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What We Learned This Week: Contract, roster designation, injury updates and win at RSL challenge
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Niko joins Jeremiah to talk about what they learned this week, which includes injury updates to Jordan Morris and Hassani Dotson. They also talk about several players with contracts coming up in the next year including Jordan. The two wrap the show up talking about matchday 2 - at Real Salt Lake - which has become quite the bugaboo place for the Sounders.
Follow Niko Moreno on BlueSky and YouTube.
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Transcript
Introduction and Will Bruin's New Role
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here we go.
00:00:11
Speaker
Come on. Hey, O'Shaughness. Let's The Seattle Sounders have done
Sounders' Championship Status
00:00:18
Speaker
it. MLS Cup winners. The Sounders rule the region.
00:00:43
Speaker
Ooch of a gooch! All creatures, great and small! Rothrock gonna collect it, he does about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in! Oh, what a goal! Where's my copy? got bunch of them How many do you cost them? 50 bucks.
00:01:08
Speaker
I'll deadline you.
Sponsor Highlight: Full Pull Wines
00:01:18
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
Recap of Sounders' Home Opener
00:01:42
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adientes on the Sounder Heart Podcast Network. It is Friday. we are back at the Sounder at Heart HQ in the International District of Seattle.
00:01:55
Speaker
I am joined by Nico Moreno for another episode of What We Learned This Week. Welcome, Nico. Hey, what's going on, Jeremiah? Audience, we're coming in after a big w Home opener win, where everything seemed to go, for the most part, to the Sounders' team.
00:02:12
Speaker
best interest. I mean, aside from the one injury, I think that the Sounders look really good. So I'm excited to get on here. Give you guys our takes about what we saw. We learned a lot. Some good things. yeah Some good things. So I have a feeling like people are going to want to know well what's Jeremiah thinking.
00:02:31
Speaker
So let's start with the
Player Health Updates
00:02:32
Speaker
good news. ah Even though Hassani Dotson went out with some concern about a concussion from the game, he was back in training all week. Apparently, he told us today he hasn't suffered injuries No effects from no concussion like symptoms.
00:02:47
Speaker
He's totally clear. He's been fine. That's all great news. Also positive. Kim Kihee returned to training this week. And then today he was all in at training. So he I don't know if he's going to be available off the bench this week, but he will be available very soon.
00:03:02
Speaker
So that's obviously great news. centers were pretty thin at center are still pretty thin at center back, but um less positively, ah Ryan Saylor and Stu Hawkins still have unclear timelines.
00:03:16
Speaker
I would imagine they're out for e weeks, maybe even months, I suppose, at this point. i want Someone told me that the range on injuries between the three of them was three to eight weeks, and I'm now wondering if...
00:03:29
Speaker
Both Saylor and Hawkins are closer to eight weeks, which is crazy. Saylor has not trained at all. I don't think he's had one training session. i At some point, we probably need to figure out what the issue was. Like if he came in hurt and he just was yeah like, how did he pass physical? He's still just hurt. i don't understand.
00:03:46
Speaker
That is what I like to call the curious case of Ryan Saylor. Yeah. Because it is odd. i have tried to do my best to ask about the injury in a non, you know, confrontational way. Right. But I don't have to go look for information outside the channels and see on background what happened. Because unless somebody kicked in that CTAC, I just don't know when the injury happened. And like you said,
00:04:15
Speaker
Did he skip through something when he came to medical? I mean, I just don't get it. i I didn't like deciding to start necessarily now i mean even more than just thinking about what happened.
00:04:27
Speaker
So it is a little bit frustrating to know that someone that's yet to step one toe on the grounds of the facility is still out for a while.
00:04:40
Speaker
I will say this, that I did talk to Stu somewhere after they the game, i want to say on the field. And it sounded like he was pretty optimistic that he'd back soon.
00:04:51
Speaker
So if it's not
Hassani Dotson's Performance and Potential
00:04:53
Speaker
this week, obviously, because he didn't practice at all, I would think by next week he should be training, at least partial. But he sounded positive that he was feeling better or he was on his way to at least getting some reps in training. So my guess is that Ryan Saylor is the eight-week one. Right. Yeah, that's what it sounds like. Same.
00:05:12
Speaker
um The Hassani one was interesting because, and I think you asked that and you were talking about it, he seemed more, he sounded like they were more concerned with him having a broken nose or something to that degree. It sounded like he was in pain he was feeling pain in his face after the injury. And so I think they were just being ultra careful.
00:05:34
Speaker
And so that's better than any sort of like head collision where maybe your main concern is other things that are a little bit more, um long term and and then he probably passed the questions initially and and that's a good thing because look, I've seen the game three times and there wasn't a lot to see and it was very slow paced and you know, stopped by the refereeing and all that but there were moments there where I really liked what Hassani did and if I can go off of what he did today,
00:06:14
Speaker
I'm starting to really see where this could go. ah he had a phenomenal header today off of an Albert Rusnak cross and just his understanding of how to attack the space, the rapport to kind of just lock in eyes with Albert Rusnak. I just, I think he's really working on picking up the system.
00:06:41
Speaker
He, I asked him about the system and how much Bryant's way of using his pivots asks a lot of them. And at times you got to be on the outside channels, ah depending on how many guys are forward. You got to be inside that defend.
00:06:56
Speaker
And he said that there's been a lot of film study that they're doing to get him where he needs to be. So, hey, it seems like if he gets in here and continues to do well, that's a win for San Yeah, I would definitely say that's a win for the Sounders.
00:07:11
Speaker
I like Hassani a lot. I think he just seems like he fits the
Jordan Morris' Injury Concerns
00:07:16
Speaker
whole Sounders ethos. um I guess the other big piece of news that we kind of buried here, we did get an update on Jordan Morris.
00:07:25
Speaker
Now, it was funny. I felt like we had a little mixed signals from from Brian because on one hand, he was saying this is not good news. But then he also said he was out four weeks and it was a grade 1A quad strain, which is a the lowest grade quad strain that you could have where it's just like not even on the like the schedule, for lack of a better term.
00:07:48
Speaker
But he said, so four weeks doesn't seem that bad. And so I wonder if the it's just bad news in that it's like he can't play this. i mean, I guess that's what he meant, is that he can't play this week.
00:07:59
Speaker
And maybe and i think Jordan's reaction probably had more to do with I can't believe I'm doing this again, as opposed to, I can't believe my season's over. Clearly he's, he's going to be back, but that was, you know, so I guess that's maybe mixed, we'll put that in a mixed bag. It's not the worst case scenario, but it's definitely not, you know, he's hurt.
00:08:17
Speaker
Sure. And I mean, I thought it was a positive that we saw him today. Obviously not with the team, not partially training, but at least on the ball, if it was a higher grade strain or, you know, even worse, like a rupture or something, he wouldn't be out there.
00:08:33
Speaker
And so I thought it was positive. I will say that with all the mixed... you know, wording and and, you know, even his body language. Speaking about Brian, I would say that they're probably going to be cautious, right? I think so. Yeah. He said the the shooting mechanism, right? Because it's each the right foot And I think his explosiveness, a guy that depends so much on his overall speed and his stop and go.
00:09:01
Speaker
my guess is that he be brilliant maybe he could be more than in five weeks. I think depending, right? You might want to get him in at four weeks, but maybe you bring him in for 45. Right. He's not going to be starting. i don't think he's going to starting right away. Like they're probably gonna ease him back in, especially now there's the the knock on it. The other thing is that Paul Rothrock makes it very easy to bring him up slowly because Rothrock does not look like a player who's going to just surrender that starting spot right now. We if you can talk about,
00:09:30
Speaker
ah But yeah, I mean, it's going to be a tough situation. you know we We asked about D-Row and is D-Row the starter? And Brian said, well, he's the starter for now.
00:09:43
Speaker
you know Danny's going to get a shot. And that's just typical Brian. And i mean that in a good way because he is keeping everybody hungry. He's keeping that carrot right in front of him, make sure that they're all going after him.
00:09:56
Speaker
And that's a plus because De'Roe knows that he can't slow down. De'Roe knows that he's going to be in there. He's going to have to produce, that he might have to do even better than he did in this game because, you know, he was okay. I thought he was doing his job, occupying spaces, making sure that he forces the center backs to keep on him. I thought he was, he's pressing this good.
00:10:18
Speaker
I thought there was a lot of non-statistical stuff that he did well. His passing is pretty sharper. I've always said it when you're the top of that spear and you're the one low nine that's allowing the game to flow off of you in the final third, you have to be a lot more accurate with your intermediate passing, not turning into pressure.
00:10:41
Speaker
All those things I think he needs to be a little bit better at. But as I said, a lot of scorchers, he visits his floor. I think that's wonderful. What I will say is this, and and I'm going to go off a script of what we're talking about here, but I do want to nip this in the bud.
00:10:57
Speaker
We, or maybe not we, let me rephrase that. In my opinion, it is not very bright or fair that we beat up and crucified Jordan Morris for being injured.
00:11:17
Speaker
I keep hearing this is the worst v ever. And why do we keep doing this? And all bunch of things that i know that we don't want to talk about Jeremiah, but all I want to say is that,
00:11:30
Speaker
Jordan Morris earned his way into a DP spot. Maybe wasn't ideal. i know that he is a guy that is not turning heads or is at the top of any big transfer news, but he's produced at a high level.
00:11:48
Speaker
i think I used the word unlucky and people didn't like that, but it has been unlucky for Jordan Morris because it hasn't just been muscle injuries. It's been position where you fall and you get hit in your shoulder. And it has been just um unfortunate things like just falling off on a terrible surface like he did in Santa Tecla, I believe, he was yeah one of his first injuries.
00:12:13
Speaker
So there has been some some bad luck for him. So for me, I'm going to simply wait for him to get back.
Debating Jordan Morris' DP Value
00:12:22
Speaker
It's four weeks. It's not as long as people think.
00:12:26
Speaker
Hopefully he gives back. Hopefully he doesn't re-injure against any others, but you need to be able to turn the page and see the player for what he's provided. He's been a top scorer. He's the franchise leading scorer.
00:12:37
Speaker
I mean, if you don't think that's worth the team, I mean, I can point to the sickness and the, you know, I can point probably five or six BPs that have been an absolute bust where they've been. yeah,
00:12:53
Speaker
Leave the kid alone. Let's just pump the brakes on it. I know that you can do a lot of things with a DP spot, and I'm sure that once his contract is up, he's going to not be able a DP any longer, and you could figure it out from there. But I just feel like it's unfair to just kick somebody when they're down. And if anything, Jordan Morris is down because we know that he wants to be out.
00:13:17
Speaker
We definitely know that he wants to be out there. And and I will note, just to... I think it's sometimes tempting to ignore that in the two years leading up to the way he got his, his extent for his ah boost to a DP is that two years before i got it, he was really healthy.
00:13:38
Speaker
And so, yes, it's very, it's very convenient to look back at last year and say, well, he got hurt a lot. And he, there was pre periods earlier in his season where he got hurt a lot. And you can look at this year and you like, go look we're doing this again.
00:13:52
Speaker
i just feel like it's a lot of hindsight. You know, look, if you had a DP escalator in his contract and he hits it, good on him. You know, that's not, I don't see how, like what are you supposed to do about that?
00:14:05
Speaker
Uh, i I don't know what it pretends for the future. i suspect that this will be the last, you know, whatever. He's got a contract through 2027. So I suspect at the end of, you know, that's when his DP won't be a DP after that, I would imagine.
00:14:19
Speaker
But it's just, it just seems like it's a a lot of pointless...
00:14:25
Speaker
mending of ah garments or rending of garments to be upset about the DP deal. Now they're not going to buy them out. They still own $5 million. dollars They're not going to pay Jordan Morris $5 million to not play for them. I'm sorry. That's just not going to happen.
00:14:38
Speaker
Maybe next year they can do an extension that they get them off the DP deal. That's good conversation for next year. Albert Rusnak has a, has an option for next year. It's a good time to try to see if you can get him off a DP deal.
00:14:53
Speaker
But right now, it's just like beating up the kid for no reason. i will also... What did you make of this? we And there hasn't been a lot of discussion about this. Brian said that... Or he sort of...
00:15:06
Speaker
implied that Jordan had felt some discomfort in pregame and wanted to play. and so he let him play. But almost immediately after the game started, Jordan, you could tell well something was wrong.
00:15:17
Speaker
Certainly by the four and a half minute mark, it looked like he was starting to limp and be discomfort be in some discomfort. And then finally he sat down and just said, i need to come out. and that was very smart.
00:15:28
Speaker
Because it looked like he could he was playing on it up until then. And so I think you just like there's no point in pushing this. But I don't know. do do Brian opened the door for second guessing because he's straight up said maybe I should have kept him out.
00:15:40
Speaker
But what did you make of that whole thing?
00:15:43
Speaker
The reason why Brian was so open about it in my opinion, is because he's also falling on a sword. yeah And I can appreciate that. the Jordan Morris is taking enough criticism as it is. And i praise Brian for falling on that sword.
00:16:00
Speaker
Now, as someone who's been covering soccer for quite a long time, That's not something that's unusual. A lot of times guys feel tight and it'll loosen.
00:16:12
Speaker
Right. They'll say, hey, let's activate this muscle a little bit different. Or, you know, that there's ways around this. Once I warm I'm going to be okay. So I don't want to...
00:16:25
Speaker
sit here and quarterback this thing where I'm like, well, you know, have had he just pulled them out, wouldn't have been a bigger issue. And I think you brought this up off the mic, just us talking. When it comes to muscle injury, a lot of times it's out of habit. It could have been through practice. It could have been during today's You know, a short-sabit session. It have been on Tuesday.
00:16:46
Speaker
Some of the things kind of just work themselves out. So Brian does right by saying, I got to trust my senior player. Yeah. He knows his body. And you kind of go for it.
00:16:57
Speaker
All you can do is sort of trust the player, trust the data. I mean, they're getting all this feedback. it's I know it's always it's always tempting to try to figure out who messed up.
00:17:09
Speaker
But the reality is that sometimes no one messed up and things just unfortunate happen. You know, and it's kind of the same thing with the Pedro de la Vega injury where he gets this freak injury and it's like, was it because he was playing on the grass at Met Stadium?
00:17:24
Speaker
i don't know, maybe. Maybe would have happened anyway. We have no way of knowing. and it's just, it just feels sometimes like people want someone to blame. And sometimes there's not really a good person to blame and and shit happens, you know, lack of a better term.
00:17:37
Speaker
And frustration is understandable. Yeah, totally. And that's totally fine, right? But what I don't condone is beating up on somebody for getting into it. Right, yeah. That part is what I have an issue.
00:17:48
Speaker
And although I love, appreciate, and respect people's passion, I think that there's got to
Injury Perception within the Sounders
00:17:57
Speaker
be a level of just having some common sense and understanding that that's just something that happens. And we, both you and I have asked about the training regimens, how they're looking at at the the physical wear and tear of players and you know we've been told you know we look at assets in the muscle and there are all this data from the sports science department so they there's brian can't say enough nice things about their head trainer right now exactly every other week he's bringing up and adam simpani about what a great job he's done and like i think he's probably very good at his job and like again i think the other thing is that the team you pay attention to is always the most injury prone team
00:18:46
Speaker
because you don't see all the little injuries that are happening at other teams usually. And, you know, again, we we yeah actually had a story on Center at Heart that Spencer wrote that looked at injuries. And the Sounders are like,
00:19:00
Speaker
Relative to playing, like thereiry apparently there's some connection to turf. There's connection to how often teams are playing. And once you sort of correct for all that stuff, the sounders are actually less injury prone than a lot of their peers.
00:19:12
Speaker
So, you know, I just think that sometimes we can get a little wrapped up in this stuff and we sometimes need to pull back and give guys a break. And look, the Sounders won. They played well, I thought, for the most part. We don't have to necessarily break down the game.
00:19:27
Speaker
We'll spend a little bit more time talking about ah RSL. But was there anything that you noticed on your second and third watches that jumped out at you as like, oh, I didn't really catch that the first time?
00:19:39
Speaker
That's a great question because I did notice that in the way the Sounders operate, Hey, choose Ferrera, we'll need to have good to top performances, good to excellent performances to maximize and amplify what the Sounders want to do.
00:20:01
Speaker
I think that Albert Rusnak, and I don't know if it's by design, and and maybe that's something we could have asked, he felt like he had the liberty to just be higher up the field, and that's why so well positioned to header that first goal.
00:20:17
Speaker
I thought that he was doing a lot to help out
00:20:22
Speaker
take away a lot of that pressure that was put on Osase. And when Osase was dropping really deep, he felt like he was dropping really deep. It was. that He was. Yeah. Open up the the field a little bit better and just play off of him.
00:20:36
Speaker
And it allowed at times Albert to kind of get behind and be a guy that was higher in the field. And, my emphasis on Ferreira is that him and Albert are starting to go from, at one point we didn't know if they were to coexist, but them just working perfectly. It is funny. One and two. And at times, Ferreira cheats little bit, gets a little bit higher, and then Albert knows to drop in a little bit. So those two guys, to me, have been very good. But Jesus specifically, he is the guy that finds speed and is more accurate with his passing than...
00:21:13
Speaker
anyone right now when it comes to that final third, he'll drop back, he'll find the pockets, he'll find feet. You know, we don't need to go back and read over the game, but that that pass with his left foot in that through ball to Albert that Albert misses, I mean, it's such a good ball. It's such a good ball. It's like one of the best passes that I've seen a Sounders player make in a long time. It's a chef's kiss. oh And I think the part of the miss for Albert is that i don't think he knew that the ball was going to get there. And then when he gets there, he's just like, oh man, it's right here. And he just kind hits it. So... Jesus is going to be a huge key part of his act.
00:21:48
Speaker
So those are the things that kind of stood out for me. But but but specifically for me, it was just how structured and how continuity and chemistry can get you Going so And that's what we expected. i felt like they were going to have an edge on teams because this team is so well connected.
00:22:11
Speaker
And I felt like that was a huge and very obvious factor in that first game. Yeah, I would agree with all that. I thought that the sound, i thought there was a lot to be encouraged, especially in the attacking third.
00:22:25
Speaker
i mean, there was' there was a lot to be encouraged about basically every line. Now, how much of that is the Rapids and especially the Rapids sort of trying to try a new system? Hard to say. ah You know, we're going to do a little bit of talk on ah RSL after the break. Before we get to that, I did want to share one more thing that we learned this week.
00:22:42
Speaker
And there was kind of a funny little snafu with the release of the MLS roster profile. And if you don't know, every year, a couple times a year, and MLS releases what they call their roster profiles. And it's a really useful piece of information because what it does is it explains where everyone is on the roster. So it says who your DPs are, who your TAM players are, who your U22s are, who your internationals are, who your homegrowns are.
00:23:08
Speaker
ah Whether player is on the senior roster or the supplemental roster, whether they're off, you know, if they're off roster technically or not. And so there's a lot of good information in there, but very rarely is it like breaking news because usually almost always everything that's on there has already been announced.
00:23:24
Speaker
But today, when MLS released it, there were some curious pieces of information on there. One of them was a new who's extension through 2829 with a option for twenty nine thirty alex rolld on same thing an option for Option for 2829 and an option for 30. Now, we knew both of those because because you are a wonderful reporter and you've broken those stories already. Right.
00:23:48
Speaker
knew whose extension had already been confirmed multiple times by Brian Schmetzer. Whether he was purposefully doing that or not, I don't know. But they had been confirmed. Alex Rodon has been less of an issue because his contract wasn't even up until next year anyway, but he signed on an extension.
00:24:03
Speaker
But the really big piece of news was an extension for Danny Masofsky, where he was signed through the twenty seven twenty eight season with an option for twenty eight twenty nine Sanders had never announced that. we had never we The last time we had looked into it, we had heard that they had not come to an agreement.
00:24:19
Speaker
And sure enough, here it is. And then what even made it funnier was about, an you know, within half an hour or an hour of me tweeting that out. All of a sudden, the roster page got updated and it was the old contract information was up on the page.
00:24:34
Speaker
And I asked Brian about it i didn't tell Brian that that had been replaced. But he I asked him about Danny Masofsky pretty specifically. And he just said, well, you know, that's a Christian for Craig, but good catch.
00:24:47
Speaker
I mean, ah either way, I think we can confirm that these are these are done deals. I would expect formal announcements in the next day or two. But just kind of a funny little funny little piece of of information.
00:25:00
Speaker
And I'm glad it happened now because I still don't understand. Why are they slow? sweet Yeah. Why why not bring this out? Why do we need to find out on a snafu? And why are you redacting it? I mean, it is something that's so simple that fans want to know that you should be just putting out there. so The Alex Holden and Nuka deals have been done for a long time. Why are they not announcing those weeks, if not months ago?
00:25:29
Speaker
and And that's the part that really grinds my gears. I just, I dislike it. I, that's the reason why i try so hard to try to find out early and and put the information out because there just seems to be this whole secrecy thing that doesn't need to be out there now.
00:25:46
Speaker
to comment on the Danny Masovsky thing. I mean, I wonder when he got done and, you know, yo both you and I have talked about what's what's what's next.
00:25:58
Speaker
It's to me more than clear that he's going to have a setback here compared to last season. Cause last season is almost, you do wonder what they're paying, like what his rate is. Like, like,
00:26:10
Speaker
I'm very curious. And then this is not the whole piece of the puzzle. We don't know how much any of these extensions are for. That will be presumably in the end. Well, that won't be on in the end. So we won't find that out until the MLSPA information comes out.
00:26:23
Speaker
There was one other small piece of it. Hassani Dawson is listed as TAM. But then once I realized that the max free agent would technically make him a TAM because it would be $25,000 over the max salary. don't think that's I don't actually think what's the data comes out. That'll be very surprising.
00:26:39
Speaker
But um yeah, I don't understand the secrecy. i don't understand what the point of delaying any of this is. There doesn't seem to be any upside other than... controlling the narrative i don't know and that doesn't really it just seems to run counter intuitive to the way that the sounders mostly seem to operate and i and i don't know what part of the organization is slow walking the simple slow walking it don't know if there's i just don't know it's very strange to me and i don't i don't understand it the thing for me is that
00:27:12
Speaker
27-28 for Danny. I mean, that's just a spot there that I guess you're just going to have depth. But I continue to think that Jordan Morris wants to be 9. Yeah.
00:27:28
Speaker
And you have a lot of cover or a lot of competition at the wing position. So yeah it's Jordan, Osase, Danny's your third. All three are under contract at least through 2027 now.
00:27:41
Speaker
That seems like a lot of logjam potentially. Yeah. ah You also, I mean, whatever. I mean, you can't have too much. ah It seems like one of those players ultimately will have to leave. Yeah.
00:27:56
Speaker
I don't know when, like right now it's nice to have all three of them, but assuming help, which whatever we can, I guess you can never assume, but it just seems like, how are you going to balance all three of their minutes?
00:28:11
Speaker
You know, Osazi De Rosario does not look like a player who is ready to come off the bench for the whole season. Danny Masofsky, we know, is not going to be happy just coming off the bench.
00:28:21
Speaker
ah Jordan Morris, when he's healthy, is not going to want to come off the bench. ah Paul Rothrock, you know, you're going to kind of go down the list. there's you got ah youve You've got like seven or eight guys who, none of whom see themselves as reserves, whose performances at their peak suggest they are not reserves.
00:28:40
Speaker
for For me, it's just, if not a lot, Jem is... is It feels like something theyre that that they're going to use to be like, maybe we don't need to get a U-22 striker. And that's something that I've wanted.
00:28:52
Speaker
Like, I want... It definitely... Retirement. i mean, I just... I... I want it. I want to see it. I want to see it come... I want to see this team spend some... I think we all want to see the team spend some money.
00:29:04
Speaker
But, you know, like... the I just mentioned... Albert Rusnak's contract is going to be... he has an option due at the end of this year. and Okay, so maybe he comes in and as a TAM.
00:29:18
Speaker
What are you to with that? Okay, so you're going to bring in a DP to play what? you know Well, I'll tell you this. People are going hate this. Absolutely. going hate it.
00:29:29
Speaker
um I might get hate now. but I don't know if everybody knows, but that high TAM for Ferreira is only going to go so far. At some point, in my opinion, you're going to have to give him a DP spot. Absolutely.
00:29:44
Speaker
If he is producing, you should, absolutely. So that's why, ah additionally from Albert, I don't know Pedro, or obviously Jordan at one point, but there is going to be a lot of competition there for that. that he paul But to me, Jesus is no he seriously the clear-cut one that's going to need a DP contract.
00:30:06
Speaker
Well, and I think that that's a good point because my understanding was when he was signed, He has a similar escalator as Jordan in his contract where over the course of two years, i think it was like something like 30 goals and assists.
00:30:22
Speaker
If he hits that, he's going to be a DP. So maybe that's right there. that's your spot. um Which people love. Yeah, oh they're going be excited. They're going be really excited. I can't believe he just got another escalator DP. I can see it. But if Jesus is performing...
00:30:40
Speaker
No complaints here. I'm happy about it. Absolutely. At his age, with his overall talent, I continue to just be amazed with his evolution. And that's something else that that I asked him about this week is that he's evolved from being this guy that was thought about as a goal scorer. That was his only attribute as goal scorer and goal scorer.
00:31:01
Speaker
And now he's becoming a little bit of a playmaker. And I think he's grown well into the position. So if he's producing, if he's giving you 30 contributions, yeah, give him a VP, absolutely.
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah, I would totally agree. Well, let's take a break. We'll come back. We'll talk a little bit more about ah RSL. You're listening to Nos Adietes on the Center Heart Podcast Network. Sounder at Heart has been around in one form or another since 2009. In 2026, though, we make a pretty significant evolution when we go analog. Yes, that's right. In the year of our Lord, 2026, we are publishing a real-life magazine. We're calling this thing 4, as in Sounder at Heart 4.0. But we're stylizing it as i IV because we absolutely love Roman numeral. And if you want to refer to it as IV, that's cool, too. The first issue has a comic book-style cover that was hand-drawn by local artist Kevin Newbern. Features by Tim Foss, Susie Rance, and Charlie Bohm. A statistical deep dive by Kat Bush. A Q&A with Brian Schmetzer. A column by G. Willow Wilson. And photographs by Noah Reif, Max Aquino, Mike Russell, and Jane Gershowitz. I could not possibly be more proud of the work everyone put into making this, and I think you're going to absolutely love it. If you'd like to get your hands on one of these limited edition copies, we're currently selling them for $15 on our website. Get yours now. Nos Adietes admittedly is not exactly known for our spicy takes, but that doesn't mean we want our food to be mild.
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00:33:06
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00:33:21
Speaker
Welcome back to Nos Adietes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. All right. ah RSL this
Sounders' Struggles at RSL
00:33:27
Speaker
week. This has been sort of not a bugaboo team, but a bugaboo location for the Sounders. They have not won any match of any sort at RSL since 2000 or anyone in Emily. Yeah. and They haven't won match outright since 2012.
00:33:44
Speaker
That was in the playoffs. They haven't won a regular season game at ah RSL since 2011. You may remember that as the Lamar Nagel goal. He hit a goal off of in a driving rain, ah blast goal. And i think that actually ended RSL's record home winning or a home unbeaten streak.
00:34:05
Speaker
But it's been very, very tough for the Sounders to get results at RSL. Admittedly, a lot of those results have come when they've had to be rotating the lineup or playing midweek or in the middle of fixture congestion or whatever else.
00:34:22
Speaker
There are no such excuses for this game. In fact, Diego Luna, I think, is likely out for this one. They are still trying to get clearance for a couple of their internationals to get in Last week, they lost to Vancouver while using a whole bunch of young players, some of whom I would imagine will start again.
00:34:40
Speaker
Look, that's not a guaranteed win or anything like that for the Sounders, but the circumstances are not going to get a lot more friendly than they are this week. It feels like this is when this stupid streak has to end, right?
00:34:52
Speaker
I totally agree. I think that it's now or never. The Sounders are finally going in with a team that is not just now rotated, but that, as we mentioned before the break, they have the advantage of chemistry and consistency.
00:35:09
Speaker
I think that they match up well. Looking back at that Vancouver game, I do think that Vancouver and Seattle set up in any ways, or yeah at least in some ways, very similar. So I think that RSL did kind of have a good preview of what they might see with the Sounders. RSL way more direct in the Colorado.
00:35:34
Speaker
They're going to want to go was off of the...
00:35:38
Speaker
quicker and more over the top type of ball. and And that might mean that the Sun is not as aggressive as they were against Colorado with the press. I think that Pio is a guy that cheats a lot. He wants to stay right there next to the center back. And if the press is pretty high, he's waiting for somebody to play him in.
00:36:00
Speaker
You know, whether it's Katranis or his dogs on the other side, going to want to be played through. What I will say is that Arcel against Vancouver, the first 25, 30 minutes, they they really pushed Vancouver.
00:36:15
Speaker
And they were maybe more aggressive than i thought they were going to be, specifically with the wingbacks. They set up with a three-man back line where Gossu and Kachanis were pretty high up the field ah to the point that I feel like Gossu got cut a couple of times. He got a yellow... Still, not allowed me say because he got caught up way too far. And A.C. Jackson from Vancouver, he's no slow post. He had room to get behind.
00:36:37
Speaker
And so those are some of the things that Seattle's going to probably want to exploit. But it does tell me that maybe these RSL teams going to be a little bit more... aggressive, I guess. if means the are Yeah, what did you think of Gozo? He seems to be the player that everyone's excited about right now. I think he's 18.
00:36:57
Speaker
And he has been a star for the youth national team. I don't know. you have any particular thoughts on on the next up-and-coming star? I really do think that he has a lot of the qualities that we see out of, but and I'm not saying he's the same player.
00:37:13
Speaker
He just has a lot of the qualities that you saw in a guy like Alex Freeman or Orlando City, where he is just very athletic. He gets forward very easily. I think that defensively, he loses sight of...
00:37:29
Speaker
the the shape of the team. And and I think that costs him a lot of times. His services into the box are not maybe top quality prospect type of services into the box, but he does have the good, has frame, has speed. i think that, like like I said, he gets pretty smoothly into the attacking third. So I think he's a quality player. I'm not, you know, like swinging my pom-poms for him. Like he...
00:37:55
Speaker
is, you know, an never seen before generational changing player. Right. But he is a good player. And so is there anyone, who are the players that you're most worried about right now? ah To be honest, I love Catrudes. I think he's a guy that since he's been with RSL, he gives him the most width on their left side. He has the best service, in my opinion, for those early balls that a DPO is going to want to exploit. I thought that Out of the midfield, Kaliskan had a really good game.
00:38:27
Speaker
ah He's a guy that i felt like did well working in the half turns and finding some pockets. They're not a team that holds the ball a lot. They want to get forward pretty quickly.
00:38:38
Speaker
um i think, um what's the name of the winger? going to kill this name. He's like Hassartani. i thought that he was another player that was interesting. yeah. um There is something about how he gets into practice scoring positions that is very interesting. I think he has a good left foot. So it' it's... it They have some players, but...
00:39:06
Speaker
Unless a lot of their new players get cleared, I think Seattle has to see this as a win. And I think, look, Brian did a good job at giving Apollo Mastroini credit because he does always bring it.
00:39:20
Speaker
These teams are always well coached, they disciplined, they know what they want to get. He actually said he doesn't know if they're gonna set up with a three-man back line or four-man because they're going to be at home. It's going to be very different than they set up at McCool.
00:39:33
Speaker
So... We'll see where that goes, but I do think that there's some potential for RSL to make it difficult for Seattle. But in terms of talent, in terms of a team that's already set up and ready to go, Seattle should be able to come into this game and at the very least be the protagonist.
00:39:51
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm looking at this ro this lineup that RSL rolled out last week. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like DeAndre Yedlin and and ah Sam Junkwa were both playing as centerbacks.
00:40:06
Speaker
So you were basically playing with, you this would be like sort of the equivalent of Nuhu and Alex Roldan lining up next to Jackson Reagan. That's a pretty aggressive... center back.
00:40:17
Speaker
like just There's not a lot of sort of pure defending and a lot more sort of in space and and sort of like, essentially those are fullbacks playing as center backs. Yes, and they did do a good job at getting Jetland covered when Jetland would get high.
00:40:32
Speaker
But yes, you're absolutely correct. It's one of those setups where and when they would build up, when they would possess, there was only two in the back and Jetland was the one jitting out the field. And you would keep Jaquan glad. Yeah.
00:40:46
Speaker
lower and deeper. But again, he does provide some opportunities for Seattle to maybe exploit him in transition. But Vancouver couldn't really do it. and They're a pretty good transition team. So again, that goes credit to Pablo because he does a good job at keeping his guys understanding where those triggers are and when do I need to drop?
00:41:05
Speaker
Who needs to cover me? And that's why, in my opinion, it put a lot of... They put a lot of strain on a younger midfield. And think that's where Seattle can have the advantage. Because but I thought that Andrew Skrubas, because he he's one of the best sixes in MLS, he was, what him and Berhalter, I think they had a lot of space to work with playing centrally because the was being asked to do so much.
00:41:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this is, it just, it does seem like it lines up for a game that, look, nothing is guaranteed in MLS. This game is at ah RSL. Like I said, the Sounders have not won a regular season game there in 14 years.
00:41:45
Speaker
It's nothing's guaranteed here, but look, they're going to do it it. This seems like the time to do it. ah This would be a huge boost to the Sounders to start their five game road trip with a win. Yeah.
00:41:57
Speaker
And, you know, I like their chances, put it that way. ah One other piece of news I just wanted to share. ah The tickets for the CONCACAF Champions Cup match in Spokane went on sale this week.
Excitement for Sounders vs. Whitecaps in Spokane
00:42:11
Speaker
The Sounders will be playing the Vancouver Whitecaps. Of course, the first leg is going to be March 12th in Vancouver. And then the second leg, the home leg, will be March 18th at Spokane. And I just looked at tickets right now.
00:42:25
Speaker
Basically sold out. The only tickets available that I can tell are these $250 tickets that are obviously very expensive, but there's not a lot of them left at that price even.
00:42:39
Speaker
Basically, if you have not gotten tickets, I would urge you to get connected with ECS because ECS is supposed to have some tickets. I don't know how easy it will be to get those. But it's going to be a good atmosphere. 5,000 plus fans there.
00:42:52
Speaker
I think the Sounders have all... All the players have been saying the right things about this as an opportunity and not as a pain in the butt to have to go over there. I know that there's a lot of people that will probably just drive over for the day. A few more people, I'm sure, will stay overnight but I think there's going to be a good Spokane local crowd that shows up too. I think a lot of people in Spokane are Sounders fans. And if they're not necessarily Sounders fans, they're at least curious about seeing this level of soccer. And I think it's good that it's going to be, ah you know, an opponent like the Whitecaps who might actually be a little closer. It is funny that the road leg is actually going to be closer than the, than the home leg in this one to Seattle. But
00:43:35
Speaker
i don't I don't know. I know you've got your your son is going to school out there, so that's kind of a fun opportunity. ah i don't know. Any any other thoughts on on this game in Spokane? ah Yes, I have one more, but I did have one more. have some thoughts about this program thing, but I was having a hard time getting my notes on my dumb phone. had to reset it, but I did not want to move off of myself without pointing out that Leander Jettlin came off in the 85th and he's likely out oh with a knee injury. for Oh, no. Okay. That's not good. the guys that they're hoping to bring to have their paperwork ready to go. And the one that I'm told, just looking at my WhatsApp, that I think could be ready to go is Wigbeck Ramonosa Sanabria.
00:44:21
Speaker
And he is a guy that's going to be very interesting for RSL and the other players that could be see some minutes in this game if their paperwork gets ready. It's Lucas Angle, he's a defender, and this one going butcher again, but this forward seems to have a lot of people very intrigued, and it's Morgan, Gilabegui.
00:44:41
Speaker
And so if their visas and their paperwork gets approved, they can see some minutes against the signal as a sounder. So I do not want to move on without saying that. Now, when it comes to Spokane, I'm excited. I am excited for the people in that area, for...
00:44:56
Speaker
Conca-calf madness. Tell me this not conca-calf. This is so conca-calf. This so conca-calf, man. And I get excited. I love it when when people get to see that because this is a type of conca-calf thing just like a dog all of a sudden randomly going into the field or a raccoon falling into like popcorn. like All those things, all this conca-calf stuff, those are the things that make this thing exciting.
00:45:22
Speaker
i The guys are intrigued. I don't... I haven't talked to guys who are thrilled about yeah having to go to Spokane. Are they going to go the night before? They're probably going to the night before, right? I'm hearing that they're going to go two days prior.
00:45:36
Speaker
Two days? that That's what I'm hearing. I don't know. Oh, interesting. Like they'll like make a little base out there. Yeah, I think just a couple of days before. And and ah I want to say part of that could be because of CONCACAF. You know, they do the presser the day before and all those things. It might make it easier for CONCACAF. So I think it might be a thing where they might ask the settlers to be there a couple of days. and that I actually, I will say, if this goes well,
00:46:05
Speaker
I kind of like the idea of doing this on a semi-regular basis, especially these earlier round games. Maybe not round of 16, but I can see them routinely trying to do... Because it's it is good ambassadorship.
00:46:17
Speaker
And look, the Sounders need to grow outside of just Seattle. ah They can't just be ah such a Seattle-centric team. Agreed. And the Seahawks are very much like a Pacific Northwest team.
00:46:30
Speaker
I don't know. The Sounders are a ways off. The Mariners, though, are a Pacific Northwest team. I think it's good for the Sounders to kind of spread the gospel, to be going out to places like Spokane.
00:46:41
Speaker
Again, I don't know if you can really do this every year, but I like the idea of routinely going out there and playing games because it's a good, I think it's a good practice just to sort of get out and get out into the community more.
00:46:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's cool. It's going to be hilarious to see Thomas Mueller going for plenty back in Munich and some of the best stadiums in Europe. mean, this is a cool stadium, though. I have not seen it. I'm not familiar with it at all. it's supposed to be of a pretty cool stadium, actually. Yeah, I have no idea what that looks like at all.
00:47:13
Speaker
But just the city coming into somewhere like that, I mean, I just... I think it's going to throw them off. and And we'll see. Obviously, they're going to time to recognize the field and practice and all that stuff. But look, for what it's worth, I think Vancouver struggled a lot more in their first game. They did. Away, on the road. And at home. but they They didn't score again until like the 80-something minute.
00:47:36
Speaker
That's also true. So, we'll see, man. Vancouver... For them being as good as they were last season, and they do have some very quality players,
00:47:48
Speaker
They're also moving some pieces around and they're kind of getting into the ground and things. Well, I think this will also be a good weekek sense of, you know, they beat RSL last week 1-0 at home.
00:47:59
Speaker
If the Sounders are able to... the Sounders struggle with RSL, maybe it's a better result than we thought. If the Sounders do well, you know, if the Sounders were to win this by a multi-goal on the road, maybe suggest that Vancouver is not quite at the level that they were last year, at least not at this point.
00:48:13
Speaker
So there's a lot... There's... good intrigue, I think, in this game. And I think that's that's about what we got, right? Yeah, I think that we covered all of our bases. We talked about the training, the injuries, the first game.
00:48:29
Speaker
So, yeah, I think we covered everything. it Just ah ready for the second game seeing where things are at. um I'm trying to figure out what it is about this curse of our ourselves. of It's so weird. Get over, you know. That's great. So, yeah. Again, It'd be nice to not talk about it anymore. It'd be nice to talk about it. but But I will say this. I can't remember the last time I was so confident sure that they were going to go to Arisa and win.
00:49:01
Speaker
So I do think that the setup, the group that they have against the type of Arisa they're facing, I will put my money where I'm out this and say that the Sounders get that win.
00:49:12
Speaker
All right. awesome Let's call it there. ah Thank you, everyone, for listening. Thank you to Nico. You can, of course, catch him on Blue Sky, El Rulo, NW. can catch him on YouTube at Soccer Down Here, as well as Lobbing Scorchers. Of course, we do Friday every week with Nico on what we learned this week on the Center Heart Podcast Network.
00:49:32
Speaker
This is No Saw to Get This. I'm Jeremiah O'Shann. We'll catch you next time.
00:50:06
Speaker
Let's go at Sounders.