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Sounders FC - Colorado Rapids preview w/ Backheeled's Joseph Lowery
94 Plays1 year ago
If you've been following MLS at all in recent years, you've probably encountered Joe Lowery's content. He's one of the most prolific and articulate analysts covering MLS these days, appearing everywhere from The Athletic, MLSSoccer.com, and the Total Soccer Show. He also has his own budding site, Backheeled.com, where he's collected some of the most interesting voices in American soccer. As you've probably heard, we recently created a partnership with him that gives Advocate members of Sounder at Heart free access to Backheeled.com. Joe and Jeremiah talked a bit about the partnership.
They also discussed this week's Sounders opponent, the Colorado Rapids and how they're offseason transformation is going.
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Transcript
Introduction by Christian Roldan and Jordan Morris
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!
Episode Overview and Partnerships
00:01:27
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of NOS Adiates. I am Jeremiah O'Shan. Joining me today to do kind of double duty on one hand
00:01:37
Speaker
Joe Lowry is going to help me preview the upcoming game against the rapids. I think he has some interesting tactical thoughts on the rapids and all the changes that they've been going through. But we also wanted to talk about this partnership that Sounder Heart and Backheeled are entering into.
00:01:53
Speaker
and we want to share some of the some of the thoughts there give you a little bit but maybe you don't know what back healed is and this is your opportunity to little learn a little bit more about this and why we were so excited to get into this partnership and to meet joe joe's never been a guest on the show you may recognize joe from a lot of places uh he is he's running back healed he is on uh
00:02:16
Speaker
Give us a rundown. What are you doing right now? You're also an analyst for Phoenix Rising now. Give us your resume, Joe.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah, so first of all, Jeremiah, it is great to be here and I have long been a big admirer of yours and of the local coverage that you guys do in Seattle, all that
Joe Lowry's Career Path
00:02:33
Speaker
stuff. The quick and dirty rundown is, yeah, it started back healed and that's going strong and we're super excited about all that stuff. I just started, I've done one game in my entire TV color commentary career. I've done one game but Phoenix Rising color commentary on their local TV broadcast this year, which I'm really loving. And then you can listen to me on the Total Soccer Show and read some of my stuff.
00:02:52
Speaker
Most often these days, either for ESPN or The Guardian, I think that's a pretty safe rundown. Okay, good, good, good, good. So actually, I have a broad question that we will circle back on. But I'll tell you, the first time I think I ever heard of you, I think you were breaking and actually, maybe this is a good segue. I feel like the first time I had ever seen your content, you were doing a goalkeeping breakdown, I think of Zach Stefan.
00:03:19
Speaker
When he was sort of getting into the national team picture, maybe I'm misremembering this, but I feel like it was definitely a goalkeeping. You're doing sort of a bit on the technical aspects of a player's goalkeeping. I think it was him, but anyway.
00:03:35
Speaker
First of all, am I making this up or is this a real memory?
Questioning Zach Stefan's Role
00:03:39
Speaker
So I have Goldfish frame. So your guess, honestly, is as good as mine. I have been on the Zach Stefan is not as good as everybody says he is bandwagon for years and years now. So this does sound like something I would have pitched somebody and they would have said like, maybe we'll circle back and maybe I finally got it over the line. Okay. Okay. Well, in any case, let's start with Zach Stefan. This was part Zach Stefan was one of a handful of
00:04:03
Speaker
I guess we could call them high profile moves that the rapids made and the sort of the national narrative became like, look, they've remade this team. They hired a new coach. They brought in all these new players.
00:04:15
Speaker
And one of those big signings was Zach Stephan. But I think like you, I was sort of shrugging my shoulders at, is this actually a big move? They spent some money on him. But Zach Stephan has sort of been a pretty uninspiring goalkeeper. And I will include, I still to this day do not understand how he won goalkeeper of the year over Stephen Fry. But let's start with Zach Stephan.
00:04:43
Speaker
Is he a good goalkeeper? I think he's a fine goalkeeper, so I guess the answer is no. I don't really think he's a good goalkeeper. I've said this stuff on Twitter before, I've written it before, and it tends to make both US men's national team fans and Colorado Rapids fans pretty mad. It does a lot for Matt Turner stands out there though, so I guess there's that.
00:05:01
Speaker
There's just been really no evidence, no consistent evidence over Zach Steffen's career in Columbus, over in Germany with Dusseldorf, or over in the championship with Middlesbrough, or this time in training, I guess, with Man City. We just don't have consistent evidence that says Zach Steffen is a good goalkeeper.
00:05:18
Speaker
The thing that we do know about Tech Stephon is that his timing has been really, really good throughout his career. Being in Columbus, sort of timing that stretch, and this is through, you know, not really any credit of his own, but it has worked out. Timing that stretch with Greg Buralther's rise to prominence as a manager inside a major league soccer, and then breaking into the national team on the back of that. And I don't have any issue to be clear.
00:05:39
Speaker
With with Stefan being in the national team picture when brother was first introduced, there weren't a ton of American goalkeepers like screaming to be involved at that time. In general, the pool was just really, really poor.
Rapids' Tactical Analysis
00:05:50
Speaker
So I think that was all fine, but we've all I shouldn't say we've all because I try to push back against this. I think a lot of folks out there still hold on to Zach Stefan as if he's the player he maybe he was for one good year in Columbus or like maybe that goalkeeper the year award was deserved, which I agree it was not. And I haven't seen through three games in Colorado.
00:06:07
Speaker
him be any real asset to this Chris Armas team. I guess I'll ask you to be a devil's advocate here. Clearly, people believe in his talent. What is it that people are seeing in him that just isn't because I'm with you, I see the performance and I'm just
00:06:28
Speaker
Where's the, like, there's no, they're there. There's no, they're like, sure. He'll make some good saves, but they're, it's not hard to, you can go out to the training pitch of any MLS team on any day of the week. And you can see goalkeepers making spectacular saves. This is not a, a particularly hard to find attribute. What is it though, that about Zach seven, that seems to spark the imagination of a Greg Berhalter who, I mean, I think is a pretty good, you know, he knows what he's doing, I think.
00:06:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, Greg Varlthor knows more about soccer than we do that. I think we both say pretty readily. So for Stefan, so much of it to me falls down to or comes down to his ability to play with his feet, which I want to be clear, I don't think is elite by any stretch of the imagination. I actually, I really don't.
00:07:15
Speaker
But the crew when Stefan was playing under Greg Peralta, he had Will Trapp playing deeper downfield, he had Iguain pulling the strings as a number 10. That was a fun team, our tour setting deep in midfield. That team wanted to play with the ball, and they were sort of bucking a lot of the tactical trends that we were seeing, or they were at least going towards the more extreme end of the possession spectrum and the buildup stuff.
00:07:35
Speaker
And having Stephen be that guy at a time when I think some of the tactics discourse globally was really, really high of, wow, like, look at what these teams over in Europe are doing. Like, look at all the tactics writers that are out there. And I sort of have been, and I guess kind of still am one of those people. We all just got really interested in goalkeeper's line with their feet and the value that that could add.
00:07:54
Speaker
And between that and the fact that Stefan is an athletic dude, like six foot three, or at least that's what's listed online. Who knows if that stuff's accurate, but I've been next to this guy. He's a big dude. Like athletic is explosive. He has a lot of the tools, but your point, I think Jeremiah is a really good one. There's a lot of goalkeepers in MLS and around the world who are really good and look really good when you watch them play. And then relative to their other really good peers, maybe they don't stand out quite so much. Right.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah. Well, let's, let's pull back a little bit more. What has been your impression of the rapid so far this year?
Performance Against Portland and Nashville
00:08:24
Speaker
Has the, has the change that we were promised or that was hinted at, has it, do you think it's shown up on the field yet through three pieces?
00:08:33
Speaker
bits and pieces, but consistently, no, I don't. And the rapids really have been a reminder, and I know this isn't maybe the most sexy way to lead into like a match preview, where we're looking for real insight into a team, and there's still plenty that we can get into, but they've been a reminder of the perils of making sweeping inclusions from three games. And here's why I say that. You lose 4-1 of the Portland Timbers, am I allowed to say the Portland Timbers on this show? You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, it will be bleeped out. Sorry, you have two of those to do, and that's my fault.
00:09:00
Speaker
Um, like that, that four one loss in Portland, they were down three nil 30 minutes in, like they were down four nil at halftime. At that point, any hope that the rapids had of being what a lot of us, myself included kind of still think the rapids are going to try to be under Chris Armist, which is playing a four, four, two defensively, try to press high up the field, try to congest.
00:09:20
Speaker
Do the Jurgen Klopp thing of, you know, we don't have a top playmaker. Georgi is a good player. Maybe we'll get to him later. But we don't have a Emmanuel or Nosa or certainly not a Lionel Messi or anybody, even in that stratosphere. So we're going to let the press create our chances for us. We're going to work as a unit to create the chances that maybe other teams delegate to one player. You don't have a chance to do that when you're down for for nil, because at that point, your opponents have no incentive to go forward.
00:09:42
Speaker
The Timbers scored four goals on seven shots. They were done at halftime. Their job there was done at Providence Park. So you don't really get a chance to go out there and press. Then the next game, you're one game in, one loss. The next game, a 1-1 draw for Colorado at home to Nashville. You're playing a Nashville team without Hani Mukhtar and without Sam Surich.
00:10:01
Speaker
Like they don't have their attacking talent. We know Gary Smith's team doesn't want to be adventurous anyway. You take away their two best attacking players. Oh boy. Like that team does not have any interest in being adventurous. They have no interest in trying to play through the press. So we didn't really get to see the rapids go out and go out defensively in that match either. Then finally you get to the RSL game and I felt like this was the first time that we saw even
00:10:23
Speaker
consistent semi-consistent glimpses that create some chances off the high press. They're attacking a little bit more narrowly. It's not Red Bull ball. It's not St. Louis City ball. It certainly hasn't been so far. But I do think that's the direction this team wants to go, even if they haven't had all the chances to actually go out there and show it just yet. So let's look at this game against RSL. I watched the game. I came away feeling...
Match Insights: Rapids vs RSL
00:10:50
Speaker
I feel like the result was very...
00:10:53
Speaker
complimentary to the rapids. They did not, uh, you know, they didn't, they didn't tear up the RSL at all. They scored on a penalty. They got a, and then they, they scored a nice goal, but it looked to me like RSL was sort of gashing them open and getting out into space a lot. And they just sort of fell apart in the, in the third, in the final third, when they, you know, when they were really potentially in a position to put away the rapids.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think there's a lot of truth to that. I would agree with basically all of the read of that game. Jeremiah, I still just haven't been all that impressed with the rapids playing against the ball. Like we see them in this 442 shape. I would be, I would imagine that's what we're going to see over the weekend against Seattle. It'll be half a Navarro. It'll be Georgia Mahalovich as the front two. Then in possession, Georgie has more of a free roll. You have cold acid and against RSL. It was on Mia Fernandez. So I think is, is the clear starter on that side because Kevin Cabral hasn't, hasn't been involved.
00:11:49
Speaker
And Calvin Harris, um, maybe solid HDJ, but not a great soccer player. Like it kind of makes sense to have Omiya Fernandez. And that's going to lend you to a more narrow approach because those are really three more number tens or even a number eight, maybe in Bassett's case than they are wingers. So that's the general approach, but I haven't seen this team be super coordinated with their press in the timbers, gash them wide open in the few moments early on Providence park, when the rapids did have a chance to actually go out there and press before they were down four goals in the blink of an eye and against RSL.
00:12:19
Speaker
I don't think they did a great job of controlling the field either. The reality for this Colorado team right now is that they're just not very good. Like they on talent, you can't look at this team and say like, oh, oh, they're, they're scary. They don't have those players. George Mahalovich is probably the only one. Navarro and Cabral are hugely underperforming designated players. Like not really all that relevant when it comes to the box score stats and individually. And this was a team against Portland. And I think we saw some against RSL too.
00:12:46
Speaker
The backlight doesn't look good. Like Keegan Rosenberry looks like he's lost a step or two right back. You see, Maxo, and he hasn't been a difference maker. I don't know if that's because he's a bad player coming over from Europe before last season, or if it's because just the structure around him hasn't been there, wasn't there last year, and the talent's not there this year. Luis Bombito is a fun kind of upside player, but not a, maybe a high level starter. Zach Steffan, we've already talked about, and Vines is still trying to find his footing back in MLS.
00:13:12
Speaker
Like between the tactical approach, not having had the necessary reps and maybe never becoming what it what it maybe should be. Because do we think Chris Armist is a good coach? I'm not so sure about that. There are just a whole truckload of problems for this Colorado team.
00:13:27
Speaker
Yeah. You know, it's, it's funny. You look at their off season and obviously the big headliners were Chris Armist, the coach, Zach Stefan, the goalkeeper, Georgie Mihalovic, uh, the, the playmaker. And then they, they kind of like Omer Fernandez sort of got thrown into this thing as that was, this was a big signing and he was a very competent player for, uh, for the red bulls. But all of a sudden it was almost like this was treated as if it was a really big signing when in reality it's like, yeah, he's an MLS player that changed teams.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah. Well, and the thing is on all that is like, those are all fine moves. I'll talk about Zach Stefan and say, I don't think he's a very good goalkeeper. I think he's probably about league average on the whole, maybe a little bit less than that. The Rapids goalkeeping last year was horrific. Like they were very, very close to the bottom of the league, which was not good. Like they just really struggled. And so even though I don't love the Stefan move for a team that has never shown an inclination to spend.
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to go out there and spend a little bit more on a league average goalkeeper, like at least you have a league average goalkeeper and at least you spent something. I don't think it's the right way to build a roster, but I guess it's like fine. So you improve in goal and I think you do improve it left back in the form of Sam Vines. Georgie is an upgrade on talent. Same with with Omiya Fernandez.
00:14:37
Speaker
Like this team got better
Rapids' Offseason Changes
00:14:39
Speaker
in the off season. The problem, and I wrote this for Bakula in my preview for the rapids before the year started, like the worst case scenario for this team is, is probably the most likely one in that. Like the DPs outside of Georgie are just so bad and so inconsequential that it doesn't matter what you do in the off season.
00:14:55
Speaker
Like, if you add all these pieces to a good, like, to two good DPs, to a striker who's going to get you 15 goals, and maybe a winger who's super goal dangerous, like the Galaxy have gotten, or a number 10 who's a pure number 10, and you don't bring in Georgie as the third DP, and you go get a winger, or you go get something else, then this team is actually a threat in the West. But until we see those DPs produce, or the system be really, really, really sharp, all the other little offseason things they did just don't play into anything that much.
00:15:23
Speaker
Yeah. So let's, let's talk a little bit about George Mahalovic. He is a player who the last time he was in MLS was an MVP contender. Like he was absolutely bawling out. He looked to be finally sort of making good on all the promise that he had when he was coming up through the Chicago fire and it looked, and he, and he earned himself a nice transfer to Europe. Uh, things didn't go so well for him in Europe and.
00:15:48
Speaker
It was pretty funny. He even tells the story himself about how, yeah, the rapids want you and he wasn't really that interested.
00:15:56
Speaker
And I just thought that was the funniest promo bit, which was like, yeah, I wasn't really interested in them. But then they talked me into it. And it's like, OK, great. But he's come over. And it does seem a little bit like he's an odd fit, because the team that he was playing for in Montreal was Wilford Nancy's team, Nancy's team, who was really possession oriented. It was going to kind of run through him. And he was really a centerpiece of this kind of larger system.
00:16:23
Speaker
And now he's at rapids and Chris Armist is not running that system in any way shape or form. It looked like in the first two games, he kind of got lost in the shuffle. You know, my understanding is that this last game against RSL was probably his best game. But even then, I didn't think he was particularly influential.
00:16:40
Speaker
uh i don't think he's a bad player but is he do you think he's a player who can thrive in this environment early signs and and take this with a grain of salt my gut says probably not and not because i don't think he's a good player i do think george mahalovich is a player and we've seen evidence of this who can compete who can contribute rather
00:16:59
Speaker
to a very, very good team at MLS. That was George Mihailovich in 2022 for CF Montreal. They finished second in the Eastern Conference. That was a phenomenal season. And Georgie rightly used that to help him take the next step in his career. That didn't work out. Seems like I don't have any info on this, but it seems like there's some family issues or some things in his personal life that.
00:17:15
Speaker
Grew him back to MLS. And so that's maybe why Call Auto makes sense. That interview, I agree. Completely forgot about that. Was hilarious. One of the top moments of the offseason. Like all that stuff is true. And Georgie has the talent to be a very good player for this team, but they're not Montreal. Like they're not going to put him in consistent and consistent both in terms of frequency and in positioning.
00:17:38
Speaker
They're not going to put him into consistent spots to go and influence the game on the final third. It's going to be much more healthy or scalper, regardless of whether they really do take hold of this maybe more Red Bull-esque style that we sort of think Armas is going to implement. So I'm not, I'm not sold at the same time.
00:17:54
Speaker
I do not put any blame on the rapids for going out and signing George. I think there would have been several other teams in the league who would have done the exact same thing. If you need to go out and get a player who has talent and maybe just maybe, maybe they'll go out there and snag at least one new DP or figure out a way to move on from one player by the start of next season. Who knows? Right? Like all of a sudden, I think he's going to look better and better. The more talent there is around him, but we don't have the evidence. And I don't think Georgie is the kind of player who's going to spearhead an entire attack on his own.
Georgie Mihailovic's Role in Rapids
00:18:25
Speaker
Yeah. And I guess, and part of it, I don't want to be too harsh on the rapids in that it was good to see them spending some money and it was nice to see them spending money that wasn't just allocation money, which is sort of what they've used as a transfer fund in the past. And so, you know, those are good signs, but it sounds like, you know, this is MLS, anything can happen. We just saw the rapids beat RSL despite not playing particularly well last week.
00:18:54
Speaker
anything can happen this week, but it sounds like the Sounders should feel like they are the favorites. And this is, this would be a bad result if the Sounders don't get all three points. Yeah, very much so. I mean, the, the thing that Seattle can always come back to right now is the injury bug, which has been them really, really hard. But even with that, like this, this Sounders team has the quality to go out there and take care of business, especially at home against Colorado. There are reasons for optimism. If you're a Rapids fan, uh, hoping that the kind of Ronin issue isn't a big one in terms of the injury, it didn't seem like that's going to be a major problem.
00:19:24
Speaker
But I actually don't know where Ronan's availability is ahead of this weekend. So that's one thing to watch for. He's a very, very good player. And you start to stack a competent tactical approach, if that's what comes out of Chris Armist this year, to a really nice midfielder and Connor Ronan, who is one of the best players in MLS at his position, just doesn't get talked about because the rapids haven't been super relevant, to a spine of central players who I think are all decent to very good. In George Mahalovic's case called Bassett's a useful player, only Fernandez's as well.
00:19:53
Speaker
there are some things to like about this rapids team and they totally can nick three points off anybody because that's MLS like that is how this works but in terms of is it a good result or a bad result if the sounders you know take care of business or don't rather yeah that that would be a little bit of a problem
00:20:19
Speaker
Well, since you're here, I may as well get pick your brain real quickly
Sounders' Tactical Challenges
00:20:22
Speaker
on this. What has been your impression of the sound? You know, we have only seen the Sounders play two games in five minutes. And so there's not a lot of sample size yet. But what is what, you know, their struggles to score do stretch back to last year. You know, they were one of the lowest scoring teams to make the playoffs last year. I think you would I would imagine you would agree that they are defensively really well organized.
00:20:50
Speaker
But where do you see it breaking down in terms of their ability to generate a lot of XG, but it doesn't seem like they generate a ton of really high-quality chances?
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah, that is, that's still the big issue for this team. And even them trying to generate, you know, more and more of those really good looks. I think there's improvement to be done there. I'm not sure the needle's been moved from where it was last year. And that's not to say that it won't be moved because now Pedro de la Vega is out for what? I mean, it was six weeks from the announcement came out minimum. So maybe now we're looking at five and a half or whatever. No, it would be about five weeks now. Maybe like.
00:21:25
Speaker
a lot rests on De La Vega or a lot rests on Ava Rusnak. And we just haven't seen it. We just haven't seen it. So it is really difficult. And I don't envy sort of you all as you're trying to cover this team and really figure out the intricacies when it feels like we're three games into the season or we should be.
00:21:43
Speaker
And, and like, we just don't, we don't know. Like everybody's gone. You're missing half your starters. Like the LAFC game, I thought the second half was, was encouraging. I thought LAFC were good and not great, but I think, you know, the DPs they have, the flexibility they have, there's a lot of potential there. And the exact same thing goes for Seattle. I've been a little surprised and maybe I shouldn't be.
00:22:03
Speaker
And I'm curious about your perspective on this, Jeremiah. I'm a little surprised that we haven't seen Christian Roldan be drafted into playing as more of a number 10. Like that to me feels like more of a continuous fit and like something that fits with what we know, Brian Spencer, what I think Brian Spencer wants to do.
00:22:20
Speaker
but instead he's gone more with the two forward look with Morris and Rui Diaz in a couple of games or tried to. That to me felt strange. Have you been surprised at all by that or is that just me? Well, I'll tell you that if you ask me, you know, we did a lot of this discussion in the preseason about the Sounders depth chart because you look at it on paper and it looks like they're pretty solid.
00:22:40
Speaker
almost everywhere, but sort of the way we were doing our depth chart was we were just listing everyone once and the backup we had behind Rusnak at, at center mid was Paul Rothrock, who is obviously a lower roster player. He's a player who might not make the game day roster on, on when the team is fully healthy. And that felt, but to me, the obvious, you know, if you go into a little bit more detailed
00:23:04
Speaker
depth chart, you would probably put Christian rolled on second. I certainly had Christian rolled on second. So I thought in a perfect world, if Albert Rusnak isn't available, you just slide Christian rolled on into center mid. And to me, that's what that's what made the most sense. Yeah. Now, I think best laid plans the way this has worked out is, you know,
00:23:27
Speaker
I have been surprised that they haven't tried that. But I think the reason they haven't tried it is because of sort of the cascading, like what it means for everything else. So on one hand, they want to give Jordan Morris a real look as a forward. And they aren't really enamored with the idea of him playing right mid. The historical data doesn't
00:23:51
Speaker
point to him being a great solution at right mid maybe he's he's been more effective on the left but you know and they but they want to try him at forward and so if you're not going to so who so then it becomes like if you slide christian over who's going to play right mid and you have raul really just here sitting on the bench so it feels like well let's get him on the field and then and then you sort of you're kind of stuck here right and so i think that's
00:24:17
Speaker
I would think in a perfect world where you had Pedro de la Vega and you had other options, they would, I would like to think that they would try Christian rolled on somewhere else. But I just think that they're sort of cobbling together a, how do we get our best players on the field in their best positions type of mentality. And so they seem to think,
00:24:40
Speaker
Raul can work sort of as a, almost a withdrawn forward and like a false 10. And, you know, time will tell. I think one of the things that's frustrating that you alluded to is that the sounders have only played two games. And so even though it feels in a way as if they've been banging their head against the wall and trying to make this 4-4-2 work, the reality is that they played the first game for a half.
00:25:08
Speaker
60 minutes in that formation. And then they abandoned it essentially, uh, you know, 30 minutes, you know, with about 30 minutes left in that game. And so it's like, we haven't really, and that was also without training on it. Obviously they started, they started the game this last week, but we saw five minutes. And so I think that's what's tough. Like you said, like that's what's tough for me as an, as, so I was trying to take a somewhat realistic view of what we're seeing is.
00:25:35
Speaker
Well, I'd like to see what it looks like when we, when it's like deployed in a sensible way. And so I don't know. I don't, I don't know. I mean, I, I, I would like to see that. I want to see this team where it looks like with, when they're deployed sort of in the way that they trained all preseason.
00:25:52
Speaker
Yes, yes, I think that is completely fair and probably the right stance to take before doing any like crazy deep dive analysis on this team. One other Seattle thought that popped into my brain from watching this team and I've watched all their minutes so far this year. Like I don't understand, but I am fascinated by Brian Schmetzer's decision to play Pedro de la Vega in South. And I want to be clear, he started as a number 10, he's wearing the number 10, starts as the number 10 versus Austin. He wasn't really fully playing the number 10.
00:26:22
Speaker
At least not always, right? The sounder system, at least as far as I see it, is defensively, it's usually some sort of 4-4-2 in possession. Oftentimes it shifts to this sort of 3-4-3 shape where you have Alex, we're then going high and wide. Maybe everybody knows this, I don't need to go through the details. But the shape changes. And the number 10 becomes more of a half-space guy than it does like a pure string pullout, right? So it's not like De La Vega was playing as a pure number 10 classic South American player, whatever. With that being said,
00:26:50
Speaker
I still don't think his best role is in the half space. I don't think it's as a number 10. I don't think it's in the half space. I think his best role is put his boots on the sideline and let him go run at players one by one and be the Tasmanian devil that he looked like against LAFC that he looked like down with Linus when he was healthy. So I am fascinated. It's entirely possible that Brian Smetcher sees something I don't. I'm sure he sees many things that I don't about Pedro de la Vega.
00:27:11
Speaker
But I, I thought that was weird against Austin. And I don't think it was a huge surprise that the sounder struggled to create a bunch of really good looks when he was inside. I just, I don't think that's going to be a great look. And I'm guessing a lot of that's necessitated by injuries. You'd rather have De La Vega inside than you would Leo Chu. So I get that. I understand some of that stuff, but curious when he gets back to see, you know, sort of where his Metzer views him because we've seen him in a couple of spots already.
00:27:36
Speaker
Yeah, I, I, I guess I, it's, it's funny because I would have been surprised if I wasn't at training and I wasn't seeing him deployed as a tent, you know, it's like, I saw, so I saw it coming.
Pedro de la Vega's Strategic Impact
00:27:48
Speaker
So it wasn't as so much of a surprise to me because they, they sort of almost immediately made that decision in training that week, which was let's try Pedro de la Vega in the middle. And I think,
00:28:01
Speaker
And this is where it gets into the less tactical thought and it gets into more of this man management kind of thing. And this is sometimes I think what people have a hard time with Brian Schmetzer about is that he's sort of, so like part of the thinking on Christian Roldan is like, we have keep telling you, we think your best position is as a right mid. And so in game two, we don't want to move you back to the center.
00:28:22
Speaker
We want to, and so it's, it's like, is that the best tactical choice to use Pedro de la Vega as the 10 and use Christian Roldan as your right mid? But like you said, when they're attacking in a three, four, three, and they're both effectively occupying half spaces and they're both almost behaving like eights on either with kind of like focused on, on like the eights.
00:28:47
Speaker
focusing out there, I'm making hand gestures. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. So in that way, there is some tactical sense to it, but I agree with you. I think if I was looking at this from a distance, and even if I'm watching it purely from what gives us the best way to win this game type of mentality,
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think it would have been interesting to see if they had put Pedro de la Vega on the right and put Christian Roldan in the middle.
00:29:19
Speaker
But, uh, you know, they, they didn't, and I agree with you. It was interesting because I thought De La Vega did a lot of things that were really exciting. Even when he was playing as a 10, like he made a couple passes that I don't think anyone else on the Sounders is capable of making or is even going to try to make. And they came off and they, you know, they didn't necessarily create great scoring chances, but they were interesting ideas and.
00:29:43
Speaker
yet you're right, they created a lot more danger after he came off the field and Raul Ruideas essentially came in and sort of did the thing that he envisioned him doing I think against LAFC. So I don't know, it'll be interesting because it doesn't quite, like when all the pieces aren't there, I don't know how it fits together yet and it's gonna be interesting to see how that develops.
00:30:07
Speaker
And I think that's fine, right? I don't know that there's an MLS team that you can take away this many starters and we would have real answers about. There's still no doubt in my mind, even though I'm pretty far from sold on De La Vega, I am a little warmer on him now than I was when he signed the little bits and pieces I've seen the MLS have encouraged me a little.
00:30:26
Speaker
I think he's a good player. I think he'll add value. I'm just not sure how much. But there's no doubt in my mind that this team is going to be really, really good. When everybody comes back, they should be at minimum where they were last year in terms of the attacking stuff. I think losing Ledero hurts in all sorts of ways, and you lose your most consistent playmaker. I think Rusenak can probably carry a lot of that load, and the advantage you get from De La Vega out wide, if that's where he ends up, will be tangible as well in terms of the cascading effect that has creating space elsewhere.
00:30:53
Speaker
Like this seems gonna be excellent when the time comes. I guess the question is just when is that time going to come and sort of like still where does everybody fit which is those are the questions we're asking before this season started.
00:31:05
Speaker
Yeah, and I'll just end on this. I think one of the things that's frustrating for me is that we talked a lot about this off season of there being real genuine competition and then that real genuine competition creating a real sense of depth in this team. And so there's this sense of like, well, you said there was all this depth and where is it? Well, a lot of it is on the bench or is on the training table, unfortunately. And there was supposed to be real competition between Rui Diaz and Morris to be starting and instead they're both starting.
00:31:35
Speaker
There was supposed to be real competition between De La Vega and Chu to be competing for starting minutes. One of them isn't, you know, isn't available. Albert Rusnak was supposed to take over the number 10. He's not been available. And you just kind of go, there was supposed to be this real competition in central midfield between Zhao Paolo, Josh Atencio, Obed Vargas, Danny Leyva, like these four players were going to compete for two spots and yet
00:31:59
Speaker
It's just been, oh, Edward, I guess that Josh attends you because Joe Paolo, who has not been there. So there's all these little things that it's like, uh, I, I wanted, I, like I said, I want to see how it fits together once at least most of the pieces are here. We've not seen it yet. Hopefully we start to get a little bit more of it this week. Uh, the, the word, uh, is that Albert Risnek, I don't think it's going to start, but I think he'll probably come on early in the second half and
00:32:26
Speaker
And like I said, hopefully we'll see some semblance of what this team was supposed to do. Uh, and we'll, and we'll finally be able to draw some more tactical. I need it. I'm craving it. I'm tired of trying to water. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Introduction to Backheeled
00:32:41
Speaker
But that brings me into a nice, I'll use that as a transition to talk a little bit about backheeled.
00:32:47
Speaker
what you guys are doing there, why I felt really passionate about creating, getting together with you and sort of creating this partnership that we've created where essentially if you are a sounder at heart advocate, you get a part of that membership now includes a membership to backheeled. What can people expect from backheeled?
00:33:09
Speaker
What is it that, what would you, how would you describe sort of your place in the way that Backhill fits into the marketplace?
00:33:19
Speaker
Yeah, it is a good question. And first, I want to say I have a weird, and this is just a coincidental thing, but a soft spot for the Sounders as it relates to backfield, because we launched in May of 2022 and something very cool happened in May of 2022, which is that the Seattle Sounders won CCO now CCC. They beat Pumas in the final. And that was the first piece. That was like one of the launch pieces we had on the site. The very first day we launched, we launched the morning after all that had happened. And I wrote up an analysis piece of and sort of a
00:33:48
Speaker
At parts granular and at other parts, more macro piece about the Seattle Sounders and how they'd won and what it means and all that stuff. And that was a cool moment. I remember still sitting there late at night, like typing out, getting the last few pieces polished up for the site. So very, very cool and fun to look back on that stuff. We've been around, as I said, since May of 2022. We've had a few iterations since then, but backfield as I see it.
00:34:08
Speaker
is a place where people can go to find informative, thoughtful, creative coverage of American soccer. Not just MLS, not just MLS clubs, not just the national teams, but American soccer. Because I still believe very strongly, and this is one of the founding principles of the site, that those fans, a lot of folks that are listening to this probably, are underserved. And what you all are doing is helping to serve them. And what we all are doing is helping to serve them. There's a lot of good American soccer coverage out there. There's just not enough of it. So more than that,
00:34:37
Speaker
Like, it's all well and good to go out there and create something that adds to the discourse. And that's helpful, right? We're trying to do that, but we're trying to do something a little bit more than that. And everything, every story that I dream up for myself or for someone else or that somebody pitches, I try to look at through the lens of...
00:34:53
Speaker
how does this take the narrative one step further, right? And that's what I tried to do with that CCL piece two years ago, now almost two years ago. Like, it's all well and good to write in. MLSACO.com is gonna have a write-up of like, oh, Seattle One, that's cool, right? How did it happen? Or we tell a story. Like, let's tell a story that changes how you think about the game. And some of the most interesting characters in the game, we had Sanjay Sujanta Kumar go and do a piece on the Sullivan family. And some folks might know this is well-timed after the union game was called off.
00:35:22
Speaker
Gwen Sullivan, the younger brother, Kevin, there are two twins in that family as well, very much involved in the Philadelphia Union organization and in one of the up and coming families of the fascinating story inside the game, just trying to be very, very thoughtful and creative of how we do everything from analysis that there isn't a lot of really good analysis of what happens on the field, the storytelling to commentary, all that stuff. And we try to do that. And I think we do a pretty good job.
00:35:47
Speaker
of doing that across all the domestic leagues, you know, MLS, NWSL, U.S.L. Championship, the national teams, some other things that tie to American soccer. So that's what we're here to do. We're trying to serve soccer fans that are passionate about the game, and we're trying to take everything that we do in the general soccer discourse
00:36:04
Speaker
and kind of push it forward a little bit. And how we talk about the game, how we think about the game, what we think about the game, and the kinds of questions we ask and answer, that's, I guess, a long-winded way of just tying all that into what we are trying to do over at backyield.com.
Partnership Announcement
00:36:18
Speaker
No. And I think what I found really attractive about the site was that it, it did a lot of similar, I think it takes a similar ethos to what we're trying to do, which is to raise the discourse around the game to like be a place where smart fans want to have discussions and they want to get informed and they aren't looking for necessarily hot takes or really contra they're not looking for controversy as much as they're looking for something that makes them think and
00:36:47
Speaker
and makes them feel better about what they like makes understanding the game easier that makes it accessible that you know isn't talking down to folks and isn't just looking for clicks and you know like all the kind of things that I think drive people crazy about the the media landscape right now
00:37:07
Speaker
And you're not going to get, you know, just, just like on our site, you're not going to get overwhelmed with ads. I don't think you have any ads right now. Not that we're, at least for us, not that we're against ads, but we are, but I certainly am not, I don't want to, I do find it really.
00:37:24
Speaker
Like, oddly, maybe not. I find it really satisfying to go through a site and not be inundated with pop-ups and just things that are trying to sell me on, things that aren't why I'm there. And, you know, so I appreciate all of that. And I think you guys are doing it at a national...
00:37:43
Speaker
with a national focus as opposed to a real granular team specific focus. And that's what I liked about it. And I think the more people are exposed to it, the more they're going to like it. And I would urge anyone who is a sounder at heart reader to honestly just go check it out. And even if you're not going to like upgrade your membership with us, I would hope you would consider buying a membership directly through you guys, because it is, it's really, I think it's really important. It's, it's to,
00:38:10
Speaker
to be providing this and that there's not a lot of places right now that you can read about MLS that are not MLSSoccer.com. And I think they do a pretty good job, frankly, of covering the league, but it's always going to be state run media, right?
00:38:25
Speaker
Yeah, they're always sorry, sorry to interrupt. They're always just with that stuff, right. And, and this ties back to what I said earlier, there's just room for more, like there's room for more stuff. And there's a need and room for more, really good stuff. And I hope we hit that mark more often than not. I don't think we'd probably still be around if we didn't.
00:38:44
Speaker
But there is a real need for that, and I think there's even a need for that at the national level.
Backheeled's Mission and Vision
00:38:49
Speaker
There is a decent amount of very good reporting out there, and that's not really our focus. If you're looking for breaking news, we break some news, but but I mean the athletic is going to be your spot for that stuff for the foreseeable future, which is great and I have a lot of love for what they're doing over there.
00:39:02
Speaker
In general, though, there just aren't a lot of folks at the national level, we try to fill this gap that that talk about soccer. Like a lot of stories are about important things that are happening off the field or trends or roster management, and we'll do that stuff too. But one of my things, and this has always driven me as a part of this, this media landscape is I love soccer. Like I love what happens on the field. I'm fascinated by what makes good teams tick and what makes bad teams suck. Like I'm so interested by that stuff. And I hope
00:39:30
Speaker
that tone resonates with others. And I think it probably permeates a lot of our coverage. There's just room for all that stuff. And it's made possible by the folks that are generous enough or see value in what we're doing and what you all are doing. And that's another reason why the linking these things together and providing back yield subscriptions to advocates over at Sounder at Heart. And for you all, make sense because a rising tide I truly believe lifts all boats. We are
00:39:55
Speaker
Maybe there's maybe there's some day Jeremiah like 100 years from now and we're both dead that like the American soccer landscape is so concentrated that we can afford to be cutthroat. Right? I don't do that. I don't think I will live to see that day. And so like I just so firmly believe that we are in this state where rising tide is going to help everybody. And I hope even this weird kind of fractured landscape that we're in that that what we're doing can help with that.
00:40:20
Speaker
Yeah, and I always like to remind people that when I first started covering soccer, the number of people who were treating American soccer like a full-time job was really, really small. And we've made some great progress in terms of just turning this into a viable
00:40:43
Speaker
you know, at least part time and in some cases full time operation. And that's great.
Challenges in Soccer Journalism
00:40:49
Speaker
But we still have so much farther to go we and we see all the time we saw we see these great outlets just sort of like dump dumping their their their content and they they are. And you can imagine how soccer is oftentimes the first
00:41:04
Speaker
the first beat to go on almost any sports website, general sports website. And I think one of the things that I really appreciate about Backhild is that these are people passionate about the sport. They want to watch games. They want to talk about games. It's not just punching a clock and saying, this is how I got rid. And I think that's what's great about, honestly, about the soccer media landscape in some ways, is that almost no one's in this to make money.
00:41:33
Speaker
It's almost always people that want to do it because they're having fun. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's, it's a great point. And honestly, like maybe that's something I should have thought about by now. I've never thought about it quite in that lens of comparing it to maybe a larger sports website or even local beats or local papers or whatever it is that, that it is the soccer person who's also doing, I've come across plenty of these people. I'm sure you have too. It's also doing high school track.
00:41:55
Speaker
or that's doing like, you know, high school football or wherever it is, right? It's always the second beat or it's always half the beat or whatever it is. Exactly. And in the fact that I'm just I am truly thankful for the writers that we have. I think we have a lot of really talented folks that write about the game and like
00:42:12
Speaker
And that's not unique to us necessarily, like a lot of sites that are continuing to wave forward and the passion and the talent that's in these people is very real. I think we've got some of the best folks out there and I really do believe that. And I think their passion and knowledge and desire to continue to grow their own knowledge and passion as it extends towards their work.
00:42:31
Speaker
I think that's evident in a lot of the stuff that we're doing or at least that we're trying to do. So yeah, it's a fascinating point about the love for the game and how having those kinds of people can really help a product.
00:42:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's the thing that I found most refreshing. I've told this story many times, but I spent over a decade working in newspaper sports departments, and the number of people that were just burnt out and didn't really enjoy the job was understandable, but it comes across in the product, and that's something that
Appreciation for Soccer Media Community
00:43:07
Speaker
I've been really, really happy about the soccer media world is just that it seems like almost everyone, they might not love their job every day, but they do enjoy doing this. And the reason they're doing it is because they enjoy it. And that's really their motivation. And so I wanted to say that I just wanted to also say I appreciate what you guys are doing. I love what you guys are doing. And I'm really, really excited about seeing where this goes and hopefully seeing it grow.
00:43:36
Speaker
and hopefully our readers find value in it too. Well, thank you, Jeremiah, sincerely. And I am equally high on what you all are doing. And I've said this before, said it to you, I've said it at other places as well. Like you all have set the standard for what it looks like to cover an American soccer team inside and out. And I hope that we continue to see more of that. I think we are seeing more of that across the landscape. Again, that is a great thing for everybody. It's a great thing for fans. It's a great thing for
00:44:03
Speaker
Yeah, everybody involved in this whole process, and so you all are doing a fantastic job of paving the way and making it at least a little bit easier for the rest of us, whether it's at the local or the national level, to keep on trucking. Well, I really appreciate that. Anything else you want to close with before we get out of here? I realize we've been going on a little bit longer than I had intended.
00:44:27
Speaker
Anywhere else that people can find your work? Are you still doing the podcast? I want to tell you, I stole your idea, the mini podcast idea. Yes, welcome. We are still doing the mini podcast, The Backheeled Show. Folks can go and find that 10 minutes or less, twice a week. I would love to continue to expand that as I have time. We'll see if that happens. I'm fascinated by the mini podcast idea. I was going to go in and get a new zombie rant. Maybe I'll make this my rant instead. And by rant, I mean like positive one because I think
00:44:56
Speaker
getting the sauce. He's a good player. Um, I love it. I think there is a lack of like bite size consumable content. There's so many good podcasts out there. I'm I'd like to say I'm a part of one with the total soccer show, which is not my baby, but but kind of feels like one now with Taylor Rockwell and Graham Ruffin and Ryan Bailey. I love doing the show with those guys. It's tons of fun. I feel like there's room for something that's a little bit more bite size and like afternoon walk kind of length rather than maybe like rush hour commute kind of length. So welcome. I want more people on board with that.
00:45:25
Speaker
Yeah, no, I've really enjoyed it, I think. And when I say I fully, fully stole this idea from you. This was 100% an idea that came about after hearing your mini podcast and being like, no, we could do that. Yes, good. More. I love it.
00:45:42
Speaker
So anyway, well, thank you so much for doing this, Joe. We hope to hear from you more often in the future. And I just want to say again, I really enjoy backheeled.com. I would urge all of our listeners to go out and look at the site, look through it, and hopefully you find like you want it. This is something you want to support and hopefully you want to support both of us. So thank you so much.
00:47:06
Speaker
We love you. Let's win another one!