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Thank you, Nico: Our Lodeiro tribute episode
94 Plays2 years ago
Jeremiah is joined by Ari Liljenwall and Niko Moreno to reflect on Nico Lodeiro's illustrious Sounders career.
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Transcript
Introduction to NOS Arietes and Sponsors
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, this is Christian Roldan. And Jordan Morris from the Seattle Sounders Football Club. And you're listening to NOS Arietes. 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. They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, the Pacific Northwest.
00:00:28
Speaker
A.O. Shen! Let's go! What a save by Fry! The Seattle Sounders have done it! MLS Cup win! Here come three years through the middle to crown it the vehicle! And now they truly can't stop the celebrations. It's the Sounders' MLS Cup! Niko Liddo leaves out!
00:01:12
Speaker
Is that what you young people call twerking?
Special Tribute to Nico Lodeiro
00:01:26
Speaker
Welcome to a special edition of Nos Adietes, sponsored by Full Bowl Wines, Watson's Counter, and our subscribers. We're recording on Tuesday, December 12th, 2023. I am your host, Jeremiah Shan. Joining me today for this Nico Ludero tribute episode are our friends of the show, Ari Lilinwall and Nico Moreno. How's it going, guys? Good. Thanks for having us, Jeremiah.
00:01:48
Speaker
I'm excited to lay down a little tribute for Nico here, who I think we all agree is one of our favorite players that we've ever watched stood up for the club. Absolutely, Nico. Hey, how you doing, guys? Excited to be over here anytime my Nico counterpart gets brought up. I love to be part of those shows. It is emotional, so I got a little brown liquid here next to me. I'm a friend, Jack.
00:02:17
Speaker
So we'll have that and talk about Nico and remember his greatness with you and of course your audience that by everything that I've been reading, they're feeling pretty hurt as well.
00:02:31
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that that's a
Nico Lodeiro's Impact on Seattle Sounders
00:02:33
Speaker
that's a fair. It's a fair place. And in case you were living under a rock and you don't really understand why are you doing an equal arrow tribute today? Essentially, the sounders effectively made it. It's not official. He hasn't signed anywhere yet, but the sounders.
00:02:48
Speaker
With my understanding, in conjunction with Nico today, sort of unveiled their entire tribute catalog. They put out over a dozen pieces of media on various social media places. They had a couple posts on their website. They put out this whole quote sheet thanking Nico from Adrian Hanauer, Hugh Weber,
00:03:10
Speaker
Craig Weibel, Brian Schmetzer, sort of like the everyone that needs to say thank you, at least at the high levels has said thank you. And it's, I think, all for all intents and purposes, the doors closed is if Nico hadn't already done that himself.
00:03:27
Speaker
when he said he was planning on leaving, there's, you know, this I think erases any real doubt that there was a chance of him coming back. You know, I'll just start off by saying I found it all very fitting. I found it very touching. I think Nico absolutely deserves all of this. And I'm glad the Sounders aren't playing games and waiting for
00:03:47
Speaker
You know him to actually sign somewhere to do this like get out of get out in front of it. Let's let's you know move this along. I would hope to think that in some ways it actually helps Nico find his next spot as well. This also seems what what Nico wanted, which I think is important. He clearly had a special place in his heart for this for Seattle for the Sounders for fans. His kids growth both grew up here.
00:04:09
Speaker
In eight seasons, he put down deep roots, won a bunch of trophies, brought a ton of joy, and generally will go down as one of the greatest signings in MLS history, arguably the greatest player in Sounders history, and one of the best athletes to ever play professional sports in Seattle.
Comparisons with Other Seattle Athletes
00:04:24
Speaker
actually a really good place to start in part because Ari put out a tweet where he essentially declared that Nico at the very least deserves to be in that conversation among best Seattle athletes. And Nico, you want to make your case why you think Nico belongs in that kind of conversation.
00:04:45
Speaker
sure i mean i just think if you're if you're to make the mount rushmore of names that you think should be on that list
00:04:55
Speaker
A lot of it has to come down to winning. And there's not very many people that you could name that have put as many banners in the building and as many rings on people's fingers as he has. The name a lot of people replied with was Sue Bird as a comparison. I think that's a good one. And I think it's just about the only one
00:05:21
Speaker
when you're talking about the criteria of who won the most. People who argue against that would probably point to the fact that soccer is not necessarily as
00:05:35
Speaker
high profile or popular sport in the US as some of the athletes who have played for other teams, like the Mariners and the Seahawks. But to me, it's big enough and popular enough and especially popular enough in Seattle, where this team has a huge following, a huge fan base, where when you've won as much as he has, you know, multiple league titles. And then also for me, the thing that
00:06:05
Speaker
puts it over the top is the CONCACAF Champions League title where you're talking about a guy that was the centerpiece of a historic accomplishment that no MLS team has ever won the modern version of.
Nico's Iconic Moments and Achievements
00:06:19
Speaker
So when you put all that together, I think you have an iconic type figure who belongs in those discussions and not many people have won as much as he has.
00:06:32
Speaker
No, I would I would totally agree with that. I think that that's very legit. I suppose if we're going to list out the rest of the people who might be in that conversation, I think you got to put Ken Griffey up. Can give you Junior that is up there in part because he was maybe the only.
00:06:48
Speaker
Seattle athlete who was the clearly the best player in his sport while he was here That was not necessarily a long stretch of game of seasons where he was that but you know, he probably reached the highest high Super like you said one more than anyone else Gary Payton probably belongs in that conversation You know, he was a nine-time all-star during I think his his 13 seasons in Seattle average over 18 points a game That's crazy
00:07:15
Speaker
And it's great because we're not even talking championships. I mean, no, I agree. Shadow has, you probably couldn't name one player. I mean, the coach is probably the most popular head of all those sonics. I will put Walter Jones up there. I was going to say that was the other one that I was going to put up. There's Walter Jones.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah. And Walters, I would put even in front of, um, Griffey, simply because he's not only the best player. He wasn't just the best player in his position in actual time. He could arguably be the best player in that position all time, uh, regardless of also not winning a championship. Uh, but if in terms of dominance in the position, I would put him on top, but I like Ari's argument. I actually completely buy it because you get a little bit of both to get
00:08:01
Speaker
one of the greatest MLS signings, you get the player, the broad, the very first championship of the sport to the city, not to mention globalizing that brand everywhere out into the world. He puts you in a world stage in a club world cup. He makes you greater than the nation. I mean, he's just not
00:08:23
Speaker
just the United States, now you're bringing Seattle to the world. I mean, Carlos Vela, when I talked to him after the game, he said it himself. He said, look, a lot of us didn't really know Seattle Sounders until Nicole Ladero. We found out about the Sounders because of Nicole Ladero. And that's fair assessment.
00:08:40
Speaker
I think that's totally fair. And I think the other thing that really works in Nico's favor is, you know, if you just look at his stats, they don't necessarily jump off the page to you. You know, he scored, you know, I think it's, uh, he scored 58 goals. He had 95 assists. Those are the, it's, it's not that he didn't do a lot of that. It's
Nico's Emotional Decision to Leave
00:08:59
Speaker
just that they aren't, you know, when you, you,
00:09:01
Speaker
average it out over eight seasons it doesn't come out to be all that great but when you what to me stands out is how many goals he scored on the biggest stage in the most important games how many you know how he constantly was coming up big when the Sounders needed him the most and you know you look like to me I go back to the CONCACAP Champions League final against Pumas
00:09:22
Speaker
who steps up to convert two penalties on the road. Uh, but it's Nico Lidero in an environment that I don't think you can really overstate how, uh, how stressful that must have been. And he, he comes in, he converts it that completely turns the series around. And then of course he scores essentially the game or the series clinching, the championship clinching goal, uh, at home. And what I think is, is fairly maybe the iconic moment in sounder's history where you have Nico
00:09:51
Speaker
running the field, converting a rebound, ripping off his shirt, and then running into the crowd. It just is a perfect encapsulation of what everyone loved about Nico, which is he was hardworking, he came up big, and then of course there is this relationship he had with the fans. Nico, can you speak a little bit? You knew him by far the best of any of us. What, you know, emotionally, what do you think he was going through during this whole process?
00:10:18
Speaker
I mean, you saw it in that video. It was mixed emotions. It was almost a feeling of just not being able to have his way. I know that that sounds odd when you hear various stories about how things went.
00:10:38
Speaker
how things kind of played out and maybe it's easy for us to assume that he could have just let things go and said, okay, you know what, things got done at your time and I really want to be here. So I want to just leave it all behind and just start new. But I just felt like he
00:11:00
Speaker
ended up feeling so discouraged and disappointed at the whole situation that he knew that he would not be able to once again put on that jersey and leave it all on the field the exact same way he did since 2016.
00:11:20
Speaker
not being able to tell himself truthfully that he could commit to leaving his sweat, blood and tears into that pitch is what ultimately said. You know what? I'm going to give away my captaincy. I'm going to start to give this the reins of this team elsewhere because I know that I can no longer be here because of how the situation played out. So that's what I felt like he went through.
00:11:47
Speaker
I'm sure that there were many a times that he woke up on a Monday morning and said, man, maybe I should just.
Leadership and Cultural Influence
00:11:55
Speaker
called Craig and tried to figure things out, called the club, tried to figure it out, but he just wasn't willing to do that when he knew that there was a chance that that just was not gonna be better. That feeling, that, I don't wanna call it resentment, but that disappointment was always gonna be there. That relationship was just not what it was at one time. And so he decided to go because he loved the city so much, because he respected that crest, those colors.
00:12:24
Speaker
And you could just tell by the way he cried in that video, and it's something that I was able to see away from the cameras. What you saw in that video is exactly what I saw with him. No phones, no cameras, no video recording, just two guys and a couple of other people having a conversation. When you tear up about something like that, it's because you feel it down in your core. It's not something that you're just playing out for people to see.
00:12:52
Speaker
And that means the world to me, being able to see that person really have that sort of sentiment towards a city, towards an organization, that's unheard of these days. Yeah, no, I think and especially for someone who came in with really no
00:13:11
Speaker
You know, he came in fresh. He had no, he had no connection here. And in fact, a lot of the people that brought him here weren't even, or at least one of the key people that brought him here wasn't even here when he, he walked through the door. And so for him to sort of have this connection, uh, was pretty amazing over the course. And I, and I will say a credit to him.
00:13:29
Speaker
Even after he made it very, you know, you could tell that some of this stuff was going on behind the scenes and he never let it affect the way he trained. He never let it affect the way that he played. He always, you never questioned his effort. And even after he went public, it was the same. You know, he kept saying, I just want to be able to focus on winning MLS Cup.
00:13:49
Speaker
And I think a lot of there was a lot of people that I saw who sort of questioned whether or not he could be sincere in that way. Like, if you really wanted to just focus on winning MLS Cup, wouldn't you just stay quiet and let this go over? And I think for him, this was actually really useful. And, you know, he didn't play, I'm sure, as much as he would have liked down the stretch. But when he did play, he was, you know,
00:14:11
Speaker
His effort was 100% there. I think in training, I never questioned anything that he was doing. Ari, when you think about Nico Ledero's time here, what are some of the memories that jump out at you? What are some of the things that you'll sort of be left thinking about? There's so many, but I think you have to start with the extent to which he changed that season.
00:14:36
Speaker
In 2016 after he first arrived, I think we all probably remember, but it's easy to forget how.
00:14:47
Speaker
how kind of deep in the mud the team was at the time that he arrived. I mean, as difficult as this season was at times, I don't think it even held a key to where things stood in 2016. There were six, 12, and two famously when he played his first game. And before or since, I've never seen a mid-season signing
00:15:14
Speaker
have just that drastic of an impact and you saw it right away. I remember the first his debut against the galaxy. I believe that he came in as a sub and
00:15:30
Speaker
It just, you can see just how much the way that the team was capable of playing changed just because he was on the field. And you know I was obviously watching him super closely in that game because he's this very highly touted signing coming from Boca juniors and really
00:15:49
Speaker
The situation was that he needed to save the season and he got on that field that day and he just starts hanging these through balls in a different way than anyone else on the team was capable of doing. Just his vision and his ability to set guys up.
00:16:11
Speaker
That's always what set him apart. You know, I've always been drawn as a soccer fan more to the facilitators than the goal scorers, like kind of in basketball, most more drawn to like the past first point cards. I like a guy who's going to, who's, who's unselfish and more interested in setting up his teammates than maybe, you know, getting the, uh, than scoring themselves. And he, he really encapsulates that and.
00:16:35
Speaker
he brought all that to the table from that first game through the rest of that season and it was phenomenal to watch how he kind of single-handedly saved that season and then they ended up winning MLS Cup that year and it was just a crazy run and
Challenges in Replacing Nico Lodeiro
00:16:51
Speaker
he was so central to all of it. So I still look back on that season and can't believe that they won MLS Cup and kind of just marvel at how he was able to deliver that. I think you brought up a great one with the CONCACAF Champions League final goal. I think if you were to name a signature moment,
00:17:15
Speaker
That would probably be it. That moment still gives me chills. It's an amazing moment. Well, because you had the point in the game where I think Seattle was up 2-0 at the time. And they had all the momentum. It seemed like they were cruising to win. So it was kind of a celebratory mood at the time. And everyone had their phone lights out. That was what was so cool about it.
00:17:41
Speaker
Everyone had their phone lights out so that you had this kind of crazy atmosphere from that and the energy in the building because of the accomplishment that that they were about to get. And he scores that goal and that was soccer and Nirvana.
00:17:57
Speaker
Like, I think when I look back on my time being around this team and covering this team, I don't know if I will be able to consider anything else as the apex of, of the journey, you know, other than, other than that moment. And he delivered that.
00:18:14
Speaker
I mean you could keep going down the list, though, all the playoff goals he scored another one that stands out was the one in the FC Dallas playoff series. When he scored that goal I think that.
00:18:31
Speaker
I can't remember if that was the 2016 run or a different era, 2019. I mean, he scored three goals against Dallas during that run. Yeah. The one where he ripped the jersey off and went and celebrated with the crowd. Yeah, I think that was the first leg. That was the supporter shield winning Dallas team that they beat.
00:18:54
Speaker
And sort of along the same lines, I think what can't be overstated is he really did change his trajectory or at least the perception of the Sounders. You know, the Sounders had always been this popular team. They'd always been a successful team to a degree, but they did not have the trophy case to show for it. You know, they had these U.S. Open Cups and they had certainly done their fair share of winning, but I think there was always this sort of
00:19:16
Speaker
Yeah, but you haven't won the big one yet. And, and that was the thing that he delivered is he delivered the big, big trophies. And that's something that, you know, Seattle has not been able to enjoy across, uh, other than, you know, the WNBA, which I don't want to, I don't want to diminish, but there's not many, uh, there's not Seattle sports teams are not traditionally winning multiple trophies, uh, the way that, uh, the Sounders did under, uh, or with, uh, Nico Lidero.
00:19:48
Speaker
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00:20:18
Speaker
Niko, what are some of the things that you felt like really stood out to you about the way Ledero played and the way that he... You mentioned Carlos Vela saying how he didn't really know who the sounders were before Ledero came in. Along those lines, how do you think... What about him stood out? What do you think about his play made other folks pay attention?
00:20:45
Speaker
the way he approached the game, the confidence in which he.
00:20:52
Speaker
allowed other teammates to be better. You can look at the highlights of the goals and the assists, and you can look at the stabs. But what I focus on in those moments that you guys just talked about, one of the goals, it was the, I would spend a bunch of time looking at Nico away from the soccer ball, what he was doing, he's the meaner, the body language. In that,
00:21:18
Speaker
that me and you were at Jeremiah, at the style, Olympic code with the hostile crowd. When that team goes down to zero, Raul is in everybody's face is saying, let's go. Everybody's kind of walking slowly into the locker room and he's talking to people. He's saying, let's go. We're going to get this done in that second half. They come in and when he gets the first goal, Talabera is chirping at him, trying to get in his head and he is immovable. He is concentrated.
00:21:45
Speaker
He puts that one behind and he doesn't give it to Talabeda at the time. When he gets that equalizer, that's when he gives them that gesture in his face and he's like, let's go and then goes to the corner and tells the stadium, I can't hear you. That's the type of stuff that just was fuel for this squad.
00:22:05
Speaker
I remember in 2019, similar situation. LAFC was the clear favorite for everybody. Everybody thought LAFC was gonna smack down the Sounders, add back to California. There was no way they were gonna win this game. I had talked to Raul Rodriguez the day before on a one on one for MLS ES. And there was fire in his eyes and it was a serious conversation. And you know, both of you guys know and the audience knows that
00:22:35
Speaker
Rodriguez has the attitude and the charisma of a bad man. He ain't robbing to nobody. He ain't robbing to nobody. He's a bad man from the cars to the flair to whatever you want that bad man. But in that specific setting, he had no problem deferring to the importance of Nico being that leader on the team.
00:22:55
Speaker
And in the game following that day after we got to talk to him, I had talked to Nico, he was in a different mode. He was eating different, training different, sleeping different. I remember he told me, I'm carrying myself over the last two weeks differently just for this playoffs, just for this final. And you could see it on the field because what happens in that LAFC game, they go down. They go down one zero. I think there's a free kick, if I'm not mistaken, they go down.
00:23:23
Speaker
And Niko, once again, he's talking to everybody, and pulls him over and says, stop looking at the crowd. And just that leadership, that fire, that passion, that I give a damn, that's what made him different, is that he would bleed for this team. And I don't know if you'll find it. Look, we've had a lot of great players.
00:23:46
Speaker
Very talented players here, all my family and Clint Dempsey and all of those guys. But I can tell you Jeremiah and me and you have followed this team for a very long time. I cannot look at you in the eyes and tell you that there is another guy.
00:24:01
Speaker
that was as talented as Nico, that gave F as much as Nicolas Dodero. He wanted to win everything, he wanted to win every game, and he wanted to do it as a team. And he was the leader for absolutely everybody around him. And that's what made him different. Those are the attributes that I will forever remember about Nicolas Dodero. Cuz in today's day and age, it's very easy to go get a superstar, to go get a player for a lot of money.
00:24:27
Speaker
But having somebody that's gonna come and integrate into your community and commit to you and your fan base and your organization and your young players. Talk to the young players, talk to those academy guys of how much time they spend with Nicolas Dodaro. And you'll find out who Nico was beyond the pitch. So that's what I'd like to focus on. It's not just the goals, it's not just the trophies and the fact that he put this team in
00:24:53
Speaker
stratosphere that they were never at until his arrival, but it's all those intangibles that I stay with.
Nico's Legacy and Final Thoughts
00:25:01
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's sort of the, the thing that's going to be so hard to replace is that they can find someone who will score the goals and, you know, uh, set up the goals and maybe even cover the ground and do a lot of the stuff that you can measure. But where Nico really stood out, I think, like you said, is he was something more than just his
00:25:25
Speaker
his presence on the field, he was this ambassador, he was a tempo setter, and not just in terms of the ball at his feet, but he set the mood. There's this famous anecdote that Matt Pence had in this first year about how one of the first things Nico did when he came into the locker room was he shut off the music.
00:25:48
Speaker
And this is a team that had Roman Torres and Nelson Valdez and Clint Dempsey and Brad Evans. And you go down and all these guys, Stephen Fry, and all these players who had created a culture that was successful, that they thought was working pretty well. And he came in and just said, nope, we're going to change this. This is how we're doing things. We need to get serious. And they listened. And that's what I think is the most amazing thing is that there was no one questioning this.
00:26:18
Speaker
There was no one in the, like no one, I've never heard anyone, anyone say a bad thing about Nico, uh, it's certainly not his teammates. And even, you know, like, I don't know that there's a negative thing to say about him other than maybe, you know, in, in the way of Michael Scott, he just tries too hard. Maybe, you know, like that's his, his only negative attribute is that he cares too much. Um,
00:26:42
Speaker
and I don't know that's that's I think what kind of what I'm left with here is is where you know how do you go about replacing this uh Ari do you have any idea like how how you'd go about doing this that's the hardest question of the show by the way how to go about replacing him
00:27:02
Speaker
I mean it's gonna be really really tough because like you guys were talking about so much of his value expands beyond the on-field production and you know I have one more story actually that I think kind of illustrates that it's a short one but uh
00:27:21
Speaker
So before the night before the CONCACAF Champions League final second leg in Seattle, there was an event at the Georgian Dragon where there was a lot of like national media and local media there. I don't know. I don't remember if either. I think you guys were both at it. Yeah. And at the at the Georgia the night before the game, I was talking to someone who works for the Sounders.
00:27:48
Speaker
Uh, and just, you know, chopping it up about what we were thinking would happen in the game. And I was, I was kind of asking him, you know, like, do you, do you think you guys are going to take the W or, uh, like, are you a little worried about this one? And he was like, I'm not worried at all. I'm, I'm pretty sure we're going to win. And I was like, what makes you so confident? And he was like, the captain, he's not going to let us lose. Like he's just not like.
00:28:15
Speaker
And I think, and then when you saw how it pan out in the game and how he kind of spearheaded that victory, like that's where you see the impact of a standard setter like that. So it's so hard to put a value on that because I mean, think about like,
00:28:34
Speaker
how invaluable someone has to be to an operation for them to instill someone with like confidence like that, where before you even play the game, you have that level of confidence and they go into every playoff game and every tournament game with that
00:28:53
Speaker
confidence. And I think that puts you so far above the eight ball. So you're ahead of the eight ball. As far as how you replace that, I think you have to really highlight like character and the off-field evaluation in the scouting. That's what I would say. And not necessarily hone entirely in on
00:29:20
Speaker
physical talent, you have to do a big character evaluation and try to find somebody who can not replicate like for like those attributes, but get as close as you possibly can. You know, I was, I didn't ask them to do this because like, I'm going to lose over here. And that story, and I'm not going to say the name of the player, but to that effect of what Ari just said, like, I remember a conversation I had in, uh, uh,
00:29:47
Speaker
more of a non-professional setting and it was more of like a relaxment time. So I'm not going to say his name, but I remember him telling me that at the end of that 2-2 draw at a study olympico, he's like, man, I was going to ask my parents, man. There was fans going crazy. There was police.
00:30:05
Speaker
which sometimes is aggressive against opposition teams. And, you know, that they were both of the teams were in the middle of the pitch trying to, you know, talk ass to each other. And I was about to ask my parents, but I look over and Nico, he's half my size and he's taken on two, three people.
00:30:22
Speaker
I'm thinking he's six foot tall. I'm thinking he's six foot tall, but that was his presence he tells me. So I ran right over. I didn't want to, but I had to because Nico just walked tall. And that phrase right there stuck with me because that's how they fell on the field. Nico walked tall. He played tall. He played huge.
00:30:47
Speaker
And that's something that is just so hard to find. And that's why this is absolutely, and without a doubt, the end of an era. You can go find somebody else, but generational players of his caliber just don't come by a club and an organization in any sport.
00:31:06
Speaker
very easily, so yes, maybe you go find a guy that's extremely talented and you go find a guy that can do nickel-esque things, but it's really hard for me to just sit there and say, fans, everyone listening, this club, regardless of how great they are at scouting and how good of an organization they are, they're gonna go find another Nicolas de Dero, because I couldn't put money on it. It's just really hard to find someone that can give you absolutely all of that.
00:31:34
Speaker
No, and I think that they maybe have to take their time. I don't know if they even should go out and try to find a Niko Lidero in part because you aren't, you probably aren't. Like you're not going to find someone who checks all the boxes and certainly you don't want to rush out and do it. The worst thing you could do, you know, and I think in some ways the fact that it looks right now like Albert Rusnak is going to be the player who effectively fills that
00:31:59
Speaker
on field role in the short term. And maybe that's a good thing because there is overlap there. There is. This is not a player who is suddenly going to have. He's not a new guy. He's not coming in who has all these expectations thrust upon him. He sort of is who he is. And you hope that he performs well, but you're not. No one's expecting Albert Rusnak to be Nico Lidero beyond maybe scoring and assisting goals. But they don't. You know, we know him. We know this player and whoever comes in.
00:32:28
Speaker
that ultimately fills this vacuum, which I think is maybe a good way of putting it. There's a vacuum that someone, that something is going to have to fill. Maybe it's partly Stephen Fry's leadership. It's a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and I think the centers are probably smart to take a little bit of time before really trying to move into the next era, because you're right, Nico, this is the end of an era. Whatever happens from here on out is something different.
00:32:57
Speaker
The Nico Ledero part of this, like from 2016 to 2023, that's the Nico Ledero era. That's a distinct thing from whatever came before and whatever came after. That, that a fair way of putting it, you think? Absolutely. 100%.
00:33:12
Speaker
Well, Ari, Nico, thank you so much for joining me doing this. I think anything, any other last anecdotes you guys want to throw out there, things that you want to just make sure that get on the record that you want to put into the world.
00:33:29
Speaker
Nico can cook. Nico is a mean man on the grill. I tell you right now, had the pleasure of hanging out with him here in the last couple of days before he ended up leaving for vacation and, you know, at his house.
00:33:45
Speaker
I'm guessing—I don't know how many types of ribs and meat, cuts, charcuterie board before the meat was ready, had some mate, which is not a Colombian thing. We don't do mate, you know, the herb thing that the Hawaiian Argentines do. We don't really do it. A little bit bitter, but, you know, when in Rome, you know, you just kind of do it. And, you know, I had me a couple of those.
00:34:09
Speaker
But just his skills on the grill, man, on point, perfectly medium rare. Everything was cooked at perfect temp. I mean, this guy could be in celebrity cook, at least when it comes to grill. And I mean, I know that being a chef is beyond the grill.
00:34:24
Speaker
But man, oh man, I mean, Chorizo, everything that he gave me was absolutely on point and just was very honored and privileged to just sit there and talk to him about his time in Boca, his time here.
00:34:42
Speaker
The best things and the things he would miss and obviously there's things that I wouldn't share with anyone because that was in in the privacy of his home But the guy can cook that'd be the other end of that I would provide everybody with the guy as most of your wines do He's mean mean man on the ground You have any anyone you want to make any predictions about where he went ends up?
00:35:05
Speaker
No, because I kind of have a pretty good idea. So I'll provide you guys with something here when we have it. I will say that as anybody, as most of you know, if you know Nico, he is a father first. He's a father before he's a soccer player. And if it was up to him, he would remain in MLS. So that's probably where things are going to play out. I know that you hear things every day about him going to national.
00:35:34
Speaker
and to Boca Juniors and here and there, I think he will end up here in the United States. Yeah. Well, that's probably, I'm guessing Ari doesn't have anything that's going to top that. If I'm wrong, just raise your hand. I'll just say, you know,
00:35:51
Speaker
For me, I'll always tell anyone who ever asked me that this is the best player that I've been around since I've been around the team. And I hope his legacy gets remembered as such. He's earned the reputation and the legacy that he has 100%.
00:36:16
Speaker
Yeah, he has. And I, you know, I can't say that I got to know him personally, real well. But I admired him. I got to talk him enough that I felt like I got a good sense of who he was. And I always you know, I think his
00:36:32
Speaker
His character is unimpeachable, and I think that's saying something. And I think that's probably a good place to leave this. Nico, Ari, thank you so much for joining me. I am Jeremiah Shan, signing off for No Study at This. We will catch you next time.
00:37:48
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!