's fun to do. And I'm positive about it because the sounders are fun to talk about because they're good all of the time. And
01:06:33
Speaker
Yeah, but if they want to pay me I will definitely take the money like I'm not right and I think that that's the funny part is that it's like it's I don't think we aren't taking we aren't not taking money out of principle but like we're not taking money though that's the thing and I'm like it and if we were taking money from the Saunders I think we'd be upfront about it and people could make their own choices if if that
01:06:56
Speaker
meant that we were less reliable or whatever. Like if they found us less interesting because of that, that would be fair.
01:07:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, and I will say like, I don't want to make too much of a random Reddit post because the reality is that there were something like 50 comments on it and almost literally everyone was supportive of us and of the site and even of our sort of like, raw, raw, raw perspective. So like, and there was actually someone on there that made a pretty astute point, which is,
01:07:38
Speaker
There's a lot of open source outlets that allow any literally anyone to have a voice, like whether it be Twitter or Facebook or Reddit. And you can as a fan, you can be as negative and as angry as you want on any of those platforms. And if you can build an audience.
01:07:58
Speaker
good for you and you can have that audience. But I think one of the things that differentiates sounder art from all those other places is that we try to have a little bit more of a measured approach to things. And that's part of how we've been able to... I think one of the things the sounders have told me that they appreciate is that even when we are critical of them, that we do it in a fair way. And that's really all that we
01:08:24
Speaker
are trying to do I think is be true and honest about our feelings about something and hopefully readers and listeners appreciate that. Yeah well if anybody you know is anyone that has come to yacht con the thing that's nautical themed and about yachts should know we can get a lot of mileage out of throw away internet posts so
01:08:54
Speaker
Focusing on a on a random reddit post is not we're not above it at all uh clearly. Yeah um we'll have we're changing the name to kick back on yeah that might be the the hell that might get it all right so we're gonna close out with uh one that we've given some thought this is from chamber seattle so i've been
01:09:15
Speaker
I've seen people say instead of building a new soccer stadium, you could just improve the field to make it better for soccer and soccer fans. My question, what are three things the Sounders or Lumen could do now to improve the soccer experience with the Hawks still being there? I assume the code
01:09:32
Speaker
The unsaid, what's going on said here is like, he's not talking about ripping up the turf and putting in grass and kicking the Hawks out of the stadium. He's talking about things that could theoretically be done in a single off season and don't fundamentally change the way the stadium is used.
01:09:51
Speaker
Yeah, this is a, this is a fun question I like this one and I think I thought about it a fair amount today, honestly, and one thing I would say is that I think that even if like grass were on the table and you're just going to have a grass field that you share with the Seahawks.
01:10:07
Speaker
I just don't see that plausibly working. Nashville fans would probably get super mad about that because they insist that it would work fine here, but whatever, who cares? But I do think that picking a style of turf that's a little more geared towards soccer would be a great change. There are a lot of different kinds of turf now. Field turf is not the only one. A lot of stadiums that have soccer games, even if they don't host MLS teams, they have like
01:10:37
Speaker
international games and friendlies and stuff like that and they have turf that's not quite as geared to football. So I think that would be one change they can make and I think like
01:10:47
Speaker
Even replacing the turf a little more frequently. Um, I think that there's a little bit of PTSD from when the Seahawks got that really bad batch of field turf that they had to have replaced the head of schedule. Um, like, I think like five or six years ago that was like played piss poor after the first season. It was a legitimate problem. I think the turf now is actually pretty decent, but it's still, I definitely don't feel like I hear. Yeah.
01:11:13
Speaker
it as a, like I very rarely hear anyone complaining about it. Yeah. So that, but that it's definitely field turf, right? So I think a slightly more soccer friendly turf would be good. Um, I know your answers, so I'm going to try not to step on them, but I think they're pretty good ideas. No, cause I think I've got a couple others myself. Um, I would say, I would say that, um, bringing in the, like,
01:11:37
Speaker
maybe you could do some sort of like temporary seating a little closer to the field. I don't know if that would be possible to bring things in a little closer. Maybe like some, I don't know, something like especially. I'll add one of the things that they used to do, like I guess we would see these during the playoffs sometimes because the Hawks use this platform
01:12:01
Speaker
And the brom and that it essentially extended the brom and closer to the field and that was actually a really cool feature that i don't know why they don't use more often
01:12:15
Speaker
but it really put the fans a little bit more on top of the field and it created a cool effect. Right. And if you're going totally blue sky, I think that you could just maybe reconfigure the way the seeding is laid out completely. I'm sure that there are some tolerances for NFL sidelines and things like that that make that hard to do in any super meaningful way. But I think that you could stack things a little bit and just
01:12:41
Speaker
push things a little closer to the field. So that's you know that's just two but in total we'll have at least four or five so I'll kick it over to you. Yeah so the big one for me and I think that this is these are
01:12:56
Speaker
Maybe not the most obvious things for a fan perspective, but I think the single biggest thing that Lumen could do theoretically now is get rid of every single piece of signage that is not digital.
01:13:15
Speaker
and create an environment where you can have it feel like a Sounders stadium or a Seahawks stadium or frankly whatever else you want to put there because I think one of the ongoing frustrations of Sounders fans is that over the course of nearly 15 years
01:13:37
Speaker
The stadium hasn't gotten much more sounders. Like there are definitely some, you know, there's more, there's banners and there's a few things that are permanent that make it feel a little bit more like a sounder stadium. But I don't know that you put it all together if Loom and Field really feels any more like a sounder stadium today than it did in 2009. And I think, you know, there's a lot of stadiums
01:14:03
Speaker
in the country that have multiple primary tenants, you know, the most notable is probably the Medellins, where the Jets and Giants are playing. I guess it's not called the Medellins anymore.
01:14:18
Speaker
they like all their ad boards are digitalized so that it feels like you don't know that you're sharing the stadium. And there's no reason to me that that can't happen. It's just money. And it could presumably happen during an offseason. The other one is
01:14:37
Speaker
is a little bit more pie into the sky, but is possible is that you turn sections, the Brahman, the ECS sections 121, 122, 123 into safe standing and
01:14:53
Speaker
What I've been told by the sounders is that that would be a, like there's no, like they've insist there's no way to do it temporarily where they like take it out and put it back in for sounders and Seahawks. And so as such, they would need the Seahawks to want to have that for Seahawks games, which doesn't seem to outside the realm of possibility for me, but I'd like to see the sounders push a little harder to get that, something like that to happen.
01:15:22
Speaker
We saw the Galaxy Stadium installed safe standing in their supporters end. It's becoming kind of a standard thing throughout MLS. I think that would be a huge addition. And then the final one is not something that fans are going to notice, but I think it would be an important sign of
01:15:47
Speaker
The intention of lumenfield and that's to build a permanent locker room for frankly both the sounders and the rain. There's room as far as I know to do that. And I think it would go a long way towards making it feel like this is a truly shared soccer facility.
01:16:09
Speaker
And not just someplace where the sounder and I mean the sounders in rain are literally renters right now, but it doesn't have to feel that way. And I think those would, you know, you take all those together and I think you've got yourself a pretty great soccer stadium. And I know on the point of them being renters like
01:16:27
Speaker
I know that the Seahawks functionally own the stadium, but that's not the way it's supposed to be. They're also a tenant. I just think you would think for if nothing else in the goodwill of the community that you would want to facilitate that kind of good relationship with the community.
01:16:49
Speaker
the teams who show the stadium list, but we'll see. We'll see now that they're, you know, going to be less relevant for a little while. Maybe a little more. It'll be interesting if all of a sudden the Seahawks are like, yeah, so maybe we want to work with you a little more on this. But my understanding is there is a bunch of changes that are getting made to Lumen. I don't know how many of them are things that
01:17:15
Speaker
the average fan is going to notice, but I think they're like redoing the club that's behind the Brahmin. Like that'll be in, I think most, I think there's a whole bunch of changes that are happening at the club level. Um, I don't know how many of our listeners will care about those, but I mean, I guess it's, it's the point is that it's, it's a great facility. It's a great location and there's a lot that can be done there.
01:17:41
Speaker
short of demoing it and starting from scratch that can make it a better, more modern and more soccer friendly city.
01:17:53
Speaker
With that, I think we're going to sign off. This was a fun one. Again, thanks to our newest sponsor, Watson's Counter. Of course, thank you, Fullpool Wines, for their continued support. I am Jeremiah McShann, signing off on behalf of Aaron, Camp Bo and Lickett. This is no Sadietes. Remember, you'll never be that alone.
01:18:19
Speaker
Green Douglas spur where the waters cut through. Down to wild mountains and tangents you flew. Canadian Northwest to the ocean so blue. It's Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Roll On, Columbia Roll On. Your power is turning our darkness to dawn. Roll On, Columbia Roll On.
01:18:57
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!